I would like to see a variety of items and skills that would allow for possible alterations to the terrain. Right now the terrain is either passable or impassable. I'd like to see a variety of modifiers that could be found naturally, along with the ability for the player to alter the terrain. The simplest example of what I am talking about is probably a molotov cocktail, turning some of the ground into a patch of flame for a few turns. But there are other alterations that could be quite interesting, there could be, for lack of a better term a glue grenade, slowing advancement of NPCs through the affected area. Perhaps more advanced versions would incorporate an accelerant so that any fire damage to NPCs would ignite the patch of sticky ground. An acidic variant could potentially cause damage to any NPC passing through it and stick to them for a few turns (significantly damaging footware on human NPCs?).
There could be other interesting applications of this concept. Certain patches of ground could be muddy, impairing mobility, but the right application of metathermics could freeze the ground or dehydrate the mud allowing it to be traversed without difficulty (perhaps some sort of Cryo-grenade for other flavors of characters could produce a similar effect). Some patches of ground could have very shallow water on them, causing anyone standing in them to receive additional damage from electrically charged weapons. These areas could be frozen, reducing mobility and adding a chance for anyone going through to slip and fall. These areas could be created by the player, who could pour water onto the ground and lure targets into a slippery area. Perhaps oil could cause the same slippery effect and also ignite when someone in the affected area took fire damage.
I am not sure how difficult this sort of thing would be to implement, but control over what bits of terrain are passable can add an entertaining element to strategies.
I would also love to see the ability for the player to set up their own turrets at some point, as long as you had a high enough mechanical skill. Perhaps existing turrets could be harvested for parts, and turrets could be manufactured using existing SMGs and a few specific turret parts. These turrets could have limited ammunition, or considerably fewer hitpoints than typical turrets if they needed to, so that they would be balanced.
I think it could be quite useful if there was the ability to create a noisemaker, or other device to effectively lure some members of a group to specific locations. There could be a variety of traps created in this fashion, set up a mine and use a noisemaker to lure an enemy into it, that sort of thing. This ability could also be done with mind control as I had previously suggested in my "ideas for feats" thread.
I'd like to see additional mine and trap types available. With a high enough electronics skill perhaps you could put up traps using laser tripwires, net traps, stun/taser sorts of traps... Perhaps a rudimentary shotgun tripwire trap...
That's all the stuff I had rattling around in my brain just now, so I'll go ahead and post it so that I can get some feedback.
