codadun
Hi Julian, How have you planned to strike a balance between meaningful and diverse variation of mutated forms without creating an overwhelming number of perks and buffs to remember? Forgetting one vertebrae-centipede is immune to fire, or is capable of infrared vision compared to its vanilla cousin, and so on. Best of luck on the project funding!
JulianGollop
Good question. A specific alien does not have a large number of abilities and generally the aliens will retire old versions completely before introducing new mutations. At any time there won't be a lot of different mutations around. The basic evolutionary rule the aliens use is that if a particular alien is not performing well, it will be mutated. If an alien is performing well, then more of them will be deployed - until the player figures out how to deal with them.
JulianGollop
The current system we have is something a bit in between. There is an implicit AP system, but the presentation looks like the modern Firaxis XCOM with an 'action zone' and a 'dash zone'. The action zone may be bigger or smaller depending on the weapon or equipment chosen. Your moves can be interrupted on spotting an enemy or taking a hit - and you can react as you see fit. A major feature of the system that a character's 'willpower' rating gives you will points, which you spend on certain special actions. There is also a hit location system with disabling wounds to different parts of the body having different effects. This is quite cool actually - especially when you shoot an alien's gun or shield of its wounded arm.
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