Wish List (TFTD)

Suggestions for fixes or improvements that would be nice to have for X-COM: Terror From The Deep (TFTD). Since TFTD shares its game engine with X-COM: Enemy Unknown (EU), there are many problems that are common to both games. Please make any shared/common wishes under the EU Wish List (link at the bottom of this page).

Fixes

Geoscape

• Research Tree bugs
• The really annoying "Cannot intercept over land" message that pops up continually (more than once a second) during some pursuits along coastlines.
• Coelacanth\Gauss reload issues. Tifi 16:31, 16 December 2009 (EST)
• The interception routes seem really broken in TFTD, usually taking a longer path than I can do by manually creating waypoints. (This might exist in EU, too, but not be as noticeable because of the geography.)

Battlescape

• Underwater-only weapons reaction-firing on land
• Bio-Drone melee attack has no effect. This is a serious flaw in the Bio-Drone, as it always uses this attack when Aquanauts are adjacent.
• Bugs with MC at the end of one stage of a multi-stage mission. (Does this also affect EU, e.g. the 2-stage Cydonia mission?)
• Permit aliens to use carried melee weapons. (This is a game engine bug that applies to EU as well, but is moot since EU aliens don't have carried melee weapons.) This fix could inadvertently make the game easier, as aliens would use Sonic Pulsers (their default option since they can't use melee weapons) less often. So it is essential to ensure the AI chooses sensibly between drills and Pulsers.
• Make ship terror missions less annoying, especially the passenger ship. Aliens hide in labyrinthine structures and every single spot needs to be revisited if a single alien is left out, otherwise the mission is failed. Often over 100 turns are needed to win, as aquanauts quickly run out of energy and finding the last cowardly tasoth is a pain.
• The above also applies to other missions, namely the 2nd stages of alien colony assaults and artifact sites, but both can, fortunately, be won without killing all the aliens.

Specific suggestion as to how to do this please? For example, reveal last 1-2 alien positions after XX turns, or (EU style), force all aliens to go on the offensive after XX turns (probably not as this is too easy). Spike

Easiest method would be to edit the map modules ("lock" some doors) and route node tables to remove the hidey holes. Heck, just messing with the nodes might be enough to do it - for example, at least one actually allows for large units to spawn in a tiny cabin where they can't move at all. Assuming you find it, you've then got to deal with reaction fire from a critter that will always have maximum TUs on your turn... Stupid Xarquids... Bomb Bloke

In my view, the problems lies in the fact that the last terrified alien simply picks a hiding spot and remains there until you find it. Aliens should be more active, more aggressive. It's not a matter of game balance or difficulty, but playability. mingos

Good point, there are at least 2 cases: aliens with failed morale, and aliens stuck in the map. For aliens with failed morale, the game should just end with them as prisoners (if they have no built in weapons and no chance of regaining morale). But for aliens stuck in the map by walls or waypoints or whatever, as Bomb Bloke said above, more measures are called for. Spike 20:42, 12 December 2009 (EST)

I'm not sure it has anything to do with morale. After a few turns they'd've recovered from any "frights" they had (assuming they didn't drop their guns, but seeing as it's often Tentaculats which go "missing" I doubt that has much affect on matters). I think the route nodes just send them on one way trips into certain out-of-the-way areas. The aggression stat (unitref(44 / 2C)) might actually be the way to go - the theory is that pumping this higher makes a creature more likely to leave cover and attack your agents head on. By default most aliens already have it "maxed out", but for all I know the value can be cranked higher then the observed cap of 2. - Bomb Bloke 00:59, 13 December 2009 (EST)

Same happens to me with other races too. Bio Drones and Tasoths seem to do the same quite often. While Tasoths are probably shaken up and disarmed, entaculats and Bio Drones have their weapons inbuilt, plus, they rarely panic. Not long ago I saw a Bio Drone fire from cover each turn, then hide again, and after I started looking for it, it simply picked a hiding spot and stayed there for ~20 turns until I found it and zapped it. The funny thing was that it was the beginning of the mission and there were only 2 or 3 aliens killed so far. mingos

