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See X-COM: UFO Defense (UFO: Enemy Unknown) FAQ, HEX-code, HEX-code #2, Hint, Hint #2, Solution, Cheat-code here!
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FAQ for X-COM: UFO Defense (UFO: Enemy Unknown)
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UFO - Enemy Unknown : the FAQ! (version 1.22)
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If there are errors or you have new stuff to add, drop me an e-mail.
Tim (tjc@ecs.soton.ac.uk)
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*SPOILER ALERT*
This FAQ conatins info that you may prefer to find out by exploring and
researching yourself. If you want to play the game "in the dark" then
read on with care or not at all!!
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General
1a What is UFO : Enemy Unknown?
1b What spec PC do I need to run it?
1c Is there a patch available?
Game Info
2a Base facilities
2b Non-combat equipment
2c Ship types
2d Ship weapons
2e Soldier weaponry
2f Alien races
2g Alien missions
2h Manufacturing costs
Questions (this is a FAQ after all :)
3a Overall strategy
3b Combat questions
3c Miscellaneous
Odd and Ends
4a Tinkering with saved games
4b The saved alien containment file
4c Diplomacy file
--------------------------- GENERAL -------------------------------------
1a What is UFO : Enemy Unknown?
The game places you in charge of X-Com in the year 1999; alien UFO's have
been sighted around the globe and your newly set up organization has been
charged with intercepting them, recovering any alien artefacts, and finding
out where the aliens are coming from and what they are after.
The strategic level is centered on a screen with a rotatable/zoomable 3D
globe, with buttons to manipulate your bases, check UFO activity, check
your funding levels from the 15 sponsoring nations, and to look up data in
your online ufopedia. At the tactical level you control troops/tanks in
a 3D combat mini-game which is quite similar in appearance to Ultima 7/8.
1b What spec PC do I need to run it?
According to the box, you need a 386+, 20Mhz+, 2Mb RAM+ and a mouse; on a
486/DX33 with 8Mb RAM, mouse and 8-bit soundblaster it is pretty slick.
Base memory requirement is listed as 560K, with 1Mb EMS/XMS also required.
It comes on only 3 disks, and occupies about 13Mb of hard disk (including
the saved games). The copy protection is a code at the bottom of each
odd-numbered page of the quite well written 128-page manual. The manual
supplement does *not* guarantee that the game will work with DR DOS,
Novell DOS7 or OS/2.
1c Patches
Microprose have released a patch to bring UFO up to version 1.2; the patch
is now available at
bell.ecs.soton.ac.uk /pub/pc/games/patches/ufo1-2.zip
This is an upload of a patch received in the post direct from Microprose.
The correct patch file size should be 634063 bytes. This patch does NOT
work with XCOM (US version) as XCOM is essentially UFO 1.2. There is
another CD release called "UFO" which is a multimedia UFO encyclopedia,
not this game, so make sure exactly what you're ordering if you order your
copy of UFO:Enemy Unknown on CD! (This may be why the game is called XCOM
in the USA).
The patch readme file lists the following points:
* Please start a new game to eliminate all possibilities that the
new version of the game fixes the bugs which you have seen so far.
* This update contains a new version of the DOS Extender, DOS4GW to
fix some compatibility problems seen with the earlier release.
DOS4GW is not a MicroProse program and we were not aware of these
compatibility problems until after UFO was published. If you had a
problem running UFO, this update will fix that.
* Corrupt tiles that caused multiple images to appear have been fixed.
* Action points have been limited to 80 to prevent the "wrap-around"
problem seen with the original release.
* Mission variety has been improved to allow access to all types of
missions when playing.
* Alien intelligence has been improved to allow a tougher game.
* UFO encyclopedia has been expanded to include missing entries.
* The corrupt game file, UBASE_07.MAP which caused problems when
entering the Alien Bases has been replaced.
* There is no PC Speaker support within UFO.
* The Environment Space error has been fixed.
It doesn't seem to be necessary to start a new game after applying the
patch; the old save files still work, though the soldier stat screens
can look messy. You'll also miss a few ufopedia entries.
The aliens in version 1.2 do appear to shoot back a lot more than before,
and often have much better weaponry. Your base(s) come under attack
earlier too (which in a way helps as you get some artefacts if you win!)
There are still some bugs in UFO 1.2. The worst is the "green text bug":
"A common bug, I've seen many posts here, but just to re-iterate. If you
have an air combat window minimized while you go into a ground combat
mission, leaving the ground combat mission will spit out a pile o' green
text errors in 40 col. mode, and kick you backed to your last save game.
The work around for this is to make sure that you have no air combats
minimized when you go to ground combat. This bug is a real pain."
I have a crack for UFO 1.2, but it's not included here in case anyone
gets shirty about legalities.
--------------------------- GAME INFO ----------------------------------
As you research more tech, your on-line UFOPEDIA will have more information
added automatically. None of this is included in the game manual; some of
the info here might be spoiler(s).
2a Base Facilities
You can have up to 8 bases around the world. There are 36 (6x6) locations
to place rooms in. Only the hanger takes up more than one location (2x2).
Costs apear to vary in XCOM to what they are in UFO (below).
Days Build Cost Cost/month
Access Lift 1 300k 4k (Entrance to underground base)
Living Quarters 16 400k 10k (Sleeps 50)
Laboratory 26 750k 30k (Allows 50 research)
Workshop 32 800k 35k (Allows 50 manufacture)
Small Radar 12 500k 10k (300nm range, 5% detect/10mins)
Large Radar 25 800k 15k (450nm range, 5% detect/10mins)
General Stores 10 150k 5k (Holds 50 units of equipment)
Alien Containment 18 500k 15k (Holds 10(?) live aliens)
Hanger 25 200k 25k (Repairs/refuels/rearms 1 plane)
Laser Defence 24 900k 10k (Def value 600, Accuracy 60%)
Plasma Defence 36 1200k 12k (Def value 900, Accuracy 70%)
Fusion Ball 36 1800k 14k (Def value 1200, Accuracy 80%)
Grav Shield 38 2300k 15k (Gives defences an extra shot)
Mind Shield 33 1300k 5k (Helps stop aliens finding base)
Psi Lab 24 750k 16k (For troop psionics training)
Hyperwave Decoder 26 2000k 30k (To evaluate alien missions)
To dismantle a base, you must remove all facilities (which means transferring
all people and equipment elsewhere if needbe) then finally remove the access
lift itself.
2b Non-combat equipment
Most of this you need to research, some you get at the start.
Motion scanner - detects movement in the near vacinity
Medikit - heals fatal wounds (heal), revives unconscious soldiers
(stimulate) and boosts morale (painkiller)
Stun rod - has a chance to render an alien unconscious
Electro flare - essential for night time operations. Thrown.
Elerium 115 - only found on alien ships/bases, and needed for many
important weapons and power units.
Mind probe - when used on an alien tells you his stats and rank
(useful to find an alien commander or leader).
Psi amp - required to allow soldier to use psionic attacks on
aliens (attempting to cause panic or get mind control).
2c Ship types
The XCom craft at your disposal throughout the game are:
Max Weapon Hull Max
Speed Acceln Fuel Pods Damage Cargo HWPs
Skyranger 760 2 2000 0 150 14 3
Interceptor 2100 3 1000 2 100 0 0
Lightning 3100 8 30(E) 1 800 12 0
Firestorm 4200 9 20(E) 2 500 0 0
Avenger 5400 10 60(E) 2 1200 26 4
The firestorm is the new fighter craft you can research, lightning the new
fighter transport and the avenger is the ultimate craft. (E)=Elerium fuel.
The UFOs are as follows (from interogated alien navigators):
Max Hull Weapon Ship
Speed Damage Power Range Crew Width
Small Scout 2200 50 0 0 1 3 Like an Apollo capsule
Medium Scout 2400 200 20 120 3- 6 9 1 level, small square
Large Scout 2700 250 20 272 7- 9 ? 1 level, cross shaped
Harvester 4000 500 40 176 11-15 16 3 levels, 11 windows
Terror Ship 4800 1200 120 336 10-15 30 2 levels, narrow top
Supply Ship 3200 2200 60 288 10-16 30 3 levels, wide middle
Battleship 5000 3000 140 520 11-13 30 3 levels, no windows
Abductor 4300 500 40 160 10-? 30 2 level octagonal star
Base - - - - 13-15 - -
Ships will usually carry additional material as follows (Michael Lewchuk):
Nav units Power supplies Extras
Small Scout 1 1 -
Medium Scout 2 1 -
Large Scout 2 1 -
Harvester 10 2 Surgery, food
Terror Ship ? ? -
Supply Ship 10 4 Surgery, food, entertainment
Battleship 4 4 Entertainment (!)
Abductor 5 2 Surgery, food, examination room
Base 0 2-4 Entertainment, food
E115 is roughly Power Supplies * 50
Bases are constructed out of random "components" including an alien park,
a command area, a 2-story 3x3 tower (watch tower?) in the middle of a bunch
of alien food containers, alien food/display rooms, and elevator rooms, so
what you get from a base changes from base to base. But don't expect to
ever get navigation units from a base.
To see a picture of the UFO in flight just click on the UFO icon on
the airborne combat display. To keep tracking the UFO until it is over
land you can minimise the airborne combat window to an icon (making sure
you are in "standoff" mode :) and then accelerate time to 1-min slices;
when you're over land open the window and shoot!
2d Ship weapons
You initially start with cannon/stingray/avalanche missiles, but you can
research more stuff:
Damage Range Accuracy Reload time
Cannon 10 10 10% 2s
Stingray 70 30 70% 15s
Avalanche 100 60 100% 20s
Laser Cannon 70 21 70% 4s
Plasma Beam 140 52 140% 6s (uses Elerium)
Fusion Ball 230 65 230% 25s
It is important to match the weapon to the target as usually you want to
force the alien to land (preferably intact) to be able to recover artefacts
and prisoners on the ground. If you intercept over the sea, it doesn't
really matter though.
2e Soldier weapons
Your soldiers can be equipped with a hue arsenal of weaponry; either by
equipping their transport ship, or in the case of a base defence when the
attack starts. Many weapons can be loaded with different ammo types.
Aimed Snap Auto Dam Type Dam Type Dam Type
Pistol 78/30 60/18 26 AP
Rifle 110/80 60/25 35/35 30 AP
Heavy Cannon 90/80 60/33 56 AP 52 HE 60 I
Auto Cannon 82/80 56/33 32/40 42 AP 44 HE 48 I
Rocket Launcher 115/75 55/45 75 HE 100 HE 90 I
Laser Pistol 68/55 40/20 28/25 46 Laser
Laser Rifle 100/50 65/25 46/34 60 Laser
Heavy Laser 84/75 50/33 85 Laser
Grenade 50 HE
Smoke Grenade 60 HE
Proximity Grenade 70 HE
High Explosive 110 HE
Heavy Plasma 110/60 75/30 50/35 115 Plasma
Plasma Pistol 85/60 65/30 50/30 52 Plasma
Plasma Rifle 100/60 86/30 55/63 80 Plasma
Blaster Launcher 120/80 200 HE
Small Launcher 110/75 65/40 90 Stun
Alien Grenade 90 HE
(AP = Armour piercing HE = High Explosive I = Incendiary)
The pairs of numbers indicate accuracy and TU cost to shoot. Note that
the TU cost is always a percentage of the soldier's total TUs, not a fixed
amount. Accuracy for two-handed weapons is improved if one hand is empty,
and overall accuracy is better if the soldier is kneeling. The autofire
option gives you three shots, but these are the least accurate (they are
effective with area effect weapons like autocannon).
