The Laws Of X-com

[Black Dash]

Even if you are good in the game, you will die on your first terror site. Edited March 13, 2004 by Black Dash

[UnknownWarrior]

If you go point blank on a chrysalid, you will miss

[JFarceur]

Once in a while, in tftd, thoses brains are all attacking the tank (the only one resistant to the attack).

The other times... they don't.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

If your base is attacked, you will always get flares instead of heavy plasmas.

[Ana]

If the Alien stuns/panikes and wakes up, he don't remember take his weapon with him.

It is your long lived soldier and having best common skills who has most poor psi skills.

Edited March 19, 2004 by Ana

[JFarceur]

The first alien you stun and pick up in your backpack will be the Lobsterman... because when he wakes up, he snaps you

[elite277]

if there is a an agent between you an an alein you will hit the agent no matter what u do!?!

 

there will allways be 1 alien u have to look for and lose half your squad

 

if u are about to go though a door and are out of TU they will suddly come out

 

if u dont go to a terror site there is nothing u can do to make up for it!

 

terror site's are allways so far away that nomatter what time u leave it will be dark

 

flares just dont do anything!

 

australia is allways the first to sign a pact

 

mutton can get shot 4 times with a heavy plasma!

 

my PC will crash on the summery screen when every i am happy

 

there will never be enough rounds for anything on an intersepter

 

i will never get over it if my commander dies

 

your commander will die if a fly bites him

 

the snakes on the desert level are colaberating with the alien's :whatwhat:

 

u can and will save over your files @ the worst time imaginable

 

they are lagthing when your not looking

 

they do have a anti grenade force feild

 

hwps do die easyer then my rookies?!?!

 

the elite forces rule

[mikker]

if there is a an agent between you an an alein you will hit the agent no matter what u do!?!

Deathskull can agree with that. Doing a game oif UFO2000 mu stupid sectoid shot someon else! that was just stupid.

[Mustang]

in UFO2000

once you tell someone you are 11 they start to kick your butt

[JFarceur]

In ufo2000, when the stun rod indicates 100% accuracy, you sometimes miss and destroy a nearby object.

[remysweet]

Alien reaction fire is 100% accurate.

 

Aliens have infinite reaction TUs.

 

If a soldier goes berserk, he/she will turn to face your nearest soldier and autofire.

 

If a soldier fires with a high explosive weapon, he/she will always hit a solid object other than the alien. Most of the time the solid object is another soldier well out of the line of fire.

 

Cyberdisks are invincible on Superhuman. If you encounter them, you lose.

Edited March 21, 2004 by remysweet

[Robo Dojo 58]

:: Some of these things are so true, it's scary. Mostly the things that involve your agents dying, anyway. Commanders are made of paper mache, I swear!

 

flares just dont do anything!

Might I suggest using fire instead? It's much more satisfying than flares.

 

Cyberdisks are invincible on Superhuman. If you encounter them, you lose.

Yeah, they're extremely tough. Rifle bullets will just bounce off of them as though they were spit balls. That's why you should always bring heavy rockets, and at least 6 high explosives. You can't go wrong with that.

 

Just remember some earlier rules for your rocket men:

Your heavy weapons guys always have the lowest PSI rating. They're also are the first to be controlled, when everyone's still in the skyranger. :wink:

[elite277]

mustang i would have beaten u whether u told me u were 11 or not

[Mustang]

mustang i would have beaten u whether u told me u were 11 or not

I wasn't talking about an individual, a majority of the people I tell that I'm 11 beat me

[Robo Dojo 58]

a majority of the people I tell that I'm 11 beat me

The moral of the story: Lie about your age.

[centurion]

And those who lie the most become commanders of XCom, or at least the forums.

