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Flanking : an exploit ?

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:51 pm
by Jeckhyl
Well, I guess everybody here knows the deal. When you finish a turn flanking aliens, the move. When they move, they trigger overwatches.

When this tactical is used with visible soldiers, it's a nice tactical. You can even move in flanking position a ranger with all overwatch perks including Ever Vigilant and watch him shoot.

But it works also with hidden soldiers (ie shinobi) and it looks very much like an exploit.

I didn't see anything about that in the 1.3 patch notes, is a correction planned ?

Re: Flanking : an exploit ?

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:48 pm
by Goumindong
Are you sure they're respecting the flank and not moving to better cover? Enemies like to move in general, unless they have good cover. They also intentionally run suppression quite a bit.

Hilarious if true though

Re: Flanking : an exploit ?

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:02 pm
by josna238
I am pretty sure it doesn't work in that way. In supply raids I often end with the shinobi stealth behind aliens and They (without see any of my visible squad) do their natural aproach as if my shinobe wasn't there. I mean sometimes they beging flanked and end flanked, other begin covered and end flanked and another begin covered and get another cover (from the point of view of shinobi).

I think they don't see the shinobi and your experience is just a coincidence and they moved by any other reason.

Re: Flanking : an exploit ?

Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2017 2:05 am
by chrisb
Technically the AI should not even be considering a concealed soldier in any of their decision making. They shouldn't know that soldier is even on the field. And in my experience, as others have said, they don't either.

It does become quite comical when a pod activates and your whole squad is still concealed though. The AI completely spazzes out and starts dashing all over the place.

Hilarious to watch until one of them picks up a flank detection and the rest of the ayys get a free turn on you, flashbang half your squad, mind control a couple and toss a rocket in your face. Not so funny then!

Re: Flanking : an exploit ?

Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2017 4:55 am
by bountygiver
I do exploit the crap out of this, I have a handful of overwatch gunners with lock down and CUP and mayhem and I use the shinobi stealth flank to force the aliens to move, and get mow down by the massively stacked suppression damage.

Re: Flanking : an exploit ?

Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2017 5:21 am
by Jeckhyl
josna238 wrote:I am pretty sure it doesn't work in that way. In supply raids I often end with the shinobi stealth behind aliens and They (without see any of my visible squad) do their natural aproach as if my shinobe wasn't there. I mean sometimes they beging flanked and end flanked, other begin covered and end flanked and another begin covered and get another cover (from the point of view of shinobi).

I think they don't see the shinobi and your experience is just a coincidence and they moved by any other reason.
In your situation they are not in combat mode.

Re: Flanking : an exploit ?

Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2017 8:06 am
by darkerevent
Aliens are dumb about running suppression in this game. The way the AI handles it is definitely not the same as it was in LW1 (where they would usually try to shoot the suppressing character).

I have never noticed the behavior described, despite using stealth spotters quite commonly, but I'll look into it the next time I play and see if I can reproduce it.

Re: Flanking : an exploit ?

Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2017 10:18 am
by LordYanaek
I have used hidden Pistol Shinobis and Assaults (thanks to the shadowkeeper) to wait in ambush with the rest of the squad visible and sure enough enemies often took cover with my hidden soldier right in their back and ready to wipe them so i really doubt they know they are being flanked. They are probably moving for a different reason.

Re: Flanking : an exploit ?

Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2017 1:17 pm
by josna238
Jeckhyl wrote:
josna238 wrote:I am pretty sure it doesn't work in that way. In supply raids I often end with the shinobi stealth behind aliens and They (without see any of my visible squad) do their natural aproach as if my shinobe wasn't there. I mean sometimes they beging flanked and end flanked, other begin covered and end flanked and another begin covered and get another cover (from the point of view of shinobi).

I think they don't see the shinobi and your experience is just a coincidence and they moved by any other reason.
In your situation they are not in combat mode.
Yes, they are. And usually also are taking a rain of Death from Above shots and they do their advance covering regardless mi shinobi (that sometimes is flanking all of them.

If they move when overwatching could be because they try to get out of a flankeable position or just because they consider that breaking the supression and taking a full aim shot is better than doing a 1% even with the risk of receiving a 50% shot.