UFOpaedia - User contributions [en]

Manufacturing Profitability

2006-06-28T02:31:32Z

HaJo: /* Laser Cannons vs. Fusion Ball Launchers */

There are 35 items in X-COM that can be manufactured, but if all costs are taken into account, only 14 of them can be manufactured for a profit.

You cannot manufacture an item until you have researched it, so you begin the game unable to manufacture any items at all. Depending on your research priorities, there are several early items that can be made for a profit: Motion Scanners, Medi-Kits, Laser Pistols and Laser Rifles. For more on research times and prerequisites, see [[Research (UFO Defense)|Research]].

Fusion Ball Launchers and Laser Cannons can be researched in the early-mid game, and are the two most profitable items that can be produced in all of X-COM. Refer to the [[#Profit tables|profit tables]] for a detailed breakdown.

== Calculating profitability ==

To calculate true (net) manufacturing profit, the following must be accounted for:

*Manufacturing cost -- the value shown on the manufacturing screen.
*Cost of [[Elerium-115]] ($5k each) and [[Alien Alloys]] ($6.5k each), if required. Also, cost of [[UFO Power Source]](s) ($500k each) and [[UFO Navigation]] ($80k each) for XCOM craft.
*Cost of Engineer salaries, at $25k per month per Engineer.
*Cost of [[Workshop]]s ($35k/month) and [[Living Quarters]] ($10k/month) sufficient for the number of engineers employed.

These costs are then compared against the Sell price, to determine profitability.

== Startup costs ==

There is a startup cost associated with manufacturing: 50 Engineers cost $2.5 million to hire and require a Workshop ($800,000 to build) and a Living Quarters ($400,000), for a total of $3.7 million. Workshops also require a lead time of 32 days to build. Since you start the game with one Workshop and 10 Engineers, your first Workshop will only cost $2.4 million to fully ramp up (the cost of 40 Engineers and one Living Quarters).

There is also a time and cost factor associated with researching profitable items -- for instance, Heavy Lasers plus Laser Cannons require an average of 880 Scientist days to research (costing about $900,000 in salary). This is in addition to the 450 or so Scientist days required to research Laser Weapons, Laser Pistol, and Laser Rifle.

== Workshop space overhead ==

Each manufacturing project takes up a fixed amount of workshop space, reducing the number of Engineers you can gainfully employ. With multiple workshops, the impact of this overhead is reduced: two workshops are proportionally 5%-7% more profitable than a single workshop would be (depending on the item being produced), and five workshops are as much as 11% more profitable.

== Profit tables ==

The following is a list of selected items that are popular with players attempting to manufacture items for profit. Note that not all these items actually turn a profit, once all costs are factored in.

'''Monthly profits, based on a one-workshop operation. Figures in thousands (000's) where noted.'''

{|
|-
!align ="left"|Item
!align ="center"|Hrs. per unit
!align ="center"|Max Engrs.
!align ="center"|Unit sell price (000's)
!align ="center"|Unit cost (000's)
!align ="center"|Spec. costs (000's)
!align ="center"|Gross per unit (000's)
!align ="center"|Units per month
!align ="center"|Labor cost (000's)
!align ="center"|Net monthly profit (000's)
|-
|align ="left"|[[Laser Cannon]]
|align ="center"|300
|align ="center"|44
|align ="center"|211
|align ="center"|182
|align ="center"|0
|align ="center"|29
|align ="center"|107.4
|align ="center"|1,145
|align ="center"|1,968
|-
|align ="left"|[[Fusion Ball Launcher]]
|align ="center"|400
|align ="center"|44
|align ="center"|281.1
|align ="center"|242
|align ="center"|6.5
|align ="center"|32.6
|align ="center"|80.52
|align ="center"|1,145
|align ="center"|1,480
|-
|align ="left"|[[Tank/Laser Cannon]]
|align ="center"|1200
|align ="center"|25
|align ="center"|594
|align ="center"|500
|align ="center"|0
|align ="center"|94
|align ="center"|15.25
|align ="center"|670
|align ="center"|763.5
|-
|align ="left"|[[Motion Scanner]]
|align ="center"|220
|align ="center"|46
|align ="center"|45.6
|align ="center"|34
|align ="center"|0
|align ="center"|11.6
|align ="center"|153.1
|align ="center"|1,195
|align ="center"|580.4
|-
|align ="left"|[[Medi-Kit]]
|align ="center"|420
|align ="center"|46
|align ="center"|46.5
|align ="center"|28
|align ="center"|0
|align ="center"|18.5
|align ="center"|80.17
|align ="center"|1,195
|align ="center"|288.2
|-
|align ="left"|[[Heavy Plasma]]
|align ="center"|1000
|align ="center"|46
|align ="center"|171.6
|align ="center"|122
|align ="center"|6.5
|align ="center"|43.1
|align ="center"|33.67
|align ="center"|1,195
|align ="center"|256.3
|-
|align ="left"|[[Laser Rifle]]
|align ="center"|400
|align ="center"|47
|align ="center"|36.9
|align ="center"|20
|align ="center"|0
|align ="center"|16.9
|align ="center"|86.01
|align ="center"|1,220
|align ="center"|233.6
|-
|align ="left"|[[Laser Pistol]]
|align ="center"|300
|align ="center"|48
|align ="center"|20
|align ="center"|8
|align ="center"|0
|align ="center"|12
|align ="center"|117.1
|align ="center"|1,245
|align ="center"|160.4
|-
|align ="left"|[[Alien Alloys]]
|align ="center"|100
|align ="center"|40
|align ="center"|6.5
|align ="center"|3
|align ="center"|0
|align ="center"|3.5
|align ="center"|292.8
|align ="center"|1,045
|align ="center"|-20.2
|-
|align ="left"|[[Personal Armor]]
|align ="center"|800
|align ="center"|38
|align ="center"|54
|align ="center"|22
|align ="center"|26
|align ="center"|6
|align ="center"|34.77
|align ="center"|995
|align ="center"|-786.4
|}

'''Legend:'''

*'''Hrs. per unit''' are the number of hours needed by one engineer to build a single unit
*'''Max Engrs.''' equals 50 minus the amount of workshop space taken up by the project
*'''Unit sell price''' is what the item will sell for on the Sell/Sack screen
*'''Unit cost''' is what each item costs to produce, on the Production screen
*'''Spec. costs''' is $6,500 for each Alien Alloy and $5,000 for each Elerium, if any
*'''Gross per unit''' is its sell price, minus production and special materials costs
*'''Units per month''' is how many units a fully-staffed workshop can turn out: 732 hours (30.5 days) divided by Engineer hours per unit, times Max Engineers employable
*'''Labor cost''' is Max Engineers times $25,000 (monthly salary) -- plus $35,000 for Workshop maintenance costs and $10,000 for Living Quarters
*'''Net monthly profit''' is Gross profit times Units per month minus Labor cost

For a detailed listing of the profitability of all items in X-COM, with figures for 1 to 5 workshops, download [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed's]] [[Media:XCOM_Profit_Tables.pdf|XCOM_Profit_Tables.pdf]]. Or for an Excel (editable) spreadsheet, get [[Media:XCOM_Profits.xls|XCOM_Profits.xls]].

== Laser Cannons vs. Fusion Ball Launchers ==

There is an oddity in XCOM which can make the [[Fusion Ball Launcher]] (FBL) appear to be the most profitable item. The oddity is that the first FBL you produce does not require an Alien Alloy (and thus, no Alien Alloy requirement appears on the manufacturing screen).
If in doubt, watch your Alien Alloy stores while manufacturing. This oddity has caused a fair bit of confusion; some (particularly older docs) say Fusion Ball Launchers are the most profitable.

Without requiring the alloys, the FBL would be about 2% more profitable than the Laser Cannon. However, when the Alien Alloys are taken into account, it falls well behind Laser Cannon. Due to the micromanagement needed to repeatedly restart manufacturing versus the very small gain, few players will build one FBL at a time -- thus, the Laser Cannon is the most profitable item "in real life". Anyway, now you know... and it's your choice. :)

Laser Cannons are also more readily researched than Fusion Ball Launchers. The average research time needed to produce Laser Cannons is 1330 hours (26.6 days for 50 Scientists), whereas Fusion Ball Launchers require 2080 hours (41.6 days).
Furthermore, about 1/3 of the time needed for researching Laser Cannons is spent researching Laser Pistols and Rifles, which you are likely to research early on anyway.

== Notes, Tips, Tricks, Etc. ==
*The maximum number of engineers you can assign to a project, equals the number of engineer hours it requires. In other words, the game "enforces" that '''you can only build one item per hour, at most'''. Example: You can only assign 60 engineers at most to work on a plasma pistol clip, which requires 60 engineer hours. The tables above don't take this into account, but then, small-fry products are usually not made by a large operation, anyway.
*You cannot have more than one project of the same type going at the same base. (This otherwise might've been a way "around" the limit of one per hour at most.) However, you can make that thing at some other base.
*Excess/wasted Workshop and Living Quarters are only a miniscule part of your costs. Example: A large operation (four workshops) might have 184 engineers instead of the optimal 194 for Laser Cannons (because of an occasional need to drop back and making flying suits, craft, etc. - it's a balance of constantly wasted space versus occasionally wasted engineers). The "wasted" 10 WS and LQ spaces only cost $9k/month ($45k*10/50), which is only 0.11% of the $8.3M/month that the 184 engineers make when producing LCs.
*Likewise, profits generally scale linearly according to number of workshops (two full workshops make only a little bit more than twice the profit of one full workshop, etc.). Many projects only require a handful of workspace requirements, and are almost totally linear. However, some projects have a large workspace requirement, such as the Laser Tank (25). With only one workshop, the Laser Tank only makes 39% of the profit that Laser Cannons would, whereas they make 64% of Laser Cannons with five workshops. The real reason they do so poorly with one workshop is much less due to the wasted overhead of workshop and living quarters; it is mainly because you can only assign 25 engineers with one workshop, versus 44 for Laser Cannons.
*Those who know XCOM, know that it suffers from integer truncation in a number of places. This could've hurt profitability badly if it occurred there; for example, if an item needs 100 engineer hours but you only assign 99, it might've taken twice as long, and halved your production and profit potential. Fortunately, this is not the case with manufacturing; it does not truncate production time this way.
*There is an [[Exploits#Free_Manufacturing|exploit]] that lets the sneaky make items for free - but only one at a time.
*Another [[Exploits#Free_Wages|exploit]] involves transferring staff at the end of the month to avoid salaries. Eliminating salary costs makes Laser Cannons about 50% more profitable to produce.
*Factoid 1: The Heavy Plasma Clip is the most unprofitable item to make, due to the facts that it can be quickly made, but requires 3 Elerium. Be careful what you ask for!
*Factoid 2: Strange as it may seem, XCOM craft are ''not'' the most unprofitable items in the game, even though they are very expensive to make, and you '''can't sell them'''. (High cost, zero sales.) This is because craft take a long time to make, whereas other items can be made quickly, but incorporate expensive components. Their extreme costs override the fact that they can actually be sold. :P

== Bugs ==

* In UFO: Enemy Unknown (and most likely all the other XCOM and TFTD versions) you can overflow the variable that holds the number of engineers. If you go over 255 engineers in a base the number listed in the base will be negative. If you have them all on some projects, you can keep them. However, if the project ends or you try to move them around, you will lose up to 255 engineers and have to hire them again. Keeping them past the end of the month has not been tested yet. Don't go over 254 engineers in a base. This doesn't count transfers until they arrive.

== See Also ==

*[[Workshop]]
* [[Research (UFO Defense)|Research]]
*[[Hiring/firing]]
*[[Buying/Selling/Transferring#Manufacturable Prices]] for a list of build and sell prices for all manufacturable items (plus special materials requried).

[[Category: data tables]]

Heavy Plasma

2006-06-28T02:04:33Z

HaJo: /* Beam Weapons: Heavy Plasma */ Plasma Rifle

== Beam Weapons: Heavy Plasma ==

The Heavy Plasma is a powerful squad support weapon which is nonetheless light enough to be usable by nearly any soldier. It is the most powerful weapon available to X-COM agents short of the [[Blaster Launcher]], plus it has a fast rate of fire and high accuracy.

This weapon is capable of penetrating a wide variety of terrain features, including even most inner UFO walls and doors. (See [[Destroying Terrain]] for more info.)
This property makes it indispensible for certain [[UFO Assault]] tactics.
Its 35 rounds are usually more than sufficient for the typical engagement.

'''Pros:''' High stopping power. High penetration power. Light weight. Spare clips and almost fully loaded guns are plentiful by mid-game -- just pry them out of dead alien fingers. It is second only to the [[Plasma Rifle]] in accuracy, in all modes of fire.

'''Cons:''' Clips count towards 80-item limit. Doesn't have infinite ammo like the [[Laser Rifle]], although 35 shots go a long way. Clips can be hard to come by in the early part of the game, and require Elerium if manufactured.

== Weapon Vital Statistics ==

*Actions, TU cost:
**35% TU Auto
**30% TU Snap
**60% TU Aimed

*Accuracy:
**50% Auto
**75% Snap
**110% Aimed

*Power: 115
*Power type: Plasma

*Ammo: One clip contains 35 rounds

==See Also==
* [[Weapons (UFO Defense)|Weapons]]

[[Category:Equipment (UFO Defense)]]

User:HaJo

2006-06-28T01:37:23Z

HaJo:

Hi !

Sectopod

2006-06-28T01:07:51Z

HaJo: /* Notes */ Typo

== General Information ==
[[Image:sectopod.png|right|Sectopod]]
The Sectopod "Walker" is, perhaps, one of the most dangerous terror units X-COM has come up against. Their armour is nearly impervious to all weapons fire, but they appear to be vulnerable to [[Weapons (UFO Defense)#Laser Technology|lasers]].

Sectopods are seen in the company of [[Ethereal]]s in base defenses and terror missions. Beware, their weapon is a powerful laser with autofire capability, which can make short work of any enemy of the Sectopod in seconds.

Every Sectopod is nearly completely identical and is built not only for self-sufficient commands and operation, but also psychic/psionic manipulation -- an Ethereal could potentially control a Sectopod as if it were it's own body, from millions of miles away.

