Newbe questions

[Rince Wind]

And in this version you can stop missions from being successful by raiding the craft, if I understood that correctly.

[DaEMon]

Still using 0.99j4. Didn´t upgrade yet.

[cc]

Do "Alien" missions behave diferently than vanilla because I should have that base.

A mission will "end" with the last ship spawning. The ship only needs to land if it also creates a terror site (Pogrom, Culling, etc.). That part is 100% vanilla, but the Alien Base mission was bugged until the last update. So that's likely why.

And in this version you can stop missions from being successful by raiding the craft, if I understood that correctly.

Shooting a ship/assulting a landed ship gives a chance the next one won't spawn. Everything else is as above - so when the Cruiser in an Alien Base mission appears, the base will be built. Given how close the last three ships appear, you likely have to stop the Heavy Gunships to have a chance at interruption.

[Vansi]

I would like ask about HyperWave Decoder. It has a range 2000 nautical miles and if I understand correctly from observations it sends detection ping every 30 minutes. But this opens window for enemy ships, if they are faster than 4000 knots, and they enter detection zone at the right moment, they can fly to my base under 30 minutes and avoid detection that way, attacking my base without any warning or chance to intercept.
So if I build second HWD in my base, will that improve frequency of detection pings? Will there be stacking effect? Or if I build two bases with HWD close to each other will their decoders work in sync allowing 30 minutes holes in detection? Or will HWDs work asynchrous to each other and improve detection?         

[ohartenstein23]

All radar checks happen on every half hour, there can be no staggering of them.  Thus unless a mod reduces the detection chance of the HWD, there's no point in having more than one per base.  Spread out your bases to try and cover as much as possible to prevent the undetected base attack, but be aware that being 100% safe from anything in this game is a pipe dream.

[Dioxine]

Corrolary: enemy ship spawns also happen every half hour. So if your HWD covers the spawn zone, you will detect the ship no matter its speed.

[Vansi]

Spread out your bases to try and cover as much as possible to prevent the undetected base attack, but be aware that being 100% safe from anything in this game is a pipe dream.

It is too late for that.  And I can build only 8 bases anyway...

How about some technology and expensive upgrade to HWD to increase frequency of detecting pings?       

[ohartenstein23]

You misunderstand; the frequency of radar sweeps is not a moddable parameter, the game is built around pretty much all craft/UFO operations happening on the half hour.

[Vansi]

This kinda sucks. I was under impression that Open Xcom was created to improve original game. What is the point of remaking two and half decades old limitations? And whose great idea was recreating "no fire line" fiasco? It was single most infuriating flaw of original games and someone put effort into bringing it back? How about simple rule "I can see it, I can shoot it"?     

[cc]

This kinda sucks. I was under impression that Open Xcom was created to improve original game. What is the point of remaking two and half decades old limitations? And whose great idea was recreating "no fire line" fiasco? It was single most infuriating flaw of original games and someone put effort into bringing it back? How about simple rule "I can see it, I can shoot it"?

Having radar sweeps and ship-spawns more often doesn't improve the game, so I'm not sure what you're complaining about. And the line of fire rules are awesome (well, maybe except for the miscalculations), so it shouldn't ever be removed.

[Vansi]

Having radar sweeps and ship-spawns more often doesn't improve the game, so I'm not sure what you're complaining about.

I dare to disagree. Right now very fast ship can penetrate your radar coverage without detection and attack your base without warning. Entire purpose of radar system is to detect enemy and give you early warning, so this obsolete game machanics strips radar of its purpose.     

And the line of fire rules are awesome (well, maybe except for the miscalculations), so it shouldn't ever be removed.

Could you elaborate, what is so awesome in fact, that you can see enemy, but you can't shoot him? It is absurd.   

[Zippicus]

I dare to disagree. Right now very fast ship can penetrate your radar coverage without detection and attack your base without warning. Entire purpose of radar system is to detect enemy and give you early warning, so this obsolete game machanics strips radar of its purpose.

Well like Dioxine alluded to earlier, if the attack ship spawns within your coverage area you'll spot it.  Granted it will be moving so fast you won't be able to do anything about it except maybe to evacuate your troops but that would be kinda silly.  So I guess my point is that even if you did spot that incoming attack, it's far to late at that point.  You would have had to shoot down the initial crackdown ship to stop the boarding torpedo from launching in the first place (assuming that's what spawned the attack, there's other factors at play).

Edit:  Also in the newest version, when you try to shoot a spotted enemy and you don't have a shot, the tiles that are blocking you will blink a  couple times. (really cool addition btw).

[Dioxine]

Having radar sweeps and ship-spawns more often doesn't improve the game

Exactly that. If we added that, then next thing in line is the need to add ECM to the enemy craft to restore skewed balance. Then ECCM to player's radars. Then antiradar missiles to target ECCMs. Then antimissiles to player bases. Then all the reverse. Then CIWS to both. How deep the rabbit hole does go? If you read Alice carefully, you will know that rabbit holes have infinite depth.

However, this isn't even about that. If I considered half-hour scale to be too disadvantageous to the player, I'd have all craft slower and/or all radars having more range. It would be done if the current abstraction was considered unbalanced (and was being adjusted in the past for that reason).

I just consider this rabbit hole not adding anything interesting to the model.

[Solarius Scorch]

Could you elaborate, what is so awesome in fact, that you can see enemy, but you can't shoot him? It is absurd.   

It's not about awesomeness, it's about the simple fact that a unit sees from its eye level, but shoots from the hip. Therefore you may see something, but not have the line of fire. It's that easy.
Before you ask: no, Meridian will not change the code to make units shoot from the eye level. It's mostly about vanilla compatibility.

[Shrugger]

I'm having trouble scrapping buildings.

1) Burrows. I expanded my living space, prisons and vaults, but still I can't scrap those burrows.
2) Hangar. I shipped away the craft that was housed therein, but now I can't destroy it.

What's up here? Are bases not meant to be remodeled?