UFOpaedia - User contributions [en]

Talk:BASE.DAT

2026-03-20T16:37:28Z

7Saturn:

The holes in the item list are the 6 unused items in obdata.dat. Starting from the standard pistol, the object table in the base and craft files match the entries in [[OBDATA.DAT]].

The six unused items don't have any text labels associated with them apart from the description in obdata.dat. If you inspect obdata.dat, you'll notice that they are a few weapons and ammo clips, however one or two of their crucial switches have been turned off so that they do not function. TFTD uses these slots for the gauss clips and drills.

- [[User:NKF|NKF]]

==Little Endian==

It should be noted that despite all values being unsigned little debian and thus having a fairly large range, there is a cap of 9999 instances/units of a given item at a given base. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 17:28, 5 April 2008 (PDT)

==Unidentified Values==

[[Item_Weight#Uncarryable_items|This]] of any help, MTR? [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 19:51, 15 May 2008 (PDT)

:Thanks Arrow, I guess Uncarryable Items gives suggestions, but I still don't entirely understand that Item listing. All I did was reformat what was already on the page, so I could relate it to the PRODUCT.DAT info I'd just looked at - and the gaps became clear when I did the offset math. One thing that puzzles me is that BASE.DAT obviously isn't the "ultimate source" of this list, since it's only showing quantities at a base. There must be some other "real" source which includes names, properties, etc. I've looked around the wiki but can't seem to find it. Maybe it's hard-coded into the .EXE and only gets tossed out in this "one step removed" kind of format, for BASE.DAT and PRODUCT.DAT? shrug -[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 20:08, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

You're right, base.dat's item listing is only the quantities. Values, language file string index reference, weights, etc. are in the executable. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 20:35, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

:Right, ok, here are further differences between the [[BASE.DAT]] and [[OBDATA.DAT]] item listings:
:*OBDATA (record 0) starts at record 15 (the Pistol) in BASE; this makes sense inasmuch as all the BASE items less than its record 15 would not be found on a battlescape
:*It looks like OBDATA fills in the gaps for the BASE items which are "unknown"
:*At record 73 of BASE (Reaper Corpse) / record 57 of OBDATA (reaper corpse 1), differences become very evident:
:**BASE uses one record for each type of corpse, but OBDATA uses four (for the four battlescape quadrants of the corpse)
:**BASE lists Reaper, Sectopod, and Cyberdisc (one record each), but OBDATA lists Reaper, ''Cyberdisc'', Sectopod (4 records each)
:**BASE then skips 4 records and lists various items, as shown at record 80+ in [[BASE.DAT]], but [[OBDATA.DAT]] just continues on with various corpses (Hovertank, Tank, Civilians). Many of these BASE items can be "seen" in the battlescape, but none are actually objects that can be picked up on the battlescape - that's OBDATA's job. BASE's job is to list things that can be stored at a base.
:Looked at one way, it all makes sense. But is XCOM truly using one source list in the executable, or did the programmers make two lists which look very similar, because there wasn't any reason not to cut and paste the two highly overlapping lists? I think it's the latter. They even use different internal numbers. Hmm. -[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 20:55, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

Actually, I was referring to the part about the 6 'unused values', including the 'gatling laser'. Should've been more clear. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 21:23, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

:I did see that, Arrow; apologies that I didn't address your idea directly... NKF probably wrote the stuff about the Gatling, since he loves to find toys hidden in the code. (The hidden melee weapon stuff is a cool example.) But I'm just taking it one step at a time since, for one thing, it's not clear which of the unknown objects might be the gatling. I'm curious whether there's one single master list in the .exe or not. And then will wonder about the implications of whatever is the answer.

:It's surprising how such old code (XCOM) can raise so many questions and interesting ideas. -[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 21:39, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

== Faulty Claim About Base Flag Active ==
I'm fairly certain that the statement about the last four bytes of a base is false for UFO. The flags do nothing in terms of base visibility. You can try it yourself. It does not matter what numbers are written there.

However, the base's name itself holds the key of it being active or not. Apparently in both cases, razing a base yourself or losing it to an alien attack, the game does nothing with the last four bytes. But the base's name gets a net-length of 0. The first byte is made a zero-byte, making it a string of the length of 0 characters. Apparently that is what controls the presence of a base there. If the base record starts with a 0 byte, it's a goner.

My guess: Someone falsely extrapolated from TFTD to UFO.

- [[User:7Saturn|7Saturn]]

Talk:Known Bugs

2026-03-16T20:06:27Z

7Saturn: /* Alien weapon loadouts bug/anomaly */

= Classification etc =

== Bugs vs Exploits ==

Could someone comment please on the distinction between a bug and an exploit, and where to put each one? I would guess that a bug is something that undesirable and an exploit "might be" desirable, if you want to cheat. But what about exploits that happen by accident, or bugs that need to be forced to happen?

I was going to add the Research Rollover bug to the Exploits sections, but they seem to all be under construction. What's the agreed approach?

[[User:Spike|Spike]] 04:16, 15 March 2008 (PDT)

* i think that an exploit is somthing you can trigger and gain an advantage from. a bug may or may not have a known trigger, and does not give an advantage if it does.
: All exploits are bugs, either in implementation or design. When using a bug to gain advantages that bug is used as an exploit (you are exploiting the bug). [[User:FrederikHertzum|FrederikHertzum]] 13:39, 10 May 2011 (EDT)

:: IMHO, Laser Pistols Gifts to train reactions is an exploit, but it does not involve any bugs. It merely exploits the fact that laser pistols will not penetrate the front armor of Flying Suits. [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 16:31, 10 May 2011 (EDT)

::: I guess the point is to differentiate if it's a bug that's being exploited to your advantage, or it it's something confined within the game mechanics that you are exploiting to your advantage (even if using it as intended). -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 02:31, 11 May 2011 (EDT)

:::: Another definition: An exploit is
::::: a) a move allowed by game interface
::::: b) that sidesteps another part of the game mechanics
::::: c) and creates inadequate advantage for the moving player in the process.
::::: An exploit is not a bug, but it can be connected with a bug, if the latter allows a move mentioned in a). Most obvious exploits render whole parts of game mechanics obsolete (see b) above), because they are always more advantageous. In games that feature equal terms for AI and the player, an exploit can be discerned simply by the fact that AI does not use it (sadly this is not true in X-COM). Clear exploit in X-COM: Transfer soldiers = no monthly payment. Suspect exploits: grenade layout. Most probably not an exploit: Sniping (although the inequality with AI is suspect). Clearly not an exploit: dropping weapons to prevent Psi mass murder (this one is made exploitable by the AI unable to pick up weapons, but is not an exploit per se).--[[User:Kyrub|kyrub]] 05:30, 11 May 2011 (EDT)

The dropping weapons sort of turns into an exploit if you do the "everyone suspect of being a psi weakling drops their weapons at the end of the turn. They all pick up their weapons again if unpsied in the next turn." The grenade layout or grenade hot potato is probably not what the game designers had in mind, but I shudder at the thought of someone who only played X-com then joined the army pulling the pin out of his grenade and then dropping it into his haversack or slinging it on his belt. [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 07:43, 11 May 2011 (EDT)

: Yeah, I think we agreed somewhere that shoving live grenades in your pockets and not having them go off is madness. The relay however is not sensible but certainly possible if only a very short one (if with a live grenade), or to toss a grenade forward and prime it at the second to last person. Or more reasonably, something like a stick of dynamite with an extra long fuse. Even that's very dangerous.

: By the way, what does everyone here think of using the mind probe to check if it's safe to attack an alien while standing in full view of it, or if you're right up next to it? I've been using it a lot lately (in lieu of the psi amp), so you could say I've been exploiting the mind probe to my advantage to help me with my decision making. But is that counted as a cheat since I'm picking my moments to attack up close when the enemy cannot return fire? -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 03:30, 12 May 2011 (EDT)

:: When identifying a mechanic as an "unfair exploit" (as opposed to just a "tactic"), perhaps a simpler checklist is this (though Kyrub's is spot-on):

:: a) Is this something the developers should've expected players to do?
:: b) Is this something the developers could've easily prevented?

:: If the answer to both is "yes", then it seems fair game to me. For eg, sniping at aliens: The game KNOWS whether the soldier can see the target (you get a flashing indicator if so), and so it would've been trivial to prevent it. Is it something the regular gamer will try? Certainly; therefore it can be considered expected behaviour. Ditto for using the Mind Probe to make attacks without fear of reaction fire; those things aren't cheap, they sell for a bunch, so it stands to reason that they'd have tactical value!

:: Things like the transfer bug are clear exploits. The devs would've implemented that system so that, if you order personal near the end of the month, you don't end up paying for them twice before they ever arrive - but in the process, they forgot that "purchase" transfers are treated in the same way as "between-base" transfers. To fix one scenario without breaking the other, they'd've needed to code in some extra stuff so the game could tell the difference - they probably just figured the regular gamer would never notice, assuming they ever realised the problem existed.

:: The "dropping weapons" thing is a little trickier to work out - yes, the devs should've seen it coming, but would it've been easy to fix? Aliens could've been twigged to either ignore un-armed soldiers... but those soldiers could re-equip next turn. Aliens could also've been twigged to attack randomly... but that would make their psi powers far LESS effective! I suppose the fix, if any, would've been unarmed melee attacks, but the implementation they went with seems to be the next best thing IMO.

:: In regards to the "grenades in inventory" thing, it's probably common knowledge by now, but they DO go off in the alpha of the game. Presumably someone made a conscious decision to change that, though it could still just be an accidental bug. -  [[User:Bomb_Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] ([[User_talk:Bomb_Bloke|Talk]]/[[Special:Contributions/Bomb_Bloke|Contribs]]) 09:02, 12 May 2011 (EDT)

Sniping at aliens is a very bizarre case, since almost all players will fall prey to the aliens sniping at you long before they snipe the aliens. The behaviour of the aliens to step within sight radius, take one step back, then fire without fear of retaliation *looks* and *feels* like clear exploitation of the rules, but the computer can't be a cheater, can it? So we humans carry that one step further. Mind you, I think X-com would be in trouble if the aliens could snipe you from across the map once they know your positions... especially since the aliens have cheating "if I spot 1 human, I spot ALL of them" abilities. Especially on maps where the aliens get Blaster Bombs...

An interesting note about sniping and LOS: When I first played Xcom, my first mission was in the jungle. Because of all those plants, when my first soldiers spotted an alien, after he shot at him, I tried to make my 2nd soldier open fire and was informed "NO Line of Fire". I could only get my 2nd soldier to fire by positioning him in such a way that I got the flashing number. Henceforth, I assumed that you could ONLY fire at the aliens when the flashing number was there. LOL. LOF. LOS.

Transfer bug wise, I thought that the devs merely programmed the game to count how many staff were currently in the base, then deduct that from Xcom coffers? As far as ordering personnel near month end goes, you end up paying salary for them if you order them more than 48 hours from month end, right? "realistically", they should make staff draw salaries based on when they were hired, but this would be too much effort.

"dropping weapons" would have been easy enough to fix... just teach alien AI how to pick up weapons. Like they did in Apocalypse.

As far as grenade relays go, if you ever join the army, and you toss a live grenade at your squadmate, you're gonna be court martialled! lol. Xcom grenades are weird cause they presumably come with a computer console where you program them or something that takes a lot of TU, if I already have a grenade in my hand I don't think it takes long to prime it compared to throwing it...

Pretty clear exploit/bug is tossing grenades through the ceiling? That breaks all laws of realism/logic/whatever, and I'm sure the devs didn't plan for THAT to happen! [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 18:18, 12 May 2011 (EDT)

: Turns out the "spot one, spot all" thing was wrong all these years. However, units can be "spotted" by sniping an alien, hitting it, but failing to outright kill it; this may have contributed to the misconception.

: The game considers the base to have the correct amount of personal as soon as you initiate a transfer - if a base has room for ten people, you can't send two groups of ten, as soon as the first is in transit the game will correctly recognise that the destination is now filled up and won't allow you to send any more. Likewise, if you hire soldiers, they'll count towards the allowance of more promotions in your ranks before they ever arrive at a base. That is to say, the payment system deals with personal counts in a different way to every other system in the game, making it look like it's intentional (if badly exploitable) behaviour. In terms of transit times, those seem to vary, I know a purchase of scientists takes 72 hours to arrive.

: Er, yes, getting aliens to pick up weapons would've indeed fixed the dropping thing. Shoulda thought of that...

: The grenade thing is indeed unrealistic however you look at it. Certainly throwing the things through ceilings is a bug, and its use is a large exploit. -  [[User:Bomb_Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] ([[User_talk:Bomb_Bloke|Talk]]/[[Special:Contributions/Bomb_Bloke|Contribs]]) 20:02, 12 May 2011 (EDT)

:: Then how do the aliens "spot" the psi weakling to target him for psi attacks? Doesn't the game ALWAYS start blasting the juiciest target, regardless of LOS? Or is it just coincidence? [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 22:22, 12 May 2011 (EDT)

::: They really have to "[[UNITPOS.DAT#8|spot]]" the target before they can blast them (however, it appears that later in a campaign this rule gets broken). If they've only spotted a psi-''resistant'' trooper, they typically won't bother to make attacks at all. There's a lot of relevant information in [http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/Can-alien-attempt-Mind-control-Pani-t8115.html this thread]. -  [[User:Bomb_Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] ([[User_talk:Bomb_Bloke|Talk]]/[[Special:Contributions/Bomb_Bloke|Contribs]]) 23:28, 12 May 2011 (EDT)

: Your talking about your post on http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/Can-alien-attempt-Mind-control-Pani-t8115.html&pid=96123&mode=threaded#entry96123 ? Well, I'd just like to point out a massive flaw in your testing logic. You forgot that aliens will launch psi attacks based on chance of success, and chance of success varies based on distance from aliens. In other words, it could easily be that the aliens only attempted psi when your soldier was within sight of them because your soldier was now NEAR to them and therefore they had a strong chance of success.

: Also, as you have noted, it appears that your rule gets broken. In fact, it is not uncommon at all for the Ethereal Commander who is boxed up in the Command Center to launch psi attacks on victims who are separated from him by several layers of walls, as long as their proximity to him is near enough. [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 21:19, 13 May 2011 (EDT)

:: Those are valid points. I've hence built a somewhat more robust testing scenario, which you may wish to [[:Image:Alien Psi Demonstration 1.rar|try for yourself]].

:: The save game consists of cloned Ethereal soldiers (all cranked up to 100 psi strength/skill), and many clones of a single trooper (most of whom have the same psi values). The Ethereals are all cooped up in a sealed room in the SW of the map, with a single trooper who has 140 psi strength/skill.

:: Directly outside the building is another trooper who only has 1 strength/skill. In the NE of the map, in another sealed room, is a soldier with 40 strength/skill. Before placing him there, I had him shoot one of the Ethereals just once, resetting index 8 of his UnitPos record to 0. Only he and the trooper inside the room with the Ethereals have hence been "exposed" to the aliens, but the "best chance of success" is obviously the psi-weakling directly outside the building.

:: If you load the map and end turn, the aliens will first attempt to take control of the dude on the other side of the map, then get to work on the guy in the room with them. Once they've taken these two, they'll completely ignore all other units.

:: In short, aliens can't use psi attacks on a unit UNLESS their UnitPos[8] index is set to less then that of the alien's intelligence stat. -  [[User:Bomb_Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] ([[User_talk:Bomb_Bloke|Talk]]/[[Special:Contributions/Bomb_Bloke|Contribs]]) 05:41, 14 May 2011 (EDT)

::: Good one. That test definitely proves a lot, rather conclusively. [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 06:53, 14 May 2011 (EDT)

== Bugs vs Limits ==

''(Discussion continued from [[Talk:Known Bugs#Soldier Recruiting Bugs Tested|Soldier Recruiting Bugs Tested]])''

The "Soldier Recruiting Limit" is not a bug, it is a limitation of the game. Therefore, this should be removed from the page. If we want it somewhere else (like a new page such as [[Game Limitations]]), that would be appropriate. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 01:42, 9 November 2008 (CST)

::Not sure that's necessarily the best idea, Zombie, since many of the entries on the Known Bugs article(as well as some entries on the Exploits pages) are limitations of the game engine. On just a brief glance through, the following caught my eye as engine limitations: Manufacturing limit, Storage limit, Purchase limit, 80-item limit, Proximity Grenade limit, Large units not waking up from stun, Interception last shot bug, Alien UFL radar blitz-through bug(Passing through the detection range of a radar before the detection check comes up), Free manufacturing, free wages, UFO Redux, point-scoring with Ctrl-C, permanent MC of chryssalids, Zombie-MC resurrection of agents, alien inventory exploits, anything involved with bad collision detection, extinguishing fire with a Smoke Grenade, and even your personal favorite, denying the aliens access to their own spawn points. So in conclusion, maybe it should just be left as it is; conversely, all of these entries could be kept where they are and also on a Game Limitations page, or we could leave the headers there and link them over to the appropriate topics on Game Limitations. What do you think? [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 10:21, 9 November 2008 (CST)

: I agree with AQ (great list of examples by the way - and the Smoke/Fire limit would be another). Many, if not most, of the bugs are "Limitations" but they are logically inconsistent and not what a player would expect to happen: they are imposed by (at best) memory limitations or (at worst) design/programming oversights. I think the easiest thing to do would be to change the title of the page to Known Bugs and Limitations, or put an explanatory note at the beginning of the section to explain that "Bugs" is taken to included "Limitations". [[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:16, 9 November 2008 (CST)

By the strictest sense of meaning, a "bug" is a mistake or error on the programmers part. Limitations imposed by design or memory are not the same creature as the people involved were consciously aware of the decision. I suppose that to the normal player, any type of behavior which is unexpected/unwanted is automatically dumped in the bug category because to them there is no difference. To those of us who study the game files however, the two are unequivalent. Programming oversights, yes, those are bugs.

Some of those limitations AQ mentions are (to me at least) bugs: free manufacturing, free wages, permanent MC of Cryssies (or actually any alien for that matter), Zombie resurrections and collision detection. Large aliens not waking up from stun is again, a bug. The programmers obviously had some issues when dealing with large units in general and never quite got it right. They made some progress in TFTD by trying to fix mind controlling each section of a large unit, but royally screwed it up by selecting the next 3 entries in UNITPOS.DAT no matter what they pointed to.

Perhaps it's just my background in logic which makes me want to push for a separate category for limitations. Then again, as long as everything is listed somewhere I'm happy. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 22:06, 9 November 2008 (CST)

: Actually, taking a look through the page as a whole there are various other Limits described, and the distinction between Bugs and Limits is made quite rigorously throughout - not just in the Soldier Limits and Bugs section, where the Soldier Recruiting Limit is referred to as a Limit whereas other bugs (such as paying salaries for soldiers you can't recruit) are referred to as Bugs. So we maybe just need to rename the pages "Bugs and Limits" and add an explanatory note on the distinction. From a user point of view, rather than a programmer point of view, a bug is an unexpected (inconsistent or illogical) behaviour, so for that reason I think it makes sense to keep them on the same page but try to ensure they are all correctly classified as Bug or Limit.

: By the way, it could be hard to absolutely distinguish Bugs from Limits as I suspect there are going to be some grey areas where you would have to second-guess the intentions and decisions of the coders to know for sure if something was a designed-in Limit, or just an oversight (Bug). [[User:Spike|Spike]] 06:50, 10 November 2008 (CST)

::If we distinguish in this manner, I suggest the definition of "Limit" should be, "Something imposed by the game files or engine as a limitation, most likely in context to the capabilites of the then-current personal computer." More succinctly, anything that was done to allow the game to run acceptably on what was then a PC. This would include both the Soldier and 80-Item limits, the spawn limit(40 units per side), Smoke/Fire limit, and some of the others listed. (The Purchase limit was probably more of a convienence for the programmers than anything, but it is clearly an intended feature.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 13:11, 10 November 2008 (CST)

: I would add to this that sometimes a Limit may be imposed as a game design / gameplay decision, rather than in order to conserve a constrained resource in the platform (=PC). Also, I would suggest that ''intended'' Limits are Limits, but ''unintended'' consequences of Limits are Bugs. Obviously, making this distinction involves some guesswork. But I would guess that while the limit on total smoke/fire hexes was an intended Limit (to conserve PC resources), the ability to put out fires with smoke grenades and disperse smoke with IC rounds is probably an unintended consequence of the Limit, and so should probably be considered a Bug. Similarly, Base Defence spawn points are probably an intended limit, but the ability to flood spawn points is an unintended consequence of this, and thus a Bug (and an Exploit). (Spawn points should have been shared out 50/50, not humans-first). [[User:Spike|Spike]] 12:07, 11 November 2008 (CST)

::The limit on Soldier and Interception craft were probably more of a limit imposed because they capped the file and figured that X-COM wouldn't ever need more than 40 interception craft or 250 soldiers. (And I've never needed that many, case in point.)

::As for spawns, its actually difficult to take advantage of it in any reasonably established base. X-COM can spawn up to 40 soldiers in a base defense mission(tanks count as 4 soldiers), as a limit of LOC.DAT. Aliens have the same limit. So in order to take advantage of the bug, the base needs 40 or less spawns total. The Access Lift has 8 spawn points, General Stores(weapon-handling) has 11, Living Quarters has 8 more. This is 27 Spawns just getting soldiers in a base and armed. (Although the General Stores can be cut out if you perform the bug properly). Large Radar and HWD have 6 spawns(Small Radar has 2), and Hangar has 15. So overall, the "Spawn prevention" can be hard to take advantage of with all but the smallest bases. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 14:48, 11 November 2008 (CST)

Just to clarify, X-COM interception craft are not capped at 40 ships. LOC.DAT has a cap of 50 "things" on the geoscape screen at a time. This is shared between X-COM bases, X-COM ships, alien bases, seen or unseen UFO's, terror sites, crash sites, landing sites and waypoints. In a perfect game world with little alien activity and normally constructed bases, the max number of X-COM craft possible is 44: 5 bases with 8 hangars each plus one base with 4 hangars (or any combination thereof). If you illegally modify your base layout with an editor to get rid of the access lift, the max can be increased to 45 ships (9 hangars in 5 bases). Once clogged, all alien activity will cease.

The base defense limit of 40 units exists because of UNITPOS.DAT which has a cap of 80 entries total (tanks occupy 4 entries in this file). Auto-win missions in a base defense mission by clogging all the spawn points with X-COM units isn't as tough as it sounds, especially if your base is small or doesn't contain hangars. The main thing is getting your full quota of 40 units to spawn (meaning you should try not to have any tanks as they count as 4 units but only occupy one spawn point). This limits the base size to something like 5-6 modules depending on what you build. Still, even having more than 6 modules isn't bad as it forces aliens to spawn intermingled between your troops. With 40 armed guys staring in every direction, you can get positions of all the aliens in the first round and possibly even kill them all (depends on weapons and alien race of course). --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 20:12, 11 November 2008 (CST)

: I would say that Limits are the CAUSE of bugs... also, I feel that fire/smoke limit can be called a bug, because a player normally has no way to tell this, other than observation. Whereas the game DIRECTLY and CLEARLY informs you whenever you hit the 80 item or 250 soldier limits, which is more fair. [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 15:22, 23 March 2009 (EDT)

Also IMHO it is not true that, say, 250-soldiers limit is a real game bug. In fact, it is not, it is just a rule of the game, or its limitation. And it is unimportant what its reason is (such or another way to store game data).

A bug is, by definition, an unexpected and involuntary result of programmers' work. However, we can only guess what the programmers wanted to attain, so this definition is both unpractical and impossible to be applied. It would be better to assume that a bug is a feature which has negative influence in the game. To clarify: the (un)famous 250-soldiers limitation does not harm in practice, as the number is really enough to play the game. But the even-more-unfamous 80-item limitation does harm and it has negative consequences - it is enough to recall the disappearing of bodies during some missions.

OK, there is no objective criteria to judge whether a feature of the game is a bug or just a limitation. But sometimes subjective criteria have to be enough. Otherwise, we would have to consider the 8-bases limit a bug. Does it make any sense? And if no, what is the difference between the 8-bases limit and the 250-soldiers limit? I feel neither is a bug. Because neither leads to further negative consequences.

And further, IMHO the buggy nature of some game features is quite obvious. If you cannot send more than 100 "parcels" of items at the same time, it is still not the bug. But if you must pay for an item you are trying to send but you cannot do it - it is a bug, perhaps everybody will agree. And similarly: the 255-scientists limitation is not a bug. But the strange behaviour of the game when you bought the 256th scientist is a bug. It would be just a limitation if the game did not allow to buy another scientist. But it allows while it cannot serve the 256th scientist properly, and that is why it is a bug.

So, I vote for removing the 250-soldiers limit from the bug list. If I am wrong in it, please add to the list also:
# 8-bases limit,
# maps with limited terrain (why should they be limited?),
# base area and base facilities limit (why wouldn't we be able to have 10 hangars in a base?),
# etc.

In yet other words, in my opinion it is not enough to show that the game does not allow to have more certain items or to do more certain actions. In order to count this among bugs, we should show that it really harms during playing the game, or just bears negative consequences.

[[User:Sherlock|Sherlock]] 03:52, 27 December 2012 (EST)

= Specific Bug Discussions =

== Misc Technical Bug ? ==

''(The context of this discussion seems to have been lost)''

This is a technical bug that doesn't happen to everyone and one this article wasn't really meant to chronical - but we won't turn away helping a fellow player if it can't be helped. It's just that there are so many random crash points in this game that it would take far too long to find them all or come up with solutions for them.

Certainly, the transfer crash can happen to some players, but it's not one that can be reproduced easily. It's just like the random crash that some players get when they research a floater medic. It crashes the game for some of us, but others don't seem to notice it at all.

It really depends on your hardware and OS setup, whether or not your copy of the game is damaged or your savegame is damaged, etc.

Does it happen in all games or just this one savegame?

- [[User:NKF|NKF]]

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== "Invisible Muton" bug ==

Upon shooting repeatedly a Muton, it sometimes plays its "death" animation without sound (as if falling unconscious) and it is no longer displayed in the screen, while remaining visible to my soldiers (I can center the screen and the cursor appears yellow over them). Under this state, they cannot be targeted by Stun Rods. They may play their death animation anytime they get shot, until they truly die, when they emit their characteristic sound and leave a corpse (along with any items carried).

I'm quite fond of laser weapons, maybe this happens more often with those.

Also, though I remember experiencing this quite often fighting Mutons, it may happen to any other high health race.--[[User:Trotsky|Trotsky]] 02:59, 2 July 2006 (PDT)

-----

Never seen that one myself. Another "unpatched game" thing maybe?

There's a (very rare) bug that allows your soldiers to live if they become stunned by an explosion that happens to kill them. Sometimes the game will register their death, and THEN register that they've been stunned. In every case I've seen this happen, however, the unit will have such a low amount of health that a single fatal wound will render it dead (again) on the next turn. I have a vague memory that other players may have been able to get a medkit to the scene on time...

I dunno if that's related to your issue at all (I doubt it, but... meh). I'd advise using a Mind Probe on the alien the next time it happens so you can check the aliens stun/health levels.

- [[User:Bomb_Bloke|Bomb Bloke]]

----

I'm pretty sure I've seen this with Mutons. Possibly Chrysallids as well, another high health, high armor creature. They were still readily killed by shooting the place they are. Good thought on the MP, BB

---[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 08:51, 2 July 2006 (PDT)

----

I've been known to have a dying muton(in fire) to spin around and then switch to the female civilian death animation. With the scream and everything. Even got a civilian death registered at the end of the mission. And this didn't just happen once, but on another separate occasion.

Hmm. shape-shifting reptilians in the game! LOL! Happens alot [[User:EsTeR|EsTeR]]

Unusually enough, I once had a sectopod die and then drop a tank corpse. I was using the Lightning at the time for my troop carrier, so you can imagine my surprise.

Then there was one occasion where a floater dropped a snakeman corpse. Let's not even get into the sort of things the aliens like to stuff themselves with.

Your invisible alien bug is quite common, although there appears to be many causes for it. I think one involves a full object table when it comes to invisible aliens in bases. But it can also happen in ordinary missions as well. I'm guessing the game may have tried to do something in the wrong order, and sprite information for the unit may have been lost or corrupted along the way.

Having had an experience where all the chryssalids become invisible in one base defence mission was quite a shocker. I fixed this by saving the game, quitting and then restarting the game. If you ever get an invisible alien again, try this and see if it helps. If it doesn't, well, just keep a careful watch on your map and any alerts that pop up as you play.

There's a similar but less severe bug where a dead alien will still leave its centre-on-unit alert button, but this goes away shortly after you move or turn.

- [[User:NKF|NKF]]

----

That last bug happens when exploding Cyberdiscs kill nearby Sectoids, doesn't it?--[[User:Trotsky|Trotsky]] 23:56, 2 July 2006 (PDT)

----

This is a pretty easy one. I guess this bug occured on UFO recovery on a battleship, an alien base assault or a base defense mission? As soon as there are too many items on the map, the game saves some item slots for the equipment to be displayed (since it is more valuable and more important to research). This would also make stun weapons lethal if the stunned aliens would vanish. therefore the game has a failsafe if an alien is stunned (or badly wounded and becoming uncontious). The downed alien's stun level is set exactly on its left health points therefore resurrecting it instantly. This cycle is broken when the alien is finally killed. This means if you want to stun an alien in such a situation you have to destroy some items first.

- by tequilachef (April 4th 2007)

== Vanishing snakemen ==

I've known snakemen to become invisible when standing on a hay bale. On the first occassion I had a poor tank getting shot while spending numerous turns looking for it. On the second occasion I had an alien under Psi-control, left it on the hay bale, and couldn't find it next turn. - Egor

---

This is not limited to snakemen. Hay bale block visibility quite much when a unit is standing on it. Two possible solutions:
- Destroy the hay before entering
- Shoot at the hay. If it is destroyed any unit on it will become visible (as long as no other bales are blocking the line of sight). You might also hit the enemy directly.

I Dnt know if the aliens are affected by this diminished sight, too. My guess would be no.

- By tequilachef (April 4th, 2007)

== Blaster Bomb Bug ==

I'm currently playing through X-com UFO Defense, I have the collectors edition version. I'm in the process of trying to catch a live alien commander and the blaster bomb bug is making this very difficult. If i remember correctly a commander is always in the command center of the the alien bases. The problem is anytime i get close there is always a dude with a blaster launcher up there that tries to kill my troops. When they try to fire it down at me the bug kicks in and they blow up the whole command room and all the aliens in it because they can't figure out how to get the blaster bomb down the grav lift thing in there. This is making it very dificult to actually catch a live commander. Anyone have any ideas for tactics or anything to breach that room without the aliens trying to fire a blaster launcher up there? - eL Hector

: I can suggest two possible solutions. The first is to wait outside the command room for the alien to move closer to you. If it comes out of the room or if you know it has moved down the lift, you then burst in and stand right next to it to stop it from firing the blaster. This is risky because there could very well be a heavy plasma toting alien in there. The other is to use a small launcher and launch it up at the ceiling near where you think the alien with the blaster is standing. -[[User:NKF|NKF]]

== Disappearing Ammunition ==

I have observed that problem with X-COM 1.2, modded with XCOMUTIL. My stun bombs and heavy rocket missiles, along with clips for the auto cannon went missing.
[[User:Vagabond|Vagabond]]

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Just run a test using my 1.4 DOS version with XComUtil but my stun bombs didn't disappear: 30 + 1 back in the base they came from, same number after I went tactical and I dusted-off immediately. Are you running XComUtil with Runxcom.bat or did you simply run Xcusetup?

[[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 22:12, 22 February 2007 (PST)

:Is it a case of hitting the 80-item limit?--[[User:Ethereal Cereal|Ethereal Cereal]] 12:28, 23 February 2007 (PST)

------
With runxcomw.bat, as everytime. Apologies, I retested and it seems like I was mistakened, but I could have sworn that I lost them dang stunbombs. Had to manufacture some. I will test some more, using four heavy weapons and seeing whether their ammunition disappears at all. Thanks. [[User:Vagabond|Vagabond]]

==MC at end = MIA?==

I am sure I have seen this again recently, where I won a mission with no casualties (I thought), but the last thing I killed was a Commander that had been chain MC'ing a psi-attack-magnet trooper, and that trooper was listed as MIA at the end (presumably because he was on the enemy side at the end of combat). Is this a bug, or is there another way to get MIA's on a completed mission that I might have missed?

Since then I have been waiting for the leaders to panic at the end before killing them (or waiting for a rare resist), so I can safely exit, but am I being overcautious?

--[[User:Sfnhltb|Sfnhltb]] 13:45, 27 February 2007 (PST)

If the trooper was mind controlled on the turn you killed the last alien it will be listed as MIA. No bug there :)

[[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 18:16, 1 March 2007 (PST)

Huh, why would that happen - your soldier should recover the very next round, why would he go MIA?

--[[User:Sfnhltb|Sfnhltb]] 18:20, 1 March 2007 (PST)

Doesn't make sense to me as well but that's how the game works.

[[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 15:05, 2 March 2007 (PST)

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It seems that regaining control of units under enemy mind control works different for alien and human players. My guess: aliens under human MC are reverted to alien control AFTER THE ALIEN AND BEFORE THE HUMAN TURN while human units under alien control are reverted RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE HUMAN TURN. This explains three different phenomenons:

- The discussed MIA "bug" (he unit would be returned in the next human turn, but since it never starts it is lost. The mission is still won since no unit with a "genuine alien" marking is left)

- The fact that a mission is lost when the last human falls under MC while it is not won when this happens to the last standing alien (the aliens get their unit back before their turn starts and therefore have a unit left to pass the "anyone alive?" check, the humans would have no unit left to start a turn with. They WOULD have as soon as the turn starts, but no unit left before turn means bust)

- The fact that aliens still can see all an MCed human saw at the end of the human turn that follows the MC while this is not vice versa (The MCed human can give information to the alien side before reverted while an MCed alien is reverted too early). The result is that aliens can control a human indefinitely without having any alien seeing him until the MC is disrupted for one turn.

All confused? Then I did a good job! No seriously, this must be the explanation, I couldn't think of any other way.

- By tequilachef (April 4th, 2007)

: You're absolutely correct on the first two points. It's a sequence issue - you never get round to recovering the unit before the new turn starts, so you end without any units whatsoever. Makes senses too since the aliens would continue to continue to mind control that same unit over and over indefinitely.

: The third point however: The aliens don't need to know the location of the last MC'd unit. They know the location of all your troops whether they've seen them or not from the very start. They appear to give you a few turns of grace where they won't attack you outright (unless, from my observation, all your soldiers are incredibly weak). This is evident because all of the aliens will eventually make their way towards the nearest soldier even though their movement pattern may seem semi-random. Also, they know where you are because they can initiate psionic attacks without having seen any of your troops. They generally go after the weakest troops first.

: Just to add a semi-related point, but from the alien's perspective. If an MC'd alien unit is in the exits when you abort the mission, this alien is not recovered and in fact simply vanishes. Any equipment it was carrying is recovered, unknown artefacts or otherwise. You could possibly think of this as their version of MIA. However, the aliens differ ever so slightly in that if it's the last alien standing and under temporary mind control by the player, the mission doesn't end straight away. But I guess this is only because the player has everything under control, whereas in the other scenario, the Ai is in control.

: -[[User:NKF|NKF]]

My observations show that, at least in some versions of the game (tested with clean DOS 1.4 version, under DOSBox), the game crashes at the end of the human turn if all alien units which are still alive, are Mind-Controlled. If it was confirmed, it would be another not-listed-yet (serious) bug.

[[User:Sherlock|Sherlock]] 17:52, 26 December 2012 (EST)

== Crash Site in the atlantic ocean ==

That's right, my game generated a crash site on water. Here are the details:

- Crash Site a bit southeast of the USA (which was infiltrated a few days before by sectoids, resulting base had already been taken out), but certainly not on land.

- UFO: battleship, floater, alien harvest

- Geoscape: 8 X-Com Bases, 1 (known) Alien base, 2 other crash sites, 1 other (known) flying UFO (though almost worldwide decoder coverage), 3 X-Com Crafts out, 1 waypoint

- Date: January 2000

- Most Interesting: The Craft that downed the ship was a recently finished Firestorm (first human-alien hybrid craft I had built, I know this is lame for that date. Limited myself on 25 Scientists to improve the challenge) equipped with twin plasma. I had it built and equipped in Antarctica and then transferred to Europe. This base had no Elerium, a fact that enabled me to use the infinite fuel exploit which was in effect when downing the UFO. My craft was only slightly damaged when doing so. The battleship was the first target assigned to the craft, it came directly from my base.

- When shot down, the UFO was not targetted by any other craft.

- I had not lost or sold a single craft to that point.

- When sending a squad to the crash site the game didn't crash but generated a farm land ground combat terrain.

- I was not able to reproduce the bug from the savegame dated 2 hours before downing the UFO

Well guys, any intelligent guesses? I still have the savegames (before and after downing)! If you want to have a look, write here.

- By tequilachef (April 5th 2007)
----
: Well I'm sure you know about crash sites that are near land can sometimes actually be on water, so I'm going to assume that this site is well far away from any land mass. Could it be a weird entry in GEODATA\WORLD.DAT that has a land mass out in the ocean? Also are you sure the game didn't crash? Sometimes when it does it will load the previous mission (and usually 90% are at farm terrain). Are you sure it generated a new map and not load the last one?
:No real guesses but maybe some starting points to look at. I've probably stated some obvious situations you know about and have accounted for, but it never hurts to double check :D
- [[User:Pi Masta|Pi Masta]] 14:23, 5 April 2007 (PDT)

== Inconsistencies in MCing Cyberdiscs and Sectopods ==

I experienced, that when MCing one quadrant of a large terror unit any action it does only affects this quadrant (especially use of time units). That means, when TUs are up for one part, MC another one and continue firing. This however does not work out when moving the unit while it is not under complete control. The TUs used up by the resulting reaction fire from the rest of the unit is also deducted from the TUs "your" part has left (making it impossible for the controlled parts to return fire). This however only happens under reaction fire, not if "your" part fires on it's own. I don't know if this comes up when uncontrolled parts shoot by themselves in the alien turn, since this is hard to find out.

