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Doubts in the Cover System department


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Hello folks, i've been playing the game for some time now and i've some cover related questions:

1-I've lost alot of soldiers while they where behind a shield "wall", made possible by those beatiful ballistic shield troops. Shouldn't those shots be absorbed by the shield, being that they came in a straight line in front of the shield bearer ?

2-Why those little concrete walls and those wooden walls in the farm maps don't display the diamond cover icon, aren't those half cover and full cover(although flimsy full cover) respectively ?

3-How can i know for sure what is consider half cover and full cover, by the game engine ?

Thank you for taking the time to read my questions and, possibly, for answering them.

From Brazil,have a good day and in the best XCOM spirit "It's killing time" :cool:

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1. Do you mean soldiers *not* using a shield but taking cover behind shield-using soldiers? If so, I don't think the shields help (the stopping chance of the shielded soldier will stay the same).

2. There aren't any cover icons (any more? Possibly there used to be?).

3. There's no 'full' and 'half' cover. All props have a % stopping chance so its much more variable than half and full. The only way to check the cover value is for you to target over the prop with a shot; it will display the stopping chance nearby.

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1-Oh that's good to know...i always thought that putting a rifleman behind a shield bearer made him impossible to hit without the shot hitting the shield first.

2-I remember there being little green diamonds to indicate cover affected tiles whenever you highlighted them with your mouse , but i guess they were removed then.

3-That's a fine tip, thanks !

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1. Do you mean soldiers *not* using a shield but taking cover behind shield-using soldiers? If so, I don't think the shields help (the stopping chance of the shielded soldier will stay the same).

2. There aren't any cover icons (any more? Possibly there used to be?).

3. There's no 'full' and 'half' cover. All props have a % stopping chance so its much more variable than half and full. The only way to check the cover value is for you to target over the prop with a shot; it will display the stopping chance nearby.

if anything, the more objects in between you and the enemy gives you more of a chance of your soldiers surviving

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if anything, the more objects in between you and the enemy gives you more of a chance of your soldiers surviving

The game only applies the highest cover penalty to a shot. So if you're behind a 20%, 30% and 50% cove prop only the last one (the 50% one) counts (unless this changed at some point? I don't think it did, but I've not checked recently.)

This doesn't apply to smoke penalties though, which stack with one another.

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Yeah, that's how it works. The cover system in general isn't that great to be honest. I've been thinking about few improvements and actually had a quick private discussion about this with llunak. This is what I had in mind: Shooting from higher ground should disregard all cover but the ones that are adjacent to the target as it's currently hopeless to try shooting from higher ground as all the props are in the way even if they "shouldn't".

Also, regarding the cover issue: I think the cover value should decrease the furher away a target is from it. If you hunker behind a rock, it should provide it's full cover value, but if you are for example 5 tiles behind it, it should provide only maybe 50% of it's base cover value. So in shooting calculation, it could maybe be something like: cover = (100 - 10 * tiles to target)/100 * base cover value. A rock with a base cover value of 70 would only give you a cover value of 35 if standing 5 tiles from it.

It would add a huge amount of realism to shooting, as if you think about it, a small rock doesn't help much if you stand away from it, but can cover you almost completely if you are crouching right behind it.

Related to this, I'd love to have scattered shots hit the (possible) cover more than just land somewhere in the general direction of the target. It would look more realistic and also give more terrain destruction, which is always nice.

Edited by Skitso
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Also, regarding the cover issue: I think the cover value should decrease the furher away a target is from it.
That depends on the alignment of the shooter and target and whether or not there is any "drop" in shots. If shooter and target and completely on the same line and plane and your shots don't drop with range your little boulder is just as good of cover from 100 yards as it is from 10 feet.
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