X-Com Play By Post

Hey, so here's some rules for a potential play-by-post system meant to simulate a bunch of human players as the X-Com faction working against a single alien player. Below are the 'public rules', the stuff everybody gets to know. Other stuff includes the tech tree and how the alien side actually works. I'll get those in if people are interested in seeing them, when I get the chance.

Human Rules

Game turns are divided into weeks. All maintenance costs are paid out at the end of the month, so every four turns. If maintenance cannot be covered and the player did not account for it, the GM picks something to be dropped (or, if time allows, notifies the player of the balance difference and the player has to pick what to drop). If I DO NOT GET ORDERS FROM A PLAYER, their organization has gone into turmoil for the week and isn't going to be starting anything new, but can still detect, still pays off upkeep, still does queued up research, etc.

X-Com country attributes:

Economic Style

Wealthy--Most expensive units, greatest base income, bonus to research. Their squads also train the most, gaining the most attribute points from combat. Capitalist forces have the easiest time getting ahold of more advanced military hardware and specialists.

Infantry squad costs 2 RUs to hire and maintain. Squads gain double XP. Base income 12 RUs/turn. All research projects get an additional science point per turn.

Balanced--The most resilient when it comes to alien activity. Socialist countries (within the framework of this game) have better-equipped public health services, which permits X-Com forces much more ready access to medical care.

Infantry squad costs 1 RU to hire and maintain. Base income 10 RUs/turn. When their squads must spend turns recuperating, deduct 1 from the number of turns. Also, treat the damage multiplier for alien attacks as a half-step smaller for the purposes of population damage (1 -> 0.5, 2 -> 1.5, etc.).

Manpower--Cheaper manpower, lowest base income, bonus to manufacturing, no penalty from rapid recruitment. Communist forces have the easiest time holding the line in a base defense, since they can get more people the cheapest and get a combat bonus for fighting near their population.

Infantry squad costs 1/2 RU to hire and maintain. Base income 8 RUs/turn. All construction projects get an additional build point per turn. Do not take population penalties from hiring lots of units. Gain a FM bonus in combat equal to the damage multiplier of the current hex.

Morale

A rating of 0-100% of how your populace is feeling. Starts at 100% for all countries. Failed missions drop morale, allowing aliens to conduct missions CAN (but won't always) drop morale (depends on the mission type--nobody cares that much about flyovers, but Terror Sites are bad news), decisive missions can increase it. Having a high morale gives an income bonus, as people appreciate what you do (+1/2 RU per 5 percent morale, paid out monthly, AKA once every 4 turns). Morale can be higher than population, but a hit to population caused by alien activity will quite probably also affect morale. Morale damage taken past 0% reduces your population. Similarly, morale scoring above 100% can actually INCREASE population at the expense of the countries with the lowest morale, if any country has less than 20 morale. Morale Gain Sources Scavenging alien equipment and shooting down alien craft provide morale bonuses.

Morale Damage Sources

Each alien craft that remains undetected deducts one from morale regardless of what it did if it travels through at least 3 hexes of one country. Each alien craft that IS detected but cannot be dealt with subtracts 2 from morale. Getting a standard Human Defeat result or worse inflicts morale damage equal to the number of squads fielded in the defeat. Apart from these sources, there are some other alien missions that can also harm morale. In a turn, morale damage is resolved AFTER morale gain.

Population

A rating of 0-100% of how much of your population is capable of resistance (meaning capable of working with X-Com). Hiring a lot of people quickly drops your population level temporarily (-1% per squad past the first if you hire more than 1 squad at a time). Having a lot of people to choose from and maintaining a high population level gives some minor bonuses to hired personnel, even after you hired them (if you have a high Population rating, all of your people work better). If this hits zero, and you have no hired people left, you are out of the game. Your country has fallen to the aliens. This rating will increase very slowly over time so long as it has yet to hit 0 (+1% per month, with potential event modifiers).

Once it hits zero, the only thing you can do is bunker down and try for a final gambit, or side with the aliens. 0% population means 0% morale, means no income (INCLUDING base income). You can still bring on units, but all of your units take penalties due to the grim realization that they are their country's last hope for survival.

High Population Bonus

If you have more than 90% of your population remaining, your squads get a Best of the Best +1 FM bonus (explained below), and your scientists and engineers produce 1 more Research point and Manufacturing point respectively (also explained below).