: That's because large units literally are made up of four separate units. They only share the same set of general stats (in unitref.dat). Unfortunately the 'under mind control flag' is unique to the four units, not the shared stats! So you in effect have multiple units under different control sharing the same stats. So if you move and it results in a reaction from the unit, it will spend the TUs you're using.
: Successful mind control automatically fills up the unit's TUs, so each mind controlled sector gets to move or attack again until there are no more sectors to mind control. Useful way of turning reapers into long range scouts!
: In TFTD, they attempted to fix this bug, but in fact made it much-much worse! The only way to mind control the unit properly is to control the upper left quadrant. Only! Any other quadrant will result in a partial (clockwise) control, and you may gain control of units other than that unit, or may even get into situations where you gain permanent 'partial control' of a large unit you haven't even sited. Wackiness all around!

:- [[User:NKF|NKF]]

== Facility Dismantle Bug ==

Boba: I've never experienced this bug myself in all my games in the Collectors Edition. It may very well vary from computer to computer.

-[[User:NKF|NKF]]
:I, however, have experienced it. I lost an entire month's worth of playtime because I couldn't solve it. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]]

::Anyone, any ideas on why it might vary from PC to PC? -[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]]

:::I'd check other factors before blaming a given system. Assuming no mods are being used the most obvious is the order in which you initiated the construction of the modules. Then we've got which one was due to be completed first, and I'm sure there's a few other things to test out. Usually, a player won't cancel in-progress modules on a regular basis, so you wouldn't expect this bug to turn up often. - [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 01:53, 9 June 2007 (PDT)

:Easy way to reproduce: build 2 General Stores. Now delete the "second one" (see offset 16-39 in [[BASE.DAT]] for the order). Wait for the first one to complete. It'll crash immediately after the "end of construction" dialog. A fix is available [[User:Seb76#Bug_Fixes | here]]. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 15:52, 22 July 2008 (PDT)

== Manufacturing Limit Bug ==

Unfortunately, Mike, no you did not get it correct. It is the raw number of hours needed to complete the project, not the projected hours. I discussed this on the X-Com Forums a few months back at the following link: http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=242027760&st=0&#entry164411

I did tests at the time in regard to the accuracy of the data given there, but I've lost the results. I'll quickly redo the tests in the next hour or so. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 19:00, 8 June 2007 (PDT)

:Tests complete. The breakpoints for every item were exactly where I predicted, regardless of number of engineers assigned. (I ran up a huge queue of items at my dedicated factory base on an old game, and then assigned whatever engineers would fit onto one project at a time, canceling projects as data was confirmed. This is only semi-random, but it serves our purposes.) I did run into a single issue, though. It appears that despite having 5 empty hangars at a (different!) base, the workshop there could not queue up more than 3 of any one craft at a time, thus making this bug impossible to replicate with the Firestorm or Lightning, as you must be producing more than three for the bug to occur. However, it still works with the Avenger. Later, I shall see about constructing a dedicated Hangar base with 7 hangars in order to attempt to replicate the bug. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 19:33, 8 June 2007 (PDT)

::Sounds great, Arrow. Why not post a simple example that shows how the problem works. As in, "with 1 Eng and 2 Avengers you might think X, but no, it's Y". And please delete my example. And it's a fine pleasure to meet you! Cool - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]]

:::When you say the usual resources are used by the "lost" resources, that includes cash, right? It sounds like if you're willing to foot the extra bill [[Buying/Selling/Transferring#Manufacturable_Prices|money/component-wise]], this could be used to build Avengers slightly faster then normal.

::: The usual time is 34000 hours. Double that and subtract 65535 and you're left with a paltry 2465 hours. Even a single workshop squad of 10 engineers will pull that off in a little over ten days. - [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 01:53, 9 June 2007 (PDT)

::::Sadly, this exploit doesn't work, because the high bit is stored SOMEWHERE. I lack a hex reader and have no code reading skills to speak of, so I'm a bit limited here. If you set up a Workshop as you described, the game would take all the time for 2 Avengers, all the resources for the same, but in the end only produce 1 Avenger. Meanwhile, I'll run more tests on the resources thing. I could swear it consumes the resources, but I'll double check.

:::::There is no need to store the high bits if the actual completion condition (assuming adequate money) is "number made is number ordered", which wouldn't reference the hours remaining at all. - [[User:Zaimoni|Zaimoni]] 01:49, 9 Oct 2007 (CDT)

::::Tests done; I was unable to replicate the 'disappearing item' trick,(Which I didn't test for last night) even with Avengers! It appears I was wrong; this still counts as a bug, though, because the wraparound is a problem.

::::Ironic that so much of this discussion centers around Avengers, because that's where I discovered this in the first place! [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 06:48, 9 June 2007 (PDT)

----

I'm revisiting XCOM and was working on [[Manufacturing Profitability]]... Arrow, can you (or anyone else) say a little bit more on the Known Bugs page about this [[Known_Bugs#Manufacturing_Limit_Bug]]? It's not clear to me exactly what the bug does, except that it understates hours. Is that all?... does it still take the (non-buggy) amount of time, still use all the same resources, still make the same number, etc.? It sounds like it could be a drastic bug - or is it only a very superficial one, a display bug for the hours? It sounds like you're leaning toward this latter.

Also on a semi-related note... I could swear I saw much more detailed info on the [[Known_Bugs#Facility_Maintenance_Costs]] issue... IIRC, the incorrect amount that's charged for maintenance, depends on exactly where a facility is in the base. IOW, different "rows" of the base cost different amounts. Could somebody provide a link there, and/or flesh the bug out better?

Thanks! - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 11:22, 8 October 2007 (PDT)

:I've actually seen the bug work both ways, but I've only been able to actually replicate the more superficial version of the bug. So the bug report up is about a superficial bug that drastically understates production time. If you wish to make this clearer, you have my blessings. As well, that 'different charging based on location' is dealt with here: http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Base_Facilities ; however, the table has been broken with the Wikiupgrade, and I lack sufficient knowledge of HTML table code to fix it. But it should be of use to you. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 11:26, 8 October 2007 (PDT)

::Cool, I fixed [[Talk:Base Facilities]] but also re-organized and expanded [[Base Facilities]] so that it includes that bug in detail, as per Talk... this is an important issue that should be up front. I see that there's a separate [[Maintenance costs]] page, but I can't see having something so important (the maintenance bug explanation) all on its own page (which makes for a rather short page) rather than together with all the rest of the base facility info. If others agree (or don't care), I'll move anything remaining on Maintenance Costs to the Base Facilities page, then delete Maintenance Costs and re-route links. And if somebody does care, then please move my new section to Maintenance Costs, and move all the links, etc. Oh also I put in more words on your Manufacturing Limit Bug - how does it look? - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 16:37, 8 October 2007 (PDT)

:Looks pretty good, although it'll wrap fully; if you ask for 120000 hours, it won't be displaying 'almost no' time. The way I discovered it was when building two Avengers; I ordered two, paid for two, waited for two...and got one. But as said, haven't managed to repeat it, so until I do, we'll leave it like that. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 18:00, 8 October 2007 (PDT)

::I just revised and put in your specific example, because it's certainly possible some of us die-hard players will order up more than 1 Avenger at a time - and it's guaranteed it'd be a pain if 1 of them disappeared, laugh. I wasn't sure how concrete you were on that example but now I hear you say, you are sure it happened at least once. - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 18:33, 8 October 2007 (PDT)

:I have a question concerning the manufacturing "bug" which eats a craft in production due to wrap-over of the byte. Arrow (or whoever did the test), did you have a large quantity of craft already built at your bases? If so, I think this bug has more to deal with clogging up [[CRAFT.DAT]]. See, that file has a limit of 50 entries. Each craft takes up one record and each base you have built also consumes one spot. 8 bases allows 42 craft to be housed, while 6 bases allow 44. If you try to buy or manufacture craft once the file is full, nothing shows up in the game even if you have hangar space available. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 19:00, 8 October 2007 (PDT)

::Huh, I never knew that. I don't see it listed on the Bugs page... I'll stick it in there. I've never approached that number, but some folks might. - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 19:07, 8 October 2007 (PDT)

:I was able to continue building other Avengers after that project, and they appeared correctly, so I do not believe that is the issue. In any event, I have a very bad case of 'archivism' and probably still have the save game and the CRAFT.DAT file around on my system; in fact, I think I was playing it a few days ago. I can see if I can find it and upload it; it created a 'hole' in the Avenger fleet numbers, where Avenger's x and x+2 were built, but x+1 was not. I'll look for it tonight and tomorrow and upload it to the wiki if I find it. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 19:10, 8 October 2007 (PDT) EDIT: I found the file; I have 28 Avengers and 1 Skyranger in my employ. All Avenger numbers EXCEPT #2(Avenger-2) are accounted for, and I have not sacked or lost any Avengers. So this is where the hole and 'eaten' Avenger is. If anyone wants the CRAFT.DAT file from this game, I'd be happy to forward it. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 21:20, 8 October 2007 (PDT)

::Sure, send it my way and I'll take a look at it. (Might as well send me the whole saved game as I may want to look at the other files too). I have tried to recreate this bug by manufacturing 1, 2 and 3 Avengers at a clip but all of them always show up. Don't know what else I could do to get this problem to crop up. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 21:32, 8 October 2007 (PDT)

:File emailed. On the side, I've tried the same thing, and never been able to repeat the bug. It's been months since the first discovery, so I can't recall whether it was the first or the second Avenger that didn't appear. So maybe it was just a fluke. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 21:57, 8 October 2007 (PDT)

== Unconscious Enemy in Equipment Screen ==

The following happened to me repeatedly over the last few days.

In the last tactical Mission a live alien has been captured. When now beginning an UFO crash recovery mission this type of alien (same race and rank) appears in the equipment screen before the mission starts, meaning I can give it to any of my soldiers.
If I do so I can store the alien in the skyranger for the duration of the mission and, if it gains consciousness, kill or stun it at the end of it. A pile of equipment without a corpse will be in the UFO, indicating that the stunned alien is not some kind of duplicate but instead has been taken from the aliens of this mission. This is supported by the fact that in those missions the maximum number of crew members has not been surpassed.
If I do not do so the Alien will be placed in the crashed UFO. Whether it is unconscious or not I do not know, but the fact that it is completely disarmed when encountered in the battle suggests that it is.

So far it seems the following is necessary for the bug to occur:
# An alien has to be captured alive in the last tactical combat
# It has to be of the same race and rank as one of the aliens in the new tactical combat

So far this only worked...:
# If the new tactical combat was an UFO crash recovery of a medium scout.
# For floaters and mutons
# For soldiers and navigators
# If the alien in the last mission was stunned by normal weapon fire (although I do not think this is important) and not picked up (again, not likely to be important) or destroyed (which would mean it has to be actually captured)

It seems NOT to depend on the following:
# The type of the last mission (were, so far: Ground assault battleship, crash recovery large scout, base defense)
# Which squad or vessel was involved capturing the alien
# Where it is locked up
# If it has been transferred since capture or not

Would be interesting to know:
# What happens if the alien in the inventory screen is the only survivor
# If the alien in the invenory screen is one of the aliens randomly killed in the crash or not (it is likely to be one of the killed aliens, so far the equipment piles were always within the UFO)
# If this is not limited on crashed medium scouts: Does this work with terror units? What about large ones?

Maybe this is related to the proximity grenade bug (transfer of item properties to next tactical combat).

Additionally, in one of those mission a part of the terrain was not generated correctly. It was in farm terrain (The house on the right square, or north east square, in [[Image:Terrain-cult.gif|this pic]]). The outer wall right to the right window of the southern wall (1st Floor) was missing. Directly outside of the hole was a floor tile. I could walk a soldier through the wall, but he fell right through the tile. Dunno if this has to do with the stunned alien bug.

Version is collectors edition (the one from abandonia.com).

----------------

When a mission starts, the GeoScape engine generates the unit and object tables (in MissDat's [[OBPOSREF.DAT]], [[UNIPOS.DAT]], and [[UNIREF.DAT]]) before "shutting down". The Tactical engine then generates the maps, places the aliens on it, and blows up the UFO (if need be). Whether or not map generation and the subsequent events happen before you equip your soldiers I don't yet know.

The test would be to check the aforementioned files to see if they contain an unconcious alien, and/or the body.

Note that you can't see the bodies of large units on the ground (they count as four seperate objects covering four seperate tiles, so allowing the user to pick one up would essentially let you rip them apart).

- [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 06:35, 5 August 2007 (PDT)

----------------

I honestly have no idea of how all those files work. But I still have a savegame in battlescape that is in one of those missions. So if anyone wants to have a look at those files...

I forgot to mention: I reloaded a geoscape savegame shortly before the battle to recreate the bug, but it seems that reloading in geoscape before the buggy battle eliminates the bug. I guess his should narrow down the possible reasons...

--------

Next time it happens, backup the aforementioned files before you start another mission. I'm afraid a savegame wouldn't be of much help.

- [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 00:54, 7 August 2007 (PDT)

== Soldiers moved to outside of combat screen ==

Hi, I've got a DOS version of UFO:EU, and I've encountered a bug in the tactical combat. Sometimes (rarely) a X-COM soldier changes its location on the map on player's turn start and is placed on outside of the map, one tile north from the (north) border of the field. AFAIR the unit is then selectable (you get the flashing highlight when cursor is above), but is stuck outside of the field. Has anybody encountered this bug? It seems to happen randomly, but more frequently during the terror missions and on early turns (so maybe it's caused by high number of player/alien/civilian units?). --[[User:Maquina|Maquina]] 08:16, 3 September 2007 (PDT)

:I've never encountered this bug in CE of UFO. Presuming AFAIR means "As Far As I Recall," what exactly was the soldier doing? Any equipment data, location, or stat info might help us pin it down. Were afflicted soldiers always carrying a specific equipment set or weapon? Where were they on the map before they got moved? Did they get bumped a few spaces, or teleported halfway across the Battlescape? Does it happen more often on a specific difficulty?(Your theory would suggest this would happen most commonly on Superhuman) Against a certain type of alien? Best of all, if you can recreate the situation in a game, save the game and then you could upload the save file to the forums or this wiki, and the rest of us could take a look for ourselves and the code divers could root around for the cause. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 15:03, 3 September 2007 (PDT)

:: I've had this happen to me several times in UFO and TFTD. I don't know if it's specific to the Dos version or if it can happen in the CE as well. Sometimes the soldier ends up beyond the boundary of the map right at the start of the mission, at other times it happens after you load a game. This game is glitchy, which is the source for so many of its bugs, so your soldier's coordinates are probably getting corrupted to the point where they are -1 on either the X or Y axis of the maps's normal boundaries. For me it's commonly along the top edge of the map. I don't ever recall it happening mid-mission, only at the start or after a load. I cannot faithfully say whether it happened with or without XComutil, but that could be one of the possibly many causes for this. - [[User:NKF|NKF]]

:: I don't play UFO often, so I rely on just several campaigns played. This happens rarely (I've encountered this bug twice in my last campaign with ~80 missions played), but if you haven't seen this happen then it probably doesn't show up in the CE edition. In my experience the soldier is moved always beyond the north/top map border. I think (but I'm not sure) that this affects the first soldier from the team more commonly than others (or maybe even exclusevily?). The equipment/armor carried is probably not relevant, since the units moved this way don't have any special stuff, and this bug shows up on different stages of the gameplay (ie. sometimes when you have ordinary rifles, sometimes when all your units got heavy plasmas and power suits). --[[User:Maquina|Maquina]] 04:12, 4 September 2007 (PDT)

'''MY ramblings have been moved to my discussion page''' [[User:EsTeR|EsTeR]]

==Great Circle Route==

Should we have the Great Circle Route bug noted on this page at all? [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 20:33, 6 October 2007 (PDT)

: what is the great circle route? [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 07:56, 31 March 2009 (EDT)

:: Pick two points on a globe, then hold a thread or string taut at those two points. That practically minimizes the length of the thread/string on the globe. You're now looking at a great circle arc (or route), the shortest distance between two points on a globe. -- [[User:Zaimoni|Zaimoni]] 11:15 March 2009 (CDT)

: Just as a line is the shortest distance between 2 points on a flat plane, a great circle is the shortest distance between 2 points on the surface of a sphere. The bug, by the way, is that aircraft in the game ''don't'' follow this shortest, "great circle" route. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 12:38, 31 March 2009 (EDT)

:: What a grand sounding name, for something so simple, lol. ... I thought you were talking about when you tell your soldiers to go from point A to point B, and for some reason they figure that Zone A and Zone B are really far apart, despite actually being side by side. (I shot a hole through a wall, clicked to walk to the other side, and my idiot soldier walked one big circle... to use the door! And got ambushed and killed by an alien. ... dum dum DUMB DUMB.)
:: Even the more modern games have problems with their pathfinding algorythms. Admittedly, games like Baldur's Gate had to do it in realtime.
:: On a semi-related note, I remember this guy called E-man, he was chasing a guided laser beam that was going to kill his girl, around the world, but he couldn't outrun it since he couldn't break the speed of light, only equal it by changing into a Laser himself. So... inspiration! He turned into a very powerful laser, and made a shortcut THROUGH THE EARTH... the straight line beats the great circle route, lol.
:: Thanks for the reply guys [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 15:56, 31 March 2009 (EDT)

Added to article. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 16:41, 3 September 2012 (EDT)

==Bug not listed: Missing soldiers during base defense==

I encountered an interesting bug concerning base defense missions:
My base got attacked while about 30 soldiers and 10 HWPs were present. The usual equipment assignment screen was skipped and the mission started instantly with only the HWPs spawned at the map. Not even a single soldier bothered to show up... *sigh*
Although this turned out to be in my favor (you should have seen the puzzled Ethereals trying to panic my tanks) I´d like to avoid this bug if possible. I was able to reproduce this bug several times and with different bases.
Can anyone explain this bug and/or tell me how to avoid it?

Game version: Collectors edition. - [[User:NewJoker|NewJoker]]

-----

Well, ideally, we need to know what your base's construction was to be sure of this, but I think the most likely circumstance is that the HWPs took up all the spawn points. HWPs have maximum priority for spawning(followed by Soldiers, and then Aliens), so if you have enough of them garrisoning a base, it's entirely possible that soldiers and aliens won't spawn. However, this doesn't explain why the soldiers didn't start stealing the Alien spawn points...in any event, you might want to take the save game file, zip it up, and get ready to email it. I'm sure [[User:Zombie|Zombie]] would be quite interested. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 15:28, 13 November 2007 (PST)

-----

It's not the spawn points, it's a [[UNITPOS.DAT]] limitation. A maximum of forty records (out of the total of eighty) are allocated for your units, and tanks (which take up four records each) get first pick. Having ten tanks means there's no room left for anything else.

Ditch one HWP and you should see four units take it's place. - [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 16:42, 13 November 2007 (PST)

-----

I´ll try with a decreasing number of tanks and report the results. As I wrote above having only HWPs isn´t too bad dependent on what enemy is attacking. [[User:NewJoker|NewJoker]]

----

This should be mentioned in the [[ExploitsE#Base Defence Mission Spawning Issues]] section. The Bugs/Exploits really need to be sorted and consolidated. - [[User:NinthRank|NinthRank]] 16:57, 13 November 2007 (PST)

-----

The limitation to 40 records seems to be the case; each tank I dumped got replaced by four soldiers.
So this can be used to effectively manage unit combination. Thanks for the quick replies! [[User:NewJoker|NewJoker]]

==Bug not listed: Ufo Gold (Windows Vers. abandonia.com) crashing when plasma defense is finished==

I recordnized this bug a few times now. (with hacked AND unhacked game)
If i place a plasma defense in 7 bases at the same Time and they are finished at the same Time, the game crashes sometimes.
In hacked game, it seems to crash even more when Alien containment is finished, plasma defense, shield defense...etc.
couldnt find it here...greetz

: I somehow doubt the sourcing is the issue. [You may want to fund the next XCOM series game with a Take2 re-release of UFO :)] More generally: the game only reports the construction of a given type of facility once, no matter how many bases it completes at simultaneously. I've only tested this in vivo with three-of-a-kind at once across six bases, however. It does seem reasonable that some sort of counter of undisplayed completions would "overflow" (attaining crash). -- [[User:Zaimoni|Zaimoni]] 10:05, Feb. 28 2008 CST

::I've encountered this bug myself with General Stores, actually, not just Plasma Defense(which I never build). EDIT: Some quick tests seem to show that there's a chance the game will crash any time two base facilities are done at the same time, regardless of whether they're in the same base or not or if they're the same facility.(although it seems to happen MUCH more in the event they're in different bases.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 10:13, 28 February 2008 (PST)

== Soldier Recruiting Bugs Tested ==

Just to note that I have positively tested and replicated the bugs listed under the new(ish) section [[Known Bugs#Soldier Recruiting Bugs|Soldier Recruiting Bugs]]. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 18:08, 19 March 2008 (PDT)

==Floater Medic Bug==

I have not thus far encountered the Floater Medic Bug; in fact, Floater Medics are often used to fill up my Rogue Gallery with interrogations. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 06:50, 24 April 2008 (PDT)

Strange, it would always occur in my version. I don't remember where I got it from, but I
know it was a download from the internet. Using the XCom Hack v2.5, I viewed the alien in
the Alien Containment edit. I now have Type (race):____, and a Rank: Soldier for the
Floater Medic. It might just be corruption, but I do not have the resources to look into
it. [[User:Muton commander|Muton commander]] 19:24, 12 May 2008 (Pacific Time Zone)

I've never encountered it either. [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] 07:47, 23 July 2009 (EDT)

I think this only happens in the CE version. A disassembly of the code reveals that the stack to hold the matrix for what topics have not yet been researched is too short. It seems that those who ported the code from DOS doubled the local variable sizes blindly. There is already a problem that there are two-few bytes necessary for the entire alien organism section of the UFOpaedia, but double the expected size of the registers and it fills up quite easily unless a lot of autopsies and interrorgations have already been done. The only other situations that are handled by the same routine are the navigator revealing mission data or engineers revealing ship data, but there isn't enough topics in either section to overflow the stack variables. - [[User:Morgan525|Tycho]] 08:27, 22 June 2013 (EDT)

==Strength Overflow==

During one of my games with TFTD I noticed a really annoying thing happen during battles.
As my troops rose up the 'stat.' ladder they got better and better (as you'd expect), until they hit about 50 strentgh and completely lost the ability to throw anything.
Even trying to throw something tiny like a grenade or flare into the adjacent tile resulted in the 'Out of Range' message being displayed.

Anyone come across this before?
This was in TFTD CE.
[[User:Tifi|Tifi]] 07:55, 27 April 2008 (PDT)

:This is fairly well documented. The pathfinding algorithm for throwing objects will balk if anything is in the way of the throw and refuse to allow you to throw. What's happening is that your soldiers have become so strong that their throws are intercepting the 'ceiling' of the Battlescape(the top of L3), and as such the game thinks that the throw is blocked(because in order for the throw to complete, the object would have to be tossed up to the nonexistant L4). There's two ways around this:

:The Normal Way: Try shorter throws, throwing from lower heights, or throwing while kneeling. Beyond that, possibly get some new troops.

:The Sneaky Way: Manually edit the Strength scores of your soldiers in [[SOLDIER.DAT]] so that they're back to a usable strength level. If you set "Initial Strength" (offset 46 decimal or 2E hex) to 0 and "Strength Improvement" (offset 57 decimal or 39 hex) to a value of 50, you can permanently lock the soldiers at 50 strength. (You can lock them higher than that if you so choose, but not lower.

:Other than this, there's no workarounds I can think of offhand. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 08:10, 27 April 2008 (PDT)

:: There's normally no problem with the max level of 70 in open settings. However TFTD has a lot of low ceilings such as in the shipping lane missions and colonies, and the lower ceilings impairs your throwing quite a bit. In addition to shorter throws/kneeling, try moving out from under any overhangs if there is one just above you. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 12:33, 27 April 2008 (PDT)

== Bug not listed: Sticking your head through the ceiling ==
This is something I just discovered: When you step on a small object inside of a building your soldier sticks his/her head through the ceiling and can see what's upstairs. You can even see the soldiers head coming out of the floor and that soldiers can shoot aliens upstairs. When I did this the alien I saw/shot was facing the other way, but I guess you could get shot if the alien was facing you. [[User:RedNifre|RedNifre]] 17:34, 11 May 2008 (PDT)

:That's not listed under "Bugs" because it's covered under "Exploits", right here: [[Exploiting_Collison_Detection#See_Through_A_Ceiling]] [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 18:26, 11 May 2008 (PDT)

:: I don't know if it was ever covered anywhere, but there's this neat trick that might sound similar to the walk-through-'wall object'-wall trick except that it involves your unit climbing slopes. They'll appear as though they've gone up a level, but are actually not on that level. They only visually appear to be there, but are really still on the bottom level.

:: It happens a lot when walking up the desert or forest slopes. I think the trick involves standing on ground level, and then ordering the unit to 'move' into the hill rather than setting the waypoint while on level 1. The soldier will move up the slope and perhaps stop on the slope or even reach the top of the slope, but will still appear when you're only viewing the ground map layer. The soldier is really still on the ground level, but will have elevation offset.

:: One really interesting way of using this trick is in the mountain region. If you can find a cliff face and a low hill nearby, you can literally have your soldier scale the cliff by standing the soldier on the hill, and then walking towards the cliff. It's ridiculous, but your soldier never quite reaches the top of the cliff tiles, so ends up walking up a slope.

:: On a side note, standing at the top of the ramp of the Skyranger is the same as standing on ground level - you're only offset a bit. This means that smoke on level 1 and the sides of the Skyranger will not provide protection when you're at the top of the ramp.

:: On another related note in relation: In TFTD (doesn't happen a lot in UFO), you might find it difficult to toss grenades onto underwater slopes. To remedy this, raise the level up by one. It might look like you're tossing at air(and you are), but it'll get the grenade where you want it. Odd, but true. I must remember to put this in the grenade explanation section. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 23:11, 11 May 2008 (PDT)

== Base Defence bug that causes a crash? ==

Does anyone know about a bug in a base defence mission that causes the game to crash? The game keeps crashing on the 4th or 5th alien turn.

:I've encountered that myself, but it should be noted that overall, X-COM is not the most stable game and is prone to crashing often at anytime. The differences between the hardware it was designed for and the hardware we're running it on cannot be helping matters at all; it's really a small miracle it even runs without an emulator in the first place(I've got games from 1999 that will bluescreen my machine instantly). As such, I'm not sure it's worth noting as a bug, since it's a 'game feature'(albeit a detrimental one). In any case, what're you doing letting the aliens attack you anyways? ;) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 21:33, 18 July 2008 (PDT)

:It sounds like an alien is in one of the outlying locations and attempting to destroy the top floor item. Possibly a radar or defense station. - [[User:Morgan525|Tycho]]

== Sources for a DOS4GW transplant ==

I was specifically thinking of the LucasArts Dark Forces demo, but I half-recall the actual source I used when testing that ~1999 was Id's DOOM. -- [[User:Zaimoni|Zaimoni]] 16:03, 7 August 2008 (CDT)

== Phantom Carried Casualty ==

You are carrying an unconscious soldier in one hand, and the soldier dies of his/her wounds. The dead soldier remains visible on the "left hand / right hand object" battlescape display, but is no longer visible in the inventory display. The problem can be fixed by moving another object into the same hand.

I've seen this bug with UFO Extender by [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] - possibly might be something to do with his manipulation of the inventory screen, rather than a general bug. I believe I've also seen this with other objects that were being carried in the hands, disappearing from the Inventory screen, but I'm not sure. I don't think it's an item limit bug, as XcomUtil shows 40 item slots free. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 08:58, 21 September 2008 (PDT)

:I think it has to do with the KO units KIA mod. Its doesn't take into account units held so when it tries to detemine where to place the corpse, there is no location. The routine doesn't undo the item-carried-sprite-ID byte for the holder. -[[User:Morgan525|Tycho]]

== Civilians As Enemies to MC'd Aliens ==

I ran across this issue a few times and just wondered if you guys experienced this. I MC'd a part of a Reaper (I always do the lower left for large aliens) on a Terror Site, then moved it a few squares. It suddenly stopped dead in it's tracks and then the alien spotted indicator increased by 1. When I clicked on the indicator to see where the enemy unit was, it brought me to L2 of the large apartment complex. However, nothing was there. When I sent a Flying-Suited soldier up there to peek in the window (eeek! A peeping tom!) he saw a female civilian standing there. This type of problem has happened numerous times to me so it's not a once-off thing. Maybe it's a LOS issue? Or maybe an alien indicator problem? Or a combination of the two? Don't know, but I'm curious if you guys have seen it. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 23:40, 19 December 2008 (CST)

:There are a lot of major issues with MC'ing 4 square aliens. One of them being that you could accidentally MC an alien far off in the corner of the map, IIRC? Anyhow, maybe you should have tried MC'ing all 4 squares of the reaper and see if that changed things. -[[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]]

The long-range MC of other aliens when Mind-Controlling large aliens is only present in Terror From The Deep, due to a workaround to try and resolve the earlier bugs(and exploits) associated with controlling one square of a large unit at the time. In TFTD, successfully MC'ing part of a Large unit will also grant you control of the next three units in UNITPOS.DAT, in order. If you didn't MC the upper left portion of the large unit(the first UNITPOS entry for any large unit), you can potentially wind up in control of other aliens. So this doesn't apply to UFO. As for Zombie's issue, never seen it. And finally...Jasonred, on Talk pages, please indent your statement with colons so it differentiates from other people's comments, and sign your posts with 4 ~'s, like I will now do. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 10:42, 19 February 2009 (CST)

==Elerium Base Bug==

Jasonred: This bug has long since been known about. Elerium units on the Battlescape can be picked up by shooting away the power source; this one item counts as 50 units, and as such ANY elerium item spawned on any Battlescape counts as 50 Elerium. This issue with your own Elerium spawning as collectable loot in a Base Defense mission only occurs in older DOS versions, and is at the whim of the 80 item limit. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 21:55, 18 February 2009 (CST)

:Base defense does not seem to follow the 80 item limit in that DOS version. There are a lot of bugs that have long been known about. However this one was not included in the ufopedia for some reason.
:Also, the main thing about this bug is that it does not potentially double your elerium stores. It potentially multiplies them 50 times.
:... First time this happened to me, I was pretty flabbergasted. Here I was being conservative with my limited Elerium, refraining from blowing up UFOs when possible, when I perform a base defense and gain 3000 Elerium from it. Holy spit. -[[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]]

Alright, my error. Thanks for clarifying. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 10:42, 19 February 2009 (CST)

==HWP Fusion Bomb and SWS PWT Displacer Ammo Manufacturing Cost Bug==

At a cost of $15000, 400 Tech hours, 5 Zrbite, and 8 Aqua Plastics, this is the exact same cost as the HWP Fusion Bomb from X-COM EU, converted over to the equivalent TFTD resources. As such, it shouldn't be counted as a bug, since it is clearly what Mythos intended. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 09:55, 15 November 2008 (CST)

:Hmm, in that case maybe it should be treated as a generic game engine issue and not a TFTD specific issue - but I still think it's a design error. Can you think of any logical reason why the SWS/HWP version of the ammo should be more expensive (in cost and in materials) than both the craft ammo and the (more powerful) personal ammo? It makes no logical sense. Hence I think it's a design error. Nothing can be inferred from the fact it's unchanged from XCOM-EU, that doesn't imply any deliberate decision. It could just be the replication of an original error in XCOM-EU. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 11:17, 15 November 2008 (CST)

:: I can think of a logical reason to justify this: X-Com doesn't understand the technology as well as the aliens do (which is obvious, given the length of time each side has known the tech). Handheld Blaster/Blaster Bombs are just a copy of the alien design and therefor relatively cheap and efficient, but that can't be mounted on a turret. So X-Com has to make a new design, and they obviously didn't do that good a job as the aliens would have done. This explains Tank/Plasma being weaker than Heavy Plasma too. (Why is FBL Craft ammo cheaper than the tank ammo though? Maybe X-Com gave up on/simplified the guidance system and made it just a "dumb" cannon shell/torpedo instead which doesn't have multiple waypoints? Or maybe they just did a better job there?). [[User:Cesium|Cesium]] 04:07, 25 November 2009 (EST)

:Whilst we discuss it, I'll park my original text in here:

* ''Displacer/PWT ammo cost bug - at over $100,000 total cost per round, the ammunition for this SWS weapon is far more expensive to manufacture (both in money and rare materials) than the equivalent ammo for the Aquanaut-carried Disruptor Pulse Launcher, or the craft-based Pulse Wave Torpedo, despite being less powerful than either. This would seem to be a design mistake.''

See Also [[Talk:Displacer/PWT]]

:: I don't like the higher cost either, but I think it's a tradeoff of expense and quality for the convenience of portability. Sort of like an MP3 player to the gramophone... or maybe that's not a good comparison. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 13:43, 15 November 2008 (CST)

A better comparison might be a desktop computer to a laptop. As a general rule, laptops are more expensive, but a similarly priced desktop gives you more power. Desktops are cheaper and offer power, laptops are more expensive and offer portability(though the gap is rapidly narrowing). [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 13:49, 15 November 2008 (CST)

:I think those are good analogies. But they don't apply in this case. To continue your analogies: We are paying mainframe prices for a clunky desktop that has only laptop processing power, and we're buying a mainframe for desktop prices. The vehicle version ("desktop") - is ''less'' portable and ''less'' powerful than the personal version (DPL = "laptop"), ''less'' capable than the craft version ("mainframe") - and costs ''more'' than either of the others in total cash and in materials. In particular, it makes no sense that the small missiles on the SWS use up ''more'' of both Zrbite and Aqua Plastics than the Craft version. Do we really think it's logical that a tactical battlefield round, less powerful than its man-carried equivalent, takes more explosive and structural material to produce than both the more powerful man-carried version and also more than the air-to-air round that has 60km range and can take down a major alien combat craft? There is a clearly perverse bang-per-buck here, on every measure. My sincere belief is that this was an original mistake in the XCOM-EU engine that got copied into TFTD as well. The craft round should have the higher base price, but the material requirements that are currently assigned to the SWS/HWP round. It's debatable whether the SWS/HWP rounds should be more expensive than the man-carried rounds. But what I don't think is debatable is that is not logical for the SWS/HWP rounds to be more expensive than the craft rounds. It's clearly a mistake. Even in game balance terms, the only thing the HWP/SWS rounds have going for them is conserving "80-Item Limit" space, which I severely doubt was ever a game design consideration since it's just an awkward programming compromise. Any advantage inherent in the HWP/SWS is already reflected in the very high platform cost - there is no need to inflate the ammo costs as well. The bottom line is that a round for a (mini-)tank does not cost more, does not use more materials, than the same type of round for a long range anti-aircraft weapon that has much greater damage capacity and penetrating capacity. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 14:35, 15 November 2008 (CST)

I'm going to add this to the bug list now. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 16:06, 25 February 2009 (CST)

:Still don't think this is a bug though. Just because it's more expensive to manufacture than the hand-held or craft-mounted ammo, it doesn't mean the stats are wrong. Perhaps the programmers wanted to balance the tactical portion of the game a little more by making the ammo cost more for tanks. It doesn't have to be logical to be intended. Now if you had proof which said that the ammo was supposed to cost less but the stats were wrong, then yes, I'd agree. So if you boil it all down it comes to a disparate logic issue, not a bug.--[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 21:31, 25 February 2009 (CST)

::I have to side with Zombie here. While the ammo may be disproportionately expensive, by the definition used on the rest of the page for bug, it doesn't fit. All the other bugs are errors in program logic or function or routines that are unintentional problems with the game, most of which are not warned of ahead of time. The ammo for the tank costs exactly what is listed and operates entirely as intended, whereas the rest of the bugs are not intended game features. Even if the numbers were entered wrong, that would be a data entry error, not a program bug. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 00:28, 26 February 2009 (CST)

:If it was a data entry error, I'd consider that a type of bug... assuming we had proof of the goof so to speak. LOL. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 00:49, 26 February 2009 (CST)

:: It feels too specific an entry to be a data entry error.

:: I'm reminded of the high explosive. I know, I know - it's not an exact parallel to the FBL issue. A High Explosive is practically two grenades. Double weight, double bulk. Slightly above two times the damage. However, it costs five times the price of a standard grenade. Even though you're paying more for not-as-much, I don't think that could be considered a bug. A rip off, yes, but not a bug.

:: Here's a thought: Think about the immediate benefits each of the two controversial ammo types give back to you. Aircraft ammo = activity points. Tank ammo = loot. Yes, I know that aircraft ammo also generate crash sites, but you still have the ground combat to contend with.

:: One other thought: With careful management of your ammo, you'll probably never spend any elerium on the handheld version's ammo. Could it be the handheld that's really at issue here rather than the others? In the end I feel that it doesn't really matter. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 03:38, 26 February 2009 (CST)

: I'm with Zombie that a data entry error is a bug (we have other examples), but also agree some proof is probably needed. And I agree with NKF that in the scheme of things, it doesn't really matter much. I don't think the HE pack is a good comparison (though the HE pack should be heavier) as it's reasonable to pay disprortionately more to get additional power at the same tech level. The fusion weapons are a case of paying more to actually get ''less'' power. I am not bothered by the handheld vs vehicle balance, not least because the game generally makes handheld weapons better than their vehicle equivalents, so I can accept that as an across-the-board design decision.

