How would YOU handle creating a X-COM where you are the aliens?(What if)

[Qpoter]

ethereals are the officer-class clones. not even the brain is the mastermind, it's just the centralized point for the local invasion fleet's psychic communication.

to put it in IT terms: the brain is the server, the ethereals are the administrators, the sectoids are the terminals.
you can shut down the server, the administrators will be locked out, and the terminals will lose network connectivity. the parent company still exists and so do the off-site backups.

All this lore stuff is getting confusing. :\

[the_third_curry]

How about this: You play as a very high ranking sectoid commander working under the Martian Council of Ethereals (the council on Mars is just one of many throughout the galaxies.) The ethereals have tasked you with leading the assault on Earth. You start out with just some sectoids and floaters with plasma pistols, or maybe some original weaker weapons, fighting military soldiers and trying to do alien research and alien harvest to develop methods of infiltration and get resources in addition to what the council gives you.  Eventually, X-com forms and the stakes get higher as they are able to adapt some of your technology. At this point you can get access to better aliens and better weaponry, but deploying better units and weapons and setting up bigger missions like base attacks and terror attacks causes the punishment for failure to become much stiffer. Winning every mission wouldn't be required; even if you lose some missions, the ethereals believe lower aliens to be expendable and are more interested in the big picture than in every individual mission. Things like causing mass terror, eliminating a large number of X-com agents, or destroying X-com facilities, will still net a large number of points, even if your forces lose on that particular day.

The game is won when either 1) X-com is eradicated along with all of their adapted technology, leaving no major opposition or 2) all of the significant nations of the world have signed a pack with you. You lose if 1) X-com is able to mount a successful attack on the Martian base or 2) repeated failures lead to you getting sacked.

[sergioreynel]

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheTwoSides

[Taberone]

Isn't UFO:TTS dead according to the website?

[sergioreynel]

Isn't UFO:TTS dead according to the website?

ya but it works if you can find an alternative to hamachi

[predator1286]

Good day Sirs )) Yes, you can poprasit developer screwed that one could play for aliens !)) it once did in UFO two sides !! You can and again)! Here you can download and watch it ! https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4066957 Plus there's a sprite of an alien base !! this game is quite playable on the grid ! you can also play for other people ! but only there is no AI for the team!! thank you !

[kharille]

The aliens need something, something the humans have that the aliens don't have.  They harvest of course to ensure they have adequate supplies.  But they need something.  Genetic material, geothermal energy from the earths core, iron, water, aluminosilicates... 


Something that the humans are missing.  Think of the alien abductions....

Maybe its the psychic essence, the fact that humans can develop psychic ability.  I should think harvesting the frontal brains of humans would be sickening and drive the alien expansion.  You know, how the rear of the brain deals with breathing, reflex actions, then as you move forward, emotions, processing sensory information.  The front brain deals with restraint, functioning in societies as well as potential higher functions such as psychic abilities. 


Notice how after a country is lost, its gone for good.  Maybe after a pact is signed they release smart phones, tablets and turn the human race into mindless zombies...


Oh damn.... 

[MKSheppard]

I also agree with the earlier sentiments stated by others that the alien commander in any XCOM "From the other side" is going to be operating his war on a shoestring -- sort of a guerilla war in space -- rather than having the full force of any alien empire at his command.

Basically; he's the equivalent of the guy in WWII that got told to conquer Guadalcanal with a scratch force of a division; as part of an overall war effort; explaining how the alien force is basically concentrated on a single base in Cydonia on Mars; rather than spread across the solar system.

Additionally, I agree with the points regarding biological harvesting -- because if the objective was to create a rear line depot to feed brand new battleships into the front lines of whatever war the aliens are fighting -- then you don't need to invade earth at all -- you just need to mine mars and the asteroids for all the raw materials you'd want to build 1 million battleships.

There's a reason they're messing around with earth. Could it be that lore-wise; the alien cloning methods are not quite perfect?

By that, I mean they can't just get raw materials from asteroids and comets (Carbon - Hydrogen - Oxygen - Nitrogen) (CHON) and use that with a few rare elements to clone away happily an army.

