https://www.ufopaedia.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Danial&feedformat=atomUFOpaedia - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T09:45:59ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.35.4https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:WORLD.DAT&diff=14386Talk:WORLD.DAT2008-01-30T06:41:57Z<p>Danial: New section: Resolution</p>
<hr />
<div> // World.Dat = World Map Terrain<br />
<br />
typedef struct worlddat<br />
{<br />
short QuadData[4][2]; // Coordinates of quadrilateral<br />
unsigned long texture; // Terrain texture of quad<br />
} WorldDat;<br />
<br />
#define MaxQuads 768 // Observed values, XCOM = 666, TFTD = 733<br />
<br />
QuadData/8 = realworld latitude and longitude numbers.<br />
<br />
if QuadData[3][1] = -1 then the shape is a triangle and that entery is not used. (for you non programers QuadData[0] is the first so [3] is the forth.)<br />
<br />
This may not be usefull for the wiki but I once wrote a program to detect what world.dat entry a givin ship was located in and therefor what texture/terrain file used to create the battlescape map. I have the function if anyone is interested in the math.<br />
<br />
--[[User:BladeFireLight|BladeFireLight]] 21:24, 20 January 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
Gah, I just spent the last 20 minutes or so figuring this file out, wish I would have seen this before. <br />
<br />
Wonder how it defines the countries since this file only seems to designate terrain types. Maybe indexed all the polygons in this file? Be tough to find it then...<br />
<br />
Oh, and one thing. When QuadData[3]['''0'''] is -1 when it designates a triangle (and actually QuadData[3][1] is 0 as well).<br />
<br />
I'll probably put this info on the page article here soon though. --[[User:Pi Masta|Pi Masta]] 19:42, 5 April 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
Pi Masta, can you post an overlay of the TFTD world map? My first thought was that it was a representation of the quad's depth, but that doesn't seem entirely right either. Or perhaps it's a combination of terrain and height in the single byte? - [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
Yeah it definitely holds terrain data. the TFTD map took a bit to recognize (aka make sure I was rendering it correctly) as it defines the oceans and not the land. I don't remember the depths that TFTD had, but didn't it also have missions on land as well? With differing land types? I never got into TFTD so my knowledge is limited.<br />
<br />
I probably should upload a wire-frame version of the TFTD map, where you can see some of the overlaps. Well, I assume they are overlaps, otherwise they are really really small triangles.<br />
<br />
This file is a bit of a pain to render as the points will cross the prime meridian thus X values will go from say 6 to 2700 to 2750 to 200, etc. in the same polygon line. I broke them up and split polygons when the difference was large and for TFTD it worked great. It was XCOM that was a problem and eventually I just excluded the troublesome polygons from being split (still rendered).<br />
<br />
--[[User:Pi Masta|Pi Masta]] 15:34, 10 April 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
TFTD has four depth levels, one of which is "surface". However the game only puts polygons on the water so presumably this file would only cover three levels (all land missions are terror sites).<br />
<br />
For UFO, I did some value tweaking and came up with these referrences on battlescape terrain:<br />
<br />
0 - Jungle<br />
1 - Farm<br />
2 - Farm<br />
3 - Farm<br />
4 - Farm<br />
5 - Mountain<br />
6 - Jungle<br />
7 - Desert<br />
8 - Desert<br />
9 - Polar<br />
10 - Jungle<br />
11 - Jungle<br />
12 - Polar<br />
<br />
This does more or less match the [[TEXTURE.DAT|imagery]], but the problem here is that even with multiple missions on each terrain type I couldn't get a forest to appear. My thought is it has something to do with the position on the globe as all the missions I did were in the one area (south pole).<br />
<br />
Values above 12 seemed to all use jungle as well, and looped through the usual texture images (oddly enough, I still had to add images to the set to prevent a crash).<br />
<br />
- [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 21:29, 1 January 2008 (PST)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
If I'm not mistaken, the game picks between forest and jungle terrain depending on which part of the hemisphere you're on. Everything north of the Equator uses forest terrain while everything south of the Equator goes with jungle terrain. <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
== Resolution ==<br />
<br />
Is there any place in the article that we can elaborate that the 2880/1440 values makes for a resolution of 00°07'30"? I know it's not neccessary to the data file, but I think it's a nice little real-world statistic. --[[User:Danial|Danial]] 22:41, 29 January 2008 (PST)</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Motion_Scanner&diff=14243Talk:Motion Scanner2007-12-23T11:49:09Z<p>Danial: New section: Blip sizes</p>
<hr />
<div>Someone should make a tutorial on how to use those darn things.<br />
<br />
I never manage to get a grasp on how to use it effectively. I often found it easier to turn my soldiers around in circles to clear my immediate vincinity. Maybe a image of the motion detector screen, and another to show the positions of the aliens and how it relates to one another?<br />
<br />
--[[User:Vagabond|Vagabond]] 23:16, 15 March 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: It's not terribly difficult to use. All it does is pick up movement. Nothing else. The main use is to check for movement of units in an enclosed area - i.e. the UFO or a building or even the outside of the Skyranger before you embark after waiting the first or more turn. <br />
<br />
: The orientation is simple. It's the same as the overhead map. Top is North, then clockwise it's East, South and West. The numbers on the rings on the screen represent every tile away from you. It goes up to 8 or 9 rings, so that's a 9 tile radius. Which is coincidentally your visual range at night, so there's absolutely no point in using a motion scanner out in the open. <br />
<br />
: Using soldiers as an example, when no movement has occured, you'll get nothing on the screen. <br />
<br />
: <div align = "center"> [[Image:Mscannerex1.png]]</div><br />
<br />
: After movement, units that have moved will register on the display. Note that the more they have to walk, the larger their blip on the screen. <br />
<br />
: <div align = "centeR" > [[Image:Mscannerex2.png]]</div><br />
<br />
: That's it really. It's useful if you've got a wall and cannot see what's behind it. Out in the open, it's utterly useless. <br />
<br />
: - [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
Off the top of my head, I can describe one case where it's useful: if I'm using Proximity Grenades outside a UFO and there's a pile of stuff I don't want to blow up, I'll have a soldier beside the UFO use a scanner to see if an alien's in the antechamber, ready to exit. If not, I can risk grabbing extra stuff without having to get back into "safe" position.<br />
<br />
There might be cases where if you see a single "big dot" inside a UFO, it might be safe to enter since the alien will have used up most its TUs. I'm not confident this is a reliable indicator, however. I sometimes watch a dot from turn to turn to see which way it moves, which at least gives you some warning that an alien's probably on its way out.<br />
<br />
The biggest problem with scanners is the false negatives: if you scan no movement, that either means there's no alien, or that there's one that's got all its TUs (''very'' dangerous). You can't assume that the absence of a dot is the absence of an alien.--[[User:Ethereal Cereal|Ethereal Cereal]] 02:16, 16 March 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
<br />
: That's its biggest limitation. It's only good in a "something's moving over there!" way. You otherwise can't be sure what ''is'' over there, except the alien that moved. About the best you can do is deal with it by readying an ambush (such as the case of a UFO assault - which you should already be doing automatically anyway so a scanner isn't necessary), before deploying from the Skyranger after waiting a few turns (about the only place I myself actively use it - it identifies movement beside or behind the ramp) or if you're in, say, the orchards or behind the grass hedges and you want to pinpoint the exact location of an alien you saw move into it. Mind you, a simple toss of a grenade is generally all you need to clear something like the orchards. Actually, alien bases and base defence scenarios are probably a good places to use it. Plenty of partitions and hallways, and in X-Com bases, you can have soldiers on the upper level or inside HWP closets scan the hallways to check if there's anything outside (and then get someone further down the hallway pop out and take it out). <br />
<br />
: It's one of those niche tools that can be useful if used right, but still won't be used too much when you've got other simpler and more efficient alternatives available to you. - [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
:: I generally get the most use out of a motion scanner with the Large Scout and the Terror Ship. With both of these, it's possible to get relatively close to the center of the ship without going inside...which is useful for detecting when sprinting is/has remained "safe", after clearing the outside. Alien Bases are a bit open for my taste.<br />
<br />
:: While theoretically possible, it's a bit harder to get effective use in: Farm, Terror, other large UFOs.<br />
<br />
:: And, generally...use all motion scanners in position <b>before</b> moving anyone else.<br />
<br />
:: -- [[User:Zaimoni|Zaimoni]], 12:26 March 16 2007 CDT<br />
<br />
== Blip sizes ==<br />
<br />
Does anyone know the relationship between movement and blip size? Also, does it go off [[TU]]s used or [[Energy]] used? There are 7 different-sized blips in the [[DETBLOB.DAT]] file, so does that mean there are 7 different levels of "motion"?</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Fatal_Wounds&diff=14089Fatal Wounds2007-12-06T09:50:07Z<p>Danial: /* Probability of Fatal Wounds */</p>
<hr />
<div>For each Fatal Wound a unit has, they will lose one point of [[Health]] each turn. For instance, a soldier with 2 Fatal Wounds will lose 2 Health points per turn. Each time a soldier is shot but not killed by weapons fire, he or she may be dealt 1-3 fatal wounds. All of these fatal wounds will be dealt to the same part of the body.<br />
<br />
Fatal Wounds can be healed using a [[Medi-Kit]]. 3 Health points will also be restored with each wound healed. Quickly healing a wounded soldier also means less [[recovery_time|wound recovery time]] (back at base), because recovery time is based on the number of health points lost in a mission.<br />
<br />
'''Warning:''' Unconcious soldiers still take damage from Fatal Wounds each turn and CAN DIE if not treated. So if one of your soldiers is knocked unconscious by shots or explosions (as opposed to a stun bomb), it is important that you immediately run a diagnostics scan on him or her. See [[Medi-Kit]] and [[Unconscious]] for more information on how to do this. Keep in mind that you can pick up and move (or even throw) someone, if you have a man down in a hot zone.<br />
<br />
== Other effects of Fatal Wounds ==<br />
<br />
*Each wound to the '''head''' or '''gun-holding arm''' applies a 10% penalty to your [[Firing Accuracy]], down to but not below -90%. This means that someone with 100 '''base''' firing accuracy who has 9 or more wounds will be left with a '''base''' accuracy level of 10 points. This is before you consider any other accuracy modifiers such as your remaining health percentage (see [[Accuracy formula]]).<br />
*Each wound to the '''legs''' reduces the soldier's [[TU]]s by 10%. <br />
*Each wound to the '''torso''' reduces the soldier's [[Energy]] by 10%.<br />
<br />
== Aliens and Fatal Wounds ==<br />
<br />
Aliens <b>never</b> get fatal wounds - they never crawl off and die - <i>except if you were mind controlling them when they were wounded</i>. In other words, only friendlies can get Fatal Wounds, and MC'd aliens count as friendlies. Be careful of mixing MC'd with non-MC'd aliens - you might reaction shoot the one, and hit the other. But wait, there's more - aliens with Fatal Wounds do not suffer any health decrease, for as long as you MC them. They only suffer health loss from their Fatal Wounds on turns that you do not MC them.<br />
<br />
''Once I had an MC'd alien taking point, when a different one blaster bombed the lot of us. All hell broke loose, and I lost track of the pet (I assumed he got killed in the blast). Many turns later I heard the entirely unexpected cry of an alien dying, far off in the distance. "Oops" - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]]''<br />
<br />
== Probability of Fatal Wounds ==<br />
<br />
As shown by Zombie's [http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=746&view=findpost&p=72949 research], if you receive more than 10 health [[damage]], you have an equal, random chance of receiving from 1 to 3 Fatals Wounds (a 33.3% chance of 1, 2, or 3 FWs). Higher damage does not change these chances, and you can never receive more than 3 FWs (in a given shot or blast!), even if you're hit so hard you only have 1 hitpoint of life left. Stated another way, if you take 11+ damage, you always get at least one Fatal Wound, an average of 2, and a maximum of 3. Thus, never leave your [[Medi-Kit]]s behind.<br />
<br />
If you receive from 1 to 10 damage, the likelihood of a Fatal Wound ''roll'' increases, in which case you roll again for 1, 2, or 3 FWs, evenly. In other words:<br />
<u>Chance of Fatal Wounds</u><br />
<u>Damage</u> <u> 0 </u> <u>1, 2, or 3</u> <u> 1-3_</u><br />
1 90.9% 3.03% 9.1% <br />
2 81.8% 6.06% 18.2% <br />
3 72.7% 9.09% 27.3% <br />
4 63.6% 12.12% 36.4% <br />
5 54.5% 15.15% 45.5% <br />
6 45.5% 18.18% 54.5% <br />
7 36.4% 21.21% 63.6% <br />
8 27.3% 24.24% 72.7% <br />
9 18.2% 27.27% 81.8% <br />
10 9.1% 30.30% 90.9%<br />
11+ 0.0% 33.33% 100.0% <br />
Stated another way, the chance of receiving NO Fatal Wounds is: (11 - Damage) / 11, if you receive 1-10 damage. And as discussed, at 11+ hits, you receive the even 33.3% chance of 1 to 3 FWs. Of course, if you receive no damage (0 hitpoints lost), you never get a Fatal Wound.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
*[[Medi-Kit]]<br />
*[[Health]]<br />
*[[Damage]]<br />
*[[Unconscious]]<br />
*[[Firing Accuracy]]<br />
*[[Accuracy formula]]<br />
*[[Recovery time]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Soldiers]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Sectopod&diff=14088Sectopod2007-12-06T09:46:25Z<p>Danial: /* Notes */</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:sectopod.png|right|Sectopod]]<br />
The '''Sectopod''' "Walker" is one of the most dangerous terror units X-COM has come up against. Their armour is nearly impervious to all weapons fire, but they appear to be vulnerable to [[Weapons#Laser Technology|lasers]].<br />
<br />
Sectopods are seen in the company of [[Ethereal]]s in base defenses and terror missions. Beware, their weapon is a powerful laser with autofire capability, which can make short work of any enemy of the Sectopod in seconds.<br />
<br />
== General Information ==<br />
Every Sectopod is nearly completely identical and is built not only for self-sufficient commands and operation, but also psychic/psionic manipulation -- an Ethereal could potentially control a Sectopod as if it were it's own body, from millions of miles away.<br />
<br />
If X-COM ground forces encounter Sectopods on Earth, it will usually be during a [[Base Defense]], [[Alien Base Assault]], or [[Terror Mission]]. Terror attacks by [[Ethereal]]s are the most dangerous for both [[Civilian]]s and X-COM units - apart from having to deal with their psionic abilities, we also have to fight against Sectopods.<br />
<br />
==Statistics==<br />
'''TUs:''' 62-71<br />
'''Health:''' 96<br />
'''Energy:''' 90-104<br />
'''Reactions:''' 64-79<br />
'''Strength:''' 90-97<br />
'''Bravery:''' 110<br />
'''Firing Accuracy:''' 30-70<br />
'''Psi Skill:''' N/A<br />
'''Psi Strength:''' 100-116<br />
<br />
'''Damage:''' 100 Laser<br />
'''Accuracy-'''<br />
'''Snap:''' 75%<br />
'''Auto:''' 50%<br />
'''Aimed:''' 110%<br />
'''TUs-'''<br />
'''Snap:''' 30%<br />
'''Auto:''' 35%<br />
'''Aimed:''' 60%<br />
<br />
== Autopsy ==<br />
[[Image:sectopodautopsy.png|right|Sectopod, Disassembled]]<br />
The Sectopod appears to be capable of self-sustained propulsion and attack. Its "brain", whilst small compared to modern electronics, is incredibly powerful. It is anywhere from 5 to 10, to even 20 times as powerful as standard Earth processors. This may be a machine, but it is a machine with near sentience although its intelligence is supressed so that it does not start thinking of its own accord.<br />
<br />
There are signs of specialised biomechanical components, which may be used to psionically remotely control the Sectopod. Unlike the Sectoid's Cyberdisks, the Sectopod's power module is far more robust and as such, despite our best attempts, the module cannot and will not explode, except where immense amounts of energy are involved.<br />
<br />
Whilst it is nearly impervious to most damage types, its "screen" has the "unfortunate" effect of amplifying lasers that strike, making them do considerable amounts of damage to the circuitry and mechanical "brain". The Sectopod is elerium powered.<br />
<br />
[Jasonred] : The game explains that its "Sensing circuitry is particularly vulnerable to laser fire".<br />
<br />
[--[[User:X-COM:Turcocalypse|X-COM:Turcocalypse]] 14:26, 15 April 2006 (PDT)] : Bad sci-fi idea,I laughed when I saw it first.Laser is after all,radiation stimulated super-dense light.If it's vulnerable to this,how can PLASMA,matter with 15000 Grad Celsius shrugged off?<br />
:I guess that it's armor is thick enough that neither plasma's nor laser's heat would effect it. But spark from laser make it's sensor circuit mess-up and since it's quite powerful, Ethereal program it to shutdown the system once sensor damaged to prevent friendly-fire.<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
* Sectopods take 80% damage from high explosives and plasma, and 150% from laser. Combined with their strong armour, even the [[Heavy Plasma]] will have a difficult time taking down a Sectopod. Ideally the rear should be targeted, since it has a sizable 45 points less armour than the front.<br />
<br />
* Some commanders keep [[Tank/Laser Cannon]]s on hand to deal with Sectopods. The turret laser's high power, combined with the Sectopods vulnerability to lasers, encourages troops to keep laser tanks on hand when it would otherwise be scrapped in favour of hovertanks.<br />
<br />
* The Sectopod's turret, although masquerading as a plasma weapon, is really a laser weapon. This explains how the sectopod can self-kill themselves so easily during partial mind control. A quickly-made-up excuse would be that they are 'green' lasers. Green lasers that fire thick globs of light.<br />
<br />
* The extremely impressive under armor of the Sectopod(45 on Beginner, 90 at all other difficulties) combined with the resistance to explosives means that a Sectopod is immune to standard grenades, and has a fairly decent chance of shrugging off an Alien Grenade or High-Explosive pack even at ground zero. In fact, the only explosive weapon that has a chance of killing a non-beginner Sectopod in one hit is the mighty Blaster Bomb, and sometimes not even then.<br />
<br />
* As a robot, a Sectopod has incredibly high Psi Strength, making it almost impossible to effectively use Psionics against it. However, if you do have a soldier strong enough to Mind-Control a Sectopod, by all means do so; it's basically like adding a tank to your troop roster for the turn. As an added bonus, because the Sectopod fires lasers, the fastest way to destroy a Sectopod is to partially MC it, and then have the MC'ed portions fire upon the non MC'ed portions.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
*[[Ethereal]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alien life forms]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Cyberdisc&diff=14087Cyberdisc2007-12-06T09:45:25Z<p>Danial: /* Notes */</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:cyberdisc.gif|right|Cyberdisc]]<br />
'''Cyberdiscs''' are an alien [[Terror Units|terror unit]] accompanying [[Sectoid]]s. As with all terror units, they can be encountered on [[Terror Mission]]s, [[Base Defense]], with a [[Terror Ship]] or [[Battleship]], [[Alien Base Assault]]s and finally in [[Cydonia]].<br />
<br />
The Cyberdisc's only means of attack is its plasma beam doing an impressive 130HP damage. The Cyberdisc has another characteristic which makes it rather deadly, and that is, it can explode upon death with an average GZ strength of 120 and damage radius of 7 (diameter 15). Upon targeting a Cyberdisc, be wary of this blast radius as your soldiers, or perhaps a wandering [[Civilian]], could find themselves in a world of hurts.<br />
<br />
==Statistics==<br />
'''TUs:''' 62-71<br />
'''Health:''' 120<br />
'''Energy:''' 90-104<br />
'''Reactions:''' 64-79<br />
'''Strength:''' 90-97<br />
'''Bravery:''' 110<br />
'''Firing Accuracy:''' 30-70<br />
'''Throwing Accuracy:''' N/A<br />
'''Psi Skill:''' N/A<br />
'''Psi Strength:''' 100-116<br />
<br />
'''Damage:''' 130<br />
'''Accuracy-'''<br />
'''Snap:''' 75%<br />
'''Aimed:''' 110%<br />
'''TUs-'''<br />
'''Snap:''' 30%<br />
'''Aimed:''' 60%<br />
<br />
<br />
==Live Specimen==<br />
This miniature flying saucer is an automated terror weapon armed with a powerful plasma beam. The anti-grav propulsion gives it a big advantage in difficult terrain. Its primary function is destruction and terror in the service of the [[Sectoid]] race.<br />
<br />
==Autopsy==<br />
[[Image:cyberdiscautopsy.gif|right|Cyberdisc - Autopsy]]<br />
The Cyberdisc is well shielded and is particularly good at withstanding explosive ammunition. The primary anti-gravity system is too badly damaged to gain any understanding of its functioning.<br />
<br />
Note: you may have difficulty getting an intact corpse because of its explosive nature. Shoot the Cyberdisc to kill it when its one level above the ground, it drops down to ground level, hits the ground and becomes a corpse, THEN the explosion goes off where it was just hovering: ie: at one level off the ground. Guaranteed works if corpse falls flat.<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
The following are some miscellaneous notes on the Cyberdisc:<br />
* The Cyberdisc takes 0.8x damage from armour-piercing weapons.<br />
* It takes 0.6x damage from high explosives.<br />
* It has a flat profile (smaller than a Sectoid), making for a harder target (per square).<br />
* Takes up 4 squares on the battlescape.<br />
* Has very high health.<br />
* Has very high strength.<br />
* Very high [[Psi Strength]], making it harder to mind-control and/or panic.<br />
* Can attack up to 3 times in one turn. It fires with such frequency that many commanders have mistaken it for an auto-shot.<br />
*On any mission where the Sectoids have their Cyberdisc terror unit, they will also have a Leader capable of [[Psionics]]. <br />
**However, not all missions with Sectoid Psionics will have Cyberdiscs.<br />
* Take this hovering manhole cover down with Heavy Rockets, Heavy Cannon, High Explosive packs, or Alien Grenades. Laser Pistols work okay, and Laser Rifles work very well. Forget standard rifles - they're just too tough. If two Cyberdiscs are close together, the self-destruct explosion from one may be enough to bring down the second.<br />
* Although they cannot be stunned, Cyberdiscs take damage from [[Stun Rod]]s and [[Stun Bomb]]s and will not explode if they are finished by one. This is very useful if a Cyberdisc spawns in the small storage room (1st floor right north of the central lift) on a battleship ground assault mission or a Terror Ship (the overlooks on L1 are notorious for this). What otherwise might make it necessary to sacrifice some soldiers to kill it, this at least gives your men a chance.<br />
* Because of its large size, Cyberdiscs take roughly quadruple damage from explosive weapons; rather, they take damage once for every segment caught in the blast. This is another way to take down stuck or camping Cyberdiscs without losing men.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
*[[Sectoid]]<br />
*[[Bio-Drone]]<br />
*[[Mind Control#Mind controlling 4-square units - a bug|Problems with mind control]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alien life forms]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Sectopod&diff=14086Sectopod2007-12-06T09:37:58Z<p>Danial: /* Notes */</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:sectopod.png|right|Sectopod]]<br />
The '''Sectopod''' "Walker" is one of the most dangerous terror units X-COM has come up against. Their armour is nearly impervious to all weapons fire, but they appear to be vulnerable to [[Weapons#Laser Technology|lasers]].<br />
<br />
Sectopods are seen in the company of [[Ethereal]]s in base defenses and terror missions. Beware, their weapon is a powerful laser with autofire capability, which can make short work of any enemy of the Sectopod in seconds.<br />
<br />
== General Information ==<br />
Every Sectopod is nearly completely identical and is built not only for self-sufficient commands and operation, but also psychic/psionic manipulation -- an Ethereal could potentially control a Sectopod as if it were it's own body, from millions of miles away.<br />
<br />
If X-COM ground forces encounter Sectopods on Earth, it will usually be during a [[Base Defense]], [[Alien Base Assault]], or [[Terror Mission]]. Terror attacks by [[Ethereal]]s are the most dangerous for both [[Civilian]]s and X-COM units - apart from having to deal with their psionic abilities, we also have to fight against Sectopods.<br />
<br />
==Statistics==<br />
'''TUs:''' 62-71<br />
'''Health:''' 96<br />
'''Energy:''' 90-104<br />
'''Reactions:''' 64-79<br />
'''Strength:''' 90-97<br />
'''Bravery:''' 110<br />
'''Firing Accuracy:''' 30-70<br />
'''Psi Skill:''' N/A<br />
'''Psi Strength:''' 100-116<br />
<br />
'''Damage:''' 100 Laser<br />
'''Accuracy-'''<br />
'''Snap:''' 75%<br />
'''Auto:''' 50%<br />
'''Aimed:''' 110%<br />
'''TUs-'''<br />
'''Snap:''' 30%<br />
'''Auto:''' 35%<br />
'''Aimed:''' 60%<br />
<br />
== Autopsy ==<br />
[[Image:sectopodautopsy.png|right|Sectopod, Disassembled]]<br />
The Sectopod appears to be capable of self-sustained propulsion and attack. Its "brain", whilst small compared to modern electronics, is incredibly powerful. It is anywhere from 5 to 10, to even 20 times as powerful as standard Earth processors. This may be a machine, but it is a machine with near sentience although its intelligence is supressed so that it does not start thinking of its own accord.<br />
<br />
There are signs of specialised biomechanical components, which may be used to psionically remotely control the Sectopod. Unlike the Sectoid's Cyberdisks, the Sectopod's power module is far more robust and as such, despite our best attempts, the module cannot and will not explode, except where immense amounts of energy are involved.<br />
<br />
Whilst it is nearly impervious to most damage types, its "screen" has the "unfortunate" effect of amplifying lasers that strike, making them do considerable amounts of damage to the circuitry and mechanical "brain". The Sectopod is elerium powered.<br />
<br />
[Jasonred] : The game explains that its "Sensing circuitry is particularly vulnerable to laser fire".<br />
<br />
[--[[User:X-COM:Turcocalypse|X-COM:Turcocalypse]] 14:26, 15 April 2006 (PDT)] : Bad sci-fi idea,I laughed when I saw it first.Laser is after all,radiation stimulated super-dense light.If it's vulnerable to this,how can PLASMA,matter with 15000 Grad Celsius shrugged off?<br />
:I guess that it's armor is thick enough that neither plasma's nor laser's heat would effect it. But spark from laser make it's sensor circuit mess-up and since it's quite powerful, Ethereal program it to shutdown the system once sensor damaged to prevent friendly-fire.<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
* Sectopods take 80% damage from high explosives and plasma, and 150% from laser. Combined with their strong armour, even the [[Heavy Plasma]] will have a difficult time taking down a Sectopod. Ideally the rear should be targeted, since it has a sizable 45 points less armour than the front.<br />
<br />
* Can survive an average (200HP) Blaster Bomb hit, even on Beginner!<br />
<br />
* Some commanders keep [[Tank/Laser Cannon]]s on hand to deal with Sectopods. The turret laser's high power, combined with the Sectopods vulnerability to lasers, encourages troops to keep laser tanks on hand when it would otherwise be scrapped in favour of hovertanks.<br />
<br />
* The Sectopod's turret, although masquerading as a plasma weapon, is really a laser weapon. This explains how the sectopod can self-kill themselves so easily during partial mind control. A quickly-made-up excuse would be that they are 'green' lasers. Green lasers that fire thick globs of light.<br />
<br />
* The extremely impressive under armor of the Sectopod(45 on Beginner, 90 at all other difficulties) combined with the resistance to explosives means that a Sectopod is immune to standard grenades, and has a fairly decent chance of shrugging off an Alien Grenade or High-Explosive pack even at ground zero. In fact, the only explosive weapon that has a chance of killing a non-beginner Sectopod in one hit is the mighty Blaster Bomb, and sometimes not even then.<br />
<br />
* As a robot, a Sectopod has incredibly high Psi Strength, making it almost impossible to effectively use Psionics against it. However, if you do have a soldier strong enough to Mind-Control a Sectopod, by all means do so; it's basically like adding a tank to your troop roster for the turn. As an added bonus, because the Sectopod fires lasers, the fastest way to destroy a Sectopod is to partially MC it, and then have the MC'ed portions fire upon the non MC'ed portions.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
*[[Ethereal]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alien life forms]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Cyberdisc&diff=14085Cyberdisc2007-12-06T09:37:05Z<p>Danial: /* Notes */</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:cyberdisc.gif|right|Cyberdisc]]<br />
'''Cyberdiscs''' are an alien [[Terror Units|terror unit]] accompanying [[Sectoid]]s. As with all terror units, they can be encountered on [[Terror Mission]]s, [[Base Defense]], with a [[Terror Ship]] or [[Battleship]], [[Alien Base Assault]]s and finally in [[Cydonia]].<br />
<br />
The Cyberdisc's only means of attack is its plasma beam doing an impressive 130HP damage. The Cyberdisc has another characteristic which makes it rather deadly, and that is, it can explode upon death with an average GZ strength of 120 and damage radius of 7 (diameter 15). Upon targeting a Cyberdisc, be wary of this blast radius as your soldiers, or perhaps a wandering [[Civilian]], could find themselves in a world of hurts.<br />
