squid830: I always figured that they were supposed to be quality troops from existing militaries from around the world, but they have to give up their existing rank (whatever it may be) to join, since Xenonauts/XCOM/whatever has their own rank system.
I do agree that all of them should have combat experience though - it doesn't make sense to send you what are effectively green troops; however that would only be a flavour thing since it doesn't affect anything in-game.
Which makes some sense, since each military tends to have different ranks, or at least different names for the ranks. So they need some kind of consistency.
Also Xenonauts allows any soldier to become an officer through combat experience - while this can happen in most military units, its generally very rare. IMO it would have made more sense to make the max ranks still NCO level and not actual officers (unless they added a specific officers, or officer training).
As for panicking easily - they are fighting aliens. Aliens where even simple non-combatants are much tougher than any soldier recruited, not to mention the freaky hard-core aliens encountered later. Accuracy is probably realistic - in real life, you wouldn't expect a soldier to charge forward, take a snap shot with a rifle and expect to actually hit anything, especially while under fire.
Well, that is certainly true - eetees are otherworldly beings and humans aren't exactly comfortable with the thought of the alien (just look at your average reaction to bugs - and those have been with us since forever). Still I have to question the realism of accuracy when I literally have three guys corner an eetee at pointblank (1 or 2 tiles)... and they all miss (with rifles).
One thing I would really love... is the ability to put in more than 8 guys on an important mission like those Terror Raids. You could apparently field dozens in base defense missions, I don't see why this supposedly global-funded Anti-Alien United Front Organization is unable to pull out all stops when New York City or Brisbane is suddenly swarmed by echo tangos. Its especially jarring when your field team is wiped out by something unexpected (like those filed-off Chryssalids) and you still have another team back at base cooling their heels for.... something? Yeah newsflash the city got nuked because GHQ decided it was easier to write off an entire city than send in all the infantries they can muster. In the middle of the Cold War. Nuclear tensions running high.
There are two upgraded troop transports you can get - one fields 10 troops, and one fields 12. They definitely make things much more bearable so i tend to focus on getting those as soon as possible (often before better interceptors, or just after). Pretty sure 12 is the limit though, obviously less if you use vehicles.
I agree that you should be able to send in multiple transports per mission - I suspect the reason we can't is a combination of "balance" and that then the game would need to account for multiple landing sites.
I like how Governments can now nuke cities though. Makes sense with those zombie-creating freaks running around - those things always freak me out. You know if you find one, and it's in range of one of your guys - that guy is DEAD, and another one will come out of him soon.
Aren't there also friendly militia units in terror missions? Or is that only the regular ones? Not that they're much help though - I usually don't bother checking for friendlies (except my own) when I decide to level a building. It would have been cool if there had been a whole crapload of the appropriate Nation's military helping you on terror missions, even if they'd drop like flies.
I do wish the game had used the Cold War setting a bit better - as it stands, it doesn't really impact anything, except possibly explaining why each region has separate funding (though not really). Apparently Xenonauts 2 will improve that aspect of it (and then some) - though TBH I don't know how it's going to compete with Phoenix Point, as that's being made by one of the creators of the original UFO. Phoenix Point sounds like it's going to be really, really good.
