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[1.65/X.CE V0.35.0] X-Division 1.00 Beta (1.00.11c)


Charon

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A bunch of new candidates:

Alien Vindicator Technology

We have now studied the Alien Vindicator Technology and figured out what causes those weapons to inflict so much harm, and we don't mean we've found out that the bullets impact at hypersonic velocities, as that was deduced based on battlefield report alone. No, we have found out how the bullets are accelerated to such extreme velocities, and the answer is surprisingly mundane, using physics that is well known. The Alien Vindicator weapons are "coil guns", i.e. weapons that uses a series of magnetic coils accelerate the bullet. A slug made from a magnetic material is pulled towards a coil with an intense magnetic field, passes through a hole in the center of the coil, the current passing through the coil is disabled as the slug reaches the coil, and the current is enabled on the next coil to accelerate it further. More coils (i.e. longer weapon) allows for a higher velocity or larger bullet mass, while thicker coils allow for a higher acceleration per coil. This means a pistol is capable of firing a comparatively small slug, while a rifle allows for a medium sized one, alternatively accelerating a small one to a higher velocity.

Knowing the principles does not mean we can apply them ourselves immediately, as we have to manufacture and test the components that make this happen, and those are far from well known. We are sufficiently certain we can make it happen to allow us to start researching this, though, which ought to allow us to develop our own Gauss Technology.

We also believe studies of more advanced weapons using this technology is needed to improve our knowledge to the Advanced level, but we probably have to interrogate a Sebillian Weapons Officer in charge of these weapons to fill in blanks in our knowledge. There are also some issues which may require comparisons with components used in the Alien Scorcher Technology.

Advanced Alien Vindicator Technology

Commander, we believe we now have all the knowledge required to start to determine how to integrate Ballistic Cores into our Gauss Technology weapons, lifting their sophistication to the Mk-2 level. This means that we're now ready to commence research on the Advanced Gauss Technology.

Alien Vindicator Pistol

This pistol fires magnetic slugs at hypersonic velocities, and the higher the speed is, the more damage it causes.

After studying the sample brought in, we have devised a disassembly protocol for this weapon to yield 4 Ballistic Core kits from every 5 weapons.

Alien Vindicator Rifle

This weapon fires slugs made out of a magnetic material at hypersonic speed (i.e. faster than Mach 5).

Our disassembly protocol for the Alien Vindicator Rifle produces one Ballistic Core for each weapon processed.

Alien Vindicator Sniper

We have produced a disassembly protocol that results in 2 Ballistic Cores for every weapon processed.

Alien Vindicator Heavy

This heavy weapon can now be disassembled to provide us with 1 Ballistic Core for each weapon processed.

Alien Vindicator Minigun

The Alien Vindicator Minigun can now be processed to yield 4 Ballistic Cores for every weapon disassembled.

Alien Vindicator Cannon

We are now able to disassemble this weapon. The process extracts 2 Ballistic Core kits from each Alien Vindicator Cannon.

Alien Scorcher Technology

The Sebillians have improved on their Alien Flamer Technology to produce a higher Incendiary damage. The new technology achieves this by boosting the temperature of the "fuel" as well as changing to a material with an even higher heat capacitivity, which means that every piece of "fuel" can propagate more heat onto the target before dropping one degree in temperature.

We believe we need to study how the heavy Alien Scorcher weapons work to be able to declare that we have an Advanced knowledge of this technology, but we don't see any real technical hurdles.

It may not look like it, but some of the components appear to be very similar to those employed by Alien Vindicator Technology weapons, while those surrounding them are not. We suspect understanding this difference is crucial to reach an Advanced understanding of the Alien Vindicator Technology. This being an important part doesn't mean it's the only one, of course: we still need to perform the "normal" research of studying advanced weapons of that technology and probably perform interrogations to go the whole distance.

Advanced Alien Scorcher Technology
<The sebillian weapon commander interrogation seems to be redundant, as it's required for the basic tech>

We believe we have a fairly good grasp of this technology now, which makes it likely we should be able to provide any research requiring a broad selection of pinnacle technological knowledge with a perspective from this angle. However, we don't know if there is something that actually would benefit from that input...

Alien Scorcher Pistol

While the internals are different, this weapon works and acts as an improved Alien Flamer Pistol, with hotter flames that contains more energy even when the temperature has been accounted for.

Our disassembly protocol for this weapon yields 4 Ballistic Cores for every 5 weapons processed.

Alien Scorcher Rifle

The meaner bigger brother of the already mean (and big) Alien Flamer Rifle. It causes more Incendiary damage that its lesser sibling both by running hotter and by carrying more energy per degree of temperature.

We can now disassemble these weapons to get 2 Ballistic Cores for every 2 weapons. Why not one for one? Well, there are some odd pairing issues that causes a key component to fail to match up with the other one from the same weapon, but will work fine with the corresponding part from any other weapon.

Alien Scorcher Heavy

If you think you're tough enough to stand against an Alien Flamer Heavy, you should think twice about trying that against this weapon. Is there actually anyone who has survived the Alien Flamer Heavy without a shield?...

Once you have removed this weapon from its wielder's hands and brought it back for disassembly, every two weapons with provide us with two Ballistic Cores. We have the same pairing issue with the Alien Scorcher Heavy as with the Alien Scorcher Rifle.

Alien Scorcher Cannon

We have devised a disassembly protocol for this weapon to extract 2 Ballistic Core kits from every weapon processed.

