UFO:Alien Invasion
Development => Design => Topic started by: weekendwarriora1c on May 21, 2010, 04:08:51 am
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Winter said there had not been any other storylines proposed, so I thought I'd write one up.
Radio broadcasts by humans are detected at light speed delay by deep perimeter probes in the void near Capella, transmitted to early-warning systems.
Initial mission sent to originating point to establish information feeds and initial understandings of originating life.
Diplomat type arrives in mid 1930s, disguises himself as a human and makes contact with the government of the US. The only country UFOs ever seem to land in.
U.S Government establishes Olive Branch, a deeply classified intelligence organization tasked with studying and understanding the alien.
The Taman diplomat works with classified government scientists for twenty years to create a common language interface. His name is Khel'Anask Bhavrade. Human personnel refer to him as "Bob."
Upon completion of their exchange of understanding, the alien offers humanity the terms of a peace agreement, as he is authorized to negotiate it.
The contract is a conditional surrender agreement, placing control of humanity under the Taman empire. In six-hundred pages of interstellar legalese.
Command of Olive Branch is passed from Intelligence to military control, and the organization is re-branded PHALANX/Shift Light, under the command of USAF SAC commander Curtis LeMay.
Humanity, unbeknownst to Bob, had previously determined the location of the diplomat's main support vessel, and his smaller craft. Both use invisibility mechanisms which hide them from ordinary detection, but regular transmissions allowed them to be found.
The government annexes the desert surrounding the main vessel and uses a "routine" nuclear test to destroy it, severing the Taman's FTL communications link.
Former Olive Branch agent in charge, Richard Newton is assigned to head the research effort of the smaller vessel. The government moves it for study to a newly established research facility near Groom Lake NV. They use development of classified spy planes as a cover for the more secretive activities.
The Taman diplomat is imprisoned in a facility in New York. Complaints of nightmares among staff from Bob's psychic output and mental distress force his relocation to a facility with better shielding.
The Three-Mile Island nuclear facility served as a cover for an extensive and well-shielded underground facility until an unrelated industrial accident brought excessive attention to the site in 1979.
Also in 1979, a mistake by a research technician at the Groom Lake facility caused a core detonation within the remaining Tamun vessel, code named "Step Sister." The explosion resulted in the complete destruction of the vehicle, along with electromagnetic damage to nearly all of the facility equipment, and an EMP wave sufficient to disable a prototype aircraft flying in the area.
Bob was relocated to a much smaller, decommissioned Titan-2 missile base outside of Denver CO. This base, ostensibly passed into the hands of private citizens, and was renovated into a secure data backup facility. This cover allowed the continued presence of security and employees in the facility, though under a civilian shroud.
Phalanx, under the guise of the CIA, turned control of the Groom Lake facility over to the Air Force, removing all research from the facility. Some items were stored in salt mines owned by cover corporations, some were moved to Colorado, to a front company with an extensive underground complex in Denver.
In 2003, a Taman Light Scout Cruiser arrives stealthily in Earth space, and a mixed assault team is dispatched to recover Khel'Anask from prison. Casualties among ground security forces and Phalanx support staff at the facility are very high, an incendiary device inside the complex of tunnels ensures little remains of the equipment as the team leaves. Attempts to intercept the landing craft before takeoff, and to destroy the cruiser in orbit, fail.
With the failure of Phalanx to prevent the rescue of their prisoner, and to prevent the escape of the Taman craft, the operations oversight committee decides to shut Phalanx down. Without a hostage, any renewed negotiations with the Taman will be in preparation of outright war, and secrecy will no longer be necessary.
In 2037, Phalanx is only a memory in the hazy minds of a very few retirement-villa-dwellers. A Taman Heavy Carrier Group arrives in Earth space and begins broadcasting to the planet an intention to subjugate human population under the control of the Taman empire.
This is a good point to tell you a little something about the Taman empire. The Taman are a peaceful, harmonious race, as only a highly empathic race can be. Some three hundred and eleven years before, their planet was invaded by a greatly violent and constantly-warring race; Ortnoks. The Taman were swiftly and brutally subjugated, and they became part of the Ortnok empire. The Ortnoks themselves, having already taken control of the other two intelligent species from their own planet, were now instigating interstellar conflict. For a race of warriors, the lack of resistance of the Taman was unsatisfying.
