xcom-2xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen
In one of the new "War of the Chosen" missions, XCOM races against Advent to mark a number of supply crates in a Lost-infested map. Supply crates that get marked are picked up on the following turn (by whoever did the marking).
In order for XCOM to mark a crate, they need a soldier adjacent to it (and marking a crate breaks concealment!). Is the same true for advent? Marked Crates are visible through the fog of war – if I see a crate get marked, does that mean an Advent patrol is nearby?
On Legend, the best way I've found to deal with them is kinda cheesy. I had two Sharpshooters at one point and a Ranger. A ranger with Phantom is a real lifesaver. Never let him get spotted and have him locate the lancer pods with the rest of your squad still in the drop zone. (This wouldn't be much help on the timed missions) You can then pick the buggers off with Squad Sight if your aim is high enough. From experience, even though the squad breaks concealment, if you're far enough away from line of sight, the aggro'ed pod has trouble finding you.
This tech tree, compiled and created by MenhirMike, shows which reseearch as well as building facilities need to be have completed before getting a certain piece of tech. The latest update fixes a lot of the incorrect research requirements and also adds the different requirements needed across all difficulties.
The color codes are as listed:
Best Answer
There doesn't need to be an ADVENT soldier near the crate for it to be marked.
I'm not sure about the actual algorithm - they appear to get marked starting with the closest few (to your starting area, I assume) as soon as you are discovered.