https://www.ufopaedia.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Phasma+Felis&feedformat=atomUFOpaedia - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T20:17:38ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.35.4https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Seb76&diff=15687User talk:Seb762008-06-18T19:42:25Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>Hey, sorry to pester you again. :) I've gotten access to IDA, as you suggested, and with it I'm making some slow progress toward my mod. I wanted to ask, though, do you know of any sort of tutorial or useful intro for it? The user interface is pretty obtuse, the built-in help has nothing useful, and I've been struggling just to make comments go where I want them to.<br />
<br />
(I mean, I understand that it's meant for very advanced users, but Jesus, who writes an enterprise-grade utility and doesn't bother to implement an Undo function?!?)<br />
<br />
Thanks again for your help! [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 23:15, 16 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
<br />
Okay, a little more progress since I discovered anterior comments. Couple of more specific questions: what's the difference between a "comment" and a "repeatable comment"? Or any of the several other types of comments, for that matter.<br />
<br />
What exactly does "mov cs:word_102F9, ax" do? At first I thought it was just copying the accumulator into the data word at 02F9, but the "cs:" part is confusing. word_102F9 is 0, I think ("seg000:02F9 word_102F9 dw 0"). Does that mean it's copying AX into the current code segment, offset 0, modifying the code in progress? That seems odd.<br />
<br />
Okay, one more and then I'll go to bed: what does "jmp short $+2" do? It looks like it just means "jump to next instruction", which is kinda redundant, but it could be "jump ''over'' next instruction", which...still seems unnecessarily verbose. I dunno. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 00:51, 17 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: The last two questions are actually general Intel 16-bit assembly ;)<br />
<br />
: The cs in "mov cs:word_102F9, ax" is the 16-bit code segment base, yes. It *might* be self-modifying code, but more likely there is a C global or static variable that was implemented there and being updated. The "seg000:02F9 word_102F9 dw 0" is probably from C default initialization, but could be from an explicit initialization to 0.<br />
::Back in the 16bit days, there were several memory models. My knowledge on this is quite rusty, but IIRC COM executables were using the "tiny" one which means that the code and data use the same segment (I assume you're working on the music TSR?). Modification of data via the CS segment is not necessarily self-modifying code. Also TSRs were usually signaled using software interruptions so the code most likely sets up an interrupt vector and bails out. e.g.:<br />
seg000:0140 mov dx, 157h<br />
seg000:0143 push ds<br />
seg000:0144 push cs<br />
seg000:0145 pop ds<br />
seg000:0146 mov ax, 2566h<br />
seg000:0149 int 21h ; DOS - SET INTERRUPT VECTOR<br />
seg000:0149 ; AL = interrupt number<br />
seg000:0149 ; DS:DX = new vector to be used for specified interrupt<br />
seg000:014B pop ds<br />
seg000:014C call sub_1067A<br />
seg000:014F mov dx, ax<br />
seg000:0151 mov ax, 3100h<br />
seg000:0154 int 21h ; DOS - DOS 2+ - TERMINATE BUT STAY RESIDENT<br />
seg000:0154 start endp ; AL = exit code, DX = program size, in paragraphs<br />
<br />
::In this example (from music.com), there is code at 157h but IDA does not detect it. You can get there, type 'C' and create a new function. The code there is the most important. HTH [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 12:10, 17 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: "jmp short $+2" is jump over the next instruction, if the next instruction is 2 bytes. This probably came from an if-then-else in C (it's a common idiom in translating C to assembly). -- [[User:Zaimoni|Zaimoni]], 12:36 Jun 17 2008 CDT<br />
<br />
:: I can see several instances of this in music.com for simple "return value" functions. Most likely a "feature" of the compiler. If used for padding, it is equivalent to 2 nop instructions, but takes only one cycle to execute. This was before deeply pipelined processors though ;-) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 12:10, 17 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Yeah, I sidelined off IDA onto general assembly there :) Probably a good thing, means I'm getting used to it. Sort of.<br />
<br />
(Holy crap. I just discovered that hitting "P" (Create Function) in the right place is all it takes to enable graph display mode and give me a vast, improbably pretty flowchart of, well, a lot of stuff. I'd been wondering how to make that work.)<br />
<br />
Anyway! Seb, you're correct, I'm working on the music TSR. I've pretty much figured out how the entry code works, setting up an interrupt vector and terminating, which I think is decent progress for three days' experience with x86 assembler. I did find a web reference to "jmp short $+2" [http://www.programmersheaven.com/mb/x86_asm/484/484/ReadMessage.aspx here], which suggests that it's "used to clear the cache, before going in or out of protected mode". Not entirely sure what clearing the cache does, but it's good to know.<br />
<br />
Thanks to the both of you for your help. Seb, do you mind if I continue to ask questions here? I don't know where else it should go. Maybe we need a "ridiculous hacking ideas" section of the wiki... ;) [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 01:10, 18 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Hehe, sounds like fun. When I can find time to write a dll injector, I may add some stuff to it ;-) I'd start with increasing the max number of smoke entries. (Not possible right off the bat because it's using a static array instead of malloc-ed data :( ). Other ideas: fix the proxmine bugs, or maybe the disjoint base bug. I found the piece of code and it is not a simple "off by one" issue so it cannot just be patched in place... [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 12:22, 18 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::Yeah, there's a lot of bugs and odd behaviors that could be fixed by just using larger arrays somehow. The 80-item limit causes all sorts of problems, the smoke limit, the 20-armed-proxmine limit...I wouldn't mind having more than 8 bases in the late game...stuff like that. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 12:42, 18 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User:Phasma_Felis&diff=15685User:Phasma Felis2008-06-18T08:14:05Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>Hey, all. I'd never heard of X-COM until a few years ago, when a message board I read suddenly became obsessed with it. It's a fantastic game with really amazing depth for its time.<br />
<br />
I've seen that there are a lot of modern gamers who are really interested in playing X-COM, but don't have the skills or patience to jump through configuration hoops or use command-line utilities to get the best, most bug-free performance out of it. My goal is to make a launcher/mod that maximises accessibility and easy of use for modern users, optionally including various popular mods. I'm probably going to be using the DOS version as a base, since (via DOSBox) it's much more portable than the Collector's Edition, and doesn't have any problems with Vista.<br />
<br />
My immediate project is a user-friendly patch that adds [http://www.xcomufo.com/x1music.html PlayStation CD music] and the original alien-scream sounds to the DOS 1.4 version. If you want to help, or have ideas or suggestions, let me know! [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 20:44, 6 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
Here's some notes to myself about my work.<br />
<br />
[http://www.programmersheaven.com/mb/x86_asm/484/484/ReadMessage.aspx Explanation of "jmp short $+2"]</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Seb76&diff=15684User talk:Seb762008-06-18T08:10:12Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>Hey, sorry to pester you again. :) I've gotten access to IDA, as you suggested, and with it I'm making some slow progress toward my mod. I wanted to ask, though, do you know of any sort of tutorial or useful intro for it? The user interface is pretty obtuse, the built-in help has nothing useful, and I've been struggling just to make comments go where I want them to.<br />
<br />
(I mean, I understand that it's meant for very advanced users, but Jesus, who writes an enterprise-grade utility and doesn't bother to implement an Undo function?!?)<br />
<br />
Thanks again for your help! [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 23:15, 16 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
<br />
Okay, a little more progress since I discovered anterior comments. Couple of more specific questions: what's the difference between a "comment" and a "repeatable comment"? Or any of the several other types of comments, for that matter.<br />
<br />
What exactly does "mov cs:word_102F9, ax" do? At first I thought it was just copying the accumulator into the data word at 02F9, but the "cs:" part is confusing. word_102F9 is 0, I think ("seg000:02F9 word_102F9 dw 0"). Does that mean it's copying AX into the current code segment, offset 0, modifying the code in progress? That seems odd.<br />
<br />
Okay, one more and then I'll go to bed: what does "jmp short $+2" do? It looks like it just means "jump to next instruction", which is kinda redundant, but it could be "jump ''over'' next instruction", which...still seems unnecessarily verbose. I dunno. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 00:51, 17 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: The last two questions are actually general Intel 16-bit assembly ;)<br />
<br />
: The cs in "mov cs:word_102F9, ax" is the 16-bit code segment base, yes. It *might* be self-modifying code, but more likely there is a C global or static variable that was implemented there and being updated. The "seg000:02F9 word_102F9 dw 0" is probably from C default initialization, but could be from an explicit initialization to 0.<br />
::Back in the 16bit days, there were several memory models. My knowledge on this is quite rusty, but IIRC COM executables were using the "tiny" one which means that the code and data use the same segment (I assume you're working on the music TSR?). Modification of data via the CS segment is not necessarily self-modifying code. Also TSRs were usually signaled using software interruptions so the code most likely sets up an interrupt vector and bails out. e.g.:<br />
seg000:0140 mov dx, 157h<br />
seg000:0143 push ds<br />
seg000:0144 push cs<br />
seg000:0145 pop ds<br />
seg000:0146 mov ax, 2566h<br />
seg000:0149 int 21h ; DOS - SET INTERRUPT VECTOR<br />
seg000:0149 ; AL = interrupt number<br />
seg000:0149 ; DS:DX = new vector to be used for specified interrupt<br />
seg000:014B pop ds<br />
seg000:014C call sub_1067A<br />
seg000:014F mov dx, ax<br />
seg000:0151 mov ax, 3100h<br />
seg000:0154 int 21h ; DOS - DOS 2+ - TERMINATE BUT STAY RESIDENT<br />
seg000:0154 start endp ; AL = exit code, DX = program size, in paragraphs<br />
<br />
::In this example (from music.com), there is code at 157h but IDA does not detect it. You can get there, type 'C' and create a new function. The code there is the most important. HTH [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 12:10, 17 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: "jmp short $+2" is jump over the next instruction, if the next instruction is 2 bytes. This probably came from an if-then-else in C (it's a common idiom in translating C to assembly). -- [[User:Zaimoni|Zaimoni]], 12:36 Jun 17 2008 CDT<br />
<br />
:: I can see several instances of this in music.com for simple "return value" functions. Most likely a "feature" of the compiler. If used for padding, it is equivalent to 2 nop instructions, but takespp only one cycle to execute. This was before deeply pipelined processors though ;-) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 12:10, 17 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Yeah, I sidelined off IDA onto general assembly there :) Probably a good thing, means I'm getting used to it. Sort of.<br />
<br />
(Holy crap. I just discovered that hitting "P" (Create Function) in the right place is all it takes to enable graph display mode and give me a vast, improbably pretty flowchart of, well, a lot of stuff. I'd been wondering how to make that work.)<br />
<br />
Anyway! Seb, you're correct, I'm working on the music TSR. I've pretty much figured out how the entry code works, setting up an interrupt vector and terminating, which I think is decent progress for three days' experience with x86 assembler. I did find a web reference to "jmp short $+2" [http://www.programmersheaven.com/mb/x86_asm/484/484/ReadMessage.aspx here], which suggests that it's "used to clear the cache, before going in or out of protected mode". Not entirely sure what clearing the cache does, but it's good to know.<br />
<br />
Thanks to the both of you for your help. Seb, do you mind if I continue to ask questions here? I don't know where else it should go. Maybe we need a "ridiculous hacking ideas" section of the wiki... ;) [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 01:10, 18 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Seb76&diff=15672User talk:Seb762008-06-17T07:51:51Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>Hey, sorry to pester you again. :) I've gotten access to IDA, as you suggested, and with it I'm making some slow progress toward my mod. I wanted to ask, though, do you know of any sort of tutorial or useful intro for it? The user interface is pretty obtuse, the built-in help has nothing useful, and I've been struggling just to make comments go where I want them to.<br />
<br />
(I mean, I understand that it's meant for very advanced users, but Jesus, who writes an enterprise-grade utility and doesn't bother to implement an Undo function?!?)<br />
<br />
Thanks again for your help! [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 23:15, 16 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
<br />
Okay, a little more progress since I discovered anterior comments. Couple of more specific questions: what's the difference between a "comment" and a "repeatable comment"? Or any of the several other types of comments, for that matter.<br />
<br />
What exactly does "mov cs:word_102F9, ax" do? At first I thought it was just copying the accumulator into the data word at 02F9, but the "cs:" part is confusing. word_102F9 is 0, I think ("seg000:02F9 word_102F9 dw 0"). Does that mean it's copying AX into the current code segment, offset 0, modifying the code in progress? That seems odd.<br />
<br />
Okay, one more and then I'll go to bed: what does "jmp short $+2" do? It looks like it just means "jump to next instruction", which is kinda redundant, but it could be "jump ''over'' next instruction", which...still seems unnecessarily verbose. I dunno. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 00:51, 17 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Seb76&diff=15671User talk:Seb762008-06-17T07:44:10Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>Hey, sorry to pester you again. :) I've gotten access to IDA, as you suggested, and with it I'm making some slow progress toward my mod. I wanted to ask, though, do you know of any sort of tutorial or useful intro for it? The user interface is pretty obtuse, the built-in help has nothing useful, and I've been struggling just to make comments go where I want them to.<br />
<br />
(I mean, I understand that it's meant for very advanced users, but Jesus, who writes an enterprise-grade utility and doesn't bother to implement an Undo function?!?)<br />
<br />
Thanks again for your help! [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 23:15, 16 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Okay, a little more progress since I discovered anterior comments. Couple of more specific questions: what's the difference between a "comment" and a "repeatable comment"? Or any of the several other types of comments, for that matter.<br />
<br />
What exactly does "mov cs:word_102F9, ax" do? At first I thought it was just copying the accumulator into the data word at 02F9, but the "cs:" part is confusing. word_102F9 is 0, I think ("seg000:02F9 word_102F9 dw 0"). Does that mean it's copying AX into the current code segment, offset 0, modifying the code in progress? That seems odd. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 00:44, 17 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Seb76&diff=15670User talk:Seb762008-06-17T07:13:57Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>Hey, sorry to pester you again. :) I've gotten access to IDA, as you suggested, and with it I'm making some slow progress toward my mod. I wanted to ask, though, do you know of any sort of tutorial or useful intro for it? The user interface is pretty obtuse, the built-in help has nothing useful, and I've been struggling just to make comments go where I want them to.<br />
<br />
(I mean, I understand that it's meant for very advanced users, but Jesus, who writes an enterprise-grade utility and doesn't bother to implement an Undo function?!?)<br />
<br />
Thanks again for your help! [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 23:15, 16 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Okay, a little more progress since I discovered anterior comments. Immediate question: what's the difference between a "comment" and a "repeatable comment"? Or any of the several other types of comments, for that matter. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 00:13, 17 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Seb76&diff=15668User talk:Seb762008-06-17T06:15:41Z<p>Phasma Felis: New page: Hey, sorry to pester you again. :) I've gotten access to IDA, as you suggested, and with it I'm making some slow progress toward my mod. I wanted to ask, though, do you know of any sort of...</p>
<hr />
<div>Hey, sorry to pester you again. :) I've gotten access to IDA, as you suggested, and with it I'm making some slow progress toward my mod. I wanted to ask, though, do you know of any sort of tutorial or useful intro for it? The user interface is pretty obtuse, the built-in help has nothing useful, and I've been struggling just to make comments go where I want them to.<br />
<br />
(I mean, I understand that it's meant for very advanced users, but Jesus, who writes an enterprise-grade utility and doesn't bother to implement an Undo function?!?)<br />
<br />
Thanks again for your help! [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 23:15, 16 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Sightings_in_other_fandoms&diff=15667Sightings in other fandoms2008-06-17T06:04:00Z<p>Phasma Felis: /* In Civilization */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{tocright}}<br />
<br />
Anything referring to X-Com or has elements from a X-com in another game, or fandom, go here!<br />
<br />
== Sound In Pokemon? ==<br />
I was watching some old skool pokemon the other day, and while watching episode 22 "Abra and The Psychic Pokemon" I heard a sound from x-com as the kids go through the gym doors! To hear fpr yourself go here: http://www.animegiant.com/pokemon-series/ then click on playlist at the bottom. Scroll along till you find the aforementioned episode, Then at 7:10 and roughly 7:14 or 7:15, listen as they go through the doors! I can't desribe the sound, and I have no idea what game its from, but I instantly though X-Com when I heard it!<br />
<br />
: Actually, X-Com uses a lot of stock industry sound effects. For example, in UFO: the hovertank uses the siren from the Inspector Gadget opening theme. The plasma beam sounds like the Doom series BFG9000 (along with one of the deathscreams pre v1.4 that sounds like the death scream of one of the tougher Doom enemies). Some door opening sounds and energy weapon blasts can be heard in big budget movies and TV series like Star Wars and Star Trek. Millions of cartoons not-withstanding. Also check out a few of the stock sound effect packs that come with some early version of Windows - they've got a lot of the menu sound effects that are used in TFTD. Still, it's much fun spotting these wherever you can. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 14:29, 15 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
There was a thread somewhere on SC which covered this, but try as I might I can't find it. - [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 04:22, 16 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== In Civilization ==<br />
<br />
In Civ II the Sectoid made it into one of the short videos associated with one of the wonders. Don't ask me which, can't remember, I think it was the SETI one. Only certain versions of the game included the videos on the disc.<br />
<br />
There was also an expansion pack, ''Fantastic Worlds'', which included an entire X-Com scenario.<br />
<br />
Civ IV included (will include?) a homage in the form of ''Afterworld'', included with the ''Beyond the Sword'' expansion.<br />
<br />
The expanded version of Civ II (not the expansion - if that makes sense) called 'Test of Time' has a very cool remix of the 'losing' theme from UFO as part of its soundtrack. <br><br />
[[Media:UFOLose.zip]]<br />
<br />
:You sure it was a Sectoid specifically? I mean, they're pretty much just Greys, and Greys have been around for decades. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 23:04, 16 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== X-Gum ==<br />
<br />
According to [http://xcom.strategyplanet.gamespy.com/wxs.shtml XCommand], this stuff was actually sold by Uniconfis Corporation (See link for higher resolution originals).<br />
<br />
[[image:wxs1x1_small.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Front]][[image:wxs1x2_small.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Back]]</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Zombie&diff=15635User talk:Zombie2008-06-12T17:57:23Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>Here is a recent discussion from the main page about images. Instead of deleting it, I decided to add it to my talk page. Conclusion reached was that PNG's are the preferred image chice for the wiki as most X-COM screenshots are well-suited to this format and are smaller than a GIF. JPEG's should only be considered for pictures as the quality sucks. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 13:45, 25 June 2006 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== Image Types ==<br />
I was fooling around with images today and decided I should show everyone what an image looks like in a particular format. Just for this example, I used the Level 0 view of the Small Scout. Here are the images (don't peek, just look at them and try to figure out which is which for now):<br />
<br />
<center>[[Image:Scout GIF.GIF|GIF image]] [[Image:Scout PNG.PNG|PNG image]] [[Image:Scout JPEG.JPG|JPEG image]]</center><br />
<br />
From what I can tell, the image quality of a GIF and a PNG is minimal. Both look very good. The PNG image seems a tad bit lighter over the GIF, though. Not bad. But compare either a GIF or a PNG with a JPEG and there is a huge difference. The JPEG has "artifacts" strewn all over the place and has a "mottled" appearance. Ugh! Terrible! That's all for the image quality aspect. (So does anyone know the technical difference between a GIF and a PNG? Please explain.)<br />
<br />
Let's move on to size. The GIF image is usually the largest in size. In this case the GIF image of the Scout example is 7897 bytes. The JPEG is 6784 bytes (or 86% of the GIF) while the PNG is 6090 bytes (or 77% of the GIF).<br />
<br />
Finally, compare size against image quality. PNG wins hands down. Not only is it smaller in size, but it also has an image quality equaling that of a GIF. JPEGs are smaller than a GIF but the image quality sucks. Granted, in some instances a JPEG is fine (especially if the background is a dark color), but in all the comparisons I did they were bad.<br />
<br />
So, have you figured out what is what? The first image is a GIF, the second is a PNG and the third is a JPEG. <br />
<br />
I implore everyone to consider uploading either a GIF or a PNG image type over a JPEG. The quality is better in those formats. If you have a choice, PNG is better because of the size on disc. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 19:40, 11 June 2006 (PDT)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
The most important difference between PNG and GIF is GIFs can only use 256 colors. I think most graphics from Enemy Unknown are in 8-bit color, so it doesn't cause a problem, but if you ever converted a normal photo to GIF, it'd look horrendous. PNGs can handle "truecolor" (24-bit), and as you said, they tend to compress better too.<br />
<br />
JPGs can have different "quality settings" which reduce the artifacts but increase file size. JPG tends to compress photos better than PNG, but PNG is great for non-natural images, such as cartoons or computer graphics. For graphics pulled from X-COM, PNG is probably best.<br />
<br />
--[[User:Ethereal Cereal|Ethereal Cereal]] 21:43, 11 June 2006 (PDT)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
PNG's can vary in size depending on the size of the palette used. A standard 256 colour image would allow PNGs to be more or less the same if not better than GIFs. 'True Colour' PNGs are generally abominations. <br />
<br />
For more information on the PNG format: [http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/ Portable Network Graphics ]<br />
<br />
GIF and PNG provide lossless compression while Jpeg's offer lossy compression. GIF and PNGs are best used when the image is generally small and contains a limited number of colours. X-Com screenshots fit this bill perfectly. <br />
<br />
Jpegs tend to lose image accuracy every time you save the image and it gets worse the higher you set the compression. However, that said, Jpegs are best used when your image is full of colour and minor losses in image quality will not matter. <br />
<br />
For example, the above pictures are best done with GIF/PNGs (especially if you intend to include transparent pixels). However if you had a cut out shot of the action in the battlescape, it probably wouldn't matter too much if it were saved as a Jpeg. <br />
<br />
Now if you want an image with transparency pixels, you will most definitely pick GIF and PNG. I actually hadn't realised the PNG format allowed tranparencies, but it does. <br />
<br />
Just use what's best for the occasion. <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
''In Which an Uneccessary Discussion of Formats Ensues''<br />
<br />
PNG's not only do transparency, but they are capable of doing alpha channel-- that is, partial transparency. A GIF can only do normal colors (completely opaque) or complete transparency. PNG's can do all this, as well as allowing color that are partially transparent (say, a red tint with the background showing through).<br />
<br />
I put this in mostly to hear myself talk. There are two limitations to these neato PNG effects:<br />
* For X-Com screen shots, it's not needed-- X-Com 1 and 2 never did such fancy tricks.<br />
* Alpha channel PNG's are, last I checked, not supported by Internet Explorer-- IE will let PNG's mimmick GIF-style transparency (that is, an 8-bit palette with all-or-nothing transparency), but nothing more sophisticated. Firefox and the Mozilla-derived browsers can do them (including Safari, I think), but it's not much good when most of the traffic is still using IE. Yes, I'm bitter about this.<br />
<br />
PNG's are in every respect superior to GIF's. In matters of compatibility and filesize, the PNG can be set to work just as well or better than GIF). The only reason you use GIFs is to cater to people with seriously archaic browsers. Widespread PNG support has been around for several years now.<br />
<br />
[http://entropymine.com/jason/testbed/pngtrans/ PNG transparency test]<br />
<br />
''Edit: IE7 does complete support for PNG alpha, but of course it's still in beta testing. Even when it's out of beta, sensible web designers will have to wait until the majority of users switch over to it to start designing with it in mind.''<br />
<br />
--[[User:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]] 20:36, 14 June 2006 (PDT)<br />
<br />
--------<br />
<br />
GIF was originally made waaaay back in the late 80's. The format recieved an update around 1990, but has not been upgraded since. (Although Microsoft Paint will save lossy GIFs, I don't think this is an attempt to restandardise the format).<br />
<br />
Later JPG came along, which really made high color images practical because it compressed so well. That compression came at a cost, however - quality is lost when you save a JPG file, <i>no matter how high you set the quality</i>.<br />
<br />
PNG was designed with the intention of replacing GIF. A lot of people started using it once the original GIF copyright ran out - It was re-registered by a company who demanded royalties for anyone who used the format! (Which would only have affected you if you lived in America - of course.)<br />
<br />
Although I gather that bit of patent madness has been overthrown, returning GIF to the populance at large, a lot of people still use PNG when possible. JPG files still yield better compression when images have a lot of color depth, however, PNG files do not lose color information, so it's the best format to use whenever quality is important.<br />
<br />
I'm not sure if PNG supports multiple images in the one file, however. We've all seen animating GIFs, but I'm sure I've never seen an animating PNG.<br />
<br />
One feature I've always wanted added to web browsers is the ability for HTML to referrence individual images loaded into GIF files. That way, you could put all the images into one file, as opposed to lots of little ones. This would improve page load times no end. One example where this would be useful is your average forum skin.<br />
<br />
- [[User:Bomb_Bloke|Bomb Bloke]]<br />
<br />
One attempt to animate PNG is MNG. However, development on that appears to have stopped in late 2004 when Mozilla abandoned the format (only one implementation, so hard to catch bugs in the specification).<br />
<br />
Regarding PNG transparency/IE5,6: I don't think this is completely portably solvable in MediaWiki. Even if (contrary to what I would expect; need to check documentation for other reasons) JavaScript was enabled in MediaWiki, the general solution is to use that JavaScript to define whether to use HTML-standard, or IE extensions that do render PNG transparency. I haven't tested how to do this with inline images [img tag], but it should be possible to do this inline. Background images require using the JavaScript to define a CSS class, which should be done in the head tag: disallowed.<br />
