Rotated UFOs/buildings + TFTD landscapes to increase replay-ability

[hellblade]

Is there currently any plan to add rotated UFOs/buildings/areas .... so the game is less repetitive and more replay-able?

You already have the resources for each area/ufo.  But they always face one-way.  Turning them by 90o 180o 270o would quadruple you number of ufos/areas.  It would be a great addition to the game, if not as a mod.

Also is there a plan to include some TFTD landscape to battlescape missions?  Again the resources are already there to plunder.  Extra sets of landscapes would increase replay-ability.

[TKO]

As OpenXCom is trying to be a faithful reproduction of the vanilla game, rotated UFO layouts would probably be outside the scope of the core game design.  This should really be done as a mod, I think.  ..And, indeed, there is a nice mod "lukes extra ufos" (just google it, and check the top two hits), which provides a huge huge number of extra UFO layouts.  Completely different layouts too, not just rotations.

There are some nice terrain packs there too, if you're after a bit more variety there too.

[Arthanor]

Luke's Extra UFOs, and YetMoreUFOs already do that. Hobbes' Terrain Pack also comes with a lot more variations in buildings, including a whole bunch of stuff plundered from TftD. If you're looking for more variety, that's where you need to look.

A word of warning, though: I don't think either of the UFO mods are updated to the nightly. Hobbes' Terrain Pack should be, though (but not compatible with 1.0)

[hellrazor]

Luke's Extra UFOs, and YetMoreUFOs already do that. Hobbes' Terrain Pack also comes with a lot more variations in buildings, including a whole bunch of stuff plundered from TftD. If you're looking for more variety, that's where you need to look.

Dispitze of Hobbes Terrainpack, the other two Mods are basically unattended. I am currently making some more UFO map variations for my own mod which will then most likely go into the FMP also.

But what we really need is a general UFO Map Pack, which is going to be attended to by a few people and more content added.

I had to pull Maps from 3 Mods (Luke83 extra ufo's, YetMoreUfo's Package and SolarsNewUfo's) to get them all together....

A word of warning, though: I don't think either of the UFO mods are updated to the nightly. Hobbes' Terrain Pack should be, though (but not compatible with 1.0)

Well basically they should work even with 1.0, since changes were only towards the mapscripts and such..

[TKO]

Also, I do like the idea of the rotated UFO layouts, but the outside door has to be facing south-east or south-west. So rotation will just double the number of UFO layouts, not quadruple, unfortunately.

[7Saturn]

Is there a technical reason for that? Or just a question of good looks?

[hellrazor]

Is there a technical reason for that? Or just a question of good looks?

The original MCD tilesets only contain those view angles. (South-West and South-East)
But i guess it would be possible to also make North East and North West, but that would be a lot of work, since you already would need a lot of other turned MCD sets...

[TKO]

In the original (DOS/Amiga) game, you couldn't get as close to the back outside-UFO walls. (There was always a one-tile gap.) OpenXCom solved this, so is probably more capable of doing north-east and north-west outside doors.

But I'm guessing the original authors decided it wasn't worth solving, or preferred the outside doors to be more visible .. or maybe they just ran out of time.

[hellrazor]

Also, I do like the idea of the rotated UFO layouts, but the outside door has to be facing south-east or south-west. So rotation will just double the number of UFO layouts, not quadruple, unfortunately.

If you would stick to the vanilla maps only then yes,
but i have currently 4 different Medium Scout Version, including the vanilla one and the appropriate turned ones so 8 maps for Medium Scout.
You also have a Fighter which i consider a Small Scout Class ship, which has 4 maps.

Large Scout are even more, since i have all over 25 maps including the vanilla one.
Then there is the Excavator Craft which is basically also a Large Scout class alien Ship which so far has only 4 Maps.

We also do have 24 working Harvester Maps, including the Vanilla one.

Abductors variants only 10, including the vanilla version.

Supply Ships only exist 4 variants, including the Vanilla.

Does this satisfy you?

[TKO]

What's the name of the mod you're working on hellrazor?  Sounds like a good number of UFO variants really.

Once you've been through the standard UFO layouts a few hundred times, storming the UFO ceases to have many surprises.  Heck, if there was a hole in the roof, I got into the habit of just throwing in a high-explosive, to get it over with quickly.  It would have been cool if the original authors had algorithmically generated a random UFO layout each mission.  That would have added some more tension to the in-UFO portion of the battlescape sequences.

