UFOpaedia - User contributions [en]

Alien Missions

2012-01-06T12:50:22Z

St.froppelie:

UFOs are sent out periodically to conduct a number of types of '''Alien Missions''', some of which the purpose is fairly inscrutable, others are fairly obvious in their reasoning. Especially once the [[Hyper-wave Decoder]] is deployed, knowing the mission of the aliens can help make strategic plans for further actions that the aliens may attempt in the near future. Although many people think that ufos don't appear over Russia it already happened and can be proven by building 4 bases in Russia.

==List of Alien Missions==

* [[Alien Research]]
* [[Alien Harvest]]
* [[Alien Abduction]]
* [[Alien Infiltration]]
* [[Alien Base]]
* [[Alien Terror]]
* [[Alien Retaliation]]
* [[Alien Supply]]

==Additional Research==

There are also a few key research topics essential to winning the game that can be uncovered by capturing and interrogating aliens, with the more important topics requiring aliens of higher rank to uncover them.
Each topic can only be [[research]]ed when the previous one has been completed.

[[Alien Origins]]

[[The Martian Solution]]

[[Cydonia or Bust]]

==See Also==
*[[Alien Life Forms]]<br />
*[[UFOs]]<br />
*[[Research]]<br />

{{Alien Missions Navbar}}
[[Category:Missions]]
[[Category:Research (EU)]]

Template:Ufopaedia News

2012-01-06T12:34:23Z

St.froppelie: /* News */

This is the Ufopaedia.org news page where relevant news and site messages will appear. When this page is transcluded into other pages, only the new news items should appear there. Everything else will only display on this page. At least that is how it should work in theory.

== News ==
<onlyinclude>

<div style="color:red; width:100%"><b>* * * XCOM: Enemy Unknown announced by Firaxis Games * * *</b></div>
X-COM fans rejoice! Firaxis Games president Steve Martin [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115063-Firaxis-Reveals-a-Real-X-Com-Remake announced] that his company is working on a modern remake of the very first X-COM game.
* As they're self-admitted fans of the 1993 original, they intend to stay true to the franchise in every way instead of making something X-COM in name only.
* It will return the franchise to turn-based tactical combat with real-time management.
* Something about "destructible tactical environments".
* More information in February 2012.
* The game is announce for the end of 2012.<br>
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<div style="color:red; width:100%"><b>* * * New XCOM Game by 2k Marin slated for release in second half of 2012 or early 2013 * * *</b></div>
The game will focus on elite U.S. government operatives attempting to prevent a nightmarish invasion of the United States (while dropping the dash in X-COM). See:
* The [http://www.xcom.com official XCOM] site (only a couple of trailers here)
* Some criticism of its change in focus ([http://www.destructoid.com/2k-marin-s-22-minute-demonstration-of-xcom-209954.phtml 1], [http://www.destructoid.com/2k-xcom-changed-because-strategy-games-aren-t-modern-205991.phtml 2]), although 2k Marin may be rethinking this
* [http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?76-XCOM-General-Discussion 2k's XCOM forum], including passionate posts by X-Commies
* Once slated for March 2012 release, it has now slipped to a later date ([http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/xcom_2k_marin/news/xcom_release_date_slips_avoids_mass_effect_3.html 1], [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6344515.html?tag=nl.e579 2]).

----

<div style="color:red; width:100%"><b>* * * X-COM Complete Packages now available for less than $15 * * *</b></div>
At [http://www.gamersgate.com/index.php?page=product&what=view&sku=DDB-XCOM&via=newly_added&aff=sc GamersGate], [http://store.steampowered.com/sub/964/ Steam] and [http://www.direct2drive.com/2/7614/product/Buy-X-Com-Complete-Bundle-Download Direct2Drive]. (Includes <b>UFO</b>, <b>TFTD</b>, <b>Apoc</b>, <b>Int</b>, and <b>Enf</b>).<br>

For "reviews", see [[GEOSCAPE.EXE#X-COM_Complete_Packages|this]]. <br>
</onlyinclude>

== Archived News ==

<div style="color:red;"><b>* * * Ufopaedia.org is now hosted by StrategyCore * * *</b></div>
<div align="left">
To visitors and regular contributors, the Ufopaedia.org wiki is now hosted on [http://www.strategycore.co.uk/ StrategyCore]. A big thank you to Gazchap who started and hosted for so long what has since become a most fascinating and informative resource on X-COM.</div>
<br>
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<div style="color:red;"><b>OFFICIAL</b></div> - [http://kotaku.com/5516654/x+com-is-back NEW X-COM GAME FROM THE DEVELOPERS OF BIOSHOCK 2]<br>
Yes, this will come as a shock to all, but 2K Australia and 2K Marin is busily working on a first-person shooter based on the X-COM franchise. More info will presumably become available on the 2010 E3.

For more information/rumors check 2K's [http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=76 X-COM forum].

Small window bug

2011-11-06T22:02:19Z

St.froppelie: Created page with "Small Window Bug This bug happens when playing the game online with an emulator. When hitting the home-button on yourkeyboard and then continueing the game, it will only show up..."

Small Window Bug

This bug happens when playing the game online with an emulator. When hitting the home-button on yourkeyboard and then continueing the game, it will only show up a little window with the game. Although its possible to continue playing, it is very hard to carry on and you will often click at the wrong thing. It is not possible to run the game on fullscreen anymore until you restart it by closing the task and opening the game again.

Known Bugs

2011-11-06T21:54:01Z

St.froppelie: /* Game Destroying Bugs */

== Game Destroying Bugs ==

These are the list of the worst bugs of them all, because they can render your entire game unplayable. Until a fix/ workaround is found, these bugs result in your entire X-com campaign being scuttled:
* [[Minimized interceptor bug]]
* [[Big text bug]]
*[[Small window bug]]

== Base Construction Bugs ==

=== Base Disjoint Bug ===
Base facilities built along the right or bottom edges of the base building area may end up being cut off from each other by dirt walls, a bug in the routine meant to keep soldiers from accidentally exiting the map edges during [[Base Defense]] missions. The dirt walls can be knocked down by Blaster Bombs or excessive amount of heavy plasma fire during combat but are otherwise unbreakable.

[[image:bdb.gif|center|Base Disjoint Bug]]

The walls marked in white are removed if there is an adjacent module. All green modules are not affected while the yellow modules are. The red module will be sealed off completely if anything smaller than a hangar is placed here at any given time.

[[XcomUtil]] works around this problem by stripping out the walls entirely in all the base modules.

The bug can be profitable if the hangars and the lift are accessible only through in these areas - you can gather and supply all your soldiers heavily without aliens interfering, then knock a hole in the wall and cover the area with explosives and blaster launcher fire.

===Displayed Base Maintenance Costs===
Although X-COM charges the right monthly fees for base modules, the maintenance fee displayed ''in the base info screen'' is always wrong. The displayed number is actually based on the placement within the base grid, '''not''' the price displayed in the in-game UFOpaedia. However, at the end of the month, the right fee is deducted. For more information, see [[Base_Facilities#Displayed_Base_Maintenance_Cost_Bug]]. The Geo finance Graph shows a correct maintenance summary ([[LIGLOB.DAT]], updated once a month). Also see the next section.

===Paying For Dirt===
If you take down any facility in any base that you own and leave bare dirt, then you will continue to pay maintenance on it. But not at the old rate of whatever the facility cost per month, filling the hole back with dirt means it needs special attention at all times by specialists. In fact for every square of dirt you have that used to be a facility you will pay 80k per month. Thats 320k per hangar you take down. There are only two known ways to stop paying this premium - if you completely dismantle the base you stop paying any money for it, or if you build over all the spaces that you have vacated. In fact as soon as you start building the new facility you stop paying the premium, as well as not having to pay the cost of the new facility until it is complete.

If you start a facility and change your mind before it is complete, after the time when it would have completed you will start paying this 80k premium on that land as well.

===Base Facility Dismantle-Construction Crash===
In the Collectors Edition version, dismantling a facility while its construction is in progress can cause a crash when a second facility on another base square completes its construction. To work around this, dismantle a facility only after its construction is complete. If you have already dismantled such a facility, build something like a general stores on the same square to avoid the crash. It is not known if this crash happens intermittently or always, or if it happens on most versions of the game or just the Collectors Edition.

===Radar Stacking===
Despite the "Short Range" and "Long Range" detection bars displayed on each base's Information screen, only one radar of each type will be used at each base. Building additional radars of the same type will have no effect. One short and one long are useful until the [[Hyper-wave Decoder|Hyper-Wave Decoder]] makes both of them obsolete.

===Phantom Radar===
When you dismantle detection equipment such as a radar or hyperwave detector, the related detection ability of the base does not decrease until a new facility of some kind is built in that base. Until a new facility is completes building at that base, the base continues to use this "phantom radar".

This bug allows you to "upgrade in place", for example building a new Hyper-Wave Decoder over the top of an existing Large Radar, and retaining the detection capability of the Large Radar until the Hyper-Wave Decoder completes building. (Unless something else completes building first).

===Fixes for Base Construction Bugs===

As mentioned above, [[XcomUtil]] prevents the Base Disjoint bug (crudely). The [[User:Spike#Base_Fixer|BaseFixer]] utility corrects the Paying for Dirt, Phantom Radar, and Radar Stacking bugs. BaseFixer can be used manually on saved game files, or automatically via XcomUtil's hook mechanism.

==Geoscape Bugs==

===First Radar Detection Data bug===
When a UFO is detected by a radar, you get certain data on it depending on the type of radar that detected it. If the UFO later enters the range of another radar while staying in the range of the first, you will continue to get the initial data given, even if the new radar is more powerful than the first! So if you detect a craft with a [[Small Radar System]], then the UFO moves into the range of a [[Hyper-wave Decoder]], clicking on the UFO will only give you the data as if the Small Radar detected it, so long as it remains in the Small Radar range! In effect, the data you get about a UFO is determined when you first detect it, and not changed after that until you lose detection on the craft with the radar that first detected it.

This bug most commonly shows up when a UFO is first detected by a patrolling aircraft and then remains in the range of the aircraft while also entering the range of a Hyper-Wave Decoder.

=== Minimized Interceptor Bug ===
One fairly consistent cause of crashes is saving the geoscape game during a UFO standoff, with a [[UFO Interception]] window minimized to an icon. The next mission after that point will likely dump you to the green text screen, and perhaps an earlier battlescape mission instead of the proper one. What it seems to do is zoom back out of the combat too far when the fight is over, eventually causing the crash once it has gone a couple of steps further than it normally allows you.

'''Solution:''' Open up [[UIGLOB.DAT]] in a hex editor. Change hex offset 0x06 to 00. This will reset the number of minimized interceptor windows to zero. Your interceptor unit can be selected to either return to base or continue on to complete its ground assault mission. ''NOTE: Make sure to back up your save game before editing it.''

''-- I was able to recover from this state by quickly sending in another interceptor ([[Firestorm]]) to take over, which allowed my first interceptor ([[Avenger]]) to break off and go home without crashing the game again. After the shootdown I overwrote the buggy savegame. --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 03:11, 22 Aug 2005 (PDT)''

''This happened to me also. I fixed it by replacing "[[UIGLOB.DAT]]" in the save folder with the same file from another saved game (from the same campaign a month earlier) [[User:bylund|bylund]] 00:15, January 12, 2007 (GMT+01)''

=== Interceptions: Last Shot Always Misses ===
When using Cautious attack when [[UFO Interception|intercepting a UFO]], your craft will stay at the maximum range of your longest-range weapon. When using Standard attack, your craft will stay at the maximum range of your shortest-range weapon. (Usually players use two weapons of the same type, so Cautious and Standard attack will behave the same in this regard.)

As soon as the craft fires its last shot (expending all its ammo), it will drop back to "Standoff" range (70km). This will make it appear that the UFO has backed away while the last missile(s) are in-flight, causing them to miss.

In order to hit a UFO with your last salvo of missiles (Stingrays, Avalanches, or Fusion Balls), you must switch to "Aggressive" attack before the last salvo reaches the UFO. This will cause your craft to close in with the UFO, allowing the missiles to be in range when they reach the UFO. However, Aggressive attacks will also bring you within range of the UFO's weapons, so you should hit the "Disengage" button as soon as the last salvo hits.

