When countries stop funding Xcom

[luke83]

Been wanting the below for years ( so i can expand my version of xcom with some new maps and add variety in late game)

If countries stop funding Xcom and side with ALiens:

Geoscape change:
Country aircraft become visible &  attack-able on Geoscape
Pyramid Ufos are mobile command centres, function as both UFOs and Base facilities
Secret Alien/Human base is added to map
Secret Alien/Human Science labs/warehouse added to map
SHoot down enemy aircraft can be attacked in battlescape map
Interrogate alien/humans to find secret bases
destroy all shared bases, government is overthrown, rejoins Xcom

I know i am dreaming but thought i would bring it up again.

Luke83

[Meridian]

Been wanting the below for years ( so i can expand my version of xcom with some new maps and add variety in late game)

Good news...

If countries stop funding Xcom and side with ALiens:

Geoscape change:
Country aircraft become visible &  attack-able on Geoscape

The supply mission of the base that was created when the country was infiltrated is moddable.

Code: [Select]

    genMission:
      STR_ALIEN_SUPPLY: 100
    genMissionFreq: 6

So instead of generating supply missions, you could generate "human patrol missions".
Or both, in your preferred ratio.

Replacing aliens with humans (i.e. race) would be possible by introducing new race members to existing races (already possible today) and only use those new members for the alien deployments relevant to the new human patrols...

... or if that is too complicated, I could add a "race change mapping" in OXCE, so that you could change a race depending on the mission type.

Pyramid Ufos are mobile command centres, function as both UFOs and Base facilities

Not sure what you want to achieve here.
I would need a longer description of the idea...

a/ If you want UFO crash sites look as alien base attack, I think that is already possible
b/ If you want moving alien bases, that could be implemented in OXCE, but needs to be described more... for example where would it move to and what happens when it reaches that destination
c/ If something else, please elaborate.

Secret Alien/Human base is added to map

There is already an alien base added to a map.
If you want more, you can use the spawned supply missions to create even more bases (1 per mission)

Secret Alien/Human Science labs/warehouse added to map

Same here.
Either more alien bases can be spawned by supply missions... or maybe better, mission sites can be spawned.

SHoot down enemy aircraft can be attacked in battlescape map

Of course it can... not sure what the question is.

Interrogate alien/humans to find secret bases

Well, it is still easier to find them just by patrolling, so I see little point in that...

... BUT ... you could interrogate aliens/humans, that unlocks a certain research topic, that generates a certain mission next month that create these secret bases Probably more immersive and more potential for story telling.

destroy all shared bases, government is overthrown, rejoins Xcom

Already possible in OXCE, more info: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5932.msg100448.html#msg100448

But only the main infiltration base is needed for rejoining, not any other bases.

I know i am dreaming but thought i would bring it up again.

Luke83

Nah, asking doesn't cost anything, and good ideas get implemented, eventually.

[Solarius Scorch]

Coincidentally, yesterday I have discussed this feature at length with Finnik and we have reached the conclusion that what we need to introduce the country recovery is a feature allowing to make a special mission arc related to the country in question.
As it is now, all you need to do is destroy the alien base. This is a rather trivial task - alien bases are not exactly super difficult in most circumstances (and if they are, then this is a different story; but the point is, the difficulty for recovering the country is just as hard as any other base). Also it makes little sense; if you are allied with a country, it's not because you have a military base on their grounds (unless it's pure intimidation, but it probably isn't the case here).
Therefore what is needed is some option to make a custom mission which:
1) is spawned in the affected country,
2) has a special objective which nullifies the alien pact.

This is the simplest version; in fact I think that it is not enough, so it would be necessary to have several consecutive missions, otherwise it will be the same as the alien base - one mission, win, profit. And this is improper, as such a task would require some serious intelligence work and capturing some crucial people/facilities. Therefore the actual request is for this:
1) A new missionScripts command which tells the game to only run it if a country has signed an alien pact (preferably in the country, if possible).
2) A new alienDeployments option which introduces a concept of "mission chains" - if one mission is completed, another mission can be spawned. Normally I'd do it through unlockedResearch and set this research as prerequisite in missionScripts, but a research can only be unlocked once and we can have many separate alien pacts.
3) A new alienDeployments option which ends an alien pact - just like the alien base does now.