<br />
==Statistics==<br />
'''TUs:''' 62-71<br />
'''Health:''' 120<br />
'''Energy:''' 90-104<br />
'''Reactions:''' 64-79<br />
'''Strength:''' 90-97<br />
'''Bravery:''' 110<br />
'''Firing Accuracy:''' 30-70<br />
'''Throwing Accuracy:''' N/A<br />
'''Psi Skill:''' N/A<br />
'''Psi Strength:''' 100-116<br />
<br />
'''Damage:''' 130<br />
'''Accuracy-'''<br />
'''Snap:''' 75%<br />
'''Aimed:''' 110%<br />
'''TUs-'''<br />
'''Snap:''' 30%<br />
'''Aimed:''' 60%<br />
<br />
<br />
==Live Specimen==<br />
This miniature flying saucer is an automated terror weapon armed with a powerful plasma beam. The anti-grav propulsion gives it a big advantage in difficult terrain. Its primary function is destruction and terror in the service of the [[Sectoid]] race.<br />
<br />
==Autopsy==<br />
[[Image:cyberdiscautopsy.gif|right|Cyberdisc - Autopsy]]<br />
The Cyberdisc is well shielded and is particularly good at withstanding explosive ammunition. The primary anti-gravity system is too badly damaged to gain any understanding of its functioning.<br />
<br />
Note: you may have difficulty getting an intact corpse because of its explosive nature. Shoot the Cyberdisc to kill it when its one level above the ground, it drops down to ground level, hits the ground and becomes a corpse, THEN the explosion goes off where it was just hovering: ie: at one level off the ground. Guaranteed works if corpse falls flat.<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
The following are some miscellaneous notes on the Cyberdisc:<br />
* The Cyberdisc takes 0.8x damage from armour-piercing weapons.<br />
* It takes 0.6x damage from high explosives.<br />
* It has a flat profile (smaller than a Sectoid), making for a harder target (per square).<br />
* Takes up 4 squares on the battlescape.<br />
* Has very high health.<br />
* Has very high strength.<br />
* Can survive an average (200HP) Blaster Bomb hit, even on Beginner!<br />
* Very high [[Psi Strength]], making it harder to mind-control and/or panic.<br />
* Can attack up to 3 times in one turn. It fires with such frequency that many commanders have mistaken it for an auto-shot.<br />
*On any mission where the Sectoids have their Cyberdisc terror unit, they will also have a Leader capable of [[Psionics]]. <br />
**However, not all missions with Sectoid Psionics will have Cyberdiscs.<br />
* Take this hovering manhole cover down with Heavy Rockets, Heavy Cannon, High Explosive packs, or Alien Grenades. Laser Pistols work okay, and Laser Rifles work very well. Forget standard rifles - they're just too tough. If two Cyberdiscs are close together, the self-destruct explosion from one may be enough to bring down the second.<br />
* Although they cannot be stunned, Cyberdiscs take damage from [[Stun Rod]]s and [[Stun Bomb]]s and will not explode if they are finished by one. This is very useful if a Cyberdisc spawns in the small storage room (1st floor right north of the central lift) on a battleship ground assault mission or a Terror Ship (the overlooks on L1 are notorious for this). What otherwise might make it necessary to sacrifice some soldiers to kill it, this at least gives your men a chance.<br />
* Because of its large size, Cyberdiscs take roughly quadruple damage from explosive weapons; rather, they take damage once for every segment caught in the blast. This is another way to take down stuck or camping Cyberdiscs without losing men.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
*[[Sectoid]]<br />
*[[Bio-Drone]]<br />
*[[Mind Control#Mind controlling 4-square units - a bug|Problems with mind control]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alien life forms]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Cyberdisc&diff=14084Cyberdisc2007-12-06T09:36:15Z<p>Danial: /* Notes */</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:cyberdisc.gif|right|Cyberdisc]]<br />
'''Cyberdiscs''' are an alien [[Terror Units|terror unit]] accompanying [[Sectoid]]s. As with all terror units, they can be encountered on [[Terror Mission]]s, [[Base Defense]], with a [[Terror Ship]] or [[Battleship]], [[Alien Base Assault]]s and finally in [[Cydonia]].<br />
<br />
The Cyberdisc's only means of attack is its plasma beam doing an impressive 130HP damage. The Cyberdisc has another characteristic which makes it rather deadly, and that is, it can explode upon death with an average GZ strength of 120 and damage radius of 7 (diameter 15). Upon targeting a Cyberdisc, be wary of this blast radius as your soldiers, or perhaps a wandering [[Civilian]], could find themselves in a world of hurts.<br />
<br />
==Statistics==<br />
'''TUs:''' 62-71<br />
'''Health:''' 120<br />
'''Energy:''' 90-104<br />
'''Reactions:''' 64-79<br />
'''Strength:''' 90-97<br />
'''Bravery:''' 110<br />
'''Firing Accuracy:''' 30-70<br />
'''Throwing Accuracy:''' N/A<br />
'''Psi Skill:''' N/A<br />
'''Psi Strength:''' 100-116<br />
<br />
'''Damage:''' 130<br />
'''Accuracy-'''<br />
'''Snap:''' 75%<br />
'''Aimed:''' 110%<br />
'''TUs-'''<br />
'''Snap:''' 30%<br />
'''Aimed:''' 60%<br />
<br />
<br />
==Live Specimen==<br />
This miniature flying saucer is an automated terror weapon armed with a powerful plasma beam. The anti-grav propulsion gives it a big advantage in difficult terrain. Its primary function is destruction and terror in the service of the [[Sectoid]] race.<br />
<br />
==Autopsy==<br />
[[Image:cyberdiscautopsy.gif|right|Cyberdisc - Autopsy]]<br />
The Cyberdisc is well shielded and is particularly good at withstanding explosive ammunition. The primary anti-gravity system is too badly damaged to gain any understanding of its functioning.<br />
<br />
Note: you may have difficulty getting an intact corpse because of its explosive nature. Shoot the Cyberdisc to kill it when its one level above the ground, it drops down to ground level, hits the ground and becomes a corpse, THEN the explosion goes off where it was just hovering: ie: at one level off the ground. Guaranteed works if corpse falls flat.<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
The following are some miscellaneous notes on the Cyberdisc:<br />
* The Cyberdisc takes 0.8x damage from armour-piercing weapons.<br />
* It takes 0.6x damage from high explosives.<br />
* It has a flat profile (smaller than a Sectoid), making for a harder target (per square).<br />
* Takes up 4 squares on the battlescape.<br />
* Has very high health.<br />
* Has very high strength.<br />
* Can survive an average (200HP) Blaster Bomb hit!<br />
* Very high [[Psi Strength]], making it harder to mind-control and/or panic.<br />
* Can attack up to 3 times in one turn. It fires with such frequency that many commanders have mistaken it for an auto-shot.<br />
*On any mission where the Sectoids have their Cyberdisc terror unit, they will also have a Leader capable of [[Psionics]]. <br />
**However, not all missions with Sectoid Psionics will have Cyberdiscs.<br />
* Take this hovering manhole cover down with Heavy Rockets, Heavy Cannon, High Explosive packs, or Alien Grenades. Laser Pistols work okay, and Laser Rifles work very well. Forget standard rifles - they're just too tough. If two Cyberdiscs are close together, the self-destruct explosion from one may be enough to bring down the second.<br />
* Although they cannot be stunned, Cyberdiscs take damage from [[Stun Rod]]s and [[Stun Bomb]]s and will not explode if they are finished by one. This is very useful if a Cyberdisc spawns in the small storage room (1st floor right north of the central lift) on a battleship ground assault mission or a Terror Ship (the overlooks on L1 are notorious for this). What otherwise might make it necessary to sacrifice some soldiers to kill it, this at least gives your men a chance.<br />
* Because of its large size, Cyberdiscs take roughly quadruple damage from explosive weapons; rather, they take damage once for every segment caught in the blast. This is another way to take down stuck or camping Cyberdiscs without losing men.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
*[[Sectoid]]<br />
*[[Bio-Drone]]<br />
*[[Mind Control#Mind controlling 4-square units - a bug|Problems with mind control]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alien life forms]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=HIT.PCK&diff=14076HIT.PCK2007-12-04T12:57:43Z<p>Danial: Added animation</p>
<hr />
<div>==General Information==<br />
The graphics for the hand-to-hand attacks (ie from the [[Chryssalid]])<br />
<br />
==Image==<br />
[[Image:HITPCK.png]]<br />
<br />
==Animation==<br />
[[Image:Melee.gif]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[UFOGRAPH]]<br />
[[Category:Game Files]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Melee.gif&diff=14075File:Melee.gif2007-12-04T12:55:40Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Incendiary&diff=14074Incendiary2007-12-04T12:53:31Z<p>Danial: Added animations</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:Fire_ground.gif|Ground Fire Animation]] [[Image:Fire_unit.gif|Unit Fire Animation]]<br />
<br />
Incendiary rounds are available for the [[Heavy Cannon]], [[Auto Cannon]], and [[Rocket Launcher]]. These rounds do some impact damage but also set the target and the surrounding area (in the case of the rocket, a LOT of the surrounding area) on '''fire''', with the following results:<br />
<br />
==Smoke==<br />
[[Image:Smoke1.gif]] [[Image:Smoke2.gif]] [[Image:Smoke3.gif]]<br />
* A burning fire can also be used as an impromptu smoke screen.<br />
<br />
==Light== <br />
* Especially useful during [[Night Missions]], fires not only damage aliens and obstacles hiding in dark corners of the map, but also illuminate them for several turns. <br />
<br />
==Damage== <br />
<br />
* Brush and wood on fire will eventually be consumed, leaving a flat scorched earth tile. <br />
<br />
* If a [[Zombie]] is killed by the explosive impact of any form of Incendiary munitions, the [[Chryssalid]] larva will be burnt up instead of hatching.<br />
<br />
* UFO interiors and dropped items are fireproof, even if their owners aren't. Silverblade recommends combining this fact with the diagonal wall bug and an incendiary rocket to roast them in the shell.<br />
<br />
* Damage caused by fire does not alter [[Morale]] level.<br />
<br />
* '''All''' forms of manufactured X-COM armor will completely block the effects of fire -- including direct hits from incendiary rounds. Soldiers not wearing armor take damage directly to [[Health]], bypassing armor.<br />
<br />
* Tanks/Hovertanks have a susceptibility to incendiary of 40% which means they will take damage from fire.<br />
<br />
* Initial "impact" damage from incendiary ammunition is either for no points (unit does not catch fire), or between 5-10 points (unit catches fire). Since the distribution is normal (flatline), the probability of remaining unharmed is 1/7 = 14%, while there is a 6/7 = 86% chance a unit will take some damage. <br />
<br />
* Units standing in a blaze will receive between 1-12 damage points, most likely determined by flammability rating of tile.<br />
<br />
* Aliens or unarmored soldiers standing in flames have a 33% chance of catching fire (observation from 6000+ trials), and once lit will remain that way for 1-5 rounds. Units on fire take between 5-10 damage points until the flames burn out. Smoke will not snuff out a unit fire.<br />
<br />
* Fire will continue to do damage until the unit falls unconscious or dies.<br />
<br />
* Ultimately, in comparison with other ammo types, incendiary is a weak form of damage and not the fastest way to take out an alien.<br />
<br />
==Spreading==<br />
Fires spread. A tile surrounded by flaming tiles will likely catch on fire next turn. This can make for a fairly rapid spread, up to one tile radius per turn, in ideal conditions (such as wheat fields and haylofts). However, the fires go out eventually and the nearby tiles have a chance to not catch on fire, limiting indefinite spread.<br />
<br />
A soldier can walk through flaming tiles but try not to be left standing on or next to one by the end of the turn as that's when the fire spreading code runs. Incendiaries also have the effect of restricting alien movement as they'll tend to avoid the fire.<br />
<br />
Regular explosives and explosive ammunition also have a chance of starting fires - particularly in the mountain maps. Copious use of explosives on thick cover help prevent the enemy from using cover or shooting back.<br />
<br />
Explosives will not put out a raging blaze. However, destruction of flammables on a tile via explosions may lower the chances that tile will catch fire and may allow a team to direct or even corral the flames. <br />
<br />
==Quirks==<br />
The XCOM game makes a brave attempt to model fire. However there are some quirks:<br />
<br />
*If a unit (alien or friendly) is on fire or standing in flames, an incendiary explosion ''anywhere else on the map'' will damage it, even if you just shoot an IC round at a random patch of ground.<br />
<br />
*Friendly units standing in smoke will take STUN damage every time an incendiary round explodes. Alien units are not affected (until further notice).<br />
<br />
*Aliens not facing you will not respond with reaction fire when hit (directly or indirectly) by an incendiary round. (See [[Reaction fire triggers]].)<br />
<br />
*There is an upper limit to how many squares can be on fire. Once you have a good sized blaze going, for example a forest fire, further incendiary rounds will seem to fizzle as no more fire can be created. Impact damage will still be dealt. <br />
<br />
*The damage value listed in the [[UFOpaedia]] does not determine how powerful the incendiary round deals damage. It only determines how wide an area will be blanketed with flames. Impact damage and damage over time have set damage values. <br />
<br />
* Smoke and flames do not mix. Only one type may exist on a tile in a particular instant. To quickly smother a blaze simply drop a primed [[Smoke Grenade]] in the center. This is a fairly useful trick for unarmored soldiers who want to safely cross a blaze without waiting for it to burn out by itself.</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Incendiary&diff=14073Incendiary2007-12-04T12:45:16Z<p>Danial: /* Smoke */ Added animations</p>
<hr />
<div>'''[http://www.disco-disco.com/disco/di.html Burn, baby, burn!]'''<br />
<br />
Incendiary rounds are available for the [[Heavy Cannon]], [[Auto Cannon]], and [[Rocket Launcher]]. These rounds do some impact damage but also set the target and the surrounding area (in the case of the rocket, a LOT of the surrounding area) on '''fire''', with the following results:<br />
<br />
==Smoke==<br />
[[Image:Smoke1.gif]] [[Image:Smoke2.gif]] [[Image:Smoke3.gif]]<br />
* A burning fire can also be used as an impromptu smoke screen.<br />
<br />
==Light== <br />
* Especially useful during [[Night Missions]], fires not only damage aliens and obstacles hiding in dark corners of the map, but also illuminate them for several turns. <br />
<br />
==Damage== <br />
<br />
* Brush and wood on fire will eventually be consumed, leaving a flat scorched earth tile. <br />
<br />
* If a [[Zombie]] is killed by the explosive impact of any form of Incendiary munitions, the [[Chryssalid]] larva will be burnt up instead of hatching.<br />
<br />
* UFO interiors and dropped items are fireproof, even if their owners aren't. Silverblade recommends combining this fact with the diagonal wall bug and an incendiary rocket to roast them in the shell.<br />
<br />
* Damage caused by fire does not alter [[Morale]] level.<br />
<br />
* '''All''' forms of manufactured X-COM armor will completely block the effects of fire -- including direct hits from incendiary rounds. Soldiers not wearing armor take damage directly to [[Health]], bypassing armor.<br />
<br />
* Tanks/Hovertanks have a susceptibility to incendiary of 40% which means they will take damage from fire.<br />
<br />
* Initial "impact" damage from incendiary ammunition is either for no points (unit does not catch fire), or between 5-10 points (unit catches fire). Since the distribution is normal (flatline), the probability of remaining unharmed is 1/7 = 14%, while there is a 6/7 = 86% chance a unit will take some damage. <br />
<br />
* Units standing in a blaze will receive between 1-12 damage points, most likely determined by flammability rating of tile.<br />
<br />
* Aliens or unarmored soldiers standing in flames have a 33% chance of catching fire (observation from 6000+ trials), and once lit will remain that way for 1-5 rounds. Units on fire take between 5-10 damage points until the flames burn out. Smoke will not snuff out a unit fire.<br />
<br />
* Fire will continue to do damage until the unit falls unconscious or dies.<br />
<br />
* Ultimately, in comparison with other ammo types, incendiary is a weak form of damage and not the fastest way to take out an alien.<br />
<br />
==Spreading==<br />
Fires spread. A tile surrounded by flaming tiles will likely catch on fire next turn. This can make for a fairly rapid spread, up to one tile radius per turn, in ideal conditions (such as wheat fields and haylofts). However, the fires go out eventually and the nearby tiles have a chance to not catch on fire, limiting indefinite spread.<br />
<br />
A soldier can walk through flaming tiles but try not to be left standing on or next to one by the end of the turn as that's when the fire spreading code runs. Incendiaries also have the effect of restricting alien movement as they'll tend to avoid the fire.<br />
<br />
Regular explosives and explosive ammunition also have a chance of starting fires - particularly in the mountain maps. Copious use of explosives on thick cover help prevent the enemy from using cover or shooting back.<br />
<br />
Explosives will not put out a raging blaze. However, destruction of flammables on a tile via explosions may lower the chances that tile will catch fire and may allow a team to direct or even corral the flames. <br />
<br />
==Quirks==<br />
The XCOM game makes a brave attempt to model fire. However there are some quirks:<br />
<br />
*If a unit (alien or friendly) is on fire or standing in flames, an incendiary explosion ''anywhere else on the map'' will damage it, even if you just shoot an IC round at a random patch of ground.<br />
<br />
*Friendly units standing in smoke will take STUN damage every time an incendiary round explodes. Alien units are not affected (until further notice).<br />
<br />
*Aliens not facing you will not respond with reaction fire when hit (directly or indirectly) by an incendiary round. (See [[Reaction fire triggers]].)<br />
<br />
*There is an upper limit to how many squares can be on fire. Once you have a good sized blaze going, for example a forest fire, further incendiary rounds will seem to fizzle as no more fire can be created. Impact damage will still be dealt. <br />
<br />
*The damage value listed in the [[UFOpaedia]] does not determine how powerful the incendiary round deals damage. It only determines how wide an area will be blanketed with flames. Impact damage and damage over time have set damage values. <br />
<br />
* Smoke and flames do not mix. Only one type may exist on a tile in a particular instant. To quickly smother a blaze simply drop a primed [[Smoke Grenade]] in the center. This is a fairly useful trick for unarmored soldiers who want to safely cross a blaze without waiting for it to burn out by itself.</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Smoke3.gif&diff=14072File:Smoke3.gif2007-12-04T12:44:14Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Smoke1.gif&diff=14071File:Smoke1.gif2007-12-04T12:44:04Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Smoke2.gif&diff=14070File:Smoke2.gif2007-12-04T12:42:38Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Fire_unit.gif&diff=14069File:Fire unit.gif2007-12-04T12:41:54Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Fire_ground.gif&diff=14068File:Fire ground.gif2007-12-04T12:41:40Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Explosions&diff=14067Explosions2007-12-04T12:35:20Z<p>Danial: Added animation image</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:explosion.gif|frame|right|Explosion Animation]]<br />
= General Rules =<br />
Explosions are confined to one level. They do not affect any other level (even if there is no obstruction) no matter how strong the explosive power of the detonation. Sometimes, the explosion might affect floor tiles on the level above the blast but it does not affect anyone, or anything, standing on those particular tiles.<br />
<br />
= Explosive Damage to Walls and Objects =<br />
<br />
Explosions differ from weapons in a couple of important ways. <br />
<br />
#First, of course, they are area effect. (Duh.)<br />
#Second, they impart [[Damage]] within a narrower range than weapons. Weapons impart from 0 to 2 times their rated strength. (In other words, the [[UFOpaedia]] is showing you their ''average'' strength.) Explosives also impart the average listed damage from the UFOpaedia, but they have a minimum of average/2 (seen in UFOpaedia) and a maximum of 3/2*average. So a blaster (HE 200) does from 100 to 300 damage at ground zero (GZ). You will still receive the damage listed in the UFOpaedia at GZ, on average. But you are guaranteed to get some damage if caught within its blast radius, unlike a firearm, which will hit you (if it hits!) for 0 to 2x damage, regardless of range. Of course, if your armor is high enough relative to the damage roll, it always blocks any actual damage.<br />
<br />
Average explosive damage to units decreases by 10 per tile away from GZ. At the same time, the maximum damage is decreasing by 15 (3/2*10) and the minimum damage by 5 (10/2). Thus at GZ of a grenade blast (HE 50), units receive 25-75 damage, and at its outer edge (radius=5 inc. GZ), units receive 5-15 damage.<br />
<br />
Unlike for units, explosive damage to non-units (ground, walls, and objects) is constant. Thus a specific explosive will always form the exact same blast pattern on the same type of terrain. It is calculated based on the minimum damage (i.e., average/2) for a given square. Thus it starts (at GZ) as half average damage and decreases by 5 per tile outward. If this value is greater than tile armor strength, the tile will be destroyed. However, a given type of explosive always has the same blast radius, regardless of terrain effects (except if there is blockage by e.g. walls). A Blaster can still kill you when 11 tiles away, even if you're on hard UFO floors which will only be damaged four tiles from GZ.<br />
<br />
= HE Statistics =<br />
Here's a table of explosive strength and resulting expected blast damage and radii.<br />
<u>HE @ Ground Zero</u> <u>Blast</u> <u>HE @ Edge</u> <br />
'''<u>Type</u> ''' <u>Min</u> '''<u>Ave</u> ''' <u>Max</u> <u>Diam.</u> <u>Rad.</u> <u>Disc.</u> <u>Min</u> '''<u>Ave</u>''' <u>Max</u><br />
AC - HE 22 44 66 7 3 0 7 14 21<br />
Grenade 25 50 75 9 4 0 5 10 15<br />
HC - HE 26 52 78 7 3 1 11 22 33<br />
Proxy 35 70 105 13 6 0 5 10 15<br />
Small Rocket 37.5 75 112.5 9 4 2 17.5 35 52.5<br />
Rocket Tank 42.5 85 127.5 11 5 2 17.5 35 52.5<br />
Alien Grenade 45 90 135 13 6 2 15 30 45<br />
Large Rocket 50 100 150 13 6 3 20 40 60<br />
Hi - EX 55 110 165 13 6 4 25 50 75<br />
Fusion Hovertank 70 140 210 23 11 2 15 30 45<br />
Blaster Bomb 100 200 300 23 11 8 45 90 135<br />
*'''HE @ Ground Zero''' is damage to ''units'' at ground zero (GZ). Min=Ave/2, Max=Ave*3/2.<br />
*'''HE @ Edge''' is damage at the edge of the blast.<br />
*'''Blast Diameter''' includes GZ. Equals 2r+1.<br />
*'''Blast Radius''' does not include GZ. Equals (d-1)/2.<br />
*'''Disc''' is the discrepancy between actual radius, and the radius expected based on HE. Higher explosives have their blast size 'nipped'. Otherwise the Blaster would have a diameter of 39 - almost 4 tilesets wide!<br />
<br />
Average damage to units falls off by 10 per tile away from GZ. Damage to tiles is fixed at half the damage for that tile (i.e., the minimum damage that units can receive) and decreases by 5 per tile (half the 10, that the average is decreasing). Note that damage is still done to units at the stated radii, even if blast strength was not strong enough to damage tiles. That is, you can still be hurt even past where you see floor damage. This is especially true in UFOs and alien bases, which have very strong tiles (see [[Explosions#Blast Diameters|Blast Diameters]] and [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics|Tile Characteristics]]). Even the mighty Blaster only hurts UFO floor tiles (armor=80) out to four tiles from GZ, but your men can still be killed 11 tiles away, regardless. Also note, floor damage does '''not''' "soak up" any of the blast. However, some tiles (especially wall tiles) have an "HE Block" value which does prevent some damage from being passed on. This is what keeps blasts from acting as if walls didn't exist.<br />
<br />
Because damage to tiles is fixed, they always produce the same blast pattern for a given type of terrain. Terrains differ in their "armor" (a.k.a. constitution) levels, and are destroyed if the blast damage is equal to or greater than their armor. Most ground terrain also has a second "damaged" tile which appears when the first tile is destroyed. This second tile (a.k.a. death tile) may also be destroyed by the blast, if the blast strength is equal or greater then the armor for both tiles. Raw earth is left if all ground tiles are destroyed. Some tile sets (such as arctic) have the second death tile set to such a high armor value (255) that no blast will destroy it; thus you'll never see raw earth right under the surface of ice(!). For what it's worth, you can calculate the tile armor simply by looking at the blast pattern and comparing the HE strength (dropping of by 5 at center) to the point where tiles are no longer damaged. <br />
<br />
Example: On a desert map, a prox mine will make a pattern with damaged tiles out to a radius of 6. The 9 innermost tiles (radius=1) will show a different tile (blown to raw earth). The first tile in desert has armor of 5 (thus, it's damaged all the way to edge of blast) but the second "dimpled" tile seen after the first one is blown through, has armor of 25. The prox mine is HE 70, so it's hitting ground zero for 35 and GZ+1 for 30. Thus it blows through to raw earth out to GZ+1 (5+25=30).<br />
<br />
You may also see additional terrain damage with subsequent explosions. Example: the humble grenade (HE 50) damages the first tile (armor=5) out to radius=5, but does not break through the second tile (armor=25) to raw earth. But a second grenade in the same place will break through the injured tile at GZ, because now that the top tile is gone, the second tile is exactly equal to half grenade strength, right where it exploded.<br />
<br />
= Blast Propagation =<br />
<br />
As an example of a progressing blast front, Blaster Bombs impart damage to ''units'' as follows:<br />
<br />
<u>Dist from GZ</u> <u>Unit Damage</u><br />
<u>Rad</u> <u>Diam</u> <u>Min</u> <u>Ave</u> <u>Max</u><br />
0 1 100 200 300<br />
1 3 95 190 285<br />
2 5 90 180 270<br />
3 7 85 170 255<br />
4 9 80 160 240<br />
5 11 75 150 225<br />
6 13 70 140 210<br />
7 15 65 130 195<br />
8 17 60 120 180<br />
9 19 55 110 165<br />
10 21 50 100 150<br />
11 23 45 90 135<br />
<br />
Based on [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=280&t=8701&st=19# testing] by Zombie. <br />
<br />
So, the Blaster Bomb is rated at 200 HE damage, and does that - but <i>on average</i> at ground zero. Then the range decreases by 10 per tile away from GZ. Maximum damage decreases by 15 (3/2*average), and minimum damage by 5 (average/2).<br />
<br />
Unlike damage to units, tile (i.e., terrain) damage is fixed, and is equal to the minimum damage at that radius (i.e., half the average).<br />
<br />
Most large explosions are "nipped" as shown above; in theory the Blaster could've kept going for eight more tiles until it decreased to zero. (But the blast pattern would've been HUGE!, Diameter=39.) Some smaller explosions are not nipped, and decrease until they drop off to zero.<br />
<br />
= Blaster Bomb Pattern =<br />
A screencap showing Blaster damage. Just for the halibut.<br />
<br />
[[Image:AfterBlasterBombX2.jpg|320px|Typical blaster bomb damage pattern]]<br />
<br />
= Ground Zero Effect =<br />
<br />
Units at ground zero (center of blast) and the eight adjacent tiles (GZ+1; nine tiles in total) receive damage through their Under Armor. All others receive damage to the side facing ground zero (never Under Armor).<br />
<br />
This is true regardless of whether using thrown items (grenades, Hi-Ex) or shot/launched explosives (AC-HE, HC-HE, Rockets, Blaster).<br />
<br />
= Susceptibility =<br />
<br />
Critters have the following susceptibility or resistance [[Damage formula#Damage modifiers|modifiers]] to explosive damage:<br />
<br />
Silacoid 130%<br />
Sectopod 80%<br />
Zombie 80%<br />
Tanks 70%<br />
Cyberdisc 60%<br />
<br />
So Silacoids are <i>more</i> susceptible, presumably because they are close to the ground.<br />
<br />
=Explosive Map Objects=<br />
<br />
There are several map objects that will explode when destroyed:<br />
'''Object Description Armour HE Damage Image Location'''<br />
'''------ ----------- ------ --------- ----- --------'''<br />
<br />
U_PODS[00] UFO Fuel Pod #1 20 60 [[Image:U_PODS_00.gif]] Terror Ships, Battleships, and Alien Bases<br />
U_PODS[01] UFO Fuel Pod #2 30 70 [[Image:U_PODS-02-.gif]] Terror Ships, Battleships, and Alien Bases<br />
U_PODS[02] UFO Pod 20 45 [[Image:U_PODS_04.gif]] Terror Ships, Battleships, and Alien Bases<br />
U_WALL02[51-54] UFO Navigation* 15 40 [[Image:U_WALL02-51-54-.gif]]Alien Bases and all UFOs except Scouts<br />
URBAN[85] Fuel Bowser 18 46 [[Image:URBAN-85-.gif]] Terror Missions (Service Station)<br />
XBASE2[25] Fuel Drum 12 60 [[Image:XBASE2-25-.gif]] X-COM Base (Hangar)<br />
XBASE2[32] Missile Warhead 10 40 [[Image:XBASE2_32.gif]] X-COM Base (Missile Defenses)<br />
<br />
While many terrain objects can burn (such as vegetation and many human structures), these are the only ones that actually ''explode''. However, it must be noted that even though these objects do explode when hit, the damage they produce is '''not''' High-Explosive. It is [[Smoke]]. Thus, they function as a [[Smoke Grenade]] at best. Some players have reported that these objects ''do'' produce damage to health on aliens and civilians, but it has not been fully substantiated yet.<br />
<br />
= Object Destruction =<br />
[[image:EqTb-00.gif|center]]<br />
Only explosions (not shot weapons) can destroy dropped equipment and other objects on the ground. They are destroyed by blast strengths ''greater than'' the values in this table. Unit names refer to bodies, both stunned and dead:<br />
<br />
<u>>HE</u> <u>Destroys</u><br />
8 Electroflares<br />
12 Standard pistol clip and civilian males(?!)<br />
20 EVERYTHING else not otherwise mentioned. Includes ALL ammo, ALL large bodies<br />
(both XCOM tanks and large aliens), unarmored soldiers, even Elerium.<br />
26 All regular (small) sized aliens' bodies<br />
30 Soldiers in Personal Armor<br />
