View range is not right

Units can normally see 18 tiles ahead, but when you are on a higher ground, vision cone is only 17 tiles long. Can anyone confirm? If anything, vision should be better when above ground me thinks?

Debatably no and no. Vision range is 18 tiles, but on the same level, so if you (presumably) check on the ground level, the 18th tile is actually futher than 18 in 3D. And while being higher helps to see further past uneven terrain (which includes Earth being curved), it's a question if it applies to being able to recognize things further if they are in clear sight.

That said, if you have a convincing reason, it's a simple change.

Vision range is 18 tiles, but on the same level, so if you (presumably) check on the ground level, the 18th tile is actually futher than 18 in 3D

Are you saying each level higher decreases the range you see? If you are, say, in 18th floor, how far would you be able to see, 0 tiles? I understand the logic behind that, and that this is a part of the game's abstraction required by the gameplay, but somehow I feel the height should be left out of the vision calculation, if only to give more advantage to the higher ground units. It feels wrong that a lone sniper in a really high vantage point (a church's bell tower for example) wouldn't be able to spot an enemy 10 feet away from the building because the vantage point is so high above ground level.

Somewhat related: I might be wrong, but I tend to occasionally see ceasan fire at my units from outside of my vision range. I can't be sure, and squad vision can of course cause these situations, but I've had multiple odd, unfair looking shots from 19 tiles away where there's been no other aliens near.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Skitso

It feels wrong that a lone sniper in a really high vantage point (a church's bell tower for example) wouldn't be able to spot an enemy 10 feet away from the building because the vantage point is so high above ground level.

Yeah, it seems odd from a gameplay perspective - intuitively I'd expect to gain advantages from being on high ground and certainly not disadvantages. Obviously there's no necessary reason for the rules to actually mirror this intuition but I can't think of any compelling reasons not to make the change.

Somewhat related: I might be wrong, but I tend to occasionally see ceasan fire at my units from outside of my vision range. I can't be sure, and squad vision can of course cause these situations, but I've had multiple odd, unfair looking shots from 19 tiles away where there's been no other aliens near.

I know there's been controversy about this for a long time but, honestly, I cannot believe there isn't some kind of issue here. In my currently playthrough alone I've encountered this more times than I can remember. I've come to accept it as part of the game and, actually, I don't mind the AI having a slight advantage in this regard as it makes the missions more challenging. But it would still be nice to know what's causing it.

Yeah, it seems odd from a gameplay perspective - intuitively I'd expect to gain advantages from being on high ground and certainly not disadvantages. Obviously there's no necessary reason for the rules to actually mirror this intuition but I can't think of any compelling reasons not to make the change.

Yeah, I hope we'll get at least a toggle option for this.

I know there's been controversy about this for a long time but, honestly, I cannot believe there isn't some kind of issue here. In my currently playthrough alone I've encountered this more times than I can remember. I've come to accept it as part of the game and, actually, I don't mind the AI having a slight advantage in this regard as it makes the missions more challenging. But it would still be nice to know what's causing it.

I once had one of my units killed by a shot outside of my FoV. When I went to explore where the shot came from, I found no aliens but a windowless house with a closed door. As I opened the door, I revealed a caesan right behind it. As far as I know, aliens are not able to close doors and that got me thinking if the 19 tile range issue is somehow related to this. Like if their shot path is calculated from an adjacent tile or something.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Skitso

I once had one of my units killed by a shot outside of my FoV. When I went to explore where the shot came from, I found no aliens but a windowless house with a closed door. As I opened the door, I revealed a caesan right behind it. As far as I know, aliens are not able to close doors and that got me thinking if the 19 tile range issue is somehow related to this. Like if their shot path is calculated from an adjacent tile or something.

I sometimes think obstacles do not count if not revealed by sight. I sometimes get someone killed by fire and when I move into that direction: How the heck could someone shoot through that solid wall.

But then again, the enemy may have been in front of the wall at the time, so, I don't know.

Fair enough, I've changed the code to ignore any level difference, so the distance is now measured in the horizontal plane. Still no height bonus though, as one could argue that a flying unit or somebody on the edge of a roof is in fact more easy to spot from the ground then the other way around, and so I kept this simple.

As for the other problems, can't see, can't fix (do I still need to point to the bugreporting howto or is it understood that problem descriptions like that are more of a fluff talk than actual bugreports?).

As for the other problems, can't see, can't fix (do I still need to point to the bugreporting howto or is it understood that problem descriptions like that are more of a fluff talk than actual bugreports?).

I think the trouble is actually getting an instance where it's definitely the case. That said, I kept a copy of a save from a game I was playing yesterday where I'd inadvertently set up a situation where it seems it could be replicated: I had a couple of soldiers camped in a building across the street from a couple of AI units on an upper floor, one of which was taking shots at me while I was entirely unable to see it or return fire. I definitely wasn't being spotted by other units either, as I knew where the other two AI units were and couldn't see those either.

Trouble is, I'm running loads of mods so the save probably isn't useful to you. I can have a look at it my end but I'm not sure how to go about doing so in a useful way (I assume there's more to it than just running the save with default debug output processing).