EDIT: LATEST UPDATE AND DOWNLOAD IS MOVED HERE: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,11769.0.htmlHello everyone!
So I have finally started working on this again!
Its really fun having progress on this after so long.
The goal now is to at least make the mod decent enough, meaning no crashes or serious bugs, no unwritten Ufopedia articles, finish all unfinished terrain including final mission, completing other important unfinished stuff, and actually playing trough the whole mod so the mid and end game can get a minimum of balancing.
There is still a LOT left and its not complete enough that I recommend playing it yet, but here is whats new in this new update if you still wanna give it a try:
-Compatibility with the latest nightly
-Bug fixes (bugs that crashed the game)
-Bug fixes (misc)
-Completed Alien Settlement mission (part 1)
-Some new music
-Some balancing
-Misc completing a few things (UFO inner walls for Large Bomber, some Ufopedia text, etc)
-Improved and completed my farm terrain additions
-Finally created proper Warship turrent sprites
-Made the end game research three a little more diverse/interesting
-And a bunch more
About OXCE: The goal is to make this mod compatible with OXCE, as the mod is certainly for experienced players. But before anything I want to complete everything that is game-breaking, such as the end game being almost completely untested. I tried the OXCE compatible version from Meridian, but could not get it working, probably its not compatible anymore with the latest OXCE version.
Linux compatibility: Tested for a few hours, seems to be working fine!
Windows compatibility: Yes
Mac compatibility: Unknown
Edits:My computer is acting a bit strange, so juuuust in case of a crash I will be putting backups of the most recent version of the mod here regularly.
Version 0.1.3: Some research balancing, more and better UFOpedia entries, fixed alien animations, added some missing graphics, some graphics improved, and other improvements.
Version 0.1.4: Fixed three terrains where it was sometimes impossible to go places, added Light Homemade Explosives, misc. Testplaying: until 6th of april.
Version 0.1.5: Had a lot of progress on the Aliens Settlement part 2 terrain, improved some UFOpedia entries, balancing, testing, fixed a bug. Testplaying: until 24th of april
Version 0.2.0:
Big smoke rebalancing: Removed vanilla smoke grenade, added Alien Smoke Grenade with limited availability, RCV/Smoke requires Alien Smoke Grenade as ammo. Moved Time Looper to early game and no longer possible to manufacture. Added «Battle Briefing» project topic and a few alien artifacts as starting items in the base. Improved Alien Medkit and Guard Tower sprite. Added going to Mars cutscene. Slightly increased numbers of aliens with melee in early game. Fixed two small terrain bugs. Converted Proxy Cocktail into Homemade Grenade. Difficulty balancing. Removed all proxy grenades from the game. Reduced amount of stun bombs in alien deployments. Improved some strings. Made stuff unique to the mod appear more frequently. Balancing. Misc. Testplaying: until 26th of april.
Version 0.2.1: Completed Alien Settlement part 2 terrain, and almost done with the routes. Improved some strings. Testplaying: until 8th of may.
Version 0.2.2: Completed the Alien Settlement part 2 routes -
Alien Settlement mission is now completely done, some improvements to mid game research three, some progress on Mars part 1 terrain, completed Mars part 2, Motion Scanner is now Alien Scanner. Testplaying: until 12th of may.
Version 0.2.3: Some balancing, improved some strings. Testplaying: still until 12th of may.
Version 0.2.4 Fixed fatal bug: broken elerium recovery, improved sprites and strings, some progress on Mars part 1 terrain, Homemade Grenade is now Homemade Explosive Box, balancing, added custom music for Mars, fixed another bug, misc. Testplaying: until 21th of may.
