Can alien attempt Mind control/Panic without direct line of sight?

[Alexchamp]

Aquatoid Technichians, navigators commanders and Tasoth Squad Leaders have psionic abilities to attempt Mind control.

 

If they don't see our soldiers - can they to attempt mind control?

what is needed for aliens in order to Mind control? whether needed direct line of sight or not?

 

I saw many situations when aliens aplied mind control for our soldiers, which it was impossible for detection .

[Bloodmoney]

If they spot any of your unit (even Tank) they can Psi-Attack everyone, but they stick to the Soldiers that are pretty close to them. It works in the same way as in Enemy Unknown.

[Alexchamp]

Thank you for reply

More precise:

Let's assume that alien spotted soldier Deborah. if soldier Deborah doesn't see other our soldier Jaime. Whether can aliens to attempt Mind control to Jaime or not?

[Bomb Bloke]

If any alien sees Deborah, they can attempt to MC Jaime, regardless of whether anyone can see Jaime. Jaime can be hidden on the other side of the map in a concrete bunker. Doesn't matter. Line-of-sight is irrelevant. Distance does affect the chance of the attack working, but does not stop aliens from making the attempt.

 

I've never done much personal research into this particular matter, but while examining save games, I got the impression that if your soldiers see an alien, that counts too - if you spot an Ethereal from behind (so that he doesn't see you), it still counts as if the Ethereal saw you. Actually, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the game doesn't care if an alien spots one of your units, and ONLY cares about whether you saw the aliens!

 

When a soldier is "seen", offset 8 of their UnitPos record is set to 0 (as per this discussion). Every turn the soldier goes unseen, that counter will increase by one. So long as the counter is less then the alien's "intelligence" stat (offset 73 of their UnitRef record), all aliens will know where all your units are located...

 

At turn 20, all these rules go out the window, and from then on the aliens know where all your guys are, all the time. There's a discussion on the effects of this here.

[Alexchamp]

Thank you greatly for detailed reply.

 

I ran a lot of tests IN TFTD and confirmed that after 20 turn for all of our soldiers, offset 08 (unitpos.dat) is 1permanently!

 

Unfortunately I found one conradiction my tests with your post. And it's confirmed in all of my tests (a lot of)

 

Until 20 turn, aliens attempted MC only to soldiers, which offset isnot 255.- in other words - for those that was spotted.

Aliens never attempted MC to soldiers which havent spotted.

 

In all of my tets:

I placed one my soldier (disarm) in one corner of the map and placed one alien (disarm too) in adjacent tile. Alien was facing to our soldier permanently.

I tried to deploy our other soldiers so close for their commander and navigators as I can - on the opposite side of wall of Dreadnought at distance 3-5 tiles away from their commander and navigator

I tried to edit MC Strength of all of our soldiers in order to decrease it. I set MC strength for all of soldiers =2 and nothing influenced.

Aliens attemped MC to some soldier ONLY AFTER this soldier was spotted (offset 08 is set 0 and more by the game)

If offset 08 of some soldier was 255, aliens didnt attempt MC to this soldier UNTIL 20 turn.

 

Why results of my tests tell the opposite/contradiction with your explorations?

 

May I did some mistake in my tests? Or mechanics of MC differr from EU?

 

Anyone does have savegame?, in which aliens attempted MC to soldiers which wasnot spotted before (thier offset 08 was 255)

[Space Voyager]

That is my (oldish) experience as well. I've never seen aliens psy-harass the soldiers they haven't seen. But once seen, they are (as far as I remember) always possible to be attacked.

[Bomb Bloke]

There are a few possibilities.

 

The first revolves around the point that aliens just about always attack the solider with the least resistance to MC attacks first. Once they manage to make him panic and/or gain full mind control over him, they move onto the next weakest target, and so on and so forth. The aliens do not randomly pick victims among your forces. It could just be that because that particular unit was so far away (distance affects MC attack success), the aliens decided to go for a closer target.

