Civilian AI Wandering

[spacedwarf]

It's very frustrating how civilians act in a totally random way, getting themselves constantly shot and running always from safety into danger.

It would be great if your troops could "Evac" unarmed civilians by interacting at close range with them, at which point instead of their current wandering they'll run towards the dropship and hide next to it (Instead of into alien machineguns)

[Mr.Xia]

I second that. The civilian AI has the movement of headless chickens, running back and forth to the danger of the firefight, or running to a distance before doing a full 180 and running back.

Combined with them vaulting over windows animation(while destroying the glass windows) just makes it much more comical.

 

Perhaps it would make more sense to nudge the civilians to run towards the general direction of the xenonauts landing site instead like what OP said.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Mr.Xia

[doubleskulls]

It can be hilarious as they decide to sprint into the UFO or run up to an alien. It makes me think of Mars Attacks when people are trying to be friendly to the invaders, but get shot. Or when they decide they are the ones to stop the alien invasion with their shotgun

[Boris Eysbroek]

1 hour ago, spacedwarf said:

It's very frustrating how civilians act in a totally random way, getting themselves constantly shot and running always from safety into danger.

It would be great if your troops could "Evac" unarmed civilians by interacting at close range with them, at which point instead of their current wandering they'll run towards the dropship and hide next to it (Instead of into alien machineguns)

That would be a neat feature. Still, if it's too hard to program, than it also would be fine with me to have civillians be programmed to flee from aliens and make a beeline for the edge of the map. Once they would have reached the edge, they could be despawned and be marked as a survivor in the End of Mission Screen.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Boris Eysbroek

[Kaien]

Ok, the IA is terrible. But you can do like in real life when soldiers have to deal with civilian : You see a civilian you need to protect, you control him and he dont move anymore. I have a guy with a electric baton and his job is to beat every civilians.
Simple and efficient.

And remembers : The best protection against reapers is to play dead.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Kaien

[Novadea]

I agree thou personally I've just found it hilarious, the best one was when I was setting up my team for entry into an UFO, few random civilian running around like headless chicken near it, laughing and thinking "one of them is going to run in to the UFO". Yup, beelines straight past 12 power armored xenonauts into the UFO, promptly getting shot to pieces. I thanked him for his service to the country in revealing the enemy positions. Just take them as usually helpful indicators of where enemies might be.

The only times I wanted to shoot them is when they decide to block a door/window I was planning to make an entry through, so far I've managed to resist the urge as walls are merely an hinderance when you're armed with more explosives than you have targets for and you've MARS that eats them for breakfast.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Novadea

[Ruggerman]

For the most part, one would think that civilians would try to move away from danger, but in this game they move all over the place, that may occur with a small number, as they a stricken with terror, and not thinking strait, but surely others would just try and get to safety, or at lest run to the friendly forces, that doesn't seem to happen all to often. It is a bit annoying when civilians run into the mouth of death, as they will move into an Alien ship, with no weapons, and to do what? It would be nice if the algorithm that predicates their movements could make this activity a little more real, and I know that real is a bit subjective, but it would make the game, a more enjoyable for the players.  IMO.

[Fragfish]

Fully second that, this is the most annoying thing for me so far. Civilians running into an UFO I am preparing to storm, constantly trying to position themselves next to aliens or directly in the line of fire, or even to block doorways or windows.

Initially I tried to protect them but by now I honestly treat them more like mobile destructible obstacles, as that is what they seem programmed to be.

It would be really great if they had a simple sensible logic like "try to get away from aliens and behind the Xenonauts" or "hide in a corner somewhere".

Edited July 25, 2023 by Fragfish

[tdl]

As someone else already mentioned I just witnessed some random farmer running into a shot down UFO with its shotgun blasting. He took down some fuckers before being shot. He helped me a lot and would have offered to hire him :-D

[Morloc]

Aye, I've seen one of the military-looking fellows shoot up an alien that was unwounded and kill it. I was completely shocked!

[Adamantium]

just put em to sleep
One Electroshock Grenade does the trick, for soldiers you need two

 

Sometimes it feels that they intentionally try to sabotage the mission.  I guess they are programmed to follow you around cause that is where its safest !?!?! hahaha

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Adamantium

[Adamantium]

has anybody experienced civilians running through fire and immediately dying? Well, I have