UFO:Alien Invasion

General => Discussion => Topic started by: BTAxis on March 28, 2010, 12:13:05 pm

Title: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: BTAxis on March 28, 2010, 12:13:05 pm
In a FOSS project there are two kinds of people, those who contribute and those who don't. Not to imply that those who don't are in any way unimportant, but those who do are much more useful to the project. To those who are eager to see a new release, I suggest you get involved in contributing game content. There is a lot of things people can do, arguably the easiest being mapping (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping). While not everything will actually speed up the next release, working on the game will at least keep you occupied.
Title: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: MCR on March 28, 2010, 07:31:39 pm
 ;D
I agree 100%, BTAxis, & just want to add here that even people without almost any experience regarding computers could help:


Take a walk, enjoy the nature & record some interesting sounds for UFO:AI with your mp3 player:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=3580.msg26141#msg26141

SCREAM INTO A MICROPHONE (yes, as simple as that  ;)):
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=1527.msg34776#msg34776

Use your synthesizer & record some cool sounds:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=1546.msg8092#msg8092

Again I can only tell you to take a walk & enjoy the niceness of spring, this time using different terrain & with finding a method to get good samples of yourself walking, running & jumping around (Do not forget to document your records  ;)):
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=1727.msg9343#msg9343

Or if you are rather the destructive type of person  :D:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=3617.msg26545#msg26545

Or maybe you are the creative person, you can send sketches & drawings also, there is always a way to integrate cool looking & theme-fitting stuff:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=2890.msg19572#msg19572

Here you can find very simple tasks, designed for those of you, who do not have much time, but still feel the need to help making this project better:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=4665.msg36393#msg36393


You want 2.3 out ?! - go give yourself a kick & do something productive  ;)


... or wait & stay a passive spectator ::).

Title: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Duke on March 28, 2010, 10:55:33 pm
Great post, MCR :)

BTAxis,
shouldn't we make this sticky somehow or give it a nice place in our wiki ?
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: BTAxis on March 29, 2010, 12:52:15 am
Done. If you had something else in mind, feel free to modify.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Duke on March 30, 2010, 02:06:39 am
Perfect :)
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Destructavator on April 01, 2010, 05:04:19 am
I agree this project could use a little kick of contributions to get the blood moving.

Myself, I was gone for a bit because the hard drive on my old computer started going...

I was going to get another hard drive when I found other issues as well, so I just got a new computer, one of those i7 jobs - now I'm busy putting all my crap onto the new one from backups, and I hope to get back to actively working on various things for this project again very soon (a day or two).

Somewhere on one of my backups I have files from when I started some tutorials for TAG files and modeling - I hope to have those in the wiki soon.

I've also been itching to getting back the new soldier models - perhaps if we had more *pictures* and eye candy on the front news page of things we're working on, it would attract more people.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Dj Variablo on April 04, 2010, 10:50:29 pm
Hi,

Did not see an introduction screen so i'll be free to post something here.
I amMaking music, creating mods is my life.
X-Com , UFO Defense inspired me a long time ago and i been following this project and i see it is about to hit the final stages.
i would like to get in touch with more musical experts and define and discuss abouth aranging tracks for this game with the aproval of the general public ofcourse.

Tell me if you need this :D and i'll be more then happy to arange a few original longlife tracks for support in the games musical atmosphere and sound effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP_g5ysvWG8 (DEMO)

Count me in if you think im anny good  ;D

Dj Variablo
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: MCR on April 04, 2010, 11:51:55 pm
Hello DJ Variablo !
Welcome To The Forums  ;D !

First of all: IMHO thiz soundz nize, you should start a new topic here:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?board=9.0

But I see, you have done that already  ;)
Will continue there...

Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: MimiD10 on April 07, 2010, 04:00:11 am
Hi thank you for your information for becoming involved in the game. I want to get involved. And I am sure I will be succeed.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: MCR on April 07, 2010, 12:43:34 pm
Hey MimiD10 !
Welcome to the forums  ;D !
 8)
Do you know already where you want to start ?
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Legendman3 on April 07, 2010, 01:17:31 pm
What do you mean by contribute? I would like to help
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: BTAxis on April 07, 2010, 01:19:40 pm
con·trib·ute [kuhn-trib-yoot]  verb,-ut·ed, -ut·ing.
–verb (used with object)
1. to give (money, time, knowledge, assistance, etc.) to a common supply, fund, etc., as for charitable purposes.
2. to furnish (an original written work, drawing, etc.) for publication: to contribute stories to a magazine.
–verb (used without object)
3. to give (money, food, etc.) to a common supply, fund, etc.: He contributes to many charities.
4. to furnish works for publication: He contributed to many magazines.
—Idiom
5. contribute to, to be an important factor in; help to cause: A sudden downpour contributed to the traffic jam.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Encha on April 08, 2010, 02:55:34 am
lol.....  ::)


basically they want help from the public. in any way or form from the top topic.

