OpenXcom 1.0: Hugging Chryssalids like it was 1994

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > OpenXcom 1.0: Hugging Chryssalids like it was 1994

Pimpmust: Oct 1, 2008

Yeah I'm that guy, just took me ~2 years to get going :v:

Autopsy is coming along, but the table-shading is a pain in the rear end.

Planning to post a package (on your forum too) once I got everything working ingame (more or less).

Some content:

Autopsy posted:

Veronians are bio-technological organisms, each individual differs slightly on closer inspection and they may be primarily biologically produced rather than manufactured as previously speculated.
We have determined that the exterior battle armor is an external growth of the interior organism with some technological modifications, in particular the shoulder mounted cooling devices.
As for the interior biomass, the closest terrestial genetical pairing would be that of the myxogastrids, or a form of slime mold. Contrary to the terrestial kind, these appear to possess some form of higher intellect but it is doubtful that it is compatible with our own.
The interior biomass gives of a considerable amount of heat even in death, which we believe is used to propel the exoskeleton when alive.
It's three sensory organs are interconnected beneath the armor and is what gives the Veronian it's frightening fast reflexes against moving targets.
The exoskeleton ability to absorb heat grants a formidable resistance against energy based attacks, but is vulnerable to piercing attacks and should do considerable damage to the interior.

Interrogation posted:

Veronians manerism is precise to the point of robotic but the creatures are in fact almost entirely biological.
They employ group tactics and do not display hesitation even under extreme pressure, suggesting a higher intellect or some form of programming. They are highly resistant against any sort of mental stimulation and unlike other aliens encountered are not susceptible to telepathic commands.

The Veronian resists all forms of interrogation, being highly resistant to non-life threatening forms of violence, and appear to lack any means of verbal communication. In captivity it shows no signs of aggression unless severely provoked. The Veronian does not appear to require any known form of nourishment, nor does it breath or enter into sleep as far as we can determine, although it does quickly become inert when isolated, presumably to preserve energy.

In combat it is as fearless as it is tireless, although possessing considerable strength it is a poor close combat combatant, prefering to stay at longer range. Aside from combat capabilities the Veronian possess considerable engineering and navigation skills, suggesting a purpose within the alien hierarchy.

More of a bullet-point list than the finished product. Haven't checked yet how it looks in game but I'm guessing it will need to be shorter.

Pimpmust fucked around with this message at 12:12 on Jul 20, 2014

# ? Jul 20, 2014 09:05

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 06:43

Hedera Helix: Sep 2, 2011; The laws of the fiesta mean nothing!

Thank you thank you thank you so much for adding the ability to strafe! It makes going around corners so much less deadly.

edit: Oh no, you got rid of the fake walls in the Lightning. Now you can't deploy in all directions.

Hedera Helix fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Jul 22, 2014

# ? Jul 21, 2014 23:49

Zaphod42: Sep 13, 2012; If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Mr. Fortitude posted:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-COM:_Apocalypse#Mega-Primus

"Originally, the game was going to be much larger and be even more in-depth, with political intrigue helping to bring the city of Mega-Primus to life. An unimplemented weapon called the Tracker Gun could be fired at an unsuspecting enemy, attaching some kind of tracer onto his clothes. The person could then be trailed around the city by one or more X-COM agents. All of this political intrigue was cut down to the bare bones due to the following constraints."

Sounds kinda like Syndicate, which is already kinda like XCOM. I could be down for that.

Pimpmust posted:

Some content:

Now I want the accompanying ufopedia text

# ? Jul 22, 2014 16:20

Selenephos: Jul 9, 2010

Zaphod42 posted:

Sounds kinda like Syndicate, which is already kinda like XCOM. I could be down for that.

The development section on that same page goes into more detail too. Supposedly there were multiple alien dimensions that were randomly generated and as X-COM were progressing with research trees, so too were the enemy. You could form alliances with other organizations and corporate entities or kidnap and interrogate them if you suspected they were hiding something and the influence of those organizations could expand or decline during gameplay depending on your actions or the alien actions.

It was basically way too ambitious for the time and cut mostly due to time constraints and the technology just wasn't there at the time, but it'd be nice if they could be reimplemented nowadays.

# ? Jul 22, 2014 16:44

primaltrash: Feb 11, 2008; (Thought-ful Croak)

armoredgorilla posted:

Are there any tutorials on creating and implementing new terrain? Using the existing assets only, not creating new assets. I was able use Mapview to view the route maps, floorplans, etc, but couldn't work out how to change anything or create a new map.

Throwing it out there again, anyone know what I'm looking for here?

