UFO / TFTD Combo Mod beta

[kyrub]

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.

Personnally, I would not mind altering the whole "race" model. I grew tired of unified races in every game I played. I mean, floaters in fields, again? The terror missions were so sweet with these extra units. Mixed crews in TFTD were a step in good direction in my opinion.

 

Random suggestions:

a) insert a few Terror units in some UFO missions. An abduction ship could carry 2-4 terrorists. ("impregnation of alien phoetuses..."). Retaliation ships as well.

b) Infiltration missions should use Ethereals as leaders or commanders, who lead the negotiations.

c) Supply missions should have some tough military force to protect the material.

d) Harvest combined with larger ships could spawn many rare critters, Triscene, Hallucinoid, Calcinite alongside a few soldiers. I mean, these things must be feeded, no?

 

e) make cooperative races. An ufopaedia text states, f.i., that Mutons serve as soldiers to Ethereals. I could easily see Ethereals as dedicated leaders and commanders, with Mutons as their bodyguard. No Ethereal soldiers.

f) This model can be reproduced, elsewhere. Maybe Tasoths + Triscene (same theme?), or Hallucinoid. We could have a robotic crew theme as well: Calcinites + Bio drone + Sectopod. Lobstermen could be the supply bodyguards. A race or two races could make the universal Navigator (like the Deep one // Calcinite). This would definitely make the larger ship's assault more fun.

 

It's a fancy stuff and I know I am overdoing, contradicting myself. Maybe you'll find that inspiring, though.

[Bomb Bloke]

I've made a small tweak in relation to Dawn City; previously, if you installed it over your copy of UFO before running the ComboMod installer, it'd replace the Urban maps in TFTD just as it would in UFO.

 

Now, if you extract it to a folder separate to your UFO installation (leaving the vanilla Urban maps intact), the ComboMod installer will let you specify both directories during setup. Both will then randomly pop up during gameplay (the odds of seeing each of the four different terror sites - Island, Port, Urban and Dawn City - should be about even).

 

Note that once you've installed Dawn City into TFTD, if you later need to run the ComboMod installer you don't need to specify the path again. It won't remove those files once they're in there so you don't need to copy them in again (unless Hobbes happens to make another update or something).

[kyrub]

What can I say, BB?

Fantastic work. In my book, the Combomod + the Extender is the best version of X-COM yet.

I'll do some advertising on other webpages, this has become a true classic.

 

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The races: Do you think simple modding of race / crew tables in the exe (in pre-installation) will do the job for me? Will it be fonctional? Will it backfire / interfere? (like, for example, putting big aliens in simple missions is possible or not?)

[Tycho]

I would think this is just a matter of giving a value to the terrorist field in the sub's crew compliment. Although, if there are no spawn points for big units, they won't be placed (or might cause an infinite loop to start, depending on the error checking in the routine.)

[NKF]

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.

 

If I'm not mistaken, if you remove the turret weapon, they will indeed be able to use weapons.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

I would think this is just a matter of giving a value to the terrorist field in the sub's crew compliment. Although, if there are no spawn points for big units, they won't be placed (or might cause an infinite loop to start, depending on the error checking in the routine.)

 

I doubt anything catastrophic would happen. No spawn point for a unit means it will not spawn at all, plain and simple. Same thing happens in an auto-win base defense: if your soldiers fill all the spawn points, the aliens can't and the mission will end.

 

If you want large units to show up, you'll need to edit some spawn points on each particular map set to include them.

 

- Zombie

[kyrub]

Are you sure, Zombie?

I think I read reports about large units filling the lift spawn points in TFTD, where they cannot move. On the ship terror missions, that is.

[Bomb Bloke]

There shouldn't really be any problems messing with alien types. Spawn nodes suitable for both unit sizes exist in all relevant terrains, so the large units should indeed appear (looks like no one told the map developers that TFTD would hardly ever use larger units). Though as Zombie states, if there's no where to place an alien, it simply doesn't appear and the game carries on as if it never existed. (Sorta. You still get its equipment if you win the map.)

 

Large units may indeed end up stuck in the small cabins within the lower levels of cruise ships, but this only occurs because those nodes are specifically flagged to allow it. It's an error in the map design, not the game engine. There's at least one node in the island terrain with the same sort of issue attached to it (one of the underground ones). It's a royal pain when large units spawn in these spots because they end up dedicating all their time units to reaction fire. But these instances occur under normal gameplay, and could readily be fixed if someone wanted to hunt through all the nodes in MapView and correct the RMPs.

 

Re Calcinites/Deep Ones, I hadn't considered taking the turrents off the Deep Ones - I've now tried it, and it seemed to work, though the arm sprites seem a little off when firing or carrying a single-handed weapon (could easily be fixed, I'm sure). Another quirk is that it doesn't stop them from firing in an arc with whatever weapon you give them. Note that I tested this by taking an Aquatoid and simply changing its race index to that of a Deep One, so it's definitely basing the arc thing on that value.

 

Calcinites don't have turrents assigned to them, but just getting Deep Ones working with guns would suffice. The "Mixed Crews" could be renamed to "Deep Ones", and made to appear a heck of a lot more often in the early game. Would certainly add the feel EU's racial variety back in.

 

Tycho pointed out the other day that "Mixed Crew" bases don't appear, though I'd assume "Mixed Crew" base-building missions are also never carried out. Assuming that's right, finding a way to trigger them would likely also trigger such bases.

[Tycho]

Actually, colony stage one is hardcoded with the same "mixed crew" value and stage two is harcoded for lobstermen. I just got the code working to randomize the stage one better with a chance of just getting the race originally assigned to the base in the LOC.DAT as well as both types of mixed crews AND to make stage two use the race in the LOC.DAT file. Despite which race is spawned, there will always be terrorist units mixed in with the aliens.

