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Yes, you. You can sign up, unless you're a currently supposed to be a moderator or admin, in which case you've been conscripted. Hey, you wanted to defend order and righteousness
in the world on the forums, you get to actually do it.
BEHOLD, THE HLP UNDERGROUND FORTRESS...AREA 51.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Area51.png)
As you can see it's not quite in the right place.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Area512.png)
Our brave forum administration and moderation has been "volunteered" to serve as the first batch of soldiers in the war upon the Shivan Sectoid menace. They've also all been demoted to Rookie, despite the fact I was pretty sure that some of them have long since earned a Squaddie title by now. The paper-pushers told me that "It's complicated" and somehow involves being moved into a paid position.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/TheCrew-1.png)
What's that you say, some of them are missing? Well this is true. I have assigned some of them to other tasks. Dekker and Nuke, for example, have been drafted to fly our two Interceptors. Darius, because we all like him and his moderated area is probably run the best, has been given the only safe combat job in the game and will fly the Skyranger, while Spoon will get to take out all the frustration he's built up dealing with lunatics trying to devise ways to rape Dawn and Misuzu by blowing things up with our tank.
All the inactive moderators and anyone I've forgotten are currently locked in the science lab. It is up to Rev_Posix, as our least-recognizable admin on the forums, to decide whether they are more useful as scientists or test subjects. I don't expect we'll find out what his decision was until the activities of the science division are declassified thirty years from now and General Battuta writes the Official History of HLPX-COM, assuming Battuta isn't killed by then. Rest assured, even then you probably won't want to know.
Incidentally I hear we just detected our first UFO. Interceptor 1, with Dekker at the controls, was launched in expectation of an easy victory. As he closed to within a hundred kilometers the Skyranger was also launched to clean up the inevitable crashed alien spacecraft. Somewhere over Pennsylvania our Interceptor and the alien craft meet, but apparently recitations of Dekker's sexual prowess in the WHIYL thread have frightened the aliens! The UFO fled just before Dekker closed to effective weapons range and did not slow down enough to allow the pursuing Interceptor to engage again.
Dekker chased it all the way from the Great Lakes to Cuba, where it managed to land before he could shoot it down. He is now flying CAP over its landed position while the Skyranger closes in to deliver our scared ****less brave soldiers.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/FirstUFO.png)
TUNE IN SOMETIME LATER TONIGHT FOR THE EXCITING FIRST MISSION OF HLPX-COM!
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assuming Battuta isn't killed by then
i think we both know the answer to that (http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-smith.gif)
i hope you last long enough for the laser cannon black market to start ticking along
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Woohoo! Tanks! \o/
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All I request, is a funny one-liner when I die.
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Sign me up.
(http://i40.tinypic.com/34xjj0z.jpg)
Also,
Darius, because we all like him and his moderated area is probably run the best, has been given the only safe combat job in the game and will fly the Skyranger
Implying it's safe to fly the Skyranger.
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Hell, I'll sign up once you eventually need cannon fodder. Looking forward to how this turns out.
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man I am going to derp your team up so hard
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I volunteer for various soldiering duties that involve killing alien scum and/or dying as a redshirt to establish that these alien scum are in fact, serious threats in this story arc.
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My life for FRED Discussion! :arrr:
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Having brought the Skyranger in for a landing close to the UFO, Darius drops the back ramp, while Karaj and a surprisingly feminine Goober undo the tiedowns on Spoon's tank and throw them off. Yes, we have to tie the tank down in flight, it's kinda huge and the Skyranger is currently tightly packed with ten troopers and one standard-model remote-control tank. Having that thing banging around in flight might be as dangerous as an actual mission.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Missionstart1.png)
Actually, Darius has set us down REALLY close to the UFO. He will be congratulated or chastised as required by the mission results.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Missionstart2.png)
Spoon gets the tank to cover behind the bulk of the UFO after having used it to check all flanks. Next to exit the Skyranger is Goober, but aliens do not take well to his long flowing blond hair and fire two shots at him as he kneels on the ramp to open fire. Both impact the Skyranger rather than Goob, upsetting Darius and proving that Redsniper is in fact prophetic. You should all demand his opinions on the plot of the sequel to War In Heaven while this is still the case.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Missionstart3.png)
Goob in turn apparently cannot draw a line of fire to the aliens despite their being able to so to him, so this is going to suck and he tries to move to cover. Karaj for some reason also cannot draw a line of fire from lower down the ramp, so he's moved into the area near the UFO also.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Missionstart4.png)
Sorry guys, I'm pretty sure it's plasma hell for the both of you already and we haven't even done one turn. Everyone else is moved up to disembark, and I note now that by some strange and terrible mistake, Mjn.maxel has been armed with a pistol rather than the heavy weapon he was supposed to have, as you can see above.
ENDING THE FIRST TURN!
Proving that I am a terrible prophet, Goob and Karaj are still alive, and weren't even shot at. Almost all alien movement was hidden.
With a mighty and surprisingly girlish roar, Goober fires the first shots taken by an HLPX-COM agent outside of training! He then remembers he didn't actually get any training, and misses with a three round burst at about fifty feet. The alien spins around and returns fire, but misses both Goober and both sets of the Skyranger's landing gear. Goober's hate for us is far hotter than any plasma fire the aliens may direct at him, and so he fires again. Two good hits!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Goodkill.png)
He shoots pretty well for a guy I pronounced dead.
Karaj, Zacam, Goober, and Polpolion prepare to assault the UFO, where at least one hostile is known to be, while the heavy weapons and remaining rifles debark. Spoon drives the tank forward, searching for hostiles, and finds one. But no one else is in a position to engage, and Karaj, the nearest person, actually has his back turned because he's getting read to enter the UFO. Spoon tries to fire, but the gun jams! (Or he didn't have enough TUs left to turn the turret, either way.) He bravely pushes forward to draw the alien's fire.
It works.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Itworks.png)
The tank is made of sterner stuff than the alien anticipated and he runs off.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/oh****.png)
It is reported that Zacam's final words were "OH ****". He valiantly engages the aliens, killing one, but is killed by return fire from the other two. Karaj steps forward with a grenade primed to toss it in and spare further causalities, but he gets shot as well...dropping his primed grenade, and forcing Goob and Polpolion to duck back behind the UFO before it can go off. The grenade, incidentally, incinerates Zacam's body. This is going to be difficult to explain to his family.
The other alien ducks out of cover again and fires at Spoon's tank, but misses low and short by about ten feet. Spoon returns fire, striking the alien, who turns to flee. Before it can make it to cover again Spoon fires once more at the fleeing alien.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Spoonrocks.png)
The cowardly creature takes the second round between the shoulderblades and topples forward, messily slain. At this point Spoon is far and away the best tank driver I've ever seen in an X-Com game, having taken not one, but two reaction shots in the same turn. And hit with both.
It's time to take that damn UFO. Goober comes through the door and confronts an alien at point-blank range. Showing questionable target preferences, or simply trying to exploit the inaccuracy of the X-Com Rifle and the autoshot mechanics to hopefully kill both, he targets the more distant alien first. All three rounds leave the barrel and the first two strike home, killing the alien. The other passes through the space the further alien occupied.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Goobisntdead.png)
Strangely, the first alien does not fire at Goob during this, despite being close enough to touch, so Goober turns his weapon on that alien as well, demonstrating the futility of resisting the administration.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Goobisntdead2.png)
Polpolion sweeps around the strange device in the center of the UFO, looking for other enemies, but there are none. Darius reports from the Skyranger that there is no further contact on the infrared or motion sensors. The mission is over.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/stuff.png)
THINGS WE LEARNED FROM THIS MISSION:
Being first through the door on a small UFO assault kills you.
Spoon is awesome with a tank.
Goober, despite being portrayed as a female by the game, is apparently pretty badass.
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Sign me up. Heavy wepnz. The bigger and more rapid fireing, the better. Also with a hiar trigger.
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I'm just about fit to be a test-subject in the lab, I actually woke up with a twinge in my knee this morning, ah.. the year before my forties :/
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Bravo good sir, bravo :yes:
Sign me up, when you need more cannonfodder.
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I call dibs on the lucky SOB
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Cool. I can wear aviator glasses and say things like "We're in the pipe, 5 by 5. Where's the damn beacon? Oh I see it."
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Cool. I can wear aviator glasses and say things like "We're in the pipe, 5 by 5. Where's the damn beacon? Oh I see it."
Hooray! They we can both get mauled by a horrible alien, and generally ruin everything for everyone else by crashing spectacularly!
All in all; a rich, full day. :)
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Here to enlist to serve my planet, sir! :lol: Guess you always need for redshirts.
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You can put me down for a spot making useless suggestions to the
coders assault team from the back of the forums Skyranger.
...Oh, wait. That would mean I don't do anything, right? Well, rather than submitting to Rev_Posix's tender mercies, gimme a rifle. Got any M-16A4s with the ACOG scope? If not, iron sights will do. No three-round burst for me, just single-shot: two in the chest, one in the head.
OK, enough of the bravado drivel. :nervous: :lol: Put me where you want when you need more bodies. :nod:
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I was greatly amused that while I was reading this, the song ghost division came up on my place list. Exactly as I read this line
The cowardly creature takes the second round between the shoulderblades and topples forward, messily slain. At this point Spoon is far and away the best tank driver I've ever seen in an X-Com game, having taken not one, but two reaction shots in the same turn. And hit with both.
the song started going
"They are the Panzer Elite, Born to compete, Never retreat"
Hell yeah mother****er :yes:
Let us drink a toast in celebration to our first victory
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Oh, next time keep the fire away from the 'Ranger people, unless you all want to walk home. That's what the tank's for!
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X-COM could prevent so many casualties if it just taught its agents a single decent door breach technique. Or issued flashbangs.
Can't wait for the carnage when Ethereals and Sectoid Leaders show up
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Great, another good way of dying.
Count me in!.
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I hereby volunteer for Interceptor or Skyranger duty, whenever one becomes available. Probably Skyranger if possible, because that's the closest it gets to a transporter in thsi game. :P
Although Interceptor would fit nicely with the other Scotty from HH.
I'm good with either.
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Oh I just started a game of Terror from the Deep last night. Must finish that game finally . . . and going to try playing semi-hardcore by not cheating and reloading missions when things go to ****.
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Oh I just started a game of Terror from the Deep last night. Must finish that game finally . . . and going to try playing semi-hardcore by not cheating and reloading missions when things go to ****.
oh jesus
you are going to die
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Sign me up, sounds like you need some fresh fodder to replace the losses :D
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Sure, sign me up. Always ready to die defending the HLP homeland. Or out of sheer stupidity. Or simply in vain. Any of those.
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Put me down for the reinforcements division!
Also, this reminds me that I have that partially-finished TFTD LP to get back to. I'll get that going again too.
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We have a second UFO. It was detected on the ground in, I think, Canada. As a supranational organization we really don't care much about exact borders. (By what was this detected? Is our radar on a sonde ballon or something? I guess somebody just called us and said "hey dude there's a UFO here, please kill it.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/SecondUFO.png)
Interceptor 2 and Nuke are launched to hold it down while the Skyranger closes. Unfortunately we haven't been able to replace the two troopers lost in the last mission yet, so it's Sergeant Goober5000, Awesometank Spoon, and seven rookies.
The deployment procedure goes normally, until Mongoose reports an alien standing in an open field on the opposite side of the Skyranger. He takes four shots, a three round burst and a snap, but none of them connect and the alien remains blissfully ignorant it's even been fired at. Goober, on the other side of the Skyranger ramp, shoots under it, and miraculously manages not to hit Mongoose or the Skyranger. Even more miraculously, he actually strikes the alien with one of his four rounds. Unfortunately the 6.7mm of the standard X-COM rifle isn't gutsy enough for a one-shot kill, as proved in the last mission. The techheads have promised us some kind of laser weapons soon, but they complain their best coders scientists keep burning out and going on sabbaticals.
Enter Swantz, who blows the alien's brains out the side of its head with his second round of a three-round burst and doesn't need to take that fourth shot snap.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Swantz.png)
The heavy weapons debark next. Jeff Vader and The E, who've respectively been given an Autocannon and our Missile Launcher, set up to mousehole Mongoose and Swantz an entrance into a barn. Spoon clears the first floor of another barn, while the two Heavy Cannon with Axem and Mjn.maxel deploy to cover south, towards the UFO. The last two rifles, Goob and Polpolion, also move in that direction.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/layout.png)
Jeff Vader reports movement, a single hostile in the barn.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Inthebarn.png)
So The E fires a missile into the back wall to provide a clear line of fire. Since he has a Heavy Missile loaded, he actually blows the entire back wall of the barn off. Jeff Vader, unfazed by massive explosions after having played Inferno, immediately fires a burst of HE rounds into the barn to kill the strangely oblivious alien. None of the three rounds actually strike the alien, but the first one apparently sets him on fire with flaming shrapnel, while the second, bracketing the creature from the other side, kills him with more shrapnel. The third round is way off target, landing in the front corner furthest from the alien. I choose to believe it was intentionally missed to preserve the alien's corpse and equipment.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Inthebarn2.png)
Mongoose and Swantz move up to use the miraculously still-intact stairs to check the second level, while everyone else advances along their assigned areas.
There's no further contact until Turn 6, when Jeff Vader and The E encounter another alien moving around their UFO. The E, having not moved yet, takes his time for an accurate shot.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Killitdead.png)
It pays off, as he gets a second alien who was just out of view. Unfortunately he's now out of rocket ammo, since that crap is heavy and the training regimen hasn't taken full effect yet, so he switches to his pistol backup. Having seen how effective the rifle is, I suspect he doesn't have much faith in the pistol's effectiveness either.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Killitdead2.png)
As Turn 7 opens, it seems the alien we thought Swantz had killed apparently just got back up. Considering it literally took a rifle round in the side of the head, I have to admit I'm impressed with its resilience.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/staydown.png)
The E is assigned to make sure it doesn't do this again, but two pistol shots miss and prove him correct about the quality of his backup weapon, and ultimately Mongoose has to do it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Mongoose.png)
We're now reasonably sure that no aliens remain outside the UFO, but Mjn.Maxel and Axem mousehole themselves entrances into the (oddly empty of furniture) farmhouse and then load AP rounds for possible close combat while they check it. It's as empty of aliens as it is of furniture. Goob and Polpolion head around the UFO for the entrance. This one's a lot bigger than the first one we fought.
The second alien that was assumed dead from The E's missile gets up and flees into the UFO several turns after it was assumed. No one fires, it left its equipment on the ground, and as we are not yet ready to assault the UFO, no one pursues. It pops up again in the first stage of the assault (surprisingly, nobody dies going in), where Polpolion fires at it, narrowly missing The E.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/First-turnassault.png)
It ducks out several more times, but suitably chastised by The E's swearing at them, nobody fires at it again. Mongoose, first through the next door, in fact ignores it entirely to check the main control area. The E follows him through and shoots the alien with his pistol. Presumably it will now stay down. Swantz moves through the opposite door, and confronts an alien with a pistol.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/wellcrap.png)
The first two shots miss, but the third takes it in the neck and tears out several things the alien needs. It goes down, trying to cry out in pain, but then realizes it doesn't have an airway or vocal cords anymore so it can only gurgle.
MISSION COMPLETE! Didn't lose anyone this time, either.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/seconddone.png)
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Little sad Axem didn't have a crowning moment of awesome in defense of his motherland.
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I'd like to volunteer in the unlikely case that more casualties happen.
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I'd like to volunteer in the unlikely case that more casualties happen.
You are way too optimistic about this man.
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Jeff Vader, unfazed by massive explosions after having played Inferno
Nothing but the strictest training regimens we go through at HLP. :p
Also I really love the way you write these NGTM-1R. Ignoring the fact that I didn't stick with nearly as long as I had intended, I was never really all that fond of how the descriptions in mine turned out.
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Goober, despite being portrayed as a female by the game, is apparently pretty badass.
Goober 5000 is now Boober 10K.
:nervous:
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What a shame, I didn't get to shoot anything this time around.
Well no matter, I'm sure there will be plenty more to come!
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Oh I just started a game of Terror from the Deep last night. Must finish that game finally . . . and going to try playing semi-hardcore by not cheating and reloading missions when things go to ****.
oh jesus
you are going to die
Yeah I'll be burning through guys probably. I am only playing on Veteran though, so, it might not be that bad. I can't remember what level I usually play on.
Only problem is sometimes you hit a tanker or something, and there are those UFO buggers and so forth and they just murder you. Cross that bridge when I come to it.
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If the aliens don't make a noise when they go down, they aren't really dead!
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These are very crisply written, NGTM1R. Very readable, engaging LP.
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These are very crisply written, NGTM1R. Very readable, engaging LP.
Agreed. I will attempt to steal some of your style.
EDIT: Ah, nevermind, that's cheap and won't work anyway.
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I'd like to volunteer to be a character. Preferably one who does long-range damage. A sniper or something.
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I'd like to volunteer to be a character. Preferably one who does long-range damage. A sniper or something.
There are no snipers, really. Normal XCOM doctrine (at least the school I subscribe to) deploys mixed units of runners/scouts (with laser pistols and flares) and riflemen (with laser rifles/heavy plasma later on.) The runners spot enemy positions and draw out ambushes, and the riflemen kill the enemy, hopefully before they can kill the runners. You get assigned to runner duty if you have low courage, low accuracy, or low psi.
I'll be interested to see if NGTM1R keeps using tanks and heavy weapons, since I personally tend to phase them out after the early game in favor of stun launchers and, later on, blaster launchers.
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Sign me up for this meat grinder.
And yes, this has been fun reading so far.
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Honestly I'm tempted to keep a pair of heavy cannon or autocannon for mousehole and illumination duty, but that'll probably get overcome by their growing ineffectiveness. (If this were TFTD, I wouldn't even consider it.)
The aliens are getting pretty bold here. This one landed what can't be more than 100km from our base. Replacements still haven't come in and the first of the new laser pistols didn't get to the Skyranger before it took off.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Gettingbold.png)
I think it's actually twilight in this mission, not full night, despite the obvious shadows. The lit area around troopers seems to be smaller than normal and the shadows away from them don't get very deep. I wasn't immediately sure of this, as it wasn't full night when and where the Skyranger landed and that's honestly never happened to me before. This could be a problem; as I said, I've never seen it happen, I'm not sure how the game handles it. I guess the squad will suffer finding out!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/nighttime.png)
There's an alien in the building directly in front of the Skyranger. I'm not sure who spotted it, either Mongoose or Goober, but it's on the second floor and moving around a bit, so there's no way to guarantee I won't just be broadening its line of fire if I blow a hole up there to kill it through. The rifles are all disembarked but I'm not sending out the heavy weapons without a secure LZ.
Mongoose just got shot. There's an alien on the first floor too, who fired through a window and hit him, then missed and blew that hole in the wall you see. Fortunately, Mongoose doesn't seem to be badly hurt. As anyone who's played X-Com knows, this makes no sense; unarmored troopers do not survive plasma shots. I guess we have to add him to the list of people who are excessively badass.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Mongoosegotshot.png)
There's no line of fire, despite the fact he was shot by the damn alien (aliens drawing lines of fire HLPX-COM people can't appears to be a recurring theme), so he enters the building through the hole the alien made with its missed shot and kills it with an auto burst. His wound has a slow bleed, as I confirm on the next turn; I now have 23 turns win the mission. This...probably isn't a problem, but we'll see.
The alien Mongoose was originally sent to find, it turns out, isn't even on the second floor anymore. He's on the roof. Nearly shot Polpolion in the back, but he missed. Swantz and Polpolion turn and pump out several rounds each, but only one connects and the curse of the crappy rifle damage strikes again.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/thereheis.png)
There's no hard cover available. I have to settle for making the shot difficult with the trees, which don't necessarily block view or fire. This could be a problem. We'll try with the kneeling and hope the minimized profile helps out, but there's nothing more to be done for Swantz; he's out of TUs after I tried to hide him with the hedge.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dammit.png)
The alien doesn't fire the next turn; he also doesn't move. Goober moves up behind him but doesn't have enough TUs to turn and fire, so has to duck back. Swantz spends most of his TU on an aimed shot, which takes the alien between the eyes. Unfortunately, it also doesn't kill the guy. Getting sick of this, Spoon fires an aimed shot of his own. It goes over the alien's head. The E steps up and does six rounds rapid fire; again, a no-hitter. Jeff Vader, exclaiming incredulously of his comrade's incompetence, steps out of the transport and goes for a missile shot. He hits the Skyranger's canard. Okay, guess we're walking home! Mjn.maxel tells him "no, you do it like this!" and then repeats this feat with his heavy cannon, but takes another shot which passes mere inches from the alien's face.
Polpolion then steps out of cover and shoots the little bastard in the chest with the first round of an auto burst.
This grey asshole has done more to screw up a mission than any other alien so far, taking 4 turns and 18 individual rounds from no less than 6 people. Few enemies in these games can claim to do better. A salute to the nameless Sectoid Soldier is in order here, he was a worthy adversary. Or the average HLPX-COM soldier is very bad, either way.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/finallygoddammit.png)
We assault the UFO, after encountering no other aliens outside, from two directions. Mongoose, with 14 turns left to live, goes through the far door first. He then has zero turns left to live after taking a heavy plasma round in the gut.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/sorrymongoose.png)
Swantz pushes through after him and puts out six rounds rapid for two hits and a kill. Jeff Vader charges in behind Swantz with a pistol after discarding his missile launcher outside the ship and drops an alien with a single round. Polpolion, reluctant to go full rock-and-roll with his comrades on the other side of the ship possibly in the line of fire, guns down the last visible alien in the ship's cockpit with a snapshot.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/revenge.png)
Mission Complete.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/thirdufo.png)
I probably could have avoided losing Mongoose by not pushing him through that door, I already knew there were three aliens there and one was facing his way because Polpolion was already in position. But I knew I couldn't get all three aliens with just Polpolion, not in one turn, and they would have killed him on their next. I could lose someone for sure next turn or maybe lose somebody this turn. Saving Polpolion meant risking going through that door, and if the first person through the far door would survive was by guess and by god. The guess was bad, and god was a dick.
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o7 rest in peace Mongoose
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:( Mongoose... you saved me...
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I died as I lived...getting shot.
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If I should fall to rise no more
Like many brave HLPX-Commers did before
Ask the drums n' fifes to play
O'er the hills and far away....
O'er the hills and O're the main
Through Flanders, Portugal and Spain
NGTM-1R commands and we obey
O'er the hills and far away
So fall in lads behind Axem
Plasma guns blazin' like the sun
Down the ramp come what may
O'er the hills and far away....
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*Puts on Flowers of the Forest in memory of Mongoose*
I can't remember if I've already signed up in this thread and died, but if not, sign me up cap'n
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Well, apparently neither, since you're not on my master list.
So it's a new month, with new stuff.
First, the laser weapons have come in! You might notice they don't have ammo clips. This is because they don't have ammo clips. Ammo is not a concern with the lasers, which is a nice feature and makes them very popular on the export market, something we'll be exploiting exploring later.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/laserpistol.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/laserrifle.png)
The old Rifle for comparison. Note the supposedly higher accuracy and the significantly less impressive damage output; the laser pistol does half again as much damage than the old rifle.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/lamerrifle.png)
We also have replacements in, finally, but due to a screwup on my part only one. The other two will have to wait until the new living quarters are completed. In the meantime, welcome Redsniper on board. He probably won't be staying long.
And finally, in terms of housekeeping, HLPX-COM Base "Dekker's Pad" is up in the southern UK. It won't be truly operational until later this month, but with this base we will extend radar and eventually interception coverage to Western Europe. For now interceptors will have to come from the US.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/DekkersPad.png)
Another UFO operates in our airspace, at his own peril.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Interception4.png)
This time, however, Interceptor 2 and Nuke are not to be denied. The alien craft is intercepted over East Texas and brought down with Avalanche AAMs. HLPX-COM categorically denies the use of nuclear ordnance by any of its members.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Air-To-Air.png)
This time it's really nighttime out. The aliens, unfortunately, have better night vision than our troops, so this will be an exercise in "oh crap" to an extent. Fortunately the UFO appears small, and Goober is currently trying to roast the occupants with Incendiaries that were provided to him for illumination duties. Spoon has nearly completed a circuit of the Skyranger without being fired on. By the way, all our former riflemen were issued heavy weapons for this mission to toughen them up. It turns out they need it, badly. That's Swantz's unmodified movement stats with the Rocket Launcher and ammo.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/sectoidsroasting.png)
Goober, in a fit of genius, fired an incendiary round into Spoon's tank. The damage is slight but it indicates the scale of the incompetence with the heavy weapons I'm dealing with here. Jeff Vader, meanwhile, disembarks from the Skyranger and is suddenly taking fire from an unknown source to the south. He climbs back on the ramp and waits for someone to illuminate the situation. (The flames you notice there are more of Goober being untrustworthy with his incendaries.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/south.png)
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Goober! Stop scratching the paint of my tank! :mad: :hopping:
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Getting rather sick of all this flame-and-explosive madness, the rest of the team debarks. Spoon attempts to get his tank as far from Goober's pyromania as possible, but stumbles into the blast radius of Swantz attempting to duplicate The E's feat of mouseholing away the back wall of a barn. The tank isn't damaged this time and detects an alien. Swantz loads up another round and fires.
He blew up the inside of the barn real good. Unfortunately, the alien's out front. (And yes, the flames are MORE of Goober's illumination efforts.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/outfront.png)
The E is having none of these shenanigans and turns, bringing his new laser rifle to his shoulder. He lightly caresses the trigger, and the laser goes "PEW", causing The E to stare blankly at his weapon and mutter something about physics. Meanwhile, the laser beam is speeding downrange. HLPX-COM science sneers at the idea of lightspeed lasers, that's not how it works in the games!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/incoming.png)
One shot, one kill. Not like the old rifles at all.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/deadalien.png)
Mjn.Maxel and Jeff Vader petition for the removal of heavy weapons from their less-than-competent comrades' hands by demonstrating the ability of the new HLPX-COM Laser Rifle to mousehole its own way. In the process, Mjn.Maxel spots an alien which is looking the wrong way. He takes it down with a snapshot.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/alienspotted.png)
The E, meanwhile, noted from the Skyranger that Nuke's downing of the alien craft blew a rather large hole in the top. Rather than assault through the door (which in any case access to has been blocked by PyroGoober), he tosses in a grenade through the hole in the roof. Redsniper, wheezing under the weight of a heavy cannon, and Axem move up to the entrance.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/goingin.png)
Spoon, in the southeast corner, reluctantly calls for heavy weapons fire to help him move through a hedgerow. Swantz manages not to spray the tank with shrapnel this time, but no enemies are revealed and the east side of the map is now considered "clear" provisionally. Axem is ordered through the door of the UFO, but refuses and instead goes way south through the flames. (I misclicked.) Instead, The E says some uncomplentary things about being first through door and braces himself for the imminent plasma fire.
There isn't any. A single alien stands there, bleeding heavily from shrapnel from The E's earlier grenade. Equipment and interesting stains on the floor that were the bodies of other aliens before the grenade landed remain. The E raises his rifle and places a single laser beam between the alien's eyes. Redsniper and Polpolion rush in after him, but the UFO is empty; between Nuke's missiles and the grenade, pretty much everything inside the ship has been blasted into unrecognizable bits.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/oops.png)
MISSION COMPLETE!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/missioncomplete.png)
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Goober: BURN ALL THE THINGS!!!
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Let's just say that's going to bite him in the ass.
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FireSpawn reporting for Autocannon duty to protect Queen and country alongside my brother!
This is what we all fight for!
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/4/20/1303303288938/Union-flag-knickers-007.jpg)
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9:50, Wednesday, 3rd of Feburary, 1999. A day like any other in the world...at least for now...
Our first terror mission popped up. We're going to Shanghai, everybody, pack your bodybags (I swear when I wrote that I had no idea how bad this was going to be; I write this as I go, more or less) and remember your Chinese phrasebooks. Due to a shortage of tank cannon rounds, Spoon and the tank will have to stay behind; new rounds didn't arrive at base until the Skyranger was in the air.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/shanghai.png)
The sciencey types say they should have plans for a laser-armed tank in the near future, which will solve that problem hopefully.
Darius sets the Skyranger down in between some buildings, proving he has balls of steel and has never heard of power lines. There is already a welcoming committee present. Unfortunately they don't speak Chinese. They also don't appear to have legs, are purple, and wear red capes.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/offtoagoodstart.png)
Goober opens fire in the totally reasonable expectation that anyone with such terrible fashion sense must be an alien. Redsniper pumps out six rounds rapid fire from his laser rifle (after last mission he's not issued a heavy weapon) at the other one, but two hits isn't enough to kill it. He does manage to blast open the door to the convenience store and wreck several displays of merchandise, though. Goober steps down onto the ramp and unleashes another single round, striking the wall next to the alien and killing it with shrapnel and blast effect. One might think he's trying to make up for last mission's pyromania and incompetence.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/gogoob.png)
Goober is shot at twice by another alien who then ducks into a warehouse. Both shots miss him, but one strikes Redsniper for slight damage. Goober steps off the ramp to blow the warehouse open and confront the alien, but instead meets what can only be described as the demented fuzzy cousin of a Shivan.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dementedfuzzycousin.png)
Redsniper pumps three laser beams into the creature without visible effect. Swantz steps off the ramp with his missile launcher and reports a second Demented Fuzzy Shivan in the opposite direction, and one the aliens that's apparently flying.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/crap.png)
Swantz fires, killing the Demented Fuzzy Shivan, but the flying alien shoots back. Fortunately the missile launcher takes most of the shot and Swantz is only lightly injured. (What the **** is up with people not going straight to plasma hell in this game? EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: ohgodwhydidIsaythis) Goober fires at the wall behind his Demented Fuzzy Shivan, hoping to be outside the blast radius of his own weapon. It works for the first shot, but not the second, which strikes the Demented Fuzzy Shivan in the face. Shrapnel blasts out, killing the creature...and Goober5000.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dammitgoob.png)
Jeff Vader moves to join Swantz and takes four shots at the flying alien. He manages to miss to both sides, beneath, and above it. The flying alien responds by throwing a curious device at his feet, and then taking a pistol shot which misses completely, in fact going over the top of the Skyranger. The grenade then blows the **** out of Swantz, Jeff Vader, and Redsniper. Redsniper doesn't even leave a body behind, despite having been further from the blast than the other two. Polpolion miraculously escapes damage but freaks out and drops his weapon. We're not even three turns into the first terror mission and half the active troopers are dead: WELCOME TO ****ING X-COM.
Mjn.Maxel kills the alien that threw the grenade with rapid fire. The E, proving as always to be level-headed and capable, kills a second alien revealed by the damage the grenade did to a nearby building, and turns around and pumps another three rounds into yet another Demented Fuzzy Shivan. Axem, too, debarks and gets his first kill by finishing the Demented Fuzzy Shivan off, following killing yet another alien inside the warehouse.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/****ingcarnage.png)
Another flying alien and a Demented Fuzzy Shivan is reported to the north. Polpolion recovers his weapon and his wits to kill the flyer, while Mjn.maxel brings the Demented Fuzzy Shivan under fire and strikes home twice. It keeps coming next turn, but not fast enough. Polpolion fires at it and kills it with an AP round.
But more movement is reported, the endless hordes of alien-wait that's not alien. That's a chick in a suit.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/civilians.png)
Yes, terror missions have civilians, which you are supposed to save. Much of this saving is purely theoretical, the result of random chance placement of aliens, particularly this early in the game.
Polpolion gets shot from the side by something around the far end of the warehouse as he moves to support Axem, and goes down dead. The E and Mjn.maxel combine fire to kill the alien.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Polpolionandkiller.png)
With the team down to under 50% strength and very little of the area secured, The E, as senior remaining operative, pulls the plug. Troopers are directed to recover equipment and bodies in the immediate area of the Skyranger. Axem grabs the body and weapon of one the new flying enemies in an effort to salvage something of value from this disaster. Check out the grid-based inventory.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/axem.png)
More movement is reported out by the street. It's another Demented Fuzzy Shivan, and Mjn.maxel takes it under fire. Another alien grenade is also thrown in that area, but not in our direction. The Demented Fuzzy Shivan charges forward, and Mjn.maxel pumps out nine rounds on full auto while screaming "I seen this cutscene! HALLFIGHT, HALLFIGHT, GAME OVER MAN!"...but he kills it before it gets within twenty feet.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/gameoverman.png)
Axem and the E, grabbing the last of the gear, abruptly confront YET ANOTHER Demented Fuzzy Shivan, which is sitting on the ramp of the goddamn Skyranger. I have no ****ing clue how this happened, I think the ****er must have just teleported in.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/hax.png)
Fortunately Axem kills it with a burst of rapid laser fire. Another flyer alien is spotted across the street, and Mjn.Maxel takes it under fire, but Axem has to finish it with a long-range aimed shot. Everyone is climbing into the Skyranger for evac when the area is suddenly covered in Chinese army and police, who report that our intrepid band has killed or incapacitated all the aliens.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/thatwentwell.png)
Due to their performance in this mission, and their excessive weight for relatively little gain in comparison to autocannon or missile launchers, the decision has been made to phase out the X-Com Heavy Cannon from service. Replacement with additional rifles or the procurement of other heavy weapons is as yet undecided, so if you've got a preference, speak up.
