If Xenonauts was hard sci-fi. . .

I've read a few XCOM fanfics and since Xenonauts is similar enough, it got me wondering how things would be if Xenonauts was a book or series of books in the hard sci-fi genre.

For those who don't know it, "soft" sci-fi allows the existence of vaguely explained technobabble, sometimes bordering on magic. "Hard" sci-fi is stricter and demands a logical and consistent explanation for almost everything that happens, usually based on real physics. Most sci-fi stories are somewhere between those two extremes. Please refer to this article for a more thorough explanation.

Xenonauts, the game, is in a middling sort of setting. On the hard side, humans are individually weaker than combat-engineered aliens, humans don't have psionics, human tech can't go toe-to-toe with alien tech, and the main characters (your soldiers) die by the bucketload. On the soft side, a single global organization with barely two hundred members (depending on how many you hired) can stop an alien invasion, UFOs can be beaten by 1980s jet fighters in dogfights, and the existence of psionics in general.

What if we notch up the hardness a bit? I don't suggest going too far; I actually want to keep psionics, and a proper alien invasion force would roll us up in no time.

Keep in mind, this is all for lore; a "what if Xenonauts was a book instead of a game" thing. Pretend you don't have to worry about game balance and making it enjoyable to play, as opposed to enjoyable and realistic to read.

Things I'd consider changing or noting:

1. A truly global war. By mid-game, the aliens are attacking in three-four waves a month with maybe forty to sixty troops in each wave. If this was a book, I'm thinking something more like a dozen general attacks in population centers with hundreds of aliens, coinciding with strategic strikes at military centers. The Xenonauts would not be expected to handle every battle, but instead would be humanity's trump card, facing the aliens where the battles are most strategically important or high-profile. For example, regular USAF and National Guard would hold the line against the aliens in New York, but the Xenonauts would be tasked with rescuing VIPs, assassinating alien leaders, and of course, boarding alien ships.

2. The Xenonauts is a bigger, more public organization with global jurisdictional authority on everything extraterrestrial. This means a staff in the thousands, minimum, and the ability to commandeer or requisite local forces where necessary. A swarm of UFOs come over the horizon, Xenonauts have the authority to call up local air-forces to join the battle. An alien ground assault threatens to overrun Moscow, Xenonauts have the authority to call up Russian tanks (not that the Russians would need any encouragement in that scenario).

3. Xenonauts get a much bigger budget. Its kinda weird that interceptors based on multimillion dollar planes barely cost you half-a-million. Its even weirder that you get a global budget of a couple of million plus whatever you can sell off, when the USA alone has a current defense budget of over 600 billion. Remember, this is now a book instead of a game, so you don't have to worry about game balance. So let the Xenonauts have access to local radar instead of having to build their own every time. Let the interceptors cost what they should. Let the Xenonauts have a few thousand operators; the US Navy SEALs alone have around 2,700 members.

4. Much of the fighting would take place in and around military airports. The aliens would quickly discover that Xenonaut Interceptors and, to a lesser extent, other atmospheric fighters, would be the first and biggest hurdle in their invasion plans. Consequently, a lot of the aliens' efforts would be directed at destroying or neutralizing military airports or diversion tactics intended to draw out human forces guarding said airports. Say, a terror mission or twelve happening a few dozen miles from Andrews while a squadron of alien bombers and landing craft head try to take/destroy the airport directly.

That's it for now. And for the third time, this is all just headcanon/lorestuff so don't worry about breaking the game. Thoughts?

See this video for how I imagine the battles would feel like. Just pretend that the Novus (the silvery guys with blue lasers in the video) get replaced with Xenonaut operators and their respective warmachines.

EDIT: Almost forgot. Alien armor(tanks). Would they have any and what would they be like?

''quote'' On the soft side, a single global organization with barely two hundred members (depending on how many you hired) can stop an alien invasion, UFOs can be beaten by 1980s jet fighters in dogfights, and the existence of psionics in general. ''end quote''

I can agree with that but the first one can get explained away by saying because of gameplay. Althought how I see the Xenonaut organization pre-invasion is just a a litteraly like in the lore. A couple of guys in a secret base who have hit on some hard times. And that the goverments know of the Xenonauts organization but see it more like a bunch of paranoid idiots because the Iceland Incident got covered up. Which is why theres so little funding for the Xenonauts in the start.

With the airplanes is also more or less explained. The alien ships are meant for space, which is why the ships need to get modified to fly in our atmosfeer. The only ufos that can (in the start) are scout vessels which are generally the alien equivalent of the Model T-Ford. And even then the only airplane that had a chance to shoot these down is the F-17 Condor, in the lore it is only the Condor of the modern airforces that can shoot em down.

Later you ofcourse upgrade your own airforce with new prototypes devopled from alien technology so the balance of power stays the same.

