Talk:TFTDextender

Questions or Comments

A place to provide feedback or ask questions:

Thanks to Kyrub, Spike, and numerous others who help to troubleshoot problems, provide feedback on releases, and innumerable other activities to help make TFTDextender and the game better! - Tycho

• The zip archive does not seem to include an .ini file. Where do I get the .ini file from?

If the latest release is a patch, meaning there are no new additions to the INI file, only the patcher.dll file will be updated. In this way, those who already have the current release won't have their INI settings overwritten. You will need to download the last full version, extract the files from it, and then extract file from the latest patch. When I first release the Extender and lots of problems were being reported, I was releasing fixes almost on a weekly basis and so I still continue with this idea. Tycho

Bug Reports

Major Bugs

Crash when starting a landed/crashed USO battle

"XCOM crashed at 0x7C82A5CD with error 0xC0000005 trying to access 0xFFE00B30."

It's an already reported bug. What is happening is the Alien Sub is landing on land, and the Triton is also attempting to land on land. Probably the game crashes when it fails to generate the appropriate terrain type? So the GEOSCAPE map/terrain data must be corrupted. I've seen three examples of this. In a couple of cases the landing site is clearly inland, by hundreds of kilometres. In some cases it's right on the sea/land boundary and hard to tell. I have two save games that reproduce the bug now. From memory, the previous cases all happened around North Africa, like these present cases. Spike 08:31, 9 September 2012 (EDT)

Minor Bugs

Stunned Carried Aquanauts MIA on Abort

I'm not sure if this is an original bug or an Extender bug. If you are carrying a stunned Aquanaut in the transport at the time of Abort, the stunned Aquanaut is lost (MIA). You have to drop the stunned Aquanaut on the floor. Probably this is because the position of the Aquanaut has not been updated and is still pointing to where they were stunned, not to the location of the carrying Aquanaut. Spike 04:49, 27 September 2012 (EDT)

This would be an original bug that was hidden beneath the general bug of stunned units MIA on abort. Your right, carried objects won't have their location updated until they are dropped or thrown. At least it is a manageable issue: Just be sure to drop all creatures carried before calling for an abort.- -Tycho 02:51, 11 October 2012 (EDT)

Things that TFTDextender does not fix

Just more or less as a note to the reader, TFTDextender does not fix some of the following things that are sometimes thought of as needing fixing (and this is probably deliberate?):

• Does not fix the apparent swap of the ground map for the VERY SMALL Survey Ship (1 occupant) with the SMALL Escort (half-dozen or more occupants). So you get the VERY SMALL sub occupying about 25 squares of usable area on the Battlescape, and the supposedly larger SMALL sub occupying one square of usable area on the Battlescape, begging the question of how all those aliens got inside there in the first place. XcomUtil will fix this, as will the original patches that XcomUtil incorporates.
• Does not fix the incorrect pictures for the large USO in the interception window.

Both of the above issues have been corrected by Zombie, who swapped the USO map files and changed INTERCEPTION.DAT. You can get these updates from the StrategyCore file section.[1]

• Does not fix the Dart Gun to make it any less utterly useless. Though you can do this yourself via the OBDATA.DAT section of TFTDextender. (Suggestion: don't fix it. The useless Dart Gun is all part of the "oh no we're all gonna die" experience of the beginning of TFTD.)
• Does not improve the armour and effectiveness of the basic Aqua-Jet and Gas Cannon Coelecanths (it does upgrade the Coelecanth/Gauss). (Again, suggestion: this is a good thing - XCOM should start the game hopelessly outclassed, and scramble to catch up).
• Does not allow you to mount weapons on Tritons, or use Barracudas as transport subs. XComUtil can help you cheat in this way.
• Does not allow you to have 360 degree vision out of your sub before exiting it. (What kind of coward would want that?). XComUtil does this.

• When I try to send any Leviathan to T'Leth, I get an immediate crash: "XCOM crashed at 0x458822 with error 0xC0000005 trying to access 0xFA6C8304.".

It happens when the CE version doesn't find the RISE animation: Specifically, it needs ANIMS\RISE.IDX and ANIMS\RISE.VID - If RISE.IDX is missing, it crashes with the error code above, if RISE.VID is missing, it crashes with another error. Some experimenting suggests that RISE.VID can be any valid .VID file, while RISE.IDX can either be empty (producing a black screen that can be skipped by clicking) or the "appropriate" .IDX for the used .VID...AMX 13 November 2012 (EST)

