Seeking advice/instructions on my modding project

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I am overhauling X-Com with a wide variety of fairly simple changes and additions that I have been working on for years now, which I believe will greatly improve game balance and gameplay options without significantly changing the overall feel of the game. Some of these changes are easy with the YAML editing, but others I am going to have a bit more difficulty with.

If I add new items to the game using existing textures, is it as simple as editing the Xcom1Ruleset.rul file and adding a new entry for the item? I'm assuming it is not. What do I need to do to add more items, craft, and research/production projects? And if I did wish to add my own artwork, how would I do that?

Is there an intuitive map editor for editing X-Com craft maps? How do I alter them and/or create new ones?

How do I change UFO interception mechanics to introduce a range-based accuracy system with turrets along with an accuracy modifier on each individual alien craft? More specifically, I want all turrets to have their listed accuracy at point-blank range and half of that value at the end of their range (missiles would maintain full accuracy at any range). Then I want small craft to have a reduction in chance to be hit, while large craft should make you more likely to score hits. All these values would be additive, such that an inaccurate weapon firing at a very small craft may have no chance at all of hitting, while that same weapon used against a very large craft might have no chance of missing.

How do I increase the base layout size to allow 8x8 bases? Do I need to change any image files?

How do I make facilities that allow certain facilities to be placed atop them? Specifically, I want to allow greater living quarters/stores/laboratories/workshops (2x2) to be placed on any combination of smaller facilities of the same type and/or empty spaces, with the existing smaller facilities contributing to a reduction in final cost and build time. Also, I want to allow a space to be pre-cleared by converting it into a facility called a corridor or empty room, which you can build any facility over, thus reducing the cost and build time of the second facility.

How do I add an aircraft storage facility? I think it should be a 2x2 facility that once built is accessed by a new button in the craft menu, with a menu system allowing you to easily move aircraft in and out of the storage. When moving craft in or out of storage, the craft should have a transfer time (about 3 hours), and when you take them out, they should need a full refueling and re-arming. Their equipment and elerium fuel should be placed back in your stores when you transfer them to the aircraft storage facility.

How do I set a cargo capacity for craft?

How do I make large (4x2) tanks? There shouldn't be any major issues with their movement on the battlescape, with proper coding. Given a 4x4 movement area minus the corners (a "circle" if you will), you have all of the squares the tank will occupy in any orientation. It would just need to check square availability when attempting to turn.

How do I give individual soldiers randomized maximum stat potentials within a set range, with the final determined maximum affecting the range their stat will start within? For instance, I want maximum strength to range from 50 to 70. I want soldiers with a strength max of 50 to start anywhere from 10 to 30, and with a max of 70 to start anywhere from 20 to 40.


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Details of my project, for those of you who are interested:
More complete version here: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2924.0

Lots of new craft will be added, expanding the existing five to a grand total of sixteen, including four basic starter craft, four special-use craft, four basic X-Com craft, and four mind-shielded craft.

Starter craft (you start with one of each, in your four hangars):
Interceptor - 2100 knots, 1100 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 40 HP, 0 soldiers
 * a bit more fuel than the original, but much weaker. I feel the original is too powerful compared to real technology from that time. This can still reliably take out a small or medium scout, but may have difficulty with large scout. Two can easily take on a large scout.
Punisher - 1400 knots, 800 fuel, 2 weapon slots, 100 HP, 1 soldier
 * same combat capability as the original interceptor but slower and shorter range. I'm basically splitting up the original interceptor's capabilities into two more specialized craft. This one is a two-seater plane and you can fit one soldier in the copilot seat with minimal flight training if you're desperate enough.
Skyranger - 1140 knots, 1250 fuel, 0 weapon slots, 125 HP, 10 soldiers, 2 HWPs
 * Smaller cargo, but faster. This craft will get your soldiers from A to B in a reasonable amount of time. Important for fast response in the early game.
Custodian - 570 knots, 1500 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 150 HP, 18 soldiers, 3 HWPs
 * Slow but carries a large crew complement. Nice for alien base assaults. It has a weapon to defend its valuable cargo. Aliens can intercept your craft in my project, but they won't do this very often. But it's best to be on the safe side.

