And I don't know why all you people are complaining about your heavies' accuracy. I haven't noticed it being more than maybe 5-10% worse than a rifle other than light plasma, if that. Heavies also lose less from equipping a SCOPE than any other class save for snipers (you already have explosives, so you don't need grenades), and gain more from it than any other class if they're shooting twice.
My Heavies generally top out at about 75 Aim by the time they hit Colonel. The second-lowest Aim in my squads are typically the Supports, and they generally have Aim in the 90s. That's an enormous difference. SCOPEs are a required item for my heavies, otherwise they can't hit anything.
I haven't observed this in my game, but it's possible that my heavies tend to be a rank or two above the average support or rifle-assault.
But that doesn't really matter. If my support with a light plasma rifle has a 90% chance to hit, my problem is not "how do I boost my accuracy even more?", it's "where is the other seven damage on this Muton Elite going to come from?". More shots from your 10-damage 75% accuracy heavy (85% with a SCOPE) is probably a better answer to that question than the alternative.
EDIT: If the accuracy difference between a scoped heavy and an uscoped assault is only 5%, that doesn't strike me as a big deal. You can't have scopes on everybody or you lose too much flexibility. Putting the scopes on your heavies hurts your flexibility less (since they can innately fill the role of grenadier with no item), and adding a scope to a bullet-swarming heavy is a bigger offensive boost than putting it onto an assault who has the potential to flank people anyway.
Nah, an assault flanking enemies gets to have their listed accuracy. A heavy with bullet swarm is back with the snipers because to get two shots off they need to not move, so they're shooting into cover - that 85% scoped is probably 65% or 45% in actuality.
E: Ironically the only unit in my game beating squad without a SCOPE was my heavy, because he was psionic and had a Mind Shield :P
Two 10-damage shots at 65% is pretty damn sweet where I come from. You're more likely to get at least one solid hit than a non-flanking rifle-bearer with 70-75%, that hit will deal more damage, and you have over a 40% chance of hitting twice. And that flanking assault's accuracy is so good that the marginal gain from adding even more accuracy via Holo-Targeting is pretty minor (I usually see 100% point-blank with a shotgun). And in an ideal situation you only want to be spending 1-2 soldier actions per turn clearing out a single average enemy...maybe 3 if it's in a nasty spot. So situations in which your whole squad are ganging up on one guy (maximizing the benefit of Holo-Targeting) are pretty rare. Situations where you've already killed a guy or two and now you're thinking, "Well, I have two soldiers left, better make them count" are a lot more common, and that's where Bullet Swarm shines. And on those infrequent occasions when your accuracy is so bad that it's hardly worth taking the shot at all, you've always got your totally awesome rockets which all but guarantee (or literally guarantee) some damage while also removing their cover for subsequent shots (which is better than Holo-Targeting).
Actually, the situations where you DO have the full brunt of your squad aimed at one spot are almost categorically against Sectopods and, to a lesser extent, Cyberdiscs. In other words, the situations where Bullet Swarming HEAT Ammo is the single best thing ever (well, maybe not quite as good as high-ground double-tap headshot snipers, but they're on a whole other level).
There's these two bugs I've been getting a lot:
1. People ignoring cover. Like I can walk someone right up to a wall or something, they'll just stand there like they're not in cover.
2. One move using both actions. I've gotten this so many times and its really fucking annoying
I've had a couple times where I think the square I moved to was just one space beyond my single move range, and I think it just didn't pop up the dashing notification due to geometry or something.
One bug that I've only seen once (well, twice, but it happened in the same level to the same dude then never again) was it taking an action to open a door. It was on that level that has the restaurant with the freezer in the back, then the truck and a butcher shop. Had the dude parked by the door, clicked on it to open it, and instead it just moved him in front of it. The next time I made sure I was definitely left clicking and it did it again. I wish the 'V' key worked more than 1/20 times.
On the suppression w/ holotargeting vs bullet swarm topic:
I typically take one holotargeting and the rest bullet swarm. If you can get multiple dudes in the AoE of a suppression, the HT applies to all of them.
0
Options
Sirialisof the Halite Throne.Registered Userregular
Got some of the harder achievements today, Lone Wolf (Clear a UFO with a single soldier on Classic/Impossible), Wet Work (Complete an Alien Abduction Mission in 5 turns or less on Classic/Impossible)
and Xavier (Mindcontrol an Ethereal)
A Continental Fellow (Complete the game from each starting point) is not one I'm going to get anytime soon, but I will get it eventually.
