Here is something that players misunderstand. When you disable enemy’s head it doesn’t mean that his brain just exploded. It just mean that head was hurt badly, so he has some bleeding, maybe some concussion. If you will kill enemy by shooting him only in the head then you can consider that his brain exploded. HP pool is messing here with people’s perception of reality and what is happening, because it allows for many hits in the enemy until he will become dead.
Bullets don’t do more damage based on where they hit. They always do the same damage when hitting flesh. Of course head is more vulnerable place and this is expressed by lower amount of hit points that head is having. So lower HP pool already expresses that it is delicate spot. You have critical hits in games which doesn’t allow for aiming at head, or doesn’t have separate HP pools for different body parts, or make hitting head really hard. In Phoenix Point hitting and disabling head is really easy in most cases, so there is no need to any additional damage.
I can agree that aliens can develop more armor to their head by proper mutations. And I can agree that human helmets can have more armor in this manner. So we need balancing of armors here if some additional effects should be applied when head is disabled.
it doesnt do more damage, but certain body parts reduce overall HP when disabled… At this point, biggest HP loss from disabling is assigned to center torso… head HP loss is a lot smaller… All im saying this should be reversed, because Head is a lot more vulnerable than center torso…
are you sure? usually when i disable torso, that enemy is much easier to kill… Spawnery for example, when you disable the torso, it has -200HP… so next shot kills it instantly…
I’m sure. Spawnery is the only exception from above statement. Oh and lesser general HP pool then unit is easier to paralyze (so additional effect to healing limit).
Those players need to try other strategy and tactics than running around at open field like a Rambo .
Anyways, I’m not sure which one are more sensible balance between reducing WP or loosing a turn with effect, I have no clue nor exact calculation for it. Both element feels the same value but different treatment and complexity in case if we going to modify these two.
Not at present, but it should represent that. At present you’re just a little bit dizzy, possibly need a sit down and a cup of tea before resuming combat as normal the next turn.
Shoot someone multiple times in the thumb however and it’s threat eliminated.
Mmm it’s not that simple, I had a sniper on roof (for once) not moving to not attract attention of a Chiron bombard, he get disarmed by a Triton sniper, that had moved from one side of the map to the other side of that map, had lost track of it. More simpler, perhaps more Factions because game seems use less skilled Triton snipers, cover won’t help against a sniper, neither low nor high, and pretend you constantly lost AP to avoid it, I don’t believe it, snipers are very long range and most often with some stealth.
Otherwise I think many players have an approximate management of soldiers will so don’t notice much the -5 WP. That said, perhaps -50% of max will could do the trick, but again, don’t think players would like, when the game could use more snipers for more fun.
It’s a choice to make at that point - Do you want to go quick and stealthy with light armour, or do you want more protection at the expense of speed? (And yes certainly, things may need to be re-balanced, but that’s a necessity for the game regardless)
Not really - You’ve already got a situation where one bullet can effectively disable a target, it’s just that it presently is the bullet that hits the weapon arm.
It may require balancing of gun accuracy, but if anything a headshot is a smaller target, and a miss is less likely to hit other body areas. - ‘Do you aim for a headshot with a chance to miss, or do you aim for a shot at the torso where you’ll inflict less damage, but with a better chance to do that damage?’ Is a choice to the player as compared to ‘Automatically aim at the weapon arm and see any shot that misses go into the torso’.
Anyway, I’m sure that Snapshot will have date on which body parts players are targeting when they make shots, if their aim is to make every shot equally viable then they’ll be able to balance from that data.
As things stand, a disabling arm shot is already the equivalent of an instakill, as it effectively takes a human out of contention. So turning a headshot into an insta-stun isn’t going to affect the game balance very much - it will simply make shooting a human in the head feel slightly more realistic than it does at the moment.
And I reiterate: this should apply to humans only - the Pandas are a viral hive-mind, so the head is not as essential to Pandas as it is to human beings.
Grenades, handguns, melee weapons, medkits and mounted weapons still can be used - so I don’t see them as taken out. Disabling limb makes them less dangerous but they still can count to enemy forces.
Easiest way how to disable enemy sniper is by shooting his arm… same for heavy… they can use grenades? most often they do not have any… sniper has pistol, but if you are at range, its not a big deal. (same for grenades)
Story missions where you need to fight human opponent are quite easy - recently fought the one with “Pirate King”… dashed forward, found 10 enemies close together, threw 2 grenades at them, moved another assault same way, 2 grenades… most of them dead or bleeding… only guys that were of some threat were two snipers in alley at some distance… my sniper fired two shots, hitting each sniper in the arm… Mission ended second turn with everybody dead…
(and im playing modded game, with Dash limited to single use per turn… otherwise i would just dashed and killed those snipers in the same turn…)
In early builds of the game headshots where a thing. Simply because fighting distances where much larger it was a norm to take shots when whole enemy was barely fitting into a 50 aim circle.
As game progressed and distances got shorter and shorter we more and more target a specific limb, it becomes much easier to aim at head and adding any sort of “realism” for head injury will just make it a defacto best thing to aim at.
I’m looking forward for a mod that will lower mobility and return to large distance fighting, then head injuries can be much more debilitating. But you need to keep in mind that gameplay becomes more random.
Before someone brings argument with using just snipers - look at the footage of old builds, while better accuracy does help it doesn’t provide a consistent ability to target specific limbs, because of cover, line of sight and other factors.
Currently most humans combats aren’t well scaled up and most generate abnormally too easy combats.
But I think they also tend only use a weapon, not grenades or pistols.
Make it head shot insta kill will never help make it better, only worse.
At reverse, they could use a second weapon (arms can be less easy to hit than weapon), pistols, grenades, medkit and heal other soldiers, and even medic kit healing limbs.
It just mean that head was hurt badly, so he has some bleeding, maybe some concussion. If you will kill enemy by shooting him only in the head then you can consider that his brain exploded. 
Oh and lesser general HP pool then unit is easier to paralyze (so additional effect to healing limit).
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