If X-COM ground forces encounter Sectopods on Earth, it will usually be during a [[Base Defense]], [[Alien Base Assault]], or [[Terror Mission]]. Terror attacks by [[Ethereal]]s are the most dangerous for both [[Civilian]]s and X-COM units - apart from having to deal with their psionic abilities, we also have to fight against Sectopods.

==Statistics==
'''TUs:''' 62-72
'''Health:''' 96
'''Energy:''' 90-105
'''Reactions:''' 64-75
'''Strength:''' 90-105
'''Bravery:''' 110
'''Firing Accuracy:''' 30-70
'''Psi Skill:''' N/A
'''Psi Strength:''' 100-116

'''Damage:''' 100 Laser
'''Accuracy-'''
'''Snap:''' 75%
'''Auto:''' 50%
'''Aimed:''' 110%
'''TUs-'''
'''Snap:''' 30%
'''Auto:''' 35%
'''Aimed:''' 60%

== Autopsy ==
[[Image:sectopodautopsy.png|right|Sectopod, Disassembled]]
The Sectopod appears to be capable of self-sustained propulsion and attack. Its "brain", whilst small compared to modern electronics, is incredibly powerful. It is anywhere from 5 to 10, to even 20 times as powerful as standard Earth processors. This may be a machine, but it is a machine with near sentience although its intelligence is supressed so that it does not start thinking of its own accord.

There are signs of specialised biomechanical components, which may be used to psionically remotely control the Sectopod. Unlike the Sectoid's Cyberdisks, the Sectopod's power module is far more robust and as such, despite our best attempts, the module cannot and will not explode, except where immense amounts of energy are involved.

Whilst it is nearly impervious to most damage types, its "screen" has the "unfortunate" effect of amplifying lasers that strike, making them do considerable amounts of damage to the circuitry and mechanical "brain". The Sectopod is elerium powered.

[Jasonred] : The game explains that its "Sensing circuitry is particularly vulnerable to laser fire".

[--[[User:X-COM:Turcocalypse|X-COM:Turcocalypse]] 14:26, 15 April 2006 (PDT)] : Bad sci-fi idea,I laughed when I saw it first.Laser is after all,radiation stimulated super-dense light.If it's vulnerable to this,how can PLASMA,matter with 15000 Grad Celsius shrugged off?
:I guess that it's armor is thick enough that neither plasma's nor laser's heat would effect it. But spark from laser make it's sensor circuit mess-up and since it's quite powerful, Ethereal program it to shutdown the system once sensor damaged to prevent friendly-fire.

==Notes==
* Some commanders keep [[Tank/Laser Cannon]]s on hand to deal with Sectopods. The turret laser's high power, combined with the Sectopods vulnerability to lasers, encourages troops to keep laser tanks on hand when it would otherwise be scrapped in favour of hovertanks.

==See Also==
[[Ethereal]]

[[Category:Alien life forms]]

Destroying Terrain

2006-06-28T00:51:10Z

HaJo: /* UFO floors */ Typo

Most terrain features found on the battlescape can, with sufficient firepower, be destroyed. UFO outer hulls can be breached with a [[Blaster Bomb]], inner UFO hulls can sometimes be breached by a [[Heavy Plasma]], and weaker structures can be destroyed by more conventional weaponry, such as [[Grenade]]s or even sometimes [[Rifle]]s.

Being able to clear terrain in this manner is of great value. Aliens can lurk behind a wide variety of structures, ready to ambush you the second you enter their sight. Destroying terrain flushes the aliens out into the open, where they can be engaged far more safely. Entering rooms via breached walls is also usually far safer than coming in through an existing door -- a common ambush point.

== Damage vs. terrain ==

The general rule is that explosions will do a fixed 50% of their rated damage to a terrain feature, and projectile/beam weapons will do between 25% and 75% of their rated damage. The 50% damage for explosions is at the center of the explosion; damage will decrease by a constant amount the further away from the center you go.

If the damage dealt exceeds the terrain's damage rating (or "armor"), the terrain will be breached or even destroyed. If the damage is less than the terrain's damage rating, the terrain will be completely unharmed. See [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics]] for a table detailing several terrain types and their damage ratings.

== UFO walls ==

The outer hull of a UFO has a damage rating of 100 points: as a result of this, only Blaster Bombs (Damage = 200) can breach them. Inner hulls and doors have a damage rating of 80 points. Heavy Plasmas, with a base damage of 115, can do between 28.75 and 86.25 points of damage to terrain. 6.25 values out of a range of 57.5 possible values (6.25 / 57.5) is 0.1087, which would mean Heavy Plasma shots will breach inner UFO walls 10.87% of the time. (Initial testing suggests this figure is correct, or nearly so: 250 Heavy Plasma shots breached 32 inner walls, for an average of 12.8%.) Expressed a different way, it should take an average of 9.2 Heavy Plasma shots to breach a UFO wall; three shots (one auto shot) have only a 29% chance of creating a breach, and even a full clip (35 shots) has a 1.78% chance of failing to break through.

[[Tank/Laser Cannon]] and [[Hovertank/Plasma]] both have a base damage of 110, which translates to a range of 27.5 to 82.5 against terrain objects. (2.5 / 55) is 0.0455, so these tanks should be able to breach inner UFO walls 4.55% of the time. It should take an average of 22 shots to breach a wall with either of these weapons.

The [[Hovertank/Launcher]]'s fusion ball munition has an explosive damage of 140. 50% of 140 is 70, which means a Launcher tank can never breach inner UFO walls.

=== Security walls ===

Certain inner UFO walls and doors are more durable than the average inner wall. These so-called "security walls" have a damage rating of 100, like UFO outer walls, and can only be breached with the use of a Blaster Bomb. Security walls have a smooth, unsegmented appearance, with several bands running along the top. Security doors are darker than normal UFO doors and do not have a line running down their centers. The upper level of [[Battleship]]s are constructed solely with security walls, although security doors are only used to enclose the central lift. See image below.

[[Image:UFO_160MAP-L3.JPG]]

=== Vulnerable walls ===

A few wall types in UFOs are far easier to breach than normal inner walls. Most UFO navigation rooms (i.e., the bridge) have a few walls sporting a green and black computer display. (See image above.) These walls have a damage rating of 70, vs. a rating of 80 for normal inner walls, and can be more easily breached by a Heavy Plasma. They can even be breached by a direct hit from a Launcher tank's Fusion Ball.

Weaker still are the orange or blue flashing walls found in certain areas. The outer northern and western walls of alien base command centers are constructed of these walls, and are easy to breach -- making for a safer entry point than the doors on the western face.

=== UFO floors ===

Like walls, floor tiles can be breached. Normal metal UFO floors have a damage rating of 80, but cannot be bypassed until they are fully destroyed. This requires two shots at a minimum: one to damage the floor, and another to destroy it. A damaged UFO floor has a damage rating of only 50, so it is not terribly hard to fully breach a UFO floor.

Breaching floors is useful in much the same way as breaching walls is: it allows your soldiers an alternative and often safer entry point into a room which may contain several aliens. Floors both above and below your soldiers can be breached. To shoot the floor above you (in essence, the ceiling), you must aim at a point on the level above you.
To shoot at the floor of your current level, just shoot at a square not bordered by any walls (or else the walls will be shot at instead of the floor). Naturally, soldiers in Flying Suits are needed to take fullest advantage of a hole in the ceiling.

Shooting through the ceiling may be of greatest use when storming an alien base command center. The command center's purple floors are weaker than the metal variety (50 intact/65 damaged -- Heavy Plasma works well), and if you pick the right location, you can come up hidden behind an object. You may also be able to see and attack aliens on the upper floor once the ceiling is shot out, which is a much less risky approach than taking the lift up blindly into their midst.

== Breaching walls and line of sight ==

If you shoot through a wall (or ceiling) and find yourself facing an alien, the alien will often return fire as soon as it sees you. To minimize this danger, it is best to shoot at walls from an oblique angle. The shooter will remain hidden off to the side, while other units standing in front of the breach will not be fired upon immediately.

== Terrain structures ==

These figures were researched using the [[TERRAIN#MCD_Editor|MCDEdit]] program.

Many structures found in one terrain set will be used by another terrain set, with identical properties. For instance, UFOs and Alien Bases contain a large number of common items.

=== UFO structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| Outer Wall/Door/Ceiling || 100
|-
| Inner Wall/Door || 80
|-
| Security Wall/Door || 100
|-
| UFO Power Source || 50
|-
| Elerium-115* || 20
|-
| Blue Chair || 60
|-
| Navigation Console (wall) || 40
|-
| Navigation Table (octagonal) || 15
|-
| Round Fuel Pod || 20
|-
| Oblong Fuel Pod || 30
|-
| Flashing Wall (Alien Entertainment) || 60
|-
| Pulsing Globe || 20
|-
| Green on Black Computer Panel || 70
|-
| Intact Metal Floor || 80
|-
| Damaged Metal Floor || 50
|-
| Intact Purple Floor || 50
|-
| Damaged Purple Floor || 65
|}

<nowiki>* Do not use explosive munitions near a UFO Power Source if you wish to collect the Elerium contained within it.</nowiki>

=== X-COM Craft structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| All surfaces || 255
|}

''X-COM craft are meant to be indestructible (thank goodness!)... but see [[Explosions#Mile-High_Madness]]''

=== Alien base structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| Dirt Wall (surface) || 100
|-
| Dirt Wall (interior) || 100
|-
| Metal Wall || 80
|-
| Windowed Wall || 100
|-
| Display Cases || 10
|-
| 4-space Vats || 60
|-
| 1-space Vats || 30
|-
| Command Center Table (octagonal) || 15
|-
| Alien Plants || 5-40*
|}

<nowiki>* Green ones are 5-14, more colorful ones 20-40 depending on size</nowiki>

=== X-COM base structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| Wall || 80
|-
| Dirt Wall (interior) || 60
|-
| Door || 50
|-
| Hangar/Access Lift/General Stores Door || 75
|-
| Fuel Drum || 12
|-
| Missile || 20
|}

=== Farm structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| Wooden Wall || 12
|-
| Door || 12
|-
| Brick Wall || 25
|-
| Stairway(lower) || 16
|-
| Stairway(upper) || 20
|-
| Wheat || 6
|-
| Hay Bale || 4
|-
| Flowers || 8
|-
| Vegetables || 10
|-
| Apple Tree || 16
|-
| Normal Tree || 22
|-
| Damaged Tree || 15
|-
| Stone Wall || 25
|-
| Hedge || 12
|-
| Fence || 11
|}

=== Forest structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| Trees/Logs (various) || 13-18
|-
| Large Tree (trunk) || 24
|-
| Large Tree (branches) || 18
|-
| Bushes || 12
|-
| Hill || 30
|}

=== Urban structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| Grey Brick Wall || 25
|-
| White Wood Wall || 14
|-
| White/Blue Doors || 12
|-
| Yellow Walls (not used?) || 25
|-
| Beige Warehouse Wall || 30
|-
| Crates || 20
|-
| Stairway || 25
|-
| Green Door || 30
|-
| Smooth Grey Wall || 30
|-
| Glass Door || 15
|-
| Misc. Retail Objects || 5-16
|-
| Misc. Furniture || 4-22
|-
| White Picket Fence || 8
|-
| Grey Metal Fence || 20
|-
| Brown Wood Wall || 11
|-
| Hedge || 8
|-
| Fruit Tree || 20
|-
| Flowers (incl. Planter) || 8
|-
| Pillar || 35
|-
| Fuel Pump || 18
|-
| Light Post || 20
|-
| Garbage Can || 15
|-
| Red Post Box || 14
|-
| Hydrant || 30
|-
| Phone Booth || 25
|}

=== Polar structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| All Surfaces || 25
|}

=== Desert structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| Cacti || 15-20
|-
| Tree || 16
|-
| Damaged Tree || 24
|-
| Hills (dunes) || 30
|}

=== Jungle structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| Small Trees || 12-20
|-
| Small Ferns/Fronds || 5-12
|-
| Large Ferns/Fronds || 16-20
|-
| Large Tree (trunk) || 25-26
|-
| Large Tree (fronds) || 8
|-
| Large Tree (branches) || 20
|}

=== Mountain structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| Rocks || 20-30
|-
| Hills || 30-50
|-
| Trunks/Logs || 20
|}

=== Cydonia structures ===
{|
| Width=200px | '''Terrain Object''' || '''Damage Rating'''
|-
| Rocks || 40-80
|-
| Small Crater || 40
|-
| Large Crater || 70
|-
| Pyramid || 70-80
|-
| Pyramid Windows || 60
|-
| Brain || 40
|}

 

== Weapon damage ranges ==

=== Projectile/energy weapons ===
These are the damage ranges of these weapons vs. terrain objects (0.25 to 0.75 their normal rated damage). Their damage range vs. living creatures is between zero and twice rated damage.

{|
| Width=200px | Pistol || 6.5 - 19.5
|-
| Rifle || 7.5 - 22.5
|-
| Autocannon-AP || 10.5 - 31.5
|-
| Laser Pistol || 11.5 - 34.5
|-
| Plasma Pistol || 13 - 39
|-
| Heavy Cannon-AP || 14 - 42
|-
| Laser Rifle || 15 - 45
|-
| HWP Cannon || 15 - 45
|-
| Plasma Rifle || 20 - 60
|-
| Heavy Laser || 21.25 - 63.75
|-
| HWP Laser or Plasma || 27.5 - 82.5
|-
| Heavy Plasma || 28.75 - 86.25
|}

 

=== Explosive weapons ===
Damage listed is for center of explosion, decreasing with distance. Damage range vs. living creatures is between one to three times these values.

{|
| Width=200px | Autocannon-HE || 22
|-
| Grenade || 25
|-
| Heavy Cannon-HE || 26
|-
| Proximity Grenade || 35
|-
| Small Rocket || 37.5
|-
| HWP Rocket || 42.5
|-
| Alien Grenade || 45
|-
| Large Rocket || 50
|-
| High Explosive || 55
|-
| HWP Fusion Bomb || 70
|-
| Blaster Bomb || 100
|}

 

=== Built-in alien weapons ===
These are the damage ranges of these weapons vs. terrain objects (0.25 to 0.75 their normal rated damage). Their damage range vs. living creatures is between zero and twice rated damage.

