[Rodo]

You lost no one! I demand more BLOOD, this doesn't feel X-COM at all!

 

[NGTM-1R]

You lost no one! I demand more BLOOD, this doesn't feel X-COM at all!

 

Man, I have played TFTD for years, into the ****ing ground. I have driven this game until the wheels fell off and then continued on the rims, ground them down to the axel. I am being about as uncareful and risktaking as I can manage by now without going into split-personality territory.

If you want mass casualities and madness, wait until we do HLPX-COM 3 with either Apocalypse or the Firaxis reboot and you can watch me flounder around in the dark like an absolute moron.

[NGTM-1R]

TFTD is frightened of Squad 3. I say this because the game has memorydumped twice while I try to play out their first mission.

[NGTM-1R]

Squad 3's first outing starts with an interception by Dragon and Barracuda 3; rather than deploying Squad 2 to pick up the pieces afterwards we're going to give the Leviathan and Squad 3 some exercise. Because they're rookies excepting Doc Fox and Sandwich, we've given them very good company: no less than three Spoonzer VI Tiger Sharks will be along for the mission.

Hell, the tanks could probably complete the mission alone while Squad 3 plays poker on the Levi.

Funny sidenote: The Leviathan isn't really that much bigger than the Triton. In fact, it's definitely smaller vertically.


Dekker locates the first hostile, four turns into the mission. Hey Gillman!

Well, despite scaring the crap out of me by looking like he was going to hit the chair, the shot was good.

Gortef meets an alien coming down the stairs and reaction-shots it.


Well, it had to happen I suppose. Sandwich missed this guy and hit the structure, but SpardaSon22 picked up what he dropped.


Veers spotted this one but missed it. Gortef, despite having to shoot through a wide variety of pipes, staircases, and other random crap, made a solid hit.


It's 24 turns in and we've checked all the buildings and killed all the things and there's apparently one left, but if you know where, you're a better person than I. No, seriously, check this out.





Those little pagoda thingies we can't even get inside? The fact this late in the game the alien hasn't emerged to shoot at someone yet argues he's stuck somewhere and can't. Anyways, you guys figure this out, I'm going to go eat breakfast and come back to the mission later. I'll let you know then if your "the last alien is here" was correct.

[Scourge of Ages]

I see some dark spaces south of the enemy sub. Check there. Otherwise, blow up the things you can't get to, and double-check the corners of the map.

[BlueFlames]

My money is on the last alien wandering around in such a way that it missed Squad 3's LOS, whist sweeping around behind their search pattern.  If you double-back to the Leviathan, you'll probably run into the thing standing out in the open, like a complete derp.  Sectoids (and oddly, only Sectoids) do that to me all the time in UFO Defense.

[FireSpawn]

Explode ALL the things!!

[ZekeSulastin]

Explode ALL the things!!

I concur.

(Also I'll try to do a log at some point - I'm just not well versed in that sort of writing ...)

[Sandwich]

Well, it had to happen I suppose. Sandwich missed this guy and hit the structure, but SpardaSon22 picked up what he dropped.

Sandwich's Personal Log (in-mission audio recording):

I had to do it. I just couldn't help it. Making the vets from Squad 1 look a bit like amateurs is all fun and games, but these guys, my squad? Nahh... So I waited for my chance, when I was sure nobody would get hurt by my "miss", blew the shot, and let someone else take it. Should help his morale quite a bit.

I also spotted the last alien about 20 minutes ago, tangled up something fierce, weapon arm totally caught up. I was pretty sure he posed no threat to anyone, so I just kinda left him there for someone else to spot. Let them get the glory of the kill. I've had enough of that to last me a lifetime. I'm a bit perturbed thought that nobody's spotted the thing yet though... we've had people pass that area twice already. Guess I need to speak to the gunny about some training time for these guys - tech 'em how to see, not just look.

On the other hand, perhaps not... I certainly don't want anyone asking the wrong questions about my particular set of talents... the past is past for a reason, and I'd greatly appreciate if it stayed there. Those are not times I want to revisit.

