UFOpaedia - User contributions [en]

Talk:Gauss Cannon

2018-02-10T21:07:32Z

Harry Robinson:

== Profitability ==

This weapon is outrageously profitable to manufacture, paying back your entire investment in about 33 days and then proceeding to return 1100% return on investment - basically doubling your money every month if you re-invest in Gauss Cannon manufacture. So describing it in the main article as "quite profitable if you have some idle time" is a bit of an understatement!

== Ammo Manufacturing ==

Interesting point about submarine Gauss Cannon ammo: Clearly there is huge demand for this weapon, with the world's navies queuing round the block to pay through the nose for them. And yet the absolute maximum world production of ammo for this weapon - that everyone is buying - is less that 200 rounds per day (due to the manufacturing limit of only one item of each type per hour per base). Given all the Gauss Cannons the world's governments are buying, the laws of supply and demand would dictate that Gauss Cannon ammo is the most profitable item in the game! Sadly not, of course, the ammo changes hands for no more that the price of its raw parts, without any return for labour or investment. Not only are the governments not interested in actually firing these weapons, they don't even seem to want to load their magazines!

By the way, because of this manufacturing limit, if you ever contemplate using Gauss Cannon yourself on aircraft or in tanks it's wise to assign up to 5 technicians - no more - in each base to be permanently making Gauss Cannon ammo. Each base will manufacture 24 rounds a day (from 5 Techs), which hopefully will be enough for your needs.

== Cost of Operation ==

As the main article states, the main drawback is the ammunition production. Given the performance characteristics above, you would think it might be worthwhile to allocate 5 technicians per base to manufacturing Gauss Cannon ammo full time, to have a reasonable amount of ammo in stores. To get the true costs you must consider the '''opportunity cost''' of manufacturing Gauss Cannon ammo. If you can make Gauss Cannon ammo, you can make Gauss Cannon. Technicians who are making Gauss Cannon will gross you nearly $100/hr. Therefore Technicians who are diverted to making Gauss Cannon ammo '''cost you''' $100/hr in foregone cash. This pushes the cost per round from $200, to about $380 including labour, to around $877/rd including opportunity cost (including Gauss Cannon lost from the extra 2 Workshop spaces used for ammo).

However, even taking into account the opportunity costs of manufacturing the ammo, the Gauss Cannon is about 4 times cheaper in ammo consumption per point of damage delivered (compared to the DUP).

== Combat Effectiveness ==

I think this weapon is perhaps under-rated. It actually has twice the firepower (average damage per second) as the DUP Torpedo, with about 6 times the total payload (total damage dealt). Let me say that again: twice the firepower, six times the payload. That's worth thinking about.

Obviously the lower range is a serious disadvantage, but if you absolutely wanted to down a Large USO, on a potentially one-way mission (with multiple craft hopefully), dual Gauss Cannon could actually be much better than dual DUPs. And it does have stand-off advantage on 2 USOs, the Escort (Small) and Hunter (Medium). So it might be worth keeping one around.

The XcomUtil "improved weapons" version is probably more useful. With the increased range of 36km, it can stand-off against all Small and Medium USOs. To compensate, the damage (and payload) is halved, but this still makes the firepower (damage per second) roughly the same (94%) as the DUP Torpedo, and 3 times the payload.

The higher payload means the craft armed with Gauss Cannon can perform multiple successful engagements before re-arming - as much as six times as many successful intercepts, if there are targets available. Also, the arming rate is at least 3 times higher than missile-armed craft, thus it returns to alert status up to 2 hours earlier than a missile-armed craft. (By the way, can anyone confirm the actual reload rate, I'm assuming it's either 50 or 100?).

The payload also comes into play vs bigger targets, where the total payload of a pair of DUPs is similar to the damage capacity of the USO. This means there is a signficant random chance of failing to shoot down the USO and breaking off empty-handed. With a pair of fully loaded Gauss Cannon, you have enough damage capacity aboard to down 4 Medium USOs or 6 Small USOs on average. And whereas you need 2-4 DUP-armed craft to have any realistic chance of taking down the Large USO, a single Gauss-armed craft has a good chance of taking down any Large USO - provided it survives long enough. Attack with multiple craft of course, to increase your odds and reduce the damage taken.

The Gauss Cannon also delivers its damage more continuously and more predictably (with less random variation) than the DUP Torpedo or other missile weapons. It also suffers much, much less than missile weapons from the "Last Shot Misses" bug, which can effectively be ignored for all cannon-type weapons. This means you don't have to remember to switch to Aggressive to avoid wasting your last shot, as you do with missile weapons.

== Drawbacks ==

The lower range is the obvious drawback, meaning fewer USOs can be engaged Cautiously at a safe stand-off range.

DUP Torpedos do have the benefit of a bigger initial "shock" from the first hit. It still takes several hits to kill, so I'm not sure that is any advantage. However it may be that USOs find it easier to break off if the damage is coming in small continuous amounts rather than large random amounts - that needs some testing.

Of course a single standard craft weapon load across the fleet is more cost effective than maintaining a mixed fleet. So if you don't want to tackle the larger USOs using Gauss Cannon, it might not be a practical strategy. Due to the long delays in arming craft, it's not usually feasible to rearm a craft after the threat is detected. Non-stand off attacks are '''very''' costly to make in terms of repair time, during which time your interceptor craft are not available, not to mention total loss of the craft and weapons. Large craft do tend to linger, so you might have time to arm up with DUPs (4 hrs plus?). If they are Battleships or Dreadnoughts and you really have to attack them, Gauss Cannon and Aggressive attack might be the better option anyway. But in order to avoid having to match interceptor craft to targets, and to avoid maintaing a mixed fleet or rearming on the fly, you might want to stick with DUP Torpedos after all, until Sonic Oscillators are available. These are the clear winner overall in craft armament, no question about that.

== Conclusion ==

In conclusion it is worth considering arming at least some of your craft with Gauss Cannon when it becomes available, whether you use XComUtil or the standard game. If you use XComUtil "improved weapons", use Gauss-armed craft against all Small or Medium USOs. Use them against Large USOs if you wish to engage them. If you do not use XcomUtil "improved weapons", you may want to identify the craft before attacking. If it is not an Escort or Hunter, break off, or do an Aggressive attack and be prepared to take damage. If you decide to engage large USOs, also go Aggressive and be prepared to take damage, but your attack will probably be more effective than an attack with DUPs would have been.