Note that the damage range of Celatids' attack is great enough that it can penetrate a UFO outer hull 10% of the time. However, due to the grenade-like aiming of the attack, it cannot be aimed directly at walls -- just squares. In practice, diagonal and "rear" UFO walls can sometimes be targeted, especially on the second floor (see Explosions#When Is a Wall not a Wall). UFO roofs can also be targeted.

{|
| Width=200px | [[Celatid]] || 35 - 105
|-
| [[Cyberdisc]] || 32.5 - 97.5
|-
| [[Sectopod]] || 25 - 75
|}

[[Category: Terrain]]
[[Category: data tables]]

User talk:MikeTheRed

2006-06-28T00:41:23Z

HaJo: /* Base Design Scratch Pad */ stores next to lift

Here be more detail than you ever wanted to know. Please put comments/question in italics. If you want an email reply, either be a regular of here or xcomufo.com, make a User page, or just type in yer email addy.

= 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 [[Psi_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 [[Psi_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 [[UFO (UFO Defense)|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_%28UFO_Defense%29|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_(UFO_Defense)|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.
#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 obtuse 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

= 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

{{Test Kit|=
|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|=}}

UFO Recovery Values

2006-06-28T00:01:09Z

HaJo: /* Terror Missions */

Although [[Country Funding]] is the mainstay of X-COM's working budget, and [[Manufacturing Profitability|manufacturing]] can be a great supplement to that, alien artefacts and UFO components recovered from [[UFO Ground Assault]]s are the greatest source of funds for commanders.

The following tables list values for fully-intact ships. If you attack ships while they are landed, you can recover most of the items listed below.

UFOs which have been shot down will usually have several destroyed components, especially [[UFO Power Source]]s and the [[Elerium-115]] contained within them. That's half a mil down the drain, for each lost Power Source & Elerium. Aliens which were standing near the power source(s) will often be killed. Their corpses and personal armament may or may not survive the blast.

To minimise the amount of damage done to a UFO during interception, select the "Cautious Attack" setting. Or just let it land without shooting it down, to maximize loot (except for Terror ships).

Artefacts and UFO components can also be destroyed during the course of a mission, particularly by [[Explosions]] -- so use HE munitions and grenades sparingly inside UFOs if you want maximum salvage value.

== Alien Armaments ==

Items which the aliens carry -- weapons, almost exclusively -- are identified as "Alien Artefacts" until you fully research them. They can still be sold at full price once you get them back to base.

In the first few months of the game, the aliens will be relatively lightly armed -- [[Plasma Pistol]]s or [[Plasma Rifle|Rifles]]. As time progresses, they will start sporting [[Small Launcher]]s, [[Heavy Plasma]]s, and eventually [[Blaster Launcher]]s. Within a few months, they will abandon pistols and rifles altogether, and most aliens will carry a Heavy Plasma.

Aliens on the smaller (scout) ships will also sometimes carry a [[Mind Probe]], worth $304,000, the highest-priced alien artefact you will ever encounter. Since the UFOs you encounter in the first few months will mostly be scout ships, the value of alien artefacts (per alien) will remain relatively constant throughout the game.

Here are items carried by aliens, and their [[Buying/Selling/Transferring#Manufacturable_Prices|value]]:

'''Value
Plasma Pistol $84,000
Clip $4,440

Plasma Rifle $126,500
Clip $6,290

Heavy Plasma $171,600
Clip $9,590

Blaster Launcher $144,000
Blaster Bomb $17,028

Small Launcher $120,000
Stun Bomb $15,200

Alien Grenade $14,850

Mind Probe $304,000

Here are item sets commonly found on aliens:

'''Total Value'''
Plasma Pistol + 2 Plasma Pistol Clips $92,880
Plasma Rifle + 2 Plasma Rifle Clips + 1 Alien Grenade $153,930
Heavy Plasma + 2 Heavy Plasma Clips + 1 Alien Grenade $205,630
Small Launcher + 3 Stun Bombs $165,600
Blaster Launcher + 4 Blaster Bombs $212,112

You will only recover ammunition clips if they have not been used.
Each time an alien fires a Heavy Plasma for the first time, its clip becomes unrecoverable, and $10k is lost. Bang goes an Alien Grenade? $15k up in smoke.
In the CE edition (but not DOS), even full clips in alien guns are lost at the end of a mission. You can avoid this by unloading them first (see [[Known_Bugs#Disappearing_Ammo]]).

Every alien corpse you recover is worth $20,000. Terror units have built-in weapons and will never carry artefacts, although their corpses are worth $20,000 as well.
Unconscious (i.e., live) aliens don't leave behind corpses and aren't worth any money,
so don't stun everything in sight -- only stun what you need (see [[Research_%28UFO_Defense%29#Researching_aliens|Research]]).
Live aliens do produce a higher [[Scoring_%28UFO_Defense%29#Alien_Casualties|score]], but only if you don't currently have that alien species+rank in containment.

In the tables below, the average value of each alien's armament is assumed to be about $180,000. The number of aliens found on each ship type varies; on higher difficulty settings, many more aliens will appear.

== UFO Recovery Value Tables ==

 
=== Small Scout ===

; Total Aliens:
: 1 (all difficulty levels)

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $6,500
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $20,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $180,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$206,500'''
|}
----
 
=== Medium Scout ===

; Total Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 3 - 6
: Vet./Gen.: 4 - 7
: Super.: 6 - 9

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $250,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| $160,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 11 || align="right"| $71,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 50 || align="right"| $250,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 3 - 9 || align="right"| $60,000 - $180,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 3 - 9 || align="right"| $540,000 - $1,620,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$1,331,500 - $2,531,500'''
|}
----
 
=== Large Scout ===

; Total Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 3 - 10
: Vet./Gen.: 4 - 11
: Super.: 6 - 13

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $250,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| $160,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 35 || align="right"| $227,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 50 || align="right"| $250,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 3 - 13 || align="right"| $60,000 - $260,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 3 - 13 || align="right"| $540,000 - $2,340,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$1,487,500 - $3,487,500'''
|}
----
 
=== Abductor ===

; Total Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 9 - 14
: Vet./Gen.: 11 - 16
: Super.: 13 - 18

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| $500,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| $400,000
|-
| Examination Room || align="right"| $9,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $36,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 70 || align="right"| $455,000
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 100 || align="right"| $500,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 9 - 18 || align="right"| $180,000 - $360,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 9 - 18 || align="right"| $1,620,000 - $3,240,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$3,691,000 - $5,491,000'''
|}
----
 
=== Harvester ===

; Total Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 10 - 15
: Vet./Gen.: 12 - 17
: Super.: 16 - 21

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| $500,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 10 || align="right"| $800,000
|-
| Alien Food || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 14 || align="right"| $70,000
|-
| Alien Surgery || align="right"| $38,000 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| $304,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 97 || align="right"| $630,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 100 || align="right"| $500,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 10 - 21 || align="right"| $200,000 - $420,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 10 - 21 || align="right"| $1,800,000 - $3,780,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$4,804,500 - $7,004,500'''
|}
----
 
=== Supply Ship ===

; Total Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 9 - 15
: Vet./Gen.: 10 - 16
: Super.: 14 - 20

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| $750,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $320,000
|-
| Alien Food || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 20 || align="right"| $100,000
|-
| Alien Surgery || align="right"| $38,000 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| $76,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 141 || align="right"| $916,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 150 || align="right"| $750,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 9 - 20 || align="right"| $180,000 - $400,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 9 - 20 || align="right"| $1,620,000 - $3,600,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$4,712,000 - $6,912,000'''
|}
----
 
=== Terror Ship ===

; Total Armed Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 8 - 10
: Vet./Gen.: 9 - 11
: Super.: 12 - 14

; Total Terrorists:
: Beg./Exp.: 2 - 6
: Vet./Gen.: 4 - 8
: Super.: 6 - 10

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| $640,000
|-
| Alien Entertainment || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| $160,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 92 || align="right"| $598,000
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 200 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 10 - 24 || align="right"| $200,000 - $480,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 8 - 14 || align="right"| $1,440,000 - $2,520,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$5,038,000 - $6,398,000'''
|}
----
 
=== Battleship ===

; Total Armed Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 9 - 13
: Vet./Gen.: 12 - 16
: Super.: 18 - 22

; Total Terrorists:
: Beg./Exp.: 0 - 2
: Vet./Gen.: 2 - 4
: Super.: 4 - 6

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $320,000
|-
| Alien Entertainment || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 24 || align="right"| $480,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 231 || align="right"| $1,501,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 200 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 9 - 28 || align="right"| $180,000 - $560,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 9 - 22 || align="right"| $1,620,000 - $3,960,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$6,101,500 - $8,821,500'''
|}

== Terror Missions ==

When a [[Terror Mission]] has begun, there is no ship to recover: the Terror Ship will disgorge its aliens upon some hapless city and take straight off into space.
Alien corpses and their armament can still be recovered.

It is presumed that the same number (and type) of aliens present on a [[Terror Ship]] will appear during a terror mission.

; Total Armed Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 8 - 10
: Vet./Gen.: 9 - 11
: Super.: 12 - 14

; Total Terrorists:
: Beg./Exp.: 2 - 6
: Vet./Gen.: 4 - 8
: Super.: 6 - 10

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 10 - 24 || align="right"| $200,000 - $480,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 8 - 14 || align="right"| $1,440,000 - $2,520,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$1,640,000 - $3,000,000'''
|}

== X-COM Base Defense ==

As with Terror Missions, there is no ship to recover during a [[Base Defense]] mission: only corpses and armament can be recovered.

It is presumed that the same number (and type) of aliens present on a [[Battleship]] will appear during a base invasion.

; Total Armed Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 9 - 13
: Vet./Gen.: 12 - 16
: Super.: 18 - 22

; Total Terrorists:
: Beg./Exp.: 0 - 2
: Vet./Gen.: 2 - 4
: Super.: 4 - 6

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 9 - 28 || align="right"| $180,000 - $560,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 9 - 22 || align="right"| $1,620,000 - $3,960,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$1,800,000 - $4,520,000'''
|}

== Alien Base Assaults ==

The loot available from alien bases is quite variable. Each base is randomly assembled from several standard modules (see [[Alien Base Terrain]]), which contain [[Alien Entertainment]], [[Alien Alloys]], and sometimes [[UFO Power Source]]s (and [[Elerium-115]]).

In eight trials, the number of Alien Entertainments recovered from different bases ranged from 26 to 95, and averaged 55; Alloys ranged from 42 to 50, averaging 45; and Power Sources were only seen in two bases -- one with two Power Sources (and 50 Elerium), the other with four Power Sources (and 150 Elerium). The largest share of recovered value from an alien base is likely to be from alien armaments.

Based on the following figures, it seems that "[[Alien Base Assault#Smash And Grab|milking]]" an alien base is less profitable overall (and probably more dangerous) than just waylaying its [[Supply Ship]]s. Attacking but not destroying alien bases may still have some use for [[Experience Training]].

; Total Armed Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 11 - 15
: Vet./Gen.: 13 - 17
: Super.: 17 - 21

; Total Terrorists:
: Beg./Exp.: 1 - 3
: Vet./Gen.: 3 - 5
: Super.: 5 - 7

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| Alien Entertainment (average) || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 55 || align="right"| $1,100,000
|-
| Alien Alloys (average) || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 45 || align="right"| $292,500
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 12 - 28 || align="right"| $240,000 - $560,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 11 - 21 || align="right"| $1,980,000 - $3,780,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$3,612,500 - $5,732,500'''
|}

'''Also, if any:'''

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source (per) || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $250,000
|-
| Elerium-115 (per) || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 50 || align="right"| $250,000
|}

== See Also ==

[[Category: UFO (UFO Defense)]]
[[Category: data tables]]

UFO Recovery Values

2006-06-27T23:57:50Z

HaJo: /* Alien Armaments */ Typo

Although [[Country Funding]] is the mainstay of X-COM's working budget, and [[Manufacturing Profitability|manufacturing]] can be a great supplement to that, alien artefacts and UFO components recovered from [[UFO Ground Assault]]s are the greatest source of funds for commanders.

The following tables list values for fully-intact ships. If you attack ships while they are landed, you can recover most of the items listed below.

UFOs which have been shot down will usually have several destroyed components, especially [[UFO Power Source]]s and the [[Elerium-115]] contained within them. That's half a mil down the drain, for each lost Power Source & Elerium. Aliens which were standing near the power source(s) will often be killed. Their corpses and personal armament may or may not survive the blast.

To minimise the amount of damage done to a UFO during interception, select the "Cautious Attack" setting. Or just let it land without shooting it down, to maximize loot (except for Terror ships).

Artefacts and UFO components can also be destroyed during the course of a mission, particularly by [[Explosions]] -- so use HE munitions and grenades sparingly inside UFOs if you want maximum salvage value.

== Alien Armaments ==

Items which the aliens carry -- weapons, almost exclusively -- are identified as "Alien Artefacts" until you fully research them. They can still be sold at full price once you get them back to base.

In the first few months of the game, the aliens will be relatively lightly armed -- [[Plasma Pistol]]s or [[Plasma Rifle|Rifles]]. As time progresses, they will start sporting [[Small Launcher]]s, [[Heavy Plasma]]s, and eventually [[Blaster Launcher]]s. Within a few months, they will abandon pistols and rifles altogether, and most aliens will carry a Heavy Plasma.

Aliens on the smaller (scout) ships will also sometimes carry a [[Mind Probe]], worth $304,000, the highest-priced alien artefact you will ever encounter. Since the UFOs you encounter in the first few months will mostly be scout ships, the value of alien artefacts (per alien) will remain relatively constant throughout the game.

