Ol' Stinky

I've not used stun batons yet. I'm not entirely sure how stun works in this game, so I'm not willing to send someone in and risk having them being unable to stun an enemy and get brutally murdered when I hit "end turn". Considering I can use stun ranged weapons (grenades, rockets), I'm not taking the risk. Once the floating damage numbers include stun values as well as damage ones, it'll be better, but I'm still not sure I'd use stun batons. But even with numbers it'll still be risky. So I do, say, 40 stun damage against a caesan soldier. Unless I open up aiprops.xml, I don't know how good that is. Will another 40 stun damage do the trick? Or should I use remaining TUs to try and get my baton guy to safety? I can't make the right decision without looking up the guard's resilience. Maybe there should be an indication of how badly wounded an enemy is when you do damage, at least on easy/normal difficulties. So instead of a simple "40 stun damage" floating above the soldiers head when he gets shocked, it'd read "40 stun damage (80hp remaining)" or "40 stun damage (66% remaining)" or "40 stun damage (lightly stunned)", depending on how vague you can afford to be. You might want to take the stun damage off of flashbangs, too. I've captured a bunch of aliens in the light scout/scout phase of my v19 HF1 game with my alien weapon variant mod by spamming flashbangs. Is it the case that smoke reduces accuracy by 20% per smokey square? So a soldier behind 4 squares of smoke has a ~40% chance of being hit, given an otherwise perfectly accurate alien shot with no cover involved? I use it a lot, and will do even if the miss chance doesn't stack. As long as units are positioned accordingly, it's a decent trade: extra defense at the cost of offense (since popping smoke will generally cost a gunshot). If the LoS penalty gets put in and it turns out to only affect xnauts, I might use smoke a lot less, though. I've never used C4. I can carry enough grenades to breach any walls I want at the moment, so I don't see the need.

New arctic maps! The ColdStink 5 set: one lightscout, one sct/corv, one cru/lship. I've also put in a new town map for corv/lship that features the library submap. It's been a while. (I seem to say that a lot.) When v19 came out, I started playing through the campaign again, which took up time I usually spend on maps. Playing through the arctic maps, I strongly agree with Flash's comment about the inconsistancy of the more randomised artic maps, and I also felt that the thick/thin forest random props really failed to deliver. As a result, I've gone through my arctic maps and tried to improve them a bit. Hopefully, they're better now. I've split the big randomised prop sections into sparse and dense submaps now, with the buildings being their own thing. Dense prop submaps are 7 or more submaps, sparse ones have less than 7 in them. Lakes aren't counted as a prop for this purpose. This stuff is only in Stinky Maps 2 at the moment, I'll be updating the CMP review in a bit. Here's a list of changes for all of the people who care, which is currently a very round number. It helps me keep track of what I've done and still need to do, though, so prepare to eat a lot of words anyway. ColdStink 1, both 60x60 and 70x70, have the official outpost in. If people miss the larger outpost in 70x70 I can put it back, though. I've also moved civs away from the entrance so that they don't form a human barricade there; they should now cower in the safety of the power generator room, their dorms, the security checkpoint, and the toilets. In the 70x70, the fairly static props in the vertical lane on the east side of the outpost have been replaced with a dense and a sparse random propfield. I've also put a couple of rock covers on the approach so it's a little less murderous on the xnauts. The props in the north east part of the map have been replaced by sparse propfields. ColdStink 2 70x70 is now closer to its 60x60 cousin, with the big lake in the middle forcing the xnauts to go around the edges. There are sparse propfileds around the perimeter, along with 100% certain rock covers to account for bad luck with random props. CS 2 60x60 has had the "random" thick forests removed. LSct version has been thinned out in general, and has two sparse fields north and south of the lake. Sct/Crv is denser in terms of props. It should be possible for a tank to get around. CS 3 70x70's central lake now has a land-bridge running through it. There's also an outpost B, as there was meant to be in the first place but wasn't because, um, I guess I was a bit out of it when I made the map..? Anyway. There are dense fields of props if you go the long way around the lake. You can go across the land-bridge, but you'll be pretty horribly exposed. CS 3 60x60 LSct has had a lot of the trees cut down, but apart from now being more open is pretty much the same. Sct/Corv version has a sparse prop field north and south of the outpost, and a dense field outside the ship. CS 4 70x70: relatively dense, prop-and-building-wise, in the middle vertical column. There are sparse patches of cover/LoS/movement blocks in the outlying columns. CS 4 60x60 LSct: no dense prop fields, since there's only going to be a few aliens around and it already has a central feature in the form of the river anyway. ColdStink 4 60x60 Sct/Corv: 1 dense field in the SE, and a few sparse fields as you go around the river. CS 5 60x60 and 70x70 added. I put the little outpost in as a fixed feature, along with the logging camp.

