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

[Juku121]

So these commendations are not cumulative?

In order to get the most of it, I assume that an agent should therefore have one of each rank by stopping using different weapons at 15, 25, 40, 60, 80, 100, 150 etc.

You're right, only one level per commendation type is actually active. This is probably something to report to OXCE devs, if it's to be fixed.

[krautbernd]

If you say so, it will be so. I've only come to report bugs that didn't happen before with previous versions, but if that doesn't deserve the modder's attention, fine. I see what the opinion of someone who is playing the mod counts.
What a community, I will not write anything here again.

None of what you're reporting here are bugs though. The issue with faces is down to you using an outadted OXCE version, while the latter is not a bug. Naming of missions/deployments/etc is arbitrary, even more so since these aren't exposed to the player. Spelling etc. would only be an issue if it occurs in the language file.

[Chuckebaby]

I think it's a bug, i have OXCE 7.8 and I can only change 12 aspects of the 72 that exist.

I have only copied the rest of the opinions of other players who have tried this new version and have downloaded it from mod io.


If you say so, it will be so. I've only come to report bugs that didn't happen before with previous versions, but if that doesn't deserve the modder's attention, fine. I see what the opinion of someone who is playing the mod counts.
What a community, I will not write anything here again.

I know exactly what your talking about. I'm running version 7.8 and I see all these things as well. I've just been too lazy to install the github version (7.8.7).

Don't take things too personal here, most of us just got done killing a bunch of aliens, then we come here and sometimes confuse other members as Ethrals 

Seriously, don't let difference of opinions make you walk away. Not just here either. In life as well.

[Akamashi]

Finished the veteran iron man game. Eh, it was the best virtual adventure in the last many years. A low bow to all who participated in the creation of xcf. It's a pity that I don't have the opportunity to participate in the creation of content. I'll rest for a month, and I'll risk starting on a superhuman.

[Solarius Scorch]

-craft:
ARROW
radarChance: 100
SKYRANGER
costBuy: 0
SKYRAIDER
costBuy: 0
radarChance: 100
INTERCEPTOR
costBuy: 0
costRent: 600000
costSell: 285000
[HEAVY_MISSILES]
DIMENSION_X_LANDING_PAD
soldiers: 1 (deployment: 24 slots)

Sorry, but what is this supposed to tell me? Are these actual bugs?

missionScripts:
- type: MonsterHunSeveraCold2
not Several?

Yes, it's a typo, but it doesn't matter - it is an internal only ID. I fixed it anyway.

- type: hybridCloningFarmLate
STR_HYBRID_STORAGE: 100
not hybridStorageLate?

It looks different in my file... O_o

Code: [Select]

  - type: hybridCloningFarmLate
    firstMonth: 0
    executionOdds: 6
    missionWeights:
      0:
        STR_HYBRID_CLONING_FARM: 100
    useTable: false
    regionWeights: *HybridFarmRegions
    researchTriggers:
      STR_HYBRID_CLONING_FARM: true
    startDelay: 20
    randomDelay: 43500


Great mod, I hope it continues to be successful.

Thank you, and thanks for the report!

I've noticed that the large living quarters is designated as prison type 4, and has 5 such slots (with prison cells being #1, animal pen #2, ghost tank #3, and alien containment I assume is designated as zero). Who's type #4 then?

It's robotic units. I had to add an alien type for them, since they are, after all, units, and treating them completely like items caused some minor issues (they weren't mentioned on the debriefing screen).
Bascially all buildings which provide storage have these "cells for robotic prisoners".
Oh and what are the requirements for the "commended" medal?
[/quote]

Edit:I gave it a brief try, and liked something along these lines quite a bit:

• HWPs.
  
• [Enemies & Allies]
  
• [Outfits]
  
• Unarmed as its own category or moved to Outfits.
  
• Weapons.
  
• Explosives.
  
• Melee weapons, thrown, crossbows, etc.
  
• Tools and equipment. Pickaxes, cutters, staplers etc can perhaps be moved here as well.
  
• Alien artifacts. Actual alien ones, that is.
  
• Strange artifacts. Stuff from cults, other conspiracies (like Cyberweb guns or Shogg tribal weapons), Hybrids, etc.
  
• Misc items. All the IDs, floppies, bones, cash, etc.
  
• [Containers]
  

Thanks.
I think so many categories are excessive, but we can go a little bit in that direction. for now I made a new section for AI-related stuff (armours and weapons) and switched some articles to more fitting sections (for example unarmed attacks are now in the Outfits section, not in the Weapons and Equipment). Now I'm considering splitting Weapons and Equipment into... well, "Weapons" and "Equipment".
Rejiggling the IDs is some work, but not a huge deal.

Finished the veteran iron man game. Eh, it was the best virtual adventure in the last many years. A low bow to all who participated in the creation of xcf. It's a pity that I don't have the opportunity to participate in the creation of content. I'll rest for a month, and I'll risk starting on a superhuman.

Congrats!!!

[Juku121]

Since it came up in the submod thread and maybe got overlooked in the main thread, I'll ask again:

Since lots of players seem to think the accuracy multiplier is the most important statistic, how about making use of a feature that's been around for a while and including ranges in firing mode information?

[PPQ]

Do multiple defense buildings stack? As in is it worth having more than one of them? Also, is it worth not deleting my old obsolete ones when I build a new shiny one next to it?

