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

[_Brain322]

I mean UFO in XCF appearing every 10-12 hours. Is it normal ? Sometimes, my squad can't even leave my base without detecting alien interceptor. And it's become tedious sometimes. But it might be just me. Anyway, wait forward for your full release 

[Solarius Scorch]

I mean UFO in XCF appearing every 10-12 hours. Is it normal ? Sometimes, my squad can't even leave my base without detecting alien interceptor. And it's become tedious sometimes. But it might be just me. Anyway, wait forward for your full release 

I wouldn't say it's normal, though may happen at times when the stars are right.
Unless I botched something recently

[HT]

I have a suggestion: What if we make Bloodhounds playable? Seeing that Piratez has them, X-Files could give the player an option to eventually purchase them as well, even if they're expensive to buy or whatever.

It could be repurposed as a special research that gives you a score penalty since their creation is somewhat unethical and potentially generate League of Concerned Citizens missions, like these deals with MAGMA Corp.

For extra unethical purposes, perhaps there could be an option to "transform" a regular dog unit into a Bloodhound? Fluff-wise it could be excused as brain transfer and such, a thing that could work for cybernetic dogs like K9 from Fallout 2, if that becomes a thing in the future.

Either way, with Bloodhounds I was talking about these giant blood-red dogs extracted from Blood in case it wasn't clear.

[tkzv]

I have a suggestion: What if we make Bloodhounds playable?

Gilldogs too

cybernetic dogs like K9 from Fallout 2, if that becomes a thing in the future.

K9000?


Back to what I opened this topic for. Solarius, did you change anything in giant beetles? Compared to the previous version (0.9.9.c) in 0.9.9.d they seem to dodge bullets. Earlier they died from 1-2 hits from a Glock, now they take more than 4. Besides that, 3/4 of shots miss when indicated probability is 47-49%, most shots go too high.

[Solarius Scorch]

I have a suggestion: What if we make Bloodhounds playable? Seeing that Piratez has them, X-Files could give the player an option to eventually purchase them as well, even if they're expensive to buy or whatever.

I've been wondering about this, but the technology to make them is pretty experimental around 2000; they are not a finished product yet (though can still be quite effective against X-Com agents). So adding them just like dogs would require some development of the general design, beyond what the Syndicate can do easily. Can X-Com do that? Maybe in late stage. We'll see.

It could be repurposed as a special research that gives you a score penalty since their creation is somewhat unethical and potentially generate League of Concerned Citizens missions, like these deals with MAGMA Corp.

I actually don't think the Council would mind much.

For extra unethical purposes, perhaps there could be an option to "transform" a regular dog unit into a Bloodhound? Fluff-wise it could be excused as brain transfer and such, a thing that could work for cybernetic dogs like K9 from Fallout 2, if that becomes a thing in the future.

I thought about that, but it didn't seem very scientific to me.

Back to what I opened this topic for. Solarius, did you change anything in giant beetles? Compared to the previous version (0.9.9.c) in 0.9.9.d they seem to dodge bullets. Earlier they died from 1-2 hits from a Glock, now they take more than 4. Besides that, 3/4 of shots miss when indicated probability is 47-49%, most shots go too high.

No, I haven't changed anything. Must be RNG.

[krautbernd]

I've been wondering about this, but the technology to make them is pretty experimental around 2000; they are not a finished product yet (though can still be quite effective against X-Com agents). So adding them just like dogs would require some development of the general design, beyond what the Syndicate can do easily. Can X-Com do that? Maybe in late stage. We'll see.

We have extradimensional travel, zero-gravity, can engineer a bio-toxin that only affects 'monsters', have scientific explanations for parapsychology, ghosts and ghost tanks, can graft alien skins into armored exoskeletons (or whatever you'd call them, the distinction is kind of moot)...i think x-com would be able to manage just fine.

Apart from that, why not simply recruit stunned/recovered blood hounds? I don't think any conditioning the syndicate might have used would prevent x-vom from re-conditioning them. They might not be stable on account of immune system problems, but it's nothing a bit of that 'magical monster gel' can't fix.

[HT]

I've been wondering about this, but the technology to make them is pretty experimental around 2000; they are not a finished product yet (though can still be quite effective against X-Com agents). So adding them just like dogs would require some development of the general design, beyond what the Syndicate can do easily. Can X-Com do that? Maybe in late stage. We'll see.

Well, these dogs may be experimental, but the Syndicate produced enough of them to have them come with serial numbers. Perhaps it could be a special research available after defeating said faction? The point is to have an endgame equivalent for doggos.

Brain transfer may not be very "scientific", but it's a staple of sci-fi (it's a cruder version of mind-uploading after all) and the game is not too hardcore with realism, seeing that aliens and zombies are a thing. Either way, the idea was that you had a chance to repurpose your dog units into Bloodhounds, so that you don't have to train one of these from the start, which would be especially frustrating as by then you're close to the endgame. Perhaps you could "sacrifice" a dog unit as genetic material to produce a Bloodhound at the Workshop with some stats inherited from the donor?

We have extradimensional travel, zero-gravity, can engineer a bio-toxin that only affects 'monsters', have scientific explanations for parapsychology, ghosts and ghost tanks, can graft alien skins into armored exoskeletons (or whatever you'd call them, the distinction is kind of moot)...i think x-com would be able to manage just fine.

Apart from that, why not simply recruit stunned/recovered blood hounds? I don't think any conditioning the syndicate might have used would prevent x-vom from re-conditioning them. They might not be stable on account of immune system problems, but it's nothing a bit of that 'magical monster gel' can't fix.

