Afterlight research bug

[The Veteran]

Ok, it's no secret I've been playing through this game and now I'm nearly finished. Terraforming done to 100% and just a handful of territories to finish mopping up the martians and beastmen for good. Trouble is I don't want to kill the martians as this IS their home after all... That mean sI need to research their language and such but I can't... After a lot of reverse engineering I think I see what's 'missing' that prevents the neccesary research.

 

I noticed the problem trying to obtain the 'Martian Soldier Interrogation Topic'

That didn't start because I haven't done the 'MArtian Autopsy' despite having had corpses for ages...

I also noticed that I haven't done any of the otehr autopsies either, only the beastman one which is first to be carried out...

 

None of the topics I'm missing are visible on available or unavailable lists so I don't get what the problem is. In order to research the beastman autopsy (which I already have completed) the online tech-trees all list 2 pre-requisites as being 'autopsy' and 'corpse'. Those are the same pre-reqs for all of the autopsies and I have loads of corpses for rollers, bosses, martians etc. yet none of them are available to research.

 

I've built EVERYTHING available in my base and all buildings are staffed. There are 4 available topics remaining as unavailable, 2 plasma ones requiring the martian interrogatin, one requiring the beastman commander (?) interrogation and a final one which needs some martian language to go ahead so that one is a catch 22.

 

Basically, it seems the beastman autopsy was triggered therefore suggesting I DO have the 'autopsy' pre-req, none of the others have been though which suggests I DON'T have it. The fact that there's no mention of what this 'Autopsy' requirement actually IS anywhere makes it even harder to understand so I'm screwed.

 

Without the other autopsies I can't sue for peace with the Martians and I want the guys to run my gift shops when I start opening hotels there so it's vital really. Any help/cheat/mod would be great. I really hate this game and want to get to the end of the damn thing!

[silencer_pl]

To research Martian language you need to research 2 objects from dig sites this gives you Martian written language. Capturing live Martian gives you Martian spoken language. Combining both gives you magnetic something that allows you to communicate with Martians. After terraforming reaches certain level you should get terraforming war and after that friendly terraforming which will allow you to get friendly with martians again.

 

And you getting it wrong. Martians aren't the original inhibitors of Mars. The Beastman are. The science dude informs that martians and beastmen fought each other and the beastmen were trapped in some kind of dimensional hocus pocus.

 

I think that fight between martians and beastmen were because of this Myrmicol(sp?) thing.

 

This should cover everything you should know.

 

Also are you using the latest patch ? The one that takes care of DRM ? I think it is unofficial but Altar said it is a OK patch.

[The Veteran]

Honestly, I've had such a strong dislike for this game for so long I decided to just get it over with. Turns out I was only 1 mission away anyway so I just trashed the beastman fortress and the game ended. Sadly the bug means I missed a lot of the explanations like the myrmecols, beastman/martian war, the terraforming stuff etc. But you still miss the real issue mate, I'm missing ALL of the autopsies so I can't interrogate the live martian I captured.

 

I don't care now as I've finished the piece of crap (never to play it again) but I can't imagine I'm the only person who will ever have this problem so a solution may help others in the future!

[yeni]

as a minor point, it's 3 dig site objects, not 2, at least in my current game - the only recovered artifacts research that only needs 2 that i recall is the one from the

moon missions

. Also, TV didn't have it wrong, he just didn't have the research to know that yet (thanks to a bug i hadn't heard of or seen before). I remember believing the martians were the original inhabitants for a while myself when i played it the first time.

 

As for the latest patch, my understanding is that Altar gave PetteriB permission to release further patches officially.

 

I understand that you have a strong dislike for the game, TV, but please refrain from saying "this is a piece of crap". Saying "i think this is a piece of crap" is a lot less offensive and it doesn't make you sound like you're stating a fact. Every game has its bugs - to point at some from one of your favorites, "paying for dirt" and "base disjunction" (if any reader isn't familiar with those, check out https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Known_Bugs ). Personally, i think your biggest problem with this game is that your mindset is much more suited for the original and TFTD Xcom games, while i'm the opposite, the way i think seems to make me do better and enjoy Afterlight more than Xcom or TFTD.

[silencer_pl]

To get the autopsies you need the special building - did you get it ? And are you sure you are running 1.7 version of afterlight ?

