UFO Extender

[Tycho]

The in the mod, EU aliens become more brutal than their cousines in TFTD. Though only high ranking aliens have blaster launchers, (despite of TFTD where all soldiers at last stages have DPL), they become more dangerous as they more frequently fire from it. Moreover, they detect my troops even in upper sections of Alien base lifts and blast them through lift holes quiclky. How it works ???

with the Tactical AI mod, aliens are more likely to use the bombs. If your soldiers have done things to make their location known and huddle together, the chance the alien will decide to use a bomb increases.

wish list:

How about to make a "motion scanner" as an "enemy scanner" like you did in TFTD?

somehow large aliens are marked by only one blip, meanwhile the old motion scanner easily detects such kind of badassery. Also the scanner shows MC-ed soldiers, its good, but didnt discriminate aliens on different floors.

Check the ufopaedia.org page about the alternate tech tree features. In TFTD, once you have advanced scanners, they only detect implants in range not type of creature or movement so all things appear the same on the display. The scanner never differentiated aliens on different levels.

More reaction fire is a too buggy mod. ALiens tosses grenades to opposite directions to XCOM, Killed by reaction fire units stiil can shoot and move (one last time however), units can detect enemy without direct sight contact....

The way Seb setup the extra call to the reaction fire routine, causes this issue. I have made a change for the next release. Initial testing seems positive.

[Kir'jaeden]

with the Tactical AI mod, aliens are more likely to use the bombs. If your soldiers have done things to make their location known and huddle together, the chance the alien will decide to use a bomb increases.

[Enhanced AI] Apply=0 ? or the option is applied only once, when the new game created?

Check the ufopaedia.org page about the alternate tech tree features. In TFTD, once you have advanced scanners, they only detect implants in range not type of creature or movement so all things appear the same on the display. The scanner never differentiated aliens on different levels.

Maybe Outtext or like function would help? To print over the blob a corresponding level number?

 

Here are the savegame with strange bug. Downed floater battleship recovery mission, see the bridge, 2 last navigators. Somehow, throughout the mission, killed floaters didnt make a corpses, except died from engine explosion. There are some soldiers with stun rod, if one try to stun them, animation of a floater falling plays, but after this there is no fallen navigator and its sprite becomes invisible, while target itself still standing. Its stun rate becomes fixed at value only by 1 lesser than its health. However, if I destroy some object - disperse a couple of reaper corpses or fire from stun launcher - these 2 fall paralysed quickly. Moreover, equipment of two floater soldiers killed in air, remains on their last height. A soldier in flying suit could approach it and see it through an inventory screen. Only after this, the equipment falls to the ground.

 

How much HP has a Retaliator supply ship? even four fusion defence modules + grav shield are insufficient to destroy it

GAME_2.rar

[Slider2k]

1.31.6: Alt-tab and window minimize D3D crash persists.

[Tycho]

1.31.6: Alt-tab and window minimize D3D crash persists.

Yes. Minimizing the window will still crash the game. The patch I released should have a fix only for the full-screen ALT-TAB crash.

 

For now DON'T minimize the window or ,if you're using a window about the same size as the desktop, disable shortcuts: there will be some mouse clipping but with a sufficiently large game window, this won't be a problem. I've asked the person who submitted the code to look into the issue.

[Tycho]

[Enhanced AI] Apply=0 ? or the option is applied only once, when the new game created?

This mod is active only when apply=1. It works with saved games.

In regards to using grenades and blaster bombs, the decision making process for the AI is still the same but, when the mod is active, the parameters for deciding to use a grenade or blaster have been changed to make the chance higher.

