Jump to content

[v1.5/X:CE] Dynamic UFO Spawns (v1.0)


kabill

Recommended Posts

Kabill I test removing all "once per wave" and Im having soo much fun. Multiple aerial terror missions, all bases attacked, scouts intercept Charlies, scoutes make base attacks xD

LOL this is amaizing.

The difficulty of geospace is increased A LOT and that show more dynamic alien invasion. Is just an experiment ^^

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, a draft. This post contains the vanilla mission details:

Air Superiority:

- Ticker: 20

- Chance: 150/450 = ~55%

- Once/Wave

20-350: Fighter

350-600: Heavy Fighter

600+: Interceptor

--

Base Attack:

- Ticker: 200

- Chance: 100/450 = ~40%

- Once/wave

200-350: Corvette

350-600: Landing Ship

600+: Carrier

--

Scout:

- Ticker: 4

- Chance: 200/450 = ~78%

- Once/wave

0-25: Light Scout

25+: Scout

--

Bombing Run:

- Ticker: 200

- Chance: 20/320 = ~25%

- Once/wave

200-550: Bomber

550+: Strike Cruiser

--

Construction:

- Ticker: 250

- Chance: 60/320 = ~55%

- Once/wave

250-350: Corvette

350-575: Landing Ship

575+: Carrier

--

Ground Attack:

- Ticker: 150

- Chance: 80/320 = 78%

150-325: Corvette

325-450: Landing Ship

450-650: Cruiser

650-800: Carrier

800+: Battleship

--

Research:

- Ticker: 0

- Chance: 80/320 = ~78%

- Landing Chance: 10

0-100: Light Scout

100-200: Scout

200-400: Corvette

400-500: Landing Ship

500-625: Cruiser

625+: Carrier

--

Supply:

- Ticker: 200

- Chance: 60/320 = ~55%

200-350: Corvette

350+ Landing Ship

--

Terror:

- Ticker: 200

- Chance: 20/320 = ~25%

- Once/wave

200-300: Corvette

300-450: Landing Ship

450-650: Cruiser

650+: Battleship

--------

Terror Failure: 500

Aerial Failure: 250

Terror Bonus: 150

Civilian Bonus: 0

Abduction Penalty: -12

Airliner Penalty: -15

Minor Civilian: -15

Major Civilian: -35

Major Military: -40

Alien base damage/day: 6

Base Attack Delay: 20

Terror Delay: 14

Base Construction Delay:

0-200: 15

200-400: 20

400-600: 25

600+: 30

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And this post contains the (suggested) modded values (assume the escort distributions for air superiority apply to all missions with escorts):

Air Superiority:

- Ticker: 50

- Chance: 130/400 = ~55%

0-200: Fighter(100)

200-250: Fighter(75)/Heavy Fighter(25)

250-300: Fighter(50)/Heavy Fighter (25)/Bomber(25)

300-350: Fighter(25)/Heavy Fighter(50)/Bomber(25)

350-400: Heavy Fighter(75)/Bomber(25)

400-450: Heavy Fighter(50)/Bomber(50)

450-500: Heavy Fighter(25)/Bomber(50)/Strike Cruiser(25)

500-550: Interceptor(25)/Bomber(25)/Strike Cruiser(50)

550+: Interceptor(30)/Bomber(10)/Strike Cruiser(60)

0-350: Fighter(100)

350-450: Fighter(50)/Heavy Fighter(50)

450-550: Fighter(25)/Heavy Fighter(75)

550-650: Fighter(10)/Heavy Fighter(40)/Interceptor(50)

650+: Fighter(10)/Heavy Fighter(20)/Interceptor(70)

--

Base Attack:

- Ticker: 200

- Chance: 40/400 = ~25%

200-250: Corvette(75)/Landing Ship(25)

250-300: Corvette(50)/Landing Ship(50)

300-350: Corvette(25)/Landing Ship(75)

