The flamer's "Torch" and other "new" abilities

[PepprmintButler]

So as discussed in the Compiled list... post I dug out an ability that seems to have been intended for the legacy Flamer weapon and some other ones that are not used in the released vanilla game,

 

1. Torch

 

What it looks like :

Aiming mechanic

http://i.imgur.com/zZJv4.jpg

Using it (you see the weapon animation + fires starting)

http://i.imgur.com/p2NVK.jpg

The fire propagates each turn ! (I guess this is what is supposed to "bring the engine to its knees", although I suspect that's not a problem with a decent PC)

http://i.imgur.com/pBRYh.jpg

 

How to activate it :

It's an eAbility, eAbility_Torch. Add it to any weapon (or even directly to Soldier) to make it useable. No perk or the like needed.

 

How it works / what's wrong with it :

You can activate it. There is a dedicated aiming interface. The animation is not perfect, but it works ; it does set the targeted area on fire. The engine seems to handle it perfectly well.

Problems :

1. Range seems to be unlimited ?

2. Aiming at an enemy seems to start the fires centered on the casting soldier rather than the enemy ; also, the "napalm jet" (simulated) seems to get caught on objects in line of sight to the aimed area

3. Most problematically, no damage is done by the flames ! This problem is actually not limited to this ability and more linked to how fire/flames are handled in general. e.g., the titan armor provides immunity to flame damage, but have you ever seen flame damage ? I sure haven't. What the titan armor does is allow you to walk in tiles on fire ; without it you just can't go into those tiles. One solution would be to add damage dealing to the aimed area on activation, but it sounds like it would need code injection (I still haven't found the functions governing ability effects). Another good thing would be to modify the fire mechanic, maybe make the tiles accessible but inflict damage/turn to anyone in it - of course that sounds more complicated than what we are able to do now.

4. It's only an eAbility ; the flamer weapon itself is still nowhere to be found. It cannot be handled as a soldier Perk in this form

 

2. Aim

 

What it looks like :

Targets self, gives +20 aim for 2 turns, ends turn. Complete with ability title and description (but no bonus status text in info window).

The icon

http://i.imgur.com/G01ya.jpg

Targeting/description

http://i.imgur.com/Bgtql.jpg

Used

http://i.imgur.com/56GrY.jpg

 

How to activate it :

It's an eAbility, eAbility_Aim. Add it to any armor or weapon (or even directly to Soldier) to make it useable. No perk or the like needed.

 

How it works / what's wrong with it :

Works perfectly fine.

Problems :

1. Would be best to have a bonus descriptor in info panel, but really not necessary

2. Would be best as a perk, but just an ability at the moment. Maybe one of the unused perks can be redirected to this ability ..?

 

3. Command

 

What it looks like :

Targets an ally with no actions left. Gives that ally an action back (equiv. to a second action)

Targeting

http://i.imgur.com/QouCI.jpg

After use (able to move or use ability again, even though no actions left)

http://i.imgur.com/AMnyt.jpg

 

How to activate it :

It's an eAbility, eAbility_Command. Add it to any armor or weapon (or even directly to Soldier) to make it useable. No perk or the like needed.

 

How it works / what's wrong with it :

Works fine functionally.

Problems :

1. Has no description, animation of voice (cosmetic)

2. "commanded" soldier can act again but does not have an "action bar" back, which is a bit confusing (cosmetic)

3. Would work best as a Perk rather than an Ability (would be lovely as a high-rank Support perk, although it might be a bit OP). Hopefully we can repurpose and unused perk for this one.

 

4. Others needing testing

 

eAbility_ShotPaintTarget - targets enemy ; no effect found

 

eAbility_MotionDetector - same icon as battle scanner ; targets self, bugged, no effect

 

eAbility_Berserk - has icon, targets self, effect TBD (seems to up offense by 10, probably something else too)

 

eAbility_HeatWave - Has a corresponding perk. No successful use yet. Needs more testing

 

5. Alien abilites

 

As stated in another post, I had success giving soldiers alien abilties as perks, most notable Mind Merge and the floater's Launch.

Edited October 29, 2012 by PepprmintButler

[Daemonjax]

Awesome stuff!

 

I hope one day we'll be able to add an entirely new flamethrower weapon to the game. :D

Edited October 29, 2012 by Daemonjax

[BanjoOz]

Aim is awesome!

 

When I first started playing the game, I was actually confused that something like this wasn't possible; that is, being able to not move but spend a whole turn on shooting to increase accuracy. That seemed a pretty common tactical game choice to me and it bugged me when I'd have soldiers moving and firing and others staying put and firing, and both having the same accuracy!

 

While the Aim skill you discovered (unused in the final game) isn't exactly that, it's something close enough to what I expected to find in a basic squad-tactical game that it made me very happy.

 

I've already tweaked my personal mod to add 'Aim' to all assault rifles and sniper rifles. After testing I'll see if it is a good idea or not to add it to pistols and the light plasma rifle too or not (balancing out with other tweaks I've also made, like setting pistols to use ammo and likely decreasing their range).

 

I'm quite happy with Aim as a "weapon-based" skill rather than class-limited perk/ability though... how much training do you need to realize "take your time aiming and you can hit stuff better"? :)

 

I hope one day we'll be able to add an entirely new flamethrower weapon to the game. :D

Ditto!!!

