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Stun Grenade

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Zombie, I was actually thinking of a variation of the challenge you've proposed that I'd like to try myself some day.

 

The variation being was to just go out on normal missions with a Skyranger full of soldiers but with one weapon, and one weapon only. This being the weakest possible weapon that can kill whatever alien you're going to face. You have to arm yourself with scavenged weapons. But I guess this is not an impossible or ridiculous challenge. Just incredibly frustrating. :D

 

That's just waaaaaay too easy. AP bullets from a Pistol can kill every alien in the game, given enough shots. And all you really need to do is kill one alien. After that, it's pretty much all downhill, especially if the alien you kill is near your transport. Hmmm... now that I think of it, using only rookies would be more challenging. :D

 

As for the Cydonian base mission, am I supposed to use a regular grenade? I'm not sure, but a normal grenade might be too weak to completely destroy all 4 parts of the brain. What the heck am I saying? I'll just go and test it out, stupid me! :huh:

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You are correct, FullAuto! All 4 parts of the brain do not have to be destroyed in order to win the mission. Only one part has to be killed. I learn something new about the game every day!

 

I did try using a normal grenade to take out the brain but it wasn't strong enough. An alien grenade or High Explosive always work well! :huh:

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I'm trying to think if I actually "spoiled" anything with my description. Hmm.... Nope, can't say I have! And if I say any more, I will really spoil it. Must....stop....talking....about....Cydonia!

 

During my tests, I noticed that the aliens on Cydonia (both on the surface, and underneth) have exactly the same stats as their "normal" counterparts. That is to say that the aliens aren't any better than what you would normally witness. Only difference is you have to deal with more "upper-level" aliens such as Leaders and Commanders! :huh:

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Cydonia is an area on the surface of Mars with 5-sided pyramids and a mountain which looks like a human face has been carved into the top of it. Granted, these structures really don't exist, but way back when the game was being devoloped, bad pictures led people to believe that aliens had built an outpost on Mars!

 

I like how the color of the Martian soil in X-COM is represented as a yellowish-orange. In reality, nobody actually knows the true color of Martian soil. That is because NASA has never put a true color camera on mars. A picture is derived from the different cameras on board - Infrared, Ultraviolet, and another one which I can't remember. Any picture you see is actually a false color composite of these three sources.

 

I recently read an article where the author had calibrated those pictures to show what mars actually looks like at the surface. Brownish-red soil with a pale blue sky. Very much like Earth. Then again it's still a guess. I will wait for the day when NASA actually sends a "true" color camera to Mars! :huh:

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By 'bad pictures', I'm assuming you mean ones such as this:

 

https://www.msss.com/education/facepage/035a72.map.icon.gif

 

You can follow this link for a larger picture (~1.5mb). Check out the pyramids.

 

Of course, lighting is everything. From other angles, it doesn't look so good.

 

Do we really need to say any more, spoiler-wise? :huh:

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That's the exact picture I was mentioning. Bravo, Bomb Bloke! :huh:

 

I was running some more Cydonia missions today, trying to determine what weapons will destroy (or hurt) the brain. Surprisingly, the lowly Laser Rifle had enough power to destroy a brain section. Nice to know that you can actually go to Cydonia with just Laser Rifles and win! I am in the process of these tests, but I can state for a fact that multiple grenades just aren't strong enough to injure the brain. I still gotta test the Auto and Heavy Cannon ammo, as well as the three pistol types. :D

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I totally forgot about that message Danial! That IS funny! :lol:

 

Heh, I just tried to STUN the brain with a Stun Rod, but no luck. Nothing to target. It would be funny if you were somehow able to stun the 4 parts of the brain and take it out in one piece. Maybe I'll try multiple Small Launchers to see if that has any effect. I doubt it will though. :huh:

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Lol. My office chair is looking pretty health as it's brand new. My filing cabinet has low health however as the draws keep randomly sticking. This also gives it a low life expectancy :huh:

 

Sorry... X-COM office humour :D

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Load up the viewer, and select a map. A window will pop up with all the tiles used by that map. The window will have a menu option of 'MCD', and you'll need to go to that and turn the MCD display on. Now, select the tile type you wanna check out, then refer to the MCD window again. The stat you're looking for is called 'armor' - I was a little misleading there.
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It says the Armour is 40. Why then wouldn't the HE Grenade effect it when they deal 50?

 

If you notice underneath there's another characteristic, HE blockage, which has a strength of 40. I can't tell this for sure but what I think is that the HE blockage determines the final strength of the blast, so in the case of the human grenade it would be 50-40=10, which wouldn't be sufficient to take down the tile.

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I figured HE Blockage would be how much damage is taken off passing through the object.

 

For instance, on one side of a UFO wall (HE Blockage of 80), a BB goes off with 200 damage. On the other side of the wall, the damage would be 200-80=120... minus the blast radius modifier (which the OSG says is 10 per tile), so 110 HP.

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I just looked again at the armor and HE blockage for the outer and inner walls of UFOs and one thing doesn't make sense. All outer walls seem to have 100 armor and 100 HE blockage. With Heavy Plasma packing a 115 strength it would seem to be possible to blast UFO outer walls with it, although it might take several shots before you finally get a blast with a power above 100 (assuming that the blast damage is also calculated randomly for terrain tiles).

 

The question is how much of the blast energy is consumed/deflected by the Armor and HE blockage stats and what is the relationship between both, i think. And the fact that Heavy Plasma can't burst through UFO outer walls must mean that there's another factor involved, probably the Big Wall setting.

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I spent some time today testing out which weapons/ammo in the game will destroy a brain section.

 

Armor Piercing: No AP shells do enough damage to destroy a brain quarter. Tank/Cannon shells do 60 listed damage. That equates to 120 max points, assuming a good roll.

 

Incendiary: No IN shells/rockets will take out the brain, even with excessive shelling. The Incendiary rocket is supposed to deal an average of 90 points (180 max). That's assuming the object is already on fire to begin with.

 

High Explosives: Regular and Proxy grenades are ineffective. So is the AC-HE and HC-HE. The Small Rocket is also not powerful enough (75 average damage). The Alien Grenade (90), Large Rocket (100), High Explosive (110), Hovertank Fusion Bomb (140) and the Blaster Bomb (200) all have enough power to kill the brain. The range where HE will destroy lands in the 75-90 area. The average might be as low as 80, or as high as 90.

 

Laser: Laser Pistols (46) are ineffective. Laser Rifles (60), Heavy Lasers (80), and the Tank/Laser Cannon (110) all have enough power. The range must lie within the 46-60 damage area.

 

Plasma: Plasma Pistol (52) doesn't fair well. The Plasma Rifle (80), Hovertank/Plasma (110), and the Heavy Plasma (115) all are capable of killing the brain. The range must lie within the 52-80 area.

 

Stun: Can't target the brain with the Stun Rod, as I've said before. Stun Bombs are ineffective too. :D

 

Except for High Explosives, I see a general trend where the brain will be damaged with the Laser and Plasma ammo. Do you? :huh:

Laser: 46-60

Plasma: 52-80

It's gotta be right around 60. I'll double check the Tank/Cannon (which also does 60) again to make sure it doesn't work.

 

High Explosives fall within the 75-90 range. Why so much higher than 60, though? Read on.

 

There has gotta be a damage modifier number involved somewhere! The brain must be more resistant to HE (as opposed to Laser or Plasma). That's about the only conclusion I can draw at the moment. Assuming that the minimum HE damage that will kill a brain segment is 80, that means the damage modifier is 60/80 = 75%. :D

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