A mission gone awry due to suffocation and smoke blocking IR sight (in 2.6)

[anonymissimus]

This is now my first saveload or the first de facto lost mission since ages.
It happened on (guess what) Old mine, which is a known pain in the ass anyway since most of the time all of those civies which are not on the surface have little chance to survive and there's no way to help them.
The mission was running about normal, I had lost 2/4 cannon fodder, 3/4 civies dead (normal for this map) and 2/8 aliens remaining.
Near the end of my turn my scouting cannon fodder happened to spot an alien when I had little TUs left. I decided to try rescuing the cannon fodder by blocking the alien's sight with smoke. In hinsight this was the main mistake. I should instead have let it die, that perhaps would also have wounded the killing alien with reaction fire as I had enough TU left for that (but not for a kill). Flashbanging was also impossible. The alien killed my cannon fodder anyway, despite having to move through both fire and smoke. In my next turn I had to search for the alien, moving through the smoke causing more suffocation to my remaining units. If IR sight wouldn't be blocked by smoke I would have discovered it. But now I decided...okay, pointless, not going to find it. I spotted the other alien and killed it. Moved my last cannon fodder into a position so that it would be the unit the alien would likely kill its next turn, retreated the other (valuable) soldiers. I wanted to throw a fire grenade then, roughly onto the area where I suspect the alien would have to move through to reach my smoke covered soldiers. Distance 4 fields, line green, enough space around the green line...blargh. It hit the crate I wanted it to throw over and exploded exactly where it should not, stunning 3 soldiers in return, 2 of them valuable. As they were also on fire there was no way I could have helped them, they suffered fire damage each turn and died. I had 2 soldiers left, one of which was on the surface, and the other also 1 or 2 turns away from being stunned. Since the last alien was bleeding 1 points per turn I could have waited a very long time to still win the mission but shamefully decided to retry.
The point is that if it was either not for suffocation, or not for IR sight being blocked by smoke, or even not for both of these, this would not have happened.
I also think grenades (thrown, rolled or shot) should be somehow more precise in general. It can be applied to aliens (plasma grenades) as well. Using grenades is too much of a luck issue for a strategy game. The green line always tricks you into believing this would be safe, but beware if there is any kind of fence or similar obstacle it is guaranteed to be hit, don't even think of it.

[hwoarangmy]

for my part, I almost never use flashbang or grenades. It is too random IMHO and it happened too much that I throw a flashbang just in front of a sheevar or taman and he just plays his turn when I end mine just like if I did nothing. Usually, I only use flashbang as a last resort when my soldier is sure to die (and usually, he dies).

Concerning mine map, it is definitely an hard map but not the worst in my opinion. Usually, I let 3 soldiers on the surface to use IR gogles and hope they find hidden aliens. Then, I try to approach with cannon fodders and to use a plasma blade on them.


The worst mission for me is the map in a bunker. There are many rooms, aliens just wander there for ages and it takes so much time to search that I usually get fed up and split my soldiers to try to find them. And it is not rare that I find 1 or 2 ortnock or sheevar that kills my soldier.
I stopped my last game on this map after more or less 100 missions because I was tired of it and I knew the game was already more or less won (as I had researched everything and nations were pretty happy).

[anonymissimus]

There should be a "get hit" sound in 2.6 if an (organic) alien is flashbanged successfully, but I think it is bugged. I reverted that revision locally and I get the sound most of the time, so I most of the time know that the alien is disabled. With some flashbang experience I learned how to throw/roll so it mostly works. (vision area of aliens, vision blocking obstacles, always aim shorter than you actually want because grenades, on average, land farther away than the spot aimed to) Flashbangs are useful if I am unable to do sufficient damage for a kill in just 1 turn, while a flashbang costs only 8 TUs to take into hands and roll/throw so the damage is spread over more than 1 turn. As flashbangs never affect Phalanx soldiers they are always safe.

[hwoarangmy]

If there was a sound or better, something visual (as I mostly play without sound) saying that it works, it would be great.

[Adler]

My Impression is, that grenades roll/jump wider in relation to rolled/thrown distance. Maybe the ground has some affect too, depending if it is soft (like gras) or hard (like metal). But iam nearly sure that a better skill in explosives has a huge impact how exact a soldier lands a grenade.

With Flashbangs I have my problems too, I never know where exactly I have to place them.

All other grenades work fine for me. Sometimes I do "Kamikazeattacks" with grenades and very often the attacker survises and solves problematic situations. Especially plasma and fire is very useful.

[hwoarangmy]

Maybe the ground has some affect too, depending if it is soft (like gras) or hard (like metal).

It definitely has. If you throw a grenade on snow, it will not bounce for example.

All other grenades work fine for me. Sometimes I do "Kamikazeattacks" with grenades and very often the attacker survises and solves problematic situations. Especially plasma and fire is very useful.

I usually do that with cannon fodders and plasma blades. On hard difficulty levels, aliens are likely to survive a plasma grenade when not wounded (especially since I usually am not very good at aiming with grenades).