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[AlleeCat]

Well if that's the case, Burnt Pies is pretty screwed.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Nah, you should be fine. Panicking soldiers (who survive) gain bravery fairly quickly, and having your Rookies able to hit the broad side of a barn is more useful. After all, you'll be shooting more than you'll be panicking. Though I guess that also means you'll be gaining FA more quickly too. Uh... I'd still lean towards FA for now, at least until you get some elite troops.

[javierpwn]

*Burnt Pies goes beserk!*
He is the second most accurate on the team!

20 bravery isn't game-breaking though. It's the guys with 10 you have to worry about.

[AlleeCat]

It's been about a week, and we've gotten some new soldiers in. I've had to lower my criteria for soldiers a bit, but at least we don't have anyone with an FA under 47, or a bravery lower than 20.
One of the recruits calls herself Gentleman Raptor, despite being a woman, and another claims to be an officer from USEC, but he won't tell anyone his real name. Come to think of it, why would an energy corporation have officers? I'm starting to think I've been made a fool of.

Our first UFO!
Time to fly, boys!

And with minimal damage, too. This must be my lucky day.

[COMM RECORDS: XCOM SQUAD 01 - 8/1/1999 - 1530 HRS]
[CMD ROBINSON]: Alright, people. Weapons hot. Show these bastards we mean business.


["MONKEY HEAD"]: Affirmative, Command. We're heading out of the Skyranger- Wait! I see one up there!
["COGNITIVE DISSONANCE"]: I see it, too. Taking the shot...
(gunshots)
[CD]: Target eliminated. Moving out.
(plasmafire)
[CD]: (screaming)
["BURNT PIES"]: Shit! They're right outside the 'ranger!
[MH]: I've got this one, the rest of you, spread out!

(gunfire)
[MH]: This thing's pretty damn dead. Report?
["GENTLEMAN RAPTOR"]: Nothing out here.
[BP]: Not seeing anything.

[BP]: Wait... I hear something... Where the hell are they?
[MH]: Heading to investigate the alien craft... This thing's in pretty good shape for something that just crashed.
[BP]: I see one!
(autocannon firing)
[BP]: Shit, it's fast!
[ROBINSON]: Careful Monkey Head, don't go in there without some backup.
[MH]: What was that command? I'm inside the- Oh shit!

(gunfire, screaming)
["Blankdoor"]: What happened? Monkey Head? No! You bastards!
(more gunfire, alien death-rattle)

[BD]: That was for Mo- (screams)
[BP]: There are two of them holed up in this building. I can see one.
(autocannon firing)
[BP]: Target down!
["STWORCA"]: I've got this one!
(gunshot)
[SS]: Alright. I'm in the alien craft. It's a bloodbath, but it's clear. How are things on your end?
[GR]: I still don't see anythi- wait! Pies! Watch out!
(gunshot)

[BP]: Woah! Raptor! Nice shot!
[ROBINSON]: Good job; looks like that was the last of them. Come on home.
[END RECORD]

Well there's our first op over with. We lost half the squad I sent, but I'll consider any op where we score more kills than casualties a success. Plus, Sworca's a sergeant now! I'm also pretty sure we'd have only lost Cognitive Dissonance if we could open those gorram UFO doors without going through them. Is there a way to do that, or am I stuck blindly walking through doors?

Spoiler: Roster (click to show/hide)

We also have a couple of unnamed soldiers, but they don't matter at the moment.

[Delta Foxtrot]

Well there's our first op over with. We lost half the squad I sent, but I'll consider any op where we score more kills than casualties a success.

And that's just one of the reasons I don't sack rookies for low FA/bravery. Even bad soldiers will improve with enough time, and the rest will become sectoid fodder that will hopefully get shot at instead of my good soldiers. Sacking by stats is of course a valid strategy, but it's something I never felt the need for. The way I see it, that heavy plasma doesn't care about your stats when it melts through your head, so why should I?
Shove 'em in the Skyranger with a gun and let god aliens sort them out.

I'm also pretty sure we'd have only lost Cognitive Dissonance if we could open those gorram UFO doors without going through them. Is there a way to do that, or am I stuck blindly walking through doors?

It's possible in TFTD (the sequel), and with at least one mod called UFO Extender, found here:
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Game_Editors
Not possible in vanilla X-COM, though.

One way to avoid door opening-related deaths is:

Spoiler: Reaction shots and how to avoid them in UFO assaults (click to show/hide)

When either an alien or an X-COM operative walk into each others field of view, the game checks their Reaction Score + Remaining Time Units, if the side that is moving scores higher, nothing happens. If the side that isn't moving scores higher, you get a reaction shot. Note that game checks this after every movement, so you might be able to take five steps in front of a sectoid and get shot once you make the sixth.

