Xenonauts: Community Edition 0.28

Xenonauts: Community Edition 0.28 is now available!

Installation:

If you have Xenonauts on Steam, just right-click the game and from the Betas tab select the Community branch. Steam will update.

To install manually, download X:CE 0.28 from the downloads section. Then run the game, and install the downloaded file as a mod from the mod tools. Then go to assets/mods/xce, and copy Xenonauts.exe (and other executables if you want them) to the top level folder of your game installation. If the launcher prompts you to overwrite anything, say yes.

After that, it's strongly recommended that you install X:CE settings also (this is automatic on Steam), otherwise several important features will be disabled.

Changes in 0.28:

This build has a collection of various stuff here and there.

General:

• If you try to load a modded save with mods such as Lore+ on an unmodded game, the game will display a somewhat helpful error message instead of crashing.
  
• The collapsing building crash has been fixed. That is the crash that would occur after a unit moved in the vicinity of a destroyed building.
  
• Shields will now only fit in the primary weapon slot, not secondary. This fixes some animation issues.
  
• Airplanes will not show as having 0% health if they are actually alive.
  
• The third "roof toggle" mode that only shows the ground will now also show props very faintly so it's easier to orient yourself.
  
• Further fixes for angles in 3D LOS.
  

Gameplay:

• Fixed the Quantum Decryptor info. It will now correctly display multiracial crews instead of counting all aliens on the UFO as belonging to the main race.
  
• Morale stabilisation is no longer applied immediately. This means that, after your soldiers panic, they will actually show up as having low morale, thus preventing the apparent panicking of high-morale soldiers, which was never the case but appeared to be.
  
• Alien base size is now displayed on the Geoscape, this is especially useful with mods such as Dynamic UFOs. The bases are called Alien Outpost/Base/Fortress for small/medium/large respectively.
  
• Fixed a bug with soldier recovery. Recovery chance was supposed to scale depending on the soldier's hit points, but this was not the case. It now works as intended and recoveries will be less common.
  

Modding:

• The minimum hit points of an aircraft to be able to launch it are now configurable in gameconfig.xml.
  
• The soldier recovery formula is now moddable.
  
• A new "overkill threshold" value can be specified. If a soldier's HP fall below that value, then the soldier will be considered to have been killed with an overdamage weapon, regardless of the actual weapon used.
  
• ufocontents files now have a new structure that is simpler to use and allows better modding.
  
• Bugfixes
  

Quick question about X: CE Settings: how do I install it?

Via mod-manager the same as X: CE, or do I have to copy-paste the files in "Xenonauts\assets\mods\xce"?

Thanks for the answer.

Mod manager is simpler, although copy-pasting files would also work, I think. Mod manager will install it to assets/mods/xcesettings, and that is the best way of doing it.

Ok, cool, thanks for the super fast answer.

Awesome pack solver!

Always the best coders effort is very valuable and welcome.

My steam doesn't download any updates yet.

Steam download isn't working yet (in spite of what it says in the OP).

Sorry, I was having some problems with the Steam upload - 0.28 is now live on Steam and should be updating.

... aaand of course nothing works as it should.

I've just reuploaded the file, fixing a serious crash issue, so if you were too quick to download, you should do it again. Apologies!

The new ufo contents is pain in the butt to edit with notepad... Can I edit thse with open office or is it just excel?

LibreOffice should be absolutely fine, though it may break things for people who later try to open the file in Excel. But give it a try.

Solver, were you able to put those code hooks in we talked about?

Yes. I should later address it in the modding guide, feel free to test.

Basically, for terror and base attack missions, you can now specify a special Mission UFO Type (as in <UfoType>Mission</UfoType>), which will trigger once you complete the mission successfully. In the absence of such an entry, it will try to look for an Any entry. Given that Lore+ uses Any, I expect your old mission_researches to work correctly for terror/base defense with no further changes.

I'll change to to Mission, because if I keep it at Any it'll trigger on shot down UFOs as well as actual missions. Is it actually named Mission, or does it have a mission specific name?

It is named Mission, but my suggestion would be to keep it as is, perhaps? Why wouldn't I get the research when doing a shot-down terror UFO? My imagination is that I recover and analyze alien datacores that provide information on their plans and objectives.

ufocontents files now have a new structure that is simpler to use and allows better modding.

Which contents have been changed? In Assets\Ufocontents or mods\xce\ufocontents? The mods\xce\Ufocontents I have were from installing XCE using Steam branch.

It's the one in the mods/xce folder.

Ok, but it looks for me as the one in Assets\Ufocontents is easier to read. It contains only columns for missions the UFO can do, while in mods it contains columns with all mission types.

The old format limited mission flexibility, and used magic strings like 2_3. That is less easy to understand for a new person than simple min/max numbers in separate columns.

I'm sorry, but this new format for the UFOcontents confuses the hell out of me. Nothing makes any sense, the older format worked much better in my opinion.

Or maybe it's because I'm just looking at it in Notepad++?

You should edit it in Excel.

I just installed OpenOffice to test that out. I see now :-) Thanks.

Not sure if Open Office works. There's another program that's been mentioned, though, LibreOfficer or something like that?

For what it's worth, the new ufocontents files are actually much better for doing stuff with modding than the old ones and, compared with the vanilla ones, actually a lot easier to change in spreadsheet form. It's unfortunate that text editing the files has become more difficult though.

Nope, even LibreOffice doesn't cut it. It just corrupts all the files. (even though it displays them correctly)

Ah, fair enough. Didn't realise that's what you'd been trying to use.