Needing a few tips for my new Lightning

[Falko]

hundreds of crashes with stingrays, avalanches, and plasma cannons have never once yielded an intact power source. If there is a 25% chance of having an intact power source, then there is 1 chance in over 3 trillion that in one hundred tries, none yield a power source.

so you are saying that every time you crashed a battleship (i assume without cannon) all four of the ufo foots were destroyed? i dont believe you.
another point aginst your idea
in the original: for a timeperiod i needed more elerium so i decided to save before landing at a grounded ufo - so after walking out of the skyranger and taking a look for 1-2 turns i could determine if the ufo was intact or not - if not i reloaded and landed again - yes it was pure savescumming but after on avarage 2-6 reloads i always got intact ufos (did not help much for ufos with the effect described by moriarty but it got my scout/battelufo with 3-4 powersource) so the damage is fully random there is no "damage"-data saved for a crashed ufo

[NoelBuddy]

Cannons will insure that you will always have a crash site.  If you deal excessive damage during the dogfight there is a chance to destroy the UFO in the air producing no crash site. Other than that craft weapon doesn't affect crash sites.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

so you are saying that every time you crashed a battleship (i assume without cannon) all four of the ufo foots were destroyed? i dont believe you.
another point aginst your idea
in the original: for a timeperiod i needed more elerium so i decided to save before landing at a grounded ufo - so after walking out of the skyranger and taking a look for 1-2 turns i could determine if the ufo was intact or not - if not i reloaded and landed again - yes it was pure savescumming but after on avarage 2-6 reloads i always got intact ufos (did not help much for ufos with the effect described by moriarty but it got my scout/battelufo with 3-4 powersource) so the damage is fully random there is no "damage"-data saved for a crashed ufo

Actually I do recall seeing plenty of non-exploded power sources in Supply Ships, Terror Ships, and Battleships. Only in Battleships did the Elerium survive, but in the others you could tell because there would be too many intact walls near it. I never saw that on a medium or large scout. Not once. The power source always blew up if shot down with stingrays or avalanches, and this is something I've done plenty of times in all versions I have played. I haven't played Open much yet though.

[moriarty]

The only explanation I have for what you describe is that somehow your RNG was broken. That would only explain the phenomenon one-way, though... either all Power Sources would be destroyed, or all would be intact.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Well RNGs in those days were notoriously bad. I remember for a long time having difficulty deciding how save scumming really worked. I believed for a long time that certain actions reset the number seed while actually reloading did not, but I never managed to narrow down any particular actions. All in all, I have to say that through extensive save-scumming "research", I found that the seed apparently does not reset at all but still advances 1-2 stages. Funny thing is, it'll get the same response multiple times in a row almost every time.

Anyway, yes the RNG was definitely broken but I don't believe that can account for how many times cannons brought power sources intact vs. stringrays and avalanches not doing it, with zero deviation.

[pkrcel]

I can't help but say that none of this is factual, RNG were not THAT bad to consistently give the same result a million times on reload.

[Dioxine]

I think this could be the time to lock this thread before accussations of trolling start.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I think this could be the time to lock this thread before accussations of trolling start.

That's not very nice. I have already redacted my tip based on what I've been told. I'm trying to be civil here but some of you are attacking my points rather viciously. And now you're proposing my thread be locked? What have I done to deserve this treatment, I ask?

Howabout instead, we shift this discussion back to the topic of the thread?

[Mackus]

I once tried editing Lighting to make it less useless. I was able to increase maximum number of Soldier per craft up to 16. Deployment looked something like this:
x- old soldier spawn point, z-new soldier spawn pown, o-not spawn point
ooozooo
ooxxxoo
oxoooxo
zxoooxz
oxoooxo
ooxxxoo
ooozooo
note that there empty tiles that soldiers can walk on inside the craft, but game refuses to spawn them on it, even if I define it to do so in ruleset.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

It should work if you specify deployment coordinates, no?

Here's my 16-person 4-tank Lightning:
  - type: STR_LIGHTNING
    requires:
      - STR_NEW_FIGHTER_TRANSPORTER
    sprite: 1
    fuelMax: 30
    damageMax: 800
    speedMax: 3100
    accel: 9
    weapons: 1
    soldiers: 16
    vehicles: 4
    refuelItem: STR_ELERIUM_115
    refuelRate: 5
    score: 300
    battlescapeTerrainData:
      name: LIGHTNIN
      mapDataSets:
        - BLANKS
        - LIGHTNIN
      mapBlocks:
        - name: LIGHTNIN
          width: 20
          length: 20
    deployment:
      - [8, 6, 1, 0]
      - [9, 6, 1, 0]
      - [8, 7, 1, 0]
      - [9, 7, 1, 0]
      - [10, 8, 1, 2]
      - [11, 8, 1, 2]
      - [10, 9, 1, 2]
      - [11, 9, 1, 2]
      - [8, 10, 1, 4]
      - [9, 10, 1, 4]
      - [8, 11, 1, 4]
      - [9, 11, 1, 4]
      - [6, 8, 1, 6]
      - [7, 8, 1, 6]
      - [6, 9, 1, 6]
      - [7, 9, 1, 6]



If you use this, just keep in mind that the deployment coordinates may be off depending where you have the lightning craft oriented. The values along the right make all of the soldiers/tanks face outward from the center at start.

[Mackus]

It should work if you specify deployment coordinates, no?

Yup, it should. It just didn't. I wasn't editing anything other than rulesets (so no new look for lighting like you did), and if specified any deployment points other than those in my post above, game simply flat-out ignored them. "No, f*** you, I won't spawn them here".

I am surprised at new look you came up with. I though you would increase size of craft up to 8x8, rather than decrease it dwon to to 6x6. Most importantly, there is no way for more tanks than one to get back in, unless you use hovertanks.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I'm planning on making ramps for all the other entrances once I learn how to make terrain pieces. Should be easy to draw the images.

I'm really liking the way it gets you right into the action so quickly. It can be good or bad depending how you take advantage of it. If you don't like it, there are other craft choices that have only one exit which will be clogged by the tanks if you have them. That's also a good way to start. But I like how having multiple exits can allow you to take out several enemies right off the bat and spread everyone out in the first turn.