Talk:Item Weight (TFTD)
Maxing out on grenades
I have used the "jihad" tactic in the past in UFO where I had to go up a lift around which 7 or 8 aliens were clustered. Send one guy up and he is instantly killed. So one can have everyone else arm a grenade and throw it to a sacrificial mule. He picks them, then goes up the lift shaft with 10 or 12 armed grenades. He is instantly killed and his payload then goes off, taking all the aliens with him. It is a helpful way to dispose of soldiers with weak MC, though risky (i.e. relies on your getting control over the guy back for at least two full moves).
I'm trying to figure out the maximum number of grenades a "jihadi" could carry. The strength of a soldier is capped at 70, and a grenade has a weight of 3, so I take it this means in theory a soldier could carry 23 grenades. There are, IIRC, 25 slots (hands = 2, shoulders = 4, legs = 4, backpack = 9, belt = 6 [7?]). So he could store 23, but could he move? How does the routine work to convert weight into a movement penalty?
Also, is it possible to add so much weight that the guy uses all his TUs up just standing there? If so, this would mean he was effectively stranded because if he starts every turn with 0 TUs, he can't even drop anything.4th Cuirassier 06:31, 31 January 2011 (EST)
- the Encumbrance formula doesn't kick in until after weight goes over the strength level. The percentage of weight units over the soldier's strength level determines how much of a reduction to apply to your TU refresh rate each turn.
- Let's say you are 7 weight units over a strength level of 70 for example. That's a 10% reduction in TUs on the next turn. So if this soldier has 64 max TUs, then only 57 points will be recovered on the next turn.
- When you reach double your strength level, then 0% of your TUs are recovered each turn. -NKF 06:52, 31 January 2011 (EST)
- This tactic could be very dangerous with psi-weak soldiers and enemy MC still active. I was not able to prove it in my AI tests, but it's likely the AI is capable of using armed grenades on a human when it assumes control - it's certainly very capable of using them on aliens in TFTD. Also consider that controlled humans seem to get crazy numbers of TUs, and a psi-weak squaddie loaded down with armed grenades could be highly dangerous. Still, if you've used this tactic successfully and repeatedly (and your Aquanauts were spotted by the enemy), then maybe that tells us the AI can't use armed human grenades after all. Question - were they regular grenades, or alien types eg. Sonic Pulsers? -Spike 15:29, 31 January 2011 (EST)
- The most suitable sacrifice material is in fact soldiers who are panicked, rather than outright MC-controlled. Typically they fire their weapon randomly, then drop it and freeze, or just do the latter. Then they recover, but with morale very low. The AI then seems to move on and tries to find someone it can actually control (my observation, but may not be universal).
- These guys are basically useless even once over their panic, and you've paid for them anyway, so I figure rather than take them home and sack them I'll send them out in a blaze of glory. It's impractical to have them arm every grenade themselves, so the best way is if everyone else arms one each, then tosses their grenade to the mule for him to pick up. It works quite well in alien bases, and in U:EU on bigger ships, where you are apt to groups of baddies in knots. In TFTD, it works best if you spot a group on the level below. You festoon a guy with grenades then walk him over a hole in the floor
- I have a feeling that in U:EU, only one grenade need go off and it sets off all the others, but maybe I remembered that wrong. 4th Cuirassier 20:51, 31 January 2011 (EST)