Why can't units just get wallhax? Currently it seems like enemies are only visible if their feet are visible, which means getting shot from random radar dots that are just in front of my units without a chance to shoot back. Hills are like sneaky pete without the energy upkeep.

raaar: please read this.

DeinFreund: if your units cannot see what is shooting them, then they have low enough LoS that the shooter is out of sight. That means that even if they had x-ray vision, the enemies wouldn't become visible anyway. Or the gadget linked above has a bug.

If they see the enemy but cannot shoot, that means it's the firing vantage point is blocked, and not sight. Maybe the units are aiming from the wrong position.

For example, in case of Gauss, i had to add a special magical aiming piece that hovers at turret's extended height, so that the firing solution wouldn't be blocked by random bumps in the terrain. Some units might exist which have moving gun pieces which would cause similar trouble.

quote: Is this actually a gameplay problem?

Pretty much. It's me being unhappy with how hilly maps play (with current LOS/Pathfinder). I usually feel like I'm at the mercy of some unpredictable unit behaviour. Hermit seems to be the only reliable unit in such terrain for me, because it can withstand some mishandling.

Not all hilly maps are like this though. Maps like Ravaged or Titan (big, not duel) seem to do hills perfectly well. Hills on those maps are easy to defend and hard to take, but battles are predictable and units live up to their intended traits.

The problem is probably terrain with strong high frequency noise. Fewer, bigger and well placed elevated positions seem to work better.

I'm not talking about your widget or LOS being unpredictable. If you got used to it it's predictable. But

• Have you ever tried navigating crabes/spiders on a (terraform) spire? (Pathfinder is way too inaccurate and moves to somewhere other than where you clicked)
• Seen how pyros are far superior to redbacks in the mountains because fire goes through terrain? (Pyros on Industrial Revolution als happen to shoot 10km into the sky)
• Tried to stun a crabe on a spire with infiltrators? (Infis fail to execute attack order because of terrain or pathfinder)

Steep terrain is just like water completely different from "normal" interactions. Radar doesn't exist in hills either (except for radar plane)


This is just my opinion of gameplay in extremely hilly terrain. If most people are happy with the current circumstances there's no need to change anything.