Civi

Sheesh, don't go overboard with your criticism, dude. You make it sound as I randomly placed funky stuff all over the place without even knowing or caring what I did. That and your colorful language even could make me think you want to offend me. Wow, You really make me feel like a 10 year old on a rampage. -Teleports: Those are included to give the aliens another exit in case the entry gets mined. They work and the Aliens cleverly use them for pop-up and hide attacks. Also this was made to make the UFOs resemble the one from the intro. Imo this is a clear improvement. -The default UFOs are boringly grey and have illogical layouts in some places, it did my best to make them more interesting and consistent. Without going overboard. I could have easily made them into party-bus-like vehicles like you said, but that was not the idea. -The farm houses: Oh, sorry for adding a garden to a farm area. And there I was thinking they grow that stuff there. Silly me. -The other changes (farm) were made to add a REAL barn to the game and add some kind of alternative to the boring and dull farm house. It gets old to fight in the same house for one million times, so I made a new one. Duh. The "shooting gallery" is actually a balcony/hay stack area. Last thing I heard those hay thing is a big thing on farms. "Hideous and pointless?" Well thank you mister "Offense-in-ya-face". I playtested every change for a long time, the changes were made to give the soldiers more safety when embarking and about the VTOL comment: Ever heard of the Yak-38? Yep it actually had an engine (well actually 2) with a layout like that. Really, if you just wanted to offend me and piss on my work, well, you succedded. If you call that criticism then you really shouldn't go out on the street, there are persons who would kick your ass for being that rude. Anyway, if you don't like the mod, fine, go somewhere else and keep your offenses to your self.

somewhat related (bad mission start) http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/3003/badzj.th.jpg Uploaded with ImageShack.us

For those interested in some revamped maps of my total conversion describe in this thread http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/My-cu...Xcom-t8416.html I uploaded them to strategycore some minutes ago. here some previews http://img560.imageshack.us/g/88598657.jpg/ here a temporary download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SWIYFAQ0

