Feature List version 0.97 (MAJOR SPOILERS)Geoscape* Redesigned globe with more textures and more terrains assigned to each texture, with additional variation between plain and mountainous areas
* New regions for alien missions: North & South Atlantic, Indian Ocean, North & South Pacific
* Country zones redesigned to better fit their borders & new zones added
* Several more cities added, along with locations for the Council missions
Terrains * 150 new terrains added for UFO, Terror and Council missions, either completely new or converted from UFO2000 and TFTD terrains
* UFO terrains are now divided into 8 natural biomes: Desert, Forest, Grassland, Jungle, Mountain, Polar, Savanna, Steppe, Taiga and Tundra Each biome has 3-6 different terrains, with map blocks for desert (flat), desert mountain, forest, forest fountain, swamp, plane and temple versions
* Each Geoscape texture can have assigned between 4 to 10+ of the previous terrains, plus the Farm ones, and in more urbanized areas it will also be possible to have UFO missions in city like terrains. On hilly textures there's a higher chance of getting a mountainous terrain.
* New Terror & Council terrains can have different versions used for Urban (Terror), Destroy, Defense, Extraction and Recovery missions
* Terror Sites have also been divided into 11 geographic types, with terrains being distributed accordingly: City, Airfield, Big City, Facility, Island, Polis, Port, Ship, Slum, Snow and Tropical
* TFTD terrains converted/expanded: Crashed Plane, Mu Jungle, Atlantis Desert, Port, Island, Cargo Ship and Liner Ship
* UFO2000 terrains converted and expanded: Airfield, Apartment, Area 51, Industrial, Dawn City, Expanded Farm, Mad City, Native, Polis, Railyard, Siberia, Slums, Storm Mountain, XBase+
* New terrains designed: Biolab, Complex, Port Cargoship, Port Linership
* Adds NKF's Mudranger APC for terrains/missions where it is nearly impossible to place craft.
Missions* Some terror site locations will use instead the Escape deployment where the squad starts on the opposite side of the exit area and must reach the Mudranger APC to escape in 25 turns
* Council missions now appear monthly. The first mission is always helping allied soldiers retake a military base. Later missions are either of Defense, Assault and Destroy, and also Capture, Recovery and Extraction missions that allow for recovery of advanced tech. Each of those reports contains also indications about the location/terrain of the mission. These additional Council missions can be generated until the major techs are researched
* There are also a number of secret facilities that provide additional research but need to be detected on Geoscape
Items*
* Machine Pistol, Sniper Rifle, LMG, Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, Combat Knife, Minigun, Multi-Launcher and Incendiary Grenade (initial XCom items)
* Plasma Assault Cannon, Plasma Blaster, Laser Minigun, Laser Sniper Rifle, Gauss Pistol, Gauss Rifle, Heavy Gauss, Gauss Autocannon, Gauss Heavy Cannon, Alloy Sword and Alloy Shotgun, Elerium, Incendiary, Alloy, Acid and Smoke Bombs available for the Small Launcher, Stun Grenade, all available after research is completed
* AK47, RPG and Snubnose Pistol used by human units
* Alloy Vest and Combat Armor added to cover the gap between jumpsuits and Personal Armor
Crafts/UFOs* Darkstar AWACS (airborne radar)
* Thunderstorm Improved Interceptor
* Blackbird Transport
* Stormrider Ultimate Interceptor
* Overseer & Labship (UFOs)
* All vanilla UFO internal configurations now have alternative versions
* The number and type of UFOs present during the alien missions can now vary, with the vanilla numbers usually being the upper limit
Units* Muton Commander/Leader
* Muton Elite
* Muton Berserker
* Overlord
* Solarite
* Phaser
* Stalker
* Waspite
* Cybermite
* Gazer
* Holodrone
* Hybrid
* Armored Sectopod
* Spacefarer
* Jarhead Terrorist
* Jarhead Infiltrator
* Razordisc
* Puffer
* New Alien Scientist rank (for Sectoid/Floater/Snakemen/Ethereal/Gazer/Waspite/Spacefarer)
* 50+ new civilian units added, including for Base Defense missions
* 10+ Allied Humans
Alien Races/Deployments*Mixed crews can now appear on all types of alien missions. It is still possible to get vanilla crews of a single crew, although those will be the exception rather than the norm.
