[Scotty]

So, was that first mission you getting hugely lucky with wounds, or is the rest of the game that non-lethal to your squaddies?

[DireWolf]

Personal Log: Squaddie Dire Wolf
Date: March 6, 2030
Log Begins:
As services to the world go, dying generally accomplishes very little. However, managing to take a plasma bolt to the chest while remaining just alive enough to necessitate being hooked up to a machine consuming the electrical output of the Central African Republic probably manages to accomplish even less.
Thankfully, it seems I will have the chance to do something more constructive (destructive?) when I get out of medical in the next few weeks: I'm getting my very own sniper rifle! Learning how to use it in the field should be an interesting experience.

Log Ends
___________________

I'm actually kind of curious to see the way that snipers work in practice, since there is nothing really comparable in UFO Defense.

[NGTM-1R]

So, was that first mission you getting hugely lucky with wounds, or is the rest of the game that non-lethal to your squaddies?

It's on Classic.

One more hit, any hit, would have killed Popolion or Dire Wolf. They were both shot at again at least twice. A first hit critical would have done them both in. A slightly higher first hit damage roll would have killed them. I'm basically lucky as hell.

So what's the tactical role of a support trooper? And hahahahaha Captain Killsteal

Supports are basically your do-everythings. In addition to the standard utility slot everyone has, they carry smoke grenades, have options for improved overwatch, suppression fire with their rifle, better medikits. They're armed with assault rifles, which actually makes them easier to use than other classes at first because they don't have the range-bracket struggle going on. (As time goes by, assaults in particular handle long ranges better and heavies get tolerable. I haven't had enough snipers to see how they go.)

[NGTM-1R]

Let's take a brief time-out from the adventures of HLPX-COM to explain this crap so everyone knows what's going on. The screenies are lvlshotted, so you'll want to view this full screen so you can see what the hell I'm babbling about.

So, the UI. Demonstrating for us is Zoe Anderson, from my Easy-level practice game. Be nice to Zoe. She snipes people and she's part of a multinational black ops agency who can find out where you live.

First, the buttons and switches and knobs.

Red is the buttons you'll never use. The leftmost is End Turn, which there is never ever any reason to use unless you're catastrophically stupid. The question mark, next in, is the Soldier Info button, which there's no reason to use even if you are catastrophically stupid, but it won't hurt you the way End Turn can. Then there are the next/last soldier buttons on the right, which you might use if you have somebody off alone or a group off alone but since you probably shouldn't do that, you probably won't use them. The reason none of these buttons matter? The game automatically cycles next soldier once you've used up one's allotted actions for the turn, and automatically ends turn once everyone is done. Also you have a mouse and can scroll around and select the people you want easier that way then switching through them one by one. And finally, all the soldier info stuff is available between other things that don't require pushing a button.

Yellow is the main reason you'll never use the info button. Can't interact with any of these, they're just informational. Rank (Captain) is on the left of the nickname and name, class (Sniper) is on the right. The bottom set is Zoe's passive abilities; in her case Squadsight (which lets you fire at any enemy you can trace theoretical LOS to if a squadmate sees them), Opportunist (which lets you take Overwatch or other reaction shots without the aim reduction and do critical hits with reactions) and Damn Good Ground (which gives you an extra bonus in both defense and aim for having higher ground than a hostile).

Blue is Zoe's active abilities which you click or hit a number button to use. The ones that are also blueish greenish whateverish are common to all classes; Fire is first, the eye at 4 is Overwatch (which lets you take reaction shots), the flippy gun in slot 5 is Reload, and the last one in slot 6 is Hunker Down (which doubles your cover bonus). Hunker Down is something you're not likely to use with anyone but snipers who are coverhopping forward, since they can't move and shoot or move and Overwatch. Everyone else is probably going to move/overwatch. The yellow-colored abilities are unique to the Sniper class; Zoe has Headshot at the 2 position, the basic sniper ability which doubles critical chance, and Weapon Disable at the 3 position, which does exactly what it says on the tin by knocking someone's weapon out until they have time to use a Reload, which sucks their actions for the turn. Note also that non-unique abilites can be done after moving (with certain exceptions like the sniper's not shooting an moving unless they have an ability) but the yellow ones can't.

