Low-Tech Playthrough

[Kabbage]

After picking up the Steam pack for two bucks a couple weekends back, I've been itching to do another superhuman UFO campaign. This would be my jillionth playthrough, and I'm looking to change things up a bit.

 

I've realized that I tend to find conventional human weaponry far more satisfying than the alien tech. This may be due to how quickly you get your hands on Heavy Plasma and how quickly anything else becomes obsolete, but there's a whole part of the game I've never gotten to playing simply because it all becomes so obsolete so dang quick.

 

I'd like to do a run with only weapons that can be bought - assault rifles, HE cannons, rocket launchers, tanks, C4 - and do a low-tech playthrough. Items like incendiaries, tasers, and smoke grenades never seem useful when there's the high tech counterparts. Feels like I'm missing out.

 

Anyways, the reason I mention this is that I know there's a ton of modifications out there and I'm thinking a few of them could make this fun rather than a painful masochistic slog. I'll probably stick XComUtil on there simply for a few of the fixes and conveniences, and there was another I downloaded that turned Heavy Lasers (which I might use under the guise of developed human tech) into a sort of panning mini-gun, but I don't know of much else that might be fun.

 

If I was going to edit the power levels of projectiles, anyone know of a decent middle ground that would get me through the campaign without making it too easy? I'm thinking of changing the pistol and assault rifle's stats to mirror those of the plasma rifle and leaving it at that. Also bumping up the rocket launcher power to blaster range while keeping the explosive radius down (I'd like to be able to blow through UFO walls for entry).

 

The other thing - I've seen some graphic updates for the human weapons in stuff like UFO2000. Has anyone made a modfication like this for X-Com? Using shotguns and MP5s would be right up my alley on this. I'd love other graphic swaps too, if any are particularly interesting.

[Kabbage]

There was another I downloaded that turned Heavy Lasers (which I might use under the guise of developed human tech) into a sort of panning mini-gun, but I don't know of much else that might be fun.

 

Ahh, here it was. The "UFO Extender" mod.

[Bomb Bloke]

There are a few such weapon mods in our files section. Mostly they're just graphical tweaks. Haven't tried many of them, to be honest, so I can't really recommend any one over another.

 

Blade's been working on a new version of XComUtil. Worth checking out his site if you haven't noticed already. Among other things, it now includes fixes for a whole bunch of map glitches (like the infamously dodgy Lightning, and the massively flammable mountain zones), taken from this pack.

 

There's also the modpack included in my toolkit. Mostly cosmetic stuff (eg making aliens have proper inventory screens, different coloured trooper outfits according to terrain, etc), with the exception of the bit that makes your craft visible in your hangars during base defense missions (which doesn't have much impact on the game anyway).

 

I really should make it fully XcomUtil-compatible again. Or perhaps ask Blade to integrate it. Hmm.

[Kabbage]

There's also the modpack included in my toolkit. Mostly cosmetic stuff (eg making aliens have proper inventory screens, different coloured trooper outfits according to terrain, etc), with the exception of the bit that makes your craft visible in your hangars during base defense missions (which doesn't have much impact on the game anyway).

 

I saw that! Very cool. I'm asking around to see if anyone ever got a tweak working that changed marines' skin/hair color and gender in accordance with their loadout pictures - someone's done the graphical work, apparently - but I've yet to hear back from the guy. Your camouflage tweak's definitely in the mix, though.

 

Blade's been working on a new version of XComUtil. Worth checking out his site if you haven't noticed already. Among other things, it now includes fixes for a whole bunch of map glitches (like the infamously dodgy Lightning, and the massively flammable mountain zones), taken from this pack.

 

Yeah, I'm hoping he gets 64x compatability out in the next patch so I can stop running this off my laptop, but I get the feeling it's a tough fix. He updates pretty dang regularly, but I'm probably not going to hold my breath before starting another run - could be a while.

 

I'll check out the fire tweak, that sounds interesting.

[Bomb Bloke]

I saw that! Very cool. I'm asking around to see if anyone ever got a tweak working that changed marines' skin/hair color and gender in accordance with their loadout pictures - someone's done the graphical work, apparently - but I've yet to hear back from the guy. Your camouflage tweak's definitely in the mix, though.

Who's "the guy"?

 

The main problem with such a mod is that it can't really be done without executable editing. For example, say you've got a trooper in personal armor - a certain image archive file will be used (and it's the same file whether it's a male or female). You can't tell the game to use a different archive (or even different images within the archive), based on race/etc, by editing "data" files alone.

 

However, due to the way UFO's troopers are drawn, filtering them at runtime should actually be quite simple. I suspect such a hack is well within Seb's capabilities, but it'd be good to hear what you've already found before I bring the matter up with him. If there's another hacker running around doing executable hacks, I'd be interested to know who it is.

 

(Executable hacks are a bit beyond me. All my stuff relies on reading data the game outputs to the HDD when switching between the geoscape/battlescape views, then re-writing it to get the desired effects).

[NKF]

If used right, most of the plain vanilla weapons are pretty good as they are. The only major problem you'll be facing would be sectopods - at least if you don't exploit the incendiary ammo bug. Large rockets and high explosives can take them down, but they still take a considerable pounding on levels above beginner.

