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Everything posted by Charon
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No, im definitely a big fan of making modding clearer. So how about we start a thread how we MODULARLY mod things ? Every point is a question like: How do i add a new unit ( subquestion: into a UFO ) and the Table of Content is every question. And to every Question there is an step by step example. To be VERY honest i dont get the Documentation: Modular mods system from Illunak. It doesnt answer why researches.xml isnt working the way i want it to. Well im up for it, a few hours a day.
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im the white knight saving every unanswered question here. Its this file: psionicpowers_gc.xml These are my changes: <?xml version="1.0" ?><PsionicPowers MODMERGE="update"> <!-- "messageDuration" is in seconds--> <Fear MODMERGE="update" ap="10" moraleDamage="80" anim="particles/psionic/psionic" sound="PsionicPower" messageDuration="2.0" strengthModifier="1.0" range="12" /> <!-- "moraleDamage" is in % --> <Hallucination MODMERGE="update" ap="200" strengthModifier="0.001" range="1" /> <LocateEnemies MODMERGE="update" ap="1" messageDuration="2.0" strengthModifier="1.0" range="12" /> <Paralyse MODMERGE="update" ap="1" anim="particles/psionic/psionic_paralyse" sound="PsionicPower" messageDuration="2.0" strengthModifier="1.0" range="6" /> <MindControl MODMERGE="update" ap="40" anim="particles/psionic/psionic_mindcontrol" sound="PsionicPower" messageDuration="2.0" strengthModifier="0.5" range="6" /> <Dread MODMERGE="update" loseAP="30" messageDuration="1.0" strengthModifier="0.5" range="1" /> <!-- "loseAP" is in % --> <Bezerk MODMERGE="update" ap="30" anim="particles/psionic/psionic_berserk" sound="PsionicPower" messageDuration="2.0" strengthModifier="0.1" range="6" /></PsionicPowers>
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Thx Max for answering this thread. Before u even ask, i made sure that i have a fresh install, verified game integrity and everything else. So on this "everything fresh install" i put the X-Division mod on top. Additionally kabills instant grenades (redundant now) and my own changes ( Charons´s Changes) Mod Priority is Charons Changes > kabill > X-Division So far so good I copied the researches.xml from the X-Divison mod into my own mod ( with an higher priority ) and made those changes: <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="25.5" ss:StyleID="s35"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.ShrikeDropship</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s24"><Data ss:Type="Number">120</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s24"><Data ss:Type="String">Aircraft</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="String">[color=#FF0000]Researches.AlienInvasion[/color]</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s36"/> <Cell ss:StyleID="s37"><Data ss:Type="String">UnlockKnowledge( "airplane.human.shrike" );UnlockManufacture( "ManTech.Shrike" );</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s25"><Data ss:Type="String">airplane.human.shrike</Data></Cell> </Row> and <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="76.5"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s43"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.BaseUpgrade</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">120</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">BaseStructures</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s43"><Data ss:Type="String">[color=#FF0000]Researches.AlienInvasion[/color]</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s25"/> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.BaseUpgrade" );UnlockBuilding("NanotechWorkshop");UnlockBuilding("QuantumLaboratory");UpgradeBuilding("Workshop", "NanotechWorkshop");UpgradeBuilding("Laboratory","QuantumLaboratory");SetCurrentBackgroundLevel("2");</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s38"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.BaseUpgrade</Data></Cell> </Row> AND IT WORKS The Shrike and the Base upgrade research gets unlocked. This shows that the modular thingy actually works. Good to know. Here comes what doesnt work: First I changed the outcome of the alien invasion research so that it gives me the requirements for the base upgrade: <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="26.55"> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.AlienInvasion</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">10</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Extraterrestrials</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:Index="5" ss:StyleID="s25"/> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.AlienInvasion" );SetGameObjective( "Objectives.Objective1" );[color=#FF0000]UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.AlienBaseFacilities" );UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.Androncomputers" );UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.AdvAlienElectronics" )[/color]</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s38"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.AlienInvasion</Data></Cell> </Row> This gives me ingame the Knowledge of the requirements. I checked it ingame and they were there as xenopedia entries. Basy Facility knowledge, check, Andron Computers, check, Advanced alien elektronics, check. But the base upgrade doesnt get