While I do really like JA2, it's a different beast (merc relationships, militias, etc). However some aspects of it are very similar to XCOM. Someone looked into the JA2 code and wrote out how various aspects of the game work... I figured this if nothing else might be useful to look at and compare how things are being done here. stuff like bullet impact is pretty interesting: http://www.jagalaxy.com/index.php/faq/headrock-s-how-does-it-work/3005-Bullet-Impact.html
http://www.jagalaxy.com/index.php/faq/headrock-s-how-does-it-work/index.1.html
btw if kickstarter raises a grip of money, I'd recommend bringing in a few things from JA2:
* sprint/walk/crouch/crawl animations in combat, with a sliding scale of fast vs safe
* burst fire mechanic
* possibly the ability to aim at different body parts and have different debuffs on target, though this is of lesser impact due to non-humanoid enemies and no real helmet vs. armor distinction