I've made a few town submaps. The public toilet's a small 6x6 affair that's not worth putting up a pic for as it's really a glorified prop, there to fill up dead space. Let's move on to the more interesting stuff. Here's the library. It has a reception area, complete with uncomfortable chairs, plus the main library and a little reading/browsing area underneath the raised wooden platform. You'll notice what appears to be a graphical glich on top of the platform against the wall - that's actually due to the mid bookcaseA SW spectre in tiles\town\house\props having an incorrect sort point of 0.700. If you browse to [Xenonauts install dir]\assets\tiles\town\house\props\BookshelfMidA_SW_spectre.xml and paste this code in instead (my edit appears in bold): <?xml version="1.0" ?><spectre id="town/house/props/BookshelfMidA_SW" width="1" height="1" version="1"> <state id="damaged" name="" pivotX="64" pivotY="128" pathScore="1" objectTypePreset="0" visibilityScore="1.000" bulletScore="1.000" orientation="0" sortPoint="0.500" hp="0" wallType="none"> <image src="tiles/town/house/props/BookshelfMidA_SW.png" /> </state> <state id="default" name="" pivotX="49" pivotY="111" pathScore="1" objectTypePreset="0" visibilityScore="1.000" bulletScore="1.000" orientation="4" [b]sortPoint="0.500"[/b] hp="0" wallType="none"> <image src="tiles/town/house/props/BookshelfMidA_SW.png" /> </state> <state id="destroyed" name="" pivotX="64" pivotY="128" pathScore="1" objectTypePreset="0" visibilityScore="1.000" bulletScore="1.000" orientation="0" sortPoint="0.500" hp="0" wallType="none" /></spectre> it'll be fixed. If the folders don't exist, create them, it won't cause any problems. Or I can upload a .zip which will do the work for you, if it really bugs anyone that much. I also made the left-facing stinkhouse. I'm not sure about the storeroom on L1. It might look too military for a household. They look so much nicer than the storage shelves from industrial warehouses though...!

You can tell if a country abandons you because it turns black on the geoscape map. Not the payment change screen, the map on the geoscape. I've never had it happen in my first month, though, only reduced funding from countries I'm not protecting. I almost always set up shop around the Middle East in order to cover Europe, North Africa, the Middle East (obviously) and any bits of Russia and Indiochina I can manage. As far as tech goes I get Foxtrot asap, then do whatever I can to get alenium explosives so that I'm able to take down unescorted Corvs without problems. I don't build any jackal armour, it's a trap as far as I can tell.

