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The Lore+ project


Max_Caine

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This Works With: VERSION 1.08HF

The fusion of two mods

People have asked me previously if I could combine two fanon lore mods, the Alien Class Analysis mod made by myself and a333, which helps with distinguishing different classes in the alien heirarchy, and the UFO Mission Analysis mod, by myself and the artist Henry Ponciano which helps with working out what missions mean what. I've been combining them on the sly for a while now, so I'd like to announce in this post that both mods are now offically "joined". Any updates or changes to either mod will be reported here. While both mods retain their titles and I will also retain separate files for both mods (because people might not want both mods), the new mod they form both parts of will be called Lore+.

To install

Currently Lore+ is present in a number of other mods. If you want Lore+ by itself, then backup the following files:

researches.xml

strings.xml

xenopedia.xml

Then copy and paste the files in the zip into /xenonauts/assets/, and opt to overwrite the three files you've backed up. Done correctly, you should overwrite the three files you have backed up, and added a number of images to the /xenopediaimages/ folder.

Links

For the most recent version of Xenonauts

Lore+ Version 1.08

For previous versions of Xenonauts

Lore+ Version 1.07

Lore+ Version 1.06

Alternate Lore+ Version 1.06

Updates

23/03/2014: All images for ACA resized following bug found by lifehole.

23/03/2014: v21 stable Release Candidate now updated for v21 stable

17/07/2014: Updated for 1.08HF

Edited by Max_Caine
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There was a hiss of rejection as the automated doors of the LA bioscrape clinic closed, sealing it's inhabitants once more against a harsh external world. thothkins pulled the coat collar tighter against the persistent warm rain whose reflections turn the city into a twisted fun house of neon. thothkins walked unsteadily, reaching tentatively with each step as if unaccustomed to such movement.

It had been months on the operating table and of long suffering through the recuperation. But now, with HATE written on every atom of every molecule of every cell of thothkins body, there would be changes to this darkened world. Nothing would ever be the...

"Oh what Max?! Yer kiddin' me?!"

"Yeah, well the same to you pal. I didn't even know what "fanonise" meant anyway, ya rat!"

thothkins moved awkwardly into the throng of people, lost in a crowd of extras in their own lives. With so much pointless, self created hate in every cell, how far away could the first celebrity blog be?

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I've been wanting to post something but have been too busy.

My suggestion would be maybe one on the aliens' ranks. Maybe it talks about the roles of guards, soldiers, warriors, etc.. I think that would be cool.

also, a project of what the aliens do in their downtime. (alien entertainment)

Finally, Reaper handling. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.

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I would have liked to see something about the actual background of the game mechanics that explains those things people tend to wonder about.

Why do the funding nations only give relatively small amounts of cash rather than flooding Xenonauts with their whole defence budget?

Why do we have to buy our own weapons rather than just asking for another hundred crates from our lapdogs... I mean funders.

What actually happens when one of our aircraft is shot down but somehow manages to reappear in our hangar to be repaired?

Why can the Chinook fly right around the world in one trip but the long range interceptors not keep up?

Why are the soldiers made available to Xenonauts recruiters not already 100 in all stats?

Starting to sound like an in game lore themed manual which might not be very interesting...

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A few quick ideas for Gauddlike's questions, though I might flesh these out a bit more later...

Funding provided by nations: The member nations don't have much stock in the Xenonaut project. They prefer to believe in their own military and as such, they only pay lip service to a project that's doomed to fail. By having the Xenonaut project, they hope to at least slow the enemy advance until such a time that they can more effectively fight and repel them.

What happens when an aircraft is downed: (I'm not sure if it's a 100% return rate thing as I've lost a few) Unfortunately, the aircraft was severely damaged in the most recent skirmish. Luckily, the skill and determination of the pilot prevented the total loss of our aircraft. They were able to return to base (albeit barely) and land. Due to the damage being so severe, it will be a long while before this aircraft is ready for action again.

