Suggestion: Recon Airplane Module/Spy Plane

[Jorlem]

I'd like to suggest the addition of a dedicated spy plane, and a camera/recon attachment that can be put on an existing airplane. 

 

What I envision this doing would, if you were to fly the plane over a crashed UFO site or some other aboveground mission site, you would start with the terrain revealed. Not the enemy locations, just the terrain. To work, the plane would have to go out and return before sending out the attack squad, and would need to overfly the mission site during the day. (The in-universe explanation would be that the recon photos would be used in the pre-mission briefing, so the soldiers would know what the terrain is. Out of universe, this would be to prevent you from having the recon flight go over the mission site right before the transport arrives.) For UFO crash sites, this could also tell the player what some of the aliens present at that crash site are, before the player gets the Quantum Array.

 

To balance this, if the plane attachment is used, then the hostiles would know you are coming. This would result in a UFO crash site expiring sooner, potentially preventing you from waiting for daybreak, meaning that you would have to decide to go in blind during the day, or go in with more info, but risk needing to do a night mission (this is why needing to go back to base with the pictures before sending the transport out is important), and maybe adding the risk of Cleaner presence at the crash site. For Cleaner bases, them knowing you are coming could mean additional Cleaner troops present at mission start, or fewer turns before reinforcements start coming.

If the player instead builds a dedicated spy plane, I'd say that would give a far lower chance of the plane being noticed, resulting in a lowered chance of the negative effects. In turn though, the player would be instead paying for this with money, resources, and a hanger slot being used for a non-combat aircraft.