After Alien Invasion - Ideas, Wishes, Stuff, WIP, Discussion(s) & Crunch

[FiesesAlien]

Heyho!

As far as i know i never thought (after that huge motivation loss) that i will ever get into modding again. But thx to someone here (Drages!) and his Mod (X-Division!) [That shamefull advertising ^^] i wanted to do something on my own. Well, iam not a great modder, iam just a person that can count to 10, sometimes even to 100, and see what line of code does what.

That means, if a variable says "Iam Damage!" than i can alter the value behind it. If the Game allows to add stuff like Weapons, Armors, Equipments etc. then i can also do it. As soon i need REAL Programmin Skills iam pretty lost because i can only QBasic and i think this language is pretty Dead =) Learned it in school. But allthough iam glad that Xenonauts is highly modable, bit messy here and there but at least modable

Another modification? Are u serious?

Uhm, yeah, sure, why not? I mean i have way different wishes then the modders here provide. Like modern warfare, a real invasion (not that petting zoo you get when playing vanilla and also most mods, sorry ^^) and all that. In short: A Intense variation that needs to break you down - that mod that kicks you in the guts and laugh at you - that mod that make you crying like a ... well... you know

Just play on Ironman and Insane!

Uhm... no... Its just the same game but its all "faster", and still not the modern warfare i like to see in the game. You know, all the FIST-Stuff (Future Infantry Soldier Technology) and so on. I want that pulling a trigger (it doesnt matter if aliens or xenonauts do!) has a huge impact. Something the game does not really offer me.

Move, shoot 1 - 2 times, end turn. Aliens move, shoot 1 - 2 times, turn. I want huge firefights that can kill as fast as the ground combat even starts. That does not mean that the Xenonauts/Aliens should die more/fast(er), it should be just more intense. With firing into blank area with MGs, get your Troops moving after that.

So, whats your mod about then?

First, it starts right on 31.12.2012, you know, the day the World ends. Of course it did not end, not in real life but in Xenonauts the End starts really! I mean the Invasion begins and you get every support you need! Well trained Soldiers, all Nations funding the Xenonauts and Aliens as a real threat.

In short: The Mod needs really to kick you in the guts for every mistake/misplanning you do. It should punish for being too fast or too slow in ground combat. It should punish you right from the start.

But its not unfair, no no no! Its just... the Invasion should be feared and feel as an Invasion. Really! I feel in the actual mods and vanilla game i walk through a petting zoo all alike "Aawwww... cute little Alien! It bit me it bit me! Kill it! Kill it with" uhm... uh.. sorry for that =) Get the point?

Your future plans?

A(nother) well balanced modification featuring the modern warfare of 2013+ with Prototype-Weapons and all that stuff. Vehicles, Drones, new Armours, various Weapons with special stuff

I have a Idea! / I wanna help!

Tell me, i have also a lot of Ideas i want to bring into the game. If you want to help phew... hm... sorry, iam a real lone-wolf now (lost my trust into nearly every single human now, needs a few years. Sorry.)

Can i use your stuff?

Yeah, take any Idea/Picture/Xenomorph i bring to life and use it for your own. No need to say "Its from him!". Were all kind of 'friends' right? =)

Can we play it now?

Yes & No. I usually not giving out a early version where you cant do much (or see much) but its playable like a bit higher difficulty (Played around 1 hour after finishing the first wave of changes) I will add v0.1 so you can test around yourself. Just the Early-Game, as soon youre going into the Mid-Game its just all standarized.

Last but not least... Who are you?

Iam just a intelligent Xenomorph drone, waiting for the first Queen-hatchling (since iam not transforming it should be somewhere else on this Planet) and then taking over Earth.

The glorious Update(s):

- v0.2 out now (All changes in the Changelog-TXT)

Few Pictures in Equipment-Screen changed, Weapon Stats for Aliens & Xenonauts, Grenades Changed for Testing (Low AP High Accuracy for Aliens & Xenonauts) etc.

Edited January 4, 2015 by FiesesAlien

[drages]

Go for it man.. I am a visual fun rather then coding. I want to see your futuristic weapon arts and ufopedias. Maybe u can find some new ways to mod different kind of things.. whatever you do, yo will need tons of free time. I didn't have so much free time but I gave every sec I got..

[NuclearStudent]

Can I make a suggestion? You know how at the end of Xenonauts, we jam the hyperdrives and take down the alien leader? It would be amazing if you set this in an ongoing war between the remaining alien fleet and the human race. There are still some Praetors left alive, and they still have an army to work with and reapers to try to breed an army. Almost every attempted alien mission could be a base attack, base setup, or terror raid.

