Question about pod mechanics.

[josna238]

Are all aliens preactivated before a pod is discovered.

I mean that in my second mission a sectoid that was in FOW in a pod that I haven't activated began to rise zombies and in the alien turn 2 pods appear and began to shoot during the alien turn.

[Zyrrashijn]

See this: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Mechanics_(LW2)

[LordYanaek]

Or if you just want the quick answer, pods have three states in LW2 : Green/Unactivated, Yellow/Alerted and Red/Activated. Yellow is new and allows the pods to take some actions. They can get a limited number of shots at you (when they finally activate), try to use cover (sometimes) and are searching for you (using sound you make as clues).

[josna238]

WOW! So if a pair of pods come by a flank during alien turn can wipe out my squad? In my case were 3 flanked shots plus a zombie for next turn...

[JulianSkies]

WOW! So if a pair of pods come by a flank during alien turn can wipe out my squad? In my case were 3 flanked shots plus a zombie for next turn...

Also, let this sink in: depending on how and how long you're engaging a pod the AI will send another pod on a wild flanking maneuver exactly to catch you like that. There is a literal flanking job for patrols.
To note they will cease that when you're done engaging and nobody else can see you.

[josna238]

I had read the ufopaedia link and now understand what happened to me but still have a doubt, that article talks about green, yellow and red pods activated during alien turn, but what does it happen with pods activated during Player's turn?

[nightwyrm]

I believe that a pod activates during Player's turn will just do their normal scamper to cover and not fire at you regardless of their alert status.

[Jacke]

I believe that a pod activates during Player's turn will just do their normal scamper to cover and not fire at you regardless of their alert status.

Not sure, but I think the Yellow Alert pods will still have some members either shoot or go overwatch after diving for cover.

[nightwyrm]

I believe that a pod activates during Player's turn will just do their normal scamper to cover and not fire at you regardless of their alert status.

Not sure, but I think the Yellow Alert pods will still have some members either shoot or go overwatch after diving for cover.

Honestly, I'm not 100% sure either. I pretty much only get to activate pods when I break concealment. Most of the time, pods walk into me instead while I'm fighting someone else.

[Jadiel]

Pods will never get free shots (or other non-move actions) on your turn. This mechanic was designed to encourage players to trigger pods on their turn, rather than playing passive and letting the aliens come to you (so you get a round of overwatch fire and then a full turn of actions).

[Nighty]

Question about a different Mechanic

do every pods patrol, or are there some pods that are supposed to just sit on one spot?
I just had a Jailbreak Mission as part of a liberation chain, where a pod of 5 Advent where not moving from the spot of the cell.

I'm just curious if this is a bug in their behaviour or intended, because i never encountered it before and i would need to adapt my 2 soldier Jailbreak method accordingly

[johnnylump]

Some pods will stay put and defend the objective, yes.

[Nighty]

Good to know, will take that into account when plannign the next jailbreak

[josna238]

Two more questions

1.- What make a green pod turns into a yellow pod? Can we revert their status to green?

2.- How many of the units in the pod will take offensive actions? Is it fixed, is randor or depends on any varialble?

Thanks in advance for answers.

[LordYanaek]

1.- What make a green pod turns into a yellow pod? Can we revert their status to green?

Being loud (firing your weapons, using explosives, even breaking windows ...). The louder the sound, the greater the distance at which pods hear you.
In addition, hacking an objective will turn all or maybe only nearby pods yellow.
They won't go back to green, they know you are here and won't just resume normal patrols if they don't find you quickly.

2.- How many of the units in the pod will take offensive actions? Is it fixed, is randor or depends on any varialble?

none on rookie
On veteran there is a 20% chance per unit it gets a bonus action
On commander+, it's 33%
Once a unit got a bonus action, chances drop drastically for other units.

Note that some enemies (mecs and some advent Sentinel type troopers) auto-overwatch when they activate, whether they were green or yellow and even during your turn.

[trihero]

If a pod sees a corpse it also goes on yellow alert.

All pods start on yellow alert in certain missions (like data tap).

[LordYanaek]

What is data tap?

[josna238]

Thanks a lot. Then we can assume (veteran) that most of the time we will find more than 20% of pod with action, but not much more than 20% because of diminissing.

For example in a pod of 5 units we could expect that most of the time we will have between none and two actions (have less than 33% of receive non action, more than 39% of receiving just one action and the % rest spread between 2 and 6 actions).

