Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N9.7.7 12-Sep-2024 Second Coming

[Dioxine]

For instance: starting armors will be runt, brainer and rags, so that even the pirate armor will have to be researched?

Pirate armor will be available immediately, but in limited quantities.

As for the other changes. It's all in flux atm. But the main pointers:
- No Crackdowns and no penalty for missed Pogroms early on, because getting a combat-capable ship will take time.
- Having to do with muskets, melee and looted (weak) weapons for a few months; store selection will be very limited but will expand with research, both general research and loot research.

[niculinux]

It's in Meridian's thread, first post: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,4187.0.html

Ah one more thing: may i humbly suggest to include it in the main mid package?

[Dioxine]

Once it's up to date. I'm already using important functions from the 20th May build.

[gibbousmoon]

Come on dude, you love to be insulted or what? It was just a figure of speech not any personal attack. I was just making (forcefully) a point that you did it the 'too smart' way. Also I put a lot of work into making it as easy as possible, by basically giving you package with almost everything set up from get-go.
You don't need any language files from Steam, the mod has everything except original copyrighted UFO files. Also what oxcom readme...? That .md file? Shit my omission, I left it in the main directory because I had no idea what it is. But I cannot delete it since it is OpenXcom and that'd be uncool.
Also OXCom is a wholly different beast than Piratez now - divergent paths. OXCom's architecture and relation with Steam changed since that fork began, while Piratez play by old rules in that aspects - all improvements have been towards gameplay only, not Steam integration (personally I don't even use Steam so no love loss here).

Not insulted at all.  I was making a point right back at you, letting you know why I didn't find it as "retardedly easy" as you think I ought to have.  You can take the feedback and use it, or you can be offended by it.  Or ignore it altogether.  I'm not inclined to care.

In any case, it's academic, since the game is impossible to play without being able to read anything.  Since you didn't mention my problem at all, I'll assume you're just as stumped as I.  I didn't use any special language files; just copy-pasted all the files in the XCOM directory in Steam.  Do you think getting my hands on a gog version instead might fix my issue?

Speaking of reading, a file which is called "README" is usually a readme.

[Dioxine]

Man, I cannot delete that readme since that would be pissing over the game engine and its developers. But you should generally ignore it, the proper readme files are in the 'xpiratez readme' folder

As for your problem - I have no idea what happened, since that's the first time such a bug is reported, and I'm here for years now. Hence I assumed following the install instructions helped, that's why I didn't adress it.

Steam version of UFO is fine as far as OG files are concerned. I assume you re-installed the mod from scratch again? Make sure you don't install it over any OXC install, but create a new directory (see, now it sounds like lecturing a school kid, I wanted to avoid that, and I'm sorry). I also assume you have selected the proper language version from in-game options, the only proper ones being US and Czech so far. But assuming these 2 things, the game should work.

It shouldn't be a problem with unicode, since the game uses its own font... but then again, I have little knowledge in that area. Your OS is same as mine. I'm willing to help, but I don't know how.

Also: does the title (XPiratez 0.98 blah blah blah) display properly, or all is in hieroglyphs? If so, it might meant simply an instalation error.

[gibbousmoon]

I agree that you shouldn't delete the openxcom readme.  Perhaps you can move your own readme to the parent directory (maybe even name it README FIRST), so that someone doesn't get caught up in installation shenanigans which aren't relevant to your particular distribution method.  It's my own fault that I didn't look more carefully to see if multiple readmes were in the package, but others might make the same mistake.

I tried installing the game on my Win10 work laptop today, and the exact same problem exhibited.  Which means it is either a non-OS specific bug or it is a mistake that I am making both times.  So let me describe exactly what I do to install.

1. In accordance with the readme, I "- Copy files from your original "UFO: Enemy Unknown"/"X-Com: UFO Defense" folder to the "OpenXcom_XPiratez/UFO" folder."

2. "GEODATA/WORLD.dat not found."