Therefore when breaching UFOs or similar locales, use one turn to move your guys close to the door and only move them inside the UFO next turn, when they have full TUs.

A personal observation: if you place a guy right in front of the UFO door, the aliens usually just open the door and shoot him. If you place your guy(s) one tile away from the door, the alien has to walk through the door first, where it might get reaction shot or it simply retreats back to the UFO without killing your operatives.

You will still lose the occasional trooper, especially if you use guys with low Reaction/TU scores.

Feel free the name one soldier after me. No gender/stat requirements. And could you in the future place your updates inside spoiler tags? It would make it a bit easier to read through the thread.

[TomatoWalrus]

Posting to watch, also requesting a soldier.
It's been a while since I played original XCOM instead of UFO:AI, what weapons do you have available?

[Akura]

Ironically, it isn't the accuracy you usually have to worry about. It is their bravery, people with low scores tend to panic and beserk like little schoolgirls after people start dropping like flies.

...And now I can't help imagining what little schoolgirls going berserk would look like.

[Stworca]

...And now I can't help imagining what little schoolgirls going berserk would look like.

Cannibal Holocaust movie pictures it accurately.
No, don't watch it.

[CognitiveDissonance]

First turn, and I'm down! HURRAY!

Delta's info is correct. I didn't know about the check, but that's exactly how I always breached UFO's regardless.

Also, there is a post-release fan patch available. I *THINK* steam version comes with an early release of that, and I'm fairly certain the update improves the game significantly. I'm talking about sound optimization (with an optional better sound pack), bug fixes, crash fixes. Let me know if you're interested, I can dig the info up.

Posting to watch, also requesting a soldier.
It's been a while since I played original XCOM instead of UFO:AI, what weapons do you have available?

What's UFO:AI? o.O I know of Aftershock, Aftermath and Afterlight as well as Extraterrestrials
*googles* Is that an open source X-Com?

...And now I can't help imagining what little schoolgirls going berserk would look like.

Cannibal Holocaust movie pictures it accurately.
No, don't watch it.

But how can I say no with an intro like that?!

[MonkeyHead]

It wouldnt be an X-COM LP if I didnt die during the first mission in a stuipd and easily avoidable/pointless way.

Top tip when breaching UFO's:

Spoiler: Of course, reading this is optional (click to show/hide)

Send troops in pairs to breach UFO doors. Sit them either side of the door for at least one turn with all thier TU's so any alien popping out will get blasted by reaction fire. Then, have one with something like the autocannon (or maybe a stun rod - an alien facing the wrong way inside a UFO is a cheap way to get live captives) go in first to spot targets. Leave him there for now, not moving any more so in theory they wont get reaction fire heading at them. Make them crouch, so the one behind can get some shots in or lob a grenade/HE over the head of the first. The first should then drop a grenade or HE of thier own, get some shots in (especially some area effect rounds if outnumbered, like HE (unless point blank) or incendiary), and run back out quickly. Planting proximity mines near UFO doors on the inside can also be useful, as long as you do not forget they are there.

[Stworca]

Top tip for every single second of the game, that is spent on tactical screen.

Spoiler: Beware, insanity inbound (click to show/hide)

MORE Grenades. Spam them. Leaving the craft, and surrounded by buildings? Grenades. An alien vanished around the corner? Grenades. Chrysalids closing in on a group of civilians? Grenades. 10 bravery recruits? Grenades.
Mission successful? Grenades. Saving the game?.. I think i might have overdone it a bit, with those examples, but you get the point. Grenades increase chances of survival by 93023,1%.

[Blankdoor]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww damn it! I was hoping Blankdoor would become a legendary badass and survive till end game. My dreams have been crushed!

Top tip for every single second of the game, that is spent on tactical screen.

Spoiler: Beware, insanity inbound (click to show/hide)

MORE Grenades. Spam them. Leaving the craft, and surrounded by buildings? Grenades. An alien vanished around the corner? Grenades. Chrysalids closing in on a group of civilians? Grenades. 10 bravery recruits? Grenades.
Mission successful? Grenades. Saving the game?.. I think i might have overdone it a bit, with those examples, but you get the point. Grenades increase chances of survival by 93023,1%.

I also can attest that this is a valid way of playing the game. Though throwing accuracy can be a big thing here, nothing like a botched throw ending your entire squad!

~Blank

[Lightningfalcon]

Ironically, it isn't the accuracy you usually have to worry about. It is their bravery, people with low scores tend to panic and beserk like little schoolgirls after people start dropping like flies.

...And now I can't help imagining what little schoolgirls going berserk would look like.

