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[RoseHeart]

In future turns we may want to consider adding mechanical forces since our "drones" and troops are doubling our dependence on biological lifeforms, subject to gas weapons, disease, and other vulnerabilities mechanical units wouldn't need to worry about.

Since we took a mechanical to biological spin on the drones. Maybe we can do the opposite for thin men, making terminators with human flesh coating.

[NUKE9.13]

Because XCOM is going to want to use biological or chemical weapons in human cities against a handful of aliens.
I mean, if they want to do so, they can go right ahead. Seeing those nations pull out of the XCOM project as a result will be most amusing.
Which is not to say we can't do mechanical units at some point, but worrying that XCOM is going to pull out the :WarCrimes: to deal with us is probably misplaced.

[RoseHeart]

...Last time I was XCOM, we had railgun rifles within a few rounds. So I wouldn't put it past the humans.

[NUKE9.13]

...Last time I was XCOM, we had railgun rifles within a few rounds. So I wouldn't put it past the humans.

Bit of a non-sequitur there. Railgun rifles are neither a war crime, nor uniquely more effective against biological enemies.

[RoseHeart]

I don't have any idea how much more of the gamemechanics you know than me, so if you tell me their is no real reason to have any mechanical troops at all I can't really dispute it, though that would be unfaithful to the source material, don't you think?

[Failbird105]

I mean, I'm in no way against getting mechanical units, it's just that your logic for why is somewhat faulty. The biggest draw for mechanical units is that they'd likely be easier to make and, if last games drones are anything to go by, they can be bought with EP instead of UP.

The downside is that XCom will have an easier time replicating them and can likely hack them more easily than they could mind-control our biologicals, but if done right neither of those are necessarily problems.

[TricMagic]

Can we create a virus that will hack into their files and leave backdoors? Then if they steal some, we can gain an advantage. Potentially even be able to use it to gain access to certain files to better replicate anything we collect from them.

[NUKE9.13]

I don't have any idea how much more of the gamemechanics you know than me, so if you tell me their is no real reason to have any mechanical troops at all I can't really dispute it, though that would be unfaithful to the source material, don't you think?

...I am not aware of any secret game mechanics. I did discuss potential changes to the game with ebbor before he relaunched it, but I don't know which if any of the discussed changes he implemented, other than the ones that are public knowledge.
More to the point, I have not cited any secret mechanics when suggesting that mechanical troops are pointless, in two ways:
-I did not say that mechanical troops are pointless, I specifically said we may want to do them at some point. I never argued against mechanical troops, but rather pointed out that organic troops are not as weak as you suggested.
-I explained why I thought this, my reasoning laid bare for all to see. To wit, that XCOM would not want to deploy biological or chemical weapons, for fear of pissing off the countries they used them in. That's it.

[Doubloon-Seven]

I mean, yeah. If X-Com starts throwing around WP and chlorine, they are going to be utterly despised. Say, what about our PR? Think we can make it a point in our operations to minimize civilian deaths?

Also, Tric, that's not a bad idea. From what I know about the storyline of the games, X-Com does a lot of reverse engineering. If we could insert a couple of things into our tech, like psionic bugs or such, we could mess with them a bit. Or, we could prevent them from getting into our tech at all, and maybe have some kind of self-destruct.

[Failbird105]

No self destruct. We tried that last time, might as well have rolled a 3 for how worthless it was. It's effectively vetoed for balance reasons.

[NUKE9.13]

Yeah, the only way to stop XCOM from getting their hands on our tech is not losing battles.
However, the importance of not letting them get their hands on our tech is less than it was the first time round, since the Black Market provides them an alternative source of tech which we can do nothing about- losing some tech to XCOM now raises their available tokens from (for example) 2 to 3, rather than 0 to 1; needless to say, going from 2 to 3 will do them a lot less good than going from 0 to 1.
Before Roseheart gets worried: this is public knowledge which can be read in the core thread OP, and not secret mechanics that only I know about.

[RoseHeart]

Design for the future.


TM-100

The Thin Man 100 is a droid with a fleshy exoskeleton meant to disguise itself and pass as a human. These have much the same attributes as classic Thin Men but have the strengths and vulnerabilities of a mechanical unit. They have good accuracy and are hardier than their reptilian counterpart, but are a little less graceful in prolonged infiltration missions. Can download files and upload viruses with cords that extend from under the fingernails.

Edit: fixed software lingo.

[Failbird105]

Can download viruses

I think you mean upload, because I don't think we want our infiltrators going around filling themselves with random malware and trojans.

[piratejoe]

I mean, yeah. If X-Com starts throwing around WP and chlorine, they are going to be utterly despised. Say, what about our PR? Think we can make it a point in our operations to minimize civilian deaths?

This is part of the reason why I suggest using terror missions on military instillation rather than cities and such. After all, going for a military target in a time of war makes us seem less 'evil' or uncaring about the humans well being and will likely make them much more willing to work with us than if we just destroyed entire city blocks.

[Doubloon-Seven]

I mean, yeah. If X-Com starts throwing around WP and chlorine, they are going to be utterly despised. Say, what about our PR? Think we can make it a point in our operations to minimize civilian deaths?

This is part of the reason why I suggest using terror missions on military instillation rather than cities and such. After all, going for a military target in a time of war makes us seem less 'evil' or uncaring about the humans well being and will likely make them much more willing to work with us than if we just destroyed entire city blocks.

Precisely. You don't seem impressive by killing the defenseless, that just risks backfiring into knitting resistance tighter.