Grenades are thrown, and the accuracy of where it lands is based on the
soldier's own throwing accuracy stat.
Many people suggest that the laser rifle is the best overall weapon; cheap
to produce, rapid fire rate, quite accurate and doesn't use Elerium. Laser
weapons do not require ammo clips (which take up avenger space!). No aliens
are resistant to lasers, and sectopods are affected more by them.
2e Alien types
Attacks with Resists Weakness Notes
Sectiod Weapons & Psi Likes cattle abduction
Snakemen Weapons fire/heat Carries up to 50 eggs
Ethereal Weapons & Psi Physically weak/blind
Muton Weapons AP Strong & intelligent
Floater Weapons Likes terrorising
Celatid Venom
Silacoid HTH fire/incend Works with mutons
Chryssalid HTH HE Turns humans to zombies
Reaper HTH incend Two brains and hearts
Sectopod Weapons plasma laser Highly armoured
Cyberdisc Weapons explosives Works with sectoids
Zombie HTH Dies -> Chryssalid
You can get info on particular alien stats by using a mind probe on them.
From doing this it seems average stats on aliens are as follows. Some of
the stats vary a lot between the races!
----- Armour ------
TUs Ene Hea Bra Mor Rea Fir Thr Str PSt PSk Fro Lef Rig Rea Und
Sectoid 55 90 30 80 100 65 30 60 30 - - 2 1 1 1 1
Ethereal 70 100 60 80 100 75 40 80 50 50 40 17 17 17 17 16
Snakeman 40 80 45 80 100 45 30 65 50 - - 10 9 9 8 6
Muton 58 90 90 80 100 60 30 60 70 - - 10 10 10 10 5
Floater 50 90 35 80 100 50 25 60 40 - - 4 3 3 2 6
Celatid 70 90 70 90 100 40 50 0 70 - - 10 10 10 10 10
Silacoid 40 80 115 100 100 40 0 0 70 - - 25 25 25 25 5
Chryssalid 110 140 95 100 100 70 0 0 110 - - 17 17 17 17 17
Reaper ??
Sectopod 60 90 95 110 100 65 30 0 90 - - 70 65 65 50 45
Cyberdisc 60 90 120 110 100 65 30 0 90 - - 17 17 17 17 17
Zombie 40 110 85 110 100 40 0 0 85 - - 4 4 4 4 4
Leaders tend to have slightly higher stats than other ranks in each race,
for example an ethereal leader has 20-rated armour all round and a psionic
strength of 60.
The high TUs on chryssalids allows them to move a long way and often surprise
troops from behind, turning them to zombies before you can react. When
killed, zombies shed their skins to become new chryssalids. This can make
the chryssalid one of the hardest aliens to deal with.
2f Alien Missions
There are many mission types. The nasty ones are terror and infiltration.
Supply is handy because it can lead you to an alien base, and in turn to
an alien leader.
Research: Small vehicles, least threat to earth and Xcom
Harvest: Any size ships, great concern to governments
Abduction: Causes great alarm
Infiltration: Make pact with earth govt, greatest threat to Xcom
Base: Build alien base (you need to let them build one to win game)
Terror: Causes hysteria, troubles govts
Retaliation: Attack Xcom base
Supply: Supply alien base
A hyperwave decoder is very handy to work out mission types. Later in
the game you are probably safe to leave ships on research missions alone
and concentrate on the dangerous ones.
2h Manufacturing Costs
This chart shows which items need alien alloys and Elerium for production;
all of them need to be researched. You could use the info to work out
which item is best to produce for profit if your engineers are idle ...
(an initial glance suggests personal armour is good if you have the alloys
to spare, or power suits if you have Elerium coming out your ears too :)
Thus setting up personal armour "factories" could be a way to pile up some
decent reserves of cash.
Sale prices are apparently different in XCOM (or perhaps at the highest
difficulty levels) but I have no hard facts on this (yet). If you have
XCOM rather than UFO, you may wish to chart the figures and let me know :)
Engineer Workshop Alien Sale
Hours Cost Space Elerium Alloys Price
Motion scanner 220 34k 4 - - 45600
Medikit 420 28k 4 - - 46500
Psi amp 500 160k 4 1 - 194700
Personal armour 800 22k 12 - 4 140000
Power suit 1000 42k 16 5 5 310000
Flying suit 1400 58k 16 16 5 420000
Alien alloys 100 3k 10 - - 6500
Elerium-115 - - - - - 5000
Laser pistol 300 8k 2 - - 20000
Laser rifle 400 20k 3 - - 36900
Heavy laser 700 32k 4 - - 61000
Plasma pistol 600 56k 3 - 1 84000
Plasma pistol clip 60 2k 4 1 - 4440
Plasma rifle 820 88k 4 - 1 126500
Plasma rifle clip 80 3k 4 2 - 6290
Heavy plasma 1000 122k 4 - 1 171600
Heavy plasma clip 80 6k 4 3 - 9590
Blaster launcher 1200 90k 5 - 1 144000
Blaster bomb 220 8k 3 3 - 17028
Small launcher 900 78k 3 - 1 120000
Stun bomb 200 7k 2 1 - 15200
Alien grenade 200 6.7k 2 2 - 14850
Mind probe 1200 262k 4 1 - 334000
FIRESTORM 14000 400k 30 - 65 -
LIGHTNING 18000 600k 34 - 85 -
AVENGER 34000 900k 36 - 170 -
UFO power source 1400 130k 22 16 5 250000
UFO navigation 1600 150k 18 - 3 80000
Fusion ball l'cher 400 242k 6 - - 281100
Fusion ball 600 28k 6 4 - 53300
Laser cannon 300 182k 6 - - 211000
Plasma beam 500 226k 8 15 - 267300
Tank/laser cannon 1200 500k 25 - - 594000
Hovertank/plasma 1200 850k 30 30 5 980000
Hovertank/launcher 1400 900k 30 25 8 1043000
HWP fusion bomb 400 15k 25 5 8 31500
(The three aircraft all need 1 UFO power source + 1 UFO navigation
unit, except the AVENGER which needs two UFO power sources).
Clearly you should never sell Elerium for cash. You'd be much better
off making either power armour or flying suits and selling that (or
possibly fighter laser cannon).
----------------- GAME TACTICS/STRATEGY ----------------------------------
3a Overall strategy
Where should I build bases?
Build a few bases at the start, make sure they all have long range radar.
Spread them around the globe; you only get 8; note the groupings of the
richer funding countries and defend them early on. You can also build
bases on both poles. The following eight locations have been suggested
to maximise radar coverage of the globe:
i) North Pole
ii) South Pole
iii) Southern California
iv) Persian Gulf
v) North-eastern Australia
vi) Right most tip of South America (Brazil??)
vii) Europe
viii) right most Russia (near japan??)
Probably the best starting place is central Europe (lots of rich countries)
or possibly slightly further east towards Israel. Then you can later
expand to America or SE Asia, or wherever the UFO activity chart suggests
there are some UFOs to nail.
How can I make money?
The main income at the start is from the funding countries, so you should
maximise your efforts to win their favours early on. As the game
progresses you can sell off artefacts for cash. If you set up workshops
and have engineers with nothing to do have them make something like laser
weapons and sell them; you can sell for more than it costs to make them.
You can sell off weaponry and artefacts that you capture on UFO missions,
in particular sell off any technology you can't use (keeping at least 1
to research on), but keep any plasma clips or bombs you find as they take
Elerium to make and later the Elerium will be valuable elsewhere.
Why is Elerium important?
Elerium is only found on alien ships; you can't make it yourself (you can
make alien alloys). If you are running short of elerium use interceptors
with laser weapons from multiple bases and give your troops laser rifles
(laser rifles are very effective in any case). If you feel confident let
the aliens attack your base, you can get lots (sometimes 1000+, on one
occasion 3000+) elerium in a single battle (under UFO v1.0 at least :)
How do I win the game?
The ultimate aim of UFO is to research (interogate) live aliens to find
out where they are coming from and why. The best prisoner you can get
is an alien commander; there should be one in an alien base. Once you
interogate a commander you should get a big clue as to how to win the
battle once and for all! The earliest win I've seen claimed was in
about 15 months (ie. late March 2000).
What should I research?
You start off with just pistols and rifles, which are not very effective.
Early on your main goal should be to get laser weaponry (rifles) and
the personal armour. These combined help make missions much easier.
As the game progresses, your options will be more open ... you'll want
to make the better intereceptors, get flying suits and be able to use
the heavy weaponry, so investing in research (scientists) is money
well spent.
Here is the research tree for UFO (as first written by William Kang, but
with minor corrections included):
Laser Weapons Heavy Heavy Plasma Plasma
| Plasma Plasma Clip Rifle Rifle Clip
Laser Pistol |___________| |__________|
| | |
Laser Rifle | |
| |__________OR___________|
Heavy Laser |
| |
Laser Cannon Plasma Cannon
(Tank/Laser Cannon) _______|_________
| | |
Laser Defense Plasma Defense (Hovertank/Plasma)*
Alien Alloys Blaster Blaster
| Launcher Bombs
Elerium 115 Personal Armor UFO Power Source |___________|
|_____________|_________________| |
| Fusion Ball
| _________|______
Power Suit UFO Navigation | |
|_________________| Fusion Ball (Hovertank/
| Defence Launcher)*
Flying Suit
Alien Elerium UFO UFO
Alloys 115 Power Source Navigation
|___________|___________|______________|
|
UFO
Construction
|
New
Fighter Craft*
|
New
Fighter-Transporter
__________|____________
| |
Grav Ultimate
Shield Craft
* - Learning new fighter craft lets you build hovertanks.
There are some steps you can bypass (eg. laser pistol) if you wish.
To find out about ship stats research alien engineers, to find out about
missions research navigator.
To learn and build Hyperwave Decoder, interrogate a navigator.
To find out about Psi research ethereals (or a sectoid leader/commander)
To win the game, you need start by researching alien origins, then an
alien commander, and from there, figure it out yourself :)
Don't research the same thing at different bases, there is no benefit;
the research seems independent at each base (as manufacturing is).
Why do I never see any large UFOs?
On missions like retaliation, base and terror, small ships scout before
the larger ships come in. If you destroy the scouts no larger ships will
appear. It is thus important to let them land! (else you'll have a
long game :) By using the hyperwave decoder you can detect the alien
mission; it can pay off to let aliens build a base so you can capture
one of their leaders for interogation.
How does my radar work?
It can pay off to have more than one large radar system at a base. As
the manual says
"XCom radar systems, while very long ranged, rotate very slowly -
once every 10 minutes. This means that your base will detect UFOs
more effectively if more than one radar system is in place."
Thus a fast UFO is more likely to be spotted by multiple radars, as
each radar has a 5% success rate every 10 minutes. Short range radar
is cheaper and faster to build, and cheaper to keep maintained, but
if you can afford the long range, go for it.
3b Ground combat questions
Who/what should I take on missions?
A nice combo on a Skyranger is a couple of tanks and 6 troops; the
hovering plasma tanks are particularly effective. Tanks lose out as
they cannot enter most alien ships (terror ships being an exception).
Tanks can be left in bases to defend them from alien attacks. Flying
suits give your troops a lot of versatility and save a lot of TUs in
many terrain types. If a soldier dies though you lose the armour (but
keep his other equipment if you win the battle). Try to always take a
couple of rookies along to give them experience to boost their stats.
