How does smoke work?

[ctrCat]

Is it overlaps the line of fire or make a protection zone? Strange devices these smoke belts, mb they don't debuff user but debuff all shooters who shoot belt's owner?

[Swirler]

Normally you would use smokepop belts on melee users or pawns you don't want getting hit.
Haven't used them much tho.
Wouldn't be that useful for your own shooters unless you were in a losing firefight, in which case you already screwed up, or the raid is just too strong.

[ctrCat]

And there is smoke nades and smoke lunchers just don't know how to use it.

[Vintorez]

I think as long as there is smoke anywhere between the shooter and target, should be easy to test in dev mode.

[crossmr]

You'd think that, but the angles are weird. I'm not sure exactly how it works. There have been times where it clearly looks like there is smoke between a turret and a unit and the turret is still targeting them.

[Minty Fresh]

The smoke needs to be over the pawn, turrents won't target them as long as they are within the smoke.

[Corvax]

FYI smoke prevents a turret from locking on.

[ctrCat]

SO u can cover any turret with smoke and it will unable to lock=shoot? Also I don't know which debuff got shooter then he shoot smoked area/via smoked area or within smoking area.

[crossmr]

Originally posted by Minty Fresh:

The smoke needs to be over the pawn, turrents won't target them as long as they are within the smoke.

That's incorrect. I've had smoke clouds between the pawn and turret and they didn't lock on. The pawn wasn't in the smoke at all, not even close.

[Cormac]

Originally posted by crossmr:

Originally posted by Minty Fresh:

The smoke needs to be over the pawn, turrents won't target them as long as they are within the smoke.

That's incorrect. I've had smoke clouds between the pawn and turret and they didn't lock on. The pawn wasn't in the smoke at all, not even close.

you are right, BUT:
having it an top of your pawn reduces the risk by far.
if you place it in front of your pawns, there is the risk that turrets from further left/right would be able to shoot at

[SPC.Reuvil]

Pawn should be inside smoke if their are mortors. If it is just pewpew guns then I think on or inbetween said gun works the same.

[Cormac]

Originally posted by Reuvil:

Pawn should be inside smoke if their are mortors. If it is just pewpew guns then I think on or inbetween said gun works the same.

right, but only if the line of sight is blocked by the cloud.
if you place the cloud halfway between you and the turrets, the cloud is 5 wide, than every tower at 11 blocks to both sides will still see you and shoot at you.
if the smoke hits 2 blocks to the right, turrets as close as 2 or 3 blocks to the left of the direct line would be able to target you, way to risky. if you want to move close, yes, you can, but it isn't a sollution in the long run

[Blazikasu]

They: a) prevents turrets from locking on and b) reduce accuracy of bullets passing through smoke or aiming inside it by 70%, this works for both sides.

[The Great Glumbini]

From my experience, smoke makes people inside the cloud harder to shoot at (people targetting them will have a ridiculous spread) and stops turrets from targetting people inside the smoke. Additionally, turrets covered in smoke can't target anything. Smoke doesn't seem to affect melee at all. Also, moving out of the smoke loses the protection, even if the smoke cloud is technically in between you and the shooter. Think about it as a sort of protective bubble that also shuts down turrets.

To use it well, you either target turrets or groups of pawns with it, depending on which method you use. There are smokepop belts, smoke launchers and a smoke psycast from what I've seen and they all work similarily, but in different ways. I'll list what I know in order of usefulness.

Smokepop Belts:
Since they detonate on damage I consider these the least useful, but I'll still equip my rangers with them for an extra layer of protection. If you run out of the smoke, you lose the protection so in my opinion these are best used to defend a position you don't want to move from.

Smoke Launchers:
These can be extremely useful support weapons if used correctly, but the downsides are that they take up the weapon slot and are rather inaccurate. With these you can either target turrets to shut them down and stop them from targetting anything, or you can also target your own colonists to make them much harder to hit, similar to a smokepop belt. DO NOT shoot groups of enemies with this because you'll just make them harder to hit.

