Micro-management

[odie]

I think that's the player's responsibility. I see no reason to deny him a soldier just because that soldier is badly wounded. Streamlining things to reduce micro is okay, but this really affects gameplay, and that isn't good in my opinion.

I agree.... its really up to the player. I mean afterall, the soldier could be reassigned to other tasks such as being the suppress firer - where risks is minimal, yet experience can be gained.

Thats the risk the player (and the soldier) takes. There are afterall, kamikaze (aka brave) soldiers in real life, who takes on mission after mission, knowing that every experience (and man) counts.

[Baal]

We should wonder what mean the health bar. What mean to be at 50% of health ? Broken legs or arms ? Heavy trauma ?
Can you imagine soldiers on battlefield with crutch or wheelchair ? 
Any base should have at least 2 teams, just to let their people the chance to get some rest. That mean enought soldiers to complete a team.

[SharkD]

I preferred the reaction fire method in the stable version as opposed to the development version. That's about the only "too much micromanagement" issue I can think of.

[BTAxis]

The revised RF system may be a little more micro than the previous one, but the previous one encouraged RF and was unfair.

[SharkD]

Not sure what you mean exactly. I don't use RF any more or less than I did in the stable version. I just click more buttons. If clicking more buttons is meant to "discourage" RF, then it's pretty lame.

[BTAxis]

No. in 2.2, RF works by taking TUs from the next turn, while this RF works by taking TUs for the current turn. So with the old system, you could happily use up however many TUs you wanted and still get a full RF on the enemy's turn. It was safe. With this system, you have to chance your current TUs on the assumption you'll get a shot at the enemy. If you don't, those TUs are wasted. That's a reason why you might choose not to use RF, but act out your TUs on your own turn.

[SharkD]

Err, no. TUs are taken from the current turn. See before:



and after:



Both pictures were taken in the same turn. The only difference is that in the latter I have two levels of reaction fire enabled.

[BTAxis]

That's because there's a (fixed) TU penalty for enabling RF, docked each turn whether you fire or not. The actual TUs used for firing are taken from the next turn.

[SharkD]

But in the next turn the TUs are reset to their default. Still not sure what you mean.

[BTAxis]

Okay, here's how it works.
1. You enable RF. You're docked TUs for this.
2. You move (or not), use up TUs for this turn (or not).
3. You end your turn. Your TUs get reset to max as soon as you hit the end turn button.
4. Enemy shows up, your soldier uses RF, uses TUs to do this.
5. It's your turn again. Your soldier now has TUs equal to max - RF penalty - TUs used for firing on enemy's turn.

That's also why you can't move your soldier on your next turn if he spent all his TUs firing on the enemy's turn.

[SharkD]

Ah, OK. I forgot (or didn't notice) the TUs were subtracted from the next turn. Which is weird because enabling RF also "docks" TUs from the current turn. Also, I thought you could only use the amount of TUs you were docked in the previous round during the RF round. If, instead, the TUs are reset to max, then that makes a big difference!

Once the pathfinding/wonky maps get fixed I will get a better chance to test out the new system to see which I like better.

[BTAxis]

The docking is weird indeed. It's basically an artificial penalty to compensate for the inherent unfairness in the system. The TUs docked are simply void - they aren't used on anything. The current system doesn't do that, but of course your TUs are still wasted if you leave them for RF and then it doesn't happen.

[homunculus]

as far as my opinion goes, it is the way reaction fire triggers, which can give you a huge fire rate.
you can fire a shot at each 2 time units the enemy moves.

it looks as if it has a probability every time a visible enemy moves and you can also get unlucky, as sometimes the soldier on reaction fire stands idle as if mesmerized by the sight of two of his comrades being butchered in front of him and somehow can not be bothered to pull the trigger.

always makes me think that the soldier must have some kind of fetish about watching people cut into pieces with kerrblades and does not pull the trigger because he is enjoying the view.

i wish this system could be replaced by something more reliable, like trigger after a certain amount of time units used by enemy after the enemy is sighted, and requirement that enemy uses time units equal to firing time units until the reaction fire can trigger again.

sorry, i guess this explanation must have been a mess, i don't know how to say it more clearly atm.


while we are at it, i would like to ask what is it exactly that _you_ think is unfair about the reaction fire system.

[BTAxis]

The way you use your TUs almost exclusively on shooting. In normal (non-RF) gameplay, TUs are spent on moving, turning, ducking, getting back up... And shooting. Clearly, that last part is what you want most, right? Shooting kills things. Turning doesn't. With the old RF, you can theoretically use all of your TUs on shooting if and whenever you have a shot at an enemy during their turn (it doesn't shoot if it can't hit). Didn't get any RF this turn? Don't worry, your TUs are still there, for you to spend on other things as you see fit, and you'll get a full tank of TUs on your next RF opportunity anyway.
So the unfairness comes from the way RF optimizes your TU usage. Again, the fixed penalty is there to compensate, but it really doesn't hold a candle to the saner RF system in 2.3.

[Surrealistik]

Honestly, I thought RF reliant opponents in multiplayer were basically setting themselves up for failure between things like the flashbang and grenades. I have never had an issue owning people who did nothing but camp, because that made them predictable, and extremely easy to counter with indirect firepower.

In singleplayer, the aliens just largely avoid you when you attempt to set up RF traps, though this did make them vulnerable to flush out weaponry like said indirect firepower, but that's simply good tactics.