I am playing the OpenXCom. I read elsewhere about what determines whether your soldier(s) are gifted with PSI in the original X-Com (not the Open version), and from what I could tell, apparently this is partly based on luck (randomized), and partly about your soldiers rank, will etc.?

Most importantly, according to some that calculation (decision whether a certain soldier is gifted) is made at the precise moment when you put a soldier in the PSI lab. Not before that, and not after that.

This leads you to be able to e.g. savescum yourself with many PSI-capable soldiers, even all of your soldiers if you feel like it (ie. retry with each soldier as many times until they become gifted):

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/655782-xcom-enemy-unknown/64436720

So, does this apply also to OpenXCom, or is the algorithm possibly somehow changed in Open, or that savescumming otherwise made impossible?

Just asking... It appears to me OpenXCom has curbed savescumming somewhat e.g. during land battles, ie. you can't simply save and reload the game before the enemy turns in battles, hoping to get a more favorable outcome (to me it seems the outcome will always be exactly the same, with no variation). I guess that is fine, albeit it doesn't completely remove the ability to savescum, you just need to do it before your turn, or at least when your soldiers still have some action points.

Ok thanks, I think that is good enough answer to my query. Frankly I didn't even check nor studied the OpenXCom options, just glanced through them without really understanding them, and went with the defaults I think.

To clarify, these are the psi mechanics of the new XCOM game (2012), and have nothing to do with original X-COM and OpenXcom.

In original X-COM, every soldier is psi-capable. There are two relevant stats:

- Psi Strength: Resistance to psionic enemy attacks. Fixed stat randomly decided when the soldier is recruited.
- Psi Skill: Aptitude with psionic weapons. Always starts at 0 and is trained up in a Psi Lab or in the field.

Normally psi stats are only revealed after a soldier has gone through the Psi Lab, and training can only be performed monthly, though in OpenXcom there are options to change this. More details about psionics here: http://ufopaedia.org/index.php/Psi_Skill

The only value savescumming would have here would be to affect the soldier starting stats, and you'd get the same effect by just sacking soldiers who rolled bad stats and hiring new ones.

Oh wow, I made a poo poo. :D Thanks for clearing that up. I got confused with the names as the original was differently named in Europe and US...

I did find it a bit weird that the procedure talked about 10 day intervals when psi training is monthly in original xcom games. And being psi-capable, when there are no psi-incapable soldiers in ufo. I just took that for "soldiers with so low psi strength it's not even worth to try". Now that I think of it, it should have been obvious that this was for another game entirely :)

Bad devs for not making the name more unique! *swat with a rolled newspaper*

Thanks for clearing that up.