Alien Deployment substitutions

[magic9mushroom]

Yup, it replaces the Navigator on the TFTD Battleship and there is only ever one of those on this ship.

 

Edit: armed Calcinites behave much the same as they would in Enemy Unknown. They will reaction fire during your turn, but prefer to use their melee attack during their turn. So they aren't quite as scary. I also pitted a soldier in Mag Ion Armor against a Calcinite. Turns out that suit of armor is invulnerable against a Calcinites melee attack to the front plates. To the side plates my soldier got killed. That means a Calcinites melee attack does (at the minimum) between 80 and 141 damage points.

 

Also, race values from 4-255 always show "Mixed" on a HWD display of the craft data. Underwater, a value of 255 produces nothing but Hallucinoid Terrorists and Hallucinoid terror units. Hallucinoid Terrorists are not equipped with conventional weapons it seems either. Must be due to their 2x2 status. Currently working on the underwater mixed missions.

 

- Zombie

 

Don't you mean it's between 41 and 71 points? After all, attacks do up to double damage.

[NKF]

Zombie, if you get a chance, run your tests on the shipping lane missions. That's where the errant Xarquids show up. I helped a fellow forum member debug a shipping lane mission recently that wouldn't end. Found a Xarquid stuck in the lowest level of front of the ship, behind the impenetrable (by sonic cannon rounds) square shaft.

 

- NKF

[Veki]

Funny thing was the Calcinites never really attacked my men, they focused more on those pesky civilians. The armed Calcinites used their weapons against those civilians too, so given a chance they might have tried to shoot me as well.

Well, maybe terror units have civilians as their primary target, while normal aliens will target X-COM units first. Or maybe on terror missions civilians are the primary target for all aliens, so when an alien can choose between a civilian and X-COM unit it will attack the civilian.

 

They will reaction fire during your turn, but prefer to use their melee attack during their turn. So they aren't quite as scary.

Shame.

[Zombie]

Don't you mean it's between 41 and 71 points? After all, attacks do up to double damage.

Yup, you're right. Been quite a while since I had to do any real calculations so I must be getting rusty (and old).

 

Zombie, if you get a chance, run your tests on the shipping lane missions. That's where the errant Xarquids show up. I helped a fellow forum member debug a shipping lane mission recently that wouldn't end. Found a Xarquid stuck in the lowest level of front of the ship, behind the impenetrable (by sonic cannon rounds) square shaft.

Well, I was doing my first tests on the shipping missions and never saw a Xarquid on the map. In fact, all the alien ranks were accounted for by the proper substitutions so there shouldn't be Xarquids on land, ever. At least not in the Collector's Edition. 2 possibilities: the forum member you helped had XcomUtil installed (highly likely this is the culprit with one of it's default settings) or he/she was using the DOS version which may have a different substitution routine from the CE.

 

Ok, I finally finished looking at Mixed missions underwater with race types 4 & 5. Here are the results:

 

For race Type 4, we have the normal number of Tasoth Soldiers and Tasoth Squad Leaders, then Aquatoid Soldiers are substituted for the Technicians, Aquatoid Squad Leaders for the Medics and Hallucinoid "Terrorists" for the Navigator and Commander. Rounding it out, the first terrorist type is Tentaculats and the second terrorist type is also (surprise, surprise) more Tentaculats.

 

For race Type 5, we have the normal number of Lobsterman Soldiers and Squad Leaders, then Aquatoid Soldiers are substituted for the Technicians, Tentaculat "Terrorists" are substituted for the Medics, Xarquid "Terrorists" for the Navigators and a Deep One "Terrorist" for the Commander. Finally, terrorist type 1 is Tentaculats and type 2 is Hallucinoids.

 

This should hold for all ship types in TFTD because I tested them all just to be sure (That's kinda why it took so long to finish. I also couldn't help but to play through a few of these missions just for giggles. The Dreadnought with race type 5 was really interesting because it has a "who's who" among alien units).

