mutonizer

Cheerios :) Still downloading the tools but any "wish I knew that before" tips? Mainly to avoid screwing up installs, organizing/distributing mods and the like? You know, things only couple months actually using them tools can teach :)

Howdy, Unless I use the faster slomo speeds from Long War (125% - 150%), my camera panning speed using the arrow keys is frustratingly slow. Problem is that I really enjoy the action cams and the slomo changes resets every time one of the scenes plays out. So, questions: 1) Any way to make camera panning more responsive without the use of slomo (which also speeds the game up)? 2) Any way to prevent scenes from resetting slomo speeds? Cheerios.

Same flaws in X:EW than in X:EU though there are little fluff things that are nice (soldier's voice, grenade UI overlay, etc). It still has the same cool things that makes some of us come back to it for a time, and the same INSANELY irritating stuff that will probably never make it last in history the same way the original X:COM games did (heck, people still do let's play of these games quite often). Just need to take the game for what it is: a generation Y console X:COM game. Once that's accepted, you have fun where you can :) The EXALT and PROGENY bits are in line with that concept. Superficial, nonsensical and only there for one reason: Fun. Most people like simple fun and don't need any reason, story or logic as long as something gets blown up so it's probably a good move money-wise. Why one base? who cares. Why one Skyranger? who cares. Why do I have to choose between 1 out of 3 abductions sites every time? who cares! Why seekers choke you while they can one shot your recruits? who cares! Why gene-modded can't wear sleeves? Who cares! It's a game, it's fun, play it and shut up! I quite agree that they could have done so much more, it's crazy. And I have to admit, I'm having fun when I play. The only issue is that I can never play long because very quickly all the completely abstract restrictions drive me crazy. Anyway, nice one on impossible. Personally I get my butt handed to me in there all the time because I tend to "role-play" somewhat with the soldiers, never play with snipers and whatnot, which makes C:I my type of game. Finishing my X:EW C:I was a bore for anything past June though, with soldiers blowing through everything. Was already stupidly simple in EU but now with all the goodies added and no real new challenge, I didn't even get any injury whatsoever during the last battle. The first few months were fun as usual because it can be really rough but the mid/end game hasn't changed and is still has silly as it was before. For now, I'm just waiting for some mods and the updated ToolBok if it ever comes so that I FINALLY don't end up with 90% of my recruits as females (it was CRAZY in my play through!) and almost 50% of them as snipers (so frustrating!)... No real reason to come back to it otherwise.

Well, if you make research time longer, it just makes the late game come later but doesn't change the fact that once you're in late game, it's still a cakewalk. Same applies for items and build time since in late game, you don't need to build anything, you're just waiting on your PSI unlocks. They are tons of ways to tweak how fast the late game comes around, but the only real late game changes I can see are changing damage, armor and soldier progression values to make them weaker and personally I find it always very hard to find the proper balance on "high level adventuring", be it for video games or p&p RPGs. The biggest problem I have and basically the reason why I just don't change these high level gear/enemies values is that if I do that, the loss of any high level soldier means game over, right there and then since there is no way whatsoever for the player to train more troops properly. If I could find a way to still offer early/mid game content (sectoids, thinmen, floaters, etc) during late game, through random UFO scouts and the like, then there would not be a problem. But by then all you encounter are things like small scouts UFO filled with sectopods, elites and ethereals. I can't however, so I rather have people playing the perfect game have a cakewalk, while people having a normal/struggling game, still have a chance :)

You can do a lot of things on your side but enemies seem to indeed pop up on a tighter schedule, at least some. For example, I couldn't delay the apparition of Thin Men whatsoever, and Muton/Floater/Disc always start to appear in May-June for me. The rest seems to be story related, with some tech progression thrown in as well it seems. I have yet to just research nothing, do nothing and end up in late August alive, though I might try it someday, see how that goes. Marathon SW option seems..a bit too hard core/bugged at the moment :)

Can't get it to work for now and eyes bleeding again with all these numbers. I've tried isolating whatever decides the random class selection and there are some odd class selection features in there but couldn't really edit anything relevant and can't seem to make the cover changes work proper. Will check again later on after some tea and biscuits.

Alright, just finished my playthrough with the changes and it's pretty close to what I wanted so I'm releasing it, pending a tweak here and there later on as I do another run. http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/33/ Tweaks to come are to make the game a wee bit more difficult early on, but that's very hard to do without just making things way too hard. Late game is, as usual, more of a cake walk, especially if you have ranked up soldiers, but that's dealing with a core issue of the game itself and couldn't really adjust anything there.

Bit busy on this Sunday but will for SURE play with this XSHAPE this afternoon. Awesome work Daemonjax!