Last thought - if you do use Gauss Cannon on your subs, be careful having any Coelacanth/Gauss tanks in the same base, or they will steal your precious ammo!

[[User:Spike|Spike]] 09:00, 11 October 2008 (CDT)

:The main things I see as the advantages for the DUP head is a longer range, a much higher accuracy, and the ability to purchase the weapons on the open market without having to tie up Workshop space. However, I will need to see about giving the XCU Gauss Cannon a second try. Also, for future reference, the damage inflicted by a craft weapon is 50%-100% of it's listed damage; an average damage would actually be 75% of listed. UFOs/USOs use the same calculation to determine if they're destroyed or shot down/grounded; if they take more than 50% of their listed damage capacity in damage, they're shot down, but if you break 100%, they're destroyed. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 09:14, 11 October 2008 (CDT)

== Comparison vs Ajax ==

I don't agree with the main article's unfavourable comparison with Ajax. Even at the high opportunity cost I gave above, of $877/round, this is 4 times cheaper than Ajax rounds, for only 75% of the average damage per round, with 8.33 times the number of rounds carried, for 6.25 times total payload (average damage delivered from fully expended magazine). The firepower (damage per second) is also much higher. The exact value depends on what RoF numbers you believe. Based on USOPaedia values of 4 vs 17, the Gauss Cannon firepower is 3.1875 greater. My empirical research on RoF suggests an RoF ratio of 6x in Aggressive, 9x in Standard, 12x in Cautious, giving firepower ratios of 4.5x / 6.75x / 9x in favour of the Gauss Cannon. This means the Gauss Cannon will empty faster, doing more total damage, than Ajax. The Gauss Cannon will also reload slightly faster at base than Ajax, giving a better sortie rate / higher readiness percentage.

Against this, all Ajax has that Gauss Cannon doesn't have is stand off advantage against one USO type, the Heavy Cruiser, and stand off advantage can't be used in Aggressive mode of course. Plus an extra 12km that a craft armed with Gauss Cannon is exposed to enemy fire before it can return fire. An Ajax armed craft could fire maybe 1 extra Ajax in the time it takes the Gauss Cannon-armed craft to close into firing range. That goes by very quickly, and is more than made up for by the vastly increased firepower and payload of the Gauss Cannon.

Unless you are encountering nothing but Heavy Cruisers, I don't see any case for mounting Ajax over Gauss Cannon. Even then, the Ajax plus Gauss Cannon combo would probably be more versatile and definitely more powerful overall, than dual Ajax. More realistically, replace all Ajax with Gauss Cannon. How nice for a research-and-developed human weapon to actually be superior to its predecessors!

The case against DUP is not quite so clear. While firepower is 2x to 2.5x greater, and payload around 6x, the stand off advantage and first-shot shock power of the DUP are pretty compelling. Also the DUP, somewhat oddly, has a faster turnaround cycle than Gauss Cannon (or Ajax) - 3+1 hrs per launcher, vs 5+1 per for Gauss Cannon, 6+1 per for Ajax. Still, I would say it's a least worth switching from dual DUPs to a DUP-and-Gauss-Cannon combo.

NB for the XComUtil-modified Gauss Cannon, firepower is halved, but range is increased to greater than Ajax, so there really is no case at all for using Ajax. Of course, the reduced firepower weakens the case vs the DUP. Personally I don't like the XComUtil mod to Gauss Cannon (or Laser Cannon) any more.

Anyway, unless anyone objects, I'm going to tone down the main article in the light of the GC vs Ajax points here, and the GC vs DUP points above.

[[User:Spike|Spike]] 19:34, 12 October 2010 (EDT)

: Go ahead and change the article Spike. This is one of those throwbacks to before the NPOV era. I'd rather see a more objective view on the Gauss Cannon as well - explain its merits and point outs its weaknesses rather than outright saying it sucks. Perhaps much of the old article should be moved to [[Weapon Analysis]]. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 01:10, 13 October 2010 (EDT)

:: Agreed. I was thinking the same thing, move it to a Compare X vs Y article in Weapon Analysis. And actually I may have spoken to soon on this. I'm taking on faith that the published reload rates are correct. Of course, for EU, the published reload rates are just plain wrong. Using the published rates led me to be over-enthusiastic on the [[Laser Cannon]]. My comments above assume there's a 3::4 rate of fire ratio between Gauss Cannon::Gas Cannon. But if TFTD uses the same code for this as EU, the rate of fire ratio is more likely to be 2::12, which is 4.5 times worse. Which would kind of invalidate all my claims above about superior firepower! Anyway I'll do some "Cannon Timer" tests ("Gas Cannon Timer" in fact) and find out the empirical rate of fire of the Gauss Cannon. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 05:37, 13 October 2010 (EDT)

:: Oh well. Tests show that the Gauss Cannon has 6x slower Rate of Fire than the Gas Cannon, exactly like the Laser Cannon which has 6x slower RoF than the Cannon. So, relative to the Gas Cannon's Reload interval = 3 gs (game seconds), the Gauss Cannon's Reload interval is more like 18 gs rather than the stated 4 gs. Why did the TFTD designers even bother to change the Reload Rate stats, when those stats have absolutely no effect on actual RoF? Is it possible they did not realise that the Reload rates in the executable are not used? I had hoped that this had been fixed in TFTD, but I guess not. The firepower statements above will need to be edited, based on the empirical RoF. GaussC::Ajax RoF ratio is 24:18, not 17:4. GaussC::DUP RoF ratio is 36:18, not 21:4.

== Empirical Firepower Comparisons ==

Based on empirically tested rates of fire, so far TFTD craft weapon firepower looks like:

* Gas Cannon 15 x 25% / 3 = 1.25 dmg/gs
* Ajax 60 x 70% / 24 = 1.75 dmg/gs Aggressive; 1.16 Standard, 0.875 Cautious
* DUP 110 x 80% / 36 = 2.44 dmg/gs Aggressive; 1.63 Standard, 1.22 Cautious
* Gauss Cannon 90 x 35% / 18 = 2.625 dmg/gs

(The data for total payload are unchanged, cannons are clear winners on total payload)

So from this data there is still a strong argument for picking Gauss Cannon over Ajax. Gauss Cannon vs DUP is a much more finessed judgement.

