Bansheedragon

Now why didnt I think of that? Thanks, that did it

I hope people here dont mind if I revive this ancient thread, but I'm having trouble updating the game using the instructions posted here. I followed these instruction and they would probably have worked fine if not for one problem. The files are not 64 bit compatible, obviously. When I run the TFTDHD.exe file in windows I get a message saying its not compatible with my windows version. Its then suggested I look in some system information to see if I need a 32 bit or 64 bit version. Its a problem I have encountered with many older games, where I am unable to run 32 bit binaries on a 64 bit system. I also tried running the update.exe from the command prompt wihtout running the TFTDHD.exe first. This gave me an error saying the file is incompatible with my 64 bit system and to look for a 64 but version. Basically it sounds to me like I need a 64 bit version of the update, unless there is a workaround for this. Does anyone know if there is a way to solve this?

Thanks for the tip, I had expected steam to default to the windows version.. I went ahead and bought the X-COM collection at steam yesterday, only cost 15 Euro for the full collection(5 games)

You're gonna have to take this one from the top. In your previous post you talked about steam running a windows based version while here you talk about steam running dosbox to run the game, now I'm a little confused here. You say the extender is worth getting for bug fixes, and fro what I read of it that seems like a good idea. However extender requires a windows version of the game. And I'm honestly not sure if I got the dos or windows version, though I assume its dos as it runs through dosbox from windows. If the steam version is windows based, then I could from what I understand just copy/paste the folders to the existing one and run it with the extender?

Your first sentence was enough to make me understand what binaries are. My question was in reference to what Sp1ke was talking about regrading steam vs dos versions of the game. But I still appreciate the explanations.

I buy most my games either from Gamersgte or GOG.com. Unfortunately most games I buy from Gamersgate has Steamworks DRM, or some other kind of DRM. The Xcom series here are one of a few exceptions. Its an interesting conversation about Gallop/Microprose, and I enjoy learning some history about the games I play. At least the older ones, the newer ones dont have much interesting about them. However it seems my question about binaries has been lost in the history lesson here , could someone explain that for me please?

Its not that I have anything against Steam, I'm just old fashioned. Part of the reason I dislike steam is all the DRM crap I despise so much. You have to explain these binaries to me. My knowledge of computers dont extend much beyond everyday use and the most basic of troubleshooting. If I can get the game to work under windows without the need for dosbox or steam, then I'm all for it.

I'm not too fond of steam, and too many games recently has a steam requirement. Call me old fashioned if you like, but I prefer games that dont require some kind of 3rd party mumbo jumbo to be installed on my computer to play. However looking at the bug fix list for TFTD extender I'm tempted to get it However I read something somewhere about something that would only work with the DOS version, I just cant remember what that was. I reinstalled the game, and copy/pasted the files and folders from the folder I unziped them to and into the TFTD folder. The patch has been applied and working as intended and th e terror mission freeze s gone. It was simply the result of human error, as in my copying and replacing the wrong files.

The copy/paste of the patch files I did seems to have screwed up the game. Game hangs/freezes when I click yes to land by a terror site. As I started by copy/pasting individual files, I may have placed them in the wrong place. Though it didnt seem to make a difference, as magnetic navigation was not available for research as soon as I had it in my stores which it should have been with the 2.0 patch. I'm gonna reinstall the game and try again.

Interesting. What the point of having the base defense structures in the game in the first place if they dont have any real purpose anyway? And if it intentional programming, well I dont have the words to express what I think about that other than that its plain stupid. On a side note, I wish there were more games like these (TFTD and EU). There are the newer UFO games(not counting the Fraxis one) and Xenonauts, but they still feel as if they are missing something.

I dont remember which game it was in, but I think it was EU. I had 3 tiles of the strongest available base defenses, plasma beams at the time, I had expected each of them to fire in sequence like if I have one of each type. But from what I cold see only one of them fired at a UFO trying to attack a base of mine, not all 3. I had a grav shield as well allowing them to fire again, and they hit both times, and with 3 plasma beam defenses I would have expected that to be enough to take out the UFO. As a result I have one of each base defense, as then I know I have the firepower to destroy an incoming UFO/USO when all weapons hit.

