It looks super interesting!
As the other thread on game settings is locked, I'll ask here if you plan to include some house rules. I was thinking perhaps of having the first NPR encounter be forcibly hostile, or perhaps all of them?

XCOM: EXTRATERRESTRIAL COMMAND

Restored and translated for the public record by the researchers of the Interplanetary Radioactive Frozen Beverage Academy




Hello, Commander.

In light of the recent extraterrestrial incursion, this Council of Nations has convened to approve the activation of the XCOM Project.

You have been chosen to lead this initiative. To oversee our first … and last line of defense.

Your efforts will have considerable influence on this planet’s future. We urge you to keep that in mind as you proceed.

Good luck, Commander.

----

On 1 March 2015, aliens came to Earth. Acting covertly, squads of alien soldiers began abducting civilians and infiltrating the halls of power, aiming to overthrow the governments of Earth and establish their own planetary regime. These actions went unnoticed, save for a small council of international observers who quietly gave the order to activate the long-dormant XCOM (Extraterrestrial Combat Unit) Project. Elite ex-special forces operatives from around the world, aided by top-secret technology unknown to any national military at the time, soon found themselves engaged in squad-level urban and rural combat against the alien menace in and around cities across the globe.

In response, the aliens made their presence known to the world at large, launching a series of devastating terror strikes that left cities burning and citizens of every nation lying dead in the streets. The war between man and alien, known to those who fought it as “The Long War”, continually escalated, with XCOM operatives daily fighting and dying in battle against a technologically-superior foe and their human collaborators, the shadowy criminal organization known as EXALT. In those days, the tireless efforts of XCOM scientists and engineers proved the salvation of humanity, reverse-engineering alien technologies and developing new weapons to counter the alien technological advantage. Robotic infantry vehicles, giant mechanized exosuits, adaptive genetic modifications, and the unlocked psionic powers of mankind all made their mark on the battlefield.

Ultimately, the tide turned. The critical point came in November of 2015, when  ten XCOM operatives infiltrated and captured the primary alien military base on Earth, striking the first real offensive blow for humanity. The alien offensive culminated less than two weeks later, when XCOM forces made a heroic stand to defend their own hidden base of operations in a titanic clash now popularly known as Operation Ashes and Temples. After these two battles, the aliens were clearly on the back foot, and though the incursion continued unabated and at times with an even higher tempo than before, XCOM only continued to solidify its position while steadily driving the aliens back.

Final victory came in September 2016, when a reinforced squad of XCOM’s twelve finest soldiers boarded and destroyed the alien mothership. Without any command and control, the alien forces collapsed rapidly, although cleanup operations persisted for several months afterwards. With the threat ended, the defenders of humanity were thrust into public awareness and hailed as heroes. For a great and terrible price, Earth was safe once more.


XCOM in the Post-War Period

While the immediate alien threat had been defeated, a pervasive fear that the aliens might return remained. Therefore, rather than disbanding XCOM the Council issued a new directive: The XCOM Project would now be responsible for building up and maintaining the defenses of humanity against a future alien invasion. Unusually for a military organization, this directive meant that XCOM expanded significantly after the war, not only in numbers of soldiers and equipment but also in areas of science, engineering, and even civil administration through liaison offices with many of the world’s leading governments.

Over the course of the invasion, XCOM scientists had ample opportunities to study alien technologies and had developed their working prototypes in many cases. During the war, most of these prototypes were weapons and other military equipment: laser, Gauss, railgun, and plasma weapons; advanced armor materials based on alien alloys; advanced power sources and gravity-drive propulsion systems; grav-wave and hyperwave sensor systems; and so on. After the war, while development of these systems remained a core component of the XCOM scientific portfolio, greater attention and international funding was given to civilian applications of the alien technology.

