KevinHann

You really had to put a dent at my political attempt to negotiate a feature we could all use, did you

Just in case anyone would like to contribute, here is a link to the thread. You will find comprehensible information how to there and maybe we can draw inspiration from each other! Modular UFOs

Both are good suggestions and I've considered them but eventually discarded them because of the crew size - I've already given Saucer Cruiser more tiles of interiors than the original and I'm worried the crew won't be able to handle it well if I throw in one otherwise very cool option too many. I do have those in mind for the final two designs though! I'd be less reluctant to experiment with those if there was additional control over the aliens, most notably this:

I wanted to make the race-specific space gradually grow (otherwise I'd have to compose an entirely race-specific setup for single-floor UFOs) but I will see how it looks with the proposed floor changes. Probably we could do with some additional "transitional floor tiles" unless you think it's not worth the effort. I'm also a bit underwhelmed with the lack of more distinctive Ceasan-specific props and walls, but that's just me being grumpy By the way could you clarify what was the original function of the Ornate Wall tiles you had in mind? I don't remember seeing them anywhere in the game. Are they tied to Praetors? If it's not a big bother there are several other instances which look "sloppy" when going into more complex shapes. Check out the hull tiles in the middle: EDIT: Sorry, wrong image! Fixed now!

I think it's just these, mate:

Here's the final variation of the Saucer Cruiser 2nd floor - the Ceasan version: @kabill First of all thanks for the positive feedback, it means a lot coming from a capable modder like you. I've been considering giving the aliens a chance to shoot down a deck for the Carrier and Battleship designs to up the difficulty scale even further, thought it's a bit early for Cruisers. I'd be interested to see an example of how you see this design-wise (maybe a quick mock-up of just that element screenshot?) Yes, I've been thinking about the contrast but I figured I'd go that way to spook the player a bit and give the sense of entering a different, maybe harder area of the UFO, much like colonial marines would walk around a Colony and all of a sudden enter an alien infested section with all that biomechanic stuff on the walls and floor. I don't really have any ideas how to reduce the contrast naturally without giving it priority over the entire design of the level and I'm reluctant to do so. Is it a big problem for others as well?

I like your thoughts, mate. Although I recommend you to consider integrating two more factors and start tinkering with balance from there instead as sooner or later those two will be pointed as flaws and someone will look into modifying that as well. - Balanced natural progression of leveling bravery (no punishment for playing well); - Armor psionic protection (consider the base mechanic available in X:CE rather than any individual implementations of it; or even better: combine this pack with specific armors balanced towards the system you have in mind). This way you could come up with a very thorough psionics fix which could be used universally as a base without any need of further modifications.

Small update - the Sebillian version of the Saucer Cruiser 2nd floor. Note: You will notice the Cruiser datacore isn't present in the Andron version screenshots. This has been fixed after I took them.

Let's agree to disagree here, "killed opening a door" and "killed by mind controlled friendly fire" are priceless

Are "killed opening a door", "perished in collapsed structure" and "blasted by friendly C4" in the list

This took much longer than anticipated, but it was time to break away from the predictable pattern. Saucers don't have to be monotone! Cruiser is the first UFO with multiple exit points the player encounters. Breaching it requires careful tactics not to have some soldiers exposed to crossfire. Since my earlier Saucer UFOs already have multiple exits, I've given some serious thought how to recreate this tension without employing the same techniques over and over again. The end result is likely to bring nightmares to tactically inept players!

Thanks for the kind words! Also a small update - Saucer Landing Ship second floor for Andron and Ceasan:

I think there was a pretty heated thread once shortly after release, the OP was excessively patriotic, you can make up the rest Don't take this in a bad way, I mean no disrespect.

Just looking at the thread title I was hoping you aren't Greek You are correct in your observations but they were intentional changes for balancing reasons (and a necessary walkaround against some pretty nasty engine limitations).

Can I have the disco one? )))

Could you elaborate, are you using vanilla Xenonauts, X:CE 0.24 or any of them combined with mods?

I just can't get to sleep So instead let's try something more complex - a Saucer Landing Ship, with Sebillian flavor. Of course you could object Landing Ships are already saucers so I had to tinker quite a bit with the design to make it different. That or I have a thing for claustrophobic interiors. There appear to be some flaws with the hull intersections between doors and second floor and I don't know how it would look in the game. Hopefully it won't leak LoS in or out!

