Visibility

[Catwalk]

How do the following factors affect visibility:

1) Smoke

2) Lighting

3) Cover (such as those large brown rocky patches that take a long time to move through, with an explosive something in the middle)

4) Kneeling

5) Windows

 

Thanks in advance!

[Bomb Bloke]

Any given unit can see 20 tiles.

 

A patch of smoke has a timer attached to it which dictates how many turns it'll survive for (Time To Live / TTL). Divide this value by three and round it down, and you have the amount of tiles worth of visibility it'll subtract when looked through.

 

(That is to say, if there's an alien twenty tiles away, you'll see it fine. If there's a patch of smoke between you with a TTL of 3, then that subtracts 1 tile worth of distance from your vision and you won't see the alien. If there are ten patches of smoke each with a TTL of 1, then none of them will effect your vision and the alien will still be visible).

 

Note that you can't tell the TTL of smoke just by looking at it, so knowing the above may not actually help you.

 

In regards to lighting, your units cannot see into tiles that are darker then a certain value. Consider 0 to be "perfect light", and 15 to be "perfectly dark". Anything in a tile that has a light value of 10 or more cannot be seen by your troops.

 

Your units generate light. Where they stand will be perfectly illuminated, and each tile away from that the light value drops by 1. Hence at night, they can only see nine titles away (assuming there aren't any other units or flares around to brighten up the area).

 

Aliens are unaffected by light and can always see 20 tiles.

 

As for cover/kneeling/windows, they all fall under the same system: The game world is 3D (even if the images on the screen are 2D). Everything you see has a proper shape attached to it. This is why you can literally shoot through a window, but the window sill will still provide you cover if you sit in front of it - it's effectively a wall with a hole in it.

 

Note that cover doesn't actually change the alien's accuracy at all. It's simply the case that putting something between you and their guns will make it more likely that they'll hit that "something" instead of you. If that "something" can be seen/shot through/over by your troops, that's even better.

 

Kneeling turns your trooper into a smaller shape, meaning the aliens have to be slightly more accurate to hit him. It also gives you a proper accuracy bonus when firing. Take advantage of it, both of these help a lot.

[NKF]

Kneeling also lowers the origin points for your weapon (where a fired bullet starts) and your vision. So you may spot some units through the gaps in the 3d shapes of the walls or fences which you may not have been able to do while standing - and vice versa.

 

Note, you can also use kneel when levitating as well. Watch the level of the bobbing arrow above your unit's head. It features all the same bonuses and costs involved with kneeling, including the 'stand up' fee when you move in a direction other than down.

 

- NKF

[Catwalk]

Hmm, so smoke acts as a barrier and lighting acts as permission? I.e. lack of light will never "block" vision.

 

How are smoke grenades best used?

How do windows work?

Is kneeling only effective in concealing me from their vision if they could only otherwise see the upper part of my body?

Is there anything special about kneeling in the rock formations around underwater generators that I mentioned previously?

[Bomb Bloke]

Hmm, so smoke acts as a barrier and lighting acts as permission? I.e. lack of light will never "block" vision.

Exactly.

 

How are smoke grenades best used?

Smoke moves around a bit, and clouds will actually form together to make denser clouds. I seem to remember that waiting a turn or two after they detonate will cause them to become much more effective in terms of cover.

 

Sitting in the middle of a cloud gives you cover on all sides, but it's only the clouds directly between you and your target that matter.

 

Smoke is a good way to equalise the alien's nightsight advantage. Having tiles chopped off your own vision doesn't matter so much when you can only "effectively" see nine tiles anyway.

 

How do windows work?

They're exactly what they look like - a wall with a hole in 'em. That is all. Stand right up close to one and you can easily shoot through it. Stand far away and you may end up hitting the sill and destroying the entire thing.

 

Is kneeling only effective in concealing me from their vision if they could only otherwise see the upper part of my body?

Correct, but it is always effective at making you a smaller target (and hence harder to hit), and always gives you an accuracy bonus (on the basis that your troopers can steady their guns better).

 

Note that just because you can't see them (because you've crouched down directly in front of a wall) doesn't mean they can't see you (from a distance, they may be able to see the top of your head because they're looking down over the structure at an angle).

 

Is there anything special about kneeling in the rock formations around underwater generators that I mentioned previously?

No, nothing "special". Cover is only effective if it's directly between you and your target. That cover can be anything - rocks, hedges, window sills, walls, trees, a slope in the terrain, whatever.