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Article 18160 (185 more) in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic:

From: Christopher D. Croad



Subject: HERE IS THE XCOM FAQ

Nntp-Posting-Host: fester.se.rl.af.mil

Organization: Rome Laboratory USAF

X-Newsreader: VersaTerm Link v1.1.1

Date: Fri, 15 Jul 1994 11:57:00 GMT

Lines: 591





Here's the FAQ everyone's been asking for...

Enjoy....

(P.S. I didn't write it..got it off this newsgroup a couple of months ago

SO DON'T ASK ME ANYTHING!! :-)  )





--------------------------------------------------------------------------

  UFO  -  Enemy Unknown   :  the FAQ!  (version 1.2)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------



I have added some more stats and some more contributions.  Feel free to

send any new additions by e-mail to me (tjc@ecs.soton.ac.uk) or Paul

James (prj91@ecs.soton.ac.uk) and they'll be worked in.  Anything welcome!



Tim



--------------------------------------------------------------------------



*SPOILER ALERT*



This FAQ conatins info that you may prefer to find out by exploring and

researching yourself.  If you want to play the game "in the dark" then

read on with care or not at all!!



--------------------------------------------------------------------------



General

  1a  What is UFO : Enemy Unknown?

  1b  What spec PC do I need to run it?

  1c  Is there a patch available?

  1d  Can the save games be hacked?



Game Info

  2a  Base facilities

  2b  Non-combat equipment

  2c  Ship types

  2d  Ship weapons

  2e  Soldier weaponry

  2f  Alien races

  2g  Alien missions

  2h  Manufacturing costs



Questions (this is a FAQ after all :)

  3a  Overall strategy

  3b  Combat questions

  3c  Miscellaneous



---------------------------  GENERAL  -------------------------------------



  1a  What is UFO : Enemy Unknown?



The game places you in charge of X-Com in the year 1999;  alien UFO's have

been sighted around the globe and your newly set up organization has been

charged with intercepting them, recovering any alien artefacts, and finding

out where the aliens are coming from and what they are after.



The strategic level is centered on a screen with a rotatable/zoomable 3D

globe, with buttons to manipulate your bases, check UFO activity, check

your funding levels from the 15 sponsoring nations, and to look up data in

your online ufopedia.  At the tactical level you control troops/tanks in

a 3D combat mini-game which is quite similar in appearance to Ultima 7/8.





  1b  What spec PC do I need to run it?



According to the box, you need a 386+, 20Mhz+, 2Mb RAM+ and a mouse; on a

486/DX33 with 8Mb RAM, mouse and 8-bit soundblaster it is pretty slick.

Base memory requirement is listed as 560K, with 1Mb EMS/XMS also required.

It comes on only 3 disks, and occupies about 13Mb of hard disk (including

the saved games).  The copy protection is a code at the bottom of each

odd-numbered page of the quite well written 128-page manual.  The manual

supplement does *not* guarantee that the game will work with DR DOS,

Novell DOS7 or OS/2.





  1c  Patches



Microprose have released a patch to bring UFO up to version 1.2; the patch

is now available at

    wuarchive.wustl.edu    pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/ufo1-2.zip

    ftp.uml.edu            msdos/Games/Patches/ufo1-2.zip  (or try /pub)

This is an upload of a patch received in the post direct from Microprose.

The correct patch file size should be 634063 bytes.



The patch readme file lists the following points:



  * Please start a new game to eliminate all possibilities that the

     new version of the game fixes the bugs which you have seen so far.

  * This update contains a new version of the DOS Extender, DOS4GW to

     fix some compatibility problems seen with the earlier release.

     DOS4GW is not a MicroProse program and we were not aware of these

     compatibility problems until after UFO was published.  If you had a

     problem running UFO, this update will fix that.

  * Corrupt tiles that caused multiple images to appear have been fixed.

  * Action points have been limited to 80 to prevent the "wrap-around"

     problem seen with the original release.

  * Mission variety has been improved to allow access to all types of

     missions when playing.

  * Alien intelligence has been improved to allow a tougher game.

  * UFO encyclopedia has been expanded to include missing entries.

  * The corrupt game file, UBASE_07.MAP which caused problems when

     entering the Alien Bases has been replaced.

  * There is no PC Speaker support within UFO.

  * The Environment Space error has been fixed.



It doesn't seem to be necessary to start a new game after applying the

patch;  the old save files still work, though the soldier stat screens

can look messy.  You'll also miss a few ufopedia entries.



The aliens in version 1.2 do appear to shoot back a lot more than before,

and often have much better weaponry.  Your base(s) come under attack

earlier too (which in a way helps as you get some artefacts if you win!)





