llunak

I still cannot reproduce, even with a clean install of the Steam version. Are you sure you don't have any local modifications or leftovers? X:CE modifies the geometry of the dropship, so mixing of elements could result in this. Also, does enabling/disabling Skitso's Art Pack change anything?

People generally survive the game by thinking about what they do, paying attention, and learning from their mistakes. For example, all the difficulty levels have their descriptions, and you clearly selected an inappropriate one 4 times in a row despite it not working out for you at all. Barring this and the fact you apparently wrote this while upset, there does not seem to be anything unusual in the rest of the post, so let's ignore it.

It's most likely your local problem.

Not as such, we can't do magic. If you're sure your mod doesn't have modding bugs (-modinfo), then you need to upload what you have somewhere for others to see.

BTW, one more thing for UFO submaps, rather important. Some UFO objects provide recoverable resources, be it alenium, alien alloys, or item items (this can be seen in the submap editor info on the object). New submaps shouldn't break this, so e.g. a lightscout should not provide a power source or excessive amount of alien alloys.

No, it is not. But since I like the idea, if you update the pre-0.35 build, there it is possible. It has to be done manually in the submap XML, there's no UI support for it, but the submap editor will keep this information. The races are from ufocontents/races.xml, mission types can be seen in mission_researches.xml, upppercase/lowercase must match, more items are separated by semicolons and no extra spaces. A submap like this will (possibly) be used only for caesans on either scout or research missions, otherwise it will be skipped. Information on which submap variant is used and if it's being skipped is part of debugging info. <?xml version="1.0" ?><tilemap name="lightscout_layout" width="8" height="14" version="1" alienRaces="caesan" ufoMissions="ScoutMission;Research"> <level>...

E.g. for creating new maps (or submaps) I do not think you need to commit much, it'll be done when it'll be done. And you can consider it a sort of SimCity-like game . Or if you'd prefer doing graphics, there's e.g. the hulls of damaged UFOs, where it'd be nice to have more variations rather than a damaged lightscout always having holes in the same place. And so on.

X:CE does changes to those props, so I assume it overrides your changes if you keep them in the base game. Make a mod out of your changes and it should work. Also, for the same reason you should make your changes using MODMERGE rather than replacing the entire file, or at least use the X:CE files as a base.

Xenonauts_gc_editor.exe in the launcher claims to be X:CE 0.28 (and it probably is).

In that case I suggest at least skimming over the mapping howto sticky in the mapping subforum (which incidentally includes the above information IIRC).

I see. I expect you need this: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9670-Unpacked-Game-Tiles-Required-for-Mapping!

A way to handle this would involve making copies of the relevant floor tiles, changing those, and then getting this layout to use it. Which would probably mean splitting the floor into another submap (the same way e.g. hull is a separate submap) and getting each submap in inside/ and inside_damaged/ link also the proper floor variant. However, in my opinion it'd be better to simply alter the interior layout if you think this looks too bad (but I'm not stopping you if you'd be willing to do the work, I just don't find it worth the effort). Hmmm ... I think that if you make this demo mod into a "full" mod, I'd like to include it with X:CE. The worst technical problem I see is that the version in modinfo.xml shouldn't be so long, because it can't fit the UI . But, given what I wrote above, let me list here some things I think would be good guidelines: I think the larger a UFO is, the more it matters to have more variants of the interior. You did this the right way of starting small in order to try and learn, but small UFOs are simply too small for variants to matter much. On the other hand, fights e.g. in carriers take much longer and so there diversity matters. So while working your way up I recommend not spending too much time on the smaller UFOs. Note that for larger UFOs the command room is marked specially (it's the "Command Room" button, works similarly like "Paint Tile" but is a toggle). You'll also need teleports but I hope you can figure them out easily (besides placing the teleport objects, the tiles also need to be linked using matching IDs, see the bottom buttons row in the submap editor). You might find it useful to reuse objects from alienbase layouts. You cannot use objects from other tilesets directly, but you can copy them. So in order to use e.g. tiles/alienbase/props/UFOwalltube object, copy the _spectre.xml plus all the images it refers to inside to let's say tiles/UFO/copies/alienbase/props/ , and modify the _spectre.xml file to refer to the images using correct paths. That should be enough I think. I'm not a fan of small rooms. The reason the Fire in the Hole mod is not included with X:CE is because I think it alters balance, but primarily because of its small rooms. That was after seeing a YouTube video where the player very easily cleaned up a whole UFO simply by breaching a room with a shotgunner, shooting the possible one alien that was inside before it could do anything, and did this room by room, while the defensive aliens inside the UFO didn't really stand a chance. The defensive alien AI is simply not good at making counter-attacks, which would be probably the only way. I'm not saying small rooms are wrong as such, it may be good to have some to have variety, but I don't think an amount anywhere near FitH would be good for the way the game is now. Speaking of that, apparently the hardest UFO to breach is actually the corvette, because of its entrance. So I think it'd be good to have layout(s) for larger UFOs with similar ideas somewhere, not necessarily again as the entrance. I like things to have their logic and consistency. There are limitations to this e.g. because of technical reasons, but there shouldn't be things which are obviously strange, such as a UFO's command room being on the ground floor, or a maze of rooms done just for the sake of it. With the alien base maps I created recently, the first step I did was always having an idea about what the layout was about and how it fit together. In your first layout, the added wall makes a lot of sense, it separates the technical part. But the second one makes me wonder if the aliens would really build a UFO like that, or if was human thinking that lead to the layout. I'm not saying the layout is wrong, but it makes sense to occassionally do a check, especially with larger maps, whether a map doesn't end up being artificial, "cool" but non-nonsensical, or something similar. Each layout should get at least some practical testing. Besides the obvious reason of finding mapping mistakes, it'd be also good to check things like whether the AI doesn't end up doing something really stupid. Thank you for this and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. If you'll need help with something, just ask.

