I do wan’t xcom 3. However, I would also like them to figure a way to solve this problem. Civ solves this problem, too bad the AI is worthless.
In Civ, if you play a game on a pangea map vs one on an archipelago, that is a very different experience. Also different victory conditions such as science vs conquest. Mix up all that with the random terrain and you have tremendous replayability.
I am not sure what concepts Xcom can use to do this. That is where I was thinking about grand strategies might make some difference, but probably not enough. Different victory conditions might help a lot too, but again, I am not sure what those would be in an xcom universe. Perhaps a science victory might involve building a global psi shield which breaks the elder’s psionic network leaving their troops in chaos and maybe even rebelling.
I have a feeling that XCom 3 will not be a battle between the elders and humans, but whatever it is that they claimed to be protecting us from, the “true” enemy. Or perhaps that will just be something for another game. Maybe humans will go on the offensive and have to secure our solar system, and then xcom 4 will go beyond that, but that is just counting chickens at this point.