Exploration like in the original X-Com/UFO games

[Agrajag]

If it is possible i think it would be a pretty neat idea if your soldiers had to explore the terrain for buildings, strategic sniper locations and stuff like that.
It would also make it a little harder because you wouldn't know where the aliens might hide (they might find you before you guess where they are, making it hard to know when to activate reaction fire or take cover).


Anyone misses alien base missions? Or alien infiltration risk?

[BTAxis]

Anyone misses alien base missions? Or alien infiltration risk?

These are on the drawing board.

[Adrian Magnus]

If it is possible i think it would be a pretty neat idea if your soldiers had to explore the terrain for buildings, strategic sniper locations and stuff like that.

I don't think that would make too much sense. PHALANX should be able to know the layout of the area simply from logging into the internet and consulting Google Maps. They would presumably also have access to military spy satellites. Finally as they fly into the area in their Firebird they get to eyeball it. For the layout of indoors or underground areas it's likely they could get blueprints.

[BTAxis]

I don't think that would make too much sense. PHALANX should be able to know the layout of the area simply from logging into the internet and consulting Google Maps. They would presumably also have access to military spy satellites. Finally as they fly into the area in their Firebird they get to eyeball it. For the layout of indoors or underground areas it's likely they could get blueprints.

Quite so. That doesn't go for some special missions (offworld and alien bases, mostly), however. But we're kind of glossing over them.

[XaverXN]

Finally as they fly into the area in their Firebird they get to eyeball it. For the layout of indoors or underground areas it's likely they could get blueprints.

Thats what I always had in mind, too.... however that argumentation gets a bit on thin ice, like that farm in the first mission. I rather doubt there's blueprints anywhere...
But thats not too bad, IMHO. What could be thought about is some kind of 'fog of war' that could darken or even blur the areas not (yet) in sight. If that could be implemented rather sophisticated there could be different degrees of darkening. Then one could just turn it to 100% for the special missions BTAxis is talking about and you'd have a beautiful black unknown area...

[Agrajag]

I agree it's realistic that an organisation like PHALANX would have access to all blueprints of military areas like bunkers, and of some shopping centres. And truely it would be possible to look at the place via sattelites or from the ship itself to get a birds-eye view.
Maybe it could differ from mission to mission depending on how much information you have. In a bunker you start with the full map visible, but there would be "fog of war", which generally would give you a better idea of how your line of sight is (as it is now, you never know where/how far your soldiers can see). In case of base attacks there could be security cameras around giving you some of the map fully visible  at all times, and in case of no building plans, like the farm, everything inside should be black until you explore.

Maybe integrating a mission planner would be a nice idea?
It could tell you if there are civilians to take care of, and how many aliens that have been reported, if known. (nice if there could be a mapoverview, where you could find the best place (I mean: pick the best spot) to deploy your soldiers).