What kind of different missions would you like to see?

[Elisha]

Basic question what kind of funny scenarios would you like to see in the game.
Basic question is why are they coming and why are they only coming in small squads and building bases. In TFTD you had some important missions where you had to stop the aliens from activating 9 nodes. Maybe we could have some kind of stop alien research into making a wormhole/space bridge/ portal to bring in reinforcements. Or stop them from building important components or building the darn thing.

Personally would be nice to have a mission where you have to storm an Alien government of country x meeting and stop the meeting before the aliens get the government to become more inclined to join the aliens or join the aliens directly. Kill all leave evidence to support the fact that aliens wheren't dealing truthfully

What about somekind of inception mission where you have to break into the mind of an ethereal to steal their secrets to be able to advance to the next level in your research.

Defensiv mission where you got to survive an all out frontal attack by aliens where the come wave after wave.

A mission to a turned country to plant give over evidence to the media secure via another chain about the truth of the alien alliance with their government, opening up for a likely rebellion against said governemnt and the retun of that country to xcom funding.(with diminishing returns on how many times you can turn a country back to your cause).
+the truth is gathered via some pre mission where you break into a government building and steal it protecting the room while security storm the building.

Or a scenario where your squad is dropped from a stealth plane onto a low altitude ufo and have to plant explosives on it to get it to crash land having to fight their way while always securing their grip on the ufo.

Or maybe an ambush scenario where you have to evacuate youre squad from an area after they where ambushed, knocking down the resistance and obstacles in front of them while getting rid of the aliens chasing you if they get to close dropping proximity mines, smoke or making fire walls. Or leaving a man behind making a valiant last stand to buy you're people some time.

Its fun to think about but yes not really strict xcom ends more in the lines of tactical squad games like commandos or desperados. And they are changing so many things so why not.

[fastestlouigie]

Firaxis already seem to have a set number of missions mapped out on the official website (70), so one would hope that there will be a good variety of missions in the mix, including earth-based buildings/outdoor areas plus alien spaceship storming. I would love to see psionics used by earth's foe against troops and maybe missions based around disrupting this/gaining the research to disrupt this.
Saving specific people (scientists/politicians, etc.) might also be good but it looks like Firaxis may not be getting this in-depth with enemy unknown, leaving this to 2K's other XCOM (the FPS).

[SectoidSquisher]

Where did you get that info? I've checked the site and I can't see anything about number of mission types. I hope you're right, because it's going to make the game amazingly varied - something even the original didn't do.

[Brian Damage]

"Worldwide Threat: Combat spans the globe as the XCOM team engages in over 70 unique missions, interacting and negotiating with governments around the world."

On the "info" page. It's a bit ambiguous. The latter part makes it sound like they're referring to preset do-this-for-reward-x diplomacy missions to me, ones that pop up randomly, I suspect. Sort of like the "X lasers for Y engineers" thing, but the condition is completion of a mission, instead.

[SectoidSquisher]

That sounds pretty cool. As for the topic, I'd definitely like to see Search and Rescue missions, where you have to find a downed pilot, or VIP. I'm not sure about any thing concerning 'waves'.

Edit: I wish they'd worded it differently. That sounds exactly the same as your average shooter blurb which says 'X number of unique missions' - that wording just reminds me of 'mission one, mission two - and you don't get misson two until you complete mission one', even though I'm sure that won't be the case with this game.

[heniv]

Basic question what kind of funny scenarios would you like to see in the game.
Basic question is why are they coming and why are they only coming in small squads and building bases. In TFTD you had some important missions where you had to stop the aliens from activating 9 nodes. Maybe we could have some kind of stop alien research into making a wormhole/space bridge/ portal to bring in reinforcements. Or stop them from building important components or building the darn thing.

Agree, this have been touched on before in the "what do they want"-thread. XComs sole purpose is to counter alien objectives on earth, may that be bridge-heading or disrupting.

Personally would be nice to have a mission where you have to storm an Alien government of country x meeting and stop the meeting before the aliens get the government to become more inclined to join the aliens or join the aliens directly. Kill all leave evidence to support the fact that aliens wheren't dealing truthfully

Don't quite fit the game context imo. alien agents will always try to infiltrate governments. But when that country is lost, then its lost. XCom can really only take precautionary measures.

What I would love though, is raid-missions. When gaining intel on a location of alien agents and alien-sympathizers (early Cult of Sirius) base of operations. XCom preforms a raid to gather evidence and disrupt further infiltration to that country.

What about somekind of inception mission where you have to break into the mind of an ethereal to steal their secrets to be able to advance to the next level in your research.

No, just no. To much future-fantasy and not science-fiction.

Defensiv mission where you got to survive an all out frontal attack by aliens where the come wave after wave.

I have thought about defence missions, but really 90% of all missions in the original game was defence missions. This wave idea clashes with some of the logic in the games.
1. It's not a war, aliens don't come in armies.
2. There is not really any objective on earth worth throwing that much resources for the aliens (they only have limited), instead of undermining earth society.
3. You cant make new units like in a standard RTS game.

