Zyxpsilon

http://steamcommunity.com/stats/268500/achievements Must be related to the upcoming "Summer-DLC" which will mostly be about Ruler-Aliens! ;)

Oh -- that's what gave you people wacky inspiration when designing the tricky Codex "Black wavy cloud" hair-do?! :laugh:

Amineri or Ryan.. can you verify any of this stuff, please? Cuz, i just got my very first "Oslo/Norway" GuerillaOps mission and the proper XY (530,167) location as defined in the code files actually was dispatched all the way up to northern Finland! It's as if the equirectangular projection model & its dataset are being wrecked by whatever function has been given the task to translate valid Miller-Cylindrical vector "points". Otherwise.. we're just creating Mods that can't rely on such imprecise patterns from the get-go. EDIT; Okay -- correct me if i'm wrong but i think this might be *IT* from the XComEarth.uc script... .. .. function vector ConvertEarthToWorldByTile(int tile, vector2D inCoords) { local vector vLoc; local int col; col = tile - 1; inCoords.X = WrapF(inCoords.X, 0.0f, 1.0f); inCoords.Y = WrapF(inCoords.Y, 0.0f, 1.0f); vLoc.x = (inCoords.X*GetWidth() + XOffset); vLoc.y = (inCoords.Y*GetHeight()); vLoc.z = 0.1f; vLoc.x += GetWidth() * col; return vLoc; } static function vector ConvertEarthToWorld(vector2D inCoords, optional bool bWrap=true) { local vector vLoc; // wrap earthspace coordinates if(bWrap) { inCoords.X = WrapF(inCoords.X, 0.0f, 1.0f); inCoords.Y = WrapF(inCoords.Y, 0.0f, 1.0f); } // Convert to World coords vLoc.x = (inCoords.X*GetWidth() + default.XOffset); vLoc.y = (inCoords.Y*GetHeight()); vLoc.z = 0.1f; return vLoc; } .. ..Right? Honestly -- i really want to figure out what goes on under the hood for this very specific issue.. at it means many of my custom Cities coordinates are just wasted in empty space or outright completely off-the-mark. If the SkyRanger can't go 1) from The Netherlands to Bonaire (Antilles) or 2) from Norway to Svalbard or 3) from Denmark to Nuuk/Greenland (etc) for examples -- the immersion factor is simply blown to pieces and then, i'm certainly the fool's king of being wrongfully accused of screwing up a gameplay even further while i'm NOT responsible at all.

Uploaded the first 40 Cities within the qUIck_FLG(1) package... i'll be adding many more in the next few days into each the other FP(?) packs. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=656115338

Well... i think i spoke a little too soon about quitting on my own version. That new mod does a fair enough gathering of some cities but it is still very far from my intended concept principles. After examining its content, i was stunned to find out it adds many cities (true) but not exactly in what i think might be called "optimal worldwide variety". For example.. you'll have 14 more USA-Cities while Vanilla already gave us 10. It focuses on the default countries (by supplying about 5-8 cities for each) while supplying 8 to every other "Continents" . My approach takes a different perspective as it will dispatch MUCH more limited quantities but all are distributed over vastly wider & diverse areas of the planet. From FP2 to FP5, i might add. Soooooo -- in conclusion, i think i should continue work on my gimmicky principles. Just for kicks.. and my precious (but still somehow rare) subscribers. :geek:

Yup.. noticed it too this morning when i logged onto the Steam-Workshop! Really feels like my stuff will no longer be needed -- i was about half-way through my "shortened list" (RealityMachina's has 142) of nearly 100 but i doubt (not sure yet) i should continue this whole project. One thing is certain -- he/she is developping much faster than i do!! :D I just hope that new mod has somehow fixed (too) the coordinates used by LW though since the EquiRectangular/Miller hybrid scalings must be slightly fiddled with above(N) & below(S) the 40° Latitudes for the Geoscape to display relatively correct Avenger/Skyranger drop-zones & any remote geographical locations. Oh well -- most of us would see soon enough i guess. I also don't think it included rare gimmicks like mine -- Nuuk (Greenland), Antarctica (South Pole) for example. Maybe i shouldn't write too much. ;) :laugh:

Good news is -- some people are already trying to mimic a few LW gameplay rules -- including the difficulty curves provided by its Alien pods mechanics. I guess the most important trick would involve their awesome 2ndWave option; Dynamic War!! By far, it's the ideal solution for a fine campaign re-scaling tuner. I'd say be patient a bit more before giving up on XC2 apparent relative easiness. :wink: In the meantime, i'd have to suggest Yzaxtol's "Spectrum" (( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=637300728&searchtext=Spectrum )). It's in the early stages of development... but it already has many cool variations that might fit your urge for a somewhat better challenge than Vanilla. AND... i know you'd probably have a lot of fun with this too; https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=665546898