You might wonder how the Taman came to call the empire their own in the face of this violence. By violence, as it happens. The Ortnok believe in hand to hand fighting as the superior method of determining superiority in their hierarchy. And it was by a direct challenge, from the leader of the Taman faction, to the emperor himself, this transition was begun. The Taman leader, Tell'Aran Suor, proceeded to punch the Emperor straight in his nose. The Ortnoks were shocked and dismayed to find that this attack caused Emperor Khchothok's head to explode from the inside. In a clearly unarmed combat, the Taman took over control of the empire. To this day, a Taman has only to shake his fist at an Ortnok warrior to put the fear of Tell'Aran Suor into it.
It goes without saying (though I am going to say it anyway) that Tell'Aran was not some martial arts mystic, channelling the power of his essence. Nor was he a psionic master, using the power of his mind. In reality, he had simply caused Khchotkok's teeth to be filled with explosives during the last twenty years, as the Taman introduced dentistry to their conquerors.
Thus it was that a Taman commander captained the Heavy Carrier Sesstaran, and ruled with an iron fist the Taman, Ortnok and Shevaar officers under his command. The Sesstaran was escorted by two smaller carriers, six destroyers and a small fleet of support vessels. The Taman did not make war, historically. It was a lesson learned from the Ortnok, and generally carried out in Ortnok fashion. A challenge was issued, purely Ortnok in origin. Terms of war were negotiated; a Taman addition. The return of Khel'Anask Bhavrade to Taman had sent a ripple through the command ranks of the empire. Humans, as it turned out, were somewhere between the Taman and the Ortnok, in terms of general intelligence and ability to control themselves. The Taman called humanity World-Burners, for their willingness to use highly destructive weapons on their own planet. This made the Taman feel a general sense of unease and disquiet, the way one feels put off upon meeting someone who defecates where they eat.
The documents being sent to the planet detailed the terms of war, and called upon the commander of Phalanx as the human representative in the discussions.
Khel'Anask himself served as the representative of the Taman Empire, and determined that the meeting would be held in a human population center. This was presented as a sign of good faith, though in reality he hoped humans would be less likely to nuke them. They landed in Mumbai to meet with the human representative.
Unfortunately, as you'll remember, Phalanx had not had an active membership for three decades. The last commander of Phalanx, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Ambrose Howard, was summoned from the golf course and immediately reactivated, the oldest active-duty officer in US history. Of course, it didn't all play out so nicely. General Howard's retirement had been forced, and a quiet disgrace. He was not happy about the reactivation, and only agreed to it at the chance to be face to face with Bob once more.
They met in Mumbai, at a park in the city. Crowds of humans gathered to watch this historic meeting, carefully watched by rings of U.N. soldiers.
Unfortunately, Ambrose and Bob remembered each other quite well, and Bob's ability to speak the language quickly caused the situation to degenerate. This was when General Howard shot Khel'Anask in the chest with a .45 caliber 1911 pistol. Things swiftly grew worse for the humans at this point, as the Ortnok honor guard expressed mild dissatisfaction by firing plasma rifles and dispersing grenades into the crowds gathered around King's Circle. Pitched battle ensued between the U.N. forces and the Taman guard, with the humans in retreat. Heavy armored vehicles rolled from the Taman drop ships, encircling the park even as the last living humans fled. Once the site was secured, the heavy ground weapons began retaliatory fire into the city, leveling buildings and ending human life where possible. Robotic search and destroy tools were deployed, forcing back the circle of human influence, ostensibly to preserve the safety of the Taman officers.
"I hope the little fucker bleeds out and gets ate by an Ortnok," General Howard was heard to say as their fleeing vehicles sped to safety.
And so, to make what is already a long story short, Taman reinforcements and human military forces began to clash in the city, both pouring in to contain the other. It was not until Khel'Anask awoke from his wounds that the inexorable advance of the Taman forces came to a halt.
Without any warning toward their enemies, the invaders retreated to their drop ships and left Mumbai. Future negotiations were done via remote communications. Despite the "misunderstanding," Khel'Anask continued negotiating with General Howard and an agreement regarding the allowable methods of war was reached.
I should like to clarify that Khel'Anask, and Taman in general, are not cowards. Nor are they eternally forgiving. Khel'Anask clearly understands human thinking, and understood the cost of expanding a ground invasion. Despite the Taman's best anti-air defenses, it might have been possible for the humans to get a nuke through and wipe out the invasion force on the ground.
