Hi Forum,
Now I have to admit after the very first look I took at this game wasnt too promesing... I made a screenshot it is the very first encounter I had in TBS with the aliens and quite frankly it is absolute crap. For some reason aliens can interfere my troops even if I'm not moving (like I fire a shot at them and out of nowhere they get an extra shot back at me while I'm not able to setup any overwatch which is plain stupid).
Now an enemy managed to do what you can see in the screenshot and I dont get it. What is a 100% Block by an enemy who stands right out in the open directly in front of me?
Thanks for any answer!

Greets,
DesRoin

PS: I do see a little red square in front of the enemy but seriously W T F I could throw a stone at that guy let alone shoot him with a rifle...

From memory you can set up overwatch by leaving your troops with sufficient time units to shoot. Whether they do or not will depend on their stats and the weapon they have. A pistol will have a higher chance of a reaction shot than a sniper rifle.

I actually found this quite frustrating as troops would waste ammo on unrealistic targets they were never going to hit and run out of time units by the time the alien is closer. I'd much prefer a Silent Storm type interrupt which gives you the option to shoot or not. I also lost a few soldiers to friendly fire as they don't seem to take allies into account.

I found LOS a bit unpredictable in the game - they can hit me but I can't shoot back but it was more obvious on the alien ships and I suspect the ship extends the whole cell rather than just what is visible on the screen.

Yeah I learned the team kill stuff the hard way. Best thing is to keep some TU to let your guys kneel, that way they are less likely to be hit by friendly troops standing behind them.
I also find it amazing how you can miss an enemy 3 times if you have 64% chance to hit on each shot.
What bothers me more than LOS and friendly fire however is the fact that most enemies cramp each other into the alien ship!
I mean if those ships were at least a little bit bigger but the way this works is just unfair. I mean seriously I went to the tactic of just trying to get as many of my guys into the first squares of the ship so they cant close the door anymore and throw hand grenades like a mad man.
There is no real tactic or strategy here, since the enemy inside the ship always has the tactica advantage of being in the broader area of the ship with more cover and closed doors to protect them... I think after 2 hours I got this down well enough to enjoy the game but I find this mechanic stupid and frustrating anyway.

Firstly in relation to your OP - the terrain/block thing is pretty annoying - especially when it looks like you should be able to get a clean hit in - and is IMO one of the few things that mars this game somewhat.

Well it kind of makes sense that they would all congregate near where they expect you to attack.

Funny thing is, when I assault a ship, it's generally ME closing the doors on THEM! I tend to have a couple of guys stand to the side of the doors - they open the door and/or chuck in grenades - while my other guys are behind whatever cover is available outside of the spaceship (in front of the door). If the aliens aren't dead or suppressed sufficiently yet then I close the doors again (in which case having one or two guys with APs left to spare is useful, especially shotguns).

LMGs work really well to suppress the enemy, as do grenades.

Personally I prefer them to bunch up at the entrance - most of the time they're scattered throughout the ship, which can get pretty annoying on the larger vessels.

You'll also get some better equipment (if you don't have it already) that really helps to suppress or incapacitate (or kill) the enemy while remaining behind cover.

Thanks for the kind reply! Even though I still think the game is pretty unfair I started it over a third time (screwed up my income on my second try) and what I figured works best for me is: attack shields with pistols...
I usually keep one sniper, one LMG, 2 assault rifles (or Laser, or Plasma I'm not there yet on my current run) and the rest will be assault shields with pistols. Those shields are extremely reliable and the best weapon to breach into an alien ship!
I also stopped playing the real time mode on highest speed (I know that facepalm belongs to me) since it actually leads to very weird events that don't happen if you play it slower.
Again those shields and pistols are not to be underestimated espacily in the beginning since your riflemen can't hit a barn while standing in one...
I have no clue what keeps me playing but I'm scratching 12 hours of play time and once I have the money handling down so I can keep my stuff up better, I should be able to get through this.
Though I find it stupid that I cant stop them from overwatching they always seem to do it when they are not supposed to, I dont have stun weapons yet except flash bang grenades and right now I'm trying to caputre an alien officer alive for interrogation since I researched their language xD
I really have to say, whatever keeps me playing this game it has it's own charme and maybe the fact that this game is so unfair and requires lots of "thinking around corners" is waht keeps me playing it...
Anyway thanks for all the replies! :)

I think they finally made shields more useful a few patches ago - before that they weren't quite as good since they didn't block other characters behind them as well.