Edited October 29, 2012 by banjo_oz

[PepprmintButler]

being able to not move but spend a whole turn on shooting to increase accuracy. That seemed a pretty common tactical game choice to me and it bugged me when I'd have soldiers moving and firing and others staying put and firing, and both having the same accuracy!

 

You do realize that this is not how this Aim thing works right ?

Turn 1 : Aim or move & Aim, turn ends

Turn 2 : Shoot with bonus or move and shoot with bonus

Turn 3 : back to normal.

 

An aim-like ability that costs "1AP" (ie does not end the turn if first action) would be nice though. But then the +20 would be way too much.

[BanjoOz]

being able to not move but spend a whole turn on shooting to increase accuracy. That seemed a pretty common tactical game choice to me and it bugged me when I'd have soldiers moving and firing and others staying put and firing, and both having the same accuracy!

 

You do realize that this is not how this Aim thing works right ?

Turn 1 : Aim or move & Aim, turn ends

Turn 2 : Shoot with bonus or move and shoot with bonus

Turn 3 : back to normal.

 

An aim-like ability that costs "1AP" (ie does not end the turn if first action) would be nice though. But then the +20 would be way too much.

Sorry if what I was saying wasn't clear... yes, I completely understand how the 'Aim' ability works in the game when added back in (i.e. spend a turn "aiming", get a bonus to hit next turn).

 

What I was saying was that when I first started playing, I was very surprised that the game didn't have some kind of "use an action or whole turn to increase your chance to hit" mechanic. 'Aim' is the latter, of course, but wasn't enabled in the default game, but my initial "why can't I do something like that?" feeling when I first played is why I was so thrilled to see adding it back in works.

 

Since I consider "take your time to shoot" a pretty basic training, I thus don't mind letting everyone (or everyone with rifles, for example) use it. :)

 

(edited the earlier post to be hopefully clearer)

Edited October 29, 2012 by banjo_oz

[PepprmintButler]

Ok cool, I was just making sure there was no misunderstanding.

The nice thing is, what you're shooting for amounts to a simple ini mod so it can be distributed right away without much of a hassle :)

[Jigain]

Since I consider "take your time to shoot" a pretty basic training, I thus don't mind letting everyone (or everyone with rifles, for example) use it. :)

 

That gets me thinking - would it somehow be possible to have your Aim (stat, not ability) decrease with the amount of moves you take? Potentially buff initial Aim to balance it. Something like:

 

Sniper fires a shot without moving: 100% of Aim stat applied.

Support uses one turn to move, then fires: 70% of Aim stat applied.

Assault uses Run & Gun to use both turns to move, then fires: 40% of Aim stat applied.

 

This can of course (later, when/if we learn more about modding the game) be offset with weapons and/or perks - such as Assault's Aggression also reducing the Aim penalty from Run & Gun by half, or a laser shotgun doing the same.

 

Sorry for the offtopic, but when my brainstorming starts, few things can stop it. :P

[szkkteam11]

I tested the eAbility_Torch, and i saw no damage applied by the flame effect. But i checked the XComGame.upk and i found XComDamageType_AreaBurn where that was:

 

defaultproperties
{
bDamageUnits=false
DamagedFFWaveform=ForceFeedbackWaveform0
KilledFFWaveform=ForceFeedbackWaveform1
}

I dont know to much about programing, but i think we can apply the damage to the flames.

[PepprmintButler]

I tested the eAbility_Torch, and i saw no damage applied by the flame effect. But i checked the XComGame.upk and i found XComDamageType_AreaBurn where that was:

 

defaultproperties
{
bDamageUnits=false
DamagedFFWaveform=ForceFeedbackWaveform0
KilledFFWaveform=ForceFeedbackWaveform1
}

I dont know to much about programing, but i think we can apply the damage to the flames.

 

Oooooh, awesome find. Congrats.

Should be easy to switch. Will try ASAP.

 

EDIT : here's the bytecode for that class. I have no idea where to start on this one. I thought false/true was a 27/28 ? there's none here.

60 4A 00 00 00 00 00 00 4D 4A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 92 00 00 08 92 FE FF FF 32 55 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 B8 55 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 57 65 61 70 6F 6E 00 32 55 00 00 00 00 00 00 52 4A 00 00

Edited October 29, 2012 by PepprmintButler

[szkkteam11]

I tested the eAbility_Torch, and i saw no damage applied by the flame effect. But i checked the XComGame.upk and i found XComDamageType_AreaBurn where that was:

 

defaultproperties
{
bDamageUnits=false
DamagedFFWaveform=ForceFeedbackWaveform0
KilledFFWaveform=ForceFeedbackWaveform1
}

I dont know to much about programing, but i think we can apply the damage to the flames.

 

Oooooh, awesome find. Congrats.

Should be easy to switch. Will try ASAP.

 

EDIT : here's the bytecode for that class. I have no idea where to start on this one. I thought false/true was a 27/28 ? there's none here.

60 4A 00 00 00 00 00 00 4D 4A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 92 00 00 08 92 FE FF FF 32 55 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 B8 55 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 57 65 61 70 6F 6E 00 32 55 00 00 00 00 00 00 52 4A 00 00

 

 

Tbkiah wrote in another thread:

 

"You can see things like 9A represents an == in the UE explorer, 9B is != 26 is a special hex value for 1, and 25 for 0. SO if you find a 1 represented by 26, at this point you can only change that value between 1 and 0."

 

So, you can try it with 26. Maybe it will work.