Author Topic: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations v0.98  (Read 234601 times)

Offline Cristao

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #240 on: November 16, 2015, 10:38:09 pm »
Research times are long. I love the armors though but there are a lot of alien artefacts. Interesting mod.

Offline Cristao

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #241 on: November 17, 2015, 11:49:34 pm »
GOT a CTD. I got a PSI-AMP. Went on a mission versus the floaters who had reapers. Tried to mind control a reaper. The game showed that it was successful. When I try to select the Reaper, the game CTD.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2015, 12:14:03 am by Cristao »

Offline Dioxine

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #242 on: November 18, 2015, 02:00:52 am »
Likely lack of bigOb for Reapers' bite-weapon, or outdated ruleset for it.

Offline Cristao

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #243 on: November 18, 2015, 08:27:12 am »
Likely lack of bigOb for Reapers' bite-weapon, or outdated ruleset for it.

Interesting. When I didn't try to select the reaper, the game continued without a hitch.

--- posts merge ---

Completed Xeno Mod. Cydonia was tough. Not to gonna say more than that. I think this is the longest time I have spent on the Cydonia level (I am yet to complete XPiratez).

PS Where is the frozen map? I was looking forward to that.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2016, 09:16:47 am by Solarius Scorch »

Offline Hobbes

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #244 on: November 19, 2015, 09:13:44 pm »
PS Where is the frozen map? I was looking forward to that.

IIRC it isn't finished yet, it will be included when XOps has time to finish the next update.

niculinux

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #245 on: November 29, 2015, 02:22:23 pm »
So last update was Updated: 11/22/14 (0.90) it's more than a year...any news on progress?

Offline XOps

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #246 on: December 01, 2015, 03:58:06 am »
Completed Xeno Mod. Cydonia was tough. Not to gonna say more than that. I think this is the longest time I have spent on the Cydonia level (I am yet to complete XPiratez).

PS Where is the frozen map? I was looking forward to that.
Still hoping to do something special for Cyondia down the road rather than just having a large map. Probably not in the next beta though. As for the frozen map, it is for the next version. It's a bit of special mission. Need more of those special missions.

GOT a CTD. I got a PSI-AMP. Went on a mission versus the floaters who had reapers. Tried to mind control a reaper. The game showed that it was successful. When I try to select the Reaper, the game CTD.
Just tested. Should be fixed when I release the next update.

why do the terran and alien plasma weapons have mismatched/corrupted sprites?
Very strange. Looks like a mod indexing issue? I will keep an eye on this after the next beta is out.

Expect official merchandise to hit the online stores one month before its release ;)
Hopefully I won't sell out to EA. :) Then I can have preorders and season passes. Or I can be like a certain other company and start selling crappy single mission DLC. Thankfully, I live in a world where XCom would never succumb to being victim to a crappy single mission DLC... wait a minute.


Add the below line. It removes explosions. I found it out when experimenting on creating a portable stun pistol.

blastRadius: 0

I'll give that a try. Thanks. :)


So last update was Updated: 11/22/14 (0.90) it's more than a year...any news on progress?
;) Well, this worthful mod becomes better and more attractive...

Will it be released in first half of 2016?..
:o
 ???

... next month it is better !!!!! :P
So it has been awhile since I last gave a status update. There are two reasons for this. One is Fallout 4. That's done though. I was always a big fan of the Fallout series. But I always come back to XCom. Now for the other reason I vanished for a month. After much playtesting, I have determined that my crafting system is indeed not fun. :(
What does this mean?
It means that I need to gut a huge part of the mod. Basically all of the manufacturing and economy stuff needs to be redone.
After hitting the end of year one, the crafting system ceases to be fun and becomes a chore. I am convinced it would only be viable if the mod had an interface specifically designed for it. Something like a screen that would allow the player to quickly break down alien artifacts into their core components for further manufacturing. As it stands now, it is simply too many clicks and it adds too much busy work. During the first year, it's tolerable, but it quickly grows tiresome. Another thing good in theory, but poor in practice.
This combined with the sheer difficulty of balancing resources has made me shelve the mod for a month and play something else for a while. I needed some time away to clear my head so I can come back and look at the mod with a fresh perspective.
For that part, I am basically back to the drawing board. :(

Now for some good news.
I have added another alien race. I may actually release this new alien race as a standalone for TFTD.
I have added a few variants of psi amps. Now psionics has a kind of progression system. I still need to do a bit of balancing with these though.
Updated the graphics for the alien blaster launcher, alien high explosive, and alien grenade. I don't think the aliens have any of the original sprites left for their equipment.
Updated the graphics for the alloy armor sprites. They look much better now.
Replaced Personal Armor sprites completely with the old psionic armor. I am working on a new Psionic Armor sprites to replace that one.

