Maybe its you should learn logic to understand simple stats are not always working, especially if you use them in the wrong environment…
xenonauts disagrees harshly. When you start the game, 1 plasma bolt from the first enemy you fight is more than enough to send one of your guys to the morgue. And it happens. A lot. And the game is still amazing and you can beat it with tactics and adaptation.
And now that i think about it: even the nuXCOM games disagree with that. It’s remarkably easy to set-up things so you just have a sniper or heavy to instantly kill every alien you run into, reducing the game to whack-a-mole with greys. And it’s still a loved game, at least by the general public, despite it’s many flaws.
Instant kills don’t make a game bad. Not even too many instant kills. Hell, instangib was a mode of game for some of the earliest popular games in history. Now, some people will hate it if they loose to many soldiers to instant-kills … but some will love that and try to play around it to prevent it. Games like xenonauts, and even the original xcom and TFD all start and even in the late game feature the potential to loose all your soldiers in single-hits. And if you don’t play around that, to prevent it, you will face a game where every shot that hits you is an instant kill.
I think the main problem here is not wanting to have instant kills work against you as a player. From where I’m standing, that’s not an issue. Kill all my guys in one turn for all I care, if I was stupid enough to position them to allow that, I deserve it. Hell, kill them all with 1 action from 1 alien who just got lucky and nailed by heavy in the rocket pouch, detonating all his explosives, causing collateral damage that just so happens to detonate the grenades on all guys around him and cause a chain reaction until my squad is a fine red mist. It will be an important lesson about spacing. And not keeping grenades/rockets on the belt where they can be hit easily (assuming something like that is possible, please tell me it is).
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This is not Xenonauts or XCOM. From what I know:
- you won’t be able to recruit as many new soldiers as you want by just spending money
- mutants don’t posses plasma technology
I’m not against instant kills if my tactic is not efficient. But I don’t want to spend hours of planning my squad and how to approach in the mission to be wiped out in 2 turns because of speedy ninja crabman or some other mutant with ‘super turbo plasma death star’ in his hand. There probably will be some powerful enemies which can kill in one action, but at least I want to have some measure to counter them. I don’t want to have situations where my team dies “just like that” - like with Thanos gesture.
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I remember reading (but I don’t remember if that was an article or an interview :p) that your soldiers are going to be harder to kill than in the OGXcom, they will fall in the battlefield, but this doesn’t mean they’re already dead, you may extract them and heal them in the base.
I don’t know if this has changed, but if any of you guys is oneshoted maybe you have some turns to stabilice him before he bleeds out like in the new xcoms, he will be out for the rest of the mission and maybe he will become a handicap for the rest of the squad if you plan carrying him.
In this sense I think losing limbs may work like the injuries in battle brothers, if your soldier “survives” the mission he will recover from his injuries normally in the medical bay, if you soldier “dies” he may have a permanent injury, like losing some limb.
Not according to what I know about PP’s design.
There are classes (we heard about one from NJ, and I doubt other factions don’t have something similar) fixing limbs “during combat”, so losing a limb is not a post-battle status, even if it’s possible to replace/regrow/heal limbs afterwards too.
“Bleed out/Death Door” or similar incapacitated but not dead yet status may work, but I want to have the enemy use this too (and then I remember my old idea of “pretend-dead” enemies from the HP visibility thread… 
), even if maybe rarer (they not necessarily have items/knowledge to stabilize every one of their mutants, but as they are mutants, some may have similar ability).
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I usually take it as a given that I’ll lose some Rookies early game, and I don’t overly mind. But the rage quit starts when my best soldier gets a crit and bleeds from a lucky shot, and I have no hope of winning.
In fact when you think about how in the PP universe humanity was steamrolled by the virus, it makes sense that humans are easy to kill, otherwise they would have been able to resist.
However contrary to this, only the best of the best survived, so they should be able to put up some sort of a fight.
It’s called “putting all your eggs in the same basket” and, frankly, it’s a strategic mistake. I don’t mind if the game punishes you for this. Building a roster that can absorb losses is an integral part of the game.
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For instance in real life, there ain’t no comming back from bullet in the head. But slap an insta-kill on headshots and it would make the game a lot more frustrating than fun.
If it does not blow brain one will live 
Well, headshots could be valued, but soldiers and aliens alike could have helmets / head armour to prevent it being an easy way.
The wounded arm debate is a perfect example of how a realistic mechanic could ruin gameplay.
I like such realism feats, likewise with return fire. Now, when limbs can be repaired, one sees its not such a big thing. And is realistic. Heavier wounds make a limb disabled to use. What can we do when we have just 2 hands
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