Elevation and flanking both help. You get a bonus to hit chance if you are higher than the enemy, and also if you are beside or behind them, you can also use S.C.O.P.E. and also Heavies with Holo targeting, get them to fire first and it will give everyone else a bonus to hit. Also diferent types of cover has different defense bonuses. Mutons also have supression which lowers your chance to hit and I belive Blood Call boosts defence so watch out for that of course, they also like to hunker down. 

To lower the enemy hit chance, you can use supression, use full cover, and high ground. There are also perks like Assault's Tactical Sense, Damn Good Ground and Low Profile for Snipers, Support has Smoke Grenade, there is also the Psi power Telekinetic Field to boost defence and Mind Fray lowers hit chance. Also Achangel armor in flight

Thing is I'm already doing everything you said.... well except for the psi powers that facility is currently in the works.

It's simply an unfair map where the enemy inside the ship have full cover and me being outside don't have it. Not even enough standard cover. Then this happens what I wrote in my rant.  I need to move 2 or more soldiers behind standard cover (or else I cannot attack), one of the Mutons responds by throwing a grenade and *whoosh* my cover is entirely gone.
Throwing one smoke grenade simply isn't enough in this case.

Maybe I just need to try finding another entry to the ship so I might not be disadvantaged for a change. Haven't looked at the back of the ship yet.

Love the game! For me its the game of the year!

From memory serves all ships 3+ entry points, the sheld things on the sides of the smaller ships can be walked right through. Tho there could be some maps I haven't encounted yet. Keep in mind you can throw smoke ahead of you, then use sprint (which grants bonus defense vs overwatch) to full cover. Works great if you have Run & Gun. Another tactic is to use a sniper with Squad Sight, then use a sout or battle scanner to get sight on the enemy, as long as the shot is not blocked you can use headshot from across the map. Alternatively you can retreat after you have alerted the enemy, lure it out into the open area while your squad lays in ambush. Grenades and rockets can also be used to destroy cover.

If you are going to abuse saves it is prety easy to abuse the stupid spawn system as well. 

Like Zarx said. People complain that "The game is 'unfair'". yup, thats XCOM for you.
(the first game was hardly 'fair' either, you could end up not beeing able to afford to create ammo for your good guns.. pea-shooters vs super high-tech aliens it is then, thats when you died.)

Thats why i love it, the tension. the: ok.. there is a 90% chance that i'll hit.. i'll take that risk, miss.. and I'll probably loose that guy, hit and I'll ace the mission (and not getting the risk of someone dying from NOT taking that risk).

Thats part of the game, I've missed that kind of game.. that actually punishes you for messing up.. you don't respawn 2 steps back, you die.
And yeah.. missing a shot with a 95% probability to hit is a bit "AW COMON!!" (ofc. I do get a bit pissed when that happens) but you knew there was a 5% chanse that you'd miss.. and that just happened, deal with it.
Use a grenade / explosive if you need to do low dmg and garuantee a hit.

Play battletoads if you wanna have an unfair game :P i hate it with a passion.. cause it IS good too.. but you can't make those kinds of games anymore, cause developers are too scared about people complaining "It's too hard!"

Just did my first alien base invasion. Went in with 3 vets and 3 rookies. Only came out with 1 vet and 1 rookie. But it was awesome.

One thing that does bother me is the difficulty difference between normal and classic. I started this game on classic from the beginning, but was constantly getting pwned on just about every mission. You don't start with officer training school, you have to get a guy up past squaddie before you can build it. Other unknown conditions must be met also to research better body armor and laser weapons. Also, I believe that the max group size on classic is 5. This makes the game very hard to almost impossible.

So, I finally relented and started a game on normal. By comparison its a walk in the park except for the random difficulty spikes. I decided to play ironman normal to give that extra added difficulty that I feel that mode is lacking.

This game isn't perfect, but its still very good. I'm enjoying my playthrough immensely. To those who are frustrated by the randomness, go back and play original x-com. Talk about random. And your highest chance to hit is around 35% with rifles. And no cover or to hit bonuses. And this is on easy.

i believe people are underestimating digital downloads nowadays, the game had 54k players at the same time on steam as peak today which is some days after release. i once read a developer saying on day one, you have to mulitplicate the number of simultaniously players with i believe 6 or 8 to get a rough estimate of the sales of day one so i would say some days after release it is even a higher factor which would mean it has a lot of sales on steam.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown getting two pieces of single-player DLC

XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be getting two pieces of single-player add-on content. In addition to these two add-on content packs, the Elite Soldier Pack, which was free to those who pre-ordered the game, is now available for purchase.

Content for the game was hinted at through Steam achievements last week.

The Slingshot Content Pack is the first of two add-on content packs with linked Council missions. The second batch of DLC was not detailed in the press release we received from 2K.

Players will come into contact with a Triad operative, “divert an alien ship’s course, and do battle with the aliens in the skies over China.”

The Slingshot Content Pack includes three new maps tied to the Council missions, a new playable squad character and a unique story and voice and new character customization options.

The release date and pricing of the Slingshot Content Pack will be announced soon.

Today, the Elite Soldier Pack can be purchased for $4.99/400 MS Points, and comes with the Classic X-COM soldier, Soldier Deco packs, and complete color customization.

Aw, I was hoping for something more substantial like 20+ new maps or something. Sounds like there is a new class tho, I wonder what skills they will have...

Still 3 missions is pretty lame, and where is the patch for all the bugs? Also I want mod tools, let the community make a few hundred new maps.

i'm ready to buy xcom next time i'm in shopcan't download where i am at the moment,i like TBS in this style,i can't really handle the massive rts games,too many decisions,this one sounds up my street

you guys still enjoying this game

Tried the demo, really good game, reminds me of Valkyria Chronicles, will definetly buy!