[NGTM-1R]

Well, Scourge was semi-correct. He was in a corner. He was also a good twenty feet off the ground and your guess is as a good as mine when it comes to how he got up there, and I was actually semi-sure I'd cleared it because sometimes blowing up the pipes actually does damage to things near them. Sometimes, meaning not always.

Random Gillman #579, you were a pain in the ass to find, it's good to see you go!


Not difficult, but a good start.


Next up: We know the Leviathan flies, so the next step is to kill something with it.

[Sandwich]

Sandwich's Personal Log (in-mission audio recording):

Well, someone finally spotted the alien. We humans have been so ingrained to look around us that we often neglect the 3rd dimension. Hopefully, this will have taught my squadmates a lesson in that regard. I had to learn the hard way, 12 years ago, and it cost one of my mates the use of his legs. I'm just glad this lesson didn't have to come the hard way as well.

We're heading back to base now. Not a bad first mission for Squad 3 and the Leviathan. Not bad at all.

[z64555]

Subject: "z64-555"
Log Number: 280
Date: [Redacted]

Squad 3 finally saw some action today. My place on the Triton was taken up by one of the three Spoonzer tanks, which where sortied as a precaution to make sure the guys get back in one piece.

The tanks are remotely operated, and can be piloted from the base or from the Triton itself. This last option was proven as a necessity in the FAW, where the distances between the Earth bases and Cydonia proved due to be troublesome to the communications lag.

I helped with the logistics of piloting the three tanks. There's only one control station issued per base, and as such there's only one pilot that actually operates the tanks deployed in the field. Luckily for the pilot, I've managed to tweak the onboard AI so that they can be commanded via waypoints. We didn't have such a luxury in the FAW, and the commanders favored having only one tank per sortie to prevent the pilot from being over-fatigued.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't just me that tweaked the AI. I had some problems with the communications protocol and had to call up Goober for help. Before he was put on the battlefield, he was a pretty awesome CSE and programmer. There's a rumor floating around that he had to be cloned during the FAW several times, but as far as I can tell those rumors are just that.

Alright, the guy's just got back. Sandwich seems a bit quite for some reason, especially since everybody else keeps ridiculing him for missing a shot. Dekker's over there laughing with the commander about lawn chairs, too.

At any rate, it's time to break out the drinks!

--Z

[NGTM-1R]

The game is getting kind of twitchy, sometimes dumping memory or locking up several times while I try to play a mission. I hoped to wait until we has psi gear this time, and to further train up Squad 2 and Squad 3, but that doesn't appear to be an option as we're slowly progressing towards the sort of TFTD meltdown that'll cost me the save.

We're going to T'Leth before the end of November. The MC Strength stats for all squads will be in by then, so we should be able to assemble a decently sized strikeforce that won't kill each other. And let the Aqua Plastics fall where they may.

[NGTM-1R]

So, the Leviathan shoots down a cruiser full of Tasoths. This will actually be something that, while normally considered commonplace in X-COM games, we've never done before: a combined interception and recovery mission.


The aliens must have some kind of cultural prohibition against looking directly at enemy transports or something, since a lot of them don't do it. This Tasoth, for example, got shot in the back by Dekker because it wasn't looking at the transport, but didn't turn around to defend itself. Then as Veers' Sonic Cannon round flew past its head it still didn't turn around. Finally ZekeSulastin shot it again, killing it.


Goober spotted, dropped to one knee to fire, and shot this one in the chest. It wasn't nearly as sturdy as the other one was and went down dead. Veers makes up for his earlier mistakes by getting the one hiding behind it.


Zeke takes a reaction shot which misses, but nails the alien after it blows its own chance and the turn changes.


Goober reaction-shots a Tasoth that runs out the hulk of the downed ship. Damn guys, even Squad 1 isn't quite this quick on the trigger.


