UFOpaedia - User contributions [en]

UFO Crash Recovery

2008-07-01T16:52:07Z

Hot Logic: /* Adjacent PSs */

==Overview==
Exercise caution - There may be operatives in the UFO or around the crash site. Your mission will be successful when all enemy units have been eliminated or neutralised. Recovery of UFO remains, artefacts, and alien corpses can then be initiated.

Specific listings of items that can be recovered from each UFO type can be found by following links on the [[UFOs]] page. However, those listings do not (yet) reflect the effects of a crash landing on recoverable items, particularly the all-important Elerium and Power Sources. For this, see the next section.

== Power Source Explosions and Elerium Recovery ==

When [[UFOs]] crash land (except the [[Small Scout]], which has no engine), there is a 70% chance that its [[UFO Power Source|Power Source(s)]] will explode, which also destroys their [[Elerium-115|Elerium]]. It is an extremely powerful [[Explosions|explosion]], usually even stronger than a [[Blaster Bomb]]. Power Sources (PSs) explode with an average (rated) strength of 215 ± 35 HE (min 180, max 250('''!!''')). A PS explosion is always enough to [[Explosions#Object_Destruction|destroy]] any Elerium caught in its blast, and its blasts have a radius of 11 tiles (diameter 23), as wide as a Blaster.

In terms of Elerium recovery, all but the [[Supply Ship]] fall into two easy categories:

=== Isolated PSs ===

In four UFOs, the PSs can never impact other PSs. 30% of the time, you'll recover 50 Elerium from each PS. IOW, you get an average of 15 Elerium per PS, and it's additive:

:[[Medium Scout]], [[Large Scout]], 1 PS: Average of 15 Elerium
:[[Abductor]], 2 PSs: Average of 30 Elerium
:[[Battleship]], 4 PSs: Average of 60 Elerium

On average, 1.2 PSs are left on a Battleship (30% x 4 PSs). Only 0.81% of the time will all 4 PSs be intact (0.34).

=== Adjacent PSs ===

If one blows, all Elerium is destroyed. So the chance that any Elerium is left, is the chance that not a single one blows - it's 0.3 raised to the number of PSs.

:[[Harvester]], 2 PSs: Average of 9 Elerium (9% chance, 100 Elerium)
:[[Terror Ship]], 4 PSs: Average of 1.62 Elerium (0.81% chance, 200 Elerium)

This is why the guts of a crashed Terror Ship are almost always a smoking crater... there ''isn't'' a Blaster explosion (or worse), only once every 123 crashes! (.0081/1)

=== Supply Ship ===

This one is an oddball, because if a side PS explodes it takes out the middle one (before it has a chance to explode), but just barely doesn't reach to the PS on the other side (the explosion radius is 11). Yet if the middle one explodes, it takes out all 3 PSs. So there are three possible scenarios with PSs left: only the left-most PS left, only the right-most PS left, or all 3 PSs left. But there are two ways to get to the right-most PS being left, and one of those ways has a higher chance of happening than the other.

The table below was first made by constructing a simple Yes/No table of the eight possible combinations for the 3 PSs blowing (Y) or not (N). Then I filled in by hand how many engines would be left. Then I constructed a simple odds table (70% chance if there was a Y for that PS, 30% if not), multiplied the three odds for a cumulative probability, and finally multiplied the cumulative probability by the number of engines left, times 50 for the Elerium PSs hold. As a last touch, I sorted on decreasing cumulative odds (i.e., probability):

PS Explodes PSs Odds for PS ... Cum. E115
L M R Left L M R Odds Left
Y Y Y 0 0.7 0.7 0.7 .343 0.00
Y N Y 0 0.7 0.3 0.7 .147 0.00
Y Y N R 0.7 0.7 0.3 .147 7.35 ''Note 1''
N Y Y 0 0.3 0.7 0.7 .147 0.00 ''Note 2''
N Y N 0 0.3 0.7 0.3 .063 0.00
Y N N R 0.7 0.3 0.3 .063 3.15
N N Y L 0.3 0.3 0.7 .063 3.15
N N N All 0.3 0.3 0.3 .027 4.05
'''''Totals''''' 1.000 17.70

Notes: (1) If the left one blows, it kills the middle, even if it was "supposed to" blow, and the right PS remains, at a high-ish chance... but (2) if the left PS doesn't blow and the middle one does, they're all dead. Zero chance of any Elerium.

So. The total cumulative probability is 100% (''check''). And the final answer is: '''17.70 Elerium is recovered from Supply Ships, on average'''. Here's what you'll tend to see:

PS(s) Left Likelihood
None 70.0%
Right-most 21.0%
Left-most 6.3%
All three 2.9%
100.0%
For the record, you will see some of the worst internal UFO damage in Supply Ships where both of the side PSs have blown up. This is because the damage from a Blaster+ explosion has been superimposed over the damage from another Blaster+ explosion, in the mid area between the two. This has a 50% chance of happening, via "two" ways (the first two lines in the table). If both of the PSs blew with high strength, there will be extensive roof damage, letting you see into the floor above (or to the raw dirt beneath). The left PS damages the pristine roof/floor tile to its damaged (a.k.a. "dead") tile with HE from 80 to 125, but doesn't have the 130 need to completely vaporize both the pristine tile ''and'' the damaged tile... and then the right PS blows and easily adds the 50 HE needed to vaporize a number of damaged tiles in the middle. The damage would be much more extensive if the inner UFO walls didn't prevent the first blast from damaging a lot more tiles; there may not have been any floor left in the middle of the second level, to go from one end of the UFO to the other on that level.

