################################################################## #Game: UFO - Extraterrestrials # #Author: Joyel Puryear # #Email: videogames@infotechnologist.biz # #Business Site: http://www.infotechnologist.biz # #Writing Website: http://www.realmofwriting.com # #Systems Covered: PC # ################################################################## Note: The newest version of this walkthrough can always be found at my personal writing website: http://www.realmofwriting.com. That site is always updated first, followed by Gamefaqs. You can find a variety of other writing material from me as well. Occassionally there are even walkthroughs there that have not yet been submitted to Gamefaqs. <--------------------------------------------------------------------------> =================== =Table of Contents= =================== 1) Table of Contents 2) Version History 3) General Information 4) Preparing Your Game A) Changes from X-Com UFO Defense to UFO - Extraterrestrials (Base Game) B) Preparing your game C) BMan - East of Use Mod - FULL Release History (to current) D) Game Preperation Installation Instructions E) After Installation 5) Strategies and Tactics - Outside Battle 6) Strategies and Tactics - Inside Battle 7) Contributions 8) Copyright <--------------------------------------------------------------------------> ================= =Version History= ================= Version 2.0 - 6-06-10 --------------------- - Updated contact information again. This time I added an actual email address made for that purpose. Version 1.9 - 3-27-10 --------------------- - Updated contact information again, as well as added some details to contribution information section. Version 1.8 - 1-28-10 --------------------- - Updated contact information throughout walkthrough Version 1.5 - 7-20-09 --------------------- - Added multiple sections. - Updated the header with new email address. Version 1.3 - 7-14-09 --------------------- - Split the "Strategies and Tactic" sections into two seperate sections. One section for inside of battle, and one section for outside of battle. Version 1.0 - 7-14-09 --------------------- - Initial core writing. Shared the main things I wanted to share. - Started the sections that will include strategies and tactics. <--------------------------------------------------------------------------> ===================== =General Information= ===================== About Me -------- I have a variety of hobbies. I play video games, read comics, program, do IT related stuff, read fantasy/fiction/sci-fi stuff, write, and a few other things. One of my hobbies involves writing walkthroughs, and contributing various things online (like on Gamefaqs). I generally play video games between 15-40 hours per week (atleast). I also have an obsessive "Scholar" personality. I seek knowledge in all forms with everything I do. I also get heavily involved in games and seek to get a perfect game in every single game I play, no matter what the type of game. Code of Walkthrough Writing (and other contributions) ----------------------------------------------------- I have a strict code of content when it comes to writing walkthroughs. I don't want to waste my time writing/re-writing/editing stuff that has already been written before multiple times. There is a difference between "contributing" and "rehasing". I want to "contribute". That means I want to add stuff that has not been added before, cover stuff that has been been covered before, or recover stuff that has been covered before (but I don't believe has been covered well enough). A lot of times I won't write a walkthrough on a game simply because there is already a walkthrough on gamefaqs that already covers everything there is to cover about the game. In those cases if I have something to add I add them into the cheat system on gamefaqs as a submittal. I only write a walkthrough when I really have something to contribute to the community. Generally if there is a walkthrough already written about it, I won't write one. If I feel I have a lot of stuff to add that wasn't already covered, or I feel it wasn't covered properly then I will write a walkthrough even if there are 20 already written. It all depends on if I have something to contribute that will not already be covered, or covered properly. I am an expert gamer. There isn't anything within any game that I do not have the ability to complete. That is the reason I write walkthroughs when I am in the mood..to help other people be able to have the help they need. Especially when they are in parts of a game where they are stuck. This Game --------- This is a game called UFO: Extraterrestrials. There are a lot of differences between this game, and the original UFO by another developer. Here is the thing. There is a walkthrough as well as other resources for information on this game. They pretty much cover everything, so I am certainly not going to waste my time, and your time rehashing what was already stated. I am however going to compile data and information here that is not covered elsewhere, or things I don't feel was covered correctly. First off....I do not play the original of this game. I have played and beaten the originally...and I found it lacking. With some luck I chanced upon some things online, that made this game heaven on earth. This was basically like UFO the original on super-steroids. There is a guy who build a "mod" for this game that is unlike anything I have ever seen. Well...there were problems though. There is nothing out there that really...teaches you how to get the stuff together and get it all installed without a ton of work. To see more details go to the section that is called "Preparing Your Game". You will probably not want to read this guide if you are not interested in preparing your game. I enjoyed the base game, but it was missing so much, I cannot play the game again normally. It's not hard to prepare it. I also don't see the point in writing a "walkthrough" for the normal game. I mean my strategies and tactics that I add into the walkthrough will probably be backwards compatible with the original game however, but the only thing is there are so many new things with a "prepared" game that a lot of this walkthrough won't make sense with the original game only. <--------------------------------------------------------------------------> ===================== =Preparing Your Game= ===================== We are going to prepare the game at this point. You could very easily just play UFO - Extraterrestrials without modifying anything or preparing anything. If that is the case you want to go use the other walkthrough. It covers pretty much everything related to the base game. I have strategies and tactics here that I cover, but they are all WITH the prepared game. It's the same game but with a lot of additional features. First off lets look at the "base" game before we prepare it. X-Com UFO Defense was the name of the original UFO title (which this game is based off of). There were many differences though between the original X-Com UFO defense, and the self-proclaimed "Spiritual Sequel". In the following section the changes in UFO - Extraterrestrials will be listed, as well as how the new game differs from the old classic. Changes from X-Com UFO Defense to UFO - Extraterrestrials (Base Game) --------------------------------------------------------------------- The walkthrough on gamefaqs by "Shanrak" has a pretty detailed list of the changes from the original UFO to the new game. That is a good enough list where I don't have any need to rehash what was already said. If I think of anything he left out later, then I will add it here as additional information. Preparing your game ------------------- Now that you know the difference between the old classic, and base version of UFO - Extraterrestrials..let's prepare your game for playing. 