Special craft (you can buy these immediately-there is room in your aircraft storage facility):
Sparrow - 1600 knots, 1600 fuel, 0 weapon slots, 30 HP, 0 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * This is a patrol craft which patrols at 1/4 speed instead of 1/2 speed like most craft, which reduces its fuel consumption. In addition, it has 50% greater on-board radar range. This is a long-range patrol craft which can get to the far side of the geoscape and still have enough fuel to patrol for a few hours. It spends a considerable amount of time refueling, however.
Albatross - 780 knots, 800 fuel, 1 weapon slots, 60 HP, 1 soldier, 0 HWPs
 * This is a short-range patrol craft which also patrols at 1/4 speed, but due to the way fuel mechanics work in X-Com, it actually expends fuel much slower. It can't fly across the geoscape without running low on fuel, but it can patrol near your base for days before stopping to briefly refuel. It has double the radar detect chance compared to other on-board radar.
Stormstrike - 1710 knots, 1000 fuel, 0 weapon slots, 50 HP, 4 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * This is the fastest troop transport available with human technology. It carries only four soldiers with minimum equipment, but can arrive on-site quickly.
Vanquisher - 880 knots, 700 fuel, 3 weapon slots, 150 HP, 2 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * This modern fighter craft isn't really built for catching UFOs, but if it ever managed to, it would certainly know what to do with it. These can be good for disrupting a large amount of alien activity near your base and helping you to stay hidden, or for defending your base from an alien craft on a retaliatory mission.

Basic X-Com Craft (you can research these after researching alien craft tech):
Firestorm - 4200 knots, 30 fuel, 2 weapon slots, 500 HP, 4 soldiers, 1 HWPs
 * Super fast interception craft able to outrun almost all alien craft, also highly durable. Doubles as a troop transport, though only barely. I increased its fuel so it can actually make it more than halfway across the globe.
 * dependency: UFO Construction
Lightning - 3100 knots, 30 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 800 HP, 16 soldiers, 4 HWPs
 * Super fast troop transport which can deploy a large combat force extremely quickly. Can be used for interception, though several alien craft can outrun it. New setup has four ramps leading outward from the center, and four 2x2 slots that can fit a tank or four soldiers. You can't fit a large tank into it, but at least you can fit small tanks.
 * dependency: UFO Construction
Avenger - 5400 knots, 60 fuel, 3 weapon slots, 1200 HP, 10 soldiers, 1 HWPs
 * Ultimate fighter - can outrun all alien craft easily and has the power to take down the larger ones with ease. Makes a good troop transport but it doesn't have the greatest troop complement. This has the interception capacity of the original Avenger plus a third weapon slot.
 * dependency: New Fighter-craft
Vigilante - 4800 knots, 80 fuel, 2 weapon slots, 1500 HP, 26 soldiers, 4 HWPs
 * Ultimate troop transport - carries a tremendous fighting force and can deploy worldwide in under 4 hours. Also makes a good interceptor, though the very fastest alien craft can still outrun it. This has the troop layout of the original Avenger.
 * dependency: New Transport-craft

When you research UFO Construction, you will unlock two options: New Fighter-craft and New Transport-craft. Whichever one you research first will yield you a craft excellent at its job and capable of performing the other. You can then continue and research the ultimate craft for that job, or the new one for the other job. You really only need one ultimate craft, as either one is quite competent at both interceptions and transporting troops. Having both available just gives you more flexibility to choose what suits your style more.


Mind-shielded X-Com Craft (these require deeper research):
Stalker - 3600 knots, 100 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 400 HP, 4 soldiers, 1 HWPs
 * Patrol craft which flies at only 10% speed during patrol. It can move into an area quickly and patrol for a long time without alerting aliens to its presence. It has a 50% increased radar detect range.
 * dependency: UFO Construction, Medium Scout, Abductor, Mind Shield
Hercules - 2800 knots, 60 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 1800 HP, 32 soldiers, 8 HWPs
 * This is the largest troop transport, capable of carrying as much as 4 large tanks. You can take this one to Cydonia if you wish.
 * dependency: New Transport-craft, Battleship, Supply Ship, Mind Shield
Starstreak - 7200 knots, 30 fuel, 2 weapon slots, 600 HP, 1 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * This is the fastest interception craft, and also mind-shielded so they won't know you're coming. You can take this ship to Cydonia if you really want to. Might make for an interesting (and difficult) challenge.
 * dependency: New Fighter-craft, Small Scout, Terror Ship, Mind Shield
Assassin - 4400 knots, 80 fuel, 2 weapon slots, 750 HP, 14 soldiers, 3 HWPs
 * This craft is a capable interceptor and transport wrapped into one, in case you can't decide what you want. It also offers a chance to have a mind-shielded craft with more normal specifications. Finally, it has the iconic 2x7 internal space of the old Skyranger, in case anyone wants that for nostalgia. And yes, you can take it to Cydonia.
 * dependency: New Fighter-craft, New Transport-craft, Large Scout, Harvester, Mind Shield