I usually have my research in my primary base, and the manufacturing in the secondary. I keep it that way in case of USO retaliation, as I will have soldiers to defend the base, should the base defenses fail to take out the USO. I usually have a few combined detection/intercept bases scattered around to deal with USO in other areas. These bases I usually equip with 2 subs for 3 reasons. 1. A USO is detected while a sub is refueling/rearming means I have the other to take care of it. 2. A large USO shows up and I might need more than 1 to take it out 3. If more then 1 USO shows up, I can intercept more than just the one.

I forgot to make a backup of the folder, but its quick to download and reinstall so not a big issue. I tried doing 2 things First I installed dosbox and tried running the executable files from there, since they are not Windows files. The Update.exe only displays the infor contained in the readme.1st file. Then I tried running the TFTDHD and TFTD CD files, those two inflated the files, thats the word that was used. Since that didnt seem to have any effect, I went into the TFTDCD folder and simply copy/pasted the files and folders there to my TFTD game folder. Now its time to see if it had any effect. So far I have not had enough living space to support more than 60 scientists, I need space for my soldiers as well and there are limits to how many buildings I can have in my base. I always leave space in my bases to build 1 of each base defense, including the grav shield/bombardment defense. I also keep 2 bases, where one is dedicated to research and the other to production. In addition as the game progress I build some detection/intercept bases in other locations as suggested by others. The aliens I had most trouble with was the lobstermen, the Gil Men didnt pose that much of a threat to me. The one thing I always try to research first are the medi-kits, they are invaluable. I never actually used the Particle Disturbance Sensor have I underestimated them? As for the Gas Cannon, I have a question regarding that. As you know it has 3 types of ammo, the one thing I never could get to work was the unload option. I know where to find the button for unloading ammo, but I never could seem to get it to work. So how do I unload ammo from a weapons, how does that button work? Last I plan to start a new game as I felt I lost control and oversight of the last one.

Only 1 readme file and it only explains the fixes/changes, but not how to apply the patch. There seems to be 2 different versions, one called TFTDCD and one called TFTDHD. The TFTD Extender only works with the windows version of the game, the one I have are the Dos version(runs in dosbox).

OK I downloaded the patches 2.0 and 2.1, but I'm confused as to how to I apply them.

I have been trying to develop better weapons for my subs, but have yet to get any craft weapon research. Only alien weapons I have not researched by now are Vibro blade and Blasta rifle/clip. I have a number of aliens and alien corpses, but dont see them having any effect on that. I finished research of both mantas and hammerhead, even built a few mantas. So what am I missing to get the craft and later base defense weapons?

They make me not want to do alien base and artifact missions as well. And I usually get bored half way through and quit the game, to proceed later

I still research all weapons, to get the craft versions and base defense versions of them, but for ground assaults I just prefer the gauss ones. You are right most USOs dont take more then 4 DUPs to take down, which is fine as long as you dont miss with one or both of the first two salvos. I miss a little bit too often for comfort with at least one of the salvos. I tried all 3 weapons, Hydro Jet, Gas Cannon and Torpedo Launcher, I got the same message with all of them, that they only worked under water. I cant explain it, only describe what happened when trying to use them. And whoever came up with the idea of 2 stage missions should have been fired. For alien colonies I might be able to accept them, but for terror missions I find them pointless and frustrating. I was doing a terror mission on a shipping lane, and spent half the time running around trying to find the last alien. When I found it I thought finally its over, only to have a second stage slapped in my face which took about half as long as the previous stage to complete(Didnt have to search for the last alien that time).

The problem with the DUP is the insanely low ammo capacity. I had subs fire all 6 at a USO and not had it be enough. And then there is the problem(bug?) when you fir the last set at max range. Your sub moves to standoff range the moment they are fired, causing them to miss the USO. So in reality you only get 4 shots, not 6 Last time I tried using a gas cannon on land I got an error in the stats field saying it was a underwater weapon only. I'm currently somewhere around May-July the first year, and dont have that much trouble with aliens hitting me. The aliens miss more than they hit, and I dont see how auto fire(3 shot sequence) would change their ability to hit. Since the sonic weapons dont have auto fire, I cheated a little and used an editor to increase the gauss weapons damage a little bit instead to be on par with sonic weapons. I didnt make them super OP, only increased the damage output by 20 points, and increased the clip size by 10 shots. Enough to make a difference, but not so much as to take the fun/challenge out of the game.