or Donating Sounds and what not for the Greater good of this Awesome Game in Development stages to make it better more unique. and even more awesome than it already is..
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Legendman3 on April 08, 2010, 03:55:15 am
How could i contribute? Im good at map making if i can figure out the game engine mapper thingy maghig... Ya  ;D
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Encha on April 08, 2010, 12:01:39 pm
give it a try you wont know if you dont try :D


myself i would giving the whole level editing a go.

but i kinda do that in my real life job...  i kinda only like to play other games...   not design them... playing other games helps me unwind from the stress of designing. in Unreal 3 editor..
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Legendman3 on April 08, 2010, 12:52:43 pm
Dude im only 14 so i dont think i can do much but ill give it a whirl.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Encha on April 08, 2010, 01:10:06 pm
in any day and age where computers and games are involved age.. means Bugger all.

it's self determination, a dream..  dedication to learn something new and improve on it.

and experience.

way i got my level design job wasnt through grades or degreee's.  to be honest my grades suck.
but they set me on based on my learning curve is easyer, faster. and i'm determined to learn and improve on what i do. and i kinda got some previous experience with world building. so that was a plus.

but dont let age get you. Age isnt everything. its the experience and know how that does it.

it wouldnt matter if you were 8 or 78, if youve never done something before and wanted to give it a try. and did good at it.  they would use it. simple as :)

Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Duke on April 08, 2010, 09:35:51 pm
Also...your age will increase steadily as you go ;)
btw how old was Bill Gates when he started his garage business ?
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Duke on April 08, 2010, 09:41:22 pm
One more thing:
Imho it's remarkable that a young guy like you is interested in such an 'oldfashioned' game.
Seems like you're more adult than one would guess from your age...
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: MCR on April 08, 2010, 09:43:06 pm
btw how old was Bill Gates when he started his garage business ?
Although this 'garage business' story reminds me of a nice fairy tale, Duke... ;)
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Legendman3 on April 08, 2010, 11:17:58 pm
Yah so im young and like dos games and such. New games like MW2 and CoD: WaW and MAG bore me after maybe 3 days(BC2 is the only modern game i like). Also whats imho stand for, and I have the Unreal 3 UDK and its cool but the most complex game maker ive ever layed hands on. Ive gone from Source SDK for half life 2 to Blender and been able to make some maps with those but Unreal just is confusing. Oh and Bill gates was 20 when he started. Im what you call between gifted and a genius.  ;D
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Duke on April 08, 2010, 11:57:13 pm
Bill Gates was 20 when he founded the Micro$oft Corporation.
He was 14 when he founded Traf-O-Data.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Legendman3 on April 09, 2010, 12:08:19 am
Whats Imho mean? its funny im american and almost all admins are european/russian/other so i have to wait six hours for a response
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Destructavator on April 09, 2010, 12:35:49 am
Whats Imho mean? its funny im american and almost all admins are european/russian/other so i have to wait six hours for a response

http://www.acronymfinder.com/Slang/IMHO.html

I believe the first of these five (from the link) is the most commonly accepted definition.

Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Encha on April 09, 2010, 01:28:36 am
i've always Wondered myself. but never cared to ask... alot of my mates on WoW say it.
Title: this is bullcrap!
Post by: RCO on April 09, 2010, 10:27:41 pm
   I want my 15 bucks back. The guy wearing the black coat in the dark alley sold this game for me for 15 bucks. apparently everyone else got it for cheap. So since i paid more for my copy, I'm just going to sit here and read the forum, and not contribute anything.
Title: Re: this is bullcrap!
Post by: Legendman3 on April 09, 2010, 10:40:23 pm
   I want my 15 bucks back. The guy wearing the black coat in the dark alley sold this game for me for 15 bucks. apparently everyone else got it for cheap. So since i paid more for my copy, I'm just going to sit here and read the forum, and not contribute anything.

The game is free and its awesome so you got ripped off HAHAHAHAHAAHAH!!!  But seriously if you ever find the guy kick his nuts
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Destructavator on April 09, 2010, 11:01:44 pm
Unfortunately such practice isn't necessarily illegal (with GPL).  It is still a con, you still got swindled, but depending on how the sale was done it might not be illegal.

...And yes, if you do run into him again, go ahead and use selected parts of him to test a plasma rifle...
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Valaska on April 10, 2010, 09:46:54 am
In a FOSS project there are two kinds of people, those who contribute and those who don't. Not to imply that those who don't are in any way unimportant, but those who do are much more useful to the project. To those who are eager to see a new release, I suggest you get involved in contributing game content. There is a lot of things people can do, arguably the easiest being mapping (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping). While not everything will actually speed up the next release, working on the game will at least keep you occupied.

