Author Topic: Re: The X-Com Files - 3.2: The Colors of Sin  (Read 1949410 times)

Offline Solarius Scorch

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 11408
  • WE MUST DISSENT
    • View Profile
    • Nocturmal Productions modding studio website
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4425 on: March 20, 2022, 06:59:05 pm »
Just found these guys in a M.A.G.M.A. mission. I didn't know M.A.G.M.A. has some ties with the Xenonauts.

TBH I don't know where it came from, it's a resource reworked from Alinare's mod... But possibly. :)

Offline Juku121

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 1566
  • We're all mad here.
    • View Profile
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4426 on: March 20, 2022, 08:34:49 pm »
TBH I don't know where it came from [snip]... But possibly.
It's the basic Scimitar tank. I thought you said you modded Xenonauts ages ago?

Offline Solarius Scorch

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 11408
  • WE MUST DISSENT
    • View Profile
    • Nocturmal Productions modding studio website
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4427 on: March 20, 2022, 10:43:09 pm »
It's the basic Scimitar tank. I thought you said you modded Xenonauts ages ago?

I did a little, long ago. I also went to Italy, which doesn't make me a Rennaissance painter.

Offline Juku121

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 1566
  • We're all mad here.
    • View Profile
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4428 on: March 20, 2022, 11:28:23 pm »
But it does make you a tourist, and people will rightfully expect you to have some impressions when they learn of it. Even 20 years after the fact. :P


Offline Solarius Scorch

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 11408
  • WE MUST DISSENT
    • View Profile
    • Nocturmal Productions modding studio website
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4429 on: March 21, 2022, 01:14:24 pm »
But it does make you a tourist, and people will rightfully expect you to have some impressions when they learn of it. Even 20 years after the fact. :P

I have responded fully with my first post.

Offline alexander steel wolf

  • Sergeant
  • **
  • Posts: 18
    • View Profile
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4430 on: March 25, 2022, 01:19:30 am »
First of all, thank you very much for your kind words. Especially since I have a soft spot for fanfics.
(Though I'm definitely not a perfectionist, else I would never finish anything...;) )

To address your questions:
- I want to make multiple endings, but I'm not sure I can commit this much time. For now, I don't have even one satisfying ending, so I am focused on this. In the future, if possible, I'd like to add alternate endings where you basically switch sides and ally with some other Great Faction, which will affect the ending and also some parts of gameplay (like new/different equipment). For now it's a pipe dream though.
- Dimension X is done and I don't plan to expand it any further. We are not at war with the Micronoids right now, so the Council doesn't want to stir up shit on a new front.
- Related to the above, there is no need to add more Dimension X aliens. I mean sure, if it was very low effort, I could add more races, but it wouldn't have much impact on the game. I don't plan any adding new Dimension X missions, unless maybe some "side quests".
- There is no as fouth promotion as such, but there are some other similar thresholds later. (And I think that basic BlackOps stuff is not really that great.)
- I plan to make some more Moon and orbital missions. We'll see. As for Cydonia - not planned right now.
- I don't have a good concept for Cydonia. Suggestions would make sense.
- Multiple sides are not possible, in X-Com, sorry... (Unless you use one of them as civilians, then... sort of)

Thank you very much for the answers!

If one day I have success with my novels and can translate them into English, I will not hesitate to let you know here.

Regarding your answers, on the one hand I would have liked to see more about dimension x (I consider that x com apolypse always had the potential to have been the best of the saga, maybe one day the "openapoc" project will go ahead). And on the other hand, it's also good that not everything is as you imagine it in your head, so there is more room for surprise... (I never would have imagined seeing the demons of doom in a xcom mod).

I also don't want to "abuse" with all the suggestions I might have, I just wanted to tell you what I would do for the moon and Cydonia missions.

For the moon missions, perhaps one could "choose paths" through research. For example, you complete the first mission and then you can investigate either the chrysalis lair, or the control room. If you investigate the cocoon lair, you would no longer be able to investigate the control room (so you choose which mission you want to do). Each of these missions would have their own objectives and enemies, giving them more replayability and variety.

As the essence of this mod, in my opinion, seems to be very focused on the idea of ​​conspiracies (and more so now with the introduction of Majestic 12, illuminati, etc), I think that maybe cydonia should not be the last mission of the game . What if these aliens are the creation of, say, the syndicate? I thought of this as an option because at the end of the syndicate narrative arc, it hints that there is an even more "deeper" and influential syndicate somewhere in space (or who knows where). Even, and I know this is stretching my imagination, the "primal" syndicate could be the remains of the Nephilin or something. I don't know, maybe it's too much to curl the loop, but Cydonia as a final mission I don't finish fitting it completely into the atmosphere of this mod. What do you think? (regardless of all the amount of work that may entail).

Postscript: I hope one day we can see those multiple endings (it would be something really amazing)
I have responded fully with my first post.



Offline Buck

  • Squaddie
  • *
  • Posts: 5
    • View Profile
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4431 on: March 29, 2022, 09:55:06 am »
I've been taking my time in this mod and haven't killed off any of the cult factions yet. Should I restart since 1999 is right around the corner?

Offline Solarius Scorch

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 11408
  • WE MUST DISSENT
    • View Profile
    • Nocturmal Productions modding studio website
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4432 on: March 29, 2022, 01:15:28 pm »
I've been taking my time in this mod and haven't killed off any of the cult factions yet. Should I restart since 1999 is right around the corner?

