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IR-goggles

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homunculus:
Replacement of IR-goggles with a more vague detection device.

Currently IR-goggles lets the player see through walls, at quite a distance.
This makes weapons that can shoot through walls with impunity (without alien retaliation) extremely useful, but in my opinion, also fun-breaking.
In turn, if this is supposed to change in the future, weapon balancing while keeping the current IR-goggles is unlikely to produce best results.

I suggest that IR-goggles be kept primarily for night vision, rather than such all-powerful see-through-walls device.
Instead, there could be a device that would measure distance from aliens as a number.
As if aliens were "invisible light sources", and displaying how much of this "invisible light" there is on the device.
And player could then try to do something like triangulating to find the last hiding alien that might be tedious to search for otherwise (hopefully the "beeline" level of alien aggressiveness will also get reduced).
Maybe it could be based on some brain gland from alien autopsy that responds to other live aliens' presence, motivating early alien research as a side effect.
In this game, some slightly grotesque fantasy of carrying around a measurement device attached to a vial with a piece of alien brain in a physiological solution, would be according to the style guidelines, right? (at least it seemed to be a few years ago)

H-Hour:
I agree that IR-goggles are like a story-driven cheat code. They wipe out a whole category of battlescape experiences and are not fun. I never use them. Boo ir-goggles. Boo.

(Even though from the reality-driven standpoint of the story, it is hard to justify why such technology, already in use today, is not available to Phalanx. I am still in favor of this being a gameplay-over-reality decision, though.)

homunculus:
ok, let's forget the 'clearing out most of the mines from above ground with ir-goggles and sniper rifle', but looking at things like this video, it doesn't look like anything close to the 'see through walls' capabilities of ufo:ai ir-goggles.
in fact, it does not look like you could see through walls with such thing at all.
and watching this one seems to confirm it.
it seems i have some good news: there is no need to worry about this tech being already available today.

or, am i looking at wrong kind of videos?
those two seemed as trustworthy as i could get.

H-Hour:
You're looking at night vision goggles, which just amplify the light. But I think you're right that there are no goggle-like application of see-through technology. It's still very much on the horizon if not already in use at certain scales that are not applicable on the battlefield yet. There's also this, which is slightly different but could lead to more sophisticated applications.

homunculus:

--- Quote from: H-Hour on March 23, 2012, 09:40:07 am ---You're looking at night vision goggles, which just amplify the light. [...]
--- End quote ---
btw, the second video was neither goggles nor was it just amplifying light, and still "they cannot see through anything".
if ever such technology would be invented, i very much doubt it would be based on ir.

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