Yeah, I already design my squad to be able to kill aliens behind cover (playing v19). In mid-to-long range combat, I use sniper rifles since hypervelocity allows a chance to deal damage even if I hit cover. I might take a rocket launcher early on for emergencies, and later on for stun rockets. In close combat, I use the various grenades. Once various accuracy problems are sorted out - i.e. the stray shot bugs, untuned accuracy for weapons, etc - I imgaine being exposed will be more dangerous, and improving cover now would be overkill. As for the LMG, once the AI burst fire cheat bug's removed, I'll take it along purely for its suppression power. It's competing against the rifle in this respect. Currently the rifle's advantage over the LMG is that it allows for more mobility, whereas a rookie using an LMG can only move a short distance before he has to choose whether to carry on moving or to open fire. If the LMG gets (say) a 20 or a 30 TU fire option, then I'd probably never take along a rifle. What changes would you make to the rifle to allow it to be viable? Oh, and Sath, is that crouching-bhind-cover thing still in? I didn't realise that was the case. I see it's in the wiki, but on the same page it talks about the automatic cover-taking animations as though they were still in the game, so it's a bit dated.

By the way, popped into quickbattle to have a look at how big a shrike is. It looks like 20 slots max to me. Do you know how to use quickbattle? It's useful for testing stuff out: have a look at this if you need to quickly test something in the battlescape (scroll to the bottom).

There's a reason I knew that's what happened. Let's just say you're in good company here. (;

They nicked the technology from the aliens, which also explains the beer-holding hat in the background of the pic.

Sorry to hear that, man. Hope all's well/ all will be well.

There is a cost value in buildings.xml, it's second after the name. Scroll left. (; If you still can't see it in whatever program you're using to read the spreadsheet, open it up in a text editor (preferably one that colour codes, uh, code). Change the value "100000" on line 152 to whatever you want the cost to be, and "7500" on line 153 to whatever you wish upkeep to be.

The new alien ranks and their guns look identical to their comrades, so you won't know who has (say) an overloaded pistol and who has a standard one until they fire, or unless you pry the guns out of their cold dead hands. I have changed sounds and/or graphics used, though, so if you get the following then you know there's at least one guy with a variant weapon out there. - Overloaded ones are kinda obvious since they cause explosions, but they also use the plasma torch sfx for firing. - Stabilized plasma shots move twice as fast, which is noticable but maybe not enough to distinguish them? - Focused ones use the alien laser graphic when firing.

I'd need to poke around for the first question, but as for hangar and other base construction costs, have a gander at buildings.xml in [xeno dir]\assets. For the plane cost, try manufactures.xml (in the same dir). Edit: sorry, I can only see how many soldiers they can currently carry, not the physical maximum. I don't have any save games that far since I've started afresh for v19 hotfix 1.

If you have fewer than 4 TUs remaining, you normally can't stand up, or at least by pressing 'c' or clicking on the crouch/stand button on the interface. Double clicking gets around this.

This mod is currently version 3 and has been tested in v19 experimental, hotfix 2. The mod launcher is currently not working, as far as I know. To install the mod, you'll have to extract the files into your Xenonauts folder. Sadly, this mod will not work with Sathra's, WalrusJones', or anything else that alters the same files. When I get closer to what I want, maybe I (or they? I'm not sure of the etiquette) will merge mods. Download. Mod description: I find lightscout and scout ground missions to be a bit on the dull side. Yes, Caesans are different from Sebilians. But they're both using the same plasma pistol or rifle, and it gets old. There's none of the variety that the mix of alien weaponry later on provides. This mod tries to change that a bit. Introducing the overloaded, stabilized and focused versions of alien plasma pistols and plasma rifles. Overloaded guns: these guns have had various safety mechanisms disabled, making them deadlier, but also making them rather unreliable. The result is that they now deliver an explosive blast. It also means that the user cannot snap shot, take reaction fire, or burst fire, for fear of the gun exploding in their hands and eradicating all matter within a respectable radius. Stabilized guns: These guns have been modified to deliver a near-constant stream of plasma. To achieve this, the punch of each individual shot is notably weaker than a typical version of the weapon. The upside is that they can pump out blasts without worrying about the reliability of the gun, granting lower TU costs, higher suppression (in terms of suppression value and suppression radius) as well as a 6-shot burst fire. The shots do now have armour mitigation, though, so don't underestimate anyone using a stabilized plasma pistol or rifle. Focused guns: this modification delivers a charged, tight beam; this grants a bonus to the weapon's range, higher suppression and a more accurate standard/aimed shot. The downside is that snap shot is less accurate, the charge-up time makes burst fire impossible. Version 3 introduces feral sebillians. They can withstand impressive amounts of damage, but have regressed to an even more bestial state, so they cannot use items. --- Files modified: in assets\ aiprops.xml items.xml weapons_gc.xml weapons.xml strings.xml in assets\ufocontents airplane.alien.lightscout.caesan airplane.alien.scout.caesan airplane.alien.corvette.caesan airplane.alien.lightscout.sebilian airplane.alien.scout.sebilian airplane.alien.corvette.sebilian To-do list: I need to play around with (I reckon) strings.xml so that the different plasma weapons don't show up as "weapon.StabilizedAlienPlasmaPistol" and the like. [Done as of v2] I need to sort out graphics for human soldiers who want to use these guns.

