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[sambojin]

You're a legend Kyzrati. I'll see what I can do with it. Actually, I've just recently quit my job (it was a shitty job both literally and figuratively) so I've got some spare time on my hands.

I was thinking of a WH40k mod originally, but now I'm slightly favouring a Doom style mod, "The Fall of Mars", as a mini-prequel thing to DoomRL. I'll see if I can knock one together and I'll u/l it so people can have an idea of where the engine is in a modding sense and to make suggestions. Mmmm, BFG-style plasma'y goodness.

Unless I get another job too soon of course. I'll do my best to remain as unemployed as I currently am for at least the next week or so. Shouldn't be too hard

[sambojin]

Basic ideas for it. Could you tell me if any of this seems impossible currently?

New map, small randomised military base complex with a nice firing field somewhere. One building per map tile, a few weapon emplacements. A full squad (10) marines. Daemons enter from open field areas. Stupid goddamned daemons. Easy. Maybe some infiltrators in the base areas as well. Skulls/imps most likely.

Weapons: some as per normal or previously seen in other scenarios with stats tweaked. The shotgun and the BFG are the only ones I can see as remotely different from conventional Xcom style weapons.
BFG=mini handheld plasma nuke.
Shotgun=extended blast similar to plasma style, short range, different (black, small) particles, no projectile particle, no burn patch, crappy vs armour.
Shouldn't be too hard.

Armour: simple green, blue, red armours, stealing DoomRLs resistance scheme.

Enemies: Lots of enemies, several waves, finishing with a pair of bruiser brothers. Random enough to keep you guessing. The enemies will be easy to mod in, they'll just have to be tweaked for balance (although, this is a !!Fun!! scenario anyway).

The basic idea is to lose, but to put your score into positives by the amount of enemies you kill. Might have to put in knockback on a few weapons to keep daemon/skull waves back a bit. Mars will fall, but what a beautiful, bloody state you leave it in. The red planet indeed.

I'm keeping this one simple as my first mod, just to check on how hard it will be to put together. More advanced scripting etc can come later. Scaredy-cat scientists running from daemons, a base self-destruct that got auto-engaged, stuff like that. I'll have a go at a quick Syndicate mod to see how things like psi-mind-control (persuadotron) and augmentations/combat boosters work. (cybernetics/combat drugs: accuracy, TUs, something for brain). Those happy-killy combat drugs.......... Damn hippies.

[Kyzrati]

You're a legend Kyzrati.

Hm, this reminds of my mom who always used to tell me the same thing, only added the words "in your own mind" at the end. Though she didn't call me "Kyzrati" =p

I'll see what I can do with it. Actually, I've just recently quit my job (it was a shitty job both literally and figuratively) so I've got some spare time on my hands.

I was thinking of a WH40k mod originally, but now I'm slightly favouring a Doom style mod, "The Fall of Mars", as a mini-prequel thing to DoomRL. I'll see if I can knock one together and I'll u/l it so people can have an idea of where the engine is in a modding sense and to make suggestions. Mmmm, BFG-style plasma'y goodness.

Unless I get another job too soon of course. I'll do my best to remain as unemployed as I currently am for at least the next week or so. Shouldn't be too hard

WH40k can come in good time when the full modding toolset is available.

Don't wait too long for a job--don't want any starving X@COM modders, now, do we? Otherwise we'll have to put a disclaimer at the beginning, something like "Someone STARVED to bring you this mod, so you better damn well enjoy it!"

Basic ideas for it. Could you tell me if any of this seems impossible currently?

New map, small randomised military base complex with a nice firing field somewhere. One building per map tile, a few weapon emplacements. A full squad (10) marines. Daemons enter from open field areas. Stupid goddamned daemons. Easy. Maybe some infiltrators in the base areas as well. Skulls/imps most likely.

Weapons: some as per normal or previously seen in other scenarios with stats tweaked. The shotgun and the BFG are the only ones I can see as remotely different from conventional Xcom style weapons.
BFG=mini handheld plasma nuke.
Shotgun=extended blast similar to plasma style, short range, different (black, small) particles, no projectile particle, no burn patch, crappy vs armour.
Shouldn't be too hard.

Armour: simple green, blue, red armours, stealing DoomRLs resistance scheme.

Enemies: Lots of enemies, several waves, finishing with a pair of bruiser brothers. Random enough to keep you guessing. The enemies will be easy to mod in, they'll just have to be tweaked for balance (although, this is a !!Fun!! scenario anyway).