40 Soldiers in Power or Flying Suit, and Blaster Launcher<br />
45 Plasma Pistol<br />
50 Plasma Rifle and Heavy Plasma '' - Values provided by Danial from [[OBDATA.DAT]][42]<br />
<br />
Blast magnitude is stated as the ''average'' blast damage for a tile and it must be ''greater than'' the value shown. Explosion damage for objects is fixed at the average - it does not vary as with explosive damage to units. You will always see the same things destroyed by a given average blast level. This makes it similar to terrain damage, but object destruction differs in that 1) it works off the average damage, and 2) HE must be greater than the value shown. (Tiles are destroyed when HE is ''equal'' to average/2.)<br />
<br />
'''Object Destruction Example:''' A regular grenade is HE 50. Its average strength drops off by 10 per tile out to five tiles. Counting ground zero as the first tile, here are blast strengths and what's left after a grenade blast (sort of a reverse of the above):<br />
<br />
<u>Radius</u> <u>HE</u> '''<u>SURVIVES</u><br />
1 50 Plasma rifle and heavy plasma ''(HE must be '''greater than''' 50 to destroy these)''<br />
2 40 PS/FS Soldiers, the three plasma weapons, Blaster Launcher<br />
3 30 Same as 40 except Personal Armor soldiers, too<br />
4 20 Everything except flares, pistol ammo, and male civs<br />
5 10 Everything except flares<br />
<br />
By playing with explosives and distances from a blast, you can select how much blast damage is given. Example: A grenade (HE 50) can't touch Heavy Plasma, but HC-HE (52) can destroy everything. At its edge four tiles away (inc. GZ), the HC-HE is strength 22 and leaves alien bodies and other things tougher than 20 HE. Et cetera.<br />
<br />
Despite this table, note that aliens use very strong explosives. The alien grenade (HE 90) is 30 average HE ''at its edge''; the Blaster (200) is '''''90''''' at its edge. See "HE At Edge" in the table [[Explosions#HE Statistics|above]].<br />
<br />
Ammo loaded in a weapon plays no part in the damage check and cannot be destroyed, even if the host item is vaporised. It remains defined as being inside (regardless as to whether that item actually exists or not), and will be recovered at end of combat as per the [[Equipment Recovery#Equipment Recovery|normal rules]]. If a weapon is toasted and a new item takes it's place in [[OBPOS.DAT|the table]] the clip "pops back into existence" inside that. <br />
<br />
An easy way to see this effect in action is to have a sectoid prime a grenade then drop all it's gear. Once the dust has settled you'll find the gun gone and the clip shoved somewhere it really shouldn't go, adding insult to injury.<br />
<br />
Items made from alien alloys (including FS/PS) are usually (but not always) more robust.<br />
<br />
Stunned aliens destroyed by explosions do not count toward kill [[Experience]] or victory points ([[Scoring|Score]] at mission end), nor do they affect enemy [[Morale]]. They just disappear. Same goes for your stunned troopers killed by blasts; they do not detract from score or affect morale. But they ''are'' dead and gone!<br />
<br />
= Blast Diameters =<br />
<br />
Blast diameters differ according to terrain type. The table below was copied from a [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8701 post] by Zombie. To get radius, subtract 1 and divide by 2:<br />
<br />
Grass, <br />
Lawn, <br />
Corn Dirt, Asphalt Polar<br />
Fields,Weeds, Roads, White Snow,<br />
Wheat Desert White Tin Tile Concrete Mars Mtn. Alien<br />
<u>Cost</u> <u>$/HE</u> <u><b>Weapon</b></u> <u>HE</u> <u>Fields</u> <u>Sand</u> <u>Shngls</u> <u>Roofs</u> <u>Roofs</u> <u>Walkway</u> <u>Sand</u> <u>Tundra</u> <u>Floors</u><br />
700 15.9 AC - HE 44 7 7 5 3 1 1 0 0 0<br />
300 6.0 Grenade 50 7 9 7 5 3 3 1 0 0<br />
500 9.6 HC - HE 52 7 7 7 5 3 3 1 0 0<br />
500 7.1 Prox G 70 11 13 11 9 7 7 5 0 0<br />
600 8.0 Small R 75 9 9 9 9 7 7 5 0 0<br />
6700+2E 74.4 Alien G 90 13 13 13 13 11 11 9 3 0<br />
900 9.0 Large R 100 13 13 13 13 13 13 11 5 1<br />
1500 13.6 Hi Ex. 110 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 7 3<br />
8000+3E 40.0 Blaster 200 23 23 23 25 25 23 23 23 21<br />
'''Tile Armor''' - Initial 6* 5? 10 20 10? 20 25-40 40 50<br />
See next section Dead 50 255 255 255 30? 255 30-255 20 50<br />
<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki> "Wheat" is complex - see Note 3 under [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics|Tile Characteristics]]<br />
<br />
Where '''HE''' is the High Exposive rating for each round and:<br />
"White Shingles" is the roof on the gas station complex,<br />
"Mars Sand" is the soil on the Martian surface in Cydonia,<br />
"Alien Floors" is the floor of an alien base (alien ships were not checked), and<br />
"Concrete Walkway" is sidewalks near buildings or roads.<br />
Buy price or manufacturing cost are also shown (part cost only; does not include labor), whether Elerium-115 is needed ("+E"), and "Dollars per HE" (Cost/HE).<br />
<br />
Note that these diameters ''only'' show damage to terrain. Damage to units is still done out to the radius for each bomb, as shown in [[Explosions#HE Statistics|HE Statistics]] above. So you can still be killed by a Blaster if 11 tiles away in a UFO, even though the hard UFO floors are only damaged out to 4 tiles from GZ. The tiles do not "soak up" any damage AFAIK. (Not counting tiles with HE Block, such as walls.)<br />
<br />
For an Excel spreadsheet with 2D diagrams of all blast patterns (including stun bomb and tanks), see [[Media:XCOM_Blast_Patterns.xls|this]].<br />
<br />
Terrain tile properties (Armor, HE Block, etc.) can be readily seen in DaiShiva's excellent [http://www.daishiva.com/phpBB2/generic.php?page=progLinks.shtml MapView] program.<br />
<br />
= Distance from Ground Zero =<br />
<br />
"Distance" from GZ for explosives is actually computed by taking the TUs needed to walk to tiles in the blast radius. For example, 2 diagonal tiles away is considered to be 3 tiles since it takes 6+6=12 TUs to walk (and 12/4=3). This can be modelled on a spreadsheet using the equation:<br />
<br />
Distance = INT( MAX(X,Y) + MIN(X,Y)/2 )<br />
<br />
where X and Y are positive offsets from Ground Zero<br />
<br />
This simplified approach sometimes makes blasts a little stronger down diagonals than would be expected from the Pythagorean theorem (a<sup>2</sup>=b<sup>2</sup>+c<sup>2</sup>; a=SQRT(a<sup>2</sup>+b<sup>2</sup>)). Using Pythagoras, a diagonal tile is 1.4 tiles away, but the game considers them 1 tile away (INT(SQRT(2)). The 1.4 would've led to 1/1.4=71% blast strength. This is the worst case; the TUs approach is much closer to Pythagoras on a percentage basis at greater diagonal distances.<br />
<br />
= HE Block =<br />
<br />
Some tiles have a property called "HE Block" (High Explosive block, a.k.a. '''HEB''') which causes them to dampen an explosive blast proceeding past them. This is basically what makes a wall, a wall... without this property set, explosions would proceed through walls and other objects as if they didn't exist.<br />
<br />
For the record, tile armor values (see below) do not dampen explosions in any way whatsoever. Tile armor '''only''' affects whether that tile is destroyed by an explosion; blasts otherwise proceed entirely unhampered. Only HE Block dampens explosions. If you set outer UFO hull armor to 255 (the highest it can be) and its HE Block to 0, a blaster explosion on the hull will be the full, entirely "round" 23 tiles in diameter, imparting damage to anything caught in its circle as if the hull did not exist. (But the hull will be unaffacted, because its armor is >100.)<br />
<br />
Also, HE Block only dampens explosions "past" the tile in question. It does not dampen the blast for that tile, itself. Thus, an outer UFO wall takes the full force of a blaster bomb (200/2=100, just enough to take out one wall tile), but it's HE Block 100 stops any of the blast from proceeding '''past''' the wall "inwardly".<br />
<br />
[http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8701&st=114&# Playing] with HE Block shows that explosions proceed from ground zero outward in a way that '''only''' directly impacts the four tiles that are directly adjacent (due north, south, east, and west). Blast damage never proceeds in a diagonal fashion per se; instead, diagonals are filled in as a function of damage going sideways from these four main "rays". As Bomb Bloke has observed, one can trace HEB back to its "source" by looking for the places where there were decreases. IOW, you are either seeing main rays decreasing by 5, or 50% moving laterally (then outward), and can trace HEB back to its source by comparing a blast with HEB, to one without it... where was the usual progression dampened?<br />
<br />
XCOM map tiles can have up to four types of terrain: a ground tile, a north wall, a west wall, and a terrain object (such as a tree or furniture). This is not counting "mobile" items such as units or equipment dropped on the ground.<br />
<br />
HE Block assigned to ground tiles is ignored by the game. Thus e.g. the HEB 25 of hay loft ground tiles is just a data entry error(?) that doesn't affect anything (see [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics|Tile Characteristics]]).<br />
<br />
A wall is a separator between the two tiles that it is drawn between. This is not quite true for objects, however.<br />
<br />
In terms of HE Block, this is best demonstrated by directly impacting e.g. a blaster on the object, coming at it from the side: a lone object in the middle of a field will show a blast pattern exactly equal to simply having set off the bomb in the middle of the field, with no object there - the HE Block of an object is ignored when a blast impacts the object itself. Conversely, if a wall is hit on its face, it ''will'' HE Block damage from being passed on to the "other side" of the wall.<br />
<br />
But this only applies to objects that are directly hit. If, instead, we exploded a blaster against the ground right ''next'' to an object or wall, the blast pattern is very similar for them both - because now the object is intercepting one of the "rays" from the explosion, instead of exploding "itself". In other words, the blast front has directionality relative to the object, and is blocked in a "logical" way, if ground zero is to the "side" of it.<br />
<br />
All items in a tile (ground, walls, and terrain object) receive the same force of explosion. As described above, this is the current blast strength at that tile, which equals the average blast strength divided by two.<br />
<br />
For the record: Soldiers do not have any HE Block. If you group a lot of them together and then explode something near them, there is no difference in the explosion pattern or strength where they stand.<br />
<br />
Anyone interested in testing HE Block, be sure to see [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]]'s fantastic numerical tileset which makes blast testing far easier than it would have been. Find his hacked terrain [http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=746&st=195&# here], or bundled with a savegame [[Media:BB_hacked_desert3MoreWalls.zip|here]]. To see a screencap of the tiles in action (and a good example of what I'm discussing!) see [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8701&st=112&# this] message. ''--[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]]<br />
<br />
== When Is a Wall not a Wall ==<br />
<br />
[[image:Explosions-BB_On_BB_Hull_Object.jpg|right|thumb|350px]]Some outer UFO walls are not true "walls", and a Blaster hit propagates through them at 100 HE. The door is 80 HE Block - just enough to stop the usual Blaster in its tracks there (at decrease of 10 per tile). Any alien unlucky enough to be on the four damaged tiles would be hit by 45-180 HE, average 90 (1 tile inward), or 40-160, average 80 (3 tiles outside door). Anyone on the far (inner) side of the door would not be hit, even though its tile was hit by 80 HE, for the door is a "true" (north) wall, and stops the blast from moving inward.<br />
<br />
Ordinarily, the distinctions don't matter much. But there's at least one place where they might. As pointed out by Danial, some outer UFO "walls" hit by Blasters have damage penetration past the wall, even though they "shouldn't". See the graphic. What's happening is that some outer walls are actually objects, as seen in [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics|MapView]]. These objects are displaying the behavior shown above - when they are hit directly, the explosive blast propagates outwardly from the object, as if it did not exist. This is very different from a true wall, which shows directionality, and "makes a wall a wall". Due to the limited constraints within which the XCOM DOS programmers worked, only true "north" and "west" walls properly stop explosive blast from going "through" the wall. <br />
<br />
[[image:BB_Third_Level.jpg|right|thumb|350px|These are the only "true" north and west '''outer''' walls on the third floor of the battleship, as seen in MapView. All other outer walls are subject to blast through, although diagonals (not parallel to due north/south/east/west) may show funny patterns, or zero blast through. Also note all inner walls ARE true walls.]]<br />
<br />
See the second battleship graphic, which shows the only true north and west '''outer''' walls on the third floor of a battleship. All other '''outer''' "walls" are subject to blast through at 100 HE, as seen in the first picture. That said, however, HE Block has not been well tested/understood. ''(Care to volunteer?)'' There is no guarantee that blasts will proceed inward, especially when diagonals are involved. And, of course, as can be seen, the actual amount of blast moving inward only affected a total of four tiles inside the UFO - the rest was blocked by the high HE Block of the inner room's walls and door.<br />
<br />
<br clear = "all"><br />
<br />
= Tile Characteristics =<br />
<br />
This section is mainly for folks doing research on explosion propagation. Values were gathered with DaiShiva's excellent [http://www.daishiva.com/phpBB2/generic.php?page=progLinks.shtml MapView] program. Caution: You must install the extensive MicroSoft .NET platform to use MapView; see DaiShiva's site. For more tile armor values, see [[Destroying Terrain]]. That page does not include HEB and Dead tile info, however.<br />
<br />
<u> Ini Ded HEB Type _</u><br />
80 50 Most UFO floors UFOs AND ALIEN BASES<br />
100 NDT UFO roof<br />
100 220 100 Outer UFO walls<br />
80 50 80 Most inner UFO and base walls. Dead tile does not have HEB.<br />
100 50 100 Inner UFO security walls (See Note 1)<br />
80 50 80 Most inner UFO doors<br />
100 50 100 Inner UFO security doors<br />
100 NDT Partial UFO floors and adjacent tiles along diagonals etc.<br />
50 70 30 Power Source (Dead tile has more armor than original, and also has 30 HEB)<br />
50 50 Common gray base floors<br />
150 50 Green start tiles<br />
200 50 Red elevator tiles. Yellow rays add 200 armor.<br />
50 65 Purple floor around wide elevators, in entertainment room, etc.<br />
60 60 60 Flashing orange and aqua walls (good backdoors sometimes!)<br />
70 50 70 Green-on-black comp display wall (trapdoor to BB control room)<br />
<U> 90 100 Dark black base floor in gardens and around command center _</U><br />
<U> 25 255 Arctic ground ARCTIC</U><br />
20 255 Road CITIES<br />
8 255 Smooth grass<br />
10 255 Grass patches and dirt<br />
15 30 Gas station ceiling - 150 Flame<br />
10 30 Gray store floor<br />
15 30 Slate roof for buildings - 160 Flame<br />
18 50 Gray warehouse floor - 155 Flame<br />
15 30 Rough gray concrete store roof - 150 Flame<br />
12 40 Pastel pink(?) indoor tile - 111 Flame<br />
8 255 Flowers<br />
<U> 6 50 Pink patterned carpet - Normal 20 Flame, DT 100 Flame _</U><br />
40 30 Sand. Crater objects add armor, HE Block, 4 TUs. CYDONIA<br />
<U> 100 NDT Green Start tiles. All others as for alien bases. _</U><br />
<U> 5 25 Sand DESERT</U><br />
5 255 Grass FARM<br />
10 255 Dirt and cultivated fields<br />
6 25 Wood floor - Flame 16<br />
6 25 25 Hay loft ground floor - Normal 12 Flame, DT 25 Flame<br />
10 255 Stable - Flame 10<br />
<u> 30 35 Cobblestone floor - 160 Flame _</u><br />
<U> 10 30 Light green weeds add 8 armor, 25-30 Flame FOREST</U><br />
<u> 8 30 Plants add armor and HEB; see Note 2 JUNGLE</u><br />
40 NDT Normal ground. Also see [[Explosions#Mile-High Madness|Mountain Madness]]. MOUNTAIN<br />
<u> 50 NDT 50 Solid mountain walls (full height) _</u><br />
15 80 Common pink(?) or gray floors, inc. Access Lift XCOM BASE<br />
10 80 Lighter tile in center of some common floors<br />
12 70 Blue floors<br />
<u> 16 80 Hangar floor _</u><br />
255 NDT 0 Ramp object. See Note 4. XCOM CRAFT<br />
255 NDT 0 Floor of craft<br />
<br />
<b>"Ini"</b> is initial tile armor; <b>"Ded"</b> is tile armor for the next ("dead") tile that appears after the initial one is blown away. If no tile is indicated (DeathTile=0), '''NDT''' is put. This means that raw earth will appear when the tile is killed, on ground level (or nothing does if above that, such as with UFO roof). Nothing is strong enough to break through Death Tiles with armor 255. Thus you can't break through artic ice to reveal raw earth, which makes sense. Basically anything over 100 (half the blaster's damage) cannot be broken through; thus elevators and start tiles (except in Cydonia surface!) are safe from explosions.<br />
<br />
'''Note 1:''' The inner UFO walls with "crown molding" have higher armor, and can be considered "security walls". The whole third level of battleship is this, and it's also found around the control room in large UFOs. Also, the darker doors without the line down their center are also higher strength. These are also generally found in secure areas; the top of the battleship elevator is ringed by them. These strong doors are also found in a few interesting places such as the entrance to the "engine room" on the bottom floor of the Supply Ship (even though the walls there are not security walls).<br />
<br />
Most solid floors etc. have no flame ("Flammable") value. Most plants and human buildings do. Some tiles look weird, but make sense when you think about it. For example, cobblestone in farms has a high flame value - but it's found as the first floor of wooden buildings. Also ('''Note 2:''') Most largish plants (shrubs and larger) had HE Block values. The jungle, in particular, has many full trees with HE Block of 20. Don't ask me why the hay loft ground floor has HEB=25.<br />
<br />
There are a number of small objects that add armor to a tile. Example: Rocks in the desert are separate objects, with 20 armor. But snakes and bones are just painted onto a common desert tile; they are not separate objects nor do they add anything to the tile properties. Generally, anything that adds TUs also adds armor and possibly HE Block and Flammability. Most objects (including walls) that block movement add armor and HE Block, as well.<br />
<br />
'''Note 3''' (from Blast Diameters): For what it's worth, the effects of e.g. wheat and flowers in the farm map are actually ''added'' to the base tile (and '''add''' TUs to it). They are separate objects in addition to the ground tile. The additional TU costs can be seen in MapView, such as 2 (i.e., +2) for wheat. They also have their own armor ratings. Thus the wheat itself has Initial Armor 6, DT Armor 50 (this one shows burnt crops), which then goes to another DT (dirt) of Armor 255. But the tile it's on has Initial Armor 10, then goes directly to the same final DT as wheat (Armor 255). What happens is that wheat tiles go directly to their DT if blast strength is 60+, or to burnt crops if 60 > strength >= 6.<br />
<br />
'''Note 4:''' All ramp-section objects add 4 TUs to underlying terrain ''except'' the middle and top of Avenger's ramp only adds 2 TUs. I think Danial has pointed this out before. Also see [[Explosions#Mile-High Madness|Mountain Madness]].<br />
<br />
Take these values as a rough guide. Some were hard to tell apart. If you want to do research on a particular tile, please double-check MapView before spending a lot of time on it! ''- [[User:MikeTheRed|MTR]]<br />
<br />
A larger list of terrain objects and their armor values can be found at [[Destroying Terrain]].<br />
<br />
= Experience Points =<br />
<br />
Experience that may be gained with explosives is as follows.<br />
<br />
Any alien (not under mind control) caught in a blast radius will give experience points toward [[Firing Accuracy]]. So one blast can give many Firing experience points (XPs). It does not matter if the alien was not harmed (i.e., damage was blocked by armor); you still get experience points if they were in the blast radius. Mind controlled aliens are considered friendly and do not give experience points.<br />
<br />
Note that if no one actually throws a thrown explosive (it's merely dropped), your first soldier gets the Firing Accuracy experience (even if a tank or if dead!). Thrown objects are attributed to the last person to throw them, or default to your first soldier "slot" if no one threw it. Your tanks always occupy the first slot(s) (but enemy tanks such as the cyberdisc do not occupy your first slot). Keep this attribution in mind when using the [[Grenade Relay]], if you're trying to pass Firing experience around. As it were.<br />
<br />
The [[Small Launcher]]'s "explosive" stun bomb also gives Firing experience. Again, even if aliens did not actually fall unconscious (or receive any stun at all). Stun bomb radius in desert terrain is 5, diameter 11.<br />
<br />
If thrown, one [[Throwing Accuracy]] experience point will be given. This holds true for throwing anything, explosive or not.<br />
<br />
If you make a reaction shot with a projectile explosive, you will receive one [[Reactions]] experience point, even if many aliens were hit by the blast (giving you many Firing XPs). Technically, you were only reacting to the movement of one of the aliens.<br />
<br />
To see how experience points translate into skill points (when combat ends), see [[Experience#How Experience Points Are Applied|here]].<br />
<br />
'''NOTE:''' The [[Proximity Grenade]] does NOT give Firing experience to the thrower. Instead, it gives Firing experience <i>to the person that triggers it to explode</i>. Keep this in mind because this tends to make it a poor choice, especially early in the game (SIGH!).<br />
<br />
= Unusual Explosives =<br />
<br />
== UFO Power Sources ==<br />
<br />
[[Image:Numerical PS Screencap.png|right|thumb|250px|Typical PS explosion using Bomb Bloke and Zombie's setup]]The parameters for [[UFO Power Source]]s (PSs) have been worked out, as seen [[UFO_Crash_Recovery#Power_Source_Explosions_and_Elerium_Recovery|here]]. PSs explode with a radius 11 (diameter 23) explosion of average strength 215 (stronger than a [[Blaster Launcher|Blaster]]!). However, what's not discussed there is that this explosion breaks the mold of how explosions usually work, for two reasons:<br />
#PSs explode with a variable blast strength versus ''terrain''. Standard explosions impart precisely 50% of their average (rated) strength versus terrain; they are not variable, versus terrain (but are versus units). Still, while a PS's HE strength varies versus terrain at GZ, this GZ strength does otherwise drop off by a fixed 5 strength for each tile away from GZ, just like standard explosions. (The inset shows a PS explosion in a game using [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke's]] super-cool [http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=746&st=195|numerical terrain] plus [[User:Zombie|Zombie's]] sweet [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=242025161&view=findpost&p=163712 PS testing scenario].)<br />
#PS explosions impart 215 &plusmn;35 HE damage (107.5 &plusmn;17.5 versus terrain). 35 is 16.23% of 215. We've seen [[Damage]] ranges of &plusmn;25%, &plusmn;50%, and &plusmn;100%. But &plusmn;16.23%??<br />
<br />
All in all, PS explosions are in a league of their own. It looks like the developers hand-coded some of the parameters, but otherwise used a lot of the explosion routines.<br />
<br />
== Stun Bombs ==<br />
<br />
The overall details on the [[Small Launcher]]'s "explosion" are shown on it's page. But what's not shown is that has its own set of rules versus standard explosives. In a nutshell, while the stun "blast" follows all normal rules of a propagating explosion, it inflicts stun [[Damage]] on units as if it were a weapon.<br />
<br />
Typically, HE explosions do [[damage]] to units equal to 50%-150% of the explosion strength. But the stun bomb imparts 0-200% of its stun "explosion" strength to units, even though its damage drops off by 10 per tile, as with other explosions. Thus it uses a hybrid of explosion and firearm damage mechanics.<br />
<br />
This leads to an "odd" scenario like this, as seen in limited testing:<br />
*If a stun bomb is hacked to strength 250 stun and shot at a wall with HE Block of 120, no units behind it receive any stun. This follows the usual explosion rules of: Half strength is applied to terrain at ground zero (GZ), which falls off by 5 per tile away from GZ; thus the stun bomb is 125 vs. terrain at GZ and 120 at GZ+1. Soldiers get no stun because the 120 HE Block nullified all the explosion strength. (Wall ''armor'' was set to 0 - tile armor never impedes explosions; only HEB does.) Ok, no problem here.<br />
*But if the 250 stun bomb is shot at a wall with 110 HEB, a unit right on the far side was seen to get 33 damage. How did that work?<br />
**The stun bomb is 125 vs. terrain at GZ<br />
**At GZ+1, it is 120, minus the 110 HEB, leaves 10 for damage ''to terrain<br />
**But damage to terrain is 50% of the average explosion damage. And the stun bomb can do up to 200% damage to units. If 10 is 50%, then 40 is 200%. Thus, it "makes sense" that a unit was hit for 33. In its own weird way.<br />
It seems that the force of the explosion checks its strength versus ''terrain'' as it progresses, and, if it has not become zero, then it back-calculates average/rated damage - and inflicts the stun damage. See, if the game were tracking average/rated damage as a blast front progressed, when the stun bomb hit the wall, it would've become 250-10=240 for the next tile, minus 120 equals 120 average/rated damage on the next tile where the unit was - but wait, no. See? That can't be right, because this would have inflicted 0-240 stun damage on units, from the average of 120 carried forward. But high values were not seen (in very limited testing!). Also, of course, the unit did not receive exactly 5 stun damage, as would have been expected if the stun bomb explosion ''exactly'' followed the rules of explosions. So this hybrid event (explosive progression but unit damage) has given us insight into how XCOM tracks the damage that an explosion front will incur - it carries terrain damage (50% of rated) forward, then back calculates rated damage, if a unit is there.<br />
<br />
= Playing With Fire =<br />
<br />
'''Hacking HE versus Blast Diameters<br />
----<br />
Hacking HE ([[OBDATA.DAT]][22]) shows that explosion patterns fall into 2 or 3 categories:<br />
* All projectile explosives (AC, HC, S & L Rocket, and probably Rocket Tank) have "constrained" patterns that are always smaller than expected - their blasts never "die away to nothing" at their edge. They also continue to have an ever-increasing outline (larger diameter) for as high as HE can be hacked.<br />
* All grenades (standard, alien, prox, Hi-Ex) have "natural" blast patterns that '''do''' "die away to nothing" at their edge - up to HE 61. At 62, it takes on a fixed pattern which shows some "constraint" in the sense of not being what would naturally be expected. At this point it is radius 6, diameter 13. And then their pattern never changes (i.e. enlarges) past what is seen at 62, even if you increase HE all the way up to 255. Even much higher than HE 62, grenades' pattern is still only radius 6.<br />
* Guided weapons (blaster and presumably fusion tank) follow the same pattern as grenades '''but''' their blast pattern continues to grow in size, until one reaches 112 (radius 11, diameter 23). At this point it too becomes fixed, no matter how much higher HE is hacked.<br />
Thus blast radii and diameters can be described with these equations:<br />
<u>Type</u> <u>Radius</u> <u>Diameter</u> <u>Pattern Limit Reached At</u><br />
Projectile Explosives INT(HE/20)+1 2*INT(HE/20)+3 HE 240 (r=13, d=27)<br />
Grenades and Guided Weapons INT((HE-2)/10) INT((HE-2)/5)+1 Grenades: HE 62 (r= 6, d=13)<br />
Guided: HE 112 (r=11, d=23)<br />
<br />
For the above, ''only'' the blast pattern a.k.a. "outline" is being talked about. ''Within'' the blast pattern, all explosives follow the expected, simple rules of: Average HE at ground zero, decreasing by 10 per tile outward (for damage to units; by 5 for damage to terrain), and all points (and explosive strength there) can be described in terms of distance from GZ using the [[Explosions#Distance from Ground Zero|"walking TUs"]] method.<br />
<br />
These properties of hacked explosive strength lead to the following observations:<br />
*Since there is only one (unhacked) grenade or guided weapon with an HE rating less than the point of its "radius of constraint", only the humble grenade shows a quite round, "natural" blast pattern outline. It's the only explosive that truly decreases to 0 all around its edge (although the prox mine comes very close).<br />
*On the flip side of that, as HE gets larger and larger (with or without hacking), the edge of blast patterns becomes more and more lethal. It's easy to see that this would happen with grenades and guided weapons - their diameter no longer increases, even when increasing their explosive power. But hacked projectiles are also dangerous at their edge - even though it is not constrained, per se - because their radii only increase by one every ''20'' HE, even though damage only decreases by ''10'' per tile. Thus, they ''increase'' by 10 at their edge (+20, -10) each time their radius increases.<br />
*Here are some examples of maximally-hacked blast edges, versus the worst seen in an unhacked game:<br />
**A grenade hacked to HE 255 has an average of 195 HE at its edge (r=6, d=13)<br />
**A guided weapon at HE 255 has an average of 145 HE at its edge (r=11, d=23)<br />
**A projectile explosive at HE 255 has an average of 125 HE at its edge (r=13, d=27)<br />
**[[Explosions#HE_Statistics|Compare]] how the most dangerous unhacked example is a blaster (HE 200), which is 90 average HE at its edge (r=11, d=23)...<br />
**But the second-worst case is Hi-Ex (HE 110), which is 50 at its edge, because it is a grenade constrained to just r=6, d=13. ('''Not''' the Fusion Tank at HE 140, because guided missiles can be up to r=11.)<br />
*Many blast patterns have the same r=6 outline in an unhacked game. This is because all but one grenade is constrained to this, plus one of the projectile patterns (for Large Rocket, HE 100) happens to precisely coincide with this, as well (as it would for any projectile with HE 100-119).<br />
*If a stun bomb (stun strength 90) is hacked to be an explosive (OBDATA[31]=2), it too follows the pattern for projectile explosives. This includes if its HE is also then hacked.<br />
<br />
Presumably, the pattern type is determined by whether something has the OBDATA grenade type set, or it is ammo, or it is guided.<br />
