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Re-balancing Squad Sight, or Viewing Targets Through Allies


Descan

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I made this post in the Experimental discussion thread for v21.1

Figured it'd be better served in the actual suggestion forum. :P

Would it be possible to put a malus on accuracy if the entity shooting can only see it's target through Squad Sight? And weight the AI to choose enemies it can see over enemies it can't see directly when choosing which to shoot?

The context was that getting rid of Squad Sight entirely for aliens was too hard, in terms of programming the AI to cope with it. I offer this as a way around that, if it's actually possible to weight the AI to choose certain targets like this, and if it's actually possible for an entity to "know" which targets it can "see" directly and which it cannot, targets that it merely knows of because of allies "telling it" about them. At least I assume that's the rationale behind squad sight in general.

The accuracy penalty itself may very well serve to weight the AI in that regard, as I assume they are programmed to take the better shot more often than not. So I suppose this idea mostly depends on if it's at all possible to differentiate "seen" targets from "squad-sight" targets, from the perspective of a single entity, and add an accuracy penalty accordingly.

Edited by Descan
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Did anyone try that slapped-together mod I put in the thread? I've never really thought about it, but I don't know if aliens have the same LOS decay that Xenonauts do at night. I do know that aliens keep their normal visual range, but that's a simple variable in config.xml.

If aliens don't have night-time LOS decay, you can mod a kludge. You could set the aliens' engagement ranges in aiprops.xml to their visual range. Last I checked, aliens will not fire if they are outside the engagement range (set to 25 by default right now). To make it even, you'd lower the ranges on the Xenonauts' guns in weapons_gc.xml. Just remember that weapons firing outside of range cause zero suppression, so I'd set the LMG's range to 18, minimum.

Edit: lowering the engagement range causes quickbattle to crash for me. I'm verifying my files to make sure it's not a problem on my end.

Edit 2: okay, verifying seemed to fix the crash, and engagement range DOES still work like that.

Edited by Ol' Stinky
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Would you apply the same penalty to the players troops as well?

It makes sense that if it is a basic rule the aliens have to follow then it should be the same for both sides.

Would that need an indicator so the player knows that they will be getting a penalty and why that is?

Yeah, I'd say applying it to humans would make sense. Depending on how much the accuracy penalty is, it could change up playstyles a bit. Some sort of indicator would be in order, on the aiming reticle so you notice it quickly, with a more detailed point somewhere else to explain it as in "Your bloke can't actually SEE the alien, he's relying on radio chatter from his squad-mates to get a rough idea of where the blighter is."

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