wtf is with this panic crap?

[Tikiwaka]

I just recently started playing this game as a friend of mine said it was really hard. Immediately got my interest. So far the game hasn't been "hard" but completely unfair. The panic system completely screws over anything you're trying to do. one mission i had i was supposed to escort someone with a briefcase and you ran into your first 4 legged looking alien.

as i was near complete on clearing the enemies out i advanced the VIP closer to the objective then out of nowhere one of my soldiers freaked the ♥♥♥♥ out and shot the damn VIP. what..the...♥♥♥♥....

another problem is one of my guys gets shot and is severely damaged then starts to panick, ok i uderstand this he's about to die so he's freaking out that i can get around. but then my other troops who are on the left side of the map start to freak out and SHOOT EACH OTHER!!! this game was pretty fun until this panic issue started happening.

If all they would do would start doing things on their own out of panic that would be fine thats logical. but to freaking shoot your objective down or your own soldiers is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dumb.

[red255]

*salty*

Stuff happens. dont take damage you won't roll panic rolls, you don't roll panic rolls you won't fail panic rolls, you don't fail panic rolls you don't shoot VIPs.

instead ask yourself what you did wrong. and what you'd do differently next time.

because we can list things.

[Girheim]

In XCOM 2 a sectoid panicked one of my soldiers and their response was to throw a frag grenade into the rest of my squad with amazing precision. You'd think panicked they might miss but nope I have never seen a better grenade throw in my life.

Some things never change.

[Geronimouk]

Dude panic will happen when YOU let your squad members willpower drop, then they will perform an erratic act, which includes shooting anyone or anything they see. Panic can be contagious too, if they can see the panic it can cause them to panic. So play careful and steady, don't over extend your squad, and always remember just cause it says 99% chance of success, x-com history will tell you 1% is all it takes.

[Tikiwaka]

yeah, i'm trying to not let them get shot at as much now. Though how do i tell my progression in this game? all i have been doing is excavating crash sites and the occasional council mission. not much on knowing if i'm really advancing in clearing the alien threat out. just now i have had 3 countries go into panic mode.

[Chapter Eleven]

Hard is supposed to be unfair.

Try to be in full cover at all times, hunker down if you have to.
Don't forget to use smoke grenade (support class) to give some extra def bonus.

Best option is to kill the aliens before they even get a chance to touch you, grenade the aliens cover and shoot them down in the open or/and flank them for delicious crit chance.

[red255]

Be advised thats general advice. stay in full cover at all times when it makes sense to be in full cover at all times.

otherwise don't.

Full Cover isn't magic, its just -40 to be hit. Half Cover is -20.

cover gets destroyed or you are out of cover then its 0 and you are exposed which means you'll probably get critically hit.

Even at -40 to hit if you are getting shot at the aliens have at least a 1 in 4 chance to hit you, which means you are expecting one of the shots to hit you if they are taking 4 shots.

gets worse than that if they are closer or have better than 65 rookie starting aim. which they do.

you tell him to use full cover all the time he will get hit and he'll think from your advice the game was bugged.

Full cover is not magic. if you are being shot at you will get hit. you get hit you will panic. or you will die and your squad will panic.

whatever.

Use cover as a means to an end. your end is to kill the aliens. KILL THE ALIENS. if cover helps use it, if it doesn't, don't use it. etc.

[Gertjan]

soldiers make a panic check if they, or someone they can see, get hit with a critical, more than half their max HP or from a flank, as well as when they see a teammate die.

make sure you stay in cover, keep your soldiers healed and grap the soldiers with the highest will stat.

[Androgynous]

don't make mistakes and you won't get punished for them. this applies to all difficulties, but lower difficulties allow you to get away with more mistakes.

full cover + hunker down will drastically reduce hit chance, to 0% many cases, and even if you do get hit, you cannot be critically hit unless you are flanked, so use it instead of trying 25% chance shots which will leave your soldiers exposed, or overwatching with only 1 soldier. using overwatch is fine only if you have enough soldiers to ensure an enemy will die to it.

if soldiers had a random chance to panic and there was nothing to do against it, that would be unfair, but you are given tools to prevent being hit (and therefore avoid being panicked), as well as ways to decrease the chance of getting panicked even if you are hit - through will bonuses.

Originally posted by Tikiwaka:

Though how do i tell my progression in this game?

Go to the situation room and it'll tell you your current objectives at the bottom of the screen.

[Purplefairy22]

I know its not really relevent, But in the original Xcom, Panic was far worse. Least in this xcom they don't throw their guns away at crucial moments.

Nostalgic Memory:
Back in the day you used to have to walk your troops off the skyranger. i moved one step and POW. Reaction fire kills him. Then a soldier holding a blaster laucher fired into the middle of my troops.
You've never seen so much panic. anyone that wasn't killed instantly made damn sure no-one else lived. with the final blow being my general stun bombing himself.
i lost 26 guys before i finished my first turn.

My mission rating was : TERRIBLE

[nephilimnexus]

There was once a movie called "Jacob's Ladder." Go see it.

[Wydamn]

Your chance of panicking depends on the cause of the panic, (ally's death, muton's battle cry, or an enemy psi attack) and your soldier's Will score. To avoid panic, take advantage of special items or abilities. In XCOM: EW, the "Lead By Example" OTS Perk helps a lot when sending an experienced soldier with low-will low-rank soldiers.

Also, fun fact: your soldier's will score is permanently reduced whenever they've been put into a bleed out state. So if you've got a soldier who's been with you for a long time, and they've taken a few too many knocks on the head, maybe don't send them out without a mindshield.

[blackjacksike]

I know this is old, but I have to report a damn bug. One of my soldiers lost 2 damage to a thin man and was poisoned. He panicked, then I killed the enemies in sight with my three other soldiers. During the next enemy's turn, he was no longer panicking. Then, a sectoid almost shot him, but it didn't harm him at all. However, he started panicking again for no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ reason and so did two of my other soldiers because they saw him panicking.

Seriously, I don't know if this is a bug but it should be fixed! Is there a mod to fix this? Anyway, the fact that they panic because they see other soldiers panicking is total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, especially in my scenario.

Sorry for the necro, though.

[Vark]

Its funny. One time I had the exact same thing the OP complained about happen to me. It was terrible. Panic is even worse if you're in a situation where you're stuck with rookies going up against mutons (since they have an ability to scream at your troops and panic them if they get hit). I was determined to figure this game out though.

Panic sucks but like most things in the way there are ways to deal with it or get around it. You're up against alien invaders, you're supposed to be at an extreme disadvantage and the psychological effects of that would be pretty awful too.

One way around panic is to build SHIVs as backup or have one of them on the squad, as they're immune to panic, being robots.

[Blonde Travolta]

Originally posted by blackjacksike:

I know this is old, but I have to report a damn bug. One of my soldiers lost 2 damage to a thin man and was poisoned. He panicked, then I killed the enemies in sight with my three other soldiers. During the next enemy's turn, he was no longer panicking. Then, a sectoid almost shot him, but it didn't harm him at all. However, he started panicking again for no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ reason and so did two of my other soldiers because they saw him panicking.

Seriously, I don't know if this is a bug but it should be fixed! Is there a mod to fix this? Anyway, the fact that they panic because they see other soldiers panicking is total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, especially in my scenario.

Sorry for the necro, though.

The reason the soldier panicked again could be that, as you said, is that he was poisoned on the previous turn. Poison works for 2 turns and takes damage causing him to panic once again. But that is quite rare, never seen two in a row due to poison.

[red255]

https://youtu.be/yPwvq_IrVMY