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[Thexor]

Fun fact: the fixed random seed is also a feature in recent Civ games (complete with an advanced game toggle to randomize the seed when the game is loaded). Fixaxis knows what they're doing with random numbers, even if the average gamer has no clue what a pseudo-random number generator is. 

[Nadaka]

Yea, I am save scumming like hell in order to make it through impossible...

I limit myself to 2 deaths per successful mission.

And I already lost half the nations to the invasion.

[MaximumZero]

Fun fact: the fixed random seed is also a feature in recent Civ games (complete with an advanced game toggle to randomize the seed when the game is loaded). Fixaxis knows what they're doing with random numbers, even if the average gamer has no clue what a pseudo-random number generator is. 

In Civ V, though, you can turn it off before you start the game.

[Jelle]

Alright I stuck with the game for a bit longer and I have to say the randomness gets better after a while, as soldiers rank up their hit chance just keeps increasing. Thin men still a pain in the ass though, if I decide on playing the top difficulty or iron man I think I'll just pass up on all the missions with lots of the buggers in them.

Yep, I'm aware of the seeded RNG, played enough Civ to figure out the pattern, and since this was another firaxis game it seemed obvious.
I should mention while I save scum (just as a learning experience) I never do it mid mission, I'm positive starting the mission anew gives you a new seed, since the maps tend to cycle as well.

Anyway, psi powers! What are they, what do I need to know about this testing facility?
Two of my A team soldiers tested positive, now I've got a psionic medic support and a long range psionic sniper, neat. What's roughly the use of these abilities?

Also I'm dabbling in jetpacks. Got my rocketeer and my rifle assault equiped with the suits but I'm not sure how this stuff works. Are they harder to hit when airborne? Because I'm reluctant to just have them fly out of cover.
I understand there's a 6 unit fuel limit, where can I see the current fuel gauge? It only appears when I initiate flight.

Here, I'll list my soldiers, beats typing out their specifics. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Metalax]

Psionics.
The initial power gives you an always hit, 5 damage attack that gives penalties to Aim, Will, and mobility. Pretty short cooldown so it is fairly spammable. It will always oneshot a Sectoid and on classic or below will oneshot a thin man or floater(on impossible they will be left on 1 hp). If you have an accompanying heavy with the Mayhem skill to cause 3 damage(with heavy plasma) to targets that they use suppression on you can use the two together to take out a Chryssalid with no miss chance.

After using it enough you level up your psionic sub-class and can pick from Psi Inspiration or Psi Panic.
I've always found inspiration far more useful, stopping nearby panic, removing mindfray from your nearby troops and boosting willpower for 3 turns for self and nearby troops.

Use psionics more and you get to pick from Telekinetic Field and Mind Control.
Again I've always found Mind Control far more useful giving you a free expendable scout/fighter, Telekinetic Field only lasts for one enemy turn, has a long 5 turn cooldown and provides no protection against area affect or psionics.

There is one more psionic power that one, and only one, of your troops can get. If you MC an ethereal they can use it as well.


When flying you always get a +20 defense, but you can't use cover. It does give you the bonuses for high ground and the snipers 'Damn Good Ground" perk, if you are flying higher than the target. Heavies do not get their "will to survive" perk active if they are flying. It is best given to your squadsight sniper and to support to let them get to downed troopers on top of a roof. Also note it only uses fuel when you move, hovering in place burns no fuel.

[Neonivek]

It is mostly because Mind Control is essentially a one hit kill (though I've had guys I've mind controlled being unable to be killed... which I consider a programming oversight) that can lead to more kills

While Telekenetic field is mostly a turn without attack... but ghost armor can do that except better (I consider ghost to be the best armor)

[EnigmaticHat]

If the randomness bothers you just spam explosives.  Near guaranteed to hit, takes out enemy cover, and either kills or severely wounds the three common early game enemies.

