Messages

1

Brutal AI / Re: Targetting mode and blaster-launchers/Psi

« on: Today at 08:48:06 am »

any update?

i just played my first early terror missions vs sectoids
instead of it being a nightmare i have to abort from, i just farmed them

targeting 1 behavior 2 is the perfect Hard Vanilla man, but psi not being a threat whatsoever kills it



perhaps theres a way I could personally mod my game somehow?  Give psi-enabled aliens All-Sight?
I guess turning Bug Hunt mode on as soon as i see its etherals/sectoids would basically accomplish that right?

tried it.  idk doesnt seem to be working right.  guess i gotta put play on hold til theres a workaround or fix


edit: woke up, what am i gonna do? go back to vanilla? i cant now.  Its like vanilla aliens are children now.  Im starting a new one with iron man off so i can do some real testing when I encounter Psi.  For all i know i blasted the psi guy right off the bat in a terror mission.  I attacked a landed sectoid supply ship and turned on Bug Hunt Mode.  I didn't seem to be getting psi-fu*ked like normally.   Had a couple psi hits on skyranger a couple rounds in but it didnt feel normal so im gonna really test.

if this doesnt work, i guess I can turn on Targeting 2 once I realize its going to be vs psi race+ship/mission combo

2

Help / Re: I want to remove "launch" and make blaster launcher dumbfire, pls help me start

« on: Today at 05:18:37 am »

Don't they seem to have some sense of self preservation? (at least with base ai, all bets are off with Brutal)


I feel like ive had sucess moving very close to blaster launcher holders if i didnt have the tu to kill them and they never seemed to go allah akbar on me.  Usually this is an, Oh shit its the commander, situation.

3

Help / Re: I want to remove "launch" and make blaster launcher dumbfire, pls help me start

« on: April 14, 2025, 06:34:02 pm »

Thanks!

This won't affect how the aliens use it negatively will it?
I was wondering if there's special coding for such a complex weapon and I might break aliens using it

I'm using brutal ai and I want them to have same requirement..  hell I wanted it in vanilla bc all they would do is fuck up the waypoints and blast themselves

4

Help / I want to remove "launch" and make blaster launcher dumbfire, pls help me start

« on: April 14, 2025, 02:06:29 am »

MY GOAL :   Make blaster launcher a dumbfire weapon like Rocket Launcher, but with 100% accuracy.  I want to remove Launch and replace it with aimed fire ideally, or fire if the ai never uses them cus TU cost too high.

im playing brutalAI.   I dont use psi amps because i think they trivialize the game.

I think current blaster launchers trivialize the game.  Ive got a guy on a pile just blasting the entire map on brutalAI because if I dont, they'll do it to me.

I never liked it.  Cydonia outside is a joke.   I just send a guy to max height and blaster through every pyramid window.


To work with brutalAI mod, what tools do I need to accomplish this goal with as light a touch as possibe?  I dont expect you to explain and code it for me : just give me the name of the tools i need to learn to do this.  Thank you very much

5

Brutal AI / Re: Brutal-OXCE 9.2.8

« on: April 13, 2025, 05:40:22 am »

I just want to say : I could get a lot of people I know IRL (we talk via social media now) about brutal ai being added to openxcom.  Im the only one of us that has been willing to try OXCE (loving it).  But the work Xims done is amazing.  And it would be a masterstroke both teams can make this happen.

I think theres a lot of people who are reluctant to go to oxce but would flip that switch to YES and never go back.   These aliens are BRUTAL

Im wishing you all the best of luck.

6

Brutal AI / Re: Targetting mode and blaster-launchers/Psi

« on: April 13, 2025, 01:23:10 am »

I am really liking targeting mode 1, and aggressive 2 based on you suggesting it's a hard but more vanilla like experience. I love it and never want to go back. It's like vanilla but I'm playing vs humans. I've had entire vanilla playthrough where all the aliens did was blaster launch themselves...  I can remember one time in past year I got hot hard w a blaster on superhuman.

But u gotta get psi working for targeting 1 somehow bro, that's crucial

If BRUTALai on 1 is more brutal cus they're also using blaster launchers, so be it.  But pls don't nerf psi on 1.

