[OXCE] XCOM Multimod

[cevaralien]

You can try to press space on night missions to remove this mode. You can also change the color of the NV mode in options.

[WaldoTheRanger]

I think the default hotkey for toggling night vision is page up or something weird like that.

but yeah you can change it

I also really like the addition of making it turn on automatically

[Ran]

My apologies about the night vision, I should have checked in OXCE without enabled mods. 
Toggling works fine with Scroll Lock and man it's dark at night!

I noticed in 1.05 soldiers are STR_SOLDIER whereas in 1.06 they are STR_SOLDIER_SCOUT, STR_SOLDIER_SNIPER or STR_SOLDIER__COMMANDO  I guess that may be part of the problem?

I replaced the zero values of soldiers with ones from a freshly started 1.05 savegame and it seems to work fine. Using OXCE 6.8.3 and multimod 1.06 now.

[cevaralien]

No, the problem with soldiers is this: when a new game begins, all soldiers are chosen randomly. The soldiers are defined in a file with their requirement. The commando, sniper and scout soldiers haven't an initial requirement (research), so, when the game search for the soldiers, it could choose a commando, sniper or scout.

In the soldier ruleset, these soldiers are defined without stats, because they are a referenced node of the original soldier.

I fixed the problem. Please, download the attached file on your mod folder, XCOM Multimod/Ruleset, or you can download the 1.07 version.

[cevaralien]

wow. just a few minutes of playing (even with the bugged soldiers) and I'm impressed.

It's not just more content than vanilla, but it's so much more polished and refined. (not to mention makes more sense)

I really like the simplifying of the inventory. less to think about, so you spend less time equipping and managing space and more time with the action.
oh yeah, and taking the silly timers off of smokes and regular nades is great too. it was just confusing for no extra benefit before. (however the ufopeadia entry for nades would indicate that it still has them)

ufos actually being hard to shoot down (or rather catch) is so much more immersive and tense. and the third slot weapon pod on the interceptors is a fantastic way to offset this (and it makes canons viable in regular engagements. holy crap I didn't think that was possible)


I think I will recommend this mod over vanilla to people who are new to the game.


the one thing I don't like is that instant grenades are turned on by default, but I do see how it fits with the design philosophy, and I'm happy since you let us change it back.

also a second pass on the 'peadia for spelling/grammer is in order. I'll try and make notes on specific problems next time I read it, but just a heads up

I'm glad you like it.

The high explosive was balanced to do the works that ufopedia says: demolition. I raised the weight to disallow a long range throw, while it's power allows to do holes in UFO hulls.

I recall a mission against the Mutons. My soldiers was armed with rifles and default ammo, so, i needed many shots to kill an enemy. The UFO was a Supply Ship and the doors was too near the southern border of the map. One Muton was in the border of the left door and the terrain (jungle) doesn't allows me to ambush it. It was very accurate and the grenades was not an option, because the distance.

Well... how to enter the UFO? I take a high explosive pack, i open a hole near left the gravity elevator, where i found 3 Mutons! I drop some hand grenades, rifle grenades and the defenders was killed. I finished the job with proximity grenades. Zero x-com deads.

Thas is the best use of the high explosive pack. I was lucky in a Terror Mission too, when i found 3 Sectopods very near of the Skyranger door. They was looking to other directions, so, i take a HE pack and kill them with a single explosion 

About this:

the one thing I don't like is that instant grenades are turned on by default, but I do see how it fits with the design philosophy, and I'm happy since you let us change it back.

I like to play with grenades that explodes on the same turn, because aliens works in the same way. For example, if i drop a grenade that doesn't explode immediately, the alien(s) could react and kill my soldier, even if i kill them at the end of the turn. Of course, you can change it at will in the options.

Thanks for the feedback on grammar. English is not my natural language, so, i appreciate the observations.

[cevaralien]

Notice that for some reason, when you load a single battle (not campaign), weirds things happens. One of them is that soldiers begins with different stats. I don't know why this happen.

I found this behavior in the new mod that i'm doing, so, i think that is a problem of the default configuration of the individual scenarios. I can guarantee the mod in campaing mode, but not in individual battles, at least for now.

[cevaralien]

I have released a new version of Multimod.

Changes on 1.07:

Fixed problems with soldier start stats.
Fixed some borders (Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, EEUU)
Added Saud Arabia borders and regions.
Fixed Egypt and Venezuela regions.

[Ran]

Thanks, this works!

I played one month on Genius, harvested 4 UFOs and completed a Terror mission without running into an obvious bug.

However as you said the low-stat soldiers in single battles persist, also the handob for grenades is a rifle.
chronic-fatigue-Midori and the normal-stat guy on the right are carrying 2 grenades, the guy behind her one normal and one smoke grenade.

[WaldoTheRanger]

lol.
it's a trick rifle.
like a trick candle, except it explodes.

[cevaralien]

Jejeje yeah, it is weird.

I don't know the single battle mechanics. In fact, i don't know why these soldiers have these stats, because no one of my soldiers are declared with these numbers; they have a full stat or no stats for the referenced one.

