No Deaths AI Gear Advice

[Rikimaru]

Hey, just looking for advice on AI kit. I'm several missions into my No Deaths/Ironman playthrough (about to try SINUOUS TRAIL for the first time).
Doing really well, got some A+ and an S rank too but I'm doing a non-rogue run in tandem for S-Ranks and mission scouting.

Currently I have half my team as light armour/suppressors and a the other half heavy armour/loud guns.

I'm just wondering if armour type, suppressors and any other gear actually effects the AI/group survivability.

For example:
Is there a reason why I'd not just have them all in heavy armour?
Do riot shields protect your back when not equipped?
Do suppressors work for AI too?
Do they keep people from being alerted or is it the same detectibility?
Is it worth putting a shotgun on an AI instead of an AR?

Any other advice you can give me would be superb- thanks in advance

[AspidZEUS]

1)No, you should give them heavy ceramic with full coverage for better survivability, you should use it too
2)Yes
3)Should work for your ai too
4)Suppressors only reduce stress gain for suspects by 50% (does not reduce hearing distance which is always 20m for gunshots), they will need hear more shots to become allerted
5)No, shotguns with pellets is too weak againts armor, cant pen even L2, which is weakeast suspect armor, and slugs can oneshot only up to L3A, if suspects wear level 4 armor they will need 4 slugs in torso. Best guns for ai is anything on .300blk aor 7.62x39 AP, that ammo will down any suspect in 2 torso shot with any armor class.

If you need your ai to survive more shots take Armorer and Nutritionist for 50% more armor durability and 25% more health (Armorer work for you but Nutritionist dont), and make sure traits in LOCKED state, if you UNLOCK traits they will stop working.
You can also check this spreadsheet, there are a lot of useful info https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d89lpFDA9lo_v13iBlnhtuA6DvuUnKfPaeo0d4RBGJ4/edit#gid=1471879539

[Rikimaru]

Thank you for the very helpful answer! I'm going to change my squad loadout right now!

Can I confirm what you said about the unlocking thing? Maybe I'm reading it wrong.
But you say if I unlock a character's trait, it stops working? Is that a bug?

[AspidZEUS]

Originally posted by Rikimaru:

Can I confirm what you said about the unlocking thing? Maybe I'm reading it wrong. But you say if I unlock a character's trait, it stops working? Is that a bug?

Yes, traits bugged right now and work only when Locked.
There is a patch for 1Gb so it's "might" fix it or not. I will update this comment if they fix it
P.S. They seems fix traits bug, so it's now work how it's supposed to be