OK the aggression stat sounds a good option for all this hidey behaviour. A 100 turns to finish a game is incredibly frustrating. In EU, you could Seb76's UFO Extender to make the remaining aliens visible. With TFTD, you have the option of using the xcomutil dis command to get the coordinates of the remaining aliens. There might also be an xcomutil command to make all units visible. And if all else fails you can use the xcomutil win command to kill the last aliens off. Spike 09:31, 13 December 2009 (EST)

• Aquanaut strength overflow often prevents highly skilled soldiers from throwing items, as they become strong enough to arc an object above the highest battlescape level (and 'out of bounds') thus generating a 'Cannot Throw Here' message. Tifi 16:29, 16 December 2009 (EST)

I think there might be 2 issues here involved: first one is the fact that when the stats overcome their limit they are reset to 0 by the game; second is that due to height limits the game will not allow for objects to be thrown at some distances because the throwing arc would go over the height limit. Hobbes 12:01, 17 December 2009 (EST)

• Synchronized attacks. Like the waypoint setting for launchers, several aquanauts could target different enemies, and all of them would shoot at the same time. It would not be possible to follow all the trajectories on screen simultaneously, so it should probably focus on one target at a time, or show each shot individually. This would give beginners a chance against e.g. Bio-Drone.

New Features

• Airborne Interception - what's the point of flying subs without air to-air weapons anyway?(Avalanches anyone?) Surely it's better to 'splash' the USO before it makes it to the safety of water?
• Alternatively, get rid of the pretense that subs can fly. How does sonar track a USO over land, anyway?

Both sonar and radar use the same principle (radio or sound waves being emitted and reflected back to a receiver) so it isn't unconceivable to have equipment that can use both detection methods. Hobbes 22:35, 12 December 2009 (EST)

Hmm. Steam engines and internal combustion engines are pretty similar too but you rarely see both on the same vehicle! The sensors in TFTD are called sonars, not sonar/radar combinations. I would be quite happy if the names were just changed from Sonar to Sonar/Radar or to Sensor, that would be fine. It is possible to use something very similar to passive sonar to track bearings to aircraft, similar things were used in WWII before the development of radar. Without triangulation, it would be very difficult to get the actual range to the target, and almost impossible to get the target's heading and speed. It is very normal for modern subs and surface ships to have both sonar and radar, but they are totally separate systems aboard the vessel, with different capabilities. I would be fine if the name was changed to Sensor or Sonar/Radar, and the UFOPaedia description changed to say that it used both technologies. Mainly I just object to the flying subs not being able to intercept over land. You can see why though, since it would pose the question of why there were no land USO recovery missions. But you could just take the same approach as EU. Just as UFOs disintegrate if shot down over water, USOs could disintegrate if shot down over land. Or even better, the land/sea game below, allowing land recovery vs USOs and underwater recovery vs UFOs. Spike 09:22, 13 December 2009 (EST)

UFOs didn't disintegrate in water - it was just the Elerium (and presumably the crew!). After the aliens were beaten, X-COM's new job essentially boiled down to finding those drowned ships and scavenging whatever was left. - Bomb Bloke 21:09, 13 December 2009 (EST)

Game-wise, they did disintegrate. The whole story about SORESO and elerium recovery was made up later in order to give a meaning to the subsequent games. mingos

• Bind equipment set to Aquanaut, so not to pick it every single time.

This can already be done using XcomUtil.

• Add mortar (acting both on land and underwater).

A mortar would be very advantageous to X-Com, since a lot of the tactical difficulty in the map is aliens hiding behind obstacles to direct fire. This is what grenades and Pulsers are for of course. An indirect fire weapon seems kind of 'realistic' but I'm not sure helping X-Com kill aliens is good for the game balance. Spike 09:22, 13 December 2009 (EST)

• Add Ion weapons (They have Ion Beam Accelerators, right?). So why not make them smaller, more compact, and fire faster (if not weaker) shots?

