The Chinook defense missions

[Solver]

Terror missions now really do mostly consist of aliens charging your position. Gets outright crazy once you make it to Landing Ships. Whether I win or fail the mission, it happens on a very small patch of the map, my soldiers never go past that newspaper stand across the street, if even that far.

An alien squad goose steps towards the Chinook:

Fully fledged assault teams:

This is probably what base defense missions should feel like, though. Aliens advancing on you until either side is completely dead. But in terror missions, this effect of the AI is certainly interesting.

[Max_Caine]

Aaron mentioned that when he goes back to terror missions he's likely to put the civs and the dropship on one half, and the aliens on the other. They'll start hunting for civvies, which will draw them over naturally without swamping the dropship.

[Solver]

While solid, I think it's only a partial solution. Even in the current iteration, aliens do prioritize civies (to a ridiculous extent in fact) but converge on you after all civvies are dead, which takes little time. And if civvies start near the dropship, that would likely mean much of the map would go unused - it'd be a corridor between your dropship and the alien starts that gets all the action.

I think a general AI adjustment for terror missions might be in order. I am not sure if all aliens need to be set to the most aggressive behaviour on terror sites. Some of them could be just patrolling / defending as this is also a good chance for them to draw Xenonaut forces thin by forcing them to spread out.

[Max_Caine]

Well, there's the thing. A good third of aliens on a terror mission are set to "defensive"-style AI, so in theory they should hang around close to where they started. But I guess the AI flocking is good enough that when "aggressive"-style AI finds your troops, they ring the dinner bell and holler "FRIES ARE DONE! COME GET 'EM!"

[StellarRat]

I think an AI tweak to make the aliens ignore any unarmed targets (aka civilians) unless they have nothing else to fire at would solve the problem. Starting the two sides on opposite ends was my idea, but I agree more could be done. Also, the civilian AI needs to be a lot smarter about seeking cover. They should run into the nearest building and hunker down unless an alien as an LOF to them. Having the civilians running around in circles while there is a firefight going on around them is just silly. The AI fixes will also be needed for the abduction missions.

[Wraith_Magus]

I think a general AI adjustment for terror missions might be in order. I am not sure if all aliens need to be set to the most aggressive behaviour on terror sites. Some of them could be just patrolling / defending as this is also a good chance for them to draw Xenonaut forces thin by forcing them to spread out.

Well, the problem with that plan is that it's a really bad strategy. Concentration of firepower is the essence of good strategy. Holding half their guys in reserve while you kill the other half, only to let you pick off the stragglers piecemeal means they never get more than half their firepower to bear upon your troops.

If they're charging at all, doing an all-fronts assault to overwhelm you with everything they have is the course of action that makes the most sense. (It's what makes those terror missions so deadly, after all.)

Otherwise, you just have a crashed/landed ship mission. If the enemy is staggered out, it means you can put all your troops to bear upon a single alien, so long as they don't bunch up. (Making the UFO breach the deadly part of the mission.)

[Aaron]

As noted, terror sites are due for an overhaul - both in terms of how the AI behaves and is placed at mission start, and also just having a load of new maps created.

[BogdanM]

Great news Aaron! I like those kind of missions a lot but like the OP said, it feels like the Chinook crash landed not looked for a safe insertion zone.

I'd also like to make a small suggestion for the new maps. Would it be possible for the maps to have some destruction marks? Like burning vehicles, holes in the walls, dead bodies on the streets. Of course it's not something necessarily but it would be good if these maps would give a feel of havoc.

[Eyes of Argus]

I'd also like to make a small suggestion for the new maps. Would it be possible for the maps to have some destruction marks? Like burning vehicles, holes in the walls, dead bodies on the streets. Of course it's not something necessarily but it would be good if these maps would give a feel of havoc.

This. This is one thing I loved about Firaxis' terror sites, even though they took it to an extreme.

[Tobbzn]

Yeah, it's a little odd to always find the large drone inside the completely fine gas station, just to have it smash through the wall and blow up everything on the turn it first sees me.

[Wraith_Magus]

Yeah, it's a little odd to always find the large drone inside the completely fine gas station, just to have it smash through the wall and blow up everything on the turn it first sees me.

It's sending you a message.

It was just sitting there, waiting, just to show you not to f*** with it. You see me, bro? I'm f***ing your gas station!

Anyway, the oddest thing about normal crash sites, especially, I always find is when there's unarmed civilians two tiles away from a seb and 4 tiles away from a crashed UFO when I start a mission, so that I get the plasma shots and "GURGHUHHH!" sound on the end of the first turn. Not just slightly annoying for the -1 point for not saving someone absolutely unsaveable, but also it makes the whole thing seem a little more gamey and really points out the fact that aliens and civs are just randomly placed, with no rhyme or reason.

It would make more sense to have either aliens that are much more confined to their UFO at the start of a mission, and then rapidly expand from their controlled turf, like the way being described for terror missions, or else to have a little death and destruction in the radius of alien-controlled turf, with live civs not spawning in the alien radius (but dead civs will).