User:Hobbes

Why Hobbes?

This question keeps popping up from time to time. And the answer is two-fold: - Hobbes, as in the stuffed tiger in the comic books Calvin and Hobbes. - And as Thomas Hobbes, an English political theory writer of the XVI century (which was the inspiration for the above mentioned tiger).

In real life my name is André, that I am from Portugal and that my age is 38.

Any questions regarding me, myself and I can be made on my talk page :)

Why X-COM?

Scroll back in time to when computers had the fabulous memory of 48K, namely the ZX Spectrum. The would be creators of X-COM released a game named Rebel Star, followed by Laser Squad (the predecessor to the current Laser Squad Nemesis). I like those so much that I even used some of Rebel Star's names for my fan fictions as a nod to them. A big time afterwards I got a PC and bought X-COM:Apocalypse, followed by X-COM:UFO Defense and X-COM: Terror From The Deep. Voila, love at first sight.

Terrain Mods

Port/Dawn City Terror Site replacements

I've converted the Port terrain of TFTD (with some adaptations) and created a new terrain, Dawn City, based on previous work for UFO2000. Both terrains can be used to replace the Terror Site terrain of UFO Defense/Enemy Unknown (simply unzip the file to your game folder, make backups first). Both terrains can be downloaded here.

XComUtil

If you are using XComUtil then you can try some of my terrain mods for something different. It should be easy to use them:

1) Make a backup of the XComUtil.cfg file.

2) Download the Terrain Files and unzip them to your UFO folder.

3) Run XcuSetup. Make sure you choose Yes to the option: "Do you want to be prompted before every ship attack?" Don't choose Yes to any of the options afterwards (or the one where it asks you if you want to use the new Desert and Farm terrains) or it won't work.

4) During the game, when you are about to raid a UFO, it will show you a list of terrains using the original but some of the terrains have been replaced: Farm is now Native (village in the tropics); Urban has been expanded; Forest is Apartment (a different city); and Mountain is the HWP factory (the Factory might not appear the first time with the game going straight to the score screen after the battle, just try it until you see it).

Terrain Images

Here are some pics of the terrains:

Fan fictions?

I've been writing a whole series of stories concerning the X-COM universe:

X-COM: The Unknown Menace - Covers the 1st Alien War (based upon UFO Defense). Long novel (692 pages)

X-COM: Eulogy - Set between the 1st and the 2nd Alien War. Short story based upon the return of X-COM to Mars.

X-COM: Abyssal - Covers the 2nd Alien War. Unfinished.

X-COM: Destined Alliance - Pre-Apocalipse story set upon the 2nd return of X-COM to Mars. Will eventually be a part of the 3rd novel, which covers the 5th Alien War, based upon X-COM: Genesis.

All of those can be read at the fanfiction.net site