Disclaimer: I haven't seen season three yet, so if I suggest something that doesn't make sense stranger things lore wise, that is why. also, please don't correct me in those cases, cause spoilers.
Also disclaimer: I'm realizing this is quite ambitious, and I'm sure you've got better things to do at the moment, but I hope you consider it for a far future thing.
summary of idea:
Xcom = trying to capture eleven (who would be in her thirties of course, cause late 90s)
super hard early game mission/research chain: capturing key characters > interrogating them > locating and capturing eleven > base defense from demigorgon
Rewards: slow early game psi training + low tech psi Armour which requires user to basically not move. (maybe also special psi abilities? damaging psi attacks?)
Details:
First, after unlocking the first promotion, you would be given an thing to research such as: "dense paper report with a mildly interesting title"
upon completing said research, you'd be given a briefing by one of your staff people, basically summarizing what information remained from mk-ultra and the experiments on eleven.
they would recommend trying to locate eleven for recapture and further study (in a more humane manner than their predecessors of course)
To locate eleven, you would have to go on missions to capture various characters of the show (who would not be as good at hiding as eleven would be). interrogating them would have a chance of unlocking the next step in a three(?) item long tree to finally unlock the mission to capture eleven.
they could be interrogated multiple times of course as usual. once one is captured the only reason to find another one would be to get a higher chance/more lower chances going at the same time.
characters who would know eleven better (in the future) would have higher chances of unlocking the next step. (e.g., hopper and mike have 90% chance, Ted wheeler has a 10% chance, everyone else somewhere in between).
people with higher chances to unlock research would be harder to capture.
For each mission, there would be a timer, after which the mission ends, the peeps escape, and you go back home in shame.
If you kill a peep, you would lose 5x the score you lose from killing a civilian.
Some characters would fight back, others would just hide (and possibly try to trap you?).
There could be multiple characters per mission sometimes. if this is the case you would only need to capture one of them to succeed, but you would still get some score subtracted for any uncaptured peeps.
characters who would fight:
Steve (spiky baseball bat. sneaks up behind your dudes whenever they aren't covered by another guy's vision)
Lucas (slingshot thingy that I forget the name of)
Hopper (pistol and shotgun with lots of ammo)
Nancy (revolver with super high accuracy)
Jonathon (lighter/knife. also sneaky)
Dustin (hockey stick and heavy hockey armour. very resistant to stun)
Eleven (her mind. special psi attack that does a lot of damage if successful; telekinetically throwing rocks/other debris. would be basically a blaster bomb style bullet)
everyone else would hide/be protected by attacking characters.
I think all of them should use the sneaky Ai (except for melee ones. that would probs have to be custom to get it to work right) if it is possible to implement that on a per enemy basis.
then, once you have finally captured eleven, a base defense spawns immediately after your transport returns to base.
My reasoning for this is that eleven would freak out enough to cause another rift/portal thing.
you would "fight" a single demigorgon.
it would be basically unkillabe with early game stuff and only 10ish early game agents. fire would of course deter it from coming at you, if you happen to have it that early.
if possible it would be nice to have it spawn in places other than the hangar and access lift. so it's creepier and harder.
the only way to win this mission would be to unlock the jail and let eleven (powered by her own third faction Ai) go and wail on it with psi crap.
after that eleven would meet the commander, see that you are reasonable, and cooperate for research. once the research is finished she would leave (consumable research. possibly remove all other stranger things related peeps from jail also?)
the research would take a freak ton of time, but would unlock a debuffed version of psi training facility, giving you the ability to put your agents in psi training (at a slower pace) a year or so earlier than normal (depending on how long it takes you to complete the chain).
it would also give you access to a suit of armour (or rather, semi-mobile sensory deprivation chamber)
the "armour" would subtract all but ~15 of your energy, allowing you to move only ~5 tiles a turn maximum. it would also give your empty hand the ability to mind probe and panic enemies for a higher time unit cost than the psi amp.
It could also possibly give you access to special psi abilities (even with psi amp if you could make a new one that is only unlocked with both psi research trees)
they would basically be eleven's abilities mentioned earlier. soulfire-esque thing (would do less than eleven's does), and small, low damage projectiles fired like a blaster bomb.
That's all. hope you consider it. good night.