Territory

This is how your country looks on the map. It is composed of hex grid cells. A given cell has a terrain type and a damage multiplier.

This multiplier indicates how sensitive or important the hex in question is to your country's population. Usually, this is straight up 'how many people live here', but other national treasures can increase the value of a hex as a target, too. Damage inflicted on a given hex by alien forces is multiplied by the damage multiplier. All countries have a total damage multiplier of 30, meaning if you added up all of the damage multipliers from all of a country's hexes, the total would be 30. A country's highest damage multiplier hex is its capital. A Small country has 15 territory cells, a medium country has 25, and a Large country has 35. Small countries probably have near to no uninhabited terrain, so they have less territory to defend, but news also spreads quickly through small countries, so morale is more unstable. Countries can border other countries or can border ocean. If too much alien activity goes on in nearby countries, it may adversely affect morale, but if a player can disrupt alien activity in bordering countries, they may be quite thankful. Country shape must be approved by the GM (to minimize cheese).

Purchase Options

People

All people are brought on one turn after X-Com starts recruiting. All people also have upkeeps equal to their hiring costs that are paid out monthly, like all other upkeeps.

Infantry Squads--Enlisted troops that have been through basic training. Cost depends on economic system. Power 10 FM 1. Special Forces--Smaller teams of more highly skilled specialists. Cost 4 RUs. Power 6 FM 4. Science Team--Produce 2d4 science points per turn towards an assigned research topic. Multiple teams at one bunker can be assigned to one topic. One lab can support 10 Science Teams. Cost: 2 RUs. Engineer Team--Produce 5 build points per turn towards an assigned construction project. Multiple teams at one site can be assigned to one project. One manufacturing facility can support 10 Engineer Teams. Cost: 2 RUs.

Equipment

All equipment arrives one turn after it has been ordered. All equipment can be sold for 1/2 the buy price. Equipment consists of:

-Weapons -Armor -Transport -Supplies

Weapons

Higher powered or more effective weapons provide a Force Multiplier bonus to squads using them. Some may also offer additional traits that might mitigate alien Force Multipliers or have other benefits. All squads start with Generic Open Market Firearms, which provide no modifiers. Players can upgrade to Black Market Firearms (providing +1 FM) for 2 RUs per squad.

Armor

Armor, like Weapons, provide a Force Multiplier bonus to squads using them, and also subtract from the number of turns a squad has to spend recuperating after a fight. Armor may not be purchased on the open market. It must be researched and then manufactured.

Transport

There are two types of troop transport available on the market, Air and Land. Air costs 4 RUs to purchase and maintain, like personnel, and rapid-response Air deployed troops gain a Force Multiplier bonus of 1. Land costs 2 RUs, but has a more limited range, and provides a stronger Mechanized Infantry bonus (to infantry squads only) of +2 FM. Troop transports allow soldiers to deploy in reaction to a detected alien attack. If a squad has no troop transport, they can only act where they're deployed, meaning within their base hex. Air transport lets attached squads act up to 6 hexes away, while land transport allows attached squads to act up to 3 hexes away. Land transport cannot act through rough terrain hexes with a damage multiplier of zero (completely uninhabited wilderness). 'Rough terrain' means Mountain, Desert, Swamp, Ocean, Jungle or Tundra hexes.

Logistical Supplies

Flares, extra ammunition, grenades, medikits and all other peripheral gear is considered Logistical Supplies. Giving a squad Logistical Supplies costs 1 RU and provides a bonus based on the type of supply purchased. Some technologies add kit to Logistical Supplies, improving the benefits. The types available on the open market at the beginning of the game are listed in the Buy list at the bottom of this post.

Interceptor

Can attack UFOs directly, in reaction or on patrol. Costs 4 RUs to purchase and maintain, like personnel. See the Air Combat section for details on how interception works. Interceptors can also be tasked to provide Close Air Support to a given combat, which gives a whopping +4 FM, but this means they can't intercept on a given turn and can suffer damage just as if they were used in an interception.

