After thinking about this topic for a long time, I decided to write this post. This way, at least I’ll share my opinion with you.
I really like glass windows being broken by direct impacts (shots) and shock waves (explosions). However, it is quite odd that using IR goggles crashes the nearby window glasses. To be honest, I even find that non-intentional and unexpected shrill noise a bit annoying. Most important, it does not make sense at all, as infrared goggles and night-vision goggles does not emit but receive electromagnetic waves, so they absolutely can't damage anything. Apart from that, those low-energy waves can’t damage things (they could not go through thin walls also, indeed, but let’s consider that a compulsory “poetic license”).
However, while I’d vote to remove that google’s effect, I’d suggest to allow the intentional manual breakage of adjacent window glasses at the cost of 1-2 TUs each one (not being a coder, I just assume it could be coded in a similar way to opening doors).
What would contribute it to the game?
- It is realistic. Imagine a real combat: a soldier may break a window glass with the weapon butt/handle to clear the firing path (it is a nuisance, after all). Wouldn’t you want to emulate this real behaviour from time to time?
- Similarly to opening/closing doors, it wouldn’t require specific actor’s animations. The glass just breaks (image, sound) and that’s all.
- It is a tactical advantage. It seems that reaction fire does not work through any obstacle (walls, glazed windows, etc), which is fine. So to allow reaction fire through glazed windows, you should first destroy the glass. As an example, imagine a snipper wasting 12 TUs plus one bullet just to do that… I prefer creeping beside the window, break it with my weapon and wait to welcome any alien that happens to show up. As I already said, I don’t think IR googles should do that (I think it provides IR googles too much benefits, also).
- Last but not least: as any intentional interaction with maps, it would be quite amusing.