# ? Jul 22, 2014 16:45

SupSuper: Apr 8, 2009; At the Heart of the city is an Alien horror, so vile and so powerful that not even death can claim it.

armoredgorilla posted:

Throwing it out there again, anyone know what I'm looking for here?

Map making is an old forgotten art that only the wisest of elder fans know.

These old tutorials might help: https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenxcomMods
If you still have questions, I'd suggest just asking in our forums, as that's where all the modding community hangs out.

# ? Jul 22, 2014 17:40

primaltrash: Feb 11, 2008; (Thought-ful Croak)

SupSuper posted:

Map making is an old forgotten art that only the wisest of elder fans know.

These old tutorials might help: https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenxcomMods
If you still have questions, I'd suggest just asking in our forums, as that's where all the modding community hangs out.

Extremely helpful, thank you! No idea if I'll do anything useful with it.

# ? Jul 22, 2014 18:09

hackbunny: Jul 22, 2007; I haven't been on SA for years but the person who gave me my previous av as a joke felt guilty for doing so and decided to get me a non-shitty av

Pimpmust posted:

If I may criticize a little, this looks a little like a smaller picture scaled up. There's something about the lines and textures...

Pimpmust posted:

quote:
Aside from combat capabilities the Veronian possess considerable engineering and navigation skills, suggesting a purpose within the alien hierarchy.

Haha, I can picture their insides contorting into a model of the outside environment and possible trajectories to solve a navigation problem :v:

# ? Jul 22, 2014 19:39

teethgrinder: Oct 9, 2002

Finally got my Avenger built. I completely forgot some important research paths, so my play-through has turned out to be a little more honest.

Loving the small quality-of-life improvements. The lack of an 80 item limit sells the remake if nothing else.

I think my favourite improvement that overall makes the classic game so much more reasonable to play in modern times is simply how much more robust the path-finding is. Makes the micromanagement of troops substantially less tedious.

That said, vanilla equipping of troops was a complete deal-breaker before xcomutil and UFO Extender.

# ? Jul 25, 2014 03:29

primaltrash: Feb 11, 2008; (Thought-ful Croak)

I was just watching a TFTD video and I never really noticed it before, but when you zoom in on the geoscape, you can see different major rivers of the world. Makes me wonder if there was some sort of alien activity they intended to have in those locations, but never went through with.

# ? Jul 25, 2014 16:34

Alikchi: Aug 18, 2010; Thumbs up I agree

Alien Riverboat Terror Assault In: Vicksburg

# ? Jul 25, 2014 17:54

primaltrash: Feb 11, 2008; (Thought-ful Croak)

Something I noticed while dicking around in Mapview ...

In the UFO ship route maps, they all have exit routes that lead to adjacent squares.

In TFTD, only UFO04 and UFO05 have those exit routes. So it looks like any alien that spawns in most ships will never leave their ship's map blocks?

Also, the smaller subs that don't even spawn flying units have movement nodes on top of the subs. Just in case, I guess? Maybe they had plans for an Ethereal or Floater-like race and never went through with it.

primaltrash fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Jul 27, 2014

# ? Jul 27, 2014 04:27

Pimpmust: Oct 1, 2008

Is there any place to find crash-logs?

I've switched computer, so I had to do a fresh install and of course X-Com bugs out on me despite using the same mod files as before, had to go through the YAML parser and remove every single space in the file between stuff like "stamina: 60" :iiam:

So now the mod loads, but the moment I try to launch any sort of random skirmish battle using the Veronians it just crashes without a error message (other than the standard windows one). This coding language is a lot more frustrating to mod for than Paradox :saddowns:

# ? Aug 2, 2014 09:25

teethgrinder: Oct 9, 2002

WOOT! Finished it finally! Could have done the final mission in November, but waited to December to have a second month of Psi training done. Unfortunately I hosed up sorting my troops and still brought some mental-weaklings with me. Commander didn't survive the second assassination attempt.

Should have stats at the end

I don't remember how it was in the original, but it was kind of odd that my troops retained their spent TUs/energy between the two phases of the final mission.

# ? Aug 3, 2014 01:46

3 Stacked Midgets: Jul 29, 2004; Triple Threat

Also finally beat the game.

I think that everything gets less enjoyable as soon as lots of psi enemies show up in-game. Makes me want to try out some of the mods that restrict it to line of sight, permit aliens to pick up guns, or remove it entirely. Once you get ~3 psi capable soldiers with high stats, you might as well beeline to Cydonia because you can roll over anything the game throws at you while barely leaving the landing craft.

