(semi-)exploits by seeker

[seeker]

try this to extend your craft's range.

this is NOT infinite range exploit.

 

useful for firestorm and interceptor. useful if you have only one base, like in the begining.

 

send a craft out as per normal.

just before the clock hits 10-minute mark, put the craft on "patrol" for 10sec.

then get the craft going again

 

this trick may be tedious, and hard to perform on fast computer. this trick is quite useless if you intend to use infinite fuel bug.

 

it worked because the fuel is comsumption is calculated every 10min on the dot.

patrolling comsumes fuel at a lower rate than flying.

 

this trick is similar to infinite-time terror site, but crashed-UFO, terror sites only dissapear on the hour.

 

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how to get E115 on (almost) every crash sites

 

save game after UFO crashed, before ground mission begins.

you may need to click "no" first to briefly send you craft home, if your intercepting craft is carrying troops.

save, then send the craft to the crash site again.

 

at the start of ground mission, have you rear soldiers turn around to see the terrain.

locate the UFO. scan the interior of the UFO by placing the cursor at NW of where the power plant(s) suppose to be. (ie the top tile beside the power plant)

if you see a broken power plant, or no power plant at all, or UFO with walls/ceiling blown off, abort mission, reload and land again.

 

i figures about 20% of the time a single-power-plant UFO will have intact power plant.

 

difficult for those multi-power plants UFO to have all power plants intact upon crash.

i think power plant explosion will cause chain reaction and destroy other power plants. except that battleship's 4 plants are isolated.

 

impossible on small scout.

 

i do this when i am short or going to be short of E115.

i do it on medium and large scouts only.

using a 4squares cursor to scan the terrain is easier.

i may allow a larger UFO to fly around more and hope that it lands, and perform a ground assualt instead of crash recovery.

 

 

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i reserve 3~4 slots for geoscape save-games.

i will use them while waiting for something to happen.

example slot1 used right before i am waiting. check "total UFO activity" value.

slot2 used 1~2 days after slot1, check alien activity value

slot3 used 1~2 days after slot2, check

slot4 used 1~2 days after slot3, check

slot2 used again 1~2days after slot 4, check

 

if nothing happens on radar, but the graph shows a substantial UFO activity at a place outside my radar coverage, i will reload the day before, and send craft(s) to patrol the region. i am able to intercept UFOs this way, and mislead the aliens that i have a base in that region.

 

this works well in the begining when you have only a small radar.

used with "extend range" trick on previous post to increase chance of detection/interception.

i find that a craft's radar detection radius is compareable to small-radar detection radius

 

caution: your sole skyranger maybe overtaxed to recover so many crash sites that are far away from your base.

 

 

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i used this trick to scan the interior of buildings and UFOs.

 

i place soldiers at sides of buildings/UFOs one tile away from the wall.

spin them. layout of the second floor will be revealed, no more black space.

if u see an open door, you know alien(s) is nearby.

if you place at correct place you can see aliens moving INSIDE the UFOs on their turns, but you cannot reaction-shoot at them. (they may reaction-spin to face them thou, but i wonder if they get experience by spinning only)

EDIT: you can see interior layout of UFO's level 1 if you are at level 2. much like spinning soldiers in skyranger to see layout of surrounding. i seldom use this anymore as i know layouts of all UFOs, but still useful to peek in side building.

too bad you seldom can see the alien inside, although i can sometime see alien inside UFO while flying at level 2 towards it. my soldier stopped, with red alien spotted icon, but unable to shoot at the alien.

 

to reaction shoot aliens INSIDE the UFOs while standing OUTSIDE the UFO see next post which i copy from another thread

 

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cyberdisc: how to get their corpses. (unverified: is it possible to get them alive?)

 

kill them when they are flying at level2 or higher, and there are no 2nd level floor-slab below.

their bodies will dropped to level 1 before the explosion on 2nd or higher level so you can recover their bodies.

 

i remember i have captured live cyber disc before.

i think you can use stun bomb to stun them. but most times after they are stunned , you cannot find their corpses on you way back.

i think you have to stunned them when their are on level2 or higher, or you have to stun the top most of the 4square tiles, so that it will be counted as alive.

i even remember once, a live cyberdisc recovered from stunned status, and rove around the turn after. but the corpse is still on the ground.

 

this is unverified as it was a long time ago. (>10years!) i also maybe confused when ANOTHER cyberdisc appeared near a supposedly stunned cyberdisc.

 

this corpse collection also work on bio-drone in TFTD.

you can MC them float them to high level, expend all TUs, then shoot them on next turn. so the explosion wont blow away your loot.

