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Classic Invasion mod - Development


SoulFilcher

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[X:CE 0.33 HF1+]

Hi all, with the possibility of adding new UFO crash sites coming up with X:CE 0.33 HF2 I decided to train my "submapping" skills with the modular UFO ideas in mind. And to make things simple and fun I decided to use classic X-Com UFOs. So this is the Classic Invasion mod discussion thread during its development as I want to have all the feedback I can from players of the original game, or new players that might be interested in trying it. Keep in mind I'll share a very, and I mean VERY early alpha version of the mod, so if you're going to test and help with it, be prepared for bugs and all that.

What is the mod about?

Classic Invasion replaces Xenonauts UFOs with X-Com (the original Enemy Unknown) UFOs, simple as that. In the future it may include additional changes not necessarily tied to the UFOs, but only time will tell.

How and what exactly will be done?

All UFOs will make an appearance, their roles in alien missions will need to be tweaked to fit the differences between games, but I will stick to their X-Com roles whenever possible. So only Terror Ships will go for terror missions, only Battle Ships will attack Xenonaut bases and so on.

As for the UFO submaps the mod right now includes art for the required tiles (mainly placeholders), and the standard submaps, a few of them not exactly in a finished state, but the plan is to finish them all, then include damaged variations, and variations for props inside them (example: the storage crates will not always be the same and in the exact same positions).

All UFO walls (hull walls or inner walls) are destructible! Their exact HP amount will be tweaked in future updates to achieve some balance, but most hull walls require 2 or more C4 Charges to be destroyed right now.

If the mod attracts enough attention I may work on other things like: Alien crew gets better over time; X-Com-like alien bases; Artwork for more props that resemble the ones in X-Com; Or anything players suggest. The UFOs in the mod have:

- Standard submap finished, still lacking damaged variations and random prop placements (Medium Scout, Large Scout);

largescout.jpg

mediumscout.jpg

- Same as above but probably missing a few key tiles/props (Abductor, Harvester, Terror Ship, Supply Ship);

- Unfinished submap, but already playable in a mission (Battle Ship).

DOWNLOADING AND TESTING

Right now with XCE0.33 you need to download a modified exe file (provided by Ilunak) to run this mod. Unzip the mod to a Classic Invasion folder inside your mods folder, place the exe in your Xenonauts folder with a different name so you won't override the original, and make a copy of maptypes.xml in your assets folder, because right now the game won't use the one inside the mod folder. That's it! Remember to post here your opinions, suggestions, and bug reports. And if you're willing to help with anything that would be great!

MODIFIED EXE (not needed if you're using X:CE 0.33 HF2): HERE

MOD FILE (current alpha build): HERE

UPDATES

2015 - 08 - 17: Middle east missions should no longer use farm maps. WARNING: Make sure you delete the existing folder, or the farm maps won't be removed!

2015 - 08 - 16: UFO floor tiles can no longer be destroyed; most UFO hull walls are easier to destroy now; Large Scout should provide the right datacore; Medium Scout map variability improved for some terrain types.

2015 - 08 - 14: Fixed UFO submaps that contain props from the alien base tileset; fixed UFOs that were providing the wrong xenopedia entries.

largescout.jpg

mediumscout.jpg

largescout.thumb.jpg.ebfb76cd13a6bb1b347

mediumscout.thumb.jpg.4051f0c8b4911af88b

Edited by SoulFilcher
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On the Harvester, you have a floor tile inaccessible for no apparent reason. It's located on the second floor, two tiles down from the easternmost door. It's a decent design with all those sharp angles btw but badly needs some props.

I also recommend considering a removal of the wall with the door that looks down directly to the first floor. As it is right now it benefits Xenonaut troops with Buzzard or Sentinel armor who can use it to reach the 2nd floor alternatively from the teleporters, but without a wall it would allow the aliens to shoot down at you from above as you are trying to pass that critical area to the turn.

It also feels like there isn't a control room, the last alien was roaming around and first time I went through the map it came at me, was shot dead from reaction fire and the map ended so that I had to load back in order to see the third floor ;)

Edited by KevinHann
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Second map I loaded was a medium sized UFO (the 35k on Airstrike one) and everything but my Charlie and troops is black - ground tiles, props, etc. The NPC and a flash of one prop suggest Farm tileset even though the airstrike screen clearly states it should be Middle East mission. I walked around a bit and when the aliens started shooting I saw them but that's all. Unplayable. The previous Harvester mission had no issues though. No idea what caused this.

Edit: Next GC I loaded was supposed to be Desert but is Industrial. There is definitely something weird about that, I have Skitso's map pack but I doubt that is causing it.