== Ammo Type ==

The game has data for two ammo types both called Gauss Cannon Ammo. Only the first type (at 0xD0 in [[BASE.DAT (TFTD)]]) is used. This is the lighter, cheaper ammo which was perhaps originally intended for the SWS Gauss Cannon. This type is in fact used for both the SWS ammo and for the craft ammo. The second type (at entry 0xD2 in [[BASE.DAT (TFTD)]]) is believed to be unused.

The second type can be unlocked using game editors such as XComHack or XComUtil.

The characteristics of the two ammo types differ significantly.

Entry Intended? Actual $ Sell Space
0xD0 SWS Both $ 200 0.1
0xD2 Craft Neither $53,300 0.6

If unlocked for production, the 0xD2 ammo type enables [[Known_Bugs_(TFTD)#Massively_Profitable_Alternate_Craft_Gauss_Ammo|massive, game-changing profitability]].

=== Experiment re Base item 0xD2 ===

#Added 200 rds to what XComHack calls "Coelacanth GC Ammo" (item 0xD0)
#Added 100 rds to what XComHack calls "Craft GC Ammo" (item 0xD2)
#Both are reported as "Gauss Cannon Ammo" in Base Stores
#200 rds using Space 20, sell at $200, is listed first, sounds indeed like SWS ammo (lighter, cheaper)
#100 rds using Space 60, sell at $53,300, is listed second, sounds indeed like craft ammo (heavier, costlier)
#Equip Sub reports 200 rds available for Craft Gauss Cannon
#Hence it is using the SWS ammunition also for Craft Gauss
#After moving Coel/Gauss to Triton, base stores reports 150 rds
#Also Equip Sub now reports 150 rds. Pretty conclusive.
#After equipping the Sub with Gauss Cannon, at the top of the hour,
#Equip Sub reports 10 rds loaded, Base stores report 140 rds / 14 space left of the presumed "SWS" type ammo.
#And still full 100 rds / 60 space of "craft" type ammo.

CONCLUSION:

*Craft type ammo is not used. Both craft and SWS use the SWS type ammo.
*SWS/Craft ammo sells for $200/ea. Original Craft-only ammo would sell for $53,300 ea.

[[User:Spike|Spike]] 17:12, 24 September 2012 (EDT)

I just wish that this weapon wasn't completely useless. It is the best looking craft weapon, whereas the Sonic Oscillator has much worse art; I wish the artwork was switched around. -[[User:Harry Robnson|Harry Robinson]] 21:07, 10 February 2018 (EDT)

Talk:Craft Gas Cannon

2018-02-10T21:02:48Z

Harry Robinson: Created page with "I wish these things were less completely useless. They look so awesome! I wish I could mod this thing to be better. -Harry_Robinson, 19:02, 10/02/2018"

I wish these things were less completely useless. They look so awesome! I wish I could mod this thing to be better. -Harry_Robinson, 19:02, 10/02/2018

Psionic Strategies

2018-02-06T20:55:48Z

Harry Robinson: /* Countering psionic attacks and tactics: */ Undid previous edits and fixed repeated information.

[[Psionics]] - Main article

== Countering psionic attacks and tactics: ==
=== Re-assign. ===
The former doctrine on psionically attacked soldiers also applies to soldiers who have been psionically screened. Namely, soldiers weak in psi-strength or who have become victims of psionic attack should be sacked or re-assigned at the earliest opportunity for the safety of the rest of the squad. If retained on active duty they should never be knowingly sent on missions against psionic capable aliens.
Veteran soldiers who are psionically weak but otherwise worth keeping can be assigned to a secondary craft or interception base, strictly for use on missions against [[Muton]]s and other non-psionic aliens.

''[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]]: I tried jotting down the names of the puppets as a reminder to fire them later, or use as decoys.''

''[[User:Covenant|Covenant]]: Another good way is to go right from the mission's conclusion to the soldier menu and add a symbol or word to their name so it is instantly recognizable who got mind controlled, and who successfully resisted. Handy for picking subjects for psi-training before you know their strength levels.''

=== Disarm. ===
Some commanders forgo any chance of reaction fire, and have all soldiers drop their weapons at the end of the turn and pick them up on the next turn. Should any soldiers be mind-controlled in the intervening alien turn, at least they'll be unarmed.

=== Decoys. ===
Test results tell us the soldier with the highest chance of a succesful psionic attack is '''always''' chosen as the victim, even if he's out of line-of-sight of either enemy or ally. (The game AI is skipping any LOS requirement) This usually means the aliens concentrate on the weakest psi defence soldiers, though they will switch targets depending on distance. - Psi-puppet soldiers should NOT be used as alien hunters. Disarm them as soon as possible, preferentially '''before the mission'''.

If such soldiers are deployed against psionic capable aliens, they may still have use in limited roles. Do not give them any weapons or grenades. Well, maybe smoke or proximity grenades.

# Unarmed medic, equipment operator, ammo carrier. If controlled, they cannot injure other soldiers. If panicked, they'll drop the equipment, if placed in their hands.
# Non-lethal weaponry. Small Launchers prevent injury of other soldiers but the risk of control and loss of tactical advantage remains.
# Stun Rods are non-functioning weaponry in the hands of the aliens. Any soldiers under alien control WILL NOT ATTACK using them.
# Miner. Arm them with Proximity Grenades. Unlike those pesky aliens, your agents are smart enough not to get blown up by these things, right? (Just pick them up off the ground). Beware that your panicked soldiers seem to be drawn to Proximity Grenades like iron filings to a magnet. Probably due to Murphy's Law.
# '''Decoy'''. The unarmed soldier lets themself get mind-controlled rather than shot. If they are under mind control, the soldier will often be spared by the alien. Every mind-control attack on the "decoy" is one less attack on the rest of the squad and one more psionic alien kept busy. Note your other soldiers may shoot a controlled decoy on sight, and the aliens will shoot a panicked decoy on sight. An extremely risky tactic for the soldier but survival can be extended by blockading the decoy into a closet with other soldiers or tanks and turning your back to them. (which is ridiculous since you are taking 2 soldiers out of combat to prevent losing use of 1 soldier during combat)
# Jack of all trades. Soldier is meant to be a decoy, and carries, Stun Rod in hand, and flares, medkit and smoke grenades. Soldier is also considered "expendable" and thus fulfils role as forward scout during scary situations.
# Launcher Operators. Simply a soldier with a launcher and no ammo. The soldier either stands on a pile of ammunition, or is handed the ammunition on demand in combat. Once the weapon is loaded, the round is immediately spent before the end of the turn. This way, if controlled, the soldier will have an empty weapon and thus be harmless. This allows the weak willed soldier to contribute somewhat to the fight whenever you regain control of them.
# Suicide Bomber. Give this troop no equipment. March him towards a heavily guarded alien ambush. Just before walking him into it, have someone else arm a Heavy Explosive, throw it to him and make him pick it up. Have him walk into the trap and get mowed down by hidden alien reaction fire. End turn. BOOM.

