Hello, i have ideas, which you might treat crazy, as they might need long work, but this might be just my opinion, so would be happy to see it discussed. The format below is somewhat machine/computer-like... hope, that doesn't make it less readable
Something might change during discussion... anyway...
More complex reaction, depending on mind:
- Various differentiating levels, requiring proper mind level.
Example levels (from lowes to highest):
- humanoids and sheevar | spider | hovernet
- taman | ortnok | sheevar
- armored | unarmored kinds for taman and ortnok
- light | heavy armor for taman and ortnok (or whoever yet)
- standard | battle mods of hovernet and spider
- The highest level 1: interactive reaction fire
Possible order:
- Each mode of each usable weapon, unit holds, must be enabled for reaction fire;
- During enemy's turn - when unit appears in sight of soldier - time as usually is accumulated for reaction
(accumulated time is displayed in unit's time bar), stopping for reaction requests in these cases:
- Reacting player just accumulated enough time for next enabled reaction fire mode
Example: if player wields pistol and knife, reaction requests will happen on following time positions:
4 (knife stub) -> 6 (pistol quick shot) -> 8 (knife throw) -> 10 (pistol aimed shot or burst)
Following cases - last warning, working if reaction time was not utilized when it could:
- When reaction target is going to open fire (if it wants to shot plasma pisol burst,
its time will be added to reaction fire time reserve)
- When target is moving towards cover and has remaining 1 tail to pass before it is in cover;
(in addition to marking RF iterrupted, it can also game mechanics may check alien's path
for such warning position and trigger warning reaction request when enemy is at it)
Some examples:
- sniper skipped snap shot, waiting for aimed, but enemy opens fire or about to hide too early - in shis case it can still do quick shot.
- heavy MG-man, waiting for long burst, but forced to fire 5-round
(before taman will overkill him with long plasma burst)
- Highest level 2: custom reaction
Almost same, as level 1, but in critical situations (active unit is about to fire) passive unit may be allowed
to do some limited set of other actions, guided by player or AI, spending accumulated time as it/he/she likes:
- hide / unhide / grab / drop / reload weapon
(if enemy has melee weapon, than there is enough time to even reload weapon,
or e.g. at least take a knife to end it, if it is too impudent to still try to rush passive player)
- some on-place movement actions - seat, stand, turn
(e.g. soldier behind firebird wing, trying to shoot enemy on other side of wing,
must seat, or bullet will be stoped by wing)
(unsure about runing, as it may break some statics, thus becoming unacceptable)