Civilians... those little buggers.

[Mustang]

I can agree with the hysterical aspects of civies running wild, but even animals will attempt to run to safe areas.  Most civilians would run to the drop ship once they saw it because it would represent their only safe area, even if it meant exposing themselves to worse danger than than hiding.  Once inside they would start to calm down and think better and maybe react a little better.  The AI in the game doesn't take any of that into account, (nor do I think it should bother with that kind of detail) so a civilian could wander inside my drop ship and then wander right back out into open territory and get killed. 

Having some way to stun them and carry them back might be cool too. 

Anyway, the developers do seem to be listening on this topic and I did follow their suggestion to remove this limit from the game making it a non issue.  I remember in XCOM always having good scores even when there were high civilian deaths and that never seemed right.  I could see increasing the penalties for them here to take this into account.  Losing more than saving could also carry additional penalties.  It's just the game over aspect of a few casualties that seems to need rethinking.

[BTAxis]

About that, version 2.2.1, which will mainly be a bugfix release, will have the civilian death limit removed. Instead you will lose if you make too many nations unhappy, which happens if you let too many civilians die.

[EuchreJack]

Mustang said:

Most civilians would run to the drop ship once they saw it because it would represent their only safe area, even if it meant exposing themselves to worse danger than than hiding.

However, Phalanx is a covert operation, so it's unlikely that most civilians would recognize the drop ship as a safe area.  In fact, the dropship of Phalanx might be mistaken by less knowledgable civilians as belonging to the alien invaders (but this is unlikely since the Phalanx dropship started life as a civilian transport).  I guess in some cases, the civilians might see the dropship as human in origin, and hope that they can hitch a ride out to the battlezone.  Also, while I like the idea of subduing hysterical humans and putting them in a safe place, the idea of taking them away in the dropship is unsound.  After all, wouldn't the dropship be taking the maximum number of soldiers into combat?  I'm certain most players don't take less than 8 soldiers on a mission unless they have no choice (which is common considering the shortage of soldiers).  Still, it would be cool if a battle could be resolved by just fleeing with the civilians instead of fighting to the death.   

[eleazar]

About that, version 2.2.1, which will mainly be a bugfix release, will have the civilian death limit removed. Instead you will lose if you make too many nations unhappy, which happens if you let too many civilians die.

Makes sense.

[TumbleWeed]

Stun the civilians.

[Cro]

You should just make something like rally point for civs because dropship is not always on map.
So, civs will gather on one place and it will be easier to keep them safe.

[BTAxis]

We should also make the AI attack the rally point with explosive weapons so they can kill all the civvies at once, then.

[SpaceWombat]

I'm not sure about the rally points. This would look like the civs have a tactical plan. Certain points could be set as relative save positions for the civi AI to identify (one of them the dropship/starting position of your team).

If there is always one rally point the missions would look even more identical as they look now na dit would be more of a shoot out in front of the saloon than a tactical mission imho. 
There is no tactical advance in this as I guess.

There could be several characters attached to each civilian by random. Some will try to hide in "save positions", others flee to the dropship and some will run around trying to make as much feet between aliens and themselves as possible (they would probably be the first victims and hard to save).

[EuchreJack]

It would be cool if there was an item that a soldier could use to attract civilians, like Super-Cologne!
Seriously, it would be nice if the soldiers could at least direct the civilians somewhat, so they don't run into the arms of the aliens.

[Styxarius]

How about civs run chaotically from any alien they see - they might get stuck in some building and hide or get close to the edge of the map where some sort of escape algorithm will kick in and they will proceed to a designated escape point.

[btfx]

Here's a proposal (since we know this isn't going to be changed any time soon we might as well aim high): The civilians are stupid and scared, so it makes sense how they would run at the soldiers screaming. But when three of them surround my best sniper and stand there oogling at him, the logic breaks down.

The idea for several meta AIs is a good one:
1. Civvie is clueless, he wanders at a leisurely pace until seeing an alien, a soldier, or a panicked civvie.
2. Civvie panics! He will run away from aliens he can see, though he might run into one without the TUs to turn around. If very close to an alien and with very low TUs he might crouch and make a mess in his pants, if he sees a soldier he will run towards him and bug him for a turn or two, something we all hate, but it is partly realistic.
3. If the civvie can't find help he may seek other civvies, this will actually make it harder for the player, and easier for alien AIs.
4. The civvie (or the small group they may have become) eventually gives up and hides in a corner, preferring 3 wall corners, in smaller rooms, and with fewer doors.

Now, while the civvie is bugging the soldier the soldier could use up TUs to direct the civvie to an area (as I understand the maps are already split into "areas"). Naturally the more complex the directions the more TUs spent. Civvies with weak mind attributes may make mistakes in their extra-stupid panicky state.
To keep things simple, the civvie restarts his stupidity process when he arrives, this means that their actions are not very deterministic, but the frustration factor is removed. They no longer suicide and block you do death, but you still get the feeling you're herding cats. Some may wander back into danger while others will stick around long enough to get to stage 4 and hide in a slightly safer corner.

Well, that's as overcomplex as I can make it =)

[BTAxis]

as I understand the maps are already split into "areas"

Unfortunately, this is only the case for random maps. Regular maps are a one-piece, so there are no such areas. It would probably be possible to define an area with a special brush, though, if support for it was added.

[btfx]

Hmm I hadn't thought of that. Also, has anyone ever thought of reaction shots to civvies? It's somewhat realistic, and would limit those silly camping strategies. Of course the probability should be low, otherwise it would be quite frustrating. It should be rare enough so that the player has time to forget the previous such incident.

[Cro]

Ok, no rally points, but they should react somehow when hey see aliens instead of ignoring them.

[Psawhn]

I'd also like to point out that, in later stages of the game, PHALANX soldiers are likely to be wearing more advanced powered armour and may be just as unrecognizable/inhuman as the aliens are.

To the civvie AI rules, I'd add that they would remember where the latest seen alien was for one or two turns, so it will run away just a little farther. I'd also add that they hide upon hearing weapons fire nearby (any gun or grenade discharge within 5-10 tiles) and wait a turn or two before roaming again.

I remember reading a proposal in the wiki about a new waypointing system: The existing pathing algorithm does not work well for longer distances (like aliens invading a base), so a network of nodes would be used by the AI for long-distance movement. Something like this would be good for civilians: If running away from an alien, it will choose the farthest node from the alien such that the path to the node does not take it any closer to the alien. If no such path exists, then the waypointing will simply try to find the furthest location from the alien (with existing pathing system), such that the path does not come closer to the alien and the endpoint is in a place with 2 or more walls.