Clarification questions

[Ranakastrasz]

Enjoying the mod so far. I have a few questions however.

Stun Damage. It seems like there are two, probably 3 damage types that apply stun damage, although how much, I have no idea. This is based on the description of the items.
Electricity damage, Concussion damage, and presumably Chemical from the Bullfrog's Acid Spit (or whatever it has)
However, I have no idea if it is a ratio, or what. I am pretty sure I read that excessive stun overkill results in death, but I doubt even a Sledgehammer would deal enough stun damage to reach 5x hp.
Also, What is with the Electric club? I kinda expected the items you could buy by default were supposed to be more or less common IRL equipment that required little effort to get your hands on. Why not a baton?

Dogs. Two things.
1, the basic combat vest doesn't appear to increase strength, at least not in the loadout screen. Is that a graphical bug, or an actual bug?
2, Tracking. I believe you are supposed to be able to use them like a motion scanner or something, but I don't know how that works.

Gym. How does it work, exactly? I see it is like a modified Psi-lab, and it shows +1 to every visible stat when you add someone.
How often does it execute, Is there a chance, a maximum gain, or what? Can you just train people to maximum stats given enough time, or do you have to train on missions to reach proper peak humanity?

Chem Protection suits. Given the giant frogs, I considered trying to use Hazmat Suits to resist their stun by resisting chemical damage.
However, there is no way to know in advance if they will be present, and no way to change armor in a mission either way.
I assume there will be later missions which you will KNOW to have chemical damage for you to equip your units with said suits?

Research time. Is there a display for manhours for a research project, or do I just have to put a person on it til it changes from unknown to something else, which itself changes based on how many people you assign?

2 Handed Weapons. Is there a quick way to see what is 2 handed and what isn't? Also, do 1 handed weapons have a penalty for duel weilding?

The Glock Pistol has 70 accuracy for both Aimed and Snapshot mode. However, in battle, Aimed mode has higher accuracy. Is there an extra factor here?
Similarly, Distance seems to cut accuracy. In vanilla, I am pretty sure accuracy was more along the lines of how many degrees off of target you could go, with 100 being less than 1, and 0 being ~60 degrees.

Loadout screen. I often forget which mission type I am on when in the loadout screen, and there doesn't appear to be any way to go back.
Knowing if it is day or night, and knowing if it was an arrest or creature mission would be useful, because flashlights and lethal vs sublethal.

Backpack. The text is there, but no slots. Do I unlock it later?

[Bananas_Akimbo]

I don't know enough about stun damage to really be able to tell you how it works. I will leave that question to somebody else.

The combat vest for dogs doesn't give strength but carrying capacity (or rather, it adds -6 weight). Try putting items in its inventory and you will see the effect.
Tracking works exactly like the motion scanner, except it also deducts some morale from each use. Because both of the dog's weapon slots are already occupied by Bite and Bark, the button for Track has been put in the upper right corner of the screen. Easy to overlook, if you don't know it's there.

Each soldier in the gym has a certain chance (don't ask me how much) to have a random stat increased by 1 each day (at midnight). Bravery, Reactions and Psi aren't trained by the gym.
There are indeed limits to how much a soldier can be trained in the gym. As far as I know, the stat caps here are the same as the maximum possible stats for newly hired recruits. You will be notified, when a soldier has reached that point. From then on, further increases are only possible through battle. Also through commendations and transformations, but those are bonuses, that ignore stat limits.

There is no way to know, which enemies you will be facing, unless the mission description outright tells you. This indeed limits the usefulness of the hazmat suit (I can only really think of one or two mission types, where it comes in handy). By far the most creatures deal cutting damage, some acid. Other damage types are very rare. Your best protection against creatures early on is the leather coat.

No display for manhours on research. The length of duration for research projects is in fact randomized to some degree. The progress (Unknown, Average, etc.) is derived from how many days are left until completion, based on the current research speed, if I remember correctly. There is probably a chart for that somewhere.

Check the info button on an item's ufopedia page. It will show 2-handedness and many other useful information. The info section is for stuff, that doesn't fit in the description because of space limitations or because it is too obscure and boring. There is no penalty for dual wielding one handed weapons.

As you've already noticed, distance can reduce a weapon's accuracy. Aimed mode can aim farther than snap and snap farther than burst, before accuracy starts to drop off. Some weapons (typically rifles) have unlimited aimed mode range. Again, specifics are in the info section of each weapon.