[FiesesAlien]

Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow .... wow wow wow... wow... Lois thats not my Batman Cup!

I cant draw ^^ I usually re-edit stuff, cut and (re)arrange =) Dont expect cool drawings/pictures n' stuff from me ^^ But i think i can handle that a bit using the real-world stuff from all FIST/IDZ Entrys i can find (From Prototype Armors, Weapons n' Stuff). Will also make the Xenopedia-Entrys as good as possible =)

For all now wondering what IDZ is, its the german version of FIST at means "Infantry of the Future / Infanterist der Zukunft". The MP7 is such a IDZ-Weapon caseless, highly efficient, extreme light weight and versatile in combat.

Stay crunchy

[NuclearStudent]

Can I make a suggestion? You know how at the end of Xenonauts, we jam the hyperdrives and take down the alien leader? It would be amazing if you set this in an ongoing war between the remaining alien fleet and the human race. There are still some Praetors left alive, and they still have an army to work with and reapers to try to breed an army. Almost every attempted alien mission could be a base attack, base setup, or terror raid.

Instead of "We have discovered an alien base," we could change the text to "The Council is ready for a counteroffensive. Multiple army units stand ready for a Xenonaut raid of an Alien Command Post to begin the attack."

On completion of an alien base mission, the text string could read "Mission Success: Alien Command Structure damaged; nearby hostile aliens leaderless. Human forces are successfully reclaiming territory."

[NuclearStudent]

Just so you don't get cocky, you will need to spend dozens of man-hours to overhaul the game. it takes a surprising amount of time to do things that seem quick and easy.

[FiesesAlien]

Heyho ^^

I know that every change, if its a new addition, or simple a change, takes a really long time ^^ Saw that as i was editing the standard pistol and rifle all along with new description, the updated data and so son =) [Also new GUI-Pictures will come along at some point]

The End-Game really should be the End-Game It should be the End of the Game ^^ Dont want a Sandboxlike game, i want a clear finnish line where i can say on the end "Yes, i beat them!" The Idea, of course, is nice and i think it doesnt take much in the code. Just like dont start End-Game Science and just keep adding the battlecruisers into the invasion-fleet. Will look into it as soon iam over with modding the normal version.

The Alien-Base Idea is interesting but i dont think i can look into it at this very moment. Ill will try it just for the purpose of testing, thats for sure ^^

Stay crunchy.

[FiesesAlien]

Heyho!

Now i had today a few changes in mind that i wanted to do for version 0.2:

I changed most of the Stats of all Standard-Weapons and also theyr respective Equipement-Pictures (Not in GroundCombat yet, iam lazy ^^). Grenades changed to lower AP cost for Aliens & Xenonauts, also i raised the Accuracy of them because i think both, Aliens & Xenonauts are well trained on them. All know: If you do it wrong you may die ^^ So better throw it to the enemy.

The biggest thing i had in mind was the Machine-Gun, i lowered the Accuracy of a significant amount, raised the shots fired to 15 and raised the magazine to 150. Thats because the main purpose of a MG is to suppres the enemy. Also i lowered the damage of the MG so it should be not as good as the Vanilla one (but still hurting though).

Next big change i wanted to do was the Assault Shield, i found it way to underpowered and (as i changed Alien-Weapon Stats) had to buff both Shields. They are now way heavier but can also hold off more Damage (and it needs to! My first fight was running into an Alien that reacted with a burst fire ^^)

The Sniper-Rifle of the Xenonauts are now way more Accurate and doing slightly more damage but at the cost at a lower Magazine (5 Shots per Mag). Also i changed the Suppressing of the Sniper because you dont want to run around while someone far away shoots at you. ATM the Sniper Suppression from Alien-Sniper stays unchanged but theyre shooting now a lot more often (at same low supression though as Vanilla)

Have fun and stay crunchy.

[drages]

Assault shield is very late i think.. u stuck to simple lame shield for long time..

[FiesesAlien]

Heyho.

Yep, i also think that a good assault shield should be aviable earlyer Will change this soon =) But in AAI the Shields are doubled in strength

[FiesesAlien]

Yo!

Iam working (or at least worked) again on AAI and i want to explain the Tier-Evolution of the Weapons and what the differences of them are. First of, the "FIST"-Program is a Real World Program from the USA and features a lot of cool stuff (like sub-machine gun on drones for the Troops!) that i want to bring into the game. Well, it starts in 2012 and as you progress to the various Tiers you will encouter special types of Weapons...

