The Riddle Resurfaces

[Bomb Bloke]

So. The Overspawn. A Godzilla-wannabe who's more "comic relief" then "threat" (because aliens attacking buildings = organisations liking you).

 

I've recently started playing through Apocalypse again (I got inspired), and I'm at the point where I've got Annihilators (that is to say, the game is, for all intents and purposes, over - the aliens can't come through the portals anymore unless I let them).

 

The one thing that's holding me back is the UFOpedia, which I actually want to complete for a change. I've been allowing Motherships to fly into the city in the hopes of capturing a live Overspawn, but without success.

 

So I figured I'd dump my observations thus far here, in the hopes of triggering some further ideas:

 

At the precise point in time where UFOs enter the city, they have a mission set - this'll be to either drop aliens into a building, sprinkle micronoid rain, attack a building, or drop an Overspawn. Only Motherships are capable of dropping Overspawns. Hence if you have a save game just before a point in time when you know a Mothership will come through, you can reload that over and over until that Mothership decides to bring an Overspawn with it.

 

Overspawns have two "attack patterns". Usually, they will walk in a straight line until it takes damage (at which point it starts turning randomly for a short time, before going back to walking in a dead straight line).

 

Whenever it walks into a structure, it'll knock it down. Usually it'll then walk into the collapsing mess, hence taking damage (and causing it to turn). If any vehicles are shooting at it, it'll usually end up spending all its time attempting to turn (and hence not actually going very far in any direction).

 

Overspawns take no damage from the smallest auto-cannons, which are rated at up to 10 damage per shot. They do, however, take damage from bolter laser cannons (rated at 12), but only on occasion. This would indicate it has a damage reduction (or "armor") of 10, maybe 11, points. 99% of the time, Overspawns will get killed by the buildings they walk into.

 

They cannot damage other vehicles, or even push past them. If you park a low-altitude Hoverbike in front of an Overspawn who's determined to walk in a straight line, odds are it'll just stop (unless it's under fire). You can park a swarm of vehicles around the creature and trap it in place. This seems to be the best way to stop it from killing itself (or attracting the wrath of other organisations, who would be all to happy to kill it for you).

 

Stasis bombs don't turn them white like they do other craft, but they do cause them to pause for a moment.

 

I've brought an Overspawn down to what must be less then 10 hit points, and then hit it with over a dozen stasis bombs (which is the closest I can come up with as to how aliens are captured in tactical battles). I then left it with minimal health for a few minutes, completely immobilised between a swarm of Probes and Annihalators (and a Hawk with a biomodule). No luck.

 

However, my alien containment center was nearly full at the time... About the one thing I haven't tried is hitting it with stasis bombs while my containment is empty (though the idea of keeping it in there seems rather silly). I'm also thinking I'll build a BioTransport, in case that makes some sort of difference.

[j'ordos]

I'm pretty sure it is impossible to get a live overspawn. Maybe I should just add an option to roadwar to enable it after the autopsy has been researched since the entry still exists (though it is called Overspawn Autopsy as well)

[NKF]

Except for seeing some claims that overspawn were captured alive over the years, I've never ever been able to succeed in capturing a live one myself.

 

Overspawn actually have the wander-off-in-random-direction thing hardcoded into them. I used XED to give me control of one at one time (and discovered that it has a weapon hardpoint loadout (all empty) similar to an annihilator, the option space is shaped differently), and I slowed it down to a halt the same way you would with a road vehicle in manual control. But even without issuing any move orders it would pick a random compass direction and take a step forward at various intervals. Can't remember the exact details, but I think this was perceived as an 'alien' attack rather than by X-COM.

 

Keyboard controls that you use to control the lane/turning for ground vehicles are really weird and it seems there's an option to allow the overspawn to instantly appear on the other side of a building block (or some length), destroying everything in its path. It's very buggy though and did crash the game after a few uses. But of course, that is to be expected as you are not really meant to gain control of one.

 

I believe it has no attack command - it simply the act of walking into a building that smashes it. Deadly to road vehicles, obviously.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Indeed, I haven't heard reports of success since before the great forum reset of '02. Still, it was Tammy saying she did it, so I'm inclined to believe it possible. Though the name of the research topic does sound odd.

 

One theory I've come up with is that they were supposed to "fall unconscious" when you got them below a certain amount of health - you'd still have a chance of killing them accidentally (as odds are the next salvo of missiles would already be in the air), so you'd need to order your ships to hold fire when it was about to fall.

 

Now, say things got set so that instead of capturing it when it's health went below a certain mark, it was setup so it'd be caught when it's health was at a certain mark (either as a joke, some misguided attempt at making it "hard" to catch one, or by simple accident). That'd give you a one-chance-in-however-many-hitpoints-it-has of getting one alive.

[j'ordos]

Ok fine, but the var that holds the remaining hp's before a UFO is considered downed is 0 for the overspawn. Ofcourse it could be hardcoded instead, a lot of the overspawn stuff is, like how it's attack is always attributed to the aliens, or it's movement AI.

[Space Voyager]

Isn't it possible to end the mission with one under mind control?

[Azrael Strife]

Isn't it possible to end the mission with one under mind control?

It happens in the CityScape, not in BattleScape, so no mind control and no mission.

[j'ordos]

A mind control device for vehicles, there's a fun idea

edit: anyway, you could try editing the remaining hp before downed var for the overspawn and see what happens

[Space Voyager]

It happens in the CityScape, not in BattleScape, so no mind control and no mission.

Damn, I was sure Overspawn is that floaty balloon-like creature with psy abilities... Ah, ok, the BIG guy from the cityscape. Nope, can't say I remember any possible way.

[Azrael Strife]

Damn, I was sure Overspawn is that floaty balloon-like creature with psy abilities... Ah, ok, the BIG guy from the cityscape. Nope, can't say I remember any possible way.

I don't recall any alien like that, the only hovering psi-alien I remember is the psimorph.

[NKF]

A floating ball (of green tentacles) would indeed be the Psimorph. Then there are the green goo puddles that orchestrated the events in Apocalypse, the Micronoids.

 

- NKF

[Pete]

Curse those large puddles of phlegm and their evil plans!