 

Here are the savegame with strange bug. Downed floater battleship recovery mission, see the bridge, 2 last navigators. Somehow, throughout the mission, killed floaters didnt make a corpses, except died from engine explosion. There are some soldiers with stun rod, if one try to stun them, animation of a floater falling plays, but after this there is no fallen navigator and its sprite becomes invisible, while target itself still standing. Its stun rate becomes fixed at value only by 1 lesser than its health. However, if I destroy some object - disperse a couple of reaper corpses or fire from stun launcher - these 2 fall paralysed quickly. Moreover, equipment of two floater soldiers killed in air, remains on their last height. A soldier in flying suit could approach it and see it through an inventory screen. Only after this, the equipment falls to the ground.

 

Known Issues with Stunned Units

This issue with the two floater soldiers would mean that the KillUnit routine can't find an opening on the object table for the corpse and is probably skipping the section that gets the proper height for the ground tile and setting the Z-axis value for the items the unit is carrying.

How much HP has a Retaliator supply ship? even four fusion defence modules + grav shield are insufficient to destroy it

It's not really a supply ship but the only things that fly in the Geoscape are ships, so I used the supply ship template since normally there is no reason a supply ship would have its destination to be a x-com base.

I'd have to recheck the code, but the object is intended to have enough points to be very hard to destroy.

[Kir'jaeden]

I built 8 fusion defence modules + grav shield on each of 3 strike bases. But aliens begin to send regular harvesters on retaliation mission. The harvesters could be easily downed. Sometimes they managed to reach the base and bomb it. While they are destroyed by defences, in turn they surely destroy a couple of defence modules. Obviously, alien's intelligence works well and they are now planning to put me down through an attrition. Is this alien strategy a part of the mod?

 

some minor bug: List of alien missions and UFO's in in-game ufopedia didn't complete, but paralysed engineers and navigators stopped giving new data. Paralysed commanders and leaders didn't appear in alien containment at all, though they counted in mission debriefing.

note: printed craft speed in transmission dialog box does not refer actual speed on globe, but used only when interception proceeds. Proof of it: negative leviathan speed in my earlier post and detectable retaliator ship marked as 25600 speed . With such speed and time setting it must not be ever seen on globe, despite of it the ship moves like normal suppy ship.

[Tycho]

I built 8 fusion defence modules + grav shield on each of 3 strike bases. But aliens begin to send regular harvesters on retaliation mission. The harvesters could be easily downed. Sometimes they managed to reach the base and bomb it. While they are destroyed by defences, in turn they surely destroy a couple of defence modules. Obviously, alien's intelligence works well and they are now planning to put me down through an attrition. Is this alien strategy a part of the mod?

Only Harvesters? Harvesters should only attempt a base assault in the early months then the aliens should progress to terror or battleships.

You are correct. In a direct confrontation, x-com should lose due to attrition, especially since Earth has no naturally occurring elerium. I wouldn 't say the alien are doing anything more than humans would do: Once they have found the location of a base, they will keep attacking it until they can confirm its destruction.

 

some minor bug: List of alien missions and UFO's in in-game ufopedia didn't complete, but paralysed engineers and navigators stopped giving new data. Paralysed commanders and leaders didn't appear in alien containment at all, though they counted in mission debriefing.

note: printed craft speed in transmission dialog box does not refer actual speed on globe, but used only when interception proceeds. Proof of it: negative leviathan speed in my earlier post and detectable retaliator ship marked as 25600 speed . With such speed and time setting it must not be ever seen on globe, despite of it the ship moves like normal suppy ship.

I believe the results of navigator interrogation for the in-game ufopaedia are chosen randomly, as you get more results, the chance of getting the same one increases. I think that alien engineers only give you information about the ship they were on. There are only 50 spaces for aliens in containment for the whole game. Once filled, new aliens prisoners are left in the closets. One of the things I will be working on in the next major build, will be a way to manage your alien prisoners.

 

In my tests, the object can outpace an avenger. Not at the actual speed mentioned in the information, because there is a limit on how far the game engine will render a change to an object's global position per time interval for any craft with a set destination.

[Kir'jaeden]

Only Harvesters? Harvesters should only attempt a base assault in the early months then the aliens should progress to terror or battleships.

