Orange Pad Re-inforcement Spawns

An informal page of testing item limits.

Item Limits

Mega-Primus battlescape tactical missions have an inventory-item maximum quantity of 500 pieces. Anything that can be placed into an inventory slot is considered: weapons, devices, ammunition, armor, elerium, item spawns, and item drops from the dead, etc..

Agent Reductions

Any agent's inventory cannot be altered when the game determines how many X-Com agents are permitted to start the mission.

eg: 20 agents each have 33 grenades and one recharging weapon for a total of 34 items each.

500 ÷ 34 = 14.7

The maximum amount of X-Com agents which can start any tactical mission when carrying 34 items each, is 14

...with a total item count of 476. Other agents will not appear because the total count will go over the 500 item limit. Total unit limit does not matter if it is under 60.

Enemy inventory will be heavily reduced to the remaining 24 items which is spread across their members. Only a few will be given a gun, some ammo, a grenade whereas all others will be completely empty. If a large squad of hostiles is to start the mission, many will have nothing to fight with which may severely impact their combat effectiveness and potency. If spawned items are possible (a raid), further reduction of an enemy's item allocation quantity is possible.

Alien Dimension Tests

The 500 item limit does not apply in the Alien Dimension. Alien spawns from the 'orange-pad-device' will increase the item quantity beyond the limit imposed within Mega-Primus. Further testing is required to find the cut off. 750 seems to be close.

Tests of Alien Loads And Timers

These stress tests used Score = 1 each for gun and alien. Initial Anthropods=6, Gun x6.

• Agents and loadouts were reduced to the minimum suitable: Agents=8, Lawpistol=1, Cloak=1, Armor=5pieces. 56 total items.
  

Test1: Spawning Chamber
Gametime: Start 11:32. End=16:27. Last Kill=14:52
De-Brief:

Combat = 733 (less 50 for queen death score)

Equipment = 693

Notes: 683 anthros killed, items easily surpassed the supposed item limit of 500, active combat timer seems to be exact 200minutes, item drop qty does not match with alien death qty.
Test2: Maintenance
Gametime: Start 2:21:51. End=8:11. Last Kill=6:21:51
De-Brief:

Combat = 681

Equipment = 666

Notes: 681 anthros killed, items again surpassed limit, active combat timer is exactly 4 hours (240minutes), item drop qty does not match with alien death qty.
Test3: Maintenance again
Gametime: Start 2:21:51. End=14:33. Last Kill=6:01:51
De-Brief:

Combat = 668

Equipment = 666

Notes: 668 anthros killed according to score. Add up quantity of aliens killed (8xagent's kill count from zero) and it becomes 913 kills! So now it looks like Combat rating is not correct versus actual kill count. This is becoming a headache. Items again surpassed limit and are exact as before in Test 1 and 2. Active combat timer is less than 4 hours now, being ~220minutes and also again: item drop qty does not match with alien death qty (913) but it does closely with combat rating 668 vs 666.
Test4: Sleeping Chamber
Gametime: doesn't matter since it was corpse recovery test but it lasted a few hours.
De-Brief:

Combat = 704

Equipment = 704

Notes: Using new setup: Anthros + Brainsucker Launchers(Score=1) with no ammo. Agents x12 with only LawPistol (recharges). No armor, no cloak. 704 kills so far since ended mission early. Items recovered (confirmed at base) = 704 brainsucker launchers + 48 corpses. Scores match now. What is the upper limit to kills since it is confirmed that 60 is the unit/corpse limit.
Test5: Sleeping Chamber

SPAWNS ARE UNLIMITED!!

...but not without some help. Since it is known that old corpses will be removed if there are too many just before a new spawn appears, there is a way to make spawn unlimited. Equipment dropped by the dead must be destroyed!
The items on the ground will limit the spawn quantity. This confirms that there is an item limit (unknown exactly): approximately 750 items in total.

Setup

To make it easy: know which aliens can spawn, each bulding's timer, face agents towards the center of the battlescape if they are near the map edge.

• Set up an ambush somewhere at Level One is possible. Level one is preferred since it cannot make craters.
• Funnel the aliens into this ambush by removing ramps to other accessible areas. Setting up the best location will be guesswork since some aliens just stand around after spawning, and it will depend on the battlescape layout. Skeletoids will limit the ambush effectiveness.
• Kill them in this ambush zone if possible. An explosion can remove bulk items easily, otherwise a live grenade one over the alien's pile of dropped stuff every so often.
• If the aliens stop spawning, it is time for a cleanup of items around the battlescape. Collect them and destroy them.
• Filling your agents inventory does not work since the item is still present. It must be destroyed if you want spawns to continue.
  
• Each destroyed pad is worth one to four more new spawns if wanting to further customise the spawn location to enable an easier ambush!
• Building your agents attributes to become super-soldiers is not important since cannon-fodder agents are unlimited in supply within Mega-Primus.

These are ongoing tests whenever...

Cautions

There is a critical bug which is caused by too many items on the ground regarding overhead view.

See Also

• Known Bugs
• The Alien Dimension
• Alien Buildings
• Alien Lifeforms