Research

[j'ordos]

hi all,

I'm working on my megapol 'mod' again some of you perhaps even remember over at xcomufo , basically X-COM (the player) is now Megapol, and Megapol is X-COM

Anyway, this time I have the R&D part figured out (mostly) so you can manufacture all that crappy megapol stuff. Bad news is you can't manufacture that shiny alien/X-COM tech anymore (although you still have to research it). X-COM will sell all that stuff to you, for a modest fee ofcourse

But I have to figure out which week every item becomes available, so perhaps you could post the average week you had researched item X ? It'd be of great help!

 

while I'm at it, I also have to figure out proper manufacture costs and skill hours for each megapol item you can manufacture, I made a quick list with some random values, perhaps someone out there just happens to be very bored and is willing to take a look at it?

edit: list removed, download the Megapol Mod instead to see it

 

Thanks in advance!

[Azrael Strife]

Shouldn't you be working on the Artopod model?

[Blehm 98]

he doesn't have the forums to play with

[Azrael Strife]

...models are done in 3dStudio, not on the forums, blehm, but I was only kidding

[j'ordos]

Uh... I'll just take that as a 'nobody cares'. Thanks for posting though

[Azrael Strife]

When XComUFO gets online again I'll resume my Apocalypse game, if you want me to gather any info, just PM me there with the things you need, I just started so I have only researched a couple of things

[j'ordos]

Good idea! Together with Exo2000's game it should give me some idea. I'll just use some temporary values for now then.

 

edit : Perhaps you can tell me the average weeks you needed before finishing the game? It's a bit easier to post and will also help greatly.

[Pete]

It always takes me a fair while on Superhuman due to the amount of raids and so on you need to scavenge materials if organisations turn against you. I'd hazard somewhere around 30 weeks on Superhuman if I'm having a good run?

 

I've hd one or two games go over a year, but that was waaaay back when I first started playing and didn't know the tech tree

[Blehm 98]

i know pretty much the entire tech tree and i've still never finished a game, my current game isn't going too well(week 3 or 4, entropy launchers and level 7 ships are terrible )

[FullAuto]

I got bio-transport modules or whatever they are in week two. I'm just going through Apoc again, and it's been so long I've forgotten the tech tree. So I'll pop in here when I get new tech and mention it.

[j'ordos]

Thanks all, much appreciated

I also updated the list with the current (temporary) values. It's pretty much finished, just need to balance those things out a bit, trying it out myself to test it. Slight problem I don't know how to fix is that if you haven't researched an item yet when X-COM brings it on the market, you can buy it for $0 (as it's an 'alien artifact'), luckily the X-COM craft do not have this. (imagine buying an annihilator for $0 )

[Pete]

Don't bio transport modules com right after dimension gates? Or is is brainsucker launcher?

[NKF]

The bio transport module comes right away. It's just a matter of how fast you can research everything. Research progress can differ from player to player, depending on the research crew they've gathered, facilities they've built and what their research priorities are, and what's available (which is controlled by points). Still, what's the average game span of a plain vanilla game from start to finish. A year? Half a year? I don't know because I've always taken my time and tend to drag the game on.

 

j'ordos: Think of it this way, if X-Com can foolishly enough give away alien artefacts to other organizations at $0 prior to researching them - who do you think is gullible enough to get them?

 

One work-around would be to trickle these goods onto the market rather than sell them in large quantities. I mean, for the really precious equipment like disrupter shields, X-Com's never going to sell more than a few at a time. For equipment that they get in masses (Devestators, smoke grenades and boomeroids), you could be a bit more lenient.

 

- NKF

[j'ordos]

Yep, quantities are rather small, the game actually already has values for the max stock increase of Xcom stuff, so I kept those for now, and more precious items (like shields) are released rather late in the game.

Bio-trans is actually in the biochemistry tree, and the only item you can research there at the start of the game, so it's pretty much always researched before the end of the week. Unless you forgot to assign scientists ofcourse . Made a mistake with the research tho, accidentially replaced the bio-trans tech with the plasma pistol research, and when I researched that the bio-trans modules were still 'alien artifacts', at least, I hope it's because of that, 'cause otherwise you won't be able to use *any* xcom tech

When I gave all techs with an editor it seemed to work fine, didn't look at the bio-trans module back then though.

 

What would you think would be a good week for disruptor gun and devastator cannon? They're pretty important and I'm not sure about their current week settings (week 4 and week 10 respectively)

 

I also forgot, did the vehicle weapons and their ammo require an advanced workshop? I currently have everything that has to do with vehicles require and advanced workshop (you start the game with one).

[FullAuto]

Just got disruptors, and I'm on week 3.

