Mikhail Ragulin

I've not made them less accurate in order to carry more ammo, far from it. That would be daft. They carry more ammo because that's what gpmg's have - more ammo. I've made them less accurate as they're not firing in ones-and-two's, they're firing in ten round bursts...

Re: machine guns. They can have normal size belts without being overpowered. The overpoweredness comes from the accuracy. For example, the ballistic machine gun fires 10 bullets at 30 accuracy. Chances are that 3 are gonna hit, causing between 45 and 135 damage. Anywhere from around 60 upwards and it will kill any early alien, making it a kill-a-turn weapon. In M'nauts, I give the gpmg's the belt they deserve (either 100 or 250 rounds, depending on the gun). But their accuracy, only 15. At close range, it's a killer. At mid range, a lucky shot might kill, but will most likely just suppress. At long range, just suppression...sometimes not even that. When I play vanilla, the MG's always give me the most kills, by far. In M'nauts, they blend in with the rest of the weapons - fitting a role as oppose to dominating at all ranges. It's the accuracy, I tells ya!

That'd be awesome.

Hello mappers. I have questions, and I require answers. My knowledge of mapping is somewhat limited. I'm wondering if it's possible to create small "hot zone" maps, where one has to hit the ground running (LIKE 'NAM). For example, when I see a typical light-scout farm map, it looks to me like nine submaps (in a 3x3 formation?). What I'm after is a narrower version of this (like a 1x3 formation - the dropship at one end, the UFO and alien spawns at the other, and an "engagement zone" in the middle). Which would result in a rather bloody and quick battle. Is it possible to make maps this small? I don't want them for every map, just for occasional "surprise" battles with small (corvette and under) UFO's.

In those screenshots, you could cover the door of the UFO, but the hedge is in the way - the hedge is removable, leaving a dirt mound that is impassable. If you nade or c4 the hedge, your sniper would be able to fire at the door/seb. That hedge is effectively one prop (destructible hedge) on top of another one (indestructible dirt mound). Without blowing it up, it's too tall and blocks the LOS.

New thread started in the completed mods sub-forum, here, with the download link and instructions/description. GET SOME.