1) Install the game. 2) Go into the launcher and patch it up to date Now you have the original base game installed. Now we are going to install a module. This module was build by a guy named "BMan" and it's called the "Ease of Use Module". This is a collection of various modules, bug fixes, changes, and core manipulations to the base game. Having this installed is what I consider the "prepared" game. Before you can install and setup the modules, it's good to do the proper homework before playing. The thing is there is nothing online in a structured manner to be able to see the stuff in front of you. The current mod is a version 4.7 remake of the original mod and has passed through the hands of a total of 2 developers. Currently the latest version of the mod can be found here: This link is where you can find the "post" that gives links to the files. Be careful. There are multiple different links to different files. You want to get the top one. Don't bother reading the release (histories) they are broken up very badly. If you go below to the next section of the guide and read you will see a complete list of every version of this mod that was ever released in psychotic detail. http://ufo-scene.com/plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?8467 DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE FILE FROM THIS LINK. After some research I found a guide that teaches you how to install it. There are more than 1 file for this mod to work. There are like 6 different files. I will have an entirely different section BELOW the version history of the mod that sends a link to how to install it. To get the direct file, download it here You have to enter the entire link in the browser for it to work That will include every single file needed for a complete patch: You will find installation details in the section below the one describing all of the release history for the module. The thing I had a problem with was getting together a really good version release history and changelog. I really had to do a lot of digging to get all of this together. I have found all of the resources and version history from back to the earliest version up until 4.4 which was the last one Bman developed, all the way to 4.7 which was taken over by another developer. The newest version 4.7 is the one that you need to download but it never hurt to see a release history of something in it's entirety. This is something that took me considerable time to put together from various forums and mixed postings following this release. This was almost a 6 hour job to get all of these patch notes together. I am going to include them below for you in detail, so you can read through all of the changes before building in the module. You DO NOT understand why I urge you to prepare your game before playing until you read all the patch notes. It adds in aliens, music, loading screens, boards, bug fixes (THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS), improvements, and everything else you can possibly imagine. BMan - East of Use Mod - FULL Release History (to current) ---------------------------------------------------------- We start showing the newest patch notes...all the way down to the oldest. You would not believe the time it took to compile all of these notes, as well as get them all formated for gamefaqs. Basically there were 4 different forums (each with patch notes for various releases) that I had to compile together. On top of that atleast 6 of them were from individual releases that I had to compile by digging through forums and finding one post at a time for those releases. There was a reason I went to all of this trouble. The most recent release just shows the changelog for those few versions. I have this desire to learn ALL changes something is going to do to my game before using it, that's why I have compiled them ALL here from the very first mod release to the newest version. If you want to know about "all" of the changes you want to read them from bottom to top, to get a full idea of every change the mod makes to the game since the creation of the mod. This text was NOT CREATED BY ME. It was copied/pasted from various forums. I am only listing it here to compile it all together in one place so you don't have to dig through 50 forums to see all of the results. The point is some of those forums may not even show the change log forever (if a forum went down the changelog for those versions are lost forever). It was already hard to get these together. I had to dig very deep in some (currently inactive) forums to find them all, all the way up into the latest release. Also note this is the final current version. B-Man is planning on coming back later on down the road and make more versions. When he does the current guy who has taken over for the last few versions will be deleting his thread and turning it back over to B-Man. At which point I will continue to track current versions within this walkthrough. Changes in v4.07 * Note: This is an unofficial fix version compiled by Coasty. * Fixed a critical CTD in Terror Missions that was found in Aliens.xscr, line 293. The code "object weapon = invWeapon.item;" was causing a crash when the alien hit an X-Com ally and then tried to access the weapon which the alien used to hurt the X-Com ally. Since this information isn't even used in the function, deleting the line safely fixed the problem. May we fervently hope that this squashes the last Terror Mission based bug! Thanks to SyDaemon for the timely fix. Changes in v4.06 * Note: This is an unofficial fix version compiled by Coasty. * Fixed another Terror Mission Crash, which I inadvertently added in the v4.05 Hard Install. My proofreading left something to be desired! Thanks to Fred for the heads up. * Fixed an oversight in Bman's mod, from v4.0 to v4.04, that left out the "dead" Personal Neutron Shield picture, which caused a "image not found" error for anybody who used that shield. I made up a new picture for it that matches the look and feel of the other "dead" Personal Shields. * Edited the Main Menu and the Bman Setting Screen for label consistency (i.e. all upper case, which also has the benefit of making them easier to read) and put the "Hire Soldier Cost" dollar sign in the correct place. * Edited "ResourceBundle.dat" to clean up some spelling/syntax/capitalization errors. This mostly effected each settings help/info text. * Added Coasty's Better Soldier Stats mod to the Bman Setting Screens on the Geoscape tab. This mod starts newly hired/starting soldiers off with up to 10 more points per stat than they would ordinarily get with the default stats. This does NOT make them into UBER soldiers, it just gives them a better chance to survive, especially in the later stages of the game. Changes in v4.05 * Note: This version is an unofficial fix version compiled by Coasty. * Added SyDaemon's fix for the fatal CTD bug in Terror Missions. * Added SyDaemon's new "random" setting to the UFO Crash Damage option in the Bman Ease of Use Settings Menu. When set to random it randomizes between the three settings of Off, UFO Damage only, and UFO + Alien Damage for added variety to your missions. * Added Ram-Man's fix for the "Inventory Reload after Mission End" bug that has affected those who use multiple transports to transport their soldiers to missions. This is the bug that Lurker has reported (and verified by others) that