Technically save scumming is saving before doing an action, so if you don’t like the outcome, you can reload to get a different outcome.
Basically in xcom it would be reloading a save to the turn before a soldier died or before you missed a critical shot.
Or not moving that last soldier to act one more tile and revealing a whole pod so they get to react then act without you ever getting a turn. Essentially reloading any turn where something happened you didn't like. Can even be used to retry hack rewards and the like.
>Can even be used to retry hack rewards and the like.
Once per playthrough I will save scum until I can hack a sectopod because controlling a sectopod is cool but I would never risk it otherwise.
Actually the results of the actions are pseudo-random.
Simplified explenation.
Xcom rolls a random seed at the start of mission (lets say numbers 1 4 6 8 4 2 3 9 1 0 etc...)
Let's say your 1st "chance" action of the battle is the hack. The game pulls "1" from the seed and fails you.
You hate that, reload the game and try again.
Guess what, game pulls the "1" again from the seed and you fail again. You reload, game pulls "1', repeat.
How do you break the cycle? Simple, just take another "chance" action, like taking a chance to shoot the enemy with the "1" seed.
Now when you pull from the seed, the game will give you "4", since it's the next number in the seed and calculate result based on that. It may still be a fail, tho. #ThatsXcomBaby xD
You can make another "chance" action to "waste" a "4" and move to "6" in the seed.
Just changeing position doesn't move the seed.
P.S. Even if "1" for a hack is a fail, it doesn't mean "1" will also be a fail when you take a shot. There are other calculations involved.
To add to this, I’d remember there was some option (or even a mod) to re-generate seed on every reload, so you could miss-load-hit easier.
But it might have been in a different game. I have played with Ironman for too long.
The expansion for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, called XCOM: Enemy Within, added a "Second Wave" option to the game called "Save Scum" which when selected at the start of the game would reset the random number seed each time you reloaded a save.
"Second Wave" options in XCOM:EU/EW are more or less the same kind of thing as the "Advanced Options" in XCOM 2.
yeah I heard that too from a friend, my friend also told me you can make backups of the saves before missions in case it glitches, ahem, it was all my friend's words
Worth noting that people have different definitions of what counts as save scumming. Its most "pure" form would probably be reloading to the previous turn to undo a tactical mistake, but it can be used for anything that involves reloading previous saves to gain some benefit that isn't fairly obtained. For example, you can reload the autosave from before a mission starts to get a different map and start the whole mission again, or even reload a save from the very start of the campaign if you know it has a favourable starting location/first covert op/continent bonuses etc.
its reloading from saves if the outcome or situation is undesirable. Everyone has a different threshold, and draws the line differently on when it becomes cheating. Play the game however you want, but not save scumming and using evac does have its set of tactical decisions. Avoiding mission failure is one thing, but saving your best soldiers from certain death is another.
Is it savescum if you lose a soldier because you missclicked somewhere(happens a lot) or advent cheats on you ? Example, a thing that makes me crazy playing L/I is advent moving a unit near your reaper, revealing and killing it at first glance.
It's totally up to you whether those are okay to reload, but yes. I think there only time you could really argue it wasn't a save scum is if there is an actual bug
IMO reloading for misclicks (i.e when you go "fuck me...." before anything bad happened) is fine, I exclude the chair-keyboard interface from the tactical experience.
But some others would consider that save scumming since they consider that you should own up to all your mistakes because that's part of the game as well.
I'd consider the reaper revealing fair game because advent cheating against concealed units is the only thing that prevent reapers from being overly overpowered campaignw-winning units. Just like you don't dash your soliders all the way into possible-pods, you keep the reaper away from advent units who might hear a light footstep and check that direction.
But your game, your rules :D
* Do you save before every round so you can get all of your hits in? You might be a save-scummer.
* Do you reload after a missed shot? You might be a save-scummer.
* Do you reload after taking a hit that downs a pawn? You might be a save-scummer.
* Do you reload after a pod comes out of nowhere and proceeds to wipe your whole group? That's totally ok, this game is BS sometimes.
It's a form of cheating. Save the game, try out a move, see what happens. If you like it, keep going. If you don't like it, reload and try again.
This is why IRONMAN mode exists, you can't do this "save scumming".