===Elerium-fueled Craft Bug===
A [[Skyranger]] or [[Interceptor]], once dispatched, will return to base when its fuel supply has dropped to a level that it will only have just enough fuel to return to base. Craft fueled by Elerium-115, however, will always report the "Low Fuel" message as soon at the fuel supply is 50% depleted, no matter where they are on the globe. This significantly shortens the already minute time that a [[Firestorm]], [[Lightning]], or [[Avenger]] can be dispatched to patrol.

===Floater Medic Research Bug===
Every single time a Floater Medic is found and researched, the game crashes after it is interrogated! I [[muton commander]] used a hack system to view the alien's profile, and it was a Commander with no race attached. This is probably the cause, but I have no explaination for why this situation occurs.

== Battlescape Bugs ==

=== Faulty Large Units ===
If you move a tank off a northward facing ledge, the rest of the tank will sink into a wall (if there is one), and cause the tank to get stuck. This won't happen if the tank moves off a south facing ledge as the primary quarter will fall after the rest of the tank. Aliens can also get stuck this way.

Another, potentially annoying bug occurs when a large unit's graphics become messed up. During a base defense mission, a rocket tank may end up looking like 4 silacoids bunched together.

===Unconscious Units are items===
This is actually an intentional programming choice... but it leads to several consequences which are bugs.

Firstly, any unconscious unit can be killed instantly by even a weak explosion, like being nearby an exploding AC-HE shell... even a Muton with 125 Health or an X-com agent in Flying Armor whose high armor ratings normally make him immune to AC-HE damage.
Secondly, no experience is gained for killing enemies in this manner.

You can prevent an unconscious unit's death from an explosion by picking it up... if a blaster bomb strikes the carrier and kills him, the unconscious unit will safely fall to the floor, unharmed.

Unlike a conscious unit (not wearing x-com armor), an unconscious unit can laze about in the middle of a fire without taking damage, since a UNIT standing in fire takes damage, but an unconscious unit is an item, which all ignore fire.

Forcing an MCed alien to pick up an unconscious X-com agent and carry him in its right hand can cause weird things to occur when you release the mind control. I think the game might crash when the alien tries to shove the agent into its magic pocket.

If a non-flying unconscious unit wakes up while being carried by a flying unit, it will gain some sort of temporary hover ability. (I once placed an unconscious Chryssalid in my flying agent's backpack. A few turns later, some growls and screams were heard from overhead.)

Save space! Each conscious unit takes up 1 tile (4 tiles for large units). An unconscious unit does not use up the tile... this might conceivably be useful if you wanted to abort a mission, but several panicked units were preventing other agents from boarding the skyranger...
X-com agents refuse to ride piggyback or be picked up while conscious. So, if you want a non-flying unit to reach an 2nd floor place with no stairs or elevator, you will have to knock him out, then either throw him up, or have a flying unit pick him up and drop him... and presumably administer stimulant.

This also leads to the INVISIBLE UNIT glitch. Frequently happens during Base Defence missions, since the item table is usually maxed out. Basically, the item table is so full that killed units do not leave corpses. However, this also means that unconscious units do not turn into the Unconscious Unit item. The KOed unit will disappear from sight, but will still be visible as a red number and as a blue/yellow dot on overhead map. Since the unit is still a unit and not an item, you will be able to shoot it with projectile weapons and kill it. ALSO, this method enables you to raise any unit's stun bar all the way to 255, since you can still increase the stun meter, despite them already being unconscious.

===Funky Fire===
If a unit (alien or friendly) is on fire or standing in flames, an [[Incendiary]] explosion ''anywhere else on the map'' will do a small amount of damage to it, even if you just shoot an IC round at a random patch of ground.

Similarly, if a unit (friendly units only) is standing in smoke when an incendiary explodes, it will take stun damage. This makes the combination of incendiary munitions and smoke quite hazardous until such time as all troops are armored.

There is a [[Talk:Incendiary#Incendiary_Bug|working hypothesis]] for the cause of this bug, which is that each and every Incendiary explosion triggers "end of turn processing" for Smoke and Fire - including fire damage, stun damage from smoke, fire spreading checks, and possibly "catch on fire" checks for units in fire.

Note that X-Com units wearing any kind of armor are immune to fire damage and IC-induced stun damage. Xcom HWPs are immune to stun, but take 40% damage from Incendiaries and WILL get killed quite efficiently by funky fire.

=== Collectors Edition Blaster Bomb Bug ===

Also known as Vertical Waypoint Blaster Bomb Bug.

In the Collectors Edition of UFO, the [[Blaster Launcher]] has a bug that prevents it from going up or down on the same tile. Or in other words, you cannot change the elevation of the missile vertically on the same tile.

Instead of flying down (or up) to the next waypoint, it will instead fly directly to the south at the pivot waypoint. Relative to the screen, this would be the lower left side of the screen.

This does not happen if you plot the waypoints at an angle. Or, if the blaster bomb flies right off the map, it will reappear at the proper waypoint as long as there are additional waypoints placed after the vertical move. The bug makes it impossible to fire Blaster Bombs up or down elevator shafts. Aliens are also affected by this bug.

The Blaster Bomb bug in turn permits the [[Tactical Exploits#Milking Alien Bases|Elevator Shielding - Base Milking Exploit]], which provides unlimited risk-free experience and ultra-low-risk booty, so fixing it is a Good Thing. Base Milking in general is a legitimate tactic, but doing Base Milking risk-free via the Elevator Shielding is just an exploit.

This bug also applies to the [[Disruptor Pulse Launcher]] in TFTD.

===Blaster Launcher Dud Shells Bug===

Shots which have only one waypoint, or explode before reaching their first waypoint, leave the Blaster Launcher showing 0 rounds, but still containing a dud shell which must be unloaded before the launcher can be reloaded. On earlier versions of the game (pre-Win CE) this also happens with reaction fire, and with 1-waypoint shots that fly off the map.

=== The trouble with Mines in General ===

Proximity mines are strangely implemented in UFO and TFTD. While they behave as you would expect them to half of the time, the mines do not behave like conventional weapons.

First, experience attribution is awarded to the person that sets off the mine.

Secondly, the armed states for [[Proximity Grenade]]s in both UFO and TFTD are NOT stored in save games. If a proximity grenade is primed, then the game is saved and reloaded, the grenade will not only not go off as it should, but the "Prime Grenade" action will still be absent, so it's impossible to re-arm it.

=== Grenade Timer Behaviour ===

A primed explosive (Grenade, High Explosive, Alien Grenade) will not explode if it's still in your inventory (hand, belt etc) when the timer runs out. It will only detonate when it's on the ground. If your soldier falls unconscious or gets killed, the primed explosive will be counted as being on the ground. Then it will blow up, likely taking out your gear and body. This 'feature' allows for the hot potato or [[Grenade Relay]] strategy which is fairly unique to X-COM where a live grenade well past its use-by date can be passed from squad member to squad member.

For a more a detailed explanation on detonation conditions, see [[Understanding Grenades]].

=== Mountain Map ===
Due to a bug in the way this tileset was created, when you shoot the ground, it doesn't burn up - it turns into a tree stump.

Because the stump is on object, as opposed to actual ground, any objects that were in the tile already (for example, UFO hulls or the landing gear of your craft) get replaced by these stumps, making it seem as if they were destroyed.

Tree stumps don't take much damage, so they often get burnt up immediately if an explosive goes off, leaving nothing but burnt ground behind. It is easier to view the effects of this bug by shooting the ground instead.

For more details, see [[Explosions#Mile-High_Madness|Mountain Madness]].

=== What just exploded? ===
In some versions of the game, a bug allows an armed proximity mine to transfer its properties to some other item in the next mission, which then may explode unexpectedly. (If the item is left on the floor of the XCOM craft, it will explode as you walk past it.) This problem can be rectified by reloading the game -- as a precaution, save before you move your first soldier.

=== Door jam ===
If a door is open when a game is saved on the Battlescape and that game is subsequently restored, the door will remain open for the remainder of that mission.

===Mind Controlled Soldiers go MIA===
If you complete a mission while a [[soldier]] is currently [[Mind Control]]led he will be listed as MIA at the end of the combat. This is quite an easy bug to fall into as on any [[Sectoid]] or [[Ethereal]] mission the only, or most powerful, psionic aliens will usually be holed up in the bridge or command centre.

===Mind Controlled Aliens Count as MIA if you Abort===
If you happen to abort a mission with any Mind-Controlled aliens under your control, who are NOT in the dropship, the computer tallies them up as "X-COM Operatives Missing In Action." Thus, every Mind Controlled alien left behind when you dust off is -20 points to your score! If you're leaving anyways, avoid this by bringing them back to the ship or mowing them down on the way back to the ship.

In the Playstation version of the game, any aliens under Mind Control at missions end are considered captured and hence, this bug is not a factor.

===20 Proximity Grenade Limit===

The array used to denote armed [[Proximity Grenade]]s is limited to 20 entries, meaning you are limited to 20 active mines at a time. The 21st and subsequent Proximity grenades can be primed like normal and will give appropriate messages, but they will not detonate even when the normal trigger conditions are met. Note that Proximity Mines that have detonated or otherwise been destroyed are removed from the array, freeing up positions; the limit is 20 ACTIVE Proximity Grenades at one time. In normal gameplay, this is probably not a restriction, in light of the [[Known_Bugs#80-Item_Limit|80 Item Limit]], since you'd need to have more than 1/4th of the cargo space in the dropship filled with Proximity Grenades.

===Base Defense Elerium bug===

On DOS versions of UFO Defense, Elerium pods may spawn as items from the base stockpile during a Base Defense bug. Each pod represents 50 units of Elerium and will be normally collected after the mission, same as any other item such as Heavy Lasers or Blaster Bombs. HOWEVER. The program will potentially generate 1 elerium POD for every 1 UNIT of elerium in your inventory. Thus, if you had only 10 lasers and 50 Elerium listed in your Sell screen, you would see 10 lasers and 50 Elerium Crystals in your Soldier Equip Screen, which would translate to 50 Elerium pods and 10 lasers scattered around your base. This equals 2500 Elerium, BTW. You basically have the potential to multiply your elerium stocks by 50.

===Berserk HWP crashes the game===

Admittedly, this is unlikely to arise under normal play. But, anyhow, your HWPs can only lose morale by killing friendly units. Not much for each unit killed, either. Anyhow, a berserk HWP will crash the game. (except for the Hovertank/Launcher, which does not fire when it goes berserk.)
Likewise, if you MC a cyberdisc or Sectopod and have it kills lots of aliens, it'll go berserk and crash the game. The error happens because of an oversight from the developers: the built-in weapons of HWP are handled differently from handed weapons, no OBDATA.DAT entries exist for them. The berserk code will try to access the nonexistent entry, resulting in a crash. The Celatid has yet to be tested.

===Limited Unit Slots - Battlescape Crash===

This tends to arise during Base Defence Missions. The game is was designed to be limited to 40 soldiers/hovertanks and XXXX aliens for a total of XXXX . Having a full complement of soldiers during a Superhuman difficulty base defence will max out these limits. Thus when either side starts playing around with mind control too much, something goes wrong causing the entire game to crash.
It might also be something to do with maximum items on the battlescape.
In any case, the workaround seems to be killing aliens and destroying items on the battlescape... doesn't always work, but it seems to help.
You might want to make several in-battle saves for these situations, even if you normally play Ironman mode.

== Character Inventory Bugs ==

=== Alien Inventory Stacking Bug ===

'''WARNING:''' When examining an Alien's inventory (via an Exploit), you will see that sometimes the alien will stack multiple items of equipment on the same slot - its right leg. It's not always obvious that there are multiple objects in the slot until you 'pick up' the first object and can see other objects still in the slot.
Before you remove an item from the Alien's right leg, make sure you have enough time units to place it somewhere else. If you run out of time units, you will likely have to force a quit and cannot save your game. It '''may''' be possible to move the item to the left leg slot for 0 TUs, '''if''' the item will fit in that slot. If not, you will have to terminate the game. (Press ALT-TAB to get to any other window, then CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up Task Manager, and then terminate the process that corresponds to the game).

=== XComUtil Inventory Stacking Bug ===

A problem similar to the Alien Inventory Stacking Bug can also occur for X-COM Soldiers, when using XComUtil. The algorithm used to assign weapons in XComUtil MUST assign all weapons to troops, so if there are more weapons than soldiers, excess weapons are stacked onto the leg slot of the first soldier in the dropship. This was a deliberate choice by Scott Jones to make this encumbrance obvious to the player. This can be readily corrected in the "equip soldiers" screen before a mission. Else, see "Alien Inventory Bug", above.

