endersblade

Much appreciated with the help :-) I started another game, this time not researching ANYTHING at all. Let me tell you...sticking with harpoon guns sucks lol. (I've upgraded the gauss weapons a bit via editing, I've gotten used to not sucking so hard :-P) I managed to get two terror sites, as well as seeing a calcenite. Made it to month two before seeing medium ships. Cool, can certainly deal. I then researched up to gauss rifles (I don't really use heavy anyway) and didn't really notice a huge change. Started seeing more gillmen than aquatoids. Again, not an issue. Had to stop playing there though. I'm almost positive it's linked to research (kind of a 'duh' thing) but I'm not sure by how much. If researching plastic armor and heavy gauss brought out the dreads, I really need to see about nerfing the scores that certain research gives you...

As the topic says, what causes the 'upgrade' in aliens? I started a new TFTD game the other day. I decided I wanted to spend some time in the early game, leveling my units as best as I could before moving on. I researched gauss tech up to heavy, researched aquatoid/gillman corpses as well as Deep One corpses, aqua plastics, and plastic aqua-armor. I researched one aquatoid squaddy and one gillman tech. That was IT. However, by the end of the FIRST freaking month, I was starting to see lobstermen. Wtf? I never got a terror site (no ships or otherwise) during the first month after my very first one, where I got the Deep One. I never saw a calcenite terrorist. I went from seeing very small/small ships, to suddenly seeing dreadnaughts. And this was all on the noobie setting! I have modded my game, but nothing (that I know of) that would cause this. Did I hit a bug? Did I research something that caused the jump?

I saw on the wiki that we can modify the radar ranges in UFO/EU. However, I tried finding the listed stats in TFTD, and either the offsets don't line up (which would be odd, all the others do) or they have different stats in TFTD. Does anyone have this location in the DOS geoscape.exe?

Wow. I thought I'd been all through that file. Turns out what I needed was at the bottom of it lol. It's Dosbox.conf, and it's in the folder that the TFD folder is in. It runs terror.bat, which in turn runs RunXcom.bat. I opened that one in Notepad++, and it seems it calls on the DOS-version of geoscape.exe and not the one I edited >.> Thanks for the help. It was bothering me that I couldn't figure that out. I edited the DOS geoscape.exe, and everything's running perfectly fine.

Thanks for the quick reply :-) How do I do that? Far as I know, the DOSBox that comes with the steam version is automatically setup to run X-COM...you can't edit it at all. (at least, clicking on the DOSBox.exe does nothing but load up X-COM.)

I just spent about 2 solid hours trying to edit TFTD for steam, and have run into a problem. I can't figure out which .exe steam/DOSBox runs! I installed XcomUtil, and it created the geoscape and tactical.exe files in the main TFD folder. I had assumed these were the .exes it would use; apparently I was wrong. None of my changes took place when I launched the game from steam. If I launch the geoscape.exe (the one I edited) my edits work, but then I don't get the spiffy graphics upgrade from running it through DOSBox.. I've tried replacing Terror From the Deep.exe with my geoscape.exe, still no joy. The only time I managed to get a ...change, I guess, is when I put the geoscape.exe in the UFOEXE folder. Clicked Play in Steam, DOSBox ran, on the XcomUtil menu I press 2 to run TFTD...and it crashes. I tried running the original geoscape.exe file from within the UFOEXE folder, and it pops up a message saying it can't run in a 64 bit environment (I'm on Vista 64). I want the DOSbox graphic changes, I want my edited .exe, and I want to use the XcomUtil changes. What do I do?

Sorry for necro'ing an ancient thread, but I started playing TFTD again and ran into a problem...Vista 64 does not have MS Edit! >< I'm stuck using Hex Workshop now. Could someone please give me the starting byte offset for personal armors? Nevermind, I found it. For future reference, Unarmored starts at 517732.

If you're up for zombie killin', give this a try! http://www.nation-red.com/main.html I've been addicted to it ever since I installed it

So, so true. Whereas I agree that X-COM should ALWAYS top that chart, a game like Dungeon Keeper not even being on it (and Unreal Tourney is? Wtf?) is just sick in my book. Most of the games on that list are either 'clones' (doom, Deus-Ex, URT, etc) or have been re-done into the ground. Most original games, like DK, are nowhere in sight. Bummer.

I would SO buy this game, JUST from watching the vids lol. I'm actually very interesting in Beta testing this.

LOVING the new site layout! Great job, guys!

Awesome, will give it a try, thanks

Ok, nvm...figured out the answer to my problem, and the other was answered in another thread.