There is no way to help you with your forgetfulness regarding the loadout screen, except save before every mission. The loadout screen can also be accessed outside of battle, however. Under the equipment screen of each craft, you can find the inventory for soldiers assigned to the craft.

Some armours have backpacks, others don't. The suit and kevlar vest don't have one, for example. The leather coat does.

[Mrvex]

Alot of stuff can actually cause stun damage, you can look at weapons in ufo pedia which generates stun.

Hitting someone with a sledge hammer can stun, but you are also most likely smashing his brain out of its skull.

Batton does exist but for some reason XCOM doesnt start with it. But electric baton seems to be a better way to subdue something like a giant spider than trying to mash it with a stick, because if its alive, then electricity will do something to it.

Not sure about the vest but the standard one should increase the capacity

Tracking works by showing nearest entities that have recently moved, you should use it at the start of the round. However this and motion scanners are things i have never used in any useful way.

Gym works this way. If you go to your agents list (from base menu) there will be a sorting option but if you bring it up you will see more than that. You will see possible trainings or upgrades there and you can assign or upgrade your dudes. Gym can hold up to 10 agents at once which will train anytime they are at the base. Training permamently increases their stats to a certain level.
Eventually, more features will be added. For example Bioupgrades or Tactical implant instalation. These are permament stat upgrades for a fee, you will unlock these as you progress and there is alot of this  so by the end of the game, your troops will be abnormally strong, fast and durable. Though these upgrades usually have requirements (In short, your agents need to be able to survive it so they need some training beforehand)


How you use Gym in practise is to slap 10 dudes there all the time (Or 20 if you make 2 gyms) while you use the guys not assigned in gym to train them in missions. So when you reach the point where you can field more than 6 guys, you will have reserves of atleast average troops. Not sure about exact numbers and timers of improvement so i wont comment about it.

About chemwar suits.... yes you cannot know what you are against so unless you want to abort the mission everytime you fail then i would suggest ignoring this type of armour and just rolling for the most universally strong armours you have. Froggies have short range and their attacks are rarely lethal and your guys can wake up on their own so its possible to do their missions but you need to have long range capabilities or better yet just evac and fight somewhere else. Once you will get Tanks they will make this enemy absolutely irrelevant because tanks have too high armour to be damaged by their attack. Hazmat suits have a sidegrade variation called Bio-Exo suit which has alot of protections geared towards creatures in particular so it gives protection against creature-source damage like slashing so they become more versatile but i still prefer Coveralls against creatures due to mobility bonuses and here is another important thing, Creatures will one or two shot your dudes anyway (if they hit), unless you start running around in something like a powerarmour, then the best defence against creatures is to maintain distance (or flight once you can) While this exobio suit will protect you from rats and beetles it wont protect you against things like werewolves who have enough damage to even damage a tank and will most likely one hit KO your guys from full health.

So the chemsuit is only useful if you know you will face long range chem-based enemies and there is a mission type where its most likely useful called "Exobiological Contamination" if you see this mission, get everyone in chemsuits for this one and pray for the best.

I am not sure about research time but yes, you need to put someone on it to give you an estimate time of finishing. And yes the more people you assign the faster it will finish.

2H weapons are usually well things you would use with two hands IRL, rifles, rocket launchers, sledgehammers but if you are not sure then you can check it out in the UFO-Pedia which will tell you if the weapon has 2H penalty.


Nope, duel wielding is possible with ranged and melee as long as the weapon doesnt have a penalty (ufopedia)

Aimed mode tends to ignore or be more tolerant towards the distance falloff, in UFO pedia you can see the maximum range before the average shot will start falling off in accuracy

One thing i actually learned is to remember misisons by their music, because missions have only 1 track assigned for it you can easily memorize them and know what you are up against.
Day or Night will show up before you launch the mission, if its night (if your craft arrives and its night on the geoscape) then there will be a moon in the mission launch screen before you get to your gear.

Yes, Backpacks are tied to armours, most stronger armours have it but flying armour doesnt due to the space being occupied by a jetpack.

[the nomad]

For two handed weapons, there will be the number of 2 below them to the right indicating they are 2 handed.

You can equip your soldiers right in the base as the above user said. Or just write the mission type on a piece of paper?

Oversstun will have a lot of higher chance to kill you when wounded, because it considers your present health. So if you have 5 health remaining after a hit even a stun damage of 25 I guess it was, will kill you.

