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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

New Unit Concepts


Jamaru

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Its only a small unit so its fine in a single box. Were it a full sized tank master id feel different about putting it in a small box. Its a scout drone really, like the robotic scouts used by Bomb disposal teams, small and agile. As for fixed weapons; it wont have fixed weapons but there will be no visible weapon loadouts on this unit as the guns will be mounted by technicians inside the units weapon pods (there are two stacked weapon pods to represent two 'arms')

 

Here is the finished product. It sounds naff when it moves but the current unit API doesnt allow for different step sounds. There arent any death animations as such either for the moment and the end product will not be able to crouch. Come in a range of fruity colours!

 

 

so... how does it handle the ladders? ^_^

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And stairs? Is it possible to set lower climb treshold for specific units?

 

It looks very good btw.

 

Man, we really need new units, even with hardcoded stats. I think I could duplicate the Chameleon a few times in the source, with different stats. Would that be ok? It says in the sources it's an ugly hack though, some Lawyer guy did it I think. I have no experience on that LUA binding or allegro.

Edited by bamb
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you wont hear me complain if you add new units, not matter how cludgy they are. Its not like the Unit API is going anywhere in any hurry. You would need to make the changes and send them to Nachtwolf tho, since he can add it to the repositories. If you did get it working, give me a yell and ill have the new weaponset and sounds added also.
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Hey just coming to peek in..wow! nice job sporb! Keep it up man. Your work really makes me want to go play xcom with your units...or ufo2000 for that matter.

 

I'm going to look around for anything else I may have not been here to see. :)

Edited by Kratos
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Where do I find out, how to place it into the game? Or isn't it possible, to view it in the game? The little pieces are OK, but difficult to imagine the whole unit then.

 

drop all the internals of the zip file into the Chameleon unit folder and its all set.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

A new unit.

 

Metapod, a small robot designed by X-com research team after extensive research on the Sectopod. The large amounts of alien materials required to construct this Sectopod replication led to its small size. It was never deployed, however, due to it was still being tested under its beta phases. Although small, this unit can prove to be quite effective with its weapon and armor capabilities. Like the Sectopod, its strength against plasma and vulnerability to laser is present. It is via remote controlled by an operator.

--------------

I am lacking walking animations. If a good soul wants to help me... :)

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The large amounts of alien materials required to construct this Sectopod replication led to its small size.

 

So wait. How does a lot of materials equate to a small end product? That's gonna be a pretty dense little thing if it's that small (it can't be much bigger than a TV going by that picture) and yet used a lot of materials. :huh:

 

Unless most of it was wasted. In which case that's kinda inefficient production processes.

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The large amounts of alien materials required to construct this Sectopod replication led to its small size.

 

So wait. How does a lot of materials equate to a small end product? That's gonna be a pretty dense little thing if it's that small (it can't be much bigger than a TV going by that picture) and yet used a lot of materials. :huh:

 

Unless most of it was wasted. In which case that's kinda inefficient production processes.

Follow what bamb said. Look at a Sectopod, it is large (2x2, human height). Now look at my unit (1x1, TV height). I probably didn't word it the best, but that's what I meant.

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Ahhh, I get it. So it's "because it takes a lot of materials to make a Sectopod, we decided to make this replication smaller to avoid using such a large amount of materials"?

 

That makes a lot more sense.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not bad, but you might want to stay away from using other artist's designs, such as bases. It's fine to base it off something, but not to copy the shape directly. The artist might feel offended or that you "stole" their art. You can always tweak the shape a bit. And with your art skills, it seems you're capable of such a thing. :)

 

Good job, regardless.

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The artist might feel offended or that you "stole" their art.

 

does the artwork released with ufo2000 not fall under the same copyright restrictions as the source itself?

y'know to help encourage more prolific creations by other people contributing in any way they can

 

of course it's always polite to ask first

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  • 2 months later...

