New 1/7/2013 Patch overwriting mods (I think)

[johnnylump]

I've got the hosts file fix in place, and Steam just downloaded and overwrote a bunch of files, including xcomgame.upk and xcomstrategygame.upk, so I suspect a lot mods are busted. Update: Here are the patch notes:

 

Patch 3 Notes

 

Second Wave addition

If a player has beaten the game, they can access a variety of gameplay toggles upon starting a new game. The Second Wave option will be available on the New Game menu.

 

AI teleport bug fix

Minimizes the bug where aliens teleport into the middle of a player’s squad

 

Defeat screen when beating the game

Minimizes a bug that displays a Defeat screen after winning the game

 

 

PC Only

Chris Kluwe as XCOM Hero unlock

Edited January 8, 2013 by johnnylump

[drake8888]

Hey JohnnyLump,

 

How can one see if they have downloaded the 1/7/2013 patch?

 

I have been playing in OffLine mode since the game came out because of a MOD I made; but your LongWar MOD looks really cool and I have been having a whole bunch of trouble trying to get it to work today.

 

I have followed the instructions from the link below to "repair" my files so I would assume I have the latest patch, but I just cannot tell. Any insight on how I can check is much appreciated.

 

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/834174-warspace-technical-support-v150

 

Thanks for the work on the LongWar MOD, I really look forward to play it.

 

Drake8888

[BlackAlpha]

These are my SOPs concerning game updates:

 

- Remove the workaround that blocks the game from accessing the internet. Start Steam in online mode, start the game twice to let the silent patcher update.

 

- Grab the latest original version of all the files that my mod overwrites and compare them to the previous game version to see what has changed.

 

- If needed, apply new game version changes to my modded files. In the case of UPK files, grab the latest original file and apply all mod changes to it.

 

I think everyone who mods localization files and/or UPK files will need to go through those steps.

Edited January 8, 2013 by BlackAlpha

[lokonopa]

I had the exe blocked in my firewall and the update server IP addresses in my hosts file. I was in-game when I thought my game crashes, but it quit the game to start a patch. It only took a minute, but everything was undone. None of the patches can reinstall now and doing things by hand when my changes were stealth update removed in attempts to mod after the patch. Disappointing.

[johnnylump]

I had the exe blocked in my firewall and the update server IP addresses in my hosts file. I was in-game when I thought my game crashes, but it quit the game to start a patch. It only took a minute, but everything was undone. None of the patches can reinstall now and doing things by hand when my changes were stealth update removed in attempts to mod after the patch. Disappointing.

 

The hosts file change didn't prevent this patch.

 

@BlackAlpha -- I'm starting to apply changes to the UPKs now -- it looks like the hex for at least some of the ones I've been using has changed significantly, so the easy search-and-replace won't always work. I'll post them all once I get them figured out.

 

@ Drake8888 -- Somewhere (can't recall where) there's a version number for the game. Prepatch, it was 346964, at least for the non-Slingshot version (and possibly for the Slingshot as well). The patch went up about 4 hours ago (5 pm US Mountain Standard Time), so the mod definitely won't work after that. Sorry it's been giving you trouble -- stay tuned.

[Drakous79]

Many index values changed. Most mods won't be working until updated. Edited January 8, 2013 by Drakous79

[PepprmintButler]

AI teleport bug fix

Minimizes the bug where aliens teleport into the middle of a player’s squad

 

On the plus side, that's a most welcome change...

(can't believe it took that long)

[johnnylump]

A few things I've seen --

* Blitz is gone from Second Wave options. There's some apparently new functions that describe an "abduction blitz" but I'm not sure how they're called.

* We didn't get a new DefaultGameCore.ini, so it's unclear if all Second Wave settings in there still work. But modpatcher still works, thankfully.

[lagrath]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/08/solomon-vows-firaxis-on-xcoms-second-wave-add-on/

 

Jake Solomon: Modders are amazing. They say water will find a crack – modders will find anything. Anything you foolishly put in there four years ago or whatever… But yeah, the Second Wave, they unlocked it and actually that was really helpful. Second Wave is free add-on content, it’s a free pack that’s going to go live I think [today]. It’s the stuff that the modders found and it’s a bunch of basically gameplay options.

 

...

 

Jake Solomon: It is the stuff that the modders dug up, in fact. That was actually very helpful. I’m thrilled by that kind of stuff, it doesn’t bother me at all. We were all kind of laughing about it, they found it so quickly. I had to go back, because I hadn’t balanced them, some of them were broken and didn’t work. So before we even got QA on the Second Wave stuff I was able to go to the Nexus mods website and they had already posted a functionality list and said ‘this one doesn’t work, this one’s bugged…’ So I basically used the mod to [fix this]. There were even a couple of ideas they had to improve them where I was like ‘oh yeah, that’s better.’ So I used their ideas to improve some of the modes, like Marathon mode.

 

On one hand, Fireaxis is keeping an eye on the mods and it's quickly affecting the vanilla version! Awesome! Maybe some day we'll see the military retexture mod and Warspace mode integrated into the steam version.

 

On the other hand: if they think modders are so great, why make the steam online mode break mods and why make it so hard to suddenly update mods for compatibility when new versions of the game come out?

[BlackAlpha]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/08/solomon-vows-firaxis-on-xcoms-second-wave-add-on/

 

Jake Solomon: Modders are amazing. They say water will find a crack – modders will find anything. Anything you foolishly put in there four years ago or whatever… But yeah, the Second Wave, they unlocked it and actually that was really helpful. Second Wave is free add-on content, it’s a free pack that’s going to go live I think [today]. It’s the stuff that the modders found and it’s a bunch of basically gameplay options.

 

...

 

Jake Solomon: It is the stuff that the modders dug up, in fact. That was actually very helpful. I’m thrilled by that kind of stuff, it doesn’t bother me at all. We were all kind of laughing about it, they found it so quickly. I had to go back, because I hadn’t balanced them, some of them were broken and didn’t work. So before we even got QA on the Second Wave stuff I was able to go to the Nexus mods website and they had already posted a functionality list and said ‘this one doesn’t work, this one’s bugged…’ So I basically used the mod to [fix this]. There were even a couple of ideas they had to improve them where I was like ‘oh yeah, that’s better.’ So I used their ideas to improve some of the modes, like Marathon mode.

 

On one hand, Fireaxis is keeping an eye on the mods and it's quickly affecting the vanilla version! Awesome! Maybe some day we'll see the military retexture mod and Warspace mode integrated into the steam version.

 

On the other hand: if they think modders are so great, why make the steam online mode break mods and why make it so hard to suddenly update mods for compatibility when new versions of the game come out?

 

That is because they don't officially support mods. They do not consider mods when they are working on something new. Why do they not officially support mods? We can only guess. But I think it boils down to the idea that they might not think it's worth it for them to support mods.