I Dream of the Day Missions Aren't Just Defend the Spawn

[SBBurzmali]

So I'm reached the point in Xcom Files where I normally quit my runs. I've pretty much hit the end game and I'm waiting for the the missions to spawn to finish up a couple threads and open up the final missions. Unfortunately, I've reached the point where mission designed has collapsed to "add mobs to increase difficulty" which means, for all but the simplest maps, my squad just sits in the Avenger, opens the door to shoot an alien or two, and repeats for 20 turns or so. I could walk out, but more often than not, a half dozen high reaction aliens that haven't spent their TU are loitering outside the door or worse, a full TU turret is staring at it that can one shot my heaviest units through frontal armor. Then I had the Syndicate final mission, with forces you into downgraded armor, so, I sat in spawn for a dozen turns opening doors and popping an enemy or two until the morale failure screams were prevalent enough to venture out. Then I did the Undead mission chain, where I lined up troops at the entrance to the spawn area and had them fire through the gaps out at a time for a dozen turns.
Xcom Files has some well made missions, and the occasional "sit and defend a VIP" mission adds some variety, I just wish that "hide in spawn" wasn't the default for the latter third of the game.

[Stone Lake]

Seems a bit silly. Late game, you have all sorts of tools to divert fire - psionics, holographic grenades, drones, summons. Your troops can literally punch walls in UFOs and alien bases to create their cover. And you think spawncamping is the way to go? OK.

In undead missions in particular, you can hover above the zombies, go into the big area and blast the hordes from BFG. Pretty satisfying.

[SBBurzmali]

I'd agree, if I could leave the Avenger. Turn 1 is always out, enemies always have full TU and the odds of eating an explosive round on the first step on the ramp is non-trivial. Holographics, psionics, etc. do little to nothing against reaction fire from two dozen aliens and even if I can clear the immediate surroundings, grenades can rain from outside of LoS. I guess I'm jaded as I've seen too many times where I pile out of the Avenger and spread out only to get picked off as I don't have the TU to reaction fire or group up with spare TU only to get decimated by an alien outside of range yeeting automatic fire through my formation on top of grenades. Once you get up to UFOs with 40 some aliens on board, camping the spawn is the only viable strategy to consistently avoid substantial casualties on every mission without scumming. Psi doesn't work, you'll never get enough enemies in range without just camping spawn a dozen turns to let them wander in. Holo doesn't work because you risk reaction fire even tossing one and the enemy count is so high that even if every trooper tosses one the enemy is likely to be able to clear them all and still have shots left, on top of which, more deadly enemies like turrets go last.

Once you do have all of the end game tech, you still just guard spawn because why leave? Blaster bombs can hit anywhere on the map and Infernals and Spartans have the accuracy to hit anything from spawn.

Opening the Avenger doors to a red 10 for the 6th time in a row just makes you reflect I guess, just wish there was a lever besides the "add more aliens" for map makers.

[Stone Lake]

Holographics, psionics, etc. do little to nothing against reaction fire from two dozen aliens

Actually, they do. Your psi-actions are not reactable. You can mind control a puppet or two, and bait some fire with it. Among said dozen probably a few are armed with pistols, and are effectively harmless, so you focus on those who are. Puppets, summons and drones are freely expendable reaction baits.

Here's my playthrough of the Arbiter UFO. I guess it's one of the harder missions in the game.
https://youtu.be/BsB0o_PfP0o?t=1138
I start by directly staring onto sectopods. By turn 4 or so most of my troops are outside the Ironfist, and are storming the UFO. I'm limited in movement by turrets here, but as soon as they're done, I'm out.

In nearly all missions, as long as there's no constant enemy flow,  there's no problem dispersing. With psi-scouts and motions scanners you get pretty good map awareness as to where to expect the enemy.
You're not even supposed to have the Avenger until the last couple of missions or so. With door-less Ironfist you simply can't camp.

Blaster bombs can hit anywhere on the map and Infernals and Spartans have the accuracy to hit anything from spawn.