If there are two or more psionic aliens, you may need more decoys to keep them all busy.

''[[User:Stubbs|Stubbs]]: According to the Mind Control section of this wiki, XCOM operatives do not reaction fire at mind-controlled friendlies. Which is correct?''

=== Kill the puppetmaster. ===
Find and kill the alien doing the mind control. This will free those who were under its control. The mind controller is frequently the highest-ranking alien you're facing, which means you'll likely need to penetrate the command center of the structure you're facing.

Remember that killing the aliens' ranking officers imposes a major morale penalty to the invaders, another bonus that shouldn't be underestimated. Many commanders have seen a seemingly invincible, mind-controlling attack force reduced to panic in the instant their commander is shot down. Even against Ethereals, all of which have psionic capability, this tactic is useful, since it will often buy you a round or two before other units start using Psionics and can panic even them.

=== Must... Fight... Harder... DIE! ===
If you can force a very successful round of attacks, the morale penalty this imposes on the aliens may bring on panic, which would bring a temporary stop to their psionic attacks. Such a round also raises the morale of your own troops, which will temporarily help combat panic attacks.

=== Roll with it. ===
Kamikaze tactics have also been used but cannot be recommended here.

HWP's can continue to be used in all roles against psionic capable forces as they are immune.

Heavy Support Weaponry ([[Blaster Launcher]]s, [[Rocket Launcher]]s) should only be assigned to soldiers with high psionic strength to prevent its counteruse.

If all forces are equipped with [[Power Suit]], which is proof against light ballistic weaponry, standard rifles and pistols can be freely issued with little risk of lethality even if counterused. Note [[Ethereal]]s are less affected by these weapons than [[Sectoid]]s. For them, we recommend the [[Auto-Cannon]]/HE.

''- JFG, with credits to the adventurous NKF-sensei whose field reports I freely draw from. --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 14:50, 19 Apr 2005 (BST)''

''-[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]]: In my experience, laser pistols can hurt you in flying suits. Specifically, if you're shot in the back. So they are great for "firing squads" (all your guys facing MC'd aliens), but not when aliens might MC you. (And don't turn your back when doing a firing squad!)''

''-[[User:NKF|NKF]]: " Just to add to this, a laser pistol, with 46 laser, does between 0 - 92 damage (See: [[Damage]]). Therefore, only your front plates will be truly invulnerable to laser pistol damage. On the other hand, you have a chance of being damaged from pretty much ''every other direction'', and you cannot always guarantee that you'll be facing your attacker at all times. The only real consolation is that laser pistols won't kill you outright for each hit, but lots of little hits can indeed build up to a lot of damage. I'd much rather recommend an autocannon/HE or the standard pistols/rifles for this exercise. Direct hits from the ACHE can probably cause a tiny amount of damage, but the ammo will not be unlimited like the laser pistol, and the autocannon is also the slowest burst weapon in the game, despite its name, which gives you time to get away and seek cover. Another bonus is that it works a lot better on superhuman ethereals than the pistol/rifle! " ''

== Psionic Soldiers ==

You won't know exactly what your soldiers' psionic strength are until you run them through some form of screening process, running them through a [[Psionic Laboratory|Psi Lab]] in batches of 10. Soldiers with a high [[Psionic Strength]] (80 or higher) should be trained further and kept in the "rear guard" during combat. Do ''not'' use them as scouts, or front line troops -- they will soon become your most valuable soldiers.

After a month or two of Psi training, your best soldiers will be able to mind-control weaker aliens, such as [[Muton]]s. Your soldiers' Psi Skill can be increased very quickly by equipping them with [[Psi-Amp]]s, leaving them in the [[Skyranger]], and having them attempt to panic units every chance they get. See [[Experience Training#Psionic Skill training]] for more details.

===Pre Psi-Lab Screening===
An efficient, if brutal, method for screening your troops for psionic ability is to use the first psychic alien you encounter. A supply or terror ship with a Sectoid Leader is recommended.

Kill all the lower ranked aliens, and secure the UFO using usual tactics (a psi-decoy is useful in this regard). If the ship is reasonably intact, the Alien leader will not usually leave the bridge, even after turn 20.

Gather your troops into the UFO, get any soldiers who are targeted to throw their weapons, then stun or kill the most susceptible soldiers until the remaining soldiers are immune to Mind Control, and the Alien frequently fails to panic units (you can check this by keeping track of morale).
:A side benefit of this is bravery training. If the weaker soldiers are killed rather than stunned, those who remain will very quickly reach 60 or 70 bravery. Leaving the highest ranked soldiers at home, or using the bravest soldiers to target the rookies, will help in this regard.

A more precise but much more tedious addition to this tactic is to arrange your troops in a line intersecting the UFO. Any soldiers attacked move away until another soldier is attacked instead. You may still have to stun or kill the weakest soldiers as the map may not be large enough.
:At the end of this process you will have your troops neatly sorted by psi-strength with the distance being proportional to the difference.
:If the line ends directly under the bridge and the closest soldier is never attacked, this will give you a lower bound for the psi-strength of your entire (surviving) force.

Given five large, Sectoid UFOs, this method will, on average, give you a Skyranger full of elite (>80 PST) psi warriors all ready for training when you finally build a psi-lab.

===My New Pet Alien===
Some skilled psionic operators have had success with simply attempting control of every alien encountered and disarming them, then using the controlled alien as a scout to find more aliens, then controlling the newly discovered alien as a new scout and leaving the old one for a mop-up squad, repeat process as TU's permit.

Easiest actions with a controlled unit are movement and firing or dropping the held weapon. It is possible but tricky to do more (see [[Known Bugs#Alien Inventory Trick|Alien Inventory Trick]].) Disarmed aliens make for excellent [[Experience Training]] fodder.