Offline Dioxine

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #247 on: December 01, 2015, 02:45:06 pm »
I still think you should try releasing the mod more often, and let people test it. Without feedback, it's much easier to mod stupid things. Maybe with user input, it'd be possible to gradually repair and upgrade the crafting system, instead of crying over a broken one like you do now :) Oh and it's already past Fallout 4? I swear the pre-release hype seems like it happened yesterday. Time flows differently in the OXCom world... :)

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #248 on: December 01, 2015, 03:10:33 pm »
Economy and manufacturing is stuff which can be best evalidated by testplayers.

Believe me i am happy to get any feedback from guys, or suggestions fo new stuff all the times.
Some stuff fits, some stuff needs to be changed etc..
I am myself not really convinced about the economic changes i did towards my own Mod.
But as long as noone complains :)

As Dioxine already said, release your Mod more often, testplayers will report obvious bugs towards you, so you can fix them.

Offline Dioxine

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #249 on: December 01, 2015, 04:40:44 pm »
One more thing, although this is shooting blind... If the crafting systems becomes a chore after a while, maybe you should add researcheable shortcuts? Like, higher-tier research allows you to get rid of some or most of early-game crafting chores? Hi-tech items less dependant on everyday crafting materials?

Offline Hobbes

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #250 on: December 01, 2015, 05:13:09 pm »
Still hoping to do something special for Cyondia down the road rather than just having a large map. Probably not in the next beta though. As for the frozen map, it is for the next version. It's a bit of special mission. Need more of those special missions.

There's quite a few new terrains in Redux that you might find useful for special missions. But from my experience with the latest Redux update, before you add more special missions, have you considered why they are needed? To get additional techs/artifacts? To trigger other special missions? To introduce a side plot? And are those really necessary?

Also, every special mission (as in something that appears only once during the game) will have an impact on the overall campaign: add a lot of special missions and the impact of each one will be lessened, but at the same time you're adding a lot of pole signs that the player needs to follow to reach the end of the campaign, making it less sandbox. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't use special missions, simply that they can have a big effect on the overall playing.

Quote
It means that I need to gut a huge part of the mod. Basically all of the manufacturing and economy stuff needs to be redone.
After hitting the end of year one, the crafting system ceases to be fun and becomes a chore. I am convinced it would only be viable if the mod had an interface specifically designed for it. Something like a screen that would allow the player to quickly break down alien artifacts into their core components for further manufacturing. As it stands now, it is simply too many clicks and it adds too much busy work. During the first year, it's tolerable, but it quickly grows tiresome. Another thing good in theory, but poor in practice.
This combined with the sheer difficulty of balancing resources has made me shelve the mod for a month and play something else for a while. I needed some time away to clear my head so I can come back and look at the mod with a fresh perspective.

Why is the crafting system needed? It sure sounds challenging that you need to set up a 'artifact recycling' system in order to be able to use advanced alien tech, but has it only been added because of the difficulty?

Offline The Think Tank

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #251 on: December 01, 2015, 07:59:59 pm »
Now I have a simple question, I am using XenoOPs armor and weapons on a 1.0 game with a few other mods and whenever I use the stunrod a really cool effect occurs (I think is from this mod) but then it crashes my game, is this a known issue or is it even related to this mod? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Offline XOps

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #252 on: December 03, 2015, 06:40:07 am »
I still think you should try releasing the mod more often, and let people test it. Without feedback, it's much easier to mod stupid things. Maybe with user input, it'd be possible to gradually repair and upgrade the crafting system, instead of crying over a broken one like you do now :) Oh and it's already past Fallout 4? I swear the pre-release hype seems like it happened yesterday. Time flows differently in the OXCom world... :)
Economy and manufacturing is stuff which can be best evalidated by testplayers.

