FMod

670 doesn't benefit from more than 2GB of VRAM even in the most intense usage scenarios. At 1680x1050 you have less to worry about too. Just because game N records a peak X MB of VRAM occupied doesn't mean it really needs X MB - a lot of that can be old no longer used data that isn't flushed because why.

Why that heatsink? It's pretty much just a show piece. It's been outperformed by much cheaper coolers (here too), and that was in 2009. Today in 2012... no one even bothers to test it, but modern coolers are much better than 2009's.

Hi. You mean the utility in my signature? If so, it would not apply changes if it's in debug mode (as by default), and it's best to run the latest (0.81) to be sure. But I see that they were applied, so that's not the issue at hand. These 3 changes would only work on a new game or newly hired soldiers. You edited Characters=(iType=eChar_Soldier... for extra HP, correct? I think it could be possible with more in-depth mods, perhaps to replace laser models with ballistic ones. But that would be very tricky. Out of what is doable without that - you could use item bonuses to improve weapons; an item would have to be researched and carried. A roundabout way, but still. For some changes a new game is required. For others you need new soldiers. Almost no changes work mid-mission. If it's in the exe, it has to work on a new game. No, on the contrary, shouldn't be running. It just executes once.

Ah. If we had source code, it would be easy to implement. So far it's at best almost impossible, more likely impossible. Since there's no way to introduce functionality that isn't already there.

The amount of alloys you get from undamaged (landed) UFOs is determined by this block in the exe: UFOAlloys=30 ;eShip_UFOSmallScout UFOAlloys=60 ;eShip_UFOLargeScout UFOAlloys=80 ;eShip_UFOAbductor UFOAlloys=100 ;eShip_UFOSupply UFOAlloys=130 ;eShip_UFOBattle UFOAlloys=60 ;eShip_UFOEthereal It is then multiplied by 2 (ALLOY_UFO_BALANCE) or by 2.5 on Easy. For UFO that have been shot down, it is then multiplied by a random number between 0.5 and 0.9: MIN_WRECKED_ALLOYS=0.5 MAX_WRECKED_ALLOYS=0.9 I personally always found myself having enough alloys for what I needed, and not enough weapon fragments, even on Classic. That's playing with Second Wave, Marathon. Hmm. What evidence of such a support have you seen? I might try and look, but so far it appears that there is none, you can only sell.

I didn't know; so what fan input specifically was implemented in the final game? Unless it's just the willingness to listen.

There's not a whole lot of files in XCOM 2012 installs. Some it makes sense to mod, others are purely technical, and others still are binary, like UPKs, requiring special tools. I'm interested in the first category. So far I know of: XComGame.exe XComGame.int XComStrategyGame.int Maybe other ints - Subtitles.int, XComUIShell.int BaseEngine.ini DefaultNameList.ini DefaultContent.ini Any others? I'm sure this isn't everything. Please mention any other text format files that are ever worth making mod changes to. As long as it's not binary and actually applies to the game. This isn't an idle question, I'll add the ability to patch these files to Builder mods, but I need to know which ones. These files require different handling, so a blanket search for any specified name won't do. As to why patch rather than just replace, it's that a file replacement mod will screw up game updates, be incompatible with any mods that touch the same file, in extreme cases will be specific to one particular version.

I don't think this is actually possible. The best I can think of... Maybe try and split existing tiers. Make all weapons all-class, then make some weapons in a tier much harder to get than others. That's really it. Regarding armor: It may be called "kevlar", but in all other ways - it's a huge plasticky-looking full body suit that, from its appearance, would indeed require all its wearers to be steroid buffs (rather than actual soldiers) in order to actually move at more than a minesweeper's pace.

7970 had considerably better theoreticals from the start (theoreticals means absolute performance if used to 100%; very few programs get to 80%+). The less popular maker will always lag behind in driver support, so, let's say, AMD drivers used 42% of their maximum performance at the start, while NV drivers used 48%. Now AMD drivers are at say 52% and NV at 54%. Eventually both will top out at maybe 60%, it doesn't go further for games. Right now there's little reason to buy top of the line NVs for single-GPU setups; for SLI they are still better - less power draw. 660Ti is relatively competitive, 660 normal isn't, 670 was undercut by 7950 price cuts. Plus 7950 and 7970 o/c further. NV has locked 600 series at +100mv voltage rise, and, combined with poor silicon design and high starting clocks, it results in very little overclocking headroom. I have 2x680 Lightnings ATM (BTW, the first 5,000 Lightnings with LN2 switch on and ES or PR cards are the only 680s with unlocked voltage; sadly, low-level design flaws are still there), but if picking right now I'd probably go for a pair of 7970 to wait out till the next gen. 690 wasn't available and it's too difficult to sell (I'll start listing mine close to the 8970 announcement); two 7970 mean a lot of heat and CF support is only now at OK level. But you can run 2x680 on air with a good enough case, not 2x7970 unless you enjoy turbine noise. OTOH 7970 can fold, generate bitcoin, run complex GPGPU.

