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
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 AbilitiesEach 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.
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 ScreenWhen 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 ComparisonIf 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.
Spike 10:44, 2 October 2008 (CDT)
Phantom RadarWhat 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 base module 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 module is completed. If you want to test this yourself, start a new game and remove the default radar and let time run. Phantom Radar: Life SpanThe life span of the phantom radar lasts until the next base facility is built at that base.
Phantom Radar: AdvantagesThe 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. Plus, the empty dirt module will start costing you money. The phantom radar is extremely useful if you choose to upgrade your radar from an older type to a new type by simply removing the old radar and building the new radar in its place. This avoids the Paying for Dirt bug. This only works as long as the next module to be built is the radar. Otherwise the base will be flying blind in the interim. Phantom Radar: Questions
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Reader Poll
All of the salient information I've mentioned will have already found its way (or been corrected) into more relevant articles on the wiki by now. These sections may need some rewriting or revising as much of what has come about regarding how the radars operate and how they function is very useful stuff .
However, do I need to keep this old article in my talk page? I've been a little hesitant to clear it, but it was never meant to be a permanent fixture in this section either. -NKF 04:14, 12 March 2009 (CDT)
- It's a great article. But if you're sure that every little nuance is now transposed into the official pages, you could delete it to tidy up your user page. I know if it was me, I'd want to tidy up. Spike 05:36, 12 March 2009 (CDT)
Total Randomness
UFO Base Kit
The UBK is a transclusion template I made that lets you insert your own custom X-COM UFO base layouts into your discussions or articles:
A quick way to include it in your article is to copy the following:
{{UBK|= |dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|= |dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|= |dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|= |dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|= |dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|= |dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|dirt|=}}
And replace "dirt" with the following entries:
dirt lift lab workshop psi containment storage quarters small_radar large_radar hyperwave grav mind missile laser plasma fusion hangar1 hangar2 hangar3 hangar4
The hangar is cut into quarters. 1 = NW, 2 = NE, 3 = SW, 4 = SE
In action, the following block:
{{UBK|= |dirt|dirt|hangar1|hangar2|dirt|dirt|= |dirt|dirt|hangar3|hangar4|dirt|dirt|= |dirt|dirt|lift|quarters|dirt|dirt|= |dirt|small_radar|stores|lab|workshop|dirt|= |hangar1|hangar2|dirt|dirt|hangar1|hangar2|= |hangar3|hangar4|dirt|dirt|hangar3|hangar4|=}}
Produces:
Have fun. One of these days a TFTD equivalent (or TFTD equivalent keywords) will have to be made. A more ambitious one would be to create one for X-COM Apocalypse too!
Stats Card
This slot is reserved to rough out a unit specifications sheet.
Lobsterman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This is a staggering creature, taller than a man and boasting six limbs, it resembles nothing more than an aquatic Demon. The similarities between this creature and the Earth lobster have earned it the nickname of Lobsterman with the X-Com troops. This is a behemoth of the deep. A carefully designed fighting creature of incredible strength and practically invulnerable to missile fire. Its pincers alone can crush steel. |
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Autopsy
Once past its virtually indestructible shell the creature is an amazing construction. Powerful muscles ripple around a titanium skeleton, a sophisticated targeting system with multi-band scanning ability is hooked directly into the creature's brain. Its multiple eyes are protected by harder than steel plastics and it is clear that when well deployed by their masters these creatures are all but unstoppable. Buried deep in its body are devices of unknown construction and function. |
(Old version - possibly too stylized)
Simpler working model in progress:
Lobsterman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Live Report
This is a staggering creature, taller than a man and boasting six limbs, it resembles nothing more than an aquatic Demon. The similarities between this creature and the Earth lobster have earned it the nickname of Lobsterman with the X-Com troops. This is a behemoth of the deep. A carefully designed fighting creature of incredible strength and practically invulnerable to missile fire. Its pincers alone can crush steel. Autopsy Once past its virtually indestructible shell the creature is an amazing construction. Powerful muscles ripple around a titanium skeleton, a sophisticated targeting system with multi-band scanning ability is hooked directly into the creature's brain. Its multiple eyes are protected by harder than steel plastics and it is clear that when well deployed by their masters these creatures are all but unstoppable. Buried deep in its body are devices of unknown construction and function.
Insert table here with hidden stats such as melee accuracy, aggression, memory, damage multiplier class (point to damage multiplier table). Also possible rank combinations, with (blank) and Terrorist for terrorist units. At end, add a see-also that points to spread-sheet that lists ALL combinations of aliens, ranks and difficulty levels.
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Possible todo: Convert the border table into a template, with another template identical in name with a CLOSE suffix. So you can open and add a title, type content, then close and it'll be enclosed in the above box.
Main page - distributions
NKF, thank you so much for all that great Apoc advice. Would you mind if I moved parts of it onto the Wiki? There is a real dearth of even basic Apoc information anywhere I can find. If I can post your points verbatim and signed as Discussion, in appropriate categories, it will be hugely useful. Spike 03:27, 17 October 2008 (CDT)
- Some of it might need touching up, but go ahead. It'll add something to work off in the rather bare Apocalypse section. Some new sections like explaining how psi in Apocalypse works might also be in order, so if any come to mind please do suggest them. -NKF 03:52, 17 October 2008 (CDT)
Russian
For more shortness, replace «Заглавная страница|русский язык (Russian)» → «Заглавная страница|Русский (Russian)» or «Заглавная страница|Русский» in Sidebar. --Farpost
- Thanks, I'll give that a try. -NKF 08:00, 11 August 2010 (EDT)
Clean up
I was wondering if it'd be worth your time (what with you being the only sysop around the place) going through and deleting any pages created during the recent spammage, hence reverting them back to red-links (which better represent their status then a blue link leading to an empty page does (for eg)).
For what it's worth, most of the "surplus" pages can already be found here - though it may be worth getting some of the Russian contributors to start using a "delete this page" category or something?
Don't forget the associated discussion pages; I see some of the blank articles haven't had theirs cleaned as yet. - Bomb Bloke 05:13, 27 August 2010 (EDT)
- This example page name has an obscene word and MUST be deleted. (If you wish I can translate it into English :))
- There are a lot of Russian pages, that MUST be deleted. They were created when vandals moved some pages.--ufo.mesh 05:52, 27 August 2010 (EDT)
All right, I've deleted all the 0 byte and 61 byte pages that were a result of the vandalism. Also deleted a few existing pages that were just empty stub pages. Probably better to leave them as red links to indicate that they need to be written. If there are any other damaged pages that weren't deleted, send me a list of them and I'll have them deleted.
My only regret is that there's no way to truly clear these pages from the recents list, and the software still appears to hold the undelete data. Not that it will matter to most of the wiki visitors, but all this data must be cluttering the server space.
It was a pain deleting all those pages, but thank goodness for whoever first thought up the idea for introducing tabbed browsing in web browsers. I was able to clear most of the affected pages in an assembly line manner.
-NKF 19:35, 28 August 2010 (EDT)