NOTICE FROM MODERATOR Mikhail Ragulin, the owner of this mod and creator of this thread has not been seen since 2014. He is not around to ask for new things, or for fixes to the mod. Download & Installation Click here to download. (latest version added 27th August - main changes are new auto rifles, and normal inventory/backpack sizes. Saves from previous versions probably aren't compatible, so best to start a new game) Make a clean copy of Xenonauts 1.09. This hasn’t been built on the community patch. Never install into the steam folder – it causes problems for mods and the base game. Download the file from the link above. Extract the download. Move/copy the extracted folder ("assets") into the copy of Xenonauts. Done. Beginners installation guide: ^^^ Click the spoiler button What is Magnum-nauts? Magnum-nauts is a weapons replacement mod for Xenonauts. The concept is that the Magnum-nauts have to fight the alien threat by using only ballistic weapons - no more lasers, plasmas, or MAGs, for the ground troops, as we cannot yet harness that technology into portable infantry weapons, (we can only manage bulky lasers etc., which means they can only be vehicle-based). There is more weapon variety in M'nauts (~15 compared to 5 in vanilla), which gives a bit of a different experience. But why's it called Magnum-nauts? What's that all about? Well...it's because we get our combat revolvers from Smith & Wesson, makers of a variety of magnum calibre weapons, punk. The most famous of which, popularised by Dirty Harry, is the Model 29 .44 Magnum, which, you guessed it, is in this mod. Not once, but twice. The Magnum-nauts use weapons that are donated by the funding countries. However, in the paranoid times of the cold war, there is not only a deep mistrust between east and west, but also a scepticism surrounding the Xenonauts project. The result of this is countries are unwilling to part with their most modern weapons, and the Magnum-nauts have to make use of what they have been given. However, sometimes a country will give up its recent weapons, perhaps in a show of strength to other nations. In order to progress to more powerful weapons, the scientists perform combat performance analyses when new aliens are encountered (or, more specifically...captured!). These live alien specimens are presented before the backers, who then see the need to part with better weaponry. The analyses become available for research whenever new ranks of aliens appear (from corvettes onwards). This happens every 2 1/2 to 3 months, giving each weapon tier plenty of time to be experienced. there is only one weapon per class per tier, so hopefully there's no weapon redundancy/confusing choices. The total game time is therefore at least ten months (mine usually last just over a year). The weapons are divided into four classes: breaching, rifles, heavy, and sidearms. Breaching contains shotguns, SMGs, carbines, and lever-actions. Rifles has assault rifles, automatic rifles, semi automatic rifles, and bolt-action rifles. heavy has LMGs, GPMGs, anti-tank rifles, and explosives (flamethrowers, rockets, etc.). Sidearms contains revolvers and machine pistols. There are also a few stun and melee weapons to boot. - Breaching – shotguns, smgs, carbines, and lever-actions - Rifles – assault, automatic, semi automatic, and bolt-action - Heavy – lmgs, gpmgs, anti-tank, and explosives - Sidearms – revolvers and machine pistols Geoscape Changes The main geoscape feature is the reduction in resources from UFO’s. Ones that have been shot down yield virtually no resources – the big payoff comes from landed UFO’s. More UFO’s will land in M’nauts compared to vanilla, so don’t worry about that – however, one may find him or herself having to perform more night missions, as landed UFO’s are best engaged as soon as possible, before they can fly off. There is a slight increase in night sight range, so they’re not as impossibly hard as vanilla – but they’re still tricky. Here’s a comparison of resources from UFO’s: The implications of these changes? Well, the trick is not to shoot down UFO's - at least not immediately. Watch them for a while, and if they land, send in the troops. If it looks like they're not going to land, then blow them away. Crashed UFO's provide easier, training-style missions. Alien materials are therefore harder to come by - and more is need for various manufacturing projects: Other geoscape changes include: revised dropship capacities (10, 11, & 12), changes to the research tree (certain autopsies are needed before better weapons can be procured), manufacturing times and cost for armours (to compensate for free weapons), and reduced airstrike winnings. There is another big one: terror missions. They’re active from the start in M’nauts, so don’t be surprised if one is fighting a lot of them early on – this makes air coverage more important. Another effect is it's easier to get good relations with funding blocs due to successfully defeating terror missions - however, this can, of course, work the other way. The soldiers stats now pull from a higher spread (30-70, vanilla is 35-65), producing a larger variety of stats in available troops (this helps with role specialisation, as troops will generally be pretty good at something, and poor at other things). Also, don't leave bases unattended or without defenses - get them protected ASAP. Base attacks begin earlier in M'nauts. Ground Combat - Full re-work of the UFO contents - tougher enemies appear earlier, and the scripts have been mixed up (sometimes they rush, sometimes it's like hide and seek - be prepared, pilgrim) - Aliens have grenades, so be careful with troop placement - More variety in ground missions. This is due to a number of changes: power core explosions (meaning crashed UFO’s are not as challenging, and also not as rewarding...some of the time), aggressive aliens/AI on certain mission types (which forces the player onto the defensive in some situations), and a neat little trick involving smaller UFO’s (but I’ll leave that as a surprise) - One primary weapon per soldier, punk. Primaries don't fit in the backpack. All sidearms do though (along with the disposable explosive launchers - the Type 10's, Handflammpatrone, and Einstossflammenwerfer) - The new classes of weapons each have their own individual sprite - for example carbines use MAG carbine, and lmg's use scatter laser - this makes it easier to distinguish which soldier is using which, at a glance. It adds a bit more visual variety than them all using the ballistic sprites - Local forces tend to have some quite interesting weapons - handy for when one is low on ammo - Remember to equip the soldiers before the first battle, as they start with no kit assigned. Know your enemy In order to progress to better weapons, certain aliens need capturing. For the first combat analysis, a soldier rank alien needs to be captured (these appear in corvettes, landingships, and small bases). For the second, a warrior class (from cruisers, carriers, and medium bases). And for the third, an elite class (from battleships and large bases). Confused as to what they look like? Hold on there, soldier, we're coming to that. When these new classes arrive on the battlefield, it can be quite tricky. A good tactic is to raid a new UFO. For example, when corvettes start to appear, it can be best to shoot one down (instead of trying to assault a landed one, with all it's juicy bounty...and extra aliens) and effectively "kidnap" an alien, hit-and-run style. Gas/stun him, get him in the backpack, and retreat to the dropship. Let the research department perform the combat analysis, and get the new weapons before taking on more of the new ranks that are appearing in larger UFOs. So, live aliens are needed - which rules out Androns, as they can't be captured. Therefore, one has to stun the relevant rank of either a Caesan, Harridan, Sebillian, or Wraith (or even a Reaper Alpha or Praetor for the final analysis). Here's what various alien rank look like - the ones that need capturing alive for the combat analyses are (mostly) on the bottom rows: Here's a bit more info on when various ships/aliens appear (100 ticker points is ~ 1 month): UI Features -Improved barracks screen. Makes it easier to see all the troops at once -This movement is hidden, punk -Improved equip screen, with larger windows on the right and bottom left, and larger assignment button (picture shows old inventory sizes - they've now reverted to normal size) -Mission and kill count in the GC equip window. The kills update during the missions (picture shows old inventory sizes - they've now reverted to normal size) Weapons Stats A comparison between weapons. The final column provides a power comparison with vanilla. Our weapons aren’t as powerful, as I find mid-to-late vanilla weapons a bit overpowered. As a comparison, vanilla MAG weapons are all roughly 3.5x more powerful than the starting weapons; in M'nauts, the top tier is 2x as powerful as the starting tier. This way, the game offers a different challenge. The ammo counts and weights are the official ones of the guns in real life - the damage is obviously abstracted to fit the game progression. The progression was chosen by calibre, muzzle velocity, and projectile energy - the higher these are, the more damage is done. Right-clicking on these tables and selecting view image makes them easier to read (and zoom in). That table should be easy to interpret, but here’s a breakdown of weapon penalties (which can be tricky to fathom at first): Here's another table showing vanilla stats - accuracy, TU cost, damage etc. And another, showing the stats/weapons from the previous version of M'nauts, so one can see how things have changed: Weapon Analysis Flamethrowers [video=vimeo;99408431] An abandoned vanilla concept, I’ve resurrected them for M’nauts (with thanks to catmorbid for the idea – you should all check out his asymmetric weapons mod). Treat them like gpmgs’s or launchers – useable only in specific situations. They are excellent at removing cover – ideal for flushing out the little blighters when they turtle-up somewhere. Use with caution – make sure the user has no obstructions near themselves, or they could be toast. They can fire over immediate cover, but have a tendency to clip nearby objects, like all weapons do- however, with the flamers being explosive weapons, one doesn't need to be an expert to realise that this will likely kill the user. They are a devastating weapon, but need to be used correctly. Future/next update - Next update: the final weapon classes (auto rifles and semi auto pistols) - More info for the combat analyses researches in the Xenopedia - Vehicles – ballisticification of vehicles and their weapons. Probably some flame tanks too. - Compatibility with community project If anyone would like to help out (no experience necessary), send me a PM - there's always little bits that need doing. Game assets - The art assets, and even the photo’s, took a lot of work and time. I’d appreciate it if they weren’t re-used by other mods (unless I have previously said so). An idea of how much work goes into them: first thing is to source high-res pictures, which can take a while. Then they need to be cleanly cut out, edge-treated, re-sized, etc. This is a lot of work, considering the number of weapons (and their ammos). Further to this, turning them into the new-style artwork takes even longer. I would not be pleased to see them cropping up elsewhere. The Goldhawk forum is the only place where the mod can be hosted/advertised. Other Info - check out the main thread for M'nauts here - other threads that track some of the progress are here (UI changes) and here (UFO resource changes)

