PHALANX base design

[H-Hour]

Just fyi:

- the "smoothness" of buildings does not effect pathfinding in any way. Aliens are not getting "stuck", the AI is putting them there.

- aliens can not handle doors or breakables

- bases already have a camera and security system implemented

[GPS51]

Is there a design doc I can go look at to see what is/is not possible (engine wise) and or planned for base defense. I have a hard time connecting what will and won't work. Please don't take this as critiscism of the game or the engine as I enjoy the game. I'm just trying to figure out if I can help the mission I hate most become more fun to play. Things like the unbuildable tiles would make great sally port areas etc. I realize the dev team has heard what I'm saying before I'm sure.

[H-Hour]

No we don't really have design docs like this for most things. The best we got is the roadmap and proposals in the wiki, but a lot of it is outdated or likely to be changed.

[Telok]

Just fyi:

- the "smoothness" of buildings does not effect pathfinding in any way. Aliens are not getting "stuck", the AI is putting them there.
- aliens can not handle doors or breakables
- bases already have a camera and security system implemented

Perhaps I was unclear. By "smoothness" I meant making the buildings less angular and with more gently sloping sides that can be pathed across (and up to the top) by the AI. This would allow the AI (and the player) more direct paths and the walls could be thickened so that standard sniper rifles wouldn't be easy mode.

I am aware that the AI cannot currently use doors or intentionally shoot breakables. Can a breakable object be tagged to show up as a civilian or other legal target? Can an open-able door be made as a breakable? Perhaps a new class of actor (like a civilian) can be made that looks like a door or wall and has 0TU (cannot move or turn), the death animation of this new actor can be the object breaking. These actor-objects would be placed via a spawn point and aliens would seek out and shoot them to open up pathways.

Is the base camera system functional in the current build? The build I'm still using has non-functioning cameras detached and floating near the buildings.

[GPS51]

Yeah the cameras work (provides there's a camera near an alien) and you have a soldier on the right tile in the command post. It's a great feature. Great idea about civ "door" or placeholder that can be shot out or broken to allow passage. This idea in a lot of buildings/walls would change how a lot of maps play. That and more then 2 smoke grenades showing up when thrown (now where is the 3rd one?)

[H-Hour]

That and more then 2 smoke grenades showing up when thrown (now where is the 3rd one?)

The number of spawned particles was reduced significantly a while ago. I can now get 5-6 smoke grenades out without losing any of the smoke particles.

[GPS51]

Warning :delete this post when done with. I can only get 2 full smoke nades + 2 tiles no matter how many i throw (a must in late game pb rifle sniping situations) I have used the "fix" in the forums and use the latest build. Is there a setting in the options menu I should adjust?

[H-Hour]

If you use the latest build you should not use the "fix" in the forums or you will be overwriting the changes with the old version.

[homunculus]

[...] For goodness sakes, the production workshops shouldn't even have doors to the outside world. [...]

As far as I remember, they didn't have doors in the past, but then, as smoking was prohibited inside, the trade union demanded that they added the doors for the workers.

Adding some weird looking civilians with move 0 as some breakable things in command center and antimatter storage has been suggested before, but perhaps the devs have a better plan and try to avoid such temporary hacks.

About pathfinding, that sounds like it might be a non-trivial problem. I am wondering how difficult would it be to make aliens not know the location of humans unless they see them, or at least not try to move towards humans (but move randomly) unless they can reach them in a few turns? I have read some alien aggressiveness setting being mentioned in the forum, but no idea where it could be found to try lower aggressiveness which might alleviate the problem of getting stuck.