Amineri Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 Bioelectric Skin detects all stealth in multiplayer. Is that another MP only feature? 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amanasleep Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Bioelectric Skin detects all stealth in multiplayer. Is that another MP only feature? 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amineri Posted January 27, 2014 Author Share Posted January 27, 2014 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. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wghost81 Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 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've seen this in my game: 4 soldiers had bioelectric skin and only one was actually using it. And it seemed to be a random soldier every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amanasleep Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 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. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReclusePhayder Posted August 26, 2014 Share Posted August 26, 2014 So I've been trying to reverse this change for the latest version of long-war. Tried to reverse engineer it to disable Psi-Shadow check for being flanked, but nothing seems to work. If inputting the before_hex code in GUI patcher, the game launches, but CTDs on start of tactical missions. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Any advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VSkyRimWalker Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 I know this is an old topic and all, but I can't seem to get the 3 edits of Amineri to work. Could anyone tell me how to get these to work with EW?(I've tried with PatcherGUI, but it just gives me an error message...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubiousintent Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 (edited) What is the error message from PatcherGUI? And which version of it are you using? -Dubious- Edited March 4, 2016 by dubiousintent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VSkyRimWalker Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 It just says "Error, can't patch UPK" or something very similar. But Amineri actually was kind enough already to explain to me why it wouldn't work: apparently this is from an older version of EW, and since it was patched the HEX in question no longer works. Sadly she said she hadn't kept it up to date, so no more balance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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