I feel like high cover is kinda useless

[Gunsaremagic]

they still manage to kill you but if i shoot on an alien in high cover i miss you can imagine how bad low cover is might as will say goodbye to that solider if you think about using low cover

[aidanfilson25]

that's because of how accuracy works for enemies, what is especially the case with lower level soldiers is that you will lose straight up fire fights almost 100% of the time. player accuracy is determined by a number of factors including your base accuracy, which goes up each time your soldier goes up a rank, but primarily is determined by distance from your target (with the exception of snipers) and of course the cover they're in.

Alien accuracy is static, sectoids for instance have 65% accuracy regardless of how far they are from you before factoring things that alter their accuracy such as your cover or high ground bonuses.

this means that baseline their accuracy against you in high cover is 25%, if you hunker down in high cover this becomes 0% as long as they don't flank you. unless you have a very high rank soldier it is likely that your accuracy against a sectoid in a straight fire fight is not higher than 25%. so you have to employ tactics instead like hunkering down until you can get a flank or use a grenade to destroy the sectoids cover/kill them.

in essence though you are correct, high cover actually doesn't help much, especially early in the game where all aliens at maximum 2 shot you, if you don't also hunker down because Alien's accuracy on you will still be relatively high

[Ashardalon]

range is only relevant for accuracy for shotguns and reverse for snipers
for all other weapons there is a tiny buff if you under 4 tiles away
it is definetly not a primary determining thing for accuracy
once further away then 4 tiles there is no difference between 5 tiles and max range

[Sabaithal]

Also, as has been discussed many times prior, you have to factor in confirmation bias when paying attention to those moments.

IE, the human brain has a tendency to remember things that go wrong much more vividly and with much more emphasis than moments where things go right, or as predicted. We've all remembered soldiers getting one-shot in high cover before, and we've all remembered that one guy missing a 99% shot before. Doesn't actually happen as often as you may remember.

[Gunsaremagic]

I had a full squad on overwatch they missed every single shot for 3 turns on overwatch entire squad was doomed after that i had to give up the game the chryssalids in xcom 1 are awful just like in UFO defense but they are a joke in xcom 2 lol never had to a problem with them

[aidanfilson25]

you mainly just have to eyeball the range of chrysalids, they have 0 ranged attacks and they have a tendency to run towards you once spotted which can help as long as you don't move too quickly so you can't get away when you spot them

ideally you can also have at least laser rifles by the time you get your first terror mission, and if all else fails you can just blow them up with a heavy

but yeah chrysalids are pretty much guaranteed to still be able to onetap you by your first terror mission, you just have to play it smartly and remember that it's still fine if a large amount of the citizens die your rewards just wont be as good

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Gunsaremagic:

I had a full squad on overwatch they missed every single shot for 3 turns on overwatch entire squad was doomed after that i had to give up the game the chryssalids in xcom 1 are awful just like in UFO defense but they are a joke in xcom 2 lol never had to a problem with them

Ok, to be fair, overwatch is generally awful unless a troop is spec'd for it.

[aidanfilson25]

well it depends, for instance it does reduce your accuracy a lot but you can mitigate that with like high ground or something and snipers especially are great at using it with squad sight because of that even if you haven't gotten oppurtunist yet

although the more problematic part with overwatch usually is that enemies just wont move if they can see you using it

[Crypto Gamer]

The minimal chance to hit is 1%,so 65 aim normal difficulty sectoid can hit you 1% of the time(happened to me rarely)even if you are in hunkered full cover(80 defence).

Aliens DO gain close range bonuses just like the player up to +37% for point blank shots.In Xcom 2 aliens don't gain any close range bonuses.Also most aliens have+10,some have+20 aim on higher difficulties eg. muton elites have 80 aim on normal,90 on classic,100 on impossible.They also have higher crit chance and other stats.

Non hunkered high cover only by itself is a gamble unless stacked with smoke grenades/defence perks and or the enemy gets debuffed by poison-20 aim+dmg dot or the very useful flashbang for-50 aim.Enemies with low chance to hit tend to use nades,psi abilities etc. or target more vulnerable squadmates.

[Gunsaremagic]

I also feel like soldiers be need to be eh more easily replaceable know what i mean? like in xcom ufo they are easily replaced. But in unknown if you are mid game and lose all your best units you are in trouble the rookies suck even with good gear and you cant just pick your class i wish i could just manufacture any type of gun and give it to any soldier that would be great never liked how the game randomly picks my soldiers class. Well maybe in xcom 3

[Ashardalon]

kindof the trade you make
if you invest everything into one squad, its going to be more powerful then if you spent time making a plan b
but if you invest into a plan b, you have a plan b
and in xcom its a good idea to have a plan b

try playing long war
it lets you choose class and has you have about 80 soldiers in your list at minimum
downside is you will lose them

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Gunsaremagic:

I also feel like soldiers be need to be eh more easily replaceable know what i mean? like in xcom ufo they are easily replaced. But in unknown if you are mid game and lose all your best units you are in trouble the rookies suck even with good gear and you cant just pick your class i wish i could just manufacture any type of gun and give it to any soldier that would be great never liked how the game randomly picks my soldiers class. Well maybe in xcom 3

Give Long War a try. Yes, units with their experience do matter, but not nearly as much. And you can get a lot of them.

Not to mention SHIVs being a bit overpowered compared to default soldiers...

[Gunsaremagic]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

Originally posted by Gunsaremagic:

I also feel like soldiers be need to be eh more easily replaceable know what i mean? like in xcom ufo they are easily replaced. But in unknown if you are mid game and lose all your best units you are in trouble the rookies suck even with good gear and you cant just pick your class i wish i could just manufacture any type of gun and give it to any soldier that would be great never liked how the game randomly picks my soldiers class. Well maybe in xcom 3

Give Long War a try. Yes, units with their experience do matter, but not nearly as much. And you can get a lot of them.

Not to mention SHIVs being a bit overpowered compared to default soldiers...

yeah i should

[EnemigoDeLaMafia]

I usually see cover as sort of a last resort option. It's kind of "and hope we get lucky" feeling.

The more shots taken the more chances you have to die. Usually 2 shots or a single critical and its over.

Evidently you do need to use cover, because being flanked or in the open means 50% chance of being critically hit, however;

The goal of every shootout is hopefully to end it before it begins. Employ granades to destroy their cover and have your shots actually land (although Don't go too crazy or you'll erase the cover that eventually would be helpful to you).

Have assaults ready to go in and neutralize the threath before they can shoot you (this requires you gauge the situation appropriately and it always has a chance of backfiring), have a sniper ready, or have a heavy ready with a rocket.

My own policy is to always bring two heavies with me. They usually have the standard rocket, and the shredder rocket. If upgraded enough they might have yet another one.

The moment the situation looks like it'll be a drawn out fight, those rockets go flying and kill the enemy, or at the very least they'll destroy their cover leaving them exposed

Any light cover destroyed is an instant 25% chance to hit and a flat 50% chance to critical that enemy. This helps tons to help the others in the squad to actually land their shot.

[Sabaithal]

The above doesn't really apply to a CERTAIN late game enemy. You will want a gunner with suppression fire in order to deal with it.

[Citizen Kane]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

The above doesn't really apply to a CERTAIN late game enemy. You will want a gunner with suppression fire in order to deal with it.

In late game i use nothing but genetically enhanced PSI snipers. They are invisible all the time until they kill something, and one round later they become invisible again.