User talk:NKF

NKF:Talk

Welcome to NKF Talk. NKF once asked the question "What is NKF Talk?" - he didn't have a clue, so he decided to make it up as he went along. NKF Talk is now NKF's personal but ultimately temporary soapbox for ... well anything NKF jolly well wants, but it will be for X-COM-related articles in this wiki, that's for sure.

NKF is referring to himself in the third person for no apparent reason - although is rumoured to be absolutely bonkers, which explains a lot.

P.S: NKF is not NFK. NFK is some weirdo that keeps stealing NKF's thunder. Also NKF doesn't have any hidden psychological meaning, and are merely initials.

The NKF-Centric TO-DO-List of Doom

• The first of the articles I'd like to see started is an "X-Com Apocalypse Starter's Guide", as I've been concentrating far too much on UFO and TFTD, might as well get started on the third game. I've written a lot about the subject on several different Apocalypse forums - it's high time to gather everything into one place. Where to begin? Time will answer that question. Hopefully not too much time.

• An article on radars to explain everything you need to know about them.
• Try to understand Wiki page transclusion to allow easy use of templates and all that.

Them Articles

Or rather, short paragraphs that will eventually lead to a larger article that may very well get a page of its own.

X-Com UFO Radar Info

Radars Hint For TFTD, substitute words where ever appopriate. For example, Radar with Sonar, Hyperwave Decoder with Transmission Resolver, etc. They have different names, but are essentially the same thing. Radars - and Terror From The Deep's radar parallel, sonar - can be installed in any of your bases for the purpose of detecting and then tracking enemy ships. Each base comes with three different radar abilities. Short, Long and Hyperwave detection. As would be expected, you can access these with the short and large radar systems, and the hyperwave decoder, respectively. Short and Long range detection function exactly in the same manner and Hyperwave detection provides the additional benefit of decoding UFO mission data. Radar Abilities Each radar can only add its abilities to the base once. Refer to the following table to see how the radars can build on each other. Table 1: Radar Ability Combinations Radar Module / Scan Type Short Long Hyperwave Small Radar 10 0 0 Large Radar 20 20 0 Hyperwave 0 0 100 Radar Combinations Sm + Sm 10 0 0 Sm + Lg 30 20 0 Sm + Hyp 10 0 100 Lg + Lg 20 20 0 Lg + Hyp 20 20 100 Hyp + Hyp 0 0 100 Sm + Lg + Hyp 30 20 100 This table was constructed by making multiple saves for each radar combination and then referring directly to the save game file for the radar values. Compare how different the values in the table are to text in the Ufopaedia. It can probably be assumed that the 10, 20, 30 and 100 values are in percentages. Therefore it we could say that 10 short range scanning will provide a 10% scan for every sweep of the radar. Once the UFO has been spotted, it'll be forever painted on your radar except when it drops out of tracking range. Radar Stats on the Base Information Screen When referring to your base details, you will see two bars representing the long and short range radars. The short range bar increases for every small radar system, and the long range bar increases for every Large Radar system and Hyperwave decoder. Although you are presented with this information, it is highly inaccurate and should never be relied on. The listing only counts how many radars are currently assigned to the base as opposed to the base's actual ability to locate enemy ships. Refer to the Phantom Radar section further along for more insight on how radars work. Brief Radar Range Comparison If we use the town of Novosibirsk as our point of reference, the tracking radius for the Small Radar can go roughly as far as Moscow. The large radar goes all the way to Berlin, and the Hyperwave Decoder can go as far as London and perhaps slightly beyond. Multiple Radars? Though it's natural to believe that installing multiple radars of the same type at a base will make your radarsmore powerful, they certainly do not. Refer to table 1 above. Notice how when two radars of the same type are combined that they do not provide any additional benefit over a single radar. This means that only one of each type of radar is able to stack its scanning abilities on top of another. In addition to the detection ability, multiple radars of the same type do NOT extend a base's detection radius or its tracking radius. Therefore, multiple radars of the same type do not work. The only multi-radar combination worth pursuing is the small and large radar combo. Once you get the hyperwave decoder, the small and large radar combo are immediately outclassed. Still, there's no harm in having a 30% and 20% contingency even if you've got 100% detection and the money to hang on to build the older modules. The only practical reason for including multiple radars of the same type would be for base layout purposes. The small radar, for example, has a clear corridor, making it a good place for combat with weapons that have a wide radius of effect. Phantom Radar What is a Phantom Radar? A base with a phantom radar, as I've coined it, is a base that is able to continue detecting ships without actually physically owning the radar. This is achieved by removing your existing radars. The game will retain the base's radar ability until another radar, of any type, is built. Basically, you're retaining the ghost of your previous radar, or radars. The modules themselves do not retain the physically ability to detect ships. It's The base itself has the ability, however the game only assigns (and recalculates, if there are existing radars) the strength of the scanning ability at the moment a new radar module is built. If you want to test this yourself, start a new game and remove the default radar and let time run. Phantom Radar: Life Span The life span of the phantom radar lasts until the next base facility is built at that base. Phantom Radar: Advantages The advantage of removing the facility will be that you can downsize your base just that bit more, making it much easier to defend. Although this can be a disadvantage if your entire strategy hinges around the lower level layout of the module. Phantom Radar: Questions Is this cheating? Depends on how you look at it. You did pay for the scanning abilities in the first place - and the cost of a hyperwave module is not cheap! On the other hand, you no longer have to pay for the maintenance of the module (except for that 80k/month for Paying For Dirt unless you immediately built over it, in which case its lifespan is fairly short anyway). That's about as far as the cheating goes. I'd say it's cheating if you're having money trouble. If you're raking in more cash than you ever need to spend, it doesn't matter if you physically own the module or otherwise. Do I really have to do this? No, but it's good to know. And it stops you from being startled if your base continues to pick up enemy ships after removing the radars. Actually, it's the whole purpose of this article. You're a bit full of yourself sometimes, aren't you? Sad, but true. I do indeed like some types of cheese. Wait, what were we talking about?