 

- Zombie

[magic9mushroom]

Yup, you're right. Been quite a while since I had to do any real calculations so I must be getting rusty (and old).

 

 

Well, I was doing my first tests on the shipping missions and never saw a Xarquid on the map. In fact, all the alien ranks were accounted for by the proper substitutions so there shouldn't be Xarquids on land, ever. At least not in the Collector's Edition. 2 possibilities: the forum member you helped had XcomUtil installed (highly likely this is the culprit with one of it's default settings) or he/she was using the DOS version which may have a different substitution routine from the CE.

 

Ok, I finally finished looking at Mixed missions underwater with race types 4 & 5. Here are the results:

 

For race Type 4, we have the normal number of Tasoth Soldiers and Tasoth Squad Leaders, then Aquatoid Soldiers are substituted for the Technicians, Aquatoid Squad Leaders for the Medics and Hallucinoid "Terrorists" for the Navigator and Commander. Rounding it out, the first terrorist type is Tentaculats and the second terrorist type is also (surprise, surprise) more Tentaculats.

 

For race Type 5, we have the normal number of Lobsterman Soldiers and Squad Leaders, then Aquatoid Soldiers are substituted for the Technicians, Tentaculat "Terrorists" are substituted for the Medics, Xarquid "Terrorists" for the Navigators and a Deep One "Terrorist" for the Commander. Finally, terrorist type 1 is Tentaculats and type 2 is Hallucinoids.

 

This should hold for all ship types in TFTD because I tested them all just to be sure (That's kinda why it took so long to finish. I also couldn't help but to play through a few of these missions just for giggles. The Dreadnought with race type 5 was really interesting because it has a "who's who" among alien units).

 

- Zombie

 

Ok, I'll stick that up on UFOpaedia.

 

Interesting that you can get Deep Ones underwater.

 

Should we perhaps edit the loadout specifications for the Alien Subs to have "Terrorist type 1" and "terrorist type 2"? Or are they always half and half?

 

Oh, and with regard to land missions, you could check the substitution for Commanders by triggering a Mixed Crew Base Defense, couldn't you?

[Zombie]

Should we perhaps edit the loadout specifications for the Alien Subs to have "Terrorist type 1" and "terrorist type 2"? Or are they always half and half?

We probably should considering what we just found out with mixed crews. The two terrorist types always have the same min, max and random adding constants, but because of the randomness, the two may or may not have identical quantities on the same mission since the rolls are independent of each other. For example, even though both terrorist types have a min of 1 and a random addition of 2 more, type 1 may see only one alien while type two may see three. When you have races where there is only a single associated terror unit which can spawn, then of course it doesn't make much sense to split the groups up since there is no way to tell the two apart.

 

Oh, and with regard to land missions, you could check the substitution for Commanders by triggering a Mixed Crew Base Defense, couldn't you?

Absolutely, I just haven't been able to get one of them yet. Strange, normally the aliens would be knocking at my door within the first few months, but this time they are staying far away. If I get one I'll be sure to do a little testing.

 

- Zombie

[magic9mushroom]

We probably should considering what we just found out with mixed crews. The two terrorist types always have the same min, max and random adding constants, but because of the randomness, the two may or may not have identical quantities on the same mission since the rolls are independent of each other. For example, even though both terrorist types have a min of 1 and a random addition of 2 more, type 1 may see only one alien while type two may see three. When you have races where there is only a single associated terror unit which can spawn, then of course it doesn't make much sense to split the groups up since there is no way to tell the two apart.

 

That ends up being just Tasoths and the Mixed Crews that have two terrorist types, right?

 

Absolutely, I just haven't been able to get one of them yet. Strange, normally the aliens would be knocking at my door within the first few months, but this time they are staying far away. If I get one I'll be sure to do a little testing.

 

- Zombie

 

Can't you set the "aliens know where base is" flag?

[Zombie]

That ends up being just Tasoths and the Mixed Crews that have two terrorist types, right?

Aye, those should be the only two which have more than one type of associated terror unit.