An historic breakthrough was made on 23 December 2022, as XCOM scientists demonstrated the theoretical underpinnings of the mysterious new elements used by the alien devices.These theories, dubbed Trans-Newtonian Physics, represented an entirely new scientific paradigm, a revolution even greater than the discovery of quantum mechanics. XCOM engineers soon set about the task of developing plans and infrastructure to leverage these new physics to improve civilian industrial facilities worldwide, which would greatly improve economic output and enable mass production of weapons and munitions based on Trans-Newtonian principles.

In light of this development, the Council convened to once again expand the mission of the XCOM organization. XCOM would become the Extraterrestrial Command, a supranational organization which would lead not only Earth’s military defenses but also guide the Trans-Newtonian industrialization process and even direct new spaceflight ventures to the solar system and beyond. The advent of Trans-Newtonian spaceflight was envisioned as a means to emplace forward defenses throughout Sol and even in other star systems, and perhaps even to take the fight to the aliens if their own homeworld could one day be discovered. As XCOM engineers finalized plans to convert industrial facilities to the new standards, the Council set 1 January 2025 as the date on which XCOM would lead the world into the bold new Trans-Newtonian era.

Good luck, Commander…

----

State of XCOM: 1 Jan 2025

The Council Nations which fund and advise the XCOM organization number sixteen: The United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Brazil, France, South Africa, Argentina, Egypt, India, and Mexico. These countries contain a total population of around 4.5 billion, many of whom will work in the new Trans-Newtonian installations that XCOM is responsible to construct and maintain.

XCOM now has responsibility over some 7,200 conventional industrial facilities, all of which are slated for upgrades to Trans-Newtonian standards. XCOM also controls 25 large national laboratories spread throughout the sixteen Council Nations, with plans to establish international scientific collaborations in the continuing search for new applications of Trans-Newtonian materials. XCOM Headquarters itself has been significantly expanded since the Long War, and now is capable of functioning as a spaceport servicing near-Earth defensive spacecraft and satellites. XCOM Headquarters also retains training facilities for XCOM troopers and officers and the infamous Hyperwave Relay which now serves as a deep-space monitoring station. While XCOM is currently capable of building and launching small craft, such as the Firestorm-class interceptors which played a key role during the war, organizational leaders are currently negotiating with Council Nation governments to launch large orbital facilities which could be used to construct much larger spaceships, including large transport vessels and defensive warships.


XCOM Ground Forces in 2025

XCOM ground forces have been significantly expanded since the war, as the nations of Earth constantly demand protective garrisons with the best anti-alien training and Trans-Newtonian weapons that money can buy. These garrisons have been organized into large battalion and brigade formations, which in principle are not ideal for fighting the sort of clandestine, squad-based battles that defeated the alien invasion, but provide a convenient organizational structure for troops who would otherwise be scattered chaotically across the globe. Such large-scale combat formations would also be useful for invading alien worlds, should any be encountered in the future.



Order of battle for a typical XCOM Trooper battalion, composed of four heavy infantry companies and an armored assault company. While the XCOM battalion is a powerful fighting force when concentrated, in practice its subordinate units are geographically dispersed to serve as garrisons for key facilities and institutions in its host nation. In this deployment configuration, the MEC elements form a rapid-response reserve in the event that a particular squad or platoon were overwhelmed by a heavy alien attack.



Order of battle for an XCOM brigade. The key feature of the brigade organization is the pair of rocket artillery battalions. Each Tunguska Rocket Tank is armed with twin turret-mounted Blaster Launchers, which fire projectiles capable of autonomous self-maneuver in closed environments. These therefore provide a significant weight of supporting fire even in dense urban combat environments which usually preclude significant artillery support, although the destructive power of a Blaster Launcher projectile means that caution must still be exercised in abundance.

