PALU

Negative vs positive data hack attitude: The problem with my entries is that we know data access is needed, but have no idea of whether we'll get it (now). This is then complemented (in my view) by the data hack entries that express a positive surprise when the access is finally gotten. As things work technically, we get the data hack access immediately after the research that may result in it. In the research cases where you get a "real" tech with a probability I've tried to indicate that with reviewing research notes, etc, but I can't realistically do that with random good luck. The data hack entries would have to be rewritten in that case so the interrogation would state a last attempt would be made after the report, or some other intentional action, with the data hack then stating that it worked (being careful to not mention which one worked, as we don't actually know... but all avenues to the same data hack would have to match up). Writing an entry that predicting stupid luck (as the data hacks I've seen so far are) doesn't really work: "When I've sent off the report I'll send a junior scientist to try to do stupid tricks one the alien computers to see if we can get in" is rather stupid... Thus, we need something that works both before and after, and I think the current data hack entries (I've seen) are nice... Roboreaper: I'd suggest 3-4. And I still haven't understood how the buggers work: Sometimes they have a shield, and sometimes not. They seem to use a stun/emp attack when shielded and when wearing the ballistic vulnerable armor, but switch to melee when the energy vulnerable is the one left. I think it would be useful to describe them in this entry, but I don't want to write guesswork (more than I have to...). Advanced stun gas: I agree the alien one is on the strong side, but soldiers shouldn't be able to just stand around in the human one: If they don't move out of it in the next round, they ought to (usually) drop, which probably means they ought to get in trouble if caught in the center of a cloud. Unlocked entries: Odd, as there are quite a few items I'm currently researching that are not in there. Ah well, it's not really important. "tend to not": That's from the original text, as I tend to leave the parts that aren't wrong now I'll change it, though. Terror soldier: That was in the previous version as well, but I'll update that too.

Edited the previous post. It would be a lot easier to understand what you mean by saying what the difference is, rather than just dump a string and have me look at it again and again to figure out how it differs... (and both would be even better). So Wolf has been shifted from Engineer to Tech, which I think is suitable. Then it's a matter of remembering that when I've covered what I've unlocked and revisit stuff already written. Thereafter it's on to more or less guessing at new stuff (without ability to see that it actually appears somewhat properly). For Shock technology it's been the Engineer that's the limiting factor, not the other techs, at least in my case. I would much rather have both techs and interrogation of both Technicians than one tech and one Engineer. Sebillian Cruiser Operator Interrogation: That's how I try to describe it (and it's similar for all the data hack thingies). As far as I can see a data hack is required in all cases. The problem is that the entry has no knowledge of whether a data hack (or other percentage) will unlock something or not, so for data hacks I just say system access is needed, and then the system access either magically appear to the user when the screen is closed, or it does not. If it did, well, the data access was gained. The part that might be considered lacking is indication of who the other unlocking operators are. And, for that matter, a lot of entries suffer from the issue of not being able to take what's been discovered by the player into account, but that's a limitation we just have to accept in the form of entries that indicate you can start on something you may already have researched. Even if we had the means, we don't have the man power to write all the variations... Edit 2: I'm open to suggestions for alternative ways to describe that you may or may not get fluke access to computers. And something completely different: I'm rather disappointed with the measly results of disassembling a pesky roboreaper, and I'm not happy with the performance of the advanced stun gas, as it's proven ineffective against both sebillian and caesan soldiers. It MIGHT be useful for softening units up before you hit them with whiffle sticks (or shockguns, although the APs are probably better spent firing the guns...), but that requires that you can place the effect such that you can reach the target without inhaling the smoke yourself. The basic version at affected the guards most of the time, at least. Finally, those pesky fences proved to be unharmed by alenium grenades, so shield bearing units definitely have an issue: they need a ground vehicle to smash the fences, or need a different unit to shoot them away (a full round of laser Mk-3 pistol shots didn't work, but a round of Division Rifle Mk-3 usually does). Edit 3: Another batch. This is partially updates of earlier entries. The basic specialist lists have been complemented with the Small Base Operator (and replaced newline characters with normal line breaks), and the Technicians have been updated to indicate access to the Wolf armor. Sebillian Officer Interrogation This captive knows a fair bit, but we never get enough to actually reach a point where we can initiate new research, even though we get close on several fronts. Each of those seem to require access to encrypted files on their computer systems to actually lead anywhere, though. Xenomorph DNA Analysis <Are there any combat benefits here? It would be logical> We have now analysed the Xenomorph DNA successfully and crosschecked several different variants against each other, and this has verified our suspicion that the variants aren't different species, but rather different expressions of a common set of DNA in a fashion analogous to how ants can form several different castes from eggs laid by the same queen. We believe this knowledge, assisted by Zombification and Alien Blood Technology, should allow us to start research on the Heavy Chemical Gas topic. Roboreaper Soldier Disassembly These infuriating units have to be disabled again and again, so while disappointing, it might not be surprising that the only thing we can salvage from them is a single unit of Alien Alloys. Advanced Plasma Technology <There appears to be a bug in my game. This tech is present in my X-Pedia, but at the same time it is actually under research on the research screen, and Advanced Alien Plasma Technology is the entry AFTER Advanced Plasma Technology in my X-Pedia, indicating it should have been researched later. I also don't have any research for Mk-2 Plasma weapons available even when I have researched the Mk-1 version, so the X-Pedia appearance is most likely caused by a bug.> Advancing our studies into the Plasma Technology has allowed us to develop Mk-2 versions of our Plasma weapons. Obviously, in order to do so, we first have to have done our homework by figuring out how to make the corresponding Mk-1 models. Apart from this, we think this knowledge is required to reach the Basic Antimatter Technology, but it's a rather small step. That technology seems to require input from just about every field Engineers can shed light on, Advanced MAG Technology, Advanced Alien Neutron Technology, and more or less the contents of every encrypted file we can get from alien computer systems at this stage, as well as autopsy study of an alien warrior. Advanced Alien Plasma Technology Having studied more advanced Alien Plasma Weapons, we now believe we have a grip on the Advanced Alien Plasma Technology. The aliens have added an electron injection current into their plasma devices. As you recall, plasma weaponry functions by compressing ionized gas in a magnetic container. The field is then oscillated to produce spin and heat by friction, then morphed to launch the contents. What the aliens have done is add electron injection relays which produce currents within the gas, charging it rapidly and producing heat. The plasma forms in the barrel quickly and is superheated. Thankfully, there are upsides to this alarming change in strategy. The plasma weapon requires more time to cool as a result of the superheating, meaning that the enemy rate of fire is the same. While each shot of theirs has more destructive potential, our soldiers tend to perish from a single hit even by ordinary weapons. It also indicates that we are being taken seriously-a mixed blessing, but strangely gratifying. This should allow us to build on Plasma Technology to research Advanced Plasma Technology for the groundwork for Mk-2 weapons of our own Plasma Technology. We should also be able to use this knowledge to research a Vehicle Plasma Cannon, assuming we have studied Plasma Heavy Explosives. Caesan Technician Interrogation Our interrogation of this captive has given us enough information to start research on a range of technologies from alien craft parts, via electronics, and power sources, to alien alloy shaping techniques. We believe we should be able to build upon techniques to shape Alien Alloys and study of an Andron to produce a much needed improved armour for our soldiers, but we are fairly sure we need to extract the last bits of information from a Sebillian Technician. Sebillian Technician Interrogation Our interrogation of this captive has given us enough information to start research on a range of technologies from alien craft parts, via electronics, and power sources, to alien alloy shaping techniques. We believe we should be able to build upon techniques to shape Alien Alloys and study of an Andron to produce a much needed improved armour for our soldiers, but we are fairly sure we need to extract the last bits of information from a Caesan Technician. Basic Specialists Caesan After our interrogation of the latest Basic Specialist we now have an good overview of the different Caesans we might encounter: &#8226;Officer: Leader of the mission &#8226;Operator Landing: Landing mission operator &#8226;Operator Cruiser: Cruiser mission operator &#8226;Operator Alien Outpost: Outpost mission operation &#8226;Basic Terror Operator: Terror mission operator &#8226;Basic Assault Operator: Base assault mission operator &#8226;Basic Bomber Operator: Bomber mission operator &#8226;Small Base Operator: Operating small alien bases &#8226;Weapon Officer: Weapon system operator &#8226;Pilot: Craft navigation &#8226;Assault Psion: Psionic destabilisation &#8226;Engineer: Craft maintenance and repair &#8226;Physician: Crew health &#8226;Terror Soldier: Elite soldier used in terror/base assault missions, as well as outpost defense. Unusually, they seem to almost have a personality. Basic Specialists Sebillian After our interrogation of the latest Basic Specialist we now have an good overview of the different Sebillians we might encounter: &#8226;Officer: Leader of the mission &#8226;Operator Landing: Landing mission operator &#8226;Operator Cruiser: Cruiser mission operator &#8226;Operator Alien Outpost: Outpost mission operation &#8226;Basic Terror Operator: Terror mission operator &#8226;Basic Assault Operator: Base assault mission operator &#8226;Basic Bomber Operator: Bomber mission operator &#8226;Small Base Operator: Operating small alien bases &#8226;Weapon Officer: Weapon system operator &#8226;Pilot: Craft navigation &#8226;Engineer: Craft maintenance and repair &#8226;Physician: Crew health &#8226;Terror Soldier: Elite soldier used in terror/base assault missions, as well as outpost defense. Oddly enough, they seem to differ from other Sebillians by seeming to have a personality of sorts.

Another lot (the Alien Units section is getting rather tedious to deal with, though is this section is getting crowded, and I'm only halfway there...): Caesan Officer Vivisection As usual, study of this Caesan has given us an additional minor insight into that species' weaknesses, but apart from that, nothing of importance has been gained from a scientific perspective. We have, however, produced a protocol for extraction of Light Fibres from his armour: 32 Light Fibres per captive, to be precise. Caesan Terror Soldier Autopsy <Given the interrogation image, the dead ones should have reddish eyes as well> These menaces wore a rather substantial armour before our soldiers cut their lives short. We have devised a protocol to extract 4 Light Fibres and 2 Dense Fibres from each body processed. Caesan Officer Autopsy As can be expected, the Caesan Officer wore better armour than the Caesan Sergeant, which means we get more resources out of processing it. We get 4 Light Fibres from each corpse processed. Wraith Terror Soldier Autopsy Autopsy of a Wraith Terror Soldier has confirmed the assumption that they do not differ significantly from other Wraiths on the inside: neither the sugically implanted armour nor the visible organs or the genetics are much different from samples studied previously. However, they wore tougher armour, which means we get more Fibres when processing them, at the tune of 4 Light Fibres and 4 Dense Fibres for every set of damaged armour. Caesan Engineer Interrogation This captive had much to say, and we made sure he did say it... &#8226;: Assuming we have an Alien Power Source, we should now know enough to figure out how to disassemble it safely. &#8226;: Assuming we have an Alien Anti Gravity Generator at hand, we should have be able to research it without blowing our up our facilities or launching them into space (in pieces...). &#8226;: Similarly, with an Alien Base Core at hand, we should be ready to investigate Alien Base Facilities. &#8226;: We should also be able to safely research the Alien Reactor as soon as we have one. &#8226;: We can see an Light Support Tank, 'Scimitar', taking form once we have interrogated a Sebillian Engineer and figured out how to deal with Alien Powersources, Alien Electronics, and how to fabricate Alien Alloys. &#8226;: The crystal ball also reveals a more advanced Light Tank in the distance, although we are likely to need quite a lot to actually be able to start to research it. The basic prerequisites are Alien Alloy Fabrication, Alien Electronics, and Alien Reactor for the components, and Disassembly of an Andron Server for the communications. On top of that, we probably need input from a Sebillian Engineer as well as appropriate encrypted data files from both the Caesan and the Sebillian side. &#8226;: A more advanced Hunter car may be easier to reach, as we think we need only technical knowledge in the form of Alien Powersource, Alien Electronics, and Alien Alloy Fabrication research. &#8226;: To research a dropship, 'Shrike' we should now only need techical research in the form of Alien Alloy Fabrication, Directional Thruster Array, and Alien Electronics. &#8226;: Shock Technology should be within our reach, assuming we have researched the Alien Electronics Technology. &#8226;: Given knowledge of the Alien Alloy Fabrication Technology, we should now be prepared to step it up to Alien Alloy Hardening. &#8226;: As if that wasn't enough, he also filled in a few blanks in the Caesan Technician's story. Sebillian Engineer Interrogation This captive had much to say, and we made sure he did say it... &#8226;: Assuming we have an Alien Power Source, we should now know enough to figure out how to disassemble it safely. &#8226;: Assuming we have an Alien Anti Gravity Generator at hand, we should have be able to research it without blowing our up our facilities or launching them into space (in pieces...). &#8226;: Similarly, with an Alien Base Core at hand, we should be ready to investigate Alien Base Facilities. &#8226;: We should also be able to safely research the Alien Reactor as soon as we have one. &#8226;: We can see an Light Support Tank, 'Scimitar', taking form once we have interrogated a Caesan Engineer and figured out how to deal with Alien Powersources, Alien Electronics, and how to fabricate Alien Alloys. &#8226;: The crystal ball also reveals a more advanced Light Tank in the distance, although we are likely to need quite a lot to actually be able to start to research it. The basic prerequisites are Alien Alloy Fabrication, Alien Electronics, and Alien Reactor for the components, and Disassembly of an Andron Server for the communications. On top of that, we probably need input from a Caesan Engineer as well as appropriate encrypted data files from both the Caesan and the Sebillian side. &#8226;: A more advanced Hunter car may be easier to reach, as we think we need only technical knowledge in the form of Alien Powersource, Alien Electronics, and Alien Alloy Fabrication research. &#8226;: We foresee the ability to research a new Kinetic vehicle cannon once the technical prerequisites in the form of Alien Alloy Fabrication, Alien Electronics, and Alien Powersource are met. &#8226;: Shock Technology should be within our reach, assuming we have researched the Alien Lightning Technology. &#8226;: Given knowledge of the Alien Alloy Fabrication Technology, we should now be prepared to step it up to Alien Alloy Hardening. &#8226;: As if that wasn't enough, he also filled in a few blanks in the Sebillian Technician's story. Sebillian Cruiser Operator Interrogation This interrogation was another of those frustrating ones where we get to the cusp of learning something useful, but end up just short. It seems to be a combination of a lack of deeper understanding on the part of the Interrogation target and a lack of knowledge on our part to allow us to ask the right questions. We believe we need access to encrypted files on a Sebillian computer system to actually gain anything substantial. Caesan Soldier Vivisection These soldiers wear a rather substantial armour, and we can turn that to our advantage by extracting 16 Light Fibres from each of those. Harridan Terror Soldier Autopsy These menaces wore even more armour than their predecessors, although the internal plating seems to be the same. We are now able to extract 4 Light Fibres and 4 Dense Fibres from each of these corpses. Sebillian Terror Soldier Autopsy These marauders are physically similar to other Sebillians, with the only significant difference being their grey hide. Their armour, however, is stronger than that of other soldiers we have encountered. This means we are able to get more out of even the remains of the armour in the form of 4 Light Fibres and 2 Dense Fibres for every tattered set of armour. Caesan Landing Ship Operator Interrogation Well, yet another frustrating Interrogation session where substantial gains slip just out of reach. It seems Caesan computer system access is the only way to move forward. Caesan Terror Soldier Vivisection This vivisection effort has, as usual, payed off in a small improvement of our understanding of this species' weaknesses. These minor gains build up to substantial improvements in our combat effectiveness against the species as each small gain is added to the previous stack, so keep new types of captives coming, Commander. We couldn't care less about the captives' dignity, and we don't think they do themselves anyway, so we can strip them of their deceptively weak looking armour to process it into resources of our own, in the form if 32 Light Fibres and 16 Dense Fibres from each set of armour. Caesan Terror Soldier Interrogation We are not sure what we gained from this Interrogation. It is clear we need to study a sample of each of the Alien Dark Technology weapons (Pistol, Assault, and Cannon) in order to allow us to start researching the Alien Dark Technology itself, but that is not enough: we need information from captives, and while it is clear all Terror Soldiers and all Basic Terror Operators collectively should have enough knowledge, we don't really know which ones we need to get the missing piece. Since we really should interrogate everyone to ensure we gain everything we can out of them, it really should be a matter of time, though. Wraith Soldier Vivisection As usual, some additional common Wraith weaknesses have been uncovered, resulting in a slight combat effectiveness improvement against this race. As is also standard by now, we have devised a protocol for rendering their armour into resources for our own use: 16 Light Fibres and 8 Dense Fibres from each set of armour.