The Carbine

This is a mix between a Assault Rifle and a SMG (or PDW). It is shorter than an Assault Rifle, has not the 'oomph' of an Assault Rifle but comes in handy like a PDW. But instead of having a lower impact the Carbine fits great between SMGs and ARs.

The PDW

This are Weapons that are special in theyr own way: They have more punch than a pistol, are not as heavy as Carbines but are small enough to come in handy as a secondary Weapon. Consider this for your Shield-Troopers once the shield is gone! Awesome!

The Sniper-Rifle

Now there are a second-type of "Sniper"-Weapons, those called "Marksman Rifles". Explain it later. Sniper Rifles have extreme low ammo, are kind of heavy and, of course, are highly accurate at long ranges (40+ Tiles now!). Also they do a significant damage that could possible kill even those pesky Saurons on one hit.

The Marksman Rifles

They are the Mix between Assault Rifles and Sniper Rifles. Highly Accurate, lower mag than ARs but higher Mags than Snipers. They have more punch than a AR but lesser than a Sniper. Also they are capable of 2-Round Burst and they have also pretty high range (30+) Also they are not as heavy as Sniper Rifles.

The Combat-Shotgun(s)

They only have 1 Tier upwards (from Default to Phase One) and therefore is only the Jackhammer, a fully automated Shotgun with very low accuracy but hell a lot of punch (if you hit of course ^^). But who cares if you can spread a room full of precious bullets?

The Light & Heavy Machineguns

KA-POW! Yeah, the Light & Heavy Machine Guns server one great purpose: Supression. Thats what theyll do all the time and that shall never be else. LMGs can fire longer bursts and are a bit more accurate then HMGs but they can do more damage and supress a lot more.

Pistols

Those are "Special". They evolve from Phase to Phase and getting more oomph on every stage. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Even from Phase Two to Three a Pistol Damage could be lower but other stats change and make it better then the Pistol before.

Exo-Suits

Those Exo-Skeleton Suits boosts Strenght, Accuracy, Bravery and add also Armor in various different styles. At the moment i cant draw them and theyll mostly copys of other Armors (Jackal etc.) until i have time to do graphics. Exo-Suits start at Phase 2, come at a Price (no Materials needed) and advante up to the Prototype-Phase where you'll have the most advanced Modern-Exo-Suit.

After all those FIST-Tiers the Laser-Ära starts and i will change alot of it too. Also Plasma, Mags etc. A long way to go, i hope you join me

I also Plan to try to bring in Drones, smaller then the Vehicles. But ive heard a lot of rumors that this will be nearly impossible. So... i will see what i can do about it.

Stay crunchy.

[Man of Doge]

Quick Note: The only Vehicle size you can do other than 3x3 is 1x1. The reason being that other sizes tend to have... Issues.

[FiesesAlien]

1x1?

Thats exactly what i needed ^^ But actually i focus more on bringin in all the phases of the FIST-Program, as soon iam done with that and balancing that out its an official 'release'.

[FiesesAlien]

Heyho.

At the moment iam a bit unsure with the Jackhammer_Shotgun. I used it not so often but when i used it, the Jackhammer blasted the enemys away, even on mid-Range. Thats not my intention, i think i will redo the Jackhammer to be more in-accurate or something like that. Or nerfing the Damage, dont know.

The rest of the Weapons seems to have theyr spot, most of them i played with a while. Its fun that Aliens shoot so much, even in the very first round with reaction fire. Keeps me (and also you, i hope) on my toe. Had a few mistakes that cost some of my Soldiers life, but thats War =)

Also, what i was afraid of, the PESA1 is not that overpowered i felt it would be. Fits kinda nice in the Early-Game. Give you some, but not too much Armor/Resistance(s). And the slight Boost of stats are also pretty good i think at the moment.

The UFOs are bit more often there and making theyr Missions but actually i have no clue if the 10Mcred start is too much or too less. Hope that there will be a bit feedback sooner or later when some are in the Mid/Late Game (I dont have so much time, also replayed the early-phase over 9000! ^^)

Have fun and stay crunchy.

[FiesesAlien]

Heyho!

Weekend is near and there i will focus on the the 1x1-Drone i want to add. Its harder as it seems to be actually. Iam struggling atm heavy with this but i think when i have enough time to think and try out some stuff i will be ready for the next update on Monday.

Phase 2 - Drones

- Here starts the Drone-Series and it will be first a simple Surveillance Drone (Or UAV) i need to look into it how i can let the Drone fly if this is even possible (if not i need to do more ground-drones)

In Phase 3,4, Experimental 1 and 2 the Drones will be updated with latest technology. So there are multi purpose drones you can use but i think if the 'flying thing' doesnt work all ground-drones.

