Jump to content

Ethereals...


Snikers

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 55
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Well, technically, I've had 1/4th of a cyberdisc wake up too. But it couldn't move about, and didn't seem able to shoot back.

 

But it happens so rarely it's rather negligable.

 

- NKF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you psi control a reaper, cyberdisc or sectopod (there's a challenge for you) you only get control of 1/4 of them. They see themselves as an enemy so it's sometimes even possible to have them shoot themselves! I once had a sectopod trying to do it and he just kept turning around saying no line of fire. It must've been hilarious to watch! :confused:
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
wait till i tell you this! once, i psi'ed one sectopod square and when i moved it, it shot itself and died!

Yeah, I've had all of the following happen while controlling 1/4 sectopods:

- Shot the other part, sectopod died

- Moved around, shot other aliens

- Shot by other part, sectopod died

 

It's kind of unfair, as you shouldn't be able to psi a robot, right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yea i guess its unfair but... *obtains theory* Maybe the bots have psi receavers in them that allowed the aliens to control them while on the battlefield (notice the fact that only psionic capable aliens use robots). So any human with the proper psi skill could tap into that control and break its connection with its alien master.

 

-PSY GUY- :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You shouldn't be able to knock them out with stun weapons either. On the other hand, the X-Com HWPs are the only units in the game that are immune to stun weapons.

 

The Sectopod and Cyberdisc obviously have some sort of psionic receiver in their electronics that is succeptible to electrical shocks (low temperature? Lack of air?). They may even have some sort of organic matter inside of them, ala the TFTD Biodrones. But who knows?

 

As for only controlling part of them, well, I guess it just goes to show that you need a lot of willpower to fully take control of one. Otherwise, you've only gained control of a small part of itself, and they will commit mechanicide if need be as long as the enemy threat is subdued.

 

As for the reapers, well, they've got two brains. The rest is probably just muscular spasms. Oh, and they're too dim witted to bite themselves. :)

 

I haven't got any clever explanation for the bit about the TU's refilling for every bit you mind control. Any takers?

 

- NKF

 

On a less related note: Anyone have semi-controlled sectopod get killed only to have it crumble into a heap that resembles a destroyed X-Com tank? I've had a variety of other weird alien deaths, like Mutons turning into female civilians...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I haven't got any clever explanation for the bit about the TU's refilling for every bit you mind control. Any takers?

 

Well bear in mind that in the autopsy screen for a sectopod there is a little disk inside it's head. I think there's something similar in the cyberdiscs... This could be the organic nerve center of the robots and because of the size of the creature it would control subsections. Left leg, Left gun, Right leg, Right gun, taking the example of the sectopod obviously...

By taking control of only one part of one of these machines it follows to reason that it couldn't move. But for some reason it still can. (probably some kind of bug or XP virus :) )

That means that by the end of your turn you've used 1/4 of the robots time units. It still has three times that much left.

Besides if that wasn't right then how come they shoot themselves on their next turn after you've just used all of their TUs? :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to have a lot of fun using mind control on the civilians during terrorism missions. I would use them as fodder, and when the psi wore off they would show up as an alien and I don't think I lost points for killing them.. I'll have to try it again soon to be sure. :)

 

p.s. where do you go to get a pic under your name??

 

I'm new here

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Um, preferences/avatar settings then select from the prefab avatars or upload one of your own.

 

You don't exactly get negative points for killing 'alien' civilians. You do lose the points you could have got for saving them.

 

Alien kills a civilian: -ve

You kill a civilian: -ve (only more)

You save a civilian: +ve

You kill an 'alien' civilian: 0

 

- NKF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well guys, a few weeks ago I started a new game at veteran diffaculty ( a little out of practice) it's oct 1999 on the game now, and for the last 3-4 months now it has been nothing but muton scouts! except for that muton battleship that wiped out a base before I could blink!! I sure could go for a nice floater misssion.. I haven't seen them yet!!