<br />
EDIT: MediaWiki Technical FAQ intimates that JavaScript should be stripped. So, cross-browser PNG transparency not possible by legitimate design for security.<br />
<br />
--[[User:Zaimoni|Zaimoni]] 11:49, 17 June 2006 (CDT)<br />
<br />
I just started a discussion on the main page about this--people are still adding nasty JPGs to the wiki, and I thought we should add a notice somewhere obvious. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 10:57, 12 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Main_Page&diff=15630Talk:Main Page2008-06-12T06:59:24Z<p>Phasma Felis: New section: Regarding image file formats</p>
<hr />
<div>__TOC__<br />
----<br />
<br />
Quick nitty gritty gribbly grabbly notes: <br />
<br />
* Template navigation toolbars for subsections. <br />
* Strategy by terrain notes? <br />
* Mention of bug where unit gets stuck in the corner of the map<br />
* Mention of bug where you reload a battlescape mission only to be on an invalid level and how to recover from it (use OHMap, go back down to legal level, click until you find the map again, save the game). Often happens after editting the game, strangely enough. Is it possible the game stores map camera coordinates as a file checksum or somesuch? <br />
<br />
<br />
::Blast! I must really remember to write my thoughts down here as often as possible. I've had many floaty lightbulb moments on what we're currently lacking/missing, and they're all gone. <br />
<br />
::- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
== Site Backups ==<br />
<br />
Ok, gents. Here's the scoop - straight from GazChap. The site is backed up every day, so there is basically no worry about losing everything if it should go down. The only thing that may be lost are transactions during that day when it is down. Normally there isn't much activity, but there is the occasional marathon editing session which some people partake in. ;)--[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 19:41, 9 June 2006 (PDT)<br />
----<br />
The server hosting the UFOpaedia experienced a few issues over the weekend, but nothing major. However, I've decided that being reliant on a third-party backup service is foolhardy - consequently I'm going to be installing my own backup solution to the server soon (hopefully within the next few days) that will backup all user-submitted data. If anyone would like to volunteer to receive additional backups via e-mail (no point me just having backups, if I get knocked down by a bus we'd be stuffed ;) ) then please contact me at gazchap at gmail dot com. --[[User:GazChap|GazChap]] 13:48, 31 July 2006 (BST)<br />
----<br />
<br />
If I could ask one necessary question on this score: Gaz (or others), what might we do, if the site goes down and we can't contact you? Who's the "backup" for you?<br />
<br />
Why do I ask?<br />
<br />
In mid July the Europa Universalis 3 (EU3) wiki went down (and indeed its location at that time still [http://europa-universalis.kerak.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page is]). On the EU3 [http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=314776&page=1&pp=20 forum], I (RedKnight7 there) kept asking when it would be back up. The forum regulars kept saying "the host is on vacation or something and will be back". To make a long story short, the wiki didn't come back up until two months later, at a different [http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Main_Page place]And I have yet to post a bunch of nice EU3 reference info because I moved on to other games in the meantime, in part because the wiki was down. (That was real sad because it was "prime time" for EU3... the game had recently come out, the wiki's down for weeks, and everybody's saying, "relax". So I relaxed on to other games.) Anyway. It still begs the question,<br />
<br />
We luv you for hosting this, Gaz. But can we ask for fallback plans?<br />
<br />
Ideas: Ask 2 or 3 of your bros, with server access (at work?), if they can be alternates. Then tell all the wiki admins who the alternates are (contact info) and instructions on just where the stuff is (in a way that makes sense to the alternates). OR, if you entirely trust 2 or 3 folks here give them the location, password, etc. OR, other possibilities are mirrors or access to site backups. OR maybe 2 or 3 wiki regulars are using a crawler (is that the word?) that regularly independently backs up the source. Or maybe even it can all be snagged off Google???<br />
<br />
Something, somehow. For if the wiki goes down and we can't reach the host. It's good to cover all the bases. (Just like in a good game of XCOM.) <br />
<br />
- [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 18:05, 19 October 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Mike: GazChap and myself have been discussing this with Pete from StrategyCore for a while now. The idea is for StrategyCore to host the wiki so that backups are done on a consistent basis and would prevent downtime. (StrategyCore isn't going to disappear anytime soon, so by default, neither should the wiki if it is hosted by them). I'll have to get in touch with Pete again to see how far along he is in the process. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 20:43, 21 October 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Sounds great, Zombie. It's something hard to bring up - but a responsible thing to do. I was really shocked with what happened to EU3. Only one further stupid question - StratCore and GazChap aren't affiliated, are they? (Not both run off the same company's resources? I don't know who runs either server.) And thanks for thinking ahead! - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 16:10, 26 October 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== Slight problem with transclusion tables for main page ==<br />
<br />
Folks, I've noticed a problem with the main transclusion tables for the main page when I was adding a few links to the UFO table. <br />
<br />
The problem is that the tables are classed as ordinary pages. They certainly work with transclusion the same way the template pages do, but there are two problems that they create. <br />
<br />
The first, and most prominent, is that actual main page doesn't update when updates are made to the individual tables. You have to have your browser perform a forced refresh to get the updates to show. <br />
<br />
The second is that the templates aren't listed at the bottom of the edit box when you edit the main page. Having them listed would make it a convenient way to get to them rather than manually type the name into the address bar. <br />
<br />
It's not a major problem, but I wanted to bring it to everyone's attention. I'll fix this later when I get a bit of free time. I a fix would just involve moving the tables into the template namespace. If not, well, I'll do a bit of cut and paste wizardry to make everything right. <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
----<br />
Apologies, yep template pages do update near-automatically so they are a better choice than transcluded pages. I noticed that when you move a page that has a link on the template page and subsequently edit the template to point to the new location that the links on the moved page will not refresh. You must perform a dummy edit on the pages with the template info to update the links accordingly. I'll have to check to see what happens if you rename a template link and then move the page. The same thing might happen. It depends on the software here and if it uses dynamic pointers. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 08:52, 1 February 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
== Clean Up ==<br />
<br />
It's just occurring to me that "Community" does not feature the main two actual forums (XCOMUFO and StratCore) that newbies might turn to, right up front. Also, this Discussion page has gotten way long.<br />
<br />
Newbies need that Community connection, since that's the meaning of the word. Never mind that it can be found down around here somwhere, which even I can't find, right off. (It's why I came here, to show others examples of linking, but now I can't find where the heck the forums show up here.) Wikis should appeal to newbies heartily. Links to talk forums need to be "right there".<br />
<br />
Could someone take a hand at making the forums highlighted for newbies. And also, such a dedicated person might cut down this Discussion page tons. The new Style page is a place to put some things.<br />
<br />
Some thoughts - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 23:39, 9 February 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
----<br />
Well, I cut this page down. It was on my list of things to do in the near future anyway.<br />
<br />
Ok, we have 2 "Community" pages right now: the [[UFOpaedia:Community_Portal|Community portal]] page (on the sidebar) and the [[Community]] page. The plain community page is buried at the bottom of the main page and contains the links to the forums. I'm thinking that we just get rid of the community page and add that info to the community portal instead. This way, the info is always near the top of the screen for quick access. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 00:14, 10 February 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
== Discussion/talk page proposed format ==<br />
Ok folks, we all seem to have our own ways of adding comments to a discussion page. The way it stands now, it becomes really difficult to follow a discussion when it is broken apart with different formats. What I suggest is this: when you leave a comment use a horizontal line to separate your post from the one(s) above it. In this manner, everything is left justified and the comments are separated. The reason why I do not support the colon as comment separation is that as the discussion progresses you are going to be adding more and more just to get the indenting correct. It also makes it confusing. Another side effect is that once you have a lot of colons present it pushes the text off the page itself and forces a scroll to the right to view. That isn't good.<br />
<br />
I suppose if we really want to use colons as separators, we could alternate the use. If a comment is indented above yours, do nothing. If a comment is not indented, use a colon for your submission. Still, the constant zig-zagging isn't really the best idea either.<br />
<br />
My vote is therefore to stick with the horizontal line (four dashes). If the discussion veers way off course, or if you have a couple questions/comments, break it apart into different headings. And always sign your post too as that makes it easier to follow.<br />
<br />
Discuss.--[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 20:46, 9 March 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
<br />
Works for me, Zombie. Another problem with indentation is that one isn't necessarily addressing only the previous comment, but it could be about the previous one, and tying together things that are 4, 6, ''and'' 12 entries back. Colons are fine for quick rejoinders, but not as a requirement. A potential alternative is to leave two blank lines, as I just did after your sig. This is a fairly clear delineator for folks scanning quickly. However, the horizontal separator is more clear, in general. So I guess I'd vote for the hor-sep for all except quick comments thrown in, which can use colons. And anything that's a new topic or big break should get a new topic, using = signs. - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 21:10, 9 March 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
I've reformatted [[Talk:Exploits#Extra_Ammo_Exploit]] to demonstrate how the indentation style ''can'' work, if done consistently. I think it's somewhat better than the line-separator style for very long discussions, making the structure a little clearer. However, if it's sometimes-used and sometimes-not things get messy, as you've noticed.<br />
<br />
I'll codify the rules right here (surprisingly, they're not well-codified on Wikipedia itself, despite the fact that it's used quite consistently throughout the site):<br />
<br />
*Add an indent for each reply<br />
*Reuse your prior level of indentation if it's a back and forth:<br />
<br />
First person's comment<br />
<br />
:Second person's comment<br />
<br />
::Third person's comment<br />
<br />
:Second person again<br />
<br />
::Third person again<br />
<br />
::Third person's afterthought<br />
<br />
:Second person again<br />
<br />
::First person jumping back in<br />
<br />
:::Third person once more<br />
<br />
::First person again<br />
<br />
*If you get to 5 or 6 indents, just "reset" (start without indents for the next reply).<br />
*If you have an addendum to your own comments, use the same indent level and re-sign.<br />
*If somebody doesn't know/doesn't use the right indent level, fix it when adding your next reply so the rules become clear during the course of conversation.<br />
*Likewise, if someone adds a new comment to the top or fails to add a heading when starting a new subject, fix it when replying.<br />
<br />
The problem we've had lately is the mixing of styles, neither being used correctly. So far it seems that myself, Sf, and NKF have been using indents, you (Zombie) and Mike favoring dashes, and most newcomers failing to use either. No clear winner just yet. ;-)<br />
--[[User:Ethereal Cereal|Ethereal Cereal]] 23:56, 9 March 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
:What if you're addressing several and various issues raised before, not just a comment on the previous statement? (And it runs on for four or six paragraphs?) - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 00:14, 10 March 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
::If you're consolidating a bunch of replies to several earlier points, that's a good time to reset the indent.--[[User:Ethereal Cereal|Ethereal Cereal]] 01:07, 10 March 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
::: Works for me, Eth - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 16:47, 9 November 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
== British vs. American spelling ==<br />
<br />
:NKF Stealth note for authors or any nosy person reading the source: For those pedantic about the American/British English spelling of Armour/Armor, I used the British spelling because that's how it's spelt in the game when running it in the English text mode. This may not necessarily be the case for the other games in the series or earlier localized releases, but it is very much so in v1.4ce, hence why I'm sticking with it. I'd also like to add that a section relating specifically for armour is required, with some sections regarding armour management, such as how its distributed and the particulars of armour recovery when a soldier dies or is fired (i.e. none). (Damnit, just added Category:Armor -HeckRuler)<br />
<br />
:We should move this note to the top of the back of Main Page. English vs. USA doesn't matter. - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 22:07, 9 March 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
I moved the above two comments from within HTML comments on the [[Soldier]] page. Might as well "have a discussion" about it, it's what we do. Although I'm an American, I favor the in-game (British) spelling, wherever it appears (Plasma Defence, Armour, Cyberdisc, etc.). I'm, um, pedantic. Or probably just anal-retentive.--[[User:Ethereal Cereal|Ethereal Cereal]] 00:58, 10 March 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
: I'm in favour of the UK spelling scheme myself, only due to general preference and because UFO is in UK English (on the other hand, TFTD is in US English). However, I still like to think the spelling is interchangeable, and when it comes to the spelling of the actual article: redirects can do wonders! I actually left that note there as an afterthought in case some authors suddenly decide to do mass edits of the spelling, and others come along and revert the changes, and the whole process repeats itself. I mean, armor &rarr; armour &rarr; armor &rarr; smurf &rarr; armour &rarr; ad-infinitum. Not a nice thought. - [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
It's probably a very small issue on this site regardless. By comparison, Wikipedia has yet to implement any way for Commonwealth readers to see British spellings while American readers see US spellings. Instead, they're sticking with the comical compromise of "the creator of the article fates whether it'll have British or American spelling for the rest of its days". Maybe through Wikipedia's confusion the mother tongue will eventually merge back together. :-) --[[User:Ethereal Cereal|Ethereal Cereal]] 02:24, 10 March 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
: Agreed. I'll try my best to use the British spellings, but when I get on a typing roll the American spelling is what comes to me first. I usually don't catch it either when I proof read. I'd say redirects would be the best solution, so 'Personal Armor' redirects to 'Personal Armour'. As far as the spelling in articles, I think it's pretty well known the two differences of spelling, though it could be a problem if an article switches back and forth from it alot. <br />
<br />
: That said this affects maybe 3 or 4 Armour articles? I can't think of any other differences that would be in an article, at least as a main subject. Maybe the occasional colour or favour. --[[User:Pi Masta|Pi Masta]] 11:59, 10 March 2007 (PST)<br />
----<br />
<br />
If anybody is still caring about this: I say do what the Wikipedia does, and let the author do what they want. Except when you're tacking a little onto a page that's already big into one way of spelling; then stick to what it's using. I'm U.S. and just want to write, not spend time looking up possible British variants - I'm not even sure what they all are. There are even a lot of acceptable variants in U.S. English already, shrug.<br />
<br />
I like the Wikipedia rule since it focuses on getting stuff posted. Yet still in the case of XCOM, there is a real reason for letting British be the standard. I really don't care, but will use U.S. for much of my writing. Still if anybody wants to go through and re-write everything British, that's fine with me. The focus is, posting game info.<br />
<br />
My two cents. - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 18:05, 19 October 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: Just do whatever you want MTR, that's how I've been going about it. If later you read through an article and spot these things and decide to change them, then so be it. It's just that it would be preferable for UFO to stick to its in-game language. The same goes for TFTD and Apocalypse, which use the US spelling - hence why I try to use armor for them, but often end up typing armour instead. <br />
<br />
:I'm sure we all agree that US and British spelling is interchangeable so this issue isn't really a big one - until we get into little wars where one party is pro one variant of the language while the other party is pro another variant, and they end up at logger heads. - [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
== MediaWiki upgraded. ==<br />
<br />
I've upgraded MediaWiki to the latest version, although I'm afraid I don't know how to prevent spamming etc. If anyone can point me in the direction of something about this I can take a look at it, but now that it's upgraded and I have backups I should be in a position to allow Pete at SC to take over hosting.<br />
<br />
: See my email Gaz. We'll get this fixed yet. The only problem I noticed with the upgrade is that the logo in the upper left isn't linked to the correct picture. :) --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 07:32, 28 September 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:: Fixed the logo, and I've also added a CAPTCHA extension. You'll be prompted to enter two words if you try to: create a new account; add an external link using an anonymous account. I'm now going to look at trying to give Pete at SC FTP access to the server without inadvertently giving him access to everything else I have hosted on there. Sometimes I hate these web control panels.<br />
<br />
:: I've now e-mailed Pete with all the details he requires to take over hosting. --[[User:GazChap|GazChap]] 12:19, 30 September 2007 (BST)<br />
<br />
:::Great job, Gaz. Thanks as always for your hosting!! - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 16:21, 12 October 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== XCOM Box Art ==<br />
<br />
Someone (NKF? Danial?) once asked if anybody could scan XCOM's box art, so that they might e.g. put a better graphic on the main page. I just uploaded a 300 dpi scan of all four sides as [[Media:XCOM_UFO_Defense_DOS_US_Box_Art.zip]] (3.2 MB). The box is not in mint condition (see the ReadMe), but a little tweaking by somebody with skillz (Danial) could easily spruce it up. - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 18:05, 19 October 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: Was it me? Hmm. Can't remember. I did think to just grab the cover for the PDF version of the X-Com Player's Handbook (US version - with the Mars/Super Avenger cover), but it's black and white. Could've sworn I've seen a copy in colour somewhere. Not that sepia version wouldn't look great though! <br />
: Oh hang on, I don't think it was for the front page graphic in particular, but we did want to get various versions of the box art for the various games. - [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
----<br />
NKF - or anybody - can we consider replacing the current main page art, with the XCOM box art? Or a portion of it. I loved the game's intro and in-game "cartoon art", but why not use the game's best image, for our primary Main Page image? (Is there somebody with skills that can clean it up quickly? I'm happy to, but I'm no pics wizard.)<br />
<br />
[[image:XcomScExample.png|thumb|100px|One of many possible screencaps]]Related to this, I think it would be a nice touch if anyone put a bunch of selected and/or random screen captures (screencaps) onto a page, with a link just "under" (i.e., indented under the Main Page entry for) [[Info|About X-COM: UFO Defense]]...<br />
<br />
:I have a sneaking suspicion that we get a ton of lurkers (someone who is there but never speaks) who once played X-COM and came across our page by chance, and would like to relive it, if even for a few screencaps... yet as it is now, our site is becoming more of an in-depth encyclopedia, instead of a "you were once here" kind of place. All us hard core players gravitate toward the encyclopedia - but even if folks who once played it don't stay, if they say, "wow, I remember doing all that" based on a stack of screenshots, that would be good. I'm thinking of easy sections that are light on text (and no Ufopaedia info), but heavy on thumbnails and click-on screencaps (see the image to the right - I love that financier in the background) like:<br />
:*My first base - Decisions <br />
:*The Globe - Radar alert! <br />
:*First contact! Small farm in Iowa, USA <br />
:*Managing Research <br />
:*Terror in Sydney! ''(include zombies - squad wiped out - see next)''<br />
:*Headline: World Council generally supports X-COM efforts - subheadline - Australia may now be under the control of aliens ''(funding results for a month)''<br />
:*Headline: X-COM squad impacted by "Blaster bomb" - the world cries (before and after pix) <br />
:*The tricky depths of a Battleship <br />
:*Elite squad Mind Controls all aliens <br />
:*Final showdown: Cydonia <br />
:Each of the sections above might have 1-5 images. Something like that.<br />
<br />
:If no one objects, can I ask that anyone who is willing to do it, make a bunch of screencaps, using .pngs and thumbnails as shown above. Then lurkers can "remember the days" right up front. And a few more lurkers than currently breeze through, might stay.<br />
<br />
:To put this in context, CNN recently had a number of articles admiring Commodore 64s (one of them [http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/12/07/c64/index.html?iref=newssearch here]). X-COM is like that, to me... it lives past its "life expectancy" to gamers, because of how well put together it was, especially including how much it hit you in the gut.<br />
<br />
In summary, then. I have one question for us XCOM hardcore (can we change the Main Page image) and one for everybody (want to post a lot of screencaps?). I have made a stub page for the screencaps page. I'll retract it if the hardcore object or there's no response in a couple of months' time. - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 21:44, 14 December 2007 (PST)<br />
----<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm perfectly fine with getting the main title changed. Get a few more ayes and we'll make it so. <br />
<br />
A screencap section would be nice. I'm quite partial to creating screencap mini-comics (no, not real comics. Just sequential before/during/after images), although I never use them and they just get deleted in the end. <br />
<br />
One benefit is that some of the shots can also be recycled throughout the rest of the site to illustrate certain things. Or for an article that's no more than a solid block of text, something to break up the monotony. I'm also always for a few well placed humorous shots. <br />
<br />
-[[User:NKF|NKF]] 01:02, 15 December 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
:Sounds good, NKF. There could easily be a "comics" page link several ways: <br />
::1) The new Main Page entry indented under [[Info|About X-COM: UFO Defense]] could also have a link to a comics page, but on the screenshot page itself,<br />
::2) That same new entry on the Main Page could read something like "[[Screenshots]] - and [[Comics]]!" The concept of the screenshots page is to help folks relive the past. And something just as good as screenshots - or better - is screenshots with humor.<br />
::3) Or, make a link for it, all by itself, somewhere obvious on the Main Page.<br />
:I think it's a great idea! <br />
:As for the other idea - you said you're fine re: changing the main title. But it's the graphic at the top of the Main Page that I'm talking about. Just to make sure we're clear on that. - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 17:21, 21 December 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
== Smart Quotes ==<br />
<br />
Do we use them? When I write up articles in MS Word, it automatically uses "smart quotes," i.e., “this.” I can imagine that there could be some benefit to keeping it all consistent.<br />
<br />
[[User:NinthRank|NinthRank]] 17:48, 21 October 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Well, I can't see any practicality in trying to convert all articles to smart quotes, so I'll clean up the ones that I've done with straight quotes to be consistent.<br />
<br />
:[[User:NinthRank|NinthRank]] 19:30, 25 October 2007 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== Favicon ==<br />
<br />
Does the UFOpaedia have a favicon? -- [[User:NinthRank|NinthRank]] 17:51, 6 November 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
:We did have it at one time but I think it disappeared after an upgrade to the wiki software. If you have an idea for a favicon, submit it here. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 18:21, 6 November 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
Okay, I don't know where that logo in the upper left came from, but after a quick GIMP edit, I came up with this: [[Media:favicon.zip]]. I'm not quite sure how The GIMP works with icons, so I also included the .png's. What do you think? -- [[User:NinthRank|NinthRank]] 18:51, 6 November 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
:Not too shabby. Next time I talk to GazChap, I'll run it past him. Any more ideas for a favicon? I'd like to get a few (at least 3) and run it through a vote here. --[[User:Zombie|Zombie]] 20:28, 6 November 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
::[[image:FavIcon-Crude1.png|thumb|16px]][[image:FavIcon-Crude2.png|thumb|16px]]NinthRank and Z, my two cents are something like this. My pics are incredibly crude - I'm a total graphics n00b - and would need somebody like you, Ninth, to turn it into the "burnished gold and navy" (or is that black?), like you did with yours. I couldn't even get my damn background to change for me using simple MS Word art ... what do you use? (See how n00b I am?)<br />
<br />
::I think you have some great ideas there, but my favicons show as 16x16 pixels. (Is this because I use small icons? I had never heard the the word until you said it, Ninth, at which point I read the wiki entry, and it made immediate sense.) At 16<sup>2</sup>, you have to keep it incredibly simply... having the COM on a big X does that, because it doesn't "waste a repetitive 'X-' across the center", if that makes sense. Another idea is be careful with the X ... I didn't like the X in your 16x16 and 32x32 because it was "narrow" (more vertical than horizontal). I definitely like your 48x48. (I can't tell what's going on with your animated 16x16 .ico, my friend - a 16x16 pic on a 1280x1024 screen (or higher) needs to be real simple. It looks like a tiny pulsing thing, with an X sort of there, overall.) I think the X should be, if not symmetric, then, more wide than high - to me, this implies something "ominous". A true X would have to be "cut off" at the corners to be "wide and fat" at 16x16. This shows more in my second try than the first. <br />
<br />
::You can make things bigger than 16<sup>2</sup>, a real plus and you get much more flexibility, but for me, only 16x16 exists.<br />
<br />
::My two cents. I love your overall idea, and using navy (or black?) with gold trim. Thanks for signing in and helping out, NinthRank! -[[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]] 19:40, 14 December 2007 (PST)<br />
<br />
== XCOM-like games ==<br />
<br />
Are the After-games and Extraterrestrials allowed on this wiki? [[User:Ssfsx17|Ssfsx17]]<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
I don't see the point, unless there's enough authors prepared to put together the pages. <br />
<br />
On the other hand, if there are then I don't see a problem. It might be worth putting the question forward in the relevant forum sections first to see if there's any real interest.<br />
<br />
- [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 01:31, 9 February 2008 (PST)<br />
