UFO Extender

[Tycho]

Here is an idea of what is enabled at various difficulty ratings in 1.32:

Effects that start at lower levels continue or intensify at higher difficulty.

 

beginner~experienced

Craft/UFO data and craft/UFO weapons stats balanced.

Economic model balanced better. Values may need to be tweaked depending on playtesting and feedback.

Retaliation ships vary by game time.

Alien Base daily penalty increases the longer the base is active.

Battleships bomb the access lift if they start a base defense mission.

 

Veteran

Soldier can only MC one unit per turn.

UFOs take more damage before crashing.

Zombies will hatch into chryssalids after several turns if fire not used against them.

Alien AI in interceptions.

Random elerium recovered per ball.

The selling price of alien items drops as nations sign pacts.

 

Genius

No hold on Terror Site expiration timer due to inbound dropship.

Score for civilians higher in Terror missions.

Battleships may create terror sites.

Alien will use base busters after failed attempts to assualt an xcom base.

Game ends if too many nations sign pacts.

UFOs take more damage to crash than previous level.

The effect of nations signing pacts on prices for alien items is higher.

Alien ships attack base defenses.

A Missile Defense will spend money when attacking // A Fusion ball defense requires 4 blaster bombs in base stores to activate.

 

Superhuman

Aliens use base busters quicker.

UFOs take even more damage to crash.

Aliens will conduct more terror missions as game progresses.

Average amount of elerium recovered is lower.

The effect of nations signing pacts on prices is severe.

A Fusion Ball defense requires 6 blaster bombs in base stores to activate.

[Tycho]

added at hotfix to make sure certain data was being patched when starting a new game.

[Tycho]

Version 1.32.2 released

• Added a "critical" option in [bug fix] section to only enable fixes for those issues which will crash the game.
  
• UFO,Xcraft, and Craft weapon stat adjustments now apply only to Veteran Difficulty or higher.
  
• Change to score for killed civilians in terror mission now applies to veteran difficulty. Score is scaled to difficulty.
  
• Repair rate for all craft is 1% per hour. For advanced craft: If damage is 50% or more, the repair rate drops to about 0.5~0.66% per hour. Original repair rate was 1 hull point per hour. For interceptors this
  
• Some stat adjustments for small UFO weapons and the laser cannon when those settings apply.
  
• Increased hull points for small firestorms from 150 to 175.
  

[Echelon117]

Hey Tycho I think I found a bug with 1.32.2, it seems that the difficulty is becoming 'stuck' when abandoning a game to start a new one. At least with UFO interceptions that is.. For example if I start a new game on veteran or above, UFOs have the new difficulty. If I then abandon that game and start a new game on Beginner or Experienced, the added UFO interception difficulty is carried over to the easier game setting

[Tycho]

I think your referring to the accuracy of avalanches, I forgot to put an exclusion for their adjusted accuracy on Beginner and Experienced level. Just fixed this.

[User2]

Just installed ufo extender 1.32.2.

Started new superhuman difficulty game. Downed small ufo (However my interceptor was almost destroyed. I think ufos are overpowered a bit). Cleared it, got alien weapons, but i can not sell it! Sell price is zero... Only corpses could be sold. How can i fix it?

The game acts like "Funding Council Income Only" mod is set, however "Funding Council Income Only=0" is present in the ini file.

 

"Animations Speed=1" fix does not seem to work anymore. I find this fix better then "Battlescape Delay" parameter, which slows the cursor

[Tycho]

Just installed ufo extender 1.32.2.

Started new superhuman difficulty game. Downed small ufo (However my interceptor was almost destroyed. I think ufos are overpowered a bit). Cleared it, got alien weapons, but i can not sell it! Sell price is zero... Only corpses could be sold. How can i fix it?

The game acts like "Funding Council Income Only" mod is set, however "Funding Council Income Only=0" is present in the ini file.

 

"Animations Speed=1" fix does not seem to work anymore. I find this fix better then "Battlescape Delay" parameter, which slows the cursor

 

It seems that something broke in the latest recompile, in regards to item prices.

