Storms over former XCOM members | Controlling abductions

[Drakous79]

Always happy when an idea is used in someone's mod :)

 

Do you mean full satellite coverage by enough satellites or just partial? When jumping the satellite conditional, the abduction should happen every month. Unless you shoot all UFOs preparing it.

 

Two panic penalties are very punishing, but isn't it how the game works? Penalty for ignored flyer?

 

Is it scouts preparing terror and abduction missions that are involved in the UFO spamm?

 

I would like to see spawned abduction UFOs scaled with the game development - either large scouts (early) or abductors (late), not both of them. Also it feels like there is not enough time to fight all abductors, when they spawn above target country. Maybe improve pathing somehow so they start elsewhere and have to fly to the destination.

Edited December 8, 2012 by Drakous79

[BlackAlpha]

Always happy when an idea is used in someone's mod :)

 

Do you mean full satellite coverage by enough satellites or just partial? When jumping the satellite conditional, the abduction should happen every month. Unless you shoot all UFOs preparing it.

 

Two panic penalties are very punishing, but isn't it how the game works? Penalty for ignored flyer?

 

Is it scouts preparing terror and abduction missions that are involved in the UFO spamm?

 

I would like to see spawned abduction UFOs scaled with the game development - either large scouts (early) or abductors (late), not both of them. Also it feels like there is not enough time to fight all abductors, when they spawn above target country. Maybe improve pathing somehow so they start elsewhere and have to fly to the destination.

 

I've had multiple scenarios where I wait for months with no abductions happening. No ships preparing for it either. Just the usual scout spam that try to find the satellites.

 

Not sure about abductions, but I've had terror missions happen even when I shot down all the scouts. Not sure if scouts have something to do with abductions.

Edited December 8, 2012 by BlackAlpha

[Drakous79]

What I saw, terror missions are prepared by battleships.

 

It sounds like scenario, where are countries with satellite excluded from abduction targets, so you end up with no abduction mission because there is not enough targets. Another strange thing is scout going for the satellite. In my test runs there were only battleships hunting eyes in the skyes and only after I ignored flying UFO.

 

Maybe you're doing it different somehow. Have you checked in UE Explorer, if the satellite conditional is correctly jumped over? Do you have ShowUFOsOnMission = 1? How many abduction sites do you have?

[johnnylump]

The prospect of a geoscape full of UFOs and other missions sounds pretty exciting. You can extend the time to respond to various missions in DFC.ini to account for the single Skyranger.

 

Anyway, If that's the case, I might do away with the panic for escaped / ignored UFOs entirely -- except for the possibility of a satellite shootdown. I'd justify it by saying that a single UFO zipping overhead isn't as widely seen or as frightening a prospect as aliens on the ground, abducting and killing and so on.

 

On terror mission:

IIRC, What we've seen is that a battleship flies over the country marked for a terror mission near the beginning of the month, but shooting it down does NOT prevent the mission. A second battleship appears regardless, heading for the target city; if that one is shot down, the terror mission does not happen.

 

On abductions, I believe what Drakous has observed is that shooting down the large scout DOES prevent the abductor from spawning, and the mission does not take place.

Edited December 8, 2012 by johnnylump

[BlackAlpha]

What I saw, terror missions are prepared by battleships.

 

It sounds like scenario, where are countries with satellite excluded from abduction targets, so you end up with no abduction mission because there is not enough targets. Another strange thing is scout going for the satellite. In my test runs there were only battleships hunting eyes in the skyes and only after I ignored flying UFO.

 

Maybe you're doing it different somehow. Have you checked in UE Explorer, if the satellite conditional is correctly jumped over? Do you have ShowUFOsOnMission = 1? How many abduction sites do you have?

 

Yes, terror missions are prepared by battleships and it happens reliably.

 

Everything is installed correctly.

 

I'm guessing it might have something to do with the scout spam. Maybe abductions cannot happen in countries where scouts perform satellite hunting missions? The devs probably did that because the original game doesn't start abduction missions in countries with a satellite. So for the devs this wasn't an issue.

Edited December 8, 2012 by BlackAlpha

[Drakous79]

On abductions, I believe what Drakous has observed is that shooting down the large scout DOES prevent the abductor from spawning, and the mission does not take place.

Yes, that's it.

 

Everything is installed correctly.

 

I'm guessing it might have something to do with the scout spam. Maybe abductions cannot happen in countries where scouts perform satellite hunting missions? The devs probably did that because the original game doesn't start abduction missions in countries with a satellite. So for the devs this wasn't an issue.

