Xenonauts: Community Edition discussion

[Solver]

Brief tutorial on using the new modding feature with unlocks from alien missions.

The settings are in mission_researches.xml, where entries look like the following.

<MissionResearch><MissionName>ScoutMission</MissionName><UfoType>airplane.alien.lightscout</UfoType><Research>Researches.AlienCruiserDatacore</Research></MissionResearch>

MissionName specifies the internal mission name - there's an entry in the file for each mission so that you know what the names are. UfoType can be set to an alien aircraft, or you can write

<UfoType>Any</UfoType>

in which case any UFO of that mission will be considered.

The Research tag of course indicates the research that gets unlocked. Note here - it gets unlocked, not necessarily completed. To make sure it is automatically completed, like with autopsies and datacores, this should be a research with a research time of 0 - again, like datacores.

For UfoType, named UFOs take priority over Any entries. So if you specify that Research missions from Corvettes give tech A, while Research missions with Any UFO give tech B, a Corvette will give tech A, while all other UFOs would give tech B.

While the immediate user of this will probably be Max with his lore mod, this can also do cool stuff such as enabling some powerful research if you survive a very tough mission, such as a Battleship Terror or Base Attack mission.

[Solver]

With credit to llunak for most of these changes:

CHANGELOG for 0.24

Stability and bugfixes:

- Linux autoresolve crash and main menu background flicker fixes for 1.07HF

- Fixed several keys not working in configurable shortcuts, Shift/Ctrl being mismatched

- Fix transport assignment combobox in barracks sometimes not changing value if it opened under the mouse

- Record kills and missions for vehicles

- Do not repeatedly save asserts/groundcombat/ai/precondition_list.xml , showing an error dialog if the location is not writable

- Do not display camera level changes during hidden movement

Hotkeys, UI and options:

- Allow Esc to reset hotkey in the options dialogue

- gameconfig.xml option to make mouse wheel down go to next soldier instead of previous

- gameconfig.xml option to make mouse wheel change camera level in GC rather than soldiers

- Make clicking on soldier portrait center on that soldier in GC

- Keyboard shortcut for centering on the current soldier and 'select next' actions

- Keyboard shortcuts for reserving TU

- When rearranging soldiers in a transport, show tooltip also for soldiers with empty hands

- Do not allow "healing" of empty ground or dead soldiers

- Do not show 'alien invasion' description after commencing any research

-Show a bleeding message also when a soldier dies because of the bleeding

- Allow dot, single quote and hyphen in plane/soldier names

- Increase save name length limit from 20 to 60

- In save dialog it is now possible to click on a saved game and modify the name for a new save

- Display also 2-radar and 3-radar ranges when building a new base

Gameplay:

- Experimental: fixed logic that prevented UFOs from firing two weapons at the same time in air combat

- Added mission_researches.xml, where research unlocks can now be specified per alien mission and/or UFO type

- Demolishing a just-started building now gives the full refund, to correct misclicks

[Max_Caine]

Edited the title to reflect the latest version.

[Solver]

Thanks, forgot to do so myself.

[Selgald]

Request: Adding values to the ammos.xml

This requests has the goal to modify the ammunitions (or make new ones), to apply bonus stats to the used weapon.

This also would be a good way for our mod to make upgradable ammunition.

The ammos.xml looks like this:

<Ammo name="ammo.ballistic.rifle">

<stockTextureName>weapons/ballistic/assaultrifle_ammo</stockTextureName>

<dragTextureName>weapons/ballistic/assaultrifle_ammo</dragTextureName>

<slotsizex>1</slotsizex>

<slotsizey>1</slotsizey>

<weight>1</weight>

</Ammo>

Could you add the following values to it, that apply those values to the weapons (if its possible)

<damage>

<mitigation>

<supression>

<stun>

For example:

The Rifle does:

damage="36"

stunDamage="18"

mitigation="3"

suppressionValue="20"

With a modified ammunition.xml:

<Ammo name="ammo.ballistic.rifle.upgrade">

<stockTextureName>weapons/ballistic/assaultrifle_ammo_fancy_new_upgrade</stockTextureName>

<dragTextureName>weapons/ballistic/assaultrifle_ammo_fancy_new_upgrade</dragTextureName>

<slotsizex>1</slotsizex>

<slotsizey>1</slotsizey>

<weight>1</weight>

<damage>5</damage>

<mitigation>2</mitigation>

<supression>3</supression>

<stun>4</stun>

</Ammo>

The values from the Rifle would change to this one (Because the stats from the ammos.xml are added to the weapon that uses this ammunition):

damage="41"

stunDamage="22"

mitigation="5"

suppressionValue="23"

[Jace11]

<baseDetailZoom value="0.5" comment="Detail text appears for cities and aircrafts above this zoom level." /> ???

