[TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.61)

[psavola]

Version 2.52 is up.
Changelog:
- fixed 2x2 spawn in USO;
- fixed acid torpedo manufacturing;
- fixed knife/vibroknife balance;
- fixed missing USOPedia article;
- fixed Paladin stripping;
- fixed map CTD in martian battleship mission;
- fixed minor bugs;

Note that Paladin stripping now appears to equate to recycling the plastic armor, rather than recovering the armor. I'm usually more interested in the armor than recycling it; you can just recycle the armor afterward if you want.

I wonder if the vibroblade balancing needs still more work. Damage bonus of 0.2 x strength + melee accuracy results in huge damage range if you have a good melee accuracy (for example, the resulting net damage with minimal TU cost could end up being around 50-160). This can be better than vibro blade or even a regular thermic lance. A must-havep item for essentially every even a little experienced aquanaut right now?

[psavola]

In some terror mission maps, you don't have your craft, just a landing area. All your units don't necessarily spawn on the landing area, and based on RNG and maybe other factors, your equipment pile might end up being spawned outside of the landing area. (In this case, I had two 2x2 tanks, a drone and 9 soldiers with POSEIDON). This means that you'll lose all your extra equipment if you go to the landing area and exit (unless you try to move them manually - a big hassle).

I doubt spawning the equipment pile this way is intentional. Could this be fixed somehow?

Sorry, I didn't make a save before this mission. But I have seen this multiple times, so it should be easy-ish to figure out.

[Nord]

...
I doubt spawning the equipment pile this way is intentional. Could this be fixed somehow?
...

What kind of mission was that?

[psavola]

What kind of mission was that?

Terror ship, passenger ship if I recall correctly. Since then I had another similar mission (I made a backup save just in case the problem would come up again), but there the spawn was correct. This time I didn't have a 1x1 drone which might have affected the placement.

[psavola]

While MC-controlling a sharkman, I notied that you apparently cannot use its melee attack (in contrast to other aliens, such as lobstermen and hellcrabs, or tentaculat in vanilla). This is likely a bug, but I'm not sure if it's a bug in the rulesets or OXCE. The sharkmen are the only alien where meleeWeapon (STR_JAWS) is defined in units.rul.  The others have buildInWeaponSets or lobstermen a specialWeapon (at armors.rul). This for some reason likely results in a different behavior.

Edit: As another observation, is it intentional that MC Focuser exercises your melee accuracy? A very easy way to pump up the stat if so :-)

[psavola]

Finished the SH/IM campaign. Overall, was lucky to avoid HKs appearing out of nowhere to kill the transports (at the early-midgame phase where you can't avoid it).

Other minor comments:
- I had to wait for about 2 months to get a Freak mission (except a ship terror mission, which would have been deadly) in Jan-Mar 2019, so I was stuck and not able to research Leviathan (which requires MC shields). Maybe the occurrence of minor Freak missions (very small/small subs) could be increased slightly.
- MC projector seems to have incorrect or misleading ufopedia text. The text seems to suggest that it boosts your MC capabilities; it does not (but some previous version might have, the code to do that is commented out in items.rul).
- I think I have already commented on UFOpedia/ruleset differences in certain advanced armors (for example, ion armor sonar range is different in UFOpedia entry and in the ruleset).
- Vibro knife is extremely useful right now if you have trained melee accuracy (easiest to do in gym). With 70-80 % hit chance and fixed 8 TUs you can essentially instakill everyone at long as you hit (except ghosts and similar special units). Even the drills don't always kill a lobster, and they will also miss sometimes. OTOH, if you don't have good melee accuracy, you miss a lot and maybe the drills may be better in some contexts. Even though I love it, I would still suggest some further balancing, for example reducing the damage and/or making it further in the research tree.
- The properties or Zrbite, Mag and ION armor are probably already decided. But I wonder what is the use case of ION armor. The shield might be cool especially for scouting or "enemy facing" units, but the other properties are much worse than MAG armor (sonar, heat vision, stamina, etc.). So in my SH/IM runs I haven't at least made any use of them.

[SirDaniWTF]

Hi guys! I make this quick post to inform that I am translating TWOTS into Spanish. I am currently at 42% and would need someone to check and correct possible grammatical errors. I'm trying to adapt it as best as possible with a little help from Google Translator. so do not expect a precise translation of each text either, since many of the words used in English are longer in Spanish and I intend to abbreviate or save a little space. As well as some weapons keep the original name instead of translating everything literally.