[LordYanaek]

Well, statistics have nothing to do with dice rolls so i expect a pod coming out of the fog to always shoot at me at least once and try to keep my soldiers in cover
But otherwise, yeah i rarely see more than 2 actions (apart from the occasional overwatch)
Note that actions are not necessarily shots, and if you are in cover they are more likely to overwatch, supress or mark you than just fire. Sometimes i even saw them hunker if i was on overwatch myself. Those may actually be more annoying then a stray shot.

[Tuhalu]

Reflex actions on pods diminish by 5% per pod member that does an action. So on Veteran, you'll never see more than 4 activations (20%, 15%, 10%, 5%). The chance of 4 activations is 1 in 6667. Commander and Legendary are capped at 7 actions (33%, 28%, 23%, 18%, 13%, 8%, 3%). The chance of seeing 7 actions is a little over one in a million.

[josna238]

Reflex actions on pods diminish by 5% per pod member that does an action. So on Veteran, you'll never see more than 4 activations (20%, 15%, 10%, 5%). The chance of 4 activations is 1 in 6667. Commander and Legendary are capped at 7 actions (33%, 28%, 23%, 18%, 13%, 8%, 3%). The chance of seeing 7 actions is a little over one in a million.

So in Veteran for example:

Pod of 5:

33% no action
46% one action
15% two actions
5% three actions
1% four actions
0% five actions

Without making all numbers I guess that mostly we will receive around 20%+1 or 20%-1 actions, so in a pod of 5 we should expect between zero and two and in a pod of 8 we should expect between one and three.

And this is why I got 3 shots because 2 pods activated.

[trihero]

What is data tap?

It's a mission where advent attacks your intel job. It says "protect data tap" in the mission description and the reward is unhindered operations. The set up is your haven adviser + 4'ish rebels are in the middle of the map around YOUR data relay, and advent is closing in on them. You start out far away from them and need to prevent the relay from getting killed (usually you'll get 3+ of your rebels murdered because this map is punishing and has active yellow pods from all directions charging both your team and the relay team).

[LordYanaek]

OK thanks. I know the mission but to me it was an "intel raid".

Well yes missions were advent is actually the aggressor and XCom the defender have all advent on yellow which is normal as they are attacking you, so they know you are there.

(usually you'll get 3+ of your rebels murdered because this map is punishing and has active yellow pods from all directions charging both your team and the relay team).

I once had a yellow pod in vision range of the relay and they flanked-kill my advisor even before i moved my first soldier

[trihero]

OK thanks. I know the mission but to me it was an "intel raid".

Well yes missions were advent is actually the aggressor and XCom the defender have all advent on yellow which is normal as they are attacking you, so they know you are there.

(usually you'll get 3+ of your rebels murdered because this map is punishing and has active yellow pods from all directions charging both your team and the relay team).

I once had a yellow pod in vision range of the relay and they flanked-kill my advisor even before i moved my first soldier

Defend the evac retaliation doesn't start them on yellow, because they all arrive by reinforcement flares/warps and those kinds of pods are never yellow. Same with supply mini-retaliation. So it's not a general rule that advent aggressor = they start on yellow.

Sucks, lordyanaek. I saw something similar in xwyyn's data tap mission he posted recently, an elite muton said what's up and yellow killed the adviser through high cover on turn 2.

I get triggered when an advent gunner yellow move suppresses 6+ of my squad (including the person who normally could toss a flashbang to get rid of the suppression). I just.......rawr

[Tuhalu]

Reflex actions on pods diminish by 5% per pod member that does an action. So on Veteran, you'll never see more than 4 activations (20%, 15%, 10%, 5%). The chance of 4 activations is 1 in 6667. Commander and Legendary are capped at 7 actions (33%, 28%, 23%, 18%, 13%, 8%, 3%). The chance of seeing 7 actions is a little over one in a million.

So in Veteran for example:

Pod of 5:

33% no action
46% one action
15% two actions
5% three actions
1% four actions
0% five actions

Without making all numbers I guess that mostly we will receive around 20%+1 or 20%-1 actions, so in a pod of 5 we should expect between zero and two and in a pod of 8 we should expect between one and three.

And this is why I got 3 shots because 2 pods activated.

Each chance is contingent on the last one succeeding. You only get to roll for the 2nd if the 1st succeeded. So on Veteran:
1 is 20%
2 is 0.2*0.15= 3%
3 is 0.2*0.15*0.1 = 0.3%
4 is 0.2*0.15*0.1*0.05 = 0.015%
5 = no chance.

; The amount the chance to take an action will drop after each success in a pod. The count is reset
; for each pod that activates within a single turn.
REFLEX_ACTION_CHANCE_REDUCTION=0.05