Talk:Small Scout

Tactics for Hunting Small Scouts

I've seen single stingrays down them. I've never hit one with cannons. They always run away before my interceptors close. You'd probably need an elerium powered ship to catch up with them and use cannons. There always seems to be one looking for you base on the first day so it can be a nice way to get that first plasma weapon for research.

I agree. These critters are hard to catch. Dual Stingrays have a strong risk of destroying them totally, with Cannons you will almost never get close enough in an Interceptor. Single Stingray, plus Cannon just in case, - i.e. the starting Interceptor loadout - is the best way to crash these early in the game. Even then it's difficult as they often just run for it before you can even fire the first Stingray. I agree it's better just to tail them with a Transport and hope they land, but they don't always land. May be when the Interception Window is up they are less likely to land? Do UFO's "know" when they've been targeted? Early in the game, the $340K of Mind Probe these guys are carrying (total worth $400K+) makes it imperative to try to Recover or Assault them, by hook or by crook. I still have not worked out the best way to do it, let alone a reliable way. Maybe tail them with a transport but keep an Interceptor nearby in the air, with Stingray + Cannon, to take them out if they look like leaving?

It should be noted that a Small Scout assault seems deceptively easy. After all there's 1 of Them and 14 of You. What many people may not realize is that the 1 living alien triggers the "alien clairvoyance" (2 or less aliens alive on the map, or more than 20 turns elapsed, and the AI gets to know where all the X-COM troops are.) Some Small Scout aliens have put up impressive fights. And just to clarify, the Cannon is the only reliable method of downing a Small Scout. A lone Stingray works sometimes, as can a Laser Cannon. However, since you get 100 points for destroying the small scout, and only 50 for shooting it down, the former is often a better choice unless you're hurting for cash, since the recovery value of the UFO isn't 50, even on a perfect mission. Arrow Quivershaft 13:14, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Excellent points there. 14 to 1 is hardly sporting, but as you say the wily scout has an equaliser - good. But are you sure about the reliability of Cannon? On paper, yes, but in practice (I've done a lot of repeat trials), it takes many missed engagements before you even get an Interception Window against a Small Scout, and in most of those cases the Small Scout "goes to warp speed" once its damage level approaches 50%. The problem with the Cannon is that it's damage level is too fine-grained, unlike the Stingray which can pitch the target over the 50% damage threshold before it has time to react and disengage. So yes the Cannon is reliable in the sense that it will almost never destroy the Small Scout. Only on very rare occasions is the Scout in an aggressive enough mood to close with (rather than flee from) a Cannon-armed craft. But the Cannon's rate of downing Small Scouts is much lower than the single Stingray, per engagement. So I would definitely maintain the Stingray primary plus Cannon secondary is the best mix for Small Scout hunting. 90%+ of the time, a single Stingray would do as well as the combo. (The S+C combo is also much more practical than either a single Cannon or dual Cannon, when it comes to shooting down any evasive targets other than a Small Scout. The Dual Cannon mix does excel with a non-evading target such as a Battleship of course.) But maybe we should have a contest, a shoot-off?

Whether <= 50 extra points of Score is worth $400K of cash, a little experience and perhaps some new Research topics, is debatable. My view would be that in the first month of two of the game, the cash (etc) is definitely more useful than the score. Small Scouts largely disappear after that. When they reappear a couple of months later, it's probably not worth the hassle - splash 'em!. I picture a Small Scout running from a Fusion Ball... :) Spike 17:15, 24 November 2008 (CST)

I'm still a skeptic of the 'alien clairvoyance' claim. There used to be a related claim regarding turn 20, which I can't remember exactly but it had to do with alien behaviour as well that I never bought it. So what's the proof of the 'clairvoyance'? Simple observation? Specific code in the engine? How did you test it? What results can be expected after turn 20? Just some questions :) Hobbes 12:02, 26 November 2008 (CST)

"Proof" of clairvoyance is in the code: after turn 10, if 1 or 2 aliens only are still alive, all enemy units are made visible to them. After turn 20, they gain visibility regardless of how many are still alive. Seb76 16:04, 26 November 2008 (CST)

Turn 20 is when the aliens get automatic line-of-sight to all your units, leading to their troops rushing out of the ships and a massive storm of psionics. I'm not quite sure where that came from, so i'll look around. --(name here) 13:38, 26 November 2008 (CST)

It seems turn 20 is when they decide to exit their ship, and the psionic spam is actually 10-x, where x depends on the psionic defense of the unit on your side with the lowest psionic defense, as tested by zombie --(name here) 14:02, 26 November 2008 (CST)

Seb, are you sure about that? Behavior would seem to indicate that the turn 20 effect happens even with 4 aliens left alive.--(name here) 18:06, 26 November 2008 (CST)

The problem with the Small Scouts is that not only do they have a higher top speed than an Interceptor, but they also have the highest acceleration in the game. The Small Scout doesn't have a weapon either, so if it encounters resistance, it will try to outrun the threat almost all the time. A Stinger+Cannon combo is probably a preferable loadout on the Interceptor as it may allow you to down the craft while still being useful for other engagements.