 

And, by the way, I'm somewhat puzzled by the "Resisted" indicator in the game, as I can see soldiers reported to "Resisted" attacks, only to actually turn out to have lost a significant number of HP (although they're not bleeding). I've also had a Sebillian "prepared" with a shockgun "Resisted" an advanced stun grenade, but still crumble immediately. When a ground vehicle "Resisted" it seems to take no damage, though.  "Resisted" is particularly annoying with alenium based grenades (and rockets), as it ought to indicate the grenade causes no damage at all, as Incendiary damage does nothing to damage armor either.

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59 minutes ago, PALU said:

And, by the way, I'm somewhat puzzled by the "Resisted" indicator in the game, as I can see soldiers reported to "Resisted" attacks, only to actually turn out to have lost a significant number of HP (although they're not bleeding). I've also had a Sebillian "prepared" with a shockgun "Resisted" an advanced stun grenade, but still crumble immediately. When a ground vehicle "Resisted" it seems to take no damage, though.  "Resisted" is particularly annoying with alenium based grenades (and rockets), as it ought to indicate the grenade causes no damage at all, as Incendiary damage does nothing to damage armor either.

Resisted means the unit resistet the initial damage the projectile/grenade/rocket was doing. A lot of damage gets dealt through gas though, and that never gets displayed. Examples for this would be stun/chemical/shock/electro grenades/rockets/explosives.

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@CharonThanks for your superb mod. It brings much more deepness into the game. But the phases are a bit hard for me. This is no sobbing post, I solved the problem by 'softening' the phases by phasing in new ufos and phasing out old ufos instead of a clean cut. If you want I can provide the file for you to see the idea. If not it isn't bad, because I made it for private use. But please answer me a question to your used syntax. When you use a 50:50 ratio, you set a ticker number behind the ships name e.g.:
image.png.10f289b319a62546c770d1a16e9d558e.png
Is the /XXX needed by the game or is it just your syntax for better differ your doing? - I appreciate your answer.

I also like the mod that much, that I offer you translation assistance. If you like I could translate your entries in German. Also I offer you assistance about UfoPedia texts.

Thanks for your time
ShadowAdmiral

Edited by ShadowAdmiral
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19 minutes ago, Ruggerman said:

Have tried to install X-Division with no joy, as the install screen comes up with the alien over looking a lake, and then it just dies!!

any help.

what am I no doing right?

 

I'm not sure wich version of the game you have, steam or otherwise (i have the gog version), but i followed the instructions on the first page:

 

- clean game install, run game once

- install the xce, run game once

- install x division

 

If you are having problems in the last part, i did the following here: downloaded the 3 part files into one folder, extracted only the first part file into that folder, and clicked the install file and folowed the required steps. I think the first time i opened the first .rar file and tried to run the install file directly, and that didnt work.

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, ShadowAdmiral said:

But please answer me a question to your used syntax. When you use a 50:50 ratio, you set a ticker number behind the ships name e.g.:

The "Key" column has to be unique. So when you want to insert the same ufo again you need to add a /[number] to the ufo.

m:airplane.alien.bomberbattleship
m:airplane.alien.bomberbattleship/[number]

The number corresponds with the ticker points, but i assume a random number works too.

11 hours ago, ShadowAdmiral said:

Also I offer you assistance about UfoPedia texts.

Ask @PALU if he needs your help.

 

On 9/7/2018 at 2:02 AM, Ruggerman said:

Which extraction software should we used to unload these files??

I updated the installation instructions.

Edited by Charon
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@ShadowAdmiral Help would be useful, but based on your posts, your English skills seem to be a bit on the weak side, and correction of other people's entries in bulk is mind numbingly boring and would probably end up taking more time than writing them myself from scratch as well. The exception to this is longer, well chosen entries (and I would be of little help in finding out which ones that would be) where the important part would be coming up with the contents concept (which would have to fit into the existing lore, which definitely is a weak point in my knowledge). I could probably work over a dozen or so of such entries without nodding off completely.

Edit: A new set of X-Pedia candidates:

Alien Blood Technology

The "Blood" liquid is an alarming substance. "Blood" has a Ph value around 14 (i.e. it is extremely alkaline), which causes chemical damage to armour. It is also acutely toxic and is readily absorbed through the skin or via respiration, and to top it up, it also performs an infection of the victim. The infectious agent is most curious, as it's capable of living in the extremely hostile environment of the Blood liquid. These organisms do not resemble anything we have encountered before, although they have some properties in common with terrestial extremophiles (not surprising, given where they're found). The only saving grace is that it isn't particularly well adapted to infect humans (or any other terrestial life form), leading to the speculation that they may actually have been developed to attack prior extraterrestial victims of the aliens rather than humans. The fact that they can perform an infection in humans at all is a testament to their abilities, though.

As a result of this research, we have added a substance that seems to be effective against Blood infections to our standard Medikit antiseptics, as well as increased the buffering effect of it (to neutralise the caustic burns). However, the soldiers are unlikely to notice the difference on the battlefield.

We ought to be able to use this research as the basis for a Heavy Chemical Gas of our own, provided we have sufficient knowledge of the DNA of the various alien species and have studied how Zombification works.

We should also have prepared the ground for further studies of this disgusting technology, but we definitely need samples of the advanced weapons using this technology, and probably have to interrogate at least one alien Operator in charge of deploying these weapons.