XCOM deploys several troop types in the field, many of which date from the Long War and remain largely unchanged due to their great success therein. The standard XCOM Trooper is a heavy infantry soldier armed with a powerful plasma weapon and protected by a Titan Suit of heavy powered armor. The Troopers are supported by Super-Heavy Infantry Vehicles, or SHIVs, robotic armored platforms armed with rapid-fire anti-personnel weapons to provide covering fire for advancing Troopers. Heavy armored support is provided by soldiers operating Mechanized Exoskeleton Combat Suits, or MEC Suits, which come in three varieties. The MEC-1 Warden dates from the earliest months of the war, is armed with a heavy minigun and a flamethrower for anti-personnel work, and possesses the thinnest armor of the three. The MEC-2 Sentinel fills an intermediate role, armed with an armor-penetrating railgun and a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher, and possessing a moderate thickness of armor. Finally, the MEC-3 Paladin serves as the heavy armor of XCOM, armed with a burst-firing particle cannon and a portable EMP module capable of disabling alien mechanized units. In the post-war period, XCOM has developed additional weapons and vehicles to support the Trooper battalions, most prominently the Tunguska Rocket Tank which serves as a short-to-medium range mechanized artillery element using its twin Blaster Launchers. Trans-Newtonian antigravity technology has also led to the introduction of high-mobility hover carriers as capable transports for logistical, fire control, and command elements.

XCOM ground forces at the start of 2025 include 44,000 soldiers operating over 420,000 tons of Trans-Newtonian weapons and equipment:

    XCOM Order of Battle: 1 Jan 2025
    XCOM North America (NACOM): Major General Wimpie Delport
    United States Brigade, Canadian Brigade, Mexican Brigade

    XCOM South America (SACOM): Major General Pavel Semenov
    Brazilian Brigade, Argentinian Brigade

    XCOM Europe (EUROCOM): Major General Anatoliy Romanov
    Russian Brigade, German Brigade, United Kingdom Brigade, French Brigade

    XCOM Africa (AFRICOM): Major General Rayhan Sulaiman
    Nigerian Brigade, South African Brigade, Egyptian Brigade

    XCOM Asia-Pacific (ASPACOM): Major General Ye Lan An
    Chinese Brigade, Japanese Brigade, Australian Brigade, Indian Brigade

XCOM currently suffers from a shortage of high-level commanders with adequate training in extraterrestrial combat operations, and has no plans to expand the ground forces beyond their current organization at present. These plans may be subject to change in the future, pending availability of qualified officers or new and improved munitions.


XCOM Orbital Defense Forces in 2025

The XCOM Orbital Defense Forces have their origin in the pre-war Raven interceptor squadrons which formed the first line of defense against alien UFOs in the first year of the invasion. The Raven boasts twin pulse-detonation turbojet engines and a pair of Avalanche missile launchers, and is specially outfitted for high-altitude combat operations of short duration beyond the Karman Line demarcating Earth’s atmosphere from outer space. Despite heavy losses during the first months of the war, Raven interceptors were produced at the highest volume XCOM could afford throughout the war, and two dozen interceptors in four squadrons were in service when the Temple Ship was destroyed. These squadrons remained in service as of 1 January 2025, despite their rather outdated nature as pre-Trans Newtonian combat aircraft.

   Raven class Interceptor     250 tons      1 Crew      20.1 BP      TCS 5   TH 2   EM 0
   400 km/s     Armour 1-3      Shields 0-0      HTK 2     Sensors 0/0/0/0     DCR 0-0     PPV 1.2
   Maint Life 6.15 Years    MSP 20   AFR 50%   IFR 0.7%   1YR 1   5YR 14   Max Repair 5 MSP
   Magazine 8 / 0   
   Major   Control Rating 1   
   Intended Deployment Time: 3 days   Morale Check Required   

   Type 1 Pulse-Detonation Engine (2)   Power 2   Fuel Use 316.23%   Signature 1   Explosion 10%
   Fuel Capacity 2,000 Litres   Range 0.5 billion km (13 days at full power)