Here are items carried by aliens, and their [[Buying/Selling/Transferring#Manufacturable_Prices|value]]:

'''Value
Plasma Pistol $84,000
Clip $4,440

Plasma Rifle $126,500
Clip $6,290

Heavy Plasma $171,600
Clip $9,590

Blaster Launcher $144,000
Blaster Bomb $17,028

Small Launcher $120,000
Stun Bomb $15,200

Alien Grenade $14,850

Mind Probe $304,000

Here are item sets commonly found on aliens:

'''Total Value'''
Plasma Pistol + 2 Plasma Pistol Clips $92,880
Plasma Rifle + 2 Plasma Rifle Clips + 1 Alien Grenade $153,930
Heavy Plasma + 2 Heavy Plasma Clips + 1 Alien Grenade $205,630
Small Launcher + 3 Stun Bombs $165,600
Blaster Launcher + 4 Blaster Bombs $212,112

You will only recover ammunition clips if they have not been used.
Each time an alien fires a Heavy Plasma for the first time, its clip becomes unrecoverable, and $10k is lost. Bang goes an Alien Grenade? $15k up in smoke.
In the CE edition (but not DOS), even full clips in alien guns are lost at the end of a mission. You can avoid this by unloading them first (see [[Known_Bugs#Disappearing_Ammo]]).

Every alien corpse you recover is worth $20,000. Terror units have built-in weapons and will never carry artefacts, although their corpses are worth $20,000 as well.
Unconscious (i.e., live) aliens don't leave behind corpses and aren't worth any money,
so don't stun everything in sight -- only stun what you need (see [[Research_%28UFO_Defense%29#Researching_aliens|Research]]).
Live aliens do produce a higher [[Scoring_%28UFO_Defense%29#Alien_Casualties|score]], but only if you don't currently have that alien species+rank in containment.

In the tables below, the average value of each alien's armament is assumed to be about $180,000. The number of aliens found on each ship type varies; on higher difficulty settings, many more aliens will appear.

== UFO Recovery Value Tables ==

 
=== Small Scout ===

; Total Aliens:
: 1 (all difficulty levels)

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $6,500
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $20,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $180,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$206,500'''
|}
----
 
=== Medium Scout ===

; Total Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 3 - 6
: Vet./Gen.: 4 - 7
: Super.: 6 - 9

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $250,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| $160,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 11 || align="right"| $71,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 50 || align="right"| $250,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 3 - 9 || align="right"| $60,000 - $180,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 3 - 9 || align="right"| $540,000 - $1,620,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$1,331,500 - $2,531,500'''
|}
----
 
=== Large Scout ===

; Total Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 3 - 10
: Vet./Gen.: 4 - 11
: Super.: 6 - 13

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $250,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| $160,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 35 || align="right"| $227,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 50 || align="right"| $250,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 3 - 13 || align="right"| $60,000 - $260,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 3 - 13 || align="right"| $540,000 - $2,340,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$1,487,500 - $3,487,500'''
|}
----
 
=== Abductor ===

; Total Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 9 - 14
: Vet./Gen.: 11 - 16
: Super.: 13 - 18

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| $500,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| $400,000
|-
| Examination Room || align="right"| $9,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $36,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 70 || align="right"| $455,000
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 100 || align="right"| $500,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 9 - 18 || align="right"| $180,000 - $360,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 9 - 18 || align="right"| $1,620,000 - $3,240,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$3,691,000 - $5,491,000'''
|}
----
 
=== Harvester ===

; Total Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 10 - 15
: Vet./Gen.: 12 - 17
: Super.: 16 - 21

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| $500,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 10 || align="right"| $800,000
|-
| Alien Food || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 14 || align="right"| $70,000
|-
| Alien Surgery || align="right"| $38,000 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| $304,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 97 || align="right"| $630,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 100 || align="right"| $500,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 10 - 21 || align="right"| $200,000 - $420,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 10 - 21 || align="right"| $1,800,000 - $3,780,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$4,804,500 - $7,004,500'''
|}
----
 
=== Supply Ship ===

; Total Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 9 - 15
: Vet./Gen.: 10 - 16
: Super.: 14 - 20

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| $750,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $320,000
|-
| Alien Food || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 20 || align="right"| $100,000
|-
| Alien Surgery || align="right"| $38,000 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| $76,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 141 || align="right"| $916,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 150 || align="right"| $750,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 9 - 20 || align="right"| $180,000 - $400,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 9 - 20 || align="right"| $1,620,000 - $3,600,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$4,712,000 - $6,912,000'''
|}
----
 
=== Terror Ship ===

; Total Armed Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 8 - 10
: Vet./Gen.: 9 - 11
: Super.: 12 - 14

; Total Terrorists:
: Beg./Exp.: 2 - 6
: Vet./Gen.: 4 - 8
: Super.: 6 - 10

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| $640,000
|-
| Alien Entertainment || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| $160,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 92 || align="right"| $598,000
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 200 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 10 - 24 || align="right"| $200,000 - $480,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 8 - 14 || align="right"| $1,440,000 - $2,520,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$5,038,000 - $6,398,000'''
|}
----
 
=== Battleship ===

; Total Armed Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 9 - 13
: Vet./Gen.: 12 - 16
: Super.: 18 - 22

; Total Terrorists:
: Beg./Exp.: 0 - 2
: Vet./Gen.: 2 - 4
: Super.: 4 - 6

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $320,000
|-
| Alien Entertainment || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 24 || align="right"| $480,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 231 || align="right"| $1,501,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 200 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 9 - 28 || align="right"| $180,000 - $560,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 9 - 22 || align="right"| $1,620,000 - $3,960,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$6,101,500 - $8,821,500'''
|}

== Terror Missions ==

When a [[Terror Mission]] has begun, there is no ship to recover: the Terror Ship will disgorge its aliens upon some hapless city and take straight off into space. Alien corpses and their armament can still be recovered.

It is presumed that the same number (and type) of aliens present on a [[Terror Ship]] will appear during a terror mission.

; Total Armed Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 8 - 10
: Vet./Gen.: 9 - 11
: Super.: 12 - 14

; Total Terrorists:
: Beg./Exp.: 2 - 6
: Vet./Gen.: 4 - 8
: Super.: 6 - 10

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 10 - 24 || align="right"| $200,000 - $480,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 8 - 14 || align="right"| $1,440,000 - $2,520,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$1,640,000 - $3,000,000'''
|}

== X-COM Base Defense ==

As with Terror Missions, there is no ship to recover during a [[Base Defense]] mission: only corpses and armament can be recovered.

It is presumed that the same number (and type) of aliens present on a [[Battleship]] will appear during a base invasion.

; Total Armed Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 9 - 13
: Vet./Gen.: 12 - 16
: Super.: 18 - 22

; Total Terrorists:
: Beg./Exp.: 0 - 2
: Vet./Gen.: 2 - 4
: Super.: 4 - 6

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 9 - 28 || align="right"| $180,000 - $560,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 9 - 22 || align="right"| $1,620,000 - $3,960,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$1,800,000 - $4,520,000'''
|}

== Alien Base Assaults ==

The loot available from alien bases is quite variable. Each base is randomly assembled from several standard modules (see [[Alien Base Terrain]]), which contain [[Alien Entertainment]], [[Alien Alloys]], and sometimes [[UFO Power Source]]s (and [[Elerium-115]]).

In eight trials, the number of Alien Entertainments recovered from different bases ranged from 26 to 95, and averaged 55; Alloys ranged from 42 to 50, averaging 45; and Power Sources were only seen in two bases -- one with two Power Sources (and 50 Elerium), the other with four Power Sources (and 150 Elerium). The largest share of recovered value from an alien base is likely to be from alien armaments.

Based on the following figures, it seems that "[[Alien Base Assault#Smash And Grab|milking]]" an alien base is less profitable overall (and probably more dangerous) than just waylaying its [[Supply Ship]]s. Attacking but not destroying alien bases may still have some use for [[Experience Training]].

; Total Armed Aliens:
: Beg./Exp.: 11 - 15
: Vet./Gen.: 13 - 17
: Super.: 17 - 21

; Total Terrorists:
: Beg./Exp.: 1 - 3
: Vet./Gen.: 3 - 5
: Super.: 5 - 7

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| Alien Entertainment (average) || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 55 || align="right"| $1,100,000
|-
| Alien Alloys (average) || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 45 || align="right"| $292,500
|-
| Corpses || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 12 - 28 || align="right"| $240,000 - $560,000
|-
| Alien Armament || align="right"| $180,000 || align="right"| 11 - 21 || align="right"| $1,980,000 - $3,780,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$3,612,500 - $5,732,500'''
|}

'''Also, if any:'''

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=180| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source (per) || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| $250,000
|-
| Elerium-115 (per) || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 50 || align="right"| $250,000
|}

== See Also ==

[[Category: UFO (UFO Defense)]]
[[Category: data tables]]

Battleship

2006-06-27T23:43:11Z

HaJo: /* Alien Retaliation */ Typo

==General Information==
The battleship is the largest and most powerful [[UFO (UFO Defense)|alien craft]]. It is normally the primary alien mission craft, equipped with powerful weapons and numerous crew members.

==Additional Information==
Great care should be taken while engaging one - be it a ground assault or recovery, or aerial interception. Battleships always show up as Very Large on a radar profile, and often maintain very high cruising speeds.

===TFTD Note===
[[TFTD]] also has Battleship. However in there it's not the strongest. The TFTD version of the Battleship is...the [[Dreadnought]].

===Statistics===
*Radar Profile: Very Large
*Maximum Speed: 5000 knots
*Damage Capacity: 3000 units
*Weapon Power: 140 units
*Weapon Range: 65 km
*Missions used in: Base, Infiltration, Retaliation, Harvest, Abduction

==Alien Missions==
Battleships are normally associated with retaliation, base construction and Infiltration missions, however, unlike Terran Battleships the alien battleship can fulfill a very diverse set of mission profiles. Unlike [[Supply Ship]]s, [[Terror Ship]]s, [[Harvester]]s, or [[Abductor]]s, a Battleship's presence does not lend itself to one or two specific [[Alien Missions|alien missions]]. For an [[X-COM]] Commander tracking a Battleship using radar, he or she must observe the Battleship's movement patterns in order to guess its mission. The Commander must then take appropriate measures to deal with the battleship. He or she may even choose to ignore the Battleship, as their size and firepower require an extensive commitment of personnel and equipment that may not justify the attack. Though not often, Battleships can occasionally accomplish nothing, with no penalty aside from a slightly raised [[UFO Activity]] graph. (''See: Alien Retaliation'') 
 
Battleships can be involved in the following missions:

===Alien Base===
The construction of [[Alien Base Assault|alien bases]] are marked by heavy UFO activity in rural areas. In addition to the scouts and Supply Ships sent by the aliens to survey the potential base site, a Battleship is sent to construct the base after the new site has been determined, and also to transport the valuable alien commander. It is possible to capture the Battleship's commander at this time, while it is vulnerable.
Construction of the base will not stop even if the Battleship and its commander are captured. 
 
''[Alitorious: I've heard both that it works and doesn't work, so I'm not sure if you can interrogate these commanders or not. Maybe it depends on the version of the game?]'' 
 
''[ [[user:NKF|NKF]]: Oh yes they will. A commander's a commander's a commander. The game doesn't distinguish. The problem only arises if you don't have the right prerequisites for the tech you want the commender to unlock.]'' 
 
At any rate, it is much easier to find the commander on the bridge of a Battleship than inside the maze of an Alien Base.
If a Battleship lands in a rural area as part of a large force, then it is likely to be on an Alien Base mission. If all ships of an Alien Base construction force are shot down or assaulted, then the Alien Base has no chance to be built. 
 
''[Alitorious: I might be wrong about that, actually.]'' 
''[ [[user:NKF|NKF]]: Well, it's only the battleship that matters. You should be able to stop base construction if the battleship is shot down before it lands.]''

''[ [[user:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]]: Shooting down a battleship en route for base construction does not prevent the base from being constructed. However, other ships may be sent out to scout the area prior to construction, and shooting these down will delay or prevent the construction ship being sent out. The battleship can be sent out on either, or both, missions, so it's difficult or impossible to distinguish a scouting battleship from a constructing battleship. ]''

===Alien Infiltration===
Two Battleships are always the primary component in the final phase of an infiltration. The Battleships are part of a large force of five ships sent, much like in Alien Base missions. However, ships involved in an Alien Infiltration mission will instead land in urban locations. Battleships contain the alien "diplomats" who will attempt to persuade one of Earth's countries to cease funding X-COM, and form a [[pact]] with the aliens. The alien "diplomats" leave the ship immediately after landing, however, and continue their goal of signing a pact with one of Earth's countries regardless of what happens to their base ship. This means that a ground assault on the UFO will not always prevent the aliens from accomplishing their mission. The only possible way to prevent a pact-signing would be to shoot down the Battleships before they can reach their target city. 
 
Battleships are most often seen on this type of mission. When two Battleships, and usually a force of smaller craft, are in the same region, then it is most likely on an Alien Infiltration mission. This can be confirmed when the craft land near or in the cities and no [[Terror Mission]] begins.

===Alien Retaliation===
Alien Retaliation missions have two main components: Search, and Destroy. The Battleship quite often fulfills the "destroy" component for obvious reasons - it's the troop carrier. The heavy firepower of a Battleship is required to breach any barricaded underground [[Hangar]]s or [[Access Lift]]s, and they contain the troops, weapons, and terror units for the subsequent assault on any [[Base Defense|X-COM Base]] itself. 
 
After unloading its troops, a Battleship on a retaliatory mission will return to space immediately. It is thus impossible to assault the Battleship itself after the base has been defended. 
 
Any Battleship that is going to attack your base will head on a direct path for the base at near-maximum speed. It is thus impossible to shoot down the Battleship except with the Avenger, or with base defenses. Even then, I sadly bemoaned once as an Avenger tried a close tail chase to stop one attacking a base. And failed. Intercept them from the front. If a Very Large craft is detected on a direct course for one of your bases, then start [[Base Defense|base defense]] preparations immediately. 
 
If [[Craft (UFO Defense)|X-COM craft]] are successful at downing all alien scout craft on a retaliatory operation, then the Battleship itself must search for your base. Despite the Battleship's formidable strength, one thing it does seem to lack is scanning and sensing equipment. It is rare that a Battleship searching for your base will ever find it, so these Battleships can be safely ignored. 
 
