Mods to include with X:CE

[llunak]

Now that X:CE 0.31 will have UI that allows to easily enable/disable mods, I'd like to ship a couple of mods with the Steam version of it, some possibly even enabled by default.

Do you have suggestions on what would be good to include? The basic rule should be that it is a mod that improves the "normal" game without altering it way too much.

If there are good mods that are no longer maintained and you'd be willing to take over and maintain them, I'd be willing to consider/include them too.

Mods that I current have in mind:

• Skitso's Map Pack (enabled by default, and it looks like Skitso wants this to become part of X:CE itself)
  
• Lore+ (probably enabled by default)
  
• Khall's More Portraits Pack (enabled by default)
  
• kabill's Random Maps (I'm not sure whether to enable these by default)
  
• Khall's Tundra Tileset (probably enabled by default)
  
• Armoured Assault
  
• New Car Mod (enabled by default)
  
• Tropical Tileset and Maps
  

One more mod that would seem a good candidate to me is Furies, Terror, and Dreadnoughts, but that one appears to be only almost done, and I'm not sure if it doesn't alter the balance way too much.

Some more good additions that I've missed? Something in the list that shouldn't be there for some reason?

EDIT: Mod authors, (unless you disagree with this inclusion) please point me to the latest version of these mods, if they are not the ones available from the downloads part of the forums.

EDIT2: Translations would be also good candidates for inclusion, if they a) would translate strings in X:CE, not just base game, b) would be created as modular mods for X:CE (which should be fairly easy).

EDIT3: Note that mods should also provide non-empty modinfo.xml now, so that the mods UI provides a description of what the mod does and why should the user use it. Something like (fill in the contents of course):

<?xml version="1.0"?><ModInfo> <Name>Tropical Maps</Name> <Author>TT3/Frakel</Author> <Version>0.3</Version> <Description>Tropical Tileset and MapsThis mod adds a tropical tileset which adds jungle maps.Xenonauts:Community Edition version 0.31 (or newer) is required.</Description></ModInfo>

Edited November 30, 2014 by llunak

[kabill]

I'd suggest not activating the Tundra tilset byt default, at least not at the moment, because there won't be very many maps for it compared with the other tilesets. (Although this might not actually be much of an issue if all of the places you can get Tundra maps overlap Arctic, as Skitso's pack doesn't add Arctic maps either so the Tundra pack is essentially expanding the Arctic pack. I've not looked to check this though).

I also wouldn't recommend activating my random map packs by default because of their effect on the map pool. Probably better to make that opt-in.

[Max_Caine]

I have a properly modularised version of Lore+ for 1.5x on the Steam Workshop, so I can provide that for the time being.

[ticks tock]

The 1.5x version has now been uploaded to the appropriate forum download page.

EDIT: TT3's Blood mod is a nice visual upgrade, just needs modularising which I'm having a crack at now.

Edited November 29, 2014 by Max_Caine

[llunak]

I'd suggest not activating the Tundra tilset byt default, at least not at the moment, because there won't be very many maps for it compared with the other tilesets. (Although this might not actually be much of an issue if all of the places you can get Tundra maps overlap Arctic, as Skitso's pack doesn't add Arctic maps either so the Tundra pack is essentially expanding the Arctic pack. I've not looked to check this though).

Tundra seems to have 2 maps per UFO size, Arctic has 3 per type except 4 for LightScout. So it's not really that different from it, and as you say, it'd actually replace some of Arctic, so it'd be an improvement overall (especially if Khall or somebody else felt like making more maps for it). So I'm still inclined going with it by default, although I'd reduce how much it takes over from Arctic, both because of this and also to better match reality (see Wikipedia article on where the tundra is). The mod needs small adjustments anyway (to be modularized, which is easy with map packs, and specify the area using the new way).

Khall, any comments on this?

Now I realize that the tropical tileset has also just 2 maps per UFO size, so using the same logic I might consider enabling it by default too, since I think more maps/tilesets is always a welcome addition, as long as they are of certain quality. Which I'm not quite sure is the case here, I took the tropical tileset and maps as they were, so I know they kind of work, but I'm not sure how well (I'm pretty sure I saw in a log one of the maps being refused because of having incorrect submap size for Chinook or something like that). Also, since jungle should always just look like random mess, if they use submaps cleverly, it may not be as obvious with them that there's just a few of them. It'd be really nice if somebody could have a look at them.

I also wouldn't recommend activating my random map packs by default because of their effect on the map pool. Probably better to make that opt-in.

Yes, I remember that being mentioned somewhere, although I don't know how exactly this work in practice. Do you know? Also, I've just fixed a bug which dropped record of all recently used maps on any loading of non-GC save, so this also might have been just a bug. I guess I should have a look.

[kabill]

Yes, I remember that being mentioned somewhere, although I don't know how exactly this work in practice. Do you know?

It's just how the random map packs work. Some things can't be randomised well or at all within individual maps, so I've used a large number of maps to produce randomness in those elements. As such, you're vastly more likely to get a random map than a pre-gen one.

I guess you could fix it by adding in a weighting variable for a map that determines it's relative likelihood of being selected. But I'm not convinced it would really be worth the effort of implementing.

[llunak]

I see, I assumed it was only about a large number of submaps. So in that case it's better to keep it disabled by default, until something like the weighting is implemented (which I actually expect shouldn't be that hard, I think you wouldn't have much trouble to do it yourself).

[Max_Caine]

I've modularised TT3's Blood mod. All it does it increase the amount of blood spilled so if you like extra ketchup it would be pretty easy for me to maintain if TT3 never comes back.