 

However, given that turn 20 allowed them to make their attacks (presumably they didn't move closer to that trooper at the same time?), that probably isn't it.

 

Another possibility is that TFTD does not allow the aliens to "cheat", like UFO does - it could very well be that a particular soldier must have visual contact with the aliens to be attacked.

 

But I'm fairly sure the "see one soldier, psi attack any solider" is true for UFO, so I don't think my posting was inaccurate. Fairly sure. Again, I personally haven't put much research into the matter.

 

Very interesting to hear that turn 20 hard-codes UnitPos[8] to 1. Funny how after all these years, we still haven't completely mapped out all these data files yet.

[NKF]

As we're constantly discovering, TFTD is not just a straight re-skin of UFO. But I suppose if you think about it, the aliens in TFTD do appear to be able to mind control units that they would otherwise not have seen earlier, such as if you were to hide in the Triton. That could be explained by the gaps in the walls that they can exploit when viewing from unusual angles.

 

How about a 0 strength 0 skill soldier hiding out of sight? In UFO, the aliens would go after an easy target like this very quickly.

 

One other thought: What of the soldiers that have been spotted, but not fallen under mind control. Would their vision count towards what the aliens can 'see'? Can their vision be chained?

 

- NKF

[Alexchamp]

There is important addition ...

This is strange and its impossible to understand

 

In my tests, some soldiers in Triton, which didnt move QUITE , at turn 3-8 got to set offset 08 to 1. At the same time adjacent my soldiers in Triton,which DIDNOT MOVE TOO, didnt get to set offset 08 to 1 and had previous value (255)

Why it so happened? I can't understand it

 

At terror route ship, situation is more strange yet!!!! and more inexplicably!

Even in cases when I didnot move ANY my soldiers at first turn, A LOT of my soldiers got to set offset 08 to 1 at next turn.... WHY?????

 

WHEN I DIDNT OPEN THE DOOR OF TRITON EVEN - IT HAPPENED TOO!!!!!

Who can explain this moment?

 

 

 

One other thought: What of the soldiers that have been spotted, but not fallen under mind control. Would their vision count towards what the aliens can 'see'? Can their vision be chained?

is it question to me?

[Bloodmoney]

I've never done much personal research into this particular matter, but while examining save games, I got the impression that if your soldiers see an alien, that counts too - if you spot an Ethereal from behind (so that he doesn't see you), it still counts as if the Ethereal saw you. Actually, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the game doesn't care if an alien spots one of your units, and ONLY cares about whether you saw the aliens!

Could be, but my experience is a bit different. For example, some time ago I had Base Defence against Sectoids with Xcomutil base layout. Since it has only once entrance to rest of the base, I place my two soldiers in such postion that Aliens couldn't spot them during entering the corridor, and would get shot in the back if soldiers fire react. Results were like: If Sectoid was killed by Fire Reaction, Psi-Attack wasn't attempted. If reaction fire did happen and wound Sectoid, it was otherwise. If Sectoid passed and my Soldiers didn't react, like in first case nothing happened. Basically it seems that Aliens need to see your Soldiers directly.

 

I have another assumption, that if the Alien(s) who saw Soldier(s) is/are killed, the Psi-Attack stops until other Alien unit spots Soldiers again. This happen to me few times. In other case, if an Alien who spot Soldiers is stunned, Aliens still can attempt Psi-Attack.

[Alexchamp]

I noticed that alien attempted or not MC - depended of offset 8 (unitpos)

If offset 8 is 1 for paricular soldier then aliens attempt MC to this soldier

If osset 08 is 255 for particular soldier then aliens don't attempt MC to this soldier

 

I changed value of ofsset 08 many times and all of my experiments was confirmed.

 

Consequently, if in EU works rule "see one soldier, psi attack any solider" then IF ALIEN SPOTTED ANY SOLDIER IN EU - OFFSETS 08 HAVE TO SET =1 FOR ALL SOLDIERS

 

IN TFTD, If alien spotted aly soldier, offset 08 setting only for one this soldier. Offset 08 of other soldiers didn't change.