Why are the soldiers not at 100 already: Being that our member nations do not believe in the project, they have chosen not to send the best of their forces. They prefer to keep their elite soldiers for their own defense. The soldiers that they have provided are either rookies, or those deemed "expendable" by them. While this means that we are forced to train them ourselves, it does offer us the opportunity to train them in our fashion and to use unconventional tactics.

---

I hope these are at least a bit useful...

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All mods install in pretty much the same way.

Note that any other mods that alter the same files will not be compatible as the files are overwritten, not merged.

Extract the mod zip file into the xenonauts/assets folder.

It contains:

researches.xml, strings.xml, and xenopedia.xml which will overwrite the originals so back those up first if you want to be able to easily return to the vanilla version.

It also contains a xenopediaimages folder with the new artwork but these will not overwrite any other images.

There may have been changes to these three files in the recent v21 stable candidate update.

Those changes will not be reflected in this mod until Max updates it.

For example any names that showed as ##### in v21.5 but were fixed in the stable candidate will return to ##### with the mod.

I believe this mod may also break mag weapon unlocks again as well as a new research topic was added to researches.xml as a pre requisite in the stable candidate.

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Okay, I've had some thoughts on trying to explain aircraft recovery. This was hard, and I'm not sure it holds up too well. What do folks think of this?

--------------

Aircraft Recovery

As the Appropriations Committee is only too quick to remind me, we are not made out of money. While we receive a sizeable discount on the cost of the Condor, it would only take a few aircraft written off in failed sorties to bankrupt an organisation of our size and doom the planet. As it is statistically likely we will loose aircraft, we are forced into the position of trying to make and mend as best we can. To that end my team has put considerable thought into making Condors as crash resistant as possible. The fuel tanks and fuelling system are well armoured and the ammo compartment for the vulcan is designed to to blow out to mininimse the event of a catastrophic mid-air explosion. The airframe is especially strengthened, and we have the best autopilots money can buy so when a pilot ejects the aircraft can still come to some kind of a landing. The chief engineer has assured me that provided we can recover most of the aircraft, he and his team can rebuild it and get it into operational order (although I personally wouldn't trust anything those trolls get their paws on). However, this all takes time. Rebuild estimations suggest that it takes at least a week before a crashed interceptor can be operational again, so bear that in mind. And before you ask, no, we can't rebuild Charlies. Neither I nor the Chief engineer have wings or magic wands, so if one of those gets shot down you'll have to suck it up and find the money for a new one.

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Maybe you could mention something about pilots being ordered to disengage and try for a crash landing if damage becomes critical to try and preserve the aircraft rather than fighting on until ejecting and losing it completely is the only option?

Otherwise it actually sounds pretty good.

Still don't believe it but that's because I have seen the condition of several crashed aircraft and not because of your writing :P

Also: lose not loose.

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It is much easier with the later craft.

Alien alloys can resist impact damage well enough that the airframes can be put back into working order with enough time.

Maybe early ones are just made of the same stuff they make black boxes out of?

They almost always survive...

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Okay, so I've thought about forced ditching.... how about this:

"Aside from armour and toughening the aircraft, one of my junior colleagues with a mischevious streak suggested that we reprogram the flight control software in our Condors to exagurate any actual damage sustained, and place strategic smoke packages around the craft to simulate damage. This fools alien aircraft into thinking they have done serious harm, and encourages pilots to either break off or if they are idiotic enough to continuing fighting, to ditch their aircraft before it suffers irrepairable harm.

Hopefully these parlour tricks will not be necessary when we get our hands on a real alien UFO. A UFO's resistance to damage would make an ideal base to work from in making aircraft that could take serious damage and still be patched up in the hangar."

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The current two mods that compose the lore+ mod work with v20, but I've still to get around to doing the v21 stable (experimental) version. At this current time, the latest version they work with is v21 Ex5, so I will pull my finger out and get the v21 stable (experimental) version done tomorrow.

