[Scotty]

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.

[mxlm]

I'm so good at this game.

Godspeed mxlm o7

Should I know what o7 means?

[Commander Zane]

It's supposed to visualize a salute, even though it would look more appropriate being upside down.

[NGTM-1R]

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.

[JGZinv]

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.

[Scotty]

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.

[Thaeris]

They were all college graduates, too nerdy for ROTC...

[NGTM-1R]

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.

[NGTM-1R]

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!

[jr2]

Do Interceptors ever get laser or plasma weaponry?

[General Battuta]

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

[Scotty]

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.

[NGTM-1R]

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.

[General Battuta]

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.

[headdie]

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.

Spoiler:

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

[NGTM-1R]

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.


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.


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.


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!


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.


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.


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.


Ravenholme, turning around, notes something weird; there's a door to thin air on the second level.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.)

[headdie]

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

[NGTM-1R]

He wasn't, though; he was stunned, and one turn passed.

[headdie]

that is strange then

[Commander Zane]

What is this I dont even.

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.