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[SlatersQuest]

Hi people,

I'm in the concept stage of a game that would be heavily LCS-inspired (probably based on or related to the Terra Vitae mod), but would have graphics that are not simply ASCII text, as I believe that more graphics are needed in order to reach a wider audience.

The game that I am envisioning would have gameplay similarities to X-COM, with a squad-based combat system, and probably some similarities in base management as well (also similarities with LCS). However, the enemies would be mostly similar to enemies from LCS, rather than aliens.

Does anybody know of a game that I should be looking into that I can mod?

[Taberone]

OpenXCOM maybe? Streets of Rogue? Not sure what would be the most suitable game that can be modded.

[IsaacG]

Rimworld, maybe.

It's real time, but otherwise it already has squad-based interactions, Dwarf-Fortress inspired combat.  Multiple locations, factions.
It's relatively easy to mod.

[SlatersQuest]

Of the three that you list, OpenXCOM is certainly the closest to what I am thinking of. It is a clone of the original X-COM, but it says that it is open-source, so should be easy to mod, or so I would think.

There's also UFOAI, which is another X-COM spiritual successor and is open source, but its forum is utterly inaccessible from my computer (I believe there to be a bug in the forum software), so can't access it.

[Taberone]

Of the three that you list, OpenXCOM is certainly the closest to what I am thinking of. It is a clone of the original X-COM, but it says that it is open-source, so should be easy to mod, or so I would think.

There's also UFOAI, which is another X-COM spiritual successor and is open source, but its forum is utterly inaccessible from my computer (I believe there to be a bug in the forum software), so can't access it.

Speech attacks could work like Mind Control in OpenXCOM.
Combat is highly lethal in OpenXCOM, just like LCS.

If you use OpenXCOM, I recommend you take a look at OpenXCOM Extended mods like PirateZ (Warning: NSFW) and X-COM Files, or even at the features OpenXCOM Extended itself has.

Rimworld could also work, I guess. Never played it, though.

[Starver]

Also for consideration are the Falcon's/Vulture's Eye/Claw interfaces, perhaps.

[The Cheshire Cat]

Huh, so here's some funny timing. I just came here to post a thing I've been working on, on and off for a year or so:

https://the-cheshire-cat.itch.io/lcs?secret=ZXtpIurHf2A5jvh9KwQ4mcPM9dY

It's not exactly finished but it is playable. There are a lot of features that just plain don't do anything at the moment and there's no check that you've actually WON the game, but the general gameplay loop is in there.

[SlatersQuest]

Huh, so here's some funny timing. I just came here to post a thing I've been working on, on and off for a year or so:

https://the-cheshire-cat.itch.io/lcs?secret=ZXtpIurHf2A5jvh9KwQ4mcPM9dY

It's not exactly finished but it is playable. There are a lot of features that just plain don't do anything at the moment and there's no check that you've actually WON the game, but the general gameplay loop is in there.

Wow, that is awesome! Question: can you share the source code? Is it written in C++ like LCS, or is it in a different language?

[The Cheshire Cat]

It's done in Unity, so it's in C# but it also hooks in with the Unity editor itself which means that sharing the source is doable, but a bit trickier than uploading to sourceforge or something. I am planning on releasing the source and assets once I figure out a way to do it that's better than just dropping a "source.zip" file on the same itch.io page as the game itself.

One thing about the approach I've taken is I've tried to make it a bit more moddable without having to edit the source code than the original game - there's still a long way to go with that (a lot of text is still hard-coded), but adding new locations/items/creatures is just a matter of editing some XML files. This also includes adding new face/item graphics (at the moment I only have a few basic things done just to test to see if the system was working, but adding more is really simple to do). My goal is to try to extend that approach to most of the content in the game, at least as far as I'm able to.

One thing to bear in mind is I've kind of been using this as a learning project so the source is a real mess with a half dozen different ways of doing things. So yeah, that's something to look forward to

[IsaacG]

Huh, so here's some funny timing. I just came here to post a thing I've been working on, on and off for a year or so:

https://the-cheshire-cat.itch.io/lcs?secret=ZXtpIurHf2A5jvh9KwQ4mcPM9dY

It's not exactly finished but it is playable. There are a lot of features that just plain don't do anything at the moment and there's no check that you've actually WON the game, but the general gameplay loop is in there.

By the alabaster spine, you even use procedural graphics!

I look forward to further updates.