   Missile Launch Rail (10t) (2)    Missile Size: 4   Hangar Reload 100 minutes   MF Reload 16 hours
   AN/APG-31 Missile Guidance Radar (1)    Range 1.9m km   Resolution 5
   Avalanche Missile (2)   Speed: 1,200 km/s   End: 242.1m    Range: 17.4m km   WH: 3   Size: 4   TH: 4/2/1

   AN/APS-70 Air Search Radar (1)    GPS 4    Range 1.9m km   Resolution 5

The modern Trans-Newtonian alternative to the Raven is the Firestorm class. Armed with a heavy plasma cannon and propelled by an X-10 gravity wave drive based on alien UFO propulsion technology, the Firestorm is the first combat vehicle capable of true spaceborne operations in human history. A full squadron of six Firestorms were in service by the end of the Long War, all of which remained in service as of 1 January 2025.

   Firestorm class Interceptor     500 tons      4 Crew      31.2 BP      TCS 10   TH 20   EM 0
   2000 km/s     Armour 1-5      Shields 0-0      HTK 3     Sensors 1/1/0/0     DCR 0-0     PPV 2.5
   Maint Life 1.41 Years    MSP 5   AFR 100%   IFR 1.4%   1YR 3   5YR 41   Max Repair 5 MSP
   Lieutenant Colonel   Control Rating 1   
   Intended Deployment Time: 3 days   Morale Check Required   

   X-10 Gravity Wave Drive (2)   Power 20   Fuel Use 223.61%   Signature 10   Explosion 10%
   Fuel Capacity 2,300 Litres   Range 0.37 billion km (51 hours at full power)

   XCOM Plasma Cannon (1)   Range 30,000km    TS: 2,000 km/s    Power 6-1    RM 10,000 km   ROF 30     
   XN/APY-1 XCOM Targeting Computer (1)    Max Range: 30,000 km   TS: 2,000 km/s
   XCOM Small Elerium Reactor (1)    Total Power Output 1   Exp 5%

   XN/APS-2 XCOM Grav Pulse Sensor (1)    GPS 20    Range 3.8m km   Resolution 10
   EM Scanner (1)    Sensitivity 1    Detect Sig Strength 1000:  7.9m km
   Thermal Scanner (1)    Sensitivity 1    Detect Sig Strength 1000:  7.9m km

Given its pre-war air force origins, the rank structure for XCOM orbital defense commanders follows air force terminology (Major, Lt. Colonel, Colonel, general staff, etc.). XCOM currently lacks any sort of orbital installations capable of large spaceship construction, and talks are underway with the national governments to start up an initiative to develop such capabilities.

----

OOC Notes: It begins! As mentioned in the informational sticky setup post, each update will have its own thread - in part to make commenting easier for readers joining late or catching up, presuming that this AAR actually lasts long enough for such considerations to matter. That goes to say - feel free to comment here, since there is not a dedicated comments thread.

As this is a "conventional plus" start with a fairly low TN tech level, and since in XCOM canon the existence of interstellar aliens is already well-established, I hope to forego the usual oohing and ahhing about the marvels of every new tech advance and instead focus more on the operational aspects of building up a newly Trans-Newtonian humanity. We shall see how this goes.

Is there a way to make the system names pull from the System theme in random order, instead of alphabetical order? I'd swear there was supposed to be a check box for randomizing it, but for me it always run alphabetically which is kind of boring, and as a result I manually rename every system.

In v2.5.1, the smallest increment of jump drive tonnage, 10t, rounds to the nearest hull size in increments of 50t when checking if it can jump ships. A jump drive rated for 370t can only jump 350t, while a jump drive rated for 380t can jump a full 400t.

Minor issue: ramming attacks seem to occur once every sub-pulse, i.e. five per five-second increment, rather than once every five seconds. If you turn off one second sub-pulses they go back to attacking once per increment.

(I don't think I've ever actually seen a ramming attack succeed, even attacking five times per increment, so this doesn't really matter much, but they probably should be consistent.)