350-400: Corvette(25)/Landing Ship(50)/Cruiser(25)

400-450: Landing Ship(70)/Cruiser(30)

450-500: Landing Ship(50)/Cruiser(30)/Carrier(20)

500-550: Landing Ship(30)/Cruiser(50)/Carrier(20)

550-600: Cruiser(50)/Carrier(35)/Battleship(15)

600-650: Cruiser(30)/Carrier(50)/Battleship(20)

650+: Cruiser(20)/Carrier(30)/Battleship(50)

--

Scout:

- Ticker: 0

- Chance: 230/400 = ~82%

- Landing Chance: 10

0-50: Light Scout(50)/Scout(50)

50-100: Light Scout(25)/Scout(75)

100-150: Light Scout(20)/Scout(60)/Corvette(20)

150-200: Light Scout(20)/Scout(50)/Corvette(30)

200-250: Light Scout(20)/Scout(40)/Corvette(40)

250-300: Light Scout(15)/Scout(35)/Corvette(35)/Landing Ship(15)

300-350: Light Scout(15)/Scout(25)/Corvette(35)/Landing Ship(25)

350-400: Light Scout(10)/Scout(20)/Corvette(35)/Landing Ship(35)

400-450: Light Scout(10)/Scout(15)/Corvette(25)/Landing Ship(35)/Cruiser(15)

450-500: Light Scout(10)/Scout(10)/Corvette(20)/Landing Ship (30)/Cruiser(30)

500-550: Light Scout(5)/Scout(5)/Corvette(15)/Landing Ship (25)/Cruiser(35)/Carrier(15)

550-600: Light Scout(5)/Scout(5)/Corvette(10)/Landing Ship(20)/Cruiser(30)/Carrier(30)

600-650: Light Scout(5)/Scout(5)/Corvette(10)/Landing Ship(15)/Cruiser(25)/Carrier(25)/Battleship(15)

650+: Light Scout(5)/Scout(5)/Corvette(5)/Landing Ship (10)/Cruiser(25)/Carrier(25)/Battleship(25)

--

Bombing Run:

- Ticker: 300

- Chance: 20/320 = ~25%

300-350: Corvette(25)/Landing Ship(50)/Cruiser(25)

350-400: Corvette(15)/Landing Ship(35)/Cruiser(50)

400-450: Landing Ship(30)/Cruiser(50)/Carrier(20)

450-500: Landing Ship(20)/Cruiser(50)/Carrier(30)

550-600: Cruiser(30)/Carrier(50)/Battleship(20)

600-650: Cruiser(20)/Carrier(50)/Battleship(30)

650+: Cruiser(20)/Carrier(30)/Battleship(50)

--

Construction:

- Ticker: 100

- Chance: 80/320 = ~78%

- Once/wave

100-200: Landing Ship(100)

200-250: Landing Ship(75)/Cruiser(25)

250-300: Landing Ship(50)/Cruiser(50)

300-350: Landing Ship(25)/Cruiser(50)/Carrier(25)

350-400: Cruiser(50)/Carrier(50)

400-450: Cruiser(25)/Carrier(50)/Battleship(25)

450+: Carrier(50)/Battleship(50)

--

Ground Attack:

- Ticker: 150

- Chance: 60/320 = 55%

150-200: Corvette(100)

200-250: Corvette(75)/Landing Ship(25)

250-300: Corvette(50)/Landing Ship(50)

300-350: Corvette(30)/Landing Ship(70)

350-400: Corvette(20)/Landing Ship(50)/Cruiser(20)

400-450: Corvette(20)/Landing Ship(40)/Cruiser(40)

450-500: Corvette(15)/Landing Ship(30)/Cruiser(40)/Carrier(15)

500-550: Corvette(10)/Landing Ship(20)/Cruiser(50)/Carrier(20)

550-600: Corvette(10)/Landing Ship(10)/Cruiser(35)/Carrier(35)/Battleship(10)