You are correct. In a direct confrontation, x-com should lose due to attrition, especially since Earth has no naturally occurring elerium. I wouldn 't say the alien are doing anything more than humans would do: Once they have found the location of a base, they will keep attacking it until they can confirm its destruction.

They eventually send battleships. But I know how to dupe them - to build a dummy base with lift only in same location, while a real base is mindshielded. New base worths cheaper than a fusion module and biult instantly, while the module takes 33 days. Even if they find the dummy base and destroy it, i will build a knew one immediately. With their shiny Retaliator of 7 km/sec speed, aliens will bomb the rocks mostly. Though with the strategy one has not a global coverage.

 

I believe the results of navigator interrogation for the in-game ufopaedia are chosen randomly, as you get more results, the chance of getting the same one increases. I think that alien engineers only give you information about the ship they were on. There are only 50 spaces for aliens in containment for the whole game. Once filled, new aliens prisoners are left in the closets. One of the things I will be working on in the next major build, will be a way to manage your alien prisoners.

If that so, then I could capture no more than 50 aliens?

If I run out the space in prison, hence I would not capture any alien. However, some ranks are placed in AC, some - are not. Probably it is connected with the research - if species could not give new information, they will be killed.

[Tycho]

They eventually send battleships. But I know how to dupe them - to build a dummy base with lift only in same location, while a real base is mindshielded. New base worths cheaper than a fusion module and biult instantly, while the module takes 33 days. Even if they find the dummy base and destroy it, i will build a knew one immediately. With their shiny Retaliator of 7 km/sec speed, aliens will bomb the rocks mostly. Though with the strategy one has not a global coverage.

I applaud your ingenuity! Nice to see the mod is making people try different strategies. However, I think you've pointed out an exploit in the base detection routine: just a "hole" in the ground should not be considered a valid target. There should be some active modules in the location for it to be consider as a base.

 

If that so, then I could capture no more than 50 aliens?

If I run out the space in prison, hence I would not capture any alien. However, some ranks are placed in AC, some - are not. Probably it is connected with the research - if species could not give new information, they will be killed.

Correct. Soldiers are worthless for capturing since their interrogation will give you nothing beyond the species' information.

[Slider2k]

Yes. Minimizing the window will still crash the game. The patch I released should have a fix only for the full-screen ALT-TAB crash.

 

For now DON'T minimize the window or ,if you're using a window about the same size as the desktop, disable shortcuts: there will be some mouse clipping but with a sufficiently large game window, this won't be a problem. I've asked the person who submitted the code to look into the issue.

The 1.31.6 patch did not fix ALT-TAB crash for me. And I think the real cause of the crash is the same as with minimize crash.

[Tycho]

The 1.31.6 patch did not fix ALT-TAB crash for me. And I think the real cause of the crash is the same as with minimize crash.

Yeah..I think I got confused in my testing. I have removed the fix from the initial post since it doesn't work.

[Slider2k]

Tycho, I know that you stated that default UFO accuracy is 60%. I was wondering how exactly UFO accuracy is affected by UFO Responds to Interception and True Cautious Mode options depending on the stance? And why UFO Responds to Interception is considered a bug fix, not a mod?

[Tycho]

Tycho, I know that you stated that default UFO accuracy is 60%. I was wondering how exactly UFO accuracy is affected by UFO Responds to Interception and True Cautious Mode options depending on the stance? And why UFO Responds to Interception is considered a bug fix, not a mod?

UFO Responds to intectption- no affect on UFO attack accuracy. True Cautious Mode- the UFO receives a minor penalty to accuracy (10%).

 

Technically, UFOs not responding in interceptions is an example where the designers never finished developing their idea fully: In the interception routine there are several areas of code that were written but never actually implemented (like regulating the closing rate of the UFO to the X-craft or the speed delta of attacker to pursuer). Not to mention the host of other issues that are in the Geoscape code that even a minimal beta test would have caught. I think the initial concepts were placed but the Gallops never got the time to implement a UFO interception AI.

