Awesome series so far! Since you like to play cautiously, here are a couple (hopefully useful and not annoying) tips.
1. Don't dash your soldiers into the fog of war! They may very well uncover aliens, but they won't have any actions left to find better cover or take a shot/overwatch.
2. You don't have to use all of a soldiers actions at the same time. You can move (not dash) a soldier, then tab to the next soldier and move him/her. This way you can move all of your soldiers and if one of them happens to uncover aliens, all of your soldiers still have an action point left to react.
@zemadhatter: I think that's an unfair comparison. I would assume a lot of people conflate "bird" with "flying animal". Not so with "mud" and "brown thing".
I'm going to give @danryckert the benefit of the doubt and assume when he asked if any birds are mammals, what he really wanted to know is if there are any flying mammals. The answer to that question is yes. Bats.
No need to belittle other people for asking questions. It doesn't make him dumb or ignorant, it makes him curious. His attitude is a lot more refreshing than all the people here calling him dumb.
Deciding that we need to pay *more* attention to what race, gender, or orientation people are is regressive and counterproductive, only serving to further separate everyone into labels and groups. I kind of hate it and wish we would stop.
Don't you think that's a little simplistic? People are already separated by labels and groups, and unfortunately we live in a world where some of the labels come at a great cost to the people who live under them. Yes, in an ideal world none of this would matter - everyone would just get along and opportunities would be equally available to everyone, regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc. This is not reality, though. We live in a world where minorities disproportionately struggle to find genuine representation and work. We live in a world where minorities have routinely been denied access to beneficial opportunities that the majority has been given simply because of these groups. The problem needs to be corrected, and wishful thinking isn't a practical solution.
Great article! I used to cringe at representation of gay people on television as just about every single character was incredibly stereotypical (not to mention, written, acted, and directed by straight people). It was tough as a gay kid growing up in a small town, seeing gay people on TV and thinking "they're nothing like me" and feeling awfully lonely about the whole thing. As big names have come out of the closet in the last two to three decades and began writing, acting, and directing gay characters, this problem is quickly vanishing. Hopefully the same will one day happen with games.
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