A replacement version for the Titanium Anit-Missile then: The basic functionality of this system is the same as of the Anti-Missile: to keep alien craft missiles from blowing up our own craft. This system is an evolutionary improvement over the previous version, providing a longer range and just over 50% more missiles. Still, the pilots need to get their job done fairly quickly, as these missiles DO run out. Also note that these systems suffer from the same fratricide issues their predecessor do, so don't consider putting two of them on the same aircraft. Given that these systems are reasonably uncomplicated to manufacture and don't contain any hard to obtain alien resources, we effectively have these systems available in unlimited numbers.

The thing that seems to work for me is a LOT of fire at the doors. It takes about half (ballpark guess) of a Hunter Car's ammo to blast a door, and at times I've complemented that with Heavy Machinegun bullets when the car ran out (I tend to use the car to fire at enemies as well, so I usually don't have a full magazine when reaching the craft).

Another batch: Plasma Rifle Mk-1 We've finally managed to produce a plasma rifle of our own. It's not quite as powerful as the alien version, but we can produce it and it fits our soldiers' hands, so they can actually hit things with it. While not up to the standard of the alien weapon, it's still about twice as powerful as our laser range of weapons. The drawbacks are that we have some issues with the plasma coherence, and so has a shorter range than the Laser Rifle Mk-1. We also have issues with the ammo clips, as its capacity is somewhat lacking, even smaller than Laser Rifle Mk-1 one. Precision Plasma Rifle Mk-1 Our Precision Plasma Mk-1 weapon has the same basic strengths and weaknesses as our Plasma Rifle Mk-1, i.e. about twice the power of the Laser range, but the range is on the short side for a Sniper Rifle, and the ammo clip capacity is frankly plain poor. MAG Rifle Mk-1 We have managed to put the absurd alien MAG Technology to work in our own MAG Rifle Mk-1. This weapon is a slight improvement over the Division Rifle Mk-1 in almost all aspects, but we probably need to improve on it further to make it worth the while to change from higher Division Rifle tiers. Advanced Stun Grenade We've finally caught up with the aliens in the Stun Grenade department, so use these babies while they are still effective, as it wouldn't surprise me if the aliens improve their game further as the time goes on. MAG Pistol Mk-1 The aliens are upping their game in the Ballistic weapons arena, and we need to catch up. MAG weapons are based on the bizarre firing mechanism of alien MAG Technology weapons, and the Mk-1 range provides a modest improvement over the Division Mk-1 range. It can also be noted that the MAG Pistol has a 3 bullet burst firing mode. Alien Smart Rifle The Alien Smart Rifle is a fearsome Rifle using the Alien Smart Technology. Our disassembly protocol for this weapon results in 2 Antimatter Cores for every 3 weapons. Alien Dark Cannon The Alien Dark Cannon is a Cannon weapon using the Alien Dark Technology We have produced a disassembly protocol to extract 2 Antimatter Cores from each of these weapons. Heavy Fighter The Heavy Fighter is, unsurprisingly, a repaired and retrofitted downed Alien Heavy Fighter. As such, it fulfills the same role as the Fighter, but is more capable in every respect. It doesn't come as a surprise that this craft cannot be produced only from the components gained from disassembly of earlier generation alien crafts: it requires a Basic Alien Control System, as an Alien Control System isn't up to the task. Obviously, we also need a Fallen Alien Heavy Fighter, as well as an Alien Light Engine, an Alien Light Weapon System and two Alien Computers to put one of these craft into our hangar. MAG Storm The MAG Storm is an aircraft cannon, and thus has a fairly short range, although it is quite good as cannons go. Each round produces as substantial amount of damage, although the ammo capacity is limited, so the total amount of damage is modest improvement over earlier weapons. We need 7 Alien Alloys and 3 Alenium to produce these weapons. Titanium Anti-Missile The basic functionality of this system is the same as of the Anti-Missile: to keep alien craft missiles from blowing up our own craft. This system is an evolutionary improvement over the previous version, providing a longer range and just over 50% more missiles. Still, the pilots need to get their job done fairly quickly, as these missiles DO run out. Given that these systems are reasonably uncomplicated to manufacture and don't contain any hard to obtain alien resources, we effectively have these systems available in unlimited numbers. Caesan Basic Bomber Operator Interrogation Interrogation of a Caesan Basic Bomber Operator has almost, but not quite, provided enough data to improve our own Plasma Technology weapons. Once this report has been sent off, we'll prod the Caesan Basic Bomber Operator a little bit more to see if we can gain access to encrypted files in their computer systems that ought to contain the missing pieces. If not, we probably have to try to extract that access from his superiour, the Caesan Officer. Caesan Chieftain Autopsy The Caesan Chieftain has a fairly complete set of armour before he perished. This Autopsy research has allowed us to extract 2 Light Fibres from each corpse processed. Caesan Weapon Officer Interrogation Interrogation of the Caesan Weapon Officer has produced some concrete results: We should be able to start research on the Advanced Alien Grenade (while studying a grenade, of course), and we believe we have all the interrogation information we need to commence study of the Advanced Alien Lightning Technology, although we obviously need to have the Alien Lightning Technology to build on, and we would need samples of the Alien Lightning Cannon and Alien Lightning Rifle as well. Similarly, we think we have a fairly sound interrogation base for the study of the Advanced Alien Plasma Technology, but, again, we need the Alien Plasma Technology in place, as well as studies of one or more advanced Alien Plasma or Neutron Technology based weapons to get started.

Another batch, now without newline characters... Alien Neutron Heavy The Alien Neutron Heavy is the Alien Neutron Technology version of a heavy machinegun. The examination of this weapon, together with a similar examination of an Alien Neutron Rifle and interrogation of a member of a soldier class wielding it ought to allow us to research the Alien Neutron Technology. We should now be able to get one Energy Core through disassembly of two Alien Neutron Heavy weapons. Alien Neutron Rifle This is a Rifle, a very deadly Rifle... We believe we should be able to start researching the Alien Neutron Technology once we have examined an Alien Neutron Heavy and interrogated a soldier of a class that uses these weapons. Disassembly of 5 Alien Neutron Rifles will allow us to collect 2 Energy Core kits. Alien Neutron Sniper I would strongly advice against getting hit by this Sniper Rifle using the Alien Neutron Technology. It would be rather bad for your health, Commander. On the research side of things, we ought to be able to build on the Alien Neutron Technology, the investigation of this weapon, and an investigation of an Alien Neutron Cannon, together with interrogation of a senior Caesan Weapon Specialist to start research on the Advanced Alien Neutron Technology. Our Alien Neutron Sniper disassembly protocol provides one Energy Core for every weapon processed. Alien Plasma Pistol The Alien Plasma Pistol is an alien sidearm that is approximately eight inches long and roughly a kilogram in weight. Though it bears some resemblance to a human firearm, it does not fire a bullet but rather a searing bolt of superheated plasma. It is a powerful weapon, easily capable of killing an unarmoured man in a single shot. However, our tests suggest the compact size of the weapon renders it fairly inefficient: the plasma bolt loses cohesion and starts to dissipate almost immediately. It is thus most dangerous at short ranges, where a single shot has a good chance of killing one of our soldiers outright. As that range increases, the projectile steadily becomes less accurate and damaging. The lesson here should be clear: fight units equipped with this weapon from as far away as possible. We believe it should be possible to combine the findings made from the examination of this weapon with examinations of their Rifle and Heavy Machinegun correspondents, i.e. the Alien Plasma Rifle and the Alien Heavy Plasma Rifle, augmented by interrogation of a Caesan Soldier familiar with these weapons to begin research on the Alien Plasma Technology. Thanks to this research, we can now extract 2 Energy Core kits from each lot of 5 Alien Plasma Pistols. Alien Plasma Rifle <Is the text still correct with its references to the Jackal and Hunter?> The Alien Plasma Rifle is a single-handed alien infantry weapon approximately thirty inches in length and three kilograms in weight. It is a vastly more capable combat weapon than the Alien Plasma Pistol, generating a plasma bolt that is significantly more powerful and cohesive than its smaller cousin. Without the space constraints of the Alien Plasma Pistol, the aliens have mounted a more substantial generation array inside the weapon's barrel. This gives it a similar operational range to most ballistic assault rifles, but far higher damage and armour penetration potential. Laboratory tests suggest Jackal combat armour may do just enough to allow the wearer to survive a direct hit, but unarmoured troops would likely be killed instantly. Indeed, we believe this weapon is even a credible threat to our Hunter armoured cars. It would appear that the versatility of the alien Plasma Rifle makes it the default armament for Caesan combatants. It is powerful, light, accurate and capable of burst fire - in short, vastly superior to anything we possess. By combining the findings made from examining this weapon with similar examination of an Alien Plasma Pistol and an Alien Heavy Plasma Rifle, with the addition of interrogation of a Caesan Soldier familiar with these weapons, we ought to be able to begin research on the Alien Plasma Technology. The disassembly outcome of this research is one Energy Core for every two weapons processed. Alien Heavy Plasma Rifle The Alien Heavy Plasma Rifle is the mean bigger brother of the Alien Plasma Rifle, and serves as a Heavy Machinegun. Surprisingly, the aliens are still able to fire this weapons using a single hand while wielding a shield in the other one. By combining the findings made from examining this weapon with similar examination of an Alien Plasma Pistol and an Alien Plasma Rifle, with the addition of interrogation of a Caesan Soldier familiar with these weapons, we ought to be able to begin research on the Alien Plasma Technology. Our research allows us to now disassemble these weapons to provide one Energy Core for every 2 weapons processed. Alien Matergy Pistol The Alien Matergy Pistol is a strange beast that doesn't seem to use any propellant for its bullets (which, of course, doesn't make it any less deadly). We believe we can build on the scant findings from this research by examining an Alien Matergy Rifle and interrogating a Sebillian Soldier, as they seem to be familiar with these weapons. Once done, we ought to be able to start research into the Alien Matergy Technology. It is now possible to disassemble Alien Matergy Pistols to gain 2 Ballistic Cores for every 5 weapons processed. Alien Matergy Cannon This Sebillian weapon is a small area effect weapon with a large impact. To continue our studies to the Advanced Matergy Technology we believe we need to know the Advanced Alien Flamer Technology, the Alien Matergy Techology (of course, we can't proceed to the advanced studies without the basics), and pick the brains of a Sebillian Weapon Officer (through Interrogation, not physically, as that would be both messy and fruitless). Beyond this, however, we are unsure whether we have what we need to proceed or need to study additional types of advanced Matergy weaponry first. We've devised a disassembly protocol for these weapons to gain one Ballistic Core for each weapon disassembled. Alien Matergy Minigun A minigun, but using the Matergy Technology. To continue our studies to the Advanced Matergy Technology we believe we need to know the Advanced Alien Flamer Technology, the Alien Matergy, and interrogate a Sebillian Weapon Officer. Beyond this, however, we are unsure whether we have what we need to proceed or need to study additional types of advanced Matergy weaponry first. We've devised a disassembly protocol for these weapons: each of these brutes should yield 2 Ballistic Cores when disassembled. Alien Dark Pistol The Alien Dark Pistol seems to somehow generate anti matter. To begin studies on the Alien Dark Technology, we probably have to examine an Alien Dark Cannon and an Alien Dark Assault weapon, as well as interrogating representatives of one or more Terror Soldier castes. 3 of these weapons should provide us with 2 Antimatter Cores when disassembled.

I don't quite understand the question. I understand you want it readable, but you were the one who wanted the code brackets... The format IS readable in the game when inserted into researches.xml (which is where I've copied them from, as that's now my main location for the texts: it took quite some time it insert the texts. I've kept a copy of the X-Division original in case I will need it, for some reason, with the name researches.xml.org). I believe messing with the format by introducing artificial newlines will cause it to be readable on some screen resolutions, but look stunted and silly on larger ones, alternatively look fine at large resolutions, but get weird line breaks at lower ones. When I write new/edited texts I copy them to a scrap text file as I go. When done I paste them onto the board, using the spell checking to catch errors (and it did catch one in a text I believe was from the original), at which time I fix those errors both on the board and in researches.xml. Once that's done I've made the entries into "code". Once I start a new batch I clear the scratch pad file. Do you have some suggestion that doesn't result in maintaining two versions of every entry? Edit: I'll try skipping the explicit newline characters, as it seems to display perfectly fine just using plain old new lines.