For the record, PS explosions differ from other explosions in a couple of ways - although for all practical purposes, you'd never know the difference. For more info, see [[Explosions#UFO_Power_Sources]].

== Field Notes: Clearing a landing site with JFG ==
Here's one I was so proud of I took notes. This was about Dec 2003. Nothing really weird here, but just went really professionally, without losing anybody.
May I present:
*Sectoid, large scout crash, farm in california, early evening, Superhuman difficulty.
*8 soldiers and a rocket tank respond.

Loosely numbered turn-by-turn, actually event-by-event.
=== Events ===
0. Successfully deployed in circle around Skyranger with no sightings. 
1. Tank scouts first. Alien sighting by tank. Squaddies do 2-stage alien grenade relay. Takes out a hidden alien and part of a wall as well as the target (2 kills) 
2. Tank sights a second alien, fires rocket, misses. Squaddie takes armed grenade, approaches, then crouches behind tank before throwing. (Out of sight so no reaction fire.) (3rd kill) 
3. Scout (with RE of 60) moves in a different direction, spots one and freezes. Support sniper with rifle takes the shot (FA of 64, 87% chance) and hits. (4th kill) 
4. Tank sights a third among the stables and stops. Squaddies manage to land a grenade in the area. (5th kill) 
5. Aliens' turn, tank is shot at and responds with rocket fire. (6th kill) 
6. Scout found one, support sniper hits but does not get a kill. A tossed HE pack misses, and no-one is in range to add a grenade. End of turn. Alien does not kill scout; sniper is successful on next turn. (7th kill) 
7. Tank flushes an alien but is blocking support fire. It moves to clear the line of fire and is slightly damaged by reaction fire by doing so. Support fire takes out the alien. (8th kill) 
8. Team finishes sweep and gathers at UFO door for a breach. At the start of the breach turn, the tank fires a rocket into the diagonal walls forming the inside corner of the cross. This kills one alien (9th kill) 
9. Craft is filled with smoke. Two additional corpses are seen. The second squaddie in has enough TU's to push forward into the hollowed out centre; he sees an alien at the bridge of the ship and freezes. Third, fourth, and fifth breachers take up kneeling positions inside the door and start shooting at the alien through the smoke cloud; the third shot drops it. (10th kill) 
=== Score sheet ===
Alien kills registered - 9 
Corpses - 9 
Captured aliens - 1 (soldier rank) 
Artifacts - 41 
Alloys - 31 
Nav consoles - 2 
(Engines destroyed in crash) 
Soldiers KIA/MIA - none! 
Final score 275. 

==See Also==
* [[Missions]]
* [[UFO Ground Assault]]

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

Panic

2008-07-01T15:55:18Z

Hot Logic:

'''Panic''' is a state of mind your [[soldiers]] can fall into when things are going badly on the battlefield, when [[ranks|officers]] have been killed or lots of men are down and the aliens are not taking casualties as quickly causing a severe dip in morale. Panic can also be induced by Psionic attacks, and it is possible for your Psionics trained in your [[Psionic Laboratory|Labs]] to use [[Psi-Amp]]s to also attempt to panic the alien forces.

A panicked unit will lose all of its time units, and has a 50/50 chance of freezing in place or dropping any items held in their hands and running towards a random point south-east of their position.

==See Also==
*[[Berserk]]
*[[Morale]]
*[[Combat Attributes]]
*[[Mind Control]]
{{stub}}

Morale

2008-07-01T15:31:53Z

Hot Logic: /* Value Ranges */

Your soldiers' Morale scores determine whether they will panic or go berserk in the midst of a bad situation. Morale for all units is set at 100 at the start of each mission, and can rise or fall depending on events which occur during combat.

A high [[Bravery]] score will reduce the amount of Morale lost due to bad events, and the presence of a high-[[rank]]ing officer on a mission can reduce Morale penalties as well. The loss of a high-ranking officer can in turn produce large Morale penalties.

When a unit's Morale drops below 50, there is a chance it will panic or go berserk.

== Value Ranges ==
All units, alien and friendly, start with a Morale of 100 at the beginning of combat. Morale can never go higher than 100 or lower than 0 -- but if it falls below 50, a unit may panic or go berserk which will cause it to rise by 15 points.

When morale is between 100-50 units will function normally, but between 49-0 there is an increasing chance of panic or berserk, with a 100% chance when morale is at 0.

