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Interrogating aliens (and alien "personality" in general).


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One of the more annoying things to me in original Xenonauts at least is the fact that most "rank and file" aliens were mindless thralls that simply followed orders and lacked any sort of initiative on their own in the interrogation reports; conflicting with their often intelligent battlefield performance, where they'd try to avoid damage, take cover, etcetera- clearly showing some self-preservation instinct, unlike the "stand and shoot" baddies from 1994's X-Com (which would more closely mirror mindless grunts).

The fact that the aliens are now attempting to communicate with humans (whether through telepathic influence or direct speech; I imagine they could understand human speech but as a method of confirming intel/monitoring their operations' results) opens the doors for far more exciting interrogations than simply trying to figure out what a burst of radio waves means when an alien is spamming "REQUESTING ORDERS" constantly. My thoughts:

  • Caesans, being the least combat-capable but most intelligent race, seem to be the prime "technicians" for the subversion operation. It is worth considering that they were a conquered race in Xenonauts 1, and are similar to XCOM's Sectoids in being a "bottom-tier" race, so having them effectively be conscripted/mostly unwilling to fight would be an interesting mechanic in determining how they would behave toward the Xenonauts when in captivity. (As an unrelated side note: Why were they changed into squat, strange creatures? The almost human, tall appearance of X1's Caesans was quite interesting and unique relative to the not!Sectoid look they now share).
    • Noncombatants would be fearful and compliant with your orders, obviously since they lack any sort of military training or role and are simply pilots/engineers/etc. I would think military-type Caesans would not be quite as pliant but would obviously buckle quickly under threat of/actual torture.
    • There could be "specialist" Caesans capable of communicating in human language, and capturing one could be a startling success for the Xenonauts; if they were incapable of decoding alien language previously, having what amounts to an interpreter- even one operating under duress- would be invaluable. This could be reflected in modified interrogations; perhaps you would need a Caesan "interpreter" on hand to communicate with aliens, and before that you could only glean a basic behaviorial analysis.
  • Sebilians seem unintelligent and violent, raising questions as to whether or not they even have a culture of their own/are just "shock troops" for whatever power governs the aliens in X2. I would imagine that even speaking to one would be a hard question, as they seem to be the sort of alien that would give out the equivalent to "name, rank, number" and nothing else even when tortured (a difficult task given their resilience). If you could actually speak to one and get information from it I would imagine they would be fairly knowledgeable regarding weaponry and basic tactics but not much else, akin to XCOM's Mutons.
  • Disabled/"reprogrammed" Androns could be an interesting "interrogation" (along with other robots in general); if a damaged Andron was reactivated with its code "cracked" it could be made to move around (testing its capabilities), data could be gleaned from its systems, and the same could be said for most drones. Calling back to the "technician Caesans" note, perhaps you would require the technical knowledge of a Caesan to understand how the Andron/drone operating system works.
  • Reapers are just savage animals and I do not see how an interrogation could be useful for one aside from determining how its reproductive system precisely works. Of all of X1's alien interrogations I feel the Reaper one hit the nail on the head the best.
  • Harridans seem to have zero idea of what's going on around them aside from taking sniper shots, so the "mindless thrall" archetype would work the best for them; indeed, I could see some scientists letting one wander around minus its weapons, owing to just how harmless they are when not performing their one and only job. They don't seem to be even capable of speech; if possible I'd imagine they'd simply request a new target constantly.
  • Wraiths were well handled in X1, being flighty and "paranoid" in mannerism, but not much else was learned about them aside from the fact that they were good at most combat-related skills. To be fair though I don't see how this would be expanded much; after all, if you left the teleporter nodes in their head, they'd likely jump straight to the armory and grab a rifle off the rack. Actually. That would be quite interesting- having your alien captives break out and try to arm themselves with human weapons from your base armories.
Edited by Rifle Infantry
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Thanks for the thoughts. I'm curious how this would manifest in the game, though - I mean you could write some flavour text in the interrogation report that hints about it (e.g. "the Caesan was extremely co-operative after the correct methoids were applied") but I'm not really sure what it would equate to in practical gameplay terms?

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As flavor text, actual "interrogation logs" (assuming you could speak directly to an alien through one means or another) would be quite interesting.

On a more mechanical view, special interrogations on specific castes (quicker to research but less valuable than full sized race interrogations a la previous games) would be interesting. For instance, a noncombatant could grant information on basic scout UFO capabilites, a soldier could give you research credit towards energy weapons/Alenium, the knowledge of what loadouts certain aliens have, and other useful tidbits related to their jobs.

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7 hours ago, Chris said:

Thanks for the thoughts. I'm curious how this would manifest in the game, though - I mean you could write some flavour text in the interrogation report that hints about it (e.g. "the Caesan was extremely co-operative after the correct methoids were applied") but I'm not really sure what it would equate to in practical gameplay terms?

Have you considered bringing alien morale events back? I think they worked just fine in the first X-Com, and they provide the opportunity to give some of the alien personalities a visible gameplay effect beyond just flavour text.

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On 7/26/2018 at 11:06 AM, Solver said:

Have you considered bringing alien morale events back? I think they worked just fine in the first X-Com, and they provide the opportunity to give some of the alien personalities a visible gameplay effect beyond just flavour text.

That is a good idea!  I always enjoyed gunning down lone sectoids that dropped their weapons in panic.

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On 7/26/2018 at 5:06 PM, Solver said:

Have you considered bringing alien morale events back? I think they worked just fine in the first X-Com, and they provide the opportunity to give some of the alien personalities a visible gameplay effect beyond just flavour text.

