This is starting to shape up abit now.
Ive decided on making a borderline-hard mod that just goes a different direction on some things. Maybe not quite the same idea as hard mid/late game as other people would make it.
Anyone else can use these ideas if they want, as I may not get it done.
Fundamentally this is like XCom has been back-shelved into bureaucracy hell for the last 35 years since the end of the previous war. The Hyperion was just struck and an ultimatum was delivered to all governments by the aliens. The "only" - experimental Xcom underwater facility - which was maintained for shits and grins by politicians, now has to respond.
You literally start out with not much, only what the crew in the floating base might have had in storage while they found ways to spend their time in (literal backwater) facility they were stationed at. The aquatoids at the hyperion site were poorly armed, oddly enough using what seemed like scavenged human weapons so they were no real challenge for the first encounter.
In order to get the full set of starting items you have to research some database connections and pull up the old files relating to the xcom research from the first war. The only hwp available for sale is a coelecanth with a harpoon gun on it (and its more like a real harpoon than a gun anyway, not many shots) - so you'll have to pull up research files to manufacture alternative turrets for it.
No you dont get a thermal tazer either, you have no way to capture live aliens until you research the old xcom files - pulling up the complicated plans for the stun bombs fired by the small launcher, you can produce the thermal tazers as a melee only variant (the stun technology being known now as "Stasis" and a mysterious technology that still baffles scientists, with the only successful implementations being mechanical reproductions that exactly copy some of the Stun Bomb specifications, and operate at a much lower power level since E115 is gone).
The rest of the world has upgraded alot of stuff, alien alloys are used everywhere in place of standard steel or aluminum construction. Laser weapons are ubiquitous and even upgraded over their original designs. But you cant use them because nobody has given a crap to adapt them to underwater use (but an adapted Aqualaser Rifle does fill the slot as a somewhat okay starting tier weapon after you research it)
Even your soldiers have limited alien alloy personal armor pressed into waterproof plating. However as explained in a fan fiction Alien Alloys corrode when exposed to salt water so a bunch of the stuff that was heavy on that construction cannot be used by xcom. Also the weapons used by the t'leth aliens are stronger and the advantage of having (~40 armor) just doesn't help so much.
you have rocket propelled gyroc pistols (small caliber bolters), but you dont have a rifle version, instead you can research the aqualaser. The gas cannon is there but it only fires explosive rounds, the heavy aqualaser is your answer if you want a hard hitting direct fire weapon.
The only incendiary is an incendiary high explosive torpedo, it explodes and has a higher chance to cause a fire (maybe thats better in that it does both, but fire is only a biproduct of it).
* Bureaucracy Hell
While the storage space that alot of items take up are reduced, the COFN has implemented limitations on item placement within the facility and all alien equipment must be secured in special guarded lockers (which means they take up even more storage space). Though some things are of such small concern they can even be stored in hallways and take up almost no space.
- Xcom is not allowed to sell alien technology to the open market, instead the COFN offers financial rewards in the form of compensation for all alien items they wish to sell which will be held in a secure trust (black ops bunker vault). Which means the sale prices of alien items are not exactly linear to their effectiveness and are much less than might otherwise be expected - and thus it is pretty much unprofitable to manufacture alien weapons for sales. Alien weapons require Zrbite to manufacture anyway, they're the kinda thing you tear apart to get the Zrbite in them, though you can build them too if you're a masochist or you just-plain-need a weapon that does 148 damage.
- Same goes for alien corpses, though more valuable ranked live specimens offer greater compensation since the COFN has their own questions they would like to ask them (or secretly try to use them as bio-engineered weapons of their own). 5K each unless its a prized rank such as navigator or commander.
- Put simply the COFN considers Xcom secondary to their own potential resistance efforts, and wants to USE xcom as a research arm to potentially upgrade all existing forces.
* Saving Graces
You can purchase all clips for reproducable human tech as soon as you have the weapon researched. You can manufacture them too if you want them faster than mail order.
All alien corpses are auto-researched when retrieved, no need to apply research to them. But interrogations take longer. And there's enough extra technology stuff with long research needs that makes up for this.
Base assaults will not be lead by dreadnoughts until late 2nd year.
* Hardmode Zrbite Use
The alien fuel you find on maps is simply that, specially prepared heavy water fusion fuel, you can even manufacture it. The actual Zrbite can only be found in Ion Accelerators, and late game extracted from some items. Zrbite itself isnt depletable within the scope of the game, like the way a displacer only costs zrbite up front.