This is much better than using XComUtil and DosBox. I experienced no bugs or crashes. I also second other people who noticed that the AI is much better now. They'll use their grenades often, even early in the game. One thing that I've noticed, though, is that they're not nearly as aggressive as they could be with blaster launchers.

# ? Aug 11, 2014 02:43

Typical Pubbie: May 10, 2011

3 Stacked Midgets posted:

One thing that I've noticed, though, is that they're not nearly as aggressive as they could be with blaster launchers.

You... you want them to be more aggressive with the mini-nukes?

# ? Aug 11, 2014 03:40

SupSuper: Apr 8, 2009; At the Heart of the city is an Alien horror, so vile and so powerful that not even death can claim it.

Pimpmust posted:

Is there any place to find crash-logs?

I've switched computer, so I had to do a fresh install and of course X-Com bugs out on me despite using the same mod files as before, had to go through the YAML parser and remove every single space in the file between stuff like "stamina: 60"

So now the mod loads, but the moment I try to launch any sort of random skirmish battle using the Veronians it just crashes without a error message (other than the standard windows one). This coding language is a lot more frustrating to mod for than Paradox

Sorry there are no useful logs as most crash info can only really be pulled out with a debugger.

If you post your mod I can probably tell you what's wrong. You can also try this user-made validator: http://falkooxc.pythonanywhere.com/

teethgrinder posted:

I don't remember how it was in the original, but it was kind of odd that my troops retained their spent TUs/energy between the two phases of the final mission.

That's been fixed in the nightly.

3 Stacked Midgets posted:

Also finally beat the game.

I think that everything gets less enjoyable as soon as lots of psi enemies show up in-game. Makes me want to try out some of the mods that restrict it to line of sight, permit aliens to pick up guns, or remove it entirely.

From my experience, the problem with nerfing psi is that it it makes psi-aliens a cakewalk and then you've basically nerfed all of late-game (specially Cydonia). Vanilla psi is cheesy but necessary, it's the one thing that can turn against you the brutal firepower you got to take on Mutons.

3 Stacked Midgets posted:

Once you get ~3 psi capable soldiers with high stats, you might as well beeline to Cydonia because you can roll over anything the game throws at you while barely leaving the landing craft.

Well, yeah, that's kind of the point. Once you reach Psi-Amp/Blaster-Launcher tier, you're probably already 80% of the way through the game, just go on to Cydonia already. There's no point in playing the long game, eventually the challenge ends.

A lot of people like playing vanilla X-COM like a never-ending game, but I don't think it really works that way. The progression is fixed. You have human weapons, they have plasma. You get better human weapons, they get better plasma weapons. You get their weapons, they get better aliens. You get better soldiers, they throw psi at you. Once you've beaten all that, you're done. You've made it through all the layers, enjoy your just reward. All the challenge comes from fighting overwhelming odds, but eventually you beat those odds, you get your catharsis, you win. Then you do it all over again. And again. And again. :getin:

3 Stacked Midgets posted:

This is much better than using XComUtil and DosBox. I experienced no bugs or crashes. I also second other people who noticed that the AI is much better now. They'll use their grenades often, even early in the game. One thing that I've noticed, though, is that they're not nearly as aggressive as they could be with blaster launchers.

Blaster launcher AI had to be specifically nerfed otherwise the aliens will just launch it into your Skyranger turn 1. Trust us, it's for your own good.

SupSuper fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Aug 11, 2014

# ? Aug 11, 2014 04:36

Hedera Helix: Sep 2, 2011; The laws of the fiesta mean nothing!

SupSuper posted:

Blaster launcher AI had to be specifically nerfed otherwise the aliens will just launch it into your Skyranger turn 1. Trust us, it's for your own good.

Would this happen to be related to when an alien will throw a grenade into the craft at the start of a mission? Because I haven't seen it happen once, since switching to OpenXcom.

_{Also, is there any chance you could implement an option for the the Lightning to have five-way deployment again? Thanks in advance}

# ? Aug 11, 2014 05:10

Jade Star: Jul 15, 2002; It burns when I LP

The previous versions i tested for Super had a mechanic that aliens wouldn't throw grenades on turns 1 or 2. specifically to prevent skyranger massacres.

# ? Aug 11, 2014 10:56

hackbunny: Jul 22, 2007; I haven't been on SA for years but the person who gave me my previous av as a joke felt guilty for doing so and decided to get me a non-shitty av

... meanwhile TFTD doesn't give a gently caress and you do get turn 1 grenade massacres, sometimes even through the Triton's walls

Blaster launchers are one of those things that, if the AI cheesed it as bad as humans do, would make the game almost unwinnable

# ? Aug 11, 2014 12:01

Senethro: May 18, 2005; I unironically think I'm Garret, Master Thief.

