Gijs-Jan Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 I hope you don't mind a question. Do you plan to implement AIs that always explore the map? This was implemented under ProbabilisticSearch. However, I had to disable it as the AI was "cheating" according to some players, deducing where the player was while people thought it should be impossible to know. I disabled it until I can deconstruct it to just a frontier-based search without the added knowledge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Stinky Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 This was implemented under ProbabilisticSearch. However, I had to disable it as the AI was "cheating" according to some players, deducing where the player was while people thought it should be impossible to know.I disabled it until I can deconstruct it to just a frontier-based search without the added knowledge. Cool! Thanks for answering. I'll look forward to that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StellarRat Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 (edited) Tech. Info v21 Experimental Build 1, no mods Observed Behavior Armed NPCs too passive (except farmers.) They don't even fire when aliens are clearly in sight. Also, they tend to just stand around and quit moving whenever the Xenonauts are nearby even if there are still aliens around. For some reason farmers tend to be much more aggressive. Desired Behavior They need to shoot. I'm not sure they should actively "hunt" aliens, but they need to stop milling around OR just "freezing." Edited January 27, 2014 by StellarRat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dead Dread Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 suggestion, unarmed civs once in close contact with a xenonaut (within 3 tiles?) make a beeline for the chopper. It should get them out of the way and most times towards a safe area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol' Stinky Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 This one is kinda stating the obvious, but I've never let that stop me before. Tech. Info Xenonauts v21, experimental balance patch 2 Observed Behavior The AI doesn't plan what to do after taking a shot. For example, imagine the player is on a desert map. An alien pops out from behind a mesa and sees Xenonauts. The alien will fire if MinimumAccuracy is met, but won't save enough APs to get back behind the mesa and to safety. He might be lucky and have the APs, he might not. If he doesn't, the Xenonauts will easily shoot him to pieces. I think we've all seen an alien shoot a couple of times, move two or three squares to the side, and then end their turn short of cover/walls. Desired Behavior (Optional) Before taking a shot, aliens should consider if they'll have APs enough to get out of enemy LoS/into cover. It should be race specific as it helps distinguish races: an Andron doesn't hide behind rocks, but Caesans don't want to leave themselves exposed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Caine Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Tech. Info v21 Experimental Build 4, no mods Observed Behavior Aliens always "lowball" shots. That is to say, they maximise the number of shots fired instead of attempting for more accurate shots. While this is statistically more effective, it means sitting through lots of snap/burst shots which fly all over the place. This is boring, annoying and occassionally frustrating when a Sebillian with a plasma cannon decides to nuke the turf I'm on. Desired Behavior Aliens should in general try for the most accurate shot, rather than trying to maximise the number of shots to reduce annoying behviour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitso Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 (edited) Tech. Info Xenonauts v21, experimental build 4 with balance update Observed Behavior Sebillian walking nervously back and forth and kneeling at the back of the light scout while my pistol guy is just outside the door behind a rock taking reaction shots one after another, round after round until the sebillian is either killed or after three or four turns decides to make a run for it. Desired Behavior In such a dire situation a defensive unit should take cover in a best/nearest possible place and reserve _all_ TU's for nothing else than reaction fire and try to win time while "calling for help" to get other nearby units to move there. Aggressive units should run towards the enemy in kamikaze style unloading everything they have. Edited February 12, 2014 by Skitso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ventuswings Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 (edited) Tech. Info Xenonauts v21, experimental build 4 with balance update Observed Behaviour Aliens, "when anticipating the direction of possible attack", tend to face the direction where there is no cover regardless of Xenonaut placement. This tends to lead to defensive aliens facing away from door (of UFO etc.) allowing soldiers to walk up to the alien with no threat of reaction fire. Green - direction of cover protection (and likely direction of Xenonaut attack)/ Red - alien face 90 degrees almost always regardless of situation Such scenario occurs on open field also, where alien would be taking cover from group of Xenonauts, but instead of facing the group itself at end of turn, alien would face 90 degrees from the cover allowing Xenonauts to simply walk up to it. Desired Behaviour If aliens have Xenonauts in sight, or have "suspected location" of one, such input would override basic AI tendency to face the direction where alien is most vulnerable (accuracy-wise). In case of UFO defenders, no reason for them not to face the direction of entrance. Edited February 13, 2014 by ventuswings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ventuswings Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Tech. Info Xenonauts v21, experimental build 4 with balance update Observed Behavior Moving up to an unsuppressed alien (up to 1~3 tiles) with shielded soldier is viable tactic, as alien will not move and instead shoot straight away to front of the shield. It could simply have moved few tiles to side or back of the soldier to bypass