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[Shadowclaw777]

10ebbor10: would decoy drones suffer the same restrictions that Elder's Scorn did?

I'm not going to give you an un-reverse engineerible, cheap and perfect mimic drone.

2 out of 3 is the best you can hope for, 1 out of 3 is also likely.

You know the only important adjective there is it being perfect and effective at its job, unable to be reverse engineered is a thing we can suck up, and expense cost as well

[10ebbor10]

So, you want a UFO that does nothing.

Yeah, that can work.

[Failbird105]

Yep, basically the idea seems to be just something real cheap we can throw around to give the enemy false flags, confuse them on which one is the real mission.

[Kashyyk]

I'd prefer just cheap. As said before, if it costs as much as a small scout, it is worthless.  At that point we might as well send unmanned  scouts on flybys. It's value is in its cheapness first, then its ability to distract. The fact that it's tiny and is made of space paper should mean it'll be limited in the number of tokens XCom can get from it as well.

[NUKE9.13]

The only aspect that is tricky is their ability to disguise themselves well. Our current method is pretty crude, and probably easy for XCOM to circumvent. Once they achieve that, the 'decoys' become worthless. And they will be able to achieve that easily, if only for game balance reasons.

[BBBence1111]

Decoy Drones: (1)  Kashyyk
Asteroid Belt Base: (5) NUKE9.13, Puppyguard, Piratejoe73, SC, Failbird105, BBBence1111

[Tyrant Leviathan]

Decoy drone seriously? Asteroid belt vase. Make it harder to kill ya all when time comes.

[Kashyyk]

Whilst I doubt I can pull people away from Asteroid Mining , here's a few other suggestions:

Mission: Identify Target
Some targets, such as Psionic Signatures and XCom bases, require sombre accrual effort to find. This mainly involves frequent flybys of an area, as well as repeated landings to take closer looks at suspicious locations. This mission works well with infiltrators (who can get much closer to targets without assisting suspicion) as well as psionics (who can use their Gift to detect hidden humans).

Mission: Incite Terror
Gratuitous violence against civilian and national military targets are guaranteed to cause serious concern amongst backers of the XCom project. Be it random stranding of ground targets by alien vessels, or alien units roaming around and shouting anything that moves, we will demonstrate XCom's incompetence to the entire world.

Muton
After our previous attempt at creating Light Mutons, we should have the experience to do them properly. We don't want to just try again after all. We also use a DNA token to patch Earth incompatible sections of a Muton's DNA. The end result is a seven foot, 300lb humanoid, capable of lifting their own body weight in equipment, with redundent organs and a hardened skeleton to resist trauma. Finally, they undergo an intense combat regime to ensure they are competent in all aspects of warfare, whilst their skill in non-combat situations may be lacking.

Plasma Carbines
Intended as a direct upgrade to our pistols, these are basically our rifles, cut down just enough to be free whilst still better than pistols.

[NUKE9.13]

Hmm. We will want a Terror mission type at some point, but I don't think now is the time. Whilst Identify Target would be useful, I feel we may be able to get away without it, and use Recruit Collaborators as our source of information instead- eg, we might perform RC in Egypt or Brazil, which may give us more clues as to the location of EXALT's psi-labs or whatever.

Whilst our experience with Lesser Mutons will bring full-sized Mutons within reach, I think they'd still be Hard. Although, the addition of a DNA token might help.

Carbines are a revision, and one that is unlikely to succeed, I think. As in, we'd get them, but they'd still cost EP.
What I'm thinking about for our mission is two Medium Fighters, a Medium Scout, and a (free) Small Scout for good measure. This requires 7VP, we currently have 5- it would only be an option if we get at least 1VP from the belt base. I figure in light of their new fighter, splitting our forces becomes an even worse idea, and that since 1 MF held off two Talons for a while, 2 MFs might be similarly capable of at the very least keeping them at bay whilst we land- although by the sound of things, victory is unlikely (I'm guessing XCOM got a 7 and spent multiple tokens, whereas the MF is the result of a 5).
As for the mission type and destination... I think RC, targeting... Brazil? The panic might make RC slightly more effective, and it would help us track down EXALT (as mentioned above)

[BBBence1111]

If we make a Terror Mission, I want Xeno-Hydralids to be revealed on it.

[piratejoe]

Personally, I think that we should focus more on Australia. Xcom knows that Brazil has panic, but they don't know Australia has supporters of our cause. We should do the asteroid base and then next time as a revision or something make a mission for the whole psionic thing we seem to have put on the back burner.

[VoidSlayer]

Or we could develop terror weapons that can kill x-com and spread panic.

Nightmare Worms

These 3 foot long worm like creatures come in swarms of twelve or more individuals, they move faster then a snake but can throw their body to make horrifying leaps and climb up most surfaces.  They have brutal jaw appendages made for burrowing through layers of defensive armor and flesh to implant larval forms that then consume the host from the inside.  Worse still, they are capable of projecting a portion of the collective mind into the brains of their victims, a part composed solely of fear.  Those affected become panicked and may even be frozen completely in utter terror.  Worse still, the larva contain a small quantity of nanites, used up in the process, which allow the first batch to grow rapidly, bursting forth from the head of their host after consuming the brain in a matter of minutes.

The collective are one of the greatest failures, as they came so very close to success.  Originally a peaceful race of sentient worms who formed neural nets through a latent, natural telepathy.  A rare talent, we sought to enhance them and bring them closer to us so that their complex culture could add to our own.  They were unprepared for the majesty of the true gift and were overwhelmed by the Great Fear we must contend with.  They went mad and used the new found powers to send that mad revelation to others of their kind, a great thought plague which destroyed rational thought and made their world barren to our works.  We have learned from the mistakes of the past, and so take action slowly, to prevent clutching too fast and too hard at our goal to see it destroyed in our grasp.

The modifications to the worms make them excellent at gauging the abilities of our subjects and while they multiply rapidly at first they will die off over time so present no long term threat to the biosphere.  They are not controlled by us, but instinctively attack any sentient mental energy not shielded by our efforts, once let out of stasis.

We of course use the exalt token, since he is the first test subject...

Basically combine mind worms, hyper worms and cyrsalids and you get this happy camper.

[sprinkled chariot]

Ehm, its awesome except they die off to not present threat to biosphere( releasing them to breed in big city can be !FUN! And may as well have xcom to go and clear out this stuff) Also them being psychic somewhat increases design difficulty, I suppose.
Is fear inducing ability somewhat long ranged ?

[~Neri]

I'd rather not have em die off over time. It'd increase panic and would make Xcom need to devote effort and materials to purging. Which would in turn mean fewer craft able to intercept us.

[VoidSlayer]

Sure, what about limiting them to sentient life forms, like crows, chimpanzees, pigs and maybe humans?