Ummm... may i suggest..? You don't need those pics as a base, really. You're fine artist and you do it well. But look at your troops. I've never liked the way the original artist drawn their legs (no offence, but they're really ugly to me, in comparison with the original x-com troopers). Really, the most beautyful legs are riginal x-com's ones. Yours are just stays toooo far from each other. Just try to stand your feet on the same width as they do and you'll understand what i mean (i hope). I s'pose noone would object (i mean copyright thing) if you just combine the upper shapes of your soldiers with the lower shapes (not the contents, though) of x-com troopers' images.

And yeah, you robocop has way too short/small arms. Think about it.

 

And about the Hover Droid from wiki page. If you happen to use that hover droid - can anyone explain me why on earth it can't die well? i mean, the cpecified sprites are not there during the animation - when it's destroyed it falls on the ground and lies here and looks like something green (some of the aliens, i s'pose).

 

I've just read the last two pages of this thread and was really, i mean REALLY dissapointed. The only stuff i'd like to see in next releases are the grey alien and the monsteroid (or how is it named..?) and that red drone slightly tuned as look a little bit odd.

But let me clarify myself. I thought that new units are good, but as far as i know you're lacking non-xcom graphics. I mean, last time i've installed ufo2k on my linux i've got it with only chameleon units (which were shown instead of ANY other types of units on the battle field), missing interface images for arsenal and no sound. I thought that only depends on my /dev/hands and i've failed to compile the sound normally, or that the code of ufo2k is not totally compatible with Linux... but i was wrong. The only problem was - i forgot to put that original x-com files into UFO directory. And now you're discussing _adding_ new units with similar functionality to the existing ones? Don't misunderstand me, but thats absurd. I mean, the Grey alien would perfectly replace the sectoids and allow users to play without messing around with those x-com dependencies. So, my idea is to replace sprites for sectoids by those new of a grey alien. Not adding the new race or "skin" for chameleon. The same with monsteroid, but, actually i can't tell you which x-com race it would replace... though, it looks good.

This way you'll get rid of those bloody copyright dependencies on x-com original graphics. Just try to create your new art for that first, then try to create new units. So, if you get the idea you now got the sectoid and, let's say, muton replacement (by grey alien and monsteroid respectively). I s'pose you'll need to draw all human types of armour - thus not using the old graphics. And for those who don't want to use the new art you could just make on option similar to "use old x-com grahics", but applying only for units (or maybe separate units?).

 

About the tracke scout drone - it's nice, i like robotics, and it goes well with hover droid and other mechanised stuf... but it's too simmetric in the arsenal view. Maybe there's a point to show it 3/4 (whell, i don't actually know the term for that perspective view, when you can observe 3/4th of someone's face). Or if you're insisting on showing it in front, then i'd suppose to add some assimetry to the trucks - stains, chains, headlight (one!) or something - just looks too odd for me. But the upper half is ok.

 

About other stuff that i've seen here - altaneuron is just ugly. it really just the most ugliest thing i've ever seen. I don't want it to be in any of later releases. I can't explain how to enhance it - it's just wrong in it's root - try to draw another one (or better don't - i don't like those flying brains)...

zombie - it's ok, it may stay, but just as a chameleon skin or a human skin when the human was zombified b cryssalid.

robot - i agree with those opinions on it's legs and he's not of a human proportions (see any anatomy book or just any human photo to understand what i mean).

stalker - ugly disproporional oversaturated thing. to the artist - read a pair of body drawing manuals - your works are missing their human proportions. Just try to overlay your stalker above the regular human image (at least x-com trooper) and you'll see that they're not matching. my advice here - try to take Sporb's zombie silhouette as a base - his zombies are right proportioned.

 

concerning metapod and scout probe - haven't tried them yet, just downloaded. But according to the images posted - pretty nice =) i like them.

