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AI Bugs, Improvements & Suggestions


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GJ has done remarkable job on Xenonauts' AI but I still would like it to be more unpredictable and not so "on rails". In certain situations it seems AI will just repeat same actions turn after a turn even if it doesn't get any favorable results doing it. For example in an industrial crash site mission I played recently: A sebillian stood in the middle of road trying to kill 2 of my units standing a bit further down the road. It just stood there shooting a burst and a snap each turn with no variation in it's actions. My units were so far away and in cover that every shot missed for who knows how many turns. It would have been sweet if it'd realised this isn't going anywhere and tried something else. (fall back to ufo, flanking, camping, rushing to my units)

In the same mission another sebillian was under fire from half of my squad but it was in a pretty good cover so I couldn't hit him. This continued for 4-5 turns. Sebillian ignored all the shooting and tried to kill some civilian in a completely different direction. Seemed a bit odd priority. :)

Edited by Skitso
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In the same mission another sebillian was under fire from half of my squad but it was in a pretty good cover so I couldn't hit him. This continued for 4-5 turns. Sebillian ignored all the shooting and tried to kill some civilian in a completely different direction. Seemed a bit odd priority. :)

I *think* the issue (and this might explain both behaviours you mention, actually) is that (often, if not always) the AI seems to pick a target and get stuck on it. I've had instances where a soldier has been fired on, I move soldiers on my turn so another soldier is easily a better target, but the alien shoots the soldier they attacked last turn instead. It's like once they have chosen a target to shoot at, they can't change the target until it's dead/out of sight.

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A rather glaring deficiency (at least thru v21 stable) that has been mentioned by numerous players in multiple posts before is the "frozen" behavior of aliens in command rooms, both on larger UFOs and alien bases.

I've opened the doors to cruiser/carrier/battleship control rooms and spotted 6-7 aliens inside. Normally more than half of them are not even looking towards the doors. I can advance 1-2 tiles into the room, bomb them with grenades, and walk back out again. Next turn the aliens are in exactly the same place (though on rare occasions one of them may pivot in place) and I can toss grenades at them ad infinitum at my leisure until they're all dead. I can also take less than optimal pot shots at them and they won't move or respond unless I clearly move somebody into an optimal LOS for them. Their priorities seem to be to cower behind cover and reserve all their TUs irregardless of my actions or any kind of threat assessment, even after they've taken damage across 2-3 or more turns.

This could be a prime area to apply some form of Belmakor's "passive/aggressive" concept :)

Edited by dpelectric
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A rather glaring deficiency (at least thru v21 stable) that has been mentioned by numerous players in multiple posts before is the "frozen" behavior of aliens in command rooms, both on larger UFOs and alien bases.

This could be a prime area to apply some form of Belmakor's "passive/aggressive" concept :)

This should be fixed in the new release.

Using flying suits in alien base set a nav point, my soliders used the jetpack and went over and through walls then got stuck in walls

It only happens around the unopenable door with the red lock symbol on it.

This isn't an AI bug, so you'll probably want to post it in the ground combat thread.

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A sebillian stood in the middle of road trying to kill 2 of my units standing a bit further down the road. It just stood there shooting a burst and a snap each turn with no variation in it's actions. My units were so far away and in cover that every shot missed for who knows how many turns. It would have been sweet if it'd realised this isn't going anywhere and tried something else. (fall back to ufo, flanking, camping, rushing to my units)

I'll take a look at this. There should be some easy implementations that should fix the worst of it.

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No, they intentionally run over it, I even had a terror mission when Sebillian camped between two dumpsters - strangely a flashbang set his only exit tile on fire and he every turn entered that tile to fire and returned inside. So he intentionally entered it.

On other situation, when storming the scout ufo I've heard a Caesan entering fire and dying. The fire was in the power room.

Also when top deck of landing ship is on fire, and you enter the UFO all the aliens from the top deck run to meet you and move through fire tiles.

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No, they intentionally run over it, I even had a terror mission when Sebillian camped between two dumpsters - strangely a flashbang set his only exit tile on fire and he every turn entered that tile to fire and returned inside. So he intentionally entered it.

On other situation, when storming the scout ufo I've heard a Caesan entering fire and dying. The fire was in the power room.

