UFO Extender

[Tycho]

It must not be a bug, if your soldier is once seen by any alien, then aliens has his brain waves signature so they can panic him or mind control him for the whole mission. In case the soldier you are sure has never been seen by aliens - then - so it also can be the bug with the UFO walls - which are in special cases (from special angle) transparent (probably some transparent pixel or something - I don´t know exactly...

I think I have seen a patch for this (I personally don´t use it as I don´t have any experiences with it - but it may work well or not - to me it does not matter..)

 

Each soldier has a value called "unknown by enemy". This value increases each turn of combat that the soldier is not seen by any enemy or does something offensive against an alien unit. Each alien turn, each alien's memory rating is compared against each soldier's "unknown" value. If it's memory is greater or equal to the "unknown" value, that alien can act against that soldier, if possible. This is the reason that some soldiers gets blasted by psi attacks for a long time: The leaders and commanders have high memory stats.

If the soldier is ever seen by an alien or makes a successful attack against an alien, his "unknown" value gets reset to zero.

In my fix for this, I have the soldier's "unknown" value compared to 1 instead of the alien's memory score in the psionic attack routine so aliens only have the capacity to psi attack a soldier for the turn after his value gets reset. Of course, if he is successfully mind controlled, his "unknown" value is reset.

[ElfKaa]

If the soldier is ever seen by an alien or makes a successful attack against an alien, his "unknown" value gets reset to zero.

In my fix for this, I have the soldier's "unknown" value compared to 1 instead of the ...

 

Is this what Alien Psi Attack Fix variable in the extender do? So - is it a bug or not?

I don´t exactly understand this fix..

Do you think that deuce has this patch ON or OFF for this behavior he described?

[CoolKid]

Can i have a question did aliens never ever pickup items in this game? or they only pickup items when no X-COM soldier see them? And one more thing are the mind controled unit pickup the items? because most people will drop their weapons and bombs when they think they gonna get mind controled.

[Tycho]

Can i have a question did aliens never ever pickup items in this game? or they only pickup items when no X-COM soldier see them? And one more thing are the mind controled unit pickup the items? because most people will drop their weapons and bombs when they think they gonna get mind controled.

In short, no. In the original game, the AI does not get anything that is on the ground. Which is why panicked alien are not a threat, unless they have a grenade in their pocket, and why players will have psi weak character drop all offensive items.

 

There is a capacity for the AI to pick up items in the code but the developers intentionally disabled it in the final release. Perhaps, they didn't have time to fully code a good decision-making routine to prevent aliens from vacuming up all items in their area, useful or not?

[CoolKid]

I see, thanks for the information . But i heard somewhere the developer does make the AI pick up the items but the attraction level for items are very low and aliens will pick up items (if the attraction level changed) under folowing conditions:

 

1. they cant be seen by the enemy

2. they are not terorist

3. They have spaces in their inventory to pickup and not to over weight them

4. They dont have any weapons or run out of ammo

 

Number 4 seems odd because they do pickup anything if the items attraction level are high enough.

 

And some people has managed to edit the obbdata.dat in the geoscape folder to changed the attraction level.

I found this somewhere (try google X-COM AI improvement mod or ufo AI improvement mod) maybe u should check it out .

 

EDIT: I have the mod now. and i will attach it if u are interested. And i didnt know how to attach file in this forum . Can u tell me how?

[Tycho]

I see, thanks for the information . But i heard somewhere the developer does make the AI pick up the items but the attraction level for items are very low and aliens will pick up items (if the attraction level changed) under folowing conditions:

 

1. they cant be seen by the enemy

2. they are not terorist

3. They have spaces in their inventory to pickup and not to over weight them

4. They dont have any weapons or run out of ammo

 

Number 4 seems odd because they do pickup anything if the items attraction level are high enough.

 

And some people has managed to edit the obbdata.dat in the geoscape folder to changed the attraction level.

I found this somewhere (try google X-COM AI improvement mod or ufo AI improvement mod) maybe u should check it out .

 

EDIT: I have the mod now. and i will attach it if u are interested. And i didnt know how to attach file in this forum . Can u tell me how?

 

I've already incorporated that: I've added a 'get' value to the OBDATA mod in the Extender. People would just have to set each object's value over 5 to utilize it.

[Slider2k]

Hey Tycho, thanks for your continual work on a great mod.

 

In 1.31.5 there's a bug when using Geoscape/Battlescape keyboard shortcuts and alt-tabbing in fullscreen mode: on alt-tab back to the game I get "Cannot reset D3D device" error. No such problem in windowed mode. Attached error pic and my .ini.

 

(No other mods used. OS: WinXP SP2; CPU: Core2Duo T7500; Video: Intel GM965)

UFOExtender.zip

[patrjck]

Hi!

 

I installed UFO Extender for the first time (v1.31.5) and the new features work fantastic, but I receive an error message and CTD every time I minimize the window.

 

Here's the error:

 

Caption: Cannot reset D3D device

Text: Reset failed with error -2005532292

 

I searched the Interwebs and apparently the crash occurs because the top/left positions are being specified without the bottom/right position.

 

I tried appending the bottom and right coordinates to D3D Window Position in the INI, but they were ignored and subsequently removed. Is there something I can change to fix this problem myself or do I need to wait until a fix is released?

[Slider2k]

[Slider2k]

I installed UFO Extender for the first time (v1.31.5) and the new features work fantastic, but I receive an error message and CTD every time I minimize the window.

I can confirm that. Also getting D3D error on minimize.

[CoolKid]

Temporary solution from me.