 I used to make maps for my league bag on MW4 for training/campaign like situations online, I'd be interested in mapping.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Mattn on April 10, 2010, 09:51:45 am
I used to make maps for my league bag on MW4 for training/campaign like situations online, I'd be interested in mapping.

thanks nice - you can handle GTKRadiant of the quake series already? Then UFORadiant will be nothing new for you. See http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping as a starting point. You can create new maps, create new tiles for random map assemblies or add details to existing maps. Whatever you like. The maps in trunk could almost all need some more love of a mapper.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on April 10, 2010, 11:04:50 am
Valaska, post if you have any difficulties getting adjusted to UFOAI's mapping, and we'll be glad to help. Could definitely use some more work.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Encha on April 10, 2010, 02:41:27 pm
well that does look really simple to use.

i just browsed over the map edit myself. to curious to its looks.

compared to Maya, or  Unreal 3 Editor. it looks piss easy.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Mattn on April 10, 2010, 02:53:49 pm
well that does look really simple to use.

i just browsed over the map edit myself. to curious to its looks.

compared to Maya, or  Unreal 3 Editor. it looks piss easy.

maybe you find the mood besides the work to create a map or some prefabs for us if you find it that easy ;)
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Encha on April 10, 2010, 03:52:16 pm
if i manage to find some spare time. i'll make you a few zones / maps :)

which do you think looks harder to use.

the editor you use or the one i have to use?

top picture the Doom Editor.  im guessing that's what it is.

and bottom the Unreal3 Editor, with a sample map im in middle of producing.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: MCR on April 10, 2010, 04:18:51 pm
@Encha:

You have to use the correct editor to make maps for UFO:AI & that is UFORadiant. Read the wiki article about UFO:AI mapping !

Here  :o:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping

Here you can download UFORadiant:
http://mattn.ninex.info/download/uforadiant-1.5-win32-r28750.exe

So if you really wanna help...
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Mattn on April 10, 2010, 04:23:05 pm
hehe - i really think he knows that  ;)
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on April 10, 2010, 04:26:23 pm
which do you think looks harder to use.

the editor you use or the one i have to use?

Since you know what you're doing, you also know that's kind of a silly point to make. Though they can take more time to get up to speed, more robust editors allow you to construct more complex shapes faster and easier.

Map shot looks good! I hope you'll give UFOAI mapping some attention. It may not have all the capabilities you could dream of, but it's got its own charms. There is plenty of game-critical content needed and many of the existing maps are out of date for what the engine is capable of, so there's an opportunity to make a big impact with mapping.

You're of course free to do as you like, but you could take a look at the city RMA (random map assembly) (http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=4483.0) I'm slowly developing. Right now I've just got a street grid and am working on a parking garage, but because it's so modular if you create a building according to the dimensions we can plop it right in.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Encha on April 10, 2010, 05:00:33 pm
@Encha:

You have to use the correct editor to make maps for UFO:AI & that is UFORadiant. Read the wiki article about UFO:AI mapping !

Here  :o:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping

Here you can download UFORadiant:
http://mattn.ninex.info/download/uforadiant-1.5-win32-r28750.exe

So if you really wanna help...


so i'm guessing it's not the editor you supplied with the game then?

but it's simlar to it. by a .5 margin in the versions.

and yes Mattn. i did know.

H-hour - thanks on the shot feedback. just something i made in few hours. i havent really put any work into it in like a month or two. been to busy.

and youre City RMA Looks really nice good job.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Silversnow on April 20, 2010, 06:00:24 am
You're of course free to do as you like, but you could take a look at the city RMA (random map assembly) (http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=4483.0) I'm slowly developing. Right now I've just got a street grid and am working on a parking garage, but because it's so modular if you create a building according to the dimensions we can plop it right in.
Neat!  That sure helps to add variety, but please make sure you have included a way to avoid placing building without access roads, or streets that begin & end without going nowhere!   :D
It can be a downer on the reality slider.

Actually, it reminds me of an XCOM map I once ended up in a terror mission, it only had two rods going the full screen...
Chrysalid turkey shoot on the highway!   ;D
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Apocalypse on May 09, 2010, 11:34:03 am
Hurry up with the next stable release so i can start helping out. I've been waiting for ages to get into this, as i can't be bothered jumping into the middle of a dev version. AI requires a stable build asap to attract dev attention.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: BTAxis on May 09, 2010, 12:29:26 pm
I think that helping out almost inevitably involves getting the dev version. Even if we did release a stable now, we'd move on ahead with the development branch right away. The stable would then probably get another update or two for bugfixes, but all real development would still be confined to the development branch. It would be pointless to develop based on the stable version, since it would quickly be outdated.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Apocalypse on May 09, 2010, 01:48:48 pm
I think that helping out almost inevitably involves getting the dev version. Even if we did release a stable now, we'd move on ahead with the development branch right away. The stable would then probably get another update or two for bugfixes, but all real development would still be confined to the development branch. It would be pointless to develop based on the stable version, since it would quickly be outdated.

