UFO / TFTD Combo Mod beta

[Bomb Bloke]

So a while ago I put together a mod for TFTD which imported much of UFO:EU and allowed you to play them as one game.

 

Unfortunately, in the process I learned that there was much that couldn't be acheived without a fair bit of executable editing, a technique I still haven't put any effort into learning. However! kryub noticed my progress, and offered to assist with such tweaks as were required.

 

And within a few weeks he'd solved most of my problems... Though that was probably about a year ago now. Since then I've been occasionally polishing the thing, and although it's still not "perfect", if I aim for perfection then I'll never be releasing it. I would say it's fully playable at least, and that's pretty good. So here's a beta!

 

Improvements:

• Polygon count on the geoscape globe has been upped considerably.
  
• No more "no interception over land" messages.
  
• No limitations as to what equipment works on land (as you'll be spending a fair bit more time there!)
  
• Region maps and alien flight zones have been pretty much entirely rebuilt, they'll now go for a full-globe invasion!
  

None of the above would've happened without kyrub, so seriously, give the guy a round of applause. Also thanks to Mvgulik for his globe rendering tools and notes on the regional data, which saved me a fair bit of time in fixing the mess the vanilla TFTD game comes with.

 

And of course, thanks to anyone who ever contributed to the UFOpedia wiki. There's too many of you to track.

 

Battlefield generation has also been improved considerably - you may now play ANY mission either on land or at sea, and the overhead map is also fully functional. Of course, most issues listed on the old alpha forum thread have been resolved.

 

Installation:

You need a copy of UFO:EU, and a copy of the CE (Windows) release of TFTD. Yep, DOS support has been dropped. Nope, there's next to no chance I'll be adding it back in.

• Backup your copy of TFTD. Once ComboMod is installed, you won't be able to revert the changes otherwise.
  
• Install Java if you somehow still lack it.
  
• Extract my toolkit directly into your TFTD folder.
  
• Take a look in the bb_tact\ComboMod folder, and run "ComboInstaller.bat". It'll ask you for the path to your UFO:EU installation, then churn away for a bit. If you have extracted Dawn City to a folder separate to your game folder, you can optionally specify that path too, allowing you to import that set in addition to the vanilla Urban maps.
  
• Extract TFTD Extender to your game folder. (Previous users: This was optional, but now is required.)
   
  ComboMod needs (or at least I think it needs) and will automatically enforce the following settings:

  [Mod]
  All Items Usable On Land=1
  Underwater Weapons In Air=1
  Remove Background Land Sound=1
  Block Intercept Over Land Message=1
  Block Mission Too Deep Message=1

• If you wish to use XcomUtil, extract it into your game folder.
  
• XcomUtil currently does not support TFTD Extender, but if you do wish to try using them together, extract this extra patch into your game folder (Note: currently that patch expects the TFTD Extender launcher to be called "TFTDLoader.exe". You may need to rename it. Without XcomUtil you can use either title).
   
  Either way, XCU users will then need to run XCUSetup.bat. Make sure to leave its "Battle Field and Terrain" features OFF, and be sure to enable the ComboMod addon when prompted!
  

To start the game, either run "ComboMod.bat" from your game folder, or if using XcomUtil, "RunXcom.bat".

 

Updating:

Extract the fresh version of my toolkit, restore your backed up game EXE, re-run the installation program.

 

Issues:

• The survey ship isn't loaded properly during battles, resulting in a weird "invisible" ship. I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is caused by XcomUtil's EXE splitting code (which I blatantly stole for my own mods - all credit to Scott!).
  
• An issue which is definitely caused by the EXE splitting code is that you'll get a "crash" message every time you start/end a mission. Just hit the "close" button and gameplay will continue as per normal.
  
• I've got a suspicion terrain detection may be a bit screwy around the poles.
  
• The lakes don't match the land when zooming in on the geoscape.
  
• The terrain generator doesn't have the same chances of spawning certain map modules as the original games have... 'cause I don't know the odds. Anyone care to pull them from the EXEs for me?
  

That's about it, I think. Enjoy!

 

 

Update 1 (23/07/2012):

• Added RMP files for two MU maps the game doesn't include.
  
• Removed the majority of the direct executable tweaks in favour of TFTD Extender.
  

Update 2 (08/08/2012):

• BBMod now incorporated.
  

Update 3 (18/11/2012):

• Can now load in Dawn City in addition to (as opposed to "instead of") the vanilla Urban maps.
  

