Piloter

How does external-to-internal firing work? Will the shots still stop at the (invisible, removed) UFO hulls? Or does this mean that Sgt Sniper will suddenly have the shot into the control room as soon as Pvt Slapcheese blunders into the alien atrium? (Mind you, being able to effectively call in HWP artillery to do a rolling suppressive barrage of the interior would be AWESOME.)

There's got to be a good-sized contingent of JA2/EU/TFTD veterans who use grenades as their sidearm. Unjammable, great mind control/chrysalid defense. ("We lost the ell-tee! But at least there's nothing left behind but the fresh smell of pine!") This would be considerable work for not much return if the playstyle is different than Hollywood (retreat-covering options, squad cover available...no lone heroes.) That said, a Fallout 2 styled "critical miss" system could be interesting if expanded. Ballistics would jam, explosives might either dud or origin-detonate (stun launcher, alien right outside the skyranger, critical miss, squad goes to sleep, hilarity does not ensue!), energy weapons might short--draining all cell ammo--or drastically malfunction (weapon itself is destroyed), vehicles might break down etc. With the rushed schedule of the scientists and engineers this might not be an unrealistic occasional occurrence...even with aircraft and aircraft weapons. Heck, expand it further. Low (but possible) chance for mis-ordered supplies / quantities, things arrive early or late, wrong quantity, things added (see Gordon Frohman and the barrels) or things missing or different things. "You ordered six hunters and two autocannons." "No, we ordered ten hunters and the purchase order for autocannons won't be submitted until 1994, but I guess we'll take them now..." "Great, so where do I put the pallet of vet lubricant then?" "I didn't order any, but deliver it to the alien containment building. They'll find a use for it and I hope never to be told what it is."

The green kind. (Sorry, it's going to take a long, long time to avoid using the UD names.) I have managed to capture live aliens before--via smoke inhalation, usually, never intentional as I've never gotten to research stun weapons yet and nobody's lived to get within stun baton range--and there is a research topic associated with them after the mission is completed. This has happened a couple of times, on the mission completion screen it will show "<name> <role> .... SENT TO RESEARCH DIVISION" when the capture is properly registered. I don't remember when the first capture was but I know there was at least one in a 16 build and I've seen two now with 17. It may be as simple as what roles are tagged as researchable, and this was a non-tagged role. The only role I can recall seeing working 'properly' is guard.

Mesa map, fired a Hunter rocket at the door of a scout. Alien inside promptly ran outside straight into a fire tile and "died". The other alien on the map got "destroyed" with a direct rocket-launcher hit. Mission completion screen listed one alien captured, but no research topics show up. All I can think is that smoked alien meat was too delicious for the squad to share with the eggheads back at base and they stripped just a few too many spare ribs off while it was out...

17.1 terror site (first), vanilla game except for realistic aircraft mod. There is an invisible alien in the house above and to the right of the Chinook and the game will CTD during hidden movement after the first player turn. http://www.filehosting.org/file/details/387525/Autosave2.sav

I just had a game where the Chinook was halfway across the ocean, running at best speed, and had to turn back. Right as it was getting back to base...the city was nuked. My troops could've handled it, the Chinook could have gone bingo and resupplied from friendly ground forces, but we had to abort. You can tell your interceptors to ignore the low fuel push, finish combat, and ditch--for the sake of one UFO--but you can't tell your dropshop to risk it all for the sake of an entire city. Suggestion: Pop up a box--ONLY when enroute to a terror mission, you wouldn't throw away your troops on just a regular landing--when the Chinook reaches 50% of its total range. "Commander, if we keep going--whether or not we make it to the city--we won't have enough fuel to make it back. If we push on and don't get there in TIME, I hope you have a SAR crew on standby." "Continue" / "Return to Base". If the player elects to continue and the nuke timer runs out: The dropship immediately turns around and heads to the closest base (if only one base, home base) until the fuel runs out, then it crashes. If this is over the sea...that's unfortunate. If it's over land, there's a chance of generating a crashed-dropship mission type--IF Xenonauts supports it. The country takes only half the usual financing penalty, because HQ did absolutely everything they could to get there in time, ending up sacrificing a squad of soldiers and a dropship...much, much more reassuring than "The bastards didn't even try!". If the player elects to continue and succeeds in the mission, temporarily give the dropship enough fuel to make it in a straight line back to the nearest base. It got there on fumes and favorable winds, it can get back in the same way. Apply a funding bonus. "They ran their equipment almost literally into the ground to get to us, thank $Deity they care." If the player elects to continue and is defeated, nothing changes. If the player elects to continue and aborts mission, treat it as a defeat. That dropship ain't moving, and the soldiers would probably be occupying the transport like the pilots in Blackhawk Down, trying to hold off the mobs until the bitter firey end. It just really stung having to see that 'you didn't get there in time' message when there was fuel (barely) to make it and time (barely) likewise. If players want to elevate the stakes--the entire squad against the clock / a funding bonus--that could be a valuable hard-choices option. What do you think, sirs?

Had an interceptor chase down a UFO and pop up the usual screen, I clicked "Engage". Before the air combat screen appeared, the Chinook got to the crash site and popped up the "Engage/abort" window, and I told it to engage. Immediate CTD. Obvious timing conflict but may be difficult to duplicate. Running 17.1 stock except for realistic aircraft mod. I've attached a savegame from as close as I could get, depending on which way the UFO zigs and zags the bug may or may not be immediately reproducible. http://www.filehosting.org/file/details/387511/2012-10-24_20.03.35.sav

http://www.filehosting.org/file/details/387485/2012-10-24_17.58.52.sav Living alien, sighted through a closed door. (MAN these guys are good.) Currently doing its best imitation of a Halloween door-hanging decoration. Stock 17.1 except for realistic aircraft mod.

http://www.filehosting.org/file/details/387482/Autosave1.sav Farm map, nighttime, first alien UFO shot down. If you move the hunter straight forward from the Chinook, there's an alien a couple of hedges toward the "top left" of the map. In multiple reloads of the autosave, the second enemy turn will have it try to move and results in the game getting stuck on the hidden movement screen. Killing the alien eliminates the freeze. I am running stock 17.1 except for the realistic aircraft mod, new game started from 17.1 post-mod.

Can you (or somebody) please link to this workaround? I have taken to regarding farmers as the deadliest foes of all--aliens will merely exterminate all humans, but farmers and their fences have the unique capability to erase the entire UNIVERSE and force the creation of a parallel one. As such--playing on Ironman--the essential tactics of "covering fire, move carefully by squad, search the map" have turned into "flee the Chinook as fast as you can run, if you see a farmer TAKE THE SHOT before they can eradicate your very existance!" While it's funny as hell to contemplate the ground level ramifications of CTDs, it makes for slightly frustrating gaming.

Farm maps still crash with 16.5, many civilians are still invisible (although some of them show up when running, just not when stopped), and there is still a Middle East map where the terrain will not permit a Hunter to exit the Chinook. There are also issues with walls not being solid in some of the army base maps, and with rocks not being solid in some of the mesa maps--not sure what they're officially called.