Arsenal Expanded

[chaosshade]

Oopsie!  Sorry about that, little artefact leftover from playing with some new sounds in the development version.  Should be all fixed now!  (download in first post)

The compatibility means that it has custom ranges set up for UFO Extender Accuracy instead of using the default values because the default values make some weapons, like shotguns, kind of wonky.

[Amoebka]

Are slates recovered from alien bases random, or determined by alien race and/or game month? Did 2 bases so far, recoved 1 slate, and it is the plasma one, the most "boring" one. A shame slates are destructible by explosions, losing such rare items to exploding cyberdisks feels terrible.

Also, laser shotgun is hilariously broken, and the plasma one appears to be even worse. In the absense of heavily armoured aliens, multipellet weapons do truly idiotic amounts of damage.

[chaosshade]

Slates are supposed to be paired with whatever weapon the commander-type alien has.  They can't be destroyed by explosions, so don't worry about that.  I know the shotguns are hilariously broken, try using UFO Extender Accuracy, it kneecaps them nicely.

[Amoebka]

They can't be destroyed by explosions, so don't worry about that

Wait, so how come I didn't recover a slate the first time I did an alien base then? Can they just not spawn at all?

Slates are supposed to be paired with whatever weapon the commander-type alien has

And how is the weapon for the commander determined? Is THAT random or not? Basically, is it worth doing another snakeman base if I did one already or will I get a duplicate of the slate I have already?

[chaosshade]

You should get two slates every time you do an alien base, a Rosetta Slate (required to translate the other data slates) and a slate that unlocks weapons (might be duplicates because of randomization.)  It is, unfortunately, random, but keep in mind that I play this mod as well so I have to play by the same rules.

[Amoebka]

Then it's probably a bug I didn't recover any slates from the first base I did, isn't it? Not sure what happened here, I've assumed the slates were destroyed by a random cyberdisk explosion or something. I have a save file, in case you (or the person maintaining the mod if it's not you?) want to take a look. It's made near the very end of the mission, and finishing it yields no slates (yes, I did finish the mission with 2 soldiers alive...  ).

[chaosshade]

It's because you're using mixed crews, the mod clearly states that it doesn't work with mods that change alien deployments.

[Amoebka]

Really? All mods except this one are turned off, I've just checked. Is it in the options instead of mods?

Edit: Also, all enemies in that mission (and all other missions in the campaign) were sectoids and cyberdisks, nothing "mixed", or so it seemed. The base itself was somewhat weird in that there were 2 different bases (this sectoid one and a snakeman one that DID have slates) exactly on top of one another.

Edit2: the aliens in the base were also wielding the new weapons from the mod, so the deployment was 100% from this mod.

[chaosshade]

Double check everything.  The save shows that you have mixed crews for UFO so you won't get data slates.  You absolutely cannot use any mod that changes alien deployments if you want to use Arsenal Expanded.

EDIT:  That sounds like a bug... I'll need to look into it.

EDIT 2:  Did you add Arsenal Expanded mid-run?  That'll cause a lot of weird things to happen.

[Amoebka]

Double checked, no other mods enabled. In fact, I wasn't even aware a mod that added mixed crews and nothing else existed, so I don't have it installed or anything.

The arsenal mod was 100% percent installed before I created the campaign. Everything else was 100% turned off at that time. I DID update the mod from 1.6 to 1.61 after reporting the sound bug, though.

Found a save before the base mission started. Going there, entering debug mode (ctrl+D) reveals some surprising stuff. The sectoid commander doesn't carry any slates on him at all. Killing all aliens (ctrl+k) doesn't recover slates, so they weren't destroyed either. Magic. 

[chaosshade]

Hmm... methinks there's a typo somewhere... bother.  I thought all that code was solid... I'll post an update when I find it.  Stop by the OXC Discord while you wait.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I know the shotguns are hilariously broken, try using UFO Extender Accuracy, it kneecaps them nicely.

Did you know about the new shotgun algorithm for OXCE? You can get them to work properly regardless of UFO Extender Accuracy (as in: one shotgun works well in both settings) if you use the new code:

Code: [Select]

items:
  - type: STR_SHOTGUN_SHELLS
    shotgunSpread: 10
    shotgunBehavior: 1
    shotgunChoke: 100The above settings makes the shotgun use the new algorithm in which the first pellet uses the accuracy calculation to determine its path, and the rest travel near to it. It also ensures that the soldier accuracy does not affect the shotgun spread.

shotgunSpread: 10 gives a decent shotgun spread. If you set this value to 0, the pellets all hit the same spot. If you set it to 100, the pellets spread pretty evenly over the entire cone in front of the soldier, regardless of where the initial pellet went. You'll want to set it to 50 or lower to ensure that the initial pellet actually affects where the rest go.

shotgunChoke: 100 doesn't use the choke effect. Lower values force the soldier to aim closer to the target, even at very low accuracy. shotgunChoke: 0 will make every shot perfect even at 1% effective accuracy.

[Amoebka]

Basically, I believe there is a bug in the mission scripts that leads to alien bases spawned from infiltrations (as opposed to base construction missions) having wrong, vanilla deployments.

I've managed to fix the bug on my end by editing STR_RACE_ALIEN_INFILTRATION entries. Zip is included with the post. Please, check it and consider replacing the current version with the fixed one. I'm leaving this here in case I don't see your replies on the Discord.

[chaosshade]

Did you know about the new shotgun algorithm for OXCE? You can get them to work properly regardless of UFO Extender Accuracy (as in: one shotgun works well in both settings) if you use the new code:

Code: [Select]

items:
  - type: STR_SHOTGUN_SHELLS
    shotgunSpread: 10
    shotgunBehavior: 1
    shotgunChoke: 100The above settings makes the shotgun use the new algorithm in which the first pellet uses the accuracy calculation to determine its path, and the rest travel near to it. It also ensures that the soldier accuracy does not affect the shotgun spread.

shotgunSpread: 10 gives a decent shotgun spread. If you set this value to 0, the pellets all hit the same spot. If you set it to 100, the pellets spread pretty evenly over the entire cone in front of the soldier, regardless of where the initial pellet went. You'll want to set it to 50 or lower to ensure that the initial pellet actually affects where the rest go.

shotgunChoke: 100 doesn't use the choke effect. Lower values force the soldier to aim closer to the target, even at very low accuracy. shotgunChoke: 0 will make every shot perfect even at 1% effective accuracy.

I am aware of the OXCE+ features and I plan to include them in later versions.  I need to test them extensively in the dev version first though so I can get them just right.

Announcement:
After extensive help from Hobbes, Warboy, SupSuper, and ohartenstein, I think I've FINALLY killed the bug with the racial bases not spawning!  From now on, if a major update (like this one) is released, you WILL need to create a new save file!

Update in first post!

[chaosshade]

So yeah, I updated the mod on mod.io almost a year ago and I didn't update the topic on the forum.  Check the first post like usual for updates.