3. I realize the instructions are probably not correct.  So instead I copy all the files from "XCom UFO Defense/XCOM" folder to the OpenXcom_XPiratez/UFO folder.

4. Now the game runs.  I get the Microprose splashscreen followed by a screen with "OpenXCom Extended 2.9+ [v2016-05-05]" and six buttons (options, exit, etc.)  All six buttons have their fonts replaced by question marks.  If I click on one, the next screen also has all of its buttons labeled with question marks only.

Because I did not follow the instructions exactly (steps 2 and 3), perhaps I am making a mistake somewhere in there.  Ideas?

[Dioxine]

Ad.3 - that extra directory level was added by Steam or whatever. The OG never had it. Then, better to make instructions as per OG, since distros might vary. This doesn't make the instructions incorrect, at most possibly not detailed enough.
Inside the UFO folder, you should have the following OG folders:

GEODATA
GEOGRAPH
MAPS
ROUTES
SOUND
TERRAIN
UFOGRAPH
UFOINTRO
UNITS

all else is superfluous, but shouldn't give you trouble.

You can also try adding attached file into the /user folder. This should override any buggy settings, if there are any.

Also you've only described the steps you took to copy data files from UFO:EU to XPiratez - an unlikely cause of trouble, as the game crashes if you do it wrong, as you have noticed. It would be more helpful if you described all the steps, starting from mod download.

PS
Regarding readme, I thought that a fukken DIRECTORY named XPiratez Readme is much more obvious than some silly .md file. Myself I kinda ignore any loose and nondescript readmes and readme1sts since folders are usually overflowing with such thrash, usually badly outdated or not even related to the actual application.

[gibbousmoon]

First things first: The mod appears to work now!  After replacing the cfg file with the one you just gave me.  I haven't tried playing yet, but the font problem is now gone.  So my .cfg file appears to have been the locus of the problem.  I'll post again if there are problems, but it looks like you fixed my problem for me.  Thank you!

The nitty gritty:

The extra directory within Steam is because Steam uses DOSBox.  The Steam directory is for the Steam game (essentially DOSBox, preconfigured to run this game), and within that directory is the game which is to be emulated.  To make your instructions compatible with Steam, you may want to update them as I described.

Just so you know, I didn't delete any files beyond the directories you listed.  And your "shouldn't give you trouble" statement was correct.

I'm not clear what other steps you want me to describe.  That I clicked on the link and downloaded the file?  That I unpacked it using 7zip?  Is that actually helpful to you?  What steps am I missing?  As you said earlier, the way you have this packaged is such that it doesn't require any installation at all.  Other than moving the copyrighted files into a directory, what steps are there?

Readme, shmeadme.  If you don't want to move readme files around, that's fine with me.  As I said earlier, I'm not inclined to care, now that I know where the real readme is.  If you want to make your distribution more idiot-proof, on the other hand...

Finally, regarding the issue at hand:  My theory is that upon running it the first time, a .cfg file is created that--due to my particular configuration(?)--spawns the problem.  Are you curious enough to want me to try and duplicate the issue, then send you the problematic .cfg file?

[Dioxine]

No thanks, no need to describe anything once it turned out that the .cfg was the problem - I would be only neccesary if it didn't. Looks like I need to start distributing the .cfg again (I stopped this because of some concerns that upgrading the mod also resetted the .cfg to my personal settings). Have fun!

[Dioxine]

Sometimes a Harvester is just a Harvester

[Solarius Scorch]

Wait... Is it a Spice Harvester?

[legionof1]

it does resemble the one from the older dune movie with Patrick Stewart.

[doctor medic]

Does that mean that we are going to fly on dune worms now?

[Solarius Scorch]

Does that mean that we are going to fly on dune worms now?

I've always wanted to shoot down a huge, mutated flying beast... Then collect the carcass.

[Blank]

It's the Combine!


(Okay, I have been having fun with this mod after a couple of false starts. I still feel a long way from getting my own Bonaventura. My greatest scientific achievements have been attaching a knife to a gun and getting metal armor)