No Lobsterman commander

[Tepid tasoth]

This isn't fair! I just disabled that whole Lobstermen base to get ahold of their commander. I found THREE(!) of them guarding that synomium-like thingie. Stunned 'em and took off with two of them in my backpacks. Stat screen shows 2 live aliens captured. But back at home, no Lobsterman Commander to research! Then I reloaded, strolled around the alien base, stunning that last alien. This time, I captured 5 live aliens. Still no Commander to research!

 

I'm using TFTD 1.0 (DOS) w/ xcomutil. What can I do to get that Commander researched? Hex editing?

[Zombie]

Hi Tepid , did the game say anything to you after the mission? Did it give you any warnings, for example?

 

NKF mentioned that you not only need an alien containment facility but also room in your living quarters too (apparently, live aliens require living space even though they are housed in the special facility, go figure). Do you have some space in your living quarters?

 

Did you stun a lot of aliens in previous missions? Your alien containment could be clogged with useless races and ranks (v1 has a limit of 50 total aliens). Try researching the extra aliens and then do the mission again. If you upgrade to v2 of TFTD, the limit is increased to 300 aliens so there is less of a chance you'll clog the containment facility. If you suspect your facility is clogged, you could start a new game, copy ASTORE.DAT and then paste that into your current game before you end the mission. That should work too.

 

As a last resort, hex editing will probably work (see ASTORE.DAT at the X-COM wiki for the details or grab the XCOM 2 Multi Editor in our files section).

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

If I remember correctly, the living quarter requirements only seems to come into effect while aliens are in transit between bases.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Thanks for clearing that up NKF, it was a while since I heard this from you so I wasn't really sure anymore.

 

@Tepid tasoth: please let us know if any of this helped to solve your problem.

 

- Zombie

[Tepid tasoth]

Hey there!

 

Did you stun a lot of aliens in previous missions? Your alien containment could be clogged with useless races and ranks (v1 has a limit of 50 total aliens).

 

 

I did, indeed. But I finished researching them before abducting those Lobbie Commies. Hehe, Alien Abduction -> kidnapping Aliens for research purposes! I do have V1.

I have a lot of stuff to do for work and not much spare time, so my pace at saving Earth is somewhat slow. I think next weekend I will look into it again. If everything fails, I may really end up hacking the game files to research one of those guys. Thanks a bunch for the links!

 

I don't recall that there were so many Lobsterman Commies in a base. Wasn't there usually only 1 Commander and a heap of Navigators?

[Zombie]

Well, TFTD is a little bit different from EU in that it can spawn more than one commander on a map (obviously to make it harder). On beginner skill there is usually one or two. On Superhuman, the min is 2 and the max is 3. So you must be playing on Superhuman then, correct?

 

- Zombie

[Tepid tasoth]

Nope, playing on the second difficulty level.

[NKF]

Just an interesting observation about those lobstermen commanders in colonies: the game actually spawns them first before it generates the other aliens in the base. Normally the game will generate them in running order from lowest to highest followed by their respective terror units.

 

- NKF

[Tepid tasoth]

I edited astore.dat to yield a Lobbie Commander, researched that guy an wound up in T'leth. Now all I have to do is to fry all those aliens there...

 

Thanks a lot guys!

 

Just an interesting observation about those lobstermen commanders in colonies: the game actually spawns them first before it generates the other aliens in the base. Normally the game will generate them in running order from lowest to highest followed by their respective terror units.

 

- NKF

 

The game probably behaves that way to ensure there are Commanders in the base.

[Zombie]

Just an interesting observation about those lobstermen commanders in colonies: the game actually spawns them first before it generates the other aliens in the base. Normally the game will generate them in running order from lowest to highest followed by their respective terror units.

Actually, the game spawns the terrorists first (type 7, then type 8 - or if there isn't 2 types possible it substitutes more of the other one). Then it goes through the normal progression of ranks: Soldier(type 6), Squad Leader(type 5), Technician(type 4), Medic(type 3), Navigator(type 2) and finally the Commander(s)(type 1). It's the same in Alien Bases in Enemy Unknown: Terrorists come first.

 

The reason is probably like you guys mentioned. There are only so many spawn points for large units/terrorists, so if the other aliens come first, they might start to occupy those large points and squeeze out the terrorists.

 

At least in Enemy Unknown, you can actually see that Commanders are spawned last in an alien base mission on Superhuman. There is only 4 leader/commander spawn points in the command center in any alien map and since 4 leaders are guaranteed to show up at this skill level, the commander is left homeless and get's dumped in any available spawn point. This is the root cause of the "rogue" or "wandering" commander syndrome that some people complain about: "I stunned all the aliens in the Command Center and didn't capture a Commander. What gives?". Not sure if this is the case in TFTD as I haven't studied the spawn points of an alien colony too close.

 

- Zombie

[Shadow Dancer]

Getting Lobster Commander from bases can be tricky. Try getting one in your backpack before ending the mission, it might work.

 

But the best way by far is from Dreadnaughts with lobsters. You'll need at least one Manta armed with 2xSonic Oscilators, and there's a chance your fighter will be destroyed in the firefight, so save the game before the intercept. Once you take down the Dreadnaught, kill every lobster you find except the ones on the top level, one of them is the Commander, use either a MC reader of MC distruptor to make sure which one is, usually he is unarmed visually but so are the Navigators.

[magic9mushroom]

Getting Lobster Commander from bases can be tricky. Try getting one in your backpack before ending the mission, it might work.

 

But the best way by far is from Dreadnaughts with lobsters. You'll need at least one Manta armed with 2xSonic Oscilators, and there's a chance your fighter will be destroyed in the firefight, so save the game before the intercept. Once you take down the Dreadnaught, kill every lobster you find except the ones on the top level, one of them is the Commander, use either a MC reader of MC distruptor to make sure which one is, usually he is unarmed visually but so are the Navigators.

 

He already said in the OP that he did get it in his backpack.

 

And I think most of us already know the mechanics of Dreadnaught interception and that the Commander spawns on the top level, and that MC readers/disruptors are useful for identification...

 

WAIT! THAT'S IT!

 

I figured out one possible reason you could have missed them, Tepid Tasoth. And it's a really insidious one to boot.

 

If you MC an alien and then stun it before it reverts to alien control, it doesn't register as a live alien capture at mission end. The 2 live captures were probably other lobstermen that got knocked out from stun from normal weapons.

 

I found this out in UFO when I was filling my UFOpaedia and Technicians and Navigators went missing.

[Tepid tasoth]

Hmm... I think you cannot stun people who are on your side, i.e. your own men or MCed Aliens. I think I had them return to their normal Alien state and then stunned them.

[Bomb Bloke]

You can indeed stun members of your own team, but you cannot capture stunned aliens under your control.

[chiasaur11]

You can indeed stun members of your own team, but you cannot capture stunned aliens under your control.

 

Not with the stun rod, obviously.

 

Just the stun bombs.