Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

[Solarius Scorch]

Some of the terrain tiles in the archives raid mission aren't implemented correctly. They are only revealed when you actually stand on them

Hmmm... Are you sure they were not obscured by stones and other small terrain features?

[tkzv]

Deep One villages don't have a hard purpose if you already have Aquatoids. But these villages still exist and are available for raiding, if you like it or need points.

I don't think they have any advantage compared to a city.

In-universe raiding villages also makes little sense after this point. X-COM ignores individual sightings and small outposts for cults and Cyberweb, why should Deep Ones be treated differently? (It's not a rhetorical question )
Unrelated: I shot down Cyberdreadnought, captured it in Dimension X, finished all related researches, finished the arc by mid-month, and next week I got attacked by it again.

I understand this is an engine limitation. But can there be an in-game explanation for this ship appearing again? Cyberweb experimenting with time travel? A research item that only appears after the Cyberdreadnought capture would give a warning that according to its logs it had jumped to undetermined dates in the future and back, and give a warning that this ship may appear above Earth again. Something like that.

No text for STR_ALERT_ATLANTIS_TEMPLE

[Solarius Scorch]

The villages will be disabled after forming the underwater division of X-Com auxiliaries, near the end of the main TFTD arc. Before that, there is simply no one to delegate this task to.

About the Cyberdreadnought, I don't have a good enough explanation, sorry

[tkzv]

The villages will be disabled after forming the underwater division of X-Com auxiliaries, near the end of the main TFTD arc. Before that, there is simply no one to delegate this task to.

Thanks, this was the kind of answer I wanted.

About the Cyberdreadnought, I don't have a good enough explanation, sorry

How about this?

A research item "Cyberweb time travel", unlocked by the capture of the dreadnought. Reasonably low man-hour price. The text would be something like:

Commander, I've got an urgent warning. According to the Cyberweb Battleship logs we've recovered, there were multiple cases of "temporal divergence during inter-dimensional jump". In other words, Battleship accidentally travelled in time, arriving to Earth a few weeks in the past or future. The phenomenon is unpredictable and uncontrollable and has no practical use, as far as Cyberweb scientists know.

So, despite being captured, the Battleship may stay a problem for a few weeks more. But you probably already know that.

[Solarius Scorch]

No time travel!
It's ruined every story ever.

[tkzv]

No time travel!
It's ruined every story ever.

Well, it does leave the question why is time travel so impractical it's useless. And explanations keep avalanching from there.

How about a poorly understood Dimension X phenomenon that created short-living copies of the ship? Maybe it's some kind of mating behaviour of a local plant? Or maybe the ship was modelled after local giant grains of pollen? After all, Apocalypse UFOs are grown, not built.

Cyberweb Battleship siblings

Preliminary study of the captured ship revealed two unexpected developments. First, the dimension gate generator wasn't there -- it's somewhere on the surface of the alien world. Fortunately, without Cyberweb maintenance it'll run out of juice in just a few weeks -- if Council expedition doesn't find it earlier. Second is more worrying. Cyberweb didn't really build this ship, they captured a Dimension X life form (the closest Earth analogue is lichen) with natural gravity engines and ray guns and repurposed it as a ship. Similar beasts roam the skies of the alien world and may stumble into the gates sporadically created by the unattended gate generator. In fact, the gates seem to attract them.

The Council does not care if it's the flagship of a criminal organization or just dumb alien wildlife. Earth sky must be kept clear. We need to stay vigilant a few weeks more.

[Solarius Scorch]

I think it's a bit too involved for something that is only meant to cover a glitch. Many players will never see this phantom dreadnought and they will never understand what all this was about.
Maybe if we have some sort of follow up... Like a small chance of the dreadnought appearing until the end of the game. But I don't think it's such a hot idea.

[tkzv]

Micronoids can find the gate generator and keep it running. There may be extra mission(s) to disable it for good.

P.S. Or they picked up Cyberweb machinery and use it to explore Earth without fully understanding the principles. Destroying all of it will keep them to their planet. Hopefully.

[Solarius Scorch]

Micronoids can find the gate generator and keep it running. There may be extra mission(s) to disable it for good.

Yeah, we can add missions ad infinitum, but that's not the issue here

[tkzv]

By the way, how and why do alien hunting parties visit Earth? Do they have their own gates or do they use ones Cyberweb creates by accident?


Gunship/AC has a tracked unit picture. Bug?

[krautbernd]

Hmmm... Are you sure they were not obscured by stones and other small terrain features?

Sure, could be - if whatever object that's blocking line of sight is invisible.

[Solarius Scorch]

By the way, how and why do alien hunting parties visit Earth? Do they have their own gates or do they use ones Cyberweb creates by accident?

Yes, pretty much by accident, since the Cyberweb doesn't care. Same for the alien fauna.

Gunship/AC has a tracked unit picture. Bug?

OK, I will check.

Sure, could be - if whatever object that's blocking line of sight is invisible.

Roger, I will check that too.

EDIT:
I found no problems with the Siberia terrain. It would be nice if you could send me a save.
And the gunship has no proper inventory picture because it's never existed, lol.

[krautbernd]

Save is attached. I tried to check the map myself, unfortunately i've only worked with MapView in vanilla and i have no idea how to import or open custom maps. Is MapView still the tool of choice for editing and viewing maps in OpenXcom?

[Solarius Scorch]

Save is attached.

Ah thanks! Now I manged to pinpoint the problem: some ground tiles were missing, so you were walking on the upper surfaces of rock blocks on the level below.
We modders have a term for this situation: HOOOOOOOOOOBBES!!!! XD
(J/k - Hobbes is a gread modder, and any issues with his maps are extremely subtle. So it's always a trap set by a mage. )

I tried to check the map myself, unfortunately i've only worked with MapView in vanilla and i have no idea how to import or open custom maps. Is MapView still the tool of choice for editing and viewing maps in OpenXcom?

Yes it is. I have actually a prepared pack for distribution, containing all sorts of added terrains: http://www.mediafire.com/file/zkpqe02ne9kn5vl/The_Map_Package_14-07-2018.zip
You just need to adjust your file paths in paths.pth and mapedit.dat.
If you want to add new stuff on top of it, let me know and I'll give you more info.

[krautbernd]

Ah thanks! Now I manged to pinpoint the problem: some ground tiles were missing, so you were walking on the upper surfaces of rock blocks on the level below.

Yeah, that's what i figured was happening, judging by how the tiles were revealed when directly standing on them.  Thanks for the update and the editor package

As for the dimensional dreadnaught issue - why not add something like "due to [insert snazzy sci-fi term here] the possibility of a dimensional echo exist, meaning we might encounter the craft again in the near future". No need for any time-travel shennanigans. Just write it of to hyperdimensional geometries.

BTW, is there a way to ovveride .rul files with other .rul files? I like to make my own tweaks to the mod, but going through every file to make the changes when the mod is updated is kind of tedious. Can i add all the changes to one rul file and make it load last so it overrides all other files? Are they loaded according to file names?