  1d  Editing the save games



The format of soldier.dat (which holds your troop stats) appears to be

like this, with 72 bytes making up each soldier:



Byte   What it does

9      Number of missions

11     Number of kills

13     Number of days till healed

17-29  Name (may be longer, not positive)

43     Initial Tu's

44     Initial Health

45     Initial Stamina

46     Initial Reactions

47     Initial Strength

48     Initial Firing Accuracy

49     Initial Throwing Accuracy

50     Unknown

51     PSI Strength

52     PSI Skill

53     Unknown

54     TU's gained

55     Health gained

56     Stamina gained

57     Reaction gained

58     Strength gained

59     Firing Accuracy gained



A couple of people are working on neat save file editors which will

hopefully be available one day soon for those who don't like hex editors!





---------------------------  GAME INFO  ----------------------------------



As you research more tech, your on-line UFOPEDIA will have more information

added automatically.  None of this is included in the game manual;  some of

the info here might be spoiler(s).





  2a  Base Facilities



You can have up to 8 bases around the world.  There are 36 (6x6) locations

to place rooms in.  Only the hanger takes up more than one location (2x2).



                 Days Build  Cost Cost/month



Access Lift           1      300k     4k    (Entrance to underground base)

Living Quarters      16      400k    10k    (Sleeps 50)

Laboratory           26      750k    30k    (Allows 50 research)

Workshop             32      800k    35k    (Allows 50 manufacture)

Small Radar          12      500k    10k    (300nm range, 5% detect/10mins)

Large Radar          25      800k    15k    (450nm range, 5% detect/10mins)

General Stores       10      150k     5k    (Holds 50 units of equipment)

Alien Containment    18      500k    15k    (Holds 10(?) live aliens)

Hanger               25      200k    25k    (Repairs/refuels/rearms 1 plane)

Laser Defence        24      900k    10k    (Def value  600, Accuracy 60%)

Plasma Defence       36     1200k    12k    (Def value  900, Accuracy 70%)

Fusion Ball          36     1800k    14k    (Def value 1200, Accuracy 80%)

Grav Shield          38     2300k    15k    (Gives defences an extra shot)

Mind Shield          33     1300k     5k    (Helps stop aliens finding base)

Psi Lab              24      750k    16k    (For troop psionics training)

Hyperwave Decoder    26     2000k    30k    (To evaluate alien missions)



To dismantle a base, you must remove all facilities (which means transferring

all people and equipment elsewhere if needbe) then finally remove the access

lift itself.





  2b  Non-combat equipment



Most of this you need to research, some you get at the start.



Motion scanner     -  detects movement in the near vacinity

Medikit            -  heals fatal wounds (heal), revives unconscious soldiers

                      (stimulate) and boosts morale (painkiller)

Stun rod           -  has a chance to render an alien unconscious

Electro flare      -  essential for night time operations.  Thrown.

Elerium 115        -  only found on alien ships/bases, and needed for many

                      important weapons and power units.

Mind probe         -  when used on an alien tells you his stats and rank

                      (useful to find an alien commander or leader).

Psi amp            -  required to allow soldier to use psionic attacks on

                      aliens (attempting to cause panic or get mind control).



  2c  Ship types



The XCom craft at your disposal throughout the game are:



                Max                    Weapon   Hull    Max

               Speed   Acceln    Fuel   Pods   Damage  Cargo  HWPs

Skyranger        760      2     2000     0       150     14     3

Interceptor     2100      3     1000     2       100      0     0

Lightning       3100      8     30(E)    1       800     12     0

Firestorm       4200      9     20(E)    2       500      0     0

Avenger         5400     10     60(E)    2      1200     26     4



The firestorm is the new fighter craft you can research, lightning the new

fighter transport and the avenger is the ultimate craft. (E)=Elerium fuel.



The UFOs are as follows (from interogated alien navigators):



               Max   Hull     Weapon    Max  Ship

              Speed Damage Power Range Crew Width

Small Scout    2200    50     0    0     1    3   Like an Apollo capsule

Medium Scout   2400   200    20  120     6    9   1 level, small square

Large Scout    2700   250    20  272     ?

Harvester      4000   500    40  176     ?   16   3 levels, 11 windows

Terror Ship    4800  1200   120  336     ?   30   2 levels, narrow top

Supply Ship    3200  2200    60  288     ?   30   3 levels, wide middle

Battleship     5000  3000   140  520     ?   30   3 levels, no windows

Abductor       4300   500    40  160     ?



Any observations on maximum (or minimum) crew figures would be welcomed,

as these would probably help on missions.



To see a picture of the UFO in flight just click on the UFO icon on

the airborne combat display.  To keep tracking the UFO until it is over

land you can minimise the airborne combat window to an icon (making sure

you are in "standoff" mode :) and then accelerate time to 1-min slices;

when you're over land open the window and shoot!





