First of all thanks for the Dev diary and keeping us involved. Subsequent my feedback regarding combat from a JA1/2 veteran so far:
What I like:
No CTH is great. Overall it will be a much more immersive experience during combat due to that. For me personally, games with CTH tend to feel much more repetitive than games without later on, especially if your Units/Mercs or whatever are maxed out and you know exactly that it's a guaranteed hit just from the numbers. You should be able to increase your chances by good positioning, tactics and weapon choices instead of just looking at pure numbers.
Low action point numbers. It doesn't matter if you have 10 or 100 AP for a Merc in my opinion. At a certain point while playing the game, you'll become an overall feeling on how many AP an action will cost you. Despite that, I think it's much easier for the majority of players to manage around 60 AP for a whole squad attacking a sector rather than 600.
Bullet simulation considering the ammunition's caliber and type as well as different environmental objects and enemy armor. I would be ashamed if my rocket launcher couldn't wreck some hay bale away or if the rocket would be stopped by objects who shouldn't stop it.
Additional effects on hitting different body parts. I might missed it, but will there be also some endurance/stamina indicators in place so I can knock out an opponent without actually inflicting damage to him like in JA2?
What I don't like:
All the other accuracy/modifier/crit information during combat. Some people have also criticized it already, and I must admit, I totally agree. If there is no CTH at the end, why do I need them at all? I have an enemies health indicator, I know what my Merc and his equipment are capable of from character and weapon stats, I can see that the enemy is in cover from the the body part indicators, I know that a shot in the head will inflict more critical damage than hitting other body parts or armor from pure logic, so why do I need that (window filling) information overflow? If really necessary, instead of displaying all that information, I would prefer an intuitive indicator like displaying the ring around the enemy dynamically in different colors depending on all that factors including the AP you want to invest into aiming at the target. Don't get me wrong, I don't want "the ring" to become an alternative CTH identifier, I just want to get rid of unnecessary information to make combat feel more immersive. An ordinary example: A sniper in combat is trained on how to adjust his weapon, how to react and aim in certain situations and so on, but despite all that knowledge, in reality there is always a chance his shot will miss. So even if my "ring indicator" is more into green, because I made the right adjustments, with the right Merc at the right time, it doesn't mean I will land a guaranteed hit. Combat actions should always remain an assumption of what will happen if I do this and that, but you should never 100% know the outcome of your action before it really happens. I hope it's understandable what I mean, even if all the min/max guys will disagree with my approach. 🙂
In general, if the Overwatch/Interrupt system is not overpowered like in many other turn based games, despite my critics, I'm overall fine with the combat system as it is. Lowering AP for the next turn of a Merc who had the chance to interrupt the enemy is a minimum requirement for me, so looking forward to the next combat DevDiary.