[floater medic]

If you accidently shoot a nearby object it will be the fuel drum or octagonal alien table (BOOM)

 

If you dont have a line of sight the enemy does

 

If you change disk on the amiga version it WILL crash and delete your saves

(happened to me last night :o )

 

If this happens it will happen as you leave the mission where you took over an intact battleship with a squad of badly armed rookies (yup that happened aswell)

 

 

 

(i have the pc version aswell but the slowness of the amiga keeps you on edge more)................(plus my pc seems to have a fatal desiese)

[Mustang]

IF you can see the alien, the alien already killed a soldier and ran out of tus to get away

[Robo Dojo 58]

(i have the pc version aswell but the slowness of the amiga keeps you on edge more)................(plus my pc seems to have a fatal desiese)

If you have the DOS version of UFO, consider using DosBox. It runs at a nice speed, and I've had my game very stable with it.

[remysweet]

A panicked unit will always run into the line of fire of at least one alien.

 

When you're scraping by until the end of the month with a totally depleted squad and equipment, the aliens will terrorize a city in the last 24 hours of the month.

 

You must respond to it immediately or lose even more money.

[SupSuper]

Whenever you fire a blaster launcher (or thermal shock launcher) at the aliens, there will always be some sob that manages to survive the shot and kills half of your squad with reaction shots.

 

The opposite does not happen! That means, none of your soldiers will survive when shot at with a blaster / thermal shock, nor will they reaction fire if they survive. They'll just die in the next turn.

[remysweet]

when a member of your squad is mind controlled, his/her accuracy and reactions increase.

 

the opposite is true when you mind control an alien.

[Tsereve]

-if you run out of TUs immediately after priming a grenade, said soldier will get killed during the aliens' next turn

-explosive ammo will always hit the dead guy who was carrying those three large rockets. . .

-at Cydonia, on Superhuman, the only guy to survive the elite Etherial guards will be your unarmed medic

-Cyberdisks will always sneak onto the transport if no one is blocking the entrance

-the term aimed shot means they aim at civilians

-aimed shots use all your TUs, auto-shots miss at point-blank range, and snap-shots use all your TUs to miss at point-blank range

-civilians are magnetically attracted to primed prox grenades

[GDD]

these are very funny and very true:D

 

when you deploy your highest ranking officer an alien will choose to fire, even after a hundred rookies passed right by.

 

if you shoot a wall with auto fire a civilian is always behind it

 

after going through an entire space ship, theres always one last alien that you missed just waiting for you to come back out

[[dipstick]]

That new upgrade that you just researched and spent many hours building....yep, you left it at base, gathering a lot of dust.

[SupSuper]

When one of your soldiers is fatally wounded, the only guy with the medikit can't get to him in time. (it's bloody true! :whatwhat: )

After you've spent 100 turns looking for the last alien, you find out that one of your soldiers had a motion scanner.

...or...

When you forget to equip your soldiers with motion scanners, there's always a mission where you have to spend 100 turns looking for the last alien.

Edited August 8, 2004 by SupSuper

[Deathskull]

When one of your soldiers is fatally wounded, the only guy with the medikit can't get to him in time. (it's bloody true! :whatwhat: )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Everyone of my soldiers has a medikit

[Tsereve]

When one of your soldiers is fatally wounded, the only guy with the medikit can't get to him in time. (it's bloody true! :whatwhat: )

Everyone of my soldiers has a medikit

 

Won't the xtra weight be a problem in those 1000-turn "I can't find the last alien!" missions?

[JFarceur]

Won't the xtra weight be a problem in those 1000-turn "I can't find the last alien!" missions?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

My soldiers are so overloaded that their strengt get so high that they never have too much weight : they are always just fine enough.

[Deathskull]

i dont my guys much. When everythings researched all they have is a heavy plasma with 2 clips, alien grenade and a medikit

[Chris StarShade]

Pistols in X-COM weigh more than they do in real life.

 

(I should know, having played Rainbow 6 and then wondering "What would happen if I equipped my X-COM soldiers like that... For those of you not in the know, typical equipment in rainbow six is: your big gun, a reload for your big gun, some grenades, and a pistol that you never use unless you run out of ammo for your big gun)

[Judge_Deadd]

If you're researching something you'll die without, you will finish researching after you lose the game...

(happened to me, the game over screen with mutated humans showed up and suddenly Research Completed...)

[SupSuper]

If you're researching something you'll die without, you will finish researching after you lose the game...

