[Mongoose]

Oui.

[MatthTheGeek]

[NGTM-1R]

^speaks the truth.

The colony mission ended up going to Squad 2 by default after BlueFlames was slightly injured in the cruiser mission. Triton 2 patrolled the area until Cyborg17 located the colony, then came in for a landing. We're really deep here, and beneath the Polar Icecap; there's almost no light regardless of time of day.

No seriously. We can't see **** down here.


Pretty much everyone gets hit with an MC attack, the majority falling on MatthTheGeek and Kobrar. Nothing sticks. The first kill in our assault goes to the tank and Turambar, who pop up over the Triton and kill this Sectoid for the hideous crime of not looking in the direction of the enemy. Recurring theme.


The tank, checking out this structure, pokes its nose around the corner and then thinks that was a very bad idea. Fortunately, we have alternate options. Hades? Kill them all.


Much as I'd like to just kill everyone and take everything in the colony for us, we have a relatively inexperienced team and there are a lot of MC attacks flying around, so we're going to do a smash-and-run. MatthTheGeek, Ravenholme, and Rhymes_With_PSYCHO form a tight perimeter for security while the rest of the team moves for the door.

The tank clears out the other side of the entryway while the team moves inside. Cyborg17 and the Triton dust off; it's not safe for the Triton to remain on the ground during the assault.


Again with the grenadiers inside an enclosed space. LHN91 and Kobrar, on point, encountered these two and killed them.


The alien turns? They're really long and I didn't need the extra pucker factor, y'know. But then, we can just blow the hell out of the central area rather than try to breach, like so.


I then had Doc Fox and Hades blow the hell out the area above the elevator as well and finally sent the tank after some guys who came running towards the explosions from outside.

In we go!



Maybe it's just me, but these guys seem like they'd get the concepts of “art” and “culture”. That's a pretty stark contrast to the Sectoids we fought in the FAW.


Sweeping is dull. The base is big; aliens are few. (I should note in all the time I've played TFTD, I've never completely secured a colony; they're just too large and cluttered to sweep effectively since the second and third floors are actually used and there are a lot of links between the floors. It's easily twice or more the size of Cydonia.)

Oh, and where Baby Sectoids come from.


Lobstermen can survive having a Disruptor Pulse shoved up their rear end. Yes, I'm a bit mad about that. I suspect Doc Fox is too, after how much trouble it was to plot a course for the thing.


Are those...Crinoids? Paleozoic-era ones? I think they are. They're very much stalked and that's almost unheard of in modern varieties outside of deep water...


Couple of dead lobbies; Doc Fox, Col. Fishguts, Rhymes_With_PSYCHO and MatthTheGeek all contributed something.


Primary target located. We know from interrogations the command center has an upper entrance, directly above the target device. This is it. A DPL or two and we're done. Hades has sufficient ammunition on him.


The southernmost searching group, consisting of Doc Fox, the tank, and Kobrar44 pulls back to the exit point. The northwestern-most search pair of Madcat and Ravenholme were doing the same thing (along with linking up with Dilmah G, who was guarding Hades but can't move nearly as quick since I run the DPL people out of TUs so they don't reaction-fire it) when they ran into a Tentaculat lurking near their exit to the top floor. It soaked a Sonic Cannon shot from Madcat, but didn't survive the second one from Ravenholme.


Shot one.

It works. The control center is confirmed destroyed. Time to evac.

Dilmah G saves Ravenholme from getting zombified by reaction-firing this Tentaculat which turned up from god knows where.


Pullback is smooth as silk. No further opposition materializes.


Cyborg 17 reports light fire as he comes in to pick the squad up, but the moment the Tiger Shark makes an aggressive move towards the source, whoever was shooting splits. Mission Complete.


Triton-2 emerges from the permanent ice cap and reports success to HLPX-COM command.


In other news...

We apparently owe the Aliens quite a bit, considering they killed the dinosaurs for us. Unfortunately for them, whatever Sectoid faction they represent no longer exists and hasn't for at least forty million years. We are not dealing with an invasion from space. That would be easier. The alien force is based somewhere on Earth, almost certainly below the waves or we would have run into them long before we were ready to fight.

This means we must be prepared to go this city, T'Leth, and destroy it. As we have no idea where it is or how deep we'll have to reach, and our current Tritons and even the Hammerhead have a depth limit that would put some areas out of our reach, a new craft to deliver this assault is needed.

The Leviathan was built for the sole purpose of taking an assault force anywhere the aliens could possibly be hiding. The fact it can go one-on-one with pretty much any alien ship we've encountered is purely incidental to this. The Leviathan is certified able to dive five kilometers deeper than the deepest areas of the ocean we know exist. Squad 3 will be shifting to WithFeeling and will man the Leviathan for its shakedown runs, while Barracuda 2 will shift over to the hanger that would have taken Squad 3's Triton at NorPac. We estimate the Leviathan will be operational before the end of August.