On Monday there will be also Phase 3 - Weapons and those focus on the latest Early-Game and even ditch slowly into the Mid-Game. I tryd a lot of Ground Missions and for myself: I like it very much! A bit tougher Aliens (shooting as much as i do) and the different Weapon Styles (Carbine PDW etc.) are great i think.

So, iam looking forward to monday, hope you do too =)

[FiesesAlien]

Heyho!

Just a quick update: Because i also playing a lot of other Games too i decided to put also a bit more effort on the Drone-Concept and Phase 3 of the Modern Weapon System.

But i overestimated my modding "skills" (or underestimated the complexity of bringing in a new drone all by myself) and so it would take a much much longer time. Since iam not modding the whole day (more like 1 - 2 hours a day) i keep this update as long in "production" as i need. And i need, so it seems, about another 10 - 20 hours to figure out how all this works.

Xenonauts makes it a bit hard to mod (Never encountered so much complexity in so much different files just for 1 thing to do).

Or maybe iam just too weak in Xenonauts-Modding

Stay crunchy!

[FiesesAlien]

So a small Update here too!

At the moment i will stay away from vehicles, i think its too hard to me to figure out how they work and how to add a new one. So i will focus to the FIST-Weapons & Armors for now, balancing, tweaking and adding stuff.

Phase 1 to 3 are already in the Game while Phase 3 is the "End"-Phase of all the Early-Game Stuff. The next Step will be "Prototype Phase 1" and "Prototype Phase 2" which will be adding following (not in order):

- Light, Medium and Heavy Exo-Skeleton/Exo-Suits

- A portable extreme heavy Railgun

- A portable extreme heavy Laserweapon

Those two Prototype Phases are the jumppad to high technologys like Rail-, Laser- and Plasma-Weapons. The Order "Rail, Laser and Plasma" is fixed for me since the Real-World-Counterparts of those Weapons are not really existing. Well, maybe a railgun is somewhere out there but i dont think so. Laser-Weapons are kind of in developement and with Plasma we are experementing all the time.

Enjoy all the Vanilla-Tech while you can =)

[drages]

U should mod whole day without playing other games!

About shotguns.. I think vanilla shotguns got very long range . A shotgun should have max 6.. maybe less. Rifles range should be lower to make snipers usefull. I will give more range to heavies..

[FiesesAlien]

Heyho Drages =)

Yeah, iam sure i should do that but Diablo 3 ROS Season 1 ends soon and i want a few set-items before the start of season 2. Also Project Zomboid keeps me on my toe.

Phew... Shotguns, well at least in my mod at the point of using the Jackhammer ist a Spray n' Pray Weapon. You can spray bullets but targeting something is, well, just luck. The burst-mode with the Jackhammer feels awesome and powerfull as it should be. Its not about the range, its about the bullet count =)

From lowest to highest range: Pistols -> Shotguns & PDWs -> Carbines -> Assault Rifles & Machine Guns -> Marksman Rifles -> Sniper Rifles. Also the Sniper Rifles has the highest range of all Pre-Railgun Weapons and also the highest damage per bullet. I think every gun has its own speciality.

Machine Guns at the other hand are low damage but high bursts and perfect for supressing. Maybe you could hit something but you need to stand really close for that =) Just use it for covering/supressing fire.

ATM i still look over the stats of the Pre-Railgun Weapons (Phase 0 -> 3, Phase 0 is pure Basic Weapons) but for that i need to play again to see everything in Action (Or getting Feedback ^^ Would help too). Lets see where AAI goes

Stay modding! Uh, i mean, stay crunchy!

[TacticalDragon]

Insteresting approach full of flavor.

i will download the mod and take a look when i have time.

if you could give me a general insight of tech evolution, aim rules, morale and game variables I will be glad.

Im afraid that the mod only add tons and tons of items, manufactures and weapons, which I personally believe is the most mod's common addition and the wrong direction on modding. i suspect that you have some kind of branched techtree which is great!.

Thanks for your hard work. Is nice to see more people working on Xenonauts.

[Sulphy]

This does sound pretty interesting! is there any chance you could post up some screenshots please?? Need to get a few days off work to sink my teeth back into the game! and give this mod a go!

[JetTiger]

Loving the mod so far, I was just wondering if there was a known-compatibility issue with the Fire in the Hole mod? I can equip the breaching charges from that mod at the soldier inventory screen, but when I try to equip them in-game they disappear. I don't know if it conflicts with some existing assets in the AAI mod, but it would be amazing to still be able to utilize that mod alongside yours!