Got a few questions about UFO Defense.

[Countdown]

Heh: one tip on the proximity grenade:  Toss it on tile away from the door

D|_|X

Where D is the door, _ is empty tile, and X is proximity grenade. 
The reason is that an enemy approaching behind the door will trigger it if its right at the door, but the door will be closed when it goes off, and the enemy takes no damage.  When you deploy it as suggested, they get blasted when they step out of the craft.

Really? I never knew this. Was this "issue" fixed in TFTD? I have recently successfully used proximity grenades right in front of the alien door ... but maybe that was because it was a double door?

D|X
D|A

Where D is the door, X is the proximity grenade, and A is the dead alien after it stepped out.

In case anyone was curious about this, I looked back at the save to try and figure out why my proximity grenade right in front of the door was successful. Turns out the Aquatoid was already up against the door so his first step was on the prox grenade. So I just got lucky ... really lucky since the grenade took out both aliens that were standing there.

But this does make me wonder how many kills I've missed out on in the past (and how many soldiers needlessly died) because I didn't know about this door issue. Thanks for the tip Ivan. It's crazy I've played so many hours on this game and still didn't know an important mechanic like this.

[Dybdal]

Allmost done with my initial playthough.
New questions arise though.

1.) Experience.. been reading though UFOpeadia on the subject but still abit confused on the subject. "Every time a Primary Action is taken, Primary Skill Points are earned" am i to take that as "taking a reaction shot, firing, stunning, throwing, using psionics & the game enforcing a bravery check on said soldier" is what that means? and if that is the case, can you then blind fire into blank space with soldiers three times to gain the experience? from just outside the skyranger? or do you need to be doing the "Primary Action" towards an enemy?

2.) Difficulty scaling numbers.. I've been trying to figure out the probability of an Alien Retaliation mission being initiated after each UFO ive been shooting down but reading though the wiki, those numbers elude me (if they are there, i seem unable to find them) does anyone know what % of chance it is for each difficulty level?

As allways, much love!

[Yataka Shimaoka]

To gain accuracy points, the soldier must hit a target, and those targets are alien, civilians, and xcom too

When it comes to geoscape, the difficulty is not changed, only the battlescaps will change difficulty

[ohartenstein23]

When it comes to geoscape, the difficulty is not changed, only the battlescaps will change difficulty

Not quite true, on Superhuman shooting down a UFO has a one in five chance of causing a retaliation mission, this goes down significantly for lower difficulty.

[Meridian]

2.) Difficulty scaling numbers.. I've been trying to figure out the probability of an Alien Retaliation mission being initiated after each UFO ive been shooting down but reading though the wiki, those numbers elude me (if they are there, i seem unable to find them) does anyone know what % of chance it is for each difficulty level?

Beginner=4%, Experienced=8%, Veteran=12%, Genius=16%, Superhuman=20%

...unless there already is a retaliation mission in that region, in which case the chance drops to 0%.

When it comes to geoscape, the difficulty is not changed, only the battlescaps will change difficulty

If you're not sure, don't spread misinformation please.

Besides what ohartenstein said, difficulty affects UFO escape countdown and firing rate in dogfights, monthly rating thresholds, etc.

[NKF]

1.) Experience.. been reading though UFOpeadia on the subject but still abit confused on the subject. "Every time a Primary Action is taken, Primary Skill Points are earned" am i to take that as "taking a reaction shot, firing, stunning, throwing, using psionics & the game enforcing a bravery check on said soldier" is what that means? and if that is the case, can you then blind fire into blank space with soldiers three times to gain the experience? from just outside the skyranger? or do you need to be doing the "Primary Action" towards an enemy?

With the exception of morale and throwing, most of the primary actions only award experience checks when used against the enemy. You shouldn't get anything from allies, civilians or scenery.

It goes:

Reactions - Increments if you qualify for a reaction shot during the alien's turn. You still earn the check if the triggering alien is killed before you can fire a shot.

Firing Accuracy or rather the 'successful hit' counter  - increments per hit on an enemy with a bullet or area-of-effect attack. If memory serves, there's a bug in the original game that awarded a point to anyone that sets off a live proximity mine.

Melee - increments on each successful melee hit on an enemy with a stun rod. 

Throwing - increments by simply throwing stuff. Anything. Anywhere.

Psionic Skill - increments by using a psi-amp attack on an alien. A failure is worth 1 count, a success is worth 3.

Morale - increments every turn you resist panic while under 50% morale.

Unless I missed something, I think that covers most of it.

[Dybdal]

Thanks for the information everyone.
As allways very enlightning.

Oh and follow up question(s) to clear something up..