On night missions always carry electro flares. Medikits are important
as in addition to healing fatal wounds they can raise morale if used
on panicing troops.
What type of tactics work best?
Teamwork and patience are usually the key. The only exception to this
are terror missions, where civilians need to be saved quickly. Group
your troopers into teams of size 3-4, and advance slowly. Make use of
any available cover (even the skyranger wheels when disembarking) and
be prepared to spread out slowly. If you try to send single men out
after aliens, they're highly liable to get picked off. If you keep
your teams too tightly packed they're vulnerable to alien grenades (on
the higher difficulty levels). Use tanks to draw alien fire. Use smoke
bombs to give cover if the disembarking zone comes under fire. Take out
any "suspect" buildings with heavy rocket launchers or autocannon.
Later in the game you get better armour, and can afford to take more
risks but in general slow, safe teamwork pays dividends. Remember that
as soldiers survive missions, they get better; you can always keep a
couple of "expendables" (like the Star Trek security guards :) but you
need experienced soldiers as well.
Why do I lose ammo that I never use?
After combat all clips loaded in weapons are lost, whether or not they
have been used (not a great piece of design!). Thus you should unload
any weapons that uses valuable ammo before the battle ends. To unload
click on the weapon over the "rifle" icon on the soldier's equipment
screen (this can also be used to select alternate ammo before battle).
Why should I need grenades when I have autocannon?
An autocannon has very impressive firepower. However it is very heavy
to carry, and can reduce a soldier's TU total. A soldier equipped with
a laser rifle can carry a couple of grenades and use them to flatten
small buildings or other targets without needing a bulky cannon. You
can also lob grenades over obstacles, giving you some "artillery" support.
If the UFO's roof is damaged, you can throw grenades directly into the
damaged hull to kill off any lingering survivors.
How can I fire on aliens in their movement phase?
You can carry out opportunity fire on aliens as they make their moves.
To do this, leave enough TU's after your move for at least a snap shot,
then if your trooper sees an alien and has good enough reactions (s)he
will automatically fire on the alien. You can use the 4 icons near the
bottom left of the screen in your movement phase to reserve the TUs.
What's with troops missing in action (MIA)?
If one of your troopers in under alien control at the end of a battle
(s)he counts as MIA; therefore try to wait until (s)he is no longer in
control before finishing off aliens. Troops unconscious when the battle
ends seem to survive.
How do I open spaceship doors?
Simply target your soldier to move to the "square" behind the door and
(s)he will then automatically open it (using some TUs). It's wise not
to open doors without plenty of spare TU's or without using a motion
scanner first.
How do I use a medikit?
If the victim is unconscious, you must be standing *right over* the
wounded trooper, then you use the midikit. If the victim is conscious
but has a fatal wound, stand next to them and face them, then use the
medikit on the wound.
How do I counter psi attacks?
Ethereal and sectoid races have psionic abilities. This means they are
able to amke a number of psionic attacks on your troops for which they
do not need line-of-sight on the target. There are two types of attack:
Panic - if your trooper succumbs (s)he will panic, possibly dropping
equipment and then running, possibly also going beserk.
Control - potentially worse; aliens can control targets, thus getting
your troops to fire on each other. The effect is usually
temporary, and can be reduced in effect by not bunching
potential victims too close together.
When you research psionics and build psi labs, you can evaluate each
soldier's resistance to psi attacks (his/her psi strength) and train them
in psi skills (which allows your troops to make psionic attacks if they
have a psi amp on them in battle). Yes, you can leave troops in the
transport and use HWP's to scout for aliens to attack with psionics!
Psi skills can be trained, psi strength is constant, so don't waste time
on psi training troops with low psi strength. Psi training allocations
happen at the *end of each month* at bases that have psi labs.
Even if you don't train psi abilities, knowing which troops are resistant
to psi attacks can be very valuable information. You can then choose to
simply sack anyone with a low psi rating (below (45-50).
Can I blow holes in the sides of spaceships?
This should be possible with a blaster launcher (BL). BLs are great
destructive weapons, but this also means you must try to equip your
(psionically) strongest trooper with the BL as a mind-controlled BL is
no fun :)
Should I have any different tactics at night?
Of course you should equip with flares (which are reusable, and you can
also pick them up in battle and lob them elsewhere). At the start, throw
flares out all around, as it seems most aliens can see in the dark, while
you cannot, so you have nothing to lose. You can try to avoid night
missions by landing at crash sites at daytime (hover at the site until
it is daylight there).
Are stunrods worth using?
Stunrods are very risky ... if you try to stun an alien make sure you have
some backup troops who can drop the alien if your stun fails (and beware
if you fail a stun you will be in the line of fire :) Small launchers
and stun bombs are much safer to use. It can be worth putting your small
launchers on psionically weak troops as if they get mind-controlled at
worst they'll just stun your other troops.
Can I pass equipment to another trooper?
Not directly. You can drop the equipment for him/her to pick it up, or
if they're closeish you can throw equipment to another trooper. Thrown
equipment does not appear to do any damage if it's thrown accurately :)
Can I put a soldier into "overwatch" mode?
Sadly no. Ideally you could have a button to say "don't come back to
me unless I see an alien or get shot at" but this isn't the case. So
if you have 18 squaddies on a mission you have to "move" each trooper
on every game turn.
How do I know if an alien is dead or unconscious?
Usually a dying alien gives a death squeal, but it has been known for
some aliens to only go unconscious even then. If you stand over an
alien on the ground, if it's dead it will be labelled 'corpse' else
it is labelled as an alien. Be very wary of carrying unconscious
aliens (especially chrysallids) as they can wake up on you with nasty
results! The death sound (and the sound of doors opening in the hidden
movement phase) means that you really need sound to make the combat
easier to win.
Can I take tanks into the final battle?
Yes. Although it seems the doors on the elevators that lead to the
final combat are only wide enough for troops, you can shoot away the
earth/door to make it wide enough to take tanks into the climactic
conflict. Of course, you don't NEED tanks, but they help. If you
lose the final conflict you lose the game ... no second chances.
3c Miscellaneous
Why do my soldiers rarely get promoted?
To have promotions after battle you need to have a certain number of
troops around all your bases for the promotion to be possible. This
little charts sums it up:
Rank Sergeant Captain Colonel Commander
Troops needed 5 11 23 30
There can be only one commander. So if you have 35 troops around the
globe in theory you should have 1 commander, 1 colonel, 3 captains,
7 sergeants and 23 rookies/squaddies.
Can I rename my soldiers?
Yes. You can click on the name when the soldier info screen is up at
a base and change the name. It can help to put in the soldier's stats
into the name, so that in combat and in pre-combat equipping you know
which guys can handle the big weaponry (for example). So if you add
firing accuracy, throwing accuracy, and strength you might have names
like: Alexander 69-70-55
Hephaistion 65-67-48
What is the Microprose helpline number?
In the UK (where the first release was made) the number is 0454 329510
and is open Mon-Fri 2-5pm. Or you can fax on 0454 329507 from 9am-5pm.
----------------- ODDS AND ENDS ------------------------------------------
Note all info in this section you use at your own risk!!
4a Tinkering with saved games
The format of soldier.dat (which holds your troop stats) appears to be
like this, with 68 bytes making up each soldier (thanks here to Gunnar
Haukur Stefansson :)
Byte What it does
1-2 Beginning of a soldier ( always FF FF )
3 Number of missions
5 Number of kills
7 Number of days until healed
9 - Unknown ( these values puzzle me !)
11-32 Name (not clear how long this is)
37 Initial Tu's
38 Initial Health
39 Initial Stamina
40 Initial Reactions
41 Initial Strength
42 Initial Firing Accuracy
43 Initial Throwing Accuracy
44 - Unknown (does not seem to matter what I put in here)
45 PSI Strength
46 PSI Skill
47 Bravery (00 = 100, 01 = 90, 02 = 80 .. 09 = 10, 0A = 0)
48 Tu's gained
49 Health gained
50 Stamina gained
51 Reactions gained
52 Strength gained
53 Firing Accuracy gained
54 Throwing Accuracy gained
55 - Unknown
56 Breavery gained ( 00 = 0, 01 = 10, 02 = 20 ....)
57-68 Something to do with sex, rank and base ?
(67 is sex, 0=male, 1=female)
(69-70 Beginning of the next soldier)
(A number of different people have different opinions on the offsets of
the info in bytes 1-36 inclusive!)
The format of base.dat is something like this (credit Tony L. Hayes):
Bytes 1 - 22 are for the base name.
Bytes 23-58 are for the construction starting in the upper left and
going across the site to the left, just like writing
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12
...
31 32 33 34 35 36
Hex Value Construction Type
FF Bare ground (no construction)
00 Access Lift
01 Living Quarters
02 Laboratory
03 Workshop
04 Small Radar
05 Large Radar
06 Misile Defense
07 General Stores
08 Alien Containment
09 Laser Defense
0A Plasma Defense
0B Fusion Ball Defense
0C Grav Shield
0D Mind Shield
0E Psi Lab
0F Hyperwave Decoder
10 Hanger, Upper Left
11 Hanger, Upper Right
12 Hanger, Lower Left
13 Hanger, Lower Right
Bytes 59-94 are either FF for bare ground, 00 for completed constructions
or the number of days remaining for completion.
The remaining bytes are for your base stores, eg.
Byte 95 is the number of engineers
Byte 96 is the number of scientists
4b The saved alien containment file
From: lewchuk@cs.ualberta.ca (Michael Lewchuk)
Okay guys, wanna edit your save files so that you get a commander/leader
or whatever the game decided died off even though you had PLENTY of
containment available?
I've been playing with ASTORE.DAT and it seems to be the right file.
Aliens are stored starting at offset X'0C' (12) and each alien takes
up X'18' (24) bytes. The first 3 bytes are important. They are:
Alien race, alien profession, unknown - probably alien containment unit #
or which base the alien is at or something. The numbers are:
Race: 01 - Sectoid, 02: snakeman, 03: ethereal, 04: muton, 05:floater
06: celatid, 07:silacoid, 08:chryssalid, 09:reaper, 0a:sectapod, 0b:cyberdisk
Profession: 01:commander, 02:leader, 03:engineer, 04:medic, 05:navigator
06: soldier 07: terrorist
Values of 00 00 mean "no alien". All other values, including 00 xx and xx 00
and values of 8 or higher for profession, or 0c or higher for race, result in
rather weird errors (like an alien being classed as a Chryssalid cyberdisk or
a Muton UFO Power Source).
Once an alien gets researched, its race changes to 00. It is possible that
the cleanup routine has problems with it, but the alien allocation routine
certainly does. I attacked a base and suddenly an alien in transit was
changed from a "sectoid navigator" to an "alien navigator" - race was gone.
4c Diplomacy file
From: lewchuk@cs.ualberta.ca (Michael Lewchuk)
Diplomacy file (incomplete):
A series of 18 words of 2 bytes each for each country. Offsets listed
below. When using debug add Hex 100 to each number.
USA 000 Russia 024 UK 048 France 06C Germany 090 Italy 0B4
Spain 0D8 China 0FC Japan 120 India 124 Brazil 168 Australia 18C
Nigeria 1B0 South Africa 1D4 Egypt 1F8 Canada 11C
18 fields:
1 - unknown
2 - status (00-pact, 01-?, 02-?, 03-paying member)
3 - current funding $
4 - unknown, probably a funding field
5 - unknown, probably a funding field
6-13 - unknown
14 - previous month's funding
15 - Net change
16 - 01 - pact, 00 - no pact THIS MONTH. Will change word 02 to "pact" and
cut funding AT THE END OF THIS MONTH.
