[SUGGESTION-UNCUT][#068] New game mechanism: Liberation Mission

[Unknown Hero]

Once a country has signed a pact with the Aliens, it ceases funding XCom completely and forever.

Here come the "Liberation Mission".

After a country has signed a pact with the Aliens, all cities of the country indicated on the global map are occupied by aliens (ex: Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai for China).

XCom has one month (to be determined) to liberate all cities (in addition to others aliens bases on the country territory) for unleashing the country from its leaders corrupted by Aliens.
If XCom succeeds, the country again finances XCom (small amount initially which increases with time).

During combat for Liberation:

One alien base is located under each city. The city is defended by a large group of aliens (like a Battleship crew), and the underground base is defended by a large group of aliens (like an Alien team for Alien Base Defense mission, with some additional aliens units (3/4 units)).

The underground alien Base can be accessed by two places; a place located in a hangar (random) with a wide lift (3 tiles wide) guarded by an additional group of aliens heavily armed (5/6 aliens units with 1/2 Terror units), and another place located in a house (random) with a small lift (1 tile wide) also guarded by an additional alien group (3/4 units).

As soon as the XCom units attack, Aliens begin to attack Civilians and some additional Chryssalids are also present to "enlist" Civilians (2/3 Chryssalids).

The alien life form can be different for each city/base (ex: Sectoid, Muton, etc.).

Some special new troops can be created on purpose (ex: stronger Muton Soldier (Muton with better stats), etc.).

Note: The Liberation Mission is not a two parts mission (like Cydonia mission); the XCom and Aliens units can move freely between the city and the underground base.

Option:
"Liberation Mission" - "YES" - "NO" - (default "NO")

[Muukalainen]

+1 Yes!

I was actually just thinking about some Post Nuclear wasteland Fallout style setting where you could capture and lose cities, villages and bases. Brotherhood Of Steel, Raiders, Mutants, Villagers... damn it would be good.

[Solarius Scorch]

Generally, I am very much against any kind of liberation mission in OpenXCom. Disrupting an alien infiltration network is far more difficult than just killing some important guys, even if they are conveniently seated in the same room. However, your idea to make it time-based made me think, and I actually like it, with one small change:
You don't have a month. You have 24 hours. (Much like with a normal terror mission.)

Of course, doing several raids on different cities would be hard, unless you were stationed in that country. This also depends on how many cities the country has, so in many cases adding extra cities to your game via mods (like Improved Nations) would just give you extra difficulty. Still, this is worth considering, and I don't think it'd unbalance the game too much, since in many (though not all) cases you wouldn't be able to prevent country loss anyway.
(And, it would be really awesome.)

[Hobbes]

I like the idea of how the map should be designed but the objective behind the mission isn't really appealing. Players in no doubt would try the mission until the novelty lasts but afterwards my personal choice would be to rather ignore the lost country than having to play 3 missions to liberate it.

[Unknown Hero]

@ Solarius Scorch

However, your idea to make it time-based made me think, and I actually like it, with one small change:
You don't have a month. You have 24 hours. (Much like with a normal terror mission.)

Can also be different depending the cities number, and some spice can be added with random time allocated (ex: random from 10 hours to 50 hours, random from 1 day to 5 days; but le time allocated is indicated to the player).


@ Hobbes

I like the idea of how the map should be designed but the objective behind the mission isn't really appealing. Players in no doubt would try the mission until the novelty lasts but afterwards my personal choice would be to rather ignore the lost country than having to play 3 missions to liberate it.

Some rewards (clearly indicated/surprise, and even randomly done) can also be added (and even special missions in city/base, see this thread: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2469.0  ).

Rewards examples:

* Clearly indicated:

Report indicates a large stock of Alien Alloys/Elerium-115/Weapons/etc. at this city/base.

Etc.

* Surprise:

10 percent of saved Civilians joins the XCom team for free (initial hire cost).

A contractor in building construction, happy to be saved, will build for free, and in half the time of construction, the next 10 facilities built in your bases.

A billionaire, after seeing a Chryssalid from close enough for him, and VERY grateful, donated $10 000 000 to the XCom project.

A genius inventor specialized in weapons, gives you all knowledge about a special technology (choose a research for free about weapon/armament, or/and new type of weapon/armament, etc.).

Etc.


So the player can choose the base/city mission he is interessed in (and also can have some surprises). 

And, this can be done during the "liberate all cities" time or/and before/after.

[Hobbes]

@ Hobbes

Some rewards (clearly indicated/surprise, and even randomly done) can also be added (and even special missions in city/base, see this thread: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2469.0  ).

Rewards examples:

* Clearly indicated:

Report indicates a large stock of Alien Alloys/Elerium-115/Weapons/etc. at this city/base.

Etc.

* Surprise:

10 percent of saved Civilians joins the XCom team for free (initial hire cost).

A contractor in building construction, happy to be saved, will build for free, and in half the time of construction, the next 10 facilities built in your bases.

A billionaire, after seeing a Chryssalid from close enough for him, and VERY grateful, donated $10 000 000 to the XCom project.