Khel'Anask had no concern that this war will be lost. The agreed-upon terms were simple. Ground forces would be kept to twelve persons or less, including dropship or aircraft crew, and conflict would be limited to small-scale engagements between Phalanx personnel and Taman. Intervention in the conflict by military personnel, other than those already present during a fight, would signal violation of the agreement, and that nation's capitol would be placed under direct fire by naval assets in orbit. Following the capitol, repeat offences would meet with punishment inflicted upon population centers in decreasing population until there were none left. The deployment of biological, chemical, nuclear and anti-matter weapons was prohibited.
One wonders why humans would agree to such terms. They had no reliable ability to punish the Taman for transgressions, and their own weapons, on a one-to-one basis, were far inferior to their enemy's.
Khel'Anask explained that he had no desire to destroy valuable subordinates, only to prove their superiority.
General Howard explained that the Taman anti-matter weapons carried by the destroyers could crack the planet in half. He had this on reliable authority, tortured from Bob decades before. The Taman were dealing from a position of strength, and could dictate the terms. Howard told the U.N. to be happy there were terms.
And so begins the UFO:AI battle. Phalanx, recovering from thirty years of oblivion, under the command of a resurrected Lt. General, who looked as though he might need another resurrection any day now. Manpower and equipment slapped together in days after the agreement, reopening the old headquarters base in Denver, to the surprise of a startled Dave and Busters staff in the building above ground level. This base would serve as the inviolate headquarters for Phalanx, much as the Sesstaran was inviolate, by the agreement they'd made.
In this story line, the story would end with either the fulfillment of the Taman objectives, capturing key personnel and locations, or the capture of the Sesstaran by human forces.
Rather than a complete destruction of the alien race and the total end of the story, I think it would be better if it was just the end of the present threat, and a victory for humans. Bigger and better things to follow.
*edited: I never notice typos until later.
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I don't have the time right now to read through all of your post, but I will say that the game does support, or at least should - by the time it gets completed - alternate game campaigns with different plots and scenarios.
The main storyline for the primary campaign won't likely be changed, but if you want to push this for an alternate game campaign, it may work, although you may have to do at least some of the work involved in implementing it yourself. (You can actually do quite a bit with the script files, which don't require programming know-how.)
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Winter said there had not been any other storylines proposed, so I thought I'd write one up.
There have been plenty of 'proposals'. What I said was that there hadn't been a single good idea in them.
The one and only thing I like about this one is the aliens' receipt of human radio broadcasts.
Regards,
Winter
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lol, you were able to see that incredible tidbit amongst all the chaff, were you?
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There have been plenty of 'proposals'. What I said was that there hadn't been a single good idea in them.
Because only you have good ideas, right? ::)
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That's a rhetorical question, right? I'm learning to recognize those.
Apparently, Winter would prefer that the aliens were incompetent, as the preferred explanation of their actions.
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Because only you have good ideas, right? ::)
Ah yes. "If Ye Cannot Bring Good News, Then Don't Bring Any," because being told anything other than that you're a precious and unique snowflake just hurts too damned much, right?
Regards,
Winter
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Put on your big girl britches, Winter. It's not all about hurt feelings and tear-stained lace doilies.
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Put on your big girl britches, Winter. It's not all about hurt feelings and tear-stained lace doilies.
This topic is progressively getting less and less constructive, drifting toward "Ad Hominem" attacks - I kindly advise you *not* to continue down this path, it is unlikely you would win anything. Please be aware that Winter is one of the primary developers in charge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
That being said, if you don't like the storyline I'd suggest pushing for an *alternate* campaign plot.
I'd like to point out that one of the other inspired-by games based on X-Com/UFO, the German X-Force game, has multiple campaigns with different, independent plots and game mechanics. There's no reason we can't have something comparable for UFO:AI. In fact, we used to have a "Play the Aliens" campaign, which IIRC wasn't maintained and doesn't work with the current codebase, the reason it isn't in 2.3.
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Winter's original "constructive" remark was "This all sucks, except that part that was in a Jodi Foster movie, that part is cool."