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As an X-Com vet, i am loving the irony that, the fuzzy shivans are supposed to be most vulnerable to pyro damage
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Five deaths, damn.
You can use my name to fill in a slot. Rifle works for me.
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I'll frontline untill a transfer opens up for a UK op.
BURN ALL THE THINGS
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I think I signed up already, just stating my preference for a laser rifle. For the uninitiated, what's a terror mission?
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For the uninitiated, what's a terror mission?
Reacting to an alien incursion within a city, I believe.
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Pretty much what Zane said. The aliens go to the city to destroy all the things and you have to stop them. Terror missions have semi-unique units and rules, for example the civilians and the Demented Fuzzy Shivans (otherwise known as Reapers).
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RIP Redsniper, Swantz, Jeff Vader and Polpolion o7
I could have saved all of you, alas I was back at base, repainting all the burn marks on my tank. (Karma, Boober5000, booyah!)
I do hope the techheads get me my laser cannon refit soon!
Axem being a total baller this mission.
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Terror missions have important political ramifications. The aliens use them to demonstrate that the XCOM program is ineffectual and cannot protect its sponsor nations from the alien threat. This will lead sponsors to pull funding, and, in the long run, even sign pacts with the aliens.
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wow, that's a ton of deaths, I hope x-com survives this or we are all doomed.
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This is way cooler than a planned-out short story. Go team!
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Axem, having seen Aliens doesn't just dismiss the icky slime on the dropship doorway, narrowly avoiding the following:
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q7nBVtFAyho/TeOuEKA0vHI/AAAAAAAAAMo/p1ICVid6jk4/s1600/aliens-colonial-marines-ferro-dropship-500.jpg)
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wow, that's a ton of deaths, I hope x-com survives this or we are all doomed.
We already got in five replacements and they've run a mission, where three of them got kills. I'm not going to detail that one, since nobody died and nothing of interest happened aside from a Sectoid shooting at The E from two tiles away and missing him. (Fired straight into the ground instead.)
The All-Time X-COM Soldier List
The difference between a Rookie and a Squaddie is usually stated as "making a kill and surviving to get your status to change" but it's actually simply hitting a live target, making a reaction shot, making a psi attack, or taking a bravery check and keeping it under control. Basically, anything combative aside from throwing a grenade.
Making Sergeant means there are a minimum of 5 soldiers and through a rather arcane process (check here for the gory details (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Rank)) the game decides who has the most experience and makes them a Sergeant. We haven't got enough soldiers enlisted yet for any of the higher ranks.
Deceased
Goober5000, Sergeant (blew himself up with a heavy cannon HE round at point-blank, Mission 5)
Zacam, Rookie; made a kill but did not survive the mission (deceased by plasma rifle shot, then blown up by friendly grenade, Mission 1)
Karajorma, Rookie (deceased by plasma pistol shot, Mission 1)
Mongoose, Rookie; made two kills but did not survive the mission (deceased by plasma rifle and then heavy plasma shot, Mission 3)
Swantz, Squaddie (shot with plasma pistol, deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Jeff Vader, Squaddie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Redsniper, Rookie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Polpolion, Squaddie (deceased by plasma pistol shot, Mission 5)
Active
Axem, Squaddie
Mjn.maxel, Squaddie
The E, Sergeant
CommanderDJ, Squaddie
SpardaSon21, Squaddie
TrashMan, Rookie
Col. Fishguts, Squaddie
Headdie, Rookie
In Transit To Base
Titan, Rookie
Jr2, Rookie
Those in transit won't be participating in the next mission unfortunately. Interceptors 1 and 2 were both launched to engage a Large UFO (by comparison we haven't encountered one yet outside the "small" category) and shot it down, though both ran out of weapons to accomplish it and Interceptor 1 sustained a hit from the alien ship's weapons, which nearly totaled the plane. We'll deal with that mission tomorrow, or maybe I'll just forget to sleep tonight.
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Woo, at least I'm still the most accomplished soldier to have bit the bucket. Goober...not so much. :lol:
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I want an auto-cannon. With HE rounds! The aliens will pay with their blood!
Also, at this rate, we may have to consider coloning or never-before-mentioned twin brothers.
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Terror missions have important political ramifications. The aliens use them to demonstrate that the XCOM program is ineffectual and cannot protect its sponsor nations from the alien threat. This will lead sponsors to pull funding, and, in the long run, even sign pacts with the aliens.
So... ehrm... is having 2/3 of the civilians saved a good or a bad thing?
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Terror missions have important political ramifications. The aliens use them to demonstrate that the XCOM program is ineffectual and cannot protect its sponsor nations from the alien threat. This will lead sponsors to pull funding, and, in the long run, even sign pacts with the aliens.
So... ehrm... is having 2/3 of the civilians saved a good or a bad thing?
for the first mission is excellent, though both civilian and X-Com survival rates will plummet once the mid tier bad guys turn up.
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Sign me up as a redshirt. Hopefully my agent's stats won't be total garbage.
Picked up the collection on Steam and found I've got a ****-ton still to learn. Perhaps I'll learn a few tricks from the frontlines before getting vaporized or ripped apart.
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Sign me up as a redshirt. Hopefully my agent's stats won't be total garbage.
Picked up the collection on Steam and found I've got a ****-ton still to learn. Perhaps I'll learn a few tricks from the frontlines before getting vaporized or ripped apart.
The only way you can "learn" to play XCOM is through the same medium as the rest of us...
FAILURE
Only through failure can you truly grasp what it means to be the commander of Earth's saviours, and grasp the true level of humanities worthlessness.
Seriously, these people are supposed to be the best, yet I have a Sergeant that can't hit the broadside of a barn with an autocannon burst when only a square away!
I'm serious about that. I wanted to hit a sectoid that was hiding on the other side, and the fool just shot the floor like just slept with his mother and sister.
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the stats system in X-Com does get a bit excessive at times lol
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the stats system in X-Com does get a bit excessive at times lol
I think I just have some spectacularly ****ty luck. I mean I once got killed at the start of Baldur's Gate 2 by an imp, when I got nothing but critical misses and he chewed my face off.
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Killer Imp ....
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Okay so.
I had a post here.
Then my computer threw up, so I'll just give you the highlights.
Cyberdisks.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/badnews.png)
Dead Cyberdisks. The E, it turns out, is a pro with a missile launcher.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Anotherhere2.png)
Spoon being awesome and killing people through windows.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/SPPPPOOOON.png)
Spoon being even more awesome and killing two consecutive aliens that moved to the same spot with reaction fire, in the same turn.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Anotherhere.png)
For this, he's rewarded by TrashMan reactionfiring at a third alien, only Trash fires his rifle into the back of Spoon's tank. At this point it's officially suffered more damage due to friendly fire than enemy fire, though this won't last the mission.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dammittrash.png)
CommanderDJ, assured by the fact nobody had fired at the tank when it moved past him, getting three plasma rounds in the face by surprise.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/bushwhacked.png)
Spoon's tank going toe to toe with an alien and a cyberdisk for three turns, during which I saw more missed shots than one would honestly believe possible inside an enclosed space. (I counted at least twelve on their part; awkward perspective made it impossible to tell if Spoon was hitting.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/upperlevel.png)
He didn't win.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dammittank.png)
Col. Fishguts actually doing well for the first six turns, including killing a cyberdisk with his rifle, until he gets hit with our first Psi attack, at which point he spends about ten turns failing his Panic check and either dropping his gun or spinning around looking for things to shoot at random (but there are no units in his LOS). He'll fail it again right after I took this shot.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/fishguts.png)
The E tracks down the last alien and puts lasers into his legs and lower torso until he goes over.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/thee.png)
The replacement laser tank is already being produced (sorry Spoon, this one will in fact be nicer I promise), with a time estimate of 3 days and 22 hours, while Titan and Jr2 have joined the squad. Rodo is currently en route to join us. Lots of people are happy with us as the month ticks over, giving us money to expand Dekker's Pad a bit more and replace our last remaining Small Radar at Area 51 with a Large system.
In conclusion, always drive Spoon.
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Wait. How am I suddenly the unshakable badass? This is going to end horribly....
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It's been ages since the last time I played X-Com
I forget what the 4 stats are... Let's see..
Green is TU's
Orangish is...erh..
Red is health
Purple is...morale?
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not bad TM, orange is stamina
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Orangish is...erh..
Energy/stamina. It usually doesn't matter, but represents endurance, so it goes down if you haul a lot of weight around a long way, and recovers a little more slowly than TUs do. (Sometimes a lot more slowly.) There's a limit to how many TUs you can spend per point of orange stuff left, though I don't know the exact interplay; as I said, it's usually not an issue. It can be pumped up with Medikit stimulants if it runs low.
Speaking of which, the Medikit: one stop shop for what ails you in-mission.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Medikit.png)
I took this while checking Col. Fishguts last mission. We have Medikits now too, but without armor people who live long enough to need them are few. You can dispense three things. Painkillers pump up the purple stuff, which is morale; it's basically happy injections. Stimulants can be used to revive fatigued or stunned soldiers (we haven't even done stunning yet, I'll have to break out the stun rods more). Heals do not, I think, actually heal HP (or if they do, only in very small amounts). They instead fix what the game calls "Fatal Wounds"; wounds deep enough or serious enough that left untreated they will have a cumulative negative effect on the health of the soldier, i.e. drain his HP from blood loss or something similar. Fishguts doesn't have any, despite taking some shrapnel from a cyberdisc explosion, so my ability to further illustrate is limited.
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I played it ye olde days...
Tempted to try it again.
And why am I carrying a laser rifle? I want a auto-canon!
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My tank! :hopping:
The replacement laser tank is already being produced (sorry Spoon, this one will in fact be nicer I promise), with a time estimate of 3 days and 22 hours
How different is the laser tank compared to the cannon version?
In conclusion, always drive Spoon.
Hell yeah mother****er. :pimp:
For this, he's rewarded by TrashMan reactionfiring at a third alien, only Trash fires his rifle into the back of Spoon's tank.
True trash indeed.
Of course, Boober5000 didn't lived long enough to regret the damage he did to my tank. Karma will find its way to Trash soon enough.
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There does seem to be a correlation between people firing at Spoon and people getting killed.
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In conclusion, always drive Spoon.
Hell yeah mother****er. :pimp:[/quote]
No thanks, I don't swing that way!
Of course, Boober5000 didn't lived long enough to regret the damage he did to my tank. Karma will find its way to Trash soon enough.
I shall be it's vessel to deliver divine retribution upon the aliens.
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The replacement laser tank is already being produced (sorry Spoon, this one will in fact be nicer I promise), with a time estimate of 3 days and 22 hours
Does it come with IFF?
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This thread is ridiculously entertaining. I volunteer for duty if required, on the condition that if I die it must be heroically.
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My tank! :hopping:
The replacement laser tank is already being produced (sorry Spoon, this one will in fact be nicer I promise), with a time estimate of 3 days and 22 hours
How different is the laser tank compared to the cannon version?
1 - The Laser tank remains viable through most of the game in terms of firepower where as the Cannon tank sux (indeed there is an interesting stat with the etheral terror creature where lasers are more effective than plasma)
2 - cannon tank 30 rounds per mission and requires ammo stored at base, Laser tank has 255 rounds per mission and does not require reloads to be stored at base.
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Sign me up for be an hero.
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Spoon http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Tank_Comparison lists 1st game tanks and their stats
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How is the cannon more accurate than the laser???
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How is the cannon more accurate than the laser???
Laser does more damage and costs slightly fewer TU to use, and never runs out of ammo or requires expensive purchases
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How is the cannon more accurate than the laser???
Just imagine that the aliens can see the tank's laser charging up and thus have the time to dive out of the way. Or something.
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How is the cannon more accurate than the laser???
Laser does more damage and costs slightly fewer TU to use, and never runs out of ammo or requires expensive purchases
Yes, but that does not adress why the gun seems to be more accurate according to the table previously linked. Simple game balance, perhaps?
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I took this while checking Col. Fishguts last mission. We have Medikits now too, but without armor people who live long enough to need them are few. You can dispense three things. Painkillers pump up the purple stuff, which is morale; it's basically happy injections. Stimulants can be used to revive fatigued or stunned soldiers (we haven't even done stunning yet, I'll have to break out the stun rods more). Heals do not, I think, actually heal HP (or if they do, only in very small amounts). They instead fix what the game calls "Fatal Wounds"; wounds deep enough or serious enough that left untreated they will have a cumulative negative effect on the health of the soldier, i.e. drain his HP from blood loss or something similar. Fishguts doesn't have any, despite taking some shrapnel from a cyberdisc explosion, so my ability to further illustrate is limited.
Painkillers can only refill morale lost due to injuries. AFAIK heals do give you some HP for each fatal wound healed, so it's always important to treat even minor fatal wounds (lol) otherwise you'll end up with soldiers with weeks of sick leave. Also IIRC stimulants can refill energy, not 100% sure on that though.
Also I remember Battuta talking about the lack of snipers in this game: If you get really skilled soldiers (ie accuracy > 100%) you can operate with snipers. What I've tried is up to 3 sniper teams of a sniper and support gunner, depending on how many good shots you have, and as many tanks as you can fit in your craft as you can. Support gunners are pretty much pack mules for anything you don't want your snipers carrying: HE, flares, medi-kits, smoke, etc. There's no real (and GOOD) sniper rifle in the game, so they're not really there for covering fire, but early on in the game (usually up until you get blaster bombs) I'd like to keep at least one autocannon with incendiary ammunition for illumination. Flares are kinda better for illumination if you've got someone with a good arm, but if not incendiaries are more fun.
Lastly, I'm kinda mad that there's only one kind of ammunition for the Tank/Cannon. It would be 100 times more useful if you could carry 10 AP, HE, and I. Or even just to choose a full load of any of the three.
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I don't think you can really call them snipers, though, they're just marksmen/riflemen in the classical mold - aimed fire on targets.
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/me signs on for the love of lasers!
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I'm ready to die for mother terra.
Huzzah!
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I don't think you can really call them snipers, though, they're just marksmen/riflemen in the classical mold - aimed fire on targets.
I don't think that really does the differing tactics justice. When I think of riflemen in X-COM, I think of the soldiers that go out to hunt down and fight the enemy but not the soldiers that sit and wait in cover until an opportunity to take a shot opens up. Calling them marksmen makes much more sense than calling them riflemen, and if they're the same thing (which is how I read your post) then I'm missing something here.
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In the school of X-COM doctrine I've always floated through the marksmen/riflemen (same thing) are the individuals who provide overwatch from covered positions while the scouts/runners/assaulters/expendables (same thing) advance to contact. The role of the former is to shoot every alien sighted, the role of the latter is to spot things and try, futilely, to avoid death.
Classically the rifleman was drilled on marksmanship, but was distinct from the sniper, who is also an expert on fieldcraft. I don't think there's any room for the sniper role in XCOM game mechanics.
e: 'Sniper' in general is a term that's enormously overused in video games at large, since the role in question is almost always rifleman in the classical sense or designated marksman in the modern sense.
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Make me a psychic! Or a meatshield! Whichever :-D
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Spoon http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Tank_Comparison lists 1st game tanks and their stats
Cheers.
(Now watch me miss every shot with the new laser cannon)
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Sign me up on whatever you need most. :yes:
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(http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/1859/ravensc2head1.jpg)
A picture of Spoon hard at work in the X-Com base. Driving expensive equipment from a distance.
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State your request.
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How different is the laser tank compared to the cannon version?
It's essentially the same vehicle in most terms, but the laser is actually quite powerful and, aside from an inability to fire automatic (which is endemic to all tanks), compares well to a Heavy Plasma shot. 110 laser damage per shot, which is 5 less raw damage than a Heavy Plasma round and 50 more than the old cannon tank.
In all honesty the Laser Tank chassis may end up coming with us to Cydonia if we get there. It's really that good, especially against the late-game enemies with a weakness to lasers, and if I'm willing to drop the time, it can actually function as a breaching tool for interior UFO walls, though not well.
And why am I carrying a laser rifle? I want a auto-canon!
You literally can't carry it and move well enough to save TUs for reaction fire. One of the things I'm doing is using electroflares for strength training, stacking enough into the inventory to impair TUs just a little. The game threw a heck of a lot of weaklings at me in recruiting.
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You literally can't carry it and move well enough to save TUs for reaction fire. One of the things I'm doing is using electroflares for strength training, stacking enough into the inventory to impair TUs just a little. The game threw a heck of a lot of weaklings at me in recruiting.
(http://ranger.gamebanana.com/img/ss/guis/thm_18993b.jpg)
"Aw man, that's beautiful."
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Awesome writing NGTM, please consider myself available for immediate sentencing.
Oh... bad luck with the HE Goober
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Jeff Vader, unfazed by massive explosions after having played Inferno, immediately fires a burst of HE rounds into the barn to kill the strangely oblivious alien. None of the three rounds actually strike the alien, but the first one apparently sets him on fire with flaming shrapnel, while the second, bracketing the creature from the other side, kills him with more shrapnel.
Booya!
The third round is way off target, landing in the front corner furthest from the alien. I choose to believe it was intentionally missed to preserve the alien's corpse and equipment.
Right, um... intentionally. :nervous:
Jeff Vader, exclaiming incredulously of his comrade's incompetence, steps out of the transport and goes for a missile shot. He hits the Skyranger's canard. Okay, guess we're walking home!
Sorry, sir! ><
Jeff Vader moves to join Swantz and takes four shots at the flying alien. He manages to miss to both sides, beneath, and above it. The flying alien responds by throwing a curious device at his feet, and then taking a pistol shot which misses completely, in fact going over the top of the Skyranger. The grenade then blows the **** out of Swantz, Jeff Vader, and Redsniper. Redsniper doesn't even leave a body behind, despite having been further from the blast than the other two.
If I don't survive, tell my wife hello.
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And why am I carrying a laser rifle? I want a auto-canon!
You literally can't carry it and move well enough to save TUs for reaction fire. One of the things I'm doing is using electroflares for strength training, stacking enough into the inventory to impair TUs just a little. The game threw a heck of a lot of weaklings at me in recruiting.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
As soon as I get some strength or TU increase I wants an Auto-cannon.
Come to think of it, how does the game handle strength increase?
EDIT: Nevermind..just checked. Primary actions cause stat increases. The mroe promary actiosn you do, the more your stats improve.
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Experience#How_Experience_Points_Are_Applied
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Experience_Training
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Gentlemen and ladies, you are currently aboard Skyranger 1 as we climb to our cruising altitude of 30,000 feet.
The good news: as you might notice, at the back of the bay we have a brand-new Tank. The techies got this to us two days ago and Spoon has been practicing with the teleoperating setup since. Yes, that's right, we built it. This is the new Tank/Laser, which will be our standard armored support until something better comes along. Also, please welcome Rodo to the squad. And remember that inflight hazing gets you thrown out the ramp first.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/lasertanks.png)
The bad news: Col. Fishguts was having a frank exchange of views with a cyberdisk last mission when it abruptly blew the hell up, injuring him. The docs have not cleared him for anything more than light duty yet. He will not be joining us.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/fishy.png)
Our destination is Havana, Cuba, where an alien incursion has been reported. There will be no inflight movie.
The welcoming committee is late, and grenades are thrown and mad screaming abounds on the first alien turn, but no enemies are sighted. Spoon moves cautiously towards the source of a grenade and spots the tardy welcoming committee. SpardaSon takes a shot with his newly-issued autocannon but despite the HE rounds doesn't scratch the target. Spoon then offers the traditional HLPX-COM greeting: laser-based death.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/GREETINGS.png)
SpardaSon spots an alien in alley. Mindful of the nearby civilian, he fires a pair of snapshots rather than blazing away on full auto. Both miss, but the second is close enough to hurt. Headdie steps up and fires a brief auto burst with his laser to finish it off.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/bitofamess.png)
TrashMan, who now can at least somewhat carry an autocannon, spots another alien and does his best SpardaSon impression: three rounds, no direct hits, two close enough to hurt, but no kill. Titan tries to finish with a laser shot, but it passes mere millimeters in front of the alien's face. Jr2 takes six shots on full auto but doesn't come nearly that close, while Axem actually connects, but doesn't kill it. This is a tough little grey bastard.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/toughie.png)
The aliens are very bad at using grenades; they expended three trying to kill one civilian here. She's still alive and the alien I just praised for his toughness blew himself up.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/grenades.png)
Spoon spots another and Rodo engages it. The first round kills the alien; the other two are wasted...one of them into the back of the tank, again. You have got to stop doing that people.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/againwithshootingthetank.png)
Spoon, disgusted, takes the nearest intersection. No enemies are discovered. The squad breaks up into two-man fire teams with one person assigned to work with the tank. Titan and Mjn.Maxel are assigned to secure the buildings near the Skyranger, while everyone else spreads out into town. (Red dots are civvies.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/overview.png)
Axem reports that one of the civilians is apparently so traumatized by having a bunch of grenades thrown at her that's she's leaped into a fire. TrashMan chimes in to confirm. And yes, this will hurt them. Fire does damage to any unarmored unit which stands in it, and can ignite them if they're in or next to it. (Curiously, units on fire don't provide illumination like fire itself does.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/purifiedbyflame.png)
The E locates an alien and blows him the hell up, while Rodo gets his second kill of the mission from an alien who stepped through a door to check out what the explosion was about and failed to notice the people pointing laser rifles at it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/twokills.png)
The mission is pretty close to over; the majority of the buildings have been cleared and things are apparently going well. An alien appears and throws something at Jr2. Jr2 fires back. Too late. The grenade goes off, killing Jr2 and Rodo. The E launches a missile into the alley their killer fled into, and kills it. (He also blows up Rodo's corpse. Oops.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/revenge-1.png)
Mission complete. Despite technically being a win, this would probably be viewed as loss by most objective observers. (And I have no idea where we killed the civvies, again!)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/derp.png)
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Yay, winning by technicality. Why can I not remember for the life of me what HE stands for?
Also, did the civilian jump into the fire on purpose?
So it seems those three plasma rounds to the face last mission killed me? You didn't explicitly state it, that's all. :D
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Yay, winning by technicality. Why can I not remember for the life of me what HE stands for?
Also, did the civilian jump into the fire on purpose?
So it seems those three plasma rounds to the face last mission killed me? You didn't explicitly state it, that's all. :D
HE - High Explosive
Civilians are dumb
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:nervous: I'd hoped to at least land a hit before expiring. :lol:
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So it seems those three plasma rounds to the face last mission killed me? You didn't explicitly state it, that's all. :D
Sadly, yes, they did.
:nervous: I'd hoped to at least land a hit before expiring. :lol:
You may yet. My most recent save has gotten corrupted somehow (the game absolutely flipped out when yet another terror mission spawned at Cape Town) and so I may or may not need to do Havana over again since I'm not quite sure where the next one back is. Schrodinger's X-COM Operative, as it were.
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Oooh, time warp. ;7
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Sign me up, somebody's gotta beat The E in the game.
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Hire that civiilan!
It takes massive balls to survive 3 alien grenades AND go dancing around in fire.
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ZOMG I'm a redshirt now! And I'm not dead!
EDIT: Civilians are dumb because all the smart humans joined XCOM so they could wear the impossibly cool combat uniforms. And have cool hair.
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Hah, my new laser tank is sweet.
Spoon spots another and Rodo engages it. The first round kills the alien; the other two are wasted...one of them into the back of the tank, again. You have got to stop doing that people.
An alien appears and throws something at Jr2. Jr2 fires back. Too late. The grenade goes off, killing Jr2 and Rodo.
It keeps happening!
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I'm still alive. And I plan on staying that way.
Not something you have to worry about, safe and cozy back in the base. REAL men with plentifull balls are out there, risking their lives.
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It keeps happening!
Even when reality is rewritten, it still happens. (You'll find out more once I knock that bit in to shape at lunch or tonight.)
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What a wuss you are spoon!, it was just a grazing shot and it only scratched a little paint out. (plus I got to kill an alien with a granade with your name on it).
Get your frikking karma **** out of my back.
I'll revive, I swear.
EDIT: it's revive right?
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I'm still alive. And I plan on staying that way.
Not something you have to worry about, safe and cozy back in the base. REAL men with plentifull balls are out there, risking their lives.
unfortunately the longer you spend in the field the amount of balls you have inevitably decreases, right along with total body mass.
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Cybernetics man. I'll get balls of steel (literally)! And a shaft to match.
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Cybernetics man. I'll get balls of steel (literally)! And a shaft to match.
Good luck enjoying intercourse with your metal phallus, that is of course assuming it was forged in the up position in which case enjoy walking around in public and getting laughed at. :P
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Cybernetics man. I'll get balls of steel (literally)! And a shaft to match.
Good luck enjoying intercourse with your metal phallus, that is of course assuming it was forged in the up position in which case enjoy walking around in public and getting laughed at. :P
You still live in the 15th century or what? Ever watched transformers? Hint: extremities can bend, move and do other stuff.
Also, having a chip in your head does open a whole lot of possibilites.
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> asks if you live in the past.
> makes reference to futuristic alien transforming robots as if that's the state of technology.
Hint: Transformers isn't real.
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Besides good luck finding a woman who wants your Michael Bay Monstrosity. :P
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Besides good luck finding a woman who wants your Michael Bay Monstrosity. :P
Please don't confuse bayformers with transformers :(
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given the context, I think it's pretty clear which particular bayformer (from bayformers ii, I believe) trashy was referring to.
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Besides good luck finding a woman who wants your Michael Bay Monstrosity. :P
You'd be surprised.
There is an advantage to go on an on like the energizer bunny. That and your high-tehc dong being highly customizible and adaptable.
Speakign of whihc..back to more mission reports!
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Stop ****ting up every thread in Games, dammit!
So, updates.
First, my save corrupted as already mentioned. Apparently, sectoids are metagaming bastards. So we did the Havana mission over again, and made a much more clean win. Rodo, Jr2, congratulations: due to quantum uncertainty you're no longer dead, at least for awhile. Headdie is no longer permitted to use a missile launcher after he nearly killed TrashMan by reaction-firing a rocket into an enemy who was only four squares away from Trash. Rodo shot the tank, again. Titan blew up a gas station (and a cyberdisc). And SpardaSon is now a Sergeant. We'll call his group “the B Team”. Those of you under The E are now “the A Team”, but wearing of gold chains is punishable by immediate execution.
We have some good news. First, a major expansion of Dekker's Pad is underway to allow it to house an Interceptor and more radar equipment. We will also be moving some manufacturing operations there after fiance informed me it might be possible to free ourselves from the pitiful amount of money we get from the member nations by building laser cannon for export.
Dekker's Pad also detected its first UFO, over Germany. It headed out over the Atlantic but ran into Dekker himself and Interceptor 1, who shot it down several hundred miles out to sea. Member nation naval units are sweeping the area, but it's doubtful anything will be recoverable; the ocean is too deep there. At the same time a UFO was detected over South America, coming north. Interceptor 2 and Nuke met it off the Florida Keys, but were unable to close to weapons range until it was over land. A pair of Avalanche AAMs completely destroyed the target, most of the remaining debris falling into the Everglades.
HLPX-COM again denies the use of nuclear weapons. Particularly with Elerium enhancement.
There is also an ongoing alien attack on Nairobi. The Skyranger is en route.
The welcoming committee is decidedly cold and robotic, so SpardaSon and Rodo kill it. This is what happens when a cyberdisc dies, by the way; you see why Col. Fishguts, who fought one at relatively short range inside a UFO, was lucky to escape with his life when it went down.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/whencyberdiscsdie.png)
Another cyberdisc approaches from beyond the convenience store that Darius brought us down next to. Rodo and Fishguts both engage and score a hit each, but the cyberdisc fires back and hits Spoon's tank. This proves the aliens have not learned a critical lesson: don't **** with Spoon. A single round from the new Laser Tank brings the cyberdisc down.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dont****withspoon.png)
You might notice something different now. This is the new HLPX-COM Personal Armor. Made of the same materials as the UFOs we've been fighting, it is primarily flexible metallic mesh with solid inserts in key areas. The mesh is proof against any Earth-designed small arm save for our own Lasers, and the inserts offer some protection again alien plasma weapons, though not very much. Still, the odds of being merely wounded rather than killed by plasma fire are measurably higher.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/armoredinfantry.png)
We didn't have enough to outfit the whole team when the call came in, so the suits were issued in the order people come off the Skyranger.
This alien tried to kill SpardaSon. He missed and hit the ramp of the Skyranger. SpardaSon fired a snapshot back and hit the alien in the face with a high-explosive rocket. The alien no longer has a face, or a life. (And it's not because he took up Let's Playing.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/aimisimportant.png)
Trashman, who has been experimentally armed with a missile launcher, blows the **** out of a cyberdisc...accidentally destroying the one that Spoon gutted. Oh well.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/trashscores.png)
Remember when I said you had measurably higher odds of just being wounded? That's not the same thing as “good”. Fishguts is unfortunate enough to demonstrate for us that the new armor is still vulnerable, and goes down with a huge hole in his side. He's gone.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/farewellfishguts.png)
Rodo absorbs a grenade. Thanks to the armor and some distance, causalities are relatively light. Rodo is killed. Titan, kneeling on the ramp of the Skyranger, is injured, and so is SpardaSon. TrashMan might or might not be inside the blast radius, but if he was his armor protected him completely. Trash applies first aid to Titan, who then applies it to SpardaSon, while Jr2 deploys from inside the Skyranger and spots the responsible alien, blasting it with two hits in the side of the head from his laser rifle.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/shouldertoshoulder.png)
Spoon, having gone around the other side of the building, reports a third cyberdisc. This one is in visible flight rather than just being off the ground. He fires once but the shot does not connect. Jr2 spots a fourth cyberdisc moving up past its previously disabled comrade and brings it down with six rounds and four hits while Spoon and the cyberdisc he spotted get in a shooting match. Both heavily damage the other. Trashman, having reloaded his missile launcher, steps out wide to clear the store we landed next to and kills the cyberdisc.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/trashwiththefinish.png)
Dry on missiles now, Trash recovers Col. Fishguts' laser rifle to carry on the fight.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/takeupmygun.png)
The E takes down an alien that Trash spotted lurking in the strip mall across the street. He reloads the launcher afterwards.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/theeandhismissiles.png)
This alien threw a grenade at Titan and Jr2 as they entered the huge smoke cloud caused by repeated missile and cyberdisc detonations on the far side of the store. It missed, badly, and neither of them was actually injured. Titan sprays nine laser beams inaccurately at the alien, but his injuries are inhibiting his aim and none connect. Jr2 takes it down with a single well-aimed shot through the left eye.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/aimisveryimportant.png)
Meanwhile, this alien attempted to use a stun launcher on Spoon's tank. Not only is this a highly dubious plan in and of itself since you can't stun a tank, the alien actually hit the fence next to it and knocked itself out. For its ineptitude it will now spend many hours being interrogated by HLPX-COM scientists.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/aimisextremelyimportant.png)
Trashman spotted another cyberdisc. The E used his last missile to kill it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dont****withTheE.png)
The team spreads out, hunting for more aliens, but no contact is made for several turns. They're out there, though, since they can be heard firing on occasion at civilians. Mjn.Maxel locates one behind a building.
This alien started off is looking the wrong way. It never sees Mjn.Maxel raise his rifle to open fire...but despite a hit between the should blades, it somehow manages to spin around and return a couple of plasma rounds. Both miss, one striking the hedge, one passing between Mjn.Maxel and the corner he just stepped out from behind, through the window behind him and the store, out the blasted front, and across the street, nearly hitting Trashman. Unfortunately for the alien, Mjn.Maxel and Axem are operating on the buddy system. Axem rushes forwards and shoots the alien high in chest, so it has matching front and back wounds. It goes down with an anguished scream.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/axemsaves.png)
TrashMan finds the last alien hiding in a warehouse and blasts it. (I finally caught one mid-death animation.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/trashmanshoots.png)
Mission complete. Now if only I'd remembered to grab the screen! We won by a decent but not very impressive amount, about 260 points, and for the first time managed not to kill civilians ourselves.
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I am so weirdly invested in this LP
Good to see the Spoonzer Elite tearing it up
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Looking at screenshots and the witty commentry of someone else playing a turn based strategy that is almost two decades old, should not be this fun.
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/me hangs my head in shame at nearly killing TrashMan
Can I at least take a heavy laser into battle? I dont mind carrying spare rockets for the others!
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Oh no, they're stupid Team 2, and we're awesome Team 1. When I get out of the hospital those aliens can bite my shiny alloy-melted ass.
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/me hangs my head in shame at nearly killing TrashMan
Can I at least take a heavy laser into battle? I dont mind carrying spare rockets for the others!
Heavy lasers are terrible, you don't want one.
We'll all be using heavy plasma soon anyway, I'm sure.
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This new tank is beast, I'm loving it.
Spoonzer Elite, I like this title ;7
Rodo, Jr2, congratulations: due to quantum uncertainty you're no longer dead, at least for awhile. Rodo shot the tank, again.
Rodo absorbs a grenade. Thanks to the armor and some distance, causalities are relatively light. Rodo is killed.
And too bad Rodo, you cannot escape Karma. Once you friendly fire the sacred tank, your fate is sealed :p
Headdie is no longer permitted to use a missile launcher after he nearly killed TrashMan by reaction-firing a rocket into an enemy who was only four squares away from Trash.
Karma's warning shot, your earlier transgression against my tank has not been forgotten.
