What's Coming in the very Soon to be Released Patch

[David Heath]

Hi Guys

Here is a pretty good idea what will be in the very soon to be released patch for UFO:ET

UFO:Extraterrestrials Patch 1 (version 070530)

Fixed issues
------------

Inventory crash caused by overlapping items
Inventory crash in non default resolutions
Inventory crash when adding units to transport
Crash on globe when ship starts from base
Crash in mission after game restart from settings menu
Corrupted save caused by supply ship flying to alien base
Corrupted save with in mission items on the ground
Production finance calculations, which caused waste of all moneys in some situations
Corrupted save after ship was sold
Unfinished mission loading in some special cases
Indestructible alien units after destruction of near doors
Empty hangar calculations during ship transfer

Game improvements
-----------------

* extended settings
- multiple resolution support, 1024*768 and higher, windowed mode
- controls for speed of in mission units
- controls for in mission bullets and scrolling speed
- control for camera behavior
* autosave support
- game is saved into special slot before and after each mission and at the start of each game month
* increased selling price of most items
* extended damage of base defenses
* units move faster and smoother in missions
* added hotkeys

Hotkeys on globe:
-----------------
1, SPACE - Set time control to Real
2 - Set time control to 20 min
3 - Set time control to 1 hour
4 - Set time control to 1 Day

F1 - Ufopedia
F2 - Build new base
F3 - Go to base
F4 - Intercept
F5 - Monthly report
F6, ESCAPE - Options

R - Research
P - Production
C - Centaurus
S - Soldiers

LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN ARROWS - Rotate globe
Mouse wheel - Zoom globe

Hotkeys in mission:
-------------------

SPACE - Stop current unit's action
ENTER - End turn
LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN ARROWS - Scroll tactical map
ADD (NUMKEY) - Zoom in
SUBTRACT (NUMKEY) - Zoom out
MULTIPLY (NUMKEY) - Reset zoom
Mouse wheel - Increase/decrease current map level

N, [ - Select previous unit
M, ] - Select next unit
A, DELETE - Kneel/stand
Z, INSERT - Activate item in left hand
X, HOME - Activate item in right hand
W, PAGE UP - Move unit up on the elevator
S, PAGE DOWN - Move unit down on the elevator
I - Inventory screen
H - Health screen

ESCAPE - Context dependent: enter main menu, close inventory/health screen, end shooting mode


Global hotkeys:
---------------

F8 - Quicksave (uses save slot 10)
F12 - Quickload (uses save slot 10)

[dbt1949_slith]

Sounds great![;)]

[Rekm41]

Do you have an ETA?

[dbt1949_slith]

No I have a Dodge Ram 150.[;)]

[bbmike]

But still no option to have soldiers die in combat with a hire/fire option??

[Plodder]

But still no option to have soldiers die in combat with a hire/fire option??

Why should there be? It's not part of the game design..that's for the modders to mod.

[Zalandar]

Good news David. Thanks for for the update.

Is there any idea of when? I drive a Ford Ranger. yuk yuk

[Ubbax]

ORIGINAL: bbmike
But still no option to have soldiers die in combat with a hire/fire option??

The reason soldiers do not die is covered in the backstory, perhaps not voiced well, but it's an explanation within the context of the game.

Speaking as one who played and continues to play Xcom1 & 2 since before the public got their hands on them I'll voice my humble opinion on this.

At first the inability to hire/fire soldiers and no death was something that concerned me when I started playing the game. Having played for some time now I've since changed my mind. Gone are the days of old when if you received a soldier not up to your standards you simply canned him and got better or hired so many you would simply overrun the aliens. Losing a favorered soldier due to death in Xcom of old hurt, but it didn't take long to train up another. Thinking back, truly how many people put their favoured elite in a position to die anyway; you hired new recruits as fodder to prevent just such a thing.

In UFO: ET at the mid to late game and especially the higher difficulty levels having half, or even more, of your squad of Elite soldiers end up in the hospital for a month or longer can be disastrous. While you may receive new recruits during their down time, new recruits do not hold up well against higher level aliens your fighting at the time. Indeed new recruits have a difficult time just keeping pace with your higher ranks.

Soldier hospitalization can often lead to the aliens gaining a strong upper hand in your game however when their released from the hospital you truly notice the impact they have. I've had games which appeared to be a losing proposition due to several soldiers hospitalization teeter on the edge until they returned to the fight and turned the tide of combat. Those were some of the best games I ever had, strategy and tactics became paramount in the ongoing struggle.

I think Chaos Concepts added an interesting twist with hospitalization. They solved a sore point many players of the original series had voiced, "loosing your elite soldier you so endearingly nurtured sucks", while at the same time managing to increase the importance of combat tactics. Every soldier counts, their are no throw aways.

Given all I've said perhaps it wouldn't hurt to having a very tiny percentage chance of death within the game. But as The Plodder has pointed out, the modders can address this, and indeed they have.

