playable advent mod: details, feedback

[DeathDraco137]

What I was suggesting was maybe if its even possible have the display itself show over the model not have it you can see the text through the alien. I was thinking of the display and the character model as two separate layers, for example say the display itself where the perks are shown are on one piece of paper and the character model is on a separate piece. Now it seems the problem is the paper with the model is on top, and when the model gets to big it starts to cover the paper with the display on it. Now I was suggesting that if its even possible have the paper with the display be on top of the one with the model so that even when the model gets really big you can still see the display itself because its on top. Does that help explain what I meant?

 

Also wanted to report a possible bug with the berserker. I just finished a defense mission and I noticed during it every now and again the berserker wouldn't be able to attack despite the fact that there were enemies in obvious range of it (like right next to it) and it had full action points. Also the berserker's shredder ability doesn't work, but I think that might be because it doesn't officially have a weapon or mine doesn't anyway when I go into the loadout screen. Attacked a shieldbearer with one armor and even after the berserker hit it (and knocked it unconscious) it still had one armor.

[davidlallen]

@ deathdraco, thanks for the long post! There are a lot of good ideas there. For shrinking the aliens in the armory screen, I did get a good lead on doing that, so I can probably put that into the next release.

 

For the gatekeeper and sectopod, I agree that keeping them from being OP will be a challenge. When you build any of the aliens, they appear at the level of your highest soldier, minus one. So it will probably be OK if they don't have much of a talent tree. Whichever person works on those will probably make the first draft of the tree. We may consider putting all their standard abilities into the tree, so that you have to use a number of the level-ups just to get their normal full strength.

 

Size will be a problem for the gatekeeper and sectopod in the skyranger. We haven't figured out how to have any effect on those animations. Maybe people can just ignore that. But a bigger problem will be that the sectopod has no "step up" animation. So, there are a lot of evac missions it won't be able to complete. We haven't thought about that very much.

[koopakidshyguy]

 

But a bigger problem will be that the sectopod has no "step up" animation. So, there are a lot of evac missions it won't be able to complete. We haven't thought about that very much.

 

I think a short range, long cooldown "telejump" like the codex's for whenever the sectopod is stuck would be suitable, integrating a step up animation may be more trouble than it's worth.

[DeathDraco137]

Yeah I thought about the step up problem with the Sectopod, and personally I think the Sectopod will just have to be used on missions where either you don't physically evac from or the player chooses the evac (I would think everyone would be able to tell which missions those are by the time they get a Sectopod, but I could be wrong). Just my opinion though as with both those missions you could just move it around the high ground cliffs, and buildings well it can just stomp through them. Though I do agree Koopakidshyguy's telejump idea is definitely a sound idea in my opinion for people that want to take their pet Sectopod(s) on every mission.

[funnyhalo1]

Honestly?

 

Before I became a contributor, and was using the mod that loaded in a bunch of aliens on a save, I used the secto all the time. If it had an evac zone I couldn't access (which was usually on top of a building) I'd just knock the building down with the secto and force the game to use a new evac zone, which was usually on the ground. =P

 

But yeah, for other scenarios where the evac zone could be on elevated territory, that could be a problem. I think I may know a way around this function wise, but it wouldn't work lore/animation wise, since it's a simple teleportation.

[davidlallen]

I wonder if there is a variation of the evac all capability which would allow the secto to evac from anywhere. It's not like it would fit into the skyranger anyway.

[koopakidshyguy]

I wonder if there is a variation of the evac all capability which would allow the secto to evac from anywhere. It's not like it would fit into the skyranger anyway.

You sure people wouldn't try cheesing that? Like "Oh no, my sectopod has 3 health left, I'm so scared... wait, I'll just have him shoot and then magically disappear," I know I'd do that, given the opportunity. Maybe if you give it a charge-up, it could work, you activate it the turn before and at the start of the next turn he evacs, so you can't use it as a mid-battle emergency move and keeps it lore friendly.

[DeathDraco137]

Again have to agree with Koopakidshyguy would definitely need to add a charge time or something to the tele-evac from anywhere because people will be using it to save there Sectos that are too far away from the evac to survive. Only putting a comment though because I believe I found another bug with the berserker where when it knocks ADVENT troops unconscious the enemy AI doesn't seem to know how to react or something and it ends up basically skipping its turn, and while it has saved my berserkers for the most part it would still be nice to see it get fixed just because it makes a mission very boring if the berserker knocks a unit out right away and the other aliens basically refuse to do anything but their scamper. Also I have tried killing the unconscious unit with a grenade and see if the AI starts giving enemy orders, still basically ends up skipping their turn.

[davidlallen]

Perhaps the "self evac" button for the sectopod could only be activated after some one other trooper evacs. IDK how to implement that anyway, just brainstorming. There seem to be problems putting the gatekeeper into the skyranger, so I assume the sectopod would have the same problem.

 

@ deathdraco, I did not quite understand your description. Suppose there is a pod with three soldiers, and the berserker knocks one unconscious. You are saying that the other two will scatter, but then never do any moves or fires after that? That seems very strange. Can anybody reproduce this, and maybe send a save game from just before? I don't know much about the AI but I don't see offhand why having one soldier unconscious should prevent the others from moving.

[DeathDraco137]

@DavidAllen the problem seems to actually effect every enemy on the map and that's exactly what happens (it'll show its the Alien's turn, but after a while of them refusing to do anything it swaps back to my turn). The enemies will move with their scamper but they refuse to move anymore than that, take shots, or anything after the berserker knocks one of the ADVENT soldiers out (I haven't seen it happen to an alien unit yet) and at first it happened when an enemy I added through a mod (sectoid commander) showed up and I thought that might have been the problem but it happened again when there wasn't one. I am going to try turning some of my other mods off though today, and make sure its not them causing it because I have a mod that adds extra dark events (don't see why that would cause it though), one that changes panic behavior (that might be it), and one that adds sectoid commanders as I said before. Otherwise all my mods just add customization options. Also going to report a bug with the chrysallid where after it kills an advent trooper you can choose to attack a blank spot where they died, going to notch it off to the game thinks there's a cocoon there when there isn't (basically when you choose the slash option you'll have the option of attacking a unit with a glitched out icon though there's nothing there at the location)