Zeno

Thinking out loud... What if HWPs were set to require a specific facility -- like aircraft require a hanger -- so each defense facility can store one HWP and none can be stored in general storage? They take up some space so that would free up some general storage, but more importantly it would give each defense facility a specific type of HWP it could store -- plasma tank only in plasma defense, fusion ball tank only in fusion ball defense, laser tank only in laser defense, and have the cannon and rocket tanks both able to be stored in missile defense facilities. Thank you for the years/decades of work on XCOM!

Thanks, Hobbes! I started over after a few months in-game in order to work through a few more personal modifications, and it's now working quite well. I'm in May 1999 with 68 soldiers lost, 16 successful and 5 failed missions, 194 aliens killed and 45 captured, and 26 friendly fire kills (amusingly the most dangerous enemy is "Friendly" due to overuse of explosives, the only early weapon capable of damaging some aliens in my modified game). The research changes are pretty tough so I have four dedicated research bases this time, and have gotten through 16 technologies so far -- including Psi-Labs due to a lucky early Sectoid Leader capture in a January base attack. My changes to alien psionic strength should keep psionic soldiers from being too overpowered, but if it's too easy I can increase alien defenses some more (I want psionic soldiers to have a chance of success with most alien types, but with Ethereals and a few others impossible to panic or mind control and Sectoids extremely difficult except for the highest-skilled psionic soldiers). Area 51 looks awesome and I think I'm going to try it on my next play. I read that Hardmode Expansion also includes new enemies and surprises -- in addition to making the game harder -- how does Area 51 compare to Hardmode Expansion for new and interesting content? Making the game harder isn't my primary goal anymore; I've done that with my own changes and love that I have to try my best to succeed, but having expanded challenges to overcome and more things to do would be fun. Base Defense Facilities are one area I haven't been able to make more fun. I put research requirements in so Laser Defense is required before Plasma, and Plasma before Fusion Ball, to encourage maybe building the earlier defense modules. I also lowered the accuracy of Fusion Ball Defense to make it less reliable, but that just means more facilities are required to raise the chance of success. Even so, base defense -- the act of shooting at an attacking battleship -- is boring. If it's successful, the aliens come again and there's no reward other than a delayed attack. If it's unsuccessful, the aliens come in and it's lots of aliens, planned defenses with chokepoints, and risk of losing the base making it a fairly exciting mission...but the base defense facilities are effectively useless except to delay the inevitable attack. I've built them specifically because I don't think my soldiers would succeed against Chryssalids with their current technology so the delay might prevent an early base loss until I have advanced weapons...but later, I kind of think the defense facilities are a waste of space. I'd get more use out of an extra living quarters and storage facility so I can add more soldiers and HWPs for the inevitable defense required whenever a base is found. I read through the OpenXcom forum and didn't see much there for changes. Adding radar capabilities or storage to the defense modules make them more useful, but that starts to take away the advantages of other modules. Playing with the hit chance and defense strength numbers just change the formula for calculating the optimal number of defense facilities, and still doesn't make them more fun (I can make them at or near 100% effective but that removes the fun of base defense, and I can make them less effective but that just makes them less useful to build). I like the idea of having them reduce the number of aliens that come in or automatically shooting at alien UFOs that fly close to the base, but those options discussed on the OpenXcom forums were shot down pretty quickly as impossible to do based on how the executable code was written (and the OpenXcom developers were pretty adamant about not wanting to make those things possible to easily modify). Do you have any suggestions on how I could make base defense facilities a little more interesting, fun, and not useless? Some things I considered: - add 100% UFO detection in a short range, about the range of an XCOM craft, for Missile Defenses to make one a nice addition to early bases before HyperWave Decoders are available, but that still makes more than one pretty useless and doesn't help more advanced facilities (which are more likely to be built after HyperWave Decoders) - add some storage space, but I'm torn here -- add too much and they just replace General Stores except that they can be destroyed (making them a bit risky if they are destroyed and cause neighboring facilities to collapse); add too little and they remain inferior to General Stores so wouldn't change how I play - add a bit of workshop and/or laboratory space, or even living space, but I wouldn't want to make them better than the dedicated facilities so again that wouldn't change how I play -- I'd rather just build the dedicated facilities - I don't want to make them capable of training psionic soldiers, housing aircraft, incarcerating aliens,or replacing any of the boolean values for advanced base facilities (grav shield, mind shield, hyperwave decoder, access lift)