 

Can't you set the "aliens know where base is" flag?

Supposedly AKNOW.DAT contains this data, but it looks to be broken and/or unused in Enemy Unknown. Not sure about TFTD. Would be nice to get a "virgin" retaliation mission to kill two birds with one stone: the deployments/substitutions and aknow. Then again, XBASES.DAT looks to have the proper info, but I never fooled around with this file except for a couple times.

 

- Zombie

[magic9mushroom]

Aye, those should be the only two which have more than one type of associated terror unit.

 

 

Supposedly AKNOW.DAT contains this data, but it looks to be broken and/or unused in Enemy Unknown. Not sure about TFTD. Would be nice to get a "virgin" retaliation mission to kill two birds with one stone: the deployments/substitutions and aknow. Then again, XBASES.DAT looks to have the proper info, but I never fooled around with this file except for a couple times.

 

- Zombie

 

Any news?

[Zombie]

Unfortunately not. I've been trying my hardest to attract alien attention to my base by shooting down tons of USOs all the while making sure not to muck with the retaliation ships which should give them ample opportunity to scout around and find me. Alas, no luck. I think I ran through 8-12 months already without so much as a peep from a retaliation strike. Sure, now when I need a base defense mission I can't trigger it.

 

I tried editing xbases.dat to force my base to be visible to them but it doesn't seem to do any good. My guess is we don't really know how that file functions. Did manage to trigger a couple retaliation missions by editing this file, but I have no idea if it was me or if it was already scheduled. In either case, the search parties never found my base. I'm hoping to trigger a retaliation mission and then edit xbases to see if that makes my base visible. Other than that, there are a couple more ideas to explore which may help. However, if someone has a TFTD saved game with a retaliation mission en route, by all means let me know. That'll save me a bunch of trouble.

 

Well, one thing good did come out of doing all this testing. I don't know if any of you are familiar with unitref.dat (it holds unit stats for a battlescape mission), but sometimes that file gets garbage characters in it making it hard to follow. To keep a clean file in the past I simply deleted the contents of a saved game folder and then saved over that fresh spot again. It was kinda a pain though because you have to select all the files, click delete, then verify you actually want to delete the files: a three step process. I thought to myself that a batch file might be a good solution. Indeed, by creating a file named ZZZ.bat with the command line parameter del *.dat /q, it deletes just the game files in the directory and doesn't prompt you to confirm. Saves a bunch of steps and keeps the slot clean so that unitref doesn't get cluttered by overwriting. Oh, and the reason why I named it ZZZ.bat was because it'll always be last on the list of files making it easy to find. That saves time as well.

 

- Zombie

[magic9mushroom]

Unfortunately not. I've been trying my hardest to attract alien attention to my base by shooting down tons of USOs all the while making sure not to muck with the retaliation ships which should give them ample opportunity to scout around and find me. Alas, no luck. I think I ran through 8-12 months already without so much as a peep from a retaliation strike. Sure, now when I need a base defense mission I can't trigger it.

 

I tried editing xbases.dat to force my base to be visible to them but it doesn't seem to do any good. My guess is we don't really know how that file functions. Did manage to trigger a couple retaliation missions by editing this file, but I have no idea if it was me or if it was already scheduled. In either case, the search parties never found my base. I'm hoping to trigger a retaliation mission and then edit xbases to see if that makes my base visible. Other than that, there are a couple more ideas to explore which may help. However, if someone has a TFTD saved game with a retaliation mission en route, by all means let me know. That'll save me a bunch of trouble.

 

Well, one thing good did come out of doing all this testing. I don't know if any of you are familiar with unitref.dat (it holds unit stats for a battlescape mission), but sometimes that file gets garbage characters in it making it hard to follow. To keep a clean file in the past I simply deleted the contents of a saved game folder and then saved over that fresh spot again. It was kinda a pain though because you have to select all the files, click delete, then verify you actually want to delete the files: a three step process. I thought to myself that a batch file might be a good solution. Indeed, by creating a file named ZZZ.bat with the command line parameter del *.dat /q, it deletes just the game files in the directory and doesn't prompt you to confirm. Saves a bunch of steps and keeps the slot clean so that unitref doesn't get cluttered by overwriting. Oh, and the reason why I named it ZZZ.bat was because it'll always be last on the list of files making it easy to find. That saves time as well.

