Messages

166

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.4: Signs of Apocalypse

« on: July 24, 2020, 05:56:49 pm »

Not sure what you mean. What's an "alien probe"? What does it mean that "they arise suddenly"? But I don't think I've scripted anything related to air combat like this.

They probably mean small fighter.

167

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: July 09, 2020, 01:41:07 pm »

Hazmats aren't particularly sturdy.
Perhaps an armor with equal stats, but which drops a "Destroyed Hazmat suit" on death. This Destroyed Hazmat suit would have a negative sell price (let's say -$30 000) and negative point value (which I assume would be added to the negative points from losing a soldier.)
The idea is that you are merely borrowing them. If you bring them back, nothing happened. But if you get them destroyed, whoever lended them to you will want compensation. Bigger compensation than if you just bought them.

The environmental damage idea is good for sewers. But I wonder if agents would even survive in dimension X for a few seconds without an environmental suit of some kind. Of course I do not know it's atmosphere composition, so perhaps they would.

168

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.4: Signs of Apocalypse

« on: July 07, 2020, 05:25:42 pm »

How fast does a capacitor loose charge?
The agents could conceivebly charge it the base, from the aircraft they use or from an outlet somewhere while traveling with public/private transport. So they might not even need a chemical battery with the ammo.

From searching the internet:

Capacitors are poor at long-term energy storage. The best capacitor I tested lost 5% of its voltage overnight; the worst lost 50% in 5 minutes.

So if they were good capacitors, indeed no battery needed. They could charge up while traveling/on base (depending on how long they travel).

169

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.4: Signs of Apocalypse

« on: July 06, 2020, 06:14:35 pm »

No, you don't need large capacitors.
From the wiki of Ignition coil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignition_coil
So a taser powered by car battery and ignition coil can do dozens of high voltage hits. Hitting a normal human with the full power will likely kill him on the spot, but we can imagine that the agent controls the output with some knob.

As for the delivery method, I assume it is the same for the normal taser: a bunch of wires with arrow heads are launched at the target and make contact. An arc lightning will hit the closest uninsulated surface - usually the agent holding this contraption unless he wears protective gear. In the later case it will arc to the ground.

So yeah if you want to be realistic the Taser Cannon is way too underpowered (either in power or in number of hits per battery) for what we could do with the 90's technology.

I am not complaining actually, hitting that Black Lotus Avatar with it was very satisfying. 

The reason why the clip has to be capacitors is not the voltage.
It is that you can't possibly empty a chemical battery in 10s.
A chemical battery is composed from electrochemical cells. Each cell has two electrodes and an electrolyte which reacts with them.
This reaction pushes electrons into one of the electrodes and pulls them from the other.

Speed of any chemical reaction depends on:
Temperature, concentration of products, concentration of reactants, and surface. (and obviously what reaction it is.)
To get the fastest reaction at any given temperature, you have to have only reactants, in the perfect ratio, perfectly mixed.
This is not the case with batteries. You have the electrodes and the electrolyte is between them. Concentration of reactants is how charged the battery is. Concentration of products is inverse of that, combined with resistance, impedance and capacitance of the circuit.
Voltage of a battery is how far it is from equilibrium of the reaction. (Increasing resistance slows down the reaction, because the produced electrons can't leave that quickly, so it can't pull them on the other side as quickly either)
So even at 0 resistance, the reaction will still be slowed down by the electrodes not being mixed in, and by the battery not being perfectly charged.

Not that you would want to discharge a battery in 10s. It is an exothermic reaction. Waste heat would light your gun on fire, vaporise the electrolyte and cause the battery to explode.

170

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.4: Signs of Apocalypse

« on: July 01, 2020, 09:40:44 am »

Yes but also no

A typical AA battery has a capacity of 2000 mAh. A car battery has ~100000 mAh (100 Ah).

The AA-battery at 1.5 V has about 3 Watt hours. The car battery at 12 V has 1.2 kilo-watt hours.

That's 600 watt hours per shot. Let's be generous and assume that energy is dumped into the target in one second. That equates to 720000 Joule or 720 KJ. The kinetic energy of a typical car moving at 60 mph/100kmh is about 500 KJ.

Solarius, what happens when the human body is hit by a car moving at 100 km/h? Do you think that whatever human-sized target hit by that weapon is going to answer any questions in the forseeable future?

