Base defence - lights out

[kharille]

If there were a power generator structure, maybe this could be destroyed by aliens forcing base defence to take place in darkness?  a subtle change that might make things slighty more interesting.

Thoughts?

[moriarty]

that would truly make things... interesting

I don't think adding a whole new facility only for this purpose would make sense, though.

perhaps each facility could have a "power node" somewhere, and the aliens would preferentially shoot it? destroying the power node would disable lights in that facility. hangars could always start with the corresponding power nodes destroyed.

[Danny]

My bases have emergency lighting for EXACTLY this kind of situation... ^^

[moriarty]

my emergency lighting is called "incendiary ammunition"...

[kharille]

I was wondering whether there may be ideas for other ideas, like maybe fusion missile defences exploding if they get hit by blaster bombs, and massive local damage.

Maybe extra smoke when explosions are set off which tends to make soldiers get stunned.

[Danny]

"incendiary ammunition"...

We call that alien barbecue...

Like we call (our own) blaster bombs, happy happy fun time... ^^

[Gifty]

If adding a new room/prop to facilitate this is too tricky, maybe it could be handled by general room damage? Say, when 70% of the room is busted, the lights go out? Makes you think twice about using explosives.

[Mr. Quiet]

Also lights that blink on and off in a certain area after it takes damage would be neat. Lights that would be turned off from the beginning in the dark corners, like the radar, missile rooms. Maybe areas that nobody really go into as much and would be left abandoned for months. I really want cave tunnels in my base too.
How about a Fire Sprinkler system that activates when they sense heat in one of the facilities? When a fire grows big enough, the sprinkler goes off, creates a puddle of water and if you're nearby you will be able to hear anytime something walks across the water puddles. I much rather have the lights out mod instead. Who wants to make it?

[Danny]

Or give Xcom night-vision goggles ^^

[luke83]

how much does lighting effect alien vision?

[moriarty]

how much does lighting effect alien vision?

not at all, unfortunately.

[luke83]

not at all, unfortunately.

that needs to change

[moriarty]

yeah, I think it should be rulesetted at the very least. maybe as a "low-light vision reduction modifier"?

something like:
lowLightVisionReduction: vision range in low light conditions is multiplied by this factor. defaults to "1" for vanilla aliens and 0.45 for vanilla humans.


unfortunately, reality is a little bit more complicated... https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Night_Missions

apparently, vision range is always 20 (for every unit, no matter if alien or human). The difference is that aliens can see units "in darkness", but humans can only see units "in the light". and while the graphics make it appear to be gradual, night missions (including twilight missions) operate under a binary system: light sources illuminate everything within 9 squares, everything else is "in darkness".

I think this calls for an optional gradual system... but implementing it may be difficult, because the vanilla system is so different from any "realistic" system 

[Danny]

Most aliens shouldn't be able to see in no lights conditions either...
They might see better in the near dark, but even they should need SOME light. ^^

[kharille]

Maybe those sectoids with their large eyes might have some form of night vision which the others would not?  I'd imagine it would be easy to outsmart a muton, outmanoevre them and hit em' from behind.