Idgy

I've experienced this bug as well. I'm using build 442 of the 9.7 beta, running in DOSBox 0.74. I chose to have the psi-screening done only after I'd researched Psi-Labs, and I've verified this by looking at the "Units" section of Lastop.bat. The option currently shows "set ScrTyp=Lab". However, no units got the auto-screening after the Psi-Lab was researched, and none got it after the Psi-Lab construction completed either. I don't know if this is specifically the problem, but one thing that does seem odd to me: XcomUtil.log shows that after every mission, one of the steps is "Checking XcomUtil\flags\AUTOSCRN.XCF". However, no such file exists in the Flags directory; instead I have "Labscrn.xcf", whose contents are just a single line: "Screening for MC with Lab". I'm just assuming AutoScrn.xcf is related to psi-screening so I could be wrong about this.

Hi all, I'm running UFO:EU in DOSBox 0.72 on Mac OS X. I'd like to play without music, but keep the sound effects (I play other stuff or listen to podcasts in the background). I've seen a few posts on getting sound running in DOSBox, but the default.conf files posted in them differ from mine - which I think means my sound shouldn't be working! Since it is, those posts aren't much help to me. Here's my config file. If anyone can tell me what changes to make there to disable the music, but keep the sound effects, or alternately if there are any files in the XCom directory I can delete/rename in order to keep the game from loading them, that would be great. Thanks! [mixer] Nosound=false rate=22050 blocksize=2048 prebuffer=10 [midi] mpu401= device= config= [sblaster] sbtype=sb16 sbbase=220 irq=7 dma=1 hdma=5 mixer=true oplmode=auto oplrate=22050 [gus] gus=true gusrate=22050 gusbase=240 irq1=5 irq2=7 dma1=1 dma2=1 ultradir=C:/ULTRASND [speaker] pcspeaker=true pcrate=22050 tandy=auto tandyrate=22050 disney=true

Hoorj! My biggest concern was that I'd end up firing too many people. But I guess I need to be a ruthless HR manager and just axe them if they don't measure up. What's 40k x 50 worthless punks anyway? (ulp - ). BTW, you do pay 40k right away just to hire a soldier, right? That money's not held until the end of the month before it's withdrawn, and it can't be refunded if you fire them immediately, right? Your stats and mine I are pretty close. I'm working from a much smaller sample, only 47 soldiers, which accounts for the variance. My numbers (deviation from yours in parentheses): Time Units 56 (0) Stamina 59 (-2) Health 34 (-2) Bravery 50 (+10, but just +1 the way it's stored in soldier.dat) Reactions 52 (+1) Firing Acc. 59 (-2) Throw Acc. 69 (-2) Strength 35 (+1) I haven't gotten to the point where Psi skills are in use. Looking forward to it, though.

OK, apologies for the noob-ness here but I've just gotten into XCom. I don't know how I missed it when it came out, but it's been on my "Awesome Games I Have to Play At Some Point" list for a while and I've finally gotten to it. I've been trying to avoid spoiling too much of the game (half of the fun is figuring out the systems and learning lessons the hard way), so I haven't read strategy guides or anything. But I do know that some of the soldiers I hire are superheroes and more are worthless scabs. With that in mind, I converted my soldier.dat to a CSV file, copied names and stats into an Excel sheet, and went to town deriving percentile ranks to see who was worthy of not getting a pink slip their first day on the job. The problem was, at the end of the effort, I find out that only 9 of my 46 men and women are worthy of squad roles. I haven't lost too many people in the battles I've fought so far, so clearly I'm being too strict with my assignments. But I figured I'd run my criteria by you guys and get some feedback. Basically, I'm making 5-man squads, with 1 Heavy Weapons dude (rocket launcher!! ), 1 Scout (motion tracker, best pistol, bunch of nades), and 3 Shooters (best auto-firing weapon available, bunch of nades). So, for my requirements, I set out the following. (When I say "high <ability>," I mean top ⅓ of scores): Heavy Weapons: lag a bit behind the team and deliver high explosives at opportune moments. - High TU: these weaps take more points to fire, so I gotta have high TU to keep up with the rest of the squad and still have a chance to shoot. - High Strength: gotta be able to carry the big loads. - Median or better Bravery: if someone goes buckwild with a rocket-launcher that could be half my team down the tubes. - Reaction is not a concern, because these guys lag behind the rest of the team. Also, I don't want someone taking a snap shot with a rocket launcher and end up killing a teammate or three. - Accuracy is not a concern, because that whole splash damage thing makes up for poor aim. Shooter: everyday average squad member. Responsible for shooting whatever the Scout finds and the Heavy Weapons don't blast into itty bitty pieces. Will do most of the killing. - High Firing Accuracy: do one thing, but do it well! - Median or better TU: after moving a few squares, this makes the difference between kneeling and firing twice vs kneeling and only firing once, or firing twice without kneeling. - Median or better Bravery: if they're responsible for the bulk of the killing, they can't be running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Scout: run all over the battlefield and gather information so that the rest of the squad can make informed choices. - High TU: I need these guys to outrange the rest of the squad. Also, if during that outranging I come across a few aliens as I round a corner, it would be nice to be able to get back around the corner and into cover. - High Reaction: it would be nice to not get shot by the aforementioned aliens before I even have a chance to make use of my excessive TUs. - High Stamina: I'm going to be covering a lot of squares per turn, and there's not much use in having TU if I'm constantly stopped by lack of energy. - Accuracy is not a concern; the Scout's role is to find the enemy, and leave the killing to the Shooters and Heavy Weapons soldiers. I'm not putting stats into names, only abbreviated specialties (My Commander, being strong and having lots of TU, is "Catherine Kemp HW"), so I'm also thinking of marking people who make good grenadiers (high Strength and Throwing Accuracy), and people who do well while invading ships (high reaction, firing accuracy, and TU). I figure that throwing grenades aren't a dedicated part of any particular job, but if a nade needs to be thrown, it's good to know who can do it well and who can't. Similarly, when it's time to bust in the front door, it's good to know who's got a great reaction time and who doesn't without having to look at the soldier stats screen. Anway, this post is huge and probably too verbose but whatever. I put a bunch of effort into the spreadsheet, so maybe if I get some good feedback from you guys, I can fine-tune it, then post it for other people to use!