Talk:TFTDextender

Questions or Comments

A place to provide feedback or ask questions:

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

Oh hang on. It looks like the latest version of the zip file does not include the .ini file. When I go back to the previous version of the zip file, I can see the .ini file. Spike 17:45, 6 September 2012 (EDT)

The latest release is a patch, which means there are no new additions to the INI. I don't include it in patches usually so that those who already have the prior release don't have to reconfigure their current INI. It may not seem like a big deal now but earlier, I was releasing fixes almost on a weekly basis and so I still continue with that idea.Tycho

Bug Reports

Crash when starting a landed/crashed USO battle

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

Interesting. I had someone report a similar thing when they were starting their first instance of the battlescape on a new install of the game. I looked into it and the game generated some bad data. When he let the UFO take off and land again, the battle started with no problems..

It's a bug I've reported before (before TFTD Extender even existed), so it's not specific to TFTDExtender / UFOExtender. 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)

I think the problem is that there is no database to reference what type of terrain to load. EU would reference this based on map coordinates. Since USO aren't usually engaged over land, the map generator can't get an appropriate tileset for the location in these cases.-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)

Double check that you have sufficient cash to start the project, iirc $600K or so. That matches this symptom. Also that you have enough workshop space available (Leviathan needs a lot of space). Failing that, cancel all existing manufacturing projects, then retry. Failing that you could try reducing Technicians below 100 but that's taking us into Bug territory. Spike 07:17, 2 October 2012 (EDT)

Resources are 100% enough. I've launched "Terror from the Deep.exe", loaded this saved game and started manufacturing Lev without any problems. I've saved this variant with Lev being manufactured and then loaded it from "TFTDextender.exe". As a result the process was okey, but I could only decrease the number of technicans working on it, not increase (even after decreasing!). That is: with 64 technicans had been assigned, I've pressed the "down" button, and the number changed to 63. But then I was unable to revert it to 64 by pressing "up" button: it didn't work! PavelB 07:57, 2 October 2012 (EDT)

I'll check into it. Although, I can't understand how changes to the research tree would affect production. Unless it has something to do with the autoproduce feature?

This problem may be fixed with the same patch that fixed the production materials being deducted from the wrong base. Can anyone confirm?- - Tycho 23:12, 17 October 2012 (EDT)

If I try to replicate PavelB's situation, I am able to build a Leviathan with no problems using the latest build. However I am also able to build a Leviathan using the 1.05p1.1 build. So I'm not able to replicate his original problem unfortunately. Spike 19:18, 19 October 2012 (EDT)

Minor Bugs

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)

From what I understand right now, I am pretty sure I can arrange it so that weapons are not automatically loaded and soldiers would be given an extra clip. Feedback?

By an extra clip, you mean the clip/ammo that would have been loaded into the weapon is instead carried by the soldier? And for carried clips, the encumbrance effects are correct. For me anyway, in order of most benefit, the options would be

1. Fix the root cause of the bug (ensure all relevant object locations and "contains/contained in" pointers are set during automatic clip loading) so that automatically loaded clips correctly affect encumbrance
2. As a workaround, don't load ammo for multi-ammotype weapons (Heavy Cannon/Gas Cannon, Auto-Cannon/Hydrojet Cannon, Rocket Launcher / Torpedo Launcher). These are the weapons for which the bug has the greatest impact, since it imposes a 'cost' of switching away from the automatically-loaded ammo (usually AP or Small Rocket/Torp). With single-ammotype weapons, there's never any need to change the clips before combat.
3. As a workaround, don't load ammo for any weapons. This avoids the 'switching cost' issue but does impose a fairly significant logistics overhead on each combat, to go through and manually load all clips. Plus the risk that you forget to load a weapon and only find out at a critical moment. :) This is for the "purist" who wants to make the game harder.

If it's tricky to fix the root cause, any of the other two options would be helpful. Suggested text:

• [Multi Ammo Weapons Start Unloaded] - Workaround for the Weightless Ammo Bug. Weapons using multiple ammo types (Heavy Cannon, Auto-Cannon, Rocket Launcher / Gas Cannon, Hydrojet Cannon, Torpedo Launcher) will not be pre-loaded before combat. You will need to load these weapons manually during the pre-combat Equip phase. This will significantly affect the heavy weapons ammunition load your squad can carry into combat without suffering encumbrance penalties, thus making the early game harder.
• [All Weapons Start Unloaded] - Workaround for the Weightless Ammo Bug. This option overrides the previous option. No weapons will be pre-loaded before combat. You will need to load all ammo manually during the pre-combat Equip phase. This will significantly affect the ammunition load your squad can carry into combat without suffering encumbrance penalties, making the early game harder.

