UFO Flight Patterns: Difference between revisions
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* Searching Retaliation UFOs (before BattleShip) fly <b>slow</b>. With XComUtil craft, it may be possible to shoot them down with a Skyranger. | * Searching Retaliation UFOs (before BattleShip) fly <b>slow</b>. With XComUtil craft, it may be possible to shoot them down with a Skyranger. | ||
* Searching Retalation Battleships merely fly "normally". | * Searching Retalation Battleships merely fly "normally". | ||
* needless to say, the sequence will abort if the UFO finds your base. | |||
I am tentatively assuming that the number of turning points is fixed, but that they may not necessarily be visible to the naked eye because of practical colinearity. | I am tentatively assuming that the number of turning points is fixed, but that they may not necessarily be visible to the naked eye because of practical colinearity. | ||
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* five turning points, leave. (Didn't get a clear sample) | * five turning points, leave. (Didn't get a clear sample) | ||
Retaliation 1/ | Retaliation 1/* | ||
* These do not land. | * These do not land. | ||
* seven turning points, leave. The | * seven turning points, leave. The 1/0 I observed to count this did a <b>very</b> tight zigzag pattern...it would have touched any base in about 2/3rds of the nation of South Africa, and just about any base in Madagascar. This may be fluky, though. 1/1 is the same format, but the one I observed was not a tight-weave. | ||
Revision as of 05:14, 6 January 2007
(Zaimoni: Some working notes. This plausibly should be moved to mainline when sufficiently detailed. While I do use MISSIONS.DAT notation to index the UFOs, this does not belong there.)
Common observations:
- In spite of the game having precomputed trig functions at 1/8 ° resolution, the "turning points" are not nearly so densely packed. (I suspect a sparse latitude-longitude grid, or an explicit valid list somewhere.) It should be possible to identify the precise intermediate destination in-game, at least when it's near the equator and not at the same latitude. UFOs are notably slower at turning points.
- When a UFO leaves its target region, it's leaving for good.
- The next "turning point" (or landing site, as the case may be) is only generated when the current one is reached.
- I have not been able to get a Retaliation mission scheduled when a UFO is shot down at the second or later "turning points". Scheduling is very unreliable even then, and is not a strict matter of either speed or accuracy.
Retaliation searching UFOs
- Searching Retaliation UFOs (before BattleShip) fly slow. With XComUtil craft, it may be possible to shoot them down with a Skyranger.
- Searching Retalation Battleships merely fly "normally".
- needless to say, the sequence will abort if the UFO finds your base.
I am tentatively assuming that the number of turning points is fixed, but that they may not necessarily be visible to the naked eye because of practical colinearity.
Research 0/0
- These do not land.
- Four turning points, leave.
Research 1/0
- Four turning points, land, leave.
Research 2/0
- Four turning points, land, two turning points, land, leave
Terror 0/0
- three turning points, land, three turning points, land, leave
Terror 1/0
- two turning points, land, leave
Retaliation 0/0
- These do not land.
- five turning points, leave. (Didn't get a clear sample)
Retaliation 1/*
- These do not land.
- seven turning points, leave. The 1/0 I observed to count this did a very tight zigzag pattern...it would have touched any base in about 2/3rds of the nation of South Africa, and just about any base in Madagascar. This may be fluky, though. 1/1 is the same format, but the one I observed was not a tight-weave.