No worries. I just wanted to explain my view on the matter. And now onto something more important: I've come up with a new version of the Alien Matergy Technology description that ties back to the video you linked in a rather literal way... Alien Matergy Technology This technology is insane, Commander! Not in the "this is out of this world" way, but in its sheer lucridicy. The basic physics behind it is something a creative physics teacher could use to spice up lectures, but incredibly more powerful. So, what does it do, then? It uses a "propellant" in the form of a weight of an alien material that's magnetic and an electro magnet to accelerate that weight to slam into the magnet. The magnet, in turn, transfers that force to a non magnetic bullet, that is then thrown out of the weapon. While the physics teacher would use this Newton's Cradle principle to cause a marble to topple a book stood on end, these weapons fire slugs at supersonic speed, to lethal effect. This should simply be impossible, as the magnetic field required should be impossible to generate, and *if* it would be possible to accelerate the weight to these speeds, both it and the electro magnet should be smashed into smithereens and a huge amount of heat should be unleashed. However, the electro magnet manages to create this gigantic field, both the weight and the magnet manages to stay intact without deformation, and they manage to transfer virtually all of the kinetic energy of the weight into the bullet! Why would anyone even think of making a weapon this way? It is as if a genius with access to bizarre materials was tasked with coming up with a weapon when he had much more important things to do, and just threw together the first thing he could think of to get back to more important matters... Why are you looking at me like that, Commander? Despite the mad design and materials involved we are unable to either understand completely or replicate, our study of the Matergy Pistol and Matergy Rifle has given us enough information to start researching the application of this technology to producing our own Magnetic weapons (MAG for short). We believe we should be able to reuse the "firing mechanisms" of Matergy weapons, and since there is one of those in each weapon, I don't foresee any shortage of that component for the purpose of supplying our troops with weapons. As is typical of Alien weapon Technology studies, we want to continue on to Advanced Matergy Technology studies as soon as we have studied enough additional Matergy weapon types to proceed. Edit: And a new lot of entries: MAG Machinegun <It came as an unpleasant surprise that the Hunter can't use these, as I'm yet to find any ground vehicle that has a similar role> …Summary… Range: 20 Damage: 45 x 30 shots Type: Kinetic Mitigation: 30 Ammo Capacity: 300 This weapon improves on the Division Machinegun in all aspects except one: Its system requirements are too great for our venerable Hunter car, and so require more advanced machinegun capable vehicles to be of use. <I haven't yet produced any melee weapons, and so have no experience of them> Alien Flamer Heavy The Alien Flamer Heavy is essentially a machinegun using the Alien Flamer Technology. We believe study of this weapon, together with the Alien Flamer Cannon and information extracted from a Sebillian weapons specialist of sufficient seniority should allow us to commence studies of the Advanced Alien Flamer Technology. We are now able to extract one Ballistic Core from every 2 Alien Flamer Heavy processed. Alien Battle Rifle The Alien Battle Rifle is an alien weapon around forty inches long and five kilogrammes in weight. It can project deadly bolts of plasma over great distance with incredible accuracy, is capable of burst fire and has excellent armour mitigation. Be very careful of enemies carrying this weapon - not only do they have access to the most fearsome weapon in the extraterrestrial arsenal encountered yet, they will also represent the elite of the alien forces on the battlefield. The Battle Rifle is the finest example of a plasma weapon we are likely to encounter. The engineering is extremely impressive: there is little to differentiate the workings of the Battle Rifle from other alien weapons beyond the quality of production. Virtually every component shows dozens of incremental improvements: for example, every electromagnet in the weapon has a hardened alloy core that has undergone complete electron rearrangement, allowing them to generate a charge twice as powerful as normal. It would probably take us years to replicate just one of these weapons. Examination of this weapon has provided us with some leads on the Advanced Alien Plasma Technology, but we may need to study other weapons, possibly interrogate a Caesan Weapon Officer, and maybe even insight into the related Alien Neutron Technology may be required before we can proceed. Our disassembly protocol for these weapons provides us with 2 Energy Cores for every weapon processed. Alien Plasma Sniper The Alien Plasma Sniper is an extraterrestrial infantry weapon that measures nearly fifty inches in length. It is fitted with a complex holographic sighting array and produces a focused bolt of plasma that travels extremely quickly and can maintain stability over great range, suggesting it is the alien equivalent of a sniper rifle. The weapon has remarkable internal similarities to the Heavy Plasma, possessing the same lengthened generation chamber that significantly amplifies the energy content of the resulting bolt. The main difference lies with the helical spiral of electromagnets housed in the barrel of the weapon: long and thin, rather than short and compact. This results in a narrow and stretched bolt of plasma that can carve through the air with less resistance (and destabilisation) than normal, and then focus a great deal of energy into a narrower impact point to give more penetrative power. This fearsome penetrative power is actually somewhat of a mixed blessing. The plasma bolts will punch through almost any conceivable type of armour, but will also punch right through the soldier underneath. While I doubt having a tunnel half an inch wide burned straight through your body is a particularly pleasant experience, it is unlikely to be fatal unless it strikes the brain or another vital organ. This weapon therefore presents an interesting conundrum: it is very accurate even at long range and will bypass any protective equipment the target may be wearing, but it also fires slowly and is unlikely to kill a soldier outright. Examination of this weapon has provided us with some leads on the Advanced Alien Plasma Technology, but we may need to study other weapons, possibly interrogate a Caesan Weapon Officer, and maybe even insight into the related Alien Neutron Technology may be required before we can proceed. We have produced a disassembly protocol for these weapons that result in one Energy Core for every weapon processed. Alien Matergy Heavy The Alien Matergy Heavy is the Matergy Technology heavy machinegun. If we study a sufficient number of Matergy weapons we should be able to start research on Advanced Alien Matergy Technology. These weapons can be disassembled to provide one Ballistic Core for every weapon processed. Alien Matergy Sniper It's a sniper rifle using the Matergy Technology, which means it is accurate at a long range and deals more damage than the "simple" Alien Ballistic Sniper Rifle. The only consolation is that it is slow firing and doesn't have any burst capability. It should be possible for us to commence with Advanced Alien Matergy Technology research once we have studies a sufficient number of Matergy weapon designs. We can now gain one Ballistic Core for each of these weapons disassembled. Alien Toxin Pistol This pistol fires a neuro toxin that penetrates the body via the skin or inhalation. The aliens are completely ignoring the Geneva Convention, Commander. Study of this weapon alone is unlikely to allow us to start to research Alien Toxin Technology: We may need to study a rifle version, and may also have to interrogate one or more of the units that wield this kind of weapons. We have devised a disassembly protocol for these weapons that produces one Chemical Core for each weapon disassembled. Alien Flamer Cannon A Cannon class weapon using the Alien Flamer Technology. As such, it sports an area effect in addition to the direct impact one. After studying this weapon we think study of an Alien Flamer Heavy and interrogation of a Sebillian Weapon Officer should provide us with access to the Advanced Alien Flamer Technology research topic. Each of these weapons can now be processed to yield one Ballistic Core. Alien Plasma Cannon The Alien Plasma Cannon is a large infantry weapon that measures a little less than fifty inches in length. We believe it is best thought of as the alien equivalent of a bazooka or rocket-propelled grenade, firing a single powerful bolt of plasma that has great range and will inflict major damage on anything caught in the blast radius. It is vastly superior to its conventional counterparts. The most obvious advantage is the increased damage it inflicts: at short range it can penetrate at least 15 inches of solid steel (precise measurements were difficult as we ran out of steel before the projectile ran out of power). In basic terms, it is enough to destroy virtually any conventional vehicle in the world in a single shot. Also important is the alien ammo clip system as mentioned earlier - it takes even a skilled operator up to ten seconds to reload a traditional anti-tank weapon after every shot, while the Alien Plasma Cannon firing rate is limited only by the time it takes to aim and fire. The weapon also suffers minimal recoil and has no back-blast, making it easier to handle and safer for adjacent friendly units. Thankfully, alien materials are far more resistant against the penetrative effect of these projectiles than conventional materials. We believe the vaporised metal forms a shell around the projectile when it strikes steel, doing much of the penetrating work for it. However, the higher melting point of Alien Alloys prevents this from occurring and instead the projectile must rely on raw energy to inflict damage. Our more advanced technology gives us some protection against this weapon - though the Wolf and Buzzard are not strong enough to protect a soldier from a direct hit, the Wolf in particular should help our troops survive being caught in the blast. I have already warned your men about the fearsome power of this weapon; one hopes it will encourage them to get out of the way of the projectiles. Examination of this weapon has provided us with some leads on the Advanced Alien Plasma Technology, but we may need to study other weapons, possibly interrogate a Caesan Weapon Officer, and maybe even insight into the related Alien Neutron Technology may be required before we can proceed. We should get a 1:1 ratio between Alien Plasma Cannons and Energy Cores when we process these weapons. Alien Neutron Cannon The Alien Neutron Cannon is a blast radius cannon type weapon using the Alien Neutron Technology. We believe we can build on the Alien Neutron Technology research, the study of this weapon, the study of the Alien Neutron Sniper, and interrogation of a high ranking Caesan Weapons Specialist to begin research on the Advanced Alien Neutron Technology. We are now able to extract the components of one Energy Core kit out of each Alien Neutron Cannon disassembled. Alien Matergy Rifle This is the Matergy Technology version of a rifle. Together with the Alien Matergy Pistol research and interrogation of a Sebillian Soldier familiar with it, we ought to be able to start research on the Alien Matergy Technology. We now have a protocol for extraction of Ballistic Cores from these weapons: one Ballistic Core for every two Alien Matergy Rifles.

It is English, but it doesn't matter if it's correct if a lot of people don't understand it... Only jerks (and people in the mumbo-jumbo business [Look up Alan Sokal's bluff, if I remember the name correctly]) intentionally use language too convoluted for the receivers to actually understand it. I've updated that entry and the Pulse Laser one.

Half again = 50% more. The change I made to the Pulse Laser text was to cut out the part about scavenging material, as there are no such requirements, so that was from the previous text, but yes, it can not (no longer, I presume) be used by the Hunter.

I believe the Small Base Operator should be added to the list of Basic specialists? Also, I've seen there is something called Gauss weapons in researches.xml, but I haven't investigated whether they are active or dud. If they are active, the MAG description will have to be revised. I've gone through a new batch of X-Pedia entries, with, is some cases extremely small changes to keep things somewhat consistent. I haven't been able to check vehicle weapon damages as I don't know where the data comes from, and I'm not sure the vehicle weapon files are either consistent or match the text, so I've left that part as it is. Alien Flamer Pistol A peculiar weapon able to hurling "bullets" of flame, but otherwise it acts like a pistol. We have produced a disassembly protocol that allows us to process 5 of these weapons to gain one Ballistic Core. Alien Flamer Rifle This peculiar weapon is capable of hurling flaming bolts at great distances. Apart from the peculiar "bullets", it operates as a rifle, capable of both burst and single shot modes. Our disassembly protocol allows us to extract one Ballistic Core from 4 of these weapons. Alien Ballistic Heavy This is the Sebillian equivalent of a Heavy Machinegun, only more deadly. These weapons can now be disassembled to yield one Ballistic Core for each 4 weapons, thanks to the protocol we have developed. Alien Ballistic Cannon This Sebillian weapon is basically a man (i.e. Sebillian) portable cannon that has a small area effect around the impact point. While this area effect isn't lethal, it is still powerful enough to be able to cause heavy bleeding as well as suppression, and you really don't want to be at the impact point itself. Don't cluster your soldiers when an enemy is close, or you are inviting a grenade, and don't cluster your soldiers when a Sebillian brute sporting one of these is far away, or you will invite attack by this weapon. Since this weapon is fairly complex, we only need to disassemble two of these to get one Ballistic Core. Alien Lightning Cannon This Lightning weapon is slow firing, but packs a stun/EMP punch that affects an area around the impact point, so don't pick up one of these and fire it at a Xenomorph at point-blank range! This large weapon contains enough useful parts to allow us to disassemble them into one Energy Core for every two weapons. This research has also provided a step on the journey towards Alien Advanced Lightning Technology. Alien Small Shield This seems to be a more capable version of the Alien Mini Shield. While still much smaller than our own shields, they are twice as durable. Together with the study of the smaller sibling, means of shaping Alien Alloys, and study of some armour plating that is thinner than that in alien craft, we ought to be able to come up with an improved shield version of our own, although it probably won't be as elegant and easy to wield as the Alien Small Shield. Siege The Siege vehicle is as close as we can get to a conventional tank while still being able to carry it in our drop ships. As expected, it is slower than its predecessors but can both resist and take more punishment than those. It is only capable of using a cannon as its weapon, although we expect all vehicle cannons we develop will fit any cannon capable vehicle. Machinegun …Summary… Range: 16 Damage: 30 x 9 shots Type: Kinetic Mitigation: 5 Ammo Capacity: 200 The vehicle Machinegun is actually a pair: dual .30cal machineguns typically used for light combat vehicles. Division Machinegun …Summary… Range: 18 Damage: 40 x 12 shots Type: Kinetic Mitigation: 20 Ammo Capacity: 240 We have applied our Division Technology magic to the vehicle Machinegun available to our Hunter vehicles (and any other vehicles capable of using Machineguns, of course). This means it packs a heavier punch and mitigates more armour than the standard equipment. Alenium Rocket …Summary… Damage: 230 Type: Incendiary Mitigation: 0 The Alenium Rocket is a straight upgrade for the standard Viper rocket. It behaves the same and fits the same launchers, but causes about 50% more damage. Pulse Laser &#8230;Summary&#8230;&#10;&#10;Range: 22 &#10;Damage: 40 x 10 shots&#10;Type: Energy &#10;Mitigation: 20 &#10;Ammo Capacity: 150 &#10;The purpose of the Pulse Laser is to produce a weapon that inflicts the maximum amount of damage possible per shot, creating an extremely powerful laser beam that is able to inflict heavy damage on even well-protected targets at great range.&#10;&#10;Aside from scaling the laser emitter up, we have further developed it to produce a beam of oscillating intensity, switching between a high and low power levels thousands of times per second. Rather than sustaining a uniform level of heat, the target suffers repeated &quot;pulses&quot; of intense heat that causes rapid fracturing of the surface material. As the surface material breaks apart and disintegrates this effect becomes even more pronounced, giving the Pulse Laser excellent armour penetration compared to standard lasers. &#10;&#10;We have developed a variant of the weapon small enough to mount on ground combat vehicles that is available for immediate production, using 4 units of Alien Alloys. This is fitted with a battery that holds enough power for 8 shots and should substantially boost the combat effectiveness of the vehicle. Unfortunately, the Hunter car is not up to the task of carrying Laser weapons, so we need more capable craft to actually field this weapon. We have also used the Pulse Laser to upgrade our base defense batteries. Pulling power directly from the base reactors, they should greatly improve the chances of destroying an attacking extraterrestrial craft before it can unload ground forces. The retrofit is already well underway and should be complete by the time you read this; any future defence batteries we construct will also incorporate laser technology into their design (at least until we develop something better). Alenium Cannon …Summary… Range: 22 Damage: 120 Type: Incendiary Mitigation: 15 Ammo Capacity: 16 Fairly simple update, Commander, we've just replaced some of the high-explosive found within our vehicle cannon shells with depleted alenium and fitted a triggering mechanism. Even though the shell form factor is the same as our standard cannon shells, the triggering system is not, and requires a slight rework of the internals of the cannon. Engineering should be able to put a few of these together for you... and if you're fielding a lot of vehicles, I suspect it's going to be worth it for you to do so. Enjoy your new cannon, Commander. AP Alenium Cannon …Summary… Range: 28 Damage: 240 Type: Kinetic Mitigation: 50 Ammo Capacity: 24 The AP Alenium Cannon is only partially an upgrade of the Alenium Cannon, as it deals Kinetic rather than Incendiary damage, but in most cases this equipment is superiour.