=== Item-stacking Bug ===
It is possible to put more than one item in a given spot. When an item is stacked with a [[Stun Rod]], this can make it possible for X-COM soldiers to perform "melee" attacks. See [[Item Stacking Bug]] for more details.

===Carrying Unconscious Units===
If one of your soldiers is carrying an unconscious unit in their hands and the unit either wakes up from stun or dies, they will be removed from the Inventory display, but will still appear to be in the carrying soldier's hands in the Battlescape. Clicking on the phantom body in the Battlescape will crash the game!
This error can be easily cleared by switching to the Inventory screen and moving another item into the hand that used to be carrying the body. Even swapping the gun to the other hand will do. Refer to : [[Unconscious#Bug|Unconscious]].

===Disappearing Ammo===
Partially-used clips in alien or X-COM weapons disappear at the end of a mission. This dictates that you should try to use clips that are not full. However, in DOS versions of the game, you can unload used clips to recover them as full clips with the tradeoff of all loaded clips (used or otherwise) will count as spent and disappear (this shouldn't seem to be a problem, until you start using blasters and will find that you're running out of ammo fast). You can also use [[XcomUtil]] to recover partially used clips. Even when used clips are discarded, you will still get credit ([[Scoring|score]]) at the end of missions for recovering them.

When aborting a mission, any full clips loaded in any alien weapons brought back to the transport/access lift will not be recovered unless the clips are unloaded first. This includes [[Blaster Bomb]]s and [[Stun Bomb]]s.

===Weightless Loaded Ammo===

Ammo that is already loaded into a weapon at the start of a mission does not count towards a soldier's Encumbrance. If the weapon is subsequently unloaded and reloaded during the mission, the soldiers encumbrance will increase. This would only be noticed if the unloaded clip was not discarded (e.g. because it was not fully empty). This is due to a bug in the game's weight calculation routine that was uncovered (but not caused) by Seb76's inventory screen improvements.

=== Equip Phase Ammo Load Error ===

It looks like the game routine for placing ammo into weapons at the beginning of the equip phase does not correctly set all values. It should set the ammo as loaded into the weapon, the weapon as being held by the soldier, and the map position of the weapon and the ammo as the same as the soldier. Looks like it does not do one or more of these things. Whatever values the game doesn't set, do get set if you manually load or reload the weapon, either during the equip phase, or during the game.

Probably the only impact of this bug is that XComUtil can't detect the fact that the ammo is loaded into the weapon, for the purpose of AutoCombat. It might have other subtle effects on any utilities that deal with equipping soldiers. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 20:03, 11 March 2010 (EST)

Specifically, the game's auto-equip functions at the beginning of the equip phase fail to set offset 0x04 of the [[OBPOS.DAT]] record to point to the soldier who owns the ammo. These functions leave the value = 0xff, which implies "on the ground". They also leave the ammo location as being the equipment pile, rather than the location of the soldier. The other values are set correctly. Manually loading ammo into a weapon, during the equip phase or during combat, correctly sets all values. The ownership points to the soldier and the location to the soldier's location. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 20:03, 12 March 2010 (EST)

== Storage and Transfer Bugs ==

=== 80-item Limit ===
When loading up your Avenger for a massive UFO assault or arming soldiers for a [[Base Defense]] from your overflowing stores, you will likely hit this limit.

You only get a max of 80 items, and you don't get to choose which ones, so you may end up with 80 clips and no rifles for the base defense.

The solution is timely housekeeping. Sell off your spare personal equipment. See our handy [[Spring Cleaning Tips]], and also [[Managing the Item Limit]] for ideas.

Another bug concerning this limit happens when there are unresearched (alien) items in your stores during a base defense mission. Even though the item cannot be used during the mission, the game still allows you to equip your soldiers with them. This rarely happens as the alien items are very low on the item list, but if your base is lean and mean with under 80 items total, everything will spawn regardless of research.

===Sticky Craft Transfer Fee glitch===
As pointed out by [[User:Zombie|Zombie]] and [[User:Danial|Danial]], transferring any craft causes '''''all subsequent transfers to have that cost added to it''''', for as long as the craft is in transit. Additional craft in transit will add additional fees. (This has also been called the Exponential Transfer Fee bug, although it's actually additive, not exponential.)

Example (all numbers are only approximations):
<u>Cost of pistol transfer (↔ = to or from)</U>
EU ↔ USA 80
EU ↔ Asia 100
USA ↔ Asia 120

<u>Cost of craft transfer</U>
EU ↔ USA 1600 ''Notice how transfer fees always work as relative percents,
EU ↔ Asia 2000 ''probably on a distance-based formula
USA ↔ Asia 2400

<u>Cost to transfer '''pistol''', after transferring craft from EU to Asia for $2000</U>
EU ↔ USA 1680 (80+1600)
EU ↔ Asia 2100 (100+2000)
USA ↔ Asia 2520 (120+2400)

The cost of the craft transfer "sticks" to '''all''' subsequent transfers, until the craft arrives - although it acts on a proportionate basis, which is probably distance related.

Unfortunately, this cost is '''additive'''. That is to say, if you transferred a second craft from EU to Asia while the first was still in transit, it would cost $4000 ($2000 plus $2000 - it too suffers from the glitch!), it would then cost e.g. $4100 to transfer a pistol from EU to Asia. Having even more craft in transit would add even more fees.

This only appears to happen with aircraft, although it does happen for them all. So try to transfer aircraft individually, and not transfer anything else while you do - assuming you aren't awash in money. (The bug will cost you in the low thousands of dollars per craft being transferred.)

A related problem is that, if you are in the Transfer screen, start to transfer a craft, and then cancel because you remembered you wanted to send something else first - if you then try to Transfer something on that same screen, ''it will still get the sticky craft fee added''. Try it and see. You have to back up out to the main Base screen and hit Transfer again, to get rid of the sticky fee from a canceled craft transfer.

===Fuel dump on transfer===
Transferring a craft with 100% fuel will dump it somewhere along the way.
When it arrives at its destination, its fuel gauge will read empty (ie: 0% FUEL), but it will be listed as ready. If you launch your craft for a mission (any mission will do) its fuel gauge will still read empty.
<br>
This can be [[ExploitsA#Infinite_Fuel|exploited]], but it is very annoying if you want to quickly turn around a troop transport for another mission.
<br>
You can force a refuel by sending out the craft and immediately recalling it back to base.

===Transfer Limit cash eater===
Only 100 items can be in transit at a time. (Here, a transfer of e.g. 200 Elerium counts as one "item". Also, all soldiers are counted individually.) If you go over the limit, you will get a warning that there is no more transport capacity. If you STILL try to transport something after getting the warning, the item will stay where it is, but the transportation cost still gets deducted. Bad if you're shuffling expensive aircraft. The extra cost isn't that bad. Recovering just one alien weapon will likely cover the money you will lose to this bug over the course of a game.

{| {{stdTable}} width = "80%" align = "center"
|- {{stdTable Heading}}
| Tip
|-
| To Clarify what constitutes an item in the transfer screen, think of them as batches of X amount. For example, if you transfer 200 alien alloys now, and then decide to transfer another 50 alloys later, this will count as two items in transit. Now, when you look at your transfers, you'll now have two items. Two batches of alien alloys, one with 200 units and the other with 50 units.
|}

=== Transfer crash ===
If you transfer something to another base the game crashes right after acknowledging the transfer price.

Solution: Start UFO, select English language, finish your transfer, save game, restart with your normal language settings (http://www.xcomufo.com/x1faq.html)

===Purchase Limit===
The purchase limit for any item you buy via the purchase screen is 255 per line item, because it is a one-byte field. However, the impact of this bug is small, for if you have space remaining in your 100-item transfer queue, you can immediately order another 255 of said item as another line item.

===Storage Limit===
You can not store more than 9,999 of any one item in the general stores at a specific base at one time. However, this will likely only happen with [[Alien Alloys]] or [[Elerium-115]].
Still, consider yourself warned. If you're coming close to the limit, consider transferring the extra to other bases or even selling it, as any extra collected beyond the limit will 'disappear' and be wasted.

===Exceeding Storage Limits===

The storage capacity of a base is normally limited by the capacity of the General Stores. However this can be exceeded in a number of ways:

* By exploiting some of the Base Storage Anomalies (see below)
* By storing surplus equipment in transport aircraft (up to the 80 item limit). Note that if both the aircraft and the base are full, you can no longer move equipment between the aircraft and base (in either direction).
* Anything manufactured at the base will be stored there regardless of the base's General Stores capacity.
* Anything captured on a mission by an aircraft operating from the base will be stored at the base, regardless of the base's General Stores capacity.

These could perhaps be considered minor exploits.

===Base Storage Anomalies===

There are some quirks in how the game calculates, and displays, base storage capacity used and available. These quirks are not all consistent with each other, which leads to some strange behaviour. A typical example would be moving a set of items out of Stores, immediately trying to put the exact same set of items back into Stores, and this failing due to "insufficient space". A more detailed discussion is in [[Talk:Base Stores#Base Stores Anomalies]].

===Exceeding Storage Limits when Transferring Craft===

Usually you can't transfer crafts to bases without capacity for them as you'll get an error when you press the Up arrow. However, if you press the Down arrow when the craft quantity is already at 0, the game will still think you're removing crafts from the destination base and "add capacity", so you can then press the Up arrow again to transfer the crafts without error. This doesn't work with other transferable items.

Once you've broken the limit once, you don't need to do this trick anymore as the error won't show up again (the game probably doesn't check for negative capacity). You can also exceed storage and personnel capacity this way, as Transport Crafts will carry their contents over. For example, if you press the Down arrow on a Skyranger with 14 soldiers, the game will "add capacity" for 1 craft and 14 personnel on the destination base.

You can also orphan crafts this way by removing a base with crafts but no hangars, which can cause all sorts of weird behavior.

== Soldier Limits and Recruiting Bugs ==

=== Soldier Recruiting Limit ===

There is a hard limit in the game of 250 X-COM soldiers in total across all bases (not 250 per base).

The error message that pops up when you try to hire more is:

"NO MORE SOLDIERS ALLOWED"

"You have already recruited the maximum number of soldiers."

=== Soldier Recruiting Bugs ===

Also there are 3 bugs related to recruiting soldiers:

* You still get charged for Soldiers you try to purchase above the No More Soldiers limit.
* The error message that appears when you hire too many soldiers must be dismissed (click OK) once for each soldier over the limit, i.e. up to 255 times.
* You get also charged for Soldiers you try to purchase above the Transfer Limit (100 at a time).

=== Soldier Battlescape Limit ===

In the Battlescape, there is a limit of 40 X-COM soldiers that can participate in any battle. Tanks/HWPs each count as 4 soldiers against this limit. Unless you use custom-modified aircraft, you will only see this limit in a Base Defence mission. In a Base Defence mission, all tanks/HWPs will be deployed first, in preference to soldiers.

== Manufacturing and Research Bugs ==

=== Zero Unit Manufacturing Exploit ===

If you start a manufacturing project with zero items to build, close the screen, and then go back to assign staff and a non-zero build amount later, the first item is built for free. If you only build one item at a time, you can build them all for free. Obviously, this is cheating. It's also a bit tedious. It might be excusable if you're really short of money.

=== Research Rollover ===

Whenever research completes, you are given the opportunity to re-allocate your scientists' efforts onto a new topic. If the new topic is after the topic that you have just completed (further down toward the bottom of the screen), the new effort of the scientists you allocate is applied immediately, on the same day - even though they were just working on the previous project that completed.

If you have enough scientists available to complete the new project in one day, this process can be repeated indefinitely, to complete multiple topics in one day. Each new research topic must be further down the list than the previous research topic, or the bug/exploit does not work.

By the way, this means that you should not worry about "wasted" research effort due to allocating too many scientists to a project on its last day. The chances are you will gain more free research from this bug than you will lose from "wasted" research effort.

=== Overcrowded Engineers And Scientists ===
In the Dos version (probably the others as well) if you hire more than 255 engineers in a single base, the number of engineers in the base will read a negative number once the 257th engineer arrives. Any Engineers engaged in projects will continue to work on them, but if you cancel the project you will lose engineers until you have lost 255 of them.
This bug also affects scientists. It may be exploitable to pay a negative salary at the end of the month.

