So for anyone unaware, I just thought I'd mention a fantastic xcom program that I feel can really make ufo defence a more enjoyable experience:

http://openxcom.org/

Openxcom is basically a reimplementation of the underlying engine for the first two xcom games. You still need the [url=http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Installation_FAQ_(OpenXcom)] original xcom resource files[/url] to play it.

Basically pretty much all the original bugs (and they have some big ones) from the games are gone, and there are some nice optional enhancements you can use - like auto-selling anything your engineers make.

The UFO Defence implementation is polished, Terror from the Deep is still being worked on but can be completed without encountering bugs (You will need to use the nightly builds if you're playing TFTD).

--edit

As of march 2018, there hasn't been a new "official build" for years (official is still 1.0), I would heavily recommend using the nightly builds which are up to date with all the recent changes. Terror from the Deep is now polished on them. There is no real reason to use the 1.0 build anymore.

You should request a sticky for this topic if you haven't already.

+1

i will risk an opinion that Open X-Com is probably an essential component now.

You still can play like in original minus the bugs, but also add some things like, for example, radar coverage view. Unless you are a hardcore oldschool player, you should give it a shot.

this makes the game just perfect.


thanks
(hoping for terror from the deep)

Seconding the OpenXCOM reference, it's great.

I have to disagree on the TFTD part though. I've used the git build from a month or so ago and it worked just fine, no crashes or other oddities. Unless something broke recently, it should still be just fine.

Ah, ok. I haven't played TFTD since before Christmas. I'll amend the OP.

Does the nightly build have a TFTD ruleset implemented yet, then? Only the UFOpaedia entry for installing OpenXcom says you can copy in TFTD data files in preparation for when the TFTD ruleset is released:

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Installing_%28OpenXcom%29

"If using the nightly, you can alternately/additionally copy in Terror From the Deep files to the TFTD folder in your User folder to prepare for when the TFTD OpenXcom ruleset is released."

That's odd. There seem to be two installation wikis.

This one seems more up to date, and will give the folders that need copying:

[url=http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Installation_FAQ_(OpenXcom]http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Installation_FAQ_(OpenXcom[/url])

Apologies.

Your link didn't grab the closing bracket, but I was able to add it on to get to the page you were referencing (my link used the %28 and %29 identifiers for ( and ) respectively.

Anyway, just read through the nightly build installation from the page you referenced and I still have questions.

Firstly, is the nightly build just 32-bit? As there's only one nightly I imagine it must be just 32-bit, but if there is a 64-bit version I'd rather use that instead.

Secondly, the nightly build has no library DLLs with it (e.g. SDL, zlib, libFLAC, libjpeg, etc). Which ones should be used? The same ones as in the v1.0 zip file (again I'm guessing the 32-bit one as the 64-bit one has different library files).

Did they move away from SDL then?

EDIT: Oh, and having just tried OpenXcom v1.0, being able to scale up the graphics is really nice. Going from 640x400 to 1280x800 and applying a 2x scale to both Geoscape and Battlescape make it look much better. The Geoscape globe goes from very pixellated to sharp edges, looks great, and the Battlescape shows more of the map. I'm not using a display filter as it is matching pixel to pixel anyway what with the resolution being doubled in height and width matching the scale multiplier of 2x, but they can be used to smooth out the jaggies if you wish.

I think SDL gets baked into the exe. The milestones are done with VS, while the nightlies are compiled using MinGW. I think it's more of a hassle to do that with VS.

In that case, I may give it a try, just to see how TFTD runs in it.

I second the recommendation of openXcom - I've been playing the first game on it, and jumped on TFTD implementation the moment it rolled out in the nightlies. There's no bugs in either one that I know of - right now both are rock-solid, polished to a shine, and at this point most of the work SupSuper and Warboy {plus other contributors} have been adding focuses on mod support, which is absolutely incredible.

So, again - get it. There's no reason not to.

Well crap, learn something new every day. I didn't even know there was a wiki, thanks for the link.

The TFTD functionality was fully workable when I played it. I even made a few mods for it using the new files that allowed me to produce Xrbite once I'd researched it, and gave every aquanaut a 1 Psi Str so I could see what they were when hiring so I didn't have to waste time training scrubs. All of the other new in-game options seemed to work fine as well.