The game is designed so that if you stay in cover and trade shots with the aliens, you'll lose (well, depending on the difficulty level).  Thin men, for instance, have a weapon that's around the damage output of a laser rifle but with +10 to hit, they have high base aim, and they have a poison attack that can't miss.  If you allow thin men to live, they WILL hit you, and if they sit in cover you'll have a hard time hitting them, and this is entirely intentional.  Until the late game the aliens are better shooters than you.  Its not about randomness; the RNG shouldn't matter too much if you're playing correctly on any difficulty but impossible.  The one way to reliably survive is to kill the aliens, and the one way to reliably kill the aliens is to negate their cover.  Some tips:

• As mentioned earlier, use explosives.  And then use more explosives.
• If the enemy has better cover than you, pull back so the enemy has to go into partial cover to be able to hit you.  Usually they'll follow you.
• Shotguns can give you guaranteed kills, and besides grenades are your main way of getting 100% to hit early on.
• If enemies face enough reaction fire that it could kill them, they almost never move.  As a result, if all enemies are pinned, concealed soldiers can end their turn out of cover.
• Avoid situations where you need to hit or a soldier dies.  Even a 90% can betray you.  If someone's in danger and you don't like you chances of killing all aliens in one turn, you should regroup.  Pull back, drop smoke, hunker down, and/or restrict enemy movement with overwatch.
• Speaking of which, hunkering down prevents crits.  This means you can make it literally impossible for the aliens to kill a given soldier in one turn.  Hunkering down also turns partial cover into full cover and full cover into crazy-awesome cover.  You don't really need this ability for classic or normal, but it gets rid of randomness so I figured it would be worth mentioning.
• Sometimes, you just need to stick your gun up the enemy's ass.  Running up to point blank can give you 100% to hit with even a machine gun.  It also has the side effect of making whoever you stuck out there a massive target.  This can be good or bad; after all, if the aliens are shooting the rookie who's way out in front, they aren't shooting the wounded colonel who's hiding in the back...
• To capture aliens without (much) luck, you need to kill all visible enemies except one, weaken that one with pistol fire or grenades, pin it with overwtach, and move up the arc thrower guy.  Then, and this is key, DO NOT try to stun the alien unless you can kill it if the stun fails.  A dead alien is better than a dead soldier, and its not like arc thrower guy is getting a second chance anyway.

[Nadaka]

My latest sniper has disabling shot. And it really helps with trying to capture, as it allows you to deny that last enemy his turn without killing him and allows your zapper to move in closer without risking a hit.

[Damiac]

I'm playing ironman classic, and it's intense.

Thin men are bastards.  On my last VIP escort mission, I got the VIP out safely, but then I had 3 thinmen to clean up.  I was hoping to capture one...

I get 2 guys into position to see what they're up to.  My guys have full health with carapace armor (9 health each).  They're behind high cover.
Their turn - 2x  9 damage crits.  2 dead troopers.
I was able to finish them off after that, but that was painful.  If I had hunkered instead of taking the low% shots, I  wouldn't have lost those guys.  High cover != safe.

On my last mission, I lost a high ranking heavy because my sniper missed a 95% chance shot.  If I had given my assault a laser pistol, he would have had the chance to finish it off. Instead, his normal pistol did 1 damage to the Chrysalid, leaving it with 1 health, and he munched on that heavy.

The RNG sometimes works in your favor though.  On an abduction mission, I took out 3 thinmen in a row, two with 50% shotgun shots, then a third with a panicked 50% shotgun shot.  Had I missed any of those shots, I would have lost 2 more guys, instead of jsut the one.

The point is not to always win every mission flawlessly.  The point is that randomness will happen, and you will lose guys.  All you can do is mitigate the damage as best you can. 

I'm having fun, but like I said, it's intense.  On my current playthrough, I am 1 day from the council report, just finished researching titan armor (which I cannot afford to produce), I just lost 3 of my best guys, and I have an abduction mission I have to do.  This game is keeping the pressure on me...

This is what makes a challenging game.  Ultra hard difficulty means nothing if I can just reload and try again.  I have to live with my mistakes, and try to overcome them.

[Mephansteras]

Yeah. Best tactic to win an Ironman Classic game is to have lots and lots of spare troops leveled up.

Losing a Colonel sucks no matter what, but with a decently trained up barracks you can recoup from even the worst losses.

If you don't have a barracks full of Sgts and up...SHIVs help a lot.

[Sharp]

Just wait till you try Ironman Impossible, it has me screaming 'God why have you forsaken me!!!' and heck im an atheist.

[Nadaka]

Just wait till you try Ironman Impossible, it has me screaming 'God why have you forsaken me!!!' and heck im an atheist.

No. I'll pass. Impossible is impossible enough with save scumming. I've already lost south america, africa, mexico and half of asia within the first 2 months, and the only tech i have to show for it is the basic armor upgrade.

[Nadaka]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Tarran]

What. Why are there french tentacles at the end.

[Nadaka]

The french tentacles are a recurring character in that comic, that part isn't xcom related.