I am also getting the vague impression that squad morale is going to drop hard when The E bites it (let's hope that never happens!)
Is there a bonus for capturing alive aliens? Are there any consquences to getting a high or low score end result for a mission?
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Yeah, I think there's a score bonus for live aliens. You also get to interrogate them using methods most likely banned by the Geneva Convention, but since they're aliens intent on conquering Earth nobody gives a damn.
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We need live aliens in order to research critical technologies. At some point we'll be unable to continue until we've captured alien navigators and leaders.
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So, with the addition of a new Interceptor, does this mean I get an appearance soon?
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Cool
I don't think my tank will help much with this though :p
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This new tank is beast, I'm loving it.
Spoonzer Elite, I like this title ;7
They are the Spoonzer elite, born to compete, never retreat (Hard-Light X-COM!!!)
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They are the Spoonzer elite, born to compete, never retreat (Hard-Light X-COM!!!)
Excellent :yes:
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/me hangs my head in shame at nearly killing TrashMan
Can I at least take a heavy laser into battle? I dont mind carrying spare rockets for the others!
It's not anything we haven't all thought about before. Actually, as of right now, I just switched it out for an autocannon. We've only got so many people who can haul a heavy weapon and reloads.
Yeah, I think there's a score bonus for live aliens.
There actually isn't. Killing an alien and recovering its corpse give you twice the score of capturing one alive. You do, though, need live aliens for research topics that will let you do various things. We're not at the necessary point yet and probably won't be for a bit, but I was honestly hoping for a Navigator; being able to nuke all those damn radars and trade them in for a Hyperwave Decoder per base would have been nice.
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They are the Spoonzer elite, born to compete, never retreat (Hard-Light X-COM!!!)
Excellent :yes:
Might have to write out an entire parody this weekend if I can't power my laptop :p
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I, for one, support Spoon getting a custom title out of it. Spoonzer Elite ftw.
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So, with the addition of a new Interceptor, does this mean I get an appearance soon?
Actually, before the new interceptor has come in, people died. You are this currently slated to be a redshirt. If you live long enough, we'll give you the Interceptor and let somebody else be redshirt-you.
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Oh goodie.
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Reflections on the Alien War So Far
No matter how many times you play it, and even regardless of difficulty, X-COM is always ready to teach harsh lessons. TFTD, where I actually learned to play the game (yeah, chew on that), is a merciless teacher of tactical spacing when it comes to avoiding getting all your guys killed by a Sonic Pulser on Turn 2. Previous playthroughs of Enemy Unknown have left me with a profound contempt for the Alien Grenade, though, of which there always seemed to be few and the aliens didn't seem to use them.
This will obviously be changing. A full third of our causalities so far have been to grenades. (4 of 12, counting the first tank as a casualty; the game certainly does.) Of the people who were indisputably inside the blast radius of a grenade, our only survivors have been SpardaSon and Titan. And considering Titan wasn't even wearing armor, he was damn lucky.
The maps have generally been small, resulting in intense firefights at the base of the ramp and then a "hunt the last Sectoid" endgame. This has had serious effects on the survivability of troopers. The further you are from being first to disembark, the more likely you are to survive. It's not an accident that our three survivors from Mission 1, Mjn.Maxel, The E, and Axem, are also relatively far back in the debarkation order. It's also materially affected their chances of getting kills, except for The E. Axem is still at 53 TUs and his kill in Nairobi was his first in several missions.
The tank has been invaluable. I confess I write that in confusion and trepidation, as I'm not normally one to love the tank much and usually just run disposable rookies for its scouting role. After you adjust for its base stats, the tank usually comes out looking pretty crappy in comparison to a good soldier. This game, however, has had the tank go above and beyond. With a reaction stat of 20, it's usually pretty common for the tank to never take a single reaction shot; this has happened repeatedly and it's been very accurate as it does so. Also, the tank has absorbed a lot of fire that could otherwise have been directed at much more vulnerable troopers. At this stage in the game, every Heavy Plasma shot fired at the tank is a soldier's life saved. In Nairobi alone, no less than six shots were taken at the tank with heavy plasmas, most of which could have been directed at soldiers instead.
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well damn.
I ARE DEAD AGAIN.
and **** karma :mad:
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Mission complete. Now if only I'd remembered to grab the screen! We won by a decent but not very impressive amount, about 260 points, and for the first time managed not to kill civilians ourselves.
A new milestone for the mighty X-Com! :lol:
I figure it was stray shots or grenades that caused civilian kills. But better pack heavy rodinance than loose capable personell.
Seems the rocket launcher works well in my hands. I'd still prefer an auto-cannon. :blah:
But as long as I get to kill aliens I'm not complaining.
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Yeah, I think there's a score bonus for live aliens. You also get to interrogate them using methods most likely banned by the Geneva Convention, but since they're aliens intent on conquering Earth nobody gives a damn.
Don't think the Genava conventions apply to animals.
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We can has Geneva conventions tactics when we are invading their planet(s). ;7
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New redshirt signing up for shooting aliens and blowing stuff up.
Or maybe a captured test subject.
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Snakeman Terror Mission coming up!
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Omg, no. :shaking: :(
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We went through most of the month with nothing happening. A medium-scale UFO was detected almost on top of Dekker's Pad, but it headed out over Europe and disappeared over Russia before either of the Interceptors could reach it. Dekker's Pad is still five days from completing its hanger and having an independent interception capablity. Once that's done a couple of laser tanks will be built and stationed there as interim defense; eventually it will also get its own Skyranger (or possibly better!) and soldiers as well. Those of you who requested a transfer will get it then.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dekkersupdate.png)
Then, on the 21st of the month, aliens have attacked Canberra. I'm not sure why anybody would want to go to Canberra anyways when it could have been Sydney or something, but they are aliens. Maybe their directions were bad.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/canberra.png)
The Skyranger goes feet-dry ten minutes out from the battle area. Night combat is expected and the order to load incendiaries is given. Each soldier is issued a single flare. (Pertinent question: we've had “Starlight” night vision scopes since Vietnam, why don't I have any?)
The tank disembarks without drawing any fire and spots a hostile. It is, again, something we have not seen before.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/snakedude.png)
Unfortunately for it, being new is not the same thing as being able to take it when the Laser Tank hits you.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/deadsnakedude.png)
Those of you who have played X-COM before and think you know what comes next: Stop giggling. ((http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/chryssalid.gif))
The aliens do a lot of shooting on their turn, but nobody screams, so apparently they are once again incompetent. Spoon spots another one across the street, which takes a shot at the tank and hits. Before Spoon can return fire, though, Scotty steps out of the transport and blows the alien away with rapid fire.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/scottysfirst.png)
SpardaSon throws a flare, bringing HLPX-COM Light to the darkness. This highlights a hostile, so it's up to KyadCK to bring both heat and light to them. He gets a hit, but Titan has to finish the job.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/KyadTitan.png)
Unfortunately they didn't spot one that's out that way. Titan takes a hit in the chest from the same direction and goes down with a scream, dead. Scotty throws another flare to light the alien up and KyadCK takes the alien down.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/revengefortitan.png)
One alien tosses a grenade, apparently at the Skyranger's front landing gear. Ever since the incident where Jeff Vader hit the Skyranger with one of our missiles, though, it's been heavily reinforced with alien alloys, so the grenade accomplishes nothing besides bugging Darius about the paint job. Another fires a plasma round between Scotty and SpardaSon.
But there is bad news. SpardaSon fires incendiaries at alien to the south.
They're heerrrreeeeee... (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/chryssalid.gif)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/chryssalid.gif)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/chryssalid.gif)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/chryssalidddddddssssssss.png)
The new alien is exceptionally fast, he closed nearly twenty squares in a turn. Between SpardaSon's incendiaries and and an exceptionally accurate burst from Scotty, the alien is brought down.
Jr2 locates another one to the North, literally just on the other side of a door from a pair civilians. (Or maybe he was trying to save that huge stack of beer cans from the aliens.) He immediately takes it under fire, blazing away on full auto. One hit drops it, but it's still twitching about; it's probably not dead.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/yoududesowejr2.png)
More shots are taken at various things during the next alien turn. Another grenade lands near the Skyranger, only a few squares from SpardaSon. It goes off, but he survives. (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/armor.png)
Scotty renders first aid while Jr2 finds the alien behind us that has been causing trouble and blows its goddamn head off.
Spoon, meanwhile, has eyes on two civilians. But they're acting strangely and advance on his tank despite a warning shot. He fires at one to discourage the other. An alien emerges from the corpse. Another of the new aliens is spotted in the same area.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/disgustingaintit.png)
The order is passed to dump incendiaries and load HE. The situation has grown too serious, heavy firepower will be required. No sooner is it passed, than one of the new aliens runs up to Spoon's tank and tears it apart barehanded! Parts are scattered far and wide, without even a badly damaged chassis to recover.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/whereismytankyoubastards.png)
Both Trashman and Mjn.Maxel fire on full auto in response. While Trash's autocannon rounds spray one of the aliens with shrapnel repeatedly, it takes Mjn.Maxel's laser rifle to bring both of them down with surprisingly accurate bursts. He put out nine shots this turn, and most of them struck home.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/mjnmaxel.png)
SpardaSon takes a plasma rifle round in the chest, but his armor once again saves his life; this time it holds without a breach. The E, attempting to kill that alien who just shot SpardaSon, hits a fence instead and sprays Scotty with shrapnel from the blast. Scotty pulls back for first aid and yelling at The E while SpardaSon fires a burst that brings down the alien who shot him.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Scotty.png)
Meanwhile, Axem blasts away the wall of a house so we can get at the last civilian infectee. The shot kills the civilian and the alien emerges from the corpses. TrashMan fires full auto, but despite two direct hits and a near miss the alien appears to be unfazed.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/toughbastard.png)
Laser fire from Headdie and Mjn.Maxel (one hit each) is required to bring it down for good.
KyadCK, waiting for Jr2 to arrive and back him up in a search of a warehouse, spots an alien that ducks behind some boxes. The alien did not reckon with the power of HLPX-COM laser weaponry: Kyad simply killed the boxes and then the alien with full auto.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Kyadboxes.png)
A single alien appears, wielding a pistol, firing once at Scotty or the Skyranger's landing gear (it's hard to say, but it hit the landing gear). TrashMan finds its lack of self-preservation instinct disturbing. He fires one HE round, for a miss, and with an empty clip loads AP. One round, for a hit. The alien still stands. Axem launches a missile, but it misses by about a meter and flies off into the night. Bottom of the ninth, two outs, Headdie at bat...home run. Three hits, kill.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/headdieattheplate.png)
Mission complete. Canberra has been quarantined by the Australian army as a precaution while the search the town for additional civilian infectees or new aliens that might have escaped.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/takethatdarthvader.png)
The standard Autocannon, like the Heavy Cannon before it, is slowly becoming ineffective. It may be time to switch to missile launchers for all heavy weapons troops.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/chryssalid.gif)
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I am a badass plasma-surviving machine.
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Phew! No X-COM personnel infected. That could have turned REALLY ugly.
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Noooooooooooooooo!
The Spoontank! :(
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Getting ripped apart by a Chrysalid is a pretty fitting way to lose your tank.
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The Spoonzer Elite shall be back. What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger.
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R.I.P Laser Tank.
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So, I think I officially became luckiest still surviving trooper. Two kills on my first mission, first trooper to take down a Chryssalid, and surviving friendly fire from the HLPX-COM resident badass The_E.
When the new Interceptor arrives, my reported last words to my squaddies were "**** this ****" (or if I die. Same last words either way).
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2 kills and an assist with no hits taken in my first mission? This cant last, I fear for the next round. :shaking:
And oh god, when we get back to base we have to deal with a very pissed off spoon, that might be even worse.
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I'm not lucky. I attract grenades. :(
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So, I think I officially became luckiest still surviving trooper. Two kills on my first mission, first trooper to take down a Chryssalid, and surviving friendly fire from the HLPX-COM resident badass The_E.
When the new Interceptor arrives, my reported last words to my squaddies were "**** this ****" (or if I die. Same last words either way).
It's already here, so you don't have to deal with another ground mission. Interceptor 3 is currently arming and fueling in the Hanger at Dekker's Pad. -Joshua- has magically taken your place.
Speaking of which, the all-time soldier list as updated for recent actions. (We let Flipside out of the lab so he could take over manning the tank at Dekker's Pad in case of emergency.)
Support Staff
Dekker; original pilot of Interceptor 1, transferred to fly Interceptor 3 out of Dekker's Pad.
Nuke; pilot of Interceptor 2
Darius; pilot of Skyranger 1
Spoon; teleoperates Area 51 Tank
Scotty; new pilot of Interceptor 1
Flipside; standby to operate Dekker's Pad Tanks
Active Duty
Axem, Squaddie
Mjn.maxel, Squaddie
The E, Sergeant
SpardaSon21, Sergeant
TrashMan, Squaddie
Headdie, Squaddie
Jr2, Squaddie
-Joshua-, Squaddie
KyadCK, Squaddie
Jg18, Rookie
KIA
Zacam, Rookie; made a kill but did not survive the mission (deceased by plasma rifle shot, then blown up by friendly grenade, Mission 1)
Karajorma, Rookie (deceased by plasma pistol shot, Mission 1)
Mongoose, Rookie; made two kills but did not survive the mission (deceased by plasma rifle and then heavy plasma shot, Mission 3)
Goober5000, Sergeant (blew himself up with a heavy cannon HE round at point-blank, Mission 5)
Swantz, Squaddie (shot with plasma pistol, deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Jeff Vader, Squaddie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Redsniper, Rookie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Polpolion, Squaddie (deceased by plasma pistol shot, Mission 5)
CommanderDJ, Squaddie (deceased by multiple cyberdisc plasma cannon shot, Mission 6)
The First Tank, Tank (deceased by multiple cyberdisc and heavy plasma shot, Mission 6)
Rodo, Squaddie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 8)
Col. Fishguts, Squaddie (deceased by plasma cannon shot, Mission 8)
Titan, Squaddie (deceased by plasma rifle shot, Mission 9)
The Second Tank, Tank (torn into tiny pieces by a Chryssalid, Mission 9)
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I feel inclined to see how far I don't survive
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Oh, wait, I forgot the luckiest part. I was one of the first two off the 'Ranger. :P
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This is awesome! NGTM-1R, I like your style.
I played X-COM back in 1993, but had no manual, so failed many times. Finally I played it to completion three years ago. Closure!
I would like to sign up to this meat grinder. And if I ever survive long enough (or join late enough), I wouldn't mind being a somewhat suicidal squaddie in charge of a stunner. (woo, alliteration!) I had the most fun trying to capture aliens in my last games.
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Oh boy.... terror missions. At night. With our favorite zombifying aliens.
I'm surprised we only had 1 casualty.
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This is an awesome thread. :D I really should have noticed it before now. As a result I'm late to my own funeral. :(
Bring me back again, and this time as a dude. Five missions of baddassery ought to count for invoking whatever quantum whatsit brought back Rodo and Jr2.
Also, the paperwork seems to have gotten Mjn.Mixael's name spelled wrong. See if you can punch through the bureaucracy and request a fix.
My most recent save has gotten corrupted somehow (the game absolutely flipped out when yet another terror mission spawned at Cape Town)
There are undoubtedly additional causes, but I find that this happens reliably if I start a mission while an Interceptor has an iconified engagement going on.
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I'm actually going to be recruiting a whole other squad to operate out of England, soon, so you'll get your chance at resurrection. I make no promises about anyone being assigned to the correct sex or even gender, however!
As for the name, I have no excuse sir.
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As England is my home base any chance of a transfer? or a clone?
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As England is my home base any chance of a transfer? or a clone?
I did intend to transfer in some experienced people (sending out a completely green squad at this point is several times stupider than I'm prepared to be), so certainly.
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Wait, how did I befcome a squaddie, I don´t recall being on a mission.
Oh right - You renamed dekker to me because groundpounders can't become pilots right?
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Oh right - You renamed dekker to me because groundpounders can't become pilots right?
Scotty, actually, but yeah.
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I did intend to transfer in some experienced people (sending out a completely green squad at this point is several times stupider than I'm prepared to be), so certainly.
Stupidity is the proud backbone of HLP!
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Stupidity in X-COM kills you. Very, very dead. And then a Chryssalid hatches from your corpse.
Speaking of which, anybody else who's interested in being resurrected can also put in for it now; we're actually down to four people left in the replacement queue after filling out the roster for Dekker's Pad.
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My most recent save has gotten corrupted somehow (the game absolutely flipped out when yet another terror mission spawned at Cape Town)
There are undoubtedly additional causes, but I find that this happens reliably if I start a mission while an Interceptor has an iconified engagement going on.
You can fix this with a hex editor.
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I'll volunteer to serve forum and planet. Wouldn't mind being a designated marksman eventually but any position where I die standing will suffice.
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I think this fits:
(http://www.gobiel.com/sonsofruss/motiv/images/40k%20Imperial%20Guard%2002.jpg)
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Stupidity in X-COM kills you. Very, very dead. And then a Chryssalid hatches from your corpse.
Speaking of which, anybody else who's interested in being resurrected can also put in for it now; we're actually down to four people left in the replacement queue after filling out the roster for Dekker's Pad.
I want, I want!
both things, the stupidity and resurrection thingy.
On an unrelated/lightly related note, UFO:AI 2.4 final is out now and ready for download, got it yesterday from their site.
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I'll sign up for resurrection too. I'm really liking this LP, btw, keep it up!
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(The things I sacrifice for you guys, like sleep...who the **** am I kidding, I didn't sleep because I actually like doing this.)
Dekker's Pad has staged its first successful interception. A UFO was detected on the ground in Libya and Interceptor 3 was launched with Dekker at the controls to hold it down until the Skyranger could arrive. It attempted to take off and flee, but Dekker brought it down with a pair of well-aimed Avalanche AAMs. The team landed while it was still daylight to recover the UFO, while Dekker flew cover against the possibility of interfering local aircraft; Libya is not currently a signatory to the HLPX-COM treaties, but our United Nations mandate gives us authority to operate anywhere we see fit.
The mission was uneventful; no causalities, all aliens killed or captured. We fought the purple guys in red capes again. It did see the first combat use of the HLPX-COM Stun Rod, a glorified taser/cattleprod which has been in our inventory since the beginning of the war, but which there have been few opportunities to use. It also saw yet another alien believe that using stun weapons on Spoon's tank (we built a replacement) was going to work; this time it actually hit the tank, but it's a tank, so all that did was provoke Spoon into killing the alien. The mission also vindicated the switch to Rocket Launchers for heavy weapons support, but we're currently short of laser pistol backup weapons. A new production run of personal laser weaponry for both this squad and future ones is planned, but we have something special in mind about the pistols.
A second hanger is under construction a Dekker's Pad and will be housing a Skyranger; soldiers have been recruited for second squad to operate from that base so that as soon as the Skyranger is fueled up they will be able to respond. Several members of the Area 51 combat squad will be transferred to take care of the rookies.
We're pretty much over any kind of money concerns; we have engineers working full-time at both Area 51 and Dekker's Pad building Laser Cannons, which are then sold at a significant profit to various nations who signed the HLPX-COM treaties. The fiance guys tell me that we make about four million dollars a month from this scheme and that there's no sign of the bottom falling out of the market, so from this point on we shouldn't have too much trouble staying in the black.
In the meantime, though, the aliens have hit Africa with a terror attack again. We're going to Lagos.
Spoon draws immediate fire while the tank is disembarking, but the accuracy of it is very poor. The same cannot be said of his return volley.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/floatthis.png)
It's the floaties and the Demented Fuzzy Shivans again. They take a shot at Spoon, again, and this time strike home. Unfortunately for them, the tank's armor stops the plasma round cold. -Joshua- spots a Demented Fuzzy Shivan lurking near a corner, but it ducks back before he can fire. -Joshua- calls for heavy weapons support. SpardaSon provides, and the alien learns there's no hiding behind corners when they don't exist anymore!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/hidingbehindthenonexistantcorner.png)
SpardaSon misses a second missile shot the next turn at a caped guy. Jg18 takes six shots but only takes out the fence in front of the alien. Axem steps up and puts out an auto burst that strikes home twice, but the alien is still alive enough to return a single plasma round. Axem fires another burst at the alien and takes it down.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/axemskill.png)
TrashMan attempts to launch an incendiary missile through a small park and into a fence, but the spirit of Goober5000 temporarily seizes control of him and he fires it into a low hedge next to Spoon's tank. The tank is sprayed with shrapnel, and the paint on it actually catches fire. (Given my understanding of the game mechanics, Trash has just done something impossible; tanks are not supposed to be able to catch fire. It goes out on the next turn at least.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/atankablaze.png)
A Demented Fuzzy Shivan attempts to close in from the south. -Joshua-, mindful of everything he remembers about Hallfight, takes six auto rounds at it for three hits, and finishes it with a snapshot. Meanwhile, another shot is taken at TrashMan and yet another at the tank without obvious source. Spoon fires into a small building in the hopes of a blind hit, and discovers the alien. He misses, but clears out so TrashMan can take a missile shot. Trash misses and blows away most of two walls of a nice little house, leaving it to -Joshua- to make the killshot.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/trulytrash.png)
Axem spots another Demented Fuzzy Shivan trying to come through the store we've mostly destroyed, and fires off a quick burst for one hit. The lack of knowledge about possible civilians in the area makes SpardaSon reluctant to use his missile launcher, so The E launches an incendiary missile at the creature, which sets it on fire. Jr2 contributes a couple more laser hits. Despite all this, the creature still stands and manages to move away during its turn.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/implacableshivans.png)
Jg18, scouting south and throwing flares for illumination, encounters another alien hugging a fence. He takes a quick snapshot and ducks for cover, while -Joshua-, who is covering him, sprays out six beams and tags the alien with two, killing it. Axem moves after the Demented Fuzzy Shivan that is trying to run. A panicking civilian blocks direct line of sight at it, so Axem blasts through a wall with the first round of an auto burst. The following two rounds deliver the Demented Fuzzy Shivan to his (probably also demented and fuzzy) gods.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/noescapefromaxem.png)
TrashMan makes up a bit for his crappy aim earlier by blasting an alien that was hiding out on a roof which can't be reached from the ground.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/trashrecovers.png)
Jg18 presses south again and spots another alien who is unwisely standing the glare of a streetlight. He gets a hit this time with an auto burst, but not a kill. SpardaSon tries for a rocket shot, but it's a complete wash. The E takes over and manages to kill the alien by putting his rocket into the streetlight pole.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/poled.png)
Curiously, the rest of the streetlight doesn't fall down. In fact, it doesn't even turn off. Physics is a lie!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/poledance.png)
-Joshua- leapfrogs past Jg18, and spots another alien, lurking towards the back of a park. Jg18 opens fire with what is becoming a distressingly familiar inaccuracy; three short bursts, nine rounds, one hit per burst. But he does get the kill.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/jgkills.png)
A single alien remains. While Spoon and SpardaSon close in, the alien abruptly loses his **** and starts firing at random. Three rounds go into a tree, killing it pretty thoroughly, two glance off the front of the tank but do no harm, one leaves a nasty burn mark on the canopy of the Skyranger over sixty squares away and startles Darius, two are fired into the air seemingly at random, and one travels forty squares and hits The E dead center in his armor's chestplate. The armor holds, and The E is uninjured. -Joshua- stops the alien's madness with a single shot into the neck.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/panic.png)
Mission complete. The victory is not grand, though it is a victory. But the true victory here is something much different. For the first time, HLPX-COM has seen proof the alien menace it faces is not implacable. The aliens know fear. And not only do the aliens know fear, the aliens fear us.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/missioncomplete-1.png)
(I still have no idea where we killed a civilian; they don't seem to be playing their death scream when we kill them.)
As a result of the recent influx of redshirts soldiers with the establishment of squad at Dekker's Pad, some promotions have been given to some of our more capable or long-serving soldiers.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Promotions.png)
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**** yeah Armor.
Also, to celebrate me making Captain of this outfit, drinks are on me tonight.
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I can't help but think that this means you're doomed to have a psi strength of 5.
i would like to submit all battutas for service in a martyrdom operation. please assign battututas to bodies bad at shooting, being brave, and not being blaster bombed. the flesh is temporary
general is the first name by the way. it is 'rookie general battuta'. that is the name.
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I can't help but think that this means you're doomed to have a psi strength of 5.
i would like to submit all battutas for service. please assign battututas to bodies bad at shooting, being brave, and not being blaster bombed. i want to die again and again
general is the first name by the way. it is 'rookie general battuta'. that is the name.
I thought it was Holmes? ;7
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Sign me up for cannon fodder
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Not only do I avoid Spoons tank-karma, but I also do the impossible. Call me Immolator.
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You can rebuild me. You have the technology.
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I wanna be the guy!
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Just out of curiosity what is the end game for this? The alien hordes thrown at you eventually are to powerful to overcome? You repulse enough incursions they decide its easier to rock drop the planet instead? It seems pretty open ended I was curious how it typically wraps up.
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Just out of curiosity what is the end game for this? The alien hordes thrown at you eventually are to powerful to overcome? You repulse enough incursions they decide its easier to rock drop the planet instead? It seems pretty open ended I was curious how it typically wraps up.
Once you've captured alien leaders and navigators, you can track the alien ships back to a base...somewhere. You'll have to launch risky missions to capture alien fuel and technology in order to build a craft capable of getting you there. Then it's time to pick your best operatives, charge up the power armor, rack up your heavy plasma and blaster launchers, and make a hail mary attack.
The aliens will intensify their missions. They're not just appearing at random - they have their own point system, own strategic AI, and own objectives. As XCOM becomes more successful, expect to see UFOs scouting for our bases just as we scout for theirs, and alien strike teams dispatched to destroy our strongholds.
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Just out of curiosity what is the end game for this? The alien hordes thrown at you eventually are to powerful to overcome? You repulse enough incursions they decide its easier to rock drop the planet instead? It seems pretty open ended I was curious how it typically wraps up.
It ends beneath red sands.
Or with the annihilation of all human life.
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It ends with this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI&ob=av3e).
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Sounds good, I only gamble with my life anyway.
You folks mentioned that failure to counter terror missions can lead to member states pulling the plug on support and possibly treating with the xenos themselves. Plus apparently there are non client states. Do you ever have to deal with terran based opposition forces? Either in league with the xenos or just the garden variety crazies? I tend to think that would add an interesting layer of complexity having to do COIN Ops and stem alien intrigues.
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Dammit -Joshua-, as soon as I transfer out you take a good record and turn it into a two word report labeled "bad accuracy". :(
Also, we've already encountered collaborators, albeit unwilling ones.
**** Chryssalids.
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The stripes look good on my shoulder, and thank you for accepting my transfer request sir
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Dammit -Joshua-, as soon as I transfer out you take a good record and turn it into a two word report labeled "bad accuracy". :(
That happens to me all the time in Battlefield too 0_o.
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Speaking of which, anybody else who's interested in being resurrected can also put in for it now; we're actually down to four people left in the replacement queue after filling out the roster for Dekker's Pad.
Death will not stop me from protecting the motherland. Stick me in the roster again and give me a stun rod and some proximity grenades; I will fight the alien scum until there is nothing left.
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Dammit -Joshua-, as soon as I transfer out you take a good record and turn it into a two word report labeled "bad accuracy". :(
wat no
-Joshua- one-manned half that mission, it's jg18 whose accuracy is so far down the ****ter it can't see the paper roll anymore.
You folks mentioned that failure to counter terror missions can lead to member states pulling the plug on support and possibly treating with the xenos themselves. Plus apparently there are non client states. Do you ever have to deal with terran based opposition forces? Either in league with the xenos or just the garden variety crazies? I tend to think that would add an interesting layer of complexity having to do COIN Ops and stem alien intrigues.
That aspect wasn't really played out in the game until Apocalypse, which I can't get to work right and I'm not sure I'd want to play even if I could.
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/me re-reads AAR.
Oh, so -Joshua- is upholding the proper legacy. I approve.
How many kills is that between the two (names)? Five? Six? Not bad at all.
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Where was my tank's infantry support?! Is friendly fire all that you brutes are good for!? :hopping:
Good thing that HLPX-Com is well on funds right now and can spare replacements, else I would have made a new laser tank out of your corpses! :beamz:
*Next mission*
MY NEW FREDDAMNED TANK IS ON FIRE!
What's wrong with you (trashman) people?!
Aaaanyway
Congrats to The E, Axem and Headdie for the promotions.
The E is starting to become more and more the grizzlied veteran of the HLPX-Com.
Is there a way to see the kill tally for each operative? I'm interested to see who shot what.
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It ends with this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI&ob=av3e).
Yes, yes it does. Totally.
Though the idea of resurrection in the context of X-COM doesn't really sit well with me, I'd like to resubmit for duty if the roster's getting light.
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Son of Redsniper
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It ends with this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI&ob=av3e).
Yes, yes it does. Totally.
Though the idea of resurrection in the context of X-COM doesn't really sit well with me, I'd like to resubmit for duty if the roster's getting light.
It's not resurrection, it's the advent of human cloning.
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MY NEW FREDDAMNED TANK IS ON FIRE!
What's wrong with you (trashman) people?!
Pyrokinesis?
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It ends with this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI&ob=av3e).
Yes, yes it does. Totally.
Though the idea of resurrection in the context of X-COM doesn't really sit well with me, I'd like to resubmit for duty if the roster's getting light.
It's not resurrection, it's the advent of human cloning.
It's both! X-COM can totally do body swaps, mind downloads, and replacement redshirt bodies. How else did Scotty turn into -Joshua-?
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With the Reaepers blue-colored magical explosion of course!
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Is there a way to see the kill tally for each operative? I'm interested to see who shot what.
for living operatives you can go into the soldier management screen and bring up each soldiers sheet, it will tell you kills, number of missions, how much that soldier's stats have improved over their career and possibly some others.
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Ok what the heck... I'll join in.
Stick me in the USA, eventually give me something to drive... I am a vehicle specialist after all.
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It ends with this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI&ob=av3e).
I dunno, I was thinking of something that sets the tone a bit better. (Plus that's so bleedingly obvious a choice.)
Scotty performed his first interception in the finest tradition of HLPX-COM pilots, shooting down a small alien craft on the shore of Lake Ontario. The team from Area 51 deployed to engage survivors and recover the craft.
The mission was uneventful, except for two things. First, KyadCK, in the process of killing a floatie guy, shot SpardaSon in the side; fortunately SpardaSon's armor prevented him from being killed. KyadCK and the rookies then assaulted the UFO. Second, the UFO was in very bad shape with serious hull breaches on the top, bottom, and on two sides; it's the smallest ship we've ever successfully forced down with Avalanches. How any of the crew survived is a mystery.
Mjn.Mixael celebrated having his name corrected at the same time as he did his promotion to Sergeant. He and Headdie have been transferred to oversee the rookies of Squad 2, operating out of Dekker's Pad. Weapons and armor have been sent from Area 51, and missile launchers, grenades, and the little-used stun rods have been purchased to equip them. When Skyranger 2 arrived, Squad 2 was immediately declared “ready to deploy”, and the only equipment they lacked compared to Squad 1 was Medikits. These arrived only a day later.
We also bid farewell today to an old standby of our weapons. The HLPX-COM Laser Pistol will be considered more important to history as a proof of technological concept than as a fighting weapon. Still, the pistol was for a very long time issued as a backup weapon to our rocket-armed troops, and The E in particular put it to effective use in combat several times.
In its place, we now turn the weapons of the aliens against them. The alien Plasma Pistol will now be the standard backup weapon for our rocketeers. The increase in power is admittedly slight (slightly more than 11%, I think), but noticeable. However the pistol's intuitive and highly effective sighting mechanisms are the real attraction.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/plasmapistol.png)
I'll toss out a proper mission report for Squad 2's first mission after dinner.
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First, KyadCK, in the process of killing a floatie guy, shot SpardaSon in the side; fortunately SpardaSon's armor prevented him from being killed.
Hey, just like in a MULTI game! Sorry Sparda. :lol:
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(Anybody in the soldier queue who wants to fly Skyranger 2, speak up. Otherwise I'll just spring another mod.)
A medium UFO was sighted over South America. Interceptors 1 and 2 were launched to engage. Contact via ground tracking was lost as the Interceptors vectored out, but they quickly reacquired on their own radars. It turns out that Scotty alone would have been enough, as he downed the enemy craft within moments of closing to weapons range. It crashes amid the Andes.
With SpardaSon of the Area 51 team still wounded, and hopeful that the relatively small size of the UFO meant it was unlikely to turn into a serious meatgrinder, the decision was made to launch Skyranger 2 and Squad 2 on their first mission.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Team-2.png)
First alien contact came before Flipside even disembarked the tank as dropping the ramp revealed an alien who was staring at the damage to his ship and somehow hadn't even noticed the Skyranger land. Headdie took it out with a missile shot, and Squad 2 has its first kill. No, nobody fired incendiaries during the day. Somebody ****ed up the coding of mountains in a semi-amusing way, you see. (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Explosions#Mile-High_Madness)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/suddenlyflames.png)
It takes nearly four turns before we encounter another hostile. LordMelvin opens his career as an HLPX-COM operative by firing a three-round burst at an alien who for some unfathomable reason was also facing away from the direction the Skyranger landed in and the missile came from. A single laser beam connects, separating the alien's head from its shoulders.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/melvinskill.png)
More turns pass in relative silence. The rookies aren't as quick as the veterans yet. LordMelvin moves towards the breached hull on this side of the alien ship. He spots another alien and takes it down with a single beam, fired from the shoulder. Despite a lowish number of TUs in comparison to some of the other Rookies, he's showing considerable promise so far. Ravenholme spots another alien lurking in the shadow of the UFO.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/ravenholme.png)
It only takes quick burst to kill it. The little grey bastards have lost a lot of their bite since we got Laser Rifles. (Note from the future: this was a stupid thing to say.)