Smokepop Psycast:
Easily one of my favourite psycasts and the best smokepop method so far, in my opinion. If you upgrade a colonist's psychic amplifier to level 4, they might learn Smokepop which lets them summon a smoke cloud on a precise point within their line of sight. Like the smoke launcher, you can either use it to shut down turrets or cover your colonists from gunfire, but it doesn't take up a weapon and it's completely accurate. Again, don't target enemies you're shooting at with this.

[counterintel]

Originally posted by Lord of Feeling It:

From my experience, smoke makes people inside the cloud harder to shoot at (people targetting them will have a ridiculous spread) and stops turrets from targetting people inside the smoke. Additionally, turrets covered in smoke can't target anything. Smoke doesn't seem to affect melee at all. Also, moving out of the smoke loses the protection, even if the smoke cloud is technically in between you and the shooter. Think about it as a sort of protective bubble that also shuts down turrets.

To use it well, you either target turrets or groups of pawns with it, depending on which method you use. There are smokepop belts, smoke launchers and a smoke psycast from what I've seen and they all work similarily, but in different ways. I'll list what I know in order of usefulness.

Smokepop Belts:
Since they detonate on damage I consider these the least useful, but I'll still equip my rangers with them for an extra layer of protection. If you run out of the smoke, you lose the protection so in my opinion these are best used to defend a position you don't want to move from.

Smoke Launchers:
These can be extremely useful support weapons if used correctly, but the downsides are that they take up the weapon slot and are rather inaccurate. With these you can either target turrets to shut them down and stop them from targetting anything, or you can also target your own colonists to make them much harder to hit, similar to a smokepop belt. DO NOT shoot groups of enemies with this because you'll just make them harder to hit.

Smokepop Psycast:
Easily one of my favourite psycasts and the best smokepop method so far, in my opinion. If you upgrade a colonist's psychic amplifier to level 4, they might learn Smokepop which lets them summon a smoke cloud on a precise point within their line of sight. Like the smoke launcher, you can either use it to shut down turrets or cover your colonists from gunfire, but it doesn't take up a weapon and it's completely accurate. Again, don't target enemies you're shooting at with this.

Curious about a point you make, as someone mentioned the contrary. If im sitting in a smoke pop belt cloud, as i have just been shot and triggered the belt, and return fire to the shooter, who is not within the cloud, but obviously, the cloud is between he and I, do I sustain a penalty?

Your description would seem to say no, as the penalty is only applied to pawns firing at pawns affected by smoke. So all of my long ranged pawns should have smoke pop belts? Thats what im driving at.

[The Great Glumbini]

@counterintel That's correct, as far as I've noticed, there is no significant accuracy penalty for sitting in a cloud, shooting out. I'm not sure whether there is some minor penalty but if there is, it's nowhere near as bad as the penalty the enemy receives for shooting at you.

I've cleared out quite a few pirate camps in the last couple days thanks to the smokepop psycast, and this is what my experience is usually like: First I draw the bandits away from their turrets with a sniper, then I regroup my guys together and as soon as the enemy is about to start shooting, I cast the smokepop on my group, and follow it up with an entropy link to cooldown faster. When the smoke is up around my group, the enemy's shots will spread all over the place in a pretty hilarious manner, sometimes its as if they're not even aiming toward you anymore. However, my shots will still be on target and I can usually take out 5 or 6 people using only 3 or 4 colonists while only taking a couple hits at most. Once all the bandits are dead, I'll use the smokepop psycast to disable the turrets while I take out the batteries so I can take the turrets with me. I never bother shooting at turrets after I smoke them.

Smokepop belts are also be a pretty good way to help protect your defenders during firefights. During raids I'll set up all my gunners in a line behind some sandbags to guard a chokepoint to my base. If one of them gets hit and triggers their belt, everyone around them becomes super hard to hit with the smoke combined with cover. Once the smoke clears off, it usually takes a bit before someone else gets hit and triggers theirs. I've held a few pretty good defenses like this, holding off over a dozen pirates while only taking a handful of bullet wounds and only losing 2 or 3 belts.