Is it me or... (TFTD vs UFO/EU comparison question)

[Orz]

...are there significantly less USOs zipping around in TFTD as opposed to UFO/EU? Shouldn't there be an equal (or near equal) amount of alien crafts popping up in the radar both games? Radar detection chances are the same (and in my mods, you should get Decoder/Resolver roughly at the same time too). So what accounts for this discrepancy? This is really happening every game, and my starting base is always on different locations.

I mean, it's August here and it's only my 7th crash site. That's less than 1 crash site per month!



Unfortunately, I don't have a UFO/EU pic to compare, but I am under the impression that by this time I'd have at least 20 crashed sites in the other game. They just seem to be harder to come by in TFTD for some reason, and I was thinking that's one aspect I like more about UFO/EU.

I know TFTD isn't played much, but anyone noticed this by any chance?

[Arthanor]

The easiest way to check is to turn your starting radar/sonar into a hyperwave decoder through modding and give it global coverage (by increasing its radar range). You will then see everything that flies around.

[yrizoud]

Orz, do you use the graphs _regularly_ to spot activity under way ? Key G to enter the screen, G again to leave it. If you set the game speed to 30 minutes or 1 hour, you'll see the lines slowly raise as USOs get points by just moving around.

[Orz]

I do use the graphs, but I wanted more solid, calculable numbers to compare, so I ran a few tests as Athanor suggested and I'm getting roughly the same results for both games, for example: 9 UFOs by Feb, 20 by March, 29 by April in UFO/EU; and 9, 16, 31 in TFTD, respectively.

The issue may then be TFTD's lower detection range:

Code: [Select]

Standard Sonar
    radarRange: 1500
Wide Array Sonar
    radarRange: 2250
Transmission Resolver
    radarRange: 2400
Whereas UFO/EU is:

Code: [Select]

Small Radar
    radarRange: 1695
Large Radar
    radarRange: 2577
Hyper-wave Decoder
    radarRange: 2759
And the "fix" would obviously be: bring up TFTD's detection range to UFO/EU standards.

On a sidenote, anyone know if the range (nautical miles for UFO/EU and kilometers for TFTD) as described in UFOpedia is accurate?

[yrizoud]

In any case, the visual indicators (circles on map, press R to toggle IIRC) will be meaningful.

Earth planet has more water than ground, I don't know how the "USO activity area" are actually shaped, but it could also explain how it's harder to watch all ocean rather than all landmasses.

[Arthanor]

And the regions are really weird, with the South Atlantic going well past the equator for example, making base placement trickier. I accidentally put my first base in the very north of the SA by wanting to be in the middle of the NA and missed every uso that way in my first game.

[Warboy1982]

the graphs aren't exactly foolproof - in ufo, the "regional" areas covered the whole planet, whereas in tftd, they only really cover the oceans.
the alien waypoints in tftd are generally speaking, grouped tighter together, meaning USOs spend less time in transit.
base placement also plays a HUGE role in the number of fish you'll catch.

the discrepancy in the detection radii is more likely oversight on our behalf than anything else, adjusting one ruleset and not the other.

[yrizoud]

In vanilla UFO, the first time I managed to get 8 bases with Decoders to cover all continents, the aliens started targeting Hawaii exclusively, the only pixels of land that I couldn't watch. They built two bases there.
*Are you kidding me*

[DeltaEpsilon]

Start EU and TFTD game separately in the same region and wait doing nothing for 6 months. Save your game and check the last UFO ID. Those should be close together.

[Warboy1982]

Start EU and TFTD game separately in the same region and wait doing nothing for 6 months. Save your game and check the last UFO ID. Those should be close together.

he did, 4th post in.

[Hobbes]

Consider this: 71% of Earth's surface is covered with water, so there's almost 3 times more seas/oceans/lakes than land. Even if UFO/TFTD doesn't follow 100% those ratios, you still have at least twice the area to cover in TFTD than in UFO.

[Orz]

the discrepancy in the detection radii is more likely oversight on our behalf than anything else, adjusting one ruleset and not the other.

Meaning... what, TFTD's sonar ranges are smaller than they should be? Were they a copy/paste of UFO/EU in vanilla?

[Warboy1982]

Meaning... what, TFTD's sonar ranges are smaller than they should be? Were they a copy/paste of UFO/EU in vanilla?

yes, on both counts. it'll be fixed soon.