Bugs aside, this game is definitely my Game of the Year.
0
Options
chiasaur11Never doubt a raccoon.Do you think it's trademarked?Registered Userregular
My "favorite" glitch was on my first Battleship.
Opening hallway, Muton elites behind a door. Mindfray both, then have the sniper take a shot.
28%.
Alright, so that happens, they have good cover. I just need to take out the cover. With a rocket.
It misses. But it destroys the cover anyway, so I look at the odds to hit the muton elite out in the open, with no cover, and no defensive bonuses.
28%.
I couldn't get above 60% with a colonel assault, at point blank range, with an alloy cannon, against an enemy with no cover.
That's pretty interesting. I didn't know about a few of those. I think flanking occasionally behaves differently at very close ranges, though. I could have sworn you could flank someone directly around a corner even if it's low cover. Like...
___A
mmmX
If A is the alien, X is you, and the ms are low cover, I believe that's a flank. And may still be a flank if the alien is one or two tiles further away. Figure 2 in the guide illustrates a similar situation which is not a flank, though. Unless I've truly only ever attempted this with high cover, which I don't think is true, but maybe I'm wrong.
EDIT: What it DOES explain is situations like this:
mA
m
mmmX
I've been in situations like this where I didn't get a flank.
Yeah, I never thought about low cover being used to stand up and shoot over/through, instead of around. I mean it makes sense but I never really thought about it. I just assumed if they were off to the side he'd shoot around the cover, but who knows!
Confusing as shit rules for flanking? Thats (new) Xcom!
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
Actually, now that I think of it...I wonder if this distinction between leaning out from heavy cover but shooting over low cover has an effect on how Covering Fire works for supports. Maybe targets behind heavy cover lose their defensive bonus against the reaction shot but targets behind low cover don't. It's a shame there's no easy way to test it.
I got this game over the weekend and started an Ironman/Normal game that was going pretty good, had a squad full of 10+ mission survivors that just wrecked shit. Then I ran into Chrysallids for the first time and all that survived was my first mission rookie I brought to try and start leveling a backup squad. The shit just started going downhill from there and currently have all pretty much the whole world at or near max panic, I'm down to 8 rookies and only $37 in cash. Things don't look good for this game, but now that I have the PA name list I think it's time for Ironman Game 2: Iron Harder
I got this game over the weekend and started an Ironman/Normal game that was going pretty good, had a squad full of 10+ mission survivors that just wrecked shit. Then I ran into Chrysallids for the first time and all that survived was my first mission rookie I brought to try and start leveling a backup squad. The shit just started going downhill from there and currently have all pretty much the whole world at or near max panic, I'm down to 8 rookies and only $37 in cash. Things don't look good for this game, but now that I have the PA name list I think it's time for Ironman Game 2: Iron Harder
Man, imagine the PTSD that rookie is going to have. Going out for the first mission, all the vets are saying "Oh man, it's gonna be great. Popping ETs is the best job we've ever had, piece of cake, you'll get in the groove soon"
That rookie's seen some shit, man. He's seen some shit.
I got this game over the weekend and started an Ironman/Normal game that was going pretty good, had a squad full of 10+ mission survivors that just wrecked shit. Then I ran into Chrysallids for the first time and all that survived was my first mission rookie I brought to try and start leveling a backup squad. The shit just started going downhill from there and currently have all pretty much the whole world at or near max panic, I'm down to 8 rookies and only $37 in cash. Things don't look good for this game, but now that I have the PA name list I think it's time for Ironman Game 2: Iron Harder
Man, imagine the PTSD that rookie is going to have. Going out for the first mission, all the vets are saying "Oh man, it's gonna be great. Popping ETs is the best job we've ever had, piece of cake, you'll get in the groove soon"
That rookie's seen some shit, man. He's seen some shit.
It was brutal, having to kill the zombie of his comrade just put him over the edge.
The thing that bugs me most about flanking is that the CPU is incredibly adept at knowing exactly where to move to flank you, where as I have to take a wild guess if I even want to risk it
Problem with flanking, you run odds of setting off more detection
0
Options
minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
Busy month for me. India left the XCOM initiative because I was one day late in getting my satellites built.
Right after that I met my first Muton. Well, technically I met my first Muton and his 5 identical brothers.
