FMod

I'm working on a mod that does just that. Balances the game such that you have to put off some techs. Still depends on your good faith to actually do that alien base mission and not drag it out forever though. Marathon doesn't fully work. It works, that is, but it's just stretching. What does work in SW is Diminishing Returns - it makes covering the whole map with sats impossible.

2.0 is usually better than 2.1. Almost always. Although not as compact, but cheap subs tend to do more harm than good. 1) How much space do you have on your table? 2) Do you have somewhere to place an amplifier or a receiver? 3) Does your display have HDMI, what size is it? 4) What's your total budget? Both card and speakers. Presuming it's more than $200.

I have modpatcher and know p.much everything that can be done with it. It's the stuff that can't that worries me. Do the aliens behave like on Classic/Impossible? I.e. are they still aggressive, still throw grenades, etc?

Ehr... Why don't we wait for the OP first to tell us what he needs specifically? P.S. What, these are better than Grado GS1000? :teehee:

"Never activate more than one group of aliens at a time" seems to do the trick. Also, don't be ashamed to run away rather than shoot when that is the best choice. Aliens are really dumb and won't chase you, get a comfy distance and snipe away. It's not even challenging. Have yet to lose a squaddie or higher.

Toying around with various difficulties settings and running into lots of frustration on Xenonauts forums about how XCOM EU was about mopping down mobs of weakling aliens, I had this thought - - Can the AI at Easy be unshackled, so that, with its small number of enemies seriously beefed up, it changes the balance into fighting small groups of superior opponents? I know what can be done via XGTacticalGameCore and Modpatcher, but it seems like there is more to it that can be edited there. Anything in UPK that could be responsible for less aggressive AI behavior at low difficulties, or is it hardcoded? Alternately, any known way to drop the number of enemy spawns on high difficulties?

That's in all countries, these "free" PSU suck. They are not for a "K" build, you don't need more than 400W of power, but it needs to be high quality. Corsair TX650V2 is good and future-proof, but there are cheaper options too.

Trying to use it now. I've been working on exe tweaks only until now, so a complete rookie at upk edits (for XCOM at least). Maybe my steps can help idiot-proof this: 4) Download and extract XSHAPE v0.14+ into your xcom folder. Extracted, ran, error 5. Figured it out. How about adding uncompressedsize file removal straight into the .bat file? Also, do users need to decompress the upk files themselves first?

Boston Acoustics is another decent home audio brand... surprised that you'd be promoting plastic products while having a proper setup yourself. As for Polk vs Boston, they're comparable, it comes down to price. SLI: I use SLI (2x680) and a Creative card (X-Fi Elite Pro), no issues noticed. Nor were there any with older setups. These are home audio speakers, they don't come with cables or a built-in amplifier. So you plug an amplifier or a receiver (~same thing, a receiver has built-in DAC) into your sound card, then connect speakers to the amplifier. Cables are bought separately, don't need expensive ones, it's a pretty small-ticket item. For receivers, if you are going to build a 4.0 or 5.1 system eventually, get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882120194 If you are content with stereo, a two-channel amp will do: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882177020 The Onkyo is a pretty good unit and it's better, but not necessary to spend extra if not doing a multichannel build. Do you have room for a receiver? If not, you'll need speakers with integrated amps. If 5.1 is planned, better try and find room for a receiver, for stereo there's plenty of decent integrated options. For sound card I'd suggest X-Fi Titanium, it has all that you need, there's very little competition to it. edit: Also, if you're buying a receiver, you might not need a sound card at all and use the HDMI connection on your video card. The receiver will do the job. X-Fi Titanium will still give slightly better quality, but games are increasingly moving down to software sound. So quality difference becomes too small to bother and you can save some money that way.

