Questions about alien movement

[Rexxx]

Here they come, it's a long list containing questions I posted before and some new ones...

The maps I did so far work (well, using daishiva's program making them work is not so hard).

However, there are still questions about the route maps. Basically they work too, the aliens move around and sometimes they are even capable of setting up ambushes (waiting in corners for the first x-com soldier entering the room). However, these ambushes do not occur so frequently as I hope.

 

Thus said, here comes the list...

1. How important is the value for "distance"? What will happen if I use a value too big or too small? I ask because determining the "distance" values for diagonal movements is unclear to me, the lines drawn by daishiva's program sometimes only slightly touch a tile. Does such a tile add "1" to the distance?

 

2. Can I control the facing when the aliens are placed? When I let aliens spawn on unconnected nodes in very promising positions (in a corner, at the end of a hallway) quite often their facing is just wrong making them an easy kill. They are examining the walls when they get killed. From my experience I would say the game doesn't care about facing, it's just randomly determined when placing the aliens. Is that true? Unconnected nodes and aliens with the "correct" facing spawn on them would mean lots of x-com casualties (if the soldiers enter the ship before the stupidity bug rears its ugly head).

 

3. Do you know how many TUs the aliens use for their movement? So far I found no pattern. Sometimes they use up all of their TUs to get to nodes, sometimes they don't. What determines that decision?

 

4. When an alien sits on a soldier-node connected with five others (assuming all of there are soldier-nodes too and that they are "free"). Do you know which criteria are used for the decision to which node it walks (randomly, the nearest one)? Will they only move to the next node or will they try to get to another one with their so far unused TU's. (Sometimes in my tests in found aliens between two nodes with their TU's completely used up, sometimes they only went to the next node with 80% of their TUs unused).

 

5. After being not very successful with my unconnected nodes I tried - assuming that facing doesn't not change after an alien get to a node - a different approach. Placing a node in a corner and another one in direction of the next door. Theoretically the alien should move to the latter looking to the door, making up a nice ambush. Is that assumption correct, doesn't change facing after the alien get to a specific and decides to stay there? Which again lead to questions 3 and 4....

 

As you can see I'm pretty clueless about the mechanisms which determine alien movement. Maybe all of them all purely randomized? Maybe the possibilities of setting up ambushes are very limited due to restrictions of the game engine itself? Maybe I want too much?! I just have to know...

 

R.

[BladeFireLight]

1. How important is the value for "distance"? What will happen if I use a value too big or too small? I ask because determining the "distance" values for diagonal movements is unclear to me, the lines drawn by daishiva's program sometimes only slightly touch a tile. Does such a tile add "1" to the distance?

Distance only plays a role when a unit is low on movement.. they try to end each turn on a node. so they will chose the final move of the round based on perceived time units spend...

2. Can I control the facing when the aliens are placed? When I let aliens spawn on unconnected nodes in very promising positions (in a corner, at the end of a hallway) quite often their facing is just wrong making them an easy kill. They are examining the walls when they get killed. From my experience I would say the game doesn't care about facing, it's just randomly determined when placing the aliens. Is that true? Unconnected nodes and aliens with the "correct" facing spawn on them would mean lots of x-com casualties (if the soldiers enter the ship before the stupidity bug rears its ugly head).

Unfortunetly no. facing is random... on a spawn node with no links, the alien will rotate on there turn .. but alwase seem to end the turn facing the way they started... my solution is to place 2 to 3 nodes.. only one of them spawn.. and link them to get the unit to pase in the corner.. then they tend to have a heigher change of spoting the rookie as he opens the door..

A perfect example of this is in TFTD the Hunter (UFO06) the second level sniper post is verry efective if some one spawn there.. and in the harder levels this is will happen alot.

3. Do you know how many TUs the aliens use for their movement? So far I found no pattern. Sometimes they use up all of their TUs to get to nodes, sometimes they don't. What determines that decision?

the TU's for movement on a paticular serface is in the Tile's MCD info pane.. most floor tiles it's 4TU's. As I said above, they just try to end a turn on a node. however they will reserve time units based on the dificulty level of the game.. (the original maps the leader/comander units never moved that is why they alwase have time to pick off all 6 xcom uints that walk through the door in one round)

4. When an alien sits on a soldier-node connected with five others (assuming all of there are soldier-nodes too and that they are "free"). Do you know which criteria are used for the decision to which node it walks (randomly, the nearest one)? Will they only move to the next node or will they try to get to another one with their so far unused TU's. (Sometimes in my tests in found aliens between two nodes with their TU's completely used up, sometimes they only went to the next node with 80% of their TUs unused).