Another alien appears and takes a couple of shots at LordMelvin, but his aim is off and he ends up hitting nothing but rocks. IronBeer moves in and takes a few shots, but it's a no-hitter. LordMelvin goes in next and finishes it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Lordohgod.png)
One of the aliens we assumed dead in the crash woke up. It scared the hell out of IronBeer, but it didn't grab its gun before coming to its feet, and IronBeer discovers that whatever their technical achievements, a Grey can't hit somebody for crap. IronBeer pulls out his Stun Rod and zaps the bastard. EAT WATTAGE, WORM!
One of the aliens attempts to conduct a psi attack on Mjn.Mixael and force him to panic. It doesn't work.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/nopanics.png)
There's only one working lift aboard the alien ship. Turambar prepares to ascend. He arrives on the top floor and gets immediately plasma'd in the face by an alien who's camping the lift. Shameful dishonorable tactics!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/campers.png)
They saved Goober5000's brain! But not his ability to carry a heavy weapon. Goober5001 ascends the lift after Turambar. The alien's aim is low this time, and the round impacts the chestplate of Goober's armor. The armor stops it cold and Goob is uninjured. He expresses his displeasure at being shot with a quick auto burst that kills the alien, then descends again to clear the way for Ravenholme and LordMelvin to set up overwatch on the upper level.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/overwatch.png)
Another alien emerges to take a shot at Ravenholme. It demonstrates exceptionally poor aim worthy of an HLPX-COM Rookie, missing three shots at five squares away in an enclosed space. Ravenholme fires back, showing considerably better aim.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Ravenown.png)
LordMelvin attempts to advance down the hallway he was guarding, only to discover a rather troublesome problem: the floor blew out along with the side of the alien craft when it was shot down. That hallway is impassable.
The alien's psi attacks finally find a purchase; Ravenholme freezes up and blocks further progress. IronBeer, frustrated, and wary of a possible berserk episode, requests permission to hit him with the Stun Rod; but Headdie denies it. (Apparently, you can't use melee weapons on friendlies.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/ravenderp.png)
Next to ride the derpout train is LordMelvin, who panics after two separate psi attacks on him. An alien and Ravenholme have a frank exchange of views at range of three squares. Two plasma shots and a laser beam later, neither of them has hit. Then psi attacks panic Ravenholme and Berserk IronBeer (who fortunately never turns around to see Goober behind him).
Ravenholme and IronBeer cease responding to their comrades on the radio, even as Ravenholme takes a plasma hit. Both of them briefly space out and Goober notes that IronBeer actually struck him with his fist, but nothing comes of it. A moment later both are in a panic again. Ravenholme is injured and weaponless, but nobody can get to him to treat him and he's frozen up.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/boggingdown.png)
(Both of them were briefly mind-controlled, but Ravenholme had dropped his gun and IronBeer's primary weapon in hand was a Stun Rod; the aliens don't seem to get how to use melee weapons and didn't notice he had a laser rifle in his other hand/didn't turn around to see Goober...or he failed his panic check for the aliens, too.)
Ravenholme is slowly bleeding out a couple of turns later, but hasn't been shot again. Goober rushes forward to treat him quickly when IronBeer briefly regains his senses and moves out of the way, then ducks back. Ravenholme, patched up, recovers his wits and his rifle, and pushes forward. CommanderZane slaps IronBeer as he passes, but the babbling soldier is in his own world.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/progress.png)
Ravenholme then goes nuts again, screaming about aliens coming through the walls and spies sapping his sanity, and then abruptly sprays lasers everywhere, one of which hits Goober. CommanderZane immediately patches Goober up, but this nonsense has stretched Goob's temper to the breaking point. He returns fire. It misses, but being fired on by a friendly temporarily snaps Ravenholme out if it.
Ravenholme, once more himself, pushes into the UFO's command center. A single alien stands there. He will not do so long. Ravenholme, screaming bloody vengeance, takes the alien down with a burst of full auto...and is fired upon by another. Fortunately, two rounds miss and one is stopped by his armor.
Ravenholme ducks back into the hall and deliberately drops his weapon, aware that he may not be mentally functional soon. Goober advocates throwing a grenade into the room, but CommanderZane pulls his stun rod. “No! I want this bastard alive!” IronBeer chimes in, having also recovered his wits, and agrees.
One of the aliens emerges and shoots CommanderZane twice in the chest a second later, wounding him. CommanderZane will not be stopped by such petty matters as a sucking chest wound (seriously, he got screwed up pretty bad and was hanging on with two or three HP) and chases the alien several feet back through the door before hitting it with his stun rod. Then he grabs a corner. Goober is moments behind him, and spots the last alien. This one will not escape. Goober guns it down.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/takehimalive.png)
Mission Complete. The alien IronBeer stunned did not survive the return flight to Dekker's Pad. While the actions of Squad 2 in that case are understandable, they have been warned that in the future aliens captured in the control room of a UFO are to be returned intact.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/missioncompletebadly.png)
Though far from a loss, and in fact one of the best UFO recovery missions HLPX-COM has fought, this mission relied a great deal on luck. I honestly thought I was going to lose, and probably should have lost, Goober5001, Ravenholme, IronBeer, and CommanderZane. That they survived speaks more to the incompetence of the enemy than it does to anything I did.
Victory, as it often does, went not to the smartest or the strongest, but to the side that ****ed up the least.
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Two kills on the ground, two kills in the air. I'm on fire.
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Two kills on the ground, two kills in the air. I'm on fire.
you don't want to say that
Ironically your chances of getting killed as a pilot may be only slightly lower than infantry once terror ships and battleships start turning up. A good commander can usually keep the pilot safe, though.
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Dekker already came within about 1% damage of getting blown to bits by a Terror Ship.
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Oh, I'm aware. I've lost Interceptors before.
I'm just exulting in the accomplishments before my (nigh inevitable) sticky end.
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short of BS and Terror ships these are my least favourite UFOs, some very iffy sight lines, strange corners, a good number of aliens and nothing special on salvage.
NGTM-1R, I'm not sure if you know but if you crouch a solder on the square next to a lift they can look up the lift shaft and shoot anything you see
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Well, despite the fact that it appears I am utter psi-bait, I didn't do too badly in that last mission - Surviving entirely by luck rather than judgement, but I survived and got a couple of kills.
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I believe I have identified HLPX-COM's theme song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KIsv1YOFNys)
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Have I mentioned that this is a great LP? Because I should probably mention that this is a great LP.
I'm rooting for Ravenholme, the weak-minded, pragmatic (At risk of being Psi'd up again? Toss yer gun!) badass that he is :D
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That was uncomfortably close. :lol:
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Well, despite the fact that it appears I am utter psi-bait, I didn't do too badly in that last mission - Surviving entirely by luck rather than judgement, but I survived and got a couple of kills.
Once we get to power armour a laser pistol and a stun launcher might be your best bet,
that way you can knock aliens down all you like but cant do much, if any lasting damage to th erest of the team if you are mind controlled
*spoilers are for the off chance anyone following this dosnt know much about the games story
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I'm glad I could intercept that plasma bolt with my face! Meatshield mission accomplished.
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I'll volunteer to fly SkyRanger 2.
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Awww, apparently I'm a psi-weakling. But I compensate by busting up the alien scum in manly close-combat!
Psi-attacks are bad news- we got really lucky in that last mission. Sweet LP- here's hoping for continued success!
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I'll volunteer to fly SkyRanger 2.
As well as counselling traumatized field operatives into slurping up their drool and running down the ramp for second helpings of Psi induced mind screw?
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Psi is the worst thing, except blaster bombs. I would rather deal with chrysalids than psi.
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Psi is the worst thing, except blaster bombs. I would rather deal with chrysalids than psi.
agreed at least crysalids are predictable and have to put themselves in the line of fire to do their work
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agreed at least crysalids are predictable and have to put themselves in the line of fire to do their work
Vision is hard-capped at 22 squares, IIRC.
A Chryssalid has 110 TUs at beginner and its melee attack costs 15 TU.
The average square costs 4 TU to move through.
23*4=92, 110-92=18. Even at Beginner a Chryssalid can actually approach from beyond your visual range and attack in the same turn.
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That typically invites reaction shots aplenty though, if you're doing anything intelligent with your troops.
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I volunteer to be medic at Dekker's Pad. Someones got to dope 'em and sew 'em.
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agreed at least crysalids are predictable and have to put themselves in the line of fire to do their work
Vision is hard-capped at 22 squares, IIRC.
A Chryssalid has 110 TUs at beginner and its melee attack costs 15 TU.
The average square costs 4 TU to move through.
23*4=92, 110-92=18. Even at Beginner a Chryssalid can actually approach from beyond your visual range and attack in the same turn.
In excel I get
Attack........Action Points........Movement - Attack............Movement cost...............Range
15......................110.............................95.... ...............................4.........................23.75
At daylight vision of 22 the creature would have to be 23 squares away to be able to attack and not be seen, which while possible is unlikely. now night missions i would agree there and from experience I know what you mean and that is when they do their best work, but even after they attack you can still deal with them, a Sectoid or Ethereal can Psi you clean across the map with no way to counter attack
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After a certain point in the game (I forget which turn exactly) the aliens are granted constant vision on all of your troops, which makes psi even more exasperating. Nothing ruins unit cohesion like a berserk - or, worse, a mind control.
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I don't know if I passed muster, but I'd still like to volunteer for meatshield experience!
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I don't know if I passed muster, but I'd still like to volunteer for meatshield experience!
You're in.
You've actually killed a few aliens, and done something incredibly useful.
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Lacking a PzKpfw II Spoonzer to soak up friendly fire, B-team resorts to shooting other operatives to fulfill their quota.
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Can i get a brother/clone/reincarnation/personwiththesamename?
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Sure.
For reference, the current list of people who are still in the queue.
First-Timers
Fury
Alex Heartnet
Backslash
StarSlayer
General Battuta
swashmebuckle
Second Lifers
Rodo
CommanderDJ
Mongoose
Polpolion
Redsniper
Turambar
Special Request
JGZinv, who's slated to operate our next aircraft or tank. (Which probably means the first Firestorm.)
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Oo, I want to reincarnate or something too.
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Signing up for duty sir!
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Special Request
JGZinv, who's slated to operate our next aircraft or tank. (Which probably means the first Firestorm.)
surely we have something better to do with our elerium!
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At the moment, honestly no.
Also paying for all these aircraft is killing our budget despite building Lazor Beamz and there's no way I'll be able to afford a second Interceptor for Dekker's Pad at this rate. I'll probably build a Firestorm and use it to bounce small UFOs over the US and Canada, transfer the second Interceptor to Dekker's Pad.
EDIT: Actually, I take that back. Power Suits are in the near future.
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The Firestorm is an unproven, unreliable, resource-hungry piece of technology. It eats up material that could be better deployed on the battlefield, its range and loiter time are limited (meaning it cannot shadow alien ships to their bases or supply ships to their landing zones very well) and there is a good chance that it will fly Teal'c and O'Neill into deep space in what was honestly a pretty solid episode. We would be stronger without it and I will commit insubordination to voice this opinion, general hammond
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Major Carter, at ease. We have powered armor to build.
(ON THE BOUNCE!...wait we need Flying Suits for that. Dammit.)
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Mission 14 was conducted against a UFO that Nuke downed in Mexico, by the Area 51 squad. Mxlm and Scourge of Ages both distinguished themselves assaulting the UFO. Mxlm, shortly after the breach, shot and killed two Floaters as they attempted a counterassault with two consecutive reaction shots. Scourge of Ages killed one alien during the initial breach, and then recalling the balls-up by Squad 2, got out his Stun Rod. At great personal risk he stunned two aliens. All HLPX-COM personnel survived; in fact, thanks to the freak negation of a Heavy Plasma hit by Scourge of Ages' armor (making him the luckiest trooper ever), none was even injured.
His foresight has paid great dividends. We have previously captured many aliens; badly injured Chryssalids (which were immediately destroyed as too risky to contain), a Reaper too shot up to move but still alive, a Sectoid Medic that stunned itself. After the mission, during preliminary interrogation, it became clear one of the “Floaters” was simply a soldier. The other, however, is an alien pilot and navigator.
We don't know where the aliens come from, aside from a vague “space”, and we've only detected them after they enter Earth's atmosphere. (Note to self; hijack Russian RORSATs, point them outwards.) But we're quite suddenly on our way to finding out.
We've missed a couple interceptions; a large and a medium UFO were detected by Dekker's Pad, but outran pursuit. Nevertheless, many of the signatory nations were quite pleased with our performance this month.
A large UFO has appeared over the Eastern Seaboard and was shot down inland over Canada; it took the combined efforts of both Nuke and Scotty, and most of their missiles, to bring it down. Lessons from the first battle with a ship of this class were remembered, however, and neither Interceptor was damaged. Skyranger 1 has been launched to assault the wreck and recover it.
On approach, flares are passed and incendiaries loaded for night combat. This is the same sort of ship Squad 1 lost the original tank and CommanderDJ assaulting, but despite many missile hits it appears to be essentially intact. Axem chimes in and reminds everyone that the other one looked intact too; all damage there was internal.
The ramp drops as Darius brings the Skyranger in. Spoon's tank and -Joshua- disembark, but draw no fire and locate no hostiles. Then a Floater darts off the roof of the building next to the Skyranger, drops three stories, and runs into a building through the front door. Why he felt the need to do all that when he could have just used the stairs on the roof is a mystery, but Spoon blasts away a section of wall to reveal the Floater before clearing the line of fire and KyadCK blasts the floater. (And the door. Must consider the possibility long-term HLPX-COM agents develop violent reactions to doors.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/doordead.png)
One problem of the switch to rocket launchers was that illumination firing is now sorely restricted, with only a single round from each launcher. SpardaSon puts his rocket out, eager to load something useful. (My kingdom for a grenade launcher loaded with parachute flares or something; the limits of line-of-sight illumination are surprisingly troublesome.) Hopes of an intact ship like that smaller one they recovered a few days ago are dashed as he reports smoke leaking from small rents in the ship's hull.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/smoketank.png)
Due to the presence of Floaters, and the fact the previous ship of this sort carried terror units of the crew race, everyone is told to expect Demented Fuzzy Shivans. Committing anyone to sweeping the area outside the ship so far seems unwise and possibly dangerous, so everyone with a rifle is pulled pack to assault the ship. The missile launchers set up to defend the Skyranger for now. (I'm tempted to cut back on the number of missile troops; having six rifles is proving to be a major limiting factor.)
A Floater reveals his presence by taking repeated shots at Spoon's tank and missing, in the process also blasting Spoon a way to get at him through this building.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dumbass.png)
The Spoonzer Elite will not be denied. The flames you see there are TrashMan actually being helpful to the tank by lighting the area up. It's shocking, I know. I half expected him to fire into the tank despite the wall in the way.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/spoonzerelite.png)
Scourge of Ages continues to prove his worth. The Demented Fuzzy Shivan never had a chance. (The Floater was already dead, though.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dementedfuzzy.png)
Another Demented Fuzzy Shivan appears. They wag their butts in a really weird, uncomfortable-looking way when they're walking pointed directly away from the camera, by the way. Mxlm, please stop it from doing that.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/fuzzybutt.png)
Much obliged.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/unbutted.png)
jg18 and Scourge of Ages make it to the top floor of the UFO safely. KyadCK and mxlm cover the opposite side of the UFO, as everyone keeps hearing door noises, while jr2 and -Joshua- prepared to ascend as well. Jg18 makes our next contact.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/jg.png)
Hoping to be as fondly recalled as Scourge of Ages, he stuns the alien.
An alien, firing from the top floor, misses two rounds at mxlm, but strikes home with one shot from its plasma rifle. It finds a weak point in mxlm's armor and kills him, ending the career of what was honestly one of the most promising recruits HLPX-COM has had. (mxlm's stats on recruitment were top-notch, he was actually better than some of the squaddies.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/fudiaf.png)
jg18 rushes over at the sound of gunfire, finding the alien still looking the wrong way, too late to stop it from killing mxlm. Stun Rod still in one hand, he nonetheless shoots it repeatedly with his laser rifle. Meanwhile, Scourge of Ages confronts another at four squares away. He explains its kind is not welcome here by shooting it twice, but it shoots him back. Another auto burst finishes the job. Jr2 renders first aid.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/firstaid.png)
KyadCK finds an alien hiding in a barn and kills it. The last one, though, is being elusive, taking several turns to hunt down before it's found in a hedged-in field. A Demented Fuzzy Shivan, KyadCK spots it and pulls back. The E calls down the thunder.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/missilestrike.png)
Mission Complete! There was a decent haul of alien tech, another Floater Navigator, and a Floater Medic.
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I request the Auto-cannon back. Missile Launcher are too restrictive :(
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/me salutes mxlm
I volunteer to drop down to Laser rifle if that helps you NGTM-1R
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/me salutes mxlm too
Thanks buddy, your sacrifice will be fondly remembered. And I grabbed some DNA on the way out, we might be able to clone you later.
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Godspeed mxlm o7
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Here's hoping we actually managed to get a pretty accurate brain scan of everyone. What makes you you isn't just the
mech body you're stuck in, ya know. e.g., what are new clones programmed with?
Or is that all in the fiction part of this? Does X-COM actually do clones? If so, are they mostly useful? I mean, a carbon copy of a body is nice, but the experiences that forged the personality have to be backed up to be able to be restored.
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Here's hoping we actually managed to get a pretty accurate brain scan of everyone. What makes you you isn't just the mech body you're stuck in, ya know. e.g., what are new clones programmed with?
Or is that all in the fiction part of this? Does X-COM actually do clones? If so, are they mostly useful? I mean, a carbon copy of a body is nice, but the experiences that forged the personality have to be backed up to be able to be restored.
No, there are no clones or backups. Dead is dead.
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Oh, ok, I heard mention earlier and thought maybe it was a game mechanic that gets acquired later on.
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In memory of Mxlm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqyUAtzS_6M&ob=av3n)
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o7 mxlm
The Spoonzer Elite will not be denied.
:pimp:
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It was just a joke. X-COM doesn't actually clone their soldiers. Personality download would invalidate a squad-based game pretty hard if your best soldiers never died but just came back from the dead after every mission with a burning desire for vengeance.
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It's a joke about how XCOM has as many troopers as they have room and cash for, no matter how bad or good the campaign is going, limited only by barracks size.
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I'm so good at this game.
Godspeed mxlm o7
Should I know what o7 means?
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It's supposed to visualize a salute, even though it would look more appropriate being upside down. :P
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X-COM pays its soldiers 20k a month. 240k a year. US dollars. That's really good money in the soldiering business. The real wonder is why it ends up with such crappy ones, then.
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No quality control... it's all the CoD players itching to show their mettle and immediately find out they can't revert to last save in basic training.
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Upkeep != payment. 20k a month to house, feed, train, and provide medical care for a soldier doesn't leave near that much for paying. Still higher than perhaps normal, but not 140k a year.
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They were all college graduates, too nerdy for ROTC...
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Upkeep != payment. 20k a month to house, feed, train, and provide medical care for a soldier doesn't leave near that much for paying. Still higher than perhaps normal, but not 140k a year.
Actually it could easily be 140k a year since total upkeep is 240k and I can't do math.
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Interceptor 3 just engaged a Medium UFO over Iran; problem is, it didn't have enough missiles onboard to bring it down. Damnation.
EDIT: THE UFO HAS LANDED IN TURKEY. SQUAD 2, YOU'RE UP!
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Do Interceptors ever get laser or plasma weaponry?
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Do Interceptors ever get laser or plasma weaponry?
Yes, you can mount laser cannon (which really you want to spend a lot of time selling on the black market, but what the heck), fusion ball launchers, etc
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Hmmm, does what kind of weapon you're using affect how intact the UFO is when you shoot it down?
Also it occurs to me that you can't run out of lasers when trying to shoot down a UFO.
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Do Interceptors ever get laser or plasma weaponry?
Laser cannon are already available for them, but I'm making them for export instead. The HLPX-COM Laser Cannon has a weapons range of only 21km, in comparison to the Avalanche's 60. Many of the large and medium UFOs require this range, as the Interceptor, for all its other good points, is still an Earthly aircraft. It cannot sustain significant damage at high speed without quickly tearing itself apart. This glass jaw means that closing in against most UFOs is extremely unwise.
Plasma Beams will come in time, at which point the entire Interceptor force will get them.
Hmmm, does what kind of weapon you're using affect how intact the UFO is when you shoot it down?
Also it occurs to me that you can't run out of lasers when trying to shoot down a UFO.
Not in a general sense. The amount of damage the UFO sustains on the ground, in this case, is solely a function of whether its engines blew out. The game seems to decide such things semi-randomly; usually if you shot down the UFO it blows up the engines and makes a mess, but not always.
And of course the alien jackass who designed the ship placed the engines so they'd chain-react if one went up usually.
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Scotty's partly right, though, in that a weapon that's too powerful is just going to annihilate a small UFO and you won't get any crash at all.
As we move into the end-game, though, storming crashed small UFOs will only be important if it means we can grab a Navigator or a Sectoid Leader for psi amp research. We're more likely going to be relying on Hyperwave Decoder intercepts to try to spot a large ship - battleship, for its alien leader, or a supply ship for its stockpiles of elerium/possible route to an alien base - and then storming it when it lands.
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ATM NGTM-1R is using the Avalanche AAM, which is a heavy anti-air missile, Interceptors are able to carry a maximum of 6 in 2 banks, it sounds like NGTM-1R is doing my usual trick of duel loading them which due to how the game handles air intercept means they are fired in volleys
Very Small = 1 volley hit will vaporise the thing.
Small = 1 or 2 volly hits depending on which one it is.
medium = 3 vollys, so usually need 2 interceptors engaging at the same time to do the job.
Large = Only really Terror ships are interceptable with Avalanche but you need 3 interceptors to ensure sucsess
The remaining ufos it is not economical to use avalanche.
other armaments available to him are
Cannon (aka machine gun)
Dont bother, range and damage deficiency will leave the interceptor dead at the hands of anything that can shoot back
Stinger missile
useful against the small ufos, can be used on mediums but it's risky
Lasers are not much better than cannons, ok the range is double and damage much better than the MG but you leave your craft open to be massacred on approach
Plasma Cannon
More damage than avalanche for slightly shorter, uses elerium which is a pain but as a one off cost but the improved performance is usually worth it, especially when paired with the ultimate craft which is not much further down the research tree to the firestorm.
Fusion Ball
A development of the blaster launcher and is the ultimate fighter weapon, uses elerium ammo so is expensive to use but when you have a battleship en route to an undefented or weekly defended base it is your best bet
-
Flipside may not be Spoon, but he might be luckier. The Dekker's Pad tank has yet to be even shot at and seems to ensure a clear LZ. Wait, I take that back, there's an alien in the building next to us. Commander Zane and IronBeer are sent to go get rid of him.
An alien steps out of the darkness and ruins Flipside's perfect record, but misses. Flip does not. The other alien decides to head downstairs and meet his fate, then abruptly chickens out and darts into a back room. Squad 2 surrounds the building.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/youaresurrounded.png)
Another shot is taken at the tank, and once more someone tries to psi out Ironbeer. They fail this time. Flipside pushes up, avoiding more fire, and spots two hostiles. He then clears out so Droid803 can take a missile shot. Solid miss. Headdie shakes his head, muttering something about Rookies, and lifts his own launcher to his shoulder.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/twohostiles.png)
Commander Zane confronts the alien hiding in the building. He kills it easily, and the door behind it. The possibility of a pathological hate of doors among HLPX-COM operatives becomes more credible.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/killthedoor.png)
Mjn.Mixael covers the UFO entrance while two fire teams move to assault. Veers, tear this ship apart until you find the bridge. And bring me the commander, I want him alive!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/darthmixael.png)
An alien takes a distinct disliking to Flipside's tank and throws a grenade. He misses, but the tank is well inside the blast radius. Unfortunately for the alien, it emerges from the smoke and dust...unharmed. Neither living nor dead, but fed by your dread.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/yourweaponsareuseless.png)
Headdie locates the alien. And blows it the hell up. Meanwhile the rifles breach the ship, and confront something...bizarre. We have no idea what the aliens are doing to that poor cow, and we don't really want one.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/blasphemousrituals.png)
The last alien standing, or we thought he was the last, fires two plasma rounds which somehow narrowly manage to miss Goober5001. Another appears and launches stun bombs at our soldiers, but despite hitting, nobody is stunned. The bombs must be defective. Ravenholme hits one alien with a stun , but it doesn't seem to stop it. LordMelvin drops it with a second stun No one is able to quite reach the stunbomber quickly, so Goober takes it down hard.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/itsamassacre.png)
Ravenholme, turning around, notes something weird; there's a door to thin air on the second level.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/doorwaytonowhere.png)
Efforts to attack Goober5001's brain accomplish nothing. His hatred for the alien menace that killed him before is too strong. IronBeer and CommanderZane decide they're not needed to storm the UFO and continue the sweep. The other two rifle fire teams discover something thoroughly bizarre: there's no way up from the area they're in.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/spysappinmahbrain.png)
Veers is posted to watch the doorway to nowhere in case any alien gets desperate enough to use it, while Commander Zane and IronBeer locate a second entrance. Veers is immediately hit by a psi attack, but it fails. IronBeer attempts to ascend, but an alien is blocking the top end of the lift. He kills it, and hopes he's not about to reprimanded for killing the ship's commander. Two psi attacks hit Commander Zane, who immediately starts screaming, but fortunately doesn't fire his weapon during this berserk attack. Everyone else goes up the lift with commendable speed.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/spysappinmahbrain.png)
The second level appears to contain many lifts, and more of what Goober5001 called “blended meat in cans”. IronBeer, finding a lift near where he entered that goes down, takes it. And discovers a bizarre little cul-de-sac on the first floor which appears to have no connection to the rest of that floor, or the outside. The xenopsychologists are going to have a lot of fun figuring this bit out.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/why.png)
The Sectoid Leader just lost his ****, screaming loud enough to be heard on the bottom floor. Sectoids don't actually have a spoken language that we can determine, though they understand ours. He sounds rather frightened. Unfortunately he soon recovers and mindcontrolls Commander Zane. Ironbeer, coming back from the UFO's engine room, encounters and stuns him.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/sorrydude.png)
Ravenholme encounters the alien commander, who's dropped his gun, but one stun doesn't get it. Then another alien, which despite our vigilance, goes unnoticed, threw a grenade and killed itself, Ravenholme, LordMelvin, and the alien we were trying to take alive.
Mission Complete. Dammit.
(Commander Zane disappeared from the list of active soldiers; I suspect a bug.)
-
Harvesters are certainly one of the more unusual designs. about Commander Zane if he was mind controlled when the mission ends then they are considered KIA by the game
-
He wasn't, though; he was stunned, and one turn passed.
-
that is strange then
-
What is this I dont even. :wtf:
Perhaps it doesn't happen very frequently. The buglist on UFOapedia does mention mind-controlled units going MIA at the end of the mission, but not after spending a turn stunned like this.
-
Maybe you woke up right before the end and were still controlled? Maybe another alien tried to mind control you, but you were stunned, but there was a glitch, so you were flagged as 'controlled' even though stunned?
-
I think Yukari is fooling around again. Yeah, that must be it. :nervous:
-
Squad 2 is currently on a Terror Mission to Perth. (Slightly better than Canberra, I suppose.) In the meantime, here's the current soldier list.
Support Staff
Dekker (Interceptor 1)
Nuke (Interceptor 2)
Darius (Skyranger 1)
Spoon (Area 51 Tanks)
Scotty (Interceptor 3)
Flipside (Dekker's Pad Tanks)
MP-Ryan (Skyranger 2)
KIA
Zacam, Rookie; made a kill but did not survive the mission (deceased by plasma rifle shot, then blown up by friendly grenade, Mission 1)
Karajorma, Rookie (deceased by plasma pistol shot, Mission 1)
Mongoose, Rookie; made two kills but did not survive the mission (deceased by plasma rifle and then heavy plasma shot, Mission 3)
Goober5000, Sergeant (blew himself up with a heavy cannon HE round at point-blank, Mission 5)
Swantz, Squaddie (shot with plasma pistol, deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Jeff Vader, Squaddie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Redsniper, Rookie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Polpolion, Squaddie (deceased by plasma pistol shot, Mission 5)
CommanderDJ, Squaddie (deceased by multiple cyberdisc plasma cannon shot, Mission 6)
The First Tank, Cannon Tank (deceased by multiple cyberdisc and heavy plasma shot, Mission 6)
Rodo, Squaddie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 8)
Col. Fishguts, Squaddie (deceased by plasma cannon shot, Mission 8)
Titan, Squaddie (deceased by plasma rifle shot, Mission 9)
The Second Tank, Laser Tank (torn into tiny pieces by a Chryssalid, Mission 9)
Turambar, Rookie (deceased by plasma rifle shot, Mission 13)
mxlm, Squaddie (deceased by plasma rifle shot, Mission 14)
LordMelvin, Squaddie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 15)
Ravenholme, Squaddie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 15
Commander Zane, Squaddie (MIA, Mission 15)
Active Duty
Squad One, Area 51
Axem, Sergeant
The E, Captain
SpardaSon21, Sergeant
TrashMan, Squaddie
Jr2, Squaddie
-Joshua-, Squaddie
KyadCK, Squaddie
Jg18, Squaddie
Scourge of Ages, Squaddie (injured reserve)
Fury, Rookie
Alex Heartnet, Rookie (filling in for Scourge)
The Fourth Tank, Laser Tank (Spoon)
Squad 2, Dekker's Pad
Headdie, Sergeant
Mjn.Mixael, Sergeant
Goober5001, Squaddie
IronBeer, Squaddie
Droid803, Rookie
Firespawn, Rookie
Watsisname, Rookie
Veers, Squaddie
Backslash, Rookie
StarSlayer, Rookie
The Third Tank, Laser Tank (Flipside)
-
Squad 2 is currently on a Terror Mission to Perth. (Slightly better than Canberra, I suppose.)
Slightly.
-
Squad 2, Dekker's Pad
...
Droid803, Rookie
Firespawn, Rookie
Watsisname, Rookie
...
(http://i.qkme.me/54z1.jpg)
-
Okay, so.
Ethereals.
This is going to be reallllly bad, folks.
-
Ethereals **** !!!!!!!!!
-
welp
-
Dudes in cloaks. Flipside has spotted them. But the Tanks of HLPX-COM will not be stopped. Not by you, or the- what the **** is that?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/sectopod.png)
Whatever it was, it dislikes it when Mjn.Mixael shoves a heavy missile up its tailpipe. StarSlayer and a bunch of other people get psi'd, but only StarSlayer gets taken over. He proceeds to kill two people in the transport, while another alien tosses a grenade at the tank. Again it's a miss, but the tank is damaged and Droid is hurt, while Mjn.Mixael and Watsisname panic. We are now on turn three. This one is going to **** in a hurry.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/circlingthedrain.png)
Watsisname, going berserk, fires his rocket launcher while still inside the transport. Fortunately he has an Incendiary round loaded or he would have killed at least three people. Droid comes back inside the transport and FireSpawn renders first aid, while Backslash stuns StarSlayer to stop him from killing anyone else.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/ohgodfire.png)
Mjn.Mixael has a target. He launches his second missile of the night, killing another of cloaked guys. Flipside locates another and blasts it. The mission is pulling away from the drain a little. (I spoke much too soon.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/pullingitout.png)
Headdie locates another and introduces its face to a missile, but then Veers gets mind-controlled and tries to kill Droid with a full auto burst of laserfire that doesn't go through Droid's armor, following with a grenade that kills FireSpawn. Backslash is still panicking, and Watsisname is pointing his missile launcher at random people and pulling the trigger furiously despite the fact it's empty. Flames are still roaring inside the aft end of the Skyranger bay.
Headdie calls it. “Agents, WE ARE LEAVING.” Flipside's tank spots another Ethereal closing in, and blasts it to cover the retreat. The flames, finally, have gone out, which is good news at least for MP-Ryan, who'll have to fly the Skyranger out of here. Headdie and Mjn.Mixael mount the ramp, followed by Flipside's tank.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/ontheramp.png)
Mission complete, but failed. Australian army and air force units raze the combat zone with artillery and airstrikes.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/fissionmailed.png)
But for some odd reason, almost everybody thinks we did really well this month.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/the****.png)
The mission might still have been winnable, but the only effectives I had were carrying missile launchers, and almost out of ammo. I wasn't willing to take the risk.
StarSlayer killed Goober5001, and IronBeer, while Veers grenaded FireSpawn.
-
at last we have achieved xcom.txt
-
I don't blame Veers. But I'm still gonna haunt the hell out of him until the X-COM necromancers stitch a bunch of body parts together and put me back in it.
-
StarSlayer killed Goober5001, and IronBeer, while Veers grenaded FireSpawn.
