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Crus8r

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About Crus8r

  • Birthday 02/26/1968

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  1. I totally agree that the counting aliens method is inexact and could require several trials...but it doesn't require ANY research, editors, or modifications to the game...thats the ONLY reason I suggested it. I would certainly recommend that anyone who plays the game take a look at Zombie's tables...they're a great resource which is accurate and complete, unlike the other tables or guides I've seen. (I'm still very much looking forward to the TFTD version) I guess the EASIEST way to determine difficulty is if Stygian is playing the unmodded DOS version The difficulty bug was the original reason that Scott Jones wrote XcomUtil, after all... Crus8r
  2. The game can be really random about when alien races appear, so that's not a good indicator of difficulty level (in the game I'm currently playing, difficulty is superhuman, its mid-April, and I've only encountered sectoids and floaters, mostly floaters...tho the terror sites have all been sectoid Cyberdisks are MUCH tuffer than Reapers!!) If you're playing the DOS version, and you aren't playing with a modded executable, then you're playing beginner...thats a bug that has always been in the DOS version. The usual fix for this is to patch the executable with XcomUtil...which will also explicitly tell you what difficulty your game is set to. XcomUtil, however, makes some other changes to the game, which you might not want...you could install another copy of the game, patch it with XcomUtil, copy over your save game, and run XcomUtil against it to find out the difficulty (this would work for both the DOS and Windows [CE] versions). If you're playing the windows (CE) version, and you don't want to bother with XcomUtil at all, you could estimate based on the MINIMUM number of aliens you've seen at a landed medium or large scout: 3 for beginner/experienced, 4 for veteran/genius, 6 for superhuman...similarly, you could use the minimum number of terrorists at a terror site: 2 for beginner/experienced, 4 for veteran/genius, 6 for superhuman. Crus8r
  3. Heh, its true that I usually have flying suits before small launchers & stun bombs, so the smoke method is far more useful to me...and is available from day 1. I'd never crunched the numbers on stun recovery either...looks like 100+ turns for recovery wouldn't be that unusual for an unarmored soldier Crus8r
  4. Unfortunately, no, you can't use a stun rod on friendly units (including MC'd aliens). Note also that if you use a small launcher, it may take a VERY long time for your guys to wake up (I had to wait over 100 turns once)...thats why I usually use the smoke method, if i'm not wearing power suits. It takes a lot longer to fall unconscious, but you'll wake up fairly quickly, most of the time (and using the AC-I trick can really reduce the amount of time it takes to fall unconscious in the first place). While I suppose it would certainly be possible to be 'trapped' with a large lake all around you, I've never seen that...there's usually at least one place where the distance across the water is 2-3 tiles max. That said, I did once toss guys across the water only to find that they were still blocked from access to the UFO by yet more water that was out of visible range from where I tossed them across (only once though, and they were able to get close enuff to 'trigger' the last couple of aliens to come out of the UFO and play ) Crus8r
  5. The Skyranger can definitely get "trapped" as well... I've had it happen several times (I sometimes place my initial base on the North Pole [it doesn't directly cover any funding nations, but it can provide reasonable response times to anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, and your ships will usually fly more directly to a target, wasting less time and fuel] and this often means more arctic terrain missions than usual). One way around the problem if you've researched small launchers and brought a few, is to stun a few soldiers and toss them and their equipment across the water...you'll havta wait for them to wake up, but you can use the time for reaction training if any aliens show up before they do. You can't use a stun rod, unfortunately, but you could also use smoke (especially if you brought an autocannon with Incindiary rounds...pop a smoker, move the guys you want stunned into the smoke, then shoot something with the AC-I...the guys in smoke will rapidly accumulate stun damage that way...note that soldiers in power suits are immune to smoke damage [so are guys in flying suits, but if you have those... ]) Crus8r
  6. I actually knew that...but I was trying to provide a 'handwavium' solution to the question of why a sonic blast creates a green glowing trail...oh well, havta think about it some more... Crus8r
  7. Couple of ideas regarding real/game physics... @grenades: just incorporate a disposible launcher into the grenade...looks something like the WWII german "potato masher", has a small shaped charge in the handle, which launches the hydrodynamic grenade through the water...strength is still important because you have to control the recoil to get long distances... @sonics: just say that the sonic pulse causes secondary harmonic resonaces, which ARE audible...for visibility, how about saying that when the sonic pulse travels through seawater, the molecular agitation causes about .1% of the salt to separate into its component atoms: sodium and clorine...the chemical reaction of the newly-freed sodium would definitely make a visible 'trail'...and the clorine could explain the green color Crus8r
  8. Great work, Zombie! And I must say that I, for one, will be very happy to get the TFTD version...I started to ask if you were gonna do one yesterday, but then decided to hold off a few days so as not to steal any thunder from what you have done already! Thanks Crus8r