[Thorondor]

What else to say except - phenomenal work, BB & kyrub & Co!

 

::

 

You've brought two worlds together and the mere fact this is even possible to this degree is just unbelievably cool !!

[localhosed]

I bought TFTD CE today on gamersgate to use with this and TFTDextender. Before, I only had the original CD-ROM from 'way back when'.

It seems to be working with TFTDExtender so far. I tested some over-land interceptions, land crash sites, a port terror site, and confirmed several tftdextender patches were working, Here's what i did :

 

Installed combomod.

Installed TFTDExtender (1.03).

made copy of TFTDExtender.ini. Adjusted settings for preference, minimal changes like d3d=1 , d3dwindowed = 1..

Added ' No Underwater Weapons Fire on Land=0 ' to the bugfix section of that INI.

Copied the INI, made two copies, one named Geo.ini and one Tac.ini with identical settings, except :

Tac.ini has Executable=Tactical.exe

Geo.ini has Executable=GeoScape.exe

Modified Combomod.bat to this : https://pastebin.com/UaZLwZWF

(This is a quick edit to the batch file, to replace 'TFTDLoader' references with 'TFTDExtender' ,

and also to replace TFTDExtender.ini with either Geo.ini or Tac.ini when needed, by copying and renaming them to TFTDExtender.ini and deleting the old TFTDExtender.ini.)

 

But, underwater weapons aren't firing on land (coelacanth, torpedo launcher, hydro jet cannon).

 

Bomb Bloke, can you explain how you changed the weapons to remove the 'underwater weapon' flag, if there is one, or what other method you used? Where are the flags for these in the TFTD executables or DAT files?

 

It's been a while since I looked for mention of that on the ufopaedia website or other places. I don't know why they wouldn't be working with TFTDExtender. Although I didn't test the combomod without tftdextender to see if the changes worked with any other loader for me.

 

Thanks for the awesome mod!

[Tycho]

"no underwater weapons fire on land" does not alter the code when attempting to fire the weapons normally. It only fixes the bug where such weapons could make reaction shots and fire when a unit went beserk. In TFTDextender you need to set the option in the [mod] section for "underwater weapons in air". However, a bug was just reported when using that mod when you use the weapons underwater. I know the problem and will have a fix soon.

[localhosed]

Thanks very much. I'm looking forward to that fix then. I haven't used TFTDextender and thought soldiers might try to reaction fire with underwater weapons on land, but not be able to with BB's combomod. But I guess that using the 'underwater weapons in air' will make that unnecessary. TFTDextender is a real treat, thanks for continuing the work.

 

I think Cydonia on mars is named after (among other things) ruins of a city in ancient Crete, (now Greek island territory), which is named after a pearlike fruit that was in the area. Kydonia (quince). It makes Cydonia sound less ominous and scary. Assault on quince-land! The giant brain might be a giant quince. But with TFTDextender, I won't be going after quince master-brains.

[localhosed]

Terrain randomizer for Combomod :

 

I didn't think Xcomutil would be able to use its randomize terrain function on ComboMod's different WORLD.DAT, (I didn' t try) so I wrote a utility to do that for Combomod. I could adapt it for the regular games too, but most people would just use Xcomutil for that I guess.

 

Here's a screenshot of my game using BB's combomod , running TFTDextender and a randomized WORLD.DAT from my program :

 

https://www.mediafire...99m9on24624v690

 

Download (32-bit win32/64 executable, instructions and source code included) :

https://www.mediafire...dga5kz763les3oi (Zip format)

https://www.mediafire...625n2r68b05ey0a (7zip format)

 

Instructions :

 

1. Make sure Combomod (using BB's toolkit) is installed first over TFTD.

2. Put the executable in your TFTD game folder.

3. Run it.

4. If the messages look ok, then run Combomod in whatever way it's done.

5. The polygons that make the land area on continents will look made of random terrain types now.

6. Collect Zrbite. Blast aliens. Watch out for Tentaculats.

 

Anyone is welcome to modify it but please let me know so I can check out what you make.

 

Technical stuff :

The last record in Combomod's WORLD.DAT looked special, so I left it as it was. This program only modifies the land, not ocean terrain.

Written in Euphoria 4.0.4, an interpreted, standalone interpreted or compiled through C procedural language similar to newer BASIC dialects. Probably pretty easy to convert to Quickbasic code, for Bomb Bloke to include with the BB toolkit.

Thanks very much to authors of the ufopaedia WORLD.DAT article and Bomb Bloke for his commented source code of COMBOMOD.BAS .

