Tonight, I watched as 3 patrols altered their patrol paths to keep my concealed team from being able to hack an objective without an engagement. I ran tests tonight. A lot of them. I saved a run at the very beginning and I attempted to get to the objective from various angles. Each time, the AI would shift and move units and patrol paths in an attempt to block my path.
In once instance, I finally made it to the train that had the computer I was supposed to hack. I put a guy on top of the train hidden behind a smoke stack or whatever as a patrol walked past perpendicular. When a patrol passed, on one side, I dropped to the other side...oh look, another patrol coming my direction. I waited behind cover and that patrol kept walking until it passed me and exposed me. I ran that scenario 10 times and 10 times it was the exact same result. So I reloaded the game and instead of getting up on the train, I stayed hidden on the ground where the first patrol was. The first patrol passed and didn't see me...but the patrol on the other side? They altered their patrol pattern and "decided" to jump on top of the train and exposed me from the high ground. I ran that scenario another 10 times and 10 times it was the exact...same...result. I redid the first scenario of staying on top of the train again JUST to make sure...and again, the second AI patrol stayed on the ground and kept walking until they exposed me by walking past me.
So the AI totally cheats the concealment mechanic too? Even though they can not see my units, they know exactly where my units are or at the very least, they know the vicinity of where my units are and will actively seek to block non-engagement tactics. I did NOT see this behavior in XCom Vanilla, but then I only played through it once before doing the LW2 mod.
This actually pisses me off.
![Mad :x](./images/smilies/icon_mad.gif)
![Mad :x](./images/smilies/icon_mad.gif)
![Mad :x](./images/smilies/icon_mad.gif)
Look...I don't have a problem with challenging games, but one thing that I do NOT like is when the AI break the clearly established mechanics in an attempt to make the AI look smarter than it is or to artificially inflate the difficulty of the game. In the end, the developers are failing to reward the player for their successful efforts and this seriously needs to be changed.