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[~Neri]

Why limit at all? Instead we can Force Xcom to purge em or the problem Will get worse.

And we can always just make a tailored disease for em. We know their DNA.

[NUKE9.13]

Why limit at all? Instead we can Force Xcom to purge em or the problem Will get worse.

And we can always just make a tailored disease for em. We know their DNA.

It wouldn't be in keeping with the spirit of XCOM to develop a 'hands off' method of terrorising the Earth like that. We can do mind worms, but VoidSlayer is right to include a built-in killswitch.
Likewise, we can do stuff like those... whatchamacallit, gas-drop-pod-things from newcom. But we can't have them release a disease that will spread uncontrollably.

[sprinkled chariot]

Ebbor, what would be supposed difficulty of terror worms and would it be woooo balance if they are designed to spread once seeded.

[Shadowclaw777]

Probably hard to extremely hard, a -2 to a 2d4; you know we should just combine mantis dna and chryssalids, and get superhuman speed, chitinous monsters, and the cliche zombie reproduction method. Maybe call them “Reapers”

Sort of like this but all green and olive chitin instead of black

Spoiler: Image Depiction (click to show/hide)

[10ebbor10]

Ebbor, what would be supposed difficulty of terror worms and would it be woooo balance if they are designed to spread once seeded.

If, "with spread once seeded", you mean, automatically generates additional missions for XCOM to deal with, then it would push into Impossible/Very Impossible.

[Failbird105]

Yeah that's why I generally ignored the constant suggestions of making 'lids or lid-likes. Everybody wants to make the perfect killing machines that can overrun the planet without our intervention and we can just get rid of casually once we're done. Very rarely does anybody pay any mind to the fact that maybe just maybe that would be the slightest bit unbalanced.

[Shadowclaw777]

The end goal of the Ethereals is intentionally designed in both the games and in the likely case of this Arms Race to not to eradicate humanity, but instead enslave them for our own personal usage. Bio-weapons aren’t really practical to that idea, that’s why any of the zombie-creating derivative should really only affect a single large city and create mass amount of panic, until they leave the X-com project.

These chrys-lites can still be possible, but not to the continuous degree without need of our assistance should still be possible. Send in a terror ship with some chryssalid, and start a terror mission for Xcom where they have to both save civilian lives while under the fire of alien and the zombie menace, also even hardened combat operatives would fall under pressure mentally when they realize their shoot innocents, their life are very much in jeopardy, and all that nonsense

[NUKE9.13]

ebbor, may I ask if this mission type falls into the 'hilariously unbalanced and thus Impossible' category?

Establish Outpost: We find that constantly travelling back and forth from our base to Earth is detrimental to our efforts. The craft required are expensive, the travel time is not negligible, and our final approach offers XCOM a chance to detect & intercept our forces. Therefore, we seek to establish outposts on Earth from whence small-scale operations may be launched and intel gathered. Our primary missions will require troops and materiel from our main base and may take place outside the outpost's sphere of influence, and will therefore continue to make use of regretably detectable craft transporting them to Earth.
Our forces shall land in the target nation, some distance from the eventual location of the base. The equipment and materials necessary to construct the base will be unloaded (preferably disguised or obfuscated such that XCOM could not easily guess as to their purpose), any local assistance coordinated, and the landing craft secluded, prior to overland travel to the final destination. These measures are to ensure that any intervening forces will not be appraised of where the outpost is located exactly, lest they later return to destroy it.
Once any interference has been dealt with and the site reached, engineers will set to work. Outposts should be tailored to their environment, with a focus on stealth (it should not be possible for XCOM to discover it without dedicating resources to the matter- sending a UAV to fly over the country should not be sufficient). They will be equipped with rudimentary facilities, and be guarded by basic anti-air weaponry and small garrisons (it should take XCOM more than a single Skyranger dropping off a squad to destroy the outpost and capture any equipment or resources contained within).
This mission will benefit greatly from infiltration in the target country, as our collaborators may help us identify a suitable location ahead of time, and provide us with local construction equipment and materials such that we do not have to bring everything ourselves. It may ((for balance reasons, if outposts are especially powerful)) take more than a single trip to complete an outpost.
Successfully established outposts should serve to strengthen our control of the region, provide a trickle of resources/research, and provide assistance to missions occuring elsewhere on the continent.