Version 0.2.5:
Added new Alien Storage Facility mission+terrain! + Balancing items and deployment and aliens and research, removed Tranquilizer and Landmine because it could be used for cheating, redused likelyhood of Abductor UFOs in jan&feb, changed Warship marker icon, improved several strings, fixed UFO map bug, added Grav-Module extraction also from Waspites, made some of the most powerful alien weapons unusable for humans. Testplaying: until 21th of june
Version 0.2.6:
The mod is now accessible for non-veteran players! (but still not beginners) This is done mainly by adding helpful items in the Alien Storage Facility on the easiest difficulty. Also new: a lot of balancing, improved strings, polished the Alien Storage Facility mission, and fixed semi-fatal bug where items could get lost in some missions. Testplaying: until 3rd of july
Version 0.2.7: Improved some strings, balancing,
Settlement Part 1 is no longer almost impossible, fixed a mapbug, misc. Testplaying: until 9th of july
Version 0.2.8: Reduced Storage Facility missions amount from 2 to 1 on easiest difficulty, less ugly Alien Blueprint sprite, removed ufopedia article for abandoned item. Testplaying: until 14th of july
Version 0.2.9: Some nice difficulty balancing, improved strings, created missing UFOpedia images, and a few other misc improvements and completions. Testplaying: until 16th of july
Version 0.2.10: Improved strings, balancing,
inventories reworked, small changes to research three, added X-Com rifle, misc. Testplaying: until 5th of august
Version 0.2.11: Making above ground Alien Base tiles a lot prettier, created unique marker icons for Alien Settlement, Warship, Assaulted X-Com Base and Alien Storage Facility, making it easier to understand what some of the early game research leads to, adding helpful information in some UFOpedia articles, fixed bugs, balancing, misc. Testplaying: until 11th of august (mid game)
Version 0.2.12: Added new music for loose game, win game, memorial, and new main menu music. Small map improvements, lot of balancing, some bugfixing, added missing UFOpedia articles and text,
increased income from varoius sources so the player has more money, made part of the projects (research) easier to understand, removed most week aliens after around +- september, completed Assaultship UFO. Testplaying: until 14th of september (mid game)
Version 0.2.13: Alien overhaul:
Replaced several aliens graphics with other cooler ones! Fewer TFTD recolored aliens now. Also change some stats and made a couple races a lot more difficult. Added a second terror unit for Theezlins. Also new: Giving some items and research topics cooler names, balancing, misc improvement to the research three, fixed bugs, late game craft balancing, added back Tranquilizer but is now Alien Tranquilizer with limited availability, made alien hybrids available already in early game, misc. Testplaying: until 14th of september (mid game)
Version 0.2.14: Fixed a couple bugs, balancing, worked on mid game ufopedia articles, misc. Testplaying: unti 7th of october (mid game)
Version 0.2.15: Fixed research bug, fixed Sound issue in Linux, music volume adjustments, improved strings, rebalanced and completed the Sectoid Ghost race, give melee to aliens with little ammo, added back missing Magnum and Sniper Rifle, balancing, small changes in Rural and Desert terrain,
moved HWP and interceptors to end game, removed Bending Suit, added Multi Armor, and misc! Testplaying: until 17th of october (mid game)
Version 0.2.16: Made Globemaster craft actually useful and moved it to early-ish in the game, almost completed Mars surface terrain, fixed couple bugs, balancing. Testplaying: until 12th of november (mid game)
Version 0.2.17:
Added lot of new terrains from the Community Map Pack! Made RCV/knife slightly better and no longer possible to exploit, created handob and floorob for Suicide Bomb, added possibility to use the best alien weapons in end game, improved some UFOpedia texts, balancing, fixed mapbug, added missing routes in Large Bomber UFO, fixed a couple other bugs, bit prettier sprites for some laser weapons, removed Minigun, warned about slave unit bug in readme, misc. Testplaying: until 17th of december (mid/end game)
Version 0.2.18: A lot of balancing, important improvements to the research three especially in end game, fixed fatal inventory bug and various other bugs, removed chemical thrower smoke and invisibility suit and HWPs,
made end game «going to mars/finding headquarters» research series a lot less time-consuming, added some missing ufopedia texts, added alien stun rod in very late game, added back rail weapons and removed gauss. Testplaying (now playing super-fast and cheating a bit): until 4th of may year 2 (end game)
Version 0.2.19:
Fixed several nasty bugs and unbalanced stuff in end game. Improved strings, added some missing strings, completed Mars surface terrain, added missing base defense terrain block, drastically reduced manufacture time and space needed to create spaceship, fixed other bugs, misc. Testplaying: until 29th of august year 2 (final mission!)
Version 0.2.20: Improved a couple UFOpedia texts, rebalancing, some tweeks on Mars part 2, change statistics and end game strings to fit the mod, added Adv. Stun Grenade.
Testplaying: Complete!Version 0.2.20b: Updated the readme file
Version 0.2.20c: Fixed inventory string bug, reduced number of aliens in Alien Storage Facility mission on all difficulties except easiest.