A mission to a turned country to plant give over evidence to the media secure via another chain about the truth of the alien alliance with their government, opening up for a likely rebellion against said governemnt and the retun of that country to xcom funding.(with diminishing returns on how many times you can turn a country back to your cause).
+the truth is gathered via some pre mission where you break into a government building and steal it protecting the room while security storm the building.

Once a country is turned (goverment and ppl), it's political. XCom don't wage internal war and is not under the authority of any single nation.

Or a scenario where your squad is dropped from a stealth plane onto a low altitude ufo and have to plant explosives on it to get it to crash land having to fight their way while always securing their grip on the ufo.

You have been watching to many bad (thats all of them) Steven Segal movies. =)

Or maybe an ambush scenario where you have to evacuate youre squad from an area after they where ambushed, knocking down the resistance and obstacles in front of them while getting rid of the aliens chasing you if they get to close dropping proximity mines, smoke or making fire walls. Or leaving a man behind making a valiant last stand to buy you're people some time.

Me like, a map/scenario that is focused entirely on tactical-withdrawal. As a ambush it is limited though, XCom should not be ambushed times and times over. But perhaps in a combination with a rescue/escort mission.

[Inkidu]

I would like to see some kind of infiltration mission where you land on a UFO in mid-flight, maybe it could be a more dynamic replacement for "wait for the UFO to land, no it totally doesn't see the primitive earth-tech jet tailing it. No, no, no don't worry."

[Luthorian]

I have thought about defence missions, but really 90% of all missions in the original game was defence missions. This wave idea clashes with some of the logic in the games.
1. It's not a war, aliens don't come in armies.
2. There is not really any objective on earth worth throwing that much resources for the aliens (they only have limited), instead of undermining earth society.
3. You cant make new units like in a standard RTS game.

There is a way for defence missions to work, especially if the Devs add the Chryssalid to the game. Basically XCOM creates a quarantine around an area/large building that was attacked by Chryssalids which was full of civilians and infected them all, your job would be to hold for X turns for a "special cutscene" (since the Devs are interested in bombarding us with them) where the structure would be set ablaze by flamethrowers/napalm or some chemical agent which is effective against the aliens.

[Gen_Pho]

There is a way for defence missions to work, especially if the Devs add the Chryssalid to the game. Basically XCOM creates a quarantine around an area/large building that was attacked by Chryssalids which was full of civilians and infected them all, your job would be to hold for X turns for a "special cutscene" (since the Devs are interested in bombarding us with them) where the structure would be set ablaze by flamethrowers/napalm or some chemical agent which is effective against the aliens.

That sounds way too scripted. In general I don't really think special mission types with special little goals are really a great direction for XCOM to take. I never felt like it was too boring that all of the missions came down to killing all the aliens on the map. How could I ever feel good about a mission successful when I am leaving aliens alive on my earth?

[Luthorian]

Honestly, I dislike scripted missions as well, but the reason I suggested it this way was because it's the only way they'd get the Chryssalids and zombies in the game without being mere speed bumps for your bullets.

They were great because they could easily turn your numbers against you if you were unlucky/careless which meant you had to divide your squad into several fire teams to cover each other and take them out safely, now it feels more like it would be "Oh a Chryssalid, they lost their infection ability and monstrous strength.".

[katscan]

I would like to see a mission where your squadmates can break into a building, log onto a computer, and come on these forums and delete some of these silly threads (not this one).. such as 'naming your troops'

Just kidding. That wouldn't make much sense

[Being]

I would like to see a mission where your squadmates can break into a building, log onto a computer, and come on these forums and delete some of these silly threads (not this one).. such as 'naming your troops'

Just kidding. That wouldn't make much sense

Deleting records of your soldiers makes perfect sense... We don't want their families threatened by alien sympathisers!
That damn Cult of Sirius would totally stoop to kidnapping families.

[Wyrm]

Rescue-missions. Having to rescue a VIP of some sort from abduction/assasination of aliens.

Could be politicians where failed mission will result in cut funding and success in the opposite.

Could be scientists where successfull mission will either add a free scientist to your team or unlock some technology for research or give a boost to a current research project.

Rescue of downed pilots (if they implement pilots)


Perhaps also another research-type mission where you secure a prototype of some new earth-based technology, giving you a slight boost in research for that technology as well as one unit of that item (say a laser pistol or similar)

Would be really cool in the early game to get one weapon that is highly advanced but that still needs to be researched fully if you want to build more of them. Would make the weapon possibly more valuable than the soldier, meaning that if the wielder buys it you will perhaps be prepared to sacrifice most of the team just to get the weapon back and bug out

[Inkidu]

Deleting records of your soldiers makes perfect sense... We don't want their families threatened by alien sympathisers!
That damn Cult of Sirius would totally stoop to kidnapping families.

Not in my internal narrative. My X-Com always took special forces people who had no attachments. No wife, no kids, no immediate family.

[Being]

Not in my internal narrative. My X-Com always took special forces people who had no attachments. No wife, no kids, no immediate family.

