ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Behaviour Mode
As the game can control every NPC in the game, you can also let some of your squad member be controlled by the game. You might do this if you feel manually controlling up to 6 squad members at one time overwhelms and intimidates you.
This mean you can give some form of freedom to your squad member to act on their own according to a set of rules you've specified. This is called behaviour mode:
1) Drone- you completely control the squad member.
2) Lead- you completely control the squad member and any squad member with assist behaviour will follow this guy.
3) Assist- you can't control the squad member as he/she has been instructed to follow any squad member with lead behaviour.
4) Guard- you can't control the squad member as he/she has been instructed to stand still and keep an eye on enemy.
So you can let the computer handle some squad member by setting their behaviour mode to either Assist or Guard. This can be done in Tactics Panel.
For squad member with Assist or Guard behaviour, if he/she sees an enemy, he/she will decide whether to attack or not based on Aggression Rule. He/she will also decide how to attack based on Self Preservation Rule.
For squad member with Assist behaviour, he/she will follow the squad member with Lead behaviour. His/her priority is to keep himself/herself within relative distance to the leader based on Formation Rule. If his/her position is correct, then he/she can do something else such as attack. If he/she gets injured, he/she will take cover based on Self Preservation Rule ignoring the need to follow the leader.
Self Preservation Rule is very important to squad member because when they get injured, can't tolerate pain and need to take cover, they don't care for anything else even if their behaviour is set to either Drone or Lead. This mean if squad member gets injured and need to take cover, let him/her take cover at first and then you can control him/her once he/she in hiding position. The idea is not to make him/her sees any enemy. If he/she sees any enemy, he/she will automatically take cover again. That's a smart squad member knowing how to save his/her own butt in hairy situation which by the way might frustrates you.
Line of Sight (LOS) Calculation
All creature in the game has their own line of sight (LOS) which defines the tiles they can see. This mean they can interact with any object or creature within the tiles. Simply speaking, if you happen to be within the LOS of an enemy, the enemy can see you so they have the chance to attack you. If you can find a cabinet and hides behind it, the cabinet can block the LOS of the enemy. Now the enemy can't see you so he couldn't do nothing.
So LOS is very important because it defines the active zone of a creature. So you can say a creature thinks within their LOS. If you're not in their LOS, they don't think about you. It's a simple rule but can be used for your advantage.
Creature Type
There are 3 creature types which defines how they perceive each others:
1) Player character- you and your squad member.
2) Non hostile non player character (NPC)- miner, guerilla and trader.
3) Hostile non player character (NPC)- soldier, fanatic, cultist, gangster and such.
For player character and non hostile NPC, they perceive hostile NPC as enemy. On the other hand, hostile NPC perceive player character as enemy.
Aggression Rule
Every creature in the game has their own Aggression Rule which defines whether they wan to attack enemy or not if they see them:
1) Pacifist- don't attack enemy.
2) Aggressive- attack enemy.
Although non hostile NPC perceive hostile NPC as enemy, most of their Aggression Rule has been set to Pacifist so you can find them living peacefully with enemy on certain sector. All hostile NPC Aggression Rule has been set to Aggressive so they will attack player character (you and your squad member) the moment they see them.
Combat Tactics
Once a creature decides to attack, they will attack based on Combat Tactics Rule set upon them.
1) Rush Claw- run towards enemy and attack them relentlessly with melee weapon until its time to take cover.
2) Stealth Claw- sneak toward enemy and attack them only once with melee weapon. Take cover and wait for the next attack.
3) Rush Missile- run towards enemy and attack them relentlessly with ranged weapon until its time to take cover.
4) Stealth Missile- sneak toward enemy and attack them only once with ranged weapon. Take cover and wait for the next attack.
As you can see, there's plenty of variety enemy executes their attack. The least impressive is Rush Claw of which fanatic is known about. However they attack in number which mean they could be deadly in their own way.
The most impressive is Stealth Missile of which all soldiers are trained to execute it. This type of attack could gives you a lot of trouble because of the silent attack and the sudden disappearance of the attacker. You have been warned.
Self Preservation
Having a smart enemy who knows how to fight effectively is only part of equation. The other part is to make them figure out when it's time to retreat from the fight and take cover if they're injured.
That's why every creature has their own Self-Preservation Rule which defines how much they can tolerate pain before they take cover to hide:
1) Coward- take cover if slightly injured.
2) Survival- take cover if badly injured.
3) warrior- take cover if very badly injured.
Generally speaking, tougher enemy can tolerate a lot of pain such as elite soldiers, cultists and guards. Fanatic because of their value system can also tolerate a lot of pain.
Take Cover Principle
The idea of taking cover is to find any big object which block the line of sight of enemy and hide next to it. The big object is called cover object. Enemy direction will determine which direction creature stands next to cover object. For instance, if enemy faces NORTH, creature will stand on NORTH of cover object.
There are 2 types of cover object:
1)Full cover object such as tree, stairs, jeep, truck, war machine, good living room cabinet, good bedroom cabinet, big screen monitor, command server, factory machine and furnace machine. Creature can either stand, crouch or prone next to it to hide.
2)Partial cover object such as big rock, bad living room cabinet, bad bedroom cabinet, good kitchen cabinet, good cooker/buffet table/freezer, good desk, office cabinet, good mine cart, good container box, good plant and good sarcophagus. Creature can only crouch or prone next to it to hide.
Insubordination Nuisance
Not all of your order will be followed by squad member all the times. Sometimes some squad member will show their dissatisfaction toward you by ignoring or refusing your order. Their dissatisfaction can be attributed to their low morale point. Maybe you have done something really bad that affect their morale point.
Squad member with feel OK morale point and beyond will always follow order. If they feel dejected, there's 25% chance they will refuse your order. It can get as high as 50% chance if they feel depressed. The highest level of rejection (99%) happen when they feel crazy. If it gets this level, the squad member is almost useless.
It's always a good idea for you to have leadership skill which can resist some of the chance to refuse. On Create Operative Panel, choose tactical specialist career path. There are plenty of ways to boast morale point especially if anti depressant drug is lying around. But most important of all, persistence pays. Show them whose really the boss. If they refuse your order then reissue the order over and over again until they get it.