Grimbach

Now this is a good point. If the script that controls the campaign is sufficiently exposed and documented I could take a crack at modding in my own longwar campaign. For that matter, could you not include an example campaign mod that does nothing more than present ever-increasing difficulties of ships? If it's as simple as I think it is (which it could very well not be, depending on how other assets are tied into campaign progression) it wouldn't cost more than a couple person-days of dev time.

Very true, I am ultimately getting hung up about realism in a game. In the vein of realism, smoke grenades are actually a significant fire hazard, as generating the smoke is an exothermic process. There's no explosives though, so you're unlikely to get a penetrating or lacerating injury from a smoke grenade. In this case, it's actually unrealistic that smoke grenades would injure units standing too close, at least as depicted in game. That said I'm also unaware of any (infantry portable) smoke grenades that instantly disperse a large cloud of smoke, instead they emit a cloud over time and may take some time to build up to a useful thickness, and they're also highly subject to wind. Having said all that, I'm now wondering of the Xenonauts purloined smoke canisters from a main battle tank, as those would have the instant dispersal seen in game... They'd also block thermal optics and be completely blinding to Sebillians... Perhaps it's best I don't deep dive and just accept the game as it is.

I'm a fan of long campaigns, and one of the features - or rather quirks of design - I enjoyed about X1 was the pseudo-infinite nature of the invasion. So long as you maintained control of the skies, you could play as many rounds of UFO: Breach & Clear as you wanted to. Indeed, that's often what I did, building a roster of dozens of elite soldiers with Sentinel armor and Mag weapons before I even entertained the notion of starting operation Endgame. Because of this I'm cautiously optimistic of the ticking-clock added by the Alien weapons platform. Thematically it does a very good job driving home the aliens superiority, and the added time pressure should prevent a soft-lock situation where you don't have the capability to engage or capture any of the UFOs spawning in later months. However, as things stand now (I understand that we're in very early development, and that everything is subject to change) it feels like the game is running on a set schedule, without much room to play longer if you wish. Research the tech tree on time to stay ahead of panic, then launch the endgame seems like it will be the only strategy possible. Thus, I propose this; At some point generally in the middle of the game, UOO-1 is removed. Perhaps Dr Snidely had you test the tactical viability of the aliens jumpdrive by inserting an alenium-augmented Nuke into UOO-1. Perhaps you manage to board and capture the device, again as humanities first foray into using the jumpdrive. Whatever way it's implemented, there is no longer a hard time till extinction. The invasion then changes and escalates, but in a way that the player can fight off indefinitely. You might ask why the aliens would let go of such an insurmountable advantage, but I remind you that a key thematic point of X1 was that the Aliens were evaluating us for assimilation, not attempting our extermination. Indeed, if they wanted us dead they could simply tow some large asteroids into an earth-crossing orbit and wait.

Flashbangs are still explosives in a metal casing, just ones optimized to release blinding light and a concussive blast. Tasers generate debilitating electrical shocks capable of inducing cardiac arrest, and beanbag/foam rounds can kill if fired from too short a distance or strike the wrong part of the body. Thus why the technical term for them is less-lethal, not non-lethal.