XCOM: Enemy Within Adds “Save Scum” Option

While the original XCOM: Enemy Unknown would save its random number seed, making save scumming all but impossible, its expansion Enemy Within will add an option to randomize them at every reload, for those who like to play that way, according to this interview at PCGamesN, with lead designer Ananda Gupta:

“It’s called Save Scum,” explains Anand Gupta, lead game designer on XCOM, “in honour of what Jake Solomon [XCOM’s lead designer] likes to call players who do this. It resets the random number seed whenever the game is loaded. For people who really want to keep shooting until that 80% shot hits.”

As well as giving a break to players who really can’t stand firing over aliens’ heads, the designer also explained how certain shot chances are not what they seem. There is, in effect, a secret “luck” modifier that can overide the shot chance displayed on screen.

“On Normal and Easy modes, there’s a bad streak breaker,” says Gupta. “It’s stronger on easy. On Easy, it’s very hard to actually lose soldiers, and the fewer soldiers you have the stronger this effect becomes, so if you start losing it builds to compensate. Of course, the aliens themselves have weaker stats on Easy and Normal too, and on Classic or higher difficulty settings this effect doesn’t exist. Believe me though, on Easy, if you miss three times in a row you’re not going to miss your fourth shot. It can be a 1% chance to hit and you’re not going to miss that shot.”

Thanks, Rock, Paper, Shotgun.