More than one mission for Skyranger

[Nines]

I wonder if there is any way to move from one crash site to another without returning back to the base? It says "low on fuel", but it's actually almost full. Haven't found any option in the game, and can't find anything in google.

[Dioxine]

I certainly do hope there isn't any such option in OXCom Although the low-on-fuel message is indeed misleading.

[Recruit69]

Makes more sense to return to base automatically, corpses, live aliens and artifacts need returning to the base first!

And of course, give the soldiers a bit of a break!

[Nines]

Well, I just got lucky and two supply ships landed next to each other. I thought I can take them both out.

[Solarius Scorch]

Wasn't the low fuel message fixed some time ago?

[pmprog]

https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2233.0

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I think the soldiers probably want more than a few minutes on the ground after spending several hours flying in that brick. Also, missions vary greatly in the magnitude of what you bring home. You might wish to spend an extra hour on a medium scout mission while you have a dying alien in cargo when you're only an hour from base; alternatively, you might be taking that dying alien straight home, but have a 14-hour flight simply because of sheer distance.

[Mustang]

Who cares what the soldiers want? The aliens aren't going to stop invading and give them a breather

[pkrcel]

I *just* discovered that indeed you CAN redirect the skyranger when coming back from a mission to another mission, even thou the status will STILL be "LOW FUEL".

I had the guys on a terror mission (which I completed "successfully", only 2 ops lost and all civilians!) and a crash site for a mediom scout.

I clicked on the crash site and clicked "INTERCEPT"....I then selected the "OUT" skyranger and it changed its destination to the crash site

And NOW i can't send it back to base....


I guess I'll have to discover how it will go by myself.

Attached there's the save that proves what I say....

EDIT: Okay, if anyone loads the save and lets the SKYRANGER land on the crash site, he will discover that he's about to get on a mission with the remaning team from the terror mission...the wounded Soldier having been teleported to the base and having got a weapon refill for all the squad

Go team!


Seriously thou, I guess this can be considered a bug, and I'll be reporting it.

EDIT: done....Bug report #821 filed 

[Dioxine]

Changing to multiple-mission model would require gutting a lot of mechanics... like, currently the loot is immediately teleported to the base. Truly, this system would have to be gutted anyway if we ever wanted UFOs actively intercepting Skyrangers. But while normal loot can be stored onboard, what about Power Sources, Alien Alloys etc? Maybe it's not the Skyranger what does the recovery, though... A special automatic loot recovery craft? Or, simplier, loot is crammed into the Transfers list?

Also, it'd seriously lessen the need for more than a single x-com craft. Plus what to do with heavily wounded soldiers? Right now they fight till the end, but during a flight to a new zone, the adrenaline would've worn out... True, they could be simply incapacitated... maybe extra missions should cause random health damage to all soldiers (because overextension)? This should be enough to balance things out. You can do multiple missions, but your soldiers may end up spending next few days in the hospital, and your wounded risk dying.

And, for people who have certain ruthless mentality, "force soldier deployment" option. You can haul a wounded soldier out of hospital... and he'll immediately suffer, say, random 5-20 damage... "You said you don't care what soldiers want, Commander, the grim reaper said he doesn't care what you want"

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Lots of cool ideas, Dioxine! I think it'd be a lot simpler just to give the ships a recovery cargo capacity, but I won't stop you or anyone else from trying to make all that into a mod.

[NeoWorm]

Well, crafts have inventory already. Just apply a weight limit to it and after each mission open window similar to Equip craft / Inventory but instead of listing base inventory you will display loot from mission. Weight limit will naturally limit number of missions that you can take and still bring something back.
For the wounded soldiers you could say that they have some kind of medkit onboard and remove all critical wounds and giving back some health. What would be needed is ability to rearange soldiers order on the fly. Beacause you just don't want to have your wounded elite soldier standing on the ramp during round 1. Having bunch of wounded soldiers at the back of your plane during Ethereal mission where they can be mind controled of panicked can have nice gameplay dynamics. And if you want some kind of repercussion for having multiple successive missions you can give all soldiers morale penalty for each successive mission. It would mean that after 2 or 3 missions your less brave soldiers would panic even without enemy involvement and they would be overall more prone to being panicked and mind controlled.
One last thing that would need to be solved is ammo/medkit usage - I think keeping the half depleted magazines would prove to be impossible, because geoscape items dont save this information - there is mag or there isn't. Only battlescape can keep information about ammo left in mag. So you would probably end up with the same rules as after finishing the mission - ammo is tottalled and you lose just as much as you used rounded to whole mags. Medkits can be either replenished or removed (item empty medkit?).

In the end enabling an equip craft screen availible for craft in air and after a mission plus weight limit for craft inventory and you are almost done.

But all that is quite useless when playing normal X-Com where you have plenty of bases crafts and soldiers. It could bring some interesting dynamics to self imposed challenges like run with only one base etc. Or something I am planning for the Mars mod where you will have ground vehicles that can operate for days but are really slow - you would have to go not on a single mission but on a campaign and plan your ammo and equipment for that.