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

[Arthanor]

First off: I decided to tackle my EXALT HQ. First strike: My crack team of agents in armored vests and using BlackOps weapons step in essentially weaponless and wearing business attire. Not a success. I discover it's a mansion, with 8 guys and without motion scanner. Holy..! Reload. Setup a different team matrix style: Leather Jacket, dual-wield Luger and BlackOps SMG, grab a few grenades, tonfas and combat knives. Lugers shootings in big hallways, SMGs in small corridors, grenades against the armored dudes, until I find the brainer (really cool looking! Almost more alien than a sectoid!), smack him in the head with a tonfa, rush in with a knife to kill another armored dude. Then fighting retreat to the roof and grabbing a cane on the way. Very intimidating and turned out to be great fun!

Well, I don't think it'll be very different, except maybe for toning down the frequency of some missions. I'm not really sure it'll be necessary, since for example terror missions will generally be easier to win, with all the weapons you collect from various sources and your squad maxed out on cultists.

The issue is not really difficulty, but the chore of having to "clean" off a whole bunch of missions with what is essentially a static setup, which becomes boring. It's one reason I gave up on XPiratez. And you can't really not respond since you still need to score points for your month.

You mean a special Farm mapblock? Sure, can be done. And the "elerium trace" would be a recoverable tile, like UFO Navigation? (I can imagine some glowing stains on the ground.)
But what would the player do at such a site? Whom would they battle? Certainly not the farmer who called the police...

Yup, instead of a UFO mapblock, it'd be a special crop circle mapblock. Elerium trace could be an item or a tile, glowing stains works for sure. Maybe you need to find and "control" (stun) the farmer so he can be debriefed properly and not spread rumors. Or wipe off his memory MiB style. Or on other instances there's some elerium or virus tainted life-forms you need to capture? The main point is to provide players with a feel that there are UFOs and build up the hype, while also providing little bits of tech and trivia.

Like an unimplanted alien fetus? I have the resources, and the description by Juku.

I meant one of the sectoids forgot his plasma pistol clip, or his mind probe after putting it down to go to the toilet A fetus seems a bit extreme of a thing to forget behind!

Yeah, various alien artifacts would be fun. But most of them wouldn't give you anything practical, like Alien Food.

Alien food (from a cattle mutilation site?), some alien iPad, a pistol/clip/mind probe? Little things.

Or... an alien fetus!

Sure..! You find a poor woman and her alien baby.

I'm not sure I can spawn multiple "UFOs" per map, but surely something can be done. These are technicalities.

Nah, I was listing examples of sites. There would be either a crop circle, a car or a smashed shed, not all of them at once (All together it's a bit much, unless you want a drunk college sectoid road trip where they make graffiti, smash things up and have sex )

It looks like yet another arc...

Good stuff! Some of it is actually already planned, and the rest will be sorted out later. (The ones responsible for the portals will be

Spoiler:

Cyberweb

though.)

Nice! I'm glad you like the ideas

I'm curious to find out how you link the portals. Seems unintuitive to me, but that's good!

EDIT: An example of a crop circle.

Nice work! Very fast
I wish I had a Linux mapview. There's all kinds of interesting designs to make:

[Nord]

I'd say I see my mod like a TV series from the 90's (doh) - while the most important enemy are, say, Goa'uld, most episodes are actually about other stuff. The aliens from Mars are supposedly the most important, but there are also other villains to fight. So sometimes it's Klingons, sometimes Romulans, sometimes it's Ferengi, or sometimes it's just a weird space monster. That's what I'm going at.

Just try not disperse yourself too much, so you can one day finish this mod. And we will pray to elder undersea gods for you.

[Arthanor]

Quick pick: The tech tree viewer doesn't show the topic you're currently looking at because there's a bug in the strings. It should be something like:

Code: [Select]

STR_TOPIC: "Topic>{ALT} {0}"
Edit: Just researched that Brainer. Wall o' text alert! I don't really know how to chop it, but it doesn't even half fit in the space In fact, I think there should be a different article to contain all of the following to another article titled something like "EXALT Termination strategy" since it has nothing to do with the Brainer any ways.