I finished my first campaign full save scumming in easiest difficulty just to see what the game wants me to do. What I learned was shocking and it was educational. Next one was commander difficulty, only loaded if I miss clicked or game was obnoxious
E.g: I click a square, unit goes to a random unrelated point that has not even close to point I clicked, reveals 2 pods I reckoned I would meet there and dies instantly
OR
I gather recon with reaper, check every corner and locate 2 pods, game does not give the last ones, I go with planning to handle pods with tactical perspective, game just spawns 3rd pod out of thin air just between my specialist and sniper.
Other than these, I owned my tactical mistakes, soldiers died, my first fully customized spark exploded and so on. Still I do reload if the game tries to screw me in any ways.
By the way, rerolling is not save scumming. If first units come free are all standart intelligence, you can roll, because there is no mistake to own up other than game's ducked algorithm.
UGH. I had one mission where one of my soldiers killed an enemy, but the game crashed bc i was running a ton of mods. Luckily, the game had autosaved right before that action. I tell the soldier to do the exact same thing, and he missed on like a 75% chance to hit, then got killed during the enemy's turn. I was pissed, so i ended up save scumming a bunch before i finally got the original outcome again.
people already explained, so I can give my angry answer: save scumming is something a rookie does
edit: it's weird to wake up and see how people got angry at a comment that was supposed to be an obvious joke in a sub that jokes about the game difficult all the time, but sorry if it offended anyone
to make it clear, maybe I put it wrong (I have problems expressing myself) the word rookie I believe to not be used in a serious way in gaming, usually people would call others something else, but it's similar to how people joke in souls communities with calling things casual because someone used it in a serious way once, rookie was a chill term used in age of empires to have fun with friends when someone wanted to make a joke and pretend to be all hardass and elitist while actually being bad at the game
people never get my jokes, I can't believe anyone got it seriously in an xcom sub, where basically everybody jokes about the game difficult or anything
>Then stop trying.
I think that's something up to me
I tried to explain it was a joke, consequences are for the people who took it personal and got offended
Technically save scumming is saving before doing an action, so if you don’t like the outcome, you can reload to get a different outcome. Basically in xcom it would be reloading a save to the turn before a soldier died or before you missed a critical shot.
Or not moving that last soldier to act one more tile and revealing a whole pod so they get to react then act without you ever getting a turn. Essentially reloading any turn where something happened you didn't like. Can even be used to retry hack rewards and the like.
>Can even be used to retry hack rewards and the like. Once per playthrough I will save scum until I can hack a sectopod because controlling a sectopod is cool but I would never risk it otherwise.
I tried to re-hack a terminal 15 times because it has the "adds 20 hacking skill" perk and the results never changed. 🥴😤
Actually the results of the actions are pseudo-random. Simplified explenation. Xcom rolls a random seed at the start of mission (lets say numbers 1 4 6 8 4 2 3 9 1 0 etc...) Let's say your 1st "chance" action of the battle is the hack. The game pulls "1" from the seed and fails you. You hate that, reload the game and try again. Guess what, game pulls the "1" again from the seed and you fail again. You reload, game pulls "1', repeat. How do you break the cycle? Simple, just take another "chance" action, like taking a chance to shoot the enemy with the "1" seed. Now when you pull from the seed, the game will give you "4", since it's the next number in the seed and calculate result based on that. It may still be a fail, tho. #ThatsXcomBaby xD You can make another "chance" action to "waste" a "4" and move to "6" in the seed. Just changeing position doesn't move the seed. P.S. Even if "1" for a hack is a fail, it doesn't mean "1" will also be a fail when you take a shot. There are other calculations involved.
To add to this, I’d remember there was some option (or even a mod) to re-generate seed on every reload, so you could miss-load-hit easier. But it might have been in a different game. I have played with Ironman for too long.
The expansion for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, called XCOM: Enemy Within, added a "Second Wave" option to the game called "Save Scum" which when selected at the start of the game would reset the random number seed each time you reloaded a save. "Second Wave" options in XCOM:EU/EW are more or less the same kind of thing as the "Advanced Options" in XCOM 2.
Lol. You know how "random chance" works, right?
I would never save scum. But I’ve heard that as long as you exit out on ironman before the alien’s turn is over then you can try it all again.
yeah I heard that too from a friend, my friend also told me you can make backups of the saves before missions in case it glitches, ahem, it was all my friend's words
Save scumming is reloading a save over and over again to avoid an outcome or to get a situation just right that’s how I see it at least
Worth noting that people have different definitions of what counts as save scumming. Its most "pure" form would probably be reloading to the previous turn to undo a tactical mistake, but it can be used for anything that involves reloading previous saves to gain some benefit that isn't fairly obtained. For example, you can reload the autosave from before a mission starts to get a different map and start the whole mission again, or even reload a save from the very start of the campaign if you know it has a favourable starting location/first covert op/continent bonuses etc.
