Modding: Engine Support Wishlist

[Gauddlike]

You could do it if you didn't mind that face coming up randomly every now and then for other soldiers.

You would just need to replace the current face image file with the one you wanted to see.

[TheTuninator]

Ah, so I could place an image into the pool of randomly generated faces? Interesting. Is it possible to add additional ones to increase the pool of random faces beyond the starting number, do you think? I.e. it only picks from ~25 portraits because that's what the game has, but if you add random images as portraits, could you have, say, 50+ portraits in the pool?

[Chris]

Yeah, I forget exactly how but the portrait image files are in the /assets/armourimages files I think, and then the chance of a portrait spawning is based on nationality (you select how likely a portrait from each of the four ethnic groups is likely to appear).

Edited January 21, 2012 by Sathra
spelling

[PheonixKnight]

i know it would be a big chore but could we mod the graphics at all like adding tiles or even modding the soilders themselves so say if the modders wanted to make females we could. if we can change that we could add ships to fit our setting we come up with and im sure anything that you really like for a mod could be used as an update to the game itself.

[Chris]

The soldiers are the hardest part to mod. Adding new dropships or new maps is extremely easy once you know how - there's a big guide to mapping on the wiki (xenowiki.goldhawkinteractive.com).

[PheonixKnight]

i was checking on how to change a unit but it has been removed

Adding or removing an in-game item or unit

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This page has been deleted. The deletion and move log for the page are provided below for reference.

12:49, 3 December 2011 Chris (Talk | contribs) deleted "Adding or removing an in-game item or unit" ‎ (content was: "7MVl2v <a href="http://eyekxeblbodw.com/">eyekxeblbodw</a>")

[Gauddlike]

I think that might have been my page for adding a new armour set.

It may have been a little outdated I am not sure though.

Basically if you wanted to make a female soldier you would need to make female body, face, and hand images for the soldier equip/ inventory pages (easy).

You would then need to make a female version of every animation, in every set of armour, with every weapon/item combination.

At the moment that is approximately 8,600 animation frame image files to be created, some containing up to 10 individual character images.

There will be many more on release though as the majority of the animations are not yet added (Chris likes to keep the later tech secret!).

You could cheat by only doing the basic armour and saying the bulkier armour covers up any feminine characteristics though.

[anotherdevil]

could you mod the female civilian head over the male body sprites? Then you could just pretend all the women don't have boobs and don't wear helmets.

That might make changing the sprites slightly quicker =p

[Gauddlike]

Not really, you would need to edit every single animation frame with a female head turned at exactly the right angle in relation to the body frame.

I did something similar with armour colours where I altered the sleeves on the jackal armour to red.

Took me upwards of 8 hours to modify a single set of weapon animations for that single armour type with a simple colour change (highlight area, alter colour balance, save).

There are currently around 37 weapon types for each of the 7 armour types.

[anotherdevil]

true, but presumably there is an appropriate female head for every angle, no?

[Gauddlike]

There are none atm.

Even if there were you wouldn't just need ones looking in the same direction.

You would need to alter them to fit models that were bending to kneel, leaning to aim, moving to throw etc.

Then you would need to copy and paste them exactly to fit, make any seams less obvious, change hair to match the model etc.

It would be possible.

Not something I would consider doing though.

[Chris]

Deleted pages in the wiki are because I was burning out spambots.

[Gauddlike]

So THAT's why the flamethrower wasn't in the last build.

It was currently in use elsewhere.

[anotherdevil]

Deleted pages in the wiki are because I was burning out spambots.

So THAT's why the flamethrower wasn't in the last build.

It was currently in use elsewhere.

So tell us, how good is it against those damn androns?

[Gazz]

Would you mind holding discussions elsewhere? Thank you.

This thread is just a list of things that cannot be done / modded because the engine does not support them.

Armours with variable inventory sizes

The size / shape of the backpack and belt slots should be defined by the worn armour.