Has this been disabled or altered, cause the geoscape is nowfull of labels at max zoom? Fine when one or two but merge and they all become unreadable. Devs incorporated a zoom limit for labels for a reason I think. This isn't documented in 0.24 changes either.

EDIT: Ignore this bull, my bad, sorry.

Edited July 5, 2014 by Jace11

[spacebug]

I think dead soldiers with bleed continue loosing hp, can you look into that? This matter because of the survival chance if hp > -20.

Right now, it is possible to stop a dead slodier from bleeding with medkits, but i guess 0.24 will prevent you form doing that.

[llunak]

There should be now always a message before losing HP because of bleeding (i.e. this won't happen as a side effect of the message fix).

Edited July 4, 2014 by llunak

[Solver]

<baseDetailZoom value="0.5" comment="Detail text appears for cities and aircrafts above this zoom level." /> ???

Has this been disabled or altered, cause the geoscape is nowfull of labels at max zoom? Fine when one or two but merge and they all become unreadable. Devs incorporated a zoom limit for labels for a reason I think. This isn't documented in 0.24 changes either.

That has always been 0.5, and there is not any more text than usual for me.

[Skitso]

Would it be possible to have geoscape color settings separated from the gameconfig so I wouldn't need to update it for Oppressive UI after every new version? Pretty please?

Could you point out which lines you have altered/added in the styles.lua?

Also for future, could it be possible for each update to inform us modders which files have been altered.

Thanks!

Edited July 5, 2014 by Skitso

[llunak]

Would it be possible to have geoscape color settings separated from the gameconfig so I wouldn't need to update it for Oppressive UI after every new version? Pretty please?

No .

But we are discussing a better support for modding.

Also for future, could it be possible for each update to inform us modders which files have been altered.

Look in the archive?

[Skitso]

Look in the archive?

Yeah, funny. But I mean in the future, as you can't upload only changed files, how can I know if for example styles.lua is changes in the next patch as it it already in the archive.

[spacebug]

There should be now always a message before losing HP because of bleeding (i.e. this won't happen as a side effect of the message fix).

Nice, i didn't realise that this fixed it. Thanks.

[radek]

Please make empty (used) medic kits disappear. It is supper annoying.

[Gauddlike]

Request: Adding values to the ammos.xml

This requests has the goal to modify the ammunitions (or make new ones), to apply bonus stats to the used weapon.

This also would be a good way for our mod to make upgradable ammunition.

The ammos.xml looks like this:

<Ammo name="ammo.ballistic.rifle">

<stockTextureName>weapons/ballistic/assaultrifle_ammo</stockTextureName>

<dragTextureName>weapons/ballistic/assaultrifle_ammo</dragTextureName>

<slotsizex>1</slotsizex>

<slotsizey>1</slotsizey>

<weight>1</weight>

</Ammo>

Could you add the following values to it, that apply those values to the weapons (if its possible)

<damage>

<mitigation>

<supression>

<stun>

For example:

The Rifle does:

damage="36"

stunDamage="18"

mitigation="3"

suppressionValue="20"

With a modified ammunition.xml:

<Ammo name="ammo.ballistic.rifle.upgrade">

<stockTextureName>weapons/ballistic/assaultrifle_ammo_fancy_new_upgrade</stockTextureName>

<dragTextureName>weapons/ballistic/assaultrifle_ammo_fancy_new_upgrade</dragTextureName>

<slotsizex>1</slotsizex>

<slotsizey>1</slotsizey>

<weight>1</weight>

<damage>5</damage>

<mitigation>2</mitigation>

<supression>3</supression>

<stun>4</stun>

</Ammo>

The values from the Rifle would change to this one (Because the stats from the ammos.xml are added to the weapon that uses this ammunition):

damage="41"

stunDamage="22"

mitigation="5"

suppressionValue="23"

Is this any different to just having those values set on each ammunition type in weapons_gc as they are currently?

