(Mod Concept) Dynamic UFO Spawns

[Solver]

Soooo, kabill

[kabill]

Compatibility with v1.4, I presume?

Did you get a chance to play the last version I uploaded? As the latest vanilla build has made some changes to redress the funding issues, I'm wondering whether it would be best to revert back to the vanilla system as close as possible and see how that works before looking to make alterations for the mod again? But if you have any comments about the current version of the mod, it would be useful to have them before making any changes.

[Solver]

Yep, 1.04 is of course what I mean

I've played the latest version and had some lovely moments, but I have not gotten to Landing Ships yet, which was last time the point after which balance broke down. The early game has been absolutely fine as far as balance is concerned with your latest version.

By the way, is UFO crew AI variation in yet? I had a mission where Caesans seemed very aggressive, trying to move on to me as if it were a Terror mission. Could that already be the mod?

[kabill]

Ok, so it seems like the funding changes might have been useful. I'll use the (new) vanilla system for the update and see how that works, but can re-implement the changes in addition/instead depending on how that plays out.

In terms of UFO crews: I've made crew changes, yes. I didn't really change the AI assignments much, though, as I wanted to try and maintain distinctions between the different racial crews. Most of the changes are race changes (primarily swapping in/out support aliens depending on the mission type) and moving aliens between the UFO and outside. In doing the latter, though, it's likely that I added more aggressive aliens in some instances (for example, ground attack and terror mission crews tend to be more outside of the UFO, and it's possible I added in the extras as aggressive rather than passive aliens. I don't actually remember, though!). Alternatively, it might be weight of numbers: with more aliens outside the UFO, they might be more inclined to attack or group up or something. I don't know.

In short, then, it's plausible that it's something to do with the mod (and if so, yay!). But I couldn't say for certain. I've not really played the game properly unmodded for a while, so I've not got a good baseline for comparison.

(Hopefully, new version should be up within the next half hour and probably sooner).

[Solver]

Well then, just to mention two excellent points from the mod.

One is, as said, the surprising aggressive alien mission, if it can be ascribed to the mod. I was definitely taken by surprise when aliens on what should be an ordinary Scout were so aggressive.

And another very cool moment was that I got an unusually early Corvette. The first one showed up around the 15th of September. I shot it down, having just built a Foxtrot, and had a very interesting choice to make. Go for the ground mission, giving me a very significant head start on some research and the ability to obtain Electroshock Grenades easily in time for anything, or not. I decided in the end not to risk it, because I didn't yet have custom equipment for my soldiers, but that was a very interesting moment right there.

[kabill]

Update: New version released for v1.04.

In the end, I decided to leave the funding changes I added into v0.4 in. This is because the funding changes added into vanilla affect difficult levels, not the overall balance of the game. As such, if there were balance issues with this mod compared with the vanilla game, they'd still be present. Indeed, if you played the game on Veteran then I don't think there would be any obvious difference between Xenonauts v1.03 and v1.04, therefore the changes that I made for v1.03 should probably be applied to the 1.04 version as well.

Update aside, I've not changed anything else. Hopefully it will be possible to get a good run with this mod now.

EDIT: @Solve: Just saw your other post. I had a look at the Caesan scout crew loadouts. Overall, actually they're slightly more aggressive than vanilla and there's six aliens outside the UFO on a Ground Attack mission, which is I guess quite a lot if you don't have any die in the crash. So it's certainly possible.

Experiences with the early UFOs are cool, too. Although this was as much to do with landed UFOs as anything, in my last game I was similarly having to make decisions about whether it was worth going for missions (I was also play-testing my air combat mod, though, so that was forcing some tough choices about interceptions as well).

Edited June 10, 2014 by kabill

[Solver]

That is reasonable logic. On Veteran, vanilla does also nerf ground attack missions slightly, but that seems to be it.

[kabill]

Oh, you're right actually. I'd overlooked that. No matter. Can always tweak some more if necessary. In some ways it might be better for the game to be slightly easier than slightly harder, so at least you've more chance of getting all the way through.

[TacticalDragon]

Oh, you're right actually. I'd overlooked that. No matter. Can always tweak some more if necessary. In some ways it might be better for the game to be slightly easier than slightly harder, so at least you've more chance of getting all the way through.

Kabill,

The last update mess up a bit the mod, I recommend include Gameconfig.xml and add this parameter:

<fundingDamageModifier>

<Easy value="0.7" />

<Normal value="0.8" />

<Veteran value="0.9" />

<Insane value="1.0" />

</fundingDamageModifier>

The alien damage in founding is high enough that in veteran after 2 months 3 to 6 countries was lost.

!

