Overwatch - Does it have any penalty?

[himmatsj]

I recall there be some kind of AIM penalties during Overwatch for XCOM EU. Is this the same case in XCOM 2? If so, what are the penalties like?

Thanks!

[Eggy]

Yes there is an overwatch penalty.
Take your chance to hit and multiply it by 0.7 for a standard shot.
Multiply by 0.6 if they are dashing.

An example to illustrate.
You have 65% chance to hit. You decide to overwatch.
The enemy moves. You have 46% chance to hit.
The enemy dashes you have a 39% chance to hit.

I would expect that you gain some chance to hit if they have moved out of full cover into no/half cover, but I cannot confirm this. It does make sense though.

For the most part your better off not using too many overwatches every turn.
It makes more sense to get your self in a better position to shoot next turn, or hunker down and pray to the xcom gods, or just take the cheaky shot..


I generaly try to leave only 1-2 of my squadies on overwatch, becuase its fun and also looks cool when you get the animations.

One thing to consider is that AI does know about overwatch and the lack of it, so will factor it into its decisions.

[Modern Jazz]

Overwatch also can't crit, so it's definently very situational.

[Saint Landwalker]

Originally posted by Eggy:

Yes there is an overwatch penalty.
Take your chance to hit and multiply it by 0.7 for a standard shot.
Multiply by 0.6 if they are dashing.

An example to illustrate.
You have 65% chance to hit. You decide to overwatch.
The enemy moves. You have 46% chance to hit.
The enemy dashes you have a 39% chance to hit.

For the most part your better off not using too many overwatches every turn.
It makes more sense to get your self in a better position to shoot next turn, or hunker down and pray to the xcom gods.

Well, that depends.

Let's say you have a 60% shot on an enemy in heavy cover.

Let's also say that the heavy cover penalty is -40%, because I'm not at my home computer and can't actually verify this, but it sounds right.

So if you overwatch and the enemy tries to make a run for it, your chance to hit will be (60% + 40% for no longer being in Heavy Cover - 30% Overwatch Penalty) = 70%. So in that case, you have a better chance with Overwatch, although it requires the enemy to bother moving in the first place.

[Wintermute]

Originally posted by landwalker04:

Well, that depends.

Let's say you have a 60% shot on an enemy in heavy cover.

Let's also say that the heavy cover penalty is -40%, because I'm not at my home computer and can't actually verify this, but it sounds right.

So if you overwatch and the enemy tries to make a run for it, your chance to hit will be (60% + 40% for no longer being in Heavy Cover - 30% Overwatch Penalty) = 70%. So in that case, you have a better chance with Overwatch, although it requires the enemy to bother moving in the first place.

Yea. Or you can throw in plasma grenade, destroy the cover and shoot the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ while he is in the open. Grenadier easily can blow up covers of entire pod most of the time, and that's without perk

[ebonyknight]

Originally posted by himmatsj:

I recall there be some kind of AIM penalties during Overwatch for XCOM EU. Is this the same case in XCOM 2? If so, what are the penalties like?

Thanks!

Didn't see this mentioned, but there is no overwatch penalty on the first ambush.

[Gamefever]

Overwatch is Situational.

Gotta have a very high AIM to justify it and also AI doesnt seem as scared of Overwatch as in Long War Mod for XCOM EW.

[HS_Reckoner]

In response to @Landwalker04's post I want to verify that a covered target applies a nominal penalty to aim. It should not be confused with percentages.
You can think of it like this: Aim is a number and defines the chance of a shot hitting. For a rookie, this is 65, so without external effects, he has 65% chance of hitting. Most aim boosts (Holo-targeting, Weapon range) and penalties (Cover, Defense) modify this number by a set amount. But some modifiy this number by a percentage (Deadeye, and of course, Overwatch.)
Which means that first, one would need to define the absolute aim is in play when shooting the target, and then, multiply that by the modifiers such as Overwatch.
A soldier with 60% chance to hit a enemy with 0 defense in Full Cover means a total aim of 100, as Full Cover penalizes aim by 40. If the enemy triggers Overwatch by moving out of cover, the chance to hit the shot will be 70%, or 60% when dashing.
If the enemy moves from full to partial cover, the soldier will start with a chance of 80% to hit (=100 - 20 from partial cover)x0.7 or x0.6, giving hit chances of 56% and 48% respectively.

[HS_Reckoner]

Also, @Masterpainter78, since the Overwatch penalty is percentual, it might actually be useful for users with a low hit chance to overwatch. 65x0.7 = 46, the chance to hit when an enemy trigger overwatch and becomes uncovered, and 65 - 40 = 25, the chance to hit a straight up shot against a fully covered enemy.

[sheep from hell]

basically, for an enemy in full cover overwatch is valid, for an enemy in half cover not.

[sheep from hell]

upps, looks like a necromant hunting the forums :D

[Fluellen]

I was sure that the Overwatch aim penalty of 10% does not apply in abushes, ie, where you imitate contact when one of your troops first firts.