: I can also see a game balance argument ''if'' we believe that Fusion Tank ammo is more of an overall game-winning weapon than craft Fusion Bombs. But I'm not sure I agree with that statement. And even if it's true, and there's a game balance argument (in which case it would apply equally to handheld Fusion launchers), it's still illogical. The less powerful, battlefield warhead should not cost massively more in exotic materials than the much more powerful air to air warhead that brings down Battleships. I agree though that just because it's illogical does not prove it's a bug (i.e. unintended). [[User:Spike|Spike]] 07:48, 26 February 2009 (CST)

Ok we more or less seem to be in agreement that this isn't a bug, but it is very confusing/illogical. Maybe we can shift the "bug" text from the article page and roll that into the [[Hovertank/Launcher]] and [[Displacer /P. W. T.]] pages now. Feel free to combine any text from the discussion above if necessary. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 09:22, 26 February 2009 (CST)

: Unless we can ''prove'' it's a data entry error (unlikely), how about calling it an "Anomaly" instead of a bug? [[User:Spike|Spike]] 10:59, 26 February 2009 (CST)

Looks like plain old game imbalance to me.
The way I see it, Hovertank Plasma and Launcher were meant to be stronger. Much much stronger. Let's look at Tank Cannon, Launcher and Laser. The logic is that it's a tank mounted weapon, so the tank can carry a much larger and more powerful version of the same weapon, right?
It's pretty stupid that a Hovertank Plasma is weaker than the Heavy Plasma... you could just mount a Heavy Plasma on a Hovertank and get them exactly equal. In fact, I suspect that the hovertanks were ALSO meant to have more powerful weapons than the man-portable versions.
Unfortunatly, the game designers then realised that this made the hovertanks far too powerful. So... the programmers nerfed the power of the hovertank weapons. BUT they forgot to lower the ammo costs. [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 11:20, 26 February 2009 (CST)

: Well you are opening up a much larger issue there. The Fusion weapons are an anomaly, an inconsistency. But handheld weapons are more powerful than equivalent vehicle weapons across the board, consistently. So that looks like a deliberate design decision, not a mistake. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 17:33, 26 February 2009 (CST)

:: There are two exceptions to the rule: Tank/Cannon: 60AP vs. Heavy Cannon 56AP. Tank/Laser: 110 Laser vs. Heavy Laser: 85 Laser. The hovertank\plasma only differs by a measly 5 (an extra 0 - 10 damage, which means a lot vs. UFO inner hull armour). I guess the trend here was to moderate the area effect tank strengths. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 23:22, 26 February 2009 (CST)

I'd have to agree with you there Spike. This wasn't a mistake, however odd it may seem. It was a deliberate attempt to try and balance the game. Below is a table I created ages ago for my (now defunct) strategy guide detailing the HWP's and what handheld weapon corresponds to it. When you stick them side-by-side, it really becomes apparent that the programmers were trying to base the HWP weapons off the handheld weapons somewhat. The only thing that doesn't follow a nice and distinct scheme is the damage. That's what is the clincher. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 20:26, 26 February 2009 (CST)
 
<table {{StdCenterTable}} class="sortable">
<tr {{StdDescTable_Heading}}><th align="left" width="150">Tank Type</th><th width="70">DAM</th><th width="80">Snap</th><th width="90">Aimed</th><th width="90">Aimed</th><th width="80">Snap</th><th width="70">DAM</th><th align="right" width="140">Handheld</th></tr>
<tr><th align="left">Tank/Cannon</th><td>60</td><td>60%</td><td>90%</td><td>90%</td><td>60%</td><td>561</td><th align="right">Heavy Cannon</th></tr>
<tr><th align="left">Rocket Launcher</th><td>85</td><td>55%</td><td>115%</td><td>115%</td><td>55%</td><td>87.52</td><th align="right">Rocket Launcher</th></tr>
<tr><th align="left">Laser Cannon</th><td>110</td><td>50%</td><td>85%</td><td>84%</td><td>50%</td><td>85</td><th align="right">Heavy Laser</th></tr>
<tr><th align="left">Hovertank/Plasma</th><td>110</td><td>85%</td><td>100%</td><td>100%</td><td>86%</td><td>80</td><th align="right">Plasma Rifle</th></tr>
<tr><th align="left">Hovertank/Launch</th><td>140</td><td>--%</td><td>120%</td><td>120%</td><td>--%</td><td>200</td><th align="right">Blaster Launcher</th></tr>
</table>
1AP rounds. 
2Average between the Small and Large Rocket.

: Hold up! Tank rounds do 60AP. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 23:22, 26 February 2009 (CST)

So what's wrong? The table says 60 for the Tank/Cannon and 56 for HC-AP. Those are correct, no? --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 23:41, 26 February 2009 (CST)

: Sorry, didn't realise it was two tables side by side (or rather mirrored). Eyes only noticed the left side of the table. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 23:53, 26 February 2009 (CST)

:: If the Hovertank Launcher did 200 damage, or worse if the Hovertank Launcher did EVEN MORE damage than the Blaster Launcher... that would make them easily the most deadly things on the map. As it is, the hovertank launcher is already pretty overpowered, even with 140 power.

I might be six years late here, but I think there could be an explanation for this in RL physics — indeed, in RL nuclear weapons programs. Incoming wall of text.

There are two sorts of nuclear reactions that produce energy: fission of large nuclei, and fusion of small nuclei. Fission can occur under normal temperatures and pressures, but involves a neutron chain reaction. As such, fission devices have to have a certain mass of fissionable material (the ''critical mass'') so that the neutrons stay in the material and cause more fission rather than escaping; this means that such devices cannot be scaled down below about suitcase or large backpack size (not all of this is actually nuclear material; rather, most of it is conventional explosives used to rapidly assemble the supercritical mass from subcritical masses). They also produce large quantities of radioactive fallout, which is problematic. Fusion, on the other hand, requires extreme temperatures and pressures, but does not necessarily require a neutron chain reaction. This means that they can theoretically be scaled down to much smaller sizes... except that the only available compact source (ie, not building-sized) of those extreme temperatures and pressures is the detonation of a fission bomb. Thus, all known fusion weapons currently in existence involve a relatively-small fission stage that detonates a much more powerful fusion stage.

The "Holy Grail" of nuclear weapons research is what's called a [[wikipedia:Pure fusion weapon|pure-fusion weapon]]. Because it has no fission stage, a pure-fusion weapon would release little fallout (note here that fallout is material that emits radiation long '''after''' the detonation; a pure-fusion weapon would emit copious amounts of deadly neutron radiation when actually used, but that would dissipate within seconds) and could be scaled down to grenade-launcher size (though it would obviously be far more powerful than a conventional grenade). They would be far easier to produce, as well; producing weapons-grade uranium and plutonium requires large and powerful isotopic separation equipment and/or a full-sized nuclear reactor, whereas deuterium can be extracted from water with trivial ease and lithium and tritium are relatively simple to obtain and make respectively. The main issue is that while the pressures required to confine the fusion material during the reaction are achievable with chemical explosives, the temperatures necessary for fusion are emphatically not. You need a stronger initiator; some material with a higher energy density even than plutonium. In RL the only initiator strong enough is antimatter — hard to produce and contain, to say the least — but the aliens in X-Com have a source that's stored far more easily... Elerium.

I posit that the "fusion" line of weapons in X-Com are exactly what they're named: tactical fusion bombs, made possible by an Elerium detonator. (A more controlled reaction on those lines — a fusion reactor with Elerium-spiked fuel — in UFO Power Sources would also explain the discrepancy between the calculations based on fuel efficiency and the lack of city-killer blasts when a Power Source's Elerium cooks off.)

Given the assumption that "fusion" weapons are indeed fusion weapons, with Elerium serving only as a detonator, the oddly high Elerium cost of the Hovertank/Launcher's ammunition is finally explainable. The HWP Fusion Bombs are, literally, smaller than Blaster Bombs and craft Fusion Balls (presumably because of size constraints in the launching mechanism in tanks). Having less explosives to compress the fuel means you need an even higher temperature to compensate — thus, more Elerium detonator — but because the actual power of the bomb is mostly from fusion and not Elerium decomposition, the yield is still lower.

I intend to remove this from the list of Known Bugs on this basis if nobody can find a hole in my logic. [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 02:03, 17 April 2015 (EDT)

:I'll have to disagree. Your argument while interesting, is just supposition and an attempt to give validation by taking ideas (that the developers probably never considered) to justify a flaw, very much in the same manner as those who try to explain why UFOs do not respond in interceptions. In truth, like many of the other bugs listed here, they are the result of issues caused by the time constraints the Gallops where under. Much of the production/buying/selling aspects of the game have game balance issues and don't make sense when cross referenced to other similar elements in the game and/or their overall effect to either combat or the strategy layer, especially in regards to the game's economics. [[User:Morgan525|Tycho]] ([[User talk:Morgan525|talk]]) 05:06, 17 April 2015 (EDT)

::Why would they match up in terminology with the actual use to which any military would put Elerium by accident? Because, no shit, if a military got their hands on a substance with Elerium's properties this is literally exactly what they'd do (at least as far as explosives go). I can cite a paper talking about the superiority of antimatter-fusion weapons to pure antimatter weapons if you want; the title is "Fourth Generation Nuclear Weapons: Military effectiveness and collateral effects". [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 05:21, 17 April 2015 (EDT)

:quote all the sources you like, it still doesn't explain the waste in the manufacture process. With elerium being such a "scarce" resource, there is no logic in producing something that require more elerium and delivers less of a battlefield effect. It would be more logical and efficient to have had the platform fire regular blaster bombs, since they only require 3 elerium not 5.[[User:Morgan525|Tycho]] ([[User talk:Morgan525|talk]])
::IMHO, any logic argument can be presented to why those HWP Elerium Bombs should cost less/more or be more efficient. That is not the point here. A bug is when a game feature is working improperly or/and is causing technical issues, either due to limitations, insufficient testing, whatever. Design choices are a completely different matter: the Heavy Laser is a nearly useless weapon due to its stats but no one ever considers it to be bugged due to its stats. It was a choice, that was slightly changed on TFTD with the Heavy Gauss. To consider the stats of the HWP Fusion a bug then you'd have to label a lot of choices as bugs when they are simply design choices. You may not agree with them but that doesn't make them bugs in the generally accepted definition of the term. And quoting Arrow Quivershaft on the top comment of this discussion: "At a cost of $15000, 400 Tech hours, 5 Zrbite, and 8 Aqua Plastics, this is the exact same cost as the HWP Fusion Bomb from X-COM EU, converted over to the equivalent TFTD resources. As such, it shouldn't be counted as a bug, since it is clearly what Mythos intended"[[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] ([[User talk:Hobbes|talk]]) 19:35, 25 April 2015 (EDT)
::Also, the consensus until now expressed by several people that previously discussed this is that this is not a bug. The main supporter of the bug argument seems to be Spike at the beginning but during the discussion but halfway the discussion he says: "I agree though that just because it's illogical does not prove it's a bug (i.e. unintended)" [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] ([[User talk:Hobbes|talk]]) 20:54, 25 April 2015 (EDT)
You don't get to claim benefit of the doubt here, Tycho. All game features are assumed to not be bugs unless there is compelling evidence presented otherwise. You claim this is a bug based on the suppositional logic that more powerful weapons should cost more and almost nothing else. The price wasn't altered (and neither was the power) in TFTD, so there's no evidence of mistake there (as an aside, the Displacer/Sonic having its power listed as 130 when it's 110 in the game engine clearly ''is'' a bug). The only bit you might be able to interpret that way would be the description of the Hovertank/Launcher's weapon as causing "immense devastation" compared to the description of the Blaster Bomb as "highly powerful" (the potential implication being that the HWP Fusion Bomb is stronger), but that's iffy at best since there's hardly a graded table of adjectives in use and on those very same pages in the UFOpaedia it lists the damage of each weapon as what it actually is.

The claim that it's a bug is based entirely on theorising about yields. I've given alternate theorising that would explain the yields (and I already explained that the semi-automatic nature of the Hovertank/Launcher and physical space for its high ammo could justify the need for a smaller round), which undercuts that claim. We can't know who's right, but the assumption should always be that the designers knew what they were doing; to assume until proven otherwise that they had no clue is extreme hubris and contempt. Moreover, you are in a minority of one or perhaps of two against a majority of several. Your claim to representing consensus is blatantly false.

Now, I'm going to wait a couple more days to see if anyone comes forward with anything substantive, as I waited a week after my reply to your original non-refutatory dismissal, and then reinstate the removal if nobody puts forward a cogent objection. [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 22:57, 25 April 2015 (EDT)
:Now that I think of it, though, an "oddities" page where we talk about this, the shitty Heavy Laser/Heavy Gauss, the No More Soldiers limit, and other not-bug things might be in order. It would help to make this page about actual bugs and not about weirdness that is nevertheless clearly as intended. Thoughts? [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 23:04, 25 April 2015 (EDT)

:At the time, I didn't continue the argument as my point was that removing something based on one person's belief, no matter how cleverly thought out, wasn't good enough to warrant removing from the list. (I would have pointed out all the different theories on UFO interception AI, but I see that has already been removed.) I hadn't read all the discussions because I assumed that no consensus had been reached, similar to the Interception AI discussion. Mushroom, could have just pointed out that this issue was already settled years ago but no one bothered to removed it from the list, instead of resurrecting a "dead" discussion as though it had not been settled and just stated that the developers intended to discourage the use of this HWP by making the cost of its ammo high. I still don't agree that the HWP ammo is more efficient and thus justification for its production cost, especially since the developers would have never needed this level of justification or would have had the time to devote to so small an aspect of the game.

:I definitely agree that this page needs to be updated. Another reason I argued so strongly is because so many topics on this page do not fall into the category of bug as has been defined. I thought this page was also devoted to listing all the illogical aspects of the game due to the lack of enforcement on the definition. [[User:Morgan525|Tycho]] ([[User talk:Morgan525|talk]])

::If I only had a dime for each time someone proposes to change something on this wiki, everyone agrees, and then nobody ends up taking action... :) It's always better to take initiative and edit things. I agree also with an update to this page, and separating bugs from limitations. But definitely no more 'this should have been done this way' arguments to present design decisions as 'bugs' [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] ([[User talk:Hobbes|talk]]) 17:43, 26 April 2015 (EDT)

:Okay. I'm planning to rip out the following and stick them on a separate page:

:Great Circle "bug" (this isn't really a "bug" so much as unoptimised code)
:Side-on Intercept "bug" (ditto, but given UFOs' tendency to alter course suddenly it's not even particularly unoptimised)
:Head-on Intercept "bug" (come on, this is just bitching)
:Instant Getaway "bug" (more an anomaly than a bug)
:80-item limit (intentional and the rationale is obvious to boot)
:Purchase limit (working as intended)
:Soldier recruiting limit (being charged for attempting to buy more is a bug, but the limit itself isn't)
:Soldier battlescape limit (there's a consequence of this which is a bug, the CtD with 10+ tanks, but not the limit itself)
:Manufacturing Completion Time Display "bug" (you can look at it and see what time it finishes, and it goes down at the right rate; it may seem a little unintuitive but it isn't "wrong")
:Manufacturing Rate Interruption Loss "bug" (more bitching)
:Manufacturing Rate limit (working as intended; the attempt to get around it in TFTD is bugged, but the EU behaviour isn't)
:HWP Fusion Bomb Ammo Cost "bug" (we're in agreement here it seems)

:There's plenty that need a tidyup on top of that but as far as the page split itself goes, are we agreed? Also, I'm thinking of calling the page "Anomalies and Game Limits", opinions? [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 01:58, 3 May 2015 (EDT)

== DOS4GW - What the heck is it? ==

It's been ages since I had to remember this stuff, so those who remember clearer than I do, forgive me if my descriptions aren't accurate. Hopefully the general idea will come across.

Back in ye olde days of computere gamynge - and where there were more E's to go around, memory handling was a tricky beast to handle. Computer memory is divided into several different categories. Conventional, extended and I think expanded. I might be jumbling the terminologies for the last two a bit. Doesn't matter - memory was just cut up into small segments. The two most common memory types to PCs at the time were pretty small but were readily available. The third one - the most expandable (aka the chip with its massive 4 Megs of RAM you just spent your whole month's allowance on!), wasn't as easy to get at.

To get access to the higher memory that was available to the computer, special memory handlers had to be used. Drivers like HIMEM, emm386, etc were used.

DOS4GW is one such handler that lets the game access the computer's available expanded memory. Lots of games that came out at the time use this. Doom, Duke Nukem 3d, Syndicate, Ultima Underworld, X-Com UFO/TFTD, etc. LOTS of games. Any time you ran a game from the dos console and you saw the Dos4GW message flash by briefly it would be assisted by it (well, it stayed on the screen for ages back when processors were slower!).

It took the hassle out of memory handling and let the game access the available memory on the computer as one big flat block of memory to play with.

So what was meant in the article was to simply replace the dos4gw.exe with a more up-to-date version from another game. I think the way to tell its version was just in the message that it displayed. You can just run the dos4gw.exe file in a console window. It'll give an error, but the message it shows will indicate its version. UFO 1.4 uses Dos4gw 1.95, for example.

-[[User:NKF|NKF]] 01:22, 6 March 2009 (CST)
:DOS4GW also switched the processor from 16bit to 32bit mode. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 13:58, 6 March 2009 (CST)

== Clipping ==
I have a new bug. Its harmless. I have a savegame (EU CE - modified game) which has a sectoid within another sectoid. In the alien turn, one secturd walked off the roof and dropped down <s>onto</s> into another. (I guess there DNA is indentical afterall, so they 'become one' with the world). If you want the savegame (superhuman edited using UFOloader, UFO Mod v1, xcomed, Khor Chin WeapEdit v0.1) drop me a request on the my page somewhere. [[User:EsTeR|EsTeR]] 01:40, 18 September 2009 (EDT)

: Not something many would encounter, but definitely something that can happen. Units can occupy the same physical space, but the game cannot display them all. It'll only draw one of them. Actually saw this effect happen back in the early days of XComutil when it gained the ability to manually add new aliens into a battlescape. It did this by slotting them into the same spaces occupied by existing aliens. Then the fun would happen when you saw a couple of Mutons suddenly walk out of a sectoid. Not sure how the game determines who gets hurt when struck by a bullet. May very well depend on the order they are stored in the unitpos.dat file.

: There are a couple of ways you can replicate this in-game, but I can only provide theories on how you could do it. Such as shooting the ceiling above you and letting the unit drop through, or moving a tank off a ledge and getting its non-primary segments land directly on top of another unit. By the way, the rear end of tanks get stuck in walls if you attempt to move north or east off any ledges. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 02:18, 18 September 2009 (EDT)

: Ok, so as long as others know about this, then all is good. I had never seen it and was doing alot of head scratching until I shot the alien.

== Berserk HWP crashes the game ==
In the article page it mentions that aliens which go berserk with their integrated weapons will crash the game. This is only true for Mind Controlled aliens (or units under X-COM control) - alien controlled units which go berserk do not crash the game. I tested an MC'd Celatid just now and it doesn't crash the game either, though it doesn't immediately go berserk - it waits another turn for some odd reason. Someone want to check this to verify my results? --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 20:31, 27 December 2009 (EST)

==HWP Morale Loss==

HWPs have 110 Bravery, which [[Morale#Effect_of_Bravery|normally prevents morale loss]], but I wonder if they can still lose morale due to loss of units with a morale-loss modifier. It'd depend on how the math is done. If, for, example, the -20 to morale for a dead unit is static, then multiplied by any [[Morale#Officers|morale loss modifier]], then reduced by 2 for every ten point of bravery, any officer death without another officer on the field will necessarily reduce HWP Morale.

It all depends on how the equation plays out and when modifiers are added. For sake of this post, I propose the following as the morale-loss equation: 20*(rank death modifier)-((Bravery-10)/5)*(1.00-Leadership bonus)=Morale Lost. (Rather than using 22 as a base, I'm going to assume Bravery is internally decremented by 10 for this equation as 0 Bravery is impossible without editing and it makes the math easier for the purpose of the example.)

It makes sense to me that rather than having 110 bravery hard-coded as an exception to "No morale lost", it simply works the same way in the normal equation, but is high enough that it negates most morale loss events, as even if an officer is killed, another officer is usually left on the field to help negate the penalty. That said, if a large portion of the team is wiped out at once, any surviving officers may not be able to negate it all, allowing tanks to start having noticeable morale loss.

So with the death multipliers, we can determine that every XCOM officer killed has a set death value. Rookies and Squaddies are -20, Sergeants are -24, Captains are -26, Colonels -30, and Commanders -35.

For example, under this theory, if a Sergeant is killed with no other ranked units on the field, a Squaddie with 50 Bravery would lose 16 Morale. (20*1.2-(50-10)/5*1.00=16). A HWP would, at the same time, lose 4 morale. The Sergeant's death is worth -24 Morale, and without another officer on the field to ameliorate the loss, the Tank's bravery only can 'absorb' 20 points of the morale lost. If it was instead the Commander lost, with no other officers on the field, the HWP would lose instead 15 points of morale, given that a Commander's death (20*1.75) is worth a whopping 35 points of morale loss if no other officers are present.

And if you have, say, four colonels and the Commander on rear/psi duty, and some alien flings a grenade or a blaster bomb into the back of the Skyranger and blows all three of them up and they were the only officers, the HWP has now lost 55 morale, which gives it a 10% chance of panicking/berserking on the next turn!

In the end this'll probably need to be tested for accuracy, but those are my thoughts right now.

Also, for the record, most units that berserk go to 255 TUs while still using the original TU-expenditure calculations; it's part of what makes berserk units so dangerous. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 19:34, 11 January 2012 (EST)

:Tested it under vanilla CE. Took a squad out containing just about every rank there is (commander + colonel + captions + sergeants), plus a tank. Blew up and killed all soldiers with a single blaster bomb shell, leaving just the tank, which lost no morale (sorry).

:I also brought a group of rookies along with a single commander + tank, and killed just the ranked unit. Tank lost no morale. A rookie with 60 bravery lost 17 (which matches the loss predicted by the formula currently on the morale page), whereas under your formula he should've lost 25.

:Still, you're on the right track. I've long had my own theory as to why tanks have been known to lose morale. Take a look at [[UNITREF.DAT#42|UNITREF.DAT[42]]] - this is the offset that stores a unit's rank. Notice something? The value gets higher as the X-COM unit's rank gets higher. Works in ''reverse'' for aliens, for whatever reason. I sorta figure it's so killing a mind controlled alien commander doesn't mess with your morale too badly, but there's a big problem with that theory and you can probably tell what it is...

:If the highest this figure gets for an X-COM unit is 5 (commander rank), then a killing a mind controlled alien ''terrorist'' with a rank value of ''7'' should net an even higher morale loss penalty. And indeed it does - I took a rookie and a tank to a terror mission, mind controlled and killed a terrorist, and the tank lost 10 morale. Guess it would've lost six if I'd taken a commander instead of a rookie, but that's still something.

:Note that the formula on the morale page does ''not'' account for this - it states that at bravery 110 the alien's death loss multiplier would always be applied to a base morale loss of 0, but that's obviously wrong. You're spot on in saying that the base morale loss figures are not totally dependant on bravery, and the "death loss" penalty is applied first. Would probably require a few more trials to determine what that penalty ''is'' for alien soldiers and terrorists though.

:Just for kicks, I edited a plasma tank to have 0 morale. It panicked in the normal way (either sitting still or charging off to the SE). When it berserked, the game crashed as soon as I dismissed the status message. -  [[User:Bomb_Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] ([[User_talk:Bomb_Bloke|Talk]]/[[Special:Contributions/Bomb_Bloke|Contribs]]) 18:54, 12 January 2012 (EST)

:: Thought I'd give it a spin. I sent a laser tank in with a squad and had it start shooting at team members. Each time it killed an ally, it would lose morale. Once it was under 50 morale, I waited until it panicked. Since I was playing the dos version, the game didn't crash but I suspect a memory leak of some sort may have occurred that would normally shut down the CE version. What would happen in CE if a soldier were to be edited and granted a tank turret, and then made to panic? Would the game crash? I'm just wondering if it's related to the weapon as opposed to the fact the tank is a treated as a large unit. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 00:43, 13 January 2012 (EST)

::: Ah, friendly fire! Thought I'd tested for that, but obviously not...

::: Oddly enough, now that I try it, I see that the twenty point hit for killing a unit on the same side can be adjusted by the leadership bonus of the victim. Eg, kill a lone commander and his 35% penalty reduction takes the extra morale lost from 20 down to 13 (which is exactly how much a tank will lose, given that it otherwise wouldn't lose any at all).

::: Of course, this completely messes up my theory about alien soldier/terrorist ranks overriding the 110 bravery score. It doesn't. My tank "only" lost 10 morale because the alien's rank acted as a 50% leadership bonus... Though I suppose that's still interesting to know, because it suggests that keeping a simple alien soldier under mind control is more effective then risking your own commander in the field.

::: I took an otherwise unarmed rookie and assigned him a tank cannon + ammo. He could manually fire this weapon in much the same way a tank can. Forcing him to berserk crashed CE, under DOS he just spun around. -  [[User:Bomb_Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] ([[User_talk:Bomb_Bloke|Talk]]/[[Special:Contributions/Bomb_Bloke|Contribs]]) 21:20, 13 January 2012 (EST)

== 80-items limit on CE edition ==

I have the feeling that the 80-items limit does not apply to the CE edition and is instead a 110-items limit (at least during base defence). Can anyone confirm? [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:24, 24 February 2010 (EST)

:I believe this limit was increased for TFTD. Maybe it was also increased for the CE edition of UFO, and only ever applied to the DOS edition of UFO?? [[User:Spike|Spike]] 20:03, 11 March 2010 (EST)

== Paying for Dirt in TFTD ==

I have the steam version of TFTD and am unable to replicate this bug. Testing with the starting base, I dismantled a few modules, added up my income and expenses, and it reconciled with my cash at the beginning of the next month. I even tried again, dismantling every module except the access lift, and once again saw no income discrepancy. Am I missing something, or is it possible this bug was actually fixed in TFTD? --[[User:Jewcifer|Jewcifer]] 12:18, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

:'twas probably fixed. It would indeed be helpful to add a small note to bugs on this page which are EU-specific but not obviously so (like this one). -  [[User:Bomb_Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] ([[User_talk:Bomb_Bloke|Talk]]/[[Special:Contributions/Bomb_Bloke|Contribs]]) 17:14, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

::Every now and then I get the urge to test some of the more important bugs myself in my steam version of TFTD. Perhaps I will make a more complete effort and record the results somewhere on the wiki. --[[User:Jewcifer|Jewcifer]] 12:08, 21 March 2012 (EDT)

== Paying for dirt: Source of bug discovered! ==

Well, I never have read this anywhere (which kind of strikes me as odd, thinking of how obvious this one seemed to me... And i have NO programming background whatsoever), so I'll post it here, hoping that there are still some active members willing to try and verify my findings. If so, please comment here, because then I will inform bladefirelight to include this in any upcoming xcomutil release. If it had been discovered before, well then I just wasted some time here. Comment below, I will delete this entry.

As the main bug page mentions, when dismantling a facility still under construction the premium will only be paid once it would have been finished. This suggests some connection between paying the premium and building time. Looking into the infos here: [[BASE.DAT]], I quickly discovered what the problem was: When a facility is dismantled, the Bytes related to the location of base facilities are updated correctly. HOWEVER the game omits to update build time to FF (which is "will never finish", an entry only found on unused squares). If the facility is finished when it is dismantled (or destroyed during combat), then the 00 in the build time byte will stand. If it was under construction, the value indicating the remainig build time will continue to tick down towards 00 as if the facility was still there.

Now at the end of the month the following seems to happen: The game checks for ANY 00 entry in the build time bytes, and if there are 00 entries, it will look up in the location bytes the type of structure to determine the amount of maintenance for that 00-construction-time-square. When it finds "dirt", then it will charge the 80 grand (my guess would be that those are somewhere hard-coded).

This explains all phenomena related to this bug, like a dismantled hangar costing 320.000 grand or the premium only popping up after the build time of a dismantled facility that was under construction has expired.

Now the fix is pretty easy: Open the BASE.DAT in a hex-editor and change the bytes in question to FF!

== Minimized Interceptor Bug (Ufo CE) ==

Maybe this bug is not just related to saving, because I had a similar problem last night. The game didn't crash, but it kept restarting the same Battlescape mission.
One Avenger (A-3) was pacing a Battleship, while another Avenger (A-1) was sent to pick up the pieces of a Terror Ship that had been shot down by an Interceptor. Despite having no weapons (oversight on my part), A-3 wanted to attack the Battleship, but I minimized the screen, hoping it would land.
While the screen was minimized, A-1 landed at the Crash Site from the Terror Ship and started this mission. Right after finishing it, I got the message that A-3 was ready to land next to the Battleship. Happy that I'd get the loot, I started the mission.
After cleaning it out, I got the usual Loot and Promotion screens and went back to the Geoscape. A few seconds later, I was back in the equipment screen and the Battleship Mission started again. I played it once more, because - hey - additional loot, right? Err... no. At the end, I got the correct Loot screen for this attempt and the very same promotion I had gotten in the first attempt (A Rookie from another base promoted to Sergeant).
Got back to Geoscape and a few seconds later back to the Equipment screen. I aborted this mission (same Battleship again), got back to Geoscape and - you guessed it - back to the Equipment screen. After aborting this mission as well and getting back to Geoscape, I used the few seconds I had to go to 'Options' and 'Abort Game'. Maybe I could have made A-3 disengage from the Battleship since I think I saw them both on the Geoscape, a yellow diamond and a red plus, but it was pretty late by that time.
--[[User:Matzebrei|Matzebrei]] 15:06, 15 May 2012 (EDT)

This is a known bug. There is a work around. You should patrol the ship with troops and not land... Finish shooting down the other airborne ships first. Then when the ships doing the shooting are returning to base, change patrolling ship with troops to advance to downed ship in order to commence ground combat mission.
--[[User:JGF|JGF]] ([[User talk:JGF|talk]]) 07:55, 9 November 2016 (UTC)

== Activity Overflow Bug ==

This is a potentially campaign-ending bug. This was seen in the Steam distribution, DOS version (on Windows 2003 Server EE). Not sure if UFO Extender was being used - probably it was. End of Jan 1999 turn shows an extreme negative/underflow Monthly Rating score, which in turn is caused by extreme overflow of UFO Activity levels. Note that that funding "score" - the increased funding by countries - was very positive at the same time!:

[[File:dissatisfied customers.png]]

UFO Activity, by Areas and by Countries, is literally off the chart. Clearly some kind of integer overflow:

[[File:ufo-areas.png]]
[[File:ufo-countries.png]]

X-Com activity is also off the chart:

[[File:xcom-areas.png]]
[[File:xcom-countries.png]]

In addition to the likely outcome that I will lose the game in Feb 1999, it means I can't use the graphs to detect UFO activity outside of my radar coverage.

I have only seen this bug once, and (probably very unusually) I am running under Windows 2003 Server EE (!!). My hunch would be that's the cause, Windows 2003 Server is not the best games platform. :)

[[User:Spike|Spike]] 07:22, 3 September 2012 (EDT)

Further information:

I don't necessarily lose the game in Feb or March 1999. The Monthly Ratings from Feb onward are just based on the current month, not historical score to-date. However it still greatly increases the risk of suffering from the [[Known_Bugs#Losing_My_Favourite_Game|Losing My Favourite Game]] bug - which also greatly complicates doing too many controlled experiments on this Activity Overflow bug, because a few restores of the saved game quickly leads to X-Com Project termination (and humanity's doom).

Possibly the Activity Overflow bug is caused by an initial value of the score (or an array of score values) not being correctly zeroed at the start of the game. See this graph, which shows a negative score in May 1998, prior to the start of the game in Jan 1999.

[[File:Prehistoric_negative_score.png]]

[[User:Spike|Spike]] 08:48, 3 September 2012 (EDT)

I encountered the same Activity Overflow Bug in Windows 7 using Steam version, Windows option with UFOExtender latest version.

[[User:Humbe|humbe]] 2012.10.04 09:05 UTC

I encountered the same bug at end of january with latest xcomutil patched CE version (with only bug fixes patched) with ufo extender newest version running (close to default options). Got many saves from that first month. Even if loading very early save where I had done no missions yet, and just did stuff in base, graphs still show negative for various periods in 1998. Sounds more like corruption than something actually overflowing to me.

[[User:Archlight|Archlight]] 18:34, 24 September 2012 (EDT)

== Bad Paths Bug ==

I suggest to add bad paths on UFOs maps to the article, as another bug in the game.

[[User:Sherlock|Sherlock]] 09:25, 26 December 2012 (EST)
:That sounds reasonable to me. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 10:03, 26 December 2012 (EST)

==Expenditure Graph==
The economy graph for "Expenditure" neglects funds spent on new facilities. I noticed this in my current (DOS) game when I built eight Psi-Labs at the start of April and it didn't increase. I know it counts everything on the Purchase screen; I'm not yet sure whether it counts manufacturing costs.

Is this enough of a bug to be mentioned? Can anyone confirm whether or not it occurs in CE, and whether it counts manufacturing costs? [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 02:40, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

==Workshop Crowding==
It seems there is a bug whereby you can allocate more projects/engineers than available workshop space. This can be triggered by setting up two concurrent manufacturing jobs, setting one of them to have 0 engineers working on it, then set the other to have as many engineers as you can assign to it, filling the workshop space. Then go to the other job with 0 engineers, and it will show a negative workshop space available, now if you assign at least one engineer to this project, you can assign the rest of your engineers however you please.

This is my first edit. I find it hard to believe I'd be the first to find this bug after so many years, can someone please confirm a reproduction and that it isn't documented somewhere I've missed? I am running the DOS version of UFO, but I'm also running XComUtil, not sure if that has an impact, or what patch level I'm on. - [[User:Uncertainty|Uncertainty]] 11:00, 20 Dec 2016 (AEDT) Update: Cannot reproduce on the CE version, still unsure of the patch level of the DOS version I'm running and don't know how to accurately determine that. - [[User:Uncertainty|Uncertainty]] 22:00, 29 Dec 2016 (AEDT)

: An easy way to check is whether you can research Magnetic Navigation after collecting one from an alien sub, or if you have to research a Lobsterman Navigator beforehand. If you can research it right away then you have v2, which is what the CE version is mostly based on. If you can't research it and must get the navigator, then it's the unpatched copy of the game. [[User:NKF|NKF]] ([[User talk:NKF|talk]]) 22:24, 29 December 2016 (UTC)

Update 2: Thanks NKF, I'm not running TFTD, but I figured out that I was running v1.2 of XCOM1. I cannot reproduce the bug on v1.4 so the bug only applies to v1.2 and has been patched in newer versions. - [[User:Uncertainty|Uncertainty]] 16:45, 31 Dec 2016 (AEDT)

= Unconfirmed bugs =

These may either be actual bugs that only exist as rumors and nobody confirmed them (yet) or stuff that may look like a bug but actually is a feature.

== Alien mission succeeds despite Ground Assault ==

Suppose aliens decide to do a mission. So they send a scout UFO. If you shoot it down, the alien mission gets derailed and the next scout becomes delayed, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Seems like the headquarters are waiting for the first scout to report back home or something. But eventually the second scout shows up so you shoot it down too. The third one also takes a long while to arrive and if you shoot that down too, the aliens either give up on the mission completely or send their big ships which only aimlessly fly to and fro, never land and leave soon, empty handed. This way or that way, the alien mission is a failure.

On the other hand if you wait for the scout to land, assault it with your Skyranger and win the mission, the alien's mission continues as if nothing happened. The second scout appears on time. So you ground-assault it too but the third and fourth scout also appear on time. Then the larger UFOs show up and land as if nothing happened to the scouts. You ground-assault them too, including the last Battleship that happens. But guess what? The alien mission is a SUCCESS even despite none of the UFOs making it back to base. Really annoying if the mission is an Infiltration, you can't take their juicy big UFOs because if you do, you are going to lose a country. But on the other hand all these Alien Harvests and Alien Abductions? Lots of juicy spoil and tons of points despite the aliens achieving what they wanted.

I need to add that I was playing some weird version of the game whose data was rejected by OpenXCom with "an invalid CHRYS.PCK file, please update to the latest version" message. So I don't know if this bug exists only there or is present in the latest version of the game too or even whether this is a bug or an expected behavior. - [[User:TowigOs|TowigOs]] ([[User talk:TowigOs|talk]]) 00:24, 3 August 2025 (UTC)

== Transfers can put you into debt ==

Any action you can do that consumes money will either throw a big fat "NOT ENOUGH MONEY" error (build facility; purchases, etc) or just plain hide the button to actually do it (manufacturing) if you don't have the prerequisite cash on hand. Except item transfers. You can transfer stuff around merrily even when you are tens of millions in debt and on the brink of collapse from financial mismanagement. Maybe aliens MCed the movers to skip checking for money on your bank account and just hope they will get paid, eventually. Or they might MCed your bank to lend you money behind your back, allowing to go bankrupt reorganizing the content of your bases. At least you don't have to pay interest on these unwanted loans.

Looks like someone forgot to put "if (money<invoice) then {NotEnoughMoney();return;}" somewhere into that code path.

Note: Getting into debt because your base maintenance is much higher than your income and you did not have the cash is perfectly OK. These bills have to be paid. And you will go belly up financially if you allow this to go too deep. ([[User:TowigOs|TowigOs]] ([[User talk:TowigOs|talk]]) 21:55, 4 August 2025 (UTC))

=Cleanup needed=
Hmm this whole Talk page needs a cleanup. A lot of the Not Listed bugs, should be listed, or are listed. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 10:03, 26 December 2012 (EST)

:So, before it will be made, yet three more observations.

:1. There is no possibility to give back (to stop hiring) a plane without craft weapon.

:2. Alien Reproduction is unavailable in a normal game without hacking/save editing. This is probably connected to further errors on maps. A bug/error/programmers' oversight of the some kind is present in TFTD where it is impossible to obtain Examination Room. It is so because many tiles on maps are wrongly assigned to game's objects. Namely, [[Examination Room (TFTD)]] is treated as Alien Implanter - but there is plenty of errors of this type, on various maps (perhaps also in UFO: EU).

:3. Among soldiers in UFO:EU, there are Russians. Some non-Slavs may not know that Slavic (also Russian) family names have different masculine and feminine forms. For example, Petrov, Belov, Likhachev, Gorokhov, Chukarin, Andianov, Voronin, Maleev are all masculine names; women must be called Petrova, Belova, Likhacheva, Gorokhova, Chukarina, Andianova, Voronina, Maleeva respectively (however, a rule that the feminine form is always made by adding -a is wrong, e.g. Tolstoy - Tolstaya). The soldier's name Mikhail Gorokhova (which is possible in UFO: EU) is just ridiculous (for everyone who has even little knowledge about Russian things). Tatyana Petrov is also an impossible combination. X-Com creators probably assumed that family names are the same for men and women in all languages, and, as a result, they made only mechanisms for storing masculine and feminine forms of first names, not family names. But taking reality under consideration, this is a bug.

: [[User:Sherlock|Sherlock]] 16:22, 26 December 2012 (EST)

== Common bugs vs. UFO EU specific bugs ==

I believe there is one more thing that needs to be cleaned. Namely, both EU and TFTD share the same game engine, so some bugs are common for them both. However, there exists a page with a list of TFTD bugs, and it is clear (or: should be clear) which of the bugs are specific for TFTD. I think the same should be done with EU specific bugs: to hold them apart from bugs common for both games. Some bugs exist in both games but manifest themselves differently (like problems with mind-controlling of big aliens) - they are not true common bugs.