available. Second I copied the researchview.lua script into my mod folder and added following lines: UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.AlienBaseFacilities" );UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.Androncomputers"" );UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.AdvAlienElectronics" ); This means as soon someone looks at the research tab that Knowledge gets unlocked. Basy Facility knowledge, check, Andron Computers, check, Advanced alien elektronics, check. But the base upgrade doesnt get available. This again proves that the Modular System actually works because my research.lua overwrites the X-Division research.lua, or adds to it. I dunno. But even thought the requirements get fullfilled via the script the base upgrade research doesnt get available. This is why im thinking the game doesnt "check" if there are any new researches available. But even after completing the alien invasion research it doesnt "check" that there is the knowledge to research something new. Im getting the feeling im missing a file here. Same thing again: I add the requirements from the armored scout tank to the normal scout tank: <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="66"> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.HunterTank</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">60</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Vehicles</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.AlienInvasion</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s35"/> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">UnlockKnowledge( "VEHICLE.HUNTER" ); UnlockManufacture( "ManTech.Hunter" ); [color=#FF0000]UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.incendiary" );UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.AlienAlloys" );[/color]</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s38"><Data ss:Type="String">VEHICLE.HUNTER</Data></Cell> </Row> Incendiary Research, check, Alien Alloys research, check. But no armored scout tank ( seeker tank). Conclusion Changing the requirement for something WORKS Changing what a research does when it is finished DOES UNLOCK THE APPROPRITE "KNOWLEDGE" BUT IT DOES NOT UNLOCK THE APPROPRIATE RESEARCH ASSOCIATED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE So; Max; could you try to add: UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.AlienBaseFacilities" ); in the researchview.lua script and see if the base upgrade gets available ? It didnt for me. Here are the question: Why doesnt fullfilling research requirements through changing other research outputs ("When finished") work? Why doesnt fullfilling research requirements throught unlocking them via the researchview.lua script work (except that the xenopedia entries show up) ?
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Chnaging the view/vision distance on soldiers and aliens
Charon replied to Maldekian Man's topic in Modding Discussion
Well from what i get u want to do something very complicated: If u simply want to add damage than u can make a research like this one: <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="26.55"> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.SebillianmedicInterrogation</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">30</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">ExtraterrestrialTech</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Items.Sebillianmedic(OR)Items.Sebillianphysician(OR)Items.Sebilliandoctor</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:Index="6"><Data ss:Type="String">UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.SebillianmedicInterrogation" ); AddDamageBonus( "Sebillian", 5 );</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.SebillianmedicInterrogation</Data></Cell> </Row> But i dont know if the damage bonus isnt hardcoded. So you would need to define AddDamageBonus"Machinegun somewher else. I dunno about that. But if you want to CHANGE THE COLOR, thats something else entirely. There you have to make a new weapon for every laser color you want. So you have to make an entire new weapon or weapons and than give it an appropriate rsearch as well. There is an tutorial about adding weapons stickied on the forums i think. look into that. Than you have to add it in Strings.xml as well to give it a name. So the game knows what its talking about. than xenopedia entries, etc ... . Very complicated. Even after searching the files for over an hour i havent seen where the alien units get definded. Like weapon output, grenades, armor values, etc. Ask drages, he added hundreds of new enemies he ought to know. -
So i tried some changes in the vanilla version with the same results: UnlockKnowledge doesnt fulfill the requirements for the researches.xml. But normal approaches via getting the researches like its supposed to in the game unlocks other researches. So for instance UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.AlienBaseFacilities" ); doesnt fulfill the requirement for the base upgrade (in XCE only ). But getting the DataBaseCore from an alien base raid unlocks the Researches.AlienBaseFacilities AND unlocks the base upgrade in the process. Although UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.AlienBaseFacilities" ); should do the same thing, it doesnt. What am i overlooking ? Is it a hidden script? How do you work with the researches.xml file ? I would really appreciate some help here. Thx.
