Mikhail Ragulin
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Posts posted by Mikhail Ragulin
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With my experiments so far, it's not as simple as increasing the number of aggressive aliens on a map. That certainly gives you more enemies to deal with, but they do not gather and move towards your dropship in any kind of deliberate fashion as they did on a "zerg rush".
I beg to differ...it is that simple. Let me explain.
I've finally finished the weapon changes in Magnum-nauts, and the next step is the AI. Specifically, putting the ocassional zerg rush back in, like mentioned in this thread, to mix things up a bit. Put the 'nauts on the defensive once in a while (otherwise it's just sweep and clear, unless it's a terror mission or base defense). So, I make a few changes that I think will work, and fire up a new game. I made changes to Caesan light scouts, as they're usually the first to appear. Here's the bit from the vanilla file:
<Cell ss:StyleID="s63"><Data ss:Type="String">Research</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s63"><Data ss:Type="String">ScoutMission</Data></Cell> </Row> <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="13.5"> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">2-2 Caesan_Guard_Passive</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">2-2 Caesan_Guard_Passive</Data></Cell> </Row> <Row> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">1-1 Caesan_Guard_Aggressive</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">1-1 Caesan_Guard_Aggressive</Data></Cell> </Row> <Row> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">1-1 Caesan_Guard_Defensive</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">1-1 Caesan_Guard_Defensive</Data></Cell> </Row> <Row> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">1-1 Caesan_NonCombatant_Defensive</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">1-1 Caesan_NonCombatant_Defensive</Data></Cell> </Row> <Row> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">1-1 Caesan_NonCombatant_Passive</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">1-1 Caesan_NonCombatant_Passive</Data></Cell> </Row>
I changed the 2-2 for the passive guards to 1-1, meaning that there would be a minimum of 1 and maximum of 1 passive guard on the missions (top row is research, bottom is scout mission, as it says in the very top columns). For the aggressive guards, I changed it to 4-8. In total, there'd be between 8 and 12 ET's (not accounting for ones who die in the crash, which roughly works out at 25%, so realistically there'd be 6-8 ET's in the downed UFO), most of them aggressive. First mission: desert, downed light scout:
That's the second turn iirc, when they started appearing. There's four of them, who were shortly joined by another 3, all attacking that channel. However, that map is one of the easy ones, with the long sight lines and lack of cover, and they all got cut down in that channel. I figured it would be harder on a more cramped map. So, second mission arrives, night-time, desert. This is after two turns:
Five men down and one fleeing. Couple of turns later...
...and we're down to the Lone Ranger. Sans Tonto. They attacked all at once, and my 'nauts proved ample targets. That's ten 'nauts against roughly the same amount of ET's (although these have nades, as I've given them to more aliens, hence the explosion damage up top). So it's pretty easy to mod zerg rushes into the game.
Obviously, Caesan light scouts on research or scouting missions isn't the best choice, but it served it's purpose as an example. I reckon the best would be Androns, as they ignore cover anyway, so one doesn't end up with mushy little Caesans getting mown down in no cover. Hairy-arsed Sebillians would be a good choice too, as they're pretty tough and would render the panic smoke useless. Pick a mission to use and go for it. Reduce the passive/defensive aliens to a minimum (I used 1, but 0 might work), and put the appropriate number (the amount taken from the passive/defs) into the aggressive row.
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Here's the rest of the weapon changes for the next installment...
So, we're already getting a new set of shiny carbines to play with. They fill the versatile role for the breaching class, which means that the rifle and breaching classes are looking complete. But what about the heavy class?
What about it, indeed. At the moment, it is populated by a mix of mg's (ranging from light to heavy), and launchers. All of which are situational weapons, as opposed to versatile. Which means we need some versatility in there, right? Say hello to my little friends:
These puppies provide the versatility. They are classed as lmg's, and bring mobility to the class that was previously lacking. They don't suffer from the heavy weapon move penalty, and can spurt out two bursts of five rounds each per turn. Designed to fire from the hip, they lack accuracy and also the raw firepower of the other mg's. They make up for this though by providing heavy mobile firepower and suppression - ideal for the on-the-go soldier.