Once you use motion scanner or dog tracking, press left alt button. Arrows will show up on unseen enemies on the screen in the fog of war or just around in case of invisible enemies. They won't show up outside the range of the detector of course, it is 10 tiles to each direction I guess.

[Bananas_Akimbo]

Tracking works by showing nearest entities that have recently moved, you should use it at the start of the round. However this and motion scanners are things i have never used in any useful way.

Gym works this way. If you go to your agents list (from base menu) there will be a sorting option but if you bring it up you will see more than that.

How you use Gym in practise is to slap 10 dudes there all the time (Or 20 if you make 2 gyms) while you use the guys not assigned in gym to train them in missions. So when you reach the point where you can field more than 6 guys, you will have reserves of atleast average troops. Not sure about exact numbers and timers of improvement so i wont comment about it.

Motion scanners come in quite handy in large, multi-story structures (like Exalt HQ, cruise liners, your own bases). The ability to see through walls, floors and ceilings makes up for the short scanning range. I'm not using it enough myself. So far, I've mostly used the ability to find ninjas.

You can also access the gym by right-clicking the building. Nice shortcut, takes two clicks less. This works on most buildings, by the way.

I am not 100% sure about this, but I think you can take agents on missions and still train them in the gym at the same time. The gym only checks, if an agent is assigned at the end of each day. Having an agent assigned to the gym does not prevent assignment to a craft and vice-versa. Only healing time can interrupt training. So you don't have to constantly shuffle around your dudes between the gym and the transport craft.

[Solarius Scorch]

Hello Ranakastrasz, glad you're enjoying the mod.

Most questions have already been addressed (thanks guys), so I'll just add:

- Asking about stun damage types is misleading, because almost all weapons cause stun damage, regardless of its type. Shoot someone with a pistol and they'll get some stun damage, proportional to the health loss. That would be the default mechanics for most damage types. But this stunning effect is sometimes modified per an individual weapon, or according to general guidelines (for example, all electric weapons deal extra stun, but it's because they use their own special damage formulas, not simply because they're ELECTRIC).
- Research time is displayed when you open the research project window as a string of symbols in the upper left. These symbols correspond to units, but TBH I never cared about it enough to learn how exactly this works.
- The Glock has different accuracy range for aimed and snap shots (20 and 15 respectively). Beyond that range, the accuracy drops for every additional tile.

[Mrvex]

I am not 100% sure about this, but I think you can take agents on missions and still train them in the gym at the same time. The gym only checks, if an agent is assigned at the end of each day. Having an agent assigned to the gym does not prevent assignment to a craft and vice-versa. Only healing time can interrupt training. So you don't have to constantly shuffle around your dudes between the gym and the transport craft.

You can pull them to missions even if they are training but i mentioned it due to the fact that the 10 guys will be training while i am training 2-4-6-whatever guys by going to missions with them. So in fact i am training 16 guys at once, just 6 of them from missions while rest are training.

[Solarius Scorch]

Yeah, I forgot to confirm this, but your agents don't even have to physically be on site to train. You can just park a van on the other side of the planet for a couple weeks and the agents there will still do their routine. I suppose people get motivated when stuck in some boring hotel...

[Ranakastrasz]

Alrighty.

Enjoying the mod so far. I have a few questions however.

Stun Damage - Ok, So its some kind of special equation, based on weapon type, rather than damage type. That makes way more sense. By any chance, do Zombies have some kind of defensive modification to increase the stun damage they take, because they tend to fall unconscious a LOT more often than I would expect.
The thing about the electric club isn't that I think it would be ineffective, but that I thought you started purely with Real-life type equipmenet, with no supernatural/scifi or alien influence. I might be entirely wrong, but I don't think those exist IRL, or at least not commonly enough that I have heard of them. But yes, I could imagine them being more effective than a baton. It just feels odd.

Dogs. Two things.
1, Strength. Ok, I assume that any armor that effects strength/has negative weight fails to show up in the equipment screen?
2, That... Was not obvious. I did not see that at all. Good to know.

Gym. Ok, so it trains to the highest base stats a rookie can have, but you have to go on missions to get any further than that. And it doesn't matter if they are in a vehicle, on base, or halfway around the globe, they train at midnight anyway. So eventually, everyone will have peak-rookie stats, maybe plus a bit from random, maybe plus a bit from medals. Good to know, and I will adjust my statstrings accordingly.

Chem Protection. Understood. Shame, understandable, and good to know.

Research time. So THAT is what those weird symbols are. I did a search, and found this.

