kabill

Again, this is now re-uploaded and available for download.

I have just re-uploaded them. You can find them on the downloads page under the maps tab.

When I find a chunk of time to sort it, I'm going to re-upload all my mods. Apologies for the time it is taking - have had a very busy month.

Yes, more than happy to sort my own out. I possibly have copies of some of the other mods lingering around as well (e.g. some of Skitso's stuff, although he's more likely to be back than most). Should have at least a little time tomorrow for a test run so will look at it then. And thanks again.

Ah, well done. And I suspect that was a lot less effort than collating information for a forum thread too. Thanks. Vaguely related subject which was going to be my follow-up: you indicated that you would be able to recover mods which had been previously uploaded? Could you be persuaded at all to move those mods on to the new system (if indeed that is possible). I suspect there's a lot of mods which will be lost, otherwise, as authors aren't committed to maintaining them any more. And that would be a shame. Am happy to help with this if I can (but suspect it requires doing lots of things your end if it can be done at all, so do not begrudge not taking this on). EDIT: Sorry, missed that Charon had asked the same thing far more succinctly.

With the forum change-over, the downloads page has gone. In terms of distributing mods that isn't problematic. But the downloads page was also useful for the purposes access as well, i.e. it easy to find and access mods from there without the need to dig through pages of old threads. Solution! We need a mods thread like back in the olden days. I'm posting this here to suggest ways of organising it. Comments are, of course, welcome. Option 1: The first post contains links to individual mod threads, organised in some fashion or other. This post will need to be maintained by someone who will add links to it as requested (probably not a big task these days, once it's been set up, as there's not really much in the way of mod development going on). This can be organised around different types, like with the old downloads page (geoscape, ground combat, art, etc.) Option 2: In the thread, mod-creators make their own post with links to their mods. An individual mod-creator should only have one post and keep all of their links there. This is more flexible than option 1 and mitigates the need for someone to take responsibility for it all working. But it lacks the same ability to organise mods into categories (individual posts can do this, but you'd still need to look through each to find mods of a particular kind). Thoughts on which of these would be best? Option 1 probably is, if there's someone to look after it. But that isn't assured. (I'm almost inclined to volunteer - I've done it before - but am not at all reliable at the moment).

Cool. That's really helpful. Now just need to find the time to update everything...

Ok, that's great. Thanks. Pretty sure I have copies of all my files but will let you know if there's something missing. Also, is there a max upload size? Might need to find somewhere else to upload the Armour Resource pack if so.

I suspect I'm being blind but was the downloads page lost in the forum switch over? If not, where do I find it? If so, are there plans to reintroduce it or an alternative for hosting mods here? No trouble either way - just wanting to get an idea of what I'll need to do.

Sorry, was not at my home computer at the time. If I remember I will look later for you. As Drages has said - most of us are gone. And those of us who are left haven't really been modding in a while and have forgotten things. There's probably a time when I could have given you an answer to your question off the top of my head but it's been a year and a half since I was seriously involved in modding and a lot of the knowledge I'd acquired just isn't there any more. I'm sorry about that - it's a shame for sure - but I'm not going to apologise for it. I gave you the best answers I could given the time and resources available. It may not be what you wanted but criticising me and others for not doing something we have no obligation to do is really quite unreasonable. So please, don't. In principle I'm not adverse to it, depending on what you need exactly and how much time, energy and enthusiasm I have.

Not as such. It is hardcoded. What you can do is make cannons a missile-slot weapon instead, which results in the missile-sized GUI button. This carries with it two costs, though: - It makes cannons interchangeable with whatever else you put in that slot; and - UFOs capable of dodging will attempt to dodge these cannons (as UFOs are hardcoded not to dodge against cannon-slot weapons). So its possible but only if you're ok to absorb these costs.

There is a file - I forget which one - which has variables for the number of civilians on different maps. But I'm not sure if it does anything - I think the specific map values might have priority. So probably, no. But might be worth trying? Regarding spawn-points: I'm pretty sure having more units spawn than spawn points is not a problem. I'm not sure which but it will either try and reuse them, or it will randomly generate a spawn location somewhere on the map (this usually happens if the spawn location is impassible for some reason). The latter might cause a few issues, but should be ok. Definitely worth a test. Regarding map modding: all map files are .xmls and should work using the normal mod-merging system. Not sure if you can add extra transports though (last time I was modding, these were hard-coded so you couldn't add more. Did this change some time when I wasn't looking? If it didn't, you won't be able to do it).

Ah, sorry, I wasn't getting that on my machine. But never mind. Glad it worked eventually.