''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: Not battleships. Other scouts are dispatched to scout. It is possible to mislead for a short time by shooting down the scouts further and further away from your base. I wouldn't count on it though. Also, not to forget, there will be a ceaseless stream of Battleships until one manages to break in.]''

''[Alitorious: Well, of course they send scouts in first. I've just noticed that if you keep downing all the scouts, then eventually they send the Battleship in anyways. This Battleship doesn't attack your base, though, and seems to be searching for your base just like the scouts.]''

''[[User:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]]: Battleships will be sent on scouting missions if you shoot down the smaller scouting craft. I'm pretty sure this is a game-wide pattern-- when smaller ships are interdicted, a battleship will be sent to do their job.''

 

Battleship movement on an Alien Retaliation mission is characterized by either a fast, direct course for one of your bases, or a repeated "weaving" pattern around where many UFOs have been downed recently. They will only land to attack your base. A Battleship searching for your base will soon give up and head for space.

 

[[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] : If, for some reason, you coincidentally decided to dismantle the base (possibly to relocate?), and there is a battleship actually enroute to attack your base, the battle ship will head for that base's ex-location anyhow. It will then realise it's been duped, BUT, after consulting it's alien masters, will simply head to the next closest base. In a straight line, top speed. HOWEVER, once it arrives there, it will realise that they only have the lift access codes to your old base, and will then simply hang there hovering over your base for ages and ages.
In fact, this is due to the nature of the code which sends out the scouts. If successful, it sets the "aliens know where base is" flag, and applies it to the next battleship launched on a retaliation mission. This flag is only removed after a battleship actually manages to land and send troops inside your base. This flag is not removed by base defence blowing up battleships, craft blowing up battleships (I think), or, as I just mentioned, by removing that base entirely. Nor is this flag restricted to that base in particular.

===Alien Harvest===
It seems that if X-COM forces are successful in downing or assaulting many [[Harvester]]s, then the aliens will send their glorious Battleships to do the dirty work in the hopes that X-COM does not have the resources to attack them. Or maybe they hope you just won't want to waste the effort. 
 
Battleships on harvest missions will fly and land in rural areas. Sometimes they work in pairs. 
 
''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: To top it off, harvest missions are harmless in comparison to retaliation and infiltration missions.]'' 

===Alien Abduction===
The Battleship will sometimes participate in Alien Abduction missions. Like its participation in Harvest missions, this occurs only when X-Com has already been successful in preventing lesser craft from doing the job.

== Intercepting Battleships ==
===Speed===
Despite being the largest class of ships, alien Battleships have four powerful [[Elerium-115]] [[UFO Power Source|power sources]], and as such can travel through Earth's atmosphere at a surprisingly high speed - they have been known to travel at over five thousand knots during atmospheric entry and exit. Because of this, it is very difficult for [[Craft (UFO Defense)|X-COM craft]] to intercept a Battleship during these phases of its flight. X-COM Commanders must usually wait for the Battleship to slow down as they approach their mission zone in order to intercept it.

===Weapons===
When X-COM forces have engaged a Battleship, the commander and pilots must be extra cautious. The battleship's primary weapons have a range of sixty-five kilometres - greater than that of long-range [[Avalanche]]s or [[Plasma Beam]]s. 
 
Do not send [[Interceptor]]s to attack a Battleship or heavy losses will be expected. A direct hit from a Battleship's primary weapons are enough to incinerate an Interceptor in one or two hits. Even the very durable [[Skyranger]] will only survive a few hits. It is recommended that commanders only intercept Battleships using Alien-Terran Hybrid craft. 
 
''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: Or short of that, have interceptors attack in groups. This'll cut the Battleship rate of fire to 1/n-th its normal speed as it fires sequentially on each ship in range.''] 
''[ [[User:JellyfishGreen|JFG]]: It's possible. Have multiple fighters at standoff, then send in the Skyranger first as a damage soak, and follow him with Interceptors to dump their ordnance. (This is a surprisingly similar method to using a Journeyman and Berserkers to beat the final boss in Myth II.) I prefer the ground assault, though. ]'' 

===Armour===
A Battleship is also incredibly well armoured. Native terran technology - [[Cannon]], [[Stingray]]s, and [[Avalanche]]s - have little chance of downing a battleship unless used in high quantity. Anything less than an [[Avenger]] with twin [[Plasma Cannon]]s is not recommended, and even an Avenger will sustain moderate damage when intercepting a Battleship. [[Fusion Ball Launcher]]s may be effective, but only when intercepting with three or more craft. 
 
''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: If you've gone absolutely mad, consider twin [[Cannon]]s on an Avenger!]'' 
''[ [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]]: ... Next, tell us: how many Cannon Avengers does it take to down a battleship? ;)] '' 
''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: Two - minimum. A single avenger will be down by 1/4th of its armour before it even gets its cannons in range.'']

===General Conclusion===
Although it may be possible to eventually design a hybrid craft that can go toe-to-toe with a Battleship, it is recommended that any aerial assault be undertaken with multiple craft , and with maximum available firepower. 
 
''Addendum: The Alien-Terran Hybrid craft class [[Avenger]] is capable of one-on-one engagement with a Battleship. However, very heavy damage will be inflicted on the Avenger, which must be repaired prior to further flights. Considering the complexity of the craft, however, repair times are extensive and border on the time taken to manufacture a new Avenger. Multiple Avengers, with [[Firestorm]]s or [[Lightning]]s as support if avaliable, are still recommended in order to assault a Battleship.''

''Alternate opinion: There is a lot to be said for the "gang up on the Battleship" theory, but I prefer single-Avenger assaults. If there are multiple Avengers available, I use only one to intercept, and suck up the long repair time. Rotate the damaged Avenger out of the high-activity regions, and rotate a fresh Avenger in. I find this preferable to having multiple avengers knocked out for a shorter period of time, since if another Battleship comes along quickly, you'll have two or three Avengers out of commission, instead of just one.'' --[[User:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]] 13:19, 22 Nov 2005 (PST)

'''In conclusion''', choosing aerial engagement of an alien battleship is a very high-risk. If a commander does not have sufficient or well-equipped craft to deal with this threat, it is recommended that he or she instead wait until the Battleship lands and assault it with ground forces if possible. The weapons systems of a Battleship are not activated while it is not in flight, so the transport faces little threat of return fire.

== Assaulting/Recovering Battleships ==
===Mission Spoils===
Assaulting a landed or downed Battleship with ground forces is a dangerous operation. However, a success is well worth it. A Battleship has four [[UFO Power Source|power sources]], and two hundred units of [[Elerium-115]]. On top of that, Battleships carry many [[Alien Entertainment]] and [[UFO Navigation]] units, and vast quantities of [[Alien Alloys]]. Because the crew size is so large, one can find large amounts of alien [[Weapons (UFO Defense)|weapons]] and ammo, including deadly [[Blaster Bomb]]s. In addition, every rank of alien can be found on a Battleship, including commanders if the Battleship is on an [[Alien Base Assault]] mission.

===Ground Threats===
The Battleship carries a large crew compliment. These are often equipped with [[Heavy Plasma]]s and [[Alien Grenade]]s, which pose a large threat. In addition to the regular alien species, their asoociated [[Terror Units (UFO Defense)|Terror Unit]]s accompany them on Battleships. Last but not least, some officers on a Battleship are armed with the dreaded [[Blaster Launcher]]. Squad leaders must be careful in their deployment of personnel on the battlefield.

===Battleship Layout===
The Battleship itself consists of three levels. The ground level has five "legs," one on each corner and one in the center. The corner legs cannot be entered from the outside, as they house the valuable elerium power sources. The center leg has two doors that give accesss to a wide central lift. The doors are large enough to allow passage of [[Cyberdisc]]s, [[Reaper]]s, and [[Sectopod]]s, so they can also be used to allow [[Heavy Weapons Platforms (UFO Defense)|Heavy Weapons Platforms]] access to the UFO. This pair of doors is the only access point in or out of the Battleship, therefore a siege is very effective here. However, a siege may attract hostile blaster bombs, so use the tactic with discretion. Alien Engineers can sometimes be found taking care of the power sources in one of the outer legs. 
 
The second level has four major hallways (or two, if you look at it that way). Each leads to a small lift that accesses the four outer pods holding the Power Sources. There are three main rooms, two of which seem to be used for storage. One is filled with the red spheres and cylinders on blue support legs that we have not yet identified. The fourth room contains an alien entertainment complex. 
 
The central lift also extends to the third and topmost level of the Battleship. Unlike the level below it, the lift on this level is in a small room. This level of the UFO has lots of smaller rooms and tight corridors, making it very dangerous. There are two rooms which appear to be the navigation room, and bridge. Both rooms have the distinctive blue chairs, yet only one has any navigation modules. For some reason, the two rooms are on opposite sides of the ship. The third level is also where X-COM forces are most likely to find any Alien Navigators or Alien Leaders, or possibly even the commander if present.
===Entry===
Heavy Weapons Platforms can enter the central lift and navigate much of the second floor, however the lift on the third floor is closed off via small doorways. HWPs are very useful for opening the main doors on the bottom level and allowing soldiers to fire at any aliens inside, or to send a blaster bomb up into the interior of the UFO. 
 
Forced entry using a Blaster Bomb is often used, as it also reduces the risk of succumbing to an alien ambush on the second or third floors. The four corner legs can be one entry point, although elerium may be damaged from such an entry. If [[Flying Suit]]s are avaliable, then an entry from the third level is also an effective tactic that also minimizes the risk of damaging elerium. Entering via the top floor also gives a good chance of surprising and capturing alien officers. A pincer movement, with two or more fireteams working from multiple entry points, is a very effective tactic while storming a Battleship. 
 
==Recoverable Components==

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=110| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $320,000
|-
| Alien Entertainment || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 24 || align="right"| $480,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 231 || align="right"| $1,501,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 200 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$4,301,500'''
|}

Also see [[UFO Recovery Values#Battleship]].

==Alien Deployment==
'''Rank Beg./Exp. Vet./Gen. Super.'''
'''---- --------- --------- ------'''
Soldiers 4-8 6-10 8-12
Navigators 1 1 2
Engineers 1 1 2
Medics 1 1 2
Leaders 1 2 3
Commanders 1 1 1
Terrorists 0-2 2-4 4-6

Totals 9-15 14-20 22-28

==Floor Plans==
'''2nd Floor:''' 
[[Image:Battleship_2.gif]]

'''1st Floor:''' 
[[Image:Battleship_1.gif]]

'''Ground Floor:''' 
[[Image:Battleship_0.gif]]

==Terrain Maps==
[[Image:UFO_160MAP-L1.JPG|Level 1|thumb|left]][[Image:UFO_160MAP-L2.JPG|Level 2|thumb|left]][[Image:UFO_160MAP-L3.JPG|Level 3|thumb|left]][[Image:UFO_160MAP.JPG|Level 4|thumb|left]]

 

==See Also==
[[Small Scout]] 
[[Medium Scout]] 
[[Large Scout]] 
[[Abductor]] 
[[Harvester]] 
[[Supply Ship]] 
[[Terror Ship]]

[[Category: UFO (UFO Defense)]]
[[Category: Tactics]]

Battleship

2006-06-27T23:38:04Z

HaJo: /* Alien Base */ Typo

==General Information==
The battleship is the largest and most powerful [[UFO (UFO Defense)|alien craft]]. It is normally the primary alien mission craft, equipped with powerful weapons and numerous crew members.

==Additional Information==
Great care should be taken while engaging one - be it a ground assault or recovery, or aerial interception. Battleships always show up as Very Large on a radar profile, and often maintain very high cruising speeds.

===TFTD Note===
[[TFTD]] also has Battleship. However in there it's not the strongest. The TFTD version of the Battleship is...the [[Dreadnought]].

===Statistics===
*Radar Profile: Very Large
*Maximum Speed: 5000 knots
*Damage Capacity: 3000 units
*Weapon Power: 140 units
*Weapon Range: 65 km
*Missions used in: Base, Infiltration, Retaliation, Harvest, Abduction

==Alien Missions==
Battleships are normally associated with retaliation, base construction and Infiltration missions, however, unlike Terran Battleships the alien battleship can fulfill a very diverse set of mission profiles. Unlike [[Supply Ship]]s, [[Terror Ship]]s, [[Harvester]]s, or [[Abductor]]s, a Battleship's presence does not lend itself to one or two specific [[Alien Missions|alien missions]]. For an [[X-COM]] Commander tracking a Battleship using radar, he or she must observe the Battleship's movement patterns in order to guess its mission. The Commander must then take appropriate measures to deal with the battleship. He or she may even choose to ignore the Battleship, as their size and firepower require an extensive commitment of personnel and equipment that may not justify the attack. Though not often, Battleships can occasionally accomplish nothing, with no penalty aside from a slightly raised [[UFO Activity]] graph. (''See: Alien Retaliation'') 
 
Battleships can be involved in the following missions:

===Alien Base===
The construction of [[Alien Base Assault|alien bases]] are marked by heavy UFO activity in rural areas. In addition to the scouts and Supply Ships sent by the aliens to survey the potential base site, a Battleship is sent to construct the base after the new site has been determined, and also to transport the valuable alien commander. It is possible to capture the Battleship's commander at this time, while it is vulnerable.
Construction of the base will not stop even if the Battleship and its commander are captured. 
 
''[Alitorious: I've heard both that it works and doesn't work, so I'm not sure if you can interrogate these commanders or not. Maybe it depends on the version of the game?]'' 
 
''[ [[user:NKF|NKF]]: Oh yes they will. A commander's a commander's a commander. The game doesn't distinguish. The problem only arises if you don't have the right prerequisites for the tech you want the commender to unlock.]'' 
 
At any rate, it is much easier to find the commander on the bridge of a Battleship than inside the maze of an Alien Base.
If a Battleship lands in a rural area as part of a large force, then it is likely to be on an Alien Base mission. If all ships of an Alien Base construction force are shot down or assaulted, then the Alien Base has no chance to be built. 
 