Research Times
A comprehensive list of the time it takes to research a topic can be found at http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Research_Times_(Piratez) Do note that research times vary from 50%-150% like in base XCOM, so don't follow these numbers precisely. Also, a rough estimate of the time is displayed in the tech tree viewer. - is 5, = is 20, and # is 100 (EG. #=-- means the topic takes an average of 130 days)

I assume it works the same, and that helps a HUGE amount in determining which techs are easy and which require thousands of manhours.

2 Handed Weapons. Is there a quick way to see what is 2 handed and what isn't? Also, do 1 handed weapons have a penalty for duel weilding?

Aim. Ok, so Aimed mode has less aim falloff with distance. That makes sense. Still want to know if there is some new weird equation with longer range, because openxcom wiki claims that Accuracy is more how many degrees off you end up, and with longer range, you are less accurate with the same accuracy value, so I was confused.
Also, shotguns are surprisingly medium range capable, which is awesome and realistic.

Loadout screen. That helps, and i will just have to learn to be less triggerhappy.

Backpack. I don't think the Leather Jacket's description tells you that. Is there a spot in the expanded info that tells you, because I can't find it.

[Bananas_Akimbo]

Dogs.
Strength. Ok, I assume that any armor that effects strength/has negative weight fails to show up in the equipment screen?

Research time. So THAT is what those weird symbols are. I did a search, and found this. I assume it works the same, and that helps a HUGE amount in determining which techs are easy and which require thousands of manhours.

2 Handed Weapons. Is there a quick way to see what is 2 handed and what isn't? Also, do 1 handed weapons have a penalty for duel weilding?

Aim. Ok, so Aimed mode has less aim falloff with distance. That makes sense. Still want to know if there is some new weird equation with longer range, because openxcom wiki claims that Accuracy is more how many degrees off you end up, and with longer range, you are less accurate with the same accuracy value, so I was confused.
Also, shotguns are surprisingly medium range capable, which is awesome and realistic.

Backpack. I don't think the Leather Jacket's description tells you that. Is there a spot in the expanded info that tells you, because I can't find it.

I'm not sure I understand your question. Dog armours show up in the same places as human armours. If you mean the carrying capacity display in the inventory screen - that doesn't show negative values. Say for example your dog has 3 strength, a combat vest and carries no items. Displayed carrying capacity will be 0/3. Put a pistol clip (2 weight) on the dog and you still have 0/3. Put in a medical bag instead (weight 8) and the carrying capacity will show 2/3.

Huh, I've never noticed those symbols before. Awesome.

I thought this was answered sufficiently before. I will add pictures this time.
Two-handedness is displayed on the item itself and in more detail in the ufopedia.
One-handed weapons don't receive any penalty for dual wielding, even if you carry a two-handed weapon in the other hand. Two-handed weapons receive penalties of varying severity to accuracy, if the off-hand isn't free. Some two-handed weapons can't be used at all, if you carry something in the other hand.

Almost. Accuracy drop-off per tile is the same for every firing mode. The difference is the distance, before any drop-off is calculated at all. Look at the last picture. Auto-shot has its stated accuracy until you aim beyond 18 tiles. At that point the accuracy will drop by 3 for every additional tile. Snap-shot goes to 33. Aimed shot isn't displayed (unlimited range on this weapon).
There is also a minimum range on this weapon and other sniper rifles. That works the same way but in reverse. Targets closer than 10 tiles get progressively more difficult to hit.

No, the only way to find out, if an armour has a backpack, is to look at the inventory.

[Ranakastrasz]

Dogs. Ok, makes sense. Just a UI limitation, and the used weighy displays as (max(Actual weight,0))

Ah, that works. And it shows the offhand penalty if you can still fire.

Alright. I see, roughly, how accuracy works. So at lower accuracy, bullet spread is lower as nornal. So if you aim at a far away target, your shots have a larger angle they can spread than shooting a close targey. Seems odd, but ok,

Backpacks. Shame. You would think it would show up in info at least.

Stun damage. Is there a place where the actual equation is shown? and I thought damage from non-Stun weapons had a linear 1-3 bonus stun damage. If it is proportional, is that shown somewhere?

Zombies seem to take 30% stun damagr, so ehat mechanic makes them get stunned instead of dying half the time?
maybe it is thr overkill coeficient?

How do handcuffs work? They dont show up in the wiki, and appear to br modified medkits, but I havn't used one yet. My guess is a stim with negative stun recovery, based on strength, but somehow sublethal. However, i have no real idea.

