Feasibility of Airstrikes from the Geoscape

[PsychoLandlord]

Hi all. Let me preface this by stating that a quick search turned up nothing on this topic, so if it has in fact been discussed before then I apologize for wasting everyone's time.

Basically, the idea would be that upon downing a UFO, if, for whatever reason, you cannot/don't want to assault it, you could order in an airstrike using your planes and simply remove it from the map. Obviously, this means no salvage of any sort, but it lets you get rid of a pesky scout crash instead of having to waste time on it, or gets rid of a battleship should you not prepare and your initial landing goes south. The reason I bring this up is because it always felt supremely strange to me to just leave a downed enemy vessel for it's friends to pick up if I couldn't spare the time for it, for whatever reason.

Now, there are a few issues already obvious to me. For instance, depending on the method the Aliens use to progress, it may be too easy to force the game into an eternal stalemate of just blasting every UFO you see and never trying to take one. Maybe I'm jaded by other gaming communities, but I have a feeling that even if you made it clear in documentation what would occur if you did this, you'd still get a ton of people complaining about halted campaign progress when the game finally releases. There's also the issue of realism (assuming anyone cares), like if you managed to down a UFO over Miami and you flatten the beach to blow it up. Likely wouldn't go over well with the Chiefs of Staff.

Now, let me reiterate that this is just an idea that popped into my head, and not only have I not put a whole lot of thought into it, it's very likely there's some game mechanic I don't know about for this thing already. Like I said, I only did a quick search. But if this is a new thing then lets have some discussion about it!

[Gorlom]

I believe there was something mentioned about a function to deal with crashsites from obsolete UFOs that you couldn't be bothered with. But that means only the lower range of the UFO classes you are encountering, not the ones that recently started showing up that you can't deal with just yet... as I understand it.

Besides the UFOs will be comming in waves so there is a chance that you wont have time to go for every UFO giving you a reason as to why you just leave them alone to be rescued.

[GoodGuyEddy]

I do remember there being a mention of tactical missles somewhere on the forums forever ago, buuuuuuuuuut i can't say for sure. But i do recall that (like gorlom said) there probably wont be an option to flatten the stronger U.F.O. types.

[PsychoLandlord]

Cool. I wasn't able to find anything, even on the wiki, but if people recall it being mentioned then I guess that answers my question. Not to mention only having the option to destroy 'obsolete' UFO's makes more sense from a gameplay perspective. Thanks guys.

[The New Romance]

There was some talk about cruise missiles perhaps two weeks ago. However, it was somewhat controversial with regard to possible drawbacks of that strategy, availability of such measures and general tweaking and balancing of such an option.

[Bibidibop]

I think, later on low level UFO's will eventually be automatically eliminated from gameplay. The story explanation is that normal powers gain enough ability to handle them completely on their won. This lets you concentrate on higher level threats.

I like the bombing run idea, but I don't think it really adds to the game. I imagine that the more populated the crash site, the more support you would lose if you order a bombing run because you would be eliminating civilians and infrastructure. But, letting the crash site run out on its own would always be more costly in support lost, because it's scarier, and should result in even more lives and property lost. The downside to this is, it would add more management to the game, and in that way the choice between fight or ignore, is much simpler. I rather stick with the simpler current system.

[MrPyro]

It might have been on the original forums that this was first brought up, as I'm fairly sure it was Word of Chris:

As I recall, Chris stated that there would be an option to click on a crashed UFO and select an option to drop a cruise missile on it rather than sending in a team. I think it was implied that this would give you a neutral score (leaving a UFO gives a penalty because the aliens could escape and cause problems), and obviously you'd miss on any salvage.

Not sure if this is still in the planned design though.

[PsychoLandlord]

Ah. I forgot about the Forum switch, would make sense that a ton of stuff is missing then. In any case, what MrPyro outlined is literally exactly how I had seen the Airstrike option going, the only difference being Tomahawks versus MiGs. So if that is still planned for inclusion, then great. If not, then I'll just chalk it up to game balance. Thanks for the answers.

[Chris]

Actually at present there's no penalty for not attacking a crash site. All crash sites are optional missions. The only thing is that nobody seems to know this and we need a better way of communicating this really..

[AradoX]

Maybe a counter on the crashsite that says something like:

"Site will be bombed by local forces in X days XX hours."

(or is it random how long the crashsite remains on the geoscape?)

Or explain it in the manual/tutorial/tooltips

[Gazz]

Actually at present there's no penalty for not attacking a crash site. All crash sites are optional missions.

Yes, but crash sites only happen if you succeed in shooting down those UFOs.

I thought this thread was about blowing away landed UFOs to abort their mission.

(which might have undesired side effects with terror missions but hey... =)

[Gauddlike]

Well the OP was talking about what happens when you down a UFO, not about ones that down themselves.

That is a good point though about landed UFOs being able to complete their missions.

Does feel slightly unfair though if you can just blow them up to stop them.

Maybe you should give them a chance to see the shot coming and lift off.

Give you a rep reduction for missing or something along those lines

[Nutbar]

I have also thought about the idea of "bombing" a ufo or whatever, and I think it's a cool idea, but it does present a game balance issue. So, I'm not really sure how it would work, but I think it's very interesting.

[Sathra]

Well, we click on the crashsite to launch a dropship yes? Why not have a button saying 'bombard' and 'assault'. Big buttons, with writing under/in them (in bombard's case it'd be something like "local forces will destroy alien crash site completely") and assault is obvious.

It'd add an extra click to get the the dropship launch menu though. Wouldn't show up at all for the landed as opposed to crashed ships.

Although, could have a researchable item along the missile and craft lines for a high-speed warhead. They'd cost a bundle to launch each time ($200,000 - $400,000) and you'd see the missile path from the nearest base (might be a base building, if so, cost would be reduced). Then its up to luck if the UFO leaves before the missile hits, so 'striking' nearby landed UFO's would be a safer bet.