 

I havent EU. and I can't check this moment in EU.

 

May anyone would check this in EU? If alien spot any soldier (in EU) - does this offset set to all soldiers or to one (that spotted)?

[Bomb Bloke]

Did some tests today in UFO:

 

Soldiers/HWPs start with a UnitPos[8] value of 255. Aliens start at 231. This value increments by one at the start of your turn, up to a maximum of 255. After turn 20, this value becomes locked to 1 for all your units, and 0 for all alien units.

 

If a soldier sees an alien, that alien's offset is set to 0. If an alien sees a soldier, that soldier's offset is set to 0. If an alien sees a soldier on your turn, it doesn't count. I did not check how shooting things and stuff like reaction fire affects matters, as I'd removed all items from the map for the purpose of these tests.

 

In my setup, I had a Supply Ship crewed by Ethereals (the aliens with the highest psi-attack powers). Right at the beginning of the battle, I edited the map so that all Ethereals were placed inside their ship, with all exits sealed, and all levels of the ship also sealed, and left all my soldiers in their dropship. Hence there was absolutely no way any enemies could see my guys if I didn't want them to - even if you take into account the slight "gaps" between floor, ceiling and wall tiles that might otherwise allow the odd "sneak peek", these would not allow vision between my ship and the UFO.

 

Under this configuration, there were no psi attacks on my team until after turn 20, when UnitPos[8] got locked to 1.

 

I placed one soldier inside the UFO, allowed him to see an alien (without it spotting him), and then moved him back to his dropship. The aliens did not attempt psi-attacks against him.

 

I then placed a unit in the UFO, in front of the single alien I'd left on the middle floor, and left him there a few turns. All aliens were able to launch psi-attacks against him, and only him.

 

I found that the aliens would make many more psi-attacks if I selected a soldier with low psi-defense, while they might not bother to attack a "powerful" soldier more then once or twice a turn, but they never went after a soldier with a high UnitPos[8] value.

 

Presumably, the aliens have a certain "chance for success" threshold where they won't attack if they don't think they can pull it off. Alien Soldiers and Alien Leaders have different levels of psi-power, so I guess only the Leaders would attempt to go after my "stronger" unit.

 

So there you have it - the aliens do not have full psionic coverage of your men until after turn 20. They do "cheat" in that they can "remember" where a unit is for a few turns after spotting him, but that's about it.

[Bomb Bloke]

There is important addition ...

This is strange and its impossible to understand

 

In my tests, some soldiers in Triton, which didnt move QUITE , at turn 3-8 got to set offset 08 to 1. At the same time adjacent my soldiers in Triton,which DIDNOT MOVE TOO, didnt get to set offset 08 to 1 and had previous value (255)

Why it so happened? I can't understand it

 

At terror route ship, situation is more strange yet!!!! and more inexplicably!

Even in cases when I didnot move ANY my soldiers at first turn, A LOT of my soldiers got to set offset 08 to 1 at next turn.... WHY?????

 

WHEN I DIDNT OPEN THE DOOR OF TRITON EVEN - IT HAPPENED TOO!!!!!

Who can explain this moment?

Every tile in the battlescape is a 3D object, with a proper shape attached to it. You (the player) don't see these 3D objects (the graphics we see are just 2D sprites), but your actual soldiers - and the aliens - do see them. They can't see or shoot at enemies through them.

 

Some of these 3D objects (which are made up of layered "Line Of Fire templates") aren't quite the right shape. For example, the Triton has a big hole under it's eastern wing. Aliens can see right into the back of the ship using this hole.

 

I wrote a program that lets you see these 3D objects while playing the game (it's in my toolpack and called "LOF Terrain" - backup your TFTD folder before trying it). You can see an example in this thread.

 

A much more detailed discussion of how "gaps" in the map work can be found here.

[NKF]

So the old advice of tackling psionics when you're unsure of your psi levels holds true. That is be as aggressive as you can.

