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

[NaCl]

Question.
I am fairly new to modding Xcom. I recently got OXCE and TWoTS and can get the game to run with no issues. (Only played about 20-30 minutes) I am not able to save the game and the auto-saves do not save.
This is was i get:
C;Program Files(X86)/OXCE/user/xcom2/_autogeo_.asave.bak

it changes a bit depending on in mission or on geoscape. What can i do to hopefully fix this.
P.S. i've reinstalled a few times now, both the game and OXCE.

[Meridian]

If you want to create the "user" folder, then DON'T install into Program Files.

If you want to install into Program Files, then don't create the "user" folder and just go with the default location in the Documents.

[NaCl]

To Meridian; Thank you.

[CrazedHarpooner]

I've been perusing the rulesets in this mod and came across some errors that I list below

alienRaces.rul has multiple instances of incorrectly defined retaliationMissionWeights as they are missing the "months passed" value.

Spoiler:

Lines affected in the file: 154, 167, 180, 193, 253, 266, 278, 291, 303, 316, 328, 340 and 352.
Note that in a couple of the lines, the retaliation mission is STR_ALIEN_RETALIATION2.
Currently

Code: [Select]

    retaliationMissionWeights:
      STR_ALIEN_RETALIATION: 100
Should be

Code: [Select]

    retaliationMissionWeights:
      0:
        STR_ALIEN_RETALIATION: 100


In armors.rul armor STR_COVERALL has incorrectly named stats defined for reactions and TUs

Spoiler:

Currently

Code: [Select]

    stats:
      stamina: 20
      reaction: 5
      time: 5
Should be

Code: [Select]

    stats:
      stamina: 20
      reactions: 5
      tu: 5 #


In events.rul the ruleset validator doesn't seem to like this format for everyMultiItemList found in event STR_EXOSUITS_EVENT_2

Spoiler:

Currently

Code: [Select]

    everyMultiItemList : [STR_ZRBITE: 10] # Validator complains about "Incorrect Type. Expected "object" "I suggest

Code: [Select]

    everyMultiItemList:
      STR_ZRBITE: 10


In extraSprites.rul two files use the same index

Spoiler:

Code: [Select]

      280: Resources/units/floorob_tasothguard.png
      280: Resources/units/aquaciv_corpse_floorob.png
I recommend to re-index the second one

Code: [Select]

      283: Resources/units/aquaciv_corpse_floorob.png # Or any other unused index within the type

In items.rul there's the following issues

Spoiler:

(line 1526) STR_CORPSE_CARAPACE has a blank recover property. Based on other similar items and what I could see of the research tree it should be set to 'false'.
(line 2435) STR_CORPSE_AQUACIV's floorSprite property should be updated to the new index used in extraSprites.rul (283 in the suggestion provided)
(lines 223 and 250) STR_DRONE and STR_S_DRONE both have the property turretType set. This causes gameplay issues as the game consideres them to have turrets even tho there's no visual change while turning the turret section only, this is more noticeable when the "Alternate movement methods" is enabled as turret equiped units see based on the turret's facing, not the 'body'. I suggest to delete the property or to at least comment them out. Note that other drones used in the mod don't have this property set.

In Ufopaedia.rul (lines 1545 and 1548) you find listOrder defined twice for STR_MC_FOCUS. Either one of them can be removed.

In ufos.rul STR_CRUISER has a blank missionCustomDeploy (line 224). I recommend to delete or comment out the line

In vars.rul, properties extendedRunningCost and extendedItemReloadCost have been defined outside the parent property constants. They should be defined as

Spoiler:

Code: [Select]

constants:
  extendedRunningCost: true
  extendedItemReloadCost: true
  extendedTerrainMelee: 4
  extendedUnderwaterThrowFactor: 60
  extendedHwpLoadOrder: true

[Nord]

Thanks, it is very useful. I'll try to fix it soon.

[banelinq]

Hello,

i would like to ask: On superhuman diff., very small armed alien subs just delete any human sub. Baracuda/Moray has no chance. Is this intentional?

Alien sub shoots so fast and these subs are very frequent everywhere. Player dont have reason to build advanced crafts until there is BIG leap in health/firepower/speed.

Thank you, and thank you for the cool mod.

[psavola]

Hello,

i would like to ask: On superhuman diff., very small armed alien subs just delete any human sub. Baracuda/Moray has no chance. Is this intentional?

Alien sub shoots so fast and these subs are very frequent everywhere. Player dont have reason to build advanced crafts until there is BIG leap in health/firepower/speed.

Thank you, and thank you for the cool mod.

