Doing Every Mission - Solution?

[StellarRat]

The whole idea behind having small ships continue to come throughout the game was to allow you to have "easy" missions in case your team got wiped out and you needed to rebuild it and get some experience. Personally, I plan to just shoot them down and call an airstrike after the first month or two.

[Dranak]

Are you guys considering the possibility that you could lose a highly experienced soldier for very little money? Accidents happen even on "easy" missions. If you factor that in it starts to look less rewarding. I suppose you could just send rookies every time though. Hmm....

In the very early game you don't really have super-veteran soldiers to lose. By the time you have them, you're sporting Wolf armor and effectively immune to plasma pistols/rifles.

[StellarRat]

In the very early game you don't really have super-veteran soldiers to lose. By the time you have them, you're sporting Wolf armor and effectively immune to plasma pistols/rifles.

Yes, but Wolf doesn't make you immune to multiple hits.

[Dranak]

It does with pistols. Anyway I think we can agree that the chance of taking the numerous hits it takes to lose a good soldier versus plasma rifles are pretty unlikely (I'm assuming that if you're reckless enough with them to put them in significant risk versus enemies that aren't really threats, you don't have them to be risking). The risk factor does scale up a bit later in the game though.

[StellarRat]

It does with pistols. Anyway I think we can agree that the chance of taking the numerous hits it takes to lose a good soldier versus plasma rifles are pretty unlikely (I'm assuming that if you're reckless enough with them to put them in significant risk versus enemies that aren't really threats, you don't have them to be risking). The risk factor does scale up a bit later in the game though.

I've had a couple of instance where a full burst of three rifle shots hit my guy. That's nearly always fatal even with Wolf armor on. Anyway, my point is, that risking soldiers for an extra 20-30K isn't really worth it most of the time. Edited October 31, 2013 by StellarRat

[warioland]

What about the needing of sleep to recover? Slows you down from hitting every UFO. Too much realism? Have it so they'll need less sleep the more experienced they are, but in the beginning of the game, they'll need up to 10 hours in-base or face stat penalties depending on how long you let them sleep before hitting the next mission.

By the time you have exosuits and nanosuits, your rookie operatives equipped with them won't need much sleep since they're comfy and letting the suits do the work for them.

Like I said, it was a cool realistic feature in Abomination: The Nemesis Project, but if the devs have a better way to slow down players from hitting every mission, go at it.

Edited November 1, 2013 by warioland

[Tascruel]

This is very good topic indeed.

Here is how I play.

Early game I try to do every mission

and find everyway to make extra funding.

You just have that extra motivation

Best missions are not too big

and I like the variety of missions!

I also enjoy that every new alien ship

is worth investigating, atleast once. (for tech!)

But I also enjoy new maps aswell.

However, I don't always know if I will be playing

the same mission map again and the repeating part can get boresome.

Every new map feels very rewarding tho!

Later on the game, i started to feel I only got big missions

and they sometimes feel timeconsuming..

I start to skip the missions during later parts of game

and usually only do the easier ones, because they are fast and safer.

Losing a veteran soldier is usually not worth a mission,

that's how I feel most of the time..

It's risky business to run around with guns!

I think the main importance in this topic is to consider

what is the main duties of xenonauts..

Here are few ideas I have about this topic:

1. When alien mission is available, small info in the window

would be nice if mission has more tech for us to discover.

This will motivate us to go through all the hard stuff involved!

For example: If we have all the information of corvette alreay

and have done this type of mission, there is small info onscreen.

Example:

"Possible salvage technology available if we sent out squad"

And for already finished type of craft:

"This type of craft is already been salvaged"

2. When alien craft is shotdown, xenonauts have done their primary job!

I like that it is not absolute must to finish the crashsite

or get penalties by not going there.

The possibility that you can send squad to deal with crashsite

is always available, and the possibility of extra funding is there..

with the risks involved. But later on the game

especially big missions become.. well tiresome.

Also, I felt that the amount of large timeconsuming missions

became the only content later on

3. As option of doing a mission:

I do like the option of easy solution

of bombarding the damaged and crashed aircraft.

This could improve monthly funding in my humble opinion.

But small funding bonus would be nice possibility aswell.

I am not complaining that currently skipping missions

give out no money tho!

4. Priority missions!

I like that some of the alien tech in the ships

is needed for building the absolutely best content.

I also like, that going after this kind of highend content is risky.

Currently singularity cores present one of this kind of challenge,

and it's solid idea.

5. Absolute must missions

Currently there are, in my opinion atleast,

3 type of mission that are absolutely must to react.

Failing to do so brings you closer of losing the game entirely.