<br />
Examples of the patterns (both real and hacked) and the walking TUs map can be found in an Excel file [http://www.ufopaedia.org/images/c/c5/XCOM_Blast_Patterns.xls here].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Hacking HE versus Explosion Sounds<br />
----<br />
When HE is hacked, there are two types of sound heard:<br />
*The small "whoomf" up to HE 80, and<br />
*The big bone-jarring explosion heard at HE 81+.<br />
Another thing is seen:<br />
<br />
In addition to the projectile-launch sound each type of projectile weapon makes, the [[Auto Cannon]] and [[Heavy Cannon]] also do a slightly odd thing: if hacked to HE from 74 to 80, they make the "whoomf" sound twice when they explode.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Hacking HE versus Walls<br />
----<br />
The [[Blaster Bomb]] is the only thing capable of blasting through a UFO outer hull (walls and roof). It does exactly 200 damage at the epicenter and only ever knocks out one tile. <br />
<br />
When we boost the power of the humble [[High Explosive]] with a game editor we see the following:<br />
<br />
*190 for HE strength is not enough to bust a hull open. <br />
*200 is, but only one tile wide. <br />
*210 opens up a hole 3 tiles wide<br />
*220 opens up a hole 5 tiles wide.<br />
<br />
For every 10 points of HE strength above 200, it adds 2 to the width of the hole. <br />
<br />
''- reposted from NKF/Jasonred/Zombie discussion, strategycore forums 2005 -[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]]<br />
<br />
= Mile-High Madness =<br />
Mountains have the inherent weirdness that they "weaken" some structures, as pointed out by NKF, Bomb Bloke, and others. For example, a Blaster explosion on the ground below an XCOM craft will destroy its ramp and landing struts, in mountain terrain. Ordinarily, these objects are indestructible (armor=255) for all three troop transports. You can even take them or outer UFO walls out with an alien grenade (except for "true" North and West walls ([[#When Is a Wall not a Wall|see above]]) - anything that's enough to destroy tile armor 40 (HE 80+). <br />
<br />
The reason for this unusual behavior is seen by using MapView. It seems that XCOM programmers accidentally pointed to an ''object'' instead of a ''tile'' for the death tile of mountain terrain. It looks like they pointed to MCD id 76 (a stump object) when they should've pointed to MCD id 77 (scorched mountain ground tile). Perhaps someone stuck in an extra tile without keeping an eye on the pointers. In any event, this object only has armor of 20. It is theorized that when mountain terrain is destroyed (armor=40), the stump object then erroneously replaces e.g. the craft ramp, and then the explosion is also enough to take out that object. Note that the code for explosions appears to process ground first and then process objects; this must be how the inadvertent stump object also gets destroyed. (Otherwise it should've been seen all along the outer edge of a blaster explosion, where the blaster's tile-damage strength is less than 60; see [[Explosions#Blast Propagation|Blast Propagation]].)<br />
<br />
Conversely, if you shoot a weapon at mountain ground terrain, you will see the stump. This is because shots against terrain only do damage to the element they hit, whereas explosions are checked against everything in a square (ground, two walls, and object, if any). You can even turn craft ramps and gear into stumps, if you try hard enough. Most shots will hit the ramp instead of ground, but eventually one will miss and burn the dirt, turning the ramp into a stump!<br />
<br />
This strange behavior is also seen on flat mountaintops. All the common flat mountain ground tiles point to the wrong death MCD id.<br />
<br />
A final oddity due to the incorrect tile is that mountain ground destroyed in an explosion will burn for three turns. Most common ground tiles have 0 Flammability and will not burn after a "regular" explosion. (They'll burn if hit by incendiaries, though.) This is because the stump object has Flammability=14 and is set to burn for 3 turns.<br />
<br />
= See Also =<br />
<br />
*[[Damage]]<br />
*[[Destroying Terrain]]<br />
*[[Firing Accuracy]]<br />
*[[Throwing Accuracy]] (including throwing distance)<br />
*[[Reactions]]<br />
*[[Weapons]]<br />
**'''Thrown Explosives'''<br />
***[[Grenade]]<br />
***[[Proximity Grenade]]<br />
***[[Alien Grenade]]<br />
***[[High Explosive]]<br />
**'''Projectile Explosives'''<br />
***[[Auto Cannon]]<br />
***[[Heavy Cannon]]<br />
***[[Rocket Launcher]]<br />
***[[Tank/Rocket Launcher]] a.k.a. Rocket Tank<br />
***[[Small Launcher]] a.k.a. Stun Bomb<br />
**'''Guided Explosives'''<br />
***[[Hovertank/Launcher]] a.k.a. Fusion Tank<br />
***[[Blaster Launcher]]<br />
*[[Health]]<br />
*[[Fatal Wounds]]<br />
*[[Armour]]<br />
*[[Experience]]<br />
<br />
[[Category: data tables]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Explosion.gif&diff=14066File:Explosion.gif2007-12-04T12:27:58Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=DETBLOB.DAT&diff=14065DETBLOB.DAT2007-12-04T12:19:22Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div>==General Information==<br />
This file contains the varying-sized [[Motion Scanner]] "blips" as well as the directional arrows for the way the using soldier is facing.<br />
<br />
The file contains 15 16x16 images, with each byte pertaining to a pixel. The structure is very simple: A 0 byte is transparent, and non-0 bytes (1-255) refer to a palette colour table.<br />
<br />
==Images==<br />
[[Image:DETBLOB.gif]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
[[Motion Scanner]]<br />
[[Category:Game Files]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:DETBLOB.gif&diff=14064File:DETBLOB.gif2007-12-04T12:18:27Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=TEXTURE.DAT&diff=14063TEXTURE.DAT2007-12-04T12:14:30Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div>==General Information==<br />
Graphics file containing the textures for the Geoscape map<br />
<br />
There are 3 sets of 13 images. These correspond to values of 0 - 12 for the last value stored in [[WORLD.DAT]]. The different sets are used based upon the zoom level the user is currently at.<br />
<br />
==Image==<br />
[[Image:TEXTURE.gif]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[GEOGRAPH]]<br />
[[Category:Game Files]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:TEXTURE.gif&diff=14062File:TEXTURE.gif2007-12-04T12:13:42Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Night_Missions&diff=14061Night Missions2007-12-04T11:31:29Z<p>Danial: /* Artificial Lighting */ - Added personal theory on MCD[58] (brightness) value</p>
<hr />
<div>Night missions are very challenging as the visibility is about a third of day missions.<br />
It is possible to avoid most night missions by delaying your landing until daytime.<br />
Night [[Terror Mission]]s will disappear before daytime unless you can keep the site continually targeted with different aircraft by using an [[ExploitsD#All_Terror_Missions_During_Daylight|exploit]]. If you only have one [[Skyranger]] you may find yourself landing at night.<br />
<br />
The most important additional operation in night missions is to manage your illumination. It comes in four varieties - flares, fires, artificial lighting, and personal lighting. But first, an important message about alien night vision.<br />
<br />
== Alien Nightvision ==<br />
In full daylight, every unit in the game can see up to 20 tiles away (counting from zero where the unit is standing), not counting obstructions to [[Line of sight]].<br />
<br />
At night, your units cannot see enemies that stand in dark places. Personal light carried by soldiers illuminates enemies up to 9 tiles away, ''but aliens can still see 20''. '''Aliens always see the full 20''' (and night missions can end in disaster!) Anything you do to improve lighting only affects ''you''. Your flares do not make you more obvious to aliens, etc. - aliens can always see just fine.<br />
<br />
Although dusk or dawn battlescapes clearly have light levels intermediate between day and night, there is no visual range in-between. It is either 9 or 20. ''(Needs testing: Can the amount of sunlight on the Geoscape somehow be used to accurately determine if you'll wind up with full night or not? Oceans seem to have the clearest delineation... can they be accurately used as "longitudinal indicators"? - [[User:MikeTheRed|MTR]])<br />
<br />
''I tried some time ago to create a check between GEOSCAPE.EXE and TACTICAL.EXE (for automatic night/day uniform camouflage change). Unfortunately, MISSDAT directory doesn't have BGLOB.DAT file (which stores ambient light value), and I went out of ideas. Probably it is calculated from battle time and coordinates. --Quantifier<br />
<br />
Note that visual range and lighting rules ignore elevation levels. If you can see 9 (or 20) when both you and your visual target are on the ground, you will also be able to see them when you're flying 4 stories high and they're on the ground 9 (or 20) tiles away, ignoring vertical distance. Elevation differences do not add to distance for vision and lighting.<br />
<br />
== Flares ==<br />
[[image:FlarePattern.png|right|thumb|202px|Pattern of light produced by Flares and Personal Lighting. Numbers refer to value that palette is shifted to darker colours. Line shows effective radius - outside it light is purely cosmetic.]] Start combat with some of your soldiers holding [[flare]]s. The first soldiers shown on the combat load-out screen will be the first out the door. The smallest number of [[Inventory_TU_Table|inventory TUs]] are needed to move something from your shoulder to your hand (3 TUs), although the belt and leg are a close second (4 TUs).<br />
<br />
Key advantages to flares are that they never "burn out", and they can be picked up and re-thrown, including as part of a [[grenade relay]]. Leapfrogging flares reduces this important count against your [[Known_Bugs#80-item_Limit|80 item limit]]. Usually one throws them to the places they want to walk to, or which will reveal the most "around corners", but read onward for the most efficient throwing patterns. A key disadvantage of flares is that they are always destroyed by any explosion they're caught within; indeed, they have the weakest [[Explosions#Object_Destruction|explosion resistance]] of any item in the game. So you might think twice before fragging an alien revealed by a flare - or you might very well not!<br />
<br />
Flares cause a circle of light of effective radius 9 (not counting ground-zero tile), diameter 19 (including GZ). Graphically radius is 15, but at the edge there is not enough light to reveal enemies. They cast the exact same amount/pattern of light as Personal Lighting (below). In real life, something seen in very dim light would probably only be visible to the closest person, but this is not the case in X-COM. If anyone can see an alien, everyone can (as long as they have [[Line of sight]]). I guess everyone's in radio contact.<br />
<br />
Due to the fact that both soldiers and flares have radius 9 light patterns, flares should be thrown approx. 18 tiles away (laterally; less for diagonally) for complete coverage. Of course, this doesn't take into account that you will be moving, etc. Likewise, flares should be about 18 tiles away from each other. A hexagon of flares around a soldier will cause almost complete coverage out to approximately 27 tiles -- further than your visual range.<br />
<br />
It is possible to see the outline of an alien against a light backdrop if you get lucky, even though no one can "officially" see him (and get the glowing red number). This can happen if, e.g., the alien is elevated. The edge of a lit area (9 tiles from a flare or soldier) is extremely dim, making it impossible to see an alien just in front of an edge. But an elevated alien is in profile against farther, less-dim parts of the illuminated area. It can also happen in situations where an alien is just off to the side of a well-lit area, due to light being blocked from hitting his tile by, e.g., the corner of a building.<br />
<br />
Using the [[Throwing_Accuracy#Throwing_Distance|throwing formula]] vs. flare [[Item_Weight|weight]] of 3, the weakest soldier ([[Strength|STR]] 20) can throw a flare approx. 17 tiles, and the strongest soldier (STR 70) can throw it approx. 58 tiles - all the way across even the largest map (except diagonally). BUT, as pointed out by NKF, there is an unfortunate limit on how high an object can go before its arc intercepts the fourth-level "ceiling", which causes the confusing/annoying "Unable to throw here!" message even when the route is obviously clear. Ceiling interception appears to make the actual maximum throwing distance approx. 35 tiles. ''(More testing needed, pls.)'' Unfortunately, the stronger you are, the more a percent of your possible distance gets clipped, but even fairly weak soldiers may see some clipping. ''(THAT'S why we often get this frustrating message when trying to throw flares as far as we can!)<br />
<br />
As a parlor game: Flares illuminate 269 tiles (see inset). Small maps (4x4 [[Module|tilesets]] for small and medium scouts) have 1,600 tiles and would need 5.9 flares to totally cover them, using the extremely simple (and unrealistic) math of 1600/269. Large maps (5x5) have 2,500 tiles and would need 9.3 flares to totally cover them. This does not take into account any issues of properly joining/overlapping the patterns, etc., nor that your soldiers or other sources produce light. Anyway, there it is.<br />
<br />
For what it's worth, flares that are dropped or picked up do not change their light status until the start of the next turn. To wit: If you drop a flare and walk away, it does not give illumination until the next turn. (Not that it matters, since your soldier had the same range-9 lighting as the flare when he was standing there.) And if you pick up a flare and walk away, its lighting remains behind until next turn. Conversely, if flares are [[Throwing Accuracy|thrown]], they do immediately light up their area.<br />
<br />
== Personal lighting ==<br />
As discussed under Flares (above), soldiers can see to a radius of 9 around them, and are effectively light sources exactly equal to flares. This does not matter to aliens; they always see the full 20, day or night.<br />
<br />
If you have just mind controlled an alien, you will not get its personal lighting until you move someone (including your new pet alien, or any other MC'd aliens). For these purposes, turning in place does not cause personal lighting to come on - only actual movement does. Since movement of your new pet can trigger reaction fire, move one of your 'back field' troops if you want to light up the pet's area while playing it safe re: your new pet drawing reaction fire. Note that turning in place also does not cause reaction fire.<br />
<br />
More specifically, ''aliens do not check for personal lighting status '''change''' until someone on your team uses '''energy'''''. For example, using an elevator or flying up/down will ''not'' cause newly-MC'd aliens to light up. This also means that ''aliens that you MC'd last turn, will stay lit this turn, '''until''' one of your guys moves in a way that uses energy''. This might be useful on night missions or in those dark, windy alien base 'gardens' - at the start of a turn, aliens you MC'd last turn stay lit until one of your soldiers moves. Then again, while all of this is true, you will '''still''' get the glowing 'alien seen' number, even if you do move - and it's the most important thing of all, by far. Perhaps these insights will help, some cold dark night.<br />
<br />
== Incendiaries ==<br />
[[Incendiary]] ammo also provides light, plus it can travel further and do some damage if it hits the enemy. It does not do very much damage, though (see [[Incendiary]]) - never rely on it to kill an alien.<br />
<br />
Pattern around map tile on fire is identical to those of flares and personal light.<br />
<br />
Load up the [[Auto Cannon]] with Incendiary before starting the mission. Use on snap-shot to light up the depths of the map, further than flares can be thrown. Give the soldier a back-up pistol.<br />
<br />
Incendiary ammo is also available for the [[Heavy Cannon]] and [[Rocket Launcher]], but the Auto Cannon's fast shot makes it best for the mission - a soldier can still use his pistol the same turn.<br />
<br />
Enemy units on fire do not provide any light.<br />
<br />
== Artificial Lighting ==<br />
Certain items in the game produce their own light. This can be a big bonus on night terror city missions. Explosives and shots that can destroy the object will stop the lighting (see terrain damage [[Damage#Overview|here]]).<br />
<br />
There are 11 [[TERRAIN|terrain]] items that produce light:<br />
'''Object Description Brightness Image'''<br />
'''------ ----------- ---------- -----'''<br />
<br />
ROADS[16]* Streetlight 01 [[Image:Streetlight.gif]]<br />
FRNITURE[10] Lamp 10 [[Image:Lamp.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[10-13]** Alien Tank #1 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-1.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[14-17]** Alien Tank #2 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-2.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[18-21]** Alien Tank #3 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-3.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[22-25]** Alien Tank #4 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-4.gif]]<br />
U_PODS[00] UFO Fuel Pod #1 10 [[Image:U_PODS_00.gif]]<br />
U_PODS[01] UFO Fuel Pod #1 10 [[Image:U_PODS-02-.gif]]<br />
U_PODS[02] UFO Pod 12 [[Image:U_PODS_04.gif]]<br />
XBASE1[06] Base Floor Tile #1 16 [[Image:Base-Tile-1.gif]]<br />
XBASE1[09] Base Floor Tile #1 16 [[Image:Base-Tile-2.gif]]<br />
<br />
<br />
*Only the top segment is illuminating<br />
**Only the front segment is illuminating<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Because the [[Media:Palette.gif|palette]] uses 16 colours ranging through 16 shades of brightness (256 colours), I'd assume that the brightness value simply tells the tile how many shades to scale each colour down from full-bright --[[User:Danial|Danial]] 03:31, 4 December 2007 (PST)'''<br />
<br />
Ones that were checked (street lamp and liquid containers) were found to also illuminate aliens within 9 tiles of them, even though these two object types cast very different light. (The street lamp casts a lot of light; the containers only cast a little.) Thus it is presumed that '''all''' light sources give the ability to visualize aliens up to 9 tiles away, regardless of how much light they appear to cast.<br />
<br />
''See byte 58 of the [[TERRAIN|MCD]] file structure for more info on lighting data.<br />
<br />
== Behind the scenes ==<br />
For those techies who like to look [[Under The Hood]], the X-COM engine handles varying levels of illumination quite cleverly. The palette is arranged so that the base colours of a tile can be added to the degree of illumination to get the dimmer colours.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
[[Category:Missions]]<br />
[[Category: Tactics]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Palette.gif&diff=14060File:Palette.gif2007-12-04T11:23:49Z<p>Danial: This is the colour palette used by UFO: Enemy Unknown.</p>
<hr />
<div>This is the colour palette used by UFO: Enemy Unknown.</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Night_Missions&diff=14058Night Missions2007-12-03T09:48:29Z<p>Danial: /* Artificial Lighting */</p>
<hr />
<div>Night missions are very challenging as the visibility is about a third of day missions.<br />
It is possible to avoid most night missions by delaying your landing until daytime.<br />
Night [[Terror Mission]]s will disappear before daytime unless you can keep the site continually targeted with different aircraft by using an [[ExploitsD#All_Terror_Missions_During_Daylight|exploit]]. If you only have one [[Skyranger]] you may find yourself landing at night.<br />
<br />
The most important additional operation in night missions is to manage your illumination. It comes in four varieties - flares, fires, artificial lighting, and personal lighting. But first, an important message about alien night vision.<br />
<br />
== Alien Nightvision ==<br />
In full daylight, every unit in the game can see up to 20 tiles away (counting from zero where the unit is standing), not counting obstructions to [[Line of sight]].<br />
<br />
At night, your units cannot see enemies that stand in dark places. Personal light carried by soldiers illuminates enemies up to 9 tiles away, ''but aliens can still see 20''. '''Aliens always see the full 20''' (and night missions can end in disaster!) Anything you do to improve lighting only affects ''you''. Your flares do not make you more obvious to aliens, etc. - aliens can always see just fine.<br />
<br />
Although dusk or dawn battlescapes clearly have light levels intermediate between day and night, there is no visual range in-between. It is either 9 or 20. ''(Needs testing: Can the amount of sunlight on the Geoscape somehow be used to accurately determine if you'll wind up with full night or not? Oceans seem to have the clearest delineation... can they be accurately used as "longitudinal indicators"? - [[User:MikeTheRed|MTR]])<br />
<br />
''I tried some time ago to create a check between GEOSCAPE.EXE and TACTICAL.EXE (for automatic night/day uniform camouflage change). Unfortunately, MISSDAT directory doesn't have BGLOB.DAT file (which stores ambient light value), and I went out of ideas. Probably it is calculated from battle time and coordinates. --Quantifier<br />
<br />
Note that visual range and lighting rules ignore elevation levels. If you can see 9 (or 20) when both you and your visual target are on the ground, you will also be able to see them when you're flying 4 stories high and they're on the ground 9 (or 20) tiles away, ignoring vertical distance. Elevation differences do not add to distance for vision and lighting.<br />
<br />
== Flares ==<br />
[[image:FlarePattern.png|right|thumb|202px|Pattern of light produced by Flares and Personal Lighting. Numbers refer to value that palette is shifted to darker colours. Line shows effective radius - outside it light is purely cosmetic.]] Start combat with some of your soldiers holding [[flare]]s. The first soldiers shown on the combat load-out screen will be the first out the door. The smallest number of [[Inventory_TU_Table|inventory TUs]] are needed to move something from your shoulder to your hand (3 TUs), although the belt and leg are a close second (4 TUs).<br />
<br />
Key advantages to flares are that they never "burn out", and they can be picked up and re-thrown, including as part of a [[grenade relay]]. Leapfrogging flares reduces this important count against your [[Known_Bugs#80-item_Limit|80 item limit]]. Usually one throws them to the places they want to walk to, or which will reveal the most "around corners", but read onward for the most efficient throwing patterns. A key disadvantage of flares is that they are always destroyed by any explosion they're caught within; indeed, they have the weakest [[Explosions#Object_Destruction|explosion resistance]] of any item in the game. So you might think twice before fragging an alien revealed by a flare - or you might very well not!<br />
<br />
Flares cause a circle of light of effective radius 9 (not counting ground-zero tile), diameter 19 (including GZ). Graphically radius is 15, but at the edge there is not enough light to reveal enemies. They cast the exact same amount/pattern of light as Personal Lighting (below). In real life, something seen in very dim light would probably only be visible to the closest person, but this is not the case in X-COM. If anyone can see an alien, everyone can (as long as they have [[Line of sight]]). I guess everyone's in radio contact.<br />
<br />
Due to the fact that both soldiers and flares have radius 9 light patterns, flares should be thrown approx. 18 tiles away (laterally; less for diagonally) for complete coverage. Of course, this doesn't take into account that you will be moving, etc. Likewise, flares should be about 18 tiles away from each other. A hexagon of flares around a soldier will cause almost complete coverage out to approximately 27 tiles -- further than your visual range.<br />
<br />
It is possible to see the outline of an alien against a light backdrop if you get lucky, even though no one can "officially" see him (and get the glowing red number). This can happen if, e.g., the alien is elevated. The edge of a lit area (9 tiles from a flare or soldier) is extremely dim, making it impossible to see an alien just in front of an edge. But an elevated alien is in profile against farther, less-dim parts of the illuminated area. It can also happen in situations where an alien is just off to the side of a well-lit area, due to light being blocked from hitting his tile by, e.g., the corner of a building.<br />
<br />
Using the [[Throwing_Accuracy#Throwing_Distance|throwing formula]] vs. flare [[Item_Weight|weight]] of 3, the weakest soldier ([[Strength|STR]] 20) can throw a flare approx. 17 tiles, and the strongest soldier (STR 70) can throw it approx. 58 tiles - all the way across even the largest map (except diagonally). BUT, as pointed out by NKF, there is an unfortunate limit on how high an object can go before its arc intercepts the fourth-level "ceiling", which causes the confusing/annoying "Unable to throw here!" message even when the route is obviously clear. Ceiling interception appears to make the actual maximum throwing distance approx. 35 tiles. ''(More testing needed, pls.)'' Unfortunately, the stronger you are, the more a percent of your possible distance gets clipped, but even fairly weak soldiers may see some clipping. ''(THAT'S why we often get this frustrating message when trying to throw flares as far as we can!)<br />
<br />
As a parlor game: Flares illuminate 269 tiles (see inset). Small maps (4x4 [[Module|tilesets]] for small and medium scouts) have 1,600 tiles and would need 5.9 flares to totally cover them, using the extremely simple (and unrealistic) math of 1600/269. Large maps (5x5) have 2,500 tiles and would need 9.3 flares to totally cover them. This does not take into account any issues of properly joining/overlapping the patterns, etc., nor that your soldiers or other sources produce light. Anyway, there it is.<br />
<br />
For what it's worth, flares that are dropped or picked up do not change their light status until the start of the next turn. To wit: If you drop a flare and walk away, it does not give illumination until the next turn. (Not that it matters, since your soldier had the same range-9 lighting as the flare when he was standing there.) And if you pick up a flare and walk away, its lighting remains behind until next turn. Conversely, if flares are [[Throwing Accuracy|thrown]], they do immediately light up their area.<br />
<br />
== Personal lighting ==<br />
As discussed under Flares (above), soldiers can see to a radius of 9 around them, and are effectively light sources exactly equal to flares. This does not matter to aliens; they always see the full 20, day or night.<br />
<br />
If you have just mind controlled an alien, you will not get its personal lighting until you move someone (including your new pet alien, or any other MC'd aliens). For these purposes, turning in place does not cause personal lighting to come on - only actual movement does. Since movement of your new pet can trigger reaction fire, move one of your 'back field' troops if you want to light up the pet's area while playing it safe re: your new pet drawing reaction fire. Note that turning in place also does not cause reaction fire.<br />
<br />
More specifically, ''aliens do not check for personal lighting status '''change''' until someone on your team uses '''energy'''''. For example, using an elevator or flying up/down will ''not'' cause newly-MC'd aliens to light up. This also means that ''aliens that you MC'd last turn, will stay lit this turn, '''until''' one of your guys moves in a way that uses energy''. This might be useful on night missions or in those dark, windy alien base 'gardens' - at the start of a turn, aliens you MC'd last turn stay lit until one of your soldiers moves. Then again, while all of this is true, you will '''still''' get the glowing 'alien seen' number, even if you do move - and it's the most important thing of all, by far. Perhaps these insights will help, some cold dark night.<br />
<br />
== Incendiaries ==<br />
[[Incendiary]] ammo also provides light, plus it can travel further and do some damage if it hits the enemy. It does not do very much damage, though (see [[Incendiary]]) - never rely on it to kill an alien.<br />
<br />
Pattern around map tile on fire is identical to those of flares and personal light.<br />
<br />
Load up the [[Auto Cannon]] with Incendiary before starting the mission. Use on snap-shot to light up the depths of the map, further than flares can be thrown. Give the soldier a back-up pistol.<br />
<br />
Incendiary ammo is also available for the [[Heavy Cannon]] and [[Rocket Launcher]], but the Auto Cannon's fast shot makes it best for the mission - a soldier can still use his pistol the same turn.<br />
<br />
Enemy units on fire do not provide any light.<br />
<br />
== Artificial Lighting ==<br />
Certain items in the game produce their own light. This can be a big bonus on night terror city missions. Explosives and shots that can destroy the object will stop the lighting (see terrain damage [[Damage#Overview|here]]).<br />
<br />
There are 11 [[TERRAIN|terrain]] items that produce light:<br />
'''Object Description Brightness Image'''<br />
'''------ ----------- ---------- -----'''<br />
<br />
ROADS[16]* Streetlight 01 [[Image:Streetlight.gif]]<br />
FRNITURE[10] Lamp 10 [[Image:Lamp.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[10-13]** Alien Tank #1 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-1.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[14-17]** Alien Tank #2 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-2.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[18-21]** Alien Tank #3 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-3.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[22-25]** Alien Tank #4 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-4.gif]]<br />
U_PODS[00] UFO Fuel Pod #1 10 [[Image:U_PODS_00.gif]]<br />
U_PODS[01] UFO Fuel Pod #1 10 [[Image:U_PODS-02-.gif]]<br />
U_PODS[02] UFO Pod 12 [[Image:U_PODS_04.gif]]<br />
XBASE1[06] Base Floor Tile #1 16 [[Image:Base-Tile-1.gif]]<br />
XBASE1[09] Base Floor Tile #1 16 [[Image:Base-Tile-2.gif]]<br />
<br />
<br />
*Only the top segment is illuminating<br />
**Only the front segment is illuminating<br />
<br />
<br />
Ones that were checked (street lamp and liquid containers) were found to also illuminate aliens within 9 tiles of them, even though these two object types cast very different light. (The street lamp casts a lot of light; the containers only cast a little.) Thus it is presumed that '''all''' light sources give the ability to visualize aliens up to 9 tiles away, regardless of how much light they appear to cast.<br />
