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XCOM Enemy Unknown is a beautiful game, but you can only see every 5 second animation so many times before it becomes repetitive and self-indulgent. Is there a way to make the animations go faster or speed combat up in some other way, so that I can spend more time strategically exterminating aliens and less time watching my operatives shoot their guns?

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    I like them, although it gives the game away a bit, as when it goes 'over-the-shoulder' you know you've hit before they've fired the shot.
    – Neon1024
    Commented May 13, 2013 at 13:29
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    @DavidYell I believe you can disable action cam in the options.
    – kotekzot
    Commented May 13, 2013 at 13:59

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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You can skip the time watching units move by ordering a unit where to move, then immediately hitting tab to switch to the next unit. If the unit can do an action after moving, you'll still be able to select them again later, once they've reached their destination.

The actual firing sequences cannot be skipped (which I'm okay with, since I'd like to know how much damage I did; unfortunately, it seems they can't be sped up, even the incredibly slow sniper animations...).

You can also skip other non-firing sequences; for example, hitting the "overwatch" key then immediately hitting tab will skip the short "moving to overwatch" sequence.

Finally, remember to use the action keys on your keyboard! It really helps speed up how quickly you can give commands.

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You can use the XCOM ToolBoks mod to speed up combat in several ways:

  • Speed up time in combat up to 9 times, with hotkeys to turn it on and off
  • Remove the alien detection dance
  • Remove the 1.75 second delay after activating hunker down and overwatch.

There are many other options, one particular time-saver that doesn't have to do with combat is the ability to set the chance of successful Psi testing, which saves a lot of time if you're saving and reloading to make all of your dudes psionics.

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  • +1! But, can you still get achievements with this installed?
    – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 20:15
  • I can confirm that achievements still work (though the mod itself has some quirks: "Remove alien detection dance" and a few others don't actually work; it keeps resetting my key bindings; and a few cutscenes that were previously skippable now aren't)
    – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 21:37
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XCOM ToolBoks has a "Fast Motion" option allowing you to toggle between faster and normal speeds. ToolBoks also has many other tweaks and improvements you might be interested in.

As far as I'm aware, it's compatible with all the major overhaul mods such as Warspace Extension and Long War.

You can still obtain achievements using ToolBoks :)

Discussion and support for ToolBoks in this thread :)

-XCOM ToolBoks author :)

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Edit the file XCOM Enemy Unknown\XEW\XComGame\Config\DefaultInput. Under section [Engine.PlayerInput]-base view, type ( Z-change to your own key, 1.6-change to own speed):

.Bindings=(Name="Z", Command="slomo 1.6", Alt=False)

Under section [XComGame.XComTacticalInput]-combat view, change the line:

.Bindings=(Name="RightMouseButton", Command="Right_Mouse_Button_Press | onrelease Right_Mouse_Button_Release", bPrimaryBinding=True)

to :

.Bindings=(Name="RightMouseButton", Command="Right_Mouse_Button_Press | slomo 1.33 | onrelease Right_Mouse_Button_Release", bPrimaryBinding=True)

(Note the addition of slomo and its value. Adjust 1.33 to your preferred speed. Increasing the number will increase the speed.)

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Under Options -> Gameplay, uncheck "Show Action Cam" and "Third person Cam". That should help your turns move along faster.

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  • Don't these options just change your point of view occasionally?
    – kotekzot
    Commented May 15, 2013 at 4:06
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    Does not really speed it up, it's only a change of view. It does not make it longer or shorter one way or the other.
    – user28015
    Commented May 15, 2013 at 7:15
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    Maybe it just felt shorter to me, then.
    – JamesCW
    Commented May 16, 2013 at 18:01
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    So I turned those options back on and played a couple of rounds. The weapon firing sequences take exactly the same amount of time, but my awareness of the tactical situation and the flow of decision making seems to work better when I'm not interrupted by the viewpoint changing.
    – JamesCW
    Commented May 18, 2013 at 11:52

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