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So... this morning I was thinking maybe we can streamline the turning part of ground combat. Removing tactical depth is certain to attract naysayers, I myself has said no for other ideas too, so here is another option... If we press Alt when we issue the order to move, the soldier will move sideway / backstep as necessary to keep their facing. I won't mind if it cost a little bit of additional TU per tile. I find myself doing this on two soldiers for three turns in a row: Walk to edge of rock wall. Turn to peek, see nothing. Walk one tile out of the wall. Turn to look. May see enemy, may see nothing. Turn back and walk to safety. Turn back again to keep watch. If we have sidestep, it'll be much simpler and efficient, and I hope more intuitive (less stupid) once the player get use to it: Sidestep two tile out to look. If soldier see the enemy when it reach the wall corner with his first step, he will automatically stop. Sidestep two tiles back to safety. Side/back stepping is also useful in many tactical situations, so I think it'll see many use once implemented. It can also make light armours more maneuverable (full sharfe) than heavy armours (forward and backward 45' sharfe) and SHIVs (wheel or tracked). Main cons that popup in my mind is... how about the aliens? The animation and intelligence is going to cost and they may look rather stupid While I am writing this, I suddenly remember the soldiers seeking cover in Apocalypse when they come under enemy fire. If I remember correctly, they would turn back from enemy, run, turn, run, and turn back to face the enemy, all on their own. I already felt it was hilarious at the time.

As the title implies, how about having different "classes" of craft that have unique advantages and disadvantageous like a support that deploys turrets (and flares when doing night missions) at the landing site that remain active for x amount of turns/until destroyed but they are slower or a high speed troop transport that is faster than any other and could take on a UFO in a fight but carries less troops.

The original XCOM allowed you to load up the dropship with additional items up to a certain amount. @Chris do you have any plans on implementing this? Currently we seem to be overloading our soldiers to get more ammo and rockets into terror missions and then dropping them all in the dropship (which loses a few units their first turn). This is rather frustrating and time consuming but essentially achieving the same thing; having a limited inventory and the inconvenience of having to return to the dropship could be a good balance. Alternative idea could be to allow tanks / scout vehicles to have an inventory - with a risk of being destroyed and losing all your gear.

Able to end an alien invasion at first day looks like a Hollywood scenario. If you could end it with 6 brave people with standart weapons, then I would laugh to that invasion. I think it should be impossible to reach to the end boss with earth tech. I like to play as long as I want. It gives you the sandbox feel. Even xcom 2 countdown got very harsh reaction from gamers. I am against cool downs but possible early ending is fine for me. I would like to have more then 1 step to the ending, not just one mission. If you fail it, you should able to escape and game should continue.

The flares and turret was just a rough example. Here are some of my sort of more thought out ones: "Boxer" Heavy duty class: more HP if intercepted by a UFO, the main and side doors having medium cover attached to the doors, can carry vehicles/slower then other, uses more fuel, can't carry extra troops "Valkyrie" Medical class: improves all healing done to troops who are inside the craft, increased chance the crew will survive a crash, decreases civilian casualties during missions and gives the civvies a chance to get knocked out instead of killed/less HP, can't carry vehicles or extra troops, uses more fuel "Interloper" Interceptor class: Fastest dropship available and could do some good damage to UFOs, can attack and disable landed UFOs, lands closer to crashed UFOs/less HP, can't carry vehicles "Red Army" Carrier: carries the most troops out of any dropship, can carry vehicles at the same time and extra troops but airdrops vehicles near the landing site instead of rolling out the craft/the slowest of all the craft and uses a lot of fuel Still very basic but just to show the concept of it.

Not sure if I agree with landing craft actually doing stuff like firing flares or firing on enemies, but I do like the idea of several distinct kinds of landing craft, especially if you start with at least two already unlocked. Off the top of my head, you could have one landing craft that fits more troops and perhaps has more doors and windows, like the Chinook, and a smaller craft that fits far fewer troops, but is faster and has longer range, and perhaps also has a higher chance of not being intercepted by UFOs as it flies low or has stealth technology or whatever? Not the best example, of course, but what I'm trying to say is, it would be fun to be facing a mission and think "which helicopter/plane should I use for this one?".

I don't know that it's unrealistic. Troops have almost always waited for night to pass and fought in the daytime. You only fight at night if you're forced to or it gives you some advantage. A medal or something similar might be interesting, though.