[TopHat]

Terror missions would be nice but I'm not sure now's the time. I'd rather get a more versatile frontliner (probably the lesser muton - it should be easier as we've tried it before) before a terror unit, and personally think we'd be better served directly attacking locations like X-Com's and EXALT's bases - we could probably revise a terror mission from that later. I'd hoped we might be able to roll the recon and assault phases into one mission, probably over two turns - it'd be harder but save a valuable design slot.

Outposts - both Earth-based and asteroid belt - will probably require a good amount of effort to get to a useful state, with other dependencies like transport craft (which we could probably revise from our medium scout). Regarding Nuke's proposal specifically, I personally think it would take a lot of effort to get all of the functions requested (research, intel, mission assistance) both designing any major add-ons (e.g. ground-to-air batteries), and then repeated missions to build it up. I imagine a system a bit like the current infiltration one, with a single 'expand outpost' mission that would increase outpost level in a country. That way the outpost would start out basic and gradually gain more utility as we put more resources into it.

EDIT - Regarding this turn's mission, I personally think of the Talon as an incentive to split up - at a probable 2 VP (though possibly with tokens invested) it's not cost effective to send against a lone small scout. That lone scout would, with the DPW, have decent chances against the Raven (they've probably sidelined improving it in favour of the Talon) and, with two units and a set of rifles, probably win against a single Skyranger of troops on the ground - and as evidenced by Australia, we might not even need to win the ground combat for a Recruit mission to succeed. In any case, Elder's Scorn should reduce the impact of any we lose.

[VoidSlayer]

I am sticking with my vague range for the terror power and not being adapted to the bio sphere, so it doesn't break the game.

Honestly we could just one up their rifles and sight helmets with a truly superior plasma rifle and sectoid eye upgrades.

[10ebbor10]

ebbor, may I ask if this mission type falls into the 'hilariously unbalanced and thus Impossible' category?

It was my intention to have each base build as a dedicated design action. Because, you know, they're fairly powerful things, those bases.

So, I'm not entirely sure about allowing you an action that builds bases in another way.

[NUKE9.13]

Ah, I wasn't thinking that these'd be fully-fledged bases. Just minor outposts.
But I suppose the distinction is a bit vague.

Although, this does raise the question- if we use a design to create a base on earth, do we have magical invisible construction ships (ie game abstractions) that build it, or what?

[Shadowclaw777]

I think that should be a thing though but in a different form of implantation, in all extraterrestrial planetary defense simulator (ie Xenonauts and Xcom), the aliens have things like landing ships which are designed to land into continents and build bases, outposts, whatever. I mean that could be a thing where the human Xcom have to react against an landing ship, which has the goal to start a very basic outpost which at most provides 1 point or maybe some form of tokens such as a (infiltration token?), but future landing ships could do like Reinforce/Transmit Resources as a mission which expands those very basic outposts into something else, and that provides tokens but not points.

Also the thing where if a council nation leaves Xcom, at least in NewCom long war, the aliens can than build a base much easier there because the council doesn’t have the support of the international agency

Edit: To Nuke question, maybe have landing ships/transport barges and a mission for Xcom to counteract? 

[10ebbor10]

Although, this does raise the question- if we use a design to create a base on earth, do we have magical invisible construction ships (ie game abstractions) that build it, or what?

Yeah, the base gets build by the same taxi service that handles your Skin Crawlers.

Ah, I wasn't thinking that these'd be fully-fledged bases. Just minor outposts.

That may work, depending on what exactly you want the bases to do.

[10ebbor10]

Asteroid Belt Base: Dug in to a particularly large asteroid orbiting Sol, this base serves as the home for a fleet of mining drones, who scour the asteroid belt for useful minerals, bringing them back to base to be processed. The gathered materials are used in the construction of vehicles and equipment- this being the base's primary function. Facilities exist to support a small staff of engineers and overseers, but the majority of the base is automated and uninhabitable, in order to reduce the cost and complexity of construction.

Very Hard  : 2 + 4 - 2 = 4   ( Below Average)

The Asteroid belt base is a fully automated facility dug partially into one of the many mineral rich asteroid orbiting Sol. Well, more accurately, it's a set of seperate facilities spread across the asteroid, in order to maximize production. Mining drones spread out from each of these central refineries to extract the rare elements (and tonnes of more mundane elements) from which alien alloys can be produced.

A downsized from this production focused approach is that the base is hard to defend. There are no fixed defenses in place, and crew accommodations are limited to a dozen sectoids technicians that normally operate the base.   