the shield entirely. Desired Behavior Alien should account for the block chance of the shield. Alien should still fire at the front of shield if no alternative is available (or if moving so is tactically unwise), but otherwise should move to get 40% or 100% bypass chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StellarRat Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Tech. Info Xenonauts v21, experimental build 4 with balance update Observed Behavior Civilian runs into UFO to hide, promptly shot by aliens. Desired Behavior Civilian should not consider UFOs as a safe place for taking cover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Caine Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Tech. Info v21 Experimental Build 4, no mods, balance update Observed Behavior An alien, when surrounded by a wall of stun gas will try to flee the gas and get knocked out as each tile they walk through they'll get hit for 40pts of stun damage. Desired Behavior If surrounded by gas, aliens should be able to work out if they could survive walking through the cloud and if they can't, simply stay where they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitso Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Tech. Info v21 Experimental Build 4, balance update Observed Behavior Sebillian will stand and fight without fear after taking damage, and is often killed within a turn regardless of their health regeneration. Desired Behavior After injured, sebillian should retreat to a safe spot to take better advantage of their regeneration ability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khall Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Tech. Info v21 Experimental Build 4, balance update Observed Behavior Light drones are too passive, they don't fire unless right next to a target. Desired Behavior In line with their role as a supportive suppresion unit, they should always fire whenever possible, regardless of hit chance, and try to stay at long range Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleet01 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Tech. Info v21 Experimental Build 5 Observed behavior: Civilians are morons. Desired behavior: 1) If a civilian enters a Xenonaut transport while running around screaming, s/he should *stay* there unless an alien follows him or her inside. Weight the interior squares at 110% for pathfinding or something. 2) Similarly, weight the squares *outside* of Xenonaut LOS higher than squares within their 90-degree visibility. Even scared-poopless civvies should be smart enough to not run between Xenonauts and aliens, and Xenonauts are usually pointed at the aliens. 3) Add the ability for a Xenonaut to give a civvy a single order if the Xenonaut is in an adjacent panel and has sufficient TUs (say 15 or so). Make it possible to herd panicked civilians away from danger at the cost of reduced actions that turn. The affected civvy can become a player-controlled unit and be given either a single movement order - e.g. "go as far towards the marked square as you can" - or a single fire order for that turn. This could make for some interesting mission variations - get all the civvies out of a crash zone for extra cash, or round up all the local law enforcement to protect the landing craft - and would sure be nice for keeping dumb farmers out of my fire zones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmodean Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Tech Info Xenonauts v20 Balance Patch 2, Stinky's Map Pack 2v21 Experimental Build 5 Observed Smoke grenade exploit. I don't have a save but you can do this in any situation. 1)Throw a smoke grenade between you and the alien. 2)line up your men on you side of smoke. 3) end turn 4) Alien walks thru smoke but never fires. 5) You firing squad reaction fires alien to shreds. Works every time. Actually the problem is not just the smoke. In any given situation the alien always behaves pretty much the same. Even if this is the "mathematically" best choice it is very predictable and thus exploitable and boring. Desired Well I see the first one is maybe the result of the fix where aliens seemed to ignore smoke and its other side. So good progress! Maybe the alien needs a variety of possible approaches. If every time it walks thru the smoke then this is predictable and exploitable. But if sometimes is walks thru, sometimes it holds tight and sometimes runs away. Well then now I need to be very careful I play this out. In general I'd like to see more unpredictable behavior from the aliens. Not stupid random behavior... but if there are at least 2 or 3 reasonable ways it can respond to a situation then it forces the player to be more careful, keeps things more interesting and a bit more stressful (in a good way). Imagine that sometimes when I open the door of the UFO ship they are NOT in the same 3 positions. Maybe they even rush me! Maybe if I open the door and shoot and close it again they blow up the door with a grenade. Maybe they move into the back room, only to rush out again 2 turns later.... and now storming the alien ship is scary and dangerous again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czernobog Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Tech. Infov21 Experimental Build 5 Observed behavior: Civilians are morons. (...) I would like to second that. Civilians running right before the aliens' guns and into rooms filled with enemies is crazy. This is especially apparent during terror missions. Some of them might panic, but most should use the transport as safe haven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KateMicucci Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 V21E5 Observed Behavior Civilians sometimes stand in doorways or narrow spaces between objects and block the Xenonaut's path, then refuse to move Desired Behavior A civilian should not stand adjacent to a Xenonaut. If a Xenonaut moves adjacent to the civilian, the civilian should attempt to move at least 1 tile away on his next turn (Xenonaut tells him to get out of the way). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitso Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 In general I'd like to see more unpredictable behavior from the aliens. Not stupid random behavior... but if there are at least 2 or 3 reasonable ways it can respond to a situation then it forces the player to be more careful, keeps things more interesting and a bit more stressful (in a good way). Imagine that sometimes when I open the door of the UFO ship they are NOT in the same 3 positions. Maybe they even rush me! Maybe if I open the door and shoot and close it again they blow up the door with a grenade. Maybe they move into the back room, only to rush out again 2 turns later.... and now storming the alien ship is scary and dangerous again... Indeed, AI shouldn't always use the most optimal tactics but instead choose from several top options to give more surprising and unpredictable experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caaygun Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 Observed: Aliens can't open doors in ufos or bases when there are xenonauts outside. This allows for a cheat strategy of opening door, shooting with everyone, closing again. Desired: Aliens be capable of opening Ufo doors themselves when there are xenonauts standing outside, perhaps also shoot the xenonauts, close the door. And maybe xenonauts be incapable of opening an alien ufo door which probably has some quantum security mechanism?, then you have to blast through them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lidhuin Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 Tech. Info Xenonauts v21, experimental build 4 with balance update Observed Behavior Civilian runs into UFO to hide, promptly shot by aliens. Desired Behavior Civilian should not consider UFOs as a safe place for taking cover. Repeating this for v21, experimental build 6. Civvies still think UFOs are safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitso Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 (edited) Tech. Info v21 Experimental Build 6 Observed Behavior This is a new AI problem in the most recent version: Passive aliens defending an ufo move towards entering xenonauts into a good firing position but reserve all their TU's for reaction fire, thus beign easy targets for the player next turn. I've tested this now many times: At least both caesans and sebillians often move very close to, or adjacent to my units but don't shoot. Next turn if I don't kill them but move back and forth in front of them instead, they will reaction fire me 3-4 times, so they have indeed reserved their TU's from a clear shoot to kill situation. Desired Behavior Even passive aliens should choose to fire instead of reserving TU's when close and visible to xenonauts and not end turn with TU's reserved. Edited March 10, 2014 by Skitso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kabill Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Tech. Infov21 Experimental Build 6 Observed Behavior This is a new AI problem in the most recent version: Passive aliens defending an ufo move towards entering xenonauts into a good firing position but reserve all their TU's for reaction fire, thus beign easy targets for the player next turn. I've tested this now many times: At least both caesans and sebillians often move very close to, or adjacent to my units but don't shoot. Next turn if I don't kill them but move back and forth in front of them instead, they will reaction fire me 3-4 times, so they have indeed reserved their TU's from a clear shoot to kill situation. Desired Behavior Even passive aliens should choose to fire instead of reserving TU's when close and visible to xenonauts and not end turn with TU's reserved. For what it's worth, this isn't unique to UFO-defending aliens. I've had many missions where an alien has advanced or moved with easily enough TUs to shoot, but then declines to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitso Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Yeah, I've seen the same outside too. Hope this gets sorted asap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gijs-Jan Posted March 11, 2014 Author Share Posted March 11, 2014 Tech. Infov21 Experimental Build 6 Observed Behavior This is a new AI problem in the most recent version: Passive aliens defending an ufo move towards entering xenonauts into a good firing position but reserve all their TU's for reaction fire, thus beign easy targets for the player next turn. I've tested this now many times: At least both caesans and sebillians often move very close to, or adjacent to my units but don't shoot. Next turn if I don't kill them but move back and forth in front of them instead, they will reaction fire me 3-4 times, so they have indeed reserved their TU's from a clear shoot to kill situation. This should be fixed in the next build; it was a bug in performance code which deals with storing the results of preconditions. It snuck in after the introduction of the Psionics behavior and should be fixed now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gijs-Jan Posted March 11, 2014 Author Share Posted March 11, 2014 Tech. InfoXenonauts v21, experimental build 4 with balance update Observed Behaviour Aliens, "when anticipating the direction of possible attack", tend to face the direction where there is no cover regardless of Xenonaut placement. This tends to lead to defensive aliens facing away from door (of UFO etc.) allowing soldiers to walk up to the alien with no threat of reaction fire. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2959[/ATTACH] Green - direction of cover protection (and likely direction of Xenonaut attack)/ Red - alien face 90 degrees almost always regardless of situation Such scenario occurs on open field also, where alien would be taking cover from group of Xenonauts, but instead of facing the group itself at end of turn, alien would face 90 degrees from the cover allowing Xenonauts to simply walk up to it. Do you have a save of this behavior? As it should be already in the AI for quite some time and I was not able to reproduce it locally. The behavior should be that a unit will look at the tile next to it nearest (through pathing) to an enemies known/estimated position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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