Tanks

Can be attached to a squad (+4 squad raw power, +1 FM), or can act independently in an armored squadron (considered Land Transport capable, raw power 12, FM 2 base). An armored squadron consists of 3 tanks and can react as a land-transport-capable squad. Like squads, they stay at a Barracks, occupying one squad slot. They can also board dropships in their own dedicated slot, allowing one tank and one infantry squad on a given deployment. Costs 2 RUs. Do NOT have an upkeep, but cannot function in some mission types, cannot enter UFOs and do not gain XP.

Facilities

All facilities take 3 turns to construct. They take 2 turns to dismantle, and provide a return of 1/2 their construction cost once the dismantling is finished. Upkeep is equal to 1/4 their construction costs, rounded down.

Bunker

All other base facilites have to be built inside of bunkers. If a territory has a bunker, it has a local base. Bunkers cost 8 RUs to build. Bunkers have no functional limit as to the number of base facilities they can contain, but the higher the count (and therefore the busier the bunker), the more likely they are to be detected.

Barracks

Allows troops to be stationed at a bunker. Can hold up to 10 squads. Costs 4 RUs to construct.

Laboratory

Allows research projects to be conducted at a bunker. Can hold up to 10 research teams. Costs 5 RUs to construct.

Manufacturing Bay

Allows construction projects to be conducted at a bunker. Can hold up to 10 manufacturing teams. Costs 5 RUs to construct.

Hangar

Holds one aircraft. Costs 4 RUs to construct.

RADAR Facilities

Boosts the detection rating in the current territory by 2 and territories up to 4 away by 1. Costs 4 RUs to construct.

Missile Base Defenses

Boosts a base's Power rating by 1. Costs 3 RUs to construct. Can only fire on Base Defense missions.

Manufacturing

To begin with, no construction projects can be undertaken. Once research has been conducted and blueprints for a new design have been completed, manufacturing can begin immediately. Each object manufactured takes a number of build points, and an investment of RUs (generally cheaper than the amount gained by selling). Bled over build points can be spent freely. The number of build points a blueprint will take to complete is known. Construction projects can be run in series or parallel. Manufactured equipment can be sold.

Research

Initial research topics include Laser Weaponry, Medikits, Motion Scanners, improved RADAR, Hidden Emergency Broadcast System, and Improved Construction. What topics will be unveiled after researching will be hidden (and while they may be similar to X-Com's research topics, they will NOT be the same, and there may be more options). Some research topics will unlock in some specific situations--such as after the first ground battle with troops of a given alien race, for example. What a research topic will provide when completed is hidden, beyond the name of the research. What other topics can be unlocked through different situations is also hidden. How many science points a given topic needs to complete is not known, but weekly reports can give you a vague idea how far along a given research topic is. Bled over science points can be spent freely.

WHAT HAPPENS IN A TURN

A turn represents an in-game week's worth of time. In a turn, a player can spend RUs on people, equipment or facilities, a player can fire people, sell equipment or scrap facilities, a player can conduct research projects at a base with scientists, a player can manufacture things at a base with engineers, a player can transfer goods and personnel between bases, a player can send out patrols, and a player can dispatch forces on interception missions. After a player has made all of their decisions, they enter the Detection phase--at which point they learn where all of the alien craft are that they detected on this turn. By default, this information is not shared with other players (meaning the GM only tells you what you saw), but players may share this information of their own accord. They can then reallocate patrolling aircraft to those detected UFOs immediately or act on the information on their next turn. A UFO may hang around on Earth for multiple turns and move around as it does so. Each turn, tracking may be lost, although it is easier to keep track of something once it's been found.

Patrols

A patrol is just a destination for a given craft. It flies from its hangar to the destination. If anything is detected in the air for that area, it's already launched and can react immediately. Interceptors have a patrol range of 6 hexes, meaning they can go out 6 hexes and have enough fuel to make it back.

Interceptions

An interceptor can move to attack a UFO in flight, or can do a flyover of a UFO on the ground to pin it until a troop ship can arrive. If an interceptor is dispatched after a UFO, the UFO may or may not detect it before the interceptor fires--in fact, a UFO may land while an interceptor is chasing it. If an interceptor gets into a dogfight with a UFO, it can conduct the fight cautiously, adaptably or aggressively. Cautious fighting reduces the chance of damage on the interceptor. Adaptable fighting is the middle ground. Aggressive fighting has the greatest chance of interceptor damage but the best chance at dealing damage to the target. Once a UFO has taken sufficient damage, it crash-lands.

