Timer on terror missions

[Hobbit Lord]

Sorry if this has been mentioned before

Idea is to have a running timer the second a city starts being terrorized. The longer you take to get there the more points you'll lose at the end of the month. Penalty proportional to the delay

As an additional difficulty set a random chance the terror site disappears every hour after say the first 4-5. The aliens have finished killing/abducting all the civilians and leave before you could arrive. Increase the penalty/unhappiness/chance of surrender of the country targeted if you failed to even get there

These two things are to prevent the 'wait until sunrise' cheat so many players use by turning that strategy into a cost/trade-off

I realize some people could complain about a terror site being on the other side of the world. I think the answer to that is actually to have more bases and skyrangers covering more of the globe. Currently there is no reason to have more than one skyranger base, which can deal with every mission

Possibly adjust the 'mission auto-failed' (took too long to arrive) minimum time to however long it would reasonably take a skyranger to travel half way across the globe. You'll still lose points for the time it takes to get there but should be able to at least get to USA or China from Europe before the aliens are done


Is this doable in Open X-Com?

[Shadow]

As it stands, ever since the original, terror sites already disappear within hours (unless they're targeted by an aircraft, but that's not something I exploit). It's very dangerous to try and wait for an optimal launch window given you risk the mission disappearing, and being imposed a hefty 1000-point penalty.

I'm really opposed to a trickling penalty like you describe as an advanced option. However, if it would mainly just force you to maintain multiple skyranger squads and their corresponding equipment and logistical needs, then I'm not sure it would add anything to the game but micromanagement.

[Hobbit Lord]

As it stands, ever since the original, terror sites already disappear within hours (unless they're targeted by an aircraft, but that's not something I exploit). It's very dangerous to try and wait for an optimal launch window given you risk the mission disappearing, and being imposed a hefty 1000-point penalty.

I'm really opposed to a trickling penalty like you describe as an advanced option. However, if it would mainly just force you to maintain multiple skyranger squads and their corresponding equipment and logistical needs, then I'm not sure it would add anything to the game but micromanagement.

I know there's already a timer for disappearance, but it's very long and is frozen once you've launched. I know I can wait about four-five hours before even thinking about launching a skyranger and I'll get there in time, sometimes almost a day after it started. The timer idea is that you have 4-5 hours including time the skyranger takes to get there,

As for what it would add, two things:

-a reason to launch immediately, as mentioned you have no reason for doing this and you can avoid most night missions just with this extra/'free' time and no other cheats

-a reason to have additional bases. We have the ability to create new bases at the moment but no reason to (other than radar/interceptor posts)


You're right that any additional base adds to micro-management. I was thinking of this as an additional 'advanced option' pickable in the main menu for those who want to avoid micro-management and/or are happy to be able to pick when to arrive at terror missions

[Shadow]

I know there's already a timer for disappearance, but it's very long and is frozen once you've launched. I know I can wait about four-five hours before even thinking about launching a skyranger and I'll get there in time, sometimes almost a day after it started. The timer idea is that you have 4-5 hours including time the skyranger takes to get there,

You also have to keep in mind this might be crippling in the early game, when you just don't have the funds to maintain multiple bases and thrice as many Skyrangers and their corresponding squads. If it's a rather quiet January/February and you missed a terror site because it was on the other side of the world and you couldn't get there in 4-5 hours, it could be a serious blow to your standing with the funding council. Randomly find yourself in the same situation again and you're done for.

[Hobbit Lord]

OK then how about changing it so you only accumulate the penalty so long as you haven't launched a skyranger (and set it's destination to the city?)

If you launch within 15 minutes you don't suffer any penalty. If you change the skyranger's orders to anything other than heading directly to the terror mission the timer begins/unpauses.


I still prefer the original idea. Luck is part of all of X-Com... if I get some bad luck early on in the game especially (where this would have the most impact) it's easy to start a new game, I don't see the problem

[Danny]

I still prefer the original idea. Luck is part of all of X-Com... if I get some bad luck early on in the game especially (where this would have the most impact) it's easy to start a new game, I don't see the problem

What you might another might not...
some people already put quiet some effort in the beginning with name soldiers and such.
And having multiple bad luck runs in the beginning really puts a damper on one's mood... XD

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Idea is to have a running timer the second a city starts being terrorized. The longer you take to get there the more points you'll lose at the end of the month. Penalty proportional to the delay

As an additional difficulty set a random chance the terror site disappears every hour after say the first 4-5. The aliens have finished killing/abducting all the civilians and leave before you could arrive. Increase the penalty/unhappiness/chance of surrender of the country targeted if you failed to even get there

I would have no complaint about having something like this as an advanced option - turned OFF by default of course.

These two things are to prevent the 'wait until sunrise' cheat so many players use by turning that strategy into a cost/trade-off

This is a fairly standard exploit.  I'd say that it isn't the intent of the game to try to randomly prevent you from handling a terror mission entirely - the point was to get you to handle terror missions immediately.  Unlike investigating crash sites this was meant to introduce the possibility that the only way you can reach it in time is to risk arriving at night.  Not EVERY terror mission was going to take place at night but it was going to be a possibility which early in the game was difficult to avoid (if you didn't just abandon the attempt and eat the high penalty to your score).

