Brain melting.

I've finally managed to get the Sec-7 patch working on the mod to allow coop against AI enemies. It's a big step but I now have to redo all the weapons which will probably take up all of the weekend at least. oh well.

It's either that or sleep enough to catch up on what I missed due to uni the past couple of days.

I have my computer working again. Hopefully I will update in a week or so.

Not that anyone is reading this.

Computer melted.

I will be back to doing this in a couple of weeks.

Success

After hours of ceaseless coding and several child sacrifices I have achieved the following things.

Laser Weapons have infinite ammo.

Laser weapons fire lasers, or they would if I had a particle for them to fire.

Just like reali-life X-com soldiers you have more than one method of shooting. A 'auto-fire' burst of three shots, or you can zoom in and fire a single aimed round!

It's not much so far, but it's more X-Com than Xcom.

Freaking LASER beams.

What is mega-difficult to code are weapons.

It took about three hours but I finally managed to add a new weapon. With a placeholder model. It's just the laser rifle but it doesn't act much like one, there are two major and immediate problems.

1) It does not have infinite ammo. Although I can spawn it with more ammo then you will ever need.

2) It does not fire a laser, it just uses the standard bullet particle when fired. This is a major thing that needs fixing really, since all laser and plasma based weaponry will use that. I'll probably try researching it more tonight.

Modeling, Programming and other childrens stories.

Since I cannot model for toffee I've decided to just use placeholders for weapons and perhaps aliens for now. Instead I will focus my efforts on programming the mod.

Essentially it will be a simple coop-multiplayer game. A team of XCom soldiers must defend the base from repeated alien attacks. The attacks and the equipment the soldiers have ramp up until either the attacks are repulsed, or all of the agents are killed.

Base facilities have to be defended so they can continue working. The Living Quarters allow players to respawn, the research labs slowly research new weapons ect.

Should not be mega-difficult to code.

Oh god is this going to suck.

I've found a program that will convert Source engine maps (built in the Hammer editor) to Source engine models. It's going to be easier than learning/doing it in maya/xsi/blender ect, and it might provide a starting point, but it is going to be as ugly and as blocky as, well, the original game.

But it's still going to be better than 2K's version.

Objectives for today!

1) Light the second floor of the base
2) Make the map more efficient. IE remove or nodraw surfaces that are never seen by the player.
3) Learn XSI from the free Noesis tutorials so I can start making the weapons.
4) Don't faint when I read how hard it is to add weapons.

Textures addendum

Does anyone know what the ceiling of X-Com bases look like?

Also, there are no toilets anywhere in the base. :0

Textures and Stuff

Comming up with textures for this has posed several important problems.

1) I have no idea how to make them.
2) There isn't that much to actually go on. Honestly, take a look at this. (Taken from a screenshot from the UFOPedia)

That's at 6 times the actual size. It's not much to go on and I don't know how well it will translate into a FPS made with a modern engine.

3) I have no artistic skill what so ever. My brother got all of that. I got the ability to hold my breath for three minutes, I think he won.

These are my solutions.
1) Thank god for the Valve Developer Wiki, it make take a while to understand it but I think I've learned the basics of texturing well enough to get the textures into the game.
2) I'll just have to use what I have as a base for the textures and try to make the best of them.
3) Meh. Nothing I can do unless I can fine someone to do the textures for me anyway.

It's actually not as bad as I feared. It's a little cartoony but I think it might just work. Next I'm going to try on getting the doors to work.

Introduction.

I am not a designer or a modder. I have no level design skills, no texture design skills, I've never animated or modeled anything in my life and yet despite this I think I can make a better 'x-com' style game than 2K Games current 'reboot'.


This will be a record of that attempt, and it's probable hideous failure.