[EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion -- General Feedback Thread

[SteamXCOM]

Why should i remove tanks?

What I meant was have the alloy and other tanks  as a separate stand alone "mini" mod together with the the heavy cannon and auto cannon alloy and smoke ammo.
It can be used with the vanilla game without changing it too much.
Sorry I was not clear about that.


The main mod is fine as it is with all its equipment, with tanks and everything else that can be added
Keep up the good work

-----------------
Thank you for the explanation about the YAML anchor calls
I see how it works

first you DEFINE this

    dependencies: &ALL_ALIVE_ENGINEERS
      - STR_FLOATER_ENGINEER
      - STR_SECTOID_ENGINEER
      - STR_SNAKEMAN_ENGINEER
      - STR_MUTON_ENGINEER
      - STR_WASPITE_ENGINEER
      - STR_GAZER_ENGINEER
      - STR_SECTOID_ELITE_ENGINEER
      - STR_MUTON_ELITE_ENGINEER
      - STR_MUTON_ELITE_GUARD_ENGINEER

then LATER on
dependencies: *ALL_ALIVE_ENGINEERS
(no need to repeat all the engineers again)

[hellrazor]

What I meant was have the alloy and other tanks  as a separate stand alone "mini" mod together with the the heavy cannon and auto cannon alloy and smoke ammo.
It can be used with the vanilla game without changing it too much.
Sorry I was not clear about that.

The tanks actually do exist as a standalone mod already, its called Alloy Ground Tanks. I did also add some Tanks of my own. Haven't thought about putting those out there as a seperate mod.
Feel free to make such a mod if you see the need for it thou.

The main mod is fine as it is with all its equipment, with tanks and everything else that can be added
Keep up the good work

I am currently working on a new release version - 0.99.3.
It already includes all so far reported bugs and some balancing adjustments.
Additionally it will contain the Skystriker Craft, the Support Drones Mod and finally the newly reworked Alien Base Maps.
The Commendation mod will also be included, even thou its a shame there are still some graphics missing, I will have to use some placeholders for the time being (its 6 out of 61).

A update of the terrain pack files i also have planned but this requires some more work and time.

-----------------
Thank you for the explanation about the YAML anchor calls
I see how it works

first you DEFINE this

    dependencies: &ALL_ALIVE_ENGINEERS
      - STR_FLOATER_ENGINEER
      - STR_SECTOID_ENGINEER
      - STR_SNAKEMAN_ENGINEER
      - STR_MUTON_ENGINEER
      - STR_WASPITE_ENGINEER
      - STR_GAZER_ENGINEER
      - STR_SECTOID_ELITE_ENGINEER
      - STR_MUTON_ELITE_ENGINEER
      - STR_MUTON_ELITE_GUARD_ENGINEER

then LATER on
dependencies: *ALL_ALIVE_ENGINEERS
(no need to repeat all the engineers again)

You got it

[hellrazor]

Let there be the awards!!!

I added Ivan Dogovichs Commendations Mod.
Your soldier will now be rewarded with up to 61 medals.

So keep them alive to see all those fancy decorations.

Also:
Only three things todo until the release of Version 0.99.3:
- Finish the Expanded Ubase Maps, still Aliens gardens are not turned
- Add more Civilians from the Terrainpack.
- Make Crafts, Tanks, Drones, Soldier Armor upgradeable.

[Cristao]

Is one able to use this mod with OpenXcom Extended?

[Meridian]

Is one able to use this mod with OpenXcom Extended?

Yes, with the newest one (3.9a)

[SteamXCOM]

Does one have to start a new game? 
I just discovered I can open original XCOM game saves from 1997 in OPENXCOM and resave in OPENXCOM format.  What a find, I was about to build the Avenger and have lots of high ranking soldiers from that save.
I did not get a chance to experiment but on existing games do the medals transfer over?

[hellrazor]

Does one have to start a new game? 
I just discovered I can open original XCOM game saves from 1997 in OPENXCOM and resave in OPENXCOM format.  What a find, I was about to build the Avenger and have lots of high ranking soldiers from that save.
I did not get a chance to experiment but on existing games do the medals transfer over?

Hi,

if you want to play my mod its best to start a fresh new game.
I do not think that the savegame files of the original game carried the needed information for the diaries and commendation.
A old game played already on openxcom, would hold the information for the commendations, since the soldier diaries are working very well.
The medals would then be awarded either at the end of the current month, for all soldiers or after the next mission for those who took part in it.
Makes up for a long list initially.
Your soldiers would also get medals as you play along over time, of course.

I have no clue if my mod or the commendations mod does work on OpenXcom Extended, I never tested.
They both have been tested and working properly in the Official OpenXcom Nightlies.

