[TFTD][CONCEPT] USO: Deep Strike

[Dr.Crowley]

Greetings, my dear comrades. A whole year passed since I joined this wonderful community, and now I think it is time for me to join the ranks of amateur modders 
It is clear that TFTD development had one big flaw: its dev team was obviously mind-controlled. That is why this game was so horribly bugged and many in-game solutions are debatable, to say least - and let us not speak about tons of handwaves in the story. This all was a bit frustrating for me because I liked UFO: Enemy Unknown and wanted a good sequel for this great game. With OXC and its huge modding possibilities it was only matter of time - at some point I got an idea to make my own mod for TFTD. And then I discovered the "UFOnizing TFTD" mod by Xeno Wiper... well, I liked its concept but was disagreed with some solutions, so I just opened Ufopedia wiki and started to read about OXC modding. Some time later I found myself rewriting USOpedia entries for some aliens. Perhaps, that was a first step...

USO: Deep Strike (UFO and USO, got it? ) is a retelling of TFTD that still follows the events of UFO: Enemy Unknown story-wise but with a twist. The official timeline says that X-Com was suffering a budget cut in 2005 and had been officially disbanded in 2012. But we all know that govermental funding was not so important for our shadowy paramilitary alien fighting group - everyone who played UFO will tell you that manufacturing and selling xenotechnology makes you virtually independent from the Counsil funding. What if this were to stay true in-universe? And what happened to all those alien hybrid infiltrators who were mentioned in "Alien Abduction"? And (most importantly) where did all those xeno toys that we sold end up?

These questions (and followed brainstorming) led me to some interesting results:
- no more crippled aquanauts in wet paper suits. Call me a wimp, but I like marines in adequate underwater armor much more. So Diving Suits were replaced with Combat Suits (actually the same Plastic Aqua-Armor but with lowered parameters) - this means that starting armor can (and will) be used much longer than in vanilla. Oh, and the recruits now have some better stats. And they are called marines!
- Dart Pistol and Dart Rifle were renamed to Needle Pistol and Needle Rifle respectively. They were also slightly buffed to be close to their UFO counterparts.
- Gauss (particle) weaponry under water? No way! Human-made (Ultra)Sonic weapons for Tier 2 are much better. Also made them a little more accurate (because USOpedia says so).
- I rewrote all three key Alien Research results (Alien Origins, The Ultimate Threat and Th'leth The Alien City), because they were written by some sort of Lovecraft-wannabe. Now they fit original X-Com style much more. Here is example of the new STR_ALIEN_ORIGINS_UFOPEDIA text:

Spoiler:

"Operation: Network Error"
"This war is deja vu: yet again it is clear that we are fighting a losing battle - this time in the sea. Yet again the aliens and their slaves are striking all across the globe, terrorizing civilians and infiltrating goverments. Our forces are doing their best trying to respond to every alien attack, but obviously, we cannot win this war by mere defence. Yet again we must use the same strategy we used before: learn more about our enemy and strike it to the core. Our research indicate some single entity in charge of all alien activity. Its nature and extact location are still a mystery but now we are aware of its next move: the aliens are starting reactivation rituals in their ancient Sinomium sites in order to expand Molecular Control network. We must destroy these sites at all costs and capture the ones responsible for these rituals."

- Weapon research now begins with overall technology research ("Ultrasonic Weapons" and "Alien Weaponry Analysis")
- I also rewrote most of USOpedia articles about live alien research and autopsy. And renamed Tasoth back to Deep One (and original Deep One to The Faceless).

Future plans and thoughts:
 - human enemy faction: not cultists, Just old good criminals and black market representatives.
 - Hybrids Conspiracy plotline
 - a unique terror mission with mind-controlled civilians ("IT'S A TRAP!")
 - more terror sites: off-shore oil rig, sealab, island military base and so on.
 - underwater terror missions (needs some more brainstorming)
 - mission type: Illegal Salvage Operation (this one will be a much pain...)
 - mission type: Pirate Attack

I would like to hear any opinons and suggestions. Cheers!

[Dwarmin]

Sounds good  There is at least two big mods for TFTD right now, but none of them handle updating the story very well. For example you can fight human enemies (The SORESO Corp) in the mega mod. But it's not stated WHY, or why they drive alien USO's...

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Interlude_(Timeline)

^Alot of it takes inspiration from the interlude timeline, but no mod has really gone into detail here.

