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 42.

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

Why do I love 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. And this relationship has continued due to Firaxis release of XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Within and XCOM 2, and with OpenXcom, the open source remake of the original game.

Mods

XCOM: Area 51

Area 51 is an expansion I made for the original game, and initially based on the Terrain Pack, which is a collection of map mods mainly designed by myself (which is also available as a stand alone mod). Both mods can be played with OpenXCom.

List of features

New monthly Council missions, can consist of 6 different objectives: Defense, Assault, Destroy, Capture, Recovery or Extraction
New research topic: Bluebook Report, unlocks additional Council missions of Capture/Recovery/Extraction (to gain techs) and also gives tips on future mission locations and new alien species, plus background story
Terror missions can now appear also as Escape variant, where your units need to reach the exit area before a timer expires otherwise they're MIA
Redesigned Geoscape globe, with new textures, regions, cities and country zones
Over 100 new terrains for the nearly all the vanilla missions (except Base Defense) and the new Escape/Council missions. Includes Alien Colony, Alien Hive, Area 51, Biolab, Cold Isle, Complex, Downtown, Pyramid, Slums, Siberia and Storm Mountain terrains
In Escape and certain Council missions, XCom will use the Mudranger APC for deployment/exit instead of the transport craft
Variable UFO waves, alternative UFO interior designs for the vanilla UFOs & 2 additional new UFOs (Lab Ship and Overseer)
Alien crews are enlarged to 12 possible ranks and Mixed crews have been added
22 new aliens and 1 new rank of alien Scientist, 8 enemy humans, 15 allied humans and 73 civilian units
In Terror and Council missions it is possible to encounter allied soldiers and police officers who will attack the aliens, but they carry only conventional weapons
Captures of aliens are much more important to unlock research, specially for Cydonia or Bust (Ethereal Commander), Elerium-115 (any Scientist), UFO Power Source (any Engineer) and UFO Navigation (any Navigator). Some of those ranks can only be found in UFO or alien base missions
New weapons: Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, Grenade Launcher, Multi-Launcher, Snubnose Pistol, Combat Knife, LMG, Machine Pistol, AK-47, RPG, Alloy Shotgun, Alloy Sword, Gauss Pistol, Gauss Rifle, Heavy Gauss, Laser Sniper Rifle, Laser Minigun, Plasma Blaster, Plasma Assault Cannon, Gauss Heavy Cannon and Gauss Autocannon, as well as Alloy (upgraded AP) and more varieties of ammo/grenades/rockets
New armors: Alloy Vest and Combat Armor
New HWPs: Gauss Tank and Alloy versions of all HWPs
New craft: Darkstar (airborne radar), Thunderstorm and Stormrider (interceptors) and Blackbird (transport), also 2 new craft weapons - Stormhawk Missiles and Gauss Cannon
Research and Manufacturing redesigned/enlarged to include new features
Varied UFO interiors

EU2012 Soldier Markings and Insignia

This mod replaces the national flags on soldiers' armor and the Barracks using Texmod. To download and instructions on how to use it check its page at Nexusmods [1].

EU1994 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.

EU1994 XComUtil Terrain Pack

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).

EU1994 Terrain Mods Images

Here are some pics of the terrains:

Dawn City terrain
Native terrain
HWP Factory terrain

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