Reaction Fire

[jiltedjock]

give weapons an iReactionRange equal to their irange

 

change the values for reaction in the character arrays to something other than zero - tested so far is 1, 10, 100, 300

 

the result is snap shots:

 

during the aliens' first free move, at no cost to your movement points

during your and the alien's subsequent moves, without selecting overwatch. (for both sides, assuming you change their characters too)

 

i am still a bit unsure as to what the reaction value does - for example when I increased it to 300 I had a rookie who, after sprinting, took 3 reaction shots at different enemies. So possibly 100 = 1 reaction shot after sprinting, 10 = 1 reaction shot after one move. Needs a lot of testing.

Edited October 20, 2012 by jiltedjock

[Caiman]

Test on then! :) Sounds like you´re on to something interesting. :thumbsup:

[Anbar]

Reaction = Percent chance the UNIT will perform a reaction shot even when NOT on Overwatch. 100 = Always performs reaction shots. (For "Classic" Overwatch style gameplay set this to about 15%)

 

It works fine, been using it for a while.. HOWEVER... it has a serious side-effect of rapidly depleting ammunition.

 

"reaction" shots are, essentially, FREE... so no matter how many targets come into view, if this is set to 100 (or higher - although higher than 100 has no real effect!) then you will get a free shot at EACH new target.

 

If you raise ammunition, or make it unlimited, you will effectively break the game (lots & lots of free shots = game killer)

 

I would not use it above 15% as suggested above... that gives you a nice "bonus shot" every now and then, without seriously unbalancing the game. (opinion)

 

edit: OR, to put it another way.... at 15% 1 out of every 6 aliens will provoke a free shot....

OR... for every alien that comes into range, 1 of your 6 troops (assuming they can all see it) will *always* get a free reaction shot. (sort of)

 

Just be VERY CAREFUL messing with this setting, it is a SERIOUS game-killer... you have to think a bit laterally to see all the ways it can fubar game balance.

Edited October 20, 2012 by Anbar

[Seviche]

Just be VERY CAREFUL messing with this setting, it is a SERIOUS game-killer... you have to think a bit laterally to see all the ways it can fubar game balance.

 

No more game killing than the auto free-move the aliens get when you spot them first.... with your super-realistic sight range of 30 yards. So, no, it's not a game killer. It'll just change the way you play. Besides, for a team of "elite" soldiers, your troopers sure do have the reaction time of your average garden slug... so I think this is fine to play around with.

 

In fact, I recommend the OP be VERY CARELESS messing with this setting. It's not really ALL THAT SERIOUS of a game mechanic in a game that's pretty unbalanced to start with.

[Anbar]

Just be VERY CAREFUL messing with this setting, it is a SERIOUS game-killer... you have to think a bit laterally to see all the ways it can fubar game balance.

 

No more game killing than the auto free-move the aliens get when you spot them first.... with your super-realistic sight range of 30 yards. So, no, it's not a game killer. It'll just change the way you play. Besides, for a team of "elite" soldiers, your troopers sure do have the reaction time of your average garden slug... so I think this is fine to play around with.

 

In fact, I recommend the OP be VERY CARELESS messing with this setting. It's not really ALL THAT SERIOUS of a game mechanic in a game that's pretty unbalanced to start with.

 

Not really interested in the whole "real soldiers should be able to *whatever*" i'm afraid: you'll need to take that argument elsewhere. ¬_¬

 

-----

 

Reaction fire takes place whenever an enemy moves into LOS, if it moves into LOS, then out and back in again... you get reaction fire (opportunity) twice.

(It may be even worse than that in fact)

It counts for every target, every turn..even if you've used all your turn movement, shot, reloaded etc etc.

Reaction fire takes place via squad-sight also.

If 3 aliens come toward your 6 soldiers you can get 18+ free reaction shots.

 

 

Use it, abuse it, it doesnt really bother me, but for anybody to say that it isnt a potential game-killer is pretty silly or the person doesnt grasp the full measure of what the setting can do.

 

/em shrugs

[Seviche]

Not really interested in the whole "real soldiers should be able to *whatever*" i'm afraid: you'll need to take that argument elsewhere. ¬_¬

I wasn't making that argument; I was making a comment about the whole idea of breaking something already hideously unbalanced and unrealistic merely by changing one setting. How do you break something unrealistic? You don't, you just change it in another unrealistic fashion. You merely change the "Wait, WTF just happened?" vector of the game.

Use it, abuse it, it doesnt really bother me, but for anybody to say that it isnt a potential game-killer is pretty silly or the person doesnt grasp the full measure of what the setting can do.

 

/em shrugs

It's not a "potential" game breaker. The game is already broken. Messing with that one setting evens the playing field at the expense of your ammunition burn rate. So your "game-breaking" setting modification is still balanced in the end. Pity you don't "grasp" that. *shrug*

[PepprmintButler]

I suggest we keep the "is this a good/balanced mod and why" (which is a very subjective topic and, beauty of modding, does not need any form of consensus) talk to a minimum and focus on the technical aspect of it, shall we ?

(although I'll state for the record I'm 100% with Anbar)

 

I've tried a bit of testing the reaction value, but I still need to find a reliable test method. Will report when I find something the OP didn't already.

Edited October 21, 2012 by PepprmintButler

[defKAB]

In my (admittedly limited) experience, I've played a few missions with my soldiers have a 10 percent reaction chance...

In my moderation, I feel it really helped things, but it does add ANOTHER reaction. Overwatch can then, possibly have two reactions, BUT it'll only trigger on different triggers. You wont get two shots on one movement, but if a sectoid moves in, you get your overwatch. If he then runs for cover, you have the chance for another. It's apparent, however, that Overwatch takes priority to the Reaction stat, so for those few abilities that use Overwatch, it'll apply to that first Reaction, and then technically you're no longer on Overwatch, so you wont have abuse issues in that aspect.

Dunno how much help that is tho...

[jiltedjock]

if you are going to use it I would recommend giving it to the alien characters too. the main effect is that you can't go charging past known enemy positions without incurring some risk of being shot at. i think a value in the 10 to 20 range is about right. it means you still have to use overwatch but you might get a second bite at the cherry. but conversely so might the enemy.

[Mashadar]

give weapons an iReactionRange equal to their irange

 

change the values for reaction in the character arrays to something other than zero - tested so far is 1, 10, 100, 300

 

Can you clarify on the second? The only character array with a reaction value is the same one that lists civilians along with the rest of the alien troops. Did you mean that one? And if so, which one is the one for XCOM troops? Soldier?