Jump to content

Operation Endgame


Gopa5

Recommended Posts

Ah, yeah. The psionic strength of aliens needs to be balanced. GJ turned it right up to 600 across the board when we were testing the psionics and we never put it back down again.

I'll fix that for the hotfix so the alien psionic powers don't just automatically succeed.

Will the hotfix mess with my saves or is it just going to alter something minor?

Also, is there a way to defend against psi? Or at least can your soldiers build up a resistance?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will the hotfix mess with my saves or is it just going to alter something minor?

Also, is there a way to defend against psi? Or at least can your soldiers build up a resistance?

Bravery or morale, I think. Not sure which, though, and there's a large difference between the two since the latter is much more variable (there's not a lot you can do to buff bravery, but you can create morale buffs by ensuring you have plenty of high-ranking soldiers on a mission).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know if the hotfix will mess with your saves, tbh. We're making quite a lot of bugfixes in the code so the only way we'll be able to find out is when we release it. I'm hoping not though.

One way to get the desired effect is to open up aiprops.xml in /assets/ and set Caesan Leaders to have psionic power of 150, and Praetor Commanders to have 200. That'll make them a bit less OP than with 600 psionic strength.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know if the hotfix will mess with your saves, tbh. We're making quite a lot of bugfixes in the code so the only way we'll be able to find out is when we release it. I'm hoping not though.

One way to get the desired effect is to open up aiprops.xml in /assets/ and set Caesan Leaders to have psionic power of 150, and Praetor Commanders to have 200. That'll make them a bit less OP than with 600 psionic strength.

How do I do that, it doesn't let me change anything?

Nevermind, I opened with notepad and I did it

Edited by Benscachar
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
completed in "" because it bugged not letting me through end door however when quitting the game it gave victory message strange

There seems to be an issue with the final mission where it shows the victory screen when quitting or loading a savegame from it. I've made a bug report describing this in detail:

http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9520-V21-Stable-Ground-Combat-Premature-victory-screen-in-final-mission

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you've not destroyed the power cores, the door will not let you walk through it - but it also should not be openable / destructible.

This isn't working as of V21 Stable (the door is currently always openable), here's my bug report:

http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9545-V21-Stable-Ground-Combat-Power-cores-irrelevant-in-final-mission?p=105296

I was expecting the final mission to be a bit longer, to be honest, but it's definitely a tough one regardless. Which is what you guys were going for, I suppose - i.e. not an extended slog through a huge base but rather a concentrated, challenging battle.

I do have a suggestion about the text on the Victory screen, though - I feel it's currently a bit anti-climatic. Spoilers:

Currently it just says something like "the aliens are defeated but not without cost". Would it not be cool if it changed based on whether or not your guys make it out of the alien ship, i.e. whether they manage to blow up the power cores (once that bug is fixed)?

So, if your guys don't blow up the cores, kill the Praetor but end up dying to the Reapers, the Victory message could be something along the lines of "The alien menace has been destroyed thanks to the heroic sacrifice of the Xenonauts, their bravery will never be forgotten etc etc"

...and if at you do blow up the cores and manage to escape with at least some guys, the message could be something like "The alien fleet, leaderless, scatters and is shortly defeated - the surviving Xenonauts are welcomed home as heroes etc etc"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just completed this mission with a squad full of grenadiers. Wow did those grenades make this easier. Only one soldier even got hurt and that was from an invisible sebillian who threw a grenade back at me (should have expected that). Smoke grenades cut down on the enemy fire almost entirely (while not functionally impacting your accuracy in throwing grenades) and mind-controlled soldiers won't attack if there isn't a weapon in their hand. Add in everyone having shields and each person can take a couple of good hits without any damage at all.

That being said, the bugs involving enemy psi strength, enemy squad sight seeing through walls (so there's no protection from psi attacks), and invisible enemies make this battle more annoying than challenging. Add in the very simple map and it's not nearly as climactic as I had hoped. Also, the way the mission description is written, I thought destroying the generators and killing the Praetor was an either/or choice. Either one will give you victory, but destroying the generators means you'll have to escape in time or something.

I second the call for alternate win screens based on performance, too, with a special screen if all your men make it out alive. Oh, and I'd also like to see more variety to the aliens in the final mission. At least three Praetors, one High Praetor with two flunkies, probably some Wraiths (they're supposed to be elites, right?) and maybe a few Harridians instead of the Caesan snipers.

Edited by Planetus
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I completed the missions on V22 experimental 2. I think the overall set up of the mission in terms of balancing is great, I had maybe 2/3 turns leeway with the Reapers to get to the drop pods but I rushed pretty hard and lost people along the way as a result of the time pressure. The only areas possibly needing a little extra are the ante-room where its possible to shoot the heavy drone through the opened doorway and then the two ceasan guards don't pose much threat (maybe four instead of two?). And when you face the High Praetor, I just had my men line up and he was shredded the moment I opened the door. You could probably just add more enemies to make it a bit more challenging but one idea I had was filling the room with smoke and making him start incredibly powerful mind control attacks the moment you open the door. Then you would have to try and find it in the smoke whilst avoiding fire from your own men.

