3371-Alpha

I forgot about the Examination Room in TFTD. I found a patch here from the same guy, unfortunately the link expired and he doesn't have it on his file archive.I can understand if you don't want to integrate these "unused" features; it's a bit controversial. Regardless what do you think of the idea of making a patch to succeed the combo patch that supports both vanilla exes and oxc? I think the only thing that would really need to be added are Sherlock's route fixes I linked before; the single UFO_150 map file it includes is the same as the UFO_150 his research mod includes and only removes a single pillar from a UFO, so it can be left out. He also has patches that could integrated into the TFTD data patch, however some files overlap; ENTRY03, GRUNGE08, and GRUNGE09 map files as well as TRITON.RMP. I cannot say which version of these files are better or if they should be merged so you may want to examine them yourself. EDIT: found another patch for TFTD data files here. According to the thread it's based on the oxc data fixes minus the triton map and route "as it replaces the triton landing size from 10x20 to 20x20" and the xbase route files for unknown reasons. Additional overlaps with Sherlock's fixes are as follows; A_BASE00, A_BASE01, ALART07, ALART10, ENTRY04, ENTRY05, ENTRY07 and ENTRY08 map files. A_BASE00, A_BASE01, ALART03, CARGO00, ENTRY03, ENTRY04, ENTRY05, ENTRY07, ENTRY08, GRUNGE07, GRUNGE08 and GRUNGE09 for route file overlaps. TFTD would benefit the most out of a unified data patch I think.

According to the creator of the mod, the features weren't intentionally unused but accidentally given wrong values in the MCD files. Considering their counterparts in TFTD are obtainable and sellable he might be right. It's worth noting his mod does include some optional map "patches" that do enable the brain vats at alien bases (I think it's based on the one made by Zombie).

I see. I must know though, is the universal patch compatible with vanilla or does openxcom process things differently enough that it breaks more than it fixes? It's never too late to make a true universal patch that supports both vanilla and oxc. EDIT: I realize now that you already answered that question; it works but doesn't contain fixes not relevant to oxc. It's based on the latest 01/31/2013 version of the combo patch right, wasn't forked in the middle of creation was it?

Isn't that how BB's uniform mod does things, replace the uniform files depending on the terrain used? I know because I used Bagirov's Camo without his tool before; you can find an explanation of the details on the download page for the camo. Although I lack the tools and experience for such an under taking, I've thought about writing a tool for xcomutil that would randomly select between several terrain presets and still be able to load the correct one upon loading a battlescape save. This is actually what I was going for in the old Adding maps instead of replacing them thread. I think weapon and alien mods would only be good as replacements due to limits in how many the engine allows though.

That's what I was afraid to hear. I assume the map fixes are fairly compatible with vanilla, but the MCD. How did you fix the Alien Reproduction and Habitat? I ask because there's a MCD patch here for the original game, but the corresponding files in the universal patch are strait from the combo patch.

If the beta and 2.1's geoscape are the same then it's likely it both fixes the mc reader and adds better terrain selection as many have stated the beta does. If 2.1 is fan made then they likely just repacked the beta geoscape with 2.0 as I mentioned before. The user Sherlock has made many fixes to the combo patch, perhaps his are included too? They can be found here and here.

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I decided to do my own investigation on some more open questions I had. First I wanted to know if it was possible to use the 2.1 patch on the CE version (CE is based on 2.0). I don't own the CE version but from previous observations the data files are compatible with dos versions. This meant that if the difference between 2.0 and 2.1 was in the data file it could be theoretically compatible. And if it was in the exes what are the differences between it and the beta patch? Long story short the changes were in the exes (the geoscape to be exact) so unfortunately for CE users 2.1 is useless to them. I've also found that, according to my hex editor, the geoscapes from the beta patch and 2.1 are the same; perhaps Microprose first released the beta patch with the stand alone geoscape and later combined it with the standard 2.0 for convenience to 1.0 upgraders in what we now call 2.1. I'm also curious if anyone has information about the openxcom data patches, what's the difference between them and the ordinary combo patch? Also what's the difference between mods' data files for openxcom and standard x-com (besides things like rulesets and alternate imager formats: stuff the obviously wont ever be compatible)? If the difference isn't that great then they can theoretically be used with the original. EDIT: the readme for the data/universal patch says it contains files from the official EU patches, the Zombie's combo patch and "additional fixes from the openxcom community". I decided to mush together all the official patch files with the combo patch and found all files check out except 2; the openxcom version contains a plane.mcd (used for the skyranger)file in its terrain folder while the mush of officials and combo contained a geodata.dat (used for saves) in its maps folder. Of course the mush one also contained at least 20x more route fixes however as mentioned by Zombie in his combo mod thread, openxcom likely intentionally works around route bugs in the original file thus causing it to break when they are fixed; makes me think of games that used to take advantage of bugs in the MT-32's ROMs, when Roland patched them in later models those games broke. I wonder exactly what these "additional fixes from the openxcom community" are.

I didn't know you owned the DOS versions of the games. I just recently updated my BaseFixer in DOSBox guide and added TFTD support with the help of NFK but additional testing would be sweet. Want to try it out? Also I sent you a PM. BTW sweet collection.

Was trying to import TFTD maps to UFO and got the error in the picture below. Any idea what it means?

Yep it works. Perhaps terrain files are version independent, some are included in your combo patch after all. Sound files from CE however don't work on 1.4 DOS. Technically the sounds do play but the pitch is wrong and some of them are scratchy. I found this out thanks to experiments I conducted just for the hell of it Seams more study is needed to tell all the major differences between versions. Speaking of which does XcomUtil's hotseat multiplayer hack work on CE?

Speaking of same data files, Zombie, your polar foot steps fix for CE also appears to work on DOS. I suppose the reason the sound file patches don't is because they were modified to be compatible with dsound vs old Miles. I was under the impression that CE also had only 8 save slots vs DOS' 10, but I might be wrong about that.

Literally as the titles says, I want to learn some differences between the two. I know that the difficulty bug is fixed and that is uses ddraw and dsound in place of vga and the Miles drivers, but I particularly want to know if the game saves between the two are compatible and how manny slots does it have?

Hey, I remember you from the Descent DXX-Rebirth forums! I provided you with a copy of the Macintosh LotW. Didn't know you liked strategy, regardless it's nice to see a familiar face. But yeah, I want to get modding for the original engines back on track, mostly for the sake of playing them on older hardware.

P.S. Zombie, I left you a PM and you haven't responded yet.

Like I said, recompiling for intel 32 shouldn't be too difficult for a person with experience. However It would, undeniably, still be cool to have the DOS/CE versions back on track. Many people still like to play games like that on classic systems for more accurate sounds ect. And it's also playable on old school Macs (like classic Mac OS ones) with the proper emulation or a PC compatibility card. If I do attempt any project I'll need BB's and Blade's help, possibly your's too.