I knew it! I fucking knew it! The AI that causes your game to get stuck at the “Alien Movement” phase was a major hint. It would seem that fans have been digging around the games file and found a whole lot of unfinished, interesting stuff!
Second Wave
The first major discovery was
“Second Wave” a hidden menu of additional game options and
later confirmed by the devs.- Damage Roulette: Weapons have a much wider range of damage
- New Economy: The funding offered by individual council members is randomized
- Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats
- Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, their stats will increase randomly
- Red Fog: Any wounds taken in combat will degrade a soldier's stats for that mission
- Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot will guarantee a critical hit
- The Greater Good: The secret of psionics can only be learned by interrogating a psionic alien
- Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete
- Results Driven: A country will offer less funding as it's panic level increases
- High Stakes: The rewards granted for stopping alien abductions are randomized
- Diminishing Returns: The cost of satellites increases with every one that is built
- The Blitz: The aliens will target a larger number of cities every time they launch an abduction attack
- More Than Human: The psionic gift is extremely rare
How many of these were in the original X-com game, anyone care to guess?
Cut stuff in the Balance Mod
The Balance Mod, well:
While I was going through the files for the game I noticed a few things that struck me as odd. In the code there is a line that allows players to detect UFO's that are conducting terror missions as well as abduction missions but for some reason it's turned to off by default. I can only guess the reason why is because they assume the game will be too easy if you can find all the UFO's that are conducting these missions. I on the other hand disagree with that because from my own testing I found that it makes the game harder since you have to deal with more UFO's.
