[FULL MOD] UFO & TFTD Rework (silent update: Jan 1, 2017)

[landroller]

how to install this mod in TFTD?
this mod appear in the Options > Mods screen (if select x-com UFO defence) but not appear if change to TFTD.

-openxcom_git_master_2016_02_27_0456
-Illamasqua's UFO Rework v1.2d

[yrizoud]

You may want to pick the file for "TFTD Rework", instead of "UFO Rework" 

[landroller]

You may want to pick the file for "TFTD Rework", instead of "UFO Rework" 

yea. i automatic download upper link. 

[Orz]

NEW UPDATE WITH SOME PICS
(download links in OP, as usual)

Reverted Plastic Aqua Armor to vanilla with some minor fixes in the white coloring of the armor plates (I would prefer to settle for full snow-white Aqua Armor as shown in an earlier post, but can't manage to make inventory sprites look good all in white yet). Just so that we're on the same page here: the only reason why I'm trying to re-color Aqua Armor is too more easily differentiate it from Diving Suit.

Also below is Coela/Gauss with a new color style (tried different variations but only yellow or white seem to fit the TFTD feel):



Color fix from light creamy yellow/brown armor plates to white + blue helmet matching rest of suit:



And new Tasoth reskin (reasons: too much yellow overload with all the Lobsters and Ion Armors end-game). Now they look lite pretty little seahorses



Also added Lobsterman Tomb Guard to final T'leth level only, just to spiff things up. Tried lots of color variations (including ghostly bluish-green which looks pretty menacing) but decided to play it safe and stick to a darker/red lobster (with changed eye color) for now. Below both regular Lobster and red one for comparison. Also showing Calcinite's "Protoform" too:



For full changelog details go HERE.

And feel free to share your thoughts: feedback/criticism is appreciated

PS: I am kind of working on and off on TFTD's 5th alien race based on a modified version of one of Dioxine's priests (mentioned in an earlier post) in combination with Solarius' Cthulhu-themed sorcerer, but that might take another while.

Have you ditched that dark green plastic? Was it still similar with diving?

I used your fixed Diving Suit bigOb.

Was that black helmet based on its own inv dolls img?

That was the original idea, but now it's changed again.

[Solarius Scorch]

Kinda like the Tasoth colour, but it's too much like USO walls, plus the yellow spots don't work for me.

[Orz]

Kinda like the Tasoth colour, but it's too much like USO walls, plus the yellow spots don't work for me.

Glad you noticed. Not without reason did I choose to take a snapshot inside a USO and put a Tasoth right next to a wall: there is that unintended but surprising chameleon-like side effect, and I kinda liked how it turned out (is it really a bad thing?). As for the yellow spots, yes, I'm still considering removing them. They bothered me a bit at first, but not so much after playing a full match against a Tasoth crew so I left them in out of sheer indecisiveness.

[Solarius Scorch]

The yellow spots make a bad first impression. Not sure how it'd work in the long run.

Does the Tasoth colour also blend with other battlescape elements? Seabed, corals?

[Orz]

The yellow spots make a bad first impression. Not sure how it'd work in the long run.

I was thinking more along the lines of...



But hey, we can't all like freckles It can easily be changed for the next update (perhaps just blend in the spots by using some other shade of blue or even green).

Does the Tasoth colour also blend with other battlescape elements? Seabed, corals?

Not really, just UFO walls mostly.


But anyway, Tasoth's reskin has already been "corrected" and I'm liking it better too:

[Orz]

Because maximum character length has been exceeded in changelog post, it'll be continued here:

March 1 mostly TFTD-oriented update
— [UFO/TFTD] Increased height of all UFO/SUB maps to 6 (meaning only closed environments will have a vanilla height limits now). Also increased shade of TFTD's Alien Colony Pt.2 to 5 (from 0) to add to the "hidden movement" feel

— [UFO/TFTD] Live alien research reworked: now ranks plays a more important role in unlocking alien technologies and it works great. Still haven't figured out how to improve getting alien missions and UFO craft entries.

— [UFO/TFTD] Personal & Aqua Armor made more like each other in terms of damage modifiers, same goes for Flying/Power Suit & Mag/Ion Armor.