(happened to me, the game over screen with mutated humans showed up and suddenly Research Completed...)

and if you detect a UFO and get a Research Complete message right after it, the UFO will have disappeared (happens real often, which counts as "ufo missed" and can seriously damage your score)

[Exo2000]

Brainsuckers will always take over your hacked super-agent with 255-255-255 PSI power/attack/defense, with a Mind Bender and a shield generator, then they'll go on a freakin' rampage and take mind control of your specialist. (who's no better than the others, but one of yer favourites)

 

Ar(n?)thropods with Brainsucker Launchers will ALWAYS drop down the lift behind your elite hacked squadron. Then get shot to pieces because they all have Devastator Cannons. As that happens his brainsucker pods will explode and swarms of brainsuckers will come at them.

 

Brainsuckers always fail to latch onto your head when you're lying down.

 

When you order your men to shoot the brainsucker off of another agent's head, they never do.

 

Brainsucker Pods never hatch when shoved in your pocket or backpack. (I love doing that. "Incoming!" *catch* "Nice" *stows it in pack before it opens*)

 

X-COM Apocalypse will always crash three or four game-days since you saved due to slow and eventual crashing in which you lose the music/SFX about half way through.

 

Your agents will always be crushed when the building they're in explodes.

 

Here's another:

 

A Dimension Gate will almost certainly open up above your new base that only has one Rookie to defend it. Actually, it has three, but the other two don't have any equipment because it hasn't arrived yet. Then a day later the Cult of Sirius will take the Dimension Gate as a marker of where to attack and attack that base. Then get mowed down by the agent and the Advanced Security Stations. (Yes, this actually happened to me >

 

Any shots fired in a Holovision Studio will invariably be HE or IN and from a modified autocannon that has a fire rate of 12.00 fps (Overkill teh ownz) and end up demolishing everything.

Edited September 24, 2004 by Exo2000

[Mustang]

You need to explore the map, the aliens know the entire world by heart

[JFarceur]

You need to explore the map, the aliens know the entire world by heart

This one's great

[[Blehm 98]]

*opens book*

A civilian is the true show of courage, for even an alien armed with the most powerful weapons ever developed (in the planet) cannot frighten them

 

All men from Xcom3 are asian, meaning that Mega Primus is in China

 

An alien, seeing the amount of courage a civilian has, would prefer to eliminate the more "dangerous"(couragous) threat over the less dangerous threat(the ones with guns)

 

*closes book*

[Mustang]

*opens book*

A civilian is the true show of courage, for even an alien armed with the most powerful weapons ever developed (in the planet) cannot frighten them

 

All men from Xcom3 are asian, meaning that Mega Primus is in China

 

An alien, seeing the amount of courage a civilian has, would prefer to eliminate the more "dangerous"(couragous) threat over the less dangerous threat(the ones with guns)

 

*closes book*

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually, in a terror site, their objective is to kill the civilians, not you

[Guest Azrael]

MURPHY'S LAWS OF COMBAT OPERATIONS (updated)

 

Murphy's Laws of Combat Operations

 

Doing something productive right now is better than figuring out the best plan tomorrow.

Friendly fire - isn't.

Recoilless rifles - aren't.

Suppressive fires - won't.

You are not Superman; Marines and fighter pilots take note.

If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.

Try to look unimportant; the enemy may be low on ammo and not want to waste a bullet on you.

If at first you don't succeed, call in an air strike.

If you are forward of your position, your artillery will fall short.

Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than yourself.

Never go to bed with anyone crazier than yourself.

Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.

If your attack is going really well, it's an ambush.

The enemy diversion you're ignoring is their main attack.

The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions:

a) when they're ready.

when you're not.

No OPLAN ever survives initial contact.

There is no such thing as a perfect plan.

Five second fuzes always burn three seconds.

There is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.

A retreating enemy is probably just falling back and regrouping.

The important things are always simple; the simple are always hard.

The easy way is always mined.

Teamwork is essential; it gives the enemy other people to shoot at.

Don't look conspicuous; it draws fire. For this reason, it is not at all uncommon for aircraft carriers to be known as bomb magnets.

Never draw fire; it irritates everyone around you.

