More intel-gathering items for the battlescape

[Quizer]

I'd like to have more items available that let you gather intel on the battlefield - spend TUs / turns to find out where the aliens are in order to avoid risk. I think it's fine that reaction fire is no guarantee of avoiding casualties, but I feel the player should be able to do more to locate aliens even outside the current line of sight. I hate clearing a big harvester mission map and then losing a soldier going into the UFO to get the last alien hiding out in there.

Proximity mines might be useful, too.

[Noordung]

some kind of movement sensors witch you could drop somewere?

[Quizer]

Yeah, something like that. Anything, really.

I know we have nightvision goggles, but whenever I use them in a nighttime mission, I don't spot any aliens I didn't already see before using them. What exactly is the effect of using them anyway, and is there a passive benefit just from wearing them?

X-Com had those movement sensors that let you see where things moved during the last mission. The description of the gravity sensor on the Alien Detection module sounds pretty much exactly like this technology, so maybe it should let you research something like this for use in ground missions.

[Sarin]

IR goggles are for spotting targets on short range through walls.

[H-Hour]

And they only scan at the moment when you click the headgear button on the HUD.

[Quizer]

Do they scan the whole 360° around the user? Do they stay on in subsequent turns or do you have to use them again? It's just not very clear what their exact effect is, and that is the kind of thing you want to know when you decide whether to use them.

[H-Hour]

You can be forgiven for being confused. The ufopaedia entry makes all sorts of claims that I don't think match its actual performance. I think: scans in soldier's FOV only, scans only when clicks (you would have to turn and click again to see behind you, for instance).

[Noordung]

Maybe dropship could have camera or movement sensor. So aliens couldnt just come at jour back near dropship.
And pariscope for looking around corners.

[Sarin]

Nope. In the moment you click them, they scan within a vision field of the user, that's what, 90 degrees? And their range is limited. Best use, scanning what's in the next room and finding targets for through-wall sniper shots.

[Sandro]

120 degrees, range 10 grids.

[Quizer]

Vision range only? Wow, that's kinda lame, considering the amount of TUs you spend activating them.

What do you mean, sniper shots through wall? Can you actually shoot through walls?

[kurja]

Vision range only? Wow, that's kinda lame, considering the amount of TUs you spend activating them.

speaking of which, afaik the TU cost of using them isn't shown - it should be.

What do you mean, sniper shots through wall? Can you actually shoot through walls?

sniper rifles and magnetic weapons can shoot through walls

[Sarin]

IR goggles are actually most used piece of equipment in my inventory. Especially on some maps, like any bigger UFO, solar power plant, pipe construction, and such I have a team going inside and few people moving in parallel with them on the outside, scanning ahead using IR goggles.

[Wolls]

I'll use IR goggles to gopher hunt  (there is an advantage with through wall tech = Sniper Rifle 1, EM Rifle or Bolter 2, Coil Gun 3)  like the one map where the aliens are all 1 level down in tunnels, I'll IR to find then snap shot  (1 or 2 squares off there is no reason for aimed shot)  kill.   That or on base defenses, where I use IR to acquire, then shoot UP (base is made of tinfoil?).

I'd like to have more items available that let you gather intel on the battlefield - spend TUs / turns to find out where the aliens are in order to avoid risk.

Have you checked out the proposal for Psionic Warfare?
http://ufoai.org/wiki/Gameplay_Proposals/Psionic_warfare

And the Talk page?
http://ufoai.org/wiki/Talk:Gameplay_Proposals/Psionic_warfare

Its all very cool. 

[Quizer]

I'll use IR goggles to gopher hunt  (there is an advantage with through wall tech = Sniper Rifle 1, EM Rifle or Bolter 2, Coil Gun 3)  like the one map where the aliens are all 1 level down in tunnels, I'll IR to find then snap shot  (1 or 2 squares off there is no reason for aimed shot)  kill.   That or on base defenses, where I use IR to acquire, then shoot UP (base is made of tinfoil?).

You can do all that? I'll have to give that a try. I didn't think you could see through UFO walls (didn't think they'd classify as 'thin walls'), or through the floor / ceiling. Going into those harvesters getting the last alien always pisses me off.

Is that the Sewerage Construction Site map you are talking about? Yeah, that one is pretty nasty once enemies stop using plasma pistols as their main armaments.So you can shoot through the ground there, too? And see through it if the enemy is within your vision range but on a different floor?