"THX certified" doesn't mean sound quality, it's really mostly just a way for Lucas to make some cash on the side. You'll find plenty of studio grade components that are not THX certified. When speakers are concerned, none of the computer brands is even close to decent. There's sound coming out, but it barely reminds of the recording that was sent in. Visit a home audio store and hear for yourself, it's day and night. You know good equipment, so let me provide an analogy... Buying Creative or Logitech speakers just because they make good sound cards and peripherals is like saying "Well, Intel makes the best CPU, so I'll go with Intel graphics, who needs these Nvidia and ATi upstarts". You must realize how mistaken such a reasoning would be. It applies to sound even more. Even a cheap pair like this should sound better: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882117405 But seriously speaking, this would be a good starting set to build 5.1: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290205 Four of these and a amplifier will set you right up. Add a center and a sub later, a center is optional and you probably won't even need a sub. Polk is a good make, right on the lower edge of hi-fi audio, and Newegg seems to have some ridiculously undercut prices on this model for a few days. If you want something smaller, look at other speakers in the "home audio" category. Make sure these are two-way speakers, wood (MDF) cabinets, usually boxy. A subwoofer is very optional, once you get proper speakers, you'll have a chance to reevaluate whether it's still needed for your system. If you post your maximum total sound budget, for both sound card and new speakers, locale if not North America (Europe and Asia have different brands), space availability (how large you want to go) and whether you prefer stereo, 4.0 or really need 5.1 (stereo will have best music quality, 4.0 is good for everything, 5.1 will either cost more or sound worse), I should be able to suggest or put together a complete set.

Any plastic multimedia speakers (that includes anything ever from Creative, Logitech, or other computer brands) are worthless as far as sound quality is concerned. If you feel fine with them, that's fine, but there's no point spending money on a discrete sound card. And there are far better options for $400 anyway, even for less. Unfortunately it's all heavily locale-dependent if you want it cheap. Look for anything with wood or more precisely MDF cabinets that you're comfortable with in terms of price.

What's the point of spending more than around $0 on a sound card if you don't have decent speakers? It all sounds the same on cheap speakers. I've had SB 16, Audigy 2 ZS, X-Fi EP, never caused any issues with CF and SLI, don't put too much stock into one review.

A more important factor is that RAM with tall "heatsinks" (decorative really) interferes with what CPU coolers you can install. Samsung has none, nor does it need any, so you won't have to rip them off. And you can o/c it to 2133 most of the time. I kinda like the look of components will their PCB covered myself, but it just isn't practical for RAM. 7950 has always been faster than 660Ti, it may cost a bit more though - you want a non-reference cooler with that. Why do you even need Win7 Pro, any feature or "just because"? Don't do it "just because", it won't run any better/faster/whatever, only do it if there's some specific feature that you need in Professional. But if you do need that, you don't need a store, the upgrade is digital (just a key) and mostly built into the OS.

Suggest replacing mobo with Asrock Extreme3, more reliable. For RAM try and get Samsung, it overclocks better. 8GB is enough, but no harm in taking 16 if it's 2x8. Do not buy 4x4. Why do you need W7 ultimate? Waste of money if you ask me. Fan - anything 92mm is a waste of 3570K. Get Thermalright Macho HR-02 or NZXT Havik 140 or Zalman CNPS-10X performa, mb 11X. SSD - you don't even give the model, can't tell anything. I suggest Plextor M5S or M3 or Crucial M4 or Corsair Neutron. All in order of preference.

Look at this table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_displays_by_pixel_density#Commercial_displays Every computer display to speak of has a pixel density between 80 and 150 ppi, for portable 100 to 150. Surface is being positioned as a computer. 148ppi is right at the upper end of the range, it looks fine, unless you want to be specifically admiring it rather than using. Existing software designed for ppi in 100-150 range will require resizing if it's higher, wasting the extra resolution and spending additional graphics power=>battery life. iphone up to 3GS had 163ppi, and that's being a cell phone (further closer to the eyes), no one seemed to be crying about it. "Moar ppi" is a recent fad - at the point when mobile devices get higher resolutions than HDTV, i.e. higher than content exists for (not that you could tell the 720p vs 1080p difference on a phone anyway), it's definitely a fad - and not following it is the least of this device's worries. There will always be devices for those who want in on the fad. Philips smartphones used to last for over a week of active use on one charge, now it's the point of pride for Motorola Razr MAXX HD that it can go for 3 days. Guess one of the culprits.