Believe me i am happy to get any feedback from guys, or suggestions fo new stuff all the times.
Some stuff fits, some stuff needs to be changed etc..
I am myself not really convinced about the economic changes i did towards my own Mod.
But as long as noone complains :)

As Dioxine already said, release your Mod more often, testplayers will report obvious bugs towards you, so you can fix them.
One more thing, although this is shooting blind... If the crafting systems becomes a chore after a while, maybe you should add researcheable shortcuts? Like, higher-tier research allows you to get rid of some or most of early-game crafting chores? Hi-tech items less dependant on everyday crafting materials?
Maybe you are both right. I tend to be rather trigger happy when it comes to murdering my darlings. Perhaps I just need to polish what I got and send it on its way. I think a big part of my problem is that I am trying to balance a huge mod by myself when I just don't have time to play it enough in order to do so. I just hate releasing things that I know are broken.
And Dioxine. I have actually kind of done your suggestion. The higher tech tree stuff cuts out a lot of steps completely. Part of the problem is that my patience burns out before that point. Maybe I just have a pacing issue. Or maybe I'm just impatient. Or maybe I need to quit sitting on my mod. :)

There's quite a few new terrains in Redux that you might find useful for special missions. But from my experience with the latest Redux update, before you add more special missions, have you considered why they are needed? To get additional techs/artifacts? To trigger other special missions? To introduce a side plot? And are those really necessary?

Also, every special mission (as in something that appears only once during the game) will have an impact on the overall campaign: add a lot of special missions and the impact of each one will be lessened, but at the same time you're adding a lot of pole signs that the player needs to follow to reach the end of the campaign, making it less sandbox. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't use special missions, simply that they can have a big effect on the overall playing.

I'm not really too worried. Xeno Ops only has one special mission for the entire game. I am no where near the point Redux is in terms of mission variety. The current extra mission is the only mission that the player must go on at least twice in order to beat the game. I have a few other plans for future missions, but most of these will be optional like most XCom missions. Even then, I don't think I will ever get close to Redux in this area.

Why is the crafting system needed? It sure sounds challenging that you need to set up a 'artifact recycling' system in order to be able to use advanced alien tech, but has it only been added because of the difficulty?

The theory behind the crafting system was pretty sound. Make every alien artifact in the game useful. In addition, it was to add an extra layer of critical decision making. I wanted the player to choose between selling artifacts or scrapping them for parts. I really wanted to curb hoarding. Setting alien items to self destruct upon death really brought me close to this goal since it made sellable plasma weapons very scarce and thus no longer a reliable source of income.
In addition, some people (boring people like me) just like complex construction systems. Fun can be very subjective.
However, like any system, it has its cost. The cost was clicks, time, and micromanagement. In it's current state, I feel the costs out way the benefit.

Now I have a simple question, I am using XenoOPs armor and weapons on a 1.0 game with a few other mods and whenever I use the stunrod a really cool effect occurs (I think is from this mod) but then it crashes my game, is this a known issue or is it even related to this mod? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
This is an issue with 1.0 of OpenXcom. Melee animations for 1.0 use like three or four times the number of frames for animation. When it reaches the end of the animation, it crashes because it thinks there are still more frames. Later nightlies fixed this so the mod was adjusted with the correct number of frames. The only way to fix this is to find an older compatible nightly. No idea where you could find one at this point.

Offline DracoGriffin

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #253 on: December 03, 2015, 07:18:35 am »
Honestly, I would have tried XOps a long time ago but it wasn't easily accessible for download and seemed like it was in "closed" testing, so I found Piratez instead. Now I'm stuck on Dioxine like a bad splinter from a wooden paddle.

Offline Dioxine

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Re: [BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations Mod
« Reply #254 on: December 04, 2015, 07:00:02 am »
>Crafting system based on rare components
>Trying to curb item hoarding

You have a major contradiction right there, XOps. You will get nowhere without test players, just accept it - I don't trust any game tests made by myself - as I know that as an author, I will be unconsciously making choices a normal player won't make. Any normal player, faced with a crafting system based on rare components, will become a crazed hoarder. Experience clearly supports that, just ask Draco :)