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[Crazy Cow]

It'll be a few days before I have anything worth releasing. Right now I'm still working my way around everything; besides a few minor changes the only thing I have of substance is a single building.

[Kyzrati]

It'll be a few days before I have anything worth releasing. Right now I'm still working my way around everything; besides a few minor changes the only thing I have of substance is a single building.

We can do forsaken's idea in the future--I copied it down on my lengthy "ideas for missions" list. That's more of a complete scenario of the type which would require a bit more functionality than the existing modding tools provide.

Total conversions are quite possible (sambojin's going to do at least one), but something that requires complicated goals other than "kill all enemies" or rescuing civilians can't be done as easily, or would require in-depth knowledge of the special ability system (which can be used to hack together all sorts of things but is something we'll get into later once modders are familiar with the basics--and later on it won't be necessary to resort to hacks to do neat stuff).

The general idea was a building that housed an Ethereal and the humans who worship it. Now that the aliens have begun their attack, the faithful will be spared from the Cataclysm. Or something like that. The humans would be Alien-aligned and have a bit of relatively weak alien technology, which would still fuck up any rookie X-COM soldiers that wander in unawares.

Yeah, that would be very easy to do under the current system, and appropriate, too, since you can keep it contained in a single building. By design, Cataclysm keeps things mostly contained in their own building so the player actually finds/sees interesting areas as they should be, at least until the chaos spreads to them.

One thing to remember is always add some kind of flavor to an area that helps reveal/indicate what it really is: new objects, for example, or unit speech (I can tell you how to add this one--requires a "special ability"--you can also see many examples in Cataclysm). The worshipers occasionally yelling "Protect the Exalted One!" or something like that would make it pretty obvious

An example of where I failed at that (release was way too rushed for ARRP) was highlighted by kingfisher1112, since he didn't know I intended the room with better weapons to be some kind of S.W.A.T. store room.

Speaking of kingfisher1112, we never got a post after his "package" arrived... Maybe he died first? Darn ;p

[Kyzrati]

Screw Google Groups, I'm setting up a forum.

[forsaken1111]

Screw Google Groups, I'm setting up a forum.

[kingfisher1112]

So. I played again. I played and I got some pretty good weapons. Rescued some civvies. Then

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A MOTHERFUCKING NUKE LANDED WHY ISN'T THIS IN REGULAR XCOM

[Crazy Cow]

One thing to remember is always add some kind of flavor to an area that helps reveal/indicate what it really is: new objects, for example, or unit speech (I can tell you how to add this one--requires a "special ability"--you can also see many examples in Cataclysm). The worshipers occasionally yelling "Protect the Exalted One!" or something like that would make it pretty obvious

Yeah; every building I make will have something like that (hell, I'll probably steal that quote word-for-word ;p). The X-COM base will have a sign out front and a 'receptionist' who says things every once in a while, the cultists and Ethereal will shout the occasional phrase, the crazy hobos in the run-down buildings will scream incoherently... it adds a lot of flavor. I'm going to start by ripping the Reverend's code out and slapping it on someone else and going from there.
I would also like to point out to everyone that boarded-up second-story windows are synonymous with horrible death. It may be your only warning.

[10ebbor10]

One thing to remember is always add some kind of flavor to an area that helps reveal/indicate what it really is: new objects, for example, or unit speech (I can tell you how to add this one--requires a "special ability"--you can also see many examples in Cataclysm). The worshipers occasionally yelling "Protect the Exalted One!" or something like that would make it pretty obvious

Yeah; every building I make will have something like that (hell, I'll probably steal that quote word-for-word ;p). The X-COM base will have a sign out front and a 'receptionist' who says things every once in a while, the cultists and Ethereal will shout the occasional phrase, the crazy hobos in the run-down buildings will scream incoherently... it adds a lot of flavor. I'm going to start by ripping the Reverend's code out and slapping it on someone else and going from there.
I would also like to point out to everyone that boarded-up second-story windows are synonymous with horrible death. It may be your only warning.

Homicidal curtains ?