From what i saw in the little code i could gain some fair understanding of, the generic system of determining how & where missions (mostly GuerillaOps in our case) are "dispatched" to the gameplay engine makes some indirect use of the coded (XY) values (of cities) --while-- sticking to a limited set of inherent boundaries related to the Region currently in context. In a word; DataBase. Soooo, when the events call for a new HUD display -- they just rely on a runtime array from which RNG factors allocate the next potential target(s). After that, it's just a matter of animating the Avenger/Skyranger paths towards the intended locations while preparing the Info strings shown on the Briefing screen. I also found that there is a protected "range" where the Region Bounds could enforce a weird visual error (Cairo/Saudi) that nearly randomize what is geographically inside the valid code limits. It's strange but at the same time makes sense since that prevents loopholes in things like big water bodies or biomes equations. I think there is another parameter at work... Slums/Districts/Outskirts can have an impact on the Geoscape drop-zone(s). It's complex but what is important to me is *IF* my custom locations will be processed correctly by the default code structure. I guess they will but i'll have to verify a few tricky spots through trial/error ingame. Here's an example of what i use to define the whole stuff in a Datasheet reference file; ---Races----UnitWeights-----------------------;NameLists;My_NL ;Cities(18);X ;Y ;(Wiki-Inverts the values!) ;(C-F-H-S); UW=??; IDs ;Languages ;arr(tags); ; ;LONG ;LAT ;(NS=Y ./. EW=X) ---------------------------------------------------- ... .. ;(0-0-0-1); UW=25; 006-Japan ;english ;Jp ; ;Tokyo (5);888 ;300 ;(35*41N_.68/139*41E_.68) ... .. ;(1-0-0-0); UW=9 ; 060-CzechR ;english ;Pl ;CzSv ;Prague ;540 ;222 ;(50°05N_.08/14°28E_.47) ... .. ;(1-0-0-0); UW=10; 064-Finland ;english ;Du ;FiIc ;Helsinki ;569 ;166 ;(60°10N_.17/24°56E_.93)Yet to calculate Prague's XY .. and i'll need to design a new Name-List for the CZechs to replace the temporary (Pl) "Polish" i used for the initial FP2 mod release. PS-EDIT; There -- all aligned into proper Code formatting + Finland! :D :ninja:

After more thorough verifications of trusted GIS online sites.. it's quite obvious to me now that the Strategy Layer engine is using a proper Miller Cylindrical projection to display everything on the Geoscape (Their own GlobalHoloWide texture is highly customized and seems to go through an extra re-scaling step at runtime too, btw). That puts the calculation principle for cities locations under a slightly different calibration process. X-Y being Width (WE-Longitude) & Height (NS-Latitude) respectively... to obtain valid decimal numbers (0-1000 but in a 2x1 ratio) from the usual WE/NS cardinal coordinates system, i have determined that these formulas would produce near enough results (translated from precise WikiPedia sources) which should also match with any of the Firaxis default values range. X == (180°-W) / 360° ..or.. (E+180°) / 360° Y == (90°-N) / 180° ..or.. (S+90°) / 180° Knowing this, i now intend to create one such city(es) for each of the default 36 remaining countries (Sweden:Stockholm, Italy:Rome, Spain:Madrid, etc) that weren't used by the game code itself.. and then, drill down my FP(#) files to find other worthy candidates (possibly Capitals) for inclusion. Should be fun! :)

Thanks -- that's what i could remember from other posts too. Time to bring the languages notch higher with (once again) true Russian immersion with ambient sound-bites. Da, niet! PS; Strangely though... there ARE plenty of UPK libraries (for Russian & Polish bank sets) already listed into the XCom2 "Voices" folder. What gives?? Ideally, the upcoming Firaxis summer DLC releases should at least activate those for us. Ya know -- between having to use a 790+MBs worth of a mod or simply exploiting some authentic assets already taking up gigabytes on my G:\\ Drive.

Or, just restrict yourself into bringing LESS troops of your own! But i get what you'd wish for. Scaling the curve of difficulty by ADDING more enemies from mid-to-late game is one way to raise the bars... yet, this is artificial in a sense that ""More-Bullets required == Longer missions time to complete == Inevitable need to Win or Lose!"" Once you are satisfied with more Aliens and played a few games under these new conditions (thus, finding a regular winning pattern), i'm willing to bet -- you'd find another rational reason to keep stacking the odds even further for more complex challenges. Make a choice -- pure XCom2 (with or without external interventions by Mods) or some form of hybrid Long-War copy/cat!! :)