 

- Zombie

 

I have a save where I was getting retaliated against, I think. It's on Superhuman though.

 

EDIT: Just checked, it does have one scheduled. The forum email won't allow attachments as far as I can see, but if you give me your email address, I can send it easy.

[Zombie]

EDIT: Just checked, it does have one scheduled. The forum email won't allow attachments as far as I can see, but if you give me your email address, I can send it easy.

Thanks so much for the game magic, it really saved me a bunch of time!

 

Here's the results (base defense missions use the Dreadnought rank spawning order):

 

For mixed race Type 4 we have the expected numbers of Tasoth Soldiers and Squad Leaders, Aquatoid Soldiers are substituted instead of Techs and Aquatoid Squad Leaders for Medics. All the same. Here's where we get into uncharted territory. Xarquid "Terrorists" are substituted for Navigators and the Commander. Yup, on-land. So the exe must be mis-allocating Xarquids on this map. Finally, terrorist type 1 is Bio-Drones and terrorist type 2 is Triscenes (note the swapped order from other land-based terrorists on this type of mixed crew).

 

For mixed race Type 5 we have the usual Lobstermen Soldiers and Lobstermen Squad Leaders, and Aquatoid Soldiers are substituted for Techs. As before, Bio-Drone "Terrorists" are swapped for the Medics, Deep One "Terrorists" for the Navigators and a Tentaculat "Terrorist" for the Commander. Terrorist type 1 is Bio-Drones and type 2 is Calcinites.

 

Anything else we need to test yet? T'leth maybe? Anyone got a game where you are ready to go?

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Anything else we need to test yet?

Well, what I really wanted to test out is what a loadout would be for a mixed land mission where a commander was supposed to be present. My first idea was to get a Battleship which was ready to attack a port, but change it to a Dreadnought since that ship has commanders. LOL, it didn't quite work. The ship doesn't form a terror site - it just lands (urm, touches down). But it is touched down on land. Just for giggles I sent my transport in. Bugger, the game crashes before you get into the mission. What I ended up doing was directly editing the executable to include a commander instead of a navigator on the Battleship. That worked.

 

Turns out a Calcinite "Terrorist" is substituted for the Commander in a type 4 race on land while a Tentaculat "Terrorist" is substituted for the Commander in a type 5 race on land. So now we have a full list for the "what if" scenario. Yup, I love it when a plan comes together.

 

- Zombie

[magic9mushroom]

Thanks so much for the game magic, it really saved me a bunch of time!

 

No problem.

 

Here's the results (base defense missions use the Dreadnought rank spawning order):

 

For mixed race Type 4 we have the expected numbers of Tasoth Soldiers and Squad Leaders, Aquatoid Soldiers are substituted instead of Techs and Aquatoid Squad Leaders for Medics. All the same. Here's where we get into uncharted territory. Xarquid "Terrorists" are substituted for Navigators and the Commander. Yup, on-land. So the exe must be mis-allocating Xarquids on this map. Finally, terrorist type 1 is Bio-Drones and terrorist type 2 is Triscenes (note the swapped order from other land-based terrorists on this type of mixed crew).

 

Wow. That's weird. So while Calcinites are substituted for the Navigator in a terror mission, Xarquids are substituted for the Navigators in base defences?

 

For mixed race Type 5 we have the usual Lobstermen Soldiers and Lobstermen Squad Leaders, and Aquatoid Soldiers are substituted for Techs. As before, Bio-Drone "Terrorists" are swapped for the Medics, Deep One "Terrorists" for the Navigators and a Tentaculat "Terrorist" for the Commander. Terrorist type 1 is Bio-Drones and type 2 is Calcinites.

