ventuswings Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Hello, With the development advancing so nicely with most critical improvements out of the way, I thought it would be good time to reintroduce the pet peeve of mine: the case of ground-dwelling aliens. Before the balance patches, around when Chris was replaying the XCOM UFO Defense to see what inspirations it has to offer for Xenonauts, I also tried to think of the differences between the two - and alien placement was obvious difference that stood out. Having alien utilize higher ground not only expand their strategic option, but also contribute to old XCOM's "plasma out of nowhere" moment as well. Whenever I disembarked from Skyranger to find my squad in the farm, I knew there was at least one alien lurking around the roof and second floor windows, willing to take potshots on hopeless soldier passing by. In other words, aliens could be everywhere in contrast to Xenonauts where no aliens are certain to be above the sea level. Also it makes me sad about all the wasted potential whenever I come across well-constructed multistory structure. Note that my argument is not only restricted to having aliens successfully use stairs, though that by itself would be amazing. Harridan should be willing to use his jump pack if doing so would benefit him. And - harping back to good ol' UFO Defense again - some Drones should be able to float. Best analogy I could give would be Cyberdisc. Encounter with Cyberdisc floating in the air frequently gave me the nice sensation of dread. With the AI being advanced even at this stage of the game, I am sure aliens can abuse their floating capabilities quite well as well! Regardless, my previous paragraph was just personal opinion of mine. More than that I wrote this thread to see if you guys were still working on the aliens stair usage. I know the development team was working on this several months ago but then the news regarding the situation seem to have fallen flat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Stinky Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 There's a section in aiprops.xml (in Xenonauts\assets) that you'll be happy to see: <!-- FloorPreference: A positive value will attract to upper floors, a lower to the ground --> <PathingMechanics EnemyInfluenceValue = "1.0" EnemyInfluenceDecay = "0.95" AlliedInfluenceValue = "1.0" AlliedInfluenceDecay = "0.95" FloorPreference = "0.2" /> I haven't messed with FloorPreference yet, and I suspect it's a W.I.P. anyway. It looks like they're playing with height levels behind the scenes though. Given some of the nasty bugs that have cropped up before in regards to levels, such as the "crash when shooting at something below you" one, I can see why they would be wary about unleashing it on us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 It is quite sad really. The initial alien probes to our planet examined only a small area of the globe. The data they sent back prompted the whole assault as the planet looked perfect for them. Too bad the probes focused on a retirement village in Dorset where none of the buildings contained stairs. Imagine their shock when they arrived in their fleet and found quite a large proportion of human habitation actually has multiple floors. Who would have thought a space faring group of races would all suffer from extreme acrophobia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Stinky Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 If they'd focused on Milton Keynes this whole invasion could have been avoided. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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