Talk:Sectopod (EU2012)

Sectopod Doubleshot: hm, I don't recall ever, EU or EW, shooting at the same soldier twice (have had "misses" take out cover of second target, tho...). I just tried it in EW, and the sectopod only took one shot, used it's second to move away. --Xuncu 05:57, 12 December 2013 (EST)

Indeed. I've not seen a Sectopod in EW shoot at the same target twice, which you'd expect it to do most of the time if it had the ability to (since the algorithm that led it to shoot at that soldier should lead it to shoot the same soldier again). Binkyuk 07:09, 12 December 2013 (EST)

I may have seen it taking the shot twice at the same soldier but it's very rare to happen. I need to check my videos to see if there's any proof of that happening.

Something else I've noticed on EW: Sectopods use their cannon a lot more to target cover. I've had a fight where two of my soldiers were using a van for cover and the Sectopod fired first at the van, making it explode, and then targeted one of the soldiers (who was now in half cover instead of full. That was a clever move on the AI. Hobbes 07:19, 12 December 2013 (EST)

Yes, I suspect the AI "cheats" at least that much when the oppertunity arises. It is rather surprising, as I've never seen the AI do that "use the miss to deliberatley take out cover" thing with any other aliens (if they did aim to take out cover, it'd be with one of the grenade-wielding species doing a toss-- naturally, always with the one who's turn it is first)(trying it myself, a fair number of times I've managed to use misses to take out an alien's cover. Rapid Fire and Bullet Storm help to pull it off). Also, have had instances where I lost sight of the 'Pod, and on it's turn, it'd use both actions to shoot at nothing: *chest cannon beams flash through the sky* ".... the fuck are you shooting at?"--Xuncu 07:37, 12 December 2013 (EST)

I have a feeling it missed on that first shot, Hobbes. I don't think I've ever seen Cannon Fire ever target cover. I have seen Sectopods shoot same target twice in EW, especially against MECs. I just don't remember in EU since I never tried to have single soldiers up against one.--DracoGriffin 11:45, 12 December 2013 (EST)

The Sectopod will target cover, I'd seen yet before on EU but it seems more now on EW. I just had a mission where it deliberately fired its cannon against a wall that was covering a ghosted soldier. Since it couldn't hit the soldier because of the stealth, the AI decided to blast the cover instead. Lucky for the soldier it had stealth because of Ghost Armor, not Mimetic Skin, otherwise it would be revealed and dead afterward. It is possible that the shot at the van was a miss although I don't recall seeing the "Missed" message. Hobbes 13:04, 12 December 2013 (EST)

I've only had them attack separate targets, even against MECs, although I have had the shooting of nothing quite a few times. (Sectopod glitched onto a navigation unit in the alien base mission and fired at the Door continuously, before coming down and through the door.--Ditto51 12:46, 12 December 2013 (EST)

Electro Pulse disables death explosion?

Seems to be what I experienced in a recent game. My MEC ran into melee with the Sectopod and stunned it with Electropulse. The next turn, while the Sectopod was still stunned, I had her beat it down with Kinetic Strike Module, and there was no death explosion damage to her after the Sectopod died. Arrow Quivershaft 13:52, 12 December 2013 (EST)

Sectopod Overwatch in EW: Infinite Overwatch Shots?

So the other day, I got into a bad scrape with a sectopod on a terror mission that went FUBAR. At one point, in desperation I had a character with Lightning reflexes make a LONG run for it to get out of Line of sight and regroup. The first Overwatch shot missed due to lightning reflexes like planned, then the second missed due to the blessings of our lord and savior RNGesus, as I hoped it would.

The third overwatch shot however, didn't miss. Which is frustrating since it killed my soldier. Also frustrating because I thought Sectopods only had TWO overwatch shots. This entry even says as much.

So yeah, it might be yet another change for EW, or it might have been a bug, but I think Sectopod's overwatch is sort of like an uber Rapid-Reaction ability now, and they can get as many Overwatch shots (or at least 3) on the first runner they see. But the thing is, the sectopod has to miss the first two shots AND the Runner has to be in the open for a while to see this occur - like I said I was having my guy run a LONG way without breaking LOS to get to a spot that could. My only other thought about this is that it might also have to do with The sectopod's "energy", as I'm pretty sure it didn't take all of its actions the turn before, but that's just speculation on my part, whereas the 3rd Overwatch shot definitely isn't seeing as my soldier is now dead.

Anywho, the point is simply that Sectopod Overwatch may need some more investigating for EW. I will start a non-Ironman game to see about this and do some testing for further results.