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Author Topic: [Suggestion] Counter civilian stunning exploit  (Read 3936 times)

Online Delian

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Re: [Suggestion] Counter civilian stunning exploit
« Reply #15 on: July 20, 2022, 03:28:11 pm »
>how often do civilians actually get stunned?
As long as there exists a chance that aliens stun a single civilian, it's good enough cause for concern.

>You have yet to show that establishing who stunned a civilian is a relevant concern
I've already explained that it's a relevant concern because it would punish players who don't use that exploit. Should those players be punished regardless? Maybe. Perhaps a solution would be to write a function for dynamic score based on how damaged/stunned a civilian is at the end of the mission, regardless of who did it. But then, players could use destun items to destun stunned civilians to further game such a solution, so you'd need a counter to a counter to a counter...
Anyway, my position remains at "preserving vanilla behavior if the player isn't abusing the exploit", tho any solution would be better than no solution I suppose.

>using "unrealistic" would invalidate ~90 of the game mechanics.
Not that kind of unrealistic. Unrealistic based on the established game mechanics. I guess a better word would be "inconsistent". Generally it's good game design for game elements to behave in a predictable manner.

>squad tactics / medkits
Irrelevant.

>You only need to change two entries
You forgot "painImmune" in your mod. And no, it's way more complicated than that. Some mods use many different units as civilians. And in different roles. The same unit can sometimes be a civilian, other times an enemy. It would be complicated and with high maintenance cost. Also, any new modder that comes along would be oblivious of the problem and of the solution.
Essentially, this is a problem with the game, not a problem with any mod. So a solution that involves modding is at best a dirty hack.

>something that is pointless for anybody but you
You really need to tone down your personal incredulity. So far no major mod authors have given an opinion on the matter.

>you either have no idea what you're talking about or you're simply delusional
In the AIModule::setupPatrol() you have code where, in base defense missions, aliens seek out base modules to destroy. This code could be reused so that aliens would seek out tiles with stunned civilians on them to attack.
A more complicated solution would involve modifying AIModule::selectNearestTarget() so that if no valid visible targets are found, the function does a 2nd pass (so a low priority) over stunned civilians and returns the nearest one valid (visible, attackable, hostile unit has rifle, etc). Of course, other places in the class expect _aggroTarget to be a standing unit, so several other modifications would be required.

>If you simply can't refrain from stunning every last civilian while playing vanilla
I'm neither playing vanilla, nor have problems refraining from stunning civilians. But I'm worried about other players being unable to refrain from doing so, so I want to help them ;)
« Last Edit: July 20, 2022, 03:32:24 pm by Delian »

Offline Juku121

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Re: [Suggestion] Counter civilian stunning exploit
« Reply #16 on: July 20, 2022, 06:08:26 pm »
Can you actually elaborate what's the in-game reason for alien-stunned civs being penalty-free, yet player-stunned civs being penalised? I know if I were a civilian when plasma is flying overhead, and a black ops soldier conks me on the head so I wake up to the recovery teams and first responders... I wouldn't be angry. I'd be really grateful that I'm still alive and not plasmified.

Same thing with the scorekeepers: a live civilian is alive. Probably saw less of things he shouldn't have, too.

You really need to tone down your personal incredulity. So far no major mod authors have given an opinion on the matter.
You need to familiarise yourself with what 'personal incredulity' means. It does not mean that if someone points out you're standing on your soapbox all alone, maybe the problem is yours and yours only.

For the record, I have no opinion on whether you actually are alone (since there's scant evidence for either position being strongly supported), but your debating tactics are in quite poor taste.

As long as there exists a chance that aliens stun a single civilian, it's good enough cause for concern.
Since you like throwing around the word 'fallacy' a lot, this is the 'Think of the children!' fallacy. :-\

Offline krautbernd

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Re: [Suggestion] Counter civilian stunning exploit
« Reply #17 on: July 20, 2022, 07:19:26 pm »
>As long as there exists a chance that aliens stun a single civilian, it's good enough cause for concern.
No, it's not. If this happens once out of 100 terror missions it's inconsequential and no justification to prefer an overly complicated solution that - as far as we can tell - only benefits you. So far you've not provided any evidence that this is:

a) needed at all
b) cannot be "solved" using existing mechanics

>I've already explained that it's a relevant concern because it would punish players who don't use that exploit.
You've provided nothing to show that this is actually the case let alone relevant, and you're pretty much outright refusing to provide evidence for this.

>Anyway, my position remains at "preserving vanilla behavior if the player isn't abusing the exploit", tho any solution would be better than no solution I suppose.
Preserving vanilla behaviour means "aliens don't attack stunned units/ground objects", and you haven't provided any reason why this needs to be "solved", let alone in the way you’re requesting.

