Direwolf007

Alright. I've begun to work on a weapons mod I did long ago but never released, only to find out it doesn't work anymore ?! I changed the weapon stats for most weapons, increasing the engagement ranges to more realistic, modern-day military ranges for personal combat (being a former infantryman, an assault rilfe shooting 60m was too much to bear). I did the changes a long time ago (shortly after the release of UFO:AM) the quit the game. I came back to play it now, after finishing my military service, I tried to do the same. unpacked the gamedata.vfs file with vfstool. changed the values. packed the stuff back into the gamedata.vfs and.... NOTHING. The weapon do not change. I tried to create a special vfs external archive following the instructions in the Altar mod-instructions. NOTHING. Tried to reinstall and patch gamedata.vfs again. still nothing. Tried another external *.vfs file. NOTHING. I even named the file as my Altar tutorial tells me (mod*.vfs) and still nothing. I did a search on the forums, found someone with a similar problem, but the solution there was "read the manual". Which I did, and it did not work for me HELP !

I had something very similar happen to me in TFTD. I got my base attacked on the end of January. I successfully defended it (losing all but 2 of my men in the process), but I bagged a commander from the attack. I learned that they rarely go about with weapons, so if I spotted an unarmed alien, I'd charge and stun it. Two times I was right, the last time I got rewarded with a sonic blaster. Oops.

Ever had that mission that you just HAD to finish ? No matter how many men you lost, you'd still carry on ? Well, my tale goes like this: I shot down a small sized sub, organized a nice ten men team plus one talk and proceeded to the crash site. All was well, my torpedo guy took out three aliens in one shot (One he saw, two more hidden, but dead nonetheless), then all hell broke loose. As I approached the alien sub, I was taken out one-by one. Although the prudent thing would have been to run like hell. I didn't. Eventually only one alien (I didn't know there was only one, at the time) and my best guy were left to square off. I took the long way to the sub and came up on the alien from behind. Fired two shots with my Gauss Cannon, and missed both. I was 5 squares away from the damn thing. I thought I was dead and hit end turn. The alien spun around, took aim with a nasty sonic rifle, and squeezed off two shots....and MISSED with both. I started breathing again, shot him dead, hit end turn and was presented with the mission successful screen. WHEW. That's one damn lucky dude, and twice unlucky alien. And now to the lobster stew. Ship terror mission against Lobsters and those damn flying saucer things. I can barely step out of the triton. Last soldier to do that saw 6 aliens, and promptly ran back into the ship. Then I saved, exited and went to breathe some fresh air. JEEESUS. Anyone got other lucky / horror stories to share ? --LeV "Dire Wolf" Arris. --"Reality is for those who lack imagination"--

I've went back to X-COM after about three years of it collecting dust on the shelf, since after getting UFO: Aftermath I just had to go back for more fun. This time, however, I decided to play a no-reload game. I jacked up the difficulty to Superhuman and began the game. One word: HELP ! In the first month I got one UFO landing site, three crashsites, a *base attack* and a terror site. I lost around 25 soldiers in these six missions. Argh. The base attack was a real bitch. I nearly got wiped out, started with 13 men, ended up with 2. I had a bunch of Aquatoids and ****load of Calcinites roaming around, including three Commanders (I managed to stun one. Hee hee), who would mind control just about anyone who got within sight range of any alien. The Aquatoids, however, weren't as nearly as bad as the Calcinites, with their insane TUs and one-touch-one-kill attack. I had three guys with Gauss Rifles, the rest with Gas Cannons, Gauss Pistols and Harpoons. Jessssus. Only the GRs would bring them down, and the least shots it ever took me was 3. Man. I lobbed three grenades at one of the bastards, hit him with 7 gauss pistol shots, and he proceeded to rip three men to shreds as soon as I hit end turn. OWCH. The only consolation was that Calcinites seem to suffer from claustrofobia, and almost never enter small rooms, so I could peek out, take potshots at them and run to hide in a closet. LoL... Next came the terror site in Vladivostok. Gillmen and Deep Ones. I am currently on the first few rounds, and doing rather good. But I am yet to set foot outside the Triton. Although that did not stop from taking out some 5 Gill Men who drew too close to the craft. I do think it will turn into a slaughter as soon as I get out, though.... Anyways, my point being, any tips to surviving the first few months of the alien war ??

