[WIP] Leader plus - Suggestions and opinions needed

[Vesparco]

Hi again,

Following the idea of the muton leader I am trying to build a mod to rework the leaders and commanders of each race in three possible steps.

1.- Reskin the creature, floorobs and bigobs.
2.- Rework the armor and the unit to be more "high rank" alien.
3.- Create research associated to the unit and maybe a possible useful tech outcome.

The progress and ideas so far are (I put it on spoilers in case someone wants to be  uknown):

Spoiler:

Sectoid. (melon head sectoid commander)
1.- Reskin done, missing floorobs and bigobs.
2.- Kinetic shield ( armor + enhanced defense for armor piercing).
3.- Neural implants (derivable to an armor).

Floater (heavy floater)
1.- Reskin done, missing floorobs and bigobs. May want to toss the cape but my skills are quite bad (although improving).
2.- Heavy armored floater, similar to power armor. May explode on death.
3.- High end floating unit (may be armor or HWP).

Muton (berserker)
1.- Pending.
2.- Two stage melee unit. On second round the adrenaline rush kicks in (hulk style).
3.- No idea of any outcome in research.

Snakeman (see below)
1.- Pending, the backpack is a pain in the ass for the idea I had.
2.- As it is a mystery why the chrysalids pair up with the snakeman, I wanted to fit a "queen egg" within the snakeman leaders that burst upon "serious wounds". This will be the hardest one for sure.
3.- As a HWP chrysalids breaks the ambient of xcom (although It would be funny is it could be mind controlled by ethereals in a skyranger full of people XD), It won't be this approach. I don't have any ideas yet.

Ethereal. (Ethereal leader)
1.- Pending. Red robe and maybe a helmet?
2.- God knows what because I don't.
3.- Same as before

If anyone has any suggestion, idea or comment about the topic, It will be gladly received.

Also I leave the reworked sprites and some pictures (feedback about these will be also appreciated).

[Hobbes]

Have you considered that distinguishing the Leaders/Commanders for those races is a big help to the player when he needs to do some captures?

[Vesparco]

Yes, that's why I wanted to rework their stats to compensate that (at least for the sectoid and floater) .

In any case the current step for alien identification is the mind probe and half the TUs of a soldier so it shouldn't be extremely gamebreaking.

[Solarius Scorch]

I really like the Sectoid commander, it looks very stylish.

As for the Floater, I don't think it suits a leader, it's more of an enforcer of some sort.

[Hobbes]

Yes, that's why I wanted to rework their stats to compensate that (at least for the sectoid and floater) .

In any case the current step for alien identification is the mind probe and half the TUs of a soldier so it shouldn't be extremely gamebreaking.

Well it will be very useful for the initial terror sites with Sectoids where you can easily identify the Leader who is mind controlling your troops.

One of the upcoming changes to the nightlies will involve the possibility of creating alien missions that are triggered by completing research topics. As an example, it should be possible to start seeing Elite Mutons after you've completed Blaster Launcher research.

[Vesparco]

Well it will be very useful for the initial terror sites with Sectoids where you can easily identify the Leader who is mind controlling your troops.

Indeed it will. I believe after the identification process, most players will rush to bag it for the scientists  . My thoughts to approach this was to reduce its aggressiveness (from 1 to zero) and give him more TUs to increase its mobility and the annoyance it gives (from 54 to 74).

Then the special feature I was planning was to increase a little bit its armour (mainly frontal/lateral leaving the back door for backstabs) give him damage reduction to gun fire (to make pistols and rifles quite infective) and maybe a little bit explosives (just enough to barely survive a grenade). This would be a "kinetic field" that protects the sectoid from mass-driven weapons.

The weakness then are heavy weapons or higher tier elements (a.k.a laser/plasma) in order to give a small challenge just at the beginning. While the heavy weapons will easily kill it, the lack of manoeuvrability and abundance of such wielders should encourage the use of tactics. With laser weapons this can be omitted.

Of course this is on the paper, I have to try it in order to see if it works. My combat design experience is quite low at the moment (and far behind many of the forum users), so I trust very much your opinions on the topic. 

The functionality sounds quite interesting btw, gives a lot of potential applications.

I really like the Sectoid commander, it looks very stylish.

