Topics

1

User modifications / GFX modding questions

« on: May 16, 2013, 06:04:19 pm »

I'm trying to get into modding the game. From what I've read here, I understood I can just unpack pk3 files, and the game will use files from the unpacked folders first? I did unpack 0ufos.pk3 to tweak some weapons, costs, etc. This worked quite well, the game accepts my changes just fine.

However, now I want to test some gfx changes, and added a new main menu screen. I unpacked 0pics.pk3. Then I placed my own main_bg.png under \UFOAI-2.5-dev\base\0pics\pics\background\ (overwriting the original)

But my new file does not show up in game, only the standard screen with the greenish earth.

I also tried to move the whole background folder incl. new gfx into a newly made mods/mymod folder, then launching the game with the suggested parameters to load "mymod", but I always get the green earth menu. How can I tell the game to use my gfx instead?

2

Windows / 2.5dev questions and problems

« on: April 30, 2013, 01:49:20 pm »

Hi everyone,

I played 2.3 quite a long time ago, liked the game a lot, but stopped then. Recently thought I'd try out 2.5 for the first time.

I installed this version: ufoai-2.5-dev-1351893478-Debug-pentium-m-O1-sse2-7z-small-win32.exe
(link from the "Nightly builds" thread.

I'm running a Win7 64bit system, Athlon 64 X2, 4GB RAM, Nvidia GT 610 gfx.

Since it's been quite a while since I played UFOAI could someone hels me a bit with several points/questions?

1.  Is there some "new feature list" or so I can read to see what the main differences in 2.5 are compared to previous versions?

2. What's the difference between "full" and "simple" campaigns?

3. When buying/selling, I can only click/sell one thing at a time. IIRC in earlier versions selling a lot of stuff from the same type was simply done automatically as long as I pressed the mousebutton over the specific selling point. For example now if I want to buy/sell 20 grenades in a row I have to click 20 times - is there a way to get the old method back?

4. Has there been a major change in the effect of using medpacks? Seems to be drastically reduced?

5. Smoke generated from a smoke grenade does dramatically slow down game speed during a mission for me - is there a setting that can reduce this negative impact? I looked through the options but I'm not sure what to do about this.

6. I had some crashs, got the message that upping my crashdump file would help the devs. Where should I put it?

Any help would be nice. Thanks in advance and please keep up the good work.

3

Bugs in older version (2.3.1) / Underground pipes map - height problem

« on: November 04, 2010, 07:49:55 pm »

This happened in the 2.3 Win32 release from the download section.

The map in question is IIRC shown as pipes_const in the skirmish menu.

The prob I mean is in the pipe right next to the dropship, the graphic shows there's a hole in it to reach the lower level but you can stand with your soldiers directly in the air on that part. Please see attached screenshot.

4

Discussion / New to the game, feedback and questions

« on: October 19, 2010, 01:04:37 pm »

I came across this per accident, dl-ed the Win release version 2.3 ca. 10 days ago and have been playing quite a lot since then (campaign, one difficulty below normal for the start).

First a big thanks to everyone involved making this game, I was in search of a more modern X-COM style game for ages, and UFO:AI is really a great achievement. It's very addictive, and fun to play.

Having an ATI gfx card I had initially trouble with a black geoscape and ugly stripes on textures in the battlescape, but after reading the FAQ and some forum threads I found the right settings that work. Since then the game has been remarkably stable on my machine, I had a CTD sometimes, but overall it's rare.

One thing which gives me headaches right now is the slow campaign progress and the high number of missions. As said, I played quite a lot recently, but soon I'll be more busy with other things. However, during the last days my campaign progressed ca. 1 year in game time. In that period my statistics show hundreds of battles, over 60 base attacks alone. And I didn't even play every mission, even stopped UFO interception for a while at all since I just found it a bit too much. At that pace I feel I have to devote the rest of my life to end tis game ...

Nah, I actually like long games, but of course if things take simply too long people could lose interest or might feel tired. I read this point was raised several times in other threads, so it isn't new , but I wanted to stress its importance. Still, a good thing is that even with the campaign going on for ca. 1 year I still get sometimes to play maps I hadn't seen before, which is nice and keeps motivation up.

There are some things I didn't fully understand yet. I skimmed the forums, but if they were answered already I didn't find the threads, so maybe someone could help me out here:

1. Is there any way to get rid of a base you don't want anymore? I found a thread debating if it should be possible to destroy the entrance like all other buildings. I understood it's WAD that the entrance cannot be destroyed in the same way - so is there no way to get rid of a base? I built one I don't need, and while the Aliens attack my HQ and main bases a lot they never attcked there, so it seems I'm stuck with it....

2. What does "production limit" mean? I first thought it means the number of items you can build of one type, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's also different from the number of workers producing.

3. Is there a way to see in the UFOpaedia what hangar size you need for a certain craft. It seems some don't work with big hangars?

4. The interface feels sometimes not optimal. Is there a way to configure what keys do what in game? Or for example, I'd love to use arrow keys to rotate the planet in the geoscape - is something like this doable?

That's all for now, I'm sure I have more to ask later. Overall playing the game so far has been a great experience.