 

I was wondering.. has any of you guys ever shared a game with someone else? as in having seperate squads/bases?? I just spent thanksgiving with a good x-com chum, and he wanted go get in on my file. Now I'm back home and half of my stuff is all his creation, soldier names, gear. It's kinda neat, but sooner or later there will be no trace of his stuff! hehe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

To say something I said in another topic about Ethereals:

 

The first time I played against Ethereals it was on the Amiga 500 version, where alien mind control was permanent (probably a bug). I went in with two tanks and as many soldiers as I could fit into Skyranger. I came back with one man and one tank, both virtually dead. The man was my favourite soldier who pretty much took them all out, also killed most of his comrades. The last guy dead was one of mine, he was the prober who sat in the back of Skyranger, I drove the tank back there and rocketed him.

 

But it was pretty harsh you lost a guy when he got controlled.

 

EDIT : Of course when I had to destroy a Ethereal base in the USA I took so many blaster-bombs it was unreal, I don't think I got any alien stuff once I'd finished with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 years later...

Whoa, I hate to be a necromancer here, but bumpity-bump. :)

 

I was watching some X-COM YouTube videos by falkor95 the other day. (I love his british "color commentary" while his partner in crime named "Matthew" runs the controls. It's too bad the background music is so high, I would have liked it 100% more with just the commentary). Anyhow, he was on a horrific terror mission with Ethereals and Sectopods and the squad was mainly equipped with Plasma Rifles. The result wasn't good because the Plasma Rifle bolts didn't seem to phase these creatures.

 

Well, I ran some numbers on this just to see what is up. A Sectopod has the following stats:

 

Experienced-Superhuman
Front Armor:	  145
Left/Right Armor: 130
Rear Armor:	   100
Under Armor:	   90

Beginner
Front Armor:	   72
Left/Right Armor:  65
Rear Armor:		50
Under Armor:	   45

A Plasma Rifle has a listed damage of 80 (range: 0 - 160). However, the Sectopod is 80% susceptible to plasma damage and hence the range is lowered to 0 - 128. Comparing the max damage to the Sectopods armor we can clearly see that the Plasma Rifle is 100% ineffective against the front and side plates. Gee, no wonder he had so many problems. Even if you managed to circle around and shoot at the rear plates, you have a 22% chance of breaching the armor. To put it another way, 78% of all attempts will do 0 damage if shot up the arse. Not good. :)

 

On beginner, the odds are a bit better.

Front: 43% breach

Side: 49% breach

Rear: 60% breach

 

Still, even these odds are nothing to sneeze at.

 

Now let's look at the Laser Rifle. It has a listed damage of 60 and its range is 0 - 120. That's 20 points less than the Plasma Rifle. However, Sectopods are 150% susceptible to laser damage. Its range is now boosted to 0 - 180 (52 points more damage than the Plasma Rifle). This increase is enough to do damage against a superhuman Sectopod's front plates.

Front: 19% breach

Side: 28% breach

Rear: 49% breach

 

I'd much rather be toting the Laser Rifle when going up against Sectopods. It's cheaper to manufacture, easier to come by and doesn't chew up ammo either.

 

The break-even point between the Plasma Rifle and an equivalent Laser is 43 (for a Sectopod). That makes the lowly Laser Pistol the Plasma Rifles equal (at least in terms of damage). By the way, the Laser Rifle is approximately equal to the Heavy Plasma against the Sectopod. (It's a little bit less, but right in the range).

So as you can clearly see, Lasers (any type) are better than Plasma against Sectopods. :)

 

- Zombie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've always felt the act of unholy necromancy on long dead threads is okay if you bring something new (and possibly exciting) to it and not just chuck in a one-liner that has no relevance to what's being discussed.

 

By the way, there was a laser vs. plasma thread going on somewhere that could use this neat little tidbit. :)

 

The weakness of the plasma rifle against superhuman sectopods was something I noticed when I was testing one of Hobbes's earlier new warehouse maps a couple of years back. A very good excuse to not rely solely on one type of weapon (well, unless you're using heavy plasmas).

