Getting battle tougher ideas

[Volutar]

1. Make "Agressive AI" mode which will use alternative pathfinder which will account "destructable walls" as walkable (with some extra TUs for making breach), so aliens could walk through walls more often, rather than roaming in the buildings. This also will require "destroy wall" action as part of "walk" routine.

1a. "Wait behind a corner" and "Wall-breaching" as main tactics for meele units, in order not to be killed before reaching a target. Chryssalid or reaper crushing a wall which you think is safe - will be very challenging moment.

2. Nightly terrorise. Aliens prefer to start terror missions at dusk, so mostly it will happen at "scary night" (like in intro move)

3. "Don't waste your time" terror missions. Each hour (for example) you "pass" accounts for extra alien turn before you land and start this mission. So more you wait, more casualities you'll get before assaulting. That also match intro movie, when aliens killing before xcom arrived. This will need for "pre turn 0" calculations, similar to power sources explosions, but more complex. Fast AI turns (without any XCOM). And then xcom ship must appear on the map.

4. Sacrificial commanders. Commanders could kill themselves before xcom units will capture them. This will make commander capturing (and important interrogation) lot harder. It's better to be not just "killed himself" but actual shot into its own tile. So firing function will be called without "self unit" to be ignored. Or grenade or even blaster missile. Commanders also could not count for any of friendly unit as the reason not to throw grenade. They can sacrifice themselves and any other unit. Decision formula of "1*xcom-2*alien" could be replaced with "1*xcom-1*alien". It's like 1:1 is enough to fire blaster or grenade.

[xracer]

lol,

You know i never thought someone would think the same way i do

Point 1 were something i have always wanted since... well the first time i played the game (maybe the second), so that aliens would be able to literally hunt xcom units, although i had always thought to add a sentinel or scout type unit so that it will relay information to the main race and adjust the battle tactics accordingly, you know a non-offensive unit that is agile, fast or even flies and it will be the "eyes" of the aliens.  But yeah i like that idea.

Point 2 i always thought that was a given.
Point 3 i also thought that was included the longer you take to answer a mission the lower your score will be. aka more civilians dead.
Point 4 also a feature i always thought was good, kill yourself rather than be capture by the enemy, and of course the "captain goes down with the sip" specially if the ship has a self-destruct system *too bad we lost the lieutenant when that alien destroyed the ship*

One of these day i will post my ranting... one of these day...

[Mr. Quiet]

Great ideas, you have my support!

[moriarty]

2. Nightly terrorise. Aliens prefer to start terror missions at dusk, so mostly it will happen at "scary night" (like in intro move)

3. "Don't waste your time" terror missions. Each hour (for example) you "pass" accounts for extra alien turn before you land and start this mission. So more you wait, more casualities you'll get before assaulting. That also match intro movie, when aliens killing before xcom arrived. This will need for "pre turn 0" calculations, similar to power sources explosions, but more complex. Fast AI turns (without any XCOM). And then xcom ship must appear on the map.

absolutely, yes. also for crash site missions, I would think: for every hour that passes, surviving aliens start collecting weapons from dead aliens and setting up defensive positions, so if you arrive really late, your opposition will be armed to the teeth and hiding in ambush spots. too bad the aliens don't have proximity grenades of their own, or we could also have them set up booby traps around the map  or even automated turrets 

we might also think about actually wounding aliens in a crash, and having them heal with time. so if you shoot down a UFO and immediately rush them on the ground, you have easier targets, but if you wait too long, you will find a full-health defense crew.

[darkestaxe]

1. New weakling abilities - Some aliens are just plain weak, but might be more powerful if they had some sort of ability:

• Reaper: A "charge" attack that can be executed from a range and requires line of sight. This would require the LOS and pathing both to be checked. It could create problems if the path routine finds a path other then the line of sight.
• Silicoid: Walk directly through delicate things to get at X-COM, goes with the increased agression in OP. Basicly it just busts through wooden walls like the Kool-Aid Jar.

2. Dirty AI - I think this would need be optional but the AI could start doing some nasty things that players sometimes do... like

• Chain mind-control and/or mind-controlled suicides
• Blaster bombing areas that X-COM might be
• Proxy in the doorway

3. Alien power scaling - Some of the aliens that don't really stay threatening could become more powerful in simple/obvious ways if the player maintains a high score for long enough, or simply late game. This would require some sort of geoscape triggers to affect the versions of alien stats being used, or apply the modifiers somehow.

• All aliens could get +30, 50, 90 psy strength after Aug 1999, Nov 1999, Feb 2000 - to curb MC super squading and make alien psionics more scary.
• Psy aliens could get +10-60 psy skill after 2-7 months of high geoscape scores. On high difficulties some ranks that don't get psy could get the skill from this too, unlocking psy. - This would also make late-game psionics more scary.
• Floaters could get increased TUs and FA after sept 1999 - Otherwise they're just heavy plasma fodder.
• Snakeman could get increased hp and armor late game and a few extra TUs/reactions - they get thicker hides as they get older