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Author Topic: Alien Containment Unit  (Read 14125 times)

Offline Rodmar

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Re: Alien Containment Unit
« Reply #15 on: October 20, 2015, 11:57:10 am »
I highjack this thread about Alien Containment Unit (ACU), because my topic is right about it.
It's about an automatic transfer of bodies to main base ACU.

Given that:
  • an ACU is present in main (first) base at the beginning of the campaign, as recalled above;
  • the ACU's capacity doesn't seem to be limited, so that any number of bodies generated inside a campaign could be stored in it;
  • the "hunting board" functionality of such ACU is lost as soon as a second PHALANX team starts operating from another base without ACU;
  • current workaround for an absent ACU in another base allows to transfer dead alien bodies (and even living aliens), and thus helps in keeping the "hunting board" functionality, provided it triggers once per base per game session (i.e. the local team brought back a living alien);
  • there's no other way to have a knowledge of the "hunting board" without opening the console (I didn't try, though);


We could have:
  • automated bodies transfers from bases without ACU to base with ACU (or rather, to first base);
    Message:"Base has no Containment unit; collected alien bodies are transfered to #s"
  • either
    • keep current workaround as it is (though it creates an ACU until game is exited),
      or
    • automatically kill the aliens (as when no ACU is present at all), adding their bodies to the other ones being transfered;
      Message:"Base has no Containment unit; any prisoner died and collected alien bodies are transfered to #s"


This would allow for keeping the track of every killed aliens, provided:
- first base has always one operational ACU at least;
- if ACUs were moved, correct alien management was dealt to avoid unwanted deletion.

This would force the player to keep one ACU in first base, even if he wants to build a R&D base with labs and ACU.

TL;DR
In v2.5, the game features no hunting board. The Alien Containment Unit could be use to count down ALL the collected bodies, provided the player doesn't destroyed all of the ACUs in first base (simplest solution?), or in any base.

Offline geever

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Re: Alien Containment Unit
« Reply #16 on: October 31, 2015, 09:06:20 pm »
The ACU is limiting live aliens. It is true that currently the dead body count is not used. The solutio will be not storing/counting dead bodies in the ACU, for the gameplay we only need to know if we brought home a single dead body (that starts the research).

For the scoreboard thing, I would rather add it as a separate feature, it has nothing to do with the ACU or base building capacities.

-geever