NKF, wanted to follow up and say you're absolutely right about the latest nightly -- OpenXcom 1.0 is not worth downloading compared to the update. Two of the mods -- Area 51 and XFiles -- sound like they expand gameplay without removing what made the original fun, but I decided to stick with the original for now (and XFiles in particular is pretty incomplete according to the forum). The Hardmode Expansion mod might be worth playing too. Actually, instead of OpenXcom, I decided to go with the OpenXcom Expanded + mod, which is based on a fairly recent "nightly" and adds some extra options. Some things I love: - Tons of options to enable with just a click, including a bunch from XcomUtil and UFO Extender. - I love the radar detection range lines for bases and ships; such a small change makes a subtle but significant improvement in appearance and gameplay! - Removal of the 80-item limit, and the unit limits, and having storage/alien containment facilities that actually work correctly...keeping lean is such a habit that bringing extra stuff on missions feels kind of bizarre, like I can actually have a ship loaded with equipment and decide (on mission start) what to use based on the opposition. I haven't had a base/retaliation mission yet but I think the change will be an incredible enhancement there. - I also like that I can enable Aliens getting wounds, and giving them the ability to pick up weapons, with a single click enabling those. (I read some posts with disagreements on these options but I think they should've been implemented in the original). I've decided the weapon range of 50-150%, instead of 0-200%, is also a nice option. - Being able to set manufacturing to automatically sell things is another great, subtle feature. I love micromanaging (everyone who loves XCOM pretty much has to love micromanaging) but it's nice to have that option to set-and-forget when I don't need to manufacture specific equipment for using. - The graphics. The graphic options are actually rendered better than the original, while still being the original graphics. Lots of fun graphic options too (CRT and Curvature were awesome to see -- annoying to actually use, but cool that they're an option). I ended up using the default OpenXcom shader/smoothing effects as they looked best to me, while still capturing the feel of the original. - Gameplay speed is perfect. I like most everything slower so I can see each thing that happens, like a board game or chess match. The original game had optional adjustments, but some things would go way too fast on modern computers even with the slowest options set. Some things I miss: - XComUtil included the ability to randomize UFOs that had crashed or landed. It sometimes worked, and when it did it was pretty cool...but it was also buggy. I'd like to see that again someday. - XComUtil included the ability to gain research help from captured aliens, but I couldn't find that option or a way to edit it into OpenXcom (other than giving free research for interrogating an alien, which would be too powerful if overused). - XComUtil included the ability to sort soldiers globally. The sorting capabilities in OpenXcom are a significant improvement over the original (which didn't have it at all) but with XComUtil I could sort all the soldiers at all the bases with one batch file against a saved game. It required exiting the game and running the batch file, but was still fast and easy compared to organizing soldiers at each base separately. Editing changes was simple once I got the hang of the .rul files. I did all the changes I made through hex editing 10+ years ago, and most changes took minutes instead of hours. Plus I was able to add a few other fun things: - Added more civilians in Terror missions, and added a few civilians running around in other missions. Boosted civilian running speed to add to the chaos. Also reduced the score value of civilians so my change in frequency doesn't result in too high/low scores for those missions. - Added more aliens, and more potential variety of aliens on missions. - Changed alien equipment for more variety, and all alien technologies available from the start (blaster bombs on a day 3 crash site was a fun experience...for me, not my soldiers...). - Changed how soon new alien races might appear, and increased late-game variation so it's not as likely to be the same alien race over and over. - Boosted alien stats across the board, and significantly increased psi strength on aliens so they're less likely to be mind controlled or panicked. Also results in higher-strength psi attacks from aliens, making psionics scarier. Also gave all Sectoids some psi skill, so early Sectoid missions are harder. - Changed weapon stats (alien weapons boosted, earth weapons degraded, some equipment made much heavier) and made armor stronger on aliens and soldiers so getting one-shot-killed while wearing armor is much less likely (but still possible from heavy plasmas and blaster bombs). Also made power armor stronger than flying armor, so both are viable depending on what's desired for a mission. - Increased initial and monthly funding from countries, because I like having lots of money to play with and making country funding more essential than manufacturing for generating income.This also offsets the difficulty, since losing entire teams and Skyrangers can happen in the first month now (which would be pretty much game-ending without funds to replace them). - Tripled manufacturing times and increased all research 10x, to slow down the pace of the game (my favorite part of the game is early/mid game, so this extends that fun for me). - Changed soldier order and facing on all ships. Seems to work just like XcomUtil, but took a couple tries to get right. Only tested on the Skyranger so far but should work on the other ships (even if it requires a few adjustments). - Recreated my massive statstring logic from XcomUtil, which only took a couple times to get right using OpenXcom semantics. This was the most time-consuming change though because I couldn't just cut and paste (the language and logic is different, but equally powerful). Talking hundreds of lines here. So far I'm in game date March 14, 1999. I've lost 29 soldiers so far (8 to friendly fire), failed 4 out of 13 missions, killed 70 aliens and captured 13, spent over $200M, and have only completed research on laser weapons and laser pistols (but just hired a bunch of scientists in two dedicated research bases, so should start getting more technologies in a month or two). And that's another thing I love in OpenXcom -- the statistics and soldier memorial screens, and other little extra-detail screens after missions. I know OpenXcom isn't the original game, and that the executable code has been entirely replaced in an attempt to mimic the gameplay experience. But the developers, and all the modders, have done a phenomenal job here. I feel like I'm playing the original game, with most XcomUtil features I liked plus my own hacks, and with what seems to be fewer bugs, more stability (absolutely no crashes so far), better UI, and tiny, subtle tweaks to gameplay that make it better without making it different. I'll have to play a few more game months to see how things go in future missions, but so far, this has become my favorite version of one of my favorite games. And from what I've read on the mods, Area 51 especially, it looks like there's potentially even *better* versions to try out in the future!

