Is there a way to change all aliens to one species? Specifically I want to only battle Snakemen and Chryssalids. (cause Chryssalids remind me a little of Xenomorphs)

PS (im a novice when it comes to modding so a detailed explaination is most welcomed)

Some of the windows game hackers may know a way to modify the program to do this.

the only other way would be to modify the pre-combat list of aliens and there stats and replace them with the race you want. Getting a realistic mix of alien stats may be the only hard part.

-David

Cf. http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=MISSIONS.DAT . It is possible to hex-edit the race of all current missions to Snakeman. (Unfortunately, this may give *too* much information....)

I'm not aware of any editor programs that specifically target this.

actualy it can be done with xcomutil.
But to get the effect you want, you have to:
Save and exit.
Use XCOMUTIL GAME_1 DIS:2 | MORE to list out the types of aliens in battle.
Use xcomutil RPL:oldrace:newrace to change the units.
start xcom and reload.

not very convenient. and you know to much about the size and makeup of the apposing force.

unfortunetly Scott did not design the function to work on the missdat pre combat items. or it could be automated. It would be possible to make it do so. I will have to add that to my to-do list. (disclamer: I have not actualy tried to run it on missdat but my understanding of the function is that it will not load the pre combat data is will use the last combats post combat unit file. the one with all the aliens dead)

-Blade FireLight

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to experiement with the file described in the link and see what I come up with.

I'm fairly certain that the executable could be edited to only produce Snakemen and Chryssalids. It would require a fair amount of work though. Also it would depend on if you wanted Chryssalids to show up only on the normal missions (Battleships, Terror Ships, Terror Sites, Alien/X-COM bases) or on every mission. (The every mission scenario would require yet more editing of the executable). For a start, check my alien stats page.

Actually, you can modify the alien race in CRAFT.DAT so that only Snakemen show up as well. (And it doesn't give away the quantities of aliens which will spawn). Neither MISSIONS nor CRAFT are very convenient methods of changing the race however, and both would require a separate utility (or a very patient hand) to edit. The executable is therefore your best bet and is permanent. If you need any help, drop me a line.

- Zombie

@Zombie: Your help is greatly appreciated. I wouldnt mind if the Chryssalids only showed up in Bases and Terror Sites, since thats less work involved. How would you go along using the excecutable? I wouldnt mind if this was permanent, I can just make copies of the originals.

Well, this should work, but what I'm thinking is this:

Copy the Snakeman Soldier entry in the executable and substitute that for any other race which has a rank of soldier present. Then copy the Snakeman Navigator and swap that for any Navigators. Do this for all the other race/rank combos. Then you would need to copy the Chryssalid's entry and swap that for the other terror units present. Hopefully the game will still treat the newly converted units as a pseudo-separate species of alien.

If you would rather not edit the executable yourself, I could probably do it for you. I'll need to know what version of the game you are playing though. I have the CE executable but do not have any version with a split executable. If you have those, I'll need both TACTICAL.EXE (found in the UFO2EXE folder) as well as GEOSCAPE.EXE (found in the UFOEXE folder).

- Zombie

I think I have the gold edition. I searched my entire computer and I couldnt find either TACTICAL.EXE (let alone the UFO2EXE folder) or GEOSCAPE.EXE (UFOEXE folder is nowhere to be seen)

Yup, then you have the gold edition.

Note: I'm not sure what we would do about the Medics. (Snakemen do not have that rank). If you don't need them, I suppose a Soldier substitution would work.

- Zombie

As I understand it, the characteristics of the aliens in the field are defined entirely by what the GeoScape engine sticks into the UnitRef table. We know where pretty much all of this data is defined in the GeoScape file (the strengths and skills of each race/rank) so what you're suggesting is a re-write of that code.

The thing I don't get is how the ranks would be translated. For example, you mention Snakemen don't have medics. So, if they use soldiers instead, you'd replace the medic stats for the other races with solder stats for the Snakemen, correct?

But would the resulting unit still get assigned the medic rank/name or can we circumvent that in the executable too?

Correct.


I'm not exactly sure what would happen if a Snakeman Soldier was substituted for, say, a Sectoid Medic. I'd assume the game would recognize that we edited the rank and ignore what the rank was before, but I haven't messed around with this much so it's all new territory. If worse came to worse, I could always force Medics never to show up on a mission. That would fix any trouble. Still, it would be interesting to see what would happen.

- Zombie

How would I go about editing the gold edition? Without any editors or executables im lost.

Don't worry about it, Kuroda. I'm working on it right now. If this works, I'll zip up my modified executable and send it to you. It's probably easier this way.

Late Edit: So far there seems to be no ill effects of having multiple copies of Snakemen Soldiers in the executable for the different races. Since it obviously works, I'll continue swapping the other races.

- Zombie

Thanks alot man, I really appreciate it.

Ok, after a couple false starts (always remember to make backups of your progress when editing the executable), I changed all the alien races to Snakemen and the terror units should all be Chryssalids. I ran a few missions and I didn't see anything other than Snakemen so it should be fine. (A little boring if you ask me, but those Chryssalids are a total pain in the rear and make for interesting missions).

Just unzip the UFO executable into your main folder and run. (Of course, make a backup of your executable first just in case). Enjoy!

 All_Snakemen.zip ( 246.47K ) Number of downloads: 49


- Zombie

Thanks alot.

Ya I wanted it mostly for the Chryssalids because I find those terror missions challenging and unpredictable.

If you need more of a challenge, let me know. I could be persuaded to substitute Chryssalids for some select Snakemen.

BTW: Is anyone interested in mixed missions like TFTD? Now that I know what is going on, I could construct a custom mix of aliens on all ships/missions pretty easily. Might be fun instead of the same race for each mission. It would be a little bit tougher as well since each race plays off of each other.

- Zombie

Ya I wouldnt mind some more Chryssalids, but dont make it a priority I want to try out the Snakemen for a bit.

I've never played TFTD, how does the mixed missions work?

EDIT: I tried playing XCOM but the graphics are distorted and unplayable. I remember this happening the first time I played and I patched the exe. I assume if I do this I'll lose the Snakeman changes.

Patching shouldn't muck with the alien stats or locations, so feel free to do what you need to do to get it to run properly.

- Zombie