I don’t think appropriating the fullshield/halfshield icons from Xcom works terribly well in PP, given how bullets are actually simulated in this game. It also doesn’t take into account any of the surrounding cover that isn’t directly adjacent to the operative.
In Jagged Alliance 2 you could activate an overlay that colored every tile your soldier could see. If a tile was green that meant your soldier had high protection from an enemy that was standing on that tile. If it was yellow then your soldier was moderately protected. Red meant they were totally exposed. (This is from memory so don’t quote me on this)
Anyway, I think a system like this could be helpful in PP. The tiles could be colored based on the percentage of the operative’s body that was exposed from that tile. Say 50% for yellow and 15% for green.
Now some people might say that covering the whole map with gaudy colors would spoil the art direction and make it feel like you’re playing the interface and playing the game, and to that I say…you might be right! Still though, it wouldn’t take long to just tap a key and quickly get the info you need before turning the overlay off again.
So yeah. What do you guys think?
edit: And please share any other cover interface ideas!
It’s a bit more difficult than that because while in JA2 all characters and weapons have the same line of fire (except explosives, I guess), in PX angle of attack changes from weapon to weapon.
For example, you can sometimes see how your sniper can target different enemies with a handgun vs the sniper rifle.
Similarly, heavy weapons are held at waist height, so they have a more limited line of fire when shooting from low cover on an elevation.
Furthermore, cover plays a much smaller role in PP than it does in Firaxis Xcom or Ja2, because a lot of enemies ignore it, so imo it would be a bit misleading to color code the map in terms of cover protection, simply because even relatively good cover is not very safe.
I remember having similar thoughts way way back, but after getting used to PP systems I don’t really find need for additional indicators. Sidestepping can be weird sometimes though.