Dev builds don't attract new potential devs as well as a full stable release however. The game needs exposure more than features at the moment.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: golgi76 on May 31, 2010, 12:29:20 pm
Hey folks!
I am amazed I haven't found out about this before now. I am  HUGE fan of the original XCOM:Ufo Defense on playstation, it was the first game I ever played that captivated me and took over my free time. As it stands, I have been a WoW player for almost 5 years, but with 7 80's and 2 years hardcore raiding experience, I have had my fill of Warcraft for the time being. That being said, I would love to contribute to this endeavor any way I can. I downloaded Radiant, and will start working on maps this week. I am also a 28 year musician, having trained violin for 10 years, from 5-15, and taught myself a host of instruments since. I'm new to this site, but I will try and find the links to the music dev pages and whatnot. Any guidance that can be provided would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you soon =)

 Golgi
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on May 31, 2010, 02:40:05 pm
Music-wise, I've been told that the von* songs are considered by the devs to be the game's main style/theme. In particular, the song that plays when the game is loading (which is von_theme.ogg I believe).
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: golgi76 on May 31, 2010, 08:41:44 pm
Cool, thanks. I'll see what I can come up with.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Duke on June 01, 2010, 12:00:21 am
Golgi,
if you're both a talented artist and a trained musician, I' suggest you should focus on modelling.
Afaik we don't have a particular lack of music. We have a lot of completely missing models though.

So use your free time to create models. You can use the remaining time to create music, though ;)
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: dfscott on July 11, 2010, 03:57:52 am
I noticed this thread appears to be pre-2.3.  Is mapping help still needed?  I'm a coder, but I'm a java guy, not C, so I'm probably not the best person to code.  I'm not an artist, but if some mechanical grunt-work is needed, I can certainly do that.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Destructavator on July 11, 2010, 04:11:38 am
I noticed this thread appears to be pre-2.3.  Is mapping help still needed?  I'm a coder, but I'm a java guy, not C, so I'm probably not the best person to code.  I'm not an artist, but if some mechanical grunt-work is needed, I can certainly do that.

Yes, we could certainly still use your help.  I've been out for about a week or so, and am still trying to catch up on things, but one of the other admins can certainly tell you what maps we need.

I'd suggest getting familiar with UFORadiant, our custom map-editor.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on July 11, 2010, 01:20:03 pm
Hey dfscott. If it's mapping you want to do, start here (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping). Post in the mapping forum if you have any questions. Mapping is a recurring need, and at this moment there aren't many people doing it.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: dfscott on July 11, 2010, 05:28:57 pm
Hey dfscott. If it's mapping you want to do, start here (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping). Post in the mapping forum if you have any questions. Mapping is a recurring need, and at this moment there aren't many people doing it.

Ok, cool -- I've already started playing with UFORadiant so I'll start there.  Thanks!
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Tadasu on July 19, 2010, 01:31:35 am
Alright say I wanted to start contributing what would be the most useful place to start for someone who has no real experience with this sort of stuff?
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Thrashard96 on July 19, 2010, 09:27:41 am
Reply to topic name: Me?
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: MCR on July 19, 2010, 12:25:22 pm
Alright say I wanted to start contributing what would be the most useful place to start for someone who has no real experience with this sort of stuff?
'say I wanted to...'
'what would be'

I am not sure if you really like to help  ;), but I would maybe suggest starting reading the first page of this thread, if you say you might eventually want to help, you could maybe under circumstances...

 ;)

Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Duke on July 20, 2010, 12:13:58 am
Reply to topic name: Me?
Yes, YOU ! ;)
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Thrashard96 on July 20, 2010, 09:00:19 am
LOL ;D How can i help if i'm only a modder and game memory address finder (one-fourth cheater, one-eighth memory hacker, three-eighths lamer/loser, one-eighth fair player and one-eighth debugger - i report things to geever)...
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Duke on July 22, 2010, 12:26:58 am
@PAUL1UZ5:
If you are skilled enough to figure out memory addresses for cheats, you are surely skilled enough to do *qualified* testing and reporting.
Sorry, I never cared about finding cheats. So... stupid question: does finding memory addresses involve reading the source code ?
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Thrashard96 on July 22, 2010, 06:00:16 pm
@PAUL1UZ5:
If you are skilled enough to figure out memory addresses for cheats, you are surely skilled enough to do *qualified* testing and reporting.
Sorry, I never cared about finding cheats. So... stupid question: does finding memory addresses involve reading the source code ?

Kind of, it is possible for anything if you know what you're doing, but flash/executable game (with HP/Turn Unit/Money data seen) modifying is way too easy, i'd prefer if devs might increase the data security like eax (ebx/ecx/edx/other) +x or something like that. The data is too exposed to cheaters otherwise!
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Duke on July 22, 2010, 11:53:30 pm
That's what I meant when I said *qualified testing*. Some who tests AND at least roughly understands the source code has a much better chance to make bugs reproducable or test the limitations of the code. I hope you go for it ;)

btw I don't understand your point of protecting the exe of an OSS program at runtime !? Anybody can change the code to "don't hurt my soldiers" or "gimme twice the money". Actually, most of the code for cheating is already there for the debug version. If you want to cheat, you merely need to enable the debug cvars for the release version. Or play the the debug version.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Thrashard96 on July 23, 2010, 08:45:13 am
btw I don't understand your point of protecting the exe of an OSS program at runtime !? Anybody can change the code to "don't hurt my soldiers" or "gimme twice the money". Actually, most of the code for cheating is already there for the debug version. If you want to cheat, you merely need to enable the debug cvars for the release version. Or play the the debug version.

