Rexxx

Regarding the "ambush nodes" in the TFTD hunter. I tried this kind of nodes. One spawning node connected with some other non spawning ones but separated from the rest. You're right, such a "sub-system" is the best chance to create ambushes because control of alien movement is pretty high. The main drawback (IMO) is replaybility or the lack of it. After playing a ship coming with such sub-systems twice you know where the ambushes are. You may still lose a rookie but the surprises are gone. So my route maps contain only a few of such "sub-systems" but most of the nodes are connected as often as possible. The "big system" stands for less ambushes but if they occur they will be a nasty surprise. So far I found this mixture the best solution possible. I'm still convinced that the approach setting nodes in the corners and another in direction to the door (distance=1 and still close the wall) is the best chance for an ambush in the "big system" (if the alien's facing is "correct" what it should). It works best in big rooms, when the soldier cannot see every corner or the tiles next to them. Sometimes I add "suicidal nodes" in the middle of the room, in theory the soldier will try to kill the alien he sees but will have no time for celebration when the other alien opens fire. As I said - in theory - the game's favour for "randomizing" doensn't help here.

BladeFireLight Thanks a lot for your answers. Can you tell me exactly which nodes you mean in the TFTD hunter ship (the row of 4 nodes above the entrance?). Regarding Zeno's proposal: another possibility might be ufo walls transparent in only one direction (if such a quality could be implemented). Then, they could see the x-com soldiers approaching and prepare for them. R.

Here they come, it's a long list containing questions I posted before and some new ones... The maps I did so far work (well, using daishiva's program making them work is not so hard). However, there are still questions about the route maps. Basically they work too, the aliens move around and sometimes they are even capable of setting up ambushes (waiting in corners for the first x-com soldier entering the room). However, these ambushes do not occur so frequently as I hope. Thus said, here comes the list... 1. How important is the value for "distance"? What will happen if I use a value too big or too small? I ask because determining the "distance" values for diagonal movements is unclear to me, the lines drawn by daishiva's program sometimes only slightly touch a tile. Does such a tile add "1" to the distance? 2. Can I control the facing when the aliens are placed? When I let aliens spawn on unconnected nodes in very promising positions (in a corner, at the end of a hallway) quite often their facing is just wrong making them an easy kill. They are examining the walls when they get killed. From my experience I would say the game doesn't care about facing, it's just randomly determined when placing the aliens. Is that true? Unconnected nodes and aliens with the "correct" facing spawn on them would mean lots of x-com casualties (if the soldiers enter the ship before the stupidity bug rears its ugly head). 3. Do you know how many TUs the aliens use for their movement? So far I found no pattern. Sometimes they use up all of their TUs to get to nodes, sometimes they don't. What determines that decision? 4. When an alien sits on a soldier-node connected with five others (assuming all of there are soldier-nodes too and that they are "free"). Do you know which criteria are used for the decision to which node it walks (randomly, the nearest one)? Will they only move to the next node or will they try to get to another one with their so far unused TU's. (Sometimes in my tests in found aliens between two nodes with their TU's completely used up, sometimes they only went to the next node with 80% of their TUs unused). 5. After being not very successful with my unconnected nodes I tried - assuming that facing doesn't not change after an alien get to a node - a different approach. Placing a node in a corner and another one in direction of the next door. Theoretically the alien should move to the latter looking to the door, making up a nice ambush. Is that assumption correct, doesn't change facing after the alien get to a specific and decides to stay there? Which again lead to questions 3 and 4.... As you can see I'm pretty clueless about the mechanisms which determine alien movement. Maybe all of them all purely randomized? Maybe the possibilities of setting up ambushes are very limited due to restrictions of the game engine itself? Maybe I want too much?! I just have to know... R.

Zeno: Well, it's NOT an instant-win event. First you have to reach that tile without being killed by aliens placed in the terrain maps. With more or less experienced soldiers I need up to 5 turns, depending on the risks I take. Regarding stupid aliens. When I play I don't mind either. Their stupidity is the best protection my soldiers can get from my stupidity especially when I get impatient. However, I find it very annoying setting up a map with nice ambushes and the aliens don't use these opportunities and all the effort is wasted. R.

