Shaman

I love the NPCs! Adds another dimension to the game and I always try my best to protect them. What surprised me most is there are both combative and non-combative NPCs in the missions. I like seeing the security guard or farmer take out an alien with a shotgun. Thanks bro! In one of the other topics someone brought up the idea of factions or at least another clandestine fraction. That might be a good addition to the game especially late/end game. It would setup nicely for another sequel.

A weapon penetration system is usually designed around a game engine that has the ability to define material composition like unity so I'm not sure if this would even be plausible but I'll go over my ideas about it. This feature to the combat system would really bring a sense of realism and allow for new combat tactics. The first part in implementing it would be to define an objects armor value. A wooden wall versus a concrete wall or a car door versus a armored door, bullet resistant armor versus advanced armor, etc. The second part would be the penetration factor on the munitions or AP value. You would then have the choice of ball, AP or explosive ammunition types along with the caliber size of the weapon or if it is ballistic vest energy etc. This type of system has a lot of moving parts and calculations and is where you will get lots of critiques how the weapons and ammunition should be weighted. It would be a great system, but I think it would detract from the basics of the game too much but I think it would make a great mod!

One of the biggest features I'd like to see implemented is a hit location based damage system with targeted locations on the humanoid form (Head, F/B Torso, L/R Arm, L/R Leg) and location for non humanoid / mechanical targets. Armor could then be designed to cover specific parts of the body allowing for the balance of weight vs coverage. Body parts would have different hit points with varying wound severity (Slight, Moderate, Heavy, Incapacitated, Destroyed) Wound effects based on location and severity (i.e An arm wound could result in x% loss of accuracy all the way to being unable to handle a two handed weapon) Players could target specific areas with varying hit modifiers Allows for greater range of alien/vehicle strengths and weaknesses This along with basic cover and concealment would make a very nice, sleek and easy to understand damage system.

I like having a poll, I think it provides the devs with insight into what the players are looking for a specific feature in the game and I'd like to see more polls like this covering different features. So here's my two cents. What we are basically talking about here is cover and concealment which are not the same thing and I imagine from a strategy game like this has varying difficulty in implementation. Cover provides you with protection while concealment just prevents the enemy from actually seeing you. A shrub provides concealment since if I fire into a bush and you happen to be hiding behind that bush there is a statistical chance I will hit you. If I fire at bulletproof glass that I can see you behind that offers no concealment but a certain level of protection which brings about two new topics which are penetration / damage and hit location so I'll save my opinion on those for another post :). Let's assume for this discussion that for concealment you are either seen or unseen and for cover we have four levels (25%, 50%, 75,100%) based on how much of your body is exposed. For hit location you are either hit or not. 25% - I'm standing behind a wall knee high 50% - I'm standing behind a wall that is waist high or crouched behind a log 75% - I'm standing behind a wall with only my shoulders and head exposed 100% - I am crouched down behind a wall in full cover and fully concealed Without taking penetration and damage into account you could get some pretty easy calculations for chance to hit, however to me it's still missing some realistic relevance here. I think penetration / damage would be way top difficult to implement in a game like this (but I could be wrong) since you then have to determine what the material of each cover is and assign it a value then determine the bullet size ant type (Ball, AP, Explosive), etc, etc. However I think implementing a hit location would bring you a lot closer to realism while providing the feature of hit effects based on location (I'll go over that in one of my other posts) Now if it is possible to implement penetration and damage then I'd say go for that too since it would only add even more realism to the game.

I like the suggestion if it could somehow be implemented, like you said, with reflexes and TUs, however you should also think of this as a tactical liability as well. There are several reasons I can think of that it really doesn't make sense to implement. 1) From a tactical perspective, its a bad idea to group all your personnel together so they could be taken out with a single grenade. It's the risk you take moving units in narrow passages too closely together. 2) Milking / Proximity detonation is another factor. The alien technology could be advanced enough to recognize the proximity of a humanoid or the grenade could have been milked (milking a grenade is pulling the pin and releasing the handle then throwing the grenade after X secs typically 2 or 3). Milking is quite common actually and we had to actually practice it in basic training. In my opinion, the current setup works fine, however I can see that feature being something that once again sets Xenonauts apart from other games in this genre.