For the one who often alt + tabing just play the game with HQ4x turned on and D3D turned off. This will give u full screen stretched with your native desktop resolution. Or turn off both filter but u play in full screen with original game resolution (about 640x480 i think) and of course no filter also this may look weird on widescreen with high resolution monitor. Or play in windowed mode with D3D turned on.

[Slider2k]

Temporary solution from me.

For the one who often alt + tabing just play the game with HQ4x turned on and D3D turned off. This will give u full screen stretched with your native desktop resolution. Or turn off both filter but u play in full screen with original game resolution (about 640x480 i think) and of course no filter also this may look weird on widescreen with high resolution monitor. Or play in windowed mode with D3D turned on.

Or just disable keyboard shortcuts.

[Echelon117]

I appear to have a sudden issue with my game out of the blue. My interception of UFOs has come to a grindingly slow pace.. before it was running fast and smooth but now when intercepting, the UFO moves so slow and choppy. It takes one missile about 10 seconds to reach and hit the ufo.

 

I don't think it is this mod specifically that has caused it since I have been using this mod for months now.. but perhaps someone might know why this has happened? I have tried re-installing my drivers but that hasn't helped. Very strange. Any knowledge or help is greatly appreciated

[ElfKaa]

to Echelon117:

Try to check and set these mods to:

UFO Responds to Interception=0

Difficulty Level of Interceptions=1

[ElfKaa]

Or just disable keyboard shortcuts.

 

Great tip - I disabled all keyboard shortcuts and it don´t crashes to me yet - I thought that it is problem in my system or graphics card driver..

I see now everyone has the same problem while using Alt+Tab

[Echelon117]

to Echelon117:

Try to check and set these mods to:

UFO Responds to Interception=0

Difficulty Level of Interceptions=1

 

No, it has nothing to do with those settings. What i'm talking about is the actual frame rate of the game drops to a very slow snail pace when intercepting UFOs. Its as though the CPU is being completely used up when intercepting. It's a frame rate issue

[ElfKaa]

No, it has nothing to do with those settings. What i'm talking about is the actual frame rate of the game drops to a very slow snail pace when intercepting UFOs. Its as though the CPU is being completely used up when intercepting. It's a frame rate issue

 

I think it has to be something with your settings (with the extender ini file). As no other person has the problem you describing..

I can send you my INi or you can try to reinstall the game to another folder and apply extender to the clean install there. Then you maybe will find where the problem is..

If it will not help, you will probably have wrong version of the original game.

 

Do you use D3D video driver or Direct Draw? Try to switch to D3D, to me DDraw don´t work and then I see only black screen..

[Slider2k]

No, it has nothing to do with those settings. What i'm talking about is the actual frame rate of the game drops to a very slow snail pace when intercepting UFOs. Its as though the CPU is being completely used up when intercepting. It's a frame rate issue

Are you using Slow Geoscape Clock option perhaps?

[Tycho]

I installed UFO Extender for the first time (v1.31.5) and the new features work fantastic, but I receive an error message and CTD every time I minimize the window.

 

I searched the Interwebs and apparently the crash occurs because the top/left positions are being specified without the bottom/right position.

 

I tried appending the bottom and right coordinates to D3D Window Position in the INI, but they were ignored and subsequently removed. Is there something I can change to fix this problem myself or do I need to wait until a fix is released?

 

If you play in an actual window, the error does not occur. I'm not sure if the error is due to missing something from Nikilata's contribution when I incorporated it into the Extender or if he did not account for people using ALT-Tab to switch out of full-screen mode.

 

The system that I have been coding on is a notebook which now has a bad video card. I won't be able to work on any fixes until I get it replaced. For now the only solutions would be: play in a window, disable shortcuts and play in fullscreen mode, or don't use alt-tab if you want shortcuts and playing in fullscreen mode.

 

i'll look into this, once my system is operational.

[Slider2k]

If you play in an actual window, the error does not occur. I'm not sure if the error is due to missing something from Nikilata's contribution when I incorporated it into the Extender or if he did not account for people using ALT-Tab to switch out of full-screen mode.

 

The system that I have been coding on is a notebook which now has a bad video card. I won't be able to work on any fixes until I get it replaced. For now the only solutions would be: play in a window, disable shortcuts and play in fullscreen mode, or don't use alt-tab if you want shortcuts and playing in fullscreen mode.

 

i'll look into this, once my system is operational.

Window minimization is actually a separate error from fullscreen+shortcuts+alt-tab. Just minimizing the window when playing in windowed mode causes D3D error.

[Echelon117]

Seems that if I have HQ4x enabled this slows down the games performance dramatically.. Could Tyco or anyone else explain if they know why? Or how to fix?

[Slider2k]

Seems that if I have HQ4x enabled this slows down the games performance dramatically.. Could Tyco or anyone else explain if they know why? Or how to fix?

It's CPU intensive. Better use D3D.

[Tycho]

I released a fix for the crash in fullscreen mode when you ALT-TAB out. 1.31.6patch is on the initial post.

[Kir'jaeden]

Is this type of Alien retaliation (kamikaze supply ship with 7 km/sec(!) speed)a part of the mod?

How to stop it? To build base defence modules?

Moreover, if one delete the target base, the ship will hang over the base remnants for days and do nothing

[Tycho]

Is this type of Alien retaliation (kamikaze supply ship with 7 km/sec(!) speed)a part of the mod?

How to stop it? To build base defence modules?

Moreover, if one delete the target base, the ship will hang over the base remnants for days and do nothing

 

Yes, its part of the mod and its activation is determined by the difficulty setting on the game. The base defense modules are the only things that get a chance to fire on it before impact. But you have pointed out two glitches. Your not supposed to get hyperwave information from it, since it's not communicating with anyone. I need to compensate for the possibility that the player removes the base before it arrives.