''[Alitorious: I might be wrong about that, actually.]'' 
''[ [[user:NKF|NKF]]: Well, it's only the battleship that matters. You should be able to stop base construction if the battleship is shot down before it lands.]''

''[ [[user:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]]: Shooting down a battleship en route for base construction does not prevent the base from being constructed. However, other ships may be sent out to scout the area prior to construction, and shooting these down will delay or prevent the construction ship being sent out. The battleship can be sent out on either, or both, missions, so it's difficult or impossible to distinguish a scouting battleship from a constructing battleship. ]''

===Alien Infiltration===
Two Battleships are always the primary component in the final phase of an infiltration. The Battleships are part of a large force of five ships sent, much like in Alien Base missions. However, ships involved in an Alien Infiltration mission will instead land in urban locations. Battleships contain the alien "diplomats" who will attempt to persuade one of Earth's countries to cease funding X-COM, and form a [[pact]] with the aliens. The alien "diplomats" leave the ship immediately after landing, however, and continue their goal of signing a pact with one of Earth's countries regardless of what happens to their base ship. This means that a ground assault on the UFO will not always prevent the aliens from accomplishing their mission. The only possible way to prevent a pact-signing would be to shoot down the Battleships before they can reach their target city. 
 
Battleships are most often seen on this type of mission. When two Battleships, and usually a force of smaller craft, are in the same region, then it is most likely on an Alien Infiltration mission. This can be confirmed when the craft land near or in the cities and no [[Terror Mission]] begins.

===Alien Retaliation===
Alien Retaliation missions have two main components: Search, and Destroy. The Battleship quite often fulfills the "destroy" component for obvious reasons - it's the troop carrier. The heavy firepower of a Battleship is required to breach any barricaded underground [[Hangar]]s or [[Access Lift]]s, and they contain the troops, weapons, and terror units for the subsequent assault on any [[Base Defense|X-COM Base]] itself. 

 
After unloading its troops, a Battleship on a retaliatory mission will return to space immediately. It is thus impossible to assault the Battleship itself after the base has been defended. 
 
Any Battleship that is going to attack your base will head on a direct path for the base at near-maximum speed. It is thus impossible to shoot down the Battleship except with the Avenger, or with base defenses. Even then, I sadly bemoaned once as an Avenger tried a close tail chase to stop one attacking a base. And failed. Intercept them from the front. If a Very Large craft is detected on a direct course for one of your bases, then start [[Base Defense|base defense]] preparations immediately. 
 
If [[Craft (UFO Defense)|X-COM craft]] are successful at downing all alien scout craft on a retaliatory operation, then the Battleship itself must search for your base. Despite the Battleship's formidable strength, one thing it does seem to lack is scanning and sensing equipment. It is rare that a Battleship searching for your base will ever find it, so these Battleships can be safely ignored. 
 
''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: Not battleships. Other scouts are dispatched to scout. It is possible to mislead for a short time by shooting down the scouts further and further away from your base. I wouldn't count on it though. Also, not to forget, there will be a ceaseless stream of Battleships until one manages to break in.]''

''[Alitorious: Well, of course they send scouts in first. I've just noticed that if you keep downing all the scouts, then eventually they send the Battleship in anyways. This Battleship doesn't attack your base, though, and seems to be searching for your base just like the scouts.]''

''[[User:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]]: Battleships will be sent on scouting missions if you shoot down the smaller scouting craft. I'm pretty sure this is a game-wide pattern-- when smaller ships are interdicted, a battleship will be sent to do their job.''

 

Battleship movement on an Alien Retaliation mission is characterized by either a fast, direct course for one of your bases, or a repeated "weaving" pattern around where many UFOs have been downed recently. They will only land to attack your base. A Battleship searching for your base will soon give up and head for space.

 

[[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] : If, for some reason, you coincidentally decided to dismantle the base (possibly to relocate?), and there is a battleship actually enroute to attack your base, the battle ship will head for that base's ex-location anyhow. It will then realise it's been duped, BUT, after consulting it's alien masters, will simply head to the next closest base. In a straight line, top speed. HOWEVER, once it arrives there, it will realise that they only have the lift access codes to your old base, and will then simply hang there hovering over your base for ages and ages.
In fact, this is due to the nature of the code which sends out the scouts. If succesful, it sets the "aliens know where base is" flag, and applies it to the next battleship launched on a retaliation mission. This flag is only removed after a battleship actually manages to land and send troops inside your base. This flag is not removed by base defence blowing up battleships, craft blowing up battleships (I think), or, as I just mentioned, by removing that base entirely. Nor is this flag restricted to that base in particular.

===Alien Harvest===
It seems that if X-COM forces are successful in downing or assaulting many [[Harvester]]s, then the aliens will send their glorious Battleships to do the dirty work in the hopes that X-COM does not have the resources to attack them. Or maybe they hope you just won't want to waste the effort. 
 
Battleships on harvest missions will fly and land in rural areas. Sometimes they work in pairs. 
 
''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: To top it off, harvest missions are harmless in comparison to retaliation and infiltration missions.]'' 

===Alien Abduction===
The Battleship will sometimes participate in Alien Abduction missions. Like its participation in Harvest missions, this occurs only when X-Com has already been successful in preventing lesser craft from doing the job.

== Intercepting Battleships ==
===Speed===
Despite being the largest class of ships, alien Battleships have four powerful [[Elerium-115]] [[UFO Power Source|power sources]], and as such can travel through Earth's atmosphere at a surprisingly high speed - they have been known to travel at over five thousand knots during atmospheric entry and exit. Because of this, it is very difficult for [[Craft (UFO Defense)|X-COM craft]] to intercept a Battleship during these phases of its flight. X-COM Commanders must usually wait for the Battleship to slow down as they approach their mission zone in order to intercept it.

===Weapons===
When X-COM forces have engaged a Battleship, the commander and pilots must be extra cautious. The battleship's primary weapons have a range of sixty-five kilometres - greater than that of long-range [[Avalanche]]s or [[Plasma Beam]]s. 
 
Do not send [[Interceptor]]s to attack a Battleship or heavy losses will be expected. A direct hit from a Battleship's primary weapons are enough to incinerate an Interceptor in one or two hits. Even the very durable [[Skyranger]] will only survive a few hits. It is recommended that commanders only intercept Battleships using Alien-Terran Hybrid craft. 
 
''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: Or short of that, have interceptors attack in groups. This'll cut the Battleship rate of fire to 1/n-th its normal speed as it fires sequentially on each ship in range.''] 
''[ [[User:JellyfishGreen|JFG]]: It's possible. Have multiple fighters at standoff, then send in the Skyranger first as a damage soak, and follow him with Interceptors to dump their ordnance. (This is a surprisingly similar method to using a Journeyman and Berserkers to beat the final boss in Myth II.) I prefer the ground assault, though. ]'' 

===Armour===
A Battleship is also incredibly well armoured. Native terran technology - [[Cannon]], [[Stingray]]s, and [[Avalanche]]s - have little chance of downing a battleship unless used in high quantity. Anything less than an [[Avenger]] with twin [[Plasma Cannon]]s is not recommended, and even an Avenger will sustain moderate damage when intercepting a Battleship. [[Fusion Ball Launcher]]s may be effective, but only when intercepting with three or more craft. 
 
''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: If you've gone absolutely mad, consider twin [[Cannon]]s on an Avenger!]'' 
''[ [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]]: ... Next, tell us: how many Cannon Avengers does it take to down a battleship? ;)] '' 
''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: Two - minimum. A single avenger will be down by 1/4th of its armour before it even gets its cannons in range.'']

===General Conclusion===
Although it may be possible to eventually design a hybrid craft that can go toe-to-toe with a Battleship, it is recommended that any aerial assault be undertaken with multiple craft , and with maximum available firepower. 
 
''Addendum: The Alien-Terran Hybrid craft class [[Avenger]] is capable of one-on-one engagement with a Battleship. However, very heavy damage will be inflicted on the Avenger, which must be repaired prior to further flights. Considering the complexity of the craft, however, repair times are extensive and border on the time taken to manufacture a new Avenger. Multiple Avengers, with [[Firestorm]]s or [[Lightning]]s as support if avaliable, are still recommended in order to assault a Battleship.''

''Alternate opinion: There is a lot to be said for the "gang up on the Battleship" theory, but I prefer single-Avenger assaults. If there are multiple Avengers available, I use only one to intercept, and suck up the long repair time. Rotate the damaged Avenger out of the high-activity regions, and rotate a fresh Avenger in. I find this preferable to having multiple avengers knocked out for a shorter period of time, since if another Battleship comes along quickly, you'll have two or three Avengers out of commission, instead of just one.'' --[[User:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]] 13:19, 22 Nov 2005 (PST)

'''In conclusion''', choosing aerial engagement of an alien battleship is a very high-risk. If a commander does not have sufficient or well-equipped craft to deal with this threat, it is recommended that he or she instead wait until the Battleship lands and assault it with ground forces if possible. The weapons systems of a Battleship are not activated while it is not in flight, so the transport faces little threat of return fire.

== Assaulting/Recovering Battleships ==
===Mission Spoils===
Assaulting a landed or downed Battleship with ground forces is a dangerous operation. However, a success is well worth it. A Battleship has four [[UFO Power Source|power sources]], and two hundred units of [[Elerium-115]]. On top of that, Battleships carry many [[Alien Entertainment]] and [[UFO Navigation]] units, and vast quantities of [[Alien Alloys]]. Because the crew size is so large, one can find large amounts of alien [[Weapons (UFO Defense)|weapons]] and ammo, including deadly [[Blaster Bomb]]s. In addition, every rank of alien can be found on a Battleship, including commanders if the Battleship is on an [[Alien Base Assault]] mission.

===Ground Threats===
The Battleship carries a large crew compliment. These are often equipped with [[Heavy Plasma]]s and [[Alien Grenade]]s, which pose a large threat. In addition to the regular alien species, their asoociated [[Terror Units (UFO Defense)|Terror Unit]]s accompany them on Battleships. Last but not least, some officers on a Battleship are armed with the dreaded [[Blaster Launcher]]. Squad leaders must be careful in their deployment of personnel on the battlefield.

===Battleship Layout===
The Battleship itself consists of three levels. The ground level has five "legs," one on each corner and one in the center. The corner legs cannot be entered from the outside, as they house the valuable elerium power sources. The center leg has two doors that give accesss to a wide central lift. The doors are large enough to allow passage of [[Cyberdisc]]s, [[Reaper]]s, and [[Sectopod]]s, so they can also be used to allow [[Heavy Weapons Platforms (UFO Defense)|Heavy Weapons Platforms]] access to the UFO. This pair of doors is the only access point in or out of the Battleship, therefore a siege is very effective here. However, a siege may attract hostile blaster bombs, so use the tactic with discretion. Alien Engineers can sometimes be found taking care of the power sources in one of the outer legs. 
 
The second level has four major hallways (or two, if you look at it that way). Each leads to a small lift that accesses the four outer pods holding the Power Sources. There are three main rooms, two of which seem to be used for storage. One is filled with the red spheres and cylinders on blue support legs that we have not yet identified. The fourth room contains an alien entertainment complex. 
 
The central lift also extends to the third and topmost level of the Battleship. Unlike the level below it, the lift on this level is in a small room. This level of the UFO has lots of smaller rooms and tight corridors, making it very dangerous. There are two rooms which appear to be the navigation room, and bridge. Both rooms have the distinctive blue chairs, yet only one has any navigation modules. For some reason, the two rooms are on opposite sides of the ship. The third level is also where X-COM forces are most likely to find any Alien Navigators or Alien Leaders, or possibly even the commander if present.
===Entry===
Heavy Weapons Platforms can enter the central lift and navigate much of the second floor, however the lift on the third floor is closed off via small doorways. HWPs are very useful for opening the main doors on the bottom level and allowing soldiers to fire at any aliens inside, or to send a blaster bomb up into the interior of the UFO. 
 
Forced entry using a Blaster Bomb is often used, as it also reduces the risk of succumbing to an alien ambush on the second or third floors. The four corner legs can be one entry point, although elerium may be damaged from such an entry. If [[Flying Suit]]s are avaliable, then an entry from the third level is also an effective tactic that also minimizes the risk of damaging elerium. Entering via the top floor also gives a good chance of surprising and capturing alien officers. A pincer movement, with two or more fireteams working from multiple entry points, is a very effective tactic while storming a Battleship. 
 
==Recoverable Components==

{|
|-
! align="left" width=170| Item || align="right" width=75| Sell Price || align="right" width=75| Quantity || align="right" width=110| Value
|-
| UFO Power Source || align="right"| $250,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| UFO Navigation || align="right"| $80,000 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| $320,000
|-
| Alien Entertainment || align="right"| $20,000 || align="right"| 24 || align="right"| $480,000
|-
| Alien Alloys || align="right"| $6,500 || align="right"| 231 || align="right"| $1,501,500
|-
| Elerium-115 || align="right"| $5,000 || align="right"| 200 || align="right"| $1,000,000
|-
| height=60| '''Total''' || || || align="right"| '''$4,301,500'''
|}

Also see [[UFO Recovery Values#Battleship]].

==Alien Deployment==
'''Rank Beg./Exp. Vet./Gen. Super.'''
'''---- --------- --------- ------'''
Soldiers 4-8 6-10 8-12
Navigators 1 1 2
Engineers 1 1 2
Medics 1 1 2
Leaders 1 2 3
Commanders 1 1 1
Terrorists 0-2 2-4 4-6

Totals 9-15 14-20 22-28

==Floor Plans==
'''2nd Floor:''' 
[[Image:Battleship_2.gif]]

'''1st Floor:''' 
[[Image:Battleship_1.gif]]

'''Ground Floor:''' 
[[Image:Battleship_0.gif]]

==Terrain Maps==
[[Image:UFO_160MAP-L1.JPG|Level 1|thumb|left]][[Image:UFO_160MAP-L2.JPG|Level 2|thumb|left]][[Image:UFO_160MAP-L3.JPG|Level 3|thumb|left]][[Image:UFO_160MAP.JPG|Level 4|thumb|left]]

 

==See Also==
[[Small Scout]] 
[[Medium Scout]] 
[[Large Scout]] 
[[Abductor]] 
[[Harvester]] 
[[Supply Ship]] 
[[Terror Ship]]

[[Category: UFO (UFO Defense)]]
[[Category: Tactics]]

Base Defence

2006-06-27T23:32:40Z

HaJo: /* Bugs */ Typos

==Briefing==
An Alien vessel has landed nearby. Our base is in severe danger. As per standard procedure all non-combat personnel and XCom craft have been evacuated. Alien units will enter the base via hangar doors or the access lift. Defend the base and its vital installations at all costs - this is a fight to the death.

