Re: The X-Com Files - 3.5: Whispers In The Dark

[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.)

[psavola]

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.)

The land surveys, cold packages, etc. IMO provide some nice variety in the early game (for example, rats, deep one corpses, etc.). They are no substitute for later game mishaps or bad RNG. Would you buy 500 land surveys to get 50 % chance of obtaining the ring? The whole idea is ridiculous.

The current OXCE provides a possibility to give user a confirmation screen before selling an important item. I suppose that could used for some important items if SS wants to do so. I'm a bit doubtful that SS wants to do so, because you actually want to sell some of those to get rid of the extras (and SS will probably say it would be in principle cheating to give players such a warning).

[Amoebka]

Would you buy 500 land surveys to get 50 % chance of obtaining the ring?

If it's late 1999 and I have infinite money, sure. I did pretty much exactly that to get a jarhead corpse.

[Vakrug]

Just another report about (failed) playthrough.

Trained recruits are amazing! No longer tedious ghost punching to train melee.
Invisible ghosts are emitting light now. They are still invisible, but now it is much easier to find them on a map.
Earlier it was never so hard to get a Zombie Infector. An underground mission with them (and 1 Strix) no longer in the game (I guses), and chances of "Major Zombie Infestation" (not to be confused with "Zombie Infestation") mission chance is very low. In fact I got "Infector" only from Syndicate Scientist.
Btw, syndicate underground lab spawned first time... without a lab. Only caves. Second time lab spawned. And spawned differently than usual, that is good. Earlier my troops always spawned at north, but not this time.
I tried to rush for Skyraider as mush as I could, but Kitsune still appeared earlier. In june 1998, more specifically.
Impulse weaponry is too hard to get and when you do, they are already outdated. Although Impulse Machine Gun with Chem Ammo is still a doomsday weapon!
Same with tritanium ammo. Too expensive at early game and when you do get enough tritanium, you no longer need ammo out of it.
Reptiloids no longer use Gauss. Instead they use plasma machine guns. Very good against Ethereals. Now nobody uses Gauss... Can only be found in crates. Good against Sectopods. Until you get your hands on Turbolaser Sniper Rifle. Finally mass driver weapons have their niche.
New mission "MiB vs Magam Reactor" enabled relatively easy MiB commander capturing. That was needed.

And Ethereal Commander... An Arbiter finally showed in the sky! I launched my interceptors. And soon realized a problem. This evil Arbiter can shoot as soon as air combat widow opens! So I can't minimize it and wait for other interceptors to join. In the end I was able to shoot this thing down. Eh... I knew that ground mission with Arbiter would be hard, but not that hard. Also Ethereal Commander is as orange as every other dudes so you essentially need to scan every robe wearer before shooting it. I definitely could performed better, but in the end I lost. I can reload, but the main point of this champagne was to beat the game without reloading. And no, I don't have morale strength to recover, game morally defeated me again...

I am slightly missing those lovely sounds like "Braaaaaains!" or "The aliens have returned, run!" or "Why everybody hates me?". Will they ever return?
How do you think, would it be better to allow players to know how mush energy is left in the shield you are shooting? Like in X-Chronicle?

[Nerro]

I launched my interceptors. And soon realized a problem. This evil Arbiter can shoot as soon as air combat widow opens! So I can't minimize it and wait for other interceptors to join.

You can join your interceptors together on the map by asking them to folow the main interceptor. Wait for them to join up, then, order the main interceptor to attack the UFO, it will trigger the attack screen for all interceptors.

[Vakrug]

You can join your interceptors together on the map by asking them to folow the main interceptor. Wait for them to join up, then, order the main interceptor to attack the UFO, it will trigger the attack screen for all interceptors.

This will only work if UFO is hunter killer. If it is not, then only the craft that actually target UFO will open it's air combat screen. Normally this is not an issue, you can minimize screen and retarget other crafts. But this will not work with Arbiter, because there is no safe distance to him.