  2d  Ship weapons



You initially start with cannon/stingray/avalanche missiles, but you can

research more stuff:



                Damage   Range   Accuracy  Reload time

Cannon             10      10       10%       2s

Stingray           70      30       70%      15s

Avalanche         100      60      100%      20s

Laser Cannon       70      21       70%       4s

Plasma Beam       140      52      140%       6s    (uses Elerium)

Fusion Ball       230      65      230%      25s



It is important to match the weapon to the target as usually you want to

force the alien to land (preferably intact) to be able to recover artefacts

and prisoners on the ground.  If you intercept over the sea, it doesn't

really matter though.





  2e  Soldier weapons



Your soldiers can be equipped with a hue arsenal of weaponry;  either by

equipping their transport ship, or in the case of a base defence when the

attack starts.  Many weapons can be loaded with different ammo types.



                      Aimed    Snap    Auto  Dam Type  Dam Type Dam Type

Pistol                78/30   60/18           26  AP

Rifle                110/80   60/25   35/35   30  AP

Heavy Cannon          90/80   60/33           56  AP    52  HE   60  I

Auto Cannon           82/80   56/33   32/40   42  AP    44  HE   48  I

Rocket Launcher      115/75   55/45           75  HE   100  HE   90  I

Laser Pistol          68/55   40/20   28/25   46 Laser

Laser Rifle          100/50   65/25   46/34   60 Laser

Heavy Laser           84/75   50/33           85 Laser

Grenade                                       50  HE

Smoke Grenade                                 60  HE

Proximity Grenade                             70  HE

High Explosive                               110  HE

Heavy Plasma         110/60   75/30   50/35  115 Plasma

Plasma Pistol         85/60   65/30   50/30   52 Plasma

Plasma Rifle         100/60   86/30   55/63   80 Plasma

Blaster Launcher     120/80                  200  HE

Small Launcher       110/75   65/40           90 Stun

Alien Grenade                                 90  HE



 (AP = Armour piercing  HE = High Explosive  I = Incendiary)



The pairs of numbers indicate accuracy and TU cost to shoot.  Note that

the TU cost is always a percentage of the soldier's total TUs, not a fixed

amount.  Accuracy for two-handed weapons is improved if one hand is empty,

and overall accuracy is better if the soldier is kneeling.   The autofire

option gives you three shots, but these are the least accurate (they are

effective with area effect weapons like autocannon).



Grenades are thrown, and the accuracy of where it lands is based on the

soldier's own throwing accuracy stat.



Many people suggest that the laser rifle is the best overall weapon; cheap

to produce, rapid fire rate, quite accurate and doesn't use Elerium.





  2e  Alien types



              Attacks with    Resists    Weakness    Notes

Sectiod        Weapons & Psi                        Likes cattle abduction

Snakemen       Weapons       fire/heat              Carries up to 50 eggs

Ethereal       Weapons & Psi                        Physically weak/blind

Muton          Weapons          AP                  Strong & intelligent

Floater        Weapons                              Likes terrorising

Celatoid       Venom

Silacoid       HTH           fire/incend            Works with mutons

Cryssalid      HTH                          HE      Turns humans to zombies

Reaper         HTH                        incend    Two brains and hearts

Sectopod       Weapons        plasma       laser    Highly armoured

Cyberdisc      Weapons       explosives             Works with sectoids

Zombie         HTH                                  Dies -> Cryssalid



You can get info on particular alien stats by using a mind probe on them.

From doing this it seems average stats on aliens are as follows.  Some of

the stats vary a lot between the races!

                                                        ----- Armour ------

            TUs Ene Hea Bra Mor Rea Fir Thr Str PSt PSk Fro Lef Rig Rea Und

Sectoid      55  90  30  80 100  65  30  60  30   -   -   2   1   1   1   1

Ethereal     70 100  60  80 100  75  40  80  50  50  40  17  17  17  17  16

Snakeman     40  80  45  80 100  45  30  65  50   -   -  10   9   9   8   6

Muton        58  90  90  80 100  60  30  60  70   -   -  10  10  10  10   5

Floater      50  90  35  80 100  50  25  60  40   -   -   4   3   3   2   6

Celatoid     ??

Silacoid     40  80 115 100 100  40   0   0  70   -   -  25  25  25  25   5

Cryssalid   110 140  95 100 100  70   0   0 110   -   -  17  17  17  17  17

Reaper       ??

Sectopod     60  90  95 110 100  65  30   0  90   -   -  70  65  65  50  45

Cyberdisc    60  90 120 110 100  65  30   0  90   -   -  17  17  17  17  17

Zombie       40 110  85 110 100  40   0   0  85   -   -   4   4   4   4   4



Leaders tend to have slightly higher stats than other ranks in each race,

for example an ethereal leader has 20-rated armour all round and a psionic

strength of 60.