<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm just thinking about the organisation. The wiki so far has been quite specialised and only covers X-Com content. The other games are similar, but are not really X-com. The solution would be to open up an be a more general wiki for X-Com-likes, although I feel that might might cause some loss in focus. We can already see that here with the X-Com spinoffs. Nary a paragraph of interesting tidbits in any of them. Well, not much anyway. <br />
<br />
Still, I'm now of the belief that all good games should have great compendiums of knowledge like this. <br />
<br />
If we're going to move the wiki onto Strategycore (is that still going ahead?), perhaps separate wikis for the other X-Com-like's series could be created as well if there is a demand? <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]] 02:27, 9 February 2008 (PST)<br />
<br />
==Technical Commentaries==<br />
<br />
I just thought of adding a specific section concerning commentaries regarding the game, i.e., trying to explain how the weapons/diplomacy/funding/etc. would work in real life. The idea here is not to expand on the canon X-COM material but to describe/explain in a rational way. <br />
I've come with this idea after reading Spike's section (on his [[User talk:Spike]] page) explaining the economics of X-COM and starting my own section regarding the Council of Funding Nations. <br />
I think there is plenty of material available on the Data canisters that could be used/adapted to this. Also, the discussion regarding Elerium (with all those formulas) on the Talk Page is exactly the sort of thing I was thinking of. <br />
<br />
- [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 22:59, 10 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: I don't see any problem with it. Go for it. We've started with a magnificent wealth of knowledge about the game itself (and a bit beyond, with the binary file diving). Theories and explanations of the X-Com world wouldn't be out of place. They'd certainly add a bit of literary colour and interest for those that wish to look beyond the game. There are lots of interesting bits and pieces scattered throughout the articles (like real world equivalents of weapon or tanks, just to name one example) that would probably fit better in a section like that than in the articles. Perhaps a an expanded data-canister like section would be in order. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 01:13, 11 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== Game Editors ==<br />
<br />
I was going to add a link off the Main Page to the [[Game editors]] section that I wrote, under Misc. I still have a nagging feeling there is another list of them somewhere, but I can't find it. Any comments? <br />
<br />
Also, any additions to the Game editors section are welcome. <br />
<br />
[[User:Spike|Spike]] 03:40, 15 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: I don't think we've ever had a particular listing of editors. <br />
<br />
: Tell you what, I'll throw these changes in, and we'll see how this works out. <br />
<br />
:# I'll put the new game editor section onto the UFO main table (I've also renamed the page to stick to the first capital letter naming convention the other articles use). <br />
:# I removed XComutil off the main table, since it'll be under the game file section. <br />
:# Removed the UBK - it's just a tool for wiki editors and not something that would interest players of the game. <br />
<br />
: I might also add the [[Command Prompt]] to the game editor section for its notes on using MS-Edit as a binary file editor. <br />
<br />
<br />
:- [[User:NKF|NKF]] 04:46, 15 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:: While I see the validity of adding XComUtil to a page regarding editors won't it make sense to keep a sublink to the page which deals on how to use it, together with MSEdit? I mean, the other editors only have links to them on that page and I think that at least XComUtil deserves main page status because of its notoriosity and complexity. What do you guys think? - [[User:Hobbes|Hobbes]] 14:08, 15 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
<br />
----<br />
a good idea to include the Command Prompt help. How about broadly dividing it into 2 sections: X-COM-specific tools and general purpose tools?<br />
[[User:Spike|Spike]] 07:08, 17 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== Newb questions ==<br />
<br />
Hello good sirs. Sorry for my bad non-native english. While in total noob in wiki, im relatively for long playd this great games. Great thanks for you for this great site, it really helped me with some ideas, especially with Funding Nation, even dont know how i played it before without it. Now more close to point, i realized what TFTD section here are, say, unperfect, if not somewhat wrong. As i readed somewhere not all play TFTD much, UFO1 instead, so it maybe be the point. Id edit something on it, but im totally dunno how to do it, and my language will have too many mistakes to be proudly presented to people. So id be glade to hear what you may propose for me to do. Again big thanks. Ill wait for answer.<br />
<br />
PS Or im searched too badly, or its differ in TFTD (i play only it now) from UFO1, but i cant find here about stunned persons behaviour. Cant find what they awake only if theyr stun is lower then HP's and if only they have awaken person in theyr tile during end of turn. IMHO its important thing to know off, at least for me.<br />
<br />
PPS. My friend made great tiny changes to one tiny file, what make FundingNations game way more easy and elegant then described in issue. I can upload it if you need this, tho its for TFTD im sure he can do UFO1 also if its needed. Anyway this game too easy even on FN to play it without it :).<br />
<br />
Eh PPPS. Dunno how to properly log on :(.<br />
<br />
: Do not worry about the language barrier - sometimes it's harder to understand people who speak English natively! ;) In any case, There'll be other editors who will be able to help fix the article for you if you can get the idea across. <br />
<br />
: To get started editing pages, check the Community Portal on the left sidebar. That has links to articles that can help you get started - more or less. One good way to find out how some text is formatted (or anything else you'd like to duplicate) is to edit the page and see how it's done in the source. <br />
<br />
: If in doubt, or if you're unsure about editing the article, feel free put your ideas or suggestions in the article's Discussion page. <br />
<br />
: Because TFTD and UFO share a lot of the same mechanics, there would be a lot of unnecessary duplication if we were to write up articles for it that are already available in the UFO articles. Therefore we mainly include articles that cover topics that are unique to TFTD, like the weapons, door opening, aliens, etc. General mechanics like how damage works or how experience is earned is identical to UFO's, so there's no need to duplicate them. What sections do you think need improving or what sections do we need to add? The more input the better. <br />
<br />
: Regarding consciousness, have you checked the [[Unconscious]] article? I think we might need to redo that article bit and perhaps add a few illustrations. One note about the difference between UFO and TFTD with the visual appearance of a unit recovered with a medikit needs to go in there too if it hasn't already. Oh well. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 22:54, 22 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: PS, to sign your messages in the discussion pages, put four tilde's <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> anywhere you want to insert your name and the timestamp.<br />
<br />
== same questions ==<br />
<br />
Thank you for answer. I been somwhat incorrect in my english. I didnt mean what TFTD pages are bad or what they lose reduntand UFO1 information. All they lack are only slightly wrongly described alien's dangers levels (one of most dangerous creatures cant be low treat, and least dangerous one medium) and lack of mission types what only TFTD have. Also i readed "Unconscious@ article few times, stiil cant find only how to use medkit and no word about what generally need for stunned person to rise. From that follow advices to grenade stunned chryssalids and so on. <br />
<br />
PS. Oh, yes, and whats wrong with door openings?<br />
[[User:Derrida|Derrida]] 08:59, 23 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
<br />
: A unit falls unconscious when the stun bar is equal or greater than the unit's remaining health points. If it's under that, the unit will be awake. <br />
<br />
: To wake a soldier up, you have to reduce the stun level by either waiting for the stun to wear off, 1 point per turn, or use stimulants on a medikit. Looks like the TFTD section doesn't have its own medikit page, but UFO's [[Medi-Kit]] section explains how to use it, as they are identical. Basically, if the unit is unconscious, the medic must stand on top of the unconscious unit and use stimulants (the second choice) until the unconscious soldier wakes up. When the unconscious unit wakes up, they'll appear to the north of the medic. <br />
<br />
: TFTD's stun weapons are much more powerful than in TFTD, so you often have to use a lot of stimulants to wake a person up. <br />
<br />
: TFTD's unique because it allows you to open doors by right clicking them - and it's a free action so you won't spend any TUs to do it. UFO cannot do this (except the Playstation version). <br />
<br />
: As for the threat levels of the aliens - I agree, some should be reclassified. Personally I'd move the Gill-Men and Calcinite up to medium threat - all the current medium level threats look just about right though. What are your suggestions? <br />
<br />
: Hang on, why are there so many references to vibroblades in the overview article? That can't be right. I'll have to update that later on. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 15:05, 23 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Nonono. I mean what if unit's stun damage falled below it's HP, and no one stand in tile it lying, it will never rise. Medkits not the point. No stunned aliens or soldiers will rise if no one will end turn on it, or take it to inventory/hand. I tried to say this. Maybe it been different in UFO1 (as with doors, i thought what doors always open by right click, and in UFO1 too (btw cant find about door opening anywere in wiki)), but in TFTD it means what you dont have to bother with stunned tentaculats etc to rise after stun if you do not stand on it, or try to move it in backpack/hand. Same with soldiers, you can click zillion turns, but they will never rise until someone stand on it. Without this game must be horrible with all this undying lobsters awake afer you pass them.<br />
With danger level id suggest this: Harmless: hallucinoid; deep one; Low: gillmen; aquatoid; Meduim: zombie; calcinite; bio-drone; lobsterman; xarquid; high: tasoth; triscene; What really matters: tentaculat. In line of growing dangerness. [[User:Derrida|Derrida]] 16:30, 23 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== Regarding image file formats ==<br />
<br />
I'd really like to add a note somewhere obvious about using GIFs for screenshots in the wiki, rather than JPGs. For 256-color images like X-COM uses, GIFs are no larger than JPGs and generally look much better. For example, see the nasty compression artifacts on the terrain maps in the [[Terror Ship]] article. PNGs might work just as well, I'm not sure, but we should really avoid JPGs.<br />
<br />
Where would be the best place to mention this? I'm thinking near the top of the main page for visibility, but that might be more clutter than people want. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 23:59, 11 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Grenade&diff=15629Talk:Grenade2008-06-12T06:35:42Z<p>Phasma Felis: /* Changing the TUs to prime */</p>
<hr />
<div>When using a grenade to remove terrain you can set the timer to 1 instead of 0. The aliens will move before the grenade explodes, giving you first use of the cleared terrain. -Egor<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
There's a trick you can perform with a 1 turn grenade with UFO doors if you know an alien will be walking through. By placing the 1-turn grenade in front of the UFO door, the alien will walk through, open the door, and end its turn. By then the grenade will explode and hit the alien. And because it's exploding before the doors are closed again, it can send a small wave into the UFO and strike any aliens that are behind the door. <br />
<br />
It won't always work, but it's something that you can do. <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
== Timers ==<br />
<br />
I thought I had found a bug but it's just my misunderstanding I think. I was setting timers to 3, carrying the grenade around, then it would go off when I dropped it. From this article it looks like the timer counts down while you are carrying it, but "holds" at zero. Is that true? If so we can put a clarification in for dummies like me. (I thought the timer countdown would start when I throw/drop the grenade).<br />
<br />
PS this is a silly way for grenades to work and it's hard to think of a realistic equivalent. The timer, once set, ought to start when you release the grenade. Oh well :)<br />
<br />
[[User:Spike|Spike]] 05:51, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:That is indeed a misunderstanding. Once a grenade is set, the game starts counting down the turns; as soon as it reaches 0, the grenade will explode IF IT IS ON THE GROUND. If it is not on the ground, it does indeed 'hold' at 0, and will detonate at the end of the next turn that it is sitting on the ground, regardless of how it got there. (This is the behavior used by people who want their soldiers to have dead-man switches; AKA, soldier dies, drops live grenade, blows up nearby aliens at tend of turn.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 09:47, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
::If you want to add some difficulty in your games, you can do so that the primed grenades will detonate on due time even if handed. I did only a few tests so it may cause trouble, particularly if the soldier survives the explosion - the code should remove the grenade from its hand, but I make no promise ;). Simply patch at offset 0x1E095:<br />
0F 85 E4 00 00 00<br />
::into<br />
90 90 90 90 90 90<br />
:: and your done. Now you should really make sure you have enough TUs to throw those nades :) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:08, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:::Seb, can you give any details about how you figure this stuff out? I'm a fairly accomplished programmer, but I only have a little experience with assembler, and this is all a mystery to me. I'd love to learn more. :) [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 14:47, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::Actually this is possible thanks to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Disassembler best disassembler in town]... I started by cross-checking error messages (e.g. "couldnt allocate craftlist") with malloc/fread calls to identify the main datastructure pointers (every xxx.dat file has an equivalent in memory). Then with crossing with information from this site (offsets and stuff), I could identify some higher level functions. From there you can start analysing strange behaviors. Luck is also a factor, the disassembly is quite huge, and sometimes I just wander around and find some interesting stuff ^^ I'll post more explicit screenshots later. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 15:55, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
::Here you go, I "circled" the lines that check if the grenade on the floor or in a soldier inventory:<br />
<br />
[[Image:Detonate.png]]<br />
<br />
This is quite huge so I'll stop for now. I have the UFO Power Source explosion sequence and unitref offset 0x3c explanation ready if you want more examples ;-) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:14, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:::Thanks very much, Seb76! I actually wouldn't mind some more examples, with more detailed comments :) But can I interest you in dropping me an e-mail? I have some non-grenade-related ideas I've been working on, and I could use some advice from someone with even a little understanding of the source code. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 21:53, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
::OK, I finally set up a user page, so you can reach me on the talk page :) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 13:27, 4 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:: I've been planning to create a new article to cover and explain all the little itty bitty things about how grenades (in general) function. The timer and the dead-man-switch definitely need to be explained. <br />
<br />
::Any suggestions on what the section should be called? I can't think of an appropriate article name for it except perhaps [[Grenade Mechanics]] or [[How Grenades Work]]. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 21:52, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Sounds like a great idea. For a title how about just "Using Grenades" or "More On Grenades and Explosives"? [[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:23, 26 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: Thought I'd go with [[Understanding Grenades]]. We can always rename it later to something more appropriate. It's taken me a bit of time because I've had a lot of difficulty in trying to write it in a manner that even I could understand (and failing every time). I've decided to just throw up what I've managed to put together so far to get the ideas out there. <br />
<br />
: I realize the potential for a fence-post problem with my explanation on the grenade's time trigger (equal-or-greater than vs. greater-than), but hopefully the idea will still get across. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 00:17, 4 April 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== Changing the TUs to prime ==<br />
<br />
Is there an easy way to change the number of TUs it takes to prime a grenade? As it is, it's a lot harder to use frag grenades tactically, which IMO makes things less interesting. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]]<br />
<br />
:If there is, it looks like it's probably coded somewhere inside the executable. It isn't in [[OBDATA.DAT]] which would be where I'd have expected it. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 20:41, 11 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::The values in Obdata only control the firing modes for the basic snap, auto and aimed modes. All other special attack modes and other misc uses might be coded in the tactical.exe portion of the game. I suppose if you searched for values of 50%, you'd find it soon enough. Finding the location of a number of other fixed percentage and fixed cost values would be handy too. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 22:32, 11 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:NKF: I knew that, but I figured that maybe they tried a trick, which they obviously didn't. In any case, what other numbers? Gimme a list and I'll see what I can do. (I'm thinking the list would include throwing, Mind Probe, Psi Amp, and inventory. Anything else?) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 23:12, 11 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::Off the top of my head, motion scanner, medikit, and possibly things like opening doors. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 23:35, 11 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Grenade&diff=15628Talk:Grenade2008-06-12T06:34:10Z<p>Phasma Felis: /* Changing the TUs to prime */</p>
<hr />
<div>When using a grenade to remove terrain you can set the timer to 1 instead of 0. The aliens will move before the grenade explodes, giving you first use of the cleared terrain. -Egor<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
There's a trick you can perform with a 1 turn grenade with UFO doors if you know an alien will be walking through. By placing the 1-turn grenade in front of the UFO door, the alien will walk through, open the door, and end its turn. By then the grenade will explode and hit the alien. And because it's exploding before the doors are closed again, it can send a small wave into the UFO and strike any aliens that are behind the door. <br />
<br />
It won't always work, but it's something that you can do. <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
== Timers ==<br />
<br />
I thought I had found a bug but it's just my misunderstanding I think. I was setting timers to 3, carrying the grenade around, then it would go off when I dropped it. From this article it looks like the timer counts down while you are carrying it, but "holds" at zero. Is that true? If so we can put a clarification in for dummies like me. (I thought the timer countdown would start when I throw/drop the grenade).<br />
<br />
PS this is a silly way for grenades to work and it's hard to think of a realistic equivalent. The timer, once set, ought to start when you release the grenade. Oh well :)<br />
<br />
[[User:Spike|Spike]] 05:51, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:That is indeed a misunderstanding. Once a grenade is set, the game starts counting down the turns; as soon as it reaches 0, the grenade will explode IF IT IS ON THE GROUND. If it is not on the ground, it does indeed 'hold' at 0, and will detonate at the end of the next turn that it is sitting on the ground, regardless of how it got there. (This is the behavior used by people who want their soldiers to have dead-man switches; AKA, soldier dies, drops live grenade, blows up nearby aliens at tend of turn.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 09:47, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
::If you want to add some difficulty in your games, you can do so that the primed grenades will detonate on due time even if handed. I did only a few tests so it may cause trouble, particularly if the soldier survives the explosion - the code should remove the grenade from its hand, but I make no promise ;). Simply patch at offset 0x1E095:<br />
0F 85 E4 00 00 00<br />
::into<br />
90 90 90 90 90 90<br />
:: and your done. Now you should really make sure you have enough TUs to throw those nades :) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:08, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:::Seb, can you give any details about how you figure this stuff out? I'm a fairly accomplished programmer, but I only have a little experience with assembler, and this is all a mystery to me. I'd love to learn more. :) [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 14:47, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::Actually this is possible thanks to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Disassembler best disassembler in town]... I started by cross-checking error messages (e.g. "couldnt allocate craftlist") with malloc/fread calls to identify the main datastructure pointers (every xxx.dat file has an equivalent in memory). Then with crossing with information from this site (offsets and stuff), I could identify some higher level functions. From there you can start analysing strange behaviors. Luck is also a factor, the disassembly is quite huge, and sometimes I just wander around and find some interesting stuff ^^ I'll post more explicit screenshots later. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 15:55, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
::Here you go, I "circled" the lines that check if the grenade on the floor or in a soldier inventory:<br />
<br />
[[Image:Detonate.png]]<br />
<br />
This is quite huge so I'll stop for now. I have the UFO Power Source explosion sequence and unitref offset 0x3c explanation ready if you want more examples ;-) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:14, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:::Thanks very much, Seb76! I actually wouldn't mind some more examples, with more detailed comments :) But can I interest you in dropping me an e-mail? I have some non-grenade-related ideas I've been working on, and I could use some advice from someone with even a little understanding of the source code. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 21:53, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
::OK, I finally set up a user page, so you can reach me on the talk page :) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 13:27, 4 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:: I've been planning to create a new article to cover and explain all the little itty bitty things about how grenades (in general) function. The timer and the dead-man-switch definitely need to be explained. <br />
<br />
::Any suggestions on what the section should be called? I can't think of an appropriate article name for it except perhaps [[Grenade Mechanics]] or [[How Grenades Work]]. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 21:52, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Sounds like a great idea. For a title how about just "Using Grenades" or "More On Grenades and Explosives"? [[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:23, 26 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: Thought I'd go with [[Understanding Grenades]]. We can always rename it later to something more appropriate. It's taken me a bit of time because I've had a lot of difficulty in trying to write it in a manner that even I could understand (and failing every time). I've decided to just throw up what I've managed to put together so far to get the ideas out there. <br />
<br />
: I realize the potential for a fence-post problem with my explanation on the grenade's time trigger (equal-or-greater than vs. greater-than), but hopefully the idea will still get across. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 00:17, 4 April 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== Changing the TUs to prime ==<br />
<br />
Is there an easy way to change the number of TUs it takes to prime a grenade? As it is, it's a lot harder to use frag grenades tactically, which IMO makes things less interesting. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]]<br />
<br />
:If there is, it looks like it's probably coded somewhere inside the executable. It isn't in [[OBDATA.DAT]] which would be where I'd have expected it. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 20:41, 11 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::The values in Obdata only control the firing modes for the basic snap, auto and aimed modes. All other special attack modes and other misc uses might be coded in the tactical.exe portion of the game. I suppose if you searched for values of 50%, you'd find it soon enough. Finding the location of a number of other fixed percentage and fixed cost values would be handy too. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 22:32, 11 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:NKF: I knew that, but I figured that maybe they tried a trick, which they obviously didn't. In any case, what other numbers? Gimme a list and I'll see what I can do. (I'm thinking the list would include throwing, Mind Probe, Psi Amp, and inventory. Anything else?) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 23:12, 11 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::Off the top of my head, motion scanner, medikit, and possibly things like opening doors.</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Grenade&diff=15623Talk:Grenade2008-06-12T03:20:17Z<p>Phasma Felis: New section: Changing the TUs to prime</p>
<hr />
<div>When using a grenade to remove terrain you can set the timer to 1 instead of 0. The aliens will move before the grenade explodes, giving you first use of the cleared terrain. -Egor<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
There's a trick you can perform with a 1 turn grenade with UFO doors if you know an alien will be walking through. By placing the 1-turn grenade in front of the UFO door, the alien will walk through, open the door, and end its turn. By then the grenade will explode and hit the alien. And because it's exploding before the doors are closed again, it can send a small wave into the UFO and strike any aliens that are behind the door. <br />
<br />
It won't always work, but it's something that you can do. <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
== Timers ==<br />
<br />
I thought I had found a bug but it's just my misunderstanding I think. I was setting timers to 3, carrying the grenade around, then it would go off when I dropped it. From this article it looks like the timer counts down while you are carrying it, but "holds" at zero. Is that true? If so we can put a clarification in for dummies like me. (I thought the timer countdown would start when I throw/drop the grenade).<br />
<br />
PS this is a silly way for grenades to work and it's hard to think of a realistic equivalent. The timer, once set, ought to start when you release the grenade. Oh well :)<br />
<br />
[[User:Spike|Spike]] 05:51, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:That is indeed a misunderstanding. Once a grenade is set, the game starts counting down the turns; as soon as it reaches 0, the grenade will explode IF IT IS ON THE GROUND. If it is not on the ground, it does indeed 'hold' at 0, and will detonate at the end of the next turn that it is sitting on the ground, regardless of how it got there. (This is the behavior used by people who want their soldiers to have dead-man switches; AKA, soldier dies, drops live grenade, blows up nearby aliens at tend of turn.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 09:47, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
::If you want to add some difficulty in your games, you can do so that the primed grenades will detonate on due time even if handed. I did only a few tests so it may cause trouble, particularly if the soldier survives the explosion - the code should remove the grenade from its hand, but I make no promise ;). Simply patch at offset 0x1E095:<br />
0F 85 E4 00 00 00<br />
::into<br />
90 90 90 90 90 90<br />