Hm, I hadn't expected that handover... I have no intention to do anything to assist translation (nor anything to hinder it). This means those interested in translation will have to use whatever assets are available in the mod (and in this thread regarding what I've written) to do what's necessary, subject to whatever licensing restrictions there may be (of which I know nothing). You're free to use whatever I've produced to use as a source for translation mods. What I know about creating mods is that Charon posted a reference a few posts up. I have no knowledge of which licenses the text based files in this mod are subjected to, and thus whether they can be published on various sites or not. Nor do I know if all text in the game is available in such files, or whether some is hard coded or require changes to text in images. Edit: Very little progress in the form of new entries today, as I've spent a lot of time pasting the texts into the xenopedia.xml file in my installation and have done a cursory check of its appearance in the game. I'll enter future texts into the xenopedia.xml as I go in the future, so it should be kept updated to match the progress. A few corrections have been made in posts above, whereas the following is "new", i.e. modified existing entries or corrections to entries posted above: Early Specialists Caesan Key information: They have spilled the beans, literally. Do you know that there is a very effective bean interrogation technique, commander ? Well anyway now we have an good overview of the different aliens we might encounter: •Chieftain: Leader of the mission •Operator Light Scout: Light Scout mission operator •Operator Scout: Scout mission operator •Operator Corvette: Corvett mission operator •Early Terror Operator: Terror mission operator •Early Assault Operator: Base assault mission operator •Early Bomber Operator: Bomber mission operator •Weapon Sergeant: Weapon system operator •Navigator: Craft navigation •Technician: Craft maintenance and repair •Medic: Crew health Early Specialists Sebillian Key information: They have spilled the beans, literally. Do you know that there is a very effective bean interrogation technique, commander ? Well anyway now we have an good overview of the different aliens we might encounter: •Chieftain: Leader of the mission •Operator Light Scout: Light scout mission operator •Operator Scout: Scout mission operator •Operator Corvette: Corvette mission operator •Early Terror Operator: Terror mission operator •Early Assault Operator: Base assault mission operator •Early Bomber Operator: Bomber mission operator •Weapon Sergeant: Weapon system operator •Navigator: Craft navigation •Technician: Craft maintenance and repair •Medic: Crew health Basic Specialists Caesan Key information: They have spilled the beans, literally. Do you know that there is a very effective bean interrogation technique, commander ? Well anyway now we have an good overview of the different aliens we might encounter: •Officer: Leader of the mission •Operator Landing: Landing mission operator •Operator Cruiser: Cruiser mission operator •Operator Alien Outpost: Outpost mission operation •Basic Terror Operator: Terror mission operator •Basic Assault Operator: Base assault mission operator •Basic Bomber Operator: Bomber mission operator •Weapon Officer: Weapon system operator •Pilot: Craft navigation •Engineer: Craft maintenance and repair •Physician: Crew health •Terror Soldier: Grunt used in terror/base assault missions, as well as outpost defense Basic Specialists Sebillian Key information: They have spilled the beans, literally. Do you know that there is a very effective bean interrogation technique, commander ? Well anyway now we have an good overview of the different aliens we might encounter: •Officer: Leader of the mission •Operator Landing: Landing mission operator •Operator Cruiser: Cruiser mission operator •Operator Alien Outpost: Outpost mission operator •Basic Terror Operator: Terror mission operator •Basic Assault Operator: Base assault mission operator •Basic Bomber Operator: Bomber mission operator •Weapon Officer: Weapon system operator •Pilot: Craft navigation •Engineer: Craft maintenance and repair •Physician: Crew health •Terror Soldier: Grunt used in terror/base assault missions, as well as outpost defense Sebillian Physician Interrogation The Sebillian Physician provided to have a broader knowledge about Sebillian aligned aliens than the Sebillian Medic. In practical terms, this means we have been able to upgrade our medikit to be twice as effective, at the cost of a slightly larger weight. This gain is effective immediately, so you should review your troops needs for medikits before sending them out on their next mission. In addition to this, we have also gained sufficient knowledge to start researching the fearsome zombification process. Division SMG Mk-3 The Division SMG Mk-3 isn't a new weapon, but an upgrade of the Mk-2 model. As such, it doesn't only require a Ballistic Core and some Alenium for its manufacture, it also requires a Mk-2 weapon, typically requiring one of your soldiers to downgrade to an inferiour weapon during the process. However, it should be worth your while as the upgrade allows the weapon do do 10% more damage at an increased armour mitigation. It also provides a stronger suppression effect (as did the Mk-2 over the Mk-1 before it). Division Shotgun Mk-3 The Division Shotgun Mk-3 isn't a new weapon, but an upgrade of the Mk-2 model. As such, it doesn't only require a Ballistic Core and some Alenium for its manufacture, it also requires a Mk-2 weapon, typically requiring one of your soldiers to downgrade to an inferiour weapon during the process. The upgraded weapon fires two additional slugs (14 vs 12) and has a larger ammo clip capacity. The Specialist need to go through a second pass, as the "spilled beans" description gets old quickly. Also, I noted the Psion was missing from the Caesan lists, but haven't done anything about it (yet). As far as I can see there's an analysis, and I can collect them, but I haven't been able to perform either autopsy or vivisection on them. Lastly, the alien crafts caused some rework, as there are basically two entries for more or less every craft: one DSB one and one without DSB, and it's the latter that's actually used. I would guess the DSB ones are redundant remains from a version where you'd first examine a craft and that would open up a DSB research, while we now get the DSB results directly.

I was fairly certain the clip size was based on turns, but thought it would be useful to try to convey it to the reader, even though "turn" is somewhat immersion breaking, but very much a game play reality. Given how sensitive this whole thing is to mod order, as well as the warning against using it with anything but cosmetic mods (which this would be, in a way) I haven't dared to mess with the files. For my purposes I think a mod is overkill, as the only reason I'd look at the entries in game would be to see what they looked like in place in case adjustments would be needed. Currently this thread IS my source as I write it in a plain text editor and then paste it into a post, correcting spelling errors it catches (when it doesn't point at English spelling, of course). researches.xml is a pain compared to the data shown by yEd, so the latter is my primary source. I have currently unlocked only the Jackal and Fox armors, and start to feel increasingly naked, so entries for more advanced armor will have to wait until I get there, and have reached the end so I can start from the top again looking for "new" stuff, and at that time I'll try to remember to re-check the two early armors. Apart from protect, all those blasted fences and low hedges are a pain when carrying a shield, so the Buzzard would come in very handy for my shield bearing scouts. Time and time again I get caught by their inability to cross fairly short distances in order to whack aliens with their whiffle sticks. Edit: Another thing: I think a load screen comment on research would be useful. Something along the lines of: The X-Division research tree isn't fully static. Some research has a probability of being unlocked when preconditions are met. If they fail to unlock at the first opportunity there will be other chances later, typically guaranteeing it to become available eventually if you collect all research that can unlock it. And I'm not sure whether typically is always or just usually. Some of those webs are rather confusing...

Mitigation/penetration isn't just the ability to penetrate things, but the ability to bypass/ignore things. Thus, a laser in the visible range will mostly ignore a protection that's transparent to that wavelength, and so mitigates the protection e.g. a glass window would have provided and deliver most of its power to the target behind it, while a bullet would have to smash through that same window to reach the target (leaving no protection left in this case). An armor piercing bullet is shaped to make a comparatively tiny hole in the armor by concentrating the force into a point, while a hollow point bullet smashes into the armor and spreads out into a blob that delivers all of its kinetic energy over a comparatively large area. If you fire that bullet with enough velocity, it will nevertheless inflict damage after having made a fairly large hole in the armor. In the same vein, armor piercing anti-tank weapons often employ a process where the impact of the tip of the rocket causes a very rapid generation of a plasma (real world plasma) "spear" to emit from the tip of the weapon to punch a hole through the armor fast enough that the rest of the payload can go through that fairly small hole and explode inside the tank. So yes, the rail gun will smash through all that steel not through a clever armor piercing design, but through sheer brute force that smashes through the steel with enough force to impact what's behind (and push some bits of smashed steel plates through at the other side as shrapnel, I would guess). Of course, one thing doesn't necessarily rule out the other, so in principle you could add something that assists in armor penetration to the top of the "slug". However, you'd have to design this to be highly resistant to the effects of having extremely high voltages coursing through the slug when it is fired, and you'd also need a reason to want penetration, rather than smashing. Look at the description of one of the comparatively early weapons that effectively drills a hole straight through the target in the game to see why you might not want to concentrate the force too much.

I didn't mean hybrid between ballistic and energy, but between a chemical base propulsion with a magnetic one on top, but still a slug being propelled. However, Gauss guns aren't unheard of in SF (e.g. Fallout (2?/Tactics?), the RPGs: don't know about the Oblivion with Guns RPS'), so that's probably a better choice. Edit: I've started to look at the XML files, and it seems the Alien Phaser Heavy has been given a clip size of 12 in weapons.xml and 18 in weapons_gc.xml, as well as a difference in range (12 vs 14) (and it looks like it should be possible for someone who's good at text parsing scripting to write a cross checking script to catch cases where the files disagree). Also, what happens if I try to enter my X-Pedia suggestions into xenopedia.xml? Will I be able to see what they look like in-game, no effect, or harm the game in some way (assuming the entry is correct, without introducing XML syntax errors)? The same question applies to correcting the Extreme Landing Ship typo: can I correct it, or should I leave it be (including if it will screw up the introduction of a possible future backwards compatible patch)? Edit 2: Today's X-Pedia entry candidates Alien Phaser Pistol It's really exciting to study a truly alien piece of technology, Commander. The Alien Phaser Pistol is a single handed short range weapon using an as yet unidentified technology to produce energy damage. Since the weapon is not designed for operation with human hands, it suffers from considerable accuracy penalties when used by our own soldiers. We first tried to modify the weapon to fit human hands, but faced an insurmountable problem: these weapons have a user identification authority system built in, and this system verifies the user's authority every 4 shots. It's possible to reset the verification by using a spare ammo clip, but it again refuses to operate beyond the initial 4 shots. It can be noted that the ammo "clip" contains sufficient energy to last a war, so the spare clip seems to be a replacement part in case of malfunction, rather than an ammo clip in any conventional sense, but malfunction must be sufficiently common for the aliens to provide their troops with a spare part. It may well be that the user authority functionality is sufficiently sensitive that it subject to malfunction due to common battlefield effects. The ammo clip communicates with the weapon using an incredibly complex protocol encrypted well beyond what we can hope to ever crack, even with deep inside information (of which we have exactly none). This means we have no hope to produce "ammo clips" of our own for alien weapons. Also, it seems the 4 shot authorisation grace period is limited to a few days, so recovered alien ammo clips become functionally useless outside of a single mission. What about using an alien's dead hand to authorise a weapon for use? Well, we've tried that as well, but the biometric scanning method apparently is sophisticated enough to recognise a dead hand when it senses one. It IS possible to use the hand of an unconscious alien to authorise a weapon, but it is not possible to apply it in battlefield conditions, as the alien's hand has to be on the weapon as the shot triggering authorisation is fired (by pressing the alien's hand at the weapon and it's trigger). I'm sure the troops are not thrilled by the concept of hauling an unconscious alien on their backs in the field... Alien ammo clips are also equipped with anti tampering functionality, which means their internals are fried when we try to pry them open. Again, some kind of authorisation protocol is in place, but short of seizing an alien ammo clip manufacturing facility, we foresee no possibility of ever being able to open these clips without destroying the internals. As a result of this, alien ammo clips are destroyed when brought back, and the useful result is some additional depleted Alenium, providing us with effectively unlimited amounts of that resource. By picking this weapon apart and examining its parts we have come up with a disassembly protocol by which we can take 5 of these pistols and produce one Energy Core parts kit. We currently have no use for Energy Cores, but hope to be able to use them to eventually build energy based weapons of our own. The examination and disassembly protocol development has effectively destroyed the studied pistol and its components, so it can not be used for disassembly itself. We expect this to happen to all specimen of whatever type subjected to study, as we need to exhaust every avenue to get information out of it. Alien Phaser Rifle This Phaser weapon is the alien energy weapon equivalent of a rifle, with a similar battlefield usage. The alien weapons can be operated with a single hand (which increases the accuracy penalty already present from the alien grip), as opposed to the rifles of our own. For some reason, the weapon use authorisation interval for this weapon is 6 shots rather than the 4 used by the Alien Phaser Pistol. It may well be that the interval is based on the actions possible within a single battlefield turn. We cannot use the Alien Phaser Rifle ourselves, but we can pick it apart for parts. Our disassembly protocol allows us to produce one Energy Core parts kit out of every 4 Alien Phaser Rifles. Once we have examined its wielder, as well as a Phaser Pistol, we should have enough information to launch research into Alien Phaser Technology. Alien Phaser Heavy The Alien Phaser Heavy is an alien Phaser weapon filling the role of a Heavy Machinegun. Our research has resulted in a disassembly protocol that allows us to extract one Energy Core from every 4 Alien Phaser Heavy processed. Alien Mini Shield The Alien Mini Shield is a remarkable item, Commander. It acts as our own shields when it comes to protecting from damage, but it is very much lighter, and possesses the ability to fold and unfold automatically to take up only a single slot in the inventory. Its weakness is that it protects only against 60 points of damage, while our own shields protect against 150. Given that the Caesans predominantly use single handed weapons, usage of a shield in the other hand makes a lot of sense. Like our own shields, they protect against damage in a 90 degree arc in front of the wielder, which translates into about 50% chance of intercepting incoming damage from each side. Thus, attacking from a position behind a shield wielding enemy increases the chances of actually causing damage (although the enemy will likely turn to face the attacker should the first attack fail to kill him). Also note that shields provide no protection against melee attacks (and this is valid for both our troops and the enemy), as an attacker can easily aim the strikes around the shield. While we would very much like to be able to use similar techniques to improve our own shields, we would need to be able to shape Alien Alloys first, as well as get access to some kind of armour fabrication technique using these Alloys to start such research. Alien Ballistic Pistol The Alien Ballistic Pistol is a single handed short range weapon using the well known basic principle of hurling a slug at a great speed at a target to inflict damage, but it produces a higher muzzle velocity, and thus damage, than what our own pistols are capable of. Since the weapon is not designed for operation with human hands, it suffers from considerable accuracy penalties when used by our own soldiers. We first tried to modify the weapon to fit human hands, but faced an insurmountable problem: these weapons have a user identification authority system built in, and this system verifies the user's authority every 4 shots. It's possible to reset the verification by using a spare ammo clip, but it again refuses to operate beyond the initial 4 shots. It can be noted that the ammo "clip" contains sufficient energy to keep flinging slugs for an entire war, and it somehow also manages to keep producing slugs without changing weight, so the spare clip seems to be a replacement part in case of malfunction, rather than an ammo clip in any conventional sense, but malfunction must be sufficiently common for the aliens to provide their troops with a spare part. It may well be that the user authority functionality is sufficiently sensitive that it subject to malfunction due to common battlefield effects. The ammo clip communicates with the weapon using an incredibly complex protocol encrypted well beyond what we can hope to ever crack, even with deep inside information (of which we have exactly none). This means we have no hope to produce "ammo clips" of our own for alien weapons. Also, it seems the 4 shot authorisation grace period is limited to a few days, so recovered alien ammo clips become functionally useless outside of a single mission. What about using an alien's dead hand to authorise a weapon for use? Well, we've tried that as well, but the biometric scanning method apparently is sophisticated enough to recognise a dead hand when it senses one. It IS possible to use the hand of an unconscious alien to authorise a weapon, but it is not possible to apply it in battlefield conditions, as the alien's hand has to be on the weapon as the shot triggering authorisation is fired (by pressing the alien's hand at the weapon and it's trigger). I'm sure the troops are not thrilled by the concept of hauling an unconscious alien on their backs in the field... Alien ammo clips are also equipped with anti tampering functionality, which means their internals are fried when we try to pry them open. Again, some kind of authorisation protocol is in place, but short of seizing an alien ammo clip manufacturing facility, we foresee no possibility of ever being able to open these clips without destroying the internals. As a result of this, alien ammo clips are destroyed when brought back, and the useful result is some additional depleted Alenium, providing us with effectively unlimited amounts of that resource. By picking this weapon apart and examining its parts we have come up with a disassembly protocol by which we can take 5 of these pistols and produce one Ballistic Core parts kit. We currently have no use for Ballistic Cores, but hope to be able to use them to eventually build more powerful ballistic weapons of our own where the Ballistic Cores would provide functionality we cannot produce ourselves. The examination and disassembly protocol development has effectively destroyed the studied pistol and its components, so it can not be used for disassembly itself. We expect this to happen to all specimen of whatever type subjected to study, as we need to exhaust every avenue to get information out of it. Alien Ballistic Rifle The Alien Ballistic Rifle is very similar in principle to our own rifles, with a similar battlefield usage. For some reason, the weapon use authorisation interval for this weapon is 6 shots rather than the 4 used by the Alien Ballistic Pistol. It may well be that the interval is based on the actions possible within a single battlefield turn. We cannot use the Alien Ballistic Rifle ourselves, but we can pick it apart for parts. Our disassembly protocol allows us to produce one Ballistic Core parts kit out of every 4 Alien Ballistic Rifles. Once we have examined its wielder, as well as a Ballistic Pistol, we should have enough information to launch research into Alien Phaser Technology. Alien Ballistic Sniper It is the alien ballistic weapon corresponding to our Sniper Rifles. Our disassembly research into this weapon has provided us with a protocol for the extraction of one Ballistic Core for every two Alien Ballistic Snipers. We believe it might be possible to use this research as a basis for stepping up research of Alien Ballistic Technology to the Advanced level, but we are not yet clear over whether we also need samples of additional types of Alien Ballistic weapons, or possibly also have to "interview" a Sebillian Weapon Sergeant to get there. Alien Lightning Pistol This is an interesting weapon, Commander. While it is an energy weapon, its direct damage is small and easily blocked by even a poor armour. Instead, it seems to direct its energy into a significant stunning effect on biological targets, and an even greater EMP (Electo Magnetic Pulse) damage that damages targets with electronics (i.e. non biological combatants, including our ground vehicles). We have produced a disassembly protocol that allows us to gain one Energy Core for every 5 Alien Lightning Pistols processed. This research, together with the Interrogation of a Caesan Weapon Sergeant, should allow us to study the principles behind these lightning weapons. We even hope to eventually be able to produce weapons of our own using the same or similar principles further down the road. Alien Lightning Rifle A Rifle weapon employing the Lightning Technology. It's capable of firing a 3 shot burst as well as individual rounds. Provided the damage isn't resisted or hits a shield (or kills the target), it should be capable of stunning just about any biological alien we have encounter thus far if two bursts (a full clip and a full round) score a hit with all of their shots. The disassembly protocol for this weapon type provides one Energy Core for each four weapons processed. We believe we will be able to research the Advanced Alien Technology once we have researched the basic Alien Lightning Technology, the Alien Lightning Cannon, and Interrogated a Caesan Weapon Officer. Edit 2: Updated according to comments.

