Author Topic: [RESEARCH] Research Alive Aliens Mod. (Alternate Research Tree.)  (Read 8380 times)

Offline hellrazor

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#Research Alive Aliens Mod by Hellrazor
#Readme for Version 1.2.1
 
#Based on TinyResearchMod from grzegorj
#See: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,2872.msg30949.html#msg30949
#Based on Reproduction Mod from Warboy1982

#For all Players which used Version 1.2 of this mod:
#BUG fixed which prevented UFO Construction unlock!
#You need to edit your savegame files, which you played with this mod
#and remove in research section STR_PLASMA_CANNON_DEP1 and STR_PLASMA_CANNON_DEP2
#I am sorry for this inconvinience.

 
Welcome folks!
 
It is time to ready your Stun Rod equipped Grunts and get ready to go on the hunt.
On the hunt you say, YES on the hunt for your POW's. You want them,
you love them, you NEED them!
 
This Mod forces the player to capture alive aliens to unlock technologies.

The Aliens are so different in their ways and their technology is so way
beyond anything human brains could think of that we NEED to interrogate as
many Aliens alive as possible! The Aliens have a lot of ranks at their
disposal and you NEED all of them, ok Soldiers, you don't need at all,
but Engineers, Navigators, Medics, Leaders and Commanders, are on the top
of your hunting List now.

Get ready for the ultimate hunting Season!!!!!!

To get all Techs you need:
        - 5 or 6 Engineers (if you reasearch right you only need 5 otherwise 6)
        - 6 Navigators
        - 6 Medics
        - 1 Leader (To get Martian Solution, which is required by the Avenger)

If you like, you capture 2(or 3) more Engineers, Navigators to get the last Alien Ships and Alien Mission Type.       

Technology Unlocks for:

        - Any Alien Engineer:

                - Plasma Pistol + Clip (requires Alien Alloy, Elerium)
                - Plasma Rifle + Clip (requires Plasma Pistol + Clip)
                - Heavy Plasma + Clip (requires Plasma Rifle + Clip)
                - Plasma Beam (requires Heavy Plasma + Clip)
                - Blaster Launcher + Blaster Bomb(requires Small Launcher + Stun Bomb + Alien Grenade)
                - UFO Power Source (requires Alien Alloys, Elerium)
                - UFO Construction (requires UFO Navigation, UFO Power Source, Plasma Beam)
                - Power Suit (requires Personal Armor, UFO Power Source)

        - Any Alien Medic:

                - Small Launcher + Stun Bomb (+Elerium Bomb, if you use that Mod.)(requires Alien Alloys)
                - Alien Entertainment (required for Psi Lab) (requires Small Launcher)
                - Examination Room (required for Psi Lab) (requires Alien Entertainment)
                - Alien Surgery (required for Psi Amp) (requires Examination Room)
                - Psi Amp (requires Mind Probe, Psi Lab, Alien Surgery)
                - Mind Shield (requires Mind Probe, Psi Lab)

        - Any Alien Navigator:

                - UFO Navigation (requires Alien Alloys)
                - Hyper Wave Decoder (requires UFO Navigation)
                - Flying Suit (requires Power Suit, UFO Construction)
                - Firestorm (requires UFO Construction)
                - Lightning (requires Firestorm)
                - Avenger (requires Lightning + The Martian Solution)

Leaders and Commanders, do the usual stuff, unlocking Cydonia or Bust, or Psi Lab (if Sectoid/Ethereal)

Well might be a good proposal you think or? HAPPY HUNTING!!!! and Godspeed.

---------------
#BEGIN OPTIONAL
---------------
For those who wish to SUFFER(!):
Alien Containment needs Research!!

I have also Supplied you with a Ruleset file in this mod called "Alien_Containment_needs_Research.rul",
it is totally optional, and can be used without this Mod or with it. Can be activated in the normal Mod menu.
It is for those who think capturing Alive Aliens isn't good enough!!!

What it does:

The Alien Contaiment needs to researched, but the Research needs some stuff to get unlocked:

   - Your POW's need something to chew on, so get your Ass moving and get some Alien Food,
     from a Harvester or Supply Ship.
   - After that you need to know more of the ways the Aliens reproduce so that
     you can successfully feed and care them. For this you need to successfully recover
     Alien Reproduction from an Alien Base. They are located only in the Command Center.
     4 in the lower Level of the Command Center and 1 or 2 in the Upper Level.

So capture the Command Center undamaged, in Personal Armor, with Laser and Earth Tech; probably vs
Sectoids, or Snakeman. Only if you wish to suffer...