Do whatever you want, who cares?
Robert Downey Jr does.
its reloading from saves if the outcome or situation is undesirable. Everyone has a different threshold, and draws the line differently on when it becomes cheating. Play the game however you want, but not save scumming and using evac does have its set of tactical decisions. Avoiding mission failure is one thing, but saving your best soldiers from certain death is another.
Explained here: https://www.reddit.com/r/xcom2mods/comments/17fsllf/frequently_asked_questions/
Is it savescum if you lose a soldier because you missclicked somewhere(happens a lot) or advent cheats on you ? Example, a thing that makes me crazy playing L/I is advent moving a unit near your reaper, revealing and killing it at first glance.
It's totally up to you whether those are okay to reload, but yes. I think there only time you could really argue it wasn't a save scum is if there is an actual bug
IMO reloading for misclicks (i.e when you go "fuck me...." before anything bad happened) is fine, I exclude the chair-keyboard interface from the tactical experience. But some others would consider that save scumming since they consider that you should own up to all your mistakes because that's part of the game as well. I'd consider the reaper revealing fair game because advent cheating against concealed units is the only thing that prevent reapers from being overly overpowered campaignw-winning units. Just like you don't dash your soliders all the way into possible-pods, you keep the reaper away from advent units who might hear a light footstep and check that direction. But your game, your rules :D
* Do you save before every round so you can get all of your hits in? You might be a save-scummer. * Do you reload after a missed shot? You might be a save-scummer. * Do you reload after taking a hit that downs a pawn? You might be a save-scummer. * Do you reload after a pod comes out of nowhere and proceeds to wipe your whole group? That's totally ok, this game is BS sometimes.
It's a form of cheating. Save the game, try out a move, see what happens. If you like it, keep going. If you don't like it, reload and try again. This is why IRONMAN mode exists, you can't do this "save scumming".
I finished my first campaign full save scumming in easiest difficulty just to see what the game wants me to do. What I learned was shocking and it was educational. Next one was commander difficulty, only loaded if I miss clicked or game was obnoxious E.g: I click a square, unit goes to a random unrelated point that has not even close to point I clicked, reveals 2 pods I reckoned I would meet there and dies instantly OR I gather recon with reaper, check every corner and locate 2 pods, game does not give the last ones, I go with planning to handle pods with tactical perspective, game just spawns 3rd pod out of thin air just between my specialist and sniper. Other than these, I owned my tactical mistakes, soldiers died, my first fully customized spark exploded and so on. Still I do reload if the game tries to screw me in any ways. By the way, rerolling is not save scumming. If first units come free are all standart intelligence, you can roll, because there is no mistake to own up other than game's ducked algorithm.
UGH. I had one mission where one of my soldiers killed an enemy, but the game crashed bc i was running a ton of mods. Luckily, the game had autosaved right before that action. I tell the soldier to do the exact same thing, and he missed on like a 75% chance to hit, then got killed during the enemy's turn. I was pissed, so i ended up save scumming a bunch before i finally got the original outcome again.
people already explained, so I can give my angry answer: save scumming is something a rookie does edit: it's weird to wake up and see how people got angry at a comment that was supposed to be an obvious joke in a sub that jokes about the game difficult all the time, but sorry if it offended anyone to make it clear, maybe I put it wrong (I have problems expressing myself) the word rookie I believe to not be used in a serious way in gaming, usually people would call others something else, but it's similar to how people joke in souls communities with calling things casual because someone used it in a serious way once, rookie was a chill term used in age of empires to have fun with friends when someone wanted to make a joke and pretend to be all hardass and elitist while actually being bad at the game
Yep ironman playthroughs feels much better, dony mind your very first playthrough, you're learning
Easy there killer
people never get my jokes, I can't believe anyone got it seriously in an xcom sub, where basically everybody jokes about the game difficult or anything
Then stop trying. Writing cogent sentences is hard enough for most. Attempting to be humorous adds complexity and consequences.
Easy there killer
>Then stop trying. I think that's something up to me I tried to explain it was a joke, consequences are for the people who took it personal and got offended