Conductiv

never had idle researchers unless I was well past the current content cutoff point, but even then, should this ever occur, what should this repeatable research actually do?

tips for finances, but even with this, you will have enough money to fight, not to splash. -plot mission researches almost always add a monthly pay increase -finishing off the cleaner base mission chain will drastically increase monthly funding. -corpses can be sold, its the money or advancing quickly on the + damage tech in the workshop -enemy guns, grenades and utilities that drop can be sold -captives can be sold. -cleaner interrogations (soldier and agent) both add a single flat cash injection when done while in previous milestones a squad of 3 aircraft was affordable and useful most of the time, now you can get way with 2 for most of the game. as aircraft upkeep and equipment cost has increased considerably..its pretty much a must to field less aircraft overall you can mass capture enemies and gain better funds that way (roughly double the income over corpses), but this should not be required

agreed on the levers, provided they don't thread on the function of current weapons. all such tools need to have an identity of their own. about the "too much ammo" bit, I sort of disagree with rifles and to a lesser extend on pistols, I'm not saying you are wrong..far from it. a trooper with good aim can single shot its way through the mission easily on a single rifle magazine more because I feel those weapons should be effective in their burst fire mode, and ammo goes down a lot faster when spamming shots like that. now they can be...once the soldier hits like 80 or so accuracy and with decent strength the burst fire mode has a fair chance to hit twice on close range. and pistols can be spammed fairly well (while they have lower damage, with 60% accuracy on a 20% TU shot, they have a fairly reliable snapshot)...but again it requires extremely high stats to make the "spam with a chance to miss" work better then the single shot practically guaranteed rifle hit that occurs at mid range when the soldier is in the 70's with its accuracy. (raw math wise, this breakpoint occurs reasonably quick, especially up close..however missing an average 40% burst over guaranteed hitting an aimed shot often favors the aimed shot in practical situations, even if the average damage output of the burst would be higher) on top of that 20 and 15 are more realistic numbers then 5 for an assault rifle and pistol, there just needs to be a better incentive to use the more ammo intensive approaches. now, if you miss on close range..you generally get reaction shot in the face unless you flashbanged it beforehand and rifles are not great supression weapons in their burst mode...not even on the "skittish" mantid. while I'm not opposed to the suggestion, I do feel the need to piont out that while we can make suggestions..I really doubt that the devs would paint themselves in a corner by having a vote for implementation. I think its most likely the'll make those decisions on their side.

the current MARS Base accuracy of 50, can be increased by the rangefinder up to 60, the rangefinder allows the cannon to hit 100% of the time if the target is exposed, medium sized and within 8 tiles. its damage is greater then any rifle available at the same tier and shreds considerable armor. the rockets will never have a 100% chance to hit, nor will the cannon if anything other then the rangefinder is equipped. it can fire twice with the cannon, but only if you are willing to sacrifice chance to hit. at 20 rounds it will generally last the entire fight. smoke launcher can also be used as it has grenade spread, and as such doesn't miss by a country mile unlike the launcher. while it is a stable platform for automatic fire using its AR sidearm its extremely unreliable with that weapon. health is always 100, armor depends if you have the heavy armor tag set or not, but its generally slightly tougher then equal tier troops in the armor department, even so..it can only take 2 sometimes 3 shots/bursts from most enemies (it can take more from cleaners)..especially once plasma becomes available. unlike troops it cannot crouch..meaning it is a preferred target for most enemies if your troops are crouched and behind cover. it can get laser and gauss weapon upgrades for the cannon and AR sidearm, alenium explosives and fusion explosives for the rocket, these are completely seperate upgrades, effectively increasing the vehicle cost. and grows along with the armor upgrades from aircraft (seperate upgrades, but the techs become available at the same time). does not benifit or gain medals. expendable only really in name as its repair cost is half the build cost, usually taking almost all monetary gain from a mission, unless you go heavy capture (ignoring material gain here, as those are generally not sold). but if damaged, will always instantly repair once back to base..it needs no time to heal unlike troops. so there is no need to ever have more then 2 per available dropship. relative to experienced troops, its less accurate unless equipped with the cannon+rangefinder combo. and much less flexible, can't be healed in combat, can't carry alternate grenades (smoke launcher is the only option) it does have headlights for the night missions and that is better then the flares, but this is pointless if one times its arrival as to avoid night missions. can't use any roofs that have to be accessed by ladders relative to the troop weapons its closely related to, the cannon more powerful then a sniper, but the sniper can strike reliably much further out, and gets a bonus if the unit didn't move. despite the cannons long range, it isn't all that reliable against targets in cover, and even though it can fire twice unlike the sniper its unlikely to hit with that outside of point blank range relative to the shield, now the advanced shield has been moved down to the basic alloy tier, the shield users are more suitable to soak shots then the mars is. the mars has no secondairy HP pool to soak shots on and 100HP goes down fast. However, the MARS extremely powerful ability to instantly repair post mission actually allows it to somewhat compete..as it can combine being a reliable soak with a powerful cannon without awkward juggling (like a pocket sniper would require) the AR sidearm is always worse then the most novice rifleman, its benifit on burst fire is lost because of the MARS low base accuracy and the rocket and smoke are more akin to HEVY.. the MARS rocket systems are more likely to connect at mid and long range up to about 70 ish trooper accuracy, and have a better range at 25 relative to 15 tiles. and the smoke launchers spread is much more preferable over the HEVY wide miss. I have used MARS many times, the cannon build is the best killer, and very useful against robotic enemies (especially turrets). the rocket setup with rangefinder gives you a quasi-accurate shield+HEVY trooper putting it the support role. rocket + smoke is basically an instantly switching HEVY..but less accurate then the rangefinder equivalent with the rockets. any build using the AR just felt weaker compared to the rangefinder or smoke equivalent. run wise, you can completely ignore MARS alltogether and perform similar actions with troopers, its by no means a must have tool.