 

To go with the light modification route, you might want to start off by experimenting with small increments. Say +10 damage. Setting them too high would defeat the purpose as they would end up plasma weapons in a different guise. The rifle and pistol are generally much faster than plasma weapons, so they make up for the lack in damage through quantity. They'll do well against most of the soft-targets like Sectoids, Floaters and Snakemen. Tougher targets like their terror units and Mutons can be dealt with heavier weapons like the cannons and rockets.

 

That reminds me, try setting the Heavy Cannon and its ammo to the same stats as TFTD's Gas Cannon - it's one of the better general-purpose starting weapons in that game. They're roughly identical, but their main characteristics differ in these areas:

 

Firing Cost: Snap 40%, Aimed 75%

AP Ammo: Damage 60AP, Weight: 5

HE Ammo: Damage 65HE

Incendiary Ammo: Damage 60Inc

(All) Ammo Quantity: 8

 

I have my reservations about the high HE damage, but there you go. It's a bit slower on snap but faster to aim than the heavy cannon, but makes up for it with more ammo and a generous power increase. It also shouldn't encroach on the auto-cannon's niche in the weapon hierarchy.

 

- NKF

[Kabbage]

Who's "the guy"?

 

The main problem with such a mod is that it can't really be done without executable editing. For example, say you've got a trooper in personal armor - a certain image archive file will be used (and it's the same file whether it's a male or female). You can't tell the game to use a different archive (or even different images within the archive), based on race/etc, by editing "data" files alone.

 

However, due to the way UFO's troopers are drawn, filtering them at runtime should actually be quite simple. I suspect such a hack is well within Seb's capabilities, but it'd be good to hear what you've already found before I bring the matter up with him. If there's another hacker running around doing executable hacks, I'd be interested to know who it is.

 

(Executable hacks are a bit beyond me. All my stuff relies on reading data the game outputs to the HDD when switching between the geoscape/battlescape views, then re-writing it to get the desired effects).

 

It was this fella and another - Alexander_Q and Robbiee - but I'll be damned if I understand exactly where they stuck their code or where they added in the extra sprite sheets. Could even be a completely different engine. Personal armor sprites would have to be re-done too, but if there was a way to patch these in I could do the armor variations no problem - it would largely be a cut and paste and touch-up job.

 

If used right, most of the plain vanilla weapons are pretty good as they are. The only major problem you'll be facing would be sectopods - at least if you don't exploit the incendiary ammo bug. Large rockets and high explosives can take them down, but they still take a considerable pounding on levels above beginner.

 

That's sorta the appeal I was going for. I'd love to have to call in my rocket launcher guy to kneel, drop in a rocket, and duck out while the rest paste the ground with grenades. Bringing some kind of threat back to those walkers would be great.

 

To go with the light modification route, you might want to start off by experimenting with small increments. Say +10 damage. Setting them too high would defeat the purpose as they would end up plasma weapons in a different guise. The rifle and pistol are generally much faster than plasma weapons, so they make up for the lack in damage through quantity. They'll do well against most of the soft-targets like Sectoids, Floaters and Snakemen. Tougher targets like their terror units and Mutons can be dealt with heavier weapons like the cannons and rockets.

 

I'd want these to be somewhat usable against Mutons and Chryssalids, though. I figure something like three good hits from an automatic should be just enough to take down a Muton. Since a Muton's health is about 125, and a Chryssalid's about 96, I'd say a good middle ground would be to make all rifle ammo do 45 (maybe 50), roughly the same as an Auto-Cannon round. Looks like piercing weapontypes do 100% damage on everything but Discs and Mutons (at 60%).

 

Laser rifles would still be useful, as they're 60 damage per hit and a different type. Wish incendiaries were better, though.

 

Also, the New Weapons mod looks sexy as hell. I'm probably going to add this isn't to the mix and just double-check the damage values to make sure nothing's game-breaking. Anyone know if Equal Terms is any good, or at least reasonably balanced?

 

That reminds me, try setting the Heavy Cannon and its ammo to the same stats as TFTD's Gas Cannon - it's one of the better general-purpose starting weapons in that game. They're roughly identical, but their main characteristics differ in these areas:

 

Firing Cost: Snap 40%, Aimed 75%

AP Ammo: Damage 60AP, Weight: 5

HE Ammo: Damage 65HE

Incendiary Ammo: Damage 60Inc

(All) Ammo Quantity: 8

 

I have my reservations about the high HE damage, but there you go. It's a bit slower on snap but faster to aim than the heavy cannon, but makes up for it with more ammo and a generous power increase. It also shouldn't encroach on the auto-cannon's niche in the weapon hierarchy.

 

Ah, good call. Thanks!

[Bomb Bloke]

It was this fella and another - Alexander_Q and Robbiee - but I'll be damned if I understand exactly where they stuck their code or where they added in the extra sprite sheets. Could even be a completely different engine.

Ah. Yeah, that's a different engine, presumably made from scratch using Game Maker. I'll bug Seb about it.