UFO upgrades

[Bomb Bloke]

To go off on a little bit of a tangent, the original comes with a few UFO maps that it doesn't use.

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:MAPS

These require MCD and PCK files that weren't included, and the images I put on the wiki are effectively just mock-ups and aren't playable. Notice that there are files with names like "U_EXT02.MCD"? These ships would've used something like "U_EXT01.MCD".

Now, it'd be simple enough to rebuild these original missing MCDs through inference based on what's in the maps and the released MCDs, except that these ships use tiles and art that I cannot find. Either the maps would have to be modified to not use those tiles (a generally bad idea, as Volutar states), or new art would have to be thought up and drawn for them. An example of the tiles in concern are the pyramid-shaped UFO hulls I rigged up (which look decent to me, though the shading makes them look a bit weird), but the inside of the large harvester needs a fair bit of work.

So, yeah, if I was to build some playable MCDs for those pyramid-shaped craft, would you be interested in coming up with some new artwork to fill in the gaps where required?

[luke83]

Hey they look cool , since there original un-used data i would love to re-build them, the question is can i build them onto the end of my current ufo  MCD/PCK set ( i was trying to keep things simply by just adding my UFOL83 set to the end of all ufo types and make it a cover everything i need for a 90deg rotation, not sure IF this will work with these also but i would love to try)?

I guess if they fill new CLASSes of UFO i could create new Sets just for them and tack my file on the end if needed but i am unsure IF/When i can add new UFO classes. Daiky / Supsuper How can i create new types of UFOs?

If you can send me what you got we can decide how best to move forward This would side track my project slightly from its original plan but i think it would be worth it    Make me think of SG1

On a personal note my progress has been slowed lately because i have become addicted to watching " The Living Dead" . Almost finished season 2 so i guess i will be back to building Ufos this weekend

[Bomb Bloke]

These require entirely different MCDs, so they have to be separate from anything compatible with the UFOs we're used to. This is because the MAPs are already written - there's no "tacking new tiles" on the end.

Anyway, if you stick this in your terrain folder, you can tell MapView to use it with the PSCOUT/PABDUCT/PHARVEST maps. If you get it to show the actual MCD data you'll see it's all pretty much the same tile repeated over and over with different art assigned to each copy (I'll build a "proper" MCD tomorrow evening maybe - getting late here right now), but it'll still give you a good idea as to what art is missing.

• Tiles represented by a question mark aren't actually referred to by any of the current maps. Don't bother messing with them unless you want to create new maps of your own based on the pyramid design.
• Red, numbered tiles have no clues as to what they are other then their position on the map and our best guesses.
• The blood basin art comes from U_DISEC2.PCK (though you've probably noticed that U_DISEC2.MCD doesn't use it). That PCK also contains a blue grill tile that's probably supposed to be in the harvester... somewhere.
• It may be that tile 86, which I've set as an empty vat, should be something else. I'm pretty sure all other tiles I've assigned art to are about right. Feel free to re-draw any of them though.

If you look real close you'll spot some tiles that were obviously present to deal with a slightly different rendering engine. For example, if you put a north wall and a south wall within the same tile, the game automatically crops them to avoid a weird graphical overlap effect. It seems at one stage this auto-crop function didn't exist, as these maps have extra wall tiles for this situation which appear to've been pre-cropped.

If you don't know what I mean about the tile cropping, MapView doesn't do it, so that makes it pretty obvious to see what I'm on about. Have MapView show you some UFO base modules and pay attention to where the walls meet - you don't see that problem in these old maps, because they were pre-built not to have it in the first place.

One day I'd really like to build a MCD for MAP3.MAP and MAP4.MAP, which aren't map modules - they're entire battlescapes! They don't use MCDs like any of the other terrains though, and I can't see any solid clues as to what the general appearance of them would've been like (though I know they contain buildings with staircases and elevators). They'd've either been some sort of urban area, or some sort of base.

Edit:

Oh, and I'm not sure whether you're still interested, but my toolkit can deal with InterWin.dat for you (along with pretty much any other image file the game has). I'm not aware of any other tool that will, though as others have mentioned it's a simple format.

[luke83]

Hey BombBloke , these seam to work rather well with the alien U_wall02 group , I just shaped the outside HULL of the ship and chucked some interior walls inside and it looks pretty good to me. Judging by the PCK images i dont think they were meant to be used this way but since OpenXcom has no MCD restriction i think it may be worth discussing.

