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[Sowelu]

Hmm...stats growth is based on use. I wonder how much growth you get from having recruits shoot random stuff?

"You, rookie! Prove you can hit the broad side of a barn!"

"Yes sir!" *blast*

"Good! Keep at it! I don't want to SEE a barn when this mission is done!"

Actually, the way stats grow is fairly well documented.  Nonspoilery:  It's based on hitting hostile units.  The spoilers below may destroy your enjoyment of the game, turning it into a micromanage fest instead of feeling like you're commanding actual soldiers.  OTOH you'll get higher stats...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If you REALLY want to spoil it...  There are four experience 'tiers' for each trainable skill.  If you perform a valid action (for firing accuracy, 'hitting an alien') once, you're in the first tier.  Perform it three times, second tier.  Six times, third tier.  Eleven times, fourth tier.  Hitting 6 or 10 times doesn't matter, it's still the same tier.  In general, tier 1 gets you 0-1 points, tier 2 gets you 1-3, tier 3 gets you 1-4, and tier 4 gets you 2-6.  So ideally, if there's limited aliens, you want to make sure your soldiers hit exactly three times for the best effect.  Auto-fire can give multiple hits, and blast weapons can give multiple hits in one shot.  AC-HE is great for experience.  Oh yeah, and damage doesn't matter, so laser pistols are also good.  Shooting mind-controlled allies does count, they are now hostile.  Shooting mind-controled enemies does not count, they are NOT hostile.

Throwing works like firing accuracy but with no requirement that you hit anything.

'Reactions' works the same way as firing experience; any time you take a reaction shot, it's one training action.  You can also get an accuracy-boosting hit here!

Psi training is similar, but each successful attack counts as 3 uses.  Unsuccessful ones are 1.  Yay.

Bravery is weird.  Each turn that your soldier is under morale 50, but does not flip out, they get a training point...but unlike other skills, each training point is a flat 9% boost to the chance of getting a single 10% bravery boost at the end of combat.  At 11 points, it's 100%.

FINALLY, all your other stats...health, TP, energy, strength...They don't get training points.  As long as you got even ONE training point in ANY other skill (EXCLUDING throwing), they get a boost.  Number of training points doesn't matter, just that you get at least one.  They grow faster the lower they are, so an initially weak soldier does not stay a liability forever!  (Because of this, you might want to make sure each soldier shoots an alien at least once...or maybe psi-attacks an alien once, even if they fail.  Rookies in the back of the Skyranger especially.)

[Mephansteras]

Well, that answers that. Thanks!

[Aqizzar]

Yeah, I've started playing again too after seeing the LP threads.  My own stories/observations-

I love the AC/HE combo beyond reason, and continue fielding it even when I have heavy plasmas.  Blowing away cover is a job for replenishable ammo.  The weird part is, the longer the game goes, the HE rounds seem to be getting less effective.  Not to the aliens, I know how that would work.  I mean to the terrain.  I could swear my AC/HE guys are having a harder time blowing down walls that they used to.

On Savescumming - the game is already barely challenging on superhuman, why take that away from it?  Besides, you have to exit combat to load a game, so I find savescumming makes the game take way too long.  I still save before every battle and periodically when at peace, so I don't have to make up lost time if something weird happens.  I do reload the game if, say, a base-building replan goes wrong, or I lose a couple Captains on the first turn of a battle, and other such things I'd have a hard time recovering from.

Nobody has mentioned it yet, so here's my base building strategy - aliens home in on your activity, and while I've never lost a base invasion, I've never palyed very long on Superhuman either.  A strategy I'm trying now is building a separate base in the Falkland Islands to house all my scientists and engineering, while a ring of combat stations in Romania, Taiwan, and Louisiana protect the real world.

Finally, I must regale you all with the story of an incredible rookie.  Some of you have probably heard the legend of Squaddie Patrick Stewart - I've found his reincarnation.  I took a rookie on a terror mission, armed with a laser rifle.  Every. Single. Turn. I told him to fire an autoshot at a sectoid outside of his own visual range.  Every. Single. Turn. he killed at least one alien, sometimes more.  He was taking down cyberdisks and shaking off plasma fire, all with rather mediocre stats.  Every mission since, he's been called on to do the same, and has delivered, without fail, every time.  He's got like 12 kills after 5 missions, and just won't take damage.  The best part?  His randomly generated name - Rudi.

