XCOMRL

ARRP 2013

by Kyzrati on 20130922 , under

This weekend is the Annual Roguelike Release Party, but unless there are a lot of late comers and devs who didn't pre-announce releases, it's certainly a lot less lively than in recent years.

I usually like to release something myself, but ARRP is sort of a non-event for X@COM itself this year, so here's a little progress update instead.

As mentioned in the previous post I've been working on Cogmind, but at the same time it's been leading to improvements in both the engine and X@COM's source. Most are internal improvements you'll never see, but there is one significant change in the latest development build that optimizes the X@COM GUI to give another 7% boost in FPS. \Awesome/

We also have a nice X-COM mod in the works featuring greatly expanded psionics and selection of tech level, squad, equipment, and alien opponent. Would've been nice to release that for ARRP, but it's a rather big project (though well on its way to completion). If interested in playtesting and offering advice on content etc., feel free to grab a development copy and join the discussion on the forum.

R9.5 will be released with the mod when it's completed.

Cogmind

While I don't have anything to release this weekend, seeing as how ARRP is all about not developing in silence, in that spirit I hereby officially "announce" Cogmind. You can get information through the dev blog, and/or Facebook and Twitter.
8 comments more...

8 comments

  • Kyzrati
    September 27, 2013 at 5:32 AM

    Heh, that was really *last* weekend, when I posted. Rectification is a big project, plus you just learned you can add and modify sound effects, so there's no telling how long we'll have to wait =p.

    (Not that you're obliged to add much in the way of sound--even just the expansive mod using existing sound is quite a feat.)

  • Unknown
    September 27, 2013 at 5:45 AM

    Bleh... I'm giving up on sounds for now. I'll probably try again before the public release, but I don't want to fight with Audacity or spend hours searching for the right sounds right now. The main problem is that I know what *I* want them to sound like, but nobody else does :l

  • Kyzrati
    September 27, 2013 at 5:56 AM

    Hehe, as you said, you've been drained lately! It's been about a week or so since we heard about your progress on the forum, too.

    Sound effects really are a major effort, especially if you aren't used to dealing with them.

  • Unknown
    September 27, 2013 at 6:06 AM

    I'll figure it out eventually. There's plenty of Audacity tutorials out there, and it's more of a lack of motivation than a lack of ability at the moment. Fear not, though; I'm plugging away at it, and the really fun stuff is about to kick in soon.

  • Le spirit de l'open source
    December 1, 2013 at 4:34 PM

    Please make it opensource, this project is great. I dislike this ASCII thing but this game has pretty neat effects! And the whole team tactics omg, is greaat. C'mon!! Open your knowledge so we can construct on it, or at least snitch this pieces of code like when I dwell into the depths of Doom3 srccode and I'm marveled by Carmack's team wisdom. And suppose that some major changes occur in your life and you do not have more time, if you make it opensource other fellow xcom addicts will carry the torch to the mount of niche happiness, where strange creatures and strange fans gather around electric trees and dance to the almost full moon. Keep up with the good work! Thanks!

  • Kyzrati
    December 1, 2013 at 9:19 PM

    I like your spirit :)

    That said, when it comes to X@COM I'm taking the closed source route for a lot of reasons. Among the more important ones: I have a clear vision for the game that I don't want to see diluted by dozens of forks; the engine is the foundation for Cogmind, a commercial game; if Cogmind is moderately successful, much expanded future versions of a re-branded X@COM will become commercial games as well to support development (otherwise hobby development will continue, albeit at a slower pace).

    As is, the game's existing modding support is very extensive, and will become even more so in the future (as I envision it, to the point that you'll be able to make complete alternate games based on the same or similar mechanics--you can do that already, but only within the scope of a single map).

    As for the source, I'm actually still working on engine improvements and maintaining the game code itself, just not adding major new features for now. Though the blog has been silent, over the past three months there have been five new private builds released to modders on the forum. We're just waiting on the next mod release before R9.5 goes public.

    I don't believe the source code is something you'd want to learn from or marvel at :/

    If you're into modding some X-COM, check out OpenXCom, the open source X-COM re-write. While I personally believe X@COM has a more interesting feature set and better moddability (note I'm very biased here! =p; and this also only applies to the areas of the game that I've actually implement so far, while they've got pretty much everything!), you can dive into their source and do whatever the heck you want with it. Heck, you could try to turn their source into an ASCII game with cool particle effects as a shortcut to cloning X@COM :)

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