Author Topic: Re: The X-Com Files - 3.2: The Colors of Sin  (Read 1949616 times)

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2415 on: April 03, 2019, 01:50:05 am »
Does that apply on purely passenger craft like the Skyranger?

There is no distinction.

My first real campaign just came to an end because an alien intercepted my course and blew it out of the sky, killing everyone on board. I'm assuming I wasn't just ridiculously unlucky and failed the 97% chance test 12 times?

Maybe it was before I set that? Or something is just wrong. Please tell me it's not wrong.

Also, is there any kind of warning within the mod for the fact that this can occur? It was a nasty shock, and I'm a little surprised given the Piratez influence that more of the ingame mechanics and threats aren't elaborated on through the research. It's cool that a couple of the dossiers unlock missions, but most of them seem largely useless, and the explanation of things like Camo, Stun recovery, etc, that Piratez offered would probably be more help to people who are going in unspoiled. Particularly with stuff added just in this mod, like the interceptions.

Well, almost no "tutorial" is hidden behind research, except some psionic stuff. I can add more articles, but it's never easy to recognize what is unclear.

Offline Covenant

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2416 on: April 03, 2019, 05:33:33 am »
Maybe it was before I set that? Or something is just wrong. Please tell me it's not wrong.

After reading this thread a little more closely, I think I might have hit the self-destruct button when trying to minimize the intercept window. I wanted to quickly minimize and see if I could get another craft up in the air to come help, but I didn't realise the minimize button had turned into self-destruct. I suppose the fact that it was red should have been a clue, but I was already panicking about being attacked.

Well, almost no "tutorial" is hidden behind research, except some psionic stuff. I can add more articles, but it's never easy to recognize what is unclear.

Here's a few things I think would benefit from being detailed in articles:

The fact that dogs and AIs can improve their stats, and some tips for when they're best used.
Whether melee attacks are more effective from the back here. I don't mean in terms of armour, I mean in terms of chance to hit. Piratez had evasion, but I see that doesn't apply to melee here, so does it matter what direction you poke someone from?
How the whole 'Aliens intercepting you' thing works (and recovering crashed guys, if that's a thing). Mention self-destruct! :P
How alien psionics work, particularly vis a vis enemy sight - is the thing where if they see one of your guys, they can control any of your guys still a thing? Do they still focus on the weakest guy (which is pretty exploitable)?
Something telling the player to enable alternate movement methods (running helps so much in the earlygame). Or just make it default.
(Possibly) Some vague guidance on things that are tricky and might trip new players' up. 'It's worth bringing a few heavy melee weapons along with you on most missions - they can penetrate armour where small arms would fail'. Or, after discovering the Psi strength of your soldiers, something like 'Be careful about who you bring on missions against enemy psionics! Soldiers below XX Psionic Strength are likely to be exceptionally vulnerable to alien psionic attacks'. And 'Don't leave the Skyranger on the first turn! The aliens all start with full TUs...', etc etc.
(Possibly) Some hinting toward which missions are fine to skip and which will greatly damage your score.

Some of the above seems obvious, perhaps, but for my part at least I've recommended this mod (and Piratez) to people who barely played the original XCOM. Rather than have them poring over a Ufopaedia article laying out exactly how Psi Strength influences their defence, it seems simpler to just have a succinct explanation of what they need to know placed in the mod, accessed through research.

You can't really go wrong with providing more information to people in my opinion. And people pay more attention to a cheap and interestingly-titled research topic than they would to a readme.

Other random feedback:

The game is good fun, and I love the working your way up from humble beginnings aspect. However, too much of the earlygame becomes a slow grind - there's only so many times you can have a bunch of new agents standing in a square and reaction-firing at a wide open field full of scorpions and giant rats before it gets painful. I'd suggest buffing the gym to work faster and take agents to a higher level, and potentially nerfing a couple of the more bullshit 'death from nowhere' things, like Lotus Assassins. I've heard people say that the grindiness is something that's still being worked on though, which is good to hear.