— [UFO/TFTD] Very minor weapons review (specifically, decreased weight of HC/GC & AU/HJC a bit).

— [TFTD only] Added meleeSound for Drills and all melee Terror Unit attacks so you can tell when they miss.

— [TFTD only] Removed fixed race restrictions to Alien Colony (both parts, previously vanilla Aqua/Gill pt.1 and Lobster/Tas pt.2). I actually really liked it vanilla, but making it more like UFO/EU adds the unpredictability factor. Plus, you'd get to meet mixed races later on anyway.

— [TFTD only] Lotsa people bitching about Ship Lane Attacks, so reduced occurrence chances to 30% (from 60%). I also personally prefer Artefact Sites or regular Terrors over Cargo/Cruise missions.

— [TFTD only] Fixed oversight in alienMissions where Lobsters were appearing too early. The order should be Aquatoid/Gillman early, then Tasoth coming into the mix and them Lobster.

— [TFTD only] Coela/Gauss got yellow re-color. Tried white, grey/silver, blue, green, black & white, but yellow seemed best in the end. (UFOpedia re-color still pending.)

— [TFTD only] Based on some user feedback, decided to add Calcinite's "protoplasm" form (even though it's still missing transitory death sprites from dying Calcinite to spawning Protoform, but it doesn't look that bad as it is).

— [TFTD only] Reverted Plastic Aqua Armor to original vanilla colors with some minor changes: made the white whiter (where previously it was light creamy brownish/yellow, specifically on shoulder plates) and fixed inventory sprites as well. I REALLY wanted to go for snow-white Plastic Aqua Armors (I mean, I still do), but I haven't managed to make inventory sprites look good yet all in white... something feels/looks off, so if anyone wants to help! (And we can probably disregard UFOpedia entry since it has a reputation for getting colors wrong anyway.)

— [TFTD only] Tasoth goth a reskin. Now they look like pretty little seahorses No, seriously, it was too much yellow-overload previously with all the Lobsterman and Ion Armors end-game. Now Tasoth looks like chameleon-like seahorses salamanders.

— [TFTD only] Added new Lobsterman Tomb Guard to final T'leth Level (tried a few color variations, but stuck with red lobsters for now) just to spiff things up a little since that final level is easiest of all T'leth missions. Tomb Guards are basically like Soldiers on steroids and they won't panic.

March 12 update
— [UFO/TFTD] FINALLY improved/rebalanced/spiffed up interception/air combat. Overall, UFOs got more range and X-Com weapons (more specifically, Plasma/Sonic) were nerfed a bit. Fusion/PWT got a big buff, however. Also, all cannons have 3 rates of fire now (cautions, standard, aggressive). And even Scout/Survey Ship can poke fun at you now

— [UFO/TFTD] Re-reviewed live alien research for alien missions and crafts. In essence, lower ranks give out info on smaller UFOs and less "covert" missions. Medics and Engins/Techs are the only ones who stick to vanilla. In turn, Leaders/Navs & Commanders disclose more "covert" missions and larger UFOs. Been playtesting and it definitely makes a difference now.

— [UFO/TFTD] Re-reviewed alien deployment numbers in some loeadouts, just minor changes for more logical distribution according to craft size/type.

— [UFO/TFTD] Increased Elerium/Zrbite refuel rate of all craft to 10 (from 5). Also increased FIRESTORMS's max fuel to 30 (from 20), LIGHTNING's to 60 (from 50) and AVENGER to 90 (from 60). As for TFTD, just LEVIA to 90 (from 50). Also other very minor changes (except dropping damage capacities for LIGHTN/HAMMER to 560, from 800 and 960, respectively).

— [UFO/TFTD] Reworked starting base's facilities layout and re-reviewed starting items (basically added some more supplies).

— [UFO/TFTD] Corrected Alien Containment & Psi/MC-Lab UFOpedia texts (15 capacity each, instead of 10).

— [UFO/TFTD] Based on player feedback, reverted previous soldier/aqua's Firing/Reaction nerf (80) to 100.

— [UFO/TFTD] Auto accuracy of Heavy Laser/Gauss and Heavy Plasma/Sonic reduced to 60 and 70, from 65 and 75, respectively.

