Merc Tactics

tactical squad-based strategy · By Astronautz

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Feedback for 1.5.1

A topic by petf created Mar 05, 2023 Views: 206 Replies: 7

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petf1 year ago

Here are some first remarks after testing the new release for some days.

Nice improvements! I like the new destructible-doors-feature. The AI makes use of it when I start to camp inside a building. That makes the game more dynamic because you have to change tactics and stop camping. That leads to the first question: Why not make other structures destructible, too? And why can doors only be destroyed by nades - shouldnt a machinegun be able to destroy a door, too? I don't use nades to destroy doors, because i prefer to use them against enemies. So destroying structures with guns would be an option. Just giving some ideas for possible further development...

I like the AIs behaviour. Enemies dont rush into a well fortified position anymore, but retreat and try to flank. That feels pretty realistic. And they use a variety of tactics, so it is hard to predict. Really good work.

So far the AI hasn't tried that all-out-assault tactics that it used before when it had very strong forces. I don't know if you changed that or if the AI for any reason just has not chosen this tactics in the games that I have played so far. I think the AI could chose this tactics more often. In my view it is the most difficult situation to defend when hordes of enemies rush towards your position at the same time.

Nades do a good job now. Throw distance, AP usage and caused damage are in a good relation.

Some minor issues I have experienced so far:

When a merc has only 2 APs left, he can still close a door, which results in -1 APs.

All animations run smoothly. However, when a nade is thrown or when a door is blown up, the objects seem to fly in slow motion. You could speed that up a little. Or is it because of my poor hardware?

After blowing up a door, in later turns sometimes parts of that door can start to fly again for long distances (if a merc passes near the destroyed door).

I like the diagonal movement feature. However, it does not work when trying to move next to allies. That could be changed.

I know that many testers have demanded the new point-and-click movement control. I am pretty familiar with the old drag and drop movement. Enabling both controls at the same time can be confusing. Especially when I try to shoot: sometimes I accidentaly click on the neighbouring tile and make a merc move although I wanted to shoot. Suggestion: you could allow players to chose the control type they want, by enabling and disabling either.

AstronautzDeveloper1 year ago

Hi Petf,

Thanks for the feedback. I'll answer your questions below:

>Nice improvements! I like the new destructible-doors-feature. The AI makes use of it when I start to camp inside a building. That makes the game more dynamic because you have to change tactics and stop camping. That leads to the first question: Why not make other structures destructible, too? And why can doors only be destroyed by nades - shouldnt a machinegun be able to destroy a door, too?

I don't use nades to destroy doors, because i prefer to use them against enemies. So destroying structures with guns would be an option. Just giving some ideas for possible further development...

Glad you like it! I could allow guns to destroy doors, but it's not really realistic. In real life a bullet will make a hole in a door, but wouldn't cause it to disintegrate. There are two many different types of object, so to make everything destructible, I would have to create a mesh divide algorithm, which is quite difficult. That's why I would leave that feature to the future.

> I like the AIs behaviour. Enemies dont rush into a well fortified position anymore, but retreat and try to flank. That feels pretty realistic. And they use a variety of tactics, so it is hard to predict. Really good work.

>So far the AI hasn't tried that all-out-assault tactics that it used before when it had very strong forces. I don't know if you changed that or if the AI for any reason just has not chosen this tactics in the games that I have played so far. I think the AI could chose this tactics more often. In my view it is the most difficult situation to defend when hordes of enemies rush towards your position at the same time.

I haven't changed to AI that much. They could all rush at your position, but it's down to random chance. In the next version, I want to add a "smart charge" behaviour, where they would take cover if they can't reach your position in one turn.

> Nades do a good job now. Throw distance, AP usage and caused damage are in a good relation.

> Some minor issues I have experienced so far:

> When a merc has only 2 APs left, he can still close a door, which results in -1 APs.

looks like a bug. I will try and fix

> All animations run smoothly. However, when a nade is thrown or when a door is blown up, the objects seem to fly in slow motion. You could speed that up a little. Or is it because of my poor hardware?

Yep, on PCs with low end integrated graphics physics runs slowly. You could try deselect the "highres shadows" option and that might improve it. Meanwhile, I am looking to it to see if I can improve the performance.

> After blowing up a door, in later turns sometimes parts of that door can start to fly again for long distances (if a merc passes near the destroyed door).

