Thunder_Gr

It seems it is out of order again..I'll check it asap. Unfortunately,I have no permission to view that page you link to... Actually, my only missions the 1st 2 months were terror missions...Didn;t notice any wierd sound, but it could be I have gotted used to it... So, it is not only doable, but nearly done then?

If there is anything that can be done to quicken the process that I can help with, I am more than willing to do it. I have enough programming experience. It could be that there is a lot of "grunt work" that needs to be done, so that you can concentrate on more interesting aspects of the development, whatever. If you could use my help, I am here. Well, I was actually thinking, TFTD supports both underwater and land environments, so it should be best fitted... I think this should be a simple "if" check in the main code that should be easily turned off. Perhaps Seb could help with that... Again, it is just a flag in the weapons and suits that could be altered, easier than the interception issue By changing the wind noise to "blank"(replacing the relevant file), changing the pallette before non-terror land missions and replacing it afterwards would solve these issues IMO. Although I do not remember noticing such a sound. In addition, any misson on land can be named(or flagged) a "Terror mission" to satisfy mission requirements for the engine. I wander if it is possible to add more mission types without the need to hack the .exe. Basically to allow craft recoveries on land missions... They are very difficult missions, however, since the aliens have many different spots to hide. However, if this is not the only thing to be left out, at least initially-I am sure there is a way that could be kept- surely is a small price to pay for having a full action globe! I have a game in progress, as soon as I encounter the first artifact site I'll save and upload in the modding thread.(I had one yesterday, but forced to withdraw and it vanished...)

OMG! You have decoded all this info? It is amazing! 80 records and large units consume 4 of them? Hmmm...It is a limit. However, since the unconsious from level 1 do not get moved over, there could be a temporary UNITREF, that would hold info about them. Besides, all you need to know at that stage is the type of the alive unit, all other stats are irrelevant. Now, after reading all this on the wiki, and spotting a "bug" report about downing a USO on "land" and generating a mission, there is something that crossed my mind, and I am sure it has crossed other's minds before me...Combining this with your mention of "having recreated the engine..." in one other post... Would it be possible to use maps from both games, using the TFTD version(since they have more things in there that the original doesn't), and create a mix, allowing for both aircrafts and subs, UFOs and USOs, land and underwater missions, Surface and Subwater bases??? I think this would have been the epitome of X-COM! Do you think it can be done? Could it be it has already been done?

Thank you for the link. There is really a lot of stuff there I never knew it existed. And Seb does really work magic! I guess I will have to find my way around wiki usage, never really wanted to post anything on a wiki before

Hmm, it is odd, since the rest of the folders and all files in them have not changed their time stamp. Only these on the MISDATA(Mission Data?) folder. So, it must be accurate that all except DUM.bin is updated when completing the first level of a mission. This makes sense, but the simple solution is to keep the pointer pointing to the table...It isn't so difficult, not even if you have to copy a unit record over for each such unit, unless they have limited entries for units for each mission, which would have been strange, anyway, since they already store them in a file. This is propably the case. Perhaps there is a way to copy over the unitpos.dat entries for aliens carried over, and store the ones still on the ground(alive) so that they can be transfered to the base and count as "live aliens captured)? This is an interesting question, I haven't checked that. However, from the rest the information you and Bomb Bloke have provided, it is more than certain that live aliens inside the XCOM sub would die as well. So, the bottom line is, if you raid a colony for a live Tashoth, you'd better move him in the sub and abort mission on the first level, or else you are out of luck... Another interesting thing I discovered is that: 1)The enemy mind-controls a soldier. 2)It seems they will do so forever, but you don't want to lose him, so you stun him to unconsiousness 3)After a few turns, you use a midikit to revive him It turns out to be still controled by the Aliens!!Ops! What a masacre... ...Can this be fixed?

Unfortunatelly, the link does not open for me...It says my browser is unable to open the page...

I experimented with it. I usually play "Ironman" but I thought this would have been "fishy" and saved before it occured to me that I might manage to clear the first level. So, in one of the experiments, I ended up with the alive alien on the hands of my soldier. Guess what? Starting next level, this alien was dead! Yeap. They kill them as soon as you go downstairs. So, No live aliens from the first level, if you go to the second. I am sure that you get them if you transfer them to the sub and abort. And, all files in the MISDAT folder, except dum.bin, are updated when you finish the first level of the mission. It is odd, though, they treat the issue that way. It wouldn;t have been a big deal to keep the alive flag, nor would have been a big issue if they denied the loot if the squad was wiped out on the second level, but give it to you if you aborted the second level... Whatever, what I see simple, for them may had to be a lot of work(I think an hour or two of a single programmer would have done the trick...)

Now, about that Microproce - Mythos issue... Which I guess is the real thing behind the non-uniqueness of TFTD arguments: Of cource Mythos did the hard work for creating the Original game. And it is that work that was credited in TFTD, also. The game machine is the same, just the game is enhanced in many ways, making game experience better(well, if you don't count the bugs). The lasers could have been made to have the same effect like those "dart guns", or perhaps a little better, since these are "different aliens" and the lasers wouldn't have "that much effect on them". There are many ways to make a story look good and keep the balancing of the game... Anyway. Mythos did a good work, but it was a pitty that apocalypse lacked many things from the original game. I wish someday, some company, will decide that a sequel should be an echanting experience of the original, not a cut-off of it. On this prespective the UFO-AS was nice(although they practically crippled the Tactical movement of the units, which was great in the UFO-AM, and cutted the fighter interception, but in a story fitting way), while UFO-AL was a cut-off of UFO-AS, just to make a "unique" mechanic... I hope you understand what I mean.

