Author Topic: Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N7 16-Dec-2023 Flying Tiger, Hidden Tentacle  (Read 3610376 times)

Offline Dioxine

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 5412
  • punk not dead
    • View Profile
    • Nocturnal Productions
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #90 on: May 22, 2015, 06:00:41 pm »
This morning, I thought how cool it would be, if the Humanist’s bases were in the old xcom style. Somehow, I imagined the Humanist faction as an xcom remnant, still bitter they failed to protect humanity. Then, I woke up and went to work. Well, Dioxine, you made it into my dreams.

The naming of the Humanist faction embodies the combination of creativity and sarcasm I absolutely love in your work. I cannot wait to see, how you will make use of all the new modding options. Please keep it up!

Hehe, a good idea! Indeed - they could've started out as a good guys, but now have been reduced to radical, miserable people, clinging to a dead idea of protecting a humanity that no longer exists (since they won't ever accept mutants as people)  - and their lack of resources forces them to pillage. Sadly I cannot tie the type of a base to a race, but I can make the bases to have a randomly chosen architecture (Alien Base, X-Com Base, Pirate Base or Military Base), and I was planning to do so anyway. But I will certainly put your idea about Humanist's origins in some researchable fluff article.

I lessened the saturation on my weapon sprites. They maybe be more suitable for the Piratez mod now.
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,3650.0.html

Well that's cool man, but my mod is simply not demanding such weapons ATM, and adding new weapons is not planned now - I'm developing different things. Also - frankly speaking - I don't want to criticize, I'm not a very good artist myself, but you obviously want a 100% honest and blunt answer - So here it goes. While I like the less-saturated handles, I think you should decide if the barrels of your weapons are supposed to be alloy-colored or gray, or some artsy mish-mash of the 2, now they're a chaotic mess of these 2 colors. Next, I don't particularly like green sights on blue weapons - try orange or red. And try to make them look like sights not some odd pixels. Also the glowing elements could use some real pixel art around them, conversion just won't do with such detail. Also, the barrels look very flat, like the weapons had square cross-sections - maybe this is what you wanted, but for Piratez, sleek hi-tec weapons are supposed to be.. well, sleek and somewhat rounded. Surely my old conversion of your rail rifle is even worse, but the improvement isn't obvious enough to cause me to switch (and there are some elements I like in my version). I could try to upgrade, probably would eventually, but this requires time and is really low on my priority list ATM - I don't think it makes to the top 50 on my list. Sorry if that hurts, but I think you deserve to be answered fully and truthfully.

Offline Yankes

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 3194
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #91 on: May 22, 2015, 06:53:19 pm »
Hehe, a good idea! Indeed - they could've started out as a good guys, but now have been reduced to radical, miserable people, clinging to a dead idea of protecting a humanity that no longer exists (since they won't ever accept mutants as people)  - and their lack of resources forces them to pillage. Sadly I cannot tie the type of a base to a race, but I can make the bases to have a randomly chosen architecture (Alien Base, X-Com Base, Pirate Base or Military Base), and I was planning to do so anyway. But I will certainly put your idea about Humanist's origins in some researchable fluff article.
But I can, and hardest thing will be adding new property to ruleset :)

Offline ivandogovich

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2381
  • X-Com Afficionado
    • View Profile
    • Ivan Dogovich Youtube
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #92 on: May 22, 2015, 07:02:33 pm »
But I can, and hardest thing will be adding new property to ruleset :)

Jeeze... You have to make it so hard! ;P

Offline pilot00

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
  • Back in the day it was gameplay not a feature....
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #93 on: May 22, 2015, 10:34:33 pm »
Well I know I will be "that guy" but honestly I wouldnt like to see X-Com become a travesty of itself :(
X-Com is love, X-Com is life. Perhaps these dudes found out about X-Com and been the radicals they are, sort of wore the mantle?

Plus if they were the remnants of X-Com they would have some more advanced tech eh?