Advanced Alien Blood Technology

We how have an Advanced understanding of how the Alien Blood Technology works. The caustic Blood liquid destroys armour, allowing the chemical and biological agents to reach the skin, which it can penetrate with ease. The toxins are various neuro active ones, while the infectious agent's origin remains a mystery. While it does use DNA, this DNA does not have any similarity with any of the alien species we have encountered, and it seems the aliens we have interrogated have neither knowledge of or interest in its origin.

The closest analogue we can find to the Blood organism is terrestial slime mold. It's capable of (very slow) movement to seek out nutrients, and it harbours multiple cellular nucleii within each cell, but can't readily be classified as an animal or bacterial life form.

Unfortunately, we currently see no further research paths from this technology, but we will be sure to file the research should a need to revisit the finding appear in the future.

Alien Blood Pistol

The Alien Blood Pistol is a fourteen-inch chemical weapon that resembles a watergun toy . It produces high pressure globules of an acutely toxic and caustic red liquid nicknamed “Blood,” firing either smaller droplet-clouds in bursts or larger, more accurate globules.  The Alien Blood Pistol is capable of killing armoured soldiers within minutes. Thankfully its size renders it fairly inaccurate, though still far more accurate than human water guns. It is easy to understand why only the reptilian Sebillians wield this weapon-the heat continuously generated by the warmers that keep Blood alive causes first degree burns and sore palms after prolonged contact. The fact that no other race we have encountered uses this weapon merits further study. Our soldiers understandably refuse to come into contact with this weapon except with absolutely necessary. Blood has an alarming habit of sloshing around within the containment tanks it is stored in, giving the impression that it is actively trying to escape.

We have devised a disassembly protocol for this weapon allowing us to gain one Chemical Core from each weapon processed.

Alien Blood Rifle

The Alien Blood Rifle is a medium-sized anti-personnel chemical gun. It fires high pressure bursts of a toxic and caustic liquid “Blood” like its smaller relative the Alien Blood Pistol, but is far more accurate and deadly. With far more space available for the fluid launching mechanism, it can fire droplets at speeds almost impossible to avoid. Where it was possible for a running soldier to breeze right past a shot from an Alien Blood Pistol, evading the Alien Blood Rifle requires peak reflexes. It is fortunately incapable of producing continuous streams, instead launching high pressure globules or droplet-clouds depending on the pressure a hand applies to the weapon.  The speed of a Blood bullet is equal to a fastball pitched by the average top-level baseball star, but is significantly more lethal. While the kinetic energy delivered by the small splashes of fluid are merely enough to bruise, the alkaline liquid is poisonous and infectious. We’ve seen signs of immune system activity in soldiers exposed to doses of this weapon. Until we complete our tests on the effects of this bio-chemical nightmare, do not expose your soldiers to Blood any more than you can help it.

Our disassembly protocol for this weapon provides us with 2 Chemical Cores from each weapon processed.

Alien Blood Heavy

This Heavy weapon fires a burst of Blood globules at a target.

The disassembly of one of these weapons provides us with 3 Chemical Cores.

Alien Blood Cannon

The Alien Blood Cannon fires a "shell" filled with Blood that bursts on impact, spreading Blood gas in an area around the target. This effect comes on top of that affecting a target subjected to a direct hit.

We can disassemble this weapon for 4 Chemical Cores.

Alien Photon Technology

The Alien Photon Technology seems to build on the Alien Wave Technology, but seems to add a twist to the polarisation scheme that adds some armour mitigation while retaining the same base damage.

We should be able to commence Advanced studies of this technology with samples of the advanced weapons in this lineout, but we probably will have to interrogate a Caesan in charge of these weapons to fill in some annoying blanks in our understanding.

It seems the different usage of the same basic components as in the Alien Wave Technology has provided some crucial insight into that technology, helping to pave the road to studies of the Advanced aspects of that technology, but apart from having the basic technology in place, we probably need samples of advanced weapons using that technology.

Advanced Alien Photon Technology

We have now attained knowledge of the Alien Photon Technology of the Advanced level, but don't see any direct continuation. There is a vague feeling that bringing together all the most advanced technologies the aliens have shown could result in some opening, but that's all we have for the moment. Obviously, we won't throw any results away, so they'll be available if needed.

Alien Photon Rifle

This weapon packs about the same punch as the Alien Wave Rifle, but provides armour mitigation to make it hurt more.

We are able to disassemble these weapons to extract 4 Energy Cores from every 5 weapons processed.

Alien Photon Sniper

This Sniper Rifle seems to fill out a hole in the Alien Wave Technology arsenal.

We have provided a disassembly protocol for these weapons that provides us with one Energy Core kit for each weapon processed.

Alien Photon Minigun

The Alien Photon Minigun seems to take the place where we would have expected an Alien Wave Minigun in their arsenal.

We can extract 2 Energy Core from each of these weapons using our disassembly protocol.

Alien Photon Cannon

This weapon looks very much like an Alien Wave Cannon with armour mitigation added.

We are able to extract one Energy Core from each of these weapons.

Edited by PALU
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Same answer as the last time, a week or so ago. Use the "roof" icon to cycle through the transparency settings. It's a pain to have to use the highest transparency setting, though, as that hides doors as well, but cycling allows you to see where it should be so you can remember it. Another use of the "roof" is when a unit gets panicked and flees, and the weapon is dropped behind a wall: full transparency allows you to see what's on the ground (once you've turned the bugger around so the tile is seen by someone).

