zeppelin1717

ok i fixed it. I'm quite frustrated at the difference between 0.01 and 0.0. 0.0 gives some really strange black color that looks awful, whereas .01 is just extremely dark gray. Also a lot of the color scaling is way off. for example I've been using a color chart and the colors you get there don't even come close to matching in game (which makes sense), but it means getting the right color takes a LOOOOOONG time of trial and error, otherwise you end up with glowy armor everywhere (if using 1.0)

well.. that's weird. I assumed alpha being 0 would mean transparency... but I guess not. so that actually gives you the same colors as <%f 0.0> <%f 0.0> <%f 0.0> <%f 1.0>? if so that's kind of silly. i'll see if maybe it needs to be white with an alpha of 0 to get transparency. edit: well my game crashed so I'm checking to see if maybe i forgot to close some brackets or something. edit2: crashed again after changing the alpha values to 0.1. I guess it doesn't like anything other than 1.0

I'm about to test this: <%f 0.0> <%f 0.0> <%f 0.0> <%f 0.0>

I wonder if the game would allow negative numbers... and they would become less shiny? haha

Ok say I want to edit armor tint 15 and 25. is it easier to just make 2 different patches? or can i just repeat that REL_OFFSET part later on.. i.e. UPK_FILE=Startup.upk OBJECT=UnitPalettes.ArmorTint REL_OFFSET=2528 [MODDED_CODE] <Primary> <StructProperty> <%u 0x00000010> <%u 0x00000000> <LinearColor> <%f 1.0> <%f 1.0> <%f 1.0> <%f 1.0> <Secondary> <StructProperty> <%u 0x00000010> <%u 0x00000000> <LinearColor> <%f 0.0> <%f 0.0> <%f 0.0> <%f 1.0> <None> REL_OFFSET=1592 [MODDED_CODE] <Primary> <StructProperty> <%u 0x00000010> <%u 0x00000000> <LinearColor> <%f 1.0> <%f 1.0> <%f 1.0> <%f 1.0> <Secondary> <StructProperty> <%u 0x00000010> <%u 0x00000000> <LinearColor> <%f 0.0> <%f 0.0> <%f 0.0> <%f 1.0> <None>

I mean black but with high saturation. look at "japgeneric" in rdngmikey's picture: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10648839_707151869356253_4998266155295236436_o.jpg I want that but black instead. so obviously it would be 0, 0, 0, but the saturation value would be different and I'm not sure how I would go about changing that, considering I can't just search for "00 00 00 00 00 00" etc in the hex editor.

ok so (185, 11, 112) would convert to (B9, 0B?, 70) so I should look for that sequence in the uncompressed startup.upk file? This is assuming that color is 100% accurate. I assume there might be some variation (e.g. if it's actually B8) and then I won't find what I want... halp edit: oh I didn't see that comment, that would have helped a lot if I had seen that =\ Ok i will attempt to turn that awful pink/blue monstrosity into just plain black or something and see if it worked. Thought I would much rather just go into the actual startup.upk and manually change values of the tints that I want to change, but I suppose this might actually be easier. hard to say when you've never done any kind of formal programming or anything with hex before. another edit: so if i want to change tint # 25, i would end up with UPK_FILE=Startup.upk OBJECT=UnitPalettes.ArmorTint REL_OFFSET=2528 // 32 + (104 * 24) [MODDED_CODE] <Primary> <StructProperty> <%u 0x00000010> <%u 0x00000000> <LinearColor> <%f ####> <%f ####> <%f ####> <%f 1.0> <Secondary> <StructProperty> <%u 0x00000010> <%u 0x00000000> <LinearColor> <%f ####> <%f ####> <%f ####> <%f 1.0> <None>edit #9234982394: ok i got it to work, but i entered 25*104 + 32 so it changed armor tint 26. I am assuming I can convert the numbers I insert into the .upk via the patcher into hex, then search for those hex values and edit the saturation that way? if, say, i wanted to make some kind of neon black trippy armor tint.

uh, where do i put all that code? into the .upk? like i don't see text code anywhere in any of the .upk files ok i used the patcher and applied the hex, if i wanted to change some of the armor tints i would just alter than .txt file I made and repatch, right? i assume those decimals are like percentages, and A is saturation? I should google things more, before i ask. How do i do saturation values? similar to the effects that rdngmikey got in the first post? ok so the example that I applied changed all of the colors, so i uninstalled that. I want to change only specific armor tints. For example I want to change armor tint 25. Should I just patch the file like this: UPK_FILE=Startup.upk OBJECT=UnitPalettes.ArmorTintREL_OFFSET=25 (or is it 26? or 24?)[MODDED_CODE]<Primary><StructProperty><%u 0x00000010><%u 0x00000000><LinearColor><%f #####> <%f #####> <%f ########> <%f 1.0><Secondary><StructProperty><%u 0x00000010><%u 0x00000000><LinearColor><%f #####> <%f ########> <%f ########> <%f 1.0><None> and then replace #### with the numbers I want?OR do i have to keep the file as is and manually change every entry to be like the default, because all 32 armor tints are different and that would be a disaster.

first of all this is the wrong place for this thread. if you read the FAQ a lot of your questions would have been answered. you can make the game easier with a little bit of modifying the defaultgamecore.ini file. you don't have to play the mod twice to relearn it... it's the same game. it's just harder. there's no fundamental difference between long war and EW, except that you need more soldiers because of fatigue. that's about it. Not sure what your point is about capturing an alien.. you get xenobiology and can build alien containment, then you get neurology or something for the arc thrower. just takes slightly longer than previously. Lightning reflexes is a lot stronger now. you have a 90% chance to dodge the first shot, and 70% chance for ALL other shots. so one scout can remove 5 overwatched targets with very little risk of being hit. If that ability was on assaults it would be insanely broken considering all of the other things assaults get. Also you can try using the randomized level up perk option, so you can end up with interesting combinations that might end up being overpowered. every change in this mod has been carefully balanced. the assault is plenty strong as is, and the scout has a completely different purpose.