I didn't say anything about coding, did I? There's a number of things I do for X:CE that involve graphics, mapping, fixing game objects and other stuff that would be nice to get done by somebody, and since there's nobody else to do those apparently, I end up being that somebody to do it, even though I'd much rather spend the time coding.

(Disclaimer: I'm a developer of X:CE and so I'm obviously biased.) What Max_Caine said is true, but I'd still recommend playing X:CE (with the mods it activates by default), even for your first game. X:CE changes a number of things, but in small ways and it tries to keep the style. There's a number of bugfixes, some new features and a selection of mods is included. It also includes two mods called xcesettings and xcebalance, which mostly control X:CE's new features, and if you disable both, you should get a game that is very close (but not exactly) to the official version with bugfixes. The recommended X:CE setup is having the mods enabled though (xcebalance enables X:CE features and tweaks that affect balance, xcesettings is for mostly UI things). Note that X:CE (with or without xcebalance) makes the game a little bit harder (not in the sense of giving aliens more brute force in the form of e.g. hitpoints, but rather by fixing some AI problems or making some cheesy techniques less powerful), but that generally shouldn't be a problem for the "right" kind (thoughtful, patient, paying attention to detail) of Xenonauts player. As for what the developers of the offical game think of X:CE, the current version of the official game is in fact mostly based on a year's old X:CE version, but not including all of X:CE's changes. So you could perhaps say (my interpretation) that X:CE is an improved version that doesn't exactly match the official vision but is close. There is not a single list of all X:CE changes (too many of them and new releases add new ones), but you can check release announcements (http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/32-X-CE-Release-Announcements). That's a lot to read, but main releases (0.30, 0.31, 0.32, etc.) have a "Changes Summary" section that lists the highlights. See also http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11882-What-is-Xenonauts-Community-Edition-how-do-I-get-it . No, they are high quality maps, and in fact some of Skitso's maps even made it into the vanilla game. So it's a very good idea to enable them, as the official game suffers from a relatively low number of maps and the map pack helps somewhat (I can recognize the vast majority of official and Skitso maps the moment the ground combat starts, just from the surroundings of the dropship). X:CE includes several additional map packs which include a much larger number of maps (some of them are not as high quality as official/Skitso maps, but they are still good, and you can disable the mods if wanted). X:CE includes and activates by default a selection of mods that should improve the game in various ways. These should be of good quality and shouldn't alter the game style or balance. For the first play, I generally do not recommend installing any other mods, as e.g. mods adding new weapons sometimes seriously break the game balance. So blindly including everything included in Steam Workshop is definitely not a good idea, I suggest considering adding mods for later playthroughts, when it's much easier to evaluate how a mod affects the game. As an exception, mods that do not affect game balance should generally be fine (there are e.g. mods changing the look and style of armours or soldiers).

Oh, I have this long list of things that never gets smaller no matter what I do. Feel like trying to help with it ?

Hmm ... does that one more or less prevent itself by not working very well? The radius should be in tiles, so indeed you've managed to replicate the Aliens effect rather well . The basic idea seems to be the correct way. The submap editor should show everything in the room, so it'd help if you provided more info on the problem (e.g. screenshots).

Thanks, it's nice to know that the Community Edition apparently hasn't done a single thing in the last 18 months. As for the list, some of these have been fixed/implemented in the Community Edition, some are in the (long) todo list, some do not make much sense (quick reload removal because of a bug since it's "not needed", while asking for UI buttons just because a player possibly couldn't be bothered to hit a key for more precise control), and some are very low priority so that they would never be likely to get done. Also, e.g. the Xenopedia articles can be easily done as a mod (assets/xenopedia.xml and assets/xenopediaimages), and there's http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/10965-Community-Coder-Program! if anyone would feel like actually trying to do something about the features (so, as far as that "done by a professional" thing goes, you're indeed late if you insist on giving somebody money for this).

That is not a bug as such. Those objects specify their destroyed state as those wrecks that still block the path. While I could technically add yet another destroyed state, it'd need setting up the new state for all these object types (and either reusing or creating/adjusting graphics for it) for it to actually matter. Are you willing to do that work? That would be a bug -> http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/13547-X-CE-0-34-1-Ufo-Datacores

Ah, that one. It'll be in 0.35.