The basic idea is to lose, but to put your score into positives by the amount of enemies you kill. Might have to put in knockback on a few weapons to keep daemon/skull waves back a bit. Mars will fall, but what a beautiful, bloody state you leave it in. The red planet indeed.

I'm keeping this one simple as my first mod, just to check on how hard it will be to put together. More advanced scripting etc can come later. Scaredy-cat scientists running from daemons, a base self-destruct that got auto-engaged, stuff like that. I'll have a go at a quick Syndicate mod to see how things like psi-mind-control (persuadotron) and augmentations/combat boosters work. (cybernetics/combat drugs: accuracy, TUs, something for brain). Those happy-killy combat drugs.......... Damn hippies.

Pretty much all possible, since you [theoretically] don't have to use the mod to simply extend Cataclysm, and can scrap the whole thing and replace it all if you want. I'll probably finish the modding script parser today and get an unofficial version to modders soon after that. It'll be a release given only to modders so I can tweak it with features you want before putting out the official version. Whatever isn't possible yet I can easily add.

A few notes:
- Projectiles and explosions cannot do knockback yet (only melee does), so I'd have to look into this one. Should be fairly easy, but I may want to add a force value to weapon/explosion projectiles.
- Armor isn't yet swappable/equippable in-game (doesn't seem like you'll need it for this, since they'll probably start with their armor, anyway), though you can create items that repair armor--equippable armors is something I wanted to add for Cataclysm, but didn't have time, so I may do it soon anyway
- Funny you mention a Syndicate mod, because I was thinking the same thing myself yesterday. (Actually I was imagining using the engine to create a completely separate Syndicate Wars RL, not in the near term, mind you, but certainly very appropriate and compatible--maybe a future side project...)

Sounds fun!

[adwarf]

WHAT IS WITH THIS!?

I just tried to beat Area 51 and right when i am about to kill the last one six more show up, to try and save myself I go down stairs activate the Sectoid II, and bam a Colossus comes out of nowhere with 4 more dudes D:

[Kyzrati]

Area 51 can be pretty damn tough, but it's not unbeatable, so I consider it balanced

Activating the Sectopod Mk II can actually be a bad idea, since its activation attracts a whole new wave of aliens, FYI. (No you're not supposed to really know this, it's a "hint"). The MkII may help you defeat them (it is quite powerful), and it may not, depending on what they are, since a MkII will fall fairly easily to other Sectopods.

[adwarf]

Area 51 can be pretty damn tough, but it's not unbeatable, so I consider it balanced

Activating the Sectopod Mk II can actually be a bad idea, since its activation attracts a whole new wave of aliens, FYI. (No you're not supposed to really know this, it's a "hint"). The MkII may help you defeat them (it is quite powerful), and it may not, depending on what they are, since a MkII will fall fairly easily to other Sectopods.

D: I was so close! Oh well I'll try again later Perhaps this time I can remember to reload, and get those remote explosives set before the colossus breaks through the wall.

[sambojin]

Yeah, I was thinking armour would essentially be included in marine stats for now. Same with agent cybernetics. Just because it makes it a lot easier on me while I'm playing around.

As a thought, while it won't be totally Syndicate style (which would be too hard, X@com being turn-based and all), here's some current thoughts on combat drugs.

Red= extra TUs
Blue= extra accuracy (regardless of weapon used)
Baby poo= extra reaction fire probablity.

I'm thinking for a tester, each agent could have 3 pieces of equipment (speed, accuracy, brain), each with low TU costs for use and hand/backpack/belt/etc equipment movement costs and some lowish ammo. Little/medium/big ammo cost, for different boost levels. Snap/aimed/auto=little, medium, big boosts, different ammo costs for each. Regenerating ammo, but never quite negative. Possibly a negative effect if they bottom out on ammo though. Also possibly a multi-turn boost effect, so you don't have to reboost each turn.

It should hopefully represent the chemical boost effects of agent's combat drugs. Not sure how I'll run it in the current system, might have to make it a one-handed weapon (with all other weapons being one-handed as well), and maybe just have each boost as a fire-function (snap, aimed, auto=speed, accuracy, brain, low TUs, but I won't be able to have high/low boosts then. Think nitrous cylinder boosts rather than standard Syndicate sliders). Who knows. I'll see what can be done on the new modding release. I'll faff about with what's there already to check a few possibilities this weekend.

Do you think this is possible currently?