 

They've always been there, but the gaps in the dropships do go a long way to explaining the perception that they can control you at any time regardless of whether you've been spotted or otherwise. They have already seen you.

 

A bit late now, but I was going to suggest one good way to run some tests on the aliens would be to set their energy recovery stat and current energy to 0 - that way the aliens would not be able to walk out of their tiles.

 

is it question to me?

 

No, just thinking aloud. It's very unlikely, but I was just wondering if soldiers that are seen can expand the vision of aliens even if they can't see the units. Say the aliens can see one of your tanks, and that tank can see some soldiers that have not been seen yet.

 

- NKF

[Space Voyager]

As far as I remember I have actually had soldiers SHOT "through dropship walls". Can't remember for sure whether it was UFO:EU or TFTD, but I think it was UFO:EU.

[Alexchamp]

Bomb Bloke - thank you greatly for detailed answer and for your tests in EU too and for very useful references too ...

 

Your programs (LOF terrain and Battlescape ditor) are magical and very useful for me...GREATLY GREATLY GREATLY RESPECT TO YOU for this programs!

 

According to your tests in EU, am I right understand? - that rule "see one soldier, psi attack any solider" isnt quite exact?

 

And according to it, EU and TFTD is similarly QUITE (aboit this moment)?

 

I ran tests in order to check holes in Triton. I placed 14 aquatoids in Triton and placed 30 my soldiers around the Triton. and I moved theirs.

And all my tests shows that only 2 aquatoids coluld be spotted. These aquatoids was standing on the points (that keeps by 9 and 10 my soldiers) (if crew 14 soldiers in Triton)

And these aquatoids was spotted ONLY by THAT my soldiers, who placed on the right-back of Triton

 

Am i right understand? that if I don't standing by my soldiers at point 9-10 (triton) and 'll not leave Triton out and 'll not open door of Triton even by any soldiers - THEN until 20 turn I 'll be in ABSOLUTE SAFETY from psionic attacks? I right?

 

Still I have one have previous question about TERROR SHIP ROUTE- How aliens spotted my soldiers (80%) in case when I didnot move ANY my soldiers at first turn, A LOT (80%) of my soldiers got to set offset 08 to 1 at next turn.... HOW?????

 

I have this savegame. And I can get it to anyone. I want to understand it very much!

 

Thank you in advance!

[Bomb Bloke]

As far as I remember I have actually had soldiers SHOT "through dropship walls". Can't remember for sure whether it was UFO:EU or TFTD, but I think it was UFO:EU.

It's a lot more likely to happen with UFO's Lightning craft then any other. That thing is far from sealed.

 

According to your tests in EU, am I right understand? - that rule "see one soldier, psi attack any solider" isnt quite exact?

You are right. The aliens can only psi-attack soldiers they've seen recently, until after turn 20, at which point they can go after any unit they want.

 

And according to it, EU and TFTD is similarly QUITE (aboit this moment)?

According to your tests in TFTD, the two games function the same.

 

Am i right understand? that if I don't standing by my soldiers at point 9-10 (triton) and 'll not leave Triton out and 'll not open door of Triton even by any soldiers - THEN until 20 turn I 'll be in ABSOLUTE SAFETY from psionic attacks? I right?

Sounds about right; the exact "safe" positions have never been tested before now.

 

Still I have one have previous question about TERROR SHIP ROUTE- How aliens spotted my soldiers (80%) in case when I didnot move ANY my soldiers at first turn, A LOT (80%) of my soldiers got to set offset 08 to 1 at next turn.... HOW?????

If the 3D LOF-template objects only meet on a diagonal, it's possible to see between them.

 

A common example of this is where the roof of a structure meets the eastern or southern facing walls. To show a side-on example:

 

 

So assuming an alien spawned on the raised deck of a passenger ship, to the south or east of the dropship, he should be able to see inside. The green stuff shows what the alien should be able to see, while the pink/blue stuff shows what the troopers can see.

