Xenonauts Choices Mod Part 2

Xenonaut Choices Part 2

Introduction

I am releasing this Mods "Part 2". It introduces about 8 new Aircraft. There is a new fighter alternative available at similar times to the in game aircraft being made available for research. This creates more player choice and allows for different air combat tactics. (Its not all about speed and fire power).

What was in Part 1

Mainly added new items, weapons & Tech trees to the game. At the last count it added around 70 items/weapons to the game, all with full research paths. We had Mine Launchers, Alien Proximity Scanners (Film Aliens), Grenade Launchers, Combat Stims, Hypo Sprays, Lightning Weapons, Tranq Guns n Crossbows and hopefully a shed load of other things that you would really like to find in this kind of game.

What is the Concept

Sometimes games are very linear and the path you take is drip fed to you. I personally hate games that progressively get harder as you level up or get items. If I lived in such a world I would never pick anything up or attempt to better myself, because as soon as you do all your enemies level up too. I would downgrade to a club and go beat my enemies while they are weak

Hopefully this mod is designed so that good choices are rewarded by actually making the game easier. This is a bit experiment and I am not sure how much I am going to have to tweak things to make it work.

The idea of Xenonaut Choices is an attempt to cater less for the casual gamer and more for those who want a whole lot more out of their game. What I am attempting to do is add lots of extra command choices in an attempt to really mix things up; Do you work broadly across the Tech Trees in attempt to be an all rounder, or do you work deeply perfecting in each category before moving on. This will test your skill as a commander.

Summary Of Changes

• Gui Changes
  
• New Projectiles
  
• New Weapons & Items (Lots)
  
• New Tech Trees
  
• New Particle Effects
  
• New Sounds
  
• New Fighter Aircraft & Weapons
  

How Is Game Balance Effected

I actually like the balance of the vanilla game and found it challenging but not so difficult that I had to save it every time my soldier blinked. So in general terms I have tried to keep the game balance at about the same level, however I also wanted to give a sense of progression and reward good choices so the mid term part of the game should actually be easier if you are playing well.

I also wanted to heighten that sense of achievement by making the start of the game much more difficult. This has been achieved not by upgrading the aliens but by downgrading your arsenal to be underfunded options for the time period. This I feel fits with the Game story well, as its obvious that your worldwide organization wasn't taken seriously by the fact that you only had a few planes and only one base. That is of course until the Invasion at which point the world would have your full attention but unfortunately any spare funds they had are now channelled elsewhere try to bolster up local defences etc.. Therefore Its down to your leadership skills to procure the funds needed.

Regarding Air Combat I again have tried to keep the balance equivalent to the vanilla game. However on play through I have to admit that it has come out making Air Combat a little easier over all. Therefore If you did not play out the dogfights on your first play through, then its worth doing so now as it feels much more rewarding and fun. That being said learning good tactics is still a must. You can always play the game through on a harder setting if you want more of a challenge however I found playing my mod on normal difficulty was still challenging but more enjoyable.

To give you more of an idea of the balance change, The inbuilt Marauder still plays out in dogfights like the most powerful fighter in the game. Even when the auto-resolve tells me I have no chance of winning a dogfight I can still win by manually playing the dogfight with a Vanilla Marauder. None of my added aircraft are as powerful so hopefully that gives you an idea of the balance.

Economy

The idea was and still is, to allow opportunities for manufacturing for profit. The world suddenly needs weapons right, and you have a crack team of scientists. Are you going to devote resources to making manufacturing plants and setup business. Its harsh but maybe its the only way you are going to win the war of course the choice is yours. I have added a few items that will make a good profit and some that will lose you money. The first few rounds of weapon and item research will result in unlimited quantities to reflect the ease of sourcing or manufacture, however as better and better items are researched they will need to be manufactured and require rare parts etc.

GUI Changes

I have tried to keep them to the minimum as part one of my mod, however I have in the short term at least had to expand out some of the menus to fit all the extra stuff in. (Otherwise the little scroll-wheel on your mouse will be worn out.)

Ballistic Lovers

Yes I have tried to cater for you and it is possible to complete the game with ballistics only. Since programs like Stargate and similar have been around, it seems that there is a demand for old and new technologies to coexisting in games. So although more Hi-Tech weaponry options will turn up in my mod you can still keep updating ballistics. There may be an eventual limit on damage, however you can keep investigating weapons that chuck out more rounds per minute of have other advantages. If you go this route there is plenty to keep you busy.

Pacifists

For those who like to play the game with as little blood shed and deaths as possible there is a pacifist route, however I think it would be so difficult to get past the begging part of the game without killing an Alien that you would have to compromise. I do however lay down the challenge.

Armour

Not this release I am afraid, Its a timely operation and I think I will add these as late steps to my final mod. However short term I made my gui images for my male shoulders have a more beefed up and muscled look. Hopefully I have made the female soldiers look more feminine without crossing in to the realms of being sexist.

CREDITS

If you like the graphics on the Weapons then its time I introduced you to an awesome site that will hopefully make your modding life easier.

http://pimpmygun.doctornoob.com/app.php

The weapons here very much match the graphics of the game.

You can use the weapons listed or use the tool to create your very own designs using pre created parts.

Installation

Dont forget to take a backup of you Xenonuats folder first.

Download the and uncompress the Changes Folder.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/vzyvivbi6jdqjgl/Changes.rar

Copy the contents of the changes folder into your "assets" folder.

