Or split the mod into 3-5 smaller mods?
I'd be very reluctant about dividing content of the mod into several sub-mods. I mean, if the whole X-Com Files would be severely modular from the get-go, with various arcs being somewhat customizable, inerchangeable or whatnot - then maybe. But now when we have relatively interconnected whole, I'd rather settle on some relatively working-for-everyone way of handling that content than exiling it elsewhere.
I honestly fail to see what's so silly about that. Considering they're giant rats, why would it be sillier than using dogs? I require explanations.
Well, like I've said, it's not a big deal and I complained about it half-jokingly but if you really want to know why I dislike it, it's because there is a huge difference between rats, no matter how giant - and dogs. Rats may be trained, but they aren't as versatile and prepared for regular interaction and handling by humans as dogs are. Dogs came to be thorough many, many years of proper wolf breeding and domestication, giant rats seem to be absolutely wild mutants and there's no way they could be trained and managed as easily as dogs, not without considerable investment of funds, infrastructure, dedicated personnel and time - none of which should be even considered by X-com. There's a reason why humans IRL having access to many animals of intelligence and physique similar to that of dogs still use dogs explicitly for many tasks instead of switching them with those other animals in a flight of fancy.
Additionally, let's be honest, there are creatures in the game which would seem a far more effective choice for what X-com normally uses animals for. But all those would suffer from similar issues, possibly to even greater extent. Dogs already seem to be questionable investment realism-wise given scope of X-com work (and normally, using attack dogs on the battlefield would be a PR mess all on its own) but they don't clash with my sensibilities as much because in theory they can be used for regular investigation or a mopup when one sends agents to, say, take down some hoodlums (it's just, in practice, we all know they are used to charge armored aliens and chew on their superarmors, but that's where believability backs down for the sake of the gameplay).
Again, no problem. As long as I myself can absolutely ignore the feature and it has no big impact on the rest of the game - if you want to do it, I am sure there will be others who'll enjoy it.
It's just one settlement, man. Not a "civilization", lol.
If it was as you presented it, then indeed it would be crap.
Yes, but that settlement either is the center of political power of much of the civilization or there'd be no point in dealing with it, since no matter X-com actions, it's not a coup if you cannot take down those in power and if you cannot do that then the bugfolks' revolt won't lead them anywhere, the cause for attacking the surface will still be there and the whole thing will make no sense from the standpoint of X-com's fight.. and suddenly the arc makes little sense, so I've assumed it is a major center of governing the race and the culprit pushing said race into warfare with surface-dwellers, humans.
Maybe somrthing like that, yes. But my main concern is adding multiple intermediate researches, people don't like them and they slow things down. I'm a bit torn on this.
Maybe they can be presented not as separate research topics but similar to dossiers? It's just that you'd have to gather the dossiers about the race, political climate and a way to stop the invasion through interrogations of Shoggs, sharkmen etc to activate those few missions of helping the rebels.
So make a whole mini-arc to do the coup? It's an idea, but wouldn't it detract from actual X-Com things?
I mean it's already a mini-arc, nearly the whole point of Shogg fight and the culmination of it, or at the very least culmination of a big part of it. I just suggest a few missions and some visible fluff to string it together better and avoid the issue that brought about this conversation - the fact that one moment the player is just shooting/looting/interrogating the creatures and the next moment is heavily involved in their domestic politics, seemingly with nothing between those two points.
As for detracting from X-com duties, I already agreed - hell yeah it detracts! It's nothing X-com should deal with in the first place, but since we already have the content and it's fun, I just suggest involving the council/human political apparatus fluff-wise so we can wing an explanation for why is X-com dealing with this as I'd rather see no content scrapped
Though alternatively, if it'll turn out to be a problem, some already existing fluff can be changed, rebels taken out from said fluff and mission and the whole palace attack being about destroying a warlord who dug up some alien tech, organized himself a kingdom and united undergrounders in his ambition to invade the surface - and defeating them will make them break apart again into various tribes who will be content staying underground.
Maybe it would work if we somehow moved the entire Shogg arc to some earlier stage by relaxing the initial research requirements. What do you think?
That's actually a pretty nice idea. Would require some balancing and reordering things though, probably make Shogg units and equipment much weaker, too - but that, frankly, would be a pretty good change making things more believable all on its own because it is weird that their chitinous shell stops heavy machinegun rounds easily and that their primitive weaponry rivals advanced human armaments in terms of combat utility.
It would also add the impression that there's a lot going on in the world beside just cults/gangs (which early game, aside from random cryptids seem to be main X-com investigation interest and also why I've requested more tiny non-arc missions about unaffiliated crazies, technology smugglers, conspiracy theorists) and add that new 'dimension' of underwater fighting.