Zeno: Well, my map modding experience is pretty limited, they are still so many problems unsolved. I merely use Daishiva's wonderful program and get a lot of wisdom from BladeFireLight's explanations. But you're right, checking the route maps gives you any information about UFOs (there is one specific tile on the battle ship map, if you can control it you will win without any more losses, no matter how many aliens are still in the ship). However, in the end all this knowledge kills the fun, there are no more (bad) surprises. UFO was on the hard disc of every pc I ever had since its first release here in Germany waaaay back in the last century. Over the years I played every ship map I could get my hands on, XCOMUTIL's randomized ships included. Now, with Daishiva's program comes new life to this oldie (at least for me), easily customized maps (far from being perfect but NEW and UNKNOWN), great. You're right about aliens getting smarter after they spotted a x-com soldier. Check the TFTD forum and search for "stupidity bug". You will find a very interesting post from BladeFireLight (WARNING: it comes with a huge spoiler for UFO, about the AI and its capabilities or the lack of them). IMHO this fact reduces drastically the possibility of reproducing the picture you described. Quite often your soldiers will meet aliens face to face, but no alien reaction fire although they got full TU's and not so bad reaction values. I wish someone would figure out how this bug could be killed.... Regarding the original topic: My favorite aliens are the mutons. Kill some of them and the rest will panic. Making them easy prey for your soldiers. In late game when you get better tanks even mutons battle ships are a piece of cake without risking any of your soldiers. One last point (only my personal opinion): use psi abilities only against Ethereals, psi makes your squads almost unvincible. No more losses, no more fun.... R.

I tried this in maps I'm working on. I encountered two problems: When I let aliens spawn on unconnected nodes in very promising positions (in a corner, at the end of a hallway) quite often their facing is just wrong making them an easy kill. They are examining the walls when they get killed. I still haven't figured out how facing can be "controlled". From my tests I would say the game doesn't care about facing, it's just randomly determined when placing the aliens. Assuming that facing doesn't not change after an alien get to a node I tried a different approach. (Still don't know if this assumption is correct.) Placing a node in a corner and another one in direction of the next door. Theoretically the alien should move to the latter looking to the door, making up a nice ambush. Well, it worked better than the other attempt but is far from being perfect and let to another question. Does anyone know how many TUs the aliens use for their movement? So far I found no pattern. Sometimes they use up all of their TUs to get to nodes, sometimes they don't. For testing purposes I set all nodes in the original maps to soldiers. That makes it very hard to locate a leader or a navigator, almost impossible without mind probes. From time to time the first alien I meet is the leader but normally it takes much more time to find him. It may not be very realistic having the leader wandering through the ship when it is attacked but I like it more this way. What I also tried is letting the aliens use grav lifts only upwards. From first tests I would say waiting in a grav lift and shooting the stupid guys above won't work anymore (or at least only in rare cases). BTW, is someone interested in testing the new ships (3 large scouts, 2 harvesters)? If so, please send a mail or a pm. I'm very interested in other opinions and tired of testing the same maps again and again...

More questions: How important is the value for "distance"? What will happen if I enter a value too big or too small? How did you test your (ship) maps? Just putting them in the game and play? Using Xcomutil's prompting or the VIS flag? Thanks again R.

I found your description of the rmp-files extremely helpful. I never would have thought of the limitations of the path finding routines e.g. Well, you asked for questions. Here they come : Node Settings: Spawn: Is it possible that higher numbers (e.g. 8:spawn) mean lesser probability of spawning? Will an alien spawned on a spawn node (2:soldier) inside the ship travel to a 0:Civ-Scout node outside the ship? About Outer walls you mention "adjustments need to be made to insure that units can pass around the far side of the ships". Can you explain what these adjustments are? Thanks in advance. R.

Daishiva: Forget my question about adding other maps. Figured it out. As I said before: great! No fiddling around with the old mapedit anymore, no tedious and frustrating attempts of reworking rmp-files anymore. Thanks. R.

I had the same problem Jman 4117 described when I set the path for the UFO-directory. I always got stuck with this exception error. I solved it by setting the path for the TFTD directory first. The program runs fine (it's great BTW). Then I edited the path (within the program) by adding the path to the UFO directory. No problems at all, full access to all files of both games. Don't know why but it works. Daishiva: The programm seems only to recognize the standard maps coming with the game (ufo_110, ufo _120 etc.). I use BladeFirelight's designs for the medium scout (ufo_111 etc.) as well. Is it possible without renaming them to get them into the list of existing maps? R.

Yes, there is definitely interest. The screenshot looks very very promising. To put it briefly: WOW!!!!!!!!! R.

There are two pck-editors I know of. They can be found at http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~xcom/x1f2.shtml Never tried them but maybe they help you.

You got me wrong. I want to increase the research time for certain techs. Esspecially those which are the foundation for further research. I think the research time for allien alloys and elerium (an element not even found in the solar system) is way too short.

Hi, does anybody know an editor which allows me to alter the research time. I can use xcomutil for that but - as far as I can see - only when using the research help by aliens option and modifying the xcomutilcfg-file. I'm just looking for an easier way. Any advice would be appreciated. R.

Played several games with your new designs included. Found no flaws so far. The new scouts add some variety to the most famous game called "rookie killing". The designs give them a fair chance to enter the UFO without getting killed immediately. Now they are shot when they leave the elevators. Anyway, I like the new designs. Thanks. R .