I may have paraphrased a bit. It doesn't seem very constructive, to be honest. Rather than "We don't really want to tie into any real world events to give the back story a bit of believability," or "We're trying to steer clear of logical explanations for parts of our story, like Mumbai, where aliens massacred humans, and somehow lost a ground war to our weak and useless military forces," it seems Winter is compelled to summarily dismiss any "proposal" not originating with him.
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Ah yes. "If Ye Cannot Bring Good News, Then Don't Bring Any," because being told anything other than that you're a precious and unique snowflake just hurts too damned much, right?
Regards,
Winter
No but a more polite answer would be
"Nice idea, but that's not really what we're going with."
OR
"We're going with a more horror/something approach, so your idea, while nice, kinda doesn't fit well."
Comes off better than "Duuuur. All your ideaz suxorz. Not ONE of you has any good ideaz. I alone roxorz!!!! Look at my splendor and worship me bitchez!"
You need to work on your people skills.
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Winter's original "constructive" remark was "This all sucks, except that part that was in a Jodi Foster movie, that part is cool."
I may have paraphrased a bit. It doesn't seem very constructive, to be honest. Rather than "We don't really want to tie into any real world events to give the back story a bit of believability," or "We're trying to steer clear of logical explanations for parts of our story, like Mumbai, where aliens massacred humans, and somehow lost a ground war to our weak and useless military forces," it seems Winter is compelled to summarily dismiss any "proposal" not originating with him.
Well, as Mattn (who is THE boss, at the very top) has said before in previous discussions, he too would be interested in alternate campaigns in addition to the one that Winter (and BTAxis) have come up with, and if you push for an additional, alternate game I don't think you'll really run into much resistance. On the other hand, if you attack the existing storyline I can't blame Winter for defending it.
No but a more polite answer would be
"Nice idea, but that's not really what we're going with."
OR
"We're going with a more horror/something approach, so your idea, while nice, kinda doesn't fit well."
Comes off better than "Duuuur. All your ideaz suxorz. Not ONE of you has any good ideaz. I alone roxorz!!!! Look at my splendor and worship me bitchez!"
You need to work on your people skills.
This is also a bit uncalled for, especially the last sentence. Forgive me for being direct, but please take the time to stop and think, before posting a gut reaction that can get you into trouble. Statements like these are extremely provocative, and will only worsen what has become an unpleasant argument.
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Fair enough, the last statement was comcicly over the top and hostile. My bad. :-X
But you can't deny that he comes off as roughly like that.
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Lol Olive Branch is the name of a town/high school near me.
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Fair enough, the last statement was comcicly over the top and hostile. My bad. :-X
But you can't deny that he comes off as roughly like that.
After reading all of these postings (which are unfortunately heading into flame war territory), I decided to go back and look at the genesis of this thread. Did you know, Trashman, that you've been arguing with Winter about the plot for almost two years now? And that at no point in that period, has anything changed from Destructavator's original comment (almost three years ago) that the plot is basically set and there are no plans to change it?
I'm not interested in defending either side, but after two years of arguing, there's usually no way to go other than personal attacks, and that does no one any good.
So, is the plot perfect? I'm not going to give an opinion, since my opinion doesn't matter. All I can say is that it is damned better than I could write. But more to the point, it's their game and their plot. A wise man once taught me that "you can always have your say, but you won't always get your way". I think it's time to move on.
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A Flamewar? Here?
*Grabs popcorn and takes a front row seat*
Now, This could get interesting!
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So, is the plot perfect? I'm not going to give an opinion, since my opinion doesn't matter. All I can say is that it is damned better than I could write. But more to the point, it's their game and their plot. A wise man once taught me that "you can always have your say, but you won't always get your way". I think it's time to move on.
AKA, you can say your honest opinion but it doesn't mean that anybody will hear/listen it. But it sure doesn't mean that I or anybody else would change his/her opinion and/or stop reminding the devs about it.
That said, I do hope to see the future if we get alternate campaigns. <insert complaining of the official campaigns late-game story here> (I may know that the story isn't going to change but ^^^)
A Flamewar? Here?
*Grabs popcorn and takes a front row seat*
Now, This could get interesting!
I was really hoping this and one another forum would have been free of flame wars. Guess not... :-\
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I'm not interested in defending either side, but after two years of arguing, there's usually no way to go other than personal attacks, and that does no one any good.
