That Terror Mission

Ever had a terror mission that was just going on forever? I am currently in one that I think I have finally finished but the aliens still seem to have a turn. Maybe there is one lonely guy hiding in a corner somewhere.

This actually brings me on to suggest that there should be a third type of finish for terror missions: "Local forces secured the city with help from Xenonauts". The set up would be something like there are one or two aliens left on the battlefield when you abort. This way you don't have to dick around forever trying to find that one guy. It also means that if you are low on ammo and don't think your guys can handle it you can be like "There you go guys just a few left to mop up. We are off for tea and biscuits." It would grant less of a boost than clearing the terror site but significantly more than losing it. Opinions?

Ever had a terror mission that was just going on forever? I am currently in one that I think I have finally finished but the aliens still seem to have a turn. Maybe there is one lonely guy hiding in a corner somewhere.

This actually brings me on to suggest that there should be a third type of finish for terror missions: "Local forces secured the city with help from Xenonauts". The set up would be something like there are one or two aliens left on the battlefield when you abort. This way you don't have to dick around forever trying to find that one guy. It also means that if you are low on ammo and don't think your guys can handle it you can be like "There you go guys just a few left to mop up. We are off for tea and biscuits." It would grant less of a boost than clearing the terror site but significantly more than losing it. Opinions?

An old game called Silent Storm had a system so that when no combat was happening and no enemies were near you, the game would go into "Real-time mode", which essentially gave your soldiers infinite TUs as long as they didn't fire their weapon or were spotted by the enemy.

Yeah, Jagged Alliance does the same thing.

The alien base missions I don't think should end when you capture the command room - it's an alien base, you have to secure it.

Terror sites, perhaps. It's a bit difficult to think of how it could be communicated to a player without making it obvious when there were 3 or less aliens / whatever remaining on the map though (allowing you to abort and still win)?

In alien base, maybe have all the remaining aliens rush to command center when it's secured?

If you want something suitibly nebulous you might have something like:

• "Observers spot alien terror craft departing at high speed"
  
• "The streets are now quiet except for the sound of the injured and dying"
  
• "You can hear the sound of ambulance sirens in the distance"
  
• "Military radio traffic now sounding all-clear"

This is a situation where I have always found the best tactic was to save and then send a guy in every direction, when you have found the camper reloading the save and advancing properly.

Perhaps a touch "not in the spirit" but it's what I found to be the best way to solve the last Sectoid issue with Xcom.

Often the last alien is in a building and has low morale which means he just camps.

It is one case where missile spam can be fun and useful. Just go on a demolition spree.

For alien bases, how about when the command center is secured, the FOW is removed? Arguably the commander is monitoring the battle in the base, so your troops should be able to tap into his live feeds.

I have also tried an alien spawning on some vases which made it so he couldent move. This was in a crash site mission thou. It was only a small craft so the map was small and i found him quickly.

For alien bases, how about when the command center is secured, the FOW is removed? Arguably the commander is monitoring the battle in the base, so your troops should be able to tap into his live feeds.

Possibly the best solution to the issue I've seen thus far.

Also incentive to rush to the command center

Terror sites, perhaps. It's a bit difficult to think of how it could be communicated to a player without making it obvious when there were 3 or less aliens / whatever remaining on the map though (allowing you to abort and still win)?

With terror sites... how about "the army" arriving when there are 3 aliens or less?

An AI hunter or 2 with a couple of AI soldiers... and they know where the last aliens are hiding.

This speeds up a mission that is about won anyway without a gamey prompt telling the player that there are now 3 aliens or less and he can go home.

If AI soldiers die, new ones respawn at the edge of the map. So they will win this fight.

Thank you, Commander, we got this!

Or the player can follow the AI soldiers' lead and help them take out the last 3 aliens. Either way it takes care of the "hunt down the last alien" issue without any out-of-character tools.

Possibly the best solution to the issue I've seen thus far.

Terror sites, perhaps. It's a bit difficult to think of how it could be communicated to a player without making it obvious when there were 3 or less aliens / whatever remaining on the map though (allowing you to abort and still win)?

