I found if you engage the scientists from far away, they just stand there and don't react. I just killed a bunch from 250m away. Is this behavoir fixable? Also, any chance of adding Copy Paste support and spawning the scientists in with some sort of protection they can hide behind? It doesn't have to be like Raidable Bases, just little things to hide behind.

I doubt if there is , there is a maximum range that animals and bots detect and react to players, I added this to my bat file a few years ago to try to maximise it but changes made by FP negated it somewhat
+ai_to_player_distance_wakeup_range_320

You will also find that if you were able to maximise it players would scope and kill them from further away and outside that range