From the description of Gauss weapons, they sound similar to an Ion weapon of some kind. But yes in general maybe the discovery of IBAs could help the humans develop some weapon and not just armour/mobility technology. But then, the aliens don't seem to have a weapon based on Ions. Though some of the creatures (BioDrone, Xarquid) do have particle-type weapons. Maybe X-COM could design a new weapon based on these principles. Does the game really need new weapons though? Spike 09:22, 13 December 2009 (EST)

• Allow aquanauts to see through the view ports of their subs (at least the Triton has several black openings which I presume to be view ports). Don't know if this is possible, engine-wise, but would be highly useful as you would be able to take in your surroundings without having to expose your troops to enemy fire by opening the door. --Safe-Keeper 12:02, 30 May 2010 (EDT)

Possibly this can already be done using XcomUtil, check it out. Spike 13:59, 6 June 2010 (EDT)

• 3D water movement: allow Aquanauts in any armour type (including "none") to move up or down in water. Almost as if they were suspended in some kind of buoyant fluid... This would probably also need to be applied to SWS units and to all aliens. The flags exist in the game files. One question would be whether alien AI would properly take advantage of the vertical movement. If not, it could be unbalancing. Unarmoured Aquanauts would still probably want to keep low to avoid being easy targets. But at least the option would exist. Mag-Ion Armour would then need some compensating factor, such as an increased movement rate under water. Or it could just be left as is, a slightly more powerful type of armour that opens up Sub Construction.
• Combined land/sea game, with subs and aircraft, USOs and UFOs, Aquanauts and Soldiers, land and sea bases. Now that would be cool!
  • A slightly less dramatic change: on any land mission, automatically swap Dart Guns, Jet Harpoons, HydroJet Cannons and Torpedo Launchers for (respectively) Pistols, Rifles, AutoCannon and Rocket Launchers "from stores" (including their ammo of course). Purchase price of the weapons would be doubled (or just add the cost of the XCOM-EU equivalent) to reflect this versatility.

Essentially the game would switch icons and elements of OBJECT.DAT for a land mission. Could also switch Grenade types perhaps? But it's best to keep some underwater weapons (eg Gas Cannon), especially for land missions where there is some water present. Conceivably, in recognition of the progress made by X-COM, and the increasing threat, the authorities might even make available some of the scarce (?) stocks of laser weapons, to exchange for Gauss weapons during land missions. (But this is not really necessary, as Gauss weapons are quite adequate on land.) Working plasma weapons of course have long since vanished due to lack of Elerium. (Although by the same argument, 1st Alien War-era Personal Armour should be issued to any unarmoured troops on land missions. Maybe it takes 200% damage from Sonic weapons.)

• Variant on this - allow 1st Alien War equipment to be purchased or leased by X-COM, for a quite high price, to be used on land missions only. Mainly laser weapons and armour. Spike 09:22, 13 December 2009 (EST)

The direction that this suggestion is heading seems to point to merge the systems of both games. One idea to do so could be that both types of modules (Sonar and Radar) could be built at X-COM bases. Each of them would only detect USOs/UFOs either underwater or airborne. That would represent a strain on X-COM resources since the player would have to choose which ones to build at each base. Just having one type of system at a base would limit detection and tracking, which would also add another challenge.

Concerning Subs intercepting USOs over land another interesting change could be that the subs' armaments could also be of limited use while on air, just like the ground battles. Torpedo weapons would be impossible to use on the air (Ajax, DUP and PWT) which would limit the weapons to Gas and Gauss Cannons. Based on the criteria of the ground weapons the Sonic Oscillator could also be used but I'd drop the power of it to 50 so that the TFTD Battleships (equivalent to Terror Ships) could have also a change to strike back at X-COM craft. Another possibility would be prevent the Oscillator from being used on air (the logic would that the sound waves dissipate as the range goes higher) which would present another challenge to the player since he/she would have to make choices concerning how to equip the subs, since it would only be possible to hit airborne USOs with Gas and Gauss Cannons. Hobbes 13:09, 13 December 2009 (EST)

I like these ideas. I wonder if we should split off a different section or page on combined land/sea EU/TFTD? It would make an awesome game. If a game company was working on a remake of X-COM, it would be great to make an EU/TFTD hybrid from the start. It would be reminiscent of the UFO TV series that was probably one of the inspirations for X-COM.