[Alexchamp]

A common example of this is where the roof of a structure meets the eastern or southern facing walls. To show a side-on example:

 

I noticed that floor of Triton (around of right wing) has gap.

 

So, according to your post, roof of Triton has gap too?

[Bomb Bloke]

The roof of most structures has a gap between it and the south + east walls, not just that of the Triton.

 

And then there's the matter of diagonal walls... Those are also quite easy to see/shoot through in places.

 

Long story short, just because it looks solid to you, doesn't mean it looks solid to your troops in the game. My LOF Terrain program makes visible many of the gaps, but some of them are so small they technically have no size - it's easy to work out where these sort of gaps are, though, especially once you understand the LOFTemps system (they're all over the place - in the USOs, buildings, your dropships, etc). Whenever a soldier can see slightly into an area that by all rights should be sealed off, that's what's happening.

 

You might find this helpful.

 

Did a few more tests on UnitPos[8]. If an alien is damaged by one of your soldiers - by grenade, bullet, splash damage with explosive launchers, whatever - then all aliens will know the location of that soldier.

 

The exception to this is if the effect that damaged the alien also killed it. If you fire a snap shot at an alien and it goes down in one hit, the soldier won't be detected. If you fire an auto-shot at an alien, and all three shots hit but only the last shot kills it, then the aliens WILL detect that soldier, because the first two shots damaged but failed to kill it.

 

Seems psi/MC attacks do not count as "damage", so you can do those safely without being "seen".

 

HWPs have four UnitPos records (as they take up four tiles). Only the first of these will be modified if the unit gets spotted, regardless which of the four sections get seen. HWPs have 100 psi strength, but even if you lower this value, aliens never attempt to use psi against them.

 

If a soldier walks in front of an alien on your turn, even if that alien uses reaction fire, it that doesn't count as the alien seeing the soldier.

[Alexchamp]

Wow, great thanks for this new tests and for explaining of gaps....

 

But my knowledge of geometry is not very good

 

Would you please help me about finding QUITE safe positions into Triton in ANY mission?

 

Question to tests, if our soldier shot to alien but don't hit it - what the value of unitpos?

 

If an alien is damaged by one of your soldiers - by grenade, bullet, splash damage with explosive launchers, whatever - then all aliens will know the location of that soldier.

If that soldier went from visions of alien EVEN - all aliens 'll know location his TOO?

 

And other situation - if our soldier Marc was spotted by some alien, and after 2-3 turn (IN EXAMPLE) our other soldiers OR he (oneself) killed THIS PARTICULAR alien, Marc's unitpos 'll change to 255 or 'llnot change?

 

I wasted 6 hours for purpose to umderstamd my mystery about terror-ship route but ANY my logic is helpless. Only Magic can explain this mystery ...

 

I tried to check gaps in the Triton's roof. Placed 14 aliens into Triton. Placed many soldiers( in Flying Suits) in back and in front, in the left and in the right of my dropship. Rised by theirs, turned in all sides but I didn't see any alien.

 

Then I loaded original save (withot those changes) and shut up (by your program) all aliens into closed room. At next turn 12 from 14 my soldiers had set unitpos[8]=1.

Then I removed!!! OUT from map all aliens except one. At next turn 12 from 14 my soldiers had set unitpos[8]=1 AGAIN!

I was in shock

 

Naturally, i didn't move any my soldiers and didn't open the door of Triton even

 

All saves (my experiments) I attached. Game3- original savegame(start terror-ship without any changes.) Game 6 - all aliens was shut up. Game 7 - removed all aliens except one.

Would anyone please help me in explaining that moment? I would be great thank for help.

 

here attached savegame

[Bomb Bloke]

Would you please help me about finding QUITE safe positions into Triton in ANY mission?

This is a very broad question; it depends on the terrain around the Triton, and whether the aliens can "fly" or not (eg, the Tentaculat can get a height advantage even if there's no ramps to walk up). It even depends on what units you have in the craft, as units can hide behind each other...

