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New feature: sound detection (possible?)


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So I was posting around the forums recently about alien being able to throw a grenade at me without seeing me or saw me before. It was much like the aliens could actually "sense" my soldiers. (the point of this topic is NOT this bug/thing. Keep reading :P )

drages, in his XDiv. mod said that the aliens was actually hearing me, not just "sensing". So, like, the alien didn't sensed me on the other side of the wall when he threw that grenade, he heard me. But in comparison, my soldiers seens deaf. I can here door opening and weapons shooting, but I cant be sure from where it came (unless the UFO door that is more distinctive).

It remembered me from the Silent Storm series (also turn tactical combat) and other games. Jagged Alliance 2 and I think the original XCom or another one also had something like what I would say now, but I will use Silent Storm as an example since I remember it pretty well: you could actually detect someone by the noise it make. When you soldier hear something around him, a thing like a red ghost appear where he think the sound came from (it could be an enemy or friendly, if he dont see it, there is no distinction). It could be on the other side of a wall/door, after a corner, in the vegetations or from where he think a far away shot actually came from. This "sound detection" was not accurate, the "red ghost" may appear in the tile just on the other side of the door but actually be some tiles away from it in any direction (like behind a desk just waiting with a machinegun for you to open the door with a knife trying to stab someone).

This is the first part of the suggestion: sound detection similar to Silent Storm and Jagged Alliance. Not even sure if it is possible in Xenonauts and surely it would be a lot of work, but anyway, just saying.

The second part will be a consequence of the first one: how could I move around without warning every one? Well, just add a "stealth move" button that double you move cost but makes you silent. It may also make reaction fire more hard to trigger when you enter someone LOS, but if you move stealh in someone LOS, you are actually more likely to be shot at. I mean... you was stealthily moving around the corner, when, BANG, you face an alien. It would be less likely for him to shoot you if you entered his LOS in stealth. But if you try to move in his LOS in stealth, both if you just want to or because you didn't saw him, he is much more likely to shot you. Aliens may have stealth movement too or different stealth capabilities. I, myself, imagine a sebillians as noisy heavy-breathing heavy-stepping creature that you can hardly miss him around, but a harridan is a very stealthy silent creature. Diferent aliens categories may also have diferent stealth abilities: a red caesan is just a noyse guy without any training, but the caesan soldier knows exactly what he is doing and wont making much noisy.

So... suggestions?

(I wish Goldhawk could make a Xenonauts expansion with tons of new features like that! I would gladly pay for it! ;) )

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Great idea, thank you!

Jagged Alliance 2 style would be great to start from.

Rough examples:

Reflex attribute defines the possible range of "hearing" and pinpointing the moving enemy. Poinpoint would show only the final stop point of the moving object, for example. If the object leaves "hearing range", than no notification should pop up at all. Imagine a person standing behind thin wall and other person approaching to the wall from the opposite side. The listener starts to hear the noise of steps and when they stop, person assumes it is the position where the walking person stopped or went stealth.

One issue arises in this case. The thikness of the walls will be to difficult to consider. So to keep the balance, the detection range should not be large, maybe just several tiles (5-6).

Each alien race may have "detection modifier". Rough example: Sebillians and reapers have +2 tiles to this range, because of being cumbersome, but harridan may have -2 tiles modifier. Androns made much noise with their steps in Vanilla, so they also may have big "plus" modifier.

Gameplay example of usefulness: recon hears a noise nearby, and machinegunner or armored vehicle pours projectiles to destroy or supress enemy. Would be quite handy, I had lots of such situations lately.

Counterdetection (stealth) can also be calculated from Reflex stat or even be fixed (only race specific bonus would apply). Just rough speculations here, pardon.

CE, compared to Vanilla, has more "idle" aliens, they tend to walk much less, than they used in Vanilla. It's not bad, it's good, they make fewer useless movements, which makes there detection more dangerous, overall it increased the difficulty for me personally, especially during UFO assaults and any other CQB maneuvers. Spotting foes with hearing would be benefitial to compensate that.

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+1

Great idea, thank you!

Jagged Alliance 2 style would be great to start from.

Rough examples:

Reflex attribute defines the possible range of "hearing" and pinpointing the moving enemy. Poinpoint would show only the final stop point of the moving object, for example. If the object leaves "hearing range", than no notification should pop up at all. Imagine a person standing behind thin wall and other person approaching to the wall from the opposite side. The listener starts to hear the noise of steps and when they stop, person assumes it is the position where the walking person stopped or went stealth.

One issue arises in this case. The thikness of the walls will be to difficult to consider. So to keep the balance, the detection range should not be large, maybe just several tiles (5-6).

Each alien race may have "detection modifier". Rough example: Sebillians and reapers have +2 tiles to this range, because of being cumbersome, but harridan may have -2 tiles modifier. Androns made much noise with their steps in Vanilla, so they also may have big "plus" modifier.

Gameplay example of usefulness: recon hears a noise nearby, and machinegunner or armored vehicle pours projectiles to destroy or supress enemy. Would be quite handy, I had lots of such situations lately.

Counterdetection (stealth) can also be calculated from Reflex stat or even be fixed (only race specific bonus would apply). Just rough speculations here, pardon.

CE, compared to Vanilla, has more "idle" aliens, they tend to walk much less, than they used in Vanilla. It's not bad, it's good, they make fewer useless movements, which makes there detection more dangerous, overall it increased the difficulty for me personally, especially during UFO assaults and any other CQB maneuvers. Spotting foes with hearing would be benefitial to compensate that.

Those differences in aliens detection will give a much more immersive approach to each alien type too! With the silent caesans, you may expect an ambush from anywhere, but with noisy Androns, you hardly wont notice them moving behind that wall!

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