The "weaker" but more agile / flexible armours can carry a wide range of equipment.

If the medic can barely move in his half-ton tank armour, he may not be able to reach the backpack...

Super-heavy armour types could have a small backpack or be completely restricted to the belt slots for storage space.

These may buff the soldiers strength enough to carry that 20mm chaingun but they will need support by lighter units - be it for extra ammo or simply because they don't have the space for a medkit.

This would allow making some types of armour very strong without the risk of every single solder wearing "the" super armour.

There would always be demand for lighter units.

[Jean-Luc]

Reminds me of that 40k tbs "Chaos Gate". Space Marines wearing terminator armour couldn't use med kits (they had no inventories in fact) so they needed apothecaries to poke them with stimpacks.

[Gazz]

Yes, the Games Workshop crew knows a thing or two about game balance. =)

By drastically restricting a unit's tactical flexibility, you create unit interdependancies which are bread and butter for a strategy game.

UFO 1 is a very very bad example of that. The flying armour is simply best at everything. There is absolutely no reason not to put every soldier into flying armour.

The vision modifiers from page one have been incorporated into the game so there can be at least a little balancing on the flexibility front.

Flat attribute boosts would be bad because they annihilate the need for soldier experience.

What is a much better approach is to let an armour give a % increase to a stat.

A 130% strength armour is not going to turn a 30 strength soldier into the Hulk. It only goes up to 39.

This way a heavy suit of armour can let a soldier use very heavy weapons that unaugmented soldiers can't use or can't use very well.

For the really good stuff you still need a naturally strong soldier, though, so soldier experience always stays valuable.

The ammo for heavy weapons doesn't need to be super-bulky - only "too damn heavy" for unaugmented soldiers. =P

That way your "heavies" can carry some ammo while still having restricted flexibility through all the nice-to-have items they don't have space for.

But yes, one alternative is to reason that the heavy gun is belt-fed from an ammo backpack.

That would require quite a few rules / restrictions to be coded so that a soldier can't simply trade weapons with a "light" (but naturally very strong) soldier.

This would provide questionable gameplay value for the effort and increased complexity.

A far easier way: The weapon cannot be reloaded at all in the mission.

One weapon could be a 7 tube FFAR launcher. A one-handed weapon with like 100-150kg loaded weight..

Leaves one hand free for something with more ammo capacity.

One-handed / two-handed as a soft cap

If the soldier is strong enough (buffed by his powered armour...), he can use two-handed weapons one-handed.

Can be a simple rule like total strength must be 5x weapon weight in kg. (or whatever)

That would add limited flexibility to the very heavy armours but only when it comes to weapons!

It also eliminates stupid situations like a weak soldier using something insanely heavy as a one-handed weapon. Basically the soldier is used as a mule to carry another two (loaded) weapons but won't be able to move a step outside the Chinook...

Edited February 13, 2012 by Gazz

[anotherdevil]

Would require some form of inventory though, as those weapons have big ammo packs (rockets, MG ammo etc.). Perhaps an autoloader could be a feature of the armour, so the heavier armours could have a reduced AP cost to reload, or all the ammo could be in the weapon at once (so if you had 3x 50 round mags/clips/whatever the gun would say it has 150 rounds), or somesuch

[Gauddlike]

Is that a request for a feature or for the ability to mod it?

[anotherdevil]

if you're referring to my post... neither and both. I don't think the game needs it, but it would be an interesting mechanic. Mainly just saying something that occurred to me as an idea =]

[Gauddlike]

It was a response to an earlier post, for some reason the forum doesn't always update for me.

It was pretty much answered though.

[Gorlom]

Will modders be able to add research topics and xenopedia pages? (I'm assuming you will just makeing sure)

[Chris]

Gorlom - you already can.

[Game_tester]

Some ideas for engine -

[IceVamp]

I like your wishlist Game_tester. And your choice of image host!