[TrashMan]

With the prices of alien items increased a tad, the game is more tolerable.So..I again, mix the team a bit, putting the fresh and healthy and inexperienced on the front line.


We are called to an UFO sighting in the outskirts of a rural town.


No sooner that I disembark, I find myself under alien fire. Lacking proper range with my weapon, Xen Darr steps out, prompting another volley from the enemy. Again, without hits. Xen Darr, kneels, aims and lets the rocket fly, hitting the alien straight in the chest!

As the rest of the team attempts to disembark, they come under alien reaction fire. Both me and FireSpawn are hit.

Melvin and Retsef open fire from their snipers, blowing the head clean off the second alien.

Headddie and Ravnhole provides healing aid while Xen Darr reloads. Dekker provides cover.

A third alien comes out of the craft and open fire on Firespawn, missing. Firespawn returns fire, well beyond effective range of his pistols.

Finally Xen Darr finishes reloading and lets another rocket fly, again with deadly precision.

victory.

We sell the UFO, the money enough for us to buy a replacement Stilleto.


Dubbing it Skydancer 2-2, I set forth to equip it better than the last one. Again 3 shiva cannons, this time with explosive ammunition. but this time I also add polymer armor. It takes a whole day to install, but the increased durabillity is worth it, despite reduced range and speed. Because of this, Skydancer 2-2 will be reserved for shorter intercepts.

I contemplate installing the same armor on Skydancer 1, but I can't afford to have both fighters inoperable at the same time.


EDIT:
Rodo, Pred, I think I have 2 guys with heavy weapons available...if you're still interested.

[FireSpawn]

-Base defence-
You just shot one of the few females on base.......DIEEEEE!

-Terror Mission-

*Getting shot at*
RULE BRITANNIA, BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES!!! *Shoots back*

[Pred the Penguin]

As long as I have a chance of blowing myself up, why the hell not?
In fact, the bigger the bang the better!

[Retsof]

I think we are overlooking our secret weapon here, using Dekker to seduce the alien queen.  Do it for earth Dekker! 

[Rodo]

Rodo, Pred, I think I have 2 guys with heavy weapons available...if you're still interested.

Rodo is ready to kick some ass!
Go ahead and give me a HMG if you have one

[Colonol Dekker]

I think we are overlooking our secret weapon here, using Dekker to seduce the alien queen.  Do it for earth Dekker! 

If.she's anything like the Locust queen, I wholeheartedly support this plan!

[TrashMan]

UPDATES!

Skydancer 1 engages a UFO fighter over the sea and brings it down, altough suffering some damage in the process. I honestly lost track of Mongooses kills.


A new Terror mission is Asia. A good chance to improve relations with the Chairman. Pred and Rodo are added to the team., while some of our more active members (me and Xan Derr included) take a break.



We disemark next to a rural garden complex. Very pretty, but we don't have time for sightseeing. the alien UFO is large and that means we expect more enemies than usual.

No sooner did we fan out a bit, aliens started crawling out of the woodwork!

2 pop around the corner of the house and we can see 1 moving inside it. All 2 have what appears to be plasma rifles!

Pred lets loose a incendiary missile! And it hits. Mioracolously, the alien survives.

Next Ravelhole uses the EMrifle to shoot at the alien inside the house. Wall in the way?


What wall?


I let Rodo take a stab at finishing off the wounded alien.


He kills both.


Dekker and Ravenhole are charged with sweeping the two houses for alien stragglers, while the rest of us move forward.

We detect another alien chasing civlians on the other edge of the map.
For 3 turns Scope and Retsef try hitting it with sniper rifles, but score only 1 glancing hit. Even Pred attempts one missile shot, but misses. No further attempts are made by him, given the aliens proximity to civilians.

Meanwhile, Firrespawn and Headde2 go around and run into another alien exiting the space craft.

Headde unleashes 3 grenades, but the alines remains standing. Having little TU's left, he falls back. Firespawn prepares to provide covering fire.


The injured alien walk right into Firespawn reaction fire and falls down. Next turn Firespawn tries a few long range shots at the last alien.. and his second burst hits the mark.



We sell the UFO to Asia for more moolah and head back home triumpanth!


Howevr, another fighter UFO is detected heading right for our base. I initially send out Skydancer 1, but since it's not fully repaired, I call it back.
then this happens:
It was a possible scenario and one I was gambling on. An in-tact UFO is worth more than a wrecked one.

This is all that's left in home base.

Fortunately, this time I bought a few more armors and other supplies.  Still a few items short (medikits), but far better than last time.


NEXT EPISODE:
Stalwart defenders!

[TrashMan]

-Base defence-
You just shot one of the few females on base.......DIEEEEE!