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You forgot to edit both entries,1 in " When finished" and 1 in " Knowledge shown" Here is an example: <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="25.5"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s77"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.AlienInvasion</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s72"><Data ss:Type="Number">10</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s73"><Data ss:Type="String">Extraterrestrials</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s76"/> <Cell ss:StyleID="s76"/> <Cell ss:StyleID="s76"><Data ss:Type="String">UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.alternatepistols" ); SetGameObjective( "Objectives.Objective1" );</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s76"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.alternatepistols;</Data></Cell> </Row> A blank file usually means that u try to show an entry which hasnt been unlocked yet ( UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.alternatepistols" ) . I need help in understanding why UnlockKnowledge doesnt unlock the requirements for researches. Heres the link: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/13643-Researches-Xml-X-Division-Mod
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Chnaging the view/vision distance on soldiers and aliens
Charon replied to Maldekian Man's topic in Modding Discussion
about 3) im pretty sure you edit the viewcone in the armours_gc.xml file. Theres a point which says conAngle="90". Edit all armors and u are done. Btw do u know how to work with the researches.xml file ? -
3rd Post now. Sigh who will read this. Ok, here are the facts: Only changes in BOTH researches.xml of X-Division and XCE produces proper results. Getting Researches.AlienBaseFacilities this way IS POSSIBLE Making Researches.BaseUpgrade avaiable this way WON´T function ( With the requirement of Researches.AlienBaseFacilities in both .xml) Making Researches.BaseUpgrade available with no requirement IS POSSIBLE Finally, changing the requirements of ANY Research other than to none doesnt make them available when meeting the requirements HELP. I dont think the modloader was programmed so that you have to change ALL the files. OR? Shouldnt the researches.xml from the highest priority mod overwrite or update anything below ? And why isnt the Researches.BaseUpgrade working although the requirement clearly is the Researches.AlienBaseFacilities ? Help, kabill, Max, anyone. Im desperaaaaaaaaaaaaate. Can someone teach me how to work with the researches.xml file in the modsystem ?
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SO, after some testing i found out that the researches.xml from the XCE gets prioritised over the X-Division researches.xml. Although the X-Division Mod has a higher priority in the priority list. >>> WHY, JUST WHY ??? <<< By deleting the requirements for the shrike in the XCE researches.xml i was able to unlock it from the very beginning: <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="25.5" ss:StyleID="s72"> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.ShrikeDropship</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">160</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s73"><Data ss:Type="String">Aircraft</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s74"><Data ss:Type="String"></Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s75"/> <Cell ss:StyleID="s75"><Data ss:Type="String">UnlockKnowledge( "airplane.human.shrike" ); UnlockManufacture( "ManTech.Shrike" );</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">airplane.human.shrike</Data></Cell> </Row> Which brings us to the interesting Question: WHY DOES A MOD WITH A LOWER PRIORITY IN THE LIST GIVE ONLY ONE FILE A HIGHER PRIORITY ? Here comes the next thing: I wanted to unlock the Researches.AlienBaseFacilities when researching Researches.AlienInvasion (earliest tech ), which looks like this: <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="25.5"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s77"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.AlienInvasion</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s72"><Data ss:Type="Number">10</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s73"><Data ss:Type="String">Extraterrestrials</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s76"/> <Cell ss:StyleID="s76"/> <Cell ss:StyleID="s76"><Data ss:Type="String">UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.AlienBaseFacilities" ); SetGameObjective( "Objectives.Objective1" );</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s76"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.AlienBaseFacilities;</Data></Cell> It looks like it functions properly, but it doesnt unlock the Researches.BaseUpgrade, although it should: <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="38.25" ss:StyleID="s72"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s77"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.BaseUpgrade</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">120</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s73"><Data ss:Type="String">BaseStructures</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s74"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.AlienBaseFacilities</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s74"/> <Cell ss:StyleID="s74"><Data ss:Type="String">UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.BaseUpgrade" ); UnlockBuilding("NanotechWorkshop"); UnlockBuilding("QuantumLaboratory"); UpgradeBuilding("Workshop", "NanotechWorkshop"); UpgradeBuilding("Laboratory","QuantumLaboratory"); SetCurrentBackgroundLevel(2);</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s77"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.BaseUpgrade</Data></Cell> </Row> I deleted the researches.xml from the assets/ folder and from the X-Division folder, so the researches.xml in the XCE folder should be the only one left. But it didnt unlock the base upgrade. And this blows my mind: Although the Researches.AlienInvasion clearly unlocks the Researches.AlienBaseFacilities and also shows this ingame, it doesnt anymore unlock the Researches.AlienInvasion. But the Hunter Tank and the Foxtrot researches become available nonetheless. >>> WHY <<< This is really grinding my gears and makes proper modding >>> impossible.