If you hire exactly 256 scientists or engineers, the total rolls over to zero. You pay zero salaries, and the resulting free Manufacturing / Research is limited only by the capacity of your Factories / Laboratories. Also works in TFTD.
<br>
NOTE: you need to make sure that not all of their projects finish at the same time.
Otherwise, you would be stuck with 0 'available' workers/scientists, i.e. unable to assign them to a new project.

===Manufacturing Limit Bug===
The number of hours remaining on a [[Manufacturing_Profitability#Profit_tables|manufacturing project]] is stored in a two-byte integer. If you build enough items that the total number of Engineer Hours required for construction is above 65535 hours, it will wrap around to 0 hours and display from there. Typically this drastically understates the amount of time that will be spent working on the items, but strictly speaking, it only subtracts 65k hours (so a huge project like 120k hours would still show ~55k hours' worth of Engineer time needed).

This bug is not dependent on the number of engineers assigned to the project; it is a function of the number of engineer hours needed. You will most likely run into it when trying to build 2 Avengers at the same time or when queuing up large orders of items in bulk, such as armor or Laser Cannons. As a practical example, the number of Avengers needed to trigger the bug is 2. The number of Laser Cannons is 219. Toggle back and forth between 218 and 219 laser cannons at the beginning of a project to see the effects.

It is known with certainty that this exists as a display issue - the screen will say you need less time than you should when you go over 65536 Engineer hours. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] is also sure he's seen it eat an Avenger... he ordered two but only got one, even though it took the time, and cost the money, for two. He's tried to replicate this and hasn't been able to, however. So it clearly is at least a superficial display issue, and may be more than that ... possibly dependent on even something else. In any event, keep an eye on projects with more than 65k Engineer hours (and report back here!)... or just avoid going that high.

===Manufacturing Completion Time Display Bug===

If you start a new manufacturing project at 00:01, and the screen displays a completion time of 5 hours, you might expect the work to complete at 05:00 or 05:01. In fact it will complete at 06:00, one hour longer than indicated.

The reason for this bug is that the time left to complete a project is decremented by the game by one hour, every hour, on the hour(XX:00).

This display behaviour is consistent with what is shown while manufacturing is in progress. For example, if time remaining is shown as 0 hours, the work will complete at the beginning of the ''next'' hour. In effect, the displayed number is the integer-truncated form of the real time remaining. In the first example given above, the real time to completion is 5 hrs 59 min, misleadingly truncated to 5 hrs.

===Manufacturing Rate Interruption Loss===

In addition, as a result of integer truncation (see previous bug, Manufacturing Completion Time Display Bug), every time production stops, you lose an hour of manufacturing. Therefore, for most efficient production, manufacture in large batches (or increase batches while they are still in progress) to keep manufacturing as continuous as possible.

===Manufacturing Rate Limit===

There is a maximum production rate of one unit of any given type per hour per base. For example, though Alien Alloys / Aqua Plastics require 100 Engineer/Technician Hours per unit, even with 250 Engineers/Technicians you can only produce 1 unit per hour.

===Manufacturing Rate Limit Bug (TFTD)===

In UFO Enemy Unknown, the Manufacturing Rate Limit is just an irritant. The game prevents you from allocating more Engineers than is useful. In Terror From The Deep, there is no such safeguard. If you allocate more Technicians than are required to produce 1 unit per hour, the excess effort is just silently wasted. The unproductive Technicians are no doubt wasting their time playing retro computer games on their engineering workstations.

===HWP Fusion Bomb Ammo Cost Bug===

The HWP Fusion Bomb ammunition type, and its TFTD equivalent the ammunition for the SWS PWT/Displacer, appear to have the wrong manufacturing costs.
The vehicle version is ''less'' portable and ''less'' powerful than the personal version (Blaster Bomb), ''less'' capable than the craft version (Fusion Bomb) - and costs ''more'' than either of the others in total cash and in materials. In particular, it makes no sense that the small missiles on the HWP/SWS use up ''more'' of both Elerium/Zrbite and Alien Alloys/Aqua Plastics than the Craft version.

To correct this error, the craft round should have the higher base price, ''and'' the material requirements that are currently assigned to the SWS/HWP round. (It's debatable whether the SWS/HWP rounds should be more expensive than the man-carried rounds.) More discussion is on the talk page of this article.

== Other Bugs ==

=== Difficulty Bug ===
The DOS version had a problem where no matter what difficulty level you choose, it will rever to "Beginner" level after the first mission. This is caused by one incorrectly set bug in all Dos versions of the game( 1.0 through to 1.4).

The Collectors Edition Windows port (also commonly known as UFO Gold or CE) does not have this problem.

To fix the Difficulty Bug, you can install [[XcomUtil]] and it will repair this bug.

Alternately for those familiar with hex editing, you can fix this bug by referring to the appropriate section on the [[GEOSCAPE.EXE#XCOM: UFO Defense DOS Versions, difficulty setting bug | GEOSCAPE.EXE]] article and manually setting the incorrect byte to its proper value.

----

[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/X-COM This TVTropes] page has been known to state that due to the bug, players asked the developers to increase game difficulty. The rumour goes that a new bug was supposedly introduced as a result, where TFTD's difficulty would reset to Superhuman instead of Beginner. The facts of the matter are that, while the overall difficulty of the game ''was'' increased, TFTD does manage to correctly keep track of which specific mode you're supposed to be playing in.

=== Big Text Bug ===
There are a few bugs in XCOM, especially early versions, that can build up and make the game unstable enough that it crashes and prints out a screen full of green 40-column text, essentially debug or memory dump information useless to you.

You can also forced a crash by pressing CTRL-C at the start of a new game (DOS only). If you don't have any missions automatically saved within the [[Game_Files#Missdat_Files|MISSDAT]] folder, you will get this big text to appear. Typically it is green for Enemy Unknown, and blue for Terror From The Deep. Other colours have been observed such as pink, purple, brown and yellow.

In the dos version, the text that you see is simply a memory dump in mode-13h (the 320x200x256 colour screen resolution) and the text colour is based off the changes to the palette that the game made. The batch file coordinating the two main programs [[Geoscape]] and [[Battlescape]] often succeeds in soldiering on after a crash. In the Windows version of the game, the game simply crashes back to the desktop, unless you're using the [[XcomUtil]] split executable variant (which uses a batchfile).

Some things which will tend to cause this problem:
* Overzealous use of Psi

At least some of the instability crashes can be fixed by replacing the DOS/4GW dos extender with a later version from another DOS game.

[http://syndicate.lubie.org/synd/html/synd_patches.php One of these], for example. Link to Syndicate fansite, instructions included.

=== Cash Rollover Bug ===

When your cash balance goes over $2,147,483,647, it will rollover and become $-2,147,483,647. Which means your game is done for, unless you use an editor. Fortunately, by the time you accumulate this much cash, you have usually completed all necessary research to win the game.

=== UFOPaedia Craft Weapon Hit Probability Bug ===

There is a bug in the in-game UFOPaedia. It mistakenly reads the damage value field when reporting the hit chance for a craft weapon. Hence:

* Cannon shows 10% not 25%
* Avalanche shows 100% not 80%
* Laser Cannon shows 70% not 35%
* Plasma Beam shows 140% not 50%
* Fusion Ball shows 230% (!!!) not 100%

Possibly the reason this bug was missed during testing is that the first weapon in the data files, Stingray, actually does have Damage equal to its hit probability.

=== Losing My Favourite Game ===

There is a check whether the "Has X-com received a financial warning?" flag has been raised. If no, a warning is issued and the flag is raised. If yes, then the game ends, and the flag is lowered. HOWEVER, this flag is erronously not connected to any particular savegame, it is global across all savegames. This allows strange results when saving and loading games.

== See Also ==

=== [[Known Bugs (TFTD)]] ===
For bugs that '''only''' affect X-COM: Terror From The Deep.

[[Category: Oddities and bugs]]

Mountain Terrain

2011-10-23T20:47:19Z

St.froppelie: /* Battle Notes */

[[image:terrain-mount.gif|right|Mountain Terrain]]
Aliens will very rarely land in alpine terrain, but it is always a headache when they do. Mountainous areas look gray from the geoscape view.

The sheer sides of mountains and foothills make it difficult, sometimes impossible, to pass. They also provide the aliens with good cover, and let flying aliens travel much more freely than groundbound troopers. If you have flying units yourself, use them here.

<br clear="all">
==Battle Notes==
*See the [[Known Bugs#Mountain Map|Mountain Map Bug]] for information on phantom tree stumps.
*Not much fuel for incendiary attacks here, however normal explosives do have a high tendency to leave small fires.
*As always, try to get snipers on the high points of the map.
*The straight-vertical sides of hills are not traversible by ground units, at least through normal means. A minor height glitch when traversing between differentelevations can sometimes allow a soldier to scale the face of the hill.
*Grenade tosses might be difficult because of intervening hills, but it's often the only way to get a hit on a target peeking over a high ridge or inaccessible mountaintop.
* The caves have some minor collision detection problems that allow tanks to pass through the narrow tunnel.
*This sort of terrain can only be found in Asia, in the himalaya region. Nowhere else, so it might happen that you never play in this terrain during a whole campaign.
*There also might be snow, but not as much as in the arctic terrain. Also, the snow doesn't cover everything. In fact, the ground is more grey than white.

==See Also==
[[Category:Terrain]]

Mountain Terrain

2011-10-23T20:40:10Z

St.froppelie: /* Battle Notes */

[[image:terrain-mount.gif|right|Mountain Terrain]]
Aliens will very rarely land in alpine terrain, but it is always a headache when they do. Mountainous areas look gray from the geoscape view.

The sheer sides of mountains and foothills make it difficult, sometimes impossible, to pass. They also provide the aliens with good cover, and let flying aliens travel much more freely than groundbound troopers. If you have flying units yourself, use them here.

<br clear="all">
==Battle Notes==
*See the [[Known Bugs#Mountain Map|Mountain Map Bug]] for information on phantom tree stumps.
*Not much fuel for incendiary attacks here, however normal explosives do have a high tendency to leave small fires.
*As always, try to get snipers on the high points of the map.
*The straight-vertical sides of hills are not traversible by ground units, at least through normal means. A minor height glitch when traversing between different elevations can sometimes allow a soldier to scale the face of the hill.
*Grenade tosses might be difficult because of intervening hills, but it's often the only way to get a hit on a target peeking over a high ridge or inaccessible mountaintop.
* The caves have some minor collision detection problems that allow tanks to pass through the narrow tunnel.
*This sort of terrain can only be found in Asia, in the himalaya region. Nowhere else, so it night happen that you never play in this terrain during a whole campaign.

==See Also==
[[Category:Terrain]]

The Mysteries of X-COM

2011-10-23T19:45:33Z

St.froppelie: /* What kind of materials were 'synomium' and 'adamantium'? */

Discussion page for some less clear aspects of the series

==General issues==

==='''How fast can alien craft travel in space?'''===

Some alien missions (repeated attacks on X-COM bases, for instance) come daily. This seems to imply that alien craft are able to travel the distance from Mars to Earth in a matter of hours.

: Or maybe, as you suggest in your novels, they have a staging area near Earth, such as the dark side of the Moon. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 15:36, 25 February 2009 (CST)

::Really fast. Consider that they don't need to push aside atmosphere, as well as the fact that momentum is conserved in space, so they can achieve very high speeds with gravity slingshots. (Mars DOES have 2 moons, recall.) Also note that they may be operating a bit closer to home(the far side of the moon, perhaps?) it's simply that the command staff are at Cydonia. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 00:19, 26 February 2009 (CST)

Good article in last month's Scientific American pointing out we only rely on gravity slingshots because we still use chemical rockets with pathetic delta-V. Once 2nd and 3rd generation plasma engines come on line (1st gen are in flight now) the gravity slingshot will become an irrelevance. No doubt UFO drives are at least as good as our (future) 3rd gen plasma drives, probably way better since they warp space.

(Reminds me of the old Guild Navigator joke - I just warped space from Ix, and boy is my mind tired. Oh well, you had to be there)

[[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:24, 27 February 2009 (CST)

:Also keep in mind that both Phobos and Deimos are tiny. They are basically captured asteroids. Neither would be useful in gravity assist. But yeah, the UFO's shouldn't need any assist anyway.[[User:Mannon|Mannon]] 11:35, 30 March 2011 (EDT)

==='''What happens to the crashed UFO craft and its crew?'''===

Downed alien craft disappear after a few days have passed. No explanation is given to this whatsoever, so what really happens to them?

