Super-deadly Deep Ones: bug or feature?

[Caleb13]

I'm not sure whether this is bug or feature, so: I noticed Deep One terrorists are super-deadly in OpenXCOM. They can kill aquanauts with one shot on Experienced difficulty, even if they wear Mag. Ion Armour. When I MC'd one in the final T'leth mission on Veteran, it could kill a lobsterman with two hits. As such, Deep One attack is on par with Sonic Canon, except they have auto-fire capability. What is more, they can also reaction-fire now. It's been a few years I've played original TFTD, but as far as I can remember, armored aqanauts were pretty much immune to Deep Ones.

You can test it yourself, I'm attaching a save from ship terror mission on Experienced. When you end turn, two Deep Ones should emerge in front of aquanaut Dubaku Rajuli and behind his back. Deep One reaction fire is particularly deadly, it usually kills an aquanaut on the first hit. The save is from 2016-06-15 nightly.

[Warboy1982]

in essence: this is how they SHOULD be.
the ability to reaction fire is admittedly a difference from the original, but i'm not really of the opinion that this is a bad thing.
it's like the difference the improved pathfinding makes, it changes how the aliens behave drastically, but it's more akin to fixing a bug than adding a feature.

[Hobbes]

I'm not sure whether this is bug or feature, so: I noticed Deep One terrorists are super-deadly in OpenXCOM. They can kill aquanauts with one shot on Experienced difficulty, even if they wear Mag. Ion Armour.

The electric discharge from Deep Ones has 100 power, between the Sonic Rifle's 95 power and the Sonic Cannon's 130, although the Mag Ion Armor has a 0.9 damage modifier against sonic weapons, so the Rifle/Cannon have 85.5/117 against that armor. So, the Deep One's ability to deal damage is always a threat to aquanauts even with the Mag Ion Armor. This applies both to vanilla and OpenTFTD.

As Warboy1982 has explained, the difference is in reaction fire (in vanilla they never reaction fire) and more clever AI pathfinding

[Caleb13]

The electric discharge from Deep Ones has 100 power, between the Sonic Rifle's 95 power and the Sonic Cannon's 130, although the Mag Ion Armor has a 0.9 damage modifier against sonic weapons, so the Rifle/Cannon have 85.5/117 against that armor. So, the Deep One's ability to deal damage is always a threat to aquanauts even with the Mag Ion Armor. This applies both to vanilla and OpenTFTD.

Huh. Weren't Deep Ones bugged somehow in the original, then? Because I just tested it on TFTDextender - I MC'd a Deep One and let it shoot full volley of 9 shots point blank at an aquanaut. He had Mag. Ion Armor, but the Deep One shot into his back, where it is weaker. After full 3 volleys (27 shots), the aquanaut was still unharmed. I also tried to shoot a Tentaculat, but Deep One couldn't hurt it, either.

[Hobbes]

Huh. Weren't Deep Ones bugged somehow in the original, then? Because I just tested it on TFTDextender - I MC'd a Deep One and let it shoot full volley of 9 shots point blank at an aquanaut. He had Mag. Ion Armor, but the Deep One shot into his back, where it is weaker. After full 3 volleys (27 shots), the aquanaut was still unharmed. I also tried to shoot a Tentaculat, but Deep One couldn't hurt it, either.

Warboy1982 would be the person to answer your question if the original was bugged.

Before OpenTFTD there was no info regarding the actual damage ratings for the weapons used by TFTD's terror units, at least not on UFOPaedia.org, so OpenTFTD was the first time someone had a look on the original code at discover the actual values. The UFOPaedia's page regarding merely says: "Deep Ones are not a particularly dangerous enemy. While somewhat resistant to XCom's starting weapons, pretty much any researchable weapons will kill them easily. While innacurate, their own weapon is very dangerous to even the most heavily armoured Aquanauts." - This is based on the experience of the writer though, which is not 100% infallible and can be very biased.

Looking at it and considering the Damage Model used by TFTD (damage of shots can vary between 50-150% of stated value), then 100 Deep One shots at 50-150 damage against against 142 frontal armor should only pierce it on 8% of the hits. Unless, since the Deep One attack travels on an arc, the game considers it an Area Of Effect attack (like explosions) and uses the under armor instead (65 value). But this is just speculation on my part, I have close to zero knowledge of the actual code used.

Finally, what you have described could have some confirmation bias involved.

[Warboy1982]

Looking at it and considering the Damage Model used by TFTD (damage of shots can vary between 50-150% of stated value), then 100 Deep One shots at 50-150 damage against against 142 frontal armor should only pierce it on 8% of the hits. Unless, since the Deep One attack travels on an arc, the game considers it an Area Of Effect attack (like explosions) and uses the under armor instead (65 value). But this is just speculation on my part, I have close to zero knowledge of the actual code used.

just for the sake of clarification, arcing shots don't specifically hit the under armour, they hit just like normal projectiles.