17 - unknown
18 - unknown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
END
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HEX-code for X-COM: UFO Defense (UFO: Enemy Unknown)
X-COM: UFO Defense
Hacking Guide version 1.0
By: whatever
aizen_myouou@zdnetonebox.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Content
1. Introduction
2. Money
3. Soldiers
4. Items
5. Weapons
6. Credits
7. Copyright Statement
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Introduction
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This guide is designated to help those, who stuck in X-COM:UFO Defense
game. This guide is tested on X-COM: UFO Defense, which is included in
X-COM Collectors Edition. Since I don't have the older version, so I
can't test on it. The older version might be the same as the Collector
Edition, but I can't guarante.
If you find any mistake on this guide, don't hesitate to contact me.
I'm looking forward to receive corrections and feed back.
A word of warning, by using this guide you've spoiled the entire
excitement of the game. If you want to play fair, don't read the rest
of the guide. If you decided to make use of this guide, you'll need
these:
1. X-COM: UFO Defense game
2. The save game you want to tamper
3. Hex Editor
4. Knowledge of Hexadecimal
The game provides 10 slots of save games you can use. Each of the slot
is saved in a separate directory named "Game_" appended with the slot
number. In Example: You saved your game in the third slot, your save
game is inside "Game_3" directory. From here on, I won't touch the
save game directory anymore.
Below are some basic conversion from decimal to hexadecimal:
--------------------------------------
Decimal Hexadecimal
--------------------------------------
1 01
2 02
3 03
4 04
5 05
6 06
7 07
8 08
9 09
10 0A
11 0B
12 0C
13 0D
14 0E
15 0F
16 10
100 64
255 FF
65,535 FF FF
99,999,999 FF E0 F5 05
--------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Money
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Open the file "lilglob.dat" with your Hex Editor. Change the first 4
bytes value to your needs. The recommended value is FF E0 F5 05. This
will give you 99,999,999, more than enough to finish the game. You can
go up to 2 billions, but I'm afraid it may screw up your save game.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Soldiers
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The soldiers data are saved in the file "soldier.dat". Browsing
through this file is somehow easy, since the soldier name is saved
there as well. The stats for each soldier are several bytes
underneath. The total number of soldiers you may have is variable.
Thus, it's impossible to list all the offset here. I will use the
first soldier as reference for the next soldiers.
This is the stats table for the first soldier:
------------------------------------------------------------
Stats Offset Size Max Value
------------------------------------------------------------
Time Unit 002A 1 Byte FF
Health 002B 1 Byte FF
Stamina 002C 1 Byte FF
Reaction 002D 1 Byte FF
Strength 002E 1 Byte 64
Firing Accuracy 002F 1 Byte FF
Throwing Accuracy 0030 1 Byte FF
Psi Strength 0032 1 Byte FF
Psi Skill 0033 1 Byte FF
Bravery 0034 1 Byte 01
------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: If you give Strength above 64, the soldier won't be able to
throw anything.
Bravery uses the formula below to calculate:
110 - Bravery
Hex Value = -------------
10
I.e.: If your soldier has Bravery 70 points, the hex value is:
110 - 70
-------- = 04
10
To calculate the stat offset for the second soldier, just add 44 to
the offset of the first soldier. For the third soldier add (44 x 2)
to the offset of the first soldier(The calculation is done in
Hexadecimal, you might need a scientific calculator to do so).
Example:
The Strength offset for the second soldier will be:
002E + 44 = 0072
The Stamina offset for the 11th soldier will be:
002C + (44 x A) = 2D4
= 02D4
----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Items
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Items data can be found inside the file "base.dat" in your save game
directory. The offset for each item is fixed, just key in the amount
of item you want. Just like the soldiers data, I'll use the first base
as reference for the next bases.
-----------------------------------------------
Item Name Offset Size
-----------------------------------------------
Engineer 005E 1 Byte
Scientist 005F 1 Byte
Stingray Launcher 0060 2 Bytes
Avalance Launcher 0062 2 Bytes
Cannon 0064 2 Bytes
Fusion Ball Launcher 0066 2 Bytes
Laser Cannon 0068 2 Bytes
Plasma Beam 006A 2 Bytes
Stingray Missile 006C 2 Bytes
Avalance Missile 006E 2 Bytes
Cannon Rounds 0070 2 Bytes
Fusion Balls 0072 2 Bytes
Tank/Cannon 0074 2 Bytes
Tank/Rocket Launcher 0076 2 Bytes
Tank/Laser Cannon 0078 2 Bytes
Hovertank/Plasma 007A 2 Bytes
Hovertank/Launcher 007C 2 Bytes
Pistol 007E 2 Bytes
Pistol Clip 0080 2 Bytes
Rifle 0082 2 Bytes
Rifle Clip 0084 2 Bytes
Heavy Cannon 0086 2 Bytes
HC-AP Ammo 0088 2 Bytes
HC-HE Ammo 008A 2 Bytes
HC-IN Ammo 008C 2 Bytes
Auto Cannon 008E 2 Bytes
AC-AP Ammo 0090 2 Bytes
AC-HE Ammo 0092 2 Bytes
AC-IN Ammo 0094 2 Bytes
Rocket Launcher 0096 2 Bytes
Small Rocket 0098 2 Bytes
Large Rocket 009A 2 Bytes
Incendiary Rocket 009C 2 Bytes
Laser Pistol 009E 2 Bytes
Laser Rifle 00A0 2 Bytes
Heavy Laser 00A2 2 Bytes
Grenade 00A4 2 Bytes
Smoke Grenade 00A6 2 Bytes
Proximity Grenade 00A8 2 Bytes
High Explosive 00AA 2 Bytes
Motion Scanner 00AC 2 Bytes
Medi-Kit 00AE 2 Bytes
Psi-Amp 00B0 2 Bytes
Stun Rod 00B2 2 Bytes
Electro Flare 00B4 2 Bytes
Heavy Plasma 00C2 2 Bytes
Heavy Plasma Clip 00C4 2 Bytes
Plasma Rifle 00C6 2 Bytes
Plasma Rifle Clip 00C8 2 Bytes
Plasma Pistol 00CA 2 Bytes
Plasma Pistol Clip 00CC 2 Bytes
Blaster Launcher 00CE 2 Bytes
Blaster Bomb 00D0 2 Bytes
Small Launcher 00D2 2 Bytes
Stun Bomb 00D4 2 Bytes
Alien Grenade 00D6 2 Bytes
Elerium-115 00D8 2 Bytes
Mind Probe 00DA 2 Bytes
Sectoid Corpse 00E2 2 Bytes
Snakeman Corpse 00E4 2 Bytes
Ethereal Corpse 00E6 2 Bytes
Muton Corpse 00E8 2 Bytes
Floater Corpse 00EA 2 Bytes
Celatid Corpse 00EC 2 Bytes
Silacoid Corpse 00EE 2 Bytes
Chryssalid Corpse 00F0 2 Bytes
Reaper Corpse 00F2 2 Bytes
Sectopod Corpse 00F4 2 Bytes
Cyberdisc Corpse 00F6 2 Bytes
UFO Power Source 0100 2 Bytes
UFO Navigation 0102 2 Bytes
UFO Construction 0104 2 Bytes
Alien Food 0106 2 Bytes
Alien Reproduction 0108 2 Bytes
Alien Entertainment 010A 2 Bytes
Alien Surgery 010C 2 Bytes
Examination Room 010E 2 Bytes
Alien Alloys 0110 2 Bytes
Alien Habitat 0112 2 Bytes
Personal Armour 0114 2 Bytes
Power Suit 0116 2 Bytes
Flying Suit 0118 2 Bytes
HWP Cannon Shell 011A 2 Bytes
HWP Rockets 011C 2 Bytes
HWP Fusion Bomb 011E 2 Bytes
-----------------------------------------------
The table above is only for first base. To get the next base offsets
just add 124 to the previous base offsets. The calculation is still
in hexadecimal.
Example:
To calculate the Engineer offset for base number 2:
005E + 124 = 182
= 0182
To calculate Flying Suit offset for base number 4:
0118 + (124 x 3) = 484
= 0484
Another easy trick is to change the item amount is the first base and
just transfer them to other base. But this method will consume some
time to complete. But it is easier than actually changing the item
amount in the particular base.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Weapons
----------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING: This section completely tamper with the game setting. This
section is not recommended for a novice. The changes will
affect the whole game, not only a particular save game. Any
mistake might screw up the whole game, forcing you to re-
install the game.
The weapons data can be found in directory "\Geodata", with file named
"Obdata.dat".
I separate them into 2 parts: human & alien technology. Be very
careful when tampering with alien technology. The alien will use them
against you.
Maximum byte values:
Accuracy(in percentage) 64
Time Unit Consumption Rate(in percentage) 01
Power FF
Rounds FF
Human Technology:
1. Pistol
Accuracy:
Snap Shot 0021 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 0022 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Snap Shot 0024 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 0025 1 Byte
2. Pistol Clip
Power 004C 1 Byte
Rounds 005C 1 Byte
3. Rifle
Accuracy:
Auto Shot 008C 1 Byte
Snap Shot 008D 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 008E 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Auto Shot 008F 1 Byte
Snap Shot 0090 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 0091 1 Byte
4. Rifle Clip
Power 00B8 1 Byte
Rounds 00C8 1 Byte
5. Heavy Cannon
Accuracy:
Snap Shot 00F9 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 00FA 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Snap Shot 00FC 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 00FD 1 Byte
6. Heavy Cannon AP Ammo
Power 0124 1 Byte
Rounds 0134 1 Byte
7. Heavy Cannon HE Ammo
Power 015A 1 Byte
Rounds 016A 1 Byte
8. Heavy Cannon IN Ammo
Power 0190 1 Byte
Rounds 01A0 1 Byte
9. Auto Cannon
Accuracy:
Auto Shot 01D0 1 Byte
Snap Shot 01D1 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 01D2 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Auto Shot 01D3 1 Byte
Snap Shot 01D4 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 01D5 1 Byte
10. Auto Cannon AP Ammo
Power 01FC 1 Byte
Rounds 020C 1 Byte
11. Auto Cannon HE Ammo
Power 0232 1 Byte
Rounds 0242 1 Byte
12. Auto Cannon IN Ammo
Power 0268 1 Byte
Rounds 0278 1 Byte
13. Rocket Launcher
Accuracy:
Snap Shot 02A9 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 02AA 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Snap Shot 02AC 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 02AD 1 Byte
14. Small Rocket
Power 02D4 1 Byte
Rounds 02E4 1 Byte
15. Large Rocket
Power 030A 1 Byte
Rounds 031A 1 Byte
16. Incendiary Rocket
Power 0340 1 Byte
Rounds 0340 1 Byte
17. Laser Pistol
Power 0376 1 Byte
Accuracy:
Auto Shot 0380 1 Byte
Snap Shot 0381 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 0382 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Auto Shot 0383 1 Byte
Snap Shot 0384 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 0385 1 Byte
18. Laser Rifle
Power 03AC 1 Byte
Accuracy:
Auto Shot 03B6 1 Byte
Snap Shot 03B7 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 03B8 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Auto Shot 03B9 1 Byte
Snap Shot 03BA 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 03BB 1 Byte
19. Heavy Laser
Power 03E2 1 Byte
Accuracy:
Snap Shot 03ED 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 03EE 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Snap Shot 03F0 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 03F1 1 Byte
20. Grenade
Power 0418 1 Byte
21. Smoke Grenade
Power 044E 1 Byte
22. Proximity Grenade
Power 0484 1 Byte
23. High Explosive
Power 04BA 1 Byte
24. Stun Rod
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Stun 05A5 1 Byte
Alien Technology:
1. Plasma Pistol
Accuracy:
Auto Shot 0824 1 Byte
Snap Shot 0825 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 0826 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Auto Shot 0827 1 Byte
Snap Shot 0828 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 0829 1 Byte
2. Plasma Pistol Clip
Power 0850 1 Byte
Rounds 0860 1 Byte
3. Plasma Rifle
Accuracy:
Auto Shot 07B8 1 Byte
Snap Shot 07B9 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 07BA 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Auto Shot 07BB 1 Byte
Snap Shot 07BC 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 07BD 1 Byte
4. Plasma Rifle Clip
Power 07E4 1 Byte
Rounds 07F4 1 Byte
5. Heavy Plasma
Accuracy:
Auto Shot 074C 1 Byte
Snap Shot 074D 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 074E 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Auto Shot 074F 1 Byte
Snap Shot 0750 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 0751 1 Byte
6. Heavy Plasma Clip
Power 0778 1 Byte
Rounds 0788 1 Byte
7. Blaster Launcher
Accuracy:
Aimed Shot 0892 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Aimed Shot 0895 1 Byte
8. Blaster Bomb
Power 08BC 1 Byte
Rounds 08CC 1 Byte
9. Small Launcher
Accuracy:
Snap Shot 08FD 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 08FE 1 Byte
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Snap Shot 0900 1 Byte
Aimed Shot 0901 1 Byte
10. Stun Bomb
Power 0928 1 Byte
Rounds 0938 1 Byte
11. Alien Grenade
Power 095E 1 Byte
12. Mind Probe
Time Unit Consumption Rate:
Use 09DD 1 Byte
I have found some anomalies when altering weapon data. If you'd
changed the soldier firing accuracy to 255 and the weapon accuracy to
255 as well, it'll result a negative accuracy. So, if you change the
soldier firing accuracy to 255, don't set the weapon accuracy for more
than 64 (100% Accuracy). There is more, if you set the time unit
consumption rate to 0%, you won't be able to use the weapon in that
particular mode. Example: You set the Snap Shot rate of Plasma Pistol
to 0%, in the game you won't be able to use Plasma Pistol for Snap
Shot.
