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Will there be any rare or special aliens which will appear randomly once in a while? In previous UFOET, we had some commanders but that's not something really rare, what I mean rare here is like some mini bosses which have really special skills or weapons.

Hello,
I would like to know if there will be any special aliens in the UFO2. Just shooting aliens or aliens killing by some mechanical means might be a little boring sooner or later. Maybe later but still.
For me works fine idea of humans infected by some viruses, bacterrium or some parasites from an alien host. This idea worked perfectly in the Alien by Ridley Scott or in the XCOM:Defense where humans could have been infected, then transformed into some Zombies or mutants if you want and consequently after they absorbed some damage, they metamorphed into full alien. I remeber me being scared of them as they moved fast and attacked precisely. I have noticed the release was delayd, so there is a chance to improve the game .

Hello, thank you for your proposal. It is worth some consideration. Developers agree with Immhotep that some special alien – a rare miniboss type would be fine spice for the gameplay. Iskander, your suggestion could be fitting for the game

Jessie Black wrote:Hello, thank you for your proposal. It is worth some consideration. Developers agree with Immhotep that some special alien – a rare miniboss type would be fine spice for the gameplay. Iskander, your suggestion could be fitting for the game

So you neither refuse to add a rare miniboss type nor agree to add him. When could the devs make some decission please?

Iskander wrote:

Jessie Black wrote:Hello, thank you for your proposal. It is worth some consideration. Developers agree with Immhotep that some special alien – a rare miniboss type would be fine spice for the gameplay. Iskander, your suggestion could be fitting for the game

So you neither refuse to add a rare miniboss type nor agree to add him. When could the devs make some decission please?

I will inform you as soon as I know ... It depends on the lead programmer.

I think a mini boss would be a good idea

That sounds like a great idea! It may be a type that you only find on the lowest level of an alien base. Or the final mission or other special events. Love the idea. If at all possible, do include it as it'll be a big way to one up the other XCOM wannabes.

What this game needs is good level design and enemy spawning algorithms and AI ofcourse to exploit the terrain. These can pile up almost endless combination keeping the game fresh and fun each mission.

UFO ET 1 had a "mini-boss" in the last mission and it was pretty bad in all manner of ways. Let me point out a few flaws having a boss.
1. Massive health. Throwing bullets to an enemy or other harmfull things is just eating your ammunition up, and you will quickly decide that you don't have other choice but to use the best damage / shot item and stick with it, leaving the boss nothing else but a sink for a specific weapon-ammo combination that you have to bring you every damn mission in case the mini-boss pops up.
2.Mini-Boss damage. Since the mini-boss cannot drop from harsh words throw at it, it must not have serious damage or if it does it must have a telegraph so obvious and easilly avoidable that in both cases it becomes borring, in all other cenarios it would be just straight annoying since you bound to lose a trooper or two for certain and you end up bringing specificly designed throw away units just in case it pops up.
3.Game pacing. 110% chance that if this mini-boss cannot be captured and researched you guys would whine on the forums so much it would probably crash drowning Jessie in the process and if you do research it, it would need to drop something so epic that it would be either overpowered or essential to beat the game wich would automaticly turn any non regular encounter into a boss farming process where you just leave if it didn't spawn or so easy you would just not bother in the first place. And lastly any fight without a mini-boss will completly make the whole fight dull, beacuse you know it would had been much cooler if a mini-boss spawn.

This concept cannot fly.

Mini-boss have to be something that you know for certain that there is going to be one, it is a must to avoid problem 3.
Problem 2 and 1: Mini-boss have to be a very slight enchancement to the original and every extra ability or properties it get must have a counter ability wich encourage co-ordinated attacks, and not just bumrushing it down. This is the hardest beacuse you would need to program a lot of specific AI behavior for these properties in other cases a simple stat increase or decrease would less likelly to add a challange or flavor. I could list up a few ideas but it would boil down to what algorithms they already have and what they can do with it.

Commanders were fine. Make one for most of the types and that should be more then enough.

If anyone else thinks a boss fight is needed just think back to Baldurs Gate 2 "mini-bosses" all of them were just either a counter his bullshit (wich was the better ones) or just pop everything and pray it dropes first (wich was most of it the bad ones)

I think that with the mini bosses dropping some special loot like the ufo swarms in the first one is good also the mini bosses should simply be a different looking alien with really good stats

Loot would be fine. There were only few aliens in UFO:ET1 giving some loot to the player. I am not wrong, only Vipons and Chasers. How about in UFO2? How many races will give some loot? Will there be some reward for poor players? How about some unique items?