combat stress, alien retreats, minimap, field of fire

[gshuford]

I looked in the manual and searched on forums, but did not see anything about combat stress and panicking. True to xcom players remember all too well how the soldiers would panic and cower, fire randomly, or attack allies. I've not seen this in the game yet.

In my first combat (v19 SC), I noticed the aliens would hold position until one of my guys got within sight. Then they would fire and retreat out of sight. While this made for an interestingly realistic tactic, it was also rather annoying. Maybe make the aliens stand their ground a little more.

On the subject of alien retreat, if they are landed and start losing soldiers, they could retreat to the ship and exit the mission if not stopped fast enough - the player might could try to damage the ship engines to prevent take-off? Obviously only valid for UFO landed missions.

Also for alien retreats, if they want to attack and make contact, it would seem to make more sense that they would retreat to familiar areas - such as their ship - or retreat to their allies.

Lacking minimap in combat zones unless I'm somehow overlooking it. It's nice to have a small map to refer to.

Show your soldiers' fields of fire - they would normally be watching the 10 to 2 sector relative to themselves. This would allow the player to easily set up intersecting fields of fire and 360 degree security.

[StellarRat]

The more aggressive aliens will more than hold their ground. Sebillans and Androns will actually advance on you, particularly on a Terror Map or Base Attack. I think GJ has some code in the AI that turns up the aggressiveness if the aliens think they out number you too. The Ceasans are much more careful and will seek cover and fall back when necessary.

[thothkins]

In my first 3 game weeks, I've found that the Sebillians fall back to defensive positions around their UFO, then pounce. The Caesians are sneaky,in numbers and don;t fall back quite as much. Not what I had expected, but it's made it more fun. No doubt they will revert to type in due course.

I think the only time I've had a panicked soldier was linked with alien psionics, so far.

There's no mini map presently. Offhand I don't recall reading there was going to be one.

[gshuford]

Thanks for the replies, knowing that it's an AI mechanic makes it sound a lot more interesting. I adapted my tactics to "pinch" the little buggers when they try to fall back. Definitely looking like an amazing game.

[Chris]

There's an entire morale system in the game, it's just the values are turned down too low on them. Hopefully Aaron will be looking at that in the next week or two.

[gshuford]

There's an entire morale system in the game, it's just the values are turned down too low on them. Hopefully Aaron will be looking at that in the next week or two.

Glad to hear it. I have fond memories of never making it off the dropship in xcom due to morale failures of guys toting automatic rocket launchers. Of course, I'll hope that this game won't be quite as merciless in that respect, but certainly dangerous. Admittedly, it was some time before I realized what I was getting into with xcom.

[Mordobb]

There's an entire morale system in the game, it's just the values are turned down too low on them. Hopefully Aaron will be looking at that in the next week or two.

Good to know, personnal and team morale fluctuating for injured killed team mates and injured kiled easy hard progression would be nice. As well as an morale boost due to be near a superior.

[gshuford]

Good to know, personnal and team morale fluctuating for injured killed team mates and injured kiled easy hard progression would be nice. As well as an morale boost due to be near a superior.

I actually read more into this and the morale system seems to be just like that. The more superiors you have, the higher the morale, as well as based on the rank of superiors and distance from allies in combat. Plus, morale boost or loss depending on which side is doing the most killing. From what I read (and I'll be damned if I can remember where I read it), the morale system seems pretty intricate.

[Mordobb]

Nice!!!

[Waladil]

From the moraleconfig_gc.xml file. I reformatted all this for readability (and a few space-saving format changes) but ensured preservation of all the values and fields. A few got combined to save space so there's a little more detailed control possible than what I'm showing here.

Obviously all values are in progress, but you can at least read through what's currently designed to effect things.

On morale break:

Panic: 34 (chance that a unit panics and loses all its AP for current turn)

Flee: 33 (chance that a unit drops its weapons and starts running randomly)

Berserk: 33 (chance that a unit starts firing on first available target, not caring if friendly or enemy)

Human Morale:

Regen every turn: 10

Leadership: Bonus to starting morale provided based on the rank of the highest ranked soldier on the team. To entire team except the leader.