There's a small chance...I'm just doing a last checkthrough, and have a couple of issues to resolve. Nothing major, just sprites for buzzard and sentinel (won't take long to do). Apart from that, it's almost done.

Thanks. The next edition should be available tomorrow evening, as long as 1.07 is "official" before then.

Huh. I thought this thread was gonna be about a new TV show.

I've been looking at quite a simple way of doing this. It involves capturing more aliens - like in the OG. At the the moment, we need only one alien officer. My plan is to restrict them to bases, and make it so that more than one is needed. This is done by adjusting the research tree - the first officer gives basic info, but we need more. So, one has to capture another one. Or two, or three, etc. Same for battleships/cruisers etc - put an alien on there that the player needs in order to progress, but break it into stages again. Instead of one praetor, maybe two. Maybe three. Repeat ad nauseam.

Here's a suggestion... A variable that would make items explode when shot by certain types of weapons. For example, there was something recently about C4 being triggered by flashbangs, I dunno if it was a bug? Anyway, something to put in the weapons_gc entry, like "volatile=1". Picture this: the inevitable new flammenwerfertruppens get shot by a weapon which has mitigation, like the alien sniper. Soldier blows up over a radius of perhaps 2.5 tiles. This kind of already happens - if I remember right, don't soldiers flying in buzzard armour explode when killed? (but without an explosion). So maybe two variables, along the lines of "can trigger explosion" (for the shooters weapon) and "is volatile" (for the shootees weapon/item).