UFOs are more powerful, especially on superhuman difficulty: they take a lot more damage to crash than vanilla. With 1.32, much of what happens in the geoscape gets harder as the difficulty increases, not just a few more aliens with better accuracy and psionic skill in the battlescape as with the vanilla game. Which is why I suggested people start off with a lower difficulty and not jump straight in with superhuman.

 

If you want the old way, play at Experienced difficulty and enable "Max Aliens" in the INI

 

I disabled the "animation speed" because it was causing graphical problems: distortion when units moved, especially through smoke. The cursor is supposed to be slower but many people got used to the hyper effects of vanilla. I'll look to restoring it as an option in a later release.

 

update: just released 1.32.3 which fixes the items prices.

[User2]

If you want the old way, play at Experienced difficulty and enable "Max Aliens" in the INI

I'd like to be able to set custom difficulty by enabling/disabling extender mods, like it was in extender 1.30, because Max Aliens is not the only difference between difficulty levels of the original game.

In my opinion in terror missions it is rather impossible to score "good" rating since 1.31.5, where (1008/civil num) penalty was introduced. The reasons are:

1) Aliens are randomly placed all over the battle map, so they can quickly kill a lot of civilians, before my squad can really do something about it.

2) Civilians are stupid. They do not try to find a cover and hide. Instead, they seem to randomly walk on the map like zombies.

 

I think the solution could be: Make large constant penalty for failed terror mission or give player an abilty to control civilians in sight.

 

Found a bug "Sectoid-terminator" which was already mentioned there: can not kill a sectoid. He already was hit by about 10-15 rifle bullets & 4-5 HE rounds. The only visible result: alien paniced and droped the gun. "Know the enemy" mod is on (Great mod!), sectoid corpse was already researched. I have game save but do not know how to attach it here. Extender ver 1.32.3

[Tycho]

I'd like to be able to set custom difficulty by enabling/disabling extender mods, like it was in extender 1.30, because Max Aliens is not the only difference between difficulty levels of the original game.

In my opinion in terror missions it is rather impossible to score "good" rating since 1.31.5, where (1008/civil num) penalty was introduced. The reasons are:

1) Aliens are randomly placed all over the battle map, so they can quickly kill a lot of civilians, before my squad can really do something about it.

2) Civilians are stupid. They do not try to find a cover and hide. Instead, they seem to randomly walk on the map like zombies.

 

I think the solution could be: Make large constant penalty for failed terror mission or give player an abilty to control civilians in sight.

 

The main reason for the scoring is that it matches the 1000 penalty for not responding to a terror site to prevent the immediate-abort exploit. Terror missions should not have a great score: Stopping the terror ship should be the only way to prevent a bad situation from occurring. Even if the invaders are defeated, the locals will be upset and thus the local government won't be happy. The 1008 score for all civilians is only on Superhuman. It is less at lower difficulties.

 

In the original game, the only effect the difficulty level had on the Geoscape was the tolerance the council had on poor performance. For the Battlescape, the difficulty level affected the number of aliens generated in a mission and some of their stats (the three important ones being Time Units, Accuracy, and Psionic Skill) What else do you believe the difficulty affected?

 

Found a bug "Sectoid-terminator" which was already mentioned there: can not kill a sectoid. He already was hit by about 10-15 rifle bullets & 4-5 HE rounds. The only visible result: alien paniced and droped the gun. "Know the enemy" mod is on (Great mod!), sectoid corpse was already researched. I have game save but do not know how to attach it here. Extender ver 1.32.3

When playing on superhuman, there is a chance to get the "super" sectoid. He should have a colored spot on his chest.

You'll have to use a online storage site, like mediafire, and then post the link to the file here.

 

Thanks for your feedback!

[User2]

The main reason for the scoring is that it matches the 1000 penalty for not responding to a terror site to prevent the immediate-abort exploit.

Why not to set constant penalty for ignored/failed anti-Terror mission. In 1.31.5 new terror penalty for killed civilian was the hardest thing on extender superhuman level. Now I think the hardest part of the extended game is the frequent loss of the 500k$ interceptors in the early game. Even small ufo have good chances of killing it.