— [UFO/TFTD] Increased buy/sell prices for Heavy/Gas Cannon, Rocket/Torpedo Launcher and High/Magna Explosives (+10K).

— [UFO/TFTD] Reduced sell costs of Laser/Gauss guns since they easily became the best cash-cow items.

— [UFO/TFTD] Decreased build time of Small Radar/Sonar further to 8 (from previous 10), otherwise there is very little reason to build it and it should be encouraged for new bases.

— [TFTD only] Brought TFTD's sonar/resolver range to UFO/EU's standards. (Although fixed already by latest nightly too now).

— [TFTD only] Nerfed Mag/Ion Armor's front to 120/130 (I mean, 132/142 was waaay too high compared to UFO/EU's Flying/Power Suit).

— [TFTD only] Removed Commander from Alien Colony pt.1.

— [TFTD only] Diving Suit, Plastic Aqua & Mag/Ion Armor helmets in inventory screen went from black to blue (now they match battlescape sprites).

— [TFTD only] *Slightly* increased frequency rate of some terrains (as all terrains had a 50% chance of occurrence only, otherwise you got Seabed/Coral at a 25/25% chance, and some terrains are hardly ever seen because of this).

— [TFTD only] Rearranged aquanaut's ethnicities (head/hair) to be more in line with UFO/EU (reason being soldiernames are based upon UFO/EU's blonde > brown > asian/indian > black and TFTD has looks mixed up quite a bit, even between male/females).

— [UFO only] Targeted retaliation missions begin earlier for Genius & Superhuman difficulties, like in TFTD.

— [UFO only] Laser clips color change to match weapon palette better.

— [UFO/TFTD] Implemented UFOpedia 2-in-1 for Laser/Gauss & alien weapons. Meaning, clip pages no longer needed: weapon + clip all in one page (no longer requires two separate researches: now research weapon and unlock clip with it). This makes browsing through UFOpedia more smooth and weapons comparison more seamless.

(Currently thinking about removing Anthropod from UFO/EU and leaving just 5 alien races as vanilla, with just Waspites replacing Floaters and Gazers replacing Snakemen.)

March 14 quick update
— [UFO/TFTD] Rebalanced Laser/Gauss manufacture profitability (each item is 10K less profitable now).

— [TFTD only] Re-reviewed aquanauts' ethnicities and reverted back to vanilla style mostly. Reason: the racial intermixing of vanilla TFTD actually made it much more interesting (I mean, it's 2040, not 1999!) Plus, some memorable faces were appearing less frequently (namely: black dude, bald smiley dude & red headband gal) by making TFTD more UFO/EU style. Besides, who cares if the black guy is named Henrik Lindqvist anyway?

— [TFTD only] Returned Tasoth's former Gauss resistance and dropped former Sonic weakness to normal (Tasoth may still need a bit more health, though).

— [UFO/TFTD] Re-reviewed alien missions racial odds: endeavoured to keep ratios as close to vanilla as possible while only adding more mixed crews. Additionally [UFO only], instead of removing Anthropod altogether (yet?), reduced its presence so that it doesn't overshadow Mutons & Ethereals.

— [UFO only] Re-reviewed alien races and settled for just 6 custom/mixes/combinations (rather than 4 additional separate ones for terror missions).

March 20 quick n' silent update
— [UFO only] Completely redesigned Laser Clips (third time's the charm?) and gave Plasma Clips proxy floor sprites (since they were using the same brown/red clip in vanilla, which didn't match at all). Not that anyone would run around the battlefield with clips in hand just to flash them out in all their pixelated glory

— [UFO/TFTD] Fixed Naked Spitter & Calcinite Protoform Corpse item names: "Naked" and "Protoform" in parentheses only kept/required for Soldier Diaries, otherwise removed from store/sell screen.

— [UFO/TFTD] Reduced weight of Avalanche/DUP Missiles from 1.5 to 0.8 (effectively reducing starting base's stores from 41 to 36).

— [UFO/TFTD] Reduced Laser/Gauss Cannon's damage from 60 to 45.

— [UFO/TFTD] Doubled Large Rocket/Torpedo buy/sell cost.

— [UFO/TFTD] Increased Plasma/Sonic Pistol power by 5.

