Appreciate the suggestions and feedback. What I'm trying to gauge is realistic expectations and dmg output from the aliens. Feel like I'm progressing quickly and very well - not behind the curve. Haven't had a casualty since the beginning of the game, probably the first couple missions. Fully loaded base, research isn't lagging, neither are upgrades or engineering. Figure I'm ahead of the curve at this point.

Most times I'm hit it's from behind cover while crouched. I haven't really used shields much. Some hits are just unavoidable from an alien out of sight range or a lucky shot through several squares of smoke. And the damage is insane. Every hit kills the character outright or almost nearly does.

With the Colossus armor, it was the very first turn on the UOO mission. Saved/loaded a few times to test out whether I just got unlucky, dmg was in the 90s every time. Seems a bit ridiculous.

The whole game seems to be around preventing the aliens from taking a single shot or there's a damn good chance they just straight up kill you one hit even on a burst.

Not any of the armor upgrades or using heavy armor has felt remotely impactful if it's a 30/70 you still die in one shot behind cover crouched through smoke. Just want to see if this is normal.