@magic9mushroom Can you tell me how I can shoot holes in buildings using only Dart Guns and Jet Harpoons? I have been unable to shoot holes in walls using them, and the bigger weapons, such as the gas launcher only works in water. Using sonic pulsars to blow the roof of catacombs might work, but I would have to research them first to use them. My own magna blast grenades honestly feels like firecrackers in comparison to the alien ones. So on very early terror missions I dont see any alternative but to stun civilians. I never expected or wanted the sonic cannon to have auto fire, I was thinking of the pistols and rifles. In EU the Plasma pistols and rifles had auto fire options, but not the heavy if I remember right. I had hoped that the sonic pistols and rifles had that option as well, which they dont. As a result I like the gauss weapons better for ground assaults. As for retaliatory fire fro USOs, I cant attack any USO of size large or above without then firing back and almost destroy my barracudas, sometimes the destroy them as well. Some of them have started shooting at me almost as soon as I begin my approach. Right now I dont have anything better than DUP torpedoes, and between sonic weapons and sub construction research it feels as if I'm not getting anywhere. And I need the better subs as my barracudas are starting to have trouble with intercepting due to USOs going too deep or too fast. @spk1e Mag Ion armor is not a prereq for sub construction, I think you are confusing it with magnetic navigation. Zrbite and transmission resolver is required for sub construction research and you need an item in your inventory before finishing both or it bug out and you dont get it. You are right about the Deep one Terrorist interrogation. You need to hold off interrogating it to you have researched Plastic Aqua Armor to be able to research Ion Armor. @NKF I had to get a Lobsterman Navigator to research Mag. Navigation, however when looking in my games folder I seem to have both the patched and unpatched versions, and when I launch the game its always run the unpatched one(shortcut on desktop) I tried renaming both to see if that makes a difference, but I doubt I'll notice it now as I'm past most the bugs in the tech tree.

Your probably right about the stun launcher, the interior was unaffected by the blast. I'm working hard to research both weapons and subs, but its taking more time than I like. Even my troops still cant use alien weapons, they are still using gauss weapons. The one thing I really dislike about the alien weapons in TFTD is their complete lack of auto fire. More often then not aliens take more then 1 hit to take down, or shots miss and you might not have enough TUs for another shot. It may seems like a waste of ammo, but I find it quite useful, and I can afford doing it.

I dont remember what they are called in this game, but they are the equivalent of the aliens Blasta Launchers from EU. I was Assaulting a large landed USO, all my troops was wearing Ion armor. I had one of my troops enter the USO, only to get shot on by this weapon just as he got inside the USO. Now the funny thing is my trooper was almost completely unaffected, had some blue bar on the HP bar that I'm not sure what means but no HP lost, while the alien who fired the shot stood too close to the blast and killed itself. I have to say the Ion armors of TFTD seems allot more powerful than the Power armors of EU, which always felt like paper armor to me. I had aliens fire 3-4 shots at my trooper and not be affected, in EU I lost troops after 2 shots even with the armor. I'm somewhere between 6 to 9 months into the game, and just started researching the transmission resolver, which is the last thing I need before I can start researching sub construction. So I'm 3-6 months from having my first new sub, after which I need to get better weapons. The optimal research path might be unbalanced and dumb, but its very frustrating when you have to take care not to research things that are required for other things, which would prevent you from getting those things if you did that research before something else.

That works fine for regular structures. But it dont work for underground areas or towers. Some maps have some kind of subterranean areas, shooting my way in there dont work. Other maps have towers, where civilians block the only way up, I cant really shoot me a new staircase. The research bugs in this game makes for some really frustrating research. I have to constantly make sure I dont research the wrong items, so I dont research myself into a dead end. Add to that a less then straight forward research progression and I feel as if I'm constantly lagging behind in research. I have come to a point where larger USOs are getting more frequent and I only have the Barracudas with the Ajax and DUP torpedoes. And those larger USOs can sometimes 1-2 shot my barracudas.

And thats exactly what I do. Before I figured that out I used to shoot them, costing me victory points, which sometimes could mean the difference between a good and a bad monthly report. I noticed that the score is much more difficult to keep positive here than in EU, where my best score was over 6700 one month.

Vanilla TFTD, purchased at Gamersgate. I can have a soldier standing waiting for a civilian to move, only to have then just stand there. For all I know an alien could have MCed them and use them to block the entrance, a human shield so to speak.