66 replies to this topic

[Sorrow]

So, I decided to make a movie for my mod.
After several attempts to make a movie shorter than 12 minutes, I finally decided to capture it in pieces.
Luckily, this time I got a favourable deployment and managed to make a movie that is 8 minutes long.

Sides involved:
1. Cult of Sirius:
Armed mostly with small arms and occasional Autocannon or Laser Rifle. They can't afford launchers.
2. X-Com:
Armored and armed with mix of small arms and heavy weapons. Soldiers:
Power Suit and Autocannon.
2x Personal Armor and M4000 and 4 AP Granades.
Personal Armor and Laser Rifle.
Personal Armor and Heavy Launcher.
Personal Armor and Mind Bender and Motion Scanner.

Here's the first part
And here's the Mopping up (which I removed) .

EDIT:
I decided to start a video-log for my mod.

Edited by Sorrow, 27 March 2008 - 12:04 PM.

[Gimli]

Nice. You're very... destructive. Though it seemed to me that you were a bit cautious at one point. You did know the guy was panicking/berserking, right?

[Sorrow]

Thanks . I knew that someone is berserking but I wasn't sure how many of them were left - I wouldn't like to encounter someone with a laser rifle and a high reaction . The most amusing thing is that the last enemy was in the same room as most of my forces all the time and my power-suited soldier probably passed right beside him and manoeuvred to avoid collision without seeing him XD .

[Steelion]

You're definitely a few orders of magnitude times as destructive as me. Good God.

[Sorrow]

Heh . I like using Heavy Launchers when I have an opportunity .

I eliminated all four temples.
Here's a video from the last one. It shows the battle without cleaning up.

[Gimli]

It was funny seeing how much you blew up because I used to think that I am very destructive. Since most of the early weapons are not all that useful (especially against brainsuckers) I often took auto cannons with HE ammo to cover for that. Heck, I kept them even very far into the game.

And yes, I also hate it when the guy is right in front of my nose and I don't see him. Oh the number of times this has happened in UFO.

I always found it amusing how much the organizations cared about getting their properties destroyed, yet didn't seem to care about civilians at all.

Edited by Gimli, 25 March 2008 - 03:16 AM.

[Sorrow]

It was funny seeing how much you blew up because I used to think that I am very destructive. Since most of the early weapons are not all that useful (especially against brainsuckers) I often took auto cannons with HE ammo to cover for that. Heck, I kept them even very far into the game.

Heh ...
Actually, it was pretty tame when compared with what I used to do with organisations before I started using the savegame editor to make the organisations "follow" the same rules regarding having a building successfully raided as X-Com.
I used to set everything on fire, destroy walls with lasers and use high explosives and heavy launchers just to inflict as much damage as it's possible .

And yes, I also hate it when the guy is right in front of my nose and I don't see him. Oh the number of times this has happened in UFO.

It was the second time it happened to me. Another thing that I hate is when an enemy with a dangerous weapon starts walking/crawling around instead of using it on my soldiers.
For example, in one raid, a cultist with sniper rifle was close to my soldier, but started crawling instead of firing.
Another such situation was when a cultist with sniper rifle killed one of my soldiers on point blank range and then instead of shooting another one which was just beside him, he picked up a heavy launcher and walked around for a moment .

I always found it amusing how much the organizations cared about getting their properties destroyed, yet didn't seem to care about civilians at all.

Heh .
Too bad that there aren't civilians on raids - genociding would be amusing .

I uploaded a video of my first alien mission. I'm starting to wonder if it wouldn't be better if I made the aliens use some real weapons instead of the launchers. I think I'll have to play X-Com 1 again and see how it works there...

Edited by Sorrow, 25 March 2008 - 05:56 AM.

[Sorrow]

I changed the topic to a video log for my mod. I added commentary on my design decisions.

The entries so far are:
X-com 3 Revisited - Entry I - Smashing the Cult of Sirius
X-com 3 Revisited - Entry II - The First Contact
X-com 3 Revisited - Entry III - Fighting against Diablo

The last entry is new.

Edited by Sorrow, 27 March 2008 - 03:00 PM.

[Sorrow]

I made a new X3R mission video.

[Sorrow]

Another video. This time it's some alien action.

[j'ordos]

It was funny seeing how much you blew up because I used to think that I am very destructive. Since most of the early weapons are not all that useful (especially against brainsuckers) I often took auto cannons with HE ammo to cover for that. Heck, I kept them even very far into the game.

Heh ...
Actually, it was pretty tame when compared with what I used to do with organisations before I started using the savegame editor to make the organisations "follow" the same rules regarding having a building successfully raided as X-Com.
I used to set everything on fire, destroy walls with lasers and use high explosives and heavy launchers just to inflict as much damage as it's possible .

And yes, I also hate it when the guy is right in front of my nose and I don't see him. Oh the number of times this has happened in UFO.