In my experience, Small Scouts rarely land so trailing them with a Skyranger is hopeless. And you don't know when the UFO is going to leave so it's better to just engage them straight off when the "scouting" mode begins.

If you do manage to crash the Small Scout in the beginning of the game, it's a great thing. (Not so much for score, but then again the difference is 50 points which is a drop in the bucket for most months). The guaranteed Mind Probe is a good artifact to recover as it provides an influx of cash which could really help out the struggling forces. The mission isn't going to be easy as we recently found out, but it's not hard to kill a single Sectoid, Floater or Snakeman early on either.

All of this hints at just engaging the Small Scouts and crashing them if possible early on. Later, when you have faster craft capable of matching the speed of the Small Scout, you can load a Lightning or a Firestorm with the Cannon(s) and go after the SS to get those Mind Probes easily on a ground mission. However, most people don't even consider equipping a craft with normal Cannons a viable strategy since the intercepting craft is capable of only one function. --Zombie 17:50, 24 November 2008 (CST)

To be honest, downing Small Scouts is a crap shoot and most effective tactic is probably "save and reload" :(. I've watched closely and it looks like their acceleration is actually good enough to turn and outrun a Stingray after it's been fired at them. So whether it's Cannons or Stingrays you may be reliant on the Small Scout acting a bit suicidal. I still have yet to see one downed by a Cannon though. They do occasionally land and you get down one with a Stingray maybe one-half to one-third of the time.

Well I think I'm going to tweak the main article to at least reflect a diversity of views on this. Spike 16

31, 29 November 2008 (CST)

Solo Xeno Reco Redux

I've been playing around with this again. First of all, the "terms of reference". Doing a recovery on a Small Scout is almost irrelevant at most points in the game, apart from the beginning. In the beginning of the game, it's a big win both in cash and technology terms. At any other point in the game, why bother.

So there's not much point talking about non-starting equipment. Yes, in theory, Laser Cannons are an option. They have the same damage characteristics as Stingrays, with greater firepower (4x rate of fire roughly, half the accuracy, so about twice the firepower). With the greater firepower, and more continuous firing, there's a better chance of crashing the Small Scout in the very limited time window before it runs away. In theory, putting Cannon on an advanced craft that can outrun the scout, is the no-brainer option. But by the time you have advanced aircraft, you could care less about a Small Scout recovery mission.

So our palette is basic: Interceptor or perhaps Skyranger; Cannon, Stingray, Avalanche. An Avalanche missile, with a nominal damage of 100 (minimum 50) will always kill a Small Scout, and so cannot be used to crash it. We need something that has at least a theoretical possibility of doing less than 50 damage. That leaves Stingrays and Cannon. One or two of each, or a mix of both.

I am not convinced that Cannon on an Interceptor are ever effective against a Small Scout. I have done many attempts (hacking the fuel of the Interceptor so it can pursue for longer). I have never seen an Interceptor get more than one Cannon volley off in approaching 100 trials. And the one cannon volley is extremely rare (and can not crash the Small Scout).

This leaves Stingrays. Now do you carry 1 or 2? If you carry 2, what do you do with the other weapon port (assuming you're flying an Interceptor).

Carrying 2 Stingrays might be advantageous, because it doubles your rate of fire and thus your chance to crash the scout. Each Stingray hit (70% hit) has a 43% chance to crash the scout, 57% to destroy it (assuming you're over land, otherwise 100% destruction). So for each Stingray fired, that's a straight 30% to crash, 40% to kill, 30% to miss.

Whether 2 launchers is better than one depends on the internals of how the game process air combat. Are the 2 missile attacks resolved simultaneously, and damage applied from both? In that case, the kill % per volley is, I think, about 73% to kill, 18% to crash, 9% to miss. Clearly from the point of view of getting a Crash Recovery mission against the small scout, this is worse.