Resolved Reported Problems

Save Equipment not working

With "Save Equipment" option enabled, the soldiers' loadout at first was always like this: grenade in leg slot, clip in backpack - and it didn't change on the next mission, despite the fact that I re-equipped the soldiers correctly (grenades and clips on the belt). When I manufactured Gauss Rifles and issued them to my soldiers, it got even worse - none of the soldiers got clips, and two of the rifles were unloaded. Next I upgraded to Sonic-Blasta Rifles and now nothing, except some grenades (still in leg slots), is issued to the soldiers at all. "Save Equipment" was known to work in UFOExtender, did something get broken? --Player701 09:18, 21 October 2012 (EDT)

Yes. Something is broken but not by the Extender. I haven't modified anything in the save equipment code, except datapoints and offsets that were necessary to match it to the executable and changes in the DAT files. Many subroutines, their order of execution, or the variables were modified in the TFTD game code. Problems resulting from this are difficult to resolve since it requires finding what changed in the game code and then determining what changes are needed to get the UFOextender code to work. I believe that TFTD has its own form of autoequip and part of the solution will probably require that I disable it. Something similar happened to the "stunned units are KIA" mod from UFOextender: TFTD has its own version that conflicted but, since it worked well, I only needed to add code to update the unit's location so the corpse would appear in the right place.-Tycho 22:38, 24 October 2012 (EDT)

I just did a few tests in raw TFTD (Steam CE) and the auto equip function is pretty basic: Give everyone a loaded weapon in what is probably reverse OBDATA.DAT order, then dish out any extra clips, grenades etc. Are you thinking that the Save Equipment efforts of TFTDextender are then being overwritten or partly overwritten by the existing TFTD auto equip function? I guess that would make sense. Spike 11:01, 25 October 2012 (EDT)

Fixed in 1.05p4 - Tycho

Weight Issues or "Weightless" Ammo Bug

while playing TFD with TFD extender (v. 1.05 patch 1.1) I've noticed a stange thing: some soldiers have their weight > 0 (2-5) even when their inventory is empty! Bug?... PavelB 05:17, 27 September 2012 (EDT)

If you drop a loaded weapon, even if you loaded it manually, the weight of the ammo still stays with the Aquanaut. Workaround: unload each weapon manually before dropping it. If you forget (and if you notice) it's possible to pick the weapon up again, unload it, and correctly lose the weight by dropping the weapon and clip separately. It's possible to build up huge amounts of phantom weight on a Soldier by repeatedly loading, and then dropping, different weapons. It's also possible to move lots of weapons with weightless clips to one Soldier, increasing the amount of 'free' weight that one Soldier gets. Both of these effects are probably aspects of the original bug, not anything that UFOExtender has done. Spike 11:15, 27 September 2012 (EDT)

This Weight error is a side effect of an original game error that Seb never quite fixed. Removing clips from a Soldier or Aquanaut does not remove the clips' weight. This is because the clips are not correctly assigned to the Soldier or Aquanaut in the first place. See Talk:TFTDextender#Weightless Ammo Bug.

Do you think you could fix this bug? Known_Bugs#Equip_Phase_Ammo_Load_Error. Seb76 had a look at it, and diagnosed the cause, but he did not get around to fixing it. It's only mildly annoying and, some probably consider it to be useful as a very minor exploit. For me, it just really bugs me! (No pun intended). Spike 22:55, 6 September 2012 (EDT)

I found the source of the problems: None of the subroutines for inventory consider the clips in weapons so their entries in OBPOS.DAT are never updated. So when clips are autoloaded at the beginning of each battle, they have no owner. I've got the code to sync the ownership of clips with the weapon they are loaded into at the beginning of each battle and to update the clips when weapons are changed in inventory management.-Tycho 19:00, 19 October 2012 (EDT)

All fixed in 1.05p4 - Tycho

Items on transport floor lost on Abort

I went in to a mission with ten Sonic Cannons and came back with 3, despite retrieving them from the battlefield and dumping them on the transport floor. I only had 3 aquanauts on the transport armed with Sonic Cannon at the time of abort. The rest were stunned or unarmed. I also dumped half a dozen corpses and some alien items on the transport floor and I don't think those made it back to my base either. The transport was operating from base 2 rather than base 1, in case that's a factor. This may be an original bug of course. I just read through the multiplayer TFTD LP on StrategyCore, and they reported missing equipment on a lot of missions. I can go back and check if the missing equipment was on abort missions rather than victory missions. Sorry not to provide more specifics at this time but it was a hard mission and not exactly a controlled experiment. ;) Spike 21:35, 23 October 2012 (EDT)

Fixed in 1.05p4 - Tycho

Coelacanth/Gauss mutates into Coelacanth/G.C.

