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[Jacob/Lee]

But the worst part about terror missions on any difficulty is the fact that sometimes civilians just die without rhyme or reason if you can't see them. Easily the most aggravating part of terror missions for me.

It's a crapshoot. Getting that one achievement requiring "Excellent" on all three ratings of a terror mission is basically only pure luck in hoping that the aliens don't take their time shooting civvies when your guys are raining Hell on them.

[Sheb]

Yeah, you just need to wait until you get a terror mission where you activate most aliens immediately.

[Sonlirain]

From what i get civilians used to die randomly UNLESS they are spotted by your soldiers.

That was in since the acctual packs of aliens didn't target civilians before activation so civilians had to die of heart attacks and other non alien related reasons.
This also meant that chryssalids didn't multiply as much as you could suspect... but with that rate of movement and mobility the map would be mostly clean of civilians at turn 3 or 4 if they actively attacked them.

[Sharp]

Terror missions are much more annoying in long war because you need a good result to not get panic and a great result to get panic reduction. Luckily though in Long War it doesn't matter too much if you do lose a funding nation as you can always do missions later to get them back.

My last terror mission was scary though, had one chrysalid left alive with 3hp quite close to my troops but luckily it decided to run backwards and kill a civilian instead, was annoying that all my assaults were fatigued but I actually managed to survive with no injuries to squad, only 1 guy got acid attacked and the aliens only shot and missed one other time, but on the other hand I came back with 3 civilians which would have been 4 if the stupid civilian didn't run out to make himself visible to the last alien on the map :/

EDIT: I also think there is something that game calculates civilian deaths depending on location of alien pods, I'm pretty sure that on some terror maps I went past civilians without saving them to kill aliens and then they went back in fog of war and didn't die at the end of the mission.

[i2amroy]

From what i get civilians used to die randomly UNLESS they are spotted by your soldiers.

That was in since the acctual packs of aliens didn't target civilians before activation so civilians had to die of heart attacks and other non alien related reasons.
This also meant that chryssalids didn't multiply as much as you could suspect... but with that rate of movement and mobility the map would be mostly clean of civilians at turn 3 or 4 if they actively attacked them.

Don't know if it's a long war thing or not, but this definitely isn't the case in long war. Roving Chryssalids combined with the fact that every zombie will eventually become a chryssalid, offscreen or not, on any difficulty in long war meant that I've had more then one occasion that ended up turning into just wave after wave of chryssalids as all of the dead civilians began turning.

I do think that civilians are at a reduced targeting priority though, so that might slow things down a little bit.

[PanH]

I do think that civilians are at a reduced targeting priority though, so that might slow things down a little bit.

I wish. Honestly, and that's one of my main gripes with terror missions (vanilla or LW), it's that aliens rather target civies than XCOM soldiers. E.g. in my last game I activated a pod with 3 floaters and a muton in a supermarket. They could all fire on my units (though they were in cover). Only the muton fired on my units, the 3 floaters killed civies (and the floaters could probably have moved to flank my units).

[NobodyPro]

I do think that civilians are at a reduced targeting priority though, so that might slow things down a little bit.

I wish. Honestly, and that's one of my main gripes with terror missions (vanilla or LW), it's that aliens rather target civies than XCOM soldiers. E.g. in my last game I activated a pod with 3 floaters and a muton in a supermarket. They could all fire on my units (though they were in cover). Only the muton fired on my units, the 3 floaters killed civies (and the floaters could probably have moved to flank my units).

The AI will almost always choose to shoot at targets that are in the open. I don't know if civies ever count as being in cover.

[Sharp]

Meh, dead civvies better then dead soldiers.

[Graknorke]

Meh, dead civvies better then dead soldiers.

Soldiers aren't as squishy, though.

[PanH]

Meh, dead civvies better then dead soldiers.

I prefer missed soldiers or even wounded than dead civvies. For the 3 shots the floaters had, they'd have 1 shot successful I think (nearly all my units in full cover).
Also, in LW, every day civvie is a hard hit to the country's panic. I had 2 terror missions in Egypt, and I fear the country may withdraw, even though I got a satellite over it (I'm wondering if the attacks on Egypt are due to the fact that aliens have a "strategy" in LW).

[Sheb]

What happen if a country withdraw when you have a satellite over it? Also, something I never could find data on: do you intercept more ships on bigger countries?

[Mephansteras]

I do think that civilians are at a reduced targeting priority though, so that might slow things down a little bit.

I wish. Honestly, and that's one of my main gripes with terror missions (vanilla or LW), it's that aliens rather target civies than XCOM soldiers. E.g. in my last game I activated a pod with 3 floaters and a muton in a supermarket. They could all fire on my units (though they were in cover). Only the muton fired on my units, the 3 floaters killed civies (and the floaters could probably have moved to flank my units).

The AI will almost always choose to shoot at targets that are in the open. I don't know if civies ever count as being in cover.

I think it's simpler than that. I think the AI goes for the best shots it can, all things being equal. Since shots against civilians are 100% all the time, they take those attacks rather than taking the shots against the XCOM soldiers that have a chance of failing. Chryssalids seem to go after whoever is closest, but I'm not positive about them.

[Culise]

I do think that civilians are at a reduced targeting priority though, so that might slow things down a little bit.

I wish. Honestly, and that's one of my main gripes with terror missions (vanilla or LW), it's that aliens rather target civies than XCOM soldiers. E.g. in my last game I activated a pod with 3 floaters and a muton in a supermarket. They could all fire on my units (though they were in cover). Only the muton fired on my units, the 3 floaters killed civies (and the floaters could probably have moved to flank my units).

The AI will almost always choose to shoot at targets that are in the open. I don't know if civies ever count as being in cover.

I think it's simpler than that. I think the AI goes for the best shots it can, all things being equal. Since shots against civilians are 100% all the time, they take those attacks rather than taking the shots against the XCOM soldiers that have a chance of failing. Chryssalids seem to go after whoever is closest, but I'm not positive about them.

Not always 100%.  I've seen precisely one shot made by the AI against a civilian miss, ever.  Suppression turned out to be a rather lucky thing for the poor fellow...at least, until the second Floater took the shot and killed the civilian anyways.  C'est la vie, or not.

[Mephansteras]

Oh, yeah, I've saved civilians with Suppression before too. But, base 100% anyway.

[Graknorke]

I've seen chryssalids ignore a room full of civilians before, so I don't think it's as simple as going for the nearest.