Xcomutil - Aliens Help With Research

[Shotgunner]

Guys, I have been using the "Captured Aliens give research help" feature of XComUtil lately but for some reason research seems to take much longer than usual. I currently have 50 scientists, and I tested the research time for the plasma rifle with and without a captured alien, an when I had one the research took almost an extra half-month's research time.

 

Is this because certian aliens provide diffrent amounts of help, or is it because the feature is buggy?

 

Any and all help is greatly appreicated. Thanks guys n gals.

[Hobbes]

I use that feature in all games that I play. Here's a couple of tips:

 

1) Get at least 200 scientists at your starting base ASAP.

2) Capture an awfully lot of high ranked aliens.

3) Don't start all projects available. The research help is applied to the research list at your starting base and it is usually distributed to the project that will benefit the most in percentage. Some projects though should be started as soon as they are available (like Hyperwave Decoder, E-115, Alien Alloys and UFO Propulsion).

 

It will be a pain to finance for 200 scientists on the first months so you'll have to assault as many UFOs as you can and sell the loot, otherwise it will be very easy to dip into the red.

You'll also need a lot of soldiers: attacking aliens at close quarters with stun rods will be nasty.

 

My current game of UFO it is now February, 2000 and I've just finished researching the Firestorm. The worst part was in May when Mutons and Ethereals dropped and I only had blue armor and lasers available.

[Shotgunner]

Hobbes, once again, thank you for the help. The 200 scientists will be damn near impossible for me to get anytime soon , as my recent save put me into the "base defense bug" and I can't escape it, so I got to start over. As for selling the loot, the only things I really keep around in any quanity for my own use(at first I mean) is Alien Alloys and E-115. Other than that, a single H.Plasma, Plasma Pistol, Plasma Rifle and one clip for each, and one of each alien corpse(for research purposes) is all I keep around. I usually build a "storehouse" on my starting continent by the end of the first year as I tend to let the aliens supply me with all the plasma weaponry I get . I figure that if they want to help me finance their own demise, who am I to say no?

 

Thanks again for the help!

[BladeFireLight]

// Research Help from Captives
//   Day = Scientist/Days to complete research (unsigned short)
//   Mul = Difficulty multiplier x 10 ( max = 255 = 25.5 times normal )
//  Rank = % reduction of remaining research time


// Day Mul Cmd Ldr Eng Med Nav Sol 

  700 100  20  20  50   0  20  10 //  6 Plasma Rifle
  400 100  20  20  50   0  20  40 //  7 Plasma Rifle Clip

 

With the above settings and 50 scientists it would take 140 days with out captureing alients aposed to the normal 14 days.

 

each Engineer cut the remaining time in half. so if you have done 20 days already and caputre a Engineer you cut the time from 120 to 60 but the next Engineer will only cut it down to 30.

 

as you can see it takes 3 engineers to bring the reasearch close to the normal number of days. While the number of soldiers it would take is more like 25 of them.

 

-Blade FireLight

Edited December 15, 2006 by BladeFireLight

[Shotgunner]

Thanks for the chart Blade - your chart and Hobbes comments have clarified it for me. Thanks again to both of you.

 

Heh, I don't know where I'd be without all of you X-COM vets to help us "rookies"

[thundering]

In order to benifit from the multipliers that the live aliens give you do you have to just have them captured and siting in the base

or do you have to reserch them as you capture them

or do you just start reaserching them as you reserch something else

 

also id you have multiple say engineers of the same race does that count as multiple aliens or do you need one from each race

 

thanks

[Catnub]

thundering, you just have to capture the aliens. The bonus is given immediately after combat before returning to Geoscape, and you're informed about what it contributes to and how much. Each alien is counted separately, no special benefits or drawbacks from capturing several of the same race or rank. This isn't related to normal alien research in any way, it's a separate system.

 

However, I know I've tried capturing aliens without getting any discount, in spite of having several projects they could contribute towards. I assume that's a minor bug in the progream.

Edited October 30, 2009 by Catnub

[Hobbes]

thundering, you just have to capture the aliens. The bonus is given immediately after combat before returning to Geoscape, and you're informed about what it contributes to and how much. Each alien is counted separately, no special benefits or drawbacks from capturing several of the same race or rank. This isn't related to normal alien research in any way, it's a separate system.

 

However, I know I've tried capturing aliens without getting any discount, in spite of having several projects they could contribute towards. I assume that's a minor bug in the progream.

 

The help only applies to projects at your first base... could that be the problem?