Or even more: one could expect a clear information by each bug, in which game and in which version of the game the bug occurs. And whether a patch exists or not. Sometimes such information is given now, and sometimes it is not. And if one does not know exactly which versions are affected by the bug, it should also be mentioned clearly.

[[User:Sherlock|Sherlock]] 04:13, 27 December 2012 (EST)

== Rename page title to indicate which game this refers to? ==

I was looking for a list of bugs related to XCOM Apocalypse, and it took me a while to realize this was about a totally different game. There are 4 games (not counting the 2 opensource projecrs) here on UFOP - maybe that could be reflected in the article aswell?
[[User:Panzerlol|Panzerlol]] 20:35, 31 March 2013 (EDT)

==New "bugs" submitted directly to main page with no apparent explanation==

WakkaDakka, have you actually managed to replicate this "missing time units" bug, or was it just a one-off freak occurrence? I'm not sure it merits main-page space until we have some idea how to replicate it.

N21, how were you seeing the future to begin with? It's only a bug if it occurs in the normal course of play.

[[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 03:36, 28 May 2015 (EDT)

== Enemy Unknown 1994: Save game bug mid mission. ==

Effect : Loading saved game mid mission just displays a black screen with the cursor at the top left, whilst the music continues to play in the background.
I don't believe the game has crashed out to DOS, having tried both CLS and DIR to no avail. Your can no longer interact with the game, making you force quit the app.

[[File:Screen_shot_2016-11-07_at_19.39.31.png|thumb|left]] 

I'm using Boxer 1.40 on a Mac - which in turn is built off Dosbox 0.74.
I remember seeing this bug years ago on Windows XP too, so I don't think it is platform specific.
I'm currently running it with some of the XCOMUtil patches too - but have had the issue crop up without any of the patches.

Playing on Superhuman level, I use a Skyranger with 14 soldiers equipped with Laser Rifles.

Cause : Hard to be specific. But here are the facts.
I have my suspicions it may be do to with fog of war rendering issues.
I've had it occur frequently when going to the NW edge of a map.

I also had issue on Alien base 1. I have a save game and can suggest moving a unit and saving it in another slot - that alone causes the issue. So if someone knows how to debug this I can supply that. Not sure if the combined number of aliens and yourself casue this.. I managed to eventually work thru a series of corrupted saves that wouldn't load to one that worked again).

Here is a sample save game where the game only needs one specific movement to corrupt a game when you save after the move.

[[File:GAME_10.zip]]
I've uploaded two images to show the move for S Bradley
[[File:Screen_shot_2016-11-11_at_13.50.13.png|thumb|left]] 
and the destination square to move him too. When you complete that move and save the game it corrupts.
[[File:Screen_shot_2016-11-11_at_13.50.17.png|thumb|left]] 

Incidentally there were two downed UFO's at this time, with a second Skyranger en-route to UFO 42. This mission was for UFO 43 with another Skyranger.

The problem frequently occurs.
Ive had it occur recently on the following types of mission:
Terror, Alien Base, Supply ship, Large Scout, predominantly with Sectoids and Cyberdiscs, but also with Mutons and Floaters.
The only thing all these missions have had in common was lots of units on both sides. For example 13 Floaters on a Scout mission, 9 Cyberdiscs on a Terror mission etc.

--

Other quirky things I've seen relating to Stunned units:

1) You can't stun a unit, forcing you to shoot it to complete the mission.
The target being stunned drops to the ground in a heap, but the game says you can still see it and can re-stun unit....

2) Celatids. You stun it, then it wakes up and moves away. The unit no longer renders correctly. It's like a sheet of garbled colored/transparent dots.

3) A stunned unit, other than a Celatid wakes up, and is invisible but you get the '1' in red square for visible enemy. You can stun unit and get the animation for it falling to the ground again.

--

Teleported unit off screen (notice the yellow arrow over the unit, which alas is invisible at the split second I took screenshot - OS/X rendering crap-shoot).
[[File:Screen_shot_2016-11-12_at_14.18.07.png|thumb|left]] 
The unit was teleported from the top of the stairs in an entirely different building, rendering the unit unusable for the mission. I ended up reloading it and doing over.... - [[User:JGF|JGF]]

:Stop spamming [[Special:RecentChanges|the changelog]], please - if you're working on a page and want to see the results of your edits midway through, use the Preview button. Don't hit Save until you are ''done''.

:I can't replicate any issues with your provided save. Bradley doesn't have enough TUs to "complete" the requested move, but asking him to make the attempt anyway, then saving / reloading, works fine for me under 1.4 as well as CE. For what it's worth, as far as I'm aware the game in no way keeps track of the number of actions you've performed during a given turn; at least, I haven't been able to find any such counter embedded in the save files.

:I do suggest you leave your units with more time units - when ending turn, any agents who ''might'' spot an alien during the enemy's turn should ideally have some cover, a kneeling stance, and enough action points to defend themselves with a reaction shot. Using your full TU allocation on movement is somewhat suicidal, and even when you can get away with it, it tends to leave agents without enough energy to move when they really need to.

:Your invisible units may be related to [[Known_Bugs#Invisible_Chryssalids|this bug]] - presumably you can trigger similar behaviour by knocking out all instances of a given alien species within a map, saving / reloading, and then waiting for one of the aliens to awake. I was able to replicate it with an Ethereal, for example.

:Difficult to comment on your garbled Celatid without seeing it first-hand. Ditto for your un-stunnable target. I'd quite like to inspect them with my save editor, though, and ditto for the teleported unit. -  [[User:Bomb_Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] ([[User_talk:Bomb_Bloke|Talk]]/[[Special:Contributions/Bomb_Bloke|Contribs]]) 05:46, 13 November 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for scaling the images nice to see the wiki syntax.
It's odd to here you say he didn't have enough Time Units left, because for me the move is allowed.
Where did you get your 1.4 patch?
I applied 1.4 too and am wondering if I got a bad version.
Also did you get your original XCOM off GOG or some place like that?
I have the original CD. I think it's the US version as I used to live there.

== Time Units reset to 0 when soldier reaches 255 TUs ==

I have been playing an old version of UFO: Enemy Unknown, where there is no limit on TUs for soldiers. At certain point, two of my best soldiers reached the limit of 255 TUs, which rendered them useless at now they have 0 TUs.
I tried to reduce their TUs by editing Soldier.DAT, but it did not help. If I check soldiers from the base menu, I can see that the value has been changed, but in the battle their stats are still the same and thus they have 0 TUs and cannot be moved with.

Do any of you know, how to fix this bug? Where is the limiter located, can I change it so that is will be as in the new versions? In any case, I believe this bug should be mentioned on the page. It is mentioned here though: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Time_Units --[[User:Achernar|Achernar]] ([[User talk:Achernar|talk]]) 21:13, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

: Feel free to add the issue - the page is a hodge podge of whatever issues folks have at the time or as they come across them.

: While I'm no expert on the file structure of the executable for the first release of the game, I suspect you'll find the cause for the byte roll-over feature is that there were no stat limiters to begin with. Best way to cope with it is to either retire anyone approaching supersoldier status to base defence duty, buy more soldiers and spread the experience out more evenly, or update to 1.4 and find a sound patch to restore the original sound samples.

: For your broken soldier: I'm, assuming you edited the soldier.dat file. If you saved the game while in the battlescape, the game creates a temporary copy of the soldier stats and keeps them in unitref.dat. This is to keep track of in-battle status changes, experience, etc. You'll need to edit the current TU levels in this file as well. Or beat the mission with the soldiers that can move and you'll see your edits reflected in the next battle. [[User:NKF|NKF]] ([[User talk:NKF|talk]]) 05:45, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

== Fire rate bug & German version footsteps ==

These don't seem to be documented for some reason: (DOS Version)

The fire rate always resets to 3 if an alien or an alien mind controlled unit throws a grenade.

If German is chosen as language to play, the footsteps of all soldiers, regardless of the terrain they walk on, will sound as if they are walking on a metal surface like the inside of the Skyranger, UFO or the base. [[User:Bard|Bard]] ([[User talk:Bard|talk]]) 05:38, 8 April 2019 (CEST)

== Direct incendiary hit causing no reaction fire? ==

On the Incendiary page, it is reported that a direct hit will not cause an alien to spin around and return fire. I have tested this in OpenXcom and find that the aliens do, in fact, return fire. If this can be confirmed in original X-Com, it would be good to add to known bugs.

: It's safe to say everything you find on this wiki relating to the classic game pages were gleaned from the original games. OpenXcom, being an independently developed fan project, will have its own list of fixes and changes chronicled in its own documentation. In fact I would not be surprised that good deal of the more technical information on this wiki has been contributed by those that had some input into the OpenXcom project. [[User:NKF|NKF]] ([[User talk:NKF|talk]]) 05:16, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

:: Thanks, good to know. Would still love to know if anyone has tested this in classic game. If not, I will when I can, so it can be added to known bugs [[User:Mugwump|Mugwump]] ([[User talk:Mugwump|talk]]) 22:05, 15 June 2021 (UTC)

==Alien weapon loadouts bug/anomaly==
There are actually 10 alien weapon loadout sets, not 9. The actual first set is 70% "early"/20% "mid"/10% "late". This loadout set never appears in-game, though, because the setup at game start counts as a month rollover which means that weapon loadouts (which are called when the mission occurs, not at month start when the mission is scheduled) are called from the second set during January, the third set during February, and so on. This is probably an oversight by the Gollops (note that race weights reach their final values in October; were it not for this quirk, weapon loadouts also would), but it's hard to be sure. Should this be added? [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 15:02, 28 April 2025 (UTC)

== De-Selection/Camera Positioning Bug ==
Not sure if you can call this a bug, but I just experienced something weird, that I'm also partially capable of reproducing:

# Click the »Select the next unit and forget the current one.« button (9 [[Battlescape#Battlescape_Screen|here]]) until you run out of other soldiers to select.
# Save the game.
# Load it again.

Depending on the situation on the battlescape you might start out with the camera (viewpoint) somewhere close to your own soldiers or far away from them. No soldier is selected any more (unlike when you saved the game, as then the last soldier was not deselected when you tried to skip/de-select the last guy). If you are unlucky, all is black as you are '''really''' far out. The map-button does work. But it's difficult to navigate into a reasonable direction if you are just far out enough, where you see nothing. You simply have no reference to know in which direction you should scroll or jump on the map. As you have previously instructed the game to not re-select any of your soldiers again, you have no means of properly getting back to one of them by using the »Select the next unit« button. The inventory button does of course also not work, as you have not selected any soldier any longer. So you can also not jump to the next guy by this means. So you are basically stuck somewhere in the void with no way of getting to the next unit. At best you figure out in which direction you should jump with the map button.

As I said, I could partially reproduce this in a freshly started game. There I was luckily not as far out as that I had no reference of where to scroll to. But the behavior was fairly the same. If you end up just far out enough, where everything is black, the save is kinda broken.

Added by ''7Saturn''.

Server (UFO2000)

2019-12-10T21:29:12Z

7Saturn: /* Backup Servers */

=Logging in to the game server=

==The server connecting screen==
Pressing "connect to internet server" will take you to the server connection screen. In this screen you will see a login box with three lines:

[[Image:Serverconnect.jpg]]

===Your player name for your account===
In the second line »Login:« you have to enter your desired player name. In the picture above this is Mister Kill. A maximum of 16 characters is set for your player name. Player names are case sensitive. So it makes a difference, if you login as killah or Killah.

===The password for your player name account===
The third line is the password line. Enter your desired password here. '''BEWARE!''' There is '''NO WAY OF RETREIVING a lost password''' so write it down! Also be sure not to use any valuable passwords with this service, as they are only saved as a plain MD5-hash. Techniques such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_%28cryptography%29 salt] are not being used!

Player names are only protected by this password. For each player name there is also an elo-score, which is used to create a ranking. So essentially, it's in your own interest, to not give others the opportunity to play in your name, if you take an interest in this ranking system. On the public server, you can find the current ranking of the [[#Offical_server]] here: http://ufo2000.net/results.php.

===The Auto-login box===
Leave the autologin box emty. If you have autologin turned on, you can't change your name or the server-adress, unless you disable this first. Do this in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code> file in the ufo2000 game folder.

===Connecting to the server===
To login to the server press OK!

== Official server==
The first is the server location line.
It should say: '''ufo2000.net:2000''' if you want to login to the official UFO2000 game server. All players should log into this server, if available.

If you receive this message:

[[Image:Failconnect.jpg]]

it may be the case that the official server can't be reached currently. There might also be back-up [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers servers which you can play on].

==Backup Servers==
Change the first line of the login box to one of the following servers:
* <del>ufo2000.kostax.cz:2000</del>
* <del>ufo2000.openxcom.com</del>
* www.mobile-infanterie.de:2000 (contact: [mailto:7saturn@gmx.de 7saturn@gmx.de]), statistics: https://www.mobile-infanterie.de/ufo2000results.php
* ufosrv.minecraft-today.ru:2000 , statistics: http://ufo2000.8fly.ru/

to play on the back-up server. If you wanna setup your own server (for private use or as backup server for the community) have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

== Third Party chat program ==
There's also a third party software, that enables you, to be on the server for chatting, even during a match, called [http://www.7kplay.net/phpBB3/utto.php?sid=a7e3660e08227b95f9ea16791e64c36e UTTO].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Server (UFO2000)

2016-01-06T19:15:42Z

7Saturn: /* Backup Servers */

=Logging in to the game server=

==The server connecting screen==
Pressing "connect to internet server" will take you to the server connection screen. In this screen you will see a login box with three lines:

[[Image:Serverconnect.jpg]]

===Your player name for your account===
In the second line »Login:« you have to enter your desired player name. In the picture above this is Mister Kill. A maximum of 16 characters is set for your player name. Player names are case sensitive. So it makes a difference, if you login as killah or Killah.

===The password for your player name account===
The third line is the password line. Enter your desired password here. '''BEWARE!''' There is '''NO WAY OF RETREIVING a lost password''' so write it down! Also be sure not to use any valuable passwords with this service, as they are only saved as a plain MD5-hash. Techniques such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_%28cryptography%29 salt] are not being used!

Player names are only protected by this password. For each player name there is also an elo-score, which is used to create a ranking. So essentially, it's in your own interest, to not give others the opportunity to play in your name, if you take an interest in this ranking system. On the public server, you can find the current ranking of the [[#Offical_server]] here: http://ufo2000.net/results.php.

===The Auto-login box===
Leave the autologin box emty. If you have autologin turned on, you can't change your name or the server-adress, unless you disable this first. Do this in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code> file in the ufo2000 game folder.

===Connecting to the server===
To login to the server press OK!

== Official server==
The first is the server location line.
It should say: '''ufo2000.net:2000''' if you want to login to the official UFO2000 game server. All players should log into this server, if available.

If you receive this message:

[[Image:Failconnect.jpg]]

it may be the case that the official server can't be reached currently. There might also be back-up [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers servers which you can play on].

==Backup Servers==
Change the first line of the login box to one of the following servers:
* <del>ufo2000.kostax.cz:2000</del>
* ufo2000.openxcom.com
* mobile-infanterie.epicgamer.org (contact: [mailto:7saturn@gmx.de 7saturn@gmx.de]),

to play on the back-up server. If you wanna setup your own server (for private use or as backup server for the community) have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

== Third Party chat program ==
There's also a third party software, that enables you, to be on the server for chatting, even during a match, called [http://www.7kplay.net/phpBB3/utto.php?sid=a7e3660e08227b95f9ea16791e64c36e UTTO].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Server (UFO2000)

2015-12-21T09:48:34Z

7Saturn: /* Backup Servers */

=Logging in to the game server=

==The server connecting screen==
Pressing "connect to internet server" will take you to the server connection screen. In this screen you will see a login box with three lines:

[[Image:Serverconnect.jpg]]

===Your player name for your account===
In the second line »Login:« you have to enter your desired player name. In the picture above this is Mister Kill. A maximum of 16 characters is set for your player name. Player names are case sensitive. So it makes a difference, if you login as killah or Killah.

===The password for your player name account===
The third line is the password line. Enter your desired password here. '''BEWARE!''' There is '''NO WAY OF RETREIVING a lost password''' so write it down! Also be sure not to use any valuable passwords with this service, as they are only saved as a plain MD5-hash. Techniques such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_%28cryptography%29 salt] are not being used!

Player names are only protected by this password. For each player name there is also an elo-score, which is used to create a ranking. So essentially, it's in your own interest, to not give others the opportunity to play in your name, if you take an interest in this ranking system. On the public server, you can find the current ranking of the [[#Offical_server]] here: http://ufo2000.net/results.php.

===The Auto-login box===
Leave the autologin box emty. If you have autologin turned on, you can't change your name or the server-adress, unless you disable this first. Do this in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code> file in the ufo2000 game folder.

===Connecting to the server===
To login to the server press OK!

== Official server==
The first is the server location line.
It should say: '''ufo2000.net:2000''' if you want to login to the official UFO2000 game server. All players should log into this server, if available.

If you receive this message:

[[Image:Failconnect.jpg]]

it may be the case that the official server can't be reached currently. There might also be back-up [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers servers which you can play on].

==Backup Servers==
Change the first line of the login box to one of the following servers:
* <del>ufo2000.kostax.cz:2000</del>
* ufo2000.openxcom.com
* mobile-infanterie.gamersunitonline.net (contact: [mailto:7saturn@gmx.de 7saturn@gmx.de]),

to play on the back-up server. If you wanna setup your own server (for private use or as backup server for the community) have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

== Third Party chat program ==
There's also a third party software, that enables you, to be on the server for chatting, even during a match, called [http://www.7kplay.net/phpBB3/utto.php?sid=a7e3660e08227b95f9ea16791e64c36e UTTO].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Reactions

2015-12-09T18:55:21Z

7Saturn: /* Improvement */

Along with [[Time Units]], a unit's Reaction rating is one of the most vital resources a unit can have in combat. Reaction influences precedence - who gets priority to make their move. It is used offensively and defensively. The side that's currently issuing orders (the attacker) uses reactions to prevent opportunity shots while the waiting side (the defender) uses reactions to take shots of opportunity.

When two opposing units are within range of each other, the Reaction levels of both units are compared. The unit with the highest Reactions gets to make the move. If the defender is not aware of the attacker, no check is made. However, as soon as the defender is made aware of the attacker, a check is made and will then perform an attack of opportunity if the conditions for a reaction shot are satisfied. Note that if an attacker with lower reactions is exposed to a defender with high reaction due to the actions of another unit (such as shooting away a wall), the check is not made and the exposed attacker is not fired upon. However, the moment the exposed attacker moves, the defender will be able to obtain an attack of opportunity given the right conditions.

What is not common knowledge is how the overall reaction level of any given unit is also influenced by the percentage of the unit's remaining TUs! So say an alien has 100 reactions but only has 60% of its remaining TUs. Its actual Reaction level is really 60, not 100. If it takes a [[Shot Types#Snapshot|Snap Shot]], which costs 30% for any plasma weapon, the remaining TU percentage will drop to 30%, and so will the Reaction level. For more information, see [[Reaction fire formula]]. '' --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 10:51, 25 Apr 2005 (BST)

With this in mind, one could say that for the best opportunity attacks, end your turn with full TUs, wielding weapons with low snapshot costs. The [[Pistol]], [[Laser Pistol]], and [[Laser Rifle]] are by far the best weapons in the X-COM arsenal for attacks of opportunity. Still, these weapons (especially the standard pistol) may not be enough to take down e.g. Mutons. Adapt to your situation.

ALL UNITS react with [[Shot Types#Snapshot|Snap Shots]] ONLY.

For melee attacks, it is often best to use a [[Mind_Probe|mind probe]] to examine the stats of any alien that you wish to approach. By getting an overall impression of the alien's remaining TUs and its reaction level, you can get a good idea of how safe the alien will be to approach.

==Starting Values==
New recruits will always begin with a value between 30 and 60.

==Improvement==

Reaction points are awarded (at end of combat) depending on how many times you won a reaction trigger roll, e. g. took reaction shots. Missed reaction shots do count - all that matters is that you reacted. (Misses don't count for firing accuracy increases, though.) That also means, that reactions with prevented firing will count. If you won a reaction decision and your unit turns into the direction of the target for firing, but then is prevented from firing (no TUs left, weapon empty, no LOF), this ''still'' counts as a reaction, even though not one shot has been fired by this reaction trigger.

You can be awarded up to an average of 4 skill points (range 2-6) per combat mission if you make at least 11 reaction shots. The point award does not depend on your current skill level, only on the number of reactions. (However, the likelihood for a successful reaction trigger does depend on your current reaction skill, so the learning curve will grow steeper and steeper over time.) For more particulars on skill-point increases, see [[Experience#How_Experience_Points_Are_Applied|Experience]].

''Note:'' Although there are several area-effect weapons that can be fired with a reaction shot (stun bomb, auto and heavy cannon, rocket launcher), each reaction shot only gives you 1 point of reaction experience, even if the shot impacts numerous aliens. From the game's perspective, you were only reacting versus one particular alien. However, multiple hits from one reaction shot ''will'' give you multiple experience points toward ''[[Firing Accuracy|firing accuracy]]'' skill increase.

==Maximum Cap==
An X-COM soldier's Reactions are capped at 100. However, because you can get a +6 roll when at 99, a soldier can have up to 105 Reactions (if they're really lucky!). For more info, see [[Experience#Regarding_Caps|Regarding Caps]].

==See Also==
*[[Reaction_fire_formula|Reaction fire formula]]
*[[Reaction fire triggers]]
*[[Damage]]
*[[Experience#How_Experience_Points_Are_Applied|Experience]]
*Advanced skill increase techniques:
**[[Experience Training#Reactions training]]
**[[Reactions Training]]
**[[Laser Pistol Gifts]] (the basic firing squad technique)
**[[User_talk:MikeTheRed#Tips_on_Increasing_Skills|Tips on increasing skills]] (lots of minutiae on the firing squad technique)

{{Unit Stats Navbar}}
[[Category:Soldiers]]
[[Category:Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense]]

Reactions

2015-12-07T21:35:14Z

7Saturn: /* Improvement */

Along with [[Time Units]], a unit's Reaction rating is one of the most vital resources a unit can have in combat. Reaction influences precedence - who gets priority to make their move. It is used offensively and defensively. The side that's currently issuing orders (the attacker) uses reactions to prevent opportunity shots while the waiting side (the defender) uses reactions to take shots of opportunity.

When two opposing units are within range of each other, the Reaction levels of both units are compared. The unit with the highest Reactions gets to make the move. If the defender is not aware of the attacker, no check is made. However, as soon as the defender is made aware of the attacker, a check is made and will then perform an attack of opportunity if the conditions for a reaction shot are satisfied. Note that if an attacker with lower reactions is exposed to a defender with high reaction due to the actions of another unit (such as shooting away a wall), the check is not made and the exposed attacker is not fired upon. However, the moment the exposed attacker moves, the defender will be able to obtain an attack of opportunity given the right conditions.

What is not common knowledge is how the overall reaction level of any given unit is also influenced by the percentage of the unit's remaining TUs! So say an alien has 100 reactions but only has 60% of its remaining TUs. Its actual Reaction level is really 60, not 100. If it takes a [[Shot Types#Snapshot|Snap Shot]], which costs 30% for any plasma weapon, the remaining TU percentage will drop to 30%, and so will the Reaction level. For more information, see [[Reaction fire formula]]. '' --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 10:51, 25 Apr 2005 (BST)

With this in mind, one could say that for the best opportunity attacks, end your turn with full TUs, wielding weapons with low snapshot costs. The [[Pistol]], [[Laser Pistol]], and [[Laser Rifle]] are by far the best weapons in the X-COM arsenal for attacks of opportunity. Still, these weapons (especially the standard pistol) may not be enough to take down e.g. Mutons. Adapt to your situation.

ALL UNITS react with [[Shot Types#Snapshot|Snap Shots]] ONLY.

For melee attacks, it is often best to use a [[Mind_Probe|mind probe]] to examine the stats of any alien that you wish to approach. By getting an overall impression of the alien's remaining TUs and its reaction level, you can get a good idea of how safe the alien will be to approach.

==Starting Values==
New recruits will always begin with a value between 30 and 60.

==Improvement==

Reaction points are awarded (at end of combat) depending on how many times you won a reaction trigger dice roll, e. g. took reaction shots. Missed reaction shots do count - all that matters is that you reacted. (Misses don't count for firing accuracy increases, though.) That also means, that reactions with prevented firing will count. If you won a reaction decision and your unit turns into the direction of the target for firing, but then is prevented from firing (no TUs left, weapon empty, no LOF), this ''still'' counts as a reaction, even though not one shot has been fired by this reaction trigger.

You can be awarded up to an average of 4 skill points (range 2-6) per combat mission if you make at least 11 reaction shots. The point award does not depend on your current skill level, only on the number of reactions. (However, the likelihood for a successful reaction trigger does depend on your current reaction skill, so the learning curve will grow steeper and steeper over time.) For more particulars on skill-point increases, see [[Experience#How_Experience_Points_Are_Applied|Experience]].

''Note:'' Although there are several area-effect weapons that can be fired with a reaction shot (stun bomb, auto and heavy cannon, rocket launcher), each reaction shot only gives you 1 point of reaction experience, even if the shot impacts numerous aliens. From the game's perspective, you were only reacting versus one particular alien. However, multiple hits from one reaction shot ''will'' give you multiple experience points toward ''[[Firing Accuracy|firing accuracy]]'' skill increase.

==Maximum Cap==
An X-COM soldier's Reactions are capped at 100. However, because you can get a +6 roll when at 99, a soldier can have up to 105 Reactions (if they're really lucky!). For more info, see [[Experience#Regarding_Caps|Regarding Caps]].

==See Also==
*[[Reaction_fire_formula|Reaction fire formula]]
*[[Reaction fire triggers]]
*[[Damage]]
*[[Experience#How_Experience_Points_Are_Applied|Experience]]
*Advanced skill increase techniques:
**[[Experience Training#Reactions training]]
**[[Reactions Training]]
**[[Laser Pistol Gifts]] (the basic firing squad technique)
**[[User_talk:MikeTheRed#Tips_on_Increasing_Skills|Tips on increasing skills]] (lots of minutiae on the firing squad technique)

{{Unit Stats Navbar}}
[[Category:Soldiers]]
[[Category:Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense]]

Setting up an UFO2000 server

2015-11-17T10:38:32Z

7Saturn: /* Using the init-script */

In principle, for playing online, you ''do need'' an online server. Usually the public <code>ufo2000.net</code> server should do just fine. But maybe you want to set up a private server or a backup server.

==How to get the binary and what it brings with it==
In order to run your own server, you can either use the supplied [http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ufo2000/ufo2000-0.9.1176-beta.exe?download precompiled ufo2000.exe] from the [http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net project page], or for linux, you will need to compile it yourself. Don't worry, the latter is no big deal. You should have a look at the [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)#Compiling_the_server|compilation page]], then. The server brings a status-page with it, a tiny webserver, that only shows, who is logged on. If you use the standard port for it, the url is http://servername:2000.

==Starting and stopping==
You should have either the <code>ufo2000-srv.exe</code> (Windows) or the <code>ufo2000-srv</code> (Linux). You can either start it manually (stopping with CTRL+C) or let it be done by an init-script/the systems service-manager. For the moment, it is not recommended, to use the ''demonized''-mode, as there have been [http://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1799.msg40898.html#msg40898 reports of problems with that]. On piece of advice at this point: If you choose to run the server on a regular basis, e. g. on a root-server, ''you really should not run the server as root''. Better use an init-script, running it as a limited user. That way, it's far less dangerous, running the ufo2000-server. There are no known security issues, but usually the problems are the not known ones... If somebody may find any, the service run as root is ''a big security risk''. So keep that in mind, when running ufo2000 servers, or any other gaming server for that matter.

If you want the server to be a backup-server, '''don't forget to add it to [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers list]'''!
===Example init-script===
Heres an example for an init-script for starting the server on system start with Linux via V-Init:

#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: UFO2000 server management
# Required-Start:
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Controls the UFO2000 server
# Description: Nothing further
### END INIT INFO
# Author: 7Saturn <7Saturn@gmx.de>

# Aktionen

COMMANDLINE_PARAMETERS="" #any command line parameters you want to pass here
D1=$(readlink -f "$0")
BINARYPATH="/path-to/ufo2000server"
PIDFILE="ufo2000.pid"
SERVERUSER = "ufo2000"
cd "${BINARYPATH}"
LIBRARYPATH="$(pwd)"
BINARYNAME="ufo2000-srv"

case "$1" in
start)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "UFO2000 server already running, maybe try restart or stop!"
exit 1
else
echo "$PIDFILE found, but UFO2000 server doesn't run any more. Possibly crashed."
rm $PIDFILE
fi
fi
if [ "${UID}" = "0" ]; then
echo "Warning! It's not recommended, to run the server as root!"
fi
echo "Running UFO2000 server..."
if [ -e "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
if [ ! -x "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
echo "${BINARYNAME} is not executable, trying to change rights..."
chmod u+x "${BINARYNAME}"
fi
if [ -x "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${LIBRARYPATH}:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
sudo -u $SERVERUSER "./${BINARYNAME}" ${COMMANDLINE_PARAMETERS} > /dev/null 2>&1 &
echo $! > $PIDFILE
sudo chgrp $SERVERUSER $PIDFILE
sudo chown $SERVERUSER $PIDFILE
echo "UFO2000 server started."
else
echo "${BINARNAME} is not executable, UFO2000 server was NOT started!"
fi
else
echo "Server binary not found, aborting!"
exit 5
fi
;;
stop)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
echo -n "Stopping UFO2000 server."
if ( kill -TERM $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
c=1
while [ "$c" -le 300 ]; do
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo -n "."
sleep 1
else
break
fi
c=$((++c))
done
fi
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "Server couldn't cleanly stopped, killing process..."
kill -KILL $(cat $PIDFILE)
else
echo " server stopped."
fi
rm $PIDFILE
else
echo "UFO2000 server not running ($PIDFILE missing)."
exit 7
fi
;;
restart)
echo "Trying to start UFO2000 server..."
$D1 stop && $D1 start || exit 1
;;
status)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "UFO2000 server running."
else
echo "UFO2000 server seems to have crashed."
fi
else
echo "UFO2000 server isn't running ($PIDFILE missing)."
fi
;;
*)
echo "Usuage: ${0} {start|stop|restart|status}"
exit 2
esac
exit 0

===Using the init-script===
* Add the necessary additional user, dedicated to the ufo2000 service, e. g. <code>ufo2000</code>. The user doesn't need to be able to log in on that machine, it won't need to be part of additional groups for special permissions and it doesn't necessarily need a homefolder. It will only need the permissions to read and write inside the ufo2000 server folder.
* Adapt <code>SERVERUSER = ""</code>-line with the username, it should be run by. Do ''not'' use <code>root</code> for that.
* It should be placed in the folder <code>/etc/init.d/</code>.
* It has to be executable: <code>sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/<scriptname></code>.
* To register it as a script to be run, the command is: <code>sudo update-rc.d <scriptname> defaults</code>.
* To remove it, use <code>sudo update-rc.d -f <scriptname> remove</code>.

After that, the script can be used manually with <code>sudo service <scriptname> {start|stop|restart|status}</code>, but usually is run by the system itself during bootup.

==Ports and routers==
When running, the server automatically opens up a tiny web server, showing the current players on the server. You can reach it via <code>http://<server-adress>:2000</code>. The Port 2000 (TCP) is also the port, where the server listens for connections of the game. If you run it behind a NAT (e. g. used by most home routers), you will also need to forward that port to the computer, running the service.

==Configuration==
The file <code>ufo2000-srv.conf</code> contains a few options for configuration:

daemonize = 0
tcp_port = 2000
players_count_limit = 32
connections_count_limit = 64
login_time_limit = 10000
username_size_limit = 25
packet_size_limit = 65536

Most of it should be rather self explaining. As said before, for the moment better not use the <code>deamonize</code>-option.

==Stats and passwords==
===Stats===
There is a function for recording of results of all played games. These results are saved in the file <code>ufo2000.db</code>. To query this file, e. g. with a php-script, you need access to it, provided by php. You will need to install php for use with an apache server. Usually, this is already the case. You will also need the pdo drivers for the query itself. On Ubuntu 14.04 you can install the required files with this:

sudo apt-get install php5-sqlite sqlite

From that on, you can build your own server stats-page.

===Passwords===
All users connecting to the server, will have the opportunity to choose a password, when connecting the first time with a certain user name. This password will remain! It's saved as a MD5-hash, and can only be changed by manipulating the database-table <code>ufo2000_users</code>. You can either delete a user completely, or let him give you a new password-hash. The user has no way of changing it himself and you won't have any means of recovering a lost password, as there are only hashes in the table.

==Logs==
The file <code>ufo2000-srv.log</code> contains server logs. If you experience problems, first look there, to further isolate the problem.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Setting up an UFO2000 server

2015-11-17T10:33:35Z

7Saturn: /* Starting and stopping */

In principle, for playing online, you ''do need'' an online server. Usually the public <code>ufo2000.net</code> server should do just fine. But maybe you want to set up a private server or a backup server.

==How to get the binary and what it brings with it==
In order to run your own server, you can either use the supplied [http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ufo2000/ufo2000-0.9.1176-beta.exe?download precompiled ufo2000.exe] from the [http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net project page], or for linux, you will need to compile it yourself. Don't worry, the latter is no big deal. You should have a look at the [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)#Compiling_the_server|compilation page]], then. The server brings a status-page with it, a tiny webserver, that only shows, who is logged on. If you use the standard port for it, the url is http://servername:2000.

==Starting and stopping==
You should have either the <code>ufo2000-srv.exe</code> (Windows) or the <code>ufo2000-srv</code> (Linux). You can either start it manually (stopping with CTRL+C) or let it be done by an init-script/the systems service-manager. For the moment, it is not recommended, to use the ''demonized''-mode, as there have been [http://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1799.msg40898.html#msg40898 reports of problems with that]. On piece of advice at this point: If you choose to run the server on a regular basis, e. g. on a root-server, ''you really should not run the server as root''. Better use an init-script, running it as a limited user. That way, it's far less dangerous, running the ufo2000-server. There are no known security issues, but usually the problems are the not known ones... If somebody may find any, the service run as root is ''a big security risk''. So keep that in mind, when running ufo2000 servers, or any other gaming server for that matter.

If you want the server to be a backup-server, '''don't forget to add it to [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers list]'''!
===Example init-script===
Heres an example for an init-script for starting the server on system start with Linux via V-Init:

#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: UFO2000 server management
# Required-Start:
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Controls the UFO2000 server
# Description: Nothing further
### END INIT INFO
# Author: 7Saturn <7Saturn@gmx.de>

# Aktionen

COMMANDLINE_PARAMETERS="" #any command line parameters you want to pass here
D1=$(readlink -f "$0")
BINARYPATH="/path-to/ufo2000server"
PIDFILE="ufo2000.pid"
SERVERUSER = "ufo2000"
cd "${BINARYPATH}"
LIBRARYPATH="$(pwd)"
BINARYNAME="ufo2000-srv"

case "$1" in
start)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "UFO2000 server already running, maybe try restart or stop!"
exit 1
else
echo "$PIDFILE found, but UFO2000 server doesn't run any more. Possibly crashed."
rm $PIDFILE
fi
fi
if [ "${UID}" = "0" ]; then
echo "Warning! It's not recommended, to run the server as root!"
fi
echo "Running UFO2000 server..."
if [ -e "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
if [ ! -x "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
echo "${BINARYNAME} is not executable, trying to change rights..."
chmod u+x "${BINARYNAME}"
fi
if [ -x "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${LIBRARYPATH}:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
sudo -u $SERVERUSER "./${BINARYNAME}" ${COMMANDLINE_PARAMETERS} > /dev/null 2>&1 &
echo $! > $PIDFILE
sudo chgrp $SERVERUSER $PIDFILE
sudo chown $SERVERUSER $PIDFILE
echo "UFO2000 server started."
else
echo "${BINARNAME} is not executable, UFO2000 server was NOT started!"
fi
else
echo "Server binary not found, aborting!"
exit 5
fi
;;
stop)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
echo -n "Stopping UFO2000 server."
if ( kill -TERM $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
c=1
while [ "$c" -le 300 ]; do
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo -n "."
sleep 1
else
break
fi
c=$((++c))
done
fi
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "Server couldn't cleanly stopped, killing process..."
kill -KILL $(cat $PIDFILE)
else
echo " server stopped."
fi
rm $PIDFILE
else
echo "UFO2000 server not running ($PIDFILE missing)."
exit 7
fi
;;
restart)
echo "Trying to start UFO2000 server..."
$D1 stop && $D1 start || exit 1
;;
status)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "UFO2000 server running."
else
echo "UFO2000 server seems to have crashed."
fi
else
echo "UFO2000 server isn't running ($PIDFILE missing)."
fi
;;
*)
echo "Usuage: ${0} {start|stop|restart|status}"
exit 2
esac
exit 0

===Using the init-script===
* Replace <code><username></code> with the username, it should be run as. Do ''not'' use root for that. Better use an additional user, e.g. <code>ufo2kuser</code>. The user doesn't need the privileges to login locally.
* It should be placed in the folder <code>/etc/init.d/</code>.
* It has to be executable: <code>sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/<scriptname></code>.
* To register it as a script to be run, the command is: <code>sudo update-rc.d <scriptname> defaults</code>.
* To remove it, use <code>sudo update-rc.d -f <scriptname> remove</code>.

After that, the script can be used manually with <code>sudo service <scriptname> {start|stop|restart|status}</code>, but usually is run by the system itself.

==Ports and routers==
When running, the server automatically opens up a tiny web server, showing the current players on the server. You can reach it via <code>http://<server-adress>:2000</code>. The Port 2000 (TCP) is also the port, where the server listens for connections of the game. If you run it behind a NAT (e. g. used by most home routers), you will also need to forward that port to the computer, running the service.

==Configuration==
The file <code>ufo2000-srv.conf</code> contains a few options for configuration:

daemonize = 0
tcp_port = 2000
players_count_limit = 32
connections_count_limit = 64
login_time_limit = 10000
username_size_limit = 25
packet_size_limit = 65536

Most of it should be rather self explaining. As said before, for the moment better not use the <code>deamonize</code>-option.

