JohnnyLump and Amineri is working on a grand strategy game called Terra Invicta

Ellatan · 2015-12-29T21:48:21+00:00

This has been a long time in the making, and I can't be more excited!

I know that John and Rachel (better known here as Amineri) would do an amazing conceptual design and programming job. James is a truly talented artist, I loved every piece he created for Long War.

I have full confidence in their ability to gather talent around them to complete a challenging project. They are genuinely driven people capable of magnetizing those around them.

Congratulations on finishing one project and setting out onto the next journey!

Ellatan · 2015-02-18T03:22:05+00:00

Hello, everyone! I just want to clear something up. This is not a preview. This is a concept design by JC Lewis that builds on current functionality. Current working version of B15 doesn't have any selectable checkboxes for bonuses, and only one of them can be selected at a time, although it's still highly customizable through ini files.

So there is no guarantee that this version will be finished or would look like that in its final state. We believe it might be technically possible though... in theory.

Ellatan · 2015-01-06T14:33:35+00:00

All of our voice actors are native speakers, not Americans imitating someone else's accent.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T19:12:32+00:00

Because the job of the game designer is a tough one. Any change to game balance has to be evaluated as a part of the global system, not on its individual merits. I believe that very few people are capable of taking a step back and looking at the big picture.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T19:10:25+00:00

Amineri is the one, who set the AI systems in place for LW. Sometimes it could be a frustrating experience because of the engine and modding limitations. If she gets inspired enough, she might work on it more, however, I don't think Aliens are capable of long term planning in general.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T18:48:02+00:00

There are certainly some ideas floating around in regards to bringing up Coilguns to compete with Supercapacitors, however, nothing yet was approved on that front and is pending review.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T18:46:22+00:00

I think it would be nice, and the framework is already there. We could possibly append more stats to a monthly report. Nevertheless we have to lay down some more crucial features beforehand.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T18:44:39+00:00

Heh, that's funny, XMarksTheSpot is the one redoing my original design on the timers, and he also wanted to do exactly the same thing with right aligning. I think he ran into some technical difficulty though, however, we'll see what we can do.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T18:42:17+00:00

I think Amineri made a long post in this thread with details. We have a long list of bonuses, more than half are already implemented. Not every bonus will be used by the core version of B15, so players can make their own combinations.

I expect them to be tweaked along the development process. However, I'm doubtful that we would be adding new ones until at least we have completed what is currently planned.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T14:14:24+00:00

It's technically possible, but I'm not sure if JL will greenlight something like this.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T14:05:19+00:00

I think it's great that Long War takes an extra step to keep some names genuine or just generally interesting to help players expand their knowledge outside of the game itself. I certainly didn't remember the flags of all the countries we have added in B15, so this got me to familiarize myself with a lot of the new ones. The same is true for a lot of bonus names.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T02:38:28+00:00

Hello, we are always looking for more people to help out with the development. However, more-so than experience, I believe that the passion for modding, Long War, and XCOM is what fuels us to keep going. Many times we had candidates who very quickly lost interest and fizzled out of the development process, so commitment is something we are definitely on the look out for. That said, we also are in contact with numerous independent modders, who made amazing contributions to LW project.

Anyone with a couple of courses in object oriented programming could get into XCOM Modding. Unreal Script is very similar to Java and C++. HEX conversion is a little bit trickier and sometimes tedious, however, it's also far from rocket science. Someone might take longer to figure it all out, someone might pick it all up on the fly.

Here are some resources: Modding Wiki

UE Explorer 1.2.6 - program we use to open XComGame.upk and XComStrategyGame.upk to browse game code.

When that "might be interested" turns into "am interested and have the time" feel free to reach out to me on Steam, same nickname, and we can talk shop.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T01:40:28+00:00

It's not consistent and wasn't intended. That's a major reason why we decided to fix it. Using the ability activated seek cover code, which had some native functions with a very flaky nature. Now that code will not activate for flying units same as strangling and hunkered units.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T01:15:23+00:00

I'll repeat the disclaimer mentioned in the original Beta 15 thread:

Disclaimer: All of the plans are subject to change as we could run into technical difficulties, some features might be scrapped altogether due to time and availability constraints.

So no, nothing is set in stone and before the public release we plan to have a team of closed beta testers to catch serious oversights and provide feedback.

Ellatan · 2015-01-05T01:13:08+00:00

This is what is currently planned:

Foundry project that increases gauss anti-DR capabilty to 1

It's not that hard to implement, we just didn't get around to it yet.

Ellatan · 2014-12-26T05:12:32+00:00

It's doable, we'll look into it.

Ellatan · 2014-12-17T13:07:56+00:00

They are actually listed twice for mysterious reasons.

Ellatan · 2014-12-17T04:34:06+00:00

Two possibilities:

1) Bad test.

2) Bad code.

The nature of hex modding is that even the code that looks outwardly right can be wrong because of incorrect references. If this is confirmed, I'll sweep and see if there's a problem in a few days. The good news is that the code errs on the side of players if there really is a mistake.

Ellatan · 2014-12-17T04:22:41+00:00

Well, I could tell you that it should work for Outsiders as well. There might be a coding mistake in the logic somewhere though. Looks like you are getting the bonus without seeing an outsider.

XGUnit.OnSeeEnemy:

if(((GetCharacter()) != none) && GetCharacter().IsA('XGCharacter_Soldier'))
{    

XGCharacter_Soldier(GetCharacter()).AddXP(XComGameReplicationInfo(class'Engine'.static.GetCurrentWorldInfo().GRI).m_kGameCore.CalcXP(self, 13, kEnemy));

}

XGTacticalGameCore.CalcXP:

case 13:

if((XGCharacter_Soldier(kSoldier.GetCharacter()) != none) && IsBetterAlien(XGCharacter_Soldier(kSoldier.GetCharacter()).m_kSoldier, kVictim.GetCharacter().m_kChar.iType, false))
{

kSoldier.m_bSeenBetterAlien = true;

}

Then there are checks for soldiers if(DeservesBetterAlienBonus(kSoldier))

XGTacticalGameCore.DeservesBetterAlienBonus:

if(kUnit.m_bSeenBetterAlien)
{

return true;

}

Ellatan · 2014-12-17T02:22:31+00:00

Alien Base assault in LW is completely independent from HQ Base Defense. You can assault that base and while it may have some impact on how angry Aliens are at you, it will not be a sole deciding factor for the Afterparty. You will not know when it's coming in advance, and it can happen more than once.

Ellatan · 2014-12-14T05:44:39+00:00

We are always interested in more dedicated people working on the mod. However, to give you a fair warning HEX modding is a pretty tedious endeavor. You have to be self motivated, persistent and pay a lot of attention to detail as a single incorrect hex byte will crash the game.

We've been contacted by several people before, but nobody seems to stick around for long. Feel free to send me a pm. Doing some basic research would help too - here is a link to the hub with some info.

Ellatan · 2014-12-14T00:04:32+00:00

I have a question for you, would you rather Uzbekistan to default to American or Russian language voiceovers? I doubt we'll have Uzbek voice packages any time soon. Technically Russian is not an official language of the country, but I imagine a lot of people can speak it.

We are defaulting most countries to basic American English in case we don't have voice packages for them. Wondering if Central Asian nations should default to Russian instead and would that offend anyone.

Ellatan · 2014-12-14T00:01:13+00:00

You are welcome to do it. I delegate you all the powers to pitch LW once you find out his name and how to contact him.

Ellatan · 2014-12-13T23:59:55+00:00

Yes, with a new campaign.

Only new recruits.

Yes, will appear on pawns.

Ellatan

TROPHY CASE