Very nice find Daemonjax, cheers. THERE is the bugger :) and Wonder if we put this to 100 right from the get go, soldiers would always be revivable for 3 turns (making the OTS_CRITWOUND_ BONUS useless of course). Nice finds, can't wait to be able to change this, as a mere mortal :)

does this change also play into the wounded/recovery time for soldiers, as in, less actual health with more armor in terms of how much damage you take before your recovery time becomes affected? also, is it possible to adjust the hive at all? my main gripe in general are steam locations (the amount of times I have restarted) not a big deal, its just one mission you have to complete before you can take a look. Yes it does. Since the soldiers have lower base HP, the armor will provide MUCH more of a buffer (as it should I think) and the soldiers will spend a little less time overall in medical if the damage they sustain overcomes the armor buffer. That's how I kinda wanted it personally and it seems to be going nicely from what I tested so far. As for the base design, the steam fonts are random sadly and until we can repack the UPK files (if even then), we can't do much about it. What we can do however is up the number of steam tiles available at the start, all the way up to fill everything I suppose. That said, I haven't touched it yet though I was considering upping it from 3 to 4 at one point. Power is however an interesting resource I think and I fear upping the steam vents tiles might make it trivial (thermal reactors REALLY boost power output a lot). Maybe upping the steam numbers but lowering the Thermal generator output a bit might do the trick. In any case, just a quick update, and Sir_Toejam reminded me of that, it still needs some tuning. I'm putting a lot of hours into playtesting and it's almost there though everytime I test I need to get at least to June/July because that's when the tech changes happen for the enemies usually (mutons, discs and the like start to pop up more often). The early period seems fine for now, very challenging but doable. Late period shouldn't be much different (apart from a lot more things to do), but mid period, due to the research time changes, is tricky. I'm getting there though. Thanks for the interest of course, but as mentioned, I rather wait a day or so more than planned, than release and don't get the feel I want from it.

It'll be available tomorrow most likely. I'll update here once done.

Here is a quick update taken from the Wiki: So it seems to be a simple display issue and we can't change that until we can repack the UPK files handling the PSILab UI. I'll try using the keyboard once I get my save to that point, but I'm still tuning earlier stuff (getting my teeth kicked in for now!)

How did you make the "add" button accessible for more than 4 soldiers? seconded. the UI cuts off half of the 4th slot even. did you manage to access the UI and change that? I was going as per Xionanx findings for that and he didn't seem to have any issue with it. I'll double check once possible and report what I find.

Only the basic pistol is on par with the laser pistol, not the entire ballistic weapon set, the only difference now being the reloading needed for the ballistic pistol. The laser weapons overall are better still, especially with the no reload, though you can of course time it. The mod is designed around playing impossible difficulty with SW flanking auto crit so there's quite a bit of enemies and reloading is a tad more tactical because of it. The biggest advantage is of course for the heavy laser, which can suppress nicely. Going directly to plasma is...well that's gonna take some time with double research times and while plasma is nice, you'll want them only on people with good AIM to offset the AIM penalty on them. For the council missions, I consider the 2 variables as: time for checks (20 days default) and minimum delay between missions (7 days). It seems to fit with what I tried but there seems to be a slight random factor involved as well. I simply lowered the time for checks slightly and it seemed to do the trick though what I'm testing now is the "fun factor" of it since there arn't that many council missions and some might be "only once", especially the rescues. There are however 2 generic council missions: bomb and military cargo. It's still being tuned though. I'll update later on.

Welcome to the MUTONIZED Mod thread. It's now released: http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/33/ While there are plenty (and more everyday) mods popping up, I of course could not find what I wanted. Of course, people can make their own quite easily now, but here is my version currently in testing (changes are done, just making sure they work proper and on the long run). This mod will be balanced around: - Impossible Difficulty: While the AIM and CRIT bonus are removed from enemies, I wanted more of them as you can find on impossible. - Second Wave enabled with "Not Created Equally" and "Absolutely Critical" Enabled. These two options are the most stable that I could find and REALLY enhance gameplay. The first gives much needed variations to the soldiers (so that now, you give a damn between a total sucker and a new rambo). The second is just game changer since it REALLY rewards flanking (100% critical hit chance as soon as you flank anything, or are flanked. You do NOT want to be flanked!). UFOs will pop up, missions will pop up, abductions will pop up. It's gonna pop up and pop a LOT. The Panic will be balanced so that it's doable, but at the end of the day, the goal is to NOT be easily able to control the air until you're really rocking with top of the line stuff. If I can get the feeling of "Oh crap I cannot manage all that!!" that you should feel at the beginning, then I'll be happy Research times are DOUBLED for everything. This alone makes scientists much needed, unlike vanilla. It also suddenly makes South America crucial early on, due to tech rush you can do. Overall, all changes are done and I'm moving forward nicely in my playtest campaign and I like the pace so far, with just a couple tweaks here and there. Hopefully I'll be able to publish the first version before the weekend, and keep tuning it afterwards. Comments are of course welcome. I'll post updated here once I have some.

