User talk:Hobbes

Hiya Hobbes. Any chance you could spill some info on the format of the .RMP files used in the routes folder?

ROUTES.DAT uses much the same format, but always has 70 records.

- Bomb Bloke

---

Hey.

I don't have much information regarding the .RMP files besides what I've learned from Map Editor. I found it surprising that the ROUTES.DAT only has 70 records, because each battlefield should have a maximum of 251 route nodes, depending on map size.

I have made an attempt to clarify the .RMP files. What do you think?

- Hobbes 11:52, 20 June 2006 (PDT)

---

Very helpful! Using that info it was easy enough to work out how the routes.dat file works.

Turns out it was my mistake about the 70 node limit. I must have just made a lot of saves with that amount of entries, and decided it was always that size.

- Bomb Bloke

Geneva

Hiya Hobbes. Check out my 5th Geneva Convention on Talk:CFN and see what you think.

Some of the points it may need to address are: XCOM exclusive right to deal with Aliens; basing rights; military cooperation: however I see it as an overall document that permits new directives and regulations to be issued by the Council so it doesn't have to cover everything.

feel free to move / copy / edit. Spike 02:22, 12 March 2008 (PDT)

Chucktastic

Heh heh I loved the pic of Chuck. Nice one. :D Spike 16:13, 14 March 2008 (PDT)

---

X-COM Military Organization

[...] the decision was made to establish a covert independent body to combat, investigate and defeat the alien threat. This organization would be equipped with the world's finest pilots, soldiers, scientists and engineers, working together as one multi-national force.

This page analyzes the inner military organization of X-COM.

Special Forces Unit or Intelligence Agency?

The first question regarding X-COM is as to its nature. Usually the force is considered as 'Special Forces'(SF), which is defined as:

"Special operations are highly-trained military units that conduct specialized operations such as reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, and counter-terrorism actions".

However, this definition clearly does not fully correspond to the ingame definition of X-COM's roles, which also include 'investigation' and 'defeat' (giving it a more strategic role than the one played by an SF unit, with a specific objective - defeat the alien threat).

The other possible model to apply to X-COM is the 'Intelligence Agency' (IA), defined as:

"An intelligence agency is a governmental organization that for the purposes of national security is devoted to the gathering of information (known in the context as "intelligence") by means of espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public sources."

But, while an IA is more close to match X-COM's mission, there is a major point that is not covered by this definition, its specific mission, to 'defeat the alien threat'. IAs do not have such specific proposes: they are large bureaucratic institutions made with more generic proposes and with a logic of continued existence.

Thus, the answer to this question is probably more akin to a unit like the UK's Special Operations Executive (SOE), which was created by Churchill to "set Europe ablaze". Amongst its missions:

• Encourage and facilitate espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines
• Serve as the core of a resistance movement in Britain in the possible event of an Axis invasion

X-COM thus has a specific mission and uses SF forces and Intelligence processes (scientific research, interrogations, etc.) and also develops its own equipment (like the SOE did).

Combat Units and Personnel

Ranks

Ranks in X-COM are very simple when compared to the military of nearly, if not all, countries. While regular militaries have more than 20 ranks (from the lowest private to a 5 star general), X-COM only has 6, Rookie, Squaddie, Sergeant, Captain, Colonel and Commander, each corresponding to the usual classifications of rank (Enlisted (Privates and NCOs); Company Officer; Staff Officer; General). Since such a simpler system was adopted each officer rank (NCO and commissioned) should also correspond to a similar level on X-COM's combat organization. Taking the rate of promotions the most likely organization would be:

• Level 1 (Combat team) - 4 soldiers + Sergeant = 5 soldiers
• Level 2 (Combat squad) - 2 Level 1 + Captain = 11 soldiers
• Level 3 (Combat unit) - 2 Level 2 + Colonel = 23 soldiers
• HQ - Commander + 6 soldiers = 7 soldiers

Then the force organization of X-COM consists on the HQ plus a number of Level 3 units.

Deployment

Classic deployment modes include:

Skyranger

1 Squad + 1 HWP

1 Squad + 3 soldiers

1 Team + 2 HWP + 1 soldier

Lightning

1 Squad + 1 soldier

Avenger

1 Unit + 3 soldiers

1 Squad + 3 HWP + 3 soldiers

Nature of the beast

Good question. For me, the template and probably the inspiration for the X-COM organisation is S.H.A.D.O., but I know you are sticking to the canon here.

I would compare X-COM to the paramilitary arm of an intelligence agency such as the CIA or the wartime OSS. These organisations have a strategic goal, and include intelligence, scientific, special manufacturing and aircraft-using roles as well as a paramilitary function. X-COM is similar. We can assume that X-COM has personnel other that the scientists, soldiers and engineers in its secret, hardened bases. Apart from the pilots (who seem to sleep in their planes and whose salary is paid by some other organisation, possibly the aerospace forces of the funding nations) there are known to be X-COM "agents" and there are probably administrative, analytic and managerial staff - perhaps tucked away in an HQ facility in a non-descript (but highly secure) building in the UN complex in Geneva.

It is curious that X-COM never fields more than about 250 each of soldiers, scientists or engineers - any many fewer pilots. Possibly this is a constitutional limitation. Concerns about international law, jurisdictional issues with national militaries, a desire to keep X-COM under control, preservation of secrecy, or not provoking the aliens - all are possible reasons for keeping the organisation small. Perhaps the total staff is limited to 1000, with a decision to break this down as 250 each for military/scientific/technical/admin? Speculation.

