Manual/FAQ

From UFO:AI

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Contents

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Gameplay

  • Hiring soldiers
    • More candidates become available at the end of each month. Scroll through the list using the mousewheel. More candidates are supplied if you use an easier difficulty level. More candidates are supplied if you are doing well and keeping your funding bodies happy.
  • Saving from within the battlescape...
    • ...is not allowed. This is because saving after killing an alien and loading after losing a soldier is not in the spirit of the game. It takes the fear away: and you should be afraid. [1]
  • building a new base
    • Investigate the buttons that appear when you hover over the items towards the bottom left of the geoscape view.
  • Why can't I use the medium alien armour?
    • Alien armour is only for aliens! At version 2.1.1, the best armour useable by PHALANX is the nanocomposite. There will be more armour available when more dev work is done (need more 3D artists).see Equipment/Armour.
  • Is there an easy way to compare weapons, and learn more about them?
    • see weapon tables. Includes link to table with list of skills for different skills/firemodes.
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Gameplay for veterans

Notes for veterans of UFO: Enemy Unknown (also known as Ufo Defense or just X-COM)

  • Where are the proximity mines?
    • Not implemented yet (at version 2.1). [2] They will be implemented for sure.
  • Why can't I destroy all the terrain like in X-COM?
    • The 3D engine that is used to make UFO:AI (a modified Quake2 engine) does not support fully destructable terrain. There are plans to add some destructible items (furniture, barrels...), but even that will be a lot of work (models, particle-effects etc.) See also [3] and [4] for more details.
  • The time units (TU) for reaction fire (RF) makes no sense
    Up until 2.2.x
    • It is quite different X-COM:
      • Your round n: You spend seven TU in your round. You then get all TUs back at the end of your round/beginning of enemies round.
      • Enemy round n: That seven TU has bought you the right to spend TU on a shot in your enemies round.
      • Your round n+1: In fact the TU for shooting are spent from your next rounds budget.
    • You can think of it as your soldiers having to creep around slowly being observant. The converse is they could move much further without using RF, but are likely to get caught with their pants down in the enemies round.
    2.3 development version and higher
    • A 'new' system for RF has been implemented mimicking most of the RF-features of X-COM. You can reserve TUs in your round which will not be used up but can be used for RF in the enemy turn.
      There is now an advanced system in place to reserve various things (e.g. the RF reservation as mentioned already or stuff that can be suede in the same round such as crouch/stand-up). There are still some rough edges (i.e. not all of this is usable yet) but time will help us iron them out.
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Multiplayer

  • What port is UFO:AI using?
    • TCP 27910 since 2.2
    • The standard Quake2 UDP-port 27910 for version 2.1.1 and older
    • you can also check whether your server is listed here: http://ufoai.ninex.info/ufo/serverlist.txt - if not, check your firewall settings.
  • Nobody can connect to my server - what am I doing wrong?
    • Make sure, that you have opened the game port in your router
  • The server doesn't show up in the serverlist - what can I do?
    • Again make sure, that the game port is opened in your router configuration - also make sure, that the cvar sv_public has a value of 1. This can also be done in the multiplayer menu. Activate the public option in the menu when you create the server.
  • Is there a mapcycle available?
    • Yes, there is a mapcycle available. Just have a look in the UFO:AI installation base/ directory. There is a mapcycle.txt with comments inside.
  • Versions
    • The players (clients) and server must use the same version of UFO:AI.
  • Maps
    • A checksum is calculated to ensure that all players (clients) are using the same version of the map. Maps compiled on different systems may have slightly different checksums (due to differences in floating point operations). So, for multiplayer, stick to installers (from [5] for example) or mappacks (from [6]).
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Controls