Yeah, it's something on the "nice to have" list but I'd definitely like to do it. To be honest the whole morale system is pretty undercooked in Xenonauts and I'll be revisiting it in the polishing phase of the game to see if I can make it more interesting and a bit less random.

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Rifle Infantry Although I'm not a lore master, I can't help but think that several points of your first post conflict somewhat with Xenonauts-1 lore, or the one I had understood, at least. Lore/background in Xenonauts-2 could be different of course, and your ideas could represent some first misconceptions before the humans fully understand the alien organization, and given that the engineered alien brains deeply alter the original species' behaviour.

I think that it's difficult to speak about various aliens' psychologies until the kind of domination that the superior species claims on the subdued species is not certain, and you know what level of freedom is granted to them, depending on the rank/class.

Several paragraphs in Xenonauts-1 hinted that some cultural memory were still used by high-ranking individuals (e.g. customized uniforms).

Then, as Sebilians were speculated to belong to a former hierarchic, warlike society with a kind of "honour/war" code. I expected that high-ranking individuals would have memories of this, to a certain extend.

Harridans were not mindless thrall and were depicted as skilled pilots, and space-born technicians as well as sharp shooters, owing to the fact they might consider their weapons as another tool, and their deadly task as another technical job. They were only described as utterly autistic and focused.

Cracking the master code on Androns was seen as a possibility to free the former Andron personality if possible.

Do the clones return in Xenonauts-2?

Back to Xenonauts-1, every alien belonging to a subdued species, in a given class, was a clone (e.g. any Caesan non-combattant was biologically the same as another Caesan non-combattant). Moreover, every such clone had only a shared class-personality and a short-term self-preservation instinct. A clone could face interrogation and destruction with calm because he believed in a kind of intra-class immortality (this perception being more elaborated the higher rank/class the clone was).

As I understood things in Xenonauts-1, and as I'd see them in Xenonauts-2,

  1. Each superior species individual (a "master") benefits from total freedom, and controls a number of partially lobotomized/locked/engineered subdued species clones, depending on its power and influence in the "Empire". However, we are informed at the end of the game that the captive low-power master is knocked out (or confused) when its superior is killed. Perhaps, the hierarchy in the masters' society (the Empire) is build through/is doubled by psychic subordination and dependency (and mental link).
  2. Each clone is programmed to believe that he's immortal and that his current corporeal form is just as useful as the mission needs it. In other words, none of them fear torture nor foreseen destruction because they somehow know that a copy of themselves is waiting for being activated (this is what they believe in, not the reality). A high-ranking clone could explain that "he" is actually many and one at the same time. Though the lore bits in Xenonauts-1 dismissed any kind of hive mind (in a given class/rank), it was not clear how two same-class/rank individuals would refer to each other: Are we one? Are we different? Are we mentally linked? Am I ever aware of the other one? As high-ranking aliens seemed to have reminiscent cultural traits, the brain programming in the cloning process could be akin to a hard disk copy, with original data keep being transmitted from the original clone on.
  3. Each superior species individual (a master) controls exactly two overseers (leaders), one Caesan and one Sebilian. These species were allowed to be integrated in the Empire because they can work together in a complementary way. Those clones have a high degree of self-awareness and freedom of action, are highly skilled and trained, but still believe in their immortality. They are aware of each other, have a limited insight of the Empire's organization (including the belief that their own species was conquered by a master race, and allowed to serve), know the existence of other "masters" and their own overseers, and of the mass of "thralls". They just believe that they serve their master because it's the natural order and are perfectly loyal to him. They are mentally linked to him, they are his eyes and ears, and even his advisors (in their respective field of proficiency). Two same-species overseers (e.g. two Caesan leaders) can't be active at the same location at any given time, but perhaps, powerful masters could control several same-species overseers sent on different missions (and locations).
  4. The two overseers control the lower ranks, either directly, or most often by means of mentally linked controllers (officers). The mental link is the only psychic power allowed for Sebilian overseers and controllers. Controllers perceive the different species which they have to work with, so that they can use their assets efficiently (i.e. a Caesan officer may control a Sebilian soldier). They don't know anything about the Empire and the masters, and only knows about "the one that sees all" (their overseer). They are highly autonomous at a mission's level, and don't need to be constantly fed with new orders.
  5. All the lower ranks but the Elite have low self-awareness and the lowest of them barely understand the goal of their mission. They need to be fed by orders from a controller, except for basic fighting tactics (returning fire, scouting, ...). They can be asked to kill themselves.
  6. Any species can be produced at a special rank/class code-named "Elite". These individuals are the best engineered of their species. They are awesome combatants and seem to be only dedicated to kill. In that sense, one can ask if they are not even more powerful than the original species ever used to be. Hints suggest that they are as able as controllers, and the fact that they wear the best equipment, armour included, should mean that they are the most valued troops, worth to be spared, even for clones (or else to be reserved for heavy duty). Their value on the battlefield put them on top of the controllers. However, as interrogation doesn't give additional information (and is not included in the game), it's not sure whether they could partly share the high degree of awareness and freedom of overseers, and form indeed a cast of semi-autonomous clones (no need for controllers to be efficient), or else be like a more durable, beefed-up version of the same "mindless" warriors, produced only when the opposition becomes very harsh.

 

Only after this clone question is answered to, the different personality of each species (both perceived and real) can be sketched, to lead to every class/species combination.

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