Is there any way to disable night missions? I'd rather go up a difficulty level than deal with vision management.

# ? Aug 11, 2014 14:17

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

Senethro posted:

Is there any way to disable night missions? I'd rather go up a difficulty level than deal with vision management.

I think there's an advanced option/mod to force all missions to day.

# ? Aug 11, 2014 14:26

Pimpmust: Oct 1, 2008

SupSuper posted:

Sorry there are no useful logs as most crash info can only really be pulled out with a debugger. If you post your mod I can probably tell you what's wrong. You can also try this user-made validator: http://falkooxc.pythonanywhere.com/

Not sure how useful this is, tried uploading the rule-file and I get error messages like below which I assume is because that online checker would prefer to have the whole game uploaded:

quote:

file/dir not found
['warning:', 'a extrasprite/sound entry is wrong', 'extraSprites', 'BIGOBS.PCK', 107, [], 'Resources/Veronian_alien/bigobs_VERONIAN_CORPSE.gif', 'Ruleset/veronian_alien.rul']

no connected file entry found for ruleset-referenced
['warning:', 'there is reference to a new file entry but this entry does not exist', {'reftyp': 'spritesheet', 'modfile': '/tmp/tmpzn_z_a/test345dH345xd/Ruleset/veronian_alien.rul', 'ptype': 'tactical1', 'refid': [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266], 'lid': 'VERONIAN_ARMOR0', 'prop': 'spriteSheet', 'propid': 'VERONIAN.PCK', 'reftype': 'armor', 'refelem': 'VERONIAN.PCK', 'cat': 'armors', 'filebackref': []}, 'Ruleset/veronian_alien.rul']

missing item referenced
['warning:', 'there is a item referenced but it does not exist within rulset ; craft production produces craft not item - ok ; needItem:true is used to block alienraces/autopsy/ufo/mission research - ok)', 'research', 'STR_VERONIAN_AUTOPSY', [('needItem->Item', 'STR_VERONIAN_AUTOPSY')], 'Ruleset/veronian_alien.rul']

no connected file entry found for ruleset-referenced
['warning:', 'there is reference to a new file entry but this entry does not exist', {'reftyp': 'sprite', 'modfile': '/tmp/tmpzn_z_a/test345dH345xd/Ruleset/veronian_alien.rul', 'ptype': 'research', 'refid': [0], 'lid': 'STR_VERONIAN_AUTOPSY', 'prop': 'image_id', 'propid': 0, 'reftype': 'image', 'refelem': 'UFOPAEDIA_IMG_VERONIAN_AUTOPSY', 'cat': 'ufopaedia', 'filebackref': []}, 'Ruleset/veronian_alien.rul']

changes original object
['info:', 'just an information', 'alienMissions', 'type', 'STR_ALIEN_RESEARCH', ['raceWeights'], 'orig', 'Ruleset/veronian_alien.rul']

keeps original value
['info:', 'get rid of useless copying of data', 'research', 'name', 'STR_HYPER_WAVE_DECODER', ['points', 'cost'], 'orig', 'Ruleset/veronian_alien.rul']

Did use the YAML parser too, but as the mod compiles and loads just fine in game it doesn't help.

Here's the files if you want to test
https://www.dropbox.com/s/emvdsys3pxstpwt/debug.zip

# ? Aug 11, 2014 16:12

VerdantSquire: Jul 1, 2014

You should always look on the positive side of life. So, what I took away from the last terror mission I had to deal with was that sectoids can throw grenades, so now I know to space out my soldiers. Then again, I really wish I didn't learn that lesson when every unit in my force was adjacent to another soldier in tightly knit squads.

I guess its time to hire another 14 soldiers. :xcom:

# ? Aug 11, 2014 17:11

teethgrinder: Oct 9, 2002

SupSuper posted:

Blaster launcher AI had to be specifically nerfed otherwise the aliens will just launch it into your Skyranger turn 1. Trust us, it's for your own good.

From what I observed, it appeared that aliens with blaster launchers were always put behind doors -- i.e. only spawn inside UFOs. Also thankfully I don't think they would intentionally suicide.

Something different, it felt like firing the blaster launcher was a bit of a crapshoot. I don't remember it ever missing in the original. Here your accuracy rating really seemed to impact whether it would float off-course.

# ? Aug 11, 2014 17:28

Hedera Helix: Sep 2, 2011; The laws of the fiesta mean nothing!

teethgrinder posted:

Something different, it felt like firing the blaster launcher was a bit of a crapshoot. I don't remember it ever missing in the original. Here your accuracy rating really seemed to impact whether it would float off-course.

