[HWP] Attack Dog

[kikimoristan]

there should also be an assist dog that has medkit buit in but less good stats ?

Attack Dog - available by default $5,000
Assistance Dog - req medkit research $5,000  + 1 medkit cost $28,000
Sniffer Dog - req Psi Training $10,000 special trained dogs that have a built in scanner
Transport Dog - available by default $10,000 has inventory but 2 built in weapons one is black nothing and 1 is dog bite..so they cannot wield swords and throw grenades
Suppress Dog - available by default $10,000  has a stun melee attack in addition to hit attack

[Arthanor]

Assistance dog is a bit difficult to justify. The dog performs the first aid? (since it would be the one losing TUs) Having a transport dog carry a medkit (maybe a larger version that heals more HP per fatal wounds) would be more realistic.

The 2nd black hand weapon does work with the nightly, I have tested that in the XAE.

Sniffer dogs don't work since you can't assign anything but a weapon to the hands. It goes in the backpack instead. That's why you need an inventory for anything but the offensive dogs. It also can't be a fixed weapon, otherwise you can't move it from the back pack (hopefully one day we will see a nightly with fixeditems that allow you to put medkits and scanners in a hand).

Suppress dog is a bit OP, especially if available at the start. Why risk a soldier with a stun rod if you can just send a 100% replaceable, cheap dog?

This variety of roles is simpler to achieve with a single dog that has an inventory. I don't really worry about people using swords or grenades with their dogs. This is a single player game people play for the challenge, not a multi player game you have to tightly balance to prevent people from abusing.

Having a single dog also helps with the possibility to armor it by reducing the number of manufacturing projects from armored DogX, armored DogY, armored DogZ, to just Armored Dog

[Katoosie]

Hi!
That's the Attack Dog mod for OpenXcom and for some reason my dogs look like this... any idea why?
Thank you!

[Dioxine]

Inventory really works for the best, and undesired behaviour can be supressed by setting Dog's stats to appropriate levels:

- minuscule Strength, so it can't throw grenades. Sure this makes it difficult to carry stuff... in theory, since the dog can pick the stuff up, run with it, then drop it. TU penalties only apply if you END your turn overburdened. Makes actually sense too, since a dog shouldn't be able to wield anything, just carry it in its mouth. And these extra TU's required to pick up and drop make this more difficult... unless, naturally, someone buffs dog's TUs and Stamina beyond reasonable levels. I don't really think the dog should have better Stamina recovery than a human... dogs are faster, but it's the humans who can run for much longer...

- zero Ranged so it can't really shoot.

- low Melee (with the bite having a fixed accurracy) so it would make no sense to use knives and such, unless you have a no-Strength, no-Skill melee weapon that is... But if you do, whatever - a dog with a Stun Rod? Why not... It's not a BUILT-IN stun rod at least!

[Hythlodaeus]

No doubt attack dogs are the best solution to deal against illegal aliens:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pduRbz7IbIo

[ivandogovich]

Looks like you have a problem with the sprite being saved in a bad pallette.  There are specific pallettes that the images need to be saved in.

[Arthanor]

Are you on a Mac? I remember something about Macs handling sprites differently and needing them to be saved with a specific color scheme..

[Katoosie]

Are you on a Mac? I remember something about Macs handling sprites differently and needing them to be saved with a specific color scheme..

Looks like you have a problem with the sprite being saved in a bad pallette.  There are specific pallettes that the images need to be saved in.

Hm, I am indeed on a mac.
Would you guys know how to actually change the palette so it works?
Thank you!

[Arthanor]

Go to: https://falkooxc2.pythonanywhere.com/spritepalette

Get the sprite sheet from the AttackDog resources folder and drop it in the big red box. It should show "fix palette", click convert, download it and replace the original palette. The original picture should have had a transparent background, which will be replaced by a bright green background.

For some reason, Macs don't like the transparent background. It's a big issue for Mac users of mods, and there are few of them so few people take that into account (I know half of my resources still need to be converted).

[Katoosie]

Go to: https://falkooxc2.pythonanywhere.com/spritepalette

Get the sprite sheet from the AttackDog resources folder and drop it in the big red box. It should show "fix palette", click convert, download it and replace the original palette. The original picture should have had a transparent background, which will be replaced by a bright green background.

For some reason, Macs don't like the transparent background. It's a big issue for Mac users of mods, and there are few of them so few people take that into account (I know half of my resources still need to be converted).

Thank you!
It's actually funny since I've tried adding a bright green background in Photoshop but it didn't let me for some reason, no idea why. I'll replace the files now and see if it works!

@Edit
Works like a charm, now it's the time to convert the rest of the mods

[Arthanor]

Great! Isn't it lovely when bugs are easy to fix?

If you want to try it, the XCom Armoury Expanded has a bunch of stuff that should be (mostly?) Mac compatible since I use Falko's tools a lot.

[Katoosie]

Great! Isn't it lovely when bugs are easy to fix?

If you want to try it, the XCom Armoury Expanded has a bunch of stuff that should be (mostly?) Mac compatible since I use Falko's tools a lot.

Indeed! Fixed lots of mods now including Ivan's improved hand objects.
Sadly, XCOM Armoury Expanded crashes my game for some reason, no idea why :|

[ivandogovich]

Indeed! Fixed lots of mods now including Ivan's improved hand objects.
Sadly, XCOM Armoury Expanded crashes my game for some reason, no idea why :|

If you pass me a copy of the handobs graphics, I'll upload it as "Optimized for Mac" on the mod site.
Post in this thread if you like:  https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,3274.0.html

[Arthanor]

Indeed! Fixed lots of mods now including Ivan's improved hand objects.
Sadly, XCOM Armoury Expanded crashes my game for some reason, no idea why :|

Oh, weird.. 
There's a new version coming up (whenever I'll be happy with it, HA!). We could look into then it if you'd like. Do you use the nightly version of OpenXCom or 1.0? (Not all parts of the XAE work in 1.0 I think)

[Katoosie]

If you pass me a copy of the handobs graphics, I'll upload it as "Optimized for Mac" on the mod site.
Post in this thread if you like:  https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,3274.0.html

Done!

Oh, weird.. 
There's a new version coming up (whenever I'll be happy with it, HA!). We could look into then it if you'd like. Do you use the nightly version of OpenXCom or 1.0? (Not all parts of the XAE work in 1.0 I think)

Not the nightly, I use the milestone one simply because I have no clueeeee how to update the mac version with the nightly update :x