After getting your squad together, if you rename your squad member in the customization settings, if you change the name to a specific name the game will make it a "special" XCOM hero. There are two others you can get as XCOM heroes, all discovered through the default.ini configuration settings:
;SUPER SOLDIERS!!
;Sid Meier BodyPartTemplateConfig=(PartType="Head",
TemplateName="Supersoldier1_M",
ArchetypeName="Head_Supersoldier1.ARC_Head_Supersoldier1",
Gender=eGender_Male, Race=eRace_Caucasian, SpecializedType=true)
;Beaglerush BodyPartTemplateConfig=(PartType="Head",
TemplateName="Supersoldier2_M",
ArchetypeName="Head_Supersoldier2.ARC_Head_Supersoldier2",
Gender=eGender_Male, SpecializedType=true) ;VanDoorn
BodyPartTemplateConfig=(PartType="Head",
TemplateName="Supersoldier3_M",
ArchetypeName="Head_Supersoldier3.ARC_Head_Supersoldier3",
Gender=eGender_Male, SpecializedType=true)
So basically, you just need to rename your squad member to either:
- Peter Van Doorn
- Sid Meier
- Beaglerush
In order to get an XCOM hero!
For reference, Peter Van Doorn is a famous NPC you can rescue in XCOM: Enemy Unknown.. Sid Meier is a famous developer who is the creator of the Civilization series and director of Creative Development for Firaxis Games. Beaglerush is a famous XCOM streamer and youtuber.
The presence of Buffs / Debuffs can be seen in the lower-right of each units' selection icon. For enemies, this is the icon you get when you have sight on them. For your own units, this is in the lower left, by their name.
Hovering over this icon will show what buffs/debuffs are currently active.
Best Answer
Aliens grow stronger over time, and outside of a couple story specific aliens, aren't tied to mission or tech completion at all.
I believe the only story specific aliens are:
Essentially every month you'll see some change in aliens which appear, which could include new aliens appearing or older ones disappearing, but could also could a frequency change in certain aliens (i.e. certain stronger aliens appear more often later into the game). Which aliens you'll see in which month depends on the difficulty, and sometimes you'll actually see changes happen partway through the month instead of the start of it.
So with all this in mind, there's no reason to hold back on research since it'll just put you further behind. You also shouldn't skip missions in attempt to slow down alien progress, as all you'll do is deny yourself resources and soldier XP.
Finally:
Yes, missions which stick around will get harder over time. The aliens which appear on a mission is determined when you actually start the mission, not when it spawns.