PyRoT Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Would it be possible to have countries which are poor (think Africa) or broken down due to the invasion be victim to terror scenarios involving insurgent militias. In these cases, we'd have to fight humans. Perhaps we could have groups not unlike the Cult Of Sirius in Apocalypse. Such groups could arise through a Stockholm Syndrome type response to aliens taking control of their country. The aliens could be intentionally facilitating such a response through deception and promises of mercy . The aliens could therefore be more intelligent and manipulative waging psychological warfare, instead of just attacking everyone at random. So these human groups would be either "useful idiots" aiding the aliens and h ostile to X Com, or militias / pirates trying to make the most of the chaos. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaguya Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 The amount of new content that'd entail would be just silly, and that really isn't the focus of the game anyways, fighting humans. Fighting aliens is. A mod maybe, but as an official feature, not so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Caine Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 It's a good idea, but I believe Chris has his own plans when it comes to parts of the globe who have broken off relations with Xenonauts. It would really need those tileset-specific characters to pull it off, to be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The New Romance Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 It's a good idea, but I believe Chris has his own plans when it comes to parts of the globe who have broken off relations with Xenonauts. It would really need those tileset-specific characters to pull it off, to be honest. Yeah, but if they were there, it probably wouldn't be a long stretch toward fighting hostile humans. If you want that in a game about alien invasion is another matter entirely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ogilvy the Astronomer Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I like the idea of fighting against humans working for the aliens. To nab an idea from the "Mission Types and Secondary Objectives" thread: "Destroy alien mind-control device causing humans to fight you (once destroyed, the humans could turn into allies)." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 If they have access to human gear only then they would be no challenge, if they have access to enough alien tech to make them a challenge then they might as well be an alien. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashman Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 ooh a reason to get behind tile specific characters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ogilvy the Astronomer Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 If they have access to human gear only then they would be no challenge, if they have access to enough alien tech to make them a challenge then they might as well be an alien. They'd need alien gear. It would flesh out the game's plot and sense of immersion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Safe-Keeper Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Makes perfect sense you'd have a whole lot of Quislings with a population of billions of humans , specifically in areas that have defected from the X-Com project. I like this idea, definitely something I would love to see as a mod! The mind control explanation is a good one, too -- given we know the aliens have psionic powers, it's not too far-fetched for them to use them to "enslave" humans and use them as slaves, a bit like the Zombie units in the original X-Com game. If they have access to human gear only then they would be no challengeIt's not about challenge as much as flavour, diversity and immersion, if you ask me. They could have a mixture of alien and human ordnance. Some would have regular old human weapons -- shotguns and pistols and knives and whatnot -- others would be equipped by gear given to them, or looted from, Xenonauts or aliens.May I build upon this idea? What about whole nations defecting, on a governmental level, and your forces having to fight hostile fighter jets and military personell? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targe Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 There should be a secretive shadow government who are selling humans to the aliens in exchange for technology that you have to defeat. You know, as in reality . Part of the campaign is to discover this conspiracy and overthrow the various world governments involved. Just watched Close Encounters again last night btw, there is a scene from the Special Edition that shows the shadow of a saucer flying over the Richard Dreyfuss character's truck as he races off to try to find them. All around him are cornfields, looking EXACTLY like X-Com maps! The music is very 'X-Com' in that movie, too. Should be used for inspiration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thothkins Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Ah, a Sectoid in a a cornfield. >sigh< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oktober Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 If anything...I'd think that evil alien overlords would know better than to equip their brainwashed minions with high-tech, otherworldly ordinance. The threat from human servents should come from quantity, not quality. A different type of battle entirely. But I definitely like this idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PyRoT Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 If anything...I'd think that evil alien overlords would know better than to equip their brainwashed minions with high-tech, otherworldly ordinance.The threat from human servents should come from quantity, not quality. A different type of battle entirely. But I definitely like this idea. Yes, I think normal humans with higher quantity would be best. It seems that the Kickstarter amount will reach the Human AI Allies. If so, then it should be quite easy to create enemy humans. I mean, just change the color of some of their models and re-render, or just shift the hue if resources are limited. But it would definitely be worth it to have such a feature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 By colour change you should say "re-generate all several thousand sprites". The game engine doesn't support colour shifts or on the fly modification of game graphics. You would have to make all of the required graphics from scratch. Personally I don't really feel like human enemies would add much interest to the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PyRoT Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 By colour change you should say "re-generate all several thousand sprites".The game engine doesn't support colour shifts or on the fly modification of game graphics. You would have to make all of the required graphics from scratch. Personally I don't really feel like human enemies would add much interest to the game. Did you ever play Apocalypse? I found it much more immersive when the cult or other enemy human factions attacked me (or I them). And I honestly don't think it will take much work to re-render human sprites with slightly different colors. You only need to regenerate the human allies, and certainly not from scratch. For example, if they are 3D models they probably use textures.. so if you simply modify the color of a few bitmaps, you can re-render every sprite pretty quickly as it will simply reference the alternate texture bitmap. This could be done in batch mode so it would be even quicker. Alternatively, you could simply create a macro in Photoshop to shift the hue of an image and resave it, then batch execute this on all the human ally sprites. More detiled functions could be performed even such as shifting the hue of only certain colors. Whether its 8 or 8000 of them, it would be the same amount of effort. Hell, I'd be willing to do it for them for free! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XenoMask Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Apocalypse is underdog if original three, its in my opinion best one but most people disagree. But yeah, human opponents ARE more immersive because 1) In apocalypse major reason for them to attack is that you made them angry 2) They ARE different opponents than aliens surprisingly enough Anyway, I think UFO: Alien Invasion willl have human enemies infected by the virus that causes alien hive mind, yeah I think it was inspired by micronoids from Apocalypse ;p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) If they have access to human gear only then they would be no challenge, if they have access to enough alien tech to make them a challenge then they might as well be an alien. How about giving the humans human gear but giving you minus points for killing them? So you have to stunn ALL the humans on the map and kill the alien commander that's hiing somewhere or destroy the vil mindcontrol unit. (And as other people have said up the quantity of human opponens compared to aliens on a map) Assuming that they dress up in camo-gear (seems very typical for militia types) you wouldn't really need new sprites. Yuo can simply recycle the current "allied forces" sprites, especially if we reach the stretch goal and get "nation specific" local forces sprites. To make this a really interesting suggestion one should probably brainstorm around an alternate primary objective (like holding the UFO for 5turns) and possible optional objectives. Edited May 22, 2012 by Gorlom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thothkins Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I felt that you would just use what the game had, due to the sprite creation issues. Destroying alien cultists Subduing alien sympathisers Preventing riot of mind controlled civilians Holding assets (reactor/hospital/lab etc) from hostile local forces Exfiltrating person form hostile area Killing infected civilians from alien bioweapon (don''t actually need to create the bioweapon) Liberate map (lost funding nation) by destroying increased local forces Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Did you ever play Apocalypse? I found it much more immersive when the cult or other enemy human factions attacked me (or I them).And I honestly don't think it will take much work to re-render human sprites with slightly different colors. You only need to regenerate the human allies, and certainly not from scratch. For example, if they are 3D models they probably use textures.. so if you simply modify the color of a few bitmaps, you can re-render every sprite pretty quickly as it will simply reference the alternate texture bitmap. This could be done in batch mode so it would be even quicker. Alternatively, you could simply create a macro in Photoshop to shift the hue of an image and resave it, then batch execute this on all the human ally sprites. More detiled functions could be performed even such as shifting the hue of only certain colors. Whether its 8 or 8000 of them, it would be the same amount of effort. Hell, I'd be willing to do it for them for free! Yeah I played Apoc quite a bit. It wasn't a bad game. Not as good as the first in my opinion but good in its own right. I wasn't overly keen on fighting the humans in that one either, guess I just prefer fighting aliens when protecting the planet from aliens. I think you are underestimating the sprite work involved if you wanted to do the changes you mentioned. They do use the 3D models then render them out to spritesheets. Usually they are then painted over to make them look more detailed and give them the hand painted look of the rest of the game. That is for each of the 4000ish spritesheet animation files (for each armour type or civilian type if you want multiple weapons for them), most of which contain multiple sprites. Give it a try with one of the armour sets from the demo if you can easily alter the existing images. If it does turn out to be as simple as you think it could be then post up your results in the modding section, there are plenty of people who would be interested in different coloured versions of the armours. I am no expert with photoshop so I would be really interested to see it done as well Easiest way would be to use the existing images, which will probably have the starting tech and laser tech available. That would be a bit limited but might serve your purposes well enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PyRoT Posted May 23, 2012 Author Share Posted May 23, 2012 Yeah I played Apoc quite a bit.I think you are underestimating the sprite work involved if you wanted to do the changes you mentioned. They do use the 3D models then render them out to spritesheets. Usually they are then painted over to make them look more detailed and give them the hand painted look of the rest of the game. That is for each of the 4000ish spritesheet animation files (for each armour type or civilian type if you want multiple weapons for them), most of which contain multiple sprites. Give it a try with one of the armour sets from the demo if you can easily alter the existing images. If it does turn out to be as simple as you think it could be then post up your results in the modding section, there are plenty of people who would be interested in different coloured versions of the armours. I am no expert with photoshop so I would be really interested to see it done as well Easiest way would be to use the existing images, which will probably have the starting tech and laser tech available. That would be a bit limited but might serve your purposes well enough. Thank you for your reply. Would you be kind enough to point me to, or help me get a hold of some sprites to play with? I am not sure where to get them from And it sounds like I should play part 1 (I only played 2 and 3 and loved them!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 They should be present in your xenonauts folders. Xenonauts>assets>units then you open the folder for which faction you want and then for the armour and then the weapon. the sprites wil be there as png images. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 They should be present in your xenonauts folders.Xenonauts>assets>units then you open the folder for which faction you want and then for the armour and then the weapon. the sprites wil be there as png images. What he said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PyRoT Posted May 24, 2012 Author Share Posted May 24, 2012 Here is a few soldier sprites. Their blue uniforms have gone Green. The Helmets a bit as well. Their skin is still the normal color.I used the same procedure on various sprite images using a macro. It could be done for all the thousands of sprites in just a few minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 What did you do to them? Select the blues and change the colour balance towards the green? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PyRoT Posted May 24, 2012 Author Share Posted May 24, 2012 What did you do to them?Select the blues and change the colour balance towards the green? Yep pretty Much. Shifted the hue for the cyan colors. It seems to work really well and could generate alternative sprites for enemy human soldiers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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