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Terror from the Deep bugs


LambdaTeam

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As an expert gamer - taking my 20 years of gaming into account - I can announce without doubts that X-Com Terror from the Deep is the WORST made strategy game in the known universe. Almost every single aspect of the game is screwed up, ridiculous and unfair. Among Alien Anarcy and Power of Destruction, X-Com Terror from the Deep is one of the biggest pile of turd I EVER played. Seriously, this is the game which has the MOST bugs among ALL possible computer games.

 

In this very topic, I'll submit the complete list, the bugs I've met so far, and every negative experience which can be considered as a game glitch. And you know what? There are probably a LOT more bugs in this game, but I've HAD it,and there'z NO way I'm going to play this again!

I'll keep this collection up to date if I manage to locate more bugs in the game. This one should be longer than Tolsztoj's "War and peace".

 

1) Difficulty level bug. This one was also present in X-Com UFO Defense, but this time, it's a LOT worse! No matter what difficulty level you choose, the difficulty is "Superhuman" at each choice. Well at least an awful lot like it...

 

2) The Tasoth Commander bug (this was corrected through a patch).

 

3) The Deep One bug (this was corrected through a patch).

 

4) The research tree is completely illogical and ridiculous. If you don't research stuff in a specific order, you can't get those items you REALLY need for. Not counting the Deep One and Tasoth Commander bugs, the researching is entirely screwed up in this game. No matter if you have Vibro Blades or Thermic Lances, you CAN'T research them until you collect a dead Calcinite Terrorist. The same problem appears at Magnetic Navigation and Aqua Plastics.

The funny part is, the game patch makes this even WORSE. If you don't patch your game, you can grab the Magnetic Ion Armour prematurely if you capture a live Lobster Man Navigator. If you install the patch,you gonna need to suffer for months to grab a living Deep One! All in all, the research system is a mess,and the patch screws it up even more!

 

5) Most of the weapons - including Gauss weaponry - is an enormous pile of poo. Most of the aliens has so great health and defense, they require tons of ammunition to even scratch them (except Aquatoids). If you get an Alien Colony or Artifact Site mission in the second-third month, you might as well start over. Most of the weapons are so friggin' weak, you couldn't even pull a tooth with'em.

 

4) Aliens has unfair advantage (this glitch was present in X-Com UFO Defense as well). THey KNOW where you are, which means, if they can mind-control, you're as good as gone. The game cheats BIG time with the aliens, since they always know where your soldiers are, even if they deliberately "play dumb", and avoid your soldiers (if the game wouldn't play dumb,your soldiers would not stand a chance).

 

5) Factual error: Hydro-Jet cannon can return-fire on land, when Hydro-Jet cannon is supposed to be an underwater only weapon.

 

6) In two-chapter missions (Shipping route attack, Alien artifact site, Colony), aliens which got stunned at the first chapter are all considered dead,even if you carry'em around in your backpack.

 

7) The aliens almost have 95% accuracy when they shoot at someone, despite the fact that they always snap-shot. You'll need to reload your game LOTS of times to see an alien actually misses a shot. This unfair high accuracy is yet another great example of the game cheats big time.

 

8) Lethal return-fire. This bug happened to me extremely frequently. If your soldier wanders in a passage,which is watched by an alien with Sonic Cannon, the alien reaction-fires, and the soldier drops dead, independently its armour, its health and such. Many of my soldiers were killed by a sudden lethal return-fire, when they had Magnetic Ion Armour, and full health.

 

9) Your soldiers can't climb stairs if there is an alien in the upper floor which stands ABOVE the entry of the staircase. The program simply doesn't allow your soldiers to enter the staircase, like there is an invisible wall there.

 

10) Tentaculants can actually damage and kill Coelacanths and Displacers, despite that they're 4? the size of that alien, and Tentaculants theoretically can only mutate stuff, as it has only tentacles, and nothing which could even scratch a tank. This bug was also present in X-Com UFO Defense, luckily, the situation is a LOT better here.

 

11) "Ghost soldier". This strange bug happened to me today at the second stage of an Alien Colony mission. A soldier of mine became invisible, dead, and alive in the same time. I couldn't see him at the map, his health was zero, and I could control him. He suddenly re-appeared at the level when walking, and then,he disappeared again. At the end of the turn, he was dead, and in the next turn, he died AGAIN.