Possible answers:
* The UFO and its occupants are recovered by other humans.
* The Aliens manage to repair the craft and fly back to space. (unlikely, in the event that the power plant blew up and they have no Elerium)
* The Aliens self-destruct the craft and kill themselves in the process, ensuring their remains will not be recovered by humans.
* The UFO Powerplant eventually suffers a meltdown and explodes, eliminating any vestiges of alien presence.
* The Aliens blow up the UFO and disappear into the countryside.
* Most likely answer, IMHO: The local government/ funding nations give X-COM a limited time window to launch any operation, similiar to what you see in covert ops movies: "Complete the mission within 36 hours, or we initiate Carpet Bombing of the area". This is very likely considering that each nation actually has jurisdiction, and X-com is operating each military op with permission and cooperation by local authorities. [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 13:42, 25 February 2009 (CST)
*Similiarly, I assume that nations which have signed a pact with the aliens launch a rescue operation and assist their alien friends. [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 13:42, 25 February 2009 (CST)
: In the UFO TV show, it's stated that alien craft and bodies degrade quickly in Earth's atmosphere, disappearing completely in hours or a few days. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 15:36, 25 February 2009 (CST)
:: If that was the case, then one of the gases present in the atmosphere would be very toxic to the aliens. They would be restricted on their activities outside their craft, not to mention they would have to terraform the planet to be able to live here. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 20:32, 26 February 2009 (CST)

:: As Zombie said, doesn't Alien Containment support this idea? [[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:24, 27 February 2009 (CST)

::Those are excellent suggestions. One of the X-COM books detailed that aliens throw up a force field around crashed UFOs to give them time to repair the craft. This would also explain the limited size of the Battlescape (the area of the force field...the field was thrown up before the crash, thus why the craft wasn't always centered in it) as well as why the Battlescape is devoid of human life(the aliens took care of that up front.) Similarly, large scale bombing works as well, as does the local government going in to clean it up themselves. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 00:19, 26 February 2009 (CST)
:::If there's a force field around the craft what is it supposed to repel? The atmosphere? Because humans have no problem entering the field and operating inside it. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 20:32, 26 February 2009 (CST)
::::Of course they do! Have you ever noticed how dumb your units can be? That's because the aliens can't live with too much nitrogen, so they turn some of it in their force field to oxygen, and excessive amounts of oxygen make you act weird. After a while, their power source runs out and the nitrogen returns, dissolving them into E-115. (What did you think it was made of?) AT least, that's what seemes logical to me, ad is a combination of many postulates here. 21:36, 18 March 2010 (EDT)
:::::That would require that the aliens' biochemistry and the alien alloys used in the power sources reacted with nitrogen, which is a mostly inert gas on normal temperature and pressure and a . It's kinda of weird that the aliens didn't bothered with fixing that vulnerability with their craft and bodies during millions of years (what happens if the force field malfunctions while capturing cattle? ooops!) but ok. The increase in the amount of oxygen would probably also turn any kind of fire into large explosions throughtout the force field. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 21:24, 19 March 2010 (EDT)
::The force field was intended to keep humans out so the aliens were undisturbed. The first major hurdle X-COM had was figuring out a way to bypass those fields so they COULD get troops and aircraft inside. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 20:54, 26 February 2009 (CST)

===How do the aliens carry their equipment?===
Like human soldiers, aliens can carry weapons and equipment in locations like legs, belt, shoulders and backpack, regardless of the fact that some of their races even lack those anatomical features.

:Potentially a sticky gel-like area on the limb. Though really, since we were never intended to access alien inventories and the AI does all inventory management internally, this may simply be something that was never considered. Speaking from a slightly different standard, most aliens do not carry excessive amounts of gear; often their equipment would be able to fit in both hands. Also recall that Floaters and Ethereals have capes and robes(which may have inside pockets, or the Floaters could store them in the anti-grav/life support unit or inside surgically created body cavities during the installation, while Ethereals could support their excess gear with telekinesis), Mutons have armor(which may have external straps or adhesive areas), and Snakemen have an armor plate(which could have straps, adhesive, inside pockets, or even a backpack.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 00:19, 26 February 2009 (CST)

:We already know the answer to this one - they cheat! ;) [[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:24, 27 February 2009 (CST)

===Are X-COM transport craft piloted?===

:Almost certainly, since a remotely-piloted craft could be returned to base when the mission was aborted or failed. It's entirely possible that all X-COM soldiers are qualified pilots of the appropriate craft, since it would make no sense for X-COM to waste space on the plane for a noncombatant, or to have a single-point of failure on the mission like that. (The aliens could screw over the entire op by killing the pilot). It also explains why the craft is lost when the mission fails or is aborted with no one inside(lacking a pilot, the aliens are able to easily destroy it.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 00:19, 26 February 2009 (CST)

:: On the other hand, even a tank/hovertank is capable of getting the craft back to base. Perhaps there is an autopilot function. X-com craft are also infamous for choosing strange and bizarre intercept paths, based on latitude lines... almost as if they followed some a few simple lines of code from 1993 programming (bit of 4th wall breakage there...) -[[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]]

:Of course, given the tanks seem to be remotely piloted from an X-COM base, its possible that the tank being in the craft allows the Tank pilot to reroute into the control systems for the dropship and take it over. Limiting this to having the tank inside is a rather good idea. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 12:07, 27 February 2009 (CST)

:I recall that the various cutscenes in the PSX version had a pilot, most notably in the "Mission Failure" scene, where it shows the pilot being killed. --[[User:Mabmoro|Mabmoro]] 16:06, 13 March 2009 (EDT)

===What sort of physical process is used to increase human stats over time?===

The increases in some stats are easy explained by experience gained on missions (firing abiility, reactions, etc.). However, in the cases of physical stats (TUs, stamina, strength) the increase must be augmented by an artificial process, since it isn't easily explainable that humans can significantly increase body mass/speed/endurance just by physical activity/exercise.

:Lifting weights will increase strength. Running and cardio exercise will increase endurance, and performing the same task multiple times will allow you to perform it faster. I see no reason natural increase doesn't work. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 18:33, 26 February 2009 (CST)
::I assume that it is possible to a human to use those methods to double its physical condition, but that being the case why are X-COM recruits so... undeveloped? Maybe this is a more intriguing aspect. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 20:32, 26 February 2009 (CST)

What I don't get is that when someone gets blasted that they gain a lot of extra health. For crying out loud, the aliens are throwing around plasma and ridicoulously HUGE explosions. Shouldn't they be suffering from third-degree burns? I would expect them to at least have a major sore spot where they got hit. [[User:Tsunamiatunzen1|Tsunamiatunzen1]] September 24

:There's been arguments over whether the soldiers in X-COM are the Green Berets or equivalents of their various militaries, just average soldiers that volunteered for the job, or if the Council of Funding Nations is corrupt and is using this as an excuse to foist off their most useless soldiers onto the X-COM project. If the latter, it would easily explain their rather poor early stats. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 21:06, 26 February 2009 (CST)

::Maybe the stat increases relate to the troops getting more comfortable performing all operations - lifting, running, combat actions - when the aliens no longer scare the cr*p out of them so much. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:24, 27 February 2009 (CST)

:: I know what you mean... if this were Jagged Alliance, it'd be like trying to hire Mike and getting Gumpy instead... ouch! ... IMHO, it looks as if the COFN is being funny about this. Clearly, the troops assigned to X-com have had extensive weapons training... each and every one of them can use just about any standard weapon, including Rocket Launchers, incindieries, auto Cannons, etc. However, NONE of them have any combat experience, coming to you as fresh rookies. And their stats look as if they were selected based on a pot luck basis rather than screening among the elite troops... [[User:Jasonred]]

:Health isn't gained from getting shot. But as for the "ludicrously low stats" issue, maybe they're being selected on some other basis, or there's a real shortage of volunteers. [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] 04:56, 25 September 2009 (EDT)

:: I think that the X-COM's soldiers have big responsibilities, can't have children. They are sworn in and only then go to the field - if someone can't be trusted to keep a secret, he's getting sacked, given a shitty job (ever wondered who maintained the General Stores?) or worse. - n, 16:47, 16 August 2010 (GMT+2)

In Hotpoint's [http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-16092/Hotpoint+XSGCOM+Goa+uld+Defence.htm| XSGCOM: Goa'uld Defense], his explanation is that after a few missions of watching their fellow newbies die, the survivors give in and volunteer for an experimental regimen of performance-enhancing drugs. IRL, steroids and such don't result in instant strength enhancement, they just encourage accelerated development of muscles. [[User:Kalaong|Kalaong]] 03:16, 28 March 2011 (EDT)

==Enemy Unknown/UFO Defence issues==
==='''Why isn't Earth overrun by Snakeman/Chryssalids?'''===

According to the UFOPaedia, Snakemen's "Reproduction is asexual, with each snakeman carrying up to fifty eggs inside its body at any one time" adding the ominious conclusion: "Left to its own devices this species would be a severe threat to life on earth."
Moreover, this species is usually accompanied by the Chryssalids, which have a capacity to reproduce themselves very quickly using humans. So, any survivors of crash sites or terror attacks could start reproducing themselves hidden, resulting in large areas being overrun by those aliens later on.

Possible answers:
* Both races have a self-destruct mechanism incorporated into their psysiology to prevent this.
* The entire area is purged by large scale bombing. [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 13:42, 25 February 2009 (CST)

::One thing suggested in fan data was that Snakemen have air tablets in their stomach...which may be different from earth's atmosphere, which would limit their lifespan in earth's atmosphere, also making egg-laying pointless, since the offspring wouldn't be able to breathe or survive. It has also been suggested that Chryssalids have a very rapid metabolism. Though Chryssalids are likely just as, if not more useful, as a threat or a bargaining tool. When attempting to get a nation to capitulate to their demands, the aliens could threaten to employ Chryssalids en masse, or offer to remove a mass infestation in exchange for the government's cooperation. Or even further, it's possible that Chryssalids are under Ethereal control and maintaining the control link at that distance is taxing, thus eliminating mass use of the creatures. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 00:19, 26 February 2009 (CST)

Two words: [[Alien Containment]]. That answers everything except for the UFOPaedia articles for the aliens themselves which contradict it. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 00:42, 26 February 2009 (CST)
: For captured aliens, yes. But what survivors of uninvestigated crash sites? [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]]

::Zombie is commenting that based on the need for an Alien Containment unit, the aliens cannot survive in earth's atmosphere for extended periods, needing special atmospheric blends and/or nutrient pools which earth is unable to provide naturally, thus limiting their operations outside of the craft. (If the aliens won the war, it's likely this would be one of the first things that they would 'correct'.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 20:54, 26 February 2009 (CST)

===What is the propose of the 'disco balls' found inside some UFOs?===

:Given that they explode, they could be storage reservoirs for coolant for the computers or other systems. They could also be circuit breakers or electrical junction boxes, or even a component of the UFO's particle beam they use to fry X-COM Interception craft. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 00:19, 26 February 2009 (CST)

Here again, two words: [[Alien Entertainment]]. Even though the spheres are not set to Alien Entertainment in the MCD files, they are almost certainly related to the process somehow. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 00:42, 26 February 2009 (CST)

:Maybe they are for having discos? [[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:24, 27 February 2009 (CST)

:Presumably [[Alien Entertainment]] is psionic in some way, maybe they're Psi-Emitters or something? -[[User:magic9mushroom|magic9mushroom]]

===Who buys those alien bodies/equipment from X-COM?===

:Equipment likely goes to the funding nations or the international black market. No rebel group is going to ask too many questions about being offered guns that can [[Heavy Plasma|slice through the hull of an MBT]] or [[Alien Grenade|grenades that can level a building]] or [[Blaster Launcher|man-portable guided missiles]]; it'd just be cash-and-carry. Similarly, scientists would likely be interested in looking at much of this stuff for their own research. This would also explain the lack of market forces; the funding nations could have a set price for each item, or if X-COM is selling them under the table to rebels and rogue scientists, they can set the price and refuse to budge. The money on corpses could also be an "Alien Bounty" paid by the Funding Nations, as a reward for each alien that X-COM can prove they killed. Or it could be bought by other groups...rumor has it that some fast food restaurants have processes that can make ANY meat, no matter the source, look and taste the same, and a Muton would make a LOT of McBurgers. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 00:19, 26 February 2009 (CST)
From the USO (Kasey Chang): XARQUID SUSHI.

