What the UFOPaedia didn't tell you

[JellyfishGreen]

The Expanded UFOPedia - XCOM game object trivia collection

 

Autocannon

-AC-AP, Standard Rifle, and Standard Pistol cannot damage XCOM Power Armor or Cyberdisk

-Auto shot takes a third longer than HC snap-shot

 

Blaster Launcher/Blaster Bomb

-can be reaction-fired, but then the empty casing "dud" must be unloaded before using again. Same if only one waypoint is used.

-can break open a single section of UFO outer hulls, with enough power to detonate the nav modules on the other side of the wall

-to go through a ceiling hole, must travel at a slight angle (eg. from square next to hole, to square under hole) rather than directly vertically. Pure vertical movement is buggy.

-the vertical movement bug causes the BB to fly off south instead of down. If it exits the map cleanly, but there are at least two more waypoints to go, it will reappear at the next waypoint and continue. EG inside the UFO. [NKF]

-Soldier does not need to face target or waypoint.

-Fusion balls will always pass through waypoints but may drift slightly while travelling between. Watch those narrow corridors!

 

Corpses

-if rank or name is given, it's not a corpse, just unconscious

-can occasionally be unloaded, you get ammo for a random weapon from the current Battlescape

 

Grenades

-have timers, most commonly set to 0 (end of your turn) or 1 (end of alien turn)

-can be thrown up through ceilings, exploding on floor above (HE rounds also do this)

-can be thrown into diagonal walls, exploding on the far side

-will explode before doors close at the end of a turn (catching aliens with doors open) [Zeno]

-will not time out and explode in inventory, but timer will start if wielder falls unconscious or dead and drops equipment

-improve normal (rifle) accuracy as well as throwing accuracy when used for a kill

-if several explode on the same turn, the lowest, most north-east grenade will explode first [Zeno]

-Grenade Relay allows soldiers with more TU's to prime grenades and throw them on to front-line soldiers with less TU's, who then only incur (pickup cost+throw cost) TU's to put grenade on the target

 

Elerium

-can be recovered manually from UFO power sources by shooting away the collider (orange cylinder) first

-can be recovered from alien bases manually (base can be raided if not captured)

-cannisters appear as purple dots on the power units

 

Flying suits

-have better armor (10 points more) than power suits

-can fly up through overhanging diagonal floors of multi-story UFO's

 

Heavy Cannon

-Pistols, rifles and heavy cannons have identical snapshot accuracies (60%).

-With AP ammo, good stopping power during UFO entry (if you have the strength to keep moving)

 

Heavy Plasma

-The heavy plasma, standard rifle and the small launcher all have identical aimed shot accuracies (110%)

-The heavy plasma is just as heavy as the standard rifle, despite its bulk.

 

HWP

-AREN'T sufficient to defend a base without soldiers, the aliens will take the base without a fight

-get a free load of ammunition for base defence if there wasn't any in stores when the base is attacked. Wounded soldiers are also allowed to help defend.

 

Medikit

-most important function is stopping further health loss from critical wounds. Painkillers (morale boost) and stimulants (recovering stun damage) are of much lower priority and often ignored

-works on aliens too

-can operate through walls, thus usable as a 1-square alien detector

-must be facing soldier to work, or on same square as unconscious one

-uses 10TU per critical wound heal or injection

 

Mountain Terrain

-Skyranger ramp can be damaged by explosives on this map.

-UFO hulls can be damaged by explosives on this map.

-Mountains also have caves. HWP's can navigate these caves by leading with their front left corner.

 

Mind Control

-All alien units can be mind controlled. Even robots.

-Four-square alien units in UFO can be mind controlled multiple times - once per square. The mind-controlled square can attack the other squares and vice versa.

-Civilians mind-controlled or stunned by you will be hostile (but harmless) when they recover.

-Aliens will target the weakest soldier; bring a known psionic weakling along and give him something harmless to play with and this decoy should keep the aliens busy while you shoot them. Eg. If you are wearing power armor the decoy can shoot at you with a standard pistol for no effect.

 

Pistol

-has fastest snap-shot in game

 

Proximity Mines

-detect movement into, but not out of, the eight surrounding squares, meaning you can walk away from a mis-throw [NKF]

-can safely be picked up by entering their square vertically (eg with flying suit)

-in some versions of the game, a bug allows an armed proximity mine to transfer its properties to some other item in the next mission, which then may explode unexpectedly

-will trigger on movement on the far side of walls and doors, if dropped next to them

 

Rifle

-has better aimed shot but only 4 more points of damage than the pistol (30 vs 26) [NKF]

-Plasma rifle has most accurate snapshot of game [NKF]

 

Stun Launchers

-will affect 4-square aliens worse than 1-square aliens

-are a faster way of bringing down Sectopods than plasma or lasers

-Stunned aliens are much more vulnerable to grenades than when conscious

 

Unconscious Soldiers

-can be revived by Medikit Stimulant (rate TBD)

-do recover on their own

-can be carried or thrown like objects

-can be thrown up or into inaccessible areas, see Grenades

-continue to suffer from fatal wounds

 

Unconscious Aliens

-could still wake up, but tend not to pick up weapons

-can be made unconscious if already half-stunned, by a small amount of damage that knocks their health below the stun level. Pistols suggested.