So, the Bren found it's way into a new class, which means a further diversification of the heavy class. We've got lmg's...so maybe there should be something heavier. I dunno, maybe gpmg's?
That's right, some big nasty buggers. Heavier (in weight and caliber) to the lmg's, these act like the vanilla mg's. They are situational weapons, and suffer from the heavy weapons move penalty, but just like the AT rifles in the rifle class, they bring devastating power when used with appropriate tactics.
So, the heavy class now consists of one versatile weapon range (lmg's), and two situational choices (gpmg's and launchers). The launchers are staying the same as they are now, I've no further changes planned for them. Same too with the sidearms...both the situational (machine pistols) and versatile (revolvers) classes are covered there already. The heavy mg's that are currently in the heavy class (nsv, m2hb) will be finding their way onto vehicles sometime in the future, as they are no longer available to ground troops.
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I must have got it confused with another timer, I've looked everywhere. Shame really...it'd be a good way to force more night missions.
Maybe another option would be to drastically reduce airstrike values. This would lead to having to do more missions, thereby reducing the timing options...no more waiting until daylight, got to hit them quick. But it's a bit of a contrived workaround.
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Can't find it. An entry which defines how long a crash-site stays on the geoscape. There's one for landed UFO's, but that's not what I'm after. Does it exist, or have I imagined it?
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Familiar much?
Medkit fill entire backpack but has 2x the normal charges (not everyone can be a medic)
Weapons nolonger fit in backpack (no jack of all trades anymore you pick your role before deployment)
From M'nauts:
Primary weapons (apart from SMG's) no longer fit in the bag, spelling the end for the "universal soldier" effect. Medikits now fill the bag, and have therefore given birth to the medic class. -
Well, being squad-wiped by a bunch of big sexy Androns has given me the opportunity to work on the next update instead.
There will be a further expansion of the weapon classes. This is based on the roles of the weapons - for example, some weapons are situational, and some are versatile. Each class will have a mixture of both. The best way to describe this is by looking at the current rifle class. here we have AR's, BR's and AT's. The AR's are versatile weapons, i.e. they can perform at all ranges. The AT's are situational weapons - they lack the versatility of AR's, and are only good for certain situations. The BR's straddle both the categories, but are more versatile than situational. A nice mix which allows for a variety of tactics and play-styles. Let'a take a look at our other current primary weapon classes...
Breaching: At the moment, both breaching weapons are situational...they excel at short-range, but lack a ranged attack. Therefore, arise Sir Carbine:
Or if you're American...Carbean. And yes, my weapon images are getting better (I'll probably go back and standardise all the images at some point). Anyway, these aren't your run-of-the-mill carbines. None are fully automatic (so no burst fire), and one is even a bolt-action. However, they have power, and accuracy. They've taken on the stats of the AR's (accuracy wise) and can pop off 4 shots per turn (to compensate for a lack of burst fire). The range is just over half that of an AR, double that of a shotgun, and 33% more than an smg. Which makes them a nice little versatile weapon that is reliably accurate at short to mid range, but lacking the brute force of the shotguns and smg's.
More weapon news to follow...
There's also some new UI stuff, including:
This movement is hidden, punk.
Big-ass clipboard in the barracks screen. This allows me to see all of my soldiers, and all of their stats. Makes it easy to decide who should be which role as all the stats are visible and sortable. There's 19 troops on that list, I reckon that 25 could fit on there.
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Nice idea. It looks like it's in armours_gc, "props move speed", for the individual armour types. It'd be odd if that wasn't it.
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This little critter by the UFO can't be targeted. Not even by Chris England. He was killable though, through force-fire.
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That's moddable in the gameconfig, if I remember correctly.
Close. It's in config.
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Is that before they're broken/smashed? If so, I think that's an engine limitation (you can't set a tile up to be both broken if a bullet passes through and provide a cover bonus). For what it's worth, even once they're broken the cover bonus appears to be minimal (at least based on the one I saw the other day).
Yeah, I just had a look and there was no penalty. I checked on an upper floor window, not sure if it's the same for ground level.