Edit: A new set of X-Pedia entry candidates:

Alien Ion Technology

The Alien Ion Technology uses ions, i.e. atoms lacking electrons, thus making them electrically charged, which makes it possible to accelerate them with a magnetic field. While ions are matter from a physical point of view, the damage dealt is Energy, as the matter isn't in the form of a bullet, but an enormous number of ions, which results in an effect similar to radiation (and alpha radiation is, technically, a helium ion).

The Alien Ion Technology weapons are characterised by a long range and a high accuracy, so don't assume the aliens will miss just because they're a long distance away!

This research has opened up a path for us to develop a weapon technology to level the field somewhat. We are ready to start on what we have decided to call the Sonic Technology.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that we expect to be able to improve our understanding of this technology to the Advanced level, but we need to study one or more samples of alien weapons employing more advanced usages of it, and expect to have to extract information from a Caesan in charge of the tactical use of those weapons. It's most likely we have to compare component usage in Ion Technology weapons with that of the same components in Alien Thunder weapons to have the knowledge required to start that research.

Advanced Alien Ion Technology

The input from the Alien Thunder Technology proved to be crucial to advance our knowledge, as it would have been very hard to tease out the finer details of how the components of the alien weapons worked. We can put this knowledge to work in the form of determining exactly how to use Energy Cores to improve on the design of our Sonic Technology to reach the Advance Sonic Technology level.

Alien Ion Pistol

This pistol is more accurate and has a longer range than typical alien pistols. Once we have gathered a sufficient number of them from the cold stiff fingers of their users (actually, it's even better if those finger are attached to unconscious aliens), we can use them to extract Energy Cores from them. We are able to piece together 8 Energy Core kits from every 5 weapons.

Alien Ion Rifle

The Alien Ion Rifle has a longer range and a higher accuracy than typical alien Rifles. Once we have acquired them we can extract 2 Energy Core kits from each weapon.

Alien Ion Sniper

A long range, high accuracy alien sniper rifle. Keep the line of sight blocked (easier said than done, when the alien is out of sight entirely).

We are now able to disassemble these weapons to gain 4 Energy Cores from each weapon.

Alien Ion Heavy

The Alien Ion Heavy has a longer range and a higher accuracy than most other alien heavy weapons.

We have produced a disassembly protocol for these weapons to gain 2 Energy Cores from each weapon.

Alien Ion Cannon

This long range Cannon has a high accuracy (in alien hand, anyway).

We are able to extract 2 Energy Cores from each of these weapons.

Alien Mass Technology

The Alien Mass Technology seems to be another take on electro magnetic propulsion from the aliens, but this time they have switched from a Coil Gun to a Rail Gun technique. Since the Alien Vindicator Technology propels bullets at speeds that are close to the limit at which air resistance will cause any extra speed to bleed off extremely quickly, the have pumped additional mass into their bullets while maintaining the same speed, hence the Mass designation.
Apparently, even the advanced alien technology wasn't up to the challenge of accelerating these heavier bullets to the same speed, so they have switch to the Rail Gun technique, which is well known and understood by science in principle: what's new is the extreme acceleration, enormous energy discharge without side effects such as arching or welding the bullet to the rails, the ability to actually carry the energy required, and fitting the propulsion mechanism into a hand held weapon rather than a mid sized factory.
Rail Guns use the Lorentz force to accelerate an electrically conductive bullet in contact with two "rails" on either side of it. As a current is passed through the rails with the bullet bridging the gap, the Lorentz force tries to expand the circuit by pushing all parts of it away from each other, but if the rails are fixed in place, the only part that can actually move is the bullet. Pump enough electricity through the circuit to propel the bullet at lethal speeds within a hand weapon's barrel and it will melt, at least using normal materials. The alien materials have provided new opportunities.

The practical outcome of this research is that we believe we shouldn't have any direct problems researching how to use the same principles and, to some extent, materials, to develop a Rail Technology to provide weapons for our own soldiers.

We also expect to be able to further our understanding of this technology to the Advanced level given one or more samples of alien weapons making advanced uses of the technology, probably helped along by information extracted from a Sebillian in charge of the tactical use of these weapons. We also think the Alien Incinerator Technology uses many of the same components in different ways, and we probably need to see things from both perspectives to be able to deduce further details about the technology.

Advanced Alien Mass Technology

We have made good on our promises to improve our understanding of the Alien Mass Technology to the Advanced level. The practical outcome of this is that we should now be able to advance the Rail Technology to the Mk-2 level by determining how to integrate Ballistic Cores into our weapons as the Advanced Rail Technology research. Of course, you can't build the second floor without having the first one in place, so we still need the Rail Technology.

Alien Mass Pistol

The Alien Mass Pistol is worse than the Vindicator one, for the target hit by it, that is.

The disassembly protocol for this weapon yields 8 Ballistic Cores for every 5 weapons.

Alien Mass Rifle

The Alien Mass Rifle hits harder than the Vindicator one, and that one was bad enough.

Each of these weapons yields 2 Ballistic Cores when disassembled.

Alien Mass Sniper

This Sniper hits harder than the Vindicator version.

We can disassemble each of these weapons to extract 4 Ballistic Core kits.

Alien Mass Heavy

The heavy weapon in the Alien Mass Technology range.

This weapon provides us with 2 Ballistic Cores when disassembled.

Alien Mass Minigun

A minigun using the Alien Mass Technology should be avoided, or you may end up with more holes than Swiss cheese.

This weapon provides us with 8 Ballistic Cores when our disassembly process is through.

Alien Mass Cannon

The Cannon in the Alien Mass Technology range provides us with 4 Ballistic Cores when disassembled.