So cheaters only play debug version? And about the stable version: code offsets are better in protection, when it is about +/-100 or something, when cheater must REALLY read the whole code TWICE to be safe with cheating and not crash the game with the wrong code, because it is without any offsets right now, so you can find what you want on second scan!
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Precisionist on October 09, 2010, 11:49:38 am
Ok, I am not a programmer of any sort, however I have done some writing at an amateur level.  I've done a lot of writing for my own personal RPG gaming, as well as contributed to some fan fiction sites for MMORPGs (links provided upon request).

I am currently playing 2.3, and have noticed there are some missing descriptions for some of the later aircraft.  Is this something you are looking for contributions for, or is the focus now on the 2.4 version?

As a huge fan of the X-Coms, and put a good part of my free time in playing those, I'd be willing to help out with this project, if my limited skillsets should allow.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Thrashard96 on October 09, 2010, 11:39:19 pm
you're free to contribute your work.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on October 10, 2010, 09:41:29 am
Ok, I am not a programmer of any sort, however I have done some writing at an amateur level.  I've done a lot of writing for my own personal RPG gaming, as well as contributed to some fan fiction sites for MMORPGs (links provided upon request).

I am currently playing 2.3, and have noticed there are some missing descriptions for some of the later aircraft.  Is this something you are looking for contributions for, or is the focus now on the 2.4 version?

As a huge fan of the X-Coms, and put a good part of my free time in playing those, I'd be willing to help out with this project, if my limited skillsets should allow.

I'm not sure what the deal is with the writing. I believe Winter has done most of it so that there is strong consistency of style and content. If you can match this then your contributions would be welcome.

Writing contributions are some of the hardest to integrate simply because of the need for more consistency than we might need in other areas. It might be best if you first prepared a post with a list of the articles you think are missing and a sample of one or two. I only say this so that you don't go diving in with lots of time. At this point you might not find many people following this up simply because no devs have a very complete sense of what's still missing or needed, and I haven't heard much from Winter (who was following this side of things) in a long time.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: DerTee on November 07, 2010, 04:48:30 pm
Hi!

I'm a game artist and I'd like to contribute, if there is a need for what I can do. My main focus is on character animation, but that said I'm pretty much an allrounder, I can model, texture (a bit slow, to be honest) and rig. I also know a tiny bit of python scripting, if needed (I made some small changes to the blender fbx-exporter for exports to xna and I made a small tool in Maya for copying tangent alignments to different frames).
Some stuff I made:
Showreel (http://vimeo.com/15269706)
high poly head (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7249229/head_02.jpg)
sci-fi-bunker (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7249229/bunker_01.jpg)

I'd be very happy to join this project because the original x-com was one of the first games I ever played, so I really like the idea of working on this modern adaption of the classic :)
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: bayo on November 07, 2010, 08:36:05 pm
Hello and welcome.
Maybe http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=5278.0 can interested you. Origin is working on model and animation, but i understand he dont especially like the animation part.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on November 08, 2010, 09:26:24 am
DerTree, your work is fantastic and we'd love to have you.

So far I think Origin has been handling the soldier animations and hasn't had any problems with it. You can definitely send him a PM and see if he wants help, but I suspect it will be his game unless he asks for any help.

We probably need models as much as we need animations (ie - what we have is already animated). Have a look at our general TODO (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/TODO/General#Artwork) and the TODO for 2.4 (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/TODO/2.4) under the Artwork section. There's a list of 3D models we need there. The 2.4 list is stuff we need most urgently, and it's got one entry for models: crashed versions of two interceptors. You can see examples of other crashed models at /base/models/objects/aircraft/crash_*.

And I will also make a plug for mapping. The mapping interface is not as easy to use or as advanced as Blender or Maya, of course, but we do need more mappers especially because it doesn't always attract modelers experienced with Blender/3DSM, etc.

Let us know if you have any questions and feel free to make a new thread if you're considering anything specific.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: DerTee on November 08, 2010, 09:09:44 pm
Thanks! I'm glad you like my stuff  :D

I sent a pm to Origin, so if he wants me to, I'll work with him on the soldier animations.
For now, I'll look into the crash models of stiletto and stingray.
To be perfectly honest I'm not too keen on mapping, but I'll probably give it a try anyway.

Btw, I had a talk with mattn on IRC the other day and he was nice enough to answer all the questions I had for the time being.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Origin on November 15, 2010, 05:21:24 am
@DerTee

I replied to your personal message, kick ass stuff you have there :D

It would definately be a huge help to have another person working on models and animation, so whatever amount you want to contribute is greatly welcomed.
Feel kinda bad that i only managed to reply this late :(
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: DerTee on November 16, 2010, 01:03:19 am
No problem, I was quite sick for most of last week, so I didn't do much anyway  ;)
And thanks for the compliment!