<br />
''See byte 58 of the [[TERRAIN|MCD]] file structure for more info on lighting data.<br />
<br />
== Behind the scenes ==<br />
For those techies who like to look [[Under The Hood]], the X-COM engine handles varying levels of illumination quite cleverly. The palette is arranged so that the base colours of a tile can be added to the degree of illumination to get the dimmer colours.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
[[Category:Missions]]<br />
[[Category: Tactics]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Night_Missions&diff=14057Night Missions2007-12-03T08:22:34Z<p>Danial: /* Artificial Lighting */ - Added table with images</p>
<hr />
<div>Night missions are very challenging as the visibility is about a third of day missions.<br />
It is possible to avoid most night missions by delaying your landing until daytime.<br />
Night [[Terror Mission]]s will disappear before daytime unless you can keep the site continually targeted with different aircraft by using an [[ExploitsD#All_Terror_Missions_During_Daylight|exploit]]. If you only have one [[Skyranger]] you may find yourself landing at night.<br />
<br />
The most important additional operation in night missions is to manage your illumination. It comes in four varieties - flares, fires, artificial lighting, and personal lighting. But first, an important message about alien night vision.<br />
<br />
== Alien Nightvision ==<br />
In full daylight, every unit in the game can see up to 20 tiles away (counting from zero where the unit is standing), not counting obstructions to [[Line of sight]].<br />
<br />
At night, your units cannot see enemies that stand in dark places. Personal light carried by soldiers illuminates enemies up to 9 tiles away, ''but aliens can still see 20''. '''Aliens always see the full 20''' (and night missions can end in disaster!) Anything you do to improve lighting only affects ''you''. Your flares do not make you more obvious to aliens, etc. - aliens can always see just fine.<br />
<br />
Although dusk or dawn battlescapes clearly have light levels intermediate between day and night, there is no visual range in-between. It is either 9 or 20. ''(Needs testing: Can the amount of sunlight on the Geoscape somehow be used to accurately determine if you'll wind up with full night or not? Oceans seem to have the clearest delineation... can they be accurately used as "longitudinal indicators"? - [[User:MikeTheRed|MTR]])<br />
<br />
''I tried some time ago to create a check between GEOSCAPE.EXE and TACTICAL.EXE (for automatic night/day uniform camouflage change). Unfortunately, MISSDAT directory doesn't have BGLOB.DAT file (which stores ambient light value), and I went out of ideas. Probably it is calculated from battle time and coordinates. --Quantifier<br />
<br />
Note that visual range and lighting rules ignore elevation levels. If you can see 9 (or 20) when both you and your visual target are on the ground, you will also be able to see them when you're flying 4 stories high and they're on the ground 9 (or 20) tiles away, ignoring vertical distance. Elevation differences do not add to distance for vision and lighting.<br />
<br />
== Flares ==<br />
[[image:FlarePattern.png|right|thumb|202px|Pattern of light produced by Flares and Personal Lighting. Numbers refer to value that palette is shifted to darker colours. Line shows effective radius - outside it light is purely cosmetic.]] Start combat with some of your soldiers holding [[flare]]s. The first soldiers shown on the combat load-out screen will be the first out the door. The smallest number of [[Inventory_TU_Table|inventory TUs]] are needed to move something from your shoulder to your hand (3 TUs), although the belt and leg are a close second (4 TUs).<br />
<br />
Key advantages to flares are that they never "burn out", and they can be picked up and re-thrown, including as part of a [[grenade relay]]. Leapfrogging flares reduces this important count against your [[Known_Bugs#80-item_Limit|80 item limit]]. Usually one throws them to the places they want to walk to, or which will reveal the most "around corners", but read onward for the most efficient throwing patterns. A key disadvantage of flares is that they are always destroyed by any explosion they're caught within; indeed, they have the weakest [[Explosions#Object_Destruction|explosion resistance]] of any item in the game. So you might think twice before fragging an alien revealed by a flare - or you might very well not!<br />
<br />
Flares cause a circle of light of effective radius 9 (not counting ground-zero tile), diameter 19 (including GZ). Graphically radius is 15, but at the edge there is not enough light to reveal enemies. They cast the exact same amount/pattern of light as Personal Lighting (below). In real life, something seen in very dim light would probably only be visible to the closest person, but this is not the case in X-COM. If anyone can see an alien, everyone can (as long as they have [[Line of sight]]). I guess everyone's in radio contact.<br />
<br />
Due to the fact that both soldiers and flares have radius 9 light patterns, flares should be thrown approx. 18 tiles away (laterally; less for diagonally) for complete coverage. Of course, this doesn't take into account that you will be moving, etc. Likewise, flares should be about 18 tiles away from each other. A hexagon of flares around a soldier will cause almost complete coverage out to approximately 27 tiles -- further than your visual range.<br />
<br />
It is possible to see the outline of an alien against a light backdrop if you get lucky, even though no one can "officially" see him (and get the glowing red number). This can happen if, e.g., the alien is elevated. The edge of a lit area (9 tiles from a flare or soldier) is extremely dim, making it impossible to see an alien just in front of an edge. But an elevated alien is in profile against farther, less-dim parts of the illuminated area. It can also happen in situations where an alien is just off to the side of a well-lit area, due to light being blocked from hitting his tile by, e.g., the corner of a building.<br />
<br />
Using the [[Throwing_Accuracy#Throwing_Distance|throwing formula]] vs. flare [[Item_Weight|weight]] of 3, the weakest soldier ([[Strength|STR]] 20) can throw a flare approx. 17 tiles, and the strongest soldier (STR 70) can throw it approx. 58 tiles - all the way across even the largest map (except diagonally). BUT, as pointed out by NKF, there is an unfortunate limit on how high an object can go before its arc intercepts the fourth-level "ceiling", which causes the confusing/annoying "Unable to throw here!" message even when the route is obviously clear. Ceiling interception appears to make the actual maximum throwing distance approx. 35 tiles. ''(More testing needed, pls.)'' Unfortunately, the stronger you are, the more a percent of your possible distance gets clipped, but even fairly weak soldiers may see some clipping. ''(THAT'S why we often get this frustrating message when trying to throw flares as far as we can!)<br />
<br />
As a parlor game: Flares illuminate 269 tiles (see inset). Small maps (4x4 [[Module|tilesets]] for small and medium scouts) have 1,600 tiles and would need 5.9 flares to totally cover them, using the extremely simple (and unrealistic) math of 1600/269. Large maps (5x5) have 2,500 tiles and would need 9.3 flares to totally cover them. This does not take into account any issues of properly joining/overlapping the patterns, etc., nor that your soldiers or other sources produce light. Anyway, there it is.<br />
<br />
For what it's worth, flares that are dropped or picked up do not change their light status until the start of the next turn. To wit: If you drop a flare and walk away, it does not give illumination until the next turn. (Not that it matters, since your soldier had the same range-9 lighting as the flare when he was standing there.) And if you pick up a flare and walk away, its lighting remains behind until next turn. Conversely, if flares are [[Throwing Accuracy|thrown]], they do immediately light up their area.<br />
<br />
== Personal lighting ==<br />
As discussed under Flares (above), soldiers can see to a radius of 9 around them, and are effectively light sources exactly equal to flares. This does not matter to aliens; they always see the full 20, day or night.<br />
<br />
If you have just mind controlled an alien, you will not get its personal lighting until you move someone (including your new pet alien, or any other MC'd aliens). For these purposes, turning in place does not cause personal lighting to come on - only actual movement does. Since movement of your new pet can trigger reaction fire, move one of your 'back field' troops if you want to light up the pet's area while playing it safe re: your new pet drawing reaction fire. Note that turning in place also does not cause reaction fire.<br />
<br />
More specifically, ''aliens do not check for personal lighting status '''change''' until someone on your team uses '''energy'''''. For example, using an elevator or flying up/down will ''not'' cause newly-MC'd aliens to light up. This also means that ''aliens that you MC'd last turn, will stay lit this turn, '''until''' one of your guys moves in a way that uses energy''. This might be useful on night missions or in those dark, windy alien base 'gardens' - at the start of a turn, aliens you MC'd last turn stay lit until one of your soldiers moves. Then again, while all of this is true, you will '''still''' get the glowing 'alien seen' number, even if you do move - and it's the most important thing of all, by far. Perhaps these insights will help, some cold dark night.<br />
<br />
== Incendiaries ==<br />
[[Incendiary]] ammo also provides light, plus it can travel further and do some damage if it hits the enemy. It does not do very much damage, though (see [[Incendiary]]) - never rely on it to kill an alien.<br />
<br />
Pattern around map tile on fire is identical to those of flares and personal light.<br />
<br />
Load up the [[Auto Cannon]] with Incendiary before starting the mission. Use on snap-shot to light up the depths of the map, further than flares can be thrown. Give the soldier a back-up pistol.<br />
<br />
Incendiary ammo is also available for the [[Heavy Cannon]] and [[Rocket Launcher]], but the Auto Cannon's fast shot makes it best for the mission - a soldier can still use his pistol the same turn.<br />
<br />
Enemy units on fire do not provide any light.<br />
<br />
== Artificial Lighting ==<br />
Certain items in the game produce their own light. This can be a big bonus on night terror city missions. Explosives and shots that can destroy the object will stop the lighting (see terrain damage [[Damage#Overview|here]]).<br />
<br />
There are 11 [[TERRAIN|terrain]] items that produce light:<br />
'''Object Description Brightness Image'''<br />
'''------ ----------- ---------- -----'''<br />
<br />
ROADS[16] Streetlight 01 [[Image:Streetlight.gif]]<br />
FRNITURE[10] Lamp 10 [[Image:Lamp.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[10-13] Alien Tank #1 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-1.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[14-17] Alien Tank #2 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-2.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[18-21] Alien Tank #3 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-3.gif]]<br />
U_BASE[22-25] Alien Tank #4 10 [[Image:Alien-Tank-4.gif]]<br />
U_PODS[00] UFO Fuel Pod #1 10 [[Image:U_PODS_00.gif]]<br />
U_PODS[01] UFO Fuel Pod #1 10 [[Image:U_PODS-02-.gif]]<br />
U_PODS[02] UFO Pod 12 [[Image:U_PODS_04.gif]]<br />
XBASE1[06] Base Floor Tile #1 16 [[Image:Base-Tile-1.gif]]<br />
XBASE1[09] Base Floor Tile #1 16 [[Image:Base-Tile-2.gif]]<br />
<br />
Ones that were checked (street lamp and liquid containers) were found to also illuminate aliens within 9 tiles of them, even though these two object types cast very different light. (The street lamp casts a lot of light; the containers only cast a little.) Thus it is presumed that '''all''' light sources give the ability to visualize aliens up to 9 tiles away, regardless of how much light they appear to cast.<br />
<br />
''See byte 58 of the [[TERRAIN|MCD]] file structure for more info on lighting data.<br />
<br />
== Behind the scenes ==<br />
For those techies who like to look [[Under The Hood]], the X-COM engine handles varying levels of illumination quite cleverly. The palette is arranged so that the base colours of a tile can be added to the degree of illumination to get the dimmer colours.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
[[Category:Missions]]<br />
[[Category: Tactics]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Explosions&diff=14056Explosions2007-12-03T08:17:51Z<p>Danial: /* Explosive Map Objects */</p>
<hr />
<div>= General Rules =<br />
Explosions are confined to one level. They do not affect any other level (even if there is no obstruction) no matter how strong the explosive power of the detonation. Sometimes, the explosion might affect floor tiles on the level above the blast but it does not affect anyone, or anything, standing on those particular tiles.<br />
<br />
= Explosive Damage to Walls and Objects =<br />
<br />
Explosions differ from weapons in a couple of important ways. <br />
<br />
#First, of course, they are area effect. (Duh.)<br />
#Second, they impart [[Damage]] within a narrower range than weapons. Weapons impart from 0 to 2 times their rated strength. (In other words, the [[UFOpaedia]] is showing you their ''average'' strength.) Explosives also impart the average listed damage from the UFOpaedia, but they have a minimum of average/2 (seen in UFOpaedia) and a maximum of 3/2*average. So a blaster (HE 200) does from 100 to 300 damage at ground zero (GZ). You will still receive the damage listed in the UFOpaedia at GZ, on average. But you are guaranteed to get some damage if caught within its blast radius, unlike a firearm, which will hit you (if it hits!) for 0 to 2x damage, regardless of range. Of course, if your armor is high enough relative to the damage roll, it always blocks any actual damage.<br />
<br />
Average explosive damage to units decreases by 10 per tile away from GZ. At the same time, the maximum damage is decreasing by 15 (3/2*10) and the minimum damage by 5 (10/2). Thus at GZ of a grenade blast (HE 50), units receive 25-75 damage, and at its outer edge (radius=5 inc. GZ), units receive 5-15 damage.<br />
<br />
Unlike for units, explosive damage to non-units (ground, walls, and objects) is constant. Thus a specific explosive will always form the exact same blast pattern on the same type of terrain. It is calculated based on the minimum damage (i.e., average/2) for a given square. Thus it starts (at GZ) as half average damage and decreases by 5 per tile outward. If this value is greater than tile armor strength, the tile will be destroyed. However, a given type of explosive always has the same blast radius, regardless of terrain effects (except if there is blockage by e.g. walls). A Blaster can still kill you when 11 tiles away, even if you're on hard UFO floors which will only be damaged four tiles from GZ.<br />
<br />
= HE Statistics =<br />
Here's a table of explosive strength and resulting expected blast damage and radii.<br />
<u>HE @ Ground Zero</u> <u>Blast</u> <u>HE @ Edge</u> <br />
'''<u>Type</u> ''' <u>Min</u> '''<u>Ave</u> ''' <u>Max</u> <u>Diam.</u> <u>Rad.</u> <u>Disc.</u> <u>Min</u> '''<u>Ave</u>''' <u>Max</u><br />
AC - HE 22 44 66 7 3 0 7 14 21<br />
Grenade 25 50 75 9 4 0 5 10 15<br />
HC - HE 26 52 78 7 3 1 11 22 33<br />
Proxy 35 70 105 13 6 0 5 10 15<br />
Small Rocket 37.5 75 112.5 9 4 2 17.5 35 52.5<br />
Rocket Tank 42.5 85 127.5 11 5 2 17.5 35 52.5<br />
Alien Grenade 45 90 135 13 6 2 15 30 45<br />
Large Rocket 50 100 150 13 6 3 20 40 60<br />
Hi - EX 55 110 165 13 6 4 25 50 75<br />
Fusion Hovertank 70 140 210 23 11 2 15 30 45<br />
Blaster Bomb 100 200 300 23 11 8 45 90 135<br />
*'''HE @ Ground Zero''' is damage to ''units'' at ground zero (GZ). Min=Ave/2, Max=Ave*3/2.<br />
*'''HE @ Edge''' is damage at the edge of the blast.<br />
*'''Blast Diameter''' includes GZ. Equals 2r+1.<br />
*'''Blast Radius''' does not include GZ. Equals (d-1)/2.<br />
*'''Disc''' is the discrepancy between actual radius, and the radius expected based on HE. Higher explosives have their blast size 'nipped'. Otherwise the Blaster would have a diameter of 39 - almost 4 tilesets wide!<br />
<br />
Average damage to units falls off by 10 per tile away from GZ. Damage to tiles is fixed at half the damage for that tile (i.e., the minimum damage that units can receive) and decreases by 5 per tile (half the 10, that the average is decreasing). Note that damage is still done to units at the stated radii, even if blast strength was not strong enough to damage tiles. That is, you can still be hurt even past where you see floor damage. This is especially true in UFOs and alien bases, which have very strong tiles (see [[Explosions#Blast Diameters|Blast Diameters]] and [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics|Tile Characteristics]]). Even the mighty Blaster only hurts UFO floor tiles (armor=80) out to four tiles from GZ, but your men can still be killed 11 tiles away, regardless. Also note, floor damage does '''not''' "soak up" any of the blast. However, some tiles (especially wall tiles) have an "HE Block" value which does prevent some damage from being passed on. This is what keeps blasts from acting as if walls didn't exist.<br />
<br />
Because damage to tiles is fixed, they always produce the same blast pattern for a given type of terrain. Terrains differ in their "armor" (a.k.a. constitution) levels, and are destroyed if the blast damage is equal to or greater than their armor. Most ground terrain also has a second "damaged" tile which appears when the first tile is destroyed. This second tile (a.k.a. death tile) may also be destroyed by the blast, if the blast strength is equal or greater then the armor for both tiles. Raw earth is left if all ground tiles are destroyed. Some tile sets (such as arctic) have the second death tile set to such a high armor value (255) that no blast will destroy it; thus you'll never see raw earth right under the surface of ice(!). For what it's worth, you can calculate the tile armor simply by looking at the blast pattern and comparing the HE strength (dropping of by 5 at center) to the point where tiles are no longer damaged. <br />
<br />
Example: On a desert map, a prox mine will make a pattern with damaged tiles out to a radius of 6. The 9 innermost tiles (radius=1) will show a different tile (blown to raw earth). The first tile in desert has armor of 5 (thus, it's damaged all the way to edge of blast) but the second "dimpled" tile seen after the first one is blown through, has armor of 25. The prox mine is HE 70, so it's hitting ground zero for 35 and GZ+1 for 30. Thus it blows through to raw earth out to GZ+1 (5+25=30).<br />
<br />
You may also see additional terrain damage with subsequent explosions. Example: the humble grenade (HE 50) damages the first tile (armor=5) out to radius=5, but does not break through the second tile (armor=25) to raw earth. But a second grenade in the same place will break through the injured tile at GZ, because now that the top tile is gone, the second tile is exactly equal to half grenade strength, right where it exploded.<br />
<br />
= Blast Propagation =<br />
<br />
As an example of a progressing blast front, Blaster Bombs impart damage to ''units'' as follows:<br />
<br />
<u>Dist from GZ</u> <u>Unit Damage</u><br />
<u>Rad</u> <u>Diam</u> <u>Min</u> <u>Ave</u> <u>Max</u><br />
0 1 100 200 300<br />
1 3 95 190 285<br />
2 5 90 180 270<br />
3 7 85 170 255<br />
4 9 80 160 240<br />
5 11 75 150 225<br />
6 13 70 140 210<br />
7 15 65 130 195<br />
8 17 60 120 180<br />
9 19 55 110 165<br />
10 21 50 100 150<br />
11 23 45 90 135<br />
<br />
Based on [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=280&t=8701&st=19# testing] by Zombie. <br />
<br />
So, the Blaster Bomb is rated at 200 HE damage, and does that - but <i>on average</i> at ground zero. Then the range decreases by 10 per tile away from GZ. Maximum damage decreases by 15 (3/2*average), and minimum damage by 5 (average/2).<br />
<br />
Unlike damage to units, tile (i.e., terrain) damage is fixed, and is equal to the minimum damage at that radius (i.e., half the average).<br />
<br />
Most large explosions are "nipped" as shown above; in theory the Blaster could've kept going for eight more tiles until it decreased to zero. (But the blast pattern would've been HUGE!, Diameter=39.) Some smaller explosions are not nipped, and decrease until they drop off to zero.<br />
<br />
= Blaster Bomb Pattern =<br />
A screencap showing Blaster damage. Just for the halibut.<br />
<br />
[[Image:AfterBlasterBombX2.jpg|320px|Typical blaster bomb damage pattern]]<br />
<br />
= Ground Zero Effect =<br />
<br />
Units at ground zero (center of blast) and the eight adjacent tiles (GZ+1; nine tiles in total) receive damage through their Under Armor. All others receive damage to the side facing ground zero (never Under Armor).<br />
<br />
This is true regardless of whether using thrown items (grenades, Hi-Ex) or shot/launched explosives (AC-HE, HC-HE, Rockets, Blaster).<br />
<br />
= Susceptibility =<br />
<br />
Critters have the following susceptibility or resistance [[Damage formula#Damage modifiers|modifiers]] to explosive damage:<br />
<br />
Silacoid 130%<br />
Sectopod 80%<br />
Zombie 80%<br />
Tanks 70%<br />
Cyberdisc 60%<br />
<br />
So Silacoids are <i>more</i> susceptible, presumably because they are close to the ground.<br />
<br />
=Explosive Map Objects=<br />
<br />
There are several map objects that will explode when destroyed:<br />
'''Object Description Armour HE Damage Image Location'''<br />
'''------ ----------- ------ --------- ----- --------'''<br />
<br />
U_PODS[00] UFO Fuel Pod #1 20 60 [[Image:U_PODS_00.gif]] Terror Ships, Battleships, and Alien Bases<br />
U_PODS[01] UFO Fuel Pod #2 30 70 [[Image:U_PODS-02-.gif]] Terror Ships, Battleships, and Alien Bases<br />
U_PODS[02] UFO Pod 20 45 [[Image:U_PODS_04.gif]] Terror Ships, Battleships, and Alien Bases<br />
U_WALL02[51-54] UFO Navigation* 15 40 [[Image:U_WALL02-51-54-.gif]]Alien Bases and all UFOs except Scouts<br />
URBAN[85] Fuel Bowser 18 46 [[Image:URBAN-85-.gif]] Terror Missions (Service Station)<br />
XBASE2[25] Fuel Drum 12 60 [[Image:XBASE2-25-.gif]] X-COM Base (Hangar)<br />
XBASE2[32] Missile Warhead 10 40 [[Image:XBASE2_32.gif]] X-COM Base (Missile Defenses)<br />
<br />
While many terrain objects can burn (such as vegetation and many human structures), these are the only ones that actually ''explode''. However, it must be noted that even though these objects do explode when hit, the damage they produce is '''not''' High-Explosive. It is [[Smoke]]. Thus, they function as a [[Smoke Grenade]] at best. Some players have reported that these objects ''do'' produce damage to health on aliens and civilians, but it has not been fully substantiated yet.<br />
<br />
= Object Destruction =<br />
[[image:EqTb-00.gif|center]]<br />
Only explosions (not shot weapons) can destroy dropped equipment and other objects on the ground. They are destroyed by blast strengths ''greater than'' the values in this table. Unit names refer to bodies, both stunned and dead:<br />
<br />
<u>>HE</u> <u>Destroys</u><br />
8 Electroflares<br />
12 Standard pistol clip and civilian males(?!)<br />
20 EVERYTHING else not otherwise mentioned. Includes ALL ammo, ALL large bodies<br />
(both XCOM tanks and large aliens), unarmored soldiers, even Elerium.<br />
26 All regular (small) sized aliens' bodies<br />
30 Soldiers in Personal Armor<br />
40 Soldiers in Power or Flying Suit, and Blaster Launcher<br />
45 Plasma Pistol<br />
50 Plasma Rifle and Heavy Plasma '' - Values provided by Danial from [[OBDATA.DAT]][42]<br />
<br />
Blast magnitude is stated as the ''average'' blast damage for a tile and it must be ''greater than'' the value shown. Explosion damage for objects is fixed at the average - it does not vary as with explosive damage to units. You will always see the same things destroyed by a given average blast level. This makes it similar to terrain damage, but object destruction differs in that 1) it works off the average damage, and 2) HE must be greater than the value shown. (Tiles are destroyed when HE is ''equal'' to average/2.)<br />
<br />
'''Object Destruction Example:''' A regular grenade is HE 50. Its average strength drops off by 10 per tile out to five tiles. Counting ground zero as the first tile, here are blast strengths and what's left after a grenade blast (sort of a reverse of the above):<br />
<br />
<u>Radius</u> <u>HE</u> '''<u>SURVIVES</u><br />
1 50 Plasma rifle and heavy plasma ''(HE must be '''greater than''' 50 to destroy these)''<br />
2 40 PS/FS Soldiers, the three plasma weapons, Blaster Launcher<br />
3 30 Same as 40 except Personal Armor soldiers, too<br />
4 20 Everything except flares, pistol ammo, and male civs<br />
5 10 Everything except flares<br />
<br />
By playing with explosives and distances from a blast, you can select how much blast damage is given. Example: A grenade (HE 50) can't touch Heavy Plasma, but HC-HE (52) can destroy everything. At its edge four tiles away (inc. GZ), the HC-HE is strength 22 and leaves alien bodies and other things tougher than 20 HE. Et cetera.<br />
<br />
Despite this table, note that aliens use very strong explosives. The alien grenade (HE 90) is 30 average HE ''at its edge''; the Blaster (200) is '''''90''''' at its edge. See "HE At Edge" in the table [[Explosions#HE Statistics|above]].<br />
<br />
Ammo loaded in a weapon plays no part in the damage check and cannot be destroyed, even if the host item is vaporised. It remains defined as being inside (regardless as to whether that item actually exists or not), and will be recovered at end of combat as per the [[Equipment Recovery#Equipment Recovery|normal rules]]. If a weapon is toasted and a new item takes it's place in [[OBPOS.DAT|the table]] the clip "pops back into existence" inside that. <br />
<br />
An easy way to see this effect in action is to have a sectoid prime a grenade then drop all it's gear. Once the dust has settled you'll find the gun gone and the clip shoved somewhere it really shouldn't go, adding insult to injury.<br />
<br />
Items made from alien alloys (including FS/PS) are usually (but not always) more robust.<br />
<br />
Stunned aliens destroyed by explosions do not count toward kill [[Experience]] or victory points ([[Scoring|Score]] at mission end), nor do they affect enemy [[Morale]]. They just disappear. Same goes for your stunned troopers killed by blasts; they do not detract from score or affect morale. But they ''are'' dead and gone!<br />
<br />
= Blast Diameters =<br />
<br />
Blast diameters differ according to terrain type. The table below was copied from a [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8701 post] by Zombie. To get radius, subtract 1 and divide by 2:<br />
<br />
Grass, <br />
Lawn, <br />
Corn Dirt, Asphalt Polar<br />
Fields,Weeds, Roads, White Snow,<br />
Wheat Desert White Tin Tile Concrete Mars Mtn. Alien<br />
<u>Cost</u> <u>$/HE</u> <u><b>Weapon</b></u> <u>HE</u> <u>Fields</u> <u>Sand</u> <u>Shngls</u> <u>Roofs</u> <u>Roofs</u> <u>Walkway</u> <u>Sand</u> <u>Tundra</u> <u>Floors</u><br />
700 15.9 AC - HE 44 7 7 5 3 1 1 0 0 0<br />
300 6.0 Grenade 50 7 9 7 5 3 3 1 0 0<br />
500 9.6 HC - HE 52 7 7 7 5 3 3 1 0 0<br />
500 7.1 Prox G 70 11 13 11 9 7 7 5 0 0<br />
600 8.0 Small R 75 9 9 9 9 7 7 5 0 0<br />
6700+2E 74.4 Alien G 90 13 13 13 13 11 11 9 3 0<br />
900 9.0 Large R 100 13 13 13 13 13 13 11 5 1<br />
1500 13.6 Hi Ex. 110 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 7 3<br />
8000+3E 40.0 Blaster 200 23 23 23 25 25 23 23 23 21<br />
'''Tile Armor''' - Initial 6* 5? 10 20 10? 20 25-40 40 50<br />
See next section Dead 50 255 255 255 30? 255 30-255 20 50<br />
<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki> "Wheat" is complex - see Note 3 under [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics|Tile Characteristics]]<br />
<br />
Where '''HE''' is the High Exposive rating for each round and:<br />
"White Shingles" is the roof on the gas station complex,<br />
"Mars Sand" is the soil on the Martian surface in Cydonia,<br />
"Alien Floors" is the floor of an alien base (alien ships were not checked), and<br />
"Concrete Walkway" is sidewalks near buildings or roads.<br />
Buy price or manufacturing cost are also shown (part cost only; does not include labor), whether Elerium-115 is needed ("+E"), and "Dollars per HE" (Cost/HE).<br />
<br />
Note that these diameters ''only'' show damage to terrain. Damage to units is still done out to the radius for each bomb, as shown in [[Explosions#HE Statistics|HE Statistics]] above. So you can still be killed by a Blaster if 11 tiles away in a UFO, even though the hard UFO floors are only damaged out to 4 tiles from GZ. The tiles do not "soak up" any damage AFAIK. (Not counting tiles with HE Block, such as walls.)<br />
<br />
For an Excel spreadsheet with 2D diagrams of all blast patterns (including stun bomb and tanks), see [[Media:XCOM_Blast_Patterns.xls|this]].<br />
<br />
Terrain tile properties (Armor, HE Block, etc.) can be readily seen in DaiShiva's excellent [http://www.daishiva.com/phpBB2/generic.php?page=progLinks.shtml MapView] program.<br />
<br />
= Distance from Ground Zero =<br />
<br />
"Distance" from GZ for explosives is actually computed by taking the TUs needed to walk to tiles in the blast radius. For example, 2 diagonal tiles away is considered to be 3 tiles since it takes 6+6=12 TUs to walk (and 12/4=3). This can be modelled on a spreadsheet using the equation:<br />
<br />
Distance = INT( MAX(X,Y) + MIN(X,Y)/2 )<br />
<br />
where X and Y are positive offsets from Ground Zero<br />
<br />
This simplified approach sometimes makes blasts a little stronger down diagonals than would be expected from the Pythagorean theorem (a<sup>2</sup>=b<sup>2</sup>+c<sup>2</sup>; a=SQRT(a<sup>2</sup>+b<sup>2</sup>)). Using Pythagoras, a diagonal tile is 1.4 tiles away, but the game considers them 1 tile away (INT(SQRT(2)). The 1.4 would've led to 1/1.4=71% blast strength. This is the worst case; the TUs approach is much closer to Pythagoras on a percentage basis at greater diagonal distances.<br />
<br />
= HE Block =<br />
<br />
Some tiles have a property called "HE Block" (High Explosive block, a.k.a. '''HEB''') which causes them to dampen an explosive blast proceeding past them. This is basically what makes a wall, a wall... without this property set, explosions would proceed through walls and other objects as if they didn't exist.<br />
<br />
For the record, tile armor values (see below) do not dampen explosions in any way whatsoever. Tile armor '''only''' affects whether that tile is destroyed by an explosion; blasts otherwise proceed entirely unhampered. Only HE Block dampens explosions. If you set outer UFO hull armor to 255 (the highest it can be) and its HE Block to 0, a blaster explosion on the hull will be the full, entirely "round" 23 tiles in diameter, imparting damage to anything caught in its circle as if the hull did not exist. (But the hull will be unaffacted, because its armor is >100.)<br />