while I generally defend the HEVY as a tool, it has a very high reliability problem as its the only weapon that doesn't apply its close range accuracy bonus all over its range, completely relying on the troopers base accuracy. and with a multiplier of 1.05...you need a trooper that is sniper material to fire it reliably at range. its range is also quite short and its a direct fire weapon, so it can't remove cover from any safe position. all explosive weapons suffer from the loot destruction problem, and HEVY is a primary weapon. I have no problem with a heavy weapon taking effort to use, but there must be a suitable reward at the end of that effort, and at the moment I don't see that, there are only a few rare instances where the HEVY would be better then a different strategy or cover destroyer. I don't see the wiggle room really..its not like anyone would find it useful if it took 2 demo charges to blow up a basic fence or wall.. but that aside I too would love to see both HEVY and C4 shine...I just think they fail at their job rather then being overshadowed by the demo, the HEVY is a long range rocket to destroy cover and walls... if fails the long range job right out of the gate and then also asks top dollar stats to use on top of the most valuable inventory slot and a large chunk of weightcapacity. C4 well you read the breaching comment...its just not a tool used for cover removal or quickly doing much of anything...its a setup tool for a situation that hardly if ever occurs. MARS wallbreaking is powerful, but I can't say that I'm wowed that much by the 250K investment being able to cruise through walls (at least not @Skitso 95% TU level wowed)

yes, walls or UFO doors are pretty much the only thing C4 would be good to destroy with, cover...most certainly not, this is also one of the reasons why C4 isn't all that useful. hell who prepares to destroy cover by first running up to it, then placing the charge, create distance and then blow it up..hoping that in that time, the enemy didn't move or simply kill the soldier. on top of that...if you are running up to it anyway...just shoot over it. for dealing with enemies in cover, grenades are a much better option. I would also find it somewhat ironic if a demolition charge would be useless at destroying battlefield terrain, it would be like a smoke grenade that doesn't create smoke. its armor damage increases its flexibility..but really the destruction of terrain is practically in the name. the ideal grenade for enemies in cover should be the fragmentation grenade, but the game punishes you for killing enemies with explosive damage by destruction of loot and as such attacking your economy. so you end up with either destroying the cover or applying a non-lethal grenade...the demo destroys cover, the smoke can be used to gas the enemy if need be, even though its not really intended for that purpose. or the flashbang for its suppressed approach followed by a rush. personally I don't find smoke spam or flashbang shotgun lobotomies more skillful then using the demo charge. Rockets and mortars would also have been good, the problem with the 2 launchers in the game (MARS and HEVY) is that they use the accuracy stat making the mars unreliable and forcing a very accurate trooper on the HEVY... and the HEVY has a few more problems on top of that. the game doesn't have a proper grenade launcher or mortar. if you feel cover is too fragile because lasers can simply burn it down, well that is more a problem with lasers. as similar damage ballistic weapons cannot cause anywhere near as much collateral damage on cover items as lasers can C4 would be a much..much better tool if explosive breeching was something you did more often, right now UFO's are breeched through the door you can simply open for 4 TU..seems the advanced aliens don't know the concept of a lock, same for bases. there is no real option to create a new door, nor are we dealing with a locked door. being able to explode a entrypoint for 15 TU rather then having to use a grenade, cannon or rocket for 50%+ TU of the trooper is an advantage...however, as you already have to get close to the door to place the C4...just opening it at the start of the next turn is cheaper. C4's idea is solid and I'd love to use it...but every time I do I just get so disappointed by it