Sometime in the future, when I get around to ballistic-ifying the vehicles, there's gonna be some sexy tanks. Like the Churchill Crocodile, or the M67 Flame Thrower Tank: [video=vimeo;99467258]

I think the heavy drone thing was an entry in researches that read "unlock manufacture" instead of "unlock knowledge".

And second is the standard explosion animation sequence (but with orange instead of yellow flames), without an impact spectre. This is my favourite - the smoke makes it look realistic. [video=vimeo;99451217] That's probably the worst angle to view it from. From the side, it looks like the smoke and flames are licking the aliens, due to the lack of impact spectre. They get all twitchy.

Yeah. But they get better... Removing the impact spectre makes them look even cooler. This'll be a double post, as we're limited to one video per post. First one is standard flames, without impact spectre: [video=vimeo;99426718]

If there's something strange, In your mod-feed-back, Who you gonna call? [video=vimeo;99449798]

So, playing around with animated projectiles, and it looks far better than the previous ones: [video=vimeo;99404924] The fire/projectile is maybe a bit big (it's using the default size), I might make it smaller. But it definitely looks better.

I tried the animated robbanas one. It was so good. But then I tried the standard "fire" animation...it was even better. Plus, I'm still getting the robbanas effect due to the impact spectre. There'll be a video up soon with that one. If you're having a go at making one, it might be interesting to try and blend the two sets of images - the robbanas ones maybe aren't quite flamey enough I switched to 100 round bursts, 0.01 burst delay. It exudes a much more terrifying effect, in-keeping with the flamer sound. With the vanilla flamer, there isn't a fire chance set, which probably means that it's not a good idea anyway. I've just had it set to 1, and aptly enough, 1 tile set on fire - which is probably enough, as the fun is in the shooting.

It's possible to just point the projectile towards an animation sequence - I just tried it, renaming robbanas\explode to the name of the projectile, and it came out in a fully animated stream of glory.

I've been using 10 as the burst length. The only problem with bursts, is if there's a firechance or smokechance set, and then the explosions cause stuttering - but it looks a bit odd if a flamethrower doesn't start ground fires. I'm going to have a look at bigger bursts, like 100, but with only a tiny delay, to try and get a stream of flames. Using pellet count is interesting too...it creates a wall. There's scope for more than one kind possibly - needle like accuracy of a stream werfer, or area burn of a wall. That's pretty much exactly what I did with the sprites, but I was much lazier. I squashed down one of the animations from the robbanas explosion sequence and turned it into a projectile. Looks a bit pointy though, it might be better being blunt/round. Are you trying to make an animation sequence for it, rather than just a projectile?

They look brilliant. Multiple entrances is a good idea - I can 'werf from both sides. Multiple interior doors is nasty, it should introduce chaos into an assault.

The images and sprites for it are all in vanilla still, just waiting to be activated - I'm pretty sure someone will do it soon. I'll post the code for it when I've cleaned it up a bit. Right then, here's the version I've settled on: [video=vimeo;99361040] The burst timing seems better here, and there's enough fire left over after the blast. The weapons are going into the heavy explosives category, to keep the rpg-7 company. The progression will go: rpg-7, m9a1-7, handflammpatrone (disposable incendiary rocket), and finally, the Einstossflammenwerfer 46 - a one-shot flamethrower. The last two fit in the backpack, so there's fun for all the family. Here's the Einstoss: It's trigger looks like a tongue. It fires from its left end, which looks the wrong way round.

Good suggestions - I've been looking for something to use the 8mm Lebel, the 1886 could be the one. The BAR is already in for the next version. In 'werfin news, I've fine-tuned the firechance and burst delay, and there'll be another video (of what should be the finished article) once it processes.

I went for the big tommy for visually symmetry - all the smg's are now of the larger variety (unlike the current ones - mp5, mp5k, uzi) and no longer fit in the backpack, and it fits with the style of the rest of them. I've tried both...and ended up with similar results. They're both good. Both do this: The stutter comes from firechance and smokechance - the same that causes it on large explosions. And it happens with other impact spectres, not just the vanilla flame one. But, it is curable - setting it to 0 doesn't produce ground fires, but still gets the job done. I'm trying with low settings now - even 10% is too high for a 10 round burst.