results in the inventory for each soldier after returning from a mission being totally empty. This, hopefully, will take care of the problem. * Added Sydaemon's Face Mod fix. The problem lies in the face conversion process if your save game contains the original faces and you attempt to load it with the Face Mod off. The game "forgets" to revert the faces back when it realized that there was no need to convert, so all the faces are empty. Note that this most likely will happen if you try the Face Mod for the first time and without re-saving the converted faces, change your mind and go back to turn the Face Mod off. Also note that if you saved your game with the faces empty, you might need to fix them manually via Beefstew83's method shown here: * The Face Mod loses the file name in the save game files. The only way to fix it is to go back to a save game before the faces were lost. You can also unpack the most recent save and go back and edit the file names back in there, which is what I ended up doing. For 20 soldiers it is a real pain the in the neck. The good news is that you'll only need to go through the trouble once. How to apply the fix: * If necessary, apply Beefstew83's method of fixing the save game. * Turn the Face Mod on. * Load your saved game. * Save your game again. If you don't know if the manual fix for the save game is required, try to apply the fix without it and see if it works. If it doesn't you'll probably need to do it again, this time with the manual fix to your save game. NOTE: If, by a quirk of fate, you're in a combat-save game when this version is applied, and your face pictures completely disappear, DON'T PANIC! Your soldier face pictures will show up again as soon as your soldiers return to base. Changes in v4.04 * Added option to Geoscape Tab: Boss Monster Frequency. Use it to control how often the new alien shows up (v4.03 was using the Very Common setting for comparison's sake). If any new "really tough aliens" get added in the future, they could possibly use this same setting to control them. Changes in v4.03 * Fixed geoscape crash when UFO appears while HWD Mod enabled * Fixed tactical crash when New Face Mod enabled and Animated Faced Enabled * Applied SyDaemon's Crash Fix when editing inventory of soldier while in soldier placement mode * Enhanced inventory screen to make adding a lot of shields to a soldier much less tedious. * Lowered range of Censored's secondary ability * Lowered reaction stat of Censored (Has anyone encountered him yet?) Changes in v4.02 * Made some slight performance improvements on geoscape. With 11 UFO's and 11 CAF ships, my FPS went from 1 to 5. Best I can do. * Increased weight of all personal shields except for personal energy shields to make them better balanced. Advanced tech shields are still better than early tech shields***just not quite so amazingly better. * Fixed an error with tactical AI when trying to shoot through walls * Fixed game crash bug when trying to make smoke/gas/flames off the map. * Fixed jerky shield movement (Thanks Phobos for finding the problem) * Added shield animations during combat if you have not disabled "idle animations" * Increased damage done by explosive weapons on the edge of the explosion (Thank Phobos for the suggestion) * Adjusted UFO escalation triggers * Fixed bug in tactical combat that prevented mouseclicks from working sometimes when zoomed out. * Applied Surma's and GrayFiend's modification to the HWD mod so that it will look in all bases for the required facilities * New version of the Multimedia pack with new sounds and ufopedia entries added in v4.02 Integrated SyDaemon's Soldier Placement Mod 0.75 * Change the "Soldier Placement" setting to "Manual" and you have full control over where your soldiers appear in the transport from the mission launch screen. * Don't try to click on your equipment while in soldier placement mode!. There is a bug in the mod which makes the game crash. Make sure and switch to equipment mode before trying to move any of your soldier equipment around. - Integrated GrayFiend's facemod pack * Adds roughly 40 new soldier faces. Integrated Phobos's Proximity Grenades v0.95 * Adds several new proximity grenades to the game. This will probably be my last release except for serious bug fixes * I finally saved enough $$ to buy GW:Eye of the North and so will soon be exploring dungeons for a few months. * If you find some major bugs I'll try to fix them. * If modders releases a bug*fix or enhancement to their mod, someone is going to have to take over merging the enhancements into the main mod. It's been fun, but really...I need a break And as a final gift * There have been scattered reports of a previously unknown alien travelling on certain UFO missions and in base assaults. * Reports suggest the creature is extremely dangerous and employs two rather unique and deadly attack methods. * It also appears to have acquired a taste for owls. * May the Creator preserve any that cross paths with this elusive creature. Changes in v4.01 * Fixed crash bug when going to earth * Fixed crash bug when a soldier gets promoted after combat * Applied SyDaemon's fix to combat log not going away when loading a savegame. Changes in v4.00 * Compatible with Official Patch2 * INSTALL OFFICIAL PATCH2 BEFORE INSTALLING THIS MOD * Hopefully fixed bug with multiple transports not always refilling a soldier's inventory when returning to base * Added support for new loading screens to appear when loading a game or during enemy combat turns * Some minor bugfixes in the combat log. * Fixed bug where autosave after combat would not save $$ and unique items earned after a swarm leader crash*site. Changes in v3.27 * Fixed crash bug on production screen * Fixed hang bug when computer controlled units use a flamethrower * Added support for OVNI's Enhanced Sprites (thanks to Spamhell) * Makes CAF soldiers appear sharper and more detailed * Just download and unzip the EnhancedSprites archive and the mod will use them automatically. * Note: The waspkeeper armor is the vanilla color since these enhanced sprites have not been color-treated by Vince. Changes in v3.26 * Production Screen now shows hours and minutes if the time is less than 1 day * Production Screen now shows minutes and seconds if the time is less than 1 hour. * Reduced Stun Rod AP cost to 20% * Upgraded Ishantil's IEEEP mod to 1.12 (adds a bunch of new rockets) * Applied Surma's Pack/Unpack savegame mod. * You can pack/unpack your savegames from the normal Settings screen (do not ask me why it is here) * When the list of savegames comes up, just click one. It will appear as if nothing happened but trust me--it did it real quick. * This is useful if you are wanting to edit your savegame for some reason. * Applied Surma's update to the shift/ctrl click mod. Holding SHIFT (for 10 units) or CTRL (for 100 units) now also works on the Buy/Sell and Transfer screens. Also has been fixed so you cannot SHIFT-click to build 10 ships when you only have 1 hangar. Changes in v3.25 * Fixed missing names/descriptions of autosave tactical setting * Fixed rare object null error when starting a tactical mission Changes in v3.24 * Fixed bug preventing Medkits and Stimpacks from working * Fixed bug (hopefully) that causes game to crash during AI turn about direction_3 not found or some such. * Added Autosave During Combat setting to allow you to tell the game to autosave every N turns during combat (helpful to save your progress in case some nasty bug crashes the game). Too bad I didn't think of this about 100 versions ago. * Added curb's Smaller Ship Buttons Mod * Decreases the size of the CAF