So, is the plot perfect? I'm not going to give an opinion, since my opinion doesn't matter. All I can say is that it is damned better than I could write. But more to the point, it's their game and their plot. A wise man once taught me that "you can always have your say, but you won't always get your way". I think it's time to move on.
If you see a man driving a bus towards the cliff, will you warn him only once? Or will you continue to warn him until the last second?
Yes, I posted my opinion 2 or 3 times already. So? Not like I'm starting these threads. Not like it's forbidden to repeat oneself...3 times over the course of 2 years..that ain't much. Heck, I tell the same joke to the same person a dozen times cause I forgot I told him already.
Also, I wouldn't say your opinion doesn't matter. Any developer - any artist - welcomes feedback...or should welcome feedback. Not that it always comes in the form you'd expect. I know I used to be terribly protective of my work early on...You learn to let go of that with time.
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If you report a flaw in the game design, it's a bug. Everybody's happy.
If you suggest something that might make game play a little smoother, it's a suggestion. Everybody's happy.
If you suggest something that would make the story mesh with the gameplay, or make better sense, it's a violent, baseless attack against Winter. Suddenly it's personal.
Honestly, I don't understand how the story can be "permanent" or "irrevocable" while the game is still in beta. Is there already published fiction for it? Will the wikipedia page have to be changed?
I think Winter summed up his view of things pretty well when he said there has never been a single good storyline idea on the forum. Really, let's just lock this, lock the main storyline thread, and make it plain that it's not open to discussion. It obviously is not open to discussion.
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Part of the reason the plot has been fixed as mostly "permanent" is because a long time ago, before this was done, people would come and go changing all kinds of things back and forth and turning the project into a senseless mess, and progress wasn't really very possible. No plot can please everyone, and if it was changed for every person who came along and wanted something different, the same problem would occur.
That being said, as far as I know YES, alternate campaigns ARE welcome - I would like to see this and I recall Mattn favoring the idea as well. It would be VERY nice to have multiple games available for the player to choose from, with different plots and scenarios. I wish people would get this concept and be constructive by working on developing such alternate campaigns, but why they choose to instead be destructive in trying to tear down the existing plot which the development has been following for years now, just taking all that long hard work and throwing it in a garbage bin, just baffles me. This isn't a hard concept guys, just un-zip the "ufos.pk3" file and open the .ufo files with a text editor such as wordpad. You'll see that all the game scripts are in plain English, complete with comments on how they work, you don't need to be a programmer to build your own campaign!
Edit: ...And if people would get around to building their own campaigns, I would ask Mattn for even setting aside a forum section for such a thing, and hopefully they could make it into the complete program as they become complete. Those script files determine just about everything, from what models and artwork to use, what research topics exist and what order they come in, how the weapons work, etc., just about everything.
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The main storyline for the primary campaign won't likely be changed, but if you want to push this for an alternate game campaign, it may work, although you may have to do at least some of the work involved in implementing it yourself. (You can actually do quite a bit with the script files, which don't require programming know-how.)
Where is the current story plot defined? (Where in the script files, and where in the code files?)
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To sum up my response from both(!) arguments with TrashMan into one thread:
Let me be completely open, honest and non-hostile here. None of this is meant to offend and I'll try not to use any strong language. It will, however, be the last I ever say on the matter. No further responses discussing any version of the storyline will be forthcoming.
First, I'll start off with an apology to TrashMan and anyone else with whom I've gotten frustrated in the past. I'm sure I've been out of line more than once.
Now . . . What TrashMan and others are asking me to do is change my vision of the game, one that I've been working on for the past 4(!) years, and one that I have always believed in. They want me to write their ideas while removing my own. Considering I'm not getting paid for this job and am doing it solely for the love, that's not how things work. It's not why I'm here. Whenever Destructavator very reasonably mentions the ability to create alternate campaigns, which he's done repeatedly for several years now, nobody seems to listen -- I can only assume it's because none of the people involved actually want to put in the work.
Well, I've been putting in the work for a VERY long time, and while there are certain areas of the backstory that I actually want to work on (the Mumbai massacre for example was good when we came up with it, but it hasn't stood in line with the developing game), the concepts of XVI and the cosmic horror angle are things I'm proud of. I was given the role of design lead after showing my vision for the game and my willingness to see things through to the end. That's what I'm gonna do. That involves changing my plans after discussing them with the design team (I come up with plenty of bad ideas that get dropped by the wayside), as well as sticking to my guns when I feel I'm right.