And the funny part? He wasn't even wounded or hit by anything! I have the savegame if someone wants to take a look.

 

12) Flying subs can't intercept or attack above land, and the annoying message keeps popping up.

 

13) Equipment mysteriously disappears from the floor of Leviathans.

 

14) Some colonies and USOs touch down on dry land. No joke! And when I begin the mission, it takes place underwater. Strange.

 

15) Factual error: At the final mission of T'leth, it's stated that T'leth raised above the sea. Why is the mission takes place underwater then???

 

16) "Two-headed aliens". This glitch happened to me along with the lethal return-fire bug. An alien was cornered in a room, and no matter what direction I arrived from, the alien could immediately reaction-fire to both directions. It's like that Tasoth had twin heads. Cheating.

 

17) Grenades, torpedos, missiles kill does not raise the energy and Time units value. Cheating yet again. Kill is kill.

 

18) Examination room and Alien re-animation zone cannot be researched, no matter what.

 

19) Bio-Drone melee attack doesn't cause any damage. Regardless, this is a glitch,so...

 

20) Aliens don't know how to use close combat weapons (like Thermic Lance). Although beneficial, this IS a glitch.

 

21) Thermal Tazers take up a LOT more time units to use than other close combat weapons, despite that thermal tazer is a lot more "simple" than these cutting devices.

 

22) Negative money bug. This was also present in X-Com UFO Defense.

 

23) If you buy more than 255 scientists, the amount will turn to negative. This was also present in X-Com UFO Defense.

 

24) Some captured live aliens will not show up in your research list - happened with Bio-Drone,Calcinite and Hallucinoid.

 

25) The Hallucinoid's range attack only works on land,but Hallucinoids never appear on land.

 

26) Factual error: The Triton sub can be blown to pieces, yet, you're still able to fly it home.

 

27) How can stunned soldiers appear at the second stage of a two-chapter mission???

 

28) Factual error: Can't swim up without Magnetic Ion Armour. Ridiculous.

 

29) Factual error: Molecular Control should only effect those who had implant installed, which means, my soldiers should NOT be mind-controlled by aliens until they got MC implants.

 

30) Hallucinoid and Xarquoid mind-control bug (alien attacks itself if not all 4 squares are mind-controlled). This also happened in X-Com UFO Defense.

 

31) Coelacanth/Gauss ammo disappears if you assign it to a craft, and then return it to your stores.

 

32) Bottomless store bug. Even if your general stores are full, you can still collect stuff. This was also present in X-Com UFO Defense.

 

33) Factual error (possibly): If your soldiers get MC implants and MC Disruptors, they could be able to "see" the aliens,just like aliens see my soldiers from the very moment the battle begins. At least this'd equalize the odds a little bit (this makes Molecular Control training useless). Also frowned upon at X-Com UFO Defense.

 

Not bad for a quick list,huh? And the feast is yet to come...

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OK, let's continue with the second chunk of glitches and errors, shall we?

 

34) Program error: Game crashes at Disruptor pulse launcher impact very frequently.

 

35) Program error: Game crashes at loading savegames.

 

36) If you start shooting at those tiny blue fences at Alien colony missions, a Displacer of yours might get destroyed all of a sudden. It has full health, and it's like 2 kilometres away from those blue fence-thingies, yet, if you shoot'em with your Displacer, it will suddenly collapse and die.

 

37) Aquanauts can't see aliens which are very close to them, EXCEPT if they move to a VERY specific area of the room. This happened to me LOTS of times during terror and Alien colony missions. Doesn't matter the aquanaut is inside that room, and I made him turn around like a damn roundabout, he will ONLY see that alien if he moves to a particular area in that room. Cheating.

 

38) Displacer/Sonic actually appears in UFOpedia before you could manufacture it. Connected to this bug, Displacer/PWT can be manufactured EARLIER than Displacer/Sonic. Unfair.

 

39) Aliens inside the walls. Pure cheating and annoyance,happens very frequently at Alien colony missions, second chapter. Without disruptor pulse launchers, you're forced to retreat (you can't destroy rock with anything).