[BlueFlames]

The colony mission ended up going to Squad 2 by default after BlueFlames was slightly injured in the cruiser mission.

Inform Squad 2 that they may take this mission, for I am tired and shall be taking a nap!  Those bloody proletariat can learn to work for their wages!

[Scotty]

I volunteer for gunnery officer on the Leviathan when the attack goes out.

[FireSpawn]

I volunteer for pilot duty on the Leviathan....Assuming I don't get sunk before then.

[NGTM-1R]

Squad 2, in the process of killing aliens, discovers priceless historical artifacts.

Which are then Sonic Pulser'd. Oh well!

Sandwich was added to Squad 1's deployment roster when mxlm was laid up for a couple weeks with a crush fracture from a close-quarters tangle with a Lobsterman.


BloodEagle takes a hit as he exits the Triton. His armor holds and he returns fire accurately, killing the Sectoid. He, MP-Ryan, and Spoon spread out to secure the immediate area. The UFO is located pretty quickly and Sandwich, The_Force, MP-Ryan, and BloodEagle are directed to secure it while the rest of the team and the tank secure the surrounding area.

Two points of entry: the main doors, and area where the engine blew out. The_Force and MP-Ryan will go through the doors, Sandwich and BloodEagle through the hull breach.


One alien set himself up with an elevated position to watch the main doors, but deathfun takes it out with a long-range shot from the roof of the Triton.


Ship's a mess. Both engines blew. There are a number of bodies (I count three), but none of the survivors are still inside.


Sandwich takes down an alien spotted by the tank. This picture doesn't really tell the whole story, mind.

This one does; the red line was added to show the shot's path. Forty or fifty squares, against an elevated position, and it was still a perfect headshot. As rookie openers go this is definitely one of the best I've ever seen.


The last alien was either cowering in fear of our prowess or just thought he had a good hidey hole. Either way, nobody escapes The E.

[NGTM-1R]

So, time for the next one.

Sandwich apparently gained four TUs from one kill. Considering the normal rate is one or two, apparently the game was as impressed as I was. The mission was largely routine at first; previous experience with downed Escorts has taught us that the crews tend to stay in the ship.

The E found this one lurking in a small nook in the rocks outside it, but otherwise that seems to have held true.


This guy ducked his head out, and immediately got shot at. The_Force reaction-fired, and missed. Sandwich reaction-fired, hit, and killed it. Excuse me, are you sure you're a rookie sir?


A brief exchange of fire between The E, The_Force, and a Tasoth in the main area of the alien craft gets the Tasoth killed and The E's armor another new dent. Sandwich locates another in a side room and hits it, but it doesn't go down. deathfun moves over and blocks the door, but The E takes a more direct approach and blasts out part of the wall...which gets him shot twice more, but again his armor holds.

deathfun kills the Tasoth.

Mission Complete. The Leviathan is now ready for action, so Sandwich (and Doc Fox) are going back to Squad 3.

[Sandwich]

Sandwich's Personal Log; Date: August 22nd, 2040.

'Bout flipping time. Not that I'm happy that poor mxlm got laid up in the medbay for a few weeks, but seriously, I've been out here for months without seeing any action.

The troopers of Squad 1 are a good, talented bunch. They've been leading this offensive from the word 'Go', and they know it. Ok, so the E is apparently invincible... I think his time just hasn't come yet. Don't get me wrong, I'm not rooting for it to come anytime soon... I just firmly believe that until your time has come, you effectively are invincible.

In any case, glad to see I still got a feel for the trigger. Certainly raised a few eyebrows with that shot.

I think I'll call my Sonic Cannon "Vera". I wonder if anyone will get the reference... probably not. They're all too young. *sigh*

In other news, I'm definitely looking forward to crewing the Leviathan on her shakedown cruise. That thing's an absolute beast. I wonder where we'll go... the Mariana Trench's the deepest spot on the planet - gets my vote at least.

Chow time, gotta run. More later!

[Spoon]

Spoon concludes that the Lobsterman who grenaded him is kinda a big deal and blasts it, admitting the tank to the “I legitimately oneshot a Lobsterman” club.

Like a boss 

[Goober5000]

Dear lobstermen:

If you're going to operate in my country's territorial waters, you're only going to do it with one freaking eye!  Good luck with the depth perception! (See what I did there? )

Sandwich's Personal Log; Date: August 7th, 2040

I've got 20 more days until my birthday. I'm turning 34.

Here's hoping I live long enough to be there when it happens.

Wait, you were born in 2006?  That would make you the youngest admin ever!

inb4jokes about French dropping guns.

...did we know you were French?

As an admin, you could have checked his email address.

This one does; the red line was added to show the shot's path. Forty or fifty squares, against an elevated position, and it was still a perfect headshot. As rookie openers go this is definitely one of the best I've ever seen.

