BB4 - Battle map feedback + questions

Phoenix Point
1

So I just played a couple of missions, overall I’m enjoying how things work in BB4, overwatch in particular is a big improvement. There were quite a few areas that I was getting stuck and/or not seeing what I should do, to which I thought I’d feedback on these before I played anymore in order to give a new player perspective:

When I travel to a scavenge site, I have the choice to enter it or leave. If I leave, is there a way to still enter the site without flying away and then back again?

Other than by using overwatch, is there a way to change the direction that my soldiers are left facing at the end of a turn? - I’d really like to be able to set them to watch in different directions regardless of whether not I actually want them to shoot at anything in their field of view? - As an aside to this, if PP soldiers will at any point be able to wield their own shields, will they be able to chose which direction to deploy them in?

How do I know how accurate a given shot is going to be? I know that I can zoom in to take shots at specific body parts, but do I really have to do this on every single shot? - Having played through one full mission of BB4 this absolutely baffles me.

Is there a way to zoom in on enemies without having to aim at them? - Once you’ve fired a shot, it could still be something that you want to do in order to view any given enemies mutations before moving other soldiers into position.

Likewise, is there a way to know the armour penetrating power of each gun?

When taking a shot, what does the flashing part of an enemies HP bar actually mean? I know it’s an indication of likely damage, but what is happening mechanically? Why does the area of the bar that’s flashing seem to flicker left and right whilst I’m aiming? (Is that a background calculation?) Why does that bar sometimes indication a degree of damage that is likely to happen, yet when I shoot I actually kill my target? Are there critical hits occurring? It’s really frustrating me that I’m only being given a fuzzy visual indicator rather than seeing the numbers behind it, I feel like I’m just shooting at things for the sake of it so far, rather than actually playing with any strategy in mind.

Can I select an enemy in some way in order to see what it is/does?

I know that I can rotate the map in 90 degree increments, but can I do this freely? - I seem to remember seeing something about this, but if I can do it, I can’t work out how.

Can I permanently toggle the roofs of buildings so that I can see units that are inside buildings?

2

first button on the left at the bottom of the screen

not, from what I know. But I also requested such functionality. Right now soldiers just turn to face the nearest enemy.

To be completely sure you need to zoom in. But other that that you can see possible damage indicator changing while you are about to fire. If it shows low damage prediction compared to damage which you should inflict then it means that there is low chance to hit vital spot.

Like above. Game shows possible damage based on chance hit and damage done reduced by armour for each possible body part which can be hit. It is constantly estimating that possible damage. It often shows less damage than you actually can inflict, because there is some chance that you will miss. There are no critical hits from what I know.

Other than ‘T’ and ‘G’ keys? I don’t know.

There are some icons just above the selected gun, but then if weapon doesn’t have any armour penetration there won’t be any icon.

No

click gear in top-right corner and select ‘Free Camera’

No

3

I take it back. Apparently something was screwed during UI development. Now only explosive weapons have 25% shred probability icon and Machine Gun has 15% for the same effect. All return fire and armor piercing icons are gone. Looks like weapons have lost armor piercing “property” and their damage was just boosted. I wonder if return fire icon appear only on soldiers with that skill?

EDIT: after some testing I updated above statement.