The high TUs on cryssalids allows them to move a long way and often surprise

troops from behind, turning them to zombies before you can react.  When

killed, zombies shed their skins to become new cryssalids.





  2f  Alien Missions



There are many mission types.  The nasty ones are terror and infiltration.

Supply is handy because it can lead you to an alien base, and in turn to

an alien leader.



  Research:      Small vehicles, least threat to earth and Xcom

  Harvest:       Any size ships, great concern to governments

  Abduction:     Causes great alarm

  Infiltration:  Make pact with earth govt, greatest threat to Xcom

  Base:          Build alien base (you need to let them build one to win game)

  Terror:        Causes hysteria, troubles govts

  Retaliation:   Attack Xcom base

  Supply:        Supply alien base



A hyperwave decoder is very handy to work out mission types.  Later in

the game you are probably safe to leave ships on research missions alone

and concentrate on the dangerous ones.





  2h  Manufacturing Costs



This chart shows which items need alien alloys and Elerium for production;

all of them need to be researched.  You could use the info to work out

which item is best to produce for profit if your engineers are idle ...

(an initial glance suggests personal armour is good if you have the alloys

to spare, or power suits if you have Elerium coming out your ears too :)



                 Engineer       Workshop          Alien   Sale

                   Hours   Cost   Space   Elerium Alloys  Price



Motion scanner       220    34k      4       -      -     45600

Medikit              420    28k      4       -      -     46500

Psi amp              500   160k      4       1      -    194700

Personal armour      800    22k     12       -      4    140000

Power suit          1000    42k     16       5      5    310000

Flying suit         1400    58k     16      16      5    420000

Alien alloys         100     3k     10       -      -      6500

Elerium-115            -      -      -       -      -      5000



Laser pistol         300     8k      2       -      -     20000

Laser rifle          400    20k      3       -      -     36900

Heavy laser          700    32k      4       -      -     61000

Plasma pistol        600    56k      3       -      1     84000

Plasma pistol clip    60     2k      4       1      -      4440

Plasma rifle         820    88k      4       -      1    126500

Plasma rifle clip     80     3k      4       2      -      6290

Heavy plasma        1000   122k      4       -      1    171600

Heavy plasma clip     80     6k      4       3      -      9590

Blaster launcher    1200    90k      5       -      1    144000

Blaster bomb         220     8k      3       3      -     17028

Small launcher       900    78k      3       -      1    120000

Stun bomb            200     7k      2       1      -     15200

Alien grenade        200   6.7k      2       2      -     14850

Mind probe          1200   262k      4       1      -    334000



FIRESTORM          14000   400k     30       -     65         -

LIGHTNING          18000   600k     34       -     85         -

AVENGER            34000   900k     36       -    170         -

UFO power source    1400   130k     22      16      5    250000

UFO navigation      1600   150k     18       -      3     80000

Fusion ball l'cher   400   242k      6       -      -    281100

Fusion ball          600    28k      6       4      -     53300

Laser cannon         300   182k      6       -      -         ?

Plasma beam          500   226k      8      15      -    267300



Tank/laser cannon   1200   500k     25       -      -         ?

Hovertank/plasma    1200   850k     30      30      5    980000

Hovertank/launcher  1400   900k     30      25      8   1043000

HWP fusion bomb      400    15k     25       5      8     31500



(The three aircraft all need 1 UFO power source + 1 UFO navigation

 unit, except the AVENGER which needs two UFO power sources).



Clearly you should never sell Elerium for cash.  You'd be much better

off making either power armour or flying suits and selling that.





----------------- GAME TACTICS/STRATEGY ----------------------------------



  3a  Overall strategy



Where should I build bases?



  Build a few bases at the start, make sure they all have long range radar.

  Spread them around the globe; you only get 8;  note the groupings of the

  richer funding countries and defend them early on.  You can also build

  bases on both poles.  The following eight locations have been suggested

  to maximise radar coverage of the globe:

        i)      North Pole

        ii)     South Pole

        iii)    Southern California

        iv)     Persian Gulf

        v)      North-eastern Australia

        vi)     Right most tip of South America (Brazil??)

        vii)    Europe

        viii)   right most Russia (near japan??)



How can I make money?



  The main income at the start is from the funding countries, so you should

  maximise your efforts to win their favours early on.  As the game

  progresses you can sell off artefacts for cash.  If you set up workshops

  and have engineers with nothing to do have them make something like laser

  weapons and sell them; you can sell for more than it costs to make them.



Why is Elerium important?



  Elerium is only found on alien ships; you can't make it yourself (you can

  make alien alloys).  If you are running short of elerium use interceptors

  with laser weapons from multiple bases and give your troops laser rifles

  (laser rifles are very effective in any case). If you feel confident let

  the aliens attack your base, you can get lots (sometimes 1000+, on one

  occasion 3000+) elerium in a single battle.