If you load the default ammunition then the weapon does the default damage, if you reload to ammo2 then the weapon does the damage of ammo2.

The only real change seems to be moving the suppression values to the ammunition from the weapon which is a good idea, similar to one I proposed during development.

Support for multiple ammo types is dodgy for anything but rockets though so that could be looked at.

Modifiers to weapon specific stats like range, clipsize, reactions, or recoil might be nice though.

Edited July 5, 2014 by Gauddlike

[llunak]

Please make empty (used) medic kits disappear. It is supper annoying.

*snaps fingers* You can now drop used up medikits for 0 TU to make them "disappear". It's super simple.

More seriously, I myself won't. Medikits usually don't do that, and I wouldn't see much of a point in them doing it anyway.

[Solver]

Could you point out which lines you have altered/added in the styles.lua?

This is why you should keep backups of the original files and a half decent compare utility

--- a/assets/scripts/style.lua+++ b/assets/scripts/style.lua@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@-kIllegalNameChars = "!@#$%^&*()><\\\"\'[]{}|?/+=~`.,;:-";+kIllegalNameChars = "!@#$%^&*()><\\\"[]{}|?/+=~`,;:";

[Skitso]

That's the only thing? Gah, I scrolled and scrolled the file up and down and couldn't find anything Could you point me towards this half decent (or decent) compare utility that is easy and quick to use? Thanks!

Edited July 5, 2014 by Skitso

[Solver]

diff?

Of course those stuck on Windows still have to contend with the non-existence of basic tools in 2014, but Winmerge does a good job.

[Max_Caine]

Solver, here's one to add to the community beg pile. Is it possible to allow aliens to have different vision cones, just like xenonaut armours can? I was thinking that it might be nice to be able to better fine-tune alien sight and make them more individual - for example Sebbies might have a shortened vision cone, whereas sneaky psychic Caesans might have a wider one.

[kabill]

Solver, here's one to add to the community beg pile. Is it possible to allow aliens to have different vision cones, just like xenonaut armours can? I was thinking that it might be nice to be able to better fine-tune alien sight and make them more individual - for example Sebbies might have a shortened vision cone, whereas sneaky psychic Caesans might have a wider one.

I like that idea. It'd be a good way of representing 'eyesight' which doesn't completely screw over the AI like shorter sight ranges do.

Although, I'm wondering whether it would make very much difference beyond reaction fire, as I'm not sure how important vision cones are to the AI in terms of their ability to find your soldiers during their own turn.

Also, ANOTHER SUGGESTION: I'd been thinking this might be the case for a while now - the accuracy value for grenades does nothing. Instead, the chance to throw a grenade on target is always equal to the soldier's STR score (discounting the effect of cover, anyway).

I'm wondering, then, whether it would be possible to add in a weapon modifier effect. There's already a value for it in weapons_gc, it just doesn't seem to be used (or is bugged?). It would be easy to maintain vanilla balance with this change simply by setting the accuracy modifiers to 100%, but it would allow mods to make grenades more/less accurate.

[Nagho]

That's the only thing? Gah, I scrolled and scrolled the file up and down and couldn't find anything Could you point me towards this half decent (or decent) compare utility that is easy and quick to use? Thanks!

Notepad++ has a Compare plugin that highlights all the differences between two files. I use it all the time, it's incredibly useful. I can't remember if I looked the plugin up online or if it came with Notepad++, but either way it's a great thing to have.

[Sentelin]

Edit:I didn't notice that Solver already mentioned it !

Edited July 6, 2014 by Sentelin

[Solver]

Any experience with the simultaneous UFO weapon firing in this version?

[kabill]

Any experience with the simultaneous UFO weapon firing in this version?

Did a very quick test using my air combat mod and it works like a charm. I literally only did one combat, but I had a UFO continuing to fire it's beam weapon after having launched missiles at my plane and the RoF looked like it exactly matched what it should have been in the game files.