Found the trick to getting past Frozen Synapse. The "prime" mechanic isn't well explained.
This is true. There are lots of things that aren't well explained. I'm enjoying it a lot, figuring things out as I go.
If I have one single piece of advice that seems the most critical it is the following. Hit the "play" button lots and lots of times while you take your turn. If you fuck up moving a unit, you'll know it immediately when you hit play. If you didn't notice a window that you're walking past gives line of sight to a sniper on the other end of the battlefield, you'll probably notice when you hit play and your unit's head explodes (except that it's a simulation, so it's not actually happening to your unit). Don't hit "prime" (which really just means, OK, I'm finished, advance the turn) until you've watched every one of your units move after hitting the "play" button.
A few other things, none of which are as crucial as the previously mentioned "hit play a lot" bit.
Ducking doesn't seem to do anything other than allowing you to be fully obscured by low walls (so you can't shoot over them, and can't be shot at over them). I don't duck often, but it'd probably be worth it if a shotgunner is standing on the other side of a window / low wall / whatever, that you want to run past.
Ducking, much like "continue without firing" (or whatever it's called) seems to be "on" until you turn it "off" (or vice versa). So if your first move includes the command to duck, or to keep moving without firing, then it'll persist on that unit until you cancel it (same with aiming). This is handy because you don't need to renew a 'duck' order every time you change direction, but again, it'll fuck you if you forget you've turned something like this on - which is another example of how important it is to constantly be hitting "play" - which will allow you to notice immediately that your guy walked across the room ducking and aiming in the wrong direction.
The integer next to each unit is the number on the keyboard you can press to select that unit, or you can tab through them. This is useful as fuck when they're super close to each other.
I changed enemy units to purple, so that I don't mistake a red bloodstain for an enemy unit.
Sometimes if a unit just isn't doing what you want, the easiest thing to do is to select it and hit backspace until every single order is gone. Then the first thing you should do is highlight him and select "cancel aim" just to make sure. Hell, cancel focus too I guess... I haven't used focus much yet. Anyway, then give him his orders again from scratch, and then of course hit "play" to make sure he's finally doing what you want. Then shake your head at how annoying that was and curse Mark's name for telling us about the game. 0
You can highlight specific orders or waypoints that you give an enemy and hit "delete" to delete it. Make sure you deleted the right thing by hitting "play".
If you hold down shift before placing a unit's waypoint, it'll just trust that you know what you're doing, without adding in extra waypoints to go around walls and shit. Normally this would be a terrible idea, but if you know that halfway through the turn the obstructing wall will be blown up, this is a good way to tell the computer to get bent and just fucking trust you. Alternately you could hit play, wait until the wall is blown up, pause it, and continuing issuing orders now that the wall's gone. I think that works; I think.
If you click on the little symbol in the lower left you can cycle through things like, do you want to find an online game, do you want to be left alone, or are you open to a game invite. Red means that you aren't interested in being constantly annoyed by game requests. This "I don't want invites" / red feature doesn't seem to be working, as I get an invite every 5 to 10 minutes. Play on a low pop server. Maybe there's a way to play offline, but I haven't seen it. I imagine they'll fix this eventually, or I'm being retarded.
If you move the camera around, it'll change your POV enough that one minute you're looking at one side of a wall, and the next (if you swing over enough) you'll see the other side of a wall. This can be helpful for zoomed in, exact unit placement.
In short range, a shotgunner will fire first and murder your machine gunner in the face every time, so far as I can tell anyway. Even if you've been standing there waiting for him, probably even if you're behind cover. If he's actually aiming the wrong way, I suppose you may actually kill him. Learn it, live it.
If a grenade or missile's coming at you, you can *almost* always drop everything you're doing and run like a bitch to safety. Cancel all that unit's orders, MAKE SURE to cancel his aiming (so he doesn't walk slowly), and back the fuck away. You may need to run in a direction you're not happy about. Luckily, if you hit play a lot, you can find the exact, best position for you to run to that also happens to leave your inside bits on the inside. Also, it's a lot of fun to watch people drop what they're doing and run for their lives from incoming explosives.
That's all I can think of for now. The UI needs some serious polish, but if you work past it I think you'll see the same magic I do.
