Author Topic: Re: The X-Com Files - 3.4: Daggers for Hire  (Read 2367507 times)

Offline Arthanor

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #480 on: October 12, 2016, 10:17:29 pm »
If the guy is supposed to be recognizable (agents would presumably recognize someone with a face full of tentacles as standing out) then it'd make sense to work from all angles for the player's sake. Deep blue sounds good. I thought it was worthy of a comment since that capture was the main reason to go there in the first place (I'll certainly be 1000% on the lookout when I assault a black lotus base, since I don't want to do that more than once).

In general though, I think it's entirely fine to say: "Well, modern officers don't always behave like space marines ones". Dressing like the grunts to avoid getting sniped is a legitimate counter to "snipe the officers!" which itself is sort of "sniper 101". Especially for aliens who might have a gestalt consciousness and so have absolutely no need to mark rank visually. In cults, if you're the big guy you probably want it to be known though.

Although funnily enough, the higher ranks that dress funky in XCom tend to survive better than those who hide, since they're worth interrogating. But getting interrogated might not be a great experience, or much better than a quick end.

Online Solarius Scorch

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #481 on: October 13, 2016, 02:26:29 am »
All right, here's your blue mage! :P

Offline Wolfstarr

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #482 on: October 13, 2016, 02:38:48 am »
OMG that is amazing! Xcom is definitely needing more lovecraftian enemies!

Did you draw that yourself Scorch?

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #483 on: October 13, 2016, 03:18:04 am »
OMG that is amazing! Xcom is definitely needing more lovecraftian enemies!

Did you draw that yourself Scorch?

Thanks! Yeah, I drew the head, the robe is an automatic recolour from Ethereal.

Offline Juku121

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #484 on: October 13, 2016, 09:02:47 pm »
Hi again!

I've updated my personal take on the X-Com Files to 0.3.5 and added some new things:

  • more UFOPaedia copyediting,
  • finished the 'tactical briefing' UFOpaedia entries listing important enemy stats (resistances, vision modes, camo etc), which you get after researching a live capture AND the corresponding autopsy (if applicable),
  • mortar tanks,
  • stealth armors,
  • a full overhaul of enemy stats,
  • some 'new' aliens - Lobstermen, Calcinites, a plasma-based lifeform loosely based on the Solarite/Overlord of Hobbes' Are 51 mod, a variant of hellrazer's spitter Chryssalid;
  • news reports from Area 51 and Hardmode mods,
  • and probably more that I'm forgetting at the moment.

I'm kinda reluctant to release any of this right now, since Solarius is likely to produce a 0.4 before I playtest my changes enought to know they're stable (I've caught SO MANY rather trivial errors that it's not even funny any more, and I'm beginning to dread changing anything in research.rul).  :'(

But I've thought a bit about the future of the mod and have two rather concrete suggestions and a couple of observations.

The primary proposal would be to use more of the excellent maps Hobbes has created for his Area 51 mod, and a few from XenoOps. There are forgotten pyramids, an arctic listening post, a bunch of 'secret' installations, the iconic cargo/cruise ship terror missions, and more. They'd definitely give a whole new life to the presently somewhat skeletal T'leth arc.

The second suggestion is to move more towards 'classic' UFOlogy and instead of creating brand-new factions, flesh out the Hybrids, Men in Black and Reptoids. They're the most recognizable and integrate into the overall 'secret invasion' theme far better than evil megacorps or Doom portals to Hell.

For instance, you can have a cattle mutilation site, find an abandoned organ extractor there, stun the (understandably angry) farmer who's now a security risk, interrogate him and track down the Hybrid team responsible for the deed. Or a bunch of compromised Hybrids in some backwater try to signal their masters with crop circles and after some investigation you have a chance of finding a Small Scout delivering new Alien Communicators, or codes, or fetuses, or ... something.  :-\

Maybe as a result of the intel you can intercept and stop another Hybrid team from impregnating a woman with the 'evil Alien fetus', which I stole from XenoOps. And then the MiB might interfere with all this...

Reptoids could also be a secret society, perhaps even rivals of the T'leth aliens. Say, as the original Atlanteans, whose empire was destroyed by the arrival of T'leth and who are now manipulating humans to get back at them.