In my current game (using the Steam version) I observed it twice that, when a Coelacanth/Gauss is removed from a sub due to lack of ammo, it turns into a Coelacanth/Gas Cannon. Note that I'm using only the Gauss Tank Ammo Fix, but not the Gauss Tank Turret Stats Fix, nor the Improved Gauss Tank mod. AMX 09:09, 1 November 2012 (EDT)

Fixed in 1.05p4 - Tycho

Cannot build Leviathan

Hi Tycho. I've just researched Leviathan in my TFDExtender game but cannot manufacture it! I have enough resources (Plastics, IBA, ManNav), 3 workshops, more than 100 technicans and one empty sub pen. But when starting the Leviathan manufacture task I cannot assign any technicans to it. I press the "up" button, and there are no reaction to this. I can build Manta, but not Leviathan. Don't you know what is it? PavelB 06:55, 2 October 2012 (EDT)

I was able to replicate Pavel's problem and found the problem: the Leviathan is the only item that its tech hours exceed 0x8000. If you use the wrong command to pass the value between registers, the program handles the value as though it were negative. - Tycho

The problem is fixed with patch 3.2. Confirmed by an independent source.

Executable directive

I found the problem: In the program file for the loader, the INI file name that is was expecting was TFTDloader.INI. A simple name change, recompile, and it works as it should. This will be available in the next full release-Tycho 10:24, 4 October 2012 (EDT)

Extra Artefacts Reported

After some tests, I know the exact nature of the problem: clips loaded into weapons for any killed aliens (including those killed before mission starts as a result of a downed USO) are being allocated to the player when they abort a mission. This is not a bug from Extender this is in the original CE.-Tycho 20:27, 5 October 2012 (EDT)

Fixed in the patch 3.1-Tycho

Confirmed fixed. Killed aliens' clips are not allocated to XCOM on Abort. Spike 15:36, 19 October 2012 (EDT)

Manufacturing Projects Minimum Production

In the unmodified game, if you have a manufacturing project underway, you can't reduce the quantity below the level that have been built or are in production now (the number that have been built, plus 1). With the autosell and autobuild features turned on, you need to be able to cursor down below zero, so the quantity cursor no longer stops when you reduce to this minimum. This may have some unintended effects, like changing a manufacturing project to produce less units than it has already reduced. On the other hand there may be no impact at all other than losing the built-in stop on the quantity cursor that reminds you how many units of that type you have already built or started to build. Spike 22:06, 21 September 2012 (EDT)

It would be interesting to experiment to see what the effects of doing this are, if any: What happens if you reduce the number desired for an item below what has already been produced? What happens if you create an order for a set number of items and later change it to auto-produce? Tycho

OK I will take a look at this and report back. Unless some bugs/glitches are being introduced, the only loss of existing functionality is that you can currently use the down arrow keys in the unmodified version to in effect say "stop production after completion of the next unit", which avoids the wasted cost and effort of hitting the Stop Production button. Spike 04:45, 25 September 2012 (EDT)

Tested - If I reduce the production quantity of a current production run to less than what as already been produced, the display completion time changes (incorrectly) to 'Indefinite', but production ends after completion of the next unit. So if I start by producing 10 units, wait until I have produced 2, then reduce the quantity to 2 (or probably 1), production stops after 3 units. Thies basically replicates the pre-existing behaviour when using the down arrow on the Quantity, so there has been no loss of functionality with your Mod. Also, Autosell and Autoproduce work normally when applied as changes to an existing production run. The only thing is I can't distinguish them on the Manufacturing display - both say 'unlimited' quantity and 'indefinite' period - is that intended? I suppose it makes sense, but it would be good to be able to tell which kind of production it is, *** Autoproduce or $$$ Autosell. Spike 08:57, 2 October 2012 (EDT)

Autosell should report 'unlimited $' like the pic on the information page. I could change this to '$unlimited$' - Tycho

I think that extra '$' would be helpful. Also, maybe when production is reduced to equal-to or below the already-completed quantity, could you change the quantity display to 'halting' instead of 'indefinite'? Spike 09:46, 5 October 2012 (EDT)

Changed the output to display "$unlimited$".Tycho

Stunned MC'd Aquanauts MIA on Abort

This is a subset of MC'd Aquanauts go MIA Known_Bugs#Mind_Controlled_Soldiers_go_MIA. In this case Aquanauts are MC'd by the aliens, then stunned (by friendlies), then the mission is Aborted with the stunned X-Com Aquanauts aboard the transport. The Aquanauts then disappear from the roster forever. I'm not sure if it's due to Abort rather than Victory, or due to them being stunned first. This would also apply to UFO Extender. Spike 22:06, 21 September 2012 (EDT)

I now have the code in place to uncontrol any creature that has been rendered unconscious. Available in patch 3.1- -Tycho

Crewed Flying Sub Lost on Abort

Aborting this mission will lead to loss of the craft, despite 3 soldiers still being in the Triton. --Player701 10:39, 21 October 2012 (EDT)

