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[Eagle of Fire]

Never understood why people hate Flying Disks either. Heck, I often get them on my first terror mission and I have to gun them down with riffles..!

It simply take the heck of a lot more ammo.

Actually, every big units in UFO suffer from explosion trauma because every explosion big enough to fully encompass them hit them 4 times instead of a single time. You simply need to get past their armor... And if you hit them consecutively on the same side it deplete over time so even a low power gun will eventually get thru.

[quote=Eagle of Fire;438871]Flying suits of course protect you from their melee attacks... But that's a very long way down the game. At that moment Chrysalids will be the least of your problems.
[quote]

I think you might overestimate the time it takes to reaserch some of these things. I had the ability to produce flyingsuits and power armor just as I was sighting the first snakemen. Course I didn't have nearly enough elerium, or weapons, or money. Heck I even had a shortage on alien alloys for a while. resource management seems to be the real challange. (I am aware of the laser cannon production/selling but I don't have enough capital as of yet)

But enough of that... back on topic, Is it possible to survive a chryssalid attack? I thought it would just always zombify the target and thats gg all.

I'll agree with you on the flying discs though... they only show up on terror missions so if you have trouble killing them, hide in a door. It's only when they spawn right outside that they really tick me off.

[Eagle of Fire]

It is probably possible to rush the flying suit research but it would be at the cost of everything else. It is not really wise to do that especially since the flying suit give marginal armor upgrade over the second armor. Only the flying is handy.

For the Chrysalids, as I already mentioned, your soldier become a zombie if he gets killed. I had soldiers resist 3-4 Chrysalid attacks in the same round before so it is definitely not an insta-kill attack.

[Japo]

I experienced with tanks but in the end I do not like them, considering their cost and survivability. Actually what I do is deploying as many soldiers as the transport craft can take without any tanks--tactically there is no such thing as having too many soldiers, even if it takes one extra turn to deploy them out of the transport craft, as long as cost is not an issue. And in UFO soldier costs are not an issue. Besides considering that they're getting training, and replacing them may be more expensive than maintaining them. Four soldiers with rifles or other weapons even not counting grenades, electro-flares etc. beat one tank hands down, that's a fact; heck (almost?) two soldiers would. I'm talking about the starting tanks, afterwards I didn't feel like trying the more technologically advanced ones, but I don't think I'm missing a lot compared to four human killing machines.

Cyberdiscs are specially vulnerable to Laser I think, which is too bad for them, as laser rifles are almost the best weapon in the game, close to heavy plasma, but they don't need elerium, or magazines at all for that matter, which frees up inventory space for useful stuff such as grenades. EDIT: No, it seems it's Sectopods who are vulnerable to Laser.

For me it's laser rifles and hand alien grenades for everyone. Perhaps one with that alien guided rocket launcher after I research it. But the human rocket launchers are worthless, specially considering you can use hand grenades instead while at the same time keeping your rifles, and hand grenades are more precise--if you miss a grenade toss it lands a square away and kills anyway, but if you miss a missile shot it flies completely off, killing no aliens at all but possibly civilians. Equipping say one quarter of the soldiers with heavy plasma instead of the standard issue laser rifle may not be a bad way to spend a little elerium in exchange for a little extra punch; but you can really do away without this, it makes no difference if once every five times you have to shoot once more to finish a kill. Not to mention that laser is the only ordnance in the game that no alien is resistant to (unlike plasma and everything else); and it's specially effective against Sectopods, who are otherwise somewhat tough.

By the way if you assume heavy laser does more damage than laser rifle, you haven't done the math: it does less (expected per turn), period. The only reason to research heavy plasma is so you can research laser cannon, whose only sensible use in turn is to sell for big cash. So it turns out you can research the best weapon in the game very early and without the need for anything alien.

Flying suits are not that useful compared to advanced armor, and they need more elerium. I think I end up using flight only to storm crash landed UFOs from the top, shooting and retreating up to safety in the same turn. So I equip only say two soldiers with flying suits and the rest use more economical armor.