[The Veteran]

Thanks Yeni, Si. I DO have the pathology lab and there's nothing else I can construct OR research to help in that respect. I'm not sure what version I'm running but it's a retail DVD copy so I guess it's pretty stable?!

 

And yes, obviously what I say is only my opinion. I THINK it's a piece of crap but that doesn't mean others won't enjoy it way more than me. Obviously they do! Like you say Yeni, didfferent people want different things. I want a more challenging realistic game where sometimes I have to lose people and abandon missions. I DON'T want a level of difficulty that arises mainly from super-human opponents and swarm 'tactics'.

 

On finishing this game and fighting all of the factions at various points in their physical and technical development I think a mod that simply removes the Matriachs would be a pretty good start. Everything else except rollers are pretty manageable as long as you keep on top of your own R&D, those buggers are so fast though and usually turn up in pairs and as part of a squad of 10 beastmen! The spider rush that people speak about isn't all that bad as they're slower and weaker, plus precise shot stops them getting into H2H.

 

So that's my unofficial conclusion with regards to this game. Remove (or heavily modify!) Matriachs and fix the enemy AI. That should make a HUGE difference! Stay tuned for a more official report in weeks to come

[silencer_pl]

Ekhm - retail DVD is 1.0 version - come on - any gaming Veteran should know that after 6+ years from the release there are patches.... No wonder you are experiencing such bugs....

 

Go get that 1.7 patch soldier ASAP and start playing on Impossible or your name isn't Veteran

 

Oh and Matriarhs are easy if you have plasma rifles

[The Veteran]

plasma huh? Wish someone had told me that But then seeing as I couldn't interrogate the martians anyway I guess it wouldn't matter as I can't ever use them

 

And yes, I know the original DVD release is going to be V1.0 but I wasn't sure if there were further batches released with a different version. Or whatever Finished now anyway and bearing in mind the bugs only account for about 2% of my dislike of this game I don't think I'll be playing it again patched!

[silencer_pl]

Well other trick was to aim shot at their legs And sure the other realeses should have next patches but If you bought original realese not for exampl Ufo Trilogy then what do you expect

 

I always double check the version after I buy game long after original release.

[The Veteran]

Yeah I guess I should start doing that too! aimed leg shots on Matriachs you say? Don't they come out at some ridiculously poor percentage for chance o hit?

[silencer_pl]

Well trained sniper should have good percentage + add sub sonic ammo. But that is idea from altar forums or other walkthroughs.

 

Me ? I went 6x Miniguns - totaly devastates all. Also Warp Cannons have pretty much decent accuracy for them if they manage to get close. After I got my brand new shining plasma rifle it was mostly one shot kills (or heavy damage) except those green matriarchs. Later those matriarchs try to suicide bomb you so your Miniguns chew right through them even better, but that is late game.

 

Also grenade lucnhers / rocket lunchers are your bet - Matriarchs probably don't have acrobatics skill so you should knock them out + they are light.

[yeni]

interestingly, my usual tactic didn't get mentioned here yet, i use snipers in precise shot doing the high chance to hit body shots to take down matriarchs, while the gatling / minigun kind of people keep other enemies from closing - or they take out spiders at longer range, since they are unusually easy to hit.

 

the "Boss" enemy/pet is pretty easy to deal with, i usually use warp cannons on them just to help conserve ammo

(i also use the warps to finish off wounded rollers, sometimes - i have 2 gatling gunners carry the warps)

 

plasma - i don't think i've used any plasma myself, unless you count the lightning ball gun in late game - that one's a blast, if you get to it! ( i didn't on my first run thru the game )

[silencer_pl]

No lightning gun is lightning gun. I think it was called devastator or annihilator or something like that (not the plasma that Martians / Beastmen use). Also one of the EM weapons was something similar but I am talking about plasma beam, not EM beam.

[yeni]

and as i recall, the lightning ball launcher is not a beam weapon at all, but does require research of both plasma and EM topics (and it required a soldier/technician with a specific technician training to use it...), and yes the name is confusing as there is a martian lightning gun as well. Come to think of it, there's a chance it's not in the base game at all, as i've only got it in modded games - going to play vanilla thru again and see if i can get it

 

Annihilator is the name you're thinking of, it's in my research queue in my current game.