On the other hand, what if the missiles are processed sequentially. In other words, if you crash the alien with your first shot, it immediately falls out of the sky, and doesn't get hit (and probably destroyed) by the second missile? In this case, I calculate 39% to crash, 52% to kill, and 9% to miss - per volley. The crash % per volley (39%) is better than the single-launcher case (30%). IF this is how air combat is resolved.

But wait, there's more. With double launchers, you have a higher kill percentage. Does this higher kill percentage potentially deprive you of future opportunities when you might crash the scout? I'm not sure. In a single engagement with an Interceptor vs a Small Scout, you very rarely get the chance to fire missiles twice. (Make sure you are NOT in Cautious attack mode as they will always miss). However, while tailing the same scout, you may get 2 or 3 separate engagements (even if you are not cheating with your fuel). Does the higher kill probability work against you over multiple engagements?

30% to crash and 40% to kill plays 39% to crash and 52% to kill, over multiple engagements. If you have only one crack at the target, it's clear that double missiles is better (assuming dual missile attacks are processed 'sequentially'.)

For two attacks, you get .3 plus .6 x .3 = .18 -> .48 crashes with single missiles. With dual missiles you get .39 + .48 x .39 = .1972 -> .5772 crashes. So that's still better with dual missiles.

For 3 attacks the residual difference is very small. An extra .108 crashes for the single missile and an extra .0899 crashes for the dual missile. So the dual missile is still ahead on crash %, even after 3 volleys. (Maybe I should've used the chance of remaining airborne there, rather than the chance of not being killed. I don't think it matters materially.)

So in conclusion, dual Stingray missiles might be a better scout hunting tactic for Interceptors, depending on how air to air combat resolution works. Unfortunately that is very hard to figure out by experiment. It probably requires decompiling the relevant chunk of code. If dual Stingrays are good for scout hunting, that's good news, since dual Stingrays are not bad for general purpose UFO hunting either.

Actually, it's fairly easy to do by experiment, IF you can hack the variables for the Stingray missiles. Modify the stingrays so that they have 100% accuracy and 50 damage. (25-50 in practice). Then equip dual stingrays. For best results, equip on an Avenger. So, basically, if 2 missiles hit at the same time, it will be destroyed. If the missiles hit 1 by 1, it will crash land. (except in the event it did 50 out of 50 damage. Because of the chance of getting a natural 50, repeat the experiment 10 times. SORTED. (except for the hacking bit... I'm not too clear on how to do that)

In the single missile world, there not much to do with the other weapon slot apart from a Cannon. At least when you have an armed enemy who is willing to close with you, the Cannon brings some extra firepower. Once in range, the Cannon adds about another 40% firepower to the Stingray launcher's firepower. It also has the advantage of taking smaller 'nibbles' off the UFO's defences, thus making crashes (rather than kills) much more likely. Generating Crash Recovery missions is the name of the game, so this is not a bad thing.

As a last option, just a thought experiment. IF it turns out to be the case that single Stingrays are best, maybe hunt small scouts with an armed Skyranger? (Can you only do this in X-Com Util? I can't remember). Conceivably, the UFO will slow down to match the speed of the Skyranger (they seem to to that) and with the Skyranger's much greater endurance, you can follow for longer, and get more attacks on the small scout. Plus of course when you do down it, you can immediately launch the recovery mission. Anyway, it's just a thought.

Spike 18:19, 1 July 2009 (EDT)

Regarding shooting down a small scout in later stages: For the most part, it's just cannon fodder. Of course, assuming the scenario of getting the psi labs really late into the game, it's probably the safest way to capture an ethereal for research. One ethereal soldier and a mob of unarmed and really bad psi sponges and it'll be a fairly easy alien to tackle.

It's also one of the few ships where you can guarantee that a mind probe will be present. Granted you should have obtained one early on, but if you're unlucky and never quite got it, then this is a good way to get it. Most won't care about the probe once they get the Psi Amp.

By the way, dual shots do result in no hits, one hit, or a double hit. I'm pretty sure there's also a random damage roll applied as well, but am not sure if it's the good old 0 - 200% or 50% - 150% or if it has its own range. -NKF 02:31, 2 July 2009 (EDT)

Further facts on the Cannon: On average, with dual cannon, you need to fire for 13.3 game seconds (6.6 volleys) before you generate enough damage to crash a Small Scout. Even absolute best case - every round hits, for maximum damage - you need to get at least 2 volleys off.