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Thanks for the tip -- I downloaded 1.0 and the latest nightly to try them both, along with each of the latest mods. Will skip the major conversion mods for now but I'm amazed what they have accomplished. I thought I'd miss XcomUtil but it seems a lot is replicated. I'm still playing with all the options. The 2012 game looks good, but the more I read about it, the more I realized I just wanted to play the original. Might be nostalgia, but my gaming time is so limited I'd rather just play what I love.

I've been away for a long time, but recently got an itch to shoot some sectoids...unfortunately, it seems getting my Windows CE version of X-COM: Enemy Unknown (aka UFO Defense, the game from 1994 not the game from 2012) working on 64-bit Windows 10 is more of a challenge than I expected. I saw some mods have gotten it to work -- any hints on how to get vanilla unmodded X-COM working, preferably without setting up a dual-boot OS or changing to the DOS version/DOSBox? EDIT: Okay, so I've been away long enough that OpenXCOM is brand new to me. It worked brilliantly for starting X-COM in Windows 10 and appears smoother than I remember running on XP a decade ago. Plus, the options, bug fixes, and UI enhancements are really impressive. Looks like I've got a decade's worth of new mods to browse, and some experimentation to see if I can get my personal revisions to work... I know there are new games but something always draws me back to the classics, eventually.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've logged on... Anyway, I got to thinking about XCOM when I signed up to back Reaper's Combat Assault Vehicle (CAV) Kickstarter: It's not XCOM, and it's not a computer game, but it is sci-fi and has big stompy robots (some of which could be giant versions of Sectopods). The figures are modifiable (most come in 4 pieces -- 2 arms, body, and legs) and are interchangable. They can be used in games other than CAV, too (*cough* Battletech *cough*)... Okay, time for me to read through some of the forum posts over the past couple years...

I haven't been here in a few years, but started to get a little XCOM itch a few days ago...and reading your post reminded me of my own customized game. Thanks to your ideas, I've made a few tweaks, and I'm now playing again (only January 6th; a long way to go...). Nice to be back in the command chair, though. I've also been reading through the Wiki and some of the old posts--surprising how much has been discovered in the past five years! My first mission, shot down a small UFO then went in with my 8 starters. Lost 5 exiting the Skyranger, 1 went berserk, the remaining two called "Abort!" and took off. Have a new contingent of soldiers now; hopefully these recruits will have a bit more combat prowess... Time to go shoot some sectoids!

I haven't gotten that exact same error, but I have had more than a few "assert_fatal" errors loading from saved tactical games (games saved during the squad-based missions instead of in geoscape mode). These errors always shut down Windows completely--they auto-rebooted my machine. My only solution is to save the game A LOT. Some of these errors will kill your game before you even start loading--if a saved game is corrupted, it can give you one of those "assert_fatal" errors just looking at the list of saved games. If this occurs, you then have the unlucky task of trying to guess which saved game is corrupted, find and delete it using Windows Explorer, then launch the game and hope for the best. I did have luck once editing a saved game file, but it was only partially successful--it loaded, but was corrupted every time I saved it later. Someone with more knowledge of the files may be able to hack their way to recover a corrupted game. My advice is to save just before your squad's helicoptor reaches a mission, and save many times (in separate files) during a mission. Just to be safe, save many times in separate files in the geoscape mode, too. After you've gotten through a few game-days, then delete the oldest saves to clear up your saved game directory. Good luck... --Zeno