 

40) Extremely fugly graphics at Alien artefact site chapter 2 - corridors just end in nowhere, the doors are all black etc.

 

41) Aliens can walk through certain walls at Alien artefact site chapter 2 missions, as well as my aquanauts.

 

42) "Teleporting aliens". This is also a very frequent and detestable occurrance, and usually happens with Tentaculants at Alien colony chapter 2 missions. They appear from a room, and kill an aquanaut of mine, yet,when I re-load that game and explore the room (and all the areas around it), no Tentaculant can be found. So how did it get there??? Cheating I assume.

 

43) Sometimes my aquanauts can see through walls (this was also present in X-Com UFO Defense).

 

44) Aliens can shoot backwards.

 

45) T'leth mission glitch: my Displacer/Sonic was put inside an Alien machine, and got stuck there.

 

46) USO Pursue bug. Despite the fact that the USO left my interceptor FAR behind, I still can view it and attack it in my interception screen (this also happened at X-Com UFO Defense).

 

47) Alien corpses disappear during Colony missions.

 

48) Unstunnable aliens - this glitch also happened at alien Colony missions with the Tasoth race. If you keep hitting them with Thermal Tazer, they'll become invisible instead of become stunned. The only way to defeat them is to shoot them.

 

49) Gill man suicide bug. This occurs at Fleet Supply Cruisers driven by Gillmen. The Gill man on the top floor collapses and drops, somehow stunning himself. Funny happening indeed.

 

50) Enemy USO images are mixed up in the interception view window.

 

51) You can't carry more than 80 items to a mission.

 

52) The 26 men in the Leviathan bug.

 

53) Alien Colony chapter 1 ALWAYS happens at night, even if there is daylight at that area.

 

54) I can't mind-control civilians, OR re-mind-control my soldiers after they got mind-controlled by aliens. This bug also happened in X-Com UFO Defense.

 

55) The Deep one's attack sound is messed up.

 

56) If I equip a soldier with Thermic lance and Medi-kit, with a Sonic Cannon in his backpack, when he gets mind-controlled, he puts the Sonic Cannon to his hand, and the Thermic Lance starts to "hover" in the emptyness, when I access the mind-controlled soldier's inventory again.

 

57) Duplicated research items (live aliens). While this is extremely useful on Technicians, Squad leaders and such, it's annoying for terrorist units, such as Tentaculants.

 

58) The manufacture rate limitation bug.

 

59) Factual error: Thrown objects behave underwater with identical physics as on land.

 

60) Targeting bug. Since thermic lances can't cut walls, I'm forced to blast my way through them. The problem is, the targeting system is extremely poor, sometimes my aquanaut refuses to shoot at a wall saying "No line of fire!", because I simply can't shoot at that wall. This problem is the most obvious at cargo ship and T'leth mission.

 

61) "Not enough Time units" error at T'leth chapter 3 door frames.

 

62) "Ghost shots". After ending a turn, Sonic cannon shots can be heard when no one is shooting. Very minor glitch,but quite disturbing.

 

63) Alien Artifact sites has a third floor,which is all black, except the entryway-exit zones. It was quite a dumb idea to create an entirely empty third floor just to raise the entryway-exit points one storey higher.

 

64) Can't shoot through elevators.This can actually prevent you from killing every alien at Alien Artifact sites, who are standin' on the top of the elevator, and are panicked. This might be quite a frequent occurrance, as clever players would not enter an upper chamber with a Tasoth inside, not even with Magnetic Ion Armour because of the lethal return-fire cheating.

 

65) Flying subs can't land at a base when you order it to do so, they need to be transferred. Which means, if you want to exchange crafts between two bases, you actually need to buy a third Sub Pen for nothing. Also it's pretty strange how can a Leviathan or a Manta arrive days late, while it can do the same route within hours.

 

66) Dye grenades are useless.

 

67) Game slows down dramatically at base defense missions.

 

68) Building two Alien containments will not double the live alien holding capacity.

