[Mod idea] I want a scout vehicle too!

I know the tank can function as a scout and I do use it, but it's bulky and takes a lot of space in the dropship. It also can't go through narrow places.

I think it would be great if we could get a scout vehicle similar to the flying saucers the aliens have, but maybe just a 1 tile big tracked vehicle in the beginning. Like one of those bomb disposal bots in use today. Either unarmed, or with a very weak gun, but should be cheap to replace. Maybe later research could upgrade it to a saucer too.

I don't know how to mod, but maybe someone who does could implement it. Maybe you could save the trouble of drawing new artwork by simply reducing the size of the unarmed scimitar tank art to one tile and maybe change the color. It could look the part.

I have modded drones and so on before but the game doesn't really like them.

It always assumes a vehicle is 3x3 even when you set it smaller.

That's strange, how does it deal with the alien 1-tile saucer then?

Yeah, Gauddlike tried helping me. you can sort-of do it with a 2x2 "block", but weird things happen like the vehicle dissapearing.

That's strange, how does it deal with the alien 1-tile saucer then?

It is just an alien like all of the others, the difference is in the sprite used.

It is not a player controlled object of the type 'vehicle' that acts differently to the objects of type 'soldier' or however the game expresses that difference.

How those objects are handled is likely buried deep in the code.

The game expects that a 'vehicle' will be 3x3, will require a 3x3 cursor, take up 3x3 slots on the dropship and so on.

You can define the actual vehicle unit as being 1x1 but the game will still try to make it fit into its expected 3x3 template.

That is not necessarily the case for aliens, different objects different rules.

That's too bad, so the game is quite hard to mod thoroughly, I presume?

The game was clearly designed to be flexible, but as time passed and money shrunk you can see where the devs have had to chop the flexibility down.

Yep, lot's of things are hardcoded. A lot of mod packs are about finding indirect ways to change things that the code would not normally allow. Even what seems a simple change is at times followed by hours of work.

On the other hand there are files that are very mod-friendly... So it depends what you actually want to change.

If you want scout's Im affraid you'll have to stick to those that are called "PVT".

Or you might want to try Kabills latest vehicle rebalance mod. He makes vehicles more role-specific.

http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/10546-Armoured-Assault-A-Vehicle-Balance-Mod

To be fair the devs have had a nightmare of a time trying to get some of the basic features working that they were not expecting to be difficult so I guess it is understandable that it is more difficult than it might appear to mod a lot of things.

This is what happens when you start out as a one man dev studio and take advice from the wrong person, you end up with a game engine that fights you rather than helps you do what you want.

Would it be possible for Solver to change something so we can have one tile drones?