Now for your points you brought up.

1. I agree with you there. The aliens should be more aggressive in there invasion. Even though SPOILER ALERT the Alien overlords are basically toying with us. However this could be changed. Further more the Xenonauts should be more the special forces branch of the invasion. Tasked with gathering new data/tech and handeling special operations (boarding, response to terror, VIP proctection).

From this all earth should be able to up there arsenal. Shall we say that laser weapons are becoming commonplace so the normal soldiers can be equiped with them. Give em a fighting chance or make better missles/planes to shoot down ufos. Think World War Alien.

2. I kind made the this point in the start of my post. The more the Xenonauts show they can handle the situation, the more they can say about how to fight the aliens. (Giving orders to regular army units)

3. In start of the invasion Xenonauts is a largly forgotten organisation with a small budget but the better they handle the Invasion the more money they get. And in the end they get to commandeer the fighting worldwide. With a budget to match ofcourse.

4. There are alot of military installations worldwide. Under 1 unifed front those are almost impossible to destroy. Besides you could convert highways into improvised airstrips. The airplanes could be stored in a freaking garage for all we know. Dig underground factories. Convert the metro, etc etc etc. There are enough possibelties in keeping your production centrums intact.

5. The invasion should have different levels: pre-invasion, start-invasion, mid-invasion, longterm-invasion and finally end-invasion.

Pre-invasion: How to make sure Xenonauts organisation survives to continue the fight.

Start-Invasion: Alien scouting flottila arrives, attacks/bombs several cities, landing in remote areas to set up outposts for when the main force arrives after 4-5 months. (Gives time to make new weapons in high enough numbers) Still alot of infighting on earth for how to best handle the invasion. Xenonaut gaining support.

Mid-Invasion: Forward elements of the main alien fleet arrive, start to invade small cities. Ground war erupts. By the end Xenonaut is leading/coordination the fight.

Late-term Invasion: Main fleet arrives, major cities getting invaded, every country is fighting for dear life. Xenonauts looking for alternative way to win.

End-Invasion: 2 outcomes (cause the humans are going to win), Aliens are fought to a stalemate and are going to wipe earth out with reapers/astroids/reapers-strapped-to-astroids). Xenonauts plan to blow up there mothership/leader so the rest of the Alien fleet suffers a distratous defeat and get defeated on the ground/air.

Second outcome, we are defeated, hardly any military units left. Xenonauts only organisation left intact (1 base left, it ends like it starts) start a all or nothing attack on the Alien mothership to kill there leader.

Outcome: Aliens are defeated either through superior/feriocous defense of earth, or by killing there leaders.

So to recap:

The conflict should be expanded, you start out small and grow bigger with each succes. The longer the fighting last the more there is a us versus them spirit (religion and politcal prevances are not very important when your house is getting nuked by ET) and in the end we win a hard fought victory.

I always like to think that the number of troopers that I have are my elite squadrons and that there are several hundreds of normal untrained soldiers in the base. The elite squadron will be the vanguard forces spearheading with their dropships while the rest would be mop-up crew. Hence for the fact that having no soldiers and losing a base like that would be akin to having the normal soldiers being massacred due to inferior equipment.

The scientists and Engineers number only by the dozens in the game, but I like to think of them as supervisors, mentoring over 10 to 20 people, so you could say that about 100 engineers are capable of manufacturing the Foxtrot in a very short time.

But I agree with OP with the issue of hard Sci-fi. Xenonauts actually is more 'hard' sci-fi than X-Com and most video games, and when I've read the Art book PDF of Xenonauts, I could see Chris's direction to tweak it to realistic levels, for example the predator isn't like a warhmmer beefy beefcake, but a more feasible lean version of it. The issue with it is that the Geoscape gameplay feels isolated, even with the events from UFO attacks. If there are random events that simulated battles with local forces, and thats a new mission type that the Xenonauts can just jump in, then that would make the game more lively than it is.

Man, I remember Iceland incident where entirety of Soviet-American joint force couldn't take down a crashed UFO. Those had been the good days (for the aliens). I like to pretend that I only control main division of Xenonauts squad, and there are other minor sub-divisions handling minor incidents that show up on Geoscape which are not known to the player.

Man, I remember Iceland incident where entirety of Soviet-American joint force couldn't take down a crashed UFO. Those had been the good days (for the aliens). I like to pretend that I only control main division of Xenonauts squad, and there are other minor sub-divisions handling minor incidents that show up on Geoscape which are not known to the player.

Well, judging by the novel's description of the interiors of the crashed UFO it sounded like a battleship. It's not even funny if you're armed with WWII era weapons and take on aliens. Only the AK in the novel served as the ol' reliable when it comes to killing the lizards.