And the soldiers whose stats are too lousy don't earn even that and I give them human armor: either I use them as medics (carrying weapons, but likely seeing little action) or I use them up front as scouts--risky but not really cannon fodder, someone has to do it, and since their TUs are useless because of their bad accuracy, I don't make them reserve any to shoot so they can move more and make better scouts in the end.
__________________

These are some gameplay facts I found in my latest game (a long time ago), and I mean they're not subjective impressions I got but things I determined positively (unless otherwise noted) by experimentation (loading the same game over again and doing different things several times each and isolating factors).

The line of sight is determined by two factors. First, a 90º wide angle both sides of the soldier/alien's facing direction (i.e. +/- 45º right and left). This is modified by concealment, that is bushes, trees, lampposts... and buildings (including whether the soldier is close to a wall and looking at its corner). Second, within this angle (up to one quarter of the 2D space) an enemy alien/soldier will be seen by the soldier/alien only if it's within a range. This is modified by darkness and smoke, but in perfect lightning and no smoke this range is 20 squares across if my memory serves me right, and I think it's the same for soldiers and aliens. This is in the direction of the squares, I'm not sure right now how diagonals count, whether it's the same as for movement (x1.5) or not.

EDIT: Google says I'm right and has further information: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Line_of_sight

The way reaction works is very simple: every time someone moves, it may happen that he spots an enemy (because the enemy was in the line of sight for the new position), that an enemy spots him (he moves into the line of sight of the enemy), or that nothing's up. In the first case he will ALWAYS (regardless of any reaction roll) get to shoot first in his turn, and in the second he may be fired at (if the enemy passes a reaction roll--at which aliens are far more proficient that humans, in my experience).

EDIT: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?t..._fire_triggers
How the reaction stat influences this: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Reactions

About smoke I didn't really investigate whether it's asymmetric (whether is conceals more the ones closer to it to the ones farther than vice versa), but I would assume it's not. That is, it seems logical that it impedes vision both ways equally independently on distance, but I didn't verify this. I just deployed it on any flank I had exposed while moving, and in following turns I would either keep in a safe area or sally forth from the smoke taking advantage on the fact that it was my turn so I would get to shoot first when aliens became suddenly visible. That is, I don't count on smoke being beneficial even if it comes from my grenades or is close to me, unless I make it tactically beneficial by how I move and use my TUs within it.

Of course vision aside, breathing smoke also gets anyone some stun points each turn. Just check your stats if you plan to spend a long time standing in it.

EDIT: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Smoke

[Eagle of Fire]

Originally Posted by Japo

The way reaction works is very simple: every time someone moves, it may happen that he spots an enemy (because the enemy was in the line of sight for the new position), that an enemy spots him (he moves into the line of sight of the enemy), or that nothing's up. In the first case he will usually get to shoot first in his turn, and in the second he will usually be fired at.

Originally Posted by UFO Wiki

What is not common knowledge is how the overall reaction level of any given unit is also influenced by the percentage of the unit's remaining TUs! So say an alien has 100 reactions but only has 60% of its remaining TUs. Its actual Reaction level is really 60, not 100. If it takes a Snap Shot, which costs 30% for any plasma weapon, the remaining TU percentage will drop to 30%, and so will the Reaction level. For more information, see Reaction fire formula. --JellyfishGreen 10:51, 25 Apr 2005 (BST)

That's what I was saying before. Really important.

For the tanks I remember I used to use them. Mainly to spot for Aliens when you disembark because they tend to see you disembark and take pot shots at you. Having good squaddies dying while disembarking always infuriated me, especially considering you have no say in the order your soldiers are at the start of the mission in the Skyranger. The rest of the time, after disembark, my lowly ranked soldiers goes to the front and take the brunt of the damage.

If you want to use tanks I'd recommend using solely the Hovertank/Plasma once it gets available. Good armor, it flies and its chance to hit something is actually decent. I usually used it to spot Aliens and in the occasional time when I needed to down an enemy and no other soldier was in range.

