[V19.6 Ground Combat] Aliens can see through walls

[Ishantil]

I'm on the other side of a brick wall with no holes in it, and the aliens are shooting right at me. Even if I move between turns to a new location, they know exactly where I am.

[Mordobb]

Title should be Alien still see trough wall on 19.5 when i invaded a base they kept shooting at the walls...it was a bit funny and sad.

[Ishantil]

That's true, actually, the aliens' line of sigh mechanics need to be looked at.

[kabill]

Dunno if this is worth adding, but I've noticed that it seems to happen on some missions more than others (related to alien type?). And also that sometimes it happens during a mission, then stops.

For example, a terror mission I did today started with aliens trying to shoot at me through walls, but after a few turns it stopped. It doesn't seem to be related to whether the aliens could see me or were busy doing something - towards the end I did a lot of hiding as I was down to a couple of soldiers and was vastly outnumbered and outgunned, but still there were no efforts to shoot my few remaining soldiers through walls.

[StellarRat]

I'll third this one.

[ViniJones]

Aliens dont stick to no rules, friend. They stick to anything, even shit, thats not there. They wallhack and shoot through roofs.

(only encountered this on an Andron piloted landing ship. Caesan and Sebillian crews stay on the top floor without sniping my colonels through the floor.)

As for the shooting through walls, what I noticed is this: I only recently fell low enough to do 2 night missions and they did just what you described. Shooting through the night mission farm walls, even if the LOS was nowhere near my troops. Terror missions act ok for me, unless at night. Night terror missions result in 10+ aliens standing outside my charlie and shooting through its unbreakable hull.

Could be something with lowering your troops sight during the night, while not impairing the aliens gone wrong. I come to this conclusion, cause its bloody dark in alien base missions and the same thing occurs.

[xcomnaut]

Aliens see through walls to be always prepared. Did you notice when entering alienship, building or just going around corner, aliens always facing you, waiting for reaction fire. Sometimes if you stand behind wall, they try to shoot exactly at your position. Even more, they give your location to friends to shoot from miles away without actually seeing you. When you try to flank, they try to stand behind cover and shield against flanker without even seeing him. Sometimes when you shoot from faraway, aliens try to find position which exactly shield them from the shooter without even seeing him.

Not sure this is bug or feature but this smart alien tactic works agains them most of the time.

1. Wall shooters. They give away their position and use their TU.

2. Shooters from downed ufo. Station few soldiers around ufo to "distract" some shooters. This works against large ufos.

3. Alien base, the last room "defenders". Station few soldiers in upper middle room near wall. Enter the last room and see they all facing the wall, except 2-3 who no matter what, waiting behind corner for reaction fire.

Edited August 6, 2013 by xcomnaut