Quartermaster Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Before following these steps I would like to make the following disclaimer: I am not one of the coders on this project, but I have made the following modification in my files and it seems to be working properly. According to what Chris has said in other threads, the machinegun is supposed to fire 5 bursts. Later in development it sounds like these will be long bursts (5 or 10 shots each), but for now it is just 3 shots per burst. The goal of this thread is to modify the machinegun so that it fires the correct number of bursts (5 instead of 1 & 2/3rds). Before we begin, backup the following files from the xenonauts/assets file: weapons weapons_ weapons_gc These will be three files that we will be editting so it is wise to have the backups in a secure location in case an error is made. We will start with the weapons & weapons_ files. These are the easist files to modify as they both open with excel. After opening both files look under the name and find the weapon.machinegun. Go to the column that says 'clipsize' and modify the machinegun's clipsize value from 5 to 15. You may get a popup which reads "weapons.xml may contain meatures that are not compatible with XML Spreadsheet 2003. Do you want to keep the workbook in this format?" Click Yes. Now open weapons_gc using notebook. Scroll down until you find the following section: <Weapon name="weapon.machinegun" bulletType="normal" emptySound="Empty Click 1"> <props range="30" hands="2" recoil="65" weight="12.5" clipSize="5" reloadAPCost="25" /> <SingleShot /> <BurstFire ap="30" accuracy="60" sound="Weapon Machinegun Burst"/> <GUIImage name="gui/machinegun.png"/> <GroundImage name="grounditemimages/machinegun.png"/> <Ammos> <Ammo name="default" type="kinetic" damage="40" mitigation="20"> <Projectile spectre="projectiles/bullet/bullet" speed="1200"/> <Impact spectre="particles/bulletplume/bulletplume"/> </Ammo> </Ammos> </Weapon> This weapon is located between the precision rifle and the flamethrower. Modify the bolded section (clipsize = "5") to instead read clipsize="15". The final weapon tag should look like this: <Weapon name="weapon.machinegun" bulletType="normal" emptySound="Empty Click 1"> <props range="30" hands="2" recoil="65" weight="12.5" clipSize="15" reloadAPCost="25" /> <SingleShot /> <BurstFire ap="30" accuracy="60" sound="Weapon Machinegun Burst"/> <GUIImage name="gui/machinegun.png"/> <GroundImage name="grounditemimages/machinegun.png"/> <Ammos> <Ammo name="default" type="kinetic" damage="40" mitigation="20"> <Projectile spectre="projectiles/bullet/bullet" speed="1200"/> <Impact spectre="particles/bulletplume/bulletplume"/> </Ammo> </Ammos> </Weapon> After this change is made save this file and close it. Before starting the game make sure that and closed. If they are open the game will crash when running. This should only be considered a temporary solution until Chris and his team get around to building the long burst fire for the machinegun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Good work, sir. For the final version we'll probably give it a 50 round clip and have each burst use 5 bullets - seems a bit more realistic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Can I suggest adding your post to the wiki? It looks like it would fit into http://xenowiki.goldhawkinteractive.com/index.php?title=Altering_the_properties_of_an_in-game_item_or_unit It gives a nice overview of the basic editing required to alter an item. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quartermaster Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 Can I suggest adding your post to the wiki?It looks like it would fit into http://xenowiki.goldhawkinteractive.com/index.php?title=Altering_the_properties_of_an_in-game_item_or_unit It gives a nice overview of the basic editing required to alter an item. I will try to do so tonight, but I have a lot of papers to grade. I've been meaning to add some articles over the last couple days to the wiki since I started looking at the files, but I was waiting for the 24 hour wait limit to pass which it did last night. I want to add some details on how to add/edit the submaps and levelmaps as well. That stuff is a bit trickier than one would initially expect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 I am assuming on weapons.xml and weapons_.xml (not sure what the difference is) you altered the description text to show the change you had made in weapons_gc.xml? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quartermaster Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 I am assuming on weapons.xml and weapons_.xml (not sure what the difference is) you altered the description text to show the change you had made in weapons_gc.xml? Yes that seems to be the effect. I don't really know what the difference is between weapons and weapons_ either, but I editted both just to be certain. The weapons file has some of the more advanced rockets and grenades included whereas weapons_ doesn't seem to have them. I haven't yet checked to see if only one needs to be changed, but I did both as a catchall when I was working with the files. I should probably just write that article on the wiki since I am using the forum as a distraction from grading... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 The old versions didn't have a weapons_.xml file so its probably a leftover from Chris sanitising the build. Chris is the number of shots per burst set in an xml somewhere and if so can it be set for individual weapons? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 The weapons_.xml file is superfluous - it's just that the weapons file often causes crashes so that was me making a backup and forgetting to delete it. The number of shots per burst is not settable for each weapon yet I'm afraid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quartermaster Posted December 15, 2011 Author Share Posted December 15, 2011 I added my "how to" to the page on the wiki you mentioned Gaudlike. I made a few changes so that it no longer references the weapons_ file. I also bumped up the clipsize to 30, because who doesn't like more bullets. Plus it just seems weird if the machine gun has fewer rounds than the rifle. Later when I have more time I will go back to the wiki and add some more how to's to explain how to add different fire modes and few other things. Eventually it might be a fun idea to make a small application from which to do all of these things in order to speed up the ability of users to make their own crazy weapons of death... No doubt we will see a bunch of add ons from people who want their soldiers running around knifing aliens or firing automatic rocket launchers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Shouldn't be too hard to do for someone with coding experience. Once the final file layouts are set it will just be a matter of a program that opens the correct xml files for a specific item type, adds or alters the correct bit of text then saves it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyllan Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 (edited) well i played the freeware ufo AI, and i would say my favorite weapon is the machine gun, shoots like 10 shots, long distance fighting, specialy when alien blasters can kill you in 1-2 shots regardless of armor......sniper rifles were ok too...... my issue is i like my soldiers alive...... hand to hand /short range combat with aliens is always a suicide.........so you can nerf the machine guns or make the aliens really clever, even game balance issues, there were heavy machine guns in the seventies...... if you wish to be technical...... another thing is you dont really use machine guns for storming ufos you would probably use heavy shotguns, or other stuff...... Edited December 30, 2011 by cyllan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 The machine gun is not really designed with a breaching role in mind. That's why the game has shotguns, pistols, combat shields etc. The issue with the machine gun was that it has not yet been finished off and balanced rather than it needing some kind of nerf. Don't worry there will be enough lead flying around for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherdevil Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 well put. Yeah always remember that the game is still in Alpha. By all means make mention of the fact that some weapons are toos trong etc. but also remember that at this stage the game is in the process of adding in new content over refining the balance of what's in there. Chris and the community want to see the game getting closer to completion, and while balance is important, it's kind of hard to do with only one alien race in the game etc. =p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inkallim Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 Not tried this out yet but I can see how 5 round bursts with a 50 round belt would be rather punishing. Reducing damage or ammo count which would make it feel somewhat less realistic, even the 50 round is already significantly lower than real belt lengths but I am happy to put this aside as taking into account the spray of the weapon, so the belt is ACTUALLY 100-200 rounds long but only 50 of them have a any chance of hitting a man sized target. I know balance issues are something for the future as anotherdevil says but I'd think increasing the weight, or having a straight reduction of action points attached to the weapon would be preferable to my mind than reducing damage or rate of fire. Ofcourse reducing the accuracy is another tool in the balancing box aswell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sathra Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 The ammo boxes are also far too light, but I'm not sure where that's changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inkallim Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I have no military experience so this is based on nothing but films and such and could be more of a WW2 thing than modern but don't squad machine gunners usually have someone else to carry their ammo? Presumably due to the weight of the gun and ammo being to much for one guy to carry and be effective in combat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quartermaster Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 (edited) I have no military experience so this is based on nothing but films and such and could be more of a WW2 thing than modern but don't squad machine gunners usually have someone else to carry their ammo?Presumably due to the weight of the gun and ammo being to much for one guy to carry and be effective in combat. Depends on the era, but yeah there is usually an assistant gunner who carries some rounds and helps the main gunner feed rounds into the belt. Currently the Squad Automatic Weapon used by the US can actually use the same rounds as the M16 which means that the rounds are light enough that they don't need another individual carrying the spare rounds, in my experience at least. I wasn't exactly special forces or infantry though so they might carry more ammo into combat. In the era that Xenonauts is set in, the US was using the M60 which fires a 7.62 caliber round which does require an assistant gunner (who also usually carries a spare barrel). Edited January 7, 2012 by Quartermaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 The ammo boxes are also far too light, but I'm not sure where that's changed. Fair point. I don't actually think this value can be modded at the moment. Really, it should be part of ammos.xml. I'll add that to our to-do list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceVamp Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Depends on the era, but yeah there is usually an assistant gunner who carries some rounds and helps the main gunner feed rounds into the belt. Currently the Squad Automatic Weapon used by the US can actually use the same rounds as the M16 which means that the rounds are light enough that they don't need another individual carrying the spare rounds, in my experience at least. I wasn't exactly special forces or infantry though so they might carry more ammo into combat. In the era that Xenonauts is set in, the US was using the M60 which fires a 7.62 caliber round which does require an assistant gunner (who also usually carries a spare barrel). Yep. We (Norwegians) use the MG3 still, and it's a 7.62 round. Gunner two carries all the ammo, loads and feeds the weapon. It's a horrible job in heavy snow let me tell you. The spare barrel is also carried by the second guy. In peace time we change every ~200 rounds, but the barrels can handle ~400 before deforming. It gets hot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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