Cover Defenses explained

[InnerSuperNova-HeartSoulEssence]

Can someone please explain me how the defenses work. This game is REALLY strange to me. You take cover, and they shoot through it, or through walls even from ANY distance.
So like how to make sure you have less chance to get hit, you see half cover and full cover, does the direction it is facing to it matter? if you face let's say shots from forward or left, but youre next to a right cover it won't do anything? only vs shots from right?
Also sometimes the shield is blue and sometimes red. explaination?

[zeratulcraft]

If the shield is Blue, the cover is currently going to affect every shot from every alien that the character is aware of. If it is red, then some or all aliens will be able to ignore that cover.

[Jesterofgames7712]

Originally posted by Chrisssj3:

Can someone please explain me how the defenses work. This game is REALLY strange to me. You take cover, and they shoot through it, or through walls even from ANY distance.
So like how to make sure you have less chance to get hit, you see half cover and full cover, does the direction it is facing to it matter? if you face let's say shots from forward or left, but youre next to a right cover it won't do anything? only vs shots from right?
Also sometimes the shield is blue and sometimes red. explaination?

Cover decresses your chance to be hit But doesn't negate it compleatly hence why they shoot through it
and Alien's don't get range bonuses nore penalties unlike you do

and yes half cover and full cover's direction it's facing does matter Because if alien's are say In a possition that the cover isn't facing they get a flank shot on you which means you don't get the cover bonuses

and the Red shield is the game alerting you that said cover is flanked by an enemy

[prince_of_arfon]

I don't know all the math, but cover only gives the enemy an aiming penalty, rather than automatically blocking all shots from getting through. Full cover (full shield) gives enemy a bigger penalty than half.

The direction of the cover does matter. If you have full cover in front of you but none to your operative's left, and the enemy is straight to the left, they will have a clear flanking shot on your operative (bonus chance to hit). You'll know your operative is flanked because their shield will turn yellow. Don't let your operatives get flanked. But do try to flank the enemies. If your operative is flanking an enemy, there will be a yellow shield next to them.

Blue is the standard color. It means the cover will protect your operative from all current enemy positions, and that they are not yet flanked. When you hover the cursor over a potential square to move to, if the shield by your cursor is red, that means the operative will be flanked if they move there. Don't move there unless you can kill the flanking enemy that very turn and not be flanked anymore. (Rangers, with their running slash, and Assaults, with their Run and Gun ability, are great for this.)

[Jesterofgames7712]

Originally posted by prince_of_arfon:

I don't know all the math, but cover only gives the enemy an aiming penalty, rather than automatically blocking all shots from getting through. Full cover (full shield) gives enemy a bigger penalty than half.

BTW the math is
20 for half cover
and 40 for full

@the OP
and unless you are forced to Never take half cover EVEN ONCE On higher difficulties unless you can kill every alien in sight As half cover is absolutly terrible on higher difficulties
and it's not that much better on lower difficulties

[SundownKid]

Originally posted by zeratulcraft:

If the shield is Blue, the cover is currently going to affect every shot from every alien that the character is aware of. If it is red, then some or all aliens will be able to ignore that cover.

That's not exactly true. Blue cover just means that it's currently safe but it doesn't guarantee an alien won't flank you. Red cover is being -currently- flanked by an enemy so it's unsafe at that moment.

[InnerSuperNova-HeartSoulEssence]

Thanks guys. this game is so unfair. no penalties for AI but for player? wtf?
Im playing on legend i dont play games on other difficulty.
Often it says blue.. but the aliens are facing opposite direciton...
I really don't like this game for if your charachters die, they die ofrever what bs is this. I hope there is a mod that removes this. because that is impossible. even with save reloading. I'd rather build a relationship with my charachters then keep building gay squads.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by Chrisssj3:

Can someone please explain me how the defenses work. This game is REALLY strange to me. You take cover, and they shoot through it, or through walls even from ANY distance.
So like how to make sure you have less chance to get hit, you see half cover and full cover, does the direction it is facing to it matter? if you face let's say shots from forward or left, but youre next to a right cover it won't do anything? only vs shots from right?
Also sometimes the shield is blue and sometimes red. explaination?

Cover is directional. If you have cover in the "upward" direction then any enemy trying to shoot at you from that direction is going to face a penalty to hit. It never mean that you will ever be safe from being hit tho unless the enemy actually have no vision of you because you are standing on a perfect high wall with 1 more full cover on each side of your position. In that situation the enemy just can't see you and can't shoot at you, period.

Like it been said already, half cover lower your chance to be hit from aliens by 20 points and high cover by 40.

The blue shield VS red shield, as already mentioned by someone, just mean that the blue shield is safe at the moment of your movement while the red shield make you flanked somehow by at least one enemy. Sometimes it is useful if you don't expect an enemy to have sight from a direction and can help you determine if a movement is safe but most veterans ignore that because they already know how the system works.