Well, back in the old days, I used to come loaded to the teeth with shok cannons...if I couldn't shoot the alien to death, I'd hit it with the AoE attack and stun the bastard This resulted in me bringing back a TON of live aliens...one time I brought back every alien from a terror attack alive! I eventually got stuck, as I couldn't research the alien I needed to get the leviathan (what, lobster commander or something?) as I had capped my capacity for that game with just aquatoids and gillmen. Blah, one more thing. If a weapon has Freeze, Incendiary, Phosphorous, or Explosive as the damage type, then the damage number is how big the explosion is, right? As in, all of those damage types already have a fixed damage (I'd assume in some other file) and changing the damage field will make a bigger or smaller explosion? Now, I can bring them back with reckless abandon...research what I need, and replace the rest with a clean file Also, thanks for the weights...I was just looking at that file on the wiki when you posted. Everything's good to go now...time to get my game started.

You know, this kind of stuff seems so common-sense to me, it's stupid. X-Com (and subsequently TFTD) are well over a decade old at this point...and still have a MASSIVE following. What does that tell you? Even WITH the bugs, these games are ROCK SOLID. People love them to death. This is a no-brainer. So why the HELL has nobody bothered making new X-COM games? Besides the franchise getting tossed between companies, that is. UFO: After... series were ok, but they obviously were FAR from X-com. All they need to do is model a new game EXACTLY like X-COM, doctor it up a bit, update it for the times, and there you go, another instant classic. Leave it turn-based. Leave it squad-based. Leave it as is, just UPDATE it. UFO: After... butchered the basic principal of X-com, although UFO: ET pulled it off a little bit better, but still didn't get it right. Everyone keeps trying to change the basic formula, trying to create something new...NOBODY WANTS THAT lol! And the biggest thing, if I may, is modibility. The After- series had this DOWN. You could change anything and everything in that game, and it was easy to boot. Imagine that kind of adapability in an X-com game...people could release their own mods, players could update/modify/fix bugs and whatnot that don't make it into official patches...I think you guys get the idea. There are enough RTS types, enough real-time squad games, and various other off-shoots...give us back out turn-based squad games. I love everything being attached to a grid; it gives it a nice, clean, organized feel. X-com and it's squares were perfect. Try and keep it that way!

I seriously wish there was some way I could repay you for all of your help lol. You've done so much to further my knowledge of editing this awesome game I have everything edited just perfectly now...all of my ships work like a charm, civilians don't die, and tentaculats can't zombifiy me now >.> (Set their time units to 10 lol.) I do have just a couple more questions...would you happen to know where 'weights' are located? I find it kind of bizarre that gauss weapons weigh more than base weapons...to me, they're made with aqua plastics (I know they 'technically' aren't, but it just seems logical to me) meaning they'd be lighter than the base weapons. Same goes for Mag Ion armor; the armor is technically powered, so it shouldn't have much weight to it. Secondly. I've read about this before...I actually think you were the one that answered the question. I've noticed that after a period of time, or a number of aliens I should say, you stop bringing home live aliens, even if your containment is empty. I've always suspected that your savegames could only hold so much info on these...limited, I guess. You mentioned to start a new game, and copy a certain file from there to your current one...in essence, making it so you've never brought home a live alien. What file is it specifically, and does that actually work? Other than that, I'm on a roll now I've made my own starting base, as well as starting stores, and I'm ready to take on Superhuman for the first time! On a side note...I'm really put out with the way research is now. Within the first month of game time, I had already researched Mag Ion Armor. Granted, I only had the materials to equip one squad with it, but that's END GAME stuff right there, I never even bothered making Plastic Aqua Armor.

I just bit the bullet and purchased UFO and TFTD from steam, even though I already have copies of both in DOS and CE. Thankfully, everything is running pretty well, other than being extremely slow thanks to the 2xSAI they applied to it...and I can't figure out how to take it off >.> Just had a question, and I think it's been answered before, I just can't find it...is the current version on Steam (it's run in DOSBox) patched to the most recent version? Or is it still 1.0? Also, what IS the most recent version number? Also, which .exe file is the steam version using? I can't figure it out... I guess, just to save myself future trouble, this question applies to UFO as well. I know UFO isn't 1.0, as it doesn't have the password screen

BTW, I'm going to nab all of the armor and alien/civilian info I can and input it into your spreadsheet...I'm sure you don't need it, but once I'm done, I can post it so you can use it

So awesome, thanks I swear we're the only ones alive on this forum...and you seem to respond extremely quick!

