Did I just dogde a trap mission?

[Olin]

So here's the thing - I discovered a nice mission in a region with Advent strenght 5. Almost too nice, I believe. The objective was to hack the terminal and the reward was 29 intel and around 100 suplies(!!!). The ETA was something like 5-6 days. I went there with two guys - shinobi + specialist. I inflitrated to 200% to get extremely light strenght, I needed to use intel boost, and went in. At the beginning of the mission one of my guys made a comment: " I have a bad feeling about this" (or something like that). I was extra careful with stealth, discovered two pods and a single drone. One of the pods was standard advent. The second one was sectoid commander with 2 troops. I outmaneuvered the pods, hacked the objective and disabled the drone. During the alien turn sectoid commander pod got LOS on my guys and activated. They were on yellow alert as they immediately started firing. At the start of my next turn I evacuated, the end - flawless mission. Then the game crashed on th avenger screen so I need to check if I can recover the last save:)

What makes me think something was fishy was that additional supply reward (first time I've seen this) and my soldier's comment at the beginning of the mission. Also, one of the pods had sectoid commander but maybe advent reached sufficient FL to spawn them even on extremly light missions now. Would this run have turned into a trap full of reinforcements had I not stealthed it? Or am I just getting paranoid?

[trihero]

I looked into the famous trap mission a bit, and indeed the trap mission only shows up as a hacking mission.

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php/Missions ... vity_Level

You see in the mission table under the row "snare" (snare means trap in English)

The one characteristic of a trap mission that stands out is its duration - the snare trap mission has a minimum duration of 9 days, and can go up to 13. This is very different than the other hack missions, which have a max of 9 days. It is also extremely easy to detect having no minimum threshold for intelligence income, and with a discovery rate of 85% per 20 intel income. You can rule out some hack missions as trap missions because they tell you up front they counter alien research/dark events or protect your data leak, etc, those can't be traps because they are specific to those rewards.

So if you see a hack mission that you are sure is not Lib 1, and has a generic reward (i.e. as long as the objective doesn't include "find a lead"), and, it's probably to be the "trap" mission. Yes in your case supplies is very suspicious for a hacking mission. If you detect a hacking mission with 9 or more days that alone tells you it's probably the trap mission as well.

[NoDebate]

Perhaps one day PI will emulate the E3 mission in LW2.

[The Boz]

You can rule out some hack missions as trap missions because they tell you up front they counter alien research/dark events or protect your data leak, etc, those can't be traps because they are specific to those rewards.

Not true. Had a trap hack mission last night, the reward was stopping a UFO from hunting me. Wiped the first pod with conventional tactics, and then a Muton Centurion with three Mutons came from one side, a few Sneks from another, and a reinforcement beacon dropped straight on my head. My pyro missed the rocket on the Mutons, and then failed to light them up with a given Command. The reinforcement was a MEC, Shieldbearer, and two Sentries, followed up by an immediate second beacon thirty feet away.
Noped out of there with some wounds. UFO is after me now. Upgrading Defense Matrix and up-gunning my troops while avoiding missions until this blows over...

[mudcrab69]

What is a "trap mission"?

[The Boz]

What is a "trap mission"?

"Hmm, seven days to hack a relay for some intel and supplies? Sounds like a great deal. What, only Light presence? Sure, I'll just send out, like, four guys, infiltrate to 120, boost to 200, get in with my shinobi, done."
*mission starts, first pod encountered*
"Oh, a Muton Centurion? OK, whatever, let's do it."
*pod is dealt with*
"Reinforcements? That soon?"
*reinforcements arrive, six special ADVENT*
"What!? Another reinforcement beacon!?"
*Sneks flank from out of nowhere*
"THERE ARE FIFTEEN ACTIVE ENEMIES, MY SHINOBI IS PINNED, MY SPECIALIST IS BLEEDING OUT, WHAT IS THIS?!"
*reinforcements drop right on top of evac point*
"WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS!?"
*Firebrand finally arrives to evac, the ranger boards it carrying the specialist*
"Shinobi... your yellow move... you are one tile away from the evac... one tile..."
*shinobi gets sniped by a sneksniper*

[LordYanaek]

What makes me think something was fishy was that additional supply reward (first time I've seen this)

Don't know about this one in particular but missions that counter tactical (permanent) dark events give supplies reward in addition to intel and countering the DE so not every mission with a supply reward is a trap

[Sentenryu]

So, the mission to eliminate a VIP where every civilian is a faceless isn't a trap mission?

[NephilimNexus]

I just avoid any mission that takes place in Thailand.

[NoDebate]

What is a "trap mission"?

It's the "Snare" Mission type. Normal Hack mission except, all enemies start with Yellow Alert and Reinforcements start showing up immediately after the hack is completed.

[trihero]

Well I guess all I can say then is if you have a hack mission with 9+ days duration then avoid it, because only snare hack missions can have durations longer than 9 days.

If it's true that all the enemies start on yellow alert on a snare mission, it should be easy to tell then right because yellow alert guys run instead of walk?