Since I switched from the stable build to dev, reaction fire has changed considerably. In the stable build, you can use RF to advance units under cover, as you would expect to do in a tactical situation, by covering an approach with a machine gun or sniper rifle, and letting the other units run (expend all TU) to the next cover. This made tactical sense to me, and meshed with my view of CQB.
I understand that there were complaints that the aliens would keep shooting at you if your soldiers ran in the open. I understood this to be normal behavior of aliens trying to kill you, this shooting "bug." It seems it was "fixed" in the new version.
Since I started running the dev version, reaction fire doesn't work. Where a soldier carrying a machine gun should be able to lay down a field of fire to keep the aliens' collectively alien heads down, apparently this task is now assigned to men with pistols only. This is where I lightheartedly suggest equipping a machine gun that doesn't require a hand crank to start firing.
If people complain about aliens firing at them while they are out of cover, might I suggest implementing something in the game that would allow you to create cover where needed? I'm not sure what we'd do there. Some sort of thick, yet airy substance that could block sight, maybe. Maybe we could deploy it on the battlefield by hand-wait, better yet, by throwing some sort of hand-carried device that can place this substance... this... "smoke," where it could be most useful?
I've seen suggestions about inverting the TU-counting of reaction fire, and I agree. All reactions should begin when the soldier sees the alien. If it's a full-auto machine gun spray, then the next reaction shouldn't take place until 25 TU of alien movement has passed. If it's a shotgun or a grenade launcher fire, it should be immediate. The following round would follow the normal rules.
It is absolutely ridiculous that a character with a pistol is more useful in defense than a machine gun. That's what a machine gun is for. That's what it does. Feeling bad about that thing you did that one time? Can't take it any more? That's what a pistol is for. Trying to defend an alleyway from a marauding band of aliens? That's where you use the machine gun.
