and the fact that, so long as you are within vision of ANY robot, they know where you are doesn't help.
I don't think that last part is true.
From Kyzrati:
I'd prefer to not give out too many specifics on how AI operates, since I don't want players gaming the system. Some of the more obvious things you'd figure out eventually though:
-Yes, they use the same sort of FOV as you, though ranges vary, so having a longer visual range than them gives you an advantage. As is, some enemies have a longer visual range than your default. I was considering adding some sort of visual cue indicating whether a given robot has noticed, but didn't get a chance to do that yet. I also think that might be going too far into the realm of knowing stuff you shouldn't necessarily know. Logically speaking it makes sense with creatures, but not always with robots.
-Most enemies know about you only when they see you, and only notify allies who are within their alert range, which varies by robot. Watchers should always be a top kill priority because they have a huge alert range and can call enemies from all over the place to come get you! You don't want a Watcher class robot running around spotting you every few turns and alerting all his friends... They always follow set patrol paths, though, so if you have sensors which can distinguish robots out of view you can avoid them pretty easily.
The important part in that: Most enemies know about you only when they see you, and only notify allies who are within their alert range, which varies by robot. Watchers should always be a top kill priority because they have a huge alert range and can call enemies from all over the place to come get you!
AlStar is right, they don't always know where you are. It's all handled on an individual robot-by-robot basis. Do any of you ever actually use sensors? They are awesome, and the long-range versions will also allow you to see what the enemy robots are doing, and you can study their behavior that way if you like. Take out a Watcher and steal its scanning equipment--later on a good sensor and interpreter can tell you exactly what class a robot is, through walls, up to 18-25 spaces in every direction...
Argh. So, can serfs alert nearby guards, then, without actually signaling the alarm like a watcher? Because in one game, I did have sensors equipped. In fact, I ran away and hid in the corner of a small room hoping that they'd patrol right past, since I could see them. Then a serf comes in and they swarm kill me.
Non-combat robots do not alert allies of your presence unless you shoot at them. There must've been some other reason they found you. One likely possibility is that they were headed into that room to begin with (don't know what you mean by "guards", Grunts or Sentries?). When I have sensors, I wait out patrolling groups fairly often, but they can still decide to check out a room (has nothing to do with you being there).
Wow, using the mouse with the invisible cursor, now there's a hybrid I didn't expect 
That's what I'm doing too, mostly because I don't know of any way to scroll the inventory via keyboard.
Use bracket keys (it's on the command list).
Do any of you ever actually use sensors? They are awesome, and the long-range versions will also allow you to see what the enemy robots are doing, and you can study their behavior that way if you like. Take out a Watcher and steal its scanning equipment--later on a good sensor and interpreter can tell you exactly what class a robot is, through walls, up to 18-25 spaces in every direction...
To use sensors you have to find a sensor array and a processor and they take up two utility slots while being far less of a priority than storage tanks or targeting computers. So it's no wonder people prefer to use their visual processing.
"Far less a priority" is an opinion, though. I would prefer sensor information any day. Superior tactical information is very, very useful. One way to manage all that is to have more utility slots. I'm one of those players who puts everything I can into utilities, precisely for that reason.
Also, I found that some utilities are faaaaar too specialized to be of any use. For example, core heat shield: it only prevents heat damage, only to the core and only in 40% of cases. That's ridiculous. At the very least it should be something like 80% if not all 100%.
but remember that these aren't designed to be most useful to your robot, they were part of a robot designed for some other purpose that, when attached to your robot, has these specific characteristics. Whether they're useful or not at any point in time is the decisions you have to make.
There are better heat shields later (70% and 100%), and they are totally useful for some builds. In the early game heat isn't much of an issue, but by the mid- to late-game, overheating engines becomes a
lot more common if you are using thermal weapons (esp. if facing off against other robots with thermal weapons). Some of the more powerful energy cannons create over 100 heat per shot. Have just a few of those, combined with insulation from armor, heat transfer from enemy thermal shots, and if you are low on heat sinks you will be overheating like crazy. Most common / first thing to happen will be all your engines shutting down one by one. Not fun.
Made it to research. Its all purplely. 
How?! Which build did you use and which parts did you find?
So I stuck with the rather fast basic hover, when you don't have any propulsion.
From there, it was a simple act of dodging everything.
So
that's how you did it... It'll work to a point, though a complete escape that way would be pretty difficult since the later levels aren't as forgiving to naked cores.
Could we pleeeease have full screen log window now? And 'closest enemy' setting for auto-targeting. And an option to fast-swap an equipped item and an item in my inventory. And a way to save all the options I have to reset every game. And a way to see the detailed percentages before firing.Then my arrogant face will be happy. ^_^
Are you sure about that?
Those things are all on the to-do list, I just released fix5 before I put them in.
Oh hey, first crash. Several enemies were on the screen, specifically a pest and an engineer. I pressed x, then tab twice. Either after the first or the second tab the game crashed.
Bugs ahoy!
That was an unidentified fast-attached gun, by the way. And after I tried to remove it (dunno whether I had space in inventory) the game crashed.
Yeah, I released before testing much, just because I wanted to get it the new action out there. It was late, and I coded it the easiest way I could think of, without thoroughly checking all the possible consequences...
I've pulled fix5 from the site--everyone should stick with fix4 (once again available for download)
Also, it would be awesome if for future versions you greatly lessened the number of utilities, combining their functions. For example, a basic sensor array and a single type of processor that fully identifies the object, because processors that merely tell you the size of the target are... not exactly useful.
I split those two apart very intentionally, because having all that information in one package would be way too useful. And as for distinguishing the size of an unseen enemy, it can actually be pretty useful in certain situations (esp. if you have a long-range sensor but have yet to find a better processor).
Peak State
------------
Power
Micro Fission Core
Micro Fission Core
Propulsion
Improved Flight Unit
Improved Flight Unit
Electron Diverter
VTOL Module
Electron Diverter
Utility
Weight Redist.System
Advanced Weight Redist.System
Advanced ECM Suite
Advanced ECM Suite
Advanced Power Amplifier
Advanced Power Amplifier
Weapon
Mini Smartbomb Launcher
That is a very nice build. And with two advanced ECMs... you must've been able to shake almost anyone on your tail.
I've just crashed out of both games I tried on fix5. Sadly, I forgot to copy the error text from run.log for the first one, but it occured when I had just picked up a flight unit with 'a' while 'p' was enabled. The turn before, I'd autoequipped another flight unit, and I noticed that the display didn't update my movement away from core.
Second crash happened when I tried to drop an equipped Terrain Scanner, which would've fallen to the ground, since I didn't have any extra inventory space.
Run.log:
E=0422486 Entity::pickUp() | Didn't check canPickUp() before attempting action
E=0424533 Entity::canActivatePart() | Part not found: Terrain Scanner
E=0424533 Entity::canActivatePart() | Part not found: Terrain Scanner
E=0504095 Entity::canDeactivatePart() | Part not found: Terrain Scanner
Thanks so much for the report. I'll have it fixed soon. (Too bad I'll be busy almost all of today, though. Might not get around to fix6 until tonight.)
Author
Topic: Cogmind 7DRL (sci-fi roguelike from the creator of X@COM) (Read 113087 times)