I'm also planning on adding large (2x4) tanks, costing much more money but with much higher health and armor, and more powerful weapons. Tanks will come in three flavors:
1.) guardian tanks - high HP and armor, even armor on all sides; low TUs, reactions and accuracy
 - small guardian tank: small turret mount
 - large guardian tank: medium turret mount
2.) battle tanks - small has the same attributes as the old tanks
 - small battle tank: medium turret mount
 - large battle tank: large turret mount
3.) assault tanks - low HP and armor, highest armor in front; high TUs, reactions and accuracy
 - small assault tank: large turret mount
 - large assault tank: X-large turret mount

You buy or manufacture tanks separately from their turrets. Small turrets have power between a rifle and a handheld cannon; medium turrets are a bit more powerful than handheld cannons; large turrets are a lot more powerful than any handheld weapon; X-large turrets are so powerful they can be used to overwhelm a target that is normally impervious to your current technology. X-large are great against sectopods.

Tanks cannot be destroyed in a single hit other than from an explosive or a large turret-mounted weapon:
Max damage a small tank can take from one shot from a given weapon:
* handheld/small turret - 60%
* medium turret - 80%
* large/X-large - 100% (can destroy it in 1 hit)
Max damage a large tank can take from one shot from a given weapon:
* handheld/small turret - 40%
* medium turret - 60%
* large - 80%
* X-large - 100% (can destroy it in 1 hit)

Each basic weapon has a high-power version and a fully-automatic version. The high power version usually has a good auto-fire capability: auto-pistols/submachineguns can unload a lot of rounds in a turn, machineguns have a fairly accurate auto shot, autocannons can only fire one auto shot per turn but if you hit all three shots, you can deal a LOT of damage. Semi-auto pistols have rapid snap and aimed shots, rifles still have burst fire but their auto-shots are usually inaccurate--they instead do excellent snap and aimed shots with high accuracy. Heavy cannons are slow and unwieldy with poor accuracy, but deal tremendous damage.

The aliens will carry the three non-automatic plasma variants and once any one of these has been researched, X-Com can devise its automatic counterpart.

Craft weapons have been expanded a bit--I have split the laser and plasma weapons into two variants and added a new, smaller fusion weapon:
Pulse cannons: 21 range, 20 damage, 3s reload time, 200 shots - this is the short-range laser weapon and it can not only replace your cannons for shooting down a craft intact but can also replace your stingray missiles in that it out-ranges the medium scout and hits pretty hard.
Laser Beam: 44 range, 140 damage, 24s reload time, 20 shots - this is the long-range laser weapon and it easily replaces stingrays for taking alien craft down, but also has a tendency to destroy them or deal so much damage that the wreck isn't very valuable.
Plasma Cannon: 26 range, 70 damage, 4s reload time, 100 shots - this weapon has a tremendous capacity for dealing a lot of damage quickly. It has a pretty short range, but a very fast craft can get into range much more quickly, making this weapon more useful.
Plasma Beam: 52 range, 140 damage, 18s reload time, 25 shots - I made the weapon fire slower and reduced the number of shots it has. It is still an excellent weapon, but this nerf will give other weapons a chance to compete.
Small Fusion Missile: 56 range, 180 damage, 24/36/48s reload time, 8 shots - can outrange almost all alien craft and is also particularly accurate, making it easy to shoot down small scouts.