They are: Alien base, alien terror on cities and base defence.

I personally try my best to avoid these as best possible..

I like the challenge presented here.

6. Difficulty setting option idea:

This could also separate the casual player and realistic player.

With normal and easy difficulty you could let nations bombard alien crash sites.

With veteran and insane you could not.

That's my thoughts on this matter.

Also feel free to watch some of my youtube videos about xenonauts.

Here's a link to my playlist on youtube:

Later ~today I hope to post a video on how to take out alien base, the fast way.

See ya!

Edited November 9, 2013 by Tascruel
added difficulty setting option

[Hovis]

What about the needing of sleep to recover? Slows you down from hitting every UFO. Too much realism? Have it so they'll need less sleep the more experienced they are, but in the beginning of the game, they'll need up to 10 hours in-base or face stat penalties depending on how long you let them sleep before hitting the next mission.

By the time you have exosuits and nanosuits, your rookie operatives equipped with them won't need much sleep since they're comfy and letting the suits do the work for them.

Like I said, it was a cool realistic feature in Abomination: The Nemesis Project, but if the devs have a better way to slow down players from hitting every mission, go at it.

I think the soldiers would just sleep whenever they could. It wouldn't be an issue really, I mean you've got some flights to missions that are many hours, they could snooze on the Chinook, other times you've got hours between UFO arrivals. There's scope for them to make do, even in the most intense parts of the game.

Some sort of burn-out of operatives could be interesting, but I don't suppose it would really be that much of a priority to implement.

[smoitessier]

If they fixed the bug that let's you heal your soldiers to max health with med packs, that would solve it right? you would have to rotate your personnels more, and injured would be sleeping in medbays

[StellarRat]

I think airstrike is the solution to this "problem". I happily use it all the time now.

[superbob]

As noted above, the term should be more vague than "airstrike" as it doesn't fit well in many scenarios. I'd rather have it say something along the lines of "authorizing local force to attack" or simply "refusing intervention". Either way the nation covers the cost of bringing down the UFO and pays us a fixed amount.

I suggest establishing some sort of "threat levels" various UFOs pose, which could be used as a basis for estimating the value of xenonaut services and justify a bunch of things in a fluff-friendly way.

• The concept would be introduced by doing the alien invasion research
  
• Each new UFO would have to be researched (automatically like they are now) to estimate the threat
  
• Nations would refuse dealing with not yet evaluated craft
  
• Awards (points, cash) would be based on threat level
  
• Both shooting down and neutralizing UFOs would grant threat-based awards.
  
• Autoresolve (airstrike) as it is now would mean cash 2/3 reward.
  
• Fighters/bombers are neutralized when shot down = extra instant money.
  

I'd also like to see more involved autoresolve mechanics - instead of just getting an option to basically let the nation blow up the downed UFO, I'd suggest having three options available:

1. Hand over authority - yields 2/3 standing improvement, 1/3 cash
   
2. Authorise assault - yields 2/3 cash
   
3. Request salvage - yields all ship-bound loot + whatever was on dead aliens
   

So basically I'd like to have the choice of what I get out of the wreck, being able to ask the nation to deal with it for me.

The idea behind getting more money for letting a nation deal with more dangerous UFOs is that (as stated in prior posts) they wouldn't be much of a problem for an organized military force once shot down. On the other hand, regular aircraft are no match against most UFOs, so this is where the xenonaut involvement comes in, with their superior interceptor technology.

Of course it is preferred for xenonauts to do deal with the grounded craft, which in theory should be surgical strike instead of a massive army involvement meant to overpower the alien force. Which is why doing the mission yields all three types of rewards, all of them in full, along other battlescape rewards like sold artifacts and more points for stunned aliens, besides of course soldier improvement.

The (fluff) difference between (1) and (2) would be that in the first case the nation can deal with the UFO as they please, taking their time (hence the belated reward via funding change), while in the other cases they are asked to deal with it ASAP. Since the first option would be the most profitable, there might be an increased chance of alien bases cropping up after using it too much, or a risk that the locals somehow mess up and next we know there's alien terror in the nearest city.

Another thing I mentioned in another thread that I'd like to see would be the ability to order interceptors to unload some of the remaining ammo on the crash site, reducing it to a severe damage state and resetting the counter before it disappears.

Edited November 13, 2013 by superbob

[StellarRat]

I don't really care what they call it. Althought, airstrike does imply that the target will probably be destroyed not salvaged. Maybe something like "Request national forces recovery." would be more appropriate.

[Raakku]

Couldn't it just simply be "Sell crash site's salvage rights to region"? It wouldn't mention specifically what kind of means the region will use against the aliens in the crash zone and it would clearly give a reason why they give the player money for clearing up his mess.