 

I would say there are some tiles that are safe in some missions, but it would be tricky to find tiles that are safe in all missions...

 

Question to tests, if our soldier shot to alien but don't hit it - what the value of unitpos?

Shooting at an alien doesn't count. The shot must hit it. It seems the bullet doesn't need to hurt the alien (due to armor and the random nature of damage, a shot can do 0 damage), but it does need to connect.

 

I've also found that if an alien succeeds in mind controlling one of your units, that unit's counter will be set to 0. Panic attacks don't count.

 

If that soldier went from visions of alien EVEN - all aliens 'll know location his TOO?

So long as a soldier's UnitPos[8] value is less or equal to the alien's "intelligence" stat (offset 73 of the alien's UnitRef record), that alien will know where the soldier is, and be able to launch psi/MC attacks on him/her.

 

Alien leaders/commanders/etc tend to have more "intelligence" then plain alien soldiers.

 

And other situation - if our soldier Marc was spotted by some alien, and after 2-3 turn (IN EXAMPLE) our other soldiers OR he (oneself) killed THIS PARTICULAR alien, Marc's unitpos 'll change to 255 or 'llnot change?

Won't change. The game doesn't record WHICH alien saw Marc, only that AN alien saw Marc. Hence killing the alien who did the spotting doesn't hide Marc again.

 

I tried to check gaps in the Triton's roof. Placed 14 aliens into Triton. Placed many soldiers( in Flying Suits) in back and in front, in the left and in the right of my dropship. Rised by theirs, turned in all sides but I didn't see any alien.

My bet is you put the soldiers too close to the Triton. The closer they are to the "peepholes", the more extreme the "sight angles" become - their vision becomes less likely to see anything useful (like an alien).

 

Try this save game. It has a Triton full of aliens, and a soldier sitting on one of the places an alien might usually spawn. Turn the soldier to face the Triton, and see what happens:

 

LOS_Test___Passenger_Ship.zip

All saves (my experiments) I attached. Game3- original savegame(start terror-ship without any changes.) Game 6 - all aliens was shut up. Game 7 - removed all aliens except one.

You're right; those "trapped" aliens shouldn't have any way to see the soldiers... And yet they do! I tried moving the soldiers out of the Triton, but it still happened...

 

My bet is that it's something like the turn 20 rule - maybe it depends on how many months you've played for? Or perhaps it's something that applies to missions against Tasoths (those yellow dinosaur things)? It doesn't seem to happen in that save game I posted above, if you move the soldier away from the Gillmen...

[Alexchamp]

Try this save game. It has a Triton full of aliens, and a soldier sitting on one of the places an alien might usually spawn. Turn the soldier to face the Triton, and see what happens:

I grew dumb with astonishment from this save. Thank your very much. He sees 6 aliens in Triton through gap in roof or through gap in floor?

 

It doesn't seem to happen in that save game I posted above, if you move the soldier away from the Gillmen...

 

Am I right understand?, did you replace all tasoths by gillmens exactly in original start (savegame3) and after that any detection of my soldiers didn't happen?

 

After watched your savegame-example, I have new bet about explaining that mystery. In original start one Biodrone was located JUST EXACTLY on position such as our soldier in your savegame. Perhaps, game counted all spotted soldiers as until the begining 0-turn, Biodrone could be able to see our soldiers - that is my guess.

 

What do you mean about advantage of Tentaculat? Maybe more particularly? Is his 146 TU or something other?

 

I've also found that if an alien succeeds in mind controlling one of your units, that unit's counter will be set to 0.

It excellent and very useful discovery. Thank you again.

 

It even depends on what units you have in the craft, as units can hide behind each other...

 

:( It's VERY VERY ineresting stuff

What units CAN hide behind each other? Particularly , if possible.

[Bomb Bloke]

I grew dumb with astonishment from this save. Thank your very much. He sees 6 aliens in Triton through gap in roof or through gap in floor?

The gap between the wall and the roof. There's no gaps in the roof or the floor.