Edited by PALU
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On 9/10/2018 at 4:48 PM, Larry Burstyn said:

I used the roof icon and NOTHING happens.

For me it cycles through three different settings. I need the second one to see inside the lower section of the craft and the third one to see anything at the top. If nothing happens there's something else that's wrong, and I can't be of any help there.

Edit: Another X-Pedia candidate batch:

Alien Incinerator Technology

When we though the aliens couldn't possibly push the heat of their Incendiary weaponry further, they did just that. They've somehow made the bolts "stick", rather than glance off, somewhat akin to how honey or resin was used on longbow arrows to penetrate armour rather than glance off it. We're not quite sure how it works, but we have identified the components that make it work, and that might be sufficient, for the time being.

To be able to proceed to the Advanced level, we will need samples of the weapons making more advanced usage of this technology, but that is probably all we need to continue.

We also believe the insights we have gathered regarding component functionality will complement our understanding of Sebillian weapon technology, providing support for Advanced Alien Mass Technology research, although the key prerequisites for that research is the basic technology (obviously), and one or more advanced weapons using that technology.


Advanced Alien Incinerator Technology
<This tech requires a Sebillian tactical commander, but that interrogation was required for the Alien Incinerator tech as well, and so is redundant, and the same goes for Advanced Alien Mass Technology>

We still don't understand exactly how the Alien Incinerator Technology works, but we have a good grasp of what components causes it to work and a decent idea of how to tune the effects using those components.

Unfortunately, we don't see any clear direct application of this knowledge, but something says that we ought to be able to cook up a breakthrough if we were to combine just about everything we can get from the aliens at this stage and pour it into a brainstorming pot. It's nothing but a hunch, though.

Alien Incinerator Pistol

The Alien Incinerator Pistol is even worse than the Alien Scorcher Pistol, causing higher Incendiary damage.

We have devised a disassembly protocol for this weapon that extracts 8 Ballistic Core kits from every batch of 5 weapons.

Alien Incinerator Rifle

The Alien Incinerator Rifle behaves like the Alien Scorcher Rifle, but causes a higher damage.

Each of these weapons yields 2 Ballistic Cores when disassembled.

Alien Incinerator Heavy

The Heavy weapon in the Alien Incinerator range provides us with 2 Ballistic Cores when it is disassembled.

Alien Incinerator Cannon

The Alien Incinerator Cannon sets everything on fire in a two tile radius around it, and it obviously causes severe Incendiary damage on a direct hit.

Our disassembly protocol for this weapon results in 4 Ballistic Cores for each weapon processed.

Alien Hybrid Technology

This technology is a chemical warfare one designed spread terror by killing targets in as gruesome manner as possible. Death is drawn out from instant to a full turn, and during this time the victim is both dissolved by acid and has all pain receptors triggered to send the strongest pain signals possible through the nervous system, causing the victims to cry in agony throughout the process.

We have made a minor modification to the medikits to introduce a painkiller that blocks these pain signals, although it has the side effect of causing those treated (and surviving) to have an elevated pain threshold, so they will have to look out for hazards such as fire, as they can't rely on their own pain reflexes. Fortunately, our pain killer's effect isn't permanent, nor is that of the Hybrid substance, so once treated back at the base the effect should wear off.

We see a possibility to weaponise this technology for our own use, but require detailed understanding of how the alien "animal" combatants function on a chemical level, which requires a detailed DNA analysis of them.

As we do not have a complete understanding of the chemical and biological processes affected by this technology, we need to perform additional research to reach an Advanced level. We believe we need to have samples of advanced weapons using this technology and access to at least one alien Operator in charge of deploying them to proceed with that research, however.

Advanced Alien Hybrid Technology

We now have a good understanding of the chemicals used and the biological pathways triggered by this weapon technology. Unfortunately, we don't see any clear usage for it at the moment, although some of it will undoubtedly see some medical application once the war is over.

Alien Hybrid Pistol

This weapon is similar to the Alien Blood Pistol with regards to the "water gun" dispension principles, but is more accurate and has an even worse effect on a hit.

We are able to extract one Chemical Core from each of these weapons.

Alien Hybrid Rifle

This terror weapon is more accurate and even more painful on a hit than the Alien Blood Rifle.

Our disassembly protocol for this weapon provides us with 2 Chemical Cores from each weapon.

Alien Hybrid Sniper

Unfortunately, the aliens have made good use of the accuracy improvements provided by this technology to allow them to spread terror from out of visual range.

We are now able to extract 3 Chemical Cores from each of these weapons.

Alien Hybrid Cannon

Unfortunately, the aliens didn't neglect to implement an area terror weapon in the form of a cannon using the Alien Hybrid Technology.

We can extract 4 Chemical Cores from each of these weapons.

 

Edit 2: Another batch:

Alien Thunder Technology

The aliens have upgraded their Stun/EMP weapon range in the form of the Alien Thunder Technology. Like the earlier Alien Lightning Technology, the aim seems to be to produce Stun and EMP damage, with the direct Energy damage seemingly being more of a side effect that's applied without mitigating any armour.

The technology generates an ionized plasma which serves as a conductor for a strong electric current induced between two electrodes. These electrodes are separate bullets fired at an angle automatically adjusted by the weapon to match the target distance, and the target is "hit" when the plasma conductor between them passes through the target on the bullets course past the target. The principle is somewhat similar to how chained cannon balls were once used to tear down rigging on sailing war ships.

We think we will be able to further our studies to the Advanced level once we have access to the weapons employing the technology in an Advanced fashion.