Version 0.3.0: Game start in 1980, Improved Alien War mission wave, 12 Knifes in start game instead of 6, Bomber UFOs sometimes land (earlier Bombers never landed), One more Alien Smoke Grenade at start game, Some ruleset cleanup. Removed many discarded items, research, manufacture, etc from the ruleset, Removed many unused files from Resources/, Increase space in Alien Containment from 3 to 5, Performed a spell-check and fixed way to many typos, Improved some UFOpedia texts, Fixed some incorrect information on UFOpedia, Renamed Snaker alien race to Shuman, and Xenomorph to Xaria, New Alien Weapon: Plasma Auto-Disintegrator!, Created proper UFOPedia texts about Thurox, Tigran, Chryssalid Biter and Xaria, Changed dart clips research: its now a lot less dependent on RNG being nice and more about numbers of alien corpses researched, Balanced Dart Rifle Clips damage, Live alien medic getonefree can finally unlock all aliens, not just vanilla aliens, Added missing UFOPedia articles for some alien missions, and improved the texts for the existing ones, Live alien navigator getonefree now leads to all alien missions, Balancing the Alien Torture mission, Added short range Sub Machine Gun to early mid game, Removed "Sister", "Good friend" etc from acquaintances names
Version 0.3.1:
Fixed fatal Linux bug (crashed on startup), renamed difficulties to better reflect how difficult the mod is compared to the original, slightly increased amount of aliens on harder difficulties, some testplaying (in Linux), made Funnelhead melee a bit slower and a bit more powerful, bugfix: X-Com are no longer firing at Rebels in base visit missions.
Version 0.3.2:Misc: Updated the readme-file
Bugfixes: Small Harvesters did not recover Elerium, moved Elerium items in UFOs to the same block as the Power Source in UFOs, fixed terrain bug (unless it
was supposed to look that bad), fixed see-trough bug in some crafts
Balancing: removed alien smoke grenades from most UFOs and added more to Alien Storage Facilities and some small UFOs, made alien smoke grenades lighter, reduced cost of project mangers and organizers, reduce Stalker craft max speed,
made early game a little less painful by:
-making alien grenades usable from the start (but availability is still very limited)
-reducing number of items required to get weapon training
-big melee weapons rebalancing (including making melee weapons a little bit more effective)
-increase frequency of alien melee equipment early game
-increased flame throwers blast radius and range by 1 tile
-reduced number of aliens in storage facilities
Graphics: finally added inventory images for rebels!
Version 0.3.3:Balancing: Increased flame thrower power (blast radius)
Bugfixes: Added back missing UFOintro cutscene music
Completions: Fixed Tigran UFOpedia pictures, completed serveral UFO tiles
Version 0.3.4:Balancing: Reduce Skyrider maxspeed, alien grenades again require research to use but can be researched and used without basic weapon training (so can still
be used very very early in the game), reduced frequency of Time Loopers in Alien Storage Facilities, made early flame thrower heavier
Bugfixes: Abductor UFOs had some old tiles in battlescape
Completions: Changed Stalker UFOpedia image to one that looks more like it does in the base, added very tiny backstory for the Rebels, started UFO overhaul:
creating some missing interception UFO sprites + balancing stats + improving UFOpedia entries + improved UFOpedia listorder
Version 0.3.5:Balancing: Increased space in General Stores and Workshop, made Elerium Ball require more elerium, increased chance of X-Com base defense mission, increased all human meelee weapons damage with 5 points, lower difficultyCoefficient on hardest difficulty, aliens can use blasters/grenades from turn 3 instead of turn 2, renamed most difficulties, reduced amount of Alien Smoke Grenades in Explorer UFOs and increased amount in Crop Ship, reduced officespace in administration to 15, increased price of organizers, increased research time a little on mostly early game stuff and reduced research time on late game stuff, increased manufacture cost of "weapons for Vatos Locos", increased in alien fire accuracy + reactions + armour in all difficulties except easiest, removed Alien Storage Facility mission for january in all difficulties except easisest, decreased general funding
Bugfixes: Cropship mission was sometimes spawning in wrong terrain resulting in no UFO spawn in the terrain
Completions: Continued the UFO overhaul - only 4 UFOs left now
Misc: Improved Warship graphics, Large Radar System is now available from start while Base Outpost is not, read-me file overhaul, greatly improved how much damage stairs can take before being destroyed
New stuff: New mission: always 50 % chance that a Terror Missions is replaced by a
new Alien Outpost Attack mission to en sure a greater veriety of mission types - this also includes a new terrain based on my rural terrain. Added "Beg For Money" as start game deal.
