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Passive Cover

Note: I recommend my newer mod Interception Tweaks over using this mod. It does basically the same thing, only with way better performance https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2880136489

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Enables cover in the path of a shot to provide some protection even when pawns aren't actively taking cover.

Requires Harmony.

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In base Rimworld, cover is only ever considered if the defender is directly adjacent to it. A shot could travel through dense jungle, past barricades several layers thick, and around a wall - if the defender isn't standing directly against one of those obstacles, they're classed as having no protection whatsoever. This mod changes this, so any obstacle in the path of the shot provides some cover at reduced effectiveness. None of the base game calculations are altered when applying cover passively, so factors like the obstacle's size, the firing angle, and the attacker's proximity to the cover all still apply to the effectiveness of passive cover.

Note: The game does have something similar to this effect, where obstacles in the path of a projectile have a chance to stop it (this isn't conveyed to the player in the shot calculations), but that's only applied when the hit roll misses (so it doesn't actually effect the odds of a shot hitting or not).

The mod comes with the following options, which you can configure in the Mod Settings menu:

• Passive Cover Effectiveness - Set a % modifier for how effective cover is when it's applied passively versus actively taking cover behind it.
  
• Use Best Only - By enabling this, only the single best instance of passive cover will be used for protection. Useful if you want to limit the impact of passive cover.
  
• Only Apply When Not Actively Taking Cover - With this enabled, passive cover is only ever applied when the defender isn't currently benefiting from any cover actively.
  
• Ignore Passive Cover Within Range - Calculations disregard any possible sources of passive cover within this range of the shooter, to avoid things like the shooter's own cover providing passive cover to their target. It's unlikely you'll need to ever change this value.
  
• Allowed Types - There are 3 categories of different sources of cover that you can individually toggle. When disabled, anything within the category won't be used as a source of passive cover. These categories are:
  
  • Security - Any building found under the "Security" tab.
    
  • Natural - Any plants (including trees) and chunks.
    
  • None of the Above - Anything else not covered by other categories, such as furniture and walls.
• Performance Mode - Enabling this noticeably cuts down on the performance hits that can happen with big groups. It prevents the AI from considering passive cover in their calculations, such as finding firing positions / cover. It does mean that on the off-chance that passive cover is bringing their shot accuracy down to 0%, they won't realise it, so it's recommended to set "Cover Cap" to something below 100% to give them a chance if you're using this.
  
• Cover Cap - The protection from cover is capped at this percentage. This cap is only applied when passive cover is being provided - if the only cover protection is from active cover, it won't be capped by this option.

I've not done extensive testing to work out the "best" values, and I imagine tastes will vary from player to player, however I do have a couple of suggestions for people looking for a bit of guidance for what configuration to go with:

• Lite (Passive Cover Effectiveness: ~60-80ish | Use Best Only: On | Only Apply When Not Actively Taking Cover: On) - This configuration focuses on having passive cover as a fallback - something noninvasive to kick in when somebody unfortunately finds themselves outside of actively taking cover. If you're worried you might try and cheese the system this mod provides, something like this is probably recommended.
  
• "Realistic" (Passive Cover Effectiveness: Low-Mid% | Use Best Only: Off | Only Apply When Not Actively Taking Cover: Off) - With this configuration any obstruction contributes some amount of protection regardless of circumstances, as you'd expect in a "realistic" situation. Depending on the number of obstructions involved and their effectiveness, this could potentially have a large impact on how gameplay plays out, possibly slowing fights or requiring certain considerations when laying out your base.

• Due to some quirks with how things have been set up, the path used to calculate potential obstructions doesn't account for circumstances where the attacker leans around cover for the shot. This means that in some cases what's considered an obstruction by the mod and what should actually be an obstruction might differ, but it's rare enough to have any significant impact, if at all. I bet nobody would've even noticed if I hadn't mentioned it...
  
• The scrollbar on the mod settings page scrolls too far, but it's the best I can do for the moment. Just be happy it's there - it took me the majority of the time working on the update to figure out how to implement Q_Q