Lines of sight

[Charlie]

When you press "t" a line gets drawn from the selected soldier to any aliens it can see. I would like a feature that would automatically draw these lines.

[krilain]

When you press "t" a line gets drawn from the selected soldier to any aliens it can see. I would like a feature that would automatically draw these lines.

I think this would be a good thing at tutorial but not all the time when you play. In my opinion it is more interesting to use his own mind to do some of the job. But about learning/training considerations that's an other, and interesting idea.

[Anarch Cassius]

I would HATE having this on all the time but maybe a toggle.

[krilain]

I would HATE having this on all the time but maybe a toggle.

Toggle sounds good. Whatever the need of this tool will depend on the further development or not of a minimap or radar stuff. Those geometry helpers are often needed, one maneer or one other, anyway.

[Charlie]

Yes a toggle would be great. Point is I would like to be able to both immediately see where all aliens are, and to be able to see (via line color) which of them I can shoot at. Sometimes you can see an alien which you cant shoot at because either he is mostly occluded by something, or because he is in the line of sight of an other solider than the one I'm currently moving.
e.g. faint blue line would be drawn from the currently selected soldier to all aliens (when toggled on), and the same line would glow brighter blue if I can directly shoot at that alien.

[krilain]

(...)
e.g. faint blue line would be drawn from the currently selected soldier to all aliens (when toggled on), and the same line would glow brighter blue if I can directly shoot at that alien.

That would be a big helper. The problem is that there is already a percentage of hit given textually when you aim before to shoot at ennemy. Your colour system would in one sense override it. I mean it is strong so much that the percentage would turn unused. So I'm not sure the two tools could live together. Whatever, it is an intersting feature for people playing at very little screens like smartphones because the occlusions are tiny details.

[Triaxx2]

I disagree actually. The color doesn't matter because you can't tell the percentage from it. All tells you is See/Can't See, and Shoot/Can't shoot. Just because someone can see the alien doesn't mean they can hit it, so it's a big time sink going from alien to alien and soldier by soldier to figure out who can shoot what. If I can tell who they can shoot on the first cycle, I can plan the fight.

[Wolls]

  The only use for a system like this that I can see, is knowing where the aliens are in relation to your selected soldier.  The problem with see/no see and shoot/can't shoot is that it doesn't take into account civilians, another soldier, splash damages, throughwall like from rifle and even aiming.  (It pretty much aims for the centre of a square, these squares are kinda large and result in big changes of angle.  The only way to get a smaller angle is to aim behind your target, and sometimes you can make a shot when normally it says you couldn't.) 

  Unless its going to take into account all of these things I'm still going to end up doing it myself so I don't see it saving a lot of time.

[Charlie]

My intention for this was not to decide to shoot or not to shoot based on the line, but to be able to have my character walk a certain path and know when to cease walking and do some other action (open fire, throw a grenade, crouch and save TUs, etc) without having to keep panning the screen to some distant aliens. It's not a replacement for the hit percentage text indicator, it's an addition to it, one which makes interfacing with the game easier. It takes an existing feature and makes it better.

[Triaxx2]

I was thinking more along the lines of the map in the office building, with the unbreakable window into the cafeteria. I can see that alien, but I can't shoot it. It can shoot at me though.