==Stats and passwords==
===Stats===
There is a function for recording of results of all played games. These results are saved in the file <code>ufo2000.db</code>. To query this file, e. g. with a php-script, you need access to it, provided by php. You will need to install php for use with an apache server. Usually, this is already the case. You will also need the pdo drivers for the query itself. On Ubuntu 14.04 you can install the required files with this:

sudo apt-get install php5-sqlite sqlite

From that on, you can build your own server stats-page.

===Passwords===
All users connecting to the server, will have the opportunity to choose a password, when connecting the first time with a certain user name. This password will remain! It's saved as a MD5-hash, and can only be changed by manipulating the database-table <code>ufo2000_users</code>. You can either delete a user completely, or let him give you a new password-hash. The user has no way of changing it himself and you won't have any means of recovering a lost password, as there are only hashes in the table.

==Logs==
The file <code>ufo2000-srv.log</code> contains server logs. If you experience problems, first look there, to further isolate the problem.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Setting up an UFO2000 server

2015-11-17T10:31:30Z

7Saturn: /* Example init-script */

In principle, for playing online, you ''do need'' an online server. Usually the public <code>ufo2000.net</code> server should do just fine. But maybe you want to set up a private server or a backup server.

==How to get the binary and what it brings with it==
In order to run your own server, you can either use the supplied [http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ufo2000/ufo2000-0.9.1176-beta.exe?download precompiled ufo2000.exe] from the [http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net project page], or for linux, you will need to compile it yourself. Don't worry, the latter is no big deal. You should have a look at the [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)#Compiling_the_server|compilation page]], then. The server brings a status-page with it, a tiny webserver, that only shows, who is logged on. If you use the standard port for it, the url is http://servername:2000.

==Starting and stopping==
You should have either the <code>ufo2000-srv.exe</code> (Windows) or the <code>ufo2000-srv</code> (Linux). You can either start it manually (stopping with CTRL+C) or let it be done by an init-script/the systems service-manager. For the moment, it is not recommended, to use the ''demonized''-mode, as there have been [http://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1799.msg40898.html#msg40898 reports of problems with that]. On piece of advice at this point: If you choose to run the server on a regular basis, e. g. on a root-server, ''you really should not run the server as root''. Better use an init-script, running it as a limited user. That way, it's far less dangerous, running the ufo2000-server. There are no known security issues, but the problem usually are the not known one. If somebody may find any, the service run as root is ''a big security risk''. So keep that in mind, when running ufo2000 servers, or any other gaming server for that matter.

If you want the server to be a backup-server, '''don't forget to add it to [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers list]'''!
===Example init-script===
Heres an example for an init-script for starting the server on system start with Linux via V-Init:

#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: UFO2000 server management
# Required-Start:
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Controls the UFO2000 server
# Description: Nothing further
### END INIT INFO
# Author: 7Saturn <7Saturn@gmx.de>

# Aktionen

COMMANDLINE_PARAMETERS="" #any command line parameters you want to pass here
D1=$(readlink -f "$0")
BINARYPATH="/path-to/ufo2000server"
PIDFILE="ufo2000.pid"
SERVERUSER = "ufo2000"
cd "${BINARYPATH}"
LIBRARYPATH="$(pwd)"
BINARYNAME="ufo2000-srv"

case "$1" in
start)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "UFO2000 server already running, maybe try restart or stop!"
exit 1
else
echo "$PIDFILE found, but UFO2000 server doesn't run any more. Possibly crashed."
rm $PIDFILE
fi
fi
if [ "${UID}" = "0" ]; then
echo "Warning! It's not recommended, to run the server as root!"
fi
echo "Running UFO2000 server..."
if [ -e "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
if [ ! -x "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
echo "${BINARYNAME} is not executable, trying to change rights..."
chmod u+x "${BINARYNAME}"
fi
if [ -x "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${LIBRARYPATH}:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
sudo -u $SERVERUSER "./${BINARYNAME}" ${COMMANDLINE_PARAMETERS} > /dev/null 2>&1 &
echo $! > $PIDFILE
sudo chgrp $SERVERUSER $PIDFILE
sudo chown $SERVERUSER $PIDFILE
echo "UFO2000 server started."
else
echo "${BINARNAME} is not executable, UFO2000 server was NOT started!"
fi
else
echo "Server binary not found, aborting!"
exit 5
fi
;;
stop)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
echo -n "Stopping UFO2000 server."
if ( kill -TERM $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
c=1
while [ "$c" -le 300 ]; do
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo -n "."
sleep 1
else
break
fi
c=$((++c))
done
fi
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "Server couldn't cleanly stopped, killing process..."
kill -KILL $(cat $PIDFILE)
else
echo " server stopped."
fi
rm $PIDFILE
else
echo "UFO2000 server not running ($PIDFILE missing)."
exit 7
fi
;;
restart)
echo "Trying to start UFO2000 server..."
$D1 stop && $D1 start || exit 1
;;
status)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "UFO2000 server running."
else
echo "UFO2000 server seems to have crashed."
fi
else
echo "UFO2000 server isn't running ($PIDFILE missing)."
fi
;;
*)
echo "Usuage: ${0} {start|stop|restart|status}"
exit 2
esac
exit 0

===Using the init-script===
* Replace <code><username></code> with the username, it should be run as. Do ''not'' use root for that. Better use an additional user, e.g. <code>ufo2kuser</code>. The user doesn't need the privileges to login locally.
* It should be placed in the folder <code>/etc/init.d/</code>.
* It has to be executable: <code>sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/<scriptname></code>.
* To register it as a script to be run, the command is: <code>sudo update-rc.d <scriptname> defaults</code>.
* To remove it, use <code>sudo update-rc.d -f <scriptname> remove</code>.

After that, the script can be used manually with <code>sudo service <scriptname> {start|stop|restart|status}</code>, but usually is run by the system itself.

==Ports and routers==
When running, the server automatically opens up a tiny web server, showing the current players on the server. You can reach it via <code>http://<server-adress>:2000</code>. The Port 2000 (TCP) is also the port, where the server listens for connections of the game. If you run it behind a NAT (e. g. used by most home routers), you will also need to forward that port to the computer, running the service.

==Configuration==
The file <code>ufo2000-srv.conf</code> contains a few options for configuration:

daemonize = 0
tcp_port = 2000
players_count_limit = 32
connections_count_limit = 64
login_time_limit = 10000
username_size_limit = 25
packet_size_limit = 65536

Most of it should be rather self explaining. As said before, for the moment better not use the <code>deamonize</code>-option.

==Stats and passwords==
===Stats===
There is a function for recording of results of all played games. These results are saved in the file <code>ufo2000.db</code>. To query this file, e. g. with a php-script, you need access to it, provided by php. You will need to install php for use with an apache server. Usually, this is already the case. You will also need the pdo drivers for the query itself. On Ubuntu 14.04 you can install the required files with this:

sudo apt-get install php5-sqlite sqlite

From that on, you can build your own server stats-page.

===Passwords===
All users connecting to the server, will have the opportunity to choose a password, when connecting the first time with a certain user name. This password will remain! It's saved as a MD5-hash, and can only be changed by manipulating the database-table <code>ufo2000_users</code>. You can either delete a user completely, or let him give you a new password-hash. The user has no way of changing it himself and you won't have any means of recovering a lost password, as there are only hashes in the table.

==Logs==
The file <code>ufo2000-srv.log</code> contains server logs. If you experience problems, first look there, to further isolate the problem.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Server (UFO2000)

2015-11-16T23:42:23Z

7Saturn: /* Back-up Servers */

=Logging in to the game server=

==The server connecting screen==
Pressing "connect to internet server" will take you to the server connection screen. In this screen you will see a login box with three lines:

[[Image:Serverconnect.jpg]]

===Your player name for your account===
In the second line »Login:« you have to enter your desired player name. In the picture above this is Mister Kill. A maximum of 16 characters is set for your player name. Player names are case sensitive. So it makes a difference, if you login as killah or Killah.

===The password for your player name account===
The third line is the password line. Enter your desired password here. '''BEWARE!''' There is '''NO WAY OF RETREIVING a lost password''' so write it down! Also be sure not to use any valuable passwords with this service, as they are only saved as a plain MD5-hash. Techniques such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_%28cryptography%29 salt] are not being used!

Player names are only protected by this password. For each player name there is also an elo-score, which is used to create a ranking. So essentially, it's in your own interest, to not give others the opportunity to play in your name, if you take an interest in this ranking system. On the public server, you can find the current ranking of the [[#Offical_server]] here: http://ufo2000.net/results.php.

===The Auto-login box===
Leave the autologin box emty. If you have autologin turned on, you can't change your name or the server-adress, unless you disable this first. Do this in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code> file in the ufo2000 game folder.

===Connecting to the server===
To login to the server press OK!

== Official server==
The first is the server location line.
It should say: '''ufo2000.net:2000''' if you want to login to the official UFO2000 game server. All players should log into this server, if available.

If you receive this message:

[[Image:Failconnect.jpg]]

it may be the case that the official server can't be reached currently. There might also be back-up [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers servers which you can play on].

==Back-up Servers==
Change the first line of the login box to one of the following servers:
* <del>ufo2000.kostax.cz:2000</del>
* ufo2000.openxcom.com
* mobile-infanterie.gamersunitonline.net (will only be online on request for a shot period of time, contact: [mailto:7saturn@gmx.de 7saturn@gmx.de])

to play on the back-up server. If you wanna setup your own server (for private use or as backup server for the community) have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

== Third Party chat program ==
There's also a third party software, that enables you, to be on the server for chatting, even during a match, called [http://www.7kplay.net/phpBB3/utto.php?sid=a7e3660e08227b95f9ea16791e64c36e UTTO].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

User talk:MikeTheRed

2015-09-14T14:35:09Z

7Saturn: /* Tips on Increasing Skills */

Here be more detail than you ever wanted to know. Please put comments/questions in italics. If you want an email reply, please use the "Email this user" link in the lower left panel.

= The Experience of Experience =
''A.K.A. more details than you ever wanted to know, about testing XCOM:UD 1.4 experience counters versus stat increases''

My observations under [[Experience#How_Experience_Points_Are_Applied|Experience]] are getting incredibly long-winded. And at the same time, I am doing yet more research on it. So I've made this space to put levels of detail that are way more than a casual player is interested in. I will probably move some stuff out of Experience and over to here as I polish the info.

== My Test Setup ==

For my testing, I have a MS Access VBA module that sucks in a savegame and compares it to another one (from before the combat). I [[HackerTools|edit]] experience counters (offsets 80-85 in [[UNITREF.DAT]]) and soldier stats (bytes 43-62 in [[SOLDIER.DAT]]) from a savegame ready to be ended (a Muton base with 16 soldiers standing in the entry area). Although it took weeks of futzing with Access to get it set up nicely, now that it's done, I can generate each combat-mission skill-point result in as quickly as I can load a savegame, end the mission, and then savegame on the geoscape (approx. 15 seconds). As of this writing, I have 4,544 individual soldier results (a.k.a. 284 savegame results at 16 soldiers each). This was for 11 different configurations of experience counters and soldier stats, as I zeroed in on different questions to ask (an average of about 25 savegames per configuration).

[[Image:XcomPsiLabIncreases.gif|thumb|right|300px|Psi Lab end-of-month increases vs. Psi Skill]]FWIW, the [[Psionic Skill#Improvement|Psi Lab training]] tests were way easier than combat-mission experience-vs.-skill-point tests. For three reasons: 1) I only had 16 soldiers in my base combat-mission scenario, whereas I could use all 250 soldiers when testing the Lab. (It took a lot of manual Soldier.Dat hacking, though!) 2) The Psi Lab results were much more simple and clear vs. combat results, as the wiki shows. Finally, 3) only one stat was being looked at, whereas combat results can affect 9 stats, each of which has to be examined in its own way. For the Psi Lab tests, I quickly generated 8,500 datapoints (34 savegames) and within just two different savegame configurations, it's behavior was [[Psionic Skill#Improvement|crystal clear]]. (I didn't include these 8,500 results in the 4,544 counts I mentioned for combat results, of course.)

I'm happy to share my MS Access setup with anybody that wants it; just send [[User:MikeTheRed|me]] an email. But you are warned - it's all home grown code. I'll walk you through it, but you have to do it exactly right... there ain't no user manual or Help routines for this baby! You coders know what I mean. Also, just so you know... the only thing it does relative to game files, is read Soldier.Dat. It doesn't touch any other file, and it doesn't write to anything (except itself, of course). I did all my Soldier and Unitref hacking by hand.

FWIW, at first I used [[HackerTools|Hex Workshop]] to hack Soldier and Unitref (thanks Danial!), but lately I've only been using EDIT... I couldn't figure out a way to make HW "remember" where to place its structure overlays, and it's a hassle to place them back on all 16 soldiers every time I use it. (If anybody knows a way to get HW to remember where they should be placed, let me know!) In the long run, I find it easier to just scroll through Soldier or Unitref with EDIT. Either way is real work, but at least with EDIT, it's "just show me the #$@!$ bytes!" I also wish HW had a wider data view (with smaller fonts for it) and would let you re-arrange the fields shown in the structure overlay in whatever order you want (i.e., one that makes more sense for my purposes than their somewhat scattered layout).

== Testing Skill Point Increase ==

For anyone who's interested in testing combat mission experience vs. resulting skill point increases:

*You only need to edit the experience counters in UNITREF, and the soldier stat values in SOLDIER. That is to say, XCOM does not carry the soldier stat values in UNITREF back to the geoscape... it just re-reads them out of SOLDIER. So stats in UNITREF are "read only" (for that combat only) and lost when combat ends. The "Kills" variable is the only value I know of in UNITREF that's directly carried forward into the geoscape, although other things like experience counters (for skill increase) and health (for hospitalization) indirectly carry forward / affect values in the geoscape.

== Another Look at Primary Point Increases ==

Here's [[Experience#Primary_Stats|another]] way to look at primary stat increases:

Sorted on Number of Actions Sorted on AvePtInc/Actions

Average AvePtInc/ AvePtInc/
Actions Pt.Inc. Delta Actions Actions Actions
1 +0.5 +0.5 +0.500 3 +0.667
2 +0.5 - +0.250 1 +0.500
3 +2.0 +1.5 +0.667 4 +0.500
4 +2.0 - +0.500 6 +0.417
5 +2.0 - +0.400 5 +0.400
6 +2.5 +0.5 +0.417 11 +0.364
7 +2.5 - +0.357 7 +0.357
8 +2.5 - +0.313 8 +0.313
9 +2.5 - +0.278 9 +0.278
10 +2.5 - +0.250 2 +0.250
11 +4.0 +1.5 +0.364 10 +0.250
Average Point Increase (Ave.Pt.Inc.) shows the average number of primary skill points earned relative to primary actions taken. Delta shows the difference in skill points earned, from one action to the next. Note that many actions are "wasted" in the sense they cause no further skill points - unless, of course, you get all the way to the next breakpoint. This is especially critical when only a limited number of actions are available to your crew (i.e., only so many shots aliens can take before they're all dead). Finally Average Point Increase Per Actions Taken is the Average Point Increase divided by Actions for that same row. When the table on the left is sorted on this latter column (on the right), you can more clearly see how e.g. 10 actions is a bad idea, unless it gets you to 11. (And anything over 11 is truly wasted.) Note that 1 or 2 actions did not actually earn the expected 0.5 points in my testing - see next section.

== Non-Randomness in Primaries ==

This section only applies to [[Experience#Primary_Stats|primary]] skill increases:

When I've talked about experience rolls, I've made it sound like you always get the average (halfway between the ranges). But this is definitely not the case, especially when there are very few experience points (EPs) in [[UNITREF.DAT|UNITREF]] offsets 80-85. Specifically, when there are only 1 or 2 primary actions - the first 'step' for primary skill points - I saw very weird, non-random stuff. Example: I would set up 16 soldiers, with only 1 or 2 EPs for each soldier. When I ended the combat, the skill point range was undeniably 0-1. But far more often than not, the 16 soldiers in my test crew would all get 0 skill points, all across the board. Then every now and then they would all get 1 skill point, all across the board. And even less often, there would be a mix of 0s and 1s in the results. The actual average increase was about 0.33 points, not the 0.5 points I wrote in [[Experience#Primary_Stats|Experience]]. (Individual stat averages for first step: Psi Skill 0.18, Firing Acc 0.53, Reactions 0.18, Throw Acc 0.81, Melee Acc 0.19; average across all: 0.33. This is with 400-900 samples per stat average.) To this day, I cannot get a handle on what is triggering them to all be 0 or 1. It's not influenced by total experience counters, number of other types of experience gained, or secondary points awarded. My best guess is that it is based on some high-level bit mask over the system clock, because it seems to come and go in unpredictable spurts. (If this is true, it's possible that my [http://dosbox.sourceforge.net DosBox] wrapper is messing with the results. But then, it would be for anyone using DosBox.) Then again, stuff that comes and goes in unpredictable spurts could be almost anything. I did my testing by reloading and combat-ending only about a dozen different hacked combat-mission savegames (as I zeroed in on issues to test) hundreds of times in sum total, so I can never be sure my problems weren't caused by the simple fact that I was reloading a few games many times, instead of racking up experience points au natural, where some unknown randomness seed might be being kept / ticked away.

Anyway, I kept the main wiki summary simple, and just strongly advised people to try to get at least three primary actions. Although 1-2 actions was weird, by 3 actions I saw little non-randomness. More precisely, I saw some non-randomness, such as all stats getting the exact same result for several tests in a row. Melee was oddly low at its third step, averaging 1.99 instead of 2.5 (n=744). But in general, when summarized across any larger n (100+ datapoints), the summary stats were almost always very close to the expected average of the range. So, there was a little bit of weirdness at 3+ actions... but it was nothing like at 1-2 actions.

== Secondary "Steps" ==

In the wiki on [[Experience#Secondary_Stats|secondary]] stats, I said that there is an even slope for secondary skill point gains, from an average of 4 (range 0-8) at (hacked) secondary level 0, to an average of 1 (range 0-2) at Cap-1. That was a simplification, to keep the wiki short. In actuality, it's like this:

The three stats TUs, Health, and Strength have a maximum range that increases by 1 at every increment of 10, working backward from the cap. Stamina - that high-winded beast - increases at multiples of 15. This follows the usual X-COM approach of defining a range and rolling randomly within it. So a graph of the maximum range of points possible vs. current stat level looks like this:

[[Image:SecondaryPointRangeMaxima.gif|Maximum point ranges secondary stat increases]]

Thus e.g. TUs has a range max of 2 from stat level 71-79 (80 is the cap), 3 from 61-70, 4 from 51-60, etc. TUs, Health, and Strength work backward in increments of 10, but Stamina has steps 15 stat points wide. So it has a range max of 2 from stat level level 86-99, 3 from 71-85, etc.

(All secondary skills have a range minimum of 0 across their span; it's entirely possible to not get an increase in a secondary skill after a combat. So on average, you expect to get half the range maximum.)

Interestingly, at (hacked) stat level=0, Stamina and Health can get 8 points assigned (like I said in the [[Experience#Secondary_Stats|wiki]]), but Strength can get 9 points, and TUs can get 10. Then all of them quickly drop the range to 1 point less, at level=1 (except Stamina, working backwards in steps of 15).

So this step function means that the "even slope" I talked about is not quite correct, nor are the averages that I put in that table for each level (those are based on a linear slope equation instead of half of that step's range maximum, which is what the true case is). Still, it's a very good simplification, especially when you're talking about the average number of CMs to go from e.g. Recruit Max to Cap. So I kept the wiki shorter by not going into the level of detail shown here.

= Tips on Increasing Skills =

Here are more tips (too much detail for the wiki!) for increasing stats with the popular "firing squad" tactic. For anyone not familiar with it, here's how it works. First, you have to have good psi soldiers in powered/flying armor. Then:
#Mind control all the aliens, and gather them in one spot
#Line up your guys a la a firing squad
#Give one or two aliens a laser pistol
#Kill everybody via reaction shots with something weak like the standard-issue pistol
This has the advantage of increasing psi, firing, and reaction skills all at once. The weak pistol lets you make more hits before you kill them; only hits count toward Firing Accuracy increase (not Kills per se). Mutons are by far the best for this, because they are relatively thick skinned but mainly because they have a ton of hit points. And their friends the silacoids are almost (but not quite) invulnerable to the little popgun at higher difficulty levels than Beginner, due to higher alien armor levels (see [[Kill Modelling]]).

Some tips, then. Veteran players will know most of these (except the first one), but newbies may not:
#Notice that the standard pistol carries 12 rounds - and that it takes 11 actions to get the best roll possible (2-6) for a skill increase. So if your soldiers have shot a full clip, stop having them react-fire, and let other guys who haven't used up their clip (or haven't had a go at all yet) shoot. (Or stop them when they have 1 bullet left, if you want.) Reaction firing counts toward a Reaction increase even if you miss, so counting bullets is an easy way to track it. Once they've used a clip, it's time to let low Firing-Accuracy guys get 3 or 11 non-reaction, sure hits (the primary-skill [[Experience#Primary_Stats|breakpoints]]) to increase their Firing Accuracy. That is, if you haven't been keeping tracking of everybody's hits (a challenging thing to do).
#If some of your soldiers have very low reaction levels (less than 50, or especially less than 40), others are liable to shoot before them. In severe situations, all aliens may be killed before your low-reaction guys fire at all. Assuming you want to build their reaction skill(!), make sure low-reaction guys do get to fire off their whole clip, even if they're the last one with any bullets left in the firing squad. They're the ones that need it most. There's no rush with larger UFOs (see the Alien Deployment counts for [[UFOs]])... Mutons take approx. 13 hits to kill at Beginner difficulty level, and 34 hits at higher levels (see [[Kill Modelling]]). Or let your low-reaction guys shoot first, if it won't take much to kill all the targets. In the long run, consider rejecting recruits with Reaction under 50 or especially 40. (You'll have plenty of money by the time you've got good Psi.)
#Oddly, every now and then, your soldiers will get a higher reaction experience count, than reaction shots they have made. I've seen soldiers with 15 in [[UNITREF.DAT|Unitref]][80] when they had only reaction-shot one clip of 12 bullets. The extra counts occur right when an alien dies (or is knocked unconcious), in a situation where more than one of your soldiers could've reaction fired. Apparently all your soldiers's reactions are "queued" and the next guy's reaction counter is ticked before it checks whether the alien is still up. It only happens if there's an extra guy's reaction queued who didn't get to fire, so the more guys you have, the more likely it is that the alien won't be killed or knocked out by the last guy shooting. Thus, you have the potential to get extra reaction counts up to the number of aliens killed, although just who will get them (if you have a lot of shooters) is anybody's guess. Unless you peak at Unitref and see exactly who did get it. There's not much you can do with this factoid, but there it is. ''Update:'' Additional limited testing shows that soldiers with lower reactions (relative to others shooting) tend to get the extra Reaction experience. This supports the idea that it's a reaction queue at work - soldiers with lower reactions will be toward the end of the queue, and more likely to have an alien killed before they shoot.
#If you're really serious about increasing skills as evenly as possible, you can put aliens up for execution one at a time. And if you're insanely serious, it can be mano a mano versus one soldier at a time. This is the best way to keep track of number of hits your guys have made. But it's incredibly tedious work and can take a grueling hour or more vs. mutons. It's WAY funner to just line everybody up and let the lead fly!
#If you are counting hits, it's easier if you have some distance to your target and a wide open space behind them. (Not against a wall or the edge of the map.) This way, some of your misses will clearly keep going past the target. With a wall or map edge, though, it can be harder to tell what hit and what didn't. (And if you're right next to them, you sometimes miss into the ground, which can be hard to judge as a hit or miss.)
#Perversely, it's easier to hit, if you're right next to the target. Due to how, even though there are stated accuracies, etc., if you're right next to them, even calculated misses may very well still intersect them. But it will also be harder to detect if you missed because you'll e.g. shoot directly into the ground sometimes. Shrug.
#If you have a lot of Mutons lined up, you don't need to worry about some of the above. Especially reaction shots... all of your crew should easily be able to get 11+ reactions. Half your crew should be able to get 11+ hits, especially if you do the next item, to make sure you spread them evenly...
#The truly dedicated can save the game and [[HackerTools|peek]] at the [[UNITREF.DAT|UNITREF]] experience counters, offsets 80-85. As long as you don't hack the file, it ain't cheating. It's a sure way to know exactly how folks are doing, including for psi. Just be sure to close your hex editor before saving your game! Otherwise the editor may "lock" the file and it won't actually be written (but XCOM won't complain!). Maybe I'll make an applet that reads them on demand... anyone interested?
#Along these lines, shots do count as hits (to increase Firing Accuracy) if your soldier aimed/reacted at one alien, but hit another. Any hit on any alien counts.
#But of course, not if they're currently mind controlled. They are considered "friendlies" then, and hits on friendlies don't increase your score. So don't mix MC'd with non-MC'd aliens, if some of your guys are liable to reaction fire on un-friendlies. Either MC everybody or nobody, in that case.
#Another reason to MC all aliens or none, is because uncontrolled aliens will target MC'd aliens. They know who has the least armor, making for their best shot - and it'll be friendly aliens, all of whose armor is less than your power/flying armor.
#One way to avoid reaction shots by your guys into a mixed crowd of non/MC'd aliens, is to turn your shooters around for a turn. And a way to (sometimes) keep an MC'd alien from shooting unfriendly ones, is to turn that alien around. And possibly just MC the aliens right next to him, blocking the view of farther, enemy ones (if they're all in a line).
#It's said that powered armor and flying suits are safe from laser pistols. This is only partly true. [[Laser_Pistol|Laser pistols]] (LPs) do an average of 46 laser [[damage]], but this can be up to twice as high (92). XCOM [[Equipment (EU)|armor]] is as follows:
Front Sides Rear Under
Coveralls 12 8 5 2
Personal 50 40 30 30
Powered 100 80 70 60
Flying 110 90 80 70
#As you can see, even the sides of Flying Armor can take damage from a LP (although only ~2% of the time, and very light damage at that). LP shots in the back won't give you a deep wound (up to 12 damage), but they can put you in the [[Recovery_time|hospital]] for a week or three. So be careful, especially about moving so as to turn your back (giving an alien a reaction shot). They WILL target your back or under armor! They know where your weaknesses are.
#Be careful of using silicoids, celatids, and other critters with built-in weapons for reaction-fire target practice. Sometimes they won't shoot you, but you never know! Get them out of the way first with directed fire by low FA guys. (And keep track of their hits!) ''Psst: Did you know the [[celatid]] has a very limited range?
#Large [[Alien_Life_Forms|aliens]] (sectopods, reapers, and cyberdiscs) do weird things when MC'd. You're only MC'ing one-fourth of them, so the rest "takes over" and basically, it's not MC'd. (Has anybody ever tried MC'ing all four quarters??) You wouldn't want to try it with sectopods and cyberdiscs (cuz they can shoot), but with the floaters' pet reaper, you can still use them for target practice. You just have to keep moving reapers farther away than they can run to you, each round. And hope your hits land on their non-MC'd quarters. (Maybe you should MC their butt instead of their head, since they'll run toward you??) I haven't actually tested this vs. the experience counter, but I presume it's true. You can probably get a lot of reaction-fire experience (even on a floater mission - floaters die like flies), since it will take many pistol shots to take down a reaper at long distance. [[User:7Saturn|7Saturn]] ([[User talk:7Saturn|talk]]) 10:30, 14 September 2015 (EDT) ''The fun part is, that you still can do another MC on one of the remaining parts and get their starting stats again. So in essence, you can let them run four times as far, as if conventional MC of the whole unit took place. But partial MC will not keep a Cyberdisc or Sectopod from shooting itself or any other of your units, when reaction fire triggering kicks in. MC'ing their butt instead of their head won't help that, as it's not about the used graphics but the part that is being controlled. The upper right corner will stay MCed, even when you turn the unit. So better wait until it's the next round for you, if you want to have a clear shot. This also means, you can make a Cyberdisc or a Sectopod shoot itself. As they don't make a very good training unit this way, shooting them is rather usefull, especially with sectopods, as they have autoshot. Take care, none of your soldiers is near, as Cyberdiscs explode and Sectopods will finish their auto shot, even when kill by the very first shot. So the remaining shots might end up, where you don't want them to.''
#You might have considered stun-rodding (SRing) aliens, to increase your [[Experience#Melee_hits|Melee Accuracy]]. Then, revive them to SR again, or shoot. But the SR can put up to 65 [[Unconscious|unconscious]] points on them, which can take forever to revive with a [[Medi-Kit|medkit]] (or even use up all your med supplies without being revived). So Melee Accuracy is not a very viable skill to develop. We'd all much rather build our Firing Accuracy and Reaction, than this <s>obtuse</s> irrelevant-in-UFO skill! It might be more important in TFTD, though.
#In case you hadn't noticed - Aliens that have no weapons and have nowhere to go within one turn that's out of your line of sight, rarely move at all (except to turn/look around sometimes). Which is to say, you don't have to MC them if you don't want to (or don't need any more psi experience) - they aren't going anywhere. But keep in mind that if they see just one of you, they know where all your men are. And so they always know if there is anywhere that even one of them can go run and hide. The sneaky little sh$ts!
#Enemy units never get [[Fatal_Wounds|fatal wounds]] - but friendly units can. And MC'd aliens are considered friendly. So if you accidentally hit MC'd aliens, you have to check them for wounds. (Yet another reason to MC all or none, so you don't reaction-fire into a pack of mixed ones.) Here's where I got another of XCOM's many little "surprises": I was marching a lot of aliens back to their base's exit zone while they still had their weapons. (So they could drop their stuff in the zone, and I could withdraw and come back and milk the base again.) I accidentally forgot to MC one (hard to see in a big pack of MC'd guys) and all he had left on him was a grenade. So of course he chucks the grenade, which bounces off the MC'd guys and comes to rest right in the middle of the pack. This 1) destroyed every bit of loot that had been dropped, 2) killed a couple of aliens (including himself) and gave most of the other Mutons 2-3 [[Fatal_Wounds|fatal wounds]], plus many lost a lot of health (=skill point training down the tubes), and finally 3) when all the gear got destroyed, there wasn't a single weapon left that I could use to shoot some Elerium out of a Power Source. (I only had pistols, since they always have Heavy Plasmas.) Damn, was I cussing a mean streak, kicking myself! LOL

= Psi Testing =

I've made a separate page for notes on my Psi Testing, [[MTR_Psi_Testing|here]].

= Base Design Scratch Pad =

Scratch pad for base designs, using NKF's [[User_talk:NKF#Total_Randomness|design tool]]. Also see [[Xcom_and_Alien_Bases#XCom_Base|X-COM Base Module Pix]] and [[Base_Layout_Strategy]]. Possible entries:

dirt
lift
lab
workshop
psi
containment
storage
quarters
small_radar
large_radar
hyperwave
grav
mind
missile
laser
plasma
fusion
hangar1
hangar2
hangar3
hangar4

{{UBK|=
|hyperwave|quarters|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|small_radar|quarters|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|stores|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|lift|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|hangar1|hangar2|hangar1|hangar2|hangar1|hangar2|=
|hangar3|hangar4|hangar3|hangar4|hangar3|hangar4|=}}

==Turn Sequencing==

Mike, the problem with making the turn sequencing it's own page is that some of that in theory. My actual patience for testing is very low(the [[User Talk:Zombie|person who does that]] lives about thirty minutes away from me, actually). But if you think it's worth a page, I'll put it down. Reply when able. (Actually, I recently thought that the 'Anyone Alive' check might be performed not for BOTH sides each turn, but only after that side's turn. This would explain why, after you kill all the aliens, you see the alien turn screen briefly after ending the X-Com turn. Similar if the aliens off all the soldiers during the Alien turn.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 19:54, 10 October 2007 (PDT)

:Get better soon, man! [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 02:04, 1 November 2008 (CDT)

User talk:7Saturn

2015-09-14T14:32:06Z

7Saturn: /* Wiki etiquette */

==Wiki etiquette==

Hello!

It is considered very bad form to change what another user says on a talk page (because it appears to attribute things to them that they did not in fact say). If you think they said something wrong, you should make a clearly-distinguishable reply below (and, in the case of MikeTheRed's talk page, follow his directions to italicise your reply) and sign it with four tilde (~) symbols (this will insert your username and the time/date) rather than "repairing" what they said. I have reverted your edit; feel free to point out MTR's misconceptions, but please do it in the manner I've just explained. [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 00:07, 29 August 2015 (EDT)

[[User:7Saturn|7Saturn]] ([[User talk:7Saturn|talk]]) 10:31, 14 September 2015 (EDT): ''Better?''

User talk:7Saturn

2015-09-14T14:31:49Z

7Saturn: /* Wiki etiquette */

User talk:MikeTheRed

2015-09-14T14:30:47Z

7Saturn: /* Tips on Increasing Skills */

Here be more detail than you ever wanted to know. Please put comments/questions in italics. If you want an email reply, please use the "Email this user" link in the lower left panel.

= The Experience of Experience =
''A.K.A. more details than you ever wanted to know, about testing XCOM:UD 1.4 experience counters versus stat increases''

My observations under [[Experience#How_Experience_Points_Are_Applied|Experience]] are getting incredibly long-winded. And at the same time, I am doing yet more research on it. So I've made this space to put levels of detail that are way more than a casual player is interested in. I will probably move some stuff out of Experience and over to here as I polish the info.

== My Test Setup ==

For my testing, I have a MS Access VBA module that sucks in a savegame and compares it to another one (from before the combat). I [[HackerTools|edit]] experience counters (offsets 80-85 in [[UNITREF.DAT]]) and soldier stats (bytes 43-62 in [[SOLDIER.DAT]]) from a savegame ready to be ended (a Muton base with 16 soldiers standing in the entry area). Although it took weeks of futzing with Access to get it set up nicely, now that it's done, I can generate each combat-mission skill-point result in as quickly as I can load a savegame, end the mission, and then savegame on the geoscape (approx. 15 seconds). As of this writing, I have 4,544 individual soldier results (a.k.a. 284 savegame results at 16 soldiers each). This was for 11 different configurations of experience counters and soldier stats, as I zeroed in on different questions to ask (an average of about 25 savegames per configuration).

[[Image:XcomPsiLabIncreases.gif|thumb|right|300px|Psi Lab end-of-month increases vs. Psi Skill]]FWIW, the [[Psionic Skill#Improvement|Psi Lab training]] tests were way easier than combat-mission experience-vs.-skill-point tests. For three reasons: 1) I only had 16 soldiers in my base combat-mission scenario, whereas I could use all 250 soldiers when testing the Lab. (It took a lot of manual Soldier.Dat hacking, though!) 2) The Psi Lab results were much more simple and clear vs. combat results, as the wiki shows. Finally, 3) only one stat was being looked at, whereas combat results can affect 9 stats, each of which has to be examined in its own way. For the Psi Lab tests, I quickly generated 8,500 datapoints (34 savegames) and within just two different savegame configurations, it's behavior was [[Psionic Skill#Improvement|crystal clear]]. (I didn't include these 8,500 results in the 4,544 counts I mentioned for combat results, of course.)

I'm happy to share my MS Access setup with anybody that wants it; just send [[User:MikeTheRed|me]] an email. But you are warned - it's all home grown code. I'll walk you through it, but you have to do it exactly right... there ain't no user manual or Help routines for this baby! You coders know what I mean. Also, just so you know... the only thing it does relative to game files, is read Soldier.Dat. It doesn't touch any other file, and it doesn't write to anything (except itself, of course). I did all my Soldier and Unitref hacking by hand.

FWIW, at first I used [[HackerTools|Hex Workshop]] to hack Soldier and Unitref (thanks Danial!), but lately I've only been using EDIT... I couldn't figure out a way to make HW "remember" where to place its structure overlays, and it's a hassle to place them back on all 16 soldiers every time I use it. (If anybody knows a way to get HW to remember where they should be placed, let me know!) In the long run, I find it easier to just scroll through Soldier or Unitref with EDIT. Either way is real work, but at least with EDIT, it's "just show me the #$@!$ bytes!" I also wish HW had a wider data view (with smaller fonts for it) and would let you re-arrange the fields shown in the structure overlay in whatever order you want (i.e., one that makes more sense for my purposes than their somewhat scattered layout).

== Testing Skill Point Increase ==

For anyone who's interested in testing combat mission experience vs. resulting skill point increases:

*You only need to edit the experience counters in UNITREF, and the soldier stat values in SOLDIER. That is to say, XCOM does not carry the soldier stat values in UNITREF back to the geoscape... it just re-reads them out of SOLDIER. So stats in UNITREF are "read only" (for that combat only) and lost when combat ends. The "Kills" variable is the only value I know of in UNITREF that's directly carried forward into the geoscape, although other things like experience counters (for skill increase) and health (for hospitalization) indirectly carry forward / affect values in the geoscape.

== Another Look at Primary Point Increases ==

Here's [[Experience#Primary_Stats|another]] way to look at primary stat increases:

Sorted on Number of Actions Sorted on AvePtInc/Actions

Average AvePtInc/ AvePtInc/
Actions Pt.Inc. Delta Actions Actions Actions
1 +0.5 +0.5 +0.500 3 +0.667
2 +0.5 - +0.250 1 +0.500
3 +2.0 +1.5 +0.667 4 +0.500
4 +2.0 - +0.500 6 +0.417
5 +2.0 - +0.400 5 +0.400
6 +2.5 +0.5 +0.417 11 +0.364
7 +2.5 - +0.357 7 +0.357
8 +2.5 - +0.313 8 +0.313
9 +2.5 - +0.278 9 +0.278
10 +2.5 - +0.250 2 +0.250
11 +4.0 +1.5 +0.364 10 +0.250
Average Point Increase (Ave.Pt.Inc.) shows the average number of primary skill points earned relative to primary actions taken. Delta shows the difference in skill points earned, from one action to the next. Note that many actions are "wasted" in the sense they cause no further skill points - unless, of course, you get all the way to the next breakpoint. This is especially critical when only a limited number of actions are available to your crew (i.e., only so many shots aliens can take before they're all dead). Finally Average Point Increase Per Actions Taken is the Average Point Increase divided by Actions for that same row. When the table on the left is sorted on this latter column (on the right), you can more clearly see how e.g. 10 actions is a bad idea, unless it gets you to 11. (And anything over 11 is truly wasted.) Note that 1 or 2 actions did not actually earn the expected 0.5 points in my testing - see next section.

