neil1 Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 Well, afetr nearly 3 years of eearching, I have finally managed to obtain a copy of UFO. albeit on the PS1 format. It took some time and effort, but it is worth it. First game and I had forgotten how poor the rifles were, evan against those ugly grey Sectoids. Can not wait to get mi hands on a blaster bomb and launcher, they make life so much easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JellyfishGreen Posted June 3, 2004 Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 Ooh, take your time with the Sectoids. Once your guys get in some practice, as long as they're not being mind-controlled, aimed rifle fire is extremely effective and random pistol snapshot/reaction fire extremely pleasing. As long as you're not on Superhuman, anyway. And don't forget the HE pack - poor man's blaster bomb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil1 Posted June 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 I had forgotten about the HE packs, thanks for reminding me. As for the mind zaps, it happens every blinkin time. think I'll shoot the next guy that loses it due to one of these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBlade Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 It's better to try and get that guy out of mind control if possible. Killing him will deteriorate the morale of his team mates, and will give the controller the possibility of assaulting another soldier's mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 You could always stun the poor chap who is under Mind Control. Stun the guy with a stun rod, then pick him up and move one space in any direction. {This separates the soldier from his weapons} Revive him with a Medi-Kit and allow aliens to mind-rape freely until the end of the mission nears. Hopefully when the last alien is in sight, the aliens' morale is low enough so he will not MC your soldier again. After the mission, sack the guy - he is not worth the time to improve! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman4117 Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 But blowing his head off with a heavy plasma is more fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 Actually, in UFO and TFTD, the moment a unit is stunned, their equipment is dropped entirely. So you needn't move the unit at all. On the other hand, in Apocalypse, you need to move the equipment to remove it from the unit's inventory. Better yet, the moment you gain control of the unit, just drop the unit's equipment and send the bright young cadet out scouting on his/her OWN! Or just let the soldier be a Psi Sponge. Psi sponges are good. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ignore my tentacles Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 *Pans to X-COM general*"A long time ago, sectoid and ethereal missions were a misery to me, but that was before I used...Psi Sponge" Trust NKF-I almost feel sorry for the fellah/gal stood drooling by the Ranger exit ramp or aimlessly wandering about scaring civvies, whilst his/her buddies cheerfully give those damn aliens a good shoeing. If only I had the know how to mod stuff, I'd have my better soldiers beating sectoids to death with a garden spade. Revenge is a dish best served piping hot with croutons and a fancy cheese, accompanied with a generous dollop of screaming and shouting I feel. :devil: PS. Oooh, 50 actual x-com related posts in almost a year and half! I must start to actually contribute something to this site. must...stay..away...from..off...topic.......can't... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted June 5, 2004 Report Share Posted June 5, 2004 NKF Posted on Jun 3 2004, 10:53 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted June 5, 2004 Report Share Posted June 5, 2004 Strength and skill both max at 100. The psi sponge with low strength will still absorb the one attack. One less attack can sometimes make all the difference. The real trick with psi sponges is to know who they are before they succumb to the psionic effects. However, one question: What do you do with your sponges during the battle? You can't just leave them running around out in the field. What you do with them after the mission is simple. Have them replaced. By the way, I've always found psionic skill and strength to be separate in function rather than combined. With strength being purely defensive and skill being offensive. A soldier with no strength but plenty of skill will be able to panic and mind control just as well as a soldier with lots of strength and the same skill level. But this is mainly off of observation. I have yet to do a real comparison between psi strength vs. psi skill levels. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted June 5, 2004 Report Share Posted June 5, 2004 I know that Psionic Strength can be at the most, 100 (from my 1000 soldier list and the OSG). But what is the max Psionic Skill a soldier can have if you: 1) Put him through one month of training and then take him out of training for the rest of his career. After he is out of training, keep using his psionic skills. Does Psionic Skill in this case max out at 100?2) Keep him in training throughout his entire career. So you constantly get improvement by using the skills as well as some improvement at the end of each month for training. Does Psionic Skill in this case max out higher? At least in the second option, I know I had some soldiers with psionic skill greater than 117! With this being possible, maxing out psionic skill hinges upon how many months you can stay in the game. If you somehow stay in 12000 months (or 1000 years), your skill would creep closer and closer to infinity because you always gain some improvement by being in training and using your skills! I am guessing that the programmers anticipated the infinity dilemma and capped out the skill at some number. But what? 120 with ultimate high of 125 depending upon the roll of the dice - like firing accuracy and throwing accuracy? In my opinion, a psi sponge (notice the small caps) absorbing one measly attack is meaningless when you have a ship full of Ethereals that can dish out 2, 3, or possibly even 4 psi attacks per round. If you have a Large Scout (with a maximum of 10 Ethereals on beginner level) this could mean 40 potential attacks per round. 1 out of 40 is 2.5% of the total to one soldier - HARDLY A SPONGE! NKF Posted on Jun 4 2004, 11:20 PM However, one question: What do you do with your sponges during the battle? You can't just leave them running around out in the field.No, we can't have them running around the battlesite loose, now can we! You have to put them on a leash (and a very short one at that)! Just lock them up in a building with a soldier guarding each exit, or possibly blocking them inside your transport ship with a couple soldiers - one using the Mind Probe and the other sitting on a pile of blaster bombs and a launcher. Not that this matters since a sponge does not do a very good job of protecting your soldiers in the first place! NKF Posted on Jun 4 2004, 11:20 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted June 5, 2004 Report Share Posted June 5, 2004 You really should have worked out your psionic capabilities well before hitting the ethereals. Of course, some campaigns differ from others, so I guess one should never rely on getting a sectoid leader or commander on the word go. If that is the case, I'd actually go for the better part of valour and retreat - maybe abducting an unsuspecting ethereal on the way out. Psi sponges aren't that useful in practice, I will agree. But against sectoids, where only a few of their classes get psi skill, it will actually work. Ethereals on the other hand are a whole different kettle of slimy things with scales on. --- Hmm, if I'm understanding you correctly, if a soldier, let's say has a skill of 100 and a strength level of 0 (some soldiers do get this bad), this soldier will have an overall attack power of 0? (and as such, when comparing against an alien this soldier will go well into the negatives, earning an immediate failure) I really must set up a test scenario for this while I'm still in my experimental mood. By the way, no matter how high psi skill will go, cap or no cap, it will never go beyond 255 on account of it being stored in a single byte. It will actually atrophy if it tries to go beyond 255 on account of it losing a bit. Also, I thought the experience you gain from the labs was adjusted based on how many points you have out of a hundred. Say you get 1 to 16 points at the very beginning. The game will then roll the same amount for the next increase and then lower it depending on the percentage of how much of the 100 points remain. And as you approach 100, the earnings become less an less. At least, this is how usage increases work. I might be mistaken about lab increases. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted June 5, 2004 Report Share Posted June 5, 2004 NKF Posted on Jun 5 2004, 02:52 AM Hmm, if I'm understanding you correctly, if a soldier, let's say has a skill of 100 and a strength level of 0 (some soldiers do get this bad), this soldier will have an overall attack power of 0? (and as such, when comparing against an alien this soldier will go well into the negatives, earning an immediate failure) You got it! Multiplying PsiStr(0) by PsiSkl(100 or whatever) returns a PCS of 0. You may still try to attack an alien psionically (even with a strength of 0) but as the difference grows your chance of success declines. It may well be possible to successfully gain control of an aliens mind or panic him even with a PCS of 0 - it depends on distance and how the game handles negative numbers. I am guessing here for the sake of argument that a PCS of 0 equates to a snowballs chance in hell of a successful attack ! So I guess that the 255 cap for Psionic Skill was set by the computer, not the programmers. Understandable, since machines have limitations! NKF Posted on Jun 5 2004, 02:52 AM At least, this is how usage increases work. I might be mistaken about lab increases. A long time ago I read something stating that Psionic Skill caps out at 100 if your soldier is not in training. It also stated that Psionic Skill went higher than 100 if you are in training. Recently, I played a saved game from someone (I can't remember who) and one of their soldiers had an unaltered Psi Skl of something like 215 or so. The useage increase formula you mentioned probably only works for the case when the soldier is out of training permanently. Lab training definitely increase your Skill well beyond 100 and possibly to the max of 255. I was just wondering if anyone could support my claim! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil1 Posted June 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 But blowing his head off with a heavy plasma is more fun!My Kind of response. Really like the train of thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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