I know you also have the game sprites to support this in GC, why are you so shy to share them

Okay, off the top of my head, here are a couple of things I'd like to see. I apologize in advance if any of these are already possible to mod in but not utilized yet. 1. Opportunity to add new types/sizes of UFOs, assuming the modder provides the necessary art; 2. Opportunity to assign multiple UFOs of any type to the same squadron, combined with support for two/three crashed UFOs in a single crash site; 3. Opportunity to assign new and existing UFOs to specific races/missions; 4. Option available for Fury to leave behind a crash site (it would be even better if there is a parameter that triggers a crash site so that Fury would annihilate some UFOs but only shoot down others!); 5. Opportunity to add new missions - for the sake of an example let's say Enormous UFO X cannot be shot down, but the player could catch it when landed, the mission could be that part Y needs to be destroyed or part Z needs to be stolen and then the player can retreat, prompting victory screen without having to clear the entire UFO (as that would be too difficult or simply impossible); 6. Assuming 2. and 5. are possible, I'd like to see a "Rescue" mission unlocking at certain ticker value which would spawn when the player shoots down an UFO and attempt to beat the dropship to the crashsite. If it does so, it could create a merged landed/crashed UFO site for specified time, forcing the player to fight both in GC. If the time expires, mission is successful and the crashsite disappears. This might be possible to implement without 2. by just merging the crews in a single crashed UFO submap; 7. Bombers attempting to bomb crashsites to deny tech to the player past certain ticker value; 8. This one is a bit tricky but very important: Let's say I assign a crew of 30 aliens to a UFO. I'd like to be able to break them down to several teams which could perform different tasks, but so that different teams can perform the same task in different areas. For instance team 1 guards area 1 and never leaves it, team 2 guards area 2, team 3 patrols between area 1 and 2, etc. I'm unsure if this works now but it would be nice if these can be painted on blank tiles outside the UFO, thus allowing specific teams to patrol in and out of the UFO and put possible multiple exits UFO layouts to use by flanking your team after you've cleared the general map and entered the UFO thinking your back is safe. 9. I haven't seen any of the anti-psionics armors yet but I presume the mechanic available gives a straight boost to Bravery. Would it be possible to code in something that enables switching a successful Mind Control attempt (or Berserk occurrence) to a simple panic event? It would be pretty important as I intend to use multiple Praetors and I'm not sure even higher Bravery would provide adequate defense against several psi-attacks every turn. 10. Are third-party friendly aliens an option in both GC/Geoscape?

You can blast the door and gun them down from a distance outside the UFO, have you tried C4? Another option would be to reserve enough TUs for reaction fire if your soldiers have good enough suitable close quarters equipment and reflexes.

Finally, the third Andron Saucer Corvette variation:

Yes, I'm afraid that is the case - I was freaking out some part might be going... very scary as getting a new one right now is just not an option. Yes, mate - I'm Bulgarian - curious why you find it interesting - hope it ain't memories of '94 I'll get on Skype, although I will have to organize my thoughts a bit about what changes might be needed so that I don't spam you with requests every now and then. I don't have any experience with adding new designs to the game yet and my knowledge of what is possible and where the obstacles are are kind of limited, I think a more experienced and articulate member like kabill or Skitso might be able to pinpoint them better than me by just looking at the designs. I still can't believe I didn't think if adding a race specific variation of existing UFO would be problematic!

Here is the Ceasan Saucer Corvette variation: Not very impressed with the props available for Ceasans but considering the player is highly unlikely to have encountered them by the time Corvettes appear, it would still offer visual variety. Opted for more distinctive variations of the walls and floor, too.

That sound you just heard wasn't a Tornado coming your way, it was my sigh of relief. Thank you so much! Thanks as well for pointing out the possibility, I didn't intend to give up that easily. Your answer caught me in the process of nit-picking the proper tiles for Ceasan version. Also refined the Seb ground tiles as the ones I picked were tremendously ugly. It's been a struggle though, SubmapEditor keeps crashing for no apparent reason

Oh my god, I didn't even think of that. *Stares at the Mothership and picks up a razor blade*