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Pre-combat intel reports


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I usually shy away from posting feature suggestions because I'm very much aware of the development time, so here goes one I know is simple to implement.

Taking into account some other features (such as mixed race missions), I think it would be interesting to occasionally have partial intelligence reports on alien missions, somehow tied into the Geoscape. X1 has the quantum decryption, as did the original game. That's relatively late in the game, and provides full intel. My suggestions would be to also occasionally get partial information about the upcoming mission, consider it information from civilians, local military flights, and so on.

Examples of such intel could be race info ("aliens have deployed robotic units on this mission", "a reconnaissance flight has spotted Sebillians"), numbers info ("a local outpost reported at least 8 hostiles before we lost contact"), and possibly objective/aggression/map info, whatever else fits with the combat.

These should not be available always but should, when they are available, be helpful in preparing for the mission in the best way.

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The mechanic of partial info could be really interesting if the info it gave was particularly relevant. Personally, I didn't change my loadouts too much with respect to the alien species - it was only really androns who had the noticeable vulnerability to EMP grenades. If the cost/benefit of a mission were much more profound, e.g. if there were a cost per unit sent on a mission, then intel would be more valuable. Or, if the weakness of a species could be levered more on the basis of equipment. But you wouldn't want to go too far. There would have to be some benefit to not getting intel, say if getting intel would cost resources or time.

I can definitely see it being a useful addition.

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  • 4 months later...

I feel that last-minute intel would require dropship inventory so your soldiers could re-equip.  

I know if the intel came early enough, it would determine which dropship I send.  I'm not sending rookies to any missions with "Reapers spotted", for example.

But if we're going with early reports, then we need a dynamic array to store roles.  (I am NOT manually going over every soldier prior to every mission, even at the risk of losing a few missions)

Actually, I'd really like it if we could have teams.  Reaction-Fire team, sniper team, breaching team, etc.  and then assign the teams to bases, dropships, city garrison (raise morale and quick reaction to terror raids)

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  • 9 months later...

In X1 they had customizable equipment templates which players assigned to soldiers based on their attributes / need.  Here's something I'd suggest for X2: If, out of 10 soldiers, 6 have high reactions / HP and would be good at prolonged close assaults, 5 have high TUs and strength and would be good with lugging heavy breaching equipment and surprise strikes, 3 have high ACC and are good at sniping / surgical strike - with overlaps between them all.  A great option would be, rather than just assigning each individual soldiers A to J their own single templates, you have three squad templates; the first would have soldiers A B C D E and F equipped for close assault, the second template would have soldiers A C F G and H equipped for smash & grab, and the third would have A I and J equipped with sniper gear.

This way, super soldier A (who is great any of the above scenarios) doesn't have to be assigned only one individual template, and this need to be changed every time he's used in a different role, he can be used flexibly without as much time required to change his template / individual gear.  When the player is presented with a mission briefing up the top of the screen they can make their decisions on which squad template to quickly choose, and then fine tune if they want to bring anyone else along, assign the new additions to the team an individual equipment template or just select it for that one person manually before finally sending the dropship off.  If it's done the same way as XCOM 2, then it's not a "last minute info" thing as they're arriving, but it's a "this is the info we have, equip your team and let's go".  If there is also occasionally an unexpected surprise after the dropship arrives that would add an interesting spin on things, in my opinion.

I also like the idea that, if a template cannot be fulfilled to exact specifications according to how the player last customized it, the game will at least approximate the same equipment.  I always hated it in X1 when I wanted to apply the sniper template to a soldier but the last time I customized it I used precision mags, but this time I didn't have any left for the new soldier to use (only an old precision plasma), however I did have all the other gear.  I was frustrated with why wouldn't the game just give him all the other gear and then approximate the next best precision rifle to give them - or give everything else and at least give me the option of which rifle I wanted them to use rather than have to manually equip everything.

Edited by RustyNayle
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