Also when top deck of landing ship is on fire, and you enter the UFO all the aliens from the top deck run to meet you and move through fire tiles.

Interesting. Gijs-Jan fixed that a long time ago. Maybe it broke. Aliens are supposed to avoid fire and gas tiles. Edited by StellarRat
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I've forgot to mention - Aliens tend to throw grenades even if they are in the blast range.

Example: Landingship - 3 Xenonaunts waiting a tile away from the teleporter to the upper bridge. Alien comes down so he is hugging 3 units. He throws grenade under one of the xenos. Fortunately no one died, but in this situation alien could make himself a splatter.

I know aliens are keen to get you, but mad bomber rush shouldn't be a valid move.

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Save and Screenshot: http://ge.tt/9K7ePrb1/v/0?c , http://imgur.com/4OGCjTo , http://imgur.com/7ORj2Do

Tech Info: V22 Experimental 5

4OGCjTo.jpg?1

7ORj2Do.jpg?1

Observed:

- always last 1-2 aliens stay in UFO. Never come out.

- xeno soldiers can open door, make a shoot then close it back.

- aliens do nothing, just waiting for next turn.

Desired:

- ability to open door by aliens

- ability to move out from UFO

Edited by Amiga4ever
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I can't wait til GJ fixes this and door spamming and frozen control room aliens. It's going to be pretty humorous. All the veteran gamers are so used to approaching certain situations in a pre-programmed way that it'll be quite a shock. I can just imagine the posts. Be careful what you wish for! :P

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I can't wait til GJ fixes this and door spamming and frozen control room aliens. It's going to be pretty humorous. All the veteran gamers are so used to approaching certain situations in a pre-programmed way that it'll be quite a shock. I can just imagine the posts. Be careful what you wish for! :P
What's interesting is that they used to send troops through the door and toss grenades at your guys. In fact, I can remember very distinctly, the aliens swarming out the door in a base and throw multiple grenades at my guys on the other side of the door. So, they obviously had no problem understanding how to open the doors. Maybe the "reserves" in the UFO are too passive because they are supposed to "guard" the ship and to them that means "stay inside and wait".
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I just had one of the tougher Sebilians chuck a grenade at one Xenonaut at point-blank range. V21 stable. He didn't (quite) blow himself up so I guess it could be vaguely reasonable behaviour in some circumstances but it sure felt weird.

The Wolf-armored Xenonauts resisted the grenade and promptly gunned down the explosive eager lizard down next turn.

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I just had one of the tougher Sebilians chuck a grenade at one Xenonaut at point-blank range. V21 stable. He didn't (quite) blow himself up so I guess it could be vaguely reasonable behaviour in some circumstances but it sure felt weird.

The Wolf-armored Xenonauts resisted the grenade and promptly gunned down the explosive eager lizard down next turn.

That's a new class called the Hezbollahlians. Was he wearing a turban or screaming "Allah is great!"?

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What's interesting is that they used to send troops through the door and toss grenades at your guys. In fact, I can remember very distinctly, the aliens swarming out the door in a base and throw multiple grenades at my guys on the other side of the door.

Really? Now that is interesting. Before my time here. So it CAN be done. Which means GH deliberately changed it. I wonder why...?

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Really? Now that is interesting. Before my time here. So it CAN be done. Which means GH deliberately changed it. I wonder why...?
Well, like I said, it was in a base. Maybe the AI acts differently on a base mission. However, the AI also used to come out of UFOs and fight when you got close to the doors. But that was many builds ago. I'm sure Gijs-Jan will get this taken care of. Edited by StellarRat
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I think there were concerns that the last aliens used to come out of the ship so you could just set up and wait for them.

I vaguely remember discussions about it being more realistic that aliens defending the ship should stay inside to actually defend it rather than leave and be gunned down.

The community keep moving the goal posts which hasn't helped I imagine.

Aliens are too passive, make them hunt the player aggressively!

Aliens are too aggressive, they charge the dropship too much, make them less aggressive!

Aliens are too passive in the UFO, make them charge out!

I am waiting for 'Aliens shouldn't leave the UFO they are supposed to be defending, make them hide inside and defend!'... :P

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