It didn't go well. But I managed to no suffer any casualties, despite burning through 6 medikits. Luckily my good sniper was on duty and racked up like 8 kills during the mission to save my proverbial bacon.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
How does the grappling-hook compare to the Archangel Armor?
How does a tank-thing compare to a regular soldier?
Archangel is better overall, but the grappling hook may have some situational advantages before you get the double fuel capacity for the archangel armor. This is, of course, ignoring whatever other capacities the armors may have.
The SHIVS are all at the very least absolutely superior to a rookie. SHIVs can't climb or take cover, but are decently fast, have a good amount of health, acceptable aim and deal good damage even without upgrading their weapon. They also can't panic or get mind controlled. Alloy SHIVs are fantastic scouts and the fact they can be used as cover makes Abductor Ships and other areas with little cover a lot easier to deal with.
Edit: Also! SHIVs don't induce panic when they're destroyed. This all makes them totally disposable apart from their cost to build. You never have to worry about tragic panic spirals if you accidentally send them into a shitty situation, which is not the case for rookies or squaddies.
So, finally beat this. A little dissapointed in the end, simply because "ironman" sort of stops applying at the last mission. Can redo it. So I feel like I failed and should have to restart...
The worst thing happened towards the end game. My best soldier, (double tap squad sight sniper) also turned out to be my first gifted soldier. Had 97 will naturally. She was named after my wife (coincdentally only my wife and i managed to be survivors from the start to this point.
Only I was a final survivor, though I wasnt on the final mission cause I had better gifted soliders filling the same role
So, we are fighting a sectoid commander. Somehow this commander takes control of my gifted soldier. Not the end of the world because we had plenty of units ready to murder the shit out of it. Well... a heavy behind my sniper panics because she sees her get controlled and kills her. One shot. Blah, it was the worst. And this chick was named after a girlfriend of a friend of mine that I am not a big fan off...
Now when I see her I will hold even more contempt for her.
I guess its for the best, wouldve been pissed
if my wife ended up sarcficing herself to save the world at the end!
0
Options
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
So, the most annoying bug I have encountered in the PC version is this:
Sometimes I cannot fit more than 2 soldiers into the Psi Lab. If I try to put in a third, it boots one of the first two out, and shows the third slot open again.
In other news, I got a psionic Support soldier. She's japanese. I might change her Nickname to 'Akira', as it's 'Skinner' right now and that is pretty poor.
So how does psionic testing work? Do characters just have a random chance at having it when they are generated or is it based off of how many promotions they have gotten/what their current will score is?
I've tested my entire main squad and my backup squad and only two have been positive so far. Luckily one of them was my badass near-immortal assault lady, but I would like to have some more available if I can get it.
I think I read that it's a percentage chance based off of the character's will.
Interestingly, chance to hit is capped at 95%, so a 100% shot can miss.
That's a bit of a weird one. Is that for humans, aliens or both?
And does that apply to higher difficulties?
Applies to both aliens and humans. On Classic and Impossible, hit chance is always the displayed value (I suppose with the exception of the tutorial, and the Blaster Launcher). On Normal, hit chance is clamped between 1 and 95. This also occurs on Easy when 4 or more squad members are alive.
Though, as long as I'm elbow-deep in this decompiled shit, I had a look at some of the hit calculations, since we were talking about the RNG:
Turns out, on Easy and Normal, the game literally cheats for you:
On easy AND you are down to 3 or fewer soldiers:
Chance to hit is 120% of displayed value
Chance to hit is further increased by 15% (absolute) per missing squad member, under 4 (if you only brought 1 soldier, he has +45% chance to hit)
For hits that have at least a 50% chance of hitting,you receive another 15% (absolute) chance to hit per consecutive miss (up to 30%)
Alien chance to hit is reduced by 10% (absolute) for each consecutive hit.
Alien chance to hit is reduced by 25% (absolute) for each squad member missing under 4
On normal with 4 or fewer soldiers, or easy with precisely 4:
Chance to hit is 120% of displayed value
For hits that have at least a 50% chance of hitting, chance to hit is increased by 15% (absolute) per consecutive miss, with no upper limit
Alien chance to hit is reduced by 10% (absolute) for each consecutive hit.
Interestingly, chance to hit is capped at 95%, so a 100% shot can miss.
Consecutive misses are any shots that had a 50%+ chance to hit, but missed. Shots with a lower chance are ignored. Also: hit chances explicitly do not apply to friendly fire. Psi attacks have their own stuff that goes into native code, so I can't tell if there are any of these adjustments.