In addition to this, I'm increasing the damage of fusion ball and also increasing the HP on the Battleship. Multiple craft with fusion balls can make short work of it, but with the ability to have damaged craft take off, it's more possible to fight these with other weapons now.

Small scouts will have a -60% hit modifier, making them difficult to hit. Stingrays will be your best bet, having a 125% base hit chance, not reduced by range. Avalanches aren't terrible either, with 100% chance to hit, but they will usually miss a small scout. It only takes one hit with either one to take the thing down, though. Medium scout has -40% and large scout has -25%. A stingray will always hit a large scout. The small fusion missile has 150% accuracy and therefore has a 90% chance to hit a small scout.



That's enough for now. Maybe later I'll continue.

[yrizoud]

If I add new items to the game using existing textures, is it as simple as editing the Xcom1Ruleset.rul file and adding a new entry for the item?

Yes and no : you devise your own .rul file, which contains only the differences with XCom1Ruleset.rul (what you have changed). This is how people can run multiple mods.

What do I need to do to add more items, craft, and research/production projects? And if I did wish to add my own artwork, how would I do that?

The modding system lets you do a lot, including referring your own sound and graphics. See the docs here:
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Ruleset_Reference_%28OpenXcom%29
And see existing (small) mods to see how they add a weapon, a project, a HWP.

Is there an intuitive map editor for editing X-Com craft maps? How do I alter them and/or create new ones?

Probably not as intuitive as you hope. Adding maps (including crafts) is work.

How do I change UFO interception mechanics to introduce a range-based accuracy system with turrets along with an accuracy modifier on each individual alien craft?

You need to be able to code in C for this, and compile your own version of OpenXCOM with this change.

How do I increase the base layout size to allow 8x8 bases?

In short, you can't. There's not enough room in screen to fit all, and I doubt you'll want to fight a base defence in a 8x8 base (178% the size)

How do I make facilities that allow certain facilities to be placed atop them? Specifically, I want to allow greater living quarters/stores/laboratories/workshops (2x2) to be placed on any combination of smaller facilities of the same type and/or empty spaces, with the existing smaller facilities contributing to a reduction in final cost and build time. Also, I want to allow a space to be pre-cleared by converting it into a facility called a corridor or empty room, which you can build any facility over, thus reducing the cost and build time of the second facility.

Requires a lot of C coding, plus some map editing for the facilities. See here, some people have started similar experiments with 2x2 facilities:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2033.msg28289#msg28289

How do I add an aircraft storage facility? I think it should be a 2x2 facility that once built is accessed by a new button in the craft menu, with a menu system allowing you to easily move aircraft in and out of the storage. When moving craft in or out of storage, the craft should have a transfer time (about 3 hours), and when you take them out, they should need a full refueling and re-arming. Their equipment and elerium fuel should be placed back in your stores when you transfer them to the aircraft storage facility.

Lots of coding and some new graphics

How do I set a cargo capacity for craft?

There are two parts : As "map editing" you have to draw the ship using the available tiles, and in the rulesets you have to define the numbers and the positions where people and HWP will be placed.

How do I make large (4x2) tanks? There shouldn't be any major issues with their movement on the battlescape

There is major issues with their movement on the battlescape, so they are not supported.

In any case, welcome, and if I can give a bit of advice : Start small ! Download tiny mods that modify one thing at a time, and see how they do it.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Thanks! Of course I will start small, but I don't want to take a chance on missing someone passing by who has an answer I might never get a chance at again!

There could be enough room in the base screen if the whole game had its resolution increased from the old CGA 320x200 to HVGA 480x320. There are plenty of things to do with the extra space, and it shouldn't make anything uncomfortably small. The battlescape UI might need to be scaled up. Everything else would just have more room for more buttons. If I could change the game resolution (not the display resolution in the options menu), then there would be room for an 8x8 base. Alternatively, if the base facilities were 22x22 instead of the current 30x30, then they would fit. That would just require some re-drawing of each facility texture and the other base layout textures.