If you are short of everything but the enemy, you are in the combat zone.

When you have secured the area, make sure the enemy knows it too.

Incoming fire has the right of way.

No combat ready unit has ever passed inspection.

No inspection ready unit has ever passed combat.

If the enemy is within range, so are you.

The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.

Things which must be shipped together as a set, aren't.

Things that must work together, can't be carried to the field that way.

Radios will fail as soon as you need fire support.

Radar tends to fail at night and in bad weather, and especially during both.)

Anything you do can get you killed, including nothing.

Make it too tough for the enemy to get in, and you won't be able to get out.

Tracers work both ways.

If you take more than your fair share of objectives, you will get more than your fair share of objectives to take.

When both sides are convinced they're about to lose, they're both right.

Professional soldiers are predictable; the world is full of dangerous amateurs.

Military Intelligence is a contradiction.

Fortify your front; you'll get your rear shot up.

Weather ain't neutral.

If you can't remember, the Claymore is pointed towards you.

Air defense motto: shoot 'em down; sort 'em out on the ground.

Flies high, it dies; low and slow, it'll go.

The Cavalry doesn't always come to the rescue.

Napalm is an area support weapon.

Mines are equal opportunity weapons.

B-52s are the ultimate close support weapon.

Sniper's motto: reach out and touch someone.

Killing for peace is like screwing for virginity.

The one item you need is always in short supply.

Interchangeable parts aren't.

It's not the one with your name on it; it's the one addressed "to whom it may concern" you've got to think about.

When in doubt, empty your magazine.

The side with the simplest uniforms wins.

Combat will occur on the ground between two adjoining maps.

If the Platoon Sergeant can see you, so can the enemy.

Never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lie down, never stay awake when you can sleep.

The most dangerous thing in the world is a Second Lieutenant with a map and a compass.

Exceptions prove the rule, and destroy the battle plan.

Everything always works in your HQ, everything always fails in the Colonel's HQ.

The enemy never watches until you make a mistake.

One enemy soldier is never enough, but two is entirely too many.

A clean (and dry) set of BDU's is a magnet for mud and rain.

The worse the weather, the more you are required to be out in it.

Whenever you have plenty of ammo, you never miss. Whenever you are low on ammo, you can't hit the broad side of a barn.

The more a weapon costs, the farther you will have to send it away to be repaired.

The complexity of a weapon is inversely proportional to the IQ of the weapon's operator.

Field experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

No matter which way you have to march, its always uphill.

If enough data is collected, a board of inquiry can prove anything.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism. (in boot camp)

Air strikes always overshoot the target, artillery always falls short.

When reviewing the radio frequencies that you just wrote down, the most important ones are always illegible.

Those who hesitate under fire usually do not end up KIA or WIA.

The tough part about being an officer is that the troops don't know what they want, but they know for certain what they don't want.

To steal information from a person is called plagiarism. To steal information from the enemy is called gathering intelligence.

The weapon that usually jams when you need it the most is the M60.

The perfect officer for the job will transfer in the day after that billet is filled by someone else.

When you have sufficient supplies & ammo, the enemy takes 2 weeks to attack. When you are low on supplies & ammo the enemy decides to attack that night.

The newest and least experienced soldier will usually win the Medal of Honor.

A Purple Heart just proves that were you smart enough to think of a plan, stupid enough to try it, and lucky enough to survive.

Murphy was a grunt.

Beer Math --> 2 beers times 37 men equals 49 cases.

Body count Math --> 3 guerrillas plus 1 probable plus 2 pigs equals 37 enemies killed in action.

The bursting radius of a hand grenade is always one foot greater than your jumping range.

All-weather close air support doesn't work in bad weather.

The combat worth of a unit is inversely proportional to the smartness of its outfit and appearance.

The crucial round is a dud.

Every command which can be misunderstood, will be.

There is no such place as a convenient foxhole.

Don't ever be the first, don't ever be the last and don't ever volunteer to do anything.

If your positions are firmly set and you are prepared to take the enemy assault on, he will bypass you.

If your ambush is properly set, the enemy won't walk into it.