===How did the aliens got to Mars?===

There are no indications that UFOs are capable of faster than light speed. So how did they get to Mars in the first place?

:The UFOs are mission craft, used for the legwork. The fighters; we never see the carriers. Given the aliens have been proven to be interstellar, they either Clone-A-Crew as needed when coming the long way to keep the UFOs crewed, or its far more likely that the aliens did have or still do have larger "Carrier" ships, which are capable of FTL travel, that were/are further out in the Solar System that store and dispatch UFOs to mission locations. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 18:33, 26 February 2009 (CST)

:: One word: TFTD. The entire city of T'leth was put into cryogenic suspended animation? Or look at X-com Interceptor. X-com and the aliens show the ability to enter hyperspace or whatever it is.
::: T'Leth is another mystery of its own. More to that later on :) [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 20:32, 26 February 2009 (CST)
::... there are no indications that the UFOs are INcapable of FTL... I don't think you would want to perform FTL travel within Earth's planetary atmosphere!
::: There are no indications that they are capable as well. And X-COM scientists don't seem to detect any FTL capabilities in UFOs during their research. And after the war the Elerium stocks dwindled, and it would make sense to perform some sort of interstellar missions to detect and harvest Elerium, however none are mentioned. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 20:32, 26 February 2009 (CST)
:::: Unless you count the events of X-com Interceptor? [[User:Jasonred]] [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 21:15, 26 February 2009 (CST)
::::: I am refering to the events between Enemy Unknown and TFTD. There is clearly a big distinction between the alien craft on EU and those of Interceptor. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 09:38, 27 February 2009 (CST)
::::: Enemy Unknown is set in 1999, TFTD in 2040, Interceptor in 2067... looks entirely plausible that they DID begin research into space exploration immediately after the events of Enemy Unknown. These things take time you know. Remember that the universe is a huge place, and Earth had rather limited Elerium Reserves by the end of EU. It takes... what, 30 Elerium just to fly an Avenger halfway across Earth? They could hardly afford to fly around randomly in space HOPING to come across elerium, they had to figure out detections methods, then scan the galaxy sector by sector, possibly partially using non-Elerium based propulsion at times... I can't remember if it's canon or fanfic, but I remember reading that all Elerium on Earth was reserved for space exploration.
As for FTL, Earth does get it for sure sometime between 1999 and 2067. And I'm pretty certain the technology is Elerium based. It's not a huge logic jump to assume that the aliens have access to FTL Elerium based tech.
Though I'm a bit puzzled why all T'leth technology is based on Zrbrite, when the aliens uniformly use Elerium, all the way from Earth to Cydonia to the far reaches of space. -[[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]]

:It takes 12 Elerium to fuel an Avenger, though how much 1 Elerium is is an ongoing debate. As for Elerium, it was reserved for propulsion research when the funding nations divvied up X-COM's resources, and then they blew it all without learning anything more than the original X-COM scientists. And yes, Earth clearly gets FTL after TFTD but before Interceptor. The reason Elerium is not used in TFTD is because Elerium becomes inert and useless upon contact with seawater. Similarly, seawater aggressively corrodes Alien Alloys and eventually completely dissolves them. Zrbite functions similar to Elerium, being gold mixed with alien bio-material. Unfortunately, Zrbite only works when supported by a massive energy grid created by T'leth and becomes inert upon its destruction. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 12:07, 27 February 2009 (CST)

OK... take the UNIT of elerium out of the equation... let's say that Earth had 5000 units of elerium, so 6 units get's an Avenger halfway around the world, and 12 units is sufficient to reach Mars. Hardly enough fuel reserves for intergalactic travel then.
2065 On October the 27th, the probe 'Tombstone 1' returns reports to Earth. It's data show that the globular star cluster where it rests, one hundred light-years from Earth, contains many life-supporting planets. Many of the planet's within the probe's scanning range also apparently possess great mineral wealth, including trace veins of elerium-115.
Hmm... So, mankind discovers FTL technology on their own in those 65 years? ah... come to think of it, if they've got non-Elerium based space travel and FTL, and more powerful weapons too, what's the big deal about Elerium in the Frontier? Does mankind even need it anymore?
As for T'leth, it is meant to be over 65 million years old, and CRASHLANDED on Earth due to a solar flare. Was the Ultimate Alien a prophet, thus chose to base T'leth on aqua plastics and Zrbite when T'lth was first constructed? Or did T'leth crash land, followed by frenzied activity where the entire city was replaced part by part, the alien alloys swapped for Aqua Plastics?
...
Actually, come to think of it, it's obviously a massive plothole due to limited timeframe, no point in discussing too deeply. Sigh... [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 13:50, 27 February 2009 (CST)

:It's implied that despite the loss of ability to use the alien technology from the First and Second alien wars, simply being able to see and examine their designs catapulted earth's technology forward at least a few decades...which really is entirely reasonable. Much of the technology can be replicated on earth, and the principles and designs can be reapplied.

:As for the deal with Elerium, its needed to power stronger weapons and is also wonderful for power generation; its efficiency in power generation is what allows Mega Primus to even exist.

:And was there anywhere that specifically said that T'Leth was made of Aqua Plastics? I don't recall. Yes, the rest of their subs are made of aqua plastics, but I'm wondering if something the size of a medium city might perhaps be made of something a bit more durable. PS: Thanks for signing your post! :D [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 14:17, 27 February 2009 (CST)

It's not a plothole at all. There is no Elerium on Earth, whereas the aliens can manufacture Zrbite on Earth, since there's gold here. Therefore it's obvious why they used Zrbite. Also, there's the fact that it was an Aquatoid colony mission, intended to produce an "aquatic paradise", so using Aqua Plastics instead of Alien Alloys is perfectly justified. [[User:magic9mushroom]]

:I think that the use of Aqua Plastics instead of Alien Alloys is perfectly justified by the fact that T'leth crashed million of years ago while the aliens that came to take a shot or two at earth were two million years ahead technologically. So Aqua plastics was some plastic that was used by aliens before they've got the Alloys. You might argue - it's Aqua Plastics, so Aqua =/= Space. Well, Aliens weren't calling them aqua, and there wasn't anything saying that Aqua Plastics is not suitable for Space Travel. --[[User:Domenique|Domenique]] 11:10, 19 May 2010 (EDT)

... I think Alien Alloys alone would catapult earth's technology forward a decade, and there's no reason humanity can't use those anymore, just not in water. According to timeline, some space pirates manage to make the decommisioned Avengers run on non-Elerium fuel... a large technological step.
By the time of Interceptor, Elerium weapons aren't that powerful. Good point about power generation though.
I would assume that T'leth SHOULD have been constructed out of Alien Alloys, since it was originially an interplanetary vessel? Generally, everything in EU was made of Alien Alloys, everything in TFTD was made out of Aqua plastics. Both of which seemed plenty durable.

::Have you noticed that the UFOs fly however their mission parameters tell them to? The UFOs pretty much IGNORE interceptions by X-com craft... if their mission tells them to make 3 passes, speed up, slow down, speed up... they will follow that pattern exactly, whether X-com craft are firing on them or not.

::Question: How long does it take the Avenger to reach Mars from Earth? [[User:Jasonred]] [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 19:12, 26 February 2009 (CST)
:::No longer than a week, in my opinion. Probably less than 2 days. Since canonically, the design of the Avenger had the Cydonia mission in mind, it would be capable of very high interplanetary speeds. (You could choose to burn 40% of the Elerium in one blast to get to high speed. Or you could burn even more and refuel while it's landed...or it could be a mission with no guaranteed escape for the crew. The lives of the many over those of the few and all that, especially since the war hinges on the mission.) In addition, you can fit a full complement of soldiers on board with no real excess room for supplies, and the longer it takes to get to Mars, the greater the chance the aliens will spot it coming for them and mount a serious defense. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 19:20, 26 February 2009 (CST)
:::If you'd burn that much fuel to accelerate the craft then you'd have to use as much again to decelerate it and attain a planetary orbit, otherwise you'll simply overshoot the planet and head towards outer space. This is also another aspect to take into account when thinking about the speed of UFOs. [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 20:32, 26 February 2009 (CST)

::: UFO drives are non-Newtonian so those sort of rocket equations don't necessarily apply. I think filling up a car with gas is a closer analogy. [[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:24, 27 February 2009 (CST)

::: Well, they could put a mini mind shield on the Avenger, shoot down a UFO roughly their size, and then fly to Cydonia when the UFO they shot down was supposed to return based on the instructions found by the hyper-wave decoder. Basically taking the place of the UFO. Shouldn't be too hard since the UFO's are pretty common by the time you research Cydonia or Bust. [[User:Tsunamiatunzen1|Tsunamiatunzen1]] 14 February 2010 (MST)

::That would leave 20% of the fuel to take off the Avenger and land it. Not really that unreasonable. While they're landed, they could potentially refuel the Avenger, or the mission might have been planned as a 1-way trip from the get-go. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 21:06, 26 February 2009 (CST)

===What happened to Mars and the alien civilization there?===

According to the Brain, Mars was blooming with life had a alien civilization millions of years ago. However, Mars nowadays is a barren world and the alien civilization seems reduced to the area on Cydonia.

:That may well have been before Mars lost the majority of its atmosphere due to its weak magnetic field. As the atmosphere dissipated, the aliens left or died off. It's also possible that the aliens, shown in the game over to have little respect for planets other than as sites for slaves and resources, they strip-mined the planet dry(and the rust from the machines created the red coloring), and then seeded Earth so that the slave workforce would grow for future extraction of Earth's resources. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 18:33, 26 February 2009 (CST)

===Where are the human-alien hybrids referred to on the UFOPaedia?===

:For the ones on earth, probably in hiding or in laboratories for research. For the ones the aliens have, potentially improving the Sectoid gene pool or being used as food or menial tasks. Cloning is alot easier than making genetic hybrids and there's nothing that says their first-generation experiments would be suitable for combat. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 18:33, 26 February 2009 (CST)

:: They are babies at the time of X-com, and few in number. Their aren't even that many of them by the time of X-com Apocalypse. [[User:Jasonred]] [[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]] 19:12, 26 February 2009 (CST)

:Not to mention the ones in X-COM: Apocalypse are less-than-fit for battle before extensive training. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 21:06, 26 February 2009 (CST)

===Why did the aliens only activate T'Leth after they were defeated?===

On TFTD T'Leth is shown as an entity/city of major power that is capable of conducting a war on its own. But the aliens leave it dormant although they could have used it to speed the process of taking control of Earth.

:Perhaps the Enemy Unknown aliens are legitimately scared of the TFTD aliens and are unsure how long they could trust them. Evil is not monolithic; the TFTD aliens may be more interested in themselves than the alien empire, so they were kept as an ace-in-the-hole. This is the same reason (canonically) that SKYNET did not originally send the T-1000 to assassinate Sarah Connor; SKYNET was scared of what the T-1000 could do and had only a bare minimum of control over it, so it only used it as an option when it had nothing left to lose. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 21:06, 26 February 2009 (CST)

T'Leth is in fact so powerful that all it has to do is surface, in order for X-com to be considered to have lost the war.
In fact, looking at the timelines, it takes 40 years for T'leth to wake up from it's slumber... that's one good reason not to use it. By the time it activated, the war would already be over. [[User:Jasonred]]

Because the whole purpose of the Enemy Unknown aliens was to rescue the TFTD aliens from T'leth, and there was no way of seeing whether the T'leth-based invasion in TFTD would even work - from their perspective it's possible that getting T'leth to bootstrap itself could have caused a catastrophe (they don't know whether or how badly it's damaged). Presumably the aliens planned to mount a proper rescue operation after locking down Earth and readying it for the aquatic paradise that was the entire point of the T'leth expedition in the first place. [[User:magic9mushroom]]

T'Leth was a coleny ship sent by the Sectoid/Aquatoid's millions of years earlier. This is why the Aquatoids use electronics to augment there control over other creatures, while there progeny are genetically modified to gain the same control. In TFTD it's implied that the T'Leth had been partialy active for a long time. Thawing out aliens in small groups but never going in full production. UFO aliens may have not intended to start the full awakening cycle until they had a chance to prepare the planet.
OR, given the Ultimate Alien was aquatoid in origin by his looks and there was no other races from the first game involved. And the fact that Sectoid/Aqutoid's are not the top of the food chain with the Ethereal and Brain being more powerful it's possible the brain had decided that the Ultimate Alien was a threat to it's power. It was not until it's death that they tried send the signal. --[[User:BladeFireLight|BladeFireLight]] 17:19, 22 March 2010 (EDT)

===Why did the aliens use limited force during the First Alien War?===

Imagine Independence Day or War of the Worlds: UFO above the major Earth cities destroying the national leadership and any resistance. Or simply announce to Earth that they are now a part of their empire and resistence is futile. Instead, they go 1 mission each day, allowing humans to capture their craft, research their technology, discover their intentions and mount a successful defense. Don't the aliens watch sci-fi movies to see how it should be done?