I disagree with the sentiment on grenades, mainly that the argument you made against them was that heavy weapons should be used so nerf grenades as they can fill heavy weapon jobs. when it comes to heavy weapons, the MG is actually in a solid spot as it can deal huge damage with its fire modes, and its not as heavy to carry around as you might think. but its damage..nor its supression is reliable. the HEVY still has problems, what it sets out to do it can do well provided the operator is accurate, but its not a good general purpose weapon as you get punished with "no loot" when you explode a corpse or enemy. so you are preferably not killing, aiming at the floor away from anything you have already killed and hoping to hit as the weapons accuracy bonus only kicks in on the last 8 or so tiles and otherwise is a 1.05 multiplier of your aim stat, and its supposed to be a longer range launcher...even though its max effective range is only like 15 tiles. as such is behaves like a secondairy weapon on the grenadier, and the high accuracy needed to wield it half decent is mostly used to make the pistol shine. C4 cross over between a weapon and a grenade..its heavy and clunky to use, C4 is also overspecialized, as a low TU option for an explosive breech. since UFO doors can be operated for 4 TU, a close range breech is often best performed by opening the door that way...if getting close to the door is the problem...C4 is also not going to cut it...and breeching is pretty much the only thing C4 is good for. when it comes to air combat, please no RNG here. sidewinders have a low payload weight and hardpoint slot cost for a long range damage option, as a long range damage option, it tends to work better combined with other long range options. battle outcomes based on loadouts arn't always guaranteed, but your statement is mostly true with regards to missile builds, cannon oriented fighters tend to have better impact of manual control with dodging and the fact even the lowest tier cannon can take down any UFO in the first 180 days given enough time. personally I'm on the fence with regards to the new air combat. 1.it removes the identity of some planes by replacing the dedicated slots with the hardpoint/payload system 2. planes are insanely expensive now , even basic angles come in at 575K 3. upgraded and tiered up gear is insane in price..every single full tier 2 plane, costs around 1.2million +a fair amount of alloys and alenium, you are covering 6 zones...even if every zone has just 1 fighter dedicated to it..a tier 2 setup would cost 7.4 million, excluding the costs for bases hangars radars and whatever you use to defend and power the bases. and assuming you have a set in stone mind with regard to loadouts as every single T2 weapon or equipment piece costs 100K, so experimenting with different pieces of equipment can be extremely costly 4. feul tank is near useless 15% on the angel is barely noticable, and the phantom that has like 10X the angels reach and 50% more speed its redundant. being able to build is fun, and I have no quals with building parts individiually...but I do find the prices to be too high

jokes aside, that was what made the Angel unique in the previous milestone, as it was much more fragile and didn't have the extra cannon slot compared to the phantom, its loadout was almost always 2 missiles and a cannon..and it really relied on those missiles to do most of the work. it could also employ a 3 missile setup...but even with 3 interceptors loaded like this, you would usually end up just shy of being able to kill the UFO. the current milestone actually allows for up to 6 missiles per Angel because of the double rack, and make it even more of a glass cannon as it lost its ability to get innate armor through tech. But if the phantom can do exactly the same with much better geoscape stats, it removes the angels identity completely. the styles do remain, you can set up brawlers (relying on the armor and cannons) or missile focused builds.