Everytime you make changes in file "obdata.dat", you need to restart
the game for the setting to take effect.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Credit
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Special thanks to:
-MicroProse, for making such a great tactical game series.
-Benjamin Peterson, for writing Advance HeX Editor.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Copyright Statement
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This document is copyright of whatever, 2001. X-COM Colector Series is a
trademark of MicroProse Entertainment
1999. Advance HeX Editor is copyright of Benjamin Peterson, 1998.
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HEX-code #2 for X-COM: UFO Defense (UFO: Enemy Unknown)
There are two main areas for cheating.
One is to edit the base file, and the second is the soldiers file.
But first a little money:
-------------------------
In a save game dir GAME_* edit LIGLOB.DAT with a hex editor
change the first four bytes to: FF FF FF 32
(4*FF will give you minus money) This gives you
$800 million.
Base Editing:
-------------
Edit the file BASE.DAT in a saved game directory.
The following information is for the first base; to use it for
other bases, just add 124 Hex for each subsequent base.
The base is a six by six grid defined by the bytes 16 to 39
(3A to 5D is the building time so set them all to 00)
The following is the list of available buildings:
00 Access Lift 0A*Plasma Defences
01 Living Quarters 0B Fusion Defences
02 Laboratory 0C Grav Shield
03 Workshop 0D Mind Shield
04 Short-range Radar 0E*Psi Lab
05 Long-range Radar 0F Hyper-wave Decoder
06*Missile Defense 10 Top-Left part of Hanger
07 General Stores 11 Top-Right
08 Alien containment 12 Bottom-Left
09*Laser Defenses 13 Bottom-Right
* Are redundant by better facilities
(Psi Lab not needed if soldier cheat used)
I reccomend the layout given by:
10 11 10 11 03 03 /- -\ /- -\ WS WS
12 13 12 13 03 03 \_ _/ \_ _/ WS WS (It may be a useful to replace
02 02 00 05 05 03 La La <> LR LR WS a St (Store) with another FD)
02 02 02 05 05 08 La La La LR LR AC |
04 04 07 07 07 08 SR SR St St St AC <----------+
04 04 0D 0B 0C 0F SR SR MS FD GS HD
NOTE: At the start it is necessary to have a Living Quarters to
hire the soldiers (say 8), but as soon as they are ordered,
save the game and remove the quarters.
Some facilities - Psi Lab, Hyperwave Decoder, Mind Shield,
Grav Defense - won't work until they have been researched.
The Access Lift <> is not really necessary unless your base
is attacked, but after a defense mission without a <> the
entire base facilities will disappear from the grid.
Only have 250 (FA) Engineers and Scientists, as 5 will
go to waste (not to mention the extra salaries)
Base Equipment:
---------------
As before edit BASE.DAT, and add 124 for extra bases.
Now instead of values the addresses are given.
Firstly:
5E Engineers (set to FA) 5F Scientists (set to FA)
The rest are two byte integers, there are
also gaps in the middle which are not used:
60 Stingray Launcher B4 Electro Flare
62 Avalanche Launcher C2 Heavy Plasma
64 Cannon C4 Clip
66 Fusion Ball Launcher C6 Plasma Rifle
68 Laser Cannon C8 Clip
6A Plasma Beam CA Plasma Pistol
6C Stingray Missiles CC Clip
6E Avalanche Missiles CE Blaster Launcher
70 Cannon Rounds D0 Blaster Bomb
72 Fusion Ball D2 Small Launcher (Stun)
74 Tank / Cannon D4 Stun Bomb
76 Tank / Rocket D6 Alien Grenade
78 Tank / Laser D8 Elerium-115
7A HoverTank / Plasma DA Mind Probe
7C HoverTank / Launcher E2 Sectoid Corpse
7E Pistol E4 Snakeman Corpse
80 Clip E6 Etherial Corpse
82 Rifle E8 Muton Corpse
84 Clip EA Floater Corpse
86 Heavy Cannon EC Celatid Corpse
88 AP ammo EE Silacoid Corpse
8A HE ammo F0 Crysalid Corpse
8C I ammo F2 Reaper Corpse
8E Auto Cannon F4 Sectopod Corpse
90 AP ammo F6 Cyberdisc Corpse
92 HE ammo 100 UFO Power Source
94 I ammo 102 UFO Navigation
96 Rocket Launcher 106 Alien Food
98 Small Rocket 108 Alien Reproduction
9A Large Rocket 10A Alien Entertainment
9C Incendiary Rocket 10C Alien Surgery
9E Laser Pistol 10E Examination Room
A0 Laser Rifle 110 Alien Alloys
A2 Heavy Laser 114 Personal Armour
A4 Grenade 116 Power Suit
A6 Smoke Grenade 118 Flying Suit
A8 Proximity Grenade 11A HWP Cannon Shells
AA High Explosive 11C HWP Rockets
AC Motion Scanner 11E HWP Fusion Bombs
AE Medi-Kit AP - Armour Piercing
B0 Psi-Amp HE - High Explosive
B2 Stun Rod I - Incendiary (ie Burning)
I recommend choosing the plasma cannon for the craft weapons, as
they are stronger than anything except for the fusion balls, but the
ships can only carry 2 at a time, while the plasma cannon has 100 shots,
and you don't have to manufacture ammo. Make sure that the base is stocked
up on elerium-115 (it is the only thing you can't make/buy), it is needed
to refuel an Avenger as well as manufacturing most alien things.
Soldier Editing:
----------------
For each soldier the best outfit is two alien grenades, a motion detector,
a stun rod, heavy laser and psi-amp (maybe even a medi-kit, but with flying
armour, 255 health and time units they are superfluous).
Edit the file SOLDIER.DAT, each soldier's info takes 68 bytes (00 to 44).
The first byte is the soldiers rank, set it to 05 for Commander.
The fifth byte (04) is the craft that the soldier is assigned to, you don't
normally need to change this.
08/09 is a 2 byte integer for the number of missions done.
0A/0B is a 2 byte integer for the number of kills.
0C/0D is the number of days left to heal wounds: set it to 00
To maximise the soldiers stats set the following:
2A - 33 => FF
34 => 00
35 - 3D => FF
And to give the soldier a flying suit: 3E => 03
Thats it for editing...
Now just a few general tips in using the cheats:
Make all 8 bases possible, spread them all over the world to maximise the
radar coverage.
When doing a mission the best strategy is to use a soldier in the back of
the craft to do mind control on any aliens found (should be able to do 10
aliens). Use the aliens to explore, and if they have any time units left,
make them throw away their weapons, or move them towards your soldiers to get
stunned. Make sure that the aliens have no time units left at the end of a
turn. Also the larger aliens (Sectopods, Reapers and Cyberdiscs) can be
taken over one quarter at a time, when you have used up all their time units,
you can take over another quarter, and they get their time units back. It is
important that the larger ones are wholly taken over before and all the time
units are then used up, or they get their own turn. It is also possible to
get Cyberdiscs to shoot themselves.
Always do the research as soon as possible, and if there are many things to
research, transfer the items to other bases. Use all 250 scientists at once
to research a job, it will take just as long, but the knowledge from each
separate research item can be used.
NEVER TRY TO SHOOT DOWN A BATTLESHIP. Even with fusion balls it would take
over 15 shots to knock it down. It is much better to wait for it to land and
send the troops in.
In terror sites (cities) mind control can also be used on civilians, they
can then help to look around, but don't let them get shot.
The major goal is to get an Avenger craft, as they are awesome, and they
carry troops as well as having weapons, being fast, able to take lots of
damage, and plenty more.
In the final mission on Mars, waste no time on the first level, just get all
the soldiers to the green level exit. It is the second and final part that
is important.
The brain that you have to shoot is just to the left of the top most green
starting point, but you have to go down, and to the left:
-------------
| +-----
+-------+ | |XXX <--- Starting postion
| |X| | |XXX
Go in here +-----+ | +-----+ This is only an approximation,
up one ---> | X's are the lift thingies.
use alien +-----+ | +-----+
to kill | |X| | |
brain +-------+ | |
Any questions/comments,
E-mail Marty on byteme@student.adelaide.edu.au
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Hint for X-COM: UFO Defense (UFO: Enemy Unknown)
Free manufacturing:
Select the item to be manufactured, but assign no engineers and leave the
number to produce at zero. Then, assign as many engineers as desired but only
manufacture one item. Use tanks with this trick to easily make money
Save Elerium:
When you finish building a new ship, load it with the weapons (Plasma Beam for
both weapons is recommended). When it is fully charged and ready for flight,
transfer it to another base. When it gets to the base, immediately send it out
on patrol. Click the ship and you will see that its fuel is 0%. That means it
will not run out of fuel. Make sure that when you send the ship out on patrol,
send it to the opposite side of the planet or a long way from your base. This
allows you to catch the ship after it attacks the enemy before it can return
to base. This is best done with the FireStorm craft. They are cheap and quick
to build. The firepower is just as good as the Avenger, which cost lots more
and takes longer to build.