1.) Does mind probes count as a psionic when it comes to experience gain? (i know it counts as a psionic in general terms)
2.) IF it does count towards experience gain, do you gain experience towards psionics even though you dont have access to a psionic lab?

[Yataka Shimaoka]

I believe no

[Dybdal]

And im done =) what a great game all around. (Cydonia was a let down though, pyramid spawn litterly right next to my avenger and there were very few enemies inside the base it self to contend with)

A few close calls along the way and abit of fatigue set in around the midgame when dealing with Psionics (but boy does it turn the game into a stomp fest when you enter late game and your the one mindcontrolling everything on the map)

Played it though on Veteran and next time i'll def be doing it on Superhuman with Psionic LoS on, to not make the late game as trivial as it turned out to be.
Thanks for the help everyone, i really did (and still do) appriciate the time you took to answer my questions.

[7Saturn]

I think psionic LoS makes the early and mid game far easier, as it only brings major disadvantages to the AI.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Why don't you try a modded playthrough next? My mod extends the gameplay without heavily changing it.

[Countdown]

I think psionic LoS makes the early and mid game far easier, as it only brings major disadvantages to the AI.

You can make just the PsiAmp LOS so the aliens can still use MC as normal, but you can only use MC with LOS. Mod that and make the psi amp very heavy (ie cumbersome), very expensive/difficult to manufacture, and you might be on your way to decent balancing.

From the UFOPaedia:
LOSRequired   Does this item require line of sight? (only applies to mind probes and psi-amps)   false

And im done =) what a great game all around. (Cydonia was a let down though, pyramid spawn litterly right next to my avenger and there were very few enemies inside the base it self to contend with)

A few close calls along the way and abit of fatigue set in around the midgame when dealing with Psionics (but boy does it turn the game into a stomp fest when you enter late game and your the one mindcontrolling everything on the map)

Played it though on Veteran and next time i'll def be doing it on Superhuman with Psionic LoS on, to not make the late game as trivial as it turned out to be.

Yes, once you get MC the game turns into a joke. I was also let down a bit by my first Cydonia run because it was just too easy at that point. I suggest playing on SuperHuman and severely limiting mind control use and blaster launchers (through mods or self restrictions) to make it a bit more of a challenge.

7Saturn is right that if you just make all mind control LOS, the game will get too easy because the aliens will be severely limited. Better to just make the Psi Amp LOS through a mod.

[Dybdal]

Why don't you try a modded playthrough next? My mod extends the gameplay without heavily changing it.

I think i'll keep mods on the back burner for now, played 2012 quite a few times before i started playing with LongWar.

Yes, once you get MC the game turns into a joke. I was also let down a bit by my first Cydonia run because it was just too easy at that point. I suggest playing on SuperHuman and severely limiting mind control use and blaster launchers (through mods or self restrictions) to make it a bit more of a challenge.

7Saturn is right that if you just make all mind control LOS, the game will get too easy because the aliens will be severely limited. Better to just make the Psi Amp LOS through a mod.

Well, thats something to think about.. allthough i dont feel as though psionics is something that adds complexity to the game at all.
The optimal way of dealing with it, is making the needed sacrifices in the midgame by going grenade less against sectoids and dropping your weapon at the end of each turn. (you dont get to have any reaction shots but that is something you can deal with quite easily) the only thing it did to me, was making me sort of annoyed at having to do inventory management each turn (hence my midgame fatigue) .. i dont know, i would have liked to see psionics adhere to squadsight for the aliens and pure LoS for Xcom, that i think would be the perfect way to handle it.

And yeah, blaster launchers was fun for a grand total of a few maps and then they got put back on the shelf for ruining my fun

edit: i do have one regret though, and that was not testing out heavy lasers vs sectopods. i really want to see if they are a viable way of dealing with them late game.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

edit: i do have one regret though, and that was not testing out heavy lasers vs sectopods. i really want to see if they are a viable way of dealing with them late game.

I definitely recommend using heavy lasers against sectopods. You might not find them to be your favorite way of dealing with them but it is certainly a way. Pro tip: sectopods have less armor in the back.

[NKF]

The Heavy Laser's quite an effective Sectopod buster, but do give it to someone fairly accurate as it handles like a slightly less accurate Heavy Cannon.

With psi, since it's so powerful in the hands of the player, I often either restrict my number of psi-amps down to one, stick to panic attacks only or more commonly not use the psi-amp at all. Not using psi attacks does turn the game into a matter of managing how to resist at first (*ahem* psi sponges) until you can screen enough troops to become immune to psi attacks. It is ignoring a feature of the game, but one I can certainly live without as it's not as much fun when battles turn into psionic daisy chains and executions.