[BETA][WIP][BUNCHOFSTUFF] Xeno Operations v0.98

[XOps]

It is set up for the game to destroy items are researched so I were need to rebuild stage 1 Codex 3 times. First got corrupted data, second gave me some pass topic what unlocked Medikit and third time I gain corrupted data again. That was the point where I decided to research all stages only once as I found impossible to afford rebuild codexes and fuel my troops with items. But will turn off the expend option and give a try to the lower codexes once again.

Ouch. Sorry about that. I have updated the front page and the readme file for the next release. Codex costs were never intended to be a one shot item. The idea was that the player was suppose to upgrade a single codex throughout the entire campaign. Lesson learned. Be clear on settings in the readme. 

I reached a bit further and experienced that codex 4 provides no tech as "it decides what X-com may extract". On the other hand level 5 gave me Blaster launcher so it vanished from the available research list. Now I research Archangel as an Ethereal commander and a codex 5 seemingly unlocked that together.

The Stage 4 Codex should have unlocked something useful. Maybe I didn't have a UFOpaedia entry for the item you unlocked. I'll double check to make sure. There should not be any dead ends at Stage 4.

About codex key recovery missions. I have three so far and the site always filled with armoured water-heads. Sectoids are the only race have this mission or just I were unlucky to got floaters?

Codex Key recovery missions use a similar race list to Terror missions. There should be different races month to month, but sometimes the RNG just assigns the same race over and over again.

[Duke_Falcon]

Now codex stuffs work correctly (I turned off their extermination after research). Stage 4 add no visible entry but since I researched my scientists are seemingly able to recover corrupted datas from a codex. Also got som STR_XXX_YYY entries for the pedia.

I revealed that sharks are not so strong I just not kicked of TFTD damage model what means lower weapon damage than EU damage model. Recovery missions really not single-race oriented just I were unlucky so far. I already got 2 Ethereal recovery sites and one with Mutons.

The only backward thing I see about this random codex tech recovery is that I already had Lightning when got Skywarden. Maybe some more tech dependancies shall help this or players just jump a few tiers of transports if lucky to get early Lightnings? Also wonder ancient abominations do apart from stay and not move. I found no effect created by them... Or they only spotters?

And I edited a bit the carcharadon pedia image as the living specimen's feet looks a bit odd...

[XOps]

Also wonder ancient abominations do apart from stay and not move. I found no effect created by them... Or they only spotters?

They should shoot. They have the hybrid's weapon.  They also have psionics. I really need to give them something more unique.
Alos, I'll take a look at the feet for the Carcharodon's ufopaedia artwork.


Updated to 0.953
V0.953
  -Added hybrid grenades
  -Reduced Human Elerium Lamp cost and manufacturing time and increased its sell price
  -Fixed a tile issue on one of the scout UFOs
  -Alien plasma cannon should not be usable until much later. Fixed this bug
  -Fixed soldiers not screaming upon dying
  -Lowered storage size of UAV rockets
  -Thought about it for a while and I think I'm doing it. I removed the Lightning from the research list. It is just filler and I don't see any reason why someone would use it. Might add it later if I rework it.
  -Updated abomination artwork and ufopeadia entries

--- posts merge ---

Updated to 0.954

Changelog
V0.954
  -Added an upgraded minigun with alternate ammo types
  -Added an assault cannon. This combined with the minigun should flesh out the heavy weapons for tier 2
  -Lowered cost of minigun
  -Updated Hybrid autopsy UFOPaedia artwork
  -Updated Overlord UFOPaedia artwork for both normal entry and autopsy
  -Updated Carcharadon UFOPaedia artwork to fix feet
  -Reduced cost and sell price of all Tech Rounds
  -Reorganized and reordered a bunch of UFOPaedia stuff. Ditched XCOM Technology category and merged it with CODEX Technology
  -Deleted a couple of useless UFOPaedia entries that no longer fit into any category
  -Updated UFOPaedia entries for all stage one Codex technologies. Also updated much of the artwork for Codex stage one technologies, but I am still not finished in that area.
  -Deleted small psi amp research. Pisonic warfare now unlocks it directly.

[new_civilian]

Wow, really impressive mod! You have one lucky hand with those graphics. 

One minor point, though: Now with your different graphic style, the original weaponry (rocket launcher, heavy cannon etc) look completely out of place, you might consider replacing their graphics as well. or delete them entirely.

Apart from that: Mighty fine work, can't wait to play through the v.1.0 once it has been released! 

