Point Blank Range Modifiers Could Use A Little Work

[Wyldefyre_CP]

I'm back on the newest experimental build, but this likely applies to the other builds I've been on.  Shooting at point blank range, with pistols and shotguns particularly, can lead to some devastatingly bad results for your troops, especially when the best hit chance I tend to see with a pistol at point blank range is a few ticks over 50%, and with a shotgun around 70%.  

 

Just today I'm on my first mission out with some newbs and we've blasted through all but two pockets of the map, where we figure the last alien(s) are lurking.  So my assault troop with the shotgun is the first to discover the last alien ... bonus, it has its back turned to him, and he's got enough AP left to get right behind it and pull the trigger for the better of the two shot options .... well, two out of three of those shots somehow miss, and all he's done is piss off the alien and let it know he's there.  No one else is even within grenade distance so I tell him, "well, you dumb bastich, you're dead now, it's not going to miss you, standing there in hand-shaking distance."  Sure enough, the alien fires point blank at my stupefied nitwit ... takes two shots, but it's on point with both, and there goes my first casualty of the mission.  A full turn goes by before I have the rest lined up ... sniper is next closest ... she misses and earns a ticket for a month eating hospital jello as a result.  Rifleman then trots right up alongside the alien and instead of high-fiving it, fires a pistol right at it, which also misses .... 

 

About this time, I just say "@#$! it" and have the next closest person lob a grenade in from the other side, which finally seals the deal.

 

If my chances to hit were in the 90% range at point blank and I still missed, I'd at least know to blame RNGeebus for my rotten luck, but at the moment I'm left to puzzle why my chances of hitting were so low .... especially the dummy with the shotgun hitting from behind at point blank range.  There shouldn't have been anything left of that alien but enough giblets to fill the gravy boat. 

 

Yeah, they're newbs, but still ...

Edited November 25, 2022 by Wyldefyre_CP

[Alienkiller]

That I have noticed too. It seems to be the same Issue like in the new XCOM-Series. But the Game isn´t finished yet and there are still some Jobsites left which have to be filled first.

Finetuning will come mostly next Year when the Early Access-Phase will start. Therefore we have as Main-Beta-Testers to life with that Issue until it´s solved / get better with more advanced Versions like the WIP V.25-Version.

 

[Chris]

1 hour ago, Wyldefyre_CP said:

I'm back on the newest experimental build, but this likely applies to the other builds I've been on.  Shooting at point blank range, with pistols and shotguns particularly, can lead to some devastatingly bad results for your troops, especially when the best hit chance I tend to see with a pistol at point blank range is a few ticks over 50%, and with a shotgun around 70%.  

Yeah. So I did a bit of rebalancing there a few months back so the proximity bonus applies for the full range of the weapon now, not just an arbitrary 5 tile radius. So you get better accuracy shooting from 8 tiles away than you do from 10 tiles away, etc.

I *think* I balanced it so the outcome ended up being roughly the same when you were point-blank, but the bonus was just applied more gradually. But perhaps not. I'll take a look.

EDIT: yeah, it should be pretty fine. At point blank range:

• a shotgun gets +54% to hit, which is pretty good given its applied to three pellets
• a rifle gets +24% to hit
• a pistol gets +22% to hit

I guess I could bump the last two up to closer to 30% but I'm surprised you've found it a major issue. A soldier with 57 Accuracy gets 80% accuracy with a pistol at point blank range if they use the more expensive fire mode, which is only about 16 TU per shot. Maybe there's something else going on?

[Wyldefyre_CP]

@Chris Thanks for giving it a look-over, it's nothing huge, and as I mentioned, they are all newbies - except the shotgun guy - he's plant fertilizer now.  I likely could have save-scummed and gotten a better outcome, but I save that for the most frustrating moments, like soldiers throwing their grenades right onto themselves or their fellows. 

 

P.S.  Loving what you're all doing with the game.  Having just gotten done trying Legacy for a bit, and now going back to Experimental, I certainly have found some things I prefer from both builds and some things I like a lot less ... but that's for another thread once I've put it all together in my head!  

[Chris]

3 hours ago, Wyldefyre_CP said:

@Chris Thanks for giving it a look-over, it's nothing huge, and as I mentioned, they are all newbies - except the shotgun guy - he's plant fertilizer now.  I likely could have save-scummed and gotten a better outcome, but I save that for the most frustrating moments, like soldiers throwing their grenades right onto themselves or their fellows. 

 

P.S.  Loving what you're all doing with the game.  Having just gotten done trying Legacy for a bit, and now going back to Experimental, I certainly have found some things I prefer from both builds and some things I like a lot less ... but that's for another thread once I've put it all together in my head!  

Great. BTW, you may as well switch to the standard branch for now because it's the same build as the experimental branch but it runs much faster with all of the debug info stripped out.

It'll be another week or two before V25 arrives on Experimental.