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Not quite as exciting as the title suggests. This has been a problem since I started playing in v21. Swapping primed C4 for a piece of kit on the ground makes the kit vanish. Here's a nice pictorial, an helpful steps for dramatic reconstructions:
1. Fill your 'naut, so he or she has no inventory space left:
2. Move your primary weapon to the ground:
3. Grab yourself some C4:
4. Exit the equip view, and get it primed:
5. Return to equip view, drag your primed C4 over the weapon on the floor, like you want to swap it:
6. Try and swap it, say abracadabra, then watch in horror as the weapon on the ground vanishes:
It's quite an annoying bug if you're fond of C4, and having a weapon to kill aliens with.
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The pic shows 100% block by the south-west half-height roof wall, which look like they should actually be half-covers. The tiles on the north-west edge of the roof are 45% blockers, and there was no block penalty for being adjacent to them and shooting.
Also, I'm sure I've read a bug report about it, but half-window-half-wall tiles don't offer any cover, even when they look like half-cover tiles. That's on any map.
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I've seen two in v1.03...neither of them did what they are capable of. Both ran up close to people, then did nothing.
I saw them attack at every opportunity in v21. I jumped from v21 to v1, so I don't know when they were tamed.
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It would be nice if the threshold didn't count the reduction from smoke I reckon.
The actual accuracy still would so aliens could still decide to fire on you they would just be more likely to miss.
That makes sense, as they'd still suppress. Or something along the lines of if an enemy is within 5 tiles, then accuracy threshold is over-ruled, so long as it is above 0% (to exclude 100% cover situations).
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Some off the top of my head:
- inventory containers. They're changeable, but also defined somewhere else. I'd like that somewhere else to be exported to somewhere else.
- start date. Would open up the range of options considerably.
- barracks screen. Being able to give the soldier role a pop-up, like the dropship assignment has, so it can be changed there too. Although that could just count as a feature request.
- starting roles/loadouts.
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Yeah, that's why in M'nauts the nade are called things like frag2 and smoke2, so the default loadouts don't load in.
Good find with the right-clicking. I didn't know one could fill a loadout like that. Unfortunately it shows the problem that was experienced with weapons that shouldn't have been able to fit...the size of the backpack is also determined somewhere else. I just gave it a go, and managed 33 nades and a shotgun, ha. They can be cleared out of the invisible spaces by clicking the equip default loadout.
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Saw this in the bug reports, and he's onto something. I think this looks better, and more functionable:
May even move it up a bit more, and move the window above it. And reduce the title size, which seems to have grown too. Here's how to do it:
- open up scripts\personnelview
- scroll down a little bit (it's really early on in the file) to this: local cpbheight = hww / ( 1141.0 / 233.0 ) * 1.5;
- change the 1.5 to 2: local cpbheight = hww / ( 1141.0 / 233.0 ) * 2;
Makes it bigger by something%.
To make the title smaller ("Northern Africa"), look at the line below it: local pageHeaderHeight = cpbheight * 0.13;
Change the 0.13 to 0.09: local pageHeaderHeight = cpbheight * 0.09;, and it looks like this:
And then, we can shift the manage/hire window up a bit...
-find this bit, it's just past half way in the file:
name = "manage_tab", x = sbx, y = sbh1 * 0.4, w = sbw, h = sbh1, image = "ui_screens/ui_stores/speechbubble", bordersize = 4,
...change it to:
name = "manage_tab", x = sbx, [b]y = -25,[/b] w = sbw, h = sbh1, image = "ui_screens/ui_stores/speechbubble", bordersize = 4,
Then, we can make the clipboard even bigger. So go back to local cpbheight = hww / ( 1141.0 / 233.0 ) * 2;, and change the 2 to 2.35. Clipboard go bigger. Then, reduce the title height again: local pageHeaderHeight = cpbheight * 0.09;, change the 0.09 to 0.065 and...
There's 17 soldiers on that list. They'll be room for 20 at least without scrolling. Can probably reduce the height of the lines to make it fit 24 comfortably.