I'll add my thoughts to yours here.

Future plans and thoughts:
 - human enemy faction: not cultists, Just old good criminals and black market representatives.
Given the state of the XCOM world (most major countries collapsed in 2015, leading to worldwide chaos) there would be good reason for these, though XCOM would probably only fight the real scumbags who try to work with the aliens. Ideas!

~Inquisitors! They're not a cult, they're an anti-cult. They are violently opposed to the Cult of Sirius, and generally hate aliens, like too much, if you can believe it. This actually led to a religious war that took place only three years before TFTD begins. Actually they sort of got destroyed, but it's very possible they are still around. They would attack XCOM to keep those 'sinful alien devices' from corrupting humanity.

~SORESO is the very shady corporate predecessor to XCOM. They do a bad enough job they're probably a bunch of traitors anyway.

~Alien/Sectoid hybrids def exist by this time. They are your traditionally '2nd class' citizens. They could easily form a hostile rebel faction looking for an 'edge' acquired by alien weapons to earn their Independence

~These losers could easily appear in some form, or at least inspire your criminal factions.

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Diablo
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Psyke
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Osiron

Pretty much, they are gangsters who use illegal psionic devices like modern gangs use drugs. To make money. Given the Aliens of TFTD use a different system (Molecular Control) it would probably involve something only slightly different-maybe they are making some sort of body enhancing steroid, which might explain why they start tanking gauss cannon shots to the face when fighting XCOM...


 - Hybrids Conspiracy plotline
Fits into the whole 'why we hate alien/mutants' thing. Would be cool if there were hybrids of all the original alien races, sort of a throwback to XCOM 1. Someone get that young man a recolored Ethereal cloak!

 - a unique terror mission with mind-controlled civilians ("IT'S A TRAP!")
Better update to include the stun weaponry included in the other big mods

 - more terror sites: off-shore oil rig, sealab, island military base and so on.
I can think of a few! Kelp/Fish farm located in coastal regions, helping to alleviate hunger issues in the future. Aquatic theme park ironically invaded by angry sea life. 'Seasteads', which are houses on water, occupied by people made homeless by war/environmental catastrophe. Geothermal power plants built on the seafloor. Move to the rivers and swamps! Aliens would probably love to blow up a Hydroelectric dam.

 - underwater terror missions (needs some more brainstorming)
There's already unoccupied undersea habitats in XCOM, but you never see any people there-presumably they all got eaten right before you arrive. Civilian divers (sprite em with XCOMS crappy diving suits  ) could easily be added to these maps. Civilian or military submarines (So many extra sub models being thrown around these days) being targeted by aliens, and downed, with you having to rescue them from the crash site. A group of civilians investigating some ancient undersea ruins, or a shipwreck (because of course now is the perfect time to explore the ocean, during the 2nd Alien War) finds an amazing discovery-Tentaculats. Shipwreck survivors being picked off the ocean floor (thankfully the aliens spared you the trouble of a sea-liner mission) and you've got to save them.

[Yataka Shimaoka]

Damn, I can imagine this is gonna be a big mod, or even become a megamod. Good luck with it, I'll wait patiently because, TFTD is love

[Dr.Crowley]

Thanks for your attention, guys!

^Alot of it takes inspiration from the interlude timeline, but no mod has really gone into detail here.

Well, below is my unpolished story draft that is somewhat based on this timeline too. It is based on my personal view of what could have been, and I hope it will give some answers.

Spoiler:

The year 2002. The war is over. The aliens had been defeated and X-Com stands victorious. However, the Earth and humankind were not left unscarred. Even with numerous technological advances made during wartime, the overall losses are horrible. Many territories are polluted by alien activities, many cities are left in ruins and many lives are lost. And to make everything worse, most of the new technology is heavely dependant from Elerium-115 - which is extremely rare and is not indigenous to Earth. Since the only known Elerium source is downed alien crafts, the new Gold Rush has begun. But with so many people chasing one thing, the situation quickly went out of control. Numerous private treasure hunters and corporate salvage crews invade every country in the world, completely ignoring everything (including the law) in their pursuit of wealth and often curb-stomping the local police and even armies with superior xenotech weapons and armor.