Now, if you want to program out that exploit I'd say what needs to happen is this:
First, you CANNOT target the terror site with an interceptor or other craft that can't carry troops.  If you try then you should get a popup that tells you so: "Hey dummy, there's nothing for you to shoot down here.  You need to send troops - and the clock is ticking!"
Second, the VERY FIRST craft that you do legitimately target the terror site with is the ONLY craft that you can target the terror site with.  If you then give that craft an alternate order, sending it home, giving it a new target, etc. the terror site immediately disappears.  This would be the way you want to enforce that clock.  Once you target the site the clock is stopped and the terror site will wait for your troops imminent arrival (whenever that will be) but if you then VOID that by changing your mind... you lose.  Thus you CAN still delay sending troops instantly and TRY to time it for daylight, but once you do start for it you're committed and can't keep it live indefinitely.
Third, you can still theoretically exploit this just a LITTLE bit.  For example, a possibility I thought of is this: A terror site pops up.  You target it with a skyranger that will be coming from the other side of the globe.  That stops the timer, but you can still get there EARLIER with a different troop ship, either something that travels faster or that is launched from a closer base to get there first.  The terror site will be handled by the first troops to actually arrive, but the TIMER is stopped by the first craft to target it and the arrival of that first craft then acts as the "final countdown" to the site disappearing if not reached sooner.

[Shadow]

Now, if you want to program out that exploit I'd say what needs to happen is this:
First, you CANNOT target the terror site with an interceptor or other craft that can't carry troops.  If you try then you should get a popup that tells you so: "Hey dummy, there's nothing for you to shoot down here.  You need to send troops - and the clock is ticking!"
Second, the VERY FIRST craft that you do legitimately target the terror site with is the ONLY craft that you can target the terror site with.  If you then give that craft an alternate order, sending it home, giving it a new target, etc. the terror site immediately disappears.  This would be the way you want to enforce that clock.  Once you target the site the clock is stopped and the terror site will wait for your troops imminent arrival (whenever that will be) but if you then VOID that by changing your mind... you lose.  Thus you CAN still delay sending troops instantly and TRY to time it for daylight, but once you do start for it you're committed and can't keep it live indefinitely.
Third, you can still theoretically exploit this just a LITTLE bit.  For example, a possibility I thought of is this: A terror site pops up.  You target it with a skyranger that will be coming from the other side of the globe.  That stops the timer, but you can still get there EARLIER with a different troop ship, either something that travels faster or that is launched from a closer base to get there first.  The terror site will be handled by the first troops to actually arrive, but the TIMER is stopped by the first craft to target it and the arrival of that first craft then acts as the "final countdown" to the site disappearing if not reached sooner.

A simpler way would be to let the game keep calculating the hourly terror site disappearing chance, but put the effect on hold as long as the site is targeted by a transport craft. That means the game could decide the site is due for disappearance, but that would only happen if the transport gets new orders.

[SupSuper]

For reference, the way it works in OpenXcom is:
- Every site lasts a certain amount of time (randomly generated for each site, depends on various factors). It keeps counting down as long as the site is in the Geoscape.
- As soon as the timer ends, the site is removed, unless there's a craft targeting it. This doesn't affect the timer though.

This is exactly the same as the original, but the original only ran this check every hour, so you had some time to retarget. In OpenXcom, this check is made every second, so as soon as your craft retargets, it's gone. I think that's a fair compromise for an exploit.

[Hobbit Lord]

Not really

Say the terror site appears just around 10pm local time. My Skyranger is 6 hours away meaning I'd get there in the dark (4am) if I launched immediately

Instead I send an Interceptor at the site immediately which will take 3 hours to get there. I let the interceptor patrol for 1 hour and only then launch my Skyranger at 2am... I arrive at 8am and get a daytime mission

In other words I am free to let aliens peacefully slaughter civilians for 4 additional hours (10 hours total) just because I'm afraid of a night mission, and receive no penalty for doing that


Man in the funny hat's idea sound like a good compromise. Especially:

- only transport ships can target terror sites

That should be the minimum. I can't see why anyone would object to that


I would also like two additional advanced options, which can be toggled on/off:

- adding a score penalty for every hour that the terror site is not targeted. If you launch immediately and never redirect the skyranger you won't suffer any penalty, no matter how long it takes to get there.

-  Man in Funny Hat's point # 2: once the terror site has been targeted for the first time, and redirection automatically cancels the mission. This is to prevent cheats using multiple skyrangers, sending a 2nd skyranger and cancelling the first to delay the mission a few hours longer (potentially for days if you have enough skyrangers).


From a game point of view I'd imagine that X-Com notifies the attacked country that help is on the way and gives an ETA. Any delay in the mission or changing your mind half-way through is not going to go down well... I just don't see a government forgiving you for that, "well yes, 100 civilians were abducted/eaten but that's OK you still saved the last 10 when you finally got here!"

[SupSuper]

Not really

Say the terror site appears just around 10pm local time. My Skyranger is 6 hours away meaning I'd get there in the dark (4am) if I launched immediately

Instead I send an Interceptor at the site immediately which will take 3 hours to get there. I let the interceptor patrol for 1 hour and only then launch my Skyranger at 2am... I arrive at 8am and get a daytime mission

In other words I am free to let aliens peacefully slaughter civilians for 4 additional hours (10 hours total) just because I'm afraid of a night mission, and receive no penalty for doing that

You can't patrol sites. As soon as the craft hits it returns to base and you lose it. You can keep juggling crafts before they hit the target but this will seriously cost you craft downtime later.

Also terror sites only last 4-10 hours. Given a Skyranger takes over 10 hours to travel half the globe, you'd be looking at a hefty penalization no matter how fast you were.

[Shadow]

only transport ships can target terror sites

I'd refine that a bit, since otherwise it goes against the game's mechanic that any craft can target anything: make it so that the disappearance timer only makes its exception when targeted by a transport. You could still target it with fighter craft, but the site would vanish if its duration was up even if there was an interceptor flying towards it.