In the realm of possibility for player mods might be a game that combines sea and land bases on the same geoscape map, with USOs and UFOs flying around, crash sites on land or underwater depending on the location of the crash, and land (EU) or sea (TFTD) loadouts depending on the crash location. Terror sites and other land sites would probably use EU loadouts? MC and Psi would need to be merged into the same phenomenon, probably. That wouldn't be too hard since under the skin it's the same thing. This could be as simple as calling the EU battlescape for land missions and the TFTD battlescape for undersea missions. Of course the Geoscape changes would be trickier. Only one political map could be used at one time. But possibly you could play first with an EU geoscape, EU political map, and EU victory conditions, and then play again with TFTD geoscape/map/victory conditions. The only difference in the geoscape .exe would be to permit bases and interceptions over sea (in EU) and land (in TFTD). Opening the base screen of a land base in TFTD might requiring calling a patched module from EU, and vice versa. Tech research would need to follow the geoscape (EU or TFTD), unless a way was found to combine the research trees of both games. But I doubt that is possible in a player mod because there is only room for one set of technologies in things like the object table. So basically researching lasers would give you gauss, and vice versa, across the board. Researching each EU technology would give its TFTD equivalent and vice versa. This would be OK I think. Spike 18:22, 13 December 2009 (EST)

I was thinking more of the TFTD plotline rather than EU's when making this suggestion. USO's don't appear on EU nor could their appearance be explained by the plotline. But the opposite would fit TFTD rather nicely. TFTD's political map could be expanded to land and additional cities would have to be placed. Terror attacks on inland cities would be different than the Port attacks on costal cities. Alien land colonies could also be a possibility but plot like they wouldn't make much sense (unless the aliens were preparing to flood the colonies areas. Hobbes 18:53, 13 December 2009 (EST)

I did actually make a start towards such a game, but sorta lost interest due to the usual lack of testers and the limitations the TFTD engine enforces. If/when I get around to resuming work on it I'll probably be restarting under the UFO engine instead. - Bomb Bloke 21:09, 13 December 2009 (EST)

IIRC the UFO engine has even more limitations than the TFTD one. I've read the post and although a full merger of both games sounds better, why not stick to making TFTD the way I described above? Hobbes 10:39, 14 December 2009 (EST)

Granted, TFTD allows for larger maps, has native support for things like underwater palettes, lets you open doors without going through them, plus a few other minor features. But other then that? Certain weapons/HWPs don't work in certain missions, nor do your flying suits. USOs have a habit of going "airbourne" (even when over a valid geoscape polygon!), preventing you from intercepting them, and seldom fly over "land" even if you have bases there. The tech tree has more constraints slapped on it then I care to count, and running the CE version of the game with a split executable makes it crash all the time.

Sure, most - if not all - of this stuff could be dealt with by messing with the executable, but with my current skills ("basic understanding of how machine code is read with no practical knowledge of opcodes at all") it's easier for me to just do it in UFO using external code (executable hacks can only realistically be applied to one version of the game anyway). Ditto for the concepts you described. Heck, even porting TFTD's plot to UFO's engine wouldn't be much of a challenge in comparison; other then the drills, cruise ships and artifact sites it'd be fairly straightforward to do, because everything else is the same thing under a different name!

On the other hand, if anyone ever comes out with a suitably hacked TFTD executable, I'd be happy to help provide whatever else was needed to make a playable game out of it. - Bomb Bloke 19:39, 14 December 2009 (EST)

Fair enough :) Hobbes 20:17, 14 December 2009 (EST)

• Make Gauss useful?

Explain? Gauss weapons are pretty useful. A big improvement on the starting weapons. Make them "more" useful? The XComUtil variant of Heavy Gauss is more useful, it packs quite a punch. Specific proposals please? Spike 09:22, 13 December 2009 (EST)

I agree. Gauss weapons are useful against most aliens, at least on an easy difficulty level. My aquanauts all use Gauss Rifles and the shots needed to down aliens are:

Alien           Gauss Rifle hits
Aquatoid        1
Gill Man        1-2
Tasoth          3-5
Lobster Man     ~10
Deep One        1
Calcinite       2
Xarquid         ?
Hallucinoid     2-4
Tentaculat      2-3
Bio-Drone       2-4
Triscene        immune

As you can see, Gauss Rifles are useful and quite powerful. Plus, they offer autofire. The only pain in the butt are Lobster Men, which are near immune, and Triscenes which appear to be totally immune. But these are resistant to pretty much anything anyway, save for grenades in case of Triscenes, and drills in case of Lobster Men. So, uh... what's wrong with Gauss? mingos

Agreed - well demonstrated. Hmm, maybe the point is to make Craft Gauss weapons (Gauss Cannons) more useful? Spike 18:22, 13 December 2009 (EST)

See Also

Wish List (Enemy Unknown)