The same situation happens with the handob. I played many games with the rifles and machine guns (my favorite weapons) in campaing, none of these shows errors, but, in single battle you see...

I will ask to Meridian to explain me the single battle mechanics. I suspect that it is mixing data from the mod and the vanilla, or even other mods.

[Nirran]

crash when entering large ufo map with lightning,never seen this before with skyranger,twice it happened today

Code: [Select]

[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] FileRecord::at(TERRAIN/GMOUNT.MCD): requested file not found.
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] A fatal error has occurred: FileRecord::at(TERRAIN/GMOUNT.MCD): requested file not found.
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x5b1ca0 OpenXcom::CrossPlatform::stackTrace(void*)
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x5b2b10 OpenXcom::CrossPlatform::crashDump(void*, std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x41c880 exceptionLogger()
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0xb90650 MPEGaction::MPEGaction()
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0xd95a00 void std::iter_swap<__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData*, std::vector<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData, std::allocator<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData> > >, __gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData*, std::vector<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData, std::allocator<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData> > > >(__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData*, std::vector<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData, std::allocator<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData> > >, __gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData*, std::vector<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData, std::allocator<OpenXcom::ScriptProcData> > >)
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0xd9b6c0 std::__detail::_Compiler<std::__cxx11::regex_traits<char> >::_M_expression_term<true, true>(std::pair<bool, char>&, std::__detail::_BracketMatcher<std::__cxx11::regex_traits<char>, true, true>&)::{lambda(char)#1}::operator()(char) const
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x5bb940 OpenXcom::FileMap::at(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x5bbb30 OpenXcom::FileMap::getIStream(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x788cf0 OpenXcom::MapDataSet::loadData(OpenXcom::MCDPatch*, bool)
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x509ed0 OpenXcom::BattlescapeGenerator::generateMap(std::vector<OpenXcom::MapScript*, std::allocator<OpenXcom::MapScript*> > const*, std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x50e580 OpenXcom::BattlescapeGenerator::run()
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x6aa470 OpenXcom::ConfirmLandingState::btnYesClick(OpenXcom::Action*)
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x5ce5b0 OpenXcom::InteractiveSurface::handle(OpenXcom::Action*, OpenXcom::State*)
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x6856c0 OpenXcom::State::handle(OpenXcom::Action*)
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x5c9c80 OpenXcom::Game::run()
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x41c950 SDL_main
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x9ab990 console_main
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x9abab0 WinMain
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] ??
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] ??
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x7ffc38f87c10 BaseThreadInitThunk
[25-02-2021_13-45-35] [FATAL] 0x7ffc396ed700 RtlUserThreadStart
most recent save

[WaldoTheRanger]

Hmm.
I don't know how to read the crash, but maybe it has something to do with the psx_static_cydonia mod you have installed? something there that conflicts with multi-mod maps?
or since it seems to be a missing file, maybe your game resource folder got corrupted?

[Nirran]

maybe,i disabled it,see if it crashes again

[Buscher]

Thanks for creating the mod. The different take on the balance is something I enjoyed a lot. I'd like to share my views on some choices of the mod. For reference I have played on Veteran and finished on 14.02.00.


## Weapon Balance

The flat damage approach is interesting. The script for wounds depending on the hitzone is also there but I have never looked at it in such great detail that I understood that. It would be great if there was a Ufopaedia page describing how wounds work. The 0-200% and 50-150% range is easy to grasp in comparison. The flat damage is also interesting because there are more chances to wound instead of outright kill, so in general it's a different experience. And the wound script spices it up a bit. There are some outliers such as the small launcher ammo which apparently still use the 50-150% damage range.

On the other hand the flat damage favors autoguns making the machine gun one of the best weapons. Single shot do not have the raw damage to destroy sturdier enemies allowing them to reaction shoot. So I avoided single shot weapons for the most part. I wasn't impressed with the Heavy Plasma and Heavy Laser at all. Because blind firing was hardly possible (40% no-sight penalty multiplier) the sniper-esque weapons were further devalued. But it makes the game a bit more fair to the AI because you can't shoot well from all over the map.

The weapon progression was a bit strange. Plasma was super easy to research because alien soldiers are quite easy to come by in large scouts and opportunistic targets around the player craft. So my progression was Standard -> Plasma -> Alloy Ammo -> Laser. In the end I mainly used rifles and machine guns with alloy ammo as well as plasma rifles. The shotgun was useful in the beginning because of the high accuracy. I hardly used the grenade launcher because blind firing wasn't really possible. It was better to use hand grenades. Also I haven't touched the pistol, laser pistol, laser rifle and rocket launcher. I bailed on Sectoid terror missions while I didn't have plasma/alloy ammo. The fire extinguisher wasn't needed either.

Also I liked the minimalism approach. Additionally the snap shot of rifles actually being auto shot is what I liked a lot. The design for the laser weapons that their batteries cannot be changed is a very interesting design choice but I only used Heavy Lasers in Cydonia and haven't managed to unload all shots. I wasn't happy with batteries only being obtainable when manufacturing the laser weapon. Laser batteries should be an extra manufacture project in my opinion.