If you have any Feedback I would like to really welcome it.

They will work properly with the newest available nightly

[SteamXCOM]

The medals would then be awarded either at the end of the current month, for all soldiers or after the next mission for those who took part in it.
Makes up for a long list initially.

This great information, I wondered how / when the medals were actually awarded

[Diaboliko]

While going for hardcore plays, resetting the game after every wipe, I've only been playing until the second terror mission. Sectoid only was somewhat fine if one doesn't limit the craft with 80 items (takes at least 30 big rockets), but the Las time I've met my demise at some ~german city with both floaters and sectoods (I had a great start but decided to ignore the base since previously killing I within the January and then rushing for a prison proved to be too expensive and risky(though its totally possible to make a super good start by doing that, Im sure)... The problem is: the city was made of stone buildings, about 4 floors each, and it also was full of tight spaces. Even during the day I had very little chances of success, but still... The only viable strategy I saw there is going for a full demolishing, which works like crap with those stone buildings. I ain't asking for physics there, but it hurts my feelings that Im being forced to do that and it also gives no penalties on itself... Imagine an organization vanishing the land in order to get rid of the alien menace... I wont be pleased with those methods really (especially since grenade kills are cheap and effective(though risky since you wanna have nades prearmed)). Also cyberdisks shit on high explosives from above, yeah. I can use some *grenades thrown on heavy units stay on them)*
Speaking of whether or not I'm worthy of evaluating things - I did realize how good the fire is(though I still find grenade launcher too costy in recharge terms), realized how to quickly rise stats at low risk(high score, tanks and reaction fire against scout ships)  and kinda succeeded at making ultimate strategy against the first alien base(stay away from lifts and doors, burn everything and use reaction fire properly).
But I still find close space imbalanced(like If aliens knew Im near every time Im behind a wall, unsmoked) .  I also give no crap about the floater-filled large ships(except the CQC at the heaviest of them all).
Oh and btw plasma shotguns need a nerf against tier 0 tanks. That's just ridiculous how one bullet kills them. And I wonder if there is a way to highlight tiles at which nades fall. On high bullet speeds I rarely track them well.

Sorry for making a post full of /r/ things, but  I typed it on cellphone Mode is awesome anyway(but my butt hurts)

[hellrazor]

Hello there

First thanks for your feedback and sorry for my late reply.

While going for hardcore plays, resetting the game after every wipe, I've only been playing until the second terror mission.

Do you play with the OpenXcom Ironman option turned on? If so i do not recommend it, since this a large mod and it may contain bugs.
Having a fall back savegame in such cases is always good.
You can of course enforce your own Ironman.

Sectoid only was somewhat fine if one doesn't limit the craft with 80 items (takes at least 30 big rockets), but the Las time I've met my demise at some ~german city with both floaters and sectoods (I had a great start but decided to ignore the base since previously killing I within the January and then rushing for a prison proved to be too expensive and risky(though its totally possible to make a super good start by doing that, Im sure)... The problem is: the city was made of stone buildings, about 4 floors each, and it also was full of tight spaces. Even during the day I had very little chances of success, but still... The only viable strategy I saw there is going for a full demolishing, which works like crap with those stone buildings.

Have you turned on the explosionheight for 3d explosions? Some HE Packs, Large Rockets and even better Elerium Rockets will make a short deal of those buildings.
Well the aliens attacked a densely populated city so large buildings are to be expected, right?
You have enough tools to deal with those early on.

I ain't asking for physics there, but it hurts my feelings that Im being forced to do that and it also gives no penalties on itself... Imagine an organization vanishing the land in order to get rid of the alien menace... I wont be pleased with those methods really (especially since grenade kills are cheap and effective(though risky since you wanna have nades prearmed)).

Well we work for the UN, right? The will pay the bills
Prearmed grenades are risky, I personally preprime Smoke Grenades, Incendiaries and Stund Grenades.

Also cyberdisks shit on high explosives from above, yeah. I can use some *grenades thrown on heavy units stay on them)*
Speaking of whether or not I'm worthy of evaluating things - I did realize how good the fire is(though I still find grenade launcher too costy in recharge terms).

Against Cyberdiscs I can only recommend using Large Rockets in the early game (33% instant kill on Superhuman), even burning them is also a good idea.
Let your grenade launcher guy hang back a bit, if loaded and full TU you can fire 2 Snapshot with  Soldier with some experience, the arcing shot is worth it.
I usually operate with team of 10 or 12 men and some tanks and drones. So i have two guys dedicated towards the grenade launcher, combined with some sniper and a tank or drone you can clear the outside terrain rather quickly while my riflemen storm the UFO, for example.

realized how to quickly rise stats at low risk(high score, tanks and reaction fire against scout ships)  and kinda succeeded at making ultimate strategy against the first alien base(stay away from lifts and doors, burn everything and use reaction fire properly).

