Hi again!
I've updated my personal take on the X-Com Files to 0.3.5 and added some new things:
- more UFOPaedia copyediting,
- finished the 'tactical briefing' UFOpaedia entries listing important enemy stats (resistances, vision modes, camo etc), which you get after researching a live capture AND the corresponding autopsy (if applicable),
- mortar tanks,
- stealth armors,
- a full overhaul of enemy stats,
- some 'new' aliens - Lobstermen, Calcinites, a plasma-based lifeform loosely based on the Solarite/Overlord of Hobbes' Are 51 mod, a variant of hellrazer's spitter Chryssalid;
- news reports from Area 51 and Hardmode mods,
- and probably more that I'm forgetting at the moment.
I'm kinda reluctant to release any of this right now, since Solarius is likely to produce a 0.4 before I playtest my changes enought to know they're stable (I've caught SO MANY rather trivial errors that it's not even funny any more, and I'm beginning to dread changing anything in research.rul).
But I've thought a bit about the future of the mod and have two rather concrete suggestions and a couple of observations.
The primary proposal would be to use more of the excellent maps Hobbes has created for his Area 51 mod, and a few from XenoOps. There are forgotten pyramids, an arctic listening post, a bunch of 'secret' installations, the iconic cargo/cruise ship terror missions, and more. They'd definitely give a whole new life to the presently somewhat skeletal T'leth arc.
The second suggestion is to move more towards 'classic' UFOlogy and instead of creating brand-new factions, flesh out the Hybrids, Men in Black and Reptoids. They're the most recognizable and integrate into the overall 'secret invasion' theme far better than evil megacorps or Doom portals to Hell.
For instance, you can have a cattle mutilation site, find an abandoned organ extractor there, stun the (understandably angry) farmer who's now a security risk, interrogate him and track down the Hybrid team responsible for the deed. Or a bunch of compromised Hybrids in some backwater try to signal their masters with crop circles and after some investigation you have a chance of finding a Small Scout delivering new Alien Communicators, or codes, or fetuses, or ... something.
Maybe as a result of the intel you can intercept and stop another Hybrid team from impregnating a woman with the 'evil Alien fetus', which I stole from XenoOps. And then the MiB might interfere with all this...
Reptoids could also be a secret society, perhaps even rivals of the T'leth aliens. Say, as the original Atlanteans, whose empire was destroyed by the arrival of T'leth and who are now manipulating humans to get back at them.
There are some more barebones ideas at
https://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/index.php?/topic/6480-the-truth-is-in-here-4-if-x-com-were-more-fortean/.
Random thoughts:
There could also be some limited space missions before Cydonia, using the environmental damage ruleset. I'm not so keen on Moon Nazis, but if done well, they might work out.
Cults upgrading to existing factions, like the Church of Dagon already does:
CoD -> UW aliens, EXALT -> MiB, Red Dawn -> Cyberweb/MAGMA, Black Lotus -> Hybrids.
More utility for alien corpses, a la NuXCOM. You could, say, get some kind of alien blood serum with regenerative properties from Reptoids/Snakemen, combat implants from Gazers, psychoactive brain tissue from Sectoids/Cerebreals, repairable armor from Ethereals. These are just random examples, I'm sure Solarius can think (or ask for!) more and better ideas.
