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

[X-Man]

Even so, the ballistic arc shouldn't be that aggressive, surely. I probably could've thrown grenades more effectively than using the 46mm launcher, which is kind of daft, because it implies that if you aimed the thing horizontally and fired, the round wouldn't go more than a few feet/meters before hitting dirt.

I agree with you, but it seems to be some sort of engine's specificity. Maybe the arc's angle could be adjusted in some way. Let's wait for what Sol will say. To my mind there is no need to any changes, because if it would be done we cannot use GL so effectively on the open maps.

[LytaRyta]

This megamod will allow you to grow X-Com from its humbled beginnings, as a two-men team travelling the world in an expensive-looking car to the global the military force we all know and love. It contains many, many additions, like new mission types, enemies, equipment and story arcs (including the entirety (entirely?, - like WHOLE? ) of my previous project, the Final Mod Pack). It also places the game a bit more firmly in the 90's conspiracy genre and its clichés.
Defeat the enemies from the outer space, the oceans the underground, (..and from the ..dark, darkest corners of mind and space, dimensions.. ), but primarily within our own society!


GET THE MOD HERE: https://openxcom.mod.io/the-x-com-files

When in doubt, check Ivan Dogovich's installation tutorial: https://youtu.be/L1WUpX9n7gY?t=43m40s



Progress-o-meter by arc (estimated):

Church of Dagon: 100%
Black Lotus: 100%
Red Dawn: 100%
EXALT: 100%
Strange Life Forms: 100%
T'leth: 100%
Syndicate: 100%
Cyberweb: 100%
Dimension X: 100%
Zombies: 100%
Hybrids: 100%
Shogg: 72%
Cult of Apocalypse: 40%
Men in Black: 20%
[classified]: 1%
[classified]: 0%

Note that 100% does not mean there will be no changes or additions, only that I consider this arc done and fully functional.


For changelog, go here.

... Hey Mr.D.J.!,   but where is *Twin Peaks* DLynch" stuff and things ?

..what about including also *Twin Peaks .. add at least some of the disturbing, thrilling, D.Lynch~/~Badalamenti  's dark-jazz mystéries from there, as such ..appreciation, /commemoration of the show

[Marrik]

Hey, one other question, is it possible to purchase Calicos? I researched them, but I don't have the option to buy them the way I do some other weapons I've researched.

[X-Man]

Hey, one other question, is it possible to purchase Calicos? I researched them, but I don't have the option to buy them the way I do some other weapons I've researched.

For Calico acquisition you should learn 'Promotion I' and 'Non-Standart Weapons'. Actually, you can check all techs that you need in tech-tree screen (press key 'Q' on Geoscape screen). You will find there everything you need.

[LytaRyta]

^^

LYNCH/BADALAMENTI - Dark Mood Woods (studio version) >~~  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuzYfUz5dNM

[LytaRyta]

^^

..btw., but in fact, that character (person´ dossier) suggested by me, Tanya/Lyta lybet, - would be abit more fitting into Area51 mod.. (than x-files)



btw2 - why, EVEN WHY,  you all .."keep" and develop 2 (almost) IDENTICal_by_theme mods ? ?  with ~~exact identical topics, themes, things, leitmotives, contents, ideas, etc...

i personally would, at best, (as best solution)  -  just joint, /merge of 2 into 1big.. 

(  ..simply fuse them, combine them both, into 1 bigger mod, ..under name *Area51 x-Files*,  for example..

[Solarius Scorch]

...what other mod?
You mentioned Area 51, but not only it isn't mine, I haven't even played it.
It would be wise to get off drugs once in a while.

[Arcalane]

Nevermind that they're vastly different in scope, which only takes about five minutes of checking out Area51 to show. A51 is an expansion pack; XCF is really more of a total overhaul/rework.

Both mods have their place within the 'ecosystem' and merging them would be pointless. Nevermind it looks like XCF already has most of A51's content.

The only thing that really leaps out at me is the officer suit/flight suit stuff. It'd be kinda nice to be able to tell some of my soldiers apart a little easier at the point I'm at (everyone's wearing the green combat armour) but I know classic XCOM really doesn't support customization nearly as elegantly as its recent successors.

[Solarius Scorch]

I could add a new armour

In other news, some proofs I've ben working like crazy for the past 2 months.

[Arcalane]

I could add a new armour

I'd say not so much entirely new armours as colour and headgear variants of existing combat/alloy/etc. armour sets. Stuff like officer suits that have no helmet, or berets/caps instead of helmets, medic suits that have white or pale green undersuits/plating and green cross decals, etc.

Though, for whole new stuff... I'm sure nobody's made sprites for them, but ghillie suits and other effective camo would be pretty neat. Maybe nothing as crazy as Lotus ninjas, but something that makes your scouts harder to spot would be pretty slick. Maybe some high-tech active/adaptive camo at later stages as well.

Obviously, neither kind would have very good protection values, and I realize that this is all, y'know, fairly time-consuming given the amount of sprites that would need to be made.

military interception

Neat! Anything that makes things feel more 'alive' is good in my books. XCOM aren't the only ones fighting this war after all. Is this only an early-game thing, or will they even manage interceptions late-game too?

old crop circles

Not so neat. Arbitrary loss of points because 'RNG said so' is kind of uncool, even if the point loss is just a slap on the wrist compared to how much you can make for cleaning up a bunch of zombies or whatever.

That said, you could keep this and remove the points penalty, using it as a way to hint at UFO/MiB/etc. activity outside radar range - similar to how you can read the activity graphs for past months to see where they're active.

ninja arts

oh, so are the ninja scrolls and lo wo's secrets finally going to have a use?