Spoiler:

"Considering that the rank-and-file members of EXALT are mostly controlled with Psiclone distribution, there is a way to win without a prolonged war: use this EXALT weapon against them. We can now understand how the Psiclone works well enough to develop a counter-wave that will disrupt the functioning of these devices over large swathes of land. Before our enemies adjust their signal, we will flood the market with our cracked Psiclones which will be just as good but functioning and, you know, not forcing you into an alien army in exchange. This should render the EXALT harmless enough for us to no longer care about it. Just give the order, Commander."

[Nord]

Crash report:
[11-10-2016 20:15:59]   [FATAL]   A fatal error has occurred: vector::_M_range_check: __n (which is 301) >= this->size() (which is 296)
[11-10-2016 20:16:00]   [FATAL]   Crash dump generated at E:\Arch\G\Openxcom\OpenXcom_XFiles\user\11-10-2016_20-15-59.dmp
[11-10-2016 20:16:14]   [FATAL]   OpenXcom has crashed: vector::_M_range_check: __n (which is 301) >= this->size() (which is 296)

In alien turn.

[Arthanor]

There's something funky about STR_CULT_CONTAINED. After interrogating a brainer and getting STR_BRAINER_CRACKED, the cult contained is not granted.

I tested removing the "needItem: true" statement of STR_CULT_CONTAINED and it was properly granted when researching the brainer.

Also, given that it takes a month for the EXALT Termination project to come into effect and it can spawn multiple times, I think it would be nice to not have a despawn penalty for the EXALT HQ site so we can safely ignore it.

[Solarius Scorch]

First off: I decided to tackle my EXALT HQ. First strike: My crack team of agents in armored vests and using BlackOps weapons step in essentially weaponless and wearing business attire. Not a success. I discover it's a mansion, with 8 guys and without motion scanner. Holy..! Reload. Setup a different team matrix style: Leather Jacket, dual-wield Luger and BlackOps SMG, grab a few grenades, tonfas and combat knives. Lugers shootings in big hallways, SMGs in small corridors, grenades against the armored dudes, until I find the brainer (really cool looking! Almost more alien than a sectoid!), smack him in the head with a tonfa, rush in with a knife to kill another armored dude. Then fighting retreat to the roof and grabbing a cane on the way. Very intimidating and turned out to be great fun!

Nice!
I think I should give more warnings or something.

The issue is not really difficulty, but the chore of having to "clean" off a whole bunch of missions with what is essentially a static setup, which becomes boring. It's one reason I gave up on XPiratez. And you can't really not respond since you still need to score points for your month.

Yeah, I get what you mean. We'll see.

Yup, instead of a UFO mapblock, it'd be a special crop circle mapblock. Elerium trace could be an item or a tile, glowing stains works for sure. Maybe you need to find and "control" (stun) the farmer so he can be debriefed properly and not spread rumors. Or wipe off his memory MiB style. Or on other instances there's some elerium or virus tainted life-forms you need to capture? The main point is to provide players with a feel that there are UFOs and build up the hype, while also providing little bits of tech and trivia.

Wouldn't hunting farmers be interesting? I don't think so, and it would look a little weird. If we really want him that badly, why not just approach him? What are we going to do with him?

Or, hmm... Actually, it could work! Thanks, I'll work on this!

I meant one of the sectoids forgot his plasma pistol clip, or his mind probe after putting it down to go to the toilet A fetus seems a bit extreme of a thing to forget behind!

Yeah, but how can I miss such an obvious trope?
And I was thinking more like, some alien toilet paper rather than a plasma pistol... Well, just trash, anyway. I think it'd be more interesting. But I can't focus too much on this...

Alien food (from a cattle mutilation site?), some alien iPad, a pistol/clip/mind probe? Little things.

Yes, exactly this kind of things.

Sure..! You find a poor woman and her alien baby.

Man, this could be a unique arc. A story arc.
>MIND BLOWN<

Nah, I was listing examples of sites. There would be either a crop circle, a car or a smashed shed, not all of them at once (All together it's a bit much, unless you want a drunk college sectoid road trip where they make graffiti, smash things up and have sex )

See, now I need to make this :q

Nice! I'm glad you like the ideas

I'm curious to find out how you link the portals. Seems unintuitive to me, but that's good!

Nice work! Very fast

I wish I had a Linux mapview. There's all kinds of interesting designs to make
[/quote]

Isn't the source code available? I'd think it would...

Quick pick: The tech tree viewer doesn't show the topic you're currently looking at because there's a bug in the strings. It should be something like:

Code: [Select]

STR_TOPIC: "Topic>{ALT} {0}"

Ah thanks, I completely forgot about this feature.