X-Com Apocalypse Starters Guide

X-COM Apocalypse: Starters Guide An article by NKF Preface Starting an X-COM Apocalypse game can sometimes be daunting for first time players, even if they are veterans of the first two X-COM games. So, where do we begin? Well, before we begin, I want to say what this guide is not. It is not a complete start to end walkthrough. It is only a guide to get players up and running in a new game. It is not meant to be a replacement for the game manual. While this guide may list a few keyboard and mouse commands, players are assumed to know most of the essential interface commands. And even if you don't, well, I'm not going to stop you. Also, this guide assumes that you can actually get the game to run. It will not include tips on how to get it running on your current OS version. There are better sources for this sort of information. Baby Steps: Starting the game Starting a new campaign is generally a simple task of picking the right difficulty level and jumping right into the action. Fair enough. But then there are some nutters out there that make a real deal about it. If you file yourself under this category, this chapter will be of some assistance. And even if you don't, it can probably give you some insights that'll help you along the way. Choosing a Difficulty Level If you have absolutely no qualms in actually starting the game, skip ahead to the next chapter, or read on. The main reason to deliberate on what difficulty level to play is often an easy one to answer. You just want to have an easier time, or you want a challenge. In Apocalypse, the difficulty level is more than just a simple stat increase for your enemies. Here are some things to consider when deciding on a difficulty level: Score Progression: The main reason is to decide how toned down your opposition will be. On easier levels, the sheer size of the alien forces you'll encounter will be much smaller, and their stats will be weaker. However, this also means that your score progression will be slower. On the other hand, on harder levels, you get points faster because of larger alien forces. Score controls the release of alien technology, so you tend to obtain technology a lot faster on harder levels, assuming you don't take an overly passive approach and avoid all combat. The Map : Difficulty will ultimately influence the type of map you are to play on. On easier levels Mega Primus is a small scenic city that is easy enough to manage, but as the difficulty is ramped up, the city turns into a sprawling Megapolis. This is more for aesthetics than for practical purposes. But it does control the next point. Base Sites: The more difficult the level, the more base site locations you'll have open to you. On the easiest level, you can only build up to 6 bases, while the hardest level gives you 8 possible locations. Unfortunately, not all bases locations are equally distributed around the city. While not necessarily a problem, it does mean refuelling and rearming ships and soldiers and then redeploying them to the right locations can become a bit of a hassle. Your first base You cannot officially choose your starting base or the layout of the pre-built base modules because base selection and initial module layout is random. Luckily, you can meddle with fate somewhat by doing a base scrum. Restart the game on the difficulty level of your choice over and over until you get the base configuration that best suits your needs. Note: Don't spend too much time doing this if you don't get the results that are desired. While you can eventually get any one of the base sites in the city, the chance of actually getting most of them beyond the set of the first four or so common base sites is very slim indeed. Getting the perfect base site that you want along with the module configuration, and personnel will be very difficult to get. You cannot get everything, so pick one that is acceptable and get on with it. You'll have plenty of opportunities to redecorate and rearrange your base. But most important of all, have fun. If you're not having fun, then what's the point? Real Estate Bases are differentiated by corridor layout and the topside building that the base is hidden under. The top-side portion of the base will also determine how many launch tubes your base will have. With a bit of pre-planning, the number of launch tubes are not particularly important, but we'll come to that later. There are only two types of buildings that X-Com bases can be built in. Slums or warehouses. Slum A slum block can be huge, massive even on some maps. But they are very weak and any small section that is damaged can collapse other sections in a domino effect. In short, slums are very fragile. A section of slums can easily fall to even the lightest of mis-fired rockets, and if there are any other slum buildings that are connected, they too will fall. On the other hand, slum blocks often feature large building areas. Warehouse Warehouses are smaller, but they are tougher and can withstand more damage than a slum block. They are also more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. Unfortunately, not many warehouses offer specious building areas. Corridors The beauty of the various corridor layouts lies not just in how much expansion potential is available, but in how the layout can be utilised in base defence. Each one is better suited for one purpose than another. Small layouts are the best for defence as you can force attackers into chokepoints. However they lack the space to allow for constructing a multi-purpose base that has a little of everything - forcing them into specialised roles. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. The main headache is deciding which facilities to decentralise and move to a new base. Bases with large wide open layouts offer the opposite. With more space you get more room to build facilities, but your six teams of soldiers and technical staff will be spread all over the base. If the base has a repair bay, your defence modules will have to spread thin to cover both the repair bay and the grav-lift. As the game can only operate so many defence turrets at any given time, attackers will be able to break through the defence guns a lot easier and possibly infiltrate the base. Grav-lift locations can also make or break your primary base as they are fixed. Take their locations into consideration as well when choosing a layout. Weigh up your options and go for the base that you think would work best. Getting into the thick of things So you've bought your base, and you're happy with it. Good. You've taken the plunge and are now able to actually start playing the game. Hurrah! Since Apocalypse is so open ended, I cannot possibly tell you what you must do next and where to go from there. This you must decide on your own. Initial Housekeeping The first thing you'll want to do after purchasing your new base is to inspect the goods. We'll start with the base screen. Bring it up and have a look at what's there. A look at the base In the base screen you'll have access to the various other key trading and management functions. For now, let's concentrate on the base. Look at how the existing modules are placed. It's a mess, isn't it? Initial module placement is pseudo-random, so it will not always end up in a very desireable layout. You will have all the facilities that you need to get you through the first week or so at your disposal. You don't need to build any more at this stage, but you may want to plan ahead and think about what you would like to build. If you want to rearrange your base layout to something more manageable, such as moving the quarters and labs to a safer location, you can start building them now and then dismantle the old facilities when they are built. Defenses shouldn't be a major priority at the moment as long as you keep a low profile and not make too many enemies. Tip: hovering your mouse over your facilities will bring up additional information about them, such as current capacity. After you've done your tour of the base itself, let's head on to the garage and inspect the vehicles. A look at your vehicles You can inspect your vehicles from the vehicle inventory screen or any menu that lists all the vehicles and soldiers in the current building. The vehicle inventory screen provides the most in-depth view of your ships, and should be used for all vehicle inspection and modification, while the building vehicle lists are very general and are mainly used to allow access to the vehicle inventory screen for a specific vehicle. You'll have a small fleet of starting vehicles to play with. A Valkyrie interceptor, curiously fitted with a different engine than the standard issue engine, a pair of Pheonix hovercars, a Stormdog and a Wolfhound APC. All the vehicles are divided into two classes, ground and air vehicles. Ground Vehicles Ground vehicles are restricted to travelling on the road, and suffer from the limitations of the road, which means they cannot get to any off-road sites, like UFO crash sites. They are very limited for use in UFO combat and are severely outclassed by the air ships in this role. This is unfortunate as some of the ground vehicles come with very high class cheap cost weapons, such as the Anti Air Guard cannon standard issue mounts on Stormdogs and any one of the three turrets that can fit onto the tanks. This means pre-position of road vehicles is of great importance. Road cars are also susceptible to instant death when they go off the road, making them less than satisfactory as front line attackers as more often than not, the road under the car will be destroyed before any damage is done to the car. Road vehicles do excel at providing intercity transportation to and from terror sites, although a lot of players prefer to get an additional air ship to fill that role. Air Vehicles Air ships are the bread and butter of your Cityscape forces. Any ship you are assigned can provide multiple roles, from transport to interception. Air ships are not restricted to the road, but they can suffer almost instantaneous death if they are caught underneath any falling debris. Here are some of the author's thoughts on your default starting vehicles. While these are mainly opinion, do not let this stop you from making up your own mind about the discussed vehicles. Valkyrie Interceptor The Valkyrie interceptor is built for intercepting UFOs. However, in actual practice, the Valkyrie starts off quite well, but in the long run is quite a poor interceptor due to its low expandability, weak hull, size and small weapon mounts. It does however have larger weapon hardpoints than a Pheonix Hovercar, allowing for larger weapons like the Lancer laser to be mounted. If used correctly, it makes for a great troop transporter or even a support fighter. Pheonix Hovercar The Phoenix hovercar is best thought of as a smaller variant of the Valkyrie. It may be smaller, but that's where its strength lies. Because it's a smaller target. it's able to dodge more incoming attacks than the Valkyrie and even if it's destroyed, it's easy to replace. Mixed with Hoverbikes, Hovercars can provide adequate air power for early UFO encounters. Stormdog The Stormdog, like most road vehicles, isn't particularly noteworthy except that it comes with a standard issue anti-airguard cannon, which provides fair firepower against most of the early UFOs. The Stormdog can be used as a transportation vehicle, but it cannot carry any storage modules. For actual transportation of soldiers and goods by road, the Wolfhound is far better suited to such a task. Wolfhound APC The Wolfhound suffers from the same fate as all road cars, so there's little to say about it except that it's designed to carry troops and haul equipment from terror sites. The Wolfhound provides superb intercity travel, making it a great secondary or tertiary troop transporter at the start of the game. A Look at your Troops Moving on, we head to the barracks to inspect the motley crew of ne'er do wells that'll be battling the aliens. The remainder of this section and the following headings are just stubs for the time being. Your First Mission Your First Air Skirmish - or Not Your Day Job: Bug Extermination Infiltration How to Investigate

