GarrettFox

This is still messed up. The hotfix reads: <Row> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">ManTech.LandingDSB</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Aircraft</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">80</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">15000</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">1xItems.AlienLandingDatacore</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:Index="8" ss:StyleID="s68"><Data ss:Type="String">StockItem( "Items.LandingHull" );</Data></Cell> </Row> But "Items.AlienLandingDatacore" isn't an item, so it will cause a soft crash if you select it in the manufacturing screen. It should read: "Items.AlienLandingCraftDatacore"

Just checked the hotfix zip. Unless you've uploaded another one in the past day, then yeah, it is in the hotfix.

<Row> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">ManTech.LandingDSB</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Aircraft</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">80</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">15000</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">1xItems.AlienCruiserDatacore</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">1200</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:Index="8" ss:StyleID="s68"><Data ss:Type="String">StockItem( "Items.LandingHull" );</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:Index="10"><Data ss:Type="String">airplane.human.valkyrie</Data></Cell> </Row> <Row> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">ManTech.CrusierDSB</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Aircraft</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">100</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">30000</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">1xItems.AlienCruiserDatacore</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">1500</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:Index="8" ss:StyleID="s68"><Data ss:Type="String">StockItem( "Items.CrusierHull" );</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:Index="10"><Data ss:Type="String">airplane.human.valkyrie</Data></Cell> </Row> The landing ship disassembly requires a cruiser data core, rather than the landing ship core. Easy fix. Just swap "Items.AlienCruiserDatacore" for "Items.AlienLandingCraftDatacore" in the landing ship manufactures entry. Seems to fix it without any problems.

The m16 and the 870 are basically worthless as is. An SMG should never deal more damage than a rifle. For the player that is unintuitive. Assault rifles exist because they do the job of assault better than SMG's could. SMG's continue to exist as backup weapons and for extremely special applications. I would expect SMG's in game to follow a similar principle and give soldiers a weapon that isn't as strong as an assault rifle, but is lighter and has an excellent reaction bonus. Something you issue to medics, or a shield user for when his shield fails. A shotgun should still hit hard (hell, offer a slug gun. Deals less damage and only has one pellet, but punches through armor) and rifles should possess armor mitigation. Basically the starting weapons are pitiful now and it is unlikely that players will be able to follow the logic of developing smg's to solve the problem. If a medium machine gun doesn't hurt the enemy worth a damn, why would a SUB machine gun even scratch them? Reality is balanced. Follow real world logic and you will have balanced equipment.

Open gameconfig.XML with a text editor and scroll through it. The file is extremely well documented and easy to understand. If you scroll through, you can see all the difficulty setting modifiers. Veteran is anywhere from 10 to 25 percent more difficult in almost every category.

Dropping the min recruit bravery level to 25 may be pushing it a bit. As a result most of the soldiers are junk. A lot of pointless hire/fire cycles. Easy enough to fix on my end, so I certainly don't care, but it may be a bit extreme in terms of balancing. You could leave it super low (or even lower) but offset it with extremely rapid bravery gains. I feel like bravery increases rather slowly either way. Once you fight the aliens, you are likely going to adapt quickly and have morale check failures far less often. These guys are seasoned veterans in theory. They aren't inherently cowards and most are used to putting themselves in harms way, they simply have not fought aliens before. They, of all people, would likely adapt readily.

Huh, chrome labels the download as being malware and blocks it. I can bypass it, obviously, but I've never seen chrome do that. I'm confused as to what it flagged as being malicious. No other virus detection software seems to register a problem.