The original did have a bug whereby if you tried sending the blaster bomb directly up or down a level, it would go to the south instead. It could be worked around by shifting the bomb laterally by a single tile when sending it to another level, but the aliens never made use of this and would often blow themselves up inside alien base command centers and the like.

# ? Aug 11, 2014 17:37

primaltrash: Feb 11, 2008; (Thought-ful Croak)

SupSuper posted:

Blaster launcher AI had to be specifically nerfed otherwise the aliens will just launch it into your Skyranger turn 1. Trust us, it's for your own good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joCfccc1Wm0

I AM curious, what are the barebones on how the alien AI uses the Blaster Launcher?

# ? Aug 11, 2014 17:50

3 Stacked Midgets: Jul 29, 2004; Triple Threat

SupSuper posted:

From my experience, the problem with nerfing psi is that it it makes psi-aliens a cakewalk and then you've basically nerfed all of late-game (specially Cydonia). Vanilla psi is cheesy but necessary, it's the one thing that can turn against you the brutal firepower you got to take on Mutons.

Well, yeah, that's kind of the point. Once you reach Psi-Amp/Blaster-Launcher tier, you're probably already 80% of the way through the game, just go on to Cydonia already. There's no point in playing the long game, eventually the challenge ends.

A lot of people like playing vanilla X-COM like a never-ending game, but I don't think it really works that way. The progression is fixed. You have human weapons, they have plasma. You get better human weapons, they get better plasma weapons. You get their weapons, they get better aliens. You get better soldiers, they throw psi at you. Once you've beaten all that, you're done. You've made it through all the layers, enjoy your just reward. All the challenge comes from fighting overwhelming odds, but eventually you beat those odds, you get your catharsis, you win. Then you do it all over again. And again. And again.

Blaster launcher AI had to be specifically nerfed otherwise the aliens will just launch it into your Skyranger turn 1. Trust us, it's for your own good.

I can see that. Maybe it'd be interesting if some enemies had the mind shield items from 2012 XCOM -- would also be interesting to use on experienced soldiers with crappy psi strength.

Thanks again for your work on the project.

# ? Aug 11, 2014 18:28

SupSuper: Apr 8, 2009; At the Heart of the city is an Alien horror, so vile and so powerful that not even death can claim it.

Pimpmust posted:

Not sure how useful this is, tried uploading the rule-file and I get error messages like below which I assume is because that online checker would prefer to have the whole game uploaded:

Did use the YAML parser too, but as the mod compiles and loads just fine in game it doesn't help.

Here's the files if you want to test
https://www.dropbox.com/s/emvdsys3pxstpwt/debug.zip

Yeah you're supposed to upload the whole zip with the contents as they would be extracted to the whole game.

Anyways I debugged it, I'm not sure how you passed the YAML validator because your unit data was all badly formatted, the minute I started poking at it I got errors:

Maybe yaml-cpp is picky about different stuff.

Once that was cleaned up, the other problem is your alien crew only had 6 unit ranks instead of 8. If you don't want terror units, you still have to put something else in there to fill in the space or the battlescape generator will fail, since spawn nodes will expect the full 8 units.

With that sorted, your race works, though it seems you still have some bugs to work out:

Here's the fixed ruleset: http://pastebin.com/jbLG6MtQ

teethgrinder posted:

From what I observed, it appeared that aliens with blaster launchers were always put behind doors -- i.e. only spawn inside UFOs. Also thankfully I don't think they would intentionally suicide.

Something different, it felt like firing the blaster launcher was a bit of a crapshoot. I don't remember it ever missing in the original. Here your accuracy rating really seemed to impact whether it would float off-course.

Only alien commanders carry Blaster Launchers, so they will often be behind doors. Blaster Launchers have a built-in drift, otherwise aliens would always be able to shoot them 100% accurately (since their stats way outweigh yours). This is vanilla, if you seem to be getting unlucky, it might just be the RNG screwing with you. Give your blaster paths plenty of room for error so a drift won't immediately result in an early explosion.

Blaster Launcher AI works like any other explosive weapon AI. An alien unit carrying an explosive will trace a path to a possible target and check if the explosive efficacy (difficulty, number of player units hit, number of alien units hit, destruction factor, desperation factor, etc) pays off making the shot, as well as a dose of RNG. To balance out the unlimited range, the amount of waypoints they can use is limited by difficulty.

