A thread for little questions

[Ashghan]

I'd say he'll have to wait an additional month. It may be telling to look at the savegame - if the score from completed research is already added to current month score then he was too late. If it's still 0, then it was added to previous month, so the missions could trigger in current month. Or, you could dig deeper and just check if any of the relevant missions are upcoming (though there might be a case where they could possible spawn, but RNGesus chose not to).
Completely subjective evidence (research completed appearing AFTER the day changes in the calendar) would suggest that research is completed after midnight and counts for the day that started.

[Nilex]

Thanks for revealing wingman mechanic! It should help immensely now and in future. In my own quick test I figured a much more tedious way: converging multiple crafts on the same pixel, get inside base radar range, then wait to be attacked (scan interval is 10 mins). It's not possible to hunt that way, only to be hunted, but sufficient for my predicament. Nothing can stop Slav ingenuity (for lack of a better word lol).

Hope the base itself won't be a problem. I'll just pack more explosives/ammo, in my new Warrior armor, and see what happens. Was already scared of Pogroms when reading about them up front but they weren't much more than a pushover (except 3rd one, few months after 1st). Hopefully base difficulty follows the same principle. Needs to be repeated I practically set up tent above quick-load button so there's that.

Attaching the save (just before month ends) if you wish to bother with testing. Maybe you even get a base to appear too. I'll continue with whatever gets thrown at my direction and report if missions of interest do appear. With my luck they won't.

PS (for myself and anyone interested passing by)
Seems restoring country finances is possible but not trivial. Besides obvious change of undoing financial hit (top of save file), string of affected missions would probably also need to be removed (bottom of file), ones which would potentially occur if the base was there. As I cannot yet imagine what those would be, to save effort and simplify: only changing the value (top) and destroying the base near end of the month - game should purge said missions by itself going into next month. But I'll cross that rotten bridge when I get to it.

[Ashghan]

If warrior armor is the best you have, then prepare to have your backside kicked. Unless you like to savescum every single step. Expect to be outmanned, outgunned and underpowered. Depending on whose base it is, expect 25-30 enemies, decently armored, wielding plasma weaponry, with terror unit support and better stats (or at least as good as yours).

[Nilex]

No questions this time only suffering

To say the mission was a hellish nightmare would be the greatest of understatements. Before even landing I had to deal with that interceptor. As it turned out it's unbeatable with 2xAIRCAR (MAYBE if 2xCONVOY were also to join) but luckily (and I'm playing with fire saying this) its health is stored in the save file. It's possible to save during air combat so I managed to destroy it via lots of reloads. Ate around 150 2x25mm cannon hits. Normally this obstacle would stop me dead for another 3 weeks or so (in-game) to assemble ships, or... for 4-5 months to also train all pilots' evasion skill - the most important one in this case. In my estimate best case scenario: ship losses - 75%.

For the base itself I expected bunch of highwayman/ratman and such, maybe a couple of new makeshift vehicles I was looking forward to see which asset was borrowed. Classic bandit stuff, nothing too extraordinary. Well that changed as soon as I saw UFO:EU base graphic, lol. In was the Academy and the first thing I saw exiting the lift were 4 Cyberdiscs and Explorer in space suit wielding a Blaster Launcher. Wtf. Totally felt like I jumped straight into the endgame. After few laughable attempts I changed plan to extracting the body and the weapon and cut my losses. But then for some reason (probably wanted to restock) I started the mission over by landing again.

So next base layout felt more manageable: only enemy I initially saw were Academy Drones. Yupi, I killed those before. As things went along it became clear it's the same enemy composition just with rearranged rooms and placements, with far less wide open spaces. No Blaster Launchers this time but plenty of Gauss (weird thingy I couldn't use, as I'll discover to my horror later). My gals could tank 2-3 hits from pistols (highly experienced Lunatics) but more surprising was me being able to deal damage with plain Manstopper handguns (30 AP) to humanoids in thus far unseen armors. Any Cyberdisk that came near would be dealt with RPGs or Hammers (a lifesaver once again, in fact I wouldn't be able to beat the mission without them). Clearing this whole mess took around 2 hours. And then a single Academy Provost showed up... Tucked away in his 2x2 2-story lift this whole time, in the last inhabited room of this hellhole base.

