// TRANSMISSION STATUS

RELAY: RESTORED
ENCRYPTION: STANDARD
DATA INTEGRITY: 90% RECOVERED

— FIELD REPORT — PRIORITY: ROUTINE —

THE GAP

The last field report was filed in August. Three months is a long time between transmissions. They were not quiet months.

This report covers what landed in that time. Everything below works in the current build.

COMBAT

Tactical combat now runs on time units. Movement and actions draw on one pool per soldier, in the X-COM tradition. Spend it walking and there is less left for shooting.

Cover and flanking matter. Hit chances are shown before you commit. Soldiers can kneel. Armour works in both directions: theirs affects your weapons as yours affects theirs.

Several distinct hostile types are now in the field. No further detail is cleared for release.

CASUALTIES

Soldiers who die stay dead. Soldiers can now also go missing in action.

Extraction can be called in. It does not arrive immediately, and the wait is part of the decision.

MISSIONS

Four mission types are playable, among them recovering a crash site and responding to an abduction.

Before deployment, a briefing gives you a read on what you are walking into. The read is deliberately imperfect. Analysts are not always right, and the game does not pretend they are.

A record fills in as your soldiers meet things. What you know is what you have seen.

THE BASE

The base is now built, not assumed. Rooms are constructed and demolished on a tile grid. Each one costs funds and takes time, and what you build changes what the base can do.

The campaign no longer opens from nothing. Human research programmes are already under way on day one. The work did not start when you arrived. You inherit it.

The world on the global map now saves and loads with the rest of the campaign.

CO-OP

The game is built single-player first. Co-op is available, and never required.

For those who want it: one player hosts from inside the game, and a partner joins from the Steam friends list. Each commands their own base. Missions run at the same time. Nobody waits.

PRESENTATION

The front end now opens on Earth from orbit, and a first settings screen exists.

ANALYST NOTE

The game played one way in August. It plays differently now.

Next transmission when there is something worth transmitting.