fabre Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 I love xcom but I hate the fact that on the battlescape all soldiers are blond with that "guile" haircut. So 2 questions:1. Is there a graphic package that would replace the first 2 uniforms?Something where they would wear a helmet, mask, cap or whatever as long I won't see those yellowish hair anymore. 2. in case there is no positive answer to 1. a clone theme, only 1 portait, the blond guy obviously, and serial numbers instead of names, like Agent 1001 and so on.Don't mind the fact those clones won't have the same profile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[Blehm 98] Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 some of them are women, and some of them are darker than others. And just get power suits and you never have to worry about that again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral Harkov Posted August 22, 2004 Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 Mmmm, I don't like those approaches, I'd prefer to see who's who in the battlescape.The only chance would find that with filenames and PCK offstes it does the same as for the portrait in the equip soldier screen: instead of having a common body and then files for each head and hands, each file has the whole soldier. So if somewhere in the exe or archives were everything for each type of soldier it could be modified the non-blondes so the game show each with different look.I have to watch it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris StarShade Posted August 22, 2004 Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 You'd have to edit the source code of the geoscape and the battlescape and edit the graphics package (assuming that's a seperate file, it probably is). All of this is, as you might guess, more trouble than it's worth. Otherwise, if you change the blonde guy to a dark-haired guy, all the guys will have dark hair. Change the blonde gal to a middle-aged sheila, and all the gals are middle-aged sheilas (to use an Australianism). So, them's the breaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted August 23, 2004 Report Share Posted August 23, 2004 Ah, but if the UFO2000 guys can add individualism to concentrated, turn-based chaos, then why can't we? ...oh, wait... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral Harkov Posted September 1, 2004 Report Share Posted September 1, 2004 It can't be done. It has the common part of the filename UFOGRAPH\MAN_ and the rest is appended during run time, so I can't do it by just editing the exe with a hex editor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EtherImp Posted September 4, 2004 Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 Don't forget that all of the men in personal armor mysteriously have dyed their hair brown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 Ah yes. Interesting how military dress protocols work, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 Especially when it's called "quick programming"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 Funny. We call it laziness where I come from. Ah, when everything else in X-Com is so great, who cares that your guys all look like they came from a cloning facility? Guess the Commander of X-Com has some strange mix-match ideas... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 Yeah, well, this was the nineties ya know, games programming was more art than science, and art always gets messed up by corporate environment.. as are scientist nowadays... *roll* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted September 10, 2004 Report Share Posted September 10, 2004 So much for fixing the X-Com soldiers' lack of individuality. <_> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted September 10, 2004 Report Share Posted September 10, 2004 Yep, I just hope it will be better in Xenocide...UFO: aftermath was'nt so bad, but all the voices sounded silly... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted September 10, 2004 Report Share Posted September 10, 2004 Never got to play Aftermath, unfortunately, and due to reviews and lack of good availability around here, I probably won't ever get the chance. Bah, I don't think Xenocide will have a problem with that. Polygons, man, polygons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted September 10, 2004 Report Share Posted September 10, 2004 Well, to be honest, I only played the Demo, enough to see the gameplay was cool, especially the soldier equipment/developpment, but the human weapons are unbalanced, they are really efficient when in packs, but a soldier alone have no chance to kill a single thing past the critter level... And all the monsters are the same color palette... hard to differenciate between them... But then I discovered Xenocide, and the good old Original XCOM CE... Yep, full faces in-game is a must in Xenocide... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted September 12, 2004 Report Share Posted September 12, 2004 Wonder if we can go a step better and do that "random-faces" thing like they're supposedly using in Half-Life 2 (for the numerous civilians and such). I'm thinking that it should be transparent enough not to become a gimmick, but realized enough to add that extra little bit of personality to each soldier. Worth persuing latter, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellfire__356 Posted September 12, 2004 Report Share Posted September 12, 2004 Well i suppose that changing the code for random faces would mean effort and less time down the pub for the programers , maybe the programers just had a thing for blonds? (by the way anyone notice in the manual it says u have access to the best of the best soldiers but their all rookies and blond?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted September 13, 2004 Report Share Posted September 13, 2004 Nah, randomising faces is far too time-consuming... Having the ability to mod some more is far better IMHO. Btw, the XCOM soldiers are only blondes in the battlescape, in the equipment screen they're all kinds of colors... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted September 14, 2004 Report Share Posted September 14, 2004 Uh, randomizing Xenocide's faces was what I had in mind. Actually, it's not as difficult as you might think, according to Computer Gaming World. Just some shape adjustment variables that are shifted about in random increments, a couple color changes, and that's it. Instant randomized faces. Well, that's what they're doing with Half-Life 2, again, anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted September 14, 2004 Report Share Posted September 14, 2004 Well, things like that would tie down our artists quite a bit, and if you look at Aftermath's generated faces, they are not terribly good and do get repetitive; I don't see us doing a better job right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl. Facehugger Posted September 14, 2004 Report Share Posted September 14, 2004 Well, things like that would tie down our artists quite a bit, and if you look at Aftermath's generated faces, they are not terribly good and do get repetitive; I don't see us doing a better job right now. Aftermath's faces aren't randomly generated. There are around 200 premade faces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted September 14, 2004 Report Share Posted September 14, 2004 Yep, and it's still alot more than we had in XCOM, with, like 16 faces all in all...Yet, it's enough for most purposes, especially considering that heavy armors hide their faces a lot more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted September 14, 2004 Report Share Posted September 14, 2004 Yeah, it's just a detail thing that's really not incredibly necessary at the moment. Maybe we can slide that one by after V1. I can see it being difficult now. Note--apparently, the heavy armors have faceplates now, rather than full-on helmets. Can't hide the laziness with that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted September 14, 2004 Report Share Posted September 14, 2004 Still, it won't show up the faces that much, so it's not that important...Even static pics would be allright to me, if the gameplay is right... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted September 15, 2004 Report Share Posted September 15, 2004 Well, if I knew anything about 3d modelling (which I unfortuately don't, but hey--I'm willing to learn sometime), I'd gladly do the "grunt work" myself. Heck, sounds like "fun" to me, in a sense. Even pre-generated faces would be great if they came in high quantity and seldom repeat (not to mention high quality, as well). Worth pursuing later on, I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted September 15, 2004 Report Share Posted September 15, 2004 Aftermath's faces aren't randomly generated. There are around 200 premade faces., then they did a pretty bad job with them! They have a couple of base 'types' from which they seem to be derived without much care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted September 16, 2004 Report Share Posted September 16, 2004 I'm interested to see a couple samples. Are they really that bad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted September 17, 2004 Report Share Posted September 17, 2004 Not THAT bad IMHO, just... pretty much similar...But then again, I think the aliens that all look alike was worse, they're all the same color palette... Pretty boring... then again, that's the failings of a commercial game on tight deadlines, especially if it changed hand 2 times during developpment... Here's to MODDABLE and OPEN SOURCE games such as Xenocide!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex the greater Posted September 20, 2004 Report Share Posted September 20, 2004 x-com was prety modable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted September 20, 2004 Report Share Posted September 20, 2004 Maybe, but never as much, as say, CivilisationII or Space Empires IV !! (btw, the V is comin'up !!) My point is, it could really easilly be far easier to be moddable, with text files for the rules for instance, or having the 3D textures as plain editable images...It just takes the wilingness of the programmers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted September 20, 2004 Report Share Posted September 20, 2004 From past knowledge, making things easily modifiable generally means trading off visual/audial fidelity for flexibility, unfortunately. That's not to say mods aren't worth it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snakeman Posted September 21, 2004 Report Share Posted September 21, 2004 Having parused one of the active threads about the alien names or whatever (I couldn't post this there or I would'a), at least it seems they're gonna put stuff like that in a text file we can edit ourselves. Editing certainly helps liven things up a bit no question, so I guess in that sense anyway, it doesn't really matter what they call things at time of publish if we're able to tweak to our heart's content Taking that example and applying it to other areas of the game and who knows what the possibilities would be. Its why I came back to X-COM. With the love so many have for that game, you can count on a mod or utility of some sort every so often. I don't envy the programmers who have to make their project so open, but they do tend to become very popular if they can pull that off so they got my respect (and sympathies ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted September 21, 2004 Report Share Posted September 21, 2004 Yeah, I'm totally with you on that I'm pretty sure that as soon (even before? :o) Xenocide is released, ther will be a Mod designed to put the original names in there... One of us fans HAVE to do it, for old time's sake if nothing else... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Master Maniac Posted September 21, 2004 Report Share Posted September 21, 2004 Yes, Yoko Fujimoto will rise again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j'ordos Posted September 21, 2004 Report Share Posted September 21, 2004 (edited) Maybe, but never as much, as say, CivilisationII or Space Empires IV !! (btw, the V is comin'up !!) My point is, it could really easilly be far easier to be moddable, with text files for the rules for instance, or having the 3D textures as plain editable images...It just takes the wilingness of the programmers...Of course, at the time of X-com, modding a game wasn't so common as it is today (and just look how common it is today in commercial games )CivII was quite the exception at the time, I don't know many games that age that can be modded to that extent.SE V is still a year away though, plenty of time to start modding yourself on SE IV edit: from what I've seen Locomotion is pretty moddable too Different faces is pretty low on my priority list for Xenocide though Edited September 22, 2004 by j'ordos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin Posted September 22, 2004 Report Share Posted September 22, 2004 Yup, I'm 100% with you on this, Jordos...(and yes, unfortunately, SEV AND Xenocide are still a lot of time ahead...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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