[Solved] alien base using terrain from geoscape

[Tekamthi]

Can an alien base somehow reference what geoscape terrain its in?

I've mocked up a 2-stage alien base assault mission and it seems to work... only with the surface either always mars, or w/e override i give it..

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I haven't done it myself, but it looks easy to do. Here's how I would assume it works, based on existing ruleset data for the original final mission:

Code: [Select]

  - type: STR_MARS_CYDONIA_LANDING
    terrains:
      - MARS
    nextStage: STR_MARS_THE_FINAL_ASSAULT
  - type: STR_MARS_THE_FINAL_ASSAULT
    terrains:
      - UBASE
It appears that upon completing STR_MARS_CYDONIA_LANDING, you move on to STR_MARS_THE_FINAL_ASSAULT. Each one has its terrain set declared separately.

[Tekamthi]

Right, I've done all this. Problem is the base isn't actually in the geoscape terrain from the game's perspective.. if you don't expressly reference a terrain in the ruleset, you get Mars terrain, every time. If you do, you only get the manually set terrain. ie it's impossible to get the terrain from a base location, unlike a UFO.  I'm guessing, maybe wrongly, that I'm not the first to try this.. would be nice if the base could cross reference it's Coordinates with geoscape terrain

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Perhaps it has to happen when the site is created, rather than when you land at it. I'd check the code for creating crash sites to see if that might yield anything useful. Also, it might be possible to fake a base by making a special landed site which uses the base sprite (magenta square) and stays landed for a very long time (years). Then you can possibly make the landed craft very big and looking like a base entrance, and the landing site leads to part two which uses base terrain.

Hopefully someone comes along with more helpful advice than I have. Also possible: X-Pirates or another total conversion mod might already be doing what you're asking for, and you could study their mod to figure out how it's done.

[Tekamthi]

good idea... i'll look at that route, but will take me some time to figure out

for now i've created a new 'outdoor' terrain, using just the alien habitat/garden tiles.. ie a zerg-creep-style surface for every base.. this works okay in my head, tweaking it now

[Meridian]

Yes, this has been implemented in the meantime: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,7536.0.html