Stunning and killing stunned aliens

[anonymissimus]

Killing a stunned alien only seems to work with weapons that do area damage (for instance: grenade launcher or grenades) even though the chance to hit shows 100% for a standard weapon such as the laser rifle.
Stunning happens extremely frequently for aliens, for instance, just when being hit by a plasma rifle snapshot from reaction fire. (It's a great help however.) It never happened for me yet. What determines whether a unit gets stunned ?

Not sure whether these are bugs... I try to kill stunned aliens, because I've seen them "reviving", especially Ortnoks. Now, if that happens right in my back...

[Internecivus]

Not sure if it helps, but have you tried to aim to ground (with pressing SHIFT)?

[DarkRain]

Stunned aliens' bounding box is much smaller (close to the ground) than any other unit, but it is possible to hit them with direct fire weapons (or at least it was last time as checked) as Internecivus suggest try aiming to teh ground, preferably from a short distance (The same problem happens when trying to revive a stunned friendly unit with a Medikit)

As for why they're stunned so easily: aliens that have crash landed often come pre-hurt, they might have some HP and/or stun damage (but are never spawned dead or stunned) so being hit again might cause them to be stunned if the stun damage becomes equal or greater than HP (or most likely HP becoming lower than stun damage), and yes stun damage heals over time and stunned units will 'revive' if that condition is no longer true

[Sarin]

and yes stun damage heals over time and stunned units will 'revive' if that condition is no longer true

Interesting. I've never seen that throughout my campaign, but quite often I had stunned alien dying from bleeding.

[anonymissimus]

Not sure if it helps, but have you tried to aim to ground (with pressing SHIFT)?

Yes, could kill a stunned alien with a laser weapon for the first time that way.
You need to be careful that no friendly unit is standing in the line of fire (under the assumption that the shot goes over the target).

While we are at it...I never need the stun rod or electro laser for stunning aliens, since there are so many anyway.
And killing a stunned alien always worked with the first hit for me...perhaps they are easier to kill, although a stunned armored Ortnok that's bleeding only, say, 3 points per turn, isn't wounded heavily (and should be expected to revive later).

[Internecivus]

While we are at it...I never need the stun rod or electro laser for stunning aliens, since there are so many anyway.

You could use those to stun civilian. Aliens are more interested in killing walking targets.

[anonymissimus]

You could use those to stun civilian. Aliens are more interested in killing walking targets.

I've read that tip - okay, so a stunned civilian counts as a living one for nation happiness purposes ?
A stunned civilian should be more difficult to hit too. But most of the time, the important things happen in the first 1-2 turns and any civilian who is still alive afterwards makes it until the end. Could be useful on some maps though. To prevent civilians from leaving a safe spot for instance.

[DarkRain]

Interesting. I've never seen that throughout my campaign, but quite often I had stunned alien dying from bleeding.

Well IIRC stun damage heals only 1 point per turn, so even minimal bleeding will prevent them from 'reviving', but if their wounds are minor enogh that they don't bleed aaand the difference between HP and stun isnt' very high, it can happen.... very rarely but it can happen... (BTW if you ever really need/want that stunned alien you can patch it up with a medikit to stop bleeding — just be sure to aim it to the ground)

You could use those to stun civilian. Aliens are more interested in killing walking targets.

But do note that it is a preference only, they'll still be killed if the alien has no better targets. (Smoke spamming?)

I've read that tip - okay, so a stunned civilian counts as a living one for nation happiness purposes ?
...
...

Yes they should

[anonymissimus]

Well IIRC stun damage heals only 1 point per turn, so even minimal bleeding will prevent them from 'reviving',

Something seems wrong though (2.6). This just happened in an alien turn. I had wounded that Ortnok in my previous turn:

Team 1 ended round
Team 7's round started!
[STATS] Muurgh Ks Ksr Ouurz is bleeding (damage: 4)
[STATS]  (Muurgh Ks Ksr Ouurz) was stunned (entnum: 101)
[STATS] Muurgh Ks Ksr Ouurz is revitalized.
[STATS] Muurgh Ks Ksr Ouurz is consumed by mad rage (entnum 101).
Team 7 ended round

Maybe the bleeding got his hps below the stun damage, he got stunned, then stun damage healed, and that was just enough to revive him again ?
Hitting him again stunned him right away again, so likely, yes.

[DarkRain]

Maybe the bleeding got his hp below the stun damage, he got stunned, then stun damage healed, and that was just enough to revive him again ?
Hitting him again stunned him right away again, so likely, yes.

Yes that's what must have happened, maybe the order in which bleeding damage is applied could be changed