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Here's a thought. The idea is to have a real-time combat system that's sufficiently simplified that it's a minigame not a full game in its own right, while not being a stop/start/stop/start like it was in X1 and have sufficient customisability to make each UFO interesting. Why not rip off the real time system from the Final Fantasy series? The Final Fantasy RTS system has seen a number of evolutions through the years, but at its heart is a real-time system that gave you time to think about what you're doing, and nowhere was that more evident than in FF VII. You could have the UFO on the right-hand side of the screen fleeing and the Xenonaut fighters on the left-hand side of the screen pursuing the UFO so while the fight is static, it looks as if everything is in motion. When the Active Time Bar for a fighter fills up you can issue it offensive instructions (such as what weapon to use or where to target). When the Active Time Bar for the UFO fills up, you get the chance to issue a defensive instruction (such as where to evade) to the plane or planes that the UFO is targeting.

If an aircraft is shot down shouldn’t there be a chance that the pilot ejected? Perhaps new missions to rescue downed pilots?

I would prefer not to do air combat, and only do Auto resolve every fight. I can't see why there could not be missile sites doted around the globe, with radar, and then advance to engage in ground combat, with the downed UFO.

I really disliked the X1 air combat game, so much so that after the first couple of playthroughs I autoresolved every fight. I go back to X1 every few months but I haven't played an air combat in years. I found controlling the aircraft an exercise in frustration, the UI was terrible, the graphics were eye melting, and worst of all the whole process was tedious and and took me completely out of the flow of the rest of the game. Having got that out of the way I am looking forward to seeing how this can be improved for the new game. I feel that having more variation on the loadout of your fighters will add an interesting aspect to the game that was lacking from the original. I also like Chris suggestion that the craft be treated more like ground troops in the way the basic airframe can be destroyed but the expensive and time consuming to produce equipment can be saved to be reused. I found losing an aircraft or squadron to be such a massive setback in X1. That it happened in a part of the game I already didn't enjoy was my primary reason for giving up on a campaign. I would prefer pilots to be a separate entity to their aircraft purely because developing some kind of attachment to your soldiers was always a big part of this type of game to me. If I find I have a favourite fighter/pilot that has pulled off a bunch of near miraculous wins and narrow escapes I would feel a bit of a traitor dropping them for a shiny new plane/pilot combo just because I need a power boost. My main feeling on an improvement to the air combat would be for the UFO AI to be improved and for your aircraft to have access to the same. I would much prefer to give orders to the aircraft and leave them to execute them than to have to frantically click or spam pause to give individual instructions. I doubt it is in the scope of what Chris is envisioning but giving a plane a target and telling it to attack aggressively (straight in to optimal range, fire all weapons as able), attack cautiously (stay at longer range, run in to fire missiles then retreat out of range), jam this target, stay out of range etc and then for its pilot to actually do it could feel significantly better. Even Battlefleet Gothic Armada with its fairly basic AI feels like the ship captains can follow orders and you only really need to pause to respond to something really unexpected or to issue a special command.

Is chaff or flares going to be an equipment option? It might make an interesting tactical option for combat if planes/ufo's had a limited quantity of decoys they could deploy against homing attacks. Maybe have an options slot that is configurable for a range of equipment. You could put extra weapons/missles in there, extra fuel tank, improved afterburner for a bigger bump in tactical speed, or ECM, ECCM packages. Would be a way to add more variety to the planes, as you could configure them differently for different sorts of missions. Having consumables for ECM, might give the player some tactical considerations. Do you want to decoy the small fast moving missle that you have less chance of avoiding otherwise but will do less damage or the big, slow moving torpedo that you can probably outrun if you turn away from, but will obliterate you if it hits?

Finally able to get at this again, but short on time, so here it is: I would have liked a turn-based system better for all the players who cannot or do not want to handle the stress of quick decision making in an essentially turn-based game. Personally, I am fine with the X1 system. As for effects, you should always set your goal to making systems as elegant as possible, i.e. easy to learn, good to use all over the game in certain situations and an option to consider all around. Thinking about the clouds, I feel you should go the step further and allow UFOs and later planes to generate their own clouds, and also to develop weapons that are immune (or at least resistant) to the cloud cover mechanism. This could lead to a nice X-Division style arms race between you and the Xenos. And the same should apply to everything you put into the air combat system. Have autoturrets on ships? Cool, let's also be able to drop them on hovering platforms in style the style of air mines. The enemy behaviour system is giving me headaches: Having the enemy dynamically flee can lead to frustration on the player's side, so you have to be careful what to bring into there. Finally: make pilots separate from planes! They could lose some XP when transitioning to a newer model, so your interesting decision would be preserved. You could also add simulators that could mitigate that to some extent.