Rectification - A Complete Redesign of XCom

[Aves Dominari]

Rectification 0.63 has been released with a large number of fixes and changes.
> Swords have been replaced with hammers, which are just as deadly but are better at destroying terrain.
> The equipment selection system has been reorganized to make it easier to find what you need.
> All weapons come with spare ammunition by default now.
> Squad customization now comes with various messages to guide new players.
> Several typos have been fixed, and the intro message has been rewritten.
> The shopping mall has received a large number of edits, mainly to the unique civilians and their stores.
> Some weapon and entity sounds have been reworked.
> Entity accuracy has been tweaked.
> Large windows have been added. If cells could have SAs I would have added the sound of breaking glass the first time you step on one ;P

One issue I still have is the fact that an overheated laser weapon will disappear without a message of any sort. I'm really not sure how to fix this: any ideas?

Attachments:

[Kyzrati]

Nice, I'll check this out later. I've already updated the file on the FTP as well, though honestly Bay 12 doesn't seem too interested since there have only been a few downloads Most people are less likely to play something that's incomplete, anyway. That will change once the engine and core game are more impressive (and I put up a real forum), but for now we at least have enough heads in here to get it to 1.0.

About the windows, cells may never get SA since they would be of limited use compared to prop SA. You could theoretically still handle the glass sound through an invisible prop that is created on the windows themselves, but it's kinda overkill to do all that just for glass breaking.

Just from reading your list, I like how weapons automatically come with spare ammo; since you're almost always going to want some anyway it takes a bit of the tediousness out of the equipment selection process.

[Aves Dominari]

Sept 17, 2013 22:40:32 GMT -5 Kyzrati said:

I've already updated the file on the FTP as well, though honestly Bay 12 doesn't seem too interested since there have only been a few downloads Most people are less likely to play something that's incomplete, anyway. That will change once the engine and core game are more impressive (and I put up a real forum), but for now we at least have enough heads in here to get it to 1.0.

I can't underestimate how helpful you and 10101 have been. I wasn't expecting terribly much from the Bay12 thread, but having no activity at all there was a bit depressing ;P

Sept 17, 2013 22:40:32 GMT -5 Kyzrati said:

About the windows, cells may never get SA since they would be of limited use compared to prop SA. You could theoretically still handle the glass sound through an invisible prop that is created on the windows themselves, but it's kinda overkill to do all that just for glass breaking.

Maybe, maybe not. It won't take long either way.

Sept 17, 2013 22:40:32 GMT -5 Kyzrati said:

Just from reading your list, I like how weapons automatically come with spare ammo; since you're almost always going to want some anyway it takes a bit of the tediousness out of the equipment selection process.

That was the idea. My main fear is that many will find the starting phase too tedious; that's where the premade squads came from. Anything I can do to alleviate that is a win as far as I'm concerned.

[Kyzrati]

Sept 17, 2013 22:03:31 GMT -5 Aves Dominari said:

One issue I still have is the fact that an overheated laser weapon will disappear without a message of any sort. I'm really not sure how to fix this: any ideas?

The cause is the ammo setting.

You're currently using an Ammo > Count value without specifying any ammo, so the game is supposed to assume there is no way to "reload" the weapon, and destroys it when the ammo count reaches 0. This feature was originally introduced in Area 51 to enable limited disposable weapons like throwing knives, and existed before SA made "reloading" theoretically possible for any item.

I will need to solve this, perhaps by adding a new setting that allows you to control whether the item is destroyed when it runs out of ammo. Might as well do this soon and release an R9.5 with your mod, since I've made some other improvements during Cogmind development and found a way to increase FPS by 10% across the board.

[Kyzrati]

[10101]

You might use ITEM_DESTROYED > FLUFF/FLUFF_ITEM but then the message also would trigger when the weapon gets destroyed otherwise (i.e. weapon hit by explosion).