  9. While I was doing some testing, I found a serious bug in the Clark Wehyr Editor. I was running several end-of-month passes, and I noticed that after making a really minor edit to one of my bases with the editor, monthly expenses shot through the roof. I therefore did a comparison between the edited base.dat and the backup file made by the editor... Basically, the BASE.DAT file includes a value for each of the 36 "squares" in a base that tells how much time until the facility there is completed, or 0 if it is finished and ready. Unused, or 'dirt' modules should have a value of 255[FF] in the completion section...but the editor sets them all to 0. Apparently, the game has a 'hidden' maintenance cost for 'finished' dirt modules, one that doesn't add to the maintenance costs displayed by the game, but that does add to what you are charged at the end of the month...the game I was testing has four bases: the main base (not much 'dirt' left), a secondary base (about 16 'squares' used) and 2 nascent bases (mostly dirt). After discovering the bug and editing all the dirt in my bases back to 255[FF] for completion time, monthly maintenance went down more than $7,000,000!! Thats more than I was paying for regular base maintenance plus the salaries of 100 scientists, 20 engineers, 25 soldiers, 2 interceptors, and a Skyranger! Crus8r
  10. Only one of each sonar type will have any effect...2 small sonars is no better than 1. But different types of sonar stack...so you can have one small and one wide array sonar working together. Small sonar gives 10% short range detection, wide array sonar gives 20% short and 20% long range detection, both together gives 30% short, 20% long range detection...Transmission Resolver trumps them both with 100% detection, longer range, and Race/Mission info...once you have Transmission Resolvers, you no longer need the sonars. Alien Bases get set up not at any specific time of the month, but rather whenever there is an alien base mission carried out by a small flotilla of USOs...in my experience, if you see the flotilla appear, the base is built (even if you stop all the USOs)...to stop new bases, you have to kill the scouts on Colony missions that appear earlier. One way to tell if a colony is present is to use the graphs...if an area had little/no USO traffic, but still shows consistent alien activity, there is probably a colony (or several) there somewhere...send a Triton to patrol the area. Crus8r
  11. All this discussion has gotten me wondering what happens if a (undefended) base were overrun and destroyed WHILE troops and equipment were in transit...do they return to the base of origin, or do they just cease to exist? I'm positive this has never happened to me...but then, the 'window' of vulnerability is usually quite short... Crus8r
  12. The DOSBox site is still down, but you can grab a copy from the files section...its not the newest build, but it works great for Xcom and it features the nifty HQ2x renderer that is NOT part of the basic standard build... The HQ renderer is by far the best 'smoother' I've found...give it a shot and see what you think, you can always turn it off if you don't like it Crus8r
  13. Well, that is all correct...so I have no idea why your game is crashing On the other hand, your Gauss weapons are all set with the improved values, and still use clips...so you got that fixed up... Since you said that the crashes are not keeping you from playing, I guess that'll work for now... Crus8r
  14. Well, like I said, I think its possible that the non-zero value at offset 22, combined with the damage values from the clips, may be whats causing your crashes...try zeroing them (trust me, the weapons will still do damage as long as you're using clips) To get the XcomUtil damage values, you'll need to update offset 22 for each of the clips: line 47 is the gauss pistol clip (update offset 22 to 40(28)), line 48 is gauss rifle clip (update to 80(50)), and line 49 is gauss cannon clip (update to 120(78)) Remember that if you're using a hex editor, you should use the values in parenthesis, as they are the hex equivalents of the decimal numbers...also most hex editors will start counting lines at 0, so you might be thinking lines 48, 49, and 50...just check the label at the start of the line, it will tell you what each is. Crus8r
  15. Ok, I think I see where you're coming from... First off, when referring to columns (Zombie and I have been using the term "offsets", which is hex-editing lingo), you should start at the very beginning of the line (the G in Gauss Pistol, for example) and it is standard practice in hex-editing to start counting at zero...so 'offset 0' for the Gauss Pistol is the letter G, while 'offset 6' would be the P. If you count this way, I believe that you'll find that what you're calling columns 15 & 20 would be offsets 26 and 31...check and see before you proceed. I must admit that I missed the change to offset 31 ...this controls the damage type, and it should be 255(FF) for Gauss weapons that use clips (remember that weapons that use clips don't do damage...the ammo does)...XcomUtil set this to 03 because that is the value for Gauss damage, but clip-using weapons get their damage types set by the clip (think about the Gas Cannon for a sec...its damage type (and amount) depends on the clip type, right?) Did you change offset 22 (I believe you would have called it column 11) to 00? This might be causing the crash as the game trys to reconcile the fact that your weapon has a damage value set, but also uses clips that have a damage value as well. BTW, when I listed numbers to change, I gave the decimal value followed by the hex value in parens...with these pointers in mind, try the suggestions I made before and see if that straightens everything out... @Zombie: I don't believe that weapon editing is one of the abilities of the Clarkwehyr Editor...at least, not the version I'm using (v1.52, which is the same as indicated on the link you provided.) Is there another version, or were you thinking of a different editor? Crus8r
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