XCOM EU Mod Concepts: Space Command

[LionofPerth]

Greetings all

 

This is going to one interesting first post, or I hope so. Having completed the game in short order, I found there were more than a few things I felt could have been added to the game. Namely I would like to outline these elements, so if you can forgive the length of the post, I do have something I would like to outline.

 

Some may be a bit of an understatement, so I will start now.

 

Firstly I believe that the game was simply too short. I felt that an important aspect of what Xcom could be was missed out. I felt that the space aspect of the game was entirely missed out. While I appreciated the air combat phases, for me with my plan I got near enough a 100% intercept rate. I wanted more of a challenge, apart from the Firaxis standard of gimping the player and giving the AI cheats.

 

To fix this first phase I would like to see a battleship program given to the Xcom initiative. This is to be done through the Foundry, then Hanger. Under ideal circumstances I would like to see this battleship able to assist in normal intercepts, firing an initial salvo, then the designated interceptor taking over. Beyond that I would like to see direct attacks made on the Battleship, with groups of UFO's. Further to this I would like to see a combat class of UFO's that in addition to normal remains/supplies provide a fusion core.

 

I also believe that continent specific battleship names would also be a nice touch. Approximate cost would be three to four times the cost of the Firestorm advanced fighter, with at least one to two fusion cores.

 

Secondly, I found that the Laboratory structure was useless in terms of what it achieved. There was a disappointing lack of technology. I was hoping for a much deeper technology pool. This is a game in which you can't get everything, which I somehow managed in my last playthrough. To do this I would like to see the creation of an additional weapon technology layer. I believe that this, with other ideas I will list, it goes for a more complex tech tree and makes the presence of laboratories required. Another part of this is that I believe that as part of the Adjacency bonus small quantities of Alloys and Elerium are produced for the player to use.

 

I thought of an addition structure to allow this, but I believe that with the current base space, short of expanding it, keeping as much to the existing structures is the best thing possible.

 

Below are a sample list of the projects I have thought of at this moment in time.

 

Projects:

 

Kinetic Cannon - Allows for the Kill Sat Foundry upgrade, allows for Kinetic Strikes during missions.

 

Advanced Kinetics - Infantry grade Kinetic Weapons, rail guns in other words.

 

Artefact Storage - Allows for the storage of captured alien weapons and items - Allows for the construction of the Tech Vault base facility.

 

I also wanted to bring in more nods to modern infantry and tactics I was looking at creating items such as the following.

 

Combat Sights - Ignore/Reduce Reaction Shot Aim Penalty.

 

Assault Sling - Reloading as First Action no longer ends turn.

 

This also ties into the idea of the Battleship and Kill Sats. I wanted the players to be able to call in artillery during the missions. Once you have the components to complete certain projects, there is little to no point in not using explosive damage to kill aliens. At least I felt so. The other reason is two Sectopods in a Supply Barge wreck.

 

I would like to see two shots at most made in each mission, one from the Battleship and one from the Kill Sat. The other part of the Kill Sat idea was to allow people to deploy satellites that had some defensive capabilities. Rather than fighters it is my intention for this to allow you to keep as many countries as possible, even if you can't afford the up keep for the intercepts. Targetting is being controlled through the Target Marker, basically another type of Arc Thrower.

 

I also believe that it is balanced out by the process to get this, you will need to build a satellite, foundry, research a project and then have the foundry project complete. It's a long process, but with enough direction, achievable.

 

Finally, I would like to fix the usual Firaxis pattern of gimp the player and give the computer cheats. To do this I would like to set the health of the soldiers to that of Easy/Normal. Furthermore, I would like to see a steady unlocking of the AI's capabilities up through the difficulty settings. Apart from the current cheats I believe that Firaxis has got the difficulty setting right, that Classic and Impossible are right where they need to be.

 

Second Wave I would like to see fully introduced and stable.

 

Beyond the above points I am more than happy with the rest of the design decisions. If you'd like to help me or discuss specifics please leave a reply and I will happily go over more of the details.

 

Thanks for your time and my apologies on such a long, first post.

 

LoP