I'll try to explain it better, as you seem to think I'm trying to attack your suggestion...I'm not. but I'm very hesitant to grab the nerf bat and cripple stat progression when people are highlighting a problem that I think they are trying to solve in a way that doesn't actually solve the problem...just moves it to a later stage in the campaign. because heavy armor is the best, and carry capacity allows you to use the best and everything else. there is no reason to use the light armor if you can carry the heavy and still use everything else, there is no meaningful choice here because light armor is categorically worse then heavy. if you take the long road to get the stats or the short one like the current progression, the endpoint is exactly the same..there is no meaningful choice. slowing the progression, just makes the vet more valuable as it takes longer to reach his statline note that I don't look at just the fact that more strength = carry more, carry more by itself doesn't do anything..its what you can do with that extra capacity, and how it works together..and why having more and the best armor is always the best choice..if the best armor limits your choices the lighter variant becomes a viable choice. slowing the progression would indeed require more time for a full loadout...but that is effectively milestone 1 guardian for a midlevel trooper. with the problem of troopers being able to overload and throw things on the ground once in the mission, weight can be focused on armor...as its the one thing you can't swap out. other choices like armaments and grenades can...but are limited primarily by slots. this is the primary reason I focus on these 2. this does not mean that stat gains are currently extremely quick and allow troops to be loaded up after even a few missions, the main problem here is that it apparently isn't even much of a choice about what to pick...you just pick everything eventually. this is why I focus on a suggestion outside of the stat progression, now there are other things to highlight with regards as to why fast stat progression on new troops isn't a bad idea per-se.. but it also depends a lot on where this game wants to go, and it may even be way better off with your exponential scaling suggestion. but strength in particular has a few problems in the choice department.

you are correct, and that part of the strength growth is actually something that might affect the choices players make...why ever use light as even a 4 battle rookie can carry pretty much anything, hence the suggestions to look at outside of nerfing strength stat progression, like managing the slots system or making the heavy variant armor eat into carry capacity a lot more..as you can only move str up to a cap.

yes shots in yellow range are outside of the weapons effective range, and get both an accuracy and damage penalty, this is explained in the game toturial

the current system does so doing.. devaluate veterans... as its not exponential. you just have to let it sit in training long enough your exponential growth suggestion would mitigate that as getting the high stats, but my comment wasn't based around your suggestion..but on the general sentiment that rapid stat growth is bad. your suggestion definitely has merit, as becoming adequate at a skill is much easier then becoming a master, but this does require drawing lines at up to what limit stats grow quickly (60, 80...)..or we could look at this merely from the base hiring stats (stat 70 hire goes up to 80 fast, stat 50 hire goes to 60 fast) both have their pro's and cons. but as the OP specifically mentions being able to load up his troops to the gills the rest of the post was mainly focused on carry capacity.

stat progression is indeed very fast, but I don't know if that is a bad thing per-se. it has a number of advantages, it devaleus veterans as its easier to get to their stat levels. as such losing high level troops is less of a deathspiral. it also hits the weapon breakpoints much faster, making weapons that at the start of the game have to be shoved into an alien face to have a 50-50 shot actually useful. and it makes compensating for suboptimal stats easier as the growth of most stats is almost equal across the board. equipment weights could be adapted based on the cap (aka 100 str) with regards to really heavy armor. to limit the amount of extra carry-able gear. or use the slots system to make limitations. (rather then the current 1-size fits all backpack, you could give lighter armor more slots as an example). but I'm not sure if any of these solutions wouldn't simply create more problems then its worth.

I havn't actually finished building phantoms in the current stable build, but so far...I'm kind of disappointed about what the new system brought. twin rack missiles are good rather then the single one, torpedo is also obviously buffed, gas tank ...15% isn't going to help it much, no engine option to increase its speed so far, so its still going to be obsolete fairly quick as the reach increase is too small, and it simply won't be able to keep up Angels are now extremely expensive, basic angel effectively costs 575000 (plane, ablative, missile rack for 2 basic sidewinders, and a cannon) since the cost of a plane now goes up as the tech level increases (boosting the cannon to accelerated tier boosts the cost by another 75000) it makes it even more questionable to invest into early interceptors. granted you have more "builds" but if there is no meaningful way to keep some of the core statistics up (most notable..geoscape speed and range) you will be forced to tier up to at least a base plane that can. the new system also basically removes the missile spam unique nature of the angel, because if other planes use the same system with the same number of slots, you could do exactly the same with them.note that I havn't gotten any phantoms yet...may change my opinion if the limits or slot count on the phantom is different.

interesting, having the same problem pop up in the live build and reloading does fix it..but reloading is annoying..pressing shift a few times is less immersion breaking and a lot quicker.

