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[Neonivek]

They did? I mean, their supperbattleship looked impressive, but that's about everything

They also had a massive fleet capable of taking down cities from high-altitudes and near limitless resources and technology that far outstrips anything we have on earth.

As well as a replicating army that could be constantly reconstituted.

Not to mention city destroying explosive charges, total mind control powers, the ability to pass their members off as human (though all too limitedly), fast replication abilities, and total world surveillance.

Had the aliens struck full force, there would be pretty much nothing the Xcom unit could do. Which the aliens had the full ability to do at anytime.

[Metalax]

Guys, seriously, the Ethereal invasion was not a test. It was the full and complete intention of the aliens to cause the Bad Ending of the game, in order to be able to harvest humanity as they did all the other species of the Ethereal Collective. The reason they're so happy about X-COM's accomplishments is not "Aha, you passed our secret test!", it's "Oh shit guys, I think this is what we've been looking for!"

The two are not exclusive. They are testing humanity with the deliberate gradual build up, however they are also aiming to take over Earth so that they can integrate humans into their forces. This is the same pattern that they have repeatedly done with the other species in their forces, it's just that each time the species has been found to not meet the criteria that the Ethereals have been searching for.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

They did? I mean, their supperbattleship looked impressive, but that's about everything

They also had a massive fleet capable of taking down cities from high-altitudes and near limitless resources and technology that far outstrips anything we have on earth.

As well as a replicating army that could be constantly reconstituted.

Not to mention city destroying explosive charges, total mind control powers, the ability to pass their members off as human (though all too limitedly), fast replication abilities, and total world surveillance.

Had the aliens struck full force, there would be pretty much nothing the Xcom unit could do. Which the aliens had the full ability to do at anytime.

If they struck full force, they would kill off a good percentage of humans. That is what you can't seem to comprehend. The goal of the Ethereals is humans. They want us alive, and the more of us that are alive the better off they will be. They could easily have wrecked X-Com and Earth, yes, the game admits as much. But that action is contrary to their goals. Without X-Com they can subvert Earth's governments with relative ease. They don't even do terror missions until X-Com gets in the way of the infiltration missions.

They are testing humanity with the deliberate gradual build up

No, they really aren't. There is nothing to support that.

[Metalax]

They are testing humanity with the deliberate gradual build up

No, they really aren't. There is nothing to support that.

Eh, I disagree, but this is likely a case of people viewing things differently.

[Mrhappyface]

Looks like if you overuse meld, they'll become corrupted according to the previews. 

[Krevsin]

And still no news on my strainer-wearing cultists. I am sad now.

[GlyphGryph]

The Gollup Chamber device WAS intentionally built to upgrade human's psionic powers, though, right?

[WillowLuman]

They do explicitly say "You performed better than expected."

[GlyphGryph]

From my understanding - They were both overjoyed that they finally found an alien race that could perform to their expectations, and simultaneously very unhappy that we ultimately did it without their direct assistance. I feel like they had every intent of taking over and more closely controlling our development, but we got a bit... out of hand. They wanted us to be capable of what we were capable of, but they also wanted to control us getting there. And while they were certainly involved, I feel like it wasn't in quite the way they were hoping for.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The Gollup Chamber device WAS intentionally built to upgrade human's psionic powers, though, right?

It was built with the intention of accessing the Ethereal Psionic Hive Mind. I get the feeling the psionic boost was an unintentional side effect. The Ethereals didn't put any Sysadmin password on the Psionic Internet.

[WillowLuman]

No, they seemed pretty damn happy to see how powerful the Volunteer was.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'm going out on a limb, but from the dialogue I think the Ethereals expected the Volunteer to change sides when they got to the Uber-Ethereal. The whole of the Temple ship is them trying to convince him/her.

[WillowLuman]

That's what I figured, too. They tried to say "sorry about all the terror and stuff, but it was all for the best. If you see what we have to offer, I'm sure we can come to a AHRGARHGAAAAH

[Myroc]

I'm going out on a limb, but from the dialogue I think the Ethereals expected the Volunteer to change sides when they got to the Uber-Ethereal. The whole of the Temple ship is them trying to convince him/her.

When I did my first successful run of the game, I entered the room, saw the cutscene... and the Uber-Ethereal proceeded to instantly mind-control the Volunteer.

I thought that was scripted, guess not.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It is not. I've never had the Volunteer be mind controlled at all. The Volunteer must by definition have a high Will, so it would be a rare occurrence.