[Japo]

Originally Posted by Eagle of Fire

For the tanks I remember I used to use them. Mainly to spot for Aliens when you disembark because they tend to see you disembark and take pot shots at you. Having good squaddies dying while disembarking always infuriated me, especially considering you have no say in the order your soldiers are at the start of the mission in the Skyranger.

It's possible to exit the transport safely. The first thing I do is deploy smoke and wait a turn inside doing nothing (except looking outside as default of course, in case an alien appears amid the smoke I can shoot at him). After that turn firstly the smoke is up, and secondly aliens move and so I continue by using the motion detectors and learning where are the nearest stalking aliens.

Afterwards it's also possible to exit the craft safely without giving aliens who are farther the opportunity to shoot. It's like going around a corner, the most obvious and fast trajectory can make an alien see you before you see him, but with a little roundabout this can be made impossible.

It's not possible to exit the transport safely with a tank first, though. And losing a soldier is bad but losing a tank is damn expensive too.

[Eagle of Fire]

Well, not really. At a certain point in time you get so much money from selling heavy plasma that you don't really care. Human tanks don't cost much at all in the grand scheme of things in this game. Also, the Hovercrafts are tanks that you build so unless production space is important for you...

The Hovercraft does have some good armor and can usually withstand two direct hits without dying. And, as I said, it flies. It's great to spot around ahead of your soldiers, and that's all I need. I never bothered to use motion scanners in any of the Xcom games as they are far too unreliable (not to say they take way too much space in the Skyranger inventory for their usefulness) and the same thing can be said about smoke grenades. I don't even think scanners can even help you here because Aliens need to spend AP for them to register on the scanner and the biggest issue here is not Aliens right next to the door of the Skyranger (which never happen) but those just close enough to see you as you get out in the first turn...

If I ever wanted to do a smoke screen while disembarking the Skyranger, I'd use an auto-cannon with fire ammo with the first guy getting out then I would fire on the ground since you are in an elevated position when you get out. You don't have a say of the order of the squaddies but you do know who's going out first: they get sorted in the same order they are sorted in the soldier screen. When I start producing armor I actually give them to those who get out of the Skyranger first so they actually have a fighting chance if the worst happen and they get surprised... The same can be done about their weaponry.

I'd be interested to know if you ever used smoke bombs like you mentioned, Japo. For me this goes against everything I ever learned in this game: Aliens see better than you, using smoke does nothing more than hinder your own vision more than theirs and if you rush consciously or not without being able to see as far as you can then you get in trouble easily. If it does work then there ought to be a nice trick behind this, right?

[Japo]

Well I think money is indeed more or less scarce until late in the game, specially if you plan to build enough bases to cover the whole planet with radar and have at least three separate squads worldwide, which you should. Without any bad luck or doing anything wrong you can get a tank wasted every two missions, and replacing that is a huge expenditure (waste) that will slow down your development. Specially since as I said four soldiers beat any tank hands down.

Motion scanners are precious, and you only need, like, two (or one if you want) for the whole squad, it's not that every soldier needs one, the same with medikits. As you yourself note, exiting the Skyranger without knowing where the aliens are within ten squares, can be suicide.

The first thing you must do is of course not moving during the first turn. As you have noted aliens haven't moved yet at that point and wouldn't show up in the motion detectors. Obviously the best thing you can do is sit tight during that turn. Your only activity should be killing aliens that you've spotted before ever moving, and deploying smoke at the exit (more on this below).

I wouldn't use autocannons or any other explosive munition to create smoke, since smoke grenades are just fine and take little space and can be carried and used by soldiers carrying other weapons; and autocannons are worthless weapons.

I use smoke all the time, it's essential not to get killed when you don't have cover at every side. It's not true that aliens see through it better than you, you and them are equally impaired by it. It's night vision what's perfect for aliens.