[Crazy Cow]

Alright, I've just had my most successful Exodus game ever.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The general plan was to wander until the second civilian distress call, at which point I would turtle in a corner until the enemy warped in and then proceed to mop up everything. I got really lucky and ran into a pair of mutons with heavy plasmas, and I found a nice house. The entire team holed up in the second floor, and like clockwork the enemy reinforcements warped in.
After a snakeman and a muton attacked via the stairs, I started cautiously moving out with four plasma weapons at my disposal. My jet trooper flew around a corner and right into the sights of an ethereal with a blaster; he was killed instantly, along with the ethereal who shot it. One of my soldiers was clipped by the explosion, but other than that the team scraped themselves back together.
The next half hour was one of complete rape. Sweeping through the alleyways I destroyed everything I came across; the only real scare for a while was when I got in a shooting match with a pair of mutons across the street. Nobody died, but when I moved across the street a shredder jumped me from the shadows. The bugger tore up my forward scout (the only one with a plasma rifle instead of a heavy plasma, incidentally) but didn't kill her. The resulting wounds put her at real risk in any more fighting, though, so I sat her down in a second-story corner and swept through the last of the city. The final fight took place in a pretty large building, and it was an intense shootout between a cyberdisk, an ethereal, and two of my troopers. One caught plasma to the face, staying up only because his power armor took most of the damage; while the two up front hid behind the rapidly dwindling masonry, my other two troopers shot their way through the back. One got sidetracked by a shredder hiding in a closet, but the other got in the perfect supporting fire position, mowing down the ethereal. A good shot from my rookie in the front took the cyberdisk out, but power armor was inside the radius of the explosion and died of critical wounds a turn later. After killing the last aliens hiding in the very far corner, I took my four survivors and left with more than fifty alien kills and 3k points.
That marks the end of me playing the default scenarios, I think; that was the best game by far I've had, in every way, and at this point I've soundly kicked the ass of everything but the original mission. Let's get the Cataclysm extension done and then start looking into conversions.

[Kyzrati]

X@COM moddability is now available to all! Check out R8.

We have a couple of Bay 12'ers already working on mods. Any more takers should join us on the new X@COM forum--for now it's just for modders since I don't want to fragment the community (which is still rather small and modest), and there isn't much to talk about yet, anyway. Besides, I love Bay 12--best forum on the net! So we'll stick to this thread for general discussions on the game.

EDIT: I've opened the modding forum to general viewing so mod players can follow WIP mods, or join up to discuss them with their creators.

Alright, I've just had my most successful Exodus game ever.

Wow Crazy Cow, nice. Bay 12 didn't notify me about your post, so only now do I discover your amazing victory! That's... a damn lot of kills

You still haven't beaten the original scenario? It is a tough one, and it's mostly luck since you have to find all the initial aliens very fast before too many more start appearing... I've beaten it before--was somewhat surprised it was actually possible

[Crazy Cow]

Hahaha... no. I have never been even remotely successful with ARRP.

[Graknorke]

How do you all be so good at this game?
For me, I pretty much always move some guys out, the scenario's enemies come in, and everyone dies.

[Crazy Cow]

It's a combination of luck and being really, really careful. You have to plan your entire strategy around being methodical, thorough, and cautious, and even then all it takes is a lucky shot to put one of your guys down.

[Kyzrati]

It helps to be familiar with X-COM mechanics if you aren't already. X@COM doesn't come with a manual, but most of the basic weapons, enemies, and mechanics are all directly from the original game.

Moving methodically is very important, like Crazy Cow suggests, as is leaving some guys in key positions with extra TUs to provide covering fire in case enemies suddenly show up. Check the command list for how to reserve TU using the Alt key--that can make sure you leave enough time to fire after moving. Also pay careful attention to the rank of each soldier, since that has a huge impact on their stats and how effective they're likely to be. (Higher ranks also have better armor by default.)

[Crazy Cow]

I'd like to announce Aggression, my first (as of yet, not quite complete) total conversion project.

[JacenHanLovesLegos]

How do I open storage crates in Cataclysm+? Also, 'n' isn't working