Scout/Reconnaissance Equipment

[Leffen]

Are there any plans to put in additional equipment to help with scouting and recon/recce on tactical maps? In X1 if you wanted a dedicated scout to push back the fog of war and reveal the map, your only real option was to take a unit with high TU and Reflexes, give them Buzzard/Sentinel armor and a pistol, and wish them luck. I always found it strange that by the end of the game you had the ability to manufacture anti-gravity power armor and singularity cannons, but somehow couldn't slap together a pair of night-vision goggles. I suspect this was either down to development limitations (eg issues with the engine, lack of time, etc), or it was an intentional omission by the devs because they didn't think it would fit with their vision of the game. If it's the latter then unless there's a fundamental change in the game's design priorities from X1 (which doesn't seem to be the case), it's probably not going to be in X2. On the other hand, if it was the former then there's potential room for bringing it in at some point in development.

I have a "sales pitch" for how such equipment might work along with possible upgrade paths, downsides/alien countermeasures, etc but I don't want to dump a wall of text on people unprompted, and I've forgotten how to do spoiler text boxes (do forums even still support the old [modifier]text[/modifier] system? I haven't been to one in years). If there's interest, I can post the details later.

[DaviddesJ]

I think you can mostly avoid fighting at night. Also, what if the aliens aren't warm-blooded? There's flares, if you do have a night fight. Being able to scout over obstacles, through walls, etc., seems more important than night vision. Modern military forces use lots of drones for reconnaissance now, but not so much in 2009.

[Ruggerman]

You can Avoid night engagements, by just waiting for the sun. You will generally get a couple of days to send a ground party, so it is not urgent that you set off immediately.