Good point about grabbing a lone Ethereal NKF. Maybe that should go on the main page.

My question about dual shots was not so much whether 0, 1 or 2 hits is possible. The question is, in the case of 2 hits, if the first hit is a 'crash' (50-99% damage), but the second hit would increase the damage level to a kill (100%+ damage), what happens? Does the UFO fall out of the sky crashed and avoid the second missile? Or is the crashed UFO hit mid air by the second missile and destroyed? It's actually not impossible to deduce the answer by correctly predicting the expected probabilities, and then doing a large number of trials. But I'm not sure I have the rigour to do the former or the patience to do the latter!

By the way, my understanding is that the damage function for aircraft weapons is a random 50% - 100% of the UFOPaedia-listed damage. Although I never quite got round to reflecting this in the numbers on my Aircraft Firepower Table. Cheers, Spike 13:22, 2 July 2009 (EDT)

Update on Small Scout Hunting

Just a general update on Small Scout hunting.

Firstly we now know that because the random number generator in the game is pretty poor and very much time-based, two missiles fired at more or less the same time will generally either both hit or both miss, and will do more or less the same damage. This means the expected damage when volleying with paired Stingrays is correlated rather than independent. (For an example of what happens when you assume two events are independent when actually they are correlated, I refer the reader to the 2008 Financial Crash.) In relation to Very Small UFO Crashes, this means two Stingrays have a higher chance to destroy the Small Scout than would otherwise be expected, so a single Stingray, or ideally a single Stingray plus Cannon, is preferred if the goal is strictly to engage Small Scouts and crash them rather than destroy them.

Now there was also discussion out there somewhere out whether it's worthwhile maintaining an entire Hangar and precious Interceptor in this basically otherwise sub-optimal configuration, just to have a shot at maybe getting half a million dollars worth of loot once a month. The answer is, probably not, so that leads to the suggestion to use dual Stingrays anyway, because dual Stingrays is not a bad choice for engaging Small-sized UFOs (bigger than the Very Small-sized "Small Scout", sorry if that's confusing). You will probably end up taking some Interceptor damage against the tougher Small UFOs but you stand a good chance of crashing rather than destroying Small Scouts.

To summarise the above:

• If you need the Small Scout, eg because you are trying to capture a lone Ethereal, run single Stingray plus Cannon
• If you want the Small Scout for extra cash and loot, but you need to fight the rest of the war as well, consider one or maybe even two Interceptors armed with dual Stingray rather than dual Avalanche.

A third option emerges via the Craft Always Ready option of UFO Extender. This opens up an option to maintain Interceptors in optimum air-superiority configuration (dual Avalanches of course), but switch relatively quickly to Small Scout-crashing configuration. On detection of a Very Small target you can immediately change one or both weapons on an Interceptor and begin arming with Small Scout-friendly weapons. The key point is you don't need to wait for the weapon(s) to be fully loaded before you launch; you can launch as soon as a minimum amount of ammunition, sufficient to take down a Small Scout, has been loaded. With luck, you start the rearming cycle while the Small Scout is still on an approaching course, and launch your Interceptor as soon as the UFO is moving toward a receding course. In theory you could equip a Cannon, and be airborne with 100 rds in the Cannon in about 2 hours. But as noted above, downing Small Scouts with Cannon is a giant PITA. So instead what you want to do is equip Stingray launchers, wait as long as you can to load as many missiles as you can at the frustrating rate of 1 per hour, then launch as late as possible to do the interception. How many Stingrays you need will depend on luck and difficulty level. Probably 2 Stingrays in one launcher is enough, 90% of the time. Three Stingrays should give about 97% confidence to hit the Small Scout. All provided the Small Scout pilot dawdles around long enough to let you take all your shots. If you hit with a Stingray you have very roughly a 3/7 chance of crashing the Small Scout (and 4/7 chance of destroying it, thus invalidating all this fuss and bother of trying to crash it).

A related fourth option, in some ways better, is to use the De-equip Crafts option of UFO Extender in combination with a standard configuration for air superiority Interceptors of one Avalanche, one Stingray. This is not optimum for air superiority but it's not terrible. What you would do for a quick-reaction response to a Very Small target is immediately De-Equip the Avalanche. You then get immediate take off with an aircraft already armed with 6 Stingrays in a single launcher. An alternative way of doing the same thing without "De-Equip" is to change the Avalanche to any other weapon (even to another Avalanche, or to any weapon and then immediately back to an Avalanche), and then take off immediately with the second weapon empty. This is achieved via the Craft Always Ready option of UFO Extender. (And this suggests that the UFO Extender De-equip action, and also the standard game's Equip action of changing weapon types, probably should not be instantaneous but should take at least say one hour.)

As a last gripe, it is a game design flaw that the Stingray only loads one missile per hour, same as the Avalanche, and one more thing that makes Avalanches uber-optimal and makes the (air) game less interesting. A better game design decision would have been for Stingrays to reload at 2 per hour or even 3 per hour, to make the whole Stingray weapons system equal (2/hr) or faster (3/hr) than the Avalanche weapons system its operational tempo.

Spike 20:29, 16 October 2012 (EDT)

Just use UFOExtender's "True Cautious Mode" mode with double Stingray Interceptor. Cautious mode will shoot 1 rocket at a time. — Slider2k 15:35, 7 December 2013 (EST)

Old Discussion

By the way I'm tempted to remove the obsolete discussion below as it its conclusions are neatly summarised on the main article - any objections? Spike 13:23, 23 November 2008 (CST)

The archivist in me disagrees, but I'm not the only one here. Arrow Quivershaft 13:14, 24 November 2008 (CST)

Heck, the archivist in me agrees with the archivist in you. :) Spike 17:15, 24 November 2008 (CST)

The article page mentions that the Small Scout will not be placed on the map by XComUtil. Isn't the confusion solved then? Unless there is something else which needs to be worked into the text, the discussion should be removed.--Zombie 17:50, 24 November 2008 (CST)

XComUtil Ate My UFO (Old Discussion)

Brunpal: In the interception window, if a UFO takes 50% or more of its total hull points in damage, it is shot down, leaving a UFO Crash Site which X-COM can raid for goodies. X-COM gets "UFO Grounded" points for such. UFO crash sites tend to contain damaged UFOs. But since there's really no way to damage the Small Scout, the vessel doesn't spawn on the map. If a UFO takes 100% or more of its HP in damage in an interception, you will get the message "UFO Destroyed!" No crash site is spawned, and X-COM gets double the points it would've gotten for simply crash-landing the vessel. The part at the top refers to this discrepancy between crash landing and destruction. Craft Armaments randomly do between 50% and 100% of their damage to a UFO on a successful hit; the Small Scout has 50 HP. So even on a minimum damage(50), an Avalanche missile will blow a Small Scout into shrapnel. Whereas a Stingray, Cannon, or Laser Cannon can possibly crash the Small Scout, but damages it so badly in the process that there's nothing left for X-COM to salvage; just a lone alien to hunt. Arrow Quivershaft 15:45, 17 September 2008 (PDT)

Yes I understood all that previously. (Been playing for years.) It was better explained at the top of the page so the note at the bottom was superfluous as it was written. Plus technically it wasn't correct as is:

• "If the Small Scout was shot down by an Interceptor, there will be no UFO spawned; the craft is destroyed in the crash landing."

1. Reference to Interceptor: Doesn't matter what kind of X-Com craft shoots it down. As written it implies it does matter what craft.

2. Does matter what kind of weapon (vs craft) is used to shoot it down. Which isn't explained in the note, but is explained on the page.

3. "Shot down" is a inaccurate term. It implies a crash, vs "destroyed" which doesn't imply a crash.

4. As written it implied destruction was the only possible result. Highly likely, yes. I was surprised the first time I had one crash on me since I must have blown up dozens upon dozens by that time across many different games and had never had it happen.

5. While I understood what it was trying to say, the entire small note ended up contradicting the body of the page.

As my edit summary explained: "the note was better explained at the top of the page" but I still thought it wise to allay a player's concern that they had never been attacked by that kind of UFO. (A thought that crossed my mind the first time I saw it in game.) --Brunpal 10:53, 18 September 2008 (PDT)

I think I'm unsure what the debate here is now. What I am trying to explain is that if the UFO is shot down by anything("Interceptor" is used across the wiki as a generic term for any X-COM craft that can mount a weapon, though it does correctly refer to the fighter jet) and is NOT destroyed during the interception, the crash site of the UFO will spawn a single alien and no UFO. Is this what you understand me to be saying? Arrow Quivershaft 21:28, 24 September 2008 (PDT)

The only way that I know of to produce a "small scout" map with no actual small scout on it is to use XComUtil (which stops it appearing for who knows what reason). If you shoot one down but fail to destroy it (dual cannons are a good way to do this), you can send in your ground team and collect the craft. It'll be perfectly intact (because it has no power supply to go boom).

