Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N7 16-Dec-2023 Flying Tiger, Hidden Tentacle

[Ethereal_Medic]

While we got flamers in various shapes they can be used either 1- or 2-handed.
We also got rod of hellfire and the smaller sister for voodoo-burn.

[RSSwizard]

Just ran into the Underwater Bank/Zaxx mission and want to give kudos for it. The way that buildings were recolored for underwater was right on and spooky, and a great job was done on the "Business SUV" that has all the money hanging off the back of it.
(their business went underwater indeed)

[BBHood217]

I just noticed that this thread's title has "Re:" on it

[khade]

On the 'what damage you did to the target' subject, we do really have more information than is realistic: with research, we know exactly how much damage that weapon can do and with bootypedia we can check exactly how much armor our target should have and how they react to damage types, assuming we've fought them before and researched them.  If we haven't researched either, we know nothing except what we observe.  IRL someone is likely to just know that a specific vest will stop a specific bullet and they aren't going to have time to actually think about these things much while in combat.

I think we do have enough information, though it could be interesting if specific suits offered more in depth analysis.

On the tabletop front: you generally give the numbers to the person running the game, but that doesn't mean you know for sure what those numbers actually mean in that situation.  Your pistol might be able to do 24 damage with a good shot, but unless the GM informs you, you don't know if your attack was actually a good shot and you don't know how much of that damage the Crysalid actually took or what 24 is in relation to its HP.


On another subject Dioxine, have you ever thought about changing the overt references to things, setting up a team to build your own game and creating a post-apoc vichy earth B-movie masterpiece?


Also, how would the laser musket from Fallout 4 be set up in this sort of game, having to take an action to recharge after every shot or just no autofire laser rifle with no reload?

[Labraid]

On the subject of damage feedback, I feel examining the enemy for how badly banged up he is is only good on paper. Sure you can see if some unlucky G.O. standing 1,5m in front of you is just scratched of if his guts are about to spill out so it would work in this situation, but consider an enemy in heavy combat gear or even power armor taking cover 50m away. Galls might have a good eyesight, but they are no psyhics in general, on the other hand Alliance Advisor or any psychic gal with mind probe is a reasonable source of info on enemy.

Only QOL change i would want is predicted lethality display when taking shots at the enemy next to hit chance. It might display categories of potential damage like none-light-medium-high-lethal calculated of 50%-150% weapon damage (I consider anything less than 50 or more than 150 as enemy luck or critical hits) and show up only if you have research on both your weapon and enemy armor/species. Damage clasification would be based on enemy max hp, not current hp.
So in practice aiming some kind of pistol at Osiron Security from the front would show lethality at none-light, but the same weapon aimed at his bottom armor or back would show light-medium or higher.
However as mentioned it is only QOL as players learn to estimate such things from experience while playing, so it really serves just to shave off some frustration of newer or returning players.

[RSSwizard]

On the 'what damage you did to the target' subject, we do really have more information than is realistic.

I agree but only in terms of precision. Knowing the difference between 33 and 36 damage is quite the precise estimate, especially since both are gonna be up to 200% of that anyway. We know the difference between a 9mm, .357mag, and .50ae and what they can do, and calibers like 5.56mm, .308, and .338 - we know what kinds of vests they will bust and have given them ratings. A damage number really is alot more specific than "Level III capable, 96% one shot stop capability"


The FO4 laser musket could be emulated with just a couple tweaks to the system as it is. Maximum shot count per turn which isn't implicitly or rigidly dictated by the TU cost.

Code: [Select]

ConfSnap:
     MaxShots: 1     #only allows this many shots per turn regardless of available resources
Would work good to balance some other items so they cant be abused, energy weapons that are so strong they need to actually cool down or recharge between shots (MP lascannon and rail driver come to mind).

Also something still needs to be implemented to make it possible to retain an item that has a clipsize but no ammo. Using the Expendable property might be a dirty fix for that (expendable: false, weapon runs out of ammo and it doesnt disappear).

Though I think Dioxine would much rather have a MutatesIntoOnOverkill, MutatesIntoOnDeath properties. Changes the item into the indicated item given the condition

* Precious fabrige eggs that becomes damaged goods if they take even a lick of damage, but if overkilled/totally destroyed turns into an invisible item that spawns a base hunting mission against you ("goblin zaxx is angry").
* Mission with a bunch of fragile stasis capsules holding chryssalids, and when you destroy (but not overkill) the capsule it turns into the chryssalid setting it loose [more likely a underwater artifact site with a bunch of stasis capsules holding tentaculats, which are set loose if they're broken].
* When an item is used up it enters death state, which can turn it into a broken or discharged version that can be fixed/recharged back at the workshop. Or likewise it could be an unstable nuclear energy weapon and when it gets used too many times it becomes a timebomb and overloads.

