Okay besides the fact that I really don't like the sweatshop flavor in our top-secret last-line-of-defense protect-the-world-from-aliens high-tech project, I'm not sure that we could get points that easily in revisions. If we can then we of course should, but it feels iffy balance-wise unless Ebbor tells/hints us otherwise.
Anyways, have revisions!
Site BombingIn cases of a retreat by our soldiers, or alien activity that we cannot counter, we are establishing an intelligence-sharing program with sponsors so they can send their airforce to bomb an area with alien presence with extreme prejudice.
Bombing is not expected to be precise, and is to be done from high-altitude to avoid weapons fire from the aliens on the ground. While individual bombs may not be great at say piercing alien armoring or whatever, an extreme number of bombs in a very short time period should do the trick.
Collateral damage is to be expected, and we doubt we'll be able to recover any alien materials from the aftermath. In most cases we can excuse the collateral damage with the fact that anyone in danger close radius would have likely died to/been abducted by the aliens if we didn't do anything. Which would probably be a worse fate. We can also reassure ourselves by knowing that the bombing will severely impact the whatever the aliens hope to gain from their ground missions. Though we'll try, we don't expect to get our sponsors to agree to bomb more dense population areas that have not been evacuated.
In summary, if our operatives retreat or can't get there in the first place, we will bomb everything in the general vicinity to hell. We won't get any benefits, but neither will the aliens (or at least theirs will be decreased).
Sleeper CellsBased on prior alien sightings to the XCOM project's formation, we can establish a likely list of places they'll appear at in the future. This list is unfortunately
way too large for us to do anything about it conventionally. But unconventionality is something we're going to have to get used to.
A combination of our own personnel and those borrowed from the geographically relevant sponsors lets us put sleeper agents in many towns/suburbs/cities/villages/whatever that are most at risk of alien presence. We can't afford to equip them or give them special training, but we can tell them what to look for, we can tell them when aliens are going to arrive nearby, and we can tell them what to do. They can't be in every possible area, but hopefully they'll at least be in range to drive to the site in question before their duties become impossible.
Sleeper Agents are not meant to fight. Instead, their goal is to disrupt the aliens' objectives and save civilian lives/subdue possible panic. Their only piece of equipment is some form of location-relevant (as to not stand out) secure communications line that we can reach them with, and the main use for this is so we can tell them if there's an alien within their operations range. They'll also have as much authority as we/our sponsor can give them without expending too many resources/making them stand out too much.
When warned of impending aliens, a Sleeper Agent's first priority is evacuating civilians or anything that the aliens may potentially be after. Their second priority is to send us intelligence about what the aliens are deploying and, if we're sending our own assets, where we should start our engagement from. Their third priority is continued protection of civilians and to get the hell away so they can live another day.
This is mostly useful for decreasing the effects of alien activity that we can't afford to send dedicated forces to counter. And to a lesser extent, providing some hopefully useful preliminary intelligence to our soldiers arriving at alien activity sites.
StimPackThe StimPack is a
scaringly large perfectly normal-sized single-use auto-injector full of a drug cocktail. Simply hold to your arm, neck, or leg (against bare skin or through fabric) and press the button and ignore the brief mild stab of pain. The
perfectly legal drugs will immediately enter your bloodstream where they will temporarily enhance your fighting ability, even through wounds.
Drugs used in the StimPack are mostly just a unique combination of existing stuff. Those under its influence should be able to fight better in every way and be able to ignore (but still realize) what would normally be disabling wounds. We've been careful to avoid making it too addictive -- at the current level our operatives should be able to avoid any addictive effects unless they mainline the stuff constantly for hours. Which, we would like to clarify, we do not recommend at all. A crash is expected as a natural side effect after the effects wear off, but by then it should have done its job and the affected operative can recover for a few minutes before returning to duty.
Ultimately we leave the exact usage of StimPacks to our soldiers, though we monitor their intake and supply as to avoid addiction. We expect the main uses will be for whenever our soldiers need an edge to win a current engagement, need increased awareness, in desperate fighting situations, and to allow people with bad wounds to fend off attackers/retreat before crashing to get to a safe place where those wounds can be managed.
"Sky Eye" Recon Drone (1): Chiefwaffles
The Killing Sky (0):
Chinese Air Sweatshop (0):
Lethal Entry Axioms of Doom Entering Reality (0):
XCOM Requests for Deployment of Surface to Air Missile Assets (0):
Site Bombing (0):
Sleeper Cells (0):
StimPack (1): Chiefwaffles
For me it's Sky Eye > StimPack > Site Bombing.
Not a big fan of something as ambiguous as just training better pilots, and while it'd be very nice I don't think we'll be able to increase Points in revisions.
Sky Eye has great synergy with the turret, and the StimPack gives us medical experience for the Medipack and is just cool/vaguely unique kind of in general. Site Bombing is good from a strategical viewpoint of denying the aliens whatever they get from successful missions. Or at least decreasing what they get.