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In Drages X-Division Mod i had a feeling that Researches.AlienBaseFacilities is not working correctly. So i started a new game and added 1 Items.AlienBaseCore to the jackal production and UnlockKnowledge( "Researches.SebillianengineerInterrogation" ); to the researchview.lua script, both which are requirements for the Researches.AlienBaseFacilities. But nothing happened. Nothing popped up or anything. I still got the alienbasecore and the sebillianengineerinterrogation but no research popped up, whatsoever. So i tried to delete, or rather, leave the requirements for the shrike ship open in the Researches.Xml file. But nothing happened either. And after days of trying to change the Researches.Xml file there was still no effect in the game. I tried to alter other files of the mod and they take regular effect, like increasing the aircraft autocannon ammo capacity. So changes to the mod function, but the Researches.Xml played dead. So, whats the cause for this ? Does the research tech tree gets copied and never changed once you started the game ? But a new game doesnt change this either, no available shrike research in a new game even with no requirements in the Researches.Xml file. Is there another script which checks if new researches are available? But why isnt it executed at the beginning of the game? Maybe a blank file gets overwritten by lower priority mods. But how can you make a shrike research with no requirements? heres what it looks like btw: <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="25.5" ss:StyleID="s35"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="String">Researches.ShrikeDropship</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s24"><Data ss:Type="Number">120</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s24"><Data ss:Type="String">Aircraft</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"> ---No Requirements--- <Cell ss:StyleID="s36"/> <Cell ss:StyleID="s37"><Data ss:Type="String">UnlockKnowledge( "airplane.human.shrike" );UnlockManufacture( "ManTech.Shrike" );</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s25"><Data ss:Type="String">airplane.human.shrike</Data></Cell> </Row> So to sum my questions up: How do you handle the Researches.Xml file in general since changes dont seem to get recognized? How can you quickly check if the Researches.AlienBaseFacilities is working in the X-Division Mod, since my method of meeting the requirements didnt work. How do you get researches ingame available in general? I mean as soon as you meet the requirements in the researches.XML file for a research it should be available, right? No, seriously, I am at my wits end. I really would appreciate some serious help here. UPDATE: So i tried to change the outcome of the very first tech, the alien invasion tech, and what it shows in the X-Division folder and what it unlocks but the game diditn recognize that and still showed the original xenopedia site. Somehow my changes to researches.xml dont seem to get recognized. But it still doesnt explain why the research doesnt get available when i cheat the requirements into the game. Whats going wrong there? Questions over Questions.
