Question about "hunker down"

[Hakaari]

so, I just started a mission and I am positioning my soldiers outside the edge where they will be discovered...but I figure, the enemies might patrol and it may get me spotted...so I`ll hunker down for some extra protection.

now ofc the enemy patrols so my recon squaddie gets noticed...at which point he stands up, rushes down to the enemy that spotted him and tries to shank him...this in turn places him in the middle of a open square with 3 enemies that haven`t fired yet...this wasn`t the backup plan I had in mind incase I got spotted...

so my question is.

why did my recon rush when he was hunkered down?

[gimmethegepgun]

If you're playing WotC, I'd guess it's the negative trait "Fear of X" (in which X is some type of alien), which can cause them to panic upon meeting that enemy type, and act erratically.
Without more information I can't say for sure though.

[Fitcher]

Soldiers never move by them self unless paniced or you got a mod that adds some function.

[Abrakadabra]

Yeah, what they said. Your soldiers dont just move or attack without any order, unless they have developed negative traits. Fear of sectoids for example. If your soldier fights a sectoid, he or she might panic. Hunker down only works if you are in cover. If you get flanked, then no bonus is applied. Youll just be flanked and as easy to hit as you would be if you never hunkered down.

A ranger wont be discovered, unless flanked, at which point hunkering down is no effective protection anyway anymore. So dont hunker down, when concealed. And always consider a pods possible and most likely blue move radius. Sometimes, specialyl with mods, pods will dash in a random direction. Get too close, specially with rangers, and you will get discovered pretty often and loose your scouts.

Keep your distance. If you scout with ranger, keep him or her pretty close, just glimpsing ahead, establish los. Later on you will get a feel for when it is pretty safe to scout a bit further around, and when it isnt safe.If you are in tunnels or in terrain that has many corners, then your ranger will get discovered very often, peeking around corners or generally when scouting. Keep them close to your main group, so they can fall back to them or receive cover fire.

[Hakaari]

Originally posted by iluvpumpum:

Yeah, what they said. Your soldiers dont just move or attack without any order

here was the situation vanilla, not WotC,only Mods in use "Evac all" and "Gotcha!":
This was the 2.nd mission on Commander, Ironman.
I started on a rooftop and was ordered to plant C4 on the statue, first round I moved forward into half cover and discovered the first pod on the streets below me. aproximatly 4 tiles away from the red "discovery zone".

I placed all soldiers into "hunker down", as I had no need for overwatch due to not having been spotted yet.

Enemy turn

3 enemies, 1 sectoid,2x advent troopers start patrolling...they move close into the building wall...making it seemingly impossible for them to look up and across..yet the "Discovery zone" managed to place my ranger within it...sectoid somehow spots him,
Ranger stands up and runs down to him with his sword and takes 5 out of 7 hp from him..

only conclusion is that this was one of hose annoying bugs.

[sandman25dcsss]

I cannot explain the bug but I advise you to install overwatch all mod, if you already use evac all. It saves much time and helps in such situations.

[talemore]

Use the skip turn button.

You clearly use hunker down because you don't know how the ability work. Hunker down is only useful when already spotted because aliens have extra turn on being spotted and the hunker boost only last until the end of your turn and at the turn the aliens are spotted you won't have any bonuses. The buff expires because the aliens are using 2 turns, at turn 1 the Alien patrols and at turn 2 the aliens relocate to new positions or shoot your soldiers but by then the buff has already expired because hunker down only last 1 turn.

You could had as well pushed the skip turn button.

[Hakaari]

Originally posted by talemore:

You could had as well pushed the skip turn button.

not sure why I can`t use hunker down for the exact same purpose...another thing to note, I am not looking for advice, I am looking for reasons as to why this happened in the first place

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by iluvpumpum:

Hunker down only works if you are in cover. If you get flanked, then no bonus is applied. Youll just be flanked and as easy to hit as you would be if you never hunkered down.

I'm pretty sure that it works even if you're flanked.

[talemore]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by iluvpumpum:

Hunker down only works if you are in cover. If you get flanked, then no bonus is applied. Youll just be flanked and as easy to hit as you would be if you never hunkered down.

I'm pretty sure that it works even if you're flanked.

It doesn't, the hunker down add bonuses when in cover, it simply boost the cover with a multiplier , the aliens accuracy is so bad that them occasionally miss when not standing in cover. Hunker down is better than full cover when used at low cover and protect from critical, but flanked is flanked no matter if you hunker down or not. Hunker down prevent any movement but not when the buff expired. Trying to trick the game to lock down the soldier is a way to cheat the game, but it doesn't help when panicking. The game will override that and make the soldier run away, just like forced hunker down will make the soldiers hunker down in the middle of the street if not standing next to cover.