Version 0.3.6:Balancing: Reduced Elerium and Alien Alloys sellprice, increased Organizer cost, increased alien fire accuracy on most difficulties, lowered alien armor and increased alien health to make them more unlikely to become unconscious, increased hybrid soldier price, further increased time looper ammo manufacture cost, increased Surgery Laser power and accuracy, removed Sectoid race from early Alien Outpost Attack (was too difficult) and adjusted number of aliens in the mission, increased Time Looper sellprice, increased price of Armored Vest and Combat Armor, reduced amount of good weapons in Alien Storage Facility in all difficulties except easiest, reduced very early game research time a little,
Bugfixes: Fixed spawn point bugs in final mission part 1
Misc: Added back "neighbour" etc in aquaitance names because it was funny
Improvements: Replaced roof tiles in final mission part 1
New stuff: Replaced fly-by Terror Ship that spawned shortly after game is started with the purpose of supporting the feeling of the aliens being superior with a new mission: Alien Hideout. This is just a base constructed by aliens in the first month and is impossible to beat for the first months. Also added new music for briefing and battlescape on some of the most difficult missions.
Version 0.3.7:Balancing: Fewer aliens with meelee only in early game, made Aquaintances a bit cheaper and Rebels a bit more expensive, increased Time Looper ammo cost yet again, reduced amount of useful/powerful stuff in Alien Storage Facilities once again (except on easy difficulty), changed most Surgery Laser stats, increased Alien Blueprint sellprice
Bugfixes: Fixed small mapbug
Completions: Added missing UFOpedia text
Misc: Changed starting base layout, included less distracting smoke graphics in the mod, updated en_us strings
Improvements: Many improvements to my Rural terrain (and made it appear more frequently), some improvements to Outpost Defense mission terrain
New stuff: RCV/Combat, Alien Proximity Grenade (not used by aliens, only found in storage facilities)
Version 0.3.8:Balancing: Increased cost of Stun Grenade manufacture, increased Alien proxy grenade power, higher payment when working for CAUS, increased Time Looper sellprice, removed morale boost for wearing armored vest
Bugfixes: Fixed Torch battery and Tranquilizer research bugs,
Misc: Some testplaying in Linux - still seems to work very well, misc
Projects (research): Warn The Public project requirements are now alien weapons + UFO parts + alien grenades + alien corpses in general (one of each) instead of specific UFO parts + corpse, added more items needed for Proof Of Alien Life in storage facilities to minimize
already very small chance of having to look for the items for too long, instead of Black Marked project unlocking three items it now unlocks three projects that unlocks
each item, Hyper Wave Decoders also has a dedicate project topic instead of being unlocked by CAUS project, Armored Vest also needs to be researched separately,
Improvements: Small improvement of Alien Storage Facility terrain, fixed impassable mapblocks in nativeurban terrain,
New stuff: Added Corn Farm terrain (from another mod), Armored Vest are now available in 4 different versions with separate stat-modifiers and colors - encouraging players to have specific armor for certain roles on the battlefield, added UFOpaedia entries for acquaintances and rebels
Version 0.3.9:Balancing: Alien races around April-June are now a little tougher, alienitemlevels: aliens have more of the dangerous weapons earlier (from May), one less smoke grenade in Crop Ship, increased amount of aliens wearing Toxigun and Plasma Disintegrator to reduce amount of recovered alien clips (Toxigun and Disintegrator cant be used until end game)
Bugfixes: Fixed tu cost etc bugs for Grinder, fixed Alien Base missions not spawning alien bases!, fixed routes bug in an Alien Base mapblock,
Completions: Added missing live alien sale for Tigran, Armoured Floater, Anthropod, Queecher, and Chtonite. Created unique base/dogfight graphics for Globemaster craft, added missing research for Anthropod corpse, created remaining blocks for Alien Bases
Misc: Informing about specific maxrange of Shotgun in UFOpaedia, not displaying craft in Alien Storage Facilities brefing anymore
Improvements: Removed some out of place flowers in Alien Bases, made Alien Base above ground terrain a little prettier
Changelog continues in next post..