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

[yrizoud]

I'm glad to have it in writing, since everyone is saying how great shotguns are and how Uzi is completely useless.

Well, I had zombies generally survive one or two point-blank (pump action) shots. After that I kept to pistols - a turn shooting a colt 45 or glock seems to deal much more damage, and at a safer range.
Since Uzis, I had mostly spider/chupacabra missions, and auto shots at 15% effective precisions were very successful (maybe lucky). And since I can pair it off with a long-range pistol...

It's already differentiated, but perhaps not very well.

Oh, good, then. I thought about it because I had a very tight money spot (Started a month with a new HQ and $5000 in the bank), a zombie mission really got me out of the water. This is much different from cult suspects where I grab two sticks and a pistol

Color issues : Strange that only I see it. I play in windowed mode, and had the same visual artifacts in previous build also. I'll grab screenshots this evening. The palette shift IS voluntary, right ? Color ranges are no longer linear, there is a distinct change of hue when things get darker.

[Arthanor]

Dual-wielding is surprisingly useful in this mod. Luger and Uzi, Uzi and Tazer. There are always great combinations. Also, the tonfa is very effective. My agents have taken to charging towards VIPs with a cry of "TONFA!!!" in a very piratey fashion

In the early game, a combination of Luger for long range and small shotguns for short-range worked really well for me. But I'm playing on veteran "only" as it's been a while since I last played normal XCom. A few points of armor from changing difficulty levels can make a world of difference for shotguns, easily taking over the average damage and taking them from useful to useless.

Regarding colors, supsuper just made a comment regarding filters and windowed mode causing issues. You might want to look into that too. I'm pretty sure the palette is supposed to be the vanilla one.

[yrizoud]

I get the same colors, no matter windowed/fullscreen or filters. The attached F12 screenshots are straight Windowed 640/400, normal scale.
Welcome to colorblind mode

Edit : just checked with a "clean" install, I can see the inventory bars even in vanilla; so it seems unrelated to X-Com files. I'll come back to Meridian's OXCE+ thread when I can pinpoint a specific version.

[Meridian]

Lol, now I see what you mean

Those rectangles are a feature... quick search. try clicking in them, type something in and the game will filter the content on the screen by what you typed.

You can also turn them off (there is an option)... and just toggle them when needed by a hotkey (Q).
I just turned them on by default, so that people notice them in the first place.

[yrizoud]

Ah thanks about this explaination. I had tracked back their appearance in a very old build of OXCE+.
For the rest, I just realized I copied the UFO files from an old OpenXcom directory. And apparently I shot myself in the foot 15 months ago by starting an experiment of hex-edited PALETTES.DAT.
Ba dum, tsss.
(edit: File closed! Ruled out as a self-mutilation)

--- posts merged - Solarius Scorch ---

On a completely unrelated note, I had tested providing a partial "options.cfg", it works : these options are accepted, all others are auto-detected.
The only problem is for people who upgrade, if they blindly overwrite everything they'll lose custom settings.
Here are some suggestions, as a valid options.cfg :

Code: [Select]

options:
  # Because auto-detect language doesn't pick modified en-US strings
  language: en-US
  # Designed for
  battleUFOExtenderAccuracy: true
  # Required for data slates or something, IIRC
  spendResearchedItems: true
 
  # Should probably be used, more interesting
  storageLimitsEnforced: true
  # Should probably be used, Gym is there from start
  anytimePsiTraining: true
  # Saves time, has no downsides now, this should be default in all games/mods
  battleAutoEnd: true
  # Until somebody provides an alternative intro :)
  playIntro: false
  # I find this very helpful for manual equipping
  showMoreStatsInInventoryView: true
 
  # Personal preference
  forceFire: true
  # Personal preference
  strafe: true
mods:
  - id: xcom1
    active: true
  - active: true
    id: x-com-files

[Nord]

Small bugreport: Red Dawn HQ have wrong xcom unit placement data. My soldiers start not in a vessel, but in top left corner of map.

[Solarius Scorch]

Small bugreport: Red Dawn HQ have wrong xcom unit placement data. My soldiers start not in a vessel, but in top left corner of map.

Can you post a save please? It's working as normal for me.

In other news: I had to change the weapon system again, because it turns out that lookup doesn't work like I hoped it would - apparently it doesn't work for techs with cost 0. So now in certain cases you can research buying a weapon, then buy it and when it appears in your base, research its properties. I'm not happy with it, but nothing I can do about it. I should publish it soon.

[Nord]

Here you go.

[Solarius Scorch]

Thanks, but I'd need a save before the landing, because now I can see only as much as you have already told me... It's a pretty cool setup though, looks fine to play.

Also, disable the Aliens pick up weapons mod, it's redundant with XCF.

[Nord]

Oops... I rewrite it a minute ago. But... i can flee and wait for next case. So here it is.

[Arthanor]

Good to know, I'm just about to attack an Exalt HQ so I'll be prepared in case it happens.

Solarius, did you try using unlock instead of lookup?

[Solarius Scorch]

Oops... I rewrite it a minute ago. But... i can flee and wait for next case. So here it is.

Thanks. Yeah, the same happens for me, but... When I try a Quick Battle, it's working normally! I mean, what the actual fuck?!
EDIT: Apparently it works, but only with crafts with specially defined deployment. Dragonfly is not one of them. It turns out that Hobbes left some X-Com spawn points in the base for some reason... I guess I'll have to remove them from the tileset. Will be done.

Solarius, did you try using unlock instead of lookup?

I think it'll be alright after all. More tests needed!


EDIT:

Version 0.3.5 has been released: https://www.mediafire.com/file/0pvhleazc902bd1/OpenXcom_XFiles_0.3.5.zip

- Blocked the backpack for some armours.
- Fixed weapon acquisition.
- Fixed some minor Ufopaedia bugs.
- Luger is now researchable.
- Improved Night Vision mode look.
- Fixed a problem with Siberia map spawns.
- 8 new faces!

Hopefully this takes care of the weapon research/purchase issue. Otherwise it's mostly a polishing thing, although I did add 8 new faces (and made some improvements to the older ones).

Hopefully from now on I can make some real progress, like advancing the arcs.

And here's an overview of some faces and armours:

[Nord]

Sorry for offtopic, but where i can read about camouflage principe? (like integrated in Jumpsuits)

[Solarius Scorch]

Sorry for offtopic, but where i can read about camouflage principe? (like integrated in Jumpsuits)

The basics are in the Ufopaedia, available from the start:

Camouflage, or Camo, is a property of armour that makes the wearer visible from a shorter distance than normal. This difference is expressed in tiles and denoted in the armor description.

So if a normal vision range is 40, then someone with Camo 10 is visible from range 30 or less.

[yrizoud]

Here are a few floppies, in case you want to store secret plans of the cultists