Author Topic: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!  (Read 118582 times)

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Offline General Battuta

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
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.

 

Offline mxlm

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
Sign me up for this meat grinder.

And yes, this has been fun reading so far.
I will ask that you explain yourself. Please do so with the clear understanding that I may decide I am angry enough to destroy all of you and raze this sickening mausoleum of fraud down to the naked rock it stands on.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
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.


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!


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.



Mission Complete.


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.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2012, 03:00:57 am by NGTM-1R »
"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

A Feddie Story

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
o7 rest in peace Mongoose
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Polpolion

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
 :( Mongoose... you saved me...

 

Offline Mongoose

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
I died as I lived...getting shot.

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
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....
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Ravenholme

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
*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
Full Auto - I've got a bullet here with your name on it, and I'm going to keep firing until I find out which one it is.

<The_E>   Several sex-based solutions come to mind
<The_E>   Errr
<The_E>   *sexp

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
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.



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.


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.


Another UFO operates in our airspace, at his own peril.


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.


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.


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.)
"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

A Feddie Story

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
Goober! Stop scratching the paint of my tank!  :mad: :hopping:
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
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.)


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!


One shot, one kill. Not like the old rifles at all.


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.


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.


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.


MISSION COMPLETE!

"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

A Feddie Story

 

Offline Mongoose

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
Goober: BURN ALL THE THINGS!!!

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
Let's just say that's going to bite him in the ass.
"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

A Feddie Story

 

Offline FireSpawn

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
FireSpawn reporting for Autocannon duty to protect Queen and country alongside my brother!

This is what we all fight for!






If you hit it and it bleeds, you can kill it. If you hit it and it doesn't bleed...You are obviously not hitting hard enough.

Greatest Pirate in all the Beach System.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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THE BLACK WEDNESDAY MASSACRE
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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.
"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

A Feddie Story

 

Offline headdie

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
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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Offline Commander Zane

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
Five deaths, damn.

You can use my name to fill in a slot. Rifle works for me.

 

Offline FireSpawn

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
I'll frontline untill a transfer opens up for a UK op.

BURN ALL THE THINGS
If you hit it and it bleeds, you can kill it. If you hit it and it doesn't bleed...You are obviously not hitting hard enough.

Greatest Pirate in all the Beach System.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.

 

Offline CommanderDJ

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
I think I signed up already, just stating my preference for a laser rifle. For the uninitiated, what's a terror mission?
[16:57] <CommanderDJ> What prompted the decision to split WiH into acts?
[16:58] <battuta> it was long, we wanted to release something
[16:58] <battuta> it felt good to have a target to hit
[17:00] <RangerKarl> not sure if talking about strike mission, or jerking off
[17:00] <CommanderDJ> WUT
[17:00] <CommanderDJ> hahahahaha
[17:00] <battuta> hahahaha
[17:00] <RangerKarl> same thing really, if you think about it

 

Offline Commander Zane

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Re: HLPX-COM: You're All Dying For Your Planet, Right Here!
For the uninitiated, what's a terror mission?
Reacting to an alien incursion within a city, I believe.