Just found something cool!

[Danial]

I was just looking in the MCD data files (the Farm maps in particular), and noticed the following TU data for objects:

 

2 - Long Grass

1 - Short Grass

8 - Hay Bails

8 - Barn Stairs

 

1 TU to cross short grass sounded strange to me, and then it clicked, it must be added to the base tile's TUs (4). This made sense for the grasses:

 

6 - Long Grass

5 - Short Grass

 

But then 12TUs seemed a bit excessive for the Hay Bails and Stairs... until I went into UFO and tested it:

 

12 - Hay Bails

12 - Barn Stairs

 

They were, infact, 12TUs each! Normal Terror Site stairs use only 8TUs total! I wonder why barn stairs take longer to climb?

[andrewkye]

Hi ther Daniel I've just joined the site, have you ever played aftermath?....if so what about the latest one aftershock? I went and bought acopy yesterday and in it the story so far explains that in af/mth you were given the option to join them in their experiements and that this was the way of losing the game. If so was there away to win the game or was it designed to lose??

I absolutely loved ufo e/u.

 

I was just looking in the MCD data files (the Farm maps in particular), and noticed the following TU data for objects:

 

2 - Long Grass

1 - Short Grass

8 - Hay Bails

8 - Barn Stairs

 

1 TU to cross short grass sounded strange to me, and then it clicked, it must be added to the base tile's TUs (4). This made sense for the grasses:

 

6 - Long Grass

5 - Short Grass

 

But then 12TUs seemed a bit excessive for the Hay Bails and Stairs... until I went into UFO and tested it:

 

12 - Hay Bails

12 - Barn Stairs

 

They were, infact, 12TUs each! Normal Terror Site stairs use only 8TUs total! I wonder why barn stairs take longer to climb?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Hobbes]

They were, infact, 12TUs each! Normal Terror Site stairs use only 8TUs total! I wonder why barn stairs take longer to climb?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

To force your units to use more TUs and be shot by the alien on the upper level? I wonder if the developers were that devious....

[Bomb Bloke]

Hiya, andrewkye. We have a UFO AfterMath/Shock section if you wanna talk about that game... This area is just for UFO:EU talk.

 

12TU to go up a stair?! :swoon:

 

Hmm... If walking on a hay bale takes 12TU, and (if my memory is correct) the game pathfinding code lets units walk over them, then you could save TU by manually telling your troops to go around them...

[NKF]

Just how hard is it to stand on a bundle of hay compared, to, say, a hard plank? Quite hard, I'd imagine, as you risk pushing your foot right through the hay while it's less likely to happen on the plank. The extra TUs are, well, a simulation of your soldiers taking slightly more care.

 

UFO's not too bad in this respect. TFTD appears to have some really weird movement costs.

 

Here's a question, are there separate energy costs for each tile type in addition to the TU costs? Or is energy cost derived from the amount of TUs required to traverse the tile?

 

- NKF

[Danial]

Energy usage is calculated purely from TU usage using unitref[45].

[Zombie]

Hmm... If walking on a hay bale takes 12TU, and (if my memory is correct) the game pathfinding code lets units walk over them, then you could save TU by manually telling your troops to go around them...

I do that all the time - especially in fields with hay bales. The game makes some strange paths for your soldiers to follow to get from point A to point B, and usually this path takes more TU than what you can do. I go so far as shooting hay bales into oblivion before crossing a field - at least your soldier will use a constant 4 TU per tile. Stepping on a shot-out Power Source also costs 12 TU, so I frequently get my men stuck to that spot for a round (after picking up the Elerium on a smash 'n grab mission). Hills, stairs, hay bales, blown out PS's as well as wheat fields are huge sinks which gobble up TU faster than I eat turkey on thanksgiving.

 

- Zombie

[Danial]

Stepping off a hay bail, or PS only uses 4TUs doesn't it? It's only stepping on to them that uses 12... Atleast it is for hay... Haven't shot a PS for God knows how long

[Zombie]

Yep, stepping off a shot-out Power Source only takes 4 TU - same as a hay bale. The problem is it takes 12 TU to step on it, and by then my rookies usually don't have enough time to step off and take cover somewhere because he picked up the Elerium too.

 

- Zombie

[Danial]

Well I guess a blasted PS would have lots of sharp metal and glass everywhere, so I guess taking 3 times longer to step onto it is reasonable