As for defending the base, I have a handful of ideas to make base defense a lot easier:
1.) First, I assume Open X-Com allows more than 80 items on the battlefield, so that large base inventories will let soldiers equip something other than grenades and electro flares. Given enough rifles and clips, your several dozen soldiers would all be equipped by default. Even that would make a huge difference because it allows you the player to stock up on soldiers, weapons, and armor to make base defense easier for yourself.
2.) I want alien ships of a wider variety of sizes to attack your bases. Earlier in the game (not EARLY, just earliER) you may get attacked by a small craft such as a large scout. This will get you used to the idea of defending your base (good for newer players) and let you practice a bit before you get a huge assault force from a battleship.
3.) The ships coming into your base should spend a lot of time slowing down as they come in for a landing, much like they do any other time they are coming in for a landing. This gives you time to attempt to shoot them down. They may also have large ships flanked by smaller ships which will seek out and attack any X-Com craft that get near, but otherwise they would be vulnerable, especially to mind-shielded craft.
4.) The damage done to the craft by the base defenses should have some impact on the aliens making it to the ground. A heavily-damaged ship would have multiple hull breaches and several aliens would have been killed or injured, and more may be hurt or killed in a hasty landing with structural integrity already failing. Heavily-damaged ships should drop fewer aliens, some of which would be already hurt. That way it's less of an all or nothing mentality on base defense.
5.) There should be base cameras installed in every facility. Either there could be squares containing an invisible entity that provides the player with sight, or there could just be a script that says all aliens are visible to the player at all times in their own base. Likewise, aliens should get this sort of visibility advantage when you assault their bases.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Added a bit at the end of the top (questions) section asking about randomizing soldier attribute maximums.

[RSSwizard]

How do I make facilities that allow certain facilities to be placed atop them?

I would think you could just create new facilities that did a combination of different things. Like it was a 4 story height map section facilities on the bottom two floors, and additional facilities on the top two floors (thinking TFTD 4 story facilities here).

I dont think that the initial base should necessarily start with these, but since you pretty much only get 1 of each thing at the beginning it would be an excellent way to expand, and a boon for new  bases.

New Facility Suggestions
R&D Labs (2x2 Facility)
Provides: 100 lab space, 100 workshop space, 200 living space.
Construction Time: 34 Days
Cost: $2,350,000
Maintenance: (just add up the maintenance for 4 living quarters, 2 workshops and 2 labs)

So you build just 1 of those and you're pretty much set on R&D for that base. Makes sense just to have all those guys cloistered together.


Armoury (2x2 Facility)
Provides:  250 Storage, 100 living space.
Construction Time: 25 Days
Cost: $750,000
Maintenance: (same as 5 General Stores and 2 Living Quarters)

Here you have the bottom two floors being one giant General Stores area with soldier spawn points. The top two floors have one normal size General Stores in the center, with the periphery area around the center part containing living quarters. There should be no HWP spawn points on any floors except the bottom.


Ultimate Defense (2x2 Facility)
Provides: 5000 Defense power, Grav Shield Effect, 100% chance of hitting
Construction Time: 48 days.
Cost: $6,500,000.
Maintenance: (4 Fusion Defenses + Grav Shield, all multiplied by 1.25)

Combination of Fusion Ball Defenses and Grav Shield, pretty much protects that base from ever being invaded. But at a heavy cost. Still possibly more economical on space and initial price.

(this is one of those things you could build later in the game when you have tens of millions, and you just dont want to be bothered with base defense anymore. Still, balancing this is its extensive construction time, so its not like you can just plop one of these down and have it ready if your bases are getting attacked)


Additionally you can provide passageways on the 3rd floor between each of the facility sections, similar to how in TFTD the multi-level alien bases had connections on other floors. That way you could technically have aliens on other floors, but the idea is having the equivalent of maintenance halls to get around places that might be heavily defended.

I mean on the map sections you can put anything you want in it, but this even keeps it believeable. And as for packing everyone together like sardines, thats life in a nuclear missile silo or submarine too.

[RSSwizard]

Craft weapons have been expanded a bit

What I always usually do, with TFTD, but using xcom 1 equivalents here:

* I set the Laser Cannon and Fusion Ball to have maximum range (65km or however high it will go). So far that it can hit any ufo without risk of retaliation, including battleships.
* High % chance to hit with Laser Cannon (like 80, 90, or even 100).
* Fusion Ball does enough damage to bring down a Battleship in 5 hits (since damage is randomized and 50% is the assumed average that means it does 1200 damage with 100% chance of hitting).

