[UFO] [WIP] UNIT Operations - A Doctor Who Conversion v0.2.1

[Cirius]

Update by Meridian: updated to v0.2.1 to run on the latest nightly, download here: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5666.msg114975.html#msg114975

BACKGROUND:
The year is 1980. Mankind has landed on the Moon, put satellites into orbit and has begun reaching further into space. As governments and private organisations send probes further and further towards the stars and scientists transmit signals into the sky, little does humanity realise just how much attention they are drawing to themselves.

At first, it was all just rumours and gossip - Tall tales of metal men and lizard people walking the streets. Eminent scientists and politicians going missing, vanishing without trace. But soon the tales became news - photographs of terrifying creatures and mechanical terrors hit the headlines as the Earth's infrastructure came under assault. It was undeniable - the Earth was under attack.

Following an emergency session of the United Nations, a rapid-response organisation was established to combat the extra-terrestrial threat - The United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, or U.N.I.T.

Operating under the auspices of the United Nations and the guidance of an alien humanoid known only as the Doctor, UNIT's remit was to investigate and combat paranormal and extra-terrestrial threats to the Earth.

With the mysterious and elusive Doctor at their side, U.N.I.T stood firm against dozens of threats to the human race, but then suddenly the Doctor disappeared.

As the Doctor's enemies take advantage of his absence to step up their efforts against the Earth, U.N.I.T must stand alone against the increasing threat from outer space. Can they keep the Earth safe? Perhaps, more importantly, can they find the Doctor?

26/08/2017

Version 0.2 is now available for download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4iARS4J-Bx8M1NUemNpQUZHUWc

A couple of points to make: -

1.) It's a work in progress (obviously)
2.) Alien races have not yet been integrated into the campaign, so V.01 is only so you can have a chance to fight them in quick battle mode.
3.) Races are missing unique inventory corpse items.
4.) Daleks / Cybermen / Toclafane are basically done. All other races are WIP so fight at your own risk.

DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS:
The below is a rough guide of my intentions, and an estimated percentage of how complete each element is. This is by no means a guaranteed content list, as I will undoubtedly add to it as I go, more of a rough reminder to me as to what I'm supposed to be working on.

RACES:
Daleks [90%]
Cybermen [90%]
Sontarans [50%]
Autons [50%]
Silurians [30%]
Sea Devils [30%]
Toclafane [90%]
Weeping Angels [80%]
Vashta Nerada [80%]
Ogri [80%]

TECHNOLOGIES:
UNIT Field Uniform [90%]
UNIT Officer Uniform [90%]
GR7A Harrier [90%]
C-130 Transport [90%]
Learjet [90%]
L1A1 Infantry Rifle [90%]
RPG-7 [90%]

New Maps:
0%

New Ships:
Cyberman Shuttle [0%]
Dalek Shuttle [90%]


Daleks!


Sontarans!


Cybermen!


Dogs!

Suggestions are welcomed. Once I release I'll be desperate for feedback on unit balance and bug fixing. Also, if anyone else feels like chipping in with any contributions, feel free.

[Wolfstarr]

YESSSS!!!!

Been waiting for this for a long time! Thanks for your continued dedication to it.

I came across the attached sprites a while back, they might be of use to you!

I did have some sound files but appear to have been wiped in a recent system reboot.

[Cirius]

Today, I realise that I may have created a slight problem for myself.

In deciding to set the mod in the 1980's and using authentic period weaponry, the result is that a large portion of UNIT's arsenal is basically completely ineffective against certain races.

Facing daleks with semi-automatic rifles and even light machine guns may look good, but when the bullets do little more than bounce off them, am I just annoying players unnecessarily?

I really don't want to tone down the armour of creatures that are supposed to be terrifying, so what's the solution?

One idea is to increase UNIT's access to explosive weapons. To compensate, I've added the RPG-7 and M72 disposable rocket launcher. In addition, high explosives are still available for people who enjoy levelling buildings.  In test playthroughs, the best strategy against a lone dalek is to blanket the area with explosives and hope it doesn't come out the other side of it unharmed. In Terror missions, however, there's no way you'll be able to carry enough explosives to deal with all of them.

