Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N9.7.7 12-Sep-2024 Second Coming

[Kharim]

It is already implemented, so I'm not sure what you mean by it's missing.

Alright, however I have never seen it working during my playttrough. Will keep an eye on it.

[Solarius Scorch]

Alright, however I have never seen it working during my playttrough. Will keep an eye on it.

Oh, I assure you it works... In the worst possible moments!

I remember such a situation in Meridian's LP... If I recall correctly, one of his gals dropped some heavy weapon, the next turn a guard woke up, picked up the gun and shot her in the back.

[Meridian]

Oh, I assure you it works... In the worst possible moments!

I remember such a situation in Meridian's LP... If I recall correctly, one of his gals dropped some heavy weapon, the next turn a guard woke up, picked up the gun and shot her in the back.

Yeah, they picked up a heavy gauss and evaporated her. Bastards!

[Foxhound634]

I too have actually never seen aliens pick up weapons, even when unarmed and standing right next to one. I guess it's more of an occasional choice rather than their first priority?

As for the static weapon platform, maybe your strongest gals should be able to pick it up and place it in a better location (of course, this should be quite heavy and cost a lot of TUs)? Heh, or maybe have tanks act as halftracks, towing heavy equipment

[Kharim]

Heh, or maybe have tanks act as halftracks, towing heavy equipment

Towing a rocket turret behind a tank? Sounds fun!

[Starving Poet]

They definitely do pick up weapons but they can only do it after they've panicked... or if they've dropped it due to panicking... something to do with panicking.   It's part of the vanilla logic and it was disabled in the OG because it was never fully implemented.   If they would drop what they were carrying to grab a better weapon, it could be exploited rather easily to setup "overwatch traps"

[Solarius Scorch]

Towing a rocket turret behind a tank? Sounds fun!

Yes, I totally dig this idea. No idea how it could be coded - I mean, there's no way something that new and complex would ever be added to the code - but I really like the balance of this solution. It feels right.

They definitely do pick up weapons but they can only do it after they've panicked... or if they've dropped it due to panicking... something to do with panicking.   It's part of the vanilla logic and it was disabled in the OG because it was never fully implemented.   If they would drop what they were carrying to grab a better weapon, it could be exploited rather easily to setup "overwatch traps"

That's what the devs said. And it's true of course, but the solution would be pretty easy. Something like "don't pick up anything if you already have a weapon". Considering that unarmed aliens (those with natural weapons are not unarmed) don't pose a threat anyway, I don't think it'd be a problem.
Of course it also needs to factor in the attraction value.

[legionof1]

The sentry unfortunately suffers rather alot from a issue alot of the auxiliary/hwp's suffer from, a moderately experienced and properly equipped gal is flat out better. The sentry exists to provide hvy firepower to secure craft exit against strong opposition. However the binary nature of reaction fire checks(TU+ reaction vs TU+ reaction) means that experienced gals can often get off several shots before taking return fire in the sentry's exact best case.

The only hwp's that remain valid all game are parrot/dogs because expendable and cheap. And tanks for tanking. even the tanks durability comes at a loss of firepower and total HP vs 4 gals worth of space it uses.

[ivandogovich]

Another note about the Sentry Gun turret design:

The current implementation lacks anticipated modding features:  The ability to configure the number of allowable waypoints.  By setting this to two waypoints, the rocket would be able to hook out around the end of the landing craft and hit targets, but would not be as OP as say, the blaster launcher.  This ability has been implemented in the nightlies, but not yet been merged into the OpenXcom Extended branch.  This will happen the next time Yankes synchs these up. 

tldr:  It will get better, and more useful down the road.

[Arthanor]

It would be so cool to be able to define horizontal arcs as well as vertical ones to create real 3D arcing trajectories. Then guided missiles could actually curve around obstacles (guided by input target locations or "free" laser painting by spotters) instead of making sharp turns at way points.

[Stoddard]

It would be so cool to be able to define horizontal arcs as well as vertical ones to create real 3D arcing trajectories. Then guided missiles could actually curve around obstacles (guided by input target locations or "free" laser painting by spotters) instead of making sharp turns at way points.

With a ton of work one can make waypointed weapons follow some kind of 3D spline, but think about it - you will never be able to tell what the projectile will accidentally hit on its way. It's quite cool in Dwarf Fortress kind of way, I grant you that.

[Arthanor]

That'd be mean! picking a random spline that hits stuff is not really appropriate. What I was thinking is some kind of algorithm which works similarly to the current 1D curvature (ie draw a straight line in x and y, arc in z) but does it in 3D (enabling curving on the x-y plane along with the z curve). Of course, finding a working 3D curve is a ton of work indeed That's why I presented it as a cool idea, not as a feature suggestion

[Kharim]

I just played my first base defense mission in Xpiratez, if only I could decide about placement of that sentry turret... Good I had firepits and only two chokepoints to defend (great that SAM sites have their upper level corridors barred!), at first I have worried about level 0 canals, but eventually I have managed to use them as a flanking route and it worked great.

[legionof1]

I'd forgotten about that particular irritation. Spent a turn or 3 cutting through bunks to free a gal from behind sentry.

[yotc]

Another thing- during my playthrough I have managed to manufacture a Sentry Gun/Rocket-  static defense platform. I can load it into ship but obviously it doesn't move at all. I don't really get the idea behind this unit. The only situation I can picture it useful is when my ship has landed with its rear towards enemy so the sentry can actually shoot something. Is there some application that I am missing?

I have gotten lucky with this once or twice and just had its first turn wreck like 10 aliens on a terror mission.  but then I had to leave the ship from the drop hole and roof and it wasn't great so it's use is varied.  If it had like 1 waypoint it would be 10000x more useful to the point of brokenness though.