Spike 05:10, 21 September 2012 (EDT)

I found the source of the problem: 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 changed in inventory management.-Tycho 19:00, 19 October 2012 (EDT)

That is just awesome! :D Spike 22:36, 19 October 2012 (EDT)

MIA Bugs

Supernumary MIA on Abort

I Abort a mission with 8 Aquanauts and get the confirmation message "8 Aquanauts inside craft, 2 outside". No one has been stunned or MCd. I did have two aquanauts, only, outside, but they have moved back inside the transport. Very odd. Saved Equipment was enabled. Spike 11:06, 5 October 2012 (EDT)

How many Aquanauts did you have in total?- -Tycho 02:54, 11 October 2012 (EDT)

I started the mission with only 8 Aquanauts and they all survived. Only two had even been outside the transport (quite an unusual situation). However I can't reproduce this bug, so please ignore it unless/until I can reproduce it. :) Spike 06:48, 17 October 2012 (EDT)

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)

Presumably the 3 aquanauts in the craft were not stunned or mind controlled on the Abort turn? Spike 16:37, 21 October 2012 (EDT)

Right, they are not stunned (or dead) and they are under your control. And they are definitely in the sub. OK this is similar to a minor bug I have seen before - see preceding item. On your pre-abort confirmation screen it says "3 units in craft, 9 units outside". I've had a similar issue before. It's double counting your aquanauts as being both inside and outside the craft on the confirm screen, since you only have 9 units (8 and 1 tank) in total. On actual abort you incorrectly get 9 MIAs (including the tank presumably) and I guess that's why you lose the sub. Interestingly, the 3 affected aquanauts look like they never moved from their original positions, is that true? I believe when I've had similar problems before, it related to aquanauts who had never left the sub / never left their initial positions. We will have to see if Tycho can get to the bottom of this one. Spike 16:51, 21 October 2012 (EDT)

Yes, that's true - those 3 haven't moved from their original positions. --Player701 17:19, 21 October 2012 (EDT)

I found the nature of the issue here: On one hand, all parts of the tank are being counted separately but then the End of Battle routine calculates the correct number of units but when it goes to locate the units on the battlefield, the three other parts of the tank are being tallied 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)

Stunned Carried Aquanauts MIA on Abort

While you are looking the EOB script, I noticed one more anomaly. 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. At least it is manageable: Just be sure to drop all creatures carried before calling for an abort.- -Tycho 02:51, 11 October 2012 (EDT)

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)

I tried to reproduce this in the unmodified game without success, controlling for aquanauts being stunned/not stunned, inside/outside transport, stunned inside/outside transport. I didn't control for reloading the game, that sometimes causes glitches. I will retry with the Extender next and see if that reproduces anything. Spike 21:06, 24 October 2012 (EDT)

Here's another thought. The problematic game was a Colony Assault which has a lot of objects in the object table. As the missing objects were created (corpses) or dropped (weapons) after the game started, they could be a long way down the object table. Now, doesn't TFTD have a bigger object table than EU? Maybe the TFTDextender is only recovering items from a sub-section of the TFTD object table? Spike 17:13, 26 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)

There is no entry in the text DAT files for "weight". Seb had to add the text string for it into his subroutine. Thanks for pointing it out. Tycho

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. See the discussion on problems with the OBDATA mod about the final source of the problem and its solution.-Tycho 20:03, 21 October 2012 (EDT)

Would you suggest that everyone disables Save Equipment for the time being, in TFTDextender? Spike 07:44, 24 October 2012 (EDT)

It couldn't hurt. 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)

Resolved Problems

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) This will be fixed in the next release.-Tycho 03:00, 13 October 2012 (EDT)

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)

OK. 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.

I now have the code in place to uncontrol any creature that has been rendered unconscious. - -Tycho 02:47, 11 October 2012 (EDT)

This would also apply to UFO Extender. Spike 22:06, 21 September 2012 (EDT)

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 130, same as the UFOpaedia entry.-Tycho 03:52, 13 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.

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%, 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 0-100% 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.

Rearming Rates

From Known_Bugs_(TFTD)#Geoscape_Bugs:

Craft Gauss Cannon Rearming Rate

This weapon rearms at 10/hr but probably should be 50/hr or at least 25/hr, otherwise it is far slower to rearm than any other cannon weapon in either game. In fact it's the second slowest weapon system to rearm, slower only than AJAX...

AJAX Rearming Rate

An AJAX system takes twice as long to fully reload as a D.U.P. system, as a result AJAX-armed Craft have much worse operational tempo and readiness than D.U.P. armed Craft. Like we needed yet another reason to always use D.U.Ps. This is probably a design error rather than a bug, but it would be good to fix it - anything to give a more balanced set of craft weapon choices. The rearming rate should be raised from 1/hr to 2/hr. The AJAX system will then have the same operational tempo as the D.U.P. system.

Could also be applied to Stingray missiles in EU 1994, as the same analysis applies to Stingray vs Avalanche.

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.