Edit: Just researched that Brainer. Wall o' text alert! I don't really know how to chop it, but it doesn't even half fit in the space In fact, I think there should be a different article to contain all of the following to another article titled something like "EXALT Termination strategy" since it has nothing to do with the Brainer any ways.

Thanks... I... That's embarrassing. I'll fix it somehow. Maybe make another research for the Brainer as an organism.

Crash report:
[11-10-2016 20:15:59]   [FATAL]   A fatal error has occurred: vector::_M_range_check: __n (which is 301) >= this->size() (which is 296)
[11-10-2016 20:16:00]   [FATAL]   Crash dump generated at E:\Arch\G\Openxcom\OpenXcom_XFiles\user\11-10-2016_20-15-59.dmp
[11-10-2016 20:16:14]   [FATAL]   OpenXcom has crashed: vector::_M_range_check: __n (which is 301) >= this->size() (which is 296)

In alien turn.

OK, I'll check and get back to you later.

There's something funky about STR_CULT_CONTAINED. After interrogating a brainer and getting STR_BRAINER_CRACKED, the cult contained is not granted.

I tested removing the "needItem: true" statement of STR_CULT_CONTAINED and it was properly granted when researching the brainer.

Perhaps because it's a nasty bug, which must be fixed right now.
Thanks for catching this, it's a critical one...

And by the way, here's the new Grenade Launcher made by M.A.G.M.A. Weighs 26, plus 8 per 3 rounds... But it has automatic fire!

EDIT: Meridian, if you read this, could you please check Nord's savegame? I can't see anything obvious...

[Arthanor]

Re: EXALT HQ
Yeah, that missing article will come in handy Termination also has no article

Re: Farmer capture
Well, maybe you have only a few turns to capture him before he tells the world? So it's a timed mission. It ends in.. 5 turns? kill/stun the farmer, but kill has negative points for the whole thing. Only stun has positive points. So it's a mad rush where you don't have to worry about safety (the farmer only has his birdshot shotgun or a pitchfork/shovel, at most) but you really need to worry about time. I don't know, it'd be a change of pace. Also, maybe once in a while the aliens are still around and if you don't get out in time, they blow you up from their UFO (so fail after 5 turns and you lose the strike team). Obviously there should be a different briefing to warn the player if the UFO is there.

Re: Loot
Well, a plasma pistol which you can't use for 4 years because the research to use it is so long is just about as useless as alien toilet paper And it highlights the fact that these things are expendable for the aliens.

Re: Mapview:
The source is available, and I managed to run it before, but the problem is in some graphic library which doesn't render transparency in Linux and instead draws transparent pixels black. This means the whole map is pretty much black squares, with only the front graphics showing.

Re: Automatic Grenade Launcher
Very interesting! Constant reload is the normal grenade launcher's main issue. That'll be fun

Edit: Attacked a Church of Dagon base (the big paper wall house thing)

Spoiler:

They had super cute frog pets but I couldn't bring one home since they're considered aliens Doesn't it live happily in a turtle basin? Also ended up being a training run, as I didn't distinguish the sorcerer from the chosen and killed them all. He had a fancy staff, but anyone can have a fancy staff.. I'll be on the lookout next time! Was a fun fight any ways. Love the paper walls, so much fun to shoot LMGs and destroy everything

[Solarius Scorch]

Re: EXALT HQ
Yeah, that missing article will come in handy Termination also has no article

The lack of termination article is bugging me too, but I keep forgetting about it.

Re: Farmer capture
Well, maybe you have only a few turns to capture him before he tells the world? So it's a timed mission. It ends in.. 5 turns? kill/stun the farmer, but kill has negative points for the whole thing. Only stun has positive points. So it's a mad rush where you don't have to worry about safety (the farmer only has his birdshot shotgun or a pitchfork/shovel, at most) but you really need to worry about time. I don't know, it'd be a change of pace. Also, maybe once in a while the aliens are still around and if you don't get out in time, they blow you up from their UFO (so fail after 5 turns and you lose the strike team). Obviously there should be a different briefing to warn the player if the UFO is there.

I did some work on it today, I have the farmer, the mission, some basic researches... It's not exactly complete, but it works. Well, except for the 10 turns limit, perhaps it's not in OXCE+ yet?

