Spotted in yellow cover while investigating

[NikNev]

Hey, could someone explain what happened here? I was spotted while in yellow cover by a civilian who was investigating. This really surprised me.

[Mobbstar]

This is an interesting edge-case of how guard peeking works. I quote @qoalabear

Quote

On each of the left/right sweeps, they actually make 2 separate attempts to notice around cover. "forwards" refers to the original facing before peeking. Also this is specific to an orthogonal facing. Diagonal facing is handled more simply.

 

1) 1 step forwards, then look to the side along the row. Ignoring cells that provide cover or are behind cover (and unlike normal vision, cover on the source tile counts).

2) If no cells available in step 1 (not no agents found, no cells available), 1 step to the side then forwards along the column.

 

 

(Case examples:)

 

 

So the first of the 2 guard peeks, there was alternating cover in the row, so the guard failed step 1 and used step 2.

 

The 2nd guard to peek, there was open space down the row past Tony, so the guard peeked using step 1 and never checked step 2.

 

In both cases, step 2 would've been required to see Tony.

 

Step-1 (green): Guard tries to look forwards-then-sideways. Ignores cover and cover-providing tiles in that direction, then sight is blocked by tall cover. Even if that hadn't been tall cover, would've still been ignored as "cover, covered-tile, cover, covered-tile, door". No cells to examine, therefore continue.

step-2 (purple): sideways-then-forwards. Examines 3 tiles, 2 further tiles are ignored because they all contain cover objects.

 

 

Second peek: step-1 (green): Guard looks forwards-then-sideways. Cover, covered-tile, open tile (circled), wall. Guard only checks that open tile as part of the extra noticed-agents check.

There was a tile checked, therefore the guard never attempts step2.

 

I strongly dislike that this behavior causes guards to notice agents down the hallway like this, but only because the green arrow was blocked

 

Diagnoals are simpler. There's just the one line tried (per each of the left and right peeks)

[NikNev]

Thanks for that @Mobbstar, I think I understand though it is quite confusing.

Do you have a link to the original post? It would be interesting to see the context & discussion.

[Mobbstar]

This discussion happened on the community Discord server. (You can also find it in the "Explore" tab in Discord.)

[Hekateras]

Translation: You should join the Discord server

the forums are literally dead and have been for some time now