[v1.5/X:CE] Dynamic UFO Spawns (v1.0)

[Casper3141]

"(One objection to this might be that no alien bases, terror missions or base assaults is the player's reward for playing well. That's true, *in game*, but in terms of the player's experience this is basically limiting them to a single type of ground mission for the rest of the game. Ironically, by playing well, the player deprives themselves of ground combat diversity!)"

This is exactly what happened to me, so I spent a good 40-70 Hours just tagging and bagging alien bodies and ranking up troops I have to actually allow the aliens to hit my bases, cities, or establish their own.

With Cryptology though I can see what kind of aliens im dealing with so I still shoot down and airstrike the hell out of lizard men and those annoying androids

[Man of Doge]

Just curious; Is this compatible with X:CE v.027 ?

[kabill]

It is, but if you're using the Steam version of XCE or have installed it in its own mod folder you'll need to replace the ufocontents files in assets/mods/xce rather than in their vanilla location.

I am planning on addressing this at some point, but it requires a change in the original file structure of XCE first as it doesn't currently allow for adding in mission types for UFOs. I think this change is more or less ready to go now, but I presume it won't be released until XCE 0.28.

[Solver]

What? Doesn't this work in a modular way with 0.27? I installed it and it did seem to be fine.

[kabill]

It shouldn't do. The ufocontents files shouldn't be able to merge as the column headings don't match. (This is why I did those replacements I sent a few days ago).

[Solver]

Ah, I have 0.27 with those replacements, too, that explains it.

[kabill]

Pff, look at you with your fancy not-yet-released version

More seriously: it's useful to know that it works.

[kabill]

I'm gearing up for an update to this mod for compatibility with the next XCE update and wondering if anyone has any feedback prior to me doing this.

Solver's told me that the mod is a bit lighter than vanilla at the moment as a result of the softer funding damage so I'm going to revert to vanilla on that. (That was all first implemented back before the vanilla changes which made funding damage a little less extreme, so it doesn't surprise me that it's obsolete).

I need to look at stats, but I'm thinking of moving Wraiths much further forward in the crew lists so there's more things to play with and because they don't get a lot of face-time.

Other than that, no further changes are planned but if there's suggestions prior to next release I'll consider them.

[kabill]

Update! At last, I've finally been able to make the mod fully modular due to changes in XCE 0.28!

Change Log:

- Adjustments to funding damage and relations have been largely removed. The vanilla game has changed a lot in regard to funding damage since those were added and the mod has also changed such that those alterations are largely redundant.

- Alien crews revised again. Wraiths can appear much earlier than in vanilla.

- Revised relations bonus for saving civilians in terror missions as there's much fewer civilians than I thought. As it happens, since larger UFOs have maps with more civilians on them, there's more potential for gaining relations bonuses with larger terror missions.

- Alien bases now display "alien outpost", "alien base" or "alien fortress" depending on their size. This allows you to make an informed decision about whether or not to attack a base and which one(s) to go for. (This is actually a change in XCE, but it's especially relevant for this mod).

Aside from small balance changes, I think this mod is more or less complete. but, as always, if you have feedback at all I'd be grateful for it.

[podbelski]

sorry but I'm having trouble finding X:CE v0.27 or later, preferably with XNT mod. Is it available for download around the forum?

[podbelski]

... and cannot download attachment "Compatibility patch for Dynamic UFOs + FitH/ECS", the system says "Invalid Attachment specified"

[kabill]

XCE can be found in the Community Coding forum. There's going to be an update soon to XNT that will ship with XCE 0.28 anyway.

If you're using the XNT mod, you won't actually need this mod as it already contains the key features (dynamic UFO spawns and it's own crew listings for different mission types). The new (as yet unreleased version) also has all the ufocontents files updated to the new format. So it might be best to wait for that.

Also, thanks for pointing out the issue with the other download. Seems I accidentally removed it. If I get chance I might get it re-uploaded, but when Xenonauts 1.5 rolls out it will be redundant anyway.

[podbelski]

TY

btw "old version" attachment 4433 has the same problem

[podbelski]

looked through UFO loadouts and feel happy

luckily now I'm saved from the huge amount of work to implement such a thing

though, I'll probably reduce some quantities a very little bit for myself

[podbelski]

strangely, I don't see any reaper_gargol, reaper_viper/alpha/delta, wraith_omega in the files... how could this be?