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Stun weapons ####' listing has only just been fixed by Chris, might not even be in the stable candidate yet.

Remember that the mod files will only be as up to date as the version they are based on.

There should be no game stopping bugs but some display name bugs and so on will definitely be kept by any mod using strings.xml.

I like the 'parlour tricks', sounds like something I would have done :P

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For aircraft crashing, as long as the fuel system is purged and the turbine doesn't over-torque, there is no practical risk of fire. All military jets have a fuel purge system (meant more to balance or shift fuel around the fuel system due to bladder damage) that can be used before crash landings to lessen the risk of fuel fire. The pilot can also disconnect his aircraft's onboard APU before he ejects (Or it can be automated by computer when the ejection seat is activated) that will shut off onboard electrical systems, removing another risk of fire AND shutting down/stalling the turbines.

The Autopilot system could then engage in a rough landing on a seperate onboard battery, since there is no risk of pilot injury and the concern is preserving the airframe as much as possible, it can easily avoid elevation changes (like hills and mountains), though avoiding things like forests and buildings would require enough battery juice that the system could do update sweeps with onboard radar so it doesn't plow into somebody's house or start a forest fire.

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This is some really good stuff! Thanks, TornadoADV. Let’s try and put this all together.

“As the Appropriations Committee is only too quick to remind me, we are not made out of money. Our budget is limited by the goodwill of our sponsors, and while we receive a sizeable discount on the cost of our Condors it would only take a few aircraft written off in failed sorties to bankrupt an organisation of our size and doom the planet.

Depressingly, it is statistically likely that aircraft will be shot down so we’re forced into the position of having to recover and patch up downed aircraft as best we can. I don’t need to tell you how difficult that would be under the best of circumstances so my team has put considerable thought into making Condors as recoverable as possible. The first risk we addressed was fire and the potential for a catastrophic explosion which would destroy the aircraft. We have armoured the fuel tanks and fuelling system, improved the fuel purging mechanism and included both manual and automatic cutoffs to the onboard electrical systems. The ammo compartment for the vulcan is designed to blow out to prevent ammo from “cooking off”, and automatic systems are in place to prevent the turbine from over-torquing.

Following that, we turned to the problem of surviving a crash. The airframe is especially strengthened and we have the best autopilots money can buy and intelligence can create so when a pilot ejects the aircraft can manage a landing which the aircraft could survive, but a pilot wouldn’t. Aside from armour and toughening the aircraft, one of my junior colleagues with a mischievous streak suggested that we reprogram the flight control software in our Condors to exaggerate any actual damage sustained, and place strategic smoke packages around the craft to simulate damage. This fools alien aircraft into thinking they have done serious harm, and encourages pilots to either break off or if they are idiotic enough to continuing fighting, to ditch their aircraft before it suffers irreparable harm. Hopefully these parlour tricks won’t be necessary when we get our hands on a real alien UFO. A UFO's resistance to damage would make an ideal base to work from in making aircraft that could take serious damage and still be patched up in the hangar.

The chief engineer has assured me that provided we can recover most of the aircraft intact, he and his team can rebuild it and get it into operational order (although I personally wouldn't trust anything those trolls get their paws on). However, this all takes time. Rebuild estimations suggest that it takes at least a week before a crashed interceptor can be operational again, so bear that in mind. And before you ask, no, we can't rebuild Charlies. Neither I nor the Chief engineer have wings or magic wands, so if one of those gets shot down you'll have to suck it up and find the money for a new one.”

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best autopilots money can buy and intelligence can create so when a pilot ejects the aircraft can manage a landing which the aircraft could survive, but a pilot wouldn’t.

I don't like the sound of that part.

Can't place why though.

Maybe something like 'best autopilots money can buy and intelligence can create. This autopilot can execute a recoverable crash landing that would be impossible for a human pilot to survive'.

Edited by Gauddlike
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