Part 34: BONUS UPDATE - XCOMUTIL

BONUS UPDATE - XCOMUTIL

By request, here's how to screw around with XCOMUtil. I believe you need the DOS version of XCOM. Everything I'm showing is mentioned in the readme, but that readme is huge and confusing at times.

First, open XCUSetup. It should pop up and ask you a bunch of questions, which are explained well in the readme. You can use the 'improved starting base' to test if XCOMUtil is working in the first place.

At the prompt just before you type 'runxcom' to open the game, type 'xcomutil game_x wrt'. This shows up:



This is the alien base mission.

Suppose you wanted to make it harder, by replacing the Snakemen with Ethereals? Type ''xcomutil game_x rpl:snakeman:ethereal wrt".



Intelligent aliens can be replaced with other intelligent aliens, or small (1x1) terror units. Small and large terror units can only be replaced with small and large terror units respectively.

Now let's add a bunch of Chryssalids, say 50. ''xcomutil game_x CHR:50 wrt". The number is obviously the amount you want to add, and use the first three letters of the alien you want. You can add CIVilians, and for large terror units, you use ALL. I haven't tried that last one.



There is a limit of 80 units on one map, as well as a limit on the number of items one map can have. The game handles this by having corpses disappear if too many items are generated.

Let's try to fix that. ''xcomutil game_x w2h del:heavy_plasma dxc wrt"



The command "del:item_name" removes all of that items, and 'dxc' removes all extra clips carried by the aliens. "w2h" (weapon to heavy) replaced all plasma pistols and rifles with heavy plasma. Stun launchers and blaster bombs can be interchanged with s2b (stun to blaster) or b2s.

If you're having trouble finding that one last Aquatoid asshole hiding in the closet, type 'xcomutil game_x win wrt".



And to change the difficulty, 'xcomutil game_x lvl:1 wrt", where 1 is beginner and 5 is superhuman.



There's also the 'swp' command which changes sides with the aliens, but screws up that file so you can't use it without bugs cropping up.