I made this topic a day before the announcement of milestone 2.0, a milestone that will apparently drastically change how the air combat works, and most importantly adds more options to the planes. so I don't know if the Angel will still be as horribly outclassed like it was on the stable branche (the example of the feul tank as an upgrade could solve one of the major problems that the angel had, its low operational range relative to the tier 2 fighter). I'll play a run there and come back to this topic after. the topic is more about how to keep lower tech with a relatively unique function that the player gets upgrades for useful rather then reducing the number of crash sites, and crash sites are optimally dealt with by a tactical missions as they provide a lot of resources. but if the player doesn't want to, they could simply claim the bounty...and I assume this is still the case in milestone 2.0.

as I play the non-experimental released version I'm very curious if these conclusions are relative to the non-experimental branch, or relative to previous experimental iterations. I know the comment is about the experimental branch. this is my view based on the current non-experimental release, looking at the same topics as much as possible. 1. the early game cleaner missions can be a real pain, especially as..in my opinion.. this game isn't build for quick rush-in-and-out style tactics. and 3 of the 4 cleaner missions are timed with infinite reinforcements. the base is not..but its an early game mission where at month 2 the enemies have access to plasma weaponry (55 or so damage average per shot) and actually use their plasma grenades...on top of that the base has like 24+ enemies in it. on every run I do...those missions are serious speedbumps 2. yes, and no...losses will have to be replaced, and past a certain point the rookie statline just won't do...training centers allow for a reserve to be build up. on top of that many weapons and tools actually need a fairly high set of stats to hit their breakpoint. but on the other hand...it takes like 4 missions to get almost +8 or so on most stats between medals, promotions and experience gains, and I agree that is very quick. 3. agreed to the extent that they almost always grow equally across all their stats, this makes higher level troops almost interchangeable. 4. cannot compare that, don't have rescue missions 5. cannot compare that, don't have convoy missions 6. alloys are abundant, but the bottleneck is cash and alloys themselves don't give the player any major advantage. if you have the alloys and a strong economy combined you can build whatever you want. both the latter and the former however are strongly dependent on how well you are doing and how many missions you can take on, and that in turn is tied again to how many resources you can use to get the tools needed. as such..if the player falls behind in cash or alloys (or alenium for that matter), it will be harder to get more of them. be careful about constricting access to resources or you will force only 1 way..the "optimal way"..to play. (bit over-dramatic, but I hope you get what I'm going for) 7. agreed, even though the pop up after clicking usually makes it clear if you missed the icon or not..it would definitely be better to get some indication that you are actually going to click on the right spot. 8. in my opinion, you can do away with survival rate altogether. its not what I count on, build around or select the medical facility for. its just ah..oh..he lived...kind of moment if it does trigger

love most of the stuff, am wondering why there was a need to add an offensive buff to crouching and lowering its defensive utility.

having played a number of runs in the current early access build, I notice that there are a lot of upgrades available for your angel fighter, but that despite these upgrades, the angel becomes horribly outclassed by the next fighter tier. and as you are going to ditch the jet anyway...why get these upgrades atoll? what I do like about the 2 planes, is that they have a very distinct role, the angel is an alpha striker with dedicated missile slots. it relies heavily on its missiles to cripple the UFO before engaging as its made of paper and held together by duct tape, as the missiles can be dodged and the angels aren't great up close the angel does much better against capital ships then it does against agile fighters. the upgrades you get throughout the run for your missiles, can be used on the tier 2 jet, its generally...not worth it, as cannons are generally much better damage per slot wise. the tier 2 jet on the other hand is much sturdier and comes with less slots but both slots can use the high DPS cannons, compared to the angel its a brawler, it trades..and generally ensures that it trades well on close range. as such its much better against fighters...provided you dodge their missiles. the problem is actually in the geoscape capabilities of the angel, even though its missiles and bombs keep it somewhat in play. its low range and speed really hurt it chasing down stuff to actually get into the air combat. this eventually almost necessitates just ditching the angel and going full brawler, a real pity as the angel plays different. as such, I hope that the air tech, rather then being a straight upgrade path from angel>tier2> ultimate, develops into parallel tech lines between 3 different fighter systems. allowing the angel to remain a viable fighter even in the late game. a requirement for this would be however, that besides missile, torpedo, cannon and armor upgrades..it also gets engine upgrades to boost its geoscape speed and range. note that being your earliest tech..it should never be good at everything..but if it manages to maintain its niche it can still stand out. I have similar thoughts regarding the weapon paths (energy vs ballistic lines) and the drone support (Mars vs troops) I might eventually make separate topics regarding these.