Like Destructavator, let me encourage any dissenters to create their own campaign, especially one designed by committee. It might help you understand where the project admins are coming from. Without someone to decide the creative course of the main campaign, we'd be back to where we started in August 06, everyone pulling the game in every direction, adding and removing material at random without any kind of structure. I don't think anybody who remembers those days particularly wants to see them again. I certainly don't; I worked way too hard to help bring the game where it is right now, which in my opinion is a place of serious awesome.
I'm curious what you all will think of the rewrites when they're completed, but I know they're not going to be nearly far-reaching enough for some. That's why this will be my one-stop explanation and reasoning. I'm not going to close any topics, I just won't be reading along.
Later.
Regards,
Winter
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Winter, I`ve reread the current storyline, and I have only one arguing. Please, do not call the organism as "virus". Call him as «agent», «parasite», «any-other-word», but not «virus». As biologist, I can`t agree with this label for this organism. You don`t name bat "bird", since it can fly, you name it "animal", right?
Agent of biological infiltration, as example, what`s wrong with this terms?
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Winter, I`ve reread the current storyline, and I have only one arguing. Please, do not call the organism as "virus".
See those rewrites I mentioned? That's in there. :P
Regards,
Winter
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That being said, as far as I know YES, alternate campaigns ARE welcome - I would like to see this and I recall Mattn favoring the idea as well. It would be VERY nice to have multiple games available for the player to choose from, with different plots and scenarios. I wish people would get this concept and be constructive by working on developing such alternate campaigns, but why they choose to instead be destructive in trying to tear down the existing plot which the development has been following for years now, just taking all that long hard work and throwing it in a garbage bin, just baffles me. This isn't a hard concept guys, just un-zip the "ufos.pk3" file and open the .ufo files with a text editor such as wordpad. You'll see that all the game scripts are in plain English, complete with comments on how they work, you don't need to be a programmer to build your own campaign!
Just FYI - I never wanted or proposed a complete re-write.
Only changing a few things, that gameplay-wise would amount to changing some research descriptions and entries in the ufopedia.
Mechanicly, and from a programing standpoint, nothing would change.
I worked on enough projects to know that things are interlinked, and you're VERY careful about what you change, and how it affects the project as a whole.
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Whenever Destructavator very reasonably mentions the ability to create alternate campaigns, which he's done repeatedly for several years now, nobody seems to listen -- I can only assume it's because none of the people involved actually want to put in the work.
Alright, how do you define a new campaign?
Where in the script files is it defined?
What additional coding is needed to add a new one?
Where is the current campaign defined?
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Alright, how do you define a new campaign?
Where in the script files is it defined?
What additional coding is needed to add a new one?
Where is the current campaign defined?
Well, it really depends on *what* you want to change - I'd start by reading the "campaign.ufo" script file, but please understand it isn't centralized all into one specific file. If you want to change research topics and how they work, look at the research-related .ufo files, they let you change, add, or delete research topics and what triggers making them available when. If you want to change the models, those are in many different files, but yes, you can make the game load alternate MD2 files, and so on.
I'd read through all the .ufo files to get a good understanding of how the game mechanics work, and then you should be able to figure out what to change to make what you want to do work.
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[...]the concepts of XVI and the cosmic horror angle are things I'm proud of.[...]
paradoxically, it seems that the reason why people tend to like such grotesque cosmic horror fetish fantasies is, as i am very much convinced, the same reason why some discussions get so heated in the forum.
and a good dev shows compassion to people who have become lost in a cosmic horror fantasy about how the story is all wrong.
btw, as far as i remember, the original x-com ufo games have always been about fetish fantasies rather than common sense.
just that an 8 soldier team has never before been claimed to be stronger than all the armies of the earth combined (a direct result of writing about the mumbai massacre, which will now hopefully be replaced with something less cheesy).
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A Flamewar? Here?
*Grabs popcorn and takes a front row seat*
Now, This could get interesting!
Rofl
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Well, if you managed a whole ARMY then it wouldn't be a SQUAD-based tactical game, now would it?
Granted, you can have several squads, but the realism point still stands. Just make sure to tell the player that he isn't the only one fighting the aliens and that Phalanx is used in tactical missions. Large-scale battles are left to the regular military.