A genius inventor specialized in weapons, gives you all knowledge about a special technology (choose a research for free about weapon/armament, or/and new type of weapon/armament, etc.).

Etc.


So the player can choose the base/city mission he is interessed in (and also can have some surprises). 

And, this can be done during the "liberate all cities" time or/and before/after.

None of these rewards are particularly appealing.

Money/Weapons/Manpower, etc. can all be retrieved in a easier way than taking one of these missions. With tech you either offer something the player can't refuse in the likes of Blaster Launcher or Psionics, meaning that you'll most likely unbalance the game, or you offer something that has very limited uses, e.g. something like an incendiary grenade.

The facility one is slightly interesting but you'd use it once or twice per game and again it's nothing that you can't get already with money, it just allows faster construction.

You need also to add penalties for not taking those missions.

Here's an idea: if a country is infiltrated the 3 closest countries will be targeted for infiltration missions right afterwards, and the aliens will keep sending missions until you've eliminated those bases. That way, if you choose to ignore those missions then you risk a domino effect of countries leaving the council in the following months.

[Falko]

i dont need a reason to make a mission if it gives me money/stuff to sell/stuff to research
i would rather need a reason not to do the mission like
if mission fail 5%*difficulty chance that a random (non russian) country also falls to the aliens
so i would do that mission for usa but not for a smallerfunding nation assuming i am not desperate in money trouble

[Unknown Hero]

@ Hobbes

You need also to add penalties for not taking those missions.

Yes.

Quoting myself:

Mission Bonus-Malus:

UFO ignored: -2000 points.

UFO destroyed: 100 points.

Landed UFO assaulted: 300 points.
Weapons recovered: 100 points, 100 weapons --> sell them, use them.
New Alien Technology to research.

UFO crashed and assaulted: 150 points.
Weapons recovered: 100 points, 100 weapons (random, 10% chance to recover weapons, random weapon number).
New Alien Technology to research (only if at least 1 weapon recovered).

Here's an idea: if a country is infiltrated the 3 closest countries will be targeted for infiltration missions right afterwards, and the aliens will keep sending missions until you've eliminated those bases. That way, if you choose to ignore those missions then you risk a domino effect of countries leaving the council in the following months.

Ah, a little positive. 

Great idea! Like it! 


@ Falko

i would rather need a reason not to do the mission like
if mission fail 5%*difficulty chance that a random (non russian) country also falls to the aliens
so i would do that mission for usa but not for a smallerfunding nation assuming i am not desperate in money trouble

Yes, also some malus. 

I also like it! 

[niculinux]

+1

Super! Actually i won't implement fixed time limits to success the mission, but i'd make a very hard one, hell, youre liberating a country!! X|

[Sturm]

How about a simple decapitation mission against the enemy government without aliens getting involved?

[arrakis69ct]

Or purchase them??? For very money

[KiethSomataw99]

-1
Too complicated, we're better off recovering countries from pacts by destroying all alien bases in the country that signed the pact and have significant XCOM activity within its borders. As long as no alien bases are present within the borders, there is a chance that the country will nullify the pact (more XCOM activity, less Alien activity = bigger chance) each month. Nullification of the pact will mean a funding increase from $0. The message on the monthly report will read:
(Country name) was quite convinced of your performance in dealing with the alien invasion and has agreed to nullify the pact with the aliens and restart funding the project.

Of course, to balance it out, there should be a new way to lose: having 8 or more countries with pacts with the aliens by the end of the month (nullifications will reverse the process)(similar to the loss of 8 or more countries leaving the council in XCOM 2012). A pact with the aliens will mean the country will not only withdraw from the project, but apply pressure toward its termination. The lose message for the pact loss will read:
A majority of your sponsors have signed pacts with the aliens and unfortunately, they have forced the Council of Funding nations into terminating the X-COM project. They have convinced the remaining sponsors to deal with the problem as they have. We can only hope we can come to some accommodation with these apparently hostile forces, and that the general populace will come to terms with these alien visitors.

(After clicking ok)

Alien infiltration has taken its toll. The remaining nations were forced to sign pacts with the aliens promising technology, prosperity and peace. Unfortunately, the pacts were only used to cripple X-COM, the main obstacle to the aliens. With X-COM gone, the aliens rapidly proceed to seal humanity's fate.

[Solarius Scorch]

OK, but please let the 8 countries limit not be hardcoded as a simple number, but be a percentage of all members or something. The reason is, there are successful modding attempts to add more countries.

[KiethSomataw99]

OK, but please let the 8 countries limit not be hardcoded as a simple number, but be a percentage of all members or something. The reason is, there are successful modding attempts to add more countries.

Ok then, 50% of the countries having pacts with the aliens will result in termination.

[Elyseon]

OK, but please let the 8 countries limit not be hardcoded as a simple number, but be a percentage of all members or something. The reason is, there are successful modding attempts to add more countries.

I'm not sure the universe is ready for Portuguese, Brazilian and similiar X-COM operatives. Especially if they decide to borrow a page from South Africa and weaponize vuvuzelas.