Ru-di! Ru-di! Ru-di!

[Mephansteras]

Eh. I'm fine with Savescumming right now. It's a good way to get back into the game and remember the proper tactics for taking stuff out. Easy as a lot of situations are when you do everything right, you can STILL get stomped on pretty quick if you land in a bad situation or the game decides to mind control the wrong guy. And making mistakes can be pretty fatal.

I'll probably do a proper Iron man run once this game is done with.

[Ampersand]

Does anyone know how to get X-com 1 to install and run on Vista?

[Il Palazzo]

Does anyone know how to get X-com 1 to install and run on Vista?

Try running it in Dosbox.

Yeah, as Aqizzar mentioned, UFO1 is ridicoulously easy even on superhuman - that is, when compared to UFO2. It's like the designers went from one extreme to another. I'm playing on "veteran", and I'm barely surviving each month. Also, I've no idea how to take the alien base - their psionics can lock on any sqaddie that any other alien has ever noticed and keep busting his brains, even if hidden in the submarine or otherwise out of sight. It's freaking impossible.

[Sowelu]

X-Com 1 was easy?!  Man, I always got my butt handed to me.  I guess mostly because I was bad at just toughing it out through the hard parts but still.

In X-Com 2, the key is that you are going to lose if you take too long.  You have to rush through it, or they overwhelm you with bases.

[Aqizzar]

Easy is a relative term.  I forgot how much I hate alien psionics.  Namely, the way they can keep hitting people even if no other alien can see them anymore, a power your psions completely lack.

Also, what the fuck is wrong with you squaddies?  I just lost four guys on one mission because apparently you need a reaction stat of 90 to hit a alien dancing in front of five people.

[Sowelu]

If you want better reaction fire, leave more TU remaining instead of just enough for a snap shot.

Spoiler: Algorithm (click to show/hide)

Initiative = reaction * (TU / max TU).  You only get to act if you have a higher initiative than the guy who's currently moving, and you can see him.

[mendonca]

Aftermath etc.

I see where you are coming from about the first XCOM re. aging, but maybe I play too much Dwarf Fortress as the interface does not irk me greatly ... undoubtedly it is cumbersome.

I have played the aftermath games and enjoyed the general dynamic of the thing, really loved spinning round corners and throwing an auto shot from the shotgun in to a morelman. It just didn't seem ... finished?

Like you say the bit about not having to kill all the aliens and stuff, sometimes the win condition is a bit arbitrary.

Plus it runs terribly slowly on my computer, which considering the relatively simple graphics (my comp does ok with HL2) strikes me that their is a certain lack of care and attention gone in to certain elements of the code.

Must admit I tried UFO:AI a couple of years ago, and never really got going. Has it moved on at all? Was that based on the quake 2 engine?

On the subject of turn-based strategy, has anyone here played Jagged Alliance 2? Well worth checking out. Not as many aliens, but fun as hell.

[Samyotix]

I'm a huge fan of tactical turnbased, but never could get really into Jagged Alliance 2 ... dodgy interface, rather bad graphics, quite hard ...

I quite liked the "Silent Storm" games by russian devs Nival. The more recent Xcom games, well, nice but hard in that you need to know which technologies to research first, simply because if you research the wrong stuff the aliens will wear you down quickly.

[Il Palazzo]

Sure. Laser Squad, UFO, JA and Silent Storm. The four pillars of turn-based squad tactics.

[Granite26]

There's nothing a laser rifle on auto won't shoot through.  And it's got infinite ammo.

Inner UFO walls and outer UFO walls can't be shot through by lasers. Unless you mean enemy's.

I always took the ufos straight on.  Not blowing up the ships was a key part of my funding strategy. (Plus, I stacked doors pretty thouroughly.)

[Cajoes]

I'd go find the building with nine supports, put half my guys covering the elevator door(only way out), and the others emptying their alien recharge bioblasters into the supports.  Why should I fight room to room when I can force them to madly dash out at me in an attempt to escape the collapsing building?

wait... didn't that piss off the government though?

Nah, only the megacorp who owned the building. Unless they happened to BE the goverment.

[Sergius]

Does damage done in the battlescape even count? I'm fairly sure corps get pissed only if you actually blow parts of their buildings in the cityscape.

I haven't checked tho, I'm playing this game at work