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It happens to me in 1.03 too. Here's one:
Notice her full morale bar, and although you can't see her behind the equip screen, she didn't run anywhere. Also, when fleeing, soldiers stop when they spot an alien.
This guy did run off:
No obvious reason as to why either of these guys fleed too - no one died, no aliens in sight, no psionics, no incoming fire. Just cowardice. The first one got shot, but that was a few turns earlier, and nothing had happened since then.
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Kind of, but it's hard to explain. It also might be the 7th soldier, but it could be dependent on screen res and/or scroll position. I think it's a UI thing, as it gets a bit clunky in this situation.
No cursor in the pic unfortunately, but it's on the charlie-1 bit of emilie blanc. I think it's something to do with where the pop-up opens (and where the cursor is) when this is clicked...if it opens directly on top of it, both options are highlighted and one can't select either:
Although I got no crash this time, this was a fresh game. Might have to do it after returning from a mission.
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Another problem...it's not just the animation that vanishes, it's the weapon too. Albeit on the next turn, but that's no consolation. And burst fire doesn't work....it just lobs one nade.
However, the vanishing only happened to the single shot weapon (m79). The ags (burst firing, but only one nade) didn't disappear. Maybe the way forward is to use burst fire as the only fire option, but treat it like single shot...it only uses one round, and isn't as pricey as a normal burst, if you know what I mean ('arry).
It also breaks the quick-throw slot, as the game'll be thinking there's a nade being thrown, but there's not. This soldier isn't carrying any nades, but check out the "1" in the slot. And also the lack of ammo in the weapon frame, where this weapon should have 30:
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Aye, just tried it out. Works nicely, but with a couple of limitations. The weapon animation disappears during the action - not really a biggie, specially if one is looking at the back of a soldier - and it doesn't support multiple single fire modes. For example, my M79 has a snap and normal fire mode, but it's not possible to cycle through them - i.e. like a nade, there is only one way to use it, so I can only use snap fire with it. Haven't tried burst yet.
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Does that allow the projectile to arc like a nade then? and go over stuff?
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Just had this myself, in 1.03.
3 soldiers died in a mission. I won the mission, and 3 sets of armour (jackal) have vanished. They didn't die due to explosives, just low-tier alien weapons.
I'm using a mod...I only had the armour disappear, not the weapons - probably because the weapons don't need manufacturing, so there's a default stock of them anyway. I'd guess it's either a problem that has appeared recently with storage or manufacturing, or what happens to the soldier inventory/stats upon death (or serious/out of action wounds). Good luck.
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I'm pretty sure it only works with bulletType="rocket":
<Weapon name="weapon.ags17" bulletType="rocket" emptySound="Empty Click 1"> <props range="70" hands="2" recoil="0" weight="31" isHeavy="1" clipSize="30" reloadAPCost="50" reloadSound="Weapon Shotgun Reload" reactionModifier="0.5" disableReactionFire="1" disableDamageScaling="1" /> <SingleShot /> <BurstFire ap="80" accuracy="30" sound="Weapon Assault Rifle Burst" delay="0.7" burstdelay="0.05" shotCount="6" suppressionValue="40" suppressionRadius="3" /> <GUIImage name="gui/mod/ags17.png"/> <GroundImage name="grounditemimages/ballistic_machinegun.png"/> <Ammos> <Ammo name="ammo.ags17_ammo" type="kinetic" damage="30" mitigation="0" isOverdamage="1"> <Projectile spectre="projectiles/grenades/grenade_frag" speed="1000" /> <Impact spectre="particles/explosion/explosion" radius="1.5" sound="Weapon Frag Grenade" fireChance="5" smokeChance="5" gasType="GrenadeFragSmoke" /> </Ammo> </Ammos></Weapon>
That's how I have it for the AGL's in M'nauts. I think that's pretty much the only way to do it. The nades don't have an arc though, it's like direct fire, but it does look like nades (because of the projectile image). Slowing down the spectre will probably make it look better too. Stick a disclaimer in the Xenopedia saying that 'nauts aren't allowed to use indirect fire, and you can get away with it.
Zerg Rushes
in Xenonauts General Discussion
Posted
Do it! And take pictures.