Why sometimes reaction fire not working? (2.5)

[D12ift]

sometime my plasma blaster troops with ball mode RF won't shoot .. once with hoverbot at 2 tiles away.. another with Plasma Blaster alien @ point blank range after he walking 3-4 tiles in my LoS and shoot -_-''

Anyone experienced this too?

P.S. I'm playing 2.5-dev IA-32 Oct 12 2013 Win32 RELEASE

[CarlosMaximus]

Ball mode with a plasma blaster is an area effect shot, might this have something to do with it? Your soldier doesn't want to fry himself as well perhaps?

[MonkeyHead]

You are right - sometimes, on reaction fire, soldiers will not shoot. Reaction fire is not a "100% certain get a shot off" thing - it is unrealistic to expect a soldier to successfully react to the enemy each and every time, especially as the aliens have superior reflexes to humans. This, IMHO, is a good thing - you should play agressivley, not sit back and hope to "react" to all alien sightings.

[DarkRain]

As mentioned, the ball mode does splash damage, soldiers won't react if they are inside the radius, unless they have gone insane.

[D12ift]

Ahh I see.. That should be problem if plasma blaster ball mode suppose to be shotgun's upgrade for close range engage

[MonkeyHead]

Or you could always set the Blaster to have the snap shot fire mode for reaction fire - it is a little more accurate than the ball fire mode IIRC, and has the same TU cost. You could go over the top and set it to the 3-round burst mode, but that costs a total of 12 TU.

[TallTroll]

The plasma blaster isn't a direct "successor" for the shotgun in the same way that the pistol > plasma pistol, or AR > Plasma rifle upgrades are. I do tend to use it in the shotgun "slot" in my squads, as it uses the same skill though