Prevent reaction fire if friendly directly in LOF.

[StellarRat]

We need this. My MG guy just wasted one of my guys because there was an alien behind him. It should be part of reaction fire mechanics. The aliens have the same problem

[Leonidas]

seconded!

additionally - should a soldier be crouching, his mates should be able to shoot over him.

Friendly fire like this has been driving me bonker. It's basically /palmface /load game

[StellarRat]

seconded!

additionally - should a soldier be crouching, his mates should be able to shoot over him.

Friendly fire like this has been driving me bonker. It's basically /palmface /load game

That's a bit different. You CAN fire over a buddy if you are only one tile away from him. Otherwise you'll hit him.

[Zekram Bogg]

This makes perfect sense and should be included post-haste.

[SalsaDoom]

Yes please! This is absurd as it is...

[Jsleezy]

Well, considering aliens can hit their own with reaction fire I say it's pretty much even.

One time I opened a door to a scout ship and there was an alien standing right in front of my assault guy and two hidden behind consoles. An alien behind the console takes a reaction shot at my soldier and kills the alien standing in front of my guy. My assault guy takes a shot with his shotgun and kills one alien behind the console then runs and hides. My RPG heavy takes a shot at the remaining alien and the rest was history. It was great!

[ventuswings]

It never bothered me that much, probably because they do the same in original X-COM too.

Remember one unwanted rocket reaction fire wiping out 9 of my guys in one go

At least in Xenonauts there are reaction fire modifiers to prevent that from happening.

[StellarRat]

It never bothered me that much, probably because they do the same in original X-COM too.

Remember one unwanted rocket reaction fire wiping out 9 of my guys in one go

At least in Xenonauts there are reaction fire modifiers to prevent that from happening.

Yeah, I know the OG had it too, but it was just as dumb then. This supposed to be an improvement on the OG. No one is going to fire when they see one of their own right in the way. I can see taking some risk, but certainly not firing an MG or rocket launcher when the shots are going pass right through the friendlies tile. Rocket launchers (and other AOE weapons) need to check to sure all friendlies are not in the blast radius. It's just common sense. The aliens should make the same checks for their own too. Edited August 29, 2013 by StellarRat

[thothkins]

There have been occasions that I just want the alien dead, and I'm relying on that reaction fire to do it. I'd rather have one dead soldier than the alien killing two or throwing a grenade.

[lemm]

It would be nice if there was some option you could press to withhold reaction fire. There is a variety of reasons why you might not want to take a shot (out of range, behind cover or teammate, don't want to kill the alien).

A simplified interrupt system would solve this issue. If you score a reaction opportunity, the game pauses, and you can act (take a shot or crouch), or resume the alien's turn by pressing space bar. At any time during the alien's turn, if you can still see him, you can press space to pause the game and act. If the alien is about to leave your view, or if he's about to shoot, the game will auto pause as well. The alien turn plays out at half speed while you have a reaction fire opportunity, and the UI somehow notifies that you are in "reaction opportunity mode."

Actually, I wouldn't mind having the ability to pause the alien turn at any time regardless of available reaction fire opportunities.

[StellarRat]

It would be nice if there was some option you could press to withhold reaction fire. There is a variety of reasons why you might not want to take a shot (out of range, behind cover or teammate, don't want to kill the alien).

A simplified interrupt system would solve this issue. If you score a reaction opportunity, the game pauses, and you can act (take a shot or crouch), or resume the alien's turn by pressing space bar. At any time during the alien's turn, if you can still see him, you can press space to pause the game and act. If the alien is about to leave your view, or if he's about to shoot, the game will auto pause as well. The alien turn plays out at half speed while you have a reaction fire opportunity, and the UI somehow notifies that you are in "reaction opportunity mode."

Actually, I wouldn't mind having the ability to pause the alien turn at any time regardless of available reaction fire opportunities.

Indeed, that's how JA2 handled it and Laser Squad.

[relic]

TBH the issue is really the broken friendly fire mechanic, as few of us would set up a reaction fire scenario that would put a soldier in the LOF. Friendly fire happens in impossible scenarios currently. IMHO it's a serious flaw in the current game mechanics.

[Mordobb]

I don t think this is a bad feature, the problem is some stuff must be tuned.