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[v1.09/X:CE v0.31] X - DIVISION - Destiny Denied v0.98+
Charon replied to drages's topic in Completed Game Mods
@Valerian As a player with way over 100 hours (Veteran, Ironman) in X-Division i have to say that the solutions to your feedback are minor or redundant. Sry,I like to say what I think without taking detours. -
@drages OMG you changed your profile pic. I miss the dragon. I corrected the speeling btw in the previous post. Just to be clear, I dont reload on Veteran/ ironman. So far I have only lost a squad of planes because i 4x accelerated them into a corvette and was pleased to see they recover but anything else than that its easy peazy. Can I help in developing a superior geoscape/airfight playout ? Im kinda hungry to develope my own ideas and see if its working. @man of doge its not about beating the sniper, they never shoot more than once in my ground fights (and usually never get the chance to even do so). Its about the aspect that they shoot out of sight range which means for me its a dice roll since i consider every not calcualted casuality a failure on my part (1 shot/ out of 100 UFOs so far). I dont consider a mission with casualities a success since I could have done better, but how to protect against that is a dice roll again, you just take the best chances. I wanted to know if drages wants to let it stay that way or change it. Generelly said the further the game goes, better surveillance is pushed since you cant trust your normal sight anymore. Bases: I can manage multiple roosters to go in during the cooldowns but, I actually have a problem in dealing with the bases in itself as the % of the casuality rate is too high for me to justify a succesfull operation. I havent tried out the get 4 veterans and 6 sacrifices thing yet. For the record: 2 successful operations and 4 casualities so far, for enemy outposts at least. The recover time looks like a cool feature, maybe I have to change my point of view.
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So here is a better wording for the xpdia entry: X Division, UFO Disassembly and Fragmentation Welcome to the manufactoring Programme, Commander We need some UFO parts to manufacture most of the new technologies,especially for new aircraft and their weapons. After a successful UFO mission, you will get a core (datacore).This core can be disassembled at the base at your command and we will have some hull materials to sell and other devices to manufacture new equipment. We can even disassemble an alien base. Powersource fragmentation serves to make powerful reactors from bigger ones. The reason to do so is to get important reactor parts (?) to manufacture weapons and materials to bring down even the UFOs we currently can`t shoot down (?). The last part is bit confusing for me what it wants to say so i hope I get the sense right. Feel free to copy paste it without the (...). I´d like to see what items I receive when I disassemble a datacore. That would be a big help. Is the recovered UFO equipment used for anything other than selling? Just played the first 3 and a half month and it fells like a tutorial on how to play xenonauts so far. There can definitely be a speed up in the first months. And more UFOs, because the only reason so far not to go for one is because your aircraft cant reach em. I would recommend to let aircrafts die when they crash. I mean when they are gone they are gone for good. That would definitely fell better than letting them be recoverable. The matergy sniper always shoots out of sight of my soldiers and kills them outright so far. Not bad just wanted to know if you intended that or not. I cant get the alien base to vanish so you definitely have done a good job there so far. Situation is stable, no countries lost so far. Its a bit easy on the geoscape (too easy). Alien base hoping (verb: hop) is still ridicolous since you can abort the mission and go in 10 sec later and the base layout has changed drastically as well as the race. Keep it up! I still think about how i want the airfights to be.
