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Yeah, the original "secret war" idea has been replaced although some of its spirit lives on. An open warfare setup worked better with the new mechanics we've been testing (the orbital bombardment by the aliens and the Relations gain from sharing tech with the funding regions) so we shifted the setting around to fit the mechanics. That said, one of the things I do want to continue to emphasise in the setting if possible is that the alien invasion hasn't actually caused everyone in the world to band together and sing happy songs while holding hands - the various world powers still do not trust one another and don't particularly trust the Xenonauts either (a mutual feeling), they've just been forced into working together by circumstance. The VIP Elimination missions are an example of this; you're literally assassinating (or capturing and brainwashing) a local VIP who is opposed to the region supporting the Xenonauts. They're not alien infiltrators; from the perspective of the Xenonauts they're simply people with misguided views that are endangering humanity and therefore need to be eliminated. And then probably lying to the locals and claiming that they were actually an infiltrator. So, yeah, I want to retain the feeling of the suspicion and misdirection that was part of the secret war setting even though we're returning to a setting where the warfare is more overt.

Needs more Dakka?

@Coffee Potato just as a heads-up, this was a really good idea. We didn't initially set the miss shots up this way because it's simpler to check along the path as the bullet as it travels (because that way the bullet always stops automatically when it encounters a 100% blocking object), but after a bit of experimentation we've updated the system so that on miss shots it pre-calcualtes the hit object by checking the intervening objects in reverse order from the first 100% blocking object. Basically what that means is that for all weapons shots are now more likely to hit objects closer to the target than the shooter. It does indeed look much more sensible and it means units are less likely to blow themselves up with explosive weapons.

Actually this was the one part that I hope would change with Xenonauts 2. The dynamic of the Cold War was something woefully underused in the first game and I hope would be more emphasized. The whole MIB aspect could lend to a multitude of ways to deal with civilians on a map like just non lethally taking them down so that they wouldn’t run around like headless chickens and get turned into zombies by the Reapers or standing in the middle of a firefight blocking your shots. Not to mention the tech sharing possibilities. Maybe each bloc of the Cold War can offer different pros and cons for you to choose a side to tech share so that the war against the aliens will not only change the fate of humanity but the course of the Cold War as well. For instance gaining the favor of the Soviet Union by ruining a coup perpetrated by the US with some help of the aliens in exchange for a missile scientist. Or stealing cargo from a GDR convoy for the FDR to gain a some funds and a communications scientist. This will force the player to either play a game of tight rope balancing the power of two sides to avoid nuclear Armageddon or go all out to support one faction to eventually create a united world against the aliens. At the end there could be three different outcome. 1. You help the capitalist side win and collapse the Warsaw Pact 2. You help the communist win and establish a world government 3. You prolong the Cold War further into space

A sort of escort mission? Reminds me of Chaos Gate. You had a few mission where you had to escort a techmarine to a terminal/generator or an apothacary to a specific individual (in this case, you broke into the enemy base to rescue your captured and wounded battlebrother)