Mission Variety - What happened?

[x60mm]

In the early phase of the game I was really enjoying the mission variety.  Save civilians from being abducted, escort, ambush.  It really was a breath of fresh air compared to all the Xcom-likes I've played.  Then after my first and only ambush all "alternate" mission types vanished, guessing because I finished phase 1, and it was back to the vanilla experience every single time; kill all aliens.  The only gasps of variety have been the couple missions in the alien orbital thing.  Was a major stepdown just as the game was ramping up which was quite a bummer and made the following phases feel dull by comparison.  

Edited June 25 by x60mm

[ooey]

I concur. Perhaps the modders will do something about this.

[Chris]

On 6/25/2026 at 2:41 PM, x60mm said:

In the early phase of the game I was really enjoying the mission variety.  Save civilians from being abducted, escort, ambush.  It really was a breath of fresh air compared to all the Xcom-likes I've played.  Then after my first and only ambush all "alternate" mission types vanished, guessing because I finished phase 1, and it was back to the vanilla experience every single time; kill all aliens.  The only gasps of variety have been the couple missions in the alien orbital thing.  Was a major stepdown just as the game was ramping up which was quite a bummer and made the following phases feel dull by comparison.  

Yeah, this is one of the more common complaints about the game. We've been working to improve it throughout the Early Access period - the initial Early Access launch of the game didn't have the Rescue Soldiers, Convoy Ambush and Rescue VIP Cleaner missions in it, nor either of the UOO missions (there weren't even any phases either), but we added them because people were asking for more mission types. But doing that was very time consuming and we couldn't spend forever in Early Access.

The other part of the issue is that many of the mission types don't make sense when the actual overt invasion starts. It doesn't make sense for the aliens to have reinforcements coming once the humans are all aware of the invasion and the Cleaners have been knocked out, except in certain situations like on the UOO space station. So that's sort of why things feel like they end abruptly after Phase 1. But modders could always add the Cleaner mission types to the main campaign for players who don't mind that it wouldn't entirely make sense.

Finally, one of the DLC is planned to add a new short sequence of missions in a new environment type for the mid / late game, which will hopefully help fix this issue.

[Skitso]

55 minutes ago, Chris said:

Yeah, this is one of the more common complaints about the game. We've been working to improve it throughout the Early Access period - the initial Early Access launch of the game didn't have the Rescue Soldiers, Convoy Ambush and Rescue VIP Cleaner missions in it, nor either of the UOO missions (there weren't even any phases either), but we added them because people were asking for more mission types. But doing that was very time consuming and we couldn't spend forever in Early Access.

The other part of the issue is that many of the mission types don't make sense when the actual overt invasion starts. It doesn't make sense for the aliens to have reinforcements coming once the humans are all aware of the invasion and the Cleaners have been knocked out, except in certain situations like on the UOO space station. So that's sort of why things feel like they end abruptly after Phase 1. But modders could always add the Cleaner mission types to the main campaign for players who don't mind that it wouldn't entirely make sense.

Finally, one of the DLC is planned to add a new short sequence of missions in a new environment type for the mid / late game, which will hopefully help fix this issue.

I appreciate all the efforts to add some gameplay variation to the game. I do wonder if something could also be done to the existing mission types to make them stand out more, as one bespoke mission sequence can only help so much...

Not sure how much coding would it require to add some new gameplay rules for existing mission types like alien bases or terror site missions, but those could be spiced up with some additional objectives or rules.

Also, I could remember wrong, but are we getting alien abduction missions later in the game or are they dropped too after Phase 1?

Additional nonsense while I'm at it:

About the current mission types that are left unused after phase 1: VIP elimination mission type would be a perfect way to add some player agency to killing infiltrators. I would also love to ambush alien convoys and rescuing soldiers from small alien outposts could also make at least some sense. Good luck making the DLCs!

Edited June 29 by Skitso

[ooey]

Yes! The alien bases could contain some of your missing in action soldiers to rescue. There was a mission like this in Laser Squad.

[Dren608]

On 6/29/2026 at 9:50 AM, Skitso said:

I appreciate all the efforts to add some gameplay variation to the game. I do wonder if something could also be done to the existing mission types to make them stand out more, as one bespoke mission sequence can only help so much...

Not sure how much coding would it require to add some new gameplay rules for existing mission types like alien bases or terror site missions, but those could be spiced up with some additional objectives or rules.

Also, I could remember wrong, but are we getting alien abduction missions later in the game or are they dropped too after Phase 1?

Additional nonsense while I'm at it:

About the current mission types that are left unused after phase 1: VIP elimination mission type would be a perfect way to add some player agency to killing infiltrators. I would also love to ambush alien convoys and rescuing soldiers from small alien outposts could also make at least some sense. Good luck making the DLCs!

For mission variety after phase 1 in addition to the above: Rescue scientists (Variable number) Each one Rescued gives a reduction in time to your current research project (make it cost a small 20 or 30) OP. Same for engineers, Pay a price in op some fraction based on difficulty and do the VIP rescue mission to get a supporter on board. That can go along with the "removal" mission stated above. The difference - its aliens not cleaners you have to dodge/defeat. The Ambush could be Alloys/Alenium instead of cash price again make it a percentage of the normal OP price that lets you just "get" them. IT allows you to get what you need quicker by risking your troops.

Just a few random thoughts