Battlescape

The Battlescape is the tactical portion of the game, where all ground combat takes place. This is where soldiers and aliens live, fight and die. Terrain and mission objectives vary on the Battlescape, but one rule is paramount - don't allow your men to get killed. Veteran soldiers are an invaluable resource, but only survivors gain experience.

The terrain on the Battlescape depends on the geographical location of the mission. When you intercept a UFO, you can sometimes wait until it is over favorable terrain to shoot it down. Most of the world is covered by farm, forest, or jungle terrain, however, so you will have to make best use of whatever natural and artificial cover is available. Unfortunately, the aliens will also be making use of this cover, so missions on flat, featureless terrain (such as polar tundra) are often the easiest to play, as the aliens have nowhere to hide (except for their UFO). On the other hand, if things start to go wrong, you will have nowhere to hide either.

The Playing Board

The battle takes place on a small layered tile map. Maps will have dimensions that range between 40 to 60 tiles in width and height and have either 2 or 4 map layers.

In X-Com UFO, exterior maps always have 4 elevations and can have areas of 40 to 50 square tiles. Interior maps always have 2 elevations and are always played in 60 square tile areas.

TFTD differs slightly in that interior maps use 4 elevations except the maps in the final level, which only use 2 per map.

The map - we'll call it the physical map - details all structures (walls), obstructions (walls, objects and foliage), ceilings(or floors), floors (or ceilings, as the case may be), etc. The general look of the battlescape is determined by the mission, the aircraft that have landed at the site and the area the mission was initiated.

Everything on the map is static by nature. They do not change until they are damaged by weapons fire.

In addition to the physical map, there is a lighting map that controls the level lighting and a map for the shroud of war. The lighting map is self explanatory, it determines the lighting levels of the whole map. It consists of an ambient light level to represent the time of the day and fixed light sources. It also consists of all roving light sources, which are made up of player controlled units, flares and fires.

The shroud of war, or fog of war, is common in many strategy games to represent areas that have not been seen or visited. In effect, areas of the map are coated in black until a friendly unit looks at it. From then on, the fog is lifted for the rest of mission.

It must be noted that gravity in the battlescape does not apply to any map features, except the units and objects that can be picked up by units.

The Playing Pieces

Editor note: The units and equipment on the battlescape and how they interact. Unit stats, weapon stats, inventories, other non-combat tools, objects that can be picked up, etc.

On a map, soldiers, aliens and sometimes civilians interact with each other. Generally by way of projectile weapons.

Combat Damage Model

All discussion on how damage is dealt and received by units. Covers damage, armour, explosions.

Psionics

Psionics are initially a dangerous facet of facing two of the alien races that can make things very difficult for your squad, especially for those soldiers that turn out to have low Psionic Strength, as they will be targeted constantly by these psionic capable aliens. One you have captured a psionic alien and researched it you will be able to develop psionic soldiers yourself by training them in Psionic Laboratories and equipping them with Psi-Amps.

Psionics allow the wielder to attempt to either panic or Mind Control enemy forces, with the success rate being dependant on relative psionic strength and skill between the attacker and defender, and the range between them. Panicked soldiers can be a problem as they can leave gaps in your lines, but Mind Controlled soldiers are far more serious a problem, as they will turn around and fire on their comrades. A psionic attacks effects will last for one full turn per attempt, including both the users and the following opponents part of the turn, although the morale lost to a successful attack will often mean the soldier will be out of action for longer as they continue to panic or berserk for a time, even if no further attacks are directed towards them.

Battlescape Interface

Battlescape Screen

Had a shot at explaining all the buttons. Reword if necessary. Some buttons I am still not clear on. Please clarify when necessary---Vagabond 02:40, 7 March 2007 (PST)

The bulk of the battlescape scenario will take place here. Here, the player can view the areas of the board visible to their pieces and can choose actions for them via the Battlescape Control Bar.

The main features of the Battlescape Screen are labeled. Refer to below for an explaination.