Also if they do stack how many total defense points are enough to make sure I am basically OP and be boarded?

[Juku121]

Yes, they stack. Whether they're worth it... If you have a lot of free space and no patience for base defence missions, then yes. Otherwise, probably not.

The old one will still contribute to shooting down attacking UFOs, so technically, yes.

Defence points themselves aren't all that indicative of capability since the guns have a chance to miss. Some have even a 50% chance.

Battleships have 4000 damage, and unlike interceptions you need to remove every single damage point during base defence. The best defence facility is Fusion with 1200/80%. Base defences do 50-150 damage if my recollection is right. So 600 per in the worst case, which means you need 7 shots to hit to be sure. As RNG likes to fuck you over, to be nearly certain (<5% chance of them piercing the defences even if you roll minimal damage for all the shots), you'd need 12 facilities. Grav Shield allows you one reuse of each, so 6 Fusion defences and a Grav Shield if you want to be 99%+ sure.

You can probably gamble for average damage being ~1200 and ~2/3 shots hitting, so 3-4 Fusion defences and a Grav Shield should work fine most of the time. If you use less advanced defences, you need more of them, of course.

[Mathel]

Do multiple defense buildings stack? As in is it worth having more than one of them? Also, is it worth not deleting my old obsolete ones when I build a new shiny one next to it?

Also if they do stack how many total defense points are enough to make sure I am basically OP and be boarded?

They stack additively. By default, each defensive building fires once when your base is assaulted.
Additionaly, each Grav Shield adds a round to the landing phase, allowing all weapons to refire.

 The big question is whether UFO's armor counts during the landing phase.

If it does not, the beefiest craft that is going to attack you is the Battleship with 4000 health.
So I'd say that with 8000 adjusted defensive points (Defensive power * accuracy) for low accuracy weapons, or 5000 adjusted defensive points for high accuracy weapons, you will be safe. If a weapon was guaranteed to hit, then 4000 defensive points would be always enough.

If armor counts, it is not so simple. In such case, you would get more use out of high-powered defenses, than out of low powered.
A battleship has 60 Armor. So if it counts 3 400 strenght defenses will deal 1020 damage, where a 1200 strength defense would do 1140 damage (assuming all hit in either case).


With 3 Fusion Defenses and 1 Grav shield, a base should be almost completely safe either way.
With Missile Defenses, I'd say you would need to have 16 to be completely safe (or 4 MDs and 3 Grav shields).

[Juku121]

Armour does not count.

3 Fusion defences is not yet nearly totaly safety, you might reasonably expect to roll badly and get ~1000 average per shot and miss 2/6 shots, which is right at the edge of the Battleship's durability. It'll work fine in the vast majority of situations, but there's still a nontrivial chance that the aliens get through. I'd guess a few percentage points? Too lazy to calculate right now.

[PPQ]

So what you are saying is that base defenses do between 50% and 150% of their rated damage, that they do stack and that fusion has a 80% accuracy? Am I reading that correctly?

[Solarius Scorch]

Since lots of players seem to think the accuracy multiplier is the most important statistic, how about making use of a feature that's been around for a while and including ranges in firing mode information?

I'm actually considering this. I can't decide if it's more of a clutter or actually useful, though. (I guess it depends on the player.)

Battleships have 4000 damage, and unlike interceptions you need to remove every single damage point during base defence. (...)

Please note that I've recently added lighter base assaults, the smallest one being literally a Sentry Ship.

[Juku121]

I don't have a reference for the 50-150, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it somewhere.

They do stack in the sense that each fires a shot. Accuracies are shown in the Ufopedia.

There is a Monte Carlo simulator that uses the same assumptions here. According to that, 3 Fusion defences plus a Grav Shield (or 2 and 2) are ~88.9% effective vs a single Battleship, and 4 Fusion + GS (or 2 and 3) are ~98.5% effective. 5 + 1 (or 2 and 4) are ~99.85% and 6+1 (or 2+5) are 99.99%+ vs a single Battleship and ~98.8% vs 100 consecutive Battleships.

I'm actually considering this. I can't decide if it's more of a clutter or actually useful, though.

My point is that even people who are aware of ANAL can be easily led to believe that the accuracy multiplier is all that effects their accuracy when choosing their weapons based on Ufopedia information, and are unlikely to change their choice afterwards unless something big tells them otherwise.

So it's more of a casual player convenience/tutorial. Veterans want to examine the full info anyway, for toHealth/armor penetration/damage rolls etc. Or just play and find out.

Please note that I've recently added lighter base assaults, the smallest one being literally a Sentry Ship.

Good! Although that doesn't matter if one is after near-total imperviousness, as PPQ seems to be here.

[PPQ]

Cool. Thanks you guys. All I had thought of to do was make a chart in excel.

[Solarius Scorch]

By the way, guys, how many levels of retaliation should there be in your opinion?

For now there are retaliations using:

Spoiler:

- Sentry Ship,
- Saboteur (a new, medium-sized UFO; something like a mini-Terror Ship),
- Battleship (vanilla),
- Dreadnought (special late-game event, but still repeatable).

(Other factions not included.)

Do you think it's enough? I hope so, since every mission is extra work; but it's not a bad kind of work, so if you think something is missing, feel free to bring it up. Also feel free to suggest a particular UFO if you want, but note that it can't have any other ground missions (so for example all types of terror ships are right out).