7

Brutal AI / Re: Does anyone have feedback on the new "Aggressiveness = 1"-behavior in 8.5.5?

« on: April 12, 2025, 08:40:31 am »

psi seemed cheap when I used it, but a smart blaster launching alien when I really dont spend a lot of time pre-blastering the map sounds not fun either.  i dont find it fun launching 8 blaster bombs out of the skyranger to start every map. and JESUS, i havent encountered them yet but i know id have to on BrutalAI because if I dont, round 2 the blasters are gonna start coming at me.

if i wanna take out three buildings i want to have to keep a guy alive to get LOS and do it.

takes out a lot of the tactics... just personal preference.  im sure i can figure out a way to like copy paste the stats of rocket launcher onto the blaster launcher

comes down to like, I either have to preblaster the map or get blastered, or just nerf blaster and not worry about the pre blastering i never liked that much (like psi amp).  Maybe i can find a way to disable waypoint and bring back that aimed fire mode they talk about on ufopaedia.   Idk, ill start resarching changing weapon stats this weekend.  ty for all responses

8

Brutal AI / Re: "Realistic accuracy and cover system" option

« on: April 12, 2025, 07:55:27 am »

If I wanted to use RA-50% cover to make it more like OG where developers wanted cover to wrok, does that only work if the main Ra cover and accuracy option is yes?   or are all the options that start with RA- become disregardedif the accuracy and cover opton is disabled

9

Brutal AI / Re: "Realistic accuracy and cover system" option

« on: April 11, 2025, 10:18:06 pm »

Noob question. Still haven't taken out my first landed ufo.

I'm using everything on and cover 100%.
So every time I aim my rifle at someone I get a red 3% and can't hit shit.  Holding control gives me a gold number.

When I have heavy plasma, is that 3% just my chance to hit through cover, but my plasma will take out the cover on first shot and it gets easier?  Obv my rifle doesn't do shit to cover, and aimed shot doesn't seem to be helping.

I'm thinking prelaser I go in with as many autocannons as possible and light these guys in cover up

Is there something I'm missing or do I have right idea?

10

Brutal AI / Re: Is the realistic accuracy/cover mod a better way to play BrutalAI? Sneaky AI?

« on: April 09, 2025, 05:23:26 am »

cool ill give it a try thanks!

11

Brutal AI / Re: Does anyone have feedback on the new "Aggressiveness = 1"-behavior in 8.5.5?

« on: April 08, 2025, 05:29:55 am »

They will still try their best spotting the player on their turn but they won't really advance towards where they think player-units are and instead stay close to where they spawned.

What would they do with aggressiveness 1 and bug hunt on?  Would they still stay close to where they spawned, or cautiously advance towards skyranger?

At some point there's only so much the AI can do. If the player can start leveling entire building-blocks with everyone inside without even needing to establish any kind of vision, it doesn't matter much what the AI does.

Kind of like how u removed PSI amp, maybe a rebalance of blaster launcher could be in order, by making it a direct fire weapon or limiting wp's to 1.   PSI amp trivializes the game in the same way the blaster launcher does.  Rebalancing it with a option could make it fun and fair again.   Not just pre blasting every pyramid then every room/cooridor on cydonia.   you'd have to get the guy in there.   Might have to do same to tank, but i think I can just edit a text file and make this happen right?

12

Brutal AI / Re: Is the realistic accuracy/cover mod a better way to play BrutalAI? Sneaky AI?

« on: April 08, 2025, 05:25:19 am »

I just think no psi amp is the fix.  I dont think alien AI vs me is TOO HARD.   I want it to be THAT HARD.  I want a sectoid leader to completely fuck my terror mission because i messed up.   I want ethereals to be scary if i didnt prepare in time.

