Hu? How is adding a new option, which doesn't even change anything unless the player deliberately changes it a "decision" on my part?
Oh, pardon me. I must be f****ng into my eyes whole time, thinking it is permanent change (given all psychological wounds you inflicted on players by denouncing AI nerfing system <- it was a half-serious joke).
If you attack tiles that don't contain enemies or objects, the shot will be aimed at the floor. So chances of hitting someone near that tile with stray-shots is reduced quite a bit because of that
Recently I was thinking of the ghost spawn mechanic. It's quite simple.
Say, there's 3x5 rectangle from which proposed enemy has made out-of-dark reaction shooting. If this area is unreachable via adequate losses, BAI can imagine there is a unit on the tile, and then shoots into it. It is a ghost unit, with whole one purpose - to make a line of shot through this rectangle. The hit mechanism has been already introducted by you, so there's no trouble with actual revealing of units. And then, ASA unit is revealed, BAI switches to original/combined strategy.
Again, this is counter-reaction_fire mechanism, which means X-COM units are static and not moving. Moreover, it is not proposed as a whole turn strategy, possibly 20-25% of available shots can make fair scanning, if area is 3 tiles, and there's 30 enemies vs 10 agents. For guys with low nightvision and a good crowd.
While, as Juku suggested, instant-explosive and incendiary (including plasma, which is good light-setter itself) rounds can aim into some different positions, deeper into the rectangle.
End-turn explosives, like grenades, are already good.
What do you think now?
* on attachment, please read grenadeing as instant-explosive/incendiary targeting tiles