Awesome, about to test it out now. Also, and I know I've seen it before on here, just can't find it...where's the chart that shows how to input the characters in MS edit? I know how to do the big numbers, but I know 1-25 require doing something special...something about the letters of the alphabet. I've seen a .jpg or something someone did that had them all listed out. I'm still looking for it myself, but would you happen to know either where it is, or what I need to do for smaller numbers?

So what you're saying is, if you set the fuel to 65536, it technically NEVER refuels? As in, unless it has to stop to rearm, it could return to base, then immediately be used? That's quite a find Although I wonder, if at some point it DOES need to be refueled...that would probably take MONTHS. Couple of other questions. I set my barracuda's acceleration to 10 (like the manta), and max speed to 5800 (like the leviathan) But didn't change the fuel cap...Deployed my first one after this edit, and his range is cut almost in HALF! Normally, they can reach one of my other bases before it runs out of fuel and has to return (have most of my bases spaced out like this for great global coverage) but now it makes it almost half way before returning. Did I accidentally modify something else, or is there some internal math going on that's making it do this? Second question: Is it possible to unflag the manta, hammerhead (if it takes it) and leviathan as Zrbite users? I wouldn't mind having this "infinite fuel" exploit you found, and not having to refuel all of that on zrbite would be great Thirdly, I certainly wouldn't mind your UFO one Plan on starting that game back up as well. Do you know if the vista fix still messes UFO up so you can't do intercepts? I've read posts about it doing so, and read that the fix got updated at some point, but nothing about whether or not it still does this. I'm downloading VMware right now, so hopefully I'll be able to run these on Win95/98 and won't need a patch. Also: 65536 = (1)(255)? I did your math, and unless I messed it up, 65536 / 256 = 256...

:Revives dead thread: I've tried running the DX9 installer on Vista for other reasons besides X-com, and it says it's arleady thre. Using Vista32 Home Premium, btw. I actually thought of another possible solution, one that I will be testing out soon. Why not use something like VMware, and run the games in a virtual of Windows 95, or 98? Back when they used to work correctly I'm not even sure this will fix the speed issues we're having, but it should help with loading.

Actually, that's fairly straight forward, thanks for the insight Everything is making a whole lot more sense now! And I'm guessing that if it's less than 256, if it's two bytes, it would be (number)(0)? Wow, this spreadsheet is CRAZY! So much info Now I can edit damned near anything I want! Thanks soooo much man! Hmm...I wonder, is there a way to flag your subs as USOs, so they don't use fuel? Or would this bug the game out? Lots of edits today On the Unkown 2 for USOs...just taking a stab in the dark here, but I'm betting that's how much damage the ship has to take to be destroyed in the interceptor screen. The Disruptor does 200 damage, and the survey ship's Unknown 2 is 200...I know for a fact that, almost every time I've paid attention, one direct hit from this weapon will destroy a survey ship. If I get bored enough, I might test this theory by setting a survey's UNK2 to, say, 1 and hit it with something

I edited my post after your reply lol

Lol, by jibberish, I meant it wasn't the values I was looking for I know what the symbols mean, you pointed that out to me already Thanks for the SS, I'll check it out. I'm apparently doing my searches wrong; I have your spreadsheet. I also just realized that the weapons were on a separate tab Anyway, I went to what I assumed was the start of the triton, which should be Line 4999, column 65, correct? I followed all along that line, combining bits where I figured I needed to as well, and couldn't find a single number that matched what was on your spreadsheet. I did, however, eventually run across the Survey ship's stats lol. Whatever. Thanks for your help, seriously. You've been extremely patient with my noobishness on this issue on several occasions Now that I have the SS as a reference, I can make SURE I'm looking at the right thing! EDIT: Ok, I have the weapons to my liking. The craft, however, are confusing me. Eseentially, I'm trying to make the Barracuda the be-all-end-all interceptor. Trying to give it most of the stats from the leviathan, however I'm not sure how to get the Hitpoints and max speed to what I want. I can obviously mod anything that's only one byte (to to 255, I'm assuming) but anything that's using two bytes just has me confused. Example: Leviathan's max speed is 5800. In the editor, the two bytes for the speed are (168)(22). Unless my math is wrong, that doesn't 'add' up to 5800 lol. Along a similar line...and I know it would probably just be painful to even do...but could you possibly break down the entire line for one ship? As in, there are what, 28 bytes per ship? Show me which bytes go together, and hopefully answer my above question and explain how the double-bytes add up? I'll give you the numbers for the leviathan: 60 2 112 254 2 0 168 22 9 0 50 0 226 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 26 0 4 0