No penalty for abandoning terror site

[llunak]

I've already mentioned this in another thread, but since this feels like a quite cheap exploit, I'd like to start a new thread for this. Basically, in order to reasonably "solve" a terror mission it is enough to touchdown and abandon immediately, and so a terror mission is never "terror" for a player who notices that there's no big need to bother if the mission seems to difficult.

http://ge.tt/2g7XHbh1 has two saves showing this on veteran:

- ordering Charlie-1 to return in the first one results in -90k $ penalty for ignoring a terror site

- engaging the terror site but aborting immediately results in no change in expected funding

- killing the last alien in the second save results in +15k $ increase in expected funding

So in the middle case the only punishment is a dialog telling how supposedly poorly the player did.

IMO there either (trivial) should be e.g. -40k $ penalty for failing a terror mission or the funding change result should depend on the number of surviving (non-combat) civilians that have survived (and abandoning the mission should indeed result in them all being dead, unlike now).

[Mikhail Ragulin]

I've noticed this too, when I've touched down, seen a load of androns, then done one. The casualties from the ensuing nuke don't get added on in the geoscape either.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Mikhail Ragulin

[kabill]

Completely agree that this should see some kind of fix (funnily enough, there was a similar exploit in the OG where the penalty for aborting a terror mission was a lot less than not turning up at all!).

I'm not convinced that relating it to number of surviving civilians is a good idea, though. In principle, it's a perfectly good mechanic. In practice, however, there's not a massive amount you can do to save the civilians and it's very luck dependent in terms of where the spawns end up. XCOM: EU suffered from a similar problem, where getting a 'perfect' rating on a terror mission was practically impossible unless you were lucky with the civilian and alien spawns.

Really, then I reckon the penalty for losing a terror mission should be equal to the penalty you get if you don't turn up. Alternatively, vary it by aliens killed.

[KevinHann]

I absolutely agree and I'll tell you why. It's been a number of times I've discussed games with devoted gamers and I've been shocked with how they specifically exploit such opportunities to "trick" the game and then go on to conclude "the game was easy/dull". I believe taking away the very opportunity for such cheap workarounds will do miracles for maintaining a profile of challenging, sometimes unforgiving game.

[lemm]

I agree, the penalty is not severe enough.

[Gauddlike]

I agree completely with the OP, turning up and immediately abandoning the mission should be penalised.

The players efforts should definitely be rewarded.

If they arrive and then turn around and leave it should be classed as a total failure.

All enemies survive, all civilians die, big funding hit, possibly just as big as not turning up at all?

If they turn up and kill a few enemies but get forced to retreat it should be less of a penalty.

All civilians may still die but killing some of the enemies reduces the funding hit?

Attempting a difficult mission should be an option so if you take a risk you get a reward.

If you take the easy path you have to deal with the higher penalty.

[MrPyro]

I agree completely with the OP, turning up and immediately abandoning the mission should be penalised.

The players efforts should definitely be rewarded.

If they arrive and then turn around and leave it should be classed as a total failure.

All enemies survive, all civilians die, big funding hit, possibly just as big as not turning up at all?

If they turn up and kill a few enemies but get forced to retreat it should be less of a penalty.

All civilians may still die but killing some of the enemies reduces the funding hit?

Attempting a difficult mission should be an option so if you take a risk you get a reward.

If you take the easy path you have to deal with the higher penalty.

Yeah, if you exit the combat zone without killing one alien minimum, you should be treated as just not having turned up at all.

[SyDaemon]

My apologies for digging this one up, but how is one supposed to deal with a terror site?

I've recently received an aerial terror site, which I've assumed has to be countered by combat aircraft. To my dismay, none of my aircraft in my two bases were in range, so I was left with the very painful fate of eating a huge funding cut from that region. At this point, I was crying out for a fuel pod option on the combat aircraft to replace one of the missiles to extend their range of operations.

Would it have been better tackled by sending a Chinook? Was I just plain unlucky?

[qdlat]

Your flawed assumption lead to millions of civilian causalities, Commander.

Oh wait, actually I am not sure how obvious it would be for me if not for experience with original UFO . Your other idea was correct: next time try sending Chinook. You have time to get to any terror site in the world. Good luck!

[MrPyro]

My apologies for digging this one up, but how is one supposed to deal with a terror site?

I've recently received an aerial terror site, which I've assumed has to be countered by combat aircraft. To my dismay, none of my aircraft in my two bases were in range, so I was left with the very painful fate of eating a huge funding cut from that region. At this point, I was crying out for a fuel pod option on the combat aircraft to replace one of the missiles to extend their range of operations.

Would it have been better tackled by sending a Chinook? Was I just plain unlucky?

Aerial terror sites do require fighter craft; if you send a Chinook expect to lose it as it will just get shot down; the alien Bomber is an OK combat craft as well, and it normally has a fighter escort.

Unfortunately these do sometimes spawn outside the area you have range to, and that does suck. Think of it as encouragement to expand your aerial coverage.

[MrPyro]

Your flawed assumption lead to millions of civilian causalities, Commander.

Oh wait, actually I am not sure how obvious it would be for me if not for experience with original UFO . Your other idea was correct: next time try sending Chinook. You have time to get to any terror site in the world. Good luck!

That only applies to normal terror sites; question was regarding aerial terror sites.

[SyDaemon]

Thanks for the answer, guys.

Seems like I really lucked out on having it beyond my air coverage range. Very depressing.

[crusherven]

I think it would be a lot simpler to make it so failing a terror mission gives you half the funding loss that not showing up gives you, similar to XCOM. It may be possible to make it depend on the number of aliens you kill, but I'd guess much harder to mod. Even from an RL perspective it makes sense--perception is reality. If the funding nation thinks you tried (and what do they know about what you did?) then they'll be less angry than if you just ignored them.