Another kill for Zeke, his third of the mission, against a Tasoth which for some reason decided to grenade the corpse of its buddy, and itself. What is with aliens not getting how to use grenades?


Sandwich engages a Tasoth but hits a wellhead...whose explosion for some reason actually kills the Tasoth. Inconsistent results from shooting piping again.


The last one standing is engaged by Dekker, Veers, and Zeke, but only Veers actually hits it and it stays standing. Rather than accomplish anything with its great luck, the Tasoth goes berserk and shoots the landscape while spinning around on one heel. Dekker misses again on the next turn, but Zeke brings it down.


We had three different Dreadnaughts show up with base attack orders, but because their scouts all got killed or looked in the wrong places, none of them ever approached an HLPX-COM base and we didn't have to send anyone out to engage them.

The little guys just keep on coming, and Leviathan 1 keeps shooting them down. A second Tasoth cruiser.


One of the Tasoths Sonic Pulser'd everything. The grenade actually landed on the Leviathan's wing, but the combination of some distance and Mag Ion Armor prevented anyone from being hurt. Even the tank isn't.


The Tasoth made the mistake of standing where we could see them after tossing the grenade. SpardaSon22 takes them down.


Lots of incoming fire, at least three sources. SpardaSon22 took a hit in the chestplate but his armor didn't breach. Three people returned shots but nothing hit. Backslash begins the cleanup process by killing this one.


SpardaSon tosses a grenade in the direction of his own opponent's hideyhole. z64555 adds a second grenade; one improvement in our gear and technology since the FAW is we managed to rig both our Magna-Blast and Sonic Pulser grenades not to fratricide each other.


Goober5001 gets the Tasoth that fired at him earlier.


The grenades go off, the Tasoth there is killed, and we win. Game over, alien guys.


Next time Squad 3 goes out, and it will likely be soon, they will have yet another tank accompanying them, although this time not as a bodyguard but for field testing.

Meet the Spoonzerkampfwagon VII, the Sea Lion. It uses a weapons system similar to the Disruptor Pulse Launcher for maximum firepower, but we have questions about its practical battlefield uses and especially its low available ammo supply. Combat testing will help resolve them.

And as we've spotted a medium "Hunter" UFO, which is actually our first detection of a medium-sized UFO yet, over Finland and dispatched Leviathan 1 to engage it, we'll soon find out.

[Scotty]

So who's officially the flight crew of Leviathan-1?

[NGTM-1R]

You and FireSpawn, since nobody else volunteered.

[Sandwich]

Sandwich engages a Tasoth but hits a wellhead...whose explosion for some reason actually kills the Tasoth. Inconsistent results from shooting piping again.

Sandwich's Personal Log; Date: [flippin' redacted again]

Another mission, another lesson to teach. This time: Make the battlefield environment work for you. The commander gave me an order to take that guy out, so I did in the most effective manner I could. Computer games used to toss this scenario at players all the time... a huge gathering of enemies in a level, far earlier than the player would typically be equipped to deal with them traditionally, conveniently oblivious of the explosive barrels right behind them. Well, in real life, you want to take advantage of those situations any time you can, not just when it will take out a large grouping of enemies, but when it will take out the one solitary gunman-err, gunthing.

There's also a converse lesson to be learned here, too: stay away from things that go boom.

[NGTM-1R]

[flippin' redacted again]

(pssst, it's the same as the one from the interception screen)

[TrashMan]

If you want mass casualities and madness, wait until we do HLPX-COM 3 with either Apocalypse or the Firaxis reboot and you can watch me flounder around in the dark like an absolute moron.

Apocalypse? That one is really different in may ways. I can say I loved it, aside from the retro-desing.
Been a long time since I played it tough.
 

[Alex Heartnet]

We still need to fill up the engineer and captain seats on Leviathian-1.  (Spoon obviously gets the tank control seat)

I volunteer NGTM-1R as the CO of Leviathain-1.  That way he gets to actually get out of his command center and onto the field.