OpenXcom - War

[Warboy1982]

dear diary:
today i made a sprite or 3.


(base) (minimized) (interception)
these are the graphics for the sentinel class interceptor.

if anyone wants to use these for anything whatsoever, go right ahead.
also, if someone wants to make me a ufopedia image for it, i would be much obliged.

EDIT - just uploaded a new compiled version with all of today's new features, including working psi and physical training!, now if only i had maps for the new facilites, i'd be completely happy, although since there aren't any base attacks yet, it's low priority.

[moriarty]

detector tanks sound very cool. having motion scanners work in the form of a battlescape overlay instead of a separate screen comes to mind... a certain area around the scanner tank (or motion scanner - bearing soldier) would be "augmented" by showing motion signatures... perhaps larger and more fuzzy for stationary units, and sharper for those that moved recently?

if you want to go in that direction, perhaps it would be nice to give every soldier one "helmet slot" in the inventory screen, where a single special equipment item can be used: a motion scanner, a long-range targeting scope, a night vision scope, perhaps a personal mind-shield later on? if you find that the HWPs become too strong, you could even balance them by having them require one soldier with a "HWP remote" item. if that soldier gets killed, somebody else needs to pick up the remote, or you can't use the HWP anymore...


slow air transports that need fighter craft for protection seem like a good idea, too. increases geoscape tactical play by introducing counter-attacks, perhaps even bait-and-attack missions once smarter aliens (ethereals?) come into play.


i like the sentinel class interceptor looks a bit like the bat-plane https://www.thomasmodels.com/gallery/batwing.jpg

[Warboy1982]

yeah, i'm over this.

github has confused and frustrated me to the point where my will to continue has dried up completely.
i've been stuck adding vanilla features for the past few weeks, and that's not what i want to be doing, especially if i can't actually contribute those features to the finished product.

i MIGHT be coming back to this when 1.0 hits, but until then, i feel like i'm just wasting my time.

if anyone wants to take over, go ahead.

[michal]

Damn, sorry to hear that I hope you will return. Maybe take some free time,  then read about git and try again.

[luke83]

Its a sad day for xcom gamers everywhere , i hope you find the will to continue yout plan again mate , maybe after 1.0

[SupSuper]

Radius wrote a pretty extensive guide on using GitHub if you're curious.

[Warboy1982]

i read it. five times. it helped. a little.

the problem is that github is just so damn confusing, i ended up doing it by manually editing the config files (which by the way, is much more straightforward) because doing it via command line only yielded error messages, and doing it via the GUI yielded... well nothing, i'm still convinced that piece of software does nothing useful apart from break everything.

[SupSuper]

I've never used many GitHub-specific features (I've heard their software isn't that great) myself, just treat it like any other VCS, which probably helps. If worse comes to worse, you can always interface it with some other VCS you prefer or just go back to old-fashioned code sharing. We don't force anyone to use GitHub or pull requests, although it does speed up getting other's changes into our codebase, but since you work mostly independent from us that shouldn't matter much.

[Warboy1982]

true, but i've started working on vanilla features, like psionic training and hyperwave decoding - stuff you need - in an effort to get my project finished.
i can't finish my project until you finish yours. so... get ready for more pull requests? i THINK i've finally got github... well, not figured out, but... working?
merging changes from the master is a LOT easier now, i'll give it that much. plus now i can actually add stuff in the proper way i'll feel less like i'm wasting my time,
and more like i'm... joining the team?
basically the way i see it, the sooner you're done, the sooner i can get back to what i want to be doing, so it's in my interests to make your interests my interests.

[michal]

Great to hear that

[MKSheppard]

So WarBoy, since you're coding stuff; how about these suggestions?

1.) Adding multiple weapons (Up to say four?) for HWPs.

Basically, making HWPs a bit more useful; in that you have something that can roll out the Skyranger ramp, start hosing down the landscape with HE shells, then seamlessly switch over to IN shells to set on fire a building. Then a bunch of sectoids wander into your HWP's FoV and you fire off a large rocket at them.