<br />
Also, HE Block only dampens explosions "past" the tile in question. It does not dampen the blast for that tile, itself. Thus, an outer UFO wall takes the full force of a blaster bomb (200/2=100, just enough to take out one wall tile), but it's HE Block 100 stops any of the blast from proceeding '''past''' the wall "inwardly".<br />
<br />
[http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8701&st=114&# Playing] with HE Block shows that explosions proceed from ground zero outward in a way that '''only''' directly impacts the four tiles that are directly adjacent (due north, south, east, and west). Blast damage never proceeds in a diagonal fashion per se; instead, diagonals are filled in as a function of damage going sideways from these four main "rays". As Bomb Bloke has observed, one can trace HEB back to its "source" by looking for the places where there were decreases. IOW, you are either seeing main rays decreasing by 5, or 50% moving laterally (then outward), and can trace HEB back to its source by comparing a blast with HEB, to one without it... where was the usual progression dampened?<br />
<br />
XCOM map tiles can have up to four types of terrain: a ground tile, a north wall, a west wall, and a terrain object (such as a tree or furniture). This is not counting "mobile" items such as units or equipment dropped on the ground.<br />
<br />
HE Block assigned to ground tiles is ignored by the game. Thus e.g. the HEB 25 of hay loft ground tiles is just a data entry error(?) that doesn't affect anything (see [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics|Tile Characteristics]]).<br />
<br />
A wall is a separator between the two tiles that it is drawn between. This is not quite true for objects, however.<br />
<br />
In terms of HE Block, this is best demonstrated by directly impacting e.g. a blaster on the object, coming at it from the side: a lone object in the middle of a field will show a blast pattern exactly equal to simply having set off the bomb in the middle of the field, with no object there - the HE Block of an object is ignored when a blast impacts the object itself. Conversely, if a wall is hit on its face, it ''will'' HE Block damage from being passed on to the "other side" of the wall.<br />
<br />
But this only applies to objects that are directly hit. If, instead, we exploded a blaster against the ground right ''next'' to an object or wall, the blast pattern is very similar for them both - because now the object is intercepting one of the "rays" from the explosion, instead of exploding "itself". In other words, the blast front has directionality relative to the object, and is blocked in a "logical" way, if ground zero is to the "side" of it.<br />
<br />
All items in a tile (ground, walls, and terrain object) receive the same force of explosion. As described above, this is the current blast strength at that tile, which equals the average blast strength divided by two.<br />
<br />
For the record: Soldiers do not have any HE Block. If you group a lot of them together and then explode something near them, there is no difference in the explosion pattern or strength where they stand.<br />
<br />
Anyone interested in testing HE Block, be sure to see [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]]'s fantastic numerical tileset which makes blast testing far easier than it would have been. Find his hacked terrain [http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=746&st=195&# here], or bundled with a savegame [[Media:BB_hacked_desert3MoreWalls.zip|here]]. To see a screencap of the tiles in action (and a good example of what I'm discussing!) see [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8701&st=112&# this] message. ''--[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]]<br />
<br />
== When Is a Wall not a Wall ==<br />
<br />
[[image:Explosions-BB_On_BB_Hull_Object.jpg|right|thumb|350px]]Some outer UFO walls are not true "walls", and a Blaster hit propagates through them at 100 HE. The door is 80 HE Block - just enough to stop the usual Blaster in its tracks there (at decrease of 10 per tile). Any alien unlucky enough to be on the four damaged tiles would be hit by 45-180 HE, average 90 (1 tile inward), or 40-160, average 80 (3 tiles outside door). Anyone on the far (inner) side of the door would not be hit, even though its tile was hit by 80 HE, for the door is a "true" (north) wall, and stops the blast from moving inward.<br />
<br />
Ordinarily, the distinctions don't matter much. But there's at least one place where they might. As pointed out by Danial, some outer UFO "walls" hit by Blasters have damage penetration past the wall, even though they "shouldn't". See the graphic. What's happening is that some outer walls are actually objects, as seen in [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics|MapView]]. These objects are displaying the behavior shown above - when they are hit directly, the explosive blast propagates outwardly from the object, as if it did not exist. This is very different from a true wall, which shows directionality, and "makes a wall a wall". Due to the limited constraints within which the XCOM DOS programmers worked, only true "north" and "west" walls properly stop explosive blast from going "through" the wall. <br />
<br />
[[image:BB_Third_Level.jpg|right|thumb|350px|These are the only "true" north and west '''outer''' walls on the third floor of the battleship, as seen in MapView. All other outer walls are subject to blast through, although diagonals (not parallel to due north/south/east/west) may show funny patterns, or zero blast through. Also note all inner walls ARE true walls.]]<br />
<br />
See the second battleship graphic, which shows the only true north and west '''outer''' walls on the third floor of a battleship. All other '''outer''' "walls" are subject to blast through at 100 HE, as seen in the first picture. That said, however, HE Block has not been well tested/understood. ''(Care to volunteer?)'' There is no guarantee that blasts will proceed inward, especially when diagonals are involved. And, of course, as can be seen, the actual amount of blast moving inward only affected a total of four tiles inside the UFO - the rest was blocked by the high HE Block of the inner room's walls and door.<br />
<br />
<br clear = "all"><br />
<br />
= Tile Characteristics =<br />
<br />
This section is mainly for folks doing research on explosion propagation. Values were gathered with DaiShiva's excellent [http://www.daishiva.com/phpBB2/generic.php?page=progLinks.shtml MapView] program. Caution: You must install the extensive MicroSoft .NET platform to use MapView; see DaiShiva's site. For more tile armor values, see [[Destroying Terrain]]. That page does not include HEB and Dead tile info, however.<br />
<br />
<u> Ini Ded HEB Type _</u><br />
80 50 Most UFO floors UFOs AND ALIEN BASES<br />
100 NDT UFO roof<br />
100 220 100 Outer UFO walls<br />
80 50 80 Most inner UFO and base walls. Dead tile does not have HEB.<br />
100 50 100 Inner UFO security walls (See Note 1)<br />
80 50 80 Most inner UFO doors<br />
100 50 100 Inner UFO security doors<br />
100 NDT Partial UFO floors and adjacent tiles along diagonals etc.<br />
50 70 30 Power Source (Dead tile has more armor than original, and also has 30 HEB)<br />
50 50 Common gray base floors<br />
150 50 Green start tiles<br />
200 50 Red elevator tiles. Yellow rays add 200 armor.<br />
50 65 Purple floor around wide elevators, in entertainment room, etc.<br />
60 60 60 Flashing orange and aqua walls (good backdoors sometimes!)<br />
70 50 70 Green-on-black comp display wall (trapdoor to BB control room)<br />
<U> 90 100 Dark black base floor in gardens and around command center _</U><br />
<U> 25 255 Arctic ground ARCTIC</U><br />
20 255 Road CITIES<br />
8 255 Smooth grass<br />
10 255 Grass patches and dirt<br />
15 30 Gas station ceiling - 150 Flame<br />
10 30 Gray store floor<br />
15 30 Slate roof for buildings - 160 Flame<br />
18 50 Gray warehouse floor - 155 Flame<br />
15 30 Rough gray concrete store roof - 150 Flame<br />
12 40 Pastel pink(?) indoor tile - 111 Flame<br />
8 255 Flowers<br />
<U> 6 50 Pink patterned carpet - Normal 20 Flame, DT 100 Flame _</U><br />
40 30 Sand. Crater objects add armor, HE Block, 4 TUs. CYDONIA<br />
<U> 100 NDT Green Start tiles. All others as for alien bases. _</U><br />
<U> 5 25 Sand DESERT</U><br />
5 255 Grass FARM<br />
10 255 Dirt and cultivated fields<br />
6 25 Wood floor - Flame 16<br />
6 25 25 Hay loft ground floor - Normal 12 Flame, DT 25 Flame<br />
10 255 Stable - Flame 10<br />
<u> 30 35 Cobblestone floor - 160 Flame _</u><br />
<U> 10 30 Light green weeds add 8 armor, 25-30 Flame FOREST</U><br />
<u> 8 30 Plants add armor and HEB; see Note 2 JUNGLE</u><br />
40 NDT Normal ground. Also see [[Explosions#Mile-High Madness|Mountain Madness]]. MOUNTAIN<br />
<u> 50 NDT 50 Solid mountain walls (full height) _</u><br />
15 80 Common pink(?) or gray floors, inc. Access Lift XCOM BASE<br />
10 80 Lighter tile in center of some common floors<br />
12 70 Blue floors<br />
<u> 16 80 Hangar floor _</u><br />
255 NDT 0 Ramp object. See Note 4. XCOM CRAFT<br />
255 NDT 0 Floor of craft<br />
<br />
<b>"Ini"</b> is initial tile armor; <b>"Ded"</b> is tile armor for the next ("dead") tile that appears after the initial one is blown away. If no tile is indicated (DeathTile=0), '''NDT''' is put. This means that raw earth will appear when the tile is killed, on ground level (or nothing does if above that, such as with UFO roof). Nothing is strong enough to break through Death Tiles with armor 255. Thus you can't break through artic ice to reveal raw earth, which makes sense. Basically anything over 100 (half the blaster's damage) cannot be broken through; thus elevators and start tiles (except in Cydonia surface!) are safe from explosions.<br />
<br />
'''Note 1:''' The inner UFO walls with "crown molding" have higher armor, and can be considered "security walls". The whole third level of battleship is this, and it's also found around the control room in large UFOs. Also, the darker doors without the line down their center are also higher strength. These are also generally found in secure areas; the top of the battleship elevator is ringed by them. These strong doors are also found in a few interesting places such as the entrance to the "engine room" on the bottom floor of the Supply Ship (even though the walls there are not security walls).<br />
<br />
Most solid floors etc. have no flame ("Flammable") value. Most plants and human buildings do. Some tiles look weird, but make sense when you think about it. For example, cobblestone in farms has a high flame value - but it's found as the first floor of wooden buildings. Also ('''Note 2:''') Most largish plants (shrubs and larger) had HE Block values. The jungle, in particular, has many full trees with HE Block of 20. Don't ask me why the hay loft ground floor has HEB=25.<br />
<br />
There are a number of small objects that add armor to a tile. Example: Rocks in the desert are separate objects, with 20 armor. But snakes and bones are just painted onto a common desert tile; they are not separate objects nor do they add anything to the tile properties. Generally, anything that adds TUs also adds armor and possibly HE Block and Flammability. Most objects (including walls) that block movement add armor and HE Block, as well.<br />
<br />
'''Note 3''' (from Blast Diameters): For what it's worth, the effects of e.g. wheat and flowers in the farm map are actually ''added'' to the base tile (and '''add''' TUs to it). They are separate objects in addition to the ground tile. The additional TU costs can be seen in MapView, such as 2 (i.e., +2) for wheat. They also have their own armor ratings. Thus the wheat itself has Initial Armor 6, DT Armor 50 (this one shows burnt crops), which then goes to another DT (dirt) of Armor 255. But the tile it's on has Initial Armor 10, then goes directly to the same final DT as wheat (Armor 255). What happens is that wheat tiles go directly to their DT if blast strength is 60+, or to burnt crops if 60 > strength >= 6.<br />
<br />
'''Note 4:''' All ramp-section objects add 4 TUs to underlying terrain ''except'' the middle and top of Avenger's ramp only adds 2 TUs. I think Danial has pointed this out before. Also see [[Explosions#Mile-High Madness|Mountain Madness]].<br />
<br />
Take these values as a rough guide. Some were hard to tell apart. If you want to do research on a particular tile, please double-check MapView before spending a lot of time on it! ''- [[User:MikeTheRed|MTR]]<br />
<br />
A larger list of terrain objects and their armor values can be found at [[Destroying Terrain]].<br />
<br />
= Experience Points =<br />
<br />
Experience that may be gained with explosives is as follows.<br />
<br />
Any alien (not under mind control) caught in a blast radius will give experience points toward [[Firing Accuracy]]. So one blast can give many Firing experience points (XPs). It does not matter if the alien was not harmed (i.e., damage was blocked by armor); you still get experience points if they were in the blast radius. Mind controlled aliens are considered friendly and do not give experience points.<br />
<br />
Note that if no one actually throws a thrown explosive (it's merely dropped), your first soldier gets the Firing Accuracy experience (even if a tank or if dead!). Thrown objects are attributed to the last person to throw them, or default to your first soldier "slot" if no one threw it. Your tanks always occupy the first slot(s) (but enemy tanks such as the cyberdisc do not occupy your first slot). Keep this attribution in mind when using the [[Grenade Relay]], if you're trying to pass Firing experience around. As it were.<br />
<br />
The [[Small Launcher]]'s "explosive" stun bomb also gives Firing experience. Again, even if aliens did not actually fall unconscious (or receive any stun at all). Stun bomb radius in desert terrain is 5, diameter 11.<br />
<br />
If thrown, one [[Throwing Accuracy]] experience point will be given. This holds true for throwing anything, explosive or not.<br />
<br />
If you make a reaction shot with a projectile explosive, you will receive one [[Reactions]] experience point, even if many aliens were hit by the blast (giving you many Firing XPs). Technically, you were only reacting to the movement of one of the aliens.<br />
<br />
To see how experience points translate into skill points (when combat ends), see [[Experience#How Experience Points Are Applied|here]].<br />
<br />
'''NOTE:''' The [[Proximity Grenade]] does NOT give Firing experience to the thrower. Instead, it gives Firing experience <i>to the person that triggers it to explode</i>. Keep this in mind because this tends to make it a poor choice, especially early in the game (SIGH!).<br />
<br />
= Unusual Explosives =<br />
<br />
== UFO Power Sources ==<br />
<br />
[[Image:Numerical PS Screencap.png|right|thumb|250px|Typical PS explosion using Bomb Bloke and Zombie's setup]]The parameters for [[UFO Power Source]]s (PSs) have been worked out, as seen [[UFO_Crash_Recovery#Power_Source_Explosions_and_Elerium_Recovery|here]]. PSs explode with a radius 11 (diameter 23) explosion of average strength 215 (stronger than a [[Blaster Launcher|Blaster]]!). However, what's not discussed there is that this explosion breaks the mold of how explosions usually work, for two reasons:<br />
#PSs explode with a variable blast strength versus ''terrain''. Standard explosions impart precisely 50% of their average (rated) strength versus terrain; they are not variable, versus terrain (but are versus units). Still, while a PS's HE strength varies versus terrain at GZ, this GZ strength does otherwise drop off by a fixed 5 strength for each tile away from GZ, just like standard explosions. (The inset shows a PS explosion in a game using [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke's]] super-cool [http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=746&st=195|numerical terrain] plus [[User:Zombie|Zombie's]] sweet [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=242025161&view=findpost&p=163712 PS testing scenario].)<br />
#PS explosions impart 215 &plusmn;35 HE damage (107.5 &plusmn;17.5 versus terrain). 35 is 16.23% of 215. We've seen [[Damage]] ranges of &plusmn;25%, &plusmn;50%, and &plusmn;100%. But &plusmn;16.23%??<br />
<br />
All in all, PS explosions are in a league of their own. It looks like the developers hand-coded some of the parameters, but otherwise used a lot of the explosion routines.<br />
<br />
== Stun Bombs ==<br />
<br />
The overall details on the [[Small Launcher]]'s "explosion" are shown on it's page. But what's not shown is that has its own set of rules versus standard explosives. In a nutshell, while the stun "blast" follows all normal rules of a propagating explosion, it inflicts stun [[Damage]] on units as if it were a weapon.<br />
<br />
Typically, HE explosions do [[damage]] to units equal to 50%-150% of the explosion strength. But the stun bomb imparts 0-200% of its stun "explosion" strength to units, even though its damage drops off by 10 per tile, as with other explosions. Thus it uses a hybrid of explosion and firearm damage mechanics.<br />
<br />
This leads to an "odd" scenario like this, as seen in limited testing:<br />
*If a stun bomb is hacked to strength 250 stun and shot at a wall with HE Block of 120, no units behind it receive any stun. This follows the usual explosion rules of: Half strength is applied to terrain at ground zero (GZ), which falls off by 5 per tile away from GZ; thus the stun bomb is 125 vs. terrain at GZ and 120 at GZ+1. Soldiers get no stun because the 120 HE Block nullified all the explosion strength. (Wall ''armor'' was set to 0 - tile armor never impedes explosions; only HEB does.) Ok, no problem here.<br />
*But if the 250 stun bomb is shot at a wall with 110 HEB, a unit right on the far side was seen to get 33 damage. How did that work?<br />
**The stun bomb is 125 vs. terrain at GZ<br />
**At GZ+1, it is 120, minus the 110 HEB, leaves 10 for damage ''to terrain<br />
**But damage to terrain is 50% of the average explosion damage. And the stun bomb can do up to 200% damage to units. If 10 is 50%, then 40 is 200%. Thus, it "makes sense" that a unit was hit for 33. In its own weird way.<br />
It seems that the force of the explosion checks its strength versus ''terrain'' as it progresses, and, if it has not become zero, then it back-calculates average/rated damage - and inflicts the stun damage. See, if the game were tracking average/rated damage as a blast front progressed, when the stun bomb hit the wall, it would've become 250-10=240 for the next tile, minus 120 equals 120 average/rated damage on the next tile where the unit was - but wait, no. See? That can't be right, because this would have inflicted 0-240 stun damage on units, from the average of 120 carried forward. But high values were not seen (in very limited testing!). Also, of course, the unit did not receive exactly 5 stun damage, as would have been expected if the stun bomb explosion ''exactly'' followed the rules of explosions. So this hybrid event (explosive progression but unit damage) has given us insight into how XCOM tracks the damage that an explosion front will incur - it carries terrain damage (50% of rated) forward, then back calculates rated damage, if a unit is there.<br />
<br />
= Playing With Fire =<br />
<br />
'''Hacking HE versus Blast Diameters<br />
----<br />
Hacking HE ([[OBDATA.DAT]][22]) shows that explosion patterns fall into 2 or 3 categories:<br />
* All projectile explosives (AC, HC, S & L Rocket, and probably Rocket Tank) have "constrained" patterns that are always smaller than expected - their blasts never "die away to nothing" at their edge. They also continue to have an ever-increasing outline (larger diameter) for as high as HE can be hacked.<br />
* All grenades (standard, alien, prox, Hi-Ex) have "natural" blast patterns that '''do''' "die away to nothing" at their edge - up to HE 61. At 62, it takes on a fixed pattern which shows some "constraint" in the sense of not being what would naturally be expected. At this point it is radius 6, diameter 13. And then their pattern never changes (i.e. enlarges) past what is seen at 62, even if you increase HE all the way up to 255. Even much higher than HE 62, grenades' pattern is still only radius 6.<br />
* Guided weapons (blaster and presumably fusion tank) follow the same pattern as grenades '''but''' their blast pattern continues to grow in size, until one reaches 112 (radius 11, diameter 23). At this point it too becomes fixed, no matter how much higher HE is hacked.<br />
Thus blast radii and diameters can be described with these equations:<br />
<u>Type</u> <u>Radius</u> <u>Diameter</u> <u>Pattern Limit Reached At</u><br />
Projectile Explosives INT(HE/20)+1 2*INT(HE/20)+3 HE 240 (r=13, d=27)<br />
Grenades and Guided Weapons INT((HE-2)/10) INT((HE-2)/5)+1 Grenades: HE 62 (r= 6, d=13)<br />
Guided: HE 112 (r=11, d=23)<br />
<br />
For the above, ''only'' the blast pattern a.k.a. "outline" is being talked about. ''Within'' the blast pattern, all explosives follow the expected, simple rules of: Average HE at ground zero, decreasing by 10 per tile outward (for damage to units; by 5 for damage to terrain), and all points (and explosive strength there) can be described in terms of distance from GZ using the [[Explosions#Distance from Ground Zero|"walking TUs"]] method.<br />
<br />
These properties of hacked explosive strength lead to the following observations:<br />
*Since there is only one (unhacked) grenade or guided weapon with an HE rating less than the point of its "radius of constraint", only the humble grenade shows a quite round, "natural" blast pattern outline. It's the only explosive that truly decreases to 0 all around its edge (although the prox mine comes very close).<br />
*On the flip side of that, as HE gets larger and larger (with or without hacking), the edge of blast patterns becomes more and more lethal. It's easy to see that this would happen with grenades and guided weapons - their diameter no longer increases, even when increasing their explosive power. But hacked projectiles are also dangerous at their edge - even though it is not constrained, per se - because their radii only increase by one every ''20'' HE, even though damage only decreases by ''10'' per tile. Thus, they ''increase'' by 10 at their edge (+20, -10) each time their radius increases.<br />
*Here are some examples of maximally-hacked blast edges, versus the worst seen in an unhacked game:<br />
**A grenade hacked to HE 255 has an average of 195 HE at its edge (r=6, d=13)<br />
**A guided weapon at HE 255 has an average of 145 HE at its edge (r=11, d=23)<br />
**A projectile explosive at HE 255 has an average of 125 HE at its edge (r=13, d=27)<br />
**[[Explosions#HE_Statistics|Compare]] how the most dangerous unhacked example is a blaster (HE 200), which is 90 average HE at its edge (r=11, d=23)...<br />
**But the second-worst case is Hi-Ex (HE 110), which is 50 at its edge, because it is a grenade constrained to just r=6, d=13. ('''Not''' the Fusion Tank at HE 140, because guided missiles can be up to r=11.)<br />
*Many blast patterns have the same r=6 outline in an unhacked game. This is because all but one grenade is constrained to this, plus one of the projectile patterns (for Large Rocket, HE 100) happens to precisely coincide with this, as well (as it would for any projectile with HE 100-119).<br />
*If a stun bomb (stun strength 90) is hacked to be an explosive (OBDATA[31]=2), it too follows the pattern for projectile explosives. This includes if its HE is also then hacked.<br />
<br />
Presumably, the pattern type is determined by whether something has the OBDATA grenade type set, or it is ammo, or it is guided.<br />
<br />
Examples of the patterns (both real and hacked) and the walking TUs map can be found in an Excel file [http://www.ufopaedia.org/images/c/c5/XCOM_Blast_Patterns.xls here].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Hacking HE versus Explosion Sounds<br />
----<br />
When HE is hacked, there are two types of sound heard:<br />
*The small "whoomf" up to HE 80, and<br />
*The big bone-jarring explosion heard at HE 81+.<br />
Another thing is seen:<br />
<br />
In addition to the projectile-launch sound each type of projectile weapon makes, the [[Auto Cannon]] and [[Heavy Cannon]] also do a slightly odd thing: if hacked to HE from 74 to 80, they make the "whoomf" sound twice when they explode.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Hacking HE versus Walls<br />
----<br />
The [[Blaster Bomb]] is the only thing capable of blasting through a UFO outer hull (walls and roof). It does exactly 200 damage at the epicenter and only ever knocks out one tile. <br />
<br />
When we boost the power of the humble [[High Explosive]] with a game editor we see the following:<br />
<br />
*190 for HE strength is not enough to bust a hull open. <br />
*200 is, but only one tile wide. <br />
*210 opens up a hole 3 tiles wide<br />
*220 opens up a hole 5 tiles wide.<br />
<br />
For every 10 points of HE strength above 200, it adds 2 to the width of the hole. <br />
<br />
''- reposted from NKF/Jasonred/Zombie discussion, strategycore forums 2005 -[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]]<br />
<br />
= Mile-High Madness =<br />
Mountains have the inherent weirdness that they "weaken" some structures, as pointed out by NKF, Bomb Bloke, and others. For example, a Blaster explosion on the ground below an XCOM craft will destroy its ramp and landing struts, in mountain terrain. Ordinarily, these objects are indestructible (armor=255) for all three troop transports. You can even take them or outer UFO walls out with an alien grenade (except for "true" North and West walls ([[#When Is a Wall not a Wall|see above]]) - anything that's enough to destroy tile armor 40 (HE 80+). <br />
<br />
The reason for this unusual behavior is seen by using MapView. It seems that XCOM programmers accidentally pointed to an ''object'' instead of a ''tile'' for the death tile of mountain terrain. It looks like they pointed to MCD id 76 (a stump object) when they should've pointed to MCD id 77 (scorched mountain ground tile). Perhaps someone stuck in an extra tile without keeping an eye on the pointers. In any event, this object only has armor of 20. It is theorized that when mountain terrain is destroyed (armor=40), the stump object then erroneously replaces e.g. the craft ramp, and then the explosion is also enough to take out that object. Note that the code for explosions appears to process ground first and then process objects; this must be how the inadvertent stump object also gets destroyed. (Otherwise it should've been seen all along the outer edge of a blaster explosion, where the blaster's tile-damage strength is less than 60; see [[Explosions#Blast Propagation|Blast Propagation]].)<br />
<br />
Conversely, if you shoot a weapon at mountain ground terrain, you will see the stump. This is because shots against terrain only do damage to the element they hit, whereas explosions are checked against everything in a square (ground, two walls, and object, if any). You can even turn craft ramps and gear into stumps, if you try hard enough. Most shots will hit the ramp instead of ground, but eventually one will miss and burn the dirt, turning the ramp into a stump!<br />
<br />
This strange behavior is also seen on flat mountaintops. All the common flat mountain ground tiles point to the wrong death MCD id.<br />
<br />
A final oddity due to the incorrect tile is that mountain ground destroyed in an explosion will burn for three turns. Most common ground tiles have 0 Flammability and will not burn after a "regular" explosion. (They'll burn if hit by incendiaries, though.) This is because the stump object has Flammability=14 and is set to burn for 3 turns.<br />
<br />
= See Also =<br />
<br />
*[[Damage]]<br />
*[[Destroying Terrain]]<br />
*[[Firing Accuracy]]<br />
*[[Throwing Accuracy]] (including throwing distance)<br />
*[[Reactions]]<br />
*[[Weapons]]<br />
**'''Thrown Explosives'''<br />
***[[Grenade]]<br />
***[[Proximity Grenade]]<br />
***[[Alien Grenade]]<br />
***[[High Explosive]]<br />
**'''Projectile Explosives'''<br />
***[[Auto Cannon]]<br />
***[[Heavy Cannon]]<br />
***[[Rocket Launcher]]<br />
***[[Tank/Rocket Launcher]] a.k.a. Rocket Tank<br />
***[[Small Launcher]] a.k.a. Stun Bomb<br />
**'''Guided Explosives'''<br />
***[[Hovertank/Launcher]] a.k.a. Fusion Tank<br />
***[[Blaster Launcher]]<br />
*[[Health]]<br />
*[[Fatal Wounds]]<br />
*[[Armour]]<br />
*[[Experience]]<br />
<br />
[[Category: data tables]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Streetlight.gif&diff=14055File:Streetlight.gif2007-12-03T08:02:14Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Lamp.gif&diff=14054File:Lamp.gif2007-12-03T08:01:58Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Base-Tile-2.gif&diff=14053File:Base-Tile-2.gif2007-12-03T08:01:34Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Base-Tile-1.gif&diff=14052File:Base-Tile-1.gif2007-12-03T08:01:19Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Alien-Tank-4.gif&diff=14051File:Alien-Tank-4.gif2007-12-03T08:00:57Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Alien-Tank-3.gif&diff=14050File:Alien-Tank-3.gif2007-12-03T08:00:37Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Alien-Tank-2.gif&diff=14049File:Alien-Tank-2.gif2007-12-03T08:00:19Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Alien-Tank-1.gif&diff=14048File:Alien-Tank-1.gif2007-12-03T07:59:59Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:MCD&diff=14047Talk:MCD2007-12-02T12:30:40Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div>52: Footstep sound effect.<br />
<br />
I didn't log in because I don't have an account... yet. I looks like I was wrong on the arctic terrain, I thought it uses sand effect, but I checked it's actually normal (2).<br />
<br />
----<br />
I've started writing a section on Terrain/Map Editing and the technical portion (the structure of the MCD files and so on) has been already presented here. Should I add the Terrain Editing material to this page or start a new one? [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:39, 18 Nov 2005 (PST)<br />
<br />
----<br />
I am wondering if we might not have a major restructuring of all this stuff. Instead of first "Under the Hood", then "Game File Analysis", and then on yet another link, "Saved Games"... I think these parts warrant enough attention (at least by many wiki regulars) that they have their own link off the main page, and then something like this structure:<br />
<br />
Overviews<br />
(right here goes overviews of everything, then:)<br />
Main Programs And Data<br />
Savegame Files<br />
Specific Directories And Files<br />
Main Programs And Data<br />
Savegame Files<br />
<br />
Something like that... ANY suggestions welcome, but I think it's time to revamp the lot of it to show it's importance to many regulars, and leave places for overviews versus specific things.<br />
<br />
Edit: To answer you more specifically, Hobbes: Choose your place; a general place is fine for me. I think we should overhaul the whole structure. I think it's grown past its original little pecks and nibbles.<br />
