Avoiding night terror missions

[MadMelvin]

Does OpenXCom keep terror missions active as long as there's a craft targeting the site? I tested a couple of times and I was always able to keep the missions active until daylight, by targeting them with a distant interceptor while the 'ranger waited. I think there ought to be a strict time limit. Give enough time for a skyranger to travel from the other side of the world, with maybe only an hour or two to spare.

[kkmic]

This is a "feature" inherited from the original. Given that terror sites always appear in the dark of the night, I think that there should be some strategical option to be able to tackle the battle under some of your terms too. I agree that if you have enough bases and crafts you could theoretically keep a terror open forever, bu I think this is best left as-is.

Edit: there have been talks (can't find the post now) to have some penalty involved when taking too long to reach a battle site (not only terror sites), like having a limited number of turns until the aliens fix their ship and leave, or find that some of the civilians have already been killed, etc.

[moriarty]

I once suggested something like that in this post, but there were other discussions involving this.

the "keepalive" mechanic by targetting a terror site was re-introduced after "vanishing targets" for x-com craft caused the game to crash, IIRC.

I think it would be kinda nice to have a little floating clock or countdown alongside the terror mission icon in the geoscape... but it would probably look weird in the native 320x200 resolution. maybe the terror site icon starting out yellow and after a while turning orange, then red before finally disappearing?

[MadMelvin]

Ah, if it was causing crashes it might be best left alone. It just always seemed like kind of a cheap exploit to me... but I guess if the point is to replicate the original XCom, it makes sense enough... 

[SupSuper]

The "exploit" is in because people wanted, not because it crashed (making it not crash is trivial). For every bug out there, someone will see it as a feature.

[MadMelvin]

Fair enough. I suppose it's easy enough to ignore if you don't want to take advantage. Does it replicate the mechanic from the original, where it only checks on the hour? Or does the site have to be constantly targeted?

[Mr. Quiet]

@kkmic: The alien's ship is not crashed or damaged on terror sites. The aliens are just dropped off for a day to stir up chaos and cause fear in major cities so they eventually take over. If they meet little to no resistance, they get picked up by the huge terror ship and leave.

I'm hoping OXC would improve on this by giving you a score penalty for taking so long to get to the terror site, meeting military personnel who will go berserk when they see your Operatives, and most buildings on fire with smoke everywhere, making it almost as hard as a night mission.