In real life, many autocannons (and some heavy machine guns) have dual feeds; allowing you to switch from AP rounds to HE rounds with a flick of a switch; and an increasing amount of light vehicles now carry expendable ATGM launchers on the sides of their turrets.

2.) Making some kind of directional blast grenade code -- one idea I had was to replace the current kind of useless HIGH EXPLOSIVE charge with a more useful item that is directional, and can breach UFO walls; making that item useful to the player -- instead of throwing the charge, you can walk up to an UFO exterior wall, face it, prime the SHAPE CHARGE, drop it, and the next turn it fires and has a 50% chance of knocking down an alien wall in front of it.

[MKSheppard]

3.) Enhanced Proximity Grenades and Motion Detector.

Let me explain.

As it is, researching and autopsying aliens currently is useful for some fluff, but we all know what is what by heart by now and we just autopsy them for the points boost at the end of the month; and capturing live aliens gives you no benefit except for the crucial COMMANDER(s) that you need to unlock Cydonia.

But what if we made autopsies/alien captures unlock better equipment? One area where better equipment comes to mind (and could be accomplished with sprite recoloring) is the Motion Detector and Proximity Grenade:

Motion Detector/Prox Grenade Mk I: As we have them in XCOM now. Unable to differentiate between civilians/aliens. Blow up anyone who passes nearby.

Motion Detector/Prox Grenade Mk II: We've videotaped and analyzed the motion, gait, IR signature, etc of aliens that we have captured; so we now offer you this new model. It can tell you if that's a human or alien. Likewise, the prox grenade shouldn't blow up a human. Most of the time....(error rate of 50% or so). Maybe a bit more range.

Motion Detector/Prox Grenade Mk III: Accuracy has improved, and we can now tell what type of alien we detected. Grenades can be set to a specific species of alien, so you can have prox grenades target chyssalids only. A little bit more range over the Mk II.

[Warboy1982]

yeah, i was actually going to modify some of the ufopeadia text to give useful information on alien vulnerabilities because of what i'm doing to armour/resistances, and give a small damage boost or something against a race that you HAVE researched (basically analogous to researching in system shock 2)

as for the motion sensors, i like where you're going with this. i'm thinking that for each LIVE alien species you research, it allows for differentiation of that species' blob, not sure how i'd handle this for proxies.

shaped explosions: yes, yes and more yes. claymores, breaching charges, all that good stuff.

i'll be messing around with the tech trees too, i want power armour to be a branch of muton research and flying armour to come from floaters and ethereals - floaters for propulsion, and ethereals for the alien nano-weave (their robes). you already gain sectopod construction from sectopod research.

multiple ammo types for HWPs will be a simple addition, i'll just have it as a different fire mode, ie: aimed shot becomes AP shot, snap shot becomes HE shot, auto shot becomes IN shot (single bullet of course) and as an added bonus, i'm gonna have a coaxial machine gun in the "left hand" slot.

thanks for the suggestions!

[moriarty]

the tank "left hand" slot could also be used for a limited-uses (two "shots"?) smoke screen generator (simply create a smoke grenade explosion centered on the tank itself). it's a commonly used addition on full-size infantry-support tanks, after all.

you know what would also be nice? a "multiple-ammo dual-mode" main gun: right weapon fires AP/HE/IN rounds as usual, left weapon fires the same ammo in a grenade-like arc! both use the same "magazine". [call it the "MADMAC": multiple ammo dual mode assault cannon ]

[Warboy1982]

yeah, i was gonna put multiple ammo types on cannon tanks, like AP shot, HE shot and IN shot instead of snap/aimed/auto shot, and i was thinking co-axial machine guns (full auto) in the second hand slot, but smoke launchers suit tanks, and i think the full auto gun probably belongs on the sectopods.

as for the MADMACS (multiple ammo dual mode assault cannon SYSTEM): how about instead of "THROW" (which is unavailable on fixed weapons anyway) simply have a "SWITCH FIRE MODE" to toggle between arcing shots and regular shots.