So Phalanx are more like commandos and less like an army fighting the aliens alone.
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Well, it really depends on *what* you want to change - I'd start by reading the "campaign.ufo" script file, but please understand it isn't centralized all into one specific file. If you want to change research topics and how they work, look at the research-related .ufo files, they let you change, add, or delete research topics and what triggers making them available when. If you want to change the models, those are in many different files, but yes, you can make the game load alternate MD2 files, and so on.
I'd read through all the .ufo files to get a good understanding of how the game mechanics work, and then you should be able to figure out what to change to make what you want to do work.
Ok, I've read them.
They appear to be of the form
Keyword name
{
name value
name value
name value
}
where "value" can be a number, a constant (like "true"), a string, or a list.
The keywords are probably tracked by something in the code; some name-value pairs correspond to other keyword-name pairs, but the keyword and name values do not need to be the same.
I can see how to replace the current campaign settings with a completely new set.
I cannot see how to add a new set of settings without overriding the old.
Case in point:
Lets say I wanted to actually add a "play the aliens" campaign.
For the alien tech tree, I'd need to make sure you don't research anything on the player side, and visa-versa.
First, there's this:
up_chapters main
{
news "_Background"
crafts "_Aircraft"
buildings "_Base Facilities"
tech "_Research Reports"
equipment "_Equipment"
artifacts "_Alien Artifacts"
aliens "_Autopsies & Observation"
threat "_The Alien Threat"
}It looks like you get one set of UfoPedia chapters. I can't create a set for "The earthling threat" or "Human Equipment".
I would need to have some way to specify that some research topics are off limit. Ideally, each existing research topic would be marked as belonging to a given campaign group -- for example, playing human in the normal campaign would give you the "technology" of "standard_human"; if I wanted to make a new campaign, I might give the "technology" of "mgk_overlord_alien" and have that as the root of my research tree.
Lets say, just for the sake of sillyness, that I wanted to make a campaign named "tutorial". This would have a total of 3 things to research, and 3 things to build. The encounters would be very scripted, with the first few being one or two aliens and a small UFO (damaged if the game engine supports it), with the player having vastly overwhelming forces. Mails that arrive at the beginning would say something like, "What do I look like, the in-game tutorial? Knowing doctor Bluestone, you've probably got a really powerful weapon for research. Go to <X>, and click <y> to assign scientists". Etc. Walk the player through each step of the game.
Note that the current "tutorial" is little more than screen shots, and not sufficient. The battle tutorial only explains what the things on the display are, and doesn't even cover how to move a unit, or how to fire on an enemy. (Or how to move the map around, etc).
(Will anyone understand that "in-game tutorial" reference without me posting the link?)
http://www.dragon-tails.com/archive.php?date=2006-01-01
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Several things:
The .ufo script files, AFAIK, are parsed and read only when the game starts up and initializes everything, they aren't "tracked" throughout the game.
The game looks for PK3 files in a specific order, if it finds duplicate files inside those PK3s it overwrites previously loaded ones with the most recently read ones. So no, you aren't limited to only replacing things, you can add things too. Just create .ufo files that include all the old stuff but also have additional new stuff, and make sure the game loads your custom files last.
It sounds like you didn't read through all the .ufo files, which is something you should do - If you did you would have gone through the several that control the research tree and research topics, which would answer some of what you were asking about. You can copy the .ufo files and, again, make a custom duplicate with additional topics and such for additional campaigns.
This isn't rocket science, I've made custom .ufo files before on my own that create additional campaigns before quite easily and within a few quick minutes. The same goes for adding additional weapons (with new models) into the game, something I've also done, as well as aircraft and other stuff.
Regarding the existing tutorials, you're right, they aren't that good. They need to be replaced and/or updated.
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Well, if you managed a whole ARMY then it wouldn't be a SQUAD-based tactical game, now would it?
Granted, you can have several squads, but the realism point still stands. Just make sure to tell the player that he isn't the only one fighting the aliens and that Phalanx is used in tactical missions. Large-scale battles are left to the regular military.