(Xcomutil Improved Startup Base and Xcomutil Improved Defensive Base Layout
option should be turned off because these give you a Alien Containment....)
-------------
#END OPTIONAL
-------------

I hope you like the changes in the Research tree, they should make the game even more
tense and feel you even more outgunned, so go chew on a cookie while interrogate your
Alien Prisoners.

This should be a little more tense. ;-)

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Dart Gun Mod. <- STRONG RECOMMODATION!!!!
Item Levels Mod i also recommend if you sold your Plasma Pistols, but better, keep 1 of everything around.
Xcomutil Improved Heavy Laser, to have a weapon with high dropping power.

Improved Interceptor Mod like Raven or Retaliator.
Alloy Ground Tanks are also a nice addition, since Hovertanks are a long term away (i hope :-P).

---------
Timeline:
---------
Version 1.1 is playable and stable.
Version 1.2 is basic testing done, needs playthrough.
Version 1.2 has a bug which prevents UFO Construction unlock - FIXED (use Version 1.2.1)
« Last Edit: January 27, 2015, 02:59:11 am by hellrazor »

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [RESEARCH] Research Alive Aliens Mod. (Alternate Research Tree.)
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2015, 01:04:24 am »
Found a bug in Version 1.2 which prevented UFO Construction to be unlocked.

I fixed it in Version 1.2.1, works now.

Player which already have played with version 1.2, please edit the savegame files which you used with
version 1.2 and remove STR_PLASMA_BEAM_UNLOCK in the research section. Also remove STR_PLASMA_CANNON_DEP1 and STR_PLASMA_CANNON_DEP2, if they already show up there.
If they do not show in your savegame files you can just play on, after installing Version 1.2.1.

I am Sorry for the inconvinience.

Offline SIMON BAILIE

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Re: [RESEARCH] Research Alive Aliens Mod. (Alternate Research Tree.)
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2015, 02:12:07 am »
Really enjoying this mod atm, nice and challenging with more aliens in each mission and more research needed to get better weapons. In my current game I'm only getting to research plasma pistol & clip @ the end of March. I like the way to unlock plasma rifle another live capture is needed. Played a night terror mission in the Azores just there and found out that "ford transit vans" are unusually resilent to explosives. Of course it turned into complete mayhem for the aliens in the end as I just blew my way thru annoying buildings that were in the way.

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [RESEARCH] Research Alive Aliens Mod. (Alternate Research Tree.)
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2015, 07:00:16 am »
Really enjoying this mod atm, nice and challenging with more aliens in each mission and more research needed to get better weapons. In my current game I'm only getting to research plasma pistol & clip @ the end of March. I like the way to unlock plasma rifle another live capture is needed. Played a night terror mission in the Azores just there and found out that "ford transit vans" are unusually resilent to explosives. Of course it turned into complete mayhem for the aliens in the end as I just blew my way thru annoying buildings that were in the way.

WEll this is a Problem of some Maps of thew terrain pack from Hobbes (which you are using i assume). Some of the terrain is actually from ufo2000 map, so designed for player vs player combat. And some of these have there HP to high for normal gameplay. You should ask Hobbes if he lowers these values, for all his maps which are imported and have a multiplayer background.
I don't know how many work this is...

Btw which version of my Mod are you playing?

Offline SIMON BAILIE

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Re: [RESEARCH] Research Alive Aliens Mod. (Alternate Research Tree.)
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2015, 11:03:41 am »
I'm playing v1.3 from the 19th Feb atm. Since I'm enjoying this mod so much @ the moment, I'm reluctant to mention but the race weights in the rul.file shud they not add up to 100 as in 100%. I noticed the following:

      7:
        STR_SECTOID: 10
        STR_SNAKEMAN: 10
        STR_ETHEREAL: 30
        STR_MUTON: 30
        STR_FLOATER: 10

The above is for alien infiltration in month 7, which of the above shud have 10% more? I hope I'm right on this point and unsure if this wud have any effect on gameplay as I'm only about to go into month 4 in my current game.

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [RESEARCH] Research Alive Aliens Mod. (Alternate Research Tree.)
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2015, 11:15:07 am »
I'm playing v1.3 from the 19th Feb atm. Since I'm enjoying this mod so much @ the moment, I'm reluctant to mention but the race weights in the rul.file shud they not add up to 100 as in 100%. I noticed the following:

      7:
        STR_SECTOID: 10
        STR_SNAKEMAN: 10
        STR_ETHEREAL: 30
        STR_MUTON: 30
        STR_FLOATER: 10

The above is for alien infiltration in month 7, which of the above shud have 10% more? I hope I'm right on this point and unsure if this wud have any effect on gameplay as I'm only about to go into month 4 in my current game.
I don't think that raceweight is numbered in percent at all, it is more like a relative weight. So it should not matter if it is not 100%. But i have experienced very low Sectoid activity so far in my testplay (i am at beginning of June) So i will give them a litte buff in how often they appear. But this also could only be related to the game choosing other races (encountered this before in vanilla gameplay, haveing only Floaters in really big numbers and nearly no sectoids...).

