Re: firing outside LOS: One of the things that proved a real stumbling block for me when I was getting into Jupiter Hell was the way some weapons are completely blocked from attacking targets outside of your view. I know that at the moment you just can't hit a target outside LOS range; and I'd be really interested in hearing why this was done, because it's my understanding that it wasn't always the case, and as a new player, it was a huge source of confusion not only for me, but for a lot of people (judging by the queries I've read around the internet of people confused about weapon ranges and such). I *do* understand how max range is relevant even when attacks beyond range:6 are blocked (ie. the 'to-hit' equation featuring a scale between optimal and max range), so this isn't so much a 'why is there a max range greater than 6 for some weapons', as it is a 'why is hitting outside of LOS blocked?'
I can tell that, currently, the monster AI just isn't equipped to handle it, and I totally understand if temporarily removing the ability to strike targets outside of LOS was implemented as a stop-gap while the AI was fixed! What I really hope, though, is that it wasn't a permanent solution, because it feels like a clunky patch to cover up incomplete AI. In my eyes, the reaction to (for example) 'the summoner can be killed simply by shooting him outside of LOS' should *not* be 'don't let the player damage him outside LOS'. It should be 'make the summoner react to being struck outside of LOS' (and I don't mean *punish* the player for a sound idea, like, for example, the way JC punishes a player that tries this trick in DRL; I mean just make the summoner react by getting into range, or starting his summoning immediately, rather than removing a player's ability to hit him!) (also, randomizing his starting tile might make sense!)
Personally, I was really impressed with how striking targets outside LOS was handled in DRL - a fixed, *huge* chance to missthat could never be overcome via accuracy traits, and monster AI that would react to being dealt damage by moving in on the player...
Ultimately, I feel like the block on hitting targets outside LOS feels counter-intuitive and 'weird', and I'd love to hear whether a better solution was planned in future (or even what led to this design decision).
Also: I know, guys, that anything 'repetitive' is discouraged as a design principle, and maybe you saw firing into blackness as repetitive, but personally I don't think radar-shooting with a shotgun feels 'repetitive' at all! If anything, every shot feels like information gathering, and can have a slightly exciting, edgy feeling to it, rather than feeling like some chore! In fact, if you made it so that certain monsters reacted to the sound of gunshots, or other risk/reward tradeoffs (see suggestion 7, 'enemy snipers' below), it could feel pretty 'edge of your seat' exciting! More importantly, though, what certainly *did* feel VERY repetitive was firing at targets that I KNEW the location of (hacked tracking data) again and again and AGAIN for what felt like forever! Yes, this was before I, as a player, understood that the game didn't allow that strategy, but how can you prevent a new player getting into this repetitive loop? A little hint pop-up explaining that, 'sorry, we're not allowing this strategy!' would certainly do it, but it would instantly familiarise the new player with the reality that their strategic choices are being controlled, which is even worse than repetitive actions. (Plus, as mentioned, when ammo is a limitation, firing into the blackness never really feels very repetitive anyway - it's only a good idea when a player has a good idea that a target is there!)
For me, it feels pretty frustrating to be holding a weapon with the range to strike a target; and to have figured out the location of an enemy (be it via sound, doors opening, fixed targets like turrets, or other skill-based intuition); to only be blocked from doing so by a fixed 'disallowed' arbitrary restriction from the game engine. It feels like I'm playing against the fixed limitations of the developers, rather than playing against the ingame badguys, and I'd love to see other ways around it!
I don't actually think that fighting outside of LOS should be made practical as a general case, btw... For example, if it emerges that players are just firing into the blackness of fog of war by default, then that fixed 50% miss chance from DRL could probably be really pumped *up* for non-spread weapons up to maybe something as high as 80%! What I'm saying is that if you want it to be impractical to fight targets beyond LOS range, just make it _usually_ impractical by just taking up too much ammo! This still blocks the general strategy, while also giving a few niche areas such as levels where there are spare guns lying all over the floor, where a player can react to the current situation with an appropriate change of tactics! For me, this is the very essence of strategic depth, which is something that JH has the potential to have in spades, but is currently (understandably, as it's still in beta etc) a little short compared to your other chaosforge titles.
I understand that run-wait was not implemented as a conscious dev decision to avoid repetitive play, and while I can totally get behind the idea of removing repetitive tasks, I feel that this particular decision actually has the opposite effect. Players are still going to wait for an enemy to approach their decent firing positions. We'll all do it! The question now is basically 'how long are you prepared to do it for?', with longer = better. That means, to play 'best', a player would be spending a good couple of minutes on every corner just in case monsters come into range! Effectively, it produces a *massive* repetitive task!
In fact, when you think about it, run-wait, as a command, can basically be phrased as 'skip this boring, repetitive task and fast-forward to the action'!
On top of that, I've also noticed that due to the way Jupiter Hell's AI has been designed, waiting on the spot isn't even an overpowering strategy the way it undeniably was in DRL. Jupiter Hell not only has fixed enemies that can't move, and enemies in rooms that will not come out until other events are triggered (like doors being unlocked)... It also mosty does away with the practice of monsters roaming randomly over any expanse of the map. Enemies tend to 'patrol' small areas. I don't know whether this was intentional, or a side-product of the AI, but effectively a player can wait for a hundred thousand turns and never see a great deal of the monsters on the level!
I think, due to the fact that run-wait is never going to be game-breakingly strong, and also the fact that without run-wait players will just manually (laboriously) hit the wait key until monsters come into view, I'd really encourage the devs to reconsider this design decision! I don't mind, at all, that it's been left out. Hell, I like a good, slow game!!! But I *do* feel that it is having the
opposite effect that that which the designers intended - leaving out run-wait has actually introduced more repetitive, laborious, time-consuming player actions to the core gameplay!