Thanks for the answers, Charon. I'll send the crew home and hope the ship will build a base (and keep a save in reserve), but I'll take another look at the escorts (it was a couple of days ago, since I've "processed" the other craft shot down in the wave in the mean time). One thing that struck me as odd after my base defense mission was that Caesan Terror Soldiers (and I would guess the Sebillian ones as well, though I haven't got those) don't have any vivisection/autopsy research and thus no resourced extraction, despite them wearing armor (and the same goes for the civillian Caesans, who all seem to sport the same jumpsuit the Caesan Guard wears). Sebillian civilians seem to rely on their hide, so they make logical sense. Alien clip size/ammo: I'll try. I guess it will happen with the weapons. Also, the big ones only have a clip size of 2, but that ought to be possible to "explain". It also explains why the ammo is destroyed rather than processed. Alien Matergy: I'll try to come up with some mumbo jumbo, although magnetic and rail is really the same thing. Since I haven't seen the entries following the ones I've covered (for tech), I didn't know the fourth one was called rail. Hm, a conventional chemical propellant with some magnetic assistance to increase the muzzle velocity, i.e. some kine of hybrid early tech?

The drones weren't flying the corvette. They were just the only two units that survived the crash. If you'd raided a landed craft, there would be quite a few questions, though. And a request for advice: I believe I need to raid a base to advance some important technologies, but I'm not aware of the aliens having established one (I've done some looking around). I've previously raided a landed Extreme Landing Ship, which I think might have been a tactical mistake (although I did bag a few useful things), as I think it might have established a base for me to raid. Now I'm in a similar situation with another Extreme Landing Ship cruising around with my B team on the way to engage it as soon as it lands (the A team was busy defending a base against an alien assault). Should I send the B team back home and hope a base springs up, or should I raid the ship (assuming I manage to get to it while it's on the ground)? It will be some hours before I'm going to proceed with the game.

I lost my internet connection immediately after my previous post. Edit: I don't think hatching out of wraiths is a sign of it being out of control, but rather the indifference of the aliens when it comes to losses. Here's the X-Pedia candidate's I've made up in the mean time (including some techno-babble). It starts with an alternative description of the Xenomorph Facehugger Analysis. Xenomorph Facehugger Analysis This Xenomorph creature is uncannily similar to the creature in the recently released "The Alien" sci-fi horror movie, Commander. The small, fast creatures hatch out of eggs and scurry around looking for prey. In fact, they're sufficiently small that they're not recognized as threats when stationary, although they prompt reaction fire when moving. Curiously, local forces seem to be less jaded than our soldiers, and have been seen engaging these even when they try to hide. It can also be noted that the eggs can easily be destroyed if encountered before hatching, but both the eggs and the facehugger require manual aiming to be engaged. Once a facehugger find a victim, it jump up and latches onto the face of the victim, and immediately injects it with most of its internals. After a short time of gestation, during which the victim becomes a "zombie", an imperfect version of the Praetorian form of the creature burst forth from the chest of the victim (and, unfortunately, eliminating the zombie will result in a premature release of the monster, not its death), immediately ready to seek out new victims. We believe this Praetorian to be capable of evolving into gradually more lethal forms of the creature unless killed, possibly all the way to its ultimate form. If a facehugger fails to find a victim within a few turns it will die due to a combination of oxygen toxicity and depleted energy resources (they are not Alenium enhanced, which is about the only thing that is not terrifying news about these creatures). Our analysis has also identified some common weak points among the Xenomorph family, resulting in a slightly improved damage against them. Scout The Scout is an alien craft that, unsurprisingly, seems to be used primarily for scouting missions by the aliens. Its hull is made up of an alien alloy with remarkable strength and resilience. We have picked the scout clean in our research, and apart from the discrete components that are readily removed (unless destroyed in the crash or the battle for the craft), we have devised a protocol for extraction of further components which be believe will eventually be useful for systems and crafts of our own. Thus, we are able to extract 2 Alien Control Systems, 2 Light Engines, 3 Alien Computers and 1 Light Weapon System from it, as well as 4 units of Alien Alloys and 2 units of Alenium. Light Scout The Light Scout is a highly manoeuvrable alien craft that seems to be used primarily for scouting missions. Its hull is remarkably resilient, given its almost flimsy looking thinness. Picking the Light Scout clean in our research, we have come up with a protocol for extracting further components beyond those readily removable for the craft when it is recovered (unless those are destroyed in the crash or battle, of course). Unfortunately, devising the disassembly protocol isn't a perfect process, so the trial-and-error involved resulted in all of the parts from the examined craft to be damaged beyond repair. We can expect the same thing to happen with all disassembly protocol processes: the first sample will not yield any components. Our disassembly protocol will yield 1 Alien Control System, 1 Light Engine, 1 Alien Computer, and one Light Weapon System, as well as 2 units of Alien Alloys and 1 of Alenium. Fighter The Fighter is a highly manoeuvrable craft apparently intended for escort and interception missions. These craft seem to actively target our craft, which we can exploit by sending our interceptors up and wait for them in a fuel saving holding pattern, rather than chase them around as we have to do with other enemies. While none of the alien crafts are designed for operation within an atmosphere, the Fighters are still more than a match for our F-17 fighters, so just waiting for them isn't going to guarantee a victory. Shooting these fighters down will provide us with a Downed Fighter, as well as a modest amount of precious Alien Alloys and Alenium. We hope we will be able to eventually be able to repair and remake these craft to use them against the aliens. If nothing else, they can be sold for a decent amount of money, should we be strapped for cash, so excess craft beyond our own expected needs are very welcome both for that reason and for their Alien Alloys and Alenium. Corvette The aliens have started to field larger crafts than scouts, as you have seen, Commander. The Corvette can take considerably more punishment than the scouts and pack a much larger punch. However, once our troops have secured one of these, we can pick it for parts. We have devised a disassembly protocol that will provide us with 3 Alien Control Systems, 2 Light Engines, 2 Alien Computers, and 2 Light Weapon Systems, in addition to 5 Alien Alloys and 2 Alenium. Bomber Corvette The Bomber Corvette seems to be dedicated to attacking and destroying ground targets. The craft itself is slightly slower and has a lower turn rate than the base version of the craft, but the fire power is greater. The disassembly protocol for the craft provides us with 2 Alien Control Systems, 2 Light Engines, 1 Alien Computer, 3 Light Weapon Systems, and 4 Alien Alloys and 2 Alenium. Medium Scout This unit seems to be an improved version of the Scout that's faster, more durable, turns faster, and accelerates faster, but seems to fill the same role as the Scout seen previously. However, it seems to be crewed by higher ranking aliens. Our disassembly protocol provides the following from a craft: 1 Basic Alien Control System, 3 Light Engines, 3 Alien Computers, 1 Light Weapon System, and 4 Alien Alloys and 2 Alenium. Note that the Basic Alien Control System is a more advanced version of the Alien Control System found on earlier crafts: we expect this improved version to be required for more advanced aircraft of our own. Strike Corvette The Strike Corvette seems to be an improved version of the Corvette, crewed by higher ranking aliens. We can now disassemble these crafts into 2 Basic Alien Control Systems, 2 Light Engines, 2 Alien Computers, 3 Light Weapon Systems, and 5 Alien Alloys and 2 Alenium. Bomber Cruiser The Bomber Cruiser seems to be the aliens next step up from the Bomber Corvette. Rather than just improving the craft, they have deployed a larger, nastier craft. About the only good thing about them is that they're slow and slow turning (in alien craft terms), but getting hit by one of their missiles is likely to be a pilot's last mistake. The disassembly protocol we have established allows us to recover 2 Basic Alien Control Systems, 2 Light Engines, 2 Alien Computers, 5 Light Weapon Systems, and 6 Alien Alloys and 2 Alenium from each craft. Light Cruiser The Light Cruiser is larger and nastier than the Corvette, and sports a larger crew. We are now able to disassemble each of these crafts into 2 Basic Alien Control Systems, 3 Light Engines, 3 Alien Computers, 3 Light Weapon Systems, and 6 Alien Alloys and 2 Alenium. Heavy Fighter As if the Fighter wasn't bad enough, the aliens seem to have replaced their Fighters with Heavy Fighters. As far as we can tell, they fulfill exactly the same role and behave in the same way. Shooting them down will award us with a Downed Heavy Fighter, some Alien Alloys, and some Alenium. It can be noted that we gain these resources if we shoot down escorting Heavy Fighters, even if we are unable to take out the escorted craft. Given our efforts with the Fighter, we have reason to believe we should be able to turn the Downed Heavy Fighters against the aliens. If not, we can at least make some money from them. Extreme Landing Ship <The DSB Engineering info for this craft only states the input, but no results, so this is based on the stub on the research page> The Extreme Landing Ship seems to be intended for base establishment, and they possess a nasty "wave" attack of their own. Once we are able to assault it on the ground our troops face stiff opposition from a larger number (as expected) of nastier aliens than other ground missions would suggest. Terror units and advanced versions of the known "animal" aliens have been observed. The disassembly protocol for these craft, should you be able to acquire another one, provides us with 2 Extreme Alien Control Systems, 1 Light Engine, 1 Light Weapon System, 1 Alien Computer, 3 Heavy Engines, 3 Heavy Weapon Systems, 3 Alien Large Computers, and 7 Alien Alloys and 3 Alenium. Basic Alien Control System DSB This DSB protocol allows us to downgrade a Basic Alien Control System to an Alien Control System. Why would we want to downgrade a system? Well, if we are in desperate need of Alien Control Systems for the aircraft we can produce, we may well need to use what we can to allow us to continue the fight (and provide us with new craft to gain system from), rather than sit on our hands and wait for the eggheads to come up with suitable aircraft that use the newer component. However, be very careful when ordering disassembly jobs, as we cannot put it back together once the process has started (aborting it will cut the production cost from progressing, but the system being worked on is lost. This goes for every manufacturing process, by the way, so consider whether you actually want to abort jobs, rather than suspend them by reallocating the engineers). Alien Phaser Technology <Moved from Alien Plasma Technology and adapted accordingly. The Phaser technology description is made up to fit, of course> Studying the innards of the Alien Phaser Pistol and Phaser Rifle has given us a basic understanding of the science behind extraterrestial directed energy weapons. We remain some distance from replicating phaser-based weapons ourselves, even in a laboratory setting, but our work rases the tantalizing possibility of battlefield laser weapons. A brief explanation of the generation of a phaser bolt is as follows: firstly, the weapon draws energy from an Alenium power cell and uses it to power a powerful array of energy radiation emitters each tuned to a different frequency. The radiated energy is then enhanced and multiplied in a multiplier channel where it bounces back and forth between mirroring walls in a process that both produces additional photons, and also aligns the phase and polarisation of each wavelength, i.e. the same basic process as the known lasering effect, but somehow managing it for multiple wavelengths at once. The apparent purpose of the multiple wavelengths is to both utilise the effect that different wavelengths are blocked by different size particles (and the others are thus not affected), and to counter any mirroring effects of the target, by having some of the radiation targeting wavelengths that are not reflected. The end result is intense heating of the targeted area that rapidly converts the spot into plasma which both causes additional damage to the target through heat propagation, and removes the obstructing matter to allow the radiation to reach the next layer below (the radiation seems to be tuned to produce a proportionally larger amount of radiation in wavelength to which typical plasma is transparent). The main difference between the pistol and the rifle is the size of the energy generation/replication array (affecting the power generated), and the length of the multiplication channel (affecting the beam coherence, and thus effective range). Sadly, we are nowhere near an ability to reproduce this spectrum energy generation effect, as the materials involved in its generation is beyond our ability to produce or repurpose (we can't strip weapons for these parts, as they're too delicate: they're sturdy enough when fitted in place, though). Study of more types of weapons using this technique may be of use, as would any information we can gain from captives or the aliens' computer systems. In the meantime, our efforts would be better focused on the development of battlefield laser technology, as the principles behind "ordinary" lasering is well understood. We have learned enough from studying the power distribution and lasering systems of the weapons that we believe we can replicate them in our own designs, making building man-portable laser weapons from these new alien materials a theoretial possibility. We should also be able to study the Phaser technology further to gain a more advanced understanding of it. Laser Weaponry We've done it, Commander! We have finally developed the technology required to develop energy weapons of our own. This means that we can now start the research into the practical production processes of Laser Rifles, Laser Pistols, and ground Vehicle Pulse Lasers. To produce more advanced Laser weapons we need to perform further research, but we are have all we need to start it. Alien Grenade Our study of the Alien Grenade has borne fruit, Commander. We are now able to start developing a new armour, tentatively named Fox, that should be better able to withstand the effects of these explosives, as well as providing some modest increased protection against the alien weapons using ballistic and energy principles. We have also been able to come up with research for the development of our own Alenium enhanced explosives. Division Technology The X Division has used the lessons learned from studies into Alien Ballistic Technology to devise our own improved ballistic weapons, which we call Division Technology. This theoretical and technological underpinning allows us to start the development of actual weapon systems: a ground vehicle mounted machinegun, a heavy machinegun for soldier use, and shotgun, rifle, and pistol versions, all improving on the standard ballistic weaponry. In addition to this, we have also laid the groundwork for the development of advanced research to produce additional ballistic weapon models. Alien Ballistic Technology The first study of alien ballistic weapons is now finished, Commander. While ballistic weapons is nothing new, after all, that is what humanity has used since the invention of gun powder, the power of the alien weapons is unprecedented. Since we now have a basic understanding for how the aliens use their materials and chemical compounds to produce their ballistic weapons, we should be ready to start the development of our own brand of improved ballistic weapons. We may be able to conduct further studies into more advanced usages of alien ballistic technology, but we need to review the research notes to determine if we actually have everything we need to start such a project, of if we need to acquire further information to do so. Alien Stun Grenade The Alien Stun Grenade is uncomfortably effective in stunning our troops, but at the same time pleasantly effective at stunning theirs. We have now gained a sufficient knowledge of the chemical and biological principles behind its effect to start a research project aimed at the production of stun grenades of our own. Alien Lightning Technology Given how effective Alien Lightning weapons are at stunning targets, we would very much like to replicate that functionality in equipment of our own. However, it seems study of the equipment isn't sufficient, but we need at least some support from interrogation of captives with an appropriate knowledge. Despite that slight disappointment, we have still made sufficient headway to be able to immediately launch research into both the deeper, more advanced, aspects of the Alien Lightning Technology as well as advanced studies on the Alien Phaser Technology. Alien Flamer Technology The study of how the aliens manage to produce weapons that throw flames at a significant range has fascinated some scientists with a more pyromanic leaning than I though we had in our staff. Apart from that rare case of satisfaction among our staff, however the results have been surprisingly meagre. We may have been able to improve on our Division Technology, but we need to review the research notes first to determine whether we have all the basics in place to start, or whether we need additional information. Advanced Alien Phaser Technology More in depth studies of the Alien Phaser Technology has not allowed us to replicate the technology this time either, Commander, but it has allowed us to start researching improvements of our Laser Technology, which is almost as good. Advanced Lasers This research has provided the groundwork for practical research into how to improve each of our Laser weapons into something we intend to call Mk-2 versions. While the Mk-1 Laser weapons require Alien Alloys for their production, the Mk-2 versions will also require Energy Cores gained from processed alien energy weapons. The "Core" is a bit of a misnomer, however, as it isn't a discrete item, but rather more like a kit of components. Fortunately, alien weapon components are more general than human made ones, which allows us to piece together a Core kit from multiple simpler alien weapons. Heavy Alenium Explosives The research into Heavy Alenium Explosives has resulted in a range of new research topics. We can now research ground vehicle Alenium fueled cannons and rockets, aircraft Alenium fulled torpedoes and missiles, as well as upgrade kits for Alenium Rockets and Explosives. Sebillian Data Hack 2 Gaining some access to the Sebillian computer system, limited as it is, should have given us enough information to improve on several Division weapons to allow us to research Mk-3 retrofits of Mk-2 versions. We need to review the notes to determine which weapons we are able to improve upon, however. It is likely we need additional access to encrypted Sebillian data to be able to improve on the remaining weapons. At a guess, we have recovered about a third of what we would need to cover all Division weapon systems. Reaper DNA Analysis Analysis of the Reaper DNA has provided us with one of the components to improve on the chemical gas technology, although we also need to know how alien toxins work to actually start. Caesan Data Hack 1 The information we retrieved from the Caesan computers, while not complete, ought to allow us to start research on retrofits for some of our Mk-2 weapons to Mk-3 versions. We need to review and cross reference the information to determine exactly which systems we have enough information for, and which ones require access to additional information (probably, again, via encrypted files in a Caesan computer system). A rough estimate indicate this haul has provided us with about a third of what we would need to cover the complete range of Laser weapon systems. Sebillian Data Hack 3 Our hacking into the Sebillian computer system has provided us with some ballistic weapon information which we think may be used to research retrofits of some Division Mk-2 weapons. It is likely additional Sebillian computer system access is required to cover the whole Division range, but we estimate this find covers about a third of the data we need. Andron Computers The Computer "brains" of Androns are fascinating, Commander. While we can not claim to fully understand how they work, we have gained an understanding of how we can put them to work, i.e. what we can use them for. We believe we can research an exoskeleton/armour, as well as more advanded conventional armour. At least, this research provides the control prerequisites for it. Similarly, it should be possible to employ the AI to control new base facilities, although they, too require research into the functionality that would be controlled. Advanced Division Technology We have now advanced our knowledge of Alien Ballistic Weapons yet another step to allow us to research improved Mk-2 Division weapons. These weapons will use "Ballistic Cores" gained through disassembly of alien ballistic weapons as a fundamental part of the design. Thus, these weapons will require not only Alien Alloys, but also Ballistic Cores to be manufactured. It can be noted that the "Core" part of the "Ballistic Core" is a bit of a misnomer, as it's more of a parts kit than a discrete item. Alien weapon parts have a more general use than human made ones, which allows us to piece together a "Core" kit from several weapons. The larger and more complex the weapon, the more parts we can recover. Advanced Alien Ballistic Technology Further study into the working of Alien Ballistic Technology has allowed us to reach the point where we can research the ground rules for how to improve of our Division Techology to the next level. Robodog Guard Disassembly The Robodog Guard is a puzzling enemy unit. While a quadruped makes a lot more sense than the bipedal Andron, it still doesn't make a lot of sense to mimic biological functionality to this degree, down to a bite that is less lethal than it could be. By studying the remains of a Robodog Guard we have found out how to use the "corpse" of a Robodog Guard to retrieve one Ballistic Core and one Energy Core. Sebillian Data Hack 1 The successful hacking into the Sebillian computer system, while not a complete success, has nevertheless gained us access to files containing important information on Alien Ballistic Technology. We are still compiling and cross referencing the information, but it ought to provide insight sufficient to initiate research on several Division Mk-3 retrofits. A quick estimate is that the overall data covers about a third of what we need to improve on the complete Division weapon range, so further hacks are likely needed to cover all bases. Caesan Data Hack 3 After successfully gaining access to some encrypted files on a Caesan computer system we now think we have sufficient information to research retrofits of some Laser Mk-2 weapons into Mk-3. We still haven't organised the data, and so are unable to pinpoint exactly which system we have enough information for, but that should be done when you read this, Commander. A ballpark estimate is that this provides about a third of the data we need to retrofit all Laser Mk-2 weapon systems, so addition access is likely to be required for a complete coverage. Caesan Data Hack 2 Gaining access to some of the Caesan computer system's encrypted files has not been in vain, Commander. The files contain a wealth of information on Caesan Phaser Technology which we believe can be used to research retrofits for our Laser Mk-2 weapon range. Currently we haven't indexed and cross referenced the data, so we cannot say exactly which retrofits we are able to research. The initial impression is that this set of data covers about a third of what we need to research retrofits of all Laser Mk-2 weapons, so it's likely further computer access is required to cover everything. Flamethrower Technology The Sebillians use Flamer weapons that throw flames at large distances, and we are nowhere near the ability to do the same. However, we have been able to improve on our basic flamethrower technology to produce an Alenium powered version that dishes out twice the damage while also mitigating some incendiary armour (important, as incendiary protection doesn't degrade), with a higher accuracy. The Alenium is still a heavy weapon, though, and thus suffers from the movement penalty common to heavy weapons, while having a short effective range (almost guaranteed to require movement to get into range). It also have fairly substantial production requirements in the form of 2 Ballistic Cores and 2 Energy Cores. Alien Neutron Technology The Alien Neutron Technology doesn't seem to be an upgrade of the Alien Plasma Technology as complement to it, primarily used by the alien elite castes, i.e. Harridans and Wraiths. The weapons provide a slightly longer range than the Plasma weapons do, while dealing roughly the same amount of damage. Since Neutron and Plasma weaponry have some clear commonalities, this research should provide some of the groundwork required to research the advanced version of both technologies, although it's most likely not a strict requirement for Plasma Technology advancement. The Neutron Technology was named well before we had much of an idea of how it worked. About the only thing we knew was that it wasn't electrically charged like Plasma, and so the Neutron name stuck. However, it doesn't actually fire single Neutrons, but rather photons (like Phasers), but arranged in a peculiar arrangement of superposition and entanglement causing them to reach the target virtually without any interaction with small particles (such as smoke) in the intervening medium. This means almost all of the energy is delivered to the target, rather than some of it getting lost on the way. Advanced Alien Grenade Study of the Advanced Alien Grenade has provided us with a basic understanding of their working principles, which should provide some of the knowledge required to research more powerful explosives, while we believe we need to know how Alien Reactors work to actually start that research. Advanced Alien Flamer Technology After studying examples of advanced Alien Flamer weaponry we have gained a deeper knowledge in their working, while still remaining unable to replicate it in any way. The research might help in advanced studies of Alien Matergy Technology, but probably not as the sole source. Plasma Technology We have finally cracked the Plasma nut, Commander. This research allows us to start researching Plasma Rifles and Plasma Pistols of our own design, as well as aircraft and ground vehicle borne systems. Together with an understanding of how the Advanced Alien Plasma Technology works we should have all that's needed to start researching our own Advanced Plasma Technology. Alien Plasma Technology <Rewritten to fit into the X-Division tech tree> The innards of the Alien Plasma Rifle and Plasma Pistol have been studied and has given us a basic understanding of the science behind extraterrestial plasma weapons, and ought to lead us towards Plasma weapons of our own. A brief explanation of the generation of a plasma bolt is as follows: firstly, the weapon draws power from an Alenium cell (very similar to the Phaser implementation) and uses it to power an array of powerful particle accelerators. Secondly, these accelerators superheat a large number of atoms into a state of ionised plasma (the fourth matter state) within the heat-proofed "chamber" of the weapon. Thirdly, two helical spirals of electromagnets in the barrel of the weapon pulse simultaneously, drawing the plasma from the chamber and spinning it into a bolt while accelerating it to muzzle velocity. Finally, a graviton emitter in the muzzle of the weapon fires a graviton into the plasma bolt as it exits the barrel. The graviton particle is incredibly important - in laboratory conditions, it has been observed to posses a strong gravitational pull that prevents the bolt from dissipating into a useless cloud of hot gas. The science behind this process is unclear (it is the first time we have observed a graviton), but it probably explains the large difference in range between the alien Plasma Pistol and Plasma Rifle. Unfortunately, we currently don't have enough knowledge to replicate this gravitational field ourselves - and without access to an effective anti-gravity emitter, the useful range of our most powerful lab-based plasma emitter is only a few inches. However, since alien plasma weapons all contain anti-gravity emitters, we may be able to salvage enough of them as a by-product while processing Alien Plasma weapons to extract Energy Cores that our inability to make them won't be an issue. Thus, we think we will be able to research the basic principles for Plasma weapons of our own. Naturally, finishing the study of the Alien Plasma Technology begs us to study Advanced Alien Plasma Technology, although we need additional knowledge to start that. Alien Matergy Technology <Edited to describe a coil gun, rather than a mashup between one and a rail gun...> The Alien Matergy Technology is nothing new in principle at the propulsion level: it is "simply" a coil gun, a.k.a. a Gauss gun, i.e. slugs of a material that are magnetised by a magnetic field and accelerated through the "pumping" of magnetic fields as it speeds down the barrel. However, what we would need 100 meters of sequenced coils, timed exactly to match the current speed of the bullet, a nuclear reactor to power it, and materials with a previous unheard-of capability to carry the current without being vaporised has been shrunk to portable weapons. Study of Alien Matergy Pistols and Matergy Rifles has provided us with a sufficient understanding to allow us to employ alien materials in a research project to produce our own MAG, or Magnetic, weapons: it's still a slug that slams into a target, but it is a *much* faster slug. As is typical of Alien weapon Technology studies, we want to continue on to Advanced studies as soon as we have all the required pieces of information in place. Advanced Alien Stun Grenade Studying examples of the Advanced Alien Stun Grenade has provided us with a sufficient understanding to start to research processing of recovered Alien Stun Grenades into grenades with our standard grenade form factor.

