[http://sourceforge.net/p/ufoai/feature-requests/220 Item 220] imported from sourceforge.net tracker on 2013-01-28 20:16:10

Right now (2.1), at crash sites with civilians, the alien's top priority seem to be shooting down civilians first.

This don't make sense to me. As an alien commander, my craft has just crashed. Its in pieces *and* burning and a hostile force is just about to land.

My priorities would be
1. Eliminate hostile troops.
2. Eliminate civilians.

This opens up several possibilities, one of which is 'ambush spots' to make a meat grinder for the forementioned hostile troops.

===== Comments Ported from Sourceforge =====

====== nobody (2007-08-17 00:32:05) ======

Logged In: NO

I like the sound of that. I would have thought there may have been some structure in difficulty with the different stages of battles fought throughout the game to even the odds against the forever learning player. (although I've have been informed balancing comes later in the development cycle).

The proposal above starts to address that.

Aliens invading cities, makes a great starting point as the aliens have different priorities and are not prepared for a counter attack and are expecting low resistance. THere targets are unarmaed civilians. This gives the player time to get comfortable with the battle scenes.

Then the interceptions as you rightly have suggested, the priorities should change, but the aliens are still in a weakend position as being shot down is no starting point for world dominition :)

Now Base attacks, I haven't had the luxory to have one yet, my 2.1 version wouldnt allow it. But again this should be another jump in difficulty. The aliens are now attacking their nemesis, no excuses for not being prepared now. I would like to see the aliens be assertive here. Maybe the AI needs to do a strength check (I assume ufo's have far superior survillance equipment). If human player weak, go for total destruction of base. If player strong revert to smaller more achievable priorities like freeing hostage aliens or go for radar black out. Would be nice to see the aliens get in, do there mission and get out. I suspect it currently plays with 6-8 aliens fight to death. This losses an element of alien unknown strength. While, having aliens abduct your base, do what they want and get out, creates fear of this unknown aggressor. You want the player to feel abducted.
Also if the base is destoryed I suspect the player will load save game. SO the player isn't weakened from the experience. While if the UFO goes in strikes, does mission, leaves, player may not return to save game being grateful he still has what buildings remain or even the base at all. This is where the replay element can kick in. As more experienced players will adopt better building & defence techniques while newbees will possibly restart the game and play again to do a better job. Hey a victory for AI !!!. Anyway I better throw in an apology for my ignorance if the base attacks are currently doing a good job. I shall see in good time.

P.s
looking forward to seeing how the other employees in the base play there role. Kind of expect no role or they are treated as civilians but count towards losses of employees at the end of battle. Kind of like the idea of having to get an unarmed scientist to safety or to a store (which is located on the opposite side of the base due to bad planning) to equip him for an unfair fight as a last line of defence. Or an alien entering a workshop where I have being hoarding 20 workers hoping the aliens wouldnt find them and engaging them hand to hand. Hmm blood bath. :)


Garthos
garthponty@gmail.com