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Exactly what triggers suppression, and what does suppression do in terms of game mechanics?

One of the fundamental problems with the combat in X-Com and in Xenonauts is with the shooting - all it does is wound or kill units. This may sound trite, but it is an issue in that most weapons can fire in both single shot mode or burst fire mode. In the current incarnation, assuming that you have enough APs to take a burst shot, you should always do that. It provides the highest average damage per AP spent. This doesn't really give you much in the way of tactical options. It's just simple maths as to what fire mode gives the best bang for your APs. It was suggested a month or two ago that we look at the suppression system from JA1.13 for inspiration. Naturally I've been far too busy to actually do that, but the idea of suppression has grown on me enormously over the last few weeks as it provides an obvious solution to the problem above. With suppression implemented, we can have burst fire causing lots of suppression but not actually doing that much damage, while single aimed shots are much more effective at causing damage but don't cause anywhere near as much suppression. It also means we can change the battlefield roles of some weapons a bit - for example, machineguns and the Ferret .50cal. In both cases it's been difficult to balance these to be effective but not overpowered. Giving them very high suppression but perhaps no more actual damage than the sniper rifles would make them useful support weapons but not overpowered in effectiveness. Suppression would be something that is built up with each shot the affects the unit, draining the unit's APs first from his reserves (used for reaction fire) and then from the next turn. With enough units shooting at the same target, it would be entirely possible to pin them in place. Initially I was going to suggest we tied this into morale, but on reflection I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think a soldier who is pinned in position by enemy fire is directly more frightened than one that is not, rather they are keeping their heads down to avoid getting shot. Perhaps we can add a small morale penalty for getting suppressed or pinned, but I don't think the suppression score should use the morale value. Rather, I think each unit should have a Suppression score that is based on his Bravery stat, giving it a common root with Morale but a shared value. This will start at the soldier's Bravery value, which is anything from 50 upwards (as the lowest starting value for any soldier attribute is 50). Each weapon fire mode will have a "suppression damage" value, and when a soldier fires a weapon at a target (irrespective of whether they hit it) the suppression damage will be applied to the target's Suppression score. This is affected by armour as usual, so if the unit has powerful armour it will not be suppressed by firing weak weapons at it. Once Suppression reaches 0, any extra supression damage recieved is first deducted from the unit's AP reserves for the current turn (down to 0) and then from the AP in the following terms (again down to 0). Further suppression is wasted. Maybe we'll have a symbol appearing above the head of the unit to show it has been suppressed? The Suppression score should regenerate a certain amount each turn, perhaps something like 20. That means three turns without being fired at would return any unit to their full Suppression "shield". Anyone got any thoughts, suggestions or improvements?

We're about to implement the suppression mechanics for the ground combat. The proposed suppression model is listed below for comments. There is likely to be changes to burst fire mechanics in the future so burst fire is less damaging in phyiscal terms, but that's not part of this discussion at the moment. Each unit (not vehicles) has a ­Suppression score. This is based on their Bravery stat. At the start of each battle their Suppression score starts at their Bravery stat and is capped at this level. They regenerate 25% of their maximum Suppression score at the start of each turn (rounded up), before any suppression checks are made. This 25% should be customisable value in config.xml. Therefore a unit with a 60 Bravery stat will start a battle with a 60 Suppression score and will regenerate 15 points per turn up to a maximum of score of 60. Properties: Each weapon should have a Suppression Value and Suppression Radius for their fire modes, which need to be set separately for Single Shot and Burst Fire. Suppression Value controls the amount of suppression a weapon causes. Suppression Radius controls the distance from the initial target that suppression will be caused to other units. When a weapon is fired at a target, it causes suppression damage to their suppression score. This damage is caused irrespective of whether the bullets fired actually hit their targets. The suppression damage is applied to the target unit, and all other units within the suppression radius of the target. The suppression damage done is the Suppression Value of the shot, less the appropriate unit armour value. If a unit is in the outer half of the suppression radius, rounded up (eg. 3 tiles away with a suppression radius of 5) then the suppression damage is reduced by half, after the armour check is taken into account. Therefore a machinegun with 80 Suppression Value and 5 Suppression Range firing at a Caesan with 60 Suppression score and 20 armour will reduce him to 0 Suppression score. A second Caesan standing 2 tiles away would also be reduced to 0 Suppression score. A third Caesan standing 4 tiles away would be reduced to 30 Suppression. Effects: Once a unit hits 0 Suppression score, it immediately loses any Aps reserved for reaction fire. In the following turn, it will have its Aps reduced to 50% of the normal value. If capable, the unit will immediately crouch (this does not cost Aps). A “suppressed” icon will appear above the unit’s head.

