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Alien aggression in the v20 builds.


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I approve. The aliens generally don't just camp and hope to get off reaction fire, but instead proactively come after you and try to kill you.

I did one alien base assault, I pushed in toward the first four way intersection and then suddenly found myself getting swarmed by aliens from three directions at once. After I finally managed to kill them all off in an epic firefight, it was quiet. Too quiet. I knew there were still aliens -somewhere-, but the search through the empty parts of the base was one of the most wonderfully creepy experiences I've had in a game in recent memory.

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Now they just run into the open and stand there at the end of their turn.

They also tend to take the first shot they can, lousy as it may be.

They still move in turn, too. The first alien to move should be the lead guy, who spots for the rest of them.

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Now they just run into the open and stand there at the end of their turn.
Yeah, that's a problem I noted too. They charge up and move around but do very little shooting. The AI needs to have them move, BUT ALSO save enough TU for a snapshot. Charging without shooting is definitely a good way to get killed.
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Regarding alien bases, so far I had 3 lizard (scebilians?) small bases and on all 3 occasions, I opened the front door to see about 4-6 of them, each turn 2-3 would get in the room from the 2nd room, sometime there would still be some left in the 2nd room once I finished cleaning the 1st room, but then its always empty all the way up to the control room.

Control room is occupied by the officer and his 3 or so guards.

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I've found that the Alien Base missions tend to boil down to a slog in the first room (usually resolved with lots of C-4). This problem is only made worse by the fact that the alien defenders will see and shoot my soldiers through solid walls (sometimes two sets of doors). I'm not sure if the Wraiths are supposed to exhibit this behavior, but they all teleport directly into the starting room on the first few turns. I actually like the idea of being pinned down, but I expect the aliens to be held to the same rules as my soldiers, and when they don't it tears me out of the experience.

I'd like to point out I've been playing since some of the earliest builds (posting for the first time) and I think the game has only gotten better, but the better it is the more these kinds of things seem to stick out.

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The aliens are a little bit more tricky to deal with in v20, simply because all-out aggression results in them congregating in one spot, so you have to take them on all at once. In v19, they tended to scatter around the map as a result of their timid nature, so you could pick them off one at a time. Of course, they always made certain to find cover in v19, which made them harder to hit.

Because the aliens only need to repel the attackers from boarding their downed ships, not slaughter them outright, I think that the aliens ought to try to pick an area between their craft and the Xenonaut dropship where they could set up a defensive perimeter. Unless the player tries to breach the perimeter, the aliens shouldn't unnecessarily expose themselves. Of course, they could still make small pushes or try to flank.

If the firefight has yet to start, the aliens could also try to position themselves behind walls so that the humans are blasted as they come around the corners. In other words, the aliens should try to lure the player in rather than seek conflict.

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