How do I win the game?



  The ultimate aim of UFO is to research (interogate) live aliens to find

  out where they are coming from and why.  The best prisoner you can get

  is an alien commander; there should be one in an alien base.  Once you

  interogate a commander you should get a big clue as to how to win the

  battle once and for all!



What should I research?



  To find out about ship stats research alien engineers, to find out about

    missions research navigator.

  To find out about Psi research ethereals (and maybe sectoids)

  To find out about armour research alien alloys.

  To get new ships research UFO power source, UFO navigation, Elerium &

    UFO construction.



  It should be possible to build an "advances tree" similar to the one

  that is available for Civilisation; hopefully one coming soon!



  Don't research the same thing at different bases, there is no benefit;

  the research is independent at each base (as is manufacturing).



Why do I never see any large UFOs?



  On missions like retaliation, base and terror, small ships scout before

  the larger ships come in. If you destroy the scouts no larger ships will

  appear.  It is thus important to let them land!  (else you'll have a

  long game :)   By using the hyperwave decoder you can detect the alien

  mission; it can pay off to let aliens build a base so you can capture

  one of their leaders for interogation.





  3b  Ground combat questions



Who/what should I take on missions?



  A nice combo on a Skyranger is a couple of tanks and 6 troops;  the

  hovering plasma tanks are particularly effective.  Tanks lose out as

  they cannot enter most alien ships (terror ships being an exception).

  Tanks can be left in bases to defend them from alien attacks.  Flying

  suits give your troops a lot of versatility and save a lot of TUs in

  many terrain types.  If a soldier dies though you lose the armour (but

  keep his other equipment if you win the battle).  Try to always take a

  couple of rookies along to give them experience to boost their stats.

  On night missions always carry electro flares.  Medikits are important

  as in addition to healing fatal wounds they can raise morale if used

  on panicing troops.



Why do I lose ammo that I never use?



  After combat all clips loaded in weapons are lost, whether or not they

  have been used (not a great piece of design!).  Thus you should unload

  any weapons that uses valuable ammo before the battle ends.  To unload

  click on the weapon over the "rifle" icon on the soldier's equipment

  screen (this can also be used to select alternate ammo before battle).



Why should I need grenades when I have autocannon?



  An autocannon has very impressive firepower.  However it is very heavy

  to carry, and can reduce a soldier's TU total.  A soldier equipped with

  a laser rifle can carry a couple of grenades and use them to flatten

  small buildings or other targets without needing a bulky cannon.



How can I fire on aliens in their movement phase?



  You can carry out opportunity fire on aliens as they make their moves.

  To do this, leave enough TU's after your move for at least a snap shot,

  then if your trooper sees an alien and has good enough reactions (s)he

  will automatically fire on the alien.   You can use the 4 icons near the

  bottom left of the screen in your movement phase to reserve the TUs.



What's with troops missing in action (MIA)?



  If one of your troopers in under alien control at the end of a battle

  (s)he counts as MIA; therefore try to wait until (s)he is no longer in

  control before finishing off aliens.  Troops unconscious when the battle

  ends seem to survive.



How do I open spaceship doors?



  Simply target your soldier to move to the "square" behind the door and

  (s)he will then automatically open it (using some TUs).  It's wise not

  to open doors without plenty of spare TU's or without using a motion

  scanner first.



How do I counter psi attacks?



  Ethereal and sectoid races have psionic abilities.  This means they are

  able to amke a number of psionic attacks on your troops for which they

  do not need line-of-sight on the target.  There are two types of attack:

    Panic   - if your trooper succumbs (s)he will panic, possibly dropping

              equipment and then running, possibly also going beserk.

    Control - potentially worse; aliens can control targets, thus getting

              your troops to fire on each other.  The effect is usually

              temporary, and can be reduced in effect by not bunching

              potential victims too close together.

  When you research psionics and build psi labs, you can evaluate each

  soldier's resistance to psi attacks (his/her psi strength) and train them

  in psi skills (which allows your troops to make psionic attacks if they

  have a psi amp on them in battle).  Yes, you can leave troops in the

  transport and use HWP's to scout for aliens to attack with psionics!

  Psi skills can be trained, psi strength is constant, so don't waste time

  on psi training troops with low psi strength.  Psi training allocations

  happen at the end of each month at bases that have psi labs.





  3c  Miscellaneous



Why do my soldiers rarely get promoted?



  To have promotions after battle you need to have a certain number of

  troops around all your bases for the promotion to be possible.  This

  little charts sums it up:

    Rank            Sergeant Captain Colonel Commander

    Troops needed      5       11      23       30



  There can be only one commander.  So if you have 35 troops around the

  globe in theory you should have 1 commander, 1 colonel, 3 captains,

  7 sergeants and 23 rookies/squaddies.



