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Two issues with UFO Extender


papadadfather

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1. Clock runs way too fast in the geoscape screen. Supposedly this is a known issue but there is no official clear fix. Thought maybe someone would have figured out some ghetto fix fiddling around with the .ini file. I tried limiting the fps but it didn't seem to have any effect.

 

2. Scrolling the map in the tactical screen is too fast and just unwieldy in general. The Tactical Scroll bug fix changes nothing. Limiting the fps seemed to slow down the scrolling speed a little bit but anyway the bigger problem is that the mouse cursor has to sort of be at the exact right spot on the edge of the window (I play windowed) for it to even scroll which makes navigating the map really annoying. I have no such problems running the game in a Dosbox window. Clip Cursor 0 or 1 had no effect.

 

I love all the new additions and how smooth the runs compared to Dosbox so I'd really rather not go back to that.

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1. Clock runs way too fast in the geoscape screen. Supposedly this is a known issue but there is no official clear fix. Thought maybe someone would have figured out some ghetto fix fiddling around with the .ini file. I tried limiting the fps but it didn't seem to have any effect.

 

The clock speed is tied to how fast and how often your system preforms the main Geoscape loop. The fps will slow down how fast the game updates the screen but won't affect this. Mok made an altered executable which included a patch which does slow down the clock but a lot of people have noted that the daylight rotation and moving objects jump across the globe when the time frame is set at higher rates. I was able to recreat Mok's patch for TFTDextender,and may incorporate it into EU Extender, but the jumping remains. I am working further to see if somthing can be done about that.

 

2. Scrolling the map in the tactical screen is too fast and just unwieldy in general. The Tactical Scroll bug fix changes nothing. Limiting the fps seemed to slow down the scrolling speed a little bit but anyway the bigger problem is that the mouse cursor has to sort of be at the exact right spot on the edge of the window (I play windowed) for it to even scroll which makes navigating the map really annoying. I have no such problems running the game in a Dosbox window. Clip Cursor 0 or 1 had no effect.

 

I love all the new additions and how smooth the runs compared to Dosbox so I'd really rather not go back to that.

 

Are you using version 1.28 of the extender? The Clip Cursor function was updated to work better with Vista and Windows 7.

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Thanks for the reply. Fixed these issues myself last night, spent about 5 hours trying to get the game to run flawlessly.

 

Yup, I was using an older version of the extender; the one in the big Steam thread compilation package. The newer one the cursor behaves much better.

 

I used the exe in this thread: https://www.xcomufo.c...topic=242035086

to fix the geoscape clock, it did seem to mess up the daylight rotation for me but I'm using it anyway.

 

I still have an issue where if I change the focus from the game window to something else and back, then my cursor starts misbehaving again, not sticking inside the window anymore until I restart.

 

Edit: I'm worried that using the executable from the thread, is the difficulty bug still fixed? I don't know which part of the extender actually fixes it and the combat feels easier than when I played it earlier. Could easily be my imagination though as I only have a few hours in the game. I'm playing on the second easiest setting.

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I thought that might happen with newer version of Windows, I don't have that problem with XP. Not much to do for it. I had to remove the function call for the ClipCursor from the main loop to get rid of some other problems that it created.

 

BTW, the difficulty bug was only in the DOS version. It was fixed in the Windows one.

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I just ran into Chrysalids for the first time and they were invisible to me. The soldiers could see them but the sprite wasn't displaying to me. At first I actually thought it was a feature. Anyone know a quick fix?

 

Two things come to mind from what you describe: (1) The .pck file for the crysallid is corrupt. (2) From some reason, the value of byte number 10 in the game's UNITPOS.DAT file is not set correctly. If this were true, you might see the cryssallid appear briefly as it moved but disappear when it stopped.

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Also try loading the saved game without the extender, using the terror from the deep_patched.exe (if possible), and see if the problem persists. If downloading the file also doesn't work, zip up and post the games UNITPOS.DAT file and I'll take a look at it.
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I have such a save of my own, but oddly enough the forum doesn't seem to want to let me attach it to my post at the moment.

 

I'm not 100% sure this is all there is to it, but my few quick tests suggest the issue is triggered by loading a save in which zombies exist, but Chrysallids do not. The game doesn't load the Chrys sprites (because during the init stage it didn't see the need), so if you hatch the zombies you see nothing. Saving and reloading after hatching them sorts it.

 

This behaviour appears unrelated to Extender (or any other mods) and is just another bug with the game itself. You should be able to reproduce it fairly easily with my battlescape save editor (the only keys you need to know are F and L to reveal everything, then Ctrl+X/C/V to cut/copy/paste units. If you bring up a unit's stat page while fog of war is disabled you can change its race).

 

Edit: Save!