ship buttons on the right side of the geoscape screen to allow you to have more ships on the screen at the same time and still be able to control them all. Changes in v3.23 * Fixed bug preventing stun rods from working. * Fixed bug where shoot menu would not update if you switched hands while it was open * Fixed bug where F1*F4 keys would let you activate reserved buttons that were not valid * Fixed bug where activating a new reserve button would enable all buttons until you moved your mouse. * Fixed bug where combat log would sometimes think an X*COM Agent was hidden when you could see it. Changes in v3.22 * Finally fixed the grenade XP bug for good I hope * Fixed a few quircks in the combat log messages. Changes in v3.21 * Fixed combat log crash Changes in v3.20 * Fixed combat bug that made tanks not work. * Fixed some bugs SyDaemon noticed in the CombatLog * Modified combat log to not display floating damage numbers if the victim is not visible to the player. * Fixed (hopefully) the problem with grenades not always giving you credit for the kill. Changes in v3.19 * Overhauled Settings screen. * Now a little easier to add new settings * Most of the settings names have been moved to ResourceBundle.dat to make it easier to translate into other languages * Most settings now have a helpful description that displays when you put your mouse on the setting. * Fixed Ship Exploit * You used to be able to launch a fighter, have it take a shot. Then immediately land it then launch again and shoot again. You could repeat this many many times and end up with 100's of bullets on the screen at once and the UFO's could not fight back. * Now you are unable to land your ship for a short period of time after taking a shot. Your ship will just circle the base until the time has passed and then they will land. The only people that will be affected by this are those that try to land immediately after shooting. * Added Balanced Rifles and Pistols setting * If activated, then the following changes are made: * All Pistols receive a general bonus to their accuracy. This is not shown in the UFOPedia or Inventory screens but it is applied during combat and shown when you aim the pistols. * All Pistols receive a bonus when aiming at something in short range. * All Pistols receive a penalty when aiming at something in long range. * All Rifles & Shotguns receive a penalty if you are holding something in your other hand (like a grenade or stimpack or something) * All Rifles & Heavy Guns receive a penalty if you are aiming at something in short range. * Shotguns receive a bonus if you are aiming at something in short range. * Shotguns receive a penalty if you are aiming at something in long range. * Guns that have fixed ranges, such as melee weapons and flamethrowers, are unaffected by this mod. * The net effect of this: Pistols & shotguns are really good at short range but suck at long range. Rifles are really good at long range but not so good at short range. Pistols have less AP and have burst mode but do less damage. Shotguns do alot of damage but require more AP and do not have burst mode. * Modified swarm reward so that if you find something that cannot be used from the inventory screen, you get a hint about how to use it. * Fixed bug in PerfMod that would not recalculate To Hit Probabilities if you kneel/stand while aiming your gun. * Fixed bug that would lockup game during aliens turn if a flying alien came into view while changing elevation. * Installed SyDaemon's CombatLog Mod * When activated, detailed information is shown in the combat log (the thing at the top right of the screen). * Information includes the attacker, the weapon, the damage type, the damage amount, the victim, the experience gained. * You can also enable the Show Damage setting to display little floating damage numbers over the victim and little Experience Point numbers over the attacker if they gained any experience. The setting only works if the combat log is enabled. You can have it only show damage, or damage and experience. Changes in v3.18 * Fixed bug which was giving the swarm reward after any swarm crash-site instead of just the leader * Added code to rename new soldiers you hire if you already have a soldier with that name * Fixed zombie CAF soldier bug * Fixed some crash bugs with Ishantil's IEEEP Mod (wrong case on some of the item id's) * Added new unique item: Distortion Field Generator * Included Baldhor's PerfMod 1.1 * This mod greatly speeds up the tactical portion of the game. * Gain anywhere from 5-25 frames per second. * Applied some bugfixes to the PerfMod. * Added new Performance Tweaks settings tab and moved stuff into it * Added new performance setting to enable/disable unit idle animations (like for bobbing larva and cyberdisc sparkles) * Added new UFO Swarm option so you can enable that seperately from the UFO's travel in groups option. Changes in v3.17 * Fixed Crash Bug when ending a base combat mission. * Fixed Crash Bug when loading a combat mission that has stun gas. * Fixed Crash Bug related to Chemical Grenades 3 (thanks SyDaemon) * You can safely load combat savegames from v3.15 or later with this version. Changes in v3.16 * Fixed bug in savegame conversion code related to UFO game peiods (Thanks SyDaemon) * (Hopefully) fixed bug in savegame conversion when your old save game had a UFO crash-site on the globe * Added a very small chance of finding one of the unique items after any successful tactical mission Changes in v3.15 * Lowered Fuel of Exterminator - it was too high for its tech level * Increased Fuel of NightWolf & Jag - they were too low * Ship Behaviour Change - When on AGRESSIVE or NORMAL and a ship's target is destroyed, ship will now autotarget the nearest UFO that is within weapon range and will only return to base if there are no UFO's nearby. * Fixed Grenade Throw bug which caused game to use Shooting skill when throwing grenades even though the GUI was showing the %-chance to hit using Throwing skill. * Increased accuracy of grenades slightly because they really really suck when using 40-ish throwing skill which only the best rookies have. if you want to make good grenade tosses, spend a few points on throwing * Slightly lowered PSI Helmet effectiveness - spend some points on Bravery to fully protect yourself. * Aliens will no longer send all retaliations to the same base over and over and over and over * X-COM Agents will no longer drop equipment if murdered by CAF (too exploitable) * X-COM Agents will now choose among all available CAF grenades when going to a mission so that sometimes they will have stun grenades or chem grenades etc or even the new grenades in the Bman EOU Option Pack by Ishantil & SyDaemon * Added many more names to the special soldier names list. * If you have researched a UFO type, then those UFO's on geoscape are now color-coded for the type of mission they are on. Think of it as having studied the craft enough to tell the differences in appearance depending on the equipment needed for different missions. If you have not researched a UFO type, then it is the normal color. You still have to figure out what the different colors mean for yourself of course * Made the "ufo buttons" on the left of the screen smaller to accomodate more ships on the planet at the same time. * Made some improvements to the UFO ship targetting AI. * Increased $$ received for selling alien weapons. You can now control this value from the consts.xscr file. * Possibly fixed crash bug in Terror Missions (all civilians now fall to the right no matter what) * Possibly fixed ghost soldier bug when reloading a game (Thanks