600-650: Corvette(10)/Landing Ship(10)/Cruiser(30)/Carrier(25)/Battleship(25)

650+: Corvette(5)/Landing Ship(10)/Cruiser(25)/Carrier(25)/Battleship(35)

--

Research:

- Ticker: 0

- Chance: 80/320 = ~78%

- Landing Chance: 20

0-50: Light Scout(50)/Scout(50)

50-100: Light Scout(25)/Scout(75)

100-150: Light Scout(20)/Scout(60)/Corvette(20)

150-200: Light Scout(20)/Scout(50)/Corvette(30)

200-250: Light Scout(20)/Scout(40)/Corvette(40)

250-300: Light Scout(15)/Scout(35)/Corvette(35)/Landing Ship(15)

300-350: Light Scout(15)/Scout(25)/Corvette(35)/Landing Ship(25)

350-400: Light Scout(10)/Scout(20)/Corvette(35)/Landing Ship(35)

400-450: Light Scout(10)/Scout(15)/Corvette(25)/Landing Ship(35)/Cruiser(15)

450-500: Light Scout(10)/Scout(10)/Corvette(20)/Landing Ship (30)/Cruiser(30)

500-550: Light Scout(5)/Scout(5)/Corvette(15)/Landing Ship (25)/Cruiser(35)/Carrier(15)

550-600: Light Scout(5)/Scout(5)/Corvette(10)/Landing Ship(20)/Cruiser(30)/Carrier(30)

600-650: Light Scout(5)/Scout(5)/Corvette(10)/Landing Ship(15)/Cruiser(25)/Carrier(25)/Battleship(15)

650+: Light Scout(5)/Scout(5)/Corvette(5)/Landing Ship (10)/Cruiser(25)/Carrier(25)/Battleship(25)

--

Supply:

- Ticker: 100

- Chance: 60/320 = ~55%

100-150: Scout(75)/Corvette(25)

150-200: Scout(50)/Corvette(50)

200-250: Scout(30)/Corvette(50)/Landing Ship(20)

250-300: Scout(20)/Corvette(50)/Landing Ship(30)

300-350: Scout(10)/Corvette(45)/Landing Ship(45)

350-400: Scout(10)/Corvette(30)/Landing Ship(45)/Cruiser(15)

400-450: Scout(10)/Corvette(20)/Landing Ship(40)/Cruiser(30)

450-500: Scout(5)/Corvette(10)/Landing Ship(35)/Cruiser(35)/Carrier(15)

500-550: Scout(5)/Corvette(10)/Landing Ship(25)/Cruiser(30)/Carrier(30)

550-600: Scout(5)/Corvette(10)/Landing Ship(15)/Cruiser(25)/Carrier(30)/Battleship(15)

600+: Scout(5)/Corvette(10)/Landing Ship(15)/Cruiser(15)/Carrier(30)/Battleship(25)

--

Terror:

- Ticker: 200

- Chance: 20/320 = ~25%

- Once/wave

200-250: Corvette(75)/Landing Ship(25)

250-300: Corvette(50)/Landing Ship(50)

300-350: Corvette(25)/Landing Ship(75)

350-400: Corvette(25)/Landing Ship(50)/Cruiser(25)

400-450: Landing Ship(70)/Cruiser(30)

450-500: Landing Ship(50)/Cruiser(30)/Carrier(20)

500-550: Landing Ship(30)/Cruiser(50)/Carrier(20)

550-600: Cruiser(50)/Carrier(35)/Battleship(15)

600-650: Cruiser(30)/Carrier(50)/Battleship(20)

650+: Cruiser(20)/Carrier(30)/Battleship(50)

--------

Terror Failure: 500

Aerial Failure: 250

Terror Bonus: 100

Civilian Bonus: 10

Abduction Penalty: -25

Airliner Penalty: -30

Minor Civilian: -30

Major Civilian: -70

Major Military: -80

(NOTE: The chance of events will be halved to compensate for doubling their damage)

