All really good points, pilot00. I like the idea of Mind Shield nixing the retaliation, unless you allow for the aliens breaking out sabotaging the Mind Shield. Also, connecting the lore to the mechanics is important to help the theme to blend into the possibility. Although, one could argue that the expendable aliens would not call for “rescue”, but just call the battleship because they said, “We’re at the human base. Here are the coordinates… come and get it!”
So, I’ll summarize some ideas as follows:
1. non-leader/non-psi captive aliens only means no breakout due to heavy sedation assuming we know enough about alien physiology to sedate them properly (proper research?) (or expendable if this was rescue)
2. Psi-capable captive aliens (technically i think those are effectively all leaders) can cause a breakout due to MC - if rescue and not retaliation - these are valuable assets to the alien military effort
3. Probability of breakout adjusted based on alien psi strength in captivity
4. Higher number of psi-capable aliens bumps up the probability of happening
5. Probability of breakout gets higher based on alien/soldier ratio at the base.
6. Mind shield stops breakout attempts (unless allow sabotage and I’m okay not allowing it).
7. Mission starts with some weak psi soldiers on alien side
8. Mission starts with a number of civilians or scientists/engineers roaming around due to surprise attack from breakout
Discuss