[XOps]

Wow, really impressive mod! You have one lucky hand with those graphics. 

One minor point, though: Now with your different graphic style, the original weaponry (rocket launcher, heavy cannon etc) look completely out of place, you might consider replacing their graphics as well. or delete them entirely.

Thanks. Yeah I plan to replace the Autocanon, heavy Cannon, and Rocket Launcher at one point. I actually have alternate versions of them, but I'm not satisfied with them yet.

Update
Released a hotfix. Researching Engineers was crashing the game because I was stupid and forgot to give the new UFOs a research item.

--- posts merge ---

Another update. This one is sort of a sound update.

V0.955
  -Fixed Carcharodon Engineer looking up wrong UFOPaedia entry
  -Updated sprite for Carcharodon to make them look a little better
  -Gave the Carhcarodon's melee attack the reaper animation
  -Updated Carcharodon's death scream
  -Updated Abomination's sound effects
  -Updated plasma weapon sounds
  -Lowered sell price of UAV
  -Updated floater death sound. It sounds off, but it won't be once I update the spritework for the floater. I am doing a more cybernetic re-imagining of the floater
  -Updated the text of the second stage codex ufopaedia technologies
  -Updated the text for a few third stage codex ufopaedia technologies

[Duke_Falcon]

Finished!
Endgame+Archangel+Codex complete took an eternity and consumed the resources of 4 alien bases (one of them were full of Ethereals what was really not funny)... This mod is a gem! I liked it so much that I almost forgot those small glitches except that somehow it throws me out to desktop whenever Armoured Sectoid Navigator is researched.

Was my bad saw later that this issue were fixed. Nevertheless I were able to finish this mod and Cydonia was a carnage. Blue muton pals are awesome and hard like a rock from hell.

-Updated floater death sound. It sounds off, but it won't be once I update the spritework for the floater. I am doing a more cybernetic re-imagining of the floater

Please, just tell me it will not like those crappy faggots from 2000 X-com. Those legless flying droids were a mere joke what they - I really hope and advice for them - accidentally were forgotten in-game. If not they should die for such a blasphemy when the Stargods find them...
Wait...
Well, just do not abuse with to much heresy my lovely, iconic floaters

[XOps]

Finished!
Endgame+Archangel+Codex complete took an eternity and consumed the resources of 4 alien bases (one of them were full of Ethereals what was really not funny)... This mod is a gem! I liked it so much that I almost forgot those small glitches except that somehow it throws me out to desktop whenever Armoured Sectoid Navigator is researched.

I'll try to look into the Armoured Sectoid. It is easy to mess up those interrogation techs. I am very happy that you enjoyed the mod.

In regards to pacing, do you feel that the mod progresses too slowly? (or too slowly or quickly during different parts of the game?) I did need to pad things out a bit in order for the player to make use of the many tech levels the mod offers. Allowing the tech tree to move along too quickly makes the lesser technologies worthless (a big problem in the previous versions of this mod). Anything you think could be improved in this area? Or for that matter, any other feedback you can give me in regards to future improvements or even stuff you would like to see?

Please, just tell me it will not like those crappy faggots from 2000 X-com. Those legless flying droids were a mere joke what they - I really hope and advice for them - accidentally were forgotten in-game. If not they should die for such a blasphemy when the Stargods find them...
Wait...
Well, just do not abuse with to much heresy my lovely, iconic floaters

These are the prototypes I have so far (Original floater on the left, redesigns in the middle, heavy version on the right, none of these are final draft)

I know you love your floaters Duke, though I honestly thought they were one of the strangest aliens visually. Even stranger looking than the purple body builders in green wetsuits . Mostly it's the weird cape, like the floaters wanted to be a legless superman or something.
I know I may earn some ire here, but I thought the alien redesigns on the 2012 version were, for the most part, good. I even thought the floaters looked threatening, at least until they moved around like they were a puppet on strings and let out a battle cry that sounded like a cat being run over by a bus . Can't fault the concept artist for bad sound design and animations though.


Posted another update
V0.956
  -Updated a ton of UFOPaedia entry writing. Got 90% of the text done for the new UFOPaedia
  -Converted facility images into gifs since recent updates messed up the pngs' transparency

[Dioxine]

These your new floaters look cool, nowhere near the 2012 design line. I think the key to 2012 design was to make all the enemies look less like intelligent life forms and more like beasts/animals, which I personally find a bit... sad, but then again, I think the whole Firaxis is a bit sad

As for the OG floaters... well, I always thought about them as some diabolical weirdos, employing scare tactics because they suck as fighting units. The armored one you've made still looks diabolical, so he's OK

[Duke_Falcon]

Man! You can not just come here and do such things like new Floaters and succeed! Why it is that all your redesigns are so cool that I do want them in-game? That third Floater is just cool. Awesomely cool. Want that in Xops...