Haha, went to the other thread first, saw that there was supposedly a download link, clicked on it and it took me to a blank tab. Well played, accidental troll, well played. EDIT: I assume that was just a stopgap measure and somebody knows the download link doesn't lead anywhere. EDIT2: Note that I wasn't suggesting he was trolling people intentionally. It was obviously just an accident that managed to confuse me for a minute. It was funny. (Clarification of post was requested by PM)

Technically speaking if you aren't using smoke to cover your position and you are infantry facing an enemy with thermal imaging capabilities (if you aren't infantry, then you likely use WP smoke all the time), you'd use white phosphorus smoke grenades. They produce a nasty toxic smoke, but produce a wall that that doesn't allow the IR spectrum through. This would neutralize the sebillian heat vision and was extremely popular in reality through the end of Vietnam (by everyone except soldiers who accidentally lit themselves on fire with it. They likely had different opinions on the matter.), which would make it era appropriate. Granted it also produces a solid wall of white smoke, which I'm not sure can be done very easily in the game. That would prevent abuse by players, but improve the utility of smoke in other situations. Just a thought. EDIT: Love the mod though. Tons of fun. Thank you so much for making it.

Smoke grenades causing damage is rather frustrating. I drop them on exit from the transport to minimize the chance of incoming fire being lethal. Technically speaking, yes, smoke grenades used for screening are toxic as hell, but I don't exactly have the opportunity to equip gas masks.

Ah, that was what I was missing. Only looked at the pistol in the inventory, while I checked other weapons which were already equipped. Was under the impression that weapons.xml only handled descriptions and pulled variables from elsewhere. Also expected the GUI image to only appear once in the code seeing as there is only one art asset anyways for it. I knew it had to be some stupid oversight on my part. Thanks so much, that was bugging me.

Okay so this is going to be a stupid question, but I can't seem to find anyone else with a similar issue. Basically I was just going to do a simple swap of the M9 for the M1911A1 art that is already included in the files. Drop the magazine size, play with the weight a little, and increase the damage. Looked simple. <Weapons><Weapon name="weapon.pistol" bulletType="normal" emptySound="Empty Click 1"> <props range="12" hands="1" recoil="0" weight="1.5" isHeavy="0" clipSize="12" reloadAPCost="9" reloadSound="Weapon Pistol Reload" reactionModifier="1.8" hpLimit="60" /> <SingleShot sound="Weapon Pistol Single" delay="0.6" suppressionValue="12" suppressionRadius="1"> <Set1 ap="9" accuracy="65" /> <Set2 ap="11" accuracy="73" /> </SingleShot> <GUIImage name="gui/weapons/pistol" /> <GroundImage name="grounditemimages/pistol.png"/> <Ammos> <Ammo name="ammo.ballistic.pistol" type="kinetic" damage="20" mitigation="5"> <Projectile spectre="projectiles/bullet/bullet" speed="1200"/> <Impact spectre="particles/bulletplume/bulletplume"/> </Ammo> </Ammos></Weapon> That appears to be the second of the code which controls the M9. Assuming you don't care about tool tips or strings, modifying that code should directly affect the stats on the weapon, right? Except changing them doesn't seem to do anything for me. I can go one slot down to the M16 and perform exactly the same changes and they apply, but for some odd reason the M9 refuses to change. Can't swap the art work or alter the magazine size. Haven't tested the rest of the stats, but those two are the painfully obvious ones. It isn't terrible important in the long run, of course, but now I'm just curious. Why I can alter every other weapon, except the M9. Especially given that if I'm altering the other weapons, where is it finding the original code for the M9?

I'd argue that machine guns should have one of the highest reaction modifiers. (assuming burst becomes an option during reaction fire, of course) Since they don't have a single shot mode, you have to conserve huge amounts of TU in a turn for them to fire. A guy posted in a window with a machine gun should definitely be able to lock down the street in front of him. Aliens move into the street and get cut down by MG fire, it is atmospheric, balanced, and keeps in line with the area denial function of the machinegun.

Really just in general using sight range to make enemies tougher was one of the few shortcomings of the original X-Com. Losing people to tactical mistakes is sad, but acceptable. Losing people to enemies that you never could have even seen isn't a functional mechanic. Yes, in theory, smoke grenades could be used to conceal your approach, but to use smoke grenades in reality you must have a general idea of where the enemy threat is going to be arriving from. In this game there isn't any general logic to the location of the enemies, and even if there was, since you can't actually see the terrain outside of the FOW, you can't know when to use them and when not to. Basically there is no effective counter. You will suffer casualties, even in spite of covering all of your sectors, to enemies you couldn't possibly detect.