aliens

Author Topic: Auto-calc battles?  (Read 16091 times)

Offline Jstank

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Re: Auto-calc battles?
« Reply #15 on: June 18, 2014, 02:33:59 pm »
Although auto ground combat would be undesirable, how about auto interception?

Offline kkmic

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Re: Auto-calc battles?
« Reply #16 on: June 18, 2014, 05:01:43 pm »
Where would be the fun in all that "auto" thing?

Offline Nightwolf

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Re: Auto-calc battles?
« Reply #17 on: June 18, 2014, 07:14:54 pm »
Where is the fun after too many long combat? At the very first is not needed, but after that, i always want that feature. Its like Heroes Of Might and Magic. The very first battles are very important and you play them, then, only the ones are really important, the lesser ones you can use the auto-battle. And after all, I think is not very hard to think that some one can enjoy more Geoscape part of the game.

Offline Jstank

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Re: Auto-calc battles?
« Reply #18 on: June 22, 2014, 04:26:39 am »
With the auto interception thing, I'm thinking only after you gain some advanced command center that costs a whole mess load of money and elierium. And all it does is auto scramble your jets to intercept UFO's. Just so you can get through to the end game a little quicker because intercepting 5000 UFO's which appear every 2 secs can be quite tedious. However intercepting a few UFO's every so often is very enjoyable. Maybe decrease the number of garbage UFO's that aliens send you. For instance I'm in month say... 7 very far in the game with plasma blasters on avengers and interceptors. Why couldn't I set my interceptors to auto scramble against 3mall and very small UFO's only. That way I'm not bothered with these ones and can concentrate my playing on things that matter like shooting down incoming battle ships and intercepting supply ships. or maybe even find some way to run the interception process and still be able to do other things while that one is playing out.
And to clarify I hate streamlining. So if there was some way where you could be intercepting that is faster but retains the same level of micromanagement I'm all ears.

Offline Recruit69

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Re: Auto-calc battles?
« Reply #19 on: June 22, 2014, 10:48:03 am »
Maybe auto calc battle feature would be useful in battles where you killed all but one last pesky alien hiding somewhere that you spent forever trying to hunt it down....?

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Auto-calc battles?
« Reply #20 on: June 22, 2014, 04:27:00 pm »
Why couldn't I set my interceptors to auto scramble against 3mall and very small UFO's only.

Now that's an idea I like. Of course, as long as it's properly configurable, so you can designate which types of fighters react to which types (or sizes) of UFOs.

Offline yrizoud

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Re: Auto-calc battles?
« Reply #21 on: June 22, 2014, 05:52:47 pm »
All interceptions can be solved in 10 seconds. Auto-calc battles is relevent because even a trivial battle needs 5-20 minutes. (Though XComutil and OpenXcom help a lot using re-equipment)

Offline MKSheppard

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Re: Auto-calc battles?
« Reply #22 on: June 22, 2014, 07:37:25 pm »
I wonder how long it would take the AI to fight out against another AI player if it was done at computer speed; with no pauses for the player?

I think part of the problem is that people are used to autocombat being just literally that -- auto combat.

But what if autocombat was slightly more detailed than just "see odds, click proceed yes/no" then get results?

Just spitballing ideas out here; but try approaching it from the point of view of a XCOM commander overseeing a routine mission from XCOMHQ:

When you've decided to do an AutoCombat Mission: you get shown a AutoCombat Mission screen; giving you three main choices (you could set preferences for each choice):

1.) What type of mission are we going to do here? Is it a standard search and clear mission with 100% alien fatalities expected, or do we need to capture an alien?

2.) Rules of engagement: Do we go for high explosive spray and pray; or precision rifle fire? Do you push for extremely aggressive movements or do you go for a methodical search and clear movement with lots of overwatch?

3.) Acceptable loss rate: How far does XCOM Push before a decision to initiate a tactical withdrawal to the transport is made?

You hit GO; and the mission starts and plays to first contact -- then you get a popup saying: "SIR, the team in the field is reporting that CRYSSALIDS have been encountered. Continue Mission or ABORT."

If you tell them to abort; they do a fighting retreat back to the transport.

This gets around the issue of an autocombat team made up of rookies and equipped with moderate gear suddenly finding themselves against Ethereals and getting killed dead because they continued to blindly push forward; when if you were playing normally; you would abort the mission the moment you noticed you were going up against aliens way out of your team's weight class.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2014, 07:39:13 pm by MKSheppard »

Offline yrizoud

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Re: Auto-calc battles?
« Reply #23 on: June 22, 2014, 09:32:42 pm »
For reference, here's XComutil's take on Autocombat: (from XComutil.txt)
Automatic Combat Resolution (AutoCombat):

Automatic combat resolution is provided to eliminate the tedium of battles that you think are just too easy.  It also allows you to play a new kind of game, AutoXcom, where you never actually fight any battles, but play every battle using AutoCombat.

Using AutoCombat, XcomUtil will update the files with an approximation of the results, rather than requiring you to actually fight the battle.  To reduce the complexity of the algorithm, I have imposed a few simplifications.  Hand-to-hand weapons, grenades, and extra clips are ignored.  Whenever you capture Elerium-115 or Zrbite, you automatically capture a power source.  Whenever you capture a ship, you capture some alien alloys and navigation, based on the size of the ship.  All other items that are part of the map, such as alien entertainment, are ignored.  However, you do capture any equipment carried by the aliens if you win.  If you find this to be too restrictive, don't activate AutoCombat until after you have done what you wanted to do or simply play the entire battle yourself.