 

AIEEE! Tentaculats on land!

 

Good thing your scientists and technicians don't appear in base defence missions like they do in Apoc...

 

Anything else we need to test yet? T'leth maybe? Anyone got a game where you are ready to go?

 

- Zombie

 

If you want, I do have a game saved with T'leth ready to go. It also has all UFOpedia entries.

 

 

 

 

@ your second post: Yes, attacking a Sub on land crashes the game. I could have told you that. Once a Dreadnought touched down on one of the Caribbean islands during an infiltration and I tried to assault it.

[Zombie]

Wow. That's weird. So while Calcinites are substituted for the Navigator in a terror mission, Xarquids are substituted for the Navigators in base defences?

Yup, base defense missions are a completely different ball of wax than a terror mission. There must be some code in the executable which does the substituting. If I could get my hands on that, it would clear everything up.

 

AIEEE! Tentaculats on land!

 

Good thing your scientists and technicians don't appear in base defence missions like they do in Apoc...

Eh, it's only one so it isn't that bad. But it's unexpected to say the least.

 

If you want, I do have a game saved with T'leth ready to go. It also has all UFOpedia entries.

Sure, send it my way again.

 

@ your second post: Yes, attacking a Sub on land crashes the game. I could have told you that. Once a Dreadnought touched down on one of the Caribbean islands during an infiltration and I tried to assault it.

Must've been a glitch in craft.dat because I only got this by editing. I seem to recall doing this in Enemy Unknown and it crashed the game too, so it isn't restricted to just TFTD.

 

- Zombie

[magic9mushroom]

Sure, send it my way again.

 

Have done.

 

Must've been a glitch in craft.dat because I only got this by editing. I seem to recall doing this in Enemy Unknown and it crashed the game too, so it isn't restricted to just TFTD.

 

- Zombie

 

The Dreadnought certainly landed on that island without any editing from me. Probably the code doesn't count the islands as land for sub pathing purposes or some such. It was a tiny island.

 

And by talking about Enemy Unknown I assume you mean a UFO landed on water?

[Zombie]

The Dreadnought certainly landed on that island without any editing from me. Probably the code doesn't count the islands as land for sub pathing purposes or some such. It was a tiny island.

Well, there are land/water issues like this in EU too. If you know where the Great Lakes are in the United States, you can actually build your base on Lake Michigan or Lake Superior sometimes. It's a little fickle, but it is allowed. I'm assuming that the borders between land and water aren't accurately defined in small areas like we are talking about.

 

And by talking about Enemy Unknown I assume you mean a UFO landed on water?

Yup, I illegally modified a landed UFO to be in an ocean by editing it's location reference in LOC.DAT.

 

Ok, I did a little testing on the T'leth missions. First stage you get Aquatoid Soldiers, Navigators and Commanders plus Hallucinoids for the terrorist so it's probably just a modified underwater Aquatoid mission. On the second stage the ordering is a little messed up but it appears to follow a mixed race #5 loadout. Ditto for the third stage.

 

- Zombie

[magic9mushroom]

Well, there are land/water issues like this in EU too. If you know where the Great Lakes are in the United States, you can actually build your base on Lake Michigan or Lake Superior sometimes. It's a little fickle, but it is allowed. I'm assuming that the borders between land and water aren't accurately defined in small areas like we are talking about.

 

 

Yup, I illegally modified a landed UFO to be in an ocean by editing it's location reference in LOC.DAT.

 

Ok, I did a little testing on the T'leth missions. First stage you get Aquatoid Soldiers, Navigators and Commanders plus Hallucinoids for the terrorist so it's probably just a modified underwater Aquatoid mission. On the second stage the ordering is a little messed up but it appears to follow a mixed race #5 loadout. Ditto for the third stage.

 

- Zombie

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you're probably wrong about the third stage. There's always exactly 1 Tentaculat there on Beginner. Which doesn't gel with the type 5 sea loadout (which has > 1) or the type 5 land loadout (because there aren't any Bio-Drones).

