races.xt

[Aves Dominari]

Questions regarding information in races.xt go here.

As for myself, I'm looking at the races file and see several things I don't understand. First the stand/kneel columns; it looks like there are AP costs, but I want to be sure. Then we get to the Profile and Motion/Sig columns; Sig looks like maybe AP costs for movement, but the high values for the Cyberdisk and other races make me doubt that, and I have no idea what the Profile entry is supposed to represent. The last entry that confuses me is the Cushion value, as I don't really know what the numbers there are supposed to do.

[Kyzrati]

Stand/Kneel there are actually the height of the unit when standing/kneeling (it says "Height" above those columns!). The TU cost is always the same, as in X-COM (hard-coded right now). Each cell actually represents a 3D space (9x9x9), and heights of units in X@COM are anywhere from 1~8 to keep them in the same cell. Heights above that mean they actually take up multiple vertical cells, like a height of 15 is a tall unit two cells high with its legs in the lower cells and torso/head in the upper cell.

Profile is an overhead representation of the area the unit takes up (since, again, this is 3D space). This is the same way X-COM does it. See here. Valid object profiles for X@COM are stored in... objects/profiles.xt

Motion signature is how much movement is required for a certain brightness on the motion scanner--for now values are from the original, see here for a reference on blips.

You'll find that all the mechanics for anything that was in the original X-COM, are the exact same in X@COM. The only unique mechanics are for the new features I've added, so UFOpaedia is a great resource for learning about the details.

Cushion is something I've added on my own, however. It just reduces or increases the damage taken from falling directly on top of that race. Units are in "number of floors", ex: You fall on a unit with a value of 1 from 2 floors above--game treats it as if you fell only one floor for damage purposes. It's not a very important value.

(Also, wouldn't stuff like this be better of with its own thread and a descriptive title of what the questions are about, for easier browsing? Something like "Race Data" or races.xt. This is, after all, a dedicated X@COM forum and not Bay 12 where we generally want to put everything even tangentially related to one topic in the same thread ;p)

[Aves Dominari]

Okay, I've changed the title. If you command that we have specialized threads it shall be so!
And I suppose I should have seen half of that coming ;p Thanks for the help!

[Kyzrati]

Thanks, I should put up some recommended guidelines for posting on this board to help keep things organized and helpful.

For future reference, know that UFOpaedia is a great resource for anything dealing with the original game mechanics. All the X-COM remakes make heavy use of its copious research into how the game works.

[coolio678]

I have a question. This row of values has me a bit confused

noUnc noItem Turret fastRea bursRea allyRea Vision

I think I know what noUnc, noItem, and fastRea mean, but Turret, bursRea, allyRea, and vision have me a bit stuck.

[Kyzrati]

No problem, some of those are quite cryptic since I wanted to fit them into 7 characters. When I redo the files they'll include better-named data columns. Until then:

• noUnc: Not allowed to fall unconscious (immune to stunning)
  
• noItem: Not allow to interact with items (pick up, drop, use, etc)
  
• Turret: Can fire in 360 degree arc without changing unit facing (like the tank)
  
• fastRea: "Fast reactions", whether to immediately turn to face an attacker if shot from a direction outside FOV
  
• bursRea: Allowed to use burst fire mode for reaction fire (in X-COM, only the aliens can do this because it's fairly powerful)
  
• allyRea: Will reaction attack former allies while temporarily under hostile control, as through mind control
  
• Vision: Whether to require at least some light in a given cell to see other units there (meaningless during full daylight)
  

[coolio678]

Thanks for the help! I was off on noUnc, thinking it could be to prevent items from unequipping, but that's what natural weapons and modules do, so I wasn't sure. Thanks again!

[Aves Dominari]

I've got several races in my mod that are size two, and several more that are size three. While I understand from UFOPaedia that size is part of the accuracy formula, I'm not certain how much the profiles affect this. Is the Reaper harder to hit than a human because of the profile (RD7X7 vs RD5X5), or does this account for the extra size (two vs one) without much effect on accuracy?
Basically, I want to know whether I need to bother with any profile other than RD5X5 with all the races I'm making.

[Kyzrati]

Feb 7, 2013 19:58:45 GMT -5 Aves Dominari said:

While I understand from UFOPaedia that size is part of the accuracy formula

Hm, where'd you see that? Size is not a factor in the formula itself. It does, however, *indirectly* affect how likely something is to be hit, but only on a miss or stray shot.

Know that each cell in space is subdivided into its own grid of tiny cubes, 9x9x9, and what I call "profiles" were called LOFTEMPS in UFO. They indicate how much of that cubic space is occupied by an object within that cell.

So while a projectile is flying across the map, it's not going from cell to cell, it's actually passing through a bunch of tinier cells, so the game knows whether it's going straight through the middle of something, or cutting across the corner of a cell, in which case if the occupying object has a small profile, it probably won't be hit. So a Reaper with 7X7 would have a greater chance of being hit by stray/missed shots than a 5X5 Human. Something with a NONE profile (takes up no space) can't even be hit at all, even if the shot goes straight through the middle of the cell (this is a useful profile for some props to prevent them from being hit, like special invisible props).

So profiles do matter, though with entities of size > 1 your profile should generally be fairly large, since theoretically a bullet could otherwise pass *through* them; 7X7+ is good enough. (This makes profile less meaningful for those entities, since it's always going to be large--I always use 7X7, or 9x9 for huge entities that really fill up their cells.) For size=1 entities, definitely consider using SQ3X3 for smaller ones, RD5X5 for medium, and RD7X7 for larger.

Size only determines how many cells an entity takes up (and the same profile is used in each cell, hence the comment about bullets passing through ents if they have too small a profile).

[Aves Dominari]

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. I went to the Unit Height page under Technical Information in the UFO Defense section of UFOPaedia and it said that "there are two factors on top of base-chance-to-hit that determine whether a hit is successful," and one of them was unit height; I figured that meant it was part of the formula ;p
Thanks for the help! That's useful informtion to store away for later fiddling.