Alien base damage/day: 6 (or, increase bonus UFO spawns per base to 2 or 3)

Base Attack Delay: 20

Terror Delay: 0

Base Construction Delay:

0-200: 5

200-400: 10

400-600: 15

600+: 20

Base Growth per day: 1

Bae Growth per supply: 10

Base Growth to Medium: 30

Base Growth to Large: 60

Edited by kabill
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What do you think of increasing the landing chances for Scouting and Research missions? Say to 25 for Scout and 50 for Research (Im assuming those are in percent)?

I think I've seen only two UFOs land in my playthrough. It would be nice to see this a little more because they force a change in air strategy for a particular wave (sending aircraft to circle over a UFO or holding aircraft in reserve for when a UFO takes off). It may also provide incentive for more night missions since you more or less have to dispatch a dropship to a landed UFO as soon as possible to have a chance of getting there before it takes off again (especially with the Chinook). It would also introduce more variety for ground combat since you would end up facing the full complement of crew for a landed UFO.

Regarding Corvettes being a huge boon to research if downed too early, I think you may be overestimating the impact on the game. There's quite a bit of research to go through to get 2nd tier aircraft and you'd really have to make research a hardcore focus (2-3 labs in your first base) in the beginning of the game to take advantage of Corvettes appearing early. Even then you'd probably have to ignore other research and manufacturing or early game expansion. Plus, as effective as Corsairs are against alien fighters, foxtrots are much more cost effective and useful against the larger alien craft.

Edited by BuzuBuzu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What do you think of increasing the landing chances for Scouting and Research missions? Say to 25 for Scout and 50 for Research (Im assuming those are in percent)?

I think I've seen only two UFOs land in my playthrough. It would be nice to see this a little more because they force a change in air strategy for a particular wave (sending aircraft to circle over a UFO or holding aircraft in reserve for when a UFO takes off). It may also provide incentive for more night missions since you more or less have to dispatch a dropship to a landed UFO as soon as possible to have a chance of getting there before it takes off again (especially with the Chinook). It would also introduce more variety for ground combat since you would end up facing the full complement of crew for a landed UFO.

I've been here already with a previous version of the mod. I'm not convinced that it works that well - UFOs landing when planes are en- route can be annoying as there's no easy way to stop and redirect them to a more useful target. It also makes it a bit easier to take UFOs out, since while they're landed they can't do anything and you can relatively easily fly a plane out, down a UFO, get it back to base and send it out again in the time a UFO is landed.

It's worth noting that, in principle, I do like the idea of more landings (and the values above are actually increased from vanilla) but in practice it does work less well than I'd like.

Regarding Corvettes being a huge boon to research if downed too early, I think you may be overestimating the impact on the game. There's quite a bit of research to go through to get 2nd tier aircraft and you'd really have to make research a hardcore focus (2-3 labs in your first base) in the beginning of the game to take advantage of Corvettes appearing early. Even then you'd probably have to ignore other research and manufacturing or early game expansion. Plus, as effective as Corsairs are against alien fighters, foxtrots are much more cost effective and useful against the larger alien craft.

I'm inclined to agree, actually, and I might bring them forwards a bit on the research missions (so they have a chance of spawning from 50) and make supply missions less Scout heavy to start with. I think I meant to make the Research missions advance a little ahead of the Scout ones in the first place but forgot and just copy-pasted the Scout list when I got to it instead.

EDIT: Just realised in the above post that I forgot to indicate that in doubling the damage done by missions I want also to halve their chance, i.e. revert to the old numbers. I don't like getting even-spammed, is all, so having fewer more damaging events is preferable for me. Gameplay effect should be minimal, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kabill I test removing all "once per wave" and Im having soo much fun. Multiple aerial terror missions, all bases attacked, scouts intercept Charlies, scoutes make base attacks xD

LOL this is amaizing.