== Events which Affect Morale ==
* Own unit killed - surviving units lose 0-35 points, dependent on unit bravery, squad leadership, and rank of lost soldier
* Own unit knocked unconscious - no effect on squad morale
* Own unit hurt - no effect on squad morale, unit hurt loses ?? points
* Friendly fire kill - squad loses normal amount, soldier loses 20 extra points adjusted only by leadership
* Friendly fire hit - no effect beyond injury morale loss in the soldier hit
* Alien hit/hurt - no effect on your morale
* Alien killed - squad gains 10 points, adjusted by squad leadership; soldier gains 20 extra points adjusted by squad leadership
* Panic/berserk - soldier gains 15 points flat
* Pain killer administered from a [[Medi-Kit]] - can restore Morale equal to the amount of [[Health]] a soldier has lost
* [[Psionics|Psionic Panic]] attack- A successful attack causes the target to lose 110 points, less bravery (e.g., a unit with 40 bravery would lose 70 points); chance of success is dictated by Psionic formula

== Effect of Bravery ==
The base morale a unit loses when a comrade dies is dependent on the surviving unit's [[Bravery]] as follows:

Bravery Morale loss
0* -22
10 -20
20 -18
30 -16
40 -14
50 -12
60 -10
70 -8
80 -6
90 -4
100 -2
110** 0 
* A soldier having a bravery of 0 is impossible, except when editing game files.
** Only tanks and certain aliens can have a Bravery of 110.

== Officers ==
Having officer on a mission helps in two ways -- they reduce morale loss from negative events, and increase Morale gained from positive events. Your highest-ranking (surviving) officer's Morale modifier is always used -- so if a Colonel is killed, and the next-highest-ranking soldier in the squad is a Sergeant, morale loss from the Colonel's death will still be reduced by 10%.

However, losing an officer produces higher than usual Morale losses, as shown in the table below below. Losing rookies, squaddies and tanks cause normal amounts of lost Morale.

Leadership Death morale
bonus loss
Tank, Rookie, or Squaddie 0% x1.0
Sergeant 10% x1.2
Captain 15% x1.3
Colonel 20% x1.5
Commander 35% x1.75

Morale loss on personnel death equals:
Base morale loss x (100% - Leadership bonus) = adjusted morale loss (drop fractions)
Adjusted morale loss x Rank modifier = final morale loss (drop fractions)

Since the loss of a Colonel produces Morale loss 1.5 times that of a normal unit, the effective Morale lost in the above scenario will be 1.5 (for the Colonel's death) * 0.9 (for the surviving Sergeant's modifier), for a modified Morale penalty of 1.35 times normal.

=== Officer Tactics ===
* Losing an officer (higher rank) has a greater effect on the whole squad's morale than losing a rookie. LZ's are notorious for ambushes and extreme risk. So logically, your highest-ranking soldiers should never be in the front line of deployment.

* By using [[XcomUtil]], you can choose to place you your officers in the rear of the transport, and your rookies in the front.

* Some people extend this tactic and keep the commanding officer in the Skyranger for the entire battle. They're safest there, and with a Blaster Launcher or Mind Probe they can still contribute to the combat. See [[Rear Commander]] for more details.

* Aliens are subject to the same Morale rules as X-COM units. Targeting alien officers first (eg. with a [[Blaster Bomb]] to the UFO bridge) will help create widespread panic among the remaining aliens.

== Panicking and Berserking ==
If a unit's Morale drops below 50, there is a chance that it will panic or go berserk on the next turn.

'''Formula:'''

% Panic Chance = 100 - (2 x Morale)

'''Examples:'''

If a soldier has a Morale rating of 40, they have a 20% chance of panicking on the next turn.

Morale of 0 guarantees a panic or berserk.

Units which panic may drop whatever is in their hands, run in a random direction (sometimes directly into the path of awaiting enemies), or stand frozen in place. Units may also go berserk, firing wildly in random directions. If friendly or alien units are nearby, they may well be hit.

Units at 0 Morale go [[Berserk]] '''35%''' of the time, and Panic the other 65% of the time. This percent probably holds true for panics and berserks at higher Morale (>0 and <50), but it has not been tested.

Note: '''Berserk soldiers temporarily get 255 TUs''' (or slightly under that). As a result, they can fire off entire magazines before recovering! The game uses your max TUs to determine firing rates, because it's percentage based (otherwise the TU increase would have no effect). This also means that rookies will fire more, since they have less max TUs. ''(255 TUs has been demonstrated in the DOS and CE versions and TFTD -- it's not entirely clear if this happens for the Playstation or Amiga versions. - [[User:NKF|NKF]])''

== Psionic Panicking Attacks ==
There are two kinds of [[psionic]] attacks aliens and Psi-trained soldiers can use: ''Control Unit'' and ''Panic Unit''. ''Panic Unit'' attacks are more likely to succeed. A successful psionic panicking attack immediately subtracts:
110 - [[Bravery]]
points from the target's Morale score. Thus if the target is a towering hero (100 Bravery) only 10 Morale is subtracted; if the target is a cowering worm (10 Bravery, the minimum possible), 100 Morale is subtracted. For alien Bravery stats, see [[Alien Stats]].

Repeated attacks may be needed to bring a unit's Morale below 50, where it has a chance of panicking.

