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I think you misunderstood silversurfer here. The AI is subject to all penalties. It just doesn't care. There is no decision process involved. Some factors, like weight, price and stealth though are irrelevant.

Thanks for the clarification.

Even if there was a decision process involved the AI wouldn't need to bother about most of the penalties. They outnumber us anyway and usually have better stats than our average merc. It doesn't hurt them much if they have 86 AP instead of 90 for example.

About the helmets - in my opinion the helmets that are bulky and provide the highest coverage should also have the biggest aiming penalty. This means that the penalty of Spectra and Dyneema should be reduced considerably (below SWAT Helmet).

Another point that I never understood was why do pants apply aiming penalties? Are we monkeys and aim with our legs? In my opinion aiming penalties should be removed completely from the pants. They should have stealth penalties and of course AP penalties but they shouldn't influence aiming.

Players that don't play Scifi have no chance to get Royal Jelly at all. Therefore I wouldn't make it compete with C-18. They should instead have similar properties with the Jelly being slightly better (because it's harder to get).

Even if there was a decision process involved the AI wouldn't need to bother about most of the penalties. They outnumber us anyway and usually have better stats than our average merc. It doesn't hurt them much if they have 86 AP instead of 90 for example.

About the helmets - in my opinion the helmets that are bulky and provide the highest coverage should also have the biggest aiming penalty. This means that the penalty of Spectra and Dyneema should be reduced considerably (below SWAT Helmet).

Another point that I never understood was why do pants apply aiming penalties? Are we monkeys and aim with our legs? In my opinion aiming penalties should be removed completely from the pants. They should have stealth penalties and of course AP penalties but they shouldn't influence aiming.

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Another point that I never understood was why do pants apply aiming penalties? Are we monkeys and aim with our legs? In my opinion aiming penalties should be removed completely from the pants. They should have stealth penalties and of course AP penalties but they shouldn't influence aiming.

I agree to a point -- thinking that there should be an aiming penalty when crouching, as they hinder leg mobility and crouching stability.

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Players that don't play Scifi have no chance to get Royal Jelly at all. Therefore I wouldn't make it compete with C-18. They should instead have similar properties with the Jelly being slightly better (because it's harder to get).

The descriptions of Compound 18 and Royal Jelly indicate their properties are different, and in line with what Flugente proposes. I like that they are very different in their effects.

Overall, I lke this a lot. While we are at it, could "Field uniform" be replaced with another name? An armour vest is at best a part of a field uniform...

At least from the current description, the Field Uniform is almost a copy of the Zylon stuff. But edmortimer's idea is better - make it non-armoured (or very, very low armoured), camoed, light-weight and allow plate inserts. Then change it to very low coolness. That way one has to get a plate to make it worthwhile, and it would compete with Flak Jacket and Kevlar vest by having no penalties whatsoever.

While editing the armour values, it also turned out quite a few C-18/Jelly versions of armour did not even have item descriptions. Or even a friggin' picture, instead they use the tnt image as a placeholder. It also turned out pants did not have any NCTH values set at all. Some of these things have been like that for over a decade. For a community that frequently jacks off on how carefully it maintains and improves the game, that is utterly disgraceful.

Perhaps I should go and change the xmls so much that the pressure to get this xml editor working again (or a new one working) is big enough that someone finally does something like that?

As of GameDir r2312, I've added the above changes (minus whatever typo I did for platinum plating).

While editing the armour values, it also turned out quite a few C-18/Jelly versions of armour did not even have item descriptions. Or even a friggin' picture, instead they use the tnt image as a placeholder. It also turned out pants did not have any NCTH values set at all. Some of these things have been like that for over a decade. For a community that frequently jacks off on how carefully it maintains and improves the game, that is utterly disgraceful.

Up until now, I've always tried to make as few disruptive changes to xmls as possible, as to allow modders to adapt easily. Perhaps that is the wrong way. Perhaps I should go and change the xmls so much that the pressure to get this xml editor working again (or a new one working) is big enough that someone finally does something like that? There are more than enough weird xml things that we keep around simply for compatibilitiy reasons. Like that weird workaround in AmmoTypes.xml, apparently made in a time when there when floating point numbers weren't invented yet.

IMHO, modding would profit much more from a decent comments section explaining the tags in every xml file than from an xml editor trying to play catchup with ever evolving features.

I get along just fine with Notepad++ and some plugins. For mass changes I can use a spreadsheet program.

IMHO, modding would profit much more from a decent comments section explaining the tags in every xml file than from an xml editor trying to play catchup with ever evolving features.

I get along just fine with Notepad++ and some plugins. For mass changes I can use a spreadsheet program.

I'm curious: How does one use MS Excel (or whatever program you use) to complete changes to raw text?

One vote for keeping this in options. Not that i mind it by itself, it takes a bit to get used to it and then it's mostly fine, but fighting with militia present is already a clusterfuck, probably more militia dies to friendly fire then from enemies at least now you can help them a bit by ordering them to the ground occasionaly, with this on I will literally run away screaming from any fight involving militia

I quite agree with this. Until now you could go crouch/prone and be safe from militia 'friendly' fire. If that option no longer works it may cause lots of problems (and grief) due to the AI's inability to avoid shooting friendlies. Also, some maps/mods have lots of civilians in some sectors placed, how should i put it - badly. For example, there is a map in UC where if you enter it from the west side you see a female civilian and lots of children standing in the street and an enemy soldier has a spawn point right behind them. Usually, with 'up to now' system those civilians would go crouch and be safe from stray bullets but now, when that soldier sees you, it will be a massacre.

