Alien Base Commanders

[Zombie]

We've all been on our fair share of alien base missions before, and therefore know that the best place to find a commander is inside the command center proper. Just grab your stun weapon of choice and head upstairs to the control room where there is an excellent chance of nabbing that elusive commander which is necessary to get to Mars. I have personally led thousands upon thousands of alien base missions, not so much for the commanders, but for the stuff you recover. Needless to say, I've seen it all. Nothing surprises me anymore.

 

A few years ago, I sent my troops on a Floater base mission to gather some loot. After killing all the aliens around the command center, I couldn't help but wonder where the commander was. After conducting my legendary module-by-module search, the Floater commander was found wandering around aimlessly 3-4 modules away. Since it took my troops a while to breach the command center, I figured that the commander escaped in the confusion and made a mad dash for the exit.

 

However, all the literature on X-COM claims that commanders are always found in the command center. For example, here is a quote from the OSG:

 

The most useful consequence of an alien base assault is the possibility of capturing an alien commander. Nearly every base has a commander, and only these high-ranking aliens have the information you need in order to travel to Mars and win the game. Because the capture of a commander plays such a key role in the game, you should never go to an alien base assault without some sort of stun weapon.

 

The base commander is always in the command center of the base. ...The commander normally remains on level 1, and several guards usually patrol the corridoors and engineering section below.

Recently, I had the task of removing 15 alien bases because of the constant drain on my monthly score (-5 points per base * 15 bases * 30 days per month = -2250 points against X-COM). The first 10 bases went without incident, since I had my premier Psi-squad along. But during the 11th base mission, I encountered something which actually shocked me. Mind Controlling any visible Sectoids around the staging areas allowed me to use them as advance spotters. Before the first round ended, the command center had been breached and the alien threat removed. But hold on. I couldn't find the Sectoid Commander. Oh oh. After conducting an intense search, I found the Commander hiding next door to one of the staging rooms: upstairs in one of those U-shaped modules with the 4 lifts below.

 

Just to make sure, I reloaded the game (thankfully I had saved it) and took a screenshot of the Sectoid Commander during the first round:

So beware, fellow players. The chances of finding an alien commander outside the command center is practically nil, but it does happen.

 

- Zombie

[[Blehm 98]]

so one out of ever 3000 base missions or so the commander does not start at that one place?

[Hobbes]

It has to do with the number of Leaders present at the base. *SPOILERS* The 2nd level of the base command center has 4 nodes that are used for spawning Leaders/Commanders. If the game randomly determines that 4 Leaders will be present then they will occupy the nodes at the 2nd level, leaving no empty node for the Commander, which will then spawn on any node assigned for Soldiers (which are about 90% of all the nodes on a base).

[[stewart]]

Geez Zombie I coulda told you right away. I have commanders start right next to my troops.

[Zombie]

It has to do with the number of Leaders present at the base. *SPOILERS* The 2nd level of the base command center has 4 nodes that are used for spawning Leaders/Commanders. If the game randomly determines that 4 Leaders will be present then they will occupy the nodes at the 2nd level, leaving no empty node for the Commander, which will then spawn on any node assigned for Soldiers (which are about 90% of all the nodes on a base).

That's what I figured was going on, but I wasn't sure. Question: are those 4 nodes strictly reserved for potential Leaders if 4 are present, or can a Commander still spawn in one of those nodes? To put it another way, are leaders restricted to those 4 nodes, or can a Commander "bump" one of those leaders to a different spawn point within the base? IIRC, the max of 4 Leaders can only happen on Superhuman Skill level, whereas there is 3 on Veteran/Genius and 2 on Beginner/Experienced.

 

- Zombie

[[Blehm 98]]

i'm pretty sure that all alien nodes are Soldier, Engineer, Navigator, or Leader/Commander

 

so they are for both

[Zombie]

What about Medics or Terrorists? Do they share soldier nodes. I know for a fact that 2x2 terrorists don't have the same spawn points as regular alien soldier do.

 

- Zombie

[[Blehm 98]]

there are also slots for 2x2 terrorists and 1x1 terrorists

 

also, there are nodes for units to start flying up in the air

[Hobbes]

What about Medics or Terrorists? Do they share soldier nodes. I know for a fact that 2x2 terrorists don't have the same spawn points as regular alien soldier do. 

 

- Zombie

 

Medics have their own setting for the nodes. As for 2x2 terrorists you are mistaken. Each node has 2 settings that determine the alien that is spawned there, with the first being Type (Any, Large, Small, Flying, Large Flying). A spawn node with an Any setting will generate any type of alien there randomly: you might get a Reaper or a Floater Commander there, for instance. The other settings are more used to restrict the types of aliens that can be generated, because of the nodes' position and the fact that the spawning system needs to accomodate different combinations of aliens. In some cases, especially UFOs, some nodes should have been assigned a different setting, like the room on the Battleship's 2nd level where a Cyberdisk can be found trapped there, or the 2nd level of the Terror Ship's wings, where you can find trapped Reapers there.

The other setting used is the Rank, and there you have a specific setting for Civilian/Scout. The Scout is actually a flag for alien units that is found on the Unitpos.dat file and can be assigned to several alien ranks besides Soldier, including Terrorists.

Overall, you don't actually have a setting to mark a spawn node for Terrorist units: you can use the Large/FlyingLarge setting to generate Reapers/Cyberdisks/Sectopods (but they still can be generated on Soldier/Scout nodes, if there isn't enough Large nodes for all 2x2 terrorists) but the Celatids/Chryssalids/Silacoids will be generated on either the Soldier or Scout nodes.