Seeing any modifiers based on mission difficulty?
Specifically, "Difficult" and "Very Difficult" class missions feel as though they grant a massive bonus to alien crit chance. Every time I've seen the aliens do something dumb like stick six crits in a row, it's been on a V. Difficult abduction mission.
I'm not finding exactly where those values are set. The best I can say is that it's stored solely on the strategy layer, and so should be inaccessible on the tactical layer, so I'd bet good money on those values not actually affecting anything once you're in the mission.
So easy and normal are literally cheating in favor of the player, while classic is presumably a level playing field? Is there evidence that impossible is cheating against the player?
In Classic, Aliens (not all of them I think,but most) get +aim and +crit compared to Normal.
I read about multiple mods removing this to create a "difficulty between Normal and Classic".
I don't really regard that as cheating, that is fine as far as I am concerned and the aliens really should be better than you to evoke the feeling of the original especially (as classic intends to do). I am more wondering if aliens get on bonuses to hit if they consistently miss like players do on normal, or alternatively if the players aim is penalized or similar. Especially if this applies on impossible.
Aliens do not get bonuses to hit when they miss, regardless of difficulty. Those bonuses only apply to the players, since they exist to make people "feel" like the numbers are actually correct by making them absolutely wrong.
How does the grappling-hook compare to the Archangel Armor?
How does a tank-thing compare to a regular soldier?
Depends on the hook. For snipers, AA armor is definitely best since it means you always have the flying bonus and can always get line of sight on lots of enemies.
For everyone else, Grapple/Ghost armor is probably better. The defensive bonus they provide makes up for the lower HP bonus.
So how does psionic testing work? Do characters just have a random chance at having it when they are generated or is it based off of how many promotions they have gotten/what their current will score is?
I've tested my entire main squad and my backup squad and only two have been positive so far. Luckily one of them was my badass near-immortal assault lady, but I would like to have some more available if I can get it.
I think I read that it's a percentage chance based off of the character's will.
My understanding is that PSI trait is like the class one, it is there when the character is first created. Will is just the measure of how effective it is.
0
Options
BrocksMulletInto the sunrise, on a jet-ski. Natch.Registered Userregular
So how does psionic testing work? Do characters just have a random chance at having it when they are generated or is it based off of how many promotions they have gotten/what their current will score is?
I've tested my entire main squad and my backup squad and only two have been positive so far. Luckily one of them was my badass near-immortal assault lady, but I would like to have some more available if I can get it.
I think I read that it's a percentage chance based off of the character's will.
My understanding is that PSI trait is like the class one, it is there when the character is first created. Will is just the measure of how effective it is.
Nah. Turns out it's determined primarily by a soldier's Will when you drop them into Psi testing (determined the moment you pop them in there, somewhat interestingly, so you can't save-scum to change the results). The odds are Will/4 out of 100. There's a secondary factor, generally meant to be "if you don't have Psi soldiers, you have a better chance of finding some", but it's glitchy as all-hell and so may as well be ignored.
So I got archangle armor shortly after meeting my first sectopod. Holy crap I had to stabilize my two best soldiers to make it out of there without casualties. Friggen terror attack on a highway. All the civies in the midst of the entire enemy force and I had tow ade through it all. Sectopod and geting to civies was the only really challenge. Let's just say the sectopod came at a REALLY bad time.
Now that I have every piece of tech I am upgrading to the tech two fighters... since I got through to the endgame on just two unupgraded fighters a continent. They make it so easy to shoot down UFO's for 90% of the game... ugh. Figure the current mission will ve the last before I manage to drop the 'final thing' from the sky. I looked at archangel armor, put it on my sniper, and she kinda just hovers a few feet off the ground. Wat?
0
Options
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
You have to actually move to a higher elevation (mousewheel/dpad up) after activating flight mode.
So how does psionic testing work? Do characters just have a random chance at having it when they are generated or is it based off of how many promotions they have gotten/what their current will score is?
I've tested my entire main squad and my backup squad and only two have been positive so far. Luckily one of them was my badass near-immortal assault lady, but I would like to have some more available if I can get it.
I think I read that it's a percentage chance based off of the character's will.
My understanding is that PSI trait is like the class one, it is there when the character is first created. Will is just the measure of how effective it is.