 

What there are are Lobstermen, Aquatoids, Deep Ones, Hallucinoids, a singular Tentaculat, and a singular Xarquid. I've played that mission too many times due to loving the ending and the annoying lack of saving in it.

[Zombie]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you're probably wrong about the third stage. There's always exactly 1 Tentaculat there on Beginner. Which doesn't gel with the type 5 sea loadout (which has > 1) or the type 5 land loadout (because there aren't any Bio-Drones).

 

What there are are Lobstermen, Aquatoids, Deep Ones, Hallucinoids, a singular Tentaculat, and a singular Xarquid. I've played that mission too many times due to loving the ending and the annoying lack of saving in it.

Just because the quantity or ordering of each rank isn't a direct duplicate of another mission type, it doesn't mean the race is wrong. That's like saying a landed Aquatoid Heavy Cruiser and a landed Aquatoid Hunter have different races just because the quantity of each rank doesn't match.

 

In the case of T'leth, the ordering of ranks, the quantity of each and the types of ranks available is different from any other mission, but it is still race type 5 underwater. (The only rank which is missing is a medic which translates to Tentaculat "Terrorists". I suspect if I edit the executable to allow medics on this mission, the respective substitution rank will be identical).

 

- Zombie

[magic9mushroom]

Just because the quantity or ordering of each rank isn't a direct duplicate of another mission type, it doesn't mean the race is wrong. That's like saying a landed Aquatoid Heavy Cruiser and a landed Aquatoid Hunter have different races just because the quantity of each rank doesn't match.

 

In the case of T'leth, the ordering of ranks, the quantity of each and the types of ranks available is different from any other mission, but it is still race type 5 underwater. (The only rank which is missing is a medic which translates to Tentaculat "Terrorists". I suspect if I edit the executable to allow medics on this mission, the respective substitution rank will be identical).

 

- Zombie

 

Ah, I see.

 

Still very odd that there's more Commanders than Terrorists...

[Veki]

If so, what of the reports of Xarquids on Mixed Crew terror missions?

Have no idea how Xarquids could even show up on land to be honest. I'm using the Collector's Edition for these tests btw, so maybe in some Dos versions the Xarquid was accidentally used as a missing rank replacement. That's my guess, though I haven't run 1000 terror missions with each terror site type to make that kind of sweeping judgment.

I am doing a port terror mission right now and guess who did I encounted? That's right : a lone Xarquid.

The odd thing is there are no Calcinites (mixed race - Aquatoid & Tasoth).

I'm playing CE edition of TFTD and using XCOM CE Bugfix loader. Playing on superhuman. If someone is interested, savegames are available (before and in the mission).

[Zombie]

Heck yeah, I'm interested. I'll send you my email address now.

 

Still very odd that there's more Commanders than Terrorists...

Not really. In Enemy Unknown it's the same kind of thing in Cydonia.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Hi Veki, I took a look at the saves you sent to me. In both tactical saves a Xarquid "Terrorist" is substituted for the Navigator rank (usually this is a Calcinite "Terrorist" on a mixed race type 4, hence why no Calcinites). There is something really odd though. Normally on Superhuman you would see between 3-5 of terrorist type 1 and then 3-5 of terrorist type 2. (For example, 4 Triscenes and then 4 Bio-Drones). In your saved games, it shows 4 Triscenes, 1 Bio-Drone, 1 Triscene and finally 2 Bio-Drones. Something is screwing with the last terrorist type because it should only be Bio-Drones. There also looks to be a lot of garbage data in unitref so I can't put a whole lot of faith into this result because it is tainted with a previous save. This may be a case of corruption of some sort.

 

Your Geoscape save didn't help me much. I need a save with a terror site that is already formed and present on the map and then another save when you land at the beginning of a mission. That may help to shed more light on the subject. As it stands, when I loaded your geo save and landed at a port attack I get a clean untref file and the proper substitutions (no Xarquid, only a Calcinite).