There is a large component use overlap between Alien Thunder weapons and Alien Ion weapons, and we believe studies of how they are used differently ought to help improving our understanding of that technology. Obviously, a comparison requires something to compare, which, in this case, means we need one or more examples of Advanced Alien Ion Technology weapons before we are ready to commence that research.

Advanced Alien Thunder Technology

This turned out to be another of those apparently dead end technologies that advance our knowledge, but doesn't lead anywhere directly. One would hope it might be poured into a grand technology soup of the most sophisticated technologies the aliens have to offer to result in a surprise dish, but for the time being that's all it is: wishful thinking.

Alien Thunder Pistol

This weapon causes an electric arc to course through the target, dealing Energy, Stun, and EMP damage. While the Alien Lighting Pistol dealt a stronger EMP effect than the Stun one, this weapon is more balanced (but also more powerful). Since the Energy damage doesn't have any armour mitigation, there is a good chance a biological target is incapacitated rather than killed.

We have devised a disassembly protocol that allows us to harvest 8 Energy Cores from each batch of 5 weapons.

Alien Thunder Rifle

The Alien Thunder Rifle poses a significant threat to our soldiers' ability to remain conscious, but there is a good chance it won't be lethal.

Our disassembly protocol for this weapon provides us with 2 Energy Cores from each weapon.

Alien Thunder Beam

This weapon is the oddball in the Alien Thunder weapon lineup, as the hail of "bullets" fired, coupled with the application of armour mitigation, means a target is at significant risk of dying from Energy damage before succumbing to stunning. Of course, if the target is a vehicle, destruction is the aim regardless, and the EMP effect being larger than the Stun effect is an indication that this may be its intended use.

4 Energy Core kits is the reward for disassembling each of these weapons.

Alien Thunder Cannon

This cannon covers a decent area in a Stun/EMP cloud, rapidly rendering creatures caught within it unconscious.

If we disassemble this weapon we will acquire 4 Energy Cores.

Alien Dark Technology

The Alien Dark Technology lies behind weapons that fire minuscule amounts of antimatter at targets, where the bullets are smashed on impact, releasing the antimatter within. As the antimatter comes into contact with matter, both are annihilated and intense radiation is released. Somehow (we are not clear on the details) the aliens have managed to direct more than 90% of the radiation generated in a beam directed along the path of the bullet, i.e. into the target. As almost all of the radiation is in the gamma ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum, armour is passed through virtually unimpeded, delivering almost all of the energy directly into the target.
While lead is effective at blocking radiation, it is also heavy and rather ineffective at blocking Kinetic energy. Any lead armour thick enough to be useful against this weapon would also be highly effective at immobilizing the wearer due to its weight.

It should be noted that the Alien Dark Technology is highly effective against electronics, as the radiation emitted has a high EMP effect.

The bullets are curious constructs: they are actually miniaturised superconducting magnetic bottles, used to fix the antimatter (which is ionised to ensure it is affected by the magnetic field) with such strength that firing the bullet will not cause the antimatter to touch the walls of the bullet (which would annihilate both the wall and the antimatter).

While it would be very satisfying to be able to use this technology in weapons of our own, we are sadly far from being able to do so. There is far too much knowledge missing both on a technological and a material science level to do so. Maybe, just maybe, if we were able to understand everything the aliens have brought, as well as repeated interrogation of captives knowledgeable about every aspect of these technologies...

One research path we are reasonably sure can be reached given the right conditions is Advanced Alien Dark Technology. One or more types of items employing this technology, as well as interrogation of one or more soldiers using it and either or both a Sebillian and a Caesan Operator in charge of fielding these weapons ought to pave the way for that research.

Advanced Alien Dark Technology

We have now figured out how the bullets of the Alien Dark Technology weapons are able to direct the energy released towards the target rather than in an omni directional burst: a force field acts as a highly reflective mirror in the gamma ray spectrum, and while the bullets are fairly fast, the speed of light is a lot faster, so this force field has time to reflect the radiation towards the target in the time it takes for the rest of the bullet to crumble after the tip (where the antimatter gets moved during the bullet's flight) hits the target. It appears the same components that maintain the antimatter in place is also responsible for generating this field, and the shift from containment to reflection field generation is triggered by the tip of the bullet impacting with the target.

While theoretical knowledge is always welcome, the troops seem to be more interested in toys to deploy on the battlefield. Sadly, we see a potential, but nothing we have seen the aliens use so far seems to be sufficiently advanced to actually be useful in that perspective.

Antimatter technology of our own remains a goal, and it feels as if this technology would fill a hole somewhere, but we have a whole lot of holes, and not much technology to fill them with.

Alien Dark Assault

This weapon is odd. Not that it is employing antimatter, as all Alien Dark Technology weapons do that, but in that it appears to be inferiour to the Alien Dark Rifle in all aspects except being lighter (and the Rifle isn't a heavy weapon). Why would the aliens deploy it at all? Our best guesses are that it is somehow related to hierarchy and the weapon acts as a rank attribute, but our xeno sociology knowledge is rather weak. It should also be pointed out that while not up to the level of the Alien Dark Rifle, it is still a significant hazard to your soldiers' longevity.

We have devised a disassembly protocol for these weapons to get one Anti Core from each weapon.

Alien Dark Rifle

An alien wielding an Alien Dark Rifle is a rather dangerous alien that ought to be neutralised sooner rather than later. Apart from the minor issue of antimatter, it is a battlefield Rifle.

