Talk:Alien Containment
How many combinations of Aliens/Ranks are there to store?
Or put another way, how many Alien Containment facilities would I need to build to have enough storage to keep every kind of alien that could be captured?
Eric 12:42, 29 December 2006 (PST)
The file that stores the containment information only has 10 slots in it, so you can only hold 10 unique combinations at any given time. Each combination can have variable quantities. Say you have a Muton Soldier. You can have any number of Muton soldiers, but they will only count as 1 slot in the containment file.
This is also for the entire globe, by the way, and cannot be expanded by building more containment modules.
I know, it's not practical. It's just how the game was built.
- NKF
It just occured to me that there was a trick to the alien containment that I tried that involved transferring aliens to another base and then dismantling something. Or perhaps an attempt at discovering a trick, but never succeeded. Just keeping this note here as a reminder. -NKF
- Aha, just found the discussion thread I was thinking about. I'll grab the notes. It was a way to disposing aliens from containment.
- The trick is to build a second containment. Transfer the aliens you want to delete to it and then dismantle the target base's containment module while the aliens are still in transit (or destroy it in a base battle by bombing the module to bits). This unfortunately doesn't delete the aliens permanently. If you were to build a containment at that base again, they'll show up again. So this works if you don't intend to ever build a containment in this base ever again and are happy to leave these aliens in a state of limbo. Alternately, dismantle the base completely, all the way down to the lift. This certainly wipes out the aliens.
- It's kind of an overly elaborate way to destroy the aliens. The time/cost tradoff involved may be more than just researching the alien and getting over it. Oh well.
- Now that I think about it, does this delete the aliens from the containment file? I'll let someone with more knowledge on this file correct me if I'm mistaken.
- - NKF
- You would think if they are in the global ASTORE.DAT and that can only have 10 entries, its probably still in there and counting against your 10 types if they can turn back up if you rebuild?
- The two robotic units (Sectpods and Cyberdiscs) cannot be captured alive. Therefore, only 27 of the race/rank combos that can be kept in a containment facility. To house all possible alien units in the game, you will need at most three Alien Containment modules. These modules do not need to be at the same base: you can transfer aliens between bases if the Containment at one base is getting full.
- The above passage would also seem to be incorrect if what you say about ASTORE.DAT only having 10 spots for everywhere is the limit. --Sfnhltb 03:03, 8 March 2007 (PST)
- From tests run by many other players so far, they've only been able to come up with ten unique combinations. As for myself, I'm not sure if you can add to the slots in ASTORE.DAT, although there appears to be room for 50. Hmm. Actually, that does raise a semi-related question. How does the game know how many aliens of a particular type are kept in the various bases, and their quantity? I mean, if they're only one entry in the containment file, but you can transfer the same race/rank combinations to different containments around the globe. How does the game keep track of this?
- I believe the aliens in ASTORE.DAT are cleared in the event of a base being destroyed, so perhaps a dismantled base with aliens in transit may be handled the same way? That's just a wild guess at this point. -NKF
Some Tests
In my old game save I transferred all my aliens to one base, there were 17 different types there already arrived, and it would still let me send the 18th type, so there seems to be no 10 types, either globally or per base - unless it is only enforced when capturing. There is 50 in the ASTORE.DAT as mentioned, and no quantity is stored, so that seems to set a hard cap of 50 individual aliens, with type making no difference, and more bases with Alien Containment just allows you to capture aliens with squads sent out from that base, with no impact on amount of types and individuals you can hold.
Only thing that needs to be checked is whether you can capture a new type when you have 10 types or more already in the base, which is possible I guess, otherwise the 10 is presumably just people thinking the number in the UFOpaedia had some relevance when in fact it looks completely incorrect. --Sfnhltb 05:00, 8 March 2007 (PST)