Damn. And I can't really get a badass pre-mortem one-liner in that situation. At least I can rest easy knowing that the aliens I helped capture are suffering horribly for daring to invade our planet.
Ah well, such is X-com. Hope there was enough of me left to rebuild or clone. And this time, can we try to wire in some psi resistance? Apparently without much of that trait my prospects as a long-term operative may have been ...limited.
-
Dekker has shot down a small UFO over the Sahara. The badly battered Squad 2, now including Rookie General Battuta, is ordered to take the UFO as they can arrive while it's still daylight. MP-Ryan delivers them safely, and within spitting distance of the UFO, a Scout. Droid803 is not present, due to his injuries in Perth.
Headdie announces that anyone who gets psi'd this mission is getting lethal force, and orders deployment. First contact reveals more of the cloaked guys who ****ed the team up so badly last mission. Backslash gets the first kill, dropping one.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/deadethereal.png)
It's the only one in the area outside the ship. This will probably be somewhat bloody. Veers breaches the UFO and proves I'm a terribly bad prophet by gunning two others down with single auto burst. He spots the final one at the back of the ship.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/twodeadethereal.png)
General Battuta misses all three rounds of an auto burst. Watsisname only hits with one, and the alien's still on its feet. Mjn.Mixeal rushes in with his plasma pistol and saves the day by killing it with a single shot.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/mjnsaves.png)
Mission complete. Squad Two gains a small measure of revenge, and proves that they're still a working fighting unit.
We've also had what we think will be two very important breakthroughs on the science front. The first is the ability to tap alien communications. Our first Hyperwave Decoder went active at Area 51 today, and the second should be up at Dekker's Pad in just hours. We will no longer have to rely on radar, which the aliens have proved sometimes able to evade, to detect incursions.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/hyperwavedecoder.png)
The second is the Power Suit.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/powersuit.png)
HLPX-COM Power Suits are armored with alien alloys and use a small alien power source to beat the problem of powering such a creation that has stymied all previous attempts at powered exoskeletons. They provide incredible armored protection; no Earthly weapon save for a heavy shoulder-fired rocket can breach one. Even standard RPG warheads will be deflected. The old Personal Armor could be rather hit-or-miss in its protection, while this should offer some protection even against alien Heavy Plasmas. Thanks to the lightness of the alien materials used and its power source, it also does not impede movement in any way. As an engineering achievement, this is probably the greatest work of the last century.
Good as the Power Suit is, though, our scientists report that an improved design is already on the way.
-
performing according to spec (http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-downsgun.gif)
-
Congratulations on a well executed mission, Sgt Headdie.
-
Thank you, but it's a capable team that makes missions a success.
-
Awesome, power suits. Now whenever I lead my subordinates into combat I shall be madly ranting about alien filth and xenos scum defiling Holy Terra.
-
The next one of you assholes that lights the leather seats in my bird on fire is going to be testing how well X-COM armour works as a glider from 30,000 feet, comprenez? At least Darius only had to repaint the exterior of his. *harrumph*
-
This is the HLPX-COM Flying Suit. A modification of the Power Suit, it includes additional armor for even more protection, and a small alien-tech gravity-wave device. With it, soldiers can move through the air in fashion similar to the alien Floaters, offering greatly expanded tactical options. Production of suits for all current HLPX-COM operatives is underway.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/flyingsuit.png)
Deployment against a UFO downed by Scotty over California was the first combat use. -Joshua- and SpardaSon were issued the two prototype suits. The mission was fought in daylight. Neither Flying Suit was hit, but both troopers wearing them scored kills and reported the tactical mobility granted by flight was highly useful.
An alien ship, Floaters on an abduction mission, was detected in Siberia and though interception failed due to lack of sufficient firepower, it landed. Skyranger 2 and MP-Ryan were dispatched; the ship had landed in daylight and the hope was to assault it with the reconstituted Squad 2 during the day. This will also be the first test of a new addition to the HLPX-COM arsenal.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/heavyplasma.png)
The alien Heavy Plasma. Veers has been issued one for field-testing. (Had this been against psionic enemies, however...)
The tank took a heck of a lot of fire when it hit the ramp, six shots. It's badly damaged, but you can't stop an HLPX-COM tank easily. Flipside returns fire and kills one of his tormentors. Mjn.Mixael disposes of the other.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/secondhostiledown.png)
Headdie, disembarking, is abruptly killed by plasma fire which breached his armor. Watsisname is unable to locate the source. This is most resistance we've had on Turn One since the mission to Shanghai.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/lostheaddie.png)
At least two more Floaters are in contact. Watsisname trades fire with one and wins. The number stays at two as Flipside spots another, but swashmebuckle drops that one for with his first burst fired in live combat. Mjn.Mixael brings it down to zero with another missile.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/andthentherewerenone.png)
Another Floater fires his weapon and ducks back. Flipside locates it but misses a shot and pulls back. General Battuta is determined to maintain his record for poor accuracy and ineffectually sprays six laser beams. So does Watsisname. Backslash finally puts the alien down.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/finally.png)
A single alien attempts to stop the initial breach, but it is unceremoniously shot to death by Backslash. Watsisname drops another with a couple snapshots in the next room. Rodo Mk2 is next at bat, where he kills an alien with a single shot breaching yet another door. This ship, unlike the last time Squad 2 hit a Medium UFO, is intact.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/intact.png)
Veers is first up the lift. He's shot at twice by an alien, but his armor stops it. He returns fire with his Heavy Plasma. One hit leaves the alien in terrible shape, practically turning the Floater inside out.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/denied.png)
Mjn.Mixael reminds the team that command wants the bridge crew alive...if practical. If not...well, if not, they'll understand. Rodo Mk2 takes point, and then takes a heavy plasma blast that kills him. The_Force, who's never explained if he's a Jedi or a cop, is next in line. He puts out three rounds but only hits with one. Nobody else reaches a position to fire on the alien before it takes a second shot. The_Force's armor absorbs one plasma hit, but can't stop the second. He too goes down with a gaping chest wound. There is no time to mourn. The team pushes forward and Watsisname kills the alien who's killed two HLPX-COM troopers.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/bleedingforground.png)
Another alien runs forward to confront Watsisname. It misses its shot, and Watsisname ensures that it will never fire another. He runs forward and stuns the last alien outside the bridge.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/rampage.png)
Mission Complete, in what is becoming the traditional Squad 2 way; leaving bits and pieces of troopers scattered around. However, important progress was made; the stunned alien is a Leader.
-
Squad 2, we need to talk about those survival statistics. In this outfit, we get the job done, and then we go on to the next. Can't do that when you're dead, so don't start thinking that just because there's spiffy new armor in the pipeline, you're already wearing it, understood?
-
I should note that StarSlayer somehow disappeared as well (perhaps he was fragged by an irate sergeant), so it's actually worse than it sounds.
-
shootin like i postin
-
Squad 2, we need to talk about those survival statistics. In this outfit, we get the job done, and then we go on to the next. Can't do that when you're dead, so don't start thinking that just because there's spiffy new armor in the pipeline, you're already wearing it, understood?
This.
Listen Squad 2
Sure, you guys managed to get some stuff done. Sure the last mission was a success. But those survival rates gotta go up... :nono:
-
yo squad one y'all can't just talk **** like that. settin youself up for karmic blaster bombs
~puffs on bong~
-
yo squad one y'all can't just talk **** like that. settin youself up for karmic blaster bombs
~puffs on bong~
As long as you're the one taking the shots, I think they'll be fine.
-
shootin like i postin
I didn't even mention the part where at a range of three squares you missed a three-round burst at an unarmed floater, and Mjn.Mixael had to kill it with his pistol.
-
I propose that Squad two gets renamed as the Mobile Infantry, and be done with it. That way, the mortality rate is directly proportional to how badass we are.
-
Deployment against a UFO downed by Scotty over California was the first combat use. -Joshua- and SpardaSon were issued the two prototype suits. The mission was fought in daylight. Neither Flying Suit was hit, but both troopers wearing them scored kills and reported the tactical mobility granted by flight was highly useful.
Interestingly enough, I have started playing Tribes: Ascend today - Being issued flying suits is one hell of a coincidence 0_o.
-
shootin like i postin
I didn't even mention the part where at a range of three squares you missed a three-round burst at an unarmed floater, and Mjn.Mixael had to kill it with his pistol.
hey, man, i don't dig this military stuff. luminous beings are we, you know? i bet my psi strength is 99
peace on earth. off earth too
-
dammit, I can't seem to survive my first mission :p
-
Hmmm... I enlist in the cause! A bit late, yeah, but whatevs, better than never.
Preferably as support or heavy weapons, but if you need another redshirt that's fine too.
-
dammit, I can't seem to survive my first mission :p
At least you weren't gapped out of existance. :P
-
As saddened as I am to die, the capture of a leader in the same mission more than makes up for it, Good luck Team 2, and know I hold no malice as a result of my death.
Oh and please enlist me on the re-incarnate list
-
put me in. i want to be like battuta, i mean really who doesnt
-
Sign me up for resurrection - Dekker's Pad is in the UK, so it's concievable I've got some children out there with a bone to pick with Alien Invaders.
-
yo squad one y'all can't just talk **** like that. settin youself up for karmic blaster bombs
~puffs on bong~
As long as you're the one taking the shots, I think they'll be fine.
:wakka:
-
Squad 1 might be good at fighting the aliens, but Squad 2 has that certain je ne sais quoi. I think that the military experts on this board will back me up that that is how most wars are actually won.
-
Mmmk, been playing a bit meeself, and... how to you instruct your troops to fire? I won one battle with setting the little thing for saving TU for reaction snap / aimed / auto shots, (lost 4) but after being decimated several times, I realized that there has to be a fire command... How do you do that? I think I was only using reaction snap shots all this time. :nervous:
-
There should be little icons in the bottom left to select snap/aimed/auto.
-
Yes, but how do you target the alien? I don't know how to get the crosshair thing that I see in some snapshots. Clicking the alien doesn't seem to work. Nor does right-click.
-
Click the icon in the lower left, then click the alien.
-
You have to click the icon of your weapon, pick what kind of attack you want to use (you'll see how many TUs it costs), and that should give you the crosshair. It will turn yellow when a valid target is selected.
Right click to de-select that firing mode so you don't end up accidentally murdering your whole squad.
-
Sweet, thanks. Do I have to run around collecting artifacts from the alien corpses before leaving, or is that automatic once victory is achieved?
-
Automatic
e: unless you're evacuating instead of winning the mission
-
The new Hyperwave Decoders are both a blessing and a curse. We're doing a lot of deployments now, so the "two weeks" time to build and deploy Flying Suits is going to seem a lot longer than it would have before the Decoders came online. Squad One and Squad Two are both inbound to landed UFOs in Siberia; Squad One is at full strength, while Squad Two has been reinforced by Alex Heartnet from the Squad One reserve and will deploy with seven soldiers and the tank. Squad Two will arrive before dark, but Squad One won't. Fortunately, they have four Flying Suits now.
Detailed action reports to follow.
-
Squad 2 took the ship without losing anyone, though several people sustained injury. I know, I'm shocked too, particularly since there were 3 Floaters in the second anteroom. Several Floaters attempted to hide on top of their own UFO where Squad 2 couldn't reach them, but that didn't end well for them when there was a hill the same height next to it. Mjn.Mixael performed well as squad sergeant. He was injured when he had to clear a room using his missile launcher rather than any of the more normal methods (there were three enemies in it, most of them facing the door, so reaction fire to any weapon that didn't kill them all at once was going to happen), but only a turn later he gunned down a Floater with his pistol as it came through the door. Without him, it's very likely two or three people would have died to clear that room. Watsisname has taken over Headdie's missile launcher and while admittedly still getting into shape, did reasonably well.
Squad 2 also scored a moral victory of sorts. As they closed in, the ship's commander started screaming and sprayed plasma fire around the bridge, as Squad 2's systematic destruction of his command was too much for him to handle. He recovered his wits and went down shooting for a purpose (but he missed), but Alex brought him down with a well-aimed laser shot.
Squad 1's Skyranger will be landing shortly.
-
Holy crap, Squad 2 actually survived a mission with no casualties and panicked an alien ship commander? That is awesome :o
-
Here in sunny Siberia, well above the Arctic Circle, it's a balmy -34 degrees. We'd tell you if that's Farenheit or Centigrade, but the last guy who tried to look blinked and his eyelashes froze to his cheek. Those of you in personal armor, well, I hope you wore your thermal underwear.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/siberia.png)
One alien challenged KyadCK to rifles at twenty paces. It missed (this is a recurring theme with Flying Suits by now), but KyadCK did not.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Kyad.png)
TrashMan and KyadCK lead the way towards the UFO with their Flying Suits, while -Joshua- and SpardaSon use theirs to scout the area in concert with still ground-bound The E and and Jg18. Two more rifles are used to back up Trash and Kyad, but Fury and Scourge of Ages have something special: Heavy Plasmas.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/heavyplasmas.png)
The first real test of the Flying Suit: TrashMan just got shot. UnFortunately he survives, and returns fire to kill the alien. Another alien shoots the still-Personal Armored The E, and meets a similar fate. Neither HLPX-COM operative is injured.
We're on the Ice Shelf here, quite close the edge in fact. What the aliens thought they could abduct out here is mystery. (Maybe they're dealing with the Whale Probe from Voyage Home.) How the ship didn't crash through the ice is also a mystery; presumably it's still under power and is somehow negating most of its mass. We know they have a non-reaction drive.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/iceshelf.png)
Anybody who goes into the water and isn't in a Flying Suit isn't coming out alive. The tank is carefully kept away from the edge where possible.
KyadCK meets another alien. He's tempted to just punch it and test the suit enhancements, but The E would probably get fairly pissed at him for risking that, so he just shoots it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/punchout.png)
Amazingly, the alien takes all three hits and fires back, but Kyad's armor stops it. Scourge of Ages uses his Heavy Plasma to ensure the alien's demise.
Meanwhile, both The E and Jg18 ran out of energy heading to the map corners and back. No stamina, guys! They and SpardaSon/-Joshua- are told to take a break, as being exhausted in this environment is potentially life-threatening. The rest of the team can handle the UFO. (I actually did not end up regretting writing that.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/nostamina.png)
Something happened here; plasma shots were exchanged and something blew up, but **** if I know what. I never saw an alien, and though I heard one die, there's no body. I suspect, based on past experience, that it's the crappy coding and design of this class of UFO. Things can occasionally be seen through exterior walls and the floors, implying a line of sight that any attempt to actually fire will quickly disprove.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/whatthe****.png)
Everyone assembles around the lift. Kyad goes first and clears the hall towards the bridge with a burst of laser fire, killing one alien. TrashMan advances next. Fury and Scourge of Ages will follow soon with their heavy firepower. No further resistance is met before arriving at the door to the bridge.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/watnow.png)
TrashMan leads the breach. He trades remarkably inaccurate fire with the alien captain; both sides miss their first auto bursts, but Trash recovers by not missing his second. Kyad storms in after him while Fury and Scourge grab corners; but the room is empty save for the dead captain.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/stormingthebridge.png)
Mission Complete. The first real combat use of the Flying Suit can be considered an unqualified success.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/missiondone.png)
By the time Squad One returns to base, sufficient Flying Suits have been completed to issue them to the whole squad. Squad Two will start receiving them in the very near future.
Many UFOs have been detected inbound to the Asia/Australia area, but we've largely been unable to intercept them and the Skyrangers are too slow to follow them to their operational areas. A new base is being constructed on Luzon in the Phillipines, with the working codename "Storm Track" to monitor this activity and stage interceptions out of. Anyone with a better name, make your suggestions.
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squad one, y'all are tryhards
i lit one up last night and had a thought: maybe all those UFOs in australia are, like, kickin it, y'know? maybe they built some kind of a *puff*
some kind of a
like, a den, man, you know? like a safe place, to escape worldly persecution. can you dig?
cows, man. ****ed up what they do to cows
-
Dekker and Interceptor 3 conducted our first sortie with the Plasma Beam. The hapless Large Scout managed to flee over water after buzzing Cairo, but Dekker took it down with the first shots fired. This weapon will replace Avalanches on all our Interceptors.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/plasmabeam.png)
The Plasma Beam itself is a copy of UFO weaponry, modeled after the damaged weapons we pulled off the pair of Terror Ships we shot down. Our copy should actually be better than those, in range at least, because we up-engineered it for a fixed mount; our Interceptors do not require the multi-vector engagement capability of alien ships.
In other news, our interrogation of the Floater Leader Squad 2 captured at such cost has yielded important information. We now have a rough location for the alien's staging point for attacking Earth.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/finalsolution.png)
We think, though we are not certain, that the aliens are launching from somewhere in the Cydonia region. HLPX-COM is coordinating with member governments and world space agencies to stage what we've termed "Operation Spoilsport", a nuclear carpet bombardment of the entire Cydonia region. The main limiting factor is time; while the first Spoilsport rockets will launch inside the week, they won't impact for over a year. It is hoped that capturing an alien commander and interrogating him will both give us an exact location to tighten the bombardment pattern, and hopefully a more timely means of assaulting the base; perhaps by hijacking a UFO to Mars to deliver the warheads more quickly.
The interrogation gave us disturbing news: the aliens have a base somewhere on Earth.
-
Am I still a squaddie? Ranks in X-Com work in mysterious ways.
-
Although, Oh Captain My Captain, The E, I do wonder how you managed to skip Lt.
In any sense, I volunteer myself for research, engineering, and development. :D
-
There are no Lieutenants in this outfit. We go straight to the good ranks.
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Yay, I didn't die in my first sortie.
-
In any sense, I volunteer myself for research, engineering, and development. :D
Congratulations, you're the autopsy doc now. I've been meaning to throw out all our assembled research on that.
-
Although, Oh Captain My Captain, The E, I do wonder how you managed to skip Lt.
In any sense, I volunteer myself for research, engineering, and development. :D
Brother Thaeris I will count on your speedy advancements to yield a battle wagon of great capabilities in which to mutilate our cowardly foes from afar.
-
Oh dear. That's a lot of blood on my hands. Not a particularly auspicious start to a short career. Oh well, if I ever make it out of whatever psych ward I must have been sent to I wouldn't mind having another go.
I did after all request to Die Standing.
-
You'll probably yet get a chance (and god does that scare me), as Squad 2 has some real stinkers on it currently.
Hades and esarai must have faked their entry physicals; even in powered armor with an antigravity system, they can't carry the weight of a laser rifle, a medikit, and a grenade.
Brother Thaeris I will count on your speedy advancements to yield a battle wagon of great capabilities in which to mutilate our cowardly foes from afar.
You're slated to operate Interceptor 4 out of Dekker's Pad, at least until the Hanger at Storm Track goes up.
-
Can UFOs you shoot down effect repairs in the field and leave again?
-
Can UFOs you shoot down effect repairs in the field and leave again?
In theory, no, but if you leave a crashed UFO alone too long, it disappears from the map. This possibility is one of the reasons why it might be so. (Other suggested ones are that local forces attempt recovery or that the aliens destroy the ship and themselves.)
-
The interrogation gave us disturbing news: the aliens have a base somewhere on Earth.
i told you, man, i am an oracle
-
We're on the Ice Shelf here, quite close the edge in fact. What the aliens thought they could abduct out here is mystery..
Taking ice core samples to investigate climate change is a well established scientific practice :cool:. So scientists, obviously.
Does the cold weather actually have an effect on the squad? Or are the marines only not allowed to enter the water becasue they can't swim?
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i told you, man, i am an oracle
THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU PREDICT YOU'D SHOOT BACKSLASH IN THE ASS AND NOT TAKE THE SHOT!?
Because that just happened. At least Hades and esarai managed to stun an Ethereal. Bastard took three hits with the Stun Rods before he went down.
Does the cold weather actually have an effect on the squad? Or are the marines only not allowed to enter the water becasue they can't swim?
I think it may have actually increased energy expenditure, hence E running out, but it might not. There's no water on any other kind of map, and frankly if you go swimming inside the arctic circle you probably have a death wish anyways.
Mind you, personal armor there isn't the wierdest climate-related thing you can do in X-COM.
Because you can wear the jumpsuit on the first stage of the Cydonia assault.
-
First: I am utterly ashamed of myself for not noticing this thread up untill now. Good work, a nice glass of Red Wine and this had been the joy of my Sunday evening.
Second: Since the third base is on Philippines, and the names of other bases also have some sort of a connection to something, how about Typhoon Phil (sounds like a G-Grade Western Hero...)
Third: I am also enlisting myself to be a part of the defence, sir. Put me into good use, if needed.
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If you wanna capture alien tech and leaders, isn't it a better idea to just let the ufo land and capture it unscratched? As opposed to shooting the snot out of it, and only getting a barely intact one back?
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If you wanna capture alien tech and leaders, isn't it a better idea to just let the ufo land and capture it unscratched? As opposed to shooting the snot out of it, and only getting a barely intact one back?
for one thing it is not forced to land at any point, especially the smaller ships as they are only doing survey flights.
secondly any that get away from you unscathed go against you at the end of month
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Do UFO's ever try to chase and shoot down the dropship mid-flight like they occasionally do in UFO:AI? And if they do, do you have an opportunity to rescue the survivors?
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Do UFO's ever try to chase and shoot down the dropship mid-flight like they occasionally do in UFO:AI? And if they do, do you have an opportunity to rescue the survivors?
No, UFOs will never attack your aircraft, whether interceptor or Skyranger. If they scout out one of your bases, though, they will send in a battleship at hellacious speed beyond the match of all interceptors.
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My apologies to Firespawn, I have personally written to your family describing your heroic actions and personality. Assuming mail actually leaves the base that is..,
And atleast it's good to see the game progressing well. I've tried my hand a few times at it, getting better. Worst part was when the base was attacked, I had not even attacked 3 ufo's at that point.... :/
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Why not take a potshot or two at the craft, hopefully damage it, and then drop back to see if it lands? OFC, then it would probably just RTB, however, that may not be such a bad thing if you are following it all the way back. ;7
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Victory, as it often does, went not to the smartest or the strongest, but to the side that ****ed up the least.
This is why, on these missions, it's good to recite Shepard's Prayer -- named after Alan Shepard on the first manned Mercury mission. "Dear God, please don't let me **** up."
StarSlayer killed Goober5001
Well, crap. Two lives, and they've both been cut down by friendly fire (albeit the first one self-inflicted). And I appeared to have promising psi resistance, too. :( Put Goober5002 in the queue then?
By the way, unless you have an incredibly psi-resistant squad, I recommend retreating immediately from an Ethereal terror mission. You incur a moderate penalty from the civilians killed by the aliens, but because you landed you avoid the massive penalty caused by ignoring the terror site entirely.
In other news, our interrogation of the Floater Leader Squad 2 captured at such cost has yielded important information. We now have a rough location for the alien's staging point for attacking Earth.
[...]
We think, though we are not certain, that the aliens are launching from somewhere in the Cydonia region.
Fortunately, Mars Global Surveyor is currently in orbit around the planet, sporting much higher resolution cameras than the defunct Viking probes, albeit lacking any orbital bombardment capability. Any chance of posting classified reconnaissance imagery?
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Hey, anyone here heard of UFO2000 (http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/)? It's open source, basically a fan-made engine, that comes with fan-made assets, but it's made to be able to drop in the original UFO: Enemy Unknown game assets if you bought the game and have them. Right now it's only multi as the AI isn't finished yet, but I thought I'd mention (I was perusing UFOPaedia (http://www.ufopaedia.org/). I'm sure it's old news to almost everyone here, but if anyone was still in the dark, that's a great site for info).
EDIT:
but because you landed you avoid the massive penalty caused by ignoring the terror site entirely.
This I didn't know, and would have proved useful. I lost half my crew and didn't have backups yet, and three of the four survivors were injured, with only one having healed by the time I got a Terror Site, and my tank was waiting on delivery or waiting on rounds, I forget which. It wasn't Ethereals, but you can't do squat with two people usually. If I'd have known this, I would have landed, maybe taken a quick few potshots if I felt lucky (I can always re-load) and then avoided support dropping from Asia.
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Hey, anyone here heard of UFO2000 (http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/)? It's open source, basically a fan-made engine, that comes with fan-made assets, but it's made to be able to drop in the original UFO: Enemy Unknown game assets if you bought the game and have them. Right now it's only multi as the AI isn't finished yet, but I thought I'd mention (I was perusing UFOPaedia (http://www.ufopaedia.org/). I'm sure it's old news to almost everyone here, but if anyone was still in the dark, that's a great site for info).
EDIT:
but because you landed you avoid the massive penalty caused by ignoring the terror site entirely.
This I didn't know, and would have proved useful. I lost half my crew and didn't have backups yet, and three of the four survivors were injured, with only one having healed by the time I got a Terror Site, and my tank was waiting on delivery or waiting on rounds, I forget which. It wasn't Ethereals, but you can't do squat with two people usually. If I'd have known this, I would have landed, maybe taken a quick few potshots if I felt lucky (I can always re-load) and then avoided support dropping from Asia.
Is that still under development?
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Mmhmm..
New beta version : 0.9.1176
Mon, 5 Mar 2012
EDIT: UFO2000 on the social networks
Tue, 13 Mar 2012
Appears that there exists an ufo2000 group on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=149809565046202), and it has been there since 2010. Additionally, now we have a new ufo2000 google+ page (https://plus.google.com/u/0/110397892164338688006/posts) to provide complete social networks coverage :)
New beta version : 0.9.1176
Mon, 5 Mar 2012
Not too many changes overall, but the necessity of rolling out this new release is justified by the default server address update. Also windows binaries are rebuilt with the recent versions of the library dependencies (allegro, zlib, libpng, ...), and some of them contain security bugfixes. Big thanks to all contributors!
Release notes (more details in svn (http://ufo2000.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ufo2000/trunk/?sortby=rev&view=log) or git (http://ufo2000.net/gitweb/?p=ufo2000;a=shortlog) changelog):
Fixed bug #572 ('Add some feedback for trying to move without energy')
Fixed bug #603 ('Messages about TU reservation flood equipment screen')
Fixed bug #617 ('English messages need corrections')
Minor cleanup and refactoring, the game can be compiled with clang++
Compatibility with libpng-1.5
Big endian bugfixes
Hungarian translation
Russian translation update
.
New beta version : 0.9.1142
Sun, 23 May 2010
Release notes (more details in svn (http://ufo2000.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ufo2000/trunk/?sortby=rev&view=log) or git (http://ufo2000.net/gitweb/?p=ufo2000;a=shortlog) changelog):
Minor code cleanups and partial compiler warning fixes
A bit less ugly looking notification when trying to start the game between players with incompatible versions
Resolved bugs:
#595 ('Female unit changing bug ')
#582 ('Demolition Pack of UFO2000 Weapon Set has one wrong sprite')
#554 ('Assert failed at line 195 of units.cpp')
#566 ('Wrong map is loaded when starting the game : Triggers CRC')
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ahhh, ok, I asked because the last time I downloaded it there seemed to be no difference between that version and one I downloaded a year ago. Probably found an old link or something.
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See EDIT, above. ;)
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Less talky, more reports!
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If you wanna capture alien tech and leaders, isn't it a better idea to just let the ufo land and capture it unscratched? As opposed to shooting the snot out of it, and only getting a barely intact one back?
In theory, yes, but at this point in the game we're waiting on Battleships or a base raid for the last pieces of the puzzle. And you can't shoot down a Battleship with Interceptors unless you stack on five or six and are prepared to lose several of them. While I'd like to strafe alien bases in preparation, that's not going to happen either.
Shot-down ships are less dangerous to assault since they usually kill some crew and might obviate the need for a door breach, so without a necessary research or material goal, I'll shoot them down and take on what's left where possible.
That and if you shoot down the scouting part of the mission, very often the rest of it doesn't come.
By the way, unless you have an incredibly psi-resistant squad, I recommend retreating immediately from an Ethereal terror mission. You incur a moderate penalty from the civilians killed by the aliens, but because you landed you avoid the massive penalty caused by ignoring the terror site entirely.
I honestly considered it, but I'm operating in the psionics dark still; we only just captured a live Ethereal and haven't researched it yet, and we never took a live Sectoid Commander or Leader to give us psionics before now.
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Dekker and Interceptor 3 were lost attempting to intercept a Terror Ship en route to Lagos; he approached the enemy ship too closely and was killed by return fire. We're very low on Elerium right now, so it's unlikely we'll be able to replace the plasma beams his interceptor was carrying for some time. Hanger 1 at Dekker's Pad will remain empty in the meantime. JGZinv and Interceptor 4 will have to cover Europe and North Africa.
Squad 2 deployed to Lagos. They encountered Ethereals; immediate dust-off was ordered. We're not ready to deal with that.
There is some good news. We have studied alien psionics and think we can, if not construct a defense, at least determine who is vulnerable. We may also be able to create weapons for offensive psionics.
We also have one other new piece of gear.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/hovertankplasma.png)
The Hovertank/Plasma is a reconstruction of an alien Cyberdisc to incorporate a human-style turret rather than the all-aspect firing system the aliens had; we weren't able to replicate it. Use of the unofficial nickname “Spoonzer 3” is highly encouraged.
Finally, a possible replacement for Interceptor 3 has been proposed; the alien-tech Firestorm. Unfortunately, the Firestorm uses Elerium as fuel, and we're critically short of it, so it's unlikely we'll build one.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Firestorm.png)
We also currently have three Floater UFOs down over North America, a Terror Ship, a Supply Ship, and a Large Scout. Squads One and Two are both deployed.
Detailed action reports to follow sometime today or tonight.
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I would strongly advocate waiting for the avenger
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Looking good >=D
Think I might do one of these with UFO: ET Gold with Unimod - Though it's really balls to the wall hard too, even on the rookie levels D:
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for one thing it is not forced to land at any point, especially the smaller ships as they are only doing survey flights.
secondly any that get away from you unscathed go against you at the end of month
In theory, yes, but at this point in the game we're waiting on Battleships or a base raid for the last pieces of the puzzle. And you can't shoot down a Battleship with Interceptors unless you stack on five or six and are prepared to lose several of them. While I'd like to strafe alien bases in preparation, that's not going to happen either.
Shot-down ships are less dangerous to assault since they usually kill some crew and might obviate the need for a door breach, so without a necessary research or material goal, I'll shoot them down and take on what's left where possible.
That and if you shoot down the scouting part of the mission, very often the rest of it doesn't come.
Gotcha, thanks.
Also, **** yeah for the Spoonzer 3!
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The Spoonzer 3 gets its first kill.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/enemiesofman.png)
This Floater thought that moving under cover of trees, he'd be safe from reaction shots. He didn't reckon with SpardaSon and a missile launcher.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/deathto.png)
Hopes for an intact ship and the Elerium it would carry are dashed by smoke leaking from the wreck. -Joshua- pops up from behind the treeline like some kind of tiny attack helicopter to blow this Floater away. His rockets are a bit too large for 70mm or 85mm folding fin, though.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/mi99joshua.png)
TrashMan and KyadCK confront a Demented Fuzzy Shivan which tried to catch them by surprise at the door. It failed. Badly. Between them they fired four reaction shots into it and killed it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/reactionfire.png)
Spoon puts two shots into a Demented Fuzzy Shivan. It flees towards the other entrance, where it then encounters everyone planning to breach the door. They all miss, though, and the Hovertank will not be denied. Another round into the Demented Fuzzy Shivan's fuzzy rear end. It's still alive by some magic. Jg18 finishes it off with a laser beam after it hides in the ship.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/gotyounow.png)
Axem and The E use their Flying Suits to enter the top level of the UFO through the deployment bays for terror units.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/infiltrate.png)
The E storms the bridge, alone, and kills three aliens. Fury and Scourge of Ages, who were entering via the opposite terror unit deployment bay, are rather disappointed.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/disappointed.png)
First recovery complete, but Squad 1 still has at least one more ship to recover.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/1complete.png)
Two UFO recoveries to go. Squad 1 will handle the Large Scout that crashed near Area 51 as soon as the Skyranger refuels. (I'm pretty sure you used to be able to run multiple ops with one Skyranger trip, but not now.) Squad 2 is still inbound to the Supply Ship that crashed in Canada.
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How many Spoonzerkampfwagen IIIs can be used by a squad? Just one?
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How many Spoonzerkampfwagen IIIs can be used by a squad? Just one?
It eats up space in the Skyranger equivalent to 4 troops.
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How many Spoonzerkampfwagen IIIs can be used by a squad? Just one?
Basically, as many as you can stuff in the Skyranger or other transport and still have soldiers aboard. We could in theory have up to three deploy with every Skyranger, but we'd only have two humans on the team then. (Skyrangers transport 14 people, a tank counts as 4.)
When and if we go to Cydonia, depending on the psi strengths of everyone available, we may deploy with as many as four or five tanks in both hover and tracked laser varieties, though I suspect it'll just be only two or three.
Assuming I go with psi discovered. My first Cydonia assault I didn't. This time we should, but...
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I could be wrong but I think the limit is 2, the problem there is like General Battuta says you loose 4 soldiers in floor space for each HWP, so a transport with 2 HWP can only carry 4 soldiers which is not really enough, like with tanks in modern warfare although capable of taking ground they are better used as force multipliers as all but 2 UFO classes can only be entered by soldiers and all UFOs have spaces which only a soldier can more freely through with the bridges on all multi deck UFOS (where the highest ranking alien is usually found) can only be accessed by soldiers so while tempting, especially against Etherals it is usually not recommended.