Edited September 25, 2005 by Hobbes

[[Blehm 98]]

sorry, that is what i meant, but i always forget exactly and just remember the general thing, once you say that it all clears up

 

crap, i really hate doing that

[Hobbes]

sorry, that is what i meant, but i always forget exactly and just remember the general thing, once you say that it all clears up

 

crap, i really hate doing that

 

no need to apologize, what you said is correct. I've simply had a few more experience (and a lot of learning from my errors) while designing terrains

[Zombie]

Thanks for the thoughtful explanation, Hobbes. I understand now. Much appreciated!

 

- Zombie

[MikeTheRed]

Each node has 2 settings that determine the alien that is spawned there, with the first being Type (Any, Large, Small, Flying, Large Flying).

So you're telling me a Sectopod might be generated over my head... then fall on me??

 

I get all the luck, don't I!

 

j/k ... there probably aren't any spawns right over the XCOM craft, eh? But still, is it possible to have these guys falling at mission start?

[Hobbes]

Each node has 2 settings that determine the alien that is spawned there, with the first being Type (Any, Large, Small, Flying, Large Flying).

So you're telling me a Sectopod might be generated over my head... then fall on me??

 

I get all the luck, don't I!

 

j/k ... there probably aren't any spawns right over the XCOM craft, eh? But still, is it possible to have these guys falling at mission start?

 

If you edit the .rmp files you can have aliens being spawned right on air. However, they would only fall if they moved from the location where they are spawned, which is impossible because even if the node is linked to another one, because a non-flying alien can't move to/from nodes on 'air'. The links between nodes are set for unit types too (any, flying, small, etc.) and there are maps that have movement nodes set for flying units. But on this case movement between those nodes is impossible (since they require that the unit is able to fly), it will simply stand there on the air.

 

On UFO there are no nodes above the X-COM craft, but on TFTD all of the craft have movement nodes for the aliens. You won't start a mission with an alien right over the entrance but if you stay inside your craft for 1 or 2 turns (depends on the position of the aliens) you might have a nasty surprise waiting above.

Edited September 25, 2005 by Hobbes

[Fuegan]

While I've never done anywhere near 2000 base missions, I've found that there are three locations you can find the base commander:

 

1) The base command module

2) Wandering round the ground floor area of the power supply module (the 'U')

3) The 'tower' of those huge storage rooms

 

While I find the commander in the command module most of the time, it's not just been an isolated incident finding them elsewhere. These were only ever on Beginner too, so the overall number of aliens in the base was relatively low.

 

It's actually pretty irritating if you're doing a Sectoid base mission when you 'land' right next to the command module, take out the leaders and there is still a Psi alien wandering round causing some ball ache.

 

I can't be sure, but I'm sure I've been to an Ethereal base where there were two commanders (not Cydonia), in which case one of them was definately outside the command module. That, however, may be me mixing up more than one Ethereal base mission from the late 1990's...

[Zombie]

Now that I know more about spawn points, I took a look at them in an alien base with MapView. While it is true that there are 4 Leader/Commander nodes in L1 of the command center, it doesn't necessarily mean a leader or a commander will always spawn there.

 

Take for instance my first post in this topic. I was playing on Experienced skill level (due to the stats of the Sectoid Commander) so therefore the number of leaders present should be 2 with 1 commander. (There are never more than 1 commander present in an alien base mission, btw). Alien Soldiers are spawned first, then Navigators, Engineers, Medics, Leaders, Commanders and finally, terrorists. Ok, let's say the game spawned everything up to the leaders and commander. Since there are 2 Leaders, most likely they will spawn on the Leader/Commander reserved slots on L1 of the command center. But it isn't guaranteed. Those slots have a spawn point probability of 5 which means they are 5 times more likely to spawn a Leader/Commander than a normal slot with a probability of 1.

 

Assuming for a moment that the 2 Leaders were spawned on the Leader/Commander nodes in the command center (I think this was true from what I remember), that leaves 2 slots open for the commander to be placed. Each has a probability of 5, so it is basically a single node with a probability of 10. It still isn't guaranteed that the commander will spawn up there though.

 

In an alien base there are many more spawn points than aliens. Most never get used and have a low probability of spawning an alien (usually it is 1), but they are present to make the game interesting. So for the sake of argument, let's say there were 20 unused spawn points all with a probability of 1, and two leader/commander spawn points with a probability of 5 each. The probability of the Commander spawning in the command center is therefore 10/30 or 33%.

 

On higher difficulty levels, the chance for the commander to spawn in the command center drops signifcantly. On Vet/Gen, there are 3 leaders so that leaves one slot open (generally speaking of course) for the commander. On Superhuman, there are always 4 leaders present so the only way a commander could spawn in the command center would be if one of the Leaders didn't get placed there.

 

Now, the number of unused spawn points in a base varies due to the different modules. This is what happens (I think... correct me if I'm wrong Hobbes): Alien Soldiers have some "reserved" slots for them to spawn in (rank of 2), but they can also be placed in any slot which has a rank of 0 (Civ-Scout). I call these "shared slots" since all ranks can go in them. The game adds the number of empty Soldier slots and the number of empty Civ-Scout slots (taking into account the "weighted" probability) and then rolls a random number to determine where the alien soldier will go. It'll probably go in a reserved soldier slot but it could spawn in a Civ-Scout. Next up are the Navigators. They can be placed in any empty Navigator slot as well as any unoccupied Civ-Scout slots. Then come the Engineers, Medics, Leaders and Commanders. By the time you get to the higher ranking aliens, the number of unoccupied Civ-Scout slots have probably decreased because all the other alien ranks had a shot at them first.

 

I need to do some more tests to determine if a high alien rank has a shot at spawning in a lower ranking unoccupied slot, but if this is true, then the probability decreases more. Still, once you do get to the Leaders and Commanders, there are precious few slots left, so most will go where intended.

 

- Zombie