Justing Beiber?
I would actually suggest that instead of putting people on both sides of a door, that instead you have them like this-

****#*****
         @
      @@
@ at bottom left being rookie who will die horribly, and the two @'s on the right being the expeirenced soldiers who will fire through the open door.  One of the reasons that they are positioned like that is because if they are like this-
****#*****
     @  @
       
THen if an alien comes in, and one of your soldiers fires on full auto, or fires and misses, then there is a VERY good chance that he will hit the other guy. 

[Flying Dice]

I was already following this, but I'll throw my hat in as a hapless rookie.

First, getting something off my chest: Aaaagh, the base layout, noooo! So many points of entry for invaders! It is not ruthlessly efficient! D:


Other than that:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. My favorite UFO breaching tactic (particularly once I have decent soldiers that I don't want to risk) is to bring along psybait or mediocre rookies armed with a stun rod and standard pistol, and use them for the initial entry. If you're lucky, they'll be able to stun the aliens. If you're unlucky, you'll be able to follow up with your A-team and gun them down without any important people dying. But yes, piling up outside the door and waiting for a fresh set of TUs is always for the best.

Also keep in mind that after turn 20 all aliens on the map will actively seek out your troops, so you can very easily clear the map and then set up a firing line 8-10 tiles away from the door, perpendicular to the doorway, and pass turns until the aliens all run outside. This has the added bonus of training up reaction stats without requiring the sort of anal-retentive micromanagement that some people get up to to max their troopers quickly.

2. Grenade relays are an important skill. I'm assuming you already know how the grenade timer works, so you'll only FF-grenade people because of the RNG. Basically, a grenade can be thrown and picked up as many times as you have the TU for in a given turn, so if you need a grenade on one side of the map but nobody there has one, you can have someone who does arm and toss one at a nearby ally, and hot-potato pass it all the way to wherever it is needed.

3. AC is god. Ditch the heavy cannons and buy an extra autocannon. Stock up on HE rounds with some belts of I rounds. I like a 2:1 mix of HE to I. They're especially good for night missions and terror missions. My normal approach to terror missions, especially when I know there are Chryssies around, is to literally blow up every bit of cover beyond what my troops are hunkered down behind. I rounds are better than flares in some respects, with the added bonus of doing damage.

4. Smoke grenades are god. Always start your exit from the 'ranger with a smoke grenade at the bottom of the ramp, if you don't already.

5. This is really gamey, but... We all know night missions are hell. With a bit of effort you can time your Skyranger arrivals to coincide with daylight hours.

6. If you find a floater base, ]especially one in southeast Asia, it can be worthwhile to leave it alive. Why? Farming supply ships for Elerium. Floaters are easily the wimpiest enemy types, and supply ships are an easy source of Elerium, which must land for a decent period of time, and which always land at the same time of day and month. That time happens to coincide with daylight hours in southeast Asia. On a similar note, you can preserve a floater base and repeatedly raid it, smash all of the Elerium containers, drag the Elerium and other loot back to the evac point, and abandon the mission.

7. Psybait. As soon as you start running into sectoid commanders (or, worse, Ethereals), watch carefully to see which of your troopers are repeatedly MCed, berserked, and panicked. Once you've identified these psy-weaklings, KEEP THEM. Or at least a few of them. If you send one or two on every mission armed only with a stun rod, smoke grenades, and flares, they will draw the attention of enemy psykers, allowing your combat troops to operate freely. It's usually best to leave them in the 'ranger, to prevent the aliens from using them to scout via MC.

Incidentally, psybait troopers also make for excellent rear commanders, given that they already sit in the Skyranger all mission long.

8. Always keep a few laser rifles in every base. Since they don't need ammo, they avoid the difficulties normally imposed by the item limit in vanilla X-COM (namely, having 80 magazines or a truckload of guns but hardly any ammo).

9. Start producing Laser Cannons (the ones for your interceptors) as soon as you can. They're the most profitable item you can produce, and if you are careful early in production you can make X-COM completely independent of national funding. Prior to that Motion Scanners are very profitable, and very early in R&D terms.

Hoo boy, I think I just spooled off a third of the most useful parts of UFOpedia from memory. :x

[Lightningfalcon]

5. This is really gamey, but... We all know night missions are hell. With a bit of effort you can time your Skyranger arrivals to coincide with daylight hours.

I just always thought of that as good strategy.
"Alright men, who wants to go into the dark woods, where you can't see shit unless it is five feet in front of you?" *A few hands go up* "It is ALSO filled with a bunch of aliens who WILL cut a giant hole in your chest, make you it's bitch, and you will THEN get back up, kill your best friend, and then give birth to that alien's babies!  In the dark!  Now who wants to go when it's light out and we can kill these things a mile away with an explosive minigun that lights eveyrthing on FIRE!?" *everyone's hand goes up*