Nah. Turns out it's determined primarily by a soldier's Will when you drop them into Psi testing (determined the moment you pop them in there, somewhat interestingly, so you can't save-scum to change the results). The odds are Will/4 out of 100. There's a secondary factor, generally meant to be "if you don't have Psi soldiers, you have a better chance of finding some", but it's glitchy as all-hell and so may as well be ignored.
So does that mean it's better to wait until they're promoted a bit to psi test?
Interestingly, chance to hit is capped at 95%, so a 100% shot can miss.
That's a bit of a weird one. Is that for humans, aliens or both?
And does that apply to higher difficulties?
Applies to both aliens and humans. On Classic and Impossible, hit chance is always the displayed value (I suppose with the exception of the tutorial, and the Blaster Launcher). On Normal, hit chance is clamped between 1 and 95. This also occurs on Easy when 4 or more squad members are alive.
Though, as long as I'm elbow-deep in this decompiled shit, I had a look at some of the hit calculations, since we were talking about the RNG:
Turns out, on Easy and Normal, the game literally cheats for you:
On easy AND you are down to 3 or fewer soldiers:
Chance to hit is 120% of displayed value
Chance to hit is further increased by 15% (absolute) per missing squad member, under 4 (if you only brought 1 soldier, he has +45% chance to hit)
For hits that have at least a 50% chance of hitting,you receive another 15% (absolute) chance to hit per consecutive miss (up to 30%)
Alien chance to hit is reduced by 10% (absolute) for each consecutive hit.
Alien chance to hit is reduced by 25% (absolute) for each squad member missing under 4
On normal with 4 or fewer soldiers, or easy with precisely 4:
Chance to hit is 120% of displayed value
For hits that have at least a 50% chance of hitting, chance to hit is increased by 15% (absolute) per consecutive miss, with no upper limit
Alien chance to hit is reduced by 10% (absolute) for each consecutive hit.
Interestingly, chance to hit is capped at 95%, so a 100% shot can miss.
Consecutive misses are any shots that had a 50%+ chance to hit, but missed. Shots with a lower chance are ignored. Also: hit chances explicitly do not apply to friendly fire. Psi attacks have their own stuff that goes into native code, so I can't tell if there are any of these adjustments.
Seeing any modifiers based on mission difficulty?
Specifically, "Difficult" and "Very Difficult" class missions feel as though they grant a massive bonus to alien crit chance. Every time I've seen the aliens do something dumb like stick six crits in a row, it's been on a V. Difficult abduction mission.
I'm not finding exactly where those values are set. The best I can say is that it's stored solely on the strategy layer, and so should be inaccessible on the tactical layer, so I'd bet good money on those values not actually affecting anything once you're in the mission.
So easy and normal are literally cheating in favor of the player, while classic is presumably a level playing field? Is there evidence that impossible is cheating against the player?
In Classic, Aliens (not all of them I think,but most) get +aim and +crit compared to Normal.
I read about multiple mods removing this to create a "difficulty between Normal and Classic".
I don't really regard that as cheating, that is fine as far as I am concerned and the aliens really should be better than you to evoke the feeling of the original especially (as classic intends to do). I am more wondering if aliens get on bonuses to hit if they consistently miss like players do on normal, or alternatively if the players aim is penalized or similar. Especially if this applies on impossible.
Aliens do not get bonuses to hit when they miss, regardless of difficulty. Those bonuses only apply to the players, since they exist to make people "feel" like the numbers are actually correct by making them absolutely wrong.
I actually think that the hit chance slowly creeping up as you miss shoots is a good mechanic and should be explicit in all of the difficulties, for both the player and aliens.
It makes sense. You miss a little bit to a left, so you aim a little more to the right.
0
Options
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
Make successive shots increasingly accurate until the target or shooter moves. Might be an interesting change to the combat dynamics.
Of course snipers would be still "lol what successive shots?"
Hmm, dangit. I think I'm wrong about that additional factor not working, apparently I got some bad information from the Unreal wiki.
In which case, the bonus works as such: IF the unit being tested is in the top 6 highest-willed soldiers you have, then it has a +75% (absolute) chance to be psychic. This bonus is reduced by 20% for each position further from #1 it is in this will ranking (so your highest-willed soldier has a +75% chance of being psychic, second-highest +55%, etc). Additionally, this bonus is reduced by 40% for each other soldier in the top 6 who are Psi-positive (but not affected by any other psychic soldiers).