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Etherals can cause panic and make troopers turn on eachother?
Don't we have power armor now? And aren't laser pistols incapable of penetrating it?
why not equip everyone with them and go after the Etherals?
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Okay, I was curious since I figured tanks where immune to Psi and Spoonzer Elite has more kill rings on his barrel than Michael Whittmann.
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Etherals can cause panic and make troopers turn on eachother?
Don't we have power armor now? And aren't laser pistols incapable of penetrating it?
why not equip everyone with them and go after the Etherals?
Because then your entire squad is equipped with laser pistols
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Shot-down ships are less dangerous to assault since they usually kill some crew and might obviate the need for a door breach, so without a necessary research or material goal, I'll shoot them down and take on what's left where possible.
Elerium! :D
We also currently have three Floater UFOs down over North America, a Terror Ship, a Supply Ship, and a Large Scout. Squads One and Two are both deployed.
This is actually excellent news, because it is consistent with an alien base construction mission. You might want to consider letting them do their work, then you'll have an alien base within easy reach of Area 51. You can poach all the supply ships for a steady supply of Elerium.
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The Hovertank's superior armor protection draws on lessons learned from the loss of the first tank and first laser tank, and has all-around plating sufficent to stop most of the damage from the average heavy plasma strike. So, as this alien discovered, shoot it with rifles all you want. You'll only die with an empty clip!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/emptyclip.png)
jg18 kills an alien that tried to flee from the tank. Another alien thinks to challenge the might of a perfect, immortal machine, and bounces a plasma round off the front of the tank. -Joshua- throws a flare to locate it, and Fury takes it under fire with his heavy plasma. He misses. So does jr2. -Joshua- has to end it with a heavy missile, which also kills the flare. That's coming out of his paycheck.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/perfectmachine.png)
Spoon blasts himself an entryway into a building. Even the tank hates doors. Jr2 checks out the other rooms.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/hatesdoors.png)
This UFO breach will feature something a little different. While Scourge and Kyad prepare to enter through the doors...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/doors.png)
...Axem, TrashMan, and Fury prepare to go through the hole in the roof that was blown by the destruction of the UFO's engines.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/sunroof.png)
Two aliens are spotted. Scourge killed one and Fury got the other. Mission complete.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/2complete.png)
Every ship we down now is worth 1mil+ in sold Heavy Plasmas.
Elerium! :D
I've already got a couple of base raids in the pipeline that will hopefully help with that, but until then...
You might want to consider letting them do their work, then you'll have an alien base within easy reach of Area 51. You can poach all the supply ships for a steady supply of Elerium.
Except they're on an infiltration mission. Depending on who you ask there may be no way to stop it, but I'm going to try pretty hard.
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Are we still selling Laser Rifles? 'cause it looks like Medi-Kits are more profitable, and Motion Detectors are even better:
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Manufacturing_Profitability#Profit_tables (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Manufacturing_Profitability#Profit_tables)
EDIT: And Tank/Laser Cannons are better, and Fusion Ball launchers are better than that, and Laser Cannons are best.
Laser Cannon
Fusion Ball Launcher
Tank/Laser Cannon
Motion Scanner
Medi-Kit
Heavy Plasma
Laser Rifle
Laser Pistol
___________
(Alien Alloys)
(Personal Armor)
(The last two are a net loss)
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Are we still selling Laser Rifles? 'cause it looks like Medi-Kits are more profitable, and Motion Detectors are even better:
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Manufacturing_Profitability#Profit_tables (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Manufacturing_Profitability#Profit_tables)
We have never been selling laser rifles. We sell laser cannons.
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As an aside, this thread has actually piqued my interest in playing this (having never tried it before, and needing something to occupy my time on work trips when stuck in hotels in the middle of nowhere). Do you have to run it in DOSBox, or how have you got this working?
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Just buy it on Steam, it'll be fine. You may want to get some utilities to help run in a better resolution and fix annoying issues, though. I think XCOMUtil is the one you want?
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http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Enemy_Unknown_Extended (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Enemy_Unknown_Extended)
feature list here: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User:Seb76 (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User:Seb76)
with
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=XcomUtil (http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=XcomUtil)
feature list on that page
EDIT: XcomUtil can detect EU: Extended and launch it with itself.
EDIT2: XCOM Complete Pack (http://store.steampowered.com/sub/964/?snr=1_7_suggest__13) on Steam is $14.99 and has
XCOM Apocolypse
XCOM Enforcer
XCOM Interceptor
XCOM Terror From the Deep
XCOM UFO Defense (Enemy Unknown)
All of which are $4.99 individually
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I've never actually gotten the extender working with XCOMutil. Have people actually done this, or is it some sort of mad dream I have?
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Has to be version 9.7 (latest version)
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Just buy it on Steam, it'll be fine. You may want to get some utilities to help run in a better resolution and fix annoying issues, though. I think XCOMUtil is the one you want?
I didn't actually notice it was on Steam. Crazy! This is why I love that platform.
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Has to be version 9.7 (latest version)
Yeah, I've tried. It even asks you if you want to use it, and it doesn't work.
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Are we still selling Laser Rifles?
Never sold Laser Rifles, selling Laser Cannons.
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Ah. I must've misread. :ick: Sorry. And, I haven't personally got 9.7 working with Extender, but I'll give it a go in the next day or so. It is supposed to be one of the new features of 9.7 though. Are you using the 9.7 release version or beta? http://www.bladefirelight.com/ if you are using beta and need release.
Also might be to do with DOSBox version being out of date (heard mention of that as possible contributing factor to another error) Steam uses DOSBox 0.72; latest version is (http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1) 0.74 (You can also use D-Fend Reloaded (http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/Download.html) 1.3 to automatically (using lists of compatible settings that work with certain games) and easily configure most DOSBox Settings.
EDIT: FYI, D-Fend Reloaded 1.3 comes with DOSBox 0.74 included, as well as FreeDOS 1.1
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Although the utilities and extenders have some nice stuff, like being able to save loadouts between missions, they're not necessary to enjoy the game.
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Yeah I'm not using them right now. I want to, but I'm kind of afraid it might bork my install or saved games (not supposed to, and it's easy to fix borked install, but still... well, I suppose I should back up my game folder first before trying to mod it).
Oh, BTW, if any of you happen to actually download D-Fend 1.3, try going to Profile > Download packages
Then click the tab you want (say, Icons, or Auto setup templates {these let you autoconfigure many games}) then hit "Update lists"
;)
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Although the utilities and extenders have some nice stuff, like being able to save loadouts between missions, they're not necessary to enjoy the game.
Yep. In fact I'd suggest avoiding some of the stranger features of them the first few times you play through X-COM. The bug fixes are nice, but you always need a few vanilla playthroughs before trying out mods. :nod:
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Squad 2 now attacks the Supply Ship.
The tank takes a lot of fire in the first three turns, somewhere between six and nine rounds. (After a certain point I stopped counting because I was praying to the Random Number God.) Flipside is directed to hug the UFO to prevent its destruction after spotting an alien for the flying suits. The ship is quite large and may be the largest craft we've assaulted.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/big.png)
More fire coming in, but little of it impacts. Shades of Shanghai and the mission against an Abductor where Headdie was killed. Batutta, moving out to find the source, takes a Heavy Plasma round in the chest that breaches his armor. Droid803 fires six rounds but misses the alien. Battuta, still reeling, manages to get off an auto burst that kills it. Alex Heartnet renders first aid while Mjn.Mixael covers them.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/firstaid-1.png)
Several more aliens take shots at the northern group. Most are at swashmebuckle, who has plasma rounds pass mere centimeters in front of his face twice. Veers and Hades both return a round; Veers misses, but Hades makes a kill. Watsisname seems to be having trouble handling the missile launcher when the extra incendiary round is added and wheezes along behind as the north group advances. Veers is the next to take a Heavy Plasma, but his armor does better than Battuta's did. Another alien tries to finish him, but Hades puts a laser through its right eye before it can get its gun up to do it. Watsisname tries to get Veers to stop so he can get patched up, but Veers raises his injured arm and takes another shot that kills the alien which shot him. Only then does he submit to first aid. Swashmebuckle advances into the wreckage of the alien defense. (It's worse than it looks, as there's another corpse just out of view in the dark below the soldier inventory button.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/northernmassacre.png)
The southern group, which hasn't faced resistance for a few turns, spots an alien ducking in out of cover around the edge of the ship. Mjn.Mixael fires a heavy missile into the ground to splash the explosion around the corner and remove the alien before it starts shooting. Droid confirms its demise.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/splashed.png)
A pair of doors are located and the team prepares to assault them. Swashmebuckle and Droid breech, swash encountering one Floater and killing it. As expected, the power systems have blown out. They were all the bottom floor, which is a complete wreck.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/awrekc.png)
Droid discovers his lift doesn't stop on the second floor heads up to the third, killing an alien who was trying to camp the elevator. The northern team finds their lift stops at the second and goes no higher, so they secure the elevator room and prepare to breach the doors leading out.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/moredoor.png)
The destruction of the ship's powerplant caused massive damage on the second floor as well, punching a number of holes in it. I honestly can't remember if that room in the center there is supposed to have a floor, but I'm pretty sure the holes outside it aren't supposed to be there.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/massive.png)
Droid803 meets an alien and kills it. No more rookie status for him.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/droid.png)
An alien on the top floor, a Navigator, works up his nerve to go through a door and attack Alex Heartnet. Or tries to. Instead failed his panic check, spun around in place a bunch leaving his back to the door, and dropped his gun. Alex then opened the door on our turn and killed the Floater.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/derpout.png)
Mission Complete, and a “well done” to Squad Two in general and the north team (esarai, Hades, Watsisname, swashmebuckle, and Veers) in particular for this one. They faced exceptionally stiff resistance, assaulting an unfamiliar UFO in the dark, and took no losses.
Unfortunately, our taking down this many UFOs has upset the aliens. A battleship on a Retaliation mission has been spotted inbound to Area 51, which has an exceptionally bad layout for defense. Happy fun times ahead!
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Batutta, moving out to find the source, takes a Heavy Plasma round in the chest that breaches his armor. Droid803 fires six rounds but misses the alien. Battuta, still reeling, manages to get off an auto burst that kills it. Alex Heartnet renders first aid
alex. alex. you have such beautiful eyes. i have killed in anger. i am a sinner. are you an angel, alex. please forgive me
Unfortunately, our taking down this many UFOs has upset the aliens. A battleship on a Retaliation mission has been spotted inbound to Area 51, which has an exceptionally bad layout for defense. Happy fun times ahead!
karma, *****es! that's karma! karma, karma, karma! trying so hard, you get karma, team one!
i hope you're okay. i am going to do a line for you.
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coketutta is credit to team.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/shelly98/panic.gif)
They are coming this way! **** **** ****! Red alert, raise shields, prepare to defend me!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/shelly98/panic.gif)
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Do aliens suffer a contact high when they try to use Psi to control coketutta?
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Aliens inbound? Is our Skyranger back to base yet?
Don't tell us hte aliens will find the bease without a proper defense squad!
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Just give them all your kitten flavoured cookies and bosch beer! That should buy you some time.
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No worries, Deploy ALL THE TANKS. No skyranger carrying limit for base defence right?
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Don't tell us hte aliens will find the bease without a proper defense squad!
The Skyranger made it home some time before. Everyone has been issued a Heavy Plasma with three clips (counting the one in the weapon), a grenade, and a Medikit. Both the Hovertank and the older Laser Tank are active.
We expect a battleship's worth of Snakemen and probably some Chryssalids shortly.
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aaaaaaaaaa (http://fi.somethingawful.com/images/smilies/emot-siren.gif) (http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-aaa.gif) (http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-supaburn.gif) all hands on deck all hands on deck
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Allow me to give you some music in anticipation of your *hopefully* flawless victory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8EwBTQhl3Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8EwBTQhl3Y)
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Everyone, hide behind the SpzKpfWg II and SpzKpfWg III.
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aaaaaaaaaa (http://fi.somethingawful.com/images/smilies/emot-siren.gif) (http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-aaa.gif) (http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-supaburn.gif) all hands on deck all hands on deck
(http://images.paraorkut.com/img/pics/glitters/s/slap-7372.gif)
PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER SOLDIER!
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Those are supply ships? Jeez, my first X-COM game (that I lost because I didn't know how to win), I was taking an average of six of those a month for like four months. Needless to say I was ****ing rolling in cash, but never figured out that capturing aliens alive was required for the game.
They were also all Snakemen ships. I hate Snakemen.
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Those are supply ships? Jeez, my first X-COM game (that I lost because I didn't know how to win), I was taking an average of six of those a month for like four months. Needless to say I was ****ing rolling in cash, but never figured out that capturing aliens alive was required for the game.
They were also all Snakemen ships. I hate Snakemen.
Snakemen are not a huge problem, not compared to mutons anyway. If you a getting loads then you should follow their flight path as a base should be at one end
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BRING IT ON ALIENS! BRING IT ON!!!
(http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg99/scaled.php?server=99&filename=minigun.gif&res=landing)
(http://thmg.photobucket.com/albums/v218/skeggy553/smilies/th_biggun.gif)
COME GET SOME!!!
(http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm218/timbenj/T2minigun.gif)
* this game has a serious lack of miniguns! *
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Miniguns are unnecessary. Particularly if you happen to be The E.
An alien battleship has landed at Area 51. No attempt was made to engage with it Interceptors 1 and 2, as it's highly unlikely they'd be able to catch the ship on its approach run, much less knock it down without being destroyed. All aircraft have been sent to orbit at a safe distance, and we managed to get the technical and science staff out before the battleship landed.
Snakemen are entering the base via all surface access points; the hangers and the main lift are compromised. As might be noted from this image, however, their entry has not been easy. HLPX-COM agents have already killed two, and the laser tank took out another.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/contestedentry.png)
The E kills a third. My main worry is we've got nobody in position to cover the south-east hanger.
Just got another one with reaction fire. This is vaguely pathetic. The E confirms the presence of Chryssalids by killing the first one spotted.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/chryssalids.png)
Got another one with reaction fire from SpardaSon. The count of the dead in the North Hanger is up to five as TrashMan guns down one which fired at The E on its own turn. Fury kills yet another which may have come out of the lift. Seven aliens down in the North Hanger area, two more in the Southwest Hanger
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/hangerclearing.png)
Both tanks, supported by SpardaSon, are advancing on the Southwest Hanger. Three Heavy Plasmas and their associated eyes (-Joshua-, jg18, and KyadCK) are watching the lift. Axem and Scourge of Ages are headed to the Southeast Hanger. Everyone else is currently engaged in clearing the North Hanger and will then hit the lift.
A Snakeman emerges from a side room in the North Hanger to fire at The E. It misses. The E returns a single Heavy Plasma round that does not.
Mission Complete. Surprisingly, only ten aliens attacked the base, and none escaped alive. No HLPX-COM operative was injured, and indeed none of their Flying Suits was even struck by enemy fire. The tanks were likewise completely unharmed in even a cosmetic fashion.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/4complete.png)
This was the most pathetic alien assault on an X-COM base I've ever seen. It literally ended in three turns.
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What happens to the battleship UFO after a failed base attack?
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Spoonzer Elite messes up your **** at home and abroad.
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What happens to the battleship UFO after a failed base attack?
I wish I could assault it before it ran away. Actually, I just wish it ran away. The battleship disappears after delivering troops.
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Just to top off my annoyance I've checked; both the alien bases are Muton and neither is positioned so I can intercept supply runs easily (I usually don't see them until they're on their way out, in fact). I can't pull a Commander from either and I can't go "AVAST YE SPACE-LUBBERS" so I'm just going to knock them out. Rekitting Squad 1 now.
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Just to top off my annoyance I've checked; both the alien bases are Muton and neither is positioned so I can intercept supply runs easily (I usually don't see them until they're on their way out, in fact). I can't pull a Commander from either and I can't go "AVAST YE SPACE-LUBBERS" so I'm just going to knock them out. Rekitting Squad 1 now.
Oh ****, this is even more dreadful than an alien attack on our bases.
I predict a blaster bomb bloodbath. I predict casualties and screams.
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Well, time to do as the thread title says and die for my planet. I hope you can scrape together enough DNA from my plasma-melted corpse for a clone.
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I only killed one alien? Dissapointing!
Miniguns are unnecessary.
HERESY! Miniguns are ALLWAYS necessary.
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Dai shouri!
Dual wielding tanks like a boss, the SpzKpfWg II in one hand and the SpzKpfWg III in the other. All those years of gaming and multitasking are finally paying off.
Of course, I for one, never doubted our success for a moment!
The E has become the grizzlied veteran I hoped he would become. He should be promoted again soon! Speaking of which, can we get an overview screenshot again, who is at what rank currently? And if possible, get a kill count on our brave HLPX-COM operatives?
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So, now that they know where your base is an have actually assaulted it, does that mean they're going to send a steady stream of ships to try and take you out?
Does this call for stockpiling SpzKpfWg IIIs at the base for much reinforced base defense?
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Batts and SpardaSon are both more terrible prophets than I am.
Squad One, we are going into the unknown here. The aliens have a base in Antarctica and given its lack of proximity to X-COM installations and our inability to interdict supply flights, we're killing it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/isgo.png)
-Joshua- gets the first kill. The inhabitants are new to us, but they go down like everybody else when Heavy Plasma'd.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/firstkill.png)
SpardaSon kills another. Kyad engages one, but he and it exchange shots without striking home. Sparda takes down yet another on his next turn, while Kyad again trades shots, sustaining no hits to himself but inflicting one. The E, moving for linkup, bushwhacks this Muton.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/bushwhacker.png)
He had friends, a Celatid and another Muton. Sparda did a smaller-scale ambush and shot the Muton in the back, while the Celatid went down to long-range shots from jg18.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/ambush.png)
Opening turn 4, the Squad One killing machine just took down a Blaster-Launcher armed Muton and one with a rifle between The E and -Joshua-.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/killingmachine.png)
In fact, at this point we've killed nine aliens. They have returned exactly one shot. It missed. Make that ten; KyadCK just got another.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/another.png)
There was an attempted Blaster Bomb launch earlier, but it blew out part of what we think are the command center walls. Jg18 finds another Blaster Bomber and kills it as the rest of the team closes in on the command center. SpardaSon chases down an alien who got hit by “friendly” fire and knocked out briefly.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dead.png)
KyadCK, SpardaSon, and Joshua prepare to breach the base command center. The E is close behind.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/ready.png)
The command center is empty. SpardaSon performs a thorough check for hostiles, but there are none. The last alien betrays himself when he panics and runs away, only to recover his wits and run back for his weapon...right past -Joshua-.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/end.png)
Mission Complete. Even the alien's best shock troops are no match for Squad 1.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/5complete.png)
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Excellent showing, people. Time to have our cake and eat it.
Oh ****, this is even more dreadful than an alien attack on our bases.
I predict a blaster bomb bloodbath. I predict casualties and screams.
I have no problem with that, as long as it happens to the other side.
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Finally, some Elerium-115 and UFO Power Sources for your depleted stockpiles. What the heck is "Alien Entertainment" though, inter-species space porn?
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Possibly. It's happy rooms; you go in and they create an illusion you find pleasing, if you let your focus wander too much.
Active Soldier List
Squad One
-Joshua-, Sergeant, 13 missions, 16 kills.
SpardaSon, Sergeant, 17 missions, 18 kills
TrashMan, Squaddie, 17 missions, 10 kills
KyadCK, Squaddie, 13 missions, 13 kills
jg18, Squaddie, 12 missions, 10 kills
The E, Captain, 22 missions, 21 kills
jr2, Squaddie, 15 missions, 7 kills
Axem, Sergeant, 22 missions, 9 kills
Fury, Squaddie, 7 missions, 4 kills
Scourge of Ages, Squaddie, 10 missions, 4 kills
Squad Two
esarai, Squaddie, 3 missions, 1 kill
Mjn.Mixael, Sergeant, 21 missions, 18 kills
Watsisname, Squaddie, 9 missions, 5 kills
Droid803, Squaddie, 6 missions, 2 kills
swashmebuckle, Squaddie, 5 missions, 6 kills
Backslash, Squaddie, 5 missions, 4 kills
General Battuta, Squaddie, 6 missions, 2 kills
Hades, Squaddie, 3 missions, 1 kill
CommanderDJ The 2nd, Rookie, 2 missions, 0 kills
Veers, Squaddie, 8 missions, 5 kills
Alex Heartnet, Squaddie, 4 missions, 4 kills
Squad Two has three people out injured at the moment, Battuta, Backslash, and Veers.
(derp, forgot Alex)
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When foul xenos soil themselves in their sleep it is because their nightmares featured The E
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I think I figured out what to do with the alien entertainment. A lot of insight into alien culture and possibly their motives could be gained from studying their entertainment.
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The E will probably have a badass psi score to match his brass balls when that research is done. Soon the aliens will find their waking moments haunted by specters of him as well.
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I approve of -Joshua-'s handling of the my former berth.
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You are not usign me enough.... only 10 kills?
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I'm trying to push people to 70 TUs where I can. -Joshua-, SpardaSon, jg18, and The E have all reached that goal or exceeded it. (The E is at 78 TUs and is now, by four TUs, beating out Alexandra Romanova from my one winning TFTD game as the best soldier I've ever commanded.)
Trash, you're at 69, so is jr2. Fury (who started with 60) and KyadCK are at 66, Axem at 65, and Scourge of Ages at 61 and I need to work with him more.
Squad Two, being a lot younger, is a lot less skilled.
Mjn.Mixael and Backslash are at 66, Watsisname and Battuta are at 64, Droid803 at 60, Veers is at 59 TUs, swashmebuckle, CommanderDJ The 2nd, and Hades are at 55. Esarai is dead last at 53 TUs and will also receive special attention.
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Yay for being the only Rookie! It's like BPMulti all over again. :P
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Sign me up for an interceptor pilot. They seem to have the best chances of surviving. :)
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Sign me up for an interceptor pilot. They seem to have the best chances of surviving. :)
More interceptors have died then troops in flying suits I think. :lol:
EDIT: In retrospect, why are interceptors pilot-based instead of RC like spoon's tanks? Did spoon hide all the Wi-Fi cards? :P
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Sign me up for an interceptor pilot. They seem to have the best chances of surviving. :)
Coward. :p
*coming from the guy who tried to sign up, was not noticed, and then said nothing*
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My great thanks for moving me out of the Area 51 base before the assault - now I can resume with SCIENCE!!!
:D
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Trash, you're at 69, so is jr2.
Dude! Excellent! :yes:
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Watsisname and Battuta are at 64
Wow, I'm actually somewhat useful! =)
Will the two squads ever see any overlap / work together, or will they remain separate entities?
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Oh crap... I'm the New Meat. My fate could go either way...
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I'm still back at the academy, driving all sorts of fancy things...
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This LP has caused me to start playing this again.
And. I. Hate. Psychic. Attacks. Just went seven turns trying to get down a corridor to kill a single unarmed sectoid.
--
Also, I'm enlisting in the newest base if there are any open slots. o7
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Wow, I'm still alive! I figured getting shot in the back had been fatal. And 66 TUs! More than I'd have expected. I'm sure my PSI is pretty mediocre though, didn't I panic?
That was the most underwhelming base assault I've ever heard of. In fact, you've had a lot of luck... ONE death (and that a tank) to a Chrysalid?!
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Reporting for Engineering/Combat Recovery.
Can't have the rest of the Fringers have fun without me. :)
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Will the two squads ever see any overlap / work together, or will they remain separate entities?
The game doesn't allow you to bring in multiple teams to a mission, so everybody has to come and go on the same transports. My squad size is designed as the max a Skyranger can carry.
Still, simply to get to Cydonia I have to have a transport with 26 space. The high psi-strength elements of both squads will be used, along with however many tanks are needed to fill out what's left and possibly some newbies.
(Also JGZinv, you're currently Europe's only defense in Interceptor 4.)
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News from the aerial front!
Scotty, congratulations, that last Large Scout you dropped over Canada got you to ace. Nuke also just made Ace by bringing down another Large Scout just south of Mexico City.
JGZinv, good work on your first kill. Starting with a Terror Ship is impressive.
Gortef, if you wanted to be a redshirt, I'm sorry to say that's not going to happen. You've been drafted to fly Interceptor 5 out of our Phillipines base. Weapons should be arriving in a day or so.
We also have developed our understanding of alien technology flying craft further.
The Lightning is a mixture of the previously separate transport and interceptor roles. It only carries a single weapons pod, but if armed with a Plasma Beam this is highly unlikely to be a serious issue. It is unable to carry a tank, but it does have an impressive acceleration that would make it a good point-defense interceptor. The Lightning also has one serious flaw; it is essentially a replicated UFO design in nearly every detail, which means that it is a maintenance nightmare as it completely lacks a human logic to its systems layout and thus maintaining it with human technicians takes an inordinate amount of effort.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/lightning.png)
The Lightning, however, introduces two very important scientific breakthroughs. The first is that it, like the UFOs it is based on, is fully capable of exoatmospheric flight and combat. We have previously been limited to intercepting alien ships once they enter Earth's atmosphere and are detected. If we can devise a way to detect them further away from the planet, we could intercept them in space with Lightnings. The second is that it is capable extremely high accelerations in a vacuum. While we introduced alien inertial dampening technology on the Firestorm, it was more of a comfort issue. The Lightning can sustain very high accelerations for hours, rather than the minutes of current chemical rockets. If it had the life-support system, we could reach Mars in weeks or days instead of months.
We will not be building the Lightning. But we feel it is a very important step.
Work on proper fusion of alien technical knowledge and human design has already been ordered, under the codename "Avenger".
A Floater battleship has landed in broad daylight near Mexico City. Team One has been dispatched. Their orders are to capture the alien Commander alive if remotely possible.
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At this point I'm honestly considering no longer detailing Squad One missions. This is...well, you'll see.
We expected resistance from the Battleship crew comparable to Shanghai or the first Supply Ship assault. Instead, they've done almost nothing. Only one Floater has been encountered in the first four turns, and he was taken down by a reaction shot through a window by Kyad.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/onekillfourturns.png)
The E gives a final briefing just prior to the breach. He emphasizes the need to move swiftly; the aliens probably have Blaster Bombs. He also emphasizes that any command personnel must be taken alive. Stun rods out.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/rodsout.png)
Three stunned, a Demented Fuzzy Shivan and a Floater killed. One of the Floaters, we hope a Commander, had a Blaster Bomb launcher.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/threeone.png)
Another Floater was killed by reflex when it tried to open a door in front of SpardaSon. The Battleship, at three stories tall and thirty meters in diameter, could use a whole platoon trying to secure it rapidly. We have just a squad.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/battleship.png)
But they are Squad One. Kyad tracks down another Blaster Launcher-armed alien and stuns it. The E finds another with a heavy plasma and does the same. Honestly, with all these effective HTH attacks and the way we haven't been shot at once during the mission yet, I keep expecting to find out somebody's hacked my game and the aliens can't shoot or something. This is bizarre.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/ninjas.png)
The E did it. We have a Commander, alive.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/didit.png)
One last alien trades fire with Kyad, but is taken from behind by -Joshua-, only proving the ninja analogy more accurate. On a battleship attack we were shot at once in the whole mission. And it missed. This actually ****ing happened. Mission Complete!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/gotyou.png)
This was getting really close to the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Squad One took on the entire battleship crew with stun rods; I only deliberately fired at two aliens (one because I couldn't get a second person close enough for a second stun attack; the other was the Reaper and nobody gives a **** about capturing Reapers), two others were killed by reaction fire. Squad One is apparently composed of ninjas in giant ****off suits of power armor.
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what the ****, squad one. what the ****.
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Haha, that is our Squad One.
**** badass.
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The E doesn't just savor the last shot before popping the heat sink, he then takes that ejected heat sink and impales a xenos scum throught the chest with it so it burninates their insides.
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**** is this. y'all tasing aliens like they undergrads while squad 2 gets shot in the chest. damn.
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Of course Squad 1 is amazing. It has me in it after all.
The Emperor protects!
(http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs34/f/2008/300/c/8/The_Emperor_Protects_by_Gacopierz.jpg)
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**** is this. y'all tasing aliens like they undergrads while squad 2 gets shot in the chest. damn.
Look, if you guys would lay off the booze and spend more time training, this wouldn't happen.
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Darius, any chance you want to swap for a while and you fly the clown car for a few missions and help me regain my sanity driving the professionals? =)
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**** is this. y'all tasing aliens like they undergrads while squad 2 gets shot in the chest. damn.
Look, if you guys would lay off the booze and spend more time training, this wouldn't happen.
i went in sober once and i shot a man in the back! at least if i'm drunk, i've got two targets to pick from!
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Actually there was a new base in the Philippines? Are you just flying interceptors out of their or are you putting together a new squad as well?
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Actually there was a new base in the Philippines? Are you just flying interceptors out of their or are you putting together a new squad as well?
So far, just Interceptors. I will probably put together another squad, though, as I can't get Skyrangers from either other base there in time to catch the supply ships landing in New Guinea.
...assuming, however, that the Avenger and Cydonia Or Bust don't interfere with that timetable. Which they probably will.
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In other news, the US just derped out on us and signed an agreement with the aliens for technology, in exchange for withdrawing from the HLPX-COM treaty. They have not, however, made a move against the Area 51 base. We think they won't, as their relations are already in massive turmoil over this; various places that have been hit with terror attacks or are allies of those who were have broken off diplomatic relations with the United States.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/derpUS.png)
The aliens have unwittingly given us a reason to go to Mars and kill them in the process, by demonstrating that Elerium gravity-wave tech enables Faster Than Light travel and communications, and letting slip that the only source of Elerium available in Solar System is on Mars. Operation Spoilsport is still a go as a failsafe, but the Avenger project might allow us to deliver troops to Mars and take the facility.
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Damn, even my fake government is full of ****ty politicians who will compromise ethics and decency in the name of fulfilling self-centered agendas...
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Let me just say that once we return from Mars, there will be a reckoning.
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peace and love, man. maybe they just sat down and talked to the aliens. maybe it's all a big mistake
i think there should be more talking and less killing.
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We do have stun rods. No need to kill anyone when you can just stun them into compliance.
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Alright, high time I request to be added to the roster. I request to be put on Squad 2 the next time a position is available, and should research proceed in the appropriate direction, I also request to be issued a Psi-Amp. ("Even if your Psi-strength is low?" Especially if my Psi-strength is low. Squad 2 has standards of efficacy to maintain, after all!)
Actually, that is a good question.... Will HLPX-COM be going down that research path? I know the central focus is on the Cydonia mission, but are there any R&D side-projects at the moment?
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We actually already have the Psi-Amp researched, did just before we started on the Avenger, but at the time we had a serious lack of Elerium to make them. This is no longer the case.
The Psilabs aren't up yet, though.
-
Am I still dead? C'mon- I'm pretty sure IronBeer Mk2 (SteelBeer? CyberBeer? I trust you can devise a pithy nickname) will be at least as good as my old form. Lord knows that Squad 2 needs some meatshields alongside hippiettuta.
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I've been thinking, and I've come to the conclusion that there is only one being powerfull and evil enough to lead this assault on Earth.
This ****er...
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SIXVKilGiOs/TMjRAr95z9I/AAAAAAAAADU/aFFe7dEx110/s1600/Giygas02.png)
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Squad One is apparently full of bosses. All of them.
How long has it been since you lost one of them, anyway? Four missions?
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Killing Aliens...LIKE A BAWS
Completing missions...LIKE A BAWS
Capturing technology....LIKE A BAWS
Kidnapping commanders...LIKE A BAWS
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Killing Aliens...LIKE A BAWS
Completing missions...LIKE A BAWS
Capturing technology....LIKE A BAWS
Kidnapping commanders...LIKE A BAWS
DAMN IT! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c&feature=plcp)
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What's happening with my alter-ego, did I get killed off somewhere since I haven't seen myself mentioned for a while? :nervous:
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Squad One is apparently full of bosses. All of them.
How long has it been since you lost one of them, anyway? Four missions?
At this point, longer than that. I'm admittedly working pretty hard to keep them (and Squad Two even) safe, because I've put a lot of time and effort into them. And Flying Suits are a ***** to replace. But the combination of TUs at 70 or above and Flying Armor results in basically roflstomping everything that moves. And it'll only get worse from here.
What's happening with my alter-ego, did I get killed off somewhere since I haven't seen myself mentioned for a while? :nervous:
You're fine. In fact, you just went on a pretty impressive one-man rampage through a supply ship and killed four aliens in a turn.
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there is no safety from psi or blaster bombs. mark my words: there will come a day when the lambs of squad one will bloody a distant field.
who sold me this ****. this **** is weird
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We've run a number of minor missions, essentially training ops, but we're mainly conserving our strength right now. Squad 2 fought Ethereals again, in small numbers; Mjn.Mixael got grenaded at one point, with it going off right at his feet, but his Flying Suit saved his life. They tried to psi Backslash, but it failed. (Panic or control? The world will never know.) Squad 2 also hit a Large Scout down over North America because they needed the experience. Squad 1 has raided an intact alien supply ship and did some target practice on a crashed Snakeman Medium Scout just outside Area 51. Of particular note was Fury's one-man rampage through the middle level of the Supply Ship, where he killed four aliens in a turn.