1366x768 is fine for a 10" device. It's still standard for those 15.6" laptops. Yes, they are making 1920x1080 cell phones. What's the point, boasting about who's got more? NT kernel is really small. So are legacy parts. Windows XP installed only takes about 700 MB (without SP). I think you'll agree that legacy ends about there, XP is still alive. The rest was added between XP and now. Actually, W7 with no SP takes 9GB, or 11GB for 64-bit. 10GB was added specifically between 2010 and 2012, a large part of that just for Windows 8, at least 6GB. It's all the APIs. MS just seems unable to keep the size of their API down, particularly .NET and such. You have to carry a lot of versions, revisions and so on, and it's all built on top of one another, so you can't just leave the newest additions. It's bad programming practices, but what can you do.

Pricing for the Pro is a bit scary. And there's at least one ultrabook already thinner than it (like it really matters) and lighter (this does a little), so its point is further questionable.

Sadly, other than sticking it to Apple (which is easier done with Android), I see little reason for MS Surface. It's got a huge 20GB OS and it can't even run x86 software, so what's the advantage? They should have focused on making Win8 a cross-platform OS or on making their not-quite-RT WinRT competitive, not a compromise that doesn't work.

Really shouldn't do that, get 7850 or don't bother at all. There are no real bottlenecks, powerful GPU with weak CPU will let you set high graphics settings. I think StrikeX can be found in EU, but it's fairly lame compared to this - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020 - which is better and also cheaper. StrikeX is OK, but TXV2 is Seasonic S12-II.

7850 shouldn't cost $326. A new CPU doesn't cost $800, it costs $220. You don't live in McMurdo, do you? 7850 for proper price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150609 $200, send in a rebate coupon and it's $180.

You most definitely DO NOT need an outdated PC for Fallout 3. Newer is better. It's a demanding game, old hardware struggles with it. Just add to fallout.ini: iNumHWThreads=2 edit: Also, Fallout 3 runs considerably better on XP, in my experience. You get native directsound, no voice stutter, avoid mouse bugs, and overall get at least as good or better stability. The only thing more stable on W7 in regards to fallout is alt-tabbing.

OK, found a method described here: http://fallout3test.nexusmods.com/mods/5122 Except it was 10 and not 0D. Still, if anyone knows of a better method, please tell me.

It seems like I screwed up. It's my Nth run, with FWE, so I occasionally used sethealth or setav health on NPCs that annoyed me with repeated dying (should've used other commands, didn't care at the moment). And apparently at some point accidentally used it on myself. Now my max hp is stuck at that value, it's not affected by stats, FWE's panel can't reset it, it's locked. I looked around, but couldn't find a solution. Is there a way to release this setav lock on an actor value, hp in this case, and let the game control it as intended? Other than loading an old save.

It's quite a way behind a desktop 550 really: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-650M.71887.0.html So it's about as fast as GTS 450 on comparison charts. And GTS 450 is 75% as fast as a 550Ti. If you look at Skyrim (which they run without mods of course), 650m shows about 41-43 fps on High in 1366x768, all for the GDDR5 version. That is the average fps. Going down to GDDR3 reduces performance. Then, 1600x900 is about 37% more area to render. So I would expect something in the 30-35 fps range as the average. For me that wouldn't be comfortable. I tried playing at 30 fps once, by mistake (installed Stutter Remover and didn't edit the ini) and it was horrifying, I thought my game install broke down. That's fixed solid at 30 fps, here it would be 30-35 average with dips down to a slideshow at 15-20. For some people it would be comfortable. But I think that manually tweaking between Medium and High, with shadows off (they're performance suckers and work poorly in Skyrim anyway), to get a more comfortable framerate, would be a better option. Anyway, the bottom line is, it will run and it will run, by laptop standards, well.

I don't think it is. Why can't you get there? Any error message? Did you install the game in Program Files (x86) as by default? It will be in (x86). And in the future I recommend to always install all games on a drive other than the system drive, in a Games folder. That way, when you upgrade the OS, you can format the system drive, reinstall the game and it will stay complete with all the mods.