Posted 17 May 2005 - 06:04 PM
I think I wasn't clear on my last post so I'll try to explain it better:
The idea is to have different weapons packs, besides the UFO one. So, ideally you would have something like this:
- Standard (the classic weapons of X-COM:UFO)
- TFTD (all of TFTD's weapons)
- Star Trek (as an example)
If you take the Standard pack, the weapons that make that pack are defined on the standard-items.lua file. But you can use different subsets of combinations to be used during a game, namely: Standard, Standard (no explosives), Standard (no alien weapons). Those are defined on the standard-equipment.lua file.
Now, when you create a weapons pack, you will need to define both the weapons and at least 1 subset on a single .lua file, like in happens now on the newweapons or tftdweapons.lua files.
For instance, if you have a Star Trek weapons pack with weapons from all factions on that series, you can divide it like this: a Star Trek subset (that includes all of the weapons from Federation, Borg and Klingon), a Federation subset (which only has the Federation's weapons), a Klingon subset, a Borg subset, etc.
That way the players first choose the pack (UFO, TFTD, Star Trek...), then if they want they choose between different subsets (if there are more than 1) inside that pack.
The idea is to make packs that are independent from one another and that don't use any of the original X-COM weapons. That way, instead of having just 1 big collection of individual weapons where most aren't related to one another (like it is now) you can have separate packs that can be used by themselves and without having a complete mismatch of weapons that currently are only separated using subsets.
For instance, on the current file there's Phasers, Mezons, Shotguns, Knifes, Omega Launchers, Coil Guns, AK-47s, M-16s, A-Pistols and there's more exotic proposals such as Bricks and Exploding Dolls. The way that is being used to separate them is to group them with the existing X-COM weapons in subsets/categories but that is not an ideal solution.
What is more useful is that when people are designing weapons they design a complete pack, not just a couple of weapons that they want to be included to the original X-COM weapons. This has to do with the propose of trying not to use the original game files but instead to come up with complete weapons packs that can be played on their own, without requiring the original game files.
This doesn't meant that later you won't be able to use your creations with the original weapons. If the scroll button gets added then you could add code to use 2 packs together on the same game and use the scroll button to switch between packs while equipping.
Now the categories I mentioned (Long-range, Short-range, Explosives, etc.) weren't meant to define particular subsets but to help designers on what types of weapon a pack should contain to have some variety.
There are 3 main aspects that you can play with when creating weapons: accuracy (defines the weapon's range); TU usage (low tu usage more shots, high less shots); Weapon's power (defines its killing power); Types of fire (if it has Aimed, Snap or Auto)
These 3 stats can be combined in a variety of ways:
- A 'super' weapon, with high accuracy, low TU usage, high power with auto.
- A 'long-range' weapon, high accuracy, high TU usage, high power, with only aimed/snap
- 'close-range' weapon, low accuracy, low tu-usage, high-power with auto
- 'support weapon', medium accuracy, medium TU usage, uses HE ammo with no auto
- 'general propose weapon', medium accuracy, medium tu usage, medium power with/without auto
- 'sidearm', low to medium accuracy, low tu usage, low power with/without auto, 1 handed.
As you can see there are a lot of combinations possible just between these 4 factors and they define the weapons type. A good weapons pack should have as much variety of combinations as possible, as long as there isn't a superweapon that overcomes the rest, so that a player will be forced to use several types. Each weapon should have both good and bad points concerning its use. But the designations 'long-range' and so on are only for guidance while designing new weapons, they aren't meant to create subsets out of them (which would defeat the propose of having a mixture of weapons by having only weapons on them of a specific 'class'.
Finally, I left out of the definition above other stats like weight, ammo type, grenades and so on but those shouldn't be neglected because they add more variety, although they aren't the most important.
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