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Stormtrooper Marksman Academy Trajectory Chips

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GTD-Carthage:
Hello all! This is my first post here. I've been an occasional lurker of Cogmind for some time now and, glad to see the game is now available for public access, took the opportunity to take a look at the early build of the game. I must say, the game is very impressive with a fair good bit of graphics. (I enjoy both the tileset and ASCII look but I must say the particles are easiest to appreciate if it's all in ASCII!)

I have no idea where to put this down as it isn't a bug nor is it an idea.

I've been through several games now with my furthest at least three floors in. (Those katana-wielding Rogues tore me a new one...)

After some time of playing and adopting specific strategies, the issue I'm actually going to discuss here has become less of a problem but at the same time, I feel it limits some gameplay aspects of the game I'll also discuss here...

Weapon accuracy. Everyone shoots like, really badly. Not that it's a bad thing when it's enemy bots on you.

A large number of combat scenarios (outside of funneling the bad bots into tight spaces) most definitely tear my entire inventory of equipment apart quicker than I can take at least half of them down. The flying little Pests are definitely... pests.

There are frequent times in the game where robotic grunts are at least less than five tiles away but are still only at 50% hit chance. (this is understandable of course for things that can fly and move fast - like Pests) I'd figure an extremely low shooting accuracy at certain ranges is acceptable but when a target is just on the opposite side of the street, I'd assume a near-guaranteed hit - it especially becomes a huge curiosity when hostile bots are funneled down 1-tile corridors but still have more or less 50% hit chance despite enfiladed fire.

Definitely, I'm rather weak on discussing this as I presume accuracy, a major variable in combat, was probably among the first balancing acts polished up in the game and that it plays as it was intended now. And that a number of other factors (like moving targets) probably account for lower accuracy rates.

In so far, the accuracy of hostile bots are satisfactory - they hit hard most especially if you stand in the wrong spots. However, unless you were in tactically advantageous terrain such as a tight corridor or a doorway (of lesser defensive value though...), your own accuracy does little good up until you have at least three or more guns to guarantee one of them will hopefully hit your target (all the while those bots will tear your guns away...). Low accuracy on longer engagement ranges is also actually quite fine, especially when enemies are practically at the border of your sensor range.

Any thoughts? I personally think weapon hit chances are fine - just need to be a bit kinder when you expect them to be.

Kyzrati:
Hello! And what a great title... I saw that pop into my inbox and was like "what?! weird spam already?" ;)

Then I read the contents and realized the title is perfect ;D.

This is a very important issue that requires an in-depth official response so you can all see what's up with this mechanic:

Part of the problem is a lack of immediate transparency in terms of the hit chance value.

It is a huge number of factors all rolled into one single value. You can know all these factors, though--they are both explained in detail in the manual, and you can use the combat log for a breakdown during firefights. (That said, the breakdown uses the old method from the 7DRL and is pretty dense, to be honest. I've wanted to revamp that and make it much more useful.)

For convenience I've copied the current factors here:

* Base hit chance before any modification is 60%.

Volley Modifiers:
  +3%/cell if range < 6
  +2%/attacker tread slot
  +attacker utility bonuses
  +10% if attacker didn't move for the last 2 actions
  +3% of defender heat (if heat positive)
  +10%/+30% for large/huge targets
  +10% if defender immobile
  +5% w/robot analysis data
  -1~15% if defender moved last action, where faster = harder to hit
  -10% if attacker moved last action (ignored in melee combat)
  -3% of attacker heat (if heat positive)
  -10%/-30% for small/tiny targets
  -10%/-5% if target is flying/hovering (and not overweight or in stasis)
  -20% for each robot obstructing line of fire
  -5% against Cogmind by robots for which have analysis data
  -defender utility bonuses

Weapon-specific Modifiers:
  +utility bonuses
  -recoil (from other weapons)
  -10% while system corrupted (corruption% chance/shot)

In summary, the idea is hit chance is a lot more than just "I'm an awesome robot dammit I should be able to hit anything I want." The player must realize all the different factors at play and use them to your advantage (or realize when you're at a disadvantage because of them!).

As part of that subgame, many of Cogmind's utilities allow you to manipulate one or more of these factors in your favor!

So that's how it should be viewed from a realism standpoint. Now from a game design perspective, there are other explanations:

The primary one is game flow.

The dynamics would be completely different if we had higher hit chances across the board, resulting in a very different feel to the whole game. At the map design level you'd end up having to fight a lot more enemies (thereby leaving fewer opportunities for effective stealth), or enemies that would have to be much more resilient to compensate. At a single shot level we'd also lose a lot of the suspense created by misses!

I understand that it may feel annoying when you're right next to a robot and and can't always hit it, but while being at close range offers a really nice boost to your accuracy, it can't be perfectly effective because the ultimate strategy would then become to just rush up and nail everything in the face. As is I think the values provide a good balance between "do I spend a few turns closing on the enemy to get a better shot, or do I hold out at a distance and take my chances based on my current loadout and abilities?"

Then there are all those other factors that feed into the system. If everyone could get to the mid-game more easily I might not need to say this, but you'll find that later on, if you really want to, you can build yourself to easily get over 90% hit chances against almost everything, regardless of distance or speed! Targeting computers stack, and wait until you start getting the better ones ;). (There are many other approaches, too, as you can imagine from all the parts. I've built Cogminds that could one-shot almost everything I met.)

So I think the system as it is works well with the idea that you can tweak whatever you want to improve that aspect of yourself, but that keeps you from improving in other areas. In short, you're not really good at anything--it's what you decide to use that determines how effective you are in a given situation.

The main drawback to this system is more of a meta issue, as it's easy to misunderstand it, especially at the beginning.

What do you all think?

GTD-Carthage:
After seeing 80% shot chance on three weapons on a few guys, I suddenly feel like my sentiments are moot. :P There's definitely a huge formula influencing accuracy given that explanation and I do agree there's a huge amount of tension surrounding fights thus far - position is integral to survival and, in the end, it's the player's fault for letting himself get surrounded by Defenders shooting from all directions. ;) There's a lot of fascinating close encounters where terrain advantage manages to let you win against a whole bot squad coming along their path.

Perhaps the biggest discovery (noticeable the longer you play...) would definitely be recent movement applying itself against accuracy. Knowing that influences my playstyle a bit.

At this point, I think accuracy is in a solid good place - experience with Pests on the first non-tutorial floor definitely leaves the idea you'll never shoot particularly well and it felt like a foreboding experience for future encounters. (That Rogue plz)

Kyzrati:
Thank you very much for the prompt, though! Now I have a good place to point whenever someone asks about this.

Even just this evening I was chatting with someone who said they were encountering "stormtrooper syndrome," and I said hm, that sounds awfully familiar... and pointed him to this thread. He came back after a short while with the following comment :)

"Well, that's going to influence my play style..."

biomatter:
No kidding! After I read all that, I went to check the manual - and sure enough, it's there. I really, really need to read that thing... <_<;

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