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Nothing of the sorts. This is another aspect of the game and both mods look very promising to me. But that are things which are simply balancing issues how the airfight plays out and how hard or easy you want the minigame to be. Its a very interesting part of the game and can make it very challenging. As far as i can see it, there are 2 ways fights play out. 1. The UFO has semi full coverage and u have enough speed and turn rate to outmanouver it. This was the funny thing with the apollo aircraft in the XNT mod, which beat every UFO simply by accelerating to 3660 x 1.5 mph. It died in a single hit yes, but the UFOs could never hit it. 2. The UFO has full coverage, a better turn rate, is quicker or you are slower which results in a head to head fight, where your skill, aircraft choice and equipment choice determines if you are victorious. So balancing and giving the players various UFOs and various Equipment, Rockets and Guns can make Xenonauts very challenging, but nothing of that actually induces decisions ON THE GEOSCAPE. Lets say in the first month every wave of UFOs spawns around 6 UFOs. Every 6 days 1 wave makes 5 waves of UFOs per month. This is pretty predicatble for the player and something he can count on. For easier counting lets say they all have random goals (research, abductions, ground attack). Than we have waves of UFOs with aimed goals which happen 3 times per month, so approximitely every 10 days. Every wave consists ( in the beginning) of a pair of aimed UFOs which go for your base/make a terror site/ construct a base. These UFOs go straight for their intended goals, which is why i suggested they start at the other end of the globe to give the player more time react to the thread as well as giving coverage a bigger role in the game ( Scouting drones, etc ... ). The chance that aimed waves start have a chance which goes up while time passes, but there can never be more than 3 per month. In this scenario the player has to take risks because there is a part he knows, the UFOs every 5 days, and a part he doesnt know, when does the pair of aimed UFOs come to get me/ terrorize some innocent civilians/ make my life harder with a base. Introduce longer repair times and the player has to carefully consider if he wants to get after some small UFOs and possible sustain damage or if he wants to wait for them to land ( if they land) and have a harder fight. RNG can still play a big role on how many UFOs spawn and when they spawn, but there should be some aimed missions from the Aliens to actively spoil the funding and make it harder for the Xenonauts to keep the trust of the nations. This is what i mean by mixing "aimed" goals with random goals. To sum it up I would like to see UFOs with random goals independently from UFOs with "aimed" goals which both have a chance to get triggered and thus sometimes make life for the Xenonauts pretty hard if they spawn at the same time and force the player to make a decision what he wants to go for. Or if they cant be seperated let the UFOs with aimed goals go straight for their target instead of flying pretty obvious around and doing nothing. The very basic of my idea is: 1. Aimed UFOs go straight for their targets and 2. have a long way to let the player notice it 3. They have incredible high hp count and should be, if I consider those 2 fabulous mods, only be beatable with the highest skills possible (or best aircraft units) 4. To make them harder ANOTHER UFO Squadron with the Goal of air supremacy spawns at the original UFOs side and goes for whatever it wants. But I guess this would need some specific triggering. 5. keep everything else untouched ( for now ) and simply add UFOs which have aimed goals and behave like point 1,2 and 3 Well I guess the whole idea is based around the capability to trigger certain events and spawn certain UFOs. Im going the check out the FTD mod. That sounds good, but the thing I would add is that casuality rate permanently decreases the maximum amount of funding money you get from the nation. Hm, and how about spawning a base in the country and manually lift the amount of countries which can leave teh council? Well never mind. If it doesnt work, it doesnt work until it does. How about copy/paste battlecruiser data and triple the hp and dmg output ( Rename it as well) ? Than make it spawn rate 100% for a wave. On the other hand if we could change the game so that the final mission doesnt end the game but instead counts the succesful assaults and we have our "mothership assault". If the map is just chosen from a map pool we can increase the number of maps as well. And the Xenonauts win when they successfully assaulted all 4 "motherships" ( aka Operation Endgame)? The Terror Mission is a special mission as well so why not change it to a "Release Reapers" Mission with its own crew output and map pool? All the things above mentioned are there because I still dont know what the game engine even allows to "twist" So I guess I need to see that for myself. Thank you for the feedback Max and drages. Maybe I m going to try X-Division next ... and make some changes . Until then: keep it coming! Edit(10.5.): It doesnt mean we have to follow my suggestion to the letter but if we punch the game just a bit into that direction it would already provide an enhanced experience.