Sebillian Physician Interrogation comment: Is that the point when you suddenly get better medkits? I haven't been able to see when that happens, though it would make sense. I don't know about "the bonus damage", so I can't comment on that, as I thought only vivisection gave a bonus. Do interrogations provide a bonus as well (it would provide an incentive to interrogate ones that don't provide any new tech), or does interrogation of captives provide a bonus only if they don't have any vivisection projects? Very good points/info on Xenomorphs. I'll have to look take some time to look it over before trying to update it. Is there somewhere I can look to see what the vulnerabilities of the different Xenomorph versions are so they can be described?

Without knowing, I'd expect them not to have any effect on the campaign in themselves. Bases are said to increase the number of missions, so taking those out have an effect (and I'm not sure it was a good idea to take out a ship that was presumably landed to establish a base, as I now don't didn't get an opportunity for raiding a base). Missions reduce your funding through sightings, attacks, etc. though, so you'd block that decay by taking out those missions, as well as increase your relations by shooting the crafts down (and increase your resources by if you perform crash site missions). I don't think that's anything you didn't know, though. Hm, taking out scouting missions should reduce the risk of them raiding your bases (which I would guess means those missions become terror missions instead).

I haven't been able to locate the researches Sir_Dr_D asked about in the tech tree, so I can't answer the question. It should be possible for Sir_Dr_D to install yEd and download the xdivision_tech_0995.graphml file (as per Charon's link) to search for it, though. Another bunch of X-Pedia candidates (reaching the end of my progress with alien units). Light Upgraded Drone Wreckage As you might expect, the Light Upgraded Drone is more heavily armoured than its predecessor, while still being used primarily to harass civilians and troops alike. The upside to the heavier armouring is that once disabled and recovered, the wreckage can be processed to provide us with 32 Dense Fibres. Disc Upgraded Wreckage The Upgraded Cyberdisc is an enhanced version of the earlier Cyberdisc. Recovered wrecks can be processed to yield 56 Dense Fibres. Tank Upgraded Wreckage The Upgraded Tank is an equipped with even heavier armour than its predecessor, and thus require more damage to be reduced to a wreck. A recovered wreck can be processed to yield 60 Dense Fibres, though. Sebillian Physician Interrogation The Sebillian Physician provided to have a broader knowledge about Sebillian aligned aliens than the Sebillian Medic. In practical terms, we have gained sufficient knowledge to start researching the fearsome zombification process. Medium Upgraded Drone Wreckage The Medium Upgraded Drone is a more heavily armoured development of the Medium Drone. As such, it can be processed into more Dense Fibres (48, to be exact) than the lesser version, after the minor hurdles of reducing it into a wreck and recovering it have been passed, of course. Sebillian Weapon Officer Interrogation Interrogation of the Sebillian Weapon Officer has given some concrete results: we have gained sufficient knowledge to start researching both advanced alien explosives technology as well as more advanced alien flamer technology. As the interrogation has just been concluded, I'll have to review the notes to see if we have been able to get started on understanding the principles behind their Matergy weaponry, or whether we need to interrogate higher ranking captives to get there. Caesan Officer Interrogation Interrogating the Caesan Officer was rather interesting, Commander, while at the same time disappointing. He proved to have quite a lot of knowledge of a range of alien capabilities, but we always came up just short of gaining enough to start research on a number of topics. I have reason to suspect the data required for them should exist in the encrypted craft data, but then we'd need to get at it... It seems plasma weaponry, anti matter weapon technology, and possibly a new ground vehicle might be possible, if only we had the missing pieces. Harridan Soldier Vivisection As usual, examination of a new alien variant has given us some minor improvement in our understanding of their weaknesses, which has been communicated to our soldiers for a slightly improved damage against them. We have also devised a protocol for the extraction of 16 Light and 8 Dense Fibres from their armour. Sebillian Pilot Interrogation The Interrogation of the Sebillian Pilot has provided us with enough information to allow us to train our pilots in operating reclaimed and repaired/retrofitted downed alien Heavy Fighters. Assuming we have acquired sufficient technological knowledge to actually perform the tasks involved, and we haven't already gained it from Interrogating a Caesan Pilot, we should be able to research the production of Heavy Alien Fighters. Caesan Pilot Interrogation The Interrogation of the Caesan Pilot has provided us with enough information to allow us to train our pilots in operating reclaimed and repaired/retrofitted downed alien Heavy Fighters. Assuming we have acquired sufficient technological knowledge to actually perform the tasks involved, and we haven't already gained it from Interrogating a Sebillian Pilot, we should be able to research the production of Heavy Alien Fighters. Xenomorph Facehugger Analysis <Much guesswork here, as I don't actually have any hard info, including what the mature form is called, and whether killing the zombie aborts the maturation or hastens it. Edit: The Alien movie was released in May 1979, and so potentially in existence in September 1979...> This Xenomorph creature is something out of a science fiction horror movie, Commander. The small, fast creatures hatch out of eggs and scurry around looking for prey. In fact, they're sufficiently small that they're not recognized as threats. Once they find a victim, they jump up and latch onto the face of the victim, and immediately injects it with most of its internals. After a short time of gestation, during which the victim becomes a "zombie", the mature form of the creature burst forth from the chest of the victim, immediately ready to seek out new victims. Our analysis has also identified some common weak points among the Xenomorph family, resulting in a slightly improved damage against them. Sebillian Soldier Vivisection The Vivisection of the Sebillian Soldier has resulted in the identification of some additional common Sebillian weaknesses, resulting in a modest increase in our soldiers' damage against them. In addition to that, we have devised a protocol for the processing of their armour, resulting in the extraction of 16 Light Fibres from each captive's armour. These captives exhibit the same curious hide colour change as the Sebillian Guard does, i.e. they are greenish when brought to us, but turn pinkish over time. Caesan Physician Interrogation The Interrogation of the Caesan Physician has given some useful results regarding alien biology. In particular, it has allowed us to research whether we can repeat the success with converting alien stun grenades into grenades of our own with the alien advanced stun grenades. We have also gained enough knowledge to research the zombification processes some alien "animal" species employ. Xenomorph Marble Drone Analysis <I don't know enough about the various xenomorph unit particulars to describe them. I've seen their weaknesses differ significantly, and there's one bugger that tends to explode whenever I try to catch it> Andron Soldier Disassembly An exhaustive examination of the Andron Soldier wreckage has yielded some minor insight into Andron weaknesses, translating into a slight combat advantage. It has also provided us with a protocol for the extraction of 6 Light and 6 Dense Fibres from the wreckage. Edit 2: Updated the Sebillian Soldier after comments.