Well, nothing on cover so far (eyes bleeding already), but I made myself a quick sheet for maps that I'll use in game, see if it's relevant, active and which is which. That comes from the MapManager default properties but I wanted to make a clearer list for myself. Doesn't seem to include the downed scouts UFO maps, which might indicate that they are somewhat randomized (unlike the bigger UFOs). What boggles my mind though is that there's only 47 maps there, and 5 seem to be duplicates (terror maps). Not sure where the 80+ maps are but this list might not be in use currently, not sure yet. Another thing is that, according to this, maps are set for a specific time of day (most at night, as you already figured out if you played the game). Also seems odd since different time of day with different lightning would, very easily, expand the "feeling" of content. Finally, North America has the most "dedicated maps, though I think they treat NA as if it included South America. Africa has nothing whatsoever.Not sure how that's used but that's what I want to mark down as I playtest my mod. Anyway, here's the list for whoever feels like cross checking. Map(id) : Name - TimeOfDay - Region 0 : URB_Bar - Night - North America 2 : URB_Bar_Terror - Night - North America 4 : URB_Boulevard - Night 6 : URB_Boulevard_Euro - Night - Europe 8 : URB_CemeteryGrand - Night 10 : URB_CommercialAlley - Night 12 : URB_CommercialAlley_Terror - Night 14 : URB_CommercialRestaurant - Night 16 : URB_CommercialStreet - Day 18 : URB_CommercialStreetTerror - Night 20 : URB_ConvenienceStore - Night 22 : URB_ConvenienceStore_Terror - Night 24 : URB_Demotion - Night 26 : URB_FastFood - Night - North America 28 : URB_GasStation - Night - North America 30 : URB_Highway1 - Night 32 : URB_HighwayBridge - Night 34 : URB_HighwayConstruction - Night 36 : URB_HighwayFallen - Night 38 : URB_IndustrialOffice - Night 40 : URB_LiquorStore - Night - North America 42 : URB_MilitaryAmmo - Night 44 : URB_Museum - Night 46 : URB_Museum_Euro - Night - Europe 48 : URB_OfficePaper - Night 50 : URB_PierA - Night 52 : URB_PierA_Asian - Night - Asia 54 : URB_PoliceStation - Night - North America 56 : URB_ResearchOutpost - Day 58 : URB_RooftopsConst - Day 60 : URB_RooftopsConst_Asian - Day - Asia 62 : URB_SlaughterhouseA - Night 64 : URB_SmallCemetery - Night 66 : URB_StreetHurricane - Night - Europe 68 : URB_StreetHurricane_Terror - Night - Europe 70 : URB_StreetOverpass - Night 72 : URB_TrainStation - Night - Asia 74 : URB_Trainyard - Day 76 : URB_Truckstop - Day - North America 78 : CAbductor_Cliffside - Night 80 : CAbductor_ScorchedEarth - Night 82 : CBattleship_01 - Night 84 : CBattleship_02 - Night 86 : COverseer_Deepwoods - Night 88 : COverseer_ForestTrench - Night 90 : COverseer_StoneWall - Day The related UPK files are in the C:\Steam\steamapps\common\XCOM Enemy Unknown\XComGame\CookedPCConsole as usual The file names are the "Name" in the table above. The MAP(id) is the ids of each map in the property table. TimeOfDay and ERegion info is stored on MAP(id+1) for some reason, all but id 90, which is just..put there at the end. Anyway, it's just a check list :) note: I'll see if I can get a relevant screenshot of each maps to make some kind of easy "what is what" list if we can do something with them someday.

Thanks! I was using an i and not a l, silly Oo :) Works like a charm!

Thanks. Now I just need to get that decompression to work (or does it just doesn't say it worked?) And then UE Explorer to stop crashing when I open XCOMGAME.upk :) Then I'll be golden to browse through that!

I've been doing my own little mod for an impossible difficulty re-balancing using Second Wave as part of this. So far, I've tested New Economy, Not Created Equally, Absolutely Critical, Greater Good, Results Drive and High Stakes, and they all seem to work just fine. The rest is either not something I like or just seem bugged out. There is one line however that I really would like to use and that's SW_COVER_INCREASE, which one can suppose would raise the value of cover. I cannot however make this work properly using various Second Wave options. Has anyone found out how to use this properly? What are the effects?

Playing Female and Male in two different playthrough usually, especially in RPGs such as Skyrim. Why? Just to get a different experience, different story, interact differently with NPCs, etc.

