XCom veteran playing again after many years

[[NKF]]

There's an arming bug where the default weapons that the soldiers are armed with don't have their clip count towards their encumbrance levels. So yeah, you can be a couple of en points off. You can correct it by unloading and reloading the rifle.

 

- NKF

[oldfan]

There's an arming bug where the default weapons that the soldiers are armed with don't have their clip count towards their encumbrance levels. So yeah, you can be a couple of en points off. You can correct it by unloading and reloading the rifle.

 

- NKF

That can be a huge difference if you have your soldier also carry a rocket launcher in the backpack. I'll try the unloading/reloading tip.

[oldfan]

I'm making heavy use of the graphs in order to spot UFO activity. I remember seeing somewhere a map with the breakdown of areas (South America, South East Asia, etc) though I can't find the link to that page/image. If someone knows where I can find that map, I'll greatly appreciate it.

[Zombie]

See the World Regions heading on the wiki's Geoscape page.

 

- Zombie

[oldfan]

See the World Regions heading on the wiki's Geoscape page.

 

- Zombie

Thanks! Stupid me, don't know why it didn't occur to me to look there. Duh!

[Zombie]

Don't feel bad, it took me half an hour to remember where I saw it.

 

- Zombie

[oldfan]

There's an arming bug where the default weapons that the soldiers are armed with don't have their clip count towards their encumbrance levels. So yeah, you can be a couple of en points off. You can correct it by unloading and reloading the rifle.

 

- NKF

That can be a huge difference if you have your soldier also carry a rocket launcher in the backpack. I'll try the unloading/reloading tip.

Didn't make much of a difference. I have some soldiers that with no equipment have zero encumbrance and some that have 6 or 8. I'll now just calculate the weight based on my knowledge and not rely on the numbers.

[[NKF]]

This is for soldiers that start the combat? Any difference during combat?

 

You are using Seb76's loader to display the weight levels right? If the display is wrong but no problems are cropping up in the game through manual calculation then it might be a display problem. Either way, you may want to mention it to him just in case.

 

- NKF

[oldfan]

This is for soldiers that start the combat? Any difference during combat?

 

You are using Seb76's loader to display the weight levels right? If the display is wrong but no problems are cropping up in the game through manual calculation then it might be a display problem. Either way, you may want to mention it to him just in case.

 

- NKF

I just noticed something - most of the weight is adjusted correctly when the combat begins, though I had one soldier which just had a rifle (with a clip) and a smoke grenade and is already totaled about 20. I had him drop two other grenades just to be able to move a decent amount of distance each turn.

[oldfan]

I'm making heavy usage of graphs to locate UFO activity. I saw somewhere (if I remember correctly), some screenshots which show numbers next to the graph (other than the ones near the vertical/horizontal axis). Wanted to know if there is anyway to have each country/area show the activity in a numeric fashion (I think I'm wishful thinking here).

[Zombie]

Yup, wishful thinking. Though you may want to mention this to Seb as he could probably whip something up to make it easier.

 

- Zombie

[kermi]

Sorry to hijack a thread like this, but seems like a good enough place to ask...

 

Has anyone figured out, if the Steam version of UFO:Defence have the same old difficulty-level bug than the original version(s)?

[oldfan]

Okay..... so I was away from the game for a while. I started a new game based on some experience I gained in another one in which scoring a lot (near 3,000) on the first month and second month yielded great monetary increases from the COF. So I decided to sacrifice initial research (scientists) in order to build two bases so I can shoot down everything that moves (I'm playing on superhuman with COF income ONLY). Boy.... I just finished the first month - 15 downed UFOs. Towards the end of the month, I ran out of money for missiles and that happened after I let many of the UFOs to land so I can save money on missiles. I also nearly shot down the terror ship that comes at the end of the month for a short duration scout (it requires to fully loaded interceptors with Avalanche missile). After my first interceptor fired away all of its ammo, my second one was so close (literally 2-3 centimeters away from the UFO on full close up). I don't know if it was just ultimate bad luck or that the first interceptor scared it away, but it increased its speed to 2256 which is 56 higher than the interceptor top speed.

