Suggestions for Androns and Harridans in the sequel

[Cruduxy]

Hello there! I have a few suggestions for the Andron alien race to differentiate them a bit more from the othe alienr races especially during Terror Missions and base assaults to a lesser extent. This will make them harder to deal with when harridans begin appearing and drones start joining them so I think it'd need them to bring their terror missions at a later date than currently in X1.

A) Androns 

1) All Androns : Can spend 35% TUs to smash through a wall, this will allow them to make new routes for themselves and allies at the cost of possibly being unable to fight instantly. Androns smash cove they walk over for half the TU other units need (so moving other fences is much easier for them).

 

2) Andron Officers : Andron officers start using a new weapon kind instead of the default plasma guns. A line attack shockwave generator with 2 attack modes:

A) Suppress mode : costs 45% TU to attack, Low damage but deals X8 damage to all covers and walls between it and a target, suppression is applied to everyone hit but is halved per each target it goes through.

B) Eradicator mode : costs 90% TU to attack, Very high damage but is fully absorbed by whatever it hits first, the Andron has less chance to use if cover is in the way.

Players can research this weapon to make a replica to compete with rocket launchers for cover removal needs, Eradicator mode included to smash reapers like the insects they are in style. 

 

3) Androns below officers might have an energy dispersal shield equipped to reduce their weakness, flash bangs can short circuit it for a while. Electroshock grenade destroys the shield as well. The shielded Andron rushes in if it is lower rank than a warrior, warriors on the other hand try to stay at the edge of their sight line to take pot shots, avoid easy grenades to delete the shield and a bit more described below in the harridan part of the post.

 

4) Androns can punch people to deal kinetic damage and possibly knock them off guard, allows researching a new stun baton glove with higher damage and the ability to damage walls. 

 

5) Andron royal guards might accompany alien leaders instead of their usual crew to protect them from kidnap\murder. They are similar to officers but with better armor and adorned in the alien leader's color palette. This leads to interesting scenarios where Androns can start a deadly ambush with their allies. by either shockwaving cover or opening new routes for them.

 

B) Harridans

Harridans below officer\elite rankings remain the same mindless drones they were in X1, they also have lower reactions than before as they are supposedly almost unresponsive to scientists attempts to interact with it. Officers are as strong as they were in X1  (Basically have the good reactions they had). Elites on the other hand have a different armor and weapon design, turning them into the terror units for Andron attacks, as the player will have to find and eliminate them quickly before causing havoc, they'll be much more dangerous as expected of terror units sent to well, terrorize a city.

Harridan Elites are armed with a special sniper rifle specially designed to commit both mass murder and more sophisticated sniper tasks, it is fitted with a rifle that bursts fire 5 shots compared to the default 3 with half the range of a normal rifle, generally used to execute civilians and people who try to rush the harridan during a reaction fire, harridan elites attempt to reserve TUs to use reaction fire unless they have a clear shot for an aimed sniper shot or the chance to do more sinister tasks, which speaking of:

1) The elite is accompanied by 1-3 floating cameras, they have a lower sight range than xenonauts, hard to hit as they are small and provide much more refined coordination information to the Harridan than sight by other allies, anyone under their sight is not only revealed to all aliens (As usual) but all Harridan elites on the map will attack them with one of the two new abilities below (they are revealed until the end of the alien turn, even if they run out of range):

2) Delete : a sniper shot to the head, VERY accurate but only used if no cover is between the xenonaut and the Harridan, much deadlier than the normal sniper shot with almost no chance to survive it bare the most well armored predators and shield users. can be used from the air unlike normal attacks and costs the same as a SNAP shot, the harridan will almost immediately lift off to attempt and cover as much line of sight as possible and kill up to three people covered by cameras! so always stay in cover with those snipers in the air. 

3) concentrated plasma shot : When a unit is in camera sight but behind cover or impossible to hit by delete the harridan swaps ammo to a plasma mode that deals little to no damage to flesh and alien alloys but causes most covers and walls to melt over the next turn, this infects nearby walls and causes them to slowly wither as well, while in this mode the harridan is especially vulnerable as it cannot burst fire anyone rushing to attack it (however if they get in camera range to do so, horrible results are ensured) 

In addition Andron officers are able to throw more cameras as grenades, which increases the priority to kill them beside just their ability to destroy cove and possibly eradicate someone for high damage. Andron Elites and all scout drones on the other hand provide LIVE camera feed to harridan elites and have a 4x4 zone around them where people are revealed for the sniping abilities. Harridan elites will stop accompanying other races and come exclusively with their robot guardians to punish humanity for stopping previous experiments.

These changes will force players to play with more traditional ballistic attacks and less explosives as those can reveal your xenonauts for a merciless execution during Andron terror missions instead of just being a battle against Androns as it was in X1 (usually nuking them to orbit, the same way all other terror missions are approached). This won't be as scary if Sebellians lose Reapers though (if the are confined to hives) as reapers usually require more explosives or bunkering down to handle while the harridans are much stronger if everyone is in one area waiting androns to eventually come and destroy all covers. 

 

They are balanced by new rewards to make up for the well earned new high tech weapons and Andron circuits, possibly allowing them to make similar sniper rifles, shockwave blasters, power gloves, sensory armor alternative to sentinel that can reveal 3x3 around the user through walls and the like. They'd also add more variety and intensity to fights with the Andron race. 

 

Possible addition : New kind of terror missions where the androns captured everyone in the city in one spot in a random area in the city (with a chance of fortifications and pens around them). a larger number of civilians than usual start in that area (with some still scattered around the city as usual), the area is revealed through fog of war (the aliens are transmitting it live across the entire globe for humans to see), A harridan kills one of the civilians each turn and if they all die it'll be an even bigger damage to score than usual, even if the aliens are killed but the player was too late to stop the horrifying footage from happening.