Note that when a submap is used by something (link submap functionality, levelmap editor), they are referred to using the folder name, and the actual submap gets chosen at random as one of the .xml files inside. So when you select a submap with 'Link Submap', you actually select the folder, it doesn't really matter which .xml inside you select. But I don't understand your problem description, so if this doesn't help, then please try to describe the problem better, or upload your ufos somewhere, so that I can have a look myself. You do not need to do anything inside Landed/ if you only want to add more interiors. The file maps/ufos/Landed/lightscout/lightscout_layout.xml is from the vanilla game, it doesn't exist in X:CE, it stayed there when you copied over the X:CE files. You can safely delete such files while working on your designs. I work with X:CE developer setup, and I do not have those files anymore, so I didn't realize, I'll need to do something about those for the normal setup.

Presumably not, I'm not aware of any bugreport about that.

Clicking the 'Link Submap' button and selecting one only activates the mode (similarly to 'Paint Tile'). You still need to place the link somewhere in the submap (top-left corner in this case). Yeah, it's probably not the best UI design. And since the screenshot shots the datacore, it's already correct there. If you want to see the whole UFO, open e.g. maps/ufos/landed/lightscout/lightscout_layout.xml . Yes, that works too. North-East and South-West. NE is along the top-right edge of a tile, SW is along the bottom-left. Yes (and it's not specific to 0.34+). You can compare (as text) inside/lightscout_layout.xml and inside_damaged/lightscout_layout.xml and you can see that they link the same internal layout and only additionally place a datacore, normal or damaged one. No. Datacores are probably sort of a UFO's main computer, they are used by the game to mark that the player has already captured that specific kind of UFO (so e.g. recovering it triggers the Xenopedia arcticle about the specific UFO type). Powercores are UFO's power sources, such as the one in the middle of the back part of the scout (note that the lightscout doesn't have any power source, as also stated in Xenopedia). Technically, they are objects with the isPowerCore flag set, specifically they are all objects in tiles/UFO/ that have reactor or powersource in their name.

Sadly the map editors do not support mods. It is necessary to move the relevant files from assets/mods/xce to assets/ . For UFO interiors I think it should be enough to copy maps/ufos/ and tiles/ufo/ , if not, go up and try to copy more. You'll need to copy the edited files back to mods/xce when trying it out in an actual game. If you don't want to do that repeatedly, remove the files in mods/xce , so that they do not override the ones from the base game. Also, it's a good idea to back up modified folders before overwriting them, so that you can restore the game to the original state later. The mapping howto doesn't say anything about UFO maps, so some more info: You can edit level_quickbattle.xml to set a UFO type and then run the game with -quickbattle to quickly see it for real. You cannot specify which variant of the interior submap will be chosen (it's random), but if you give the game only one option, it'll have to take it. So temporarily remove *_alt.xml files and the one in layout/ , put your submap to test into layout/ and it'll be the only option. When the submap is done, it should stay in layout/, all of them (the _alt variants are a leftover from the original way the UFO variants used to be done, I shouldn't have done that this way, I'll probably just move the _alt variant to layout/ as well for 0.35). EDIT: Ok, I got this part wrong. In order to add a new layout, it is necessary to add the interior submap to another folder (e.g. layout_alt_2). And it is necessary to add another submap to both inside/ and inside_damaged/ that will reference the new folder. I forgot that the datacore object differs for landed and damaged UFOs, and so it is part of the inside(_damaged) submap rather than the layout itself. So basically for every new layout you need make another duplicate of everything that has "alt" in its name, put the interior submap itself into the new layout_alt_2 (or whatever) folder, position properly datacores in inside(_damaged) submaps and make sure the submaps link layout_alt_2. I think this should do, if there will be some more problems that the mapping howto or looking at the existing layouts don't solve, just ask. Do not use the editors from the vanilla game for anything X:CE-related. In fact, incidentally I've put a build of current unstable pre-0.35 X:CE at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tb50osg7bh18sah/AAD4iigebNE-YKcjf3gkndy4a?dl=0 . Since it's just a random build of X:CE, general use of it is at one's own risk (blah blah blah), but I think it should work to just copy out the editor .exe's from there and use those, they should be a bit better than 0.34's (a bit faster, few crashes fixed and the submap editors has a toggle for showing contents of linked submaps, so if you open e.g. your maps/ufos/shared/lightscout/inside/lightscout_layout_alt_2.xml, the submap editor will show you also the linked submap with the interior, so it'll be easy to properly place the datacore).

Sure, you are welcome to do the work of converting those submaps to the format matching the new UFO submaps. And it'd be also necessary to check how they affect game balance, because at least before opening doors could trigger reaction fire these UFO layouts with small rooms had made the game noticeably easier. It might actually be probably simpler to just create additional new UFO interiors anew.

That would work too. It doesn't matter how the animations are created as long as they are in the proper format.