amanasleep

Bioelectric Skin and Battlescanners work for both sides in Multiplayer matches, but I guess that doesn't mean they work for aliens though. Would be awesome if aliens could foil stealth since it's so game breaking against them.

This matched up with my experience as well. Were anyone to create MP oriented modding I would be interested.

It's best to post this in the Long War Beta 13 Feedback thread. http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/?tab=4&&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fxcom%2Fajax%2Fcomments%2F%3Fmod_id%3D88%26page%3D1%26sort%3DDESC%26pid%3D0%26thread_id%3D1884195&pUp=1

This dialogue could be started with a Direct Message through Twitter to Jake Solomon. I think a direct request from Johnnylump in particular would be considered seriously.

Understood. It's just pretty clear at this point that the 2k Forums channel does not prioritize issues for the Devs effectively. Every time a major issue gets tweeted to the leads it gets a prompt response. For my part I'll keep lurking here to find out what's really going on and I'll keep trying to make sure that important issues are communicated through whatever channels.

I'm serious though. You guys know more about the game than anybody, and you can isolate specific technical issues and express them in ways that will get a dev's ears to prick up. Don't you want them to start thinking about mod tools and unlocking map building and stuff?

Do you tweet @agauntpanda? You and other modders really should. A few tweets were literally the first time Garth and Ananda heard about Keybinding getting broke, and Ananda issued a swift apology and a pledge to fix.

Is this the proper hotkey and not just a keybind?

This is actually already true, as the code that computes "goodness" of movement positions doesn't take into account stealth. So basically the AI gets to shield scan in order to find non-flanked positions to move to, but it also knows which positions will enable it to flank a unit, even if that unit is stealthed. And with these mods, performing the flank removes the stealth effect, allowing shooting. The only thing the AI isn't allowed to do (it doesn't know how) is to toss AoE damage to try and catch a stealthed unit in the blast. --------------- Regarding bioelectric skin -- I've been encountering a possible bug in vanilla if more than one XCOM unit has the ability. In this case only 1 unit actually triggers the bioelectric particle FX. I've tested this with 1, 2, and 3 units with the ability, and it's only ever 1 unit that triggers the effects. I don't know how revealing of stealthed units would work, and naturally the AI isn't coded to be able to "see" the bioelectric particle FX. This also occurs in MP. However, even though the particle effect will only work in areas where the fields overlap, multiple fields will reveal cloaked units independently out to their full radius.

Well, there are a couple of abilities related to stealth that appear to be MP only: eAbility_ActivateStealthMP and eAbility_DeactivateStealthMP. The Seeker gets both of these abilities. I tried giving them to a soldier unit, but it had no effect. I also gave a soldier unit the Seeker stealth ability in SP, and the unit had unlimited duration stealth, with no timer counting down. However all of the code I've found related to eAbility_ActivateStealthMP doesn't seem to be conditional on being in a multiplayer match. As to whether bioelectric skin reveals stealth otherwise ... I'm not sure. It definitely removes Seeker stealth in SP, but that's the only alien stealth possible. I haven't yet tested giving alien Bioelectric Skin or Mimetic Skin, although I think both should work. I assume Seekers need these for MP because they cannot be Mind Controlled in SP so there is no use for those abilities. Also, I believe that SP Seekers have unlimited Stealth turns so the ability implementation appears to be a balancing decision. I absolutely think Alien units should get Bioelectric Skin as an ability. This would change the game dramatically. Thematically it makes a lot of sense to give it to Chryssalids at minimum. It would be a good upgrade for Sectoid Commanders and Etherials as well. In the case of Berzerkers, I would suggest that you code them to ignore stealth (if possible) and use Bull Rush on stealthed unit positions if possible. In fact I wouldn't mind if all alien units ignored stealth (aliens know stealth unit's position, but cannot fire on it). This would balance the fact that the player can shield scan to find stealthed or otherwise out of LOS aliens.

It appears that bioelectric skin is hard-coded to only remove seeker stealth, not stealth in general. However it appears that the way that the AI is coded, it bases its movement on positions -- positions that can be flanked or, will result in the unit being flanked. These calculations appear to take into account stealthed units, so effectively the AI knows where the stealthed unit is, but simply is unable to actually target the stealthed unit (I envision this like the Predator stealth where you can kind of tell where the unit is). Alien units will move to get out of being flanked by stealthed units, and know how to move to flank a stealthed unit (which with the above changes will break the stealth, allowing the alien to shoot at the unit). Bioelectric Skin detects all stealth in multiplayer. Is that another MP only feature?

Patch appears to be out: Steamdb.info has the details: about 3 hours ago Changed Depots 200524/manifests/local: 7634550751683547080 › 3523071468591340335 239611/manifests/local: 35227892197345556 › 5125292964508307141 239613/manifests/local: 6674626164324208801 › 2232415522583377931 239614/manifests/local: 3564840095358917743 › 3665409324116367448 239615/manifests/local: 2088330805415867293 › 7568510185970565801 239616/manifests/local: 284753000885733139 › 2640588613196602427 239617/manifests/local: 384780111558113330 › 187593125508629090 239618/manifests/local: 116357021336944192 › 6589315801036310170 239619/manifests/local: 28728337118389002 › 2336787533608611712 239620/manifests/local: 104805678445749475 › 8312956560941512889 239621/manifests/local: 1044082872451034769 › 7427899575893169649 239622/manifests/local: 393954813390701020 › 2617349663792162128 239623/manifests/local: 2643480763377385141 › 182069866110214533 239624/manifests/local: 712864875086334265 › 282054066920302911 branches/local/buildid: 140641 › 149222 I'm not at home and of course 2K never posts patch notes. Anybody have access to their EW install to test out changes?