I don't understand, why are your satellites hunted by scouts.

 

Here's DetermineBestAbductionTargets from XGStrategyAI. I don't see any hunting conditional. So it may be somewhere else.

function array<XComGame.XGGameData.ECountry> DetermineBestAbductionTargets()
{
   local array<XComGame.XGGameData.ECountry> arrPossibleCountries;
   local int iCountry;
   local XGCountry kCountry;
   local XComGame.XGGameData.ECountry eTargetCountry;

   iCountry = 0;
   J0x0b:
   // End:0xfd [While If]
   if(iCountry < 36)
   {
       eTargetCountry = byte(iCountry);
       kCountry = Country(eTargetCountry);
       // End:0x76
       if(!kCountry.IsCouncilMember())
       {
       }
       // End:0xef
       else
       {
           // End:0x9b
           if(kCountry.LeftXCom())
           {
           }
           // End:0xef
           else
           {
               // End:0xc0
               if(kCountry.HasSatelliteCoverage())
               {
               }
               // End:0xef
               else
               {
                   // End:0xd9
                   if(IsTerrorTarget(eTargetCountry))
                   {
                   }
                   // End:0xef
                   else
                   {
                       arrPossibleCountries.AddItem(eTargetCountry);
                   }
               }
           }
       }
       ++ iCountry;
       // This is an implied JumpToken; Continue!
       goto J0x0b;
   }
   return arrPossibleCountries;
}

Also I cannot try to replicate the issue if I don't know your exact setup :(

[BlackAlpha]

I don't understand, why are your satellites hunted by scouts.

 

By hunted I mean that the scouts try to find them and afterwards a battleship comes in to try to destroy it.

 

With scout spam I mean that when you have a satellite in (almost) all countries, you constantly see scout UFOs.

 

Do scouts have something to do with abduction missions? I always shot them down, so maybe that's why the abduction missions sometimes didn't appear?

[johnnylump]

I don't understand, why are your satellites hunted by scouts.

 

By hunted I mean that the scouts try to find them and afterwards a battleship comes in to try to destroy it.

 

With scout spam I mean that when you have a satellite in (almost) all countries, you constantly see scout UFOs.

 

Do scouts have something to do with abduction missions? I always shot them down, so maybe that's why the abduction missions sometimes didn't appear?

 

Yes, the behavior is that a large scout goes over an abduction target a couple of days before the abductor appears. Shooting down the scout prevents the abductor from spawning and thus the abduction mission.

 

Also, I *think* ANY ignored UFO on ANY mission, landed or airborne, spawns a satellite-hunting battleship.

Edited December 8, 2012 by johnnylump

[Drakous79]

Yes, satellite hunting battleship comes only if you ignore the scout or any other UFO. Not sure about ignored missions.

 

Do scouts have something to do with abduction missions? I always shot them down, so maybe that's why the abduction missions sometimes didn't appear?

Yes and yes. You can check with hyperwave relay. If scout's objective is Scout Target, they are spawned by iNumUFOs and just pondering around. If they have objective Abduct Specimens, they are preparing the abduction.

 

With ShowUFOsOnMission = 1 you will see 1 large scout for every abduction site, so for normal abduction mission with 3 sites there are 3 scouts. On top of that, if you don't shoot these scouts down, later will spawn the abductor for every scout as johnnylump wrote.

 

Shoot all scouts or all abductors if available prevents the abduction from hapenning.

Edited December 8, 2012 by Drakous79

[BlackAlpha]

Yes, satellite hunting battleship comes only if you ignore the scout or any other UFO. Not sure about ignored missions.

 

Do scouts have something to do with abduction missions? I always shot them down, so maybe that's why the abduction missions sometimes didn't appear?

Yes and yes. You can check with hyperwave relay. If scout's objective is Scout Target, they are spawned by iNumUFOs and just pondering around. If they have objective Abduct Specimens, they are preparing the abduction.

 

With ShowUFOsOnMission = 1 you will see 1 large scout for every abduction site, so for normal abduction mission with 3 sites there are 3 scouts. On top of that, if you don't shoot these scouts down, later will spawn the abductor for every scout as johnnylump wrote.

 

Shoot all scouts or all abductors if available prevents the abduction from hapenning.

 

Well, that kind of sucks then, because it's very easy to shoot down scouts.