I must have misunderstood the OP, I though the questions was: "is the MG better on high or low accuracy troops" with the reasoning for low accuracy being a larger suppression area. I didn't read a suggestion asking for a suppression cone on an MG. (reading "set 2 points" as the sides of the cone) personally, if adding field suppression like that, I would have a pre-set cone and not allow the player to set it...it would also be the only fire mode on 10 rounds the weapon would have. with the reasoning being that most players wouldn't know why you wouldn't simply make the largest cone possible and then complain that the suppression doesn't actually suppress (as with an immense cone, you simply wouldn't have enough density of fire to trigger the suppression) personally, with how this game does its best to avoid setting stuff like cones, I wouldn't add this in atoll.

I fail to see the dilemma, currently the zombie occurs upon soldier death, the zombie is hostile and AI controlled, if 3 turns pass or the zombie is killed a new reaper appears. in most missions where reapers occur, you will have to kill your former comrade. your suggestion would allow the player to use the dead soldier like a kamikazi, instead of the soldier being a hostile combatant, for a duration of 3 turns. with the addition of a tech suggestion that would allow you to save the trooper outright. if he's dead anyway...being a suicide bomber is a better use then being an enemy. if he can be saved, the threat of the reaper is significantly reduced. I can't see any downsides that would make it a dilemma

I don't think low accuracy has any advantage here, as I don't think the spread bullets will have enough of an extra area to increase the number of suppressed targets, rendering the low accuracy line of thought moot. high accuracy is helpful, even though the gun has a 0.4 multiplier it does increase its killing power and turns it into a "delete 1 thing" like bonerstorm states. for its use, its a fairly reliable suppressing weapon with its 10 round burst on close to medium range, as such you can gamble on attempted kills in area's like UFO's and if it fails to kill, it often suppresses the target allowing others to follow up without requiring the use of a flashbang.

1. starting funds are difficulty dependent, free build at the start is a possibility as you get to choose the location of your starting base, it wouldn't be a big stretch for it to thematically have the desired layout. tactical: 1. time limits are part of this mission type, as you are sort of racing the clock as to prevent the aliens from beaming up the abductees. 2. agreed, I think they are already working on this. 3. doubt you'll get to control them, but other then that, probably the same as point 2 4. I think it already does...I'm not sure. but in general a bullet that hits also gets within a models proximity, so should apply its suppress damage..just keep in mind that it will likely take more shots to suppress the alien then it takes hits to simply kill the alien. aka if you hit everything..the alien is probably just dead...or you've been bouncing off their armor all the time. 5. since lines of fire can completely block shots fairly easily in this game, lean out mechanics are going to cause more issues then they would be worth. 6. on the fence on this one, your starting weapons are ballistic and the tutorial has you blast a wooden crate with a shotgun to remove it, terrain destruction is a key part of the games mechanics. but I'd also like each damage type to have its effective niche, and currently anti material damage is clearly in the thermal damage corner, point is thermal damage is also very effective at shredding armor, and just killing enemies...as such it might be a good idea to give ballistic weapons their own niche aside from doing significantly reduced damage to terrain (well, normal damage as thermal deals double) 7. makes sense, just keep in mind that will make it harder for your troops as well if shit hits the fan. negative spiral effects tend to result in most missions either going down flawless...or your team died. personally I prefer a more back-and-forth effect where you don't absolutely have to hard CC every enemy you don't outright kill 8. cover already has a significant impact, and its actually quite well thought of in the fact that its protection isn't absolute...but the most common cover (40%) combines very well with the crouches stance (20%) meaning 2 individual multipliers reducing the enemy CTH to 48% relative to you being in the open (so if they had a 50% CTH, they would now hit you 24% of the time) you can further reduce enemy CTH in various other ways.