Just a humble opinion...
Ubbax
"Thank goodness we don't live in medieval times when people fought wars over ideas." --General Wojciech Jaruzelski

[PDiFolco]

I'm rather disappointed with the patch : to the notable exception of "technical" bug-squashing (in non-1024 mode, ie for nearly everyone lol), there's really not much in, and more importantly much less than in the current popular mods... I already have hotkeys, zooms etc !!

BTW am I alone to find the 20min speed rather a pita ?? It's too slow for anything except interceptions but in this case it's too fast, and real time is ridiculously slow (dogfights last 3 hours !! [>:]). I'd like to have 10 min instead. Note that XCOM1 had at least 6 speeds (5sec, 1 min, 5 min, 30 min, 1hr, 1 day) !

[dbt1949_slith]

Remember in the movie the Fifth Element when they brought back our heroine from death with only the DNA of her hand? I kind of look on that technology applying to my soldiers. There's always a little DNA left so they can "rebuild" them. It you don't recover the bodies however then that's that.

[bbmike]

ORIGINAL: Ubbax

ORIGINAL: bbmike
But still no option to have soldiers die in combat with a hire/fire option??

The reason soldiers do not die is covered in the backstory, perhaps not voiced well, but it's an explanation within the context of the game.

Speaking as one who played and continues to play Xcom1 & 2 since before the public got their hands on them I'll voice my humble opinion on this.

At first the inability to hire/fire soldiers and no death was something that concerned me when I started playing the game. Having played for some time now I've since changed my mind. Gone are the days of old when if you received a soldier not up to your standards you simply canned him and got better or hired so many you would simply overrun the aliens. Losing a favorered soldier due to death in Xcom of old hurt, but it didn't take long to train up another. Thinking back, truly how many people put their favoured elite in a position to die anyway; you hired new recruits as fodder to prevent just such a thing.

In UFO: ET at the mid to late game and especially the higher difficulty levels having half, or even more, of your squad of Elite soldiers end up in the hospital for a month or longer can be disastrous. While you may receive new recruits during their down time, new recruits do not hold up well against higher level aliens your fighting at the time. Indeed new recruits have a difficult time just keeping pace with your higher ranks.

Soldier hospitalization can often lead to the aliens gaining a strong upper hand in your game however when their released from the hospital you truly notice the impact they have. I've had games which appeared to be a losing proposition due to several soldiers hospitalization teeter on the edge until they returned to the fight and turned the tide of combat. Those were some of the best games I ever had, strategy and tactics became paramount in the ongoing struggle.

I think Chaos Concepts added an interesting twist with hospitalization. They solved a sore point many players of the original series had voiced, "loosing your elite soldier you so endearingly nurtured sucks", while at the same time managing to increase the importance of combat tactics. Every soldier counts, their are no throw aways.

Given all I've said perhaps it wouldn't hurt to having a very tiny percentage chance of death within the game. But as The Plodder has pointed out, the modders can address this, and indeed they have.

Just a humble opinion...
Ubbax
"Thank goodness we don't live in medieval times when people fought wars over ideas." --General Wojciech Jaruzelski

Nice write-up, Ubbax. You make some good points. I guess I'm just partial to the old X-Com. It's one of my favorite games of all time. I have been using the Mods that kill soldiers, but I think you've convinced me to try the UFO:ET method again. Once the patch comes out that is![8D]

[NefariousKoel]

ORIGINAL: dbt1949
There's always a little DNA left so they can "rebuild" them.

Bigger, better, faster, stronger! [:D]

[mjk428]

ORIGINAL: Ubbax


The reason soldiers do not die is covered in the backstory, perhaps not voiced well, but it's an explanation within the context of the game.

Speaking as one who played and continues to play Xcom1 & 2 since before the public got their hands on them I'll voice my humble opinion on this.

At first the inability to hire/fire soldiers and no death was something that concerned me when I started playing the game. Having played for some time now I've since changed my mind. Gone are the days of old when if you received a soldier not up to your standards you simply canned him and got better or hired so many you would simply overrun the aliens. Losing a favorered soldier due to death in Xcom of old hurt, but it didn't take long to train up another. Thinking back, truly how many people put their favoured elite in a position to die anyway; you hired new recruits as fodder to prevent just such a thing.

In UFO: ET at the mid to late game and especially the higher difficulty levels having half, or even more, of your squad of Elite soldiers end up in the hospital for a month or longer can be disastrous. While you may receive new recruits during their down time, new recruits do not hold up well against higher level aliens your fighting at the time. Indeed new recruits have a difficult time just keeping pace with your higher ranks.

Soldier hospitalization can often lead to the aliens gaining a strong upper hand in your game however when their released from the hospital you truly notice the impact they have. I've had games which appeared to be a losing proposition due to several soldiers hospitalization teeter on the edge until they returned to the fight and turned the tide of combat. Those were some of the best games I ever had, strategy and tactics became paramount in the ongoing struggle.

I think Chaos Concepts added an interesting twist with hospitalization. They solved a sore point many players of the original series had voiced, "loosing your elite soldier you so endearingly nurtured sucks", while at the same time managing to increase the importance of combat tactics. Every soldier counts, their are no throw aways.

