[TC][OXCE][I.D.T.] Terminator: Tech-Comm - Alpha

[Hobbes]

\Documents\OpenXcom\mods

Well, I can't really help you then. Make sure you have OXCE properly installed, scroll down the mod list, that's all I can think of.

[Mrekalis]

I feel kind of dumb suggesting this because I have nothing to contribute but ideas here (unfortunately I can't sprite, code, etc) but I think some of the progession is kind of wrong. Shooting down HKs as the main conciet of the game is actually a novel idea, and makes sense given the fact that they seem more like attack helijets than anything that could really hold its own in a dogfight. Even though the mod seems to be having the same issues for me as the dude above, that first couple of interceptions was really intense and seeing an HK through the scope was wild. My game crashes unpredictably after a few minutes of play though.

I did get one ground mission done, and while I like it, facing Terminators, even T-600s and earlier models right off just feels wrong. I always imagined that the HK Aerials and HK Tanks we see in the movie were the real forces of Skynet's arsenal. If Skynet would fill its craft with defense drones, they'd probably be compact, especially the early ones. Small, weakly armored, lightly armed, dare I say "boring" robots that are basically just a machine gun or rocket launcher on treads, kind of like some military prototypes today. The Terminators are supposed to be "The newest. The worst." Chris actually discussed this on one of his musings, concluding that Skynet's arsenal must have started out with more recognizable robots first and moved to Terminators later. Chris's intial conception of Skynet's first drones are as tiny rodent-sized poison needle-shooting paranoia machines, which I would imagine is next to impossible to emulate in XCOM. Some of the robot artwork from the original Wasteland videogame might be a good cross-reference if I had to point to anything else that tried the abstract robot route.

I don't really think James Cameron actually thought the whole scenario all the way through like this, so it can be argued a lot one way or the other, and Terminator 2 definitely implies the Endoskeletons fought on the front lines so who knows. Also, I know what I'm suggesting would entail different sprite work and probably a significant change in mechanics to accomodate it, so please take this as friendly input and not demanding. My jaw just about hit the floor when I even heard there's a Terminator mod out for OpenXCOM, and I have no doubt that once its finished it'll probably be the closest a Terminator game will ever come to the Fight For the Future even if it remains a strict XCOM clone. This is a bit of fantasizing, mostly. Though when it comes to sprite work a box on treads with a gun sticking out of it might be easier to draw and animate than trying to invent 6-8 unique Endoskeleton variants.

Either way I look forward to seeing where this goes and I hope the issues with the mod get ironed out. I'm surprised anyone else even knew about Chris's website let alone was basing an XCOM mod off of it (will the Buster show up?) but I suppose Terminator fans really stick together more than I thought. Love the redesigned Geoscape by the way, instantly puts me in the mood.

(PS: To whoever put the soundtrack together, the music from the first movie used is taken from The Definitive Edition, which sounds a little bit different from the movie's actual soundtrack. Brad Fidel did a closer version to it later, though some tracks sound better on The Definitive Edition since its basically a remix. Not a really a criticism, I enjoy both versions, I just figure its only a matter of time before some music snob points this out so I figured I'd beat them to the punch.)

[Hobbes]

I feel kind of dumb suggesting this because I have nothing to contribute but ideas here (unfortunately I can't sprite, code, etc) but I think some of the progession is kind of wrong. Shooting down HKs as the main conciet of the game is actually a novel idea, and makes sense given the fact that they seem more like attack helijets than anything that could really hold its own in a dogfight. Even though the mod seems to be having the same issues for me as the dude above, that first couple of interceptions was really intense and seeing an HK through the scope was wild. My game crashes unpredictably after a few minutes of play though.

