One of the most prominent complaints regarding ground combat is the behaviour of NPCs when they come in contact with a player; whereas a Zirax will immediately open fire with no delay. They don't hesitate, they don't pause to confirm that you are an enemy or ally, don't even raise their weapon. Thus, I suggest a new function for the EClassConfig to attach to individual NPCs requiring a delay action: DelayAttack: X (X = number of seconds) DelayAttack is intended to simulate the action that an intelligent lifeform would perform to ascertain whether the player is an enemy/target or give them time to raise/aim their weapon before they fire instead of instantly doming the player at 100m by interfering with their ability to fire when they go to perform that action. Since this only needs to apply to their first attack, a cooldown of 20-30 seconds between a unit's DelayAttacks is recommended, either as an additional config entry (e.g. DelayAttackCooldown: X) or hard-coded. Otherwise they'll be pausing between shots to ask if you're dead and that's not good either (although if you wanted that, you could do it with the config entry). Functionally, you could round a corner inside a zirax base and come face to face with a zirax shotgunner; Currently, you would be instantly shot with no hesitation. Though with DelayAttack: 1.0, rounding that corner will result in the shotgunner raising his weapon to fire and pausing for a second before he opens fire normally. This is really only needed for ranged enemies as melee enemies have time to register you're an attack target during the time they're approaching you (and most melee enemies are wildlife or naturally hostile to everything) and it would be weird for a raptor to chase you 120 meters and stop when it's finally close enough to attack you. Bonus: You could also include a sound effect prompt for this such as: "sfxAttackDelay" that could be used to run a sound effect during this delay where say... a Zirax plays a "call for help" sound or a "questioning" sound to reinforce that they're questioning you or calling for backup and not just having a seizure.
This is a really good suggestion. One of the most common complaints I see about ground combat (besides the AI breaking) is that they shoot you instantly with no time to react. This can be very bad if it's a shotgunner at close range or a rocket Zirax or something that could one shot the player. Could even be used for specific types of enemies that would only fire on you after you're visible for X seconds. Think like the Archon from the original Doom games where they need to maintain LoS to you for a few seconds to get their attack off and the player can hide around a corner to avoid the damage.
*peeks in after being gone for ages.* Gosh, this is STILL not a thing? This many years later? Yes, PLEASE add realistic delay before the enemy can first start firing at players. It's not only more immersive, but also makes a lot more gameplay sense & QOL for the player so we have time to find cover or react, ourselves.
Thank you Vermillion this is a very good and wanted suggestion. All thumbs up from me (aaand i would assume nearly every other palyer out there) Yes, please with sugar and a cherry on top, dear Eleon!