Hmmm, you seem to be in a sarcastic mood today... At lest the artist department gets their credits Well, i guess the uniqness of the aquatic environment and the adaptation of a great portion of the code to it does not really count. In addition, the ability to have two-stage missions is also something that needed to work for. Keeping the same mechanics as the first game was not really a downside from my point of view, because this is what was really liked by the people(and that Apocalypse failed to keep). What was really a downside, from my point of view, is that I was expecting to begin with some of the knowledge of the previous war. I expected to start with laser weapons, even if only for surface use(assuming they were not suitable for underwater environments). I, expected to start with some kind of armor this time, even if only for surface use. And similar things. I also expected that, this time, there would have been no bugs(after all, a great deal of the code was already there). So, what I am saying is that, even though the game is similar to the first, it has its unique aspects. Not that it couldn't have been better

I see, thanks for the detailed answer. I haven't looked into any more of your tools, yet, since they are all new to me and I want to understand each before I use the next! I would really like to find a source of certain .exe function in order to correct some bugs around there, but I guess it is not so easy to find any such source...

Yeah, you are propably right. Reading the comments got me thinking that it was an EA announcement rather that a news presentation... It makes better sence... Still, X-COM is the best! I would like another X-COM like the 2-first, although not a re-release. I must admit Apocalypse did disappoint me in certain aspects.

It seems that, although this was suposed to have been fixed in v2.0, it is immpossible to have alive aliens transfered to your base from the first stage of the mission if you abort the second stage. I have a stunned Tentaculate I have been guarding so that it does not wake up suddenly, when I manage to defeat the last alien and automatically transfered to the second stage.I abort there,(Since I am not yet ready to face the lobsters), but the mission report is witout any alive aliens. I have verified that the Alien is still alive when I complete first stage. My difficulty is veteran. Any ideas?

Glad that the pic did help to find out a hole! I had thought, just like Zombie, that this was a space under the wing. I will reiterate through the ships in LOFTemps, to see if I have missed something like that. I have a question about the floor/roof, though. Is there any possibility that they are not solid, even if the LOFTemps display something on this square? Propably the answer is no, but verifying it wouldn't hurt .

Just scan it in pieces, then use paint or another image editing software to merge the pieces in one image

Thanks Zombie, I hope you din't mind the little tease.. As for the DG, I think they should work at depth, just like the squid's ink. The initial release force is what makes the ink spread, not the current or the waves. And, of course, TFTD is diffirent in many aspects from the UFO-EU. Everyone can see that, except for those that purposingly want to bash the company.

Really interesting...What a mocking by EA, though..A company should have known better than saying "The good news? EA today announced Dungeon Keeper Online, an MMO-based continuation of Bullfrog's classic strategy games. Bad news? It's not for you." I never liked EA much, but mocking your potencial customers this way is a reason to dispise it.

The mapviewer is a great tool(and more than a mapviewer for sure)! However, I couldn't find any holes in any TFTD craft...I am sure I shot an alien through an edge from the outside of the USO, and the USO was perfectly intact(landing mission)... Also I have noticed this... weird object in TRITON...Why would it be there? Could it be a reason for giving an alien spotting ability into the craft? http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/Modding-TFTD-t7342.html Since attachments are not allowed in this forum, the above is the link to the Modding section. EDIT: Ops..It is just the computer of the ship...False alarm

This is the weird object I found in TRITON.

Nice fix Zombie, It would have been better if there was a file to download in the files section! (Just been there, but it says there is no file to download)

Thank you. I had an index out of range for the XBase-4(similar name anyway) map, but the rest went allright. I'll try the mapview, so that I can check the gaps without being in the game(I hope this is what it does, anyway ). However, it turns out that Triton has no gaps, so the Aliens definatelly cheat(arg, I hate that!), unless the range of their "Psionic Detection"(never thought there was such a thing in X-COM), is limited...

OK, I admit I was wrong! The lobstermen are not that easy. My favorite opponents are the Gill Men and Deep One.

Alright, let me see if I got that correctly. I run the .bat file, then play X-COM, and if there are any gaps, they will appear when I play. In effect, this tool transforms the pretty graphics into the actual blocks used by the game, so that I actually see what the game engine(and thus my soldiers and aliens) see during play. Right?

After the very good work that was done in closing the holes that allowed unpropper spotting and firing through edges in UFO-EU, is there a plan to take this effort for TFTD USOs and X-COM Crafts? It would be very nice not to have your troops being mind controlled by being spotted through craft's walls...

Ah, I see, I didn't use the possesion mode, I better like to have a strategic view of things instead of first person . This could explain why I was so sure it was bug-free.

I must have been lucky then. Theme hospital and Dungeon Keeper were absolutely bug free and were the 2 bullfrog games I played.