enable_second_wave=0 in gamecore.ini (exe). Wait, you mean, you didn't install ANY gamecore mods (I think 90% out there also change this to 1), and it still unlocked? Hmm, maybe XCMM... but AFAIK it doesn't handle ini mods, or does it now.

Hmm. Are you trying to do something special like UPK-tweak unlock conditions? I just cheated, the file "proving" completion ships with SW mods. Everything unlocked. Didn't know it can unlock partially.

I see. But still, I think such a mod would be very useful even without a perk. As it stands, once your trooper reaches Colonel, there's no point training them further. You just stow that guy (or gal) away in reserve for particularly hard missions. And if you do use them, you try not to have them score kills, because it's XP being wasted. It's even in the guides: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Survival_Guide_%28EU2012%29#Promoting_Soldiers Perks aren't be all end all. After all, what is a perk? About half the perks add an ability; but some just boost your stats. For instance, Tactical Sense is a variable boost to Defense, Extra Conditioning a boost to health, Sprinter a fixed boost to mobility. Edit the ini to assign the largest stat boosts there, *if that's possible*. This part worries me more. I tried to fix it my making high ranks, esp. Colonel, very hard to reach. The problem is - playing that way you miss out on interesting perks. Really I'd prefer it to be that you get all your perks in the first 7 levels, and from that point on your soldiers just keep increasing their stats. IIRC some games even had such a system.

Well, I personally don't care much about the extra perk. It's worth doing just for the stat gains and flavor. How do you specify its name, for instance - just add it to xcomgame.int and it works, or some other way? What icon is displayed for that rank, or is there no icon? Do soldiers actually progress to that rank automatically, gain stats on promotion, if yes are these stats specified in the ini or fixed in the upk mod?

Drakous79: I see. So you managed to add more ranks? Didn't think it was possible. It's still worth doing if yes. So what if you can't add more abilities, at least you won't have to take anyone reaching colonel off the team to let others grow.

PSU can't bottleneck a system. It can die and it can destroy the system, if it's overloaded, but the system can not manage its power draw in regards to the PSU. Your CPU is... Sandy, Nehalem, Core 2, predates that - yep, 3 major generations out of date. Or 6 if you count minor ones - Sandy->Ivy, Nehalem->Clarkdale, Conroe->Penryn. These included two architectural revolutions, Core 2 and Nehalem. And unlike Athlons, old Pentiums didn't age nicely. It's a single core Prescott celeron that has... at best it could have half the performance per cycle of a modern core. And the practical result is even worse; it has only 3 LinX GFLOPS. Overall it has about 1/25 to 1/16 the performance of top modern CPU depending on the task. And, at 84W TDP without any real power management technologies, it's costing you a pretty penny to run, even by US prices. You certainly should replace the PSU when you get the chance, with something from a decent make, because I suspect your 350W is just "it came with the case", but the CPU is your most serious problem. How much can you spend?

Realistic is what I had in mind. I've set Firestorm at over 1,000 for my game. Though a Firestorm wouldn't really cost a billion - the trick is that you're using alien engines, alien computers, alien alloys, etc, just need to do the assembly. So it should come rather cheap, I would think as low as $100 million range, maybe $200 million. Cost is really mostly just materials+wage*manhours. Underground excavation is about $1,000 per cubic meter, may be more here due to poor access. I have other things ATM, mostly developing a mod install utility, which take priority, so won't be making actual mods for a while.

Nice to see. Can you add charges of a different type to an item? Specifically I've been trying to make combo medkits like original X-Com - give combat stims Heal Wound. It works, except they don't have any "medkit" charges, that's what is missing.

