I am positive zombies can 'pop' independent of outside forces. I saw it during a particularly disastrous base defense mission.

I remember hearing somewhere that they will pop. I have never witnessed it, however.

Well, most of us probably can turn on concentrated weapons fire before they get the chance. It takes a while.

I never try to keep my distance from aliens. If I can see it, I shoot it. And if I can't shoot it, well, the best I can do is duck around a corner and hide.

 

So! NKF! Sensai! Do zombies pop on thier own or not?

So! NKF! Sensai! Do zombies pop on thier own or not? 

The question is not whether they do or not, it's how long it takes?

The sensei says:

 

'What? You think the world is handed to you on a silver platter? Go and find the answers for yourselves!'

 

But that's not me.

 

I gave it a try, and, no, they don't appear to hatch by themselves.

 

But don't take my word for it. Have a go at it yourself, check my experimental savegame page for a test game.

 

https://www.geocities.com/nkfarma/fun/testgames.html

 

The savegame's a bit odd for a standard game, as it was originally just one soldier against a small scout. All the additional units in this map are 'virtual' (i.e. they don't exist in the soldier roster). However, fear not, the chryssalid I added will make normal zombies. I also gave the chryssalid massive critical wounds, so it'll last long enough to zombify a few of the test subjects.

 

Interesting, chryssalid attacks are NOT checked against your armour. The overseer unit in my test game is invulnerable to most attacks with 255 all-round armour, but it won't stop the chryssalid attack. On the other hand, the overseer is invulnerable against zombies.

 

That's it. Things are evil. Not even armour protects against their attacks.

 

- NKF

 

P. S: There'll be a rathery panicky sectoid on the map and you may even find a civilian. You can safely ignore them.

Interesting, chryssalid attacks are NOT checked against your armour.

 

Not even armour protects against their attacks

 

 

I thought this was already a well known fact. I've never seen a Chryssalid take more then one swing at one of men, ever. So I just naturally assumed armour did jack squat.

I just assumed that their attacks did more damage to your armour than you could ever have. Technically it's true.

 

Of course, I realise I'm forgetting that if the unit is a tank, it treats the attack as a melee attack rather than an impregnation attack, which does get affected by armour. I was basing my assumption off of the tanks actually. I mean, it can survive the occasional hit. Not alway, mind, but occasionally.

 

- NKF

I gave it a try, and, no, they don't appear to hatch by themselves.

I can vouch for the fact that they do hatch on their own, as I've witnessed it first hand.

 

But don't take my word for it. Have a go at it yourself, check my experimental savegame page for a test game.

As I've said before, I would experiment myself but my game generally crashes to the geoscape after about 2 or 3 turns.

I'm not saying it cannot be done. I'm just admiting my failure to replicate said effect. I've played enough of the game to realise that I shouldn't be surprised at the surprises it pulls from time to time.

 

I seem to have recollections of them hatching mid-alien-turn as well, but I cannot remember exactly why they hatched except for the ones where one of their alien comrades had an accident and misfired.

 

As for your game: Perhaps saving every few turns might work? Well, it won't stop the crashes, but it just might allow you to complete a mission. Wild guess. Use a different save slot just in case. One other option would be to install a fresh new copy of the game in a slightly different directory name and see if that has the same trouble as well.

 

- NKF

I have installed a 2nd copy, but it is from my CD, and has that annoying manual code entry screen. I tried installing the patch, but now that copy crashes all the time, so I don't even bother with it.

they do pop. I know that they have, i just haven't ever seen it. Who thinks NKF should make his own hacker/editor thingy?

Whoops, sorry. But did you ever notice that towards the end of missions, their are almost no zombies and many chrysallids?

okay, i just went through 70 turns. The zombies DIDN'T die and hatch into chrysallids, but i also saw that it takes multiple strikes for a chrsysallid to impregnate some people(i thought it only took 1)

They miss sometimes.

 

*Points to the Edit button*

okay, i just went through 70 turns.  The zombies DIDN'T die and hatch into chrysallids...

I know I've seen them hatch independently of any outside force, but of course have no way to prove it. Even the OSG says, "A Zombie, if allowed to live, after several turns splits open and gives birth to a new Chryssalid."

 

Maybe it depends on version or something? Hmmm

Recently I've been playing very long games where sometimes I have some 10 zombies running around the map. I've never seen them popping but I could also swear that I've seen it happening before. Must be my mind playing tricks on me again

The original game I used to play was never patched, so maybe the latest patches changed this for some reason?

i play UFO though. Xcom i got (off the internet)has some adware on it, so i don't play it) Maybe xcom added it , but UFO didn't

I play UFO too

I guess someone could talk to microprose about it, but then microprose is gone, and Atari couldn't really give a crap about xcom(at least, i don't like so)

Atari couldn't really give a crap about xcom

It certainly does appear that way, doesn't it?

I've got X-com 1.4 and I have seen them pop on their own.

maybe it is just later versions

I KNOW I've seen zombies turn to chryssalids by themselves back in the good old days. Now I haven't seen it happen for a long time. I used to have dos version before when it happened and now I have CE so maybe that's why?