[Ethereal_Medic]

Portable Lascannon has 55% TU cost for snap, so this gun is gated as "one shot per turn".
Raildriver costs 45% TU for snap by 50% acc. You would need alot of further investments to get it 'broken' like assassin-suit and kneeling bonus.
Only 5 rounds, quite heavy, 2handed and even the aimed shot has only 15tiles accurate range.

I like the idea with those 'eggs' and expired items we could fix up for small investments.

[RSSwizard]

Portable Lascannon has 55% TU cost for snap, so this gun is gated as "one shot per turn".
Raildriver costs 45% TU for snap by 50% acc. You would need alot of further investments to get it 'broken' like assassin-suit and kneeling bonus.
Only 5 rounds, quite heavy, 2handed and even the aimed shot has only 15tiles accurate range.

I like the idea with those 'eggs' and expired items we could fix up for small investments.

I was trying to pull an example up and kinda failed at it. The special powers of some suits are probably a better example, though any weapon that "charges" could be given a similar treatment.


In my current playthrough im not sure if the "used base assault kit" is giving me the proper mission penalty for attacking an enemy hideout. I attacked one just to milk it for captures and equipment and I didnt see the penalty show up on the points screen (but the "kit" was in the list of recovered items, which I sold). I ended up getting about 270 points between kills/captures, is the -400 points a hidden debuff or is it supposed to show up on the points list? since im not sure if tha 270 is before the debuff, or without it.

Also noticed that im getting in a habit of milking supply runs for baby nukes but not bothering to finish the map. I just kill dudes outside and take their stuff and then I leave. It also makes sure the ship doesnt stay on the ground that long.
(I could wait 20 turns for it to explode just to finish it off, but I dont even care about clicking the end turn button that many times)

[BBHood217]

I think the spent base assault kit is considered a strange artifact, so you'd get a "strange artifact recovered" score of around -400 if you didn't recover any actual point-giving artifacts.

[RSSwizard]

I think the spent base assault kit is considered a strange artifact, so you'd get a "strange artifact recovered" score of around -400 if you didn't recover any actual point-giving artifacts.

Nope it didnt do that, and believe me I have not modded or tweaked that. Then again my game is also dropping the academy student + trophy at the aircar race (check my installation? installing is as simple as unzipping the file then copying the vanilla assets to the UFO folder, if there's an error its in the zipfile on the google drive hosting).


I do have a genuine question though... is there anything you can actually make money off of early game manufacture that doesnt involve alcohol? Im setting up another sweatshop and id have to wait awhile for the extractors to complete before I can even add a still (and the still takes a long time to construct, and costs a fat chunk too). I might have Boom Gun Ammo available by then but im still a good 8-12 techs behind getting to the Boom Gun to produce the ammunition. It has to be something I can order rather than depleting stock of captured materials, so that I can keep doing it ad-finitium.

[Roxis231]

I know that XPiratez now uses a custom pallet for the Inventories - but where is it.

I've looked in all the folders I think it should be in and can't seem to find it.

[Ethereal_Medic]

The hideout-assault-kit does cause -400 score but it can go unnoticed if you have more than 400score worth of strange loot captured in the results screen.

Early we had the option to hire mercenary securities as aux-units. Those had an item that gave you -50 score for renting them on the battlefield. Those -50 usually never showed up on the score board since it's shares the same slot in the statistic.

[Bloax]

I know that XPiratez now uses a custom pallet for the Inventories - but where is it.

I've looked in all the folders I think it should be in and can't seem to find it.

Closest thing I have lying around is
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/f3slusvaeb3ei6b/paleta_cock5.act

[Martin]

I do have a genuine question though... is there anything you can actually make money off of early game manufacture that doesnt involve alcohol? Im setting up another sweatshop

It is called piratez, piracy should be your main source of income for most of the game.

[Ethereal_Medic]

But how do you generate this much income over the cause of the campaign?
If you want to fully scratch any surplus production from your workshops you've to add more chips and loot in general to every mission or make all items you can't manufucture worth to be sold for a decent price.

Reduce maintaince cost for buildings, make soldiers cheaper to feed and pay and you've to cut down the cost for crafts, workers, brainers and runts.
Add even more infamy bonus, add more protection-money growth... this goes on and on.

I don't see a reason why this should be considered. Vanilla treated itself serious but allowed you to sell aliens on the blackmarket. Who would buy a live alien or even a corpse?
You could also mass produce lasers to sell to ... pretty much everyone in the world. I think it's fine as it is and a good grog is made out of 99% rum anyway.