Author Topic: Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N7 16-Dec-2023 Flying Tiger, Hidden Tentacle  (Read 3609464 times)

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2790 on: July 12, 2016, 03:35:58 pm »
TIL:  Personal computers glow! :)

Soloing a night mission, thump an altar boy with my tower shield and when he drops he lights up his tile a little! 

Step over him and pick it up, and its dark again!  AWESOME! Love It!

Cheers, Ivan :D

Glowing on the ground with the body.:


Glows in the Hand:


Dark in the Inventory:


Offline Dioxine

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2791 on: July 12, 2016, 04:48:07 pm »
Woo, so the flare-type objects glow when you hold them now? Great! This calls for an option to disable personal lighting by default - you'll have to use flares, torches (and possibly, big powerful flashligths?) to see in the dark!

As for the research optimization, there is no easy answer. My pattern is like this.
1. use almanachs and ship documents, and maybe govt papers first; disks... it depends.
2. burn through easy interrogations (altar boys, civilians) to some degree to reduce the list of freebies on important captures
3. (intertwined with 2): research key weapons and items, like sniper rifle or Plastasteel or Small Ship Engine - it's more expensive than if you get it a freebie, but you need it.
4. research key important captures and grind mid-level interrogations (like Guild Sailors or Spartans)
5. Only then grind important captures, like engineers - you should hit some good stuff from that.

The problem is, the lists of freebies are huge and overfocusing just on that can lead to serious lags in your overall progress :)
« Last Edit: July 12, 2016, 05:08:08 pm by Dioxine »

Offline Foxhound634

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2792 on: July 12, 2016, 05:26:50 pm »
Woo, so the flare-type objects glow when you hold them now? Great! This calls for an option to disable personal lighting by default - you'll have to use flares, torches (and possibly, big powerful flashligths?) to see in the dark!

I was just about to ask about flashlights, have you decided if they're gonna be a thing (maybe working like a directional flare)?

Also, it's been a long time since i played the mod (decided to wait for 1.0), and back then the stealth system was too impractical to use (e.g. lack of transparancy regarding detection by enemies).

Is it the same or is it viable now?

Online Meridian

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2793 on: July 12, 2016, 05:39:50 pm »
decided to wait for 1.0

Probably not a good idea... we'll most likely see 0.99a-z and then 0.99.1a-z and so on :) For some unfathomable reason both developers and modders of OpenXcom are more afraid of versioning and milestones than vampires are of sunlight.

Online Solarius Scorch

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2794 on: July 12, 2016, 06:40:24 pm »
Probably not a good idea... we'll most likely see 0.99a-z and then 0.99.1a-z and so on :) For some unfathomable reason both developers and modders of OpenXcom are more afraid of versioning and milestones than vampires are of sunlight.

I think I am partially to blame... I told Dioxine once that 1.0 needs a proper intro. :P

Online Yankes

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2795 on: July 12, 2016, 06:54:32 pm »
Woo, so the flare-type objects glow when you hold them now? Great! This calls for an option to disable personal lighting by default - you'll have to use flares, torches (and possibly, big powerful flashligths?) to see in the dark!
Already done ;P you can set how much light soldier armor is giving when you have lights on. Setting it to 0 will remove all lights.

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2796 on: July 12, 2016, 06:58:41 pm »
Is it the same or is it viable now?

Night fighting is MUCH more viable now.  With the ALT key, you get a directional arrow to show where units are facing.  With the Lights Off, you can still see your gals, and the enemy (when you are in range) to spot/target them that way.

Offline Dioxine

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2797 on: July 12, 2016, 07:44:03 pm »
Already done ;P you can set how much light soldier armor is giving when you have lights on. Setting it to 0 will remove all lights.

Good, I can set it to 4 then, so you see something yet you count as being in 'darkness'.

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2798 on: July 12, 2016, 07:53:37 pm »
Good, I can set it to 4 then, so you see something yet you count as being in 'darkness'.

I'll chime in here:  with the PC in my hand, I passed a turn, and even though I was somewhat lit up, my gal didn't draw fire.  The enemy moved around within sight but didn't fire in my direction and seemed not to notice me.  So whatever lightlevel you gave the PC seems to work well. :)

Online Solarius Scorch

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2799 on: July 12, 2016, 09:23:10 pm »
But... but then you'd be walking around with a small but bright light from the PC's screen... Why wouldn't you be noticed?
As for the light emitted by armour, then it's different.

Offline Star_Treasure

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2800 on: July 12, 2016, 11:52:29 pm »
I thought the Gals (Is there an official name for the sexy female mutants) had better natural night vision than the purebloods and that the illumination was a representation of their vision rather than absolute lighting.

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2801 on: July 13, 2016, 12:16:33 am »
"Space Babe Pirates!"  8)

Unfortunately the Night Vision mechanics in the current engine leave a lot to be desired.  With the default "lights on" in the battlescape, your gals act like they are a light source (at some light value - Less than an electro flare?  ).  Unfortunately, this also lights them up for the enemy.  Though the enemy only has 9 NV (at the Pureblood level), this represents what they can see in the dark.  They can actually see 30 tiles now, so if you are lit up within that 30 tile radius, they can spot you and target you with your "Lights On." 

Hitting the "L" turns their "personal Lights" off and puts them in the dark.  Now they may stumble around like drunk cats, but they can't be seen.  Their innate night vision of 12 tiles gives them a 3 tile advantage in the dark, so it makes for a possible tactical advantage.  Just abuse the "Alt" key, and pop the lights on and off if you need to see briefly.  I recommend moving after turning the lights off, but I don't know if it really makes a difference.  It just feels right if nothing else. ;)

Offline Star_Treasure

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2802 on: July 13, 2016, 12:27:00 am »
It would be nice if like, targets revealed by night vision was colored with a green filter or something to indicate that it was not visible normally.

Offline Dioxine

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2803 on: July 13, 2016, 01:02:25 am »
It would be nice if like, targets revealed by night vision was colored with a green filter or something to indicate that it was not visible normally.

No can do, OXCom doesn't support hi-color gfx, it's 100% palette-based. It'd be really cool though.
Also like I wrote before, I intend to disable default illumination and replace it with lo-level illumination, so you can see your gals somewhat, but their light doesn't give them away.

Offline Star_Treasure

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Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99 - 7 Jun - First Impressions
« Reply #2804 on: July 13, 2016, 01:09:44 am »
Monochrome then?