The difficulty of geospace is increased A LOT and that show more dynamic alien invasion. Is just an experiment ^^

What did you do? Teach me, pls.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've never played vanilla (but am an o.g. X-COM vet), and this is literally impossible to contend with. Granted, this is my first run, and I didn't realize how much more important air superiority was in Xenonauts vs. o.g. X-COM, but I legitimately am absolutely helpless to do anything about the following:

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/35217691743301084/60247604A95DAB38CD068F66C825F2DD1CA58C3A/

Fairly frustrated right now, but I'll try being more on the ball in my next run when I inevitably lose this one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be honest, that seems more or less par for the course (certainly for a first run-through). Indeed, looks like you've got a fair bit of funding going on at the moment and plenty of cash for building another base and/or increasing air power in existing bases. Obviously I don't have all the relevant information but it doesn't look from that screenshot like the game is hopelessly lost.

Or are you referring to the escorted UFO? Odds are its on a terror mission so even if you can't shoot it down you can still stop it and get something back through ground combat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just gave up and am just fast-forwarding to see what the game over screen looks like at this point (and also to get an idea of what alien activity looks like for the next run). Mid-December currently, and 6 UFOs on the planet at the same time. How is anyone supposed to deal with that? Although, granted, I guess some could be spawned by bases and whatnot.

I'm playing on Veteran with the Economy Restored mod also running, which might be a tad too much as well. I never increased the starting funds as is recommended with that mod, so I'm giving myself an extra 500k to begin the next run.

EDIT: Began run #2, upped starting cash by about 70k. Ordered 2 new hangars, expanded radar array, and extra labs on day 1 as well as ordering a new base on the other side of the globe. On day 2, 2 UFOs spawn, one of which I'm able to shoot down, the other of which escapes my radar (plus my condors are re-fuelling and re-arming at this point), immediately dropping funding by $30k. =/

Edited by MrTwentyThree
Link to comment
Share on other sites

But $30k on Day 1? All I'm saying is the game is more than a little frustrating when 60-80% UFOs fielded are always outside my radar detection area, and even the ones I can see I can only drop maybe 50-70% of the time due to Condors having barely any range at all. It takes 17 days to get a new base, with radar, and hangars, all online. A lot of damage that can be done in 17 days. Dropped funding hurts a lot more when there's literally no other way to make money in Xenonauts since you can no longer sell manufactured goods, and if I can only make money from shooting down and raiding UFOs, it kind of hurts when I can't shoot down UFOs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

MrTwentyThree,

It may be frustrating to loose funding right off the bat, but as ViewThePhenom said, just "Roll with it". You will loose funding in the first months before you expand enough to cover most of the globe. $30K in a day may seem bad, but in terms of your entire funding it's only 2-3% and any ground mission should pay at least that if you're not too crazy with explosives. Another player raised a similar complaint in an old thread HERE. You might find some of the replies useful. Trust me, once you get a hang of the air game, you'll be wishing for more of the challenges that this mod offers.

Edited by BuzuBuzu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The problem being the more you expand, the more your expenses are making those funding hits that much worse. At the end of the very second month I only had 500k net funding roll in leaving me sub-1 million on the very first day of the month. There's really very little you can do with that. I'd given up by the 20th or so of that month and ran the game in fast-forward just to see how long until game over (which took a surprisingly long time, actually). That being said, my maintenance exceeded funding just that month, meaning the 3rd month of the game. Please tell me how you're supposed to operate on a budget deficit. It's simply not possible.

In my current run, my funding losses have been pretty much on par with my first run despite me having built far more air power and being completely broke for literally over half the month with how much expansion I'd done. They're now fielding medium-size ships, and the only things that can take those down are Foxtrots, of which I only have one. I have $1.1 mil on hand meaning building enough Foxtrots to deal with medium-size threats on both sides of the globe (one base in Cuba, main base in middle east/soviet union border) is roughly a 400-600k investment.

