[OLD] Old OXCE Future plans

[Yankes]

Current plans

For 5.0 version

setting ammo count in scripts.
script that disable weapons.
weapon/throw accuracy scripts.
hangar types
scripts events on item uses.
script events for moving items in inventory (this will allow e.g. ring with +10hp).


For some future version

directional flashlight.
change border of hand items in inventory based on usability.
script that disable weapons.
new script arguments for recolor and select graphic script with information about unit selection or cursor hovering over it.
Ability to draw custom graphic over any unit/item by script.
script for calculation unit recovery time.
script handling of behavior of end of grenade countdown (explosion, removal, postponing, unpriming).
script recoloring for explosions and hit animations.
reaction multiplier accessible by script.
toggleable  fly popery for unit.
dynamic globe terrain.

[Thirsk]

Directional flashlight? Night missions will be incredible! You rock Yankes!!

[HelmetHair]

By being able to draw over any sprite I am going to assume we can see fatal wound indicators and health statuses for soldiers on the battlescape?

for example large red splotches to simulate blood or cracks and burns on hwps.

that would be very nice.

can weapons act as flashlights now or is that in the future?

with directional flashlights will there be defined widths and length of light? that would be sweet.

I'm totally ignorant, is there a defined night vision sight now?

I've not seen it talked about much, but have you considered adding inventory definitions where certain items could only fit in certain locations? What I mean is there are some mods I've played with a sling or a quick draw inventory socket and being able to pack 3 more grenades into a "sling" slot seems silly but it may be more headache than it is worth.

Have you considered coding an armor feature that negates the penalty for firing a 2 handed weapon with 1 hand or allowing a two handed weapon to be fired one handed?

[Yankes]

By being able to draw over any sprite I am going to assume we can see fatal wound indicators and health statuses for soldiers on the battlescape?

for example large red splotches to simulate blood or cracks and burns on hwps.

that would be very nice.

Yes, you will be able show sprite based on any property available to scripts, like fatal wounds, health, ammo in weapon, poisons status (if you add some thing like that). There will be no limit how many you can draw (except cases where simply not enough space and they overwrite each other).

can weapons act as flashlights now or is that in the future?

with directional flashlights will there be defined widths and length of light? that would be sweet.

Directional light will work for items and units, and right now I do not know how exactly you will configure it.
This all will depend of complicity of implementation and performance penalty of given solution. Base version is fixed arc with normal light propagation in it.

I'm totally ignorant, is there a defined night vision sight now?

a) armor ruleset have properties for that.
b) special script that can change visibility.
c)  OXCE+ have special properties affecting visibility, but most can be reproduced using scripts.

I've not seen it talked about much, but have you considered adding inventory definitions where certain items could only fit in certain locations? What I mean is there are some mods I've played with a sling or a quick draw inventory socket and being able to pack 3 more grenades into a "sling" slot seems silly but it may be more headache than it is worth.

Right now not.

Have you considered coding an armor feature that negates the penalty for firing a 2 handed weapon with 1 hand or allowing a two handed weapon to be fired one handed?

"weapon/throw accuracy scripts."

[5taras]

Is it possible to implement a feature which can allow to bomb downed UFOs from plane with less loot.
I may be wrong, I've heard about that possibility in one of the late XCom-series game. This could make the gaming less tedious. Thanks

[Yankes]

Probably not, I think this would need too much changes to make it work compare to benefits that this functionality give.

[Ethereal]

Is it possible to implement a feature which can allow to bomb downed UFOs from plane with less loot.
I may be wrong, I've heard about that possibility in one of the late XCom-series game. This could make the gaming less tedious. Thanks

Yeah, and throw nuclear bombs on alien bas! I think that's a bit much.

[RareOne]

Hello, and excuse me if I overlooked the following somewhere on the forums.

So the idea appeared when I realised that my phone's speed of work, battery lasting and usefullnes of album app suffered greatly after intalling several TC mods on OXC android. Plus the unbearable time lengthes a person has to wait to download, maintain and move more than 30k tiny files.

Well, I wondered is it possible to implement a Game File Archive system, like Blizzard's MPQ or ID's WAD/PK4. Wouldn't that help to catagorise and mantain files better?
If we leave rulesets as they are, then sounds, music and gfx would be stored in a single or several files instead of thousands. As I read on the wiki about MPQ, it allows to store previous versions of the files, to work with different versions of master exe. But PK4, as I know, can overwrite files present in the main mod file with files from following patches and hotfixes on the go while the game is loading, without the need for redownloading the big file to fix or even add something.

