[Phantom Hoover]

Just drop it, TrashMan. Please. NGTM clearly doesn't want to faff around with mods right after starting a new LP, you're accomplishing nothing by trying to pester him into it.

[Colonol Dekker]

I'm reading as endorsing it and not forcing.

[TrashMan]

Pestering? I don't recall demanding a mod.

Really...some people are so touchy.

[NGTM-1R]

Once I found it, I never wanted to get back to vanilla.

Nobody's perfect.

I'm trying to Let's Play the game unmodded as an objective, each time, and the only thing I wanted XComUtil for was to fix bugs. I've said this before. It's not gonna happen, man.

[TrashMan]

Nobody's perfect.

Indeed you aren't... If you were, we'd already have the next installement by now.

[NGTM-1R]

Indeed you aren't... If you were, we'd already have the next installement by now.

Timezones, how do they work!?

Installments every night at 7PM Pacific, unless I crash due to Palomar or other unforeseen activities.

[TrashMan]

Miracles man.. Miracles.


EDIT:
Ahh...I believe I was talking about this. If anyone wants to give it a whirl:
http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/98//?


We now return to our scheduled alien extermination....

[Fury]

XCOM doesn't have good support for mods as you must either run Steam in offline mode or block network access to Firaxis IP-addresses, otherwise the game will "fix" itself, making it unusable with the mod.

Not only that, but getting mods to actually work in the first place might become more involved process than you'd think. I had plenty of trouble getting Warspace Extension to work and I've since accidentally launched the game while Steam was in online mode and I have no idea whether the game actually works as it is supposed to now.

But I guess that's least of my problems because I lack any drive to actually finish the damn game even once. It's rather boring after decent start.

Yay for off-topic.

[NGTM-1R]

Trooper Briefing: Alien Weapons Basics
The science crew have turned in their preliminary reports. We've combined it with the reports of the sweep crew and the AARs.

Alien weapons consist of high-temperature plasma fired at relatively low velocities. Their damage is primarily accomplished by explosive vaporization of the target, rather than kinetic impact. The shots have no penetrating power in the conventional sense; any material thick enough to expend the whole energy of the shot will stop them, whether it's glass or armor plate. The explosive vaporization stage is still quite powerful, and has been observed to mangle heavy machinery and blast large holes in sheet metal. We expect it can do the same to cinderblock and concrete.

Current HLPX-COM combat armor provides some protection against known plasma weapons because of the ceramic inserts' extremely high vaporization temperature, but the ballistic cloth parts of the armor offer no meaningful defense. Stay in cover and be prepared to switch positions, as alien weaponry will likely be highly effective at demolishing cover.

The only currently known form of alien weaponry is an arm-mounted hands-free device used by t he Sectoids. It is quite compact, and from recordings in the field appears to have attachment points on the back and bottom for what we believe would be a standard pistol grip and trigger mechanism similar to human pistols. No Sectoid encountered to date has used their weapons in this fashion. This may indicate there are other types of alien.

Trooper Briefing: SECTOID
The Sectoids are old foes. Precursor organizations to HLPX-COM like the Russian Skywatch and the US SOF-X  have documented encounters with Sectoids going back to the 1970s. They are almost undoubtedly responsible for the existence of the “Grey” in popular lore. In a very real sense, these are the enemies our organization was created to fight.

The average Sectoid is approximately two-thirds the height of a human, with a bulbous head, large black eyes, no mouth, and a pot-belly that appears to glow. Their limbs are almost comically small. Their weak appearance is belied by their advanced weaponry. Skywatch files indicate the Sectoids seemed to be always aware of the positions of enemy troops, making approaching close for hand-to-hand combat against the apparently weak Sectoids impractical; SOF-X operators in 1985 and 1989 noted similar problems and added that their preference for hands-free operation of their weapons made it difficult to prevent a Sectoid from getting a round off in close combat. The aliens seemed to have no fear of endangering their own lives by the discharge of their weapons in close combat.

The mechanism by which they are constantly aware of HLPX-COM trooper positions is unknown.

[NGTM-1R]

Sidenote: I am attempting to post this mission for the sixth time. The endless barrage of attacking script kiddies can officially kiss me where the sun don't shine. So can HLP's "YOU HAVE ALREADY SUBMITTED THIS POST" message which is a liar.

Operation Sacred Pipe
Responding To Abduction Attempt
Present: StarSlayer, Commander DJ, esarai, Scourge of Ages


Once again: spread out, grab cover, just like the old days. Everybody still has assault rifles, too.


Scourge of Ages flushes a couple of aliens and has the misfortune to be the only thing they can currently see as the turn flips. He shoots one of them, but once again Damage Roulette and the RNG frowns upon HLPX-COM and it's for only a single HP of damage.



Naturally, they shoot at him for it after the one in back boosts the one in front. Also naturally, it misses. Unnaturally for this particular situation, I don't immediately have to move someone because the car they're using for cover is about to explode.


In the next turn, StarSlayer moves up and shoots at the alien, but the RNG continues to demand that I sacrifice virgin goats to it and we have another one-damage hit.


So, many dead goats later (how the hell am I supposed to tell if they're virgins!? I can't even ask, dammit) we have Scourge kill the thing with another shot. One to go! A lack of cover means I can't move up esarai and DJ to take that one down, so I decide to suffer through a turn of fire.


Instead, the Sectoid in the parking lot decides he should try to fall back and scarpers for it. Meanwhile, two more try to flank us from within the building, resulting in one of them getting shot by esarai.


Unfortunately esarai can't seal the deal on the one he shot when our turn rolls in, despite a 60% hit chance. DJ, however, can.