Huh! I didn't know that. Weird. I guess the target is simply really freaked out that anybody would want to fire at him at all.

Ah. You have to excuse me, I'm a bit daft. Yeah, I agree with you.

Oh, you're the man! Thank you. At the moment, the guns are different versions of the alien plasma pistol. I can't draw so new artwork's not likely, and uh, people usually tell me to stop making sounds, so no custom sfx. The "new" aliens are simply different versions of caesan/sebelian non-coms who use the different types of pistol, in the same way that you get a "guard" rank and a "guardsupport" rank. There's three different pistols, one with rapid fire, one with hypervelocity, and one that has an explosive effect. I'll grab a morning coffee and if I get this spectre to co-operate, I'll implement more types of guards, then make a new thread for a download in case anyone wants a try.

To be fair, I think that's not intended and is down to a bug - when your squad's actually taking fire or an alien moves into their line of sight, the screen's meant to go away and let you see what's happening. The hidden movement screen obscuring stuff that shouldn't be obscured happened to me a few times in v18 and earlier as well.

...But turning did cost AP in the original. ;P But in an effort to not come across as a total jerk, you can alter this. If you look in [xeno dir]\assets\config.xml, there's a line that goes: <TurnAP>1</TurnAP> Simply change it to 0 and save your changes.

I've created different versions of non-combatants so that I can get a mix of alien weaponry in the lightscout and scout ships. Now, gameplay wise, it seems to be working okay. The new ranks show up in-game, using their new guns. Here's the thing, though: they all look like unarmed Caesan non-coms. The new ranks sound like they're meant to (the sebelians hiss when hit, for example), and their corpse's graphic in the inventory screen when you stand on their corpse is properly set. But I cannot find where I'm meant to define their unit's look! I've had a look in, well, units, but all I see are graphics, and no .xmls. I've tried creating folders in there, but the game doesn't recognise them. Clearly I need to set that myself, but I don't know where. I've defined the new guys' stats in aiprops.xml, and the new weapons in weapons_gc.xml, weapons.xml, and items.xml. I also edited ufocontents' various xmls so they appear on the ufos, and quickbattle.xml for easy testing. I'd be grateful for any help! Where's the remaining file(s) I need to edit?

Seriously, this. This compromise is better than the fullscreen hidden movement screen, but it's still jarring. It's like having your little cousin barge into the room, hold his hand in front of the screen for a few seconds, then run out giggling. Then he does it again at each turn. I know the idea's iconic (I don't read much games media nowadays, but I notice in the Steam Xeno news page the current top article even uses it as its main picture) but having the camera hold position over your troops would be more atmospheric and less irritating. If the hidden movement screen has to stay, please make it an option.