So, is it possible? How hard can it be? How can a non-programmer help?

[Stoddard]

Well, I wondered is it possible to implement a Game File Archive system, like Blizzard's MPQ or ID's WAD/PK4. Wouldn't that help to catagorise and mantain files better?

We'll have to leave the option to work without this - because of ease of modding and tons of old mods.

Since we have to do that, why bother with obscure file formats, when a good old .zip would work just fine.

So, is it possible? How hard can it be? How can a non-programmer help?

Possible, not very hard. As for helping - keep the discussion open.

I'm split about zipping only resources vs just zipping entire mods.

I can see something like files in Resourses dir overriding files in the adjacent Resources.zip
Or files in mods/WhateverMod dir overriding files in mods/WhateverMod.zip

But if one wants to mod, it's easier to just unzip it all. So why bother with overrides, just support zipped mods

Surely you're not doing modding on a phone?

[RareOne]

We'll have to leave the option to work without this - because of ease of modding and tons of old mods.

Since we have to do that, why bother with obscure file formats, when a good old .zip would work just fine.

Well, sure, I'm not strictly against .zip format.

I can see something like files in Resourses dir overriding files in the adjacent Resources.zip
Or files in mods/WhateverMod dir overriding files in mods/WhateverMod.zip

This can be done?

Surely you're not doing modding on a phone?

Well, yeah, busted. Spending most of free time in a subway, so yes, meddling with the rulesets on the phone.
And suffer because of 1.2 mb ruleset of X-Piratez.

[Stoddard]

This can be done?

I've looked into the code a bit and this appears pretty simple to do.

Well, yeah, busted. Spending most of free time in a subway, so yes, meddling with the rulesets on the phone.
And suffer because of 1.2 mb ruleset of X-Piratez.

Well, then zips would help with that. I think something may appear on the weekend barring any unforeseen trouble.

Meanwhile can you please try this build:
https://lxnt.wtf/oxem/builds//ExtendedTests/Extended-5.1-e7e5f1d-2018-10-12-android-fpz.apk

and see if it helps with battery life / heat.

Out of curiosity : what device do you use?

[RareOne]

Yep, thanks, archives at least would let me play and still take photoes and manage them.

And yes, I am eager to try the 5.1, because it's predecessor ruined everything for me. I played X-Piratez, TWoTS, Area 51 and 40k on 3.10 and had fun, but then TWoTS broke, then I couldn't instal properly and when I finally managed to start game there appeared SYSTEM section in the Options, and game crashed when I pressed it, and game crashed when any mission was to begin. I suppose it had to do with wrong OXCE I used with android app, but I'm sure used the correct ones.
Sorry for this outburst, but it really stressed me out and I had to share.
So, I just hope I'll be able to play X-Piratez, XCOM files and TWOTS without trouble.

I use Sony Xperia XA1.

[yergnoor]

I can see something like files in Resourses dir overriding files in the adjacent Resources.zip
Or files in mods/WhateverMod dir overriding files in mods/WhateverMod.zip

I am also very interested in the possibility of storing mods entirely, or at least their resources, in zip archives. For the reason that big mods take up too much space on an Android memory card. And the place is constantly not enough, only 4 gigabytes on the built-in sdcard and 32 on the outside. Whereas the X-Piratez mod, with a total weight of 229 megabytes, takes 760 megabytes because of the peculiarities of the file system. If you save it in zip, even without compression, you will need half a gigabyte less space. For me, this is a considerable gain.
P.S. I apologize if it is difficult to understand me. I do not know English, I use Google translation.

[Stoddard]

And yes, I am eager to try the 5.1, because it's predecessor ruined everything for me.

well, this build doesn't work for me right now. so I guess wait with trying for now

I am also very interested in the possibility of storing mods entirely, or at least their resources, in zip archives. For the reason that big mods take up too much space on an Android memory card. And the place is constantly not enough, only 4 gigabytes on the built-in sdcard and 32 on the outside. Whereas the X-Piratez mod, with a total weight of 229 megabytes, takes 760 megabytes because of the peculiarities of the file system. If you save it in zip, even without compression, you will need half a gigabyte less space. For me, this is a considerable gain.

Interesting. But yes the idea is to store either entire mods, or their datadirs (like Resources in piratez) as zips. We'll see what will be possible.

[Yankes]

Problem is that OXC was not designed to work with zip files. I will need lot of refactoring to make it work (every function that load resources need be changed to allow loading from zip). Some function will simply not work because they use function that allow only file paths to real files.

Another thing is finding correct library that will work with GCC and VS.