Ah, now I see how they're being forced to jump off the skyranger and into alien fire. ;D
I don't think my internal narrative is exactly the same as yours however, but you gave me a good idea anyway :P

[Inkidu]

Ah, now I see how they're being forced to jump off the skyranger and into alien fire. ;D
I don't think my internal narrative is exactly the same as yours however, but you gave me a good idea anyway :P

Also at some point it wormed it's way in there that psi-troops (those specifically trained and used psi amps) had to undergo mandatory sterilization. Can't have a bunch of psionic brats blowing up cars and dominating the wills of the masses. TV needs the racket on the market.

[Luthorian]

One thing they (and all X-COM/UFO games/clones) should add are rescue missions when your dropships/interceptors are shot down.

For example, Skyranger 1 is shot down by a sneaky fighter who happened to drop from orbit right on top of it and shoots it down, said Skyranger 1 happens to have your best men AND your best gear, you should have the option of sending another Skyranger and squad to extract the wounded and any gear that wasn't destroyed. Surviving gear and men would be linked to how much damage the Skyranger took before crashing, crash at 50% would mean only 50-75% of gear/men survived, crash at 25% is 25-50% of gear/men survived.

[Inkidu]

One thing they (and all X-COM/UFO games/clones) should add are rescue missions when your dropships/interceptors are shot down.

For example, Skyranger 1 is shot down by a sneaky fighter who happened to drop from orbit right on top of it and shoots it down, said Skyranger 1 happens to have your best men AND your best gear, you should have the option of sending another Skyranger and squad to extract the wounded and any gear that wasn't destroyed. Surviving gear and men would be linked to how much damage the Skyranger took before crashing, crash at 50% would mean only 50-75% of gear/men survived, crash at 25% is 25-50% of gear/men survived.

Yeah, but in order to be a fair shot people would need another skyranger, team, and minimum gear. That's kind of tricky to program as an event.

[Luthorian]

Yeah, but in order to be a fair shot people would need another skyranger, team, and minimum gear. That's kind of tricky to program as an event.

Exactly why the current system of 1 recon squad and a single Skyranger to protect the planet is ridiculous. For example, UFO: Alien Invasion (an Indie game based on the original X-COM, let's you create multiple bases dedicated to whatever purpose you want with the only restriction being manpower, money and space), has a starting cap of 8 men for the starter dropship and if said dropship is shot down, you can use another dropship and squad to attempt a rescue mission.

[metalcallous]

Yeah, rescue missions of downed XCOM pilots would be nice if the aliens would attempt to finish him off. But thinking about it, aliens would rarely follow up with killing surviving pilots, considering that most of the time air engagements occur because of XCOM intercepting UFO with their own agendas.

Oh, how about:
A modified Warzone Extraction
Wherein the aliens, instead of going covert, decides instead to make an overt show of terror, by attacking the seat of government of a funding nation. The aliens will be numerous but have a time limit themselves, they have to enter the country's main government building and kidnap the country's leader. They'll have to fight through secret service, who are outgunned and unprepared for the psychological warfare of facing things unknown. XCOM's job would be to rescue the leader and bring him back to the skyranger, as alien infiltrators pop out of nowhere and begin slaughtering the secret service.
The aliens would be assaulting with momentum, considering that they need to finish the job before the country's army arrives. XCOM arrives at the middle of the firefight or when the country's leader is already being brought to the UFO nearby.

[Inkidu]

Exactly why the current system of 1 recon squad and a single Skyranger to protect the planet is ridiculous. For example, UFO: Alien Invasion (an Indie game based on the original X-COM, let's you create multiple bases dedicated to whatever purpose you want with the only restriction being manpower, money and space), has a starting cap of 8 men for the starter dropship and if said dropship is shot down, you can use another dropship and squad to attempt a rescue mission.

I never got that chance when I played UFO:AI.

However, I wouldn't got so far as to call it ridiculous. Maybe gamey, but they use satellites and interceptor bases to simulate much of having an aditional base. Honestly, I only ever had one other real base. They're so expensive they can be impractical. Seeing as the skyranger in the original could go just about anywhere in effect on the planet.

[Being]

I do hope that you still get to choose the base locations instead of having pre-defined locations for each region.

I built two real bases usually in original game, the main base with bit of everything and second with manufacturing. Rest were interceptor bases.

So I'm not too worried at only having one real base, but siting the interceptor bases was still interesting.

And of course it allowed for stuff like 'Super Antarctica challenge'.. I seriously doubt the south pole (or Hawaii for that matter) will be available IF the bases are on predefined spots.

[Inkidu]

I do hope that you still get to choose the base locations instead of having pre-defined locations for each region.

I built two real bases usually in original game, the main base with bit of everything and second with manufacturing. Rest were interceptor bases.

So I'm not too worried at only having one real base, but siting the interceptor bases was still interesting.

And of course it allowed for stuff like 'Super Antarctica challenge'.. I seriously doubt the south pole (or Hawaii for that matter) will be available IF the bases are on predefined spots.

As far as I know you pick the location. It might be predefined to satellite sectors it might not, but you can still pick the main bases local and it gets a bonus too.