Talk:Starting Stats

In response to this quote on the article page:

"Given the theoretical maximum screening rate of 1,000 soldiers per month (only 100 fit in the transfer queue at a time, they take 3 days to show up, so only 10 batches of 100 per month)"...

Because SOLDIER.DAT has a fixed file size of 250 records, only this quantity of soldiers is possible to screen in a given month. Therefore, you would come across the ultimate soldier every 260,645,182.875 months or 21,720,431.9063 years. Big difference, eh? --Zombie 16:18, 28 April 2008 (PDT)

Soldiers don't get pulled out of SOLDIER.DAT if they're sacked before the end of the month? Arrow Quivershaft 17:56, 28 April 2008 (PDT)

They become overwritable, yes. However, psi-screening only happens at the end of the month; only 250 soldiers per month can be screened for Psi Strength. --Zaimoni 21:50, 28 April 2008 (CDT)

Point taken. Unless you're looking at right at the file to get your data, at which case Psi Screening takes no extra time. ;P Arrow Quivershaft 19:53, 28 April 2008 (PDT)

My bad, while reading a little closer in the article, it didn't include Psi-screening. Ok, taking everything into account (that includes all the stats plus melee, TA and psi skill which MTR didn't think was important), a maxed out soldier would happen once out of 1,563,771,009,497.4 months. That's 78,188,550,474.87 years (or over 78 billion years). --Zombie 20:57, 28 April 2008 (PDT)

How's it going, everyone? For the record, don't forget that soldiers actually have to be present at the start of the month to do psi training. Which in theory means 250 every two months (twice as long) because you'd have to be recruited during the previous month to be there then. That said (and I can't remember if I thought of this at the time, but)...

If we were really screening our guys, you would do it in batches of 100 as described and then, if any of these soldiers were max in what you could immediately see (incredibly rare), you would then put those guys into psi training next month, with room to spare. The transfer queue only holds 100 at a time, which leaves room for 150 more soldiers to train.

As a result, the math stays almost the same. This new way of looking at psi strength would only have the effect of adding an average of 1.5 months to whatever other total was derived. That's because you would only add in the final month of training for the last soldier (the one that was found to have 100 psi strength), plus the 1-29 days or so that he arrived in the previous month. (So, it only adds an average of 1.5 months.) Because all the other guys that were max on other stats (and then got psi tested) would be tested in parallel with the batches of 100 that keep coming. Therefore, the time needed is not really changed. Psi strength still just adds the 101 multiplication term it otherwise already did in my calculation. (Because you will have to go through 101 of them to find one of 100 psi strength, on average, after you find guys that are max in stats immediately visible.)

As for the other stats (melee, throwing, and psi skill), that's perfectly fine to include if you want; just a matter of preference. Which would definitely increase the numbers if you did, as you say. I think it's really debatable if you'd want to include melee, but these are only parlor games anyway. In any event, I was merely tossing off an idle aside that no one had considered before; it's how I framed it at the moment. I wonder if anyone would've ever considered any of it, if I hadn't. How many people do you know that go around tossing off overly convoluted analyses for no good reason? lol

Hey, it's great to see you guys! I am writing up some stuff on my own site about my work on XCOM and other games (which led me here). I'll give a link on my User page when done.

-MikeTheRed (talk) 23:46, 15 January 2017 (UTC)