USA just signed a pact with unkown aliens. How boned am I?

[rezaf]

After all this time, I still haven't finished my game.

Once I got Laser Weapons, things went a bit more smoothly. It also helped that after some more Mutons and Gazers I finally hit a period of mostly Floaters and Waspoids, which are a pushover compared to the first two.
By the time the Mutons returned, I was much better prepared.

For a while, there was relatively smooth sailing, and I was continuously making progress. Quite a few nations retreated from Xcom, but I think my actual funding never dropped.

I exterminated all the cults, captured some juicy UFOs and even a few bases/colonies, finally made it to Turbolaser and then to Plasma Weapons. I researched (I think) all vehicles, tried to deal with all the frankly a bit overdone side-theaters (underwater, zombies, UAC, cyberdudes) ... and then everything just grind to a halt.
In the last 6 months or so, probably more, I only had, besides UFO grind, a vampire queen mission (following research suggested I need to retrieve some mcguffin, but no mission spawned yet), a moon landing (following research didn't really amount to anything significant) and the capture of some sort of extradimensional battleship.
For about three months, nothing at all out of the ordinary happened. I have 250 researchers twiddling their thumbs and mechanics working hard on my fourth Avenger as well as some more flying armors ... and no idea what to do next.

I'd expect some serious moon mission to further the story now, but as I wrote, nothing seems to materialize.
What could be the problem?

[Chuckebaby]

How's your research ?
You can always post a save game file. This will help us see what's going on.

[rezaf]

How's your research ?
You can always post a save game file. This will help us see what's going on.

You mean my progress? 82%.
I'll see about uploading a save when I get back home.

[Chuckebaby]

You mean my progress? 82%.
I'll see about uploading a save when I get back home.

My guess is you need to capture some more little green people. Probably of the highest diplomacy.
Did you get any Ethereals to interrogate ? You need a few of the higher up ones, not just commanders. Those can only be found on moon missions.

Moon missions are key, they are your window for capturing live aliens you need to complete the game. Especially the Ethereal grand master.
Without that guy, you're just kicking moon rocks the rest of your life.

And he's not easy to catch

Spoiler:

The dude is surrounded by all Muton elites (The red ones)

Well he was for me anyway.

Pull out your mind probe and start poking every white Ethereal you see.

[rezaf]

Forgot to up the savegame yesterday, sorry.

But yeah, that might be it. But the moon missions spawn so slowly. I mean, REALLY slowly.
There was one where you discover that transmitter array or whatever that is, and then two where I had to rescue some sort of base mostly from space nazis ... and then one other tiny one which brought no salvage at all.

I learned the hard way how over-reliant this mod is on capturing and interrogating aliens, so I'm used to doing that by now, but I haven't had any opportunity to do so, which is more the problem.

At the plasma techlevel, I'm no longer afraid of the mutons, not even the elites. Well, maybe a little bit, but not nearly as much as I used to. Dealing with them at the gunpowder techlevel was a nightmare.

[Stone Lake]

Moon chain spawns about one mission per month. You can just skip everything else. Shoot enough UFOs to not get negative score two months in a row and you'll be fine.
First mission in a chain is orbital station. It has 50% chance to spawn each month and is unlocked by you having four techs - space flight, hyperwave decoder, alien leaders and alien commanders.
The second mission in the chain is moon outpost, unlocked by having Moon Flight and Lunar Satellite Observation. You have to build a Sat Lab with some scientists and launch a satellite. Also, this mission requires lighting, starfighter or avenger to do - kitsune won't work.
Then it's pretty much smooth sailing to the end, digging deeper into the moon each time. Magma cosmonauts and such are completely optional.
Make sure to capture and research any new ethereal (mind probe them to be sure). The briefing usually tells who you need. I had to redo one of the missions because I was too trigger-happy. And make sure to bring only space gear to moon missions.