[Bomb Bloke]

Well, yes, if you're wanting to make new ships like that then you should be able to mix the MCDs however you like. Perhaps mix the pyramid hulls with the more familiar curved ones, I guess?

I don't intend to be leaving U_PYRA2 as one giant set that represents entire UFOs on its own, though - I'll be splitting it up into smaller sets.

[luke83]

So the missing MCD and thoughts/ hints as to what they should be ? Can you find anything that hints to what they should be?

[luke83]

Just been playing around with this UFO. I think we need a Rotated Cow ( Half done unless someone has another animal) also maybe a rotated basin also.  I dont think those seats should be everywhere , they just dont look right.

[Volutar]

Chairs near lower powersources are wrong indeed. I don't think anything should be there.

[luke83]

Thats how the map loads up , i think it needs a few adjustments

I didnt know these UFO existed , Now i do i will expand them into my set also the more variety the more FUN 

[Bomb Bloke]

Here's some new MCDs/PCKs. These ones are very nearly perfect - I've filled in some missing blanks with open doors and destroyed tiles (the destroyed tiles might not've been in the original, but hey, why not?), and just about all tiles have correct properties now (only thing really missing is the correct SCANG data for some of the new tiles). That means it's now possible for units to walk through the craft, bullets will interact with them correctly, doors will open and so on.

Load them in the order of: U_EXT01.MCD, U_WALL01.MCD, U_DISEC1.MCD then U_OPER1.MCD. Discard the old "pyra2" mock-up set.

As for the remaining blanks? Use your imagination!    If the tile is currently represented by a question mark, then it truly could be anything. If I've assigned it a numbered sprite, then that means you should look at where that sprite is used in the PHARVEST map, and give it art that suits that location.

A rotated cow was also my thought, but it'll have to be somewhat smaller then the original (which is made up of nine tiles all up, if you include the hanging rods above it).

Keep in mind the seats are used in the PABDUCT and PSCOUT craft too - if you change them to something else in PHARVEST, then you end up changing them to something else in all three maps. If you can think of something more suitable though, then go right ahead, as your guess is as good as mine... Whatever looks good. 

[luke83]

BombBloke , are you planning on adding these to the original game ? If so How many spare MCD/PCK can i use?

For Openxcom...
Any Objections if i remake a the maps ? I think i will need to create either a expanded U_Disec1 OR maybe make a U_Disec2 and just tack it onto the end to handle the New data ( i prefer option 1 BUT the second option save me fixing previously created maps). Also i can think of a few additional tiles for U_ext01 

Also i dont know what SCANG data is

I will have a look at these this weekend

[Bomb Bloke]

I've been sorta intending to throw these into the original - I can think of a way to have BBMod load them in which'd deal with the intercept screen and everything, some of the things it does already are much trickier. The unaccounted-for map codes can be used however you like, this won't affect the game's ability to load them... it's only adding tiles that's ever a problem, but you shouldn't need to do that unless you want to alter the maps (the limit in the original game is 106 tiles total for a UFO).

It doesn't really worry me if you do want to do that. I'd like to see them in as close to their original state as possible, but it's simply not possible to get them 100% anyway short of some dev showing up with the original files. I would prefer to see you adding extra MCDs onto the end of the load order though, rather then trying to add extra tiles into the middle of it, as if you insert tiles then you end up with one set of MCDs that only work with the original maps and one set or MCDs that only work with the altered maps. As opposed to one large set that works with both and one small set that's only needed for the altered maps.

But at the end of the day it really doesn't matter either way, because you still need to distribute custom data to get the things to load with either UFO:EU or OpenXcom - if you're already getting people to download custom MCDs, why not custom maps as well? The file sizes are still tiny, even for the floppy disk age.

Frankly if you want an expanded u_disec1 then your best bet is to just use the u_disec2 that shipped with the actual game... 

SCANG is short for Scanner Graphics. Each tile has an index which points to the overhead map image it should use, same as how each sprite has an index into the PCK table for its regular appearance. Only unlike the PCK list, the SCANG image table is always the same no matter what terrain gets used.

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=SCANG.DAT

[luke83]

OK, i will try to build a original set first compatible wit the original game,  Later i will do the same thing i am doing with the other UFOs and expand the content.

[luke83]

OK so rotated cow did needs some shading changed , i need a engineers workbench to go in the UFO power source room instead of some chairs and i am running out of MCD to do all the cows Feet BUT its starting to take shape 

[Volutar]

I have to say, that south outer pyramid wall tile should be redrawn. This gradient jag drive me mad.