Some stuff

[Conti-k]

Hello,

First of all, thank you for keeping original X-Com alive.

Anyway, some few ideas/suggestions/whatever...

- Add support for "look" of soldiers to sprites to make them consistent with inventory art (female F0/F1/F2/F3 and male M0/M1/M2/M3). It can be done by inserting additional "torso" frames into XCOM_0.PCK and XCOM_1.PCK (just like in original game it's done with female/male gender). So we would have 4 variations of female (blond/redhead/black ponytail and black woman with short hair), and 4 variations of male (blond/redhead/black hair and black male).

- Add support for excellent Power/Flying Suit inventory images (BB's Mod Pack). Example:



For example, if these files exist in UFOGRAPH directory:

MAN_2F0.SPK - MAN_2F3.SPK
MAN_2M0.SPK - MAN_2M3.SPK
MAN_3F0.SPK - MAN_3F3.SPK
MAN_3M0.SPK - MAN_3M3.SPK

engine will use them, instead of MAN_2.SPK and MAN_3.SPK. Default ones could be used in UFOPaedia.

- Fix "ghosts" problem. Because of that Lightning and Avenger doors are broken for non flying units. It has something to do with level 1 => level 2 doors passage. There must be a tile on both side of the doors (on the same level), otherwise unit will go through them like a ghost. Here's an image:



green path (downward) is working (there's a tile thus doors can be opened), and red path (upward) isn't working (there's no tile thus doors can't be opened).

- Add support for different ammo types for HWP Cannon, and HWP Rocket Launcher (AP/HE/I).

PS. sorry for my not-so-good English.

[luke83]

Hey Mate, welcome to the site.

Yanks has some code that can do what you wish with the skin/hair of agents to add more variety .  Im not sure How far he got with this code but i thought it looked pretty good
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=267.0;attach=475;image  https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,267.15.html

As for the flying suit inventory screens they look pretty cool , i have never seen them before as i have only played the original version of x-com but i would love to have them in openX.

[Daiky]

Hi Conti-K, welcome.
I think all your suggestions are good ones. I'm certainly going to have a look at that Lightning door/ramp problem, to see if it's a problem with our pathfinding too and fix it if it is.

[Conti-k]

Yanks has some code that can do what you wish with the skin/hair of agents to add more variety

That's nice. Does it use mask to recolor the sprites?

As for the flying suit inventory screens they look pretty cool

Yep, they do. Files from BB's Mod Pack don't use naming convention I mentioned in my previous post, so you would need to grab the mod and simply rename files to keep original one (MAN_0XX.SPK, MAN_1XX.SPK, MAN_2XX.SPK, and MAN_3XX.SPK). I already did that... This way you can keep this feature optional - if you want it, then drop files into UFOGRAPH directory, and that it is. I think, some check in the code should do the trick (I'm not a coder though ).

I'm certainly going to have a look at that Lightning door/ramp problem, to see if it's a problem with our pathfinding too and fix it if it is.

I've been checking this problem with latest git build (I've replaced PLANE.XXX stuff), and it doesn't work. We've tried to solve this problem in original engine, but it's not possible to do without altering crafts/maps/whatever (you can read more here).

Anyway, grab this file. It contains fixed Lightning (original one is broken - you can't open doors at all, and you can shoot/move through the "holes" in walls), and Avenger. No doors for Avenger at the moment, but when "ghost" problem is solved I'll implement them (original frames need to be re-aligned to make doors work properly).

On a side note: I'm glad you've fixed overlapping issue...



(top - original engine, bottom - OpenXCom)

Keep up the good work, guys.

[Yankes]

It was done per pixel. I tested first what color is in that pixel and if is correct I switch it to another one.

[Conti-k]

Personally, I'd love to use original design, and be able to edit/modify/whatever such file (but keep it away from the .exe! ):

- define gender: F, or M
- define race/look/whatever: 0, or 1, or 7, etc. (pointer to MAN_XXX.SPK file)
- define torso frames: 167-174, etc. (eight frames in XCOM_XX.PCK - default, or custom ones)
- define death frames: 200-202, etc. (right now the same are used for each XCOM_XX.PCK)

This way you can keep sprite customization on really high (and flexible) level, and make bald, long hair, short hair, etc. variations of soldiers, and different variations of armors as well, see here:



You could go even further and define legs, and arms too. I know it's only few pixels, but such customization would add a lot of more variety than re-colors only (because you can alter "shape" as well).

Anyway, some more stuff:

- allow to define new weapons look in HANDOB/FLOOROB.PCK (insert new frames and use them).