 

Anyways..... I scored a little over 3,700 the first month (I'm patting myself on the shoulder). From previous games, I found that "average" income increase is 400K-600K and once I had an increase of 850K for a score nearing 2,700. So I thought to myself I'm going to get at least a million dollars. To my astonishment, I got a mere 700K increase. And that after I shot down UFOs or did missions in 6-7 countries. Oh well......

 

On tactical I'm doing great - lost one man due to friendly fire very early on (a super solider) and I just knew it was going to happen (no load & save for me). Anyways...... due to so many missions and sectoids being tougher than normal (taking 2-3 hits on average to die instead of 1-2), my soldiers got VASTLY improved. And I had some tough missions, I can tell you that. It is all about taking your time (and using the awesome motion detector and lots of smoke grenades).

 

That's all for now....

 

P.S.

A while ago I had a game that snakemen appeared in mid February and towards the end of the month they already created a base in South America, that after me shooting down 99% of UFOs (small/very small). That game didn't end up going well but I can tell you that I wasn't happy about meeting chrysalis so early on.

[oldfan]

When a UFO crash lands, it sometimes is completely destroyed (at least the small ones) with its hull open and sometimes it just moderately damaged and sometimes it appears undamaged at all. Does it matter its speed and altitude when you shoot it down or how long you wait before you perform the tactical mission?

[[NKF]]

Damage to a shot-down UFO (aka the chance of each power unit blowing up) is randomized at the time the map is generated. It will not matter how long it has been on the ground or how damaged it is.

 

It keeps things interesting I guess.

 

- NKF

[oldfan]

There's an arming bug where the default weapons that the soldiers are armed with don't have their clip count towards their encumbrance levels. So yeah, you can be a couple of en points off. You can correct it by unloading and reloading the rifle.

 

- NKF

That can be a huge difference if you have your soldier also carry a rocket launcher in the backpack. I'll try the unloading/reloading tip.

Didn't make much of a difference. I have some soldiers that with no equipment have zero encumbrance and some that have 6 or 8. I'll now just calculate the weight based on my knowledge and not rely on the numbers.

So Annoying! I had one guy with a sniper rifle and a clip who couldn't even make an aimed shot. The total weight should have been 11 but it was twenty something. Unloading didn't help one bit.

[Zombie]

Not sure what's going on with the weight issue there. Corrupted obdata.dat in the geodata folder maybe? Try overwriting it with a fresh copy.

 

When a UFO crash lands, it sometimes is completely destroyed (at least the small ones) with its hull open and sometimes it just moderately damaged and sometimes it appears undamaged at all. Does it matter its speed and altitude when you shoot it down or how long you wait before you perform the tactical mission?

No, those factors are not used to determine crash damage. The actual damage done is simply a random number between 180 and 250. This variance translates to some very big differences on the battlescape though. I did some quite extensive tests on this over at the X-COM wiki at the UFO Crash Recovery talk page. It even includes screenshots of the min and the max.

 

- Zombie

[oldfan]

I've played a few games and actually find the few first months the most challenging. I monitor the activity graph closely and in the first month I usually shoot down or assault landed UFO 100% of the time. I did notice that sometimes I encounter about 8 UFOs throughout the month and sometimes as much as 16. Sometimes the first UFO appears around the 14th and rarely it appears between the 4th - 8th of the first month.

 

Does anybody know anything about the UFO frequency? I myself like LOTS of UFOs on the first few months - makes the game very challenging.

Could I just be lucky that each downed UFO (or landed one) triggered an enemy retaliation mission which triggered another retaliation mission because I shot the scout down, etc., etc...... ?

 

P.S.

One time I had a snakemen base construction ship at the end of FEBRUARY - the second month!

