Search the Community

From this thread: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11718-The-AI-is-cheating-but-I-guess-that-s-ok "Fun fact: there are even more advanced AI capabilities that are turned off for performance reasons now, and that are good enough to guess the location of your soldiers really often." I see that there are overhauls like "X - DIVISION - Destiny Denied" and "XNT- INTO DARKNESS V6.0" which state that they made AI behavior improvements, and I plan to play through them next... But for now, I am on my first play-though on Insane (not Ironman though) and anything to make my current play-through more fun would be welcome. Main question: I don't mind waiting a few minutes for AI to decide what to do during it's turn - are there any edits to some configs I could make to improve AI performance? Secondary question about one specific AI behavior: Right now I am playing with Dynamic UFO's and Armoured Assault mods, as far as I know they don't alter this, but one of the most consistent and bewildering behaviors I am seeing are suicidal Reapers. These enemies made somewhat nervous at first when I saw how far they can move during their turn and their one hit kill attack. But during the 4 encounters with them, they have consistently used up their entire turn to run into middle of my formations, sometimes getting into blind spots of my soldiers. That's nice and all, but end result is that when I know a reaper is nearby, all I need to do is hold position, end turn, and if reaction fire doesn't kill it, next turn it will be standing behind one of my guys for easy target practice... Any way to fix this mid game?

I just watched a civilian run through fire. Repeatedly. Until he died. It was an enriching experience.

So, in this thread I would like to have a discussion with you on how we can change certain aspects of the AI behavior you found strange, faulty, or would like to suggest alternative behavior for. The primary reason for this thread is to present the bug reports / suggestions in such a way that I can easily replicate the situation from my end. In my experience, when dealing with bugs for the AI most time (if not all) was spent in trying to replicate the scenario locally. So the speed of bug fixing / tweaking of behavior will increase tremendously if you can help me in this! I will give preference to those that post saves, and are using the latest version! I therefore would like to suggest the following style: Save & (optional) Screenshot Link to a save and a screenshot which shows me what situation I'm dealing with (if applicable). You can post the save to the forum, and the screenshot to imgur.com (See example) Tech. Info Which version of Xenonauts are you using and which mods. (essentially everything I need to replicate it on my end) Observed Behavior Explain what behavior the AI shows, what it is doing wrong according to you. (or shouldn't be doing) Desired Behavior (Optional) Explain what behavior you think the AI should show. An example, based on Ol' Stinkys post: Save & Screenshot Save Link Tech Info Xenonauts v20 Balance Patch 2, Stinky's Map Pack 2 Observed Units try to enter the center, going through enemy fire. I think they are trying to get to the civilians inside on which they should have no knowledge. Desired The aliens should confront the Xenonaut units in front of the building and/or retreat to safety.

I tried to find a thread about little improvements the community has come up for the games ground combat ai, but couldn't find any. So if you find out anything that could improve ai, post it here. Let's make G-J's life easy! (or hard, whatever) I'll go first: When an alien unit dies in a spot that AI thinks is a good cover, other nearby aliens tend to move to that same position and take cover. If I happen to have a good line of fire in that sqaure, this often leads to a pile of bodies in same spot. So I think a dead unit should signal the AI that this isn't a safe spot for other units, so they would move somewhere else, even though this seems the safest place.

This was for v20 stable candidate 4, but it seems to work fine with cand. 5 (which will probably be v20 stable). Edit: yep. If you want a simple mod to make the AI take shots at distance, have human survivors follow Xeno soldiers, and try and make reapers less likely to dance in and out of sight, try this. Install it by extracting the .zip into your Xenonaut dir (e.g. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Xenonauts\"). You should be asked to overwrite the existing aiprops.xml. Note that alien grenades have effectively been removed, since the alternatives are aliens that can throw for miles, or no AI improvement at all. I imagine this AI bug will be officially fixed after the holidays, but for now this helps. I've also cooked up a version of weapons_gc.xml here that removes alien overdamage and changes the alien heavy plasma rifle so that it has a use at long range (suppression). The changes are that its range increases from 5 to 20. Its accuracy decreases from 40/80/120 (snap/normal/aimed) to 20/75/100, and its damage goes from 35 damage per hit down to 30. --- Boxing day update. GJ's shown that there's a bug with the alien weapon accuracy variable in config.xml, so I've put up a fixed version here. Installation is as normal for my stuff: extract into your Xenonauts dir. Good luck!

