Altoid aliens - All sprites are free to use!

[Arthanor]

That seems relatively straightforward to do.

Just to make sure, do you want any alien to work as Medic/Leader/Navigator? Or only the one(s) introduced in your mod? If you only want the new one, it should be quick to do. If you want all of them, that's could be messy.

[NoelBuddy]

Alright! This should be ready for further testing. All resources present are accounted for and tech branches integrated.

Tech:
New Aliens Only:
Coastal Activity (Engineer)
Underwater Activity (Engineer)

All(Default+new) Races:
Alien Experiment (Medic)
Alien Exploration (Navigator)
Alien Demoralization (leader)
Alien Military (soldier)
Alien Society (Medic)

EDIT: typos found, fixed version 0.741 attached two messages down.

[Falko]

STR_HEAVY_DISRUPTOR_CLIP, STR_DISRUPTOR_RIFLE_CLIP, STR_DISRUPTOR_PISTOL_CLIP are entries in required lists but there are no research topic with these names
also in research topic STR_ALIEN_MILITARY you have a dependency STR_ETHERAL_SOLDIER it should be called STR_ETHEREAL_SOLDIER

[NoelBuddy]

  Oops.  I had matched the disruptor tech to the manufacturing requirements forgot to check the items... and frankly I'm amazed I only misspelled Ethereal once.

Thanks Falco!

Fixed.

[Duke_Falcon]

Hi everyone!
Does the latest version works properly?
If needed I share all the files (pictures) what this mod content (have them on pendrive).
I myself can not test it as my newer laptop crashed and need to repaired so I use my old one what impossible to install SP3 on (no OXC ). I do not know when should I have my new laptop back and how much need I reinstall to it.

[Arthanor]

In order to use the mod, one needs the download graphics and rules. If possible, you should zip everything needed together with the proper folder architecture.

Right now we'd need.. graphics from I'm not sure which downloads (zip file from 1st post and a few updates?), and Noel's ruleset from a couple posts above?

It would be much more user friendly if everything were organized. Then I'd be happy to give it a try!

[Duke_Falcon]

Attached the zipfile contains
- All graphics
- The latest ruleset shared here
- organised in Resources and Ruleset folders

Hope it help. I not dare to touch the ruleset, it always mess up something

[Duke_Falcon]

How does it work?
Still unable to try or test it

I especially anxious about Aerials and their lapdogs. Those shall be not perfect I think as I experimenting with their codes - mostly Belcher's to give it organic flamethrower...

[Duke_Falcon]

How does it work?
Still unable to try or test it

I especially anxious about Aerials and their lapdogs. Those shall be not perfect I think as I experimenting with their codes - mostly Belcher's to give it organic flamethrower...

Got my OXC compatible techboard back. Tested the mod... How may I say?
Altoids works OK, although they not really used the disruptors so far (met them in a small scout and a terror site, mayhaps none of these were the suitable alien mission to carry disruptors). Aerials on the other hand always cause my game crash and the game not give me any log what the hell just happened.

Anyone else tried it? And have the same results?

[NoelBuddy]

Been swamped with seasonal work, finally got around to doing some testing... after going though and fixing a bunch of stuff that might have been a problem but wasn't THE problem and some quality time spent banging my head on the wall I figured out that it was a problem with the hanObs part of the extraSprites: So that's fixed and I got both the alternate missions and default to work with all races in the new battle mode, haven't had a chance to try it out in campaign..

As for development notes: There are still some UFOpaedia articles w/o pics(Exploration, Demoralization). I don't know how to do hit animation so the Crystal Sword doesn't have any. The sprite sheets for the Probe and the Belcher look funny, kind of static, perhaps change them to match the silacoid spritesheet(just a 6 frame loop and 3 death frames) making the Probe blink and bob and the Belcher pulsate?

[Duke_Falcon]

Been swamped with seasonal work, finally got around to doing some testing... after going though and fixing a bunch of stuff that might have been a problem but wasn't THE problem and some quality time spent banging my head on the wall I figured out that it was a problem with the hanObs part of the extraSprites: So that's fixed and I got both the alternate missions and default to work with all races in the new battle mode, haven't had a chance to try it out in campaign..

As for development notes: There are still some UFOpaedia articles w/o pics(Exploration, Demoralization). I don't know how to do hit animation so the Crystal Sword doesn't have any. The sprite sheets for the Probe and the Belcher look funny, kind of static, perhaps change them to match the silacoid spritesheet(just a 6 frame loop and 3 death frames) making the Probe blink and bob and the Belcher pulsate?

Thanks for all your help!
I tested a bit this with FMP and without FMP to see what works and what needs some more work. I found these things so far - not know what may cause them in most times only suppose the reason:
- SNAKEMAN_MEDIC is available from the beginning untill all the new races not researched through that entry (12-24 hours of research). I am not sure what is wrong there, for me the code of the ruleset seems OK, of course I am hard-noob with YAML...
- Belchers cause crash when they do "something" (they do move I see that but then the game crash, maybe their attack cause the problem?) otherwise the Aerial bunch seems OK.
- Altoids tend to land on oceans (that is an FMP related thing!) otherwise they seems OK...
- Underwater operations have only string lines and not matter how do I rewrite them in the ruleset the lines remain... I think I messed that up myself again or basicly...