[Slider2k]

UFO Responds to intectption- no affect on UFO attack accuracy.

So, the description in Ufopedia is incorrect?

[AMX]

So, the description in Ufopedia is incorrect?

?

"UFOs Respond to Interception: UFOs will close to weapons range when attacked. Craft that are slower than their attacker cannot abort but the stance does give a strong defensive bonus. Also fixes the last shot missing."

 

You mean the part about craft triyng to abort?

[Tycho]

?

"UFOs Respond to Interception: UFOs will close to weapons range when attacked. Craft that are slower than their attacker cannot abort but the stance does give a strong defensive bonus. Also fixes the last shot missing."

You mean the part about craft triyng to abort?

Aah...forgot about that.. Clicking abort will reduce UFO accuracy by half, so 30%. Nice to know people do refer to the UFOpaedia.org page

[Kir'jaeden]

Concerning the alien attacks on XCOM bases, I can see that UFO weapon power means nothing cause every succesfull hit destroys one defence module..

What known about an accuracy of UFO when it attacks XCOM base? Sometimes it misses.

UFO targets the fired modules or modules which didnt fire yet?

sometimes the attack ends with such messages: "UFO crashes into XCOM base"

or "Air lock has been damaged"

What does it means? I did not see the difference.

It apears the fusion modules fire 4 blaster bombs per shot on Superhuman difficulty.

Interesting: regular ships could be downed by 1-2 hits, but they use their weapon and sometimes destroy modules. Retaliator ship is downed by 8-9 hits (+some misses ), though it has no weapon to attack.

Dummy bases could not help for long. After few dummy base bombings, aliens eventually found all strike bases and start bomb each by retaliators for every few days. Xcom quickly runs out all blaster bombs, all elerium and forced to finish them by Cydonia attack.

[Tycho]

What known about an accuracy of UFO when it attacks XCOM base? Sometimes it misses.

UFO targets the fired modules or modules which didnt fire yet?

sometimes the attack ends with such messages: "UFO crashes into XCOM base"

or "Air lock has been damaged"

What does it means? I did not see the difference.

It apears the fusion modules fire 4 blaster bombs per shot on Superhuman difficulty.

Interesting: regular ships could be downed by 1-2 hits, but they use their weapon and sometimes destroy modules. Retaliator ship is downed by 8-9 hits (+some misses ), though it has no weapon to attack.

Dummy bases could not help for long. After few dummy base bombings, aliens eventually found all strike bases and start bomb each by retaliators for every few days. Xcom quickly runs out all blaster bombs, all elerium and forced to finish them by Cydonia attack.

I believe Battleships have an 80% chance to hit, the rest have a 70% chance. For now the UFOs counterattack only.

 

"UFO crashes into the base" should only appear when the "base buster" survives all defensive measures.

"Air Lock has been damaged" should be "Access Lift has been damaged." This should only appear when a battleship is invading your base and you'll find the Access Lift is ruined and smoking at the start of battle.

 

At superhuman, fusion defense only uses 4 bombs? I'll need to check my code again.

 

I left the nature of the "base buster" unknown, although I had to use a ship template in the Geoscape. Is it a modified ship or a guided projectile?

[Kir'jaeden]

I believe Battleships have an 80% chance to hit, the rest have a 70% chance. For now the UFOs counterattack only.

 

"UFO crashes into the base" should only appear when the "base buster" survives all defensive measures.

"Air Lock has been damaged" should be "Access Lift has been damaged." This should only appear when a battleship is invading your base and you'll find the Access Lift is ruined and smoking at the start of battle.

I seen these messages, but there was no visible event.

As it would be logical, lift damaging must occur BEFORE alien drop. In fact it occurs AFTER alien drop because I saw alien corpses in damaged lift. Lift explosion is similar to power source explosion in downed UFOs where it could kill few aliens.

 

At superhuman, fusion defense only uses 4 bombs? I'll need to check my code again.