Hello, With the development advancing so nicely with most critical improvements out of the way, I thought it would be good time to reintroduce the pet peeve of mine: the case of ground-dwelling aliens. Before the balance patches, around when Chris was replaying the XCOM UFO Defense to see what inspirations it has to offer for Xenonauts, I also tried to think of the differences between the two - and alien placement was obvious difference that stood out. Having alien utilize higher ground not only expand their strategic option, but also contribute to old XCOM's "plasma out of nowhere" moment as well. Whenever I disembarked from Skyranger to find my squad in the farm, I knew there was at least one alien lurking around the roof and second floor windows, willing to take potshots on hopeless soldier passing by. In other words, aliens could be everywhere in contrast to Xenonauts where no aliens are certain to be above the sea level. Also it makes me sad about all the wasted potential whenever I come across well-constructed multistory structure. Note that my argument is not only restricted to having aliens successfully use stairs, though that by itself would be amazing. Harridan should be willing to use his jump pack if doing so would benefit him. And - harping back to good ol' UFO Defense again - some Drones should be able to float. Best analogy I could give would be Cyberdisc. Encounter with Cyberdisc floating in the air frequently gave me the nice sensation of dread. With the AI being advanced even at this stage of the game, I am sure aliens can abuse their floating capabilities quite well as well! Regardless, my previous paragraph was just personal opinion of mine. More than that I wrote this thread to see if you guys were still working on the aliens stair usage. I know the development team was working on this several months ago but then the news regarding the situation seem to have fallen flat.

So I just started my first encounter with an alien base using V20. In past past I would go out the little hall to let the aliens know I had arrived then I would run back to the starting room and hunker down as waves of aliens came marching down the hallway and into the room where a flurry of reaction fire would eventually gun them all down. Not this time, they waited for me to come to them! So finally I make my way down toward the room the occupy, throw some smoke and get into cover to begin my assault. I place a couple guys next to each other behind some cover and what do the aliens do? Toss a grenade and wipe out both guys! Loving the improved alien behavior!

Is it that deep, i could create my own soldier looks, armors, weapons, research and alien types/behavior? Simple can i create an "xcom apocalypse" remake? Of course only tech and alientypes "look a like", not a 1:1 copy because of copyright issues.

There was a brief time when aliens would try to destroy obstacles that were in their way when they didn't have a clear shot at one of your squadmates. Why was this removed? Can we have it back? An alien using its first shot to destroy a wall and its second shot to kill one of your dudes is the difference between "huh, that alien was chilling out inside a barn the whole time I was slaughtering all his buddies" vs. "holy %( there's an alien there!" Also, aliens being willing to deliberately destroy terrain when it is tactically advantageous (the way most players destroy terrain when it is tactically advantageous) makes them feel less polite in general, which is a good thing.

For all I know, this has been suggested before or is already in play, but I got to thinking the other night, how would humans react if they were shot down over enemy territory? They would send out an alert and await rescue, doing what they could to survive in the mean time. If there were enough of them, they would send out scouts to give some warning if the enemy was coming and from what direction. These would be encountered far away from the crashed ship. If numbers permitted, there would be some skirmishers in the middle ranges. These guys would find good cover and fire at range, but if pressed, would retreat. Close in, this should be a battle of attrition with the aliens digging in and doing whatever they could to keep the humans away from their ship. Just some thoughts.

