2.5 sucks completely

[H-Hour]

Sarin is correct. I'm not sure what you guys are on about, but snipers can wear armour just fine. I really wish you guys would take more time and care to ensure that what you're saying is accurate.

[Triaxx2]

Really? This is what happens when I equip armor: http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll274/Triaxx2/ufo00_zpsf80228f8.jpg

[Sarin]

Medikit and secondary weapon right off the training, that's not a good idea. Start off with just bare minimum, maybe just drop the medikit (2 kg), and maybe spare mag for pistol or if you want to keep medikit, don't give him pistol yet. I found that I never use them anyway, at ranges they're remotely useful it's better to lob a flashbang followed by frag grenade. If you select your recruits well (I recommend taking only 30+ mind, 20+ accy and speed, 35+ strength, 20+ assault or sniper skill), they'll quickly gain enough strength to carry whole load (around 20 missions max to get over 40 strength). I do this: choose just the recruits that fit these criteria and add some fodder to fill whole team, and gradually month by month I replace fodder with better recruits. Losses of fodder are irrelevant.

[Noordung]

Better take more ammo for sniper rifle instad od pistol. You dont need medikits on every solider. Just make sure if you split your Groups that every group has at least 2 soliders with medikits. You also dont need IR goggles on sniper since using it will probably left with not enough TUs for shot anyway.

Never had any problems with weight in 2.5 version. And after 65 missions all of my soliders can easily carry power armour, weapons, additional ammo, few granedes, and medikit.

[Sarin]

Only map where I actually fired more than one magazine of sniper rifle ammo per soldier was dam. I never ever had need for more than one reload for most weapons except rocket launcher.

[Quizer]

No. RF is extraordinarily simple in terms of calculations and there are no die rolls involved. Please, everyone, search the forums before spreading false speculation. The RF mechanism has been explained many times and these ill-informed comments only spread misinformation.

I don't mind at all how reaction fire works, but the information about how it works really, really, should be available in-game. Either split up into several 'Tip of the day' segments, or some kind of Help section that doesn't yet exist. There could be a 'Game Mechanics' section in the UFOpaedia that spells out various basics of gameplay. Reaction fire is an integral part of how combat works, and it is not something the player should be left wondering about.

Failing that, it would be useful for that information to be easily visible on the wiki or on the forums in a sticky, rather than buried in some long-forgotten thread. If I enter 'reaction fire mechanics' or 'RF mechanics' or 'game mechanics' or other permutations of these things into the search bar, I ought to be able to find what I'm looking for, but I don't. The search engine of these forums just isn't very good - it doesn't prioritize keywords found in topic titles over keywords found in posts, and it doesn't prioritize a result with the entire search string just as you entered it over a result with the keywords strewn all over the place.

If this information was easily accessible, there wouldn't be so many questions and baseless speculations about it. This isn't sufficient for the player to base an informed decision on.

[GPS51]

Agreed, It took me a couple of days of trying to read through threads (some of which were quite old) to sort out just what/how RF works. Well enough to know that it's worthless for anything more then a pistol.

[Sarin]

Actually, plasma rifle, needler or assault rifle with EP ammo, set on 3 round burst/short burst mode, can be quite devastating later on when soldiers are experienced enough to make those hits count, and armored enough to force aliens use some more TU-hungry fire modes. Shotgun and later plasma blaster set on ball can be useful too. I've even scored some kills with 5-round burst RF from machinegun....

Pistols are actually quite useless for RF, since you get off a shot quick but it won't kill the alien. Not even two pistol rounds will do, and by the time he gets to fire those two shots, he'll be full of plasma.

[GPS51]

I tried all those (bear in mind this was a month ago~). Only the shot gun "sometimes" got a blast off. The rest no matter how far aliens walked/shot either didn't get a shot off 90% or missed 10%.

[Triaxx2]

Snipers stay together in the rear and the only other soldier that would be in range is the Rocket Launcher guy, who also has armor issues. On the other hand, if an alien gets into sight, the pistol might be the only weapon that doesn't trigger a reaction shot. Guess I'll just stick with no armor and keep replacing the snipers.

[Sarin]

If you are facing alien and can't outmaneuver him before shot, drop a flashbang or smoke grenade instead.

[H-Hour]

the information about how it works really, really, should be available in-game.

We're planning to add a section to the ufopaedia for basic game concepts like reaction fire, wounding, etc.

[Sarin]

Bleeding and stun seem to be funny statuses. I had a situation in my game just a while ago where alien, apparently injured and shaken by the crash, got hit by machinegun fire, bled a while, this stunned him, then he awoke, the bleeding stunned him again, he awoke again, and then died.

The stun mechanics from crash are interesting, I haven't used any stunning weapon yet and I have 8 live aliens+2 who died before I researched alien breathing apparatus.

[Quizer]

We're planning to add a section to the ufopaedia for basic game concepts like reaction fire, wounding, etc.

Good to hear.

If you are facing alien and can't outmaneuver him before shot, drop a flashbang or smoke grenade instead.

Flashbang is really the only one you have a good chance of getting off without much risk, since it takes only 6 TU to throw unlike other grenades. By the way, does it matter whether the flashbang explodes in the target's field of vision?

As for reaction fire, I usually find it worthwhile to use for fire modes that use 8~12 TU. More than that is only really worth it if you have good cover and / or distance to work with. Is there some kind of accuracy threshold you have to hit for soldiers to bother to fire, though? Or doesn't it matter as long as that alien walks around in your field of vision?

[Sarin]

I'm not sure about the chance of hit.

Flashbangs have area of effect similar to other grenades. It doesn't matter if it explodes in front or behind alien, as long as he's close enough.