Missions (Long War)
Standard Missions
Alien Missions
Alien Abductions
Abductions are heavily modified in the Long War: no longer the Panic-fest (that distinction now goes to random events of public UFO sightings in uncovered-- thus, uninterceptable-- Countries), the aliens will start with only one target country at a time, with Council rewards always being credits. These missions appear randomly each month. Any of these missions can be skipped but doing so (or failing the mission) will result in increased panic in the affected countries/continents.
UFO Crash Site
When a UFO is shot down and not destroyed a UFO Crash Site mission becomes available. Completion of a UFO Crash Site mission rewards the player with the possibility of recovering valuable components from the UFO--- however, a crashed UFO is now even more likely to have destroyed artifacts. In fact, after the first round, you will more often than not hear the UFO's Elerium Generators exploding.
UFO Landing Site
Some UFO missions will involve a landing. Whether or not this will be the case can often be determined by looking at the UFO's altitude (low altitude often means it will land). If so, if you don't shoot down the UFO before it lands, a landing site will be generated that you can assault. It may actually be your perogative to let low-flying UFOs land, as (a) it will save your interceptor craft some damage, and (b) for the reason mentioned above in Crash Site, this will be the most reliable way of getting Computers and Generators early on. A successful ground assault will also stop the alien mission from being completed.
Terror Site
Similar to vanilla terror missions. You are required to eliminate all hostiles and save as many civilians as you can. Long War is more unforgiving of allowing civilians to die, and any significant civilian casualties will cause panic to rise in that country and continent, even if you complete the mission. Terror missions are generated by UFOs, so you can prevent a terror mission by shooting down the incoming UFO before it can create the terror site.
