Changing Fog of War & LOS

[morgante]

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.

[shiwan8]

You could in theory add an item that works like the sniper ability, has range of 1-2*soldier sight range (ie. 27-54) and the center of the are is the soldier that uses the skill. If made so then I'd make laser pistol work like taser pistol (adding the stun-ability somehow) for ranged "submissions" and use the arcthrower model as the scanner ability. There would be no need to replace the sniper ability since it is a ranged version of this and as such has it's uses just like it has now.

 

EDIT: I think the vanilla arcthrower version was a half assed mistake from devs. Ranged, even like 6 squares ranged taser-gun makes infinitely more sense than a lightning gun with 1m range. Hell, I'm pretty sure the stuff under the link included here would be available to Xcom...

 

http://www.military.com/video/defense-systems/nonlethal-weapons/crazy-reporter-tries-taser-grenade/889220383001/

Edited October 20, 2012 by shiwan8

[babyjebu5]

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?)

You might try changing the line that begins with the following:

Weapons=(iType=eItem_BattleScanner ... eWP_NoReload

 

..with:

eWP_UnlimitedAmmo

:)

 

---

 

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?

Until we can touch scripts I think that changing the length of the effect is out, unless your fuel idea works..

 

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?

 

I am not sure what would happen if you changed:

Characters=(iType=eChar_BattleScanner ... FlightFuel=0

to:

FlightFuel=1

..but it could give you a direction to go with it later, at the very least (when we get into altering what Fuel can limit, for example)

 

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.

If we could reduce the duration to one turn, then it would need constant monitoring to be effective (and the above UnlimitedAmmo to be fair). Probably located in scripting; but tell me what happens if you give "FlightFuel=1" to a "Char_BattleScanner" (I guess, literally a character with a battle scanner?)

 

Ha; a funny thought - it might give the character with the scanner movement and flight lol

Edited October 29, 2012 by babyjebu5