Personally, with how often they appear as SITREPS for me (seems like 90% of missions I've done had them), I adjusted their stats to be more like a support element for the main Advent soldiers. Similar to how Civil Protection works in the Half-Life universe. I even adjusted their appearance to look the part (lancer body+head with blue lights and the trench coat legging of the reapers).

As with Civil Protection, I imagined MOCX as a volunteer militia/police force, except it consists of people who grew up under the 20 years of Advent rule. That makes it so they have no connection to what life was like before the invasion, ergo are more keen on protecting the world they're more familiar with. Seeing as that Advent actually improved the lives of humans (curing all diseases, etc), it's not hard to think that there those in the populace who genuinely see Advent as their saviors. Propaganda simply helps solidify their conviction.

Those who prove themselves to be efficient soldiers are secretly sent off to become the hybrids we know.

In my game I rewrote the .INT files in the Localization folder to be exactly that, a "false flag" division trained by ADVENT to target resistance groups, looking like XCOM, and this way create propaganda campaigns to defame the resistance.

MOCX can easily be interpreted as an upgrade/rebranding of EXALT from Enemy Within. (Especially if you have them use the EXALT uniforms.)

I am not using the Exalt uniforms. Those cosmetic mods have caused compatibility issues for me in the past.

Originally posted by PM_Zigg Price:

I am not using the Exalt uniforms. Those cosmetic mods have caused compatibility issues for me in the past.

Even if you don't use the Exalt uniforms, there is still room to interpret a connection between MOCX and EXALT. If you use the default military-style uniforms, you could suggest that in the years since the Aliens invaded, EXALT went from being considered a criminal organization to being reclassified (courtesy of ADVENT) as an official military unit.

Originally posted by cybersbe:

MOCX can easily be interpreted as an upgrade/rebranding of EXALT from Enemy Within. (Especially if you have them use the EXALT uniforms.)

100% this. Add in the mod that lets them occasionally fight Advent (because it's more believable) and you suddenly have a false flag operation that simulates a fake civil war within xcom and terrorises civilians with reckless abandon.

it is also notable that the spokesman talks about accepting recruits into advent, so it's entirely canon

Originally posted by tha peng:

it is also notable that the spokesman talks about accepting recruits into advent, so it's entirely canon

In canon it's a ruse, recruits are pretty much kidnapped and taken to Advent Blacksites to be processed like everyone else.

There are no actual recruits in Advent's army just manufactured Advent Hybrids.

The vanilla game does enough of the handwaving for you. MOCX are controlled psionically by the chips installed in their heads. Did you capture and convert a soldier? It's cuz the chip was damaged in battle and successfully removed in your lab, now they're free. Did the soldier die? Well, brain surgery is hard even when it doesn't involve alien machines and conducted on a flying aircraft carrier: can't save 'em all.

Incidentally, the same explanation works with playable hybrids and The Liberated aliens mods.

Originally posted by Deadput:

Originally posted by tha peng:

it is also notable that the spokesman talks about accepting recruits into advent, so it's entirely canon

In canon it's a ruse, recruits are pretty much kidnapped and taken to Advent Blacksites to be processed like everyone else.

There are no actual recruits in Advent's army just manufactured Advent Hybrids.

Chimera Squad reveals that there are indeed some Advent soldiers who were once human, alongside the numerous clones.

Originally posted by cybersbe:

Originally posted by Deadput:

In canon it's a ruse, recruits are pretty much kidnapped and taken to Advent Blacksites to be processed like everyone else.

There are no actual recruits in Advent's army just manufactured Advent Hybrids.

Chimera Squad reveals that there are indeed some Advent soldiers who were once human, alongside the numerous clones.

I know that lore but I don't consider those hybrids to be the "same people" as the humans they used to be, pretty sure they have no memory of their former lives if I properly recall or at the very least was the case for Zephyr.

Regardless I wouldn't call those cases recruits anyways due to the brainwashing and what not.

Originally posted by SirSmite:

Personally, with how often they appear as SITREPS for me (seems like 90% of missions I've done had them), I adjusted their stats to be more like a support element for the main Advent soldiers. Similar to how Civil Protection works in the Half-Life universe. I even adjusted their appearance to look the part (lancer body+head with blue lights and the trench coat legging of the reapers).

As with Civil Protection, I imagined MOCX as a volunteer militia/police force, except it consists of people who grew up under the 20 years of Advent rule. That makes it so they have no connection to what life was like before the invasion, ergo are more keen on protecting the world they're more familiar with. Seeing as that Advent actually improved the lives of humans (curing all diseases, etc), it's not hard to think that there those in the populace who genuinely see Advent as their saviors. Propaganda simply helps solidify their conviction.

Those who prove themselves to be efficient soldiers are secretly sent off to become the hybrids we know.

This one I find to be a very interesting idea, I think it would fit very well with MOCX

Also, could you link your yotube?

I ended up never getting this started. So my YouTube is basically dead/on hiatus. I have new stuff I am working on that will involve YouTube, but I'm in the middle of moving now. So it's all on the back burner until I get settled. My channel name is WWZD Gaming, and it has stuff on there from a few years ago, and then it has some stuff from my attempted relaunch that never got off the ground.

For what it's worth, if you do need a justification, I'd go with them being dedicated "XCOM Hunters". Your typical ADVENT forces police the civilians and such, but MOCX is out to kill your XCOM troops. They probably keep trophies of XCOM soldiers they killed, stuff like that.

If you want another layer to it, you could even have them be rogue XCOM agents that decided to collaborate with ADVENT when the war was lost, and accuse your XCOM forces of still fighting the old war.