NoirWolf

Or maybe mash your two ideas together so that you get the makings of UFO: Apocalypse type scenario where the humans went "WE HAS UNLIMITED POWAH!" until the aliens went "You guys do know this is a scout fleet, right? The main armada is 15 years away... and it's far better armed."

My prediction of what's in Xenonauts's future (which is about as accurate as any other's considering the unknowable tendencies of the future) is this:

Sometimes I wonder if people have horse goggles on: There's such a thing as game crashes smartass, those can happen for any number of reasons, so do system crashes, power outages, something in the house suddenly deciding to short and cutting the power to all the house, etc. With your idea you'd potentially fuck with allot of people's saves just to add in a safety feature for a game mode which is optional.

Heh I zee yuf found ze Mark 1 Zuper Toodler... quitez unpredictable...ze mark 2 though...sehr gut!

By what I know of programming Osvir if they add in anything similar to prevent save scumming via alt-f4-ing they could run into issues of permanently corrupted save files.

By that token anyone who wants ironman mode can just not save and rely on outsaves , just saying.

Ja, ja , ein firehosen issue! <.< der ist no liederhosen big enough for mein! Also to fill outs ze derp quota <insert clever fire pun here>.

Still doesn't explain how the guys who just finished a week long project on understanding the fundamentals of alien alloys can now move directly to alien plasma technology and not blow their own balls off with a alien pistol due to fatigue.

NEIN! Because evil jokes are ze gut way!

That's... the first time I've heard that particular brand of flawed logic considering the wealth of SF books which deal not only with plasma-level civilizations but those beyond them, Hell for the most part Star Trek depicts a future where humanity is on the cusp of surpassing plasma-level technology ( Warp reactors are after all based on matter/antimatter reactions last I checked and photon torpedoes are antimatter weapons) and I doubt anyone within the Dev team hasn't at least seen an episode from Star Trek. Beyond this we have Star Wars (not very hard sf and not a favourite but it does at least have mentions of post-plasma civilizations), Warhammer 40.000 ( antimatter weaponry is present within the lore, remnants of the Dark Age of Technology and the Imperium of man's tech is a mix and match of 3 different stages in the evolutionary history of technology, IE a majority in late laser tech, some plasma tech and a little bit of antimatter at the bleeding edge of archeotech), etc.

GET ME CLOSER!

The Omnissiah has blessed me brotha with a STC printout for what is called a... separate post battle autosave slot (it might be a bit more exploitable but only if you get into multiple fights in short succession, otherwise it really doesn't play into the save scumming thing).

-snaps fingers- PUNY MORTAL! MY POWAH CANNOT BE TAMED BY SUCH PUNY TRICKS! -cracks knuckles and the terminator next to you keels over snapped in half at the waist-

Alien flashbangs produce a puff of a ganja smoke anyway so the party can begin with or without ocular bleeding!

Random soldier 1: I hear you survived getting stranded over the North Sea! Hero soldier 1: Fuck kid... I wish I was over it... spent 3 weeks in ice cold water! Direct version: Over water it should be a 50/50 chance injured or dead and over friendly it should be 50/50 injured or healthy.

Or merely just have a circular camera traversable area beyond the edges of the map not much bigger but big enough for the player to have no clue where the edge is (it being circular would further decrease the odds of the player guessing the edges correctly without a fair bit of experience within the game and even then it would be a crapshoot when compared to linear borders).

I'd be ok with night vision if the aliens got flashbangs, otherwise nope.

In case of a water landing you may be used as a flotation device.

This could be fixed somewhat by delaying the timing of the aggressive UFOs which hunt down transports, this way you could in theory at least have two bases and cover somewhat the transport between the two of them. Also realism FTW!

Then be careful how you allocate troops and resources? I know that may seem harsh but... if one city has to vanish into the gullet of a alien bug so the world doesn't get raped by greys that's a small price to pay.

My suggestion towards the AI is to have it layered and the difficulty levels split into : Easy: Disorganized group of competent alien AIs. Normal: Organized group of competent alien AIs, organized and commanded by a rudimentary commander level AI. Hard: Organized group of competent alien AIs, organized and commanded by a competent commander level AI. The commander level AI would basically make sure that the aliens wouldn't get overwhelmed so easily (it'd retreat aliens that have made contact and aren't in sufficient numbers to combat the guys you have fighting them) or stand in cover inside the ship while you open and close the entrance door of the UFO (it would make sure to move them towards the door on either side to make your life more fun) and this on rudimentary level on competent it does all that but also has a few strategies under its belt (like withdrawing his troops to draw you in or using aggressive group tactics in a wedge formation later on, or taking on a scorched Earth policy when you're pushing up, things like this, I know would probably be allot of work but still... a guy can dream ).

Fighters would just strafe your guys on the ground to death. Does the game not have a escort option for your troop transport? If yes reload at a earlier point and send the skyranger with an escort fighter or two, the option to land would then require additional things to be scripted in to not just make it a "get out of shit free" card.

Glyph... that sounds like something they might add if they're planning on major things to add prior to release, they're going more for fluff missions they can put together with current assets but if they plan on making any addons or DLCs for the game your mission idea is one that should get put in because it sounds so... I am going to say crunchy (something that as a tactician you can really sink your teeth into as a problem).

I think I will pick Apoc up on steam, I think I can get the first game to run on a tablet I am expecting to arrive soon so gonna keep that for Xcom on the go.