This.

Capturing live Bloodhounds to re-educate them is also an option, but that can be done already with enemy dogs and rats, not sure if it would be fitting to do it as well.

[Solarius Scorch]

We have extradimensional travel, zero-gravity, can engineer a bio-toxin that only affects 'monsters', have scientific explanations for parapsychology, ghosts and ghost tanks, can graft alien skins into armored exoskeletons (or whatever you'd call them, the distinction is kind of moot)...i think x-com would be able to manage just fine.

Apart from that, why not simply recruit stunned/recovered blood hounds? I don't think any conditioning the syndicate might have used would prevent x-vom from re-conditioning them. They might not be stable on account of immune system problems, but it's nothing a bit of that 'magical monster gel' can't fix.

OK, I'll think about this seriously. But I need a way to make it a later game thing, some sort of biological mastery.

And @HumanTraitor Brain transfer is not exactly impossible, but it's not what you probably think, otherwise the aliens wouldn't be using actual human brains.

[Mr. Mister]

Maybe make it require an XCOM dog and a captured bloodhound, so that you're transferring the brain from the dog into the bloodhound's body?

As for why you can't use this tech with humans, make it so that memory is not preserved, only instinct, so that nobody in their right mind would want to donate their brain.

[Cynus_X]

Anyone else feeling a "Cesar Milan" Dossier coming up? 

OK, I'll think about this seriously. But I need a way to make it a later game thing, some sort of biological mastery.

Maybe you need to capture/retrieve a scientist experienced in something neurosciency with dogs from a syndicate compound. Make it a one-time only mission.

[Solarius Scorch]

Why do you people fixate on the brain so much? The brain has nothing to do with this. (Aside from the "brain transfer" idiocy, which I won't even comment upon.)
The point is, if you want a bloodhound, you need to grow a bloodhound. From an embryo. Turning an adult dog to a bloodhound is as hard as turning an average Joe into a 2.5 m Space Marine. Even if it was possible, it just doesn't make much sense.
But I realize the gameplay advantage, so I'm like, "convince me, I want to be convinced".

[HT]

Well, if re-training a captured Bloodhound isn't an option, then growing one should suffice. It probably will require kidnapping Syndicate scientists to interrogate them for info, so it will likely take a while to get to that, possibly until the Syndicate is permanently destroyed by the time your tech is advanced enough to do that.

By the way, just to know: When should the next update be done? Next month or so?

[Lohland]

Can we hope to see a mortar in the game?

[hvnlysoldr]

Great work with the mod. I'm replaying from the beginning. Those weapon boxes really help in the beginning year.
The rat unit is so much less useful than dogs. I'm not talking about the stats although armor for the animals don't measure up late. No, my frustration is training Reaction stats. Dog soldiers gain reaction stats for Bark weapon and for Bite weapon trains both Melee and Reaction. The highest stat Rat soldiers can utilize (Reaction) is much harder to train than everything else. It requires putting your Rat right up to an enemy and dangerously take a risk, either your rat gets killed quick or you get to pathetically bite back. The Rat seems to be even more specialized as a low HP scout than Dogs are, but it's so much harder to keep them alive than dogs to reach that potential. Please change Giant Rat Bite train both Reaction and Melee like Dog Bite does. Manufacturing armor for rats like we can for dogs would make them easier to keep alive as well.
My opinion for both Rat and Dog soldiers is they cannot run as fast as late-game soldiers. That probably has to do with the Energy refill formula. It looks at current health and the animals just don't have that much to begin with. Max health soldiers don't have as high stamina capacity but playing it feels they regain them at a faster pace; and that reduces the satisfaction of running the animal scouts; although that's just at the late stage with superhuman soldiers.

Spoiler:

Soldier JUMPSUIT (15 + 0.25*CURRENT HEALTH (CAP 70))/STAMINA (CAP 105)*100%=31% recovery
vs RAT ARMOR (25 + 0.25*CURRENT HEALTH(CAP 30))/STAMINA (CAP 140)*100%=22% recovery

Since playing this mod I have always liked using Flashlights better than Flares. Electro-Flares are less expensive but less powerful. Even with Flashlights being heavier, thus cannot be thrown as far, their light strength and their melee ability appeals to me more. So finding Shogg Lanterns worked like better flares and that later on I could buy Shogg tech like ships and weapons; I was disappointed I couldn't buy them. Looking in the Items and Research Rulesets I found the problem. Items lists being able to buy them when you can buy all the other weapons and has the sell price but without the costBuy tag it will never be available. Please either make them not at all buy-able by removing the purchase tag or put in the costBuy.

Spoiler:

  - type: STR_SHOGG_LANTERN
    categories: [STR_SHOGG_TECH, STR_EQUIPMENT]
    requiresBuy:
      - STR_PURCHASE_SHOGG_WEAPONS
    size: 0.25
    costSell: 4000
    weight: 4
    bigSprite: 748
    floorSprite: 685
    power: 18
    battleType: 10
    costThrow:
      energy: 8
    invWidth: 1
    invHeight: 3
    attraction: 4
    recoveryPoints: 1
    listOrder: 46270

Keep up the great work we all really appreciate X-Files and OPENXCOM and all your effort and support.

[Thunderwing280]

How about giving the single shot grenade launcher a tear gas that stuns over time? Or a rubber shell that stuns and wounds slightly? The M-79 irl had rubber rounds and tear gas that are used which I believe the grenade launcher in this mod is.