And those trinity just above - ive already said they need right legs at least, but are cool in common. keep improving them.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

And now my apologise to all the artists that are/were involved in creating those arts: i know, i'm noone here and i don't have a right to make some insulting things (and i s'pose some were insulting, however i've tried to avoid them) but i'm a regular user. And this game is made for us, "mortals". And i've said, maybe (!), what any other user could say (or think, even if not explicitly), when he see the game. So, you need our opinion and my opinion (i hope) wasn't just "that's bad - don't do it". I've tried to explain the backdraw of each artwork and gave some pieces of advice to the authors. So, don't ban me and beat me not too heavily. I want to help to improve the game experience.

Thanks =) guys, keep moving and creating anyway.

 

~~~~

 

Those scout probe and metapod units... well, in the inventory metapods looks charming, while on the battlefield - they're just grey-brown clubs... But, anyway - they have some problems concerning their drawing - they looks like dissappearind when moving at some angles. That's not appropriate way of rendering them (as i suppose), but that's really interesting effect to make some predator-like units (since they aren't totally dissapear, but looks like tiny moving artifacts). Is there any way of making skins looking different for different players? i mean visible for master and half-visible for another?

And scout probe - seeing it in inventory made me think, that there's no great need in making it assimetryc, but rather less saturated. They're too shiny, too colorfull. That's not good for war. But everything else is still fine... =)

Edited by Kraplax
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  • 1 year later...

Making a new unit is very time intensive. But as I am a commited frequent player I would like to see more strategy posibilities available. Making new units for me should improve strategic posibilities not just another picture to play with. (of course this is only now that sufficient units are availible!) Analizing current weaponry available with the current weapons I've come to the conclusion that adding a unit with high bottom armour would increase strategic possibilities and thus for me increase gameplay fun. There are 2 options noted here which i believe could work.

 

Option 1. New unit with high ground armour posibility:

 

Solution:

some time ago a poster added this picture as a concept for ufo2000 which I believe was the best concept put here.

post-20366-1256859751_thumb.png

 

A red muton would fit in the gap of the normal muton and the human with power armour. This unit would also make it easy to implement the new strategic ability. A special armoured boots/ground armour would be available to this red muton. The armour would cost more and would drasticly improve the units ground armour protecting him from the explosions.

 

Translating the RED MUTON concept to ufo2000 grafics it would roughly look like this in game.

 

RED MUTON.

post-20366-1256859733.png

post-20366-1256863397.png

 

Option 2. Armoured skimmer/tank.

 

An armoured skimmer would have strong front and bottom armour and would be available to some current units as an armour type. So an existing unit would sit/be in it. I have no example of this artwise but think of any unit cut in half and in a sort of mini tank.

 

I've analysed both options and both options will probably take lots of time but probably are possible within the current lua editing possibilities (for non-programmers like me).

 

 

There is a lot of talk here about making stuff but I WILL be making AND finishing one of the 2 options. Im currently making some other stuff like a weaponset and a map (+ I have a normal life LOL) so don't expect too much too soon.

As soon as i start moving I'll post here! (I'm constructing .LUA and artwork as the cameleon units were made) Meanwhile if you have any idea's about this subject i'll gladly hear any ideas or help! Think of ways artwise to fit the role of a unit with strong bottom armour or a unit that needs to be flanked (strong front armour).

Edited by FUEL
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  • 5 months later...

I have been working on a game of mine, but since part of the game is isometric I suppose UFO2k could use them if desired.

 

A little preview:

 

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/082/1/d/Azrael_Directional_View_by_Kratos_Neblim.png

 

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/080/b/b/Azrael_Walk_by_Kratos_Neblim.gif

 

I need to give him a death animation and a holding animation yet. I also have yet to include him into a custom sprite sheet, but that will be remedied soon after a new windows build will be released (since today this has been talked about recently in development).

 

I'm also working on other characters and what not. Tiles and weapon sets are also in the works.

 

A character inventory sprite will not be included however. The most I have is a basic face portrait and I don't intend on bending over backwards for the inventory screen.

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Hey Kratos , Nice to hear you're back. :D

I have a couple questions.

