aliens

Author Topic: UFO upgrades  (Read 100895 times)

Offline Greg956

  • Sergeant
  • **
  • Posts: 19
    • View Profile
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #165 on: March 10, 2014, 02:58:07 pm »
What's new with the update? Is there any crashes today?

Offline Dioxine

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 5412
  • punk not dead
    • View Profile
    • Nocturnal Productions
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #166 on: March 12, 2014, 02:18:02 am »
To my knowledge, some route files were simply missing and I usually worked around this by copy-paste similar .rmps.

Offline TurkishSwede

  • Captain
  • ***
  • Posts: 67
  • Thou art God!
    • View Profile
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #167 on: March 26, 2014, 12:40:38 am »
Hey Luke83! I was hoping you were still looking for some help. I have been playing with map editor and I have mostly figured it out, and because I so love what you've done with this I want to help get this fully playable and crash free, and I have all the time in the world right now to do it. In a sense, your mod made me want to mod!

Would you like to see what I've done with lg scouts, abductors and harvesters? I've mostly fixed tile placement errors, updated the nodes, and made sure to give flyers paths for all ships (esp. harvesters, to show floaters some love). I've also changed some of the harvester layouts to make it a bit harder for humans (that can't fly) to enter and reach the bridge,  but easier for floaters to move around in the ship.

I also think I've tracked down the problem with terror ships. Those will be my next project. But things like this (image) happen even when it works. Maybe has something to do with the unusual dimensions of the ship?

Offline MFive

  • Captain
  • ***
  • Posts: 95
  • Lazy Sectoid
    • View Profile
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #168 on: March 26, 2014, 12:44:54 am »
@ Luke83

i don't know if you are still working on this mod or not, but i have some funny pics for you

https://i.imgur.com/J7R70nQ.png
https://i.imgur.com/gLSc97D.png

basicly, my skyranger landed INSIDE of a terror ship

it would be cool for this to be a feature, but i would prefer smoke and fire around the ship(we did just shoot it down after all :) )

Offline TurkishSwede

  • Captain
  • ***
  • Posts: 67
  • Thou art God!
    • View Profile
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #169 on: April 03, 2014, 02:07:41 am »
Warning!! Wall of text ahead!! Sorry. I started this for selfish reasons. Since I put a considerable amount of work into these ships (though not nearly as much as Luke83), I thought I should share what I've done. I triple checked my work to make sure it was complete, though it's still possible I missed something. I hope my efforts are appreciated.

Since I am too scatterbrained to focus on creating a new layout from a hollowed out ship or from scratch, I simply modified Luke83's existing layouts from his latest version (that I could find) to (in my mind) better represent the alien's purpose for building them. I tried to keep the feel I thought he was going for with each design, but also tried to keep in mind that the aliens don't want their leaders to fall quickly in a seige, so I made sure the bridge isn't always easy to assault (but there are always improvised shortcuts!).

I used the vanilla ships for most of my answers when I had questions and I wanted to keep true to the vanilla ships in terms of loot. Alien alloys aside, I tried to make sure each ship has the same number of power sources, alien food canisters, alien entertainment, and UFO navigations as vanilla, though an extra UFO nav might still appear occasionally. (Some had a LOT more, I thought it unbalanced, but a few more here and there can be fun.)

@Luke83: I made a few interesting layout changes, complete with new routes. I hope you don't mind but I took a few liberties here and there. I also named mine differently so I could compare them to yours (I just removed the O from UFO for my purposes). I included my MapEdit.dat so you can compare my versions with yours also, if you wish. I'd be very interested to hear your take on my alterations.

What I did:
   Gave most ships roof patrol paths for flyers.
   Harvester interiors were overhauled to better accommodate flyers.
   Abductor interiors were overhauled to prevent easy bridge access.
   Terror Ships were made to be very scary and not to be trifled with.
       
The first zip is for Luke83 and has my name changed files with MapEdit.dat included that references both versions, the second zip is for everyone else and has all of Luke's ships that I've updated and uses a slightly doctored version of Luke83's ruleset with a few fixes (terror ships 7 & 8 should be ignored for now until they are working) and uses all the original file names for consistency.

Included and working: all 11 12 Lg Scouts, all 11 Harvesters, all 10 Abductors, 6/8 all 8 Terror Ships, and 2 4 Supply Ships (I basically just rotated it so that there are two possible orientations for the vanilla version and implemented Solarius Scorch's loading door). I haven't made any new layouts for that last one. Probably won't, either. I didn't touch his Medium Scouts, so you'll have to download his original mod for those files.

Luke83 originally made this fantastically groovy mod. I just played with it to get it to work for my purposes and since I had the time and cleverness to figure out MapEdit. I hope everybody knows how to install these and how to back stuff up. Just make sure to unzip the data folder into the openxcom folder and you should be fine.

Edit: I missed one thing on a terror ship. There was a door in a wall that didn't show up in the Map Editor but was visible in-game. Updated my files with the fix.

Edit2: I got those last two terror ships working. Also includes 2 more Supply Ships with the 3-wide loading doors (Thanks to the idea from Solarius Scorch).

