Open Questions

This page contains a list of gameplay mechanics which hasn't yet been entirely analyzed or discovered and other interesting stuff. One can conceive of this page as a wishlist/TODO for X-COM analysis and for UFOpaedia X-COM 1 articles. It's possible that some of the questions below have already been answered here or in other forums, or that more questions are unanswered, so edit freely!

• Air Combat Mechanics: Control of range, attack modes. UFO damage & accuracy. Multiple attackers. Plus equivalent TFTD issues.

UFO accuracy is a straight 60% chance. -Tycho (talk) 22:02, 9 December 2014 (EST)

• Accuracy_formula: How is the path for 'missed' shots calculated? Does it vary per weapon type? What is the spread per distance?

• Battlescape_Map_Generation: How X-COM equipment is placed in the case of base missions? Do map modules that contain craft have their usual nodes loaded or not?

Maps are created like a puzzle where the UFO and Xcraft locations are placed first then the rest of the tiles are determined randomly based on the terrain variable of the site. Usually the size of each "piece" of the map is a 10x10 tiled square. Larger UFOs and some Alien Base features use a 20x20 block. So, each section only contains the one module.

• Operation of the AI is not fully understood. See Alien movement patterns, Alien Inventory Use, Wish_List_(EU)#Alien_AI, Wish_List_(TFTD)#Battlescape (non-use of melee weapons, use of grenades, etc).

• Alien_Missions: How are Alien missions generated and how do the player's action influence the generator? Are all countries (except Russia) doomed to fall under alien influence, assuming indefinite gameplay where player downs all UFOs perfectly? We know that:

• The mission generator assigns a Research mission to the region of the player's first base at game start, with ETA of 2.5h (unlike the usual ETA for 0/0).

• The OSG says (per Difficulty Levels article) the Aliens are more likely to abandon or delay missions on lower difficulty.

The OSG is wrong. Aliens don't abandon missions. The next stage of a mission will be delayed by successful interception. Difficulty plays no role in this.-Tycho (talk) 22:02, 9 December 2014 (EST)

• Scoring-wise, Alien missions are considered successful once the landed UFO takes off. Missions can succeed more than once.

• Alien Infiltration in its final stage can't be stopped, even if all the UFOs are shot down before landing.

• Alien Retaliation (once X-COM base is discovered) mission generation can only be stopped by letting the aliens land and defeating them. Otherwise the aliens will just send more battleships.

• Alien Terror missions can be stopped by blowing up (or scaring away) the Terror ship.

• Is there 100% certainty that Russia will never be subverted (has anyone seen it occuring to Russia?) Perhaps it depends on the game version?

• What are the "internal balancing mechanisms" spoken about by Julian Gollop here? Does this have anything to do with the mission generator?

• As your organisation becomes stronger (through research & score), more powerful aliens start to appear with larger weapons. Catch is, the stronger the aliens get, the stronger X-COM gets, so the "mechanisms" aren't all that effective once you've got your more important research projects done.

• Quoting from [1]: "The way this worked was very simple. Basically, if you did very well in the previous three tactical missions and you absolutely trounced the aliens, the aliens would ramp up their own technology development and deployment more quickly." A very similar mechanic existed in Apocalypse, where the appearance of new alien tech was triggered by X-Com's score crossing a particular threshold. Off the Rails 12:57, 2 April 2013 (EDT)

• Add something about the X-COM novelizations. I've been informed that they were horrendous...

• Many years ago (about 1998?), a copy of the Diane Duane novel was passed around amongst the alt.games.x-com regulars. My memory's rather sketchy but I recall a standard pulp sci-fi with some X-Com words thrown in. The scale of the novel was much larger - I believe there was a part where hundreds oT troops stormed out of an Avenger to assault an alien base. Apart from that, I don't remember much. Off the Rails 18:08, 2 February 2011 (EST)
• There is a Vladimir Vasiliev book in russian. It is named "UFO: Враг неизвестен" http://fantlab.ru/work10017