The Firaxis XCOM Series

I didn't mind the large, bulky versions for their intimidation factor, but it did raise questions of how much of that tiny, human-sized cover could possibly be meaningful in any way for them (especially when some of said cover was even questionable for the humans).

I had to reload immediately after starting Site Recon, because I suddenly noticed my sniper HAD NO SNIPER RIFLE EQUIPPED. Not even the default, ballistic one. When I checked the loadout screen, here is what I saw equipped in its place.

Why would you bring a sniper to Newfoundland in the first place? It's 100% 'Lids and Zombies, you wanna run a roughly even mix of Assaults and Engineers. Maybe a couple heavies or infantry for the rockets and double-fire and overwatch, but a sniper?

A sniper with squad sight can actualy take out enemies on the ship, all the way from the spawn with proper possitioning.

It's a colonel sniper with Squadsight and In The Zone, and neither Chryssalids nor zombies bother with cover. Do the math.

Edit: Oh, and she's got Memetic Skin and Muscle Fiber Density, hopping from roof to roof to shoot bugs.

edited 1st Aug '15 12:15:25 PM by Medinoc

Huh, point. That sounds like a damn good setup. All you'd need are spotters with Mimetic Skin and you're set. I always went with the bounding overwatch method, i.e. blue move the whole squad and overwatch them immediately afterward. Given everyone unloads on one target, not so efficient.

Thankfully in the next XCOM, they are doing staged Overwatch, so each soldier takes a a shot in turn. Should prevent "one enemy runs in to view, gets shot by entire squad. Second enemy runs in and kills now unprotected team".

Clearly, the only weapon worthy of your Sniper's badassness is a weapon that is normally mounted on a plane's hardpoint.

If only it were of some use on something other than robotic/cybernetic enemies

An interesting thing I saw is that it seems your characters are already rendered inside the Skyranger in the cutscene where it lands: If you have a Support MEC, you can see its disruptor field clipping through the sides.

... No offense intended, but you noticed that just now? I saw that ages ago.

I noticed it a few missions after building my support MEC, I guess. Remember I bought the game like a week two weeks ago.

edited 10th Aug '15 1:15:11 AM by Medinoc

... Oh. Well, forget what I said, then.

In theory, it should fry their weapons. >.>

Or at least disable them the way Disabling Shot does, i.e. they need to reload to resume firing with them as normal.

Got my first willful friendly fire incident yesterday, in a late-game terror mission that showed me my first Sectopod.

I had to leave my MEC in the blast radius of a Grenadier-enhanced Alien Grenade^note I noticed a bit late it was also HEAT ammo... Good thing it was a MEC-3, absorbed enough damage to keep the pilot unharmed because I really really needed a wall down, the Chryssalid right behind it dead, and the MEC still in position to fire its particle cannon twice on the (shredded) Sectopod further behind.

Thank the devs for small favors, Sectopods (which are listed on the ufopedia wiki as having 30% Defense) don't seem to have any in Normal-difficulty EW. They probably nerfed it when they added Reinforced Armor and nerfed HEAT ammo, because there's really no excuse to miss such a huge target... Edit: Nope, the next Sectopod I faced clearly had its 30% defense up, including after shredding.

edited 4th Aug '15 11:36:27 PM by Medinoc

Being an XCOM soldier is all the reason to miss anyone needs. I'm sure at least half of them couldn't hit the Temple Ship from thirty feet away.

FTFY, Xcom soldiers are actually good shots for all the flack they get, IRL it takes 5,000 to 250,000 bullets per kill depending on what war you source from.

But that's because mainly the shots are for suppression...

Isn't also supposedly based on the idea that no human is mentally prepared to make kill shots and subconsciously misses?

So, took a few days off the game since I got really, really obsessed with it. Swarming terror mission. See you in a week or so XCOM.

First no, the spike to 250,000 from 5,000 is due to suppression.... 5,000 per kill is from WWII... where I am pretty sure suppression tactics were not common yet.

Besides even if they were, that's honestly what they are doing even if they are not using the ability... Full auto is never used for any thing else, depletes your ammo too fast and the recoil even from a 3 round burst just encourages missing.

This is the one I would more suspect to be true, and them aliens are living beings too and no one was sure of there motives so.....

Yeah, XCOM soldiers aren't too bad. X-COM soldiers, on the other hand, get that reputation not from missing the aliens (funnily enough, going against reality and spamming burst fire makes them more accurate...) so much as the original engine's weird mechanics for misses having a tendency to cause soldiers to shoot each other in the back at 25 degree angles.

This image is a bit of an exaggeration with the frequency, but I think every single one of these shots has happened in separate missions for me:

Personally I'd imagine the weird-ass aliens making entire towns (or whatever the number is) suddenly disappear or shoot any civilians they see ASAP in terror missions would probably fail to trigger the average soldier's empathy like human warfare might.

But hey, they fight EXALT too, right?

edited 3rd Aug '15 11:13:26 AM by VutherA

"...and they attacked a town. Not a large town, I must admit, but a town of people: people who died".

edited 3rd Aug '15 11:12:19 AM by Rotpar

So.... like a lion attacking a human? You wince and go "eesh" but it seems more "natural", whereas a human doing it triggers your "Ape shall not kill ape" response?

Huh. I still think they'd get the trauma, if your operating tempo is as intense as XCO Ms. Yes they have days of downtime, but its permanently on crash out call. QRF, all the time for everyone. Knowing that the war is global.

Luckily our generation hasn't really had that sense of global threat, not really. But for a soldier in that situation I think you'd get a few more intense moments.