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http://steamcommunity.com/app/223830/discussions/0/620703493333202520/ try it out i think you can pm me if the parts arent downloadable anymore
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As I beat the game multiple times with and without mods I really wanted to make some changes as to how it plays out in the end and i wanted to ask you modders out there how possible it is to implement these ideas I listed below and what would have to be done in order to do so. I would be glad to inspire other people as well if they want to implement some of my ideas into their mods. Make the Geoscape actually more challenging. In the vanilla version and all other mods i ve played so far it is all about getting every UFO down ( and looting some crash sites but only the technology granting sites are medium important). Once you accomplish that you can virtually not lose the game anymore and its basically a " Im just grinding for the last mission " thing. To start things off you have to make the air fights more difficult and more important in order to induce some decision making which actually do matter instead of the dull "ah, I just shoot down every UFO i see from the most dangerous to the least dangerous one". Some mods are already on a good way to do so but I would like to make some more changes. Furthermore I d like to see some more "aimed" moves from the Aliens. The idea which is spinning around in my head for starters is the "aimed base assault UFO" which starts half across the globe, after, lets say 3 hours of spinning around, than heading straight to the assigned base. Needless to say that this UFO should be one of the hardest to take down in terms of capability of sustaining damage as well as firepower. On the other hand the better coverage you have the sooner you will spot this type of UFO. In this kind of scenario we already have the decision inducing move which would be, assuming the aimed UFO started with a wave of UFOs, " Do I go after the small fries which damage my income or do i focus the firepower on the incoming assault ship? Do I have the menpower to defend my base and go for the other UFOs?" Making this kind of UFOs spawn in an irregular fashion as well as in a regular fashion makes things harder to predict and more about risk managment than : "This kind of UFO has a chance to spawn every wave so i just have to wait for 3 hours and if there is none coming I can go for the other UFOs/crashs sites/whatever." Make things more unpredictable by mixing random goals, like ;research, bombing run, abducuctions; with aimed goals like terror sites, base assault missions, and base constructions. (btw let smaller scouts also do the hrm ... you know ... scouting ... for bases and such). Imagine the scenario your are going for a crash site and you have to pull back because an base assault UFO just appeared at the outer radar detection range and goes for your base. The farther away the crash site the higher the risk you wont be back in time, in which case you absolutely have to shoot the UFO down even if the 2 condors dont make it back. This makes the fight desperate. I want a month to be hard because I took a high risk and misjudged a situation on the geoscape instead of the RNG deciding for me if too many UFOs spawned and I just dont have enough air supremacy to keep up with it. This would btw also encourage more bases and more squads. An additional pre escort for the assault UFO can be send as well but these are details which can be disussed later if the idea has a good ring to it. Steam says i have 230 hours in this game and i havent ecountered a single xenonaut base assault, ever. This shouldnt happen. Other ideas would be scouts which actually scout, making aimed goals like terror sites and base construction more quickly to be "selected" instead of the aimless wandering around the map which just says that this is the time the UFO gives you to shoot it down. More ideas would be welcome- So UFOs should be harder to take down and have more "aimed" goals. At the best you should be able to shoot down 70% of all UFOs while you have to deal with the reamaining in another way. Its an invasion, goddamit. Aiming UFOs should also be guarded way heavier than they are, should have more firepower, hp, special traits etc... . Terror Site UFOs shouldnt be stopable 80% of the time. What i mean give the player so many other tasks, or UFOs, while the Terror UFO is on the way that he has to decide what to go for. Since a terror site is pretty easy to deal with, in my oppinion, its almost like giving him free xp. At the very least it should be doable since the aliens go for 10 000 of other people as well. If his/her best squad is injured on the other hand it might be worth to shoot it down while small UFOs do some damage to the funding and go for the smaller fries later on. Yes, its all about decisions again. Another idea would be the "Released Reapers". At the beginning of the night, wherever that is, a UFO releases some reapers in an area and you have the task at hand to save some civilians or save one very important person or gather and bring back valuable resources before a nuke destroys the whole thing at the end of the night. Note that there isnt a discussion about nuking or not, its simply about what you can save before it drops down. This way you force the player to play a nightmission for once and give the poor reapers an andvantage. It shouldnt be able to avoid nightmissions 100% of the time like it was before. And yes, a few thousand lives will be lost in this, its unavoidable. Maybe let the civilan mission be that you gain reputation or funding for saving as much civilians as possible while the resource gathering gives you special and valuable resources but you lose some reputation and funding ( Its