The only nice trick is how you use smoke and your TUs and how you move. During your turn you move into the open (being careful to have line of sight into it so you would spot waiting aliens, not move into their field of vision without you being looking that way, because that would get you shot at). After you're done moving you deploy smoke on your uncovered flanks: this means that during THEIR turn, even if the aliens happen to move closer to you, they won't probably make up for the visual range smoke makes them lose. Then during your next turn you can move out of the smoke into the open again, etc. You control WHEN smoke appears, that way since this is turn-based, that gives you control on WHOM it benefits, and you keep the initiative always. During your turn you move in clear areas (and move in a way that guarantees you the first shot), but during their turn you're covered by newly deployed smoke.

There's a 100% safe tactic to exit the Skyranger with 0 probability of alien snap fire, but actually it can be done with soldiers only, not tanks since they're two squares wide and can exit only straight ahead. Here, numbers are soldiers, the A is an hypothetical stalking alien (facing east), #'s are the "walls" of the Skyranger, and ·'s represent your field of vision:

 ······
A ····
  #12#
  #34#

If you exit straight ahead you enter the alien's field of vision without seeing him, and bang you're toast:

 ······
A ·1·· bang!
  #·2#
  #34#

But if you cross your two first soldiers exit paths and advance obliquely (in this case 2 goes NW instead of 1 going N) you expand your angle of vision, spot the alien first, and bang it's him who's toast:

·······
A··2··
··#1·#
· #34#

Now I know in this hypothetical scenario if it were 1 who exited facing NE (instead of 2 facing NW) he would be toast, but as I said if the alien were that close you would know, that is if you were smart enough to use motion detectors--and wait one turn for him to move and reveal himself.

And in that turn smoke has come into play. First, you know there are no aliens within ten squares, thanks to your motion detectors. Second, when you're exiting, the aliens' visual range towards you is less than ten squares because of smoke. It's 100% safe. Now it's your turn and you can venture out of the smoke little by little always keeping the initiative--opportunity to shoot first during both turns.

Still you need to exit obliquely in this way to go against nearby aliens spotted by the motion detectors. If the detector told you there are stalking aliens on both sides of the exit area... Well obviously you must wait another turn without going forth, until the aliens move randomly so they disable that inadvertent trap of theirs.

But deploying a whole squad out of the Skyranger safely takes many turns after that. In this game impatience kills, it's better to play quicker turns (in gamer's time) moving little by little, cautiously, and reserving TUs to spare. You have to use the little cover you may have at that point (the landing gear), and end the turn with soldiers facing in every direction. You have to decide what cover will jump to each of your soldiers, and in order not to expose them you can't move them en masse, but you have to pour them out in a thin train and group them near the cover. Always running from cover to cover during your turn and deploying smoke in unexplored exposed directions at the end.

And always take into account vision angles while moving. For example turning a building corner in the obvious way can get you shot at:

    ···
   ····
  1····
###····
###A···
###  ··

     ···
    ····
   1····
### ····
###A ··· bang!
###   ··

You must do a slight roundabout from one square apart from the wall.

For the same reason never end a turn just at a corner, an alien coming around it would spot you and shoot you at point blank. Stay just one square short of the corner, and an alien coming around will get into your field of vision without seeing you, and you will get an opportunity to shoot.

[Eagle of Fire]

Well, I think we can agree that we play differently. From your explanations you have obviously put a lot of thoughts on your play style.

I myself simply prefer to engineer my own situations in which I don't have to take the chance in the first place. My soldiers get out in squads of 4 and cover themselves, when I get in a place in which it is likely an Alien is hiding without moving then I gun down the walls to surprise him, etc.

I still don't understand why you consider that you cannot scout well enough with a tank... They have plenty of TU to do it and I usually don't fire with them unless I absolutely need to. I don't remember getting into a situation the tank could not do its job well enough.

Oh well.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I usually send my troops out in fire teams of three - two with standard weapons, one with something heavier - and stagger their movement so that the light weapons cover each other while advancing and the heavy follows once the lights have their new position secured. This works quite well both in UFO and TFTD.