The first appearance of the alien species follows the vanilla game's progression but with the addition of 5 new alien races:
** Sectoid/Floater/Spacefarer
** Snakeman/Phaser/Waspite
** Muton/Gazer/Overlord
** Ethereal
** Alien Elite/Muton Elite/Commander Guard (special)
* Alien Elite is for Overseer Retaliation missions. Muton Elite replaces Sectoid on the Mars surface mission, 1st part of Cydonia. Commander Guard is only used on the Overseer UFO ground missions.
* Enlarged alienRaces with 12 alienRanks
* Alien Commanders can only appear on bases generated through Alien Base and Infiltration missions or the Overseer UFO (Ethereal Commander)
* Scientists only appear in Labship, Harvester or Abductor UFOs
* Engineers and Navigators only appear on UFO or Alien Base missions
* The final Cydonia mission was redesigned for a bigger battlescape (70x70 size). Also added an empty Brain chamber (U_BASE21) to the final battle terrain
General* Several items now require Alloys or Elerium to be built
Research * Medics unlock Alien Origins, Mind Probe, Small Launcher & Stun Bomb, plus give a random Autopsy/Species
* Navigators unlock Alien Origins and UFO Navigation, plus give a random mission
* Engineers unlock Alien Origins and UFO Power Source, plus give a random UFO
* Scientists unlock Alien Origins and E-115
* Psionics can be unlocked by interrogating any Ethereal, Sectoid Leader/Commander or a Hybrid
* Leaders automatically unlock Alien Origins and Leader Plus, except Muton Leaders
* Sectoid, Floater, Waspite, Snakeman, Gazer, Spacefarer and Muton Commanders automatically unlock Alien Origins, Leader Plus and Alien Operations
* Commander Plus (and Cydonia) depend on both Alien Operations + Ethereal Commander Interrogation
* Elerium Reactor (if data disk is recovered in the mission) gives Project Sign report and unlocks UFO Power Source
* Alien Crystal (if recovered from the Pyramid mission) gives Project Redlight report and unlocks Elerium-115
Items/Etc.* Alien Alloys unlocks Alloy Vest and Alloy Ammo
* Alloy Vest unlocks Combat Armor, which then unlocks Personal Armor
* Personal Armor unlocks Alloy Shotgun and Alloy Sword
* Gauss Weapons require Alloy Ammo to be unlocked
* Laser Weapons require Heavy Gauss & clip
* Laser Minigun and Laser Sniper Rifle depends on both Heavy Laser and Elerium
* Plasma Pistol and Clip require Elerium-115 (requires alien Scientist). Plasma Rifle and Clip depend on Plasma Pistol and Clip. Heavy Plasma and Clip depend on Plasma Rifle and Clip. Plasma Cannon can depend on either Plasma Rifle or Heavy Plasma. Plasma Blaster requires Heavy Plasma.
* Psi Lab depend on Psionics + Mind Probe + Elerium-115
* Hyper-Wave Decoder depends on UFO Navigation and Elerium-115
* Blaster Launcher and Blaster Bomb depends on Elerium-115
* Alien Grenade, Elerium Bomb and Incendiary Bomb depend on Elerium-115, the rounds also require Small Launcher research. Acid bombs depend on the launcher and Celatid corpse
* Elerium Bomb depends on Elerium and Small Launcher
* Stormrider requires Battleship and Ultimate Craft research. Blackbird requires Alien Navigation and Alien Alloys to be researched, Thunderstorm requires Alien Alloys
* Celatid Autopsy is required for Acid Bombs
UFOPedia* 2 categories were combined together to make room for 1 new category of Council Reports, which contain the official XCom background story, the Bluebook Reports and additional articles