Edit:

Jade Star posted:

The previous versions i tested for Super had a mechanic that aliens wouldn't throw grenades on turns 1 or 2. specifically to prevent skyranger massacres.

Yup, this goes for any explosive, so you're already getting a little help for TFTD. :v:

SupSuper fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Aug 11, 2014

# ? Aug 11, 2014 19:47

HerpicleOmnicron5: May 31, 2013; How did this smug dummkopf ever make general?

I've never seen aliens throw grenades in OpenXcom, so I guess I'm just lucky?

# ? Aug 11, 2014 20:29

Pimpmust: Oct 1, 2008

SupSuper posted:

Yeah you're supposed to upload the whole zip with the contents as they would be extracted to the whole game.

Anyways I debugged it, I'm not sure how you passed the YAML validator because your unit data was all badly formatted, the minute I started poking at it I got errors:

Maybe yaml-cpp is picky about different stuff.

Once that was cleaned up, the other problem is your alien crew only had 6 unit ranks instead of 8. If you don't want terror units, you still have to put something else in there to fill in the space or the battlescape generator will fail, since spawn nodes will expect the full 8 units.

With that sorted, your race works, though it seems you still have some bugs to work out:

Here's the fixed ruleset: http://pastebin.com/jbLG6MtQ

Thanks!

I knew about the terror units and the sprite/limb/graphical issues, figured I'd fix that once I could actually see things ingame (got a stand-in for the terror units ready).

The YAML validator seems to have been bugging out on me, going back-and-forth on that formatting thing, I had it looking nice and tight at first because hey, that worked on my last computer but then it wouldn't load on this one and YAML started freaking out :iiam:

Pimpmust fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Aug 11, 2014

# ? Aug 11, 2014 20:40

primaltrash: Feb 11, 2008; (Thought-ful Croak)

SupSuper posted:

Yup, this goes for any explosive, so you're already getting a little help for TFTD.

In TFTD, on more than one occasion, I have definitely landed at a terror site, turn 1, opened the Triton door, and missed every shot at the Gill Man standing outside. He then casually tosses a sonic pulser into the Triton on his turn, ending the mission.

RIP January score

# ? Aug 11, 2014 20:46

brainwrinkle: Oct 18, 2009; What's going on in here?; Buglord

I started playing OpenXcom this week. I tried playing the original Xcom after the 2012 game, but the controls were too bad for me to get into it. This is the perfect solution to the controls problem!

I'm having a tough time doing interceptions and keeping rookies alive. It's early May and I've had 6 or 7 terror missions. I lost most of my promoted soldiers to a grenade at the Skyranger ramp in a nighttime terror mission in March. I've only had two UFOs successfully crashed (one over water and another destroyed by the figher's weapons). Research and production seems to be going well, and I've got bases in Europe, NA, and Asia.

My problem intercepting is that usually the UFO flies out of radar range and outspeeds my fighter. Should I send a couple jets to patrol the area to try to find it?

# ? Aug 18, 2014 14:48

hackbunny: Jul 22, 2007; I haven't been on SA for years but the person who gave me my previous av as a joke felt guilty for doing so and decided to get me a non-shitty av

brainwrinkle posted:

I lost most of my promoted soldiers to a grenade at the Skyranger ramp in a nighttime terror mission in March

Cover your deployments with smoke grenades, they're surprisingly effective (yes, even by night: aliens have much better night vision). Get a rocket HWP if you don't already have one, make it your main scout until you have better equipment. Don't actually use it to kill aliens except in an emergency: unlike soldiers, HWPs have their capabilities fixed at manufacturing time and will never improve, so don't waste the alien-killing experience on them. Rockets will get less and less effective as aliens get stronger anyway, so learn to use them for landscaping and home improvement (with time you'll also learn the places aliens like to hide in, so your razing of houses and farms will eventually have a method to it)

brainwrinkle posted:

I've only had two UFOs successfully crashed (one over water and another destroyed by the figher's weapons). Research and production seems to be going well, and I've got bases in Europe, NA, and Asia.

Build more radars, both long and short range, because a single radar has a very low detection rate. Don't worry too much about failing to pin UFOs down, the technology you can recover from them is useful but not vital until the very last mission. Stopping a terror mission or destroying an alien base makes a much greater impression on the financing nations, too, and a single successful anti-terror operation can offset a whole month of missed interceptions

Keep research going: interceptions and anti-terror operations are fun diversions but research is what will win the war. Capture live aliens for interrogation, especially specialists (e.g. navigators) and officers. All terror missions will have several alien specialists and an officer: find them (a mind probe device helps, if you have found and researched them already) and capture them alive with a stun rod. You can't win the war without the sensitive information revealed by alien officers, capturing them is your highest priority

brainwrinkle posted:

My problem intercepting is that usually the UFO flies out of radar range and outspeeds my fighter. Should I send a couple jets to patrol the area to try to find it?

