Maps and city scapes

[luke83]

Never mind i  should of just looked for the erase icon sooner 

[luke83]

OK i finally got some time to play around with this  tool , must say its a pretty slow process to start with but the results so far are pretty cool ( well i think they are ) . Still i have lots of unanswered questions like , since this UFO i started with only had 2 levels, will the game automatically give my design  a roof OR is there some way i can add a additional level so i can add a roof. Will version 1 of open x-com have multiply UFOs as a way of spicing up the original game  ( without changing it) ? Also still not 100% on how to set the green unit spawn block ( if that is what they really are)?

[Daiky]

hi luke, the game will not automatically add a roof. I think you should be able to change the map dimensions somewhere (which includes the number of levels).
Normally openxcom version 1 you will be able to add your own custom mapblocks, for both terrain and ufo's.
(it's the famous "external rulesets").

This gave me the idea to have the ability of assigning more than one ufo design for the same type of UFO, the game will then randomly choose one of the designs.

[luke83]

"This gave me the idea to have the ability of assigning more than one ufo design for the same type of UFO, the game will then randomly choose one of the designs."

This is exactly what i was thinking  , i just cant remember if each ufo size got recorded into the ufopedia ( with a graphical image) or not that was my main concern with this option. Lets face it there s nothing worse then exploring the same ufo 20 times before they final start flying around with the bigger ships. This in itself would keep every battle interesting.

[Daiky]

This is exactly what i was thinking  , i just cant remember if each ufo size got recorded into the ufopedia ( with a graphical image) or not that was my main concern with this option.

Well, the ufopaedia indeed gives an indication of the dimensions (height,width) of the UFOs: https://www.xcomufo.com/x1ufopaedia/ufos.html
You clearly see how many levels and the width in the number of tiles.
So mainly changing the inside and just doing small changes to the outside is a good idea if you want to stay true to the ufopaedia.

[luke83]

I knew i had seen this information somehere before

 I think a combination approach here would be nice a few different shapes for each class of ships and a few different interiors for each shape.

[luke83]

New questions, does anyone know HOW to use images from other items EG: add alien base items to UFOs ?

So far i am not seeing any options to change  the map height for individual UFOs OR buildings.

Also . can anyone else get  XCsuit to work i cant see how to start it, im not sure if i downloaded the correct file?


 

[DaiShiva]

New questions, does anyone know HOW to use images from other items EG: add alien base items to UFOs ?

If you are modifying them to be in the original game, you cant. Do you only want to see the new tiles in the map editor?

Also . can anyone else get  XCsuit to work i cant see how to start it, im not sure if i downloaded the correct file?

All the 'suite' executable does is provide a launchpad for all the other programs. There is no difference in running it vs the editor executable directly.

[luke83]

Hello DaiShiva , thank you for your help. To your answer to my first question , Why? Is the a link you can provide to find out what is and is not possible when modding for the original game ? Although i plan to use my mods in OpenX not the original Dos version i have i would still like to keep things compatible if i can.


 
I have also been modding some units and In your program  i can select EDIT on a image, i can select my new colour out of the colour pallet but i cant Draw the new pixel onto the image, Am i doing something wrong OR did development stop prior to that?


Also the "SHOW BYTES" option when modding units. I tried to change the code for some colours via a find and replace option but i cant see any way to Save this BYTE information back to your program. Is this type of modding possible?

Really looking forward to your answers

[DaiShiva]

Hello DaiShiva , thank you for your help. To your answer to my first question , Why? Is the a link you can provide to find out what is and is not possible when modding for the original game ? Although i plan to use my mods in OpenX not the original Dos version i have i would still like to keep things compatible if i can.

There is a hardcoded list of images that make up the list of tiles that a map can utilize. In the original version, this list is compiled into the executable somewhere. There is a text file that the map editor generates that contains this list list of images, so technically you can hand modify it, but then your maps will only be good for viewing.

I have also been modding some units and In your program  i can select EDIT on a image, i can select my new colour out of the colour pallet but i cant Draw the new pixel onto the image, Am i doing something wrong OR did development stop prior to that?

Also the "SHOW BYTES" option when modding units. I tried to change the code for some colours via a find and replace option but i cant see any way to Save this BYTE information back to your program. Is this type of modding possible?

Really looking forward to your answers

Yup, that was the work on a rudimentary pixel editor so you wouldnt have to export and re-import your images for minor edits. That part is not done

the bytes window was primarily for debugging. Making sure that what I drew onscreen matched up with what the original encoding said it should look like. That window is read-only. How did you do a find and replace? Paste into notepad?

[luke83]

Thanks for the quick reply .

The find and replace was  done via Ultraedit , but yes notepad would of done the same job.


Since your still active in the community , does that mean that development on this awesome tool may start again?

[luke83]

Im hoping someone knows the existing file systems as i have a question...

 I was just looking at the X-com base models and they appear to be kept in the .pck file. IF i want to add a new building type can i add a new one to the existing PCK file OR is it better to make a copy of the xcom units and modify pre existing templates? Also if i do the second method Can we mix and match between PCK methods if we need to ( Basically currently i only want to modify 1 building and i don't want it to replace any existing one)?

[DaiShiva]

Since your still active in the community , does that mean that development on this awesome tool may start again?

Anything's possible. The tool would need active users however.

Im hoping someone knows the existing file systems as i have a question...

 I was just looking at the X-com base models and they appear to be kept in the .pck file. IF i want to add a new building type can i add a new one to the existing PCK file OR is it better to make a copy of the xcom units and modify pre existing templates? Also if i do the second method Can we mix and match between PCK methods if we need to ( Basically currently i only want to modify 1 building and i don't want it to replace any existing one)?

If you want to see your changes immediately, I would modify existing buildings and not add new images to the pck file.

[Daiky]

I use Mapview almost every day Especially when I want to find out something about the MCD of a specific object. Or the routes/spawn points is also great for debugging alien movement.
Because I'm using the MCD window alot,  one feature request may be to have a slightly more user friendly MCD window - it's also different to the other windows as it seems to disappear often and I have to find it back again
And something that would be totally awesome is that you can edit and save the MCD data, not sure how hard that is.

I would say I'd program it myself, but I'm kinda busy with openxcom right now

Don't want to push you or anything, but I read you need active users, I'm certainly one of them.

[SupSuper]

Since your still active in the community , does that mean that development on this awesome tool may start again?

Anything's possible. The tool would need active users however.

Depends if OpenXcom will attract a modding community. It sure would make my job easier if people just stuck to X-Com formats with your tools, though I'm sure most yearn for fancy 32-bit PNGs or something.

Personally I use them everytime I need to peek into the game resources to find what graphics are stored where to use in the game.