What is the Microprose helpline number?



  In the UK (where the first release was made) the number is 0454 329510

  and is open Mon-Fri 2-5pm.  Or you can fax on 0454 329507 from 9am-5pm.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------

END







****************************

Christopher D. Croad

croadc@venus.se.rl.af.mil (Weekdays)

croadc@delphi.com (Weekends)

















Leaders allow you to research 'The Martian Solution'. Commanders will
let research 'Cydonia or Bust' You need both of these advances in
order to win the game.

(Note: Commanders will also let you research Martian Solution, so don't
interrogate your Commanders until after researching Martian Solution,
since Commanders are a pain to acquire sometimes.)

If I might add to this...before you can research TMS, you need to have
researched Alien Origins. Thus, *don't* interrogate the *leader* before
researching Alien Origins...you'll just waste a good leader. It would be
understandable, though, if he's a sectoid leader... :)
-------
: > a B. Launcher and 3 bombs. I fire one, then I can't reload it!  Is this a
: > bug, a feature, or am I doing something wrong?  What I do now is load
: > soldiers with one only, fire it, then drop it and switch to the weapon in
: > the soldier's backpack.

: Unload the empty, stuck shell casing.  There is an "unload" button
: on the equipment screen.  Just pick up the BL and click it on the
: unload button with your other hand free.
: Does not happen often.

Don't load the Blaster Launcher before the combat starts.  Load it during
combat.  Won't happen then I don't think...

I always load all BLs in the craft before combat starts.
In two full games, I have had maybe two stuck casings.
This is with XCOM, which is at the 1.2 level.
-------
     TO crack X-COM, use a hex editor on the GEOSCAPE.EXE file.  Search for
7C 14 83
and replace it with
EB 2B 83

Back up GEOSCAPE.EXE in case you have a different version.  Also, the FTP
address for Romulus is FTP.UWP.EDU.  The files are in /pub/games/romulus.
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it's the famous eighty-item limit. If you have eighty heavy plasmas,
eighty heavy plasma clips, a hundred and seventy-one blaster launchers,
and four hundred and three blaster bombs, when your base is invaded,
you'll have eighty heavy plasmas available to you...but no clips, no
blaster launchers, and no bombs. If you _must_ keep tons of weaponry
around,
keep it in a base away from your troopers' headquarters.

You hit the 80 item limit for the base.
If you want to use your neat toys, be ruthless and sell everything
you do not need for base defense.
I do not keep more than 16 heavy plasmas and clips, and only 2 extra BLs.

If you do not want to fight with it, sell it!

Also, if you design a nifty base with only one room attached to the
access lift, you may well need a BL to "connect" it to the rest
of the base.  It is the only weapon I have found that will blow holes
through dirt, and on my last base defense I had two rooms between
my troops and the hangers/access lift that were not connected.


-------
>Anyways is there a fix for the "Green Bug", hex dump to the screen in large
>green characters?
No fix yet, but it's easy to avoid! I know of two ways of provoking
this (you seem to have hit both!)

1. Never enter ground combat while you are working with other
interceptions (ie don't have any iconified planes and enter ground
combat).
2. If more than one building will be finished at the same time (at the
same base, possibly it may also need to bet the same kind of
building) DON'T remove one of them and leave the others (this is
easier to fix, just restore from a savegame and remove the not yet
finished building).
--
2) The Green Text Bug

    A common bug, I've seen many posts here, but just to re-iterate.  If you
have an air combat window minimized while you go into a ground combat
mission, leaving the ground combat mission will spit out a pile o' green
text errors in 40 col. mode, and kick you backed to your last save game.
The work around for this is to make sure that you have no air combats
minimized when you go to ground combat.  This bug is a real pain.
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Forget taking Chryssalids alive.  You don't learn anything from the sci-boys
that you don't already know.  I'd use grenades to make real sure that downed
chryssalids stay that way.  I hate those damn things.
-------
ALIEN CONTAINMENT BUG
Try capturing a commander from an enemy battleship, as opposed to an
enemy base. I think this might be a way around the bug.
--
BTW, I was suffering from the "alien containment" bug. Apparently if you pick up an alien that you still "need" you get to keep it. Even though the game (because of the bug) told me the alien died, it actually turned up in my lab ready for research. One strange thing that happens when I transfer these "bugged" aliens their name is left out of the description in the transfer information box. I am told stuff arrived at a base, but not what it is. It does not seem to affect gameplay, but I _do_ save often when that stuff is going on...
--
This bug drove me nuts! Don't worry - if you capture an alien that you have not researched before (and therefore need for the game), even though the game says he died he'll be there.