I've edited my previous post based on the latest answers. It took some attempts to realize the XML file couldn't be used directly by yEd, but I'd have to use the xdivision_tech_0995.graphml file from the linked page. The cue to use the "old" version was the images posted where that version was displayed in the image. Edit: Is there a way to keep track of what kind of craft a ground mission targets? Alien crafts come in waves, and it can be several RL days in between a craft being shot down to the ground mission occurs, as crafts shot down later may be engaged earlier due to light and travel distance factors. The mission briefing would be useful for this, if it was accessible to such info. There are two kinds of info I would like to refresh: 1. What kind of craft is it (medium scout, corvette, cruiser, etc.), as that affects what kind of initial wave I'm likely to encounter. 2. What kind of mission was it on? As far as I can see all cruisers look the same, for instance, regardless of whether they were on a bombing mission or something else. This affects the amount of risk I should be willing to take to capture Operators, and all operators look the same. Edit 2: I just noted that the research category for melee weapons in the X-Pedia is called "EMPTY". Apart from that, here's a new bunch of X-Pedia entry proposals: Sebillian Navigator Interrogation The interrogation of the Sebillian Navigator has given us sufficient knowledge about how the aliens pilot their craft to allow us to train our own pilots to operate downed refitted alien Fighters for our own purposes. We still have to research how to repair those craft, though. Given the extent of the knowledge we've gained from the Sebillian, it's likely his Caesan counterpart will provide only some complementary information, but we shouldn't risk missing any information by not interrogating a Caesan as well. Caesan Navigator Interrogation The interrogation of the Caesan Navigator has given us sufficient knowledge about how the aliens pilot their craft to allow us to train our own pilots to operate downed refitted alien Fighters for our own purposes. We still have to research how to repair those craft, though. Given the extent of the knowledge we've gained from the Caesan, it's likely his Sebillian counterpart will provide only some complementary information, but we shouldn't risk missing any information by not interrogating a Sebillian as well. Caesan Weapon Sergeant Interrogation Interrogation of the Caesan Weapon Sergeant has given us sufficient knowledge to research alien explosives, lightning weapon, and advanced alien phaser technologies. Caesan Medic Interrogation The interrogation of the Caesan Medic has resulted in some information about the alien races, as well as sufficient information about how the alien stun grenades work to allow us to start to research them. Sebillian Medic Interrogation By interrogating the Sebillian Medic we have been able to gain some information about about the alien races, as well as sufficient information about how the alien chemical grenades work to allow us to start research on them. Caesan Guard Vivisection Vivisection of the Caesan Guard itself has provided some minor improvements in our understanding of the weaknesses of this species, and their blue jumpsuits have been found to be useful as raw material for the extraction of 8 Light Fibres. Once stripped of their jumpsuits, we execute them and cremate the bodies. Caesan Light Scout Operator Interrogation The interrogation of the Caesan Light Scout Operator has given us some insight into which missions Light Scouts perform and how the Caesans go about it, but it seems we would need to get access to at least some of the encrypted data on the craft itself to get any concrete results from it. Curiously, while the soldiers report the creature had a greenish hide when engaged, it changed colour to the pinkish one sported by higher ranking Sebillians immediately upon capture. We are unsure what to make out of this, though it probably provides a window into their tribal hierarchy in some way we currently have no immediate reason to think we will be able to use to our advantage. Caesan Scout Operator Interrogation The interrogation of the Caesan Scout Operator has given us some insight into which missions Scouts perform and how the Caesans go about it, but it seems we would need to get access to at least some of the encrypted data on the craft itself to get any concrete results from it. Tank Wreckage As your men have already discovered, Commander, the Tank can take a lot of punishment before being destroyed. An exhaustive examination of the Tank Wreckage has yielded some concrete result, though: We are now able to disassemble a wreckage to extract 30 Dense Fibres from it. Sebillian Chieftain Autopsy The Sebillian Chieftain Autopsy has revealed that the chieftain has a pinkish hide and are among the largest of their kind. They also wear a fair bit of armor, including a helmet. The examination of the body has revealed a few weaknesses of the species, but the concrete gain comes not from the body but from the armour. Since the Sebillian Chieftain is covered in more armour than its underlings, it does not come as a great surprise that we are able to extract more Light Fibres from the damaged remains than from the inferiours, 2 Light Fibres from each body, to be precise. Sebillian Guard Vivisection Vivisection of a Sebillian Guard has provided us with some minor improvements in the understanding of the weaknesses of this species. In addition to this, we have devised a protocol for extraction of 8 Light Fibres from each captive's armour. We have also encountered an odd phenomenon with these Sebillians: while they have a greenish hide normally, their hue changes in prolonged captivity, possibly due to shame/compensation for loss of social status. We have yet to find a practical use for this, however. Sebillian Chieftain Interrogation I'm not sure what we have gained from the Interrogation of the Sebillian Chieftain, Commander. We have certainly gained bits and pieces, as well as insights, but it's all fragmentary. The captive's information seems to be on the brink of providing starting points for several different research projects, but we come up just short on all avenues. It seems we would need access to the craft's encrypted data to be able to make progress on Sebillian technologies. Sebillian Chieftain Vivisection We have gained some minor improvement in our knowledge of this species' vulnerabilities through the Vivisection of a Sebillian Chieftain. In addition to that, we have devised a way to extract 16 Light Fibres from the largely intact armour of the captive. Reaper Bull Analysis The Reaper Bull is very hard to kill, but their attacks are restricted to surprisingly weak stun attacks. They seem to be somewhat vulnerable to attacks with fire and explosives. Sebillian Scout Operator Interrogation Interrogation of the Sebillian Scout Operator has given us some insight into Scout missions, but it does not seem to be of operational use. Apart from that, it seems we may need to get at encrypted craft data to make progress on Sebillian technology. Sebillian Early Terror Operator Interrogation The Interrogation of the Sebillian Early Terror Operator was rather frustrating, as we seem to almost, but not quite, reach a starting point for a research on terror operations. It seems we need to get access to encrypted craft data to actually reach that starting point. Disc Wreckage Our examination of the Disc Wreckage has given us some insight into its function, although it's all at a basic level that can not be progressed further at this point. However, we have been able to device a protocol to extract 28 Dense Fibres from each wreckage. Caesan Chieftain Interrogation The Interrogation of the Caesan Chieftain was both fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating because it provided hints of knowledge that should provide starting points for new research topics, and frustrating because we never actually got there. It seems we would need access to the craft's encrypted data to be able to make progress on Caesan technologies. Edit 2: Another batch Caesan Corvette Operator Interrogation While Interrogation of the Caesan Corvette Operator provided some insight into which missions the Corvette is involved in, there isn't much of operational use for that information. We did get some energy weapon related scattered pieces of information, but, again, it's not enough to actually be useful. It seems we would need access to some of the craft's encrypted data to fill in enough blanks to initiate new research topics. Caesan Chieftain Vivisection Vivisection of the Caesan Chieftain allowed us to gain some minor improvement to our understanding of Caesan weaknesses. Apart from that, we have also devised a process to extract 16 Light Fibres from his armour. Sebillian Early Bomber Operator Interrogation As can be expected, the Sebillian Early Bomber Operator proved to have a broad knowledge of alien ballistic weaponry, but unfortunately, it's that tiny bit too shallow to provide enough information to form a starting point for new research topics. If we could just get some missing key pieces of information from the data encrypted in their crafts I feel we should be able to start improving our own Division technology. Andron Guard Disassembly By taking the Andron Guard apart we have been able to produce a process by which we can extract 3 Light and 3 Dense Fibres from each guard wreckage. Andron Hub Disassembly Androns communicate with each other through an almost unstoppable "radio" frequency network of enormous capacity, using a wide range of frequencies covering bands well outside of the traditional radio ones. Androns take orders from their servers, but we don't know how far this network extends, apart from this unit being the next step up the chain. We should eventually be able to use their advanced computer "brains" to control our own AI. Our discoveries should allow us to start research into alien communications arrays and electronics, as well as an AI controlled ground vehicle. Sebillian Corvette Operator Interrogation Interrogation of the Sebillian Corvette Operator provided some insight into the missions the Corvette is involved in, but nothing of operational importance. However, we did also gain a fair bit of scattered pieces of information relating to ballistic weapon technologies the Sebillians use, but unfortunately this information is too spotty to provide enough substance for the initiation of new research topics. It seems we would need access to the craft's encrypted data to get enough pieces of information to initiate new research. Caesan Early Bomber Operator Interrogation As can be expected, the Caesan Early Bomber Operator proved to have a broad knowledge of alien energy weaponry, but unfortunately, it's that tiny bit too shallow to provide enough information to form a starting point for new research topics. If we could just get some missing key pieces of information from the data encrypted in their crafts I feel we should be able to start improving our laser technology. Caesan Early Terror Operator Interrogation Interrogation of the Ceasan Early Terror Operator confirmed what we already knew: that their terror operations are aimed at breaking humanities will to resist. This Operator also proved to have a broad but somewhat shallow knowledge of the Caesan energy weapons, but as it's mostly related to how to cause death and mayhem, and less about the inner workings of the weapons it is not sufficient to provide a starting point for further research. I've got a nagging feeling the missing pieces of the puzzle can be found in their crafts' encrypted data, though. Sebillian Officer Autopsy Hulking pinkish brutes clad in even heavier armour than the Sebillian Sergeants and still wearing a cap. Once they have finally been killed our disadvantage caused by that armour can be turned into an advantage, though, as we are able to extract 4 Light Fibres from each Sebillian Officer corpse recovered. Harridan Soldier Autopsy Once your soldiers have slain these flying menaces, we can reprocess their armour into 2 Light Fibres and 2 Dense Fibres, Commander. However, this can be done only if the body (or the armour, to be more precise) can be recovered relatively intact. Unfortunately, it seems Harridans show down in the air result in a puddle of goo and broken parts once they hit the ground, so we may get fewer of these than their number would suggest. Caesan Soldier Autopsy There is not much to distinguish a Caesan Solder's body from that of other Caesans. While they wear the same blue jumpsuit as the Caesan Guard does, they also wear additional armour on top of that. As a result of that additional armour, we are able to extract two Light Fibres from the remains. Wraith Soldier Autopsy The Wraith Soldier's corpse cannot be used to provide our troops with teleporting abilities, Commander. Instead, we will have to be satisfied with the extraction of 2 Light Fibres and 2 Dense Fibres from the remains of their armour. Edit 3: Updated after comments.

If I understand it correctly, you're aiming at subjecting Xenonauts 2 to a similar treatment as you've done for Xenonauts. If so, I'd suggest considering using scripts to extract technical information from the source data structures (probably XML) to the corresponding loadout/vehicle/X-Pedia entries, as manual updates to the same information in multiple places is both error prone and mind numbingly boring. A bunch of new X-Pedia entry candidates: Living Quarters <It's 50 personnel now, not 35> Laboratory <It's 20 scientists now, not 15> Workshop <It's 20 engineers now, not 15> Avalanche Torpedo The Avalanche Torpedo is a high damage, long range weapon for the engagement of enemy craft that are not nimble enough to avoid them. It's heavy, so you can only carry 4 of them, and it requires a heavy hardpoint, which conveniently is provided by the Foxtrot Bomber aircraft. Gravity Torpedo With the power of the anti-gravity generator, we can get the effect of what's effectively a tiny black hole in the target area (immediately dissipating in a burst of Hawking radiation, so it won't swallow the Earth, which would have been rather unfortunate). The individual torpedo actually produces a fairly modest damage, but they're light enough to allow you to carry 20 of them. The torpedo has a longer range than earlier versions, but it does have one drawback: in order to fit as many torpedoes as possible onto the heavy hardpoint, we had to cut back on the size of the rocket engines powering them, which means we may encounter enemy craft that can actually outpace them. While the torpedoes themselves are produced cheaply in quantities sufficient to effectively be unlimited, the torpedo hardpoint mount requires the usage of a modest quantity of Alien Alloys. Caesan Guard Autopsy As can be expected, the Caesan Guard looks the same on the inside as other Caesans do: no exotic finds of either genetic or manufactured nature were made beyond what has been found on any other Caesans. However, an examination of the tattered remains of their blue jumpsuits have allowed us to device means to extract Light Fibres from them: each dead Caesan Guard should provide enough jumpsuit material to produce one Light Fibre. The bodies themselves are of no use, but are cremated. For the time being we don't actually have any use for Light Fibres, but there is a sufficiently high probability that we will be able to incorporate them into future armour designs to start to collect them. Sebillian Guard Autopsy The Sebillian Guard is not much different on the inside compared to any other Sebillians. They are a little larger and stronger than the civilians (who are neither small nor weak by any means), with a green hide, and are equipped with an armoured vest. Ultimately, the Sebillian Guard body is of little consequence and has to be cremated, but the armour, while damaged by the process killing the creature, can still be used to extract Light Fibres. We are able to extract one Light Fibre from each Sebillian Guard recovered. We have yet to find a use for Light Fibres, but given how effective they are in protecting aliens, it would make logical sense to incorporate them into improved armour of our own design. Sebillian Weapon Sergeant <is ENERGY weaponry correct? As Sebillians typically use ballistic weapons, ballistic knowledge would be the logical result?> Edited: Interrogation of this captive allowed us to advance our knowledge of alien ballistic weaponry and explosives. I'm fairly certain we'll have what's needed to start researching the technology behind alien flamer weapons, but it's still unclear whether we'll be able to start researching advanced alien ballistic technology, or whether we need to interrogate a higher ranking Sebillian Weapon specialist to get all the basics in place for that. Sebillian Light Scout Operator Edited: Interrogating the Sebillian Light Scout Operator has given us some insight in what missions the Light Scouts are used for and how they operate, but it seems concrete further results hinges on us somehow manages to get access to at least some of the encrypted data on the craft itself. Caesan Technician Interrogation Edited: Our interrogation of this captive has given us enough information to start research on a range of technologies from alien craft parts, via electronics, and power sources, to alien alloy shaping techniques. Given the general nature of the information, it's doubtful that his Sebillian counterpart can provide additional information, but we should not ignore potential sources of information just because they might not lead anywhere. Sebillian Technician Interrogation Edited: Our interrogation of this captive has given us enough information to start research on a range of technologies from alien craft parts, via electronics, and power sources, to alien alloy shaping techniques. Given the general nature of the information, it's doubtful that his Caesan counterpart can provide additional information, but we should not ignore potential sources of information just because they might not lead anywhere.