1) whats your character's name? EDIT. oh its Azrael. :D

2)can i see a preview of this game your working on? do you have a site? it looks like NES. I like NES( but mine broke :Cry: ) at least there are emulators :D

anyway good stuff

also im working on a few things myself I'll keep you and everyone informed on how i'm doing.

EDIT: oh just looked on your DA. answered my own question :D

Edited by Da Bad Adder
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Hey Kratos , Nice to hear you're back. :D

I have a couple questions.

1) whats your character's name? EDIT. oh its Azrael. :D

2)can i see a preview of this game your working on? do you have a site? it looks like NES. I like NES( but mine broke :Cry: ) at least there are emulators :D

anyway good stuff

also im working on a few things myself I'll keep you and everyone informed on how i'm doing.

EDIT: oh just looked on your DA. answered my own question :D

 

1) Yea, Azrael. He has a pistol, sword, and can make use of some magic (like seen in typical RPGs). His role is an investigator in his suddenly current apocalyptic world. I have more characters (though not all are fully drawn like him) and a giant plot involving them all. But that's something I should avoid talking about since it's not finished anyway. Not to mention, kind of off topic, since it's a plot as a "whole" story and not just the character.

 

2) Yea, like you said, on my DeviantArt I have a lot of previews of works I've been completing. My DA portfolio has a full preview of it though. As you already may know, it's called X-Fire. I am designing it similar to the NES/SNES great classic RPGs, but with my own twists.

 

Not sure what you're working on, but I know for myself, I don't always reveal too much. It's better to design everything before bragging I suppose. Else it seems like nothing gets completed. I've known this to occur a lot with some previous projects of mine.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I'm making progress with the other characters at least...I've also been adjusting some of Azrael's animations (side are proving difficult to me).

 

Keji, the blue haired fighter, now has north/south/north diagonal sprites. I also readjusted the shading on him from his original version (though I've never displayed the original here).

Kratos (no not me), the wizard in the black fedora and clothing, now also has north/south/north diagonal sprites. Color readjustment as well.

New character, Vesiah (witch/wizardess in purple dress). Will start on her directional sprites soon.

 

Once I finish Azrael's side animation, I most likely will move on to animate Keji and Kratos (which shouldn't take long if I use Azrael as an example). :)

 

I think it will be interesting to add these as a unit pack. Though I hope it doesn't go under deaf's ears when I release it. Of course this is being created for another project anyway, so it wouldn't ruin my purpose.

 

 

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I think it will be interesting to add these as a unit pack. Though I hope it doesn't go under deaf's ears when I release it.

It's always good to have more unit types in ufo2000. Though I'm kind of unsure if it fits the traditional ufo/x-com setting :)

 

Of course this is being created for another project anyway, so it wouldn't ruin my purpose.

I hope you are having lots of fun working on this hobby project of your own :)

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It's always good to have more unit types in ufo2000. Though I'm kind of unsure if it fits the traditional ufo/x-com setting :)

There is no setting if I include map packs for it. I don't have to draw UFOs anywhere. How the player uses the units though, is another story I suppose. Also the use in melee combat is quite moot for what I want to achieve, in UFO2K anyway. Melee could be a lot more intuitive than simple "shoot from 1 tile away".

 

 

I hope you are having lots of fun working on this hobby project of your own :)

Indeed I am. It's proving quite a learning experience in game programming, design, etc.

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There is no setting if I include map packs for it. I don't have to draw UFOs anywhere.

If there is a complete pack of units + maps + weapons which fit well together, then it is surely fine.

 

How the player uses the units though, is another story I suppose.

I'm a bit worried about turning everything into a mess if people start mixing aliens, marines, medieval knights, cavemen, magic users, clowns, cartoon characters, etc. all in the same game. This also applies to weapons and maps. It may just look disgusting and ruin the mood. Well, it may be surely fun sometimes, but only if both players don't mind playing the game in such a way (yeah, the mission planner needs to be flexible enough to easily enforce the rules and restrictions which suit both players).

 

Also the use in melee combat is quite moot for what I want to achieve, in UFO2K anyway. Melee could be a lot more intuitive than simple "shoot from 1 tile away".

Do you have any good ideas about how to improve it?

 

In any case, it's good to see you around. It's a bit lonely here because a lot of old-timers have left ;)