Without numbers however, there is nothing defining your actor but the story itself, making it an adventure game (or interactive movie) and not a RPG in my book. Without numbers, you could potentially choose the most "intelligent", the most "physical" and the most "agile" paths, no matter your character. With numbers, these choices are coherent within the context of your actor: is he strong? agile? Intelligent? These are defined with numbers, to give them relative value when compared to something else (more intelligent than a kobold but less than a dragon, stronger than an ox, etc). We are all, in real life, defined by these relative numbers as well, which is why I can't understand quantum physics right now, nor can I lift 200kgs, but I have better stats in other skills and stuff. Likewise, I go faster with a modern top notch bike than with a crappy 70 years old one (consider it a bike +2). It's also why swimmers with insanely technologically advanced suits go faster than when they wear a crappy one, etc. Numbers are part of the realism of a world and of actions within that world. They define what can be done, by who, and when. I love games like King Quest or Police Quest or Phantasmagoria, don't get me wrong, but they are not RPGs. ps: a lot of people in our world "quest" for the best item non stop. Best house, best car, best phone, best computer. Our own technological advancement is a result for this "quest". It's part of us really in a way though we don't all strive for it of course.

"Good" roleplayers don't need stats because as I said earlier, they will act within the boundaries of their actor. However, a lot of people nowadays (and that's why I don't really play tabletops anymore) cannot limit themselves properly and they need statistical boundaries and even then, they just try to abuse them (the rise of the min/maxers some would say). In CRPGs, I feel statistical boundaries are very important and sadly they tend to be replaced by player skills lately (action games, etc). If you take a wizard in BG2 or ToEE for example, and equip him with a sword and shield and use no magic, he will get totally wasted in seconds most of the time. That makes it a RPG because your actor is limited by it's boundaries. If you take a mage in Skyrim, with no skill whatsoever in 1hd and block or armor, you (as the player), can kill the most powerful creatures without much problems (just takes some time) if you're fast with mouse and keyboard. That makes it an action RPG (or RPG light for me), because the actor is not limited by it's own boundaries, but your own physical abilities. I think the market need a bit of everything for everyone, but I'm just sad that the "action" side is more represented while the "tactical" side is almost non existent today. As long as people use the proper terms and don't mix them however, I'm ok with it.

You guys remember when you could enter climb mode and get up pretty much any walls and stuff in Daggerfall? It sometimes seems insane to me that in today's game, with the current technology, this is not present.

- You play an actor in a constructed environment. Playing this actor requires the possibility of making choices, not being fast or accurate. Afterall, when you "play a role", it's make-believe so you (youself) shouldn't need to rely on your physical attributes, only on your brain (and leave the action to stunt doubles!). - This actor needs statistical functions to interact, which is where stats come from. Good RPGers don't really need stat because they will act within the boundaries of their actor design. However, most people need stats to limit their own actor' power, otherwise they all act like all powerful and all knowing gods. Overall these stats are a simple representation of our own reality, with what we know, how we live, how strong we are and overall, how we interact with our own environment. It's an interesting exercise to try and transcribe yourself (the real you) into statistical functions and usually, they serve to keep the game a bit realistic, within the context of the constructed environment (I recommend GURPS for this). Both of these define RPG for me. Skyrim comes short statistical wise and short in the choices. However, the constructed environment is insanely great. It's an action RPG (bit like Diablo), but with a better feel of freedom due to it's environment (what you call breathing nordic and I totally agree), also called "immersion" sometimes I believe. I think I love just walking around in Skyrim and dungeon dwelling more than anything else to be honest. And I love using torches :) That's why I keep BG and BG2 as true® RPGs, where both choices for your actor AND statistical functions are very clearly present, all the while having a great decent constructed environment and where you (yourself), don't need to be fast or anything, just make choices. No "ending" in Skyrim is also a bummer for me. A great part in any story is the actual ending, where you can reflect on what was done. Where is the closure in Skyrim? I mean, after sessions in tabletops are usually great fun, when everyone can go back on the events and laugh about them, etc. Why would you, as their player, would want to? I mean, in a tabletop RPG, people can decide to NOT go on with the adventure but why would anyone ever do that, it's so boring. It's like playing monopoly but refuse to buy stuff because you can. All these are afterall games.

A simple crafting progression table would limit it's usefulness. As it is now, you can indeed craft hundreds of leather bracers (which I found are the fastest, since leather is very easy to come by and cheap), and reach 100. Dwarven is also very easy once you get to it. The amount of ore you can get if you do a deowmer dungeon run and load up on parts to refine is quite insane, especially with a full set of enchanted "carry" gear. By simple making it so each tier will only up the skill a certain amount of points at most, you would have to craft very expensive gear to get to 100. Leather at first, Iron, then Steel, and the like, until you reach the 90s and only dragon stuff will raise the skill. Alchemy and Enchanting are far less powerful overall I found. Alchemy because it's simply consumable and Enchanting because the most powerful soulgems are much harder to farm.