— [UFO/TFTD] Fixed "MALE_CIVILIAN" and FEMALE_CIVILIAN" display name to "Civilian" for Soldier Diaries.

— [Hobbe's Terrain Pack Edit] Removed TFTD Port maps from Terrain Pack (left in separate folder for those who wanna add it back). Reason: increase chances of other custom terror maps (Area 51, Industrial, Dawn City, etc). Besides, you see Port Attacks in TFTD all the time!

March 31 BIGGIE update: v1.3d
— [UFO/TFTD] Add Mind Probe/MC Reader as req item to manufacture Psi-Amp/MC-Disruptor.

— [UFO/TFTD] Increase HC/Gas Cannon AP damage by 10. Reason: make it still viable even after you get Laser/Gauss Rifle. Also improved AC/HJ-Cannon AP & HE damage slightly.
 
— [UFO] Fixed oversight on Ethereal's damage modifiers (where they should have been higher).

— [TFTD] Swapped yellow Coela for orange so that orange is now Gauss one. Just looked better.

— [TFTD] Roxis213 updated HAMMERHEAD & LEVIA, changes to MCD files & ruleset, now aquanauts can walk onto the roofs (where applicable) and walk along the northwest and northeast walls without problem.

— [UFO/TFTD] Returned Hovertank/Blaster & Displacer/PWT ammo to 8 (from 6). I would ideally prefer to leave it at 6 (or 4) if I could give them Plasma/Sonic secondary weapon.

— [UFO/TFTD] Reduced manufacture time of Heavy Laser/Gauss by 100 hrs and increased manufacture time of Laser/Gauss Cannon (also increased sell price by 10K), Plasma Beam/Sonic Oscillator & Fusion-Ball/PWT Launcher.

— [UFO/TFTD] Also swapped back Mind Probe/MC-Reader's and Psi-Amp/Disruptor's times as vanilla. Reason: Mind Probe, although intended as an early game profitable item, and even at half the sell price and Elerium/Alloys costs notwithstanding, had become the most profitable item in the whole game by a *LARGE* margin, this will make it less so but still unsurpassed #1 (if you can spare the Elerium/Alloys). The Shadow Gov must really enjoy spying on its citizens

— [UFO/TFTD] Lastly, substantially increased sell price of all new X-Com fighter/transport craft to compensate for their workshop space, manufacture time and special item requirements. This way one can even make profit out of them, at a harsh cost.

— [UFO/TFTD] Swapped Hunters for Heavy Cruisers in Alien Interdiction and Resource Raid, respectively. Reason: as in-game UFOpedia (and vanilla UFO/EU) can attest, Heavy Cruisers (Harvesters in UFO/EU) were supposed to be used for Alien Interdiction (Alien Harvest in UFO/EU) and Hunters (Abductors) for Resource Raid (Abduction).

— [UFO/TFTD] Also added one Battleship/Dreadnought at the end of the Abduction/Resource Raid UFO waves. Reason: slightly increase chances of coming across Battleship/Dreadnought (besides, most other missions have Battleship/Dreadnought for the final wave anyway).

— [UFO/TFTD] Added Coveralls & Diving Suit UFOpedia entries. However, could not manage to set a good image for Diving Suit (and importing custom pics messes up the background palette color), so left a proxy instead for now.

— [UFO/TFTD] Armors now increase certain stats: Personal/Plastic Armor: +5 TUs, +5 Stamina +5 , +5 Reactions. Power/Ion Armors: +10 TUs, +10 Strength (but then reduced soldier's statCap for Strength from 70 to 60) to match UFOpedia description ("greatly amplifies the speed and strength of the wearer"). I was very leery of doing this, so let's consider it an experiment for now. Keep in mind that 5 TUs equals only 1 more step (4 TUs each step), and the small Stamina & Reactions increment of Personal/Plastic Armor isn't that big of a deal either (it may offer some negligible "advantage" to scouts and field medics at best).

— [UFO] Small aesthetic changes to Plasma Weapons + Clips to make them all more "standardized" (and perhaps slightly more "threatening").

— [TFTD] Yet other small aesthetic changes to some inventory sprites were all guys except smiley bald dude on Ion Armor had their heads misaligned by 1 pixel to the right (was really bothering me) and red headband gal in Mag Ion Armor had missing bit of her "grav-pack" right next to her neck/ear (looked like a chink in the armor and was also getting on my nerves).