Offline Dioxine

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 5412
  • punk not dead
    • View Profile
    • Nocturnal Productions
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #94 on: May 22, 2015, 10:59:01 pm »
Nah, certainly not literal remnants of XCom, it was so outlandish I didn't even notice it. These guys have never even heard of XCom.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2015, 11:01:16 pm by Dioxine »

Offline GrandSirThebus

  • Sergeant
  • **
  • Posts: 30
  • Artist
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #95 on: May 23, 2015, 08:20:28 am »
Different artistic visions I suppose. It's fine, no harm done.

Offline Zharkov

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 427
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #96 on: May 23, 2015, 10:30:27 am »
Well I know I will be "that guy" but honestly I wouldnt like to see X-Com become a travesty of itself :(
X-Com is love, X-Com is life.

Are we talking about the same mod here? Earth is ruled by the Star Gods with an iron ...errr... ethereal appendage?

Perhaps these dudes found out about X-Com and been the radicals they are, sort of wore the mantle?

I like that idea!

Plus if they were the remnants of X-Com they would have some more advanced tech eh?

As xcom fucked up badly, not necessarily.

Nah, certainly not literal remnants of XCom, it was so outlandish I didn't even notice it. These guys have never even heard of XCom.

And there was me thinking Piratez Extended was the place for outlandish ideas!  ::)
« Last Edit: May 23, 2015, 10:34:11 am by Zharkov »

Offline Dioxine

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 5412
  • punk not dead
    • View Profile
    • Nocturnal Productions
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #97 on: May 23, 2015, 01:38:36 pm »
Hmm... I have an idea on how to handle this. No matter the fate of X-Com, there was a resistance. If you go on murdering and impoverishing people, there always is. But these guys had to have something special to thrive and grow into a meaningful force. This could be one of 2 things - either they got some stash of old tech, like an old base with automated industrial capacities - allowing them to manufacture ships, and stuff to cover their bills - or they're being financed by someone who's in power. Or both. This could have been a well hidden, abandoned X-Com base. Perhaps half-abandoned only, maybe after the last stand, there were survivors. Someone to become a symbol of a heroic pureblood human, fighting the scum of the universe. But it's been over half a millenium since the last of these people died, and the Humanist leaders, while certainly interested in having heroes, wouldn't probably find much use to myth of a secret organization - other than their own, and with different ideals and means. So the real XCom might have been forgotten out of convenience, even if they sort of took their mantle. That's how I see it.

Also, outlandish, yes, but logic and general adherence to the laws of nature must be maintained, it's not Eragon :)

Offline pilot00

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
  • Back in the day it was gameplay not a feature....
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #98 on: May 23, 2015, 01:58:28 pm »
Are we talking about the same mod here? Earth is ruled by the Star Gods with an iron ...errr... ethereal appendage?

We are on the Piratez discussion thread arent we?


Are we talking about the same mod here? Earth is ruled by the Star Gods with an iron ...errr... ethereal appendage?

As xcom fucked up badly, not necessarily.

Fucked up badly might be an exageration. I havent found the fabled "Russian files" so far but I doubt the defeat was X-Coms fault entirely. From what I read through the various old files about the aftermath of the invasion, 
Spoiler:
the planet is in the shit it is, because the rulling elites (see Rich and politicaly powerfull), litterally selled their souls to the aliens.
Yeah X-Com probably didnt its job perfect this time around but I would bet my chips, our dear loving "council" had more to do with it than X-Com failling.

That is ofc speculation on my part.

