17 replies to this topic

[Catnub]

I love your editor, but am having a few problems making it work. I'm using TFTD v2.1 and not all geoscape.exe changes I do t take effect in-game. After further investigation, it seems the problem is limited to purchase/sell prices. And when I run the game with terror.com, the new prices are in effect. Any idea what might be causing this? XcomUtil has duplicated geoscape.exe and tactical.exe to geoscape.xcu and tactical.xcu, in case that's related to the problem.

[Catnub]

The problem seems to be isolated to buy/sell modding, all other changes are functioning.

[Jenny]

The editor should autodetect the presence of XcomUtil on startup (and report this) and will then use the XcomUtil generated EXEs. There might be some trouble with purchase/sell data in TFTD because I'm unsure how many entries there are (there are 91 in X-com and presumably 99 in TFTD). Still, it should work just fine for almost all entries. Does it work properly in non-XcomUtil TFTD?

[Catnub]

Yes, when loading from terror.com (regardless of whether or not I've been using XcomUtil) it works fine. No idea why it'd do this, but I've checked it out quite thoroughly by now and I can't find a rational explanation. Also tried deleting the XcomUtil executable and restarted XcomUtil, didn't work. Tried out all other functions, all work except buying and selling.

Your editor is awesome, easy to change stuff fast and can do most of what I was missing to complete my mod. Hope this gets sorted out

Hmm, upon startup it reports the following:
"TFTD DOS v2.0/2.1 detected! Please keep in mind that all changes made are permanent!"
Should it state that it has located XcomUtil in that line?

Edited by Catnub, 23 October 2009 - 02:15 AM.

[Catnub]

Hmm, I just managed to start a new game with XcomUtil which correctly modifies the buy/sell values as requested. And further modifications also work as intended right away. I guess I overlooked something, sorry for wasting your time. Thanks again for the editor, it works like a charm.

Edited by Catnub, 23 October 2009 - 09:24 AM.

[Jenny]

No worries, glad you're enjoying the editor.

[Catnub]

And now it's back It seems to be hit'n'miss, no idea why it sometimes works and other times ignores changes.

[Catnub]

I think I'm getting closer to a solution. It's to do with how some constants are stored within both save files and geoscape.exe.

When changing prices of stuff:
- if I immediately start a new campaign upon starting the program new prices will be used
- if I immediately load an old campaign upon starting the program, old prices will be used
- if I first load an old game and then abandon to start a new game (without exiting the program), old prices will be used
- if I load multiple campaigns before starting a new campaign (without exiting the program), prices from the first campaign loaded will be used

So:
- prices in existing campaigns will never be changed
- prices in new campaigns will be based on the values in the campaign first loaded after starting the program, else on the executable if no campaigns are loaded before starting a new campaign

I know this applies to prices, I'll try to find out if it applies to other fields. It would be nice to be able to change these things during campaigns, but if you can't fix this then it might be a good idea to list it as a known bug (if you're able to verify it). Still not sure if it's related to the files geoscape.xcu and tactical.xcu which XcomUtil create, I tinkered around with those as well.

Edited by Catnub, 19 November 2009 - 03:51 PM.

[Longshot]

I'm having similar issues. I guess this is very old at this point, but I'm having the same issue with some things from Xcom UFO. Using the latest X-Com utility, I can't seem to get the resistances to change, nor the alien stats to change reliably. Using the steam version of the game.

This editor is very, very nice, just wish we could figure this one out. I'll drop Xcom utility if I have too, but I hate losing all the patches.. Particularly the one that fixes the bug where the game resets to easy after you reload.

Of course with this editor I can change the values for easy... but still...

[Jenny]

I've looked into this and it seems that the Steam version actually ships with BOTH the CE/gold EXEs as well as the DOS ones. So the solution is simply: rename or remove the CE EXEs and it should work. Make sure the following files are NOT in your X-com directory:

geoscape.exe
tactical.exe
Ufo Defense.exe

The DOS version typically uses the EXEs in the UFOEXE and UFO2EXE directories, so make sure those remain. After that, install XcomUtil again and make sure that you run the SteamSetup.bat file in the XcomUtil directory afterwards.