About research I meant the final topics took very long to research. Waiting 2-3 months just to go Cydonia is frustrating if you have squads what eliminate any kind of alien threat on Earth. Maybe some research-related aliens? I mean some ultra-powerfull bastards whom appear only if ultimate craft + ultimate codex researched? Or mix crew? I mean hyper-wave decoder helps a lot how to equip your soldiers and thus no challenge remains after a certain point. Mixing crew may provide some edge in this meaning. A crew what's members needs all kind of weapons to deal with could be a real kick-ass when your soldiers have god-like stats and obliterating weaponry.

Otherwise the pace of the game is OK in my humble opinion.
Just miss the dogs. Maybe rottweilers?

[SIMON BAILIE]

Really enjoying your mod so far, into June of the first year. The codex missions are very nasty but very enjoyable. I like the added graphic touch of the dead corpses thrown out of the harvester, reminds me of the blood & guts laying about everywhere in the Doom games.

--- posts merge ---

First time ever that I've received this in UFO:EU, had got it once before in TFTD-see picture. It was actually quite annoying as it was the first mission versus Carcharodons.

Spoiler:

Could you answer me one question, I managed to do some research down the psionic line and have produced one psionic projecter @ XCOM HQ base but I can't equip it, is this a glitch or am I missing out on some research? ps I've almost researched all stage 2 CODEX technology, am ready to build stage 3 ASAP.

Of all the new weapons I must say the sonic cannon is my favourite.

[XOps]

Spoiler:

Could you answer me one question, I managed to do some research down the psionic line and have produced one psionic projecter @ XCOM HQ base but I can't equip it, is this a glitch or am I missing out on some research? ps I've almost researched all stage 2 CODEX technology, am ready to build stage 3 ASAP.

That would be a bug. It should be usable. That's what I get for copy pasting the code from the psi amp.
I'll fix it for the next version. I've attached a ruleset hotfix. Drop in Xeno Ops mod rules folder.

[SIMON BAILIE]

Just a small thing I noticed in the ufopedia, not very important but the text for the following doesn't all show, is there anything that can be done? I tried reducing the video to to 640 x 480 but still the same.

[XOps]

Just a small thing I noticed in the ufopedia, not very important but the text for the following doesn't all show, is there anything that can be done? I tried reducing the video to to 640 x 480 but still the same.

The obvious solution is that the mod author needs to tightened up his UFOPaedia entry writing. 
I updated the Hypervelocity weapons with a third ammo type, but didn't update the UFOpaeida entry text since the third ammo type scrunches up the text. I fixed it in the current update.

V0.957
  -Shrank size of Codex Recovery Mission slightly to 70x70
  -Fixed PSI amp not being usable bug
  -Updated Hypervelocity weapon UFOpaedia text to fit within new window
  -Floaters Rebooted

[SIMON BAILIE]

Just updated to v0.957 and I like the floaters ufopedia image, reminds me of the floaters from the 2012 remake. I assume the only change to the floaters is in the ufopedia images and not the sprites in battlescape or are you considering this? I was going to suggest reducing the size of the codex grids as IMHO they were a bit like some of the missions in TFTD, wandering about for ages before you even spot an alien. One final question if I may, is there an earliest nightly I should be using as I'm still running from 2016-01-07-0008. I've had no problems so if I don't have to update all the better. You know the old expression, if it ain't broken don't try to fix it!

[XOps]

I assume the only change to the floaters is in the ufopedia images and not the sprites in battlescape or are you considering this?

The battlescape sprite should already be implemented. I replaced the battlescape sprite, UFOPaedia picture, autopsy picture, big objs, and floor objs. The only one I forgot was the inventory screen when they are mind controlled, but I'll fix that next update.

One final question if I may, is there an earliest nightly I should be using as I'm still running from 2016-01-07-0008. I've had no problems so if I don't have to update all the better. You know the old expression, if it ain't broken don't try to fix it!

The oldest nightly that should still be compatible should be one of the November ones I think? The one where new soldier types were added. Any nightly before that crashes I believe since it doesn't recognize new soldier types.