So Phalanx are more like commandos and less like an army fighting the aliens alone.
well, if the mumbai will be excluded, then there is no reason to involve the army, is there?
the story could be something as simple as:
aliens have abducted a few people, no one knows why, and phalanx is to find out.
maybe the aliens have just chosen to be cautious and take some samples for study before they "come in peace".
so, governments want to keep the diplomatic options open, which includes that governments do not want to officially declare a war on the aliens, especially considering their unknown numbers and resources, and advanced tech (of course, everyone remembers the conquest of the americas from our own history).
therefore, phalanx would need to be an unofficial secret organization.
you can guess that the reason for such cowardly behavior is fear of the unknown power of the aliens.
afaik, this is basically the original (x-com:eu) story, otherwise there is nothing very original (creative) about it.
the positive side is that, as far as i understand, there are no contradictions.
and see, regular army involvement in any way is a very bad idea according to this story.
now, if mumbai will be excluded from ufo:ai, i really wonder what the story will look like.
where does it appear first? in wiki?
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The game looks for PK3 files in a specific order, if it finds duplicate files inside those PK3s it overwrites previously loaded ones with the most recently read ones. So no, you aren't limited to only replacing things, you can add things too. Just create .ufo files that include all the old stuff but also have additional new stuff, and make sure the game loads your custom files last.
Any sort of "Just create new files that combine existing files with new stuff" is a disaster. As soon as the original file is modified by a patch, the "new additional" campaign fails, because it has the wrong old standard. Worse, you can't combine two different addons from two different people because they both assume that there is only one addon.
Addons, to add a campaign, have to be *ADDITIONAL*, not *replacements*.
It sounds like you didn't read through all the .ufo files, which is something you should do - If you did you would have gone through the several that control the research tree and research topics, which would answer some of what you were asking about. You can copy the .ufo files and, again, make a custom duplicate with additional topics and such for additional campaigns.
I did read them all. Maybe not every line of every one. Again, I don't want to duplicate and modify.
We have things like:
tech rs_laser
{
name "_Continuous Wave Laser Operation"
type tech
up_chapter tech
description {
default "_laser_txt"
}
pre_description {
default "_laser_pre_txt"
}
mail_pre
{
from "_mail_from_paul_navarre"
to "_mail_to_base_commander"
// subject defined by "name"
icon icons/tech
}
mail
{
from "_mail_from_paul_navarre"
to "_mail_to_base_commander"
// subject defined by "name"
icon icons/tech
}
time 6000
image techs/continuous_wave_laser_operation
}
There's no requires section in there, so unless I replace or modify that, there is no way to define a new tech tree that doesn't have that.
More to the point, there's no way with the current tech items to say "This item belongs to this campaign". There's no way to say "This is campaign X with modification Y". There's not one human campaign with 5 modifications, there's 5 different human campaigns, and there's only one tech tree.
This isn't rocket science, I've made custom .ufo files before on my own that create additional campaigns before quite easily and within a few quick minutes. The same goes for adding additional weapons (with new models) into the game, something I've also done, as well as aircraft and other stuff.
Ok, have you made a new campaign that has its own tech tree, that isn't just a variation of the old campaign, that doesn't have the "starting tech research", without having to remove stuff from the base?
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The research_logic.ufo file seems to have some events that are triggered by game code. So, some new campaigns will require modifying the executable.
researched_list.ufo seems interesting. There's stock "humans knows this" and "humans can learn that". There could have been tags for things like continuous lasers so that it would be tied to the standard campaign.
Here's my question: Can you make it possible to play the humans OR the aliens? If there was code in there to run the human side, could you make the aliens playable? As far as I can tell, the answer is no. Everything from only a single set of UFO topics (instead of a per-campaign set of topics), to research trees that assume there's only one campaign and you start with X available, etc.
If I wanted (somewhat serious) to make a special tutorial campaign, with a custom subset of the research tree, with a smaller set of UfoPedia chapters, how would I do it without replacing the existing? How would I be able to say "You can play standard campaign in 5 variations, or tutorial campaign in 3 variations"?
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Either the requirements are hidden somewhere else or that is one of the ugly things the devs have hard-coded into the engine. There are plans to remove the ugly code to allow complete custom campaigns (Or So I've Heard) but the plans haven't been executed yet.
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CWLO is one of the few research topics that have no prereqs and are available at the beginning of the main campaign.
I know where you guys are coming from, though. It would be handy for modders to have a 'campaign' flag for research topics. Maybe post it in the feature requests?
Regards,
Winter
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For correct modding we need some more functionality, for example ability to use custom .mo file for each mod.