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[Domenique]

I never understood why folks thought that the X-Com recruits were suppose to special operation folks.

Its quite clear they're just out of boot camp. Hence them being more or less in shape, and following orders well, even stupid orders. It also explains why no one has any ranks, until they start to be field promoted by X-Com itself.

You could be a general in one orginazation, as soon you enter another one, you're a recruit like everybody else, at least that's the way I understand it.

[lordcooper]

I never understood why folks thought that the X-Com recruits were suppose to special operation folks.

Its quite clear they're just out of boot camp. Hence them being more or less in shape, and following orders well, even stupid orders. It also explains why no one has any ranks, until they start to be field promoted by X-Com itself.

You could be a general in one orginazation, as soon you enter another one, you're a recruit like everybody else, at least that's the way I understand it.

You also instantly forget all your prior knowledge of combat.

[Sirus]

I never understood why folks thought that the X-Com recruits were suppose to special operation folks.

Its quite clear they're just out of boot camp. Hence them being more or less in shape, and following orders well, even stupid orders. It also explains why no one has any ranks, until they start to be field promoted by X-Com itself.

You could be a general in one orginazation, as soon you enter another one, you're a recruit like everybody else, at least that's the way I understand it.

You also instantly forget all your prior knowledge of combat.

A general probably hasn't actually been in combat for several years. Those skills may have turned rusty.

[Sergius]

Sounds a bit silly to me, to try to recruit as many rusty generals as possible, as opposed to... less rusty soldiers, which are probably more plentiful and "cheaper" to get?

[Flying Dice]

I always took it as X-COM requirements being so high that the only people remotely qualified were active-duty SpecOps types, and even then they were just barely good enough for some of them to survive. You really think that a normal grunt straight out of an army boot camp would have a prayer against the xenos in anything other than human-wave style attacks?

[Vibhor]

I always took it as X-COM requirements being so high that the only people remotely qualified were active-duty SpecOps types, and even then they were just barely good enough for some of them to survive. You really think that a normal grunt straight out of an army boot camp would have a prayer against the xenos in anything other than human-wave style attacks?

The soldiers were experts in nose picking and that is all they knew.
Their accuracy was god awful. If they were trained in spec ops then I wonder if the spec ops had very low standards of training.

[Sirus]

The various countries kept their best and brightest. You got the dregs because, let's face it: X-COM was probably meant as a sort of token international effort. No one expected you to succeed against the overwhelming alien force, so they sent you a few soldiers who at the very least knew which way to point a gun, while keeping their elite forces to defend against the inevitable invasion for as long as possible.

[Vibhor]

The various countries kept their best and brightest. You got the dregs because, let's face it: X-COM was probably meant as a sort of token international effort. No one expected you to succeed against the overwhelming alien force, so they sent you a few soldiers who at the very least knew which way to point a gun, while keeping their elite forces to defend against the inevitable invasion for as long as possible.

As much as you are trying to justify it with some context, let just face the reality. When the game was made, no such thing was given attention. They just wanted to make a game. Would the game have any challenge if you already started with Spetsnaz as your squad members? They don't even know how to use a medkit for gods sake.
Narrative consistency is fine but when it interferes with the gameplay, you need to forget about it. What game would you rather play? One which is consistent while sacrificing gameplay or one which is actually enjoyable to play rather than hear about?

As for your justification, it is loadsa bull crap.
The whole "elite forces" never come into play. They don't even have local police defending the citizens in a terror mission and no matter how long you wait the army never comes. The countries also prefer to sign pacts with the aliens instead of actually fighting them, leaving all the work to X-Com.

[Domenique]

I always took it as X-COM requirements being so high that the only people remotely qualified were active-duty SpecOps types, and even then they were just barely good enough for some of them to survive. You really think that a normal grunt straight out of an army boot camp would have a prayer against the xenos in anything other than human-wave style attacks?

The soldiers were experts in nose picking and that is all they knew.
Their accuracy was god awful. If they were trained in spec ops then I wonder if the spec ops had very low standards of training.

The point is that accuracy is simply untrainable, in battle conditions it's really hard to get a clear shot, unless you're a sniper or something, that is mostly why soldiers can't hit shit. There was a cracked article on this, the point being that the skill that is most useful to survive is knowing how to find good cover rather than being accurate, because in action you won't be as accurate as you should, not to mention the psychological difficulties when trying to shoot an alien.