>Not that kind of unrealistic. Unrealistic based on the established game mechanics. I guess a better word would be "inconsistent".
Funny how you then consider perfectly consistent behaviour flawed and want to replace it by a convoluted and inconsistent mechanic that makes aliens attack some stunned units but not others. No my man, we're talking exactly this kind of unrealistic, and your reasoning why the aliens should do so is not based on any kind of consistency.

>You forgot "painImmune" in your mod.
painImmune or IgnorePainImmunity isn’t relevant for civilians units in vanilla.

>And no, it's way more complicated than that.
It literally isn't unless you chose to make it more complicated.

>Some mods use many different units as civilians. And in different roles.
And yet I don't see any modder besides you complaining about this being needed. This is still not an argument that changing armor definitions is complicated or impractical compared to modifying AI behaviour. This is pretty much just you complaining about being inconvenienced. I'd rather see you inconvenienced than developers wasting time on this that could be spent on relevant features and bugfixes.

>The same unit can sometimes be a civilian, other times an enemy. It would be complicated and with high maintenance cost.
I'm curious, how many units does this actually apply to, in say, XCF?

This is neither complicated, nor does it have any kind of "maintenance cost" (lol). This can also be implemented easily via RefNodes and/or enviroEffects using armorTransformations if need be. Again, claiming that this would be "impractical" and that messing with and implementing inconsistent AI behaviour would be preferable or in any way simpler or easier is delusional.

>Also, any new modder that comes along would be oblivious of the problem and of the solution.
It's kind of ironic that you are under the impression that "people don't know that I consider this to be a problem" is an argument in your favour.

>You really need to tone down your personal incredulity. So far no major mod authors have given an opinion on the matter.
So you don't consider ohartenstein's or Nord's oppinion relevant, let alone that of the main developers of OXCE? Interesting standpoint. Protip: "personal incredulity" isn't a counter argument when you've so far failed to show why this is needed and when you need to invoke imaginary modders that would *surely* benefit from such a feature. At this point my claim is as valid as yours, if not more so given your incoherent reasoning and the feedback you've received so far.

>In the AIModule::setupPatrol() you have code where, in base defense missions, aliens seek out base modules to destroy. This code could be reused[…]
What exactely is there to "reuse"? This is based on static MCD information (byte 60 - Xcom_Base). This isn't even the same kind of object class, let alone is it dependant on who's "side" the object is on or who applied to most (or final?) point of stun damage. I still don't see how any of this supports the idea that modifying armor values is "impractical" compared to changing, debugging and balancing AI behaviour. By all means, show us that it is and implement it yourself then.

>But I'm worried about other players being unable to refrain from doing so, so I want to help them ;)
Why are you so worried with how other players are playing the game that you need to propose an inconsistent and convoluted mechanic that doesn't actually benefit anybody but yourself? How does this actually benefit players? You've outright stated that you'd be fine with forcing this on others and modifying vanilla mechanics accordingly.

This is intended and consistent behaviour, not a flaw. It's not for you to decide that people are "playing the game wrong", let alone force detrimental and unnecessary changes on others.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2022, 07:30:31 pm by krautbernd »

Online Delian

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Re: [Suggestion] Counter civilian stunning exploit
« Reply #18 on: July 20, 2022, 09:53:43 pm »
Can you actually elaborate what's the in-game reason for alien-stunned civs being penalty-free, yet player-stunned civs being penalised?

The in-game reason is: "Aliens came to kill some civvies and they have a quota to fill. They can't fill this quota with all the unnaturally stunned civilians lying around. Therefore, they decided to also kill the stunned civilians".
If you're talking about the solution that revolves around a purely point penalty, then, "The government is scoring your conduct on a mission. You need to save all the civilians you can, but any additional harm to them for which you are personally-responsible will leave a severe blemish on your record."


So you don't consider ohartenstein's or Nord's oppinion relevant

Ah, I must've missed them among the mod authors, sorry about that. Yes, their opinion is relevant. Both recognized the issue, but neither expressed it in a clear-cut way on whether this should or shouldn't be fixed at an AI level. Both seem to favor the point penalty solution. I also think the point penalty solution is not bad, but again, a major problem with it is that players could destun civilians to bypass the penalty...

This is intended and consistent behaviour, not a flaw. It's not for you to decide that people are "playing the game wrong", let alone force detrimental and unnecessary changes on others.

So let me get this straight. You're arguing that, aliens being unable to attack unconscious units is intended behavior? And players abusing this fact by stunning civilians is "players playing the game the way it was intended"?

Offline Meridian

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Re: [Suggestion] Counter civilian stunning exploit
« Reply #19 on: July 20, 2022, 10:03:32 pm »
So let me get this straight. You're arguing that, aliens being unable to attack unconscious units is intended behavior?

