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Xenonaut Choices MOD - Part 1


aajs

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Xenonaut Choices Part 1

Introduction

I am releasing this Mod early as a "Part 1" as I want to take a break for a while, however what I have so far has plenty of content and mainly adds new items, weapons & Tech trees to the game. At the last count it adds around 70 items/weapons to the game, all with full research paths. We've got Mine Launchers, we've got Alien Proximity Scanners (Film Aliens), we've Grenade Launchers, Combat Stims, Hypo Sprays, Lightning Weapons, Tranq Guns n Crossbows and hopefully a shed load of other things that you would really like to find in this kind of game.

What is the Concept

Sometimes games are very linear and the path you take is drip fed to you. I personally hate games that progressively get harder as you level up or get items. If I lived in such a world I would never pick anything up or attempt to better myself, because as soon as you do all your enemies level up too. I would downgrade to a club and go beat my enemies while they are weak

Hopefully this mod is designed so that good choices are rewarded by actually making the game easier. This is a bit experiment and I am not sure how much I am going to have to tweak things to make it work.

The idea of Xenonaut Choices is an attempt to cater less for the casual gamer and more for those who want a whole lot more out of their game. What I am attempting to do is add lots of extra command choices in an attempt to really mix things up; Do you work broadly across the Tech Trees in attempt to be an all rounder, or do you work deeply perfecting in each category before moving on. This will test your skill as a commander.

Summary Of Changes

  • Gui Changes
  • New Projectiles
  • New Weapons & Items (Lots)
  • New Tech Trees
  • New Particle Effects
  • New Sounds

How Is Game Balance Effected

I actually like the balance of the vanilla game and found it challenging but not so difficult that I had to save it every time my soldier blinked. So in general terms I have tried to keep the game balance at about the same level, however I also wanted to give a sense of progression and reward good choices so the mid term part of the game should actually be easier if you are playing well.

I also wanted to heighten that sense of achievement by making the start of the game much more difficult. This has been achieved not by upgrading the aliens but by downgrading your arsenal to be underfunded options for the time period. This I feel fits with the Game story well, as its obvious that your worldwide organization wasn't taken seriously by the fact that you only had a few planes and only one base. That is of course until the Invasion at which point the world would have your full attention but unfortunately any spare funds they had are now channelled elsewhere try to bolster up local defences etc.. Therefore Its down to your leadership skills to procure the funds needed.

Economy

The idea was and still is, to allow opportunities for manufacturing for profit. The world suddenly needs weapons right, and you have a crack team of scientists. Are you going to devote resources to making manufacturing plants and setup business. Its harsh but maybe its the only way you are going to win the war of course the choice is yours. I have added a few items that will make a good profit and some that will lose you money. The first few rounds of weapon and item research will result in unlimited quantities to reflect the ease of sourcing or manufacture, however as better and better items are researched they will need to be manufactured and require rare parts etc.

GUI Changes

I have tried to keep them to the minimum as part one of my mod, however I have in the short term at least had to expand out some of the menus to fit all the extra stuff in. (Otherwise the little scroll-wheel on your mouse will be worn out.)

Ballistic Lovers

Yes I have tried to cater for you and it is possible to complete the game with ballistics only. Since programs like Stargate and similar have been around, it seems that there is a demand for old and new technologies to coexisting in games. So although more Hi-Tech weaponry options will turn up in my mod you can still keep updating ballistics. There may be an eventual limit on damage, however you can keep investigating weapons that chuck out more rounds per minute of have other advantages. If you go this route there is plenty to keep you busy.

Pacifists

For those who like to play the game with as little blood shed and deaths as possible there is a pacifist route, however I think it would be so difficult to get past the begging part of the game without killing an Alien that you would have to compromise. I do however lay down the challenge.

Armour

Not this release I am afraid, Its a timely operation and I think I will add these as late steps to my final mod. However short term I made my gui images for my male shoulders have a more beefed up and muscled look. Hopefully I have made the female soldiers look more feminine without crossing in to the realms of being sexist.

CREDITS

If you like the graphics on the Weapons then its time I introduced you to an awesome site that will hopefully make your modding life easier.

http://pimpmygun.doctornoob.com/app.php

The weapons here very much match the graphics of the game.

You can use the weapons listed or use the tool to create your very own designs using pre created parts.

Installation

Dont forget to take a backup of you Xenonuats folder first.

Download the and uncompress the Changes Folder.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/u3v72erkxyvkel5/Changes.rar

Copy the contents of the changes folder into your "assets" folder.

Recomended Mods That Work Well With This One.

  • Skitsos Ultimate Megamix Map Pack 2000
    (This is currently Crashing At end of Mission)
  • Skitsos Sleek AI turn mod

There is another mod called "Fire in the Hole" which is fantastic and should have been part of the core game if you ask my opinion, however its not possible to integrate without some modding knowledge as some of the files are shared.

Aditional Things Of Interest

This Mod returns enemy weapons captured in combat back to the Equipment screen. You can use them or sell them of like regular items. I have not found in my playthroughs that it unbalances the game in any great way as they are very inacurate.

I have added Double Barrel Shotguns to the game and these have the ability to fire both barrels at once at no extra timecost.

I think this adds a nice little tactical dilema to the game as it leaves your soldier very prone if he has fired both shots as he is now defensless until he reloads.

Flamethrowers are back in, however you may not be too overwhelmed by my implementation. In my opinion they are betting in than out, even if they do not have the original cool triangular spread pattern that was intended.