There are some more barebones ideas at https://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/index.php?/topic/6480-the-truth-is-in-here-4-if-x-com-were-more-fortean/.

Random thoughts:

There could also be some limited space missions before Cydonia, using the environmental damage ruleset. I'm not so keen on Moon Nazis, but if done well, they might work out.

Cults upgrading to existing factions, like the Church of Dagon already does:

CoD -> UW aliens, EXALT -> MiB, Red Dawn -> Cyberweb/MAGMA, Black Lotus -> Hybrids.

More utility for alien corpses, a la NuXCOM. You could, say, get some kind of alien blood serum with regenerative properties from Reptoids/Snakemen, combat implants from Gazers, psychoactive brain tissue from Sectoids/Cerebreals, repairable armor from Ethereals. These are just random examples, I'm sure Solarius can think (or ask for!) more and better ideas.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2016, 09:37:31 pm by Juku121 »

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #485 on: October 13, 2016, 10:49:16 pm »
Hi again!

Oh, good to see you!

I'm kinda reluctant to release any of this right now, since Solarius is likely to produce a 0.4 before I playtest my changes enought to know they're stable (I've caught SO MANY rather trivial errors that it's not even funny any more, and I'm beginning to dread changing anything in research.rul).  :'(

Yes, that's why it is best to make a mod to a mod. Or make your own separate mod. The changes are constant, I don't think you can follow them... Plus it would be way easier to analyse your mod ;)

But I've thought a bit about the future of the mod and have two rather concrete suggestions and a couple of observations.

The primary proposal would be to use more of the excellent maps Hobbes has created for his Area 51 mod, and a few from XenoOps. There are forgotten pyramids, an arctic listening post, a bunch of 'secret' installations, the iconic cargo/cruise ship terror missions, and more. They'd definitely give a whole new life to the presently somewhat skeletal T'leth arc.

Yeah, I need to spend some time on updating my maps library. It's hard work though, so I've been putting it off. ;)
By the way, I'm all for additions to the arcs, and yes, T'leth is rather bare bones now, so if someone wants a crack at this... :P

The second suggestion is to move more towards 'classic' UFOlogy and instead of creating brand-new factions, flesh out the Hybrids, Men in Black and Reptoids. They're the most recognizable and integrate into the overall 'secret invasion' theme far better than evil megacorps or Doom portals to Hell.

I can understand Doom, but megacorps? How can you have a game about secret conspiracy stuff without megacorps? :)
But yes, all of these elements are planned. The thing is, there are power tiers, and the ones you're speaking of are of a higher tier than the Syndicate. So they're kind of scheduled for later. But I just made an additional Men in Black mission yesterday, so it's not like I'm doing nothing with them.

For instance, you can have a cattle mutilation site, find an abandoned organ extractor there, stun the (understandably angry) farmer who's now a security risk, interrogate him and track down the Hybrid team responsible for the deed. Or a bunch of compromised Hybrids in some backwater try to signal their masters with crop circles and after some investigation you have a chance of finding a Small Scout delivering new Alien Communicators, or codes, or fetuses, or ... something.  :-\

Maybe as a result of the intel you can intercept and stop another Hybrid team from impregnating a woman with the 'evil Alien fetus', which I stole from XenoOps. And then the MiB might interfere with all this...

All awesome ideas.

Reptoids could also be a secret society, perhaps even rivals of the T'leth aliens. Say, as the original Atlanteans, whose empire was destroyed by the arrival of T'leth and who are now manipulating humans to get back at them.

Something exactly like that. Now they want to get back to power...

There could also be some limited space missions before Cydonia, using the environmental damage ruleset. I'm not so keen on Moon Nazis, but if done well, they might work out.

Perhaps, but probably not now.

Cults upgrading to existing factions, like the Church of Dagon already does:

CoD -> UW aliens, EXALT -> MiB, Red Dawn -> Cyberweb/MAGMA, Black Lotus -> Hybrids.

That's the general idea, though the connections network is rather different.