*applauds*

[StarSlayer]

  What rank is The E?  Apparently he has an anchor and chain, which I assume he uses to garrote Lobstermen with?

[Scourge of Ages]

What rank is The E?  Apparently he has an anchor and chain, which I assume he uses to garrote Lobstermen with?

I believe that is Lieutenant.

[deathfun]

Are you sure it isn't Juggernaut?
How many times has he been shot?

[jr2]

Where/whenever you need me, toss me in. 

[Alex Heartnet]

The following excerpt from the Leviathan's operating manual is classified Top Secret.  Diverging any information, directly or indirectly, to any persons not specifically authorized by <Redacted> is punishable with death, under <Redacted>

...The command bridge of the Leviathian submarine contains multiple workstations for use by the crew.  A brief summery is as follows.

The command station (CMD) is for handling communications, plotting ship courses, and generally assisting the CO in his duties.

While the ship can be flown from the command station, the navigation station (NAV) is where the actual piloting of the craft is usually handled, and displays far more in-flight instruments then the command station does.

The weapon station (WEP) is where fire control is normally handled.   While the pilot does have access to some of the onboard weapon systems, most test pilots find the task of flying an advanced submarine too difficult to have to worry about performing gunnery as well.

All three of the above workstations are capable of giving a rough, at-a-glance damage report for armor damage, structural damage, subsystem damage, subsystem power levels, and flooding.

For a more detailed damage report, one should consult the engineering station (ENG).  The engineering station can also be used to direct the onboard auto-repair system, as well as monitor remaining fuel and ammo stocks.  Power can also be re-directed to prevent brownouts in case onboard power systems sustain damage.  However, the auto-repair system has only a limited capability to repair structural damage.  Heavy structural damage should be repaired in a drydock instead.

And finally, the remote control station (REM) allows for robotic craft, such as camera drones and tanks, to be directed from a safe distance.  While the workstation can theoretically be used to control multiple vehicles at once, tests have shown that each crew member can only be expected to control one robot at a time.  The remote control station has room for as many as three crew members to accommodate this.

Overall, there is a great deal of redundancy built into the workstations.  One can fly the ship from the engineering station or operate the weapons from the command station if need be.  However, each workstation was designed primarily for a specific task.  Standard protocol should be to not deviate from a workstation's assigned task unless the heat of combat or unusual circumstances dictate otherwise...

[BloodEagle]

BloodEagle's Personal Log; Date: August 23nd, 2040:

It's been two days since it last happened.  I had opened another door and had gotten shot, again. 

Looking at the scorch marks shows me how near of a thing it really was.

The psychiatric team here at the base assures me that I'll get better with time.  Not sure if I entirely trust people who hide keys in coconuts, though.

In any case, I still flinch whenever I hear or see a door slide open.

[Kobrar44]

Does the game even care about the distance? At 0 distance there is 100% accuracy, but I can't remember there being any accuracy penalty due to large distance. I often fire from ~50 squares and often hit.

[BlueFlames]

Does the game even care about the distance? At 0 distance there is 100% accuracy, but I can't remember there being any accuracy penalty due to large distance. I often fire from ~50 squares and often hit.

UFO Defense doesn't care about range.  I haven't played or read up enough on Terror from the Deep to know for sure, but it's not much more than a palette-swap and retabling of UFO Defense, so I doubt there's a range factor in figuring whether or not a shot hits.  It just looks freaking amazing when you fire a ridiculously long range shot and have the bullet-cam scroll the screen about four to six times, ending with a lethal hit to an alien cranium.

Actually, there is a sort of accidental range factor that plays into accuracy at very close range.  When a character rolls a miss, the game picks a random vector within a certain arc of the intended path of the shot for the shot to travel down instead.  If this random vector happens to intersect the target, that "miss" still deals damage, despite the attack roll not working out originally.  This means that at really close ranges, it can become difficult to actually miss a target, since so many of those possible "miss" vectors still intersect the target, even though the attack rolls going on in the background are unaffected by range.

So, yeah....  The difference in accuracy between one space and five spaces is pretty significant, where the difference in accuracy between ten spaces and fifty spaces is negligible.  Remember that, when you're fighting Chryssalids, and every shot counts:  Just get right in their faces, and you can't miss!

[NGTM-1R]

Does the game even care about the distance? At 0 distance there is 100% accuracy, but I can't remember there being any accuracy penalty due to large distance. I often fire from ~50 squares and often hit.

Sort of. Rolling a miss applies a deviation of random size and direction to the shot. At ten squares, particularly for a vertical deviation, this may not matter. At twenty, it probably will, but still might not if it's really small. (I've seen plenty of aliens get shot in the arm at twenty squares.) At fifty, you'll be able to tell if it missed at all. My personal favorite was from an Enemy Unknown game where I had somebody fire the Rifle and the shot's offset from the target was greater than the distance fired.