<br />
What do the rest of you think? ---[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 19:58, 18 Nov 2005 (PST)<br />
<br />
----<br />
Sounds spiffy. --[[User:Danial|Danial]] 20:01, 18 Nov 2005 (PST)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
Yup, I was planning on doing something like that later on... We'll have to do it a few times as we introduce more pages, in order to keep everything easy to find.<br />
<br />
--[[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 20:59, 18 Nov 2005 (PST)</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:MCD&diff=14046Talk:MCD2007-12-02T10:48:48Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div>52: Footstep sound effect.<br />
<br />
I didn't log in because I don't have an account... yet. I looks like I was wrong on the arctic terrain, I thought it uses sand effect, but I checked it's actually normal (2).<br />
<br />
----<br />
I've started writing a section on Terrain/Map Editing and the technical portion (the structure of the MCD files and so on) has been already presented here. Should I add the Terrain Editing material to this page or start a new one? [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 19:39, 18 Nov 2005 (PST)<br />
<br />
----<br />
I am wondering if we might not have a major restructuring of all this stuff. Instead of first "Under the Hood", then "Game File Analysis", and then on yet another link, "Saved Games"... I think these parts warrant enough attention (at least by many wiki regulars) that they have their own link off the main page, and then something like this structure:<br />
<br />
Overviews<br />
(right here goes overviews of everything, then:)<br />
Main Programs And Data<br />
Savegame Files<br />
Specific Directories And Files<br />
Main Programs And Data<br />
Savegame Files<br />
<br />
Something like that... ANY suggestions welcome, but I think it's time to revamp the lot of it to show it's importance to many regulars, and leave places for overviews versus specific things.<br />
<br />
Edit: To answer you more specifically, Hobbes: Choose your place; a general place is fine for me. I think we should overhaul the whole structure. I think it's grown past its original little pecks and nibbles.<br />
<br />
What do the rest of you think? ---[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 19:58, 18 Nov 2005 (PST)<br />
<br />
----<br />
Sounds spiffy. --[[User:Danial|Danial]] 20:01, 18 Nov 2005 (PST)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
Yup, I was planning on doing something like that later on... We'll have to do it a few times as we introduce more pages, in order to keep everything easy to find.<br />
<br />
--[[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 20:59, 18 Nov 2005 (PST)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
In regards to byte 58 (brightness), when I look up the graphic for the "glowing" FRNITURE item (inc. the SCANG ref), it's actually the bookshelf, not the lamp. Is this an error on my end, or yet another quirky X-COM bug from a late re-shuffling of graphics or such?<br />
<br />
--[[User:Danial|Danial]] 02:48, 2 December 2007 (PST)</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Danial&diff=14045User talk:Danial2007-12-02T09:41:56Z<p>Danial: /* Tile Size */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is a place for me to explain each of my theories on the conversion of UFO:EU, a 2D isometric game, into the 3D realm. Each of the ideas explained here have been discussed in forums previously, but no conclusions were ever resolved, so I'll use this page for my own opinions. Discussion is welcome...<br />
=Sizes=<br />
==Height==<br />
One of the more commonly disputed ideas is how tall X-COM units would be in real-life. As a start, I'll list the in-game heights:<br />
'''Silacoid''' 10<br />
'''Celatid''' 12<br />
'''Cyberdisc''' 15<br />
'''Sectoid''' 16<br />
'''Snakeman''' 18<br />
'''Zombie''' 18<br />
'''Ethereal''' 20<br />
'''Floater''' 21<br />
'''Muton''' 21<br />
'''Chryssalid''' 21<br />
'''Reaper''' 23<br />
'''Sectopod''' 23<br />
'''Ceiling''' 24<br />
<br />
<i>Note that some floating units are [[Height|effectively taller]].</i><br />
<br />
Now, the basis for my theory on unit heights is a standard house ceiling. The normal* height of a ceiling is 8ft, which in metric** is about 2.40m. Staight away you can see the similarity of 2.4 to 24 - a simple divider of 10. If you then use this to work out the height of, say, a Zombie, it would make it 1.8m, or 6ft. To me, this makes sense seeing as the Zombies are made of poisoned men, and an ''average'' man height is generally stated as 6ft.<br />
<br />
The observant of you might have noticed that I left X-COM and civilians out of that list. I did this for a good reason. Here are their listed heights:<br />
'''Tank''' 12<br />
'''Civilian''' 21<br />
'''Soldier''' 22<br />
As you can see, if a ceiling is 2.4m high, this would make an X-COM soldier 2.2m tall! At first I couldn't understand these numbers, until one day it dawned on me that Aliens can't kneel in the game. This means that they can't gain the FA +15% kneeling modifier. So, it's my belief that to compensate the Aliens for this lack of ability, the makers simply made the humans taller, making them bigger targets, and hence, easier to hit. If you scale them down to 18, it makes the civilians 1.72cm tall and the tanks 98cm tall. Both of these results seem acceptable to me.<br />
<br />
So in summary, if you want to convert the in-game heights to real-life:<br />
'''Metric Meters''' = (Unit Height)/10<br />
'''Imperial Feet''' = (Unit Height)/3<br />
<br />
For Humans, divide again by 1.22 (22/18).<br />
<br />
''<nowiki>*</nowiki>Obviously ceilings can be any height the builder wants to make them, but 8ft is the standard.''<br />
<br />
''<nowiki>**</nowiki>The makers were British.''<br />
<br />
==Tile Size==<br />
It is generally assumed that 1 tile in-game is equal to 1m. I believe this is way too small. The only known ''fact'' is that in actual geometric terms, a tile, with a hypotenuse of 32px, can be derived to be 22.6px wide. In a thread on XCTC (now StrategyCore) several concepts were discussed:<br />
*'''1m:''' The assumed 1m tile would lead to a wall height of 1.22m, or 4ft, which is simply rediculous.<br />
*'''1.4m:''' Roughly derived from the animation walk-cycle, I don't believe this is a suitable reference.<br />
*'''1.6m:''' Based off Line of Fire Templates.<br />
*'''2.26m:''' Based off my div/10 formula above.<br />
I believe that 2.26m is the best alternative, but I suppose it's all up to personal opinion as to which you adopt.<br />
<br />
===User Commentary===<br />
<i>2.26m seems way, way too high a value for me. 2.4m sounds about right for the height of a tile, but with this sort of width doors would be nearly squares. Great big ones at that.<br />
<br />
Each tile is made up of 12, 16x16 [[LOFTEMPS.DAT|Line of Fire Templates]], stacked one on top of the other. Assuming they're double stacked to create a 16x16x24 object (which makes sense given the maximum unit height of 23), the div/10 formula suggests that a tile is 1.6 meters square.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, that result can easily be skewed up or down by assuming that one "height" value is not of the same real-world-measurement as one "width" value. The two don't have to be equal. The programmers likely stuck to multiples of eight for processing ease as opposed to realism, so mathematics applied to known game values probably won't always produce realistic measurements. <br />
<br />
My personal hunch is that a tile is a meter wide and the isometric view just makes things look shorter then they really are. - [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 02:04, 5 November 2007 (PST)</i><br />
<br />
=Speed=<br />
As everyone knows (or should know), TUs equate to speed. This lead to to calculate the walking speeds of each unit in the game. I based my calculations off averages. An average X-COM Soldier has 65 TUs and the average human walking speed is 5 km/h, so if you multiply TUs by 5/65 (or 1/13), you get:<br />
'''Unit TUs Speed'''<br />
'''---- --- -----'''<br />
Chryssalid 110-124 8-10 km/h<br />
Celatid 70-82 5-6 km/h<br />
X-COM 50-80 4-6 km/h<br />
Ethereal 68-79 5-6 km/h<br />
Cyberdisc 62-72 5-6 km/h<br />
Reaper 62-72 5-6 km/h<br />
Sectopod 62-72 5-6 km/h<br />
Floater Commander 60-70 5-5 km/h<br />
Muton 56-65 4-5 km/h<br />
Floater Leader 55-64 4-5 km/h<br />
Sectoid 54-63 4-5 km/h<br />
Snakeman Commander 45-63 3-5 km/h<br />
Floater 50-58 4-4 km/h<br />
Silacoid 40-47 3-4 km/h<br />
Snakeman 40-47 3-4 km/h<br />
Zombie 40-47 3-4 km/h<br />
<br />
If you want running and sprinting speeds, just multiply by 3/13 or 5/13 respectively.<br />
<br />
For those who like formulas:<br />
'''Walking Speed''' = (Base TUs)/13<br />
'''Running Speed''' = (Base TUs)*3/13<br />
'''Sprinting Speed''' = (Base TUs)*5/13<br />
<br />
=Turn Length=<br />
This is probably the most controversial aspect of the game. To work out how long a turn actually is, two important things need to be known - Tile Size and Speed!<br />
<br />
I'll use a Soldier with 80 TUs for my example, and a hypothetical 2m tile size.<br />
<br />
We know that 80 TUs will allow the Soldier to cover 20 tiles per turn, which makes 40m in this case.<br />
<br />
Based on my calculations above a Soldier of 80 TUs can move at 6km/h, or more precisely, 1.71m/s.<br />
<br />
So, 40m at 1.71m/s = '''23.4s'''<br />
<br />
Results with varying tile sizes:<br />
1.0m = '''11.7s'''<br />
1.4m = '''16.4s'''<br />
2.0m = '''23.4s'''<br />
2.3m = '''26.5s'''<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
You've done your homework here.<br />
<br />
I think, in the end, there's one thing that will make or break any 3D version of X-com: a <i>really bitchin'</i> Heavy Plasma model. --[[User:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]] 20:26, 19 December 2005 (PST)<br />
<br />
[[Category: data tables]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Danial&diff=14044User talk:Danial2007-12-02T09:38:26Z<p>Danial: /* Tile Size */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is a place for me to explain each of my theories on the conversion of UFO:EU, a 2D isometric game, into the 3D realm. Each of the ideas explained here have been discussed in forums previously, but no conclusions were ever resolved, so I'll use this page for my own opinions. Discussion is welcome...<br />
=Sizes=<br />
==Height==<br />
One of the more commonly disputed ideas is how tall X-COM units would be in real-life. As a start, I'll list the in-game heights:<br />
'''Silacoid''' 10<br />
'''Celatid''' 12<br />
'''Cyberdisc''' 15<br />
'''Sectoid''' 16<br />
'''Snakeman''' 18<br />
'''Zombie''' 18<br />
'''Ethereal''' 20<br />
'''Floater''' 21<br />
'''Muton''' 21<br />
'''Chryssalid''' 21<br />
'''Reaper''' 23<br />
'''Sectopod''' 23<br />
'''Ceiling''' 24<br />
<br />
<i>Note that some floating units are [[Height|effectively taller]].</i><br />
<br />
Now, the basis for my theory on unit heights is a standard house ceiling. The normal* height of a ceiling is 8ft, which in metric** is about 2.40m. Staight away you can see the similarity of 2.4 to 24 - a simple divider of 10. If you then use this to work out the height of, say, a Zombie, it would make it 1.8m, or 6ft. To me, this makes sense seeing as the Zombies are made of poisoned men, and an ''average'' man height is generally stated as 6ft.<br />
<br />
The observant of you might have noticed that I left X-COM and civilians out of that list. I did this for a good reason. Here are their listed heights:<br />
'''Tank''' 12<br />
'''Civilian''' 21<br />
'''Soldier''' 22<br />
As you can see, if a ceiling is 2.4m high, this would make an X-COM soldier 2.2m tall! At first I couldn't understand these numbers, until one day it dawned on me that Aliens can't kneel in the game. This means that they can't gain the FA +15% kneeling modifier. So, it's my belief that to compensate the Aliens for this lack of ability, the makers simply made the humans taller, making them bigger targets, and hence, easier to hit. If you scale them down to 18, it makes the civilians 1.72cm tall and the tanks 98cm tall. Both of these results seem acceptable to me.<br />
<br />
So in summary, if you want to convert the in-game heights to real-life:<br />
'''Metric Meters''' = (Unit Height)/10<br />
'''Imperial Feet''' = (Unit Height)/3<br />
<br />
For Humans, divide again by 1.22 (22/18).<br />
<br />
''<nowiki>*</nowiki>Obviously ceilings can be any height the builder wants to make them, but 8ft is the standard.''<br />
<br />
''<nowiki>**</nowiki>The makers were British.''<br />
<br />
==Tile Size==<br />
It is generally assumed that 1 tile in-game is equal to 1m. I believe this is way too small. The only known ''fact'' is that in actual geometric terms, a tile, with a hypotenuse of 32px, can be derived to be 22.6px wide. In a thread on XCTC (now StrategyCore) several concepts were discussed:<br />
*'''1m:''' The assumed 1m tile would lead to a wall height of 1.22m, or 4ft, which is simply rediculous.<br />
*'''1.4m:''' Roughly derived from the animation walk-cycle, I don't believe this is a suitable reference.<br />
*'''2.26m:''' Based off my div/10 formula above.<br />
I believe that 2.26m is the best alternative, but I suppose it's all up to personal opinion as to which you adopt.<br />
<br />
===User Commentary===<br />
<i>2.26m seems way, way too high a value for me. 2.4m sounds about right for the height of a tile, but with this sort of width doors would be nearly squares. Great big ones at that.<br />
<br />
Each tile is made up of 12, 16x16 [[LOFTEMPS.DAT|Line of Fire Templates]], stacked one on top of the other. Assuming they're double stacked to create a 16x16x24 object (which makes sense given the maximum unit height of 23), the div/10 formula suggests that a tile is 1.6 meters square.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, that result can easily be skewed up or down by assuming that one "height" value is not of the same real-world-measurement as one "width" value. The two don't have to be equal. The programmers likely stuck to multiples of eight for processing ease as opposed to realism, so mathematics applied to known game values probably won't always produce realistic measurements. <br />
<br />
My personal hunch is that a tile is a meter wide and the isometric view just makes things look shorter then they really are. - [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 02:04, 5 November 2007 (PST)</i><br />
<br />
=Speed=<br />
As everyone knows (or should know), TUs equate to speed. This lead to to calculate the walking speeds of each unit in the game. I based my calculations off averages. An average X-COM Soldier has 65 TUs and the average human walking speed is 5 km/h, so if you multiply TUs by 5/65 (or 1/13), you get:<br />
'''Unit TUs Speed'''<br />
'''---- --- -----'''<br />
Chryssalid 110-124 8-10 km/h<br />
Celatid 70-82 5-6 km/h<br />
X-COM 50-80 4-6 km/h<br />
Ethereal 68-79 5-6 km/h<br />
Cyberdisc 62-72 5-6 km/h<br />
Reaper 62-72 5-6 km/h<br />
Sectopod 62-72 5-6 km/h<br />
Floater Commander 60-70 5-5 km/h<br />
Muton 56-65 4-5 km/h<br />
Floater Leader 55-64 4-5 km/h<br />
Sectoid 54-63 4-5 km/h<br />
Snakeman Commander 45-63 3-5 km/h<br />
Floater 50-58 4-4 km/h<br />
Silacoid 40-47 3-4 km/h<br />
Snakeman 40-47 3-4 km/h<br />
Zombie 40-47 3-4 km/h<br />
<br />
If you want running and sprinting speeds, just multiply by 3/13 or 5/13 respectively.<br />
<br />
For those who like formulas:<br />
'''Walking Speed''' = (Base TUs)/13<br />
'''Running Speed''' = (Base TUs)*3/13<br />
'''Sprinting Speed''' = (Base TUs)*5/13<br />
<br />
=Turn Length=<br />
This is probably the most controversial aspect of the game. To work out how long a turn actually is, two important things need to be known - Tile Size and Speed!<br />
<br />
I'll use a Soldier with 80 TUs for my example, and a hypothetical 2m tile size.<br />
<br />
We know that 80 TUs will allow the Soldier to cover 20 tiles per turn, which makes 40m in this case.<br />
<br />
Based on my calculations above a Soldier of 80 TUs can move at 6km/h, or more precisely, 1.71m/s.<br />
<br />
So, 40m at 1.71m/s = '''23.4s'''<br />
<br />
Results with varying tile sizes:<br />
1.0m = '''11.7s'''<br />
1.4m = '''16.4s'''<br />
2.0m = '''23.4s'''<br />
2.3m = '''26.5s'''<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
You've done your homework here.<br />
<br />
I think, in the end, there's one thing that will make or break any 3D version of X-com: a <i>really bitchin'</i> Heavy Plasma model. --[[User:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]] 20:26, 19 December 2005 (PST)<br />
<br />
[[Category: data tables]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Containment&diff=9446Alien Containment2007-01-04T03:43:56Z<p>Danial: Just fixed some spelling etc.</p>
<hr />
<div>== General Information [[Image:Base-containment.gif]] ==<br />
<br />
This is required to hold captured aliens, as it provides the environment that is needed to keep them alive for extended periods of time. Several research advances that are necessary to complete the game require the presence of a particular alien species in Alien Containment.<br />
<br />
A single Alien Containment facility can hold any number of alien individuals from up to ten different combinations of alien species and rank. For example, one facility can hold any number of [[Sectoid]] Soldiers, but cannot hold alien units of every rank and race all at the same time.<br />
<br />
Whilst this facility can be built from the start of the game, the default starting base does not include this facility.<br />
<br />
<center>[[Image:XBASE_08MAP-L1.JPG|Alien Containment: Level 0|250 px]] [[Image:XBASE_08MAP-L2.JPG|Alien Containment: Level 1|250 px]]</center><br />
<br />
== Statistics ==<br />
<br />
Construction Time: 18 days<br><br />
Construction Cost: $400,000<br><br />
Maintenance Cost: $15,000/month<br><br />
<br />
== See Also ==<br />
[[Category:Base Facilities (UFO Defense)]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:XBASE2_32.gif&diff=5450File:XBASE2 32.gif2006-01-07T23:11:49Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Explosions&diff=5449Explosions2006-01-07T23:09:53Z<p>Danial: /* Explosive Map Objects */</p>
<hr />
<div>= Explosive Damage to Walls and Objects =<br />
<br />
Explosions differ from weapons in a couple of important ways. <br />
<br />
#First, of course, they are area effect. (Duh.)<br />
#Second, they impart damage within a narrower range than weapons. Weapons impart from 0 to 2 times their rated strength. (In other words, the UFOpaedia is showing you their ''average'' strength.) But explosives have a minimum of average/2 and a maximum of 3/2*average. So a blaster (HE 200) does from 100 to 300 damage at ground zero (GZ). You will still receive the damage listed in the UFOpaedia at GZ, on average. But you are guaranteed to get some damage (if not so far from GZ that the minimum has become zero). Of course, if your armor is high enough relative to the damage roll, it will block any actual damage.<br />
<br />
Average explosive damage to units decreases by 10 per tile away from GZ. At the same time, the maximum damage is decreasing by 15 (3/2*10) and the minimum damage by 5 (10/2). Thus at GZ of a grenade blast (HE 50), units receive 25-75 damage, and at its outer edge (radius=5 inc. GZ), units receive 5-15 damage.<br />
<br />
Unlike for units, explosive damage to non-units (ground, walls, and objects) is constant. Thus a specific explosive will always form the exact same blast pattern on the same type of terrain. It is calculated based on the minimum damage (i.e., average/2) for a given square. Thus it starts (at GZ) as half average damage and decreases by 5 per tile outward. If this value is greater than tile armor strength, the tile will be destroyed. However, a given type of explosive always has the same blast radius, regardless of terrain effects (except if there is blockage by e.g. walls). A Blaster can still kill you when 11 tiles away, even if you're on hard UFO floors which will only be damaged four tiles from GZ.<br />
<br />
= HE Statistics =<br />
Here's a table of explosive strength and resulting expected blast damage and radii.<br />
<u>HE @ Ground Zero</u> <u>Blast</u> <u>HE @ Edge</u> <br />
'''<u>Type</u> ''' <u>Min</u> '''<u>Ave</u> ''' <u>Max</u> <u>Diam.</u> <u>Rad.</u> <u>Disc.</u> <u>Min</u> '''<u>Ave</u>''' <u>Max</u><br />
AC - HE 22 44 66 7 3 0 7 14 21<br />
Grenade 25 50 75 9 4 0 5 10 15<br />
HC - HE 26 52 78 7 3 1 11 22 33<br />
Proxy 35 70 105 13 6 0 5 10 15<br />
Small Rocket 37.5 75 112.5 9 4 2 17.5 35 52.5<br />
Rocket Tank 42.5 85 127.5 11 5 2 17.5 35 52.5<br />
Alien Grenade 45 90 135 13 6 2 15 30 45<br />
Large Rocket 50 100 150 13 6 3 20 40 60<br />
Hi - EX 55 110 165 13 6 4 25 50 75<br />
Fusion Hovertank 70 140 210 23 11 2 15 30 45<br />
Blaster Bomb 100 200 300 23 11 8 45 90 135<br />
*'''HE @ Ground Zero''' is damage to ''units'' at ground zero (GZ). Min=Ave/2, Max=Ave*3/2.<br />
*'''HE @ Edge''' is damage at the edge of the blast.<br />
*'''Blast Diameter''' includes GZ. Equals 2r+1.<br />
*'''Blast Radius''' does not include GZ. Equals (d-1)/2.<br />
*'''Disc''' is the discrepancy between actual radius, and the radius expected based on HE. Higher explosives have their blast size 'nipped'. Otherwise the Blaster would have a diameter of 39 - almost 4 tilesets wide!<br />
<br />
Average damage to units falls off by 10 per tile away from GZ. Damage to tiles is fixed at half the damage for that tile (i.e., the minimum damage that units can receive) and decreases by 5 per tile (half the 10, that the average is decreasing). Note that damage is still done to units at the stated radii, even if blast strength was not strong enough to damage tiles. That is, you can still be hurt even past where you see floor damage. This is especially true in UFOs and alien bases, which have very strong tiles (see [[Explosions#Blast Diameters|Blast Diameters]] and [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics|Tile Characteristics]]). Even the mighty Blaster only hurts UFO floor tiles (armor=80) out to four tiles from GZ, but your men can still be killed 11 tiles away, regardless. Also note, floor damage does '''not''' "soak up" any of the blast. However, some tiles (especially wall tiles) have an "HE Block" value which does prevent some damage from being passed on. This is what keeps blasts from acting as if walls didn't exist.<br />
<br />
Because damage to tiles is fixed, they always produce the same blast pattern for a given type of terrain. Terrains differ in their "armor" (a.k.a. constitution) levels, and are destroyed if the blast damage is equal to or greater than their armor. Most ground terrain also has a second "damaged" tile which appears when the first tile is destroyed. This second tile (a.k.a. death tile) may also be destroyed by the blast, if the blast strength is equal to the armor for both tiles. Raw earth is left if all tiles are destroyed. Some tile sets (such as arctic) have the second death tile set to such a high armor value (255) that no blast will destroy it; thus you'll never see raw earth right under the surface of ice(!). For what it's worth, you can calculate the tile armor simply by looking at the blast pattern and comparing the HE strength (dropping of by 5 at center) to the point where tiles are no longer damaged. <br />
<br />
Example: On a desert map, a prox mine will make a pattern with damaged tiles out to a radius of 6. The 9 innermost tiles (radius=1) will show a different tile (blown to raw earth). The first tile in desert has armor of 5 (thus, it's damaged all the way to edge of blast) but the second "dimpled" tile seen after the first one is blown through, has armor of 25. The prox mine is HE 70, so it's hitting ground zero for 35 and GZ+1 for 30. Thus it blows through to raw earth out to GZ+1 (5+25=30).<br />
<br />
You may also see additional terrain damage with subsequent explosions. Example: the humble grenade (HE 50) damages the first tile (armor=5) out to radius=5, but does not break through the second tile (armor=25) to raw earth. But a second grenade in the same place will break through the injured tile at GZ, because now that the top tile is gone, the second tile is exactly equal to half grenade strength, right where it exploded.<br />
<br />
= Blast Propagation =<br />
<br />
As an example of a progressing blast front, Blaster Bombs impart damage to ''units'' as follows:<br />
<br />
<u>Dist from GZ</u> <u>Unit Damage</u><br />
<u>Rad</u> <u>Diam</u> <u>Min</u> <u>Ave</u> <u>Max</u><br />
0 1 100 200 300<br />
1 3 95 190 285<br />
2 5 90 180 270<br />
3 7 85 170 255<br />
4 9 80 160 240<br />
5 11 75 150 225<br />
6 13 70 140 210<br />
7 15 65 130 195<br />
8 17 60 120 180<br />
9 19 55 110 165<br />
10 21 50 100 150<br />
11 23 45 90 135<br />
<br />
Based on [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=280&t=8701&st=19# testing] by Zombie. <br />
<br />
So, the Blaster Bomb is rated at 200 HE damage, and does that - but <i>on average</i> at ground zero. Then the range decreases by 10 per tile away from GZ. Maximum damage decreases by 15 (3/2*average), and minimum damage by 5 (average/2).<br />
<br />
Unlike damage to units, tile (i.e., terrain) damage is fixed, and is equal to the minimum damage at that radius (i.e., half the average).<br />
<br />
Most large explosions are "nipped" as shown above; in theory the Blaster could've kept going for eight more tiles until it decreased to zero. (But the blast pattern would've been HUGE!, Diameter=39.) Some smaller explosions are not nipped, and decrease until they drop off to zero.<br />
<br />
= Blaster Bomb Pattern =<br />
A screencap showing Blaster damage. Just for the halibut.<br />
<br />
[[Image:AfterBlasterBombX2.jpg|320px|Typical blaster bomb damage pattern]]<br />
<br />
= Ground Zero Effect =<br />
<br />
Units at ground zero (center of blast) and the eight adjacent tiles (GZ+1; nine tiles in total) receive damage through their Under Armor. All others receive damage to the side facing ground zero (never Under Armor).<br />
<br />
This is true regardless of whether using thrown items (grenades, Hi-Ex) or shot/launched explosives (AC-HE, HC-HE, Rockets, Blaster).<br />
<br />
= Susceptibility =<br />
<br />
Critters have the following susceptibility or resistance [[Damage formula#Damage modifiers|modifiers]] to explosive damage:<br />
<br />
Silacoid 130%<br />
Sectopod 80%<br />
Zombie 80%<br />
Tanks 70%<br />
Cyberdisc 60%<br />
<br />
So Silacoids are <i>more</i> susceptible, presumably because they are close to the ground.<br />
<br />
=Explosive Map Objects=<br />
<br />
There are several map objects that will explode when destroyed:<br />
'''Object Description Armour HE Damage Image Location'''<br />
'''------ ----------- ------ --------- ----- --------'''<br />
<br />
U_PODS[00] UFO Fuel Pod #1 20 60 [[Image:U_PODS_00.gif]] Terror Ships, Battleships, and Alien Bases<br />
U_PODS[02] UFO Fuel Pod #2 30 70 [[Image:U_PODS-02-.gif]] Terror Ships, Battleships, and Alien Bases<br />
U_PODS[04] UFO Pod 20 45 [[Image:U_PODS_04.gif]] Terror Ships, Battleships, and Alien Bases<br />
U_WALL02[51-54] UFO Navigation* 15 40 [[Image:U_WALL02-51-54-.gif]]Alien Bases and all UFOs except Scouts<br />
URBAN[85] Fuel Bowser 18 46 [[Image:URBAN-85-.gif]] Terror Missions (Service Station)<br />
XBASE2[25] Fuel Drum 12 60 [[Image:XBASE2-25-.gif]] X-COM Base (Hangar)<br />
XBASE2[32] Missile Warhead 10 40 [[Image:XBASE2_32.gif]] X-COM Base (Missile Defenses)<br />
<br />
While many terrain objects can burn (such as vegetation and many human structures), these are the only ones that actually ''explode''.<br />
<br />
'''NOTE:''' These objects ''can'' come in useful when Aliens are standing near them, but also be aware that the Fuel Bowser on [[Terror Mission]]s can also kill nearby [[Civilian]]s. Also, X-COM units don't suffer damage from any of these objects exploding nearby them.<br />
<br />
= Object Destruction =<br />
Only explosions (not shot weapons) can destroy dropped equipment and other objects on the ground. They are destroyed by blast strengths ''greater than'' the values in this table. Unit names refer to bodies, both stunned and dead:<br />
<br />
<u>>HE</u> <u>Destroys</u><br />
8 Electroflares<br />
12 Standard pistol clip and civilian males(?!)<br />
20 EVERYTHING else not otherwise mentioned. Includes ALL ammo, ALL large bodies<br />
(both XCOM tanks and large aliens), unarmored soldiers, even Elerium.<br />
26 All regular (small) sized aliens' bodies<br />
30 Soldiers in Personal Armor<br />
40 Soldiers in Power or Flying Suit, and Blaster Launcher<br />
45 Plasma Pistol<br />
50 Plasma Rifle and Heavy Plasma '' - Values provided by Danial from [[OBDATA.DAT]][42]<br />
<br />
Blast magnitude is stated as the ''average'' blast damage for a tile and it must be ''greater than'' the value shown. Explosion damage for objects is fixed at the average - it does not vary as with explosive damage to units. You will always see the same things destroyed by a given average blast level. This makes it similar to terrain damage, but object destruction differs in that 1) it works off the average damage, and 2) HE must be greater than the value shown. (Tiles are destroyed when HE is ''equal'' to average/2.)<br />
<br />
'''Object Destruction Example:''' A regular grenade is HE 50. Its average strength drops off by 10 per tile out to five tiles. Counting ground zero as the first tile, here are blast strengths and what's left after a grenade blast (sort of a reverse of the above):<br />
<br />
<u>Radius</u> <u>HE</u> '''<u>SURVIVES</u><br />
1 50 Plasma rifle and heavy plasma ''(HE must be '''greater than''' 50 to destroy these)''<br />
2 40 PS/FS Soldiers, the three plasma weapons, Blaster Launcher<br />
3 30 Same as 40 except Personal Armor soldiers, too<br />
4 20 Everything except flares, pistol ammo, and male civs<br />
5 10 Everything except flares<br />
<br />
By playing with explosives and distances from a blast, you can select how much blast damage is given. Example: A grenade (HE 50) can't touch Heavy Plasma, but HC-HE (52) can destroy everything. At its edge four tiles away (inc. GZ), the HC-HE is strength 22 and leaves alien bodies and other things tougher than 20 HE. Et cetera.<br />
<br />
Despite this table, note that aliens use very strong explosives. The alien grenade (HE 90) is 30 average HE ''at its edge''; the Blaster (200) is '''''90''''' at its edge. See "HE At Edge" in the table [[Explosions#HE Statistics|above]].<br />
<br />
Ammo loaded in a weapon is safe (until the weapon itself is gone).<br />
<br />
Equipment made with alien alloys (including FS/PS) is very often more survivable (but not always).<br />
<br />
Stunned aliens destroyed by explosions do not count toward kill [[Experience]] or victory points ([[Scoring (UFO Defense)|Score]] at mission end), nor do they affect enemy [[Morale]]. They just disappear. Same goes for your stunned troopers killed by blasts; they do not detract from score or affect morale. But they ''are'' dead and gone!<br />
<br />
= Blast Diameters =<br />
<br />
Blast diameters differ according to terrain type. The table below was copied from a [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8701 post] by Zombie. To get radius, subtract 1 and divide by 2:<br />
