Colonists continuing to fire after "Allow Firing" toggled off

[The Man with No Name]

If all you are thinking about is a cosmetic name change, then explain how a player would do these things:

i) Hold fire if they are in manual-targeting mode?

ii) Switch from manual-targeting to auto-targeting?

[Jimyoda]

If all you are thinking about is a cosmetic name change, then explain how a player would do these things:

i) Hold fire if they are in manual-targeting mode?

ii) Switch from manual-targeting to auto-targeting?

i) Turn off allow firing, undraft, draft.

ii) Turn on allow firing, undraft, draft.

My answer is subject to correction, as I'm trying to do it from memory without the game.

[The Man with No Name]

Exactly. It's neither intuitive or integrated into the existing combat mechanism/interface.

Why if I want to stop an auto-targeting shooter do I just need to uncheck "Allow Firing", but if I want to stop a manually-targeting shooter I have to turn off allow firing, undraft and redraft? They should both follow the same procedure.

[DariusWolfe]

Jimyoda: for ii, just turn on allow firing; You shouldn't need to undraft, draft.

for i. your solution is currently correct, though; I'm not 100% sure why I'd want to do that, anyway.

Fire at will

My vote is for this, as well. Also, possibly making it so that turning this off if the target is currently firing will also stop them firing might be worthwhile; Then you can manually make them fire if you wish, but they'll only fire as directed.

[Jimyoda]

For case ii.
You have a drafted colonist. You decide to manually choose a target for them, so now in manual target mode. Now you want to switch them to autonomous targeting. You must ensure that allow fire is turned on. And you must clear the manual targeting, to do so, simply undraft and redraft. Hence, turn on allow firing, undraft, draft.

[DariusWolfe]

I see what you're saying. I don't think it's completely necessary, as they should choose a new target if the currently assigned target becomes invalid (downed, killed, moves out of sight/range) but if you wanted them to select their own target immediately, rather than once they were done with the one you assigned, then yeah, the undraft, draft would do that.

[The Man with No Name]

Basically there are four states colonists should be able to be in while in a drafted state:

Firing allowed/Auto-targeting
Firing allowed/Manual-targeting
Holding fire/Auto-targeting
Holding fire/Manual-targeting

One could combine the two "Holding Fire" states into a single state, so a manual-targeter who was ordered to hold fire and then subsequently allowed to fire again, would go straight into auto-targeting mode. Or keep them as two states, so a manual-targeting shooter told to hold fire and then allowed to fire again would go back to firing at the target they were previously.

If going for three states, then there could be a sliding toggle (like with how one assigns Medical care level) for "holding fire", "auto-targeting", "manual targeting". If going for four states, then two on/off toggles would be the better option, one for "allow firing" (on/off) and the other controlling automatic/manual-targeting.

Personally, I prefer the four states solution, but either would be an improvement and solve the issues.

EDIT: To add, one still needs to keep in mind that switching from automatic to manual-targeting doesn't really work without having already selected a target, hence my suggestion of a "must select target" notification. I don't think this is such a big deal as the more intuitive way of going from auto-targeting to manual-targeting in gameplay is going to be for the player to just right-click on who they want to shoot at, rather than changing any toggle from auto to manual-targeting in the interface.

[Tynan]

Okay, the bug is handled, this is now in the realm of design suggestions, so further discussion should please go in the appropriate forum for that. Thanks.