In my defense, that was the end of the room the team spawned facing away from, and toward the doors that led into the dead end, and what the hell kind of spawn placement is that?! Never before in my hundred-and-some hours of playing this game has the team spawned facing in a direction they were not meant to at least roughly proceed in, or with their backs to a door (which was invisible in the fog of war because they weren't facing it).

Anyway, problem eventually solved. Alas, the stars did not align so that Gunny ERM-E had a chance to go three for three in SUPER ROCKET PUNCHing Chosen to Final Death in their own living rooms; when the Hunter respawned after we wrecked his relaxation pod, he was all the way in the opposite corner of the room from where ERM-E was standing.

So, instead, Rei casually overwatched his face off. Just like she did the first time I played that mission, in the other campaign. So there was a pleasing symmetry of a sort, just not precisely the kind I was hoping for. :)

ERM-E had his moment of glory for the mission in phase 1, anyway, when at one point he used a Shredder Gun to wipe out an entire squad of Chryssalids (which our Reaper had spotted but not activated) through a wall. I didn't think that would work, but their health bars blinked when I put the cone on the side of the wall ERM-E was facing, so I figured it was worth a shot. As it were.

Anyway, all that said:

>I suspect
>(from what poking I've done in the code for modding purposes) that
>it's related to the pathfinding subsystem. You know, the same one
>that sometimes decides that destroyed second-story tiles that are no
>longer there are perfect places to move the mind-controlled squaddie
>to?

I do love the pathing in this game, and I mean that sincerely even though the reason I love it is because it's so entertainingly stupid sometimes. Squaddies who choose to hurdle every single obstacle in their path rather than go around any of them. Squaddies who run straight through fire without seeming to think the instruction to do so is in any way odd until—to their evident surprise—they discover themselves to be actually ON fire. Squaddies who climb entire three-story buildings, trot across the roof, and then jump the 25 or so vertical feet back to the ground without a moment's pause, then cross the street and climb back up onto an elevated freeway, and somehow that only counts as one action because after all they only covered about 10 horizontal squares. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.