StarSlayer and Scourge move up a rank of cars looking for the alien that ran but he's apparently pretty quick, so nothing doing. I should note that I feel like I can get away with this, this early in the campaign, purely because there are only a couple pair aliens on the map. Otherwise I would be practically sending an engraved invitation for someone to plasmize Scourge from inside the building.


The other alien, realizing he's kind of screwed if he tries to move, opts to go overwatch. Yes, aliens can overwatch too. As both DJ and esarai have good shots on this one it's kind of moot, but at other times it can be very troublesome.


Esarai reminds the alien that it's not in a tenable position by shooting it, while DJ goes overwatch to prevent it from moving away safely.


It decides the only acceptable answer is to shoot esarai in the face. THIS WILL NOT STAND.

Esarai proves it won't stand by blowing the Sectoid's goddamn head off as the turn flips.

Meanwhile the other two keep pushing up and Scourge steals the kill after StarSlayer once again gets a 1HP hit with a rifle. Seriously man, appease the dice gods or something.


We be done here, yo. I eagerly await the correction on the proper use of "yo" promised in Dilmah's sig.


Esarai is now a Sniper, while StarSlayer is an assault and Scourge of Ages is a Support. I confess to confusion and mystification over where StarSlayer got a kill, and can only conclude there's a "I've done enough HP damage to kill several of them, make me a squaddie before I use my frag grenade on you" clause.

Esarai is out of action for four days due to his injuries.

[StarSlayer]

Well hopefully shooting them from 5 paces away with a scatter gun ought to increase my chances

[Scourge of Ages]

Aw yeah, blastin' aliens and takin' names. I call them all Dave.

[esarai]

Personal Log:  Esarai
Date:  <Incomprehensible>

Wheee I love the taste of plasma in the morning.  Tastes like... rage.  At least they're giving me a bigger gun to express myself with.  And again XCOM has mangled my registration papers.  Last time it happened I was Russian, now I'm supposed to be obsessed with pasta.  Well... I shouldn't say 'again,' they keep telling me 'last time' was a dream, but I dunno man.  Makes me feel like they're trying to conceal my real... identity. 

Shhh... I need to think.



Heeeeee .50 cal.

[deathfun]

If only this game showed battle scars with one being a partially melted face

[NGTM-1R]

Taking a break from this tonight at wife's request. Will have two missions up Friday instead.

[Rodo]

oh damn, I completely missed this thread.

put me at the end of the list, I volunteer again as red shirt.

[FlamingCobra]

Enlist me.

[NGTM-1R]

Flying aliens! Zounds! Phantom Hoover, kill them all!


Actually, Phantom does pretty well. The aliens shoot faster than our Interceptors get off Avalanche AAMs, but only by a little bit. They fired four times and hit once. Phantom fired three times and hit twice. Scratch one, down in flames.


Of course Phantom didn't actually kill them all, but we'll let it go this time.


Operation Stone King
UFO Crash Site Assault
Present: StarSlayer, esarai, Spardason21, IronBeer



The area is a bit of a mess, or as they said back in MechWarrior 4: just follow the big skid marks in.


And then aliens.


StarSlayer takes a shot, but the shotgun's not really good at this kind of range.


...the missed alien then kills Esarai with one shot to the head, which is how I assume a two-damage weapon gets a six-hit critical.


So this is a little much for IronBeer, who flips the **** out and decides the most rational response is to attempt to shoot SpardaSon in the back! Fortunately he missed that.


So StarSlayer declares **** this, and it's Run and Gun time, right up to the alien, 100% hit chance, let's do this thing!


...one damage. APPEASE THE DICE GODS, MAN. Probably in the afterlife, at this point, because I'm pretty sure you're headed straight to plasma hell. Just for good measure, this guy pops up to flank StarSlayer.


I am a terrible prophet. StarSlayer got flanked by a Sectoid, took the hit, for two HP of six and fought through it, closed with the second alien, and blew their brains out. They were boosting the alien that shot StarSlayer, so they both died.



That still leaves the other one flanking StarSlayer and neither of the rookies has a good shot. So it's time to creatively use grenades. SpardaSon tosses his grenade against the hull of the alien ship, between Ironbeer and the other alien. This lets Ironbeer see it.


Ironbeer eschews the use of his rifle, with its possible 1-damage-plus-plasma-hell-for-StarSlayer, and uses his grenade to kill the alien. A plan, coming together, and best of all: lots of explosives.


Then the other two little grey bastards flank SpardaSon. This mission is a comedy of ****ing errors I tell you. Sparda doesn't have any available cover worth a damn so he pulls a fade to break contact, while Ironbeer grabs cover in the wreckage of the ship. StarSlayer is out of position and will need a turn to get back to the action.

Naturally, being the only thing visible, IronBeer gets shot at. The other alien goes overwatch.


IronBeer returns fire. No hitter, but it does seem to break the overwatch as the alien doesn't shoot at StarSlayer or SpardaSon as they both grab cover closer to the fight. (I'm pretty sure Overwatch does not work that way, but **** it, I'll take the bug.)


This time the nearer alien shoots at IronBeer, but only hurts the wreck. Still, need to move him now because his cover is gone.


Then StarSlayer, undeterred by the first effort at Run and Gun, goes for the whole “Moving at the speed of death!” again and charges right up to the nearest alien, on the other side of their cover. 100% hit chance, 70% critical chance, let's do this thing!

It works!

SpardaSon and IronBeer take shots at the last alien, but nothing doing.


I thought they shot StarSlayer. They didn't. Didn't look that way.


StarSlayer shot back. Also a miss, but blew the hell out of the alien's cover.


So if you'd take the honors here Sparda...


Done. As you can see, this wasn't our best outing.

[Aesaar]

ESARAI! NO!

He had so much to live for, so many more cannons to feed.

[CommanderDJ]

Nooo, poor esarai. Our first KIA?

Also, what does Overwatch do, for those of us who don't know?