Yep, that's a bug. I have already fixed it.

> I like the diagonal movement feature. However, it does not work when trying to move next to allies. That could be changed.

I can't see any problem. Moving diagonally across allies works for me.

> I know that many testers have demanded the new point-and-click movement control. I am pretty familiar with the old drag and drop movement. Enabling both controls at the same time can be confusing. Especially when I try to shoot: sometimes I accidentaly click on the neighbouring tile and make a merc move although I wanted to shoot. Suggestion: you could allow players to chose the control type they want, by enabling and disabling either.

I could make it right mouse click to create path. Maybe that a solution?

petf1 year ago (1 edit)

<I could allow guns to destroy doors, but it's not really realistic. In real life a bullet will make a hole in a door, but wouldn't cause it to disintegrate.>
Sure, light weapons won't destroy a door. But when a players uses a machine gun it could do some damage. Do you remember good old X-Com Enemy unknown? You could destroy light structures like wooden walls and plants when using powerful weapons. And that feature opened new tactical options. You could use rocket launchers to destroy structures and clear the line of fire for snipers.

<They could all rush at your position, but it's down to random chance. In the next version, I want to add a "smart charge" behaviour, where they would take cover if they can't reach your position in one turn.>
Maybe you could also make the AI consider the power of both teams and then decide how to behave: If the AI team clearly outnumbers a players team the AI should decide to rush in most of the cases. If it does not it loses its clear advantage. For example I played a match with my own team's score at about 3.000 whereas the AI strength was more than 14.000. If the AI had started to attack with all or most of its forces it would have been impossible to defend and I would have had to retreat. But the AI decided to throw separate attack waves on my position. That is (too) easy to defend. You could define some threshold: If AIs strength is twice as much as the players strength, the AI should be more likely to attack with all its forces.

As we are talking about tactics: I would prefer the AI to throw even more nades when it realizes that a player is camping inside a building. Sometimes enemy soldiers nade the doors quickly. But sometimes they only stand around, waiting to be slaughtered.

<on PCs with low end integrated graphics physics runs slowly. You could try deselect the "highres shadows" option and that might improve it.>
Yep, that did the job for me. Animations are much better now.

<I could make it right mouse click to create path. Maybe that a solution?>
Yes, I think so. Introducing the right mouse button would make things easier. You could also consider: one mouse button for movement only, the other button only for attacks.

Another suggestion concerning attack controls: when activating a nade, the green path will show up. But if you find out that the enemy is too far away and you want to leave the nading mode you have to click again on the nade icon. That is not very intutive. I would prefer to click anywhere on the screen outside the nade path to exit the nade mode.

Another issue: If a merc throws a nade over a long distance, he sometimes takes a small damage (only 2hps), although he should be clearly out of reach. Is that an issue or intended to be that way?

And another bug: A player tries to open a door but it is blocked by an enemy on the side of the door. The enemy is killed by another soldier in the same turn. Still the player in front of the door can't open it (Open door button is deactivated). When moving the player (for example kneel and stand up again), the door can be opened.

AstronautzDeveloper1 year ago

I'll answer your questions below:

> Sure, light weapons won't destroy a door. But when a players uses a machine gun it could do some damage.

a machine gun would make a lot of holes in the door, but it wouldn't cause it to disintegrate

> Maybe you could also make the AI consider the power of both teams and then decide how to behave: If the AI team clearly outnumbers a players team the AI should decide to rush in most of the cases. If it does not it loses its clear advantage. For example I played a match with my own team's score at about 3.000 whereas the AI strength was more than 14.000. If the AI had started to attack with all or most of its forces it would have been impossible to defend and I would have had to retreat. But the AI decided to throw separate attack waves on my position. That is (too) easy to defend. You could define some threshold: If AIs strength is twice as much as the players strength, the AI should be more likely to attack with all its forces.

That make it impossible to beat the AI and it's not very fun to play against an unbeatable enemy

> As we are talking about tactics: I would prefer the AI to throw even more nades when it realizes that a player is camping inside a building. Sometimes enemy soldiers nade the doors quickly. But sometimes they only stand around, waiting to be slaughtered.

It depends on many things whether a soldier will throw a grenade at a door or not. On easier levels is happens less often, because it makes it hard for newbie players. Also, there may be friendlies in the way, or something obstructing the trajectory, or he could be out of grenades, or out of range. Also, sometimes the soldier will try a back entrance to the building instead.