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Hint #2 for X-COM: UFO Defense (UFO: Enemy Unknown)
The Basics
There are three objectives in UFO: Enemy Unknown: defend the Earth, learn all
you can about the aliens, and, finally, deal with the threat permanently. The
key to
success, though, lies in the first. If you don't provide an adequate defence
set-up,
the Earth is quickly overrun, the funding nations become dissatisfied, X-Com is
disbanded and you lose the game. Fortunately, the funding nations are quite
selfish - they're less bothered by UFO activity in the 'neutral' areas of the
map
than with activity inside their own borders. This makes your task a lot easier,
though, because to start off with you only have to worry about these countries
instead of tackling the entire globe.
Getting Started
The first thing to do is decide on the position of your first X-Com base.
Although
the choice is virtually limitless, two location in particular will get you off
to a
pretty good start - Central Europe enables you to protect the greatest number of
funding nations immediately, whereas right in the centre of the USA protects the
nation that provides the most initial funding. Whichever one you choose, your
second base should ideally be in the other location.
Once you've decided on a spot, the game begins - and you should immediately go
to the base screen and the Build Faculties option. Build an Alien Containment
Building, a Large Radar System, another General Stores and two more Living
Quarters. The Alien Containment Building is necessary for researching living
aliens (you never know when you'll get your hands on some). The Large Radar
System drastically increases the range at which you can detect incoming UFOs,
while the General Stores and Living Quarters are for future expansion.
Next, go to Purchase/Recruit and recruit 12 scientists (you don't have enough
living space for more at the moment). Afterwards, go to Research and put all ten
of your scientists to work on Laser Weapons. Go back to the main Geoscape view
and, as soon as the new ones arrive, add them to the project.
Strategy
From this point on it's very hard to give hard and fast advice, because a great
deal
depends on how many UFOs you intercept, what difficulty level you've chosen
and so on. There are, however, some general guidelines that are worth bearing in
mind...
Economics
The single most limiting factor on X-Com's actions is cash. Virtually every
decision you make involves money at some point, and your initial funding is, to
put it mildly, pathetic. It is therefore of paramount importance that you
achieve
results as quickly as possible and get more cash. However, increased funding is
not the only way to get your hands on some mooley - don't forget that from the
base screen you can also sell unwanted items. The more advanced alien artefacts
and weapons - the plasma weapons, for example - are worth a lot of money, so
always sell gear that you've researched but decided not to use. If the worst
comes
to the worst, you can raise some cash by manufacturing an item and then selling
it
straightaway (the manufacturing costs are always less than the re-sale value).
It's important to be aware of your current funds and your overheads - it's all
too
easy to fall into a situation where you're losing money each month, and that can
easily spell the end for X-Com. Be sure to consult the finance graphs regularly,
as
well as the maintenance screens on each base.
Bases
A large part of your success in UFO is down to the placement and management of
your bases. You should aim to build enough to blanket the Earth in a radar net -
this maximises your chances of detecting a UFO and provides few places for
UFOs to hide. When you start a new game, concentrate on getting your main base
up to scratch as quickly as possible. What you should be aiming for are: two
Labs,
with a full complement of 100 scientists, researching two projects (50
scientists
each), and two Workshops (with about 70 engineers), enabling you to
manufacture new items at a high rate. All of this costs a lot, especially in
terms of
maintenance, so you should make sure that neither scientists or engineers are
ever
idle - if there's nothing that needs manufacturing, set your engineers to make
loads of something, and then sell it for a huge profit.
Logistically and economically, it's impossible for you to develop all your bases
to
this level, though. The best compromise is to make your first base the 'main'
one,
then have two more with both Interceptors and Skyrangers, plus some advanced
facilities. (Placing the main base in Europe and the secondaries in the USA and
China is a good idea, because this covers most of the funding nations.) The rest
should be Ldetection and interception' posts, which consist of a Hangar, Large
and Small Radar Systems, General Stores and Living Quarters. You should make
sure each one is equipped with an Interceptor, armed with your best heavy
weapons, and four to eight soldiers, all kitted out with your best weapons and
armour for base defence. When building new bases, always consult the UFO
activity graphs, and use the information to decide on where to place the next
base
so as to counteract the highest alien threat. (Remember: protecting funding
nations is more important than neutral areas.)
Finally, remember you're vulnerable to alien attack while building a base.
Aliens
can only enter bases through the Hangar(s) and Access Lift(s), so try to isolate
these areas from the rest of your facilities as much as possible. This reduces
the
number of areas the aliens can move through and thus the area you have to
defend. With the detection and interception posts described above, for example,
build the Access Lift in the middle of the screen, with the Hangar above it and
the
General Stores below. Then, when you've constructed the General Stores, build
the other facilities around it, not connected to the Access Lift. This means
that to
reach the rest of your base, attacking aliens have to move through the General
Stores, and thus you can place all of your defending troops here and not have to
spread them out. Your bases take longer to build, admittedly, but it's worth it
in
the long run.
Research
The aliens' level of technology far exceeds that of Earth's, so to stand any
chance
of defeating them, learn about it and then use it against them. There are a vast
number of topics to research, and although you need to eventually understand all
of them, some are more immediately useful than others. The most important thing
at the start is to arm both your Interceptors and troops effectively. This gives
you
the best chance of downing UFOs and then recovering the crashsite without losing
any troops.
The following, then, is a suggestion of what you should research, in what order,
and why. Obviously, this may change, depending on the order in which your
troops recover the various items. The brackets list other projects that you need
to
research in order to gain the listed technology.
Laser Rifle (Laser Weapons - Laser Pistol): The laser rifle is by far the best
multi-
purpose weapon for your squads. It's relatively powerful, accurate and capable
of
autofire. Most importantly, it offers unlimited shots, and thus relieves you of
all
the hassle of running out of ammo mid-mission, making sure all your troops are
adequately supplied with clips and so on.
Personal Armour (Alien Alloys): Keeping your troops alive is vitally important,
because it gives them the chance to gain experience, and eventually become
killing machines from hell with 200 Time Units, 90% Shooting Accuracy and
enough Health to soak up an anti-tank round. Personal Armour is far from bullet-
proof, but it gives your boys a chance at least.
Laser Cannon (Laser Rifle - Heavy Laser): Although lacking in range, the Laser
Cannon does as much damage as a Stingray missile, is far more accurate and has
unlimited power, once more relieving you of the problems and costs associated
with ammunition. Upgrade your Interceptors to carry two of these as soon as
possible.
Power Suit (Personal Armour, Elerium 115, Alien Power Source): The ultimate
form of personal protection, exceeded only by the Flying Suit's added mobility.
Power Suits are bullet proof - and can often stop a Heavy Plasma hit.
Small Launcher (Stun Bomb): As soon as you're lucky enough to recover one of
these, research it immediately. The key to eventually winning the game is to
research living aliens, and the Small Launcher enables you to stun from a
distance. A vital weapon.
Plasma Cannon (Heavy Plasma, Heavy Plasma Clip): The best craft weapon,
combining range, accuracy and power with no ammunition requirements. Only the
Fusion Ball is more powerful, but that requires ammo, has a low rate of fire and
you can only fire twice before having to reload. Twin Plasma Cannons enable
Interceptors to down all but the largest UFOs with the minimum of risk.
Getting hold of these technologies is a top priority - once you've managed it,
you're well set up to give the aliens some grief.
Tactics
Being able to successfully complete the ground combat missions in UFO: Enemy
Unknown is just as important as managing the strategy side of things. For a
start,
ground combat missions have a large influence on your monthly rating, and thus
directly affect your funding. In addition, only by capturing living aliens can
you
learn enough about the enemy to finish the game, and only by having highly
experienced troops will you be able to succeed in the final missions.
Unfortunately, due to the virtually limitless number of different situations
that can
arise, it's much harder to give specific advice on this area of play. The
following,
then, are simply broad guidelines that cover the main aspects of combat
missions.
Play Safe
The single most important thing to remember is, quite simply, to keep your
troops
alive at all costs. I can't stress this basic idea enough - only by gaining
experience
will your troops be good enough for the later missions, and only by staying
alive
can they gain the necessary experience. The safety of your troops should
therefore
always be uppermost in your mind, especially during the early missions when
they're weak and unprotected. Always think about protecting your squad from
enemy fire before anything else. Although it's impossible to guarantee that your
troops won't get shot, there are several ways you can lessen the risks.
Always take your time when exploring unexplored territory. Never move a soldier
into a new area when they don't have enough Time Units left to move out of it.
(Never step through a door or around a corner unless your soldier has enough
time to shoot and step back out of trouble, for example.)
Try to move your troops in pairs, and finish their moves facing in different
directions, so that aliens cannot sneak up on them.
Space your troops out. If your forces are clumped together a rogue shot may hit
an
innocent bystander. Also, soldiers standing in a group can interfere with each
others' lines of fire.
Use whatever cover is available to hide your troops and protect them from fire.
Try not to leave people standing out in the open - they'll be easy targets.
Be Methodical
It's very important that you plan ahead and explore the battlefield carefully.
There's nothing worse than not being able to find the last alien - you know he's
out there somewhere, but you don't know exactly where. With this in mind, use
the overhead map and look at where your transport has landed in relation to the
rest of the map, then sweep your squad out across it slowly. Always explore
every
area carefully as you go, so as not to miss any aliens. This way you can be
fairly
confident that no aliens will creep in from 'behind' your squad, between your
soldiers and the transport. This will also enable you to spot and deal with all
the
aliens in one sweep, and prevent you from missing any. When dealing with the
larger UFOs it's best to cover the exits and use the rest of your soldiers to
sweep
the surrounding area. Once you've dealt with any aliens outside, you can then
use
your entire squad to explore the UFO itself. Remember, it's best to take things
slowly and extremely carefully - it not only lessens the risks, but it saves you
time
in the long run.
Know The Controls
Be sure that you use the game's controls properly. This sounds stupidly obvious,
but it's surprisingly easy to forget about some of the more useful functions
while
actually playing, so bear the following in mind:
Get into the habit of using the Reserve Time Units buttons so that your soldiers
are ready for Opportunity Fire. This can often make the difference between life
and death, especially in the cramped confines of a UFO or a town.
Remember that kneeling increases your soldiers chance of hitting by a small
amount. It also makes them a smaller target. Be careful, though, because if
there
are walls or fences between the soldier and his target, kneeling often breaks
your
line of sight.
Use the correct mode of fire for the situation. With autofire-capable weapons,
such as laser rifles, use autofire at any range up to about a screen's width,
and aim
shots beyond that. Only use snap shots when you don't have enough Time Units
left for the other modes. With single-shot weapons, especially those with
severely
limited ammo (such as small launchers), always use aimed fire unless you are at
very short range - every shot counts with weapons like this, so it's important
to
maximise your chances of hitting.
Know The Battlefield
There are several types of mission you'll encounter in UFO, some of which can
occur on different terrains. In order of difficulty, they are:
Crash Sites The most common type of mission, and normally the easiest. The best
thing about crash sites is that you never have to attempt one at night. As the
crash
site remains 'active' for at least 24 hours, simply wait until daylight before
landing your transport.
Ground Assaults These vary in difficulty depending on the size of the UFO and
the time of day. Since the aliens rarely hang around for too long, you have
little
control over the lighting conditions - you just have to go in there and do your
best.
However, the benefits from capturing an undamaged UFO are considerable -
they're the best source of Elerium-115, for a start. Always send an interceptor
to
hover over the landed UFO while your transport makes its way to the site, so
that
if it takes off in the meantime you can immediately shoot it down.
