Need Ideas for better Aliens, weapon changes

[Civilian]

I am playing EU (with XcomUtil changes and other mod/editor changes) again and i made some adjustments to the alien stats with the very nice editor from the file section here on the site https://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/?dlid=749 . I gave the higher ranked aliens more TUs, better health etc. I also edited their resistances etc.

 

The game is much harder and more challenging now, especially if a Muton can (in very rare cases) survive a direct hit from a Blaster Launcher.

 

However, there are 3 Aliens that are still as useless as they always were:

 

1. The Reaper -> It is a big and soft target with no ranged weapon

 

2. The Silacoid -> It's slow and has no ranged weapon

 

3. The Celatid -> Soft and too slow

 

I wanted to make those 3 a real threat but without making them overpowered, does anyone have some good ideas?

 

Also: Can the smoke grenade or the electroflare be modded in anything useful? I tried to give the smoke grenade some stun damage but it doesn't seem to work. I ask because I really like the changes Xcomutil made e.g. to the Heavy Explosive (Hull opener)... Especially as you have to walk through a door to open it...

 

So, what do you personally recommend?

 

I have only two editing tips so far:

 

1.Decrease the amount of money you get for the Heavy Plasma's and other ridiculously high-priced weapons, it makes the game much better. No longer will you swim in dozens of millions, you will have to make hard decisions to survive financially.

 

2.Swap the armour values of the Power Suit and the Flying Suit, it makes the game more interesting as you have to decide what to wear for several situations and missions.

[NKF]

Almost any object in this game can be turned into a grenade - even bodies. So that's one possible use for the flares - they both provide light and can also explode. I often joke about making a nuclear lantern... You an also add a grenade function to other objects like the motion scanner, stun rod, mind probe and even psi-amp. This in effect adds a self destruct mechanism to each of these objects yet you can still take advantage of their intrinsic functions.

 

The Reaper would benefit from better under armour. It's already a dangerous threat to players that are careless enough to let them get too close, but is otherwise far too easy to dispatch with explosives.

 

The Reaper and the Silacoid could certainly benefit from increased TUs to make them move even faster. Also if you want to make them even more dangerous, increase their reactions. This will make it much more difficult for soldiers to react against them.

 

Celatids might benefit from higher reactions.

 

- NKF

[Civilian]

Gee, thanks! Those are good ideas, I will make those unit changes right away. As for the grenade: Is there any editor out there that lets me do those changes? Or would it have to be done the "hard" manual way with an Hex-Editor?

 

I also thought about changing the Blaster Launcher into a stun weapon and instead make the small launcher shoot HE ammo, as a 100% sure-fire controllable super-bomb is somewhat too strong imo

 

One more balance change from me: I swapped the damages the default grenade (weak) and the proxy grenade (strong) do, that way the standard grenade is not so useless

[Zombie]

Gee, thanks! Those are good ideas, I will make those unit changes right away. As for the grenade: Is there any editor out there that lets me do those changes? Or would it have to be done the "hard" manual way with an Hex-Editor?

None that I know of. You can edit an existing grenade to be more or less powerful with Jenny's Editor, but to create a grenade out of a normal item requires manual editing of obdata.dat. Not that doing it the manual way is hard, it just takes a little more time.

 

As for the Reaper, Silacoid and Celatid (and beyond what NKF mentioned), you could also edit the damage modifiers for those aliens to take less damage with respect to say, plasma or high explosives. That way you can really tweak the amount of damage a creature takes in addition to how it performs. We are getting closer to giving terror units actual ranged hand-held weapons but still haven't got all of it figured out yet.

 

I also thought about changing the Blaster Launcher into a stun weapon and instead make the small launcher shoot HE ammo, as a 100% sure-fire controllable super-bomb is somewhat too strong imo

I don't know if you ever tried to use a Rocket Launcher with the Large Rocket edited to deal 200 damage like the Blaster, but it's a scary weapon. Even a slight misfire can have disastrous consequences. At least with the Blaster you can set waypoints to direct the blast to a location where the splash damage will only effect the enemy in question and not your troops. As far as I know, a Blaster Launcher is only capable of firing HE shells. Editing in stun or incendiary as the damage type doesn't work (at least this is what I remember).

