- No loot from enemies, less xp due to less soldiers usually
- Inconsistent since reliant on enemy movement and map layout (may lead to unnecessary losses due to undergeared soldiers)
Destroy the Device:
These missions can be reliably done with two sharpshooters and a shinobi. Usually it is possible to position the sharpshooters in a corner of the map where they can see the device via squadsight through a window. Given the right spot, alien patrols will never come near them. To be fair, this method relies on using the information given by the "flank preview" mod (since there are usually only a few tiles where you actually have clear line of sight). However I dont consider this mod cheesy (opposed to mods that show which enemy has loot for example), since it only provides information to reduce guesswork on the players side.
Possible solution:
- There are usually pods on Defense duty around the device. These pods could become active as soon as they notice their precious being attacked. This would make the sharpshooter approach very risky (probably need 3 to be fast enough, need to throw out evac in advance to get away quickly, small maps would likely be impossible without enemy contact).
- To clarify: I want the ai to actively track down the shooters (not just become active and run around confused)
Blacksite:
I fondly remember the times in vanilla, when the blacksite mission was usually the first drawn out slogfest, where I had to carry my stabilized troops to the evac point and make it out barely alive. Not so in LW2. The map is large, sneaking right on top of the vial is very much the most realiable approach. Wiping the pod defending the vial (stun or suppress sectopod if one is there) and leaving the map within two turns is a very clean and very easy way to solve this mission. In my case this was made even easier: The klutzy sectopod walked a whole in the build creating a backentrance that lead directly to the evac spot.
Possible solutions:
- Taking the vial should cost an action similar to hacking an objective (this makes it more risky to just take that thing and run away)
- Place the evac point farther away
- Evac has to be called, no preplaced evac point. Evac takes at least something like 3 turns even on 200%. All pods active as soon as the vial is stolen
- no concealment in this mission (this would be the nuclear approach, stealth would only be possible with a dedicated phantom squad)
A final general idea concerning stealth:
Would it be possible to to give the enemies ways to deal with stealth (specifically with the conceal skill)? Something like the enemy throws battle scanners in a random area around the last known position of a soldier that used conceal. This would probably a bit more difficult to do, since it has to be conditional (soldier used conceal and we - the aliens - saw it) and it has to appear "naturally" and not like the AI cheats by throwing the scanner exactly there were the soldier is.