 

GAME_9.rar

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I don't know what happened in my case but the issue has since just vanished and I've been able to see all Chrysallids completely normally. Thanks for your offer though Tycho.

 

Is the fact you can walk through the walls of Avengers and Lightnings walls' while deploying a feature or a bug?

 

Also off-topic but what exactly does Stamina/Energy do?

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The walk-through-dropship-walls thing is due to mistakes in the map design. This pack should fix many of them. I'm not sure if that includes the Avenger, I've a memory someone posted a patch for that in the modding section somewhere...

 

In a nutshell, Energy goes down when you move (similar to TUs), but doesn't recharge fully each turn. A unit who does nothing but move as far as possible each turn is gonna run out of breath and have to sit still a few turns to make up for it.

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I don't know what happened in my case but the issue has since just vanished and I've been able to see all Chrysallids completely normally. Thanks for your offer though Tycho.

 

Is the fact you can walk through the walls of Avengers and Lightnings walls' while deploying a feature or a bug?

 

Also off-topic but what exactly does Stamina/Energy do?

Ah, the quirks of X-com. Glad everything is working now.

 

The issue with walking through the angled walls of the ships is a problem with the map. Zombie/BB released new files which fixed these problems:

 

https://www.strategyc...nknown/patches/

 

You might look at some of the other map fixes, which correct errors with the way aliens move about and spawn in the UFOs.

 

edit: Aargh! BB beat me to it!

Edited by Tycho
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The walk-through-dropship-walls thing is due to mistakes in the map design. This pack should fix many of them. I'm not sure if that includes the Avenger, I've a memory someone posted a patch for that in the modding section somewhere...

 

In a nutshell, Energy goes down when you move (similar to TUs), but doesn't recharge fully each turn. A unit who does nothing but move as far as possible each turn is gonna run out of breath and have to sit still a few turns to make up for it.

 

 

I've read that article on Energy and I understand the formula behind its depletion. I just don't (still) understand what effect the value actually has. How is the soldier penalized for its energy dipping low?

 

Ah, the quirks of X-com. Glad everything is working now.

 

The issue with walking through the angled walls of the ships is a problem with the map. Zombie/BB released new files which fixed these problems:

 

https://www.strategyc...nknown/patches/

 

You might look at some of the other map fixes, which correct errors with the way aliens move about and spawn in the UFOs.

 

edit: Aargh! BB beat me to it!

 

thanks, I downloaded the combo pack. Let's see.

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I've read that article on Energy and I understand the formula behind its depletion. I just don't (still) understand what effect the value actually has. How is the soldier penalized for its energy dipping low?

You need energy to move but it doesn't regenerate fully each turn. If you're using it faster then you're gaining it then eventually you'll only be able to move very slowly.

 

That's the only downside, mind. If you want to get a soldier to a sniping location, then sure, have him run flat out; once he's there, he's there, and you can leave him. His lack of energy won't affect his firing effectiveness.

 

But if you want a soldier to breach a UFO and have him run over to join your group, then wait a few turns after he arrives or he may be too out of breath to actually run into the ship after his comrades and do anything useful.

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Okay, I get it now. It's just like long-term TUs. I understood it's meant to reflect exhausting on a longer term interval I just thought there was some more complex formula behind it, I was worried it would affect the soldier's accuracy etc.

 

I don't think I ever had it hit zero since I move around so slowly and carefully.

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Is there any way to make the alien turns go slower? I have alien movement speed at minimum and applied the animation speed fix in the .ini but they still zoom past so fast.

 

I found lowering the FPS in the INI slowed down all the battlescape animations. I can't apply a speed fix like I did in TFTD because the creators altered the main battlescape routine in TFTD which allowed a simple fix for the overall speed but the options I need are not in the code for EU.

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This post has the Avenger tweak I was thinking of. Conti-k extended the ramp a little though (in order to get the doors working)... I didn't really like that idea much but I'm not aware of any other method to do so. I'd been intending to play around with it myself a bit.

 

I'll try this thanks.

I found lowering the FPS in the INI slowed down all the battlescape animations. I can't apply a speed fix like I did in TFTD because the creators altered the main battlescape routine in TFTD which allowed a simple fix for the overall speed but the options I need are not in the code for EU.

 

Now that I've thought more about it I think it's an issue with the game engine and my reflexes more than anything. It's not like the aliens move around amazingly fast in my game, it's just that when one just ever so slightly peeks out and back in the dark again it's only a split second and I hope it'd pause for a second so I could take a better look at where this is actually happening. I have terrible short term memory.

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I'll just post this here:

 

I'm at the endgame trying to capture a live commander to get the last research bits to finish the game. Two times I have stunned a Floater commander to unconsciousness with a Small Launcher, cleared the rest of the mission, yet there is nothing on "Live aliens captured". Is this a bug? I made double sure they were not dead, just unconscious.

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