Well, from Ryan's comment... -- Anyways, seeding the event manager with lots of events for modders to take advantage of - in combination with a set of methods that let you inject listeners for the events - could go a long way. Maybe i'm misinterpreting the "set of methods" part as a new SDK set of features... but nevertheless, anything they can actually add as supplemental ways to control a number of **other** aspects via dedicated components would satisfy me. TexMod principle (of control) is an obsession of mine since i really could tackle a LOT of UI/HUD elements (of the EW mod Re-CLR for Long-War) simply by injecting any runtime textures at will. Then, after a few weeks examining the XC2 UC scripts, i had to rationalize a simple truth... achieving such a process might require some extra IDE resources and specific functions adapted precisely for that kind of a UI task. Recently, Infectedm was able to create an ingenious code device to handle my colored Rank-Icons for qUIck_RCP. This tiny jewel... class UIMCController_qUIckR extends UIMCController; simulated function QueueString(string Param) { local bool IconShouldBeReplaced; IconShouldBeReplaced = InStr(Param, "img:///UILibrary_Common.rank_") != -1 || InStr(Param, "img:///UILibrary_Common.psirank_") != -1; super.QueueString(IconShouldBeReplaced ? Repl(Param, "img:///UILibrary_Common.", "img:///qUIck_RCP_UILibrary.") : Param); }That immediately kicked up my mindset to analyze the MC-Controller stuff found into the source files folder. Soon enough, the obvious became clear (from snippets of the Samuel Batista code.. in terms of Flash, at least) -- some kind of generic template that combines many necessary "features" would need to be designed for the Modding community to refer as the core device which should serve as basis for everything else. A bit like the "Mod Options" static capacity that anyone must connect to in hopes Class/Overrides are prevented correctly as they should. A SDK with such stable (compatible) external tools is the ideal solution as with many other special needs anyone could ever have. Thus -- when Ryan speaks of methods, i can only dream of more User-Friendly (accessible) devices for the common modders out there. Better controls, better results. :ninja: :geek:

Would that fresh SDK change also bring some indirect methods to "perfectly" mimic what TexMod could do to replace stock UI textures at runtime? Instead of having to create a static (but almost permanent) IDE pseudo-model with a properly devised MCController asset (with upward compatibility structure components that everyone has to rely on) that should offer us various features? It's either the edge or the limit of most layered mechanics (including GFX-Flash tackling), AFAIC.

As i am currently planning to add a number of new cities to the qUick_FLG mod, i detected a "flaw" in the rendering of various visual elements involved in the Avenger+Skyranger travelling steps and the opening cinematic sequence text displayed into the Info-boxes. These mostly occur for GuerillaOps missions that begin as "Region" choices while the animated process moves the two ships around. Soooo, i noticed something weird with an EastAfrica pick. Avenger travelled (correctly it seems) towards Northern Egypt, Skyranger went all the way to Saudi-Arabia (close to Riyadh) and the Splash picture location indicated "Slums District: Butcher's Station, Cairo". Fine, that's where the action is supposed to be! But why is the actual "Green Model Guerilla" standing in the Arabic peninsula rather than directly in Egypt near Cairo itself?! This may seem like nit-picking to some people but i'm a freak for precision & perfection. And if i must start working on the UC scripts (and INI settings + INT strings) to provide many new cities (( say 20-50+!! )) to my subscribers, i'd like to make sure the gameplay system is accurate enough. 1) Cairo (Egypt) parameters are defined in X2StrategyElement_DefaultCities.uc... static function X2DataTemplate CreateCairoTemplate() { local X2CityTemplate Template; `CREATE_X2TEMPLATE(class'X2CityTemplate', Template, 'Cairo'); Template.Location.x = 0.586; Template.Location.y = 0.340; return Template;** XY is basicly a 0-1000 points system where Northern Longitude (@DateLine) is Y(0,0)X, Equator latitude is Y(+500, 0)X. Whereas, the actual Latitudes can range from 0-to-2000 "pixels" in a 2x1 Mercator/Equirectangular projection. 2) The East Africa region also has indirect values listed in DefaultGameBoard.INI ... [WorldRegion_EastAF X2WorldRegionTemplate] LandingLocation=(X=0.535, Y=0.343, Z=0.0) Bounds=(fLeft=0.559, fTop=0.318, fRight=0.632, fBottom=0.408) LinkedRegions="WorldRegion_NorthAF" LinkedRegions="WorldRegion_EastEU" LinkedRegions="WorldRegion_SouthAF" LinkedRegions="WorldRegion_SouthAS" RegionMeshLocation=(X=0.5, Y=0.25, Z=0.0) RegionMeshScale = 1.5f RegionTexturePath = "Strat_Overworld_DataMaps.Textures.EastAF" Countries="Country_Egypt" Countries="Country_Israel" Countries="Country_Iran"** Bounds should be an "Area" limits where events & activitives (gameplay & visually) can take place, i'm guessing. 3) Soooooo... what's the point?! How can i make sure my custom XY definitions are all within a proper calibration system and if so, will the gameplay render anything correctly?? Secondly, is there a preset Array (X2DataTemplate.. US has 10, Brazil-6, etc) restriction on the amount of additional "Mission Locations" we can add?! If anyone has noticed some of the visual discrepencies for whatever Missions they went to, please confirm. I just don't want my newest "Havana, Cuba" destination process to end up in the "Bermuda triangle" wreck -- for example! ;)

There's always this https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=650667838&searchtext=more+pods ... or the multitude of other mods that add any new Aliens individually like "RiftKeeper" or various kinds of "Advent troop".