Yes, it is, at least in OXCE.

And players abusing this fact by stunning civilians is "players playing the game the way it was intended"?

Neither yes, nor no.
This was not defined, thus players are free to think and do whatever they want.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2022, 10:06:35 pm by Meridian »

Offline Juku121

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Re: [Suggestion] Counter civilian stunning exploit
« Reply #20 on: July 20, 2022, 10:19:29 pm »
The in-game reason is: "Aliens came to kill some civvies and they have a quota to fill. They can't fill this quota with all the unnaturally stunned civilians lying around. Therefore, they decided to also kill the stunned civilians".
They can fill their quota regardless of who stunned the civilian. I didn't ask whether a penalty is appropriate. I asked why the distinction matters.

If you're talking about the solution that revolves around a purely point penalty, then, "The government is scoring your conduct on a mission. You need to save all the civilians you can, but any additional harm to them for which you are personally-responsible will leave a severe blemish on your record."
No even vaguely-realistic government is going to behave like that in anything but the most theoretical of exercises. Look up what happens during Robin Sage, for instance. Or what the Red Cell did to a certain security guard (and also in general).

The people funding your organisation are also likely a multitude of nations/polities/secret cabals. Them coming to such an agreement is highly unlikely. What really matters is the secrecy and body count, not whether the civvies can give glowing recommendations.

Finally, if they're anal like that, they'd also subtract score from alien stuns.

So, do you actually have an argument besides 'some players are abusing civilian stunning, make them stop!" Because that doesn't really endear you to anyone, and makes people prejudiced against you.

...a major problem with it is that players could destun civilians to bypass the penalty...
Incurring opportunity costs. Said costs also apply to stunning civilians in general, any civvie you spend time whacking is an alien you're not killing. Can also be mitigated to a lesser degree by making medical items more expensive to carry and use.

Now, I agree that entirely too often these costs are too low and I wouldn't mind a way to attach point penalties to stunned civilians, no matter how that happened. Implementing excessive bookkeeping and new AI routines when there are much more important things on the todo list, not so much.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2022, 10:21:20 pm by Juku121 »

Offline krautbernd

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Re: [Suggestion] Counter civilian stunning exploit
« Reply #21 on: July 20, 2022, 10:26:20 pm »
Yes, it is, at least in OXCE.

Neither yes, nor no.
This was not defined, thus players are free to think and do whatever they want.
Honestly kind of concerned either of these need to be explicitely pointed out.

But I'm sure OP will find a way to continue to argue that this needs to be "fixed" and that people are playing the game wrong.

The in-game reason is: "Aliens came to kill some civvies and they have a quota to fill. They can't fill this quota with all the unnaturally stunned civilians lying around. Therefore, they decided to also kill the stunned civilians".
No it isn't:
Quote
"When the aliens terrorize a city they will deploy some special forces with awesome powers. Civilians will be directly threatened, and governments will be forced to evacuate whole areas. The main purpose behind this activity is to generate sufficient public hysteria so that governments will threaten the X-Com project."

Nothing in the lore states that hey have "kill quota" to fill, or that killing people is the primary purpose. That is your head canon "justification" for why your idea is needed. Them "mass killing" civilians might as well be a direct result of X-COMs involvement for all we know.

And as Juku pointed out you're still contradicting yourself by claiming that it matters who stunned a unit. Stop claiming that this is about "consistency" instead of "realism". In fact it's neither, it's just you trying to come up with reasons why people need to be forced to play the game "the right way" - i.e. your way. It's also quite telling that you're unable or unwilling to adress the other obvious flaws and inconsistencies in your reasoning why changing AI behaviour is the best (or only) "solution" to a non-existent problem.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2022, 10:53:19 pm by krautbernd »

Offline Meridian

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Re: [Suggestion] Counter civilian stunning exploit
« Reply #22 on: July 20, 2022, 10:42:41 pm »
But I'm sure OP will find a way to continue to argue that this needs to be "fixed" and that people are playing the game wrong.

Even intended behavior can be changed, given right circumstances.
Wouldn't be the first time.
I'm just saying that it is indeed intended, nothing more.

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [Suggestion] Counter civilian stunning exploit
« Reply #23 on: July 21, 2022, 11:54:03 am »
I don't stun civilians, that's just stupid. But I know that many players do, which is why Piratez introduced a rather elaborate feature to make it less of an incentive (basically civilians carry a special item which is only recovered if this civilian dies or goes unconscious; this item gives negative points and also has to be "sold" at a negative price).

The very existence of this system in Piratez means that Dioxine considers this civilian stunning problem serious enough to spend non-trivial resources on.

I also kinda agree, but not enough to spend days on torturing the rulesets to get a similar effect.