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I'm a bit worried about turning everything into a mess if people start mixing aliens, marines, medieval knights, cavemen, magic users, clowns, cartoon characters, etc. all in the same game. This also applies to weapons and maps. It may just look disgusting and ruin the mood. Well, it may be surely fun sometimes, but only if both players don't mind playing the game in such a way (yeah, the mission planner needs to be flexible enough to easily enforce the rules and restrictions which suit both players).

 

I agree. Mixing these things is putrid. Especially when art design from one author changes to a completely new one (Mithos for xcom to mine would be horrible). I even will go as far to say ufo2k's custom default units aren't even on par with this. There needs to be full "packs" for all these designs wrapped together (x-com, ufo2k, [insert medieval fantasy here]). Perhaps tie this into lua for restrictions. I don't want my stuff mixed with everything else if all possible. It's just not what I designed any of it for.

 

Also the use in melee combat is quite moot for what I want to achieve, in UFO2K anyway. Melee could be a lot more intuitive than simple "shoot from 1 tile away".

Do you have any good ideas about how to improve it?

 

- Make it tile based, not bullet collision based. This is my biggest recommendation. Even X-com did this.

 

- Make it reactionable (reaction stat becomes more valuable). If one gets hit by a bat, they will likely turn around and fight back (unless they're already knocked senseless of course). I actually suggest you make this universal with all form of reaction, including getting shot and shot at. X-com also did this, mainly to give reactions a valuable stat variable plug.

 

In any case, it's good to see you around. It's a bit lonely here because a lot of old-timers have left ;)

 

Thanks. :) Much stuff has changed in my life over the years, but I like coming back here once and awhile since this was my first online game and starting point of becoming wanting to become game developer. ;) I promise I'll try to stay active if you do. ;)

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I'm a bit worried about turning everything into a mess if people start mixing aliens, marines, medieval knights, cavemen, magic users, clowns, cartoon characters, etc. all in the same game. This also applies to weapons and maps. It may just look disgusting and ruin the mood. Well, it may be surely fun sometimes, but only if both players don't mind playing the game in such a way (yeah, the mission planner needs to be flexible enough to easily enforce the rules and restrictions which suit both players).

 

yeah i agree too. well, this could be easily fixed by enforcing it in the rules. also being able to save rule variants would be good. If you have ever played halo custom games you will know what i mean. in fact, if we could learn from halo's rule setups and stuff like that in general, i can see stuff improving.

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  • 1 year later...

so im trying to create a unit/skin for the chamelon but i keep getting a pck viewer error: a microsoft. net framework error, any clues or am i f-----d?

 

 

See the end of this message for details on invoking

just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

 

************** Exception Text **************

System.OverflowException: Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow.

at PCK_Viewer.MainForm.getImage(Byte[] pckData, Int32 p, String path)

at PCK_Viewer.MainForm.getFile(Object sender, CancelEventArgs e)

at System.Windows.Forms.FileDialog.OnFileOk(CancelEventArgs e)

at System.Windows.Forms.FileDialog.HandleVistaFileOk(IFileDialog dialog)

 

 

************** Loaded Assemblies **************

mscorlib

Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5446 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll

----------------------------------------

PCK Viewer

Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0

CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/Connie/Downloads/Programs/PCK%20Viewer.exe

----------------------------------------

System.Windows.Forms

Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5446 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll

----------------------------------------

System

Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5447 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll

----------------------------------------

System.Drawing

Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll

----------------------------------------

Accessibility

Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)

CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll

----------------------------------------

 

************** JIT Debugging **************

To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this

application or computer (machine.config) must have the

jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.

The application must also be compiled with debugging

enabled.

 

For example:

 

<configuration>

<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />

</configuration>

 

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception

will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer

rather than be handled by this dialog box.

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