== Morale Loss and Bravery Increases ==
When a unit's Morale is below 50 but it ''does not'' panic or go berserk, it gains "bravery training". Each successfully-resisted panic roll gives the unit an additional ~9% chance of gaining +10 Bravery at the end of the mission, up to a 100% chance after 11 successful resists. See [[Bravery]] for more details.

[[Category:Soldiers]]

Managing the Item Limit

2008-06-29T05:01:54Z

Hot Logic: /* Section 3: Bring out the shears */

==Working with the 80 Item Limit in 7623 easy steps==

The game limits you to only using 80 items, and this is a rich source of concern for most players that have a style of play that calls for a lot of items and a lot of soldiers. 
 
To understand why the 80 item restriction in place, one must understand that at the time the game was made, most IBM PCs and Compatibles did not come with a lot of RAM. At the time the game was first released, most common household computers had less than 4 megabytes of RAM. Mind you, that was a lot of memory back in those days. Due to the limited memory available, constraints had to be imposed on the game so that everything could be handled by the computer within the limited amount of memory. The game is also rather inefficient with memory use, but that's another matter entirely. 
 
The item table for the [[Info#Battlescape|Battlescape]] in X-COM UFO can only hold 170 objects on the map at any given time. The object table holds everything that a soldier can pick up, such as weapons, [[Elerium-115|Elerium]] and corpses. If the table is too full, items start to vanish off the map. This typically happens with corpses as they are only created on demand. 
 
With only 170 possible items to work with, the game shares this space with the player and the aliens. Assuming an even split, each side only has 85 slots that can be used for weapons, ammo, tools, etc. 
 
So if you only get 85 slots, why is the limit 80? The game needs to reserve some slots for generating Elerium pods, which can number between 0 to 4. Yes, if you didn't know, Elerium comes in a physical form, a pod that, when you return to base, converts into 50 Elerium units per pod. It's a small purple box in the battlescape, but in the inventory it looks like orange crystals. Also some space needs to be set aside for corpses. 
 
The aliens don't really use up the whole of their 85 slots, so there's often sufficient room for corpses and unconscious units to be generated in the common recovery missions. 

== Section 2: How? ==

So it looks like we're stuck with only 80 items. Isn't there any other way? 
 
Short of obtaining the source code and fixing this, no. Using an editor to add equipment onto the troop transport will work, but again, you must remember that the aliens need some space as well. 
 
Is there any way around it? Yes! Revise your strategies and start pruning your inventory loadout by removing all unnecessary items that are either rarely or never used, or redudant. 
 
Note: A tank is not counted as an object until it is destroyed. 

== Section 3: Bring out the shears==

So what needs to go and what stays? As everyone has their own preferred weapon kits and styles of play, it would be impossile to say exactly what should go and what should stay. Here are some suggestions one some items that can help minimise your space requirements. There are a few more in the [[Spring Cleaning Tips|Spring Cleaning]] article. 
 
'''Medikits''' 
 
Many novice to experienced commanders would prefer to have each soldier carrying a [[Medi-Kit]] at all times. It makes perfect sense, as it's very convenient to have a medikit on you at all times. However, for a team of 8 soldiers, that's already 10% of your alloted limit. So how do we remain just as efficient but with a smaller number of medical kits? Teamwork. 
 
Rather than 8 for 8 soldiers, consider 4 medikits instead. If soldiers go off in pairs or smaller squads, make sure each group has one soldier with a medikit, or is close to a squad with a medikit. If the wounded soldier and the nominated field doctor are not near a medikit, the nearest soldier with a medikit can always throw the medikit to the field docter using a technique identical to the grenade-relay. 
 
'''Flares''' 
[[Electro-flare]]s are always handy and last a lot longer than incendiary rounds as light sources. However, each flare takes up one slot, while a single belt of 6 or 14 [[incendiary]] shells only takes up one space. If, like the medikits, each soldier has one, this also knocks off a big chunk of the 80 item allotment. 
 
You don't need many flares to be efficient. You only need to use a few - smartly. Remember that flares can be reused. Pick up flares as you go along once they've served their purpose and the area is clear and redeploy them. 
 
Leap-frogging, a very useful strategy that can be used for soldier movement and for deployment of flares. Remember that. 
 
'''Heavy Plasmas''' 
 
It may sound strange, but if you plan to use [[Heavy Plasma]]s as your primary mode of offence, you can significantly cut down on your item usage by simply not bringing many (or any) Heavy Plasmas along at all! Simply substitute a few or all of your Heavy Plasmas with laser weapons and then scavenge for Heavy Plasmas off dead aliens in the field. 
 
The trick here is that Heavy Plasmas literally grown on trees - or rather you're guaranteed to find several amongst the alien forces once they become standard issue. Laser weapons can defeat almost anything with a few good hits, and as they don't require clips, can easily make more space on your transport for additional equipment. 
 
This doesn't necessarily reduce your firepower, as you can fill all that extra space with more powerful weapons, like High Explosives, and large rockets. 
 
Alternatively, if you cannot live without the Heavy Plasmas, you can make some space by not bringing any spare clips along. The bullets in each clip are quite plentiful, and you can pick up more clips during the battle. This falls flat, of course, if your strategy involves hosing alien forces on the other side of the map with full auto continuously for several turns - and missing every time. The [[Laser Pistol]] and [[Laser Rifle]] fit that strategy perfectly because of their speed and limitless ammo - the heavy plasma on the other hand requires thought and a bit of moderation until you can find some spare clips. 
 
'''Mind Probes''' 
 
[[Mind Probe]]s are useful information gathering tools, but certainly not a device you'd want to arm everyone in the squad with. Limit your supply to a reasonable level. Most commanders can make do with only one or two mind probes, a lot of other commanders just ignore it completely. 
 
'''Stun Rods''' 
 
How many [[Stun Rod]]s you will be using depends entirely on your strategy. But they can also become a source of redunancy very easily. 
 
Like the Medi-Kits, don't arm everyone with Stun Rods. Halve your Stun Rod requirements, or set yourself a reasonable limit, such as 2 to 4 Stun Rods per transport and make do with them. 
 
Be patient, share the Stun Rods and use them smartly. If you have access to the [[Mind Probe]], use it to look for aliens you want to abduct and to check whether or not it's safe to walk up to them and give them a light tap on the shoulder. 
 
'''Smoke Grenades''' 
 
Another device that you can increase or decrease depending on your strategies. [[Smoke Grenade]]s are very handy devices that can be both a blessing and a curse - but more of a blessing if you are wise in the ways of how the Smoke Grenade functions. But again, Smoke Grenades do not need to be carried by every soldier in the squad. 
 
Many novice and even veteran commanders can make do without Smoke Grenades, but for those that do, remember that moderation is the key. Due to a game engine limitation, there can only be so many smoke particles at any given time, so you'll only be able to use a few of them per few turns. 
 
Do note that explosive weapons can kick up a dust cloud that can be used for concealment, so you can make use of them as a quick alternative to Smoke Grenades, especially if it explodes on contact rather than at the end of the turn. Just remember that they will never be as effective as a Smoke Grenade smoke screen. 
 
'''Psi Amps''' 
 
Only soldiers that can actually use their psi skills get [[Psi-Amp]]s. Psi troops that are really good can even go without sidearms if they are truly powerful. You can always have the enemy arm them with weapons.

'''Grenades''' 
 
The most common reason to make some extra space in the trunk would be to bring more along ammo, and [[grenade]]s. From the standard grenade to the alien grenade, to high explosives and proximity activated mines. It's always great to have a few more of these. 
Good tacticians make use of everything at their disposal. Everything, from the humble [[pistol]] to the deadly [[High Explosive]]. But if it doesn't fit in your playing style at all, then there's no reason to bring them along.

== Section Orange: Dumb Questions ==
Q: I used a game editor to add more than the 80 items. What's going to happen? 
A: You're hogging the item table! Stop it! Aliens will be generated without weapons and it hasn't been verified, but it may be possible that elerium will go missing. 
 
Q: There's a dead alien in my inventory! Get it off! Get it off! Wait, what is a dead alien doing in my ship's inventory anyway? Is it using up a slot? 
A: Uh, it's just data corruption, or just a plain programming glitch/error. For some reason the pre-generated corpse has had its location stats defaulted on the equipment pile. Not to worry. It's just a harmless glitch.

Height

2008-06-28T07:08:17Z

Hot Logic:

When firing upon a unit, there are two factors on top of "[[Firing_Accuracy#Base_Chance_To_Hit|base-chance-to-hit]]", that determine whether a hit is successful. These are:
*The distance to the target
*The target's '''height'''
 
Not only is a small unit harder to hit, but a shot generally needs to be aimed lower or it will pass over the head of a short unit. For example, you can fire over the top of your tank and hit units on the other side. A shot can pass under a unit which floats above the ground, in much the same way. 

Height also affects visibility of units in the Battlescape. Shorter units such as sectiods can be difficult to detect even at short ranges if they are standing in fields of tall crops.

 
The following table lists the heights of each unit. While all units have a seperate height when kneeling, only the solder can actually perform this action.

<table {{StdCenterTable}} width="35%">
<tr {{StdDescTable_Heading}}><th width="100" align="left">Unit</th><th>Standing Height</th><th>Floating Height</th><th>Adjusted Height</th><th>Kneeling Height</th></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Silacoid</td><td>10</td><td>-</td><td>10</td><td>10</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Celatid</td><td>12</td><td>6</td><td>18</td><td>12</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Hovertank</td><td>12</td><td>6</td><td>18</td><td>12</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Cyberdisc</td><td>15</td><td>2</td><td>17</td><td>15</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Sectoid</td><td>16</td><td>-</td><td>16</td><td>12</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Tank</td><td>16</td><td>-</td><td>16</td><td>16</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Snakeman</td><td>18</td><td>-</td><td>18</td><td>18</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Zombie</td><td>18</td><td>-</td><td>18</td><td>18</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Ethereal</td><td>20</td><td>-</td><td>20</td><td>15</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Floater</td><td>21</td><td>2</td><td>23</td><td>16</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Muton</td><td>21</td><td>-</td><td>21</td><td>16</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Chryssalid</td><td>21</td><td>-</td><td>21</td><td>16</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Civilian</td><td>21</td><td>2</td><td>23</td><td>16</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Soldier</td><td>22</td><td>-</td><td>22</td><td>14</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Reaper</td><td>23</td><td>-</td><td>23</td><td>16</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Sectopod</td><td>23</td><td>-</td><td>23</td><td>16</td></tr>
</table>

==See Also==
[[Firing_Accuracy|Firing Accuracy]]

[[User_talk:Danial#Height|Danial's Real-Life Height Conversions]]

[[Category: data tables]]

Difficulty Levels

2006-12-04T14:56:43Z

Hot Logic:

{{STUB}}

Section to discuss the difficulty level differences. Basically explains what and how exactly it influences the game.

There are five different difficulty levels within the game. They are named (in order of increasing difficulty):

Beginner

Experienced

Veteran

Genius

Superhuman

The following factors are affected by the difficulty levels:

The battlescape statistics of the aliens

The number of aliens that appear on the battlescape

The frequency(?) and commencement date of retaliation missions

The rate of escalation of the alien invasion(?)
this refers to how quickly they switch over to heavy plasmas, start sending Mutons and Ethereals etc.

(Note this list is not yet comprehensive)

Difficulty Levels

2006-12-04T14:56:17Z

Hot Logic:

Difficulty Levels

2006-12-04T14:54:55Z

Hot Logic:

{{STUB}}

Section to discuss the difficulty level differences. Basically explains what and how exactly it influences the game.

There are five different difficulty levels within the game. They are named (in order of increasing difficulty):
Beginner
Experienced
Veteran
Genius
Superhuman

The following factors are affected by the difficulty levels:
The battlescape statistics of the aliens
The number of aliens that appear on the battlescape
The frequency(?) and commencement date of retaliation missions
The rate of escalation of the alien invasion(?) -
this refers to how quickly they switch over to heavy plasmas, start sending Mutons and Ethereals etc.

(Note this list is not yet comprehensive)

Talk:UFO Recovery Values

2006-11-08T05:41:49Z

Hot Logic:

God God Ethereal, you've done it again!

These are real good, hard numbers. They can be compared against Profitability and Country Funding (once it's copied in) to make comparisons over time. ("An early operation can expect to get x mil/month from country funding, y mil/month from recovery, and little or none from manufacturing. A mature operation might make ... yada yada yada")

I would give a higher estimate than 180k recovery per alien, once they've progressed to heavy plasmas. In my experience, the majority have HPs, a few have Blasters, and one or two have a Stun Bomb. (I wonder if certain types of aliens, such as navigators, carry certain types of weapons? hmm.) In other words, the average is likely to be higher than 205k, not lower, IME. Once they're carrying HPs.

I see you got wiki tables to work ok. I never could figure them out in a way that I liked. I still prefer text tables; they're more compact. Anyway, good for you... I'll probably peek at what you did, and might try it. Do you run your tables through a "wiki table maker" somewhere? Most of my stuff is in Excel before I post it to the wiki, if that matters.

I wonder where they (Danial?) got the counts for Alien Deployment on UFOs... from the OSG? (I don't have an OSG.) I'd be interested in a similar count/recovery estimate for bases. So I know how they compare to UFO raids. And how much they're worth it (or not) to make "milking" raids, just to recover stuff.

---[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 22:23, 22 May 2006 (PDT)

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I chose 180k to take into account the difficulty of unloading all clips and the likelihood that the aliens are going to get off at least ''some'' shots. It also somewhat reflects the lower values you'll see at the beginning of the game (Mind Probes notwithstanding). Call it a slightly conservative estimate.

Yeah, wiki tables are kind of a pain, but if you're doing lots of similar tables, they're much easier to use once you get the basic formatting set up. The big thing for me is the spacing -- by default, there's not enough padding between columns (they're ''too'' compact) which is why I use the "width" tag. It's all hand-coded, and I might've made an error here or there.

I wonder where the deployment #s come from too, but they're great to have. I think I've seen slightly different numbers on occasion, but they seem mostly correct.

I'm kinda surprised no one's OCR'ed the OSG yet, copyright violation notwithstanding.

--[[User:Ethereal Cereal|Ethereal Cereal]] 23:36, 22 May 2006 (PDT)

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I have yet to get an OSG... in some ways it's helped that I don't have one; there were a few points where I didn't assume things that e.g. Zombie had seen in the OSG, which led to new insights. I can't recall any clear cases of the OSG being majorly wrong though (i.e., not counting a few typos). Some stuff on the wiki also originally came from Chang's USG, but it's known to have quite a few typos, esp. for alien stats. Good point about OCRing, but it would require work on somebody's part, shrug.

That's fine for the prices. Dealer's choice. I would've assumed only a few would get off a shot, maybe 3 of 10, for an average of, eh, 1.7 clips and 0.9 AGs, shrug. But this is for later combats (all HP, with serious MC ability). Maybe break out early combats from late ones?? Your choice... the page is a bit long already, and it's easy for me to ask you to do more work, laugh.

---[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 11:36, 23 May 2006 (PDT)

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While on the subject of item recovery, I thought I'd mention elerium recovery (or more to the point, multiplication of existing elerium rather than actually recovering any) for base defence missions. It's at least worth a footnote.

If I'm not mistaken, earlier versions of UFO (pre 1.4), elerium pods, if you had any elerium and if you had the room in the item table for them to spawn, would appear in battle. 1 pod per unit of elerium that is spawned in battle. If you win the mission and these elerium pods are saved, each elerium pod will be multiplied by 50 - as per the normal rules of elerium recovery. So if you had 10 appear in battle, for example, you'll leave it with 500.

If I'm not mistaken, this is no longer possible in v1.4, but still worth further investigation for completeness sake.

- [[User:NKF|NKF]]

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From my personal experience the number of aliens on a given mission don't seem to vary much (except for the possible exception of terror units).

(all examples from beginner)
For example a medium scout will ALWAYS have 3, a large scout 6 an abductor 10 etc.
It is possible to encounter multiple ethereal leaders on a large scout, since the game replaces the 'specialists' with leaders when that 'rank' is not available.
I've noticed that it's the engineers that tend to get stun launchers and leaders/commanders that get armed with blaster launchers.
A large scout on a retal mission will have 3 mind probes, that's nearly a million dollars.
The leader on an Abductor seems to be armed with two plasma pistols and a plasma rifle clip?? this means they will NEVER shoot at you. Sectoid Leaders will mind control/panic you however.

On Veteran a medium scout has 4 crew, I presume this is also consistant for that difficulty level.

By the way, does anyone know of something that will fix the difficulty level bug WITHOUT changing other parts of X-Com?
Please drop a line on my talk page if you do. Thanks :)

--[[User:Hot Logic|Hot Logic]] 21:41, 7 November 2006 (PST)

Talk:Stun Rod

2006-11-08T05:11:02Z

Hot Logic:

I have a question: this page says the stun rod is a 2-handed weapon. Normally using a two-handed weapon with one hand results in an accuracy penalty (-20% if I remember). Since I tend to use low-quality soldiers to try and stun aliens early in the game, I am thinking it would be wise to always try and use stun rods two-handed, to avoid the accuracy penalty. Am I right in looking at it this way?

Also, I see a few weapons with their "handedness" listed (mostly if they're two-handed) but most weapons entries don't mention if they're one or two-handed (Small Launcher, for example). This would be a good thing to accurately list for every weapon.

I'm also thinking there could be a separate wiki page for explaining "handedness", the importance of it, thoughts on the tradeoffs, etc. For example, I think the accuracy of the Blaster Bomb is 120% but it is considered a two-handed weapon, so my understanding is, you can put a second item in the other hand with no practical penalty.

- [[User:Erik|Erik]]

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I don't think I've ever seen the stun rod miss. This is probably because you have to use it at point blank range - The only way you could fail to hit the target is if your unit actually turned away when you told him to use it. I've only ever seen a weapon misfire that badly once, so I don't think it's much of a risk.

Someone did some tests with the Blaster Launcher a little while ago, and it seems to be as accurate whether you're holding another weapon or not. My personal theory is that the accuracy only effects the initial launching of the weapon, and once it starts following waypoints it's effects are lost.

- [[User:Bomb_Bloke|Bomb Bloke]]

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That someone was me, and Firing Accuracy (high or low) didn't seem to seem to affect any part of the bomb's flight path -- through the first waypoint, or otherwise. It ''might'' have an effect on reaction fire with a Blaster Launcher.

I've never tested to see if a Stun Rod could miss. Sometimes it fails to knock out an alien, but I always assumed that was because it did low damage. I guess we could try hacking its accuracy (and a soldier's melee accuracy) to see if it can miss.

--[[User:Ethereal Cereal|Ethereal Cereal]] 20:16, 2 July 2006 (PDT)

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Regarding the stun rod, if the game were to use your hidden melee accuracy stat to calculate melee hit accuracy, then the grip would certainly matter. The game appears to have hard coded the melee accuracy to always hit adjacent targets. Whether or not you do any damage is up to the random number generator and the target's defence. So it's okay to use the stun rod with another weapon in the other hand. It's still a two handed weapon, but because accuracy does not matter, it works just as well.

Just an interesting note. The firing cost for the blaster launcher is in actual fact 66%. Not 80% as it is reported in the ufopaedia. The launch command is actually separate from the normal firing modes that we're accustomed to. I'm guessing the accuracy is in the same boat as melee accuracy. It is perhaps a fixed value that works independantly of your soldier's accuracy, so accuracy doesn't matter. Has anyone ever tried it with a 0 accuracy unit, such as what can be found on a mind controlled chryssalid? If you haven't, do give it a try and make what you will of it. Use the inventory trick or the mind controlled zombie trick to get one.

- [[User:NKF|NKF]]

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I've just got two observations about the stun rod to add.

The first is that I've never ever experienced an alien firing a reaction shot when hit with a stun rod, even when hit from the front. I also think nearby aliens will not reaction fire either.

The second is that if the stun rod does do 65 (stun) damage it seems to take far too many hits to take down any alien. I might try an experiment sometime where I take a skyranger full of flying suit vets with psi amps, mind probes and stun rods to test out exactly how much damage they actually do. If so I will report the results here.

--[[User:Hot Logic|Hot Logic]] 21:11, 7 November 2006 (PST)

User talk:Hot Logic

2006-11-08T05:00:44Z

Hot Logic:

Welcome HotLogic! Everybody that contributes, helps a lot. If you're new to wikis, check out the Community Portal in the navbar (upper left).

Can you recommend an XCOM fan fiction book or two? I'd like to give one a try. Thanks! --[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 07:44, 2 November 2006 (PST)

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Might I suggest the [http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=5064&st=0 UFO Co-Op Fanfic]?

- [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 05:59, 6 November 2006 (PST)

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Looks like fun, BB. I might hit it sometime. Ye gods there's a cutie posting to that thread.

I do most of my fiction reading in the "reading room" or while eating out. So I'd still be interested in actual book recommendations.

--[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 07:14, 6 November 2006 (PST)

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XCOM: The Unknown Menace by Hobbes on http://www.fanfiction.net/
The plot is very engaging as long as you don't mind the spelling and grammar mistakes that crop up.

The other ones that I read so long ago that I actually can't remember who they are by or what they were called :(

I haven't read the two paperback novels that are out there either, although I think I would be interested to read them if I had the chance.

By the way, thanks for the friendly welcome :)

--[[User:Hot Logic|Hot Logic]] 21:00, 7 November 2006 (PST)

User talk:Hot Logic

2006-11-08T05:00:10Z

Hot Logic:

Welcome HotLogic! Everybody that contributes, helps a lot. If you're new to wikis, check out the Community Portal in the navbar (upper left).

Can you recommend an XCOM fan fiction book or two? I'd like to give one a try. Thanks! --[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 07:44, 2 November 2006 (PST)

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Might I suggest the [http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=5064&st=0 UFO Co-Op Fanfic]?

- [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 05:59, 6 November 2006 (PST)

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Looks like fun, BB. I might hit it sometime. Ye gods there's a cutie posting to that thread.

I do most of my fiction reading in the "reading room" or while eating out. So I'd still be interested in actual book recommendations.

--[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 07:14, 6 November 2006 (PST)

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XCOM: The Unknown Menace by Hobbes on http://www.fanfiction.net/
The plot is very engaging as long as you don't mind the spelling and grammar mistakes that crop up.

The other ones that I read so long ago that I actually can't remember who they are by or what they were called :(

I haven't read the two paperback novels that are out there either, although I think I would be interested to read them if I had the chance.

--[[User:Hot Logic|Hot Logic]] 21:00, 7 November 2006 (PST)

User:Hot Logic

2006-11-02T03:57:03Z

Hot Logic:

Hello, I'm a X-Com player from Sydney, Australia.

I have only played UFO-Defense so I don't know much about the other titles, apart from what I've read in fan-fiction. I also love X-Com fan fiction and have read two novel length stories so far. I've played UFO on and off for a few years now.

I think that the information that is on this wiki is absolutely fantastic the work everyone's been doing is great and would like to help contribute to it, so that it can be more complete.

Talk:External UFO Windows

2006-11-02T03:53:20Z

Hot Logic:

Just to point out, in TFTD, this happens a LOT with the Triton and the aliens will make every attempt to shoot through the Triton via these gaps in the game's colision detection.

A X-Com UFO example would be the Lightning. But the Lightning compounds matters by having walls that don't ignore collision detection, so it won't stop bullets from flying into it.

- [[User:NKF|NKF]]

I've just seen something this happen inside a base. My flying scout could see into most of the upper control room, at the same level as him, through what appeared to be several squares of solid earth.

Maybe the programmers just forgot to detail the characteristics of the terrain on the upper level.

--[[User:Spike|Spike]] 03:59, 6 June 2006 (PDT)

I've noticed this myself with UFOs under these conditions:

On Medium/Large scouts (one level) if I have someone in a flying suit on level 1 approaching diagonally to one of the corners when they get within about 6-8 squares away the inside of the UFO is suddenly revealed, including spotting aliens inside!

On Adbductors you can see through the diagonal corner sections, but this is limited.

On Battleships it is possible to see deeply into much of the vessel, although I'm not fully sure which angle/level you have to approach from to do this.

I have noticed that if you stand next to a wall (either interior or exterior) and turn your soldier you can see specific squares inside exactly 2 squares in front of the soldier's facing.

External UFO Windows (in my experience) DO NOT ALLOW YOU TO SEE INSIDE. I have never been able to see more using an external window than from 'looking through' normal walls etc.

My theory is that if you approach from a different level of the map there is a 'gap' between the wall and the ceiling that the game engine allows you to see through. My experiences with Battleships give me cause to believe that this can also work from below, as well as above.
--[[User:Hot Logic|Hot Logic]] 19:53, 1 November 2006 (PST)