There is another issue with car batteries (and any other chemical batteries). You can't just dump all that energy at once, even if you short circuit them. The chemical reaction needs time to happen. You would actually need capacitors for that. And the problem with capacitors is, that they can't store a lot of energy.

Perhaps the 'clip' is actually a smaller chemical battery, custom made by X-Com, and a massive bank of capacitors.
The battery could store more energy than you need to do two shots, but the two shots are all that fits into the capacitors, and they would need too long to recharge. The battery would then be there just to keep them topped off.

171

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: June 17, 2020, 05:46:59 pm »

I misread it.

I even tried alt-aiming it, to see possible damage. While the Taser Pistol shows 0-88 everywhere (way further than those 5 tiles), Neural Whip shows 0-140 in wielder's column and 0-0 elsewhere. But it does not hit in wielder's column either. I tested that with flying suits.

I just realised something. Taser Pistol has it's powerRangeReduction on the weapon, rather than the ammo. So it may not actually drop the power at all.

Tested this by hitting an agent from 6 tiles away and still stunning him.

But if Neural Whip works at your computer but not at mine, then I have no idea what is going on.

172

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: June 17, 2020, 05:04:48 pm »

But it has maxRange: 3.

Also, where did you get "powerRangeTreshold" from? Such a flag doesn't even exist.

Anyway, I haven't noticed or heard of this effect. Sorry, for assuming, but maybe you just used it on a shielded enemy?

I got it from Info tab, with Debug and Defaults turned on. Without Debug turned on, the flag's name is "Power red. treshold".
The pickaxe has this flag set to 3.

Also, I tested it in quick battle by having two human agents in suit whip each other,. Not that it matters, since hits against shielded foes register as "0" on the hit log, while the neural whip never registers as "hit", "HIT" or "0".

173

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - L2 - 21 May - Blood And Skulls

« on: June 15, 2020, 10:15:46 pm »

If you want to know if you damaged an enemy, on L2, it flashes different colors upon hit depending on what is being damaged and how (note that armor damage is included). Additionally you can press ctrl + h following a hit assuming there is no reaction fire. Alternatively, use Brainer outfit/Mine Probes.

Or ctrl-alt-h to list hits since start of the round.

174

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: June 15, 2020, 03:05:46 pm »

It only appears when you selected enough to sell.
Have you, perhaps, deconstructed your animal pen while researching an animal? I see you are researching one while at 0 capacity, which should be impossible.

175

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: June 11, 2020, 02:43:10 pm »

About not hitting, I have had trouble with Neural whips.
They do the hit animation and sound, but it according to the hit log, it is never a hit, or even a "0".

Possible reason:
It has powerRangeReduction=999,  but powerRangeTreshold=0. So at 1 tile away, power is 70-999=-929.

176

The X-Com Files / Re: concealable is not concealable

« on: May 30, 2020, 09:24:21 pm »

Concealable is used with Suits, Coats and Bulletproof Coats.
Beach Gear is used on the beach.
Labor gear is used in factory.
Sporting gear is used in ski resort.
Underwater-Capable is used underwater.
Space-Capable is (presumably) used in space. (I had no space missions yet.)

177

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: May 28, 2020, 01:28:47 pm »

I just realised one more thing about getting the HWPs out. Yes, this was a Hovertank/LASER, so it could just shoot its way out. But I am not sure it would have been possible with a Flamer HWP.
Edit: And a rocket one could blow its way out, but would damage or destroy itself.

178

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: May 28, 2020, 01:10:13 pm »

yes that happens with tanks.
but they can make a new door

I am aware that tanks can destroy walls. It is what I used to get it out. But it being inside the room still does not make sense. There was no way to get it in.

179

The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

« on: May 28, 2020, 12:34:58 pm »

Syndicate Assasination:
Hovertank starts in a tiny room with a regular door.

180

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.4: Signs of Apocalypse

« on: May 27, 2020, 06:55:10 pm »

I just did the Gertrude Ellison mission.
I guess it is expected to appear before the player has acces to Power Suits. They are impervious to her unarmed hits. (She did picked up a handgun from a bodyguard she put to sleep. Not that it was any help to her.)
The only difficulty was with the combination of wanting her alive and being stingy on stun bombs. Luckily, I had one agent trained enough in melee to hit her with a Stun Rod. Otherwise, I would have had to use the Small Launchers.