 

Just a wild guess that the bugfix loader is to blame here (memory leak of somesort). I don't use it and haven't seen odd substitutions like this. It shouldn't play a role though, that's what baffles me. Are you using anything else? Any utilities, editors, mods etc? If not and if you are using Windows XP, use your bugfix loader to try to find a terror mission again, then save the game. Now go to the mission and verify there is a Xarquid present. Now right click on your desktop to bring up the Display Properties box, then go Settings --> Advanced --> Troubleshoot and move the Hardware Acceleration slider all the way to None. This will disable DirectDraw manually. Instead of using the loader to run the game, just double click on Terror From The Deep.exe. The game should run. Now load up the geoscape save with the terror site on the map, land at the site and check if there is a Xarquid present. This should be a good test to see whether the loader is playing a role somehow. If you are using Vista, then let me know and I'll try this on my rig. If worse comes to worse and I can't reproduce it, I may need to ask you to zip up your executable. That's a last resort though.

 

- Zombie

[Veki]

Hi Veki, I took a look at the saves you sent to me. In both tactical saves a Xarquid "Terrorist" is substituted for the Navigator rank (usually this is a Calcinite "Terrorist" on a mixed race type 4, hence why no Calcinites). There is something really odd though. Normally on Superhuman you would see between 3-5 of terrorist type 1 and then 3-5 of terrorist type 2. (For example, 4 Triscenes and then 4 Bio-Drones). In your saved games, it shows 4 Triscenes, 1 Bio-Drone, 1 Triscene and finally 2 Bio-Drones. Something is screwing with the last terrorist type because it should only be Bio-Drones. There also looks to be a lot of garbage data in unitref so I can't put a whole lot of faith into this result because it is tainted with a previous save. This may be a case of corruption of some sort.

I overwrite my save games. Could that cause the corruption of unitref.dat file?

And Triscenes? Don't remembet I saw them on the map.

 

Your Geoscape save didn't help me much. I need a save with a terror site that is already formed and present on the map and then another save when you land at the beginning of a mission. That may help to shed more light on the subject. As it stands, when I loaded your geo save and landed at a port attack I get a clean untref file and the proper substitutions (no Xarquid, only a Calcinite).

If I have a save with the terror mission formed I'll send it to you.

 

Just a wild guess that the bugfix loader is to blame here (memory leak of somesort). I don't use it and haven't seen odd substitutions like this. It shouldn't play a role though, that's what baffles me. Are you using anything else? Any utilities, editors, mods etc? If not and if you are using Windows XP, use your bugfix loader to try to find a terror mission again, then save the game. Now go to the mission and verify there is a Xarquid present. Now right click on your desktop to bring up the Display Properties box, then go Settings --> Advanced --> Troubleshoot and move the Hardware Acceleration slider all the way to None. This will disable DirectDraw manually. Instead of using the loader to run the game, just double click on Terror From The Deep.exe. The game should run. Now load up the geoscape save with the terror site on the map, land at the site and check if there is a Xarquid present. This should be a good test to see whether the loader is playing a role somehow. If you are using Vista, then let me know and I'll try this on my rig. If worse comes to worse and I can't reproduce it, I may need to ask you to zip up your executable. That's a last resort though.

I only use that loader, no other utilities or patches. I'm lazy to turn off and then back on HW acceleration every time when I want to play.

 

Will try without the loader when I get home today.

 

Thank you very much for your help.

[Zombie]

I overwrite my save games. Could that cause the corruption of unitref.dat file?

 

And Triscenes? Don't remember I saw them on the map.

Aye, overwriting tactical saves may be the cause as well. I'd still like to rule out that the bug fix loader is the problem because then the only answer is overwriting.

 

Triscenes were in the unitref file but not on the map, correct. Funny thing was that all the units listed had their "in-play" flags set to true. It's possible that Triscenes just weren't able to spawn on the map for some reason.

 

- Zombie