Cannot shoot targets on ground from the air

[Bansheedragon]

I recently started using Sentinel armor for my soldiers, as its the best available next to the Heavy armor(forget the name).

One thing I noticed that really ticks me off is that my soldiers cannot shoot targets on the ground if they are flying.

On rare occasions I can shoot with one soldier, but most of the time I have to land the soldier before they can shoot at a target.

I'm not talking about hitting them, but about not begin able to fire a weapon at all.

This happens regardless of LOS, my soldiers can have a direct LOS with no obstacles and I just cannot shoot.

I have no problem shooting at targets in the air from the ground, but for some reason I cannot shoot at targets on the ground from the air.

I find this very odd, completely illogical, and it frustrates me to no end.

So I was wondering if there might be a bug thats preventing this, or is it intentional?

[Solver]

This is intentional, you're not supposed to be able to shoot while flying. This lets flying armour remain very useful on most maps without letting you just fly around shooting things with superb accuracy.

[Chthon]

I find this very odd, completely illogical, and it frustrates me to no end.

So I was wondering if there might be a bug thats preventing this, or is it intentional?

Illogical? You need 4 things to make a good shot: Proper aiming using a sighting mechanism, Proper breathing to prevent your shot from going too high or low, proper trigger squeeze so you don't jerk the weapon to the side, and a steady position to absorb the recoil.

One of these things cannot be obtained via any sort of jetpack/parachuting; That's steady position. If they did allow you to fire from the air, it would be completely illogical to allow for it without a major accuracy penalty. Instead they simply disallow it completely as it's so inaccurate it's stupid.

That being said, I've found many surfaces on maps that seem like you should be able to land on them, but you cannot. Perhaps some map cleanup is in order to allow for someone to land on more surfaces. Certainly all flat building roofs, con-ex shipping containers, and train cars are stable enough for a soldier to take up a position on them. And before you say all building roofs are land-able, no they are not, I have found one or two which I have inexplicably could not land on despite visual similarity with other roofs in the area.

[Gauddlike]

The problem with landing on those props you mention is that they would need to be reworked in most cases to allow it.

The top section would have to be removed and placed as a separate prop on the second level of the submap.

Those objects would need to be exactly one tile high which many of them are not.

Then you would also need to make sure that when you destroyed the bottom half of the object the top half vanished as well.

It should all be possible but not a quick easy fix.

Building rooftops should all be possible to land on, some of the submaps were built without the extra level needed to allow you to fly onto them though.

That should be a fairly easy fix, just open every last building submap in the editor, add a level, then save it and move on.

[Chthon]

The problem with landing on those props you mention is that they would need to be reworked in most cases to allow it.

The top section would have to be removed and placed as a separate prop on the second level of the submap.

Those objects would need to be exactly one tile high which many of them are not.

Then you would also need to make sure that when you destroyed the bottom half of the object the top half vanished as well.

It should all be possible but not a quick easy fix.

Building rooftops should all be possible to land on, some of the submaps were built without the extra level needed to allow you to fly onto them though.

That should be a fairly easy fix, just open every last building submap in the editor, add a level, then save it and move on.

The rooftops in question I was able to fly over just fine, but there was no landing animation on that one particular rooftop. It is likely that for some reason that rooftop is not even with the rest of the z-level. However since it had cover on it, I assumed it was meant to be landed upon.

[Gauddlike]

That's interesting, if they look identical to other buildings in the area then it is unlikely to be a spectre problem either.

Might be worthwhile getting a screenshot of any specific building you see this issue with if you can to make it easier to try and identify the problem.

Also are you using any map packs or was it a vanilla submap building?

[kabill]

The problem with landing on those props you mention is that they would need to be reworked in most cases to allow it.

The top section would have to be removed and placed as a separate prop on the second level of the submap.

Those objects would need to be exactly one tile high which many of them are not.

Then you would also need to make sure that when you destroyed the bottom half of the object the top half vanished as well.

It should all be possible but not a quick easy fix.

I'm planning on having a look at this when I have a chance to.

I think actually it should be fairly easy for a lot of props. The second-level issue is easily dealt with: you can just put invisible ground tiles down on the second level and leave everything else as it is (I did this as a replacement for the UFO roofs in Fire in the Hole without any problems at all).

Destruction is a problem, however, as the only way to remove the second-story ground tiles would be to use the collapsible building function, but that's thoroughly broken and not a good plan. So the best plan would simply be to make the relevant props indestructible. That's a slight loss, but to be honest things like the trains and shipping containers have loads of hitpoints anyway so I don't think it would make that much difference unless someone was in the habit of deliberately destroying them.

[KevinHann]

That's a slight loss, but to be honest things like the trains and shipping containers have loads of hitpoints anyway so I don't think it would make that much difference unless someone was in the habit of deliberately destroying them.

I do! They keep getting in the way of my tank!

[kabill]

Pff, just demolish the buildings instead. No one will miss them, I'm sure

[KevinHann]

Never done that, don't know how to

[Chthon]

That's interesting, if they look identical to other buildings in the area then it is unlikely to be a spectre problem either.

Might be worthwhile getting a screenshot of any specific building you see this issue with if you can to make it easier to try and identify the problem.

Also are you using any map packs or was it a vanilla submap building?

Haven't played with mods yet so vanilla. On steam if that changes anything though. Sometimes steam gets bad/out of date files.

[Bansheedragon]

Pff, just demolish the buildings instead. No one will miss them, I'm sure

I tried doing that once, but the framework of the building was still standing after the building was gone.

So the game treated the building as still standing and I had an alien standing on top of that building, even after it was demolished, that I could not hit due to lack of jetpacks and a line of fire.

I was able to get the alien down eventually by throwing stun grenades onto the roof

[sether]

Not sure on the exact damage required, but shooting building from tank with MAG cannon, eventually will collapse the whole building and kill everything in it.... not sure whether it will kill the Alien on the rooftop though.

Edited July 8, 2014 by sether

[kabill]

The collapsing thing is related in some way to the wall props. I don't actually know how it works, but there's a flag on some of the props which indicates collapsibility.

Back when I remember it vaguely working, I seem to remember the collapse mechanic killing anything in/on the building. Might be wrong, though.

[Chthon]

The collapsing thing is related in some way to the wall props. I don't actually know how it works, but there's a flag on some of the props which indicates collapsibility.

Back when I remember it vaguely working, I seem to remember the collapse mechanic killing anything in/on the building. Might be wrong, though.

I've never had the opportunity to see a building collapse yet. Not even that one time the building was apparently full of explodium 9000, and an alien inside it accidentally misfired setting it all off. Lots of wall bits missing, as well as one of my soldiers standing 3 tiles away. I was a bit freaked out though.

[GlyphGryph]

That's interesting, if they look identical to other buildings in the area then it is unlikely to be a spectre problem either.

Might be worthwhile getting a screenshot of any specific building you see this issue with if you can to make it easier to try and identify the problem.

Also are you using any map packs or was it a vanilla submap building?

I love the flying suits, so I run into this problem a lot - things like rooftops that you can't land on despite them looking identical to every other rooftop, and also weird stuff that you *can* land on without a problem (like water, and empty space. the empty space can often even be run across safely!).

I'll try to take a screen the next few times it happens. I know it's happened more than once with some of the roofs that have ducts/ac units on them.