Aliens Attack Base: No Ammo!

[Guest wagger]

When the aliens attack my main base (first base) there is no ammo to my Heavy Plasma. Even though I have about 60 H Plasma and over 150 ammo-clips to them - no weapon is loaded and there is no ammo-clips!

 

Furthermore, my Blaster Launchers, grenades and the other weapons I have doesn't show up in the equipment-phase!

 

When they attacked another base, ammo and such was there but not my main base.

 

Any ideas? Anyone that has encountered this problem?

 

Regards,

[j'ordos]

that's because there is a limit to the amount of objects the game can handle in the battlescape, you will have to sell some stuff, sorry. You might consider using tanks for defence, they always get armed. Edited August 7, 2004 by j'ordos

[[NKF]]

You might want to make it a habit to spring clean the stores of your main assault base ever few missions, or at least on some regular basis. The main thing is: Keep your stores lean and mean. At least in regards to battlescape equipment. This saves you the headache the occasional base defence with lots of rocket launchers and a heap of useless Autocannon HE shells.

 

- NKF

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Or just use lots of lasers.

[[dipstick]]

The actual limit is 80 items (including clips and so forth) I am amazed no-one stated that!

[[Blehm 98]]

hey nkf, could the amount of weapons you bring make it so aliens don't spawn?

[The Master Maniac]

No, you can just make it so your items themselves cut out. I don't think "characters" count as items--right?

[[Blehm 98]]

hmmm, but corpses do. i think that aliens may count as objects

[SupSuper]

hmmm, but corpses do.  i think that aliens may count as objects

no they don't, i think they're stored somewhere else. they will disappear when killed if there's no space for the corpse in the object table.

 

damn i'm starting to sound like nkf

[[NKF]]

Well, objects and all the characters that can appear in the battlescape are stored in two different tables.

 

The total item limit for ALL objects in the battlescape is 170. That's including your equipment and the aliens.

 

The total number of units that can appear in combat is 80, that includes one for every quarter of a large unit.

 

When a unit falls unconscious or is killed, an object is created (a corpse object) and dropped on the floor to represent the unit's body. I'm not sure about stunned units, but for units that are killed, having too many items can mean that the corpses do not get generated.

 

- NKF

[Guest Guest]

Thanks! I'll just have to sell a lot of stuff, or spread some weapons around the other bases...

 

I actually thought about this myself, but I found it so stupid I didn't really bother..

Anyway, thanks! I'll try it out right now...

[GDD]

well kind of on the same topic, I have some how managed to build one of my stores where it is impossible to get to it

 

its in a corner with a mind shield and hyperwave decoder up and to the left of it

[[NKF]]

Sounds like the base disjoint bug.

 

Is it in the bottom right most section of the base?

 

Check this diagram I put on my website to see what walls are affected:

 

http://www.geocities.com/nkfarma/temporary/bdb.html

 

The safest building module to build in the problem spots (particularly the one on the lower right) would be hangars and radar modules. Radars almost never have any aliens or soldiers spawn in them.

 

Or you can get XComutil. It has a very crude workaround and literally knocks out the walls. It makes the base look a little ugly with bits of dirt sticking out here and there, but at least you'll never have to worry about being isolated.

 

Me, I'd just use these unnecessary walls to my tactical advantage.

 

- NKF

[[Blehm 98]]

More questions. so radar center is the safest? Also, aren't alien spawn points in hangars and air lock only?

 

edit what if you have llike 50 soldiers, 80 items, etc/ Could you overflow the chart so much that it can't spawn some alien or thi weapons?

Edited August 10, 2004 by blehm

[[NKF]]

Well, radars practically have no aliens spawn in them. I'm sure there are nodes in there for the aliens to navigate, but the aliens don't get created in them.

 

As for filling up the equipment and unit tables - no it wouldn't be possible - as evident by the hundreds of useless heavy plasmas you can get from time to time - the aliens will be armed.

 

The aliens will get their equipment and all the space left is pretty much used up by any excess equipment you've got. It's also interesting to note that alien equipment seems to get priority, even if it's unresearched. I'd hate to have everyone armed with an unresearched weapon!

 

You are also limited to the number of soldiers/HWPs that can be generated in a base defence mission. If you have a real large supply of soldiers, you'll probably notice (if you can remember all their names) that quite a lot of them won't be in the battle. Or, you could try getting eight HWPs in a base with a lot of soldiers. When combat starts, you'll get 8 HWPs and only a few soldiers (HWPs get created first, and they count as four units).

 

- NKF

[Guest alex the greater]

i hope you can use all your items in Xenocide and put items around the base eg your units start in the living quarters whith only light weppons like pistols and pistol clips, all wepons that have been equiped to a craft will be in the hanger, and all remaning equipment will be in the genarall stores and alow more than 80 pieces of equipment per mission (maby have 10 pieces of geer per man or something like that)

[Paladin]

i hope you can use all your items in Xenocide and put items around the base eg your units start in the living quarters whith only light weppons like pistols and pistol clips, all wepons that have been equiped to a craft will be in the hanger, and all remaning equipment will be in the genarall stores and alow more than 80 pieces of equipment per mission (maby have 10 pieces of geer per man or something like that)

That would be the day!