Remember aliens will revert to alien control unless re-aquired on the next turn.

Oddities: [[Large units]]; [[Gaining permanent control of a Chryssalid/Tentaculat]]

===Controlling the Board===
Once you start taking control of aliens that are psionic ''themselves'', this has a certain '''avalanche effect''' as you can spend the alien's TU's on mind control as well. As noted in [[ExploitsB#Exponential_Mind_Control|Exploits]] you '''do''' have to throw them a spare Psi-Amp to take advantage of this.

[[Category:Soldiers]]
[[Category:Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense]]

Psionic Strategies

2018-02-06T20:54:14Z

Harry Robinson: Fixed punctuation.

[[Psionics]] - Main article

== Countering psionic attacks and tactics: ==
=== Re-assign. ===
The former doctrine on psionically attacked soldiers also applies to soldiers who have been psionically screened. Namely, soldiers weak in psi-strength or who have become victims of psionic attack should be sacked or re-assigned at the earliest opportunity for the safety of the rest of the squad. If retained on active duty they should never be knowingly sent on missions against psionic capable aliens.
Veteran soldiers who are psionically weak but otherwise worth keeping can be assigned to a secondary craft or interception base, strictly for use on missions against [[Muton]]s and other non-psionic aliens.

''[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]]: I tried jotting down the names of the puppets as a reminder to fire them later, or use as decoys.''

''[[User:Covenant|Covenant]]: Another good way is to go right from the mission's conclusion to the soldier menu and add a symbol or word to their name so it is instantly recognizable who got mind controlled, and who successfully resisted. Handy for picking subjects for psi-training before you know their strength levels.''

=== Disarm. ===
Some commanders forgo any chance of reaction fire, and have all soldiers drop their weapons at the end of the turn and pick them up on the next turn. Should any soldiers be mind-controlled in the intervening alien turn, at least they'll be unarmed.

=== Psi Sponges/Lightning Rods. ===
The Psi Lightning Rod (Also know as the Sponge tactic.) is a method of protecting your troops from Psi attacks. This method relies on the aliens targetiting agents with lower Psi Strength, and involves having 2-4 soldiers with lower Psi Strength than the rest of your squad, meaning that the aliens will target them instead of your main soldiers with better skills and Psi Strength. The way I use this tactic is by having two soldiers with 40-60 Psi Strength (The Psi Sponges/Lightning Rods.) and making sure the rest of the team have at least 65-70 Psi Strength; the aliens will almost always target the Psi Weaklings, rather than the rest of your team. However, an important thing to remember is that as the aliens will be targeting the sponges they will eventually be controlled, or sent berserk, or panicked by the aliens, and will be able to use whatever weapons they have to kill your good soldiers, so don’t give them Heavy Plasmas. I personally like to give my Psi Lightning Rods a Stun Rod in one hand, a Medikit in the other, a spare Plasma Pistol (Or Laser Pistol, really any Pistol will work.) on their belt, some grenades on the belt and some spare ammo for their Pistol, and some spare ammo for whatever the rest of my team is using in any other spare Inventory slots until they are at their max weight or out of Inventory space.

=== Decoys. ===
Test results tell us the soldier with the highest chance of a succesful psionic attack is '''always''' chosen as the victim, even if he's out of line-of-sight of either enemy or ally. (The game AI is skipping any LOS requirement) This usually means the aliens concentrate on the weakest psi defence soldiers, though they will switch targets depending on distance. - Psi-puppet soldiers should NOT be used as alien hunters. Disarm them as soon as possible, preferentially '''before the mission'''.

If such soldiers are deployed against psionic capable aliens, they may still have use in limited roles. Do not give them any weapons or grenades. Well, maybe smoke or proximity grenades.

# Unarmed medic, equipment operator, ammo carrier. If controlled, they cannot injure other soldiers. If panicked, they'll drop the equipment, if placed in their hands.
# Non-lethal weaponry. Small Launchers prevent injury of other soldiers but the risk of control and loss of tactical advantage remains.
# Stun Rods are non-functioning weaponry in the hands of the aliens. Any soldiers under alien control WILL NOT ATTACK using them.
# Miner. Arm them with Proximity Grenades. Unlike those pesky aliens, your agents are smart enough not to get blown up by these things, right? (Just pick them up off the ground). Beware that your panicked soldiers seem to be drawn to Proximity Grenades like iron filings to a magnet. Probably due to Murphy's Law.
# '''Decoy'''. The unarmed soldier lets themself get mind-controlled rather than shot. If they are under mind control, the soldier will often be spared by the alien. Every mind-control attack on the "decoy" is one less attack on the rest of the squad and one more psionic alien kept busy. Note your other soldiers may shoot a controlled decoy on sight, and the aliens will shoot a panicked decoy on sight. An extremely risky tactic for the soldier but survival can be extended by blockading the decoy into a closet with other soldiers or tanks and turning your back to them. (which is ridiculous since you are taking 2 soldiers out of combat to prevent losing use of 1 soldier during combat)
# Jack of all trades. Soldier is meant to be a decoy, and carries, Stun Rod in hand, and flares, medkit and smoke grenades. Soldier is also considered "expendable" and thus fulfils role as forward scout during scary situations.
# Launcher Operators. Simply a soldier with a launcher and no ammo. The soldier either stands on a pile of ammunition, or is handed the ammunition on demand in combat. Once the weapon is loaded, the round is immediately spent before the end of the turn. This way, if controlled, the soldier will have an empty weapon and thus be harmless. This allows the weak willed soldier to contribute somewhat to the fight whenever you regain control of them.
# Suicide Bomber. Give this troop no equipment. March him towards a heavily guarded alien ambush. Just before walking him into it, have someone else arm a Heavy Explosive, throw it to him and make him pick it up. Have him walk into the trap and get mowed down by hidden alien reaction fire. End turn. BOOM.

If there are two or more psionic aliens, you may need more decoys to keep them all busy.

''[[User:Stubbs|Stubbs]]: According to the Mind Control section of this wiki, XCOM operatives do not reaction fire at mind-controlled friendlies. Which is correct?''

=== Kill the puppetmaster. ===
Find and kill the alien doing the mind control. This will free those who were under its control. The mind controller is frequently the highest-ranking alien you're facing, which means you'll likely need to penetrate the command center of the structure you're facing.