Originally posted by Chrisssj3:

Im playing on legend i dont play games on other difficulty.

This is your problem right there. You are complaining that the AI have huge bonuses while you have huge maluses but you are playing the difficulty level which does just that. That's not a fair level and only experienced players will manage to go thru a game at legendary level. I strongly suggest that you finish your first game at the commander level.

This is a _real_ strategy game. Not the type of game which smoother you with easy difficulty like so many other title. Don't go too hard on your first few playthrus, especially if you're not used to this type of game.

[InnerSuperNova-HeartSoulEssence]

Good advice thanks. ill see what ill do. But soldiers get injured and die at lower difficulties too right? I think this mechanic is horrendous idk what people say. If anyone knows a mod that alters this i'd love to know it!

I am also using long war 2 atm dont know if that adds in difficulty.
Seems i just do only missions with very hard number of enemies. it's groups after groups... and i just started campaign.

I played fire emblem series@insane without the perma death, play age of wonders 3. very different kind of turn rpg then this yeah. never xcom before.

[Blinkdog]

there is a perk from the one training room that lets more downed guys bleed out rather than outright die. what you hide behide matters as some things are more breakable than others.
xcom is about faceless grunts. its not the kind of "know your team" kinda game. when someone dies its "crap i spent 8 battles leveling them" not "oh, no, lars is dead!". now your not meant to lose entire squads but a man down here and there is normal.

p.s. some games make the last difficulty hard and some make it near impossible meant only for people who know the ins and outs of the game. if this is your first time playing i would say come back after you know how xcom plays before you try cheap mode. this mode expects you to know more than the average player and not knowing how to exploit every advantage you have will get parties wiped.

added yes lw adds enemies to fights. know that if you have the dlc the alien hunter bosses can be gamebreakingly hard.

[SundownKid]

Originally posted by Chrisssj3:

Good advice thanks. ill see what ill do. But soldiers get injured and die at lower difficulties too right? I think this mechanic is horrendous idk what people say. If anyone knows a mod that alters this i'd love to know it!

If you play on a lower difficulty, you can build the Advanced Combat Medical Center easier and have half the healing time.

Instead of complaining about it learn how the game works. If you choose to play on Legendary then of course you will have a difficult game and your dudes will have a higher chance of dying.

Yes they will also die on lower difficulties but only if you don't play cautiously. It's pretty tough for someone to die unless you leave them in front of several enemies at once.

And there are ways to mitigate the impact of injuries. You'll want more team members than just enough for a single squad. You can rotate them if one of them gets injured. I suggest building the Guerilla Training Center as your first possible room, that way you can train rookies to specific classes you need.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Of course squaddies get injured and die at any level. What would be the point to play Xcom without the chance to lose your squaddies? The whole tactical battle is about killing your enemies and winning objectives without casualties, which is why "good" commanders win over less succesful ones. And also why a strategy is "good" or "bad" in any given situation.

It is actually your job as the commander of the Xcom movement to make those calls and take the right decisions. That's the whole point of this game.

[InnerSuperNova-HeartSoulEssence]

Originally posted by Blinkdog:

there is a perk from the one training room that lets more downed guys bleed out rather than outright die. what you hide behide matters as some things are more breakable than others.
xcom is about faceless grunts. its not the kind of "know your team" kinda game. when someone dies its "crap i spent 8 battles leveling them" not "oh, no, lars is dead!". now your not meant to lose entire squads but a man down here and there is normal.

p.s. some games make the last difficulty hard and some make it near impossible meant only for people who know the ins and outs of the game. if this is your first time playing i would say come back after you know how xcom plays before you try cheap mode. this made expects you to know more than the average player and not knowing how to exploit every advantage you have will get parties wiped.

This is exactly the opposite mindset i can't get used to, it's so ALIEN to me (:P) That i feel disgusted. Especially with such an awesome levelling system.

[InnerSuperNova-HeartSoulEssence]

Ps what about shots/enemies that are diagonal ? I have cover facing a direction and the enemy is not coming from that side, and not from flank. but just in a 45 degree spread between that.

[Blinkdog]

Originally posted by Chrisssj3:

disgusted. Especially with such an awesome levelling system.

me to but i just played darkest dungeon so i'm a bit used to it and i just try not to risk it to much and normally reload a save is someone dies. this game is really fun though and i beat it a few days ago and just loaded lw to go another run in it.

[SundownKid]

Originally posted by Chrisssj3:

This is exactly the opposite mindset i can't get used to, it's so ALIEN to me (:P) That i feel disgusted. Especially with such an awesome levelling system.

If you really hate it, then turn on autosave. You can save scum if someone dies. Therefore there is no need for a mod to turn off permadeath.