Civilian here. I had to re-register as I lost my password and no longer have my old email. Anyway, after months of playtesting and tweaking I uploaded the Total Conversion to strategycore, hopefully you will be able to download it directly from here soon. In the meantime you can download it here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=R3XWLWKA The readme: This is a total conversion (as it surpasses the definition of a mere mod) for the DOS version of Xcom. It will make the game more challenging, be warned. No joking here, now you can lose your campaign if you are careless or have a bad day/month. However, you will have a lot of fun doing so. And if you win now, you REALLY have acchieved something. And will look forward to start a new game. It started as a personal fix of some things that annoyed me in Xcom (The Uber-Blaster, the Uber-Psi, the Uber-Armors, etc.) but then developed into a major overhaul and soon into a complete conversion. Installation: Make a copy of your default, patched and unmodded Dos Xcom folder. Delete all savegames if you have any. Drop the files form this zip in it and let them overwrite everything. Done. Start a new game. Be surprised. Have fun! :-P Important: This is NOT compatible with XcomUtil as the later overwrites all possible changes i made, but otoh you will imo not need that anymore as the game is balanced completely different now. Changes from original Xcom: -applied all community fixes and patches found on strategycore. -applied the difficulty bug fix. -edited many maps (different look, different layout, UFOs all have a exit lift etc, removed the annoying labyrinth from the Alien bases etc. etc etc) -edited landing crafts for better troop safety, tried to stay reasonable and within the original theme -edited costs and base defenses. e.g. You can now defend your base with the early defenses BUT they will take away valuable space, so the later researches are still useful. The small radar is cheaper and builds WAY faster than the big one now. etc. -edited starting base layout. You will have NO scientists, no lab, no engineers, no working rooms. You will actualy have to build and buy those! (gasp) -Most things are expensive now. And you will get a lot less money for sold things. -Edited UFOs and interceptor/transporter stats. Everything has a specific role now. Completely overhauled the weapons/armors/aliens/equipment and tanks -Aliens are stronger now and have slightly different abilities and weaknesses. The Gelatid finally shots at you, the silacoids can fly. Basically, do not expect to take down a Reaper with a single shot of the pistol anymore. ;-) -All weapons only have one shooting mode now to make them more specific, this will make your soldiers specialists on a long term -reworked the whole damage and weaknesses system to make ALL weapons useful even late-game. Specific aliens have specific weaknesses, research them! -removed redundant ammo -made weapons and equipment heavier, you will now have to decide who carries what and why (e.g. should i carry 2 light grenades or one heavy with a bigger boom?) -edited tank stats and weapons -edited Ufopedia entrys, they contain all the important changes, READ THEM! -Corpses research is now VERY useful as you will gain important knowledge about Alien weaknesses, READ THE UFOPEDIA ENTRYS!!!! -PSi is now MUCH less useful, the PSI-Amp is VERY heavy. -Raised the difficulty. A lot. It is actually possible to lose the game now. (gasp!) Details and tips in no particular order: -Now it is finally useful and important to take a look what the enemy carries, e.g. sniper rifles do not have a reaction-fire mode -First Aid kits are heavy, you will most likely have only 1 or 2 docs in a team with only light weaponry -The early tanks are stronger now, but much more expensive. Their ammo, too. Later tanks are more precise and strong weaponry, but are VERY fragile. They can fly which imo is a huge benefit that needed a balance somehow. -Stuff will cost more and will sell for less. You will have to plan carefully which weapon you use, both in tactical and geo mode. -The Blast Launcher is MUCH weaker now. It is guided and needed a balance imo. It is still useful, don't worry :-) -Stuff like the motion scanner and the mind probes are now essential, the enemy is stronger, you will need to know where to hit and with what. -The Napalm cannon is extremely strong, but also inaccurate and dangerous to civilians and your troops. Be careful. It is a VERY useful weapon, though. Obviously NOT in close combat situations. And yes, You will be able to kill with that weapon now :-) -The HE is able to breach UFO hulls. It is VERY heavy, though, plan your moves carefully. -The aliens have slightly diffrent weaknesses now. Again: Research them and their corpses, read the UFOpedia entries, they are finally useful, even essential. -Psi amps: You will most likely have only 1 or 2 PSI specialists now as the PSI-AMP is extremely heavy and prevents you from carrying mostly anything else. Develop tactics to deploy them (e.g. drop them before you end the turn etc.), They are now ONE weapon and not THE weapon. And yes, they are THAT heavy, that's not a bug. -Armor now works completely different. The personal armor provides VERY good frontal protection, the power armor provides medium all-around protection AND safety from stun and acid weapons, the flying suit can fly but is the weakest now to balance things out. This will lead to actually have to make decisions (gasp!) :-D -Your team will be a team of specialists. The power-armored napalm-cannon flamer guy, the flying sniper, the doc, the frontal armored machine gun dudes. No longer will all soldiers be jack-of-all-trades super soldiers in unbreachable flying power suits armed with PSIs and maybe one Blaster Launcher. Make decisions. This applies to the whole game now. You will have to think about what you are doing. -Take a look at the armor stats of aliens with the mind probe. Look for weak spots. (hint for ethereals, cough) Starting tips: -You will lose soldiers, bases, maybe even the game. Especially at the start as you will most likely use old (default Xcom) tactics and strategies. To avoid this play the game more "realistic". Plan carefully, withdraw from the battlefield, abort missions. Use your common sense and develop new moves. Take a look at prices, stats, weights and (again) ufopedia entries. The main goal of this conversion was to make the game more demanding, tactically deeper, more balanced, more interesting, less annoying and new. I spent months to test and balance this baby almost daily and I think it works and I can release it now. Once again: Read the Ufopedia entries, take look at stats, use those mind probes. This is not your old Xcom anymore, some things do work different now. Some vary only a bit, some are COMPLETLY different. Ok, good luck and have fun. Minor known issues: - The Skyranger has two BLANK missiles for the tac rocket launcher aboard. I could not find a way to remove them. Simply sell them. They do no damage anyway. -The german and french texts are unaltered. Play the game in english, please. I have not tested this conversion with any other mods, except the ComCiv mod (which works nicely and is very funny). kthxbye Xcom forever!