[Kyzrati]

The problem is that he *doesn't* want the laser to be destroyed when it reaches 0 ammo, though (since you can recharge it); not that he wants a message. I'm looking into adding a new option now.

[Kyzrati]

Sept 18, 2013 23:43:44 GMT -5 Kyzrati said:

I will need to solve this, perhaps by adding a new setting that allows you to control whether the item is destroyed when it runs out of ammo. Might as well do this soon and release an R9.5 with your mod, since I've made some other improvements during Cogmind development and found a way to increase FPS by 10% across the board.

Check the private board for R9.4a you can use for development. I added the Ammo > EmptyOK column--just set it to true for your laser weapons and they'll no longer be destroyed when empty. R9.5 won't be official until your mod comes out, in case there are other things we need to change/add.

[Aves Dominari]

I appreciate the fix, but I didn't really have a problem with them being destroyed when they're depleted ;P
The idea was that they would get the normal amount of ammo (three rounds of continuous firing) plus a single round; if you fired that last round, the weapon would overheat like you were warned and get destroyed. I wanted to create a message when the item was destroyed telling the player this, but the ITEM_DESTROYED trigger won't work with FLUFF because the weapon is destroyed before the fluff is triggered. (I tried it, no message.) Kyzrati's method works too, of course; I appreciate it either way ;P

[Kyzrati]

Oh, maybe 10101 was right then, and I misinterpreted your intent, haha. I guess I should've recalled from playing that depleting its energy would destroy it--oops...

The reason ITEM_DESTROYED doesn't work here is because the ammo depletion part of the code doesn't even check that trigger type, though perhaps it should. Currently the description on the ITEM_DESTROYED SA trigger is that it is "only triggered by explosion effect in cell". This was to keep it simple and specific to avoid unintended consequences, as 10101 mentions, even if you add the fluff, it would *also* be shown when the weapon is destroyed by an explosion.

I could fix this, but then you'd need a workaround. For example, I could pretty easily check ITEM_DESTROYED triggers on ammo depletion, but then you'll need to have to differentiate the two situations; I suppose I could specify internally that the "damage" done during ammo depletion is of the SA type (which a normal explosion cannot use to destroy an item), then you'd just have to use that as a condition on the fluff so it wouldn't show during explosions.

Perhaps the best solution would be to add a completely new trigger called ITEM_AMMO_DEPLETED, to avoid any confusion and not require a certain condition. 10101 did suggest earlier a new set of triggers/conditions/effects for ammo checking/manipulation. A more generic ITEM_AMMO_REDUCED requiring a specific number check specified in the data could be even more useful, since then you could also give a warning message when the laser's ammo was below a certain threshold.

[Kyzrati]

Went ahead and expanded the SA system to support more ammo-related features. Check out R9.4b.

For your lasers, you can now use the AMMO_REDUCED trigger combined with an I_AMMO_COUNT==0 condition to detect when they've been depleted (and keep EmptyOK false so they'll be destroyed normally by the game, which will occur after the ammo reduction trigger shows the message). I haven't actually tested the new features yet, but they *should* work.

[10101]

9.4b counts as 9.5 already

Hm. For some reason my mousebuttons aren't accepted and the help menu is in a position i can't read it (and i can't reposition it with the mouse) is there a way to reposition menu windows with keys?

[10101]

Wow..

Attachments:

[Kyzrati]

Yes, I did go ahead and up the mod compatibility version to 9.5, since 9.4a/b etc. are really previews for 9.5.

Maybe something got screwed up in the new version. I did test it out and everything seemed to work okay... but then I did make an important UI change which required some tweaks and perhaps screwed the interface up in a way I didn't encounter. I'll look into it.

[Kyzrati]

Ah, I see what you mean about the main F1 commands window. Didn't test that one, and it's due to the UI change. It also managed to screw up mouse input across the entire interface. Looks like I'll need to reconsider the method used to create the FPS boost.

I'm not sure what you were doing to crash the game in your log; all I can see is you were shooting something. Were you playing with the new triggers or something?