Terror Sites Thankfully, these are rare. With so many buildings, alleys and
other
hiding places, just finding the aliens can be a nightmare. These are also the
only
missions where you're under considerable time pressure - you have to stop the
aliens as quickly as possible in order to save the local inhabitants - which can
be a
real pain. In addition, the sites are only active for a short period of time, so
you
have little choice as to the time of day. However, it's vitally important to
stop
terror sites wherever they occur, because they have a significant effect on your
monthly rating.
Base Defence Once again, these are rare, but if the aliens do discover one of
your
places, expect several attacks - when they find a base they don't forget where
it is.
However, if you have designed your bases with defence in mind (see last issue),
they shouldn't be too vulnerable. Just be sure to station troops at all your
bases.
Alien Bases These are very dangerous, but can really boost your monthly rating.
They also provide you with Alien Commanders (which you must capture if you
want to complete the game).
Capture Aliens
To successfully complete UFO, you must capture living aliens and research them.
There are several 'ranks' within the various major alien races, and each
provides
different information:
Alien Soldiers
The most common form of alien. Researching Soldiers simply gives you more
information about the race and their motivations - a kind of supplement to the
information you glean from alien autopsies.
Alien Medics
These often give you more information about aliens you have yet to research.
Alien Engineers
Each engineer you capture gives you detailed information about one of the
various types of UFO used by the aliens.
Alien Navigators
Similar to engineers, except each navigator gives you detailed information about
a
specific type of mission.
Alien Leaders/Commanders
These are the aliens that enable you to finish the game. By researching captured
leaders and commanders, you not only learn about the Hyperwave Decoder and
Psi Lab base faculties, but gradually uncover the truth behind the alien attacks
and
the means by which you can take the fight to the enemy, dealing with the menace
once and for all.
The simplest way to subdue aliens is by using the small launcher. The stun bomb
this weapon fires is explosive and covers a fairly large area, but is harmless
to
your own troops, provided they're wearing effective armour (otherwise you'll
just
knock them out). In addition, you can use the stun sticks, but these require you
to
get up close to the alien, which is dangerous, or the psi amp, once you've got
psionically trained troops.
You'll only find the high rank aliens inside alien bases or the larger UFOs.
They
normally stay in the control room or bridge area. If you want to be sure of what
you're capturing, use the mind probe on the target.
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Solution for X-COM: UFO Defense (UFO: Enemy Unknown)
The UN-official Strategy Guide
and
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
works great as a Supplement to the Official Strategy Guide!
Updated May-01/95
Maintained by Kuo-Sheng (Kasey) Chang
0.1 Introduction
Thanks for the tremendous response all over the net! The guide was
uploaded to practically to wherever XCOM and UFO are sold (and
probably beyond), and many people have provided helpful feedback
that were incorporated into this revision.
XCOM:USG is now available in many more places! It's available on
almost every on-line service (though AOL will remain an "official"
distribution site) and can be found in many places on Internet.
The Feb-01 revision marks a major change in what is now known as the
"XCOM Unofficial Strategy Guide". That was a total rewrite compared
to this, which is just a revision.
0.2 Did you know about the OFFICIAL XCOM Strategy Guide?
Now that the official strategy guide is out in stores (XCOM : the
Official Strategy Guide, by David Ellis, Prima Publishing, ISBN
1-55958-764-4, US$19.95, hereby known as OSG), this UNofficial
strategy guide (USG) is now patterned after the official one, with
similar table of contents. You can use this guide along with the
official strategy guide (OSG), or you can use this by itself.
While OSG has all the neat charts and tables and stuff only
available from the source, I've found its tactics and strategy
section sorely lacking. In fact, all the the strategy and tactics
are condensed into ONE chapter, with the rest of the book as simply
a reprint of the manual and UFOpedia and the underlying mechanics.
That's where USG come in. USG will help you make informed choices.
Instead of showing you a table of numbers, I'll actually show you
what is recommended by fellow XCOM players. After you read each
chapter in the OSG, read that chapter's supplement here. You will
understand more about how the game runs and the tactics to beat it.
You do NOT have to have the OSG to use this supplement, but you will
get more out of both if you do.
0.3 Credits where credits are due
Thanks to MicroProse and Mythos Games for bringing us such a nice
game. It surely deserved CGW's "Game of the Year" award!
Thanks to all the people who have contributed to previous editions
of the XCOM:USG, whom include but are not limited to: William Kang,
CMDR; Tim Chawn, CMDR; Doug Osborne, SG; Stuart Lamble, SG; Seth
Cohn, SG; Bill Soo, SG; Jeff Shaffer, Economist; Rob Eiben, SG; Jim
Muchow, SG; Menachem Pasteich, architect; Paul Close, publicist and
simulation expert; and fellow XCOM players all over the world
discussing the game on USENET, America On-line and elsewhere.
Some strategies and tactics here first appeared in Computer Gaming
World and Computer Game Review magazines' strategy articles on XCOM.
Thanks to Jeff James (CGW) and Kevin Perry (CGR), we honor you as
XCOM Strategists.
0.4 Note ot UFO: Enemy Unknown users
UFO: Enemy Unknown users should be able to use this supplement with
minimum changes. Most tips will apply to both versions, esp. the
tactical tips. The charts on the other hand may have different
numbers, so compare it carefully please. See 0.5 if you have the
Amiga version of UFO: Enemy Unknown.
0.5 Notes on the USG
New/Improved sections since last update are marked by @.
PLEASE let me know if there's a confusing or missing remark so I can
fix them! If you find an question about the game that is not covered
in the USG, I'll include it in the next update.
The USG should be available at the Game Domain WWW
WWW : http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain
@ Any quick updates can be found on my own homepage
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~kschang
Paul Close (pdc sgi.com) has graciously converted this into HTML
format so you can use a WWW browser! Check it out at
WWW : http://reality.sgi.com/employees/pdc
Tommy Iversen (Norway) has graciously accepted the task of
converting the USG for Amiga. (Yes, there is an Amiga version)
His e-mail address is -->
If you are on America On-Line, look in the PC Games Forum (keyword:
PCGAMES). Go into the file library, and search under XCOM.
If anyone knows of other "permanent" archive sites (somewhere in
ftp.netcom.com?), please let me know so I can include the
information in future updates.
If you REALLY can't find it, don't have FTP or WWW, not on AOL,
can't read news, etc., (i.e. there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY you can get
to it) (how did you know about this in the first place?) then send
me e-mail (see below) and I'll try to get back to you.
Please don't just mail me and ask "it's nice and do you have an
update and if so please send it to me". If I have an update I can
release I would have released it already.
I maintain this at home on my PC and I only have a UNIX shell
account which this won't fit with other stuff I need. So don't
expect too fast of an answer if you request this by e-mail.
0.6 The author
I? I am just a game player who didn't like the existing FAQ's and
strategy tactics collection available out there, and decided to
write my own. You can contact me at:
Internet 1 : kschang sfsu.edu (preferred)
Internet 2 : ksc1 aol.com (only if you must, see below)
America On-Line : Ksc1
US Mail : Kasey Chang, 2220 Turk Blvd. Apt.6,
San Francisco, CA 94118, USA
WWW Homepage : http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~kschang
If you contact me via Internet e-mail I usually reply within two
working days. Please use the preferred e-mail address if possible,
not BOTH. I only sign onto America On-Line (2nd address) twice a
week so you won't get a prompt reply if you contact me there.
Table of Contents
1.0 X-COM General Information
What is this game? What about bugs? Patches? Expansions and
future versions? How do I win or lose?
2.0 The GeoScape Screen
How do I use GeoScape? Any tricks or tips?
3.0 X-COM Bases
Where do I put my first bases? How to I build bases that are easy
to defend? How much defense do I build?
4.0 X-COM Hardware
What kind of weapons are available? Which ones are the best?
5.0 Finance
How do I make more money? How do I spend less money? How do I
cheat and get more money?
6.0 Research and Manufacturing
What do I research? What do I build?
7.0 Intercepting UFOs
How do I intercept UFOs? What weapon should I send up against
UFO type X?
8.0 Soldiers, Movement, and Combat
Who do I send on missions? How do I avoid casualties?
9.0 The aliens
Who are these & *#%*!? How do I kill them most efficiently?
10.0 Ground Assaults
What do I do in UFO assaults and recoveries? What is the best way
to defend my base? Assaulting alien bases?
11.0 Mastering Cydonia -- The Final Assault
How do I win the "final confrontation"?
12.0 Misc Stuff
Any other questions?
(if information you are looking for is not listed, e-mail me and
I'll give you an answer, and I'll include it in next update)
BEGIN XCOM Unofficial Strategy Guide
1.0 X-COM General Information
1.1 What is XCOM: UFO Defense?
[Excerpt from XCOM manual page 6]
It is the year 1999. Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) have
started appearing with distrubing regularity in the night skies.
Reports of violent human abductions and horrific experimentation
has truck terror into the hearts of millions. Mass public
hysteria has only served to expose Earth's impotence against a
vastly superior technology.
[...]
On December 11, 1998, representatives from the world's most
economically powerful counties gathered secretly in Geneva.
After much debate, they decision was made to establish a covert
independent body to combat, investigate, and defeat the alien
threat. The organization would be equipped with the world's
finest pilots, soldiers, scientists, and engineers, working
together as one multi-national force.
This organization was named the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit.
[end excerpt]
You are in overall command of XCOM. You will launch and control
interceptors to attack marauding UFOs, send soldiers to attack
crashed or landed UFOs, raid alien bases on Earth (if you can
find them), keep the sponsor nations happy and UFOs out of their
skies, buy the ammo and weapons you need in the war, research
and build better weapons as your troops bring in captured alien
artifacts for analysis and eventually manufacture our own
copies, pay for everything by contributions from sponsor
countries and selling stuff, and eventually figure out the alien
threat's origin and end the threat once and for all. (Whew!
That's a mouthful!)
1.2 How does XCOM play?
The game is divided into two main segments: GeoScape and
BattleScape. GeoScape is a 3-D view of the globe, rotate-able
and zoom-able. This is where you control your various bases
around the world (with radars), your fighters and transports
(carrying your soldiers), your inventory at each base, the UFOs
and alien bases currently in sight, and so on. Once ground
contact is made (transport landed next to UFO, you attack alien
base, aliens attack your base, etc.), the game switches to
Battlescape.
Battlescape is an isometric tile-based 3-D combat with viewpoint
similar to SimCity 2000 and Transport Tycoon. The combat is
turn-based with opportunity fire on the opponent's round
(provided you have enough TimeUnits [TUs] and reaction), with
plenty of weapons and terrain to choose from. Everything is
mouse-driven so game is very easy to learn yet hard to master.
1.3 What is UFO: Enemy Unknown?
UFO: Enemy Unknown is the European version of XCOM. The game
was designed by Mythos Games, and was distributed by MicroProse
UK. It was imported into the US later as XCOM. XCOM is
equivalent to UFO V1.2.
In fact, XCOM installs into \MPS\UFO directory. :-)
1.3.1 Why the name change?
OSG has no explanation, but I believe that SubLOGIC (the
original Flight Simulator people) had a game called UFO,
and MicroProse couldn't register the same name, so they
picked XCOM.
XCOM will now be the official name of the series. XCOM2
will be sold as XCOM2 in Europe.
1.3.2 What is this UFO V1.3 Patch?
Recently there's a UFO V1.3 patch floating in Internet
somewhere. (ftp.cdrom.com in /pub/games/dresden?).
_Computer Gaming World_ listed it in their patches page,
so it appears to be official. This is ONLY for UFO, NOT
for XCOM.