Xilmi agrees and very oddly takes psi amp out of his prefered game settings ( i couldnt believe he did exactally what I was doing) 

My strongest feeling is that a direct fire blaster launcher would be way more balanced.   It could be 100% accurate, it could be pretty accurate, it could have same stats as rocket launcher.  It could have 1 WP.  lots of ways to do it to make game more fair.  but thats the most game shattering change I could think of after removing PSI amp and fixing AI.  I think it has some kind of hidden launch mode, refered to in ufopaedia as aimed fire.  id still want it to take just as long (or longer) to reload and fire

Is there a way I can open a text file and just change the stats of blaster rifle to those of the rocket launcher?  Just with a way stronger rocket

13

Brutal AI / Re: Is the realistic accuracy/cover mod a better way to play BrutalAI? Sneaky AI?

« on: April 07, 2025, 09:34:21 am »

Wow i had really thought that pistols were better for reaction fire. Im going to be firing soldiers looking for high reaction guys a LOT sooner in game than normally.

 Yes, i had opportounity to smoke the inside of the ship and I should have taken it.  It looks like proximity mines are going to be used vs sectoids/floaters, at least until i get some better weapons.

honestly its pretty cool how 2-3 of them post up in a defensive position and are playing like a real human.  Its just a whole new ballgame to learn.  Once I get heavy plasma and power suits, im worried my old firing line outside of supply ships still isnt gonna work.  (maybe flying suits to beat the grenades)

I considered the 200 damage charge idea, but I decided im going to try to be vanilla as possible.  I already refuse to use psi.  Im just gonna try to step my game up.

 Im considering finding a mod to make blaster launcher either have 1 WP or be dumbfire like rocket launcher.   I dont really like using it, it feels cheap like psi amp which I strictly never have used.   So if im prone to not using it, I really dont want these motherfuckers using it to its potential.  These ai are FUCKING BASED.

For example, on cydonia superhuman... i just take a guy to max height and bomb every pyramid.  If it was dumbfire, shit would get serious.

Im def using ur accuracy/cover mod, i need every edge I can get.  And im liking the rockets hitting the ground near where i aim instead of flying to the moon.  And the rifle doing 90 degree shots from where i aimed always pissed me off


but seriously thanks to you and Xil for being willing to explain how some of this works under the hood.  Normally we have UFOPAEDIA and we get DEEP in that shit with #'s and stats and shit, but we have to rely on you guys taking your time and explaining.  really appreciated

14

Brutal AI / Re: "Realistic accuracy and cover system" option

« on: April 07, 2025, 05:27:55 am »

Jnarc, sir.  From your mods description

Cover efficiency. How much cover affects chances to hit a target:
"no effect" 0% - target exposure doesn't affect final accuracy
"medium effect" - 50% fraction of accuracy is multiplied by visibility
"high effect" - 70% fraction of accuracy is multiplied by visibility
"full effect" - 100% final accuracy is multiplied by visibility

What setting should I play on?  Im playing brutal AI, going for a challenge, but dont want to make cover either too weak or too strong.  Could you please provide insight on what you think the ideal setting is?


based on your recent post, which i dont fully understand

To clarify, this is the percentage of hits, blocked by cover, for similar battlefield state but for different game versions
Original game #1 — 55,6% - I call this "cover works"
Original game #2 — 57,1%
BAI / RA On — 36,8%
OXCE — 11,8% - and this is "doesn't work" to me
BAI / RA Off — 8,8% - ...this is my version in "OXCE mode", which is similar to OXCE at least in theory (doesn't work either)

What cover efficency setting should I be using?

15

Brutal AI / Re: Is the realistic accuracy/cover mod a better way to play BrutalAI? Sneaky AI?

« on: April 07, 2025, 05:01:07 am »

Good lord I now have some experience.

Targeting 1.  Agression 1.

Large scout.  They didnt all pile out into my firing line after round 20.  Guess it didnt matter.  single aliens would pop out and destroy my "high reaction" firing line anyways.

So there were two aliens in the Large scout, one behind each of the two doors after you enter.  every turn they would pop out, shoot, go back in.   Theres no way I could assault that.  Those two guys decimated 8 of my guys.

and holy shit do they camp buildings, its like assaulting the alamo.  I decided on bringing 2 Rocket Men just to pound the buildings into the ground, probably gonna bring rocket tank too.

this is a whole different ball game, but i think playing on aggression 2 might be too easy, since i could just camp em out like in basic right