I found the nature of the issue here: This only will happen with a tank present. On one hand, all parts of the tank are being counted separately but then the End of Battle routine calculates the number of units correctly (ignores three of the sections of a tank) but when it goes to locate the units on the battlefield, the three other parts of the tank are being counted and thus the last three aquanauts are not checked since the 4 areas of the tank are first in the UNITPOS.DAT file.-Tycho 09:47, 24 October 2012 (EDT)

Fixed in 105 patch 4.-Tycho

Grenade Resistance in INI file

I removed the reference in the INI since it's unnecessary.-Tycho

Materials deducted from wrong base

I reproduced the issue thanks to the instructions that Spike provided and I found the problem. A few minor tweaks and now things are working as they should. - Tycho 08:33, 17 October 2012 (EDT)

I can confirm this is fixed and all is working correctly - great job, thanks Tycho. Spike 15:22, 19 October 2012 (EDT)

OBDATA / Dye Grenade mod not working?

OK. I was right. Enemy Unknown only loads the OBDATA once when the game loads. TFTD loads it twice - once whenever it generates a battle. I needed a second hook for the mod in this case. I tested it and it now works as it should. -Tycho 20:24, 5 October 2012 (EDT)

Confirmed fixed. Thanks again. Spike 15:36, 19 October 2012 (EDT)

Displacer/Sonic damage fix

I changed the damage to be 125, similar to the ratio of tank/plasma to heavy plasma in EU.-Tycho 03:52, 13 October 2012 (EDT)

Weight Display in Inventory not Localised

At least when I run the game in German, it comes up as "Weight" and not something like "Gewicht". Reactions comes up ok as "Zeitwerte". Spike 09:47, 9 September 2012 (EDT)

Added ability for users to added their own language by copying lines from Extender's page under the equipment section to the same section in their INI, alter the text as specified, and save the INI.' Tycho

Feature Requests and Suggestions

Useful alien species research

Tycho, I really like this idea you proposed in the StrategyCore forum:

I'm thinking about giving a hp bonus to all aliens until Xcom performs an autopsy on the species to learn the location of their vital organs (like in the movie "Battle of LA"). This would give more importance to performing autopsies rather than just as a stepping stone to new tech.

Definite +1. It would be equally valid to add to UFO Extender. I suppose it could also be implemented using Vulnerabilities (no Vulnerabilities are in effect until the Autopsy is completed), or Resistances (across-the-board increased Resistances until Autopsy is completed). If that's easier.

The bonus to hp was an initial thought. Later, I decided against it since it would make aliens more resistant to HE and stun, which don't rely on hitting the right locations. Increasing resistances would be the most appropriate but the damage routine code is very tight and adding anything new that won't break the existing variable stack pointers is tough. Tycho

A new idea for this that I recently have been toying with, would be on the damage generation routine: Most direct fire damage is 0-200 50-150%, with anything over 100% considered a "critical hit". If autopsy hasn't been preformed, then the base damage would be 0-100% and a small chance (maybe 25%) of another 0-50% for that lucky shot. With autopsy done, the game reverts back to the usual 0-200% on any hit.

That works. And it makes doing Alien Autopsies a no-brainer, as it should be. It is pretty much inconceivable that XCom wouldn't prioritise the autopsy of any newly encountered alien. And any player playing the game for the first time would do autopsies too. This mod will help experienced players to stop playing as if they've "seen it all before". Spike 10:35, 15 September 2012 (EDT)

Would it also be worth adding some kind of bonus for Live Alien research? Maybe the negation of some kind of Morale penalty and/or Psi penalty? Fear of the unknown, know your enemy, that kind of thing?

I thought about that but the game doesn't record live aliens that have been researched. When you finish research on a live alien, it only follows the routine to unlock the appropriate UFOpaedia articles and then checks to see if the finished research can unlock other topics. Tycho

I had a further thought on this while trying to guess what your new pre-requisites are for the various armours. For now it's really cool to be guessing but once people have figured it out, well, it will be more logical but still will have 'replay fatigue'. Would it be possible to randomise the pre-requisites for a lot of the key research topics, from out of a plausible list of items (or even randomise pre-requisite topics)? That would make every game fresh in terms of the research sequence, and make the research aspect of the game more challenging and less dry & predictable. As ever, just a suggestion. :) Cheers, Spike 16:01, 19 October 2012 (EDT)