Note: This is the balanced setting for XNT Into Darkness, I havent calculate it yet for vanilla. The set rules of alien invasion in the mod is.

alienAITickerIdle value="0.002435"

<eventsPenalty>

<Abduction land="40" sea="20"/>

<AirlinerShotdown land="50" sea="20" />

<MinorCivilianAttack land="60" sea="25" />

<MajorCivilianAttack land="90" sea="40" />

<MajorMilitaryAttack land="100" sea="50" />

</eventsPenalty>

[Kirill Selivanov]

and what about mixing alien races in one crew?

[kabill]

and what about mixing alien races in one crew?

I've thought about doing that in the past, but I was concerned about it removing flavour from the ground missions as if you start mixing crews too much, you'll lose the distinctions between them.

That's not to say that I'd rule it out, mind. But in the interest of maintaining some parity with the vanilla game I think it might be better to do that as an optional add-on rather than as a core element of the mod.

@TD: Looking at the funding damage for XNT, it looks like it's a lot higher than in the vanilla game which might be causing the issue. I'll keep it in mind, though, if the mod looks like it's doing something similar in vanilla.

[kabill]

Has anyone had chance to play the last version of this mod much? Just wondering whether there's anything worth tweaking before I update for the latest release.

[Kirill Selivanov]

kabill, it could be intresting event to terror missions and big UFOs like carriers and battleships wthere there are big crew. to smal crew it is not so useful so like to bases (alien type)as i think. But to take an advantage to have reaper and psi danger together... its a real taste of new feelings

[Solver]

I have had less playtime over the past week, but the latest version of the mod was quite good. I played up to where most ships are Landing Ships, and an occasional Cruisier, without major issues. I find that building my first Corsair as soon as feasible is a very good decision to deal with any unlucky Heavy Fighter spawns. But I did not experience a sudden insane jump difficulty as in the previous version.

[kabill]

Cool, I've not had chance to play much myself due to other modding and work. I'm still trying to decide when to do updates on all my mods as I'm not sure whether there's another patch planned soon or not. But when I do it, I'll probably just use the existing values for the time being and see how things go.

@Kirill: I'm quite interested in playing around with crews a little more. If I do, though, I'll probably do it as an optional download as I don't want to force too-extreme changes on people using this mod if they don't want it.

[kabill]

Update: Small update for compatibility with v1.06. No other balance changes, although I did correct an omission from 0.05 (I'd not increased the maximum UFO spawn count apparently).

[Solver]

I think I got a very unlucky RNG roll last night, as I had a Carrier appear in the first days of January (before any Cruisers even!), and that Carrier launched a terror mission. Which I was forced to ignore knowing that I was not yet capable of handling a 20+ strong terror crew. Can you confirm if that was just really bad luck, or is there a high chance of such early Carriers?

[kabill]

There's a 1/5 chance of pulling a carrier for a terror mission from mid-December onwards, according to my spreadsheet. So yes, although it depends on whether a 1/5 chance is enough for you to consider it 'unlucky'

That aside, I'm surprised you've not seen a single cruiser yet. That's definitely unlucky: Indeed, looking at the spreadsheet I'm surprised you managed to get through December without pulling at least one. (Though maybe you didn't detect them/the mission types didn't spawn?)

[Ragnarok]

kabill, can i use this mod together with community 0.2, advanced ballistic weapons and the "more maps" from Skbril (spelling) ?

Maybe you could do a modpack which includes your destructible, Crash sites and dynamic spawns mod please ?

[kabill]

I don't know whether this mod will work with community 0.2. I think the answer is "no" because the gameconfig file is the vanilla rather than the X:CE version. However, I'm intending to update all my mods to be compatible with the X:CE build in the future.

In terms of the other mods you indicates, I think that should be fine. Map packs won't be an issue at all. The advanced ballistic weapons mod should be fine; I don't know what it changes exactly but the only possible clash I can think of is if it changes something in gameconfig or the crew loadouts.

In terms of mod-packs, I will do this in the future but I've been waiting to make sure the balance is pretty solid before adding it to other things. I've not really got time to be testing it at the moment myself, which means I'm relying on other people to play it for me to get a sense of balance. It seems to be the case that it's pretty ok at least up until the late game, though, so if I don't get any further feedback before I update to X:CE I might make the current version of the mod v1.0 and start looking at combinations.

[Sentelin]

Edit:I didn't read whole Kabill post ignore this.

[kabill]

@Sentelin: I saw your post before editing and actually there was a good point there: you could actually use with mod with X:CE and just use the X:CE gameconfig file instead. The only changes I've made in that file are things to help with game balance but they're not instrumental in making the mod work. But I'll update soon enough in any case.

[kabill]

Update: The mod has been updated for compatibility with X:CE v0.21 and moved to the new completed mod subforum. Any further discussion should take place in that thread.