I was surprised, given the Piratez influence, that night ops are so harshly punished here. It was great fun in that mod sneaking around and taking out unsuspecting Academy guys, even if it was a little OP in the earlygame. Here it seems borderline suicidal, at least in the first couple of years. Is there at least a way to turn off the lights on the car/van/craft/whatever you came in? They're doing my agents absolutely no favours.

Weapon balance could use some work. Magnums are too accurate, and there seems little incentive to use rifles and machine guns instead. From something like month 6 to month 30, the vast majority of my squad went from using magnums, to black ops magnums, and eventually smart magnums. A couple of them had Arasaka 3000's, and one had a Milkor (eventually upgraded to a rocket launcher) but aside from undercover missions there rarely seemed an incentive to use anything else.

I was a little unclear on what things could be 'Lost Forever'. Like, the staff of Dagon and Heartgrip staffs - would I lose all opportunities to get more of those after I elimated the Church of Dagon? And the missions that come up saying 'You'll only get one chance at this', like the Lo Wo mission - will it only appear the once, or does it just mean I can only attempt it once, but I can leave it for now and it'll repop in a couple of months? Not a big deal, but worth clarifying if possible.

Anyway, thanks for all your hard work on the mod. It's a lot of fun, and one day, when someone combines it with XPiratez and then remakes the whole thing in the Jagged Alliance 2 engine, we'll have achieved gaming perfection ;)

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2417 on: April 03, 2019, 03:00:01 pm »
Commits suicide

Offline HinterDemGlas

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2418 on: April 03, 2019, 07:04:17 pm »
Commits suicide
Oh no?!

How alien psionics work, particularly vis a vis enemy sight - is the thing where if they see one of your guys, they can control any of your guys still a thing? Do they still focus on the weakest guy (which is pretty exploitable)?
Psionics should be nominally unknown and scary in my opinion.

I'd suggest buffing the gym to work faster and take agents to a higher level, and potentially nerfing a couple of the more bullshit 'death from nowhere' things, like Lotus Assassins. I've heard people say that the grindiness is something that's still being worked on though, which is good to hear.
The gym is very very good already; I agree on the mission grindiness though. It's my own fault to a point, I needed the cash so badly I couldn't skip a single cryptid hunt.

I was surprised, given the Piratez influence, that night ops are so harshly punished here. It was great fun in that mod sneaking around and taking out unsuspecting Academy guys, even if it was a little OP in the earlygame. Here it seems borderline suicidal, at least in the first couple of years. Is there at least a way to turn off the lights on the car/van/craft/whatever you came in? They're doing my agents absolutely no favours.
Night missions are valid and useful in this mod. In fact I get utterly ruined everytime I try day missions against human enemies in the early game.
Press 'l' to switch off the personal lights. The lights on the craft are actually flashlights lying on the ground. Don't bring flashlights! Flashlights are a death trap! Bring a dog and some E-lights and stick to the black squares. A few enemies will shoot at you from across the map for no discernible reason even when you've gone perfectly dark but they usually miss.

Weapon balance could use some work. Magnums are too accurate, and there seems little incentive to use rifles and machine guns instead. From something like month 6 to month 30, the vast majority of my squad went from using magnums, to black ops magnums, and eventually smart magnums. A couple of them had Arasaka 3000's, and one had a Milkor (eventually upgraded to a rocket launcher) but aside from undercover missions there rarely seemed an incentive to use anything else.
I agree on the Magnums.
Rifles are useful, especially precision ones. The only "real life" SMG I ended up using was the MAC10 for 16 fucking shots per turn. the best "real life" machine gun is the M60, being useful at rifle range and reaction fire, the others have a pitiful effective range. It would be nice if more MGs had Snap Shot(x2) or (x3).
All the Black Ops machine guns and miniguns are hella sweet though.

Anyway, thanks for all your hard work on the mod. It's a lot of fun, and one day, when someone combines it with XPiratez and then remakes the whole thing in the Jagged Alliance 2 engine, we'll have achieved gaming perfection ;)
I can see the light now...

Offline Covenant

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2419 on: April 04, 2019, 02:45:20 am »
Commits suicide

See, it's easy to do by mistake, isn't it? :P

Seriously though, you're doing a great job on the mod and I hope I didn't imply otherwise. I look forward to seeing how it continues to develop, whether anything I said above is implemented or not.

Psionics should be nominally unknown and scary in my opinion.

I agree to a degree - I certainly wouldn't telegraph which enemies have what attacks, and there's no need to go into the precise formulas - but I'd at least warn people how it can be. I can only imagine how pissed a player would feel if they had some guy with a loaded rocket launcher - who they assumed was safely out of sight of the aliens at the back of the landing craft - mind controlled into blowing up half his squad just because they sent out a couple of scouts on the first turn.

My perspective is probably coloured by the fact that I play Ironman, which I've been assuming is the norm. Reloading obviously ameliorates issues like that immensely.

The gym is very very good already; I agree on the mission grindiness though. It's my own fault to a point, I needed the cash so badly I couldn't skip a single cryptid hunt.

Yeah, the gym is good. I certainly didn't mean to imply otherwise. It just seems like an easy way to solve the grindiness issue without introducing other unintended consequences.

Night missions are valid and useful in this mod. In fact I get utterly ruined everytime I try day missions against human enemies in the early game.
Press 'l' to switch off the personal lights. The lights on the craft are actually flashlights lying on the ground. Don't bring flashlights! Flashlights are a death trap! Bring a dog and some E-lights and stick to the black squares. A few enemies will shoot at you from across the map for no discernible reason even when you've gone perfectly dark but they usually miss.

Aha! I was aware of 'l', but it was the flashlights. I was bringing a bunch (for no real reason). Thanks for clearing that up, I look forward to doing some sneaky night missions in my new campaign.

I agree on the Magnums.
Rifles are useful, especially precision ones. The only "real life" SMG I ended up using was the MAC10 for 16 fucking shots per turn. the best "real life" machine gun is the M60, being useful at rifle range and reaction fire, the others have a pitiful effective range. It would be nice if more MGs had Snap Shot(x2) or (x3).
All the Black Ops machine guns and miniguns are hella sweet though.

Which rifles would you say are worth using? I found the Nitro Express and Hunting Rifle decent before I got magnums, and later it was worth keeeping a couple of Arasakas on my guys for those really long-distance shots (on the 120+ Firing Accuracy guys, obviously), but for everything else the magnums were top-tier. Particularly with tritanium ammo, which tied up my engineers but was otherwise pretty cheap to produce.

Anyway, thanks for reading all that. And being able to do night missions without starting Turn 1 in a self-created spotlight will probably do wonders for my next campaign!
« Last Edit: April 04, 2019, 02:57:31 am by Covenant »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2420 on: April 04, 2019, 11:47:03 am »
Don't worry, I am just overwhelmed. :) No time to even respond properly, so implementing all this would be a huge task. (Not going into what makes sense and what doesn't.)
But I assure you the mod development continues in the background. For example yesterday I rebalanced all rifles and sniper rifles.

Offline HinterDemGlas

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2421 on: April 04, 2019, 06:09:58 pm »
Which rifles would you say are worth using? I found the Nitro Express and Hunting Rifle decent before I got magnums, and later it was worth keeeping a couple of Arasakas on my guys for those really long-distance shots (on the 120+ Firing Accuracy guys, obviously), but for everything else the magnums were top-tier. Particularly with tritanium ammo, which tied up my engineers but was otherwise pretty cheap to produce.
I like to mix and match and experiment so I have always around 5 uniform templates. But the most standard early game agent had a rifle in the right hand, a pistol in the left hand, empty QD holster to put away the pistol easily, electric club in the belt.