 

69) Throwing bug. The game doesn't allow my aquanauts to throw something anywhere except the 3-4 surrounding squares, which makes grenade usage a real pain in the butt. I always get the "Unable to throw there" message. Strangely, aliens doesn't have such problem - sometimes they can throw through walls, their throwing distance is almost equal to the half of the map. Cheating,cheating,cheating. Again.

 

70) Coelacanths/Displacers can't be assigned to a craft if it doesn't have the required amount of ammo loaded.

 

71) Mind-controlled + stunned aliens are considered as friendly units instead of captured ones.

 

72) Panicfire bug. If an aquanaut of mine panicks, it starts to shoot at least 9-10 shots to random directions, even with Sonic Cannon. How come??? With full Time units, a soldier can fire a Sonic cannon twice - maximum. It's like Sonic Cannon gets a mysterious automatic fire when my soldier panicks. Even more crazy that sometimes the panicked soldier can fire MORE shots than the loaded ammunition!

Edited by LambdaTeam
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A lot of these are actually present in EU, but they are unfortunately much-much more pronounced in TFTD - which does not reflect well on UFO, yet we still have fans raving about it being one of the better games around. I still enjoy TFTD too, though I must admit UFO gets more attention.

 

Anyway, I have my personal opinions on some aspects (like the weapon and alien balance), but I'll only touch on a few that caught my attention:

 

15) T'Leth may be above the sea, but that doesn't mean they haven't drained it yet - and it may be that the aliens prefer an aquatic environment more than a dry one.

 

 

17) They do raise those stats. It's just that because experience is action based, not kill based. The more actions you do, the bigger the chance that you'll earn some experience at the end of the mission. Those big-bang weapons you mention are poweful, so they kill aliens faster. Thus, you earn less experience than you would if you tried to empty an entire Gauss pistol clip into a Lobsterman.

 

21) Thermal tazers are actually slower to operate than the stun rods from UFO, but they pack a much bigger punch. It's a speed/damage tradeoff. The aliens are just given preferential treatment in that they get the better stuff - otherwise we wouldn't be so inclined to use it.

 

22) Can you elaborate a bit on the negative money bug? Do you mean that your earnings for the month are not the same as what your income and expenditures are reporting? Also if you're counting in pay bonuses, remember that they apply the following month, not the current month.

 

25) They do - shipping lane terror missions with one of the mixed crews. Really messed up, I know. Even has Xarquids on land too.

 

34, 35, 36) Results will vary on these, and do not affect everyone.

 

38) Sounds odd and I've never experienced this, as you should get the Sonic Displacer the moment you have a Manta and the Sonic Oscillator researched, or the DPL with the Pulse Wave Torpedo.

 

39) A mapper error - 0r deliberate to force you to evacuate rather than complete the map as per normal. I think we'd have to hear from the horses mouth as to their intent on this one!

 

40) If you're using XComutil, it does rip out some walls to stop the base disjoint bug. Or if that's not the case, then it's an attempt at making a labyrinth to confuzzle the player. The steam-punk style graphics I think is a matter of our own preferences. I do question the black walls though - I wonder if they were unfinished?

 

42) Tentaculats have lots of TUs, so it could have flown in over a great distance. If you ever experience anything like that and it really bugs you - use XComutil's Vis command on the savegame to reveal the locations of the aliens.

 

44) Unless it was done via an alien beyond that one. Interesting tidbit: You can shoot the DPL backwards too. Also try to mind control a civilian and move them about. I think their facing is offset by a few compass directions for some strange reason.

 

46) If you minimize the intercept screen at standoff range and let the enemy sub disengage, you will still be able to access the intercept screen. However the range will be adjusted if you go back in before your ship closes in, and should promptly close.

 

53) I've had brightly lit exterior levels before though. I don't know if depth plays a factor, as that adjusts the lighting level even if you're playing in full daylight.

 

54) You can mind control civilians, but their allegience gets mixed up afterwards. Not being able to re-mind control units currently under mind control may be an oversight or a game balance issue.

 

56) Happens in UFO. We're not supposed to be able to access an aliens' inventory, and since aliens don't handle the inventory the same way we do, they mess it up for us when they use our own troops.

 

61) This one's bugged me since I first played this game. I think the MCD records may have an explanation for this. Though I thought it was an not enough energy issue?