 

Stuff it doesn't do :

Doesn't account for polygon surface area, 'gaussian distribution' !? or other stuff. Just a straight 1/5 chance for each terrain type (polar wasteland and polar icebergs are in one category 50/50), some of which are big, some of which are tiny.

Doesn't make Lobsterman meat taste good, even roasted with plasma beams, olive oil and Italian spices..

 

If anyone has problems with it let me know if the program writes error messages to console or makes an ex.err file where your WORLD.dat is.

 

Edit : attached zip archive and screenshot to this post also

cbrand120.zip

[localhosed]

This just happened with my combomod setup and tftdextender. I don't know if its a simpler problem or if i'm overlooking something..The usual message in console about tftdextender.ini is due to my edited combomod.bat :

New game, I did a crashsite..

aborted mission..waited a 20 days or so, got terror mission...

landed there, aborted...

a large uso from the terror site took off as i left...

intercepted it, downed it,

landed there with the same triton that was still in the air from aborting the terror site,

the landing at this large uso seemed to abort tactical (then back to geoscape) by itself, tactical didnt display, but a window flashed up, probably console window, not sure - with this (attached screenshot) :

[Bomb Bloke]

Any chance I can get a copy of what was in your MissDat folder at the time? Don't worry about it if you've played (or attempted to play) another mission since then; the good stuff will've been wiped.

 

Is this with a randomized world? Best include the WORLD.DAT if so. Is that mission result the one for the previous mission, or was it new to you?

 

Glad to hear you're having fun with it, anyway. I'll see if I can try out your randomizer this evening.

[localhosed]

Well drat. I really don't remember whether I played another game after this happened. In the case that I didn't, I'll attach my missdat folder and world.dat and a few other possibly helpful files.

I'll take a look at world.dat too, to look for any anomalous edits by my program. I wrote it to only change what I Thought were the 666(programmer humor?) records pertaining to land only as in UFO's 666 records. If you feel like confirming that the program works without side effects on your WORLD.DAT, that would be very helpful to me .

 

edit : to answer your question : that is the mission result of the mission that seemed to abort itself without going to tactical, in other words when tactical was skipped somehow, the very last tactical mission, it is an in-game shot so it could not be anything else.. I tried to take the shot just as it happened and with the console still up with its running message from combomod.bat. Or maybe i misunderstand your question.

 

edit 2 : I looked over world.dat ..don't see anything that i didn't expect to find, only edits to the offset 16 of the 666 records 32B0 to 66A4 . If any of those records are 'off-limits' I can tell the program to change them. The crashed uso in question was in the middle of the atlantic (in water) between south america and africa, Didn't seem very close to a coast.

missdat_etc.zip

[localhosed]

Got this today. New game, same setup, tactical locked up at black screen when going to a crash site. First screenshot : what the console of Combomod said before I killed Tactical.exe . Second shot : The console after tactical.exe killed. Third : Location of crashsite. I attached my missdat folder, game2 and game3 (game3 is the latest and most relevant one) , routes, maps. No MU14.RMP exists which is why I included the routes and maps folders to show that. Still playing today to find out more about combomod.

Note to players, map selection is generated, so I'm able to continue playing.

missdat_game3_etc.zip

[localhosed]

I have never got this bug again..I can't guess what the error was about, but it seems to not happen often. I do get Mu themed maps now, those are fun.

[localhosed]

I guess what was happening with me that one time before might have been similar to what I got today...Ready to jump into the game, and it crashes in a repeatable way (only tried with tftdextender though..) when it got to the main menu, past the intro... I tracked it down to a data file problem, then I used Kdiff3 to compare my game folder with a fresh install of combomod/extender . The fresh install, with my modded data files and mods to combomods edits to the split exes, - this runs, The old install doesnt. I removed missdat along in the searching process, and copied the old savedgames to the new install, and they work, so they werent causing crashes..

 

The differences Kdiff3 reports were that :

ISLAND4.MCD doesnt exist in my old install from yesterday.

gal00.map, urban10.map urban11.map urban12.map urban13.map (all lowercase) are missing from new install.

 

But there is no mention of mu14.rmp, it doesnt exist in either install, but I havent had any errors about it.

So I wonder that what might happen is some disruption to combomod's batch file or programs if TFTD happens to crash on occasion between the switch from tactical to geoscape, or maybe something else...

