XCOM, Hyperwaves and Radar
Mark Theriault
Also is there any point to building large AND small radars instead of just
large ones?
And out of curiousity, has anyone else seen the "Head Stretch Bug"? ie,
When a soldier in a flying suit drops an altitude level, the top of their
head sometimes stays still while there body drops, stretching their head
into a long grey line. It seems to have no negative effects on the game
and the game corrects itself as soon as they reach the next level, its
just odd.
--
Mark, m...@ug.cs.dal.ca
Chainsaw
>Hyperwave decoder replaces radar (and is actually a lot better, since radar
>don't always detect UFO's, unlike hw).
Ohh? My impression is that a HWD gives you coverage equivilant to a long
range radar. Also you can never get 100% coverage unless you have six
radar installations. This is per the manual. Also your fraction of full
coverage is shown on the base info screen - adding a HWD gives
you 1/6 more long range coverage.
>I heard that there is a certain
>probability that a radar will detect a UFO in his range so, before hw, having
>more radars should improve your chances to detect UFO's passing by. Of course,
>small and large will actually count as two radar systems only in the small
>radar range.
The manual describes the radar as rotating very slowly. Each radar
installation covers a different arc. You have 100% coverage when you
have 6 radar installations.
>Only interest to small radar systs is that they are cheaper to build.
And faster to build. I generally build new bases with a small radar,
just so I can start picking up UFOs (a.k.a., income) ASAP.
Gary Hladik
>Ohh? My impression is that a HWD gives you coverage equivilant to a long
>range radar.
I only know about XCOM 1:
The HWD detects 100% of all UFOs within range (1000 nautical miles?). A
radar has a 5% chance of detecting a UFO within range every 10 min. I
believe the range is something like 500 nm for small radars and 900 for
large (I don't have the OSG handy). The USG implies that radar detection
odds are additive (e.g. 6 radars = 30% detection odds), but the odds may
be determined independently per radar. Of course the HWD also gives you
*much* more info about the UFO, i.e. species, mission, destination, etc.
>Also you can never get 100% coverage unless you have six
>radar installations. This is per the manual. Also your fraction of full
>coverage is shown on the base info screen - adding a HWD gives
>you 1/6 more long range coverage.
The XCOM 1 base screen is *very* misleading with regard to detection
systems. :-(
>The manual describes the radar as rotating very slowly. Each radar
>installation covers a different arc. You have 100% coverage when you
>have 6 radar installations.
Is this XCOM 2?
>And faster to build. I generally build new bases with a small radar,
>just so I can start picking up UFOs (a.k.a., income) ASAP.
Once I have hyperwave technology, I consider it a waste of money to build
radar in XCOM 1. UFOs often hit the atmosphere halfway around the world
from their ultimate destinations. I now have six HWD bases, but most UFOs
still pass within detection range of my first two in North America and
Europe. The extra time needed to build HWDs isn't crucial, and early in
the game, I have better uses for the money a radar would cost.
Gary
Joseph Williams
>>Only interest to small radar systs is that they are cheaper to build.
>
>just so I can start picking up UFOs (a.k.a., income) ASAP.
Do you then later discard the small radar for the large radar? If
not, how many small radar installations would you estimate are
required for global coverage?
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Nathan Engle
>ji...@allmalt.cs.uwm.edu says...
>>And faster to build. I generally build new bases with a small radar,
>>just so I can start picking up UFOs (a.k.a., income) ASAP.
>Do you then later discard the small radar for the large radar?
Right. If I've got the cash I've even started building both at the same
time so that I could start limited viewing before the big boy came online.
>If not, how many small radar installations would you estimate are
>required for global coverage?
Personally I've never gone in for "global coverage" using either smalls or
larges. IMO the goal of XCOM is not to "Defend The Earth From Aliens" but
rather to "Mug Enough Alien Visitors So As To Be Able To Trace Where They Come
From And Go There With A SWAT Team". The planet gets visited by hundreds of
alien ships if you wait long enough, so if you're careful and patient you can
accomplish the task with just the single base that you start with (although
it'll get a little crowded before you're done).
--
Nathan Engle Electron Juggler
Indiana University Dept of Psychology
nen...@indiana.edu http://nickel.ucs.indiana.edu/~nengle/home.html
"Carpe Diem"
Christopher Wiegert
visual effect, doesn't hurt your guys or anything. :)
As for hyperwaves, from what I'm told, once you've built a decoder,
you can dismantle all your radars since the decoder does all the work.
As for large and small radars, yes, there is a point... I often have something
like 3 large and 5 small radars (for instance), providing a fairly realistic
model for having a better chance of detecting nearby UFOs than ones on the
edge of scanner range. One stupid thing is they say large radar has a range
of something like 500 nautical miles... well, on the map, 500 miles is about
this big: | | so I don't think they're being serious there. Maybe tho...
Stig Haugdahl
>In article <DGpFF...@cs.dal.ca>, m...@ug.cs.dal.ca (Mark Theriault) wrote:
>:>And out of curiousity, has anyone else seen the "Head Stretch Bug"?
>
>Yes, it's pretty common. A more amusing is the "head through the roof" bug,
>imho. It's when you stand on a bale of hay in a barn, your head pokes
>through to the upper level... You can shoot too.
But did you know that if an alien stands on a bale of hay,
he is invisilble from ground level on X-Com turn?
Story is:
X-Commie 1 catches a glimpse of snakeman through barn
window during alien turn.
X-Commie 1 sneaks up to window, peeks in, sees no alien.
X-Commie 1 gets shot by alien through window during alien turn.
X-Commie 2 blows up barn wall, sees no alien.
X-Commie 2 gets shot by alien during alien turn.
X-Commie 3 runs into barn, looks around, sees no alien, uses
last TU to climb a bale. Sees alien right in front.
X-Commie 3 gets shot by alien point blank during alien turn.
X-Commie 4 sees no alien in barn. Uses his blaster launcher
anyway.
No more barn. No more alien turn.
And of course, X-Commie 1-3 were all colonels, with high
PSI ratings. Yes, it was stupid to go there, but the bug
looked like a sitting duck in between turns...
stig
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