IIRC, when an UFO completes its mission, it flies pretty much straight to space, too fast and too high for interception. You want to catch them while they're flying in a slow, wide pattern with lots of turns. Sometimes you can simply tail them with a Skyranger until they land to perform their mission (almost all alien missions - e.g. abductions or cattle mutilation - involve landing somewhere)

# ? Aug 18, 2014 15:36

brainwrinkle: Oct 18, 2009; What's going on in here?; Buglord

Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely start using smoke grenades more often. I also didn't know that terror missions had specialists.

I had read on UFOpedia that multiple radar systems didn't increase your detection chances - is that true or not?

Being able to destroy large amounts of cover with an Autocannon and explosives rounds is incredibly fun. The differences in the tactical gameplay between the OpenXcom and 2012 game is pretty interesting.

# ? Aug 18, 2014 15:49

Hedera Helix: Sep 2, 2011; The laws of the fiesta mean nothing!

hackbunny posted:

Cover your deployments with smoke grenades, they're surprisingly effective (yes, even by night: aliens have much better night vision). Get a rocket HWP if you don't already have one, make it your main scout until you have better equipment. Don't actually use it to kill aliens except in an emergency: unlike soldiers, HWPs have their capabilities fixed at manufacturing time and will never improve, so don't waste the alien-killing experience on them. Rockets will get less and less effective as aliens get stronger anyway, so learn to use them for landscaping and home improvement (with time you'll also learn the places aliens like to hide in, so your razing of houses and farms will eventually have a method to it)

This alone should help your soldiers survive for a lot longer. I would recommend, though, that you use the XComUtil improved tanks, since it improves their armor to the point where they are immune to alien pistol fire, and can take more than one shot from their other weapons without being destroyed outright. It's nice to not have to replace them every mission, especially since they cost ~500k apiece. :rolleyes:

Before deploying the Skyranger, go into its inventory screen and give the first two soldiers on the list pistols and motion scanners. One of them should have a smoke grenade that you throw to the bottom of the ramp on the very first turn (make explosions have a height of 3, first). Use your tank as the forward scout, with these two soldiers as supporting scouts; when you get to the UFO itself, position them on either side and have them use their scanners to determine where the aliens are inside. If they're strong enough, and you're using improved high explosives, they can also open new entrances in the UFO; just make sure that you don't set the timer to zero, like you would with a grenade.

Everybody should have an electro-flare, a stun rod, and a grenade as part of their kit. If you're fighting Sectoids in a terror mission, or in a UFO larger than a Large Scout, consider having everyone drop their (not armed!) grenades, rocket launchers, etc. to the floor. If the kit gets too big for a soldier with low strength to carry, leave out things like the stun rod and feed them experience until they are able to do so.

In daylight, all units are able to see in a cone 20 tiles long, pointed in the direction they are facing. The aliens won't shoot at anything they can't immediately see (barring psionics and a certain late-game weapon), but your soldiers can. There are two ways to make use of this- the first is to have a scout walk forward, see an enemy, then take one step back to where they're out of the alien's sight and shoot. This way keeps them safe from reaction fire. The second is to have someone other than the scout, someone out of the alien's sight, to take the shot... although with this, you have to be careful and make sure that the scout isn't in the line of fire, since friendly fire is a thing that can happen in X-Com 1994.

As soon as you can, research the mind probe, and bring a couple extra soldiers who do nothing but stay back in the craft and mind probe enemies from across the map. They will only be able to do so twice per turn apiece, but this should give you vital information regarding enemy rank and health. It'll also let you know if an enemy has enough turn units for reaction fire; if they're down to 9 TUs or less, it's safe to shoot at them from within their line of sight. Finally, if a mission goes bad and everyone dies, having them in the craft will still allow you to escape.

Always always always put your soldiers in cover before the end of the turn. Even things like fences, stumps, etc. can sometimes block enemy shots.

Be careful when bunching your soldiers close together, because the aliens love using grenades.

Armor can save the lives of your soldiers, but even with it your soldiers can still die in one hit. :sigh:

Never walk in front of an enemy that uses melee attacks.

Turn on the options for force fire and strafing, and use them.