Feedback

Yes please, If this Mod is so bad and I am wasting my time, I would rather be put out of my misery. However if you thinks its got some good ideas and got merit let me know and I will continue on with the next instalment. Also if you have content you want added and know how to implement it please update the post. Finally if you notice any issue that need fixing and or even better you know how to fix them please update me.

My Favourite Addition

Is the ability to call Airstrikes from within a ground combat mission. You need a reasonable spec machine otherwise the explosion is real laggy, but seeing that mushroom shaped explosion taking out everything in site is real fun.

A costly option in more ways than one, but as said before the choice is yours.

Next Steps

Part 2 will be about adding new Vehicles and Planes.

I had a request from Kiel to add more Enemy Weapons, I think its a cool idea and will put these in as the final stages of the mod. + any more interesting Items I can think of.

Research if Area Effect Healing possible

Put Alien Praetor Gun in

Put Alien Flamethrower in

Put in new Dropships if Community Maps will support.

(Max came up with an idea to create "extradropship" place holder that could be added to all community maps as a modding standard)

Thanks for Reading.....

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Edited by aajs
Put dodgy download link in and forgot pictures
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Yep Airstrike LOS like a real laser guided one. The bombs are launched and land wherever you are pointing your laser guide.

I forgot to mention I added double barrel shotguns for fun, you can fire both barrels at the same time at no added time cost for a better spread and more damage, but that leaves you dangerously open to attack while you reload.

I have also been experimenting with making recovered Alien weapons available for use in the armoury, however having real trouble getting the recovered ammo showing without crashing...I left the ammo out for now until I have fixed it.

I have put an alternate download link in as the other one seems not to work

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Thanks for the feedback. I willl check why its crashing at the end of combat, I must have introduced an instabilty somewhwere, I am gueesing its something to do with returned items that are not auto sold.. If anybody has some tips on debuging these types os issues let me know.

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Sounds promising.

Will you extend alien's weaponry? Even though their plasma guns always have sufficient fire power they are... boring. Most mods only add tens of weapons to humans completely ignoring the opposite side. It's like you're always getting some more and more new and interesting stuff, while they remain the same forever.

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Wow, what a cool idea, I never though of kitting out the aliens with better gear, as my mod is intending to let you keep the stuuf you take from battle its a good fit. I will definatley look into it.

Maybe I can come up with some realy wierd enemy weapons like living guns (alines you can hold but spit venom etc).

I will see how easy it is to implement.

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Wow, what a cool idea, I never though of kitting out the aliens with better gear, as my mod is intending to let you keep the stuff you take from battle its a good fit. I will definitely look into it.

Maybe I can come up with some really weird enemy weapons like living guns (aliens you can hold but spit venom etc).

I will see how easy it is to implement.

Edited by aajs
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Wow, what a cool idea, I never though of kitting out the aliens with better gear, as my mod is intending to let you keep the stuff you take from battle its a good fit. I will definitely look into it.

Maybe I can come up with some really weird enemy weapons like living guns (aliens you can hold but spit venom etc).

I will see how easy it is to implement.

I think it would be cool to see aliens with the equivalent of suicide vests. Upon their death, they detonate. That would really change the tactics used in GC.

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I think it would be cool to see aliens with the equivalent of suicide vests. Upon their death, they detonate. That would really change the tactics used in GC.

I was actually thinking of doing that, it's possible as long as the AI doesn't mind blowing itself up. Apologies for lack of political correctness, but I was going to use the sprite for the middle-eastern civilians, and call them alien sympathisers.

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OOOPs sorry guys, I just checked my mod and it is definitely crashing after the end of each mission. I have several version and they are all crashing out. I missed this because when I was testing all the tech trees in my mod before publishing I was using the gc editor and pressing the end mission button.

I think I will reinstall clean and reimplement my changes. Sorry for any delays....

Of course if there are any super experienced moders out there who could download my mod and fix the issue, that would be even better.

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AAAhhh haaa I have been doing some testing and the crashing at the end of the missions is not down to my mod....

It seems to be stiskos map packs that are crashing out on completion, not sure why, however if you play out my mod GC on a vanilla map everything is fine.

Stisko any chance you can come to the rescue and save us from a life of vanilla maps?

In the mean time you can still play my mod but take out the Stisko Map maps till the issue is resolved.

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AAAhhh haaa I have been doing some testing and the crashing at the end of the missions is not down to my mod....

It seems to be stiskos map packs that are crashing out on completion, not sure why, however if you play out my mod GC on a vanilla map everything is fine.

Stisko any chance you can come to the rescue and save us from a life of vanilla maps?

In the mean time you can still play my mod but take out the Stisko Map maps till the issue is resolved.

I'm pretty sure there's no trace of Skitso's map pack on my installation and I'm still crashing after every mission complete.

EDIT: Uh... okay. Not after every mission complete, it seems. I finished the same mission that crashed me last time i finished it, in roughly the same way, but didn't crash. Weird.

EDIT 2: Seems like it happens whenever i finish a mission with someone dead.

Edited by CornishGH
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Is it possible that it has something to do with what equipment gets recovered/doesn't get recovered from a dead soldier? I tried it multiple times, on an installation with CE and Xtended backgrounds fused in (as well as skitso maps i forgot to uninstall), with just Xtended, and with only this mod and every time it only crashed at the end of a mission when a soldier died. Even having soldiers "die" in the mission but get recovered with 1 health after the end let me continue to the geoscape.

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HHHmm this is very weird, I just played a level completely vanilla plus my mod (No maps) and it crashed at the end of the mission.

Its strange because this part (1) of my mod is only changing weapons.

I am reworking the Alien weapons to see if that is causing some kind of issue.

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