The first thing that must be tuned is "the missing cone" (is how much the projectile goes astray when you miss). The missing cone should be intimely tied to % of hitting, the higher the prob of hitting the nearest the alien the shot should go.

Actually it seems unique and totally random, i got 95% of to hit going more astray than 10%.

This need to be tuned to make sense.

Second point if fear driven.

Missfire or bad firing is more prone when you are in stressed, in fear/panic enraged.

When you loose self control partially or totally you ll tend to overreact, you be prone to spray and pray. Perfect situation for blue on blue.

If you can tune those 2 factors conditioning the result of wild firing the game will make sense and such a feature will be plainly accepted

[EchoFourDelta]

Yeah, but it's not like troops freak out and gun each other down every time they hear someone fart.

A significant portion of any soldier's training is how to move and fire in close proximity to other troops safely; this goes beyond even basic or specialized military training; it's basic firearms handling safety that gets drilled into you from the day you're issued a weapon.

[Mordobb]

Yeah, but it's not like troops freak out and gun each other down every time they hear someone fart.

A significant portion of any soldier's training is how to move and fire in close proximity to other troops safely; this goes beyond even basic or specialized military training; it's basic firearms handling safety that gets drilled into you from the day you're issued a weapon.

Agree.

But blue on blue IS a factor, as usually you annouce yourself coming into blue zone...you never know. And blue on blue on intense close firefight ain t common but ain t absurdly rare too.

[EchoFourDelta]

Well, yeah. It is absurdly rare, especially close in, due to how troops are trained.

The farther away you get the more likely it is you're going to have blue on blue due to poor communication and lack of recognition; up close, even in a kinetic environment, it's exceedingly rare, due to how easily communication and recognition; individual awareness of the situation is key, and again. Remember who our troops are supposed to be.

[StellarRat]

Agree.

But blue on blue IS a factor, as usually you annouce yourself coming into blue zone...you never know. And blue on blue on intense close firefight ain t common but ain t absurdly rare too.

If it were humans fighting humans I could see your point. But, if a Xenonaut can't at least tell the difference between an ALIEN and human he's a complete moron. The other thing is, that blue on blue is usually between units that are separated and unfamilar with each other mostly at night (of late.) I find it hard to believe a small team like the Xenonauts that are actually bunked together, train together, etc... would shoot one of their own that happened to be between them and an enemy. Edited September 3, 2013 by StellarRat

[Mordobb]

If it were humans fighting humans I could see your point. But, if a Xenonaut can't at least tell the difference between an ALIEN and human he's a complete moron. The other thing is, that blue on blue is usually between units that are separated and unfamilar with each other mostly at night (of late.) I find it hard to believe a small team like the Xenonauts that are actually bunked together, train together, etc... would shoot one of their own that happened to be between them and an enemy.

Its not about the ennemy facing that blue on blue occurs, its about frontline movement getting in fireline of the rear people.

Troops are extensively teached how to move so such won t happens. But on battleheat shit happens.

[StellarRat]

Its not about the ennemy facing that blue on blue occurs, its about frontline movement getting in fireline of the rear people.

Troops are extensively teached how to move so such won t happens. But on battleheat shit happens.

Well, I'm really only concerned about a very specific situation at relatively close range here. Where a soldier reaction fires right through the tile of a friendly. That's it. I'm not concerned about a miss that strays left or right and hits your guys. I'm only talking about intentionally shooting right through your friendlies tile OR firing an AOE where the target tile will definitely cause the blast to encompass your own troops. You have control of your troops every other time and can decide if the risk is worth it, but at least you knew you were taking a chance (even though the way misses are done still needs a fix.) Edited September 3, 2013 by StellarRat

[Mordobb]

Got it...

maybe a button to turn off reaction fire, or maybe elevating the minimum quality of the shot, from snap shot to aimed shot for example ?

There s the slider (i never used it )

[StellarRat]

Got it...

maybe a button to turn off reaction fire, or maybe elevating the minimum quality of the shot, from snap shot to aimed shot for example ?

There s the slider (i never used it )

A button would work for me or better yet the "Opportunity fire" screen that JA2 and Laser Squad use. Barring those, I'd prefer my troops to simply not fire in that circumstance. For all I know some of the logic might already in the reaction fire code and maybe it's got a bug.