[DONE] [Feedback] [Documentation] Hunter-killer

[ohartenstein23]

How does the 'defenseless' feature interact with multiple interceptors? For example, your transport is guarded by an interceptor armed with a slow-firing missile - in-between shots of that missile, it sounds like the transport would fulfill all three of those criteria and get hit pretty hard, even though the escort is readying to fire again.

[Meridian]

How does the 'defenseless' feature interact with multiple interceptors? For example, your transport is guarded by an interceptor armed with a slow-firing missile - in-between shots of that missile, it sounds like the transport would fulfill all three of those criteria and get hit pretty hard, even though the escort is readying to fire again.

Alright, back to manually activated self-destruct button then...

[Ethereal]

Alright, back to manually activated self-destruct button then...

Taran, of course, preferable, in the absence of the ship X-COM opportunities to return fire(only when a single intercept - not a group). If that's the only way, let there be self-destruction.

[ohartenstein23]

Sorry to burst your bubble on it. I like the idea of the "going in for the kill" feature on defenseless craft, but with the fact that the dogfight windows are agnostic of each other makes it hard to check for escorts.

Can we get pointers to the other craft from the GeoscapeState somehow? We could then check for player craft that are targeting the transport, at the same location, and in a dogfight, to see if the transport is escorted.

Edit: Oh, we can check for other player craft from _game->getSavedGame(), right?

[Meridian]

Button added, original post updated.

[Meridian]

Update: since OXCE v6.5 the hunter-killers with "huntBehavior: 1" will fight until they reach 0% of their HP.

Until now they fought until 50% of their HP, same like other UFOs (but were destroyed instead of crashed).

[Nord]

Hint:
For custom GlobeMarkers to work, you need to delete the old rule,

Code: [Select]

extraSprites:
  - delete: GlobeMarkersDiscovered here.

[Meridian]

New feature since OXCE 7.4.4

Supply missions and Hunt missions generated by alien bases can now use also explicitly defined alien race(s)... until now the race always came from the alien base itself.

Attributes `genMissionRaceFromAlienBase` and `huntMissionRaceFromAlienBase`.

Example for supply missions:

Code: [Select]

alienDeployments:
  - type: STR_ALIEN_BASE_ASSAULT
    genMission:
      STR_ALIEN_SUPPLY: 25
      STR_ALIEN_TEST1: 25
      STR_ALIEN_TEST2: 25
      STR_ALIEN_TEST3: 25
    genMissionFreq: 6
    genMissionRaceFromAlienBase: false    # true (default) = take race from base (vanilla behavior); false = take from mission 'raceWeights' if not empty (if empty take from base)


Code: [Select]

alienMissions:
  - type: STR_ALIEN_SUPPLY
    raceWeights:
      0:
        STR_ETHEREAL: 50
        STR_MUTON: 50

Hunt missions work similarly.

[psavola]

Two more updates:

1. HKs don't attack craft returning from a mission anymore.

Because the player cannot redirect the craft and avoid HKs and/or enemy base.

I just noticed (2022-08-16) that if your craft runs out of fuel for whatever reason and is forced to return to the base going through an alien base territory, hunter-killer will spawn and destroy the craft.

The player cannot redirect the craft at that point, but has somewhat more control so that the crafts don't run out of fuel in a location where the return route goes through dangerous territory. But it still makes me wonder if this scenario should also be an exception?

[Solarius Scorch]

The player cannot redirect the craft at that point, but has somewhat more control so that the crafts don't run out of fuel in a location where the return route goes through dangerous territory. But it still makes me wonder if this scenario should also be an exception?

Not really my call, but I agree that such craft should also be immune to hunter killers.
One could say "you should have minded the fuel", but... it's really a long shot, not really workable.

[Meridian]

Done.

[psavola]

An observation: a returning craft through base radar range apparently still triggers the hunter-killer (but it won't appear on the globe unless there are other crafts nearby). If another craft is detected outside the radar range, the hunter-killer will attack it instead.

So this results in HK attacking a second craft which would not have triggered on its own. Is this also a scenario that should have been excepted (i.e. the HK won't spawn at all based on returning craft)?

In the attached screenshot, the craft returning to the base appeared to trigger the HK from the base. Triton accompanied by an escort was well away from the base or HK detection range, heading a round-about route to the landed UFO. The HK targeted the escort right away, even though it was outside its or base's detection range. I don't really grasp how this kind of "out of range targeting" could occur.. Does the spawned HK "invisibly" follow the returning craft and thus expand its detection range, for example? Attached is a save from TWoTS 2.56.

[Meridian]

A returning craft is ignored by hunter-killer UFOs.

It is not ignored by the alien base. The alien base can still create a new mission when somebody flies by.

This is also your case.
A new mission was generated, the generated HK has ignored the returning craft and happily continued flying around until it found your patrolling crafts and attacked them.

[Meridian]

Since OXCE v7.8.16, craft returning after mission or low on fuel will not trigger alien base hunt missions.

Reason 1: it is possible to abuse this to player's advantage
Reason 2: less confusion in situations similar to what happened above