 

I left the nature of the "base buster" unknown, although I had to use a ship template in the Geoscape. Is it a modified ship or a guided projectile?

I suppose it is modified craft. From their startegy I conclude that aliens are in great hurry or in great need. If they were not, then they need not violence at all. Telepathy, overwhelming information and transport technologies + human-like agents would deal the goverments nicely. So I do not think they would device some special craft for XCOM base bombing. They have no time, they will use what is on the hand, may be slightly modified. Removing devices and containers, adding massive armor allowing high speed in earth atmosphere and withstanding great damage makes the Retaliator.

Normal harvesters on retaliation missions with abnormal speed - (32000) - are there also a part of the mod?

[Tycho]

I seen these messages, but there was no visible event.

 

Normal harvesters on retaliation missions with abnormal speed - (32000) - are there also a part of the mod?

After you get "UFO crashes into base" in the base defenses screen, it should skip the base defense mission, taking you back to geoscape to report the base is destoryed.

 

the harvester on a retaliation mission is part of the mod, but the speed should be normal. I'll look into it.

[Echelon117]

Sorry that this is likely a silly question but I was wondering about the human limits mod. Does enabling this simply make the research/engineering power half that of vanilla? So 50 scientists is now really only 25?

[Tycho]

Sorry that this is likely a silly question but I was wondering about the human limits mod. Does enabling this simply make the research/engineering power half that of vanilla? So 50 scientists is now really only 25?

not quite. Yes, only half the prople are working at any one time but the mod also reduces the space used to 1 space per 2 people and the assign buttons will increase/decrease the amount by 2 per click.

[Echelon117]

Ok then, so it would technically alter research/engineering times as well? Say if I research an autopsy with 50 scientists using the mod.. it will take longer than vanilla because i'm only using 25 scientists?

I'm probably confusing it more than it needs to be, just trying to work out what it actually does to the game.

 

I was also wondering if there were any simple way to slightly reduce the amount of damage aliens take when using the 'Know thy enemy' mod. I love the idea but it basically makes the game near impossible on superhuman early on. I've spent nearly a whole clip on 1 sectoid

[Tycho]

Ok then, so it would technically alter research/engineering times as well? Say if I research an autopsy with 50 scientists using the mod.. it will take longer than vanilla because i'm only using 25 scientists?

I'm probably confusing it more than it needs to be, just trying to work out what it actually does to the game.

 

I was also wondering if there were any simple way to slightly reduce the amount of damage aliens take when using the 'Know thy enemy' mod. I love the idea but it basically makes the game near impossible on superhuman early on. I've spent nearly a whole clip on 1 sectoid

 

Correct. 25 people on the day shift, 25 on night shift.

 

Except for beginner level reducing stuff, there is no difference in hp or armor between experienced level and superhuman level. The only difference is determined by the alien rank. See https://ufopaedia.org...tle=Alien_Stats

 

Without researching their autopsy, the "know thy enemy" mod's effect usually means that most aliens require an additional hit to kill (maybe more for mutons and big hp creatures). Of course it might take more hits if your only shooting them once per turn. Or, you could be getting a bad set of random numbers and doing almost no damage.

[Tycho]

1.31.7:

*this patch is experimental. The fixes for the ALT-TAB and minimizing windows work for my system running Windows XP. I need others to verify they work under other operating systems. *

• Fix for crashes when using ALT-TAB in full-screen mode or minimizing a windowed game.
  
• Fix to allow harvest and infiltration missions in Russia.
  
• UFOs will fire on base defenses rather than just couterattack them on superhuman difficulty. Right clicking to supress fire, will impart an attack penatly to the UFO.
  
• Lowered the hull points on the base-buster object: now depends on difficulty level.
  
• Fusion ball defenses now correctly use 6 blaster bombs on each activation at superhuman level.
  
• Fixed side effects caused by a retaliation ship arriving at a base that was manually removed by the player while the UFO is enroute.
  

See the original post in this topic to download.