I was looking through the Wiki on game mechanics, and I found something odd in the damage formula. Damage Dealt = Weapon Damage * (1.0 + Damage Coefficient * 0.01) * (Weapon Range / Range To Target) * Diffculty Level Multiplier; If correct, that Weapon Range / Range to Target part of the equation will give you a massive damage boost at close ranges. Can anyone verify that this is the correct damage formula? If so, has anyone noticed even the lowly pistol becoming exceptionally deadly at range 1? Various weapons should be getting an 8-20x damage boost at range 1 vs. their standard range if this formula is accurate (because the range is 1, and the weapon range for most weapons is at least 8 - and it's 30 for the machinegun). Whether that's overpowered or not is certainly up for debate, but before having that debate I'd like to know if this is accurate or not.

with the suppression threads getting big and bogged down, i figured a way to just get the basic pulse of the community towards the idea would be helpful. suppression ideas are pretty much four ideas in some form of combination: slowly prevent movement slowly keep the enemy from effectively shooting deal damage to enemy slowly prevent movement, keep the enemy from effectively shooting deal damage to enemy, slowly prevent movement deal damage to enemy, slowly keep the enemy from effectively shooting deal damage to enemy, slowly prevent movement, keep the enemy from effectively shooting slowly prevent movement, prevent damage to enemy slowly keep the enemy from effectively shooting, prevent damage to enemy slowly prevent movement, keep the enemy from effectively shooting, prevent damage to enemy if i have missed some idea in this combination please tell me. 2. includes sapping APs used solely for firing, as well as reducing/eliminating reaction shots, or even reducing accuracy. 3. would be improved chances at reaction fire, as that leads to damage to the enemy. 4. would be morale damage, as that would eventually result in panic, which would cause a full loss of APs, and thus result in no movement and no shooting. 8-10. includes increasing the effects of cover. missed vision reduction and affecting the AI.

Some games (like JA2 v 1.13) feature suppressive fire that saps the target(s) time units for it's next turn. That is one way but it really only works for humans. Oh, and it's very straightforward so easy to implement. The downside is that this takes away the decision that suppressive fire actually presents to the player (and to aliens). A completely fearless alien might not honour the suppression and want to advance regardless. A soldier might advance and storm the pill box because there is no other way out of a bad situation. That is what you cannot simulate with the basic movement-sapping approach. The decision is made by the engine, not by the player. That is anathema for a strategy game. A reverse way to handle suppression: (easy to visualise, too) The act of laying down suppressive fire builds up a virtual damage bar on the target(s). Lots of bullets = lots of suppression, high damage attacks / explosives = lots of suppression. Suppression is generated by any bullet or AOE that comes close enough. The closer, the more suppression. Damage type still takes effect. If you are wearing the Firestarter Armour (100% fire resistance) and something attacks you with a flamer, you smile and walk right through it. No suppression is generated. Plasma bolts, however, have right of way. Duck! If it's your turn and your soldier is suppressed: Any TU expenditure while you are not "in cover" against all visible enemies causes damage to you. Expending TU on weapon fire causes a smaller amount of damage than movement but still relative to the amount of TU spent. Leaning out of cover for a long time, lining up an aimed shot : more damage. Every turn (or by certain abilities), the suppression is reduced by some amount, probably with a bonus for TU not spent. Moving from one bit of cover to the next while not exposing yourself to an attacker also reduces suppression. You are "sneaking away while keeping your head down". It reduces suppression as if you were hit, transferring the virtual damage bar into damage - but the damage doesn't materialise while you stay in cover. This system bridges the gap between suppressive fire happening in one turn and the target's decision (keep head down or charge out of cover) in the next turn. With this system, an actor can decide if the suppressive fire is too heavy or so sporadic that it is more useful to go full auto on the enemy and turn the tables. Or the actor is a crazed muton who doesn't give a damn. You can't do a decent AI if the actors can not make decisions because they are forced onto them. Same goes for the player.

So I've been playing the combat missions a fair bit (can't actually finish them or the game crashes) but I did notice one thing that's causing me some consternation. Would it be possible for the game to remember that you clicked on "Save Action Points for X" from turn to turn? Either that, or a toggle setting that lets you pick the 'default' so you could always default to a save AP's stance for every soldier?