In the old forum, there was a general all-purpose FFG topic area where one could post a variety of topics that weren't related to any specific game. I'm assuming that's this one in the new forum, though the topic I'd like to propose hasn't anything to do with "support."
Basically, I enjoyed reading when others had suggestions about possible future games that FFG might consider and made a few myself. Seeing the new trailer for the remake of the movie The Day The Earth Stood Still (and boy, it certainly doesn't look anything like the original!) got me thinking again about a game topic that I've seen too little of: the invasion of earth.
Back in the eighties, metagaming came out with a gem of a game called Invasion of the Air-Eaters in which aliens invaded the earth and began "terraforming" our planet by changing the atmosphere. It was a two-player game played on a map of the entire globe; initially the aliens had higher technology but fewer units; the terran player had more units but they were less capable. Over time, the aliens built sites that could transform the atmosphere while the terrans discovered and deployed advanced technological units; so both players were in a race. The terrans had to win before the atmosphere became unbreathable and the aliens had to win before the terrans gained greater technology to add to their greater numbers of units. It was nicely balanced and while graphically very primitive, it was a whale of a lot of fun to play. They later came out with an expansion that took the battle out into space and onto the various planets and moons of the solar system.
This kind of thing would seem to me to be a wonderful theme for FFG to tackle and could lend itself to cool miniatures, a gorgeous board, and some very interesting game mechanics (though I hasten to add that one of the charms of Air-Eaters was its comparative simplicity: very few rules!). Another example was Fortress America about a future United States invaded by the EuroCommunisits, the South Americans coming up through Mexico, and the Asians invading the West Coast. This one had lasers, advanced technology units, and lots of chrome and was also a lot of fun to play. If this were expanded into a planetary invasion from coalitions of aliens (or various kinds of invasions: mililtary, ecological/biological/ etc.), I could see this becoming a great FFG earth invasion game.
Anyway, I wanted to a) start a topic for suggestions of new games for FFG to consider and b) suggest that it's way past time for a great "aliens-invade-the-earth" game.