Edit3: Last Update! I made sure those aliens know what's good for them in their own ships. Also found an extra Lg Scout.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2014, 10:04:34 am by TurkishSwede »

Offline Solarius Scorch

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 11408
  • WE MUST DISSENT
    • View Profile
    • Nocturmal Productions modding studio website
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #170 on: April 03, 2014, 03:52:07 pm »
I have't checked it yet, but it looks impressive.

Will vanilla maps still come up as variants? I worry about my modified Supply Ship map with a big loading door. :) (You can totally incorporate it in your mod if you want.)

Offline TurkishSwede

  • Captain
  • ***
  • Posts: 67
  • Thou art God!
    • View Profile
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #171 on: April 03, 2014, 08:35:36 pm »
That loading bay door idea of yours seems pretty swell, great for variety. I've incorporated it (or a version of it) in this update, in which I also placed flavor panels around the outside of the second orientation for the Supply Ship (which I totally forgot to do in the first place). There is now a 50% chance that you will have an accessible 3-wide loading door for either orientation, which flyers or some such other alien may sneak out of. Might have to post someone to keep an eye on that...

Offline TurkishSwede

  • Captain
  • ***
  • Posts: 67
  • Thou art God!
    • View Profile
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #172 on: April 05, 2014, 08:49:50 am »
Update! I got those last two terror ships scary and working. I like it.

I'm pretty much done with what I set out to do.

I am now playing with the flags to maybe decipher a function for them but I'll post anything I change to the ships. I have so far observed that aliens are much more likely to abandon a node with a low flag number, and tend to defend nodes with a higher flag number. I think maybe that the flag number basically indicates the defensive value of that spot?

@Warboy1982: Hey, you wrote the AI, can you shed a little light on how the flag numbers affect alien behavior? Am I close?

Anyway, I've updated that first post of mine. Thanks, Solarius Scorch, for that cool idea of yours and letting me use it.

Offline Warboy1982

  • Administrator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2333
  • Developer
    • View Profile
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #173 on: April 05, 2014, 03:30:42 pm »
yeah, that's pretty accurate, the higher the node flag, the more "valuable" it is as a position to move/defend. "scouting" aliens (ones that are outside the ship) tend not to care about flags, it's more for the ones camping the control/engine rooms.

Offline Solarius Scorch

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 11408
  • WE MUST DISSENT
    • View Profile
    • Nocturmal Productions modding studio website
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #174 on: April 05, 2014, 04:57:57 pm »
Anyway, I've updated that first post of mine. Thanks, Solarius Scorch, for that cool idea of yours and letting me use it.

You're welcome! I'll even say that I would like everyone use it. :D

Anyway, is that update available somewhere already?

Oh, and Warboy: that's some interesting news. Thanks for confirmation.

Offline TurkishSwede

  • Captain
  • ***
  • Posts: 67
  • Thou art God!
    • View Profile
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #175 on: April 05, 2014, 05:46:30 pm »
Anyway, is that update available somewhere already?

My first post has all current updates active. Errr.. second post. The one with the stuff.

Offline Solarius Scorch

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 11408
  • WE MUST DISSENT
    • View Profile
    • Nocturmal Productions modding studio website
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #176 on: April 05, 2014, 06:40:15 pm »
My first post has all current updates active. Errr.. second post. The one with the stuff.

Ah, okay.
However, it's not very handy; if it's the first post, fine, but looking for the right one in such a long thread as this one...
Perhaps you could change the initial post AND also add it in your last post, the one where update is announced?

Offline TurkishSwede

  • Captain
  • ***
  • Posts: 67
  • Thou art God!
    • View Profile
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #177 on: April 07, 2014, 09:59:30 am »
I'm sorry for the delay and the confusion. I had to focus on quickly finishing this fully to my satisfaction, after Warboy's revelation I had to fully balance all the maps real quick. The update is done! I've included both versions again - First .rar is for Luke83 and whoever else wants to take a look at my alterations, and the second is everything in workable mod form minus Luke's Medium Scouts. (Edit: Also not included is the Terrain data you'll need for these maps to work, install Luke83's mod first for those.)

Second Post updated as well.

I think this is complete 100% now, and I'd like to put it in the Completed Mods section, if it's OK with everyone concerned. I would of course have to release it there with all data included, Md Scouts to Supply Ships and I would of course credit Luke83 like crazy. Would that be OK?
« Last Edit: April 08, 2014, 12:04:30 am by TurkishSwede »

Offline Solarius Scorch

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 11408
  • WE MUST DISSENT
    • View Profile
    • Nocturmal Productions modding studio website
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #178 on: April 07, 2014, 03:54:35 pm »
Yep, it looks complete and working, so please move it to the completed Mods if Luke's fine with it. It'll be easier to find and everything :D

I personally think it would be best if you both featured as mod authors. We need to recognize collabs where we have them. (It also applies to the mod site - Jo5hua, I'm looking at you. :) )

Offline LouisdeFuines

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 586
    • View Profile
Re: UFO upgrades
« Reply #179 on: April 07, 2014, 06:08:08 pm »
Installing that mod made my game crash.....