<on PCs with low end integrated graphics physics runs slowly. You could try deselect the "highres shadows" option and that might improve it.>

Yep, that did the job for me. Animations are much better now.

It's also fixed in 1.5.2 BTW. Physics now runs at the same frame rate of the game.

<I could make it right mouse click to create path. Maybe that a solution?>

Yes, I think so. Introducing the right mouse button would make things easier. You could also consider: one mouse button for movement only, the other button only for attacks.

Now that I thought about it, I'm not so sure. Using right click to select something feels very weird. Maybe, I can just add an option to disable the left-click to create path. Also, I can tweak the tolerance to favour shooting when the user clicks near the enemy.

>Another suggestion concerning attack controls: when activating a nade, the green path will show up. But if you find out that the enemy is too far away and you want to leave the nading mode you have to click again on the nade icon. That is not very intutive. I would prefer to click anywhere on the screen outside the nade path to exit the nade mode.

That's a good idea. To tell the truth, I only use the CTRL key, never the button.

Another issue: If a merc throws a nade over a long distance, he sometimes takes a small damage (only 2hps), although he should be clearly out of reach. Is that an issue or intended to be that way?

Yes, it's intended. A grenade does pressure damage and fragment damage and the fragments fly a long distance.

> And another bug: A player tries to open a door but it is blocked by an enemy on the side of the door. The enemy is killed by another soldier in the same turn. Still the player in front of the door can't open it (Open door button is deactivated). When moving the player (for example kneel and stand up again), the door can be opened.

That's a HUD update bug, I will fix it.

AstronautzDeveloper1 year ago

BTW, I just release 1.5.2, this fixes some of the issues that you mentioned

petf1 year ago (1 edit)

<BTW, I just release 1.5.2, this fixes some of the issues that you mentioned>
Yep, it is working fine now. Even with high res shadows activated.

<Now that I thought about it, I'm not so sure. Using right click to select something feels very weird. Maybe, I can just add an option to disable the left-click to create path. Also, I can tweak the tolerance to favour shooting when the user clicks near the enemy.>
Yes, i think it will be the best solution to let players chose how to control the game. And tweaking the tolerance would help a lot. I am playing on a big screen and very often I don't manage to click at the enemy tile i want to attack and trigger movement instead. Maybe I am too clumsy. Now imagine playing this on a smaller device ...

<That's a good idea. To tell the truth, I only use the CTRL key, never the button.>
... now that you tell it: that is pretty comfortable. I didn´t know you could throw nades that way :)

After playing the same map over and over again I can conclude: AI behaviour is really variable now, that keeps the game interesting. Every battle is different, that is really cool. I think that the AI is doing better on open fields or when I only cover behind a fence or wall, i.e. as long as there is a line of sight. When I hide inside or behind a building AI is struggling more and sometime doesn't flank consequently. I think that is ok if you want the AI to be beatable. Because in big battles in which the AI outnumbers you, hiding behind or inside buildings is basically the only way to win (when playing on very hard level).

This situation for example: Enemy strength was 3 times as much as my team's strength. I tried to defend on open field, inside the building etc. I lost many times because I got shot through the windows, AI naded the doors etc. How did I win? I just set up my soldiers like in the picture below and never moved them, just waited for interrupts (except Zanata who killed the enemies who managed to get inside of that building). And the AI did me the favor and moved the enemy soldiers into the line of fire again and again (enemy attacked from the top of the picture).

Do you have a schedule for future development? Just wondering what the next steps are going to be ...

AstronautzDeveloper1 year ago

Yeah, the AI isn't smart enough to avoid going into location where it was previously interrupted. In fairness, your scheme would fail if more than one enemy attacked at the same side. You would only kill the first guy and the second would get through.

I don't know when next version is, but from now on I am only releasing 1 new feature per version. This will make it more controlled and releases will be more frequent.

petf1 year ago

<You would only kill the first guy and the second would get through.>
Exactly, that is the problem: the AI only moves one or max. two attackers around that corner per turn. And they usually come around the corner with not enough APs to attack. So even if I couldn't kill the second attacker by interrupt, I could simply kill him on the next turn.

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Merc Tactics

Feedback for 1.5.1