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

[babyjebu5]

It's not really that overpowered IMO as an ability, since it costs a whole turn to use, and I'd want to see it given to aliens too (as long as they'd use it, not tested yet).

 

It would seem "fys" has tested it:

The aliens use this ability too sometimes, although the AI still seem to favor Overwatch.

 

Also, I agree it is not O.P. if its takes your whole turn to use; thats a pretty bad drawback when the aliens might be circling to flank.

[BanjoOz]

It would seem "fys" has tested it:

The aliens use this ability too sometimes, although the AI still seem to favor Overwatch.

 

Also, I agree it is not O.P. if its takes your whole turn to use; thats a pretty bad drawback when the aliens might be circling to flank.

Cool! I'm going to assign it to my aliens tonight too, in that case. I like the idea that they may only use it "occasionally" but still will use it... makes them stand out from humans.

 

I also like that 'Aim' will tend to encourage moving around to flank when your enemy is using it (whether human or alien) rather than sit there and take potshots until someone hits.

 

I've already assigned Aim to the sniper and assault rifles (all types)... how do people feel about having it assigned it to shotguns, heavy weapons (LMG, etc.) and pistols too? I mean, you can still take time to aim with those guns, right?

Edited October 30, 2012 by banjo_oz

[Gazzzz]

how do people feel about having (aim) assigned to shotguns, heavy weapons (LMG, etc.) and pistols too? I mean, you can still take time to aim with those guns, right?

IRL, shotguns do not have the huge-ass firing cone they have in computer games. If you don't aim a shotgun, you miss.

You could maybe balance it playing with the range modifier values. Just thinking out loud...

[PepprmintButler]

I'm surprised nobody seems to show interest in Command. Any thoughts on that ability ?

I was thinking it's quite a nice addition, although potentially OP so it needs to be restricted heavily (certainly not given to everyone). If we can make a perk out of it, I'd love to give it to the Support at Colonel level (instead of Sentinel which I find kind of weak)

[fys]

What I’ve observed further so far with Aim on aliens is that they tend to use it more often when not seeing any enemy player characters. You get to see frequently the Aim text popping up in the fog-of-war what is unfortunately spoiling their hidden position.

 

About Command: it’s somewhat too magical for me giving units a whole extra action. It’s like giving the same incredible power increase with Bullet Swarm on Heavies and Double Tap on Snipers for every unit. That's too much Rambo-style for me.

If I could change Command to my likening, I would make it similar like an Intimidate extra-move, so you can pull sometimes a unit out of danger with 3-4 extra tiles movement but no extra attack.

Another, maybe better idea for Command is to make it similar like the Psi Inspiration but only for a single unit to remove panic from one, so it can get act in that turn immediately again: "On your feet, soldier!"

[freetup1]

I don't think it is too awesome. If you gave command a high cooldown and made it only available at high rank, I think it would fit right in.

 

Honestly, sometimes you need a miracle and COMMAND seems like it could fill that role.

 

Question is, are miracles OP? :P

[PepprmintButler]

Good points. Command abuse could be really bad (have just 2 guys with command on your team, an Assault gets 4 actions in one turn). In its current form it would need a pretty long cooldown at least.

I dig your "On your feet, soldier!" idea, it sounds much less OP yet still useful.

[EliotVU]

OK, what the hell is this sorcery ?? I know it's Halloween, but still, creepy...

 

class XComDamageType_AreaBurn extends XComDamageType_Flame
hidecategories(Object)
native(Weapon);

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

 

is supposed to correspond to that :

 

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 

 

The 57 65 61 70 6F 6E is actually the character string Weapon, which gets modified if I touch those bytes, so I know I have the right bits.

 

Yet...

I can kill most of the byte code and see no change whatsoever in the result read in UE Explorer ??

I probably tried changing every single byte in that code, yet the only effects I get to defaultproperties{} is to make that function disappear completely. Else it stays with the exact same content, which seems to be located in like 2 bytes ??

This makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

Is Defaultproperties actually a callout to data stored somewhere else ? But there is no xcomdamagetype_areaburn folder in the unpacked upk...

 

Sometimes I really wish I knew what I was doing *sigh*

 

The defaultproperties block's data is stored in its own object usually by the name of "DEFAULT_CLASSNAME".

52 4A 00 00

is a object index pointing to that object.

 

- UE Explorer author here ;)

Edited October 31, 2012 by EliotVU

[PepprmintButler]

- UE Explorer author here ;)

 

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar :)

 

Do take a seat, have a drink. We'd be pleased to have you here. Let me take your coat.

Be assured that any knowledge you humor us with will promptly be put towards the betterment of our humble community !

 

Also, insta-kudos. :thumbsup: (edit : if the Nexus lets me :sweat: )

 

Seriously, what a pleasure to have someone around here for pointers. We (well, I) have been running in circles for what seems like an eternity and a half. Then BAM !, magic happens. Thank you !

Edited October 31, 2012 by PepprmintButler

[PepprmintButler]

OK, so thanks to sir EliotVU I did make some advances.

Until I didn't. I must be really bad at this :confused:

 

So the ellusive defaultproperties{} was in the separate file called default_XcomDamageType_yadahyadah.

The bytecode to it is super short and short be easy pie, right ?

So I was hoping to find a 27 which is "false" in a .function. There's none, meaning that the bytecode is different for these files which does not help, but hey there are so few things in there I'm bound to get to it at some point.

 

So I change a few values around and understand the following :

 

plaintext content

	①bDamageUnits=②false
③DamagedFFWaveform=④ForceFeedbackWaveform0
KilledFFWaveform=ForceFeedbackWaveform1

 

hex content

61 4A 00 00 ①F3 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 ②61 0B 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ③1D 14 00

00 00 00 00 00 BE 55 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 84 BE 00 00 03 41 00 00 00 00 00

00 BE 55 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 85 BE 00 00 32 55 00 00 00 00 00 00

 

If I modify bytecode marked 1 the variable 1 is changed, same for 3, so 61 0B must be "false". Indeed if I edit eitheir of these bytes (randomly) false changes into something else, usually a 0 or 1 (I think I got a 2 once). If I change the first 2 bytes 61 4A I see no effect, so yeah, this must be it.

Great, so now I just need to find the correct hex value for "true" and we're in business !

 

So I look around for a defaultproperty with "true" in it ; here is Default_particulesizebydistance_somethingsomething

defaultproperties
{
MaxDistance=40.00
bUpdateModule=true
bSupported3DDrawMode=true
}

 

2 instances of true in there, should be fairly easy to point out

 

40 02 00 00 9C 52 00 00 00 00 00 00 1D 2E 00 00

00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 42

D1 0D 00 00 00 00 00 00 61 0B 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 2A 0C 00 00 00 00 00

00 61 0B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 01 32 55 00 00 00 00 00 00

 

Oh look two 61 0B s, that sure looks like my "true"s

Wait what, 61 0B was the code for "false" ! But... But...

Again, what is this sorcery !?

 

:wallbash:

Edited October 31, 2012 by PepprmintButler