:: and your done. Now you should really make sure you have enough TUs to throw those nades :) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:08, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:::Seb, can you give any details about how you figure this stuff out? I'm a fairly accomplished programmer, but I only have a little experience with assembler, and this is all a mystery to me. I'd love to learn more. :) [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 14:47, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::Actually this is possible thanks to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Disassembler best disassembler in town]... I started by cross-checking error messages (e.g. "couldnt allocate craftlist") with malloc/fread calls to identify the main datastructure pointers (every xxx.dat file has an equivalent in memory). Then with crossing with information from this site (offsets and stuff), I could identify some higher level functions. From there you can start analysing strange behaviors. Luck is also a factor, the disassembly is quite huge, and sometimes I just wander around and find some interesting stuff ^^ I'll post more explicit screenshots later. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 15:55, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
::Here you go, I "circled" the lines that check if the grenade on the floor or in a soldier inventory:<br />
<br />
[[Image:Detonate.png]]<br />
<br />
This is quite huge so I'll stop for now. I have the UFO Power Source explosion sequence and unitref offset 0x3c explanation ready if you want more examples ;-) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:14, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:::Thanks very much, Seb76! I actually wouldn't mind some more examples, with more detailed comments :) But can I interest you in dropping me an e-mail? I have some non-grenade-related ideas I've been working on, and I could use some advice from someone with even a little understanding of the source code. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 21:53, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
::OK, I finally set up a user page, so you can reach me on the talk page :) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 13:27, 4 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:: I've been planning to create a new article to cover and explain all the little itty bitty things about how grenades (in general) function. The timer and the dead-man-switch definitely need to be explained. <br />
<br />
::Any suggestions on what the section should be called? I can't think of an appropriate article name for it except perhaps [[Grenade Mechanics]] or [[How Grenades Work]]. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 21:52, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Sounds like a great idea. For a title how about just "Using Grenades" or "More On Grenades and Explosives"? [[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:23, 26 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: Thought I'd go with [[Understanding Grenades]]. We can always rename it later to something more appropriate. It's taken me a bit of time because I've had a lot of difficulty in trying to write it in a manner that even I could understand (and failing every time). I've decided to just throw up what I've managed to put together so far to get the ideas out there. <br />
<br />
: I realize the potential for a fence-post problem with my explanation on the grenade's time trigger (equal-or-greater than vs. greater-than), but hopefully the idea will still get across. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 00:17, 4 April 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
== Changing the TUs to prime ==<br />
<br />
Is there an easy way to change the number of TUs it takes to prime a grenade? As it is, it's a lot harder to use frag grenades tactically, which IMO makes things less interesting.</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User:Seb76&diff=15609User:Seb762008-06-08T02:51:15Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>Hi guys, I've been posting here for quite some time now so I guess it's time to make this page. For now it's just a stub, I'll try to update it when time is available.<br />
<br />
I was a teenager when the game came out. I had no computer back then but I remember playing it on the computer of a friend's father, it was simply awesome. Years passed, and 3D completely changed the face of videogames. The main focus was turned to polygon counts and frames per second. Duke Nukem, Quake, Unreal, -you name any FPS-; I totally forgot about the "old-era" games. Later my interest in emulation brought me to the dosbox project; a real wayback machine... After all this 3D orgy, I decided to give it a shot and restarted the old X-COM just for fun. But then all memories came back at once; the music, the huge pixels, the tension of the first terror mission... The feeling was still the same after all the years. Still unmatched. IMHO the "best game ever" award it got is really deserved.<br />
I since tried the "UFO after-xxx" spinoffs, but I think their pseudo-realtime aspect removes what make X-COM unique to me, this feeling you get when you press the end of turn button. Everything can happen then...<br />
<br />
Nowaday, most of my occupation with XCom is analysis of its code, and trying to explain the odd behaviors and see how the game can be exploited (with the help of a few patches). I'll try to gather here the most interesting pieces that I can find (most of my findings are scattered across the talk pages for the moment). Feel free to use the talk page if you have questions/suggestions. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 13:25, 4 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Thanks for the userpage, Seb! :) I have a (probably very silly) project I could use some advice with.<br />
<br />
:I want to give the DOS version of X-COM the ability to play the [http://www.xcomufo.com/x1music.html excellent CD music] from the PlayStation version. X-COM DOS plays its music through a TSR called MUSIC.COM in the SOUND subdirectory, which is loaded into memory when X-COM is started and then receives commands from it somehow. I've found a TSR CD player, [ftp://ftp.externet.hu/pub/mirror/sac/sound/pci-mcd5.zip Mercury Soft CD Player], that works in DOSBox and runs fine with X-COM, and if copied over SOUND.COM, X-COM will automatically start it and it responds to its hotkeys properly. I figure all that's left to do is disassemble SOUND.COM, figure out how it receives its signals, then disassemble MCD and modify it to respond to those same signals.<br />
<br />
:Of course, that's probably the hardest part :) It helps that both SOUND.COM and MCD.COM are less than 4K each, but my experience with assembler is very slim and many years out of date. You suggested using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Disassembler IDA] in the Grenade discussion, so I'll be giving that a look. Any other suggestions or advice to get me started? [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 20:46, 6 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::The way it works in the CE version is still influenced by this. Only the mouse, video and sound code was wrapped with windows calls; the rest was left as-is. All the sound related operations are centralized in one procedure taking 3 arguments. The first that I dubbed 'opcode', and 2 others that are not used (but may be of use in the DOS version). I suspect that in DOS version these arguments are passed to the TSR by some way to trigger sound actions. Here are the details I know from the CE edition:<br />
<br />
::* if the opcode is >0x7f (i.e. the most significant bit is set), then it is a music change request (translated into a 'play midi' sequence in the CE edition), else it is a digitized sound that will be played<br />
<br />
::* the music sample number is extracted by removing the high bit (opcode-0x80)<br />
<br />
::* cases 1,5 and 14-17 stop the music but don't start a new sequence<br />
<br />
::* for other cases, it starts playing a midi file (and stops the current playing if any):<br />
::{|<br />
! Sample idx || Sound file<br />
|-<br />
| 0 || sound/gmgeo1.mid<br />
|-<br />
| 2 || sound/gminter.mid<br />
|-<br />
| 3,4 || sound/gmdefend.mid<br />
|-<br />
| 6,7 || sound/gmenbase.mid<br />
|-<br />
| 8 || sound/gmmars.mid<br />
|-<br />
| 9,12 || sound/gmstory.mid<br />
|-<br />
| 10 || sound/gmlose.mid<br />
|-<br />
| 11 || sound/gmwin.mid<br />
|-<br />
| 13 || sound/gmtactic.mid<br />
|-<br />
| 18 || sound/gmgeo2.mid<br />
|}<br />
::You need to get this sample idx and remap it to the PSX track you want to play. I don't know if you can map all PSX tracks.<br />
::PS: What is the 'official' way of moving this to the talk page... Cut/Paste? [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 04:11, 7 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
::Edit: I could grab a DOS version of XCom and noticed there are no mid files in the first place so this won't be useful if you want to patch the DOS version. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 11:53, 7 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Awesome! Thanks very much, I think this will help. The music in the DOS version is all stored in two files (ADLIB.CAT and GM.CAT), but I'll bet the indexes are the same. Most of the PSX tracks map well; there's a few oddities, and it has two extra Geoscape tracks and one extra Battlescape, but I'll probably just choose those randomly each time (I'm tentatively thinking that the two least-significant bits of the system clock should work, and hopefully be easier to implement than a proper RNG).<br />
<br />
:P.S. I think cut/paste should be fine for moving it to the Sound talk page (I think that's what you meant). Just be sure to give it an appropriate heading. :) [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 19:51, 7 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:SOUND&diff=15606Talk:SOUND2008-06-07T04:16:15Z<p>Phasma Felis: removing double post</p>
<hr />
<div>The files with the names of soundcards, ''adlib, roland'' and ''gm (general midi) '' store the respective Geoscape and Battlescape music sequences for their respective cards. <br />
<br />
For those with plain soundblaster compatibles, adlib.cat was used. Those with Roland Gus's or general midi output devices, they used their respective files for the music sequences. They're stored in different files because the midi devices handle their data in different ways. <br />
<br />
These files are only used by the Dos version - and perhaps are the reason why the music in the dos version, on certain soundcards, sound a lot better than the CE versions (though your mileage may vary). Speaking of which, these three files were replaced in the Collectors edition with midi files, one for each music sequence - this allows for a bit more freedom in modding as you can replace the midi files you don't like with other midi files. <br />
<br />
The CE version of UFO leaves out intro.cat for some really odd reason, so your intro sequence has no sound effects. Worse still, it will not play intro.cat even if you copy it in. <br />
<br />
I think there were a few 0-byte com files in here as well, but they did nothing and weren't used by the game. <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
----<br />
The .com files in my game are not empty, they probably do some low level sound card service, but on the other hand, in the main .bat file sound\sndstart and sound\sndend exe files are called. I looked into the them for strings they contain, and found names of other coms and exes in sound directory. I think sndstart/sndend is just a wrapper for a convenient use in .bat file.<br />
<br />
The INTRO.CAT file was used only by old sound engine - DOS 1.4 uses (and CE should use) SAMPLE3.CAT. Erasing it makes CE crash with error:<br />
Error Code 0<br />
FILE: D:\SS\XCOM\UFO Defense\Stubs.c<br />
LINE: 58<br />
<br>Cannot open file Sound/sample3.cat<br />
<br />
I'm not sure which files 1.4 version uses for Roland support, because there are two files (one for intro music, one with rest of it) - this construction was used by 1.2 engine. There isn't one file with all the music in it.<br />
<br />
- Quantifier<br />
<br />
== Garbled MIDI ==<br />
<br />
A couple of the MIDI files seem to have screwed up instrument sounds when played on my computer -- I tried them on a friend's computer and had the same problems. The two major problems are the files for the intro music "GMINTRO1.MID" and particularly the BattleScape music "GMTACTIC.MID" -- I think there's supposed to be a low-pitch piano key (every now and then when I alt-tab out and back the sound works fine) but instead it just sort of sounds like a blown speaker. I was wondering if anyone else is having this sort of sound trouble and if there is a way of fixing it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
== Modified sounds between 1.2 and 1.4 ==<br />
<br />
Anyone know exactly which sounds were modified between 1.2 and 1.4? Was it just the alien death screams? All of them, or only some? [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 21:15, 6 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:SOUND&diff=15605Talk:SOUND2008-06-07T04:15:13Z<p>Phasma Felis: New section: Modified sounds between 1.2 and 1.4</p>
<hr />
<div>The files with the names of soundcards, ''adlib, roland'' and ''gm (general midi) '' store the respective Geoscape and Battlescape music sequences for their respective cards. <br />
<br />
For those with plain soundblaster compatibles, adlib.cat was used. Those with Roland Gus's or general midi output devices, they used their respective files for the music sequences. They're stored in different files because the midi devices handle their data in different ways. <br />
<br />
These files are only used by the Dos version - and perhaps are the reason why the music in the dos version, on certain soundcards, sound a lot better than the CE versions (though your mileage may vary). Speaking of which, these three files were replaced in the Collectors edition with midi files, one for each music sequence - this allows for a bit more freedom in modding as you can replace the midi files you don't like with other midi files. <br />
<br />
The CE version of UFO leaves out intro.cat for some really odd reason, so your intro sequence has no sound effects. Worse still, it will not play intro.cat even if you copy it in. <br />
<br />
I think there were a few 0-byte com files in here as well, but they did nothing and weren't used by the game. <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
----<br />
The .com files in my game are not empty, they probably do some low level sound card service, but on the other hand, in the main .bat file sound\sndstart and sound\sndend exe files are called. I looked into the them for strings they contain, and found names of other coms and exes in sound directory. I think sndstart/sndend is just a wrapper for a convenient use in .bat file.<br />
<br />
The INTRO.CAT file was used only by old sound engine - DOS 1.4 uses (and CE should use) SAMPLE3.CAT. Erasing it makes CE crash with error:<br />
Error Code 0<br />
FILE: D:\SS\XCOM\UFO Defense\Stubs.c<br />
LINE: 58<br />
<br>Cannot open file Sound/sample3.cat<br />
<br />
I'm not sure which files 1.4 version uses for Roland support, because there are two files (one for intro music, one with rest of it) - this construction was used by 1.2 engine. There isn't one file with all the music in it.<br />
<br />
- Quantifier<br />
<br />
== Garbled MIDI ==<br />
<br />
A couple of the MIDI files seem to have screwed up instrument sounds when played on my computer -- I tried them on a friend's computer and had the same problems. The two major problems are the files for the intro music "GMINTRO1.MID" and particularly the BattleScape music "GMTACTIC.MID" -- I think there's supposed to be a low-pitch piano key (every now and then when I alt-tab out and back the sound works fine) but instead it just sort of sounds like a blown speaker. I was wondering if anyone else is having this sort of sound trouble and if there is a way of fixing it.<br />
<br />
== Modified sounds between 1.2 and 1.4 ==<br />
<br />
Anyone know exactly which sounds were modified between 1.2 and 1.4? Was it just the alien death screams? All of them, or only some?<br />
<br />
== Modified sounds between 1.2 and 1.4 ==<br />
<br />
Anyone know exactly which sounds were modified between 1.2 and 1.4? Was it just the alien death screams? All of them, or only some? [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 21:15, 6 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:SOUND&diff=15604Talk:SOUND2008-06-07T04:13:57Z<p>Phasma Felis: New section: Modified sounds between 1.2 and 1.4</p>
<hr />
<div>The files with the names of soundcards, ''adlib, roland'' and ''gm (general midi) '' store the respective Geoscape and Battlescape music sequences for their respective cards. <br />
<br />
For those with plain soundblaster compatibles, adlib.cat was used. Those with Roland Gus's or general midi output devices, they used their respective files for the music sequences. They're stored in different files because the midi devices handle their data in different ways. <br />
<br />
These files are only used by the Dos version - and perhaps are the reason why the music in the dos version, on certain soundcards, sound a lot better than the CE versions (though your mileage may vary). Speaking of which, these three files were replaced in the Collectors edition with midi files, one for each music sequence - this allows for a bit more freedom in modding as you can replace the midi files you don't like with other midi files. <br />
<br />
The CE version of UFO leaves out intro.cat for some really odd reason, so your intro sequence has no sound effects. Worse still, it will not play intro.cat even if you copy it in. <br />
<br />
I think there were a few 0-byte com files in here as well, but they did nothing and weren't used by the game. <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
----<br />
The .com files in my game are not empty, they probably do some low level sound card service, but on the other hand, in the main .bat file sound\sndstart and sound\sndend exe files are called. I looked into the them for strings they contain, and found names of other coms and exes in sound directory. I think sndstart/sndend is just a wrapper for a convenient use in .bat file.<br />
<br />
The INTRO.CAT file was used only by old sound engine - DOS 1.4 uses (and CE should use) SAMPLE3.CAT. Erasing it makes CE crash with error:<br />
Error Code 0<br />
FILE: D:\SS\XCOM\UFO Defense\Stubs.c<br />
LINE: 58<br />
<br>Cannot open file Sound/sample3.cat<br />
<br />
I'm not sure which files 1.4 version uses for Roland support, because there are two files (one for intro music, one with rest of it) - this construction was used by 1.2 engine. There isn't one file with all the music in it.<br />
<br />
- Quantifier<br />
<br />
== Garbled MIDI ==<br />
<br />
A couple of the MIDI files seem to have screwed up instrument sounds when played on my computer -- I tried them on a friend's computer and had the same problems. The two major problems are the files for the intro music "GMINTRO1.MID" and particularly the BattleScape music "GMTACTIC.MID" -- I think there's supposed to be a low-pitch piano key (every now and then when I alt-tab out and back the sound works fine) but instead it just sort of sounds like a blown speaker. I was wondering if anyone else is having this sort of sound trouble and if there is a way of fixing it.<br />
<br />
== Modified sounds between 1.2 and 1.4 ==<br />
<br />
Anyone know exactly which sounds were modified between 1.2 and 1.4? Was it just the alien death screams? All of them, or only some?</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User:Seb76&diff=15603User:Seb762008-06-07T03:48:00Z<p>Phasma Felis: fixed spelling</p>
<hr />
<div>Hi guys, I've been posting here for quite some time now so I guess it's time to make this page. For now it's just a stub, I'll try to update it when time is available.<br />
<br />
I was a teenager when the game came out. I had no computer back then but I remember playing it on the computer of a friend's father, it was simply awesome. Years passed, and 3D completely changed the face of videogames. The main focus was turned to polygon counts and frames per second. Duke Nukem, Quake, Unreal, -you name any FPS-; I totally forgot about the "old-era" games. Later my interest in emulation brought me to the dosbox project; a real wayback machine... After all this 3D orgy, I decided to give it a shot and restarted the old X-COM just for fun. But then all memories came back at once; the music, the huge pixels, the tension of the first terror mission... The feeling was still the same after all the years. Still unmatched. IMHO the "best game ever" award it got is really deserved.<br />
I since tried the "UFO after-xxx" spinoffs, but I think their pseudo-realtime aspect removes what make X-COM unique to me, this feeling you get when you press the end of turn button. Everything can happen then...<br />
<br />
Nowaday, most of my occupation with XCom is analysis of its code, and trying to explain the odd behaviors and see how the game can be exploited (with the help of a few patches). I'll try to gather here the most interesting pieces that I can find (most of my findings are scattered across the talk pages for the moment). Feel free to use the talk page if you have questions/suggestions. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 13:25, 4 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Thanks for the userpage, Seb! :) I have a (probably very silly) project I could use some advice with.<br />
<br />
:I want to give the DOS version of X-COM the ability to play the [http://www.xcomufo.com/x1music.html excellent CD music] from the PlayStation version. X-COM DOS plays its music through a TSR called MUSIC.COM in the SOUND subdirectory, which is loaded into memory when X-COM is started and then receives commands from it somehow. I've found a TSR CD player, [ftp://ftp.externet.hu/pub/mirror/sac/sound/pci-mcd5.zip Mercury Soft CD Player], that works in DOSBox and runs fine with X-COM, and if copied over SOUND.COM, X-COM will automatically start it and it responds to its hotkeys properly. I figure all that's left to do is disassemble SOUND.COM, figure out how it receives its signals, then disassemble MCD and modify it to respond to those same signals.<br />
<br />
:Of course, that's probably the hardest part :) It helps that both SOUND.COM and MCD.COM are less than 4K each, but my experience with assembler is very slim and many years out of date. You suggested using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Disassembler IDA] in the Grenade discussion, so I'll be giving that a look. Any other suggestions or advice to get me started? [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 20:46, 6 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User:Seb76&diff=15602User:Seb762008-06-07T03:46:24Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>Hi guys, I've been posting here for quite some time now so I guess it's time to make this page. For now it's just a stub, I'll try to update it when time is available.<br />
<br />
I was a teenager when the game came out. I had no computer back then but I remember playing it on the computer of a friend's father, it was simply awesome. Years passed, and 3D completely changed the face of videogames. The main focus was turned to polygon counts and frames per second. Duke Nukem, Quake, Unreal, -you name any FPS-; I totally forgot about the "old-era" games. Later my interest in emulation brought me to the dosbox project; a real wayback machine... After all this 3D orgy, I decided to give it a shot and restarted the old X-COM just for fun. But then all memories came back at once; the music, the huge pixels, the tension of the first terror mission... The feeling was still the same after all the years. Still unmatched. IMHO the "best game ever" award it got is really deserved.<br />
I since tried the "UFO after-xxx" spinoffs, but I think their pseudo-realtime aspect removes what make X-COM unique to me, this feeling you get when you press the end of turn button. Everything can happen then...<br />
<br />
Nowaday, most of my occupation with XCom is analysis of its code, and trying to explain the odd behaviors and see how the game can be exploited (with the help of a few patches). I'll try to gather here the most interesting pieces that I can find (most of my findings are scattered across the talk pages for the moment). Feel free to use the talk page if you have questions/suggestions. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 13:25, 4 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Thanks for the userpage, Seb! :) I have a (probably very silly) project I could use some advice with.<br />
<br />
:I want to give the DOS version of X-COM the ability to play the [http://www.xcomufo.com/x1music.html excellent CD music] from the PlayStation version. X-COM DOS plays its music through a TSR called MUSIC.COM in the SOUND subdirectory, which is loaded into memory when X-COM is started and then receives commands from it somehow. I've found a TSR CD player, [ftp://ftp.externet.hu/pub/mirror/sac/sound/pci-mcd5.zip Mercury Soft CD Player], that works in DOSBox and runs fine with X-COM, and if copied over SOUND.COM, X-COM will automatically start it and it responds to its hotkeys properly. I figure all that's left to do is disassemble SOUND.COM, figure out how it receives its signals, then disassemble MCD and modify it to respond to those same signals.<br />
<br />
:Of course, that's probably the hardest part :) It helps that both SOUND.COM and MCD.COM are less that 4K each, but my experience with assembler is very slim and many years out of date. You suggested using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Disassembler IDA] in the Grenade discussion, so I'll be giving that a look. Any other suggestions or advice to get me started? [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 20:46, 6 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User:Phasma_Felis&diff=15601User:Phasma Felis2008-06-07T03:44:31Z<p>Phasma Felis: New page: Hey, all. I'd never heard of X-COM until a few years ago, when a message board I read suddenly became obsessed with it. It's a fantastic game with really amazing depth for its time. I've ...</p>
<hr />
<div>Hey, all. I'd never heard of X-COM until a few years ago, when a message board I read suddenly became obsessed with it. It's a fantastic game with really amazing depth for its time.<br />
<br />
I've seen that there are a lot of modern gamers who are really interested in playing X-COM, but don't have the skills or patience to jump through configuration hoops or use command-line utilities to get the best, most bug-free performance out of it. My goal is to make a launcher/mod that maximises accessibility and easy of use for modern users, optionally including various popular mods. I'm probably going to be using the DOS version as a base, since (via DOSBox) it's much more portable than the Collector's Edition, and doesn't have any problems with Vista.<br />
<br />
My immediate project is a user-friendly patch that adds [http://www.xcomufo.com/x1music.html PlayStation CD music] and the original alien-scream sounds to the DOS 1.4 version. If you want to help, or have ideas or suggestions, let me know! [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 20:44, 6 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Grenade&diff=15583Talk:Grenade2008-06-03T04:53:07Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>When using a grenade to remove terrain you can set the timer to 1 instead of 0. The aliens will move before the grenade explodes, giving you first use of the cleared terrain. -Egor<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
There's a trick you can perform with a 1 turn grenade with UFO doors if you know an alien will be walking through. By placing the 1-turn grenade in front of the UFO door, the alien will walk through, open the door, and end its turn. By then the grenade will explode and hit the alien. And because it's exploding before the doors are closed again, it can send a small wave into the UFO and strike any aliens that are behind the door. <br />
<br />
It won't always work, but it's something that you can do. <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
== Timers ==<br />
<br />
I thought I had found a bug but it's just my misunderstanding I think. I was setting timers to 3, carrying the grenade around, then it would go off when I dropped it. From this article it looks like the timer counts down while you are carrying it, but "holds" at zero. Is that true? If so we can put a clarification in for dummies like me. (I thought the timer countdown would start when I throw/drop the grenade).<br />
<br />
PS this is a silly way for grenades to work and it's hard to think of a realistic equivalent. The timer, once set, ought to start when you release the grenade. Oh well :)<br />
<br />
[[User:Spike|Spike]] 05:51, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:That is indeed a misunderstanding. Once a grenade is set, the game starts counting down the turns; as soon as it reaches 0, the grenade will explode IF IT IS ON THE GROUND. If it is not on the ground, it does indeed 'hold' at 0, and will detonate at the end of the next turn that it is sitting on the ground, regardless of how it got there. (This is the behavior used by people who want their soldiers to have dead-man switches; AKA, soldier dies, drops live grenade, blows up nearby aliens at tend of turn.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 09:47, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
::If you want to add some difficulty in your games, you can do so that the primed grenades will detonate on due time even if handed. I did only a few tests so it may cause trouble, particularly if the soldier survives the explosion - the code should remove the grenade from its hand, but I make no promise ;). Simply patch at offset 0x1E095:<br />
0F 85 E4 00 00 00<br />
::into<br />
90 90 90 90 90 90<br />
:: and your done. Now you should really make sure you have enough TUs to throw those nades :) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:08, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:::Seb, can you give any details about how you figure this stuff out? I'm a fairly accomplished programmer, but I only have a little experience with assembler, and this is all a mystery to me. I'd love to learn more. :) [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 14:47, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::Actually this is possible thanks to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Disassembler best disassembler in town]... I started by cross-checking error messages (e.g. "couldnt allocate craftlist") with malloc/fread calls to identify the main datastructure pointers (every xxx.dat file has an equivalent in memory). Then with crossing with information from this site (offsets and stuff), I could identify some higher level functions. From there you can start analysing strange behaviors. Luck is also a factor, the disassembly is quite huge, and sometimes I just wander around and find some interesting stuff ^^ I'll post more explicit screenshots later. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 15:55, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