However the mission is absolutely riddled with bugs. The Unique blast doors will show as closed and damaged when they've actually been destroyed. The plants will show as 100% blocking terrain but allow enemies to shoot through them. The plants can also survive a direct hit from a singularity bomb (may not be a bug but damn that's some tough shrubbery). If you try to load an earlier save in the mission whilst still in the mission it will show you a victory screen instead of loading. This is somewhat ironic as I didn't actually get a victory screen when I completed the mission, the game just CTD'd.

Overall its a nice end to the game but needs some fine tuning

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just finished Op Endgame on v21 stable (with the white tiles)

I've read everybody else's posts on this, and I don't know, I thought this final mission was very well put together. I liked the added time pressure, the tough-but-fair balance of the enemies, and the tight, concise "feel" of the battle. Me personally, by this point I'd rather had my fill of grinding through large alien bases and multi-floor battleships, and the map size was just about right.

I can perhaps see Tichowe's point of escalating reapers, and Vahilior's point about the large "ante-room" door being open, but I would only consider these options on Veteran or Insane difficulties; in general the challenge as is was high enough for me. I "only" lost one colonel, but continually felt like I was in imminent danger of losing a lot more.

This mission is begging for an opening cutscene! It would really be enhanced by a brief sequence showing your troops loading up and your dropship heading for the Dreadnought. And a unique, sinister soundtrack. And it'd also be nice to see a rolling credits screen post-mission, Hollywood-style, to up the feeling of a cinematic experience.

If you could add some spit and polish like this, I think the core mission itself is dead-on. Two thumbs up :cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. We will fix up the bugs for the build after next, hopefully.

We can't really do cutscenes - the game engine doesn't support displaying video (particularly not cross-platform), which is why the launcher doesn't have the animation any more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well the intro could be played outside the game, but I will not be pushing it. OG had intro in separate exe

That's what I was thinking too. And it had a scene before the final mission to Mars, where your dropship circled over the pyramids below. And this was available in 1994 (!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are we all talking about the same game?

X-COM:UFO Defence / UFO:Enemy Unknown didn't have outro movie, only intro which was separate exe file - only Playstation version had outro movie, while Terror From the Deep was either Floopy version which had slideshows and CD Version which had movies (intro and outro, T'Leth).

I think this is the movie dpelectric is mentioning:

[video=youtube;yd7jn66kJBg]

@Chris

You can give a thought about making intro/outro/final mission a slideshow just like in floppy TFTD.

If engine allows it, it can be like a comic or something similar.

Edited by silencer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think this is the movie dpelectric is mentioning

Yes. And I distinctly remember a little intro scene to the game too, where the aliens were killing civilians and then your XCommies showed up in flying suits with miniguns blazing, and the aliens (mutons) took off. Can't recall if I played the floppy or CD or Playstation or whatever version, but these small "cutscenes" were there, they did add flavor to the game, and they were available with 1994 technology

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That what you say is the intro and is in all versions of the X-COM. And the cutscenes were ONLY in the playstation. And playstation version was released much later, because you know Plyastation was released in 1995 (Japan 1994).

[video=youtube;a2ZLVB6JW9c]

Can't find others because thanx to google x-com is searched as firaxis XCOM in most cases.

So if you remember above cutscene, you played Playstation version

Edited by silencer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That what you say is the intro and is in all versions of the X-COM. And the cutscenes were ONLY in the playstation. And playstation version was released much later, because you know Plyastation was released in 1995 (Japan 1994)

Well, that's the "mission abort" cutscene, there was also an "intro" one. Either way, guess I was on the PSX version.

But, whether 1994-95-96, or PC-floppy-CD-Playstation, the central point is that this was available with roughly ~20-year-old technology, and it's not now...??? No comprende senor

Edited by dpelectric
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember coming to the end of a game in the old 8-bit era.

I had defeated the bad guys and something like this appeared on the screen.

"When you get to the end of most games, there is normally big flashing letters, explosive sounds, and lots of fireworks. but as you are a true hero you would be above such things, so we have just provided you with this line of text."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It could come down to money and dev time. I'm involved with a 3d artist for a Xenonauts related project, and I can tell you now even when they slash their prices for poor folk like me, it still ain't cheap. I remember the launcher pic was going to be animated (I still have the test .mov) but after a few fruitless weeks of trying to fix problems with it, the devs decided their time was better spent on the game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

When I first finished I got told that I'd killed 82/118 aliens and wondered whether there was a limit so replayed it. I used every magazine and grenade and had every trooper carry extra rounds for the Singularity Cannons although I lost one of the two gunners when they blew themselves up with a poorly aimed shot. 392/412. They just keep coming as the text warned. Actually lots of fun dropping magazines and switching positions at the end to keep as many troopers firing as possible - those common magazines are a God-send. The gribblies have just enough TU to reach you but not stick you so the last trooper to leave emptied the final rounds as a burst killing 2 and then hopped through the teleporter. At one point I thought the numbers has started to rise for spawning but it must be when the gribblies who visit the molten remains of the generators rejoin the stream in the corridor and you get hard-pressed for 2 or 3 rounds. Shame the Magstorms didn't get to do much with so many Mag rifles reacting first; they also seem reluctant to react if they are down to final 10 rounds and only seemed happy to react after being moved.

Now it'll be all about doing it with style. That grenadiering lark sounds like fun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...