 

Terror missions should not have a great score: Stopping the terror ship should be the only way to prevent a bad situation from occurring. Even if the invaders are defeated, the locals will be upset and thus the local government won't be happy.

In real life there are no towns with the population of 15 people. So, terror mission takes place in the little part of the town, where alien forces have landed. Lets say it is little village with 100 citizens. Thus, we do not only saved 3 civilians of 15 at the end of the mission. We saved about 90 citizens of the village. So, the score should be higher

 

What else do you believe the difficulty affected?

Personally, I did not dissasseble the game. On the ufopaedia.org it is said that: "There may be other effects of difficulty: For example, the USG states that on lower levels, the chance of aliens abandoning a mission ("putting their plans on hold and reevalulate") is greater if you keep shooting down their scouts" ; "In addition the USG states the aliens' "remember" the location of X-COM units longer on higher [difficulty] levels"

 

When playing on superhuman, there is a chance to get the "super" sectoid. He should have a colored spot on his chest.

You'll have to use a online storage site, like mediafire, and then post the link to the file here.

Is it vannilla game feature or extender one?

If there is super armored alien then there must be a way to reasearch it to make better weapon against him & better armor. Every war is an arm race

 

So, if it is not a bug, then there is no point of posting the save game I guess

 

Upd: At least 2 aliens are super-puper in my game. Another alien got 3 rifle shots, 1 pistol shot, 1 small rocket direct hit, 2 direct HE round hits. Still alive

[Tycho]

Why not to set constant penalty for ignored/failed anti-Terror mission. In 1.31.5 new terror penalty for killed civilian was the hardest thing on extender superhuman level. Now I think the hardest part of the extended game is the frequent loss of the 500k$ interceptors in the early game. Even small ufo have good chances of killing it.

In real life there are no towns with the population of 15 people. So, terror mission takes place in the little part of the town, where alien forces have landed. Lets say it is little village with 100 citizens. Thus, we do not only saved 3 civilians of 15 at the end of the mission. We saved about 90 citizens of the village. So, the score should be higher

 

Personally, I did not dissasseble the game. On the ufopaedia.org it is said that: "There may be other effects of difficulty: For example, the USG states that on lower levels, the chance of aliens abandoning a mission ("putting their plans on hold and reevalulate") is greater if you keep shooting down their scouts" ; "In addition the USG states the aliens' "remember" the location of X-COM units longer on higher [difficulty] levels"

 

Is it vannilla game feature or extender one?

If there is super armored alien then there must be a way to reasearch it to make better weapon against him & better armor. Every war is an arm race

 

So, if it is not a bug, then there is no point of posting the save game I guess

 

Upd: At least 2 aliens are super-puper in my game. Another alien got 3 rifle shots, 1 pistol shot, 1 small rocket direct hit, 2 direct HE round hits. Still alive

I suggest first trying a lower difficulty. You'll need new methods of intercepting and strategies to succeed (especially at superhuman). Don't use avalanches against small UFOs, approach UFOs in cautious mode until their in ranges of stingrays, etc.

 

How long aliens units remember the position of your soldiers is determined by their memory score. Difficulty has no bearing on this, at least not in the CE version. The same with the delay on alien missions due to successful interceptions. There are five main points where the difficulty rating affects the game: the chance that aliens will launch a retaliation mission for a successful interception, the interval between shots by UFOs, the scores needed to lose the game, the game month in which aliens begin to launch retaliation missions against all bases (which occurs anyway once a certain level of research has been reached), and the effects on the units in battle.

 

I was joking about the sectoid: there is no chance of a super-sectoid (although the idea of a sectoid having a red 'S' on its chest is funny: Need to research Kryptonite bullets.) Send me a link to the save. I'm curious on the stats. If the problem was something in a routine, it should affect all aliens not just a few.

[User2]

Send me a link to the save. I'm curious on the stats. If the problem was something in a routine, it should affect all aliens not just a few.

Two sectoids I met were terminators. I did not try to find more aliens.

 

Link: Save

[Tycho]

Two sectoids I met were terminators. I did not try to find more aliens.