Yes, I tested it just this minute with CE. ;) If you have different results, check that your game isn't modded then report back on your version. - Bomb Bloke 03:07, 25 September 2008 (PDT)

I do indeed use XComUtil, with it, the game runs more stably(fewer crashes) and does not completely disrupt my screen resolution if and when it does crash and burn. So that'd be my error; apologies. Arrow Quivershaft 06:50, 25 September 2008 (PDT)

To answer your question AQ, I did not understand that you were saying the crash site of the UFO will spawn a single alien and no UFO. I don't use XComUtil (yet- will after my upgrade) but if a ground mission without a UFO is common behavior in XComUtil, then it's worth mentioning.

I have never seen a mission where there was an alien but no UFO, though I thought I had at the time. There was no UFO a couple of times on a fully explored map, but after reloading the UFO was just hiding behind a building or something each time I thought it didn't exist. I could only see it by using the top down perspective and setting the view to display exteriors of structures only. This UFO is tiny and easy to miss even when you are looking for it. When it's been shot down, it's even smaller. One time the landing gear was the only thing left. That may have happened to you, maybe not, but something to keep in mind.--Brunpal 08:38, 25 September 2008 (PDT)

XcomUtil 9.7 (and probably older)

Using XcomUtil 9.7 I found that it doesn't remove a Small Scout from the Battlescape as it was said in this article. Maybe, there's any flag for it, but I didn't look for it. And I don't remember if XcomUtil ever asked me about the removal during the install and setup. Maybe, this info must be corrected or tested by someone else. --ufo.mesh 09:13, 30 August 2010 (EDT)

Are you using the latest release since Bladefirelight took over development of XComutil? It may have been fixed since the article was written. Just going by my own experience, older versions of XComutil did indeed remove the small scouts from the map. No, it never ever asked for this, it just did it. There are actually a number of other fixes and changes that the older versions did without asking the user.

However, I think the note about XComutil is not necessary for this article and can be removed. It's certainly an XComutil issue, but it's not a part of the game. -NKF 18:31, 30 August 2010 (EDT)

Yes, I'm using the latest Bladefirelight's build (v.9.7 build 442). And during my translations I came across this note and decided to check it out, because I use XcomUtil to fix some bugs. So, very small UFO exists at Battlescape.--ufo.mesh 01:13, 31 August 2010 (EDT)

The reason that note is on the page is because of the above discussion block - people were getting confused as to why the scout wasn't appearing on maps.

Blade's work began with 9.7, and a lot of it centered around making all XcomUtil features truly "optional". Anything prior to that certainly did remove the scout (for who knows what reason). To memory, I think Blade's version might still do it in certain circumstances (certain game versions with certain map settings), but I'm not sure what those are exactly. - Bomb Bloke 22:47, 30 August 2010 (EDT)

The Small Scout tiles cause an MCD overflow problem in hybrid games (mixing UFO and TFTD terrain). -- Zaimoni 23:51, 30 August 2010 (CDT)

I think can check this later. You maybe mean an option with randomizing UFO's floor plans?--ufo.mesh 01:17, 31 August 2010 (EDT)

No; this is playing UFO with TFTD terrain or vice versa. -- Zaimoni 23:00, 31 August 2010 CDT

Of all the UFOs available, it has the smallest set of MCD indexes - how could it cause an overflow when the other craft do not? - Bomb Bloke 02:44, 31 August 2010 (EDT)

I'm slightly fuzzy on that, but that is what the XCOMUtil documentation paraphrases to (it may be a "cumulative tile count" thing). In any case, the removal is completely unnecessary unless attempting a hybrid terrain game, and removing the small scout tile set is enough to prevent the overflow for hybrid terrain games. -- Zaimoni 23:00, 31 August 2010 CDT

UFO-1

It's touched on above, but is UFO-1 always a small scout? It seems to be (every game I start has a small scout at the beginning) but is there a way of proving it? -Ashley Pomeroy 10:44, 23 April 2011 (EDT)

Not always.

You're probably already aware of this, but the craft sizes reported by radar don't explicitly match craft types. "Small Scouts" show up on radar as "Very Small". "Medium Scouts" come in as just "Small". I point this out because I usually seem to get "Small" radar contacts first (which aren't small scouts), though it really is random. -  Bomb Bloke (Talk/Contribs) 22:24, 23 April 2011 (EDT)