Collaboration on the same character will probably be quite tricky, because I don't have 3ds max.
But fbx does some good things maybe it'll work that way.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Adjuchas on March 15, 2011, 03:18:54 am
I've been following this project for a good while now and feel it's time I chip in too.
My only real talent is with map editing, I've made maps for pretty much all ID games up to and including Q2.
If you need more map contributors I'll familiarise myself with UFORadient and see if I can come up with something interesting.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Mattn on March 15, 2011, 07:19:31 am
I've been following this project for a good while now and feel it's time I chip in too.
My only real talent is with map editing, I've made maps for pretty much all ID games up to and including Q2.
If you need more map contributors I'll familiarise myself with UFORadient and see if I can come up with something interesting.

YES...!! we need you - we need a lot more maps. see here (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping/Suggestions) for a lot of suggestions. i would really like to see more city maps. i also really like the oil platform theme. but it's up to you as long as it fits into the style and looks good we will integrate it ;)
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on March 15, 2011, 11:17:21 am
Hi Adjuchas! Yes, we definitely need more mappers, especially people who are familiar with id mapping platforms. Most artists these days are familiar with Blender/3DSM/Maya and it's rare for someone to know how to use a radiant-based program.

Mattn gave you a link to suggested maps, but please feel free to do want you want, or make new proposals, or jump on our IRC and ask questions.

Here is the general introduction to mapping (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping) in our wiki. You'll find the wiki a useful source for learning things that you may not have experience with from id games, such as levelflags (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping/Levelflags), the material system (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping/Materialsystem), our Random Map Assembly (RMA) system (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping:Random_map_parts). And our mapping category (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Category:Mapping) has a list of all the pages as well.

Please post in the mapping forums with any questions or get on IRC.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Adjuchas on March 15, 2011, 11:16:08 pm
Thanks for all the info, I've been having a play around with the editor and think I can come up with something :)
I have a few ideas for suburban, inner city and industrial areas. I'll have more time to play around on the weekend!
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Jack Grey on April 09, 2011, 12:36:45 pm
Greetings chaps.

I'm a 3D modeler, working mostly in technical applications in AutoCAD (because I can't afford SolidWorks.)

I've got a huge portfolio of models, and I'm adept at converting sketches into 3D models.  I don't animate. 

HOW CAN I HELP?
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Mattn on April 10, 2011, 11:24:28 am
hi and welcome

we always need map models like trees, cars, trucks, waste containers - things that add variation to our existing maps

can you show us your portfolio?
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on April 12, 2011, 12:09:34 am
Hi Jack, yes we could always use more modellers. You can see the main post about needed artwork here (http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=5336.0) (it just links to two to-do lists).

If you have a link to your portfolio or can attach images of stuff you've done, we'll have a better idea of where your skills can be best used.

Feel free to ask any questions in the Artwork forum as well.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Jack Grey on April 12, 2011, 12:38:59 am
I can't post any of my stuff right now, I have 3 exams this week.  I looked at H-Hour's link, and I think I could do:

Small 1x1 robot to be used as a scout drone
Human-Alien Hybrid Missile

I already have a model for this future-y looking rocket around somewhere, I'll show it when I can.  I'm sorry I can't find anything I could do on the 2.4 to-do list. 

Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: xkuehn on June 22, 2011, 12:14:21 pm
Hello everyone.

Before I get to the point, I must first apologise.  :-[

Quote
The server has had some issues and downtime recently, due to an external link posted on a popular website,

I might have mentioned UFO:AI on Slashdot. I might have given the URL. I should have known what would happen. So sorry to everyone, including the UFO:TTS and OpenXcom guys, and NineX most of all, for the disruption. And thanks for the great game.

I'm a grad student, so I don't really have the time to put in a tremendous amount of work. I also don't enjoy programming. (The programming itself is in fact fine, it's learning poorly documented libraries with illegible source code that gets me.) I'm totally useless with art.

I do, however, have a B degree in mathematical statistics. I also have a little bit of knowledge of AI, but it's mostly neural networks and thus not very applicable to games.

If there is some area of the project where you can use my help, let me know.

EDIT: The AI doesn't seem too complicated. Who's currently working on it?
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Thia Halmades on November 21, 2011, 04:13:26 am
Good evening, y'all.

I'm Thia. You can find me on twitter (@thia_halmades) and of course on Google+ as David E McGuire. I'm a game designer, writer, and I wasted my early 20s playing X-COM: UFO Defense. I'm particularly keen on seeing the Android version of the game ramped up and polished, there are a lot of issues with it, even running on my ASUS tablet. I'm hoping to help point out where the errors are and even possibly learn some code along the way (I know none; game design? Yes! Code? No!)

So I'll be reading the boards and playing the game. Currently I can't even get into a fight on android with any functionality which really kills it. I did see that the original X-Com mapping is in place, which I loved (the 2x1 blocks were in place) but the menus were very kludgey, it was clearly set for a mouse interface, and not streamlined for a touch interface, which you need on the tablet devices. Also a lot of long, ugly pauses for loading.