My opinion is that prone should work old way - allowing to avoid friendly fire.
Also, it's possible to add checks for cowering state so cowering soldiers/civilians will avoid unaimed bullets even if crouched.

sevenfm wrote on Wed, 13 July 2016 10:17

My opinion is that prone should work old way - allowing to avoid friendly fire.
Also, it's possible to add checks for cowering state so cowering soldiers/civilians will avoid unaimed bullets even if crouched.

Isn't that cheat mode? Really, if someone fires a 20 round volley at a soldier that is standing inside a group of civilians it should have consequences.

-- text colours
FontColour =
{
	FONT_MCOLOR_DKWHITE = 134,
	FONT_MCOLOR_LTYELLOW = 144,
	FONT_MCOLOR_RED = 163,
	FONT_MCOLOR_DKRED = 164,
	FONT_MCOLOR_LTGREEN = 184,
}

-- these numbers aren't used in the code - we only use them in LUA
Languages =
{
	LANGUAGE_ENGLISH = 0,
	LANGUAGE_GERMAN = 1,
	LANGUAGE_RUSSIAN = 2,
	LANGUAGE_DUTCH = 3,
	LANGUAGE_POLISH = 4,
	LANGUAGE_FRENCH = 5,
	LANGUAGE_ITALIAN = 6,
	LANGUAGE_CHINESE = 7,
}

-- We have an array of 1000 signed integers that a modder can use to set whatever data he wants.
-- We simply set up some enums here to make it easier for us to remember what is what
ModSpecificFacts =
{
	TIXA_PRISON_VOLUNTEERSGAINED = 123,
	TIXA_PRISON_SUBLEVEL_VOLUNTEERSGAINED = 124,
	ALMA_PRISON_VOLUNTEERSGAINED = 125,
}

-- this function is called whenever we liberate a sector. If fFirstTime is true, this is the first time we liberate this sector
function HandleSectorLiberation( sNewSectorX, sNewSectorY, bNewSectorZ, fFirstTime )

	-- are we liberating this sector for the first time?
	if ( fFirstTime ) then
		-- we get a few volunteers for liberating prisons - we assume prisoners would be more than eager to fight against the regime
		-- due to code limitations, fFirstTime is only used in surface sectors
		if ( bNewSectorZ == 0 ) then
			-- Tixa
			if ( sNewSectorX == 9 and sNewSectorY == SectorY.MAP_ROW_J ) then
				AddVolunteers( 30 )
				
				AddTransactionToPlayersBook(1, 0, 1800, 100)
				
				if ( GetUsedLanguage( nil ) == Languages.LANGUAGE_ENGLISH ) then
					SetScreenMsg(FontColour.FONT_MCOLOR_LTGREEN, "The prisoners are very grateful for freeing them.")
				elseif ( GetUsedLanguage( nil ) == Languages.LANGUAGE_GERMAN ) then
					SetScreenMsg(FontColour.FONT_MCOLOR_LTGREEN, "Die Gefangenen sind für die Befreiugng sehr dankbar.")
				else
					SetScreenMsg(FontColour.FONT_MCOLOR_DKRED, "Translation missing!")
				end
				
				-- inform us that there is a sublevel
				if ( (GetModderLUAFact(ModSpecificFacts.TIXA_PRISON_SUBLEVEL_VOLUNTEERSGAINED) == 0) ) then
					SetScreenMsg(FontColour.FONT_MCOLOR_LTGREEN, "This prison seems to have a sublevel, where more important inamtes are held.")
				end
				
				-- if we haven't yet freed the Alma prisoners, give us a tip about that
				if ( (GetModderLUAFact(ModSpecificFacts.ALMA_PRISON_VOLUNTEERSGAINED) == 0) ) then
					SetScreenMsg(FontColour.FONT_MCOLOR_LTGREEN, "A few inmates inform us that there is another prison like this in Alma!")
				end
				
				SetModderLUAFact(ModSpecificFacts.TIXA_PRISON_VOLUNTEERSGAINED, 1)
				
			-- Alma
			elseif ( sNewSectorX == 13 and sNewSectorY == SectorY.MAP_ROW_I ) then
				AddVolunteers( 10 )
				
				SetScreenMsg(FontColour.FONT_MCOLOR_LTGREEN, "The prisoners are very grateful for freeing them.")
												
				-- if we haven't yet freed the Tixa prisoners, give us a tip about that
				if ( (GetModderLUAFact(ModSpecificFacts.TIXA_PRISON_VOLUNTEERSGAINED) == 0) ) then
					SetScreenMsg(FontColour.FONT_MCOLOR_LTGREEN, "A few inmates inform us that there is another prison like this in a place called Tixa. They aren't sure where it is though.")
				end
				
				SetModderLUAFact(ModSpecificFacts.ALMA_PRISON_VOLUNTEERSGAINED, 1)
			end
		end
	end
...

• SetScreenMsg() can be used to print out texts, as seen in the image above (you could also print texts to other places, but I'tm not letting you access that ). The first number is for the colour (in the example I listed some values), the second is the text, which can be up to 1000 chars long.
• As you might want to have a different text depending on language, GetUsedLanguage( nil ) returns the language the game currently uses. The value corresponds to the Languages-enum I listed.