<br />
Grass, <br />
Lawn, <br />
Corn Dirt, Asphalt Polar<br />
Fields,Weeds, Roads, White Snow,<br />
Wheat Desert White Tin Tile Concrete Mars Mtn. Alien<br />
<u>Cost</u> <u>$/HE</u> <u><b>Weapon</b></u> <u>HE</u> <u>Fields</u> <u>Sand</u> <u>Shngls</u> <u>Roofs</u> <u>Roofs</u> <u>Walkway</u> <u>Sand</u> <u>Tundra</u> <u>Floors</u><br />
700 15.9 AC - HE 44 7 7 5 3 1 1 0 0 0<br />
300 6.0 Grenade 50 7 9 7 5 3 3 1 0 0<br />
500 9.6 HC - HE 52 7 7 7 5 3 3 1 0 0<br />
500 7.1 Prox G 70 11 13 11 9 7 7 5 0 0<br />
600 8.0 Small R 75 9 9 9 9 7 7 5 0 0<br />
6700+2E 74.4 Alien G 90 13 13 13 13 11 11 9 3 0<br />
900 9.0 Large R 100 13 13 13 13 13 13 11 5 1<br />
1500 13.6 Hi Ex. 110 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 7 3<br />
8000+3E 40.0 Blaster 200 23 23 23 25 25 23 23 23 21<br />
'''Tile Armor''' - Initial 6* 5? 10 20 10? 20 25-40 40 50<br />
See next section Dead 50 255 255 255 30? 255 30-255 20 50<br />
<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki> "Wheat" is complex - see Note 3 under Tile Characteristics<br />
<br />
Where '''HE''' is the High Exposive rating for each round and:<br />
"White Shingles" is the roof on the gas station complex,<br />
"Mars Sand" is the soil on the Martian surface in Cydonia,<br />
"Alien Floors" is the floor of an alien base (alien ships were not checked), and<br />
"Concrete Walkway" is sidewalks near buildings or roads.<br />
Buy price or manufacturing cost are also shown (part cost only; does not include labor), whether Elerium-115 is needed ("+E"), and "Dollars per HE" (Cost/HE).<br />
<br />
Note that these diameters ''only'' show damage to terrain. Damage to units is still done out to the radius for each bomb, as shown in [[Explosions#HE Statistics|HE Statistics]] above. So you can still be killed by a Blaster if 11 tiles away in a UFO, even though the hard UFO floors are only damaged out to 4 tiles from GZ. The tiles do not "soak up" any damage AFAIK. (Not counting tiles with HE Block, such as walls.)<br />
<br />
For an Excel spreadsheet with 2D diagrams of all blast patterns (including stun bomb and tanks), see [http://www.ufopaedia.org/images/c/c5/XCOM_Blast_Patterns.xls this].<br />
<br />
Terrain tile properties (Armor, HE Block, etc.) can be readily seen in DaiShiva's excellent [http://www.daishiva.com/phpBB2/generic.php?page=progLinks.shtml MapView] program.<br />
<br />
= Distance from Ground Zero =<br />
<br />
"Distance" from GZ for explosives is actually computed by taking the TUs needed to walk to tiles in the blast radius. For example, 2 diagonal tiles away is considered to be 3 tiles since it takes 6+6=12 TUs to walk (and 12/4=3). This can be modelled on a spreadsheet using the equation:<br />
<br />
Distance = INT( MAX(X,Y) + MIN(X,Y)/2 )<br />
<br />
where X and Y are positive offsets from Ground Zero<br />
<br />
This simplified approach sometimes makes blasts a little stronger down diagonals than would be expected from the Pythagorean theorem (a<sup>2</sup>=b<sup>2</sup>+c<sup>2</sup>; a=SQRT(a<sup>2</sup>+b<sup>2</sup>)). Using Pythagoras, a diagonal tile is 1.4 tiles away, but the game considers them 1 tile away (INT(SQRT(2)). The 1.4 would've led to 1/1.4=71% blast strength. This is the worst case; the TUs approach is much closer to Pythagoras on a percentage basis at greater diagonal distances.<br />
<br />
= HE Block =<br />
<br />
Some tiles have a property called "HE Block" (High Explosive block, a.k.a. '''HEB''') which causes them to dampen an explosive blast proceeding past them. This is basically what makes a wall, a wall... without this property set, explosions would proceed through walls and other objects as if they didn't exist.<br />
<br />
For the record, tile armor values (see below) do not dampen explosions in any way whatsoever. Tile armor '''only''' affects whether that tile is destroyed by an explosion; blasts otherwise proceed entirely unhampered. Only HE Block dampens explosions. If you set outer UFO hull armor to 255 (the highest it can be) and its HE Block to 0, a blaster explosion on the hull will be the full, entirely "round" 23 tiles in diameter, imparting damage to anything caught in its circle as if the hull did not exist. (But the hull will be unaffacted, because its armor is >100.)<br />
<br />
Also, HE Block only dampens explosions "past" the tile in question. It does not dampen the blast for that tile, itself. Thus, an outer UFO wall takes the full force of a blaster bomb (200/2=100, just enough to take out one wall tile), but it's HE Block 100 stops any of the blast from proceeding '''past''' the wall "inwardly".<br />
<br />
[http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8701&st=114&# Playing] with HE Block shows that explosions proceed from ground zero outward in a way that '''only''' directly impacts the four tiles that are directly adjacent (due north, south, east, and west). Blast damage never proceeds in a diagonal fashion per se; instead, diagonals are filled in as a function of damage going sideways from these four main "rays". As BombBloke has observed, one can trace HEB back to its "source" by looking for the places where there were decreases. IOW, you are either seeing main rays decreasing by 5, or 50% moving laterally (then outward), and can trace HEB back to its source by comparing a blast with HEB, to one without it... where was the usual progression dampened?<br />
<br />
XCOM map tiles can have up to four types of terrain: a ground tile, a north wall, a west wall, and a terrain object (such as a tree or furniture). This is not counting "mobile" items such as units or equipment dropped on the ground.<br />
<br />
HE Block assigned to ground tiles is ignored by the game. Thus e.g. the HEB 25 of hay loft ground tiles is just a data entry error(?) that doesn't affect anything (see [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics|Tile Characteristics]]).<br />
<br />
A wall is a separator between the two tiles that it is drawn between. This is not quite true for objects, however.<br />
<br />
In terms of HE Block, this is best demonstrated by directly impacting e.g. a blaster on the object, coming at it from the side: a lone object in the middle of a field will show a blast pattern exactly equal to simply having set off the bomb in the middle of the field, with no object there - the HE Block of an object is ignored when a blast impacts the object itself. Conversely, if a wall is hit on its face, it ''will'' HE Block damage from being passed on to the "other side" of the wall.<br />
<br />
But this only applies to objects that are directly hit. If, instead, we exploded a blaster against the ground right ''next'' to an object or wall, the blast pattern is very similar for them both - because now the object is intercepting one of the "rays" from the explosion, instead of exploding "itself". In other words, the blast front has directionality relative to the object, and is blocked in a "logical" way, if ground zero is to the "side" of it.<br />
<br />
[[image:Explosions-BB_On_BB_Hull_Object.jpg|right|Some outer UFO walls are not true "walls", and a Blaster hit propagates through them at 100 HE. The door is 80 HE Block - just enough to stop the usual Blaster in its tracks there (at decrease of 10 per tile). Any alien unlucky enough to be on the four damaged tiles would be hit by 45-180 HE, average 90 (1 tile inward), or 40-160, average 80 (3 tiles outside door). Anyone on the far (inner) side of the door would not be hit, even though its tile was hit by 80 HE, for the door is a "true" (north) wall, and stops the blast from moving inward.]]<br />
<br />
Ordinarily, the distinctions don't matter much. But there's at least one place where they might. As pointed out by Danial, some outer UFO "walls" hit by Blasters have damage penetration past the wall, even though they "shouldn't". See the graphic. What's happening is that some outer walls are actually objects, as seen in [[Explosions#Tile Characteristics|MapView]]. These objects are displaying the behavior shown above - when they are hit directly, the explosive blast propagates outwardly from the object, as if it did not exist. This is very different from a true wall, which shows directionality, and "makes a wall a wall". Due to the limited constraints within which the XCOM DOS programmers worked, only true "north" and "west" walls properly stop explosive blast from going "through" the wall. <br />
<br />
[[image:BB_Third_Level.jpg|right|These are the only "true" north and west '''outer''' walls on the third floor of the battleship, as seen in MapView. All other outer walls are subject to blast through, although diagonals (not parallel to due north/south/east/west) may show funny patterns, or zero blast through. Also note all inner walls ARE true walls.]]<br />
<br />
See the second battleship graphic, which shows the only true north and west '''outer''' walls on the third floor of a battleship. All other '''outer''' "walls" are subject to blast through at 100 HE, as seen in the first picture. That said, however, HE Block has not been well tested/understood. ''(Care to volunteer?)'' There is no guarantee that blasts will proceed inward, especially when diagonals are involved. And, of course, as can be seen, the actual amount of blast moving inward only affected a total of four tiles inside the UFO - the rest was blocked by the high HE Block of the inner room's walls and door.<br />
<br />
All items in a tile (ground, walls, and terrain object) receive the same force of explosion. As described above, this is the current blast strength at that tile, which equals the average blast strength divided by two.<br />
<br />
For the record: Soldiers not not appear to have any HE Block. If you group a lot of them together and then explode something near them, they do not cause there to be any difference in the explosion pattern or strength where they stand.<br />
<br />
Anyone interested in testing HE Block, be sure to see [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]]'s fantastic numerical tileset which makes blast testing far easier than it would have been. Find his hacked terrain [http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=746&st=195&# here], or bundled with a savegame [http://www.ufopaedia.org/images/5/54/BB_hacked_desert3MoreWalls.zip here]. To see a screencap of the tiles in action (and a good example of what I'm discussing!) see [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8701&st=112&# this] message. ''--[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]]<br />
<br />
= Tile Characteristics =<br />
<br />
This section is mainly for folks doing research on explosion propagation. Values were gathered with DaiShiva's excellent [http://www.daishiva.com/phpBB2/generic.php?page=progLinks.shtml MapView] program. Caution: You must install the extensive MicroSoft .NET platform to use MapView; see DaiShiva's site.<br />
<br />
<u> Ini Ded HEB Type _</u><br />
80 50 Most UFO floors UFOs AND ALIEN BASES<br />
100 NDT UFO roof<br />
100 220 100 Outer UFO walls<br />
80 50 80 Most inner UFO and base walls<br />
100 50 100 Inner UFO security walls (See Note 1)<br />
80 50 80 Most inner UFO doors<br />
100 50 100 Inner UFO security doors<br />
100 NDT Partial UFO floors and adjacent tiles along diagonals etc.<br />
50 50 Common gray base floors<br />
150 50 Green start tiles<br />
200 50 Red elevator tiles. Yellow rays add 200 armor.<br />
50 65 Purple floor around wide elevators, in entertainment room, etc.<br />
60 60 60 Flashing orange and aqua walls (good backdoors sometimes!)<br />
70 50 70 Green-on-black comp display wall (trapdoor to BB control room)<br />
<U> 90 100 Dark black base floor in gardens and around command center _</U><br />
<U> 25 255 Arctic ground ARCTIC</U><br />
20 255 Road CITIES<br />
8 255 Smooth grass<br />
10 255 Grass patches and dirt<br />
15 30 Gas station ceiling - 150 Flame<br />
10 30 Gray store floor<br />
15 30 Slate roof for buildings - 160 Flame<br />
18 50 Gray warehouse floor - 155 Flame<br />
15 30 Rough gray concrete store roof - 150 Flame<br />
12 40 Pastel pink(?) indoor tile - 111 Flame<br />
8 255 Flowers<br />
<U> 6 50 Pink patterned carpet - Normal 20 Flame, DT 100 Flame _</U><br />
40 30 Sand. Crater objects add armor, HE Block, 4 TUs. CYDONIA<br />
<U> 100 NDT Green Start tiles. All others as for alien bases. _</U><br />
<U> 5 25 Sand DESERT</U><br />
5 255 Grass FARM<br />
10 255 Dirt and cultivated fields<br />
6 25 Wood floor - Flame 16<br />
6 25 25 Hay loft ground floor - Normal 12 Flame, DT 25 Flame<br />
10 255 Stable - Flame 10<br />
<u> 30 35 Cobblestone floor - 160 Flame _</u><br />
<U> 10 30 Light green weeds add 8 armor, 25-30 Flame FOREST</U><br />
<u> 8 30 Plants add armor and HEB; see Note 2 JUNGLE</u><br />
40 NDT Normal ground. Also see [[Explosions#Mile-High Madness|Mountain Madness]]. MOUNTAIN<br />
<u> 50 NDT 50 Solid mountain walls (full height) _</u><br />
15 80 Common pink(?) or gray floors, inc. Access Lift XCOM BASE<br />
10 80 Lighter tile in center of some common floors<br />
12 70 Blue floors<br />
<u> 16 80 Hangar floor _</u><br />
255 NDT 0 Ramp object. See Note 4. XCOM CRAFT<br />
255 NDT 0 Floor of craft<br />
<br />
<b>"Ini"</b> is initial tile armor; <b>"Ded"</b> is tile armor for the next ("dead") tile that appears after the initial one is blown away. If no tile is indicated (DeathTile=0), '''NDT''' is put. This means that raw earth will appear when the tile is killed, on ground level (or nothing does if above that, such as with UFO roof). Nothing is strong enough to break through Death Tiles with armor 255. Thus you can't break through artic ice to reveal raw earth, which makes sense. Basically anything over 100 (half the blaster's damage) cannot be broken through; thus elevators and start tiles (except in Cydonia surface!) are safe from explosions.<br />
<br />
'''Note 1:''' The inner UFO walls with "crown molding" have higher armor, and can be considered "security walls". The whole third level of battleship is this, and it's also found around the control room in large UFOs. Also, the darker doors without the line down their center are also higher strength. These are also generally found in secure areas; the top of the battleship elevator is ringed by them. These strong doors are also found in a few interesting places such as the entrance to the "engine room" on the bottom floor of the Supply Ship (even though the walls there are not security walls).<br />
<br />
Most solid floors etc. have no flame ("Flammable") value. Most plants and human buildings do. Some tiles look weird, but make sense when you think about it. For example, cobblestone in farms has a high flame value - but it's found as the first floor of wooden buildings. Also ('''Note 2:''') Most largish plants (shrubs and larger) had HE Block values. The jungle, in particular, has many full trees with HE Block of 20. Don't ask me why the hay loft ground floor has HEB=25.<br />
<br />
There are a number of small objects that add armor to a tile. Example: Rocks in the desert are separate objects, with 20 armor. But snakes and bones are just painted onto a common desert tile; they are not separate objects nor do they add anything to the tile properties. Generally, anything that adds TUs also adds armor and possibly HE Block and Flammability. Most objects (including walls) that block movement add armor and HE Block, as well.<br />
<br />
'''Note 3''' (from Blast Diameters): For what it's worth, the effects of e.g. wheat and flowers in the farm map are actually ''added'' to the base tile (and '''add''' TUs to it). They are separate objects in addition to the ground tile. The additional TU costs can be seen in MapView, such as 2 (i.e., +2) for wheat. They also have their own armor ratings. Thus the wheat itself has Initial Armor 6, DT Armor 50 (this one shows burnt crops), which then goes to another DT (dirt) of Armor 255. But the tile it's on has Initial Armor 10, then goes directly to the same final DT as wheat (Armor 255). What happens is that wheat tiles go directly to their DT if blast strength is 60+, or to burnt crops if 60 > strength >= 6.<br />
<br />
'''Note 4:''' All ramp-section objects add 4 TUs to underlying terrain ''except'' the middle and top of Avenger's ramp only adds 2 TUs. I think Danial has pointed this out before. Also see [[Explosions#Mile-High Madness|Mountain Madness]].<br />
<br />
Take these values as a rough guide. Some were hard to tell apart. If you want to do research on a particular tile, please double-check MapView before spending a lot of time on it! ''- [[User:MikeTheRed|MTR]]<br />
<br />
= Experience Points =<br />
<br />
Experience that may be gained with explosives is as follows.<br />
<br />
Any alien (not under mind control) caught in a blast radius will give experience points toward [[Firing Accuracy]]. So one blast can give many Firing experience points (XPs). It does not matter if the alien was not harmed (i.e., damage was blocked by armor); you still get experience points if they were in the blast radius. Mind controlled aliens are considered friendly and do not give experience points.<br />
<br />
Note that if no one actually throws a thrown explosive (it's merely dropped), your first soldier gets the Firing Accuracy experience (even if a tank or if dead!). Thrown objects are attributed to the last person to throw them, or default to your first soldier "slot" if no one threw it. Your tanks always occupy the first slot(s) (but enemy tanks such as the cyberdisc do not occupy your first slot). Keep this attribution in mind when using the [[Grenade Relay]], if you're trying to pass Firing experience around. As it were.<br />
<br />
The [[Small Launcher]]'s "explosive" stun bomb also gives Firing experience. Again, even if aliens did not actually fall unconscious (or receive any stun at all). Stun bomb radius in desert terrain is 5, diameter 11.<br />
<br />
If thrown, one [[Throwing Accuracy]] experience point will be given. This holds true for throwing anything, explosive or not.<br />
<br />
If you make a reaction shot with a projectile explosive, you will receive one [[Reactions]] experience point, even if many aliens were hit by the blast (giving you many Firing XPs). Technically, you were only reacting to the movement of one of the aliens.<br />
<br />
To see how experience points translate into skill points (when combat ends), see [[Experience#How Experience Points Are Applied|here]].<br />
<br />
'''NOTE:''' The [[Proximity Grenade]] does NOT give Firing experience to the thrower. Instead, it gives Firing experience <i>to the person that triggers it to explode</i>. Keep this in mind because this tends to make it a poor choice, especially early in the game (SIGH!).<br />
<br />
= Playing With Fire =<br />
<br />
'''Hacking HE versus Blast Diameters<br />
----<br />
Hacking HE ([[OBDATA.DAT]][22]) shows that explosion patterns fall into 2 or 3 categories:<br />
* All projectile explosives (AC, HC, S & L Rocket, and probably Rocket Tank) have "constrained" patterns that are always smaller than expected - their blasts never "die away to nothing" at their edge. They also continue to have an ever-increasing outline (larger diameter) for as high as HE can be hacked.<br />
* All grenades (standard, alien, prox, Hi-Ex) have "natural" blast patterns that '''do''' "die away to nothing" at their edge - up to HE 61. At 62, it takes on a fixed pattern which shows some "constraint" in the sense of not being what would naturally be expected. At this point it is radius 6, diameter 13. And then their pattern never changes (i.e. enlarges) past what is seen at 62, even if you increase HE all the way up to 255. Even much higher than HE 62, grenades' pattern is still only radius 6.<br />
* Guided weapons (blaster and presumably fusion tank) follow the same pattern as grenades '''but''' their blast pattern continues to grow in size, until one reaches 112 (radius 11, diameter 23). At this point it too becomes fixed, no matter how much higher HE is hacked.<br />
Thus blast radii and diameters can be described with these equations:<br />
<u>Type</u> <u>Radius</u> <u>Diameter</u> <u>Pattern Limit Reached At</u><br />
Projectile Explosives INT(HE/20)+1 2*INT(HE/20)+3 HE 240 (r=13, d=27)<br />
Grenades and Guided Weapons INT((HE-2)/10) INT((HE-2)/5)+1 Grenades: HE 62 (r= 6, d=13)<br />
Guided: HE 112 (r=11, d=23)<br />
<br />
For the above, ''only'' the blast pattern a.k.a. "outline" is being talked about. ''Within'' the blast pattern, all explosives follow the expected, simple rules of: Average HE at ground zero, decreasing by 10 per tile outward (for damage to units; by 5 for damage to terrain), and all points (and explosive strength there) can be described in terms of distance from GZ using the [[Explosions#Distance from Ground Zero|"walking TUs"]] method.<br />
<br />
These properties of hacked explosive strength lead to the following observations:<br />
*Since there is only one (unhacked) grenade or guided weapon with an HE rating less than the point of its "radius of constraint", only the humble grenade shows a quite round, "natural" blast pattern outline. It's the only explosive that truly decreases to 0 all around its edge (although the prox mine comes very close).<br />
*On the flip side of that, as HE gets larger and larger (with or without hacking), the edge of blast patterns becomes more and more lethal. It's easy to see that this would happen with grenades and guided weapons - their diameter no longer increases, even when increasing their explosive power. But hacked projectiles are also dangerous at their edge - even though it is not constrained, per se - because their radii only increase by one every ''20'' HE, even though damage only decreases by ''10'' per tile. Thus, they ''increase'' by 10 at their edge (+20, -10) each time their radius increases.<br />
*Here are some examples of maximally-hacked blast edges, versus the worst seen in an unhacked game:<br />
**A grenade hacked to HE 255 has an average of 195 HE at its edge (r=6, d=13)<br />
**A guided weapon at HE 255 has an average of 145 HE at its edge (r=11, d=23)<br />
**A projectile explosive at HE 255 has an average of 125 HE at its edge (r=13, d=27)<br />
**[[Explosions#HE_Statistics|Compare]] how the most dangerous unhacked example is a blaster (HE 200), which is 90 average HE at its edge (r=11, d=23)...<br />
**But the second-worst case is Hi-Ex (HE 110), which is 50 at its edge, because it is a grenade constrained to just r=6, d=13. ('''Not''' the Fusion Tank at HE 140, because guided missiles can be up to r=11.)<br />
*Many blast patterns have the same r=6 outline in an unhacked game. This is because all but one grenade is constrained to this, plus one of the projectile patterns (for Large Rocket, HE 100) happens to precisely coincide with this, as well (as it would for any projectile with HE 100-119).<br />
*If a stun bomb (stun strength 90) is hacked to be an explosive (OBDATA[31]=2), it too follows the pattern for projectile explosives. This includes if its HE is also then hacked.<br />
<br />
Presumably, the pattern type is determined by whether something has the OBDATA grenade type set, or it is ammo, or it is guided.<br />
<br />
Examples of the patterns (both real and hacked) and the walking TUs map can be found in an Excel file [http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=280&t=8701&st=116# here].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Hacking HE versus Explosion Sounds<br />
----<br />
When HE is hacked, there are two types of sound heard:<br />
*The small "whoomf" up to HE 80, and<br />
*The big bone-jarring explosion heard at HE 81+.<br />
Another thing is seen:<br />
<br />
In addition to the projectile-launch sound each type of projectile weapon makes, the [[Auto Cannon]] and [[Heavy Cannon]] also do a slightly odd thing: if hacked to HE from 74 to 80, they make the "whoomf" sound twice when they explode.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Hacking HE versus Walls<br />
----<br />
The [[Blaster Bomb]] is the only thing capable of blasting through a UFO outer hull (walls and roof). It does exactly 200 damage at the epicenter and only ever knocks out one tile. <br />
<br />
When we boost the power of the humble [[High Explosive]] with a game editor we see the following:<br />
<br />
*190 for HE strength is not enough to bust a hull open. <br />
*200 is, but only one tile wide. <br />
*210 opens up a hole 3 tiles wide<br />
*220 opens up a hole 5 tiles wide.<br />
<br />
For every 10 points of HE strength above 200, it adds 2 to the width of the hole. <br />
<br />
''- reposted from NKF/Jasonred/Zombie discussion, strategycore forums 2005 -[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]]<br />
<br />
= Mile-High Madness =<br />
Mountains have the inherent weirdness that they "weaken" some structures, as pointed out by NKF, BombBloke, and others. For example, a Blaster explosion on the ground below an XCOM craft will destroy its ramp and landing struts, in mountain terrain. Ordinarily, these objects are indestructible (armor=255) for all three troop transports. You can even take them or outer UFO walls out with an alien grenade - anything that's enough to destroy tile armor 40 (=HE 80+). <br />
<br />
The reason for this unusual behavior is seen by using MapView. It seems that XCOM programmers accidentally pointed to an ''object'' instead of a ''tile'' for the death tile of mountain terrain. It looks like they pointed to MCD id 76 (a stump object) when they should've pointed to MCD id 77 (scorched mountain ground tile). Perhaps someone stuck in an extra tile without keeping an eye on the pointers. In any event, this object only has armor of 20. It is theorized that when mountain terrain is destroyed (armor=40), the stump object then erroneously replaces e.g. the craft ramp, and then the explosion is also enough to take out that object. Note that the code for explosions appears to process ground first and then process objects; this must be how the inadvertent stump object also gets destroyed. (Otherwise is should've been seen all along the outer edge of a blaster explosion, where the blaster's tile-damage strength is less than 60; see [[Explosions#Blast Propagation|Blast Propagation]].)<br />
<br />
Conversely, if you shoot a weapon at mountain ground terrain, you will see the stump. This is presumably because shots are "directed" at ground alone and only destroy the ground tile, whereas explosions are checked against everything in a square (ground, two walls, and object, if any). You can even turn craft ramps and gear into stumps, if you try hard enough. Most shots will hit the ramp instead of ground, but eventually one will miss and hit the ground, turning the ramp into a stump!<br />
<br />
This strange behavior is also seen on flat mountaintops. All the common flat mountain ground tiles point to the wrong death MCD id.<br />
<br />
A final oddity due to the incorrect tile is that mountain ground destroyed in an explosion will burn for three turns. Most common ground tiles have 0 Flammability and will not burn after a "regular" explosion. (They'll burn if hit by incendiaries, though.) This is because the stump object has Flammability=14 and is set to burn for 3 turns.<br />
<br />
= See Also =<br />
<br />
*[[Damage]]<br />
*[[Firing Accuracy]]<br />
*[[Throwing Accuracy]] (including throwing distance)<br />
*[[Reactions]]<br />
*[[Weapons (UFO Defense)|Weapons]]<br />
**'''Thrown Explosives'''<br />
***[[Grenade]]<br />
***[[Proximity Grenade]]<br />
***[[Alien Grenade]]<br />
***[[High Explosive]]<br />
**'''Projectile Explosives'''<br />
***[[Auto Cannon]]<br />
***[[Heavy Cannon]]<br />
***[[Rocket Launcher]]<br />
***[[Tank/Rocket Launcher]] a.k.a. Rocket Tank<br />
***[[Small Launcher]] a.k.a. Stun Bomb<br />
**'''Guided Explosives'''<br />
***[[Hovertank/Launcher]] a.k.a. Fusion Tank<br />
***[[Blaster Launcher]]<br />
*[[Health]]<br />
*[[Fatal Wounds]]<br />
*[[Equipment (UFO Defense)|Armor]]<br />
*[[Experience]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:U_PODS_04.gif&diff=5448File:U PODS 04.gif2006-01-07T23:08:36Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:U_PODS_00.gif&diff=5447File:U PODS 00.gif2006-01-07T23:03:00Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Mars_(Cydonia)_Terrain&diff=5365Mars (Cydonia) Terrain2005-12-30T01:09:20Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[image:terrain-mars.gif|right|Mars Terrain]]<br />
This terrain is used exclusively for the first [[Cydonia#Mars:_Cydonia_Landing|Cydonia mission]]. It is essentially a modified version of the [[Desert Terrain|desert terrain]]. The primary modification comes in the form of four large Pyramids. Each Pyramid has a different internal structure: a 4-way tunnel, a control room, a two-storeyed layout, and the green lift that will take your troops underground. The other new feature on Cydonia are the creaters, which, although they look quite small, do provide cover for Aliens.<br />
<br />
<br clear="all"><br />
==Battle Notes==<br />
*Be wary of Pyramid doorways as Sectoids have a habit of popping out, shooting at your men, and then hiding again.<br />
*Craters can, and do, provide cover for Aliens.<br />
*Use the Pyramids to your advantage as the Cyberdiscs cannot enter them.<br />
*One Pyramid layout provides a windowed 2nd-storey which is perfect for sniping.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
[[Mars]]<br />
<br />
[[Cydonia#Mars:_Cydonia_Landing|Cydonia]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Terrain]]</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Category_talk:Terrain&diff=5247Category talk:Terrain2005-12-28T23:56:48Z<p>Danial: </p>
<hr />
<div>I sais this in the Terrain page, but I think you need some sort of prefix or suffix to distinguish the terrain pages from other pages, such as [[Mars]]. I'd suggest either "Terrain - Farm" or "Farm Terrain" as possible alternatives.<br />
<br />
--[[User:Danial|Danial]] 15:53, 28 December 2005 (PST)<br />
----</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Category_talk:Terrain&diff=5242Category talk:Terrain2005-12-28T23:53:45Z<p>Danial: </p>
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<div>I sais this in the Terrain page, but I think you need some sort of prefix or suffix to distinguish the terrain pages from other pages, such as [[Mars]].<br />
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--[[User:Danial|Danial]] 15:53, 28 December 2005 (PST)<br />
----</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Time_Units&diff=5237Talk:Time Units2005-12-28T23:52:13Z<p>Danial: </p>
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<div>Question: Is the TU usage for urban and rural items different? I see entries about broken urban fences, or Urban Garden Beds, but nothing for the rural equivalents.<br />
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The TU Usage is based on each tile's MCD data. The Farm terrain doesn't have fences or garden beds. It does however have a wheat field, which is in the list.<br />
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--[[User:Danial|Danial]] 15:52, 28 December 2005 (PST)<br />
----</div>Danialhttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=File:Terrain-xbase.gif&diff=5219File:Terrain-xbase.gif2005-12-28T23:00:41Z<p>Danial: X-COm Base Terrain</p>
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<div>X-COm Base Terrain</div>Danial