== Non-Randomness in Primaries ==

This section only applies to [[Experience#Primary_Stats|primary]] skill increases:

When I've talked about experience rolls, I've made it sound like you always get the average (halfway between the ranges). But this is definitely not the case, especially when there are very few experience points (EPs) in [[UNITREF.DAT|UNITREF]] offsets 80-85. Specifically, when there are only 1 or 2 primary actions - the first 'step' for primary skill points - I saw very weird, non-random stuff. Example: I would set up 16 soldiers, with only 1 or 2 EPs for each soldier. When I ended the combat, the skill point range was undeniably 0-1. But far more often than not, the 16 soldiers in my test crew would all get 0 skill points, all across the board. Then every now and then they would all get 1 skill point, all across the board. And even less often, there would be a mix of 0s and 1s in the results. The actual average increase was about 0.33 points, not the 0.5 points I wrote in [[Experience#Primary_Stats|Experience]]. (Individual stat averages for first step: Psi Skill 0.18, Firing Acc 0.53, Reactions 0.18, Throw Acc 0.81, Melee Acc 0.19; average across all: 0.33. This is with 400-900 samples per stat average.) To this day, I cannot get a handle on what is triggering them to all be 0 or 1. It's not influenced by total experience counters, number of other types of experience gained, or secondary points awarded. My best guess is that it is based on some high-level bit mask over the system clock, because it seems to come and go in unpredictable spurts. (If this is true, it's possible that my [http://dosbox.sourceforge.net DosBox] wrapper is messing with the results. But then, it would be for anyone using DosBox.) Then again, stuff that comes and goes in unpredictable spurts could be almost anything. I did my testing by reloading and combat-ending only about a dozen different hacked combat-mission savegames (as I zeroed in on issues to test) hundreds of times in sum total, so I can never be sure my problems weren't caused by the simple fact that I was reloading a few games many times, instead of racking up experience points au natural, where some unknown randomness seed might be being kept / ticked away.

Anyway, I kept the main wiki summary simple, and just strongly advised people to try to get at least three primary actions. Although 1-2 actions was weird, by 3 actions I saw little non-randomness. More precisely, I saw some non-randomness, such as all stats getting the exact same result for several tests in a row. Melee was oddly low at its third step, averaging 1.99 instead of 2.5 (n=744). But in general, when summarized across any larger n (100+ datapoints), the summary stats were almost always very close to the expected average of the range. So, there was a little bit of weirdness at 3+ actions... but it was nothing like at 1-2 actions.

== Secondary "Steps" ==

In the wiki on [[Experience#Secondary_Stats|secondary]] stats, I said that there is an even slope for secondary skill point gains, from an average of 4 (range 0-8) at (hacked) secondary level 0, to an average of 1 (range 0-2) at Cap-1. That was a simplification, to keep the wiki short. In actuality, it's like this:

The three stats TUs, Health, and Strength have a maximum range that increases by 1 at every increment of 10, working backward from the cap. Stamina - that high-winded beast - increases at multiples of 15. This follows the usual X-COM approach of defining a range and rolling randomly within it. So a graph of the maximum range of points possible vs. current stat level looks like this:

[[Image:SecondaryPointRangeMaxima.gif|Maximum point ranges secondary stat increases]]

Thus e.g. TUs has a range max of 2 from stat level 71-79 (80 is the cap), 3 from 61-70, 4 from 51-60, etc. TUs, Health, and Strength work backward in increments of 10, but Stamina has steps 15 stat points wide. So it has a range max of 2 from stat level level 86-99, 3 from 71-85, etc.

(All secondary skills have a range minimum of 0 across their span; it's entirely possible to not get an increase in a secondary skill after a combat. So on average, you expect to get half the range maximum.)

Interestingly, at (hacked) stat level=0, Stamina and Health can get 8 points assigned (like I said in the [[Experience#Secondary_Stats|wiki]]), but Strength can get 9 points, and TUs can get 10. Then all of them quickly drop the range to 1 point less, at level=1 (except Stamina, working backwards in steps of 15).

So this step function means that the "even slope" I talked about is not quite correct, nor are the averages that I put in that table for each level (those are based on a linear slope equation instead of half of that step's range maximum, which is what the true case is). Still, it's a very good simplification, especially when you're talking about the average number of CMs to go from e.g. Recruit Max to Cap. So I kept the wiki shorter by not going into the level of detail shown here.

= Tips on Increasing Skills =

Here are more tips (too much detail for the wiki!) for increasing stats with the popular "firing squad" tactic. For anyone not familiar with it, here's how it works. First, you have to have good psi soldiers in powered/flying armor. Then:
#Mind control all the aliens, and gather them in one spot
#Line up your guys a la a firing squad
#Give one or two aliens a laser pistol
#Kill everybody via reaction shots with something weak like the standard-issue pistol
This has the advantage of increasing psi, firing, and reaction skills all at once. The weak pistol lets you make more hits before you kill them; only hits count toward Firing Accuracy increase (not Kills per se). Mutons are by far the best for this, because they are relatively thick skinned but mainly because they have a ton of hit points. And their friends the silacoids are almost (but not quite) invulnerable to the little popgun at higher difficulty levels than Beginner, due to higher alien armor levels (see [[Kill Modelling]]).

Some tips, then. Veteran players will know most of these (except the first one), but newbies may not:
#Notice that the standard pistol carries 12 rounds - and that it takes 11 actions to get the best roll possible (2-6) for a skill increase. So if your soldiers have shot a full clip, stop having them react-fire, and let other guys who haven't used up their clip (or haven't had a go at all yet) shoot. (Or stop them when they have 1 bullet left, if you want.) Reaction firing counts toward a Reaction increase even if you miss, so counting bullets is an easy way to track it. Once they've used a clip, it's time to let low Firing-Accuracy guys get 3 or 11 non-reaction, sure hits (the primary-skill [[Experience#Primary_Stats|breakpoints]]) to increase their Firing Accuracy. That is, if you haven't been keeping tracking of everybody's hits (a challenging thing to do).
#If some of your soldiers have very low reaction levels (less than 50, or especially less than 40), others are liable to shoot before them. In severe situations, all aliens may be killed before your low-reaction guys fire at all. Assuming you want to build their reaction skill(!), make sure low-reaction guys do get to fire off their whole clip, even if they're the last one with any bullets left in the firing squad. They're the ones that need it most. There's no rush with larger UFOs (see the Alien Deployment counts for [[UFOs]])... Mutons take approx. 13 hits to kill at Beginner difficulty level, and 34 hits at higher levels (see [[Kill Modelling]]). Or let your low-reaction guys shoot first, if it won't take much to kill all the targets. In the long run, consider rejecting recruits with Reaction under 50 or especially 40. (You'll have plenty of money by the time you've got good Psi.)
#Oddly, every now and then, your soldiers will get a higher reaction experience count, than reaction shots they have made. I've seen soldiers with 15 in [[UNITREF.DAT|Unitref]][80] when they had only reaction-shot one clip of 12 bullets. The extra counts occur right when an alien dies (or is knocked unconcious), in a situation where more than one of your soldiers could've reaction fired. Apparently all your soldiers's reactions are "queued" and the next guy's reaction counter is ticked before it checks whether the alien is still up. It only happens if there's an extra guy's reaction queued who didn't get to fire, so the more guys you have, the more likely it is that the alien won't be killed or knocked out by the last guy shooting. Thus, you have the potential to get extra reaction counts up to the number of aliens killed, although just who will get them (if you have a lot of shooters) is anybody's guess. Unless you peak at Unitref and see exactly who did get it. There's not much you can do with this factoid, but there it is. ''Update:'' Additional limited testing shows that soldiers with lower reactions (relative to others shooting) tend to get the extra Reaction experience. This supports the idea that it's a reaction queue at work - soldiers with lower reactions will be toward the end of the queue, and more likely to have an alien killed before they shoot.
#If you're really serious about increasing skills as evenly as possible, you can put aliens up for execution one at a time. And if you're insanely serious, it can be mano a mano versus one soldier at a time. This is the best way to keep track of number of hits your guys have made. But it's incredibly tedious work and can take a grueling hour or more vs. mutons. It's WAY funner to just line everybody up and let the lead fly!
#If you are counting hits, it's easier if you have some distance to your target and a wide open space behind them. (Not against a wall or the edge of the map.) This way, some of your misses will clearly keep going past the target. With a wall or map edge, though, it can be harder to tell what hit and what didn't. (And if you're right next to them, you sometimes miss into the ground, which can be hard to judge as a hit or miss.)
#Perversely, it's easier to hit, if you're right next to the target. Due to how, even though there are stated accuracies, etc., if you're right next to them, even calculated misses may very well still intersect them. But it will also be harder to detect if you missed because you'll e.g. shoot directly into the ground sometimes. Shrug.
#If you have a lot of Mutons lined up, you don't need to worry about some of the above. Especially reaction shots... all of your crew should easily be able to get 11+ reactions. Half your crew should be able to get 11+ hits, especially if you do the next item, to make sure you spread them evenly...
#The truly dedicated can save the game and [[HackerTools|peek]] at the [[UNITREF.DAT|UNITREF]] experience counters, offsets 80-85. As long as you don't hack the file, it ain't cheating. It's a sure way to know exactly how folks are doing, including for psi. Just be sure to close your hex editor before saving your game! Otherwise the editor may "lock" the file and it won't actually be written (but XCOM won't complain!). Maybe I'll make an applet that reads them on demand... anyone interested?
#Along these lines, shots do count as hits (to increase Firing Accuracy) if your soldier aimed/reacted at one alien, but hit another. Any hit on any alien counts.
#But of course, not if they're currently mind controlled. They are considered "friendlies" then, and hits on friendlies don't increase your score. So don't mix MC'd with non-MC'd aliens, if some of your guys are liable to reaction fire on un-friendlies. Either MC everybody or nobody, in that case.
#Another reason to MC all aliens or none, is because uncontrolled aliens will target MC'd aliens. They know who has the least armor, making for their best shot - and it'll be friendly aliens, all of whose armor is less than your power/flying armor.
#One way to avoid reaction shots by your guys into a mixed crowd of non/MC'd aliens, is to turn your shooters around for a turn. And a way to (sometimes) keep an MC'd alien from shooting unfriendly ones, is to turn that alien around. And possibly just MC the aliens right next to him, blocking the view of farther, enemy ones (if they're all in a line).
#It's said that powered armor and flying suits are safe from laser pistols. This is only partly true. [[Laser_Pistol|Laser pistols]] (LPs) do an average of 46 laser [[damage]], but this can be up to twice as high (92). XCOM [[Equipment (EU)|armor]] is as follows:
Front Sides Rear Under
Coveralls 12 8 5 2
Personal 50 40 30 30
Powered 100 80 70 60
Flying 110 90 80 70
#As you can see, even the sides of Flying Armor can take damage from a LP (although only ~2% of the time, and very light damage at that). LP shots in the back won't give you a deep wound (up to 12 damage), but they can put you in the [[Recovery_time|hospital]] for a week or three. So be careful, especially about moving so as to turn your back (giving an alien a reaction shot). They WILL target your back or under armor! They know where your weaknesses are.
#Be careful of using silicoids, celatids, and other critters with built-in weapons for reaction-fire target practice. Sometimes they won't shoot you, but you never know! Get them out of the way first with directed fire by low FA guys. (And keep track of their hits!) ''Psst: Did you know the [[celatid]] has a very limited range?
#Large [[Alien_Life_Forms|aliens]] (sectopods, reapers, and cyberdiscs) do weird things when MC'd. You're only MC'ing one-fourth of them, so the rest "takes over" and basically, it's not MC'd. (Has anybody ever tried MC'ing all four quarters??) You wouldn't want to try it with sectopods and cyberdiscs (cuz they can shoot), but with the floaters' pet reaper, you can still use them for target practice. You just have to keep moving reapers farther away than they can run to you, each round. And hope your hits land on their non-MC'd quarters. (Maybe you should MC their butt instead of their head, since they'll run toward you??) I haven't actually tested this vs. the experience counter, but I presume it's true. You can probably get a lot of reaction-fire experience (even on a floater mission - floaters die like flies), since it will take many pistol shots to take down a reaper at long distance.
[[User:7Saturn|7Saturn]] ([[User talk:7Saturn|talk]]) 10:30, 14 September 2015 (EDT) ''The fun part is, that you still can do another MC on one of the remaining parts and get their starting stats again. So in essence, you can let them run four times as far, as if conventional MC of the whole unit took place. But partial MC will not keep a Cyberdisc or Sectopod from shooting itself or any other of your units, when reaction fire triggering kicks in. MC'ing their butt instead of their head won't help that, as it's not about the used graphics but the part that is being controlled. The upper right corner will stay MCed, even when you turn the unit. So better wait until it's the next round for you, if you want to have a clear shot. This also means, you can make a Cyberdisc or a Sectopod shoot itself. As they don't make a very good training unit this way, shooting them is rather usefull, especially with sectopods, as they have autoshot. Take care, none of your soldiers is near, as Cyberdiscs explode and Sectopods will finish their auto shot, even when kill by the very first shot. So the remaining shots might end up, where you don't want them to.''
#You might have considered stun-rodding (SRing) aliens, to increase your [[Experience#Melee_hits|Melee Accuracy]]. Then, revive them to SR again, or shoot. But the SR can put up to 65 [[Unconscious|unconscious]] points on them, which can take forever to revive with a [[Medi-Kit|medkit]] (or even use up all your med supplies without being revived). So Melee Accuracy is not a very viable skill to develop. We'd all much rather build our Firing Accuracy and Reaction, than this <s>obtuse</s> irrelevant-in-UFO skill! It might be more important in TFTD, though.
#In case you hadn't noticed - Aliens that have no weapons and have nowhere to go within one turn that's out of your line of sight, rarely move at all (except to turn/look around sometimes). Which is to say, you don't have to MC them if you don't want to (or don't need any more psi experience) - they aren't going anywhere. But keep in mind that if they see just one of you, they know where all your men are. And so they always know if there is anywhere that even one of them can go run and hide. The sneaky little sh$ts!
#Enemy units never get [[Fatal_Wounds|fatal wounds]] - but friendly units can. And MC'd aliens are considered friendly. So if you accidentally hit MC'd aliens, you have to check them for wounds. (Yet another reason to MC all or none, so you don't reaction-fire into a pack of mixed ones.) Here's where I got another of XCOM's many little "surprises": I was marching a lot of aliens back to their base's exit zone while they still had their weapons. (So they could drop their stuff in the zone, and I could withdraw and come back and milk the base again.) I accidentally forgot to MC one (hard to see in a big pack of MC'd guys) and all he had left on him was a grenade. So of course he chucks the grenade, which bounces off the MC'd guys and comes to rest right in the middle of the pack. This 1) destroyed every bit of loot that had been dropped, 2) killed a couple of aliens (including himself) and gave most of the other Mutons 2-3 [[Fatal_Wounds|fatal wounds]], plus many lost a lot of health (=skill point training down the tubes), and finally 3) when all the gear got destroyed, there wasn't a single weapon left that I could use to shoot some Elerium out of a Power Source. (I only had pistols, since they always have Heavy Plasmas.) Damn, was I cussing a mean streak, kicking myself! LOL

= Psi Testing =

I've made a separate page for notes on my Psi Testing, [[MTR_Psi_Testing|here]].

= Base Design Scratch Pad =

Scratch pad for base designs, using NKF's [[User_talk:NKF#Total_Randomness|design tool]]. Also see [[Xcom_and_Alien_Bases#XCom_Base|X-COM Base Module Pix]] and [[Base_Layout_Strategy]]. Possible entries:

dirt
lift
lab
workshop
psi
containment
storage
quarters
small_radar
large_radar
hyperwave
grav
mind
missile
laser
plasma
fusion
hangar1
hangar2
hangar3
hangar4

{{UBK|=
|hyperwave|quarters|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|small_radar|quarters|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|stores|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|lift|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|hangar1|hangar2|hangar1|hangar2|hangar1|hangar2|=
|hangar3|hangar4|hangar3|hangar4|hangar3|hangar4|=}}

==Turn Sequencing==

Mike, the problem with making the turn sequencing it's own page is that some of that in theory. My actual patience for testing is very low(the [[User Talk:Zombie|person who does that]] lives about thirty minutes away from me, actually). But if you think it's worth a page, I'll put it down. Reply when able. (Actually, I recently thought that the 'Anyone Alive' check might be performed not for BOTH sides each turn, but only after that side's turn. This would explain why, after you kill all the aliens, you see the alien turn screen briefly after ending the X-Com turn. Similar if the aliens off all the soldiers during the Alien turn.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 19:54, 10 October 2007 (PDT)

:Get better soon, man! [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 02:04, 1 November 2008 (CDT)

Server (UFO2000)

2015-09-08T14:32:27Z

7Saturn: /* Back-up Servers */

=Logging in to the game server=

==The server connecting screen==
Pressing "connect to internet server" will take you to the server connection screen. In this screen you will see a login box with three lines:

[[Image:Serverconnect.jpg]]

===Your player name for your account===
In the second line »Login:« you have to enter your desired player name. In the picture above this is Mister Kill. A maximum of 16 characters is set for your player name. Player names are case sensitive. So it makes a difference, if you login as killah or Killah.

===The password for your player name account===
The third line is the password line. Enter your desired password here. '''BEWARE!''' There is '''NO WAY OF RETREIVING a lost password''' so write it down! Also be sure not to use any valuable passwords with this service, as they are only saved as a plain MD5-hash. Techniques such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_%28cryptography%29 salt] are not being used!

Player names are only protected by this password. For each player name there is also an elo-score, which is used to create a ranking. So essentially, it's in your own interest, to not give others the opportunity to play in your name, if you take an interest in this ranking system. On the public server, you can find the current ranking of the [[#Offical_server]] here: http://ufo2000.net/results.php.

===The Auto-login box===
Leave the autologin box emty. If you have autologin turned on, you can't change your name or the server-adress, unless you disable this first. Do this in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code> file in the ufo2000 game folder.

===Connecting to the server===
To login to the server press OK!

== Official server==
The first is the server location line.
It should say: '''ufo2000.net:2000''' if you want to login to the official UFO2000 game server. All players should log into this server, if available.

If you receive this message:

[[Image:Failconnect.jpg]]

it may be the case that the official server can't be reached currently. There might also be back-up [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers servers which you can play on].

==Back-up Servers==
Change the first line of the login box to one of the following servers:
* <del>ufo2000.kostax.cz:2000</del>
* <del>ufo2000.openxcom.com</del>
* mobile-infanterie.gamersunitonline.net (will only be online on request for a shot period of time, contact: [mailto:7saturn@gmx.de 7saturn@gmx.de])

to play on the back-up server. If you wanna setup your own server (for private use or as backup server for the community) have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

== Third Party chat program ==
There's also a third party software, that enables you, to be on the server for chatting, even during a match, called [http://www.7kplay.net/phpBB3/utto.php?sid=a7e3660e08227b95f9ea16791e64c36e UTTO].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Server (UFO2000)

2015-09-08T14:32:02Z

7Saturn: /* Third Party chat program */

=Logging in to the game server=

==The server connecting screen==
Pressing "connect to internet server" will take you to the server connection screen. In this screen you will see a login box with three lines:

[[Image:Serverconnect.jpg]]

===Your player name for your account===
In the second line »Login:« you have to enter your desired player name. In the picture above this is Mister Kill. A maximum of 16 characters is set for your player name. Player names are case sensitive. So it makes a difference, if you login as killah or Killah.

===The password for your player name account===
The third line is the password line. Enter your desired password here. '''BEWARE!''' There is '''NO WAY OF RETREIVING a lost password''' so write it down! Also be sure not to use any valuable passwords with this service, as they are only saved as a plain MD5-hash. Techniques such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_%28cryptography%29 salt] are not being used!

Player names are only protected by this password. For each player name there is also an elo-score, which is used to create a ranking. So essentially, it's in your own interest, to not give others the opportunity to play in your name, if you take an interest in this ranking system. On the public server, you can find the current ranking of the [[#Offical_server]] here: http://ufo2000.net/results.php.

===The Auto-login box===
Leave the autologin box emty. If you have autologin turned on, you can't change your name or the server-adress, unless you disable this first. Do this in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code> file in the ufo2000 game folder.

===Connecting to the server===
To login to the server press OK!

== Official server==
The first is the server location line.
It should say: '''ufo2000.net:2000''' if you want to login to the official UFO2000 game server. All players should log into this server, if available.

If you receive this message:

[[Image:Failconnect.jpg]]

it may be the case that the official server can't be reached currently. There might also be back-up [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers servers which you can play on].

==Back-up Servers==
Change the first line of the login box to one of the following servers:
* <del>ufo2000.kostax.cz:2000</del>
* ufo2000.openxcom.com
* mobile-infanterie.gamersunitonline.net (will only be online on request for a shot period of time, contact: [mailto:7saturn@gmx.de 7saturn@gmx.de])

to play on the back-up server. If you wanna setup your own server (for private use or as backup server for the community) have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

== Third Party chat program ==
There's also a third party software, that enables you, to be on the server for chatting, even during a match, called [http://www.7kplay.net/phpBB3/utto.php?sid=a7e3660e08227b95f9ea16791e64c36e UTTO].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Server (UFO2000)

2015-09-08T14:31:48Z

7Saturn: /* Back-up Servers */

=Logging in to the game server=

==The server connecting screen==
Pressing "connect to internet server" will take you to the server connection screen. In this screen you will see a login box with three lines:

[[Image:Serverconnect.jpg]]

===Your player name for your account===
In the second line »Login:« you have to enter your desired player name. In the picture above this is Mister Kill. A maximum of 16 characters is set for your player name. Player names are case sensitive. So it makes a difference, if you login as killah or Killah.

===The password for your player name account===
The third line is the password line. Enter your desired password here. '''BEWARE!''' There is '''NO WAY OF RETREIVING a lost password''' so write it down! Also be sure not to use any valuable passwords with this service, as they are only saved as a plain MD5-hash. Techniques such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_%28cryptography%29 salt] are not being used!

Player names are only protected by this password. For each player name there is also an elo-score, which is used to create a ranking. So essentially, it's in your own interest, to not give others the opportunity to play in your name, if you take an interest in this ranking system. On the public server, you can find the current ranking of the [[#Offical_server]] here: http://ufo2000.net/results.php.

===The Auto-login box===
Leave the autologin box emty. If you have autologin turned on, you can't change your name or the server-adress, unless you disable this first. Do this in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code> file in the ufo2000 game folder.

===Connecting to the server===
To login to the server press OK!

== Official server==
The first is the server location line.
It should say: '''ufo2000.net:2000''' if you want to login to the official UFO2000 game server. All players should log into this server, if available.

If you receive this message:

[[Image:Failconnect.jpg]]

it may be the case that the official server can't be reached currently. There might also be back-up [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers servers which you can play on].

==Back-up Servers==
Change the first line of the login box to one of the following servers:
* <del>ufo2000.kostax.cz:2000</del>
* ufo2000.openxcom.com
* mobile-infanterie.gamersunitonline.net (will only be online on request for a shot period of time, contact: [mailto:7saturn@gmx.de 7saturn@gmx.de])

to play on the back-up server. If you wanna setup your own server (for private use or as backup server for the community) have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

== Third Party chat program ==
There's also a third party software, that enables you, to be on the server for chatting, even during a match, called [[http://www.7kplay.net/phpBB3/utto.php?sid=a7e3660e08227b95f9ea16791e64c36e UTTO]].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

User talk:MikeTheRed

2015-08-28T11:51:20Z

7Saturn: /* Tips on Increasing Skills */

Here be more detail than you ever wanted to know. Please put comments/questions in italics. If you want an email reply, please use the "Email this user" link in the lower left panel.

= The Experience of Experience =
''A.K.A. more details than you ever wanted to know, about testing XCOM:UD 1.4 experience counters versus stat increases''

My observations under [[Experience#How_Experience_Points_Are_Applied|Experience]] are getting incredibly long-winded. And at the same time, I am doing yet more research on it. So I've made this space to put levels of detail that are way more than a casual player is interested in. I will probably move some stuff out of Experience and over to here as I polish the info.

== My Test Setup ==

For my testing, I have a MS Access VBA module that sucks in a savegame and compares it to another one (from before the combat). I [[HackerTools|edit]] experience counters (offsets 80-85 in [[UNITREF.DAT]]) and soldier stats (bytes 43-62 in [[SOLDIER.DAT]]) from a savegame ready to be ended (a Muton base with 16 soldiers standing in the entry area). Although it took weeks of futzing with Access to get it set up nicely, now that it's done, I can generate each combat-mission skill-point result in as quickly as I can load a savegame, end the mission, and then savegame on the geoscape (approx. 15 seconds). As of this writing, I have 4,544 individual soldier results (a.k.a. 284 savegame results at 16 soldiers each). This was for 11 different configurations of experience counters and soldier stats, as I zeroed in on different questions to ask (an average of about 25 savegames per configuration).

[[Image:XcomPsiLabIncreases.gif|thumb|right|300px|Psi Lab end-of-month increases vs. Psi Skill]]FWIW, the [[Psionic Skill#Improvement|Psi Lab training]] tests were way easier than combat-mission experience-vs.-skill-point tests. For three reasons: 1) I only had 16 soldiers in my base combat-mission scenario, whereas I could use all 250 soldiers when testing the Lab. (It took a lot of manual Soldier.Dat hacking, though!) 2) The Psi Lab results were much more simple and clear vs. combat results, as the wiki shows. Finally, 3) only one stat was being looked at, whereas combat results can affect 9 stats, each of which has to be examined in its own way. For the Psi Lab tests, I quickly generated 8,500 datapoints (34 savegames) and within just two different savegame configurations, it's behavior was [[Psionic Skill#Improvement|crystal clear]]. (I didn't include these 8,500 results in the 4,544 counts I mentioned for combat results, of course.)

I'm happy to share my MS Access setup with anybody that wants it; just send [[User:MikeTheRed|me]] an email. But you are warned - it's all home grown code. I'll walk you through it, but you have to do it exactly right... there ain't no user manual or Help routines for this baby! You coders know what I mean. Also, just so you know... the only thing it does relative to game files, is read Soldier.Dat. It doesn't touch any other file, and it doesn't write to anything (except itself, of course). I did all my Soldier and Unitref hacking by hand.

FWIW, at first I used [[HackerTools|Hex Workshop]] to hack Soldier and Unitref (thanks Danial!), but lately I've only been using EDIT... I couldn't figure out a way to make HW "remember" where to place its structure overlays, and it's a hassle to place them back on all 16 soldiers every time I use it. (If anybody knows a way to get HW to remember where they should be placed, let me know!) In the long run, I find it easier to just scroll through Soldier or Unitref with EDIT. Either way is real work, but at least with EDIT, it's "just show me the #$@!$ bytes!" I also wish HW had a wider data view (with smaller fonts for it) and would let you re-arrange the fields shown in the structure overlay in whatever order you want (i.e., one that makes more sense for my purposes than their somewhat scattered layout).

== Testing Skill Point Increase ==

For anyone who's interested in testing combat mission experience vs. resulting skill point increases:

*You only need to edit the experience counters in UNITREF, and the soldier stat values in SOLDIER. That is to say, XCOM does not carry the soldier stat values in UNITREF back to the geoscape... it just re-reads them out of SOLDIER. So stats in UNITREF are "read only" (for that combat only) and lost when combat ends. The "Kills" variable is the only value I know of in UNITREF that's directly carried forward into the geoscape, although other things like experience counters (for skill increase) and health (for hospitalization) indirectly carry forward / affect values in the geoscape.

== Another Look at Primary Point Increases ==

Here's [[Experience#Primary_Stats|another]] way to look at primary stat increases:

Sorted on Number of Actions Sorted on AvePtInc/Actions

Average AvePtInc/ AvePtInc/
Actions Pt.Inc. Delta Actions Actions Actions
1 +0.5 +0.5 +0.500 3 +0.667
2 +0.5 - +0.250 1 +0.500
3 +2.0 +1.5 +0.667 4 +0.500
4 +2.0 - +0.500 6 +0.417
5 +2.0 - +0.400 5 +0.400
6 +2.5 +0.5 +0.417 11 +0.364
7 +2.5 - +0.357 7 +0.357
8 +2.5 - +0.313 8 +0.313
9 +2.5 - +0.278 9 +0.278
10 +2.5 - +0.250 2 +0.250
11 +4.0 +1.5 +0.364 10 +0.250
Average Point Increase (Ave.Pt.Inc.) shows the average number of primary skill points earned relative to primary actions taken. Delta shows the difference in skill points earned, from one action to the next. Note that many actions are "wasted" in the sense they cause no further skill points - unless, of course, you get all the way to the next breakpoint. This is especially critical when only a limited number of actions are available to your crew (i.e., only so many shots aliens can take before they're all dead). Finally Average Point Increase Per Actions Taken is the Average Point Increase divided by Actions for that same row. When the table on the left is sorted on this latter column (on the right), you can more clearly see how e.g. 10 actions is a bad idea, unless it gets you to 11. (And anything over 11 is truly wasted.) Note that 1 or 2 actions did not actually earn the expected 0.5 points in my testing - see next section.

== Non-Randomness in Primaries ==

This section only applies to [[Experience#Primary_Stats|primary]] skill increases:

When I've talked about experience rolls, I've made it sound like you always get the average (halfway between the ranges). But this is definitely not the case, especially when there are very few experience points (EPs) in [[UNITREF.DAT|UNITREF]] offsets 80-85. Specifically, when there are only 1 or 2 primary actions - the first 'step' for primary skill points - I saw very weird, non-random stuff. Example: I would set up 16 soldiers, with only 1 or 2 EPs for each soldier. When I ended the combat, the skill point range was undeniably 0-1. But far more often than not, the 16 soldiers in my test crew would all get 0 skill points, all across the board. Then every now and then they would all get 1 skill point, all across the board. And even less often, there would be a mix of 0s and 1s in the results. The actual average increase was about 0.33 points, not the 0.5 points I wrote in [[Experience#Primary_Stats|Experience]]. (Individual stat averages for first step: Psi Skill 0.18, Firing Acc 0.53, Reactions 0.18, Throw Acc 0.81, Melee Acc 0.19; average across all: 0.33. This is with 400-900 samples per stat average.) To this day, I cannot get a handle on what is triggering them to all be 0 or 1. It's not influenced by total experience counters, number of other types of experience gained, or secondary points awarded. My best guess is that it is based on some high-level bit mask over the system clock, because it seems to come and go in unpredictable spurts. (If this is true, it's possible that my [http://dosbox.sourceforge.net DosBox] wrapper is messing with the results. But then, it would be for anyone using DosBox.) Then again, stuff that comes and goes in unpredictable spurts could be almost anything. I did my testing by reloading and combat-ending only about a dozen different hacked combat-mission savegames (as I zeroed in on issues to test) hundreds of times in sum total, so I can never be sure my problems weren't caused by the simple fact that I was reloading a few games many times, instead of racking up experience points au natural, where some unknown randomness seed might be being kept / ticked away.

Anyway, I kept the main wiki summary simple, and just strongly advised people to try to get at least three primary actions. Although 1-2 actions was weird, by 3 actions I saw little non-randomness. More precisely, I saw some non-randomness, such as all stats getting the exact same result for several tests in a row. Melee was oddly low at its third step, averaging 1.99 instead of 2.5 (n=744). But in general, when summarized across any larger n (100+ datapoints), the summary stats were almost always very close to the expected average of the range. So, there was a little bit of weirdness at 3+ actions... but it was nothing like at 1-2 actions.

== Secondary "Steps" ==

In the wiki on [[Experience#Secondary_Stats|secondary]] stats, I said that there is an even slope for secondary skill point gains, from an average of 4 (range 0-8) at (hacked) secondary level 0, to an average of 1 (range 0-2) at Cap-1. That was a simplification, to keep the wiki short. In actuality, it's like this:

The three stats TUs, Health, and Strength have a maximum range that increases by 1 at every increment of 10, working backward from the cap. Stamina - that high-winded beast - increases at multiples of 15. This follows the usual X-COM approach of defining a range and rolling randomly within it. So a graph of the maximum range of points possible vs. current stat level looks like this:

[[Image:SecondaryPointRangeMaxima.gif|Maximum point ranges secondary stat increases]]

Thus e.g. TUs has a range max of 2 from stat level 71-79 (80 is the cap), 3 from 61-70, 4 from 51-60, etc. TUs, Health, and Strength work backward in increments of 10, but Stamina has steps 15 stat points wide. So it has a range max of 2 from stat level level 86-99, 3 from 71-85, etc.

(All secondary skills have a range minimum of 0 across their span; it's entirely possible to not get an increase in a secondary skill after a combat. So on average, you expect to get half the range maximum.)

Interestingly, at (hacked) stat level=0, Stamina and Health can get 8 points assigned (like I said in the [[Experience#Secondary_Stats|wiki]]), but Strength can get 9 points, and TUs can get 10. Then all of them quickly drop the range to 1 point less, at level=1 (except Stamina, working backwards in steps of 15).

So this step function means that the "even slope" I talked about is not quite correct, nor are the averages that I put in that table for each level (those are based on a linear slope equation instead of half of that step's range maximum, which is what the true case is). Still, it's a very good simplification, especially when you're talking about the average number of CMs to go from e.g. Recruit Max to Cap. So I kept the wiki shorter by not going into the level of detail shown here.

= Tips on Increasing Skills =

Here are more tips (too much detail for the wiki!) for increasing stats with the popular "firing squad" tactic. For anyone not familiar with it, here's how it works. First, you have to have good psi soldiers in powered/flying armor. Then:
#Mind control all the aliens, and gather them in one spot
#Line up your guys a la a firing squad
#Give one or two aliens a laser pistol
#Kill everybody via reaction shots with something weak like the standard-issue pistol
This has the advantage of increasing psi, firing, and reaction skills all at once. The weak pistol lets you make more hits before you kill them; only hits count toward Firing Accuracy increase (not Kills per se). Mutons are by far the best for this, because they are relatively thick skinned but mainly because they have a ton of hit points. And their friends the silacoids are almost (but not quite) invulnerable to the little popgun at higher difficulty levels than Beginner, due to higher alien armor levels (see [[Kill Modelling]]).