As to what actually happens in an interception--pick a posture, add or subtract any modifiers that might come from improved interceptor gear or overwhelming alien force, and roll a D6. 0 or less is always 'human aircraft destroyed in midair with no observed effect on alien craft', and six is 'alien craft destroyed in midair or shot down with critical damage at the human player's discretion', hence why those two results bookend all three tables. Some alien craft are very fragile and will actually be shot down on 'damaged' results, while others are exceedingly sturdy, and treat 'crash land' results merely as 'damaged', ignoring 'damaged' results outright. The noted results are for typical engagements.

0 or less: Aircraft destroyed in midair with no observed effect on alien craft.

Cautious

1: Interceptor damaged, 3 turns spent repairing. 2: Interceptor damaged, 2 turns spent repairing. 3: No effect. 4: UFO damaged (if rolled again on the same UFO, crash lands). 5: UFO crash lands.

Adaptive

1: Interceptor shot down. If over inhabited terrain, recovered with 4 turns spent repairing. Otherwise, lost. 2: interceptor damaged, 3 turns spent repairing. 3: UFO damaged, interceptor damaged, 2 turns spent repairing. 4: UFO damaged. 5: UFO crash lands.

Aggressive

1: Interceptor destroyed. 2: UFO damaged, interceptor destroyed. 3: UFO damaged, interceptor damaged, 2 turns spent repairing. 4: UFO crash lands, interceptor damaged, 2 turns spent repairing. 5: UFO crash lands.

6 or greater: Alien craft destroyed in midair or shot down with critical damage at the human player's discretion.

An interceptor that flies for more than six hexes in its overall patrol (meaning more than three out and three back) must spend the beginning of the next turn refueling, and so cannot patrol the next turn. An interceptor that takes damage must be repaired, and takes a number of weeks depending on the damage it took. An interceptor must be fully repaired before it can be sent on a new mission, be it a patrol or an interception.

When an Interceptor flies Close Air Support, roll on the Cautious table to see if it was damaged in the effort. Keep in mind that some alien equipment may subtract from the table's roll, just like some UFOs.

Engagements

If the alien forces conduct a mission inside a territory with an X-Com base, and that mission is detected, forces inside that territory can engage without the use of a dropship. This is a fight in whatever terrain type the territory is--be it city, desert, farmland, etc. If the alien forces are explicitly attacking an X-Com bunker, forces that are back at base at the moment have no choice and must engage. A detected, landed UFO can launch on any given turn--and if they spot an inbound troop ship, they might get moving in a hurry. Moving on foot or with a tank squadron cannot be detected, but tank squadrons cannot capture UFOs (they can, however, kill any ground crew and force the aliens to take off, rendering the alien mission a failure and scrounging up a small amount of equipment). A crash-landed UFO will eventually be cleaned up and recovered by alien forces, but if X-Com operatives get there first, they'll fight the survivors and claim whatever stuff the aliens brought with them. Jumping a landed UFO provides a great deal of loot as a result.

Once all engagements and interceptions have been declared, the GM resolves them, determining casualties and injuries, determining loot obtained, and determining population or morale loss for successful alien missions (or morale gain for especially successful player missions). After combats have been resolved, the overall cycle repeats.

Combats are rolled with a single roll. If the humans are at a disadvantage, the roll is 1d100 + ((human raw force * human force multipliers) / (alien raw force * alien force multipliers)) * 100 - 100. If the humans are at an advantage, then divide alien power by human power instead and reverse the results on the table. Some force multipliers are combat-wide, such as Close Air Support, and directly increase the HFM. Others are squad-specific, and increase the HFM by half (rounded down) if anyone has it or by its full total if everybody has it in a multi-squad deployment.

Some notes about what the above equation does: with the above factors, force A doubling force B's power makes force B roll at -50. If force A triples, force B rolls at -67. If force A has one and a half times the force, force B rolls at -33. If force A has near-even power, the roll is at near-unmodified. It's only possible to roll a >100 on a 'reversed' table (with human advantage). Overall, this means that so long as the human player has at least 41% of the alien player's forces, it's possible to stalemate.

Turns alternate day-night-day-night for the purposes of combats, and night fights boost the alien force multiplier.

