Aliens behave stupidly + are stuck in parts of alien crafts (ver26236)

[Viento]

Hiho!
I'm playing the newest version (installl file: ufoai_2_3Dev_win32_r26236.exe) and there are some issues in it. 

1. Aliens are much more stupid than in the stable version

> They shoot right against walls (especially inside landed ufos, they spend all their ammo shooting into the hull of the ship)
> They never kill a civilian on terror missions, they don't even attack them.
> They only attack my soldiers effectively if they are in close combat distance (with kerblade) or with reaction fire.
> They are very "passive" and don't attack viciously as they did sometimes in 2.1 but often just stand motionlessly at their spawn place and only move if a soldier comes into melee-distance.

2. Aliens are stuck in the front part of the ufos. They are almost invisible there (only visible from very close distance) and you even can enter the spot on which they are. They seem to be immobile at this point and harmless (as they haven't killed my soldiers standing next to them numerous time). They can be shot normally, even though they stand right into a greenish machine on the entry level of landed ufos.

3. I loved the grenade-attacks that aliens used on me very effectively in the first mission, but it has never happened again after the first mission. Seems strange, that they used their effective strategy just once.

4. Sall issue: Fences (on the farming maps) seem to be made of massive concrete. They provide a lot of cover which makes fighting on these maps quite tiresome as you need to find the openings between the fences to shoot through.


Nevertheless I would like to stress, that this is a fabulous game and I love it. I played all the UFO Games but this is the one I would rate the most interesting, even though it is still in the process of being developed.

Thank you a lot indeed for this game.

Andreas   

[EsbenMoseHansen]

The game is getting really cool, but all the above poster said is very true. Especially on the factory floor: Last game I had 3 stuck aliens on that one. For one of them, I had to actually step in on the same tile before he was visible. Then I stepped back and flamed him, and everything worked as normal.

Just noted that this would be http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2825676&group_id=157793&atid=805242

[LuckyLindy]

I agree with the first poster, the aliens are not behaving aggressively and tend to get stuck in the harvester cockpit missions.  It will either be one or two stuck...its like the AI is turned off and the aliens are just discharging their weapons.  This gives their location away and all you have to do is walk up and blast them.

I may have missed something, but it may be related; but, I played for 4 hours last night and every mission had only 4 tahman aliens.  Never any other species (then I never really played more than 2 months of game time).  I played very easy, easy, and standard campaigns.  Does not seem to be ramdon and all of the missions were harvester missions unless I blasted a scout or a fighter.

There's the negative; the positive, I like what I see.  The renderings are beautiful.

[Duke]

#4 (fences) is a map bug.
The actorclips are marked as SOLID.

[Kildor]

Duke, so we need to remove solid flag from actorclip brush, right?

[geever]

I agree with the first poster, the aliens are not behaving aggressively and tend to get stuck in the harvester cockpit missions.  It will either be one or two stuck...its like the AI is turned off and the aliens are just discharging their weapons.  This gives their location away and all you have to do is walk up and blast them.

Aliens trying to fire through walls because they think they can shot the victim. That's a known bug.

I may have missed something, but it may be related; but, I played for 4 hours last night and every mission had only 4 tahman aliens.  Never any other species (then I never really played more than 2 months of game time).  I played very easy, easy, and standard campaigns.  Does not seem to be ramdon and all of the missions were harvester missions unless I blasted a scout or a fighter.

U have to play more than 2 months for other alien races.

You may only notice Terror missions 'cause they're always detected (Nations report them), other missions may or may not be detected within your radars' range.

-geever

[Duke]

Duke, so we need to remove solid flag from actorclip brush, right?

Yes.
Logically, both flags are mutually exclusive.  But I'm only 90% sure what really happens if both are present. Looks like SOLID is stronger. .

[Kildor]

Duke, ok, understand.

And one more about flags combination. nodraw+pasable. Should brush with this set be invisible, and passable for actors and weaponfire? Look to alienbase and our base tiles (alienb and b), the tiles have nodraw brushes on the border of passages (to avoid sunlight of they), and actors couldn`t fire through they. at least when I try in last time. Can you lok to that maps?

[Duke]

According to Mattn, nodraws should block sight, shots and walking.
The PASSABLE flag allows for walking through, but only that.

So besides not being able to shoot, you wouldn't see an alien standing in the passage.

I think I understand why we need something to block the light there, but I fear we'll have to invent something new for that purpose.

[Duke]

@Viento:
#2 and #4 are fixed in current trunk.
#3 : recently I saw aliens thowing grenades in a mission. So they still do it. Maybe they just don't carry grenades so often (scripting issue) ?

#1, aliens shooting at walls:
I know they often do it. But does anyone know a map/place/equipment where they almost always do it ?

[geever]

#1, aliens shooting at walls:
I know they often do it. But does anyone know a map/place/equipment where they almost always do it ?

In Harvester ships, for example on +africa RMA.

-geever

[Duke]

Thx, I could watch it there. There are several suspicious things in that room.

Do you know 1-2 more places, as different as possible ? (for comparison)

[Mattn]

they do it a lot in the city_disco - move your soldiers into the disco (maybe with g_notu) and end your round while you are in there.

[Duke]

Thx, Mattn, that helped a bit
But in the end -as usual-, the solution was completely different.
Fixed in r26725.