As for class selection... your first four Squaddies are guaranteed to be different classes. Otherwise, a class is picked entirely at random. If you have precisely 2 or 4 of the selected class (alive), and less than half that many (so, having precisely 0, or 1) of one or more other classes, it will pick one of those instead.
So, your first 4 are different classes. After that, if you have 0 of a class, you're guaranteed one of that class BEFORE 3 of some other class. If you have 1 of a class, you're guaranteed another BEFORE 5 of some other class. After you have 2 of a class, the game will never guarantee or even improve the odds of getting more, so getting backups is simply up to chance.
Posts
Actually, the situations where you DO have the full brunt of your squad aimed at one spot are almost categorically against Sectopods and, to a lesser extent, Cyberdiscs. In other words, the situations where Bullet Swarming HEAT Ammo is the single best thing ever (well, maybe not quite as good as high-ground double-tap headshot snipers, but they're on a whole other level).
One bug that I've only seen once (well, twice, but it happened in the same level to the same dude then never again) was it taking an action to open a door. It was on that level that has the restaurant with the freezer in the back, then the truck and a butcher shop. Had the dude parked by the door, clicked on it to open it, and instead it just moved him in front of it. The next time I made sure I was definitely left clicking and it did it again. I wish the 'V' key worked more than 1/20 times.
On the suppression w/ holotargeting vs bullet swarm topic:
I typically take one holotargeting and the rest bullet swarm. If you can get multiple dudes in the AoE of a suppression, the HT applies to all of them.
and Xavier (Mindcontrol an Ethereal)
A Continental Fellow (Complete the game from each starting point) is not one I'm going to get anytime soon, but I will get it eventually.
Bugs aside, this game is definitely my Game of the Year.
Opening hallway, Muton elites behind a door. Mindfray both, then have the sniper take a shot.
28%.
Alright, so that happens, they have good cover. I just need to take out the cover. With a rocket.
It misses. But it destroys the cover anyway, so I look at the odds to hit the muton elite out in the open, with no cover, and no defensive bonuses.
28%.
I couldn't get above 60% with a colonel assault, at point blank range, with an alloy cannon, against an enemy with no cover.
Yeah, I reloaded that fight a few times.
Why I fear the ocean.
Explains a bit more about flanking, etc. The specific comment I linked explains the link at the top, since theres no words on that part.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
___A
mmmX
If A is the alien, X is you, and the ms are low cover, I believe that's a flank. And may still be a flank if the alien is one or two tiles further away. Figure 2 in the guide illustrates a similar situation which is not a flank, though. Unless I've truly only ever attempted this with high cover, which I don't think is true, but maybe I'm wrong.
EDIT: What it DOES explain is situations like this:
mA
m
mmmX
I've been in situations like this where I didn't get a flank.
Confusing as shit rules for flanking? Thats (new) Xcom!
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
Shows the simple cases, not the horribly ambiguous ones the game throws at us
Streaming 8PST on weeknights
Man, imagine the PTSD that rookie is going to have. Going out for the first mission, all the vets are saying "Oh man, it's gonna be great. Popping ETs is the best job we've ever had, piece of cake, you'll get in the groove soon"
That rookie's seen some shit, man. He's seen some shit.
...second psionic ho
It was brutal, having to kill the zombie of his comrade just put him over the edge.
He wont be seeing any action any time soon
How does a tank-thing compare to a regular soldier?
Right after that I met my first Muton. Well, technically I met my first Muton and his 5 identical brothers.
It didn't go well. But I managed to no suffer any casualties, despite burning through 6 medikits. Luckily my good sniper was on duty and racked up like 8 kills during the mission to save my proverbial bacon.
Archangel is better overall, but the grappling hook may have some situational advantages before you get the double fuel capacity for the archangel armor. This is, of course, ignoring whatever other capacities the armors may have.
The SHIVS are all at the very least absolutely superior to a rookie. SHIVs can't climb or take cover, but are decently fast, have a good amount of health, acceptable aim and deal good damage even without upgrading their weapon. They also can't panic or get mind controlled. Alloy SHIVs are fantastic scouts and the fact they can be used as cover makes Abductor Ships and other areas with little cover a lot easier to deal with.
Edit: Also! SHIVs don't induce panic when they're destroyed. This all makes them totally disposable apart from their cost to build. You never have to worry about tragic panic spirals if you accidentally send them into a shitty situation, which is not the case for rookies or squaddies.