My second thought is to decrease the number of daleks on terror missions with a buffer unit - the Roboman.



Slave to the daleks, his only role in life is to reduce the number of daleks on terror missions by taking up one of the spots and provide a purpose to UNIT's lighter weaponry. It's a poor job, but I suppose someone has to do it...

Furthermore, once more races start trickling in, I suppose I can start thinking of introducing aliens who are tougher against explosives, but weak against armour piercing rounds, to prevent UNIT from just showing up packing nothing but rockets and explosives. Swings and roundabouts...

Additionally, I've been having thoughts on the tech tree. I don't want to gallop upwards through laser and plasma weaponry, (not discounting certain 'exotic' weapons,') so the best solution I can think of is 'exotic' ammunition. Standard weapons firing ammunition derived from extra terrestrial alloys and materials.

As for progress, I'm still intending on releasing V.01 by the end of the week. I've got a little more done on the UNIT side than I was anticipating by this point, so most of the standard UNIT weapons are now operational with custom sounds.

[yrizoud]

No matter how iconic the dalek are, and how much you want to battle them, it's a mistake to have them appear too early. Keep them terrifying, and let them appear in later parts of campaign. It's up to the player to scavenge extraterrestrial or back-from-the-future weapons, which are the only way to overcome the dalek's shields.

[Cirius]

Definitely agree they should be late game enemies. It does mean I have to bulk out the early and mid game a little though, but eventually I'll have enough units that shouldn't be too much of an issue.

[Wolfstarr]

You could have different generations of daleks.  Remember in revelation of the daleks UNIT was able to destroy the casing with those rockets that they could fit onto the barrel of their weapons.

Also ACE used Nitro 9 explosives to blow some up as well in the same story arc.

Defo stagger their exposure, also the daleks had different factions as well

#DrWhoNerd

[Cirius]

Definitely planning on more than one dalek faction eventually, but I'd rather include some other units before increasing the number of daleks further. The current thinking is -

Cushing Movie Era
Genesis
Imperial
Renegade
Time War
Paradigm

[yrizoud]

I don't know the show enough, but from what I get, it makes little difference from the point of view of UNIT, as they will shoot whoever is the monster-of-the-week.

I wonder if you can make a faction and monthly missions for "the doctor". One of the small UFOs you detect would actually be the TARDIS. You can't actually destroy it in flight (let's say it has insane hit points, shrugging off your attacks), and if you land on it there is nobody to fight, you just get some gadgets as loot. Probably not weapons, but crafting stuff, or alien / ancient / future stuff that you can sell ("I don't want to know *when* you found this")
If the game actually generates several overlapping missions with the doctor, you can have multiple TARDIS flying around, which is completely possible thanks to time travel.

[Wolfstarr]

Doh it was remembrance not revelation!

[Cirius]

That scene's always been one of my favourites -
I've used it a lot for art references. 

It also holds the honour of being the first Doctor Who episode I ever saw.

[Wolfstarr]

Is one of my favourites as well, love Sylvester McCoy

Love to see the weeping angels in this, I looked for some reference sprites to work with but couldn't find anything useful.

Also in Silver Nemesis a guy was able to defeat the cyber men with gold tipped arrows, this could be an excerpt from the ufopaedia.

"During research the armour of the Cyberman seemed impervious to much ballistic weaponry until one of our scientists brushed his wedding ring against it wherein the structural integrity of the armour began to deteriorate to the point of collapse.  We can easily develop gold tipped ammo for our ballistics to effectively fight this Cyberman race"

[chaosshade]

There was a Dr. Who browser game on Google's AU page for a while.  Try looking for the archive of that.  idk how to do it or I'd dig it up myself ^^;

[Cirius]

Also in Silver Nemesis a guy was able to defeat the cyber men with gold tipped arrow.

Yes, gold-tipped bullets are pretty much an inevitable addition. I don't think vanilla can cope with additional damage types, so I'll need to move to OXCE at some point down the line.

Love the Ufopaedia entry.

[Duke_Falcon]

A Who-mod with Daleks! Now heaven become a place on Earth!

[Cirius]

Version 0.1 is now available for download - See original post for link.

In other news, we've just had a rather unexpected delivery to HQ. Did anyone order any statues?