I have no idea how viable it is, so feel free to disregard. I am merely trying to make the government recovery feature better, because honestly I can't accept it as it is now.

[Meridian]

Therefore what is needed is some option to make a custom mission which:
1) is spawned in the affected country,
2) has a special objective which nullifies the alien pact.

1/ alien missions are spawned in regions, not countries
2/ alien mission objective could be added, but this is an xcom objective, not alien objective... so it doesn't make sense... maybe if preventing that objective triggered the nullification... but we don't have many ways of preventing alien objectives (except for a recently added interruption by shooting down UFOs.... which I assume is not good enough for you in this case)

Therefore the actual request is for this:
1) A new missionScripts command which tells the game to only run it if a country has signed an alien pact (preferably in the country, if possible).
2) A new alienDeployments option which introduces a concept of "mission chains" - if one mission is completed, another mission can be spawned. Normally I'd do it through unlockedResearch and set this research as prerequisite in missionScripts, but a research can only be unlocked once and we can have many separate alien pacts.
3) A new alienDeployments option which ends an alien pact - just like the alien base does now.

I have no idea how viable it is, so feel free to disregard. I am merely trying to make the government recovery feature better, because honestly I can't accept it as it is now.

1/ doable (region only, not country)
2/ I don't understand how this should work... mission completion is not connected to any alien deployments at all
3/ alienDeployments cannot remember anything (e.g. a country that they should liberate), anything that triggers liberation must be in the saved game (e.g. in an alien base), not in the mod ruleset (e.g. in an alien deployment).

All in all, too much work to develop (assuming we even find a working concept).

Even more importantly, too much work for the player... I would definitely not bother liberating countries, if it was this complicated.

[Solarius Scorch]

1/ doable (region only, not country)

Would be good enough.

2/ I don't understand how this should work... mission completion is not connected to any alien deployments at all

Yes, and that's the issue We would need a new alienDeployments command like "completionEvent: blahblah", which would be saved in the campaign as "Event: blahblah, country: STR_USA", and then the missionScripts would use it for generating the next mission... And the next mission's deployment would look similar, but instead it would have "completionEvent: yaddayaddayadda", which would then be used in the missionScripts to spawn a third mission... Repeat as many times as desired, until you reach the final mission of this chain.

3/ alienDeployments cannot remember anything (e.g. a country that they should liberate), anything that triggers liberation must be in the saved game (e.g. in an alien base), not in the mod ruleset (e.g. in an alien deployment).

Yeah, precisely what I thought.

All in all, too much work to develop (assuming we even find a working concept).

Fully understandable.

Even more importantly, too much work for the player... I would definitely not bother liberating countries, if it was this complicated.

That depends on how hard these missions are. I'm not super crazy about it myself, but it's a popular idea.

And I have requested ideas for other "chained missions" (unrelated to alien pacts), which sorts of makes sense.

[luke83]

I think i need to check OXCE:)

[Hobbes]

I think i need to check OXCE:)

The list is long but well worth the read - https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,4187.0.html

[Solarius Scorch]

A simpler idea: perhaps it can be done so the alien base created during alien pact is different from the normal alien base... More difficult or multi-stage (with humans and aliens)... or something?

[NiceMicro]

A simpler idea: perhaps it can be done so the alien base created during alien pact is different from the normal alien base... More difficult or multi-stage (with humans and aliens)... or something?

I would like the idea of having a mission site instead of the alien base, once an infiltration mission is completed. It would make sense in the gameplay, and while regular bases are built so the aliens can do their missions on Earth more easily (bases can spawn missions in OXCE if I'm not mistaken), while the infiltration mission could have some kind of joint human-alien effort represented by creating a combined HQ or something.

[Solarius Scorch]

Finnik from Discord also suggested mini-brains to kill, and this makes sense.

[ohartenstein23]

A simpler idea: perhaps it can be done so the alien base created during alien pact is different from the normal alien base... More difficult or multi-stage (with humans and aliens)... or something?

Isn't this already possible, that you can define which deployment is used for the base spawned by the infiltration mission? I've been using it in survivorz, just with 'regular' base creation missions, and Hobbes has all kinds of this going on in Tech-Comm.

[Meridian]

Yes, it is already possible.