[Catnub]

Hobbes, I only had soldiers and scientists at one base so that can't have been it. I didn't investigate it very thoroughly, I'll try to note down the situation next time it happens. Now that I have you though, do you know how .eqp files work? I have mine set up and it's not working

 

EDIT: Just finished a mission with 4 live aquatoid soldiers captured, zero research help. Sonic Pulser and Sonic Pistol Clip were being researched. Do you need to have any scientists assigned to the projects to get help?

Edited October 31, 2009 by Catnub

[thundering]

i only have the one base, but i dont play terror from the deep i thought the change applied to the original game aswell, am i mistaken? if it does i dont get any message about the alians contributing to any reserge before geoscape

[thundering]

alright i tested it, i saved before a mission captured 3 engineers and my research for a plasma pistol clip took until the 29th. then i reloaded the game prior to the mission and it still took till the 29th. (this mission was just after i built the first alien containment) so i think a step by step as to how this is supposed to work would be good, this is for ufo defence Edited November 1, 2009 by thundering

[Catnub]

It applies to both EU and TFTD. Do you get a message saying "Research update" after combat? You should get that message regardless of whether or not you get a research boost. If you do get a boost, it'll say which field you get a boost in and by how much.

[Hobbes]

It applies to both EU and TFTD. Do you get a message saying "Research update" after combat? You should get that message regardless of whether or not you get a research boost. If you do get a boost, it'll say which field you get a boost in and by how much.

 

You will need to have answered "Yes" to the query "Do you want to see XComUtil messages after combat?" when you ran XcuSetup.

 

Another way to check how the research is progressing is to open the XCOMUTIL.LOG file in UFO's main folder.

 

Keep in mind that if you have multiple research projects started then the help will be applied to the one who will benefit it the most (you can have zero scientists assigned to it) and it might not be the one you were expecting (if you want to focus research don't open too many projects).

 

If there's still no research help being applied to any project one possibility is that the Sonic Pulsar is mistyped on the xcomutil.cfg file as Puslar. Try to rename it to see if it works.

[thundering]

i just redid the xcom utill in case i missed choosing yes, after making sure i did a quick mission, i got the page displaying the score (it indicated i had 2 live aliens i stunned a navigator and a solider) it then went to the promotion screen and finally a mesage came up saying i didn't have enough equipment to fully re-equip the squad. nothing about reserch. also i noticed i selected the option to have the rank kills etc displayed in the name but it didn't show on my soildiers.

 

the only thing i can think of is either re applying the changes and then restarting my game and see if that helps, or mabye just remove the alteration to the research all togerther

[thundering]

Just finished reloading the xcom utill and restarted a game grabbed some alien alloys and started reserching them with 50 scientists, (the only thing being reseched) after the alien containment was completed i stunned 4 aliens (solider engineer and 2 navagators) and it registered them as i recieved points for them after the mission. 3 guys were promoted but nothing doing in terms of a reserch screen after the mission.

 

i have no idea how to fix what im doing wrong so if you guys have any ideas that would be great, but so far it seems like im just going to remove the change and have the research made easier

[thundering]

Another way to check how the research is progressing is to open the XCOMUTIL.LOG file in UFO's main folder.

 

i dont seem to have the .log file i have an xcomutil.cfg/exe/rms/rmt/rmx/rnt/rnx/txt and thats it

a quick search revieled i dont have an xcomutil.log file anywhere on the computer.

 

im not sure what i loaded wrong that i didn;t get it so if anyone has any ideas how to fix this it be great

[Catnub]

The research update screen comes before the scoring screen. When configuring XcomUtil, did you see an option about receiving messages after combat?

[Hobbes]

When configuring XcomUtil, did you see an option about receiving messages after combat?

 

Another simple issue: Research Help only works if you run XcuSetup to configure XComUtil. If you havent run it that be the reason why there's no XCOMUTIL.LOG on your UFO Defense folder (which there should be)

Edited November 2, 2009 by Hobbes

[Catnub]

And it only takes effect in future games, it won't affect a running game if the setting is altered.

[thundering]

i started new games each time to try to get the page explaining the reserch bonus after a round

 

alright heres what i did

i double clicked xcusetup.bat which opened a black window with a message that says a few patchs are applied, dificulty/000000 pascode etc.

then it asks me a bunch of questions i answer n to improved stating base

y-alternate (which promps a small message mentioning the patch is applied)

y-improved tanks(similar message appears)

y-improved weapons(this time no message)

n-new laser weapons

y-want reserch help(another message)

y-xcom util messages after combat(no message again)

n-strings for stat strings (no messages t)

y-troops sorted(no message)

y-auto re-equip (no messge)

n-eliminate mind controll (another message)

n-auto psi screening(no message)

n-fight day(no message)

n-fight dark(no message)

y-new farm (message about creating new terrain)

n-randomised combat terrain(no message)

n-prompted befor every ship attack(no message)

n-world terrain randomised(no message)

n-want xcomutil to randomly place terrain(no message)

n-randomise floorplans before each battle(no message)

n-randomise all alien ships now(the window that was opened closes automatically)

