Why didn't anything I ever read suggest this before? I usually brought those taser rods with me to see if I could nab a few aliens (extra points) and untill you get to plasmas they do pretty good in the walk through door... uh, hi! situation (large scout engine room is a good one for that), but I always left em behind on terror missions

as to the civvies: I cheat (a little) with saving and reloading if things go too far wrong. So I knew there were 12 civilians. You get at the end a report how many were saved, how many killed. 9 saved, 0 killed. Whut?

the ufopedia actually advices laser pistols above rifles, simply because you can get off 12 shots against 6, or even 9 vs 3. Even at worse accuracy and damage it's supposedly better.

I don't care about saving all civilians, I just do what I can.

It's for those uh hi situations that the motion scanner would have been useful. Anyway when you aren't ambushed and get to fire first, that's what auto fire is for.

Which one, the one in the game or this wiki? Neither do such thing, and the second says the laser rifle is "arguably the best weapon in the game", while it says of the laser pistol that it's "unfortunately highly inadequate for precision attacks", and "useful ... as a secondary weapon"

How so? In XCOM1 there's no 2-handed advantage as in Apocalypse.

The objective score to assess a weapon is its expected damage per turn, along with its suitability for different situations (sniping, close range). The laser pistol is clearly worthless for long or medium range; the laser rifle is great at all distances. At close range if you use auto the laser rifle does 3 x 60 x 0.46 = 82.8 expected damage per burst, 82.8 / 0.34 = 243.5 per turn; whereas the laser pistol with its poorer accuracy and weaker punch does 38.6 expected damage per burst, and its faster firing rate only means 154.6 per turn.

In this case I'd be more inclined to say that those civilians might have been "lost in action". Probably because a or the Chrysalids. Or maybe they were mind controlled.

Likewise, if you end a mission with one of your squaddies mind controlled then they will be "lost in action". That's why I think it might apply here.

That is true. But if I remember well, there is a 2-handed DISadvantage if you have something in your offhand and the weapon you are using is 2-handed.

True. And it is also why I need to point out (again :p) that it is very easy to do completely without simply by knowing where the aliens are likely to be and shooting down walls at key areas to make sure your LoS confirm there is no hidden alien, etc. And if you can do that then the scanner is nothing more than a waste of AP. Or at the very least a waste of space, which is a premium in this game in the Skyranger. :p

There is also the point of reliability. How the scanner work is that it show you an enemy who moved in the last turn. If you are hunting down an alien and he didn't move at all in the last turn then you'll get to think the area is clear when it is not and that's even worse than the reverse. I hate losing squaddies shot in the back simply because I wanted to save one or two turns.

Destroying walls is very time consuming and isn't so easy or reliable depending on your weapon choice, specially for UFO hulls which only blaster bombs can damage.

Yes it's -20% to accuracy. But the point is that if you shoot from both hands with whatever weapon you use the same TUs as if you shoot twice from one hand. Oskatat seemed to imply otherwise, and it's indeed different in Apocalypse in real time.

Because of this it's a non factor whether the weapon is 1- or 2-handed. If I have to fire with a soldier that's carrying something in his left hand I just drop it, the cost is 2 TUs which is virtually free, and it doesn't cause aliens to react. Picking it up again is a little more costly (8 TUs) but not so much, and I can do it in the following turn, and after the immediate area is clear I could waste a whole turn if I wanted.

Also if you think a laser pistol must be a better weapon than a laser rifle held with one hand: auto fire, laser pistol 38.6 expected damage per burst, 154.6 per turn; laser rifle held in one hand 82.8 x 0.8 = 66.2 per burst, 243.5 x 0.8 = 194.8 per turn. And again there's no reason that could force you to fire a rifle with one hand since you can drop what you're holding in the other one at no cost, as I said.

I'm mentioning values per burst as well as per turn because if an alien isn't killed by your attack it will fire back before you can fire a second time.

Well, just to make things clear I know the rifle is better than the pistol. No issue here.

Also I don't bring down walls of UFOs either. But that's a completely new story. There is, however, always a way to make sure you can see or shoot the aliens before they can fire at you. One of my favorite tactic in UFO, since the AI is too clumsy to use grenades well, is to bunch a few squaddies reasonably far from the entrance and have only one of my high reaction tactical squaddie open the door. And quickly jump to the side if there is enemies inside.

The way reaction work, if my tactical squaddie is still full in TU there is a very, very slim chance he'll get fired upon at all. Then the other squaddies snipe the aliens.

I follow the same tactic for the rest of the UFO. It is only dangerous for your squaddies if you are low on TU and the alien don't move much and thus don't waste TU. Which mean that in this situation the scanner would be useless too anyways.

Nice Game,

but how can I download it. I can´t find a downloadbutton for the Game or somthing else.

Fred.

Yes, because there isn't one. There is a big "Buy it" button though, which means that you're going to have to buy this game if you want to play it.

XCom is available as slightly illegal free downloads on the internet though.

Home of the Underdogs and Abandonware Paradise (if i have that name right) might have it, otherwise Google is God.

What HOTU has is this:"Abandonware" does not mean "aah, it's old, just pirate it".

Maybe it can be DLed legally form that Steam thing?