1stStrikeRecon

About the psionics, I was talking about using them for more than Psionics. As a sniper, with trueshot equip., a psionic sniper can easily be more accurate than others. As a medic, with a safety net, a psionic medic can drag soldiers to her that are stuck outside of cover into cover. Another combo for a medic is an accuracy or damage circlet with a healing collar. This means that with your medic sticking near your main line troops, she jumps up their damage (or accuracy!) while jumping up her healing abilities with the collar. Add in a life sink vambrace, and any hit points drained from enemies goes to your guys! (Within 10m) My point is, as a support unit, a psionic has awesome capabilities. Don't just dismiss them, you might just miss out! Also, do you use ShadoWarriors WeaponRebalance mod? It amps up the difficulty against gun wielding races considerably (Because weapons are much better balanced!)

Psionic Snipers have the best accuracy possibilities, plus Psionic equipment provides some serious group buffs to your squad (And, theres even an advanced psi-item where you can use telekensis to drag your wounded soldiers into cover: Very handy). Add to that the psionic's latent sighting ability. Katana does more damage to finish enemies; shuriken has no sound or flash, so its basically the ultimate stealth ranged weapon. Paralyzing the enemy is perfect for the capture missions. Hard to cap the enemy when you blow his brains out with a sniper. The difference in the stealth equip. for the human and psionic is that the psionic's is a group aura, while the human is personal. But, in the end its a preference choice. I prefer XM8s with Flash Supressors and Underbarrel GLs/SGs, with the odd M60/Gyro/Compensator. And even more rarely, a L115A1 with Scope/Accelerator. Stealth is for getting close, so you can give em hell!

I've got about 21 right now, and its 8 days until the Wargots come Organized like so: Alpha & Bravo Squad: 4 Rifleman 2 Support 1 Sniper Talon Squad 4 Operators (Rifleman/Medic) 2 Support (Technician) Using WeaponRebalance, so my main weapon right now is the HK3 (Not the HK33) at least until I get XM-8s or something. Also have around 4 newbs (As I call em, even though they're level 4-6) to fill in for normal squad members as they train or recuperate. I use Alpha and Bravo for standard S&D missions, Talon handles the extractions and capture missions. I'm not sure what to do with my remaining squad slots, though. Maybe make 4th squad a training unit? Mix in some Talon guys and some new people? (It'd be cool if you could send troops to other factions to train their guys for a few days in return for faction reputation or resources...) I'll think of something :mad:

I think the biggest issues with people reviewing UFO:AS is that they instantly compare it to their experiences to XCOM, totally forgetting (Usually) that 1: Like pretty much everyone, they're memory only recalls the GOOD parts... not the BAD ones. I've been playing XCOM:Apoc to hold me over until Amazon sends me UFO:AS (Amazon being the only one I trust... and the only one in the states that apparently cant get AS yet... >.<).... and let me tell you, it ain't as good as people make it sound. Afterall, if they are so great, why hasn't someone just remade them with a new engine? 2: As someone said before, most of them can't get their minds around SAS, and looking at it, it just seems so incomprehensible to them that they freak. Maybe this is why Fallout Tactics wasn't so popular. Regardless, I am a HUGE fan of the SAS type system from Fallout Tactics, UFO:AS, and even XCOM: Apoc. Turn-based is just too slow for me. Even though you can pause at will, real-time still has a much more visceral pace to it. Compare it to a turn-based system, where if something unexpected happens you have however much time you want, and can easily react to it... so long as you have action points. In a system like SAS, things can become much more frantic. Sure, you can pause to give your orders, but when you press "GO" the enemy goes too... not when its his turn. Just much more realistic to me, and far more "fun." (For those looking for a good turn-based/SAS type strategy game, you should try the Combat Mission series made by the folks at Battlefront) Anyway, I'm done ranting

If you've ever played Splinter Cell, that's about as good as it gets. I think its wierd, though, that in your screenshot of Infrared that the local humans only have their heads show up. Does their standard jumpsuit have Infrared absorbing/cooling cloth?

Well, at this point, I'm pretty much ontop of the 4-5 week mark, so I have a week or so before they ship it... So, I'ma goin with the patience plan.

In my case, I would say you are fortunate you at least have the game to suffer CTDs from =P Amazon.com is now telling me that my AS order might take 4-6 weeks to send. Go tri-synergy and their FUBARed publishing system!

Flanking doesnt cause extra damage in real life, flanking is used to get around cover the enemy has and to attack him from another direction. Flanking is a tactic generally used with two forces, one of which lays down surpressive fire, pinning the foe to his cover. The other force will conduct a flanking manuver, getting into a position that provides them a line of fire around the enemies cover. This in no way means they do EXTRA damage, merely that the cover the enemy is using is denied. Further, the enemy cannot detect as well to his sides as he can to his front, meaning a stealthy or properly equiped flanking force can attack undetected. Otherwise, there is no real reaction time to take into place. Take into consideration that turning to your side to face a new threat is easy: Its realizing there is one that is the hard part. Now, for the game, I don't actually have it yet (Go amazon.com in the US!) but assuming the enemy doesn't take cover, you would instead use flanking to gain a more advantageous position to attack the enemy. An example would be, your supressive element situates themselves in cover, and fires on the enemy as they attack. Your flanking force stealthy moves around to their flank or rear, and moves to a higher/covered/closer position, and opens fire. I would say flanking in this can be very effective, especially with stealthy forces. Using one or two soldiers as a surpressive element, you can draw the enemy in to them and then ambush them to the sides or rear with the rest and defeat them with minimum return fire. Anyway, my point is that flanking is to get around cover or move to a more advantageous firing position. It in no way means more damage or takes advantage of turning times in real life.