1. Item carried by the piece's right hand. Left click on that area to use.
2. Move up or down. Only usable if the piece is equipped with a flying suit, or if located on an elevator tile.
3. Change the viewing level. Yesh, that is not clear enough. Can someone improve it? - Vagabond
4. View the map screen.
5. Switch between kneeling and standing stance for 2 TUs. Will affect the piece's height, the firing accuracy, and the required TUs to move in the next player phase.
6. Switch to the inventory screen.
7. Centre the Battlescape Screen onto the currently selected piece.
8. Select the next piece.
9. Select the next piece. No diffence to button six, as far as I know. Can someone clarify? - Vagabond
10. Hide or reveal the roof or ceiling. Useful for viewing inside enclosed areas.
11. Open the Battlescreen Options menu. Use this to modify the firing, scrolling, and movement speed. Note that it is only possible to save, not to load, the battlescape scenario. However, the option to load will be advaliable within the Geoscape screen, and the title menu of the game.
12. End player turn button. The alien phase will then commence.
13. Dust off button. For UFO Crash Recovery, UFO Assault and Terror missions transport ship will then take off, leaving all the pieces not within it's initial deployment area behind. For Alien Base Assault, the pieces in the deployment area will retreat, leaving those elsewhere within the board behind. For Base Defence mission, it will concede the battle and the base to the alien without further loses to the player. Most of the units left behind will be listed as MIA and will be unadvaliable for the rest of the game.
14. Item carried by the piece's left hand. Left click on that area to use.
15. Reserve TU buttons. Will stop the piece from taking any action once a certain amount of TUs has been used. Those TUs may be used for reaction shots in the Alien's phase. Top left is to reserve none, Top right is to reserve enough TUs for a snap shot. Bottom left is to reserve for an aimed shot, with the bottom right similarly for auto-shot.
16. Indicates the rank of the selected piece. Click to view detailed statistics, including current armour values.
17. Information panel detailing the name, and the current status of the piece. The green bar, and the number corresponds to the current TUs advaliable, with the yellow bar and number for the current energy. Likewise with the red bar and number for the current health with the purple bar and number representing the moral level.
18. Currently selected piece.
19. Mouse cursor and selection box. Move to the edge of the screen to scroll along the board. Right click on the board to have the currently selected piece face that direction. Also used to target areas and pieces for the item to be used on.
20. Aliens sighted buttons. Left-click to center the screen on the indexed alien. These buttons are assigned in "increasing order" in terms of the appropriate file. In particular, the numerically highest alien sighted will also be the maximal rank sighted.

How to end a mission

Missions will end if one of the following happens:

1. All aliens are killed or knocked unconscious. All equipment and UFO components will automatically be recovered from the battlefield. If any X-COM units are under alien Mind Control when the last alien is defeated, those units will be "MIA", and lost forever.
2. All human soldiers are killed or are incapacitated. All soldiers and equipment (including the transport) will be lost.
3. Player aborts the mission. All units and equipment in the transport will be recovered; all units and equipment outside the transport will be lost. No UFO components will be recovered. Any unconscious aliens inside the transport will be transferred to Alien Containment, if you have one. If more aliens were killed than X-COM units, you will probably still end the mission with a positive score.

There are several cases where aborting a mission may be a good option:

• If your forces are overwhelmed and likely to be defeated, get as many back to the transport as you can and cut your losses.
• Early Terror Missions (especially at night) can be very difficult. However, not responding to a terror site costs X-COM a lot of points in its monthly evaluation. Fewer points will be lost if you send a transport, even if you abort the mission right away. You may also be able to pick off a few aliens before abandoning the mission.
• Alien Bases can be raided and looted an unlimited number of times, as long as at least one alien is left behind alive and conscious (these are known as "Smash and Grab" missions).
• Early in the game, capturing a psionic alien is of a high priority. If you manage to knock out a Sectoid Leader during a dangerous mission, you may choose to grab its body and hightail it back to the base.