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

[Solarius Scorch]

Congrats. Btw please tag the release in Github. It may help for comparisons etc.

I knew I'd forgotten something... :/
Now should be fixed.

In my test SH/IM campaign, in December 1998, I have already obtained 56 veteran agents. So, if you're a good player you get new veteran agents at a pace much greater than you lose them. But of course you're not forced to claim all of them, you can also sell the "recruitment rights". So no problem as such.

The feature certainly makes it faster to replace and train good agents (especially because the stats that are difficult to train are already high). The only downside is you get the PST lottery. But I suppose it's good to have at least some randomness, and maybe this also results in variety of late game transformations (i.e. not everyone gets to be a spartan). (If I was hiring agents at a later part of the game, I'd sack everyone with <50 PST, bad bravery etc.)

For good players the pace for obtaining veterans could be slower so that you would not be end up overflowing with them by getting 4 each month. Say 1-2 veterans per month. But the I recognize this feature is not really meant to help the good players who need little recruitment in the first place but rather the rest.

Thank you. This is the kind of feedback I'm hoping to see.

Potentially you could also get more veterans with lower difficulty levels. But I suppose this mod does not want to vary the content based on difficulty level.

Well, taking away good stuff from lower difficulty levels would be weird anyway.

And I think it's harder to get good scores on low difficulties (because of less enemies per battle).

I'd vote for at least disabling spartans and hires on superhuman  .

I might have to do something about this

[Mathel]

So far, the veterans haven't been useful. Not enough monthly points.

What I just discovered is the difference caused by different positioning of landing crafte.

I tried to assault an Exalt forward base, but landed right next to the building and couldn't even leave the Dragonfly.
Then I attacked a Dagon forward base, and started at the opposite end of the map. I wiped most of their units with sniper and regular rifle fire, only losing one guy to a lucky Gillman shot, then went in and tased the Sorcerer.

Edit
So now I fought two fresh mansions. A CoD mansion and an Exalt mansion. The CoD mansion I crushed, only losing one soldier.

The Exalt I ended up barely losing, including craft, but still gained 300 points. I think it was the last Exalt non-surrendering guy that killed my last guy. Also, Sniper-Spotter mechanics are BS. My guy is out of their guy's vision because of darkness. He hits, moves, and is still killed in enemy turn when the opponent should not know the correct location.

[Whatever]

Probably a stupid question, but...
Is there a safe way to update this thing without just replacing all the files?

[psavola]

Probably a stupid question, but...
Is there a safe way to update this thing without just replacing all the files?

Why wouldn't you want to do that? Have you modified the rulesets yourself? I always delete the whole mod's directory and replace it with the new one.

[Whatever]

Why wouldn't you want to do that? Have you modified the rulesets yourself?

Actually I did. I modified the starting year, removed the demigod mode, modified some map sizes and some missions to give more random number of enemies. And I am not totally sure that was all I did. 

EDIT: And I'm not actually sure how exactly I did some of those things. Replicating all the changes may be troublesome. and time consuming.

If, for example, there was some "patch" version of the update I could just check if it overrides any files with more recent modification date.

[Meridian]

That's why you never modify someone else's mod directly.

You create your own submod, with the changes only, so that you can easily update when a new version is released.


PS: to answer your question: no, there is no other way to update mods than replacing all the files... actually even that is wrong, because it could leave unwanted old files... correct way is: "1. delete the old version completely, 2. copy the new version"

[Whatever]

That's why you never modify someone else's mod directly.

I would then have to learn how to make a submod and I'm a total amateur in IT stuff. I just learned once that some games have files you can open and then find numbers/letters responsible for stuff and then change them... and can never resist to fine-tune stuff stuff to my liking when I can

In all seriousness, I read somewhere that the mod is generally finished with exception of some ghost stuff that may or may not be completed one day. I didn't expect a new version to land so quickly.

Thanks for the info anyway, guess I'm off to check the newly modified files to write down the ones I changed.


EDIT:
After updating I can still use my old savegames, right?

[CrazedHarpooner]

Most of the time, they should work, however there's always a possibility of bugs from mid campaign update. It is recommended to update between geoscape saves, avoid battlescape updates.

As for making a submod, specially if you're changing some values, it's much easier than many people think. Amateur IT is more than enough to do it and a bit of time to read the nightly ruleset information at ufopaedia and you don't even need to read the whole thing, just the metadata and the sections that you'll modify.

[Mathel]

So the result of me trying this without access to the Tech Tree viewer is, that I lost on the end of February 1999. I failed to deal with the cults.

However, this was mostly due to playing poorly, not due to not having access to the Tech Tree. What stalled me the most was not realizing I had to dissect a monster to get Promotion I. But since it is stated in the goals for X-Com GIB, that is my fault, not the game's.
The second thing that stalled me was not knowing I needed to research all the cult networks in order to get the Military Envoy. But that was not as bad, since I still was trying to capture and interrogate new enemies anyway. I just would have put higher priority (risking soldiers more) on it, had I known it was blocking my way to Armored Vests.