How about just a message that says: "Military and police units are moving in to secure the area. The Xenonauts are relieved with thanks from the situation Commander."

That's roughly how UFO:Aftermath handles it, you kill X enemies and it is assumed that the rest scatter or such and the CoG army moves in to secure the site. Of course that makes less sense given how Reapers operate...

I haven't really seen any issues with the aliens just finding somewhere to hide, in the terror attacks, once I kill one or two the rest seem to come running without much prompting. A good sweep and clear methodology is critical too. Sweep the buildings one by one as you move across the map. It can slow you down a few turns, but doesn't leave you hunting for that one lone Xeno that has levels in ninja.

How about local forces radioing you and telling you where they think the alien is?

Recently I had few terror missions to play. Since Ironman was removed from Insane, I am playing on this difficulty. I've noticed a very strange numbers in civilians. Despite mission being terror, there are very few civilians in there like 4 + 2 armed. That's double the amount of a simple crash. Shouldn't terror mission have twice more civilians ? So a total number of civilians would range from 10-14 ?

Yes I know - there will be complaining about reapers breeding and stuff, but well OG had that kind of number and Chrysalids also were fast.... and you could live with it...

Shouldn't terror mission have twice more civilians ? So a total number of civilians would range from 10-14 ?

Yes I know - there will be complaining about reapers breeding and stuff, but well OG had that kind of number and Chrysalids also were fast.... and you could live with it...

Agree. XCom:EU and EW also have about 18 civilians in terror missions, with chrysallids running about.

I've mentioned this before, but I also wish there was a financial incentive for saving civvies (which would introduce a interesting, continual risk/reward calculation for moving your troops ahead faster). I know I'd happily give the Xenonauts my IRA and 401k if a reaper was about to eat my face

I don't know, I was on a scout drop a few days ago where there were no civilian fatalities, and the two armed locals racked up more kills than my squad did. Wasn't seeing anything but kept hearing gunfire, when I finally got close enough to see what was going on, I found nothing but Sep corpses, and two dudes in parkas with 12 gauges just chillin'. Could almost hear them telling my guys "We got this!" when my guys walked up. Final tally was about 7 aliens dead, I killed the two in the UFO. Guess they were hiding out like "Oh S***! There's some crazy Mother #%$#ERS out there!"

Honestly... the whole deal was a little anti-climatic for me.

I don't know, I was on a scout drop a few days ago where there were no civilian fatalities, and the two armed locals racked up more kills than my squad did. Wasn't seeing anything but kept hearing gunfire, when I finally got close enough to see what was going on, I found nothing but Sep corpses, and two dudes in parkas with 12 gauges just chillin'. Could almost hear them telling my guys "We got this!" when my guys walked up. Final tally was about 7 aliens dead, I killed the two in the UFO. Guess they were hiding out like "Oh S***! There's some crazy Mother #%$#ERS out there!"

Honestly... the whole deal was a little anti-climatic for me.

Certainly made for an interesting story though! Perhaps they (the filthy xenos) should finally learn that assaulting humanity is not a good idea since we're all utterly INSANE.

Back onto the topic of Terror missions, I'd certainly love increasing the amount of NPCs (for both sides) that spawn. While the civilians would simply become all that more aggravating, what with them running around like headless chickens, I'd certainly love to see more firefights between regular military troopers and the aliens.

All for more npcs that would be amazing. ONe request however. Can we change their AI so they do not sit in front of the door stopping me from saving them from the xeno menace.

All for more npcs that would be amazing. ONe request however. Can we change their AI so they do not sit in front of the door stopping me from saving them from the xeno menace.

But...! BUT HOW WILL WE GET THAT AUTHENTIC OG X-COM CIVILIAN MADNESS?!

Civilian: HEY LOOK A CHRYSALID! GUYS THERES A CHRYSALID OVER THERE! LETS ALL RUN OVER THERE INSTEAD OF BEHIND THOSE LOVELY SOLDIERS!

Who doesnt want that authentic feel!