I suppose so. You need at least two barracudas, piloted with a reasonably good pilot and armed with squall missiles to deal with hunter-killers semi-reliably. So, getting these to protect your transports early-ish (say May timeframe) is a priority, especially if you play ironman. (But if they are shielded, typical in later game, you will be toast unless you have the best weapon.) One of the thrills of the mod is having to protect your transports and always having to be on your toes for silently appearing hunter-killers.

[banelinq]

I suppose so. You need at least two barracudas, piloted with a reasonably good pilot and armed with squall missiles to deal with hunter-killers semi-reliably. So, getting these to protect your transports early-ish (say May timeframe) is a priority, especially if you play ironman. (But if they are shielded, typical in later game, you will be toast unless you have the best weapon.) One of the thrills of the mod is having to protect your transports and always having to be on your toes for silently appearing hunter-killers.

Hunter killers have superior speed, second Baracuda wont have time to join the fight.
And even if there is an escort, i think one sub will be destroyed anyway. Hunter killer fire every frame it seems.

[psavola]

Hunter killers have superior speed, second Baracuda wont have time to join the fight.
And even if there is an escort, i think one sub will be destroyed anyway. Hunter killer fire every frame it seems.

You should have three subpens on your assault base, one with triton/poseiden, two slots with barracudas or later morays. Then you can escort the transport from the beginning and there is no problem with not being able to join the fight. (Niote that in the intercept window you can do escorting with CTRL-SHIFT-click shortcuts.)

With two barracudas it is indeed likely that one of them will be destroyed if you meet a hunter-killer. The chances of survival increase if the pilot has good stats. You should also also definitely manufacture and equip the crafts with a magnetic array when you are able. Because the base accuracy of squall launchers is relatively low, you should employ all the ways to improve the accuracy to make sure the first missiles hit the HK and therefore destroy it ASAP. Else in the worst case scenario both barracudas miss the HK too much and it destroys both.

All this is doable (I've done a SH ironman campaign a number of times), but requires skills and sometimes a bit of luck you didn't need in the base game.

[CrazedHarpooner]

I don't believe anybody is questioning if it's doable or not, but rather if the implementation might have not considered the implications that low reload values have on higher difficulties and how much of a drastric change it is bewteen the 3 highest ones. After some number crunching and spreadsheets I've come to the result in the image. While I'm uncertain if I should say in number of frames or maybe in (gs) units as how the ruleset page on the UFOpaedia labels them, there's a noticeable contrast on how deadly the HK fighter is on higher difficulties.

[Nord]

Do you want me to nerf them?

[psavola]

If I get that right, Fighter shoots at you at 3x rate in SH compared to the next difficulty. I suppose that's mindboggling. I guess it could be nerfed. But I suppose this all boils down to how difficult SH is intended to be.

I suppose I would vote for nerfing them a bit. Not really to make the early-game HKs easier. But to make it more feasible to beat shielded HKs that appear later. Those are brutal. The only way to deal with those with barracuda/moray are PWT launchers, but you don't necessarily get them in time. So if you run across one, your only hope is to run (if you can) or die.

[CrazedHarpooner]

I've been pondering a possible solution. A direct nerf doesn't seem to be the reasonable approach since the 'issue' affects almost exclusively Genius and SH difficulties while the others appear to be fine at their value. A possible approach would be to use OXCE's difficultyCoefficientOverrides and more explicitly the ufoFiringRateCoefficients with the following values

Code: [Select]

difficultyCoefficientOverrides:
  ufoFiringRateCoefficients: [100, 85, 70, 55, 45]
With these values: beginner, experienced and veteran Fighters should behave as they currently do while Genius and SH will take a bit longer but still be faster than veteran. A note about using this option is that all UFOs that have higher reload values than the fighter will see an increase in their firerate while those that have a lower value will have it reduced accross all difficulty levels. Well, beginner will stay the same.

[murkhach@centrum.cz]

If I get that right, Fighter shoots at you at 3x rate in SH compared to the next difficulty. I suppose that's mindboggling. I guess it could be nerfed. But I suppose this all boils down to how difficult SH is intended to be.

I suppose I would vote for nerfing them a bit. Not really to make the early-game HKs easier. But to make it more feasible to beat shielded HKs that appear later. Those are brutal. The only way to deal with those with barracuda/moray are PWT launchers, but you don't necessarily get them in time. So if you run across one, your only hope is to run (if you can) or die.

I usually play on SH or Veteran ,  so HK is not such a problem especially with cannons
IMHO - working with craft armor could help a bit 
   then the damage income would not be just  atack speed * weapon power ,
   but  armored  crafts can withstand a lot of low dmg weapon hit, before being destroyed
   there could be another  item (extra armor) that can be added to hidden weapon slot (that decrease the speed, but increase the armor and resistance vs HK)
 

[Nord]

Version 2.61 is up.
Changelog:
Polishing release:
- Fixed minor bugs;
- Improved some images.