Combat results:

<0: Catastrophic human defeat, increase damage from alien mission due to freedom to operate, all human forces lost. 0-10: Crippling human defeat, all forces lost. 11-20: Severe human defeat, all squads spend 4 turns recuperating and immediately lose one level. XP gained mitigated by having to bring on green troops. 21-30: Human defeat. All squads spend 4 turns recuperating. XP gained mitigated by having to add green troops to the squad. 31-40: Minor human defeat. All squads spend 2 turns recuperating. Still gain 1 XP. 41-60: Stalemate. Human player's choice: all squads spend 2 turns recuperating and alien mission is a failure, or alien mission succeeds but squad can act next turn. 1 XP gained either way, 25% loot gained either way. 61-70: Minor human victory. Alien mission is a failure, 25% loot, squads gain 1 XP. 71-80: Moderate human victory. Alien mission is a failure, 50% loot, squads gain 1 XP. 81-90: Decisive human victory. Alien mission is a failure, 100% loot, squads gain 1 XP. 91-100: Crushing human victory. Alien mission is a failure, 100% loot, squads gain 1 XP, human player gains a Leverage Point. >100: Rallying human victory. Alien mission is a failure, 100% loot, squads gain 1 XP, human player gains a Leverage Point, country gains morale = alien raw force.

Losing XP

A squad that spends a number of turns recuperating equal to 10 - its level loses its most recently gained level. This can 'wrap around'--in the unlikely event that a squad hits level 9, then suffers a defeat, they would drop back down to level 7 (lost 1 + lost 2 + lost 1, which is less than 3). The turns do not have to all be lost at once, but leveling resets the counter.

Units Leveling

When a unit has as much XP as their level, they rank up and may add one to either their Raw Force or one to their Training Force Multiplier bonus (essentially buying one FM).

Losing Personnel

Apart from firing a science team or an engineer team, the only way to lose a scientist or engineer is for ALL of a player's bunkers to be destroyed. A science team or engineer team CAN occupy a bunker without a lab, but cannot conduct research projects without one. If a base with science teams or engineering teams fall, they are evacuated to a base of the player's choosing (the transfer takes one turn, like all other transfers).

Leverage Points

A Leverage Point is indicative of a clever tactic adopted by a player's military, a specialization in a certain style of combat, or some other small-scale aspect of asymmetrical warfare. When a player gains a Leverage Point, they immediately spend it and select a triggering condition related to the situation in which they gained the Leverage Point. This could be 'within 1 hex of a city', or 'in a city', or 'in a plains hex', or 'on the national border', or 'shot down alien craft retrieval', or 'night fighting' (or 'day fighting'), or 'against a given species', or 'mechanized infantry deployed'. All Leverages have an Endurance rating, which indicates the number of times the 'trick' can be used before the alien player wisens up.

Essentially, this rating is the number of ways in which the Leverage could NOT be applied. For terrain- or location-based Leverages, this is equal to the number of hexes within the player's borders in which the tactic COULD NOT apply (so if the player picks 'in the capital', it would have an endurance rating equal to the number of non-capital hexes).

For mission type Leverages (shot down alien craft, landed alien craft, terror site, base assault, base defense), these typically have an Endurance rating of 4, but if the Leverage is made more general (alien craft present, or base fight), then the Endurance rating goes down by the number of additional situations it covers.

For opposing force type Leverages (fought a specific species), the Endurance rating is 8.

For controlled force type Leverages, count the number of squads that could NOT fulfill the requirement. So if the player picked, for example, Green Troops, then the Leverage rating would be the number of squads that have already seen combat, or if the player picked Airdropped Deployment, count the number of squads that would overfill your airdrop capacity (total squads minus landers).

For force multiplier type leverages (fought against troops with air support, fought with air support, mechanized infantry, logistically equipped), if the multiplier requires a quality of a controlled squad (such as logistically equipped or an infantry squad combined with a vehicle squad), count the number of squads that could not possibly gain that bonus on the next turn. So the mechanized infantry bonus would count up the number of infantry squads without land transport. Logistically equipped would just count the number of units that do not currently have logistics gear. If the bonus is related to terrain, treat it as a terrain- or location-based Leverage.

In other cases, or in cases where there is a great degree of ambiguity, ask the game master.

Using up a Leverage Point in a fight improves the human force multiplier by one and subtracts one from its Endurance rating. A player chooses what Leverages to activate in any given fight, and can activate as many as they choose. One Leverage can be activated in a given fight up to 4 times, and burns an equal amount of Endurance. Leverages may be purchased multiple times, and simply add to the Endurance rating of the given Leverage.