I did get one ground mission done, and while I like it, facing Terminators, even T-600s and earlier models right off just feels wrong. I always imagined that the HK Aerials and HK Tanks we see in the movie were the real forces of Skynet's arsenal. If Skynet would fill its craft with defense drones, they'd probably be compact, especially the early ones. Small, weakly armored, lightly armed, dare I say "boring" robots that are basically just a machine gun or rocket launcher on treads, kind of like some military prototypes today. The Terminators are supposed to be "The newest. The worst." Chris actually discussed this on one of his musings, concluding that Skynet's arsenal must have started out with more recognizable robots first and moved to Terminators later. Chris's intial conception of Skynet's first drones are as tiny rodent-sized poison needle-shooting paranoia machines, which I would imagine is next to impossible to emulate in XCOM. Some of the robot artwork from the original Wasteland videogame might be a good cross-reference if I had to point to anything else that tried the abstract robot route.

I don't really think James Cameron actually thought the whole scenario all the way through like this, so it can be argued a lot one way or the other, and Terminator 2 definitely implies the Endoskeletons fought on the front lines so who knows. Also, I know what I'm suggesting would entail different sprite work and probably a significant change in mechanics to accomodate it, so please take this as friendly input and not demanding. My jaw just about hit the floor when I even heard there's a Terminator mod out for OpenXCOM, and I have no doubt that once its finished it'll probably be the closest a Terminator game will ever come to the Fight For the Future even if it remains a strict XCOM clone. This is a bit of fantasizing, mostly. Though when it comes to sprite work a box on treads with a gun sticking out of it might be easier to draw and animate than trying to invent 6-8 unique Endoskeleton variants.

Either way I look forward to seeing where this goes and I hope the issues with the mod get ironed out. I'm surprised anyone else even knew about Chris's website let alone was basing an XCOM mod off of it (will the Buster show up?) but I suppose Terminator fans really stick together more than I thought. Love the redesigned Geoscape by the way, instantly puts me in the mood.

(PS: To whoever put the soundtrack together, the music from the first movie used is taken from The Definitive Edition, which sounds a little bit different from the movie's actual soundtrack. Brad Fidel did a closer version to it later, though some tracks sound better on The Definitive Edition since its basically a remix. Not a really a criticism, I enjoy both versions, I just figure its only a matter of time before some music snob points this out so I figured I'd beat them to the punch.)

Well, I basically agreed with everything you posted: air combat needs to be fixed, more units need to be added, and I need to find more free time in the future to work on this mod

HK fighting is something that will need to be calibrated because I don't want it to become too predominant, ground combat should be still the main focus. I haven't added much of the setting yet to the UFOPaedia but the game is designed with Skynet having air superiority over the Resistance, which will limit the number of engagements, since the player is not required to shoot down HKs for score. And Tech-Comm bases will be regularly air bombarded or ground assaulted. So it's basically Future War with humanity sliding downwards after a massive Skynet counterattack after the Resistance assaulted Cheyenne Mountain.

With the soundtrack, I have decided not to include it on the mod to avoid any future copyright issues over those, so feel free to make your own soundtrack, or you might also like to try it out with the Cydonia Fall soundtrack mod.

I've known about Chris site for a really long time, it was one of first and best sources available on the internet about the Terminator universe.

[Mrekalis]

Just some further musings, but: I dunno if the air combat really needs to be "fixed". The HKs (in either of the movies) seem to function more like jet versions of modern attack helicopters. Which are infact vulnerable to being shot down by interceptors and proper jet fighters. If you want to limit this, perhaps have the jets and stuff be limited to the endgame only, when Tech-Comm acquires enough resources to fix up an old jet or two? The air-war thing is extremely cool, but it would make more sense as an endgame element, some kind of triumphant goal reached where the player can *finally* start shooting down the seemingly invincible HKs.

In the mean time, perhaps instead of shooting HK Aerials down, the players start by attacking HK tanks? If you can't get something so big to move through the map, making it a UFO with turrets would be reasonably close. HK Aerials could be a hazard that shows up if you take too long. Something you can't kill just starts shooting your troops with 100%+ accuracy one soldier per turn after it shows up, and you have to suffer that throughout the game until you get a working jet and get to pay it back.