I hope to be a meaningful contributor!
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: 427sohc on February 18, 2012, 07:42:29 am
Well, I knew Dr. Lincoln La Paz before he died and he was one of the first to visit the Roswell crash site, as he was head of Meteoritics at UNM. In fact, he was considered to be the best meteoriticist in the USA, and, of course, Dr. Krynov (from Moscow, Russia) was considered to be an excellent meteoriticist (having written three books on the subject), too. Both were the best in their field, at the time, which was a fairly unexplored scientific field (that is, meteoritics). In fact, there's probably no one alive today who is (as) an expert in the field as these two men were.

I bring this up, as the relevance of what Dr. La Paz shared with me, and what was actually found at Roswell, might help with your efforts here...

Anyway, as Dr. La Paz lived in Albuquerque, NM, and, again, was "the" meteoritics expert (who, BTW, helped on the Manhattan Project, and, as far as I can remember, spoke numerous languages, including English, French, German, and Russian), it was a no-brainer that he would be called to Roswell to investigate the crash scene, as this was right up his alley and he was already semi-famous for his investigation of the green ligh
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: TrashMan on April 27, 2012, 01:33:24 pm
Methinks this project needs more support.
More modelers. More texturers. More coders.

As great it is to see progress, I sometimes feel it is draging along.

Spread the word!
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: GlenSkunk on June 29, 2012, 01:57:10 pm
Whew, looks like quite a few contributors for this project already! Hard to find something that hasn't already been done in some fashion...but I imagine we'll be able to work it out.

When I saw this project on Desura, I was rather intrigued - a free XCOM-like game with high reviews? That sounded like something to take a look at! Dozens of hours later in just one game, and I was hooked. Quite a lot of neat things going on, a very nice XCOM vibe with a lot of tension - it's always tense when you find a UFO Fighter invading one of your ill-prepared bases, leaving you eight badly-equipped, hardly-trained rookies to face Ortnoks with Plasma Blasters...even on the easiest difficulty there's definitely some real challenge going on.

When I checked the website and found out folks can contribute, I thought, hey, maybe I could do something! But what?

Just glancing over the TODO stuff and proposals, it looked like a lot of what's still needed is either code-related, out of my experience, or already being taken care of! I'd originally thought of seeing what I could do on the modeling front, but I have to admit I'm sorta rusty with the ol' 3ds max, and it looked like a lot of the stuff to be modeled was already being taken care of. I never could figure out texturing very well either, so that seemed out. Then my eye got caught by the talk of cutscenes...

Now, a little background. My primary experience creatively is as an artist and animator - most recently focusing on experimental-style animation, but I've also done hand-drawn traditional stuff and some 3d-based work. I've actually made a couple of animated short subjects on my own, and assisted a friend with another, so as you can imagine when I saw the call for cutscene stuff - storyboards, designs, etc. - it definitely caught my eye. "Might be an interesting thing to try," I thought. A storyboard can be useful for whatever kind of cutscene style is used, whether it's the full 3d CGI treatment or the more "motion comic" style you see in Neverwinter Nights and Homeworld. What worries me is that I've no real idea if my work would be of a good enough quality to work for the project - seeing the amazing stuff the 3d guys have been coming up with is certainly rather humbling, particularly the updated armor models I saw floating around. (Best I ever managed on the 3d front as far as a game went was making models for use in a Spacebuild enhancement pack for a Spacebuild mod in Garry's Mod...)

So to help any of you in charge decide whether I'd actually work on this project or not, I can offer a few samples of what I've done to give you an idea of what my talent level (real or imagined) is. To the Dropbox links! (And YouTube too!)

Experimental Animation: http://youtu.be/JcnsMrHbrts (pastels/charcoals on mylar sheets) - this may give you some idea of what I've done with animation, particularly with regards to story/pacing. Obviously, the style shown here isn't going to be used for this project!

Digital Painting (sorta): https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4376536/GD-Blood%20Star%20Rising%20v3.png - A little digital painting thing I did one time - not really great, but has some potential, may give others ideas too.

3D Props for Garry's Mod:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4376536/Armed%20Combat%20Corvette%20Front%20View.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4376536/MilCock2%20and%20MilCock7%20Fighters.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4376536/MilCock8%20Exterior%20Shot.jpg

^My one real experience in actually making 3d content for a game, albeit for a mod of a mod (confusing huh?). The modeling itself was actually the easy part, the tricky part was getting textures on (I had to do a sort of brute-force method because I had almost no experience with UV mapping/texturing whatsoever) and doing the collision models for the props based on sliced-n-diced models...to some degree anyway. I'm ashamed to admit that it's also been some years since I've actually done any significant 3d work, so I'd probably suggest exercising caution on this front.

So yeah, there's what I have (at least some of it). If anyone who happens to be in charge on this project feels I could make a contribution - and, of course, has a suggestion on where I could start and what needs to be done - then please, by all means let me know!
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Crystan on June 29, 2012, 02:05:44 pm
Welcome! :) Well i like your 3D Props, good work. And yes, we totally need some 2D Art atleast for the campaign intro (burning buildings/city, ufos/aliens shooting marines/civs, goverment people sign phalanx contract - just the stuff the intro text is about). Iam sure even some 2d art of the tech pictures or alien/autopsy are very welcome.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on June 29, 2012, 09:09:05 pm
Probably the place where we need 2d art most is our tech images. You'll notice in /base/pics/techs that each of our research techs also has an image -- except that we are still missing a lot. I'm not sure which ones so it would take some work on your part to investigate which ones are needed. The main issue is that our general style has been photo-manipulations rather than paintings. We tend to use text, symbols, rendered shots of models or photos to compile these images. This is not 100% necessary (look at antimatter) but in those cases where the tech involves things that can be represented visually, we usually won't use a painterly style.

