Lin545: Well, I tested this over and over. Just exact distance away from the closed door and - tentaculat chases. Not inside the distance, it does not react at all, regardless what happens. The autofire for melee in openxcom makes the whole thing much more difficult.

mk47at: I haven't looked at the AI part of the source code in detail, but I'm pretty sure that there is no cheating. You could try to ask SupSuper in the game's subforum.

Lin545: Without actual eye contact.

Lin545: Dunno, if only at superhuman (always played only on superhuman), but AI really knows where you are and especially Tentaculat is waiting very exactly in the alien basement for you to step in certain range, after which it goes into attack. If you are not in that range, it does not attack. There is no direct eye contact. So the only way to solve this, is to "open the can" with disruptor pulse, and also after reloading. And this sucks great time, because it degrades gameplay. Never had this in original xcom/tftd.

Also, the Triscene on ship terror missions is overspawned and overpowered. In original they were funny, as they typically spawned on second mission part, at higher level decks locked inside rooms - typically no more than 4. In openxcom, they spawn 8-12, freeroam around corridors, blasting walls with their guns, get out easily and use elevators. Once one of them just para-dropped literally on the head of my team from above, exactly at spawn point. But all this is just amusing, but not a big game breaker.

Speaking of amusing, in original I once had a "floating" Xarquid in same mission (terror against ship, second half) floating inside theater... in the air. This bug is not present in openxcom.

Its not like Ja2, Ja2 has simply awesome AI (WF6 AI is also quite good, but gun choices sux). They talk over radio, go searching, hide in corners, go to last spot instead of cheatishly rushing against your team.

Matewis: I see. It could be a superhuman thing. I usually stick to Veteran, but I try to play ironman style to compensate. Or perhaps an openxcom thing (sounds like you're playing tftd through openxcom). The last time I played it I used tftdextender. I never really had much difficulty with tentaculats or Triscenese which I found a little weird. Then again, when I played ufoextender I didn't have much difficulty with Chryssalids or Sectopods either, but when I finished the game a few months ago using openxcom those two gave me a world of trouble. A few of the former completely wiped out an experienced squad during one terror mission.
I definitely want to check out tftd using openxcom, but I wasn't sure it was ready yet. I got quite far with tftdextender, but quit once the game became way too easy with molecular control. I now refrain from using it at all.

And yeah, I'm really enjoying JA2's AI. The only thing that I don't always like is the interrupt system. I like how xcom does it: reaction stat + number of TUs left. So you can successfully interrupt a high-reactions alien coming around a corner, if you have a soldier with full TUs waiting. In JA2 a higher level soldier can walk into a room, and out of the corner of his eye shoot dead a lower level merc standing against the wall with weapon raised and aimed at the door :P

Lin545: Yes, tftd using openxcom on superhuman :) Its not so bad this, except the overcalculating AI. On the first playthrough, I had a terror squad composed of aquatoid and deep ones rush my main base within first two weeks. Because I designed the primary base in a way, that airlock and hangars were together and isolated through laboratories and engineering corridor, I thought I could easily dispatch them with magna packs and high explosive gas cannons, but it proved otherwise as they rushed and spread around corridors and had my butt majestically kicked : / It was fun :)

Also there is alternative shooting system, which claims to define precision using distance - but in reality renders automatic fire completely useless. Combined with overaccurate AI at superhuman, it completely rips the guns from any use :) But so long its not used by default, I am okay :)

Lin545: Are you playing using 1.13? Or original? I recommend to go straight for 1.13. The interrupt system is very easy, just kill more to rise the experience level :) But in ideally, you should try not to appear in the visibility cone. That means appearing from the back (going around, using windows etc), throwing grenades. Sometimes taking damage is inevitable though... :/