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[EnigmaticHat]

Its possible in this universe the aliens were already "miniboss" powerful.  And that's why we lost.

[GiglameshDespair]

Well, they are probably *are* Muton-human hybrids...  All the other aliens have seemingly been hybridized with humans, except the Ethereals and maybe the Chryssalids.

I didn't see "aliens got great technology", I saw "Aliens impersonating our gods/ancients to win at psychological war".

I dunno they definitely are far superior to the first wave.

SOME of it makes perfect sense. The Thinmen are a lot more powerful in their natural form then their butchered human-guise form.

Others makes me honestly wonder if hundreds of years have passed but then I check and no... people who were alive in the first war, are alive for the second.

The only other explanation is that the ship really was a rinky dink and barely functional... and these new guys are what the aliens could do with a lot of time and resources.

It's mentioned the aliens are deliberately pulling their punches and going at things half-assed in EU/EW. They don't win instantly because they didn't want to win instantly, and XCOM still lost in XCOM 2. They could easily have deployed elite mutons backed up with sectopods and sectoid commanders on the first mission, and then your rookies would have been butchered to a man each time.

Now they have, as mentioned, an entire planets worth of people and test subjects - and greater security to conduct those tests in, since they have control over the urban areas. XCOM is fighting a guerilla war rather than a defensive war backed the world's nations.

It seems likely one of the limiting factors the aliens have is numbers of ethereals - they don't seem the sort to reproduce anymore.

[Teneb]

It seems likely one of the limiting factors the aliens have is numbers of ethereals - they don't seem the sort to reproduce anymore.

Which actually can explain the whole "mix with human DNA" thing they did to most of their non-human subjects. It could be that they are splicing the other aliens with human DNA in order to perfect the process, so they can use it on themselves to make their own species viable again.

[GiglameshDespair]

To quote Uber when you're fighting him in the final battle...

The hunt draws to a close. It was not a vain undertaking… but a necessity, as our physical form has grown… ineffective. Our search for a perfect specimen was driven by our own crippling limitation, and now, at long last…

They wanted a species that was physically able and powerful with the Gift, for unknown reasons ("to prepare for what lies ahead"). It's possible they wanted that to restore their own speices, those who could not "ascend":

The New One continues to surge… to prove that this was the worthy path, that we were justified in our efforts. This will bring about our redemption, and usher in our future…

Note the "our future" there. The Ethereals see themselves without a future, otherwise. So the big E's have so kind of overarching goal we never saw in EW, but might come into play in XCOM 2, now the alien plans are in a more advanced stage.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Also note the 'redemption', and the statues and imagery by the final boss. I always assume that there was some sort of vengeful/angry god or eldritch/psionic terror coming.

[Shadowlord]

This is probably all completely wrong, but I thought they were created/uplifted by another species, which then all ascended, leaving the ethereals behind to run their empire or w/e, but for some reason part of the plan involved the ethereals ascending themselves, which they've been unable to do, and so they came to Earth to try to uplift humans to psi-god status because for some reason getting humans to replace them solves the problem?

[puke]

Sigh, if you would only read the article that was posted, you'd see what the case is:

Even so armed, people continue arguing for reasons that it could be something else.  The power for wishful belief baffles me sometimes.

But lets not get away from the most important issue at hand: 

There has not been a more disturbing lack of plastic nipples since the Schumacher Batgirl costume.

[Neonivek]

It's mentioned the aliens are deliberately pulling their punches and going at things half-assed in EU/EW. They don't win instantly because they didn't want to win instantly, and XCOM still lost in XCOM 2. They could easily have deployed elite mutons backed up with sectopods and sectoid commanders on the first mission, and then your rookies would have been butchered to a man each time.

Now they have, as mentioned, an entire planets worth of people and test subjects - and greater security to conduct those tests in, since they have control over the urban areas. XCOM is fighting a guerilla war rather than a defensive war backed the world's nations.

It seems likely one of the limiting factors the aliens have is numbers of ethereals - they don't seem the sort to reproduce anymore.

Ohh yeah I forgot how nonsense and luck based the story of the first game was. I keep misremembering it as something that makes sense.

Dang I wish that was a joke.

Hopefully now they will mention who the energy construct people are. They show up essentially once (well, as many times as it takes before you can find a base) and they never appear again.

[Shadowlord]

There has not been a more disturbing lack of plastic nipples since the Schumacher Batgirl costume.

Yeah, why did George Clooney get plastic nipples and Alicia Silverstone didn't? What's up with that?

P.S. I don't actually remember the movie at all. The only thing I actually know about it is Clooney's costume. :V

[miauw62]

This is probably all completely wrong, but I thought they were created/uplifted by another species, which then all ascended, leaving the ethereals behind to run their empire or w/e, but for some reason part of the plan involved the ethereals ascending themselves, which they've been unable to do, and so they came to Earth to try to uplift humans to psi-god status because for some reason getting humans to replace them solves the problem?

Reminds me of Childhoods End.

[GiglameshDespair]

Ohh yeah I forgot how nonsense and luck based the story of the first game was. I keep misremembering it as something that makes sense.

Dang I wish that was a joke.

Hopefully now they will mention who the energy construct people are. They show up essentially once (well, as many times as it takes before you can find a base) and they never appear again.

Nothing luck-based about it. It provides a decent explanation of why you have a chance at victory and it suggests towards the motives beyond "evil aliums". It works.

The Outsiders are constructs that act as relays for the Sectoid commanders. Once you attack the base, there's either no reason for the aliens to keep using them, so they don't, or the location they controlled the outsiders from is gone, so they use commanders in the craft.

[puke]

Reminds me of Childhoods End.

especially with the angelic / demonic overtones.

[Metalax]

Hopefully now they will mention who the energy construct people are. They show up essentially once (well, as many times as it takes before you can find a base) and they never appear again.

It was reasonably well established within the first game that they were simply constructs that the psionic aliens(Sectoid commanders/Ethereals) were using to relay orders/remote command ships when they were still hiding the existence of psionics as you hadn't reached that part of their test yet. Following your taking out the base, humans have demonstrated at least the basic physical capabilities that the Etherials are looking for so it's time to move onto the next part of the test and stop hiding the psionics, so no need for the energy constructs to be used any further.

[Neonivek]

It is more that there were so many opportunities for the alien's plan to just outright fail.

Heck the ship carrying the Etherial could have crashed and killed the Celestial. BOOM! plan down the drain.

And that is just one way. The Aliens succeeding in their plans was a one in a million chance... and it BARELY worked at best...

And that is only including when the aliens actually worked towards their plans. They were more then willing to self-sabotage themselves.

*hugs the story to the original X-com* Why is this story from well over 30 years ago smarter then this?

Though this game's story works better if you imagine the first game never happened (even though chances are they will reveal it did)

[GiglameshDespair]

...what? the story from original X-Com wasn't any smarter. That was just
Evil aliens attacking, trying to take over the world! Stop them!
They're on Mars! Go and kill them!
The end!

TFTD:
Aliens crashed a long time ago! Now they've woken up!
They're in the Marianas trench! Go and kill them!
The end!

X-Com was a great game, but don't pretend it really had a story. There's being blinded by nostalgia, and then there's that.

No explanation why the aliens start with sectoids and plasma pistols and build up to ethereals and sectopods, when they could have easily triumphed with sending the latter. No explanations why they're doing what they are beyond evil conquering aliens.

Heck the ship carrying the Etherial could have crashed and killed the Celestial. BOOM! plan down the drain.

What.
It's stupid because... the Ethereal's ship could have just crashed...?
What the hell are you even talking about?

And what is this "Celestial" you mention?