Re: The X-Com Files - 3.5: Whispers In The Dark

[Bobit]

I would be surprised if #1 was difficult. There's no script to end of turn remove thrown items? Don't sectoid plasma guns basically already do this?

#2 is much more difficult, yeah, and has almost no advantage over armor with built-in vision items.

[Solarius Scorch]

Well, if it's a gun, then it can't lob a flare. A flare is not ammo, it is a different item type.

[Bobit]

True. But I don't think he meant the literal flare item. Just a projectile that lights an area.

Btw, I don't think the game is that difficult early. You lose a lot of guys, sure, but the chance of losing the campaign is near zero. Melee monsters can oneshot your entire squad on the first turn, which is a huge threat, but they're not as profitable so more evaccable, and most other missions are pretty winnable. I also think kevlar first is more important than vans because getting oneshot is way too common and it can frequently block a shot entirely. Meanwhile armored shields block like 80% of bullets... it's pretty absurd, which makes sense for a "low-tech" game.

I do think it's funny how much retrieving a single alien corpse can unlock a lab which can result in a 50% tech boost. And yet since the aliens oneshot all your guys, have a very tiny window for landing, perfect reflexes, and enough hp to survive a couple shots, this is actually the most difficult early game goal.

Love the mod and all the quirks above. Only real complaint is it can get a bit grindy against high-hp low-threat enemies like zombies or some outposts you out-tech. But I prefer short but randomized/replayable games in general, unlike a lot of XCOM players.

[tarkalak]

I would be surprised if #1 was difficult. There's no script to end of turn remove thrown items? Don't sectoid plasma guns basically already do this?

#2 is much more difficult, yeah, and has almost no advantage over armor with built-in vision items.

Well, if it's a gun, then it can't lob a flare. A flare is not ammo, it is a different item type.

1. I was thinking about having a searchlight of sort. You use it to illuminate an area briefly and then it's off (after the turn). You can have one guy with a shield and a powerful flashlight that illuminates the enemies and draws fire while the rest stay in the dark. That is a bit like night naval combat during WWII.

This idea came to me when I shot a street lamp in a night mission. After the lamp was destroyed, the area stayed lit, but next turn it was dark.

2. Having a slot for night vision, etc. will allow to have those capabilities separate from the armor. It can be done by having SUIT, SUIT with headlamp, SUIT with night vision goggles, etc, but it would be too much clutter to add that to every type of armor, and not that much useful..

3. On a side note the ability to shut down the landing craft's lights would also be great.

The DRAGONFLY for example has a neat dark area near the ramp and under the craft with lights that illuminate the area around this. That is great until you need to move beyond the dark area.

I should put these suggestions in the general suggestions forum as they are beyond the scope of a mod.

[Solarius Scorch]

Yeah, I think these ideas, while sensible, should be directed to OXCE developers.
With what we have now, the best/most approximate option or a signal flare is the flare pistol, which simply fires an incendiary projectile and doesn't create any objects. And for the searchlight, you can just put it on your belt to "turn it off".
Come to think of it, you could also make a weapon which shoots a special unit which shines brightly. But it would be pretty quirky, I don't like this idea much.

[tarkalak]

Or there could be a self destroying flare that has a timer (like regular grenades). It illuminates the are until the timer runs off and then harmlessly detonates.

For the craft, the lights can be made into invisible and blind "turrets" (Like in 40k but without guns) that have a special non-throwable flare in their hands. The player can switch it ON/OFF by moving it between the "turret"'s pocket and hand slots.

But both of the above sound very quirky and clumsy so I put them here as a thought experiment rather than real suggestions.

[Solarius Scorch]

Well, even these quirky solutions "could be" only in the sense that it might be coded in, just pretty much any feature. A flare and a grenade are completely different types of  items, even though they share some characteristics (they are thrown, they have counters).
Okay, the "turret" idea would work. But it'd VERY quirky in how the player interacts with this unit. For example, it would need inventory, so this "lamp" could also be dropped...
But for thought experiments, these are pretty clever.

[karnaugh_map]

I would like to suggest some sort of advanced combat fire extinguisher item, like a fire-foam grenade. It could perhaps be implemented as a no-prime instant smoke grenade with a 1-tile radius that also has flash-bang effects to simulate being covered in foam. Them fire extinguishers are heavy and slow!

[krautbernd]

I made a Fire Blanket mod for OXCE some while ago, it should still be fully compatible with XCF. Otherwise smoke grenades should also be able to put out fires (albeit only on ground tiles iirc).

[Solarius Scorch]

OK, I am not against such an idea. I'll think of a fire extinguishing grenade.

EDIT: 0.9.9d has been released.

- New Dossiers: Baba Donka (by Tarkalak), Arastoo Namdar (by The Third Curry), Gabriel 'The Bone Father' Nadeau (by Dirty Skeletons Done Dirt Cheap).
- New unit: Samael of Apocalypse.
- New mission: Project Samael.
- New weapon: Staff of Samael.
- New armors: Heavy Tactical Suit, Heavy Tritanium Suit.
- New bigobs for natural weapons.
- New death and attack sounds for some units.
- Improved Ufopaedia background (by Kato).
- Fixed Slovak and Czech name lists (by Bartojan).
- Fixed a crash on selling X-Rats.
- Minor fixes.

[Mr. Mister]

Everything compatible with current saves I assume?

[HT]

Yay, a new update! We're getting close to the final release at last! Unfortunately I'm afraid the air combat is still not as good as the rest of the game, unless there have been major changes compared with the previous versions.

What's the point of the Heavy Tactical Suit and the Alloy-improved variant? What use can they have in your opinion? The first one seems to be quite bulky and protective yes, but the Tactical Vest with shield gives slightly more protection, while the improved Titranium variant is logically way better, especially against bullet weaponry, but it's still too heavy compared to the regular Alloy-based armors.

Thoughts?

[Solarius Scorch]

Everything compatible with current saves I assume?

Yes of course. Sorry for the delay!

Yay, a new update! We're getting close to the final release at last! Unfortunately I'm afraid the air combat is still not as good as the rest of the game, unless there have been major changes compared with the previous versions.

The air game in X-Com as such is underwhelming. I don't know how it improve it. I don't even like it enough to be willing to work on it, sorry.

What's the point of the Heavy Tactical Suit and the Alloy-improved variant? What use can they have in your opinion? The first one seems to be quite bulky and protective yes, but the Tactical Vest with shield gives slightly more protection, while the improved Titranium variant is logically way better, especially against bullet weaponry, but it's still too heavy compared to the regular Alloy-based armors.

Because the vest with shield is one-handed (duh), so only fit for a very specialized unit. And the tritanium vest is good if you get the tritanium, which is far from guaranteed.
...and that's assuming these two are inherently better, which is a risky statement if you consider resistances.
This armour was actually introduced as a way to plug a very real hole, not something I added just because I wanted to (which admittedly happens sometimes).

[Draykoth]

What is the E-115 damage type? I mean, it's elerium obviously, but I have never seen a weapon of any kind do that damage. Most elerium based weapons are either plasma guns or concussive explosives, do any weapons actually do pure elerium damage?

I ask because I'm preparing for Cydonia, and I noticed Chryssalids have a MASSIVE weakness to it, unlike every other enemy, who appear to be immune.

[Solarius Scorch]

Sorry, such weapons do not exist yet.