Still it means the entire military forces of X-COM are only company-strength, and never operationally deployed in more than platoon strength. (Even in an attack on a heavily populated training base, X-COM will put into the field at most a reinforced platoon, under cover of which the remaining personnel will withdraw).

X-COM initially lacks any officers. Possibly in its early stages it is supervised by senior officers of the funding nations, attached to X-COM as advisors but not formally part of the X-COM complement (an old geopolitical trick!). Perhaps the difficulty of establishing precedence of ranks between soldiers of different nations led to this decision not to differentiate between soldiers. A 'team' approach may have prevailed in the early days. However, as in any situation, natural leaders soon emerge and are recognised with ranks. While drawn from existing elite units, humanity's finest soldiers, the capability to cope with the alien threat and handle the exotic technology does not become apparent until after live operations against the aliens. After a short time, X-COM developed a full rank structure appropriate to the small size and specialised nature of its paramilitary group. A good parallel to the X-COM paramilitary group is a Special Forces company, split operationally into small teams, sections, flights, etc. Another (perhaps better) parallel is the paramilitary teams inside agencies such as the CIA, KGB (in 1999), Mossad MI6 or the various French secret services.

The term X-COM, while shrouded in some mystery, is sometimes glossed as "EXtra-Terrestrial COMbat force". Does X-COM then refer only to the paramilitary division, relatively more visible, of an even more shadowy organisation whose very name is unknown? Or is "Combat" to be understood in the strategic sense of combatting the alien threat by all means?

Yeah, I didn't have time to continue my line of thinking but my idea is that X-COM is more akin to the OSS for a number of reasons. The CIA, KGB, etc. are also possibilities although their military component is significantly less than the OSS.

The 255 limit you mention only applies to individual bases IIRC, so the actual limit would be 255*8 (the number of possible bases), which leads into some 2000 and something maximum soldiers. And then there's also the Agents, support staff, etc. More into this article later.

The 255-per-base limit applies to Engineers and Scientists, but SOLDIER.DAT, which stores troop stats, has only 250 entries in it. This limits X-COM to only possessing 250 standing ground forces at any one time(which is probably a constitutional restriction, since given the equipment X-COM has access to, they could make a viable world domination bid with more. One soldier in a Flying Suit with Heavy Plasma would be practically invulnerable to most military forces in 1999.) Arrow Quivershaft 11:14, 17 March 2008 (PDT)

Thanks for the clearup regarding the 250 soldiers issue. And yes, 1 such soldier equipped would be invulnerable to most military forces, but eventually exhaustion would take its toll against thousands of opponents with bullets. Hobbes 11:29, 17 March 2008 (PDT)

Force limit

I just checked and there is a hard global limit in the game of 250 X-COM soldiers in total across all bases.

The error message is

"NO MORE SOLDIERS ALLOWED You have already recruited the maximum number of soldiers."

So I think what you are saying about 255*8 limit may apply to scientists and engineers, but not soldiers. Probably due to the size of SOLDIER.DAT. Or something.

Also there are 3 bugs: you still get charged for Soldiers you purchase above this limit, or above the transfer limit, and the error message for hiring too many soldiers loops once for each soldier over the limit, ie up to 250 times. Spike 11:38, 17 March 2008 (PDT)

It is exactly because of the size of SOLDIER.DAT. And I know you can hire a large number of engineers and scientists at different bases, because once I get well into the game, every base has at least 40 engineers on staff, and many have 90 or 140. Or possibly even more. Arrow Quivershaft 12:53, 17 March 2008 (PDT)

XCU

Hiya Hobbes! Good edits there on XComUtil. The only option I accepted after "prompt before each ship" was "use new Farm and Desert terrain". Is just selecting this enough to spoil the "prompt before ship" option?

Cheers, Spike 17:58, 8 September 2008 (PDT)

Hey there. Yeah, that should be it. I never use that option because you can get some really strange effects like Skyrangers on the middle of pyramids. Hobbes 18:01, 8 September 2008 (PDT)

Funny you should say that, I just had that situation as soon as I applied the patch. Skyranger smack in the middle of a pyramid. Kind of hard to drive my tank out through the walls! I guess I'll turn that Desert terrain option off, as I would like to play with the "select-a-ship" feature, it sounds fun. Spike

It's different alright. Have you ever tried any of my terrain mods? There are some challenging ones, but you'll need to use XComUtil Hobbes

Unknown Menace

I've just started reading your first XCom novel and I'm hooked! But I'm going somewhere with only patchy internet. Is there a way I can download the whole novel as a zip file? Spike 16:30, 9 September 2008 (PDT)

Here's the full book in a pdf file (3.4 mb). Have fun :) Hobbes 17:23, 9 September 2008 (PDT)

Thanks. I had a bit of a struggle to convert the RAR to .zip - RAR's not so common on some types of computer. And I've just this morning finished reading the whole thing. I'm very impressed, it's a big work. Must've taken you a long time to write it. I really like your take on a lot of the back story behind XCom, CFN, etc. It's an exciting plot, a "page turner" as they say. Spike 13:44, 13 September 2008 (PDT)

Thanks. Took me over 2 years to finish it, and I about figured the time required for me to write it after 3 months! I didn't simply want to give the 'ingame' perspective of endless battles. :) Hobbes 14:12, 13 September 2008 (PDT)

Unanswered Questions

1. 1 How fast can alien craft travel in space?

Some alien missions (repeated attacks on X-COM bases, for instance) come daily. This seems to imply that alien craft are able to travel the distance from Mars to Earth in a matter of hours.