[X-Man]

I'd say not so much entirely new armours as colour and headgear variants of existing combat/alloy/etc. armour sets. Stuff like officer suits that have no helmet, or berets/caps instead of helmets, medic suits that have white or pale green undersuits/plating and green cross decals, etc.

I'm glad to see that someone share my own thoughts Solarius, hear the voice of your faithful adepts!

...But I think we definitely need a top-tier armour, which provides high protection against kinetic weapons like mass drivers and Gauss (Sol, you'll know why very soon . Don't say a word about this turtle-like MAGMA's power armor. We need something, that gives a good protection and don't have so much penalties. AND we need stormtrooper armour without jetpack.

[Solarius Scorch]

I'd say not so much entirely new armours as colour and headgear variants of existing combat/alloy/etc. armour sets. Stuff like officer suits that have no helmet, or berets/caps instead of helmets, medic suits that have white or pale green undersuits/plating and green cross decals, etc.

Certainly doable, but would clutter lists.

Though, for whole new stuff... I'm sure nobody's made sprites for them, but ghillie suits and other effective camo would be pretty neat. Maybe nothing as crazy as Lotus ninjas, but something that makes your scouts harder to spot would be pretty slick. Maybe some high-tech active/adaptive camo at later stages as well.

Obviously, neither kind would have very good protection values, and I realize that this is all, y'know, fairly time-consuming given the amount of sprites that would need to be made.

But this already exists as the Jumpsuit... I see little space for anything similar.

Neat! Anything that makes things feel more 'alive' is good in my books. XCOM aren't the only ones fighting this war after all. Is this only an early-game thing, or will they even manage interceptions late-game too?

Early game mostly, but not only.
I just had this mission in my testing campaign, it was quite fun Those commandos really can harm a Sectoid.

Not so neat. Arbitrary loss of points because 'RNG said so' is kind of uncool, even if the point loss is just a slap on the wrist compared to how much you can make for cleaning up a bunch of zombies or whatever.

I have fun with them.

That said, you could keep this and remove the points penalty, using it as a way to hint at UFO/MiB/etc. activity outside radar range - similar to how you can read the activity graphs for past months to see where they're active.

Yeah, I could do that. Or I could leave it as is, because I made it when I was sober and knew what the fuck I was doing.
Honestly, the nerve of some people...

oh, so are the ninja scrolls and lo wo's secrets finally going to have a use?

Yes!

[Arcalane]

Certainly doable, but would clutter lists.

Yeah, like I said, not elegant at all. If I was confident in my own sprite-tweaking skills I'd do recolours myself, but that wouldn't solve the clutter issue without some major tweaks to OXCE itself.

But this already exists as the Jumpsuit... I see little space for anything similar.

Ah, I'd... actually forgotten it offered some stealth improvement. I see on rereading the ufopedia entry that it does, so 100% my bad on that. Still kinda unclear on how the Stats-for-Nerds visibility values correlate to default values and actual visibility in the battlescape but I'll definitely give them a whirl in future ops to see how they perform.

Yeah, I could do that. Or I could leave it as is, because I made it when I was sober and knew what the fuck I was doing.
Honestly, the nerve of some people...

...excuse me, what? I was just offering some feedback on the idea. It's not a personal attack or an insult, I'm certainly not implying you're under the influence of anything, and I'm not demanding you change it this instant or I'll stop playing XCF or not recommend it to anyone I know ('cause I've already recommended it to a couple people).

My concern is simply 'can this event be countered directly?'. Whether that's by shooting down more UFOs or kicking in some MiB office doors or making sure that a crop circles event doesn't expire. In the latter case if it pops because the event expired then it's actually a pretty good idea because it outright tells you what you lost for ignoring it, without you having to dig through the manual/UFOP/forums to get that information.

Compare; an alien base in vanilla generates 150 negative points every month it's allowed to exist. You can stop this by blowing it up. Any UFO generates negative points for completing a mission. You can stop this by... blowing it up (or ambushing it on the ground but same thing in the end really). In both cases you have a clear case of losses that are preventable through direct action, though they may not be easy.

If it's merely points loss because RNG decided you lose points and there's nothing you can directly do about it, then that just leaves a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth, is all. End of the day it's really not that many points, so I'm not going to be particularly upset by it.


All that aside, is the Black Lotus shrine mission still supposed to be popping up after clearing their HQ? I'm not looking forward to dealing with a ninja-infested jungle. Half a mind to pack as many incendiary grenades as possible and just burn it all down to stumps, really.

[X-Man]

Sorry to interrupt you, guys... 
Is this another device from Meridian's artifacts? http://prntscr.com/pc7d0c
I've already saw his crossbow and bow, but this is a new one for me.

[HT]

Throwing knives in space? Okay.
IIRC though, the latest build doesn't mention which resistances the space suit offers, for what's worth. Or which suits are compatible with space missions (Power armor and little else I think).

All that aside, is the Black Lotus shrine mission still supposed to be popping up after clearing their HQ? I'm not looking forward to dealing with a ninja-infested jungle. Half a mind to pack as many incendiary grenades as possible and just burn it all down to stumps, really.

Someone should put this in bold words somewhere: Missions are generated at the end of a month. Even if you complete the research that defeats "X" faction, that will only affect the following month and the others, not your current one. Hence why it takes a while for new mission types to appear, and why sometimes you have to deal with missions that shouldn't trigger anymore.