This change of facing the aliens towards the ramp is both a good AND a bad idea. in the original I'm not sure which direction the aliens were facing by default, whether it was random or what, but you could still get one nailing your troops one by one as they try to leave the dropship. That was facilitated by the fact that even though xcom moves first on turn 1, the aliens begin with full TU's to expend upon reaction fire - whereas on any turn OTHER THAN turn 1 you can only take reaction fire with whatever TU's you have left over from your turn. So, it was a bit of a cheat to let aliens have a full turns worth of TU's to take reaction fire, but they also weren't ALWAYS facing the ramp if they happened to be anywhere near it.
With this change the 1st turn threat of the aliens is significantly increased. It's logical that they might be looking at this big machine that just dropped out of the sky next to them, but it's then also logical that Xcom pilots or the troops themselves be able to SEE some of these aliens as they're coming in to land. After all, we are still artificially restricted in where and how we come into a hot LZ. We can't land at the edge of it and THEN move into town. We can't fast rope down from choppers. We can't do HALO parachute jumps. We get no intel on alien positions except the eyes of the individual troops - no sat coverage, no advance drones, no FLIR... Xcom troops are at a serious disadvantage even from what troops had in 1994. They get dropped IN THE MIDDLE of a swarm of angry aliens, and don't see or get a clue where they are until they step off the skyranger.
Had a terror mission yesterday. 5 troops dead on the first step of the ramp, 1 more dead in taking the step to the left off of that top ramp square and THEN he saw what should have be OBVIOUS - 3 cyberdisks in the open, clustered around the corner of the building. The next several troops filed off and started taking them out, but of course the resulting detonation of the closest one killed one more trooper and gravely wounded another - and they were still standing on the ground right next to the ramp.
I still cleared the mission successfully (lost a total of 9 out of 14 troops) but that 1st round bloodbath... It was both brutally excting and challenging AND a horribly frustrating cheat for the aliens.
One of the things I noticed is missing (in the 0.9 build) is something that was a "hidden" feature in the original - on turn 1 you could have troops turn in place inside the skyranger to reveal the terrain to the left and right. You can't do that anymore. I say that if the aliens are going to start turn 1 with full TU's AND facing the ramp then xcom should be able to turn, look out a "window" of the skyranger, and see not just the terrain but also spot/reveal any aliens in view - and all before anyone has to even take the first step off the ramp or throw an already primed smoke grenade.