[StellarRat]

Couldn't it just simply be "Sell crash site's salvage rights to region"? It wouldn't mention specifically what kind of means the region will use against the aliens in the crash zone and it would clearly give a reason why they give the player money for clearing up his mess.

Yes, "Sell salvage" would be good too.

[Markon]

I'm a bit confused after reading the forums, something I read in the patch ntoes a few weeks ago gave me the impression that the airstrike was simply to save player time, and that it gave less money than doing a mission, but was at least convieneient (and risk free, of course). After reading a few forum notes, I'm starting to winder if that is the case. Is there a link somewhere to explain:

(Immediate) monetary gains, what's better, airstrike or play the mission?

Reputation/standing/whatever you call it with host nation, what's better, airstrike or mission?

Obviously, playing the mission gives soldier development, and possible technology salvage, and is therefore sometimes required, but I'm curious how things stand on funding, both immediate and long term. Thanks!

[vaultdweller]

(Immediate) monetary gains, what's better, airstrike or play the mission?

Playing the mission gives more immediate cash, along with soldier development and researchable tech.

Reputation/standing/whatever you call it with host nation, what's better, airstrike or mission?

As of v20 build 6, it makes no difference. Neither the airstrike nor the ground mission give any bonus to national relations.

[Brochacho]

Is there some reason why every downed, non-fighter UFO needs to leave an intact crash site? Surely someone has brought this up.

[StellarRat]

Yeah, that was discussed somewhere. I believe having variable levels of UFO destruction was brought up. The proposal was to have light damage, heavy damage, and total destruction (no recovery site.) I don't know what or if Chris had a response. If I remember right it was possible to totally destroy the smaller UFOs in the OG.

[Chris]

Is there some reason why every downed, non-fighter UFO needs to leave an intact crash site? Surely someone has brought this up.

Because people get angry if they want a crash site from that particular UFO and they don't get one despite doing everything "right". If they've managed to shoot down the UFO they deserve the chance to do ground combat on it.

[Ryodan]

what if the chance for destruction was tied instead to the damage the craft received? certainly that has to be in for the minor or major damage calculation. Or limit it to under a certain level of weapons you wont blow them up entirely but once you reach plasma you stand a chance of total destruction, if you want a crash site of a scout for whatever reason better finish it off with auto cannon and not get the last shot in with a missile.

[Brochacho]

Because people get angry if they want a crash site from that particular UFO and they don't get one despite doing everything "right". If they've managed to shoot down the UFO they deserve the chance to do ground combat on it.

Why would anyone assume they have a "right" to ground combat after blowing up a spaceship? The only people who would make this connection are people who have played the original UFO, and even then it's a stretch.

Even then, why not just increase the number of air superiority fighters and decrease the number of "ground mission" ships? Would that not also work (with some tweaks)?

[StellarRat]

In the OG if you were going after a small ship it was a good idea to only use cannons or light missiles otherwise there was a fair chance you'd blowup the target. Of course, I never really cared as I figured a dead UFO was a good UFO.

[Brochacho]

I suppose at this point in development it's probably better to tweak the existing system (airstrikes) than make any radical alterations to geoscape pacing.

[Sapare]

I am personally of the opinion that the airstrike system has no real reason to exist and it should be left to the player if he wants to do every mission or not. If missions are starting to bore you or feel like a grind, sit up, walk away and take a break. I have played through X-com apocalypse twice now and that game is probably the closes to running exactly that problem as it throws such an insane amount of missions at you, but I still prefer it rather then having the game nuke buildings because I didn't feel like doing the mission.

I know that is not how everyone feels(though a game where your people can get whipped at almost any moment by a lucky alien/bad decision should really not get boring) but airstrike should really NOT be what it is called, even if the current system is kept.

There is just something wrong about the idea of mass air-striking earth.(most of all because due to how terror missions go, I am assuming an airstrike is equivalent to nuking the place.) It really breaks the immersion or concept that you are trying to save the world(or that the governments of the world are run by sane people) if the number one thing to do is nuke every single UFO crashsite that isn't needed. If you do this early game you have killed more civilians then the aliens have...

[squigoth]

Between high explosive and incendiary bombs why would the air-strikes have to be nuclear? In the mid 1970s conventional bombs are quite powerful and accurate. Wreck sites would be easy targets.

Also I'd go with possible total destruction of UFO craft based on their size and the weapons used against them... like in the OG.

In the auto resolve button you might want to have a drop down menu for " attempt to down craft" or "destroy craft" options. Just a thought.

Edited December 17, 2013 by squigoth