Codex Hunting?

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trihero
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Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 7:01 am

Codex Hunting?

Post by trihero »

Does anyone out there want to provide some guidance on schedules where you are most likely to find the Codex enemy? In my current run, I have the Shadow Chamber up and it's not showing any Codex in the blacksite/forge/gate missions, which is my usual first go-to place for those. I've done 2 UFOs in recent months (saw a sectopod in one, and a mechball of 8 in the other), 2 troop columns, 2 HQs with no codexes in sight. One of the guerilla ops I hit had one in it but I didn't have a skulljack ready.

I wonder if there is a specific type of mission at a specific strength level that is most likely to spawn Codex when you're stuck looking specifically for one?
Dwarfling
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Re: Codex Hunting?

Post by Dwarfling »

I think the Shadow Chamber isn't reporting the correct composition. Something to do with the pods being set when the missions loads.

Last Codex I managed to skulljack appeared in the Psi Gate mission. Also I commonly see them on full retaliations, sometimes on the other retals as well.
trihero
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Re: Codex Hunting?

Post by trihero »

When I went into the gate mission, I didn't see any codexes either despite killing everything. The focus here isn't whether the shadow chamber is reporting things correctly or not, but which missions/schedules/advent strength give you the highest probability of finding a codex.

Maybe retals is the highest probability, but I'd love to know if someone has inside information on this.
Zyxpsilon
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Re: Codex Hunting?

Post by Zyxpsilon »

As far as "predictable" appearances of ANY Codex.. with the usual RNG factors, there isn't really some reliable ways to predict with absolute precision when they show.. but, there's still a scheduling structure that can hint on their presence.

1) XComMissions.INI is the file that gives us the actual patterns.
2) Codex are known as CYBERUS in that file.

3a) InclusionExclusionLists are indicative of randomized Pods and what can appear under subsequent conditions.
3b) Cyberus == AlienCrewCandidates_LW & AlienGlobal_LW are the only two Arrays that has them for selection.

Secondly..

4a) MISSIONENCOUNTERS is the meat of distribution that can hint on most correlations based on map types (ConfigurableEncounters dataset of IDs + BUCKETS + If applicable.. their Bosses-Followers-Etc) & various Pods pawning.. both of which applied by strict rules (incl. Alert & Force +/- levels necessary) detailed from Line #290/307.
4b) The Cyberus calls are buried into an obscure naming convention of mission types.

Thirdly..

5) The Mission Schedules (very large area in that file) do the whole legwork on creating PODS + Pawn content + adaptative contexts based on Map types or Objectives. This is extremely speculative and there's zero proof any Cyberus would be called for anything unless otherwise stated directly in whatever definition blocks we can readout.

6) The MISSION DATA section(s) then builds up the Missions Array(s) where Maps + Objectives + Schedules are pre-declared for processing when events are activated on the Geoscape.

Finally..
I would recommend inspecting the multiple "EncounterID" names & try matching with familiar datasets or Buckets listed in previous sections. From that analysis -- the most common occurances of Cyberus ***probabilities*** can be deducted relatively easy.
trihero
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Re: Codex Hunting?

Post by trihero »

It's a bit of a bummer that you have to do extensive data mining to figure out how to maximize your chances of seeing one of these spawn.

I think XCOM 1 and XCOM 2 vanilla handled this beautifully - when you were in the phase where you were asked to skulljack an officer, an advent officer would spawn in every single mission. When you were asked to capture an Outsider, there was always one inside a UFO. When you were in the phase where you were asked to skulljack a codex, a codex would spawn in every single mission.

LW2 fixed what wasn't broken, in a way that makes codexes utterly unpredictable and rare when they spawn so you can easily wind up in situations where you just twiddling your thumbs waiting for one to spawn (it is pointless to discuss situations where you were lucky enough to have one show up "smoothly" or without having to hunt specifically for it, the point is the common circumstance where you have nothing left to do but hunt for one and have no way to force it to spawn).
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8wayz
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Re: Codex Hunting?

Post by 8wayz »

Well, one of the ways Long War 1 and Long War 2 make the war seem longer is by removing as much as possible all scripted/ weighted encounters.

Thus you are not guaranteed to get what you need and will be playing longer to obtain it. Be advised this was not stated anywhere by Pavonis in the last couple of years, I am just speaking out of personal experience.

To give you an example, the Stun mechanic in Long War 1 was nerfed so badly that even trying to stun aliens at 1 HP you would get around 60 something percent chance. They intentionally capped the stun chance to make it harder to get the alien you need on the first or second try.

I remember having to assault 5 UFOs in a row just to stun my first Outsider.

You can probably try either to use the Console to spawn a Codex or modify the Missions.ini for your preferred difficulty level (the schedules are separated per Force Level and difficulty level) if you do not want to grind out another month or two in game.
trihero
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Re: Codex Hunting?

Post by trihero »

Well, one of the ways Long War 1 and Long War 2 make the war seem longer is by removing as much as possible all scripted/ weighted encounters.
There's such a thing as ideology getting in the way of gameplay. I never played LW1 but I'm telling you I really don't like the rarity of the codex in LW2 when I'm looking to close out the game. I've seen quite a few threads by a lot of different people also asking like where do you find a codex, etc, so I think it is more likely it is an issue rather than something that enhances the fantasy of the long war.

I'm ok with some randomness in getting corpses and such, like I don't need to know by March 28th that I will have exactly such and such corpses, but the current lack of certain enemies/corpses is more hurting the game than helping it.
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8wayz
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Re: Codex Hunting?

Post by 8wayz »

At higher difficulties those enemies appear sooner and a lot more often though. So a possible solution would be just to up the difficulty.

The balance in Long War 2 seems to be geared around Commander and Legendary.
Tuhalu
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Re: Codex Hunting?

Post by Tuhalu »

8wayz wrote:At higher difficulties those enemies appear sooner and a lot more often though. So a possible solution would be just to up the difficulty.

The balance in Long War 2 seems to be geared around Commander and Legendary.
They don't appear significantly sooner in Commander and Legendary (it's just a matter of a few days for the first force level increase). The difference is that advent strength rises more quickly on those difficulties, making more enemies turn up in missions on average.
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