As for the rest. I work on more pedia pictures - that shall need to edit the ruleset further - but most pictures I made so far I was really unsatisfied. The Drone spritesheet remain static. I planned that way but maybe I chosen the wrong spritesheet reference for that. For the Belcher I want that thing drool when moves but it always looked terrible so far. I am not quite sure about them and I think I want some stripes on the Crabman's back. I shall see how does may looks like, white or orange stripes upon their brown carapace... For the chrys-sword I recolour a XenoOps melee sprite and edit a bit. How could that be implement in the ruleset? That is another question.

[NoelBuddy]

Thanks for all your help!
I tested a bit this with FMP and without FMP to see what works and what needs some more work. I found these things so far - not know what may cause them in most times only suppose the reason:
- SNAKEMAN_MEDIC is available from the beginning untill all the new races not researched through that entry (12-24 hours of research). I am not sure what is wrong there, for me the code of the ruleset seems OK, of course I am hard-noob with YAML...
- Belchers cause crash when they do "something" (they do move I see that but then the game crash, maybe their attack cause the problem?) otherwise the Aerial bunch seems OK.
- Altoids tend to land on oceans (that is an FMP related thing!) otherwise they seems OK...
- Underwater operations have only string lines and not matter how do I rewrite them in the ruleset the lines remain... I think I messed that up myself again or basicly...

As for the rest. I work on more pedia pictures - that shall need to edit the ruleset further - but most pictures I made so far I was really unsatisfied. The Drone spritesheet remain static. I planned that way but maybe I chosen the wrong spritesheet reference for that. For the Belcher I want that thing drool when moves but it always looked terrible so far. I am not quite sure about them and I think I want some stripes on the Crabman's back. I shall see how does may looks like, white or orange stripes upon their brown carapace... For the chrys-sword I recolour a XenoOps melee sprite and edit a bit. How could that be implement in the ruleset? That is another question.

Snakeman_medic... shouldn't exist. [FIXED]

Belcher crash... Not sure, I had 'em lobbing fireballs no problem. [INVESTIGATING]

Water Landings... only trajectories used here are from default so don't think it's related, tho it is somewhat fitting [UNKNOWN BUT I'M OKAY WITH IT]

Underwater operations... Underwater operations =\= Underwater operatons ; Inconsistent typo issue[FIXED]

For the probe you used the Etheral sprite sheet, right? If you wanted static than it's fine, tho using the Celatid may make for a smaller graphic file it's not much of an issue.

Belcher and crabman ideas: sound good, I'm still thinking silacoid sprite sheet for the Belcher, have it drool constantly instead of just while moving.

For the chrys-sword... How could that be implement in the ruleset? That is another question. And not one I've answered before, but hey how hard could it be 

[Duke_Falcon]

Maybe Belchers crash the game since I have an old nighlty build. But recent ones cause house-crashed crafts I heard.
I may ask about the XOps's creator about how to implement melee damage if people need visual melee damage so badly. But somehow must indicate hit... Maybe assign basic X-com melee sprite (stun, chryssalid, etc...)?

And made some pedia pictures. Not the best but adequate for the respective topics. The last two is for fun\infiltration\placeholding\looks awesome...

[NoelBuddy]

Maybe Belchers crash the game since I have an old nighlty build. But recent ones cause house-crashed crafts I heard.
I may ask about the XOps's creator about how to implement melee damage if people need visual melee damage so badly. But somehow must indicate hit... Maybe assign basic X-com melee sprite (stun, chryssalid, etc...)?

There's still the sparky circle thingy to indicate a melee hit like chryssalid, just no nifty swinging the sword animation.  Still testing the Belchers, no crash... when it happened to you what turn was it on the battlescape? Their weapon is an explosive so they won't shoot until the third turn, if it's crashing before that the problem is something else.

And made some pedia pictures. Not the best but adequate for the respective topics. The last two is for fun\infiltration\placeholding\looks awesome...

Cool, new pics added to .zip(all of 'em) and ruleset(just the first two).

[Duke_Falcon]

I tinkered around with the Probe and Crabman a bit and made two new spritesheets. Crabman got white stripes and Probe is pulse and change colour - what needs special drawing method I suppose - and have anti-grav tracks and shadow now.

Belchers usually cause crash in the very first turn if they are on a map. If only Aerials are involved without terror units everything is fine. I tested it both in-game terrors\crashed terror vessel and in instant action. Problem occured with\without FMP but I need to test if AliensPickUpWeapons may influence them or not.

And I had the wild idea to have a craft-level disruptor weapon what may needs chrystal swords as raw material... Is this possible - apart the obvious question that is this sane?