But . . .

* No Aerial Weapons (besides craft cannon) carry more than 20 shots. Including laser.
* Have to manufacture laser cannon ammunition just like in TFTD (and each one takes 15 man-hours to complete).
* Laser Cannon does less damage to compensate for it (160 shots should be required to take down a battleship on average . . . so based on averages that means 40 damage for the laser).

* Fusion Balls should be Expensive on materials.
-- Give them the erroneously switched stats for the HWP Fusion Bomb and increase it. (8 alloys and 5 elerium). My suggestion is 8 Alloys and 15 Elerium per Fusion Bomb. And they should cost alot of time to make too . . . 1200 man-hours I say.

* Fusion Ball reload time should be huge that way you can close in with another weapon and possibly shoot down the ufo before the fusion ball fires its second shot. I suggest an inverse relationship with cautious/aggressive . . . cautious attack is the fastest while aggressive will make it wait the longest (it fires once and you get to chug away with the plasma after that)

* Plasma Cannon should use E-115 for ammunition but it should get like 10 shots per E-115 unit used (I believe this is possible but it causes the game to consider E-115 to be a form of Ammunition and it indents it in the inventory menu). So basically every unit of E-115 is like a Cannon Rounds x10 for the plasma cannon.

* In exchange for the Plasma Cannon only having 20 shots capacity it should have good accuracy too (80 or 90% but not 100). And possibly do more damage but that's debateable (see below). Im partial to 250 damage that way it might even destroy the next to smallest UFO, and give you more reason to use a laser instead.


This increases the necessity to send multiple interceptors after big targets. Even a Terror Ship might be more than a match for a single interceptor because they might not have enough ammunition to take it down by themselves (whereas in vanilla if you had a plasma beam you could probably take out 3 of them in a row).

And it retains the kingship of the Fusion Ball, but it makes sure you pay its toll. And maybe only carry one launcher with you instead of two.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I'm trying to go a different route and get X-Com ships to take more hits. I want to make the craft able to take off when damaged (as long as it's low enough, say, no higher than 60%), and I want to make advanced craft with more hit points repair faster. I want to avoid having X-Com ships cheese the aliens and never take hits. The way I see it, if you want to never get hit back, you should be using fusion balls. The larger, more aggressive ships (like terror ships and battleships) should tend to get a chance to fight back unless you use fusion balls.

I like having ammo considerations in the long range weapons. It gives more reason to use the short range ones.

[HelmetHair]

So aliens will come looking for your interceptors and shoot them down?? Okay, I'm on board. Can you show me this magic?

Whoa...

1. Alright, and how did you pull off the 10% patrol speed to increase the amount of time in the air?

I see some great synergies possible with other mods and have a request/ suggestion/ wish list.

2.In flight refueling, as in dispatch a tanker to a patrol craft and get them fuel to remain aloft.

3.Nuclear powered patrol craft. I've been playing around with the AWACS mod and think it is GREAT, however there are some things that bug me. I want an X-Come buildable AWACS plane that flies at like 400 miles an hour using alien alloys for toughness and utilizes a nuclear fuel pile for weeks of flight time. I want it to be slow, expensive and great at detecting UFOs. on the reverse, having a craft that could be detected and intercepted by aliens would mean I would be sometimes using it as bait or having to defend it with scrambled interceptors.

**sigh** I'm weird, I like managing the logistical flow of my craft to maximize their utility and geoscape gaming for interceptions makes me tickled pink.


-HH

[The Reaver of Darkness]

So aliens will come looking for your interceptors and shoot them down?? Okay, I'm on board. Can you show me this magic?

I'm still looking for someone to show me how to do it. For now I'm building my mod around the assumption that it wont happen, but I'm ready to change a few attributes if someone shows that it can be done.

1. Alright, and how did you pull off the 10% patrol speed to increase the amount of time in the air?

I don't have a way to change their patrol speed, but conventionally-fueled craft consume fuel at a rate based on their speed. You take their current speed and round it down to the highest increment of 100 and divide that by 100, and that is their fuel consumption in units per ten minutes. A good example of using speed for efficiency is the original Skyranger, which tops at 760 knots. It uses 7 fuel per ten minutes while moving, and 3 per ten minutes while patrolling. If it went 800 knots it would spend 8/ten or 4/ten. So in moving 5% slower it is sparing 12.5% fuel in flight and 25% fuel during patrol.