Only the Usenet Oracle can answer that with certainty. Or yourself, building it and testing. All we can tell you is how fast it is in general and maybe in Skyrim overall. 2 modules, 4 cores. This isn't among the fastest CPU, but Skyrim only uses 2 threads and hopefully Win8 can put them on separate modules. Win7, not sure. One of the fastest graphics cards, behind only 7970 and 680, especially if overclocked. Here is 5600K CPU-bound: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6347/amd-a10-5800k-a8-5600k-review-trinity-on-the-desktop-part-2/6 With o/c it should match 3220 and 3220 does: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-4170-core-i3-3220-benchmarks,3314-7.html Good SSD, good HDD, OK mobo, OK memory. I know Great Wall makes some very good PSU, but I have no idea if this is one of them or one of the much lower quality models. For a low price I'd be more sure about Corsair TX650V2. Overall this rig would benefit from a faster CPU. If you only play Skyrim and other Bethesda games, esp. with heavy mods, you would need to get 3570K or 2500K. If your needs are more diverse (various games, non-gaming software, etc) and you want to stick with AMD, one of the new Piledriver or 8300 series is an option. 8350 crosses the 60fps mark in most all games, including Skyrim: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-8350-vishera-review,3328-14.html 5600K just isn't up to speed with the rest of your build. You don't need the internal GPU and the little extra money a 8350 build will cost (the mobos are cheaper) will be money well spent. To max out Skyrim performance with heavy mods, 2500K or 3570K would be needed.

The moddability of EU is severely restricted really. It's like playing chess "and now the pawns move like bishops!" - different, but not necessarily good, and still not quite a new game. But I do have a few major tweaks in mind that could be done. One is, for instance, almost eliminating soldier stat progression, so you can play without caring about losses. ProjectVRD, you're clearly not a complete newbie. The values are easy to edit; come to XCom Mod Talk or PM me for exact detail about how, if you don't know already. It's something that takes no special knowledge to do. I could even give you a list of prices, let you think through a list of values, and put it into the game. Balancing (even just on paper) would take more time than the technical modding.

It should be possible to correct *most* prices, but I'm not sure about all. Even one price out of range would ruin it. These numbers don't make any sense either way. 40 of what, million? Not for *renting* a fighter. Are these $1 million or $100k in yuan or HKD? 2015 is too early for China to overtake US, but maybe. But you still have *body armor* cost $20 million. Not even made of gold would it cost that. And the *medkit* is over a million dollars, really? Now if it's 100,000 HKD - that's $15,000, $10,000 value - then, at least, armor, medkits, guns, etc prices are explainable. But facilities and satellites are not. Million dollar satellite? I don't think so - they go from 100 mil up all the way to a billion for military GSO sats. I think it's possible to redo all the finances, but you'll have to accept the fact that some prices will be irrelevant to the player (as good as free) while others extreme.

A graphics card can not automatically manage itself to lower its power draw because it feels the PSU isn't powerful enough. It has no way of knowing it. No parts of the PC have any idea what the PSU is or if there even is one. Unless you have that one AX1200i with Corsair Link, and even then it has zero software of firmware support. That is not the same. PSU failures such as shutting down due to OCP are, of course, caused by the PSU, in this case at least. They may be preceded by a short period of severe stuttering and freezing if the PSU begins by failing to deliver an acceptable voltage and components have to restart. But a poor PSU does not cause persistent low performance without any issues otherwise.

Don't take it the wrong way, but this sounds like just folk conjecture. No components of the PC even know how the PSU is doing. A holdover from early ATX days, the PSU doesn't communicate with the system, except to turn on and off, and even that is simply shorting two wires. It isn't the PSU, they simply die without warning. My guess is this may have been caused by updating the drivers. 300 series NV drivers are buggy, esp. in that regard. Try to uninstall the drivers completely, also uninstall ENB, restart, then install the last driver from scratch.

You may have to reinstall Windows. Some trojans create permanent changes that can't be easily undone.

There is a utility that does that - http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/80/ I've suggested BlackAlpha to offer an install package for it as an alternative with the next version. But it's just in the talks now. What it could do for your purpose right now... If you apply Warspace's ini as a patch file, it will at least save you the trouble of manually replacing settings you don't want changed with vanilla values. Instead you just remove them from the patch file, it will apply the rest. Changes are saved to <active>.new when in debug mode. Turn it off to have them applied straight to the game. I'm afraid the only way right now is to give it a dummy folder to install into, them manually grab the files from there.

2GB is not maxed out even at 2560x1600 with extreme texture mods, and it's barely reached with 3 displays. Even then a 256 bit bus isn't enough to drive more than 2GB anyway, so the whole issue is moot.