[j'ordos]

I'm at week 3 and the aliens still only use brainsucker launchers . My score is a bit low due to few tactical mission, I haven't done any raids yet, and the start of the game is a bit too easy (UFO combat): so far only one UFO ever managed to drop troops in the city. Now however the fast attack ships show up, initial encounters were quite deadly, as you can see from this log snippet

Couldn't even down a single UFO

edit: I do have the light disruptor beam craft weapon, a bit too early as it'll only be on the market at week 8 or so

[megaman357]

I'm at week 3 and the aliens still only use brainsucker launchers . My score is a bit low due to few tactical mission, I haven't done any raids yet, and the start of the game is a bit too easy (UFO combat): so far only one UFO ever managed to drop troops in the city. Now however the fast attack ships show up, initial encounters were quite deadly, as you can see from this log snippet

Couldn't even down a single UFO

edit: I do have the light disruptor beam craft weapon, a bit too early as it'll only be on the market at week 8 or so

 

interesting, u say the aliens still use brainsucker launchers at week 3, im about week 3 or 4 now and they use assult ships and disruptors and probably soon devistators, and in anwser of another question u need advanced workshop for large ship weapons and craft only, many components if not all of em can be made in standard workshop, usually each week sees new craft coming through the dimension gates untill the assult ships come then its a while before the large things come, oh and i would like to make a point of including the prison block in the base plans that was taken out of the origonal game, its much more suited to this type of game, just a thought u could learn little things from gang members like special jobs and unique little missons to thwart gang activitys, once i get an idea of when the personal sheilds and cloaks come about ill try to post it here, bomeroids are about the same time as disruptors and i would say vortex mines are the same as devistators probably sumthing like week 6 or 7 but uncomfirmed as of yet

[NKF]

As mentioned earlier, alien tech is released based on your score. You only have to hit a certain score level, and maintain it until the end of the week's (or day's?) city-wide update. Once this happens, the aliens will be toting their new weapons. If you somehow go under this score, by the time the next global update occurs, alien technology will downgrade. So, if you start a new game and go nuts with your raids, and I mean seriously nuts, you can potentially get the aliens to be armed with shields, dimension missile launchers and perhaps even teleporters by the end of the first week. Not a very nice situation to be in, I can assure you!

 

As for the brainsucker launchers - yes, they'll still be using them well into the game, even once you've released the personal teleporters (the last alien tech item you can release). You just won't find it as often as the devestators and disrupter guns. They appear more often early on because there's not much of a choice for the humanoi aliens to choose from, and they have to be armed with something.

 

- NKF

[megaman357]

As mentioned earlier, alien tech is released based on your score. You only have to hit a certain score level, and maintain it until the end of the week's (or day's?) city-wide update. Once this happens, the aliens will be toting their new weapons.

- NKF

 

so its as i thought, ur score does affect the speed of the game, thats why sum ppl take longer to get techs than others because sum of us score up quicker than others, ok this has cleared up a major fact ive been thinking about for ages thx a bunch now i have even more reason to raid those damn cults, more points = (i cant believe im saying this) greater prizes, although i finish the game too quickly to really ever use the alien teleporter so i dont getmuch out of it, only ever had it once

[j'ordos]

I'm at week 3 and the aliens still only use brainsucker launchers . My score is a bit low due to few tactical mission, I haven't done any raids yet, and the start of the game is a bit too easy (UFO combat): so far only one UFO ever managed to drop troops in the city. Now however the fast attack ships show up, initial encounters were quite deadly, as you can see from this log snippet

Couldn't even down a single UFO

edit: I do have the light disruptor beam craft weapon, a bit too early as it'll only be on the market at week 8 or so

 

interesting, u say the aliens still use brainsucker launchers at week 3, im about week 3 or 4 now and they use assult ships and disruptors and probably soon devistators, and in anwser of another question u need advanced workshop for large ship weapons and craft only, many components if not all of em can be made in standard workshop, usually each week sees new craft coming through the dimension gates untill the assult ships come then its a while before the large things come, oh and i would like to make a point of including the prison block in the base plans that was taken out of the origonal game, its much more suited to this type of game, just a thought u could learn little things from gang members like special jobs and unique little missons to thwart gang activitys, once i get an idea of when the personal sheilds and cloaks come about ill try to post it here, bomeroids are about the same time as disruptors and i would say vortex mines are the same as devistators probably sumthing like week 6 or 7 but uncomfirmed as of yet

Thanks, coincidentially I have been working on the next version a little, which enables the cells (though they have no use whatsoever, just for roleplaying purpose ) and some other unused stuff like the dimension destabiliser and tracker gun. Other features include using megapol buildings as your bases instead of the default xcom warehouses&slums and the ability to down and raid mega prime vehicles similar to UFOs for their equipment (though it's far from perfect ).

[Bomb Bloke]

Dimension Destabilser? Now that sounds like my kinda grenade...

[NKF]

Actually, that's the X-Com version of the disrupter weapons. It sort of doesn't work as it does not do any damage. However it literally consumes disrupter shields shields.

 

I actually like it like this. Great against human guards with shields where anti-alien toxin fails.

 

- NKF