Spoiler: Equipment (click to show/hide)

Vehicles

Small scout : One of the tiniest vessels at your disposal, the Small scout is both cheap and reliable. Powered by a single Elerium core, the vessel makes decent speed, while carrying up to 2 units to their destination. It's equipped with a plasma turret for self defense . Cost : 1 VP  | 1 Free

Light fighter : Roughly half the size of a Small Scout, the Light fighter is a small craft that can be slaved to a nearby UFO to defend it. It's armed with 3 forward firing plasma guns, giving it a decent amount of firepower. Like the small scout, it is powered by a single Elerium core that gives it decent speed. Cost : 1 VP

Medium fighter Roughly 3 quarters the size of a small scout, the medium fighter is a small automated craft capable of independent operation. It's armed with 3 forward firing plasma guns, giving it a decent amount of firepower. Powered by an enlarged Elerium reactor, it's small size gives it greatly superior speed and maneuverability. Cost : 2 VP

Medium Scout : Roughly twice the size of it's smaller cousin, the medium scout is medium sized craft powered by a single large elerium reactor. It's armed with 3 plasma turrets around of the rim of the hull, and a mortar for ground use. It's armor is no stronger than that on the light scout, but an extra layer around the core provides extra protection to critical systems/ It's powerful engines give it's decent speed while carrying 4 units.
Cost: 3 VP

Equipment

Plasma Pistols : A basic simple sidearm that has been used in many pacification operations. The plasma pistol is a dependable bit of equipment that is light but not particularly powerful.

Plasma Rifle : An effective weapon that can project jets of plasma over significant ranges with great effect. Comes with modular attachment points. Cost: 1 EP

Elerium Grenade : The elerium grenade is powerful handheld explosive. Cost : 1 EP

Meld Container : A container filled with the precious Meld, a substance that consists out of billions of cybernetic nanomachines that automatically capture, catalogue and analyse any foreign DNA they find. Greatly increases the effectiveness of recovery operations. If capture threatens, the container will perform an auto-sterilization cycle.  Cost : 1 EP

ECM equipped flight computer : A modified flight computer that can mimic a larger ship or deceive missiles.
Cost: 0 EP

Defensive Plasma Wave : A modification of our current generation plasma weaponry, that allows our vessels to engulf themselves in a bath of plasma to stop missiles at close range.
Cost :0EP

AAA missile battery : A missile launcher that replaces a normal plasma cannon. Launches advanced, intelligent and high yield Alien anti air missiles. Each launcher contains 2 missiles. (Cost 1 EP).

Elder's Scorn : A modified Elerium power core that destroy a ship when it sustains damage, or it's crew is killed/incapacitated.
Cost: 0.25  EP

Aliens
Sectoid : A formerly weak species with a limited capability for the gift. Nonetheless, their simple biology allows to easily clone these creatures and deploy them in great numbers. Integration of human DNA has brought their strength up to par with human baseline.
    - Reversable Mind Merge: Merge minds with an organic, intelligent friendly or enemy, giving or drawing upon them for strength
Cost 1 UP   ( 1 Free available)

Scout drone : A small but fast scout drone armed with powerfull short range non-lethal weaponry and powerfull sensors. Effective at hunting down humans as well as spotting threats, but lightly armored.
Cost 1 UP or 1 EP

Skin Crawler : An infiltrator unit capable of mimicking human form (more or less). Has 8 claw equipped tentacles and is capable of using most handheld technologies.
Cost 2 UP (+1 UP if infiltrated [Infiltrated units require no transportation, but can not use equipment]) [3 UP worth free] 

Mission Profiles

Harvest: A simple mission profile that involves a UFO landed in a secluded area to capture humans other lifeforms for analysis in the main base.

Recruit Collaborators : A more complex mission profile that relies on the insertion of infiltrating units to make contact and recruit potential collaborators.

Alien Resources

5+1 VP
6 UP
3 EP

2 DNA token, 1 EP token, 1 Exalt Token

Dark side of the Moon base [Hidden, Industrious]

Asteroid Belt Base
        - Asteroid mining systems (+1 EP, + 1 VP)
        - Weak defenses (Max 2 units in garrison)

Spoiler: PANIC METER (click to show/hide)

Africa
---> Egypt
---> South Africa
---> Nigeria

Asia
--->Australia  Light infiltration
--->China
--->India
--->Japan

Europe
--->France
--->Germany
--->Russia
--->United Kingdom

North America
--->Canada
--->Mexico
--->United States

South America
--->Argentina
--->Brazil   X

Invasion

Turn 8

Month end : Gain 1 free VP; UP or EP point

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