- But since Zrbite is not found anywhere, and Ion Accelerators are the biggest source of it (50 units per engine you tear apart) that means you're really going to be savoring getting those Engines intact. Why would alien bases have ship engines in them anyways, they're built into the ground so they wont have any Ion Accelerators for you.
- And the Displacers now simply require an Ion Accelerator and aqua plastics to build one. So you may be using Coelecanths late game just because you dont want to expend the resources to replace destroyed displacers.
* Starting Aliens dont even use alien technology.
They use underwater capable weapons similar to the torpedo launcher and gas cannon that use domestic ammunition in order to delay your research into the techs they depend on. Also because humans seem to die really easy to their own (human) weapons anyway. They even use items juiced up with a tiny amount of zrbite so they can toss you empowered grenades that you cant even reproduce (but later it becomes an option, if you want to waste a point of zrbite to make some grenades).
- Since Aquatoids are cloned they are disposable to t'leth and its worth it to delay your efforts.
- Alien weapons take several stages of research to get to now, but at least you dont have to research the clips anymore.
- Theyll even use Blaster Launchers made out of aqua plastics that fire torpedoes with conventional explosives in them. Good luck with that because...
* Explosions cause double health damage.
And will probably knock you unconscious from stun too. You get blown up, you're dead or probably cant be woke up. That way they're incredibly lethal, but I can tune the blast damage to equate what it actually does to destroy scenery (this is a demolitions rating pretty much). Coupled with higher radius reduction (seems 15 is the going rate) to manage blast sizes. And it also means alot of explosives seem to do less than before since they're more potent otherwise.
* Most direct-hit weapons cause Piercing damage.
Projectiles, Lasers, even Gauss cause piercing, but they have armor and wounding modifiers depending on their effectiveness (for example gauss does a little less damage than usual, but it causes fatal wounds bigtime and its 25% more effective against armor). The alien weapons still cause their own damage type, which means against a few alien races you must use their own weapons against them.
- Melee damage is "Antipersonnel", much less effective against armor or hwps, but an excuse to tear your soldiers to pieces from anything that has claws, teeth, drills or tentacles.
* The alien melee weapons (drills) are viable scenery destructors.
They almost always hit because they shoot a 1 range projectile now. Can use them to open up terrain like a lightsaber in most cases. Though in vanilla they almost always hit anyway. This be necessary since you dont get access to the sonic cannon equivalent until mid game.
* Getting rid of Psi/MC
The Psi/MC Skill is going to be used as part of the alien weapons' aiming mechanism (similar to the xpiratez reticulan lasgun) which means the aliens are much better shots with their weapons than you could possibly be.
Since your soldiers dont get MC training they lack an element of the aiming equation for using alien weapons. For you these weapons shoot like pistols, so they're good up close but thats about it. In exchange you can get reconditioned Plasma Weapons now fueled by Zrbite that also work underwater.
Except the aliens actually will still use MC on you. Their skill isnt that great because a little goes a long way for the alien weapon accuracy. And also the TU cost of the alien psi-weapon increases to 70% so they just don't use it as much.
Late game you may get Psychic Nullifying armor that boosts your MC Strength, applying the understandings of the Mind Control and Psi-Lab from the previous war to block out as much mind-affecting interference as possible (though MC technology is different, so the effectiveness is not total).
Ufopaedia will say that Psi-Skill and amps are also a tech that human society has understood now, which helped significantly improve human living conditions over the years in fact. But it has no effect on the t'leth aliens due to their numerous body implants.
(is it possible to make the Psi-Amp/MC Disruptor usable by someone who doesnt have Psi/MC Skill? like make it go off of another skill and be usable by someone who doesnt have training? then I can just make a doo-hicky that has a flat chance of effectiveness against aliens and may only be able to panic them)
* Hard Land City Terror Mission (second year)
The aliens now send Lobstermen death squads to major cities. Civilian tactical command is in full force but they just cant handle the assault, lasers, explosives, and even plasma weapons do almost nothing to lobsters for reasons unknown to civilian law enforcement. The terror is brought to a fever pitch to coerce human governments to fold as the threat to ports, resorts and luxury liners is now brought out into the open streets. Promises are delivered of them constructing interstellar communications to summon their space brothers back from distant stars.
- larger map im thinking 80x80 and 6 floors, 2 stage (second stage the aliens have been cornered to an automated factory, or the underground wastewater system)
- to avoid lagging there are less civilians than id like to include, but they're worth -50 each
- armed civilian faction with laser weapons and even hwps
- 2500 point despawn and -1000 if you cancel the 2nd stage even though there are no civilians in it (idea being if you dont finish the job they have to nuke that area to be sure the threat is extinguished).