::Here you go, I "circled" the lines that check if the grenade on the floor or in a soldier inventory:<br />
<br />
[[Image:Detonate.png]]<br />
<br />
This is quite huge so I'll stop for now. I have the UFO Power Source explosion sequence and unitref offset 0x3c explanation ready if you want more examples ;-) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:14, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:::Thanks very much, Seb76! I actually wouldn't mind some more examples, with more detailed comments :) But can I interest you in dropping me an e-mail? I have some non-grenade-related ideas I've been working on, and I could use some advice from someone with even a little understanding of the source code. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 21:53, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:: I've been planning to create a new article to cover and explain all the little itty bitty things about how grenades (in general) function. The timer and the dead-man-switch definitely need to be explained. <br />
<br />
::Any suggestions on what the section should be called? I can't think of an appropriate article name for it except perhaps [[Grenade Mechanics]] or [[How Grenades Work]]. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 21:52, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Sounds like a great idea. For a title how about just "Using Grenades" or "More On Grenades and Explosives"? [[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:23, 26 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: Thought I'd go with [[Understanding Grenades]]. We can always rename it later to something more appropriate. It's taken me a bit of time because I've had a lot of difficulty in trying to write it in a manner that even I could understand (and failing every time). I've decided to just throw up what I've managed to put together so far to get the ideas out there. <br />
<br />
: I realize the potential for a fence-post problem with my explanation on the grenade's time trigger (equal-or-greater than vs. greater-than), but hopefully the idea will still get across. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 00:17, 4 April 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Proximity_Grenade&diff=15576Talk:Proximity Grenade2008-06-02T23:58:01Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>==Proximity Grenades Vs. Zombies==<br />
<br />
To be blunt, this is an absolutely horrid idea. One, if you have enough TUs to mine the Zombie in(75% TUs from TWO soldiers), you really should just shoot the thing, because with that many TUs you should be able to kill it and the resulting spawn.(Same for any alien, really, unless its early in the game and you've only got peashooters for weaponry). In addition, because the first Proximity Grenade will destroy the second one, what happens if you kill a Zombie with Proximity Grenades is that you spawn an enemy Chryssalid with FULL TUs...'''DURING''' the Alien turn. This can only be described as a tactical nightmare! Again, though, this tactic could work reasonably well in TFTD(barring the objection about TUs). [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 11:06, 16 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
==Grenade limits==<br />
The game keeps the list of armed prox. grenades in a separate array (possibly for performance reasons). The maximum number of elements in this array is 20, limiting the number of armed grenades to this very number. When you reach the limit, no particular message is shown to say so (the 'grenade activated !' message is even shown, and the quantity1 field is set to 1 too). The grenade however will never detonate. I didn't check if loading a savegame repopulate the list, but if not this is most likely the reason why the armed status is lost when loading a game. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:48, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:From a practical perspective, 20 Proximity Grenades is probably plenty. Given that X-COM can only haul 80 items to the drop site, in order to fill up the array, you'd need to have over 1/4th of your item stock be Prox. Grenades, and I somehow think most people will consider that somewhat impractical/overkill. Still, good to know for reference. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 16:52, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::Yeah, it is only for informational purpose. I stumbled across this limitation and thought it might explain the loss of armed state bug. Also it is a limitation on _armed_ grenades so you can bring more, it won't be a problem. I don't see how you could toss that much grenades in one turn and not having any one alien blow itself up with one of it to make more room anyway ;) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:04, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Kinda the point, yeah. In order to encounter the bug, you'd need to deploy 21 armed mines and hope that none were detonated. Or, conversely, have deployed a number of mines equal to 21+detonated mines. I'll add this to Known Bugs. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 17:06, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
::You may want to do some tests first then, I did not do any here so for now this is 'pure' speculation ;) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:09, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Ooops, thought you'd done the tests. Oh well, I'll do tests after finals and see what I can come up with. Sorry. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 17:14, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
::Hehe, I usually 'read' through the code and deduce behaviour. I'm often too lazy to check ^^. I did test the hot grenades patch however [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:17, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
:::What's this "hot grenades patch"? I'm trying to collect all the available bugfixes... [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 16:08, 1 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
::Also from the look of it, only grenades which detonate from proximity contact will free the entry. If they are destroyed with another explosion, they won't and they will pollute the array. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:25, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Guys, I'm pretty sure the bit about "pinning" aliens with a grenade on either side is pointless, since you can do the same thing with one grenade in the alien's square. Am I missing something? [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 16:08, 1 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:I agree it's pointless, but I'm trying to convince others of that as well. Similarly, debate is good. Saying "No" comes off as overlording, whereas saying, "I don't think so, because..." is more friendly. Hot Grenades is a patch made by Seb76 that modifies grenades so they detonate regardless of whether they're held in the inventory of a unit. The patch-code is [[Talk:Grenade#Timers|here]], and a downloadable program is at the bottom of [[User:Bomb_Bloke|this page]]. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 16:44, 1 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::I may not have been clear :) Whether "pinning" is useful or not as a tactic is a matter for debate, certainly, but I'm pretty sure it's a matter of fact that using two grenades will not have any better effect than one in this case. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 16:54, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Would two mines really prevent them from moving? I mean the AI's not that smart and will happily move its own unit into the triggering tiles around an armed mine. <br />
<br />
Using two mines would be wasteful as one would destroy the other. The triggered status of the armed mine apparently sticks around and gets passed onto whatever object that ends up in the slot previously occupied by the mine. In the one executable version of CE it will even carry over to the next mission (unless you exit the game). It's not so bad if it just happens to be the odd corpse that goes pop (or worse, a stunned soldier). However when dangerous objects like large rockets or high explosives just happen to inherit the armed flag, just hope that it's not you that triggers it. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 03:01, 2 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Proximity_Grenade&diff=15574Talk:Proximity Grenade2008-06-02T23:54:09Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>==Proximity Grenades Vs. Zombies==<br />
<br />
To be blunt, this is an absolutely horrid idea. One, if you have enough TUs to mine the Zombie in(75% TUs from TWO soldiers), you really should just shoot the thing, because with that many TUs you should be able to kill it and the resulting spawn.(Same for any alien, really, unless its early in the game and you've only got peashooters for weaponry). In addition, because the first Proximity Grenade will destroy the second one, what happens if you kill a Zombie with Proximity Grenades is that you spawn an enemy Chryssalid with FULL TUs...'''DURING''' the Alien turn. This can only be described as a tactical nightmare! Again, though, this tactic could work reasonably well in TFTD(barring the objection about TUs). [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 11:06, 16 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
==Grenade limits==<br />
The game keeps the list of armed prox. grenades in a separate array (possibly for performance reasons). The maximum number of elements in this array is 20, limiting the number of armed grenades to this very number. When you reach the limit, no particular message is shown to say so (the 'grenade activated !' message is even shown, and the quantity1 field is set to 1 too). The grenade however will never detonate. I didn't check if loading a savegame repopulate the list, but if not this is most likely the reason why the armed status is lost when loading a game. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:48, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:From a practical perspective, 20 Proximity Grenades is probably plenty. Given that X-COM can only haul 80 items to the drop site, in order to fill up the array, you'd need to have over 1/4th of your item stock be Prox. Grenades, and I somehow think most people will consider that somewhat impractical/overkill. Still, good to know for reference. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 16:52, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::Yeah, it is only for informational purpose. I stumbled across this limitation and thought it might explain the loss of armed state bug. Also it is a limitation on _armed_ grenades so you can bring more, it won't be a problem. I don't see how you could toss that much grenades in one turn and not having any one alien blow itself up with one of it to make more room anyway ;) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:04, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Kinda the point, yeah. In order to encounter the bug, you'd need to deploy 21 armed mines and hope that none were detonated. Or, conversely, have deployed a number of mines equal to 21+detonated mines. I'll add this to Known Bugs. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 17:06, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
::You may want to do some tests first then, I did not do any here so for now this is 'pure' speculation ;) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:09, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Ooops, thought you'd done the tests. Oh well, I'll do tests after finals and see what I can come up with. Sorry. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 17:14, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
::Hehe, I usually 'read' through the code and deduce behaviour. I'm often too lazy to check ^^. I did test the hot grenades patch however [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:17, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
:::What's this "hot grenades patch"? I'm trying to collect all the available bugfixes... [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 16:08, 1 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
::Also from the look of it, only grenades which detonate from proximity contact will free the entry. If they are destroyed with another explosion, they won't and they will pollute the array. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:25, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Guys, I'm pretty sure the bit about "pinning" aliens with a grenade on either side is pointless, since you can do the same thing with one grenade in the alien's square. Am I missing something? [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 16:08, 1 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:I agree it's pointless, but I'm trying to convince others of that as well. Similarly, debate is good. Saying "No" comes off as overlording, whereas saying, "I don't think so, because..." is more friendly. Hot Grenades is a patch made by Seb76 that modifies grenades so they detonate regardless of whether they're held in the inventory of a unit. The patch-code is [[Talk:Grenade#Timers|here]], and a downloadable program is at the bottom of [[User:Bomb_Bloke|this page]]. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 16:44, 1 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::I may not have been clear :) Whether as a tactic is useful or not is a matter for debate, certainly, but I'm pretty sure it's a matter of fact that using two grenades will not have any better effect than one in this case. [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 16:54, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Would two mines really prevent them from moving? I mean the AI's not that smart and will happily move its own unit into the triggering tiles around an armed mine. <br />
<br />
Using two mines would be wasteful as one would destroy the other. The triggered status of the armed mine apparently sticks around and gets passed onto whatever object that ends up in the slot previously occupied by the mine. In the one executable version of CE it will even carry over to the next mission (unless you exit the game). It's not so bad if it just happens to be the odd corpse that goes pop (or worse, a stunned soldier). However when dangerous objects like large rockets or high explosives just happen to inherit the armed flag, just hope that it's not you that triggers it. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 03:01, 2 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Grenade&diff=15570Talk:Grenade2008-06-02T21:47:25Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>When using a grenade to remove terrain you can set the timer to 1 instead of 0. The aliens will move before the grenade explodes, giving you first use of the cleared terrain. -Egor<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
There's a trick you can perform with a 1 turn grenade with UFO doors if you know an alien will be walking through. By placing the 1-turn grenade in front of the UFO door, the alien will walk through, open the door, and end its turn. By then the grenade will explode and hit the alien. And because it's exploding before the doors are closed again, it can send a small wave into the UFO and strike any aliens that are behind the door. <br />
<br />
It won't always work, but it's something that you can do. <br />
<br />
- [[User:NKF|NKF]]<br />
<br />
== Timers ==<br />
<br />
I thought I had found a bug but it's just my misunderstanding I think. I was setting timers to 3, carrying the grenade around, then it would go off when I dropped it. From this article it looks like the timer counts down while you are carrying it, but "holds" at zero. Is that true? If so we can put a clarification in for dummies like me. (I thought the timer countdown would start when I throw/drop the grenade).<br />
<br />
PS this is a silly way for grenades to work and it's hard to think of a realistic equivalent. The timer, once set, ought to start when you release the grenade. Oh well :)<br />
<br />
[[User:Spike|Spike]] 05:51, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:That is indeed a misunderstanding. Once a grenade is set, the game starts counting down the turns; as soon as it reaches 0, the grenade will explode IF IT IS ON THE GROUND. If it is not on the ground, it does indeed 'hold' at 0, and will detonate at the end of the next turn that it is sitting on the ground, regardless of how it got there. (This is the behavior used by people who want their soldiers to have dead-man switches; AKA, soldier dies, drops live grenade, blows up nearby aliens at tend of turn.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 09:47, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
::If you want to add some difficulty in your games, you can do so that the primed grenades will detonate on due time even if handed. I did only a few tests so it may cause trouble, particularly if the soldier survives the explosion - the code should remove the grenade from its hand, but I make no promise ;). Simply patch at offset 0x1E095:<br />
0F 85 E4 00 00 00<br />
::into<br />
90 90 90 90 90 90<br />
:: and your done. Now you should really make sure you have enough TUs to throw those nades :) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:08, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:::Seb, can you give any details about how you figure this stuff out? I'm a fairly accomplished programmer, but I only have a little experience with assembler, and this is all a mystery to me. I'd love to learn more. :) [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 14:47, 2 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:: I've been planning to create a new article to cover and explain all the little itty bitty things about how grenades (in general) function. The timer and the dead-man-switch definitely need to be explained. <br />
<br />
::Any suggestions on what the section should be called? I can't think of an appropriate article name for it except perhaps [[Grenade Mechanics]] or [[How Grenades Work]]. -[[User:NKF|NKF]] 21:52, 25 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Sounds like a great idea. For a title how about just "Using Grenades" or "More On Grenades and Explosives"? [[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:23, 26 March 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
: Thought I'd go with [[Understanding Grenades]]. We can always rename it later to something more appropriate. It's taken me a bit of time because I've had a lot of difficulty in trying to write it in a manner that even I could understand (and failing every time). I've decided to just throw up what I've managed to put together so far to get the ideas out there. <br />
<br />
: I realize the potential for a fence-post problem with my explanation on the grenade's time trigger (equal-or-greater than vs. greater-than), but hopefully the idea will still get across. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] 00:17, 4 April 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Proximity_Grenade&diff=15560Talk:Proximity Grenade2008-06-01T23:08:15Z<p>Phasma Felis: </p>
<hr />
<div>==Proximity Grenades Vs. Zombies==<br />
<br />
To be blunt, this is an absolutely horrid idea. One, if you have enough TUs to mine the Zombie in(75% TUs from TWO soldiers), you really should just shoot the thing, because with that many TUs you should be able to kill it and the resulting spawn.(Same for any alien, really, unless its early in the game and you've only got peashooters for weaponry). In addition, because the first Proximity Grenade will destroy the second one, what happens if you kill a Zombie with Proximity Grenades is that you spawn an enemy Chryssalid with FULL TUs...'''DURING''' the Alien turn. This can only be described as a tactical nightmare! Again, though, this tactic could work reasonably well in TFTD(barring the objection about TUs). [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 11:06, 16 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
==Grenade limits==<br />
The game keeps the list of armed prox. grenades in a separate array (possibly for performance reasons). The maximum number of elements in this array is 20, limiting the number of armed grenades to this very number. When you reach the limit, no particular message is shown to say so (the 'grenade activated !' message is even shown, and the quantity1 field is set to 1 too). The grenade however will never detonate. I didn't check if loading a savegame repopulate the list, but if not this is most likely the reason why the armed status is lost when loading a game. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 16:48, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:From a practical perspective, 20 Proximity Grenades is probably plenty. Given that X-COM can only haul 80 items to the drop site, in order to fill up the array, you'd need to have over 1/4th of your item stock be Prox. Grenades, and I somehow think most people will consider that somewhat impractical/overkill. Still, good to know for reference. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 16:52, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
::Yeah, it is only for informational purpose. I stumbled across this limitation and thought it might explain the loss of armed state bug. Also it is a limitation on _armed_ grenades so you can bring more, it won't be a problem. I don't see how you could toss that much grenades in one turn and not having any one alien blow itself up with one of it to make more room anyway ;) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:04, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Kinda the point, yeah. In order to encounter the bug, you'd need to deploy 21 armed mines and hope that none were detonated. Or, conversely, have deployed a number of mines equal to 21+detonated mines. I'll add this to Known Bugs. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 17:06, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
::You may want to do some tests first then, I did not do any here so for now this is 'pure' speculation ;) [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:09, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
:Ooops, thought you'd done the tests. Oh well, I'll do tests after finals and see what I can come up with. Sorry. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] 17:14, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
::Hehe, I usually 'read' through the code and deduce behaviour. I'm often too lazy to check ^^. I did test the hot grenades patch however [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:17, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
:::What's this "hot grenades patch"? I'm trying to collect all the available bugfixes... [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 16:08, 1 June 2008 (PDT)<br />
::Also from the look of it, only grenades which detonate from proximity contact will free the entry. If they are destroyed with another explosion, they won't and they will pollute the array. [[User:Seb76|Seb76]] 17:25, 18 May 2008 (PDT)<br />
<br />
Guys, I'm pretty sure the bit about "pinning" aliens with a grenade on either side is pointless, since you can do the same thing with one grenade in the alien's square. Am I missing something? [[User:Phasma Felis|Phasma Felis]] 16:08, 1 June 2008 (PDT)</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Proximity_Grenade&diff=15536Proximity Grenade2008-06-01T22:12:29Z<p>Phasma Felis: /* Tips & Tricks */ Removed stuff about "sympathetic detonation"--explosions don't detonate grenades, just destroy them harmlessly</p>
<hr />
<div>The portable mine, this little beauty uses a weighted base and ultrasonics to set up a 3-meter detection circle with a 5-meter explosion. Exceedingly useful for mining corridors in base defense missions or "softening up" aliens emerging from UFO doors.<br />
<br />
== Stats ==<br />
<table><tr><td>[[Image:BIGOBS21.GIF|left|64 px]]</td><td><br />
*Power: 70 High Explosive<br />
*Size: 1 high x 1 wide<br />
*Weight: 3<br />
*TUs: <br />
**Transfer from shoulder strap to hand: 3 TU. See [[Inventory TU Table]] <br />
**Priming: 50%<br />
**Throwing: 25% <br />
*[[Buying/Selling/Transferring#Non-Manufacturable_Prices|Cost]]: $500<br />
*Sell Price: $400</td></tr></table><br />
<br />
== Earning Experience The Hard Way ==<br />
Unlike other explosives, the Proximity Grenade does not give [[Firing Accuracy]] experience points for hits to the person throwing it (although this will give you Throwing experience). Instead, it gives Firing XPs to <i>the person who triggers it to explode.</i><br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the accompanying pain and death make it a dubious choice for earning experience, especially early in the game (when you don't have the armor to go near one). For more on experience points, see [[Experience#How Experience Points Are Applied|here]].<br />
<br />
:''I made the finding that Prox Grenades goofily give experience to the person that made it explode. But it's occurred to me that I triggered the Prox with soldiers in FS armor, and there may be different outcomes if an alien triggers it and/or the unit that triggers it dies. If anyone wants to look into this, have at it. I don't have the time ATM. - [[User:MikeTheRed|MikeTheRed]]''<br />
<br />
Among the aliens, [[Muton]]s can survive the explosion handily. Keep a few snipers around so they won't live long enough to benefit from the experience.<br />
<br />
== Mining UFO Doors ==<br />
[[Image:Shooters_and_looter.png|right]]<br />
<br />
One of the most popular uses of the Proximity Grenade is to place one just outside a UFO's outer door. Aliens emerging from the craft will take a faceful of HE, commonly killing weaker species such as [[Sectoid]]s, [[Floater]]s, and [[Snakemen]], and weakening most others.<br />
<br />
The grenade must be thrown one space away from the door, in the location marked "G" in the diagram at right. If the grenade is placed immediately in front of the door, it will detonate when the alien is still on the other side of the door, and the alien will take no damage.<br />
<br />
This technique is particularly effective around Turn 20 of combat. Aliens have a known habit of emerging from their UFO right around Turn 20. Some may remain in the craft, but several can be killed in the space of a few turns.<br />
<br />
It is also recommended to have several troops facing the UFO door (from a distance), to kill any aliens which might survive the blast. This technique is detailed in depth at [[Reaction Training]].<br />
<br />
This technique has a few drawbacks: aliens killed by a Proximity Grenade will not earn your troops combat [[experience]], and the grenade will destroy most nearby objects on the ground. If you have already killed one alien this way, its corpse and equipment will be lying outside the door, which will be destroyed by a subsequent explosion.<br />
<br />
This problem can be addressed by posting a "looter" just around the corner from the door (see the picture to the right for placement). After a grenade detonates, the looter should pick up one or more valuable items, retreat around the corner again, and another soldier can throw a new grenade, if desired. Ideally, the looter should have high TUs (60+), and you should not try to pick up everything unless you are certain the looter has sufficient TUs to get back to safety. Many looters have been lost due to lack of speed and excess of greed.<br />
<br />
== Proceed With Caution ==<br />
Proximity mines can often cause "friendly fire" casualties. It is easy to forget a grenade placed several turns ago and to stumble into it, killing your own troops. An undetonated grenade can also cause the "phantom grenade" bug described below.<br />
<br />
It is therefore best if you deliberately destroy undetonated grenades. This can be accomplished easily by throwing a standard armed [[grenade]] on top of one. It may be necessary to destroy Proximity Grenades left outside a UFO door as well, if no alien emerges after many turns.<br />
<br />
Proximity Grenades can also be removed through the use of [[Flying Suit]]s. A grenade will not detonate when a unit moves into its square ''vertically'' -- so a soldier in a Flying Suit can safely approach the grenade while flying, drop down on top of it, and pick it up. The grenade will remain armed, but it will not detonate unless it is dropped and then triggered by movement.<br />
<br />
== Buggy Behavior ==<br />
In some versions of the game, a bug causes armed-but-undetonated Proximity Grenades to transfer their properties to a different item in the next mission, which may then explode unexpectedly. If an explosion goes off just as your first soldier steps out of the transport, you have fallen victim to this bug.<br />
<br />
The easiest way to fix this is to save the game at the beginning of Turn 1, before any soldiers move. If something explodes, reload your file; the phantom grenade will be deactivated.<br />
<br />
This is due to a different bug, common to the computer versions of the game, in that all Proximity Grenades lose their "armed" status when restoring from a save. If the player so chooses, this can be exploited to disarm unwanted mines. In the Playstation version Proximity Grenades do not have this bug.<br />
<br />
== Tips & Tricks ==<br />
* On higher skill levels, many aliens can survive the blast of a proximity grenade. Mutons always shrug them off, some Snakemen and even the occasional Floater will survive. Even when a prox grenade doesn't kill, they are still useful to soften up targets and-- perhaps more importantly-- acting as burglar alarms. When you see a prox grenade go off, it will alert you to an alien in the area.<br />
* PGs detect movement into, but not out of, the eight surrounding squares, meaning you can walk away from a mis-throw.<br />
* PGs can safely be picked up by entering their square vertically (e.g. with flying suit).<br />
* The mine can be destroyed by explosives. However, it's only advisable to destroy the mine if there's no alternative. Even with armour, the explosive should be set off as far away from the soldier as possible, as your under armour is by far your most vulnerable spot. Make no mistakes. <br />
* Just like every other live [[grenade]] in the game, it's safe to pick up an armed Proximity Grenade -- ''if it is already in your square''. It is strongly recommended that armed Proximity Grenades not be used in the [[Grenade Relay]] manoeuvre. <br />
* If all else fails, and you are trapped with nowhere to move and no way to defuse the mine: just stay still. Don't move and wait until the bomb squad arrives (i.e., wait until the mission ends). <br />