Rookie Handicap: 20 percent reduction in overall leadership bonus per Private brought on mission, up to 60%

Corporal: 0

Sergeant: 2

Lieutenant: 4

Captain: 6

Major: 10

Commander: 15

Colonel: 20

Safety In Numbers: Each crew member receives a morale bonus, depending on highest rank soldier present in range 8. These bonuses stack up to two times; if there are more than two soldiers within range, the two highest ranks are used

Corporal: 0

Sergeant: 2

Lieutenant: 4

Captain: 6

Major: 10

Commander: 15

Colonel: 20

Xenonaut Death: morale reduction to each member of the team, based on killed soldier rank

Private: -10

Corporal: -15

Sergeant: -20

Lieutenant: -22

Captain: -25

Major: -28

Commander: -30

Colonel: -35

Vehicle: -5

Xenonaut forces killed by teammate: added to normal death penalties

Vehicle:

Team: -0

Individual: -10

Soldier:

Team: -5

Individual: -10

Alien Vehicle Destroyed

Team: 2

Individual: 10

Alien Killed:

Team: 2

Individual: 10

Civilian Killed By Alien:

Team: -3

Max 15 Points/turn

Civilian Killed By Xenonaut: In addition to Civilian Killed By Alien penalties!

Team: 0

Individual: -7

Wounded penalty:

0.25 points/hp lost (If soldier loses 20 hp, also loses 5 morale)

Alien Morale:

Alien Kills Civilian

Team: 2

Individual: 10

Alien Kills Xenonaut

Team: 2

Individual: 10

Alien Death:

Team: -10

Alien Killed By Teammate: In addition to the Alien Death penalty!

Team: -5

Individual: -10

Vehicle Loss

Team: 5

Alien Vehicle Destroyed By Teammate: In addition to the Vehicle Loss penalty!

Team: -0

Individual: -10

Xenonaut Vehicle Destroyed

Team: 2

Individual: 10

Wounded penalty:

0.25 points/hp lost (If alien loses 20 hp, also loses 5 morale)

[Zekram Bogg]

Wow. That's pretty intricate.

But, and this may seem the obvious question, why doesn't the player have any access to any of this info, even in a generalized sense?

I mean, some sort of morale meter somewhere in the ground combat UI would be pretty handy to have. Even if it only measured the general group morale for your Xenonauts.

It just seems odd to have such an intricate system in place, but then have no way for the the player to even notice its working until shit hits the fan. As I recall, the original X-Com had a moral meter for every individual soldier in a battle. That's probably taking it a bit too far, but a group meter that basically tracked the total for everyone on your team with a running tally (further obfuscated by making it text designations instead of numeric, so at the start of a mission, Team Morale reads "Steady", and when you score several kills it becomes "High" but then it gets to "Low" when the commander dies et cetera) would be really helpful for new players to understand that there's a morale system in place, and it's something they should be considering.

[EchoFourDelta]

It just seems odd to have such an intricate system in place, but then have no way for the the player to even notice its working until shit hits the fan. As I recall, the original X-Com had a moral meter for every individual soldier in a battle.

You can see their bravery going up and down throughout the entire battle; a bit regenerates every round, and they get increases when an enemy dies, or dropping when they take a hit that actually wounds them, or when a friendly dies.

[Zekram Bogg]

Yeah, I'm new, and I totally didn't realize the blue bar WAS the bravery meter.

I think there's a bit of a readability issue to be honest. I mean, the bar doesn't seem to swing much with team deaths/enemy kills. For most my nauts it's usually maxed out the whole time. And does the graphic function the same as the health bar? with the greyed out part when it lowers? Because it doesn't seem to.

[MrPyro]

Yeah, I'm new, and I totally didn't realize the blue bar WAS the bravery meter.

I think there's a bit of a readability issue to be honest. I mean, the bar doesn't seem to swing much with team deaths/enemy kills. For most my nauts it's usually maxed out the whole time. And does the graphic function the same as the health bar? with the greyed out part when it lowers? Because it doesn't seem to.

I think that's what Chris meant when he said the values were too low and so we weren't seeing an effect. Once the values are right and morale is a bigger part of the game, I suspect that bar will suddenly become a significant focus of your attention.

[EchoFourDelta]

You'll definitely see the same sort of panic waves you got in the original if you catch some hard luck and lose a few guys in short order, or if a soldier takes a few hits that wound him without actually killing him. The former in particular will bring you right back to ye olde X-COM days.

[thothkins]

I can vouch for rookies running around squealing in a late game mission, just by being there.