  • How can I turn the soldier's direction without moving him?
    • Position the 3D cursor on the terrain in the desired direction, then press RMB Right MouseButton or use Ctrl. See also the Keymap. See also change key bindings
  • Inventory when equipping your soldiers
    • In UFO:AI 2.1 the space is limited and not scrollable. The inventory system is being worked on.
    • Workaround for the time being: You can sell/transfer stuff to make room (do you really need 50 plasma rifles?).
  • What console?
    • The more you mess with UFO:AI, the more likely it is you will hear references to the console. If you hit Shift ESC then the console should come up. Press ESC to return to the normal GUI. There are many console commands. The console is logged in a text file from the time you start UFO to when you quit. This is overwritten the next time you run it. See the General item below to find the path.
  • What is a CVAR?
    • Console variable [7]. For example to set your nickname in for multiplayer you can go to the console and type "/name iamthegodofhellfire" or whatever. There are many other CVARs which can be set.
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Common bugs

There is a file called BUGS distributed with all UFO:AI packages listing major known bugs for this release. Please read it to avoid unneccesary bug reports :)

Check sourceforge [8] and the forum [9] for a complete list of known bugs.

Really common ones are listed here to save you time. If you have found something new then tell the team about it (see Bugs).

  • Broken savegames
    • In version 2.1.0 savegames are broken. See [10] and #1694501.
  • Estimates of hit probability are distinctly fishy
    • Hit probability estimates are not great when your target has partial cover. Using the first person view (toggle with v) can help you to estimate the hit probability yourself. The true calculation is done by the server (even in single player mode) [11].
  • The game crashes
    • Make sure that you have your latest 3D graphics card drivers installed (See also #Windows).
    • Still a problem? Go and report it.
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General

  • Where can I find the savegames, screenshots, config.cfg and ufoconsole.log?
    • This depends on your OS:
      • Linux: /home/<username>/.ufoai/<version>/
      • Windows: \Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\UFOAI\<version>\
      • MacOSX: /Users/<username>/.ufoai/<version>/
    • Screenshots or in those directories in ./base/screenshots/, Savegames are in ./base/save/
  • Game seems to be untranslated (missing texts). What did I miss?
    • This may be due to a missing translation - generate a new one on your own and send it to us - see translating article (also see available translations)...
    • ...or the system can't find the locale (the installed language file). You can use the cvar s_language to set your language (see base/i18n for valid languages) or you can copy the base/i18n/en directory to e.g. the language prefix you need.
      • Linux users must have the locale installed they are trying to use in the game. You can try to set another locale via the environment variable LANG. Start ufo with LANG=en; ./ufo
  • Under which licence is this game released?
    • GPL and Creative Commons
  • When will the game be ready?
    • When it's done. No seriously, there will never be a fixed release date (for any given version), when the game is ripe enough to make a new release it'll be done.
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Windows

  • I'm getting the error "Couldn't register window class"
    • Install your 3D Graphic card drivers - or update to the latest version
  • The game doesn't even start on my Vista system
    • Try to deactivate Aero - and maybe make sure, that you don't use the Microsoft drivers for your gfx-card. Install the latest official vendor drivers.
  • The game runs very slow on PCI-X NVIDIA based Windows XP Computers
    • Try to turn off "Threaded optimization" in the NVIDIA control panel. You can find the option on the "Manage 3D Settings" page.
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Linux

  • I can't move my mouse
    • Try another video renderer lib - see cvars for more information
    • Deactivate the cvar in_dgamouse
  • I have no sound
    • Try another sound renderer lib - see cvars for more information - also is only for low latency cards. You should try the sdl renderer and set the sdl output driver via the environment variable
  • I compiled the game myself and can't switch to fullscreen now
    • Install the x11 vidmode extension (+developer packages) through your package manager , re-run ./configure && make
    • ...or run the game with the sdl renderer ./ufo +set vid_ref sdl
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MacOSX

  • There is no text when starting new missions, Development screens etc
    • Your language hasn't been set.
      • Go to the main menu, Options, Game, Set a language.
  • Doesn't scroll in all directions
    • You cannot have the game resolution the same as the screen resolution in windowed mode. This causes the window to be slightly larger then the screen size.
      • Go to the main menu, Video and either decrease the screen resolution or tick the full screen box
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Links

Retrieved from "http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Manual/FAQ"
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