More utility for alien corpses, a la NuXCOM. You could, say, get some kind of alien blood serum with regenerative properties from Reptoids/Snakemen, combat implants from Gazers, psychoactive brain tissue from Sectoids/Cerebreals, repairable armor from Ethereals. These are just random examples, I'm sure Solarius can think (or ask for!) more and better ideas.

I've always wanted this, but it's hard to think of reasonable products from alien soldiers. We already have grav units and synthmuscles... Perhaps alien cybernetics?

EDIT:

I thought about the ideas for Hybrids, the one with a cattle mutilation site and the one with supplies. While I think (think!) it can be scripted somehow, the problem is that these would have to happen only once... You can have an item that upon research triggers a mission, but there's no way to make this one item be researchable again, for another mission... Any suggestions?
« Last Edit: October 13, 2016, 11:19:53 pm by Solarius Scorch »

Offline arrakis69ct

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #486 on: October 14, 2016, 12:17:46 am »
In the last vers i start a New Game. I unlock the first armour the leather coat. I buy some of them. But i cant equip in the soldiers. No is listed in the armour menu. But is in the inventory menu.......

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Offline Meridian

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #487 on: October 14, 2016, 05:29:35 pm »
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.

For some reason, game is trying to access map node number 301, even though there are only 296 map nodes on this map.
Can't say more right now... don't have a working debug environment.

Offline Hobbes

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #488 on: October 14, 2016, 08:36:25 pm »
a plasma-based lifeform loosely based on the Solarite/Overlord of Hobbes' Are 51 mod

Those are originally from XOps XenoOperations mod. Due credit to whom it is due ;)

Online Solarius Scorch

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #489 on: October 14, 2016, 10:48:05 pm »
For some reason, game is trying to access map node number 301, even though there are only 296 map nodes on this map.
Can't say more right now... don't have a working debug environment.

Thanks. It could be a faulty map, but I can't say.

Those are originally from XOps XenoOperations mod. Due credit to whom it is due ;)

By the way, if someone's not credited properly, please let me know ;)

Offline arrakis69ct

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #490 on: October 15, 2016, 12:30:29 pm »
For my quest nothing?

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #491 on: October 15, 2016, 01:55:41 pm »
For my quest nothing?

You mean the problem with leather coats? Yeah, sorry, I forgot to get back to you. I confirm that it's a bug and will be fixed. If you want to fix it yourself, go to armors_XCOMFILES.rul and change

Code: [Select]
    storeItem: STR_LEATHER_COAT_UC
into

Code: [Select]
    storeItem: STR_LEATHER_COAT

Offline arrakis69ct

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #492 on: October 15, 2016, 02:34:03 pm »
Thx and sorry for the replicate

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #493 on: October 15, 2016, 08:32:25 pm »
Version 0.3.6 has been released.

Perhaps it should be 0.4, but maybe next time. :) I'd like to do more with the Cyberweb first.

Anyway, here's the changes:

- Added M.A.G.M.A. Corporation as a new weapon provider.
- Overhauled the tech tree for adding M.A.G.M.A.
- Added Heavy Shotgun (sprite author unknown).
- Added Tactical Grenade Launcher (modified from a sprite by YukesVonFaust for ZDoom).
- Added two new mapblocks for the Commercial terrain.
- Added Crop Circles missions.
- Added a Cattle Mutilation mission.
- Added some Hidden Caves stuff.
- Sorcerers of Dagon are blue now.
- Fixed some minor inconsistencies with Men in Black.
- Fixed the Luger entry.
- Fixed the Leather Coat bug.
- Fixed a bug with Gilldog needing Alien Containment.

As you can see, many changes are directly related to the community requests and reports. And not just bugs; for example, I've started trying things with crop circles and such, although it's pretty rudimentary at this point.

The link is in the opening post. Enjoy :)

EDIT: I forgot to complete the EXALT Brainer changes that Arthanor pointed out. :P Will be fixed the next time.
« Last Edit: October 15, 2016, 08:59:40 pm by Solarius Scorch »

Offline arrakis69ct

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Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal
« Reply #494 on: October 15, 2016, 09:21:16 pm »
Thx and great work. If you want and when i have free time i want translate to spanish similar i do in fmp.....

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