 

I didnt remember until today that I was using a modded EU install, with civilian's tactical maps (or someone, from his mod for DOS EU). I hope it wouldnt cause anyone thinking about these problems any more work, since I am guessing that those maps wouldnt cause trouble since they replace old maps?

[Bomb Bloke]

Sorry, looks like I managed to overlook some of these posts...

 

MU14.RMP is indeed excluded from the game. But there exists a MU14.MAP, and for every MAP there should be a corresponding RMP... Or so I thought. Off the top of my head I can't think of any good reason for that error to signify a real problem but I'll try to squelch it.

 

(The RMP file is supposed to specify where aliens can spawn/wander within that map area, so you can see why it's important. A quick check of the module and some of my old logs suggests it's not actually supposed to be used at all (it's very nearly identical to MU11), but I might just build my own RMP for it and throw that in as part of ComboMod anyway rather then exclude it altogether).

 

The GAL/URBAN maps you mentioned also shouldn't be there. If they are, then that probably means ComboMod tried to use them (creating empty files in the process); when dealing with those terrains, please be on the lookout for "weird" areas. If the game tries to load an empty map you'll find places where if you drag your mouse cursor over them it'll leave a trail on the screen (and these areas will be at least 10x10 tiles, so they're pretty hard to miss). Let me know if you spot anything like that.

 

ISLAND4.MCD should be there, but the game never actually uses it. Or at least I'm pretty sure it doesn't, I guess I should doublecheck. ComboMod will, um, likely end up deleting it, which I should probably fix. Though that shouldn't actually cause a problem as such.

 

Having custom map packs installed over UFO prior to ComboMod installation should cause no problems, nor should entire custom terrains for that matter. For eg, if you want to see Hobbes' custom cities in TFTD, it should be perfectly fine to install them into UFO then use ComboMod to port them over.

 

I'll try and take a dig through that save in the next day or two, as I do really want to know the cause of any and all crashes. Did you work out which data file was causing the after-the-intro crash?

 

I've posted some small revisions to my toolkit; TFTDextender should now be considered "required", as I've removed most of the mods to the EXE coming from the previous release. This means that to upgrade, once you've extracted the new toolkit to your game folder you'll also need to restore the original game EXE and re-run the ComboMod installer program.

 

Best I can make out these settings need to be used in the Extender INI:

 

[bug Fix]

Base Disjoint=0

No Underwater Weapons Fire on Land=0

 

[Mod]

Underwater Weapons In Air=1

Remove Background Land Sound=1

Block Intercept Over Land Message=1

Block Mission Too Deep Message=1

... But consider this more of a "notification" then a "you need to go in and make sure it's set that way", because if all's working correctly ComboMod will also now modify the INI for you (while leaving all your other Extender settings intact).

[Tycho]

Just an FYI to everyone. You don't need to add the line to disable the fix for underwater weapons, if you enable the mod to use all weapons on land. The bug fix checks the mod setting and will not apply itself if "underwater weapons in air" is enabled.

 

Also, In the next full version I'll be changing "underwater weapons in air" to "all items usable on land" just to be precise about its function.

[localhosed]

I hadn't narrowed down the crash to one of those files mentioned by KDiff3, no. I had just planned to keep using my new install (with combomod, tftdextender, and the same exes and savedgames I was using from them) and if I get more crashes, I'll run KDiff3 and see what the differences are. I understand your changes to combomod for use with tftdextender, thanks for telling me about map compatibility, I was thinking about hobbes maps lately too. I made a note about the 'all items usable on land' change in my INI.

[Bomb Bloke]

Thanks for the heads-up, Tycho.

 

I took a look at those two missdat dumps, localhosed. The first was indeed sometime after the crash (you'd since loaded a battle from your third save slot).

 

The second was specifically caused by my battle generator trying to make use of Mu module 14 (which was fairly easy to confirm, even if it would've taken me ages to think to test it without your detailed notes - thanks!). If I tweaked the map to use a different module instead it works fine. So the quick solution for now is to give the game what it wants: The missing RMP files. Create a copy of MU11.RMP and name it MU13.RMP, then create a copy of MU12.RMP and name it MU14.RMP (the layout of these modules is just about completely identical, so this shouldn't trigger any odd behaviour).

 

I'll code something into the ComboMod installer later to have it create these copies during initial setup. Or should I just stop those modules being used altogether? Not actually sure which answer I prefer...

[localhosed]

I'm glad if I can help your project. I copied and renamed the RMP files with your instructions.