This madafakka I knew about before even meeting her. Suffice to say the stories were true, all of it. It was the main reason I brought what I thought were heavy explosives (RPGs, Landmines, plenty of grenades), not knowing what kind of armored nastiness shall I confront. Opened him up with an RPG to the face - nothing. Followed by Landmine to the feet - nothing. Then by few grenades and Landmine - tiny sliver of hope as his bitmap turned red for a bit. I gang up from behind and hit him through the lift window with a hammer - nothing (but it apparently damages armor so it's doing something at least). This process continued for some time until I had no more explosive ammo, dodging the confused Provost (the only thing were I was at an advantage). Couldn't use Gauss scattered all over, or Hellerium RPG (I'd blew everything including myself to Kingdom come) so I brought more landmines from other available gals (few were unavailable as they kept guard on Zzz enemies) but the only difference came when I brought my 2nd Hammer wielding gal (even though Energy levels could barely provide 1hit/turn). Kept hitting and finished her off with a Cattle Prod. How appropriate. This one enemy took additional 1.5 hours.
Btw because of how Hammer aiming works (to allow environment destruction) its misses behave like projectiles, so a miss could very well end in a wall across the room or maybe even hit your gal of the path there. That was hilarious.

In no way, shape or form are any of us (except dirty save-scummers like myself) meant to tackle this kind of battle this early in the game.  No custom research priorities would matter. Well maybe High Explosives / Satchel Charge, which I'm bringing to every battle from now on, no exceptions. My Geoscape intel has greatly overestimated my abilities but I couldn't tolerate some weird pink square in the middle of the desert. Far less so for many more months. After the ordeal I was up 15M (and 1500 in score), enough to cover expense of pre-planned global continental coverage, minus the poles which come later.
As for the high-end gadgets, I don't plan to exploit the tech until I get there via normal means. I just want to experience this beaut the indented way (little peaks into the future can't hurt eh) to soak it up in all its glory. What is really frightening me is experiencing all of this and I'm only at 5%...  God damn.

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

Well, all I can say is that you can't really advance in one field at the cost of the other, because they all are important. And by that I mean research.
Still not researching Workshop/Codex and then Shadowmasters means you won't have any interceptors worth a damn.
Without Workshop you are locked from better armors like Metal, or Heavy Suit.
Even base defences (Anti Air) are important in XPiratez and you will soon learn why.

Bases don't appear that early and also you don't have to deal with them ASAP if your score (Infamy) is high.
You don't really want spoilers, so I will say that what you found out in the base that took you so long wasn't end game stuff. There are things much more powerfull than mere cyberdisk and few Gauss rifles.

I don't really know how the game is "supposed" to be played, but the best guess is to go first blind as far as you can, get beaten and then start again with the new found knowledge.

Oh, and be ready that you can't reach 100% in research and many topics are fluff text.

[Nilex]

Alright the waters have calmed a little so it's perfect time for another couple of quick ones.

It's about high time to ask this one as I couldn't figure it out myself. Ufopaedia site kinda narrowed it down but I'm still not sure and feel like I'm missing out. What the hell are those SKILL► and PWR++► thingies bellow some weapons in BootyPedia? How does that work exactly? If it was explained somewhere in-game I'm powerless to find it.

The other mystery concerns them no-purpose veggies and fruit. Are those free to sell, aka useless junk? At least for time being, until new patch add purpose. I mean c'mon, gals of the future can't bake potatoes? What kind of a word am I saving anyway, lol.

[legionof1]

The skill and power lines are used to explain weapons that have non default scaleing.
Skill is for accuracy, which is then further modified by the % of the type of shot taken.
Power is for additional damage added to the base displayed in the upper right.