basically the same). The player should be on the backfoot from the very beginning, while his skillfull play decides how much he loses in the early stages. Yes, it is very possible to lose this, which brings us to the next point: money. While Im a big fan of micro managing every piece of junk I produce I would agree that producing money with your workshop isnt a good way to play the game, because at one point you simply break the ceiling with your money making bases and thus render every other way of playing the game ineffective (just like the developers intended the game NOT to be). Let all the stuff be sold for a bit more than they cost, including engineer wages, and some stuff which is particulary useful for selling but not enough that you could afford to fend off an invasion with it, just so that your engineers dont sit idle while they cant produce the next jackal armor. While alien resources should be rare, the items produced from them should sell for a very high price which gives the player a decision if he needs the money that badly or if he wants to save the materials for other uberweapons and aircraft. The main source of income should be the funding from the nations around the world. I havent thought much about this but it should definitely have a very high limit in terms of income. Maybe have a 50%,40%,10% split. 50% of imcome from the possible looting in total (per month), 40% income from the founding, and 10% income from your workshops. I would also like to see the casuality rate on having an effect on the income and the funding. We had something like 4 billion people on the planet and an invasion should have a larger casuality rate than the usual: "We lost around 10 000 people in an invasion from some Aliens which totally outclassed us in every military aspect possible and had some big ass bombers soaring through the sky. Hard times, you know?" The next point is: Let countries be recoverable. Up until now the game was all about reaching that break even point at which you hardly could lose the game anymore. Now it should be able to recover from some big blows if you got the wits and menpower for it. Losing a country in the beginning should be a given as well as you crawling on your knees to get it back. Hard conditions can be met like getting 3 bases in under 24 hours. Or one very hard base. Did i say i love the extra condition under which a base can be destroyed ? Well i havent used it once. Like, not one time. It wasnt necessary. And I really would like to have to use it. Maybe infiltrate an supplying landing ship? Basically it should be possible to get back into the game as well as screwing it up at every point and turn. This wall of text brings us to the core point: The game should slowly but steadily be lost if you play good and slower lost if you play excellent. What I m saying is that it shouldnt be possible to actually withstand the invasion. Not in the skys nor through playing every possible ground mission. Menkind fights back but the war is already lost. In the end its a race against time to get the so much needed technology milestones or die trying it. At which point the so important hyperspace radio jamming comes into play. I really like the idea because it actually is, or should be, something that works. Intervening a single ship while it flies down to earth on the other hand isnt. The Valkyrie flies around around 3300 mph and the battlecruisers are way faster than that. In my opinion giving the player this one end mission is just .... cheap.Since he/she knows its the last mission the player wont really "fail" at it either. Here comes what I would like to replace it with: When the aliens notice the jamming is up and running, they all jump down to earth which results in an major attack from, like, 4 motherships and numerous escorting ships. The motherships should be able to land and construct bases from which they search for the jamming device. At this point of the game the players should have a high chance of losing the game, should lose a few bases and be at the point of collapse. At which he/she fights back. Conditions to win: Hold the jamming device and eliminate all the motherships. Other ending scenarios are possible. It doesn have to be the jamming device they are looking for, but i defintiely want that all out assault on the planet. Im also thinking about an limited supply of UFOs which can spam in total at that point. In a nutshell the player should build up his bases/squads/technology through the game until he thinks he is ready and daring enough to activate armageddon/the jamming, but he shouldnt be able to drag out the invasion as long as he wants to. The better he plays the more chances he has to withstand just a bit longer to better his chances of surviving the ultimate assault. In the endgame its all about making the decision if holding the line for one more month actually helps him to improve his squads/bases/technology or if he loses more than gaining something from it ( decisions, decisions :-) ). The air fights should be revamped in order to let the aliens fight more point striking instead of getting the feeling of random UFOs flying around doing random missions. And thats about it. I have some more ideas about special missions if we could punch the game to actually get them working. Everything i didnt mention is perfect, excellent or is already taken care of, for instance like maps ( thx kabill), enhanced Xenopedia, enhanced graphik stuff, and additional guns, grenades, breaching charges ( thx to all other modders). Much gratitude for the developers for such an awesome game. I have no clue about modding yet and would like to know how much of this is possible before i start to sit down and make the impossible ... not possible. Also, merging a lot of other content into 1 complete overhaul mod would be a great.