Always the same?

[BugPowderDust]

Have just played a game on the v21 stable build just released, after a long time of not playing.

Really like the changes thus far, game is very polished, and the music is very atmospheric.

However, one thing is bugging me- firstly, on small UFO missions that I've shot down, there are always 2 aliens outside and 1-3 inside the ship. Is this just coincidence (tell me its so), or is this always the case? After killing the 2 outside, the pressure is off and the immersion is gone. I appreciate larger UFOs will have more aliens outside, but surely this also can't be a uniform number?

Second thing- although I've researched plasma rifles, I can't equip them. I'm assuming this is due to me missing research of some sort? The mission end screen tells me I'm auto-selling them, so I'm guessing this will stop when i can actually use them?

Thanks in advance

[kabill]

Re: Small Scouts - basically, yes. A certain number of aliens are set so they will always be inside the UFO.

Re: Plasma Weapons - unlike the OG, you don't get to use alien weapons due to ergonomics. Researching alien weapons simply unlocks laser technology (with plasma pistol and rifle, I think) and later on plasma weapons that you can make yourself.

[BugPowderDust]

Ah OK, many thanks. Seems a shame there's always two outside, but as long as this fixed number doesn't apply to other size craft, then all good

Thanks for the heads up regarding the Plasma weapons, ergonomics makes sense

[dpelectric]

If you read the detailed report that your lead scientist gives you when alien plasma weapons are researched, it states specifically that they're not designed for, or easily compatible with, human hands/anatomy. However, you can still pick them up from alien corpses on the battlefield and use them for that fight, although with a large accuracy penalty due to their clumsiness

I agree the limited number of aliens on scout & light scout missions is too predictable, but just wait til you get to terror missions & alien bases

Edited March 23, 2014 by dpelectric

[Lidhuin]

It is entirely possible for all the aliens assigned to the inside of the UFO to be dead on impact, leaving you with just aliens outside. It's rare though.

[Max_Caine]

The number of aliens in the scout and light scout missions has been a hot topic for a long while. People said there were too few. Aaron boosted the number. People said there were too many. Chris dropped the number. No one is happy. There are a specific set of files (in the aptly named ufocontents folder) which dictate how many aliens of how many classes there will be for each mission type and the numbers are set as a range. So for example a Sebillian light scout on a scout mission when shot down has 2-3 guards and 2-3 noncoms. Once the number of aliens are determined, a percentage of those aliens are killed off (I think it's 25% for minor damage, 40% for major damage), so with a light scout you're highly likely to always see two guards because if three are rolled up, one of them will have been killed. Landed ufos have the max number of aliens per range set (I think). Setting the ranges, especially with light scout can be difficult. If the range is set to 1-3, then there's a chance you roll up one guard which is then killed in the crash and bulk of the mission will be boring. But if you set the range for more aliens, people start complaining how unrealistic and difficult it is when they roll up a lot of aliens in the field.

[dpelectric]

The number of aliens in the scout and light scout missions has been a hot topic for a long while. People said there were too few. Aaron boosted the number. People said there were too many. Chris dropped the number. No one is happy.

Lol. Yeah, I don't know how Chris et al take the constant "do this...no, do that" debates. Just look at the current machine gun reaction fire controversy

My two cents is: have you ever played UFO:ET Gold? That features an interface with a simply amazing set of choices. A guy called "Bman" made/pulled together a mod that allows you to set your funding levels, change your and the aliens' sight ranges, how long wounds keep soldiers hospitalized, the level of UFO swarm activity, adjust alien AI levels, set TU costs for individual actions, and many, many more parameters with a single click. If this could be offered to Xenonaut players (without them having to access individual game files) they could simply and easily customize their experience (give me 10 aliens on light scouts). Is such a thing possible with whatever engine/code Xenonauts uses?

[BugPowderDust]

Thanks for the comments all. I am not particularly bothered by the amount of aliens in the mission, it's just that it seems I can expect exactly 2 outside (every time so far). I don't mind about how many are inside the light scout, but I know that once I've killed 2, I can relax and hustle my guys to the UFO door- which takes some of the tense-ness away

I'm sure that light scouts/ small UFOs can only have so many aliens anyway, so I do understand the problem

[Gauddlike]

Lol. Yeah, I don't know how Chris et al take the constant "do this...no, do that" debates. Just look at the current machine gun reaction fire controversy

My two cents is: have you ever played UFO:ET Gold? That features an interface with a simply amazing set of choices. A guy called "Bman" made/pulled together a mod that allows you to set your funding levels, change your and the aliens' sight ranges, how long wounds keep soldiers hospitalized, the level of UFO swarm activity, adjust alien AI levels, set TU costs for individual actions, and many, many more parameters with a single click. If this could be offered to Xenonaut players (without them having to access individual game files) they could simply and easily customize their experience (give me 10 aliens on light scouts). Is such a thing possible with whatever engine/code Xenonauts uses?

It would just require someone to write a program that can read from xml files and present the data with an easy to understand visual representation.

I believe Quartermaster already did this with the weapon xml files, although it was a long time ago so is no longer compatible.

If that program allowed values to be changed with sliders or even text boxes and then saved back to the xml it would effectively be the kind of external options editor you are thinking about.

My coding stops at 'hello world' though and even that is a long time in the past

[Ol' Stinky]

Thanks for the comments all. I am not particularly bothered by the amount of aliens in the mission, it's just that it seems I can expect exactly 2 outside (every time so far). I don't mind about how many are inside the light scout, but I know that once I've killed 2, I can relax and hustle my guys to the UFO door- which takes some of the tense-ness away

I'm sure that light scouts/ small UFOs can only have so many aliens anyway, so I do understand the problem

Nah, like Max said, you can change the range to whatever you want (for the aliens outside, anyway). For example, here's a mod that changes light scouts from 2-3 outdoor aliens to 2-6. To install, extract it into your Xenonauts folder; on Steam, this should be something like "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Xenonauts\".

[dpelectric]

Nah' date=' like Max said, you can change the range to whatever you want (for the aliens outside, anyway). For example, [u']here's[/u] a mod that changes light scouts from 2-3 outdoor aliens to 2-6. To install, extract it into your Xenonauts folder; on Steam, this should be something like "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Xenonauts\".

Cool! Gonna try that mod right now