 

64) They made the lifts solid, probably to prevent the player from exploiting it. In UFO, you could use the lifts to your advantage in the supply ship missions for example, by plugging the lifts and shooting any aliens above you. You can still shoot up at the floor immediately above you by firing gas cannon HE rounds or torpedoes.

 

65) They have to take them apart and stick them in cargo ships. Bureaucracy at its finest.

 

66) Hear, hear. They tried to change the mechanics of smoke a bit, thus the lower power. However it has crippled it.

 

67) Base defenses are 60 x 60 x 4 tiles high. Plus there's animation. Lots of stuff to render back in the day, which is why TFTD's minimum requirements skyrocketed to a 80486 processor when UFO was more than content with a 80386 (we had it running on a 80286 processor!)

 

69) It's strength issue. The higher your strength, the higher your throwing arc, thus allowing longer throws. The problem is, there's the ceilings in the way, and the game doesn't know how to fiddle with the throwing angles, so it just conks out and has a tantrum. This just about cripples grenadiers in colonies/artefact sites - and the sonic pulser is one item tham sees a lot of use.

 

70) That's not necessarily a bug, but it does mask another technicality. HWP/SWS always appear in battle with a full compliment of ammo regardless of whether they have any ammo or not (thus making fusion hovertanks in UFO THE base defense HWP of the day). The ammo is, in a way, the currency to allow the tank on board.

 

72) Panicked soldiers get 255 TUs to play with, but their Max TUs remains the same. As firing costs are based off Max Tus, they would be able to fire their weapons more often than normal. There are also some bugs associated with patches (like the ET patch) that really mess up reaction fire with the blasta rifle.

 

One of my own: Xarquids are giant Nautilus. Nautilus, in real life, float backwards, with the tentacles behind them, not ahead. The aliens probably don't know how real sea-life work perhaps?

 

A good deal of problems you mention with the battlescape maps are just plain stuff ups by with mappers. A good deal of them involve incorrectly setting the tile properties (the 3d objects of. Try moving an alien to the first part of the, I think 2nd level, stairs in the resort map hotel. On the alien's turn, strangeness ensues. You'll not be able to see the alien on the stairs, though should be able to reveal it if you stand behind the stairs. Or something along those lines. Happens in UFO too with stairs of the same west-south orientation, though I find it's not that often that you'll get into such a situation.

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
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Thanks for the support,NKF :) I thought I'm the only one who thought Terror from the Deep seriously needs a doctor. I'm not joking - the extreme difficulty combined these many little sweet bugs makes the game nearly unbearable. Let's review the bugs you've mentioned, and see if I have anything else to add :)

 

15) You might be right about this one. T'leth raised above the sea, however, it might be necessary for many alien life-forms to keep some water inside,as there is no "chapter zero",which would actually take place on T'leth. Three chapters is far enough,thank you.

 

17) I did an experiment, and the stats doesn't seem to increase if I use Disruptor pulsar launcher (I never use Sonic pulsers because of the throwing bug). One of my aquanauts have killed twice as many aliens than the other, yet, the other still has more Time units and energy. It's like this increasement is totally random.

 

21) I know aliens has better stuff, but it's hard to believe that a Thermic lance is easier to operate than a thermal tazer stick.

 

22) Sure I can! If you have too much money, it'll exceed a limit and then the money will turn to negative. You probably know about this bug, since it was also present in X-Com UFO Defense.

 

25) I've never seen a Hallucinoid on land so far :)

 

34-35-36) Unfortunately, they DO happen, and if you don't have a savegame,you can start the whole thing over. And why does the Displacer die after it destroys those blue railings???

 

38) Just give it a try, and after you've researched Manta, take a look at the UFOpedia. The Displacer/Sonic is there.

 

39) Intentional or not, putting aliens inside the walls is cheating.

 

40) I never used XComUtils so far (I didn't want to plummet to the level of this game by cheating), but the Alien artefact chapter 2 sites look pretty unfinished to me, with all the garbled graphics.