And btw your enjoyment will probably go over in some painbitching because you will soon find that snakeman are comeing *hihi*. Despite of that Itemlevels should keep you on your toe ;-)

Did you storm the Alien Base Successfully? (Did i mention the Expanded_Ubase_Nightly.zip? It a fix for luke83 originals work of the expanded Alien Base Models.)

I will release v1.3.1 soon because i found some minor bugs and adjusted some Mapsizes etc.. nothing gamebreaking.

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [RESEARCH] Research Alive Aliens Mod. (Alternate Research Tree.)
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2015, 11:47:42 am »
I'm playing v1.3 from the 19th Feb atm. Since I'm enjoying this mod so much @ the moment, I'm reluctant to mention but the race weights in the rul.file shud they not add up to 100 as in 100%. I noticed the following:

      7:
        STR_SECTOID: 10
        STR_SNAKEMAN: 10
        STR_ETHEREAL: 30
        STR_MUTON: 30
        STR_FLOATER: 10

The above is for alien infiltration in month 7, which of the above shud have 10% more? I hope I'm right on this point and unsure if this wud have any effect on gameplay as I'm only about to go into month 4 in my current game.

And btw this part of the Forum is only for completed Mods, which work with the Release Version 1.0 of Openxcom.
So that Any Questions to Mod Version 1.3 should be posted in the Modding/Experiments section. (Version 1.3 needs the newest nightly)

Offline SIMON BAILIE

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Re: [RESEARCH] Research Alive Aliens Mod. (Alternate Research Tree.)
« Reply #7 on: February 25, 2015, 12:04:10 pm »
I'm mostly fighting floaters so far with some sectoids but haven't found the alien base yet, actually per checking on the .sav file there r no alien bases up yet. Can u be too successful in shooting down ufos? Only thing is I can't build the alien containment til reproduction is got & researched which needs an alien base to be up and running! Luckily enough I used the defensive improved base option @ the start so I got an alien containment for my 1st base which is where I've done all missions from. Bases 2 & 3 only have fighters on them atm as I'm awaiting getting the Lightning or in my case Thunder (the recent mod replacing the Lightning with a more useful version).
  On another point is there any chance of u incorporating any or all of the following alien races into ur mod: Anthropods, Gazers, Mechtoids & Waspites.
Attached below is my current game, I suppose the aliens will get a base up and going eventually probably ethereal or snakeman knowing my luck. I also incoporated the change that Hobbes has put into his new mod "ufo redux" of increasing all aliens psi strength by 50%, as personally I always thought they were a bit low, makes an ethereal commander on superhuman psi str=116 and psi skill=58.

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [RESEARCH] Research Alive Aliens Mod. (Alternate Research Tree.)
« Reply #8 on: February 25, 2015, 12:47:42 pm »
I'm mostly fighting floaters so far with some sectoids but haven't found the alien base yet, actually per checking on the .sav file there r no alien bases up yet. Can u be too successful in shooting down ufos?

You actually can, the first alien mission which they do will be deployed in your starting regions, which is in case of my mod the Alien Base Mission. I added 2 more waves to it, each constists of 2 Ufo's (Medium Scouts and Large Scouts) if you shot them down it is possible the mission did not get carried over in the second month. On the other side the original alien base mission only consists of 2 waves (1 small scout and the Basebuild wave), which probably makes the first alien ship you will raid a supply ship. Maybe i will adjust the waves down and play a little bit around with timer to prevent this a little bit...
And why do shoot those Scouts down? Raid them when they are landed much more profitable...

Only thing is I can't build the alien containment til reproduction is got & researched which needs an alien base to be up and running! Luckily enough I used the defensive improved base option @ the start so I got an alien containment for my 1st base which is where I've done all missions from.

Which defeats the purpose of the Mod... I stated explicitly that this option gives you Alien Containment and should not be used.

On another point is there any chance of u incorporating any or all of the following alien races into ur mod: Anthropods, Gazers, Mechtoids & Waspites.
Not at the moment, because the Mod needs balancing and bugfixes etc.. first. And it is intended it to be used with Vanilla Aliens...

Attached below is my current game, I suppose the aliens will get a base up and going eventually probably ethereal or snakeman knowing my luck.
Somehow the Base Mission in the first Month seems to be canceled. Could you try starting a new game and see if the mission gets set (you have a large list of mods active so i do not which ones of these could interfere.

Any further discussion should be done here:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,3260.0.html