When killing a normal alien, the rest automatically receives a -1 on Willpower. It would seem only realistic and logical that such an awe inspiring gigantic monster would considerably decrease the alien will power by more than -1 when it’s killed, because it would be quite a blow to their morale. Perhaps -3 on Willpower would be more suitable and most likely cause that panic attack as well, if you’ve consistently been killing crabmen, thus constantly lowering their willpower anyway.
2 Likes
Panicking is the ending result of losing ,morale and not having bravery (see links for 1994 mechanics I hope we are going to build on)
as usual, in EW XCom reboot it was oversimplified and passing from soldier to soldier too easily negating their individuality and stats.
Likewise, with aliens even killing a boss should not make immediate panic. However killing boss and a lot of other aliens (multiply death witness etc.) should assure it.
Always think game mechanics applies to both aliens and you. So you are effectively saying if your Armadillo is destroyed all your soldiers should panic too.
1 Like
I understand your thought pattern, but I do not agree. An armadillo is simply a means of transportation. The queen, being called like that, or most likely other huge monsters in general as well, will probably perform a role of something like perhaps a general. I’m guessing the queen, or any other gigantic monster will surely not just be a grunt.
So instead of compairing the Queen to an Armadillo, you’d best compare her to something like a general or at the very least a VIP which inspires the troops, but greatly undermines their will to push on when killed.
2 Likes
It was just an current example as our “counter” to Queen. May be it be high ranked soldier, mech or whatever we will have in the end.
Panicking after queen kill has rationale for single mission run where it would expose left aliens to complete the map (I do believe in BB1 queen kill would instantly do the end. We are moving towards game mechanics where you need to clear em all). In real game, there is no such thing as “panick for all”. Except in EW on high difficulty that abuses it. Contrary, original XCom would bring more and harder aliens so rules would remain the same, just with larger number of aliens, not making them harder/superior/abusing their powers.
So such large change of mechanics would counter balance a lot of the game. Imagine future fights in larger squads. If you would e.g. encounter 2 bosses and 15 ordinary aliens per map, just those witnessing death of boss are affected, and not all. So most of ordinary aliens should remain unaffected, unless being in support pack with mini boss. In your scenario all would panic. It would make it to boss centric and unrealistic.
2 Likes
Agree with more than 1 willpower loss (2?,3? subject of balancing). Disagree with instant panic.
Also agree with similar willpower loss on Armadillo destruction. Driver is inside and it’s supposed to be the big gun, not just a disposable turrent. That ought to demoralize our troops a little.
3 Likes
Yeah insta panic is a bit too much, but with a general willpower of 5 or so, it’s most likely that when the Queen dies, they should have their willpower reduced by -3 or more which most likely will cause that panic on most of those guys if you’ve been killing the rest of them as well.
Truth be told, I have no idea what those crabmen even do with their willpower. I’m guessing, as of now with this pre-alpha build, probably nothing.
2 Likes
Deploy a shield, toss a grenade using a launcher? Mutate a limb or grow new one? We will never know, until multiplayer involving alien fraction (always wanted that!)
Sidenote: In promised feats for end game is only single player. Maybe PP2 does make that wish true.
Not so impossible, Laser Squad had 2 player option. Yes we are gone quite since then, but its easily doable because it is turn based strategy - even as “hot seat” / LAN / Internet turn by turn play.
2 Likes
Aliens might not be subject to morale as humans. If an alien is genetically constructed or modified, fear could have been removed from the soldier aliens. Fear doesn’t necessarily mean that you panic and run away though (which was actually also somewhat represented in UFO: Enemy Unknown as soldiers could “berserk”).
The released stress hormones put you on edge, makes your heart beat faster, pumping out blood quicker, getting you ready for intense physical action. It triggers the fight/flight response, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you panic. It could just as well mean that you fight. In either case, it “buffs” your physical “attributes” and heightens your alertness.
In the case of the human transport, I think you’d find that many soldiers would be very affected by their APC being destroyed. You’ve just lost mobile cover, your means of transport, you’re suddenly realizing the destructive powers your enemies wield, quite possibly also lost the potential weaponry that the APC provided.
The aliens might lose coordination when the queen dies (if she is indeed some sort of “hive queen”), they might panic, they might go berserk or go “all-in”. Or, of course, they might just be genetically engineered to not care.
3 Likes
Lets do not imagine vein things. Our soldiers could be genetically modified not to sense fear, but point of game is to be fair in mechanics. While I have rarely seen panic in EW, this was a regular feat in Xcom 1994. Morale stats existed on both sides, and chances of panic and berserk were similar and a bit randomized.
Since Willpower as current mechanics is significantly lower and spendable on higher actions, I do fear such mechanics can lead to a lot of fear 
There’s actually talk of Fear, Panic and Insanity as well as permanent Trauma which will affect behaviour.
So there are a lot of interesting psychological mechanics that are still to be implemented. Looking forward to that.
1 Like
While that is true, it doesn’t prevent the game from building a coherent system of willpower loss due to casualties (scaling depending on the importance of the friendly unit that just suffered a bad case of death) and give fearless units modifiers.
The first and most obvious is the size of the willpower pool, but since it’s used for things other than panic, you can’t really give a unit a pool of 100 willpower.
Second is a modifier to willpower loss. Assuming the game goes by -1 willpower for the loss of a grunt, -2 for a elite unit and -3 for a boss unit (just an example), a strong willed unit that reduces these penalties by 1 wouldn’t be affected by grunts dying and receive lower penalties from bigger friends getting reduced to mulch.
There is also option of a hierarchy using simple rules like tabletop Warhammer did. Generally speaking panic could spread in this game as seeing a friendly run would cause other units to test too, but some were immune to lesser units fleeing (for instance, black orcs wouldn’t panic just because a mere unit of goblins did, nobody ever expects goblins to hold their positions).
Rant aside, it’s very easy to have a set of core rules regarding willpower and losses and give units that are made of sterner stuff special rules to better cope with losses. It’s easy to understand, and, assuming the player can see some attributes about enemies by clicking on them, it’s also easy to see which enemy won’t be affected in the same way.
1 Like
I understand your thought pattern, but I do not agree. An armadillo is simply a means of transportation. The queen, being called like that, or most likely other huge monsters in general as well, will probably perform a role of something like perhaps a general. I’m guessing the queen, or any other gigantic monster will surely not just be a grunt.
From the perspective of a mechanized soldier I do not agree that losing a vehicle is not a morale hit. It’s your big guns, your ammo and food stash, your safe walls for the wounded, and your ticket out of hell. A vehicle going up is definitely a morale hit, the more isolated you are, the greater the hit.
1 Like