Remember that killing the aliens' ranking officers imposes a major morale penalty to the invaders, another bonus that shouldn't be underestimated. Many commanders have seen a seemingly invincible, mind-controlling attack force reduced to panic in the instant their commander is shot down. Even against Ethereals, all of which have psionic capability, this tactic is useful, since it will often buy you a round or two before other units start using Psionics and can panic even them.

=== Must... Fight... Harder... DIE! ===
If you can force a very successful round of attacks, the morale penalty this imposes on the aliens may bring on panic, which would bring a temporary stop to their psionic attacks. Such a round also raises the morale of your own troops, which will temporarily help combat panic attacks.

=== Roll with it. ===
Kamikaze tactics have also been used but cannot be recommended here.

HWP's can continue to be used in all roles against psionic capable forces as they are immune.

Heavy Support Weaponry ([[Blaster Launcher]]s, [[Rocket Launcher]]s) should only be assigned to soldiers with high psionic strength to prevent its counteruse.

If all forces are equipped with [[Power Suit]], which is proof against light ballistic weaponry, standard rifles and pistols can be freely issued with little risk of lethality even if counterused. Note [[Ethereal]]s are less affected by these weapons than [[Sectoid]]s. For them, we recommend the [[Auto-Cannon]]/HE.

''- JFG, with credits to the adventurous NKF-sensei whose field reports I freely draw from. --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 14:50, 19 Apr 2005 (BST)''

''-[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]]: In my experience, laser pistols can hurt you in flying suits. Specifically, if you're shot in the back. So they are great for "firing squads" (all your guys facing MC'd aliens), but not when aliens might MC you. (And don't turn your back when doing a firing squad!)''

''-[[User:NKF|NKF]]: " Just to add to this, a laser pistol, with 46 laser, does between 0 - 92 damage (See: [[Damage]]). Therefore, only your front plates will be truly invulnerable to laser pistol damage. On the other hand, you have a chance of being damaged from pretty much ''every other direction'', and you cannot always guarantee that you'll be facing your attacker at all times. The only real consolation is that laser pistols won't kill you outright for each hit, but lots of little hits can indeed build up to a lot of damage. I'd much rather recommend an autocannon/HE or the standard pistols/rifles for this exercise. Direct hits from the ACHE can probably cause a tiny amount of damage, but the ammo will not be unlimited like the laser pistol, and the autocannon is also the slowest burst weapon in the game, despite its name, which gives you time to get away and seek cover. Another bonus is that it works a lot better on superhuman ethereals than the pistol/rifle! " ''

== Psionic Soldiers ==

You won't know exactly what your soldiers' psionic strength are until you run them through some form of screening process, running them through a [[Psionic Laboratory|Psi Lab]] in batches of 10. Soldiers with a high [[Psionic Strength]] (80 or higher) should be trained further and kept in the "rear guard" during combat. Do ''not'' use them as scouts, or front line troops -- they will soon become your most valuable soldiers.

After a month or two of Psi training, your best soldiers will be able to mind-control weaker aliens, such as [[Muton]]s. Your soldiers' Psi Skill can be increased very quickly by equipping them with [[Psi-Amp]]s, leaving them in the [[Skyranger]], and having them attempt to panic units every chance they get. See [[Experience Training#Psionic Skill training]] for more details.

===Pre Psi-Lab Screening===
An efficient, if brutal, method for screening your troops for psionic ability is to use the first psychic alien you encounter. A supply or terror ship with a Sectoid Leader is recommended.

Kill all the lower ranked aliens, and secure the UFO using usual tactics (a psi-decoy is useful in this regard). If the ship is reasonably intact, the Alien leader will not usually leave the bridge, even after turn 20.

Gather your troops into the UFO, get any soldiers who are targeted to throw their weapons, then stun or kill the most susceptible soldiers until the remaining soldiers are immune to Mind Control, and the Alien frequently fails to panic units (you can check this by keeping track of morale).
:A side benefit of this is bravery training. If the weaker soldiers are killed rather than stunned, those who remain will very quickly reach 60 or 70 bravery. Leaving the highest ranked soldiers at home, or using the bravest soldiers to target the rookies, will help in this regard.

A more precise but much more tedious addition to this tactic is to arrange your troops in a line intersecting the UFO. Any soldiers attacked move away until another soldier is attacked instead. You may still have to stun or kill the weakest soldiers as the map may not be large enough.
:At the end of this process you will have your troops neatly sorted by psi-strength with the distance being proportional to the difference.
:If the line ends directly under the bridge and the closest soldier is never attacked, this will give you a lower bound for the psi-strength of your entire (surviving) force.

Given five large, Sectoid UFOs, this method will, on average, give you a Skyranger full of elite (>80 PST) psi warriors all ready for training when you finally build a psi-lab.

===My New Pet Alien===
Some skilled psionic operators have had success with simply attempting control of every alien encountered and disarming them, then using the controlled alien as a scout to find more aliens, then controlling the newly discovered alien as a new scout and leaving the old one for a mop-up squad, repeat process as TU's permit.

Easiest actions with a controlled unit are movement and firing or dropping the held weapon. It is possible but tricky to do more (see [[Known Bugs#Alien Inventory Trick|Alien Inventory Trick]].) Disarmed aliens make for excellent [[Experience Training]] fodder.

Remember aliens will revert to alien control unless re-aquired on the next turn.

Oddities: [[Large units]]; [[Gaining permanent control of a Chryssalid/Tentaculat]]

===Controlling the Board===
Once you start taking control of aliens that are psionic ''themselves'', this has a certain '''avalanche effect''' as you can spend the alien's TU's on mind control as well. As noted in [[ExploitsB#Exponential_Mind_Control|Exploits]] you '''do''' have to throw them a spare Psi-Amp to take advantage of this.

[[Category:Soldiers]]
[[Category:Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense]]

Psionic Strategies

2018-02-06T20:53:28Z

Harry Robinson: Added some information about the

[[Psionics]] - Main article

== Countering psionic attacks and tactics: ==
=== Re-assign. ===
The former doctrine on psionically attacked soldiers also applies to soldiers who have been psionically screened. Namely, soldiers weak in psi-strength or who have become victims of psionic attack should be sacked or re-assigned at the earliest opportunity for the safety of the rest of the squad. If retained on active duty they should never be knowingly sent on missions against psionic capable aliens.
Veteran soldiers who are psionically weak but otherwise worth keeping can be assigned to a secondary craft or interception base, strictly for use on missions against [[Muton]]s and other non-psionic aliens.

