[[1.65/X.CE V0.35.0] X-Division 1.00 Beta (1.00.11c)]

I really enjoy this mod, but one question that bugs me. Why are there xenomorphs in it? It kind of breaks the immersion when you have aliens from a different sci-fi universe crossing over like that.

[Xenonauts 2 - Strategy Design (V3)]

I like the ideas in this thread but the elimination of bases and the teleportation mechanic replacing aerial transport doesn't set right with me as working well. Though I'm also one of the people that is a staunch believer in "if the formula works, don't change it".

I like the idea of how the stages of invasion would work.

Stage 1: Aliens send small scouts to scan for weak points and prime landing locations on Earth. This includes abductions, military base sabotage, aircraft being shot down and increased UFO sightings. At this point humanity largely knows nothing of the invasion.

Stage 2: First wave of the invasion happens, landing ships drop on the Earth and establish front lines and the war begins. Larger UFOs patrol the skies, abductions increase. The world learns they're being invaded.

Stage 3: Second wave of the invasion happens, more and larger landing ships, the aliens deploy more powerful units and weaponry, terror missions start happening.

Stage 4: Total War, cities are being reduced to rubble on the front, both sides are using powerful and advanced weaponry by this point, the actions of the Xenonauts will determine whether you win or lose.

As for making the game seem like a major world war fighting for humanity's survival. Maybe there could be some sort of visible front line on the strategic map? When it gets to the full on invasion stage, large landing craft will appear and proceed to try and land in various places across the world. The craft that land/crash will establish a front line around them. Naturally this front line would favor the aliens as they steadily take over the Earth. However by selling weapons and vehicles to countries the countries will start to produce their own (weaker) variants of high tech weaponry, stalling the alien advance.

As for massive battles, the Xenonauts should have the option to launch joint-strikes with a country on the aliens. The battle would be on the front lines with your xenonauts, AI-NPCs of the country your helping fighting against alien forces. After the mission you would be rewarded on how many of the NPC forces survive, plus push the front lines back in Xenonaut's favor.

If a country loses all of its territory it will launch nukes at the aliens and then surrender, the first time this happens it will devastate the aliens (a strange weapon taking them by surprise) but the second time it happens you will get an event indicating the aliens have developed defenses against nuclear weapons and that the ICBMs failed to launch or detonated shortly after launch.

[Xenonauts 2 - More Alien Aliens]

An alien that fakes death would be nice, possibly after receiving so much damage it falls over and bleeds out, but when a soldier gets within 1 or 2 tiles of it, it springs up and claws at the unfortunate victim, either doing damage or stunning the soldier.

Another is a anti-personnel unit, either a drone or alien that fires a solid beam of energy at a tile while sets the tile it hits on fire. Stronger versions cause everything in the beam's path to catch fire.

Another thing I've thought of is captured (maybe even cloned) humans being genetically and cybernetically modified by the aliens into what could essentially be walking tanks. Not only would it have the psychological effect of seeing something they know was once a person, but also I would imagine the aliens would want something that is physically stronger than a Caesan but a little quicker than a Sebillian. As for the human brain and individuality overcoming the alien programming, just scoop the brain out and attach alien computer to the brain stem in its place.

[Terminator Mod]

I believe Xenonauts would be perfect for a mod set in the Terminator universe, of course due to the constantly changing timeline across the Terminator movies and books you would have to mix, match and make your own story.

I actually tried to mess around with the strategic map .pngs to give Earth a more ravaged look in the event that this mod could happen. All it did was crash my game when I tried it out though.

[For the love of god, someone make an sg-1 mod!!!!]

I say wait and see. The game has only been officially released for a few weeks.

On that note I'm personally waiting for an overhaul based on the Terminator movies to pop up.