I've never seen anything so early, and that was after I shot down 100% of UFOs.

Usually they don't appear for me until May/June

Edited April 26, 2010 by oldfan

[Warface]

I've played a few games and actually find the few first months the most challenging. I monitor the activity graph closely and in the first month I usually shoot down or assault landed UFO 100% of the time. I did notice that sometimes I encounter about 8 UFOs throughout the month and sometimes as much as 16. Sometimes the first UFO appears around the 14th and rarely it appears between the 4th - 8th of the first month.

 

Does anybody know anything about the UFO frequency? I myself like LOTS of UFOs on the first few months - makes the game very challenging.

Could I just be lucky that each downed UFO (or landed one) triggered an enemy retaliation mission which triggered another retaliation mission because I shot the scout down, etc., etc...... ?

 

P.S.

One time I had a snakemen base construction ship at the end of FEBRUARY - the second month!

I've never seen anything so early, and that was after I shot down 100% of UFOs.

Usually they don't appear for me until May/June

 

Yes, they typically send larger ships to do the jobs the smaller ships failed at. Later in the game, you'll see battleships running scout missions. There are exceptions to this, such as supply and terror missions.

 

Frequency of UFOs depends on difficulty and how many bases they have active. Of course, whether you can detect them or not makes a difference in how many you are even aware of.

 

I'm pretty sure they build one or more bases almost immediately. You just got lucky in detecting the mission due to it being within your range.

[oldfan]

I've played a few games and actually find the few first months the most challenging. I monitor the activity graph closely and in the first month I usually shoot down or assault landed UFO 100% of the time. I did notice that sometimes I encounter about 8 UFOs throughout the month and sometimes as much as 16. Sometimes the first UFO appears around the 14th and rarely it appears between the 4th - 8th of the first month.

 

Does anybody know anything about the UFO frequency? I myself like LOTS of UFOs on the first few months - makes the game very challenging.

Could I just be lucky that each downed UFO (or landed one) triggered an enemy retaliation mission which triggered another retaliation mission because I shot the scout down, etc., etc...... ?

 

P.S.

One time I had a snakemen base construction ship at the end of FEBRUARY - the second month!

I've never seen anything so early, and that was after I shot down 100% of UFOs.

Usually they don't appear for me until May/June

 

Yes, they typically send larger ships to do the jobs the smaller ships failed at. Later in the game, you'll see battleships running scout missions. There are exceptions to this, such as supply and terror missions.

 

Frequency of UFOs depends on difficulty and how many bases they have active. Of course, whether you can detect them or not makes a difference in how many you are even aware of.

 

I'm pretty sure they build one or more bases almost immediately. You just got lucky in detecting the mission due to it being within your range.

Not really anything to do with luck - I monitor the graphs every hour and usually (99%) know where the UFO is headed to. A single UFO is very easy to track through the graphs. When more than two appear, it becomes difficult.

[Warface]

Aye, but I was referring specifically to the base construction mission; graphs don't tell you that.

[jaakes]

There's an arming bug where the default weapons that the soldiers are armed with don't have their clip count towards their encumbrance levels. So yeah, you can be a couple of en points off. You can correct it by unloading and reloading the rifle.

 

- NKF

That can be a huge difference if you have your soldier also carry a rocket launcher in the backpack. I'll try the unloading/reloading tip.

Didn't make much of a difference. I have some soldiers that with no equipment have zero encumbrance and some that have 6 or 8. I'll now just calculate the weight based on my knowledge and not rely on the numbers.

So Annoying! I had one guy with a sniper rifle and a clip who couldn't even make an aimed shot. The total weight should have been 11 but it was twenty something. Unloading didn't help one bit.