Our disassembly protocol for this weapon provides us with 2 Anti Cores from each weapon processed.

Alien Dark Sniper

The Alien Dark Sniper will guarantee your armour won't protect you, so stay out of sight (which is easier said than done when the wielder is out of our sight range).

The disassembly protocol for this weapon results in two Anti Cores from each weapon.

Alien Dark Cannon

This cannon doesn't use the directional beam technique employed by the other Alien Dark Technology weapons. Instead, it uses "normal" omni directional radiation and compensates for the losses with a larger amount of antimatter (which isn't an enormous feat from a mass perspective: the amount is still extremely small).

We have produced a disassembly protocol to extract 2 Antimatter Cores from each of these weapons.

Alien Dark Heavy

Great, just what we don't need. The Alien Dark Heavy is a heavy burst weapon using the Alien Dark Technology to cause armour ignoring damage.

Each of these weapons will provide us with one Anti Core when disassembled.

 

Edit 2: Another batch:

Alien Smart Technology
<Seems to be dummied out, but the Rifle and Heavy appear to be present as weapons>

Alien Smart Rifle

The Alien Smart Rifle is a fearsome Rifle using some technology we don't seem to be able to get a handle on. We can tell it's dealing Energy damage without any armour mitigation.

Our disassembly protocol for this weapon results in 2 Antimatter Cores for every 3 weapons.

Alien Smart Heavy

This weapon does seem to use a technology we can't classify. What we can determine is that it's a Heavy weapon that deals a fair bit of Energy damage without mitigating armour and that its bursts contain 10 bolts.

We have identified enough components inside these weapons to be able to extract one Anti Core from each weapon.

Alien Ancient Technology
<Is it intentional that this tech isn't required for the Advanced version? Also, why is the requirement chemical poor sniper and the incendiary rifle, skipping the energy type? If there'd be some logic behind it I'd expect the energy, chemical, and incendiary poor snipers to be used for the basic version and the three rifles for the advanced one, or, possibly, 2 out of 3>

The Alien Ancient Technology is odd is several ways. Firstly, it's not a weapon technology as such, but rather a delivery system. Secondly, it doesn't resemble anything else the aliens have fielded, but instead weapons using it contains a "normal" part responsible for the weapon effect, and an almost completely separate set of components that handles the delivery of the "payload". Thirdly, there is no indication the aliens know how the components works, only how to use them to achieve this one effect of delivery.

What we have seen so far is that the Alien Ancient Technology has been used to deliver Energy, Chemical, and Incendiary damage over extremely long ranges with a good accuracy.

The components used to provide the Alien Ancient Technology effect seem to be incredibly old, judging by radioactive decay products left behind inside the components, which is the reason we call the Technology Ancient. We suspect it has been discovered among the ruins left behind by a precursor species, or has been claimed from a conquered species they either failed to extract the knowledge from, or exterminated before the equipment was discovered. The fact that we haven't seen any newly manufactured components indicates they may in fact come from an old storage facility rather than an alien production line, so there may actually be a limited supply of them.

The use of the Alien Ancient Technology components in the center with a lot of conversion and adaptation components has resulted in weapons that are surprisingly bulky and heavy for alien weapons.

Since the aliens are using the Alien Ancient Technology component "as is" and more or less hi-jack its delivery function with add-ons indicate they don't actually understand how it works. Will we be able to do so, given time to study it in depth, and, in a shorter perspective, will we be able to use these components in a similar fashion as the aliens do?

We believe we can combine knowledge of this technology with advanced knowledge of the Alien Dark Technology and Alien Singularity Cores to create a powerful aircraft cannon.

Advanced Alien Ancient Technology
<TBD>

Alien Ancient Defender

I don't know why the troops decided to call this Energy damage dealing Rifle "Defender", but the name has apparently stuck.
The, uh, "Defender", is capable of delivering a high Energy damage over extreme distances with a good precision and a high firing rate. It's quite heavy for this class of weapon.

We have devised a disassembly protocol for this weapon to extract 4 Anti Cores from each weapon.

Alien Ancient Devourer

This weapon, which the troops have taken to call "Devourer", is another case of puzzling alien thinking. It delivers a bit higher Energy damage than the Alien Ancient Defender, but is less accurate than even the snap shot mode of that weapon, and doesn't have any burst mode. It sports the same extreme range and high weight, though.

Our disassembly protocol for this weapon provides us with 4 Anti Cores from each weapon.

Alien Ancient Destroyer

This weapon has been named "Destroyer" by the troops, for some reason. It's an extreme range Rifle type weapon that deals high Chemical damage with a good accuracy. It's also rather heavy, for a weapon of this type.

4 Anti Cores are liberated when we disassemble this weapon.

Alien Ancient Devastator

The "Devastator" is a bulky alien single shot weapon that delivers Chemical damage at an extreme range. However, it is a puzzling battlefield choice, as its higher damage hardly isn't sufficient to justify sacrificing a higher firing rate, better precision, and the burst mode provided by the "Destroyer". And it's just as heavy as well.

We get 4 Anti Cores when we disassemble this weapon.

Alien Ancient Horror

Named "Horror" by the troops, this weapon is a rapid fire, good accuracy Rifle dealing Incendiary damage at an extreme range. It's also quite heavy.

Each of these weapons provides us with 4 Anti Cores when disassembled.

Alien Ancient Reaper

No, this isn't actually an even more horrific version of the Reaper "animal" troop, but a weapon dealing Incendiary damage at an extreme range. While the damage is higher than that dealt by the Alien Ancient Horror, the lower accuracy, lower firing rate,
and lack of a burst mode hardly makes up for it. It's just as bulky as well.

