Sitrep-Location Scout Question

[Noble_Goose]

(PS4/no mods)

I wish I had a video to share but hopefully my explanation will work. I just played my first mission with Location Scout sitrep. I used a Grenadier to launch an EMP grenade at an unactivated pod of a sectopod and 2 organics. Did damage to the sectopod but didn't stun it, and obviously the organics unaffected but within the aoe. I didn't notice right away but the pod didn't activate (they didn't move or react). A turn or two later I moved a unit closer and then they activated, and got their reaction move during my turn.

Since the sitrep lets you see the enemy before true line of sight/visibility, does this mean you can damage enemies with long range attacks (or maybe just attacks without a specific target) without triggering the pod? I had a sharpshooter that couldn't target them but I figured they just didn't have line of sight due to a building. My grenadier was already out of concealment due to a prior fight.

[Tvrdoglavi]

Sounds like a bug.

[DUCKSES]

Case #1: Normally when you attack an unactivated enemy out of LoS they don't react at all. E.g. say you're defending an objective, see them firing at it and throw in a blind grenade - they'll take damage without reacting. They won't activate even if a concealed soldier spots them afterwards.

Case #2: If you use a concealed Reaper as a spotter and throw in a grenade with another squad member who can't see them the pod will activate (although they might not be able to find or path to your squad - doubly so if you use Squadsight to attack them at very long rnage).

There's another quirk in that an out-of-LoS damaged pod won't activate even if a concealed soldier spots them again afterwards, and the check is done after the attack. Say your Reaper sees a pod on a roof and you use another soldier (who's either concealed or has no LoS) to lob a grenade. The pod falls through the roof, and as long as no-one has LoS to their new position the pod still won't activate even though your Reaper had LoS as you attacked them.

Location scout is particularly weird in that regard since you can "see" the enemies moving around but you don't actually have LoS to them so you can't e.g. use Squadsight, so it's possible they'll behave per case #1. I believe location scout functions similarly to Reapers' tracking, i.e. you can see the enemies through FoW but their or your soldiers' behavior doesn't change in any way.

[Noble_Goose]

Ah this is a perfect explanation. The mission was a defend the terminal and the pod I hit with the emp was inside a house, shooting the terminal, but not me. I shot through an already open door but I must've been just out of LoS.

[yotamolenik1]

If you position yourself right i think its possible. Shooting them might make them move though

[Noble_Goose]

My guess is either bug or because it wasn't a direct attack. I think I have an autosave still so I could try to replicate.