Nickisimo

All use 50 elerium, although you don't get squat for recovering a small scout(how does it move?). That poor lonely little sectiod...

Ooh...I'm starting to see some feasible ideas here... There could be a bunch of different things to keep track of your progress as an alien commander... One could just be a straight-up score, where the higher it is, the more you can build(or something like you're giving a certain number of pts monthly to spend on soldiers, ships, research, etc). Or, you could have a reputation based system(like your standing within the alien CEOs), where you are given monthly objectives, and depending on how many primary and secondary objectives you complete for the month, they give you pts. Example, January 1999: Based on current research and your current resources, the Overmind feels that you need to do the following: (*'s are secondary objectives) - Conduct mining operations to attain 10,000 alien alloys from Mars * Construct an additional mining facility - Raise and train 200 soldiers * Train 10 leaders - Terrorize one human city(terror ship will be provided, but only authorized for this mission) * Conduct mission with success, eliminate all civilians, and human military operatives if necessary - Conduct 50 successful scouting missions * Locate possible site for future harvesting and abduction missions What do you think?

Okay...yeah, that was long. Some good thoughts though. Since this has piqued my curiousity(is that a good thing?), let me add my thoughts: I've been base-raided in the first month, and seen b-ships very early in the game. It's rare, but no so much on Genius or Superhuman. Some limits are obviously imposed on the game though to keep things reasonable. Maybe the aliens didn't know exactly what they needed up until the first bit of fighting, and then went into mass production of bigger ships. We could handle that. From everything I've read about the species, the ethereals are too few and too important to send in the beginning. You have to remember that detectors only pick up 5% or 10% of all UFO movement within that small radius, so there are theoretically tons of UFOs heading out with sectiods, then floaters and so on as you said. Good stuff. I like this idea. We'll have to assume that the humans don't get scores(or else they would probably lose very quickly). I'm not sure about the end goal...I don't know if any of you guys have played the PS1 version and lost...but there was a really sweet little movie showing the aliens basically signing a peace treaty at the UN building, and then mutons kick the door down and kill the humans. Maybe the final mission would be to raid the UN complex? And you'd have to capture a human commander or something to research, "UN or Bust" :: Anyway, that'd be neat. Plus, how cool would it be to wipe out the UN?

I thought about this too for SP, but honestly...The humans would have to be so incredibly boosted to even have a chance at beating the aliens...think about it, you could raid only at night, t-site at will(and with whatever units you want), have access to plasma and blaster bombs long before the humans... MP would be great though. Sorta like AvP. Or AvA? "Mangy curs...can't even take down a bunch of humans in white jumpsuits. Kill them! I never did like that batch of mutons anyway..."

Why are they are purple in the autopsy? That always bugged me but I forgot to ask.

I wonder if we can get John Woo to direct the game? Then we'd have stuff blowing up, soldiers diving in the air while shooting dual goal DEs, exciting UFO chases, etc. ::

I think my favorite TV/movie ridiculous explosion is in the movie, "The Chase" with Charlie Sheen(not really a great movie)...anyway, at the end, the girl shoots a helicopter(at the front of it) with a pistol from way downtown and it blows up(completely, like if C4 was planted inside or something). Just classic pyrotechnics gone wild. I'd like to see the alien AI try and use explosives against you(us?). Sometimes when I play I think about moving my guy near gas pumps or those little red things inside alien bases and I say, "This is probably a bad idea..." but then I remember that the aliens almost never shoot at them so I go ahead.

Elerium isn't THAT hard to come by...assuming that you'll still get it from base raids(umm...that's a really good question), but even so, I did fine on the PS1 version w/o it. Just do a TON of UFO missions and you'll have more than enough. Just try and get HWD's ASAP(which I know is tough), and land on live UFO's while they're doing a mission. You don't need fusion stuff. Just Power Suits, Blaster Bombs/Stun Bombs, Hovertank/Plasmas...the aliens should provide you with enough plasma gun clips and alien grenades. I understand what you're trying to say, I think, though. But if you were to make the lasers more powerful, then their low TU's and unlimited ammo would make plasma obsolete(indirectly). The Heavy Laser(people bash it just b/c of it's weight...)is actually a pretty capable weapon in the hands of a decent shooter. The Laser Tanks and Cannons are laughable(Rocket Tanks could own the whole game if not for the 8 rocket limit ). Even Laser Defense is pretty bad. But all in all, the Laser Rifle and Heavy Laser should be fine for your first few months. The Laser Rifle is good for previously mentioned reasons, whereas the Heavy Laser gets easily replaced by the Plasma Rifle or Heavy Plasma. I don't know...all in all, I think the laser weapons fit in nicely between the 20th century junko's and plasma.

Yeah, the unlimited ammo was nice, cause then every turn you could have your guys shoot(at nothing most of the time), to raise their accuracy. The laser pistol is essentially worthless, but the laser rifle, for it's TU costs and weight is one of the best weapons in the game. It eats up cyberdisks and sectopods(tough mothers, man)and is pretty useful against sectoids, floaters, ethereals, and sometimes snakemen. If you're going up against mutons or chryssalids...well, better to put that toy away and pull out an alien grenade. :happybanana: But yeah, the laser weapons are basically worthless if they have limited ammo. I agree with GG.

That's a reasonable answer. T-sites mean leaders, so maybe the fear of psionics causes them to lose the helmets...That or they're just unfashionable in Rome in the springtime. :: BTW, system shock 2...one of my all-time favs(...i'm uploading some more cyber-netic modules...bzzzz...whrrrr....)

That'd be kinda neat. I'm sure it would feel very gratifying to park your ship in South Africa(don't they always side with the aliens?) and show them what's up. "Oh, you're hand in hand with the aliens now, huh...ZAP...SCREAM...THUD..." Meanwhile, funding from all other countries goes up.

Personally, I'd like to see a fighting system similiar to the old Blades of Steel nintendo game... :boxing:

I still think there should be some sort of penalty for the soldiers going into the next mission even if no one was wounded/killed. Just being in a combat environment is stressful, and coming into close contact or killing anything is going to take something out of you. I thought it was kinda cool in SOCOM that when you switched to FPV you could actually hear your guy breathing hard. War is scary! :whatwhat:

Fear? :whatwhat: I know I'd be too scared to impersonate Arnold if i saw him in person. You know someone I wouldn't be afraid of intimidating...Alan Greenspan. :: Getting back to the topic...yes, these are super-troopers, but they're still human. They can't whip that thing around like it's a water pistol. Something definitely needs to be done to make it sound more like an automatic machine gun too. In the game it's nothing more than a heavier sound of a rifle. I don't think too many M249's sound like pop-guns IRL. You get prone, steady that thing and lay down a huge base of fire. I'm not sure how this would work in the game. I mean, what would be the point in making a machine-gun sound, showing multiple flashes coming from the gun, but only one bullet going towards Joe Sectiod(he's a good friend of mine, btw, nice guy). Any thoughts?

"Wait, my troops! Sears is having a one-day sale on flat-front khakis!" :alienlol: I like the idea of making some different looking terror sites...I mean, if you're fighting in Rome for example, shouldn't there be something that reminds you of Rome? The Vatican? The Colleseum? Is it a lot to ask for...yes, but think of neat that would be to drop ship in Buenos Aries and duke it out at a large hacienda. :uzzi: