UFOpaedia - User contributions [en]

Sonic Pistol vs Heavy Gauss

2015-01-22T10:26:17Z

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[[User:NKF | I]] often say that the [[Sonic Pistol]] is just a miniaturized [[Heavy Gauss]] that is better in every way. After cobbling together this article, it turns out that the difference between the two weapons is much more disproportionate than the basic Ufopaedia stats will first lead you to believe. My assumption is therefore quite incorrect - they are most certainly not an even pairing.

Anyhow, to illustrate this, let's see how the third generation Gauss weapon fares against the first generation Sonic weapon.

Please be aware that this article is comparing the ''original'' Heavy Gauss. Not the XComutil "Enhanced" Heavy Gauss, which is not a canon cannon.

= Performance Comparisons =
== Stopping Power ==

Let's start off with the simplest but most prominent characteristic that sets these two weapons apart - stopping power.

{| {{stdCenterTable}}
|+ '''Damage'''
|- {{StdDescTable_Heading}}
!
! Damage (Avg)
! Damage Range
|-
| Heavy Gauss
| 75 Gauss
| 37 - 112
|-
| Sonic Pistol
| 80 Sonic
| 40 - 120
|}

The Sonic Pistol has a small 3 - 8 point lead, which doesn't appear to be that major a difference. However, raw power just scratches the surface. Let's consider the resistances and vulnerabilities of the various units.

The following table shows the percentage of damage that is applied to the amount of total damage that is dealt by each weapon ''before'' armor is deducted. A 0% shows that the unit will take normal damage from the attack.

Note that the first listing is for group of units covering unarmored X-COM units, Aquatoids, Civilians and Zombies.

{| {{stdCenterTable}}
|+ '''Damage Deduction/Addition'''
|- {{StdDescTable_Heading}}
!Unit Type
!Heavy Gauss
!Sonic Pistol
|-
|align ="left" |Unarmored Humanoid
| 0%
| 0%
|-
| align ="left" |Plastic Aqua Armor
| style ="color:red;"| -20%
| 0%
|-
|align ="left" |Ion Armor/Mag Ion Armor
|style ="color:red;"| -30%
|style ="color:red;"| -10%
|-
|align ="left" |SWS/Displacer
|style ="color:red;"| -40%
| 0%
|-
|align ="left" |Deep Ones
|style ="color:red;"| -10%
| +10%
|-
|align ="left" |Gill Men
| 0%
| +10%
|-
|align ="left" |Tasoth
|style ="color:red;"| -30%
| +20%
|-
|align ="left" |Calcinite
|style ="color:red;"| -10%
| +10%
|-
|align ="left" |Tentaculat
|style ="color:red;"| -10%
| +10%
|-
|align ="left" |Lobstermen
|style ="color:red;"| -70%
|style ="color:red;"| -50%
|-
|align ="left" |Xarquid and Bio Drone
|style ="color:red;"| -30%
|style ="color:red;"| -10%
|-
|align ="left" |Hallucinoid
|style ="color:red;"| -20%
| 0%
|-
|align ="left" |Triscene
|style ="color:red;"| -20%
|style ="color:red;"| -10%
|}

Even with the small difference in damage power, we can see that the Heavy Gauss is at a significant disadvantage thanks to the consistent low damage modifiers that it gets, and this has widened the damage difference considerably.

== Shot Aptitude ==

Damage aside, we now move on to the accuracy and speed of the individual shots.

{| {{stdCenterTable}}
|+ '''Firing Cost'''
|- {{StdDescTable_Heading}}
! Type
! Aimed Cost
! Aimed Acc.
! Snap Cost
! Snap Acc.
|-
| Heavy Gauss
| 80%
| 90%
| 40%
| 50%
|-
| Sonic Pistol
| 50%
| 85%
| 30%
| 65%
|}

From the figures, we can see that the Sonic Pistol lets you fire three snaps a turn, one snap and one aimed, or two aimed. The Heavy Gauss on the other hand can only fire two snaps or one aimed shot a turn.

The Sonic Pistol clearly edges out the Heavy Gauss with its overall speed and snap accuracy. The Sonic Pistol gives you plenty of options to choose from while leaving you sufficient room to be mobile at the same time.

The Heavy Gauss is 5% more accurate when aimed, but this loses quite a lot of impact thanks to its heavy firing cost, allowing it to only be fired once per turn.

== Physical Characteristics ==

Physical characteristics include the dimensions/shape, grip, weight and ammo capacity of the respective weapons.

{| {{stdCenterTable}}
|+ '''Physical Comparison'''
|- {{StdDescTable_Heading}}
! Type/Characteristic
! Dimensions
! Gun Weight
! Clip Weight
! Grip
! Ammo

|-
| Heavy Gauss
| 3h × 2w
| 18
| 4
| 2-handed
| 10
|-
| Sonic Pistol
| 2h × 1w
| 3
| 3
| 1-handed
| 20
|}

The Sonic Pistol is small and can fit on an aquanaut's belt. It's light and the one-handedness allows the aquanaut to actively operate some other device in the other hand without suffering a -20% accuracy penalty. This means that you can have something like a [[Vibroblade|drill]] or [[Sonic Pulser]] to assist when a direct ranged attack will not do or when more power is needed, or even a [[Medikit (TFTD)|Medikit]].

Additionally, the Sonic Pistol carries twice as much ammunition than the Heavy Gauss. More on this in the next section.

The Heavy Gauss on the other hand is the complete opposite. It's large and heavy and the two-handed grip limits your use of the other hand. The size forces you to stow the gun away in your backpack if you need to put it away and this is a costly action. It's not an easy weapon to handle.

== Cost ==

Cost here refers to the costs in producing the weapons and their respective ammunition clips.

{| {{stdCenterTable}}
|+ '''Weapon Production Costs'''
|- {{StdDescTable_Heading}}
! Type
! Build Hours
! Work Space
! Cost
! Extra Materials
! Sell
|-
| Heavy Gauss
| 700
| 4
| $32,000
| None
| $61,000
|-
| Sonic Pistol
| 600
| 3
| $56,000
| Aqua Plastics × 1
| $84,000
|}

From the above, we can see that the Sonic Pistol is faster to build, but much more expensive in costs and requires Aqua Plastics. The Heavy Gauss wins this battle.

To be more sensible about it, you'll probably never have to build a Sonic Pistol in order to use it, as you'll be able to capture a few while it's still a staple alien weapon during the early part of the game.

{| {{stdCenterTable}}
|+ '''Ammo Production Costs'''
|- {{StdDescTable_Heading}}
! Type
! Build Hours
! Work Space
! Cost
! Extra Materials
! Sell
|-
| Heavy Gauss Clip
| 70
| 4
| $4,000
| None
| $3,220
|-
| Pistol Power Clip
| 60
| 3
| $2,000
| Zrbite × 1
| $4,400
|}

The Sonic Power Clip is quick to build and costs less than the Heavy Gauss clip. However, each clip requires the use of your most precious commodity: Zrbite. Even though the Heavy Gauss is more expensive in terms of the monetary costs, the rarity and usage you can get out of the Zrbite is worth much more than its price tag. This means Heavy Gauss clips are much cheaper to manufacture in large quantities.

Are the Pistol Power Clips really that expensive? Perhaps not entirely. One way to look at it is to consider the capacity of the ammo clips and the damage each round is capable of doing. Assuming damage against 100% susceptible units, the Heavy Gauss Clip has a potential of dealing 370 - 1,120 points of damage. The Pistol Power Clip does 800 - 2,400.

Despite that, most players will be governed by their own Zrbite stockpiles. Those with low supplies will prefer to invest in projects that are worth more in the long term, thus the Heavy Gauss clips much more easier to produce. Those with large Zrbite stores on the other hand won't notice a thing.

= Quick Pro/Con Summary =

Heavy Gauss
Pros:
* Has more accurate Aimed shot
* Doesn't use any exotic materials in construction or ammo
* Starting point of research path is available right away
* Research path has useful "interim" benefits - Gauss Pistol and Rifle
* Research path completes 75% of the [[Gauss Cannon]] = major economic benefits

Cons:
* Lower Gauss damage modifiers
* Heavy
* Large
* Two-handed
* Low Ammo Capacity
* Slower Build Time
* Can only be manufactured
* Available only after the gun portion of its interim research path are completed
* Higher total research (1350 scientist days average - 690 beyond Gauss Rifle)

Sonic Pistol
Pros:
* Higher Sonic damage modifiers
* Smaller
* Lighter
* Faster
* Powerful
* High ammo capacity
* One handed
* Gun and ammo can be collected for a limited time
* Once obtained, can be researched directly
* Lower total research (1000 scientist × days average)
* Worth 33.33..% of the [[Sonic Oscillator]] = major tactical benefit.

Con:
* Sample must be gathered before research can be started
* Ammo must be manufactured with Zrbite or collected until alien stocks dry up.
* Gun must be manufactured with Aqua Plastics (or collected)
* No "interim" benefits whilst researching

= Summary =

Even though not everything was covered in the above extensively (such as early availability and research time), it is clear that the Sonic Pistol is superior to the Heavy Gauss in performance despite its higher production cost. It's a pocket cannon - if you will.

The Heavy Gauss on the other hand is easier and cheaper (on exotic materials) to mass produce. The heavy imbalance caused by the damage modifiers is what damages it from being a cheaper equal to the Sonic Pistol.

=See Also=

[[Weapon Analysis]]

[[Category:TFTD]]

Particle Disturbance Grenade

2015-01-05T10:03:28Z

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==General Information==
{{Ref Open | title = Particle Disturbance Grenade}}
A proximity grenade which can be thrown like an ordinary grenade but is triggered by nearby movement after it is deployed. Skill and training are required to use these devices properly.
{{Ref Close | source = Terror From The Deep Ufopaedia}}

{{Infobox open}}
{{Infobox module/itemcommon
| item = Particle Disturbance Grenade
| height = 1
| width = 1
| weight = 3
| damagethreshold = 150 (90 with v2.0 patch)
| image = [[Image:Pdgren.gif|64px]]
| saleprice = 400
| research =
}}
{{Infobox module/action
| action = Action
| cost = TU
| effect =
}}
{{Infobox module/action
| action = Prime
| cost = 50%
| effect =
}}
{{Infobox module/action
| action = Throw
| cost = 25%
| effect =
}}
{{Infobox module/ammo2
| damage = 70 High Explosive
| capacity = 1
}}
{{Infobox module/purchase|500}}
{{Infobox close}}

The Particle Disturbance Grenade is a moderately powerful proximity mine that is different from regular grenades as it is detonated by motion. When set it will explode if it detects movement into the tile that it occupies as well as the 8 surrounding tiles.

See [[#Trigger Mechanism|below]] for a more detailed explanation on how the trigger mechanism functions.

The advantage the Particle Disturbance Grenade has over standard grenades is that once armed, it will stay armed until it is detonated. The mine can therefore be placed well in advance and you do not need to know the exact number of turns to wait before an enemy treads on it or stops nearby.

Its main weaknesses on the other hand are primarily user error: forgetfulness and bad placement. It is important that armed mines are kept track of to avoid nasty surprises, and to be careful with their placement so that you don't end up sealing off your only route out of an area. There is also the danger of mis-throws that can achieve a similar effect.

The Particle Disturbance Grenade is a useful tool for setting traps when alien traffic is expected. It can even be used in an almost conventional manner by throwing an armed mine directly at a visible alien, hiding and then waiting until the alien moves. This is especially useful against melee terror units that must traverse across a number of tiles to get into attacking range.

When inside labyrinthine interior levels it can also be used to seal off passages and act as a warning system against aliens approaching from the rear. Examples of such places include the shipping lane missions, alien colonies, artefact sites, X-COM floating base attacks or even larger alien submarines.

This weapon appears in ''[[TFTD|Terror from the Deep]]''. For the ''[[X-COM|UFO: Enemy Unknown]]'' equivalent, refer to the [[Proximity Grenade]]. It includes more in-depth strategies and other technical details that relate to the Particle Disturbance Grenade.

{| {{StdCenterTable}} align = "center"
|-
|colspan = "2" {{StdDescTable_Heading}}|'''Key Features'''
|-
|colspan = "2" align="left" valign = "top"|
* Indirect
* Area-Effect
* Proximity Trigger
|-
|{{StdDescTable_Heading}} width = "50%" |'''Pros'''
|{{StdDescTable_Heading}} width = "50%" |'''Cons'''
|-
| align = "left" valign = "top"|
* Light
* Cheap
* Moderate Power
* High destruction threshold
| align = "left" valign = "top"|
* User error
* Difficult to recover
|}

== Trigger Mechanism ==

The mine's detection radius consists of the same tile occupied by the mine, or the 8 tiles immediately adjacent to it. It only triggers when it detects movement ''into'' these tiles.

Extension range will extends through walls, so do not play mines immediately next to doors/walls, otherwise they will be wasted if triggered by movement behind the door/wall.

The mine only detects lateral movement, not horizontal movement.

Unit turning in place or walking out of the detection radius will not set it off. If an X-COM Aquanaut happens to be standing on top of an armed Particle Disturbance Grenade, it can can be safely picked up and re-deployed elsewhere.

Additionally, the sensor only detects laterally, not horizontally. This means that dropping into the detection tiles by falling or by [[Magnetic Ion Armor]] will not set it off.

== Notes ==

* Large units: When mining large enemies, only one part of all its four components is used to trigger the mine, the others are ignored. The primary quarter is the top-left portion of large unit when viewed on the overhead map. Visually, this is the top-most section.
* Game limitation: Only 20 proximity mines can be armed at a time
* Armed mine flag is not saved in save games. Mines may revert to duds if the battlescape save is reloaded at a later date.

== See Also ==
*[[Weapons (TFTD)]]
*[[Proximity Grenade]]

{{Equipment (TFTD) Navbar}}

[[Category:Equipment (TFTD)]]
[[Category:TFTD]]

Talk:Accuracy formula

2008-12-02T11:14:03Z

Quantifier:

From experience I think the chance of hitting an alien tends to be best if in an exact straight line (orthagonal or diagonal), and on the same level as it. This probably is explained by the misses that hit anyway, because you can miss slightly short and kneecap them, or long and hit them in the face, but I think this is less likely if you are at an oblique or acute angle (because there are less squares that are behind him you can scatter to, but still hit him - especially as you get further and further away so the aliens width becomes less of a factor). Equally with height, the further up you are, the less squares the fire can scatter to but still intersect with the alien.

Does this match up with other peoples experiences?

--[[User:Sfnhltb|Sfnhltb]] 12:59, 27 February 2007 (PST)

-----

Hmm, I'm not sure what I'd say. In theory the "silhouette" wouldn't change much, if the angle were not a multiple of 45 degrees (that's what you mean, right?). I'm willing to bet that the engine is more influenced by things that might truncate values here and there, than anything else. And/or the interaction with exactly how they "draw" the "3D" target that the shot's trying to intersect. I'm sure it's crude but effective... but crude in what ways? shrug. - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 15:50, 28 February 2007 (PST)

----

Does the accuracy displayed in-game for the auto-fire apply to each individual shot or to all three shots?

: It applies to each individual shot. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 22:39, 1 December 2008 (CST)

:: Indeed. Note that the displayed "chance to hit" isn't really your ''chance to hit''... It's more a measurement of the ranges of angles you can fire along. - [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 00:37, 2 December 2008 (CST)

::: In Laser Squad Nemesis, that is explicit - units have a stat called "inaccuracy", defined as "The average deviation from true for a weapon shot, in degrees." Has anyone made tests in X-Com, what is the relation of distance to target and displayed and actual chance to hit? - Quantifier 05:14, 2 December 2008 (CST)

: As in "spread" of your shots, BB? Where bigger spread means, less accurate? -[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 04:15, 2 December 2008 (CST)

TERRAIN

2008-07-06T19:37:58Z

Quantifier: /* Structure */ footsteps in different game versions

This folder contains the information used for tiles in the battlescape view, both statistical and graphical. 
 
Each of the three files used for each tileset contains a variable amount of records. PCK files and their respective TAB files should always contain an equal amount of records. 
=MCD=
==General Information==
*MCD stands for Map Control Data.
*MCD files have a variable amount of records, each of 62 bytes.
*Each record defines one of four possible terrain items (see [54]):
**ground tile,
**north wall,
**west wall, or
**object
*For example, DESERT.MCD defines a number of desert terrain items such as sand (ground tiles), sand dunes, rocks, and cacti.
*The PCK and TAB files work hand-in-hand with MCD records to define what each terrain item looks like.
*These MCD terrain items are subsequently combined to make "3D" maplets in the MAPS\DESERT''nn''.MAP 10x10 or 20x20 [[module|tilesets]].
*The MAP tilesets are then selected from, to make a "random" desert map when a new battlescape is created.
*Sometimes more than one collection is used for a given map type; farms are made from the CULTIVAT (fields) and BARN (farmhouse) sets.
*More complex terrain types, especially UFOs and bases, tend to have many more MCD records (terrain items) and/or more than one MCD set. The maximum total cannot excede 256 records.
*Most MCD files are accompanied by respective [[Image_Formats#PCK|PCK & TAB]] files, and vice versa.

==Structure==
'''0-7 / 00-07:''' Animation of the tile.

The eight bytes refer to images on the PCK files which are used in a sequence (from the first byte to the last) to animate tiles. This animation is used by several tiles on both games, such as doors (see [46]), bubbles on TFTD, blinking lifts, etc. If all eight frames are the same, it's a static tile.

'''8-19 / 08-13:''' Line Of Fire Template (LOFT) for the tile. 12 values, each references into [[LOFTEMPS.DAT]] file.

Each LOFT record is a 16x16 grid; these are stacked one over the other, with mcd[8] being the bottom. Used to create a 3D map (16x16x12) of the tile, for LOS. For more info, see [[LOFTEMPS.DAT]].

'''20-21 / 14-15:''' Reference into [[SCANG.DAT]] file. Two-byte integer ([20] + [21] * 256 + 35 = offset). 4x4 bmp images for the top-down map; see [[SCANG.DAT]].

'''22-29 / 16-1D:''' Unknown.

'''30 / 1E:''' Boolean: Is sliding door? See [46]

'''31 / 1F:''' Boolean: Can't be seen through?

'''32 / 20:''' Boolean: Can't be stood on? For ground tiles: non-flying units fall through. ''Only two ground tiles have this set: BLANKS MCD id 0 and UFO1 MCD id 0''

'''33 / 21:''' Boolean: Is Wall? Used for Objects intended to act as Walls; used to make UFO, Skyranger, and Avenger outer "walls" that aren't otherwise possible as "real" North or West walls. Used for a few other things, too. Called "BigWall" in MapView.

'''34 / 22:''' Boolean: Is Grav lift? Up/Down of Lifts is determined by whether there is another one above or below in the .MAP.

'''35 / 23:''' Boolean: Is hinged door? See [46]

'''36 / 24:''' Boolean: Blocks fire?

'''37 / 25:''' Boolean: Blocks smoke?

'''38 / 26:''' Unknown - Always 3.

'''39 / 27:''' Time units used to walk across the tile. (255 means unpassable)

'''40 / 28:''' Time units used to slide across the tile. (255 means unpassable)

'''41 / 29:''' Time units used to fly across the tile. (255 means unpassable)

For [39] to [41], values range from 0 to 8, or are 255. There are only a few places where they are not all the same ([39]=[40]=[41]):

Walk Slide Fly File Description

2 0 2 Avenger Middle ramp object

255 255 4 Arctic Water pools in ice (18 ground MCDs)

2 2 0 U_Base Death ''objects'' for large round containers in alien bases (four quadrants)...
thus, their remnants don't ''add'' TUs for fliers

1 1 0 U_Base Little green plant objects found on black "base garden" flooring

2 2 0 Urbits Two death objects (splinters on ground) for city's tall green picket fence
(one is a North-wall fence, the other is a West-wall fence)

Which of the three movement types a given unit uses is determined by [[UNITREF.DAT|UnitRef[11]]]. Note that by default, ALL units are "walkers".

'''42 / 2A:''' Armor of tile.

*Tile must take this amount of damage to be destroyed, at which point it changes to mcd[44].
*Terrain items do not "remember" damage (like units); terrain is either destroyed (if damage >= armor) or not.
*Some things are set to 255 to mean "indestructible" but actually, anything >100 is indestructible in a non-hacked game, and anything >127 (for explosives, 255/2) or >191 (firearms, 255x.75) cannot be destroyed, even in a hacked game (see [[Damage]] re: Damage to terrain).
*With explosions, all four terrain items in the tile are hit by the same strength, but firearm shots target only one of them.
*For a loopy exception to explosions being equally applied (due to erroneous data), see [[Explosions#Mile-High Madness|Mountain Madness]].
*''[[user:NKF|NKF]]:'' I suppose you could make a gate out of this by creating two tiles, each easily destroyed, which change to the other when hit. One could be walked across, the other could not.

'''43 / 2B:''' [[Explosions#HE Block|HE Blockage]]

'''44 / 2C:''' Tile becomes a tile of this type (i.e., this other MCD record in the same MCD file) when destroyed. Also known as the '''death tile'''. Also see [53].

'''Note:''' If [44]=0, it means there is no death tile per se; it reverts to a "raw earth" (BLANKS[01]) tile if on ground, or nothing if in air. (It does not revert to the MCD id 0 record in the current collection.)

'''45 / 2D:''' The higher this is, the less likely the tile will be set on fire.

'''46 / 2E:''' If the tile is a door ([30] or [35]), the tile will become this tile number when opened. Animation [0] (see [0] to [7]) is shown until someone walks through the door, in which case it cycles through its animation stopping and holding Animation [7]. Then it will return to a closed door next turn.

'''47 / 2F:''' Unknown - Always 0. [[TERRAIN#MCD Editor|MCDEdit]] calls this "Keycode".

'''48 / 30:''' Signed value; add this to the graphical Y offset of units or objects on this tile. A.k.a. terrain level.

'''49 / 31:''' Subtract this value from the graphical Y offset of the tile image (used for hills).

'''50 / 32:''' Unknown - Always 0.

'''51 / 33:''' From 0 to 10, amount of light blocked by tile.
0 Blocks no light.
''... up to ...''
10 Blocks all light.

'''52 / 34:''' Footstep sound effect. Most likely an index to the .CAT file RAW wave ''-[http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/Map-Control-Data-MCD-long-Post-t1468.html BladeFireLight]
0 Not used in XCOM (makes a metal sound if hacked); is used on TFTD for some objects ''-[[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]]''
1 Metal
2 Normal (Grass, Wood, Dirt)
3 Three mountain ground tiles, and some city apt. furniture objects that can't be walked on?
(six furniture objects might've been - but they're death tiles that nothing points to)
Uses same sound as 6 in DOS version.
4 Pool of water (Not used in XCOM)
5 Sand (Desert)
6 Martian ground (DOS version), snow (CE version)
7 Snow (only DOS version, Not used in XCOM, Arctic terrain actually uses 2)
'''53 / 35:''' Tile type:
0 Floor
1 West Wall
2 North Wall
3 Object

In the map, there are four bytes per tile: One each for the floor, west wall, north wall and object. If one of those changes (eg Is destroyed, or in the case of a door, opened), it is removed from the map and a new object is placed instead. This byte is used to work out which of the four map bytes should recieve the new object.

For example, in the mountains, if you destroy the ground tile you get an object (tree stump). The new tile gets written into the fourth byte of the map record, even though the original tile that was destroyed belonged in the first byte.

As for the potential for change in tile type when becoming death tile ([44]): There are 22 instances of [[Explosions#Mile-High Madness|Mountain Madness]] (ground to object), 1 instance of North Wall becoming an object (XCOM1 northwall door becomes rubble), one MCD record with tile type of '''10''' (Barn 7 which looks like a North Wall and becomes northwall when killed; obviously a typo'd Tile Type), and 31 total instances on 18 different tilesets where objects become ground upon dying (probably to "scorched earth", but this was not checked).

'''54 / 36:''' Explosive type; [55] must be >0:
0 HE
1 Smoke
''Notes:''
#To see explosive objects in XCOM, see [[Explosions#Explosive Map Objects]].
#Type 0 (HE) explosions follow the usual rules for [[explosions]] (average damage to units decreases by 10 per tile outward, etc.).
#Hackers: Type 0 (HE) terrain items with little or no armor ([42]=0) are obliterated before exploding (i.e., they won't explode, no matter how high [55] is). Probably also depends on, if it was a very big blast relative to the armor.
#Chain reactions are exceedingly difficult to set up (per Hobbes). Most of the time when you see e.g. the four sections of the Navigator's table explode, it's because you used explosives that actually set off each one individually. It has to do with a balance of, among other things, not obliterating the object (see previous point).
#Type 1 (Smoke) explosives are strange, and mainly only affect aliens - and very haphazardly at that. XCOM units are only very rarely affected; I could only get it to work if they were 1) unarmored, 2) on a diagonal, and 3) no other objects are "in the way" between the blast moving "over and up" or "up and over" to the diagonal (blast propagation never moves directly diagonally per se; see [[Explosions#Playing With Fire]]). ''-MTR''
#Chain reactions are not possible with Type 1 (Smoke) explosive objects.
#Also, when dealing with smoke damage, remember that if there is already tons of smoke on the map (filling up the smoke table) such that no new smoke can appear, you might get unexpected results (or no effect). ''[[user:Hobbes|Hobbes]]:'' One strange thing that can happen when there's already too much smoke on the map and an object with [54]=1 explodes is that the alien dies and in the dying animation there's smoke on that square. ''Just in the dying animation, not after he's down? -MTR'' - ''I can't remember right now if the smoke remains afterward. Next time it happens I will check it [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 12:00, 18 Nov 2005 (PST)''
#There are no "naturally occuring" HE explosives tiles in UFO. All explosive objects are MCD[54]=1.
#TFTD uses both values for [54], 0 (more common, like the barrels on Port) and 1 (the Synomium device on Grunge/Artifact Site).

'''55 / 37:''' Strength of explosion when tile is destroyed.

'''56 / 38:''' Smoke blockage. This is set to 0 for all UFO tiles!

'''''Perhaps [36] is used only? A varying [56] might have been where the 2 un-used smoke sprites would have come in. --[[User:Danial|Danial]]'''''

'''57 / 39:''' The amount of turns this tile will burn for.

'''58 / 3A:''' Brightness of tile. Amount of light produced.

11 MCDs produce light: 7 alien base objects (several pulsing fuel pods and several 4-part round "museum containers"), 2 XCOM base ground tiles, and 2 city objects (street lamp and large standing room lamp). See [[Night_Missions#Artificial_Lighting|Night Missions]] for pictures. Oddly, values range from 1 for the street lamp to 16 for the alien base museum containers, so lower values must be brighter. The [[Night Missions|distances]] of projected light have yet to be determined, but note that flares and personal lighting ignore vertical distance... at night, a soldier can see aliens on the ground exactly 9 tiles away, regardless of whether the soldier is at ground level or 4 levels high.

''In practise, it seems if this is not zero then the tile will be fully illuminated regardless of the value. - [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 06:48, 20 June 2008 (PDT)''

'''59 / 3B:''' Special properties of tile. Determines what is salvaged at end of mission:
0 ''No Special Properties''
1 Starting Point ''(place to Abort mission)''
2 [[UFO Power Source]]
3 [[UFO Navigation]]
4 [[UFO Construction]]
5 [[Alien Food]]
6 [[Alien Reproduction]]
7 [[Alien Entertainment]]
8 [[Alien Surgery]]
9 [[Examination Room]]
10 [[Alien Alloys]]
11 [[Alien Habitat]]
12 Dead Tile
13 End Point ''(from surface of Mars to base)''
14 Alien Brain ''(final mission victory condition)''

'''60 / 3C:''' Set to 1 for most (but not all) non-death-tile XCOM base objects (TileType=3). All other MCD records set to 0. [[TERRAIN#MCD Editor|MCDEdit]] calls this "Victory Points" - so presumably you lose VPs based on how much of your base is destroyed?

'''61 / 3D:''' Almost half (560 of 1317) MCD records have widely varying values here, from 1 to 255 with no apparent pattern or preferred value. The remaining MCD records are 0. Some kind of pointer?

==List of MCD Files==
Here are the 27 MCD files in XCOM and a list of the number of records in each (1,317 total):

<table {{StdCenterTable}} class="sortable">
<tr {{StdDescTable_Heading}}><th width="100" align="left">File</th><th>Terrain</th><th>Records</th></tr>
<tr><td align="left">avenger</td><td>Avenger</td><td>59</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">barn</td><td>Farm</td><td>29</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">blanks</td><td>All</td><td>2</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">brain</td><td>Alien Base</td><td>4</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">cultitav</td><td>Farm</td><td>37</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">desert</td><td>Desert</td><td>66</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">forest</td><td>Forest</td><td>83</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">frniture</td><td>City</td><td>26</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">jungle</td><td>Jungle</td><td>82</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">lightnin</td><td>Lightning</td><td>42</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">mars</td><td>Cydonia</td><td>36</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">mount</td><td>Mountain</td><td>78</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">plane</td><td>Skyranger</td><td>65</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">polar</td><td>Polar</td><td>81</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">roads</td><td>City</td><td>23</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">ufo1</td><td>Small Scout</td><td>20</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">urban</td><td>City</td><td>112</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">urbits</td><td>City</td><td>25</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">u_base</td><td>Alien Base</td><td>67</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">u_bits</td><td>UFOs</td><td>8</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">u_disec2</td><td>UFOs</td><td>17</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">u_ext02</td><td>UFOs</td><td>34</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">u_oper2</td><td>UFOs</td><td>15</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">u_pods</td><td>UFO/Alien Base</td><td>11</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">u_wall02</td><td>UFO/Alien Base/Cydonia</td><td>47</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">xbase1</td><td>X-COM Base</td><td>97</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">xbase2</td><td>X-COM Base</td><td>62</td></tr></table>

And here's the same list for TFTD:

File Terrain Records
asunk Sunken Galleon 50
atlantis Atlantis 77
barracud Barracuda 46
blanks All 2
cargo1 Cargo Ship 103
cargo2 Cargo Ship 13
cargo3 Cargo Ship 6
coral Coral 28
crypt1 Crypt 45
crypt2 Crypt 49
crypt3 Crypt 12
crypt4 Crypt 7
debris Seabed 50
deckc Liner Ship (Top) 18
entry Entry 12
grunge1 Artifact Site 38
grunge2 Artifact Site 8
grunge3 Artifact Site 10
grunge4 Artifact Site 37
hammer Hammerhead 44
island1 Island 50
island2 Island 50
island3 Island 35
leviath Leviathan 47
linera Liner Ship 99
linerb Liner Ship 24
linerc Liner Ship 40
linerd Liner Ship 23
manta Manta 44
msunk1 Sunken Ship 50
msunk2 Sunken Ship 29
mu Mu 80
organic1 Alien Base/Level/Entry 96
organic2 Alien Base/Level 10
organic3 Alien Base/Level 4
pipes Pipes 55
planes Sunken Plane 79
port01 Port 95
port02 Port 78
psynom Alien Base/Level 2
pyramid Artifact 24
rocks Artifact/Seabed/Galleon 15
sand several 20
sea several 18
triton Triton 46
uext1 ? 4
uext2 USO/Entry 9
uext3 USO/Entry 25
ufobits several 5
uint1 USO 41
uint2 USO 11
uint3 USO 14
volc Volcanic 80
weeds Artifact/Coral/Seabed 10
xbases1 X-COM Base 87
xbases2 X-COM Base 42
xbases3 X-COM Base 37
xbases4 X-COM Base 43
xbases5 X-COM Base 42
xbits Cargo Ship 39

==Additional Information==

===MikeTheRed's MCD Database===
An Acccess 2000 copy of all MCD data is [[Media:XcomMCD.zip|here]]. It's from X-COM DOS 1.4, but AFAIK, all X-COM versions use the same data (even down to the buggy [[Explosions#Mile-High_Madness|Mile-High Madness]] MCD record). You will need to use this wiki page to understand it; I did not name the fields. They're just called by their offset address (see above). This Access database can be readily exported to Excel if you want. Or contact me. There are also a few files giving overall stats; the "Exclude" field for tblFileTypes only means, I excluded them for most counts I've made. There are also a few queries that might or might not be helpful.

===BladeFireLight's MCD Info===
Another in-depth look at MCD (and more) can be found on [http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t1468.html this] message by BladeFireLight. His post also contains a [http://www.HexWorkshop.com HexWorkshop] template for viewing MCD files in a logical manner.

===MCD Editor===
Koralt's MCDEdit can view or modify MCD files. Find it here: [http://mypage.bluewin.ch/xcom/mcdedit.zip mcdedit.zip]. To see a screencap, scroll to the very bottom of BladeFireLight's MCD posting (above). MCDEdit needs [http://mypage.bluewin.ch/xcom/vbrun200.zip vbrun200] to run!

===MapView===
DaiShiva has an excellent utility called [http://www.daishiva.com/phpBB2/generic.php?page=progLinks.shtml MapView] for viewing or editing maps. However, it does not allow editing of MCD terrain items per se, AFAIK; just moving/placement of them. Caution: You must install the extensive Microsoft .NET platform to use MapView; see DaiShiva's site.

===BombBloke's Hacked Desert Terrain===
[[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] has a numerical (ground) tileset which makes weapon damage blast testing easy as pie. It also has a little applet that lets you edit MCD variables Armor [42], HE Block [43], and Explosion Strength [55] (but not type, [54]), and it includes all four types of terrain item. Find his hacked terrain
[http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=746&st=195&# here] or bundled with a savegame [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8701&st=114&# here]. To see a screencap of the tiles in action, see [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8701&st=112&# this] message.

[[Category: Terrain]]
[[Category:Game Files]]

Talk:SMOKBIT.DAT

2006-09-14T14:35:49Z

Quantifier:

Don't suppose you have any more info on the format used here, Quantifier? Bit fields typically only allow for two possibilities per index, but with fire and smoke there are three: Fire, smoke, or nothing at all.

Memory is a bit foggy but I think it's also possible for smoke and fire to inhabit the same map index.

- [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 04:28, 14 September 2006 (PDT)

----
For now I don't know how this file works. I didn't notice in-game effects of editing it.

When I filled it with some values, they stayed through end of turn, and changed only around actual smoke clouds, so it's not rebuilt from scratch every turn.

It is possible to have fire and smoke at the same tile, but you will see only flames. Smoke will show next turn on adjacent tiles.

--Quantifier 07:35, 14 September 2006 (PDT)

SMOKREF.DAT

2006-09-14T13:52:08Z

Quantifier: /* Structure */

==General Information==
400 records of 9 values of one byte each. Total of 3600 bytes.

Smoke always seems to be of the same density in game,
dispite there being enough graphics for three denisties.
Need to research more to see if thicker smoke is used -
even a blaster bomb doesn't seem to do the job!

==Structure==
'''0:''' X position of smoke/fire.

'''1:''' Y position of smoke/fire.

'''2:''' Z position of smoke/fire.

'''3:''' Time smoke will last.

'''4:''' Time fire will last.

'''5:''' Un-used?? Never seen it flag.

'''6:''' Fire or smoke?
0 Record unused
1 Fire
2 Smoke

'''7:''' Flags 1 sometimes...

'''8:''' Ranges from 0 to 3.

Animation frame offset. Probably set at random, to break tile pattern in cloud of smoke.

==See Also==
* [[Saved Game Files]]
* [[Saved_Game_Files#Battlescape_Files|Battlescape Files]]
* [[Smoke and Fire]]

Talk:BGLOB.DAT

2006-09-13T05:54:45Z

Quantifier:

Would it be fair to say that of the two values, the first is the "minimum" darkness level of any otherwise unlit or uncovered tile, and the second is the "maximum" darkness level of a tile that has light blocked from it?

That is to say, all unlit tiles are at least bglob[0], but no more then bglob[1], dark. - [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 22:05, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

----

I don't think I get what you mean. When TERMP is calculated, it checks (apropriate for this tile) value from BGLOB and won't make a tile darker than this.
Without additional light sources you won't get shadow value other than those two.
--Quantifier 22:54, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

Night Missions

2006-09-12T22:20:01Z

Quantifier: /* Flares */ new image

Night missions are very challenging as the visibility is about a third of day missions.
It is possible to avoid most night missions by delaying your landing until daytime.
Night [[Terror Mission]]s will disappear before daytime unless you can keep the site continually targeted with different aircraft. If you only have one [[Skyranger]] you may find yourself landing at night.

The most important additional operation in night missions is to manage your illumination. It comes in four varieties - flares, fires, artificial lighting, and personal lighting. But first, an important message about alien night vision.

== Alien Nightvision ==
In full daylight, every unit in the game can see up to 20 tiles away (counting from zero where the unit is standing), not counting obstructions to [[Line of sight]].

At night, your units cannot see enemies that stand in dark places. Personal light carried by soldiers illuminates enemies up to 9 tiles away, ''but aliens can still see 20''. '''Aliens always see the full 20''' (and night missions can end in disaster!) Anything you do to improve lighting only affects ''you''. Your flares do not make you more obvious to aliens, etc. - aliens can always see just fine.

Although dusk or dawn battlescapes clearly have light levels intermediate between day and night, there is no visual range in-between. It is either 9 or 20. ''(Needs testing: Can the amount of sunlight on the Geoscape somehow be used to accurately determine if you'll wind up with full night or not? Oceans seem to have the clearest delineation... can they be accurately used as "longitudinal indicators"? - [[User:MikeTheRed|MTR]])

''I tried some time ago to create a check between GEOSCAPE.EXE and TACTICAL.EXE (for automatic night/day uniform camouflage change). Unfortunately, MISSDAT directory doesn't have BGLOB.DAT file (which stores ambient light value), and I went out of ideas. Probably it is calculated from battle time and coordinates. --Quantifier

Note that visual range and lighting rules ignore elevation levels. If you can see 9 (or 20) when both you and your visual target are on the ground, you will also be able to see them when you're flying 4 stories high and they're on the ground 9 (or 20) tiles away, ignoring vertical distance. Elevation differences do not add to distance for vision and lighting.

== Flares ==
[[image:FlarePattern.png|right|thumb|202px|Pattern of light produced by Flares and Personal Lighting. Numbers refer to value that palette is shifted to darker colours. Line shows effective radius - outside it light is purely cosmetic.]] Start combat with some of your soldiers holding flares. The first soldiers shown on the combat load-out screen will be the first out the door. The smallest number of [[Inventory_TU_Table|inventory TUs]] are needed to move something from your shoulder to your hand (3 TUs), although the belt and leg are a close second (4 TUs).

Flares can be picked up and re-thrown. Try to leapfrog flares as you progress.

Flares cause a circle of light of effective radius 9 (not counting ground-zero tile), diameter 19 (including GZ). Graphically radius is 15, but at the edge there is not enough light to reveal enemies. They cast the exact same amount/pattern of light as Personal Lighting (below). In real life, something seen in very dim light would probably only be visible to the closest person, but this is not the case in X-COM. If anyone can see an alien, everyone can (as long as they have [[Line of sight]]). I guess everyone's in radio contact.

Due to the fact that both soldiers and flares have radius 9 light patterns, flares should be thrown approx. 18 tiles away (laterally; less for diagonally) for complete coverage. Of course, this doesn't take into account that you will be moving, etc. Likewise, flares should be about 18 tiles away from each other. A hexagon of flares around a soldier will cause almost complete coverage out to approximately 27 tiles -- further than your visual range.

It is possible to see the outline of an alien against a light backdrop if you get lucky, even though no one can "officially" see him (and get the glowing red number). This can happen if, e.g., the alien is elevated. The edge of a lit area (9 tiles from a flare or soldier) is extremely dim, making it impossible to see an alien just in front of an edge. But an elevated alien is in profile against farther, less-dim parts of the illuminated area. It can also happen in situations where an alien is just off to the side of a well-lit area, due to light being blocked from hitting his tile by, e.g., the corner of a building.

Using the [[Throwing_Accuracy#Throwing_Distance|throwing formula]] vs. flare [[Item_Weight|weight]] of 3, the weakest soldier ([[Strength|STR]] 20) can throw a flare approx. 17 tiles, and the strongest soldier (STR 70) can throw it approx. 58 tiles - all the way across even the largest map (except diagonally). BUT, as pointed out by NKF, there is an unfortunate limit on how high an object can go before its arc intercepts the fourth-level "ceiling", which causes the confusing/annoying "Unable to throw here!" message even when the route is obviously clear. Ceiling interception appears to make the actual maximum throwing distance approx. 35 tiles. ''(More testing needed, pls.)'' Unfortunately, the stronger you are, the more a percent of your possible distance gets clipped, but even fairly weak soldiers may see some clipping. ''(THAT'S why we often get this frustrating message when trying to throw flares as far as we can!)

As a parlor game: Flares illuminate 269 tiles (see inset). Small maps (4x4 [[Module|tilesets]] for small and medium scouts) have 1,600 tiles and would need 5.9 flares to totally cover them, using the extremely simple (and unrealistic) math of 1600/269. Large maps (5x5) have 2,500 tiles and would need 9.3 flares to totally cover them. This does not take into account any issues of properly joining/overlapping the patterns, etc., nor that your soldiers or other sources produce light. Anyway, there it is.

For what it's worth, flares that are dropped or picked up do not change their light status until the start of the next turn. To wit: If you drop a flare and walk away, it does not give illumination until the next turn. (Not that it matters, since your soldier had the same range-9 lighting as the flare when he was standing there.) And if you pick up a flare and walk away, its lighting remains behind until next turn. Conversely, if flares are [[Throwing Accuracy|thrown]], they do immediately light up their area.

Out of all the gear in the game, flares are the most susceptible to [[explosions]]. Unlike any other item, they are [[Explosions#Object_Destruction|destroyed]] by even the weakest blast damage possible in the game (the edge of a standard grenade's blast). So you might think twice before fragging an alien revealed by a flare. (Or might not!)

== Personal lighting ==
As discussed under Flares (above), soldiers can see to a radius of 9 around them, and are effectively light sources exactly equal to flares. This does not matter to aliens; they always see the full 20, day or night.

If you have just mind controlled an alien, you will not get its personal lighting until you move someone (including your new pet alien, or any other MC'd aliens). For these purposes, turning in place does not cause personal lighting to come on - only actual movement does. Since movement of your new pet can trigger reaction fire, move one of your 'back field' troops if you want to light up the pet's area while playing it safe re: your new pet drawing reaction fire. Note that turning in place also does not cause reaction fire.

More specifically, ''aliens do not check for personal lighting status '''change''' until someone on your team uses '''energy'''''. For example, using an elevator or flying up/down will ''not'' cause newly-MC'd aliens to light up. This also means that ''aliens that you MC'd last turn, will stay lit this turn, '''until''' one of your guys moves in a way that uses energy''. This might be useful on night missions or in those dark, windy alien base 'gardens' - at the start of a turn, aliens you MC'd last turn stay lit until one of your soldiers moves. Then again, while all of this is true, you will '''still''' get the glowing 'alien seen' number, even if you do move - and it's the most important thing of all, by far. Perhaps these insights will help, some cold dark night.

== Incendiaries ==
[[Incendiary]] ammo also provides light, plus it can travel further and do some damage if it hits the enemy. It does not do very much damage, though (see [[Incendiary]]) - never rely on it to kill an alien.

Pattern around map tile on fire is identical to those of flares and personal light.

Load up the [[Auto Cannon]] with Incendiary before starting the mission. Use on snap-shot to light up the depths of the map, further than flares can be thrown. Give the soldier a back-up pistol.

Incendiary ammo is also available for the [[Heavy Cannon]] and [[Rocket Launcher]], but the Auto Cannon's fast shot makes it best for the mission - a soldier can still use his pistol the same turn.

Enemy units on fire do not provide any light.

== Artificial Lighting ==
Certain items in the game produce their own light. This can be a big bonus on night terror city missions. Explosives and shots that can destroy the object will stop the lighting (see terrain damage [[Damage#Overview|here]]).

There are 11 [[TERRAIN|terrain]] items that produce light:
*7 alien base objects (several pulsing fuel pods and several 4-part round "museum containers"),
*2 X-COM base ground tiles, and
*2 city objects (street lamp and large standing room lamp).

''See byte 58 of the [[TERRAIN|MCD]] file structure for more info on lighting data.

== Behind the scenes ==
For those techies who like to look [[Under The Hood]], the X-COM engine handles varying levels of illumination quite cleverly. The palette is arranged so that the base colours of a tile can be added to the degree of illumination to get the dimmer colours.

==See Also==

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

File:FlarePattern.png

2006-09-12T22:14:14Z

Quantifier:

Light pattern of flares, fire, soldier personal light.
Enemies outside the line between 9 and 10 will not be illuminated.

File:FlarePattern.png

2006-09-12T22:12:14Z

Quantifier: Light pattern of flares, fire, soldier personal light.

Light pattern of flares, fire, soldier personal light.

Night Missions

2006-09-12T21:58:52Z

Quantifier:

Night missions are very challenging as the visibility is about a third of day missions.
It is possible to avoid most night missions by delaying your landing until daytime.
Night [[Terror Mission]]s will disappear before daytime unless you can keep the site continually targeted with different aircraft. If you only have one [[Skyranger]] you may find yourself landing at night.

The most important additional operation in night missions is to manage your illumination. It comes in four varieties - flares, fires, artificial lighting, and personal lighting. But first, an important message about alien night vision.

== Alien Nightvision ==
In full daylight, every unit in the game can see up to 20 tiles away (counting from zero where the unit is standing), not counting obstructions to [[Line of sight]].

At night, your units cannot see enemies that stand in dark places. Personal light carried by soldiers illuminates enemies up to 9 tiles away, ''but aliens can still see 20''. '''Aliens always see the full 20''' (and night missions can end in disaster!) Anything you do to improve lighting only affects ''you''. Your flares do not make you more obvious to aliens, etc. - aliens can always see just fine.

Although dusk or dawn battlescapes clearly have light levels intermediate between day and night, there is no visual range in-between. It is either 9 or 20. ''(Needs testing: Can the amount of sunlight on the Geoscape somehow be used to accurately determine if you'll wind up with full night or not? Oceans seem to have the clearest delineation... can they be accurately used as "longitudinal indicators"? - [[User:MikeTheRed|MTR]])

''I tried some time ago to create a check between GEOSCAPE.EXE and TACTICAL.EXE (for automatic night/day uniform camouflage change). Unfortunately, MISSDAT directory doesn't have BGLOB.DAT file (which stores ambient light value), and I went out of ideas. Probably it is calculated from battle time and coordinates. --Quantifier

Note that visual range and lighting rules ignore elevation levels. If you can see 9 (or 20) when both you and your visual target are on the ground, you will also be able to see them when you're flying 4 stories high and they're on the ground 9 (or 20) tiles away, ignoring vertical distance. Elevation differences do not add to distance for vision and lighting.

== Flares ==
[[image:FlarePattern.gif|right|thumb|350px|Pattern of light produced by Flares and Personal Lighting. Numbers refer to the distance using the [[Explosions#Distance_from_Ground_Zero|walking TUs]] method seen for explosions (although illumination does not exactly follow this pattern).]] Start combat with some of your soldiers holding flares. The first soldiers shown on the combat load-out screen will be the first out the door. The smallest number of [[Inventory_TU_Table|inventory TUs]] are needed to move something from your shoulder to your hand (3 TUs), although the belt and leg are a close second (4 TUs).

Flares can be picked up and re-thrown. Try to leapfrog flares as you progress.

Flares cause a circle of light of effective radius 9 (not counting ground-zero tile), diameter 19 (including GZ). Graphically radius is 15, but at the edge there is not enough light to reveal enemies. They cast the exact same amount/pattern of light as Personal Lighting (below). In real life, something seen in very dim light would probably only be visible to the closest person, but this is not the case in X-COM. If anyone can see an alien, everyone can (as long as they have [[Line of sight]]). I guess everyone's in radio contact.

Due to the fact that both soldiers and flares have radius 9 light patterns, flares should be thrown approx. 18 tiles away (laterally; less for diagonally) for complete coverage. Of course, this doesn't take into account that you will be moving, etc. Likewise, flares should be about 18 tiles away from each other. A hexagon of flares around a soldier will cause almost complete coverage out to approximately 27 tiles -- further than your visual range.

It is possible to see the outline of an alien against a light backdrop if you get lucky, even though no one can "officially" see him (and get the glowing red number). This can happen if, e.g., the alien is elevated. The edge of a lit area (9 tiles from a flare or soldier) is extremely dim, making it impossible to see an alien just in front of an edge. But an elevated alien is in profile against farther, less-dim parts of the illuminated area. It can also happen in situations where an alien is just off to the side of a well-lit area, due to light being blocked from hitting his tile by, e.g., the corner of a building.

Using the [[Throwing_Accuracy#Throwing_Distance|throwing formula]] vs. flare [[Item_Weight|weight]] of 3, the weakest soldier ([[Strength|STR]] 20) can throw a flare approx. 17 tiles, and the strongest soldier (STR 70) can throw it approx. 58 tiles - all the way across even the largest map (except diagonally). BUT, as pointed out by NKF, there is an unfortunate limit on how high an object can go before its arc intercepts the fourth-level "ceiling", which causes the confusing/annoying "Unable to throw here!" message even when the route is obviously clear. Ceiling interception appears to make the actual maximum throwing distance approx. 35 tiles. ''(More testing needed, pls.)'' Unfortunately, the stronger you are, the more a percent of your possible distance gets clipped, but even fairly weak soldiers may see some clipping. ''(THAT'S why we often get this frustrating message when trying to throw flares as far as we can!)

As a parlor game: Flares illuminate 269 tiles (see inset). Small maps (4x4 [[Module|tilesets]] for small and medium scouts) have 1,600 tiles and would need 5.9 flares to totally cover them, using the extremely simple (and unrealistic) math of 1600/269. Large maps (5x5) have 2,500 tiles and would need 9.3 flares to totally cover them. This does not take into account any issues of properly joining/overlapping the patterns, etc., nor that your soldiers or other sources produce light. Anyway, there it is.

For what it's worth, flares that are dropped or picked up do not change their light status until the start of the next turn. To wit: If you drop a flare and walk away, it does not give illumination until the next turn. (Not that it matters, since your soldier had the same range-9 lighting as the flare when he was standing there.) And if you pick up a flare and walk away, its lighting remains behind until next turn. Conversely, if flares are [[Throwing Accuracy|thrown]], they do immediately light up their area.

Out of all the gear in the game, flares are the most susceptible to [[explosions]]. Unlike any other item, they are [[Explosions#Object_Destruction|destroyed]] by even the weakest blast damage possible in the game (the edge of a standard grenade's blast). So you might think twice before fragging an alien revealed by a flare. (Or might not!)

== Personal lighting ==
As discussed under Flares (above), soldiers can see to a radius of 9 around them, and are effectively light sources exactly equal to flares. This does not matter to aliens; they always see the full 20, day or night.

If you have just mind controlled an alien, you will not get its personal lighting until you move someone (including your new pet alien, or any other MC'd aliens). For these purposes, turning in place does not cause personal lighting to come on - only actual movement does. Since movement of your new pet can trigger reaction fire, move one of your 'back field' troops if you want to light up the pet's area while playing it safe re: your new pet drawing reaction fire. Note that turning in place also does not cause reaction fire.

More specifically, ''aliens do not check for personal lighting status '''change''' until someone on your team uses '''energy'''''. For example, using an elevator or flying up/down will ''not'' cause newly-MC'd aliens to light up. This also means that ''aliens that you MC'd last turn, will stay lit this turn, '''until''' one of your guys moves in a way that uses energy''. This might be useful on night missions or in those dark, windy alien base 'gardens' - at the start of a turn, aliens you MC'd last turn stay lit until one of your soldiers moves. Then again, while all of this is true, you will '''still''' get the glowing 'alien seen' number, even if you do move - and it's the most important thing of all, by far. Perhaps these insights will help, some cold dark night.

== Incendiaries ==
[[Incendiary]] ammo also provides light, plus it can travel further and do some damage if it hits the enemy. It does not do very much damage, though (see [[Incendiary]]) - never rely on it to kill an alien.

Pattern around map tile on fire is identical to those of flares and personal light.

Load up the [[Auto Cannon]] with Incendiary before starting the mission. Use on snap-shot to light up the depths of the map, further than flares can be thrown. Give the soldier a back-up pistol.

Incendiary ammo is also available for the [[Heavy Cannon]] and [[Rocket Launcher]], but the Auto Cannon's fast shot makes it best for the mission - a soldier can still use his pistol the same turn.

Enemy units on fire do not provide any light.

== Artificial Lighting ==
Certain items in the game produce their own light. This can be a big bonus on night terror city missions. Explosives and shots that can destroy the object will stop the lighting (see terrain damage [[Damage#Overview|here]]).

There are 11 [[TERRAIN|terrain]] items that produce light:
*7 alien base objects (several pulsing fuel pods and several 4-part round "museum containers"),
*2 X-COM base ground tiles, and
*2 city objects (street lamp and large standing room lamp).

''See byte 58 of the [[TERRAIN|MCD]] file structure for more info on lighting data.

== Behind the scenes ==
For those techies who like to look [[Under The Hood]], the X-COM engine handles varying levels of illumination quite cleverly. The palette is arranged so that the base colours of a tile can be added to the degree of illumination to get the dimmer colours.

==See Also==

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

TERMP.DAT

2006-09-12T19:06:07Z

Quantifier:

This file is only used by tactical saves.

Length of file is map size (overall number of tiles) + some 4 bytes at the end.

File contains data about light from non-moving sources (map objects, flares, fire) and ambient light. It is recalculated when:
* a flare is thrown (not dropped/picked up)
* HE ammo explodes
* explosive terrain goes off (only HE, not smoke)
* a fire starts
* player ends turn

Ambient light levels are stored in [[BGLOB.DAT]]. Together with [[SOURCEMP.DAT]] it is full info about current lighting of the map. Actual lighting of tile is lower value from both files. Exact meaning of values is a number that pallette is shifted towards darker colours.

==See Also==
* [[Saved Game Files]]
* [[Saved_Game_Files#Battlescape_Files|Battlescape Files]]

TERMP.DAT

2006-09-12T18:51:12Z

Quantifier:

This file is only used by tactical saves.

Length of file is map size (overall number of tiles) + some 4 bytes at the end.

File contains data about light from non-moving sources (map objects, flares, fire) and ambient light. It is recalculated when:
* a flare is thrown (not dropped/picked up)
* HE ammo explodes
* a fire starts
* player ends turn

Ambient light levels are stored in [[BGLOB.DAT]]. Together with [[SOURCEMP.DAT]] it is full info about current lighting of the map. Actual lighting of tile is lower value from both files. Exact meaning of values is a number that pallette is shifted towards darker colours.

==See Also==
* [[Saved Game Files]]
* [[Saved_Game_Files#Battlescape_Files|Battlescape Files]]

Night Missions

2006-09-12T17:52:49Z

Quantifier: /* Incendiaries */

Night missions are very challenging as the visibility is about a third of day missions.
It is possible to avoid most night missions by delaying your landing until daytime.
Night [[Terror Mission]]s will disappear before daytime unless you can keep the site continually targeted with different aircraft. If you only have one [[Skyranger]] you may find yourself landing at night.

The most important additional operation in night missions is to manage your illumination. It comes in four varieties - flares, fires, artificial lighting, and personal lighting. But first, an important message about alien night vision.

== Alien Nightvision ==
In full daylight, every unit in the game can see up to 20 tiles away (counting from zero where the unit is standing), not counting obstructions to [[Line of sight]].

At night, your units can only see 9 tiles away, ''but aliens can still see 20''. '''Aliens always see the full 20''' (and night missions can end in disaster!) Anything you do to improve lighting only affects ''you''. Your flares do not make you more obvious to aliens, etc. - aliens can always see just fine.

Although dusk or dawn battlescapes clearly have light levels intermediate between day and night, these are actually day battles for visual purposes (range of 20). Visual range is either 9 at full night, or 20 at all other times. ''(Needs testing: Can the amount of sunlight on the Geoscape somehow be used to accurately determine if you'll wind up with full night or not? Oceans seem to have the clearest delineation... can they be accurately used as "longitudinal indicators"? - [[User:MikeTheRed|MTR]])

Note that visual range and lighting rules ignore elevation levels. If you can see 9 (or 20) when both you and your visual target are on the ground, you will also be able to see them when you're flying 4 stories high and they're on the ground 9 (or 20) tiles away, ignoring vertical distance. Elevation differences do not add to distance for vision and lighting.

== Flares ==
[[image:FlarePattern.gif|right|thumb|350px|Pattern of light produced by Flares and Personal Lighting. Numbers refer to the distance using the [[Explosions#Distance_from_Ground_Zero|walking TUs]] method seen for explosions (although illumination does not exactly follow this pattern).]] Start combat with some of your soldiers holding flares. The first soldiers shown on the combat load-out screen will be the first out the door. The smallest number of [[Inventory_TU_Table|inventory TUs]] are needed to move something from your shoulder to your hand (3 TUs), although the belt and leg are a close second (4 TUs).

Flares can be picked up and re-thrown. Try to leapfrog flares as you progress.

Flares cause a circle of light of radius 9 (not counting ground-zero tile), diameter 19 (including GZ). They cast the exact same amount/pattern of light as Personal Lighting (below). In real life, something seen in very dim light would probably only be visible to the closest person, but this is not the case in X-COM. If anyone can see an alien, everyone can (as long as they have [[Line of sight]]). I guess everyone's in radio contact.

Due to the fact that both soldiers and flares have radius 9 light patterns, flares should be thrown approx. 18 tiles away (laterally; less for diagonally) for complete coverage. Of course, this doesn't take into account that you will be moving, etc. Likewise, flares should be about 18 tiles away from each other. A hexagon of flares around a soldier will cause almost complete coverage out to approximately 27 tiles -- further than your visual range.

It is possible to see the outline of an alien against a light backdrop if you get lucky, even though no one can "officially" see him (and get the glowing red number). This can happen if, e.g., the alien is elevated. The edge of a lit area (9 tiles from a flare or soldier) is extremely dim, making it impossible to see an alien just in front of an edge. But an elevated alien is in profile against farther, less-dim parts of the illuminated area. It can also happen in situations where an alien is just off to the side of a well-lit area, due to light being blocked from hitting his tile by, e.g., the corner of a building.

Using the [[Throwing_Accuracy#Throwing_Distance|throwing formula]] vs. flare [[Item_Weight|weight]] of 3, the weakest soldier ([[Strength|STR]] 20) can throw a flare approx. 17 tiles, and the strongest soldier (STR 70) can throw it approx. 58 tiles - all the way across even the largest map (except diagonally). BUT, as pointed out by NKF, there is an unfortunate limit on how high an object can go before its arc intercepts the fourth-level "ceiling", which causes the confusing/annoying "Unable to throw here!" message even when the route is obviously clear. Ceiling interception appears to make the actual maximum throwing distance approx. 35 tiles. ''(More testing needed, pls.)'' Unfortunately, the stronger you are, the more a percent of your possible distance gets clipped, but even fairly weak soldiers may see some clipping. ''(THAT'S why we often get this frustrating message when trying to throw flares as far as we can!)

As a parlor game: Flares illuminate 269 tiles (see inset). Small maps (4x4 [[Module|tilesets]] for small and medium scouts) have 1,600 tiles and would need 5.9 flares to totally cover them, using the extremely simple (and unrealistic) math of 1600/269. Large maps (5x5) have 2,500 tiles and would need 9.3 flares to totally cover them. This does not take into account any issues of properly joining/overlapping the patterns, etc., nor that your soldiers or other sources produce light. Anyway, there it is.

For what it's worth, flares that are dropped or picked up do not change their light status until the start of the next turn. To wit: If you drop a flare and walk away, it does not give illumination until the next turn. (Not that it matters, since your soldier had the same range-9 lighting as the flare when he was standing there.) And if you pick up a flare and walk away, its lighting remains behind until next turn. Conversely, if flares are [[Throwing Accuracy|thrown]], they do immediately light up their area.

Out of all the gear in the game, flares are the most susceptible to [[explosions]]. Unlike any other item, they are [[Explosions#Object_Destruction|destroyed]] by even the weakest blast damage possible in the game (the edge of a standard grenade's blast). So you might think twice before fragging an alien revealed by a flare. (Or might not!)

== Personal lighting ==
As discussed under Flares (above), soldiers can see to a radius of 9 around them, and are effectively light sources exactly equal to flares. This does not matter to aliens; they always see the full 20, day or night.

If you have just mind controlled an alien, you will not get its personal lighting until you move someone (including your new pet alien, or any other MC'd aliens). For these purposes, turning in place does not cause personal lighting to come on - only actual movement does. Since movement of your new pet can trigger reaction fire, move one of your 'back field' troops if you want to light up the pet's area while playing it safe re: your new pet drawing reaction fire. Note that turning in place also does not cause reaction fire.

More specifically, ''aliens do not check for personal lighting status '''change''' until someone on your team uses '''energy'''''. For example, using an elevator or flying up/down will ''not'' cause newly-MC'd aliens to light up. This also means that ''aliens that you MC'd last turn, will stay lit this turn, '''until''' one of your guys moves in a way that uses energy''. This might be useful on night missions or in those dark, windy alien base 'gardens' - at the start of a turn, aliens you MC'd last turn stay lit until one of your soldiers moves. Then again, while all of this is true, you will '''still''' get the glowing 'alien seen' number, even if you do move - and it's the most important thing of all, by far. Perhaps these insights will help, some cold dark night.

== Incendiaries ==
[[Incendiary]] ammo also provides light, plus it can travel further and do some damage if it hits the enemy. It does not do very much damage, though (see [[Incendiary]]) - never rely on it to kill an alien.

Pattern around map tile on fire is identical to those of flares and personal light.

Load up the [[Auto Cannon]] with Incendiary before starting the mission. Use on snap-shot to light up the depths of the map, further than flares can be thrown. Give the soldier a back-up pistol.

Incendiary ammo is also available for the [[Heavy Cannon]] and [[Rocket Launcher]], but the Auto Cannon's fast shot makes it best for the mission - a soldier can still use his pistol the same turn.

Enemy units on fire do not provide any light.

== Artificial Lighting ==
Certain items in the game produce their own light. This can be a big bonus on night terror city missions. Explosives and shots that can destroy the object will stop the lighting (see terrain damage [[Damage#Overview|here]]).

There are 11 [[TERRAIN|terrain]] items that produce light:
*7 alien base objects (several pulsing fuel pods and several 4-part round "museum containers"),
*2 X-COM base ground tiles, and
*2 city objects (street lamp and large standing room lamp).

''See byte 58 of the [[TERRAIN|MCD]] file structure for more info on lighting data.

== Behind the scenes ==
For those techies who like to look [[Under The Hood]], the X-COM engine handles varying levels of illumination quite cleverly. The palette is arranged so that the base colours of a tile can be added to the degree of illumination to get the dimmer colours.

==See Also==

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

Night Missions

2006-09-12T17:21:56Z

Quantifier:

Night missions are very challenging as the visibility is about a third of day missions.
It is possible to avoid most night missions by delaying your landing until daytime.
Night [[Terror Mission]]s will disappear before daytime unless you can keep the site continually targeted with different aircraft. If you only have one [[Skyranger]] you may find yourself landing at night.

The most important additional operation in night missions is to manage your illumination. It comes in four varieties - flares, fires, artificial lighting, and personal lighting. But first, an important message about alien night vision.

== Alien Nightvision ==
In full daylight, every unit in the game can see up to 20 tiles away (counting from zero where the unit is standing), not counting obstructions to [[Line of sight]].

At night, your units can only see 9 tiles away, ''but aliens can still see 20''. '''Aliens always see the full 20''' (and night missions can end in disaster!) Anything you do to improve lighting only affects ''you''. Your flares do not make you more obvious to aliens, etc. - aliens can always see just fine.

Although dusk or dawn battlescapes clearly have light levels intermediate between day and night, these are actually day battles for visual purposes (range of 20). Visual range is either 9 at full night, or 20 at all other times. ''(Needs testing: Can the amount of sunlight on the Geoscape somehow be used to accurately determine if you'll wind up with full night or not? Oceans seem to have the clearest delineation... can they be accurately used as "longitudinal indicators"? - [[User:MikeTheRed|MTR]])

Note that visual range and lighting rules ignore elevation levels. If you can see 9 (or 20) when both you and your visual target are on the ground, you will also be able to see them when you're flying 4 stories high and they're on the ground 9 (or 20) tiles away, ignoring vertical distance. Elevation differences do not add to distance for vision and lighting.

== Flares ==
[[image:FlarePattern.gif|right|thumb|350px|Pattern of light produced by Flares and Personal Lighting. Numbers refer to the distance using the [[Explosions#Distance_from_Ground_Zero|walking TUs]] method seen for explosions (although illumination does not exactly follow this pattern).]] Start combat with some of your soldiers holding flares. The first soldiers shown on the combat load-out screen will be the first out the door. The smallest number of [[Inventory_TU_Table|inventory TUs]] are needed to move something from your shoulder to your hand (3 TUs), although the belt and leg are a close second (4 TUs).

Flares can be picked up and re-thrown. Try to leapfrog flares as you progress.

Flares cause a circle of light of radius 9 (not counting ground-zero tile), diameter 19 (including GZ). They cast the exact same amount/pattern of light as Personal Lighting (below). In real life, something seen in very dim light would probably only be visible to the closest person, but this is not the case in X-COM. If anyone can see an alien, everyone can (as long as they have [[Line of sight]]). I guess everyone's in radio contact.

Due to the fact that both soldiers and flares have radius 9 light patterns, flares should be thrown approx. 18 tiles away (laterally; less for diagonally) for complete coverage. Of course, this doesn't take into account that you will be moving, etc. Likewise, flares should be about 18 tiles away from each other. A hexagon of flares around a soldier will cause almost complete coverage out to approximately 27 tiles -- further than your visual range.

It is possible to see the outline of an alien against a light backdrop if you get lucky, even though no one can "officially" see him (and get the glowing red number). This can happen if, e.g., the alien is elevated. The edge of a lit area (9 tiles from a flare or soldier) is extremely dim, making it impossible to see an alien just in front of an edge. But an elevated alien is in profile against farther, less-dim parts of the illuminated area. It can also happen in situations where an alien is just off to the side of a well-lit area, due to light being blocked from hitting his tile by, e.g., the corner of a building.

Using the [[Throwing_Accuracy#Throwing_Distance|throwing formula]] vs. flare [[Item_Weight|weight]] of 3, the weakest soldier ([[Strength|STR]] 20) can throw a flare approx. 17 tiles, and the strongest soldier (STR 70) can throw it approx. 58 tiles - all the way across even the largest map (except diagonally). BUT, as pointed out by NKF, there is an unfortunate limit on how high an object can go before its arc intercepts the fourth-level "ceiling", which causes the confusing/annoying "Unable to throw here!" message even when the route is obviously clear. Ceiling interception appears to make the actual maximum throwing distance approx. 35 tiles. ''(More testing needed, pls.)'' Unfortunately, the stronger you are, the more a percent of your possible distance gets clipped, but even fairly weak soldiers may see some clipping. ''(THAT'S why we often get this frustrating message when trying to throw flares as far as we can!)

As a parlor game: Flares illuminate 269 tiles (see inset). Small maps (4x4 [[Module|tilesets]] for small and medium scouts) have 1,600 tiles and would need 5.9 flares to totally cover them, using the extremely simple (and unrealistic) math of 1600/269. Large maps (5x5) have 2,500 tiles and would need 9.3 flares to totally cover them. This does not take into account any issues of properly joining/overlapping the patterns, etc., nor that your soldiers or other sources produce light. Anyway, there it is.

For what it's worth, flares that are dropped or picked up do not change their light status until the start of the next turn. To wit: If you drop a flare and walk away, it does not give illumination until the next turn. (Not that it matters, since your soldier had the same range-9 lighting as the flare when he was standing there.) And if you pick up a flare and walk away, its lighting remains behind until next turn. Conversely, if flares are [[Throwing Accuracy|thrown]], they do immediately light up their area.

Out of all the gear in the game, flares are the most susceptible to [[explosions]]. Unlike any other item, they are [[Explosions#Object_Destruction|destroyed]] by even the weakest blast damage possible in the game (the edge of a standard grenade's blast). So you might think twice before fragging an alien revealed by a flare. (Or might not!)

== Personal lighting ==
As discussed under Flares (above), soldiers can see to a radius of 9 around them, and are effectively light sources exactly equal to flares. This does not matter to aliens; they always see the full 20, day or night.

If you have just mind controlled an alien, you will not get its personal lighting until you move someone (including your new pet alien, or any other MC'd aliens). For these purposes, turning in place does not cause personal lighting to come on - only actual movement does. Since movement of your new pet can trigger reaction fire, move one of your 'back field' troops if you want to light up the pet's area while playing it safe re: your new pet drawing reaction fire. Note that turning in place also does not cause reaction fire.

More specifically, ''aliens do not check for personal lighting status '''change''' until someone on your team uses '''energy'''''. For example, using an elevator or flying up/down will ''not'' cause newly-MC'd aliens to light up. This also means that ''aliens that you MC'd last turn, will stay lit this turn, '''until''' one of your guys moves in a way that uses energy''. This might be useful on night missions or in those dark, windy alien base 'gardens' - at the start of a turn, aliens you MC'd last turn stay lit until one of your soldiers moves. Then again, while all of this is true, you will '''still''' get the glowing 'alien seen' number, even if you do move - and it's the most important thing of all, by far. Perhaps these insights will help, some cold dark night.

== Incendiaries ==
[[Incendiary]] ammo also provides light (range not yet tested), plus it can travel further and do some damage if it hits the enemy. It does not do very much damage, though (see [[Incendiary]]) - never rely on it to kill an alien.

''Illumination pattern from fire appears to be the same as from other sources (flares and personal light) --Quantifier 10:21, 12 September 2006 (PDT)

Load up the [[Auto Cannon]] with Incendiary before starting the mission. Use on snap-shot to light up the depths of the map, further than flares can be thrown. Give the soldier a back-up pistol.

Incendiary ammo is also available for the [[Heavy Cannon]] and [[Rocket Launcher]], but the Auto Cannon's fast shot makes it best for the mission - a soldier can still use his pistol the same turn.

== Artificial Lighting ==
Certain items in the game produce their own light. This can be a big bonus on night terror city missions. Explosives and shots that can destroy the object will stop the lighting (see terrain damage [[Damage#Overview|here]]).

There are 11 [[TERRAIN|terrain]] items that produce light:
*7 alien base objects (several pulsing fuel pods and several 4-part round "museum containers"),
*2 X-COM base ground tiles, and
*2 city objects (street lamp and large standing room lamp).

''See byte 58 of the [[TERRAIN|MCD]] file structure for more info on lighting data.

== Behind the scenes ==
For those techies who like to look [[Under The Hood]], the X-COM engine handles varying levels of illumination quite cleverly. The palette is arranged so that the base colours of a tile can be added to the degree of illumination to get the dimmer colours.

==See Also==

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

TERMP.DAT

2006-09-12T13:07:39Z

Quantifier:

This file is only used by tactical saves.

Length of file is map size (overall number of tiles) + some 4 bytes at the end.

File contains data about light from non-moving sources (map objects, flares, fire) and ambient light. It is recalculated on the end of turn, when a flare is thrown (not dropped/picked up), or a fire starts. Ambient light levels are stored in [[BGLOB.DAT]]. Together with [[SOURCEMP.DAT]] it is full info about current lighting of the map. Actual lighting of tile is lower value from both files. Exact meaning of values is a number that pallette is shifted towards darker colours.

==See Also==
* [[Saved Game Files]]
* [[Saved_Game_Files#Battlescape_Files|Battlescape Files]]

SMOKBIT.DAT

2006-09-12T13:06:10Z

Quantifier:

This file is only used by tactical saves. 
 
Always 1250 bytes.

It is a bitfield for fire and smoke, map tiles in order west to east, north to south, top to bottom. Least significant bit is first, most significant bit last.

==See Also==
* [[Saved Game Files]]
* [[Saved_Game_Files#Battlescape_Files|Battlescape Files]]

SOURCEMP.DAT

2006-09-09T10:39:31Z

Quantifier:

This file is only used by tactical saves.

Length of file is map size (overall number of tiles) + some 4 bytes at the end.

File contains data about light from mobile sources (soldiers' personal lights). It is recalculated every time a unit moves (does action requiring energy). Together with [[TERMP.DAT]] it is full info about current lighting of the map. Actual lighting of tile is lower value from both files. Exact meaning of values is a number that pallette is shifted towards darker colours.

==See Also==
* [[Saved Game Files]]
* [[Saved_Game_Files#Battlescape_Files|Battlescape Files]]
* [[TERMP.DAT]]

TERMP.DAT

2006-09-09T10:38:16Z

Quantifier:

This file is only used by tactical saves.

Length of file is map size (overall number of tiles) + some 4 bytes at the end.

File contains data about light from fixed sources (map objects, flares) and ambient light. It is recalculated on the end of turn, and when a flare is thrown (not dropped/picked up). Ambient light levels are stored in [[BGLOB.DAT]]. Together with [[SOURCEMP.DAT]] it is full info about current lighting of the map. Actual lighting of tile is lower value from both files. Exact meaning of values is a number that pallette is shifted towards darker colours.

==See Also==
* [[Saved Game Files]]
* [[Saved_Game_Files#Battlescape_Files|Battlescape Files]]

UFOpaedia:About

2006-04-22T15:16:35Z

Quantifier:

UFOpaedia was started in February 2005 by me, [http://www.gazchap.com Gareth Griffiths].

I thought that it would be a great idea to get together all of the X-COM fans in the world and together build up a complete encyclopaedia of everything X-COM.

What suits a task such as that better than a Wiki?

== Copyrights ==
All of the texts on this website are copyrighted to their respective authors.

X-COM, the X-COM games, and anything else that appears on this site taken from the games is copyrighted to Atari (I think they are the ones that own the X-COM trademarks these days!).

User:Quantifier

2006-03-31T20:01:20Z

Quantifier:

Things I do that make me unique:
- listening to metal music \m/,
- brewing beer and drinking beer,
- studying applied computer science,
- typing on Dvorak's keyboard,
- playing X-Com, Doom, Soldat and many others.
And that's about it.

SOUND

2006-03-30T20:45:58Z

Quantifier:

This directory contains all the sound effects and music.

There are three different versions of UFO sound engine:
* DOS, before 1.4 patch
* DOS, after 1.4 patch
* CE

==Music files==

Music for different soundcards is stored in following files:
* DOS 1.2 - for some reason music for intro is stored in separate file
** ADLIB.CAT, AINTRO.CAT - AdLib and Soundblaster
** ROLAND.CAT, RINTRO.CAT - Roland
* DOS 1.4
** ADLIB.CAT
** GM.CAT - General Midi
** DRIVERS.CAT - not exactly music file. It contains various com files for different soundcards. The appropriate files are extracted by setup, and then wrapped in sndstart.exe/sndend.exe called from main bat file.
* CE - these are just midi files, one for each music sequence

==Sound files==
The sound effects files are:
* DOS 1.2
** INTRO.CAT - intro
** SOUND1.CAT - battlescape
** SOUND2.CAT - geoscape
* DOS 1.4
** SAMPLE.CAT - geoscape
** SAMPLE2.CAT - battlescape
** SAMPLE3.CAT - intro
* CE - uses same files as 1.4. However, no sound is played in intro, only music.

==Differences between versions==
The main difference versions is quality.
* 1.2: 8000 Hz, 6 bit.
* 1.4: 11025 Hz, 8 bit.
* CE: same as 1.4, but it will play .wav files correctly with higher sampling rate hacked into game. - ''Is that what was intended to be said here? - [[User:Phoenix|Phoenix]]'' - '' The files in CE (and 1.4) contain actual waves with headers. CE does not have fixed quality setting, but uses data from those headers. - Quantifier''

The other difference are completely new files. Patch leaves old files, but they are no longer used. Most effects sound the same, but some, especially alien death screams have been changed.

Here is list of battlescape sounds:
01 snakeman movement
02 missing (empty in 1.2, garbage in 1.4)
03 shot
04 door opening
05 shot
06 explosion
07 muton death
08 celatid death
09 snakeman death
10 ethereal death
11 sectoid death
12 laser shot
13 shot
14 shot
15 tank movement
16 flying movement
17 zombie hatch? (in 1.4 same as 01)
18 weapon loading
19 plasma shot
20 plasma/laser? hit
21 ufo door opening
22 ufo door opening
23 bullet hit
24 tank destruction
25 footstep on metal
26 footstep on metal
27 footstep on normal ground
28 footstep on normal ground
29 footstep on martian ground
30 footstep on martian ground
31 footstep on pool of water
32 footstep on pool of water
33 footstep on sand
34 footstep on sand
35 footstep on snow
36 footstep on snow
37 psi amp
38 mind probe
39 object placement
40 throw
41 hovertank/cyberdisc movement
42 male scream
43 male scream
44 male scream
45 female scream
46 female scream
47 female scream
48 silacoid movement
49 some alien noises
50 .
51 .
52 .
53 ?
54 blaster launcher
55 ?

SOURCEMP.DAT

2006-03-06T09:34:18Z

Quantifier:

This file is only used by tactical saves.

Length of file is map size (overall number of tiles) + some 4 bytes at the end.

File contains data about light from mobile sources (soldiers, flares). It is recalculated every time a unit moves. Together with [[TERMP.DAT]] it is full info about current lighting of the map. Actual lighting of tile is lower value from both files. Exact meaning of values is a number that pallette is shifted towards darker colours.

TERMP.DAT

2006-03-06T09:34:15Z

Quantifier:

This file is only used by tactical saves.

Length of file is map size (overall number of tiles) + some 4 bytes at the end.

File contains data about light from fixed sources and ambient light. It is recalculated on the end of turn. Ambient light levels are stored in [[BGLOB.DAT]]. Together with [[SOURCEMP.DAT]] it is full info about current lighting of the map. Actual lighting of tile is lower value from both files. Exact meaning of values is a number that pallette is shifted towards darker colours.

BGLOB.DAT

2006-03-06T09:33:55Z

Quantifier:

This file is only used by tactical saves.

Always two bytes, describes ambient light on map.

First byte indicates overall level of ambient lighting. On night missions it is 10h, on day missions 00h, dusk and dawn uses values in the middle. Second byte is ambient lighting of shadowed areas (below and inside Skyranger, inside UFOs), usually it is first byte+4. On the end of turn [[TERMP.DAT]] is recalculated using appropriate value from BGLOB.DAT as maximum. What determines which value of two is used is not known yet.

Research

2006-02-17T12:12:05Z

Quantifier: /* Research Time: Notes */

== Research Tree ==
You are given [[Weapons_(UFO_Defense)#Laser_Technology|Laser Weapons]], [[Medi-Kit]]s, and [[Motion Scanner]]s as research topics at the start of the game. Every subsequent research topic stems from a breakthrough in a previous research topic, or new technology picked up on the battlefield and brought back to your stores. You need scientists and laboratories to do research, 100 scientists and 2 laboratories are recommended if you can afford it. Don't forget to build the Alien Containment area!

Research often opens up other research topics, sometimes more than one. Indeed, only three aliens need to be researched to ultimately unlock all technology that matters, that relies on aliens (see [[Research_%28UFO_Defense%29#Alien_Abduction:_A_Streamlined_Guide|A Streamlined Guide]]).

Alien artifacts from the battlefield cannot be manufactured or used (or even thrown!) by your soldiers until research is completed.

Tip: You can sell off the item from your stores once research has started, if you need the space. The research will continue (unless you cancel the project!). Also, you get the same amount of cash when selling alien items, whether you've researched them or not.

=== Laser Weapons ===
Laser Weapons (tech breakthrough)
|
[[Laser Pistol]]
|
[[Laser Rifle]]
|
[[Heavy Laser]]
|
[[Laser Cannon]]
([[Heavy Weapons Platforms (UFO Defense)|Laser Tank]])
|
[[Laser Defences|Laser Defense]]

=== Plasma Weapons ===
[[Heavy Plasma]] [[Plasma Rifle]]
| Heavy Plasma Clip | Plasma Rifle Clip
|___________| |__________|
| |
| |
|__________OR___________|
|
[[Plasma Beam|Plasma Cannon]]
([[Heavy Weapons Platforms (UFO Defense)|Hovertank/Plasma]]) *See Note 1
|
[[Plasma Defences|Plasma Defense]]

=== Fusion Weapons ===
[[Blaster Launcher]] [[Blaster Bomb]]
|___________|
|
[[Fusion Ball Launcher|Fusion Ball]]
([[Heavy Weapons Platforms (UFO Defense)|Hovertank/Launcher]]) *See Note 2
|
[[Fusion Ball Defences|Fusion Ball Defense]]

=== Armor ===
[[Alien Alloys]]
|
[[Elerium-115]] [[Personal Armor]] [[UFO Power Source]]
|_____________|_________________|
|
|
[[Power Suit]] [[UFO Navigation]]
|_________________|
|
[[Flying Suit]]

=== Craft ===
Alien Elerium UFO UFO
Alloys 115 Power Source Navigation
|___________|___________|______________|
|
UFO Construction
|
|
New Fighter Craft
([[Firestorm]]) *See Note 1 ''(Required for [[Heavy Weapons Platforms (UFO Defense)|Hovertank/Plasma]])
|
New Fighter-Transporter
([[Lightning]])
__________|____________
| |
[[Grav Shield]] Ultimate Craft ([[Avenger]])

'''Notes
#"New Fighter Craft" required before you can build the Plasma Hovertank.
#Fusion Ball Launcher required before you can build the Launcher Hovertank.

''-- from Kasey Chang's USG

== Live Alien Research ==

Researching live aliens gives different results depending on their rank. It is very important to take certain aliens alive to finish the game. Picking your aliens becomes easier with the [[Mind Probe]] and [[Small Launcher]], although a well-applied [[Stun Rod]] early in the game can give your tech tree a big boost. Note you not only need to have an [[unconscious]] alien when you exit the Battlescape, you also need an [[Alien Containment]] module at the base your craft returns to, or they'll die before you get any useful info.

*Any Live Alien -> [[Alien Research#Alien Origins|Alien Origins]]

*Alien Soldier -> Nothing, beyond information on own species

*Alien Medic -> Species information *See note 1

*Alien Navigator -> [[Missions (UFO Defense)|Alien missions]] (harvest, base, etc.) and [[Hyper-Wave Decoder]]

*Alien Engineer -> [[UFO (UFO Defense)#UFO Types|UFO Types]] (they will show you all UFO types, not just their own)

*Alien Leader (or Commander) -> [[Alien Research#The Martian Solution|The Martian Solution]]

*Alien Commander -> [[Alien Research#Cydonia or Bust|Cydonia or Bust]] *See note 2

*Any [[Ethereal]], or Sectoid Leader/Commander -> [[Psionics]] (see below)

'''Notes
#Alien medics can give information on species other than their own. This is the only way to gain information about "live" Cyberdiscs. Information gained about Etherals (or Sectoids) in this way will not give you access to [[Psionics]], however.
#Commanders can be found in their [[Battleship|Battleships]], or [[Alien Base Assault|their bases]] (or your bases, should they [[Base Defense|choose to attack]]). The [http://www.xcomufo.com/usg.html USG] incorrectly states that only a Commander from an alien base can be used to give access to "Cydonia or Bust", however, in practise any Commander will do - so long as The Martian Solution has already been researched. Should you research a Commander prior to this, you'll have to capture another.

=== Psionics ===
Psionic Alien
|
[[Psionic Laboratory|Psi Lab]]
|_______
| |
[[Psi-Amp]] [[Mind Shield]]

== Endgame ==

Any Live Alien
|
[[Alien Research#Alien Origins|Alien Origins]]
|
| Any Live Alien Leader
| /
[[Alien Research#The Martian Solution|The Martian Solution]]
|
| Any Live Alien Commander
| /
[[Alien Research#Cydonia or Bust|Cydonia or Bust]]
|
| [[Avenger]]
| /
[[Cydonia]] (mission)

''-- from Kasey Chang's USG

== Alien Abduction: A Streamlined Guide ==
You only need three aliens to get the end-game research that will let you complete the game. These are:

*Any ''random alien'', Any ''Leader or Commander'', and finally Any ''Commander''

This is the minimum amount of aliens that you need to capture in order to acquire [[Alien Research#Cydonia or Bust|Cydonia or Bust]]. In order to kill a few more birds with the same stone, this list can be tailored to allow you to acquire the [[Hyper-Wave Decoder]] and [[Psionics]]. To get:

; Hyperwave Decoder : Substitute: Any ''Navigator'' for: Any ''random alien''

; Psi Lab : Same as usual, but make sure one of the leader or commanders is a [[Sectoid]] or [[Ethereal]]. (There are no Ethereal Navigators.)

Thus, to unlock all technology that matters (not counting window-dressing fluff, like Autopsies and UFO and Mission types), you only need to research three aliens:

*Any ''Navigator'', Any ''Sectoid or Ethereal, Leader or Commander'', and finally Any ''Commander''

==Research Time==

Research project completion time is based on the average number of scientist days needed to work on a project. Below, find listings alphabetically by Project, or by increasing Days. For important Notes, see the text after the table.

''Does anyone know the times for UFO type and End Game projects? (Where are these tables from anyway, the OSG?) ---[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]]

===Research Time, Alphabetically by Project===

Days One Lab Research Project
150 3.0 Alien Abduction
400 8.0 Alien Alloys
150 3.0 Alien Entertainment
150 3.0 Alien Food
200 4.0 Alien Grenade
150 3.0 Alien Reproduction
150 3.0 Alien Surgery
300 6.0 Blaster Bomb
900 18.0 Blaster Launcher
880 17.6 Craft Fusion Ball Launcher
420 8.4 Craft Laser Cannon
660 13.2 Craft Plasma Beam
450 9.0 Elerium-115
330 6.6 Flying Suit
800 16.0 Fusion Defenses
930 18.6 Grav Shield
460 9.2 Heavy Laser
800 16.0 Heavy Plasma
400 8.0 Heavy Plasma Clip
670 13.4 Hyper-Wave Decoder
510 10.2 Laser Defenses
100 2.0 Laser Pistol
300 6.0 Laser Rifle
50 1.0 Laser Weapons
210 4.2 Medi-Kit
600 12.0 Mind Probe
360 7.2 Mind Shield
180 3.6 Motion Scanner
600 12.0 New Fighter Craft (Firestorm)
700 14.0 New Fighter-Transporter (Lightning)
180 3.6 Personal Armor
620 12.4 Plasma Defenses
600 12.0 Plasma Pistol
400 8.0 Plasma Pistol Clip
700 14.0 Plasma Rifle
400 8.0 Plasma Rifle Clip
205 4.1 Power Suit
500 10.0 Psi-Amp
420 8.4 Psi-Lab
550 11.0 Small Launcher
180 3.6 Stun Bomb
250 5.0 Tank/Laser Cannon
450 9.0 UFO Construction
450 9.0 UFO Navigation
450 9.0 UFO Power Source
900 18.0 Ultimate Craft (Avenger)

===Research Time, by Days Needed===

Days One Lab Research Project
50 1.0 Laser Weapons
100 2.0 Laser Pistol
150 3.0 Alien Food
150 3.0 Alien Reproduction
150 3.0 Alien Entertainment
150 3.0 Alien Surgery
150 3.0 Alien Abduction
180 3.6 Motion Scanner
180 3.6 Personal Armor
180 3.6 Stun Bomb
200 4.0 Alien Grenade
205 4.1 Power Suit
210 4.2 Medi-Kit
250 5.0 Tank/Laser Cannon
300 6.0 Laser Rifle
300 6.0 Blaster Bomb
330 6.6 Flying Suit
360 7.2 Mind Shield
400 8.0 Heavy Plasma Clip
400 8.0 Plasma Rifle Clip
400 8.0 Plasma Pistol Clip
400 8.0 Alien Alloys
420 8.4 Craft Laser Cannon
420 8.4 Psi-Lab
450 9.0 Elerium-115
450 9.0 UFO Power Source
450 9.0 UFO Navigation
450 9.0 UFO Construction
460 9.2 Heavy Laser
500 10.0 Psi-Amp
510 10.2 Laser Defenses
550 11.0 Small Launcher
600 12.0 Plasma Pistol
600 12.0 Mind Probe
600 12.0 New Fighter Craft (Firestorm)
620 12.4 Plasma Defenses
660 13.2 Craft Plasma Beam
670 13.4 Hyper-Wave Decoder
700 14.0 Plasma Rifle
700 14.0 New Fighter-Transporter (Lightning)
800 16.0 Heavy Plasma
800 16.0 Fusion Defenses
880 17.6 Craft Fusion Ball Launcher
900 18.0 Blaster Launcher
900 18.0 Ultimate Craft (Avenger)
930 18.6 Grav Shield
=== Research Time: Notes ===

*'''One Lab''' is the number of Days divided by 50. This shows how quickly one lab full of 50 scientists needs to complete the Project, on average. Two labs full of scientists would need half this time on average, etc.
*Projects only complete '''at midnight''', which also means they will take a minimum of one day. Decimals are still shown for the '''One Lab''' column, however, so you can project to multiple labs and/or see where time is lost or gained by truncation (read on).
*The numbers shown in the tables are '''averages'''. In actuality, projects with an initial status of "Unknown" will take from INT(Average/2) to INT(Average*3/2) days. Example:
The "Laser Weapons" project requires an average of '''50''' scientist days.
If 10 scientists are assigned,
50/10 = an expected average of 5 days.
INT(5/2) = a minimum of 2 days, and
INT(5*3/2) = a maximum of 7 days.
Actual range seen for completion of Laser Weapons: '''2 to 7 days'''.
* Note that integer truncation works in favor of the player. Without integer rounding, the above numbers would've been 2.5 to 7.5 days which, if you had to wait for the next midnight, would've meant 3 to 8 days.
*Integer truncation also works in favor of having more labs - to a point:
**Example: Several projects require 150 research days, which takes 3 days on average with one lab (INT(150/50)). But with two labs, these would only take 1 day on average (INT(150/100)).
**Overall, projects might be completed up to 8% faster, with 1 to 5 labs (see [[Research (UFO Defense)#Total Research Time|Total Research Time]], next section).
**However, as the number of labs grows high, increasingly more projects would have finished in less than one day (scientists are standing around doing nothing). By the time one reaches 6 labs, the integer-truncation effect is counterbalanced (little or no speed gain) by these "wasted" scientists.
**At 8 labs, productivity sinks to 90%. At this point, 32 out of the 46 projects are finished in one day. Productivity falls more and more, with 9+ labs.
*Despite this "much discussion", remember that the actual time is a random roll between the min and max. That is, there won't always be neat, magical breakpoints versus the number of labs in a real game. Still, integer truncation will be working in your favor.
*Testing on the random-roll functionality has only been done on projects with an initial status of '''"Unknown"'''. Better ratings (Poor to Excellent) cause the project to complete more quickly - possibly very quickly, at the highest ratings, including instant result in the extreme case. However, these other ratings have not been quantified. Furthermore, Unknown seems to be the most common initial status. The upshot is that you get a little lucky sometimes.
*Also keep in mind that you can assign more than one project at a time. You could attempt to pinpoint breakpoints, if you wanted (although it would be haphazard). You could also assign short projects to a fraction of your science crew, if you have a big operation. Use 1.5 times the average time as an important cut-off if you're doing this - no project will last longer than this. But keep truncation in mind, too, and use it in your favor.

===Total Research Time===

The total time needed for all 46 research projects is 20,215 days. This can be compared against the total time needed for 1 scientist, 50 (1 lab), 100 (2 labs), etc. Numbers were composed by taking the average of the integer-truncated min and max for each project, then summing these together for all 46 projects:

''Scientists
1 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
Days 20215 391 190 125 94 75 67 58 56 52 49
Months 663 12.82 6.23 4.10 3.08 2.46 2.20 1.89 1.84 1.69 1.61
Efficiency -- +3% +6% +8% +8% +8% +1% +0% -10% -13% -17%

"Months" are considered to be 30.5 days long.

'''Efficiency''' shows how much time is gained or lost versus a pure case with absolutely no integer truncation or 1-day minima (see Notes). As can be seen, it is maximal around 3-5 labs, then starts dropping and keeps dropping.

Note that going from e.g. 3 labs to 4 only saves you about a month - which is about how long it takes to set up the lab! Additional labs result in increasingly less game time saved.

==See Also==

SOUND

2005-11-20T09:56:54Z

Quantifier: headlines

This directory contains all the sound effects and music.

There are three different versions of UFO sound engine:
* DOS, before 1.4 patch
* DOS, after 1.4 patch
* CE

==Music files==

Music for different soundcards is stored in following files:
* DOS 1.2 - for some reason music for intro is stored in separate file
** ADLIB.CAT, AINTRO.CAT - AdLib and Soundblaster
** ROLAND.CAT, RINTRO.CAT - Roland
* DOS 1.4
** ADLIB.CAT
** GM.CAT - General Midi
** DRIVERS.CAT - not exactly music file. It contains various com files for different soundcards. Apropriate files are extracted by setup, and then wrapped in sndstart.exe/sndend.exe called from main bat file.
* CE - these are just midi files, one for each music sequence

==Sound files==
The sound effects files are:
* DOS 1.2
** INTRO.CAT - intro
** SOUND1.CAT - battlescape
** SOUND2.CAT - geoscape
* DOS 1.4
** SAMPLE.CAT - geoscape
** SAMPLE2.CAT - battlescape
** SAMPLE3.CAT - intro
* CE - uses same files as 1.4. However, no sound is played in intro, only music.

==Differences between versions==
The main difference versions is quality.
* 1.2: 8000 Hz, 6 bit.
* 1.4: 11025 Hz, 8 bit.
* CE: same as 1.4, but it will play propely .waves with higher sampling rate hacked into game.

The other difference are completely new files. Patch leaves old files, but they are no longer used. Most effects sound the same, but some, especially alien death screams have been changed.

Here is list of battlescape sounds:
01 snakeman movement
02 missing (empty in 1.2, garbage in 1.4)
03 shot
04 door opening
05 shot
06 explosion
07 muton death
08 celatid death
09 snakeman death
10 ethereal death
11 sectoid death
12 laser shot
13 shot
14 shot
15 tank movement
16 flying movement
17 zombie hatch? (in 1.4 same as 01)
18 weapon loading
19 plasma shot
20 plasma/laser? hit
21 ufo door opening
22 ufo door opening
23 bullet hit
24 tank destruction
25 footstep on metal
26 footstep on metal
27 footstep on normal ground
28 footstep on normal ground
29 footstep on martian ground
30 footstep on martian ground
31 footstep on pool of water
32 footstep on pool of water
33 footstep on sand
34 footstep on sand
35 footstep on snow
36 footstep on snow
37 psi amp
38 mind probe
39 object placement
40 throw
41 hovertank/cyberdisk movement
42 male scream
43 male scream
44 male scream
45 female scream
46 female scream
47 female scream
48 silacoid movement
49 some alien noises
50 .
51 .
52 .
53 ?
54 blaster launcher
55 ?

Talk:SOUND

2005-11-20T00:12:26Z

Quantifier:

The files with the names of soundcards, ''adlib, roland'' and ''gm (general midi) '' store the respective Geoscape and Battlescape music sequences for their respective cards.

For those with plain soundblaster compatibles, adlib.cat was used. Those with Roland Gus's or general midi output devices, they used their respective files for the music sequences. They're stored in different files because the midi devices handle their data in different ways.

These files are only used by the Dos version - and perhaps are the reason why the music in the dos version, on certain soundcards, sound a lot better than the CE versions (though your mileage may vary). Speaking of which, these three files were replaced in the Collectors edition with midi files, one for each music sequence - this allows for a bit more freedom in modding as you can replace the midi files you don't like with other midi files.

The CE version of UFO leaves out intro.cat for some really odd reason, so your intro sequence has no sound effects. Worse still, it will not play intro.cat even if you copy it in.

I think there were a few 0-byte com files in here as well, but they did nothing and weren't used by the game.

- [[User:NKF|NKF]]

----
The .com files in my game are not empty, they probably do some low level sound card service, but on the other hand, in the main .bat file sound\sndstart and sound\sndend exe files are called. I looked into the them for strings they contain, and found names of other coms and exes in sound directory. I think sndstart/sndend is just a wrapper for a convenient use in .bat file.

The INTRO.CAT file was used only by old sound engine - DOS 1.4 uses (and CE should use) SAMPLE3.CAT. Erasing it makes CE crash with error:
Error Code 0
FILE: D:\SS\XCOM\UFO Defense\Stubs.c
LINE: 58
 Cannot open file Sound/sample3.cat

I'm not sure which files 1.4 version uses for Roland support, because there are two files (one for intro music, one with rest of it) - this construction was used by 1.2 engine. There isn't one file with all the music in it.

- Quantifier

SOUND

2005-11-20T00:12:07Z

Quantifier: music files

This directory contains all the sound effects and music.

There are three different versions of UFO sound engine:
* DOS, before 1.4 patch
* DOS, after 1.4 patch
* CE

Music for different soundcards is stored in following files:
* DOS 1.2 - for some reason music for intro is stored in separate file
** ADLIB.CAT, AINTRO.CAT - AdLib and Soundblaster
** ROLAND.CAT, RINTRO.CAT - Roland
* DOS 1.4
** ADLIB.CAT
** GM.CAT - General Midi
** DRIVERS.CAT - not exactly music file. It contains various com files for different soundcards. Apropriate files are extracted by setup, and then wrapped in sndstart.exe/sndend.exe called from main bat file.
* CE - these are just midi files, one for each music sequence

The sound and music files are:
* DOS 1.2
** INTRO.CAT - intro
** SOUND1.CAT - battlescape
** SOUND2.CAT - geoscape
* DOS 1.4
** SAMPLE.CAT - geoscape
** SAMPLE2.CAT - battlescape
** SAMPLE3.CAT - intro
* CE - uses same files as 1.4. However, no sound is played in intro, only music.

The main difference versions is quality.
* 1.2: 8000 Hz, 6 bit.
* 1.4: 11025 Hz, 8 bit.
* CE: same as 1.4, but it will play propely .waves with higher sampling rate hacked into game.

The other difference are completely new files. Patch leaves old files, but they are no longer used. Most effects sound the same, but some, especially alien death screams have been changed.

Here is list of battlescape sounds:
01 snakeman movement
02 missing (empty in 1.2, garbage in 1.4)
03 shot
04 door opening
05 shot
06 explosion
07 muton death
08 celatid death
09 snakeman death
10 ethereal death
11 sectoid death
12 laser shot
13 shot
14 shot
15 tank movement
16 flying movement
17 zombie hatch? (in 1.4 same as 01)
18 weapon loading
19 plasma shot
20 plasma/laser? hit
21 ufo door opening
22 ufo door opening
23 bullet hit
24 tank destruction
25 footstep on metal
26 footstep on metal
27 footstep on normal ground
28 footstep on normal ground
29 footstep on martian ground
30 footstep on martian ground
31 footstep on pool of water
32 footstep on pool of water
33 footstep on sand
34 footstep on sand
35 footstep on snow
36 footstep on snow
37 psi amp
38 mind probe
39 object placement
40 throw
41 hovertank/cyberdisk movement
42 male scream
43 male scream
44 male scream
45 female scream
46 female scream
47 female scream
48 silacoid movement
49 some alien noises
50 .
51 .
52 .
53 ?
54 blaster launcher
55 ?

Talk:SOUND

2005-11-19T14:02:36Z

Quantifier:

The files with the names of soundcards, ''adlib, roland'' and ''gm (general midi) '' store the respective Geoscape and Battlescape music sequences for their respective cards.

For those with plain soundblaster compatibles, adlib.cat was used. Those with Roland Gus's or general midi output devices, they used their respective files for the music sequences. They're stored in different files because the midi devices handle their data in different ways.

These files are only used by the Dos version - and perhaps are the reason why the music in the dos version, on certain soundcards, sound a lot better than the CE versions (though your mileage may vary). Speaking of which, these three files were replaced in the Collectors edition with midi files, one for each music sequence - this allows for a bit more freedom in modding as you can replace the midi files you don't like with other midi files.

The CE version of UFO leaves out intro.cat for some really odd reason, so your intro sequence has no sound effects. Worse still, it will not play intro.cat even if you copy it in.

I think there were a few 0-byte com files in here as well, but they did nothing and weren't used by the game.

- [[User:NKF|NKF]]

The .com files in my game are not empty, they probably do some low level sound card service, but on the other hand, in the main .bat file sound\sndstart and sound\sndend exe files are called. I looked into the them for strings they contain, and found names of other coms and exes in sound directory. I think sndstart/sndend is just a wrapper for a convenient use in .bat file.

The INTRO.CAT file was used only by old sound engine - DOS 1.4 uses (and CE should use) SAMPLE.CAT.

- Quantifier

Talk:SOUND

2005-11-19T14:02:26Z

Quantifier:

The files with the names of soundcards, ''adlib, roland'' and ''gm (general midi) '' store the respective Geoscape and Battlescape music sequences for their respective cards.

For those with plain soundblaster compatibles, adlib.cat was used. Those with Roland Gus's or general midi output devices, they used their respective files for the music sequences. They're stored in different files because the midi devices handle their data in different ways.

These files are only used by the Dos version - and perhaps are the reason why the music in the dos version, on certain soundcards, sound a lot better than the CE versions (though your mileage may vary). Speaking of which, these three files were replaced in the Collectors edition with midi files, one for each music sequence - this allows for a bit more freedom in modding as you can replace the midi files you don't like with other midi files.

The CE version of UFO leaves out intro.cat for some really odd reason, so your intro sequence has no sound effects. Worse still, it will not play intro.cat even if you copy it in.

I think there were a few 0-byte com files in here as well, but they did nothing and weren't used by the game.

- [[User:NKF|NKF]]

The .com files in my game are not empty, they probably do some low level sound card service, but on the other hand, in the main .bat file sound\sndstart and sound\sndend exe files are called. I looked into the them for strings they contain, and found names of other coms and exes in sound directory. I think sndstart/sndend is just a wrapper for a convenient use in .bat file.

The INTRO.CAT file was used only by old sound engine - DOS 1.4 uses (and CE should use) SAMPLE.CAT.

- Quatifier

Talk:SOUND

2005-11-19T13:19:29Z

Quantifier:

The files with the names of soundcards, ''adlib, roland'' and ''gm (general midi) '' store the respective Geoscape and Battlescape music sequences for their respective cards.

For those with plain soundblaster compatibles, adlib.cat was used. Those with Roland Gus's or general midi output devices, they used their respective files for the music sequences. They're stored in different files because the midi devices handle their data in different ways.

These files are only used by the Dos version - and perhaps are the reason why the music in the dos version, on certain soundcards, sound a lot better than the CE versions (though your mileage may vary). Speaking of which, these three files were replaced in the Collectors edition with midi files, one for each music sequence - this allows for a bit more freedom in modding as you can replace the midi files you don't like with other midi files.

The CE version of UFO leaves out intro.cat for some really odd reason, so your intro sequence has no sound effects. Worse still, it will not play intro.cat even if you copy it in.

I think there were a few 0-byte com files in here as well, but they did nothing and weren't used by the game.

- [[User:NKF|NKF]]

The .COM in my game are not empty, they probably do some low level sound card service, but on the other hand, in the main .BAT file files SOUND\SNDSTART.EXE and SOUND\SNDEND.EXE are called.

The INTRO.CAT file was used only by old sound engine - DOS 1.4 uses (and CE should use) SAMPLE.CAT.

SOUND

2005-11-19T10:51:36Z

Quantifier:

Contains all the sound effects and music.

The main sound files are:
* SAMPLE.CAT - intro
* SAMPLE2.CAT - battlescape
* SAMPLE3.CAT - geoscape
These are the only sound files CE version has.

However, the DOS versions holds leftovers from before patch. These files are:
* INTRO.CAT
* SOUND1.CAT - battlescape
* SOUND2.CAT - geoscape
* and others files for different soundcards. Some of them are not modified by patch, but I don't have hardware to test if they are obsolete.

The main difference between two version of sound engine is quality.
before: 8000 Hz, 6 bit.
after: 11025 Hz, 8 bit.

The other difference is that completely new files were used. Most effects sound the same, but some, especially alien death screams have been changed.

Here is list of battlescape sounds:
01 snakeman movement
02 missing (empty in 1.2, garbage in 1.4)
03 shot
04 door opening
05 shot
06 explosion
07 muton death
08 celatid death
09 snakeman death
10 ethereal death
11 sectoid death
12 laser shot
13 shot
14 shot
15 tank movement
16 flying movement
17 zombie hatch? (in 1.4 same as 01)
18 weapon loading
19 plasma shot
20 plasma/laser? hit
21 ufo door opening
22 ufo door opening
23 bullet hit
24 tank destruction
25 footstep on metal
26 footstep on metal
27 footstep on normal ground
28 footstep on normal ground
29 footstep on martian ground
30 footstep on martian ground
31 footstep on pool of water
32 footstep on pool of water
33 footstep on sand
34 footstep on sand
35 footstep on snow
36 footstep on snow
37 psi amp
38 mind probe
39 object placement
40 throw
41 hovertank/cyberdisk movement
42 male scream
43 male scream
44 male scream
45 female scream
46 female scream
47 female scream
48 silacoid movement
49 some alien noises
50 .
51 .
52 .
53 ?
54 blaster launcher
55 ?