A thread for little questions

[unarmed drifter]

@cc: i've hidden both the slaves and the rockets  thanks for pointing out!
@meridian: it was a playful response to solarius comment, that's all

[Martin]

I wonder... would it be possible to change code so that projectiles can penetrate walls/trees/people and continue on their merry way untill they lose enough energy to just get stuck in the last thing they hit?

During all the years I’ve been playing games, there was never a more satisfying moment than when I shot a guy with anti materiel rifle in Jagged Alliance 2 (with the 1.13 mod) a night, and the bullet killed not just him, but also a guy behind him whom I didn’t even see beforeas he was hidden completely covered by the first guy.

[Shaewaros]

Adding two lines before the "Units Produced" section is not an objective improvement, but garnering to personal preferences.

Adding even one line would be objectively better (clearer) design. But if the engine doesn't allow more text the limitations are understandable, although unfortunate.

[khade]

Actually, I just wrote Skyranger because it's the starting troop transport in vanilla XCOM. What I meant was Airbus. In the wiki it's said that Airbus doesn't have global reach, so I just cannot go to the terror mission that's out of Airbus' reach. Sorry for the confusion.

Ah that explains it, even if your Airbus is only a few miles* from your base, once it's at emergency get back to base mode, you can't stop it.  If it's just outside the range, then in theory, it should have just enough energy to get back home, so having it go 'just a few more miles' would logically end in a crash and loss of all onboard.  We shouldn't have the Elerium craft bug from the original game, I really can't imagine anyone leaving that in, so there's no extra fuel.


*Does this game use Imperial or Metric? Or does it matter?

[bouchacha]

Is there any way to (hidden config flag or otherwise) disable freezing and scorching hot battlescape effects? I know that they're mentioned before you embark but I usually don't pay attention until the big bold message after the first turn.

[Ethereal_Medic]

Is there any way to (hidden config flag or otherwise) disable freezing and scorching hot battlescape effects? I know that they're mentioned before you embark but I usually don't pay attention until the big bold message after the first turn.

Disabling a core feature would make the game easier in some maps and kill the purpose of at least 50 items and armors.
It's the same deal with 'daytime-only' to avoid re-equip your squads.

It's a game from 1994 and only the hard work of modders made it an incredible longlasting (partly addicting) experience. Curse and blessing at the same time as RNJesus pleases.
Every compaining targeting implemented features is an 'insult' against the hard work put into the modification.

Try to adapt to the circumstances and pay attention to details and give all those items and armors at least a try before considering such brutal changes to your gaming experience.

[cc]

Is there any way to (hidden config flag or otherwise) disable freezing and scorching hot battlescape effects? I know that they're mentioned before you embark but I usually don't pay attention until the big bold message after the first turn.

You can edit the ruleset files and change the environment conditions. You do lose out on an aspect of the game, how you want to play is up to you.

[bouchacha]

Disabling a core feature would make the game easier in some maps and kill the purpose of at least 50 items and armors.
It's the same deal with 'daytime-only' to avoid re-equip your squads.

It's a game from 1994 and only the hard work of modders made it an incredible longlasting (partly addicting) experience. Curse and blessing at the same time as RNJesus pleases.
Every compaining targeting implemented features is an 'insult' against the hard work put into the modification.

Try to adapt to the circumstances and pay attention to details and give all those items and armors at least a try before considering such brutal changes to your gaming experience.

Calling it an insult is a bit hyperbolic. I already have all the mitigating items (e.g. Ushankas & beer for cold, fan & mesh shirt for heat) which functionally nullify the weather effect for the average duration of a mission. The only reason I want to disable it is because 90% of the time, I realize the weather effect is in place only after the end of my first turn (when the brightly colored message notifies me). At that point the effects are too crippling (especially heat) to continue with the mission normally so I end up reloading a quicksave in geoscape so that I can equip my gals properly. Once you already have the equipment, I don't see what that bit adds in terms of gameplay, because it's just a matter of remembering to slot it into your backpack/belt.

I'm thoroughly obsessed with this mod and have tremendous gratitude to the mod makers; I'm still allowed to have a difference in opinion on certain features.

You can edit the ruleset files and change the environment conditions. You do lose out on an aspect of the game, how you want to play is up to you.

Which file would it be? I'm happy to try and figure it out on my own.

[cc]

Which file would it be? I'm happy to try and figure it out on my own.

startingConditions: section in Piratez_Planet.rul has the environment effects.

[bouchacha]

What is up with academy scientists? I've had skilled snipers using 'custom snipin guns' (which scale with firing skill) do 0 damage. I've had high-melee gals do 0 damage with a pike from under. I tried softening up with blossom smg chem ammo and that also does 0 damage. I eventually brought it down after ganging up on one with about 5 different people but I don't know what exactly worked besides brute force.