 

- Zombie

[Civilian]

I will also edit the resistances, yes. The TU changes NKF suggested were a quite good start (saw my very first SERIOUS Celatid attack ever lol), but the units themselves are still too weak, one hit by the Heavy Laser and they are dead.

 

I gonna test the Rocket Launcher change in my next campaign (gonna limit myself to the starting weapons then).

 

And you are right about the BL doing only HE damage no matter the damage type one enters in the editor.

 

Thanks, Zombie!

[Zombie]

I will also edit the resistances, yes. The TU changes NKF suggested were a quite good start (saw my very first SERIOUS Celatid attack ever lol), but the units themselves are still too weak, one hit by the Heavy Laser and they are dead.

Yeah a combination of higher armor and lower damage modifier will probably fix the one-hit-one-kill issue. By the way, first time I ever really got injured by a Celatid was on an Alien Base "smash 'n grab" mission. I somehow stunned one and my commander was hauling it (in his backpack) back to the green staging rooms to abort. Well, the darn thing woke up and at point blank that acid spit weapon did tremendous damage. My commander (who was wearing a Flying Suit) was teetering on the brink of death but managed to pull out his stun rod, give it another poke and get close enough so my medic could apply first aid. He was nearly out for two months after that. Nasty.

 

And you are right about the BL doing only HE damage no matter the damage type one enters in the editor.

That's what I thought. I think the "Is Launcher" flag in obdata.dat overrides any damage type you put in for the bomb and defaults to HE. Too bad really. I wanted a Incendiary Blaster. You also cannot make incendiary grenades either. That was another thing I wanted to try in the game but failed epically.

 

- Zombie

[Civilian]

I never realized that the aliens could re-awake after being stunned! I thought if they are stunned that would stay stunned...

 

And yeah, your story clearly shows how weak the Celatid is: Even with a chance like this it screws up the kill

 

Just a thought about the weak enemies: Could it be that their aggressiveness is set too low? I have to check that. About the weapon changes: I wish it would be possible to (EASILY!) add weapons to Xcom, playing around with the submachine gun in UFO2000 yesterday-> really liked it.

[Zombie]

I never realized that the aliens could re-awake after being stunned! I thought if they are stunned that would stay stunned...

Sure, aliens can and do wake up after being stunned. (The large 2x2 units can't but the 1x1 aliens can). Aliens drop their hand-held weapons after being stunned so they pose no threat anymore making them easy kills.

 

And yeah, your story clearly shows how weak the Celatid is: Even with a chance like this it screws up the kill

 

Just a thought about the weak enemies: Could it be that their aggressiveness is set too low? I have to check that.

Nah, all the terror units (except for the Sectopod and Cyberdisc) are already maxed out in aggressiveness. Have no idea what would happen if you edit a higher number in for aggressiveness, but I doubt it will make much difference.

 

About the weapon changes: I wish it would be possible to (EASILY!) add weapons to Xcom, playing around with the submachine gun in UFO2000 yesterday-> really liked it.

Not really that hard to edit obdata.dat it just takes a little time. I could probably edit it for you if you get the stats together.

 

- Zombie

[Civilian]

Wow, i never knew that the files in XCom were documented that good!

 

My current campaign is slowly coming to an end (either by losing due to debts or by going on the final mission , this one is really hard), but in my next one i gonna use the human starting weapons only with no game-reloading during the missions and the geoscape, maybe i will modify the AC to a SMG and the HC to a HMG. This should be possible now thanks to your link!

 

Thanks, Zombie!

 

Btw, does anbody know where i can find the Email Xcom map editor (and maybe map packs)? I ask because i was thinking about recreating something similar (yet simplified) in Game-Maker, only this time with an AI to play against. But i wanted to take a closer look at the game mechanics of the original game first.

 

picture of the UFO2000 SMG:

 

https://img245.imageshack.us/img245/6440/83103339.th.jpg

[Zombie]

Wow, i never knew that the files in XCom were documented that good!

Most of them are pretty much decoded now but there are still a few which are either unknown or sparsely populated. We're getting there though. See the Game Files page at the X-COM wiki for a list of them.