If your flank march is going well, the enemy expects you to outflank him.

Density of fire increases proportionally to the curiousness of the target.

Odd objects attract fire - never lurk behind one.

The more stupid the leader is, the more important missions he is ordered to carry out.

The self-importance of a superior is inversely proportional to his position in the hierarchy (as is his deviousness and mischievousness).

There is always a way, and it usually doesn't work.

Success occurs when no one is looking, failure occurs when the General is watching.

The enemy never monitors your radio frequency until you broadcast on an unsecured channel.

Whenever you drop your equipment in a fire-fight, your ammo and grenades always fall the farthest away, and your canteen always lands at your feet.

As soon as you are served hot chow in the field, it rains.

Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do.

The seriousness of a wound (in a fire-fight) is inversely proportional to the distance to any form of cover.

Walking point = sniper bait.

Your bivouac for the night is the spot where you got tired of marching that day.

If only one solution can be found for a field problem, then it is usually a stupid solution.

You can get shot doing anything, including doing nothing.

Your vehicles are bullet magnets; a moving foxhole attracts attention.

Ammo is cheap, your life isn't.

It's easier to expend material in combat than to fill out the forms for Graves Registration

Just because your target falls silent or starts to smoke,don't assume you got the bastard; that's your signal to blast him all to heck.

KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.

Edited February 23, 2005 by Azrael

[[NKF]]

Right after getting your soldier into a good position, you'll accidentally - either on the next turn or immediately - issue a walk order that'll have the soldier walk for miles out into the open for no apparent reason. I can tell you this is most annoying in UFO/TFTD. Good thing you can abort this in Apocalypse.

 

In a very similar vein: From time to time, a soldier will end up throwing his weapon instead of executing an attack that was sure to hit. (Actually had this happen to me a few times. Got to be careful when selecting an auto shot... ).

 

When you least expect it, the least likely enemy ends up killing you. (Reapers) The moral of the story is: don't underestimate your enemies.

 

 

*opens book*

A civilian is the true show of courage, for even an alien armed with the most powerful weapons ever developed (in the planet) cannot frighten them

 

All men from Xcom3 are asian, meaning that Mega Primus is in China

 

An alien, seeing the amount of courage a civilian has, would prefer to eliminate the more "dangerous"(couragous) threat over the less dangerous threat(the ones with guns)

 

*closes book*

Actually, in a terror site, their objective is to kill the civilians, not you

 

Minor Correction: in UFO/TFTD they'll start shooting at everyone in a terror site after 3 hours, assuming you don't attend, or after your ship lands. Say what you want about them, but you must admit that they're sporting for alien invaders by waiting patiently.

 

In Apocalypse, the aliens jolly well don't care what the civilians do. You only have to watch them for a while. The first person they'll go after is you. The only civilians to get killed are the ones that are caught in the crossfire.

 

- NKF

Edited February 24, 2005 by NKF

[teukros]

One more for the "Murphy's Laws of Combat Operations"...

 

(I remember actually thinking this when I was in the army)

 

That bullet you left on the ground when you unjammed your weapon was the bullet that would have saved your life.

[mj_12commando]

Aimed shots-aren't.

Rocket Launchers are not stun rods.

Conversely, stun rods are not rocket launchers.

In a contest between a elite X-Com soldier decked out in magna ion armor and wielding a thermic lance and that inexperienced half-dead tentaculat... the elite soldier always loses.

There are two types of grenades. The ones the aliens throw, and the ones that don't do anything.

Automatic fire is great for destroying the landscape and killing civilians, not so great for hitting the enemy.

Your commander will take five hits from Ethereals wielding heavy plasma with not even a scratch... then eat a single shot from that MCed rookie in the back and die.

Snakemen are lethal weapons against the aliens. If only X-Com could replicate snakemen and give them to the aliens, the game would be so much easier.

Mutons are tougher than the average HWP.

 

HWPs are the first to land, first to fight, first to get cored by one shot from a single bezerk Sectoid packing a plasma gun.

[Judge_Deadd]

Snakemen are lethal weapons against the aliens. If only X-Com could replicate snakemen and give them to the aliens, the game would be so much easier.