 

This is caused by reloading weapons. A rocket launcher weighs 10, a large rocket 8 (I think). When you start a mission, your loaded rocket launcher weighs 10 for some reason, the rocket inside doesn't count. When you reload the launcher after shooting it would seem to weigh the correct 18, 10 launcher + 8 rocket, as if at that point you drop all of your other stuff your weight is 18. However, try dropping the loaded launcher... You only lose 10 weight and keep 8 "ghost" weight on the soldier. So guns always weigh the same, when you reload them the game just adds extra weight on your soldier depending on how much the clip weighs. Hopefully that extra weight is removed when you run out of ammo.

 

You might not notice this behaviour at all if you just have guys reload their weapons from ammo on their belt or pack, but this bug comes into play easy if you have multiple types of ammo for autocannons for example, and try switching the guns&ammo types around in the pre-battle equip screen, you might accidentally end up with someone carrying around some "ghost" weight.

[oldfan]

There's an arming bug where the default weapons that the soldiers are armed with don't have their clip count towards their encumbrance levels. So yeah, you can be a couple of en points off. You can correct it by unloading and reloading the rifle.

 

- NKF

That can be a huge difference if you have your soldier also carry a rocket launcher in the backpack. I'll try the unloading/reloading tip.

Didn't make much of a difference. I have some soldiers that with no equipment have zero encumbrance and some that have 6 or 8. I'll now just calculate the weight based on my knowledge and not rely on the numbers.

So Annoying! I had one guy with a sniper rifle and a clip who couldn't even make an aimed shot. The total weight should have been 11 but it was twenty something. Unloading didn't help one bit.

 

This is caused by reloading weapons. A rocket launcher weighs 10, a large rocket 8 (I think). When you start a mission, your loaded rocket launcher weighs 10 for some reason, the rocket inside doesn't count. When you reload the launcher after shooting it would seem to weigh the correct 18, 10 launcher + 8 rocket, as if at that point you drop all of your other stuff your weight is 18. However, try dropping the loaded launcher... You only lose 10 weight and keep 8 "ghost" weight on the soldier. So guns always weigh the same, when you reload them the game just adds extra weight on your soldier depending on how much the clip weighs. Hopefully that extra weight is removed when you run out of ammo.

 

You might not notice this behaviour at all if you just have guys reload their weapons from ammo on their belt or pack, but this bug comes into play easy if you have multiple types of ammo for autocannons for example, and try switching the guns&ammo types around in the pre-battle equip screen, you might accidentally end up with someone carrying around some "ghost" weight.

 

Nothing works. I tried dropping all the equipment, reload, do various stuff - it doesn't help. Sometimes it is VERY annoying, having in ability to carry any grenades as this will slow you down so much.

[oldfan]

I had a nearly perfect first two months with tough missions and no terror mission yet up to the 25 day of the second month (shooting down UFOs plus large ship at the end of the first month). Unfortunately, a large battleship assaulted my base while my skyranger was on its way to a mission far of. I had 4 soldiers at the base (I lost soldiers during this month and was about to be out of money). Sectoids landed. I was able to kill many and didn't yet see a Cyberdisc. Unfortunately, finally, two of my guys succumbed to to MC. One of them I knocked out unconscious. The other one ended up killing my last soldiers which seems to be PSI immuned. That was just 3-4 turns before I decided to head out to the hangars with some rocket launchers.

 

This was very bad luck. I guess next game I'm going to keep at least 10 soldiers back at the base. First time ever I had a base attack with my skyranger being out and far away. And it seems that battleships eventually come on their own, even if one shoots down the scouts.

[[NKF]]

Every UFO shot down does get a chance to generate a retaliation mission, so the best thing to do is to have a base garrison at all times. I think with these ones, they get sent to the interceptor's base of origin directly, so my often recommended 'decoy base' strategy probably wouldn't work for them.

 

After that experience, it's probably redundant for me to say this, but it's often a good idea to hire twice as many soldiers than what you're planning to use. Both to act as a base garrison and as quick replacements should you lose any soldiers in your transport. The only problem with hiring a lot of soldiers is controlling who's going to enter combat due to the limited number of available soldier slots. They will be picked according to the order they appear on the soldier list.