:Perhaps they don't have the standing forces to do so, and are in the process of building up the forces needed to do so. Perhaps they don't want to wipe out the entire power structure too fast; they want to leave some pieces in place for when they rebuild. Perhaps they're too condescending to think that humanity ever really has a chance; they've probably conquered thousands of other planets without anyone ever successfully resisting them. Perhaps they consider the X-COM project to be a rearguard action that, while a valiant effort and a credible threat, is ultimately doomed to failure because they simply cannot win in the end, which is why they undermine it. Indeed, the reason you need to launch the Cydonia mission in order to win is because X-COM simply cannot stop the aliens in a ground war; the aliens have an effectively infinite supply line and standing forces(though nothing says they're all waiting to swamp the earth), and the only way to win is to kill the command staff(which the aliens believe X-COM will not be able to do, lacking both knowledge of where the Brain is and any practical means to get there.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 21:06, 26 February 2009 (CST)
::The most plausible explanation seems to be the one employed in the Worldwar series, by Harry Turtledove, but that does not seem to mesh with what the Brain says about having been on Mars for a while, since then they could watch the Earthlings perpetually. Of course, what it says is probably a bunch of lies. Thinking about what it says for too long also raises the question of why the aliens attacked when they did, of course... [[User:Vizzydix1|Vizzydix1]] 21:52, 18 March 2010 (EDT)

The aliens are completely lacking in weapons of mass destruction. When you get right down to it, their aircraft are very fast, manuevarable and durable, but they have rotten firepower. Even the battleship is unable to bring down an Interceptor in 1 shot.
The terror missions and X-com Base Defences prove that the Aliens are unable to simply launch orbital bombardments... in fact, they appear to have no Air to Land weapons whatsoever...
When you get right down to it, the aliens are pretty stupid. Also, their scientists seem inferior to Earth's. Seems to me that they only had the advantage of Elerium deposits and thus elerium based research.
X-COM was unable to win in an all-out war with the aliens, but remember that X-com is a small little covert group with several dozen soldiers and a handful of aircraft. Can you imagine the result if the aliens had caused a joint war effort by the UN? You would have Lockheed factories converted to Avenger production, several platoons of soldiers outfitted with Flying Suits, Lasers, Heavy Plasma, thousands upon thousands of Laser Tanks...
I would say that keeping the fight to covert action on both sides was actually beneficial to the aliens, really. [[User:Jasonred]]
* Nope, the aliens could just invoke John's Law and blow up the planet with a kamikaze battleship at .9c. Even failing that, the alien battlefleet could come in numbers sufficent to blot out the sun.--[[User:(name here)|(name here)]] 14:39, 8 November 2009 (EST)
** Lest we forget, X-Com is essentially the Spartans to the aliens' Persian Empire. So they'd just fight in the shade (which would be a blessing in desert missions). --[[User:Guido Talbot|Guido Talbot]] 13:58, 16 July 2010 (EDT)

Aliens first began with smal scouting missions, so maybe all we expirience in X-Com is initial attacks by aliens, maybe the whole base was begining scouting and waiting for the invasion fleet? Aliens problably could be in sense dumber than humans, humans are adaptable and thinking, our technology advances fast, and we are fast and smart enough to stop the invasion before it begins. Aliens problably were not used to it so they thought "oh well, another invasion...". --[[User:Domenique|Domenique]] 11:10, 19 May 2010 (EDT)

Mankind, as a whole, is incredibly cunning and full of guile. We are also incredibly aggressive. A trait that the most of the Aliens can barely concieve. Though we are weaker physically, mentally, etc, we are overly developed when it comes to strategem and war. The aliens are, in essence, have come to an inverse of Flatland. Though they are advanced, it is they who are 2D to our 3D approach to fighting. They return to earth, and through extensive research and testing, determine that inferior are strategically to humans. So...they use their advances to what they percieve as the most full advantage, and call for reinforcements over the initial months of the First Alien War. For eons, only the Sectoid make arrivals to earth. When the Brain finally realizes the situation, that mankind has woke up and is dealing with them most directly, it begins to get desperate, it sends reinforcements, but only incrementally. (Its always focused on peak efficiency). The concept of overwhelming force is illogical and some how, disdainful, to it. It prefers nuance, interogation, politics, and assessment. The Brain determine that its more effective to eliminate allies of XCOM than to face it directly. The concept of obliterating anything from orbit is reprehensible. Everything must be examined, especially the dead creatures you leave behind. Over time, it would learn man's tactics and assimilate. In fact, each race called in is an example of the Brain adapting. The Floaters bring forth an extra dimension to combat. The snakemen aggressiveness and accuracy. Mutons a culmination of superior warrior breeding, raw physical power, and determination not unlike the so called human soul. Finally, the Ethereals enter, with capacity to bring overwhelming force. In time, as they do on Mars base, they might begin joint force attacks with Mutons backed by Ethereals, supported by a mix of terror weapons. Fortunately, the First Alien War is ended before they fully develop such cunning. Hence the desperate act of T'Leth. The Brain has learned the power of anger fueled by vengeance and desperation.
--[[User:BlackLibrary|BlackLibrary]] 11:10, 29 May 2011 (EDT)

:I've always viewed it as primarily a lack of resources. Even if you get a UFO every single day and shoot them all down so that there's no possible chance of any of them being the same UFO that's still only several hundred to perhaps a thousand or few UFO's over the course of several years. And most of those are quite small and not too difficult to take out with regular old interceptors and human armaments. If used all at once it might be enough to achieve air superiority, particularly if the Battleships do all the heavy lifting. But it also might not. It certainly would NOT provide enough soldiers to mount a worldwide ground offensive. The crews on those ships aren't all that big. There's also no reason to assume that all those craft, weapons, soldiers, and more importantly... elerium are all available at the same time. It's quite likely that the aliens are cloning new soldiers, building new weapons and UFO's, and possibly receiving supplies (particularly of elerium) from deep space. Elerium is needed to manufacture a lot of their stuff as well, and we already know it's a limited resource in our solar system. Consider on top of that how much get's used up as fuel every time a UFO visits Earth. If they sent all their UFO's they would use up their reserves of Elerium all at once for a 1 day attack that ultimately would fail. Instead of conquering the Earth wholesale they are trying to influence governments into signing secret pacts with them so that they can control the population of the Earth rather than wipe us out. They do this by using terrorism to intimidate the public and inserting clones to infiltrate governments while holding secret negotiations. A steady stream of UFO missions keeps up the pressure until governments break. Lucky for us they never expected us to bring the fight to the command center on mars. Just imagine if they had built base defenses like we can for our bases. heh Lord would it be aggravating building up a crew of top notch soldiers, constructing an Avenger from scratch, scrapping together all the gear, sending it to Mars, and then watching it get blown to bits before it even lands... O,o Also consider that their UFO's have operated with relative impunity for a very long time. Presumably XCom is the first organization to shoot down a UFO? As for Earth ramping up for a full scale war, it'd be unlikely that we could really produce enough alien technology in any reasonable timescale to actually outfit whole nations armies, especially with limited Elerium. Perhaps the tech that doesn't require Elerium, but then again shifting an entire army from one weapon system to another is not as simple as merely producing all the weapons. It's an extremely long, arcane, and baffling process. Getting just the branches of the US military to switch to laser weapons would probably take at least a decade. I think that limited resources and the intent to control and dominate rather than eliminate the population of the Earth explain it. For that matter they would see the human population it-self as a resource. Hence the use of small scale terrorism rather than attempting to use any weapons of mass destruction. A bunch of aliens walking around shooting people is still pretty damn scary stuff.[[User:Mannon|Mannon]] 13:12, 30 March 2011 (EDT)

I would have thought that the simplest answer here is best. The aliens are manifestly unable to survive outside containment or bases for prolonged periods. Further, their clearest technological advantage over the humans (at least, prior to X-Com research) is mind control. Therefore, their primary method of offence is not to get bogged down in a ground war, but to engage in the overthrow of governments by infiltration, coercion, corruption and bribery, and achieve complaisance by terrorisation of the general populace. It is for this reason that standard combat tactics involving large hierarchies are ineffectual against the aliens (when the government/command can be mind controlled and the theatre can be defined by a mobile alien force). A decentralised, partly cellular, covert approach like X-Com is preferable, but unable to win an outright ground war either (being composed of, at maximum, 250 soldiers). Of course in reality, the irony is that the aliens/bourgeoisie/Fox network have Mind Controlled you, the X-Com commander into wasting your time with retro video games instead of doing anything about their societal control!
--[[User:Oogleshay|Oogleshay]] 16:16, 18 October 2011 (EDT)

==TFTD issues==
===What was the relationship between the aliens from the 1st and 2nd wars?===

Quoting from the UFOPaedia regarding Alien Origins: 'Deep in the oceans there lie ancient
sites used by the Aliens to contact their stellar cousins.' This also has some implications regarding the issue of why T'Leth was only activated when the Sectoids were defeated.

*Gill Men are coopted Terran creatures, Aquatoids are a differently-modified Sectoid breed, Lobstermen are machine soldiers that are manufactured, Tasoths are clone soldiers that are grown.

Aquatoids are the ancestors of the Sectoids. The colony ship was sent out slowing than light hundreds of millions of years ago. Sectoids are a more genetically advanced race. The rest of UFO aliens were picked up after that point. The Brain and Ethereals probably conquered the Sectoids and don't regard them highly. While the Aquatoids that were thawed over the years created, conquered (Gill Man) or manufactured the rest of the allies over time. I picture the Tasoth as probably something they brought with them and have been working on. Since most of the Aquatoids come from suspended animation they have not tinkered with genes much. Instead modifying and using electronics (MC Chip) to control. --[[User:BladeFireLight|BladeFireLight]] 17:28, 22 March 2010 (EDT)

===What kind of materials were 'synomium' and 'adamantium'?===

The first one is mentioned on the name of the alien communication devices and the second one appears at the end when T'Leth is destroyed: 'he twisting hugeness of T'leth begins to rupture.
Flames and smoke spew from its gleaming spires and adamantium halls.'

:Synomium is probably a special material used in the comm. devices, like Stargate's naquadah (universal stuff), naquadria (unstable power source), trinium (hull material) and neutronium (superdense metal). Adamantium is a legendary material in ancient literature that is said to be indestructible, similarly to mithril.--[[User:Amitakartok|amitakartok]] 10:55, 3 November 2009 (EST)

:Adamandium is said to be one of the strongest elements in many books and films
such as X-men.

===How deep were X-COM bases located on the seas?===

*Floating bases would be easier to build, repair and supply. However they would have to be tethered to the ocean bed or possess some sort of propulsion to prevent them from drifing with the ocean currents. But it would also allow for easy redeployment of the base.
*Submersible bases could allow for better sonar detection. Same problems regarding ocean currents would apply. In case of hull breaches entire modules would be quickly flooded and any crew present would be crushed by water pressure or drown. Base could be built and then submerged (requires depth control)
*Seabed bases would be the hardest to build and supply. Several other factors could limit their deployment, such as unstable areas (underwater volcanoes, prone to seaquakes, rock avalanches, etc.) and depths.
*Given that the Alien Retaliation missions in TFTD are called "Floating Base Attack", I'd say floating. Also remember that your starting sonar can't see Very Deep, which rules out seabed bases. [[User:magic9mushroom]]
** Floating doesn't always happen on the surface. The surface has to deal with large waves ad bobbing up and down, submerged only has the currents it could be stabilized easier. --[[User:BladeFireLight|BladeFireLight]] 11:57, 14 January 2010 (EST)
* I was recently researching how far you have to be down to not be effected by surface conditions. You have to be submerged 1/2 of a waves lenght (measured crest to crest) Best I can find is that the average wave is 150 yards accross. To not be effected by the waves you have to be 75 Yards below. This is way below the depth needed to not be effected by the bends when surfaceing. I figure they are probably right at the limit of what can be safe for quick surfacing and well anchored to avoid getting [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwKXfc_a4Ag tossed in a storm]. --[[User:BladeFireLight|BladeFireLight]] 17:37, 22 March 2010 (EDT)
**Something else to consider - these 'floating bases' could be large modular submarines/submersibles. If memory serves, submarines basically maintain sea-level pressure regardless of the depth, so that could explain why they'd be able to be 75+ feet below sea level and not suffer the bends when surfacing.
::(Or, y'know, we could just say "a wizard did it".) --[[User:Guido Talbot|Guido Talbot]] 14:13, 16 July 2010 (EDT)
[[Category: Fiction]]

Cydonia

2011-09-30T09:11:01Z

St.froppelie: /* Tips & Tricks */

A two part mission. Note that this is a DO OR DIE mission. If you fail or hit abort at any time, the entire campaign ends, you lose.
To have this mission available, you must research "Cydonia or Bust", and access it by launching an avenger. It'll either give the option to go to intercept or to Cydonia. The "Cydonia" button is at the top of the screen if you have an Avenger selected in the Geoscape.