About invisible terrain, I haven't seen any so far (I'm in august 1999 with 40 or so crashed uso) other than the invisible survey ship that you mentioned already, which isn't a problem for me since aliens seem to avoid being near or in it (I don't know if that's a coincidence or not), and I just think of it like some kind of 'cloaked' ship.

[Bomb Bloke]

A bit of an update; BBMod is now automatically fired up whenever running ComboMod. BBMod has also gained a feature in that it can display proper inventory art for TFTD aliens (whereas before that was a UFO:EU-only feature); note that you'll need to configure TFTD Extender to allow alien inventory access in the first place (though I think it allows this by default?).

 

BBMod is still otherwise mostly geared towards UFO:EU (as opposed to TFTD or TFTD-running-ComboMod), but another function that IS compatible with TFTD (and has been upgraded for use with ComboMod in particular) is the option to change the outfits of your troopers according to the local terrain.

 

The inventory screens have been adapted from the edits luke83 made, so kudos to him for that.

 

[Tycho]

A bit of an update; BBMod is now automatically fired up whenever running ComboMod. BBMod has also gained a feature in that it can display proper inventory art for TFTD aliens (whereas before that was a UFO:EU-only feature); note that you'll need to configure TFTD Extender to allow alien inventory access in the first place (though I think it allows this by default?).

 

Nice job BB! and Yes, access to alien inventory is enabled by default in the Extender.

[localhosed]

Another good change! This year has been really good for xcom and xcom-like projects and it's going to keep getting better. If i had a hat I would try to keep it on.

Maybe an ultimate fan will actually give himself the what-do-you-call-it wheat-sheaf xcom soldier hairdo and post instructions of how to do it on the internet and it will become a retro-fiction fad. Hah.

[luke83]

I am glad to see my Cut and Paste work finally made it into a game, now IF openXcom gets to the point where it can use them i will be very happy

[Leni]

Hi all,

I'm trying to get this to work but having no luck.

I thought I had a clue about what I was doing, given the instructions seem to be pretty straightforward and I'm usually pretty good with all this stuff, but apparently not this time!

Is anyone around/able to help me with some issues please?

Leni.

[Tycho]

Someone is always around. Write a detailed entry about what the problem is, what steps you took to install, what other mods you are using or are wanting to use, and what steps have you already tried to resolve this (if any).

[kyrub]

I'm trying to get this to work but having no luck.

Bomb Bloke's instruction are actually pretty cryptic.

 

You should

1) clean install TFTD

2) unpack combomod

3) install TFTDextender, change extender ini settings per BB's instructions

4) run \bb_tact\ComboMod\Comboinstaller.bat

5) run \ComboMod.bat

 

And it works like a treat.

 

---

 

BB, I tried some missions and it's very very good. But: I was put off by low alien variety (I got only Gillmen and Lobstermen in 5 months tested; Secoids only once). Could we see some EU guys as well?

 

Otherwise, it's simply excellent, so many maps. I witnessed all 3 "classic" terror maps, port, city, island. Exciting stuff. I could do with an option to have smaller maps, though. Farm on 5x5 or even 6x6 is too boring, after 10 years of X-COM. 4x4 would do perfect job. Big maps for everyday missions killed TFTD to all but the core community.

[Bomb Bloke]

Getting EU aliens in would be quite a bit of coding - mostly pulling out data tables of stats and working out when and where to implement them.

 

I'd probably revise all the alien tables so that things worked more like EU - In that game, there are five "master" races, each with its own terror unit (though Mutons got two). In TFTD, there are only four master races, with seven terror units... Throw in that some of the terror units are really really rare, and there's really just not a lot of variety.

 

So what I'd wanna do is turn either the Deep One or Calcinite into a "master" race, making the scales even. Then, when fighting a given race on land during artefact/base missions, there'd be a (high) chance that it turns out to be the EU counterpart (it could be done for all missions, though any time a USO is involved it'd look a bit odd - eg shoot down Tasoths and get Ethereals only if the craft ends up on land).

 

Converting the Deep One / Calcinite isn't really needed, but that on its own would really make a huge difference. For the most part the game is already rigged so that they can be treated that way (the sprite support to give them guns is there), but if memory serves their AI can't handle having weapons equipped - that'd be the tricky bit to deal with.

 

Yes, I agree the map sizes could be reduced to match EU sizes. They vary according to the size of the alien ship, but yeah, TFTD maps are just about always bigger. Reckon it'd be worth reducing the underwater battles too, or just the land ones?