 

Later on two or three fusion HWPs are an indispensable accompaniment for the defenders if you don't mind sponging off the free ammo. They do take 4 slots each, take preference over soldiers when spawned and there's only 40 soldier slots to work with.

 

- NKF

Edited June 6, 2010 by NKF

[MiniMacker]

What about Morale? I often boot those who have Bravery less than 50. So if I hire 20 soldiers, I might only get 6 of 'em that "qualify".

 

Is this how YOU do it? I mean... It's a waste of both money and time for some insurance that you guys won't drop their guns in mid-firefight. I'd like an insight of how you pick your men.

[[NKF]]

The answer is to not rely on bravery. The importance of bravery is inversely proportional to how well you can control the battle. If the battle is going badly and you're suffering heavy losses, then your soldiers are going to panic. In this case high bravery helps. If you have the upper hand, then your bravery stat isn't going to be relied on to any great extent.

 

It's one of those stats that is handy to have in large quantities (like throwing accuracy), but isn't necessarily critical to the success of the mission.

 

There's always a few bad eggs in there, but then again there are also a few ugly ducklings as well that may very well surprise you despite their apparent shortcomings. There might be a high psi strength soldier amongst the cowards, and you won't know until you've given them a chance to spend a month in the labs. Psi strength has a much higher level of importance than bravery (assuming you haven't disabled psi abilities for the aliens).

 

Also keep your high ranked units away from the front line as they reduce overall morale that is lost but can inflict heavy morale loss if they are killed.

 

- NKF

Edited June 7, 2010 by NKF

[oldfan]

Every UFO shot down does get a chance to generate a retaliation mission, so the best thing to do is to have a base garrison at all times. I think with these ones, they get sent to the interceptor's base of origin directly, so my often recommended 'decoy base' strategy probably wouldn't work for them.

 

After that experience, it's probably redundant for me to say this, but it's often a good idea to hire twice as many soldiers than what you're planning to use. Both to act as a base garrison and as quick replacements should you lose any soldiers in your transport. The only problem with hiring a lot of soldiers is controlling who's going to enter combat due to the limited number of available soldier slots. They will be picked according to the order they appear on the soldier list.

 

Later on two or three fusion HWPs are an indispensable accompaniment for the defenders if you don't mind sponging off the free ammo. They do take 4 slots each, take preference over soldiers when spawned and there's only 40 soldier slots to work with.

 

- NKF

 

Oh, I know about the garrison. But I had very limited funds and didn't count on loosing so many soldiers that month. Next time I'm going to hire 6 less scientists and have more soldiers. If it were only floaters with reapers, that would have been a walk in the park.

[_Relerium]

Just regarding the high yearly salaries of scientists and engineers - there's always the chance of vicious, mind-controlling aliens armed with homing mini-nukes, instakill plasma weapons and whatnot - not to mention those nasty horrible things that'll if-you-see-Kay you up real bad and make you one of them and all the other terrorists that make alqaida look like a daydream - running over the base where you work. I don't think that's part of the usual university researcher or a typical engy contract.. However I'm quite damn sure for the soldiers salary you'd get people who are actually fit for the job!

[oldfan]

However I'm quite damn sure for the soldiers salary you'd get people who are actually fit for the job!

 

Aye, but when playing with council funding only, money is a major issue.

:-)

 

It happens to me more than once that I run out of money to buy missiles and that occurs after I leave 500K-600K (taking into account manufacturing).

[uncy]

Oldfan, how do you play council funding only? I mean, what do you do with the loot?

[oldfan]

Oldfan, how do you play council funding only? I mean, what do you do with the loot?

 

I play using Seb's UFO Extender fixes and mods. There is a mod which basically makes all manufactured items and aliens artifacts sell at zero dollars.