No need to do that, just be prepared for new challenges.

Offline killymm

  • Squaddie
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4433 on: March 30, 2022, 01:12:10 am »
Hey, I was wondering how to get around the Shadow of (Cult name here) events.  I've done a few runs at varying difficulties, but I've never made it past six months because this event is constantly occurring and draining all of my points away.  I ran a game on beginner yesterday and lost in two months with scores of -2500 and -1700.  I'm hitting as many missions as I can, and I'm scoring in the positive on those missions, but there's no way that I can make that many points that fast.  In fact, today I started a new game and got hit with a Shadow of Exalt event before I had met all of my starting staff.  Is there some way that I can turn down the rate at which these types of events occur, or lower the number of points they drain?

Offline Mrvex

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 175
    • View Profile
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4434 on: March 30, 2022, 02:51:50 pm »
Hey, I was wondering how to get around the Shadow of (Cult name here) events.  I've done a few runs at varying difficulties, but I've never made it past six months because this event is constantly occurring and draining all of my points away.  I ran a game on beginner yesterday and lost in two months with scores of -2500 and -1700.  I'm hitting as many missions as I can, and I'm scoring in the positive on those missions, but there's no way that I can make that many points that fast.  In fact, today I started a new game and got hit with a Shadow of Exalt event before I had met all of my starting staff.  Is there some way that I can turn down the rate at which these types of events occur, or lower the number of points they drain?

This is odd because i cant remember Shadow of the Cult events at all, isnt this the Grim Ritual site, Gopniks dream, killing intend etc.. ?

Those shouldnt be draining THAT much points, let alone at once in one month in the early game that it can destroy you if you are doing well on other missions, like there is something that is missing here.
You know that NOT accepting missions does drain points ? Because such low scores so early in the game are really weird, those are "I skipped terror missions" number. Or if you accidentally researched too many archs at once and you have too many missions from different archs with massive penalties on too many of them/you cant actually play these because they are too hard for your tech level.

There is something wrong with your game, because in no way i hell you could be defeated even before meeting your basic staff


Offline Solarius Scorch

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 11408
  • WE MUST DISSENT
    • View Profile
    • Nocturmal Productions modding studio website
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4435 on: March 30, 2022, 07:53:17 pm »
Shadow events only happen if you're considerably behind schedule with the cults and also do not participate in cult suppressions. They were introduced specifically to incentivise players to get of their asses and do their job as Earth defenders.

Rethink your playstyle and plan for better global coverage.

Offline killymm

  • Squaddie
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4436 on: March 30, 2022, 07:54:08 pm »
This is odd because i cant remember Shadow of the Cult events at all, isnt this the Grim Ritual site, Gopniks dream, killing intend etc.. ?

Those shouldnt be draining THAT much points, let alone at once in one month in the early game that it can destroy you if you are doing well on other missions, like there is something that is missing here.
You know that NOT accepting missions does drain points ? Because such low scores so early in the game are really weird, those are "I skipped terror missions" number. Or if you accidentally researched too many archs at once and you have too many missions from different archs with massive penalties on too many of them/you cant actually play these because they are too hard for your tech level.

There is something wrong with your game, because in no way i hell you could be defeated even before meeting your basic staff



In the games that I played, I did miss missions simply from not having enough cars to hit them all before they despawned, but I hit as many as I could.  I started a new game and screen grabbed each time one of these events appeared along with the in-game time and date for one in-game month.

You can find the events in the mod folder as well in {OpenXcom/mods/XComFiles/Ruleset} (Windows) file title 'events_XCOMFILES.rul'

The one for Exalt looks like this

name: STR_EXALT_SHADOW
    description: STR_EXALT_SHADOW_DESCRIPTION
    background: EXALT_BACKGROUND.SCR
    regionList: [STR_NORTH_AMERICA, STR_SOUTH_AMERICA]
    city: true
    points: -300
    timer: 20
    timerRandom: 43500
    interruptResearch: STR_EXALT_NETWORK

I'm considering just purging my PC of all things related to Open Xcom and just redownloading all of it, but before I do that I wanted to make sure that this was an anomaly and see if anybody else was experiencing something similar.

Offline killymm

  • Squaddie
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4437 on: March 30, 2022, 07:56:44 pm »
Shadow events only happen if you're considerably behind schedule with the cults and also do not participate in cult suppressions. They were introduced specifically to incentivise players to get of their asses and do their job as Earth defenders.

Rethink your playstyle and plan for better global coverage.

How fast am I expected to do this exactly? I'm often getting these events one after another in rapid succession without ever getting any cult suppression missions popping up. Like, even in the images that I just posted the second and third events were both Shadow of Exalt and they occurred within three and a half hours of one another on the same day.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2022, 08:05:52 pm by killymm »

Offline killymm

  • Squaddie
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4438 on: March 30, 2022, 08:59:16 pm »
Update: I deleted everything and redownloaded it all fresh and it seems to have worked.  I'm not sure what happened exactly, but it's all good now. ;D ;D ;D

Offline Solarius Scorch

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 11408
  • WE MUST DISSENT
    • View Profile
    • Nocturmal Productions modding studio website
Re: The X-Com Files - 2.3: Rise of The Cultists
« Reply #4439 on: March 30, 2022, 09:56:44 pm »
Sorry, it's too complicated to explain. :P But I'm not getting any complaints about it, so can't be too bad.