Well, not my fault HLP-er's are mostly male.

[TrashMan]

BASE DEFENSE!


Just like the last time, the game starts us in a remote Living Quarters..stupid game.



Now you have to realise the (stupid auto-generated) base layout.

As you can see on this image, there are two entrance points the aliens are most likely to use: the main entrance or the large hangar.One COULD also technicly enter from the workshop or the command center tower, but those require opening of door and going a bit longer way. I never seen alines use them.


We run forward as fast as we can. As we approach the hangar and command center, I finally reserve a few TU's for minimal reaction fire. The team splits. Melvin and Sparda take the upper entrance into the large hangar. Vixen and Xan Darr take the right entrance to it. Me and Scourge move towards the main entrance.

Melvin makes first contact with the enemy.

The alien is wearing some kind of armor and there's no clear fireing line. Furthermore, with most TU's already spent, Melvin falls back a few steps. Sparda prepares reaction fire. Everyone else moves in.



That alien moves forward and tries to shoot out troops with a plasma pistol, but a bad angle and being peppered by Spardas reaction fire, cause it to miss every time.

Melvin finishes it off with a beautiful headshot.


Sparda moves forward, closer to the stairs. There is an unarmored alien with a plasma rifle upstairs, but he can't hit anyone without climbing down.
Vixen and Xen Darr also enter the room, and run below the landing pad.

Plasma fire comes from behind, aimed at Sparda. It misses. another alien pops right from a side room next to Melvin:

With only 1 round left in the sniper rifle, Melvin drops the rifle and quickly whips out it's micro-shotgun
Two full bursts later the alien finally falls. Melvin has only 1 TU left. Yet that couldn't be the alien shooting at Sparda. so we look around.


And we find one on the upper floor,right behind us. Xen Darr carefully aims 2 incendiary grenades trough the narrow gap between the floor and landing pad and trough the gaps in the railing. Risky, but the alien dies in a fiery explosion.


The last alien pops above with a plasma rifle. Unarmored and Melvin has a clear shot. but if it fails...he won't have any TU's to retreat.


figuring it's better safe than sorry, I retreat Melvin into the small room with the deal alien and position the rest around the stairs.

Predictably, the alien comes down only to be cutdown by Sparda bullets.


We are victorious!



Two new items for research....and congratulations to Melvin and FireSpawn for their new ranks!

[TrashMan]

STATISTICS TIME!!!!





Also, some bad news:
Most of the changes I made require a new game.
Items prices for alien items are still crap. Some of the new guns may not see the light of day.

[Patriot]

So we have 4 Anti-Alien deathmachines in the team..
I honestly thought i had less kills then that though xD

[crizza]

And Firespawn is da man^^

[FireSpawn]

I'm a BOSS

[crizza]

Most definetly.
Does the rank goes with survived missions or how do the promotions work?

[TrashMan]

Not sure..I think a combo of mission done and Mind statistic. Just FYI - most of the changes didn't go trough. The items price is unchanged (i have to start a new game), some weapons don't show up (and won't know about others for sure).

The only thing that does appear to work is increased price for UFO's. Also, adding the StarFire interceptor crashes the damn game. Looking into it on the UFO:AI forums, but it looks like they might changed some code from 2.3...

Urr...
Also, I just realized you can (apprently) dual-carry pistols, but you can't dual FIRE. Which is strange. I could swear I saw both pistols go off at once.
Or did Firespawn kill all of those aliens with just one pistol?

[LordMelvin]

I'd just like to take a moment to point out that I've got a higher mind stat than anyone else.
...and now I'll take a moment to request an assignment as badass-sniper-dude.
...and now I'll take a moment to play with text alignments.
...and now I'll take a moment to point out that there can be only one 'e' in Huffleston.
...and now I'll take a moment to be done with this post.

[headdie]

I dont know how AI handles ranks but in the original games it was a combination of performance and the total number of soldiers you have alive in the game at the end of the mission which is when rank adjustments typically happen in XCOM games

[TrashMan]

Melvin, you have been a sniper for the last few mission.
I can fix your name.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out what to do...

[FireSpawn]

I'd just like to take a moment to point out that I've got a higher mind stat than anyone else.
...and now I'll take a moment to request an assignment as badass-sniper-dude.
...and now I'll take a moment to play with text alignments.
...and now I'll take a moment to point out that there can be only one 'e' in Huffleston.
...and now I'll take a moment to be done with this post.
...And I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there. I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air

Fix'd 

[SpardaSon21]

Does UFO:AI have power armor in it?  If so, I want to be equipped in that ASAP so I can go all Mobile Infantry on these alien bastards.