No more crappy/lousy/stupidlyLow item limit... :happybanana: :happybanana:

[EtherImp]

Do what they said above: Clean out your general stores after each mission.

 

What I do, is keep 1 of every item I have not researched (Although this only effects my item limit if those items are weapons, etc.)

 

Then, I keep a small backup of weapons like plasma and laser rifles.. Usually, once you have found a satisfactory equipment setup for your soldiers you can keep just those with about 5-10 backup (for maybe transfering to another base, or incase weapons get destroyed in combat), and enough clips to hold you over.. This also helps you economically because you can make several million by selling say, 10 plasma rifles and 20 plasma clips.

 

Remember, Lasers are cheap to produce and make good starting weapons for rookies, or if you get a new base created and decide you want a skyranger/avenger there.. Pistols and Rifles and AC's are very cheap, and really delivery time is not too incredibly bad, you just have to plan ahead.. and alien weapons you recieve EVERY mission of play.. You should only be "Short" on alien weapons early in the game.

 

So there's really no point in keeping a stockpile of weapons....unless you're some kind of Stalinesque war monger.

[[NKF]]

Well, I keep huge stockpiles of ammo for weapons that end up becoming scarce, like plasma rifle ammo and plasma pistol ammo. Sadly this is only for one or two of these weapons in my entire worldwide arsenal (which I realise isn't exactly the brightest thing to do - but hey, nothing can beat the plasm rifle's snapshot accuracy). I end up keeping most of it in my passive storage/psi academy facility of Doom™ at the south pole.

 

By the way here's a trick if you really want your stores to be lean and mean:

 

Instead of keeping 1 object of each type to research, START the projects (no need to assign scientists to it yet) and then clear out your stores. When you start the project, you'll be able to complete it regardless of the availability of the item.

 

I know, it's just 1 item, but you never know if you accidentally sold off the item before you start to research ti. One time, I did a really stupid thing when I sold off my last power unit just as I was going to start researching it to get the power suits. Now, starting the research projects the moment they appear has become second nature to me.

 

Sadly, this won't work for some research projects in TFTD, as there are one or two projects which force you to have the item in stock or else! (in paticular 'sub construction' and the 'MC Reader').

 

- NKF

Edited August 20, 2004 by NKF

[SupSuper]

By the way here's a trick if you really want your stores to be lean and mean:

 

Instead of keeping 1 object of each type to research, START the projects (no need to assign scientists to it yet) and then clear out your stores. When you start the project, you'll be able to complete it regardless of the availability of the item.

 

I know, it's just 1 item, but you never know if you accidentally sold off the item before you start to research ti. One time, I did a really stupid thing when I sold off my last power unit just as I was going to start researching it to get the power suits. Now, starting the research projects the moment they appear has become second nature to me.

 

Sadly, this won't work for some research projects in TFTD, as there are one or two projects which force you to have the item in stock or else! (in paticular 'sub construction' and the 'MC Reader').

 

- NKF

I think that, if the research project needs at least ONE certain item, the game stops you from selling / transferring that one certain item because 'it's in use'.

 

The only problem with that technique is that, if you use multiple bases for research, you might get research projects that are finished on one base, and still in the research list of some other base (which can't be removed). And if you forget that you've already researched that project, you might end up wasting your time researching already researched stuff (which does nothing but waste your scientists' time)

Edited August 20, 2004 by SupSuper

[Admiral Harkov]

It's also interesting to note that alien equipment seems to get priority, even if it's unresearched. I'd hate to have everyone armed with an unresearched weapon!

Sure? What I know of it is that it takes weapons and ammo from the upper part of the list to the lower until it fills the 80 item limit It doesn't minds if it has been researched or not.

[[NKF]]

Hmm, perhaps it was TFTD that priorotised alien weapons. I recall one of them where I started with mostly absolutely useless equipment. Speaking of prioritising weapons, the game seems to push the pistol class weapons to the bottom of the heap, even though it's higher in the object table than the rifle.

 

As for items being needed for research: Not really, you only need the object in storage to start the project. After that it can be sold. I imagine the scientists have already gathered all the data they need to understand it. In Apocalypse, I think one object is removed from storage when you start a project.

 

I can't really say much about what this would do in a base with multiple research facilities, because I centralise my research in the main base. I find that there's just not enough research to go around to have multiple research facilities, and it's better to have the research centralised at the base where your main assault party resides. Other bases that gather new equipment transfer it there if necessary. But that's just how I organise my research efforts.

 

Hmm, in any case, that's still something for me to have a look at when I have some spare time. Otherwise, there shouldn't much harm in duplicate research. Just clear it off by researching it when you have nothing better to do.

 

- NKF