-attract other roaming aliens. Can be used as ambush bait eg if boxed into the Skyranger [Xeno]

 

Useless Officers

-can stay safely in the Ranger, protecting the squad from morale loss

-can operate BlasterLaunchers from safety of Ranger, sitting on pile of bombs

-can throw out spare equipment from the stack in the Ranger [Zeno]

 

Zombies

- If the last bullet to hit the zombie before it dies is of an incendiary nature, the chryssalid does not hatch.

- Zombies can be mind-controlled.

- If a zombie is under X-Com mind control and it is killed, the hatched Chryssalid will be considered to be under 'alien' mind control that turn. When the turn ends, you will gain permanent control of the Chryssalid for the rest of the battle. It can also be zombified (by being attacked by an alien controlled chryssalid) and recontrolled (as long as you can mind control its zombie form)- effectively regenerating its lost health. However, each time this happens, you lose morale and the counter for the number of X-Com soldiers lost on that mission increases as if it were a different soldier being killed. So you may go in with 10 soldiers, but leave with 10 and -5 casualties. [NKF]

 

Index (TBC)

 

NKF, Zeno were the main researchers into the weird world of XCOM. Other entries came from various posters on these UFO forums.

Edited December 4, 2003 by JellyfishGreen

[Bomb Bloke]

Corpses

-if rank or name is given, it's not a corpse, just unconscious

-can occasionally be unloaded, you get ammo for (plasma rifle?)

Now we know, once and for all, where Sectoids keep their grenades! https://www.angelfire.com/games3/jeffy90/images/smilies/oh.gif

 

Off the top of my head, you might like to add the stun launchers, which are much more effective at bringing aliens down (cheap explosive), and one hit KO mechanical aliens.

 

...

 

Has anyone tried shooting the alien motherbrain with one of those things yet? https://www.angelfire.com/games3/jeffy90/images/smilies/blink.gif

 

Ya never know...

[NKF]

The brain's technically considered background scenery and not a proper alien unit. So stun bombs probably won't affect it at all. But hey, no harm in experimenting, right?

 

HWPs actually can go into missions without soldiers. Well, you can land at missions with HWPS, fly the ship home with a lone HWP, protect the base with nothing but HWPs (well, at least on those occasions where your HWP quarters outnumber your soldiers so much that no soldiers get spawned in the battlefield - I can't remember what happens when there are absolutely no soldiers)

 

The vertical movement problem with guided rockets only affects the Collectors Edition UFO and TFTD, but not in the dos editions. I wonder it's just a problem with the sine and cosine lookup tables? Perhaps not.

 

- NKF

 

edit: Some corrections:

 

The rifle vs pistol damage difference is actually 4 points. i.e. 26 vs 30.

 

The pistol is the fastest snapshot weapon in the game. The most accurate snapshot belongs to the plasma rifle.

 

Clips found inside corpses are random. Well, no, they just duplicate an existing clip used during the course of the battle.

 

Now to add a few more:

 

Zombies:

 

- If the last bullet to hit the zombie before it dies is of an incendiary nature, the chryssalid does not hatch.

 

- If a mind zombie is under X-Com mind control and it is killed, the hatched Chryssalid will be considered to be under 'alien' mind control. When the turn ends, you will gain permanent control of it for the rest of the battle. It can also be zombified (by being attacked by an alien controlled chryssalid) and recontrolled (as long as you can mind control its zombie form)- effectively regenerating its lost health. However, each time this happens, you lose morale and the counter for the number of X-Com soldiers lost on that mission increases as if it were a differnt soldier being killed. So you may go in with 10 soldiers, but leave with 10 and -5 casualties.

 

As usual, you cannot use its hand-to-hand attack, but you do seem to retain its half HE damage modifier.

 

I'm told that if the X-Com chryssalid was originally one of your own soldiers, the soldier survives the mission. I haven't tested this myself, but it sounds reasonable.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Hey, what's that about being able to pick up elerium?! https://www.angelfire.com/games3/jeffy90/images/smilies/blink.gif

 

In TFTD, using mind controll on a four square unit can be done in several ways. If you mind control the top most square of the unit, you get the whole thing. If you mind control another square, you only get part. Mind controlling part of a unit can be used to kill itself, but could be more risky then taking full control.

 

I don't remeber how it works under UFO.

[JellyfishGreen]

Edited and corrected

[Psy Guy]

HWPs are the first choice in base defense when determaining who will defend if unit limit is reached.