In total, while I did not win, I'd say I had a fair chance, and the Tech Tree viewer is not mandatory.


One thing I think is not adequately explained is, what constitutes Pintle-Mounted guns. I did discover that RPG launcher with Anti-Tank ammo counts, but I did not have the Ammo, as all my launchers were captured with either standard ammo, or none.
So I request that when Angry Bird is unlocked, a list of human tech weapon and ammo combinations that can be loaded onto it is unlocked as well.

[coorta88]

What I would like to see in next version of game are some penalties for ignoring some important research topics - I´ll explain immediately.

Currently it is possible to get research topics regarding ghost shortly before or after third promotion and I was able to safely ignore it before I had turbolaser pistol researched and manufactured, which allowed me to deal with all ghost enemies with relative ease.

The same issue can be found with underwater and underground research topics, which you can get around third promotion and again I was able to ignore them without any consequence until I had plasma weapons researched (for deling with zombies) and acid weapons researched (for underwater missions).

What I want is for game to penalise me for ignoring such crucial topics with for example some random events which decrease my ratings for ongoing game month (Maybe something about increasing frequencies of minor zombie attacks, or assault of deep see dwellers).  I would still be able to ignore such topics, but there would be now price for that.

[Whatever]

One thing I think is not adequately explained is, what constitutes Pintle-Mounted guns. I did discover that RPG launcher with Anti-Tank ammo counts, but I did not have the Ammo, as all my launchers were captured with either standard ammo, or none.
So I request that when Angry Bird is unlocked, a list of human tech weapon and ammo combinations that can be loaded onto it is unlocked as well.

In general - seconded. I actually use the online wiki and still don't know exactly either. Had to get it by trial and error. All heavy infantry weapons genrally count I THINK, from Minimi to Miniguns. But "Cannon" vehicle weapons do not. It's kinda confusing for a newbie when infantry weapons fit on your vehicles, while vehicle weapons do not :/

But it should be triggered by either Angry Bird or HUMVEE, I got HUMVEE first and spent quite some time trying and failing to understand that is that weapon slot for as I didn't have anything that fit. Dropped it and only after unlocking Angry Bird I noticed, that "pintle-mounted" hardpoints are for heavy machineguns and the like.

[psavola]

What I want is for game to penalise me for ignoring such crucial topics with for example some random events which decrease my ratings for ongoing game month (Maybe something about increasing frequencies of minor zombie attacks, or assault of deep see dwellers).  I would still be able to ignore such topics, but there would be now price for that.

You're already paying a high price by making the game run much slower and more difficult. Ghost arc offers excellent armor-ignoring weapons (to both kill enemies or capture them, including heavily protected ones like heavy MIBs). Underwater arc offers huge amounts of money and juggernaut suit(s). For eexample, the rest of the game becomes so much smoother if you have a couple of juggernaut suits to play with already in 1998.

I doubt many players would like the mod to penalize them even more for bad play.

[Solarius Scorch]

One thing I think is not adequately explained is, what constitutes Pintle-Mounted guns. I did discover that RPG launcher with Anti-Tank ammo counts, but I did not have the Ammo, as all my launchers were captured with either standard ammo, or none.
So I request that when Angry Bird is unlocked, a list of human tech weapon and ammo combinations that can be loaded onto it is unlocked as well.

Frankly, I don't know how to do it better... I would have to make an article and manually list all allowed weapons, regardless if the player even knows them. I'd rather leave it to the current description in Craft Equipment Types:
"Pintle-Mounted [PM]: infantry weapons mounted on a vehicle."

What I want is for game to penalise me for ignoring such crucial topics with for example some random events which decrease my ratings for ongoing game month (Maybe something about increasing frequencies of minor zombie attacks, or assault of deep see dwellers).  I would still be able to ignore such topics, but there would be now price for that.

The mod does that in many places. Admittedly not everywhere, but I think (or at least hope) that not opening these missions is costly in itself (see Psavola's post).

[Mathel]

Frankly, I don't know how to do it better... I would have to make an article and manually list all allowed weapons, regardless if the player even knows them. I'd rather leave it to the current description in Craft Equipment Types:
"Pintle-Mounted [PM]: infantry weapons mounted on a vehicle."

I was thinking a list of human tech. It would include only wepons that while possibly not researched would be known to exist.

But perhaps a better option is a list of weapon types. Now that I looked through the file, I see that it is Machine Guns (Both Light and Heavy), Miniguns, and Rocket Launchers. So just an explanation somewhere that this is what can be mounted on a pintle.

[Solarius Scorch]

But perhaps a better option is a list of weapon types. Now that I looked through the file, I see that it is Machine Guns (Both Light and Heavy), Miniguns, and Rocket Launchers. So just an explanation somewhere that this is what can be mounted on a pintle.

Would still require a separate article. I'm not convinced either way yet.