Some tips, then. Veteran players will know most of these (except the first one), but newbies may not:
#Notice that the standard pistol carries 12 rounds - and that it takes 11 actions to get the best roll possible (2-6) for a skill increase. So if your soldiers have shot a full clip, stop having them react-fire, and let other guys who haven't used up their clip (or haven't had a go at all yet) shoot. (Or stop them when they have 1 bullet left, if you want.) Reaction firing counts toward a Reaction increase even if you miss, so counting bullets is an easy way to track it. Once they've used a clip, it's time to let low Firing-Accuracy guys get 3 or 11 non-reaction, sure hits (the primary-skill [[Experience#Primary_Stats|breakpoints]]) to increase their Firing Accuracy. That is, if you haven't been keeping tracking of everybody's hits (a challenging thing to do).
#If some of your soldiers have very low reaction levels (less than 50, or especially less than 40), others are liable to shoot before them. In severe situations, all aliens may be killed before your low-reaction guys fire at all. Assuming you want to build their reaction skill(!), make sure low-reaction guys do get to fire off their whole clip, even if they're the last one with any bullets left in the firing squad. They're the ones that need it most. There's no rush with larger UFOs (see the Alien Deployment counts for [[UFOs]])... Mutons take approx. 13 hits to kill at Beginner difficulty level, and 34 hits at higher levels (see [[Kill Modelling]]). Or let your low-reaction guys shoot first, if it won't take much to kill all the targets. In the long run, consider rejecting recruits with Reaction under 50 or especially 40. (You'll have plenty of money by the time you've got good Psi.)
#Oddly, every now and then, your soldiers will get a higher reaction experience count, than reaction shots they have made. I've seen soldiers with 15 in [[UNITREF.DAT|Unitref]][80] when they had only reaction-shot one clip of 12 bullets. The extra counts occur right when an alien dies (or is knocked unconcious), in a situation where more than one of your soldiers could've reaction fired. Apparently all your soldiers's reactions are "queued" and the next guy's reaction counter is ticked before it checks whether the alien is still up. It only happens if there's an extra guy's reaction queued who didn't get to fire, so the more guys you have, the more likely it is that the alien won't be killed or knocked out by the last guy shooting. Thus, you have the potential to get extra reaction counts up to the number of aliens killed, although just who will get them (if you have a lot of shooters) is anybody's guess. Unless you peak at Unitref and see exactly who did get it. There's not much you can do with this factoid, but there it is. ''Update:'' Additional limited testing shows that soldiers with lower reactions (relative to others shooting) tend to get the extra Reaction experience. This supports the idea that it's a reaction queue at work - soldiers with lower reactions will be toward the end of the queue, and more likely to have an alien killed before they shoot.
#If you're really serious about increasing skills as evenly as possible, you can put aliens up for execution one at a time. And if you're insanely serious, it can be mano a mano versus one soldier at a time. This is the best way to keep track of number of hits your guys have made. But it's incredibly tedious work and can take a grueling hour or more vs. mutons. It's WAY funner to just line everybody up and let the lead fly!
#If you are counting hits, it's easier if you have some distance to your target and a wide open space behind them. (Not against a wall or the edge of the map.) This way, some of your misses will clearly keep going past the target. With a wall or map edge, though, it can be harder to tell what hit and what didn't. (And if you're right next to them, you sometimes miss into the ground, which can be hard to judge as a hit or miss.)
#Perversely, it's easier to hit, if you're right next to the target. Due to how, even though there are stated accuracies, etc., if you're right next to them, even calculated misses may very well still intersect them. But it will also be harder to detect if you missed because you'll e.g. shoot directly into the ground sometimes. Shrug.
#If you have a lot of Mutons lined up, you don't need to worry about some of the above. Especially reaction shots... all of your crew should easily be able to get 11+ reactions. Half your crew should be able to get 11+ hits, especially if you do the next item, to make sure you spread them evenly...
#The truly dedicated can save the game and [[HackerTools|peek]] at the [[UNITREF.DAT|UNITREF]] experience counters, offsets 80-85. As long as you don't hack the file, it ain't cheating. It's a sure way to know exactly how folks are doing, including for psi. Just be sure to close your hex editor before saving your game! Otherwise the editor may "lock" the file and it won't actually be written (but XCOM won't complain!). Maybe I'll make an applet that reads them on demand... anyone interested?
#Along these lines, shots do count as hits (to increase Firing Accuracy) if your soldier aimed/reacted at one alien, but hit another. Any hit on any alien counts.
#But of course, not if they're currently mind controlled. They are considered "friendlies" then, and hits on friendlies don't increase your score. So don't mix MC'd with non-MC'd aliens, if some of your guys are liable to reaction fire on un-friendlies. Either MC everybody or nobody, in that case.
#Another reason to MC all aliens or none, is because uncontrolled aliens will target MC'd aliens. They know who has the least armor, making for their best shot - and it'll be friendly aliens, all of whose armor is less than your power/flying armor.
#One way to avoid reaction shots by your guys into a mixed crowd of non/MC'd aliens, is to turn your shooters around for a turn. And a way to (sometimes) keep an MC'd alien from shooting unfriendly ones, is to turn that alien around. And possibly just MC the aliens right next to him, blocking the view of farther, enemy ones (if they're all in a line).
#It's said that powered armor and flying suits are safe from laser pistols. This is only partly true. [[Laser_Pistol|Laser pistols]] (LPs) do an average of 46 laser [[damage]], but this can be up to twice as high (92). XCOM [[Equipment (EU)|armor]] is as follows:
Front Sides Rear Under
Coveralls 12 8 5 2
Personal 50 40 30 30
Powered 100 80 70 60
Flying 110 90 80 70
#As you can see, even the sides of Flying Armor can take damage from a LP (although only ~2% of the time, and very light damage at that). LP shots in the back won't give you a deep wound (up to 12 damage), but they can put you in the [[Recovery_time|hospital]] for a week or three. So be careful, especially about moving so as to turn your back (giving an alien a reaction shot). They WILL target your back or under armor! They know where your weaknesses are.
#Be careful of using silicoids, celatids, and other critters with built-in weapons for reaction-fire target practice. Sometimes they won't shoot you, but you never know! Get them out of the way first with directed fire by low FA guys. (And keep track of their hits!) ''Psst: Did you know the [[celatid]] has a very limited range?
#Large [[Alien_Life_Forms|aliens]] (sectopods, reapers, and cyberdiscs) do weird things when MC'd. You're only MC'ing one-fourth of them, so the rest "takes over" and basically, it's not MC'd. The fun part is, that you still can do another MC on one of the remaining parts and get their starting stats again. So in essence, you can let them run four times as far, as if conventional MC of the whole unit took place. You wouldn't want to try partial MC with sectopods and cyberdiscs (cuz they can shoot and will do that, possibly on itself, but not necessarily), but with the floaters' pet reaper, you can still use them for target practice. You just have to keep moving reapers farther away than they can run to you, each round. And hope your hits land on their non-MC'd quarters. MC'ing their butt instead of their head won't help that, as it's not about the used graphics. The upper right corner MCed will stay, even when you turn the unit. So better wait until it's the next round for you, if you want to have a clear shot. I haven't actually tested this vs. the experience counter, but I presume it's true. You can probably get a lot of reaction-fire experience (even on a floater mission - floaters die like flies), since it will take many pistol shots to take down a reaper at long distance. As said, the cyberdiscs and sectopods don't make much of a training unit, as they will probably fire back at you. So better just get rid of them, all together. In order to do that easily, just let the MC'ed part of the unit shoot one of the neighboring parts. It's especially effective with sectopods, as they have autoshot.
#You might have considered stun-rodding (SRing) aliens, to increase your [[Experience#Melee_hits|Melee Accuracy]]. Then, revive them to SR again, or shoot. But the SR can put up to 65 [[Unconscious|unconscious]] points on them, which can take forever to revive with a [[Medi-Kit|medkit]] (or even use up all your med supplies without being revived). So Melee Accuracy is not a very viable skill to develop. We'd all much rather build our Firing Accuracy and Reaction, than this <s>obtuse</s> irrelevant-in-UFO skill! It might be more important in TFTD, though.
#In case you hadn't noticed - Aliens that have no weapons and have nowhere to go within one turn that's out of your line of sight, rarely move at all (except to turn/look around sometimes). Which is to say, you don't have to MC them if you don't want to (or don't need any more psi experience) - they aren't going anywhere. But keep in mind that if they see just one of you, they know where all your men are. And so they always know if there is anywhere that even one of them can go run and hide. The sneaky little sh$ts!
#Enemy units never get [[Fatal_Wounds|fatal wounds]] - but friendly units can. And MC'd aliens are considered friendly. So if you accidentally hit MC'd aliens, you have to check them for wounds. (Yet another reason to MC all or none, so you don't reaction-fire into a pack of mixed ones.) Here's where I got another of XCOM's many little "surprises": I was marching a lot of aliens back to their base's exit zone while they still had their weapons. (So they could drop their stuff in the zone, and I could withdraw and come back and milk the base again.) I accidentally forgot to MC one (hard to see in a big pack of MC'd guys) and all he had left on him was a grenade. So of course he chucks the grenade, which bounces off the MC'd guys and comes to rest right in the middle of the pack. This 1) destroyed every bit of loot that had been dropped, 2) killed a couple of aliens (including himself) and gave most of the other Mutons 2-3 [[Fatal_Wounds|fatal wounds]], plus many lost a lot of health (=skill point training down the tubes), and finally 3) when all the gear got destroyed, there wasn't a single weapon left that I could use to shoot some Elerium out of a Power Source. (I only had pistols, since they always have Heavy Plasmas.) Damn, was I cussing a mean streak, kicking myself! LOL

= Psi Testing =

I've made a separate page for notes on my Psi Testing, [[MTR_Psi_Testing|here]].

= Base Design Scratch Pad =

Scratch pad for base designs, using NKF's [[User_talk:NKF#Total_Randomness|design tool]]. Also see [[Xcom_and_Alien_Bases#XCom_Base|X-COM Base Module Pix]] and [[Base_Layout_Strategy]]. Possible entries:

dirt
lift
lab
workshop
psi
containment
storage
quarters
small_radar
large_radar
hyperwave
grav
mind
missile
laser
plasma
fusion
hangar1
hangar2
hangar3
hangar4

{{UBK|=
|hyperwave|quarters|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|small_radar|quarters|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|stores|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|lift|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=
|hangar1|hangar2|hangar1|hangar2|hangar1|hangar2|=
|hangar3|hangar4|hangar3|hangar4|hangar3|hangar4|=}}

==Turn Sequencing==

Mike, the problem with making the turn sequencing it's own page is that some of that in theory. My actual patience for testing is very low(the [[User Talk:Zombie|person who does that]] lives about thirty minutes away from me, actually). But if you think it's worth a page, I'll put it down. Reply when able. (Actually, I recently thought that the 'Anyone Alive' check might be performed not for BOTH sides each turn, but only after that side's turn. This would explain why, after you kill all the aliens, you see the alien turn screen briefly after ending the X-Com turn. Similar if the aliens off all the soldiers during the Alien turn.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 19:54, 10 October 2007 (PDT)

:Get better soon, man! [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 02:04, 1 November 2008 (CDT)

Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)

2015-08-18T21:58:32Z

7Saturn: /* Introduction */

==Introduction==

UFO2000 is written in portable C, so of course it is also possible, to compile it on linux. The following instructions have been tested on an Ubuntu 14.04 x64 without any additional software or libraries installed by the user. The <code>apt-get</code>-commands should work on any Debian-related Linux. If you run a different distribution, you may need the corresponding commands and library-names. There's also a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEdJPkg26WM Video about how to compile and set up UFO2000 on Linux].

==Compiling the game==
===Requirements for the game===
In principle, you only need a few libraries like allegro or dumb:

* <code>build-essential</code> (only for compilation)
* <code>subversion</code> (only for downloading the code)
* <code>liballegro4.2-dev</code>
* <code>libexpat1-dev</code>
* <code>zlib1g-dev</code>
* <code>libfreetype6-dev</code>
* <code>libdumb1-dev</code> (only necessary for ogg-music-files)
* <code>libpng12-dev</code> (usually already there, at least with an Ubuntu 14.04)

You also will need these libraries on a target computer, if you intend to copy an already compiled UFO2000 version, for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential liballegro4.2-dev libexpat1-dev zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev libdumb1-dev libpng12-dev subversion

It is also recommended, to have X-COM and TFTD original files at hand for the game, but it is not necessary for playing.

So now we're ready to compile UFO2000. You will need the source-files as well:

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the game ===
You have two options for compiling UFO2000. Easy way with ogg-music-support:

make

Or if you prefer not to have ogg-support:

make no_dumbogg=1

=== Getting ready to play ===
UFO2000 doesn't exactly rely on files from original X-COM, but if you have it, or TFTD for that matter, you might want to copy the files into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code> after compilation. You will have a much better game experience. For further information, see [[Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing]]. One piece of warning: The game ''needs'' writing-permissions to the games own folder in order to save settings, squad-files and replays. So do not place it somewhere, useres don't have write permissions.

==Compiling the server==
=== Requirements for the server ===
For the server you (only) need these libraries:

* <code>build-essential</code> (only for compilation)
* <code>subversion</code> (only for downloading the code)
* <code>libhawknl-dev</code>
* <code>libsqlite3-dev</code>

Same as for the game goes here: If you intend to copy the serverfile to another system, you will also need these libraries there for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential libhawknl-dev libsqlite3-dev subversion

You also will need the source-files (if you don't already have them from compiling the game):

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the server ===
For this there is only one command necessary:

make server

That's it. You then should find a binary named <code>ufo2000-srv</code>. You can now start it on demand from console/script or start it with an init-script of some kind. There's also the option to run it in ''demonized'' mode, but there have been [http://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1799.msg40898.html#msg40898 reports of problems with that], so one might refrain from using it. For running the server, have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-08-18T21:57:37Z

7Saturn: /* First (hotseat) game */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems. There are also two videos, showing, how to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpBJBCyITmo Install and set up UFO2000 on windows] or [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEdJPkg26WM how to compile and set up UFO2000 on Linux].

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game". There's also a rather detailed [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8qKn6u2zWI video about the gameplay of UFO2000].
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. If you have absolutely no clue of how to proceed, have look at the [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)]]. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows. You can also turn the overview-map on and off with SHIFT+LEFT resp. SHIFT+RIGHT.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside your local <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more on that server.

=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, you will hear a »beep«-sound. Then you can press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e. g. »no line of fire«-message. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.

=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, the item will fly along the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)

=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's one exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.

=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)

2015-08-18T21:56:05Z

7Saturn: /* Introduction */

==Introduction==

UFO2000 is written in portable C, so of course it is also possible, to compile it on linux. The following instructions have been tested on an Ubuntu 14.04 x64 without any additional software or libraries installed by the user. The <code>apt-get</code>-commands should work on any Debian-related linux. If you run a different distribution, you may need the corresponding commands and library-names. There's also a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEdJPkg26WM Video about how to compile and set up UFO2000 on Linux].

==Compiling the game==
===Requirements for the game===
In principle, you only need a few libraries like allegro or dumb:

* <code>build-essential</code> (only for compilation)
* <code>subversion</code> (only for downloading the code)
* <code>liballegro4.2-dev</code>
* <code>libexpat1-dev</code>
* <code>zlib1g-dev</code>
* <code>libfreetype6-dev</code>
* <code>libdumb1-dev</code> (only necessary for ogg-music-files)
* <code>libpng12-dev</code> (usually already there, at least with an Ubuntu 14.04)

You also will need these libraries on a target computer, if you intend to copy an already compiled UFO2000 version, for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential liballegro4.2-dev libexpat1-dev zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev libdumb1-dev libpng12-dev subversion

It is also recommended, to have X-COM and TFTD original files at hand for the game, but it is not necessary for playing.

So now we're ready to compile UFO2000. You will need the source-files as well:

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the game ===
You have two options for compiling UFO2000. Easy way with ogg-music-support:

make

Or if you prefer not to have ogg-support:

make no_dumbogg=1

=== Getting ready to play ===
UFO2000 doesn't exactly rely on files from original X-COM, but if you have it, or TFTD for that matter, you might want to copy the files into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code> after compilation. You will have a much better game experience. For further information, see [[Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing]]. One piece of warning: The game ''needs'' writing-permissions to the games own folder in order to save settings, squad-files and replays. So do not place it somewhere, useres don't have write permissions.

==Compiling the server==
=== Requirements for the server ===
For the server you (only) need these libraries:

* <code>build-essential</code> (only for compilation)
* <code>subversion</code> (only for downloading the code)
* <code>libhawknl-dev</code>
* <code>libsqlite3-dev</code>

Same as for the game goes here: If you intend to copy the serverfile to another system, you will also need these libraries there for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential libhawknl-dev libsqlite3-dev subversion

You also will need the source-files (if you don't already have them from compiling the game):

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the server ===
For this there is only one command necessary:

make server

That's it. You then should find a binary named <code>ufo2000-srv</code>. You can now start it on demand from console/script or start it with an init-script of some kind. There's also the option to run it in ''demonized'' mode, but there have been [http://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1799.msg40898.html#msg40898 reports of problems with that], so one might refrain from using it. For running the server, have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-08-18T21:54:03Z

7Saturn: /* Install/compile UFO2000 */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems. There are also two videos, showing, how to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpBJBCyITmo Install and set up UFO2000 on windows] or [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEdJPkg26WM how to compile and set up UFO2000 on Linux].

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. If you have absolutely no clue of how to proceed, have look at the [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)]]. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows. You can also turn the overview-map on and off with SHIFT+LEFT resp. SHIFT+RIGHT.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside your local <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more on that server.

=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, you will hear a »beep«-sound. Then you can press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e. g. »no line of fire«-message. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.

=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, the item will fly along the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)

=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's one exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.

=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

UFO2000

2015-07-26T20:26:32Z

7Saturn:

__NOTOC__

[[Image:Ufo2000logo.gif|center]]

'''Welcome to the UFO2000 Wiki, a part of UFOpaedia.org. UFO2000 is a free and opensource turn based tactical squad simulation game with multiplayer support. The game has its own engine written from scratch. With the data files from the X-COM: UFO Defense game the game gets even better with additional maps, more units and sounds. But it is stand alone!'''

The UFO2000 Wiki is meant to be a guide to the game, providing new players with a quick explanation of the game while introducing more complex tactics to advanced players. It will also contain information regarding how to costumize the game to add your own units, terrains and weapons, plus provide more technical details on the different aspects of the game.

This Wiki is a work in progress - all contributions to it are welcome as long as they are related with [http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net UFO2000]. Feel free to add new pages, edit the current ones and to use the [[Talk:UFO2000|discussion tab]] to ask any question.

For more information regarding UFO2000 please visit the [http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net project site]. Happy gaming!

<table style="width: 100%;>
<tr style="vertical-align: top;">
<td colspan = "4">
{| {{stdTable}} title = "UFO2000 Main Directory" width = "100%"
|- {{stdTable Heading}}
| colspan = "4"| {{UFO2000 Icon}} '''UFO2000'''
|-
|}
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="vertical-align: top;">
<td style="width: 25%; border:1px gray solid;">
{| {{stdTable}} width="100%" style="border:none;"
|- {{stdTable Sub Heading}}
| '''Overview'''
|-
| [[Info (UFO2000)|About UFO2000]]
|-
| [[Authors (UFO2000)|Authors and Credits]]
|-
| [[Community (UFO2000)|Community]]
|-
|- {{stdTable Sub Heading}}
| '''Quick Start Guide'''
|-
| [[Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing]]
|-
| [[Interface (UFO2000)|The Main Interface]]
: [[Main Menu (UFO2000)|Main Menu]]
: [[Server (UFO2000)|Game Server]]
: [[Misson Planner (UFO2000)|Mission Planner]]
: [[Unit Editor (UFO2000)|Unit Editor]]
|-
| [[Tactical (UFO2000)|The Tactical Interface]]
: [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)|Tactical Window]]
: [[Keyboard Controls (UFO2000)|Keyboard Controls]]
: [[Control Panel (UFO2000)|Control Panel]]
|-
| [[Differences to X-COM (UFO2000)|Differences between UFO2000 and X-COM]]
|-
|}
</td>

<td style="width: 25%; border:1px gray solid;">
{| {{stdTable}} width="100%" style="border:none;"
|- {{stdTable Sub Heading}}
| '''Game and Squad Settings'''
|-
| [[Scenarios (UFO2000)|Scenarios]]
: [[Deathmatch (UFO2000)|Deathmatch]]
: [[Escape (UFO2000)|Escape]]
: [[Control (UFO2000)|Control]]
: [[Assassination (UFO2000)|Assassination]]
: [[Hold( UFO2000)|Hold]]
: [[Breakthrough (UFO2000)|Breakthrough]]
: [[Capture (UFO2000)|Capture]]
: [[Search and Destroy (UFO2000)|Search and Destroy]]
|-
| [[Game rule setups (UFO2000)|Game rule setups]]
: [[Regular 7K (UFO2000)|Regular 7K]]
: [[Shootout (UFO2000)|Shootout]]
: [[Other game types (UFO2000)|Other game types]]
|-
| [[Units (UFO2000)|Units]]
: [[Unit Types (UFO2000)|Unit Types]]
: [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)|Unit Stats]]
: [[New Units (UFO2000)|New Units]]
|-
| [[Weapon Sets (UFO2000)|Weapon Sets]]
: [[Weapon Types (UFO2000)|Weapon Types]]
: [[UFO2000 Weaponset (UFO2000)|UFO2000]]
: [[Galactic Weaponset (UFO2000)|Galactic]]
: [[Modified Weaponset (UFO2000)|Modified X-COM]]
: [[Original Weaponsets (UFO2000)|Original UFO&TFTD]]
|-
|}
</td>

<td style="width: 25%; border:1px gray solid;">
{| {{stdTable}} width="100%" style="border:none;"
|- {{stdTable Sub Heading}}
| '''Strategy Manual'''
|-
| [[Squads (UFO2000)|Designing&Deploying Squads]]
: [[Specialized Units (UFO2000)|Specialized Units]]
: [[Fireteams (UFO2000)|Fireteams]]
: [[Team Roles (UFO2000)|Team Roles]]
: [[Squad Action (UFO2000)|Squad Action]]
|-
| [[Squad Leadership (UFO2000)|Squad Leadership]]
|-
| [[Terrain and Combat (UFO2000)|Terrain and Combat]]
|-
| [[Operations (UFO2000)|Tactical Operations]]
: [[Scouting (UFO2000)|Scouting and Hiding]]
: [[Maneuvering (UFO2000)|Maneuvering]]
: [[Firing (UFO2000)|Firing]]
: [[Firing and Maneuvering (UFO2000)|Firing and Maneuvering]]
: [[Formations (UFO2000)|Squad Formations]]
|-
| [[Offensive Operations (UFO2000)|Offensive Operations]]
: [[Offensive Notes (UFO2000)|General Notes]]
: [[Offensive Requirements (UFO2000)|Offensive Requirements]]
: [[Offensive Strategies (UFO2000)|Offensive Strategies]]
|-
| [[Defensive Operations (UFO2000)|Defensive Operations]]
: [[Defensive Notes (UFO2000)|General Notes]]
: [[Defensive Dilemmas (UFO2000)|Defensive Dilemmas]]
: [[Defensive Tactics (UFO2000)|Defensive Tactics]]
|-
| [[Annexes (UFO2000)|Annexes]]
: [[Reaction Tactics (UFO2000)|Reaction Tactics]]
: [[Airborne Tactics (UFO2000)|Airborne Tactics]]
: [[Military Intelligence (UFO2000)|Military Intelligence]]
: [[Comm Center (UFO2000)|Comm Center]]
|-
|}
</td>

<td style="width: 25%; border:1px gray solid;">
{| {{stdTable}} width="100%" style="border:none;"
|- {{stdTable Sub Heading}}
| '''Technical Information'''
|-
| [[Customizing (UFO2000)|Customizing]]
: [[Custom Weapons (UFO2000)|Weapons]]
: [[Custom Maps (UFO2000)|Maps]]
: [[Custom Units (UFO2000)|Units]]
|-
| [[Game Engine (UFO2000)|Game Engine]]
: [[Accuracy Formula (UFO2000)|Accuracy Formula]]
: [[Reactions Formula (UFO2000)|Reactions Formula]]
: [[Morale Formula (UFO2000)|Morale Formula]]
: [[Stats System (UFO2000)|Statistics System]]
: [[Damage (UFO2000)|Damage]]
: [[Explosions (UFO2000)|Explosions]]
: [[Unit Stats in Details (UFO2000)|Unit Stats in Details]]
: [[Line of sight (UFO2000)|Line of sight]]
|-
| Compiling UFO2000
: [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)|Compiling for Mac OS X]]
: [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)|Compiling for Linux]]
|-
| Running your own UFO2000 server
: [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)#Compiling_the_server|Compiling server for Linux]]
: [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]]
|-
| Helping with development
: [[Known issues (UFO2000)|Known issues]]
: [[Contributing Code (UFO2000)|Contributing Code]]
|-
| '''Resources'''
|
|-
| [[Links (UFO2000)|Links]]
|}
</td>
</tr>
</table>
[[Category:UFO2000]]

UFO2000

2015-07-26T20:26:12Z

7Saturn:

__NOTOC__

[[Image:Ufo2000logo.gif|center]]

'''Welcome to the UFO2000 Wiki, a part of UFOpaedia.org. UFO2000 is a free and opensource turn based tactical squad simulation game with multiplayer support. The game has its own engine written from scratch. With the data files from the X-COM: UFO Defense game the game gets even better with additional maps, more units and sounds. But it is stand alone!'''

The UFO2000 Wiki is meant to be a guide to the game, providing new players with a quick explanation of the game while introducing more complex tactics to advanced players. It will also contain information regarding how to costumize the game to add your own units, terrains and weapons, plus provide more technical details on the different aspects of the game.

This Wiki is a work in progress - all contributions to it are welcome as long as they are related with [http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net UFO2000]. Feel free to add new pages, edit the current ones and to use the [[Talk:UFO2000|discussion tab]] to ask any question.

For more information regarding UFO2000 please visit the [http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net site]. Happy gaming!

<table style="width: 100%;>
<tr style="vertical-align: top;">
<td colspan = "4">
{| {{stdTable}} title = "UFO2000 Main Directory" width = "100%"
|- {{stdTable Heading}}
| colspan = "4"| {{UFO2000 Icon}} '''UFO2000'''
|-
|}
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="vertical-align: top;">
<td style="width: 25%; border:1px gray solid;">
{| {{stdTable}} width="100%" style="border:none;"
|- {{stdTable Sub Heading}}
| '''Overview'''
|-
| [[Info (UFO2000)|About UFO2000]]
|-
| [[Authors (UFO2000)|Authors and Credits]]
|-
| [[Community (UFO2000)|Community]]
|-
|- {{stdTable Sub Heading}}
| '''Quick Start Guide'''
|-
| [[Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing]]
|-
| [[Interface (UFO2000)|The Main Interface]]
: [[Main Menu (UFO2000)|Main Menu]]
: [[Server (UFO2000)|Game Server]]
: [[Misson Planner (UFO2000)|Mission Planner]]
: [[Unit Editor (UFO2000)|Unit Editor]]
|-
| [[Tactical (UFO2000)|The Tactical Interface]]
: [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)|Tactical Window]]
: [[Keyboard Controls (UFO2000)|Keyboard Controls]]
: [[Control Panel (UFO2000)|Control Panel]]
|-
| [[Differences to X-COM (UFO2000)|Differences between UFO2000 and X-COM]]
|-
|}
</td>

<td style="width: 25%; border:1px gray solid;">
{| {{stdTable}} width="100%" style="border:none;"
|- {{stdTable Sub Heading}}
| '''Game and Squad Settings'''
|-
| [[Scenarios (UFO2000)|Scenarios]]
: [[Deathmatch (UFO2000)|Deathmatch]]
: [[Escape (UFO2000)|Escape]]
: [[Control (UFO2000)|Control]]
: [[Assassination (UFO2000)|Assassination]]
: [[Hold( UFO2000)|Hold]]
: [[Breakthrough (UFO2000)|Breakthrough]]
: [[Capture (UFO2000)|Capture]]
: [[Search and Destroy (UFO2000)|Search and Destroy]]
|-
| [[Game rule setups (UFO2000)|Game rule setups]]
: [[Regular 7K (UFO2000)|Regular 7K]]
: [[Shootout (UFO2000)|Shootout]]
: [[Other game types (UFO2000)|Other game types]]
|-
| [[Units (UFO2000)|Units]]
: [[Unit Types (UFO2000)|Unit Types]]
: [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)|Unit Stats]]
: [[New Units (UFO2000)|New Units]]
|-
| [[Weapon Sets (UFO2000)|Weapon Sets]]
: [[Weapon Types (UFO2000)|Weapon Types]]
: [[UFO2000 Weaponset (UFO2000)|UFO2000]]
: [[Galactic Weaponset (UFO2000)|Galactic]]
: [[Modified Weaponset (UFO2000)|Modified X-COM]]
: [[Original Weaponsets (UFO2000)|Original UFO&TFTD]]
|-
|}
</td>

<td style="width: 25%; border:1px gray solid;">
{| {{stdTable}} width="100%" style="border:none;"
|- {{stdTable Sub Heading}}
| '''Strategy Manual'''
|-
| [[Squads (UFO2000)|Designing&Deploying Squads]]
: [[Specialized Units (UFO2000)|Specialized Units]]
: [[Fireteams (UFO2000)|Fireteams]]
: [[Team Roles (UFO2000)|Team Roles]]
: [[Squad Action (UFO2000)|Squad Action]]
|-
| [[Squad Leadership (UFO2000)|Squad Leadership]]
|-
| [[Terrain and Combat (UFO2000)|Terrain and Combat]]
|-
| [[Operations (UFO2000)|Tactical Operations]]
: [[Scouting (UFO2000)|Scouting and Hiding]]
: [[Maneuvering (UFO2000)|Maneuvering]]
: [[Firing (UFO2000)|Firing]]
: [[Firing and Maneuvering (UFO2000)|Firing and Maneuvering]]
: [[Formations (UFO2000)|Squad Formations]]
|-
| [[Offensive Operations (UFO2000)|Offensive Operations]]
: [[Offensive Notes (UFO2000)|General Notes]]
: [[Offensive Requirements (UFO2000)|Offensive Requirements]]
: [[Offensive Strategies (UFO2000)|Offensive Strategies]]
|-
| [[Defensive Operations (UFO2000)|Defensive Operations]]
: [[Defensive Notes (UFO2000)|General Notes]]
: [[Defensive Dilemmas (UFO2000)|Defensive Dilemmas]]
: [[Defensive Tactics (UFO2000)|Defensive Tactics]]
|-
| [[Annexes (UFO2000)|Annexes]]
: [[Reaction Tactics (UFO2000)|Reaction Tactics]]
: [[Airborne Tactics (UFO2000)|Airborne Tactics]]
: [[Military Intelligence (UFO2000)|Military Intelligence]]
: [[Comm Center (UFO2000)|Comm Center]]
|-
|}
</td>

<td style="width: 25%; border:1px gray solid;">
{| {{stdTable}} width="100%" style="border:none;"
|- {{stdTable Sub Heading}}
| '''Technical Information'''
|-
| [[Customizing (UFO2000)|Customizing]]
: [[Custom Weapons (UFO2000)|Weapons]]
: [[Custom Maps (UFO2000)|Maps]]
: [[Custom Units (UFO2000)|Units]]
|-
| [[Game Engine (UFO2000)|Game Engine]]
: [[Accuracy Formula (UFO2000)|Accuracy Formula]]
: [[Reactions Formula (UFO2000)|Reactions Formula]]
: [[Morale Formula (UFO2000)|Morale Formula]]
: [[Stats System (UFO2000)|Statistics System]]
: [[Damage (UFO2000)|Damage]]
: [[Explosions (UFO2000)|Explosions]]
: [[Unit Stats in Details (UFO2000)|Unit Stats in Details]]
: [[Line of sight (UFO2000)|Line of sight]]
|-
| Compiling UFO2000
: [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)|Compiling for Mac OS X]]
: [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)|Compiling for Linux]]
|-
| Running your own UFO2000 server
: [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)#Compiling_the_server|Compiling server for Linux]]
: [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]]
|-
| Helping with development
: [[Known issues (UFO2000)|Known issues]]
: [[Contributing Code (UFO2000)|Contributing Code]]
|-
| '''Resources'''
|
|-
| [[Links (UFO2000)|Links]]
|}
</td>
</tr>
</table>
[[Category:UFO2000]]

Known issues (UFO2000)

2015-07-26T20:23:50Z

7Saturn: /* Replay incompatibility */

UFO2000 is an open source game. As such, it relies completely on the work, people put in. For the most part, it works rather fine. However, there are still some issues to be resolved, aside from new features. If you want to help getting rid of some of the problems below, please also read [[Contributing Code (UFO2000)]].
=== Grenade drop inside rooms ===
Players from original [[X-COM]], [[TFTD]] or [[OpenXcom]] are used to throw grenades without necessarily thinking, before trying. If the throwing can't be done like this, the game simply refuses to do so, telling you with some sort of message. UFO2000 does ''not always''! It tries to do so, but when the grenade hits an obstacle, it only falls down. That's especially a problem, when standing inside a house or some other sort of room. Then the grenade just falls before your own feet. A warning or refusal of some kind still needs a little coding.

=== No music ===
UFO2000 used to play music files. At some point, the DUMB-Librarie changed it's API, so there's some work to be done, to give UFO2000 its music capabilities back.

=== Sluggish Mouse ===
The mouse is controlled by Allegro, which seems to be having problems, when the mouse-changes are to fast. This also happens, when playing on high screen resolutions, e. g. full HD.

=== Networkproblems ===
UFO2000 has still some issues with network communication. If you have a look at the [http://ufo2000.net/results.php|official Stats-Page], you will see, that ca. 75-80% of the games were completely successful, however that leaves around 20-25% games being interrupted by some sort of problem, causing games out of sync.

=== No path-searching through doors ===
In original [[X-COM]] and [[OpenXcom]], if you click inside a room, to get the soldier moving inside that room, the path search algorithm finds the shortest way inside the room. If that means going through a door, it will plot a path right through it. UFO2000 does not do so. If there is no way except through a door, it simply won't find a way (mostly the better case). If there is another way inside, without any doors used, it will take this way (usually the worse case, as this usually is the longer way).

=== No UFO-doors ===
Usually, doors have some sort of graphics. UFO-doors in UFO2000 don't show any door. Instead, it's just a plain hole in the wall, where the door is supposed to be. But you still can't look through that not existing door, as it behaves like an optical barrier. However the above mentioned path search ''does'' work properly.
=== Forgotten unit position ===
In original [[X-COM]] as well as in [[TFTD]] and [[OpenXcom]], once you discovered an enemy unit, it's position is remembered until the end of the round. In UFO2000, it is not. The moment the spotting unit looses LOS to that unit, it is removed from battlescape-view. This can produce strange situations, e. g. you turn a unit 90°. During that, you spot it for a very short moment (at 45°), just to loose sight immediately, when moving the second 45°. Also explosive weapons can have this effect. You fire with a gauge at a unit. The unit is hit, smoke is generated, so you lose sight of the unit. If you haven't remembered that units position properly, you won't be able to place an accurate shot, any more. One might consider this as an additional tactics aspect, when playing against humans. However, as UFO2000's game mechanics are quite clearly derived from the above mentioned games, it feels rather normal, when units don't vanish from the battelscape-view, before ending a turn.
=== Replay incompatibility ===
Currently, it seems, saved replays of UFO2000 can't be read by the same version on a different plattform. E. g. if you saved a replay with current 0.9.1176-version on Windows, you won't be able to watch it with 0.9.1176 under Linux, and vice versa. Even when compiling on linux with the same code base, the compatibility is problematic, as the version-string includes the build-time. There are ways to manipulate this string with gzstream-decompression, editing, and repacking with gzstream. But that's a lot of work. It is to be suspected, to behave the same way with MacOS, where you also have to compile it yourself.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)

2015-07-26T20:21:25Z

7Saturn: /* Requirements for the server */

==Introduction==

UFO2000 is written in portable C, so of course it is also possible, to compile it on linux. The following instructions have been tested on an Ubuntu 14.04 x64 without any additional software or libraries installed by the user. The <code>apt-get</code>-commands should work on any Debian-related linux. If you run a different distribution, you may need the corresponding commands and library-names.

==Compiling the game==
===Requirements for the game===
In principle, you only need a few libraries like allegro or dumb:

* <code>build-essential</code> (only for compilation)
* <code>subversion</code> (only for downloading the code)
* <code>liballegro4.2-dev</code>
* <code>libexpat1-dev</code>
* <code>zlib1g-dev</code>
* <code>libfreetype6-dev</code>
* <code>libdumb1-dev</code> (only necessary for ogg-music-files)
* <code>libpng12-dev</code> (usually already there, at least with an Ubuntu 14.04)

You also will need these libraries on a target computer, if you intend to copy an already compiled UFO2000 version, for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential liballegro4.2-dev libexpat1-dev zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev libdumb1-dev libpng12-dev subversion

It is also recommended, to have X-COM and TFTD original files at hand for the game, but it is not necessary for playing.

So now we're ready to compile UFO2000. You will need the source-files as well:

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the game ===
You have two options for compiling UFO2000. Easy way with ogg-music-support:

make

Or if you prefer not to have ogg-support:

make no_dumbogg=1

=== Getting ready to play ===
UFO2000 doesn't exactly rely on files from original X-COM, but if you have it, or TFTD for that matter, you might want to copy the files into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code> after compilation. You will have a much better game experience. For further information, see [[Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing]]. One piece of warning: The game ''needs'' writing-permissions to the games own folder in order to save settings, squad-files and replays. So do not place it somewhere, useres don't have write permissions.

==Compiling the server==
=== Requirements for the server ===
For the server you (only) need these libraries:

* <code>build-essential</code> (only for compilation)
* <code>subversion</code> (only for downloading the code)
* <code>libhawknl-dev</code>
* <code>libsqlite3-dev</code>

Same as for the game goes here: If you intend to copy the serverfile to another system, you will also need these libraries there for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential libhawknl-dev libsqlite3-dev subversion

You also will need the source-files (if you don't already have them from compiling the game):

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the server ===
For this there is only one command necessary:

make server

That's it. You then should find a binary named <code>ufo2000-srv</code>. You can now start it on demand from console/script or start it with an init-script of some kind. There's also the option to run it in ''demonized'' mode, but there have been [http://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1799.msg40898.html#msg40898 reports of problems with that], so one might refrain from using it. For running the server, have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)

2015-07-26T20:21:14Z

7Saturn: /* Requirements for the game */

==Introduction==

UFO2000 is written in portable C, so of course it is also possible, to compile it on linux. The following instructions have been tested on an Ubuntu 14.04 x64 without any additional software or libraries installed by the user. The <code>apt-get</code>-commands should work on any Debian-related linux. If you run a different distribution, you may need the corresponding commands and library-names.

==Compiling the game==
===Requirements for the game===
In principle, you only need a few libraries like allegro or dumb:

* <code>build-essential</code> (only for compilation)
* <code>subversion</code> (only for downloading the code)
* <code>liballegro4.2-dev</code>
* <code>libexpat1-dev</code>
* <code>zlib1g-dev</code>
* <code>libfreetype6-dev</code>
* <code>libdumb1-dev</code> (only necessary for ogg-music-files)
* <code>libpng12-dev</code> (usually already there, at least with an Ubuntu 14.04)

You also will need these libraries on a target computer, if you intend to copy an already compiled UFO2000 version, for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential liballegro4.2-dev libexpat1-dev zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev libdumb1-dev libpng12-dev subversion

It is also recommended, to have X-COM and TFTD original files at hand for the game, but it is not necessary for playing.

So now we're ready to compile UFO2000. You will need the source-files as well:

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the game ===
You have two options for compiling UFO2000. Easy way with ogg-music-support:

make

Or if you prefer not to have ogg-support:

make no_dumbogg=1

=== Getting ready to play ===
UFO2000 doesn't exactly rely on files from original X-COM, but if you have it, or TFTD for that matter, you might want to copy the files into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code> after compilation. You will have a much better game experience. For further information, see [[Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing]]. One piece of warning: The game ''needs'' writing-permissions to the games own folder in order to save settings, squad-files and replays. So do not place it somewhere, useres don't have write permissions.

==Compiling the server==
=== Requirements for the server ===
For the server you (only) need these libraries:

* <code>build-essential</code>
* <code>subversion</code>
* <code>libhawknl-dev</code>
* <code>libsqlite3-dev</code>

Same as for the game goes here: If you intend to copy the serverfile to another system, you will also need these libraries there for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential libhawknl-dev libsqlite3-dev subversion

You also will need the source-files (if you don't already have them from compiling the game):

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the server ===
For this there is only one command necessary:

make server

That's it. You then should find a binary named <code>ufo2000-srv</code>. You can now start it on demand from console/script or start it with an init-script of some kind. There's also the option to run it in ''demonized'' mode, but there have been [http://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1799.msg40898.html#msg40898 reports of problems with that], so one might refrain from using it. For running the server, have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)

2015-07-26T20:20:23Z

7Saturn: /* Requirements for the server */

==Introduction==

UFO2000 is written in portable C, so of course it is also possible, to compile it on linux. The following instructions have been tested on an Ubuntu 14.04 x64 without any additional software or libraries installed by the user. The <code>apt-get</code>-commands should work on any Debian-related linux. If you run a different distribution, you may need the corresponding commands and library-names.

==Compiling the game==
===Requirements for the game===
In principle, you only need a few libraries like allegro or dumb:

* <code>build-essential</code>
* <code>subversion</code>
* <code>liballegro4.2-dev</code>
* <code>libexpat1-dev</code>
* <code>zlib1g-dev</code>
* <code>libfreetype6-dev</code>
* <code>libdumb1-dev</code> (only necessary for ogg-music-files)
* <code>libpng12-dev</code> (usually already there, at least with an Ubuntu 14.04)

You also will need these libraries on a target computer, if you intend to copy an already compiled UFO2000 version, for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential liballegro4.2-dev libexpat1-dev zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev libdumb1-dev libpng12-dev subversion

It is also recommended, to have X-COM and TFTD original files at hand for the game, but it is not necessary for playing.