Baldhor) * Integrated Baldhor's SmokeMod * let's you turn off the animated smoke and flames via the options screen for a performance boost * Integrated The EOU Option Pack by Ishantil, SyDaemon, & VincentPrice * Replaces Strength Requirements with true Encumbrance: The more stuff you carry, the less AP you have in combat. The higher your strength, the more stuff you can carry. Just like X-COM. You can turn this off from the settings to use the normal Strength requirement method * Adds a bunch of new grenades to research and use * Adds option to speed up the walking animation of soldiers holding heavy weapons * Fixes bug with the sight range settings so they work like they should * Improves the graphics of the jetpack, anti-grav, and stunrod. * Revamped the tech tree for the researchable interceptors and transports * Instead of getting multiple ships in "clumps" the researches are now spread out evenly through the game. * The game will not progress until you have produced and are using the latest interceptors available for research. * Revamped the AI for UFO's and UFO progression during the geoscape portion of the game * The game now plays like a slow escalation of power. You shoot down a bunch of UFO's and UFO's start coming in groups. You respond by building better inteceptors. Aliens respond by coming out with bigger groups or bigger ships. You respond with better ships. They respond. Etc until the end of the game when you begin to get overwhelmed and try to do what is necessary to end the thread once and for all. * Specifically: * There is now a period at the start of the game where only Scouts appear. * After a while, UFO's will start travelling in groups for better protection. * These groups get bigger and more powerful as time goes on * You now no longer need to wait "forever" for the biggest UFO's to appear. As long as you build and use the latest fighter technology available the game will progress once it is clear you are dominating the current UFO's that are coming at you. In otherwords, you control the pace of the game. * If you just do not like the UFO groups (there *is* a performance penalty with so many UFO's on the screen), you can turn them off from the settings screen and UFO's will come out in singles like they do in the un-modded game. * Note: These changes generally make the game a little harder. No longer can you just throw a few fighters at the ship and wait for them to blow it up. Study the squads and how they react. There are different types of ships in each squad and each type has a different formation/response to your ships. There are other differences. Use more bases than normal and house more ships than normal. Use some ships as decoys to split the squad while other ships go in for your real target. Ask in the forums for some ideas. They are beatable. Of course I've not playtested the late game so they may need some tweaking as you guys play it. I welcome feedback. - UFO SWARMS * Occasionally, very very large and powerful swarms of UFO's will invade the planet. * You will be notified when these arrive and will be offered a reward for defeating the swarm. * Earn tons of $$ and powerful unique equipment when you succeed! * Unique Equipment includes: Auto-Doc, Personal Eternal Shield, Alien Life Detector, Portable Teleporter, Interceptor Craft Upgrades, Guided MEGA-Rockets * More unique equipment will be added later on. * At first you may not think these swarms are beatable....but they are if you've learned some tactics from the ufo squads. Be prepared to sacrifice ships in the attack in order to win. That's why you get mega-$$ for beating it afterall. * If you do not want to fight the swarm, just keep your ships in your base. The swarm will buzz around for a day or two then leave. I *know* I've left out ALOT of stuff. Special thanks to Baldhor, Ishantil, SyDaemon, VincentPrice for their mods & bug-fixes included in this version. Changes in v3.14 * Upgraded CySlider's Tactical Radar to v1.7 to fix 2 crash bugs * Fixed another bug in the Personal Shield ufopedia entries * Modified the sell cost of alien weapons so they are worth more reasonable amounts (ie less money). They are no longer profitable to manufacture and sell. But don't worry - Human weapons are still profitable to build and sell. * You now get your starting soldiers in a new game like you used to before the Hire Soldier Mod. * Fixed bug in Hire Soldier Mod that was generating duplicate soldier names. * Fixed bug in Show Path Mod cost calculations. Changes in v3.13 * Integrated CC's sound patch. * Integrated Baldhor's Lowspec mod which adds some options to speed up the game engine by turning off stuff. See the Performance Tweaks settings for what can be changed. * Modified LowSpec mod so that you do not have to exit UFO:ET and restart for changes to take effect. * Added option to turn off the animated gui at the start of combat. * Integrated Baldhor's Soldier Hiring Mod - now which you click "Hire Soldier" you get taken to a screen where you can choose among 100's of soldiers for the one you want. * Integrated CySlider's Tactical Radar v1.5 * 'r' - turns radar on/off * 'o' - turns objects (walls) on/off * 'f' - turns fog on/off * 'l' - turns LOS cones on/off * 'g' - turns multilevel on/off (can see only ground) * 'b' - turns camera box on/off * See Performance Tweaks settings for a setting to alter the speed of radar updates. Faster settings update the radar quicker but cause a more noticable performance hit when the soldier stops moving. Slower settings cause less of a performance hit but make the radar take longer to update. * Modified radar to save your preferences so you don't have to do it each combat * Modified radar for a few more performance boosts over the v1.5 code CySlider posted * Integrated VincentPrice's experienced soldier mod. If you hire soldiers in later eras, they now come with some experience. Era-2 soldiers have enough XP to be rank 4. Era-3 soldiers, rank 7, Era-4 soldiers, rank 10. Note: They will still be rank 1 until they go on a mission. Each mission they go on will gain them 1 rank until they reach the proper rank. * Re-enabled Grayfiend's 6-button time mod after his bugfix * Modified 6-button time-mod to put the 20min button on instead of 30min button. * Hopefully fixed the crash bug when you research personal shields and click Goto UFOPedia. Let me know if it still crashes. * Tweaked xcom units statistics in later eras slightly. Changes in v3.12 * Fixed bug that made unshielded soldiers almost invincible. Changes in v3.11 - IMPORTANT BUG FIXES * Fixed all bugs related to savegames and personal shields and heavy laser ammo. When you load your savegame, the mod will fix the savegame damage and it should all work now. Let me know if there are any more weird problems with these items. * Added a "Performance Tweaks" section to the tactical settings. Right now I only have 1 item but more are on the way * Added option to reduce the particle count of smoke, fire, and gas which significantly speeds up the game for slower computers. This option only affects new smoke fire and gas. ie if you load up a savegame that has existing stuff it will not be affected, but any new stuff will use the lower particle count. * Added CySlider's Tactical Radar v1.1 * press 'r' to turn the radar on/off * press 'o' to turn the objects (ie map) on/off * press 'f' to turn the gray fog aread on/off * press 'l' to turn the LOS cones on/off * Fixed crash bug in Tactical Radar that occurred whenever you ended a mission. * Uploaded a new UFO_ET executable that has been modified to remove the performance penalty for using the True Night Mod setting. Just