Total Randomness

This is a work in progress

Just in case anyone's wondering what I'm doing here, I'm trying to make a template called the UFO Base Kit - or something like that. Seems okay, I guess. If you want to fiddle with it, feel free to do so.

Oddly enough, the Wiki software for this site doesn't allow default values for template parameters - so I have to manually enter 'dirt' for all the dirt sections. Ah well - next software update, I guess.

Possible entries

dirt  
lift
lab
workshop
psi
containment
storage
quarters

hangar1
hangar2
hangar3
hangar4

small_radar
large_radar
hyperwave

(Defense modules)

grav
mind
missile
laser
plasma
fusion

Here's an example.

;How you should NOT build a base: 
{{UBK|=
|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|hyperwave|=
|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|lab|=
|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|quarters|=
|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|workshop|=
|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|quarters|=
|psi|mind|stores|stores|stores|lift|=}}

Produces:

How you should NOT build a base

And just as a quick comment on this design: Thanks to the Base Disjoint Bug, all of the above modules will be sealed off from each other.

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Another example of the template in its intended use:

The above are examples of my standard plain vanilla listening/intercept outpost. The module placement is completely random. There is no sense to it at all - except that they are as bare-bones as possible. Due to the small number of entry points, a few well placed rockets is all that's needed to clear a large chunk of aliens before things can get nasty.

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