TFTD Extender

[Tycho]

Apparently lobstermen become more decisisive with melee attack, but their pets somehow become harmless. They ignore soldiers even at close cell and wander aimlessly. Here is a savegame as example. Two last Tentaculats which are close to soldiers do not attack. Without Extender, they do its job nicely, even with strength lowered to 19. It seems zombification does not depend on unit strength and has its own code. I tried to switch off bugfix by adding string "Fix Tentacult=0" to bugfix section. It is unclear is the bugfix supposed to take its effect on battle or only when battleground generated or on new game starting. I tried some new battles with Tentaculats and switched off the bugfix and tentaculats return to its normal operation.

thanks for the information. I have an idea of the problem and will look into it when I get a chance.

[Kir'jaeden]

Good to see you Tycho! I was ready to think you stopped Extender maintaining.

 

There is rather annoying bug: panicked units (aliens or soldiers) can run into the wall block or even run out of map (!). Therefore XCOM squad could not reach them and finish the purge. Most often this issue occurs on 2nd level of artifact site. In savegame attached last hallucinoid has x-coord of 246. Only XCOMUTIL WIN WRT sequence helps.

 

Generally, large aliens are very buggy ones. It could not be captured alive, though it could be paralysed in combat. XCOM MC-attack sometimes controls only 1/4 of it(!). So it can shoot itself by its own opportunity fire. Once paralysed, they could not wake up even if its stun level is reduced to 0. Medikit effects on them though soldier standing over it does not see any body under his feet . Even killed, large alien leaves its remains which could be scanned by medikit as if they has its own life(!).

game_8_panicked_Hlcnd_run_off_map.rar

[Kir'jaeden]

Terror site, cruise liner, alien mixed. End turn and proceed to 2nd stage. User does whatever he can, but game crashes on alien turn at 0x4257F0, error 0xC0000005, trying to access 0x016579E7, 0x016E7927, 0x016E7BCF etc. Each time upon reload the access addr differs, but error point and error code persists.

game_7.rar

[Tycho]

Terror site, cruise liner, alien mixed. End turn and proceed to 2nd stage. User does whatever he can, but game crashes on alien turn at 0x4257F0, error 0xC0000005, trying to access 0x016579E7, 0x016E7927, 0x016E7BCF etc. Each time upon reload the access addr differs, but error point and error code persists.

I know what is happening but, for now I can't say why. The hex address of the error is where the game is attempting to calculate to what tile it will move a unit because that unit is falling. There is a loop where the Z-axis for the unit is increased until the program finds a tile that can be stood upon by checking the attributes of the new locations but the routine is attempting to check an invalid address. I believe what is happening is this loop has gone beyond the parameters of the map.

[Tycho]

Generally, large aliens are very buggy ones. It could not be captured alive, though it could be paralysed in combat. XCOM MC-attack sometimes controls only 1/4 of it(!). So it can shoot itself by its own opportunity fire. Once paralysed, they could not wake up even if its stun level is reduced to 0. Medikit effects on them though soldier standing over it does not see any body under his feet . Even killed, large alien leaves its remains which could be scanned by medikit as if they has its own life(!).

Large aliens are very buggy in the original game. If you look at the known bug section on ufopaedia.org, you will find a list of issues about large units. Large units don't have an object file for the inventory so you won't see them when a soldier stands on one part and opens the inventory. The original programmers decided that large units are finished once they are rendered inactive, so medkits are useless on them and they don't recover stun naturally like small units will.

[Ros]

Nice to find out that after all this years there's still an active community.

Anyway I want to play TFTDextender with PSX music but I can't get it to work.

PSX CD image (MDF with MDS) is mounted, CD drive letter is correct but there's no music (sound is ok). When I change to MP3 everything is fine. Any thoughts?

 

Wishlist - any chance for "Infinite Gauss ammo" mod like in XcomUtil?

 

[Tycho]

Nice to find out that after all this years there's still an active community.

Anyway I want to play TFTDextender with PSX music but I can't get it to work.

PSX CD image (MDF with MDS) is mounted, CD drive letter is correct but there's no music (sound is ok). When I change to MP3 everything is fine. Any thoughts?

 

Not at the moment. Try downloading some of the older versions of the Extender from the ufopaedia.org site and see if they work then progress up until you find which version it stops working. This would be a big help.

[Ros]

Hi, I encountered problem with patch 1.07.2, my barracudas will fire every single one of their torpedoes at once. This has caused the game to crash every time they've tried to fire their ajax and once when they've tried to fire their D.U.P. (presumably this is the same with the gas cannon, but I haven't tried this). I reverted to version 1.07 without changing TFTDExtender.ini, and didn't encounter the same issue.

TFTDExtender.txt

 

I am using your method to get around this issue also. However going back to 1.7.0 I get a guaranteed crash if my soldier throws a grenade on the battlescape so have to have "hot grenades" turned off but I really like this mod

 

Guess I need to wait for the next patch to get the best of both worlds.

