Lt_Parsons

Thank for clearing this out, Giovanni.

I did the thing - Xenonauts geographic coordinates converter It can convert lat/long coordinates to geoscape x/y used in 'cities.xml'. Tested it with locations of London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland - GB and NZ, two big isles on almost opposite sides of the globe. And these cities landed up in 10 dots radius from their ingame x/y and it looks like they are where they should be, at least as i can tell with quick glance over google maps =) So converter quite possibly works, i hope. Now anyone willing to check up if their town haven't somehow been towed to another country by aliens can now do so.

... And i missed the most obvious thing. Thanks, i guess =) Only thing i got slightly wrong then is that max_y is 3418. Also, it looks that geoscape map uses this projection - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equirectangular_projection Which means that we can with a few simple calculations just lift lat/long coords from Wikipedia and convert them to Xen geoscape numbers. I'm curious how to automate these calculations now.

thixotrop, TacticalDragon - Thanks! Like i said, almost =) It is possible because game itself is great and devs are very open to modding and suggestions - much credit to GH for that.

For anyone interested in fixing coordinates or placing new cities: - minimum coordinates are 0000,0000 (x/y) - maximum are 8192,3415 - and x-coord 0000 is 180th meridian by the looks of it. Got these numbers via some fiddling with 'cities.xml' where all city-related info is stored. Also of note: - x-coord can go further then 8192, but it cycles around, i.e. visually x8193=x0000 - there can be no cities with the same name even if it is different in 'cities.xml' but same in strings, game will use only last defined one

Can confirm this for freshly clean-installed 22.5hf. If you target them with grenades or manually with any gun, targeting cursor doesn't appear over any floor tiles or props, except Chinook. Only green tile highlight is shown. But you can still change gun targeting level by mouse scroll while it is invisible.

Thanks. Yes, it was question for import-export presets from here - http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/8289-Role-loadout-settings-across-safegames Not the same thing i searched answer for though. Let me elaborate. I'm now trying to change how backpack/belt slots are arranged, it can fairly easy be done via changing the interface scripts. But when starting new game, loadouts are placed in predefined slots and if you mod them out - default equipment in them still there and add weight. That is the problem i'm searching solution for.

I'm curious about that too. Did not found any way to do it and forum search haven't returned any useful info about whether is new game start default loadouts moddable or not.

Finally got time to update mod to work with current game =) It will now patch the xml instead of just providing complete file, so, hopefully, there will be less need to watch for every little change when game updates.

Tweaking some variables is easy way. In my experience it makes difficulty levels disbalanced, boring and meaningless. It is like shooting yourself in the foot to make fighting look harder. Or in opposite, when game become too trivial and slow to be at all interesting or engaging. Imo, best way will be having different AI behavior for different difficulty. For example, on easy aliens in battle have less squad coordination, are less prone to go defensive and generally do more stupid and risky things. In geoscape they have less escorts, less likely to chase, or monitor your activity and try to discover and attack your base, something like that. For hard - opposite of easy. More coordination, support, flanking, escorts etc. This option mean more programming instead of just balancing. Which is also hard to do properly, but not as much as creating meaningful AI variations, i think. For insane difficulty i support lemm idea - make stakes bigger so your game skill matters from very beginning.

Only thing i can say is "Wow". Superb art, good and witty descriptions, Max_Caine and a333 - thank you for this mod, you both are awesome =)

We already have emergency disengage and afterburner - if you can possibly save your craft, you can order it to do so. If you can not - then you cornered yourself in this situation most of times. Significant difference with the indestructible proposal - saving craft is not automatic but in your own control and is your direct responsibility. If only real problem is losing your craft being game-braking downer, count me in on trying to balance it out instead of hand-waving craft recovery. I like idea of Condors and Foxtrots being cheaper and faster to build and, upgraded with new weaponry, still being viable, but very risky choice in later game. But it countered somewhat by fact that craft weapons are now just direct damage upgrades. Another variant - craft remains recovery missions. Just send troops to secure crash site and return remains to rebuild craft instead of building new one. Also has good ties to idea of having overdamage for own airships, can be linked to rebuilding time. Also, IRL main loss of having interceptor being shot down is the life of the pilot - flying complicated and experimental aircrafts is a rare skill, not mentioning amount of time and resources needed for training. But, sadly, idea about hiring pilots was already discussed many times and dismissed iirc. P.S. Everything said here by Jean-Luc and a333 can be quoted for truth. P.P.S. Aerial combat in Xeno is outstandingly done imo. Having more tactical choices, overall variety and features for it, so craft engagements are not only minor mission spawning minigame, but its own full-fledged part of the whole game, is what i support anytime.

Since i don't have time to update this mod for every new build, here is how-to for more recent game versions. To install on game newer then v18.3hf2, unpack archive in game folder, but do NOT replace "weapons_gc.xml" when prompted. Then open existing unmodified "weapons_gc.xml" in notepad and find and replace every string <Projectile spectre="projectiles/laser/laser" speed="1000"/> with <Projectile spectre="projectiles/laser/laser_long5" speed="10000"/> and save changes.