The "real" patch is XCOM V1.4.
1.3.3 So what is the difference besides the title?
Quite small, mainly price changes for items (esp.
"armour").
1.4 What type of PC do I need? Is a Demo available?
Requirements listed on XCOM is: 386/486 (Pentium?), 4 MB RAM,
VGA, Mouse, MS/PC-DOS 5.0 (or higher?).
(There is an Amiga and CD32 version of UFO, see 1.6)
One person reported that he was able to run XCOM with 2 MB RAM,
though it is SLOW. Your mileage may vary.
It comes on 3 3.5" HD disks, and needs about 12MB of hard drive
space to install (double that if using disk compression software
such as Stacker or DoubleSpace). There's a CD version which is
the same except only the saved games reside on the hard drive
and all of the data files stays on the CD.
You CAN install the CD version onto the hard drive if you have
enough space. Contact MicroProse for detailed instructions.
The game uses 32-bit protected mode, so it would not run under
Windows. No compatibility claims was made to any other versions
of DOS such as DR DOS, Novell DOS 7, or even OS/2.
Note that Windows may be necesary if the DOS4GW extender refuse
to run on your computer. See 1.5.7.
There is a playable demo available on most on-line services such
as America On-Line in the MicroProse forum /SIG/ roundtable/
whatever. There WAS a demo at ftp.std.com, but another user
reported that it disappeared sometime during November '94. In
the meanwhile, you can try ftp.cdrom.com under /pub/Games/Demos.
(if anyone found it, please let me know so the info can be
included in the next update)
1.5 What about any bugs? Any patches?
The OSG has no list of bugs, so here is a list of bugs that are
known to exist in XCOM/UFO. MicroProse is aware of most of
these problems.
It took MicroProse about six months, but the patch is finally
here! V1.4 patch is available from MicroProse BBS and www/ftp
site.
1.5.1 Green Text Bug
Symptom: Game suddenly displays 40-column Green text [DOS
Extender Error]. Usually happens right after a battle,
and after a bit it takes you back into the battle you just
finished (infinitely), sometimes the computer hangs.
Cause and Solution: This is usually caused by attempting
to save a game while an UFO interception is in progress.
Another possibility is you have multiple crafts in the
air and one of the is intercepting while another is land-
ing and attacking a downed UFO or base.
Unfortuantely, the saved game is corrupt. You must
restore from an earlier saved game. [OSG only mentions
this as "trust me, don't save when intercept minimized"]
Further info: someone commented on the net (I'll find the
original message I saved somewhere) that usually there is
this ONE UFO that you did not shoot down before XCOM
crashed. If you do NOT destroy it after you reload the
game, the same thing will happen again.
Another has reported that by not maximizing the GeoScape
screen before going into combat cuts down the chances of
Geen Text bug, but this is unconfirmed.
1.5.2 16-bit Sound bug
Symptom: Game has compatibility problems with most 16-bit
sound cards such as SoundBlaster 16 and PAS-16 (and Gravis
UltraSound as well). Music and sounds are often played as
static, or no sound at all.
Cause and solution: remember that the setup asks for the
DMA channel, NOT the interrupt as most setup programs do.
If it still doesn't work, it's a program bug. You can
always play with the sound off, but it's not as much fun
having no alien screams when they got hit and die...
The V1.4 patch should fix this.
WARNING: If you have a SoundBlaster 16 and the Waveblaster
daughtercard, do NOT select 16-bit digital sound with
General MIDI. Select 8-bit sound instead.
1.5.3 One-shot blaster bug
Symptom: Once you fired off a blaster launcher, sometimes
there's still a shell in there so you can't reload it, but
you can't fire it either.
Cause and solution: This is caused by programming only one
waypoint for the blaster bomb. If you program two or more
waypoints for the bomb this won't happen.
You can also UNLOAD the "empty" shell. See manual.
1.5.4 Flying Frozen bug
Symptom: a unit near the edge of the map was hit by the
enemy. When it is their turn to more, their pointer shows
them off the edge of the map (totally outside). They can
move up/down, but not back onto the map. They can still
shoot, and they recover if you win the battle.
Cause and solution: no idea, this seems to be random.
Don't put your units near the edge.
1.5.5 "SMOKBIT.DAT not found"
Symptom: the game complains that a SMOKBIT.DAT cannot be
found in your saved game directory.
Cause and solution: no idea, since the file is not in
all of the saved games directories that I have (I have
it only in 2 of 10 saved games). MicroProse has no idea
either and currently chalked it up to computer incompati-
bility and recommends a refund if you run into this
problem. (saved game during combat?)
1.5.6 Stacked Equipment bug
Symptom: When you access the alien's inventory (see 8.5)
you found that they have multiple items stacked in one
location (usually one of the legs). If you do not have
enough TU and you tried to move one item, you cannot put
it back, and you are TOTALLY STUCK.
Solution: just don't do it, or you'll have to reboot.
No other way around it. Maybe that's why we were not
supposed to access alien inventory?
1.5.7 Cyrix incompatibility
Symptom: when starting XCOM/UFO, the program freezes after
the title splash animations finished.
Cause and solution: you probably have a Cyrix CPU. The
version of DOS4GW XCOM used (version ends with a 5) is
somehow incompatible with Cyrix CPUs. The fix is very
simple: run DOOM or another DOS4GW program (Raptor,
Heretic, Descent, ROTT, etc.) before XCOM.
1.5.8 Can't find a leader!?!?
This is also known as the "Alien Containment Bug"
Symptom: when at a crucial phase of the game, when one
needs a captured alien leader, the leader was successfully
captured but never was available for research. Maybe the
alien containment is full?
Cause and solution: no idea. Many people have reported
this problem, but MicroProse have no idea, and neither do
I. This appears to be more prevalent on higher levels.
Someone reported that UFO V1.3 patch solves this problem,
but this is unconfirmed.
Note: this is NOT related to "cannot research a captured
commander from UFO". That is NOT a bug. You have to
research one that was nabbed from a BASE.
1.5.9 Unsaved proximity grenades
Symptom: if you save a battle in progress with proximity
grenades on the ground, and later restore the game, the
grenades are gone.
Solution: none...
1.6 Any plans on sequels? Mission disks? Other computers?
1.6.1 Sequel -> XCOM2: Teror From the Deep
Here's an actual message posted by MicroProse on AOL:
----
XCOM 2: Terror From the Deep
The war continues... XCOM: Terror From the Deep brings
the alien terror into a totally new dimension...
Seeking to take advantage of a weakened Earth, XCOM's
deep space foes unexpectedly change strategy and launch a
powerful second front against planet Earth. In the dark
depths of vast oceans, long sleeping forces are awakened
by re-animation signals sent out across the galactic
silence by their interstellar brothers and sisters.
Slowly but surely, and army of hibernating alien sea
creatures awakens.
Your combat now extends to the strange new world of the
deep where superior alien technologies threaten the very
survival of the planet. Your planet: Earth.
* Sequels the hugely successful XCOM: UFO Defense
* Actual undersea geoscape mapping system with rich topo-
graphical detail
* Full array of undersea military technology
* Rich graphics feature water coloration and wrecks
* Multi-level tactical maps featuring both underwater
seascapes and buildings
* Alien encyclopedia features mutation technology and
new watery denizens
-- Brian/MicroProse
-------------------
XCOM2 is already out in the United States and should be
available elsewhere really soon.
XCOM3 is in
embyonic stages will will be more radically
different from XCOM/XCOM2, according to MicroProse.
1.6.2 How about Mission Disks?
None are planned at the moment.
1.6.3 Other versions?
There is an Amiga version.
No other ports are expected in the near future.
1.7 How do I win? How do I lose?
You win by finding the source of the alien threat and "deal with
it" once and for all on a "final mission". (See 11.0 if you
REALLY want to know)
You can lose by several ways:
1) You were in debt for over $1,000,000 for two months. Your
sponsors had had enough of your mismanagement and terminated the
XCOM project. Earth was conquered by aliens not long after.
2) You had two consecutive "badly losing" months (big negative
score), and your sponsors had had enough and terminated XCOM
project. Just how bad is a "badly losing" month depends on your
score and difficulty level (Scoring is explained in OSG
Chapter 1 and 1.8).
3) You lost all of your bases to the aliens.
4) You failed to complete the "final mission" (see above 1).
1.8 How is scoring calculated?
Score is kept for both sides. You get positive score for
conducting successful research, capturing and/or killing aliens,
grounding and/or destroying UFOs, destroying alien bases,
grabbing alien equipment, and more. You get negative score for
losing XCOM soldiers, crafts, HWPs, and civilians. (for exact
numbers, see OSG)
Aliens score points by overflying Earth, lands on Earth
(whatever purpose), build and keep bases on Earth, conduct
terror raids and hoping that you ignore it (so NEVER do so since
this REALLY scores big for them!), sign pact with funding
countries (which means those countries don't pay you any
longer!), conduct harvest and/or abduction mission on Earth.
(for exact numbers, see OSG)
Your net score is (your_score - alien_score), which is the
score you see on the monthly performance report (and the
graph). The funding changes are affected by your total score,
and are explained in OSG:Chapter 5.
2.0 The Geoscape Screen
The GeoScape screen is where you will control the interceptions and
provides access to the BattleScape and the base controls.
2.1 Air Intercepts
Always attack an UFO over land. If you shoot it down over water
no one can get to it (unless you are playing the sequel, see
section 1). If you are over water, minimize the window, and
select 1 minute step until you get back over land, then switch
back to 5 seconds and start attack.
[Whether you want to attack smaller UFOs is up to you]
If you send multiple crafts after one UFO and the UFO gets shot
down or destroyed, the shooter will go home, but other crafts
will continue onto the crash site, THEN return to their base. So
make them return to base manually. They will return faster, and
thus be refueled/rearmed/repaired for next sortie faster. Click
on its icon on GeoScape and select "return to base".
If an UFO has landed, keep a fighter on top of it. That way, if
it takes off before your transport get there, you still have a
chance of taking it down.
Since the best weapons have a chance of blowing a smaller UFO
totally to pieces, you may want to keep one fighter armed weaker
than the rest for intercepting smaller UFOs. (Assuming that you
even WANT to go after small UFOs)
2.2 Finding Alien Bases
XCOM agents have a chance of finding an alien base for you, but
chances are pretty slim. So do not rely on that. Watch for
high alien activity (check the graphs) yet no interception:
there's probably a base in the area.
Send something slow like a Skyranger to patrol the area. An
empty Skyranger has excellent range and therefore is perfect in
spotting alien bases.
Watch UFOs, esp. where they land. If you see a "Supply Ship",
do NOT attack it. Trail it and follow it to their base. After
it lands, patrol nearby and you'll see the base.
Hyperwave decoders can find UFOs on supply runs. Follow that
will usually lead you to a base.
Of course, you do NOT have to take out that base... You go
after the supply train instead.
2.3 Base Management
[also see 3.0 for XCOM Bases]
Since it takes several weeks before additional modules to the
base can be brought online, you need to build them ahead of
time. See the base status to see how full are your facilities
getting. If they are getting close, start building additional
facilities so that they'll be ready by the time you need them.
Examine base status at least twice every month, check living
quarters, workshops and labs, etc, and determine your expansion
schedule. Dismantle extra stuff before end of month so you
don't pay maintainence on them.
Hire engineers and scientists at the last hour of the month so
that they get delievered early NEXT month, so you get maximum
research from them while not paying an extra penny in salary.
2.4 GeoScape Tricks | |