Mod suggestion (actually re-inclusion from the old old Xcom)

For requests, ideas and general mod talk
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PaulSoleil
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 7:54 pm

Mod suggestion (actually re-inclusion from the old old Xcom)

Post by PaulSoleil »

Hey guys, one of the things that made the old old (original Xcom) so brutal and tense was that the aliens' line of sight/fog of war was bigger than yours.

In other words, sometimes the "alien activity" would come on the screen and a plasma blast would come out of the fog and injure or kill (or miss) an Xcom operative. You then would have to dump your original strategy to seek and destroy whatever was shooting at you. (basically how real warfare really is...you can get shot out of nowhere and have to find what's going on)

In the reboot, everything is based on xcom's line of sight. If we see them, they can see us. And they ONLY can see us if we can see them first. That's not how the old old Xcom was. Was so much more exciting and tense, and forced you to think on your feet to change tactics.

Right now, without that forcing of you to take risks, you basically have methodical plods around the map, trying to pop only one pod at a time, which often makes each engagement one sided (our whole squad against 3 aliens). Nothing shakes up the crawl unless you accidentally pop more than one pop. Nothing is unpredictable like the old old Xcom. (and there are very few casualties now compared to the old old Xcom because of it)

Can you mod back in the one thing missing in the game play format that made Xcom so unpredictable and tense

Thanks guys!
Andor
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2016 12:48 am

Re: Mod suggestion (actually re-inclusion from the old old Xcom)

Post by Andor »

Actually in the old game it was light related. The aliens had better night vision that you did, but the humans had a slightly better sight radius in daylight. My usual solution to night missions and the light issues is to load an auto-cannon with incindieries and set the map on fire. :D Not recommended for terror missions. The npcs in the original are more than stupid enough to run through multiple tiles of fire and die.

At any rate I believe AI sight radius is addressable in the INI files, but I don't remember where. A search on the nexus might turn it up.
mikelimtw
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2016 5:47 am

Re: Mod suggestion (actually re-inclusion from the old old Xcom)

Post by mikelimtw »

Andor wrote:Actually in the old game it was light related. The aliens had better night vision that you did, but the humans had a slightly better sight radius in daylight. My usual solution to night missions and the light issues is to load an auto-cannon with incindieries and set the map on fire. :D Not recommended for terror missions. The npcs in the original are more than stupid enough to run through multiple tiles of fire and die.

At any rate I believe AI sight radius is addressable in the INI files, but I don't remember where. A search on the nexus might turn it up.
Actually, this would be a good mod for the Sectopods. They have larger eyes which could suggest that they can see better at night and might suffer a disadvantage during daylight hours. Mechanical/robotic based enemies and troopers should get sight bonuses day and night. Snakemen should get bonuses during the day and be handicapped at night like most reptiles. Humans would need to have night-vision and thermal technology to negate handicaps at night. Actually, this could open up a rather interesting new mod that takes into account day and night cycles and how that affects soldiers and enemies alike.
Andor
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2016 12:48 am

Re: Mod suggestion (actually re-inclusion from the old old Xcom)

Post by Andor »

mikelimtw wrote:Actually, this would be a good mod for the Sectopods. They have larger eyes which could suggest that they can see better at night and might suffer a disadvantage during daylight hours. Mechanical/robotic based enemies and troopers should get sight bonuses day and night. Snakemen should get bonuses during the day and be handicapped at night like most reptiles. Humans would need to have night-vision and thermal technology to negate handicaps at night. Actually, this could open up a rather interesting new mod that takes into account day and night cycles and how that affects soldiers and enemies alike.
I don't know if it could be done in XCOM EU/EW but in X-Com 2 they said day/night are functional game states so it should be possible to do.
lexo2000
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2016 1:33 am

Re: Mod suggestion (actually re-inclusion from the old old Xcom)

Post by lexo2000 »

I have to completely agree with the original post. when you were advancing an a farm and the plasma blast came in at a angle from the dark it stopped you in your track. Since the mortality rate from even a single shot was crazy high it was certainly clear who had control of the battlefield when you dropped your squad on the map.

Currently the spawning pods is totally crap. If i step on that square then i get a extra "insert scary gang" attacking me but if i stay one step behind and kill the first group before advancing that one extra meter its all good.
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Ranarius Webfoot
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2016 12:24 am

Re: Mod suggestion (actually re-inclusion from the old old Xcom)

Post by Ranarius Webfoot »

The one mod I'd MOST be interested in is one that makes it so, as soon as you break concealment, all of the pods on the map "split" into individual units and AI works as normal.

So, as soon as they know you're here, they all start to converge to take you out, and respecting cover as they do so.

You know, like they should be doing.

Is basic AI behavior like that even moddable?
fowlJ
Posts: 198
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2016 1:45 pm

Re: Mod suggestion (actually re-inclusion from the old old Xcom)

Post by fowlJ »

Ranarius Webfoot wrote:The one mod I'd MOST be interested in is one that makes it so, as soon as you break concealment, all of the pods on the map "split" into individual units and AI works as normal.
As it happens, precisely such a mod exists. As soon as you break concealment, all enemies on the map become 'active' at the end of the turn. There is however a downside to this, currently, which is that it plays the reveal animation for all of them, and in so doing reveals their (initial) location on the map.
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