Hmmmm... Algorithmically generated UFO layouts.  That would be an interesting mod to attempt.

[hellrazor]

What's the name of the mod you're working on hellrazor?  Sounds like a good number of UFO variants really.

My current project is the "Hardmode Expansion" mod. But anyway those maps are around in different mods, it is just a matter of pulling them together.

Once you've been through the standard UFO layouts a few hundred times, storming the UFO ceases to have many surprises.  Heck, if there was a hole in the roof, I got into the habit of just throwing in a high-explosive, to get it over with quickly.  It would have been cool if the original authors had algorithmically generated a random UFO layout each mission.  That would have added some more tension to the in-UFO portion of the battlescape sequences.

Hmmmm... Algorithmically generated UFO layouts.  That would be an interesting mod to attempt.

Well i guess that is not really possible, altthou XcomUtil had a feature which completly randomized UFO interiors, maybe we can somehow replicate this in some way (but i doubt it).

By the way the Terrain Pack Mod from Hobbes covers a great deal of new buildings, turned vanilla buildings and such.

[Hobbes]

Is there currently any plan to add rotated UFOs/buildings/areas .... so the game is less repetitive and more replay-able?

You already have the resources for each area/ufo.  But they always face one-way.  Turning them by 90o 180o 270o would quadruple you number of ufos/areas.  It would be a great addition to the game, if not as a mod.

Also is there a plan to include some TFTD landscape to battlescape missions?  Again the resources are already there to plunder.  Extra sets of landscapes would increase replay-ability.

Port, Mu and Atlantis are already present in the Terrain Pack, the first as a Port Attack mission and the other two as Jungle Temple (Mu) and Desert Temple (Atlantis). You can see pics of those 2 below:
 


Future plans for the Terrain Pack include adapting Island, Sunken Plane, Cargo Ship and Liner Ship.

As for rotated buildings, one of the additional Terror Site terrains on the pack consists of the original buildings facing all possible 4 directions.

[hellrazor]

Actually, i was just discussing this on the IRC shortly. Maybe it is no a bad idea to pull together all the vanilla variant maps which already exists, andin the process including SolarNewUfo in it.

So we have a complete, bugfree and working set of extra UFO Maps.

[Arthanor]

Pulling together all the UFO variants that existed in mods was gzegorj's project with YetMoreUFOs. Unfortunately, he seems to be on a break now :/

He did a great job of bringing UFOs from Luke's Extra UFOs, Solarius' new UFOs (types) and some other resources I don't know of together, and patching them as he was going through them. It's really a shame he never managed to get through it all, as his mod was a great addition to any campaign that depends on vanilla UFO type.

You could have any other mod activated, as long as what it referenced were UFO the basic UFO types (small/medium/large scouts, terror ships, etc.) without adding to it, enabling YetMoreUFOs as a companion allowed to get all the variety. Too bad he's gone, really.. If someone wants to pick up that project, it would be great for the community. I can't, mapview refuses to run properly on my linux computer (or at least I am not proficient enough to convince it to)..

[hellrazor]

Pulling together all the UFO variants that existed in mods was gzegorj's project with YetMoreUFOs. Unfortunately, he seems to be on a break now :/

He did a great job of bringing UFOs from Luke's Extra UFOs, Solarius' new UFOs (types) and some other resources I don't know of together, and patching them as he was going through them. It's really a shame he never managed to get through it all, as his mod was a great addition to any campaign that depends on vanilla UFO type.

You could have any other mod activated, as long as what it referenced were UFO the basic UFO types (small/medium/large scouts, terror ships, etc.) without adding to it, enabling YetMoreUFOs as a companion allowed to get all the variety. Too bad he's gone, really.. If someone wants to pick up that project, it would be great for the community. I can't, mapview refuses to run properly on my linux computer (or at least I am not proficient enough to convince it to)..

Well i have pulled all the Vanilla variants from Luke83's extra UFO's and YetMoreUFO's into my mod, fixing some minor issues on the way.
So maybe i can just spit out those in a collection crediting everyone else and be done with it?
And adding SolarsNewUFOs also :>