Say you get a commander and you get the "Alien died..." screen. If check the research screen on the base and use start new project, the little bugger will be in there...
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>do i need a sectoid leader to get psi?
For the 1,000,000,000th time... :)
        To get psi, you need:
        a) A sectoid leader
        b) A sectoid commander
        c) Any Ethereal
A muton, snakeman, or floater leader/commander will *not* give you the psi
research paths.
-------
>Yo!  Is there a way to transfer equipment between two soldiers without having
>to drop something, move off the square, let another dude move there and grab
>it?

Yes, THROW it over.

Don't worry, throwing a heavy plasma gun onto your buddy's head will not
knock him unconscious.  Primed grenades, however, should not be transfered
in this manner.
-------
>       What weapons blow holes in buildings?

  Ordinary grenades blow holes in adjacent stone walls or several wooden
walls (interior walls in most houses, some exterior walls in stables and
second floor of barns). They won't hurt any ufo walls.

  Autocannons won't hurt stone walls, but will hurt wooden walls and
some roofs. They doesn't harm stone fences either.

  Rocket launchers take out some stone walls and great parts of roofs. Won't
hurt ufo walls though.

  Alien grenades will take out several stone walls, and part of the floor
(and a big part of the roof), but might not hurt ufo walls.

  Laser rifles will take out most terran walls, sooner or later. I'm pretty
certain they won't hurt ufo walls.

  Heavy plasmas holes all terran walls in one shot (in my experience) and
have a small chance of piercing an interior ufo wall or interior ufo door.

  Blaster launchers take out large pieces of terran real estate, adjascent
ufo exterior walls and several ufo interior walls, roofs and floors. They
seem to have an easier time piercing the overhang on battleships than they
have piercing the outer hull on any ufo, so it seems like the overhang is
treated as an ordinary ufo interior floor?
-------
> I now have researched Cydonia or Bust, and am wondering when I get to go -
> does it come up at the end of a month like PSI training?
Nope - just select an Avenger, and when it asks for the target, click on the
Cydonia button.
-------
WHEN YOU WANT TO RESEARCH ALIENS, DO SO IN THIS ORDER:
        a) *Any* live alien, *other* than leaders or commanders.
        b) Alien Origins
        c) *Any* alien *leader*
        d) The Martian Solution
        e) *Any* alien *commander*
        f) Cydonia or Bust.
If you *haven't* researched (for example) item b), *DO* *NOT* *EVEN*
*CONTEMPLATE* researching an alien leader. In other words, you *must*
research b) before c), c) before d), etc. To do otherwise is to WASTE a
PERFECTLY GOOD LEADER/COMMANDER.
-------
>>How do you recognize a alien commander from a regular grunt?
>

You can read their insignia when they are stunned.  Just stand over them and
look at the ground inventory screen.  If it's not a commander, just prime a
grenade and leave it with them so they don't wake up.
-------
1) Cydonia is mind-control city. Don't bring along anyone "wet"
   unless they are armed with nothing more dangerous than
   a medikit.
2) Blast all the pyramids. Twice. Three times is better.
3) Use flares for the Martian landscape.
4) Unload all the clips before using the elevator down.
Take 2-3 tanks into the final battle, as they can't be controlled and
are useful to scout out alien positions in the long corridors.
-------
> 1)  How do I capture alien ships intact without having to fire at them?

I always send up an unarmed troop ship and fly around after the UFO until
it lands. You then get to take on a completely intact UFO + full
complement of nasties.

> 2)  Some of my guys have pretty high Stats, but some of them also have near
>     zero time units, everything else being normal.  What could cause them to
>     do that and how do I fix it?

Sounds like you are trying to get the troops to carry too much. Try again
with less weapons/ammo per man/lady (you can always pick stuff off the alien
carcusses if you run out or leg it pack to the troopship for what you left
behind).

> 3)  I've fought off most of aliens and am waiting to invade their home
>     base.  I'm just twiddling my thumbs and shooting down their ships now.
>     What should I do next?

Eventually you will slaughter some aliens and recover stun weapons, research
them and their ammo and use them in your next raid. Then interegate the
scumbags.
-------
>What's the best way to get elerium?

>V. Yuen

Well, the absolute best way to get elerium assumes you have a good bit
of tech, and have built Hyperwave Detectors at your bases.  Ideally,
you've located a floater base near one of your own.  DON'T KILL IT.
Just leave it...

But one of the nice features of a base is that it is resupplied from
time to time...and floater supply ships are true *plums*, once you
have a good strategy for 'em.  150 elerium per ship, and they're not
very challenging...at least, not as challenging as a battleship, say.

