Brainsucker

[new_civilian]

I managed to get some kind of a brainsucker unit working with the EXTENDED exe. I used a recolored Cybermite (from the coveralien mod) gave it a 1 tile-ranged mindcontrol attack with 100/100 psi (so it doesn't fail). I gave it low reaction stats so the aliens (for my first tests i made it an XCom unit) will react to the (huge) threat accordingly and gave it zero armor and 10 health only. Still, I wanted the unit to die when the mindcontrol was succesful, but sadly it did not work out. I can make the attack do a damage to the brainsucker (health -10) but as it only has 10 health the game comes up with a "Not healthy enough" warning.

So I went for different solution and gave it limted energy, little energy recovery, basically it can attack once ~ each 5 turns and has to recover.

ANYWAY: Here's my question before I spend more time on this test: Will the AI be able to use the brainsuckers attack? Anyone with experiences here?

I mean if you give the default alien psi weapon a LOS requirement it basically ceases to work (in the default exe) as it seems the AI can't handle the time/range parameters very good. And here I come with a VERY special attack.......Any ideas/thoughts?

for those who do not know what a brainsucker is: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Brainsucker_%28Apocalypse%29

[Dioxine]

Ha! An interesting challenge!
Two possible solutions for an AI unit, not sure if either will work:
1. Give it a vision range of 1 (day and night). It should force the creature to approach before attacking.
2. Give it some inconsequential melee attack. In theory it should approach for melee and try MC... but this probably won't work as AI units tend to queque their melee attacks till they're out of TUs once they decide to charge (make the MC attempt cost less TUs than melee attack to counteract?)

[Yankes]

To kill it you can now do it in two phases, first reduce hp to low value. After that add negative health regen for low hp (any stat can cause negative health regen). After couple of turns it will die.

[new_civilian]

Good ideas, will test them! 

One thing, though: The vision range change is interesting, but wouldn't that only work during nights?

[Dioxine]

I think Yankes was going to add modability to dayvision as well... at some point. ATM it's indeed impossible.

[Arthanor]

How would it attack if it only has a 1-tile vision range? Would it not be unable to see any target. Or is that a weird interaction between the psi rules that allow to target units you haven't seen?

I don't think I have seen sectoid leaders/commanders moving and shooting as if they knew my soldiers' position just because another alien spotted them. Just MC'ing from their command room.

[Dioxine]

That's why you need to reduce the MC range to 1. The Aliens know where your soldier is if any alien has seen him, and can approach to attack. Their ability to shoot from beyond LOS is simply blocked, but not their ability to use psi.

[Arthanor]

hum.. I thought that provided an alien saw one of your soldier, all psychic aliens were free to target any soldier (and they even know who is your worst soldier, so they will target him).

But what you describe is different: If any alien sees a soldier, all aliens know that soldier's position and can move to engage him? And then they each individually remember that spotted soldier for a number of turns given by their intelligence? Or do they forget collectively when the spotter forgets?

[Dioxine]

But what you describe is different: If any alien sees a soldier, all aliens know that soldier's position and can move to engage him? And then they each individually remember that spotted soldier for a number of turns given by their intelligence? Or do they forget collectively when the spotter forgets?

Yes I think this is the case. I might be wrong, but this seems to be in line with all observed behaviour (especially visible after modifying night vision ranges for aliens - it wasn't much of an impediment to them as they simply moved to get the target in their LOS before engaging).
Not sure which "intelligence" variant is true, but probably the second one as it means less information needs to be saved.

[Arthanor]

Interesting.. That would mean that aliens actually share information. That's good! I always thought that they worked only individually, except for psi-attacks.

[mrxian]

Interesting.. That would mean that aliens actually share information. That's good! I always thought that they worked only individually, except for psi-attacks.

From my experience, it's a mixture of the two. In the original game, once you had been spotted on the aliens turn, you were subject to psi attack from the entire team, but they didn't converge on you en-masse, and there were some restrictions (I never figured out exactly what) on blaster bomb usage. They also didn't quite seem to know where your hidden soldiers were hanging out, though they sometimes knew there were many potential reaction shots coming into play if they got too close. (So they didn't get too close.)

[kikimoristan]

once one alien spots you they all spot you.

the only thing is different units have different intelligence values . the higher the int the more turns they remember. usually melee units remember longest. chryssalid is  like 9 turns or something ridiculous.

remembering seems to mean their ai will likely walk towards were they last spotted you if they no longer spot you or will try to shoot in that general direction. i'm not sure exactly.

so once spotted by 1 you get spotted be all but most of them will soon forget. so they only communicate every time they spot you but then stop communicating after that.

[kikimoristan]

for the brainsucker to work well if it works like original openxcom ai you need to make it  aggressive if you use LOS for psi and you need to give it high int like 9. the reason is you want them to remember you and you want them to come hunting you . that way they will be able to use psi more often by being really aggressive they always have los to you. but that means you can also easily kill them as they always come to you. also i'd give them a limited range psi los (if possible) and give them really high psi power. that way if you see them coming yu need to kill them otherwise if they get close your unit is mind controlled.