 

Am I right understand?, did you replace all tasoths by gillmens exactly in original start (savegame3) and after that any detection of my soldiers didn't happen?

No, I'm talking about in my save game, the one I showed you, with the Triton full of Gillmen - Game_10.

 

After watched your savegame-example, I have new bet about explaining that mystery. In original start one Biodrone was located JUST EXACTLY on position such as our soldier in your savegame. Perhaps, game counted all spotted soldiers as until the begining 0-turn, Biodrone could be able to see our soldiers - that is my guess.

After a unit gets seen, UnitPos[8] should go up by one for every turn after that he does not get seen. In Game_7, no matter how many turns go by, it stays at 1.

 

Except for Scout A and Scout H... And even they switch to 1 if you start moving soldiers!

 

What do you mean about advantage of Tentaculat? Maybe more particularly? Is his 146 TU or something other?

It can float upwards, even without going up stairs or something. Same as the Magnetic Ion Armor lets your soldiers do (but only under water - it doesn't let them "fly" when on land).

 

What units CAN hide behind each other? Particularly , if possible.

A unit can hide behind any unit of the same height, or any unit that is taller.

 

A "tile" is 24 points high. A soldier is 22 points tall. This is assuming the aliens are on the same level as the soldier - if the alien is higher up, then the unit your soldier is hiding behind needs to be taller; if the alien is lower down, then the unit your soldier is hiding behind can be shorter. All depends on the angles involved.

 

HWPs are very short - you can see over them, and even shoot over them, even if on the same level of the map as they are!

 

Soldiers and aliens are 3D shapes, same as everything else. They are shaped like cylinders. Large units (eg HWPs) are made up of four cylinders.

 

The width of these cylinders can vary, but is usually the same for all units, so it doesn't matter as much as height does.

 

The height for TFTD aliens has not been documented on the UFOpedia wiki, at least, not to my knowledge. To see the height of an alien, load a save game in my battlescape editor, press F to activate the editing functions, then bring up an alien's status screen. On the list of stats will be its height.

[Alexchamp]

Except for Scout A and Scout H... And even they switch to 1 if you start moving soldiers!

 

Are there any guesses about Scout A and Scout H? Why their's unitpos(8) 'll not become to 1? What peculiar in theirs?

 

You're right; those "trapped" aliens shouldn't have any way to see the soldiers... And yet they do!

 

Seems, I found the explaining of this mystery. That terror mission happened in 1-st of April. 1-st of April - is day of humour and laugh in all world. As developers played a joke with player.

I found (with help of Seb76) in TFTD offsets where is responsible for alien race spawned. When I looked it, I noticed that tasoths can appear only after 1-st of June!! (at superhuman) in any mission.

But apply other rule for terror-ship. Terror ship in 1-st of april and 1-st of may take values from offset is responsible for June-terror mission

Hence, Tasoths on terror-ship in 1-st of April - it's joke of developers too

 

Until 1-st of June there aren't any way to see Tasoths except terror-ship.

[Bomb Bloke]

Are there any guesses about Scout A and Scout H? Why their's unitpos(8) 'll not become to 1? What peculiar in theirs?

Seems it may be based on their position. Haven't had time to do any real tests into the matter yet.

 

Seems, I found the explaining of this mystery. That terror mission happened in 1-st of April. 1-st of April - is day of humour and laugh in all world. As developers played a joke with player.

I found (with help of Seb76) in TFTD offsets where is responsible for alien race spawned. When I looked it, I noticed that tasoths can appear only after 1-st of June!! (at superhuman) in any mission.

But apply other rule for terror-ship. Terror ship in 1-st of april and 1-st of may take values from offset is responsible for June-terror mission

Hence, Tasoths on terror-ship in 1-st of April - it's joke of developers too

 

Until 1-st of June there aren't any way to see Tasoths except terror-ship.

This doesn't explain why UnitPos[8] is flipping to 1 even when the aliens can't see your units. Using your save game, I went to a Gillman island attack mission later in the month - same thing happened there.