All Units Can "Fly" In Water

It's very illogical that most units are stuck on the seabed in underwater missions. Please provide the option to set all units (X-Com and alien) to have "flying" (i.e. swimming) ability when underwater. This is unlikely to cause an outbreak of 3D combat, since there is no cover except at seabed level, so anyone swimming excessively or incautiously is going to get shot. It might disadvantage the aliens if their tactical map waypoints are all set on the surface. But as some of them can "fly", there is hopefully a mechanism to deal with that in the code already. For me it will just solve the frustration of being unable to swim over small obstacles or swim up a level, and being stuck or tactically limited for no sensible reason. Mag-Ion Armour remains useful as an important step in Sub Research and (if using the Everything Works on Land mod) for land use. Spike 11:36, 9 September 2012 (EDT)

This requires setting UNITREF.DAT byte 0x78 bit 2 for the unit (e.g. for all units on both sides). Or the in-memory equivalent of UNITREF.DAT. Spike 10:19, 5 October 2012 (EDT)

Aliens Pick Up Weapons

Related to Improved Alien AI. This makes the game tougher as stunned / panicked bipedal-type aliens are no longer permanently disarmed. This now seems to be possible due to research by Volutar. See Talk:OBDATA.DAT#Field_0x2D. A fix for this would be a very helpful rebalancing of both games that eliminates one of the aliens' weak spots. The existing (but unused) routine looks pretty smart and not immediately exploitable to ambush aliens using weapons as traps.

I noticed the UFO Extender source code has a 'get' keyword under the OBDATA.DAT directive that populates this field 0x2D. Is that working? Spike 21:03, 16 October 2012 (EDT)

It should be. I haven't tested it out but it should work like any other OBDATA change, in theory. As long as the code in the AI routine handles this byte, it should work. I believe someone mentioned under the Geoscape.exe page that the AI routine ignores any value under 5.-Tycho 00:58, 25 October 2012 (EDT)

General Tank Modding

I see you are interested in modding tanks (HWPs/SWPs) and that's partly what got you into updating UFO Extender. I made some suggestions for Tank Modding myself, including some of the mechanics required to make it work via a config file such as the UFO / TFD Extender config file. For example you could have cargo carrier / ambulance / casevac tanks, you could have demolition tanks, mine thrower tanks, and of course tanks with custom weapons including dual weapons. Could you have a look here: User:Spike#Tank_mods and see if any of that makes you feel like getting creative?

Thanks, Spike 10:46, 3 September 2012 (EDT)

Use Melee Attacks and Psi/MC on Mind Controlled Aliens

Hook the right and left weapon menus on mind controlled aliens to add in actions for their built in melee attacks (if they have them) and built in Psi/MC attacks (if they have Psi/MC Skill). Ideally add these actions to the menu, and pop up a menu, even if the alien isn't holding any weapons.

This would make playing Multiplayer XCOM (via XComUtil) way, way nicer.

Fix Interception and Navigation Course Algorithms

Or just find the algorithms and I volunteer to fix them!

Use Great Circle Routes

Travel toward the target on the shortest Great Circle, rather than always travelling along lines of latitude first (like they are some kind of main bus route!).

Use Predictive Interception

For a moving target, don't head towards where it is now, head towards where it's going to be when you get there.

Show Degree Headings

The game only ever reports alien headings as North, South, East, West, but clearly alien craft move in other directions than just these four, and clearly XCOM detection equipment is capable of resolving these finer-grained headings, since the crafts' tracks are shown correctly in the Geoscope. As a first step towards predictive interceptions, it would be great to display the alien craft's heading in degrees, eg 135 degrees for South-East. Maybe rounded to the nearest 5 or 10 degrees.

Interception Craft vs Touched Down Alien Craft

If an alien craft is touched down and an XCOM interception craft (not touched down) is at the same X/Y position, if the alien craft begins to move, immediately open the Interception window at minimum range (8km/nm), presumably with the alien attempting to get away / break off. Currently the Interception window only happens if the XCom craft is faster, which is dumb, even if the alien craft could accelerate instantly to its maximum speed.

For TFTD, only open the window if the alien craft is touched down at a depth that the XCOM craft can reach.

Fun, not Funky, Fire

An alternative option for incendiaries/phosphorous damage processing: Do process the so called 'impact' damage of an incendiary on every shot, not just at the end of the turn. But only apply it to those in the area of affect of this specific shell burst, not to all units who are standing in smoke or fire anywhere on the map. This will please fans of incendiaries/phosphorous. It's probably a balancing, rather than unbalancing, change in the relative strengths of the ammo types. Makes incendiaries/phosphorous useful for more than just illumination or desperation. Gives some use to the research topics that advise use of incendiaries/phosphorous, and the damage modifiers aliens have been assigned.

Retaliate for Colony Assault

See this discussion Talk:Alien_Retaliation#Retaliation_Triggers. Colony raids are a good way for the alien to lose badly, so it would be a good balancing move to create severe consequences for raiding. It is at least as sensible as retaliation for USO Assaults.

