XCom’s system is easy enough to exploit if you want to. Predetermining rolls only prevents people from taking the same shot until it hits, but there’s always other things you can do with your turn, and now you have advance knowledge of what the next few rolls are going to be. Plus of course the worst thing you can usually do is trigger another pod in a flanking position with your last soldier to move.
What they really did right though is to make a game that’s more fun to play when you do get into dicey situations (excuse the pun) and find a way through. At least more fun for a lot of people. Things are supposed to go wrong, soldiers are supposed to get injured and killed, and clawing your way back to eventual victory is arguably the point of the game.
Tabletop D&D is similar in some ways. The most entertaining parts are often when your plan falls hilariously apart and you need to improvise. That’s the design philosophy they need to capture, IMO.
They don’t need to stop players from save scumming if they can make them not even want to. If some people still want everything to go their way, that’s their choice. They might have a lesser experience though.
Maybe they could add a sarcastic achievement for passing every dialogue check?
Last edited by Dagless; 22/06/20 09:25 AM.
