As for suppression, it works very different from stock 1.13:
- no AP loss from suppression, only regular AP's spent on changing stance (so you can move much more under fire)
- cowering soldier loses all APs, starts new turn with very few APs (enough to crawl one tile into cover), so you can still use suppression for tactical advantage
- much better balance of suppression tolerance and in general better suppression balance (no mercs cowering from one bullet while enemy seems immune to suppression)
- it's easier to understand what's happening just by looking at soldier - if he reacts (crouches or goes prone), he is suppressed and so he cannot interrupt this turn, if he cowers, he lost all APs and he is not a threat this and next turn
- if soldier is in the open (has no cover from attacker) and needs to react to suppression but cannot (he is prone already or he is crouched and cannot go prone), he cowers
- if soldier has cover from attacker, it's not enough to deliver enough suppression to cause him to react, but he should have max shock level - that means, you need to suppress enemy for several turns usually if he is behind cover, or you need to flank him and suppress with one attack
- suppression value needed to react (crouch, go prone or cower when already prone) is based on AP to change stance + various bonus, it's higher if soldier is behind cover, and has bonus depending on morale level, so it's harder to suppress merc with high morale, but if he spends several turns under fire, he will lose morale and become much more vulnerable to suppression
- since cowering soldier loses all APs, he cannot move or do anything, it solves various animation related problems with cowering soldiers in stock 1.13
- at the start of each turn, mercs stop cowering automatically (if they have AP, not collapsed or dying etc)
- it's good for AI - if he sees that enemy is cowering, he knows it's safe to advance and move out of cover