User:Hobbes/Sandbox page

Soldier Management

• Use the first 3 missions to bring all the 12 initial soldiers and reveal their classes.
• The focus is on building a poll of soldiers - it should be around 10-12 soldiers being rotated on missions, plus a number of replacements.
• A basic setup is to have 2-3 officers of each class, depending on personal preferences - your favorite build(s) for that class and his/her replacement, plus an alternative build for more specialized missions.
• To get the Squad Size increase, you can get later a Sergeant as a reward in an abduction mission.
• Try to get as soldiers as rewards during Abduction missions (although you may lose countries) - money and resources are easy to get, high rank soldiers take a lot of time to build up. Even if you have already 2 officers from that class
• Usually the distribution of classes will not be balanced. Use Abduction missions to make up with any shortfalls.

1) Maps 2) Type and number of aliens.

The first criteria is if XCOM or the aliens are capable of killing their opponents with 1 shot. At the beginning the aliens will have the upper hand, specially in Classic/Impossible but that will keep changing back and forward as XCOM deploys new tech and the aliens bring more races. There's something of a ratio: if you're facing 3 lesser opponents or 2 similar ones or 1 superior alien you're outnumbered and your soldiers can be severely injured or killed.

With this in mind you may face three types of scenarios everytime you'll go on an Abduction/Terror/UFO missions. Council missions are predictable since you'll be facing always Sectoids or Thin Men.

Class Builds

Class/Type	Corporal	Sergeant	Lieutenant	Captain	Colonel	Notes
Support (Medic)	Sprinter Covering Fire	Field Medic	Revive	Dense Smoke Combat Drugs	Savior
Support (Scout)	Sprinter	Smoke and Mirrors	Rifle Suppression	Dense Smoke	Sentinel
Support (Rifleman)	Covering Fire	Field Medic Smoke and Mirrors	Rifle Suppression	Dense Smoke Combat Drugs	Sentinel
Assault	Aggression	Close and Personal	Rapid Fire	Bring 'Em On	Killer Instinct
Assault (Scout)	Tactical Sense	Lightning Reflexes	Rapid Fire Flush	Close Combat Specialist	Resilience
Sniper	Squad Sight	Gunslinger Damn Good Ground	Disabling Shot	Opportunist	Double Tap In The Zone
Sniper (Scout)	Snap Shot	Gunslinger Damn Good Ground	Battle Scanner	Executioner	Double Tap In The Zone
Heavy	Bullet Swarm	Shredder Rocket	HEAT Ammo	Grenadier Danger Zone	Rocketeer Mayhem
Heavy (Rifleman)	Holo-Targeting	Suppression	Rapid Reaction	Grenadier Danger Zone	Rocketeer Mayhem
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Classic Weapons Kill Table

Weapon	Base Damage	Crit Damage	Critical Chance	Maximum Damage (Base + Crit)?	Sectoid	Thin Man Floater	Outsider Drone	Chryssalid	Muton Zombie	Heavy Floater Muton Elite Sectoid Commander	Cyberdisk Bezerker Ethereal	Sectopod
					3	4	5	8	10	14	20	30
Pistol	1	1	0	2
Laser Pistol Laser Pistol (I)	2	3	10 30	5	CRIT	CRIT	CRIT
Laser Pistol (I & III)	3	3	30	6	BASE	CRIT	CRIT
Plasma Pistol Assault Rifle Plasma Pistol (I)	3	4	0 10 20	7	BASE	CRIT	CRIT
Plasma Pistol (I & III)	4	4	20	8	BASE	BASE	CRIT	CRIT
LMG Sniper Rifle Shotgun	4	6	0 25 20	10	BASE	BASE	CRIT	CRIT	CRIT
Laser Rifle Plasma Light Rifle	5	7	10	12	BASE	BASE	BASE	CRIT	CRIT
Heavy Laser Laser Sniper Rifle Laser Scatter	6	9	10 30 20	15	BASE	BASE	BASE	CRIT	CRIT
Plasma Rifle	7	10	10	17	BASE	BASE	BASE	CRIT	CRIT	CRIT
Heavy Plasma Plasma Sniper Rifle Alloy Cannon	9	13	10 35 20	22	BASE	BASE	BASE	BASE	CRIT	CRIT	CRIT

Notes on Damage

• Regarding the different numbers seen in the Barracks info and the actual game values, one theory is that the damage range can vary, i.e. a weapon listed with a 9 damage can vary between 8 and 10 and you see the maximum damage before firing.
• How the critical damage is applied isn't clear/proven. The model above assumes that there are separate rolls, 1 for normal damage, then it is added the value of another roll for critical damage.
• The other model is that the maximum damage for a critical hit is the one listed but that doesn't fit with actual combat results, since I've seen Heavy Plasmas dealing 16 damage to a flanked soldier.

Discussion

Apologies for intruding, but are we sure that Critical damage completely stacks with Base damage? So far as I've seen, critical damage OVERLAPS base damage, IE, a critical hit uses the higher "Critical damage" number in the randomizer, instead of the Baze Damage number.

I appreciate the feedback. Good question - my current impression is that damage is dealt in two rolls, one for hit (base damage) and a 2nd one which seems to be randomized within the critical damage ability. I've made kills that also support this model, like 1 Alloy Cannon shot killing an undamaged Muton Elite that has been flanked. Hobbes 18:51, 6 November 2012 (EST)

Also, the Base Damage, as found elsewhere, seems to be able to be modified by one (and possibly more)in either direction. So Guaranteed kills may not quite count unless the damage is high enough that even -1 is still enough to one-shot. (IE, 4 base damage LMG, -1=3: Still enough for a Sectoid) Arrow Quivershaft 18:41, 6 November 2012 (EST)

I've checked the damage on my current Classic game. From what I've researched there's no change to it on the difficulty levels. Which makes a lot of sense since it's a lot easier to learn the game if you always play with the same weapon stats. Hobbes 18:51, 6 November 2012 (EST)

What I mean is that it randomizes damage on a hit, not by difficulty, just a bit of basic randomizing so that things aren't always the same. Sorry for being unclear. Arrow Quivershaft 02:23, 7 November 2012 (EST)