Regarding alien bases, i have nearly finished adding the additional maps i made, so in the end their are 80+ map modules for them, making them even more of a labyrinth of death that they are already. Fire is good against Chryssalids (to block paths).

But I still find close space imbalanced(like If aliens knew Im near every time Im behind a wall, unsmoked).

Aliens remember your position, once they spotted you, also alien learn a bit earlier were you are all over the map then in vanilla.

I also give no crap about the floater-filled large ships(except the CQC at the heaviest of them all).

Plunder them all!!!
Getting a second Skyranger and fully equipping it is a really good idea.

Oh and btw plasma shotguns need a nerf against tier 0 tanks. That's just ridiculous how one bullet kills them.

The plasmashotgun is devasting by design. It gets even more powerful later in the game, with another ammo type.
A Plasmashotgun salvo can kill a lot of your team early on, i recommend extreme caution.
Maybe check out the Scout Drone mod: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,4980.msg72948.html#msg72948
A full set of drones is included in the next version release.

And I wonder if there is a way to highlight tiles at which nades fall. On high bullet speeds I rarely track them well.

Try the minimap, press "m", to open it on the battlefield. You can track items laying around.

Sorry for making a post full of /r/ things, but  I typed it on cellphone Mode is awesome anyway(but my butt hurts)

Nevermind, happens to me all the time.
Your butt will be kicked hard I guarantee that

[Diaboliko]

Do you play with the OpenXcom Ironman option turned on? If so i do not recommend it, since this a large mod and it may contain bugs.

Rather a little puss mode :> Go all in for the most effective play. If you fail - reset. Currently desided to reset missions only since every new race shows its own ... difficulties... one can't be ready for. Its all different "on paper"
I must admit, aliens still become too weak if you kill them super effectively. However In 3 month I had no aliens for ~15-20 days during 2 of them. Thats kinda.... Odd. I wonder if supply ships were flying. Second terror mission seems to contain both sectoids and floaters if you succeed everywhere. Thats kinda odd. Perhaps players should be told about WHO is terrorizing the city? I mean if you've got the attack message, you probably got some info on the attackers, right?  Not like sectoid setup cant kill the floaters and reapers effectively, but I had one playthrough with very low strength personel once. Got rekt. Yep...

Have you turned on the explosionheight for 3d explosions? Some HE Packs, Large Rockets and even better Elerium Rockets will make a short deal of those buildings.

I did. The problem is - on mentioned map (I believe now it was Berlin) with 6+ levels of height and very tight spaces cyberdisks are flying too high. I wish they themselfes had a rework to make them more fair... (reactions and accuracy are too high IMO. Accuracy is managable by DPSing it hard though, but still)

Well we work for the UN, right? The will pay the bills

Thats right... But melting cities down shouldn't be good for x-com reputation. Just as killing civilians aint. Btw, is rescuing stunned civs adding points? I still cant get to checking it out...

Against Cyberdiscs I can only recommend using Large Rockets in the early game (33% instant kill on Superhuman), even burning them is also a good idea

Gonna take a loooong while to burn those down... Or plenty of TU if you didn't mean the DoT. Is their AI affected by fire in any way btw?

Aliens remember your position, once they spotted you

Still, some of them seem to just patrol a single room space. They either do it by random or they are REALLY good at their patrol job since they always find me as soon as I enter the room :>

also alien learn a bit earlier were you are all over the map then in vanilla.

Check the attachment. Last man standing won the game on turn... 80? I wonder if xcom got any mods that cause you to hurry up... Not like hardmodes menaces are not enough, but what if... I will eventually get good enough at it to beat it without failed missions in one go once? :>

The plasmashotgun is devasting by design.

But it pretty much one-shots the default tanks with one pellet. :< Why do tanks have that much armor anyway? Are plasma pistols that bad by design to never damage the tanks? :>

[hellrazor]

Attached towards this post is a modified items.rul file, which makes Hardmode Expansion v0.99.2d compatible with the newest nightlies.

If you are using openxcom_git_master_2017_10_30_2248 or newer please replace the the file "items.rul" in the Hardmode_Expansion/Ruleset directory, with the file attached towards this post.

The mod then loads correctly.

[hellrazor]

Hardmode Expansion - Skystriker, Support Drones, Commendations, PSX Cutscenes, More Alien Base Maps

Download Links Hardmode Expansion

Some long overdue bugfixes and more features =). HF getting your asses kicked!