Honestly considering either uninstalling this mod or dropping the difficulty, although I picked Veteran based solely off the description being that that was the best choice for o.g. X-COM vets.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd recommend dropping the difficulty before uninstalling the mod. This mod does make the game a little more difficult but it also adds so much more variety.

I think I've had the exact opposite experience from you. I've done two partial playthroughs of the game since it was released. Both were on veteran difficulty. I stopped my first playthrough because I was swimming in money and getting bored with steamrolling the alien invasion. I was also sick of seeing the same UFOs over and over again month after month. I started my second (and current) playthrough with this mod installed to remedy the problems I had in my first one. I love the increased variety but I'm once again swimming in money and shooting down all the UFOs per each wave leading to my funding hitting maximum level for some regions (Russia and Middle East).

I'd tell you in detail how I play but I think there's enough advice like that available on these forums, not to mention in the game manual and quickstart guide. There's also a really good FAQ on GameFAQs. The one piece of advice that I want to give you is that you really need to prioritize air power in the beginning of the game at the expense of nearly everything else. Also don't buy more than one Condor per base and research and build Foxtrots ASAP (three to four per base is my standard).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@MrTwentyThree: For what it's worth, what you're experiencing has nothing to do with the mod. It's how the vanilla game is. If anything, the mod is slightly *softer* as I increased starting relations slightly relative to funding-per-relations-point which means every negative event caused by UFOs has a *smaller* effect on funding than in vanilla.

As for expansion vs. funding: shooting down UFOs is more or less the only way to increase your funding. Indeed, the only other thing that increases your funding is winning terror missions (and that's never going to sustain you). So, in fact, you *need* to expand and build more bases quickly because it's literally the only way you can not lose the game.

To return to your original game - I maintain my argument I highlighted above. Having two bases at the beginning of November is fair enough and you had enough cash to build a third to cover the USA meaning you could have three bases up-and-running by December. Your base placement was less optimal than it could have been (the European base may have been better a little further south to cover more of Africa and the Asia base a little further west so it covers less ocean). So in terms of global coverage, I think you have a half-decent game going on and the fact that you could fast-forward to at least mid-December implies to me that you could have carried that game through.

For what it's worth, your experience with the funding drop at the beginning of the game is something a lot of people made similar comments on when the game went live. If I get a chance (I'm saying that a lot lately!) I might see if I can get round to putting out the Neutral Funding mod which makes things a bit steadier in the beginning (using some horrible work-arounds, as always!). But the game was nevertheless designed and balance around this immediate funding drop, so the fact that it happens isn't actually a problem long term and doesn't mean you're doing badly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

UPDATE (FINALLY!): The mod has been updated for XCE v0.25! It makes use of several new features added in XCE, so if you're interested in using this mod you will need X:CE first (and if you don't already have it installed, *why not*! :P)

The outline I posted above is more or less what I've built. I've made some adjustments (for example, I reduced the tendency for scout missions to produce larger UFOs) but it's more or less what's gone in. I've not tested it - that's my job for tomorrow - so it may not be perfectly balanced. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks also to Solver for all the source-code work he's done to improve this mod.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Don't use the installer, do it manually. The mod currently overwrites some of the existing game files so the installer won't work. Also, for it to work, you'll need to have XCE installed using the old (overwrite) method rather than having the XCE files in a mod folder of their own (otherwise the Dynamic UFOs installation won't work properly). Ugh, complicated, need to get updated to 0.26

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depends entirely on the next XCE build.

I actually basically have a new build ready to put out, but the current format of the ufocontents files is such that I can't modularise them and I've been holding off waiting for a new build.

I'll ask on the community edition forum though and see if there's a rough ETA. If it's soon, I'll hold off until then. If it's going to be a while, I'll release what I've got ready and update later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...