<br />
-- Collection of [[User:NKF|NKF-Sensei's]] posts by --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 12:50, 25 Apr 2005 (BST)<br />
<br />
*Not so tricky to use really, and very useful. Certainly for a base defence I suggest you should use these instead of regular grenades. If you throw them at aliens they function in effect as if they had a timer setting somewhere between 0 and 1 - going off after the end of your turn but as the aliens move. They are significantly more powerful than regular grenades so especially useful against armoured aliens and/or those with high health. <br />
<br />
*With proximity grenades it's important to be aware of the BUG in the game - proximity grenades seem to disarm themselves if you resume a saved game. Makes load/save tactics impossible in a game where you are relying on proximity grenades. <br />
--[[User:Spike|Spike]] 19:48, 3 June 2006 (PDT)<br />
<br />
*The walkthrough of Kasey Chang mentions that you can pin aliens by throwing a prox grenade on either side of it - since prox. grenades only react to movement whose destination square is inside their detection radius, it can't move without setting one off, unless it can fly. Note that in UFO, the first Proximity Grenade will destroy the second one. As such, you should NEVER use this on Zombies because you will effectively spawn a enemy Chryssalid with full TUs '''during''' the Alien Turn, meaning they get to use it RIGHT AWAY. (In addition, if you have enough TUs to mine in an alien, you probably should just shoot the thing.)<br />
<br />
== See Also ==<br />
[[Understanding Grenades]]<br />
<br />
{{Equipment (UFO Defense) Navbar}}<br />
[[Category: Equipment (UFO Defense)]]<br />
[[Category: Tactics]]</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Known_Bugs&diff=15506Known Bugs2008-05-30T16:36:30Z<p>Phasma Felis: /* The trouble with Mines (general) */</p>
<hr />
<div>== Base Construction Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Base Disjoint Bug ===<br />
Base facilities built along the right or bottom edges of the base building area may end up being cut off from each other by dirt walls, a bug in the routine meant to keep soldiers from accidentally exiting the map edges during [[Base Defense]] missions. The dirt walls can be knocked down by Blaster Bombs or excessive amount of heavy plasma fire during combat but are otherwise unbreakable. <br />
<br />
[[image:bdb.gif|center|Base Disjoint Bug]]<br />
<br />
The walls marked in white are removed if there is an adjacent module. All green modules are not affected while the yellow modules are. The red module will be sealed off completely if anything smaller than a hangar is placed here at any given time. <br />
<br />
[[XcomUtil]] works around this problem by stripping out the walls entirely in all the base modules.<br />
<br />
The bug can be profitable if the hangars and the lift are accessible only through in these areas - you can gather and supply all your soldiers heavily without aliens interfering, then knock a hole in the wall and cover the area with explosives and blaster launcher fire.<br />
<br />
===Facility Maintenance Costs===<br />
Although X-COM charges the right fee when you first buy base modules, the monthly maintenance fee is always wrong. It's actually based on the placement within the base grid, '''not''' the price displayed in the in-game UFOpaedia. For more information, see [[Base_Facilities#Facility_Maintenance_Cost_Bug]]. The Geo finance Graph shows a correct summary, however ([[LIGLOB.DAT]], updated once a month). Also see the next section.<br />
<br />
===Paying For Dirt===<br />
If you take down any facility in any base that you own and leave bare dirt, then you will continue to pay maintenance on it. But not at the old rate of whatever the facility cost per month, filling the hole back with dirt means it needs special attention at all times by specialists. In fact for every square of dirt you have that used to be a facility you will pay 80k per month. Thats 320k per hangar you take down. There are only two known ways to stop paying this premium - if you completely dismantle the base you stop paying any money for it, or if you build over all the spaces that you have vacated. In fact as soon as you start building the new facility you stop paying the premium, as well as not having to pay the cost of the new facility until it is complete.<br />
<br />
If you start a facility and change your mind before it is complete, after the time when it would have completed you will start paying this 80k premium on that land as well.<br />
<br />
===Base Facility Dismantle-Construction Crash===<br />
In the Collectors Edition version, dismantling a facility while its construction is in progress can cause a crash when a second facility on another base square completes its construction. To work around this, dismantle a facility only after its construction is complete. If you have already dismantled such a facility, build something like a general stores on the same square to avoid the crash. It is not known if this crash happens intermittently or always, or if it happens on most versions of the game or just the Collectors Edition.<br />
<br />
===Radar Stacking===<br />
Despite the "Short Range" and "Long Range" detection bars displayed on each base's Information screen, only one radar of each type will be used at each base. Building additional radars of the same type will have no effect. One short and one long are useful until the [[Hyper-Wave Decoder|Hyper-Wave Decoder]] makes both of them obsolete.<br />
<br />
===Phantom Radar===<br />
When you dismantle detection equipment such as a radar or hyperwave detector, the related detection ability of the base does not decrease until a new facility of some kind is built in that base. Until a new facility is completes building at that base, the base continues to use this "phantom radar".<br />
<br />
This bug allows you to "upgrade in place", for example building a new Hyper-Wave Decoder over the top of an existing Large Radar, and retaining the detection capability of the Large Radar until the Hyper-Wave Decoder completes building. (Unless something else completes building first).<br />
<br />
===Fixes for Base Construction Bugs===<br />
<br />
As mentioned above, [[XcomUtil]] prevents the Base Disjoint bug (crudely). The [[User:Spike#Base_Fixer|BaseFixer]] utility corrects the Paying for Dirt, Phantom Radar, and Radar Stacking bugs. BaseFixer can be used manually on saved game files, or automatically via XcomUtil's hook mechanism.<br />
<br />
==Geoscape Bugs==<br />
<br />
===First Radar Detection Data bug===<br />
When a UFO is detected by a radar, you get certain data on it depending on the type of radar that detected it. If the UFO later enters the range of another radar while staying in the range of the first, you will continue to get the initial data given, even if the new radar is more powerful than the first! So if you detect a craft with a [[Small Radar]], then the UFO moves into the range of a [[Hyper-Wave Decoder]], clicking on the UFO will only give you the data as if the Small Radar detected it, so long as it remains in the Small Radar range! In effect, the data you get about a UFO is determined when you first detect it, and not changed after that until you lose detection on the craft with the radar that first detected it.<br />
<br />
This bug most commonly shows up when a UFO is first detected by a patrolling aircraft and then remains in the range of the aircraft while also entering the range of a Hyper-Wave Decoder.<br />
<br />
=== Minimized Interceptor Bug ===<br />
One fairly consistent cause of crashes is saving the geoscape game during a UFO standoff, with a [[UFO Interception]] window minimized to an icon. The next mission after that point will likely dump you to the green text screen, and perhaps an earlier battlescape mission instead of the proper one. What it seems to do is zoom back out of the combat too far when the fight is over, eventually causing the crash once it has gone a couple of steps further than it normally allows you.<br />
<br />
'''Solution:''' Open up [[UIGLOB.DAT]] in a hex editor. Change hex offset 0x06 to 00. This will reset the number of minimized interceptor windows to zero. Your interceptor unit can be selected to either return to base or continue on to complete its ground assault mission. ''NOTE: Make sure to back up your save game before editing it.''<br />
<br />
''-- I was able to recover from this state by quickly sending in another interceptor ([[Firestorm]]) to take over, which allowed my first interceptor ([[Avenger]]) to break off and go home without crashing the game again. After the shootdown I overwrote the buggy savegame. --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 03:11, 22 Aug 2005 (PDT)''<br />
<br />
''This happened to me also. I fixed it by replacing "[[UIGLOB.DAT]]" in the save folder with the same file from another saved game (from the same campaign a month earlier) [[User:bylund|bylund]] 00:15, January 12, 2007 (GMT+01)''<br />
<br />
=== Interceptions: Last Shot Always Misses ===<br />
When using Cautious attack when [[UFO Interception|intercepting a UFO]], your craft will stay at the maximum range of your longest-range weapon. When using Standard attack, your craft will stay at the maximum range of your shortest-range weapon. (Usually players use two weapons of the same type, so Cautious and Standard attack will behave the same in this regard.)<br />
<br />
As soon as the craft fires its last shot (expending all its ammo), it will drop back to "Standoff" range (70km). This will make it appear that the UFO has backed away while the last missile(s) are in-flight, causing them to miss. <br />
<br />
In order to hit a UFO with your last salvo of missiles (Stingrays, Avalanches, or Fusion Balls), you must switch to "Aggressive" attack before the last salvo reaches the UFO. This will cause your craft to close in with the UFO, allowing the missiles to be in range when they reach the UFO. However, Aggressive attacks will also bring you within range of the UFO's weapons, so you should hit the "Disengage" button as soon as the last salvo hits.<br />
<br />
===Elerium-fueled Craft Bug===<br />
A [[Skyranger]] or [[Interceptor]], once dispatched, will return to base when it's fuel supply has dropped to a level that it will only have just enough fuel to return to base. Craft fueled by Elerium-115, however, will always report the "Low Fuel" message as soon at the fuel supply is 50% depleted, no matter where they are on the globe. This significantly shortens the already minute time that a [[Firestorm]], [[Lightning]], or [[Avenger]] can be dispatched to patrol.<br />
<br />
===Floater Medic Research Bug===<br />
Every single time a Floater Medic is found and researched, the game crashes after it is interrogated! I [muton commander] used a hack system to view the alien's profile, and it was a Commander with no race attached. This is probably the cause, but I have no explaination for why this situation occurs.<br />
<br />
== Battlescape Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Faulty Large Units ===<br />
This bug has been listed as a MINOR bug in exploits page. Please place it into the "Minor Bugs" section page.<br />
<br />
'''this has been moved from exploits to here - NEEDS to be written when the time comes'''<br />
<br />
If you move a tank off a northward facing ledge, the rest of the tank will sink into a wall (if there is one), and cause the tank to get stuck. This won't happen if the tank moves off a south facing ledge as the primary quarter will fall after the rest of the tank. Aliens can also get stuck this way.<br />
<br />
=== Collectors Edition Blaster Bomb Bug ===<br />
In the Collectors Edition of UFO, the [[Blaster Launcher]] has a bug that prevents it from going up or down on the same tile. Or in other words, you cannot change the elevation of the missile vertically on the same tile. <br />
<br />
Instead of flying down (or up) to the next waypoint, it will instead fly directly to the south at the pivot waypoint. Relative to the screen, this would be the lower left side of the screen. <br />
<br />
This does not happen if you plot the waypoints at an angle. Or, if the blaster bomb flies right off the map, it will reappear at the proper waypoint as long as there are additional waypoints placed after the vertical move. <br />
<br />
This bug also applies to the [[Disrupter Pulse Launcher]] in TFTD. <br />
<br />
=== The trouble with Mines (general) === <br />
The armed states for [[Proximity Grenade]]s in both UFO and TFTD are NOT stored in savegames. If a proximity grenade is primed, then the game is saved and reloaded, the grenade will not only not go off as it should, but the "Prime Grenade" action will still be absent, so it's impossible to re-arm it.<br />
<br />
=== Mountain Map ===<br />
Due to a bug in the way this tileset was created, when you shoot the ground, it doesn't burn up - it turns into a tree stump.<br />
<br />
Because the stump is on object, as opposed to actual ground, any objects that were in the tile already (for example, UFO hulls or the landing gear of your craft) get replaced by these stumps, making it seem as if they were destroyed.<br />
<br />
Tree stumps don't take much damage, so they often get burnt up immediately if an explosive goes off, leaving nothing but burnt ground behind. It is easier to view the effects of this bug by shooting the ground instead.<br />
<br />
For more details, see [[Explosions#Mile-High_Madness|Mountain Madness]].<br />
<br />
=== What just exploded? ===<br />
In some versions of the game, a bug allows an armed proximity mine to transfer its properties to some other item in the next mission, which then may explode unexpectedly. (If the item is left on the floor of the XCOM craft, it will explode as you walk past it.) This problem can be rectified by reloading the game -- as a precaution, save before you move your first soldier.<br />
<br />
=== Door jam ===<br />
If a door is open when a game is saved on the Battlescape and that game is subsequently restored, the door will remain open for the remainder of that mission.<br />
<br />
===Mind Controlled Soldiers go MIA===<br />
If you complete a mission while a [[soldier]] is currently [[Mind Control]]led he will be listed as MIA at the end of the combat. This is quite an easy bug to fall into as on any [[Sectoid]] or [[Ethereal]] mission the only, or most powerful, psionic aliens will usually be holed up in the bridge or command centre.<br />
<br />
===Mind Controlled Aliens Count as MIA if you Abort===<br />
If you happen to abort a mission with any Mind-Controlled aliens under your control, who are NOT in the dropship, the computer tallies them up as "X-COM Operatives Missing In Action." Thusly, every Mind Controlled alien left behind when you dust off is -20 points to your score! If you're leaving anyways, avoid this by bringing them back to the ship or mowing them down on the way back to the ship.<br />
<br />
In the Playstation version of the game, any aliens under Mind Control at missions end are considered captured and hence, this bug is not a factor.<br />
<br />
===20 Proximity Grenade Limit===<br />
<br />
The array used to denote armed [[Proximity Grenade]]s is limited to 20 entries, meaning you are limited to 20 active mines at a time. The 21st and subsequent Proximity grenades can be primed like normal and will give appropriate messages, but they will not detonate even when the normal trigger conditions are met. Note that Proximity Mines that have detonated or otherwise been destroyed are removed from the array, freeing up positions; the limit is 20 ACTIVE Proximity Grenades at one time. In normal gameplay, this is probably not a restriction, in light of the [[Known_Bugs#80-Item_Limit|80 Item Limit]], since you'd need to have more than 1/4th of the cargo space in the dropship filled with Proximity Grenades.<br />
<br />
== Character Inventory Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Alien Inventory Stacking Bug ===<br />
THis bug has been listed as a CRITICAL bug in exploits page. Please place it into the "Critical Bugs" section page.<br />
<br />
'''this has been moved from exploits to here - NEEDS to be written when the time comes'''<br />
<br />
<br>'''WARNING:''' You will see that sometimes the alien will stack equipment on its right leg. If you remove an item from their right leg, make sure you enough time units to place it somewhere else. If you run out of time units, you will have to force a quit and cannot save your game. (press ALT-TAB, then CTRL-ALT-DEL, and terminate the process that corresponds to the game).<br />
<br />
=== Item-stacking Bug ===<br />
It is possible to put more than one item in a given spot. When an item is stacked with a [[Stun Rod]], this can make it possible for X-COM soldiers to perform "melee" attacks. See [[Item Stacking Bug]] for more details.<br />
<br />
===Carrying Unconscious Units===<br />
Carrying unconscious units a hand slot will crash the game if they wake up. Refer to : [[Unconscious#Bug|Unconscious]].<br />
<br />
===Disappearing Ammo===<br />
Partially-used clips in alien or X-COM weapons disappear at the end of a mission. This dictates that you should try to use clips that are not full. However, in DOS versions of the game, you can unload used clips to recover them as full clips with the tradeoff of all loaded clips (used or otherwise) will count as spent and disappear (this shouldn't seem to be a problem, until you start using blasters and will find that you're running out of ammo fast). You can also use [[XcomUtil]] to recover partially used clips. Even when used clips are discarded, you will still get credit ([[Scoring|score]]) at the end of missions for recovering them.<br />
<br />
When aborting a mission, any full clips loaded in any alien weapons brought back to the transport/access lift will not be recovered unless the clips are unloaded first. This includes [[Blaster Bomb]]s and [[Stun Bomb]]s.<br />
<br />
== Storage and Transfer Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== 80-item Limit ===<br />
When loading up your Avenger for a massive UFO assault or arming soldiers for a [[Base Defense]] from your overflowing stores, you will likely hit this limit. <br />
<br />
You only get a max of 80 items, and you don't get to choose which ones, so you may end up with 80 clips and no rifles for the base defense. <br />
<br />
The solution is timely housekeeping. Sell off your spare personal equipment. See our handy [[Spring Cleaning Tips]], and also [[Managing the Item Limit]] for ideas.<br />
<br />
===Sticky Craft Transfer Fee glitch===<br />
As pointed out by Zombie and Danial, transferring any craft causes '''''all subsequent transfers to have that cost added to it''''', for as long as the craft is in transit. Additional craft in transit will add additional fees. (This has also been called the Exponential Transfer Fee bug, although it's actually additive, not exponential.)<br />
<br />
Example (all numbers are only approximations):<br />
<u>Cost of pistol transfer (&harr; = to or from)</U><br />
EU &harr; USA 80<br />
EU &harr; Asia 100<br />
USA &harr; Asia 120<br />
<br />
<u>Cost of craft transfer</U><br />
EU &harr; USA 1600 ''Notice how transfer fees always work as relative percents,<br />
EU &harr; Asia 2000 ''probably on a distance-based formula<br />
USA &harr; Asia 2400<br />
<br />
<u>Cost to transfer '''pistol''', after transferring craft from EU to Asia for $2000</U><br />
EU &harr; USA 1680 (80+1600)<br />
EU &harr; Asia 2100 (100+2000)<br />
USA &harr; Asia 2520 (120+2400)<br />
<br />
The cost of the craft transfer "sticks" to '''all''' subsequent transfers, until the craft arrives - although it acts on a proportionate basis, which is probably distance related.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, this cost is '''additive'''. That is to say, if you transferred a second craft from EU to Asia while the first was still in transit, it would cost $4000 ($2000 plus $2000 - it too suffers from the glitch!), it would then cost e.g. $4100 to transfer a pistol from EU to Asia. Having even more craft in transit would add even more fees.<br />
<br />
This only appears to happen with aircraft, although it does happen for them all. So try to transfer aircraft individually, and not transfer anything else while you do - assuming you aren't awash in money. (The bug will cost you in the low thousands of dollars per craft being transferred.)<br />
<br />
A related problem is that, if you are in the Transfer screen, start to transfer a craft, and then cancel because you remembered you wanted to send something else first - if you then try to Transfer something on that same screen, ''it will still get the sticky craft fee added''. Try it and see. You have to back up out to the main Base screen and hit Transfer again, to get rid of the sticky fee from a cancelled craft transfer.<br />
<br />
===Transfer Limit cash eater===<br />
Only 100 items can be in transit at a time. (Here, a transfer of e.g. 200 Elerium counts as one "item". Also, all soldiers are counted individually.) If you go over the limit, you will get a warning that there is no more transport capacity. If you STILL try to transport something after getting the warning, the item will stay where it is, but the transportation cost still gets deducted. Bad if you're shuffling expensive aircraft.<br />
<br />
{| {{stdTable}} width = "80%" align = "center" <br />
|- {{stdTable Heading}}<br />
| Tip<br />
|-<br />
| To Clarify what constitutes an item in the transfer screen, think of them as batches of X amount. For example, if you transfer 200 alien alloys now, and then decide to transfer another 50 alloys later, this will count as two items in transit. Now, when you look at your transfers, you'll now have two items. Two batches of alien alloys, one with 200 units and the other with 50 units.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
=== Transfer crash ===<br />
If you transfer something to another base the game crashes right after acknowledging the transfer price.<br />
<br />
Solution: Start UFO, select English language, finish your transfer, save game, restart with your normal language settings (http://www.xcomufo.com/x1faq.html)<br />
<br />
===Purchase Limit===<br />
The purchase limit for any item you buy via the purchase screen is 255 per line item, because it is a one-byte field. However, the impact of this bug is small, for if you have space remaining in your 100-item transfer queue, you can immediately order another 255 of said item as another line item.<br />
<br />
===Storage Limit===<br />
You can not store more than 9,999 examples of any one item in the general stores at a specific base at one time. However, the only times such a ridiculously huge pile of a given item is at all likely to accumulate is with [[Alien Alloys]] or [[Elerium-115]]. Still, consider yourself warned. If you're coming close to the limit, consider transferring the extra to other bases or even selling it, as any extra collected beyond the limit will 'disappear' and be wasted.<br />
<br />
<br />
== Soldier Limits and Recruiting Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Soldier Recruiting Limit ===<br />
<br />
There is a hard limit in the game of 250 X-COM soldiers in total across all bases (not 250 per base).<br />
<br />
The error message that pops up when you try to hire more is: <br />
<br />
"NO MORE SOLDIERS ALLOWED"<br />
<br />
"You have already recruited the maximum number of soldiers."<br />
<br />
=== Soldier Recruiting Bugs ===<br />
<br />
Also there are 3 bugs related to recruiting soldiers: <br />
<br />
* You still get charged for Soldiers you try to purchase above the No More Soldiers limit.<br />
* The error message that appears when you hire too many soldiers must be dismissed (click OK) once for each soldier over the limit, i.e. up to 250 times. <br />
* You get also charged for Soldiers you try to purchase above the Transfer Limit (100 at a time).<br />
<br />
=== Soldier Battlescape Limit ===<br />
<br />
In the Battlescape, there is a limit of 40 X-COM soldiers that can participate in any battle. Tanks/HWPs each count as 4 soldiers against this limit. Unless you use custom-modified aircraft, you will only see this limit in a Base Defence mission. In a Base Defence mission, all tanks/HWPs will be deployed first, in preference to soldiers.<br />
<br />
== Manufacturing and Research Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Cancel Manufacturing Bug ===<br />
<br />
If you start a project with 1 or more items to build, the required cash (and any materials) for the first item will instantly be taken from you. If you cancel the project before the job is done, or reduce the number of items to produce, you will still not be refunded the initial costs of the first item. <br />
<br />
(Possibly this is exactly the behaviour the designers intended, and not a bug at all.)<br />
<br />
=== Zero Unit Manufacturing Exploit ===<br />
<br />
If you start a manufacturing project with zero items to build, close the screen, and then go back to assign staff and a non-zero build amount later, the first item is built for free. If you only build one item at a time, you can build them all for free. Obviously, this is cheating. It's also a bit tedious. It might be excusable if you're really short of money.<br />
<br />
=== Research Rollover ===<br />
<br />
Whenever research completes, you are given the opportunity to re-allocate your scientists' efforts onto a new topic. If the new topic is after the topic that you have just completed (further down toward the bottom of the screen), the new effort of the scientists you allocate is applied immediately, on the same day - even though they were just working on the previous project that completed. <br />
<br />
If you have enough scientists available to complete the new project in one day, this process can be repeated indefinitely, to complete multiple topics in one day. Each new research topic must be further down the list than the previous research topic, or the bug/exploit does not work. <br />
<br />
By the way, this means that you should not worry about "wasted" research effort due to allocating too many scientists to a project on its last day. The chances are you will gain more free research from this bug than you will lose from "wasted" research effort.<br />
<br />
=== TFTD Research Tree Bug Avoidance Guide === <br />
TFTD's research problems are more of a logical design flaw than a true bug, caused by trying to make the research tree more complicated than X-Com UFO. They can be a pain when you research the wrong thing at the wrong time.<br />
<br />
A variation of NKF's [[TRTBAG | TFTD Research Tree Bug Avoidance Guide]] will be forthcoming - free time permitting.<br />
<br />
For now:<br />
<br />
*ONLY research Deep One Terrorist AFTER you have completed Plastic Aqua Armor and Ion Beam Accelerators.<br />
*You MUST have at least one "Sub Construction" in storage before completing research on Zrbite and/or Transmission Resolver.<br />
*NEVER research the Tasoth Commander. There's no reason to - and as of the last patch, they should no longer appear on the research list. They can block the T'Leth research.<br />
*DO NOT research M.C. Lab unless you have AT LEAST one MC Reader in storage.<br />
*NEVER sell all of your Sonic Pistol Clips before researching it first. If you were to research the Sonic Pistol, the aliens immediately stop using that weapon (and thus, clip) so you will be unable to continue in the Sonic line of research.<br />
Other than the MC reader one, any of the above would make it impossible to finish the game.<br />
<br />
=== Overcrowded Engineers (And Scientists?) ===<br />
In the Dos version (probably the others as well) if you hire more than 255 engineers in a single base, the number of engineers in the base will read a negative number once the 256th engineer arrives. Any Engineers engaged in projects will continue to work on them, but if you cancel the project you will lose engineers until you have lost 255 of them. This bug probably also affects scientists. It may be exploitable to pay a negative salary at the end of the month.<br />
<br />
===Manufacturing Limit Bug===<br />
The number of hours remaining on a [[Manufacturing_Profitability#Profit_tables|manufacturing project]] is stored in a two-byte integer. If you build enough items that the total number of Engineer Hours required for construction is above 65535 hours, it will wrap around to 0 hours and display from there. Typically this drastically understates the amount of time that will be spent working on the items, but strictly speaking, it only subtracts 65k hours (so a huge project like 120k hours would still show ~55k hours' worth of Engineer time needed).<br />
<br />
This bug is not dependent on the number of engineers assigned to the project; it is a function of the number of engineer hours needed. You will most likely run into it when trying to build 2 Avengers at the same time or when queuing up large orders of items in bulk, such as armor or Laser Cannons. As a practical example, the number of Avengers needed to trigger the bug is 2. The number of Laser Cannons is 219. Toggle back and forth between 218 and 219 laser cannons at the beginning of a project to see the effects.<br />
<br />
It is known with certainty that this exists as a display issue - the screen will say you need less time than you should when you go over 65536 Engineer hours. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] is also sure he's seen it eat an Avenger... he ordered two but only got one, even though it took the time, and cost the money, for two. He's tried to replicate this and hasn't been able to, however. So it clearly is at least a superficial display issue, and may be more than that ... possibly dependent on even something else. In any event, keep an eye on projects with more than 65k Engineer hours (and report back here!)... or just avoid going that high.<br />
<br />
== Other Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Difficulty Bug ===<br />
The DOS version had a problem where no matter what difficulty level you chose, you were actually playing at "Beginner" level. Because of one or two incorrectly set bytes in all dos versions of the game( 1.0 through to 1.4), no matter what difficulty was selected, the difficulty bug would reset to beginner at the end of the first mission. [[XcomUtil]] corrects this problem. This bug was officially fixed in the Collectors Edition Windows port (also commonly known as UFO Gold).<br />
<br />
=== Big Text Bug ===<br />
There are a few bugs in XCOM, especially early versions, that can build up and make the game unstable enough that it crashes and prints out a screenful of green 40-column text, essentially debug or memory dump information useless to you.<br />
<br />