[kyrub]

@BombBloke

 

Deep Ones though have another problem, they will not reaction fire beyond range 9, very poor.

 

 

Personnally, I could go with Calcinites + adding non- zero Throwing to them. As far as I know, they get a grenade each, with throwing Hopefully it would work (I remember testing it with Reapers, it seemed to work). Are there any sprites necessary for throwing?

 

This would make Calcinite quite challenging in the early game, where grenades represent massive thread. Also, it would force me to use different, spread tactics. (The only small downside is their graphic. It's quite disapointing, while Deep Ones, on the other hand, look and sound quite cool.)

[Bomb Bloke]

Calcinites won't throw or use grenades or weapons, unfortunately. You're hard-pressed to get them to use melee, for that matter, with the standard AI (they're more likely to take cover then charge at you). Again, I tested this by converting an Aquatoid (which has full access to such items and the stats needed to use them somewhat effectively) straight across to the Calcinite race.

 

There aren't any special sprites needed for throwing. Both Calcinites and Deep Ones have all the sprites they need for using equipment. Though for whatever reason the Deep One sprites aren't in the right order (or aren't being read in the right order), so they look a bit weird when actually carrying stuff.

 

Deep Ones, due to their firing arc, can only shoot ten tiles anyway - mindcontrolling them and and attempting to fire further gets you a "no LOF" message. I dunno whether or not removing the arc would automatically sort out reaction fire.

 

In regards to my "no mixed bases" comment, I was referring to the race assigned to the bases in the LOC.DAT records. If mixed crews are replaced with Deep Ones, say, then we'd want bases with a race of 4 assigned to 'em.

[Tycho]

If you can remove all the reference to the routines that handle the special attack of the celatid, Deep Ones will act normal. I think there are 2 areas of the code that handle the AI routine for the special attacks and another 2 for making the attack.

[Bomb Bloke]

Just uploaded a small tweak, the installer now offers to reduce USO site maps down to the dimensions used in UFO:EU.

[Tycho]

I just added the same tweak to the the Extender.

[kyrub]

That is great, BB and Tycho, thank you both.

 

Best version of X-COM yet, now more than before.

Lack of variety in aliens the only real downside, but it can be sidestepped, partially.

[Bomb Bloke]

Heh, double reduction? You'll be clearing maps in record time!

[Tycho]

The aliens start out in the Triton as well: "Nobody even breathe!"

 

BB, I assume your modifying 0x451D72, correct?

[Bomb Bloke]

Not touching it. ComboMod generates maps using my own externalised code. It just looks at whatever map the game itself produced, and if it's a USO site, generates a new one that's a bit smaller.

 

The only reason the ComboMod installer has to be run is to save a single-byte config file telling my main executable whether to shrink the maps or not.

[Tycho]

Then I guess it's possible to double the reduction.

 

the offset I mentioned is the base x and y length of USO maps, with both getting increased by 1 if the USO is a cruiser or larger craft. I put the value back to the one from EU.

[kyrub]

BombBloke,

 

I am having problem with your excellent patch.

I have been trying to install it on another computer, without success.

 

The problem, it seems, stems from file names not being written with MAJOR but minor letters. So, currently the game is unable to open "island.map" and "xbases.map". I figured it out and corrected these manually, but whenever I try to go for tactical, the game freezes without displaying anything.

 

Could you help me (and probably other people having this basic problem)? What more should be renamed (there are hundred of files with minor letters)? Is there any other solution? Could you, potentially, make an upgraded version that solves this problem.

I am running Win7, java x64, btw.

 

Thanks, kyrub

[kyrub]

Solved the freezing, it was extender problem.

The MAJOR letters should be fixed probably, in your release. It's island*.rmp and .map and xbases*.

 

Thanks again for the combo, I enjoy it, k

[kyrub]

Wanted to quickly play this BEST VERSION OF XCOM...

...but the Dawn city install is not working!!

BBloke, please help.

 

 

EDIT: On fourth attempt, it does. I had to copy the Dawn city file into the directory, that's probably the catch.

(I still experience problems with files starting with small letters. It would be pretty helpful to have that sorted out).

Big thanks to you BombBloke for making this.

k

[Tycho]

Solved the freezing, it was extender problem.

 

Was this problem a bug in the code or a configuration problem?

[Bomb Bloke]

Huh, seems I missed your earlier post about the file names, kyrub. I'll look into it.

 

It would be helpful to know ahead of time whether it's an issue that crops up during installation or game play.

 

I had to copy the Dawn city file into the directory, that's probably the catch.

Um, yes? They do indeed need to go into the directory you tell the installer to look in. Is that what you mean? Where were you previously putting them - a subdirectory?

 

Or do you mean you had to put the files into the installer folder? That shouldn't be the case...

[kyrub]

Hi BB,

I had it like this:

 

root - DawnCityFolder - Maps, Routes etc.

root - xcomFolder - combomod etc.

 

I specified the right DawnCityFolder as dawn city location, but the installer kept returning errors "cannot create Dawncity.map ...". I reinstalled, tried again, same error.

In my last attempt, I moved DawnCityFolder into the xcomFolder. I specified the new location. To my surprise, it suddenly worked.

 

The small letters problem is extremely annoying, I must say. It happened with different uniforms and also with plane.tab and with many more files. The combomod installed normally, but upon launch of a mission, the game could not read some of the files. --- I finally decided to change the adresses in your java files, as it was quicker to overwrite them than to do it with 30+ files during every install.

 

 

@Tycho

That one is so old complaint, that I don't even remember. I guess I did something wrong in the ini file. It seems to work now.