The Intro Animation

[Pumpkinhead]

I was just watching the Intro movie in Quicktime and thought I'd put forward some questions I had about it:

 

https://ufopaedia.xcomufo.com/pics/intro/10.gif

 

What ever became of the red Muton? We can assume he's a Commander of some form, and yet Muton ranks only contain Soldiers, Navigators and Engineers.

 

https://ufopaedia.xcomufo.com/pics/intro/00.gifhttps://ufopaedia.xcomufo.com/pics/intro/01.gif

 

Why does it say "UFO Located" when this is obviously a Terror Site location, and as we know, UFOs aren't part of a Terror Site?

 

https://ufopaedia.xcomufo.com/pics/intro/03.gif

 

What ever happened to this fancy-lookin' transport? And why do they exit it through a hole in the roof?

 

https://ufopaedia.xcomufo.com/pics/intro/04.gif

 

https://ufopaedia.xcomufo.com/pics/intro/05.gif

 

I just added these shots because I think they look cool

 

https://ufopaedia.xcomufo.com/pics/intro/06.gifhttps://ufopaedia.xcomufo.com/pics/intro/07.gif

 

Why did we not hear about the Aliens' teleporter technologies throughout the game?

 

https://ufopaedia.xcomufo.com/pics/intro/08.gif

 

Why does this UFO have thruster fire underneath it when they're meant to be propelled by nice, clean, efficient gravity-waves?

 

https://ufopaedia.xcomufo.com/pics/intro/09.gif

[Jman4117]

He is too special to have in combat.

 

Aliens arrive by UFO so you saw it land.

 

It's a sexied up Avenger.

 

Jumping through the roof is cool; like the big hair.

 

Miniguns = pwnage.

 

Probably another sexied up part of the game. This time it's the grav-lift.

 

Nuclear fission = heat. Elerium reactor = on the floor. Floor = HOT.

[Zombie]

You know, everyone has probably seen the intro movie thousands of times, yet when you really scrutinize the details, things sometimes do not add up.

 

The Red Muton...

By the looks of things this Muton possesses some sort of command influence. But Why!?! Like Pumpkinhead stated, the Muton race only has Soldiers, Navigators and Engineers. The UFOpaedia mentions that Mutons are controlled by the Ethereals via cybernetic implants. This seems to indicate that Mutons are generally stupid and need outside guidance to fulfill their mission goals. Low intelligence usually = no command authority!

 

On the other hand, look at the chair the Muton is sitting in. A big, wide chair with arm rests - a bit like James T. Kirk's captain chair in Star Trek. The only difference - those evil devil horns for the head rest. This adds a bit more mystique, and credibility, for the claim that Mutons have a "superior" in their race.

 

Normal Mutons are green in color with a purple face. This "special" Muton has a red body with a purple face. Or does it? Take a closer look at the area around the Mutons' face. See the yellow stripe transversing the face? To me, this always looked like a tight-fitting red jumpsuit or catsuit. The shoulder area is grey in color and very wide - possibly shoulder pads underneath? Probably this Muton is green underneath its red catsuit indicating a run-of-the-mill Muton.

 

Like Jman4117 was hinting: the developers of the game probably "sexed up" a normal Muton to make things look more interesting to the first-time-player. So Mutons probably do not have a high-ranking officer within their midst, only a normal one masquerading as such!

 

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It is not nuclear fission that is producing the energy necessary for UFO thrust. In reality, it is the bombardment of E-115 with "certain particles" which produce gravity waves and antimatter. The "just" of the matter is this:

Elerium-115 is bombarded with certain particles.

This produces antimatter, gravity waves and other forms of energy.

The antimatter meets with matter (some form of E-115) and annihilates producing some energy and a myriad of subatomic particles.

Meanwhile, the gravity waves produced by the bombardment are used to harness these subatomic particles and channel them out of the engine core producing thrust.

 

The "thruster fire" you see may be the interaction of the subatomic particles with molecules in the atmosphere. This excites the molecules to a higher ground state. When the molucule returns to its original ground state, it gives up this extra energy as photons, which we perceive as light. The light might also be heat as infrared radiation, but how much heat stress can a UFO (and its inhabitants) endure before the whole thing starts to melt? My guess: it is not radiative heat that produces the light, but rather molecular excitation.

[FullAuto]

I really think we need to relax a little. It's just an intro movie, you know? Since when have intro's been a fair representation of anything?

[JellyfishGreen]

Ah, this place would be so boring without nitpicking. "The game is perfect." "Yes, I agree."

 

I haven't got the time now to look up the armor stats etc, but would it actually be possible to take out a Muton in one autocannon burst? Would you have to play on Beginner? Is it AC-HE or AC-AP they're resistant to?

[Pumpkinhead]

A Muton has 10 armour on beginner, 125 health, and they take 60% on AP damage.

 

An AC-AP auto-fire burst can do a max of 252 damage, and 60% of that is 151.