Be darned -- i surely didn't notice any of these two back in early February... and the worskshop being what it is, stuff gets burried deep pretty fast! Soooo, thanks. I'll give a try to that "International" version. But it's a BIG download. Is it true that these Voice-Packs are memory hungry and if abused can put a tough nail in a stable install?

And... qUIck_RCP finally got its long overdue colored Rank Icons, thanks to some solid swift UC script code created by (co-authoring) Infectedm!! Link == https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=630404126 Perks?! Not sure anymore if i should provide such alternate assets since that new "Cost based Ability Colors" mod is an excellent solution to something else i had in mind for them. Maybe just the Tactical controls (top-right corner) would be enough of a cool HUD addon. Still thinking.... ;)

As per title... with all the custom Voice packs that have been flooding the Steam Workshop -- i really must ask WHY??! Is this about a technical issue that nobody wants to deal with? Is it the lack of valid "Sound bites" to build all that's necessary? Is our community not actively searching for the rare Russian genius out there that is perfectly capable of creating that stuff for us all?! Right, anyone? :(

AFAIC, this slider doesn't actually connect with the initial starting phase random principles. As you can see below... it's all the way down left which i have to presume is meant to be a near 0% (( real zero!! )) value. http://s15.postimg.org/oldjsqr57/Anarchy_Option_Lowest_Setting.png BUT, every time i begin new games my Barracks List is still flooded with Anarchy DLC props & armors at MUCH more than 50-75% on average. Profile.bin file aside (even if somehow corrupted, but i highly doubt it)... Is there any other way to just repair this wicked fact via INI or other drastic UC script-code means? Or maybe i just don't understand what that ToolTip is trying to describe. As in; New Soldiers == ALL rookies and recruits including those that fill up the opening Barracks! :sick:

Hold on to your brain cells people... infectedm just found an even better way to deal with that whole gimmicky stuff with a wild MCController tiny hook that will solve everything at once. Heading to the Workshop -- very soon! ;)

I'd like to share a very interesting method --Infectedm & I-- discovered earlier this afternoon while trying to solve a long overdue issue with my qUIck_RCP mod. Classes are already dealt with but i still wanted to provide some Colored Rank icons to my subscribers as hinted about by the preview image on Steam. Comes an accidental but still magical chat session and after a few wicked (Live, online) attempts and rational thoughts on the various tricky code mechanics necessary. HE came up with a relatively ingenious solution; direct IconMapping feed-loops via MCqueued instructions already listed as willing to perform what we want! It works... perfectly. http://s27.postimg.org/n8kbn0v0j/Colored_Ranks_sample1.png Sure, we are using some informal dreaded Class Overrides but frankly, i really don't care at this point. Once Firaxis-SDK breaks these actual limitations to their code, i'll be the first to restrict usage of that kind of code hacks. But, ya know how it goes -- a means to an end when reality offers no other rational choice(s). Source code will soon be uploaded on Steam along with the newest version of RCP. And now... onto giving these Ranking abbreviations some matching colors as well -- but that's the real easy HTML + INT file editing part, AFAIC. :D

Nearly a month later -- still at it, i suppose! :ninja:

Figured it out.. FP2+FP3+FP4+FP5 -- each packages have some unique UC scripts that forms **individual** arrays that are later fused by the gameplay engine to re-build a workable static (valid) Array where everything must be slotted as usable X2CountryTemplates!! No wonder -- the 36+164 mathematics can produce such a scramble for runtime attention. But ya know what, after playing a few test games... this newly organized pattern of (highly scrollable) selections is kind of fun to use! :D

That's one Array trick amongst the many, btw. CharacterGenerator performs its task by looping into the whole available templates --which are currently stacked in memory by mods like mine--. The customization process must have something similar but as a direct HUD feed of unique strings for each items. But that one probably takes an extra step for RE_organizing the source templates against its (possibly variable) stacked array. That SYNC_RAND instruction call is even a juicy hint to fiddle with, i guess. Your suggestion gave me another idea to explore though. Thanks.

You'll probably have better luck if you ask this kind of stuff in the XCom2-Mod forums.