As for the Floater, I don't think it suits a leader, it's more of an enforcer of some sort.

Thank you, I tried several approaches to make the sectoid similar to the one from EU 2012. Despite it, the red/pink colouring on the head was kind of weird and I am learning the drawing limitations at pixel level and what you can achieve  .

For the heavy floater I totally agree, my thoughts were on the heavy floater but then again pixel and colouring gave me poor results (blue/white/green).The redish armor instead seemed quite cool (although it seems the floater has been striped from Doom/Painkiller XD).

Funny thing is that the core game also does this kind of progression (high rank floaters have better armor). What would be your approach to the floater leaders?
 

[Solarius Scorch]

What would be your approach to the floater leaders?

Well there's a canon version:





I really dig the ones you made though, they deserve some presence.

[Vesparco]

I've been working on an alternate design on the floater, this time going high on steroids (refurbishing the muton sprite). So far seems promising (I may change the two breast by metal plates).

The idea was a floater with three antigrav units (one on the feet and two on the back).

One thing is that I have problems with the weapons placements (they are 3 pixels lower). This is addressed by shortening the sprite  ?

[Solarius Scorch]

Nice sprites.

One thing is that I have problems with the weapons placements (they are 3 pixels lower). This is addressed by shortening the sprite  ?

This is generally governed by the unitHeight flag.

[Dioxine]

Wow, that's one badass floater you have there And yes, weapons are placed dependent on unit's standHeight (+floatHeight, in the case an unit floats in the air, like a floater does).

[pilot00]

Have you considered that distinguishing the Leaders/Commanders for those races is a big help to the player when he needs to do some captures?

Meh mind probes.

Well there's a canon version:





I really dig the ones you made though, they deserve some presence.

I think thats a muton

OP you might want to give more cybernetics to the floater commander instead of a helmet to make him a bit more distinct.

[Ridаn]

Those are some mighty fine Floater sprites, although neither gives a leader or commander impression to me. More like Enforcer/Bodyguard and Brute
I do not think that this is the case of "strongest ninja is a chief ninja" so to speak, and would actually like to see Commander have less cybernetics than foot(float?)soldiers, unless that cybernetics is come kind of sophisticated communication system.
Sadly we have no idea what floaters looked like before cybernization, and even would they consider a full cyborg a paragon of their race or just a throwaway killing machine. From the other side we are free to come up with answers by ourselves.

edit: oh, nevermind, they are genetically engineered species.
Still I think a commander being a communication and control unit makes sense, may be replace the head and add wires and stuff. Or just add a hood to that fancy cape of theirs.

edit2: after giving it some more thought I think that this Brute sprite would work great as a leader - Floaters are genetically engineered predators operating in packs, so strongest alpha specimen being in charge makes sense.

[pilot00]

edit: oh, nevermind, they are genetically engineered species.
Still I think a commander being a communication and control unit makes sense, may be replace the head and add wires and stuff. Or just add a hood to that fancy cape of theirs

They are not genetically engineered, they are surgically and cybernetically augmented. There is no hint as to their origins. I agree on the hood and it would look awesome but I fear it would trend on etherial paths.

[Arthanor]

Actually in XCom 2012 it says something about them being derived from a species close to the mutons.

I would go the augmented route for a floater leader, but add armour as well as cybernetics. They are already somewhat armoured (at least a bit more than sectoids) and having a tankier leader could be interesting.

In general, I think armour is something that is missing from aliens and would be a nice addition. You can enhance aliens in different ways:

- Sectoid: Highlight their psychic gift and grant them a basic kine-shield like ethereals
- Floater: More armor + cybernetics which are harder than flesh
- Snakemen: More HP to represent it's will to live and higher reactions
- Mutons: More armor, different color suit (there is a muton in red colored suit out there somewhere which is pretty neat, to go with the artwork shown above by Solarius), maybe even a different melee attack from a sword that is a symbol of ranking (like for a knight).
- Ethereal: That one is harder and easier.. Not much to do but change the robe's color. You could however do something that grants its shield a visual element by adding a "bubble" effect to the sprite.

[Gifty]

I think this is a cool idea, I'd totally play it.

I did a sheet of purple floaters (like in the concept art) a while back, it never got used for anything but maybe it'll be helpful to someone!