- allow to define what terrain (and civilians sprites) will be used in terror missions. For example, would be great to play TFTD's port terror maps in coastal cities.

- remove 256 colors limit. Useful when porting TFTD assets - you'll avoid breaking the colors when switching to EU palette.

- add civilians to the farm missions (emptiness is pretty boring over there).

- crazy, but really cool stuff: armed civilians (farm), or police (city), controlled by AI fighting against aliens.

[Conti-k]

How about dividing crafts armament into two categories: Cannons, and Rockets (without any launchers)? Each craft will have "hardpoints" with specified amount, and types of rockets you can mount, for example, Interceptor:

a) 1 x Cannon hardpoint:

- you can't mount any missiles over there.

b) 5 x Missile hardpoint:

- you can't mount any cannons,
- each hardpoint is capable of holding two short range Stingray missiles (up to ten), or one medium Avalanche missile (up to five).

This way you could give unique payload to each craft. For example, Firestorm can't carry medium range missile thus Interceptor wouldn't become obsolete due to medium missile payload (striking targets at long distances - hit and run tactics). Also, player would have more fun with managing crafts - at least me 

Sounds great, does it? 

[Conti-k]

Petition for Extender features:

- reorder soldiers in craft:



very nice feature. It allows deploy newbies at first line, while veterans are on back. It worked in Roman Legions well (at least wikipedia says so) Player should have an impact of soldiers deployment in craft, I think.

- info that craft has READY status after being rearmed/refueled/repaired:
 


there's a "launch craft at anytime" option already, but would be really nice to get a message when craft has READY status. This is especially useful when a lot of UFOs is spawning in the same time. Constant clicking on base to get status may be sometimes annoying.

- Range Based Accuracy: already in. But would really nice to specify your own settings. Petition to include Aimed mode (not present in Extender), and visual feedback (this is must have thing for situations, where factor, like distance, have impact on hit chance percentage) too. Also, I do hope Aliens are affected by this as well. Personally I think that cheating AI isn't challenging, but my be frustrating (see night missions).

*signed*

By the way, I've made from scratch helmet-less Power/Flying Suit artworks.

[Conti-k]

Is there a chance to disable ground highlight when units are inside of craft? Seems like items not taken during equip phase cause highlight too   It doesn't make any sense, and looks really weird. This is looking correct.

[Volutar]

Conti-k, why do you refer to screenshot of early beta of openxcom? Why not original?

[Daiky]

Conti-K, I had a feature of objects blocking light at a very early beta. At that time the "options" system was not yet in place, so I just abandoned it, I could make it an option again, if there are people that prefere it that way.
(floors blocks light too, so the ground under the skyranger will not be lit by personal lights)

There were actually two things: units turning their personal lighting off during daytime and objects blocking light. (there are values in the object data that can be used for this)

Check this to see how creepy a terror site becomes with objects blocking light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2ME1IhWFLk

[luke83]

Well your Video link sold me Better keep it as a option though 

[Conti-k]

Conti-k, why do you refer to screenshot of early beta of openxcom? Why not original?

Because this is looking correct Right now OpenXcom acts like original in this aspect. Dunno about other floors than crafts floor in OpenXcom, but seems like in original engine it happens as well. It's hard to spot inside of buildings though. But it's easily visible on landing zone example.

Conti-K, I had a feature of objects blocking light at a very early beta. At that time the "options" system was not yet in place, so I just abandoned it, I could make it an option again, if there are people that prefere it that way.
(floors blocks light too, so the ground under the skyranger will not be lit by personal lights)

*petition signed*

units turning their personal lighting off during daytime

Turning personal lighting off would fix breaking ground shadow of the craft by units when walking on the ground during daylight missions, I think.

objects blocking light. (there are values in the object data that can be used for this)

Yep, there's such feature, but original engine seems to ignoring it.

Check this to see how creepy a terror site becomes with objects blocking light

Indeed, looks creepy. Will this break landing zone being revealed to the player? I think that landing zone should stay revealed (including crafts frames), because this part of the map "belongs" to the player, everything else is a big mystery.

[SupSuper]

I remember the "realistic lighting" feature early on, it had its pros but it also had its cons, namely original X-Com's "object blocks light" data isn't fully correct, and it led to a bunch of odd stuff like this:


If Daiky wants to bring it back and make it an extra feature that's fine by me, though I'd make it an option off by default.

[Yankes]

but this look great give smoke and rain and we are in Lovecraft movie