 

then i drag ufo.bat onto dosbox skip to the pass code screen and hit 0000000000 (so something worked) then i started a new game on beginner built a base and just started building alien containment. i beat a mission for a landed alien to get something to research. then i ordered some stun rods, and started researching elerium 115 after the containment was compleated a terror mission started and there happened to be a floater leader just by the skyranger so i stuned him tossed him on the ship and then left

a screen came up for score and one about how i was out of rockets for a tank i bought but nothing on reserch bonuses.

 

 

Im prety sure thats step by step to what ive done so what am i missing

theres still no .log file in the xcom folder

oh i should mention that the util files have be unziped directly into the same folder which contains the xcom game itslef

 

SO

 

also the stats that should show up for the solders, the auto re-equipping and the auto sorting of solders also doesn't seem to work(which is annoying re-equiping the stun rods each time)

 

finally im prety sure the incresed reserch has taken effect as everything got reserched much faster when i selected no to the help from captured aliens just to see if it would effect anythign

[Hobbes]

i started new games each time to try to get the page explaining the reserch bonus after a round

 

alright heres what i did

i double clicked xcusetup.bat which opened a black window with a message that says a few patchs are applied, dificulty/000000 pascode etc.

then it asks me a bunch of questions i answer n to improved stating base

y-alternate (which promps a small message mentioning the patch is applied)

y-improved tanks(similar message appears)

y-improved weapons(this time no message)

n-new laser weapons

y-want reserch help(another message)

y-xcom util messages after combat(no message again)

n-strings for stat strings (no messages t)

y-troops sorted(no message)

y-auto re-equip (no messge)

n-eliminate mind controll (another message)

n-auto psi screening(no message)

n-fight day(no message)

n-fight dark(no message)

y-new farm (message about creating new terrain)

n-randomised combat terrain(no message)

n-prompted befor every ship attack(no message)

n-world terrain randomised(no message)

n-want xcomutil to randomly place terrain(no message)

n-randomise floorplans before each battle(no message)

n-randomise all alien ships now(the window that was opened closes automatically)

 

then i drag ufo.bat onto dosbox skip to the pass code screen and hit 0000000000 (so something worked) then i started a new game on beginner built a base and just started building alien containment. i beat a mission for a landed alien to get something to research. then i ordered some stun rods, and started researching elerium 115 after the containment was compleated a terror mission started and there happened to be a floater leader just by the skyranger so i stuned him tossed him on the ship and then left

a screen came up for score and one about how i was out of rockets for a tank i bought but nothing on reserch bonuses.

 

 

Im prety sure thats step by step to what ive done so what am i missing

theres still no .log file in the xcom folder

oh i should mention that the util files have be unziped directly into the same folder which contains the xcom game itslef

 

SO

 

also the stats that should show up for the solders, the auto re-equipping and the auto sorting of solders also doesn't seem to work(which is annoying re-equiping the stun rods each time)

 

finally im prety sure the incresed reserch has taken effect as everything got reserched much faster when i selected no to the help from captured aliens just to see if it would effect anythign

 

Looks like it's working and I think I might know why it didn't work on the example you described. And it is because there was no help you could get from an alien soldier or leader from the 3 initial research projects (Laser Weapons, Medikit, Motion Scanner).

 

If you open the xcomutil.cfg file (and that one should be in the folder, otherwise xcomutil wouldn't run) and scroll to the bottom you'll see a table detailing how much help you can get on each research topic. Depending on the ranks, you'll get more help or less or even none. The only help you could have gotten for the 3 initial projects that are available would have come from capturing Medics, Navigators or Engineers.

 

Even if you didn't get any research help the xcomutil.log should have been generated, probably you have your UFO folder set not to show file extensions and won't know which one it is from all the files named 'xcomutil' (the icon is of a text or Notepad file).

 

And the research really takes a long time with this help turned on. To get the medikit you'd need 210 scientists/day of research (210 researchers would get it on a day) during normal play, but with the research help option on you need 2100 days (but some help can cut the value by 50% or even higher, it all depends on the rank needed).

[uncy]

And don't forget that Research Time gets reduced only after the combat, NEVER during Geoscape.

 

Do the following as a control test. Save a tactical mission during the first turn, apply "Stun All" with Hatfarm's Editor to the savegame, then load the savegame and click next turn. You should have recover all Aliens, there you should see your researches greatly reduced.