TFTDextender and XComUtil

I suggest adding a section on co-operating with XComUtil. As for now the article informs that the the exe split as done by XComUtil is incorrect, and there is a cure for this problem (btw., why not to correct XComUtil itself?). But this is not the only problem. XComUtil installer can detect UFOextender - but has no procedures for TFTDextender at all. You may suppose that installing both is possible this way: 1. copy TFTDextender files into the folder where TFTD CE is installed, 2. install XComUtil to that copy of the game, 3. copy BB's Toolkit into the game folder and correct the exe split, 4. rename TFTDextender.exe into UFOloader.exe (and .ini as well?), 5. copy sebLoader.xcf from an existing instalation of XComUtil for UFO:EU CE + UFOextender. Perhaps it will work. Has such a combination ever been tested to work properly?

And why it should be so complicated? Is it possible to make needed changes in XComUtil? But it has support for UFOextender - why not for TFTDextender?

Trojan Horse?

AVG Anti-Virus reports that TFTDExtender.exe contains a Trojan Horse (Generic30.MKG). Could you fix this somehow?

Sherlock 05:21, 14 January 2013 (EST)

Another patch to the research tree

Thanks to TFTDextender, Coelacanth/Gauss is no more dependent on the alien-based sub technology, and this is fully correct, bravo! I would like to call your attention to another strange research tree dependency. I mean you can start with working on Bombardment Shield only after finishing with The Latest Flying Sub. It makes the shield completely useless. Namely: it is not enough to finish with New Fighter Transporter, next you must examine Lobster Man Commander. Assuming that you have already investigated The Ultimate Threat, when you finish with that beast, you will get two new topics: T'leth the Alien's City, and The Latest Flying Sub. Let's assume you will investigate the sub first. When finished, you may start constructing Leviathan. In the same time you can work on T'leth. In practice, when Leviathan is ready, you will also finish with T'leth. In this very moment you can float to T'leth and finish the game, even not having started the Bombardment Shield topic. So, where is the use of Bombardment Shield?

But assume that despite of all you very much want to see how it looks and how it works. So, OK, after having investigated Leviathan, you can start the Bombardment Shield topic. In the same time you can construct the sub. It is very likely that you will have Leviathan at your disposal when you finish with investigating Bombardment Shield. Now you can start investigating T'leth, and constructing the facility. But this is a little problem - the constructing of Bombardment Shield needs 38 days! It means that even in this scenario you will be ready to go to T'leth before you have even constructed the facility! And if you really wanted to see how it works, you would have to wait a month or even longer, until a hostile sub appears at your gates. What for should you wait if you are ready to go to the heart of the aliens' empire, and finish with them? Such a game when there is no more to investigate is just boring.

Hence my proposal to make Bombardment Shield to be similar to Grav Shield in UFO:EU. If the topic depended on New Fighter Transporter as a prerequisite instead of The Latest Flying Sub, you would have some use of this facility. It could be ready to work even before having any Leviathan constructed. And you would have a chance to see it working.

My personal opinion is that the dependency of Bombardment Shield on The Latest Flying Sub is another mistake of TFTD programmers. So, it is a bug, and such a change of the research tree would not be a mod but a patch rather.

Sherlock 05:56, 14 January 2013 (EST)

A proposal for another alternate research tree

Alien technology is based on Zrbite and Aqua Plastics. When you investigate a product of alien technology, you will be able to reproduce it in your workshops. How is it possible without having an idea on materials of which they are constructed?

Both UFO:EU and TFTD research trees basically ignore the need of knowledge on alien materials. It is quite logical as long as you just use alien weapon - but it becomes really strange when you produce the weapon. How to work with a material when you do not know its features?

My first question - would be possible to separate of using an object and reproducing it? If yes, it is all right to obtain e.g. a sonic pulser, next to examine it, and when finished, to use it. But not to produce it, until you learn on zrbite. The basic idea is that only after finishing your zrbite investigation, you should have possibility to construct your own sonic pulsers.

The first possibility is that it could be done by a very simple metod. When you get a crystal of zrbite or a sample of aqua plastics, it could be just artefacts unless you have them investigated. Then you will be able to use e.g. sonic weapons (after having them investigated) - but as you would not see zrbite and aqua plastics as such, you would not make any use of them, including making sonic weapons by your own.

The other idea is that nothing can be understood if we have not obtained knowledge on alien materials which are needed to produce the investigated object. It means to make them real prerequisites for investigations. Now Disruptor Ammo needs Zrbite for producing, and it needs the Zrbite topic finished as its prerequisite as well. I mean to make Zrbite a prerequisite also for all three clips for sonic weapons, Thermal Shok Bomb, Sonic Pulser, Vibro Blade (and both thermic lances), Ion-Beam Accelerators, Ion Armour (and Magnetic IA), M.C. Reader (and M.C. Disruptor) - as they all need Zrbite when produced. And also to make Aqua Plastics a prerequisite for all three sonic weapons, Thermal Shok Launcher, Disruptor Pulse Launcher (and P.W.T. Cannon), Ion-Beam Accelerators, Magnetic Navigation, M.C. Reader (and M.C. Disruptor) - as they all need Aqua Plastics when produced.