place this EXE in your UFO:ET folder and run the game using this EXE instead of UFO_ET.exe. Changes in v3.10 * Installed Surma's MIAB stuff * Aliens created when UFO is created (optional) * UFO crew variety (eg. second support race) * UFO items (like engines, flight control) are now based on what you actually see in the UFO. * Hallucinoids are no longer a Main race * Installed Surma's Overhauled Settings screen which categorizes the mod settings and in general looks very good. * Installed Surma's View Distance Settings * Installed VincentPrice's Recolored Waspkeeper Armor Mod * Installed Coasty's Easier To See Movement Path Arrows * Updated Radar to CySlider's Tactical Radar v5 * Added Personal Shields. You can purchase the Personal Energy Shield in the base store. Better versions must be researched/produced. Let me know how the balance is on them. I expect them to be slightly more balanced when SyDaemon finishes his Encumbrance mod. * Added option to move Desert Viper Armor to Era 2. If you turn on this option then load a savegame (or start a new game), your savegame will be modified so that Desert Viper armor is available once you research a Destroyer. * Added Camera Perspective Option to switch between the game default of showing combat with a perspective view (ie the angles of the combat objects change if they are away from the center of the screen) and an isometric view (sometimes called orthogonal) which is how X-COM looked. It is a subtle change. Thanks to Phobos for pointing out how to do this. * Modified mission results screen to show the kill counts for the X-COM Agents. * I'm sure I forgot some stuff Changes in v3.09 * Disabled GrayFiend's 6-time-button mod due to engine instability with the 30min button. * Modified Continue Game button so now it will load the last savegame you made regardless of the gametime within the savegame. ie now it will continue the last game you were playing. * Added some extra stat displays to the mission completion screen. * Updated Tactical Radar with CySliders modifications (shows unit facings now). * Hopefully did not introduce any new bugs Changes in v3.08 * Personal Jetpack is now available earlier - you can research it after researching a Sentinel in era-2 * New Item: Personal Anti-Grav System - only takes up 1 inventory space instead of an entire backpack like the jetpack. This item is researched some time after researching the 3rd armor. * Added GrayFiend's 6-time-button mod - Replaces the 3 geoscape time buttons with 6 of them: 5sec,1min,5min,30min,1hr,1day. Thanks to GrayFiend for doing the integration with my mod also. * Updated Multimedia Pack to 3.08 - You should download the new version for the antigrav graphics. Changes in v3.07 * Turned off some debugging statements I accidentally left on in 3.06 Changes in v3.06 * Fixed crash bug when starting a mission with the Portal Shunt active * Corrected Ethereal health * Lowered Ethereal accuracy slightly * Added CySlider's mini-mod which adds: * "Continue Last Game" button to load the most recent savegame (note: "most recent is defined by game-time *not* by your computer system time) * "Mission Generator" - a way to load specific maps to do a test fight or something. * OVNI's Tactical Radar * Modified Tactical Radar to display xcom agents in light blue * Added Surma's "Moriarty's micro-update mod". See this thread for details. * I think I applied Surma's fix for the finance screen not calculating salaries but I am not sure * Modified sell-back price of manufactured items to include the technician salaries. CC had this calculation but due to a bug in their code it was not enabled. This means you get alot more for selling manufactured items (but it is still a slight overall loss). Changes in v3.05 * This time I made sure to package the range changes to flamethrower and chemogun so they should be range 7 now. Let me know if it is still not working. * Computer controlled units that come with a rocket launcher will now sometimes use the stun and fire rockets if you have researched them. * CAF soldiers that actually score a kill on an alien get a larger morale boost than the rest of the team. * Included Moriarty's enhanced Monthly Finance Report from MIAB. Thanks to Surma for updating it. * Included Moriarty's Terror UFO Mod from MIAB. Thanks to Surma for updating it. * Included rezaf's Weapon Stats Mini-Mod. Thanks to CySlider for updating it. * Included Phobos 77's Geoscape Ship Size Modifier Mod. * Moved a couple of the graphics into the main download so the game won't crash if you do not install the multimedia pack, or if you install it incorrectly. Changes in v3.04 * Changes to make the start of the game not quite so hard: * Ethereals will never appear on Scout UFO's * Ethereals will never appear on era-1 Fighter UFO's * Sectoid Leaders will never appear on Scout UFO's (ie the ones that have mind-control) * X-COM "Terror" units will never appear on Scout UFO's. * Balance changes to mind-control * Increased AP cost for alien mind-control attacks * Whenever an alien is killed, all CAF soldiers receive a morale boost. * Other stuff * Increased range of Flamethrower & Chemgun from 4.0 to 7.0 to make them more useful * Increased Stun Rod damage from 70 to 100 to make it better given the difficulty in using it. * Added Surma’s 10/100 Scientists/Workers Mod * Added "X-COM Max Shunt" option so that if you do not like the shunt effect after researching it or the "power level", you can change this setting to put a "cap" on its effect or turn it off completely. * Changed the XP's rewarded by x-com aliens. I had forgot to do this since v3.0 so they all were giving the same reward as Vipons, which was way too low for many of them. Changes in v3.03 * Toned down Ethereals a little bit if you have the bad luck to encounter them in the earlier eras. * X-Com Alien Invasion now has 4 difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard, Crazy. The only thing affected is the number of xcom aliens that appear during combat. * Easy - 50% less x-com aliens during combat compared to normal * Hard - 50% more x-com aliens during combat compared to normal * Crazy - 100% more x-com aliens during combat compared to normal. * Let me know if you think we need more choices. For reference, v3.02 randomly chose between the 4 settings for each combat. Changes in v3.02 * Fixed crash bug related to Varied UFO Crew + X-COM Alien Invasion Changes in v3.01 * Corrected Floater health (they were much too hard to kill in 3.0) * Fixed inventory crash bug during missions Changes in v3.0 * New Weapon - Stun Rods can be purchased from the base store * Flying - Anaconda can fly. So can many of the aliens * Speed improvements to LOS Circles - it is not as laggy anymore. * Speed improvements to Movement Paths - it is not as laggy anymore. * Improvements to Advanced AI - they are less likely to stand in fires or smokes. Many other improvements I can't remember. * Bugfixes to AI involving not knowing the exact spot your soldiers are standing when they should * Bugfix - teleporting tanks related to LOS Circles * Bugfix - aliens can still die after taking stun damage--used to be they could only be stunned but never killed. * many other changes I can't possibly remember * X-COM ALIEN INVASION * 11 new aliens to fight * mind-control! * 40+ new research topics! * personal jetpacks! * other surprises I don't want to give away * make sure you capture one of each of the new x-com aliens. Some of the new research is triggered off of their interrogations. I know I'm leaving out stuff. Changes in 2.11 * Fixed more windows to be transparent. Thanks to OVNI for a list of transparent game