''[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]]: I tried jotting down the names of the puppets as a reminder to fire them later, or use as decoys.''

''[[User:Covenant|Covenant]]: Another good way is to go right from the mission's conclusion to the soldier menu and add a symbol or word to their name so it is instantly recognizable who got mind controlled, and who successfully resisted. Handy for picking subjects for psi-training before you know their strength levels.''

=== Disarm. ===
Some commanders forgo any chance of reaction fire, and have all soldiers drop their weapons at the end of the turn and pick them up on the next turn. Should any soldiers be mind-controlled in the intervening alien turn, at least they'll be unarmed.

=== Psi Sponges/Lightning Rods ===
The Psi Lightning Rod (Also know as the Sponge tactic.) is a method of protecting your troops from Psi attacks. This method relies on the aliens targetiting agents with lower Psi Strength, and involves having 2-4 soldiers with lower Psi Strength than the rest of your squad, meaning that the aliens will target them instead of your main soldiers with better skills and Psi Strength. The way I use this tactic is by having two soldiers with 40-60 Psi Strength (The Psi Sponges/Lightning Rods.) and making sure the rest of the team have at least 65-70 Psi Strength; the aliens will almost always target the Psi Weaklings, rather than the rest of your team. However, an important thing to remember is that as the aliens will be targeting the sponges they will eventually be controlled, or sent berserk, or panicked by the aliens, and will be able to use whatever weapons they have to kill your good soldiers, so don’t give them Heavy Plasmas. I personally like to give my Psi Lightning Rods a Stun Rod in one hand, a Medikit in the other, a spare Plasma Pistol (Or Laser Pistol, really any Pistol will work.) on their belt, some grenades on the belt and some spare ammo for their Pistol, and some spare ammo for whatever the rest of my team is using in any other spare Inventory slots until they are at their max weight or out of Inventory space.

=== Decoys. ===
Test results tell us the soldier with the highest chance of a succesful psionic attack is '''always''' chosen as the victim, even if he's out of line-of-sight of either enemy or ally. (The game AI is skipping any LOS requirement) This usually means the aliens concentrate on the weakest psi defence soldiers, though they will switch targets depending on distance. - Psi-puppet soldiers should NOT be used as alien hunters. Disarm them as soon as possible, preferentially '''before the mission'''.

If such soldiers are deployed against psionic capable aliens, they may still have use in limited roles. Do not give them any weapons or grenades. Well, maybe smoke or proximity grenades.

# Unarmed medic, equipment operator, ammo carrier. If controlled, they cannot injure other soldiers. If panicked, they'll drop the equipment, if placed in their hands.
# Non-lethal weaponry. Small Launchers prevent injury of other soldiers but the risk of control and loss of tactical advantage remains.
# Stun Rods are non-functioning weaponry in the hands of the aliens. Any soldiers under alien control WILL NOT ATTACK using them.
# Miner. Arm them with Proximity Grenades. Unlike those pesky aliens, your agents are smart enough not to get blown up by these things, right? (Just pick them up off the ground). Beware that your panicked soldiers seem to be drawn to Proximity Grenades like iron filings to a magnet. Probably due to Murphy's Law.
# '''Decoy'''. The unarmed soldier lets themself get mind-controlled rather than shot. If they are under mind control, the soldier will often be spared by the alien. Every mind-control attack on the "decoy" is one less attack on the rest of the squad and one more psionic alien kept busy. Note your other soldiers may shoot a controlled decoy on sight, and the aliens will shoot a panicked decoy on sight. An extremely risky tactic for the soldier but survival can be extended by blockading the decoy into a closet with other soldiers or tanks and turning your back to them. (which is ridiculous since you are taking 2 soldiers out of combat to prevent losing use of 1 soldier during combat)
# Jack of all trades. Soldier is meant to be a decoy, and carries, Stun Rod in hand, and flares, medkit and smoke grenades. Soldier is also considered "expendable" and thus fulfils role as forward scout during scary situations.
# Launcher Operators. Simply a soldier with a launcher and no ammo. The soldier either stands on a pile of ammunition, or is handed the ammunition on demand in combat. Once the weapon is loaded, the round is immediately spent before the end of the turn. This way, if controlled, the soldier will have an empty weapon and thus be harmless. This allows the weak willed soldier to contribute somewhat to the fight whenever you regain control of them.
# Suicide Bomber. Give this troop no equipment. March him towards a heavily guarded alien ambush. Just before walking him into it, have someone else arm a Heavy Explosive, throw it to him and make him pick it up. Have him walk into the trap and get mowed down by hidden alien reaction fire. End turn. BOOM.

If there are two or more psionic aliens, you may need more decoys to keep them all busy.

''[[User:Stubbs|Stubbs]]: According to the Mind Control section of this wiki, XCOM operatives do not reaction fire at mind-controlled friendlies. Which is correct?''

=== Kill the puppetmaster. ===
Find and kill the alien doing the mind control. This will free those who were under its control. The mind controller is frequently the highest-ranking alien you're facing, which means you'll likely need to penetrate the command center of the structure you're facing.

Remember that killing the aliens' ranking officers imposes a major morale penalty to the invaders, another bonus that shouldn't be underestimated. Many commanders have seen a seemingly invincible, mind-controlling attack force reduced to panic in the instant their commander is shot down. Even against Ethereals, all of which have psionic capability, this tactic is useful, since it will often buy you a round or two before other units start using Psionics and can panic even them.

=== Must... Fight... Harder... DIE! ===
If you can force a very successful round of attacks, the morale penalty this imposes on the aliens may bring on panic, which would bring a temporary stop to their psionic attacks. Such a round also raises the morale of your own troops, which will temporarily help combat panic attacks.

=== Roll with it. ===
Kamikaze tactics have also been used but cannot be recommended here.

HWP's can continue to be used in all roles against psionic capable forces as they are immune.

Heavy Support Weaponry ([[Blaster Launcher]]s, [[Rocket Launcher]]s) should only be assigned to soldiers with high psionic strength to prevent its counteruse.