True. But I am so far stumped on the mission creation scripts. I can't seem to find them at all. I am beginning to wonder if it isn't hardcoded in the exe.

That guy was Brian, the #2 soldier you start with at the beginning. But the mission has little to do with the actual game, AFAIK. It doesn't really affect how you start. Just gives you the hang of the game.

I've come across this folder in the gamedata.vfs (look in the description), which contains the maps for the special missions in the game. Any ideas on the file structure ? Has anyone tested any changes in those ?

Alright. I've been looking for the mission creation scripts in the gamedata.vfs to see if they could be changed or expanded (To make our rescue mission in the previous topic). No luck so far. But I did come across something interesting: The listofevents.txt has the following events scripted: "Story/Victory-Moon" --> Which is probably the way we know of winning. That is by finishing the moon mission. "Story/Victory-Offer" --> Which is probably the event triggered by accepting the Reticulan deal. Now, its listed as victory, so one has to wonder, what if they actually did get to control that huge brain-thing the Biomass became ? AND "Story/Victory-Conquest: --> Now. That's the interesting part. If I had to risk a guess, I'd say that if you control all the bases on earth, this is the event that gets triggered. Interesting, no ? I hope no one came across that before, because then I'd look silly !

Hmm. Interesting thought. Has anyone tried to add a new mission type, or something along these lines ? Can it even be done ? Gotta find where its scrited, if anywhere...

I don't remember where I read that, but weren't there supposed to be the option to rescue surviving humans on missions ? Or were I smoking something weird ?

Shotguns for close-ups Snipers from afar Autofire them bastards Doors forever ajar Grenades are friends Rockets are not Stay in cover Use smoke alot !

I might, if I'll actually write 'em up. Let me see what else I might come across. Anyways, back to scrolling listof files. eesh. I wish the official tools would come out already. I'm after changing nearly every type of weapon, so that's alot of scrolling.

Thanks. I'm currently Modding AM for some more realism and I'll send the MOD over when I am done. Plus I ran into a few undocumented things on the mod forum and figured a few out (not like they were hard or anything, just undocumented) so I might write up a few notes or something, time permitting.

I was in for the shock of my life twice in the game (I pulled the thing out of the box and started immediately on hard) - first when I met the Plasma Gun and lost two soldiers after two rounds, and the second is what I am describing here: Russian Base Mission - a.k.a Microslug Hell So I finally get to advance the storyline ! Yay. Atleast that's what I thought. I landed in the mission and found myself completely in the clear area of the map, with very scant cover. I popped a few smoke grenades (This oughtta be standard practice, since you never know if a missile launcher is getting pointed in your direction) and ran towards the left side (when viewed from the front) of the base's wall. I decided to set up an ambush near the gate and began to approach it. Then I ran into a welcoming comitee of 6 Rets, 2 with launchers, 4 with advanced plasma guns. When I was done, I had three guys down, but alive. I medikitted them back to health and set up my ambush. The tactic to lob grenades across the wall to draw the Rets to me worked. Only it worked too well. Soon enough I had three bastards with Microslugs rounding the corner. My SLAW toting guy let off a shot, then got shot to pieces. A Plasma Rifle shot took one down. Then another of my guys went down. Permanently. I lobbed a few grenades, and lost two more soldiers. But finally the bastards went down. I ran out of Medikits, to boot. The remaining three cleared it up and headed for the entrance. Then I ran into two more missile toting Rets. Joy. I figured out the base on the inside was just like on the outside. So I rushed the entrance with one guy and proceeded to the next level. This was a whole new fun world for me. One Plasma Rifle against the whole freaking world. I ran past a few corridors, luckily I only ran into Laser Pistol Rets whom I dispatched quickly enough. I got to the briefcase, picked it up. Dodged a few missiles, took a wrong turn, got chewed up by Microslug at long range (Thank god it was *long*), backtracked, dodged another nasty missile and ran towards the elevator. I made it. End score: Reticulans - 4 Phoenix Company - About 20 + Plot Item ! I'd reckon I won