=Mars: Cydonia Landing=
==Briefing==
Your [[Avenger]] craft has landed in the region of Cydonia on the surface of [[Mars]]. Our information indicates that one of the pyramid constructions contains a green access lift to an underground complex. Once you have assembled all your soldiers in the lift area, continue to the next stage…

==Description==
First part is on the surface of Mars. Lots of Pyramid structures with singular windows, some with aliens inside, some empty. Only one has the entrance to the aliens HQ, the entrance being an area with glowing green floor. Now, this floor has 36 squares, or a 6x6 area. Anyhow, you can step onto that with as many people as possible, hit abort, and it'll bring them and whatever they're carrying to part 2. OR, you can just kill everything on the stage and everyone will go to part 2.

This is a night mission, so remember that the aliens can see much farther than you.

The surface is filled with many many [[Sectoid]]s and [[Cyberdisc]]s. Much Commanders and leaders methinks, as there's Psi all around. I find this mission hilarious when I shoot a Cyberdisc, it blows up, and the chain reaction kills over 5 other Cyberdiscs. Plus many many Sectoids. It then turns into Pyramid hunting.

Despite urban legends, and common sense, your soldiers do not need power armor or whatever to breathe on the surface of mars, feel free to send them up wearing coveralls.

The easiest way to look at this mission is that it is basically a Sectoid Battleship/Base crew in a one-of-a-kind map with a choice of two different winning conditions except that the navigators, engineers, and medics are substituted with leaders and commanders.

==Alien Deployment (Surface)==
<table {{StdCenterTable}}>
<tr {{StdDescTable_Heading}}><th align="left">Rank</th>
<th>Beg./Exp.</th>
<th>Vet./Gen.</th>
<th>Super.</th></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Sectoid Soldiers</td><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>6</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Sectoid Navigators</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Sectoid Medics</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Sectoid Engineers</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Sectoid Leaders</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Sectoid Commanders</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Cyberdiscs</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td></tr>
<tr><th>Totals</th><td>12</td><td>16</td><td>20</td></tr>
</table><br />

==Tips & Tricks==
[[Heavy Weapons Platforms|HWP]]'s can follow you onto the lift and the next level if you use the [[Blaster Launcher|tools at your disposal]] to widen the doorway for them.

Plasma weapons can do the job, too.

Try to blast away the top of the pyramid with the lift with a rocket, so every alien up there is killed.

=Mars: The Final Assault=
==Briefing==
The pyramid lift takes your battle weary soldiers deep below the planet's surface. They arrive in the heart of a large complex of tunnels and chambers. The alien brain is hidden somewhere in the labyrinth. It must be destroyed if the earth is to be saved from alien enslavement.

==Description==
[[Image:Brain.gif|right|The Alien Brain]]Second part is almost like a [[Alien Base Assault]]. It's filled with all manner of creatures: [[Ethereal]]s, [[Sectopod]]s, [[Silacoid]]s, [[Celatid]]s, and [[Chryssalid]]s. Anyhow, you need to destroy at least one portion of a four-part [[Brain|Alien Brain]] (40 armor - pictured on the right) to win the mission (and the game). There's a whole bunch of heavily armed Ethereals defending the Brain Room. Of course, either a [[Blaster Launcher|Blaster Bomb]], or plain mind controlling one of them to shoot the Brain ends the mission easily... to be true to storyline, kill all opposition, then shoot the Brain pointblank with a Plasma-based weapon. Afterwards scramble for the lifts before the whole complex blows up (as shown in the PS movies).

This is UFO's only mixed crew mission. It's an Ethereal crew with a few extras, mainly [[Terror Units]], from the other races. This mission only really needs a Blaster Launcher, and with luck, if you locate the command theatre right away, will be over in less than a few turns. If you want to bypass the "luck" element, you can take advantage of the fact that you can see unexplored terrain by moving the cursor over it. The brain room is quite recognisable, and once you've found it, it's simple enough to send Blaster Bombs there on your first turn. (If you choose to find the Command Center the harder way ("Blaster Launchers? Bah! Too impersonal for my taste") be aware that unlike the Alien Bases there can be dead ends).

An alternate way to do the final assault avoiding the carnage of the lifts or Blaster-bombing blind is to breach through an upper Brain Room wall from an adjacent garden or storage area with 2-3 Blaster Bombs. With a hole in the dirt wall, throw smoke in front of the brain and advance an Power Suited agent to kneel in front of the Brain. During their turn one of the Ethereals will open up with an Auto shot - missing the agent - sealing the fate of the Aliens.

===PSX Cydonian Base Layout===
[[Image:PSX Cydonia Base.png|right|thumb|The underground Cydonia base in the Playstation version of the game.]]Unlike the PC versions of the game which have a randomly generated base, the Playstation version is always the same (see pic to the right). This has some important implications, because since you know where the brain room is, you can fire a couple Blaster Bombs and the mission will be over. <br clear="all">

==Alien Deployment (underground base)==
<table {{StdCenterTable}}>
<tr {{StdDescTable_Heading}}><th align="left">Rank</th>
<th>Beg./Exp.</th>
<th>Vet./Gen.</th>
<th>Super.</th></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Ethereal Soldiers</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Ethereal Leaders</td><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>3</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Ethereal Commanders</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Chryssalids</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Silacoids</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Celatids</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">Sectopods</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td></tr>
<tr><th>Totals</th><td>17</td><td>24</td><td>31</td></tr>
</table><br />

As this is the first time in X-COM which has a "mixed" mission, the programmers didn't quite get the substitutions correct per se. The proper aliens and ranks show up, but substitution was used in some instances where it wasn't necessary. For instance, instead of just spawning Ethereal commanders normally, the programmers substituted commanders for the missing engineer rank and instead of spawning Ethereal soldiers normally they substituted them in lieu of commanders.<br /><br />

<table {{StdCenterTable}}>
<tr {{StdDescTable_Heading}}><th>Rank Value</th>
<th>Normal Rank</th>
<th>Cydonia Rank</th></tr>
<tr><td>7</td><td>Terrorist #1</td><td>Sectopod</td></tr>
<tr><td>6</td><td>Soldier</td><td>Celatid</td></tr>
<tr><td>5</td><td>Navigator</td><td>Silacoid</td></tr>
<tr><td>4</td><td>Medic</td><td>Chryssalid</td></tr>
<tr><td>3</td><td>Engineer</td><td>Commander</td></tr>
<tr><td>2</td><td>Leader</td><td>Leader</td></tr>
<tr><td>1</td><td>Commander</td><td>Soldier</td></tr>
</table><br />

==Tips & Tricks==
Go armed for bear. Bring many troops, the best weapons and best armour possible. The 80 Item Limit is perhaps your worst enemy.

The surface part of the mission is nothing special; you should however have some means of illuminating the battlefield. The [[Auto-Cannon]] with incendiary rounds (14 light sources per clip) can come in handy. Only equipment carried by your soldiers at the end of that stage will be taken into the base proper, so you maybe want to take it slowly and pick up some ammunition before killing the last alien or activating the lift. If your troops are low in energy/stamina, it is advisable to rest them a little before continuing on as well.

Underground is like any other base assault, only more so. More corridors to watch, more opponents hidden. Most enemies will take several hits to die, so when using conventional weapons you will need a great many seasoned troops. Even with the support of two or three Mind Controllers and Blaster Launchers each (Hovertanks are great as they carry 8 rounds yet count as only one item) you will need at least eight or ten men for the actual killing and may still only advance with utmost care. Also, sort out all known PSI weaklings and then some: With so many Ethereal Commanders around, you may see soldiers mind controlled who previously appeared to be absolutely safe even from panic attacks.

... and for the masochist (cough cough try this) Total loadout.... 1 [[Psi-Amp]] & 1 Soldier with no armour.
This works in every difficulty and the only way you can lose is if you get shot from an alien in its reaction, but with a soldier having 200+ time units you have plenty of time to find the first alien, control it (25 TU not a percentage!!) and find the way to the elevator or the brain.

=See Also=
{{Mission Types Navbar}}
[[Category:Missions]]

Muton

2011-09-30T08:59:16Z

St.froppelie: /* Notes */

[[Image:muton.png|right|Muton]]
'''Mutons''' are the most physically-powerful sentient race in X-COM. They may be accompanied by [[Silacoid]] and [[Celatid]] terror units.

Mutons have high stats and armor and are resistant to [[Weapons#Armour-Piercing|AP ammunition]], making them quite hard to defeat with an inexperienced force. Fortunately they have a relatively low Intelligence score, and will "forget" the whereabouts of your soldiers after only 4 turns. They are also highly susceptible to [[psionic]] attacks.

==Statistics==
'''TUs:''' 56-64
'''Health:''' 125
'''Energy:''' 90-104
'''Reactions:''' 60-74
'''Strength:''' 70-75
'''Bravery:''' 80
'''Firing Accuracy:''' 27-66
'''Throwing Accuracy:''' 62
'''Psi Skill:''' N/A
'''Psi Strength:''' 25-29

==Live Specimen==
This humanoid creature is physically powerful and intelligent. They have a particular appetite for consuming raw flesh of any kind, which they need for sustenance like earth based carnivores. They appear to rely on telepathic commands from a race known as '[[Ethereal]]s'. Once separated from this telepathic link their mental system appears to break down and they die. The cybernetic implants are used to enhance their combat performance. They are clearly the foot soldiers for a higher intelligence.

==Autopsy==
[[Image:mutonautopsy.png|right|Muton - Autopsy]]
The 'skin' of this creature appears to be an organically created protective armour which is grafted onto the body. There are numerous cybernetic implants which are used to enhance the cardio-vascular system and the senses. The reproductive organs appear to have been surgically removed. Evidently these unfortunate creatures are limited to a life of warfare and conquest. [[Weapons#Armour-Piercing|Armour piercing ammunition]] is not very effective against their toughened skin.
<br style =" clear:both;">

==Notes==
{| align = "right" width = "20%" style = "border: 1px silver dashed; margin: 1em;"
|-
| <div align = "center">[[Image:mutblending.png | Find the Muton!]] </div>
|-
| <div align = "center"><small>A classic case of Find The Muton</small></div>
|}

The following are some miscellaneous notes on the Muton:
* The Muton takes 0.6x damage from armour-piercing weaponry.
* Very high Health. A Superhuman-grade Muton standing on a [[High Explosive]] ''will usually survive.''
* Very high Strength.
* Very high Energy.
* Average Reactions.
* Is fast (high TUs).
* Average Firing and Throwing Accuracy.
* Very low Psi Strength.
* there are no Muton Leaders, Commanders, or even Medics. In crew setups where these classes appear, they will be substituted by Muton soldiers .
** Mr. Angry Red Suit as seen in the opening animation does not appear in the game.
* While the troops on the ground can see them just fine, neglectful Commanders might lose track of Mutons in vegetation, especially on Jungle maps, as their green armor blends in well with flora. Use the target centering boxes down the right side of the screen or the overhead map to assist locating
them.
*They can be seen inn the intro, despite Mr. Angry Red Suit, they are the only aliens seen there.

==See Also==
{{Aliens Navbar}}
[[Category:Alien Life Forms]]
[[Category:Research (EU)]]