— [UFO/TFTD] Re-reviwed alien item levels and stepped it up a bit mid-game (August), otherwise it drags and you're out-teching aliens before they can pwn you properly (and I really miss how menacing/threatening aliens were in vanilla—they were already getting full-tier 3 weapons by October).

— [TFTD] Finally did alternate color explosions for smoke/dye, HE and stun/freeze and integrated Arthanor's own to UFO Rework also.

— [UFO] More deadly Mutons: now they can rend & tear you to death with their new melee attack! (Thinking of adding melee attack to Gazer's own Holodrone companions, like TFTD's Biodrones?)

— [UFO/TFTD] Did Calcinite-to-Protoplasm transitional "spawn" animation.

— [TFTD] Thanks to Liberation, TRITON was removed from Sub-Pens during Base Defense (just looked weird when you have crafts other than TRITON or totally empty Sub-Pens).

(Still thinking about removing Anthropod from UFO/EU and leaving just 5 alien races as vanilla, with just Waspites replacing Floaters and Gazers replacing Snakemen.)


Also, attached right below are Hobbe's Terrain Pack and Civilian's TFTD Sub Variations made compatible with UFO & TFTD Rework (highly recommended) in case anyone missed them earlier:

[Xeno Wiper]

— [TFTD only] Diving Suit, Plastic Aqua & Mag/Ion Armor helmets in inventory screen went from black to blue (now they match battlescape sprites).

— [TFTD only] Rearranged aquanaut's ethnicities (head/hair) to be more in line with UFO/EU (reason being soldiernames are based upon UFO/EU's blonde > brown > asian/indian > black and TFTD has looks mixed up quite a bit, even between male/females).

1) Looks like plastic aqua battlescape sprites <> inv sprites (inv dolls & corpses are darker)


2) Planning to put Asians? 

[Orz]

1) Looks like plastic aqua battlescape sprites <> inv sprites (inv dolls & corpses are darker)

I know. I would ideally wanna make them all snow-white, but I haven't gotten around to making the inventory/ragdoll sprites look good enough (or white enough, for that matter) yet.

2) Planning to put Asians? 

Nope. I'm pretty sure you got that covered on your end

Small update, BTW. New links and changelog as usual.

March 20: Quick n' Silent Update Pic: New Laser Clips

[new_civilian]

Nice work here! One thing I experimented a bit with was the black helmet: Instead of making it entirely black I simply swapped the pallete to make it gradually black/grey which looks even better inmho, you should try that and see how you like it.

[Xeno Wiper]

Nice work here! One thing I experimented a bit with was the black helmet: Instead of making it entirely black I simply swapped the pallete to make it gradually black/grey which looks even better inmho, you should try that and see how you like it.

Pics or it didn't happen! 

[Orz]

Nice work here! One thing I experimented a bit with was the black helmet: Instead of making it entirely black I simply swapped the pallete to make it gradually black/grey which looks even better inmho, you should try that and see how you like it.

Apologies for late reply, didn't wanna bump this thread till I had the next update (links on main/first post and changelog here). I'm assuming you're referring to the black helmet in Plastic Armor for battlescape sprites? I'll have to look at that (got pics?). I really would love to just make them all snow-white (with some hints of light blue and/or silver here and there maybe). Problem is inventory pic doesn't look particularly great in white.


Anyway, been playtesting this thing a couple dozen times (almost) and thought maybe a brief GAMEFLOW OVERVIEW could be of (little) interest here in terms of pacing and how these mods play out:

(You should never run outta research topics unless you have maybe over 200 scientists at work or something insane like that—100 or so should keep everything running smoothly & fresh.)

PHASE 1: Laser/Gauss Tech, Personal/Plastic Armor, UFO Construction
You should be getting Laser/Gauss Pistol by Feb, followed by Laser/Gauss Rifle by March at the earliest (if you neglect to research your first alien corpses and/or UFO components), with Heavy Laser/Gauss maybe by April/May, if not later. This should allow you to play with starting/conventional weapons and diversify your tactics a bit more early on. You should also be unlocking Personal/Plastic Armor by April/May at the latest and start making some money out of the earliest manufacture options that become immediately available (e.g. Alloys/Plastics, Laser/Gauss Weapons, and even Mind Probe/MC Reader once unlocked).