Energy    Freshness normalized : 20
Health current : 0.25
Health    Stun normalized : -0.1
Morale    *100 : -0.1
Freshness normalized : 14
Stun    Health current : 0.06
Health : -0.09
Stun current : 0.036
Freshness normalized : 8
Time    TU : 0.5
Freshness normalized : 125

Could I get an english translation of this? It looks like regeneration/degenration info, but what is fteshness normalized?
----
Cash is tight right now. 10 scientisits eat around 80% of my income, so I am holding off on getting the last 5 til I impress thr councel more.

Also, fucking zergling rush, no idea what they actuallry are yey, but I am pretty sure that was the sc1 zergling death sound effect.

[tarkalak]

Also on two handed weapons. If the *2* is red color, the weapon cannot be used one handed at all. See below.

Stun damage.

After damage is calculated and after the armor value is subtracted from it - Some portion of the damage is applied as normal damage, some portion goes to armor damage, and some portion as stun damage. The "Stats for Nerds" for the weapon or ammo show what percentage is used. If it is the default, you have to  click the default button and search for the default value.

Zombies.
Zombies do not bleed out and have a large health pool, so stun damage builds up on them.
Example: A zombie has 100 health, and your gun does 15 damage and 5 stun. after 6 shots you will deal 90 damage and 30 stun, so the Zombie will have 10 damage and 30 stun. Since they don't bleed, they don't die as most other enemies that get stunned in the same way. That is all. There is no special treatment of zombies that I know of. What you see is an effect of their higher health and you using low damage weapons.

Handcuffs use script that sets the stun level each turn. There is a description in the main tread in the last 2-3 pages.

Zerglings.
He he he. Read the mod readme. There is a line especially for these. Search for Chupacabras.

[Ranakastrasz]

2 Handers. Understood now.

Stun damage. Looks like the default is 25%, albiet with a random factor flag enabled. So 20 damage would also deal ~5 stun damage.
That said, Zombies have stun resistance of 70%, so I would expect it to be quite a bit less likely for them to be stunned.

Handcuffs. Is there a guideline, like "1 handcuff per 20 strength" or something at least?

Chupacabras eh. Yep. The readme mentions them. And 25 damage per attack does explain how lethal they are.

-----

Lighting. Why do you have to Arm Electroflares, and why does it take so long. Why do you have to active Flashlights as well.
Do enemies with <20 sight benefit from your light sources, meaning you can do stealth by keeping in the dark, at least to an extent?
Currently, I enter missions with one hand having a weapon, and the other having a flashlight. It takes 2 TU to either flick it on, or drop it, 4 TU for both in the case of a shotgun/Huntsman Rifle.

You can sell live capture humans. Admittedly this is true for aliens in vanilla, but I have to wonder, WHO are you selling these to.
And while I'm at it, what is up with the 10k disposal fee for civilian corpses?

Mudranger. Is there an actual use-case for this? My guess is that you would put them on bases inside a cluster of cities, in hopes that attacks snap to said cities. Obviously the larger capacity would be helpful in such a case. But, what is up with the tiny radius? I mean, can't you shove a few barrels of oil into the thing and refuel it on the way, if you can't just use a gas station? What is the justification gameplay or lorewise?

Killing downed Enemies. Is there an easy way to execute downed enemies? Obviously I don't have reliable explosives yet. Like stab them with a knife or shoot them or something.

Rifle Bash. Is there a reason that only flashlights have a melee option?

Ufopedia, in battle. If you middle-mouse button on an enemy, and middlemouse button on their portrait, it shows data. That said, there isn't everything. It only shows, I think, their armor. Not their stats, or description, nor is there a link to it. I suppose it might require more research?

[Bananas_Akimbo]

Stun damage. Looks like the default is 25%, albiet with a random factor flag enabled. So 20 damage would also deal ~5 stun damage.
That said, Zombies have stun resistance of 70%, so I would expect it to be quite a bit less likely for them to be stunned.

Lighting. Why do you have to Arm Electroflares, and why does it take so long. Why do you have to active Flashlights as well.
Do enemies with <20 sight benefit from your light sources, meaning you can do stealth by keeping in the dark, at least to an extent?
Currently, I enter missions with one hand having a weapon, and the other having a flashlight. It takes 2 TU to either flick it on, or drop it, 4 TU for both in the case of a shotgun/Huntsman Rifle.