Several options where previously was none is always better. Glad to be of help =)

Best part is that you can write scripts for new archive types if you know their format specs. I have used it for Witcher 2 when it just came out, and remembered about the tool when recently Witcher updated. When i looked if there is something for pfp, i was pleasantly surprised that there is script for it already =) Glad to be of help =)

Such problems with archives can possibly be solved with archive unpacker in the future. I recently stumbled upon one and posted links to it in this thread. It worked for me on pfp's from 18.4 and 18.5. Really sorry for posting same thing twice in different threads, but if archives cause such problems and above-linked post about unpacker, that can solve it without additional file uploads by developers, seems to be unnoticed, i think i should mention it again.

Feedback on mods everywhere in my experience is very minimalistic. Visual mods seems to accumulate more comments then all other things. As for your mod itself - it sound very interesting, all that balancing changes, but i admit, i haven't tried it yet, just don't have much time for Xenonauts lately *sigh*.

I need to resurrect this thread, because i have accidentally found proper unpacker for pfp archives. QuickBMS generic files extractor and reimporter - http://aluigi.altervista.org/quickbms.htm And pfp script for it, from a little lower on the same page - http://aluigi.altervista.org/papers/bms/pfpk.bms Just download both, unpack and run quickbms, point it to saved script, to game archive and where to extract everything. Tested it on archives from 18.5 and 18.4 - seems to be working just fine. Chris, can you do some internal testing, since only you can create archives, to further confirm, if it works right.

As i wait for 18.4 to be approved and appear on desura, i thought there would be no better time to suggest some changes because of increased workload regarding to steam preparations, as Chris posted in announce. Game is already very moddable, but with some changes it can became even more versatile. Some things i might posted earlier somewhere else, but write here anyway (if it wasn't answered or answered clearly enough) to make it easier to find and respond to. I'll try to make suggestions as easy to implement as i can think of. Each thing listed can be worthwhile on its own, but most will be better if applied together. Geoscape: 1) Define colors for tileset map in xml, so adding new tilesets became possible without engine changes (right now colors seems to be hardcoded). 2) Define list of funding nations (with corresponding name prefix for region images and funding multiplier property) in xml, so new funding regions could be added (right now region list seems to be hardcoded). Ground combat: 3) Make weapon animation type and bullet trajectory type defined separately (right now both defined by one property - bulletType=""). It is needed for possibility of grenade launchers, mortars, flare guns, etc. Related to this. 4) Create additional completely linear weapon projectile trajectory type (we already have default ballistic with bullet drop and plunging for grenades). This will further diversify possible weapons and mitigate strange laser projectile behavior. 5) Move flare light effect and its radius to weapon ammo properties (to where "fireChance" and "smokeChance" is; right now it is hard-linked to weapon animation "bulletType="flare" parameter). Needed for flare guns and similar weapons. Suggested here. 6) Add projectile light effect option to ammo properties, so bullets, laser beams etc. irradiate light in mid-air. This will made possible tracer rounds and make energy weapons shots better-looking. 7) Implement settings for projectile origin point in animation sprites. Will make shot animations better-looking by not shooting with your face or feet and make possible more exotic custom weapons. 8) If it is possible, can we have sight angle property back? It became hardcoded some time ago. This change will add some interesting peripheral vision differences to armor. Found and discussed somewhat here and reported as bug and confirmed as hardcoded here. Engine: 9) Not sure if possible, but move ground combat accuracy and damage calculations to lua scripts in "assets/scripts" folder to make it moddable, so we can experiment with them and fine-tune shooting mechanics.

... So, our beloved leader, leading us against invading alien forces is actually... (i'm so sorry)

True =) My remark was about that as well - progression here feels right. And also true, your phrasing reminded me of shady ways of Bethesda designs. Astonishing, really, how similar intent and methods can produce designs with such radically different feel. And to not delve off topic too much - at first i thought too, that jackal is too costly. But later i found that after 2-3 missions you usually have enough cash to equip most of your drop-squad and then keep some on reserve soldiers. Then again, i do not equip snipers and heavies with armor most of time, especially at first, when it needed for scouts and assaults. So, not a problem right now, imo.

Good then that Xenonauts have short enough upgrade range with distinctive steps, so this not became akin to Oblivion-like pointless leveling.

This definitely will be useful - i often find myself nervously watching, when missiles can be launched which can be distracting from overall battle if you face several ufo's at once. I support such suggestion.

It will be good tie-in to what Chris said about equipment weight balance, that it need to focus more on how much spare ammo you have. Having accuracy bonus to second shot will encourage to shoot more, so ammo will be more important than it is now.

Yeah, like it slices instead of just blasting something =) Also, 5px beam looks good and 7px is too thick. I'll set default to 5 and include others as option. Speed will leave as is, 10000. If less, beam sometimes noticeably goes backwards and i don't want that. New video, scatterlaser, 5px beam 4th beam seems to always appear closer to shooter.