 

??????

[Cpt. JAG]

The aliens always know where your Skyranger is going to land and prepare an ambush.

 

The Avenger doesn’t have enough elerium to go around earth twice but can somehow carry enough to get to Mars.

 

An Avenger can take months to build and repair but the engineers can repair damage to your base from multiple blaster bombs in less time than it takes to load the geoscape.

 

If your base is successfully destroyed by aliens, all aircraft that were stationed there are immediately given away. (Even if you have free hangers at another base.)

 

Chrysalides (SP) have diamond tipped claws. (they can break through any armor no matter what its made of.)

 

An alien doesn’t need line of sight to MC you but you need line of sight to MC an alien.

 

Aliens commanders and leaders are scared to death of being crammed in the alien containment with the hundreds of other aliens you captured before them and will always commit suicide when X-Com soldiers are within 10 squares of the control room to avoid capture.

 

Alien Elevators are indestructible.

 

Soldiers can always walked on top of the avenger but must fly up to get off of it.

 

X-com agents can shoot down and up through Elevators but the aliens cant.

 

In X-Com, a nuclear explosion can go off but anything 6 feet above or 6 feet below the bomb will be not be damaged.

In other words, Explosions are only 2 dimensional.

 

Gravity has no power over trees, buildings, UFOs that have had there lower half blown away in the Battlescape.

 

Attaching 2 red rubber toilet plungers to the back of a power suit somehow enables to fly and makes it tougher.

 

If you abort with an MC soldier in the Exit zone he will apparently jump out of the aircraft in route to base and turn up MIA.

 

All rookies can wear flying suits, heavy plasma, and a grenade without loss of TU but only a few can carry a Heavy Cannon and not lose half their TU.

 

X-Com soldiers can breath on mars but not in the ocean.

 

The aliens are all controlled by a basketball that has been painted gray and has marbles and sequins glued onto it.

 

A reaper is a chicken with mean bite.

 

A sectopod is a titanium chicken with a fast draw.

 

Even though flying suits were created they are unfit for terror missions in TFTD.

 

In terror missions if you can fire at anything (alien, wall, or other X-com soldiers) you will miss and hit the civilian behind it.

 

Another name for a stunrod is the C.C.C. "Civilian Crowd Control".

 

The same people painted both the alien and X-com aircraft. (all are some kind of shade of gray.)

 

The soldier with a live grenade is the first to be shot.

 

Aliens are smarter than they look.

 

Plasma guns need elerium but Plasma cannons (Ship weapons) are rechargeable

 

 

 

(These just came to mind.)

Edited April 19, 2005 by Cpt. JAG

[Judge_Deadd]

Just a curiosity, what does SP mean?

[Guest Azrael]

Means that he spelled wrong "Chryssalid" and he knows it

[gufu]

-Alien granade is something what fly's inside you skyranger at first alien turn.

 

-If soldier killed cryssalis in front - the're is always one in the back

 

-Civivlians are in cryssalises evolve chain(Civilians=zombi's=more cryssalises)

[Oldblue153]

You will wish for more UFO's.

 

You will wish for less UFO's.

 

You will sleep in because of X-com.

 

Flares will land where they cannot be picked up.

 

A wounded soldier will die before you find the last alien.

 

As soon as you get everyone safely behind doors...the doors will become invisable.

 

When your game crashes...your last saved game will be corrupt.

 

X-com will outlast your computer.

[Guest Azrael]

I have to disagree with some of these...

You will wish for more UFO's.

I always wanted much less..

 

You will sleep in because of X-com.

Never saw this happening...

 

X-com will outlast your computer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually, X-Com is one of the first things I unistalled

[Oldblue153]

ok disagree,

 

But ...ya never went a full month without a UFO sighting? early in the game before your second base is fully up n running and your desperatly short of cash?

 

I know I'm not the only person here who has looked up at the clock n went holy crud its 4:30 AM I gotta be up @ 7.

 

First to uninstall? ...........yet you're still here

 

 

Anyways it was posted for fun sorry you found it offensive enough to add a negative comment.