Please use newest Nightly, or at least Nightly Version: openxcom_git_master_2018_04_24_2218

Documentation:
Current ToDo List
Credit List
Changelog

Changelog:
Version 0.99.3
 - Final Ressource File Restructure
 - Turning THUNDER by 90 degree (Unified Craft MapSize)
 - Fix Tile and Route issue for LINERSHIP00.MAP
 - Fix CRAFT spawn for CARGOSHIP
 - Fix Soldier Armor Repair in Research Tree Graphic
 - Fix Alien Grenade / Elerium Rocket Research and Graphic
 - Fix Wall issue for UFO_190m.MAP
 - Fix out of boundary nodes for some Maps
 - Fix missing usage information on medical items/drones
 - Fix Several extraStrings Typos
 - Fix Missing Name String for MALE_CIVILIAN
 - Fix mapScript for POLAR, MARSH and SWAMPS to reduce chance of UFO inaccessible
 - Fix Increase lategame weapon variety
 - Fix Tile and Route issue on EXPANDEDUBASE21
 - Fix Missing Halfed fundingCap
 - Fix missionZone values N/S Atlantic
 - Fix NIKE Cross Commendation and some commendation spellings
 - Adjusted Raceweights slightly
 - Adjust Manufacture more to vanilla
 - Adjust Muton Race - Added Muton Elite Leaders
 - Adjust Stats for Muton Elites and Muton Elite Guards
 - Adjust Armor Damage Modifiers for Muton ELite, Muton Elite Guard, Holodrone, Armored Sectopod
 - Adjust Race composition, Ranks and Spawnnumber for Final Mission Stages
 - Added turned Versions for: UBASE_00
 - Added turned Versions for: UBASE_02
 - Added turned Versions for: UBASE_03
 - Added turned Versions for: UBASE_04
 - Added turned Versions for: UBASE_05
 - Added turned Versions for: UBASE_06
 - Added turned Versions for: UBASE_08
 - Added turned Versions for: UBASE_11
 - Added turned Versions for: UBASE_15
 - Added turned Versions for: EXPANDEDUBASE16
 - Added turned Versions for: EXPANDEDUBASE17
 - Added turned Versions for: EXPANDEDUBASE18 (Fake Brain Room)
 - Optimized Mapscript for Alien Bases
 - Optimized Mapscripot for Cydonia Final Assault
 - Added more Missions to Alien Bases to generate:
   - Alien Research
   - Alien Terror
   - Alien Abduction
   - Alien Retaliation
   - Alien Harvest
   - Ship Attack
   - Docked Ship
 - Added size check to Mapscripts and optimized spawns
 - Added proper Raceweights for Alien Retaliation
 - Added some more UfoPaedia articles for some research topics (mostly early games stuff)
 - Added SKYSTRIKER (Improved Skyranger)
 - Added Support Drones Mod
 - Added Support Drones Upgrade Manufacture
 - Added Commendations Mod
 - Added Commendations Fixes
 - Added PSXCutscenes Mod
 - Changes to early game Research, Alien Alloy Techs are now fully available
 - Change Ruleset to be conform with: openxcom_git_master_2018_04_24_2218 or newer

[DaEMon]

Hi

I am just starting a campaign (still on january) on this mod and I have a question. At which turn aliens start cheating?
I just raided a battleship (yes, a a battleship in January!) and it seems to me that aliens learn your positions quite early. I had no problems ambushing and killing aliens left and right with no casualties on my side until turn 11-12 when suddenly aliens started picking my men all over the place. I still completed the mission but lose 6 good soldiers.

I know that the mod description says that aliens gain earlier awareness of your presence but it would be nice to know when so we can plan ahead.

Great mod by the way, enjoying a lot so far.

[hellrazor]

Hi

I am just starting a campaign (still on january) on this mod and I have a question. At which turn aliens start cheating?
I just raided a battleship (yes, a a battleship in January!) and it seems to me that aliens learn your positions quite early. I had no problems ambushing and killing aliens left and right with no casualties on my side until turn 11-12 when suddenly aliens started picking my men all over the place. I still completed the mission but lose 6 good soldiers.

I know that the mod description says that aliens gain earlier awareness of your presence but it would be nice to know when so we can plan ahead.

Great mod by the way, enjoying a lot so far.

The alien awareness happens earlier.
Usually aliens will learn the position of all your men under two conditions in vanilla:
 - having only 1 or 2 aliens left
 - turn 20+

In Hardmode this happens earlier, around turn 14+.
So strap your boots, pack your mags, motion scanners, smoke grenades and medikits and get those lazy rookies moving on the double!

I recommend using the game option advanced movement methods for a reason (it allows running, but spending energy, and thats when medikits start playing a role and the respective drones)