Synedrion sniper has a close encounter with a Siren instigator. Two of my own snipers have line of sight, and manage to disable the Siren’s head, so it can’t use its psychic abilities.
Surely Synedrion sniper can flee towards friendly forces, or maybe finish off that Siren standing 2 squares away before it uses its nasty teeth and claws?
Nope - Synedrion sniper runs to the window, and fires at a melee Arthron 16 squares away.
Maybe I have rose-tinted glasses, but I remember better AI playing Laser Squad and Lords of Chaos on a paltry little Commodore 64.
The Synedrion assault on my mission fired at the floor. Looked like it was aiming at an Arthron about 3 spaces away, but all shots went straight into the floor.
What I noticed:
AI often cannot really handle Infiltrator Class.
For example, I have often had several infiltrators running right next to me in the entire turn without shooting or doing anything useful.
I love it (not) when they move right up next to a Siren, never take a shot and then quickly die next turn by pincher death. There goes my squads’ WP, for nothing.
I’ve had new Jericho Heavies fire their flamethrowers in the air, not hitting anything nor laying a fire blast on the floor. Pissed me off so much I had to go rescue him to control him myself.
I’ve seen New Jericho Assault troopers fire incendiary grenades at a target, then run INTO the flames to get closer (they were under cover for crying out loud. They couldn’t fire again, and ran OUT of cover INTO flames. Auuuuugh).
Assault troopers who fire out of cover, then run out of cover to get closer to the target drive me crazy too. These soldiers have no sense of self preservation.
Panic is an interesting one. I know your troops are losing control, but the game also states that they will act out of self-preservation.
I did, however, have one of my troops panic while standing on the roof of the Disciples of Anu main temple (elite residences, I guess). Upon panicking, they left the complete safety of the rooftop to jump down into the middle of several melee Arthrons and a siren… whoops.
It’s not just panic though. This is the new AI. Not sure when they created this, but the AI has become noticeably awful sometime earlier this year. Upon release, AI would always position their units in a PERFECT position so that none of your units would have LOS (Line of Sight) on them (was this ever considered a problem to people? I loved the fact that they did this. I learned how to control their movements so they’d go where I want them to… (like when playing Chess) but it would still remain difficult… now it’s just pathetically easy). You always had to move every turn to regain LOS (or destroy their cover). Humans, Pandorans… everything was smart… It was ideal to position your troops not just in a spot with low/high cover, but also out of direct line of sight as it would game the AI to move to a position you could more easily exploit. (Kind of reversing the AI on itself) but it always cost you extra AP because you couldn’t ever just fire twice from one position with all of your soldiers since some of that AP always had to be used on moving into and out of LOS again.
… fast forward to now: EVERYTHING controlled by the AI will make sure that they spend whatever AP they need to put themselves in a decent position, and then they proceed to spend the rest of their AP to just move closer to you or put themselves in direct line of fire. Everything in this game now begs to be shot at, to end their miserable existence.
Another thing is that AI has always had a problem with aiming. You’ll notice if you point a Scarab directly at any enemy (especially those with pistols) they’ll often aim at the floor in front of it. How can they miss a giant tank? Easy, they don’t aim at it even. Even when they’re point blank. (Then the rest of the time they’re getting across-the-map headshots repeatedly… it’s very inconsistent and annoying)
They’ve taken the I out of AI and I’m really not sure why?
I have noticed some deterioration in the AI as well - wish I’d video’d this - it was on the mission where you put an end to Subject 24. One of The Pure who had jet legs started their turn out in the open, and spent it moving a couple of squares one way, then doing a tiny little jet jump back the other, to where they started. They did this twice, then reloaded.
EDIT - there was one jump, but you get the picture.