Stuck/hidden enemies?

[Daedalus87m]

Is this a common problem? I've started playing the XCOM files for the first time and I love it, but recently I've been having a very frustrating problem.

It happened for the 2nd time now that I've cleared literally the whole map and there's still enemies that cannot be reached, which means I have to abort the mission.

The first time was in a crypt with Zombies. They were behind a wall in the north eastern part of the map. I was able to scan 3 of them with my dog but I couldn't reach them, so I had to abort.

Now the 2nd time is in the Black Lotus HQ. I ran through all rooms trice and still can't even find the last enemy. There was one stuck in a small "black block" of unaccessible area that my rat managed to find, and fortunately he was close to the wall so a heavy explosive got him. But now, there's still one more left and I just can't find it, I expect him to be behind some wall again... and he won't surrender! It's only 1 enemy left (almost instant enemy turn)

Is that a common problem? Is there something you can do? It's very frustrating, especially in a mission like attacking an HQ where you fight dozens of enemies.

[Juku121]

It's something you gotta be prepared for. Sewers, crypts, clearing your craft exit out of some bushes...

There are tools for that, pickaxes being specifically meant for digging through walls. Other options include explosives, strong agents with melee weapons, high-powered guns, special cutting tools.

Black Lotus HQ (potentially) has a bunch of hidden rooms with paper walls. Shooting those with even the dinkiest pistol usually gets you in.

There is also bug hunt mode in case you're completely unable to find the last few enemies.

[Xilmi]

I have a supposed fix for that in my OXCE-fork. (Brutal-OXCE)

An option called "Strict blockage checking" (or something along these lines under Advanced=>Battlescape at the bottom)

There's a thread about it in the Programming-subsection: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,11164.0.html

The spawning-algorithm checks whether there's something in the way that prevents spawning. However, that algorithm is really questionable as it has leaks in orthogonal direction for no apparent reason. Those leaks are not a problem in regular pathfinding as pathfinding can't path through sudden too steep height-increases between tiles anyways.

At the end of the threat, I have to concede that there's indeed map-makers that put BIGWALLs on objects that should be traverse-able, something I doubted before. However, this means that my fix cannot simply be always applied. So far only one specific stair in one specific ship in one specific mod has been found that has this issue. However, finding more like this will be hard because the default for this strict checking is now off because of that.

I think that it would resolve the issue of spawning stuff into walls. But it's hard to prove.

[Juku121]

These enemies are not stuck in walls. They're just behind walls in an inaccessible part of the map. Most of the time, it's actually intended.

[Xilmi]

These enemies are not stuck in walls. They're just behind walls in an inaccessible part of the map. Most of the time, it's actually intended.

Oh, okay this is fine then.
I've only seen the stuck in wall stuff 1 or 2 times at all. The one I remember more vividly was a stunned one in a back-pack that woke up while the carrying soldier had his back against a wall.

[Solarius Scorch]

There are tools for that, pickaxes being specifically meant for digging through walls. Other options include explosives, strong agents with melee weapons, high-powered guns, special cutting tools.

Black Lotus HQ (potentially) has a bunch of hidden rooms with paper walls. Shooting those with even the dinkiest pistol usually gets you in.

There is also bug hunt mode in case you're completely unable to find the last few enemies.

Yes, and there are also rats and hybrids with limited wall-through vision.