Flanking gameplay mechanic

[kikimoristan]

Flanking: be situated on each side of or on one side of (someone or something).


In XCom world flanking is a gameplay mechanic where you position your soldier in such a way that you deal bonus damage or get bonus aim or negate enemy cover.

I propose to include a simple flanking mechanism to OpenXCom. Since OpenXCom doesn't employ cover as a gameplay mechanic I propose this simple and elegant solution.


First Flanking should be an optional setting from Advanced settings.

Flanking grants +10 AIM and +50% bonus damage.  This bonuses do not apply to area damage weapons like HE, smoke, grenades, rockets etc.

Let's say we have 2 units . Our soldier Bob. And Alien JIM.

Flaking happens when Bob is positioned  behind on the same X OR Y axis as JIM and JIM is facing away from Bob. Facing away means JIM has to look same way as Bob or to the sides.   JIM can't be looking at Bob or to the left or to the right of Bob that negates flanking.

The points to note is it has to be on the same X or Y axis, behind, and enemy must be looking away.

Have a look at the following picture



Two sectoids are looking away from my soldier but only #2 is on the same axis as the soldier so only #2 is flanked. If i move my soldier one square to the side then #3 will be flanked but #2 will no longer be flankd.

Flanking is denoted as a yellow pulsating marker instead of regular red.

Flanking works on 4 tile units (like HWP or sectopods etc). If any one tile of a 4 tile unit is flanked then the whole unit is flanked.


The calculations to be done is check each enemy that unit can see and check for flanking. When shooting same thing check for flanking before shooting. Flanking is checked once for displaying the enemy markers and again before taking an action (shooting).

Good/bad?

[shinr]

Too gamey for my taste;

For what it is worth, the "bonus damage from flanking" already kinda exists with the weaker non-frontal armor.

[kikimoristan]

Too gamey for my taste;

For what it is worth, the "bonus damage from flanking" already kinda exists with the weaker non-frontal armor.

I think would be interesting with a mod that bumps up alien damage or nerfs xcom damage so you kinda wanna be flanking a lot to kill aliens making it even more strategic.

[Arthanor]

I'd rather see a mod where cover reduces damage or chance to get hit (which would be relatively easy to do by making "shots on target" have more deviation than they have currently).

What is the rationale behind having to be exactly on the same X or Y coordinate? If anything, it should be relative to where the guy is looking (the whole half circle opposite to the target's heading?) more than an arbitrary cartesian coordinate.

[hellrazor]

Go play Firaxis Xcom i you wanna have such a mechanic and this game relies on this mechanic.

[hellrazor]

I'd rather see a mod where cover reduces damage or chance to get hit (which would be relatively easy to do by making "shots on target" have more deviation than they have currently).

What is the rationale behind having to be exactly on the same X or Y coordinate? If anything, it should be relative to where the guy is looking (the whole half circle opposite to the target's heading?) more than an arbitrary cartesian coordinate.

Actually if the enemy looks away from you, you can practically do what you want.
Run up shot it in the face with Auto Heavy Plasma Fire, or let some else from behind take a aimed or snapshot from out of sight.
Or attack with a melee weapon or throw a grenade or what ever you want. Because if you do it right the enemy will not turn around and shoot you if not killed.

So there you go your flanking mechanic. Fully implementet XCom Style

[kikimoristan]

Actually if the enemy looks away from you, you can practically do what you want.
Run up shot it in the face with Auto Heavy Plasma Fire, or let some else from behind take a aimed or snapshot from out of sight.
Or attack with a melee weapon or throw a grenade or what ever you want. Because if you do it right the enemy will not turn around and shoot you if not killed.

So there you go your flanking mechanic. Fully implementet XCom Style

LOL!

[Warboy1982]

you already get a "bonus" to your damage for shooting things in the back, due to every unit having weak armor in the rear.

[kikimoristan]

true!

[mrxian]

So, shortly put, OpenXcom has a strong flanking mechanic where you do additional damage (And considerable amounts of it, considering how armor works) against flanked enemies, and an enemy you are currently flanking will not shoot you for dancing in his face.

Sounds like a pretty solid flanking mechanic.

[Hythlodaeus]

Flanking was a set of mechanics introduced for compensating the non-directional aiming system of XCOM2012, along with the simplification of unit stats.

In the original UFO, having flanking would be redundant, because the game already does that automatically, by dimuinishing the chances of reaction fire and by having enemy units expose their less armored back to enemy fire.

Seriously, what else do you want? We're talking of a core set of mechanics that is actually BETTER and more complex than whatever XCOM2012 has to offer.

[kikimoristan]

True. You guys make good points.

I just come up with these ideas post them here but I like that everyone is engaged giving lots of points. This is not about making OpenXCom like EU2012 but improving OpenXCom using lore friendly mechanics. Some ideas may work some may not

[mrxian]

True. You guys make good points.

I just come up with these ideas post them here but I like that everyone is engaged giving lots of points. This is not about making OpenXCom like EU2012 but improving OpenXCom using lore friendly mechanics. Some ideas may work some may not

Think about it. You had an idea. A good idea. An idea that is so good that it is, effectively, already implemented.
You just failed to realize how it was already implemented, that's not a big deal.
So thanks for your idea.

[kikimoristan]

Think about it. You had an idea. A good idea. An idea that is so good that it is, effectively, already implemented.
You just failed to realize how it was already implemented, that's not a big deal.
So thanks for your idea.

Thanks sir. I don't wanna be spamming the forums but if I get an Idea i'll quickly post it so is not lost and let the community decide. Who knows maybe is a good idea. Or not

[Sharp]

I'd rather see a mod where cover reduces damage or chance to get hit (which would be relatively easy to do by making "shots on target" have more deviation than they have currently).

Cover does reduce chance to get hit. If your behind a fence and a shot hits the fence the fence takes the damage and you don't. I don't see why standing behind a fence would make the alien aim away from you.

Presenting a smaller target to hit means your less likely to get hit, it doesn't mean plasma is going to go away from you though.

XCOM2012 has a lot of different mechanics to OpenXCOM because of the way it is designed, flanking and cover and critical hits are all part of it's experience but OpenXCOM has many of the same features presented differently, flanking with reduced armour, cover with cover being hit, critical hits (and un-critical?? hits) with damage range on weapons