Hope this helps!

[Longshot]

Wow... Thanks for replying, and so fast at that! I really thought the project was dead!

Edit 1: Nvm, had removed X-com utility and was still having problems. Re-added and followed your advice and it worked like a charm!

Edit 2: Sorry, I want to ask a couple questions if its ok, 1) when I edit a field does the change take place immediately? As in, if I restart a save game, an alien with an newly upgraded armor score will show it by viewing it with the Mind Probe? Or do you have a start a new game? Or? Knowing this would help me troubleshoot many things to determine whether they are working or not. 2) Now that the aline stats are working as advertised, I notice by using mind probes that the actual stats are a little higher in-game than in your editor. The difference appears to be between about 10 and about 15 points. Do you have any idea why this happens? Is it just a normal variance? It appears to "set" when the game starts, though I haven't tried it on multiple games as yet...

Thanks again so much.

Mods- sorry about slightly hi-jacking the thread.

Edited by Longshot, 22 June 2012 - 12:55 AM.

[Jenny]

The project isn't dead - just on hold for the time being. I am not happy with many of the design decisions I've made (most notable the interface). At some point I will completely rewrite the editor to be much easier to use.

To answer your questions:

1.
Changes are not commited until you press the "save" button. So you can change whatever you like and leave the screen, and your game will remain unchanged. That said, once saved every change should be "instant" with the only exceptions being ships/alien stats as this will probably not affect UFOs/aliens already in the game, only newly generated ones.

2.
Not sure about this one. According to the UFOpaedia stats are simply increased with difficulty level. It's possible the game takes these values and adds a random integer to it. I have done no testing regarding these values. Perhaps NKF or Zombie can shed more light on this oddity.

Good luck!

[Longshot]

Thanks again for your responses. For what its worth, I personally don't mind the interface at all, though of course if you have something even easier, than I'm game!

Now that the issues have been fixed, the game is playing as I intended. 35 Floaters attacked Cairo on January 31st 1999 before I could even get basic armor. It was brutal... but amazingly fun! (They are buffed as well, if you hadn't guessed!)

At any rate, I AM playing on Superhuman, so your guess makes sense. Understand, I'm fine with it, I was just curious. I have tested this on multiple save games, and all of them have these greater stats.

Since I have your ear, 1 request please! (Or at least your consideration...) If you do redo this editor at some point, could you allow us edit weapon weights as well?

Thanks! Anything you do is awesome, and I don't wanna be too pesky.

*back to killing aliens*

[Jenny]

I will add it to my to-do list.

Edited by Jenny, 24 June 2012 - 06:28 AM.

[Longshot]

Thank you ma'am!

[Longshot]

As a follow up to this, and FYI, if you rerun X-Com util and change anything it recreates the CE versions of the .exes, and you have to take them back out all over again.

I spent some time playing the newest faux remake over the last two months and to be honest, it's mediocre. Nothing like the old game except in very rudimentary ways. The game takes up 8 gbs. For that much fracking space, you could have simply Given this JA2 level graphics, made a sh*tton of weapon's variations, and designed unique cities all around the globe. Instead they wasted all that on eye candy that is the equivalent to black licorice and a whole bunch of "players are too stoo stoo stoopid" to know how to play the old way anymore design decisions.

/old man grumbling.

Anyway, Thanks for the editor, I'm enjoying playing the REAL thing all over again.

Edited by Longshot, 23 November 2012 - 10:32 PM.

[Jenny]

While it's true the remake doesn't even come close to the original game, I have to say I enjoyed it for a good 80 hours according to steam. So it's decent in it's own right.

[yarrow]

I spent some time playing the newest faux remake over the last two
months and to be honest, it's mediocre. Nothing like the old game except
in very rudimentary ways. The game takes up 8 gbs. For that much
fracking space, you could have simply Given this JA2 level graphics,
made a sh*tton of weapon's variations, and designed unique cities all
around the globe. Instead they wasted all that on eye candy that is the
equivalent to black licorice and a whole bunch of "players are too stoo
stoo stoopid" to know how to play the old way anymore design decisions.

 

you are not alone

 

yarrow