We have now devised a disassembly protocol that extracts 4 Anti Cores from each of these weapons.

Edited by PALU
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On 9/10/2018 at 4:54 PM, PALU said:

<Seems to be dummied out, but the Rifle and Heavy appear to be present as weapons>

Yes. You can describe it as a technology which simply doesnt have enough samples to make a technology out of it. One of the non-breakthroughs. There is simply not enough data on it.

 

On 9/10/2018 at 4:54 PM, PALU said:

<Is it intentional that this tech isn't required for the Advanced version? Also, why is the requirement chemical poor sniper and the incendiary rifle, skipping the energy type? If there'd be some logic behind it I'd expect the energy, chemical, and incendiary poor snipers to be used for the basic version and the three rifles for the advanced one, or, possibly, 2 out of 3>

Yes.

The Alien Ancient Technology consists out of the weapons only Praetors use, while the Advanced version only consists out of the weapons androns use, or visus verca. "Advanced" is a misnomer from the time where it was still a sequel of researches, but now it is simply 2 different sets of weapons which lead to 2 different technological breakthroughs.

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3 minutes ago, Charon said:

Yes. You can describe it as a technology which simply doesnt have enough samples to make a technology out of it. One of the non-breakthroughs. There is simply not enough data on it.

Hard to do, because you don't really know you have nowhere to go until you've realized that you don't have enough data to go on, and that doesn't fit on either of the weapons, as both can be the first one, and there's no knowledge of the player's part that there won't be more of them.

 

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Just now, PALU said:

Hard to do, because you don't really know you have nowhere to go until you've realized that you don't have enough data to go on, and that doesn't fit on either of the weapons, as both can be the first one, and there's no knowledge of the player's part that there won't be more of them.

 

I like the entries as they are, just take it as background information for your personal use.

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10 minutes ago, Charon said:

Yes.

The Alien Ancient Technology consists out of the weapons only Praetors use, while the Advanced version only consists out of the weapons androns use, or visus verca. "Advanced" is a misnomer from the time where it was still a sequel of researches, but now it is simply 2 different sets of weapons which lead to 2 different technological breakthroughs.

That makes the mixed research requirements even less reasonable. Each tech ought to rely only on (some of) the weapons belonging to it. I would expect the Praetors to use the better weapons? When I revise the descriptions I want to refer to who's using them, as the player will know at that point, but I don't, as I haven't reached that stage yet (still in Phase 2).

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Just now, PALU said:

That makes the mixed research requirements even less reasonable. Each tech ought to rely only on (some of) the weapons belonging to it. I would expect the Praetors to use the better weapons? When I revise the descriptions I want to refer to who's using them, as the player will know at that point, but I don't, as I haven't reached that stage yet (still in Phase 2).

Whats your point ?

The point about the researches is that one is about Praetors, and the other one is about androns. Whats unreasonable about that ?

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Your comment indicated the weaker weapons are used by one of androns and praetors, and the strong one by the other (and I still need to know if androns use the weak ones [which I would expect] and praetors the stronger ones, or vise versa).

Y-ed and researches.xml say:

Ancient: Destroyer (Chemical rifle) + Devastator (chemical weak single shot) + Horror (incendiary rifle)

Advanced Ancient: Reaper (incendiary weak single shot) + Devourer (energy weak single shot) + Defender (energy rifle)

It logically ought to be:

Ancient: Devourer + Devastator + Reaper (the weaker ones for each damage type)

Advanced Ancient: Defender + Destroyer + Horror (the stronger set)

I've gotten the weapon info from weapons_gc.xml

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5 minutes ago, PALU said:

Your comment indicated the weaker weapons are used by one of androns and praetors, and the strong one by the other (and I still need to know if androns use the weak ones [which I would expect] and praetors the stronger ones, or vise versa).

Y-ed and researches.xml say:

Ancient: Destroyer (Chemical rifle) + Devastator (chemical weak single shot) + Horror (incendiary rifle)

Advanced Ancient: Reaper (incendiary weak single shot) + Devourer (energy weak single shot) + Defender (energy rifle)

It logically ought to be:

Ancient: Devourer + Devastator + Reaper (the weaker ones for each damage type)

Advanced Ancient: Defender + Destroyer + Horror (the stronger set)

I've gotten the weapon info from weapons_gc.xml

You have been hallucinating, my comment didnt indicate something like. As far as i know they are "equally" distributed, eg. both races have "strong" and "weaker" weapon types available. This may hint to a major point about them.

Edited by Charon
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Hallucinating is a very strong description for failing to interpret a poorly worded description of something that doesn't make logical sense.

Alien X: Good and poor chemical used in parallel, plus strong fire

Alien Y: Good and poor energy used in parallel, plus weak fire.

I guess that might make sense if you actually are munching on magic mushrooms...

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6 minutes ago, PALU said:

Hallucinating is a very strong description for failing to interpret a poorly worded description of something that doesn't make logical sense.

Alien X: Good and poor chemical used in parallel, plus strong fire

Alien Y: Good and poor energy used in parallel, plus weak fire.

I guess that might make sense if you actually are munching on magic mushrooms...

Something gone wrong today ?

That one race exclusively uses one set of weapons, while the other set is exclusively used by a another race does make perfect sense to me. You were the one to start comparing weapons.

Go wash your head under cold water, and then look at what you have written. There might be a reason to how things are.

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