[Kyzrati]

Multi-use items (edit: meaning those with multiple different uses) are not yet possible. I've managed to make some in Cataclysm, though the scripts to do it are a bit of a hack and have too many limitations. True multi-use abilities won't be available until R8 (it's one of the first things I'll be working on when I start the next dev cycle).

Duration effects are also not possible, and I wasn't planning on adding them soon, though they are on the list for eventual implementation. (However, Cataclysm does have colored syringes, and some hidden potions, which modify your stats.)

Anyway, let's do the Doom mod first, which is already entirely doable

Off to write the spawn script parser...

[sambojin]

Sounds good. I always wanted to write a script. And to think I had delusions of taking it to Hollywood.

At least this'll be a better story

[Crazy Cow]

Say... you know how the Sectoid in Sandbox can be user-controlled? Would it be at all possible for a modder to do the same to a group of humans and make a hot-seat vs. match? If not, I might make a Necromunda WH40k mod or, at the very least, throw more modules to be randomly generated in Cataclysm. The lack of alien weaponry and three/four-story buildings disturbs me.

[sambojin]

And as an aside, I'll start looking a bit at data structures, etc and see if a map-tile-maker tool is easily possible. A really basic one. No isometric projection stuff, just something simple. A mod tool-kit should be on the agenda by R12-R18 or so I think. It's about time I jumped back on the coding horse. I'm bloody horrible at graphics. But it might have to be semi-graphical. I wonder what iso-projected ascii even looks like?

Hmmmmmmm, aren't fonts currently used just graphic tiles in a sense.

***Not promising anything considering my bloody hopelessness***

[Kyzrati]

Say... you know how the Sectoid in Sandbox can be user-controlled? Would it be at all possible for a modder to do the same to a group of humans and make a hot-seat vs. match? If not, I might make a Necromunda WH40k mod or, at the very least, throw more modules to be randomly generated in Cataclysm. The lack of alien weaponry and three/four-story buildings disturbs me.

Yeah, Cataclysm was a very different type of scenario--not very X-COM-like. I'd like to see more alien weaponry and aliens in general. It's not much of a firefight. Just wanted to test out all the new special ability features.

While it is possible to hack together a "hotseat vs. match" by turning off the AI, that ability was mostly for debugging, so you'd have to ignore the fact that the log always shows message for *both* sides. Also, if you didn't allow the other person to look at the screen to see your movements, they wouldn't get to see your shots at them. Also, by default the aliens don't have to explore the map.

In the future I could do a proper implementation of that mode. I remember when I played the original X-COM with my brother in the same room--we each controlled half the squad and competed for kills. It was quite fun

I'm not sure there are that many players at present who would be able to play with others, though. A scenario with an AI-controlled opponent would definitely get more play.

And as an aside, I'll start looking a bit at data structures, etc and see if a map-tile-maker tool is easily possible. A really basic one. No isometric projection stuff, just something simple. A mod tool-kit should be on the agenda by R12-R18 or so I think. It's about time I jumped back on the coding horse. I'm bloody horrible at graphics. But it might have to be semi-graphical. I wonder what iso-projected ascii even looks like?

Hmmmmmmm, aren't fonts currently used just graphic tiles in a sense.

***Not promising anything considering my bloody hopelessness***

Save your time. (Unless you REALLY want to do it, that is ) It's quite easy to edit the map blueprints using Notepad++ through a combination of column editing mode, overwrite, simultaneous column typing, etc, combined with other common text editing techniques like copy-paste. You'll be better off learning how to use Notepad++ instead (I'll give you my copy with syntax highlighting). In the future I'll be making a true map editor and totally changing the way maps are built--there will be no ASCII text files.

The only thing I probably *won't* implement except possibly WAY WAY in the future, is a program that could read in the text files and allow you to edit them through a non-text interface. But the formats will change by v0.30.

[sambojin]

Cheers. I'll PM you my ACTUAL email address, so you can chuck it there. I've used Notepad++ a bit, but this'll be great.

I don't even know what email I used on your site. Sambojin Bojin-Sam my arse

[Crazy Cow]

Yeah, it was more of an idle thought than anything else. I doubt I'd be able to play with anyone myself; by brother loathes ASCII graphics ;p
I'll start with various additional modules. Three-story buildings, alien cults, maybe... that kind of thing. I need to look at how the modding stuff works before I get ahead of myself ;p
My email address is sundbergandrew@gmail.com, if you feel like sending me the stuff.

[Robosaur]

I thought of something that would be great:

weeping angels