Re: Loot
Well, a plasma pistol which you can't use for 4 years because the research to use it is so long is just about as useless as alien toilet paper And it highlights the fact that these things are expendable for the aliens.

True, true I'll think about it later.

Re: Mapview:
The source is available, and I managed to run it before, but the problem is in some graphic library which doesn't render transparency in Linux and instead draws transparent pixels black. This means the whole map is pretty much black squares, with only the front graphics showing.

I really wish it would be fixed, we need more maps and Linux people are creative.

But I gotta ask, what's the problem with having Windows installed too?

Edit: Attacked a Church of Dagon base

The "dog" requiring Alien Containment is a bug. :/ You can add it to your save...

A Sorcerer is easy to distinguish from a Chosen by its facial tentacles. Of course it's not as easy when he's only showing you his back.

[yrizoud]

This difficulty of recognizing specific opponent is still problematic in general. This reminds me an idea I had :
You can emphasize an important human NPC by having him carry a briefcase in hand. Using the same sort of held sprite as the big medikit, it's noticeable from all sides, and it would really fit the spy / secret society theme. However this requires the guy to be efficient with a one-handed weapon.
The item itself may be unimportant (it's only an accessory), if you don't want the player to wonder too much about it, you can make it non-recoverable.

[Arthanor]

My computer sucks, that's why I don't have both but it suckling made me think "well, XCom was awesome and it's from 94, I should be able to run it! Then I discovered openxcom.com "

We get a puppy! The staff will be happy

And for the sorcerer, he had a big staff which was sort of a give away too, but I thought it was a chosen with a psi panic weapon, so I killed it before looking (one of my snipers kept panicking and you don't want a berserk sniper behind you). Attacking from the north was a bit unfortunate for that. You see the side or back most of the time. But I like those maps so it'll be fine to go there again. And maybe I'll manage to get promotion 3 before so I can bring heavy weapons

[Solarius Scorch]

This difficulty of recognizing specific opponent is still problematic in general. This reminds me an idea I had :
You can emphasize an important human NPC by having him carry a briefcase in hand. Using the same sort of held sprite as the big medikit, it's noticeable from all sides, and it would really fit the spy / secret society theme. However this requires the guy to be efficient with a one-handed weapon.
The item itself may be unimportant (it's only an accessory), if you don't want the player to wonder too much about it, you can make it non-recoverable.

Yes, it's a good idea, though naturally it can only be used for certain enemies. Oh well, in the vanilla there are no clues whatsoever!

And maybe I'll manage to get promotion 3 before so I can bring heavy weapons

Good luck, though it won't be easy

[Arthanor]

But mind probes are much more accessible (and captures much less of an issue).

I must say: I really like the lead up to 1999 and the anticipation of the alien invasion. Normally, knowing the time-line of a game makes it more predictable and less interesting (oh, snake men in the spring! Big surprise..), but in this case, the "doomsday clock" running down to January 1999 and the "will I be ready for the aliens?" anxiety is really enjoyable. It's making me invest more in HQs (4 now, one in each of my first 4 bases) so I can get a setup that is similar to what XCom normally starts with.

Granted, I have way more cash, way more bases and way more, much better trained men than a normal starting XCom, but trying to get a lab setup (researching it now), proper aircrafts and weapons (still missing cannons and rocket launchers), some radars (researching large ones now) and dealing with cults so they're not in my way when the aliens show up feels right. Something is coming from the depths of space and we, little humans, scramble busily to get ready like ants before winter.

The added pressure changes "I should do XYZ" into "I must do XYZ now if I want to be ready" and makes the game much more motivating. Very nicely done!

[yrizoud]

I have no problem with characters looking the same. I only want to point out that in EU/TFTD, you can't rotate the camera because you never NEED to. With enemies whose face varies, you suddenly get this need, and the function is not there.
It feels quite frustrating that your soldiers can be looking straight at an enemy, but all you see is his back, and you can't tell them 'If he's wearing glasses, we need him alive'.

[Arthanor]

There we go! We need a "Soldiers refuse to use lethal weapons on funky looking enemies" feature!

- Kill this guy! His weird chant is making Jones shoot everywhere!
- No sir! It's a mess of writhing tentacles under that hood! I ain't shootin' that one *charges in with a tonfa and gets his brain eaten*
- 

[Solarius Scorch]

Haha

OK, I'll think of some new colour for either the Chosen or the Sorcerer. Dark blue perhaps.