Your animation style is cool, but I'm not sure we're ready to go in that direction for our intros. That said, if you want to explore an idea you have for a drawing style that could work or have some concept work you think would be great for the intro or other parts of the game, go ahead and post that. An open source project like this doesn't really "commission". No one will say: "yes, we approve, you should make this" based on your existing work. We're only really going to respond when you post something that makes us go: "oh yeah, that's pretty cool. That could work."

This is not meant to discourage you, but is more meant to say: make something we can comment on.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Unisol on July 06, 2012, 08:34:54 pm
Probably the place where we need 2d art most is our tech images.
Most(if not all) ufopaedia images for weapons techs' are rotating 3D models of weapons and their ammo - is that desired or subject for replacement as well?
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on July 06, 2012, 09:27:42 pm
Most(if not all) ufopaedia images for weapons techs' are rotating 3D models of weapons and their ammo - is that desired or subject for replacement as well?

Personally, I'm in favor of the idea of making proper images, because I think it will look better. But if I'm being realistic, I think we should stick to the 3D models for a couple reasons:

1. The models are likely to change at some point in the future so the tech images would have to be redone.

2. We should try to be consistent and it would be difficult to make tech images for every model and ammo.

For those reasons, I think we'll probably stick with the 3D models. If you're interested in doing other tech images, I can take a look and try to provide you with a list of needed images.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Unisol on July 06, 2012, 09:58:15 pm
If you're interested in doing other tech images, I can take a look and try to provide you with a list of needed images.
This would be great. I'm not an expirienced artist, but I'd love to give it a try. Anyway, if I fail, such list would be useful to the next guy, so I'd suggest putting it in the required artwork list (http://ufoai.org/wiki/index.php/TODO/General#2D_artwork).
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on July 06, 2012, 10:30:42 pm
Unisol, have a look at our Roadmap (http://ufoai.org/wiki/index.php/TODO/Roadmap). I've flagged needed tech images under section 9: Storyline > Story Content. Keep in mind some of these research items involve story elements not yet implemented, but we'll still need tech images eventually.

In addition to this, there are three items that currently use models but I think they could be done using tech images, since the objects are not items equipped by an aircraft:

- Alien Astrogation
- Alien Propulsion
- Alien Detection
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Unisol on July 07, 2012, 10:45:18 am
Thanks, H-Hour. I'll do what I can.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: jffdougan on November 05, 2012, 09:07:35 pm
I have no talent on the front of graphics/music/coding, but as I've played through part of version 2.4 (currently near the end of August 2084), I've encountered some UFOPaedia entries (especially in the research reports) that sound "off" given my background as a scientist-turned-educator. How would one go about volunteering to clean these up?

Also, although it's a touch meta-gamey, I'd like to see something like damage capacity ratings for the assorted aircraft.
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Gary Bonn on November 06, 2012, 05:35:18 pm
I've found a way of helping..! I'm a writer of fiction. For the last few weeks - and now every Sunday - Bonzo and I have been getting you into the hearts and minds of pilots, researchers and others living and working on a PHALANX base. 
Do give us your comments   :)
http://writerlot.net/writerlot.htm
Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: Snowblind on December 15, 2012, 05:28:21 am
I posted here under a different name some years or months back, before the game was playable. I was one of the first to suggest the 'UFO yard' among other things, happy to have contributed. I really like the setting and the hard-scifi gritty feel of the game. This game kicks ass. It's got almost everything right. It's the sequel to XCOM that should have happened years ago. The release of the the new name-brand 'AAA' level xcom game really made me realize how bad every remake and sequel of the original game is/was. Mass-market games are out-of-touch of what makes these originals so appealing. UFO:AI has it right, because the people making it know what they are doing. The music in UFO AI is AAA, the geoscape globe is fucking amazing to me. Needs more lights in Africa and whereever, because it's the future, but it looks very slick, well polished, no lag or nothing. Gameplay is solid.

I'd contribute to mapping. I'm really sick of playing crashed_scout. A lot of the maps, need improvement and more variation. I made maps for Doom and Starcraft, for years on end, surely not quite the same, but I think I know how to make decent game levels, I'm looking forward to the 2.5 release so the map editor actually works. Also, I'm sure to bitch and complain about things in the game that I don't like.

Title: Re: UFO:AI needs you. Yes, you.
Post by: H-Hour on December 15, 2012, 01:19:26 pm
Have you tried the nightly builds for 2.5 with the Radiant installer on our download page (http://ufoai.org/wiki/Download)? Check under the "Development (latest)" section.