== Battleships ==

An inbound [[Battleship]] on a "[[Alien Missions#Alien Retaliation|Retaliation]]" mission means there is a high chance that a Base Defense mission is in the offing for you.

You can bring down these battleships with sufficient [[Base Defense Measures (UFO Defense)|Base Defense Measures]], but the game is programmed to just send another on the exact same mission. It's been proven that about 6 or 7 Fusion Ball Defenses with Grav Shield (total defensive strength 6000) can hold off incoming battleships (hull strength 3000) indefinitely, but since you get no bonus for blowing a battleship out of the sky, not even to monthly score, it's better to let them land eventually and just run the mission. Once you've run the mission, win or lose, the attacks stop coming. The aliens seem to forget where the base is...

Only battleships actually assault your base. Don't worry too much about other alien craft on "Retaliation" missions, they're just scouts. Shooting these down far away from your base may confuse the aliens as to where your base actually is.

== Battle Tips ==

A good [[Base Layout Strategy]] is of paramount importance here. Make sure your base is designed to make it easy to defend.

You really want everybody at home for a base defense mission. If you're caught with your Skyranger off at some UFO crash site, you'll have to defend the base with a rookie, two guys on crutches that were in med-bay, and the antique [[Tank/Cannon]] you hadn't got around to selling yet. Mind you, the odds are still in your favor. You know the layout, it's fully lit, and you (should have) designed in choke points.

Battleships will unload both regular aliens and their associated [[Terror Units (UFO Defense)|Terror Unit]]s. You won't ever see the battleship, but you will get to see all those nifty modules you've been constructing in the Base Planner view, close-up! Base modules have two levels. Soldiers will normally spawn/start in Living Quarters and Storage modules. Aliens spawn/start in Hangars and the Access Lift.

A soldier with a [[Motion Scanner]] in an upstairs closet near the access lift combined with a [[Tank/Rocket_Launcher|rocket tank]] at standoff range will keep the aliens at bay until the rockets run out. ''-see also [Stewart's] strategy on xcomufo.com forums.''

[[Blaster Bomb]]s can clear your base in just a few turns, if you launch a few into the hangars and access lift. ''The problem is getting the program to supply your soldiers with blaster bombs before hitting the 80-item limit.''

Hovertank/Launchers are almost as good at clearing out your base, except for the fact that their missiles are more prone to inaccuracy and often veer off and blow up against the wrong walls. ''Since the game has a "free ammo for HWP in base defence" bug, I don't see HOW you can lose as long as you keep 3-4 of these things in every base.''

Doing too much damage to a room can also collapse it, and you will lose that room permanently. Any rooms that can only be accessed by going through the collapsed room will also be lost. Spawn-point rooms such as Living Quarters, Stores, Access Lift, and Hangars can't be collapsed.

You can recover lots of valuable [[Elerium-115]] and alien weapons from a successful base defense. Losing or abandoning the battle means losing the base. Although sometimes you can still come out with a positive score for your trouble.

It might be best to disarm all your psi-weak soldiers at this base if there are ethereals or sectoids attacking.

''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: Elerium collection from a base defence mission can only happen if elerium pods are generated in the battlescape. See, if you have 10 units in storage, the game will generate 10 pods in the base, given sufficient space in the object table. But because the way the game automatically converts 1 pod into 50 units at the end of the mission, you're basically getting 5000% more elerium from your own pods (those that don't get destroyed, anyway). None of them come from the aliens! Until this is verified for 1.4 and 1.4ce, it is safe to say that this will only happen in earlier versions of the game.] ''

''[ [[User:Zombie|Zombie]]: I tried this out today on my 1.4ce, and just like I thought, no Elerium spawned.] ''

''[A somewhat unorthodox strategy, forced by necessity, paid off for Zombie: "I armed my best soldiers with the stun rods, hid them in the General Stores next to the Access Lift, and went to work. Every round a Snakeman would appear from the Access Lift, and every round one of my soldiers would stun the alien while another veteran grabbed the body and hauled the poor alien upstairs for observation. I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants!" - as copied from strategycore. Mental picture of a Snakeman with a pillowcase over his head, zipcuffed arms behind his back, old army sock stuffed in the mouth, being heaved into a darkened storeroom on top of his buddies. "We get $20K for each, alive or dead, right?" --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 08:34, 14 Oct 2005 (PDT) ]''

== To Surrender or Not To Surrender ==

There are only two costs incurred when you lose a base:
# You lose the base and everything in it;
# You lose points for the soldiers and tanks that died defending the base.

The loss of the base is presumably erased from the annals of history. It's all kept very hush-hush from the public. The non-combat staff and all ships that were at the base are disbanded and are not lost in the battle. X-Com ships vanish without a trace, probably stolen by wretched engineers. The deaths of the soldiers on the other hand are a lot harder to explain, and friends and families are bound to make inquiries.

Therefore, if you find yourself in a situation where you are defending a base against an enemy that you have no hope of winning against, should you surrender without a fight, or fight it out? You will need to base this on who you are fighting with and what you have to fight them with.

For example, a fresh batch of recruits in jumpsuits armed with regulation standard pistols and rifles against an elite squad of [[Ethereal]]s and [[Sectopod]]s. This can be classed as a hopeless battle should you not be able to utilise the weapons used by the attackers. In a situation like this, you should cut your losses and surrender without a fight.
This will incur a 0 point penalty along with the loss of the base.

On the other hand, should it be against [[Floater]]s, you could push on and try your luck.

Alternately, you could also try to kill as many raiders as you can before surrendering.
As long as you did not lose any soldiers in the process, you will get a positive score for losing the base. If this is an option, go for it. If not, don't.

It is understandable that some commanders may be too proud to go down without a fight. There is nothing wrong with that, but do try to consider the consequences of any actions before taking them.

'''Note:''' All of the above relates to raids on bases when you have more than one base. If you are put into a situation where you cannot save your very last base, then you should consider restarting the game.

''If you have have advance warning about a base raid that you're going to surrender-- i.e., a hyperwave decoder, or you can see that battleship making a beeline for your base on a normal radar-- take the time to transfer as much as you can out of that base to other bases before the raid hits.
If you've got free hangars in other bases, transfer the craft, save any elerium there, and transfer out all the personnel you can.
An obvious thing, but can be quickly forgotten in the shadow of a battleship. --[[User:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]] 17:36, 22 Nov 2005 (PST)''

==Alien Deployment==
'''Rank Beg./Exp. Vet./Gen. Super.'''
'''---- --------- --------- ------'''
Soldiers 4-8 6-10 8-12
Navigators 1 1 2
Engineers 1 1 2
Medics 1 1 2
Leaders 1 2 3
Commanders 1 1 1
Terrorists 0-2 2-4 4-6

Totals 9-15 14-20 22-28

== Bugs ==
Base defenses can be DEADLY.

But not for the reason you think.

*When you have more than 80 items present at a base, the game will only make available the first 80 items on the stores list (See '80-item Limit' in [[Known Bugs]].) . This will result in conventional weapons/stun rods/electroflares/etc. being available instead of lasers/plasmas. To prevent this there are 3 possible solutions before that Battleship strikes the base:
1) Transfer the unwanted items to another base. 
2) Load your transports (if there's any) with the unwanted items and launch them before the UFO lands. This saves the work of having to transfer those items back but if the base gets destroyed the transport will disappear and the waypoint to which it was headed will remain visible for the rest of the game. 
3) Sell unnecessary stuff. ''"Imminent Alien Invasion Yard Sale! Everything Must Go!"''

Equipment assigned to your craft is not available for base defense missions,
even if that craft is currently in it's hangar.

* If you had 40 heavy plasma's in your base and forgot to get rid of those 40 smoke grades, all your troopers would be lacking the clips for the heavy plasma. Good luck defending a base with nothing but 40 smoke grenades. ''[Darksun: Lucky for my stupid self, I had a couple of laser tanks to convince the aliens to lend me some ammo.]''

* A relatively easy way to counter this problem is to keep your stores of "conventional" weapons low and keep 20 or more [[Laser Rifle]]s in base inventories. Laser Rifles are high on the inventory list and are distributed before most other items. As they do not require ammo, any laser is immediately combat-ready.

*Another ANNOYING bug I find is the disappearing bodies and booty from aliens. This is related to the 80 item bug problem.

*Also much feared is the dreaded "walled off section" or [[Known_Bugs#Base_Disjoint_Bug|Base Disjoint Bug]]. Sections of your base along the extreme south and east edges will often be separated from each other by dirt walls. Heavy plasma and blaster launchers are needed in this scenario to excavate the dirt. Possible that heavy explosives might work too, I'm not sure. Soldiers spawning in Stores or Living Quarters here may be trapped for the duration.

*A much nicer bug is that [[HWP]]'s automatically get a free load of ammo (which is added to your stores if unused). Note you still need at least one soldier as aliens landing at an unguarded base - or a base defended only by HWP's - take it without a fight.

*If you have a LOT of soldiers, enough to fill all your spawn points, soldiers will start taking alien spawn points. Which means less aliens. ''- much kudos to [Zombie]''

Masochists: at superhuman, you get the same qty of aliens as in the battleship, eg +25 aliens, +8 terror units. To get the full compliment to attack your base, you need AT MINIMUM 2 hangers. (Unless you want aliens to spawn in general stores downstairs corridor). Four hangers guarantee maximum alien load if you use 15 soldiers and conservative loadouts. ''I usually defend with 10 guys, 2 tanks VS four hangers. LasR ''

==See Also==

*[[X-Com Base Terrain]]
*[[Base Layout Strategy]]

[[Category:Missions]]
[[Category: Tactics]]

Base Defence

2006-06-27T23:26:54Z

HaJo: /* To Surrender or Not To Surrender */ Typo

==Briefing==
An Alien vessel has landed nearby. Our base is in severe danger. As per standard procedure all non-combat personnel and XCom craft have been evacuated. Alien units will enter the base via hangar doors or the access lift. Defend the base and its vital installations at all costs - this is a fight to the death.

== Battleships ==

An inbound [[Battleship]] on a "[[Alien Missions#Alien Retaliation|Retaliation]]" mission means there is a high chance that a Base Defense mission is in the offing for you.

You can bring down these battleships with sufficient [[Base Defense Measures (UFO Defense)|Base Defense Measures]], but the game is programmed to just send another on the exact same mission. It's been proven that about 6 or 7 Fusion Ball Defenses with Grav Shield (total defensive strength 6000) can hold off incoming battleships (hull strength 3000) indefinitely, but since you get no bonus for blowing a battleship out of the sky, not even to monthly score, it's better to let them land eventually and just run the mission. Once you've run the mission, win or lose, the attacks stop coming. The aliens seem to forget where the base is...

Only battleships actually assault your base. Don't worry too much about other alien craft on "Retaliation" missions, they're just scouts. Shooting these down far away from your base may confuse the aliens as to where your base actually is.

== Battle Tips ==

A good [[Base Layout Strategy]] is of paramount importance here. Make sure your base is designed to make it easy to defend.

You really want everybody at home for a base defense mission. If you're caught with your Skyranger off at some UFO crash site, you'll have to defend the base with a rookie, two guys on crutches that were in med-bay, and the antique [[Tank/Cannon]] you hadn't got around to selling yet. Mind you, the odds are still in your favor. You know the layout, it's fully lit, and you (should have) designed in choke points.

Battleships will unload both regular aliens and their associated [[Terror Units (UFO Defense)|Terror Unit]]s. You won't ever see the battleship, but you will get to see all those nifty modules you've been constructing in the Base Planner view, close-up! Base modules have two levels. Soldiers will normally spawn/start in Living Quarters and Storage modules. Aliens spawn/start in Hangars and the Access Lift.

A soldier with a [[Motion Scanner]] in an upstairs closet near the access lift combined with a [[Tank/Rocket_Launcher|rocket tank]] at standoff range will keep the aliens at bay until the rockets run out. ''-see also [Stewart's] strategy on xcomufo.com forums.''

[[Blaster Bomb]]s can clear your base in just a few turns, if you launch a few into the hangars and access lift. ''The problem is getting the program to supply your soldiers with blaster bombs before hitting the 80-item limit.''

Hovertank/Launchers are almost as good at clearing out your base, except for the fact that their missiles are more prone to inaccuracy and often veer off and blow up against the wrong walls. ''Since the game has a "free ammo for HWP in base defence" bug, I don't see HOW you can lose as long as you keep 3-4 of these things in every base.''

Doing too much damage to a room can also collapse it, and you will lose that room permanently. Any rooms that can only be accessed by going through the collapsed room will also be lost. Spawn-point rooms such as Living Quarters, Stores, Access Lift, and Hangars can't be collapsed.

You can recover lots of valuable [[Elerium-115]] and alien weapons from a successful base defense. Losing or abandoning the battle means losing the base. Although sometimes you can still come out with a positive score for your trouble.

It might be best to disarm all your psi-weak soldiers at this base if there are ethereals or sectoids attacking.