Also, what is up with ghost gals in the mysterious island? Getting to the secret tunnel is easy enough as it's only mutant fish in the way but that leaves you highly unprepared for what comes next.

[HT]

Soo, how exactly does the "reduced one-handed penalty" work? Is the shown percentage reduced from 100% or something? I'm not sure.
Also, what does it mean when an outfit has a melee dodge penalty of 50% exactly? Speaking of: If an outfit doesn't mention anything about melee evasion, does it mean that it cannot dodge, period? Just to check.

Lastly, how do ammo that does 125% damage to health work vs armor reduction? Is the remaining damage done after said reduction increased slightly then?

[Meridian]

Soo, how exactly does the "reduced one-handed penalty" work? Is the shown percentage reduced from 100% or something? I'm not sure.

When you're using two-handed weapon with one hand... there is a penalty and your accuracy is only 80% of whatever it was before... for example if it was 70% it would be decreased to 56%.

Reduced one-handed penalty means that the 80% penalty multiplier was changed for example to only 90% multiplier, or some other number higher than 80%.

Also, what does it mean when an outfit has a melee dodge penalty of 50% exactly?

It means that the dodge it has, for example 66% will be decreased by 50% when it is attacked from the rear, effectively being only 33% from the rear. On other sides than rear it will progressively increase, until it reaches 66% from the front.

Speaking of: If an outfit doesn't mention anything about melee evasion, does it mean that it cannot dodge, period? Just to check.

In general yes.
Check the "stats for nerds" to be sure (INFO button in ufopedia).

Lastly, how do ammo that does 125% damage to health work vs armor reduction? Is the remaining damage done after said reduction increased slightly then?

Yes.

PS: would be MUCH easier to answer your questions, if you gave an example weapon/armor for each point... there are many mechanics in the game... and I can only guess, which one you meant... so take my answers with care, because I may have answered different questions than you asked.

[ivandogovich]

What is up with academy scientists? I've had skilled snipers using 'custom snipin guns' (which scale with firing skill) do 0 damage. I've had high-melee gals do 0 damage with a pike from under. I tried softening up with blossom smg chem ammo and that also does 0 damage. I eventually brought it down after ganging up on one with about 5 different people but I don't know what exactly worked besides brute force.

Also, what is up with ghost gals in the mysterious island? Getting to the secret tunnel is easy enough as it's only mutant fish in the way but that leaves you highly unprepared for what comes next.

Academy scientists have a force shield that you have to deplete before they start taking damage.  Hits that initially are doing 0 damage are probably depleting the shields.  Every hit on a shield is represented by the unit sprite flashing.  Once you start landing hits that where the target doesn't flash you will start doing standard damage and they will go down.  Bottom line: just keep giving them lots of attention, multiple hits per turn with high damage weapons are best.    I've also had good success mind controlling them with my witches.

Ghost gals are a huge pain in the butt.  Though they have very little health, they have massive resistances to almost all types of damage. Also, their charm attacks are currently bugged and cause wounds on your gals, not just unconsciousness (due to a change with Damage Type 0 in the engine).  Combine this with invisibility to 5 tiles, and 20 range sense.  Also, if they go down stunned, their corpse is invisible, but they have decent stun regen and can popup back up fairly easily.  You may need to camp them. 
Because you are limited to underwater-only gear, your options are very limited.  Lasers are some of the most effective weapons and if you can get them through the deep they may help.  Concussive satchel charges may eventually do the work too.  The map should have a decent amount of cover, so using it to stay out of sight might allow you to move around the map and explore it with some success.  This mission should get better once the charm attack is fixed.  Otherwise, they might be worth skipping for now.

[GENVOKE]

Just lost a run, and I'm not sure why. This, and especially last month, had terrible score even though I was doing really well.

I remember reading about some of the factions doing things around the globe that would rack up minus points per day, but what am I looking for exactly? Do I need to send Expeditions to locations with high alien activity to spot.. landed UFOs or bases or something? Or is it something else? I'm playing on difficulty 5.

[legionof1]

The most likely causes are either Bases or the small number of enemy missions that cause heavy score loss. What you want to do is look at the enemy activity chart, enable the individual regions and look for a big spike.

Once you have identified the region responsible you can try sending craft to try and stop the activity.

If you are early in the game you can also try focusing on cheap techs, since every tech researched is worth a decent amount of score. The trigger for losing via score is 2 consecutive months of -500 or more. If you can eek above the -500 line you can still continue playing.

However, rarely mission RNG might just kill you without you being able to interfere sufficiently. 3-4 of the big score knock missions in a row out of radar coverage is very hard to stop.