Here's an additional bunch of descriptions covering the research I've done in my current game up to and including early weapons, with the order being the one they appear in on my research screen. There are a bunch of comments ("<>") for things that look odd or things I can't describe as I haven't produced them. Lancer The Lancer is a Bomber aircraft superiour to the Foxtrot in all ways except for a slightly lower acceleration and still possessing a single torpedo hardpoint, and is our next step in trying to keep up with the aliens' increasing craft capabilities. Its manufacture requires the Basic Alien Control System that can be gained from disassembly of the second generation of alien crafts only, as well as other, more common, disassembly parts. Anti-Missile This system allows your aircraft to counter a limited number of enemy craft missiles while performing its main task, be that to eliminate escorts or engaging the main craft itself. Note that this system is mounted on a missile hardpoint, and so cannot be fitted onto interceptors. Also, due to inherent limitations in the system itself, fitting two systems onto the same aircraft will cause the two systems to engage each other, resulting in a number of explosions in the immediate vicinity of your aircraft, and the likely shredding of said aircraft. Hyper Missile The Hyper Missile fires a large number of reasonably low yield missiles at a very high rate. Its range is shorter than that of the Alenium Missile, but the total damage output is higher. This kind of missile really shines if the targeted craft is equipped with an anti missile system, where the counter measures can counter only a small fraction of the total number of missiles. Its manufacture requires a small amount of alien alloys, and so, is fairly cheap in terms of alien resources. <The technical info for all early weapons ought to be revised. Most entries do not specify suppression or armor penetration (called "mitigation"). At least the SMGs are inconsistent in their damage descriptions, and while the shotguns state damage and number of bullets, machineguns and SMGs do not. This last point affects the loadout screen as well> Laser Rifle Mk-1 This is our first attempt at an energy based equivalent to an assault rifle. It doesn't cause much more damage than a standard ballistic assault rifle, but since many aliens seem to be particularly resistant to kinetic weapons it provides a much needed alternative damage type. Some Alien Alloys are used in its manufacture, though. Precision Laser Rifle Mk-1 This is our first attempt at an energy based equivalent to the sniper rifle. It provides a little more damage and has a little longer range than the standard version, and since many aliens seem to have kinetic damage resistance, it's likely a worthwhile upgrade. Some Alien Alloys are used in its manufacture, though. Laser Carbine Mk-1 This is our first attempt to create an energy equivalent to the shotgun, and has provided a particular challenge in that the whole laser production process consists of aligning the laser light to a tight spot, so splitting it into multiple beams required some rather fancy optic gadgetry (which is still sturdy enough that the troops shouldn't need to be excessively careful with it). It provides almost twice as much damage as a standard shotgun, and does it using energy, which aliens seem to have less resistance to than kinetic damage. The ammo capacity is slightly lower, though, and some Alien Alloys are used in its manufacture. Division Heavy Machinegun Mk-1 This beast dishes out considerably more damage with a slightly longer maximum range than a standard Heavy Machinegun. We have achieved this feat by using some Alien Alloys in its manufacture, as well as by allowing it to weigh a little bit more. Division Rifle Mk-1 Our Division technology has allowed us to produce an improved version of the standard Ballistic Rifle. It provides a significantly higher damage than its predecessor, and has a larger ammo clip capacity as well. The cost of this is the usage of Alien Alloys and an increased weight. Division Pistol Mk-1 Using Division technology with Alien Alloys and a larger weight budget we have come up with a replacement for the standard Ballistic Pistol that provides considerably more damage and has a larger clip capacity, but the cost of at a shorter range. Division SMG Mk-1 <The technical description is too high (total rather than per bullet?. Should probably be 20 as per the loadout screen)> The Division SMG does not have a standard arsenal equivalent. It is a single handed submachine gun capable of firing bursts of bullets into targets at a short range. It's capable of burst fire only, but it causes considerable damage. Its manufacture requires Alien Alloys. Division Sniper Rifle Mk-1 We have applied our Division technology treatment to the Ballistic Sniper Rifle, which has resulted in the Division Sniper Rifle Mk-1. It provides 25% more damage with a higher range and an ammo clip capacity of 8 rather than 6, and all of this is achieved without increasing the weight, although some Alien Alloys are used in its manufacture. Division Shotgun Mk-1 This weapon is a straight upgrade of the standard Ballistic Shotgun: considerably higher damage and a larger ammo clip capacity, at the cost of an increase in its weight and some Alien Alloys. <Division Cannon/Minigun/Gatling Laser/Laser Minigun: I've never produced so I can't describe them> Incendiary Grenade These grenades up things on fire, Commander. They can be used tactically to damage susceptible units, or to put an area on fire for such units to pass through (some of the more animalistic units seem to have a blood lust that overrides their already poor sense of self preservation). The radius affected by the grenade is larger than that of the standard grenade, and it produces lingering fires that take some time to die down. HE Alenium Rocket Though the unleashing of some of the power in depleted Alenium (which we have in quantities that are effectively unlimited) we can produce high explosive rockets with a higher damage than that of the standard fragmentation rocket. It can be noted that while the damage is incendiary rather than kinetic (as many aliens are highly resistant to kinetic damage), it nevertheless isn't a direct competitor to the Incendiary Rocket, as most of the heat is immediate in an intense heat wave, with a limited number of lingering flames, and it covers a smaller area. Is the equipment loadout info correct? It claims the damage is incendiary and superiour to the incendiary rockets, and thus not a replacement for the standard kinetic damage fragmentation one. It's the same with the Alenium Grenade. In both cases the enhanced versions are still incendiary. Is there even much point with the incendiary grenades and rockets if the Alenium versions are superiour in every aspect?>. Stun Grenade Finally we can use alien technology to stun them for capture, Commander! We lack the ability to produce the active compounds in Alien Stun Grenades, but we can produce compounds that enhance the effects of those compounds sufficiently to be able to produce two standard grenade sized Stun Grenades from every recovered Alien Stun Grenade. Use that to your advantage to capture enemies for interrogation and resource extraction. Note, however, that not all aliens seem to be equally affected, and that these grenades will knock your own troops out as effectively as the Alien Stun Grenades do. Precision Laser Mk-2 Using both Energy Cores extracted from alien energy weapons and Alien Alloys we have improved on the Mk-1 to deal a little more damage at a slightly longer range and provide a larger ammo clip capacity. In addition to that it also mitigates some armour. Laser Rifle Mk-2 The Laser Rifle Mk-2 is a fairly marginal upgrade to the Mk-1 with a slightly larger range, larger ammo clip capacity, and some armour mitigation, but the same damage. They require both Energy Cores extracted from alien energy weapons and Alien Alloys in their manufacture. However, we think we may be able to device means to retrofit this model into a more powerful one eventually. Laser Pistol Mk-2 The Laser Pistol Mk-2 is an incremental upgrade of the Mk-1 design, with a marginally larger range and a much larger ammo clip capacity with the same damage output and with some armour mitigation. It requires Energy Cores extracted from alien energy weapons as well as Alien Alloys, though, so replacement manufacture may not be worthwhile. However, we believe we may eventually be able to retrofit it into a more powerful version. Laser Carbine Mk-2 The Laser Carbine Mk-2 dishes out almost 15% more damage than the Mk-1 and increases the ammo clip capacity to 8 as well as providing some armour mitigation. This comes at a cost, however, as it uses Energy Cores extracted from alien energy weapons as well as Alien Alloys in its manufacture. However, we think we may eventually be able to upgrade these weapons with retrofits. Edit: Alenium Grenade We have been able to harness some of the power of depleted Alenium (which we have no shortage of) in a standard grenade form factor. While the grenade produces incendiary damage rather than kinetic damage (something many aliens are highly resistant to), it nevertheless shouldn't be treated as an incendiary grenade, as it produces its effect in an intense heat wave over a limited area, with only a few lingering fires (allowing troops to access most of the area immediately after the explosion). Stun Rocket While we can't produce the active components in Alien Stun Grenades, we can produce compounds that enhance their effects. By using this technique we can use recovered Alien Stun Grenades to produce Stun Rockets that cover a larger area than a grenade does, at the rate of two rockets per Alien Stun Grenade. Edit: Incendiary Rocket Do you want to put a area on fire, Commander? The Incendiary Rocket allows you to do precisely that. I produces a moderate incendiary explosion that splatters white phosphorous over a reasonably large area, causing lingering fires. Apart from causing fire damage to creatures caught in the blast, it also blocks paths through the area with those fires (or causes damage to creatures more intent on reaching the other side than to avoid harming themselves). Also, creatures not killed by the blast will have to literally walk through fire to get out... <Chemical Grenade: produced but never used...> <Chemical Rocket: Never produced> Division SMG Mk-2 <The technical description is too high (total rather than per bullet?)> 50% more damage! That's quite a bit, in particular when you add in some armour mitigation in the calculation, but it comes at the cost of Kinetic Cores extracted from alien kinetic weapons as well as some Alien Alloys. We also think we may be able to device technology to retrofit them into a more powerful version eventually. Division Rifle Mk-2 The Division Rifle Mk-2 is a marginal improvement over the Mk-1, providing a slightly longer range and a larger ammo clip capacity and some armour mitigation, but with the same damage at the cost of Kinetic Cores extracted from alien kinetic weapons as well as some Alien Alloys. We think we may be able to device a way to retrofit this model into something more capable, though. Division Heavy Machinegun Mk-2 The Division Heavy Machinegun Mk-2 in itself improves over the Mk-1 only on the addition of some armour mitigation. While it doesn't add any performance drawbacks, it requires Ballistic Cores extracted from alien kinetic weapons in addition to Alien Alloys to produce. So, what's the point with a weapon that performs almost the same but at a higher cost? The future, is the answer. We think we may be able to device a way to retrofit these weapons into a more powerful version. Division Shotgun Mk-2 <Is it intentional that the loadout screen gives it a mitigation of 0?> The Division Shotgun Mk-2 delivers 20% more damage by firing 12 rather than 10 slugs and sports an ammo clip capacity of 12 rather than 10. This comes at the substantial price of requiring Ballistic Cores from alien kinetic weapons in addition to Alien Alloys. However, we think we may eventually be able to retrofit these weapons into a more powerful version. Division SMG Mk-3 Edit: <The research screen gives the per bullet damage, not the total as for the other two SMGs> The Division SMG Mk-3 isn't a new weapon, but an upgrade of the Mk-2 model. As such, it doesn't only require a Ballistic Core and some Alenium for its manufacture, it also a Mk-2 weapon, typically requiring one of your soldiers to downgrade to an inferiour weapon during the process. However, it should be worth your while as the upgrade allows the weapon do do 10% more damage at an increased armour mitigation. It also provides a stronger suppression effect (as did the Mk-2 over the Mk-1 before it). Division Shotgun Mk-3 <Is it intentional that the loadout screen gives it a mitigation of 0?> The Division SMG Mk-3 isn't a new weapon, but an upgrade of the Mk-2 model. As such, it doesn't only require a Ballistic Core and some Alenium for its manufacture, it also a Mk-2 weapon, typically requiring one of your soldiers to downgrade to an inferiour weapon during the process. The upgraded weapon fires two additional slugs (14 vs 12) and has a larger ammo clip capacity. Division Pistol Mk-2 The Division Pistol Mk-2 causes the same damage as the Mk-1, but brings some armour mitigation and an increased range to the party. We also think we may be able to upgrade these weapons with a retrofit after further research. Division Rifle Mk-3 The Division Rifle Mk-3 process is a retrofit process for the Mk-2 model that upgrades it to cause more damage and mitigate more armour. As it is an upgrade, a soldier may need to temporarily downgrade their weapon while it is upgraded. The retrofit process uses the weapon to be upgraded, a Ballistic Core, and some Alenium. Division Heavy Machinegun Mk-3 Upgrading the Division Heavy Machinegun Mk-2 to Mk-3 status results in a weapon that causes more damage, mitigates more armour, and is more accurate than the Mk-2 model. The retrofit process uses the weapon to be upgraded, a Ballistic Core, and some Alenium. Precision Laser Mk-3 The Precision Laser Rifle Mk-3 isn't a new weapon, but a retrofit of a Mk-2 one. It provides a higher damage, more armour mitigation, a larger ranger, and a larger ammo clip capacity to the upgraded weapon. As it is an upgrade of an existing weapon, the soldier may have to downgrade the weapon during the retrofit process. The retrofit process requires a Mk-2 weapon, an Energy Core, and some Alenium. Laser Carbine Mk-3 <The loadout screen states it fires 4 shots at the damage heading, but 5 at the precision one. 5 is probably correct, as it otherwise would be rather useless, with only an increased range and ammo clip capacity, and no armour penetration at all> Laser Pistol Mk-3 The Laser Pistol Mk-3 is a retrofit of the Mk-2 model resulting in a higher damage, larger range, higher armour mitigation, and a higher precision. As it is a retrofit, the process requires a Mk-2 weapon, an Energy Core, and some Alenium. The soldier will have to equip another weapon during the retrofit process, of course. Laser Rifle Mk-3 20% higher damage, longer range, and higher precision, but the same armour mitigation as the Mk-2 version is provided by the Mk-3 retrofit of the Mk-2 model. . As it is a retrofit, the process requires a Mk-2 weapon, an Energy Core, and some Alenium. The soldier will have to equip another weapon during the retrofit process, of course. Edit: AP Alenium Rocket Are the aliens too fire resistant for your HE Alenium Rockets, Commander? We have the answer to that problem in the form of the AP Alenium Rocket, which mitigates three times as much fire armour resistance and adds two thirds more incendiary damage than the HE Alenium Rocket. Note that this isn't a new product, but a retrofit kit for the HE Alenium Rocket. As such, it takes one HE Alenium Rocket and one unit of Alenium to give you a rocket with that little bit of extra oomph. Division Sniper Rifle Mk-2 The Division Sniper Rifle Mk-2 provides twice the armour mitigation of the Mk-1, but is otherwise comparable in performance. Its manufacture requires Kinetic Cores extracted from alien kinetic weapons, as well as some Alien Alloys. We also hope to be able to retrofit this model into something more powerful after additional research. Edit: Advanced Alenium Explosive The Advanced Alenium Explosive increase the incendiary damage over an Alenium Explosive by over 40% both by using Alenium and by concentrating the effect within a smaller radius. The Advanced Alenium Explosive is a mod kit for the Alenium Explosive, so one of those is required in addition to the Alenium in order to produce an Advanced Alenium Explosive. Alenium Flamethrower The Alenium Flamethrower not only deals twice the damage of the standard version, but it also mitigates 10 points of flame resistance, while being more accurate. Obviously, this carries a cost, which comes in the form of two Ballistic Cores and two Energy Cores. Edited to correct the Division Heavy Machinegun Mk-3.