objects. * Fixed LOS Circles mod not working correctly on base missions * Tweaked Advanced AI's grenade use in certain situations slightly * Modified AI to make use of the LOS Circles Mod also to improve their decision making. * Modified Advanced AI so that aliens without burst-capable weapons can still shoot through walls to get at you. * Modified Show Popup Delay setting so you can go below x1 to "very very slow" which effectively removes the unit menu popup during combat. * Some other stuff I am sure I have forgotten Changes in 2.10 * Fixed bug which prevented reserved AP's from being loaded/saved with your savegame. I did a bad job with my zipping last version * Fixed bug with LOS Circles when you have the cursor on the edge of the map. * Added "Last Alien Hides" mod which if enabled makes it so the last aliens on the map don't come charging your position. Instead they continue to hide. I added this b/c I never got to explore the UFO's because the aliens always came at me and got killed long before I reached a UFO. You can change this during combat so that if you can't find the last alien, just goto settings and turn off the mod and the next turn, the last alien will come out of hiding. * improved the Transparent windows code so that now all "small" objects are transparent. I defined small to be objects that were either less than a half meter wide or less than 1 meter tall. Spefically, this made the smaller sized gas pipes in the desert levels transparent so they do not block LOS. Changes in 2.09 * Increased volume on alert/pain sounds--the game was playing them too quietly. I had trouble hearing even with my headphones * Added unique sounds for commanders so they sound different than regular aliens. * Modified Burst Fire Reactions so that units will consider the chance of hitting and if it is too low, will use snapshot or aimed shot instead of burst fire. * Fixed hang/crash bug with LOS Circles Mod and certain tanks during base defense missions. * Fixed AI bug which was preventing aliens from switching to snapshot when burst shot chance to hit was too low. Instead, aliens would always walk around in front of you to look for a better shot. * Improved AI shot-type selection for commanders when playing on lower Advanced AI levels. Changes in 2.08 * Fixed typo in settings screen * Modified True Night Mod so that it does not have a performance penalty in bright daylight (night time is still slower with the mod enabled though) * Modified Reserved AP buttons so that they are remembered for each soldier between battles so you only need to set them once. Changes in 2.07 * Added option to enable Burst Mode Reaction Fire for both you and aliens (only with advanced AI though) * Added default ship aggression setting in the settings screen * Finally made an easy-to-install version. The download link has the old-style install and the new easy install. For the easy install, just unzip the system.xbg file into your UFO:ET\data folder. Changes in 2.06 * Fixed crash bug with Combat Sounds during Terror missions * Fixed Advanced AI bug with Hallucinoids during Terror missions * Fixed bug which caused advanced AI to sometimes have aliens shoot each other. I think the 4-square aliens would think they had line-of-sight past their buddy and instead were shooting them in the back. * Swapped Destroyer & Preacher sounds. I had them backwards * Added Increased UFO Crew Variety Mod * Added Increased Commander Frequency Mod * Added Transparent Windows Mod Changes in 2.05 * Fixed typo with some of the sound names * Fixed scroll direction in combat log (tywiggins suggestion) Changes in 2.04 * Re-enabled LOS Circles for tanks. It is not quite 100% accurate but it is usable. * Fixed bug with Lightly Wounded Soldiers Heal Faster mod * Changed selectUnit() to move camera instantly to new unit instead of scrolling camera slowly * Added Combat Sounds mod. Plays sounds when aliens are spotted. Plays sounds when units are injured. The louder the sound, the harder the hit. If you do not hear anything then most likely the hit was really weak. Added new soldier death sounds for variety Changes in 2.03 * Turned off the LOS Circles for tanks. They aren't working yet. Changes in 2.02 * Added Roszczu's Show Movement Path mod. Can be configured from the settings screen * Added LOS Circles Mod - gives graphical cues whether or not you will have Line Of Sight to any known aliens if you move your soldier. Also allows you to disable the No Line Of Sight warning in the game. Changes in 2.01 * Forgot to include the patched Resourcebundle.dat Changes in 2.00 * Made compatible with the 20070529 patch * Removed the stuff that is now part of the game (hotkeys, UFOPedia mod etc) * Made visual improvements to the True Night Mod * Modified Geoscape to make the night-side of the planet darker if you have the True Night Mod enabled. I found that in the stock game I couldn't tell the difference between night and day. * Modified the True Night Mod so you can enable it only for outdoors if you do not like alien bases and mines to be dark. Changes in 1.9.5 * Fixed: occasional crash bug if you load a combat savegame and are using the advanced AI mod * Fixed: Added check in the "fix walkthrough walls" code to ensure I do not "fix" a door tile so you can't get through open doors. Changes in 1.9.4 * Fixed: Bug in game which made it almost impossible for aliens to spawn on upper levels of the map. * Fixed: RMB-Open Door mod now works correctly on upper levels of the map. * Tweaked AI shot type selection a little bit. Changes in 1.9.3 * Fixed UFO Crash Damage when you are using the Devil Fish. * Aliens that come across each other will now form into squads during combat. * Alien squads hunt for your soldiers as a single group. * Higher AI settings allow for bigger squads. * On the higher AI settings, aliens are much better at deciding which direction to face when they end their turn. * Note: the alien squads introduce a slight incompatibility in any savegames during combat. If you have advanced AI enabled and save a game during combat, then that combat can only be loaded while using Bman's Ease of Use Mod. Once combat is over the incompatibility is gone. If you wish to remove my mod while in combat, then turn off the advanced AI and let the aliens play at least 1 turn. Then you can safely save the game without and load it without the mod Changes in 1.9.2 * Fixed a crash problem in the advanced AI mod that would sometimes happen when checking for commanders * The only file changed since 1.9.1 is bmaneaseofuse.xscr Changes in 1.9.1 * Made New Soldiers in Back Mod togglable from the settings screen * Fixed standard game bug that allowed you and aliens to sometimes walk through walls * Fixed standard game bug that allowed dead aliens to see your troops and report your locations to the living aliens. * Made Improved AI Mod have 5 levels of difficulty. Lower difficulties use less grenades and are less likely to use the advanced tactics. * Added new dastardly AI tactics, improving the aliens' ability to work as a team and improving their ability to find you when you run out of their line-of-sight. Never let your guard down. * For those of you that need to merge this with other mods, these are the changed files since v1.9: ai.xscr turnmanager.xscr man.xscr globe\mission.xscr bmaneaseofuse.xscr gui.xscr Changes in 1.9 * Fixed bug with Soldiers losing experience when they have 100+ kills. IMPORTANT: After updating to v1.9 from an earlier version, you should open the soldier screen or inventory screen and click on each of your soldiers. This will "upgrade" the game data to fix this bug. You won't see