Major UFO mod from newbie basis

[X-Heiko]

Yo, got summer holidays. ^^

That means I'm going to put some work into that mod idea. I've already changed stuff around to make the mod feel different from just re-playing X-Com with some new weapons. So far I changed some colors in the base interface, changed some icons and for battlescape, the cursor colors to give it a new feel so you install a mod and actually see a change ASAP.

 

My next obstacles where I'd definetly need help would be:

 

-Altering item/weapon stats and function. I'm not a whiz with hex editing, it'd be very nice of someone to tell me how to actually change items. I'd be thankful.

 

-Editing map bits. I want to change every bit of terrain, UFO and base to make the game feel completely different, so that the program has to choose from different bits of maps but so far I haven't found a way.

 

-Changing text in the language files. I ~guess~ this should be somewhat easy, but I don't know how to.

 

-Handobs, Floorobs, Bigobs - our buggy bro's. Pckview doesn't help me out here.

 

-UFOpaedia graphics. Where are they stored? I'd like to change the aliens (which would be a helluva work I know) but without proper UFOpaedia entries, it'd just look unfinished.

 

 

Probably the most interesting idea of this mod would be that aliens no longer should have "pistol-rifle-heavy-kaboom-grenade-stunner" patterns of weapons but each of the alien weapons would be a unique weapon with its own ups and downs.

[Bomb Bloke]

Welcome back.

 

First off, lemme point you at the UFO Wiki-pedia, especially this section. Filled with helpful info.

 

-Altering item/weapon stats and function. I'm not a whiz with hex editing, it'd be very nice of someone to tell me how to actually change items. I'd be thankful.

You'll find ObData.Dat in your GeoData folder. As before, we're not quite up to the adding stage of things, but you can change most of what's there.

 

If you have trouble converting decimal to hex, your Windows Calculator can do it (if you switch it to Scientific mode via the View menu).

 

For all I know there's an editer out there to do this for you, regardless I plan on adding the function to my own. That'll probably take weeks however (if not months or years... It's amazing how time flies).

 

-Editing map bits. I want to change every bit of terrain, UFO and base to make the game feel completely different, so that the program has to choose from different bits of maps but so far I haven't found a way.

Sounds like a job for Daishiva's MapView program, though you might consider making use of some of the custom maps already out there (with their authors permission, of course). There's some in a section of our files department.

 

Hobbes also has a collection on his site. Seems all his links got busted at some stage, but you can still get at the maps (and everything else if you poke around a bit).

 

-Changing text in the language files. I ~guess~ this should be somewhat easy, but I don't know how to.

If there isn't already an editer out there one should be easy to wip up. For now, these two pages might be of interest to you.

 

-Handobs, Floorobs, Bigobs - our buggy bro's. Pckview doesn't help me out here.

I've since polished up my own converters for release (seems I put them in the Maps section for some obscure reason - what was I thinking?!). Haven't heard any complaints about them, though I do have nagging doubts that they aren't perfect. Lemme know if they give you trouble.

 

-UFOpaedia graphics. Where are they stored? I'd like to change the aliens (which would be a helluva work I know) but without proper UFOpaedia entries, it'd just look unfinished.

They're in your GeoGraph folder (but not in the Wiki!). See that big long list of SPK files beginning with "UP"? Yup, somewhere in there. Daishiva's XCView program'll open them.

 

Lastly, a link to HatFarm's tools. 'Fraid I'm not quite sure what they do (I don't use editers often myself), but I'd be surprised if they don't come in handy (they can edit stuff just about no other tools can).

[hatfarm]

my XCOM .exe editor will allow you to edit the text in the english files. Hopefully that's okay and you're not looking to edit foreign languages, I assume you could just change their names to the english ones and the pointers point to the same spot in each language file. I've thought about remaking the program with a lot of the stuff that's on ufopaedia.org because I don't have VB6 anymore (upgraded to VB.net and just can't go back now).

 

Anyway, I don't know how much my editor can do for you other than editing item stats and editing the text. However, that's at least something. Good luck with it! It's a big task but it's gonna be a lot of fun to work on.

[dagorkan]

Use this editor for the weapons. I know how to use hex but found I kept making mistakes, this little tool helped keep me sane. There are a couple of things that can't be edited, the best thing to do is to use the editor for all the basic changes (fire modes, damage, etc) then go into hex and make sure everything is OK and change graphics pointers (which bigobs image is used) and names.

 

Make a lot of backups too.

[bman654]

I've since polished up my own converters for release (seems I put them in the Maps section for some obscure reason - what was I thinking?!). Haven't heard any complaints about them, though I do have nagging doubts that they aren't perfect. Lemme know if they give you trouble.

 

Hi, I used your pck/gif converter to extract all the XCOM:UFO unit gfx for use in my UFO:ET mod and it worked just fine. HOWEVER when I tried to extract unit graphics from TFTD your converter crashed. Do you know if it works with the TFTD gfx? Also do you know of any tools to extract the ufopedia gfx from TFTD?

 

Thanks

[Bomb Bloke]

You can get at the TFTD UFOpedia images the same way you get at their UFO counterparts; with XCView.

 

TFTD uses a different set of palettes then UFO, and some of the image files are in a slightly different format. I can make it work, but it'll take me a couple of days or so to gather the time.

[bman654]

You can get at the TFTD UFOpedia images the same way you get at their UFO counterparts; with XCView.

 

TFTD uses a different set of palettes then UFO, and some of the image files are in a slightly different format. I can make it work, but it'll take me a couple of days or so to gather the time.

 

 

Thanks for the link. And your program. It was invaluable for me.