Failing the above, the best way to GET to that point, technologically,
is to NOT shoot down ships if you can avoid it.  Shooting down ships
usually blows up the power sources, and along with them the elerium.
With a decent-sized regiment you should be able to handle just about
any landed UFO, save maybe a battleship (and possibly even those).  An
exception: don't try to tackle etherial ships until you get PSI or
lots of tech, such as blaster-launchers. :)

I love floaters, though... :)
-------
   Don't build too many bases. You do not need to cover every single
patron state. A base in Europe and a base somewhere else is enough to
increase funding.
-------
+That tells you if it is a soldier, commander, whatever.  The alien does
+NOT have to be in line-of-sight of the mind prober.  For all I know, yo
+could leave them on the skyranger.
+

   Which is what you should do. Having a guy switch from weapons to Mind
Probe uses valuable TU that could be used for firing/moving. Since you
aren't going to fire/move at your best, you should just leave him on the
transport. Otherwise, you end up spending time moving a guy who mostly
just mind probes. The same thinking goes into the tactic of leaving Psi-
Amp guys on the transport.
-------
weapon          Damage / TU             Damg/TU * Accuracy      dmg
----------      +--------------------+  +--------------------+  ---
                auto    snap    aimed   auto    snap    aimed
                -----   -----   -----   -----   -----   -----   ---
rifle           0.86    1.2     0.375   30      72      41.25   30
laser pistol    1.84    2.3     0.84    51.52   92      57.12   46
laser           1.76    2.4     1.2     80.96   156     120     60
heavy laser     ***     2.5     1.13    ***     125     94.92   85
plasma pistol   1.7     1.7     0.86    85      110.5   73.1    52
plasma rifle    2.22    2.66    1.33    122.1   228.8   133     80
heavy plasma    3.28    3.83    1.91    164     287.3   210.1   115



        Well, to be more specific, how can I determine how strong a guy
will be in psionic strength? I just did a game where for one month, I
did nothing at all except just sit around, waiting for my guys to finish
their first month in psionic training. ALl of my experienced guys had
psionic strength ratings of 20 or below, while all of my new rookies
who had never even KILLED a person and gone on only 3 missions had
strengths of 90+. How is this possible? The last game I played,
the scores ranged from 30-90, but it wasn't like this at all. Some
had high, some had low, but nothing where only three guys had above
20 psionic strength. Is there any way to ensure that a person will have
a high psionic strength? Is it random? If I save the game and keep
re-loading before the 30th day, will the psionic strength change?
I'd LIKE to get at least 40-50 for 1/2 of my guys..


------------
The standard method seems to be: train them for a month, then sack
those with PSI strength less than 50.
Hire new ones, and repeat till all your men have PSI strength greater
than 50.  The PSI lab does not improve PSI strength; it just
identifies it.
So your only commander has a PSI strength of 20:
Sack him.  The rest of your troops will thank you, and someone more
deserving will be promoted.
------------
There is no use for alien entertainment.  It's another item used to waste
your time instead of researching the important stuff.

The Mutons can be killed with one or two heavy plasma blasts.  Any weapon
less than that will take a few more hits.  Grenades and Prox. grenades
barely have an effect on them.  I've never hit one with an alien grenade.
------------
I've been playing with ASTORE.DAT and it seems to be the right file.
Aliens are stored starting at offset X'0C' (12) and each alien takes
up X'18' (24) bytes.  The first 3 bytes are important.  They are:
Alien race, alien profession, unknown - probably alien containment unit #
or which base the alien is at or something.  The numbers are:
Race: 01 - Sectoid, 02: snakeman, 03: ethereal, 04: muton, 05:floater
06: celatid, 07:silacoid, 08:chryssalid, 09:reaper, 0a:sectapod, 0b:cyberdisk
Profession: 01:commander, 02:leader, 03:engineer, 04:medic, 05:navigator
06: soldier 07: terrorist
Values of 00 00 mean "no alien".  All other values, including 00 xx and xx 00
and values of 8 or higher for profession, or 0c or higher for race, result in
rather weird errors (like an alien being classed as a Chryssalid cyberdisk or
a Muton UFO Power Source).
------------
I got tired of storming UFOs. I don't have anything that will punch holes
in ufo's yet and they always are waiting for me by the doors. I would normally
lost 3-4 troops per landing because of this. Rookies are cheap but still..
Then I got an idea: if I'm going to lose people anyway.. why not create a
walking bomb. So I have a rookie name Stooge. (I always name this rookie
stooge). I give him/her no weapons. They sit back in the plane until everything
is cleared out except the UFO. Then Stooge graps two grenades and mets up
at the ufo front door. Next turn, Stooge primes the gernades and
walks in. If Stooge gets nailed, he/she drops the gernades and the front area
has been cleared. If not, he/she throws them next turn and runs out. This
had made ufo storming so much easier.
------------

It takes two hands to unload a weapon with one hand empty.

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