Edited by KevinHann
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Hi Kevin, these designs come straight from original X-Com so I probably won't add or remove walls. I'll check the Harvester for the things you mentioned, but it is supposed to benefit flying units (it was mainly used by Floaters in the original game, and I'll change the crew later to include Harridans). That UFO has a control room, and it occupies most of the third floor, so I don't know what happened, maybe no alien was a commander for some reason?

By what you said the inaccessible tile is supposed to have a large tube in it. Tell me if that isn't the case.

Harvester2ndFloor.jpg

The other medium UFO is the Abductor, were both missions for the same UFO type? Map packs change nothing for this mod, as the only maps that should be used are the ones I edit to add the new UFOs. I'll check them and see what could be wrong, I played Abductor missions before starting this thread so it may have been a few problematic maps.

EDIT: Are you using it with an existing save? What about the small UFOs?

Harvester2ndFloor.jpg

Harvester2ndFloor.thumb.jpg.dc869976c17e

Edited by SoulFilcher
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Okay I downloaded the update, yet to experience such issues so hopefully that helped.

After skipping on a mission that presented me a Landing Ship GC (I take it you haven't replaced all original Xenonauts UFOs so that's to be expected?), I engaged an Abductor. Command room is quite a nightmare to attack, one tiny door as an entry point and it's packed with Ceasans plus a Psion. Found it annoying to the extent I thought of using grenades to break the walls... and that's how I noticed some issues.

I am able to throw grenades over the walls and inside the command room (presumably should be able to do that everywhere in all UFOs, I haven't tested - is that intended?? Also the explosions erase floor tiles which causes the lower floor to be visible, and your soldiers can step on the new "invisible" floor. That's not intended for sure.

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I haven't defined every type of alien mission yet so it is possible some of them are still using vanilla UFOs, the new UFOs in this mod don't actually replace vanilla ones. They are new UFO entries, and I have to change the mission files to use them and "forget" the vanilla entries. So I have only made basic changes to use the new UFOs, but I still need to think about each UFO role, what type of mission uses it and these things.

The grenade issue is complicated. Xenonauts engine is weird in this aspect, but by theory you shouldn't be able to do anything you can't do with standard building roofs and walls, but I will check what I can do. And no, throwing grenades through walls is not intended :(. Vanilla UFOs use special flags for hull wall tiles to make them block everything, but I can't use those as the whole idea here is to allow them to be destroyed. What was the wall type? Internal wall or hull wall? Was it the top floor only, did you try to do that in lower floors? I'm asking because it could be a roof issue and not a wall issue.

Back in X-Com destroying a floor tile meant that anything on it would fall (a real hole would be created), but in Xenonauts you can't actually destroy floor, the tile no longer blocks vision, but nothing will move through it. It is an engine limitation and the best I can do is to make floor tiles invincible.

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One further thing, the mission debrief screen showed the strings entry for the abductor core which has been sent to research division and it appeared odd, I think that needed to be tied to the way it has to display in-game. Not the type of thing you are looking for right now I guess but wouldn't harm to keep in mind.

It would be much better if floor tiles are EDIT: inviNCible- as it is currently is confusing and looks like the game is broken when you experience it.

Internal wall on the grenades, as I said I had a full squad around the control room bombarding the 4-5 aliens inside with electroshock/alenium ;) Dirty play but I didn't really fancy losing a soldier by opening that door. No idea if it's related to the roof but it should be easy to reproduce at your end.

Edited by KevinHann
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I updated the file. I haven't been able to reproduce the "grenade through walls" bug, but I haven't played Abductor or Harvester missions yet.

EDIT: The way some hull walls work in Xenonauts make the Large Scout a treacherous maze, way worse than it was in the original. Sadly it seems there isn't a way around that without changing the UFO's shape.

Edited by SoulFilcher
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Check the file size, new one is 1.48Mb and I guess the previous one as a little smaller.

EDIT: The destructible floor issue isn't fixed, and I reproduced the grenade bug. I looks like soldiers are able to throw them over walls, not through them, like if there wasn't a roof to block it. But for me the grenades actually stopped before the walls. It seems I'll have to find how that is done for vanilla submaps and fix everything manually.

Edited by SoulFilcher
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Medium scout - I was able to throw grenades inside at will. Most of them would stop at the wall, but not all.

Ok, I made some tests here and had similar results for the scouts. I may have a solution, I'm not sure yet.

This is the coolest thing I ever see in xenonauts xD

Thank you! When I joined all the talk about adding UFOs it was the first idea that came to mind, I wouldn't lose the opportunity to make it happen!

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