I have tested such a modification of the research tree just by stopping any investigations of objects from the two lists above until Zrbite and (Deep One Corpse +) Aqua Plastics topics are finished. In my opinion it does not unbalance the game except it gives another argument for using Gauss technology first than sonic. Namely, under this condition it is enough to finish just three topics: Gauss Technology, Gauss Pistol and Gauss Pistol Clip, in order to have a little more effective weapon at one's disposal. But if you want to use sonic instead, you must obtain a dead Deep One on a mission, plus some samples of Zrbite (and Aqua Plastics - in fact there is not such a condition), and you need to have researched five topics altogether: Deep One Corpse, Aqua Plastics, Sonic Pistol, Zrbite, Pistol Power Clip.

It would be a modification of the game as nothing similar is implemented in either UFO:EU or TFTD (except the need of knowing Zrbite in order to start investigation of Disruptor Ammo).

Sherlock 07:16, 14 January 2013 (EST)

The research tree - Yet another bug?

Now you do not have to have some objects in your stores in order to examine (?) it. It looks like your engineers are so genius that they can guess how those objects look like, not even having a single look on them. Your invented copy appears to be just like the genuine alien object. Is this scenario logical at all? I think it is not, and it is just another bug which should be removed. The only problem (?) is, however, that this bug (?) makes the game easier. So, patching it would make the game harder.

Namely, I think that 4 objects: Aqua Plastics, Vibro Blade, Thermic Lance and Heavy Thermic Lance should be present in stores to start examination on them, naturally when other conditions are fulfilled. So, for example, you will still have to examine Deep One Corpse, but it will not give you a way to inventing Aqua Plastics. First you will have to get them, and keep them in your stores. And only them, after finishing Deep One Corpse, you will be able to start examining (not: inventing!) Aqua Plastics.

And the same with the finished Calcinite Corpse topic and a stored Vibro Blade, the finished Vibro Blade and Gill Man Corpse topics and a stored Thermic Lance, and also the finished Thermic Lance topic and a stored Heavy Thermic lance.

Sherlock 07:27, 14 January 2013 (EST)

The Calcinite Dilemma

The need of researching both Deep One Corpse and a live Deep One has been named the Deep One Dilemma. Personally, I cannot see a problem in there, and I really cannot understand the other players. I have played TFTD many times, and I have never any least problems with obtaining both corpse and a live specimen of this creature. In a result, I do not understand why it can harm anyone. But you can buy Thermal Tazers at the very beginning of your campaign. They are cheap and easy to use. Deep Ones always appear several times in early missions. They are not too dangerous, and you can enough safely freeze one. And even more, if you use human weapons like darts, you have a high chance to get one live without any freezing.

So, what is the source of this dilemma? You know you need this creature. You have enough numerous possibilities to hunt for it. You have weapons which are suitable for this. So, where is the problem? If you do not want to capture a Deep One, and you prefer just shooting and kill'em'all-ing instead of playing, do not complain then that you have no progress in your research. Just keep shooting... I do not believe that killing aliens is the only objective of the game. It is OK that there is a possibility to eliminate the need of Deep One to research Ion Armour - but it is nothing but a cheat. I do not like it, and I will not use it. Just like adding money or making my aquanauts superhumans.

But Calcinites and the need of the body of the creature for starting with examinating melee weapons is a completely different problem. As I said, I have played the game many times. And I have never spotted a single calcinite during first months of the game, and telling the truth, I have whole campaignes without any single creature of this kind. I believe there is an error in the game which prevents from appearing aquatoids on terror missions.

And hence my question: is it possible for TFTDextender to control which alien race starts an alien mission in the game? It would be the solution of the calcinite problem I would like much. Instead of manipulating with the research tree, it would be enough to forse some mission types from the same beginning. If aquatoid + calcinite missions, as well as gill men + deep ones mission were still present during all the game, nobody could also complain that he/she cannot capture a live deep one. And it would give a better chance for getting melee weapons earlier (without hacking, cheating and changing the research tree).

Sherlock 07:50, 14 January 2013 (EST)

And yet another reason for forcing some alien mission types

In TFTD some terror races are seen mainly or exclusively on lands while other under the sea. Let's assume a Battleship is heading to an island, a port, or a human ship, in order to start a terror. Save the game, and shoot it down (if you can...). Go to a mission. And what will you see? If it was a aquatoid mission (very rarely!), you will fight with Hallucinoids. If it were Gill Men aboard, you will have unpleasurement with Xarquids (btw. does it mean Xark = Shark + Squid?). Break your game, and load it from the save. Let the sub land, and go for the terror mission. Now you will see Calcinites with Aquatoids, or Deep Ones with Gill Men.

How is it possible? The same sub, the same alien squad. And different results! It would be pretty easy to understand if there were not aquatic creatures on land missions: they were aboard on the Battleship but they did not get off. The sub floated back with them, leaving the main race and their land pets on the land, terrorizing people. But if it was so, you should spot both land and aquatic races when having the sub shot down. And it would be really great if it was so.

In UFO:EU mutons are associated with silacoids and celatids in the same time. When you spot one terror race, there is a very big chance to spot the other as well. In TFTD things go otherwise. Both Bio-Drones and Triscenes are associated with Tasoths on land missions, but they probably never happen side-by-side. Contrary to Mutons, Tasoths have either Bio-Drones or Triscenes, never both on the same mission.

Both games have the same engine, so it should not be a problem to force it to generate more various alien squads. First, I mean both Bio-Drones and Triscenes together on the same terror mission with their masters - Tasoths. Telling the truth, I have seen Triscenes once, maybe twice, in all my TFTD campaignes. Tasoths rarely make land missions, so to see a Triscene is like to see a USO in the real world. It seems it really needs a correction, and TFTDextender would be an appropriate candidate for it. So, my first proposal is to change Tasoths + Bio-Drones and Tasoth + Triscenes missions into Tasoth + Bio-Drones + Triscenes missions (by analogy to Mutons + Celatids + Silacoids in UFO: EU).

And another proposal. In order to make the game fiction a little more plausible, I think all races should appear in underwater missions. There are several arguments for that. The first is discussed above. If a landed sub provides e.g. Aquatoids + Calcinites on a terror mission, they should also be present in the sub when it has been shot. So, I would see:

1. Aquatoids + Calcinites + Hallucinoids,
2. Gill Men + Deep Ones + Xarquids,
3. Lobster Men + Bio-Drones + Tentaculats,
4. Tasoths + Bio-Drones + Triscenes (see above) + Tentaculats

on undersea missions, at least when a battleship is downed (a terror mission is cancelled by XCom).

The other argument is to make some alien races available throughout the whole campaign (for those who forget to capture such or another creature). Note that UFO: EU does not have such stupid limitations like disappearing some races during the game. Managing alien mission types, as well as the content of the alien squad on the mission, would be a great solution of this problem.

Yet another argument is that some races do not like to make terror missions at all. If any alien creature could be spotted under the sea, it would eliminate the problem of meeting some types (like Calcinites, and especially Triscenes).

The game does not prevent land races on underwater missions completely. Namely, sometimes Deep Ones are seen under the sea (probably only with a mixed crew missions). So, there is not a base objection to place land terror races under water.

And the final argument. The main alien races are undersea creatures. They do not like land, except terror missions (and Xcom bases assaults). So, ALL their pets (= terror races) should be able to live under water as well. Can you imagine a thinking fish who looks after a cat as his/her pet?

And this is not all. Tentaculats and Xarquids do not look like able to live on the land, and during first missions they are not spotted on the land indeed. Unfortunately, the game does not prevent them from being seen on land mission completely. Namely, in further stages of the campaign, so called Mixed Crews appears. In fact they are Tasoths (1st type) or Lobster Men (2nd type) plus Aquatoids missions, with their own pets, with Gill Men pets instead of Aquatoids pets possible as well (hence Tasoths + Aquatoids + Triscenes + Calcinites is a possible (?) terror mission, as well as Tasoths + Aquatoids + Triscenes + Deep Ones should be possible).

Unfortunately, in the real game, Xarquids can accompany Tasoths and Aquatoids mixed crew on the land. It looks like a game error when these undersea creatures levitate in a port, really. Or in an XCom base. I think Xarquids, as obviously sea creatures, should be eliminated from all land missions, and replaced by Deep Ones.

And for a similar unknown reason Tentaculats somehow appear sometimes in Xcom bases during an alien mixed crew assault. It is so rare phenomenon that removing this possibility would do severe unbalancing to the game, I think.

So, my requests are 1) to place both Bio-Drones and Triscenes in Tasoth missions, 2) to place all land races (Calcinites, Deep Ones, Bio-Drones, and Triscenes) on underwater missions, together with underwater races, 3) to eliminate underwater races (Xarquids and Tentaculats) from any land missions (Hallucinoids are eliminated now, so they are OK in this point).

Sherlock 08:55, 14 January 2013 (EST)