Hmm... I have an idea on how to handle this. No matter the fate of X-Com, there was a resistance. If you go on murdering and impoverishing people, there always is. But these guys had to have something special to thrive and grow into a meaningful force. This could be one of 2 things - either they got some stash of old tech, like an old base with automated industrial capacities - allowing them to manufacture ships, and stuff to cover their bills - or they're being financed by someone who's in power. Or both. This could have been a well hidden, abandoned X-Com base. Perhaps half-abandoned only, maybe after the last stand, there were survivors. Someone to become a symbol of a heroic pureblood human, fighting the scum of the universe. But it's been over half a millenium since the last of these people died, and the Humanist leaders, while certainly interested in having heroes, wouldn't probably find much use to myth of a secret organization - other than their own, and with different ideals and means. So the real XCom might have been forgotten out of convenience, even if they sort of took their mantle. That's how I see it.

Also, outlandish, yes, but logic and general adherence to the laws of nature must be maintained, it's not Eragon :)

Given the symbols these guys use and the style they follow, we all know they already have been arround (in fact they are around even now) however powerless they might be/were. We can immagine that as resistance escalated, mutations starting to show up, could easily shift their ideology a bit and target mutants specifically. As Russia is getting desperate as the last remnant of human resistance, they might have turned out equiping the shods, even going as far as giving them a defaunct  X-Com base built in Russian soil(see shut down) in order to entise pro human sentiment and earn more troops for their fight,. After the nuclear war and Russia turning into the shod state of the Eurassia autonomy, they could simply have kept whatever equipment they had and started their own buissness.

Alliences like that are born out of desperation in real life, a good example like that would be how the British and the US, planned to use the remnants of Nazi devisions after the war, had the Soviets pushed beyond Eastern Berlin.

Or we might just be giving too much credit to a faction that is meant as satire.
« Last Edit: May 23, 2015, 02:11:37 pm by pilot00 »

Offline Dioxine

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 5412
  • punk not dead
    • View Profile
    • Nocturnal Productions
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #99 on: May 23, 2015, 02:11:25 pm »
The fate of the real last stand, the Russian base, was different, its story is already established in the tech tree, if not fully explored. But in essence this could have happened in any of the countries that didn't sell out.

Offline pilot00

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
  • Back in the day it was gameplay not a feature....
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #100 on: May 23, 2015, 02:12:48 pm »
The fate of the real last stand, the Russian base, was different, its story is already established in the tech tree, if not fully explored. But in essence this could have happened in any of the countries that didn't sell out.

As I said I havent read the files.

Offline Dioxine

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 5412
  • punk not dead
    • View Profile
    • Nocturnal Productions
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #101 on: May 23, 2015, 02:19:10 pm »
You will get to that tech eventually... :)

Offline pilot00

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
  • Back in the day it was gameplay not a feature....
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #102 on: May 23, 2015, 02:35:21 pm »
You will get to that tech eventually... :)

Assuming Arthanor in his kindness identifies the problem I have with the traders :( It busts my balls that I cant raid their ships to the point of sapping my will to play.

Dioxine tell me something about the
Spoiler:
shoulder mounted launcher:
You intentend this to be used like the originals from 40k in the days of yore, before they were just decorations for the models?
« Last Edit: May 23, 2015, 02:37:26 pm by pilot00 »

Offline Dioxine

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 5412
  • punk not dead
    • View Profile
    • Nocturnal Productions
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #103 on: May 23, 2015, 05:38:18 pm »
Truth be told I was more inspired by Predator's shoulder-mounted plasma cannon.

I will look into the Trader problem as well, but putting up the first Extended version is still far away...

Offline Arthanor

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2488
  • XCom Armoury Quartermaster
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] Piratez Extended
« Reply #104 on: May 23, 2015, 06:13:28 pm »
I can't comment much on the lore as I haven't unlocked much, but it sounds really interesting. I didn't any spoilers either, but I think the idea of humans stubbornly resisting the aliens and trying to keep the race pure really works, and ties in rather well with XCom. XCom is not a fan of hybrids either, and as far as I know, mutants are the product of alien meddling.

I agree that 1999 XCom is a very positive organization, but in the Piratez setting, defending pureblood humanity does make you rather close to a humanist and an enemy of the gals.

I'll let you know if I get anywhere with debugging.