''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: Elerium collection from a base defence mission can only happen if elerium pods are generated in the battlescape. See, if you have 10 units in storage, the game will generate 10 pods in the base, given sufficient space in the object table. But because the way the game automatically converts 1 pod into 50 units at the end of the mission, you're basically getting 5000% more elerium from your own pods (those that don't get destroyed, anyway). None of them come from the aliens! Until this is verified for 1.4 and 1.4ce, it is safe to say that this will only happen in earlier versions of the game.] ''

''[ [[User:Zombie|Zombie]]: I tried this out today on my 1.4ce, and just like I thought, no Elerium spawned.] ''

''[A somewhat unorthodox strategy, forced by necessity, paid off for Zombie: "I armed my best soldiers with the stun rods, hid them in the General Stores next to the Access Lift, and went to work. Every round a Snakeman would appear from the Access Lift, and every round one of my soldiers would stun the alien while another veteran grabbed the body and hauled the poor alien upstairs for observation. I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants!" - as copied from strategycore. Mental picture of a Snakeman with a pillowcase over his head, zipcuffed arms behind his back, old army sock stuffed in the mouth, being heaved into a darkened storeroom on top of his buddies. "We get $20K for each, alive or dead, right?" --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 08:34, 14 Oct 2005 (PDT) ]''

== To Surrender or Not To Surrender ==

There are only two costs incurred when you lose a base:
# You lose the base and everything in it;
# You lose points for the soldiers and tanks that died defending the base.

The loss of the base is presumably erased from the annals of history. It's all kept very hush-hush from the public. The non-combat staff and all ships that were at the base are disbanded and are not lost in the battle. X-Com ships vanish without a trace, probably stolen by wretched engineers. The deaths of the soldiers on the other hand are a lot harder to explain, and friends and families are bound to make inquiries.

Therefore, if you find yourself in a situation where you are defending a base against an enemy that you have no hope of winning against, should you surrender without a fight, or fight it out? You will need to base this on who you are fighting with and what you have to fight them with.

For example, a fresh batch of recruits in jumpsuits armed with regulation standard pistols and rifles against an elite squad of [[Ethereal]]s and [[Sectopod]]s. This can be classed as a hopeless battle should you not be able to utilise the weapons used by the attackers. In a situation like this, you should cut your losses and surrender without a fight.
This will incur a 0 point penalty along with the loss of the base.

On the other hand, should it be against [[Floater]]s, you could push on and try your luck.

Alternately, you could also try to kill as many raiders as you can before surrendering.
As long as you did not lose any soldiers in the process, you will get a positive score for losing the base. If this is an option, go for it. If not, don't.

It is understandable that some commanders may be too proud to go down without a fight. There is nothing wrong with that, but do try to consider the consequences of any actions before taking them.

'''Note:''' All of the above relates to raids on bases when you have more than one base. If you are put into a situation where you cannot save your very last base, then you should consider restarting the game.

''If you have have advance warning about a base raid that you're going to surrender-- i.e., a hyperwave decoder, or you can see that battleship making a beeline for your base on a normal radar-- take the time to transfer as much as you can out of that base to other bases before the raid hits.
If you've got free hangars in other bases, transfer the craft, save any elerium there, and transfer out all the personnel you can.
An obvious thing, but can be quickly forgotten in the shadow of a battleship. --[[User:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]] 17:36, 22 Nov 2005 (PST)''

==Alien Deployment==
'''Rank Beg./Exp. Vet./Gen. Super.'''
'''---- --------- --------- ------'''
Soldiers 4-8 6-10 8-12
Navigators 1 1 2
Engineers 1 1 2
Medics 1 1 2
Leaders 1 2 3
Commanders 1 1 1
Terrorists 0-2 2-4 4-6

Totals 9-15 14-20 22-28

== Bugs ==
Base defenses can be DEADLY.

But not for the reason you think.

*When you have more than 80 items present at a base, the game will only make available the first 80 items on the stores list (See '80-item Limit' in [[Known Bugs]].) . This will result in conventional weapons/stun rods/electroflares/etc. being available instead of lasers/plasmas. To prevent this there are 3 possible solutions before that Battleship strikes the base:
1) Transfer the unwanted items to another base. 
2) Load your transports (if there's any) with the unwanted items and launch them before the UFO lands. This saves the work of having to transfer those items back but if the base gets destroyed the transport will disappear and the waypoint to which it was headed will remain visible for the rest of the game. 
3) Sell unnecessary stuff. ''"Imminent Alien Invasion Yard Sale! Everything Must Go!"''

Equipment assigned to your craft is not available for base defense missions, even if that craft is currently in it's hangar.

* If you had 40 heavy plasma's in your base and forgot to get rid of those 40 smoke grades, all your troopers would be lacking the clips for the heavy plasma. Good luck defending a base with nothing but 40 smoke grenades. ''[Darksun: Lucky for my stupid self, I had a couple of laser tanks to convince the aliens to lend me some ammo.]''

* A relatively easy way to counter this problem is to keep your stores of "conventional" weapons low and keep 20 or more [[Laser Rifle]]s in base inventories. Laser Rifles are high on the inventory list and are distributed before most other items. As they do not require ammo, any laser is immediately combat-ready.

*Another ANNOYING bug I find is the dissapearing bodies and booty from aliens. This is related to the 80 item bug problem.

*Also much feared is the dreaded "walled off section" or [[Known_Bugs#Base_Disjoint_Bug|Base Disjoint Bug]]. Sections of your base along the extreme south and east edges will often be separated from each other by dirt walls. Heavy plasma and blaster launchers needed in this scenario to excavate the dirt. Possible that heavy explosives might work too, I'm not sure. Soldiers spawning in Stores or Living Quarters here may be trapped for the duration.

*A much nicer bug is that [[HWP]]'s automatically get a free load of ammo (which is added to your stores if unused). Note you still need at least one soldier as aliens landing at an unguarded base - or a base defended only by HWP's - take it without a fight.

*If you have a LOT of soldiers, enough to fill all your spawn points, soldiers will start taking alien spawn points. Which means less aliens. ''- much kudos to [Zombie]''

Masochists: at superhuman, you get the same qty of aliens as in the battleship, eg +25 aliens, +8 terror units. to get the full compliment to attack you base, you need AT MINIMUM 2 hangers. (unless you want aliens to spawn in general stores downstairs corridor). Four hangers guarantee maximum alien load if you use 15 soldiers and conservative loadouts. ''I usually defend with 10 guys, 2 tanks VS four hangers. LasR ''

==See Also==

*[[X-Com Base Terrain]]
*[[Base Layout Strategy]]

[[Category:Missions]]
[[Category: Tactics]]

Base Management

2006-06-27T23:10:07Z

HaJo: /* Base Placement */ Typo

=Managing coverages around the globe=
There are three types of coverage you need to provide to areas of the globe. [[#Detection|Detection]] (radar/hyperwave) coverage is the first and one you will need to consider most carefully when placing bases. [[#Interception|Interception]] coverage is the second. [[#Recovery/Assault|Recovery and Assault]] team coverage is the last. There are also several types of bases that don't provide coverage you may want to build.

You probably want your first two to three bases to mix all three kinds of coverage with some [[#Utility Bases|utility]] thrown in.

==Detection==
Detection bases have at least one radar installation Probably more. Some people also call them listening posts. Generally a listening post is just radar and nothing else. You might start with a small radar since it builds in 12 days and a large takes 25 days. However, you will should prefer the large radar and it's 450 NM range over the small radars 300.

''Some screenshots with radar coverage marked out would be nice here.''

One large radar in a base gives you a decent chance to detect a ufo that is operating in the area for a while. However, if one just passes by on the way someplace else, you may miss it. More radars mean a better chance to detect the fly-by UFOs. Once you lock on to a ufo, you won't lose tracking till it reaches the outskirts of your radar range. This range is quite large. A base in the Northern USA can keep a lock on a UFO to the northern coast of South America for example. You can detect most of the UFOs you need to with three well positioned detection bases. Once you get hyperwave decoders you will detect all the UFO's in range, of course. Don't forget to sell off your radars once you build one.

{| {{stdTable}}
|
;Radar Construction Tip! : Two radars are better than one! However, this only applies for two radars of ''different'' types. Multiples of the same radar type do not provide additional benefits to the base despite what is reported in the base information screen.

: If you can afford them, a small and large radar combo provides for the best interim detection abilities until you get a hyperwave decoder.
|}

==Interception==
Interception bases have at least one hanger dedicated to aircraft that shoot down UFOs.
Interceptors have great range but poor speed. You should be able to intercept a good number of the UFOs you detect from the same base. If you have one or two interceptors in each base with radar, you should get a shot at most of the UFO's you want to shoot down. The Firestorm limited range may mean that you will be disapointed with the placement of your interception bases once you switch over. You need to try harder to launch interceptions from the destination of the UFO rather than where it's been detected.

==Recovery/Assault==
An assault base has at least one hangar with aircraft that carries soldiers.
Skyrangers and Avengers have terrific range. You can launch and assualt or recovery from anywhere on earth.
However, the downed UFO may have taken off by then. Worse, you may be forced to land at night where an assault craft that had been based closer could have picked the time of the battle. If you find a base with weak aliens (floater bases and to a lesser extent sectoids), you may want to set up, or beef up an assault base nearby to raid the supply ships.

==Utility Bases==
Utility bases are ones that fill a specialized need. Supply depots, listening posts, R&D centers, factories and psi training centers are all common base types. Once you get the first three bases set up, your fourth base will probably be to fulfill one of these special missions.

==Base Placement==
Keep in mind that as you shoot down UFOs you will piss off the aliens.
When they go searching for your strike base, they may stumble upon your factory.
There is very little penalty to spreading out your bases.
Building bases at the poles is probably not fun for the personel there, but makes a good isolated spot for non-strike bases.

==Facility Placement==
[[Base Defense]] is a primary consideration when choosing what to place where and when to build what. The higher the difficulty the more important a defendable base is. The secondary consideration is the amount of time modules take to build. All bases need general stores and they are a fast module to build. Consider placing them first when you have to choose between them and something like a large radar that takes more than twice as long to complete. Money
is the final arbiter of what you should build. Be sure you are aware of your income situation before you go on a building binge. You may be sitting on a pile of money now, but what happens when there are no UFO's to shoot down for a week or two? Make sure you have a more or less balanced budget. Build workshops first if you are tight on cash.

==See Also==
* [[Base Defense]]
* [[X-Com Base Terrain]]
* [[Base Facilities (UFO Defense) | Base Facilities]]
* [[Base Layout Strategy]]
* [[Base Defense Measures (UFO Defense)|Base Defense Measures]]
* [[UFO Detection (UFO Defense)|UFO Detection]]

Base Management

2006-06-27T23:08:45Z

HaJo: /* Recovery/Assault */ Typo

=Managing coverages around the globe=
There are three types of coverage you need to provide to areas of the globe. [[#Detection|Detection]] (radar/hyperwave) coverage is the first and one you will need to consider most carefully when placing bases. [[#Interception|Interception]] coverage is the second. [[#Recovery/Assault|Recovery and Assault]] team coverage is the last. There are also several types of bases that don't provide coverage you may want to build.

You probably want your first two to three bases to mix all three kinds of coverage with some [[#Utility Bases|utility]] thrown in.

==Detection==
Detection bases have at least one radar installation Probably more. Some people also call them listening posts. Generally a listening post is just radar and nothing else. You might start with a small radar since it builds in 12 days and a large takes 25 days. However, you will should prefer the large radar and it's 450 NM range over the small radars 300.

''Some screenshots with radar coverage marked out would be nice here.''

One large radar in a base gives you a decent chance to detect a ufo that is operating in the area for a while. However, if one just passes by on the way someplace else, you may miss it. More radars mean a better chance to detect the fly-by UFOs. Once you lock on to a ufo, you won't lose tracking till it reaches the outskirts of your radar range. This range is quite large. A base in the Northern USA can keep a lock on a UFO to the northern coast of South America for example. You can detect most of the UFOs you need to with three well positioned detection bases. Once you get hyperwave decoders you will detect all the UFO's in range, of course. Don't forget to sell off your radars once you build one.

{| {{stdTable}}
|
;Radar Construction Tip! : Two radars are better than one! However, this only applies for two radars of ''different'' types. Multiples of the same radar type do not provide additional benefits to the base despite what is reported in the base information screen.

: If you can afford them, a small and large radar combo provides for the best interim detection abilities until you get a hyperwave decoder.
|}

==Interception==
Interception bases have at least one hanger dedicated to aircraft that shoot down UFOs.
Interceptors have great range but poor speed. You should be able to intercept a good number of the UFOs you detect from the same base. If you have one or two interceptors in each base with radar, you should get a shot at most of the UFO's you want to shoot down. The Firestorm limited range may mean that you will be disapointed with the placement of your interception bases once you switch over. You need to try harder to launch interceptions from the destination of the UFO rather than where it's been detected.

==Recovery/Assault==
An assault base has at least one hangar with aircraft that carries soldiers.
Skyrangers and Avengers have terrific range. You can launch and assualt or recovery from anywhere on earth.
However, the downed UFO may have taken off by then. Worse, you may be forced to land at night where an assault craft that had been based closer could have picked the time of the battle. If you find a base with weak aliens (floater bases and to a lesser extent sectoids), you may want to set up, or beef up an assault base nearby to raid the supply ships.

==Utility Bases==
Utility bases are ones that fill a specialized need. Supply depots, listening posts, R&D centers, factories and psi training centers are all common base types. Once you get the first three bases set up, your fourth base will probably be to fulfill one of these special missions.

==Base Placement==
Keep in mind that as you shoot down UFOs you will piss off the aliens. When they go searching for your strike base, they may stumble apon your factory. There is very little penalty to spreading out your bases. Building bases at the poles is probably not fun for the personel there, but makes a good isolated spot for non-strike bases.

==Facility Placement==
[[Base Defense]] is a primary consideration when choosing what to place where and when to build what. The higher the difficulty the more important a defendable base is. The secondary consideration is the amount of time modules take to build. All bases need general stores and they are a fast module to build. Consider placing them first when you have to choose between them and something like a large radar that takes more than twice as long to complete. Money
is the final arbiter of what you should build. Be sure you are aware of your income situation before you go on a building binge. You may be sitting on a pile of money now, but what happens when there are no UFO's to shoot down for a week or two? Make sure you have a more or less balanced budget. Build workshops first if you are tight on cash.

==See Also==
* [[Base Defense]]
* [[X-Com Base Terrain]]
* [[Base Facilities (UFO Defense) | Base Facilities]]
* [[Base Layout Strategy]]
* [[Base Defense Measures (UFO Defense)|Base Defense Measures]]
* [[UFO Detection (UFO Defense)|UFO Detection]]