I've never heard of this before, both of my ItZ snipers work fine while using Archangel.
This is on brobox360, dont know about Steam.
The worst thing happened towards the end game. My best soldier, (double tap squad sight sniper) also turned out to be my first gifted soldier. Had 97 will naturally. She was named after my wife (coincdentally only my wife and i managed to be survivors from the start to this point.
So, we are fighting a sectoid commander. Somehow this commander takes control of my gifted soldier. Not the end of the world because we had plenty of units ready to murder the shit out of it. Well... a heavy behind my sniper panics because she sees her get controlled and kills her. One shot. Blah, it was the worst. And this chick was named after a girlfriend of a friend of mine that I am not a big fan off...
Now when I see her I will hold even more contempt for her.
I guess its for the best, wouldve been pissed
Sometimes I cannot fit more than 2 soldiers into the Psi Lab. If I try to put in a third, it boots one of the first two out, and shows the third slot open again.
In other news, I got a psionic Support soldier. She's japanese. I might change her Nickname to 'Akira', as it's 'Skinner' right now and that is pretty poor.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
I think I read that it's a percentage chance based off of the character's will.
Applies to both aliens and humans. On Classic and Impossible, hit chance is always the displayed value (I suppose with the exception of the tutorial, and the Blaster Launcher). On Normal, hit chance is clamped between 1 and 95. This also occurs on Easy when 4 or more squad members are alive.
I'm not finding exactly where those values are set. The best I can say is that it's stored solely on the strategy layer, and so should be inaccessible on the tactical layer, so I'd bet good money on those values not actually affecting anything once you're in the mission.
Aliens do not get bonuses to hit when they miss, regardless of difficulty. Those bonuses only apply to the players, since they exist to make people "feel" like the numbers are actually correct by making them absolutely wrong.
Storage concerns in XCOM HQ have prompted... unorthodox methods.
The little purple thing?
I don't know why that's in there.
Depends on the hook. For snipers, AA armor is definitely best since it means you always have the flying bonus and can always get line of sight on lots of enemies.
For everyone else, Grapple/Ghost armor is probably better. The defensive bonus they provide makes up for the lower HP bonus.
My understanding is that PSI trait is like the class one, it is there when the character is first created. Will is just the measure of how effective it is.
Steam: BrocksMullet http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197972421669/
Nah. Turns out it's determined primarily by a soldier's Will when you drop them into Psi testing (determined the moment you pop them in there, somewhat interestingly, so you can't save-scum to change the results). The odds are Will/4 out of 100. There's a secondary factor, generally meant to be "if you don't have Psi soldiers, you have a better chance of finding some", but it's glitchy as all-hell and so may as well be ignored.
Now that I have every piece of tech I am upgrading to the tech two fighters... since I got through to the endgame on just two unupgraded fighters a continent. They make it so easy to shoot down UFO's for 90% of the game... ugh. Figure the current mission will ve the last before I manage to drop the 'final thing' from the sky. I looked at archangel armor, put it on my sniper, and she kinda just hovers a few feet off the ground. Wat?
So does that mean it's better to wait until they're promoted a bit to psi test?
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
I actually think that the hit chance slowly creeping up as you miss shoots is a good mechanic and should be explicit in all of the difficulties, for both the player and aliens.
It makes sense. You miss a little bit to a left, so you aim a little more to the right.
Of course snipers would be still "lol what successive shots?"
In which case, the bonus works as such: IF the unit being tested is in the top 6 highest-willed soldiers you have, then it has a +75% (absolute) chance to be psychic. This bonus is reduced by 20% for each position further from #1 it is in this will ranking (so your highest-willed soldier has a +75% chance of being psychic, second-highest +55%, etc). Additionally, this bonus is reduced by 40% for each other soldier in the top 6 who are Psi-positive (but not affected by any other psychic soldiers).
As for class selection... your first four Squaddies are guaranteed to be different classes. Otherwise, a class is picked entirely at random. If you have precisely 2 or 4 of the selected class (alive), and less than half that many (so, having precisely 0, or 1) of one or more other classes, it will pick one of those instead.
So, your first 4 are different classes. After that, if you have 0 of a class, you're guaranteed one of that class BEFORE 3 of some other class. If you have 1 of a class, you're guaranteed another BEFORE 5 of some other class. After you have 2 of a class, the game will never guarantee or even improve the odds of getting more, so getting backups is simply up to chance.