 

Btw, does anbody know where i can find the Email Xcom map editor (and maybe map packs)? I ask because i was thinking about recreating something similar (yet simplified) in Game-Maker, only this time with an AI to play against. But i wanted to take a closer look at the game mechanics of the original game first.

I think you can find most of that at Freelancer.

 

- Zombie

[Civilian]

You are awesome! Many thanks for that link. Some of the file-links there no longer work (the maptool for example) but at least i could download some map-packages etc.

 

I made some wild tests with in my current EU campaign. I had my first pet Chryssalid and I used Bombloke's ComCiv tool that gives Civilians pistols with the result of a civilian shooting an Ethereal Leader and later shooting at my tanks. I also could sell the pistols and clips later at the base!

I also saw my first reawakening Alien (a stunned Muton)...

 

In a youtube video (found the link here in the forum) I saw an Xcom-Soldier being turned into a zombie that shot with the weapon the deceased xcom soldier had equipped and even the then spawning Chryssalid shot with that weapon. I never saw that before and I will not try to recreate that situation, though.

 

Anyway, thanks again.My current campaign is maybe over soon because of debts, though...

[Catwalk]

Hey Civilian, some interesting stuff here and that editor you linked to is awesome. I don't know how I missed it earlier, it does lots of stuff that I'm interested in. I've been working on my own custom game here, maybe some of it will inspire you.

 

EDIT: Oh wow, this editor is golden! I'm too overcome with emotion to actually edit anything done now, I'll skip straight to drafting up a huge revision of everything

 

^ slightly deranged and ecstatic

 

EDIT: And now I'm depressed, I can't make the editor function. I can open it and change stuff, but none of the changes are applied when I try to run the game. Any idea what's wrong here?

[Zombie]

EDIT: And now I'm depressed, I can't make the editor function. I can open it and change stuff, but none of the changes are applied when I try to run the game. Any idea what's wrong here?

If you are editing anything from the executable (the options at the bottom of the screen) you will probably need to start a new game for the changes to show. It depends on what you are editing though. Geoscape stuff (craft for example) will require you to start a new game, but tactical stuff (damage modifiers - aka resistances for example) doesn't.

 

- Zombie

[Catwalk]

I already tried starting a new game, didn't work

[Civilian]

Odd. The editor works fine on my PC. Did you maybe mix up some folders? I ask because one time I made mod changes to a backup folder and wondered why the game (in the unmodded folder) did not change

 

And your TFTD scenario sounds very interesting, I think i will skip my second campaign in EU and play TFTD instead. And THEN return to EU of course!

 

I am still daydreaming about a "simple" 2D remake of something like UFO2000 against the AI, I'm quite good with Visual Basic and graphics, so making such a game should be possible for me.

 

However, i had to rebuild my PC this week (graphic card died, the monitor followed, then the new GPU needed more power, so i had to buy a new PSU as well... and all that with several problems, the first replacement GPU was broken, the first replacement PSU was too modern for my old PC etc etc).

 

Now I sit in front of 2 new monitors, a superb new graphic card and a new powerhouse PSU

 

I'm happy but tired, time to play some EU to relax! Everything else: maybe later!

[Catwalk]

Civilian, if you're interested in playing by these rules then I could make all the modifications and send you the relevant files. And the changes are still up for discussion, I'm in the middle of readjusting all weapons to account for new rules. I'm also interested in playing a cooperative game, where we take turns managing geoscape and both play out each battle, then pick the best outcome after combat. No reloading, of course

 

The editor simply isn't working, and I only have one TFTD directory. Boo I can even see that the files are changed as the change date is updated, but the changes aren't present in-game. Help would be greatly appreciated, I'd love to be able to use this editor.

[Civilian]

Thanks for the offer, I will give you a sign once i finished my EU game, because: YAY! Despite a debt of 12 million credits on the 20th of a month I somehow managed to get enough money on the 31th so I could go proceed to the next month. My (single) base is totally stripped down, though, e.g. I have 1 interceptor in 1 hangar with 4 soldiers doing all my missions atm.

