I have a suggestion about the implementation of Automatic Ground Combat.
In first X-Com it just pissed me off, when i had to attack small crashed UFO, because it was just a complete waste of time (The missions are long and there're just too many of them).
Some newer UFO games like UFO Aftermath or Alien Invasion had some sort of automatic combat, so you didnt have to deal with theese easy but boring missions (Of course if you were too weak, you could just take the mission normally and win it with better tactics)
In Aftermath you could send a backup team instead, and some time after that you would receive a msg if they were succesful or not. In AI it was your team, but the game just did a calculation of used amunition, loses, kills etc etc...
I would really like to see on or the other in xenonauts for all those out there like me, who like the geoscope more then the actual ground combat.