To activate AutoCombat at any time during combat, just save your game as game number 10 with the name AutoCombat, then immediately abort combat.  You can optionally add a number which will be used as a probability threshold for aborting AutoCombat, which defaults to 25%.  For example, AutoCombat75 will indicate that you want to activate AutoCombat, but only if you have at least a 75% chance of success, as determined by the AutoCombat algorithm defined in XCOMUTIL.CFG.  XcomUtil will verify that the name of the saved game in the GAME_10 directory starts with AutoCombat and that the game date and time match.  AutoCombat can only be activated after saving the game, because that is the only way that all of the information about the battle is available for use by XcomUtil.

Saving the game also allows you to reload the battle and fight it yourself, if you don't like the results you got from AutoCombat.  If you reload the game and immediately abort combat again, you will get exactly the same results.  To really abort, just save the game again as GAME_10, but use a name that does not start with AutoCombat.

The rules on wounding and killing soldiers are designed to allow you to protect your most valuable soldiers.  However, they are also designed to make it very difficult to win complicated battles without using a large number of well equipped, experienced troops.  Don't expect rookies with pistols to come home.  It is possible to gain combat experience from AutoCombat, but it will be distributed randomly.

AutoCombat Algorithm:

The basic success percentage for each soldier with a loaded weapon is 5% for each rank above rookie or seaman.  Thus, each soldier contributes from 0% to 25% to your total chance of success in combat.

High reactions and firing accuracy add even more when the damage of your weapons is greater than the average health of the aliens.  Similarly, soldiers with Psi/MC skill greater than the Psi/MC Strength of the aliens add to your chance of success.  Aliens and other factors, like darkness, reduce your chances of success.  To reduce the penalty for darkness, soldiers who carry flares in darkness get a bonus.

All of these factors and the amount they effect your chances of success are specified using StatStrings in the AutoCombat section of XCOMUTIL.CFG.  The default abort threshold is also defined there.

If the final success percentage is less than the abort threshold, there will be no combat.  If the percentage is 100 or greater you win.  Otherwise, your success is randomly determined.

If you lose, the number of aliens killed is based on the amount by which you missed your success percentage.  If you win, all aliens are killed or stunned.  The soldier credited with the kill is selected randomly.  If that soldier is using a small launcher loaded with a stun bomb, the alien is always stunned.  Otherwise, the chances are only 1 in 32 that the alien will be stunned.  You earn 20 points for each alien you kill and 10 points or each corpse you recover.  All alien ammo clips are captured as full clips.  Human ammo clips are emptied according to how much they are used, just as in normal combat.

The algorithm to determine who gets wounded is as follows.  Each alien can wound one human.  The probability of each alien actually hitting a human is the difference between the total success percentage and the success roll, a number between 1 and 100.  If the difference is more than 90, the maximum chance that the alien misses the soldier is 90%.  If the difference is more than 200, the maximum chance is 95%.  Thus, the more overwhelming your force, the fewer soldiers will be killed or wounded.

The probability that any given soldier will be wounded is based on the order defined by the SortStats in XCOMUTIL.CFG.  The last soldier in the craft, has one chance of being selected.  The next to the last soldier has 2 chances, the one before that has 3 chances, and so on.  The Nth soldier from the back, the first one off the craft, has N chances to be selected.  That is, if you have 4 soldiers in the craft, their chances of being the one wounded are 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%, respectively.  The last soldier on a full Skyranger has less than a 1% chance of being selected.

By default, soldiers with high Psi/MC skill or very high firing accuracy are moved to the back of the craft to protect them.  Thus, it is highly unlikely that they will be wounded if there are many soldiers in the battle.  However, any soldier can be killed, regardless of where he or she is placed in the craft.

Tanks are always considered to be the first units into combat and the first units wounded or killed.  Each tank receives the wounds that would have gone to the four soldiers it replaces, but tank armor greatly reduces the amount of damage taken.  Compared to soldiers, tanks do not significantly improve the chances of success.  However, if they are not destroyed in combat, they are immediately repaired when you return to your base.

The damage inflicted by each wound is the average weapon damage of the aliens.  The damage reduces armor first.  When it is gone, it reduces health, until the human is dead.  If a dead human is selected for wounding, another is selected in its place.  If a live human has not been found after three tries, the potential wound is ignored.

During AutoCombat, the XCOMUTIL.LOG file records a summary of the battle, along with all Hits (armor damaged, but no wounds), Wounds, and Kills.  It also reports Healed when a Medi-Kit is successfully used after a soldier is wounded.  The victory points lost because a soldier is killed in combat is 20 plus 10 for each rank above rookie/seaman.

Offline Stephanov

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Re: Auto-calc battles?
« Reply #24 on: April 26, 2021, 06:50:34 pm »
I'm terribly sorry for the necro, but how does one activate the feature, seeing as openXcom has a totally different save system, where there is no game_10 save?

Offline Meridian

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Re: Auto-calc battles?
« Reply #25 on: April 26, 2021, 07:52:23 pm »
There is no auto-calc battles feature in OpenXcom.