There is also some very good news.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/AVENGER.png)
This is the result of the Avenger project. Instead of taking us weeks to get Mars, the Avenger could get us there in two days. It will be ready to fly inside two weeks. We still need a precise target, however, as simply flying around in Martian airspace would get us mobbed by UFOs and probably killed to no purpose.
We are now in the endgame of the war. The Martian assault mission will happen inside the next two months.
-
Remember, he's not a mad doctor, he's just angry. Comments from X-COM Command have been appended for a more in-depth view.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/ethereal.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/etherealauto.png)
The Ethereals challenge everything we know about conventional physics and biology. We have determined, primarily through interrogating other aliens, that the Ethereals are the leadership of the invasion. Our one Ethereal capture proved more trouble than it was worth, but we learned a lot about psionics during its stay in alien containment. Mainly because it kept seizing control of or panicking HLPX-COM personnel. Interrogating it was impossible; it would not cooperate and had no spoken language.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/sectoid-1.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/sectoidauto.png)
The Sectoids are the Greys of myth. We have no idea how long the Alien War has been going on from their perspective; it could be centuries. If so, they rank among the worst military minds in the universe. Sectoids are short, they average perhaps a hundred and thirty centimeters. They're also definitely cloned; we've recovered well over three dozen bodies or live Sectoids, and only encountered four unique genetic sequences.
The Sectoid Hierarchy is subservient to the Ethereals, but in what fashion we don't entirely understand. They have no spoken language, communication is all psionic or by computer; we interrogated them over what amounts to instant messaging. The Sectoids were largely uncooperative, but we did glean something of their culture and daily lives. Short answer: they don't have any. Sectoid society has given up nearly everything in pursuit of efficiency.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/snake.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/snakeauto.png)
Despite their bizarre biology, the Snakemen are actually the most human of our opponents. They were made subservient to the Ethereals about seventy-five years ago, by force. They have a culture which, while it glorifies the hunt, is not so dissimilar from our own as to be unrecognizable. Our captive Snakeman has actually learned to speak English and has generally been very cooperative and friendly; most everyone on the staff at Area 51 has been in to talk to it at some point.
The reasons behind this are as disturbing as they are poignant. Our Snakeman captive was a Rookie serving in the Snakemen version of HLPX-COM when the Ethereals conquered their planet. It wants to see us succeed where its own organization failed.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/floater.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/floaterauto.png)
The most obvious thing to note about the Floaters is the drastic surgical and cybernetic alterations made to them, including everything from the waist down. As far as we can determine, these alterations are a part of their military service and are performed on enlistment. An unaltered Floater would be huge, nearly three meters tall. Their alterations are as much practical in allowing them to use standardized equipment as they are tactical in allowing them to fly.
Floaters are intelligent, but admit they are uplifted race of nonsentient animals. Where, when, and how is not clear, but considering their service to the Ethereals the "who" is easy to guess. Their culture is stunted, and performs support roles for their military; even their art is focused entirely on this purpose.
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Dammit. That part about the Snakemen means I'll never be able to kill another one without feeling bad again. D:
Also been meaning to ask: how do you automatically reserve TUs for shots at the end of the turn? I've always had to just do it manually and hope I didn't move a space too far.
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Have the aliens already given up their reasons for attempting to conquer Earth, or are you still waiting on that?
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Also been meaning to ask: how do you automatically reserve TUs for shots at the end of the turn? I've always had to just do it manually and hope I didn't move a space too far.
You should notice a an area with red buttons of guys taking shots, to the left of the bar for soldier stats. The button for firing from the shoulder is aimed; the single from the hip is snap, the multiple from the hip is auto. I've been admittedly incautious and reserving for auto, but if you reserve for aimed you can usually take a snap or auto and duck for cover.
Have the aliens already given up their reasons for attempting to conquer Earth, or are you still waiting on that?
Yes.
But I'm saving that for another post.
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Dammit. That part about the Snakemen means I'll never be able to kill another one without feeling bad again. D:
On the other hand they are part of the invasion force. Shooting aliens should only be done as long as it furthers the goal of saving Earth. We can't become what we are fighting.
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Have the aliens already given up their reasons for attempting to conquer Earth, or are you still waiting on that?
Yes.
But I'm saving that for another post.
Ah. Thanks for the post by the way, I found it quite informative about the nature of our foe.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/muton.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/mutonauto.png)
The Mutons are probably an engineered species; we can't prove it but we have a very hard time believing that their particular combination of traits could have evolved naturally. The most effective way to kill them is to hash an area with psionic white noise, but this requires non-portable equipment. Failing that, Heavy Plasmas will do the job, but we were fortunate in phasing out the Laser Rifle before we first encountered these aliens. They have a simple spoken language and no discernible culture of their own.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/reaper.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/reaperauto.png)
Reapers are purely animalistic, controlled by cybernetic implants. We've actually taken several alive, as their redundant organ systems mean they often live for a fairly long time after they're no longer able to move. They appear to eventually go berserk without commands, possibly as a fail-safe; we've had several bash their heads in against the walls in alien containment after they're healed.
Perhaps the most interesting thing is their strong genetic similarities to the Floaters. They may be the non-uplifted form of the race.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Chryssalid-1.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Chryssauto.png)
The Chryssalids are possibly the greatest threat to human life in the alien forces, with more in common with a mobile virus than any animal species from an environment on Earth. While there is great debate over whether or not they represent a fully engineered species or one that was adapted, what we do know is disturbing.
Chryssalid claws are one of the hardest natural substances known. Their musculature is incredibly strong, backed up by what can only be described as "hydraulic assist". We already saw them tear apart an HLPX-COM tank in the missions, and we don't expect a Flying Suit will fare much better except by keeping the wearer in the air and out of reach. It's entirely possible that Chryssalids are capable of breaching the armor on a true armored vehicle. Each "egg" is more or less a full Chryssalid in juvenile form. Their growth rate is astonishing and in barely four minutes a juvenile Chryssalid is capable of surviving on its own and it consumes the host entirely in two hours. This coincidentally happens to be about how long it takes for the massive dose of the slightly neurotoxic and psychosis-inducing venom they inject to kill a human, something of which we're quite suspicious.
The good news is they're about as dumb as a rock. Chryssalids aren't smart enough to open doors; they simply push through them with their natural strength or break them with their claws. Their carapace will deflect almost every modern projectile-based infantry weapon and most fragmentation weapons as well, so only forces armed with HLPX-COM laser weaponry or alien plasma weapons will likely be able to stop them. Left unchecked, Chryssalids could wipe whole continents clean of human life. We must destroy these creatures wherever we encounter them.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/cyberdisc.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/cyberdiscauto.png)
We never actually captured a "live" cyberdisc, but we did capture a Sectoid whose job involved maintaining and programming them. It was quite helpful, after some convincing. Cyberdiscs are completely autonomous robots. Their programming is quite advanced and they're actually fairly intelligent; we managed to teach one to play fetch, for example. The important thing to grasp is that it won't help to kill all the nearby Sectoids or to jam transmission in the area; the Cyberdiscs will keep fighting regardless. Their weapons system is all-aspect; distinctions such as front or back are functionally meaningless, so there is no effective way to ambush one. Their coordination with nearby Sectoids can be somewhat poor, fortunately, and the fact they explode violently when their power system is damaged can be exploited.
There was talk of using what we learned about computer science in a combat robot of our own, but the "Enforcer" project never made it beyond the drawing board. Most of what we learned about their propulsion and power systems went into the HLPX-COM Hovertank.
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loving the enforcer reference
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Playing my own game, I just had an unarmored rookie take a heavy plasma shot to the chest and not even be hurt.
New favorite? New favorite.
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Playing my own game, I just had an unarmored rookie take a heavy plasma shot to the chest and not even be hurt.
New favorite? New favorite.
inb4 psi strength of 10
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Playing my own game, I just had an unarmored rookie take a heavy plasma shot to the chest and not even be hurt.
New favorite? New favorite.
Technically the jumpsuit does provide some minor armor (iirc 6/3/2). However weapon damage is partially randomized and calculated as from 0-200% of the listed value, times modifier if applicable, then you subtract armor rating. (Explosives randomize between 50-150%; generation of a negative value for damage means nothing happens.)
As an example, let's shoot a Blaster Bomb at some random dude in Flying Armor. It hit the front, so 110 armor, and no damage modifier. The Blaster Bomb has a 200 damage value, so it will generate a damage range of between 100 and 300, and after armor, will have a damage range of between -10 and 190 damage to him.
Yes, this means if you're obscenely lucky you can survive a direct hit from a Blaster Bomb without a scratch.
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Playing my own game, I just had an unarmored rookie take a heavy plasma shot to the chest and not even be hurt.
New favorite? New favorite.
Technically the jumpsuit does provide some minor armor (iirc 6/3/2). However weapon damage is partially randomized and calculated as from 0-200% of the listed value, times modifier if applicable, then you subtract armor rating. (Explosives randomize between 50-150%; generation of a negative value for damage means nothing happens.)
As an example, let's shoot a Blaster Bomb at some random dude in Flying Armor. It hit the front, so 110 armor, and no damage modifier. The Blaster Bomb has a 200 damage value, so it will generate a damage range of between 100 and 300, and after armor, will have a damage range of between -10 and 190 damage to him.
Yes, this means if you're obscenely lucky you can survive a direct hit from a Blaster Bomb without a scratch.
Squad one should test that theory....On eachother.
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We still need a precise target, however, as simply flying around in Martian airspace would get us mobbed by UFOs and probably killed to no purpose.
Again, I ask about Mars Global Surveyor. Or did the aliens nuke that for target practice?
The reasons behind this are as disturbing as they are poignant. Our Snakeman captive was a Rookie serving in the Snakemen version of HLPX-COM when the Ethereals conquered their planet. It wants to see us succeed where its own organization failed.
Ouch. :(
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We still need a precise target, however, as simply flying around in Martian airspace would get us mobbed by UFOs and probably killed to no purpose.
Again, I ask about Mars Global Surveyor. Or did the aliens nuke that for target practice?
The aliens probably figured out how to jam and duplicate its transmissions, in order to make it send back false info. Or am I attributing too much tactical knowledge to these let's-send-in-our-fleet-one-ship-at-a-time aliens?
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We still need a precise target, however, as simply flying around in Martian airspace would get us mobbed by UFOs and probably killed to no purpose.
Again, I ask about Mars Global Surveyor. Or did the aliens nuke that for target practice?
Shot down, while still en route, I suspect. The invasion of Earth began in earnest in mid-/late-1998, with scattered but increasing reports of abductions spanning back through 1997. MGS was to arrive in Martian orbit in April of 1999.
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Weird. Despite what the tech entries say, I always did (and still do, sort of) believe that the Sectoids, or at least the "master" Sectoid species were always the ones in charge. The Sectoids you fight and even the Ethereals were just commanders and soldiers, under orders from wherever the aliens actually come from.
And that what you fight on mars too, was just a field commander.
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Shot down, while still en route, I suspect. The invasion of Earth began in earnest in mid-/late-1998, with scattered but increasing reports of abductions spanning back through 1997. MGS was to arrive in Martian orbit in April of 1999.
Nitpick: MGS arrived at Mars in September 1997, a few months after Mars Pathfinder. Because of orbital fine-tuning, it didn't begin its primary mission until April 1999. But it could still theoretically have taken pictures of UFOs or alien activity in the vicinity at any point in that time.
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Dekker and Interceptor 3 were lost etc etc etc.......
I stopped reading after this :(
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Of particular note was Fury's one-man rampage through the middle level of the Supply Ship, where he killed four aliens in a turn.
Oh yeah, definitely belonging to Squad 1. :D
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So these are the alien creeps we are fighting huh.
Interesting, most interesting.
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Doctor Thaeris in his laboratory:
(http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110417155525/archer/images/7/77/KriegerPigley.jpg)
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Again, I ask about Mars Global Surveyor. Or did the aliens nuke that for target practice?
Do you know how much work it was to suppress the images of the face and pyramids the first time?
We have a precise location.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/HailCydonia.png)
As near as we can tell, the aliens think we're squatters in a solar system that belongs to them. The Cydonia base may or may not have been originally an installation of the group facing us, only by going there and taking it apart will we likely ever know. What matters is that we have discovered the aliens have a commander, at Cydonia, a powerful psionic entity. Knocking it out will leave them divided and leaderless, and may well eliminate entire species from the Solar System, most notably the Sectoids and Mutons. Many of the terror units, Chryssalids, Reapers, and Cyberdiscs, would go berserk as well. We've also been told that it's very likely the Snakemen in the facility would rebel if the commander unit was killed.
All we need now is the Avenger.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/AvengerSoon.png)
Which is eight days and two hours from completion.
We have minor unfinished business to take care of here on Earth, though, and we're currently still on the T-minus two months mark in theory to allow time for psionics training. Still, in a little over a week, the Cydonia assault mission will be ready to launch with perhaps a day's warning.
We're also assembling a new squad in the Phillipines for raiding supply ships, but at this point in the war they may prove to be superfluous.
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Attacking the Cydonia base without either psychics or blaster launcher crew is a dangerous proposition.
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The first time I ever did, I did it without both; in fact I'd only just research heavy plasmas and a lot of my guys went in with laser rifles.
It was bad.
We're working on Blaster Launchers and I'm being sort of pissed at the game for doing psionics training at the turn of the month only, rather than when the lab finishes, since I had twenty days of dead time.
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Attacking the Cydonia base without either psychics or blaster launcher crew is a dangerous proposition.
That's why we have Squad 1. ;)
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Pretty much what I was thinking, Squad 1
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I can take 26 people to Cydonia.
Which will probably be 18 people and two tanks, but still. That means most of two squads.
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Does this mean I have to come along on the avenger to control the tanks on the site? I don't think the latency between earth and mars is that great.
I'm ready!
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If the Excrement Hits the Fan during the Cydonia Assault do you simply lick your wounds, build up another strike package and try again?
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If the Excrement Hits the Fan during the Cydonia Assault do you simply lick your wounds, build up another strike package and try again?
Nope, it's game over.
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I might survive the next go.
I'm still dead i assume? No cloning tank? No illegitimate twins?
No Robo-dopplegangers?
:shaking:
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I might survive the next go.
I'm still dead i assume? No cloning tank? No illegitimate twins?
No Robo-dopplegangers?
:shaking:
I think they recovered your brain so it could be strapped into the avenger for the Mars run
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If the Excrement Hits the Fan during the Cydonia Assault do you simply lick your wounds, build up another strike package and try again?
Nope, it's game over.
Aside from punishing the player, is there a logical reason why?
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Does this mean I have to come along on the avenger to control the tanks on the site? I don't think the latency between earth and mars is that great.
Yes. However I don't intend to represent you with another trooper, unlike some other LPs. But then, we're HLPX-COM, and even if we go to Cydonia and the assault force dies, we're not dumb enough to have no backup plan. The Avenger pilots and both tank operators will be part of that.
Revised numbers and ranks
Squad One
The E, Commander, 26 missions, 22 kills, 80 TUs.
-Joshua-, Colonel, 17 missions, 18 kills, 74 TU
SpardaSon21, Captain, 21 missions, 20 kills, 74 TU
TrashMan, Sergeant, 21 missions, 11 kills, 72 TU
KyadCK, Sergeant, 17 missions, 17 kills, 68 TU
jg18, Sergeant, 16 missions, 10 kills, 72 TU
jr2, Sergeant, 19 missions, 9 kills, 70 TU
Axem, Sergeant, 26 missions, 12 kills, 70 TU
Fury, Sergeant, 11 missions, 7 kills, 70 TU
Scourge of Ages, 14 missions, 9 kills, 65 TU
Squad average of 71.5 TUs
Squad Two
Mjn.Mixael, Captain, 24 missions, 20 kills, 71 TU
esarai, Squaddie, 7 missions, 4 kills, 63 TU
Watsisname, Squaddie, 13 missions, 9 kills, 66 TU
Droid803, Squaddie, 10 missions, 4 kills, 64 TU
swashmebuckle, Squaddie, 9 missions, 7 kills, 58 TU
Backslash, Squaddie, 8 missions, 4 kills, 66 TU
General Battuta, Squaddie, 9 missions, 3 kills, 66 TU
Hades, Squaddie, 7 missions, 4 kills, 61 TU
CommanderDJ The 2nd, Squaddie, 4 missions, 1 kill, 58 TU
Veers, Squaddie, 11 missions, 7 kills, 61 TU, current owner of the Luckiest Mother****er In The Universe Award for taking three Heavy Plasma rounds to the chest without being injured.
Alex Heartnet, Squaddie, 8 missions, 6 kills, 59 TU
Squad average TUs is 63.
Squad 3
Everybody's Rookie/0/0 and **** reading TUs, it might as well be "abandon hope"
Cyborg17
Mongoose Jr.
Polpolion Mark 2
redsniper two
Darth Jeff Vader
Turambar Turin
Ravenholme Dos
FireSpawn's Cousin
IronBeer The 2nd
StarSlayer Clone #57
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I hear 57 was a good vintage
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I hear 57 was a good vintage
The 57s always were a little twitchy. Pass the cornbread.
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WE GOT THIS.
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Gortef, if you wanted to be a redshirt, I'm sorry to say that's not going to happen. You've been drafted to fly Interceptor 5 out of our Phillipines base. Weapons should be arriving in a day or so.
That's quite fine to me. Being a pilot sounds good.
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I hear 57 was a good vintage
The 57s always were a little twitchy. Pass the cornbread.
*passes Battuta the cornbread via trans-atlantic shipping*
As long as they're out front being twitchy at aliens instead of us thats perfectly fine. Hand me the potatos?
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Gortef just set a record for kills in a single Interceptor sortie, taking down a Large Scout and two Supply Ships in one mission. That brings him to ace status after his previous bouncing of a couple of Small Scouts over Central Russia. JGZinv is also an ace now, having taken down an Abductor over North Africa and two Small Scouts (one over the Bay of Biscay and another over Germany) to go with previous kills.
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I reject my reality and substitute that one. Hooah!
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Doctor Thaeris in his laboratory:
(http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110417155525/archer/images/7/77/KriegerPigley.jpg)
I can't believe the webcam caught that... I've not left the lab room for three days straight... working on lab reports. I'm hoping to knock them out soon.
:nervous:
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Squad One fought its first action against the Ethereals recovering a downed Large Scout. They managed to briefly Berserk Kyad. Since he had a direct line of sight to one, this was unwise and it got six rounds of plasma in the chest for its troubles. They didn't even try to psi out anyone else.
Squad Two is currently having its first battle with the Mutons.
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Ghost Dekker/Dekkers brain in a jar, is pleased.
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Squad One fought its first action against the Ethereals recovering a downed Large Scout. They managed to briefly Berserk Kyad. Since he had a direct line of sight to one, this was unwise and it got six rounds of plasma in the chest for its troubles. They didn't even try to psi out anyone else.
Squad Two is currently having its first battle with the Mutons.
We're so badass even their successful psi attacks turn against them? Cool.
It worries me a bit that they were able to psi me though, I hope psi training solves this problem if I haven't been in already.
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Panic attacks are opposed by bravery, rather than psi strength, and you were hit by at least three. A moment later when the kill boost to morale set in you recovered and held steady next turn with 15 morale, so I suspect you were merely unlucky rather than having poor bravery.
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I wonder what you've made me work on in the labs... :D
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So, who's going to pilot the Avenger to Mars?
/me volunteers.
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gotta be darius (it probably has a multiman flight crew though)
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At this moment I'm likely going with a four-man crew for the Avenger, since it's still a pretty long flight to Mars.
Not sure yet whether that counts the tanky people.
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I still volunteer. MP-Ryan, Darius, Spoon, and then one of your Aces? Spoon has already shown he's more than capable of dual-wielding tanks.
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Nuke is the longest serving fighter jock, unless of course you count Dekker's recovered brain matter as flight crew.
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/me brain will serve as new EDI progenitor.
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Squad Two is really starting to shape up. Here's some highlights from their latest
training exercise mission.
Some people never learn: don't **** with a tank. Yeah, maybe it's Flipside, but it's still a tank.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/neverlearn.png)
I TOLD YOU NOT TO **** WITH THE TANK.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/reallyneverlearn.png)
Battuta finds your smoke to be of poor quality, and reacts badly by killing every Muton in view.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/battssplit.png)
The dumbest Muton in the world. “Derp, I just came down the elevator. Oh sweet alien Jesus it's Squad Two! QUICK JUST STAND THERE!” Veers did this thing a favor by killing it a moment later.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/itssquadtwo.png)
swashmebuckle distracts a pair of Mutons by talking about Wings of Dawn while Battuta gets a shot.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/howboutderelict.png)
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well it is an interesting topic tbqh
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when are you going to start training squad 3 :(
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when are you going to start training squad 3 :(
You guys don't even have a hanger to house a Skyranger yet, although you do have a full compliment of Flying Suits and weapons.
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when are you going to start training squad 3 :(
You guys don't even have a hanger to house a Skyranger yet, although you do have a full compliment of Flying Suits and weapons.
That sounds like one hell of a party
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WoD kept crashing on the second mission when I tried to play it, so I was totally bluffing my way through the conversation. Fortunately, they were Mutons, so they never picked up on the fact that I was clearly just summarizing Star Blazers but with an all-female cast. The heavy plasma might have finished them off, but the real victory came from confounding a bunch of cartoon aliens with their lack of knowledge concerning cartoon aliens. The Ethereals are gonna be seriously embarrassed, ****ing hipsters.
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Dumb Mutons come in pairs when Squad One's in town.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/dumbpair.png)
Scourge of Ages may have set a record for kills in a single mission, he took out five Mutons and put a pair of Heavy Plasma shots into another before it returned one, injuring him fairly badly. KyadCK came up behind the Muton and put one shot into the back of its head to end the mission.
An Alien Battleship approached Area 51 while the team was out, so the Avenger, with Darius at the controls and Scotty handling the weapons, was launched in the hopes of delaying it. The Avenger closed to weapons range for its plasma beams and began to take fire from the battleship, but it was skillfully evaded at first. Hits were scored, but counterfire also struck home.
In stark contrast to the fragility of the Interceptors, which can barely stand up to Terror Ship weapons, the Avenger took only minor damage from two direct hits from an Alien Battleship. Scotty and Darius brought the Battleship down successfully. Squad One returned to base safely.
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DAMN, son, that's pretty heroic
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DAMN, son, that's pretty heroic
Word.
Also, Scotty and Darius you both have my thanks for keeping that Battleship away from my base!
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Squad One launched a mission against the downed Battleship.
Your Blaster Bombs are worthless here. The E stands resolute. (They never managed to launch another.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/resolute.png)
This Snakeman had some kind of anti-tank detection gear. The tank was fired at nine times, got this close to it, and still never saw it standing in the open. SpardaSon had to spot it. HAX!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/h4x.png)
TrashMan probably saved everyone's ass by spotting and bringing down two Snakemen (one with a Blaster Launcher) and a Chryssalid on the top deck. The mission was successful with no injuries.
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/me now has hands on experience destroying enemy heavy warships.
/me resubmits volunteer form to assist piloting the Avenger to Cydonia.
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Squad 3
Everybody's Rookie/0/0 and **** reading TUs, it might as well be "abandon hope"
Cyborg17
Mongoose Jr.
Polpolion Mark 2
redsniper two
Darth Jeff Vader
Turambar Turin
Ravenholme Dos
FireSpawn's Cousin
IronBeer The 2nd
StarSlayer Clone #57
GO CLONE TEAM VENTURE!
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Veers, Squaddie, 11 missions, 7 kills, 61 TU, current owner of the Luckiest Mother****er In The Universe Award for taking three Heavy Plasma rounds to the chest without being injured.
:D H*ll Yea! Alien tech got nothing on us.
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Armor? What the hell would I need that for, I'll absorb those plasma rounds with my abs!
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TrashMan probably saved everyone's ass by spotting and bringing down two Snakemen (one with a Blaster Launcher) and a Chryssalid on the top deck.
Like a BOSS
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The E don't care your arm hurts, The E don't give a ****.
(http://i47.tinypic.com/vgiuq8.jpg)
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ahhahah
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+1 to you Slayer
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Damn. Imagine if you were just an alien grunt facing revenge seeking humans in full battle armor... o_o
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Damn. Imagine if you were just an alien grunt facing revenge seeking humans in full battle armor... o_o
If it were Squad 1 they wouldn't even know we were there to begin with, so no problem. :P
The_E just doesn't need a stuner to capture them alive is all.
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Hahaha, win :yes:
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:yes: That is awesome
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Best post in the thread goes to StarSlayer.
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The further I get the more the game appears to be deliberately throwing spotting/line-of-sight glitches at me. The tank has three times now failed to detect an enemy in the open in broad daylight inside ten squares, and jr2 just failed a spot check on an enemy two squares away in light cover.
This bodes poorly for Cydonia, so I'm hoping it will straighten out.
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Can't we just blaster ALL THE THINGS in Cydonia?
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Can't we just blaster ALL THE THINGS in Cydonia?
No, we cannot. We will not become what we fight. The less collateral damage, the better.
By all means, do what you have to do to stop the invasion. But don't go around blowing stuff up just for the sake of blowing stuff up - keeping Cydonia mostly intact would not only make it a treasure trove of technology for us, but will also make it much easier for the snakemen to rebel against their former masters.
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Can't we just blaster ALL THE THINGS in Cydonia?
No, we cannot. We will not become what we fight. The less collateral damage, the better.
By all means, do what you have to do to stop the invasion. But don't go around blowing stuff up just for the sake of blowing stuff up - keeping Cydonia mostly intact would not only make it a treasure trove of technology for us, but will also make it much easier for the snakemen to rebel against their former masters.
You know we launched like, 500 nukes at mars earlier right? :nervous:
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This is true. However, we know their orbital trajectories and their travel times; with the Avenger, it wouldn't be hard to intercept them and prevent their arrival on Mars.
Likewise the backup plan for the Cydonia assault is to have the Avenger deploy nuclear weapons. Still, Alex is correct. Taking Cydonia reasonably intact would be good. I do intend to Blaster Bomb all the things on the surface portion, though.
(There's also a practical cap in that IIRC we have only 59 Blaster Bombs, and the 80-item cap items sent along on the mission...though I doubt anyone's Heavy Plasma will run dry, if it's going to happen anywhere it'll happen at Cydonia.)
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So, wait. They're expecting you to double your squad size but not give you any more cargo capacity? That's dumb.
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The 80-item cap is a limitation of the game engine, and it exists in every mission. Base defense in particular can get nasty because of it. Really, at Cydonia it just means that you stack in a few tanks.
I did send 26 people to Cydonia once, but most of them had lasers. (And the entire mission came down to two guys who made it as far as the brain, one of them got MC'd, the last guy would never have survived another turn, but shot the brain and won.)
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Live-fire practice continues, with both Squad 1 and Squad 2 getting some done. Squad 2's intensive deployment schedule has gotten many of them close to the 70 TU mark, though some lag behind. Squad 1 has a second soldier closing in 80 TUs.
The Avenger is proving, despite its superb combat performance, to be a serious maintenance problem. It shot down the alien battleship slightly less than two weeks; it's still in repairs, and is getting close to having been there longer than it was in construction. The introduction of so many new technologies to service in one vehicle was perhaps begging for engineering and technical troubles, but considering its near-flawless combat performance this is an unwelcome development.
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Well I tried to tell the guys that the subatomic crystal structure where prone to abuse, but they insisted that the quadruple carbon structure was as durable as any diamond you could find on Earth.
While that would be true in most cases, the presence of the experimental anti-grav device's coolant lines (which tend to leak on an hourly basis) near the drive crystals caused undue amounts of coolant spraying directly on them, thereby rendering the surface of the crystals as resilient as tapioca puddin!
I've put a work order for some sort of containment vessel or shield to be designed so that the crystals will have some sort of protection, but it seems that the engineers in charge of that have suffered some sort of mental breakdown.
I also put a notice to the psionics department to research the effects of the unshielded drive crystals on the human nervous system, but it seems they've either taken a vacation or are too busy getting the kinks out of their new training regiment...
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So..... we should .... use duct tape?..... ;7
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So..... we should .... use duct tape?..... ;7
Hmm... yes... yes... I think the chemical composition of duct tape should belay the leak to at least a day or so. Great Idea!
Although, I'm not sure if NGTM can requisition more than 1 roll to the trip...
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I've put a work order for some sort of containment vessel or shield to be designed so that the crystals will have some sort of protection, but it seems that the engineers in charge of that have suffered some sort of mental breakdown.
Bring the Avenger over to the nearest UFO yard. The specialized equipment over there is specifically designed to handle and dismantle potentially dangerous UFO's, so they should be able to fix the problem with the crystal.
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Although, I'm not sure if NGTM can requisition more than 1 roll to the trip...
I have effectively no civilian oversight and 45mil $. How much Duct Tape would you like? :p
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Although, I'm not sure if NGTM can requisition more than 1 roll to the trip...
I have effectively no civilian oversight and 45mil $. How much Duct Tape would you like? :p
Letsee, I think 4 rolls per drive crystal plus 1 more should cover the 2 day travel, the 1 day of kicking ass, and 2 days of return travel. That gives us 10 rolls for two crystals. (There's also an auxiliary crystal as a backup, but that one seems to be shielded from the coolant lines by some aluminum foil.)
Might also want to toss in 2 extra rolls for Squad 2 to play with.
Bring the Avenger over to the nearest UFO yard. The specialized equipment over there is specifically designed to handle and dismantle potentially dangerous UFO's, so they should be able to fix the problem with the crystal.
I've already gone over the paperwork from them, but I'm waiting for them to unearth my request forms from the peat bog. :rolleyes:
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SQUAD 3, YOU'RE UP! Gortef brought down a Muton Medium Scout over China and this was the first ship to have the misfortune of coming down in Squad 3's area of responsiblity since their Skyranger came in. We drafted Goober 5003 to fly it; figured he'd have more trouble getting killed this way. Tank Operation will be provided by Son of Headdie.
Cyborg17 expresses concern over the fact he's the only person on the team still on their first life.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/concerned.png)
He is unanimously told to stop complaining, it's not like he got Heavy Plasma'd or something.
A shot is taken at the tank. Based on the angles involved, Polpolion Mark 2 realizes there's only one place it could have come from. He then demonstrates terrible aim trying to kill a Muton through a window, but finally does it for Squad 3's first kill. Pity about that other one he exposed but didn't hit...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/firstkill3.png)
Cyborg17 throws a six-shot no-hitter. redsniper two puts out six shots for a scratch hit. Turambar Turin doesn't even come close with six shots. Darth Jeff Vader gets another scratch with three shots. Ravenholme Dos finally puts the alien down with a third Heavy Plasma round in the chest. In all, 24 rounds were fired for three hits at an intermediate range. Squad 3 will need intensive target practice drills when they get back; note the amount of scenery they killed in the process of getting kill number two.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/killthescenery.png)
At this point I'm just glad they haven't shot each other or the tank. Jeff Vader makes up somewhat for the previous fiasco by getting a first-round kill on the next Muton encountered.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/firstroundkill.png)
Cyborg17 gets one of the aliens lurking inside their crashed UFO by shooting it through the large hole in the roof. Turambar gets the other. (The last one was dead when we got here.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/derpthis.png)
Mission Complete. A modest, messy, but successful beginning.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/3mc.png)
Squads 1 and 2 are currently undergoing psi training in addition to continued deployments for live-fire practice. We plan to launch for Cydonia at the beginning of December, as soon as transfers of personnel to make the launch are complete. (It's currently November 10th.)
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Hey at least nobody died and no HLP_XCOM equipment received FF....
and I made sure our Skyranger and SpzKpfw III have the most *****ing nose art.
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We drafted Goober 5003 to fly it; figured he'd have more trouble getting killed this way.
Wait, did we go through Goober5002 already? :shaking:
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Wait, did we go through Goober5002 already? :shaking:
We told him not to look down the barrel of his Heavy Plasma, but he wouldn't listen...
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So now you're putting him in control of a Skyranger... lol
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So now you're putting him in control of a Skyranger... lol
You're all gonna die when he crashes and burns.
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So now you're putting him in control of a Skyranger... lol
Deus Ex Machina. He's unstoppable, except for cargo containers.
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Squad 3 launches for another Medium Scout recovery, although this wasn't Gortef's kill. The Avenger has been launched several times to test the new AI-assisted flight system codenamed "Dekker's Brain" and check its airworthiness after repairs. Kills so far include a Small Scout, a Supply Ship, and this Medium Scout. The Avenger's ability to catch alien craft even in their five thousand knot atmospheric entry and exit phases is a welcome change after the way they used to outrun the Interceptors.
Cyborg17 disembarks and fires at this Muton. For some reason, the Muton proceeds to return fire not at him, but at the tank (which hasn't fired or even moved very much), which absorbs three Heavy Plasma rounds without being damaged.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/whyshoottanks.png)
Mongoose Jr. deals with the Muton.
Then Cyborg17 gets shot in the side armor. Setting a new standard for durablity, he shrugs it off. This is actually a first for the HLPX-COM Flying Suit, as a Heavy Plasma usually penetrates the side of the suit. Unfortunately, Cyborg immediately spazzes out on the concept of "returning fire accurately" and instead shoots the Skyranger's landing gear three times. The tank moves up to take over, but spots a second Muton. Ravenholme Dos takes this one under fire but misses six shots. Before we can stage a repeat of the first mission's madness, FireSpawn's Cousin moves up and kills the hostile with the first round (and fires the other two into the UFO).
