[v7.18.7 - geoscape] - UI/new player experience - crash site tactical mission dialog doesn't explain what player action the OP delegation cost corresponds to

[fusion-waffle]

Description

UI/new player experience - crash site tactical mission dialog doesn't explain what player action the OP delegation cost corresponds to.

 

What Happened

A decent fraction of new players are confused/surprised the first time they encounter the OP cost for manually clearing the 3rd crash site for a UFO, after the UFO delegation mechanic engages.

I'm speculating, here's a few possible causes:

1. after previously having shot down a few UFOs & being taught by the game that they can do crash site missions without paying any OP cost, they assume the game mechanic will stay the same throughout a campaign
2. they clicked through the explanatory popup about delegation without reading it
3. they saw the earlier explanatory popup about UFO delegation, read it, but then when the crash site dialog appears, they don't understand exactly which choice will have the OP cost
4. something else

 

If the crash site dialog was adjusted to explain the mechanic in a self-contained way, so it was clearer which player action the OP cost corresponded to, the number of new players being confused by cases 2 & cases 3 could perhaps be reduced.

From memory of how the v7.x crash site dialog works:

• the OP cost is labelled as a "delegation cost"
• the "delegation cost" does not have an explanatory tooltip, so a confused new player cannot mouse-over for a refresher of the rules. 
• the crash site dialog doesn't make it clear visually which player action the "delegation cost" will apply to

 

I don't have a screenshot of the current state v7.18.x crash site dialog to refer to as an example (recently finished a fun ironman run), I'm doing this from memory & so apologies if I'm mis-remembering how it currently works!

 

Here's some screenshots illustrating it (captured by loading an older campaign from a couple of weeks ago into the latest stable version v7.18.7):

 

• "Delegation" keyword only used in the "delegation cost" item, not repeated in the labels on the buttons, nor in the explanatory tooltips for "launch combat team" or "collect bounty"
• If a player is trying to reason out the mechanics by reading everything on this window & all the tooltips, they may reason that by collecting the bounty they are delegating to the local government, so this option will incur the -75 OP!  From discussion board posts, there's definitely a few players who ended up in the category & understood the exact opposite mechanic.

 

Suggestions:

• Append "(-75 OP)" to the "LAUNCH COMBAT TEAM" button label
• add explanatory tooltip to delegation cost
• consider rewording things so keywords are used repeatedly or mentioned in explanations

 

Edited April 10 by fusion-waffle

[Chris]

On 4/10/2026 at 11:50 PM, fusion-waffle said:

Description

UI/new player experience - crash site tactical mission dialog doesn't explain what player action the OP delegation cost corresponds to.

 

What Happened

A decent fraction of new players are confused/surprised the first time they encounter the OP cost for manually clearing the 3rd crash site for a UFO, after the UFO delegation mechanic engages.

I'm speculating, here's a few possible causes:

1. after previously having shot down a few UFOs & being taught by the game that they can do crash site missions without paying any OP cost, they assume the game mechanic will stay the same throughout a campaign
2. they clicked through the explanatory popup about delegation without reading it
3. they saw the earlier explanatory popup about UFO delegation, read it, but then when the crash site dialog appears, they don't understand exactly which choice will have the OP cost
4. something else

 

If the crash site dialog was adjusted to explain the mechanic in a self-contained way, so it was clearer which player action the OP cost corresponded to, the number of new players being confused by cases 2 & cases 3 could perhaps be reduced.

From memory of how the v7.x crash site dialog works:

• the OP cost is labelled as a "delegation cost"
• the "delegation cost" does not have an explanatory tooltip, so a confused new player cannot mouse-over for a refresher of the rules. 
• the crash site dialog doesn't make it clear visually which player action the "delegation cost" will apply to

 

I don't have a screenshot of the current state v7.18.x crash site dialog to refer to as an example (recently finished a fun ironman run), I'm doing this from memory & so apologies if I'm mis-remembering how it currently works!

 

Here's some screenshots illustrating it (captured by loading an older campaign from a couple of weeks ago into the latest stable version v7.18.7):

 

• "Delegation" keyword only used in the "delegation cost" item, not repeated in the labels on the buttons, nor in the explanatory tooltips for "launch combat team" or "collect bounty"
• If a player is trying to reason out the mechanics by reading everything on this window & all the tooltips, they may reason that by collecting the bounty they are delegating to the local government, so this option will incur the -75 OP!  From discussion board posts, there's definitely a few players who ended up in the category & understood the exact opposite mechanic.

 

Suggestions:

• Append "(-75 OP)" to the "LAUNCH COMBAT TEAM" button label
• add explanatory tooltip to delegation cost
• consider rewording things so keywords are used repeatedly or mentioned in explanations

 

Thanks. Yes, these are good points.

[AND_GREAT]

When I first encountered negative operation points, I thought it was another bug and abandoned the game for 2 days, waiting for patches. I have experience with all types of XCOM, so I can imagine how newbies reacted to this.

@Chris I also highly recommend considering the option of a pop-up message when starting a new game about enabling the Advanced Mode and the ability to clear UFOs without penalty to Operation Points, as was the case in all similar XCOM games.

Personally, I learned about the Advanced Mode after playing for over 20 hours, and I had no desire to start a new game. I gritted my teeth and continued playing, losing money and my soldier experience.