 

Starting a new game after 2 years away with almost all mods turned on, thanks for the fun Tycho

 

I've encountered the same problem but I think I've managed to solved it. At least partially Anyway in my case it was caused by mod "True Cautious Mode". If enabled it crashes the game. Also if enabled X-COM subs fire all torpedoes in one shot. When disabled everything is fine.

I've attached print screen with crash message.

[Kir'jaeden]

base defence prep bug

 

savegame: Tasoth Drednought is to attack Strike_SA base

 

if mod base defence prep=1 then occurs the bug. when USO strikes the base and base screen appears, base map is lost and all base space is filled with airlocks(?!) It is possible to delete them, delete them all and still battle will begin. though after winning there will no base.

 

Another bugs, from original game I think:

 

-If the base deleted before Drednought strike, the vessel doesn't disappear. It hovers on the same place. It also can follow waypoints of my transports. Moreover, Tasoths send more and more Dreadnoughts until game crashes at 45E33D error C0000094

 

-Base defending soldiers never get particle disturbance sensors even if base store has them and there are few of objects.

game_1.rar

[Ros]

There is rather annoying bug: panicked units (aliens or soldiers) can run into the wall block or even run out of map (!). Therefore XCOM squad could not reach them and finish the purge. Most often this issue occurs on 2nd level of artifact site. In savegame attached last hallucinoid has x-coord of 246. Only XCOMUTIL WIN WRT sequence helps.

Did You managed to run TFTDextender with XcomUtil or are You using separate TFTD install?

[Tycho]

base defence prep bug

 

savegame: Tasoth Drednought is to attack Strike_SA base

 

if mod base defence prep=1 then occurs the bug. when USO strikes the base and base screen appears, base map is lost and all base space is filled with airlocks(?!) It is possible to delete them, delete them all and still battle will begin. though after winning there will no base.

Thanks for the reminder, Kir! I know about this and am working on it.

 

Another bugs, from original game I think:

 

-If the base deleted before Drednought strike, the vessel doesn't disappear. It hovers on the same place. It also can follow waypoints of my transports. Moreover, Tasoths send more and more Dreadnoughts until game crashes at 45E33D error C0000094

 

-Base defending soldiers never get particle disturbance sensors even if base store has them and there are few of objects.

Yea. Both are issues in the original game.

 

Once a base is detected and the flag to attack it has been set, there is no check to clear this flag except when the aliens destroy the base or you win a base defense mission. In the case where the player removes the base on their own, the cycle will continue indefinitely. I've fixed this in EU and will port the fix to TFTD in the next release.

 

There is a table that is checked when spawning items in a base defense, as a measure for preventing just one type of item to spawn. There is not an entry for particle sensors in this table, but there are TWO entries for the MC Reader. I'll fix this as well.

[Kir'jaeden]

Did You managed to run TFTDextender with XcomUtil or are You using separate TFTD install?

I do not run TFTDextender with Xcomutil.

I use Xcomutil separately for viewnig and editing of savegames.

[Ros]

I do not run TFTDextender with Xcomutil.

I use Xcomutil separately for viewnig and editing of savegames.

Ok, I get it. And You've got no problems in TFTDextender with savegames edited by XcomUtil?

 

BTW - did anybody used hacked TFTD.exe from Paladin888 Mod with TFTDextender? There are couple of interesting features such as more unique Aliens.

[Kir'jaeden]

Ok, I get it. And You've got no problems in TFTDextender with savegames edited by XcomUtil?

 

I did not notice any problems from XcomUtil or XC2ME2 editors. Though I limited editors use only on spawning some aliens in alien containment who can not be captured somehow, deleting from the prison many useless soldiers etc of different alien races and fixing the problems with sneaky ones(post #402). Most of problems are stemming from original game bugs.

[Ros]

Unfortunately I haven't had time recently to check PSX music bug but I've two questions about TFTDextender:

1) sensor stacking - in UFOpaedia there's an information that "When enabled, each standard sonar has a 10% probability". But does this bugfix also apply to Wide Sonar Array?

2) Improved Gauss Tank - I like the idea of Aqua Plastic production requirement and armor boost but I think now armor is too thick (front/rear) compared with Displacer which is much better technology. So if I want to change armor for example to 110 front/rear how can I do it? Through Extender .exe file hex editing?

[Tycho]

Unfortunately I haven't had time recently to check PSX music bug but I've two questions about TFTDextender:

1) sensor stacking - in UFOpaedia there's an information that "When enabled, each standard sonar has a 10% probability". But does this bugfix also apply to Wide Sonar Array?

2) Improved Gauss Tank - I like the idea of Aqua Plastic production requirement and armor boost but I think now armor is too thick (front/rear) compared with Displacer which is much better technology. So if I want to change armor for example to 110 front/rear how can I do it? Through Extender .exe file hex editing?

1. yes: The code is the same, just a name change to the facility.

2. You would have to hex edit the patcher.dll file to change the armor assigned to the improved tank.

[Kir'jaeden]

When Alien inventory =1, pressing inv. button for MC-ed Zombie

causes game hanging and the text "cannot open ufograph/man_bm0.bdy" appears in small txt window of program.

