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TFTD mod idea/request - alien specific bases a la EU


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I just discovered some of the excellent mods available after deciding to have another run through TFTD for the 30th time and was wondering if modding something where each alien base is unqiue to an alien type is possible. I never played EU simply because I started with TFTD, and the few times I've tried I felt like being forced to move through doors made it too frustrating for me - now with the extender making this possible I'm considering trying it out, but the lure of killing a few more tentacults is difficult to pass up. :)

 

Basically looking at all the features from EU, the only thing I really wish that was carried over is having alien bases that are different, instead of always the same lobsterman/tentacult bases. I would love to see bases containing aquatoid/calcinite, gillmen/deepone, etc; to make it a bit more interesting, since I love clearing out bases, but after the the second one it gets to be more of a pain fighting the same old guys.

 

Would something like this be possible to mod/implement, or is it a huge project? Aside from this, can't wait to try out the Extender + the UFO/TFTD combomod - both look like they can add some great new features to an already amazing game.

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I took a look at the link you sent - I see a lot of ways to create new maps but not how to swap aliens and assign them correctly for when you begin the colony mission. I think creating new maps for each base type is a bit ambitious, so simply swapping the alien types at their current spawn types would be the quick and dirty way. Not sure if that would require making 5 different map sets, or a script to have them spawn the correct alien according to the aliens in the base's supply ships.
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Just thinking aloud here, but a utility that fits between the Geoscape.exe and Tactical.exe that reads what's in the Missdat folder (temporary save file) to determine if it's a base or otherwise, could then change the races in the unit file to match with the base's originating race. Xcomutil's done something similar for years to work its magic, so if you could write something and fit it into the batch file that runs the game, then you could get something like this working. However, I'm not sure how you'd manage the transition between the first and second stage as I don't think the game even exits tactical.exe for the change.

 

- NKF

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Just thinking aloud here, but a utility that fits between the Geoscape.exe and Tactical.exe that reads what's in the Missdat folder (temporary save file) to determine if it's a base or otherwise, could then change the races in the unit file to match with the base's originating race. Xcomutil's done something similar for years to work its magic, so if you could write something and fit it into the batch file that runs the game, then you could get something like this working. However, I'm not sure how you'd manage the transition between the first and second stage as I don't think the game even exits tactical.exe for the change.

 

- NKF

 

Interesting - if something like that were possible I suppose it would be possible to alter both the first and second stages so it wouldn't be an issue in case tactical.exe is exited for the transition.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The game does indeed switch executables when going between the different stages of multi-part missions.

 

If it's done through Extender, then it's more or less just a case of patching the list of aliens assigned to bases to alter their races/ranks, according to whatever race supplies that base (I assume TFTD has a byte reserved somewhere to track base race, if only because not a lot from UFO was scrapped). Not sure how difficult this'd be to work out but there wouldn't be a lot of code to write to get it actually running.

 

If it's done through external code, then that code has to not only tweak race and ranks, but also every stat for the aliens it's importing. Keeping in mind there are dozens of these and each unit has different stats according to their race/rank and the difficulty used, that's quite a lot of patching to do; it'd take very little time to work it out, but ages to implement it.

 

I've been considering writing something per the "simple but long" method anyway though, as it'd allow me to have all alien races appear within ComboMod. If I ever get around to doing that then randomised base populations would probably come along with it.

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Race of base defense is determined at these offsets:

527b6 (1st stage)

52d27 (2nd stage)

 

EU does put their the base racial identity from Loc.dat. If this identity still exists within TFTD Loc.dat file, it could be inserted there instead of those fix numbers, via TFTD extender. Note also, that simple putting of "05" value in the second stage slot will give you mix crews - which may be a simple and playable option.

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