PHASE 2: Laser/Gauss Cannon, Decoder/Resolver, New Fighter/Transport Craft
By May/June you should have at least established a secondary, well-supplied, well-defended base and have unlocked Laser/Gauss Cannon (which should give you a real advantage when it comes to air combat) as well as Hyperwave Decoder/Transmission Resolver, alongside your first *NEW* X-Com fighter/transport crafts. You should also really begin making up some serious money from your manufacturing business by now (hint: Mind Probe/MC Reader should prove *extremely* profitable if you can spare exotic materials).

PHASE 3: Alien Containment, Power/Ion Armor, Psi/MC-Lab, Alien Base Assaults
By July/Aug you should be unlocking Alien Containment (*), closely followed by Psi/MC-Lab. You should also have unlocked (or be closing in to) Power/Ion Armor around this time and begin raiding the first alien bases and expanding into your third (and/or fourth?) base as well. This phase is marked by increased UFO activity (with mixed races now coming into the picture), manufacturing of new X-Com crafts to replace old (leased) fighters/transporters, X-Com's base expansion across the globe, and the discovery (and subsequent raiding) of alien bases.

(*Note that in TFTD this may come in a bit later, as neither Cryogenics nor Cloning are carried by any UFO "below" Supply Cruiser, whereas Alien Food may be obtained from Harvesters in UFO/EU, usually leading to an earlier unlocking of Alien Containment.)

PHASE 4: Llive Alien Capture + Alien Weaponry
By Sept/Oct you should have taken down couple alien bases and start interrogating your first live aliens to begin unlocking alien tech/weapons (if you haven't done so earlier already). Capturing various ranks is absolutely necessary here, as all ranks contribute to the unlocking of all tech tiers (plus intel on alien missions & UFOs). This will lead you to Plasma Beam/Sonic Oscillator as well as AVENGER/LEVIATHAN (whichever comes first) to really begin counteracting the alien menace in the skies. Also, the discovery of Hovertanks/Displacers will in turn lead to Flying/Mag-Ion Armor, which should give you a serious advantage in battle.

PHASE 5: Endgame (Final Cydonia/T'leth Mission)
Endgame may occur as early as Nov/Dec or as late as Mar/April of next year, depending on how soon you capture an Alien Commander and whether or not you want to invest on researching your way into top-tier alien tech (i.e. Blaster/DPL) and/or spend some more time training your Psi/MC-operatives.

[Xeno Wiper]

March 31 BIGGIE update: v1.3d

— [UFO/TFTD] Increase HC/Gas Cannon AP damage by 10. Reason: make it still viable even after you get Laser/Gauss Rifle. Also improved AC/HJ-Cannon AP & HE damage slightly.

— [UFO/TFTD] Swapped Hunters for Heavy Cruisers in Alien Interdiction and Resource Raid, respectively. Reason: as in-game UFOpedia (and vanilla UFO/EU) can attest, Heavy Cruisers (Harvesters in UFO/EU) were supposed to be used for Alien Interdiction (Alien Harvest in UFO/EU) and Hunters (Abductors) for Resource Raid (Abduction).

What? Never seen that.

— [UFO] More deadly Mutons: now they can rend & tear you to death with their new melee attack! (Thinking of adding melee attack to Gazer's own Holodrone companions, like TFTD's Biodrones?)

OH NOES!!11!!!11  UFO lobsters!!!!!! 

— [TFTD] Thanks to Liberation, TRITON was removed from Sub-Pens during Base Defense (just looked weird when you have crafts other than TRITON or totally empty Sub-Pens).

The ideal would be to represent what you got on the base, but this is not possible.... YET.

Apologies for late reply, didn't wanna bump this thread till I had the next update (links on main/first post and changelog here). I'm assuming you're referring to the black helmet in Plastic Armor for battlescape sprites? I'll have to look at that (got pics?). I really would love to just make them all snow-white (with some hints of light blue and/or silver here and there maybe). Problem is inventory pic doesn't look particularly great in white.

You mean like this?