[oldfan]

Annoying case with rocket launcher and reaction fire from alien. Okay, so I have a Skyranger facing a Floater. Luckily, the floater is with its back towards me. He was relatively close so I didn't want to risk having him shoot me the next turn (even though I pumped smoke inside the Skyranger). So I fire a rocket at him which missed him by quite a bit. He was on the edge of the blast radius. To my surprise, he spins around and starts firing! He missed the first two shots (I guess he was wounded) but the third hit and killed one of my super soldiers.

 

Annoying!

 

I thought that only a direct hit would have him reaction fire and not a blast damage. I wonder if I aimed to an empty tile next to him whether that would trigger any reaction fire.

[chiasaur11]

Considering what they're needing to do day in and day out, I'd say the soldier salaries are reasonable.

 

I mean, not many folks would stare down a Chryssalid for love or money. And the ones who'd do it for the latter would want a lot of money.

[oldfan]

Arggghhhh! Why Australia?!

So I've been starting a new game and it went pretty well the first 12 days. I LOVE lots of UFOs in order to get a high score (more money on council funding only game type) and experience.

 

Anyway, my main base is near Egypt (North Africa) so it takes quite a while for a Skyranger to go to/from Australia which is where I was able to track down a UFO which landed. All was fine and dandy except that on its way back, the Skyranger detected a battleship which headed straight to my base (which had 5 soldiers guarding it). Of course, it was sectoids (booooooo). Floaters are no problem as I can take my time but with psi it is a problem (not to mention cyberdiscs). Anyways, I did pretty well (hardly an psi - probably took a few leaders and commander early on with the first sectoid mob) but I ended up loosing the mission. If that pesky battleship came 6 hours later I would have been fine. As this is the first month, I'm really short on money so I don't purchase more than 7 soldiers (though I thought I'd hire two less scientists and three more soldiers in future games).

 

Lately, I had a terrible luck of starting very good games (good stats on initial soldiers) with lots of UFOs, only to loose the base when my Skyranger is out. I guess there might be a correlation between a good game (lots of UFOs early on) and the likelihood of a battleship base attack (more likely retaliation).

 

Just wanted to share my self pity.

[chiasaur11]

Heh.

 

I remember my first try at ironman. 3 base attacks in a row.

 

 

It... It could have gone better.

 

Anyway, might be worth trying to shoot down UFOs further from the base, if you can. Makes it harder for aliens to find the base.

Edited July 21, 2010 by chiasaur11

[oldfan]

Heh.

 

I remember my first try at ironman. 3 base attacks in a row.

 

 

It... It could have gone better.

 

Anyway, might be worth trying to shoot down UFOs further from the base, if you can. Makes it harder for aliens to find the base.

nah.... I don't really think it makes a difference. I never saw any correlation. Once a battleship appears somewhere on the globe, it heads directly to my base. Never saw a scout/battleship scouting the actual crash site or landing.

[oldfan]

Heh.

 

I remember my first try at ironman. 3 base attacks in a row.

 

 

It... It could have gone better.

 

Anyway, might be worth trying to shoot down UFOs further from the base, if you can. Makes it harder for aliens to find the base.

I've been thinking of a new strategy (remember that I play with council funding only and ranged based accuracy). Perhaps instead of trying to focus on getting laser weapons early on, I should focus on personal armor (and medkit). While I won't get it in the first month, if most of my troops (or important ones) have personal armor and rifles, even MC would make them hard to kill (provided I drop all my rocket launchers and explosives). And maybe when I get laser rifles, I should keep them for base defence along with rifles, until I know who is a psi-weakling and who's not.

 

On a side note, a weird thing happened to me yesterday. I got invaded (again) by sectoids. On two occurences, somebody got MCd. I stunned them with my rifle (stun fest mod). To my amazement, the MC soldier was no longer there (can't say whether he was on the floor - no viewing angle) but apparently he was still there (the flashing number indicating an enemy). I couldn't attack it (cursor doesn't turn yellow) but when I moved, it reaction fired on me! How rude! Is this a known bug of some sort?