I also thought a bit more about Chris's micro-Terminators, and I realized a sprite only about 5-10 pixels in size would be the most brutal and annoying X-Com enemy ever created and would defintely fit here, even if it would only be killed in one shot from any weapon. Even if such a creation looks like a clump of indistinct pixels, I think this might be a really cool and easy way to start the campaign off. Just a bunch of cellphone-sized enemies that die in one hit, but can still kill your troops if they needle them. Forcing the player to pay attention if they aren't using OXCE's tools, or if their eyesight is as bad as mine.

[Hobbes]

Regarding air combat and HKs, the proper future actions regarding them are better described with 'evolve' rather than 'fix'

It is a feature that is directly tied to Skynet's continuous base building, which leads to regions being overrun after several months if the machine activity is left unchecked. But the idea is not for the player to fight every HK and destroy every base since Skynet's resources will always trump over the player's. Instead, the idea is for the player to have to be very picky about the location of its own bases and the missions will have to be better planned than 'pick a spot and sent the transport'.

HK Tanks will be introduced, once someone makes the battlefield sprites for them, and micro-terminators too.

[SophiaThe3rd]

Based on the image you provided, I recommend a quick test edit to swap world.dat "med. elevation" texture with "low elevation" texture. I think this might give a more smoothed cinder aesthetic.

[SophiaThe3rd]

On second thought, WAY easier to do this through texture IDs or textures.png than through world.dat

[Hobbes]

On second thought, WAY easier to do this through texture IDs or textures.png than through world.dat

Yeah, when world.dat is done I'll simply edit textures.png for a better visual look, that's what I've done so far

[Nord]

Ok. Downloaded last version. Launched. Open first ufopedia article - crash. How to be?

[Hobbes]

Ok. Downloaded last version. Launched. Open first ufopedia article - crash. How to be?

The mod is in alpha status and I don't have time at the moment to be working on it.

[Mrekalis]

Feeling extremely pessimistic adding this in when I could be more helpful, but I'm imagining "Search Mode" missions where the HKs don't even show up sometimes. Sometimes you notice where an HK will be next, other times your TechCom troops wait for 60+ turns for nothing to even happen. Maybe some ambushes by HK Tanks as the games evolves. Would be very true to life given the nightmares of Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Hobbes]

Feeling extremely pessimistic adding this in when I could be more helpful, but I'm imagining "Search Mode" missions where the HKs don't even show up sometimes. Sometimes you notice where an HK will be next, other times your TechCom troops wait for 60+ turns for nothing to even happen. Maybe some ambushes by HK Tanks as the games evolves. Would be very true to life given the nightmares of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Waiting 60+ turns for nothing to happen on a battlefield, after taking the time to equip your soldiers and fighting the HK Interceptors with your crafts is a waste of the player's time. It is realistic that combat forces spend most of their time waiting and nothing happening but in game that just kills the motivation to play.

[Ace009]

Test. Oy, guys? Is it me or is the music submod now inaccessible?

[Dr.Crowley]

Test. Oy, guys? Is it me or is the music submod now inaccessible?

Had no problem downloading it.

I am playing this mod for the last two days and I can say it is VERY atmospheric. Minigun-toting T-600s WILL make you to use ANY cover. And now you can't just fly around and feel yourself safe - Skynet is coming for you! And ANY stupid mistake WILL result in casualties. Geez.

Great work, Hobbes! Tech-Comm feels pretty hard and interesting even on the Beginner difficulty as far as I can see right now.

[Hobbes]

PROJECT TERMINATED
This project has been discontinued because of copyright issues related to the unauthorized use of third party images.

Since it would require a ton of artwork, I decided to end this project because of the permissions it would require and I do not want to be blatantly stealing from other authors/games/etc. without their permission, under the risk of receiving a 'cease and desist' notice that could compromise all the work done on this mod, specially from sources that are commercially sold. 

If you have downloaded this mod, you're warned that the artwork for the weapons contained on it was originally done by Christopher Shields for his amazing Terminator: 2029 site and that it is not free to use - he kindly gave me permission to use them only for this mod after I personally contacted him.