tdl

The current GOG build has a strange issue: when starting the game, it doesn't go to the menu; instead it starts a tactical battle in the desert biome.

As someone else already mentioned I just witnessed some random farmer running into a shot down UFO with its shotgun blasting. He took down some fuckers before being shot. He helped me a lot and would have offered to hire him :-D

I have recently bought the game on gog, but I have played XCom and friends since the first version 25 years ago. In the recent-ish years I was following the UFO:AI project, which is a very nice open source take on the subject. All this to say that one of its strong points is the very deep research tree that ties in with the lore. During the first playthroughs you really try to pace up the research because you are left wanting for more. This could be something to look at in this respect.