A bit off-topic, as I haven't seen the movie yet. But the smartcar-chase tangent reminded me of a movie from a couple years ago, "Ong-Bak". It's a martial-arts action movie set in modern-day Thailand, and has a car chase scene. But it isn't cars. It's Tuk-Tuks! Tuk-tuks are 3-wheeled little go-cart type machines powered with (loud) motorcycle engines, designed to carry passengers in the back seat. They don't go fast, but they weave pretty well, if you're careful not to roll over... --Zeno

Interesting thread, this. Advanced AI is a complex field in computing, and not really conceivable in computer games. Think about it-- Chess is a simple game in that there are a limited number of possible moves permitted in any turn. Yet it took, what, 2 super computers and decades of work to beat the top human player? When you have a computer game with hundreds of possible moves, any sort of advanced computer behavior becomes impossible due to the exponential growth in cause/effect calcuations. Humans have innately reasonable "guesses" and react intelligently based on experience. Computers don't have these advantages; every decision is based on calculations. Advanced AI uses case modeling and pattern-learning logic, but it is still a far cry from human capability. The best AI we might be able to hope for is something based on expert systems. Expert systems rely on the accumulated knowledge of humans in a particular subject, put into a data warehouse with optimized search/retrieval algorithms. This is still outside the scope of computer games; however, an automated database with cause/effect pattern analysis and a number of scripted responses based on human players could conceivably appear to be "better" AI. I would love to see some advances in this field, but I think business deadlines and market competition make it unreasonable to expect from computer games. This is one reason why multiplayer-capability is demanded by most game players. Once a human figures out the game AI, the game becomes unchallenging. Multiplayer capability allows a game to have much longer playability. ------ Something to consider: Instead of advanced AI, games are often shipped with scripted behaviors. Rather than demanding developers to spend months making good scripts, games could be shipped (as some are) with good-quality script editors. This allows humans to make the scripts better, allows communities to grow around script-writing, and improves the game over time as the scripts are improved. As game developers learn the advantages of open source code, or providing professional modding tools, I think we'll find improvements in not just AI, but many aspects of gaming. --Zeno

Thanks Slaughter! I have a modded X-COM: UFO game I've been itching to get back into, but probably won't have time until July. I also picked up Aftermath for the first time; hope to try it out. I love all the tactics discussion that has gone on for UFO! I'm happy new things are still being discovered, and that the "new" series hasn't wiped out the old. I'm also thrilled that there are new players! It's good to be back, and I'm looking forward to being able to contribute again in the near future... --Zeno

Interesting thread; always did like tactics discussions. teklor, have you had any difficulties with psi-wielding aliens (ethereals or sectoid leaders/commanders)? There's a few specific strategy discussions on them. As for another basic tactic at the start of the game--use your soldiers with rank. Regardless of a soldier's various attributes, rank brings a special ability to calm the nerves of other soldiers. Often, especially with a group of 14 rookies, the losses come from poor morale--a few soldiers die, and the rest freak out and kill each other. To mitigate this, keep one high-ranked soldier well-protected (perhaps left in the transport) to maintain morale. You can then use 13 rookies to accomplish the mission without worrying as much about morale. The 13 rookies, if they survive, will become higher-rank, with better skills and better morale. Note that if the one high-ranked guy dies, all 13 rookies could panic. If you have a choice, try to use soldiers with high bravery. Once you get a team of soldiers with rank (all at least Squaddies) you will find them much more capable in missions. Some of your Squaddies may become even better soldiers than some of your officers--don't use rank as the only measure of a soldier's ability. You need at least 30 soldiers to get someone with the rank of "XCOM Commander" (the highest rank available). Some strategists here will recommend hiring exactly 30 soldiers--no more, no less--and using these 30 in every mission until the end of the game (thereby creating a team of "supersoldiers"). You can replace anyone killed in action, and when you have psi-labs, replace anyone with low psi-strength. Others, like me, like to hire as many soldiers as I can afford (up to the maximum of 250) and keep them spread out among my bases. I burn through rookies until I get 250 soldiers with rank. Squaddies are worth their monthly cost. Dead rookies cost nothing. --Zeno

Hi RiskyX; welcome back! I'm hopping on your thread to announce my own return after one year. Work took over my life for a couple months, then I had a job change, then started negotiations for additional work, then had simultaneous full-time jobs. In two weeks, I will drop one of my two jobs and go back to a "normal" work-week. Actually, I'll take a long-overdue vacation first. But I plan, if all goes well, to be back in the X-COM forums. --Zeno

UFO Aftermath is finally out in Thailand! It's about time... So how many years have I been waiting for this? (sorry to steal your words Bomb Bloke, but I just couldn't think of a better way to put it) --Zeno