One thing that I always find jarring in FXCom is how soldier path finding never takes vaultable obstacles into account when plotting a most direct path, i.e. direct path is always preferable, regardless how many jumps a soldier will have to do. Sure, in FXcom 2-action turn is doesn’t cost anything to jump over an object on your way but it really looks weird when a soldier jumps over 2-3 narrow obstacles on his way instead of running around them, which would’ve made sense in real life. It may get really ridiculous when a soldier runs to a corner of a building, climbs on it’s roof runs along the edge and jumps back down on the other side because apparently he considered that easier than taking a step to the side and running on the ground along the wall.
What I propose is for vaulting over something to cost APs(AFAIK climbing up already does) so that making a decision to take a shortest path to the target would actually be state of the path(i.e. the amount of debris and obstacles the soldier will have to deal with) instead of simply be calculated based on distance in “hexes”.
I dunno. Depending on the exact nature of the terrain, if you really really need to be at a particular spot ASAP (such as in the heat of battle), a good vaulting action would absolutely be quicker. Even so much as two extra seconds could get you shot where you otherwise would not be.
And, more pertinently, it’s a game that already asks the player to juggle a lot of balls as it is. TUs/APs, multiple soldiers, multiple inventories, terrain, visibility, height advantage, soldier abilities, and so on.
The intricacies of choosing whether my soldier should vault that fence or run round through the gate is not something I want to worry about. Hence, I’m fine with my soldiers always-vaulting - I want to worry about more interesting stuff.
I agree it’s kind of silly to see a soldier run in a straight line, climbing over three separate barrels (full cover height) irl you would’ve just walked around it and it wouldn’t even be significantly farther.
XCOM pathfinding undeniably has a number of absurd situations, mostly due to the fact that vaulting over obstacles, jumping through a window and any vertical movement don’t take more “movement points” than running through an empty tile. It’s silly to see a guy climbing a ladder taking two steps on an upper walkway and jumping down back to the ground instead of walking around a crate. I don’t mind it that much though.
Understandable, and also easy(ish) to fix for the developers. We already know that climbing a ladder isn’t a free action like in FXCom, they just have to add a small penalty to vaulting and other special movement and the game’s pathfinding will find the shortest route without you worrying about it.
I’m not sure if you are aware but taking a leap over fence or crate actually cost something like 1.5 AP rounded down. At least I think so. Just like moving diagonally. Or am I wrong?
Pretty much this. I am not talking about something that would make sense(i.e. climbing over a low, wide fence), but rather something like “there’s a crate as tall as me in the middle of this field which happens to be in my way. better climb over it rather than take a step to the side”. This is why I suggest adding APs to vaulting and actual climbing over so that pathfinding algorithm would be able to determine it it’s worth it to jump over something or go around.
Climbing ladders does AFAIK, not sure about leaping over though, had no chance to check yet.
It is. Rounded down but keeps fraction in memory. So if there is a move for 1.5 AP it will take 1 from soldier’s pool. But second such move for another 1.5 AP will take 2 AP from soldier’s pool. At least I think so. Because sometimes those moves cost 1 AP and sometimes 2 AP despite there is no significant difference what are your soldiers doing. Or maybe sometimes it is just a bug.