Killing downed Enemies. Is there an easy way to execute downed enemies? Obviously I don't have reliable explosives yet. Like stab them with a knife or shoot them or something.

Rifle Bash. Is there a reason that only flashlights have a melee option?

Ufopedia, in battle. If you middle-mouse button on an enemy, and middlemouse button on their portrait, it shows data. That said, there isn't everything. It only shows, I think, their armor. Not their stats, or description, nor is there a link to it. I suppose it might require more research?

There is a difference between stun damage and stun damage. Confusing, I know. One is a damage type like electric and incendiary (which can also cause lethal damage, depending on the weapon). The other is the amount of stun an agent or enemy takes from any damage source. Both of these have nothing to do with each other. A Zombie's stun resistance has no influence on the amount of stun it takes from being shot at by a rifle, for example. An unfortunate circumstance. Piratez solved this by renaming the stun damage type to Daze.

Light sources are turned off by default, so the ones left in the stash on the ground don't illuminate your agents at the start of the battle. Standing in light, means that enemies can see you using their day vision. You want to avoid that. That's why flashlights are a double-edged sword. You can see enemies better but they can see you better, too. To avoid return fire, you would have to turn them off at the end of the turn. Personally I almost only use flares on missions against ranged enemies and flashlights and flares against creatures.

You can aim at the ground and shoot unconscious enemies that way. You will be surprised how often your agents can miss the ground, though. Explosives are more convenient but also destroy loot. Fire works really well.

Well, there is the unarmed attack already, that you can use whenever you have a free hand. Considering rifles are two-handed, this will be the case most of the time. No need to spoil the player with too many option (in my opinion).

Enemies' stats like health and reactions aren't shown anywhere ingame. In battle or otherwise. All you ever get to see is a written description, armour and anything tied to it (like night vision range) and any in-built weapons, if existant.

[tarkalak]

Lighting. Why do you have to Arm Electroflares, and why does it take so long. Why do you have to active Flashlights as well.
Do enemies with <20 sight benefit from your light sources, meaning you can do stealth by keeping in the dark, at least to an extent?
Currently, I enter missions with one hand having a weapon, and the other having a flashlight. It takes 2 TU to either flick it on, or drop it, 4 TU for both in the case of a shotgun/Huntsman Rifle.

Electroflares are emitting light after being: 1. armed and 2. thrown. You can "turn off" a flashlight by putting it in your inventory (quick draw is 5 TU) and have both hands free. A dog or a Scout Drone have better night vision and could spot nearby enemies.
I mostly use flares.
You can shoot down light sources on the map, but street lamps are a bit too tough to blow up. In house lamps are a fair game.

You can sell live capture humans. Admittedly this is true for aliens in vanilla, but I have to wonder, WHO are you selling these to.
And while I'm at it, what is up with the 10k disposal fee for civilian corpses?

Who are you selling to is left to your imagination. I think it is organ donors, but you can come up with a less grimdark explanation. The disposal of civilians is a fine for covering up that you killed an innocent.

Mudranger. Is there an actual use-case for this? My guess is that you would put them on bases inside a cluster of cities, in hopes that attacks snap to said cities. Obviously the larger capacity would be helpful in such a case. But, what is up with the tiny radius? I mean, can't you shove a few barrels of oil into the thing and refuel it on the way, if you can't just use a gas station? What is the justification gameplay or lorewise?

You can plant your starting base near one of the Cult HQs, if you know where they pop up later (Black Lotus - Japan, Dagon - midafrica). Other then that it is practically useless, even with the airborne mudranger upgrade.

Killing downed Enemies. Is there an easy way to execute downed enemies? Obviously I don't have reliable explosives yet. Like stab them with a knife or shoot them or something.

Rifle Bash. Is there a reason that only flashlights have a melee option?

Apart from what Bananas_Akimbo said, some weapons have a bayonet attack. There is an old russian rifle (SVDSKS I think) with it.

Ufopedia, in battle. If you middle-mouse button on an enemy, and middlemouse button on their portrait, it shows data. That said, there isn't everything. It only shows, I think, their armor. Not their stats, or description, nor is there a link to it. I suppose it might require more research?

Mind probe does what you want. You can use it to see the statistics of enemies and their rank with it, but it is taken from the aliens and is a later game artefact.
The statistics of enemies vary depending of the difficulty level. X-Piratez gives the ranges for enemies in their ufopaedia page, but xcomfiles doesn't, I guess because it is a bit too much bookkeeping and one more space to remember to fix if they are tweaked.