[Scourge of Ages]

Overwatch: If a soldier sees an enemy move, is granted one free shot at the enemy. The enemy does not get any benefit of cover.

The overwatcher does have to see the enemy though. I assume the alien didn't see Sparda or Stars. Usually the AI will only overwatch if he doesn't have a shot (any shot). Though that is just all from memory.

Also: Don't worry about Esarai, they saved his brain. They had to scoop it up into a bucket, but they saved it. They can rebuild him (probably).

[IronBeer]

ESARAI! NO!

Damnit! Ah well, at least we pulled off the OP. Congrats to StarSlayer and SpardaSon on their promotions. Here's hoping I get the chance to not be a ****up at some point.

[deathfun]

We've lost a good man today
Let's give them hell people

[NGTM-1R]

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

It's the reaction fire mechanic for this game. Overwatch grants the ability to fire at someone moving across your field of view, at an accuracy penalty. The penalty isn't much to write home about; on Normal, at most combat ranges, being in the open without cover is something like a 65-70 percent hit chance with a 55-70 critical chance. So, even taking a 20% off the top of those doesn't make you very safe, especially considering in this game even I will take 45% shots most of the time. The main thing about Overwatch, instead of reaction fire, is that it will trigger. There's no check of a reflex stat, the first moving enemy somebody on Overwatch sees is going to get shot. It has all sorts of tactical uses, from keeping a fight private by preventing anyone else from safely moving to a place they can join it, to de facto pinning an enemy down by making them risk Overwatch fire if they want to move from their position, to simply buying you a free shot against anyone who wanders into range.

The aliens actually understand the first two of those and WILL use Overwatch that way, as well as act intelligently when confronted with your own use of Overwatch. This also means they'll attempt to suppress people on Overwatch to free up their movement options, something I'll address when we have someone with Suppression as an ability.

[General Battuta]

Overwatch is most useful for exploiting the alien AI, which is deeply terrified of ever triggering an Overwatch shot and will go to paranoid and self-destructive lengths to stay in the same place as long as you have someone Overwatching it.

[Mongoose]

Bad luck for Esarai, but goddamn Sparda was a beast.

[Grizzly]

Holy ****, Eserai's death was brutally fast. At least he didn't suffer.

[NGTM-1R]

I was more than a little surprised myself and came pretty close to a save and quit afterwards, because it was just out of nowhere. Sectoids just don't hit that hard at this difficulty level, even on a crit.

Ah well, time to revise my opinions on their lethality. Again.

[SpardaSon21]

Yeah, sorry guys, no snappy one-liners about hot lead death.

[esarai]

Servicemember Neural Recording Unit:
SN: S001-SQ-E Name: Esarai

<Terminal Recording>
Heh, I've got you now, *****.  I liked that sandwich, now try some lead muffins for OH F**KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
...
Plasma tastes like shi--
<Recording Aborted - Cause: KIA - Severe thermal trauma>
<Neural Integrity:  Marginal degradation, resuscitation possible, neurochemical analysis suggests desired.>
<End of File>

[General Battuta]

I don't suppose Esarai was flanked when he got killed, was he?

[Spoon]

Boom Headshot.

[Phantom Hoover]

whilst i too am deeply affected by esarai's tragic death i feel we should not let that displace our congratulations for the true hero of the hour



e: in piam memoriam

[NGTM-1R]

I don't suppose Esarai was flanked when he got killed, was he?

He wasn't. He was in half-cover and the shot came in about 45 degrees off the angle of the cover. (The game typically counts a wider angle than that as still cover.) The positioning had me worried about his next turn and having to pull him back to avoid his getting flanked and snipers not being able to shoot and move.

[Gortef]

Esarai, we salute you.

On another note I gotta say that those two run&guns were pretty  cool.

[NGTM-1R]

So we're going to China, to pick up somebody. The mission is kind of mysterious, it came down from the Council, and China insists they have no alien problems. What little Droid has been able to glean from back channels suggests somebody got in touch with us and has some kind of technology that isn't of human origin.

Operation Blinding Paramour
Shanghai, China
Present: StarSlayer, SpardaSon, CommanderDJ, IronBeer


"Just four of you. Things must be bad here."


"And watch your damn flanks. Seriously, rookies all of you."



"So here's the package, here's me, let's go."


So we move out and grab cover and...


OH COME ON, THAT'S JUST CHEAP. Even worse, there's one behind us too.

So everyone blasts away at the first new alien. And we get two misses and a single HP hit. The_E can be heard muttering about everyone's ineptitude. The second new alien isn't shot at, for some reason.


All right let's try and clean this up. Sparda takes a shot with his new rifle at the alien up front, and misses. IronBeer once again eschews the unreliable rifle for the use of a frag grenade, actually killing the alien.



DJ fires at the alien and gets a hit. For 1HP. God help me, this is worse than rolling with Jet Harpoons back in Terror From the Deep.


StarSlayer saves the day with a shotgun blast. "Boss, there any particular reason these things appear to explode into clouds of multi-colored chemicals?"



"Single hostile blocking the exit, just skittered for cover." IronBeer, out of grenades, engages with his rifle. Two damage. Marginally better.



DJ finishes it off.


A Thin Man drops in and gets blown away instantly by StarSlayer.


"Second wave inbound to your position, we've got...something different in the group." HEY GUYS, YOU REMEMBER ME!?



"Giant bugs, why did it have to be giant bugs?" So StarSlayer takes a shot, hit, 4HP. Then Sparda takes a shot, hit, 3HP. It's down to one, it's still coming, I'm sure you guys can do this!


IronBeer and CommanderDJ miss cleanly and the thing runs right up to StarSlayer's face. I HATE YOU ALL.



StarSlayer, out of shotgun rounds, pulls a pistol and shoots the damn thing in the face. It falls over dead. I no longer hate StarSlayer.


And...Jesus Christ get out of The E's personal space! It's on overwatch so I tried to get out and The E took a couple damage, but survived, then DJ pulled back a little and killed the thing.



"Strike, we've got another wave inbound!"

So everyone and their dog shoots at the first guy who drops (as you can see). They killed it very, very dead.

"Popping smoke!" DJ, and the support class in general, has a basic ability where they toss a smoke grenade. I don't use it terribly often, mainly because I'm bad at it, but here I want to get a kill to Sparda because first-tier Snipers are really bad.



As I said, I'm bad with smoke. Sparda still gets shot at by the Overwatch-ing Sectoid, but they missed. They also didn't follow up but went Overwatch again on their own turn. This means that Sparda's free to pop off a return round that takes the Sectoid in the gut and kills it.



We're done here. Oh and by the way? Our newcomer, The E, qualified as a Lieutenant right out the gate, while I think the best of you right now is a Sergeant.



After lunch we'll do some mechanics-discussion/illustration housekeeping, and then another mission. Catch you folks then.

[crizza]

The E is listed as Future Shenanigans?
What does that mean and what can we apply for?

[IronBeer]

Hooray! A successful Op, and nobody died this time!

I'd assume this is the start of the Slingshot content, yeah? Count me as doubly interested then, since I never picked it up myself.

[StarSlayer]

"ka chi foo, mother****er"

[Mongoose]

So if you hadn't enabled that Damage Roulette option, would those rifles be doing more than giving the aliens paper cuts?