Perhaps there is an "x" factor to cloning? Perhaps you need high quality psi-organic material (read; human and animal brains) to make clones that last longer than a week without going insane?

[kharille]

Maybe there is something unique to the human race...  our superior intelligence but also our constant reproductive cycle.  Still, don't read much about alien abductions, maybe the tabloids have more information on disturbing alien practices...

That could be it.  The aliens are too few in number despite the advanced cloning facilities.  Don't forget we live in a class M planet...  Maybe the earth conditions are optimal so the aliens want to eradicate us...

Pity xcom 94' was a 94' game.  Maybe they could've added escalating levels of mainstream warfare.  Come to think of it, maybe that is something we could explore, aside from the small squad level combats...  mass combat xcom vs aliens/alienized humans....

[hellrazor]

Maybe there is something unique to the human race...  our superior intelligence but also our constant reproductive cycle.  Still, don't read much about alien abductions, maybe the tabloids have more information on disturbing alien practices...

That could be it.  The aliens are too few in number despite the advanced cloning facilities.  Don't forget we live in a class M planet...  Maybe the earth conditions are optimal so the aliens want to eradicate us...

Pity xcom 94' was a 94' game.  Maybe they could've added escalating levels of mainstream warfare.  Come to think of it, maybe that is something we could explore, aside from the small squad level combats...  mass combat xcom vs aliens/alienized humans....

Mass combats wouldn't be a Problem technical, we could have HUGE mapsizes like 200x200 or so and send in 50vs50 for a small beginning

[Solarius Scorch]

Mass combats wouldn't be a Problem technical, we could have HUGE mapsizes like 200x200 or so and send in 50vs50 for a small beginning

Would be cool if we had NPC allies in large numbers.

[pilot00]

i wouldn't set it in the Sol system for starters, we're not invading earth, we're fighting a galactic war for the survival of life as we know it, Earth is merely one campaign..

put yourself in the alien mindset.

who are we?
the way i see it, the aliens are an alliance of various galactic powers working together.

why are we allied with each other?
i suggest a common threat, something that affects everyone equally. look at mass effect for a clear cut example of this: once the galaxy accepts the existence of the Reapers, small conflicts cease. differences are set aside to focus on a common foe, one that threatens everyone equally.

what are we doing?
the aliens are here to conquer Earth, but to what end? Earth is merely one of many battles being fought for control of precious resources. resources the alien alliance NEEDS to fight the much larger war.

it could even be inferred that the aliens are here to save us from a danger beyond our comprehension, and communications broke down somewhere along the line.

I always Imagined that the aliens were subservient to the etherials, in some sort of either conquered/uplifted or genetically engineered (sectoids) fashion. That said the point seems to be supported in the later games(especially if you consider interseptor cannon) and UFO itself from the various unlockable ufopedia entries. The uplift/aid of the human race would be too a nono, as seen both in the end if you lose the war in UFO, TFTD and again the other games of the series.

I always viewd humanity in the x-com world as an alien experiment gonne beyond its intended purpose:

The alien brain tells you that humanity is a byproduct from a race of martians and could have been an evolutionary mistake, been born by the accident of T'leth leaving the earth for millions of years without alien 'attendance'. That said the first documented contact according to cannon was in 1940something. The invasion begins in 1998. To my mind the Etherials somehow subjucated or created the other alien species, particylary the sectoids*, to serve as their tools.
Humanity (or whatever they planed to do) was another of those tools. But something gonne awefully wrong (T'leth been one of those things that went wrong) and left the planet to evolve on its own. Given the fact that both the UFO and TFD aliens are launching research missions to find out about the planet itself, I believe the theory of: "What the hell happened to this planet" is on an accurate course.

Again if you take Apocalypse and interceptor as cannon, there is a feeling that the aliens controll almost everything (At least in the neighbouring to earth star systems) but their civilisation is somehow decaying... and alliance suggested that they indeed are at war.

*The sectoids to me are the most high in the hierarchy after the Etherials been an engineered race and absolutely loyal to them. It appears they were given their own leeway to pursue things according to the alien agenda (T'leth was filled with sectoids and whatever the heck was C'thulu). However they seem to have their own ulterior motives as well (cross breeding etc)