🚀 go-pugleaf

Have a problem with 9.31 beta with TFTD.  It's probably something on
my end, but I'm not sure what.

Finally found my CE CDs last night, so reinstalled X-Com and TFTD on
my XP system.  (As an aside, I was pleasantly surprised with how well
it ran ... albeit I did have to fix the video problems.  The XCom
geoscape is only slightly too fast, but manageable.  I really expected
more of a fuss on my new system.  Anyway ...)  After a clean install
of both games, I installed the 9.31 beta into both directories.  UFO
ran without a hitch.  Played almost through January with no problems. 
For TFTD, I run XCUSETUP which asked me if I need the video fix, to
which I said "Y".  It exited and I ran XCUSETUP again to set the
various settings.  I created a shortcut to RUNXCOMW.BAT for both
games.  Upon landing at my first downed sub site, the game simply
exited.  No error messages, no nothing ... just back to the desktop. 
I was able to run the actual battle by running the command

      start /w xcloader tactical.exe "1"

I looked at RUNXCOMW.BAT to see if I could figure out why it hadn't
automatically run the battle for me, but didn't notice anything
(though it was pretty late).  I'm also not sure how to make the game
continue on after running the tactical battle myself via the above
command.  Does this sound like anything obvious on my end?  I
performed the exact same steps for TFTD that I did for UFO, and UFO
ran without any hitches.


Some miscellaneous questions:

Is it possible to modify the Lightning and/or Hammerhead to carry an
HWP?  I've never actually built on of these guys since I always use
HWPs.

Is it possible to modify the tanks such that only the armor is
increased, and not the maneuverability?  I like the enhanced armor,
but my idea is that alien technology enhances both the firepower and
maneuverability.

Any ideas on how to make the fighter-mounted laser cannons useful? 
Thought about giving them a range like the missles and a slightly
better damage than currently.  The Plasma Cannon would still be the
King of the Hill, but at least human technology would be viable.  Or,
going further with the idea that "we can't make plasma technology" you
could beef it up even more (still inferior to the original Plasma
Cannon) and then make the PWT more useful, such as doubling the number
of rounds it can carry, or something like that.  Just some ideas ...
any comments appreciated.

I think something similar to the Laser/Plasma changes should also be
made to TFTD ... ie., not able to replicate sonic technology.

Thanks.

Warren