Given all I've said perhaps it wouldn't hurt to having a very tiny percentage chance of death within the game. But as The Plodder has pointed out, the modders can address this, and indeed they have.

Just a humble opinion...

As someone still on the fence on this one, thanks for your input. I'm more inclined to give this game a chance now.

I still gotta say though that a game which gives me a global view to defend an entire planet that limits me to 20 warm bodies to do so just doesn't feel right. In Arulco I was limited to 20 mercs, at least at one time. I did have a larger pool to choose from - but that was an island. Just as if I was investigating the goings on of the colony on LV-426, I could understand why I only had 20 Marines to choose from. I just expect a bit more resource availabilty when defending my home planet.

I don't doubt it would be easy enough to come up with a backstory that justifies it all but like I said, it just don't feel right. Still, it's the gameplay that matters most and that seems to get high marks from players.

[evilferretvictim]

ORIGINAL: NefariousKoel

ORIGINAL: dbt1949
There's always a little DNA left so they can "rebuild" them.

Bigger, better, faster, stronger! [:D]

Like Vin Diesel! [:D]

[WolfP]

My only gripe with the system is getting the newbies up to snuff.  Nearly impossible this late in the game, they keep getting thumped.  I have to send em out with a couple of vets just to make sure the whole lot dont go missing during a mission, and most of the time its the vets who get the points as the fngs are reduced to smoking piles rather quickly.   My only suggestion is recruits arriving during later stages are a little beefier, i.e. the CAF has refined its training techniques for the gen II and gen III troopers.  Not saying they should start out any where near the vets, but at least report aboard with pfc stats.  [;)]

[dbt1949_slith]

My first game I rounded everybody out so I didn't have any real weaklings.
This game I'm only leveling about 12-14. If I'm force to take a rookie while waiting for my guys to heal I use them as scouts. Give them a couple of good grenades just in case.
I've actually had two that somehow survived long enough to become part of my regular crew.
Of course I usually only take six troopers and a vehicle of some sort or another.
A captain takes 3000 points to advance. I'm hoping to get him to major soon.[;)]

[ghostryder]

In UFO: ET at the mid to late game and especially the higher difficulty levels having half, or even more, of your squad of Elite soldiers end up in the hospital for a month or longer can be disastrous

 
Which leads to constant save game reloads which ironically is what some say this new method is supposed to change.
 
Even worse the back story has a fatal logic flaw...here in this future world where no one ever dies there seems to be a decidely lack of people to recruit when logic would in fact suggest the world would be rediculously overpopulated. Which brings up another logic hole- just because a technology exists doesn't mean it should be used or is commonly used. We can indeed clone cows today in this age but the old fashion way is still peferred by farmers because a cloned cow that cost $250,000 isn't practical..nor the cost to scrap off some brain matter to get a recruit when in fact the world should be overflowing with them using the game's own story logic.
 
In XCOM you were more or less a secret and small covert organization that was so short on funds you had to sell alien artifacts to a black market just to stay afloat- now in UFO:ET your still small - but apparantly have the money to do what likely in a logical sense would cost huge sums of dollars-
 
Your soldiers could and did get wounded in XCOM - some people seem to forget this - so this isn't really something new- only the not being able to die part is new- and quite frankly not many choose to wait around a month or more for them to heal when in game time that 30-45 days could contain dozens of missions. - this to me is a time/resource balance issue so out of phase hospital stays need to be drastically reduced or the overall game time expanded- if this was done then no one would be 'reloading' a save to overcome it.  
 
It may add a different twist but story wise any way you look at it it's hard for me to swallow-being brought back to life would be to me as rare and as costly as a millionaire spending 3 days on a space station. Not everyone has that privledge-certainly not an underground secret task force on limited funds.

[DiscoJer]

Once you get the surgery building though, the down time for a wounded soldier is reduced in half, I think. Rarely will guys be out more than 12 days or so, usually just a week or so.

[jimwinsor]

ORIGINAL: ghostryder

In UFO: ET at the mid to late game and especially the higher difficulty levels having half, or even more, of your squad of Elite soldiers end up in the hospital for a month or longer can be disastrous

Which leads to constant save game reloads which ironically is what some say this new method is supposed to change.

It's a matter of degrees I guess. You lose a squad midway thru a death game (almost a statistical certainty in the 100s of missions you have to fight), and save/reload is mandated. New recruits don't have the skills, in particular, don't have the STR needed to equip the weapons needed to take on mid-game aliens.

A squad ending up for a long hospital stay in a non death game is very very bad...but there is a good chance you can ride the period out until you've recovered enough guys to continue the struggle. So, you can play an ironman game of refusing to save/reload...it is reasonably possible (as opposed to totally impossible in a death game).

I've come full circle on the issue...started pro-death, played, realized the futility of it in the game as designed (what with the difficulty of the aliens as such), and am now playing an unmodded game. And enjoying it much more now.

[Jetau]

jimwinsor, you don't need to play using Bman's man with death enabled. I think you'll find that most people who are passionate about this game are playing with 'immortal' soldiers for the reasons you just mentioned...