Long live Xcom! 
And thank you <3

[Nord]

This is good. I'll gladly add translation, when you finish.

[psavola]

Terror ship, passenger ship if I recall correctly. Since then I had another similar mission (I made a backup save just in case the problem would come up again), but there the spawn was correct. This time I didn't have a 1x1 drone which might have affected the placement.

Here's an example save of a cruise ship terror mission where the equipment pile was placed on a non-exit square, thus making it very difficult if you decided to abort the mission.

[SirDaniWTF]

This is good. I'll gladly add translation, when you finish.

Sir!  Translation is finished.  Not Translated lines are unnecesary.   do your magic <3

[Blank]

I've independently run into this issue as well in the hunter which looks to be the same sub. Not only can I see through the floor to the second floor, the aliens can as well and try to fire repeatedly through the floor at the aquanaut I have standing there. This can be funny if the DPL wielders decide to do the same. I've attached a screenshot and a save file of the instance I see as well in case anyone cares to look into it. My save file isn't iron man if that changes anything, but is still SH


(edit ignore that the sub name is wrong in the files, there are only two medium subs and I still picked the wrong one  )

Hello, this is one of mine. Those diagonal tiles don't have a proper floors. I was probably trying to make the sub blast proof (separate issue) without considering the 3rd dimension. It's been such a long time since I touched xcom mapping that I don't know how to fix it, at least without risking further bugs.

EDIT: I did it. Updating UFO05B.map, UFO05BL1.map, UFO05BL2.map, UFO05BL3.map with the latest versions below should do it.

more USO variants

[psavola]

My latest SH/IM run has had quite a peculiar RNG. No medium or large ships at all that in the early game Also, only gillman terror missions. The first real chance to get a navigator for gauss weapons was in September. I was already on the way to sonic then (but obviously, having gauss sniper rifles is a must nonetheless). Grenades, ZR gas cannons and SC harpoon bolts seemed to work surprisingly well against typical aliens.

Also, again in this run two of my bases were bombed by the aliens. The radars never spotted the bombers in advance so they couldn't be shot down. A tertiary base was bombed down to rubble (only the lift remained), in the primary base it destroyed the BIOLAB that was being built That really set me back a little, as I had no alien implanters to build another and had to wait for the next very large ship. So, the lesson is, you'll really need to build at least a couple of torpedo defenses in the early game (starting June) if you would want to be reasonably safe from the bombers.

FWIW, also noticed the following.

Sometimes in Artifact Site missions, the sneaky aliens have forever imprisoned 2x2 units in locked rooms with 1x1 exit. I have sometimes seen this at least with Oct, not sure about hallucinoid (with mixed crew). I wonder if the spawn points (or which units can spawn where) could be adjusted. I suppose the vanilla spawn points have made an assumption that this alien rank does not spawn here. (As a player, this is a rather easy - too easy - way to grab a live Oct terrorist and thus get access to advanced MC equipment much earlier in the game.)

[psavola]

Another minor thing I have been wondering. Is it intentional that MC protected aquanauts have higher stat caps than the regular ones? Installing implants on them allows them to increase for example firing and throwing accuracy from 100 to 110, as well as strength from 60 to 75 -- but the implants also severely reduce the maximum bravery and reactions are severely reduced. (However, installing cyborg implants on your aquanauts increases their reactions, bravery, and several other caps.)

[Nord]

Another minor thing I have been wondering. Is it intentional that MC protected aquanauts have higher stat caps than the regular ones? Installing implants on them allows them to increase for example firing and throwing accuracy from 100 to 110, as well as strength from 60 to 75 -- but the implants also severely reduce the maximum bravery and reactions are severely reduced. (However, installing cyborg implants on your aquanauts increases their reactions, bravery, and several other caps.)

Yes, intended. Implants are useful.

[SirDaniWTF]

Sirs,  Translation to spanish is finished.  i forgot to post the link before.

https://www.transifex.com/openxcom/openxcom-mods/translate/#es_ES/twots-the-world-of-terrifying-silence/155197100

Somebody knows the way to download it or what have i do now?