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This sounds like an interesting take, as well as a potentially more logical role for a clandestine organisation in an an alien invasion. (or at least in an alien invasion that can possibly be defeated). If in X2 the xenonauts are a small group of humans occupying a military facility, filled with alien tech and striking stealthily at targets all over the globe, including non alien controlled government facilities, then how do we know that we aren't in fact a mind controlled alien infiltration cell? Or the player is in fact an alien, convincing a bunch of poor humans they're actually opposing the invasion... "No no team, don't dump the alien corpse in public to bring the infiltration into the light, that would cause... errr... panic! Yes panic is much worse than all levels of government being stealthily infiltrated to eradicate humanity." On another note, if the team is going to be attacking government bases, then there are three ways to present themselves: 1. As Xenonauts: They may have a hard time believing you are stealing guns and killing troops for the good of humanity. you look like terrorists to the government, so they will try and wipe you out. 2. As a foreign power: This looks like a normal attack, so they won't be looking for terrorists but they will be massively upset by this action by a foreign power. This is absolutely terrible, as if the aliens are trying to spark a nuclear war, then you're doing their job for them (and probably even better). 3. Impersonate aliens: You get to grab the loot and make the world more suspicious of alien activity. Maybe leave an alien corpe so the soldiers think they killed it to really sell the ruse. This way you don't get the heat and the aliens do, which is great, but if you could pull it off why not instead just publicise the proof of alien invasion and get all 4.5 billion 1977 humans mobilised to stop them? There is an interesting dynamic, where you have three sets of factions: governments, alien infiltration cells and xenonauts (are you the only vigilante group out there?). Aliens want to increase government - government tensions to spark nuclear war. Xenonauts want to increase government - alien tension to get a mobilisation to stop the infiltration. Then the xenonauts can't necessarily tell the difference between an alien cell and another group of xenonaut terrorists... I mean "freedom fighters". So they want to stop alien infiltration cells from raiding bases etc while not wiping out potentially friendly vigilante groups using alien tech to fight aliens (and also themselves attacking government bases because they need more stuff to stop the aliens doing just that?!?). I think there is the basis there for quite an interesting infiltration strategic dynamic, but that could be a ways away from the intended gameplay. One of the big strategic things that needs to be rationalized is why they don't just go public with the aliens. it could be that this is a mechanic, and you have a choice with loot and corpses or captures: research them yourselves to increase capabilities, or pop them off to be dropped in a public place to convince people that aliens are here (and somehow it takes several sectoids in times square before the sheeple wake up!).

I am worried about the direction the update states it is going. -10-15 soldiers by endgame would mean that you will be fighting with much smaller teams (I really doubt 12 man squads will be available), especially when double dipping in key functions and having the cover ops system stapled on top -the focus on anti-infiltrator operations would indicate a significantly reduced focus on battlefield weapons (as in rocket-launchers, mortars and vehicles) fielding and using heavy weapons in a battlefield setting was part of the fun for me, that sets it apart from the Xcom franchise reboot...it was limited in X1 (as it didn't even have a mortar)..but a important part. -the limit of flying only by night makes no real sense to me (aliens and humans alike are unlikely to rely on visual identification of an aircraft anyway, especially in a post or on cold war era setting) what is the idea behind this? -comfort and relaxation base related statistics as well as having a job-unless-fighting kind of system reminds me of games like rimworld, where I have to worry about mental breakdowns because the room ain't pretty enough, or baby them so they get their naptimes...while that works great for that particular game, I'm not really looking forward to this in a more combat focused turn based strategy. -while I have no real problems with a trooper having to be trained to use their particular weapon system, having weapons tied to skills from other disciplines seems self defeating. -boss level enemies results in me seeing the concept of a hard hitting bullet soak.