It's done in Unity, so it's in C# but it also hooks in with the Unity editor itself which means that sharing the source is doable, but a bit trickier than uploading to sourceforge or something. I am planning on releasing the source and assets once I figure out a way to do it that's better than just dropping a "source.zip" file on the same itch.io page as the game itself.

Compared to compiling the C++ source code, a Unity project that's been split into multiple download links on multiple sites whose address is masked by a login and paywall is still an improvement.
Decompiling and then compiling the Unity source would be easier than compiling the C++ source.  I almost want to do that, just to see if I can.  With permission, of course.

One thing about the approach I've taken is I've tried to make it a bit more moddable without having to edit the source code than the original game - there's still a long way to go with that (a lot of text is still hard-coded), but adding new locations/items/creatures is just a matter of editing some XML files. This also includes adding new face/item graphics (at the moment I only have a few basic things done just to test to see if the system was working, but adding more is really simple to do). My goal is to try to extend that approach to most of the content in the game, at least as far as I'm able to.

One thing to bear in mind is I've kind of been using this as a learning project so the source is a real mess with a half dozen different ways of doing things. So yeah, that's something to look forward to

Same here.  Absolute same motivation here.

[SlatersQuest]

All right, I have a request for you: as soon as you feel that the source is ready for sharing, I would like to help you work on it, because I would like my TV mod to be graphical like this.

Incidentally, if you're curious, I store the TV mod (both the application and its source) on the DFFD website. I'm sure you could do the same. It is just a .zip, though.

[The Cheshire Cat]

By the alabaster spine, you even use procedural graphics!

I look forward to further updates.

Yeah I kind of had to since all the stuff in there is programmer art so if I ever expect the game to look halfway decent I want to make it as easy as possible for people to replace the assets with better stuff . Even then there's a few "hard-coded" assets because of some things that are just easier to do in the Unity editor than trying to load it all in dynamically.

Compared to compiling the C++ source code, a Unity project that's been split into multiple download links on multiple sites whose address is masked by a login and paywall is still an improvement.
Decompiling and then compiling the Unity source would be easier than compiling the C++ source.  I almost want to do that, just to see if I can.  With permission, of course.

Well, you can if you want, but I can also just post the project files somewhere. Basically the whole program kind of exists in two tiers - there's all the gameplay logic which is handled entirely in C# and technically could run on a non-Unity interface if you wanted to hook it in (it would be a lot of work though and I haven't done a great job of keeping everything game logic related on the game code side of things), and then there's all the UI layout which is handled through the Unity editor itself. Ultimately if you just want to see the project/code itself it's pretty trivial to zip up the whole project folder and you can pretty easily unzip and import it into the Unity editor, but something like source control is a bit more complex (I haven't really looked into how to do that yet since it's still pretty WIP).

I also use a few external tools for creating a few of the assets themselves (the non-random maps are put together in Tiled) so I should probably write up a readme of how that's meant to be used with what I've written.

All right, I have a request for you: as soon as you feel that the source is ready for sharing, I would like to help you work on it, because I would like my TV mod to be graphical like this.

Incidentally, if you're curious, I store the TV mod (both the application and its source) on the DFFD website. I'm sure you could do the same. It is just a .zip, though.

Well a fair word of warning, what I've got so far is not even close to feature complete, so I wouldn't recommend building any mods based on what exists so far since it's entirely possible that I may end up having to restructure some elements in order to allow for new features to work (for example, vehicles currently don't exist in the game at all). It's also entirely undocumented since I keep telling myself I'll write up an explanation for the formatting in each of the data source files once I've finished them, but then I never do

In any case, if you're interested, here's the current project as of right now:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qD3CnaTdcZaPdmf_02c4k-f1jlI0CpgR/view?usp=sharing

That .zip contains the Unity project files, assets, and the C# code. I think all you need to do to load it is unzip the folder and then from the Unity launcher choose "load" and have it open that folder. For reference I'm running Unity 2017.1.1f1 but I think any newer version should be able to handle it since I'm not really making heavy use of anything other than the UI features.

[The Cheshire Cat]

Just as a quick update, I've made the itch.io page public, so the proper link to the game page is now just https://the-cheshire-cat.itch.io/lcs

New builds will just replace the download link on that page - I just published one with changes I've made in the past few days, which mainly include making guitar and persuasion attacks, as well as molotovs/fire attacks actually work.

[Blood_Librarian]

That is amazing, I will definitely keep up with this.

[Taberone]

Giving it a try now, and I like what I see so far! Keep up with the good work, and I'll also keep up with this, too. At least when I get back from Hawaii. Also, is there a way to unequip weapons/armor when going to a site?