 

42) Sure it might happen, but Tentaculats can "teleport" to locations very randomly. Once I had a savegame just before this thing happened (Tentaculant mutated my soldier). I reloaded and started to search for the Tentaculant. I spent hours and hours with looking, and when I killed the final Lobster man at the Symonium Device, the game ended. There was ABSOLUTELY no Tentaculant present, so it just appeared from nowhere.

 

44) There wasn't any aliens behind that particular one. It just started to shoot backwards (with great accuraccy). I think I still have that savegame.

 

46) I know, it was just strange that I still can see the USO in range while it's thousand kilometers away.

 

53) No matter what time is it, my Alien Colony chapter 1 missions are ALWAYS dark and gloomy. This error only happens with Alien Colony missions - Terror missions and Artefact sites are fine.

 

54) Not being able to re-mind control my soldiers makes this whole mind-control thing a lot more useless.

 

56) Aliens' inventory should behave identical to XCom operatives' inventory,even if I can't access it. Otherwise, it's unfair advantage.

 

61) So it is a bug indeed (my soldiers has enough energy as well).

 

64) It was a bad idea that they made the lifts solid. At least I would be able to make a few cheap shots, and finish the mission without dusting off.

 

65) :D

 

66) I never use grenades, though, it was nice from me that I shared this information with all of you. Smoke or murky water doesn't help a little bit - it'll only slow down my Aquanauts' movement. Aliens can shoot with their extreme accuraccy without problems.

 

67) I don't get it. At Alien Colony missions,there are a LOT more moving-glittering stuff around, and it also has 4 levels,yet, game slowdown ONLY happens at base defense missions.

 

68) So then the aliens should have the same problem, but they don't...judging from their grenade-throwing skills, they would be baseball world champions, I swear.

 

70) I know, but what if I want to use the Coelacanth/Displacer as a live bait? Even if I don't have any ammo,the game should allow me to assign it, AND manually load it with bullets.

 

72) So it is a bug :)

 

And what about Xarquoids? Since that creature have died millenia ago, the aliens could've only guess how did it "worked". They guessed wrong alrighty, but Xarquoids DO work pretty well!

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Though I suspect we have stand at somewhat opposite ends without viewpoints on this game, no one can dismiss the fact that it's definitely bug ridden.

 

17) Exactly correct. Increments are random. The number of times you hit (but not necessarily kill) an alien only increases the maximum potential improvent roll at the end of the mission. Since 0 is still one of the possible outcomes, it's the luck of the draw whether you get a big increase or otherwise, though it's often best to exercise your primary stat increasing actions as best you can during the mission (mainly consisting of hitting with bullets or explosives, melee strikes, reacting, any MC attempt, resisting panic while under 50% morale).

 

21) Slower to operate, not harder. I imagine you have to keep the unhappy end of the thermal tazer stuck to the alien longer for it to freeze them. Some sort of 'charge up' period that the higher cost attempts to mimic. This same excuse explains away why some weapons are slower than they should be. Like the Sonic Cannon is so gosh darned slow to fire compared to the Sonic pistol when it's just the sonic pistol with a big booster unit attached to it.

 

 

22) There are lots of places where there's no bounds checking in the game. From money, to scientist/engineer project allocation and back in UFO v1.1 soldier stats. With money, I don't think any boundary was put in since it is quite a large sum, and I don't think the programmers ever expected the casual player to accumulate such a lot of money in the course of a normal campaign. It would take a long time, lots of missions and a generously large heap of stolen loot to achieve via normal means. None of this takes into account the more non-casual gamers. All that said, cutting corners like this might have been an acceptable practice back then, but it's certainly sloppy by today's programming standards.

 

26) You might have some success with the shipping lane missions and the mixed crews. The mixed crews seem to break a few of the land/sea alien generation rules that the game leads us to assume for a good part of the game.

 

 

34/35/36) What I mean was that they are 'your-mileage-may-vary' situations. Some will experience them, some won't, while some have completely different things happen to them in this case. If the source code ever makes its way into the public domain, we'd have a ball finding and fixing some of these errors! Which reminds me, they attempted to fix the mind control quarter problem back in UFO, by automatically mind controlling the next three segments after the one you controlled. Of course this has introduced a its own set of problems if you mind control the 2nd, 3rd of 4th quarter instead of the primary quarter. Most players will just pick a segment at random. This can result in a variety of effects. From only partial control, to getting part of the large unit remaining permanently under your control, or you end up with control of a completely separate unit elsewhere on the map that you have not even seen before. Much fun, much fun.