I'd like to be able to arbitrarily reduce their patrol velocity instead of having it be half their top speed, but actually I like even more now the idea of allowing patrol craft to simply have a lot of range even if they are traveling. But I will need some way to reduce Elerium consumption in certain craft because I don't want the Stalker patrol ship to be a major Elerium hog.

I see some great synergies possible with other mods and have a request/ suggestion/ wish list.

2.In flight refueling, as in dispatch a tanker to a patrol craft and get them fuel to remain aloft.

3.Nuclear powered patrol craft. I've been playing around with the AWACS mod and think it is GREAT, however there are some things that bug me. I want an X-Come buildable AWACS plane that flies at like 400 miles an hour using alien alloys for toughness and utilizes a nuclear fuel pile for weeks of flight time. I want it to be slow, expensive and great at detecting UFOs. on the reverse, having a craft that could be detected and intercepted by aliens would mean I would be sometimes using it as bait or having to defend it with scrambled interceptors.

2.) I think that's a neat idea. I have no idea how to implement it but I'd be willing to put it in my mod if someone else could do it.

3.) I'm not really into nuclear-powered craft, especially as I see that being an Earth-based technology that lies in our future. I want to stay true to the timeline (1999) and story in which the aliens use various ultra-dense radioactive elements/compounds to power gravity-wave systems for pretty much all of their cool stuff.

Long term patrols could realistically be done with watercraft though. If we could get water-only craft into X-Com, they would move very slowly but would be capable of remaining in place indefinitely provided you are paying their upkeep costs.

It would be neat to add nuclear-powered craft in TFTD however. One of the things I'd like to do in that game is expand the starting options to include modern and post-modern technology that would potentially be available in 2040 but that MicroProse couldn't have known about back in 1994. I'm also thinking of making high-performance air-only aircraft as secondary options which would be particularly good at attacking vulnerable alien watercraft that took to the air. Could also be neat to have supersonic hovercraft that go over the water and can't come onto land. Those would probably need to be nuclear-powered but they could float in the water and completely stop using fuel, for long-term patrolling.

**sigh** I'm weird, I like managing the logistical flow of my craft to maximize their utility and geoscape gaming for interceptions makes me tickled pink.

I think I like you.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

* In exchange for the Plasma Cannon only having 20 shots capacity it should have good accuracy too (80 or 90% but not 100). And possibly do more damage but that's debateable (see below). Im partial to 250 damage that way it might even destroy the next to smallest UFO, and give you more reason to use a laser instead.


This increases the necessity to send multiple interceptors after big targets. Even a Terror Ship might be more than a match for a single interceptor because they might not have enough ammunition to take it down by themselves (whereas in vanilla if you had a plasma beam you could probably take out 3 of them in a row).

I like this idea quite a bit especially as it's pretty effective compared to how easy it is to implement. I already tried upping the damage of avalanches and reduced their ammo. I want long range weapons to either be lousy at downing small craft intact, not carry enough ammo for large, or both. Shorter range weapons will have the higher damage per second as well as higher ammo capacity, which will give more reasons to get in danger range. Along with this, alien craft with fewer hit points might have longer weapon ranges.

I need to invent more weapon varieties! Any idea how to implement 3 or 4 weapon slots on an aircraft? Or howabout giving an aircraft the ability to carry extra ammo?

[HelmetHair]

3.) I'm not really into nuclear-powered craft, especially as I see that being an Earth-based technology that lies in our future. I want to stay true to the timeline (1999) and story in which the aliens use various ultra-dense radioactive elements/compounds to power gravity-wave systems for pretty much all of their cool stuff.

Please explain.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Nuclear-powered craft have been around for decades but even today they are still very heavy. We can put them in the water, but we do not yet have nuclear-powered engines for aircraft. I feel like X-Com would not have been able to develop them in 1999 even with the assistance of alien technology, in part because alien technology is fundamentally different and they do not use the same sort of nuclear power we do.

[HelmetHair]

Ah!

I see what you mean. It just wasn't making sense to me.