Edited July 22, 2010 by oldfan

[Kirill]

On a side note, a weird thing happened to me yesterday. I got invaded (again) by sectoids. On two occurences, somebody got MCd. I stunned them with my rifle (stun fest mod). To my amazement, the MC soldier was no longer there (can't say whether he was on the floor - no viewing angle) but apparently he was still there (the flashing number indicating an enemy). I couldn't attack it (cursor doesn't turn yellow) but when I moved, it reaction fired on me! How rude! Is this a known bug of some sort?

 

I have a vague memory of that happening to me too once. Not a regular bug tho, never happened again.

[chiasaur11]

Seen it with a Sectoid.

 

Had to kill the thing, and t was a COMMANDER.

 

Man, that run sucked.

[oldfan]

Seen it with a Sectoid.

 

Had to kill the thing, and t was a COMMANDER.

 

Man, that run sucked.

Wooosh! I hope it won't happen again.

 

Anyways...... I was performing some experiments on a Cyberdisc (battle field experiments).

There was an undamaged Cyberdisc in range of a rocket launcher shot and high explosive throw.

I saved a game right before and try to take it down more than a few times (playing on Superhuman).

I don't remember the figures but I would say that it survived a single large rocket shot about %20-%30 of the time and a similar figure for high explosives (thrown directly under it).

 

This is bad news I guess, as I was under the impression that it would be destroyed most of the times. I'm fairly certain it was quite damaged though. However, I didn't do any further testing to see how damaged it was.

This is a problem, especially early on, until you have enough laser rifles.

In base defense, this is a problem due to 80 items limit and relative weight of rockets/launchers (even if divided amongst the troops). I'm thinking about maybe having 2 heavy cannons with armor piercing which I can use to soften up those Cyberdiscs which remain in the hangars.

[[NKF]]

I'm not very big on the details, but I think the invisible creature bug has something to do with the item table being full, and not having any room to create the body item to represent the stunned body.

 

Happens in base defence where the item table can get used up very quickly, and on harder levels where the aliens have greater numbers (thus a greater body + equipment count as they are defeated).

 

 

This is bad news I guess, as I was under the impression that it would be destroyed most of the times. I'm fairly certain it was quite damaged though. However, I didn't do any further testing to see how damaged it was.

 

That's the random number generator for you. Although, with HE at least, your rocket is expected to do between 50% - 150% of its listed damage. Being a large units, its gets hit 3 additional times at 10 points less max-damage. That's quite a lot of damage to shrug off! Are you playing with any enhancements to the alien stats? Such as increased armour, or does the range based setting decrease damage with distance as well?

 

- NKF

Edited July 23, 2010 by NKF

[oldfan]

I'm not very big on the details, but I think the invisible creature bug has something to do with the item table being full, and not having any room to create the body item to represent the stunned body.

 

Happens in base defence where the item table can get used up very quickly, and on harder levels where the aliens have greater numbers (thus a greater body + equipment count as they are defeated).

 

 

This is bad news I guess, as I was under the impression that it would be destroyed most of the times. I'm fairly certain it was quite damaged though. However, I didn't do any further testing to see how damaged it was.

 

That's the random number generator for you. Although, with HE at least, your rocket is expected to do between 50% - 150% of its listed damage. Being a large units, its gets hit 3 additional times at 10 points less max-damage. That's quite a lot of damage to shrug off! Are you playing with any enhancements to the alien stats? Such as increased armour, or does the range based setting decrease damage with distance as well?

 

- NKF

I know about the 50% - 150%, but still...... just playing on superhuman with Seb's UFO extender. Ranged base accuracy does not affect damage (it better not) - I'm fairly certain about that. Maybe lots of "bad luck" while experimenting? In other games, laser rifles proved extremely useful against Cyberdiscs and I usually go auto with them as a Cyberdisc is pretty large and easy to hit (especially when hovering as you tend to hit under the hull).