 

I'm not sure how armour works exactly, but to my uneducated eye it looks as though you could kill a Muton with an Auto-Cannon, even whilst using the less-effective AP ammo.

[FullAuto]

Are you sure, Pumpkinhead? No offence, mate, but I thought AC-AP shells only did 42 damage? So if you used an auto shot and all three hit, it'd do a maximum of 126 damage. 60% of which is about 75, or thereabouts.

[Niml]

aren't Mutons purple o-O. thought the green was their camoflauge clothing

[sluissi]

since when have aliens been concerned with camoflauge? *refers to the orange cloaks of the ethereals*

[Niml]

psh dont you know ^_^ thats their high end espionage agents with top of the line invisibility cloaks

[Jman4117]

Well, a real autocannon would probably rip a muton to pieces in less than a second, but if the one in the game wasn't rather pathetic, the game wouldn't be a challenge.

[Pumpkinhead]

Are you sure, Pumpkinhead?  No offence, mate, but I thought AC-AP shells only did 42 damage?  So if you used an auto shot and all three hit, it'd do a maximum of 126 damage.  60% of which is about 75, or thereabouts.

According to NKF, whose research always seems to be accurate, the damage does ±100%, so 0% at it's minimum and 200% at it's maximum. That makes the max 600% for an auto-shot.

[Jman4117]

The 200% is what X-com units can take.

[Pumpkinhead]

I was under the impression it was all weapons that did ±100%, no matter the target

 

Why should X-COM units be discriminated against?

[NKF]

Mutons don't get 200% from AP by the look of it. It's either 100% or 50%. If it were much faster, say 15% per auto burst, then it would be a very mighty weapon indeed, even if it only dealt 50% damage per bullet.

 

Ironically, the autocannon is the slowest auto-weapon in the game.

 

- NKF

[Jman4117]

80 damage and unloading the mag in one turn would totally rock.

[Bomb Bloke]

Yes, but letting you fire 20+ rounds per turn is just cheaty.

 

Speaking of which, has the record of 1mill rounds/minute been beaten yet?

[Pumpkinhead]

Ironically, the autocannon is the slowest auto-weapon in the game.

I noticed that too. How funny is it?

 

I was quite happy to accept a ±100% weapon damage modifier If it's not, then you certainly wouldn't kill a Muton with an AC, even on beginner:

 

Damage = (weapon * modifier) - armour = (126*0.6) - 10 = 65 HP

 

The Muton would only lose half its health! So even with a 100% hit rate, it'd take 2 turns to knock him down. No wonder the game's so hard early on!

[Jman4117]

Cheat then, it'll be fun

[Pumpkinhead]

Yes, but letting you fire 20+ rounds per turn is just cheaty. 

Where are you getting 20+ rounds from? I'm confused

[FullAuto]

So, in conclusion, the answer is no, you can't kill a muton with a single autofire from an autocannon using AP shells.

And JFG, I take your point about how boring this place would be without nit-picking. See the "XCom Enforcer vs UFO Aftermath" thread in the Enforcer section as a perfect example. Talk about throwing your toys out of the pram.

[Zombie]

Relax a little? Heh, heh. Everyone here seems calm enough to me! Our good buddy Mr. Pumpkinhead just posed some legitimate concerns about the intro movie. Granted, it may be nitpicking to point out the discrepancies, but it is not unreasonable to do so.

 

Mutons look green to X-COM agents in the field because that is the color of their "organically based armor grafted directly on top of the creature's natural skin". That was a quote directly from the OSG, because I could not explain it any better! The color of a Muton's natural skin is purple-ish according to the UFOpaedia's autopsy report.

 

You get a hint of a Muton's true skin color from its face - it is purple. I guess it means that if a soldier were somehow able to target an area on an aliens body to shoot at, the face of the Muton would be more vulnerable than the rest of its body!

[Psy Guy]

I knowtised that most of the mutons didn't have guns. No wonder they retreated so quickly . You can see that the muton commander is pissed about something (probly sending them out with very few guns). This shows why they don't let mutons have commanders/leaders because they don't know what there doing.

[NKF]

I think it's even more frustrated that it has incompetant troops. If you look carefully at the bit where they jump down, one Muton's definitely not going to land on its feet.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Yes, but letting you fire 20+ rounds per turn is just cheaty. 

Where are you getting 20+ rounds from? I'm confused

It's an autocannon. It should be able to fire a sustained spray at quite a rate of bullets. Consider how many shots could be fired from a real autocannon in the time it takes for your soldier to make his move.

 

Given that, you should be able to deal some serious damage per turn with the thing, but you can't, because the things so slow!

 

On the other hand, maybe you have to spin the barrels up for each and every shot. *shrugs* You get that in Time Splitters II, with the minigun. It takes an age to get the thing firing. They do give you an option to start the engine and keep it running, but this generates heat. Pros and cons, pros and cons...