Meanwhile, X-Com, that grew from an alien defence agency to the largest xenotechnology manufacturer and dealer, was unaffected by this new crisis. Independent from any goverment thanks to its wealth and superiour technology, X-Com traded alien tech almost to everyone interested and secretly gained much power and influence. As the Elerium Rush started and hotspots covered the entire globe, X-Com came out of shadows and proposed themselves as UN peacekeeping force and xenotech control agency. Left without any other choice, UN agreed and soon X-Com, operating under the corporate name G.R.E.S.O. (Global Reconnaissance and Extraterrestrial Salvage Operation), came back in action. Within next ten years almost all UFO crash sites on land were secured and salvaged, and the Elerium Rush seemingly came to its conclusion...

...But not really. Altough a lot of non-govermental salvage groups had been wiped out by G.R.E.S.O., there were others who were more careful and chose a more stealthy way. Many UFOs downed during the war ended up on the seabed and stood there, not found by few undersea X-Com bases and rife with valuable alien artifacts. While G.R.E.S.O. was occupied dominating the surface, these groups proceeded to salvage these alien wrecks under water without any interruption. However, as surface Elerium caches had been claimed by the goverments with the aid from G.R.E.S.O., the undersea scavanging became more and more desperate, often resulting in bloody clashes between rival salvaging bands. Some were desperate enough to attack sea labs and even X-Com floating bases, hoping to steal their Elerium stock. Others were preying on cargo ships and island warehouses, essentially becoming pirates.

G.R.E.S.O. responded with brutality. Its subdivision, S.O.R.E.S.O. (Sub-Oceanic Reconnaissance and Extraterrestrial Salvage Operation), hunted down each and every known non-govermental salvage team until no one was left. This series of underwater military operations was later named the Great Undersea War - and was another victory for X-Com.

However there were still numerous unresolved problems for humankind to deal with. The enviroment suffered greatly both from the previous wars and post-war rebuilding. Uncontrolled urban growth, overpopulation and global unemployment resulted in the world-wide political crisis of 2015 that ended only in 2027 with only 16 global goverments left. Hoping to deal with overpopulation by establishing space colonies, G.R.E.S.O. tried to persuade the world nations to use most of Elerium supplies to launch a manned mission to Mars. Their initiative, however, was rejected out of fear of exhausting Elerium stock completely - even with recent successes in developing a substitute for this extraterrestial mineral, Elerium was considered far too valuable to waste it for fuel. But instead of space colonies an alternative plan has been proposed - to build a massive underwater city-stations to house the populace. There, deep beneath the waves, people would be safe even if the aliens were to attack again...

Year 2037, present day. A great portion of humanity now dwells under water, protected by S.O.R.E.S.O. The invention of the Fusion Power helped mankind to overcome Elerium dependency, and since then the technological progress went far away from its xenotech origins. However, Elerium and alien weapons still have some value on the black market, and S.O.R.E.S.O. keeps watching over any salvage operations and investigating any suspicious activity, still ready for alien comeback - especially since something unusual is going on recently. Increased pirate activity, strange sightings, misterious dissapearances of naval vessels and aircraft, reports about never-seen-before alien artifacts emerging on the black market and a cryptic final message from suddenly imploded and sunken Khimtar submarine ("They are here! They are among us!") - all these events are linked somehow. Perhaps it is not the right time to abandon the X-Com legacy...

[niculinux]

I really like this mod, hope to see some playable version someday! My two cent's: gauss weapons may be replaceb by tyrian nick's mass accellerated weapons usabke both underwater and on  land. He got also a few craft mods, may be futher modyfied to vrate new submsrine crafts/USOs, here for the thundershep!

[Dr.Crowley]

Hmmm, these mass accelerator weapons are looking interesting... I will think about them, thanks! As for the Thunderstorm image... alright, I will try my luck with palette conversion if nobody will call it theft

[niculinux]

Hmmm, these mass accelerator weapons are looking interesting... I will think about them, thanks! As for the Thunderstorm image... alright, I will try my luck with palette conversion if nobody will call it theft

Don't mention it! And for other possible resources have a look here! 

[Dr.Crowley]

Yeah, I already plundered checked this thread. And our (in)glorious Mod Portal too

[niculinux]

Yeah, I already plundered checked this thread. And our (in)glorious Mod Portal too

Oohh cannot wait for an alpha then! I know i'm a maniaacc

[Dr.Crowley]

Well, well, I finally got a chance to check OXC forums and what do I see? "Aquamarines" sounds very much like Ultramarines, you know.