If all forces are equipped with [[Power Suit]], which is proof against light ballistic weaponry, standard rifles and pistols can be freely issued with little risk of lethality even if counterused. Note [[Ethereal]]s are less affected by these weapons than [[Sectoid]]s. For them, we recommend the [[Auto-Cannon]]/HE.

''- JFG, with credits to the adventurous NKF-sensei whose field reports I freely draw from. --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 14:50, 19 Apr 2005 (BST)''

''-[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]]: In my experience, laser pistols can hurt you in flying suits. Specifically, if you're shot in the back. So they are great for "firing squads" (all your guys facing MC'd aliens), but not when aliens might MC you. (And don't turn your back when doing a firing squad!)''

''-[[User:NKF|NKF]]: " Just to add to this, a laser pistol, with 46 laser, does between 0 - 92 damage (See: [[Damage]]). Therefore, only your front plates will be truly invulnerable to laser pistol damage. On the other hand, you have a chance of being damaged from pretty much ''every other direction'', and you cannot always guarantee that you'll be facing your attacker at all times. The only real consolation is that laser pistols won't kill you outright for each hit, but lots of little hits can indeed build up to a lot of damage. I'd much rather recommend an autocannon/HE or the standard pistols/rifles for this exercise. Direct hits from the ACHE can probably cause a tiny amount of damage, but the ammo will not be unlimited like the laser pistol, and the autocannon is also the slowest burst weapon in the game, despite its name, which gives you time to get away and seek cover. Another bonus is that it works a lot better on superhuman ethereals than the pistol/rifle! " ''

== Psionic Soldiers ==

You won't know exactly what your soldiers' psionic strength are until you run them through some form of screening process, running them through a [[Psionic Laboratory|Psi Lab]] in batches of 10. Soldiers with a high [[Psionic Strength]] (80 or higher) should be trained further and kept in the "rear guard" during combat. Do ''not'' use them as scouts, or front line troops -- they will soon become your most valuable soldiers.

After a month or two of Psi training, your best soldiers will be able to mind-control weaker aliens, such as [[Muton]]s. Your soldiers' Psi Skill can be increased very quickly by equipping them with [[Psi-Amp]]s, leaving them in the [[Skyranger]], and having them attempt to panic units every chance they get. See [[Experience Training#Psionic Skill training]] for more details.

===Pre Psi-Lab Screening===
An efficient, if brutal, method for screening your troops for psionic ability is to use the first psychic alien you encounter. A supply or terror ship with a Sectoid Leader is recommended.

Kill all the lower ranked aliens, and secure the UFO using usual tactics (a psi-decoy is useful in this regard). If the ship is reasonably intact, the Alien leader will not usually leave the bridge, even after turn 20.

Gather your troops into the UFO, get any soldiers who are targeted to throw their weapons, then stun or kill the most susceptible soldiers until the remaining soldiers are immune to Mind Control, and the Alien frequently fails to panic units (you can check this by keeping track of morale).
:A side benefit of this is bravery training. If the weaker soldiers are killed rather than stunned, those who remain will very quickly reach 60 or 70 bravery. Leaving the highest ranked soldiers at home, or using the bravest soldiers to target the rookies, will help in this regard.

A more precise but much more tedious addition to this tactic is to arrange your troops in a line intersecting the UFO. Any soldiers attacked move away until another soldier is attacked instead. You may still have to stun or kill the weakest soldiers as the map may not be large enough.
:At the end of this process you will have your troops neatly sorted by psi-strength with the distance being proportional to the difference.
:If the line ends directly under the bridge and the closest soldier is never attacked, this will give you a lower bound for the psi-strength of your entire (surviving) force.

Given five large, Sectoid UFOs, this method will, on average, give you a Skyranger full of elite (>80 PST) psi warriors all ready for training when you finally build a psi-lab.

===My New Pet Alien===
Some skilled psionic operators have had success with simply attempting control of every alien encountered and disarming them, then using the controlled alien as a scout to find more aliens, then controlling the newly discovered alien as a new scout and leaving the old one for a mop-up squad, repeat process as TU's permit.

Easiest actions with a controlled unit are movement and firing or dropping the held weapon. It is possible but tricky to do more (see [[Known Bugs#Alien Inventory Trick|Alien Inventory Trick]].) Disarmed aliens make for excellent [[Experience Training]] fodder.

Remember aliens will revert to alien control unless re-aquired on the next turn.

Oddities: [[Large units]]; [[Gaining permanent control of a Chryssalid/Tentaculat]]

===Controlling the Board===
Once you start taking control of aliens that are psionic ''themselves'', this has a certain '''avalanche effect''' as you can spend the alien's TU's on mind control as well. As noted in [[ExploitsB#Exponential_Mind_Control|Exploits]] you '''do''' have to throw them a spare Psi-Amp to take advantage of this.

[[Category:Soldiers]]
[[Category:Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense]]

Psi Lightning Rod

2018-02-06T20:50:25Z

Harry Robinson: Added a page about the Sponge Tactic/Psi Lightning Rod tactic.

The Psi Lightning Rod (Also know as the Sponge tactic.) is a method of protecting your troops from Psi attacks. This method relies on the aliens targetiting agents with lower Psi Strength, and involves having 2-4 soldiers with lower Psi Strength than the rest of your squad, meaning that the aliens will target them instead of your main soldiers with better skills and Psi Strength. The way I use this tactic is by having two soldiers with 40-60 Psi Strength (The Psi Sponges/Lightning Rods.) and making sure the rest of the team have at least 65-70 Psi Strength; the aliens will almost always target the Psi Weaklings, rather than the rest of your team. However, an important thing to remember is that as the aliens will be targeting the sponges they will eventually be controlled, or sent berserk, or panicked by the aliens, and will be able to use whatever weapons they have to kill your good soldiers, so don’t give them Heavy Plasmas. I personally like to give my Psi Lightning Rods a Stun Rod in one hand, a Medikit in the other, a spare Plasma Pistol (Or Laser Pistol, really any Pistol will work.) on their belt, some grenades on the belt and some spare ammo for their Pistol, and some spare ammo for whatever the rest of my team is using in any other spare Inventory slots until they are at their max weight or out of Inventory space.

This tactic works just as well in Terror From The Deep as it does in Enemy Unknown, (1994) just remember to use the TFTD equivalent terms throughout the article.