Do aliens reserve TUs for reaction fire even when they shouldn't?

[Align]

I've got this mission, my squad vs a single Muton, and at some point crested a hill with the last of my TUs only to get reaction fire sizzling through my hair.
Next turn however, I only got a single auto-shot volley - then the green guy just stood there, apparently waiting for me to make a move so he could shoot via more reaction fire instead of using his TUs to kill what he could already see. This seems a little too nice...

[54x]

I've got this mission, my squad vs a single Muton, and at some point crested a hill with the last of my TUs only to get reaction fire sizzling through my hair.
Next turn however, I only got a single auto-shot volley - then the green guy just stood there, apparently waiting for me to make a move so he could shoot via more reaction fire instead of using his TUs to kill what he could already see. This seems a little too nice...

There was a bug (I think it's still in the "stable" version) where we accidentally had soldiers reserving the amount of TUs that commanders should, and vice versa. If you're up-to-date on the nightly builds this is gone now and low-ranked soldiers should spend more TUs in their turn, and thus reaction fire less.

[Align]

I'm fine with the AI generally being smart enough to save some TUs, but it seems to do so even when they can't hide behind any cover to avoid being shot before they have a chance to reaction fire.

[54x]

I'm fine with the AI generally being smart enough to save some TUs, but it seems to do so even when they can't hide behind any cover to avoid being shot before they have a chance to reaction fire.

That sounds like this bug, alright. Are you using the nightly versions now?

[Align]

Yep.

[Warboy1982]

yeah i've probably screwed something up in the cover assessment.

[kevL]

Recent mission: sectoid wasted its turn just standing outside the UFO door (it might well have been injured), doing nothing for its full turn when it could/should have been plugging away at my tank and a solder that were in LoS. (or ducking in the UFO door if injured/low aggression)

just a heads-up; we were def. in a firefight, it injured my tank on *its* previous turn ( ie, not by reaction ). On my turn, I froze my tank and soldier then lobbed a grenade from an unseen location; that's when it likely got injured. Then during its turn it just stood there staring at us, didn't even seem to move. So i lobbed a second grenade...

[Align]

Yeah this happened again when I had a team of rookies vs 2 ethereals. They were very kind, letting me spam my shitty laser aimed shots from a safe distance, not a single psi-attack to be seen.

[kevL]

i Think there's something wrong with the AI. They are, as you say, far too kind. The reaction fire is deadly; and I like the firing algorithm... but come their turn they stand there like dummies, similar to what I heard about 'overwatch freeze' in the remake. They apparently can't decide what to do when soldiers are watching them

suggestion:
if uninjured, fire at closest/least armored/highest ranking soldier, or throw grenade (do psi if applicable)
if injured, based on 'aggression', run for cover or choose above,


I loved it in the original when they had a clear shot but instead scurried away, it left me thinking "what the... WHAT ARE THEY DOING THAT'S MORE IMPORTANT THAN SHOOTING MY DUDES!!1" it was spooky.



Latest: my guys were right around a corner (2nd floor Abductor) from the Floater Leader armed w/ plasma rifle. I snuck a guy in behind him and gave it a stun but it stayed up (and didn't react if poss.). End turn and it floated around the corner, moving only 2 tiles, and then stood there staring at another three of us... gave it another stun & it dropped.

( faceful of hot plasma, pls. _~

[Align]

I guess this was a pretty big change!

massive changes to cover AI procedures

ditches copy contructor and leaky memory in favour of a line calculation
to assess potential visibility. as a result, aliens will now take cover in
more logical positions.

aliens will no longer EVER seek cover as their first or second action, unless
they haven't decided what to do instead.

units that have decided to hide for the turn will take no further action past
getting to cover.

units that are taking cover will turn 180 degrees at the end of their movement
cycle instead of pathfinding for the final turn.

[Warboy1982]

i'll attempt to chronicle all the changes that happened there in the battlescape development thread, but yes, it's a fairly huge and fundamental change to the alien's mindset. the main change is the cover position assessment, it now checks if the tile can be spotted by a soldier, regardless of the soldier's facing, and as stated, prioritizes attacking over taking cover for it's first two actions.
on reflection i see why it's better to use the voxelExposure routine for this check, as it gives more accurate results, maybe i'll look into that more today, but first i'm going to revise the handling of psionic decision making (ie: move it out of AggroBAIState)

[Dercik]

Well from what i experienced after recent nightly build aliens seem to be for 95% of time stationary and "reserving" all TU for reaction fire.

Even when my soldier is standing in front of them they do nothing in their turn. They don't attack not even rotate (not to mention trying to hide/cover or search for player)

Hope this is gonna be fixed in the nearest time, because now game became too easy since in fact you can flank enemy and kill without firing bullet.

[Warboy1982]

whoops, forgot to reset the hiding boolean.

[Dercik]

thanks.
It works better now.

[kevL]

Operation GAAH!

sectoid night mission w/ git 2013_08_05_1219