Right click on items to view a list of what you can use them in. Not all have a recipe atm, and are indeed sale fodder to fill out random drop tables for maps and gambling.

[Apocca]

I always wondered. Is the additional damage calculated for the armor rating? E.g. enemy with armor of 50. Weapon has 40 dmg, but pwr * 0.5 STR. Will it hit through the armor?

[tarkalak]

I always wondered. Is the additional damage calculated for the armor rating? E.g. enemy with armor of 50. Weapon has 40 dmg, but pwr * 0.5 STR. Will it hit through the armor?

Yes. Uhm, not enough data - how much is your strength, what is the damage spread of the weapon (0-200%, 50-150% some other bizare one),  what are the enemy's resistance and finally it depends on the roll. But if the final result (after adding the power bonus, rolling the die and applying the resistance) is higher than armor it will go through.

[Dioxine]

@Nilex What's the point of asking questions if you cheat like there's no tomorrow anyway? Don't expect your suggestions or criticism to have any weight, in any case.

[Nilex]

So SKILL> accuracy is the first part of the whole accuracy equation then? Final acc=Skill>*Base acc*shoot type*distance acc (from extender)? Basically if SKILL> is over 100 it improves acc, and vice-versa is I got that right.

Does PWR> apply additional damage type as stated by the weapons (Daze, Cut, Stab, Piercing, etc) or some other kind? I'll need to revise my gear depending on the answer, or at least until Cattle Prod losses viability.

@Dioxine
Point it to get useful clear answers about internal game mechanic (otherwise unexplained, hard to find, or purposely hidden by inexperienced designer) so that I, or anyone else passing by, can find it through seer willpower rummaging through this tread or getting lucky with search engine. There can't be cheating if there is no competition, or this mod would be one helluva bit cheat. Ask Rockstar.
"in any case" what does that mean? You only help or take suggestion from people who play your way, or none at all, depending on which leg you used to get outta bed this morning. If you think my experience is curbed by what I do then so be it. But not before weighing in suggestion for what its worth in its own, instead of completely dismissing it right away.
In any case, I love your XPiratez. It's a work of art and the first real mod I decided to give a go because for the first time I've seen it's actually better than OG game it sprouted out from. The way you "put it all together" is still blowing my mind. Actually screw that, this couldn't have been done by human alone. Far too damn rich and complex. To me it's proof of the simulation we're living in... even if y'all programmed to deny it. Can someone PM sum cheat codes? I won't say ty.

[Meridian]

Point it to get useful clear answers about internal game mechanic (otherwise unexplained, hard to find, or purposely hidden by inexperienced designer)

Small correction:
Internal game mechanics are purposely hidden by experienced designers. (For example: just about any game ever made)
Only the inexperienced designers may expose something they don't want to by accident.

Also, if you combine the entire ufopaedia.org, all information available in-game and on this entire forum... you will still know less than 20% of the internal game mechanics (very generous estimate, the number is likely much smaller).
Just to put things into perspective.

[Dioxine]

Actually screw that, this couldn't have been done by human alone. Far too damn rich and complex. To me it's proof of the simulation we're living in... even if y'all programmed to deny it. Can someone PM sum cheat codes? I won't say ty.

You really underestimate humans.

[legionof1]

A sufficiently determined man can create or achieve anything he can conceive. A talented of experienced one will do it in time to enjoy his labor.

So SKILL> accuracy is the first part of the whole accuracy equation then? Final acc=Skill>*Base acc*shoot type*distance acc (from extender)? Basically if SKILL> is over 100 it improves acc, and vice-versa is I got that right.

Does PWR> apply additional damage type as stated by the weapons (Daze, Cut, Stab, Piercing, etc) or some other kind? I'll need to revise my gear depending on the answer, or at least until Cattle Prod losses viability.

snip

Yes. you have the gist of accuracy. Pwr is always additional of whatever the weapon or ammo does. Just like accuracy it feeds into the base value used in the larger armor and resist equation.

[Nilex]

Thanks for being a pal. Feels good to understand the numbers and predict usefulness.