Strictly speaking, you only need the base mod download. The mod pack is just a collection of other mods that have been packaged for convenience. So to use XCE, all you actually need to do is install the mod in your xenonauts/assets/mods folder. This said, if you want the mod pack, the link was working ok for me. When it takes you to the dropbox page, click "no thanks, continue to download" if it comes up with the sign-in page and then wait. If that doesn't work, click the download button in the top right corner and again click to ignore the sign-in page; that's worked for me twice now.

Cool, thanks. And hope the change goes smoothly.

Will the migration break links to the forum? E.g. I have links to forum pages included in mod information on Steam Workshop - will these need updating? (I suspect this may be a stupid question but I have no idea how these things work.)

Put it in your xenonauts/assets/mods folder. Also, make sure it is activated in the mod manager ("mod tools" in the xenonuats launcher).

I'd appreciate a credit for it but otherwise, sure!

Do aliens actually have unlimited grenades? I've never noticed this and I don't recall them having the appropriate tag in the game files (indeed, I don't even know if it would work). But is possible I just never noticed/encountered that situation.

Have been busy and lost home internet access for a lot of last month so wasn't able to do anything with it. Available time isn't great at the moment but I would like to get an update out at some point.

I thought your point about luck was referring to reaction fire, not where the UFO is placed. I'll confess: I'm not quite sure why lack of signalling of the direction of the UFO is such a point of consternation for you. Odds are, to complete a mission you will need to scout most of the map anyway and it is generally good practice to clear outside the UFO before assaulting it as otherwise you risk being ambushed as you get ready to breach the craft. So knowing where the UFO is in advance doesn't really give you much of an advantage. But as I say, if you don't like the game then you don't like it. I can't change your preferences and won't try to.

It isn't just luck - there's a lot of strategy in positioning units to ensure areas of the combat zone remain clear and safe, and equipping units appropriately so they can scout the combat zone is safety. This does stand in contrast to the Firaxis XCom games, which emphasise tactical moves primarily within the context of a firefight, but is no less strategy. If it's not fun for you then it's not fun. No harm in that. But if you're put off because it feels very luck-based, then I'd encourage you to have a play around with some equipment loadouts and maybe look at some let's-plays to see how experienced players deal with movement/positioning before giving it up entirely. You might yet be surprised.

The reaction fire mechanics do allow you to shoot first rather than the aliens. There are three factors which are important: - The reflex attribute - The weapon used by the unit - The unit's remaining TU The units reflexes and equipped weapon's reaction modifier are multiplied together to get the unit's initiative score. For example, a soldier with 60 reflexes with a assault rifle has 60 x 1.0 = initiative 60, while a soldier with 50 reflexes and a shotgun has 5 x 1.5 = initiative 75. At any given point, a unit's true initiative is equal to their maximum initiative multiplied by the %TU the unit has remaining. Thus, a unit that has not done anything yet has their full initiative value, while a unit which has used half it's TUs has half its initiative value and a unit which has used all its TUs has an initiative value of 0. Whenever a unit completes an action, it's initiative value is compared against the initiative value of all hostile units in sight of it (with hostile unit's initiative using the proportion of TUs the unit had left at the end of its turn). If the hostile unit's initiative is higher, they will take a reaction snap-shot (or burst fire, with a suitable weapon within 10 tiles). If you suppress a unit, it immediately loses all its TUs so cannot reaction fire. Implications for avoiding enemy reaction fire: 1) Hire soldiers with good reflex attributes 2) Equip weapons with high reaction modifiers (shotguns and pistols) 3) Move into risky areas (e.g. UFOs) using units which have a high % of their TUs remaining 4) Concentrate on suppressing hostile units to avoid reaction fire, then concentrate on killing them (e.g. open with an LMG burst attack or flashbang) Points 2) and 4) are probably the most important. Using shotgun-armed units are forward scouts is good as they will typically not provoke reaction fire from enemy units immediately, while suppression is instrumental to taking UFOs. Point 3) is easy to do simply by avoiding over-moving on your turn (unless an area is safe, avoid using more than about 2/3 TUs where possible so you never have really low initiative scores when encountering an enemy unit). Point 1) is least important (there are better stats to recruit soldiers for) but worth bearing in mind if you want some point-men/women for your squad.

Some of the tooltips are wrong because I changed the stats after writing the tooltips and never updated. If you notice anything else like this then pass it on as it is easy to update. In terms of differences between geoscape and GC ammo counts, that's a bug and easy to fix. Missing MAG launcher manufacture is also a bug - probably a typo or oversight. Shall have a think about the predator weapons and their ammo count. I think the larger values are supposed to be correct but I do agree that the smaller values might work better, especially as a further justification for mounting two weapons.

I would recommend just using the Community Edition mod for your first playthrough, plus Skitso's map packs and Max Caine's Lore+ mod (which doesn't change gameplay but adds lots of extra flavour). I would not recommend the mods you have mentioned as a starting place as they make some significant changes and have various bugs and problems which may not give you the best first experience.