 

Here a screenshot that tells you the whole story:

https://img44.imageshack.us/img44/300/ouchq.th.jpg

 

The editor works fine for me, except the base layout editing part, have you contacted the author on her site? I'll report my discovery maybe she can fix it.

 

My crew exists of:

 

1 Stun/Medic girl with many TU (only carrying a medpack and a stunrod)

1 Blaster Launcher guy with hight PSI strength but sadly no PSI skill (only carrying one BL and seven rounds)

2 PSI guys/girls with high PSI strengths and good marksmanship (only carrying PSI-amplifiers and Heavy Lasers)

 

They all have Power Armour.

 

I would like to have some laser tanks but i simply do not have any money to build them...

 

edit: It seems one can't email Jeanna, but the problems already seem to be known:

https://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=242027356

[Catwalk]

Looks exciting I agree with the money supply being much too generous, and that it'd be interesting to make the strategic game more challenging. You generally always have enough money to do whatever you want, just a question of how fast you go. I've added the following of your ideas (using EU names, although I'm using TFTD):

- reduced cash for artefacts (and setting sale value of human technology to zero)

- removing the launcher flag from Blasta Launcher (if possible)

- lower values for Flying Suit (not raising Power Armour, it's strong already)

- better stats for higher ranking aliens (was planning on raising stats of all aliens, but decided it'd be more fun to create badass "bosses")

- swapping Grenade and Proxy Grenade values (actually 50 -> 75 for grenade and 70 -> 60 for proxy)

 

Thanks for investigating the problem, I'll go have a look.

 

EDIT: Hmm, can't find information about my particular problem and they don't accept Hotmail addresses for new accounts. Could you post my question there?

 

EDITSOMEMORE: Ah, it's an XcomUtil problem. When I load the game with terror.com the changes are applied, when I use runxcom.exe nothing is changed. Any idea how to work around this, without quitting XcomUtil? I use v2.1

[NKF]

XComutil takes a copy of the original executable and makes two separate copies of it and only changes the entry point so that one launches the Geoscape while the other launches tactical. So changes you made to the original will not show up in the duplicates.

 

My recommendation is to re-run the XComutil setup program and have it re-split your executable.

 

- NKF

[Catwalk]

NKF, I was under the impression that this problem only occurred with the CE version which uses a single executable. But thanks, I'll try that and let you know if it works.

[NKF]

No you are right, that is for the CE.

 

I'm not completely sure why terror.com would be any different from runxcom.bat, as terror.com is a duplicate of the original batch that has been converted into a .com file. Can you check that xcomutil hasn't created copies of tactical.exe and geoscape.exe?

 

- NKF

[Catwalk]

Yeah, I see files named tactical.xcu and geoscape.xcu, I assume it uses them. XcomEd modifies the .exe files. Boo Do I need to grab hold of Jenny for a fix to that? Still, it's strange that tactical.exe seems to work. I just tried running xcusetup.bat and started a new game, changes didn't show up. Think I need to delete the .xcu executable and then run xcusetup.bat again? And would I lose any XcomUtil stuff by deleting it and having a new one created?

 

EDIT: I decided to take it here instead, seems like the right place so I can stop derailing Civilian's thread

[Catwalk]

Oh, and another idea for Civilian. We could turn all earth tech items into grenades with power 1, that way you lose them when a soldier dies. Right now you don't have to buy much stuff as items pretty much never explode. Also means that you need to carry all items you load onto your transport, so watch your strength levels carefully.

[Civilian]

I wish I would understand what you meant by the grenade/exploding when dead thing

 

I thought about making the earth equipment (and soldiers/scientists/engineers) much more expensive and totally remove the income from alien artefacts, IIRC Xcomutil has an option for that. Not sure if this will work in the game, though, the funding by nations might not be enough.

[Catwalk]

Civilian, I mean that all earth equipment is given the grenade flag. With the timer set to 0, and a blast power of 1, net effect is that equipment blows up when dropped. That way expenses of attrition increases considerably, coupled with more expensive weapons it means that you may have to pay closer attention to weapon cost when arming your troops. As is, cost of starting weapons is a completely irrelevant factor.