the choice of movement is totaly random.. if it chooses one it' cant reach that turn it mostlikly wait till the next round to move to it... on really long links they will moved partway but it's rare. usualy they wait and chose agian the next round

5. After being not very successful with my unconnected nodes I tried - assuming that facing doesn't not change after an alien get to a node - a different approach. Placing a node in a corner and another one in direction of the next door. Theoretically the alien should move to the latter looking to the door, making up a nice ambush. Is that assumption correct, doesn't change facing after the alien get to a specific and decides to stay there? Which again lead to questions 3 and 4....

they will rotate to look but usualy end the round fasing the direction they ended entering the node. this may be a viable solution but not one the lends to the best placemnt of 'suprises'

 

-Blade FireLight

[Zeno]

BladeFireLight, I mentioned to Rexxx once before about making soldiers visible to the aliens (regardless of line of sight). It seems the aliens become "smarter" when they spot a soldier, and they will move to engage or at least face in the direction of the soldier.

 

Is it possible to force the aliens to spot the soldiers? It makes the aliens capable of across-the-map shots at soldiers not under cover, but it should also help reduce alien stupidity. And personally, I don't mind the idea of aliens with long range, x-ray vision. They're supposed to be able to detect brain waves, aren't they?

 

I don't know how this would affect RMP coding, as I have never done it. This is more of an after-RMP-coding-is-finished method for (potentially) improving AI.

 

--Zeno

[Rexxx]

BladeFireLight

Thanks a lot for your answers.

Can you tell me exactly which nodes you mean in the TFTD hunter ship (the row of 4 nodes above the entrance?).

 

Regarding Zeno's proposal: another possibility might be ufo walls transparent in only one direction (if such a quality could be implemented). Then, they could see the x-com soldiers approaching and prepare for them.

 

R.

[BladeFireLight]

yes the ones above the enterance...

 

as for see through wall and xray vision... nither are tecnicaly possible... I wish they were..

 

making a tile see through works both ways.. they see us and we see them..

 

-Blade FireLight

[Hobbes]

as for see through wall and xray vision... nither are tecnicaly possible... I wish they were.. 

That made me curious about something....what about IR vision where you could see any heat sources like fires, standing figures or bodies?

[BladeFireLight]

We are limited to modifying only what is already possible in the game... new fuctionality is not possible..

 

-Blade FireLight

[Hobbes]

We are limited to modifying only what is already possible in the game... new fuctionality is not possible..

I guess asking for Tom Jones to appear on the game as a secret weapon to defeat the aliens like they did on Mars Attacks! is also out of the question.....

[Rexxx]

Regarding the "ambush nodes" in the TFTD hunter.

I tried this kind of nodes. One spawning node connected with some other non spawning ones but separated from the rest. You're right, such a "sub-system" is the best chance to create ambushes because control of alien movement is pretty high.

The main drawback (IMO) is replaybility or the lack of it. After playing a ship coming with such sub-systems twice you know where the ambushes are. You may still lose a rookie but the surprises are gone. So my route maps contain only a few of such "sub-systems" but most of the nodes are connected as often as possible. The "big system" stands for less ambushes but if they occur they will be a nasty surprise. So far I found this mixture the best solution possible.

 

I'm still convinced that the approach setting nodes in the corners and another in direction to the door (distance=1 and still close the wall) is the best chance for an ambush in the "big system" (if the alien's facing is "correct" what it should). It works best in big rooms, when the soldier cannot see every corner or the tiles next to them. Sometimes I add "suicidal nodes" in the middle of the room, in theory the soldier will try to kill the alien he sees but will have no time for celebration when the other alien opens fire. As I said - in theory - the game's favour for "randomizing" doensn't help here.

[BladeFireLight]

I have found that if the ships have more than one way to any place the alines will circle arround behind you when just patroling and you get shot in the back in a room you thought was clear..

 

also, if the number of ambush 'sub-systems' are numorus enough and have more then one in a roon.. the rookies will be toast. but once you run out of rookies the veteran has to guess what corner to check first.. or he gets shot in the back. I have lost whole experianced teams to medium scoutes in some of the maps I have worked on. it takes lots of testing to get it right.

 

On a side note I have cracked the 20x20 limit on terrain maps.. unfortunetly it will require a new battlefeild generator to work.. but once i figure out wether it is posible to add 2 part base missions to UFO I will have all I need to start work on that program.

 

-Blade FireLight

[Zeno]

BladeFireLight, are your maps available online (or, for the public)? I have downloaded the maps from the main site here, but the selection is very small.

 

If you have found a way to improve the alien movement routines, I would love to try them out...

 

--Zeno