I've been blastered exactly one time this campaign, losing one guy in the process.

to consistently avoid substantial casualties on every mission without scumming

Excuse me, but this sounds like words of someone who never tried, or even weighted the risks. How many casualties would you deem acceptable? Mid-to-late game is where I usually have the least amount of casualties because of all the stuff you get. I lose maybe a dog here and there or a couple of guys.
But even then, in late versions 1) spartans make too good of soldiers right from the get-go 2) you can just stamp vets via coupons. So even in the impossible event that you wipe a few times, you'll always have a decent team to bounce back to. And even if we ignore that, the casualties have never been a campaign-ending matter.

If you want to keep safe some specific soldiers for roleplay, there's also ways to do that - I manage to keep alive a few "original members" each campaign to give them specifically the task of ending the alien brain.

Opening the Avenger doors to a red 10 for the 6th time in a row just makes you reflect I guess, just wish there was a lever besides the "add more aliens" for map makers.

Well, why is it "6th in the row"? AFAIK, there's only one "big" UFO that you're required to do (Arbiter), and the rest are optional.

I agree that more enemies don't make the game more interesting (cough cough three hours MIB base anyone? You can (and should) smash and grab it, though).
But be specific. What do you have in mind for which endgame encounters?

[SBBurzmali]

I've been blastered exactly one time this campaign, losing one guy in the process

Ah, so we aren't playing the same game. That's fair then.

As I said, last 3 UFOs I played with turrets all had all 4 facing my ramp at near point blank. No amount of psi can stop that, no amount of holo can stop that, no amount of drones can stop that. If you are aren't absolute hording the hell out of your troops, you are trading one shot for one dead trooper from reaction fire. Maybe, and that's a strong maybe, if you managed to field around 10 troops capable of MCing Ethereals with multi-amps, you could drain enough shots to bring down a turret. Or you could just spawn camp and sling blaster bombs until the map is clear.

With coupons, you get maybe 2 decent recruits a month, which by I mean both capable of being Spartans and having enough commendations to decent skills. If you have a decent training program, you might get a few more out the end each month. Though both of those are predicated by running enough missions to keep up your score and earn the sanity and commendations to train your troops.

I'm tech'd to hell and back because the game has decided I don't get an MiB commander, I've been waiting a year or so between missions where one is present. No MiB bases, and the last few reactor missions have had him blown to bits by his own side and, I think, sawed to bits by an NPC. Not a complaint, that's just Xcom, but I'm stuck at the gateway to the end game with just the last underwater missions left in the unique queue, the occasional Hybrid stomp, and dozens of UFOs each month. I had a gold UFO in the sights a few years back, one one I've seen this playthrough, but either it blew up instead of crashing or refused to go slow enough over land to intercept with the airframes I had at the time, so no luck there.

[Stone Lake]

Ah, so we aren't playing the same game. That's fair then.

Yes, I'm playing the one where I don't pack twenty troops into ten tiles. Also the one where I'm aware of the map and prioritize dangerous targets.

As I said, last 3 UFOs I played with turrets all had all 4 facing my ramp at near point blank.

First you said aliens, now it's turrets. Turrets don't see through smoke. They can't react if they don't see you. You can hurl instant smoke via grenade launcher.

Also, it takes one EMP grenade per small turret, and one shrapnel explosive/rocket per big one. They can all be dealt with in a couple of turns.

Though both of those are predicated by running enough missions to keep up your score and earn the sanity and commendations to train your troops.

Huh? Late game you need to run exactly zero missions to get score in the thousands via crashing the UFOs. Not to mention there are plenty of easier missions than troop ships / terror ships to gain score or train rookies.

With coupons, you get maybe 2 decent recruits a month, which by I mean both capable of being Spartans and having enough commendations to decent skills. If you have a decent training program, you might get a few more out the end each month. Though both of those are predicated by running enough missions to keep up your score and earn the sanity and commendations to train your troops.

That's at least one extra team per year added to your regular training. Is that not enough? It's not like you need a lot of manpower to finish off the game.