A lot of people prefer using auto shot to snap shot. These people are wrong! Auto shots have terrible accuracy and, if you're using non-laser weaponry, will eat up all of your ammunition. Only use auto shot when you're either right in the alien's face, if it's a 4x4 alien, if you're fighting late-game enemies with conventional or laser weapons, or if you're destroying cover. If you have a soldier that is missing shots regularly, consider making them a grenadier instead, or put them on scout duty.

Don't be afraid of losing soldiers here and there, or even of sacrificing them outright, if you can gain a strategic benefit from doing so. That said, it still sucks when the soldier you've been giving experience to bites the dust, particularly with regard to things like strength and firing accuracy. So, be sure to give everyone armor and medi-kits as soon as research and funds permit.

hackbunny posted:

Capture live aliens for interrogation, especially specialists (e.g. navigators) and officers.

This bears repeating!

brainwrinkle posted:

Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely start using smoke grenades more often. I also didn't know that terror missions had specialists.

I had read on UFOpedia that multiple radar systems didn't increase your detection chances - is that true or not?

Being able to destroy large amounts of cover with an Autocannon and explosives rounds is incredibly fun. The differences in the tactical gameplay between the OpenXcom and 2012 game is pretty interesting.

It is, isn't it? The two games compliment each other so well.

# ? Aug 18, 2014 19:24

hackbunny: Jul 22, 2007; I haven't been on SA for years but the person who gave me my previous av as a joke felt guilty for doing so and decided to get me a non-shitty av

Hedera Helix posted:

Turn on the options for force fire and strafing, and use them.

I can use turret-only turning for HWPs, but I never managed to strafe or run, what am I missing? Is strafing/running incompatible with the movement preview feature perhaps?

# ? Aug 18, 2014 20:39

Hedera Helix: Sep 2, 2011; The laws of the fiesta mean nothing!

hackbunny posted:

I can use turret-only turning for HWPs, but I never managed to strafe or run, what am I missing? Is strafing/running incompatible with the movement preview feature perhaps?

It doesn't appear to be incompatible. You can only strafe for one tile, though, which is enough to turn corners, and pass by windows and doorways safely.

As far as running is concerned, I've never been able to get that to work, so...

# ? Aug 18, 2014 21:12

SupSuper: Apr 8, 2009; At the Heart of the city is an Alien horror, so vile and so powerful that not even death can claim it.

brainwrinkle posted:

I had read on UFOpedia that multiple radar systems didn't increase your detection chances - is that true or not?

That was true in vanilla (you only needed 1 of each type) but not in OpenXcom, feel free to stack more if you feel you can't wait for the Hyperwave Decoder.

# ? Aug 18, 2014 22:44

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 06:43

3 Stacked Midgets: Jul 29, 2004; Triple Threat

Some other tips:

-It's worthwhile to sacrifice soldiers to get critical captures, even if the only option is to get a veteran killed off. They're probably psi-weak, anyway. If you have to get eight soldiers killed to get that one navigator, that sounds like a worthwhile trade to me.

-In difficult terror mission landings, cook a ridiculous number of grenades in the Skyranger with appropriate timers. Leveling the cover around you, or getting guaranteed kills on weaker aliens, can help you survive overwhelming odds. Assume that all the buildings around you are hiding Chrysasalids.

- Every engineer you hire and workshop you build will eventually turn a profit when you have the right technologies researched. Almost every other hire or building construction has a long term cost. Interceptors and Skyrangers also cost maintenance fees.

-It's OK to ignore crash sites if you need to. The lost potential score isn't that high. Shooting down a UFO and ignoring the site does not give the aliens points. You get points for shooting them down, and just miss out on potential points from the recovery.

-The majority of UFOs you see can be shot down by regular interceptors with the default armaments. Almost everything can be shot down with upgraded interceptors.

-Aborting a mission to save the Skyranger is worth it. The penalties for mistakes and losses are entirely surmountable on any difficulty.

-Although soldiers can get really powerful (>2x health, super-aim, amazing psi abilities, extreme TUs), rookies are still deadly to any enemy in the game as long as they're equipped. Rookies that you screen for better stats also have better potential.

-Proximity grenades are nifty, especially when assaulting larger UFOs and alien bases. Try not to leave them cooked for too long, because they'll go off on the corpses of your soldiers.

-If you detect a UFO far away from its intended mission area, and the mission type requires a landing, you can position your Skyranger in the area to intercept them when they land. Landed UFOs are way more likely to contain a lot of elerium.

-Units in the game take more damage from the rear and sides than they do from the front. Face your troops where you think the aliens are, and your survival rate will go up dramatically.

3 Stacked Midgets fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Aug 18, 2014

# ? Aug 18, 2014 22:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > OpenXcom 1.0: Hugging Chryssalids like it was 1994

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