Hey, I just restarted a game and got hit with a base defense mission mid-October. I have no SAM batteries, just jackal armor and 15 guys so I decide to camp at the barricades and just defend the central area, waiting for the aliens to come to me. Much to my surprise, they never attack. I mean I hit next turn like 100 times , and not one alien comes through the door. Is this a bug? Shouldn't an alien base attack be about the aliens assaulting me, rather than them camping in the restroom? I thought they wanted to blow up the central reactor? Has anyone else experienced this behaviour? It feels like this really ought to be fixed before launch.

I was wondering the little tricks, no matter how small, that people have discovered to abuse or exploit the AI. This involves identifying situations in which the AI will behave repeatedly, then exploiting these situations at every possible opportunity. There's a lot of piecemeal ground combat balance, but I think it might be better to approach it in a holistic sense, because AI and alien weapon power are inextricably connected. It's hard to balance one while ignoring the other. Anyway, here's a few to start things off: 1. Using alien's super hearing abilities to avoid reaction fire. At the end of the turn, aliens usually face the closest Xenonaut soldier, even if he is behind an insurmountable wall. You can use this to make the alien face away from the door if you know. 2. Using your vehicle as a scout. Kinda obvious, but aliens don't care to attack alien vehicles. Free scouting. 3. Hiding in smoke clouds The elites in the carrier command room rarely leave their room to attack. Have your shooters stand in a smoke cloud behind the left door, and your scout with a riot shield behind the right door as the spotter. Repeat for 5 turns until aliens are neutralized. Spotter closes door at end of turn. Aliens rarely investigate a smoke cloud, even if they have the numbers and should "know" that you couldn't have moved anywhere else. 4. Using Foxtrot as missile bait. If a Foxtrot is moving perpendicularly with afterburners through the missile launch arc of an alien fighter, the alien missiles will always fall behind it.

In originall XCOM aliens often were in first or second flor of the buildings. I see on videos on YT that never, or almost never Aliens are on high floors now. It would be nice for them to hide and shoot from windows, then hide.

Anyone else still getting AI loops? I reported it as a bug, but I'm not sure if anyone saw it. Any of you guys having that issue still?

So, the other day I got a terror mission. Fairly early on, still on ballistic weapons, but with jackal armor at least. Man, that was a tough battle. I didn't recall the Sebellians being so damn aggressive. They got all up in my personal space. When the chinook landed, I saw two aliens and not a lot of cover so I had everyone run into a nearby building (they could all pile inside in one turn), thinking I could peer out of the windows with relative safety to access things. This actually turned out to be the right move, I think, since cover was a bit bare in the streets. Then like, hordes of these guys just all charged in! I'm not used to seeing 5-7 aliens in view range at the same time! They surrounded the building and just hammered it to pieces until my boys were hiding behind dubious bits of wreckage and furniture. It was intense. I ended up with 3 dead and 2 crimson hearts, plus various scrapes and cuts. I went through so much ammo that I actually had to pick up alien guns off the streets to keep shooting -- normally I avoid alien heresy. More than a few times I was wondering if I could actually win the battle. I am playing on Veteran, btw. It was awesome, and I approve entirely.

I m on hotfix version. (the game, not my brain.) Something bother me a little about the AI, beyond their flee until cornered if ennemy superior in number. Its the fact Alien don t seem to have a threat hierarquy sistem. You get there kill one of them and they prefer to keep priorizing taking pot shot at civies than you, this give you sometimes a round of advantage for each alien you encounter, even on Insane. Same as unarmed civie and security force, they don t seem to give priority to security forces even if shot by them, they ll keep shooting at a civie if he s alive. Logic would dictate that you give priority to threats then you go to the pleasure party, i think. I would like to see aliens giving priority to shooting me, that is a real threat to them (especially after killing one of them), than to make civies shot dance... I know AI is on the WIP side.

so my base gets attacked i set up and wait and wait and wait....eventually i go looking for them I find them in 2 sections of my base ..do they ever come out of the rooms they pick to camp in? do they try to reach there objective? im talking i waited 40-60 turns and they havent budged yet