There is no such file in ufograph directory. I tried to substitute the required file by copying and renaming to "man_bm0.bdy" the varyous man*.bdy files from the same directory but the bug persists.

 

Interesting: when soldier kills MC-ed zombie the emerging tentaculat appears hostile. But when regular tentaculat kills MC-ed zombie, it kills the emerging tentaculat too as if it is Mc-ed too! However, in cases when "our" tentaculat did not killed it becomes hostile anyway

game_8.rar

[Tycho]

When Alien inventory =1, pressing inv. button for MC-ed Zombie

causes game hanging and the text "cannot open ufograph/man_bm0.bdy" appears in small txt window of program.

There is no such file in ufograph directory. I tried to substitute the required file by copying and renaming to "man_bm0.bdy" the varyous man*.bdy files from the same directory but the bug persists.

 

Interesting: when soldier kills MC-ed zombie the emerging tentaculat appears hostile. But when regular tentaculat kills MC-ed zombie, it kills the emerging tentaculat too as if it is Mc-ed too! However, in cases when "our" tentaculat did not killed it becomes hostile anyway

I fixed the exploit where MCing a zombie allows a permanently controlled tentaculat.

 

The crash is an error on my part caused by the fix. I used the wrong hex code for clearing the ecx register and cleared the eax register by mistake so bad data gets put in the zombie's UNITREF entry. This causes the inventory routine to look for the wrong file... I have fixed it now.

 

The routine that does the alien melee attacks checks to see if the target unit can be zombified only at the beginning before performing any attacks. If the target is MCed, the "create zombie" flag isn't set. Once the routine starts performing melee attacks, it only checks the targets stats to see if the target is dead/disabled. A zombie "death" results in the tentaculat emerging but for the melee routine, the unit hasn't changed and is still active, so it the attacks continue.

[Kir'jaeden]

Good to hear it, Tycho! Way to go! I assume all users would like to see the fixes in next patch.

 

Meanwhile, another abnormalitiy is detected(see attachment):

Colony assault. Look at PWT displacer at the far south. End turn. Hallucinoid nearby moves to it closely and attacks. Surprisingly, displacer opens reaction fire and launches torpedoes one by one until hallucinoid is downed(!). It could miss(guidance system is turned off may be!), it could launch several torpedoes despite of the fact the torpedo launching TU is of 66% i. e. it supposed to launch no more than 1 torpedo per turn. Without TFTDextender, if the hallucinoid does the same, displacer has no reaction fire. It appears the TFTDextender option "More Reaction Fire" value has no effect on the bug.

game_8.rar

[Tycho]

Good to hear it, Tycho! Way to go! I assume all users would like to see the fixes in next patch.

 

Meanwhile, another abnormalitiy is detected(see attachment):

Colony assault. Look at PWT displacer at the far south. End turn. Hallucinoid nearby moves to it closely and attacks. Surprisingly, displacer opens reaction fire and launches torpedoes one by one until hallucinoid is downed(!). It could miss(guidance system is turned off may be!), it could launch several torpedoes despite of the fact the torpedo launching TU is of 66% i. e. it supposed to launch no more than 1 torpedo per turn. Without TFTDextender, if the hallucinoid does the same, displacer has no reaction fire. It appears the TFTDextender option "More Reaction Fire" value has no effect on the bug.

 

So without the Extender, the displacer gets no reaction shots? I must have broken the check to prevent the PWT from firing reaction shots. I'll take a look.

 

edit: Are you using the "underwater weapons fire on land" mod?

[Ros]

1. yes: The code is the same, just a name change to the facility.

2. You would have to hex edit the patcher.dll file to change the armor assigned to the improved tank.

1. So if I have, let's say 3 Wide Array Sonars, my chances of detecting an USO are 3*30% for short range and 3*20% for long range every half an hour? That's cool!

2. Ok, I'll try that and just hope I won't brake something. In which offset armor values starts?

[Ros]

Not at the moment. Try downloading some of the older versions of the Extender from the ufopaedia.org site and see if they work then progress up until you find which version it stops working. This would be a big help.

I've gone back to versions 1.05 and 1.06 with or without patches. The result is always the same - there's no music from PSX CD image.

I think the problem lies not in TFTDextender but in PSX CD image. It's not original CD but a copy found at internet. CD size is over 500 MB, there are game files and 4 hidden audio tracks.

I've played those audio tracks in Foobar and... there's no music. It looks like those are only some Battlescape ambient sounds.

To confirm my theory someone (Zombie? :-)) with original CD should check it with TFTDextender.

[Kir'jaeden]

Are you using the "underwater weapons fire on land" mod?

More Reaction Fire=0

Use All Items On Land=0

 

 

BTW, to all comrades: happy new year!

[Tycho]

I think I've found the reason that panicked units can run off the map. The code for moving under panic randomly selects an X-Y coordinate and moves the unit there. There is no checks to see if this location is outside the bounds of the map and the collision detection checks are in different sections of code (from what I can understand of it all.)

[Tycho]

Has anyone encountered any issues with the technology tree still having dead ends? I saw someone mention this somewhere but no details were ever given on what was not available.