Recommended Mods That Work Well With This One.

• Skitsos Ultimate Megamix Map Pack 2000
  
• Skitsos Sleek AI turn mod
  

There is another mod called "Fire in the Hole" which is fantastic and should have been part of the core game if you ask my opinion, however its not possible to integrate without some modding knowledge as some of the files are shared.

Aditional Things Of Interest

This Mod returns enemy weapons captured in combat back to the Equipment screen. You can use them or sell them of like regular items. I have not found in my playthroughs that it unbalances the game in any great way as they are very inaccurate.

You can rebuild captured enemy fighter aircraft and convert them to be pilot-less remotely operated fighters.

I have added Double Barrel Shotguns to the game and these have the ability to fire both barrels at once at no extra timecost.

I think this adds a nice little tactical dilema to the game as it leaves your soldier very prone if he has fired both shots as he is now defensless until he reloads.

Flamethrowers are back in, however you may not be too overwhelmed by my implementation. In my opinion they are betting in than out, even if they do not have the original cool triangular spread pattern that was intended.

Feedback

From feedback so far I know I have at the very least a small following of people who like what I have done. I hope this next instalment continues to please. Thanks again for all your feedback, and I have not forgotten the special requests for additional content. I will try to get all the requests implemented by the time I finish my final Mod.

Known Issues

There was an issue with Ammo not appearing in the Equipment screens for enemy weapons. This has now been resolved.

The Crashing at end of ground combat issue also seems to have been resolved.

I have noticed that my speed enhancer item is now no longer working since moving up a version. I will either get this working or remove it from my final mod.

My Favourite Addition

Is the ability to call Airstrikes from within a ground combat mission. You need a reasonable spec machine otherwise the explosion is real laggy, but seeing that mushroom shaped explosion taking out everything in site is real fun.

A costly option in more ways than one, but as said before the choice is yours.

Next Steps

Part 3 will be about adding new Vehicles or I might have a go at making some armour. Not quite sure yet.

I had a request from Kiel to add more Enemy Weapons, I think its a cool idea and will put these in as the final stages of the mod. + any more interesting Items I can think of.

Research if Area Effect Healing possible

Put Alien Praetor Gun in

Put Alien Flamethrower in

Put in new Dropships if Community Maps will support.

(Max came up with an idea to create "extradropship" place holder that could be added to all community maps as a modding standard)

Thanks for Reading.....

Love u very much!How many part will there be?

Not sure how many more parts.

There is room for a few more ground vehicles.

I want to add some armous.

Possibly add something to the base, so I guess I have a few more parts to go.

Nice, nice! Keep it up!

There is another mod called "Fire in the Hole" which is fantastic and should have been part of the core game if you ask my opinion, however its not possible to integrate without some modding knowledge as some of the files are shared.

This will hopefully be redundant soon since the next release will be fully modularised, but until then you're welcome to package FitH with this mod if you'd like (either as standard or as a separate download).

Can u add a armor that can cloak or Camouflage?

This will hopefully be redundant soon since the next release will be fully modularised, but until then you're welcome to package FitH with this mod if you'd like (either as standard or as a separate download).

Thanks Kabill, I will package it with my mod as it makes it easier for those downloading.

Can u add a armor that can cloak or Camouflage?

I am not sure if we can create armours that cloak or camouflage, however I would really like this too. I am not sure we are aloud to mention the competition, however they had a camouflage armour in Xcom enemy unknown that was really cool.

I am not sure what effects we can even include in armours as yet as I have not investigated, but it would re really nice if we could mimic some of the aliens special abilities like regeneration etc.

When will you finish the mod?

The game f**king crash after the ground combat again.

There was nobody dead and it was a UFO Ground Assault.( i am playing 1.07,because i want the speed enhancer)

As angry as you may be, swearing isn't going to help. A savegame is far more useful. And.. what speed enhancer? 1.07 and onwards were just bugfixes, as ar as I can see.

The game f**king crash after the ground combat again.

There was nobody dead and it was a UFO Ground Assault.( i am playing 1.07,because i want the speed enhancer)

Hmmm not sure why the crashing is still happening. I also had a crash on my part 2 of this mod. I then removed all other mods used a

clean build and am only using the vanilla game plus my mod. I am playing it through and not one crash.

Do you have other mods installed?

At the moment I am strongly thinking of ditching this little project.

Do you use intel CPU ?If you do check in airprops.xml that "DisableAlienAnimation" is disabled (that value is 0).

As for ditching project,I think you shouldn't.Because believe me on XNT was at that spot once (before I joined team).Little feedback,no intrest ... but somehow everything worked out.Also video clip or more screenshots would certainly help and at some point you will add something intresting that will attract people,so don't give up.

V1.07 has crashes in it, so you really should just update to V1.09. You can still switch on the disabled move animations in V1.09 (but it'll cause the invulnerable alien bug just as it does in V1.07).

ok,i am sorry for being rude. i will try to update to 1.09

Hi All, I am going to stop developing this mod. I will leave it as is if anybody wants to download and fix it. I am not sure what causes the random crashes at the end of some missions. I will be rebuilding my mod into new versions of the source files but I will be using the community edition.

However all the items I created in this game are hopefully going to be imported into the xenophobia mod so if you liked my items and aircraft the will be available there but hopefully without the crashes.