 

(I had a base with 16 HWPs and 30 troops and it was attack and i only could use HWPs and i didn't have the troops out on a mission))

 

HWPs will appear in rooms they can't get out of (rooms with a single size door)

 

HWPs have bad reaction time despite its high rating

 

HWPs can aim in one direction and look in another

 

HWPs can't be stunned, panic, mind controled, or sustain fatal wounds

 

HWPs have instant repair times even when there isn't a workshop

 

The UFO pedia doesn't say ethereals fly

Captive aliens live forever and alien containment doesn't run out of space

Supply ships hold the same amount of aliens before and after they create a base

Aliens can infiltrate a country eventhough they don't land in a city thats in that city (they can go to havana and infiltrate the US)

[M. Hoz]

Some of the things you mentioned,like "HWP's can't be Mind-Controled",

are quite obvious.I'm not saying this because it's necessary,i'm saying

this because it makes a good start line.So no offense.

 

What really seems obvious though BB,is that Aliens can land

in Havana and infiltrate the US.Every good swimmer can!

(And THEY have AQUATIC origins!)

 

(Look down || )

\ /

\/

[The Veteran]

Actually... HWPs probably can be mind controlled... Think about it. Cyberdiscs and Sectopods can be, so why not HWPs? It's just that the alien AI would never try to do it!

Also... HWPs CAN be stunned because it happened to me on a Cydonia mission AND they CAN panic as it happened to me on the same mission! This was a hovertank if it makes any difference... It was on the top level when it was blown up and crumpled to the ground but a few turns later it was back up at exactly the level it had been at. When it panicked it simply legged it like the soldiers do Thankfully it didn't drop it's weapons

[Psy Guy]

I had 8 troops killed due to a landing ramp nade and the tank's moral didn't drop one point. (I play amiga so maybe thats where things are diffrent).

 

Also i find it funny when aliens fire stun bombs at tanks because (again this could be an amiga thing) they take no stun damage. (if zombies take 0 stun damage maybe a non living RC tank can take 0 as well but don't ask why the disk and pods can be stunned)

 

Havana to DC is one hell of a swim. And it only takes a few hours for them to swim there and back. And the funny part was that it was snakemen.

 

Also most likely a tank is RC controled but alien "armor" is most likely controled by ethereals/sectoids back on mars/the terror ship. A human could interupt this signal and "hijack" the terror weapon but unless ethereals can use radio waves then the tank should remain on x-com's side. (but i wouldn't be too surprised if you can MC a tank but ive never seen it happen)

*new stuff*

The UFO pedia doesn't say anything about aliens being unable to bend over to pick up anything and there lack in flexability which prevents them from kneeling.

 

The UFOpedia fails to mention the ongoing get the first one free and the rest must be paid sale going on in all X-Com Workshops (only valid at participating bases and void once the war is over)

 

No info on the "unknown device"

 

No info on the alien gardens

 

No info on the buyers of the alien junk you sell

 

No info on the powersource of hand held laser weapons

 

That ethereals have diffrent color robes in diffrent versons of the game

(ive seen red, orange, and i think blue.)

 

Nothing stating nades can't be detonated by other nades

[NKF]

Actually... HWPs probably can be mind controlled... Think about it. Cyberdiscs and Sectopods can be, so why not HWPs? It's just that the alien AI would never try to do it!

Also... HWPs CAN be stunned because it happened to me on a Cydonia mission AND they CAN panic as it happened to me on the same mission! This was a hovertank if it makes any difference... It was on the top level when it was blown up and crumpled to the ground but a few turns later it was back up at exactly the level it had been at. When it panicked it simply legged it like the soldiers do Thankfully it didn't drop it's weapons

Indeed, they can be stunned (any unit can), but I've never personally been able to stun them by directly attacking them with stun bombs. They may have double protection against stun attacks, and their armour may be enough to nullify the damage. I suppose you can say they're much more resistant to stun attacks than any other unit.

 

As for mind control - yes, the aliens do not actively mind control tank sections (just like how brainsuckers in Apocalypse don't actively attack androids). Even so, they have 100 psi strength.

 

Panic - yes, I've seen it happen. After 'regenerating' my X-Com Chryssalids a lot of times, I ended up frightening my tanks.

 

- NKF

[The Veteran]

Yay! I was hoping someone else had seen it happen at some point

 

To add to the conversation... What about Mutons? It doesn't explain who that red one is or why the ones the Enforcer fights (which are in exactly the same time period and war!) are twice the size, and three times as strong even though they have no armour at all!

[Kernel]

-can occasionally be unloaded, you get ammo for a random weapon from the current Battlescape

I would hate to think where your "unloading" that ammo from.

[Bomb Bloke]

The Mutons are cyborgs. Thus different implants could lead to different characteristics.

 

The red one probably has different skin only out of rank. The reason it isn't used in the game is that all aliens of all ranks look the same. Maybe they were going to add a distinction at one point.

 

Then again, you also see X-Com troops leaving their ship from the top in the intro. Their just aiming for a comic super hero/villian thing there.