Starting Facilities and Funds

Each player and non-player country starts with one base, placed anywhere they like within their borders, with the following:

-30 RUs -1 bunker (Upkeep 2) -3 hangars (Upkeep 3, total 5) -1 barracks (Upkeep 1, total 6) -1 lab (Upkeep 1, total 7) -1 maunfacturing bay (Upkeep 1, total 8) -1 RADAR station (Upkeep 1, total 9)

-2 infantry squads with no upgrades (Upkeep depends on country type) -2 science teams (Upkeep 4, total 13) -2 engineering teams (Upkeep 4, total 17)

-1 troop transport (Upkeep 4, total 21) -2 interceptors (Upkeep 8, total 29)

So starting upkeep is 30 RU for Communist countries, 31 RU for Socialist countries and 33 RU for Capitalist countries.

The open market consists of:

Science Leads

Available research projects include, at the start of the game:

Laser Weaponry

Medikits

Motion Scanners

Improved RADAR

Hidden Emergency Broadcast System

Improved Construction

Secret Objectives

Overall, the war effort for each of these countries is a secret war against the aliens--going public too early would simply cause mass panic, rioting, and countless other problems for the X-Com forces, unless they prepare for it. This preparation is done by completing the country's secret objective, allowing the government to put out a heavy enough spin campaign to nullify the vast majority of the issues that would arise.

As soon as one player goes public, all players do. If a player has not accomplished their secret objective when one player goes public, their country's morale is instantly set to zero, and they receive a triple morale damage penalty for any alien activity for the next four turns (which, at the late point in the game in which these objectives could be accomplished, probably means they're out of the game to population damage from morale damage).

Regardless of whether a given player has accomplished their secret objective, going public means they can publicize their accomplishments against the aliens, doubling morale gain for disrupting alien activity. It's considerably harder to cover up alien activity, however, so even countries that HAVE achieved their secret objective will take double morale damage for alien activity. It also means the X-Com forces begin receiving actual sufficient government funding rather than under-the-table funding, increasing the weekly income for all players by 30 RUs. Finally, it also permits the use of high-profile munitions (bombers and larger squads) and adds a military base to the base list in the highest population hex without a base.

Disrupting alien efforts, however, could cause them to escalate their own attacks. Going public at all provides the alien player with a bonus of a nature unknown to the human players, so doing so without any human players having accomplished their secret objectives is probably a very bad idea. Going public before you have some idea on how to end the alien war (not just your secret objective) could simply cause them to overrun the planet before you can stop them, in which case your country may be the final bastion of humankind.

Most of the secret objectives represent some tangible tactical advantage that can be exploited in the war. Developing standard issue firearms that are far superior to ordinary Earth tech, training up an elite psionic squad, building a clone army or putting the entire country under a highly effective rapid-response umbrella are all potential examples.

Once a player has accomplished their secret objectives, they will start receiving pressure from their government to go public, and the government might go public of its own accord. Each week after the objective has been accomplished increases the chance by 5% (starting at zero the turn it's finished) that the government will force the war to 'heat up'.

Siding with the alien player will change your secret objective. The new secret objective is one selected by the alien player. Alien sympathizers CAN go public, but if they do without achieving their secret alien objective, they risk exposure. If they go public after achieving their secret objective, they are immune to witch hunts.

Once the war has gone from cold to hot, human players and sympathizer players have a few more options. Human players and sympathizers alike can attack territory to attempt to expand their borders (sympathizers can only attack to disrupt rival X-Com efforts in a given nearby country before the war goes public, not lead a secret land war), regardless of whether the target country was previously considered an ally or enemy. This is mechanically similar to a UFO landing--it takes a number of turns and can be reacted to by the opposing player. Human players can also accuse other human players of being sympathizers. If an accusation is leveled, it causes the target player to miss their turn as a witch-hunt is conducted. Witch hunts can fail, but if it proves successful, it changes a player's allegiance from alien to human and severs all ties with the alien player (all bonuses granted by the alien player to the sympathizer stay, however). If the witch hunt was on a non-sympathizer country, nothing happens apart from the missed turn. Players can accuse one player per month of being sympathizers.