Talk:UFO Incursions (Apocalypse)

Inaccuracy?

I've just seen a fleet which is 665444. This doesn't appear anywhere on this page. It performs infiltration and seems to be the favoured alien fleet during week 4 if the aliens have all their ships (i.e. many of types 1-6). My guess is a typo in infiltration fleet 12. Magic9mushroom (talk) 14:44, 18 August 2018 (CEST)

Naming

Air Raid? I'm going to test this with "Apocalypse Missions 100%" (Apoc'd) at the start with 5 craft of each available. What they do I think is just bomb a building to flatten it. I don't think a base assault is an air-raid since that falls under Infiltration.... it just so happens that the infiltration is a "your ownership building" chosen at random. EsTeR (talk)

User:Darkpast suggested that name over "bombing" when we discussed it on another talk page. "Air raid" means bombing IRL. Also, base defences can occur either randomly from an infiltration mission, or from what's (incorrectly) been referred to as a "micronoid rain mission" - it's actually a scanning beam and once they've found your base every subsequent instance of this mission will drop aliens into it. Magic9mushroom (talk) 08:48, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

I just tested the above and the alien ships behave exactly like I'd expected. They flatten any building at random since I made sure to have every AI corp at neutral with aliens. Ahh, I just worked out that Air Raid has a slightly different meaning to what we though it was. The joys of language barriers and a global community. Thanks for the explanation. EsTeR (talk)

Confusing Page Structure

This page isn't really thought out properly. Micronoid Rain what is it and how its changed or why is it changed since everyone knows about the blue rain and that what it was always called. Where is it ufopedia with explaination on changes of the rain? Base Assault or Raiding (or should it be called base invasion?) Is that a bombing (explosions and leveling) or landing raid (like landing an overwhelming force)?

Apoclaypse? hmm, yeah they send all at once but what do you call cityscape destruction bombing? An air RAID? but isn't raid a battlescape fight and not a bombing run?

Gets confusing with BASE bombing/assault or air raid... yeah they land a force but it isn't a force! ...its a bombing run (they shouldn't be labeled similar). Gives me headache.

A good part of the confusion is because the Apocalypse section of the wiki is currently undergoing spring cleaning. See the discussion here for more info: Talk:Alien_Infiltration_(Apocalypse)

Also, the term "Micronoid Rain" was thought up by the community. It's not used in-game or even in the game files, and it's actually wrong - the UFOs are not dropping Micronoids, but searching for X-COM bases. Darkpast (talk) 12:08, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

"Micronoid Rain" is like TFTD's "USO", which wasn't in the game but coined by the players for convenience. It has become part of the gaming vocabulary by virtue of long term use. I believe it does need to be acknowledged at the very least. Mainly to explain why it is incorrect now and to put it into context.

With so little information about what was happening under the hood in the past, you can imagine the thought process of how the term may have come into existence by players discussing shared experiences and correlating a series of coinciding events together. NKF (talk) 05:53, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Alright, fine. I'll give full descriptions of each mission here and we can discuss names.

1) UFOs drop aliens into random buildings with the grey tube. If it happened to be your base, base attack mission. Otherwise, there are now aliens in the city causing alien infiltration. Starts at Week 1, and is the only mission for weeks 1-3.

2) UFOs attack buildings (belonging to someone the aliens don't like) with vehicle weapons. Starts at Week 4.

3) UFOs scan random structures with a blue "rain"-like scanning beam. If a structure contains an X-COM base, every following mission of this type diverts a UFO to drop aliens into that base (base attack mission). Only effect on other structures is that sometimes the structure owner will get mad and scramble craft to attack the UFO. Starts at Week 5.

4) Mothership (it's always a Mothership) drops an Overspawn into the city. Allegedly starts at Week 7, but there won't be any Motherships to do it until Week 8.

Go nuts. Suggest better names. I put in what Darkpast and I thought up for #2 and #3 and I wasn't too happy with them either, so if someone has a better idea I'm all ears. #2 and #3 were previously titled "Attack" and "Subversion" respectively, but those names are not acceptable; all missions except #1 are forms of attack, so #2 needs to be more specific, and #3 doesn't subvert anything so calling it "Subversion" (or "Micronoid Rain") is blatantly wrong.

I'm planning on overhauling the Cityscape Fighting page to describe these missions, incidentally. I just haven't gotten around to it. Magic9mushroom (talk) 02:10, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

I hope i can help things moving along. This is my suggestion:

I can't think of a title right now maybe "Mission Types and Actions" or something. It can't be alien specific becuase it mentions corps as well.

1 This is obviously called Infiltration Mission and is thus titled within each corps page ingame pedia. Infiltration is suited because it is the most common thing in (the manual) what the aliens are doing. Infiltration of micronoid slime via a cloud-tube mechanism action when hovering briefly over a building (should place a GIF of the animation here). If the building happens to have an X-com facility (notice I didn't mention base here) when the aliens perform their infiltration action then it immediately become a Base Defense mission.