You can also forced a crash by pressing CTRL-C at the start of a new game (DOS only). If you don't have any missions automatically saved within the MISSDAT folder, you will get this big text to appear. Typically it is green for Enemy Unknown, and blue for Terror From The Deep. Other colours have been observed such as pink, purple, brown and yellow.<br />
<br />
''In the dos version, the text that you see is simply a memory dump in mode-13h (the 320x200x256 colour screen resoulution the game uses) and the text colour is based off the changes to the pallete that the game made. The game sometimes continues with the next part of the game. The game is made of two different programs, [[Geoscape]] and [[Battlescape]], so when one part of it crashes, the other one will not have registered that anything has gone wrong and will attempt to soldier on.''<br />
''In the Windows version of the game, the game simply crashes back to the desktop, unless you're using the [[XcomUtil]] split executable variant. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] ''<br />
<br />
[[Category: Oddities and bugs]]</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Known_Bugs&diff=15464Known Bugs2008-05-28T17:15:35Z<p>Phasma Felis: Made "XcomUtil" a link in several places</p>
<hr />
<div>== Base Construction Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Base Disjoint Bug ===<br />
Base facilities built along the right or bottom edges of the base building area may end up being cut off from each other by dirt walls, a bug in the routine meant to keep soldiers from accidentally exiting the map edges during [[Base Defense]] missions. The dirt walls can be knocked down by Blaster Bombs or excessive amount of heavy plasma fire during combat but are otherwise unbreakable. <br />
<br />
[[image:bdb.gif|center|Base Disjoint Bug]]<br />
<br />
The walls marked in white are removed if there is an adjacent module. All green modules are not affected while the yellow modules are. The red module will be sealed off completely if anything smaller than a hangar is placed here at any given time. <br />
<br />
[[XcomUtil]] works around this problem by stripping out the walls entirely in all the base modules.<br />
<br />
The bug can be profitable if the hangars and the lift are accessible only through in these areas - you can gather and supply all your soldiers heavily without aliens interfering, then knock a hole in the wall and cover the area with explosives and blaster launcher fire.<br />
<br />
===Facility Maintenance Costs===<br />
Although X-COM charges the right fee when you first buy base modules, the monthly maintenance fee is always wrong. It's actually based on the placement within the base grid, '''not''' the price displayed in the in-game UFOpaedia. For more information, see [[Base_Facilities#Facility_Maintenance_Cost_Bug]]. The Geo finance Graph shows a correct summary, however ([[LIGLOB.DAT]], updated once a month). Also see the next section.<br />
<br />
===Paying For Dirt===<br />
If you take down any facility in any base that you own and leave bare dirt, then you will continue to pay maintenance on it. But not at the old rate of whatever the facility cost per month, filling the hole back with dirt means it needs special attention at all times by specialists. In fact for every square of dirt you have that used to be a facility you will pay 80k per month. Thats 320k per hangar you take down. There are only two known ways to stop paying this premium - if you completely dismantle the base you stop paying any money for it, or if you build over all the spaces that you have vacated. In fact as soon as you start building the new facility you stop paying the premium, as well as not having to pay the cost of the new facility until it is complete.<br />
<br />
If you start a facility and change your mind before it is complete, after the time when it would have completed you will start paying this 80k premium on that land as well.<br />
<br />
===Base Facility Dismantle-Construction Crash===<br />
In the Collectors Edition version, dismantling a facility while its construction is in progress can cause a crash when a second facility on another base square completes its construction. To work around this, dismantle a facility only after its construction is complete. If you have already dismantled such a facility, build something like a general stores on the same square to avoid the crash. It is not known if this crash happens intermittently or always, or if it happens on most versions of the game or just the Collectors Edition.<br />
<br />
===Radar Stacking===<br />
Despite the "Short Range" and "Long Range" detection bars displayed on each base's Information screen, only one radar of each type will be used at each base. Building additional radars of the same type will have no effect. One short and one long are useful until the [[Hyper-Wave Decoder|Hyper-Wave Decoder]] makes both of them obsolete.<br />
<br />
===Phantom Radar===<br />
When you dismantle detection equipment such as a radar or hyperwave detector, the related detection ability of the base does not decrease until a new facility of some kind is built in that base. Until a new facility is completes building at that base, the base continues to use this "phantom radar".<br />
<br />
This bug allows you to "upgrade in place", for example building a new Hyper-Wave Decoder over the top of an existing Large Radar, and retaining the detection capability of the Large Radar until the Hyper-Wave Decoder completes building. (Unless something else completes building first).<br />
<br />
===Fixes for Base Construction Bugs===<br />
<br />
As mentioned above, [[XcomUtil]] prevents the Base Disjoint bug (crudely). The [[User:Spike#Base_Fixer|BaseFixer]] utility corrects the Paying for Dirt, Phantom Radar, and Radar Stacking bugs. BaseFixer can be used manually on saved game files, or automatically via XcomUtil's hook mechanism.<br />
<br />
==Geoscape Bugs==<br />
<br />
===First Radar Detection Data bug===<br />
When a UFO is detected by a radar, you get certain data on it depending on the type of radar that detected it. If the UFO later enters the range of another radar while staying in the range of the first, you will continue to get the initial data given, even if the new radar is more powerful than the first! So if you detect a craft with a [[Small Radar]], then the UFO moves into the range of a [[Hyper-Wave Decoder]], clicking on the UFO will only give you the data as if the Small Radar detected it, so long as it remains in the Small Radar range! In effect, the data you get about a UFO is determined when you first detect it, and not changed after that until you lose detection on the craft with the radar that first detected it.<br />
<br />
This bug most commonly shows up when a UFO is first detected by a patrolling aircraft and then remains in the range of the aircraft while also entering the range of a Hyper-Wave Decoder.<br />
<br />
=== Minimized Interceptor Bug ===<br />
One fairly consistent cause of crashes is saving the geoscape game during a UFO standoff, with a [[UFO Interception]] window minimized to an icon. The next mission after that point will likely dump you to the green text screen, and perhaps an earlier battlescape mission instead of the proper one. What it seems to do is zoom back out of the combat too far when the fight is over, eventually causing the crash once it has gone a couple of steps further than it normally allows you.<br />
<br />
'''Solution:''' Open up [[UIGLOB.DAT]] in a hex editor. Change hex offset 0x06 to 00. This will reset the number of minimized interceptor windows to zero. Your interceptor unit can be selected to either return to base or continue on to complete its ground assault mission. ''NOTE: Make sure to back up your save game before editing it.''<br />
<br />
''-- I was able to recover from this state by quickly sending in another interceptor ([[Firestorm]]) to take over, which allowed my first interceptor ([[Avenger]]) to break off and go home without crashing the game again. After the shootdown I overwrote the buggy savegame. --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 03:11, 22 Aug 2005 (PDT)''<br />
<br />
''This happened to me also. I fixed it by replacing "[[UIGLOB.DAT]]" in the save folder with the same file from another saved game (from the same campaign a month earlier) [[User:bylund|bylund]] 00:15, January 12, 2007 (GMT+01)''<br />
<br />
=== Interceptions: Last Shot Always Misses ===<br />
When using Cautious attack when [[UFO Interception|intercepting a UFO]], your craft will stay at the maximum range of your longest-range weapon. When using Standard attack, your craft will stay at the maximum range of your shortest-range weapon. (Usually players use two weapons of the same type, so Cautious and Standard attack will behave the same in this regard.)<br />
<br />
As soon as the craft fires its last shot (expending all its ammo), it will drop back to "Standoff" range (70km). This will make it appear that the UFO has backed away while the last missile(s) are in-flight, causing them to miss. <br />
<br />
In order to hit a UFO with your last salvo of missiles (Stingrays, Avalanches, or Fusion Balls), you must switch to "Aggressive" attack before the last salvo reaches the UFO. This will cause your craft to close in with the UFO, allowing the missiles to be in range when they reach the UFO. However, Aggressive attacks will also bring you within range of the UFO's weapons, so you should hit the "Disengage" button as soon as the last salvo hits.<br />
<br />
===Elerium-fueled Craft Bug===<br />
A [[Skyranger]] or [[Interceptor]], once dispatched, will return to base when it's fuel supply has dropped to a level that it will only have just enough fuel to return to base. Craft fueled by Elerium-115, however, will always report the "Low Fuel" message as soon at the fuel supply is 50% depleted, no matter where they are on the globe. This significantly shortens the already minute time that a [[Firestorm]], [[Lightning]], or [[Avenger]] can be dispatched to patrol.<br />
<br />
===Floater Medic Research Bug===<br />
Every single time a Floater Medic is found and researched, the game crashes after it is interrogated! I [muton commander] used a hack system to view the alien's profile, and it was a Commander with no race attached. This is probably the cause, but I have no explaination for why this situation occurs.<br />
<br />
== Battlescape Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Faulty Large Units ===<br />
This bug has been listed as a MINOR bug in exploits page. Please place it into the "Minor Bugs" section page.<br />
<br />
'''this has been moved from exploits to here - NEEDS to be written when the time comes'''<br />
<br />
If you move a tank off a northward facing ledge, the rest of the tank will sink into a wall (if there is one), and cause the tank to get stuck. This won't happen if the tank moves off a south facing ledge as the primary quarter will fall after the rest of the tank. Aliens can also get stuck this way.<br />
<br />
=== Collectors Edition Blaster Bomb Bug ===<br />
In the Collectors Edition of UFO, the [[Blaster Launcher]] has a bug that prevents it from going up or down on the same tile. Or in other words, you cannot change the elevation of the missile vertically on the same tile. <br />
<br />
Instead of flying down (or up) to the next waypoint, it will instead fly directly to the south at the pivot waypoint. Relative to the screen, this would be the lower left side of the screen. <br />
<br />
This does not happen if you plot the waypoints at an angle. Or, if the blaster bomb flies right off the map, it will reappear at the proper waypoint as long as there are additional waypoints placed after the vertical move. <br />
<br />
This bug also applies to the [[Disrupter Pulse Launcher]] in TFTD. <br />
<br />
=== The trouble with Mines (general) === <br />
The armed states for [[Proximity Grenade]]s in both UFO and TFTD are NOT stored in savegames. More information to come.<br />
<br />
=== Mountain Map ===<br />
Due to a bug in the way this tileset was created, when you shoot the ground, it doesn't burn up - it turns into a tree stump.<br />
<br />
Because the stump is on object, as opposed to actual ground, any objects that were in the tile already (for example, UFO hulls or the landing gear of your craft) get replaced by these stumps, making it seem as if they were destroyed.<br />
<br />
Tree stumps don't take much damage, so they often get burnt up immediately if an explosive goes off, leaving nothing but burnt ground behind. It is easier to view the effects of this bug by shooting the ground instead.<br />
<br />
For more details, see [[Explosions#Mile-High_Madness|Mountain Madness]].<br />
<br />
=== What just exploded? ===<br />
In some versions of the game, a bug allows an armed proximity mine to transfer its properties to some other item in the next mission, which then may explode unexpectedly. (If the item is left on the floor of the XCOM craft, it will explode as you walk past it.) This problem can be rectified by reloading the game -- as a precaution, save before you move your first soldier.<br />
<br />
=== Door jam ===<br />
If a door is open when a game is saved on the Battlescape and that game is subsequently restored, the door will remain open for the remainder of that mission.<br />
<br />
===Mind Controlled Soldiers go MIA===<br />
If you complete a mission while a [[soldier]] is currently [[Mind Control]]led he will be listed as MIA at the end of the combat. This is quite an easy bug to fall into as on any [[Sectoid]] or [[Ethereal]] mission the only, or most powerful, psionic aliens will usually be holed up in the bridge or command centre.<br />
<br />
===Mind Controlled Aliens Count as MIA if you Abort===<br />
If you happen to abort a mission with any Mind-Controlled aliens under your control, who are NOT in the dropship, the computer tallies them up as "X-COM Operatives Missing In Action." Thusly, every Mind Controlled alien left behind when you dust off is -20 points to your score! If you're leaving anyways, avoid this by bringing them back to the ship or mowing them down on the way back to the ship.<br />
<br />
In the Playstation version of the game, any aliens under Mind Control at missions end are considered captured and hence, this bug is not a factor.<br />
<br />
===20 Proximity Grenade Limit===<br />
<br />
The array used to denote armed [[Proximity Grenade]]s is limited to 20 entries, meaning you are limited to 20 active mines at a time. The 21st and subsequent Proximity grenades can be primed like normal and will give appropriate messages, but they will not detonate even when the normal trigger conditions are met. Note that Proximity Mines that have detonated or otherwise been destroyed are removed from the array, freeing up positions; the limit is 20 ACTIVE Proximity Grenades at one time. In normal gameplay, this is probably not a restriction, in light of the [[Known_Bugs#80-Item_Limit|80 Item Limit]], since you'd need to have more than 1/4th of the cargo space in the dropship filled with Proximity Grenades.<br />
<br />
== Character Inventory Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Alien Inventory Stacking Bug ===<br />
THis bug has been listed as a CRITICAL bug in exploits page. Please place it into the "Critical Bugs" section page.<br />
<br />
'''this has been moved from exploits to here - NEEDS to be written when the time comes'''<br />
<br />
<br>'''WARNING:''' You will see that sometimes the alien will stack equipment on its right leg. If you remove an item from their right leg, make sure you enough time units to place it somewhere else. If you run out of time units, you will have to force a quit and cannot save your game. (press ALT-TAB, then CTRL-ALT-DEL, and terminate the process that corresponds to the game).<br />
<br />
=== Item-stacking Bug ===<br />
It is possible to put more than one item in a given spot. When an item is stacked with a [[Stun Rod]], this can make it possible for X-COM soldiers to perform "melee" attacks. See [[Item Stacking Bug]] for more details.<br />
<br />
===Carrying Unconscious Units===<br />
Carrying unconscious units a hand slot will crash the game if they wake up. Refer to : [[Unconscious#Bug|Unconscious]].<br />
<br />
===Disappearing Ammo===<br />
Partially-used clips in alien or X-COM weapons disappear at the end of a mission. This dictates that you should try to use clips that are not full. However, in DOS versions of the game, you can unload used clips to recover them as full clips with the tradeoff of all loaded clips (used or otherwise) will count as spent and disappear (this shouldn't seem to be a problem, until you start using blasters and will find that you're running out of ammo fast). You can also use [[XcomUtil]] to recover partially used clips. Even when used clips are discarded, you will still get credit ([[Scoring|score]]) at the end of missions for recovering them.<br />
<br />
When aborting a mission, any full clips loaded in any alien weapons brought back to the transport/access lift will not be recovered unless the clips are unloaded first. This includes [[Blaster Bomb]]s and [[Stun Bomb]]s.<br />
<br />
== Storage and Transfer Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== 80-item Limit ===<br />
When loading up your Avenger for a massive UFO assault or arming soldiers for a [[Base Defense]] from your overflowing stores, you will likely hit this limit. <br />
<br />
You only get a max of 80 items, and you don't get to choose which ones, so you may end up with 80 clips and no rifles for the base defense. <br />
<br />
The solution is timely housekeeping. Sell off your spare personal equipment. See our handy [[Spring Cleaning Tips]], and also [[Managing the Item Limit]] for ideas.<br />
<br />
===Sticky Craft Transfer Fee glitch===<br />
As pointed out by Zombie and Danial, transferring any craft causes '''''all subsequent transfers to have that cost added to it''''', for as long as the craft is in transit. Additional craft in transit will add additional fees. (This has also been called the Exponential Transfer Fee bug, although it's actually additive, not exponential.)<br />
<br />
Example (all numbers are only approximations):<br />
<u>Cost of pistol transfer (&harr; = to or from)</U><br />
EU &harr; USA 80<br />
EU &harr; Asia 100<br />
USA &harr; Asia 120<br />
<br />
<u>Cost of craft transfer</U><br />
EU &harr; USA 1600 ''Notice how transfer fees always work as relative percents,<br />
EU &harr; Asia 2000 ''probably on a distance-based formula<br />
USA &harr; Asia 2400<br />
<br />
<u>Cost to transfer '''pistol''', after transferring craft from EU to Asia for $2000</U><br />
EU &harr; USA 1680 (80+1600)<br />
EU &harr; Asia 2100 (100+2000)<br />
USA &harr; Asia 2520 (120+2400)<br />
<br />
The cost of the craft transfer "sticks" to '''all''' subsequent transfers, until the craft arrives - although it acts on a proportionate basis, which is probably distance related.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, this cost is '''additive'''. That is to say, if you transferred a second craft from EU to Asia while the first was still in transit, it would cost $4000 ($2000 plus $2000 - it too suffers from the glitch!), it would then cost e.g. $4100 to transfer a pistol from EU to Asia. Having even more craft in transit would add even more fees.<br />
<br />
This only appears to happen with aircraft, although it does happen for them all. So try to transfer aircraft individually, and not transfer anything else while you do - assuming you aren't awash in money. (The bug will cost you in the low thousands of dollars per craft being transferred.)<br />
<br />
A related problem is that, if you are in the Transfer screen, start to transfer a craft, and then cancel because you remembered you wanted to send something else first - if you then try to Transfer something on that same screen, ''it will still get the sticky craft fee added''. Try it and see. You have to back up out to the main Base screen and hit Transfer again, to get rid of the sticky fee from a cancelled craft transfer.<br />
<br />
===Transfer Limit cash eater===<br />
Only 100 items can be in transit at a time. (Here, a transfer of e.g. 200 Elerium counts as one "item". Also, all soldiers are counted individually.) If you go over the limit, you will get a warning that there is no more transport capacity. If you STILL try to transport something after getting the warning, the item will stay where it is, but the transportation cost still gets deducted. Bad if you're shuffling expensive aircraft.<br />
<br />
{| {{stdTable}} width = "80%" align = "center" <br />
|- {{stdTable Heading}}<br />
| Tip<br />
|-<br />
| To Clarify what constitutes an item in the transfer screen, think of them as batches of X amount. For example, if you transfer 200 alien alloys now, and then decide to transfer another 50 alloys later, this will count as two items in transit. Now, when you look at your transfers, you'll now have two items. Two batches of alien alloys, one with 200 units and the other with 50 units.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
=== Transfer crash ===<br />
If you transfer something to another base the game crashes right after acknowledging the transfer price.<br />
<br />
Solution: Start UFO, select English language, finish your transfer, save game, restart with your normal language settings (http://www.xcomufo.com/x1faq.html)<br />
<br />
===Purchase Limit===<br />
The purchase limit for any item you buy via the purchase screen is 255 per line item, because it is a one-byte field. However, the impact of this bug is small, for if you have space remaining in your 100-item transfer queue, you can immediately order another 255 of said item as another line item.<br />
<br />
===Storage Limit===<br />
You can not store more than 9,999 examples of any one item in the general stores at a specific base at one time. However, the only times such a ridiculously huge pile of a given item is at all likely to accumulate is with [[Alien Alloys]] or [[Elerium-115]]. Still, consider yourself warned. If you're coming close to the limit, consider transferring the extra to other bases or even selling it, as any extra collected beyond the limit will 'disappear' and be wasted.<br />
<br />
<br />
== Soldier Limits and Recruiting Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Soldier Recruiting Limit ===<br />
<br />
There is a hard limit in the game of 250 X-COM soldiers in total across all bases (not 250 per base).<br />
<br />
The error message that pops up when you try to hire more is: <br />
<br />
"NO MORE SOLDIERS ALLOWED"<br />
<br />
"You have already recruited the maximum number of soldiers."<br />
<br />
=== Soldier Recruiting Bugs ===<br />
<br />
Also there are 3 bugs related to recruiting soldiers: <br />
<br />
* You still get charged for Soldiers you try to purchase above the No More Soldiers limit.<br />
* The error message that appears when you hire too many soldiers must be dismissed (click OK) once for each soldier over the limit, i.e. up to 250 times. <br />
* You get also charged for Soldiers you try to purchase above the Transfer Limit (100 at a time).<br />
<br />
=== Soldier Battlescape Limit ===<br />
<br />
In the Battlescape, there is a limit of 40 X-COM soldiers that can participate in any battle. Tanks/HWPs each count as 4 soldiers against this limit. Unless you use custom-modified aircraft, you will only see this limit in a Base Defence mission. In a Base Defence mission, all tanks/HWPs will be deployed first, in preference to soldiers.<br />
<br />
== Manufacturing and Research Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Cancel Manufacturing Bug ===<br />
<br />
If you start a project with 1 or more items to build, the required cash (and any materials) for the first item will instantly be taken from you. If you cancel the project before the job is done, or reduce the number of items to produce, you will still not be refunded the initial costs of the first item. <br />
<br />
(Possibly this is exactly the behaviour the designers intended, and not a bug at all.)<br />
<br />
=== Zero Unit Manufacturing Exploit ===<br />
<br />
If you start a manufacturing project with zero items to build, close the screen, and then go back to assign staff and a non-zero build amount later, the first item is built for free. If you only build one item at a time, you can build them all for free. Obviously, this is cheating. It's also a bit tedious. It might be excusable if you're really short of money.<br />
<br />
=== Research Rollover ===<br />
<br />
Whenever research completes, you are given the opportunity to re-allocate your scientists' efforts onto a new topic. If the new topic is after the topic that you have just completed (further down toward the bottom of the screen), the new effort of the scientists you allocate is applied immediately, on the same day - even though they were just working on the previous project that completed. <br />
<br />
If you have enough scientists available to complete the new project in one day, this process can be repeated indefinitely, to complete multiple topics in one day. Each new research topic must be further down the list than the previous research topic, or the bug/exploit does not work. <br />
<br />
By the way, this means that you should not worry about "wasted" research effort due to allocating too many scientists to a project on its last day. The chances are you will gain more free research from this bug than you will lose from "wasted" research effort.<br />
<br />
=== TFTD Research Tree Bug Avoidance Guide === <br />
TFTD's research problems are more of a logical design flaw than a true bug, caused by trying to make the research tree more complicated than X-Com UFO. They can be a pain when you research the wrong thing at the wrong time.<br />
<br />
A variation of NKF's [[TRTBAG | TFTD Research Tree Bug Avoidance Guide]] will be forthcoming - free time permitting.<br />
<br />
For now:<br />
<br />
*ONLY research Deep One Terrorist AFTER you have completed Plastic Aqua Armor and Ion Beam Accelerators.<br />
*You MUST have at least one "Sub Construction" in storage before completing research on Zrbite and/or Transmission Resolver.<br />
*NEVER research the Tasoth Commander. There's no reason to - and as of the last patch, they should no longer appear on the research list. They can block the T'Leth research.<br />
*DO NOT research M.C. Lab unless you have AT LEAST one MC Reader in storage.<br />
*NEVER sell all of your Sonic Pistol Clips before researching it first. If you were to research the Sonic Pistol, the aliens immediately stop using that weapon (and thus, clip) so you will be unable to continue in the Sonic line of research.<br />
Other than the MC reader one, any of the above would make it impossible to finish the game.<br />
<br />
=== Overcrowded Engineers (And Scientists?) ===<br />
In the Dos version (probably the others as well) if you hire more than 255 engineers in a single base, the number of engineers in the base will read a negative number once the 256th engineer arrives. Any Engineers engaged in projects will continue to work on them, but if you cancel the project you will lose engineers until you have lost 255 of them. This bug probably also affects scientists. It may be exploitable to pay a negative salary at the end of the month.<br />
<br />
===Manufacturing Limit Bug===<br />
The number of hours remaining on a [[Manufacturing_Profitability#Profit_tables|manufacturing project]] is stored in a two-byte integer. If you build enough items that the total number of Engineer Hours required for construction is above 65535 hours, it will wrap around to 0 hours and display from there. Typically this drastically understates the amount of time that will be spent working on the items, but strictly speaking, it only subtracts 65k hours (so a huge project like 120k hours would still show ~55k hours' worth of Engineer time needed).<br />
<br />
This bug is not dependent on the number of engineers assigned to the project; it is a function of the number of engineer hours needed. You will most likely run into it when trying to build 2 Avengers at the same time or when queuing up large orders of items in bulk, such as armor or Laser Cannons. As a practical example, the number of Avengers needed to trigger the bug is 2. The number of Laser Cannons is 219. Toggle back and forth between 218 and 219 laser cannons at the beginning of a project to see the effects.<br />
<br />
It is known with certainty that this exists as a display issue - the screen will say you need less time than you should when you go over 65536 Engineer hours. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] is also sure he's seen it eat an Avenger... he ordered two but only got one, even though it took the time, and cost the money, for two. He's tried to replicate this and hasn't been able to, however. So it clearly is at least a superficial display issue, and may be more than that ... possibly dependent on even something else. In any event, keep an eye on projects with more than 65k Engineer hours (and report back here!)... or just avoid going that high.<br />
<br />
== Other Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Difficulty Bug ===<br />
The DOS version had a problem where no matter what difficulty level you chose, you were actually playing at "Beginner" level. Because of one or two incorrectly set bytes in all dos versions of the game( 1.0 through to 1.4), no matter what difficulty was selected, the difficulty bug would reset to beginner at the end of the first mission. [[XcomUtil]] corrects this problem. This bug was officially fixed in the Collectors Edition Windows port (also commonly known as UFO Gold).<br />
<br />
=== Big Text Bug ===<br />
There are a few bugs in XCOM, especially early versions, that can build up and make the game unstable enough that it crashes and prints out a screenful of green 40-column text, essentially debug or memory dump information useless to you.<br />
<br />
You can also forced a crash by pressing CTRL-C at the start of a new game (DOS only). If you don't have any missions automatically saved within the MISSDAT folder, you will get this big text to appear. Typically it is green for Enemy Unknown, and blue for Terror From The Deep. Other colours have been observed such as pink, purple, brown and yellow.<br />
<br />
''In the dos version, the text that you see is simply a memory dump in mode-13h (the 320x200x256 colour screen resoulution the game uses) and the text colour is based off the changes to the pallete that the game made. The game sometimes continues with the next part of the game. The game is made of two different programs, [[Geoscape]] and [[Battlescape]], so when one part of it crashes, the other one will not have registered that anything has gone wrong and will attempt to soldier on.''<br />