[Khall]

Tundra seems to have 2 maps per UFO size, Arctic has 3 per type except 4 for LightScout. So it's not really that different from it, and as you say, it'd actually replace some of Arctic, so it'd be an improvement overall (especially if Khall or somebody else felt like making more maps for it). So I'm still inclined going with it by default, although I'd reduce how much it takes over from Arctic, both because of this and also to better match reality (see Wikipedia article on where the tundra is). The mod needs small adjustments anyway (to be modularized, which is easy with map packs, and specify the area using the new way).

Khall, any comments on this?

I'm currently adding new tiles and making new maps for each map size to bring it up to at least 3 per UFO size. The tileset masks for tundra does overlap arctic though I agree that could be reduced a bit. It still uses my initial masks, which I didn't really do any research for, so I'll need to tighten that up a bit. I have the current modularised version on the steam workshop, but I'll make sure the file in the download section here is up to date as well.

[llunak]

I've added a note about modinfo.xml contents. Now that the mods UI can show details about a mod, mods should actually say what they do.

[llunak]

I'm currently adding new tiles and making new maps for each map size to bring it up to at least 3 per UFO size. The tileset masks for tundra does overlap arctic though I agree that could be reduced a bit. It still uses my initial masks, which I didn't really do any research for, so I'll need to tighten that up a bit. I have the current modularised version on the steam workshop, but I'll make sure the file in the download section here is up to date as well.

Ok, thanks. Note that the tileset masks will need to be adjusted, I've just realized the system I used in http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/12448-Adding-new-tilesets has some problems, so I'll need to change for final 0.31 the way it works. I'll get back with that.

I've modularised TT3's Blood mod. All it does it increase the amount of blood spilled so if you like extra ketchup it would be pretty easy for me to maintain if TT3 never comes back.

While it's nice to see old useful content rescued (I wish people did this for more), more ketchup is not exactly what I had in mind for this thread, so unless there's stronger support for this, I'll leave it out from the list.

[skaianDestiny]

I'd like to rec my "Xenonaut Real Ranks" and "Unified Air Combat Images" mods. These are mostly cosmetic things that I'm sure some people would appreciate.

[drages]

I'd like to rec my "Xenonaut Real Ranks" and "Unified Air Combat Images" mods. These are mostly cosmetic things that I'm sure some people would appreciate.

They are not my tastes.. but can be optinal ofcourse..

Blood would be very nice.. and by the way real laser efect mod would be very nice and good fit..

[skaianDestiny]

They are not my tastes.. but can be optinal ofcourse..

Blood would be very nice.. and by the way real laser efect mod would be very nice and good fit..

Well yeah of course they'd be optional. Considering both of them have roughly 60~ downloads I'd like to believe some people like them enough to include them as options in the X:CE download.

[drages]

I think the download numbers gets more higher when steam workshop opens for all...

[llunak]

I'd like to rec my "Xenonaut Real Ranks" and "Unified Air Combat Images" mods. These are mostly cosmetic things that I'm sure some people would appreciate.

That's a similar case like Blood. The idea here is not that X:CE will ship a load of mods that somebody might like, because that would soon get unmanageable. The mods I listed (IMO) feel a lot like they actually should be a part of the game itself, even if they are mods. But something like alternative rank images is a just a personnal preference (unless the original would be really bad) and people who'd be likely to want it can simply go to the workshop and get it easily from there. So I suggest to keep such mods to the workshop (and to the downloads section here).

Actually "Unified Air Combat Images" is more like a bugfix, so the issue should be preferably just fixed in X:CE, if it's agreed that it indeed is a fix. It doesn't make sense to have a workaround for X:CE if you can fix it directly. My issue with the mod is that I think it's backwards, instead of simplifying all except 2 images it should rather fix the 2 images, but if you could you do that, I'd gladly just merge the fix into X:CE.

[Skitso]

Kabill's enchanted chrash sites should be enabled by dafault.

[Man of Doge]

Kabill's enchanted chrash sites should be enabled by dafault.

I second that motion.

[llunak]

Kabill's enchanted chrash sites should be enabled by dafault.

ECS is unfortunately not fully modularized. Technically it is modularized, but e.g. all the maps actually just completely replace the game's map file, instead of merging in only the changes. Which means that all changes X:CE has meanwhile done to those files will be reverted by the mod.

[kabill]

ECS is unfortunately not fully modularized. Technically it is modularized, but e.g. all the maps actually just completely replace the game's map file, instead of merging in only the changes. Which means that all changes X:CE has meanwhile done to those files will be reverted by the mod.

I'll be honest, I'm not even sure where to start making ECS just update rather than replace the submaps. I suspect it might be simpler just to add in the fixes.

[llunak]

I'll be honest, I'm not even sure where to start making ECS just update rather than replace the submaps. I suspect it might be simpler just to add in the fixes.

Actually the best way to go about this should be presumably just adding code to X:CE that would add the smoke, fire and other alterations. Should be fairly easy (see, there'd enough for you to tinker with in the code ).

[Man of Doge]

I would like to make a late nomination:

Gifty's Music Addon

[llunak]

I would like to make a late nomination:

Gifty's Music Addon

Given the comments in the thread, I don't think it fits the criteria as it is.

[Man of Doge]

Given the comments in the thread, I don't think it fits the criteria as it is.

Aw...

[agris]

I should have started here. I think Xenopedia entries for upgraded aircraft weapons fits the criteria of 'feeling like it should be in the vanilla game'.

[llunak]

Might very well be, guessing from the description. I'll check in detail and consider it for 0.32.