[chiasaur11]

Oh, something else.

 

That retaliation for ground missions thing?

 

That might be why your base is continually getting pounded. Default game, they need to look. Play it right, get lucky, and they can't find.

[oldfan]

Oh, something else.

 

That retaliation for ground missions thing?

 

That might be why your base is continually getting pounded. Default game, they need to look. Play it right, get lucky, and they can't find.

Hmmmmmm...... maybe you're right. Though I'll keep it that way. I'll just have extra troops there.

[oldfan]

While recently experimenting with Cyberdiscs, I remember I was unclear as to whether they explode immediately when killed or at the end of turn (provided they initiated the self destruct sequence). If they do explode immediately, I might have missed it due to the fact that I tried blasting them with rocket launchers and high explosive and perhaps I failed to differentiate between the explosions (may it happens too fast).

 

When do they explode and what is the likelihood for that in your experience (percentage wise)?

[zaimoni]

While recently experimenting with Cyberdiscs, I remember I was unclear as to whether they explode immediately when killed or at the end of turn (provided they initiated the self destruct sequence). If they do explode immediately, I might have missed it due to the fact that I tried blasting them with rocket launchers and high explosive and perhaps I failed to differentiate between the explosions (may it happens too fast).

 

When do they explode and what is the likelihood for that in your experience (percentage wise)?

Stunned cyberdiscs do not explode.

 

Incapacitated cyberdiscs (whether stunned or dead) do not float. The delay between the death of the cyberdisc, and the invocation of its self-destruct, is just long enough for the dead cyberdisc to fall out of the way of the explosion should there be someplace "safer" to fall to. The delay is also long enough to allow burst fire to complete, but not long enough to permit initiating any actions. (I have neither tested reaction fire, nor heard of any such reports of testing.)

[oldfan]

While recently experimenting with Cyberdiscs, I remember I was unclear as to whether they explode immediately when killed or at the end of turn (provided they initiated the self destruct sequence). If they do explode immediately, I might have missed it due to the fact that I tried blasting them with rocket launchers and high explosive and perhaps I failed to differentiate between the explosions (may it happens too fast).

 

When do they explode and what is the likelihood for that in your experience (percentage wise)?

Stunned cyberdiscs do not explode.

 

Incapacitated cyberdiscs (whether stunned or dead) do not float. The delay between the death of the cyberdisc, and the invocation of its self-destruct, is just long enough for the dead cyberdisc to fall out of the way of the explosion should there be someplace "safer" to fall to. The delay is also long enough to allow burst fire to complete, but not long enough to permit initiating any actions. (I have neither tested reaction fire, nor heard of any such reports of testing.)

Mmmmmm...... let me phrase my question differently. If one of my soldiers is in a tile adjacent to a Cyberdisc and he shoots it dead and he is left with 50 TU, should he safely run away or the minute the Cyberdisc drops dead it explodes?

[chiasaur11]

Oh, something else.

 

That retaliation for ground missions thing?

 

That might be why your base is continually getting pounded. Default game, they need to look. Play it right, get lucky, and they can't find.

Hmmmmmm...... maybe you're right. Though I'll keep it that way. I'll just have extra troops there.

 

Well, I might be, but there also seems to be a potential for a beeline every time you shoot down a ship. I'd need more details, but that could be the problem too.

[Andy]

If it's like xcom2, the biodrone explodes after it is killed and drops on the floor, which is why it doesn't leave a corpse behind. If you want a biodrone corpse, you'll need to kill it when it's at least 1 level above the floor. The explosion occurs on the level the biodrone died at.

 

For example. A biodrone is FLOATING in the air on the third floor, you shoot it, it dies, falls 3 floors down onto the ground. The explosion goes off on the third floor but the corpse is on the bottom floor.

 

You can freeze biodrone without worrying it'll explode.

Edited July 26, 2010 by Andy