Talk:Utilities (Apocalypse)

Apoc'd Unofficial Manual - Errata

Editing: warnings, hints, how-to, and discovered Unknowns. or
Harder Gameplay

Vehicle Equipment Layouts

What: Changing the slots on craft to add vareity of the customised AI vehicles. 1. Changing the cargo slot size and making it work in-game.

• Type: cargo slots are 1x1. (notice the "0" in the next line after "Cargo")
• Type: engine/weapon slots are various sizes. (notice the "1" in the next line after "Engine" or "Weapon")

If you change a single cargo slot to be a 2x2 slot (and organise the layout so nothing overlaps), you cannot put anything into the slot (when in-game). However, if you change the "0" to a "1", the game will allow you to place any module that will fit.
The visual orientation will then come into play. eg: "left, up", or "center,center" but this is only cosmetic.

2. Adding more slots. Only one engine slot, up to three weapon slots and a total of 45 slots maximum.

• The amount of slots on your edited vehicle must match the total count "Number Of Slots" which you have 'built' into the edited vehicle.
• If you have been edited additional slots but they don't appear in the layout-editing screen, increase the slot quantity (max 45).
• Count all the slots, insert that number at the top!
  

If the slot quantity is more than you edited in - the game will crash!

Raid A UFO or Alien Building

Goto "Edit buildings", choose your difficulty, find "Building Function" in right column and change any building to a UFO (#51 to #58) or alien Building (#39 to #48)

• Battlescape is the internals of the selected ship or and alien buildling.
• No aliens apppear!
• Security appears just as normal as any other Mega-Primus building.
• Fires in the trench are not active.

UFO & Building Alien Loads

Make the game harder. Some bugs (Micronoid lax appearance) can be fixed by:

• a maximum of five groups (note: not types) of aliens.
• A maximum of 6 different types of lifeforms. Examples:
  

Battleship(C) = 6xAnthropods, 12xSkeletoids, 3xMegaspawn, 3xPsimorph, 3xMicronoid.
Battleship(D) = 6xAnthropods, 6xSkeletoids, 6xChrysalis, 6xAlien Egg, 6xMicronoid.
Fast Attack(C) = 12xAnthropods, 12xPoppers, 6xSpitters.
Destroyer(C) = 12xAnthropods, 6xSkeletoids, 6xPoppers, 6xSpitters.

Midnight Editor: X-Com Apocalypse

Filename: mexcomap.zip
Filesize:147kB
Author: Marcin Wichary
Version: 06.2a (internal v1.01)
Download:

Versions

Two version were common, both named mexcomap.zip

1. version 0.6, internal version 0.92, exe dated 1997-08-04 (size: 228,768), zip size 130,305 bytes.

which has basic functionality but appears more stable than

2. version 0.62a, internal version 1.01, exe dated 1997-09-09  (size: 382,976), zip size 152,454 bytes.

this version allows more options, including changing the score and weeks-elapsed.

Notes

It has been 25years since v0.6.

Your operating system may not like either of these files. Try these:
WinXP-SP3
Extract to Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents.
1. Alt-Tab to desktop.
2. Copy over your savegame into My Documents.
3. Run MEXCOMAP.EXE, find your savegame here, not in the game folder.
4. Edit, then save. Ignore error messages, if any.
5. Copy edited savegame back to over Savegame folder.
6. Alt-Enter to maximise screen if it became a 640x480 window
6. Reload the save.
7. Check all your labs for unassigned personel.

If mexcomap.exe is located somewhere other than My Documents, the program may fail to open the selected savegame.

Other Windows versions may work similar (not tested) since a similar My Documents folder appears to be common.

Mexcomap - Unofficial Manual - Errata

Cautions

• Savegames edited by other programs which changes research time-to-complete requirements will confuse this savegame editor and reset all projects to unresearched!
• Ammunition quantitys will be calculated from default original values.

Explainations

• Update Save Time = forces the weeks elapsed to this number, based on Tech Level. This will match UFO types to the week in which they normally appear, aslisted here and (re)set the equipment level of building security and base invaders.

Errors

General Tab

• Finish construction of facilities may crash the game.
• Dig More Corridors may visually corrupt a Base Defence mission.
  

Facilities Tab

• Changing the build-days-needed to something shorter when the same type is under construction within your base may crash the game.
  

Stores Tab

• Ammuntion quantity per magazine/clip is calculated using original values.

eg: a unedited Law Pistol Clip = 16rounds. Different editor earlier changed this 24rounds. To give your stores 100 clips of this 24round ammo:

{(New Clip Capacity ÷ Original Clip Capacity) × Stores New Quantity} = Stores Clip-Quantity Number

using the numbers above:

{(24 ÷ 16) × 100} = 150

To get 100 clips of 24round Law Pistol ammo, you must enter 150 into the Quantity box.

Research Tab

• Finished tick-box if 'ticked' may not allow continued research into further topics. To remove the error, untick box then set slider to 99% for any or all projects you want to finish quickly (even if they don't appear yet).
  

Score Tab

• Damage To City should not be set to a positive number. The game gets confused and you may lose all funding.

more later EsTeR (talk)