Ok I'm a pretty big newbie with hex editing. I've got the decompressor and HxD, ive found a lot of the entries talked about in the first post. What I want is to change the super ugly armor tints to slightly more reasonable ones (or completely absurd ones as jokes). How do i go about doing that? I don't have the numbers right now but they are the ones somewhere around 20, the hideous yellow/red one, the pink one, and i think there's a blue/orange one too. I'm seeing a lot of text in these codes, and I have no idea how to see that text. do I need another program that converts the numbers in the .upk into code somehow? for example these lines: REF; 0x00000115 (277): XComLinearColorPalette'UnitPalettes.ArmorTint' NumElements = 0x00000020 = 32well that's awkward the colors are backwards.

The reason the last guy's head looks normal is because it's one of the "cheat" characters, based on one of the creators (Ken Levine) of the game. You can't change those faces at all. I forget which head values they are, but I'm pretty sure there are 4 around 18-22 or something. Look up sid meier's face and that will be the first custom head of the 4. The custom heads are 15, 16, 17, and 18 (15 is sid meier, if you've ever wondered what he looks like).

wait what about using cinematic mode and then lowering the aim of everyone else? e.g. lower the average aim of all soldiers across the board to compensate for cinematic, so ONLY the interceptors get the aim bonus? might have to start a new game, dunno. I guess you'd have to start a new game for cinematic mode anyway so, yea would have to start a new game.

First, a little bit of technical detail. Unreal Engine 3 seems to have two different "classes" of configuration data : 1) Config data in .ini files. These are all in the config folder and are common across all language installations. Arrays here seem to be required to be dynamic arrays. 2) Localization data in .int / .rus / .esn / etc files. These are all in the localization folder, with a subfolder for each particular language. Arrays here seem to be required to be static arrays. Mission names have to be localized, hence they have to be static sized arrays. The config variables for these arrays are defined in XGMission : var const localized string m_aFirstOpName[53]; var const localized string m_aSecondOpName[76]; As you can see, these are configured to be arrays of size 53 possible mission first names, and 76 possible mission second names. Random opname are generated in XGMission.GenerateOpName (fittingly enough!) with : kTag.StrValue0 = m_aFirstOpName[Rand(53)]; kTag.StrValue1 = m_aSecondOpName[Rand(76)]; Note that the array size is basically hard-coded here as well. The ideal case here would be to use dynamic config arrays, which would allow simply adding more values, and the using the lines such as : kTag.StrValue0 = m_aFirstOpName[Rand(m_aFirstOpName.Length)]; kTag.StrValue1 = m_aSecondOpName[Rand(m_aSecondOpName.Length)]; Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be possible to use dynamic arrays in localization config data, which means more awkward workarounds. In any case it would require some hex editing to allow more mission names to be defined. The simplest way would be to change the values of both the defined variables and the values in GenerateOpName, and add the corresponding number of entries in the localization data. This is a somewhat finicky operation, and could cause problems if people running other languages use the same hex. Oh god, thank you for the reply, didn't anticipate it being this complicated. I'm not planing on redistributing the changes I'm making seeing as how I'd probably get banned for them (use your imagination :laugh: ) but If it's too much hassle I think I can just replace some of the "borderline" ones with crazy ones. e.g. replace shattered with exploding or something. Kinda disappointed but thanks again for the reply. At least now I won't go poking around and screw something up and have to reinstall =\ in response to your comment re: gravity: can you be more specific? I don't feel comfortable doing any hex editing, (which i assume is required to alter data within a .upk file, correct me if I'm wrong) but I am curious about the commands. TBH I don't even know how to do commands in game, i assume I can bring up a command prompt with ~ or something... Or is it just using the default steam console? Should I just google some unreal 3 engine commands?

Does anyone know if there are some settings I can play with regarding ragdolling? specifically I want to increase the amount that enemies ragdoll, possibly coupled with lowering the gravity slightly (without affecting grenades, though I can deal with it affecting grenades if it means more hilarious bouncing corpses). I've seen a number associated with gravity in one of the many .ini files I combed through but I wasn't really sure what that was or if it was a good idea to mess with it... anyone know anything that would be of help? again this is purely aesthetic, I just love the way the corpses end up sometimes, and I want to increase that somehow.

I had the same issue when i played long war for the first time. ignore large ships! you will be sorry if you don't. I can go ahead and ruin your day by telling you it gets a hell of a lot worse than just 4 chryssalids. The last room i fought in had 0 cover and 4 outsiders, 10 hp per, and the big one had 20. with 3 hp regen per turn. don't bother with large ship landings. even mediums are hard. certainly don't try to fight the large ships either. doesn't end well. I had the exact same situation as you, but basically the moment i approached the ship i pissed off 8 chryssalids, 3 flaoters, and 2 thin men. needless to say i savescummed out of that situation only to get to the last room and see those outsiders and just load my pre-mission autosave and just skip the mission. get used to skipping large UFOs. =\ tl;dr ignore large ship landings at all costs! (until you can deal with all of that crap.. at least upgraded armor and laser weapons, i'd say)