Planning on a major retexture project of XCOM operatives. Ideas welcom

[CaesarInvictus]

Thanks everyone!

 

Sorry I havent been active like I used to be, Xcom hasnt held my attention for a little while now :S

[ssskoopa]

Any plans for Enemy Within?

[CaesarInvictus]

This thread is now officially reactivated.

 

Thanks to local hero Jams79, likely a leading member of the Council, I've recieved enemy within and can now begin texture work on it in earnest.

 

I have a lot of big plans. The first is to get my existing textures into the game as quickly as possible. After that, I have an order of operations planned out:

 

- Quickly finish work on the Shiv's

- EXALT operatives and weaponry

- MEC troopers and Meld troopers armors

- MEC weaponry, if textures are separate from the armor

- New XCOM deco and helmets

 

To achieve this I'll probably have to do a speed run of enemy within on easy or something just so I can get all necessary textures sorted out. I wont be starting a proper enemy within game until I have at least EXALT units squared away.

 

WHICH MEANS now is the PERFECT time to weigh in on my creative process. Obviously shiv recommendations come first since I'm working on shivs first, but really anything goes.

 

My current design plan for EXALT is to make them look like actual illuminati soldiers probably would: menacing black futuristic armor, probably with occult symbology and strange markings denoting their cult-like status. Dont get me wrong the pinstripe look they have right now is fun, I would just rather that XCOMs principle rival faction get some loving attention.

[drake8888]

Hey CaesarInvictus

 

This sounds like something that I would definitely interested in, unfortunately I cannot see any of your posted images. I made a pretty big Armor/Armory mod for the game, UFO: Aftershock and I would love to get into the re-skinning of things for EW.

 

Do you have a wiki or post that explains what you are doing? I have read that you are opening up items with TexMod; but possibly because I am daft, I just don't understand what you are doing.

 

I would love to create some camo skins for my troopers. Hot pink and purple just do not float my boat and I would love to put them in some nice USMC camo patterns.

 

Drake8888

[baszermaszer]

Nice to hear. Your textures look professional and awesome! Thank You for this exceptional work.

[Krazyguy75]

Hm, I think I'd like the basic exalt to look more mundane, as if they were summoned all of a sudden, grabbed weapons from a hiding space, and deployed instantly, the quick reaction troops. Whereas Exalt Elites should be shadowy occult figures wearing advanced gear, as if EXALT deployed them specifically to eliminate XCOM.

[CaesarInvictus]

@drake: Take a look at how texmod operates. Theres a number of excellent tutorials on the subject. Besides that, the game handles glow/colour maps a bit differently than how most usually do Its a channel-based system: in addition to your normal-maps they also have stuff for glows, colour tinting, etc.

 

@Baszer: you should thank Mr. Jams for giving me the game so I can work! Though I wont be able to post an updated file until the weekend. The sheer ammount of changed textures Ive done means I'll need to do a bit of good old fashioned grunt work. Nothing too difficult, just time consuming and annoying.

 

@Krazy: I think our visions are on the same page for the elite EXALT troops, though I wonder if you could elaborate on the 'basic' exalt operatives? Would you rather they wear suits then? I might be able to pull off a kind of 'business tactical' look with them having stylish suits covering body armor and sci-fi gear, or the odd bullet proof vest hastily thrown over a suit. Something like that.

 

The obvious ideal solution is to make multiple different textures for EXALT, but im not sure if thats viable. If your a long time follower of this pack, you'll know how awkward my release schedule is.

[Krazyguy75]

Yeah, I think either would work, mainly I just think that EXALT would have a hard time blending their normal people in if they all looked like they were clones of someone from the past.

[CaesarInvictus]

EXALT might take a bit longer than I anticipated. Its /really/ hard to get a nice close-up of them with vanilla Enemy Within camera angles. For soldiers that can be selected in a squad equip screen I have no problems: I can get the closest I need to them: that way when I rip the texture I work with the 'base' full resolution texture.

 

Fun fact: in enemy unknown XCOM textures are actually steadily lowered in resolution as the player zooms out. So if you ever wondered why your troops look bad as you scroll out further, thats why. Its easier to notice on large monitors with high resolutions.

 

Anyway, Im hoping to get at least part of this fixed for Enemy Within today. Its the middle of exam and essay season for us university students, so anything more than that may have to wait.

[johnnylump]

The code in XComGame.upk to increase the maximum zoom-in level:

 

(I am assuming it is unchanged in EW)

 

Change

1e 00 00 80 3f 16 0f 00 dd 68 00 00 1e 00 00 80 3f

 

to

 

1e 00 00 80 3e 16 0f 00 dd 68 00 00 1e 00 00 80 3e

 

Course it might be tough to get the camera in the right place