So now we're ready to compile UFO2000. You will need the source-files as well:

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the game ===
You have two options for compiling UFO2000. Easy way with ogg-music-support:

make

Or if you prefer not to have ogg-support:

make no_dumbogg=1

=== Getting ready to play ===
UFO2000 doesn't exactly rely on files from original X-COM, but if you have it, or TFTD for that matter, you might want to copy the files into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code> after compilation. You will have a much better game experience. For further information, see [[Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing]]. One piece of warning: The game ''needs'' writing-permissions to the games own folder in order to save settings, squad-files and replays. So do not place it somewhere, useres don't have write permissions.

==Compiling the server==
=== Requirements for the server ===
For the server you (only) need these libraries:

* <code>build-essential</code>
* <code>subversion</code>
* <code>libhawknl-dev</code>
* <code>libsqlite3-dev</code>

Same as for the game goes here: If you intend to copy the serverfile to another system, you will also need these libraries there for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential libhawknl-dev libsqlite3-dev subversion

You also will need the source-files (if you don't already have them from compiling the game):

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the server ===
For this there is only one command necessary:

make server

That's it. You then should find a binary named <code>ufo2000-srv</code>. You can now start it on demand from console/script or start it with an init-script of some kind. There's also the option to run it in ''demonized'' mode, but there have been [http://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1799.msg40898.html#msg40898 reports of problems with that], so one might refrain from using it. For running the server, have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)

2015-07-26T20:20:04Z

7Saturn: /* Requirements for the game */

==Introduction==

UFO2000 is written in portable C, so of course it is also possible, to compile it on linux. The following instructions have been tested on an Ubuntu 14.04 x64 without any additional software or libraries installed by the user. The <code>apt-get</code>-commands should work on any Debian-related linux. If you run a different distribution, you may need the corresponding commands and library-names.

==Compiling the game==
===Requirements for the game===
In principle, you only need a few libraries like allegro or dumb:

* <code>build-essential</code>
* <code>subversion</code>
* <code>liballegro4.2-dev</code>
* <code>libexpat1-dev</code>
* <code>zlib1g-dev</code>
* <code>libfreetype6-dev</code>
* <code>libdumb1-dev</code> (only necessary for ogg-music-files)
* <code>libpng12-dev</code> (usually already there, at least with an Ubuntu 14.04)

You also will need these libraries on a target computer, if you intend to copy an already compiled UFO2000 version, for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential liballegro4.2-dev libexpat1-dev zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev libdumb1-dev libpng12-dev subversion

It is also recommended, to have X-COM and TFTD original files at hand for the game, but it is not necessary for playing.

So now we're ready to compile UFO2000. You will need the source-files as well:

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the game ===
You have two options for compiling UFO2000. Easy way with ogg-music-support:

make

Or if you prefer not to have ogg-support:

make no_dumbogg=1

=== Getting ready to play ===
UFO2000 doesn't exactly rely on files from original X-COM, but if you have it, or TFTD for that matter, you might want to copy the files into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code> after compilation. You will have a much better game experience. For further information, see [[Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing]]. One piece of warning: The game ''needs'' writing-permissions to the games own folder in order to save settings, squad-files and replays. So do not place it somewhere, useres don't have write permissions.

==Compiling the server==
=== Requirements for the server ===
For the server you (only) need these libraries:

* <code>build-essential</code>
* <code>libhawknl-dev</code>
* <code>libsqlite3-dev</code>

Same as for the game goes here: If you intend to copy the serverfile to another system, you will also need these libraries there for running. As well, you will need Subversion for downloading the source-files, which can be installed like this:

sudo apt-get install subversion

To install them all at once, run:
sudo apt-get install build-essential libhawknl-dev libsqlite3-dev subversion

You also will need the source-files (if you don't already have them from compiling the game):

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ufo2000/code/trunk ufo2000-code
cd ufo2000-code

This downloads the current svn-version of UFO2000 into the directory <code>ufo2000-code</code> and switches into that new directory. You can as well get that with the <code>.tar.bz2</code>-file from the project site.

=== Compiling the server ===
For this there is only one command necessary:

make server

That's it. You then should find a binary named <code>ufo2000-srv</code>. You can now start it on demand from console/script or start it with an init-script of some kind. There's also the option to run it in ''demonized'' mode, but there have been [http://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1799.msg40898.html#msg40898 reports of problems with that], so one might refrain from using it. For running the server, have a look at [[Setting up an UFO2000 server]].

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Compiling (OpenXcom)

2015-07-26T20:18:38Z

7Saturn: /* Dependencies */

The OpenXcom codebase is hosted on [https://github.com/SupSuper/OpenXcom Github], and you can grab the latest source with any Git client from: <code>https://github.com/SupSuper/OpenXcom.git</code>

If you're a Github user you might wanna [http://help.github.com/forking use a fork] instead so you can have your own remote repository (you can't push to the official OpenXcom repository without permission) and easily send in pull requests.

OpenXcom is a cross-platform game so it's possible to compile it on a variety of systems and project files for all the popular IDEs are included. There's also a [http://openxcom.org/docs/html/ Doxygen documentation] available.

'''Don't forget to copy the X-Com resources to your ''bin'' folder as shown in [[Installing (OpenXcom)|Installing]].'''

== Dependencies ==

OpenXcom requires the following libraries to compile:

* [http://www.libsdl.org/ SDL] (libsdl1.2)
* [http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/ SDL_mixer] (libsdl-mixer1.2)
* [http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/ SDL_image] (libsdl-image1.2)
* [http://cms.ferzkopp.net/index.php/software/13-sdl-gfx SDL_gfx] (libsdl-gfx1.2), version 2.0.22 or later
* [http://code.google.com/p/yaml-cpp/ yaml-cpp], (libyaml-cpp), version 0.5.1 (0.5.2 does ''not'' work)


== All operating systems ==

* [[Compiling with CMake (OpenXcom)|Compiling with CMake]]

== Windows ==

* [[Compiling with Microsoft Visual C++ (OpenXcom)|Compiling with Microsoft Visual C++]]
* [[Compiling with MinGW (OpenXcom)|Compiling with MinGW]]

== Mac OS X ==

* [[Compiling with Xcode (OpenXcom)|Compiling with Xcode]]
* [[Compiling with brew (OpenXcom)|Compiling with brew]]

== Linux/BSD ==

* [[Compiling with Make (OpenXcom)|Compiling with Make]]
* [[Compiling with CMake (OpenXcom)|Compiling with CMake]]
* [[Compiling with Autotools (OpenXcom)|Compiling with Autotools]]

== Misc. ==

* [[Android port (OpenXcom)|Compiling for Android]]

[[Category:OpenXcom]]

Capture (UFO2000)

2015-07-14T19:15:18Z

7Saturn: /* Overview of Assassination Scenario */

== Overview of Capture Scenario==

===Objective===

'''Player 1:''' You must capture the enemy leader (first selected soldier). To do this you must stun him and bring him to the edge of the map. The enemy leader is always visible on your minimap.

'''Player 2:''' You must save your leader (first selected soldier) from capture by the enemy. He is always visible on your opponents minimap.

===Deployment Types===

*'''Standard'''

===Description===

...

===Options===

* To limit 2nd player's leader to only carry single handed weapons.

===Tips===

...

[[Category:UFO2000]]
[[Category:UFO2000 Quick Start Guide]]
[[Category:Scenarios (UFO2000)]]

Hold (UFO2000)

2015-07-14T19:12:26Z

7Saturn: /* Objective */

== Overview of Hold Scenario==

===Objective===

'''Player 1:''' You must save at least half of your squad (rounded down) until the end of the match (number of turns is set in the "Options" section).

'''Player 2:''' You must kill more than half of the enemy squad (rounded down) before the end of the match (number of turns is set in the "Options" section).

Options:

===Deployment Types===

*'''Surrounded'''

===Description===

...

===Options===

* Half-turns to hold (match length) <1~20>

===Tips===

...

[[Category:UFO2000]]
[[Category:UFO2000 Quick Start Guide]]
[[Category:Scenarios (UFO2000)]]

Setting up an UFO2000 server

2015-07-12T20:13:51Z

7Saturn: /* Using the init-script */

In principle, for playing online, you ''do need'' an online server. Usually the public <code>ufo2000.net</code> server should do just fine. But maybe you want to set up a private server or a backup server.

==How to get the binary and what it brings with it==
In order to run your own server, you can either use the supplied [http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ufo2000/ufo2000-0.9.1176-beta.exe?download precompiled ufo2000.exe] from the [http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net project page], or for linux, you will need to compile it yourself. Don't worry, the latter is no big deal. You should have a look at the [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)#Compiling_the_server|compilation page]], then. The server brings a status-page with it, a tiny webserver, that only shows, who is logged on. If you use the standard port for it, the url is http://servername:2000.

==Starting and stopping==
You should have either the <code>ufo2000-srv.exe</code> (Windows) or the <code>ufo2000-srv</code> (Linux). You can either start it manually (stopping with CTRL+C) or let it be done by an init-script/the systems service-manager. For the moment, it is not recommended, to use the ''demonized''-mode, as there have been [http://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1799.msg40898.html#msg40898 reports of problems with that]. On piece of advice at this point: If you choose to run the server on a regular basis, e. g. on a root-server, ''you really should not run the server as root''. Better use an init-script, running it as a limited user. That way, it's far less dangerous, running the ufo2000-server. There are no known security issues, but the problem usually are the not known one. If somebody may find any, the service run as root is ''a big security risk''. So keep that in mind, when running ufo2000 servers, or any other gaming server for that matter.

If you want the server to be a backup-server, '''don't forget to add it to [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers list]'''!
===Example init-script===
Heres an example for an init-script for starting the server on system start with Linux:

#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: UFO2000 server management
# Required-Start:
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Controls the UFO2000 server
# Description: Nothing further
### END INIT INFO
# Author: 7Saturn <7Saturn@gmx.de>

# Aktionen

COMMANDLINE_PARAMETERS="" #any command line parameters you want to pass here
D1=$(readlink -f "$0")
BINARYPATH="/path-to/ufo2000server"
PIDFILE="ufo2000.pid"
cd "${BINARYPATH}"
LIBRARYPATH="$(pwd)"
BINARYNAME="ufo2000-srv"

case "$1" in
start)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "UFO2000 server already running, maybe try restart or stop!"
exit 1
else
echo "$PIDFILE found, but UFO2000 server doesn't run any more. Possibly crashed."
rm $PIDFILE
fi
fi
if [ "${UID}" = "0" ]; then
echo "Warning! It's not recommended, to run the server as root!"
fi
echo "Running UFO2000 server..."
if [ -e "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
if [ ! -x "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
echo "${BINARYNAME} is not executable, trying to change rights..."
chmod u+x "${BINARYNAME}"
fi
if [ -x "$BINARYNAME" ]; then
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${LIBRARYPATH}:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
sudo -u <username> "./${BINARYNAME}" ${COMMANDLINE_PARAMETERS} > /dev/null 2>&1 &
echo $! > $PIDFILE
echo "UFO2000 server started."
else
echo "${BINARNAME} is not executable, UFO2000 server was NOT started!"
fi
else
echo "Server binary not found, aborting!"
exit 5
fi
;;
stop)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
echo -n "Stopping UFO2000 server."
if ( kill -TERM $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
c=1
while [ "$c" -le 300 ]; do
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo -n "."
sleep 1
else
break
fi
c=$((++c))
done
fi
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "Server couldn't cleanly stopped, killing process..."
kill -KILL $(cat $PIDFILE)
else
echo " server stopped."
fi
rm $PIDFILE
else
echo "UFO2000 server not running ($PIDFILE missing)."
exit 7
fi
;;
restart)
echo "Trying to start UFO2000 server..."
$D1 stop && $D1 start || exit 1
;;
status)
if [ -e $PIDFILE ]; then
if ( kill -0 $(cat $PIDFILE) 2> /dev/null ); then
echo "UFO2000 server running."
else
echo "UFO2000 server seems to have crashed."
fi
else
echo "UFO2000 server isn't running ($PIDFILE missing)."
fi
;;
*)
echo "Usuage: ${0} {start|stop|restart|status}"
exit 2
esac
exit 0

===Using the init-script===
* Replace <code><username></code> with the username, it should be run as. Do ''not'' use root for that. Better use an additional user, e.g. <code>ufo2kuser</code>. The user doesn't need the privileges to login locally.
* It should be placed in the folder <code>/etc/init.d/</code>.
* It has to be executable: <code>sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/<scriptname></code>.
* To register it as a script to be run, the command is: <code>sudo update-rc.d <scriptname> defaults</code>.
* To remove it, use <code>sudo update-rc.d -f <scriptname> remove</code>.

After that, the script can be used manually with <code>sudo service <scriptname> {start|stop|restart|status}</code>, but usually is run by the system itself.

==Ports and routers==
When running, the server automatically opens up a tiny web server, showing the current players on the server. You can reach it via <code>http://<server-adress>:2000</code>. The Port 2000 (TCP) is also the port, where the server listens for connections of the game. If you run it behind a NAT (e. g. used by most home routers), you will also need to forward that port to the computer, running the service.

==Configuration==
The file <code>ufo2000-srv.conf</code> contains a few options for configuration:

daemonize = 0
tcp_port = 2000
players_count_limit = 32
connections_count_limit = 64
login_time_limit = 10000
username_size_limit = 25
packet_size_limit = 65536

Most of it should be rather self explaining. As said before, for the moment better not use the <code>deamonize</code>-option.

==Stats and passwords==
===Stats===
There is a function for recording of results of all played games. These results are saved in the file <code>ufo2000.db</code>. To query this file, e. g. with a php-script, you need access to it, provided by php. You will need to install php for use with an apache server. Usually, this is already the case. You will also need the pdo drivers for the query itself. On Ubuntu 14.04 you can install the required files with this:

sudo apt-get install php5-sqlite sqlite

From that on, you can build your own server stats-page.

===Passwords===
All users connecting to the server, will have the opportunity to choose a password, when connecting the first time with a certain user name. This password will remain! It's saved as a MD5-hash, and can only be changed by manipulating the database-table <code>ufo2000_users</code>. You can either delete a user completely, or let him give you a new password-hash. The user has no way of changing it himself and you won't have any means of recovering a lost password, as there are only hashes in the table.

==Logs==
The file <code>ufo2000-srv.log</code> contains server logs. If you experience problems, first look there, to further isolate the problem.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Known issues (UFO2000)

2015-06-14T18:54:05Z

7Saturn: /* No path-searching through walls */

UFO2000 is an open source game. As such, it relies completely on the work, people put in. For the most part, it works rather fine. However, there are still some issues to be resolved, aside from new features. If you want to help getting rid of some of the problems below, please also read [[Contributing Code (UFO2000)]].
=== Grenade drop inside rooms ===
Players from original [[X-COM]], [[TFTD]] or [[OpenXcom]] are used to throw grenades without necessarily thinking, before trying. If the throwing can't be done like this, the game simply refuses to do so, telling you with some sort of message. UFO2000 does ''not always''! It tries to do so, but when the grenade hits an obstacle, it only falls down. That's especially a problem, when standing inside a house or some other sort of room. Then the grenade just falls before your own feet. A warning or refusal of some kind still needs a little coding.

=== No music ===
UFO2000 used to play music files. At some point, the DUMB-Librarie changed it's API, so there's some work to be done, to give UFO2000 its music capabilities back.

=== Sluggish Mouse ===
The mouse is controlled by Allegro, which seems to be having problems, when the mouse-changes are to fast. This also happens, when playing on high screen resolutions, e. g. full HD.

=== Networkproblems ===
UFO2000 has still some issues with network communication. If you have a look at the [http://ufo2000.net/results.php|official Stats-Page], you will see, that ca. 75-80% of the games were completely successful, however that leaves around 20-25% games being interrupted by some sort of problem, causing games out of sync.

=== No path-searching through doors ===
In original [[X-COM]] and [[OpenXcom]], if you click inside a room, to get the soldier moving inside that room, the path search algorithm finds the shortest way inside the room. If that means going through a door, it will plot a path right through it. UFO2000 does not do so. If there is no way except through a door, it simply won't find a way (mostly the better case). If there is another way inside, without any doors used, it will take this way (usually the worse case, as this usually is the longer way).

=== No UFO-doors ===
Usually, doors have some sort of graphics. UFO-doors in UFO2000 don't show any door. Instead, it's just a plain hole in the wall, where the door is supposed to be. But you still can't look through that not existing door, as it behaves like an optical barrier. However the above mentioned path search ''does'' work properly.
=== Forgotten unit position ===
In original [[X-COM]] as well as in [[TFTD]] and [[OpenXcom]], once you discovered an enemy unit, it's position is remembered until the end of the round. In UFO2000, it is not. The moment the spotting unit looses LOS to that unit, it is removed from battlescape-view. This can produce strange situations, e. g. you turn a unit 90°. During that, you spot it for a very short moment (at 45°), just to loose sight immediately, when moving the second 45°. Also explosive weapons can have this effect. You fire with a gauge at a unit. The unit is hit, smoke is generated, so you lose sight of the unit. If you haven't remembered that units position properly, you won't be able to place an accurate shot, any more. One might consider this as an additional tactics aspect, when playing against humans. However, as UFO2000's game mechanics are quite clearly derived from the above mentioned games, it feels rather normal, when units don't vanish from the battelscape-view, before ending a turn.
=== Replay incompatibility ===
Currently, it seems, saved replays of UFO2000 can't be read by the same version on a different plattform. E. g. if you saved a replay with current 0.9.1176-version on Windows, you won't be able to watch it with 0.9.1176 under Linux, and vice versa. It is to be suspected, to behave the same way with MacOS.

Known issues (UFO2000)

2015-06-14T18:53:22Z

7Saturn: /* Grenade drop inside rooms */

UFO2000 is an open source game. As such, it relies completely on the work, people put in. For the most part, it works rather fine. However, there are still some issues to be resolved, aside from new features. If you want to help getting rid of some of the problems below, please also read [[Contributing Code (UFO2000)]].
=== Grenade drop inside rooms ===
Players from original [[X-COM]], [[TFTD]] or [[OpenXcom]] are used to throw grenades without necessarily thinking, before trying. If the throwing can't be done like this, the game simply refuses to do so, telling you with some sort of message. UFO2000 does ''not always''! It tries to do so, but when the grenade hits an obstacle, it only falls down. That's especially a problem, when standing inside a house or some other sort of room. Then the grenade just falls before your own feet. A warning or refusal of some kind still needs a little coding.

=== No music ===
UFO2000 used to play music files. At some point, the DUMB-Librarie changed it's API, so there's some work to be done, to give UFO2000 its music capabilities back.

=== Sluggish Mouse ===
The mouse is controlled by Allegro, which seems to be having problems, when the mouse-changes are to fast. This also happens, when playing on high screen resolutions, e. g. full HD.

=== Networkproblems ===
UFO2000 has still some issues with network communication. If you have a look at the [http://ufo2000.net/results.php|official Stats-Page], you will see, that ca. 75-80% of the games were completely successful, however that leaves around 20-25% games being interrupted by some sort of problem, causing games out of sync.

=== No path-searching through walls ===
In original [[X-COM]] and [[OpenXcom]], if you click inside a room, to get the soldier moving inside that room, the path search algorithm finds the shortest way inside the room. If that means going through a door, it will plot a path right through it. UFO2000 does not do so. If there is no way except through a door, it simply won't find a way (mostly the better case). If there is another way inside, without any doors used, it will take this way (usually the worse case, as this usually is the longer way).
=== No UFO-doors ===
Usually, doors have some sort of graphics. UFO-doors in UFO2000 don't show any door. Instead, it's just a plain hole in the wall, where the door is supposed to be. But you still can't look through that not existing door, as it behaves like an optical barrier. However the above mentioned path search ''does'' work properly.
=== Forgotten unit position ===
In original [[X-COM]] as well as in [[TFTD]] and [[OpenXcom]], once you discovered an enemy unit, it's position is remembered until the end of the round. In UFO2000, it is not. The moment the spotting unit looses LOS to that unit, it is removed from battlescape-view. This can produce strange situations, e. g. you turn a unit 90°. During that, you spot it for a very short moment (at 45°), just to loose sight immediately, when moving the second 45°. Also explosive weapons can have this effect. You fire with a gauge at a unit. The unit is hit, smoke is generated, so you lose sight of the unit. If you haven't remembered that units position properly, you won't be able to place an accurate shot, any more. One might consider this as an additional tactics aspect, when playing against humans. However, as UFO2000's game mechanics are quite clearly derived from the above mentioned games, it feels rather normal, when units don't vanish from the battelscape-view, before ending a turn.
=== Replay incompatibility ===
Currently, it seems, saved replays of UFO2000 can't be read by the same version on a different plattform. E. g. if you saved a replay with current 0.9.1176-version on Windows, you won't be able to watch it with 0.9.1176 under Linux, and vice versa. It is to be suspected, to behave the same way with MacOS.

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:40:07Z

7Saturn: /* Making a decent team */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. If you have absolutely no clue of how to proceed, have look at the [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)]]. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows. You can also turn the overview-map on and off with SHIFT+LEFT resp. SHIFT+RIGHT.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside your local <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more on that server.

=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, you will hear a »beep«-sound. Then you can press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e. g. »no line of fire«-message. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.

=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, the item will fly along the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)

=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's one exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.

=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:38:37Z

7Saturn: /* Explosives */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. If you have absolutely no clue of how to proceed, have look at the [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)]]. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows. You can also turn the overview-map on and off with SHIFT+LEFT resp. SHIFT+RIGHT.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside your local <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more on that server.

=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, you will hear a »beep«-sound. Then you can press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e. g. »no line of fire«-message. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.

=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, the item will fly along the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)

=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's one exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.

=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:38:08Z

7Saturn: /* Throwing things */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. If you have absolutely no clue of how to proceed, have look at the [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)]]. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows. You can also turn the overview-map on and off with SHIFT+LEFT resp. SHIFT+RIGHT.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside your local <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more on that server.

=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, you will hear a »beep«-sound. Then you can press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e. g. »no line of fire«-message. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.

=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, the item will fly along the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)

=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:35:37Z

7Saturn: /* Shooting */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. If you have absolutely no clue of how to proceed, have look at the [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)]]. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows. You can also turn the overview-map on and off with SHIFT+LEFT resp. SHIFT+RIGHT.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside your local <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more on that server.

=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, you will hear a »beep«-sound. Then you can press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e. g. »no line of fire«-message. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.

=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, it will fly the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)
=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:34:35Z

7Saturn: /* Waiting for players online */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. If you have absolutely no clue of how to proceed, have look at the [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)]]. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows. You can also turn the overview-map on and off with SHIFT+LEFT resp. SHIFT+RIGHT.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside your local <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more on that server.

=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, you will hear a »beep«-sound. Then you can press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e .g. »no line of fire«-message, or something. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.
=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, it will fly the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)
=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:31:10Z

7Saturn: /* Passwords */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. If you have absolutely no clue of how to proceed, have look at the [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)]]. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows. You can also turn the overview-map on and off with SHIFT+LEFT resp. SHIFT+RIGHT.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside your local <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more on that server.

=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, just press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e .g. »no line of fire«-message, or something. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.
=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, it will fly the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)
=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:30:39Z

7Saturn: /* Passwords */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. If you have absolutely no clue of how to proceed, have look at the [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)]]. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows. You can also turn the overview-map on and off with SHIFT+LEFT resp. SHIFT+RIGHT.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside your local <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more.

=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, just press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e .g. »no line of fire«-message, or something. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.
=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, it will fly the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)
=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:29:48Z

7Saturn: /* Ingame */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. If you have absolutely no clue of how to proceed, have look at the [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)]]. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows. You can also turn the overview-map on and off with SHIFT+LEFT resp. SHIFT+RIGHT.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more.
=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, just press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e .g. »no line of fire«-message, or something. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.
=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, it will fly the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)
=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:28:30Z

7Saturn: /* Ingame */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. If you have absolutely no clue of how to proceed, have look at the [[Tactical Window (UFO2000)]]. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more.
=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, just press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e .g. »no line of fire«-message, or something. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.
=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, it will fly the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)
=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:26:32Z

7Saturn: /* Equipment and weapon set */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit or additional armour costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of humans and aliens of different kind, so choose them accordingly.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail (picture of the unit between the hand-slots), you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now. Hint: Ethereals and Sectoids do ''not'' have psi capabilities, as this hasn't been implemented, yet!

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

Hint: if you should decide to change the weapon-sets, you can not use the same squad-files, as even if an item looks/behaves the same way in different weaponsets, it's not compatible. So only use items from ''one'' weaponset during such a configuration.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more.
=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, just press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e .g. »no line of fire«-message, or something. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.
=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, it will fly the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)
=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:21:24Z

7Saturn: /* Setup */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of both humans and aliens.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail, you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now.

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more.
=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, just press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e .g. »no line of fire«-message, or something. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.
=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, it will fly the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)
=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:20:07Z

7Saturn: /* Setup */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can also change some other options there. To leave a certain option window, just click on a free part of the screen. You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap. For changing inventory of a unit, CTRL-click on it. There you will see the inventroy-screen. In there, you can even change the stats of a unit, e. g. time units, energy, health or race and armour, by clicking on the units picture between the two hand-slots.

In online games the options can be changed by either player.

=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of both humans and aliens.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail, you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now.

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more.
=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, just press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e .g. »no line of fire«-message, or something. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.
=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, it will fly the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)
=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:17:11Z

7Saturn: /* First (hotseat) game */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. You can fool around with weapons, targets, moving, and so on. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

The game options can be changed by either player online.
=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of both humans and aliens.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail, you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now.

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows.

== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more.
=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, just press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e .g. »no line of fire«-message, or something. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.
=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, it will fly the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)
=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]

Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing

2015-06-14T14:15:40Z

7Saturn: /* Install the original game data */

= Quick guide to UFO2000 online playing =
Written for the 0.9.1176 beta version, which is the most played version online. If you have something older, please upgrade! If there's a newer version available, use that and know that this may be a bit outdated, but probably still useful.

This guide is intended for people new to the game. Often when people join the server for the first time they try to play with someone right away, but don't have even a basic team ready and generally don't know what to do. Here are the necessary things to do and to learn before you play online.

== Before you play ==
UFO2000's game mechanic is derived from [[X-COM]]. If you have never ever before played [[X-COM|X-COM Enemy unknown/UFO defense]], [[TFTD|Terror from the deep]] or one of theirs remakes/clones, it's strongly advised, to first get acquainted with the basic principle of the game. One could either use the above mentioned original games (usually won't run under modern operating systems any more), or turn to projects like [[OpenXcom]], an open source clone, which relies on original files, but is available for various platforms. There you can start games against an AI, to get the hang of the game mechanics. You can either run instant battles or start a new campaign (which will introduce you to an even more complicated variety of aspects of X-COM derived games).

If the game mechanics aren't new to you, you already know the most important aspects. You will only need to know a few minor differences between [[X-COM]]/[[TFTD]] and UFO2000. Everything important you can find below.
=== Install/compile UFO2000 ===
Download the installer for your windows from http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ or have a look at [[Compiling for Linux (UFO2000)]] or [[Compiling for Mac OS X (UFO2000)]], if you run one of these two operating systems.

=== Install the original game data ===
(Note: the installer for the Windows version asks about these things and you may already have set them up from there.)

UFO2000 has only a few maps and sounds by default. The data files from [[X-COM]] and [[TFTD]] can be used by UFO2000 for unlocking more sounds, units and maps, including the most played maps like ''City'' and ''Port''. The original files have to be copied into the folders <code>XCOM</code> and <code>TFTD</code>. The [[Where to Get the Games]] page has some information about obtaining the original XCOM and TFTD games, if you are interested in obtaining a legal copy.

<del>You can get even more maps from here: http://area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm. This mappack contains some very good maps, even though they're not played very often online.</del>

=== Settings ===
By default, UFO2000 comes with its own battlescape-interface, uses 640x480 resolution, and so on. You should have a look in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. There you can set various things, you can't set up from the game interface, e. g. keyboard-layouts, screen resolution, how the gui shall look, if things shall be upscaled by factor of 2 (good for higher resolutions) or if you prefer original x-com graphics for the game (only available, if you have the files from the original X-COM game).

== First (hotseat) game ==
You should try a game against yourself to get the hang of the interface, and to make a team for online play. Start UFO2000 and choose "start hotseat game".
=== Setup ===
You'll see a list of units on the left, and controls to change the game options. Try to change the map to ''City'' by clicking the second row (the map name) in the "MATCH SETTINGS" box (if ''City'' doesn't appear in the list, you probably didn't follow the "Install the original game data" step correctly). You can place your units somewhere in the green rectangle on the left of the minimap.

The game options can be changed by either player online.
=== Make your first team ===
==== Equipment and weapon set ====
You can change the equipment and race or armour of each unit. To do this, CTRL+click the unit name in the list. There are some hotkeys available with useful functions in the unit detail, read about them in the legend on the right. Use the "Ufo2000 Classic Set", which is used online almost exclusively.

Each piece of equipment and each unit costs points. In an online game, the players decide on a '''point limit''', most often 7000 points, sometimes 15000 points. You should make at least a team for 7000 points. Don't go mad with power armour and expensive weapons, because that way you'll have to take less units. In a 7k (7000 points max) game, it is desirable to have six units, or at least five. In 15k game, take at least twelve units.
:This really depends on the terrain and your choice of tactics. For instance, most players deploy their units on a line and maintain that line during the first rounds. But if you have a smaller team and you're attacking through a specific axis you'll be facing the same amount of troops than your opponent and they'll be better armed and protected. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:44, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Your team can be a mix of both humans and aliens.

By clicking the units statistics in the unit detail, you can change its race, name and some of the stats. More powerful races cost more points (see [[Unit Types (UFO2000)]]). Stats have a cost too, and they also have a limit on the total -- they're a bit complicated (you may read about them in [[Unit Stats (UFO2000)]]). You can tinker with them later and keep them as they are for now.

A team usually needs some cheap scouts (which can use cheap weapons like laser pistols, and should have close to 80 time units and enough energy), assault units (mutons are good, usually with a plasma rifle) and perhaps some support with heavy weapons like XAAS or the rocket launcher. Alien fusion grenades (the most powerful kind (there's also the ''demolition pack'', but it behaves a little differently from grenades -- explained below)) and smoke grenades are also useful things to take.

Don't try too hard to make a perfect team the first time, you'll probably want to change it a lot after just a few games anyway, when you learn some tricks from your opponents.

When you have a team, you can save it with F2 in the unit detail screen, and load it later with F3.

=== Start the match ===
When you're done equipping and placing your units on the map, press SEND and then START on the left of the map screen. Place some units for the second team and SEND + START on the right to start the game. (In online-multiplayer both sides have to click on SEND, before they can click on START.)

=== Ingame ===
You're in the battlescape now. The interface should be familiar from the old XCOM games. On the right, you see a list of your units and some numbers -- they are your TUs, health, and armour levels for the front, back, left, right and under (for explosions).

You can check how far you can get with your time units by holding CTRL and moving the mouse around. Note that this does not consider your energy, if you're not careful and don't have enough energy for the movement you can get stuck along the way even if you have enough TUs. By holding ALT, you can check the trajectory of your shot to see if there's anything in the way between you and your target, or check the trajectory of a thrown grenade (very useful!).

You can change the size of the chat window on the bottom by pressing SHIFT + Up or Down arrows.
== Connecting to online servers ==
=== Connecting ===
For online matches, you obviously will have to connect to an internet UFO2000 server. So in main menu, click on »connect to server«. If you are not sure of how to proceed, look [[Server (UFO2000)|here]]. First address you should try, is the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Official_server official UFO2000 server]. You can also try one of the [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Server_%28UFO2000%29#Back-up_Servers backup servers]. You will have to choose a nickname and a password. Once you connected to a specific server, it will remember your nickname and password combination.
=== Passwords ===
You will ''not'' be able to change the password later, so choose it carefully! Also this password is stored in plain text inside the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file. So don't take a password you use for other services. If you forget/loose that password for a certain server, the best thing you can do is to ask the administrator of that server, if he'd be so kind to delete you from the users database. That way, you can again connect, using a different password. Without the right password, you can not use that nick, any more.
=== The right nick ===
Tiny detail: ''Nicks are case sensitive''! So »Player« is a different nick, than »player«. Also it is strongly recommended, to use your own nick. Default is »anonymous«. That's OK, if you don't care about stats. Every UFO2000 server saves game results and creates some ranking. With the proper sqlite-query, an admin could set up a stats-page, where players as listet by their nicks. So if you do care about rankings and such things, you should also choose your nick carefully.
===Auto login===
If you are most certain, to never use another server, you can activate the box next to »Auto-Login«. This means, the game won't ask for credentials or server addresses any more. You can reset that in the <code>ufo2000.ini</code>-file, but not from inside the game.
===Auto connect===
There's also the possibility, to directly connect to the default server, without first starting at main menu. You will have to start the game with username and password as commandline parameter, e. g.

./ufo2000 CoolPlayer CoolPassword

If your nick or password includes spaces, you will have to surround them by "", e. g.

./ufo2000 "That player nick" "with a password"

Using this method automatically activates [[#Auto connect]]. Also when exiting the server lobby, you will immediately end the game, as well.

=== Waiting for players online ===
One piece of advice regarding playing online in general: UFO2000 suffered kind of a loss of players during 2010 and 2012. ATM it can be a while, until another player shows up on the server. So don't just look in, find nobody and immediately leave. Wait for at least quarter of an hour, better longer. During waiting on the server, you can always press F10 for windowed-mode (if you play fullscreen) and switch to something else, you want to do. Once somebody connects, just press F10 again for fullscreen. Hint: F10 won't work ''in main menu'', but everywhere else!

== Review ==
So by now you should:
* have the original game data installed and maps like 'City' choosable
* be familiar with the game interface
* have a reasonable team for 7k point games

This is pretty much it -- now you can play online. There are more good things to know though, and I'll talk about them in the next paragraphs.

= Beyond the first game =
== Game mechanics ==
=== Shooting ===
In principle rather easy. Click the weapon. The game automatically will show you possible actions. If it doesn't show you anything, you probably don't have enough time units left, to do anything with that item. While pointing to target, you can hold the alt-key, to see, where the direct line of fire would be. Weapons will fire where ever you pointed them. There's no warning of obstacles, e .g. »no line of fire«-message, or something. You can define further, where exactly the soldier should aim at, if you hold SHIFT during clicking on the desired target. There are many aspects, that influence the accuracy of a shot. Of course, it's the accuracy of the weapon and the accuracy of the soldier. But also distance and injuries will affect accuracy.
=== Throwing things ===
Same as for the shooting part: The game will throw things, where you tell it to. So if there's an obstacle (like the ceiling, when throwing inside a room), you won't get any warning. You better hold ALT-key pressed. When you do, you will see the trajectory of the item to be thrown. There are three colors for this line: red, meaning, there's an obstacle in the way, blue, which is the part, where you can throw, and darker blue, when you point out of the throwing range of the soldier. In the latter case, you will have to place the pointer more closely to your soldier. However, you will not need to point onto the floor or a roof, where the grenade shall land. If you point the soldier to throw somewhere in the air, it will fly the trajectory resulting from that. But you can't cheat a bigger throwing range out of this. ;-)
=== Explosives ===
Just like in the old XCOM games, you can prime a grenade to 0 and hold on to it for a couple more turns, it won't explode until you throw or drop it (but it will explode as soon as it hits the ground when thrown, so you can't use the "grenade proxy" technique). There's on exception: If you do not throw a grenade, but drop it (meaning, putting it on the floor in inventory-screen), it will not go of instantly, but when you hit the end of turn button.

However, this isn't the case for the powerful ''demolition pack'', it will explode precisely on time and you need to be very careful with it. If you prime one to 0, you need to throw it on the same turn, or it will explode in your hands. If you want to throw on your next turn, prime to 2 (before you get your turn, 2 grenade time units will pass). Practice in hotseat a little before you use demolition packs, it's a bummer to blow up your own guys in a real game.
=== Destroying walls ===
In general, all walls and items on the maps are destructable. However, some of them are more resilient, than others. Some walls can be destroyed by punching them with a knife (yeah, really, that works!), others need more firepower to punch a hole in them, like a rocket launcher.
=== Putting units on roofs ===
There is a trick to put some of your units on the roof, or higher floors of a building right from the start (even places that are inaccessible from the ground normally). The thing is, if you place your unit on a square that is blocked by something (chair, table, box...), the unit will actually appear on the floor above it. If that is blocked too, he goes even more upwards (if there's no space anywhere upwards, it won't let you place the unit there). So for certain houses, you can remember squares where there are blocking objects all the way until the roof and place your units there. This is a good position for snipers, and flyers can save TUs on the start by not having to fly up so much. Non-flyers can move off the roof at any time without any falling damage or TU penalty. Not all houses have spots like this though and some players may consider this trick unfair.

== Getting better ==
=== Replays ===
Don't forget to save a replay after a game -- in the replay you can see the whole battlefield and most importantly your opponent's turns. This way you can learn a lot about other people's teams and strategy to improve yours. Hint: At the moment, replay files can not be interchanged in regard to the operating system, they were recorded on. So you can't open replays recorded under Windows with the Linux version of the game and vice versa.

=== Making a decent team ===
Check out Fuel's tips on the 7k pages: http://7kplay.net/strategyhelp.php

== Issues ==
=== Minimap disappeared in battlescape ===
Usually happens when playing with different map sizes. Press shift+right arrow, then shift+left arrow, it should appear again.

=== Unit can't move ===
You have enough time units left, but the unit refuses to walk? This is usually because you're out of energy (the orange bar in the stats) because you were moving too much in the past few turns. But the game will show a special message, when you try to move without energy.

=== No game sounds ===
You don't hear sounds, aside from a few (e. g. shots)? In this case you probably haven't got the files from original [[X-COM]] installed. Most of the sounds then don't exist at all.

=== Grenades drop before my own feet ===
This usually happens, when you try to throw a grenade from inside a house. The ballistic trajectory will let it bounce from the ceiling, so it's falling before your own feet.

=== Can't choose an alien race ===
(Only in older versions:) If you have a female human soldier, the game won't let you change her race to an alien, and will always revert to human with no armour. To fix this, make the soldier male and then change, or copy an existing alien unit (ctrl+insert) and paste (shift+insert) it to the unit you want to change

Also it can be the case, that you choose an alien race but the displayed model looks nothing like it. In this case, you probably didn't copy the original files into the appropriate folders. Then you only have standard models of ufo2000.

[[Category:UFO2000]]