Nuts, you're right. You'd need to introduce a lighter drone to avoid that, and that might be more trouble than it's worth. Bah. I guess a wider arsenal of alien guns that don't interfere with the tech tree's the better option, then. As for the accuracy thing: if you don't think that accuracy's a problem for rifles/shots/LMGs, fair enough, but it was enough to make me look for ways to get around aliens using cover. The RL's inaccurate, but that's offset by its explosive nature, so I'd take along an RL guy despite the weapon-destruction early on for those occasions where I absolutely needed to kill an alien. The sniper rifle doesn't lend itself to mobility, and in a rookie's hands can still miss a lot, but hypervelocity helps neuter the aliens' cover. And grenades are short range (especially for rookies) but even when they miss can still do some good by causing a little splash damage, unlike shotguns. If I were to restart my v19 game, I wouldn't take along any rifles, shotguns or LMGs. Admittedly, in the case of rifles and LMGs it's because of the AI suppression/TU bug: when that's fixed I'd probably take along a rifle or LMG for the suppression. Most of the guys would be commandos: using snipers, with pistol/grenades in the backpack. Edit: making a mod of the weapon variant thing and testing it in quickbattle in v19 HF 1, a shotgunner had a 58%/76% chance with snapshot/standard shot against a grey non-com...at point blank range with no cover involved. And he missed both snap shots, causing no damage.

I'd rather they simply removed the vision restriction from the armours. Armours already have enough downsides without impeding sight range: - Armour's got a weight penalty. This is mitigated by strength gain, but at first it means an armoured soldier needs to leave equipment back at base. - It costs money. Even when we get some more breathing space in the geoscape, you won't be able to splash out on snazzy armour for all and sundry. - Armour can be destroyed. Since all armour has to be produced, that means it takes up workshop time to get replacements. And given the above point, you can't afford to lose many suits of armour. This is also the first version where I've really got to play with shields. I've got to say, they're cool as hell. They do need to have a drawback but I'd rather that if the chance of failure's removed, they don't replace it with a vision penalty. Limiting vision is a really harsh malus, and I'd rather they not go that route. Especially since like armoured guys, it's the frontliners you're going to give shields to, aka the guys who need the sight the most! If shields were changed to not be a % of failure, I'd say it should be something like a % of damage absorbed instead. For example, they could absorb 75% of damage from the front, and 50% from the sides. That way a shield guy still wants to use cover to avoid taking damage, but is a lot sturdier than an unshielded soldier because if alien fire does get through, it won't be a one-shot.

Maybe, although so far in my v19 playthrough, reapers already come in very small numbers. There's also the fact that reapers are instakillers if they do get to attack, so they're probably not an enemy you want to have a complete newbie go up against. On the grey's side of things, I don't know whether it's needed to have a "lighterdrone" or whether the current lightdrone's fine for the start of the game. It'd share graphics, sounds and xenopedia entries with the lightscout, the only way a player would know they're actually different from real lightdrones is if they look in the XML files. I reckon 0-2 lightdrones would be okay for lightscouts, but I haven't tried doing that in v19. It might be too much for the starter mission if a player has no clue how to play.

I think you're right, although setting it to 0 caused some weird stuff to happen, such as shots landing well outside of their suppression radius still causing suppression. I guess simply being fired at causes a minimal amount of suppression that wouldn't be detectable in a normal game...? As far as the topic goes, could we please get a bit of warning as to the cone of fire? It can be hard to gauge just how wide a shot can go. Here's a mockup to show what I mean, and a couple of suggestions. We start with this: Now, we know the selected LMG guy has a good chance of having shots go wide and hitting the two almost directly in front of him. But what about A or B? If we move the two unmarked soldiers right in front of the LMG guy, is it possible at all to hit A and B by accident? I can't say for sure. Maybe we could get a warning that wild shots could hit friendlies. I've used the green circles, but perhaps yellow ones would work better since generally speaking, we associate amber with a light warning (both in the game and in real life). This one looks better than the other two suggestions below. The downside is that it's also less informative than they are. Here's a version where we instead see little squares marking the widest misshot possible. Or even both together. Now, though, it might look a bit too crowded: information overload!