It was the second time it happened to me. Another thing that I hate is when an enemy with a dangerous weapon starts walking/crawling around instead of using it on my soldiers.
For example, in one raid, a cultist with sniper rifle was close to my soldier, but started crawling instead of firing.
Another such situation was when a cultist with sniper rifle killed one of my soldiers on point blank range and then instead of shooting another one which was just beside him, he picked up a heavy launcher and walked around for a moment .

I always found it amusing how much the organizations cared about getting their properties destroyed, yet didn't seem to care about civilians at all.

Heh .
Too bad that there aren't civilians on raids - genociding would be amusing .

I uploaded a video of my first alien mission. I'm starting to wonder if it wouldn't be better if I made the aliens use some real weapons instead of the launchers. I think I'll have to play X-Com 1 again and see how it works there...

A late reply, but what I always wanted to do was to give spitters (they're useless and their attack animation would fit nicely I believe ) the brainsucker launcher, preferably with an unlimited supply of pods. And then give the aliens disruptors from the beginning, or some other weapon (new one/human weapon?) to avoid allowing the player early access to disruptor weapons. Could also be avoided by setting some tech prerequisites for that weapon I guess.

edit: love the xcom1 sound fx btw

Edited by j'ordos, 22 August 2009 - 05:37 AM.

[Sorrow]

Me too .

As for the Spitters.
I simply turned the Spitter's spittle into an equivalent of the Celatid's spittle from X-Com1. So, the problem of their uselessness is gone .

Also, why shouldn't the player have an early access to Disruptor weapons?

[j'ordos]

Mostly because it has unlimited ammo

[Sorrow]

What's the problem with it?

[Sorrow]

Another video. This time assaulting an UFO.

[Sorrow]

One more ufo mission video.

[Sorrow]

Another mission video - this time it's a classical rookie slaughter - more advanced weapons like devastator cannons and boomeroids appear.

[Sorrow]

Alien Alert. This time I have brought two squads to the battlefield. They are very unwieldy but the amount of casualties that I take suggest that a single squad would get wiped out.

[j'ordos]

Looks really good sorrow, there's nothing like massive casualties to spice up a game should really get that import feature up and running.
Regarding the unlimited ammo I meant it would eliminate any early game ammo shortages, part of the fun.
edit: and have you tried using VDMSound instead of DOSbox? Or do you need it to record your missions

Edited by j'ordos, 12 October 2009 - 08:12 AM.

[Sorrow]

Looks really good sorrow, there's nothing like massive casualties to spice up a game

Now I'm running out of men . I have lost 2 assault teams and I had a moment when I couldn't respond to alien alerts because of lack of personnel XD .

should really get that import feature up and running.

Yeah, it would be great .

Regarding the unlimited ammo I meant it would eliminate any early game ammo shortages, part of the fun.

Well, I don't recall having any ammo shortages, both in UFO and in Apocalypse.

edit: and have you tried using VDMSound instead of DOSbox? Or do you need it to record your missions

VDMSound doesn't work on my system, SBLive SB16 emulation doesn't work with my motherboard and I need DOSBox to record my missions .

[Sorrow]

Another entry - alien alert in a corporate building. This time everyone dies.

[Sorrow]

Entry X - this time I fight against Psyke .

[Zombie]

Hehe, good one Sorrow! Hope that one soldier that died wasn't important...

- Zombie

[Sorrow]

I don't have important soldiers . At least not since I lost two whole veteran squads in two missions XD .

[Zombie]

Ouch.

By the way, kudos on making these videos. Have you ever considered doing a "Let's Play" of Apocalypse? I think you would be perfect for the job.

- Zombie

[Sorrow]

A let's play? You mean one with uploading tonnes of pictures and commenting on them or a video one?

[Sorrow]

Another video.
A mission inside a Marsec warehouse.

[Sorrow]

Another video

This time I'm destroying all the Osiron buildings with my fleet. I made an assault on a big UFO after the Marsec warehouse mission in which I have lost 6 of the twelve soldiers that I've sent and three of the survivors got heavily wounded.
Sadly, it turned out that I didn't record it because my Dosbox didn't save the keymap I've set up previously.

Anyway, with my ground forces crippled, I wasn't able to respond to an alien alert in an Osiron slum, which resulted in Osiron getting taken over by aliens. So, I had to completely obliterate them from air. Too bad that now I have to manually change the ownership of the buildings...

[Sorrow]

Another mission

This time I started a war against Transtellar.

And another one.

Edited by Sorrow, 29 November 2009 - 08:41 AM.

[Mustang]

Just posting to say I like the videos, I always enjoy watching X-com and the mod just looks awesome

Edited by Mustang, 29 November 2009 - 11:10 AM.

[Sorrow]

Thanks .

[Sorrow]

Ok, I have two final videos for the war against Transtellar:

here and here.

[Mustang]

Nice flanking maneuver in the first video, and it's a shame the rocket hit that hard in the second. Nice recovery though, it's always nice to end with some burnination.