I looked in the manual and searched on forums, but did not see anything about combat stress and panicking. True to xcom players remember all too well how the soldiers would panic and cower, fire randomly, or attack allies. I've not seen this in the game yet. In my first combat (v19 SC), I noticed the aliens would hold position until one of my guys got within sight. Then they would fire and retreat out of sight. While this made for an interestingly realistic tactic, it was also rather annoying. Maybe make the aliens stand their ground a little more. On the subject of alien retreat, if they are landed and start losing soldiers, they could retreat to the ship and exit the mission if not stopped fast enough - the player might could try to damage the ship engines to prevent take-off? Obviously only valid for UFO landed missions. Also for alien retreats, if they want to attack and make contact, it would seem to make more sense that they would retreat to familiar areas - such as their ship - or retreat to their allies. Lacking minimap in combat zones unless I'm somehow overlooking it. It's nice to have a small map to refer to. Show your soldiers' fields of fire - they would normally be watching the 10 to 2 sector relative to themselves. This would allow the player to easily set up intersecting fields of fire and 360 degree security.

Since 3 incidents, very much in the vein of the original X-Com just happened to me in this mission I felt I should make a post about it in case there's some simple tweaks to the AI that still need to be made. 1. Early on I had a alien spawning inside a hayball. Not sure he was able to move, I basically pointed guns in the position he should be until he was dead, dead, dead. Me likes target practice. 2. Even earlier a silly farmer ran from his position into open fire...twice. And died. Did he died? Yes he did, me thinks a civilian farmer knows how fire looks and knows its bad, bad, bad. So why did he go there? Why oh why indeed. Stop giving me negative points I cant prevent, you civilian silly-person you. 3. Oh holy Spagetti Monster!, first time ever in Xenonauts, but I just had what I thought was a regular "killing the UFO crew sweep and mission end"- moment but it was about to drag on forever. There was a missed alien somewhere, spent almost 10 rounds sweeping the map for the last bugger hiding in a dark shadow close to my drop ship of all things. He must have lost his purse. I almost felt like I was back on a X-Com Terrors from the Deep Ship Mission. Everything missing was a dark spot behind some fridge in the kitchen. ye'all know what Im talking about. Yay for nostalgia.

So I noticed that if an alien is shooting at some civie with a shotgun (or nothing), he won't stop shooting his primary target until it's dead. Even if I shoot him in the face. It doesn't seem like there's any priority switching. Or if there is, it needs to be tweaked. Having him turn around and shoot me in the face would probably make more sense.

Well i have to say that this version 7 is quantum leap for the game. At least for those who only play insane. Flares works in a smart way now, The shooting accuracy seem to mean something that works, The Alien AI is awesome; Shield and Armor, at least looks to be working right, Smoke (but it could be that it worked before like that) now work fine almost perfect. Loved the fact that the people die, the worst the new recruits are. The hidden movement is working properly again this was extremely irritating (to me) Best patch for the players senci i ve following the game. Tips: While trying to aim trought smoke gain a 90% or 100% penalty, not that the smoke will stop the bullet, but you are merely spraying and praying. It would still hit something the same way when you aim on the ground behing the alien bullet can still hit the alien. Aliens Ai: I hope some day they will be able to get in and get out of the ufo. I hope some day they will be able to regroup But i ve seen aliens do stuff very awesome. Seek cover, flee and come back shooting, I hope they ll have nades soon. World map interface. A place with the state of our planes GTG (green) and Grounded(red) with hours lacking to be GTG would be awesome, right now its clumsy. Id like to see stuffs in the belt taking less timeto use than in the backpack. If its already so, forget this.

[video=youtube;XMDQNbuvdng]

Exited the Charlie onto a Small Scout UFO farm map, right beside the brickside building. Saw one alien as soon as I exited, popped him, and thought I was clean, until a couple started blasting the wall out beside me to get a line of fire. Loving how the AI's been behaving. Props to the devs on 19.6.

Last night they were actually coming after me from all directions! It was awesome. I was really sweating the base attack mission. Good work and two thumbs up!

So...could we maybe tweak the AI a bit to not run towards the burning house? And then die? That'd be greaaaaaat.