A thread for little questions

[legionof1]

They is functioning as intended. Extra dimensional defense systems take a bit to wind up. Or practically speaking it rewards beating the map faster, if your already indoors and pushing for the portals they can't do squat. and if your some combination of skilled/well equipped you can beat the map entirely before they pop.

[Ragshak]

What is the difference between "hit" and "HIT!" entry in combat log (crtl+h)?

[Nilex]

Amount of damage dealt/received. I'm sure you got that but the exact threshold, if there is any, I'd like to know about too.
Btw you can pull extended log with CTRL+ALT+H and while at it press ALT in minimap for an additional surprise.
Both took too long for me to discover but still saved a ton of time.

[RSSwizard]

Dunno the threshold either but it may be the Solid Red flash on hit, which im estimating to be around 20 Health lost. I see civilians take a Solid Red flash sometimes twice before going down. I saw a Humongous Raider take 3 solid red flashes so I know its not a percentage (was plugging away with chaingun).
Since there seems to be a difference that might be the HIT!

also question, why people are saying sectoweed is profitable...
cuz I just went for most of a first year only collecting 2 of them not even enough to make a weed plantation. And I think the weed plantation only gives you 50 and takes most of a month to complete anyway. Any items that youd Sell for them really dont give you much doleros... so it sounds to me like you run out of it very fast and dont make much off of it.
Best use for it is the Kevlar component from what I can see (I guess hemp fibers to lace it together). Even that doesn't remain too useful for long since the Spartan corpses pile up over time.

As for Boom plantation, folks thats the stuff.
Huge supplies of boom fruits means always having easy to use 50 damage grenades, like black powder bombs but even faster than Molotovs I believe. I carry a couple Per Hand on infiltration missions so I can blow up walls or give a genuine F-You to the mobs.

You cant buy them... and its random whether you'll get steel forests.
Up around year3 they're still useful for infiltrations, even when you've got all sorts of great explosives. Hard to beat no Priming cost. 50 Damage takes apart most walls and obstacles.

Spikeballs are pretty cool but they're hard to use. Its like a depth charge, you have to be at a certain distance. Otherwise you're picking spikes out of your arse.

[Nilex]

Rats are back on the menu boyz!

[Alex the KatanaCutlass]

Rats back on the menu, LOL:)

Is it safe to delete most of those voxel files in the game directory?

[ZoA]

What is the difference between "hit" and "HIT!" entry in combat log (crtl+h)?

I asked Meridian same question on his youtube channel about a year ago. IIRC HIT! indicates damage done was = or > then 20% of targets total health.

[ZoA]

...

also question, why people are saying sectoweed is profitable...
cuz I just went for most of a first year only collecting 2 of them not even enough to make a weed plantation. And I think the weed plantation only gives you 50 and takes most of a month to complete anyway. Any items that youd Sell for them really dont give you much doleros... so it sounds to me like you run out of it very fast and dont make much off of it.
Best use for it is the Kevlar component from what I can see (I guess hemp fibers to lace it together). Even that doesn't remain too useful for long since the Spartan corpses pile up over time.
...

If you can get enough Sectoweed to start weed plantation (you need 12) you can use steady output of weed to set up Canteen o' Wisdom production. I outputs decent profit, slightly better then X-Grong.   Weed plantation produces  240  units roughly every 20 days.

[Dogbarian]

Question about research topics - watching Meridian's LP from last year and he mentions various topics taking more or less time when he looks at the description.  I'm guessing he's referring to the little marks shown in the upper left, which are sometimes one or more dashes, or equals sign, or a set of ellipses.  Is there a key that describes what those mean?

[Nilex]

I could swear there is a topic describing the symbols but can't find it. From memory (in brainers per day worth of research):

Code: [Select]

.   1
-   5
=  20
# 100Not however that research cost for any given topic is determined when you start researching it and varies from 50-150%.

[Dogbarian]

Thanks!  Did you mean an in-game topic, or one on the forum?  I've read through the Bootypedia stuff I've unlocked, and there wasn't anything about this, but I'm still early. 

[Nilex]

In-game, inside those numerous #topics or something. Seen it mentioned on forums a few times before as this very same question arises occasionally. You might wanna know about online pedia to supplement in-game one, just mind the spoilers if that's a concern. Combines pedia and tech-tree viewer while providing indexed search to find what you want. But even searching there I couldn't find the answer. Could be Mandela Effect, lol.

[RSSwizard]

as a sidenote I think some guy mentioned that 2 Brainers on a topic was the most efficient distribution if you're dealing with a bunch of low end topics. Because 50-150% isnt strictly 50, 100, 150.
And due to rounding, for example if you use 1 brainer you pretty much only get 1 unit per day. But if you have 3 brainers its 2-4 (since an exact 4.5 wont come up) so by going from 2 to 3 you've basically only added +1.

4 Brainers is also efficient but if you took those and split them on two topics you force them to give 1-3 units each instead of something fractional. So its more likely if that 4 brainer group would produce "3" units that by working on two projects they may produce 4 units due to rounding.

So generally speaking the only odd-number projects I put brainers on is 1 Brainer studying data discs, gun almanacs, postcards, newspapers, and other fluff.

[legionof1]

I will point out that the +/- 50% on research is a modifier to tech cost, brainers output does not vary. Also it is never a non whole value in days.

The most efficient use of brainers is to use a divisor(no more then half) of the base time and check with each midnight as to progress and pull brainers as the progress state improves. Pull down brainers till the topic progress reverts to the previous stage and you waste almost no days over the course of the project.

[Nilex]

Somehow I managed to capture a live Marsec Hunter Drone last night while not even trying. Getting my final normally attainable research topic (besides Xenforcer which I gave up on) something I deemed impossible due to its lowHP/highStamina stats. It was 10th turn on Guild Space Freighter where I was indiscriminately haunting and killing all robots when one just flew to close to my Annihilator's Gauntlet which knocked it unconscious with reaction fire. How it happened I have no idea since Drone apparently restores full 999 stamina each turn. After 5 more nail-biting turns I completed the mission with a capture to my great relief. Btw, loot wise the mission was perfectomundo!

The event boosted my confidence high enough to try and repeat the feat with Tank/Hovertank but those two seemingly attained Capturable: FALSE attribute in L7. Resulting in insta-death when unconscious, as if by diovine intervention. Could be wrong as I don't remember exactly when or if change did occur though. Despite overwhelming odds I do have one last legit Ace up my sleeve. But even if nothing changed, Drone would still be several times harder to capture than other two and yet it happened. Sometimes this game is highly confusing.

UPDATE: I reluctantly concede on Tank/Hovertank situation. On paper the ace-in-sleeve method checked out but in praxis the rule doesn't recognize Mind Control capture, even if Tank is the last enemy unit on map. Must be some super-secret self-destructing tech inside Guild/Mercs don't want us to see. Same applies to Sectopod which I presumed would've yielded elusive X-Sectopod Chassis item.