[Vibhor]

Theres a difference between missing from 10 metres away and Missing the enemy from pointblank range while still hitting every ally near you. Guess which one the Xcom soldiers fall in?

[Julius Clonkus]

If my tries with X-Com are anything to go by, the soldiers recruited by X-Com actually do fall in the first category. I never really encountered kissing range bullets going wide.

When they sometimes fail to hit enemies, it's in the first weeks and there you have those clunky slabs of metal for weapons. Considering the fact it's very much possible to bust down doors and in rare cases even normal building walls with the standard X-Com issue assault rifle, I always chalk it up to these weapons being hastily developed and thus having a bunch of flaws like ludicrous amounts of recoil.

Though, yes. I guess the nations don't trust X-Com entirely, a number of funding nations propably do see them as nothing but a way to stall time until they figure out how to negotiate with their new xeno overlords.

As for the bunch of useless recruits; well, not every funding nation owns a piece of antarctica they can reassign their nutjobs to, so...

[Domenique]

Theres a difference between missing from 10 metres away and Missing the enemy from pointblank range while still hitting every ally near you. Guess which one the Xcom soldiers fall in?

Accuracy formula does not take distance into account and according to it, only very inaccurate weapons (not soldiers) can missfire a lot (the formale also dictates what's the worst possible shot you can make, starting with 1.7 and going up to 28.4 degrees.)

Of course, sometimes a missfired shot can hit a target if it's close, though that's not much of a chance.

[Vibhor]

Theres a difference between missing from 10 metres away and Missing the enemy from pointblank range while still hitting every ally near you. Guess which one the Xcom soldiers fall in?

Accuracy formula does not take distance into account and according to it, only very inaccurate weapons (not soldiers) can missfire a lot (the formale also dictates what's the worst possible shot you can make, starting with 1.7 and going up to 28.4 degrees.)

Of course, sometimes a missfired shot can hit a target if it's close, though that's not much of a chance.

Speaking from personal opinion, that has happened a lot with me. They even miss the huge targets like UFOs. I had to wait two turns in the final alien base because all three of my remaining soldiers missed every shot they fired. The accuracy in the game is wonky at best but distance DOES matter. Out of a certain range weapons start losing effectiveness. This is also improved in various mods.
But after all that jazz, character skill is also an important factor. A rookie misses way more than,say, a sergeant(If your rookie didn't start with rambo stats that is).
Do note that we are still discussing consistency in atmosphere rather than the core mechanics.

[Sensei]

It certainly looks like they're moving more in the elite operative direction than cannon fodder in the new X-Com. Since you have fewer soldiers and you're customizing them more (special abilities that are soldier skills) you're going to be more attached to each individual soldier too. I do hope this doesn't make them shy away from insta-kills, at least in the early game where you don't have good armor so the aliens can make an impression. On the other hand I won't be too miffed if everyone can afford a few mistakes in the late game, it's pretty annoying to lose a soldier in power armor who got shot once in the front with a plasma pistol.

[Domenique]

Theres a difference between missing from 10 metres away and Missing the enemy from pointblank range while still hitting every ally near you. Guess which one the Xcom soldiers fall in?

Accuracy formula does not take distance into account and according to it, only very inaccurate weapons (not soldiers) can missfire a lot (the formale also dictates what's the worst possible shot you can make, starting with 1.7 and going up to 28.4 degrees.)

Of course, sometimes a missfired shot can hit a target if it's close, though that's not much of a chance.

Speaking from personal opinion, that has happened a lot with me. They even miss the huge targets like UFOs. I had to wait two turns in the final alien base because all three of my remaining soldiers missed every shot they fired. The accuracy in the game is wonky at best but distance DOES matter. Out of a certain range weapons start losing effectiveness. This is also improved in various mods.
But after all that jazz, character skill is also an important factor. A rookie misses way more than,say, a sergeant(If your rookie didn't start with rambo stats that is).
Do note that we are still discussing consistency in atmosphere rather than the core mechanics.

I'm just saying that distance isn't in the formula, and that the accuracy of the soldier is not as important as that of the weapon.

I do hope this doesn't make them shy away from insta-kills, at least in the early game where you don't have good armor so the aliens can make an impression.

They pretty much state that in every interview, but there's not much to learn from those interviews, except to hear this stated over and over again. Like this turns them on.