15 replies to this topic

[UnFleshed One]

With a stunner of couse!

I used to do it in Xcom, with grenades. When you lone scout goes around that corner with his last TU (yeah, sometimes patience isn't my strongest trait) and sees welcoming committee... If cavalry immidiate unavailable, only way to save the guy is to make him stun himself. Aliens are not evil, they won't kill disabled foe (quite unlike me ).

It would be nice if you could make your soldier shoot himself.

[jtgibson]

Regarding "shooting" yourself:

I don't think a soldier would be able to kill himself directly unless his morale was through the floor. To help compensate for that, though, it would be better if a soldier's morale dynamically changed with each step, based on the number and power of the enemies he could see: so if your aforementioned soldier waltzed into a room of chrysalids, and they turned to him, he could give them the finger, suck on the barrel of his pistol, and paint the doorjamb with grey matter.

(Digression: Of course, that begs the question why a chrysalid spore couldn't successfully incubate in dead, still-warm tissue, unless it's a parasitic entity that latches onto the medulla oblongata in order to brainsuck neurotransmitters as one of its nutrient sources (etc., etc.).)

A soldier who catches himself flat-footed when he walks into a room with a lone chrysalid will probably still think he has a fighting chance against that sucker, and would be much too surprised to be able to do anything to himself anyway. In most cases, soldiers wait until they're mentally ready (full TUs -- i.e., start of next turn) before breaching a room.


Regarding "stunning" yourself, instead:

I think stunning a soldier to protect him was an exploit/bug, not an intentional feature. This is only made more evident by how civilians react to such "protection". Thus, a soldier zapping himself with a stun weapon would make himself a perfect feeding target for any alien creature. ;-)

It would also be neat if aliens like sectoids and other creatures would pick up stunned and dead X-COM agents and bring them back to their UFOs, presumably in order to extract DNA (sectoids), extract gametes (Next week on Jerry Springer: "My husband is an alien!"), or extract protein ("Meat group!").

Edited by jtgibson, 24 August 2005 - 05:35 PM.

[GARAK]

Why not just add a play dead feature that works only some of the time.
That seems more logical than stunning yourself.

[UnFleshed One]

Well, if you need logic, suppose aliens read brain patterns (simple thing, even not psionics can do that) and can distinguish hostile intentions. Naturaly they will atack a target that is a threat to them. And only if there is no such target, they'll go and make control shots (I would do just that anyway ). And you have to spend TU to do that. And you have to draw their attention. And it will put you man out of commision for this batlle (or for most part of it).

Playing dead seems bit unbalanced comparing .

Edit: Or it can be a knock-out pill, wich have to be researched.

Edited by UnFleshed One, 25 August 2005 - 03:45 PM.

[jtgibson]

I still say chrysalids (or whatever their Xenocide equivalent is... there's no page featuring a translation list... ;-)) should be able to implant and kill unconscious soldiers as effectively as conscious soldiers. Stunning/knocking yourself out should be the last thing you'd think of when in close proximity to such a nasty monster. =)

If a chrysalid saw a conscious soldier and an unconscious soldier side by side, it'd go after the conscious one first, of course, because the unconscious one can be implanted once the conscious one is dead.

[sir_schwick]

Why not just add a play dead feature that works only some of the time.
That seems more logical than stunning yourself.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe if your soldier was named Snake.

[Blehm 98]

Soldiers of the caliber in the X-corps would not be shooting themselves under and circumstance, these guys are tactical geniuses and guys who shoot guns like we can type(if you can type over 60-70 WPM that is)

[UnFleshed One]

blehm, they aren't shooting themselves by accident, quite opposite. Or do tactical geniuses have ethical problems with shooting themselves?

[Blehm 98]

its generally a pretty stupid thing to shoot yourself

I no, enemies are coming, let me shoot myself and let the know my exact location and be in too much pain to kill them!

[UnFleshed One]

Well, nobody is going to shoot himself with heavy plasma gun . It is all about self stunning. And probably about suicide when in panic several turns in a row.

Edit: and about mind control...

Edit2: it is all about ability to turn the gun and pull the trigger, not about what will they do with it .

Edited by UnFleshed One, 03 September 2005 - 03:37 AM.

[jtgibson]

Ditto for "bad idea near Chrysalids" for "bad idea near a psionic". An unconscious body has most of its inhibitions brought down -- it's one reason why more than a few psychiatrists use guided hypnosis to help uncover repressed mental issues. A psionic gray soldier could probably not only control an unconscious person, but wake him up as well.

[Blehm 98]

Mental unconciousness is not physical unconsciousness

an etherial could not wake someone up if they are sedated by enough morphine to put a cow to sleep

[mikker]

If you are in close quarters with a chrys, suicide would effectively lower the ammount of cryssalids you fight by one.

Simply shoot your own tile to activate feature (okay, maybe doubleclick to make sure...)

[sir_schwick]

They can still infect a dead body, or at least should be able too. This would make terror missions that much harder because the dead civvies would be zombified. The only real defense might be a breathing rate triggered self-detonation device.

[jtgibson]

Mental unconciousness is not physical unconsciousness

an etherial could not wake someone up if they are sedated by enough morphine to put a cow to sleep

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

True, but zapping yourself with a cattle prod doesn't really apply. In that case, you're only stunned into unconsciousness. A good firm kick could get you going again.

Wouldn't be a bad feature to add, actually... "Rouse Agent" after a small launcher has knocked out your frontliners (the animation and sound team could have a field day with the kicking ;-)), or an "Awaken" feature on the psionic amplifier (which wouldn't be nearly as fun, but certainly useful).

[sir_schwick]

You could still add some 'psionic' shaking and sounds that would be equally entertaining.