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/firespawn.png)
Son of Headdie then reminds the Mutons why nobody ****s with an HLPX-COM tank
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/headdieson.png)
StarSlayer Clone #57 gets his first kill in action. I should note that A: he missed his first two rounds by instead using them to kill that chair real good, and B: this particular Muton absorbed the last four before it died, which is a record. I've never seen one take that many direct hits to kill before.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/starslayer57.png)
Squad 3 completes its second mission in a somewhat more professional fashion than its last one.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/squad3.png)
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So now you're putting him in control of a Skyranger... lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YoPXogkXsk&t=2m26s
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An alien battleship just landed at Dekker's Pad, despite our best efforts to keep the Scouts away one of them must have gotten close enough. (Normally there's more of a direct relationship, at least a day has passed.)
11 squad members and two tanks active, base layout optimized for defense, Heavy Plasmas for all. Floaters expected.
EDIT: Or DosBox could stop allowing screenshots today so I have to postpone running it.
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Keep those buggers out of the base fellas. Good hunting!
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Base layout. The hangers are on the far side of the lift from the rest of the base, with a storage room in place between them and the lift to ensure some spacing between lift aliens and hanger aliens.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/layout1.png)
Also, as you can see, everyone is deployed between them and the rest of the base. A number of people are actually on the second level, including esarai, who has the misfortune to be in the storage room second level between the hangers and the left. Hang on man, we're coming to get you.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/layout2.png)
Ready for the happy fun bit?
The game ****ed up. Several sections do not have connecting tunnels. This is a known bug. A large portion of the base is cut off from the alien spawn areas. Alex Heartnet, Watsisname, Mjn.Mixael, esarai, Hades (who is for some reason armed with a laser rifle), Droid803, and the Hovertank/Plasma are the only members of the squad who can reach the alien deployment areas.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/****up.png)
Everyone else is stuck where they are and cannot affect the outcome of the battle in any way.
So far they've given a good account of themselves (one for the tank, two for Mjn.Mixael, one for Hades which is lying on top of another), though the fact some of the enemy have Blaster Launchers is not encouraging.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/agoodstart.png)
Esarai, not content to wait for rescue, kills a couple more aliens.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/esarai.png)
The tank takes the lead and everyone moves up. The first hanger is clear. Hopefully, with six kills, we've broken the back of the invading force. Esarai apparently cleared the first hanger. Watsisname kills a Demented Fuzzy Shivan in the second, and Hades gets a Floater. Alex Heartnet adds a second Demented Fuzzy Shivan to the tally.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/secondhanger.png)
Hades finishes clearing the second hanger by adding another Floater to the list of the dead. We've killed ten aliens; hopefully there aren't many more left. The tank spots another in Hanger Three, and puts one plasma round into it which doesn't kill the alien. Droid803 raises his Heavy Plasma to his shoulder, aims carefully, and drops the alien from a range of about fifty squares while still in the back end of Hanger One.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/droidsnipes.png)
Despite game ****ups, Blaster Launchers, Demented Fuzzy Shivans, and nonsensical deployments, Squad Two has won through. Dekker's Pad is safe. Mission Complete.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/secured.png)
We are less than two weeks from the Cydonia mission.
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No deaths? Squad two is learning
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It was somewhat of a near thing, the last guy actually tried to blaster bomb the tank, but there was some drift between waypoints and he hit a wall turning to push the shot into Hanger One. There were also some moments where I ended up going "oh **** we're bunched, **** the reserve TUs" and trying desperately to spread people out so they wouldn't present the sort of target that begs for a blaster bomb.
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HLPX-COM was activated on January 1st, 1999. It is now December 1st. In the last eleven months, we have detected 120 UFOs, engaged over three quarters of them with intercepting aircraft, shot down all but one of those engaged by our interceptors, and recovered successfully after they were either shot down or landed somewhere around seventy, fought ten terror missions while successfully completing all but two of them, defended our bases from direct alien assault twice, and destroyed two alien bases on Earth. The active members of Squad One alone are responsible for the deaths of over a hundred and fifty aliens, and over the course of its existence HLPX-COM has probably killed more than twice that number.
Twenty-five HLPX-COM personnel have been killed in action, twenty-four of them on the ground. Two of our tanks have been destroyed, and one Interceptor lost. We have expended a little over three hundred and fifty million dollars, and employed science staff of one hundred and fifty people and a technical staff of two hundred seventy-eight.
All of which is for this moment.
The Cydonia mission is a go. Squad 2's psi-resistant soldiers are transferring to Area 51 and the Avenger is being prepped for the trip. We go to Mars to end this war once and for all.
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Woohoo!
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Alright, time for the cliche music score: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI&ob=av3e (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI&ob=av3e)
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Awwright. Let's do this.
(http://s1102.photobucket.com/albums/g449/Ironcitadel99/letsdothis.gif)
Squad 3 probably won't have anybody there with you, but I offer this music score in counter to Sparda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTsD2FjmLsw
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The aliens have launched a single last-ditch attempt to prevent us from going to Mars. We're not sure they're aware of the impending launch of the mission, probably not, or they would have attempted something significantly more frightening.
Instead we have another Snakeman base raid inbound. (Since you all insist on musical accompaniment.) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kNeGtqP7zw)
These three kills all belong to the pair of Spoonzer Threes, though one of them was actually the far Snakeman shooting the middle one in the back while firing at the tanks. (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/threeinarow.png)
Trashman kills a Snakeman and a Chryssalid.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/twomorefortrash.png)
Axem gets another one, followed by the Spoonzer 3s taking down one more. That's seven down in the North Hanger (one on top of another) and one by the lift; hopefully we've dealt with most of the attack already.
KyadCK, advancing towards the Southwest Hanger, kills a couple more, one of whom mysteriously disappears. (Also a known bug due to item table overflow.)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/Kyad-1.png)
The E, kills one and also experiences the magic total disappearing of the corpse.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/magiccorpses.png)
Kyad locates another one, which has flipped out, dropped its Blaster Launcher, and tried to run.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/lastone.png)
The Chryssalid is not dead, and in fact just woke up. Putting it down again is the Spoonzer 2 laser tank.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/spoonzer.png)
Final honors go to SpardaSon.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/finalhonors.png)
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Ten of our best soldiers and four tanks (two Hover/Plasma and two Tracked/Laser) are now embarked aboard Avenger-1 for Cydonia.
-Joshua-, Colonel, 26 missions, 20 kills, 78 TUs, Psi Strength 93
SpardaSon21, Captain, 30 missions, 24 kills, 76 TUs, Psi Strength 97
TrashMan, Sergeant, 30 missions, 18 kills, 77 TUs, Psi Strength 79
KyadCK, Sergeant, 26 missions, 37 kills, 78 TUs, Psi Strength 56
esarai, Squaddie, 18 missions, 12 kills, 75 TUs, Psi Strength 67
The E, Commander, 35 missions, 26 kills, 80 TUs, Psi Strength 90
Axem, Sergeant, 34 missions, 25 kills, 74 TUs, Psi Strength 84
Droid803, Squaddie, 21 missions, 13 kills, 73 TUs, Psi Strength 56
swashmebuckle, Squaddie, 20 missions, 13 kills, 66 TUs, Psi Strength 59
Scourge of Ages, Squaddie, 19 missions, 16 Kills, Psi Strength 66
(If you didn't get sent to Cydonia, you had a Psi Strength of 50 or less.)
The Avenger will be piloted by Darius. Scotty will handle the weapons, backed up by the AI Dekker. Tanks will be operated from the Avenger by both Spoon and Flipside.
Rather than its usual Plasma Beams, the Avenger will instead be armed with four Elerium-boosted nuclear warheads, with a yield of approximately one gigaton each. We traded our remaining stocks of plasma weaponry to the Russians for design assistance in building them. One of them will be launched ahead of the Avenger before it enters Martian orbit, and airburst at high altitude above the Cydonia base. This should knock down any active UFOs and the EMP should be sufficient to blind ground-based sensors and defenses, opening a window for the Avenger to land.
The other three are to be employed if the ground assault fails. We may not be able to give humanity the stars, but we sure as hell can keep the aliens from ever using Cydonia again.
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The E, Commander, 35 missions, 26 kills, 80 TUs, Psi Strength 90
Wow. Badass all around.
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-Joshua-, Psi strength 93
**** son, I could have stayed in the infantry. :D
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Hell yeah, an other 5 kills for the Spoonzer Elite :pimp:
Get outta mah base, ya alien scumbags.
Ya'll ignoring the unsung hero SpardaSon21, Captain, 30 missions, 24 kills, 76 TUs, Psi Strength 97
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I shall flay them alive... with my mind. :D
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Surface you say? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dS5u37ofU) Hmm...
Nah, let's go with something more...epic. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ1GbBlS9wM)
WELCOME TO MARS.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/welcometomars.png)
Some of you won't be leaving.
Scourge! Blaster Bomb all the things!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/blasterbombthethings.png)
Well, it's a good start.
First honors with a direct fire kill go to a Laser Tank, which took a Heavy Plasma round to the front, pressed on, and blasted a Cyberdisk.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/firsthonors.png)
We've located the entrance to the base. **** this noise, people, we're going straight for the brain.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/theexit.png)
Another blaster bomb, this one from swashmebuckle, eliminates a Sectoid who was sniping at our tanks. The blaster bomb, it must be said, is basically a guided missile; you set waypoints, it follows them. There is some drift between waypoints so you can hit things that were not intended, but it's not bad. It makes a surprisingly effective and hilarious sniper weapon since you don't even need to leave the transport.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/snipewithartillery.png)
The second direct kill goes to a Spoonzer 3, while more blaster bombs are launched into areas of suspected alien activity.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/seconddirectkill.png)
Have I mentioned how goddamn fun it is to just Blaster Bomb anything that moves and a lot of things that don't?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/ALLTHETHINGS.png)
One of the Laser Tanks, standing guard, is destroyed by incoming plasma fire. Scourge of Ages launches a Blaster Bomb back out into the dark and kills the Sectoid.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/lostlaser.png)
Enemy resistance is too little and too late. By the end of the fourth turn, more than half the attack force has reached the base entrance. As the fifth turn opens, everyone has arrived.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/toolate.png)
Cydonia Surface complete. Losses: 1 Tank/Laser. Munitions expenditure: 7 Blaster Bombs, 5 Tank/Laser shots, 10 Tank/Plasma shots.
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/me salutes the fallen tank.
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AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! THIS IS IT MOTHER****ERS! DO OR DIE!
(http://i45.tinypic.com/25ez47s.jpg)
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Flipside, take better care of them Spoonzer II's! We lost one!
I'm dual wielding the Spoonzer III's here!
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Not to worry. The Spoonzer Elite shall have bloody vengeance.
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this is ****ing epic.
and that track from two steps from hell only makes it better.
:yes:
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Was listening to "Suicide Mission" from ME2 whilst reading the build-up to the invasion, and then listened to "To Glory" whilst reading the Cydonia - Surface post.
****ing epic.
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Whoever wrote this briefing clearly forgot to mention how we're going to nuke all the things if this doesn't work. Oh well.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/derpbriefing.png)
First blood to Scourge of Ages, who blasts one of the walker-thingies we saw during the ill-fated Ethereal terror missions.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/firstblood.png)
Incidentally, he also killed an Ethereal, though it wasn't visible at the time.
Droid kills a Celatid, while Axem fires at, and hits, some sort of rocky thing we've never seen before. He finishes dealing with it on the next turn.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/rock.png)
A Chryssalid appears, rushing at Axem and Kyad. Axem shoots it in the face. It dislikes this, and turns to run away, only for Kyad to shoot it in the back and kill it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/deadchryss.png)
A second is located by one of the hovertanks, which puts one round into it. The E takes it from there.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/otherdeadchryss.png)
The Laser Tank, with only 70 TUs, is actually having trouble keeping up with the advancing infantry. Three psi attacks are made on Kyad, but none works. TrashMan kills another of the rocky things. So does The E, who also spots something much more troubling: an Ethereal with a blaster launch. Aim don't fail us now.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/itdoesnot.png)
Another Celatid sneaks past The E, but runs into a Hovertank and gets shot and killed.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/deadcelatid.png)
Still trying to psi Kyad and failing. Somehow, somewhere, one Ethereal has also shot another. And...WHAT THE CHRIST
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/wtf.png)
The E explains to the Chryssalid about personal space by shooting it repeatedly.
Control Room entrance has been located! All units converge!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/controlroom.png)
Scourge of Ages prepares the way by firing a Blaster Bomb up the lift. There is a brief debate over who shall go first, but in the end, it's obvious. Axem and The E, as the two original recruits present, will go.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/AxemandE.png)
Before them stands the alien brain, the orchestrator of all that has happened, the one being that stands between the human race and the stars.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/wehavemettheenemy.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/firstend.png)
THERE WILL BE NO NEGOTIATION, BOSCH.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/secondend.png)
HLPX-COM IS THE ONLY LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY IN THIS SYSTEM.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/****rightoff.png)
Mission Complete, one last time.
Cydonia Base Assault. Losses: None. Munitions expended: 2 Blaster Bombs, 27 Heavy Plasma rounds, four Hovertank/Plasma rounds.
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You lost a single laser tank to the entire Cydonia assault.
What the ****.
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Axem, The E, Squad 1 and all of HLP-XCOM... well done. o7
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THERE WILL BE NO NEGOTIATION, BOSCH.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ngtm1r/secondend.png)
I had forgotten about DAT ASS!
Job well done men, job well done. :yes:
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Holy ****.
****ing good job there mate :yes: :yes:
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Dai Shoui!
Let there be celebration cake!
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KABOOM BABY.
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Don't forget the Brain's last message...
It seems to translate to "Do not want." :)
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You lost a single laser tank to the entire Cydonia assault.
What the ****.
and he didn't even use psi
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HLPX-COM Victorious (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43AwBVeyqWo)
This game was transcendent.
The team I took to Mars was the best team I've ever had in an X-COM game; more than half of it was superior to the best soldier I've had previously, during a winning game of TFTD. Everyone, even you Squad Two and Squad Three, did incredibly well towards the end. Squad Two in particular was actually starting to catch up to Squad One in terms of TUs, though they turned out not to have the core of freakishly high psionics-resistence soldiers Squad One did. Still, several representatives of Squad 2 went on the final assault and rendered invaluable service there.
I didn't have to launch when I did thanks to everyone performing well as my points totals were still in the positive by about three thousand per month just from day-to-day interception and recovery of UFOs. But I promised I'd go for Cydonia when psi training was done, so I did.
And what happened on Cydonia was beyond imagining. Never, in my wildest dreams, did I think the mission would go so well. And all without a single Psi Amp on our side, a single instance of a soldier being mind-controlled, and only the one tank getting shot and killed. If somebody can tell me how the **** I did this, I'd like to know, because I have no clue.
Final stats for the soldiers who did not go to Mars.
Squad One
jg18, Sergeant, 24 missions, 15 kills, 74 TUs, Psi Strength 33
jr2, Sergeant, 27 missions, 12 kills, 73 TUs, Psi Strength 47
Fury, Sergeant, 19 missions, 16 kills, 73 TUs, Psi Strength 36
Squad Two
Mjn.Mixael, Captain, 35 missions, 26 kills, 77 TUs, Psi Strength 50
Watsisname, Squaddie, 24 missions, 15 kills, 74 TUs, Psi Strength 33
Backslash, Squaddie, 19 missions, 9 kills, 71 TUs, Psi Strength 43
General Battuta, Squaddie, 20 missions, 6 kills, 68 TUs, Psi Strength 7
Hades, Squaddie, 18 missions, 13 kills, 67 TUs, Psi Strength 3
CommanderDJ The 2nd, Squaddie, 5 missions, 1 kill, 58 TUs, Psi Strength unknown (didn't have enough space to train him)
Veers, Squaddie, 22 missions, 12 kills, 68 TUs, Psi Strength 20.
Alex Heartnet, Squaddie, 19 missions, 11 kills, 71 TUs, Psi Strength 10
Squad Three
Cyborg17, Squaddie, 5 missions, 2 kills, 62 TUs, Psi Strength unknown (lab in the Phillipines went up only the month before, they only started training in December, so all Squad Three gets that)
Mongoose Jr., Squaddie, 5 missions, 1 kill, 63 TUs, Psi Strength unknown
Polpolion Mark 2, Squaddie, 5 missions, 2 kills, 63 TU, Psi Strength unknown
redsniper two, Squaddie, 5 missions, 3 kills, 61 TU, Psi Strength unknown
Darth Jeff Vader, Squaddie, 5 missions, 2 kills, 63 TU, Psi Strength unknown
Turambar Turin, Squaddie, 5 missions, 1 kill, 62 TU, Psi Strength unknown
Ravenholme Dos, Squaddie, 5 missions, 3 kills, 59 TU, Psi Strength unknown
FireSpawn's Cousin, Squaddie, 4 missions, 3 kills, 64 TU, Psi Strength unknown
Ironbeer The 2nd, Squaddie, 5 missions, 1 kills, 60 TU, Psi Strength unknown
StarSlayer Clone #57, Squaddie, 5 missions, 3 kills, 59 TU, Psi Strength unknown
Everyone Else Who Deserves Recognition
Support Staff
Nuke (Interceptor 2)
Darius (Skyranger 1, Avenger 1 Pilot, Avenger 1 Mars Run)
Spoon (Squad 1 Tanks, Plasma Hovertanks Mars Run)
Scotty (Interceptor 3, Avenger 1 Weapons, Avenger 1 Mars Run)
Flipside (Squad Two Tanks, Laser Tanks Mars Run)
MP-Ryan (Skyranger 2)
JGZinv (Interceptor 4)
Gortef (Interceptor 5)
Goober 5003 (Skyranger 3)
Son of Headdie (Squad 3 Tanks)
Dekker's Brain (Avenger 1 AI, Avenger 1 Mars Run)
Thaeris (Head of Biology Section, Area 51 Research)
z64555 (self-appointed Head of Engineering Section, Area 51)
The Fallen
Zacam, Rookie; made a kill but did not survive the mission (deceased by plasma rifle shot, then blown up by friendly grenade, Mission 1)
Karajorma, Rookie (deceased by plasma pistol shot, Mission 1)
Mongoose, Rookie; made two kills but did not survive the mission (deceased by plasma rifle and then heavy plasma shot, Mission 3)
Goober5000, Sergeant (blew himself up with a heavy cannon HE round at point-blank, Mission 5)
Swantz, Squaddie (shot with plasma pistol, deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Jeff Vader, Squaddie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Redsniper, Rookie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 5)
Polpolion, Squaddie (deceased by plasma pistol shot, Mission 5)
CommanderDJ, Squaddie (deceased by multiple cyberdisc plasma cannon shot, Mission 6)
The First Tank, Cannon Tank (deceased by multiple cyberdisc and heavy plasma shot, Mission 6)
Rodo, Squaddie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 8)
Col. Fishguts, Squaddie (deceased by plasma cannon shot, Mission 8)
Titan, Squaddie (deceased by plasma rifle shot, Mission 9)
The Second Tank, Laser Tank (torn into tiny pieces by a Chryssalid, Mission 9)
Turambar, Rookie (deceased by plasma rifle shot, Mission 13)
mxlm, Squaddie (deceased by plasma rifle shot, Mission 14)
LordMelvin, Squaddie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 15)
Ravenholme, Squaddie (deceased by alien grenade, Mission 15)
Commander Zane, Squaddie (MIA, Mission 15)
IronBeer, Squaddie (deceased by laser rifle from mind-controlled StarSlayer, Mission 17)
Goober5001, Squaddie (deceased by laser rifle from mind-controlled StarSlayer, Mission 17)
FireSpawn, Rookie (deceased by grenade from mind-controlled Veers, Mission 17)
StarSlayer, Rookie (MIA, Mission 17)
Headdie, Sergeant (deceased by heavy plasma shot, Mission 19)
Rodo Mk2, Rookie; made a kill but did not survive the mission (deceased by plasma rifle shot, Mission 19)
The_Force, Rookie; hit an alien but did not survive the mission (deceased by multiple plasma rifle shot, Mission 19)
Dekker (Interceptor 1, deceased by Terror Ship plasma beam over Central Africa prior to Mission What Is This I Don't Even.)
The Third Tank, Laser Tank (deceased by five-plus Heavy Plasma shot, Cydonia Surface)
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only 35% KIA, not bad
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Attero
Dominatus
Cydonia is burning
Denique
Interimo
The Hivemind has fallen
Nice Psi strength, Hades&Battuta :p
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hey, man, i don't dig this military stuff. luminous beings are we, you know? i bet my psi strength is 99
peace on earth. off earth too
General Battuta, Squaddie, 20 missions, 6 kills, 68 TUs, Psi Strength 7
i feel like i just got slapped by the ultimate hustler
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It's over already? Aww...
Unfortunately, I am having a hard time thinking of any other games that lets you rename dozens of units like XCom does. While lots of RPG's let you rename your 4 person party, most of those games don't allow for a 20+ person squadron.
I suppose there is always the other XCom games, as well as the UFO:AI open source remake.
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It's over already? Aww...
Unfortunately, I am having a hard time thinking of any other games that lets you rename dozens of units like XCom does. While lots of RPG's let you rename your 4 person party, most of those games don't allow for a 20+ person squadron.
I suppose there is always the other XCom games, as well as the UFO:AI open source remake.
He can do UFO: AI, or he can do Terror From the Deep and save humanity again, this time from aquatic versions of the previous alien attackers.
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He can do UFO: AI, or he can do Terror From the Deep and save humanity again, this time from aquatic versions of the previous alien attackers.
UFO:AI would be more interesting. A lot of little complaints about XCOM: Enemy Unknown have been addressed in UFO:AI. More weapon options (sniper rifles anyone?), laser weapons that actually follow basic physics, interceptors that have a dedicated gun hardpoint in addition to heavier weapon hardpoints, the list goes on. Unfortunately, tanks aren't in the game yet, and the terrain isn't destructible.
Plus NGTM-1R might not be familiar with UFO:AI, meaning he won't know quite what to expect from the aliens.
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I am honored to have been of service.
That said, in fond reflection of my grandfather, who is also a biologist, I would like to prepare mushroom surprise! I hear it "amplifies" psionic abilities...
:D
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Plus NGTM-1R might not be familiar with UFO:AI, meaning he won't know quite what to expect from the aliens.
Actually, I've played UFO: AI and I find it, in general, not nearly as fun as X-COM is/was.
And the lack of an in-mission save feature because they regard it as heresy is unfortunately a dealbreaker for this sort of thing, where it can take hours to do a mission with screenshots and commentary.
I have no intention of doing another LP at the moment anyways.
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Congrats to Grand Commander NGTM-1R, and to the elite badasses of Squads 1 and 2! I'm honored to have been a part (twice!) of the asskicking militia that is HLPX-COM.
hey, man, i don't dig this military stuff. luminous beings are we, you know? i bet my psi strength is 99
In my current playthrough, I've actually got a trooper with a psi strength of 97.
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Actually, I've played UFO: AI and I find it, in general, not nearly as fun as X-COM is/was.
Let's see how X-Com Enemy Unknown turns out. Hopefully it'll be glorious.
I wanted to go to Cydonia though, blasted PSI rating. :(
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Plus NGTM-1R might not be familiar with UFO:AI, meaning he won't know quite what to expect from the aliens.
Actually, I've played UFO: AI and I find it, in general, not nearly as fun as X-COM is/was.
And the lack of an in-mission save feature because they regard it as heresy is unfortunately a dealbreaker for this sort of thing, where it can take hours to do a mission with screenshots and commentary.
I have no intention of doing another LP at the moment anyways.
I wonder if that could be modded in, or if it already has been modded in.
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Congratulations to everyone who had a part in HLPX-COM! As a special consolidation prize from our funding nations, I have been given the authority to direct the crystal machinists to create a trophy of your desire!
Just keep in mind that our crystal supply limits the size of their trophies to no larger than 1 x 1 x 0.25m, and our laser mill is waiting for a parts upgrade which should come within a month or so...
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A final thought on doing more in this series.
It sounds good, but then I remember...
We have The E.
He has passed though the valley of darkness. He has suffered your psi spam, blaster bombs, psi spam, grenades, psi spam, plasma weapons, being locked inside his Flying Suit for days on end, and he passes through them unscathed at the last. The abyss dares not face The E. He'll stare down elder gods. Send your signal to T'Leth. He'll take the whole city down alone. Send The High One. It will die because The E wills it so. Build your goddamn Doomsday Weapon. It can't withstand his gaze. The Micronoid Aggregate will quake in his shadow. The Overspawn will climb through a gate to the Alien Dimension to get away from him.
So there's really no point.
-
All I request, is a funny one-liner when I die.
I think, considering the subject matter, that this is the single most unlikely denial of a request I have ever seen.
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KyadCK, Squadie, 13 missions, 13 kills,
KyadCK, Sergeant, 17 missions, 17 kills,
KyadCK, Sergeant, 26 missions, 37 kills, 78 TUs, Psi Strength 56
Um, holy crap. Somewhere along the line I decided 1 kill per mission just wasn't enough.
Three psi attacks are made on Kyad, but none works.
Still trying to psi Kyad and failing.
Ya, not so easy this time is it? And I had one of the lowest the lowest Psi ratings of all the troops going in ya alien scum. :pimp:
Some of you won't be leaving.
R.I.P. tank driv.... wait. They're on the ship, not in the tank. Heh, some doom mission if we didn't lose a single troop. :p
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And what happened on Cydonia was beyond imagining. Never, in my wildest dreams, did I think the mission would go so well. And all without a single Psi Amp on our side, a single instance of a soldier being mind-controlled, and only the one tank getting shot and killed. If somebody can tell me how the **** I did this, I'd like to know, because I have no clue.
It's one of those strange and unlikely events. Happens.
Remeber when I did the let's play of UFO:AI? Also practilcy no losses.
I do have one quesiton - what is the brains plea anyway?
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I wonder if that could be modded in, or if it already has been modded in.
You talking about tanks or the save feature?
The no-save feature is not really a problem. The maps aren 't that big and this way you cna't save-scam. You can re-start the entire mission, buuuut.
UFO:AI gets better every day.
I'm just waiting for tanks and the new health system. Then it will be truly glorious. Altouhg I'm more excited about the health system. Tanks are for pusses anyway.
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hey, man, i don't dig this military stuff. luminous beings are we, you know? i bet my psi strength is 99
peace on earth. off earth too
General Battuta, Squaddie, 20 missions, 6 kills, 68 TUs, Psi Strength 7
i feel like i just got slapped by the ultimate hustler
Don't forget your other prediction:
I can't help but think that this means you're doomed to have a psi strength of 5.
And what happened on Cydonia was beyond imagining. Never, in my wildest dreams, did I think the mission would go so well. And all without a single Psi Amp on our side, a single instance of a soldier being mind-controlled, and only the one tank getting shot and killed. If somebody can tell me how the **** I did this, I'd like to know, because I have no clue.
Unmodified X-Com has a bug that resets the difficulty level to Beginner any time you load a saved game. :p
Even on Beginner though, that's pretty impressive.
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Yeah, I assumed this was on Beginner the whole time, even on Beginner the game is still pretty nasty hard at the tactical level.
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Yeah, I assumed this was on Beginner the whole time, even on Beginner the game is still pretty nasty hard at the tactical level.
When I first read Goobers post, I was like "how does such a bug get past playtesting?"
And then I was like...
Oh right.
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was quite fun to follow, nice LP man :yes:
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Yeah, I assumed this was on Beginner the whole time, even on Beginner the game is still pretty nasty hard at the tactical level.
Since I was playing it straight I figured I shouldn't waste the time by having one really really hard first mission.
Somebody could have probably checked kill totals and figured it out anyways. There were a couple of things I could have avoided by playing safer, like losing the Cannon Tank, but even on this difficulty level I don't think I could have avoided most of the losses.
-
This is THE MOST EPIC thread I've ever seen in ANY of the forums I visited in ANY of the internets I've wandered. In ANY of the lives I lived.
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As a soldier of HLPX-COM, it was an honor to stand with the best of the best in our finest hour.
Seriously this kind of thing is awesome. We should keep an eye out for other games with customization like this, I'd love to see another LP like this.
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I would also like to thank this thread for introducing me to Sabaton.
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As a soldier of HLPX-COM, it was an honor to stand with the best of the best in our finest hour.
Seriously this kind of thing is awesome. We should keep an eye out for other games with customization like this, I'd love to see another LP like this.
I'd like to do one of UFO: ET with UniMod when my exams are over. Possibly Xenonauts when it comes out too.
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the spirit of sgt Headdie looks down on sol and is content
Good work X-COM
-
This thread should go down in the annuls of HLP history, as the best run through XCOM seen by many.
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Um, holy crap. Somewhere along the line I decided 1 kill per mission just wasn't enough.
You had one of the lowest TU totals on the team, so I basically went "screw this we're giving every kill to Kyad so he TUs up" and for several missions you did most of the door breaches and got most of the kills.
...you didn't get as many TUs as I'd hoped, but it was enough. Towards the end the TUs per kill gain seemed to fall away from the 1 for 1 or 2 for 1 it has in the beginning, which was why swashmebuckle and Scourge of Ages ended up going to Mars with so few despite my efforts to bring their TUs up for about a month.
I do have one quesiton - what is the brains plea anyway?
It basically claims that humans are descended from Martian civilization and that if only you'll stay your hand it'll give the ability to go to the stars and you can't kill me you're a part of me and blah blah blah.
However, the entire sequence seems somewhat contrived after the people it's talking to have already seen twenty-five of their buddies killed and fought this thing for eleven months, so I just skipped over it pleading because it's not like we'd listen anyways.
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FYI to both moderators and those who report posts... threads aren't generally eligible to be moved to the Classics board until several months after they've been posted. We already had that discussion regarding this thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=66357.0).
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FYI to both moderators and those who report posts...
Wait, you can use "Report to moderator" to request that a thread be moved to The Classics? :confused:
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Might as well do away with that, since most of the threads in the classics aren't funny at all.
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Wait, you can use "Report to moderator" to request that a thread be moved to The Classics? :confused:
You can use "Report to moderator" to tell the moderators anything you want. Occasionally, this is used in nonstandard ways.
Might as well do away with that, since most of the threads in the classics aren't funny at all.
They don't have to be.
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Wait, what? How'd I miss this? And... how come I wasn't included? *sniffles*
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Wait, what? How'd I miss this? And... how come I wasn't included? *sniffles*
You will be in the next one, assuming there is a next one.
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Do it again, but this time on Superhuman. :D
(This will require XComUtil or something similar. It should also fix the Base Disjoint Bug that you noticed, as well as several other bugs.)
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Do it again, but this time on Superhuman. :D
I've done the game before with XcomUtil but never on Superhuman. Not sure I could. Not really sure I want to.
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Do it again, but this time on Superhuman. :D
I've done the game before with XcomUtil but never on Superhuman. Not sure I could. Not really sure I want to.
I could get the cloning machines working, you just might be able to do it with a full squad of The_E clones. :P
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I might do one
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Clone a few of me, too. I've got a psi strength of 97 after all.
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Clone a few of me, too. I've got a psi strength of 97 after all.
Ever consider changing your name to Spartason?
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I don't need clones. 1 of me is more than enough for the job. Besides, you cannot copy perfection!
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If you install rear view mirrors on your fighter craft, I might just make it next time too.
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I believe second time wouldn't be so special. Some things have to remain unqiue.
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I made it to mars, as a brain. But in control of three elerium boosted nukes. I can console myself with that.
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without your experienced brain, the Mars mission might not have made it that far
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I believe second time wouldn't be so special. Some things have to remain unqiue.
I am totally down with being the disappointing sequel
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You could do a Xenonauts LP when it's released later in the year. I'd keep up with that.
I'm a bit late to the party but I found this entirely too fitting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O6Q1OiF6LI&feature=related) for the Cydonia assault :P
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If you install rear view mirrors on your fighter craft, I might just make it next time too.
You're trying to get me to do Interceptor, aren't you?
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Unbelievably epic, and moved at a startling clip, and was fantastically entertaining. I'm happy to have been of assistance in my blaster bombing of everything, I liked that part :pimp:
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You're trying to get me to do Interceptor, aren't you?
What could possibly go wrong?
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Aside from the fact it's a buggy piece of **** and I don't think I could even make it work?
(Hi zeke.)
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Aside from the fact it's a buggy piece of **** and I don't think I could even make it work?
(Hi zeke.)
I've got it running on my PC, but it is buggy as hell. ****, you can't even finish the game without cheating! The two most notable bugs I can think of at the moment are the probe bug (where probes don't appear during combat, and friendly probes explode the moment you start combat), and the 'invisible' pirate base bug.
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Are you using the XP fix and the v1.2 patch?
http://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/index.php?cid=9
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The idea that these weren't bundled in the Steam version seems unlikely. Even if they are, this is a space game where velocity isn't cumulative and if you fire a 140 speed missile from a 240 speed ship, it will impact you at 100 speed because **** you, that's why.
Basically even if Interceptor worked, it's still a piece of ****. At least Enforcer was fun to play while being an abomination unto all things X-COM.
In other news, I ran across this track, which is essentially an updated mix of some of the music, creating the proper atmosphere of total paranoia required for the full X-COM experience. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO7hySC6H9o)