A way to boost alien/ops a.i

[wcho035]

Recently installed a turret on the Alien UFO. I find the A.I of the turret kind of slow. Unless it is facing toward at the soldier’s direction, it wouldn’t even react.

I tried boosting the turrets aggression and intelligence, it’s response rate is less than satisfactory.

Is there anything in the ruleset I miss that could use to boost the turret’s

1) it actually rotate continuously to search for target or enemy.

2) Response and lethality? AKA if it is under attack it turn toward the target and counter fire immediately.

[Meridian]

1/ no

2/ as soon as it is hit the first time, it will be aware of the attacker... and if the attacker attacks again it will turn around and react (if it has enough TU and rections)

[wcho035]

Oh well I done my best. Thanks again Meridian.

[ohartenstein23]

There is also the sniper/spotter AI feature that I've used with turrets. Set the turrets with a "sniper" value on the unit definition, give some aliens a "spotter" value. The turret will have a chance of shooting what the aliens see even if it can't see anything. Check the ruleset reference for what the values do.

[wcho035]

Thanks for the tip ohartenstein23. Been testing Alien organic turrets inside ufos. Been a lot of fun, you guys think it is cheating to have an alien egg grenade that spawn a turret?

[Meridian]

...you guys think it is cheating... ?

No, defensive structures sounds like something a space faring civilization should have invented by now

[wcho035]

Thanks Meridian.

Well, I have created both deployable turrets for Aliens and Humans opponents. A few are available also on the player side.  Check my resources thread for screenshots.

I hope the Aliens threw grenades more often, because I plan to put quite a few of them in the Alien deploysment.

I made two type of Alien turrets. One sonic and the other spit out Headhugger eggs by lots of them. Headhuggers can make any players soldier turn into zombie and then later spawn into Spitters and Megaworm, both lay or spit Headhugger eggs by heaps.

This give "bug hunt" a whole new meaning in any of my ufo missions involving aliens..

[Hobbes]

No, defensive structures sounds like something a space faring civilization should have invented by now

Beware of your assumptions

[The Martian]

Recently installed a turret on the Alien UFO. I find the A.I of the turret kind of slow. Unless it is facing toward at the soldier’s direction, it wouldn’t even react.

I tried boosting the turrets aggression and intelligence, it’s response rate is less than satisfactory.

Is there anything in the ruleset I miss that could use to boost the turret’s

1) it actually rotate continuously to search for target or enemy.

2) Response and lethality? AKA if it is under attack it turn toward the target and counter fire immediately.

I don't think there is a way to do what I'm about to suggest currently...

But if the unit was induced into a "Berserk" state at the beginning of each of its turns I believe it would auto-rotate and assign itself to attack the nearest target.

However, as a negative it would also unfortunately target friendly units if they are closer and the "Berserk" state would drain all TU preventing reaction fire during the player's turn.

[wcho035]

With this berserk state, are you trying to do this to your own unit or the enemy?

[The Martian]

With this berserk state, are you trying to do this to your own unit or the enemy?

In the theoretical example I mentioned it would be the turret unit you described which would go berserk every time its turn started. Unfortunately I don't know of a way to cause that to happen.


I think Ohartenstein23's proposed sniper/spotter solution is the better way to go as even if you could make a unit berserk every turn it would be unable to react fire during the players turn due to lack of TU.

If the turret remembers any targets the spotter units saw for a large number of turns then it is more likely to be ready to fire on them first chance it gets.

If I understand correctly the 'spotter' variable determines how long the turret would remember the enemies that other units have seen, so as long as any of the 'spotter' type enemies had previously seen your X-Com units the turret unit would be already alert to them and ready to fire first chance it got.

Additionally a range limit on the turret's weapon could keep it from gunning down the entire map if you don't want it to react at a great distance to units spotted by other aliens.

[ohartenstein23]

That description of the spotter value is correct. I also agree that there should be some limit on the turret, having seen how effective spotter/sniper heavy weapons can be in the 40k mod. Reduced weapon range and sight range without a spotter sounds like a good idea to me.