[Xenonauts 2 Easter Update]

Nice work Chris, this is sounding great. I really like the defensive perimeter idea. Hopefully Australia isn't behind perimeter 1 only and is first to fall like it usually is in X1!!

[Xenonauts 2 - Strategy Design V8]

Can we have the proliferation debuff either cancelled out or minimised through the soldier perk system. To me it'd make sense that the A-team from X-HQ has a lot more experience killing aliens then the region soldiers, and this should be done through a 'vital point targeting' type perk similar to long war.

With regard to air combat, I think that each region only has say 30 planes, which they will also try use against ufos with a pretty bad survival modifier. It would then give urgency to the player to 'claim' regions before they throw all their planes away. Maybe some planes are 'found' during the game in some hidden bunkers, but if there game plays over a month, planes are not going to be built in that time.

[Xenonauts 2 - Strategy Design V7]

I have a couple of ideas based on your comments above Chris.

To give some form of general strategic decision making to the player, perhaps there can be a population density map (like where you see China, India and Europe in very dark highlights and Australia and most of the Sahara has no highlights) that is randomised so that placing the "activation" base needs to be put on the area with the most people. The Level 1 base covers about a third of the region, with Level 2 2/3 and Level 3 the whole region. If a base is placed strategically enough you won't need Level 3 or even level 2 due to diminishing returns.

With regard to Terror missions, perhaps the mission can be a "Beach-head/siege" mission. The aliens have landed a sizeable force, which has been besieged by the local forces. There is a timer before the aliens overcome the siege and capture the region. The mission objective is therefore simple, destroy the alien beach-head, or they take over the region.

What I think would be awesome would be if this "beach-head/siege" mission involved local military NPCs charging at the alien defenses with you, providing thankful distraction and good comedic value, and possibly even a hero who single handedly manages to slaughter all aliens that come his way, a la the classic shotgun farmer. It would make it feel like you are fighting with humanity to save the world

[Xenonauts 2 - Strategy Design V7]

I like where the overall direction is heading.

I want to share an idea about alenium.

Maybe it could be manufactured on earth, eg it is a previously undiscovered alloy using very rare rare earth metals. The problem is that finding viable deposits, mining it and then manufacturing it is especially difficult, especially since 90ish% of the population is gone.

However, once a deposit is found, and a manufacturing facility is set up, you start receiving an amount of alenium per turn, potentially more with upgrades in similar ways to any other upgrades proposed for the game.

The goal of mining the alenium is not so much to pimp out your troops, but to construct a big bertha style ground borne interstellar weapon to destroy the alien mothership.

I see this would be a "technological/industrial" victory condition as the search for deposits and then mining techniques and then manufacturing take considerable time, compared to the standard "military/industrial" victory condition in xeno 1. Also it could be considered a "defensive" victory, compared to the traditional "offensive"" victory.

Perhaps the aliens strongly target these facilities, thereby requiring more defensive style missions than an offensive game where you are hunting ufos.

I don't know if you had considered multiple victory conditions, or that it might ruin the 'twist' at the end of the game, but i think, if it could be balanced well, additional victory conditions would be a great addition to the game.

[Enemy Alert System]

Long time lurker, first time poster...

I was thinking when I first read the OP was that instead of heartbeat monitors it would just be radio check ins. If an outlier enemy was taken out stealthily by your team and he missed a radio check in the enemy would send in an investigative team of 2-3 to see if the dead guy had 'dropped his radio' or was 'taking a leak' or whatever for why he was not responding. Perhaps this would be more if there was heightened security, eg if you have taken a sector of a town and they know you are nearby.

If the investigative team/patrol find the dead body (i know it has been said that moving them is out, but this would be a good reason to have it in) or a member of your team, they would radio in the fact to the rest of the sector.

This would present you with a couple of options, to set up an ambush for the patrol, thinning out the numbers of the sector, or weakening the defences in a different area/splitting the enemy up for you to exploit with what was only a diversion.

As for how to know when to attack maybe you can see the radio check in through floating text above the outlier so you know when you have the maximum amount of time to re-position for your next move