''In the Windows version of the game, the game simply crashes back to the desktop, unless you're using the [[XcomUtil]] split executable variant. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] ''<br />
<br />
[[Category: Oddities and bugs]]</div>Phasma Felishttps://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Known_Bugs&diff=15463Known Bugs2008-05-28T17:10:22Z<p>Phasma Felis: /* Fixes for Base Construction Bugs */ Linked BaseFixer to its entry on Spike's user page, instead of directly to the file</p>
<hr />
<div>== Base Construction Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Base Disjoint Bug ===<br />
Base facilities built along the right or bottom edges of the base building area may end up being cut off from each other by dirt walls, a bug in the routine meant to keep soldiers from accidentally exiting the map edges during [[Base Defense]] missions. The dirt walls can be knocked down by Blaster Bombs or excessive amount of heavy plasma fire during combat but are otherwise unbreakable. <br />
<br />
[[image:bdb.gif|center|Base Disjoint Bug]]<br />
<br />
The walls marked in white are removed if there is an adjacent module. All green modules are not affected while the yellow modules are. The red module will be sealed off completely if anything smaller than a hangar is placed here at any given time. <br />
<br />
Xcomutil works around this problem by stripping out the walls entirely in all the base modules.<br />
<br />
The bug can be profitable if the hangars and the lift are accessible only through in these areas - you can gather and supply all your soldiers heavily without aliens interfering, then knock a hole in the wall and cover the area with explosives and blaster launcher fire.<br />
<br />
===Facility Maintenance Costs===<br />
Although X-COM charges the right fee when you first buy base modules, the monthly maintenance fee is always wrong. It's actually based on the placement within the base grid, '''not''' the price displayed in the in-game UFOpaedia. For more information, see [[Base_Facilities#Facility_Maintenance_Cost_Bug]]. The Geo finance Graph shows a correct summary, however ([[LIGLOB.DAT]], updated once a month). Also see the next section.<br />
<br />
===Paying For Dirt===<br />
If you take down any facility in any base that you own and leave bare dirt, then you will continue to pay maintenance on it. But not at the old rate of whatever the facility cost per month, filling the hole back with dirt means it needs special attention at all times by specialists. In fact for every square of dirt you have that used to be a facility you will pay 80k per month. Thats 320k per hangar you take down. There are only two known ways to stop paying this premium - if you completely dismantle the base you stop paying any money for it, or if you build over all the spaces that you have vacated. In fact as soon as you start building the new facility you stop paying the premium, as well as not having to pay the cost of the new facility until it is complete.<br />
<br />
If you start a facility and change your mind before it is complete, after the time when it would have completed you will start paying this 80k premium on that land as well.<br />
<br />
===Base Facility Dismantle-Construction Crash===<br />
In the Collectors Edition version, dismantling a facility while its construction is in progress can cause a crash when a second facility on another base square completes its construction. To work around this, dismantle a facility only after its construction is complete. If you have already dismantled such a facility, build something like a general stores on the same square to avoid the crash. It is not known if this crash happens intermittently or always, or if it happens on most versions of the game or just the Collectors Edition.<br />
<br />
===Radar Stacking===<br />
Despite the "Short Range" and "Long Range" detection bars displayed on each base's Information screen, only one radar of each type will be used at each base. Building additional radars of the same type will have no effect. One short and one long are useful until the [[Hyper-Wave Decoder|Hyper-Wave Decoder]] makes both of them obsolete.<br />
<br />
===Phantom Radar===<br />
When you dismantle detection equipment such as a radar or hyperwave detector, the related detection ability of the base does not decrease until a new facility of some kind is built in that base. Until a new facility is completes building at that base, the base continues to use this "phantom radar".<br />
<br />
This bug allows you to "upgrade in place", for example building a new Hyper-Wave Decoder over the top of an existing Large Radar, and retaining the detection capability of the Large Radar until the Hyper-Wave Decoder completes building. (Unless something else completes building first).<br />
<br />
===Fixes for Base Construction Bugs===<br />
<br />
As mentioned above, XcomUtil prevents the Base Disjoint bug (crudely). The [[User:Spike#Base_Fixer|BaseFixer]] utility corrects the Paying for Dirt, Phantom Radar, and Radar Stacking bugs. BaseFixer can be used manually on saved game files, or automatically via XcomUtil's hook mechanism.<br />
<br />
==Geoscape Bugs==<br />
<br />
===First Radar Detection Data bug===<br />
When a UFO is detected by a radar, you get certain data on it depending on the type of radar that detected it. If the UFO later enters the range of another radar while staying in the range of the first, you will continue to get the initial data given, even if the new radar is more powerful than the first! So if you detect a craft with a [[Small Radar]], then the UFO moves into the range of a [[Hyper-Wave Decoder]], clicking on the UFO will only give you the data as if the Small Radar detected it, so long as it remains in the Small Radar range! In effect, the data you get about a UFO is determined when you first detect it, and not changed after that until you lose detection on the craft with the radar that first detected it.<br />
<br />
This bug most commonly shows up when a UFO is first detected by a patrolling aircraft and then remains in the range of the aircraft while also entering the range of a Hyper-Wave Decoder.<br />
<br />
=== Minimized Interceptor Bug ===<br />
One fairly consistent cause of crashes is saving the geoscape game during a UFO standoff, with a [[UFO Interception]] window minimized to an icon. The next mission after that point will likely dump you to the green text screen, and perhaps an earlier battlescape mission instead of the proper one. What it seems to do is zoom back out of the combat too far when the fight is over, eventually causing the crash once it has gone a couple of steps further than it normally allows you.<br />
<br />
'''Solution:''' Open up [[UIGLOB.DAT]] in a hex editor. Change hex offset 0x06 to 00. This will reset the number of minimized interceptor windows to zero. Your interceptor unit can be selected to either return to base or continue on to complete its ground assault mission. ''NOTE: Make sure to back up your save game before editing it.''<br />
<br />
''-- I was able to recover from this state by quickly sending in another interceptor ([[Firestorm]]) to take over, which allowed my first interceptor ([[Avenger]]) to break off and go home without crashing the game again. After the shootdown I overwrote the buggy savegame. --[[User:JellyfishGreen|JellyfishGreen]] 03:11, 22 Aug 2005 (PDT)''<br />
<br />
''This happened to me also. I fixed it by replacing "[[UIGLOB.DAT]]" in the save folder with the same file from another saved game (from the same campaign a month earlier) [[User:bylund|bylund]] 00:15, January 12, 2007 (GMT+01)''<br />
<br />
=== Interceptions: Last Shot Always Misses ===<br />
When using Cautious attack when [[UFO Interception|intercepting a UFO]], your craft will stay at the maximum range of your longest-range weapon. When using Standard attack, your craft will stay at the maximum range of your shortest-range weapon. (Usually players use two weapons of the same type, so Cautious and Standard attack will behave the same in this regard.)<br />
<br />
As soon as the craft fires its last shot (expending all its ammo), it will drop back to "Standoff" range (70km). This will make it appear that the UFO has backed away while the last missile(s) are in-flight, causing them to miss. <br />
<br />
In order to hit a UFO with your last salvo of missiles (Stingrays, Avalanches, or Fusion Balls), you must switch to "Aggressive" attack before the last salvo reaches the UFO. This will cause your craft to close in with the UFO, allowing the missiles to be in range when they reach the UFO. However, Aggressive attacks will also bring you within range of the UFO's weapons, so you should hit the "Disengage" button as soon as the last salvo hits.<br />
<br />
===Elerium-fueled Craft Bug===<br />
A [[Skyranger]] or [[Interceptor]], once dispatched, will return to base when it's fuel supply has dropped to a level that it will only have just enough fuel to return to base. Craft fueled by Elerium-115, however, will always report the "Low Fuel" message as soon at the fuel supply is 50% depleted, no matter where they are on the globe. This significantly shortens the already minute time that a [[Firestorm]], [[Lightning]], or [[Avenger]] can be dispatched to patrol.<br />
<br />
===Floater Medic Research Bug===<br />
Every single time a Floater Medic is found and researched, the game crashes after it is interrogated! I [muton commander] used a hack system to view the alien's profile, and it was a Commander with no race attached. This is probably the cause, but I have no explaination for why this situation occurs.<br />
<br />
== Battlescape Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Faulty Large Units ===<br />
This bug has been listed as a MINOR bug in exploits page. Please place it into the "Minor Bugs" section page.<br />
<br />
'''this has been moved from exploits to here - NEEDS to be written when the time comes'''<br />
<br />
If you move a tank off a northward facing ledge, the rest of the tank will sink into a wall (if there is one), and cause the tank to get stuck. This won't happen if the tank moves off a south facing ledge as the primary quarter will fall after the rest of the tank. Aliens can also get stuck this way.<br />
<br />
=== Collectors Edition Blaster Bomb Bug ===<br />
In the Collectors Edition of UFO, the [[Blaster Launcher]] has a bug that prevents it from going up or down on the same tile. Or in other words, you cannot change the elevation of the missile vertically on the same tile. <br />
<br />
Instead of flying down (or up) to the next waypoint, it will instead fly directly to the south at the pivot waypoint. Relative to the screen, this would be the lower left side of the screen. <br />
<br />
This does not happen if you plot the waypoints at an angle. Or, if the blaster bomb flies right off the map, it will reappear at the proper waypoint as long as there are additional waypoints placed after the vertical move. <br />
<br />
This bug also applies to the [[Disrupter Pulse Launcher]] in TFTD. <br />
<br />
=== The trouble with Mines (general) === <br />
The armed states for [[Proximity Grenade]]s in both UFO and TFTD are NOT stored in savegames. More information to come.<br />
<br />
=== Mountain Map ===<br />
Due to a bug in the way this tileset was created, when you shoot the ground, it doesn't burn up - it turns into a tree stump.<br />
<br />
Because the stump is on object, as opposed to actual ground, any objects that were in the tile already (for example, UFO hulls or the landing gear of your craft) get replaced by these stumps, making it seem as if they were destroyed.<br />
<br />
Tree stumps don't take much damage, so they often get burnt up immediately if an explosive goes off, leaving nothing but burnt ground behind. It is easier to view the effects of this bug by shooting the ground instead.<br />
<br />
For more details, see [[Explosions#Mile-High_Madness|Mountain Madness]].<br />
<br />
=== What just exploded? ===<br />
In some versions of the game, a bug allows an armed proximity mine to transfer its properties to some other item in the next mission, which then may explode unexpectedly. (If the item is left on the floor of the XCOM craft, it will explode as you walk past it.) This problem can be rectified by reloading the game -- as a precaution, save before you move your first soldier.<br />
<br />
=== Door jam ===<br />
If a door is open when a game is saved on the Battlescape and that game is subsequently restored, the door will remain open for the remainder of that mission.<br />
<br />
===Mind Controlled Soldiers go MIA===<br />
If you complete a mission while a [[soldier]] is currently [[Mind Control]]led he will be listed as MIA at the end of the combat. This is quite an easy bug to fall into as on any [[Sectoid]] or [[Ethereal]] mission the only, or most powerful, psionic aliens will usually be holed up in the bridge or command centre.<br />
<br />
===Mind Controlled Aliens Count as MIA if you Abort===<br />
If you happen to abort a mission with any Mind-Controlled aliens under your control, who are NOT in the dropship, the computer tallies them up as "X-COM Operatives Missing In Action." Thusly, every Mind Controlled alien left behind when you dust off is -20 points to your score! If you're leaving anyways, avoid this by bringing them back to the ship or mowing them down on the way back to the ship.<br />
<br />
In the Playstation version of the game, any aliens under Mind Control at missions end are considered captured and hence, this bug is not a factor.<br />
<br />
===20 Proximity Grenade Limit===<br />
<br />
The array used to denote armed [[Proximity Grenade]]s is limited to 20 entries, meaning you are limited to 20 active mines at a time. The 21st and subsequent Proximity grenades can be primed like normal and will give appropriate messages, but they will not detonate even when the normal trigger conditions are met. Note that Proximity Mines that have detonated or otherwise been destroyed are removed from the array, freeing up positions; the limit is 20 ACTIVE Proximity Grenades at one time. In normal gameplay, this is probably not a restriction, in light of the [[Known_Bugs#80-Item_Limit|80 Item Limit]], since you'd need to have more than 1/4th of the cargo space in the dropship filled with Proximity Grenades.<br />
<br />
== Character Inventory Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Alien Inventory Stacking Bug ===<br />
THis bug has been listed as a CRITICAL bug in exploits page. Please place it into the "Critical Bugs" section page.<br />
<br />
'''this has been moved from exploits to here - NEEDS to be written when the time comes'''<br />
<br />
<br>'''WARNING:''' You will see that sometimes the alien will stack equipment on its right leg. If you remove an item from their right leg, make sure you enough time units to place it somewhere else. If you run out of time units, you will have to force a quit and cannot save your game. (press ALT-TAB, then CTRL-ALT-DEL, and terminate the process that corresponds to the game).<br />
<br />
=== Item-stacking Bug ===<br />
It is possible to put more than one item in a given spot. When an item is stacked with a [[Stun Rod]], this can make it possible for X-COM soldiers to perform "melee" attacks. See [[Item Stacking Bug]] for more details.<br />
<br />
===Carrying Unconscious Units===<br />
Carrying unconscious units a hand slot will crash the game if they wake up. Refer to : [[Unconscious#Bug|Unconscious]].<br />
<br />
===Disappearing Ammo===<br />
Partially-used clips in alien or X-COM weapons disappear at the end of a mission. This dictates that you should try to use clips that are not full. However, in DOS versions of the game, you can unload used clips to recover them as full clips with the tradeoff of all loaded clips (used or otherwise) will count as spent and disappear (this shouldn't seem to be a problem, until you start using blasters and will find that you're running out of ammo fast). You can also use [[XcomUtil]] to recover partially used clips. Even when used clips are discarded, you will still get credit ([[Scoring|score]]) at the end of missions for recovering them.<br />
<br />
When aborting a mission, any full clips loaded in any alien weapons brought back to the transport/access lift will not be recovered unless the clips are unloaded first. This includes [[Blaster Bomb]]s and [[Stun Bomb]]s.<br />
<br />
== Storage and Transfer Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== 80-item Limit ===<br />
When loading up your Avenger for a massive UFO assault or arming soldiers for a [[Base Defense]] from your overflowing stores, you will likely hit this limit. <br />
<br />
You only get a max of 80 items, and you don't get to choose which ones, so you may end up with 80 clips and no rifles for the base defense. <br />
<br />
The solution is timely housekeeping. Sell off your spare personal equipment. See our handy [[Spring Cleaning Tips]], and also [[Managing the Item Limit]] for ideas.<br />
<br />
===Sticky Craft Transfer Fee glitch===<br />
As pointed out by Zombie and Danial, transferring any craft causes '''''all subsequent transfers to have that cost added to it''''', for as long as the craft is in transit. Additional craft in transit will add additional fees. (This has also been called the Exponential Transfer Fee bug, although it's actually additive, not exponential.)<br />
<br />
Example (all numbers are only approximations):<br />
<u>Cost of pistol transfer (&harr; = to or from)</U><br />
EU &harr; USA 80<br />
EU &harr; Asia 100<br />
USA &harr; Asia 120<br />
<br />
<u>Cost of craft transfer</U><br />
EU &harr; USA 1600 ''Notice how transfer fees always work as relative percents,<br />
EU &harr; Asia 2000 ''probably on a distance-based formula<br />
USA &harr; Asia 2400<br />
<br />
<u>Cost to transfer '''pistol''', after transferring craft from EU to Asia for $2000</U><br />
EU &harr; USA 1680 (80+1600)<br />
EU &harr; Asia 2100 (100+2000)<br />
USA &harr; Asia 2520 (120+2400)<br />
<br />
The cost of the craft transfer "sticks" to '''all''' subsequent transfers, until the craft arrives - although it acts on a proportionate basis, which is probably distance related.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, this cost is '''additive'''. That is to say, if you transferred a second craft from EU to Asia while the first was still in transit, it would cost $4000 ($2000 plus $2000 - it too suffers from the glitch!), it would then cost e.g. $4100 to transfer a pistol from EU to Asia. Having even more craft in transit would add even more fees.<br />
<br />
This only appears to happen with aircraft, although it does happen for them all. So try to transfer aircraft individually, and not transfer anything else while you do - assuming you aren't awash in money. (The bug will cost you in the low thousands of dollars per craft being transferred.)<br />
<br />
A related problem is that, if you are in the Transfer screen, start to transfer a craft, and then cancel because you remembered you wanted to send something else first - if you then try to Transfer something on that same screen, ''it will still get the sticky craft fee added''. Try it and see. You have to back up out to the main Base screen and hit Transfer again, to get rid of the sticky fee from a cancelled craft transfer.<br />
<br />
===Transfer Limit cash eater===<br />
Only 100 items can be in transit at a time. (Here, a transfer of e.g. 200 Elerium counts as one "item". Also, all soldiers are counted individually.) If you go over the limit, you will get a warning that there is no more transport capacity. If you STILL try to transport something after getting the warning, the item will stay where it is, but the transportation cost still gets deducted. Bad if you're shuffling expensive aircraft.<br />
<br />
{| {{stdTable}} width = "80%" align = "center" <br />
|- {{stdTable Heading}}<br />
| Tip<br />
|-<br />
| To Clarify what constitutes an item in the transfer screen, think of them as batches of X amount. For example, if you transfer 200 alien alloys now, and then decide to transfer another 50 alloys later, this will count as two items in transit. Now, when you look at your transfers, you'll now have two items. Two batches of alien alloys, one with 200 units and the other with 50 units.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
=== Transfer crash ===<br />
If you transfer something to another base the game crashes right after acknowledging the transfer price.<br />
<br />
Solution: Start UFO, select English language, finish your transfer, save game, restart with your normal language settings (http://www.xcomufo.com/x1faq.html)<br />
<br />
===Purchase Limit===<br />
The purchase limit for any item you buy via the purchase screen is 255 per line item, because it is a one-byte field. However, the impact of this bug is small, for if you have space remaining in your 100-item transfer queue, you can immediately order another 255 of said item as another line item.<br />
<br />
===Storage Limit===<br />
You can not store more than 9,999 examples of any one item in the general stores at a specific base at one time. However, the only times such a ridiculously huge pile of a given item is at all likely to accumulate is with [[Alien Alloys]] or [[Elerium-115]]. Still, consider yourself warned. If you're coming close to the limit, consider transferring the extra to other bases or even selling it, as any extra collected beyond the limit will 'disappear' and be wasted.<br />
<br />
<br />
== Soldier Limits and Recruiting Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Soldier Recruiting Limit ===<br />
<br />
There is a hard limit in the game of 250 X-COM soldiers in total across all bases (not 250 per base).<br />
<br />
The error message that pops up when you try to hire more is: <br />
<br />
"NO MORE SOLDIERS ALLOWED"<br />
<br />
"You have already recruited the maximum number of soldiers."<br />
<br />
=== Soldier Recruiting Bugs ===<br />
<br />
Also there are 3 bugs related to recruiting soldiers: <br />
<br />
* You still get charged for Soldiers you try to purchase above the No More Soldiers limit.<br />
* The error message that appears when you hire too many soldiers must be dismissed (click OK) once for each soldier over the limit, i.e. up to 250 times. <br />
* You get also charged for Soldiers you try to purchase above the Transfer Limit (100 at a time).<br />
<br />
=== Soldier Battlescape Limit ===<br />
<br />
In the Battlescape, there is a limit of 40 X-COM soldiers that can participate in any battle. Tanks/HWPs each count as 4 soldiers against this limit. Unless you use custom-modified aircraft, you will only see this limit in a Base Defence mission. In a Base Defence mission, all tanks/HWPs will be deployed first, in preference to soldiers.<br />
<br />
== Manufacturing and Research Bugs ==<br />
<br />
=== Cancel Manufacturing Bug ===<br />
<br />
If you start a project with 1 or more items to build, the required cash (and any materials) for the first item will instantly be taken from you. If you cancel the project before the job is done, or reduce the number of items to produce, you will still not be refunded the initial costs of the first item. <br />
<br />
(Possibly this is exactly the behaviour the designers intended, and not a bug at all.)<br />
<br />
=== Zero Unit Manufacturing Exploit ===<br />
<br />
If you start a manufacturing project with zero items to build, close the screen, and then go back to assign staff and a non-zero build amount later, the first item is built for free. If you only build one item at a time, you can build them all for free. Obviously, this is cheating. It's also a bit tedious. It might be excusable if you're really short of money.<br />
<br />
=== Research Rollover ===<br />
<br />
Whenever research completes, you are given the opportunity to re-allocate your scientists' efforts onto a new topic. If the new topic is after the topic that you have just completed (further down toward the bottom of the screen), the new effort of the scientists you allocate is applied immediately, on the same day - even though they were just working on the previous project that completed. <br />
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If you have enough scientists available to complete the new project in one day, this process can be repeated indefinitely, to complete multiple topics in one day. Each new research topic must be further down the list than the previous research topic, or the bug/exploit does not work. <br />
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By the way, this means that you should not worry about "wasted" research effort due to allocating too many scientists to a project on its last day. The chances are you will gain more free research from this bug than you will lose from "wasted" research effort.<br />
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=== TFTD Research Tree Bug Avoidance Guide === <br />
TFTD's research problems are more of a logical design flaw than a true bug, caused by trying to make the research tree more complicated than X-Com UFO. They can be a pain when you research the wrong thing at the wrong time.<br />
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A variation of NKF's [[TRTBAG | TFTD Research Tree Bug Avoidance Guide]] will be forthcoming - free time permitting.<br />
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For now:<br />
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*ONLY research Deep One Terrorist AFTER you have completed Plastic Aqua Armor and Ion Beam Accelerators.<br />
*You MUST have at least one "Sub Construction" in storage before completing research on Zrbite and/or Transmission Resolver.<br />
*NEVER research the Tasoth Commander. There's no reason to - and as of the last patch, they should no longer appear on the research list. They can block the T'Leth research.<br />
*DO NOT research M.C. Lab unless you have AT LEAST one MC Reader in storage.<br />
*NEVER sell all of your Sonic Pistol Clips before researching it first. If you were to research the Sonic Pistol, the aliens immediately stop using that weapon (and thus, clip) so you will be unable to continue in the Sonic line of research.<br />
Other than the MC reader one, any of the above would make it impossible to finish the game.<br />
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=== Overcrowded Engineers (And Scientists?) ===<br />
In the Dos version (probably the others as well) if you hire more than 255 engineers in a single base, the number of engineers in the base will read a negative number once the 256th engineer arrives. Any Engineers engaged in projects will continue to work on them, but if you cancel the project you will lose engineers until you have lost 255 of them. This bug probably also affects scientists. It may be exploitable to pay a negative salary at the end of the month.<br />
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===Manufacturing Limit Bug===<br />
The number of hours remaining on a [[Manufacturing_Profitability#Profit_tables|manufacturing project]] is stored in a two-byte integer. If you build enough items that the total number of Engineer Hours required for construction is above 65535 hours, it will wrap around to 0 hours and display from there. Typically this drastically understates the amount of time that will be spent working on the items, but strictly speaking, it only subtracts 65k hours (so a huge project like 120k hours would still show ~55k hours' worth of Engineer time needed).<br />
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This bug is not dependent on the number of engineers assigned to the project; it is a function of the number of engineer hours needed. You will most likely run into it when trying to build 2 Avengers at the same time or when queuing up large orders of items in bulk, such as armor or Laser Cannons. As a practical example, the number of Avengers needed to trigger the bug is 2. The number of Laser Cannons is 219. Toggle back and forth between 218 and 219 laser cannons at the beginning of a project to see the effects.<br />
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It is known with certainty that this exists as a display issue - the screen will say you need less time than you should when you go over 65536 Engineer hours. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft|Arrow Quivershaft]] is also sure he's seen it eat an Avenger... he ordered two but only got one, even though it took the time, and cost the money, for two. He's tried to replicate this and hasn't been able to, however. So it clearly is at least a superficial display issue, and may be more than that ... possibly dependent on even something else. In any event, keep an eye on projects with more than 65k Engineer hours (and report back here!)... or just avoid going that high.<br />
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== Other Bugs ==<br />
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=== Difficulty Bug ===<br />
The DOS version had a problem where no matter what difficulty level you chose, you were actually playing at "Beginner" level. Because of one or two incorrectly set bytes in all dos versions of the game( 1.0 through to 1.4), no matter what difficulty was selected, the difficulty bug would reset to beginner at the end of the first mission. [[XcomUtil]] corrects this problem. This bug was officially fixed in the Collectors Edition Windows port (also commonly known as UFO Gold).<br />
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=== Big Text Bug ===<br />
There are a few bugs in XCOM, especially early versions, that can build up and make the game unstable enough that it crashes and prints out a screenful of green 40-column text, essentially debug or memory dump information useless to you.<br />
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You can also forced a crash by pressing CTRL-C at the start of a new game (DOS only). If you don't have any missions automatically saved within the MISSDAT folder, you will get this big text to appear. Typically it is green for Enemy Unknown, and blue for Terror From The Deep. Other colours have been observed such as pink, purple, brown and yellow.<br />
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''In the dos version, the text that you see is simply a memory dump in mode-13h (the 320x200x256 colour screen resoulution the game uses) and the text colour is based off the changes to the pallete that the game made. The game sometimes continues with the next part of the game. The game is made of two different programs, [[Geoscape]] and [[Battlescape]], so when one part of it crashes, the other one will not have registered that anything has gone wrong and will attempt to soldier on.''<br />
''In the Windows version of the game, the game simply crashes back to the desktop, unless you're using the [[XcomUtil]] split executable variant. - [[User:NKF|NKF]] ''<br />
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[[Category: Oddities and bugs]]</div>Phasma Felis