anything special happen. The bug should just go away from then on for any soldiers you do this to. New soldiers of course won't have the problem. * Fixed a couple of crash bugs in the stock game related to loading savegames or bad UFO missions. * Improved the combat AI a bit to make it more challenging. * Made it so inexperienced soldiers are at the back of the troop transport so they can go out and draw the alien fire without risk to your experienced troops. * ALOT of the files changed due to the the bugfix for kill counts. Sorry to any post-mod modders out there. Changes in 1.8 * Female soldiers now sound like women when they die * Civilians move faster and farther. They look properly scared now. Changes in 1.7 * Added Rick's Name Mod - more names for your soldiers * Added True Night Mod - based upon Mephistoex's Line of Sight Mod * Added Commanders have gold borders Changes in 1.6.2 * Fixed: Crash when loading a combat savegame and you had a dead soldier. Changes in 1.6.1 * Fixed: a game crash bug that was occurring during combat. * Fixed: UFO Crash Damage was not working if you were flying in the Thunder. Changes in 1.6 * All sorts of new features are in this jam-packed version. * Show Alien Kill Count is now toggle-able and can be use to "restore" a savegame to normal format. * Soldiers gain XP for surviving missions * Moriarty's Improved Base Defense Mod * Speed up or slow down your soldier rank advancement. * Corrected Akew pistol production times * Soldiers can die. XCOM style. Different from other soldier-death mods out there. Adds a new gameplay element to combat. * UFO Crash Missions now model damage to the UFO and surrounding areas * Alien Bounty Rewards - earn cash by killing aliens * Hire/Fire Soldiers Mod based on TyWiggin's mod. * Combat interface mod by TyWiggins. Changes in 1.5 * Fixed small bug in the Open Doors Mod. * Added Dash's UFOPedia Mod * Added a modified version of OVNI's Inventory Cost Mod * Completely retooled the entire mod package so that many of the mods can be tweaked from the menu within the game. Those of you that want the interface changes but do not like the gameplay changes can now go into the game menu and turn off the things you do not like. Changes in 1.4 * Fixed all problems with the HotKey mod. It definately works now. Also fixed a hang bug in the mod if you try to use Next or Prev and do not have a soldier selected. * Added Roszczu’s Open doors on RMB click Changes in 1.3 (I have traced this back as far as it would go. This is definitely the first release patch notes.) * Updated the HotKey Mod to 0.4 and I think I had some crash bugs related to the 0.3 mod which I think are gone now. * Minor fixes in the Show Production Time as Days/Hours mod. Game Preperation Installation Instructions ------------------------------------------ Now it's time to instruct you in regards to installing everything to get your game fully prepared. The following link details it out better than any other place on the internet however I will also relist the major instructions here, just incase that forum post disappears. The link is located: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=345953 [quote] 0. SAVE YOUR GAME ON THE STRATEGIC MAP (while looking at the planet). The new version of the mod will not be able to load your old combat savegames. It c an only load your old strategic savegames. 1. Download and install official patch-2 Make sure when you install you verify it is installing to the correct folder. The installer has a nasty bug where it usually defaults to the wrong folder and does not warn you the patch failed. 2. Download Bman Mod v4.07 here: http://www.savefile.com/files/1185404 Just unzip the file into your UFOET\data folder, replacing the existing files. This is the main mod and the only *required* download 3. Download Bman Multimedia Pack 4.02 here: http://ufo-scene.com/download.php?view.99 Just unzip into your UFOET\data folder, preserving folder names. You should end up with a UFOET\data\beousounds folder for example. This download has all of the sounds and ufopedia graphics the mod uses. It is a big download and not required but highly recommended. 4. Download Bman True-Night Mod Optimized EXE here: http://ufo-scene.com/download.php?view.95 Unzip into your main UFOET folder. If you plan on enabling the True Night Mod from within the in-game mod settings, then start the game using this .EXE instead of the normal .EXE. Just make a shortcut to this exe on your desktop for easy starting. This lets you play with the true night lighting without any performance penalties. This download is optional. 5. Download Bman Enhanced CAF Sprites here: http://ufo-scene.com/download.php?view.89 Unzip into your UFOET\data folder. This causes the graphics for your soldiers to be a bit crisper and more defined during combat. Optional download 6. Download Bman Loading Screens 4.0 here: http://ufo-scene.com/download.php?view.87 Unzip into your UFOET\data folder. This provides a bunch of new loading and enemy movement screens. So when you are loading a map or waiting for the aliens to move, you will see alot of different "please wait" screens to make the time go by faster. Optional download [/quote] After Installation ------------------ After following the above instructions and getting everything installed, just play the game. When you first login you will see a list of settings and options for the modules. It's very easy to just skim through them and as you mouse over the description for all of them are listed right there. <--------------------------------------------------------------------------> ========================================= =Strategies and Tactics - Outside Battle= ========================================= Create Multiple Labratories and Workshops ----------------------------------------- If you have 1 lab you can use 10 scientists. If you have 2 labs you can use 20 scientists. So forth, 10 scientists for every lab. Same thing goes for workshops. The more workshops and labs, the faster the research and development. I recommend starting the early game off (with just your first base) by building atleast 2 labs, and 2 workshops. I recommend that at a bare minimum then deciding what to do from there. I find it good to have 2 labs per base, and 2 workshops per base as you expand into the game until you get access to better facilities. <--------------------------------------------------------------------------> ======================================== =Strategies and Tactics - Inside Battle= ======================================== Saving During Battle -------------------- Keep in mind that you have the ability to save your game during a battle. Use this to your advantage whenever possible. This will allow you to reload if things get bad. I do not recommend saving over your original game however. You want to be able to reload back at the world map if things go wrong with your save, or if you get in a position that you do not want to be into and want to start the entire battle over again. <--------------------------------------------------------------------------> =============== =Contributions= =============== Send all contributions to my contribution email address located at videogames@infotechnologist.biz. Contact me about any of the following: 1) Contributions 2) Corrections 3) Questions/Advice 4) Requests 5) Questions about any other game ever created. <--------------------------------------------------------------------------> =========== =Copyright= =========== This game is copyrighted. It cannot be replicated, reproduced, or posted anywhere besides gamefaqs or my official websites.