[kabill]

strangely, I don't see any reaper_gargol, reaper_viper/alpha/delta, wraith_omega in the files... how could this be?

Is that in the Dynamic UFO files? If so, there aren't any, because those are all aliens added by XNT.

[Man of Doge]

The Number of bases that the aliens build after this mod is installed is both incredible and terrifying at the same time. And I'm loving it!

Edited September 2, 2014 by Man of Doge

[kabill]

Out of wonder, how many bases do you have and at what point in the game are you? If there's too many bases, it might need scaling back.

[Man of Doge]

Out of wonder, how many bases do you have and at what point in the game are you? If there's too many bases, it might need scaling back.

At Ticker 200-300: I got 3-4 new Alien Bases per Month (It doesn't seem to effect the Number of UFOs though)

[kabill]

Hmm, that a bit too many. Might need to tone that down a bit. In fact, I might do a quick run through if I have chance this evening just to see how things pan out when the game is left to run itself.

[endersblade]

Decided to give this a shot. Good lord, month one and I'm already taking on Androns? I lost all but 2 of my crew doing that mission >.> Ouch!

[kabill]

On the other hand, you'll have gotten Corvette technology earlier. There's something of a risk/reward thing in this mod - sometimes you might want to pass if you think you're not ready for something.

[endersblade]

On the other hand, you'll have gotten Corvette technology earlier. There's something of a risk/reward thing in this mod - sometimes you might want to pass if you think you're not ready for something.

Yeah. This does wonky things with research lol. I have plasma weapons already, and only just recently researched laser weapons lol. I have the elctro-grenades, but haven't even researched the stun baton yet. As soon as I finished researching Jackal Armor I researched Wolf, so I completely skipped Jackal and started work on Wolf. Researched the Corsair while in the process of making my first foxtrots.

I ran into Ceasans, Androns, THEN Sebellians, in that order. I've not shot down a single UFO to date over water, I've landed at every single one. I felt woefully undergeared when I hit those Androns...like I mentioned they wiped out all but 2 of my crew lol.

Other than the fact this completely messes up the linear progression of things, I'm liking this mod quite a bit so far. It just adds a whole new dynamic to the game, and makes it feel like much more of a threat. Definitely a great mod!

[kabill]

Other than the fact this completely messes up the linear progression of things, I'm liking this mod quite a bit so far. It just adds a whole new dynamic to the game, and makes it feel like much more of a threat. Definitely a great mod!

Again, 'messing with the linear progression of things' is a feature rather than a bug (IMO, anyway). Being able to research a Corsair while building your first Foxtrots is fine with me, since there's the opportunity cost of not researching other things instead.

All that said, there are some things that need sorting with the tech tree - being able to research plasma weapons without lasers being a key one. I suspect I'll resolve the issue with Jackal/Wolf too, although that's something that's easy to do in vanilla, too.

[Solver]

Yeah. This does wonky things with research lol. I have plasma weapons already, and only just recently researched laser weapons lol. I have the elctro-grenades, but haven't even researched the stun baton yet. As soon as I finished researching Jackal Armor I researched Wolf, so I completely skipped Jackal and started work on Wolf. Researched the Corsair while in the process of making my first foxtrots.

I ran into Ceasans, Androns, THEN Sebellians, in that order. I've not shot down a single UFO to date over water, I've landed at every single one. I felt woefully undergeared when I hit those Androns...like I mentioned they wiped out all but 2 of my crew lol.

Other than the fact this completely messes up the linear progression of things, I'm liking this mod quite a bit so far. It just adds a whole new dynamic to the game, and makes it feel like much more of a threat. Definitely a great mod!

Interesting, for me, I would say all of those points are exactly why I like the mod so much. It makes each of my playthroughs far less predictable. Sometimes I'll encounter Androns too early and probably want to pull out of the mission. Sometimes I will have a short gap between Lasers and Plasma. Not really sure how you can get Corsairs and Foxtrots at the same time though, I usually have a Foxtrot up some 10 days after the game starts.

These unpredictability aspects are really cool.