I do agree shields are useful - especially for capturing. I do like to have the pistol/shield guy supported by shotgun wielders when I breach, though assault rifles are more flexible. I tend to have 1-2 snipers and one LMG. Most of my guys are generally assault rifles, with 2 shotguns and 2 pistol/shield - since I find the two can protect soldiers behind them somewhat.

Generally also have one rocket launcher. Firstly they're awesome once you get knockout gases (unless you're against tough enemies that resist them). Secondly, blowing holes in things is awesome and can be a good way to breach (this doesn't work on ships unfortunately, but it's awesome for taking out buildings).

I have to say, although I torture myself with attempting to capture live aliens when all I have are flash-bangs and the stun wand - if it's a hassle it's probably better to wait until the ranged knockout weapons are available. I'm pretty sure I've lost more men due to capture attempts than anything else - often all of the losses for a mission are attributable to this!

Oh and if you don't want to have someone "overwatching", you can just waste their movement points until they don't have enough to take a shot. Just rotate them left and right until they run out... Personally not sure why you wouldn't want them to do this, unless you really want to capture them I guess...

Yep I really really want to capture those aliens, I just researched the stun grenades (I think they distribute a gas).
Problem is I really dont know who is an officer and right now they execute any enemy I capture alive. Apperently their Psychers are specifically vulnerable to flash bang grenades since you can take them out with 2 grenades very easily but that might also be due to the easy difficulty. Until I understand how to keep my economy up I dont really want to play on normal, let alone hard :D
The game is already difficult as it is, so I'll see if I'm more successfull this time ^_^'

No probs - I wouldn't play it on a higher difficulty until you're used to it. I played the original way back when so I kind of knew what to expect difficulty-wise, but I still lost a fair few troops until I developed decent armor (and even then you can't afford to be reckless!).

I tend to be pretty reckless with vehicles in particular. Probably because in this version I noticed you can often have your vehicle destroyed and then you just need to repair it. In the original you'd have to build a new one. Come to think of it, in the original you also had to build/buy new aircraft if you lost one...

I just recently bought the original but I think I first go with Xenonauts. Problem really is keeping your money up, as long as I use the shields and grenades wisely I can get through most combats without my guys dying. Also once the sniper gained a bit of experience he is a real killer, just in the beginning the sniper is a little bit... useless.
I think now that I got into the difficulty better I can enjoy it and it actually is a very fine game indeed. Still have to practice a bit more though, I can't remember when the last time was that I tried to get into a game with such a dedication :D

I haven't yet captured an Alien officer although I'm not sure how essential it is to completing the game. If it is then that would explain the endless bases. Guess I should make more of an effort.

I also struggled with the money (possibly for the reason above) so edited the costs slightly. An extra 10-20% made all the difference and also felt a bit more realistic considering what I was offering the rest of the world.

All in all I found the game an interesting first attempt in a genre that I want to support but rather guiltily enjoyed X-Com reboot more. There's a couple of thread on the Xenonauts home page and actually a lot of the stuff the developer wants to change are the reasons I found my attention drifting. If he ever makes X 2 then I'm feeling a lot more positive about the game.


Edit: Can't type

Have you tried running the XCE mod (and other associated mods)? They make a number of changes that IMO make the game better, e.g. there's a mod to make your vehicles sturdier and provides a more diverse set of weaponry for them.

There's also another X-Com re-make of sorts in development, which is currently freeware. It's still in the alpha stage so changing a lot. It's called UFO:Alien Invasion: http://ufoai.org/wiki/News

I last tried UFO:AI ages ago and didn't get into it then, but it looks like it's come a long way since then so who knows? I know it's aiming to be more complex than the original XCOM, including things such as hiring pilots and having pilot experience matter, you need to build hangars for captured UFOs to study them, etc.

Unfortunately UFO:AI doesn't have destructible terrain, which is one thing it really needs IMO.