For rookies (usually already gym-improved but not capped) the rifle was a shotgun, the pistol a Glock or other quick handgun like the MAC-10 for better training and variety.
The precision rifle for the main troops and elites progressed something like this over my game, influenced by chance and blind trying:
Crossbow->Hunting Rifle->Nitro Express(semi-retired into anti-fleshtank niche)->SKS->trying out various rifles->Arasaka(the Queen of Rifles)->Asuka(but that's later game?)
I also used some assault rifles but they were usually outperformed by marksmen with access to a pistol. The FN-Fal and the G-11 have their own niches as elite hole maker and training horse respectively.

But I assure you the mod development continues in the background. For example yesterday I rebalanced all rifles and sniper rifles.
And now nothin I said matters anymore!

Thanks for the constant work!

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2422 on: April 04, 2019, 11:00:27 pm »
Thanks for the constant work!

If you're interested, check out my GitHub. ;)
https://github.com/SolariusScorch/XComFiles

It is regularly updated and you can even download the newest version. ;) But of course it's completely untested and sometimes doesn't even work. (Usually does, though.)

Offline Alex_D

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2423 on: April 05, 2019, 04:17:51 am »
Question about research labs.
In my current campaign, I have one base for main strikes and research, another base for more strikes and training, two bases for manufacturing, and in construction another base for storage, research and minor manufacturing.
Spoiler:
On the latter base I build an Advanced Lab only. On the first base I built Standard, Improved, and Advanced Labs. Upon checking the research options available, I realized that some research items are only available if the Standard or Improved Labs are available, but they are not available if only the Advanced Lab is present.
I always thought that Advanced provides: Advanced, Improved, and Standard Lab functions; Improved provides: Improved and Standard Lab functions; and Standard Lab only Standard Lab. But in Stats For Neds each lab provides for its class only.

My question is if they should be like:
Code: [Select]
  - type: STR_ADVANCED_LABORATORY
    provideBaseFunc: [ADVLAB,IMPLAB,STDLAB]
  - type: STR_IMPROVED_LABORATORY
    provideBaseFunc: [IMPLAB,STDLAB]
  - type: STR_LABORATORY
    provideBaseFunc: [STDLAB]
or the way it is now is as intended?


Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2424 on: April 05, 2019, 10:45:05 am »
Yes, it is as intended. The various lab stages are specialized facilities rather than straight upgrades.
Maybe I should give them different names, like "high energy lab" and such?

Offline krautbernd

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2425 on: April 05, 2019, 09:00:09 pm »
Attached are the ufopedia images for the different giant spiders. Colors don't quite match the inventory images due to different palettes. Let me know if these are ok.

Offline Alex_D

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2426 on: April 06, 2019, 03:33:33 am »
Yes, it is as intended. The various lab stages are specialized facilities rather than straight upgrades.
Maybe I should give them different names, like "high energy lab" and such?

Thanks for clarifying. I suppose an explanation that "lesser" research cannot be performed on the more specialized labs can go along with a name change.

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2427 on: April 06, 2019, 04:28:22 pm »
Attached are the ufopedia images for the different giant spiders. Colors don't quite match the inventory images due to different palettes. Let me know if these are ok.

Great job, thanks. Added.

Offline Water Puppers

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2428 on: April 08, 2019, 05:56:59 am »
Quick question about the 'Trident' submarine you unlock after researching 'Advanced Underwater Operations'; Does the Trident replaces the 'Calypso'?

If it does then why am I only getting the Calypso (Using an Osprey with 15 dudes)?

If it doesn't then how do you use it/acquire it?

Thank you, and sorry if I posted this incorrectly.

Offline krautbernd

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.9.8: X-Cool
« Reply #2429 on: April 08, 2019, 01:37:36 pm »
The Trident is not a 'real' craft - the research only unlocks additional missions that feature the Trident as a starting position. It doesn't change missions that are already unlocked.

...

As far as i can tell it's easier to do it this way than to add allowedCraft entries to all missions so people don't use the submarines to assault UFOs (among other things).
« Last Edit: April 08, 2019, 01:47:45 pm by krautbernd »