 

38) If the sonic oscillator is already researched, and I often have it researched well before the Manta, then the Sonic Displacer would be manufacturable right away once the Manta has been researched. Do you mean prior to the Sonic Oscillator? In that case... actually that could be quite advantageous.

 

40) If you mean the graphics are corrupted with a mess of stray pixels that don't match the scenery, then it is possible your graphic files are damaged. Best look into that. Or if you mean by the aesthetics - well, that's not really something I want to get into a debate about. ;)

 

42) Not doubting you, as this game does strange things that vary from computer to compuer, but I've never personally experienced aliens suddenly teleporting around the map in all my normal UFO/TFTD campaigns. About the worst teleporting incident I've seen involved an aquanaut suddenly being shifted to an area outside the map boundaries after reloading a battlescape save. Got stuck on the edge of the map for the rest of the mission. But that's more savegame file corruption than something happening during the game.

 

53) Sorry, was confusing the colony with the artefact site. Yes, colonies do appear to be dark all the time. Possibly because they are built at very deep depths. It's unfair, but a lot of games do pull cheap stunts like this to artificially up the challenge. Just like disabling the save function for the last level of T'Leth. (which, in a funny way, is much easier than a standard colony/artefact interor map!)

 

54) True, but despite the lack of convenience, what MC does offer you is already far too imbalanced in the players' hands. I'm actually glad they softened it a little for Apocalypse so it's no longer a game-breaker, and I think it does allow you to counter mind controlled by re-mind controlling.

 

 

56) The aliens are always unfair. But it is rather sloppy to do it on player units. It also has the potential to lead the player into the infinite loop bug where you don't have enough time units to drop an item, but nowhere to put the item down. Back in the old days of yore, this required a complete reboot of the computer to get out of.

 

66) Smoke mechanics actually work very well in limiting the visual distance of all units facing in the direction of the smoke/particle screen, and can be very advantageous when used correctly. Unfortunately the effects work both ways for both sides. The key is to learn how to work its benefits in your favour. Did absolute wonders for lowering the loss rate when disembarking in UFO at terror sites since the Skyranger doesn't have the Triton's truly amazingly useful doors. It's just a shame the dye grenade just doesn't work as easily as the old smoke grenade.

 

67) There might be other unnecessary overheads going on in the background that are causing the slowdown. It's not ideal, all the same. I actually have horrid slow-downs in all the big maps when playing this in Dosbox, though oddly never noticed this back on my really old PC without Dosbox. Blazing fast, but still quite playable.

 

68) Most of the lower ranked races are pretty average in strength ranging from 30 - 50, which is good for general purpose grenade tossing and in a similar range with your starting level troops. Lobsterman and Tasoth however are at 70, which is also the maximum possible strength limit for your aquanauts - anything above that worsens the effect tremendously. At 70str, outdoor grenade tossing is not impeded unless there are any low overhanging ceilings above you. Indoor throwing is harmed significantly, though I suppose you're not likely to want to be tossing explosives around in such cramped quarters. Despite all that, I highly recommend giving them another go. The sonic pulsers are very good weapons, especially for clearing meddlesome and very-hard-to-walk-through outdoor terrain that's encountered on a variety of seabed missions. They are quite the weapon equalizer in the early game.

 

As for Xarquids, or rather Nautilus, they still exist today. Saw them in a nature documentary which is what tipped me off as to why Xarquids move backwards in the game. Nautilus swim with a sort of pump action where they suck in and squirt out a jet of water from their tentacle end to propel them along. Xarquids are, in a way similar to the Lobstermen, basically scaled-up robo-versions of their original sea creature form. I suppose the fact that Xarquids also have a beam weapon installed amongst the tentacles probably explains why the aliens want them to be facing forwards rather than backwards. ;)

 

Did I mention they can appear on land? Yes, indeedy. Since there was a floating kidney in UFO, a hovering squid shouldn't faze us at all. :D

 

- NKF

Edited by NKF
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