Link: Save

Thanks. I see it now. This seems to be an issue with the code for checking if an autopsy has been done for the target's unit type in "know thy enemy" mod. It has to do with how the compiler writes the assembly. Which is why the issue seems fixed and then returns.

[Kir'jaeden]

Greetings Tycho!

How about to add some FX to UFOextender?

I attach *.wav pack supposed to be linked with some soldier actions, like spotting an enemy, opening fire, get damaged, killing an enemy. There is three sets, 2 male voices , 1 female one

I think it is great idea!

marines_fx.rar

[Tycho]

Greetings Tycho!

How about to add some FX to UFOextender?

I attach *.wav pack supposed to be linked with some soldier actions, like spotting an enemy, opening fire, get damaged, killing an enemy. There is three sets, 2 male voices , 1 female one

I think it is great idea!

Thanks for the file! Hopefully, sometime in the future I might be able to incorporate this into the Extender. For now, I would be happy just to be able to get the game FX sounds to play through the bass sound or get the current sound buffers to allow in-game volume control.

[Echelon117]

A little something I'm noticing in the battlescape on night missions. Soldiers appear to "see" aliens at a great distance even though they are in the dark. The red number 1 doesn't appear, but the soldier stops in his tracks as though it's seen the alien. I can then open up my map and see the blue dot where the alien is in the dark

[Tycho]

A little something I'm noticing in the battlescape on night missions. Soldiers appear to "see" aliens at a great distance even though they are in the dark. The red number 1 doesn't appear, but the soldier stops in his tracks as though it's seen the alien. I can then open up my map and see the blue dot where the alien is in the dark

Could you verify if this is in the base game or something from Extender? I haven't touched the code that handles unit detection. If its anything from Extender, it would be related to Seb's code. If that's the case, could you narrow down the source by using 1.31 to eliminate fixes until you isolate it? Thanks!

[Tycho]

Just posted 1.32.4:

• "Know Thy Enemy" mod will not assign damage as extra health to a target which occurred in some cases. This caused some aliens to appear indestructible.
  
• Added a "Quit" button to the Battlescape Options screen. If chosen, the game immediatly exits the battle and takes the player to the Main Menu screen. To minimize button clicks, there is no confirmation message when this "Quit" button is used.
  

[User2]

Just posted 1.32.4:

• "Know Thy Enemy" mod will not assign damage as extra health to a target which occurred in some cases. This caused some aliens to appear indestructible.
  
• Added a "Quit" button to the Battlescape Options screen. If chosen, the game immediatly exits and takes the player to the Main Menu screen. To minimize button clicks, there is no confirmation message when this "Quit" button is used.
  

Great news! Thank you

[User2]

Base Defence crashing on start. By the way, the base is attacked by a medium sized ufo. Extender ver 1.32.4. Difficulty Genius (afaik).

 

Link to save game

[Tycho]

Base Defence crashing on start. By the way, the base is attacked by a medium sized ufo. Extender ver 1.32.4. Difficulty Genius (afaik).

The error is caused when the tank/cannon tries to spawn in the base defence. For right now, you'll have to sell the tank to allow the base defence to occur.

 

The type of ship that attacks your base will vary depending on game time. This makes having Missile and or Laser Defense useful in the early game. That started with version 1.31.0. Here is a link to the history of all versions of the Extender as a reference: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File_talk:UFOLoader.zip

[Tycho]

Just posted 1.32.5 patch

• Tank/cannons will spawn properly in base defense missions.
  

[Space Voyager]

Is there anything you can't fix in a day?

[User2]

The type of ship that attacks your base will vary depending on game time. This makes having Missile and or Laser Defense useful in the early game.

Execellent feature! In the original game a small air-defence is totally useless

[Tycho]

Is there anything you can't fix in a day?

. It's good that nobody is around while I'm in the process of debugging an error.

Some things have taken a while. Especially those things that don't happen in a repeatable way. If players can tell me the exact circumstances and/or provide a save game where the error occurs regularly, I can usually isolate the problem quickly. On the other hand, there is a crash that happens sometimes when the game tries to access a bad memory reference that is returned from the "GetMapTileReference" routine. It doesn't happen enough and too many routines utilize it, for me to know what is causing it to return bad data.