[Sorrow]

Thanks. I think I need to work on proper "stealthing" of my agents, so that they would be exposed to much less fire.

Also, I made a big mistake in the second video - I didn't spread out my troops properly. I should have divided them in at least two team. Another mistake was that I used AP ammo for AC instead of HE, which was pointless as it was a terror raid, not a robbery.

Anyway, I came to conclusion that I enjoy fighting against humans much more than fighting against aliens. More, I like fighting with "basic" weapons the most. Technology is already advanced enough to provide a nice variety of weapons.

Edited by Sorrow, 01 December 2009 - 10:17 AM.

[Sorrow]

I just experienced another rookie slaughter. 2 Squads got wiped out. Does anyone know if smoke is effective in Apoc?

Part1

Part2

[Sorrow]

I've made another attempt to capture a Destroyer. This time it was successful.

6 humans, 4 hybrids and 2 androids walked in 3 humans and 2 heavily injured androids walked out.
Sadly, I couldn't record it, because the framerate was too low. It seems that the ships got too big for my computer to handle.

I've tried liberally using smoke to cover my movement, but it didn't help much. Aliens apparently see through thick smoke.
The combat finally got interesting - attacking or defending usually ends up with encountering a hail of disruptor/devastator rays and spittle.
It got really brutal.

I divided my forces into three groups - 6 humans (3MGs, 1 DC, 1 AC and 1 TG), 2 Androids (AC) and 4 hybrids as a reserve (1 TG + Mind Probe, 3MGs).
The hybrids were near the UFO entrance and they got slaughtered in 30 seconds without seeing the enemy.

I sent a group of human to block that side - 1MG, 1AC and 1DC and sent the rest of humans around the UFO to surprise the enemy.
I ordered my androids to move atop the UFO.

The blocking group got destroyed by repeating alien attacks in 2 minutes.

Meanwhile the androids cleared the top of the UFO from Skeletoids (which didn't fire a single shot) and moved towards the edge of the UFO.

The flanking group got around the UFO.

I ordered one of the androids to observe the ground through a hole near the entrance to the UFO. The other one moved to the edge.
Four aliens were spotted and destroyed.
Then both androids moved to the ground and went under fire of 5 Anthropoids armed with a variety of disruptor weapons. There was no space to throw boomeroids.

I tried to order the flanking squad to join the battle, but it had trouble with finding a road through a difficult terrain behind the UFO.

Meanwhile the androids got severely wounded, but somehow managed to kill a few Anthropoids and detonated their boomeroids, killing the rest of them.

I lost 3 humans and 4 hybrids, a lot of equipment got totally destroyed, including a 6 medikits.

There were 8 Anthropods, 3 Skeletoids and 3 Spitters. The only reason why I have won was the endurance of my androids.

[NKF]

Smoke does work quite well, but there are two things that can cause it to backfire:

1. Enemies randomly firing into the smoke cloud - which then follows onto the next point:
2. This random fire hitting one of your units. This makes your unit visible to the aliens, rendering the cloud useless for that unit until they lose sight of that unit.

Just remember that the same rules work for you as well - so if the enemies are in a smoke cloud and you have a rough idea where they are from the origin of their shots, then shift-click a spray of bullets in that direction.

I'd try setting the cloud in between you and the enemies rather than having your units in the cloud - unless you plan to run through it in the other direction to make way.

- NKF

[Sorrow]

1. Enemies randomly firing into the smoke cloud - which then follows onto the next point:

Wow, they do such thing? Does it mean that one can make them start firing at certain point by throwing a smoke grenade there?

[NKF]

No, I think it's more a case of having a rough idea of where you are based on the direction of your shots or they may even have memory like they do in UFO/TFTD.

- NKF

[Sorrow]

I returned to playing X-Com a few days ago.

Here is another video. This time it was easy. I made another video in a previous, more difficult mission, but it was too choppy to post.

[Zombie]

YouTube complains that this video is private. Any ideas?

- Zombie

[Sorrow]

Oh, sorry, I forgot to unprivate it after it got processed XD .

[Zombie]

Thanks! Nice shooting by your troops BTW!

- Zombie

[j'ordos]

So, when will the mod be open to the public?

Edited by j'ordos, 14 January 2010 - 11:37 AM.

[Sorrow]

As soon as there's an option of exporting/importing the data .

[j'ordos]

Then it's a good thing I asked because there already is an (untested ) import/export feature in the brand new apoc'd v3!

[Sorrow]

Good God. Have you guys seen what happened to YouTube O_o ?

[MiniMacker]

Yeah... Horrid new overlay.

[Sorrow]

I'm re-restarting the log. This time I want to see how it works on superhuman.

[j'ordos]

Looking at the description on the video, I kinda doubt the AI actually is better on harder difficulty levels, their units just get better stats. Not much to say about the mission itself, looks like it was pretty tame You should increase the building guards!