Re: The X-Com Files - 3.4: Daggers for Hire

[Nerro]

Tritanium is Alien Alloy.

[Solarius Scorch]

Yeah, these terms are used interchangeably.

[Mathel]

Would it be possible to give ground vehicles, both X-Com and Hostile, immunity to radar but not to sight?

What I mean is, they should be only detectable in the same way as bases, not by radar from halfway across the continent.

[Meridian]

Would it be possible to give ground vehicles, both X-Com and Hostile, immunity to radar but not to sight?

most likely yes, the formulas are scriptable

What I mean is, they should be only detectable in the same way as bases, not by radar from halfway across the continent.

default sight range is exactly the same as standard small radar range... alien bases are also "seen" from halfway across the continent

[Solarius Scorch]

I don't think it would be such a good idea. What we see as "radar" in XCF is a multitude of sources, including normal intelligence work (hence the "radar" effect on the Intelligence Lab), which should have a chance to detect illegal transports and the like. But I'm open to suggestions.

[rkagerer]

Yeah, these terms are used interchangeably.

Oh, I always thought Alien Alloys were the component (raw material), and Tritanium <blah> was the thing you made out of it.

[Solarius Scorch]

Oh, I always thought Alien Alloys were the component (raw material), and Tritanium <blah> was the thing you made out of it.

I can see why it can be interpreted like this, and I'm aware of the confusion, but I don't know how to fix this without removing "alien alloys" as a term altogether, and I don't want to do that for reference reasons.
How I define these terms:

• Alien alloys: the mysterious material used by aliens for their ships and equipment.
  
• Tritanium: a class of closely related materials based on metallic nanolattice, retroengineered from alien artifacts and used for various manufacturing purposes.

So they both describe essentially the same thing, but one is a xenology term, and the other is an engineering term.

[rkagerer]

Thanks for the clarification.

I don't feel you need to remove any terminology, just fix the UFOpaedia text in the screenshot to say "Building it requires: 150 Alien Alloys".

Over the course of my whole game that screenshot was the only use of the term that really confused me.  I actually went and tried to find "Tritanium" in the UFOpaedia, thinking maybe it's some kind of new, distinct component.  It's a bit unfair that page uses a term that's different from the actual component.  I recognize you want to maintain the "engineering" feel of the text, but since it's a footnote anyway is it really that important to use "Tritanium" in the context of the help page?

"Alien Alloys" is an actual item you can find in UFOpaedia, and in your inventory lists in the game.  "Tritanium" is not.  In my own view this makes the occurrence in that UFOpaedia page a no-brainer typographic error, regardless of the intended interpretation of the words.  (I wouldn't care so much if the page was just lore).

Cheers!

[psavola]

Just obtained Schutzstaffeln Ring from one the three land surveys granted in June 1997. While this does not break the game (you only get parapsychology pre-req for now) and it is not unheard of that such a treasure could be found, I suppose you could also argue that such "quest artifacts" should not be available in the land surveys.

Looking at what else can be obtained, the only other thing that raises an eyebrow is Black Lotus Avatar Remains (though it does not give you anything).

[Amoebka]

Isn't the whole point of land surveys to act as a backup in case the player misses some important item or gets unlucky with mission generation? After you do the syndicate HQ, surveys are the only way to obtain a ring in case you were a dummy and sold them all before realising they are needed to claim the reward. (Which is a pointless noob trap that shouldn't be there to begin with, tbh.)