its a significantly sized box and about 75% of the weight of a assault rifle or roughly the weight of 2 pistols, its not a full on doctors kit but its also not the easy first aid kits that tend to be kept in a cars dashboard. also what is in it? bandages and burn cream, maybe an antiseptic...its definitely not there to be used for the serious injuries as those are dealt with back at base. realistically, first aid would be extremely time consuming, so I can understand high TU costs, first aid is rarely done in a hot zone...preferably the person requiring first aid is first moved to a safer location where he can be bandaged up without the soldier doing the bandaging getting shot. it also makes sense that the advanced medkit-spray would be able to do so much faster. capacity wise, you can keep a hell of a lot of cream and bandages in a box with that size and weight, its not limitless...but if you would use as much in the field as would fit in such a box, half the team would have multiple holes in them that shouldn't be there. The primary goal of field bandages are to stop bleeds and the most dire problems, with heavy internal bleeding you will need a medevac ASAP as first aid will not save you...just give you a little more time to get the actual medical assistance. as such..it makes little sense for me to create a premium costs for HP recovery over stopping bleeds, the actual problem is represented in this game by HP you cannot recover by lowering the max HP until the soldier had time to completely recover at the base, you can increase the % of unrecoverable HP in the field if you fear soldiers being endlessly patched up. I don't see much use for a dedicated medic either for that reason, the ingame medicine action is in my book a first aid action, slap a pressure bandage on it and keep going. not a "my guts are spilling out of my abdomen can you please place them back and stitch me up" level of medical action. logically, you don't heal vehicles with a medkit, for the MARS you could carry along a few extra armor plates and a kit-gun to glue them over a few holes, this however is extremely heavy as armor grade metal plates are not exactly light, and you don't have time to weld in the field either. kit also doesn't keep it in place very well so the plate will likely catch the hit and fall off again. but hey if you have a party strong guy with an exosuit...maybe he can have a few. in game therms this would max out the vehicles armor rating and hardness again, but wouldn't actually affect its HP all that much (you don't have time to check the wiring and all that either)

1. not per-se, ignorance can be a bliss when it comes to the horrors of war..or in this case an alien invasion, you could say the soldier is simply too stupid to be scared. this is often detrimental to the soldiers health though, thinking McNamara's morons here from the vietnam era 2. don't know if it does, but again, it makes sense to be prepared when trained for it, we use training to prevent police horses from panicking when they hear loud noises. it doesn't make you brave per se, but certain "scary" things have much less impact if you expect them to happen. 3. better to use total war like rules here, rather then improve morale damage on your troops make it harder to affect alien morale as the difficulty increases, the battle changes drastically if you can't suppress targets reliably. but I have to be honest here...neither option is particularity appealing, either my troops run for the hills as soon as they hear a stiff breeze, or the enemy is tanking flashbangs to the face. (ignoring the fact that robotic enemies already ignore morale effects) 4. maybe, being critically wounded or KO'd in a battle is sure to cause some trauma. 5. when it comes to troops crapping their pants you could say fighting enemies with futuristic weapons powerful enough to blast a hole straight through a brick wall even if they miss, seeing your allies..or well..any human... being evicerated by a man sized bug and then instantly birthing new ones, frigging invisible "terminators" trying to take potshots at you and/or you being inside a dark alien architecture would certainly create dread. but point 3 sort of applies here...morale damage should certainly have impact..but its very easy to overdo..and its a negative spiral effect. aka it hits you when you are already on the receiving end of punches. so before the trooper drops his gun and decides to inspect the business end of the alien plasma cannon with his face, there should be a moment the player gets the opportunity to use said morale recovering action instead of trying to shoot. this is also the current problem, as long as you have the whole squad alive and not one trooper is getting seriously blasted, you barely take morale damage, but once you already have a massive action deficit because of multiple men down or gravely wounded, they start losing turns and moving to suicidal positions. Its actually quite binary, there is either no need or no time for the recover action to be executed. while its completely logical that morale goes down the gutter when half the squad is down, I think it would be beneficial to have a "sweet spot" where having troopers take a moment to get their head on straight is the optimal action, and blasting at the enemy is at the players own risk.