 

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merge with hull

https://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index...ost&p=70917

 

@@@__*___*__

@@/@@@@@@@\

@* |@@@@@@@|

@@|@@@@@@@| @ = to be ignored

@* |@@@@@@@| * = where you fly up.

@@ \_________/ battleship not to scale

 

this is where you can stand on level 1 and fly to level 2 and level 3 to merge with UFO hull.

now you see them and they cant see you.

experiment a little and you can find best place to fly up to creat guarded corridors.

maybe some one can do a screen shot. or i can send you my save game file

[Gimli]

Seeker, please do not make multiple posts for writing these exploits. It is written in the Forum Rules so it should generally be avoided. Instead I suggest editing your original post.

 

I have merged your posts and separated the exploits with a white line.

[Bomb Bloke]

The fuel calc exploit is a new one on me.

 

You cannot capture a CyberDisc alive. You can stun them, but they die when the mission ends. You can still get the UFOpedia entry for a live one by researching alien medics.

[NKF]

The merge with hull trick isn't an uncommon exploit, and unfortunately only works on a select few UFOs with overhanging full-tile walls that do not have a solid floor tile base to block your rise. Of course, judicious use of blaster bombs can make overhanging walls - if you so desire!

 

You might to double check and be very sure whether or not the walls will protect you completely. I have had soldiers get killed when testing this in TFTD.

 

 

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Here's the inverse of the above method, and this will work on small UFOs that have only 1 level, or have sections that are 1-level high from the ground up. This requires that you not wear the flying suit but have access to a raised elevation that you can climb to (or have a comrade throw your soldier's stunned body up there and reawakened). This raised platform must be within walking distance of the east or south facing UFO hull walls (west and north walls if you're standing inside the UFO).

 

All you have to do is stand on the edge closest to the place you want to walk into. End the turn to refill your TUs. Then, when you're ready to walk through the wall, make sure that your cursor is on the same level that the soldier is on. Then move it to the spot above the wall where you wish to walk into. Walk. Because colision detection for full-tile walls (as opposed to walls that sit snugly on the edges of the tile) are done on the same level that you were on, the game ignores the fact that your soldier has dropped to the ground and is now walking through a solid UFO hull full-tile wall. Note, this will not work for a wall that's on the edge of the tile.

 

 

This trick is VERY useful in the mountain terrain where you can sometimes get into such a situation where you can scale a sheer cliff face. It's rare, but it can be done. It mostly involves having a 1 level high mound that's within walking distance of the sheer face you wish to climb. Stand on top of the mound and move towards the cliff. Technically, though you're climbing up the cliff, you'll really be one tile below the actual level you appear to be on. It gets weird, and you can correct your level - but you will no longer be able to scale the cliff once your soldier's level is fixed.

 

The one biggest advantage of this method is that once you're in the wall, you can choose to step inside the UFO or step outside and even throw stuff in either direction. It's a great way of planting a high explosive and only using enough TUs to make 1 step to get behind some decent protection.

 

You can also do this trick on different levels as well, but you have to make sure that your soldier's starting level is different from the destination level and that stairs are involved and that the destination tile is made up of a solid block wall/object. For example, you can walk right into the seats or the power plant of the Lightning (warning: you'll be forever stuck for the rest of the battle if you walk into the reactor). Start at the bottom of the stairs. Click a position underneath the Lightning that corresponds with the seats or the reactor just above. Your soldier will walk, and because the stairs are in the way, will walk up them and through the solid tiles. Neat, but an ultimately useless trick for the Lightning.

 

 

 

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Now, shall I mention the super nifty throw stuff through a solid ceiling trick? If you haven't, start a brand new game, launch your first mission. As soon as you start, pick an object. Any object. Then throw it directly above you - through the roof of the Skyranger. Voila! A much higher ceiling will require that you throw it at a slight angle - but otherwise it can still be done.

 

So what use could this be? Well, imagine the Abducter UFO and having to attack the alien that waits in the middle of the command deck with full TUs. Yes, exactly. Go underneath it and throw a high explosive right through the ceiling. Another trick to use this for would be to throw ammo up to a soldier standing on the roof without having to go outside. Or, to get a sniper who doesn't have a flying suit into a position that normally cannot be accessed by foot (say the top of a UFO or Skyranger). Use the smoke + incendiary ammo trick to control the amount of stun damage so that your knocked out soldier wakes up sooner rather than later.

 

This is a blatant cheat - although technically you're only leaving out 1-step of a legitimate strategy, which is to use a heavy plasma to cut a hole in the ceiling.

 

- NKF