[Suggestion] Alternative Infiltration Model

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Thrombozyt
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:37 am

[Suggestion] Alternative Infiltration Model

Post by Thrombozyt »

Infiltration mechanics forcing people into full stealth / suicide or into 0% OW crawls have been mentioned in a lot of discussions on the forum lately. Therefore I have developed an alternative mission mechanic that could either replace the current or be added for specific mission type they make sense for. The alternative model uses the same parameters as the current one but simply utilized them differently.

Here is how it would work:
1) Mission spawns with a mission duration.
The mission duration must be at least 14 days (which most missions are anyhow currently).

2) Haven must generate intel points in order to match the missions detection threshold.
Same as the current model.

3) Intel income generates a % chance.
In the current model, there is a low chance to detect the mission and allow you start the infiltration. In the alternative model, there is a higher chance (roughly 3x higher) but when you make the roll, the mission is not detected but instead the base infiltration time is lowered and XCOM can continue to roll for that mission to decrease infiltration time further.

4) 10 days before the mission expires, the mission is revealed, if the mission detection threshold has been matched until then
So instead of missions opening up with only a day to infiltrate, you always have 10 days to infiltrate.

5) There is an infiltration base time modifier starting out at +7 days which is reduced by 24-48h each time you succeed at the intel roll in step 3 to a minimum of -2 days. The final infiltration time can never be lower than 12h.
So if you have barely managed to detect a mission, you can stealth it with 2 man at around 120% of infiltration or you can bring a small strike team of four at around 90% or a large team of six at 70%.

6) Boosting infiltration can be done multiple times on the same mission, but is not applied retroactively.

Intended effect of the model:
1) Add strategic depth
Currently, missions spawning with a very short timer are (according to the initial documentation) not supposed to be tackled. However, due to stealth/suicide options, those missions are still done on a regular basis. With the proposed model, you have to weigh the time investment of your soldiers against the mission. The better the intelligence, the quicker the infiltration, the more missions the soldiers of a squad ca do. Crucial missions will always be available provided you can gather enough intel to match their threshold and the choice - if you haven't managed to gather much intel - isn't between stealth/suicide or nothing but rather a choice of "how many soldiers can I spare for 10 days to tackle this" which is a much more interesting question. You will likely have more missions that you can tackle - which ones do you take on?

2) Increase 5-6 man squad viability
In this alternative model, the incentives to bring a 2 man squad to stealth instead of a larger squad that is available are lower, because both squads suffer from a flat penalty. So where you can do 3 missions back to back with a duo in the same time you needed to infiltrate a 6 man team, now you probably cannot even do two missions as a flat penalty is proportionally larger for a duo than for a 6 man team. In addition, the number of missions where you can infiltrate a 5-6 man team to 90+% is much, much larger. You pay for this through longer infiltration blocking your squads for a longer time.

3) More flexibility in the haven management
Currently intel gathering is an all-or-nothing activity. Either the entire haven is on the job or it's not really worth it. With the alternative model it can be a smart idea to put 3 rebels on intel while the rest recruits or gathers supply as that would allow crucial missions to still be detected.

4) More options to differentiate missions
Through adjustment of duration, threshold & intel chance you can generate missions that are always detected but hard to do on the cheap (e.g. Troop columns / supply raids), missions that are hard to detect but doable if you put enough intel-effort into it (high threshold but also high chance to reduce infiltration modifier) or anything in between. That would be a more organic way to have lucrative mission spawn in developed havens.
seananigans
Posts: 88
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2017 3:03 pm

Re: [Suggestion] Alternative Infiltration Model

Post by seananigans »

I think most of this is a solid idea, and would go a good ways toward making LW2 into an actual Long War, as currently it's blitz-able such that you can end the game before you even have a chance to get certain techs (via required corpse drops etc), as well as it would help reinforce the infiltration-as-fatigue troop rotation mechanic that's a cornerstone of Long War.

So yeah, I think overall, stretching out the time scale on these geoscape strategy layer mechanics would help a lot.
Thrombozyt
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:37 am

Re: [Suggestion] Alternative Infiltration Model

Post by Thrombozyt »

Yes, there might have to be adjustments to the time scale, but it would be definitely a model with higher strategic depth.
Severian
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 2:23 pm

Re: [Suggestion] Alternative Infiltration Model

Post by Severian »

Wouldn't it be easier to just remove the infiltration time bonus from having a squad of less than, say, 4 soldiers? (i.e. 1 soldier would take as long to infiltrate as 4.) Then if the timer is short you have to decide whether you are going to send your single stealth soldier into a heavily defended mission, or use a full squad with no infiltration penalty. This sort of makes sense narratively; infiltrating 4 soldiers shouldn't be any than 1, while infiltrating 12 should be a major undertaking.
bountygiver
Posts: 74
Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2017 3:33 am

Re: [Suggestion] Alternative Infiltration Model

Post by bountygiver »

I don't think using artificial restrictions to discourage stealth mission is a good idea, imo a better way is to improve loot from combat so you are rewarded for killing ayys instead (stealth means missing out loot), then balance the economy accordingly.
Thrombozyt
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:37 am

Re: [Suggestion] Alternative Infiltration Model

Post by Thrombozyt »

Severian wrote:Wouldn't it be easier to just remove the infiltration time bonus from having a squad of less than, say, 4 soldiers? (i.e. 1 soldier would take as long to infiltrate as 4.) Then if the timer is short you have to decide whether you are going to send your single stealth soldier into a heavily defended mission, or use a full squad with no infiltration penalty. This sort of makes sense narratively; infiltrating 4 soldiers shouldn't be any than 1, while infiltrating 12 should be a major undertaking.
The problem is only in part the shorter infiltration time of 1-2 man squads. That 'only' leads to players being tempted to stealth missions that they could do loudly as well.
A much bigger problem is the fact that when a mission pops with 2 days or less, your decision is between stealthing it or ignoring it. As those missions can be really valuable, it leads to 1-man extractions and suicide assassinations. Removing the infiltration bonus for small squads wouldn't mean that you bring 4 guys, because with 4 guys the odds of getting caught increase while you are just as dead as with 1 guy if your cover is blown early.
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