2 Base Defense Mission. An xcom facility has come under attack from hostile forces. An X-com base has been invaded and must be defended with your troops (could be a pic here of the defense screen with the griffon tank). The hostiles could be aliens or a corporation hostile to X-Com. When aliens attack, you'll will see the cloudlike tube over your base from any alien craft. When corprotions attack, you have no warning and have no way to prevent it. Be prepared to defend all your bases with security (pic here of a security turret room and hotlink) and armed troops. Techniqcal personel cannot defend a base even with turrets. You must have stationed troops. When X-Com raids another corportion then X-com is the agressor and the target is performing a Base Defense Mission. (hotlink stun raid - my baby)"

3 Bombing Mission. A blurb within the new descriptions should include something like "... this mission style is basically cityscape destruction to shoot and bomb the external building to cause it to collaspe, and for economic damage (could be a pic here of a bombber shooting a disruptor missile which is at mid collaped at a building but not an xcom base). If a X-Com building happens to be the target, then it is possible that the base within could be destroyed (pic of lose screen here possibly). A Bombing Mission can be preformed by any alien craft, not just the Bomber (hot link here to bomber, no pic necesaary). If a corporation is sufficently hostile to another then a "Illigal Flyer detected" will commence to bomb the chosen external building. (hot link to corpoation relations here)" I don't think having another subtitle for Illegal Flyer would be needed since it strictly is a bobming mission abeit suicidal.

4 Micronoid Rain (obviously because that is what it looks like but not what is it). This blurb should be noted as first thing after the subtitle. "Micronoid Rain is a blue "rain" which falls from an alien craft when hovering over a building (animated pic here). Once commonly believed to be an attempt by Aliens to directly control the target corporation by immediate and total Infiltration (that is, an immediatel 100% infiltraion level) regardless of actual infiltration. The real purpose of the rain is to scan the building for an X-com base. If an x-com facilty (not callig it base here) is located then the aliens will, in the near future, perform an Infiltration Mission ie: a Base Defense mission will be coming soon!

5 Overspawn Drop. Aliens will drop this large creature from a Mothership yadda no complaints here!

I don't like calling a Base Defense Mission a 'Base Raid' or calling a Bombing Mission an 'Air Raid' because there is an actual mission performed which of course is "Raid Corporation". Confusing can result.

THIS IS A spilling meatsteak brain diareahhhhha. I don't have the capability to insert images and I'll probably arse it up anyways. I'm small fry compared to you all here and someone who doesn't have to deal with the unwashed Whu-Flu masses running around like sneezy headless (blue?) chickens will do a better job than me. EsTeR (talk)

The plan is to have separate pages for X-Com mission types, corp actions and alien actions, the first for obvious reasons and the latter two because they have separate generation mechanisms. The first is already up at Tactical Combat Missions (Apocalypse).

Base Defence (or as the manual calls it, Base Attack) is not a separate alien action; it's a possible consequence of two separate alien acts (each of which have their own characteristic UFO composition and mission likelihood) as well as a possible corporate action. Using my earlier numbering, the result of a #3 finding your base isn't a new mission; rather, any further #3 missions will include one UFO dropping aliens into your base. You can also get a Base Attack from a #1, but from the aliens' point of view that's a completely-different thing (and it will frequently involve different UFOs as well).

I am absolutely opposed to calling #3 Micronoid Rain. It doesn't look like Micronoids; it was only called that because people thought it mind-controlled organisations and that would imply dropping Micronoids. It doesn't control organisations, therefore calling it Micronoid Rain is confusing and wrong. We can mention the "Micronoid Rain" myth in a footnote, but it cannot be the name of the mission. Magic9mushroom (talk) 06:34, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

Then what is the mission to be called which just about everyone who went to any forum over the years to discuss what that blue rain is? The cat is out of the bag and you cannot undo thousands of forum posts which novice players will look to when having questions - eventually micronoid rain will pop up. Micronoid Rain is what it is known to be called. Its completely wrong but everyone uses it hence, that immediate blurb about what it actually is. Kevlar is a known name. Aramid is its actual name. How many people have actually heard of Aramid? Micronoid Rain is its known name.... EsTeR (talk)

It's certainly what it has been known by. I've called it by that. However I do think a more fitting term would be better if one can be decided on. By the way I've only really caught the whole Micronoid Rain thing on the tail end. Was the test on the blue beam done to see if there was an immediate alliance flip, or was some time allowed after that to observe the behaviour of the affected company? NKF (talk) 10:22, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

Why not simply have a redirect entitled "Micronoid Rain" that takes the user to the properly-named page?

Btw, the term "Blue rain" has also been used to describe the alien beam. I still have no good idea for a proper name for the mission, though. "Retaliation" isn't good because bombing and Overspawn are also forms of retaliation. "Scan" doesn't sound right, either.

As for the bombing - I guess "Bombing Mission" or "Bombing Run" would be better than "Air Raid", then, for the reasons EsTeR suggests. "Infiltration" or "Infiltration Mission" and "Overspawn Drop" sound good for the remaining two alien missions. Darkpast (talk) 17:44, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

@NKF: I did a whole bunch of tests myself, with no insta-flips regardless of infiltration%, but the reason I'm sure is because the OpenApoc people (in particular Skin36) have decompiled Apocalypse and he told me it doesn't flip organisations but rather looks for your base. My testing confirmed that if they find your base, subsequent missions of that type will always drop in. I'm not saying his interpretation of code is perfect - I've worked with him on this in a few other issues to nut out what the code's actually doing - but any org flip code should be blindingly obvious.

@Darkpast: "Search&Raid"? Clunky, but gets the point across IMO. Magic9mushroom (talk) 04:24, 5 August 2020 (UTC)