Changing Fog of War & LOS

[morgante]

After two days of waiting for a response in a separate sub-forum, I've copied my request for help making a specific type of mod here.

 

A deeply fulfilling aspect of the older games (UFO Defense and TFTD) was the "bug hunt" -rationing Time Units and using light sticks, scanners and mechanized units to just find the aliens, which correspondingly affected the player's tactics to survive and overcome their enemies.

 

This turned into frustration in a few ways: when the player just couldn't find the last alien, because it was hiding (un-moving) in a closet, stuck in a shadowed cul-de-sac, or even embedded in a solid object (a code bug). Or when the maps and the aliens synergized so perfectly that the alien was almost guaranteed to kill at least one soldier because it could hide in a nook, not move, draw the soldiers in, and then spring out and one-shot-kill them with an attack. I'm looking at you, you creepy jellyfish "Tentaculat."

 

So, I'm trying to find a range of options to either:

-expand or reduce the existing fog of war (showing a LOT more or less of the map, regardless of the sight-radius of the player's soldiers)

-expand or reduce the existing line of sight between entities (their view distance to each other)

-create or adjust a timed effect to these prior two range of conditions

So far, two obvious methods have failed:

-adjusting the SightRadius of any soldier over the standard 27 square radius guarantees a crash to desktop sooner or later. (Experimentally, I've managed to complete a few missions with it set to 32 -but eventually, it will crash the game, even after working for a few turns)

-adjusting the sniper's scanner to display a MUCH wider radius, or more usefully, to have many more 'uses/charges' per mission (where is the parameter to adjust the number of charges an ability like this? Is there another way to enable this feature as an equip-able item?)

 

If these challenges can be sidestepped/overcome, is there a way to set a timer on the effect? So, for handheld or throw-able scanners, can they be set to last only a few turns, like when a battery runs out?

 

For removal of Fog of War, could it also be set to last for a few turns, like an unmanned aerial vehicle with a limited or costly fuel supply, or a simple light stick (aka electro-flare) that lights up an area, but doesn't necessarily show if enemies are there? Or if it can be a "reverse" FoW, like a smoke bomb that REALLY blocks line of sight (not just provides a defense bonus), but only for 2 turns?

 

What has been successful is reducing the throw range of a tossed scanner, but it's still not the same as an old handheld motion detector, ala the movie "Aliens" which requires a soldier to persistently monitor it.

 

Thanks for reading this, any modding ideas are welcome.