In terms of armors I haven't used Space suit. The built-in motion scanner is nice and I only used the mind probe in a base assault to knock a Floater Commander out. So I haven't used the built-in mind probe except for PSI resistance. My Cydonia armor mix were power suits (8 ) and flying suits (6) with either PSI or motion detector modules.

And I want to mention that I haven't seen a single Sectopod and I didn't use any HWPs because the transport crafts are too small for wasting space on HWPs.


## Stats/Training

I am bit torn on that all soldiers start with very similar stats except for bravery and psi strength. It gives the feeling that all soldiers are professionals but also that they are quite the clones. As such I only cared for bravery and psi strength. Additionally I preferred whoever got to training first. Snipers took the longest. In the end I had 3 Psi, 4 Snipers, 12 Scouts, 15 Commandos. Trained troops should still increase Psionic skill since it helps with psi defense. Mind control/panic is something I haven't used so I can't say such much about that.

Wounds reducing stats is interesting. On one hand it would be great if they also reduce the max stats. But on the other hand X-Com is very likely to have the best surgeons.


## UFOs/Alien Missions

I haven't seen any Abductors and Battleships. The aliens were mainly running harvesting missions so I have seen plenty of Harvesters. The alien missions having less waves and also having an escort for the final wave really helped with the tedium and was more fun in general. The alien fighters/hunter-killers are interesting but show the clunky UI of the game. I haven't engaged any early escorted craft because the risk of losing the interceptors with basic weaponry was high. I haven't intercepted many crafts in general except for the last few months. Landing with the Skyranger was nearly always possible for scouts. Once I understood that when engaging hunter-killers the attacked-interceptor can use evasive maneuvers (half hit chance vs interceptor, half firing rate for interceptor) I set my interceptor missions in pairs and let the second one shoot at full firing rate. Once I had Stingrays AFM (with laser cannon) the results were pretty much in my favor. That the Stingrays have a better accuracy than Avalanches makes them the go-to dogfighting missiles. The Avalanches AFM were mainly used to prevent terror missions by shooting down the craft. The ammo for the plasma cannon was being sold, so I haven't used it. I haven't felt the need either. But it might have been the more economic choice as a whole bunch of Avalanches AFM/Stingrays AFM are very expensive. But I liked that they are expensive.

What was really lacking is something in-between interceptor and Firestorm. Especially considering the short range of interceptors. The Firestorm is a competent interceptor and I was swimming in E115 so fuel is no issue. But it took ages to research it. I haven't built the Lightning and the Avenger was only used for Cydonia. So it was interceptors and the Skyranger for most of the game. For the most part of the game I was running up to 6 interceptors in pairs which I moved from region to region depending on the UFO activity.

Sidenote: Because I got no Abductors and the only base I attacked didn't include an examination room, I ended up editing my savegame to add one into my inventory so I can finish the game.


## Facilities

Plasma Defense was not researchable but going by the lore it seems to be intentional. I have never used base defense facilities and I didn't even have one base defense mission. Laboratories and Workshops only having a capacity of 10 is interesting. I had 90 scientists and 40 engineers at the end. The lower number of employees helped with maintenance. Avenger took a bit more than a month to build and then I went to Cydonia.


## Other things

Civilians being capable of defending themselves was great. Aliens using Sniper/Spotter is annoying but kept me on my toes. I sometimes wondered how they have even seen me and hit so well with the few shots they fired. Night-vision 10 for aliens favors night missions because the player can manipulate the lighting with flares. Commandos having a greater night vision is something I have hardly used. Ethereals not using weapons makes them more special and feel more mysterious.


## Conclusion

In general it felt a lot like vanilla but also different. The minimalism approach together with the modified rifles work well together with the slightly smaller Skyranger. Autoguns were more useful than most. The weapon progression was backwards. Soldiers are a bit samey but differ afterwards by special training. The flat damage approach should be explained in an Ufopaedia article. Definitely liked the approach for the air game. And Many other interesting ideas that add to the game. Overall a fun vanilla experience. Thanks again for creating the mod.

[Nirran]

fraking kidding me? 50+ hits with heavy plasma didnt kill it

Code: [Select]

  - type: STR_SECTOPOD_ARMOR_UC
    spriteInv: sectopodInv
    spriteSheet: X_ROB.PCK
    allowInv: false
    corpseBattle:
      - SECTOPOD_CORPSE_1
      - SECTOPOD_CORPSE_2
      - SECTOPOD_CORPSE_3
      - SECTOPOD_CORPSE_4
    corpseGeo: STR_SECTOPOD_CORPSE
    frontArmor: 70
    sideArmor: 60
    rearArmor: 50
    underArmor: 50
    drawingRoutine: 5
    size: 2
    damageModifier:
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 0.2
      - 0.6
      - 1.5
      - 0.8
      - 0.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 0.0
    loftempsSet: [ 92, 89, 90, 91 ]
    personalLight: 0