 

Oh, and for those who've read what Zombie's just mentioned, and are confused because you've seen how easily the sectopods are able to kill their own kind, there's a jolly good reason for this. Their weapon is a laser weapon that fires projectiles disguised as plasma bolts. It just looks like they're shooting plasma beams, the actual damage dealt is laser damage.

 

- NKF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About those videos. I just noticed that the playstation sound effects are a bit different from the good old pc version - or is it just my ears deceiving me?

 

Is there a way of transplanting them into the pc version, perhaps? Would certainly freshen the experience :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nope your ears are working fine, some sounds are different. I suppose adding these sounds to the computer version is possible. But finding them is the other problem. :)

 

Just some more calculated equivalents to the Plasma Rifle against the Sectopod. Armor piercing ammo would need to dish out an average damage of 64. Nothing in the game comes close except for the Tank/Cannon's shell which does 60. Stun (non-explosive) would also need to be 64. The Stun Rod pumps out 65 so we'll call it the PR's equivalent. Still, it has the same limitation on Superhuman Sectopods: it cannot breach the front or side plates. :)

 

- Zombie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nope your ears are working fine, some sounds are different. I suppose adding these sounds to the computer version is possible. But finding them is the other problem. :)

 

Hmm, good point. PSX cdroms are in a strange undocumented format, I see.

 

Another reason to test the amiga version, I guess. Perhaps there are different sounds there :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

True, but in the Collector's edition there are 3 files in the sound folder which contain sounds on the battlescape and geoscape. On my PSX disc there are 4 files (at least I think they are the sound files in question). Actually, it would be 8 files since each file has a dat file as well as the Security Catalog file. Not only that, but it appears that the sounds are probably at a much higher sampling rate than the CE. That would probably require some tweaking. Wish Quantifier was around - he would know exactly what is going on and if it's even possible to transfer them properly. :)

 

- Zombie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to the Wiki, CE doesn't care what the sample rate is, so long as it can find a valid WAVE header in the file.

 

Can't guarentee that the format of the files is the same, though. The extra sound file is probably used by the movies.

 

Could you provide a directory listing of the disc? This DOS command might come in handy:

 

dir > c:\UFO_PSX.txt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks! Here it is:

08/23/1995  05:07 AM		12,009,472 2CYDON_7.STR
08/22/1995  11:07 AM			   504 FLIC.CAT
08/22/1995  11:07 AM		 3,385,344 FLIC.DAT
08/23/1995  03:58 AM		   583,680 GEOSCAPE.EXE
08/22/1995  11:06 AM			   560 GEOSEQ.CAT
08/22/1995  11:06 AM		   354,304 GEOSEQ.DAT
08/23/1995  05:17 AM		16,547,840 GWIN_7.STR
08/23/1995  05:10 AM		11,173,888 LGMGMN_7.STR
08/23/1995  05:08 AM		11,173,888 LGMWLD_7.STR
08/23/1995  05:18 AM		 4,079,616 MABRT_7.STR
08/23/1995  05:17 AM		 4,079,616 MABTG_7.STR
08/23/1995  05:19 AM		 4,784,128 MLOSE_7.STR
08/22/1995  12:53 PM			 4,096 SLUS_001.41
08/28/1995  12:33 AM				70 SYSTEM.CNF
08/22/1995  11:06 AM			 1,624 TACSEQ.CAT
08/22/1995  11:06 AM		   641,024 TACSEQ.DAT
08/23/1995  04:06 AM		   509,952 TACTICAL.EXE
08/23/1995  05:14 AM		17,170,432 USINT_7.STR
08/23/1995  05:05 AM		 3,588,096 WMISS_7.STR
08/22/1995  11:04 AM			24,108 XCOM.CAT
08/22/1995  11:04 AM		13,522,944 XCOM.DAT
		  21 File(s)	103,635,186 bytes

The 4, urm, 8 files I'm talking about is FLIC.CAT/BAT, GEOSEQ.CAT/DAT, TACSEQ.CAT/DAT and XCOM.CAT/DAT. The str files are (I believe) the movie clips.

 

- Zombie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
  • Create New...