If you're having trouble figuring out the gun silhouettes and the alien head are, first I'm very disappointed in you, and second we'll get to that later.

Now we'll use a non-scribbled-on-in-paint picture to discuss the rest of it.


The little tooltip popping up from Zoe herself in the center of the screen shows how many HP she has left at the top, her cover class at the right side (half cover), and her actions left at the bottom. Her HP and actions are full because Zoe hasn't done anything this turn and hasn't been shot.

Zoe's movement range while using one action is visible as the irregular blue shape on the ground. You can move further, using up two actions, but there aren't many times you'll actually want to. That would show up in gold/yellow, if I had a screenshot. I'm stupid so I don't.

For demonstration purposes, I've also got a square she could move to lit up; it's the one with the blue light column. The line to it is how she'll move to get there if I right-click on it. You can see that the game also shows the cover class and direction she'll have if she moves to that spot, and the cover class and direction of spots near it. (Cover symbols for cover that's not going to protect you from nearby hostiles appears as red rather than blue. Cover that will only protect you from some of them is yellow.)

But we're not going to move Miss Anderson because she can already see an alien and if she moves, thanks to my ability choices, she can't also shoot. Instead, we're going to try to kill the alien.

This is what you see when you issue a fire or firing-based ability command.

It's mostly the same, obviously. Tooltips pop up when you select an ability and you have to confirm a selection, so you that you know all your hideous mistakes were completely your fault rather than anyone else's. The alien is visible downrange with its health bar just like Zoe's, and we can make a pretty good guess at full cover because full shield (although I've seen the game bug on this once or twice so I don't trust it). Unfortunately for it, Zoe is awesome and has a 58% chance to blow its goddamn head off when it peeks around the corner (as it was doing a lot) anyways.

The gun, you might notice, looks different. The silhouette, like the one for the pistol is now, starts full. As you fire, it empties out in chunks to represent the use of ammo. Notice that part the sniper rifle is a different color, because that's the amount of ammo Zoe will use if she fires. The red alien head has brackets around it because it's the one she's firing at; if there were others in her field of view they'd be lined up down there but not bracketed.

We will return the regularly scheduled exploits of HLPX-COM tomorrow, after Zoe kills this alien.

[deathfun]

Well damn, this looks pretty damned good

And count me in. I'm always a fan of getting myself killed

[TrashMan]

Your name sez it all.
 

Gentlemen..mentelgen.. I love war. I adore war!
ETERNAL WAR!!!
ON TO RUIN AND GLORIOUS CARNAGE!

[Alex Heartnet]

One of the local radio channels, quiet ever since the attack, suddenly blares back to life.

"Attention citizens of Earth!  Are you not aware of the lies and manipulation from those that consider themselves your masters?"

"This alien invasion is being staged by a heartless few in order to dominate humanity.  Regardless of the outcome of the war, the oligarchs will win and humanity will lose."

"To those that would seek to control us, I have only one thing to say to you."

"Viva!  Viva la Revolution!"

[NGTM-1R]

"Viva!  Viva la Revolution!"

This gets considerably more funny if we pull a specific council mission...

[z64555]

Personnel Log: "z64555"
Subject: Out of the Ice, Into the Fire

Ahh, yes. Cryostasis. Seems those aliens can't get enough of us, always coming back for more!

Timestamps seem to be off, 2015 it keeps telling me, which I know shouldn't be right as the Cydonia incident happened... much later? I'll have to look into this phenomenon sometime late. [mumbles]Chrono sphere, what have you done now?

Hmm, ah, yes. The Present.

Presently, the team's equipment appears to be in good shape, although due to the Ice it looks like even our most respected Psi troopers have lost their abilities for now. Even I can't read the mind of Herra anymore, which means I'll lose again to his card games if he ever brings it up... blast!

They've put me back in charge as Head of Technology, and I've got the boys n' girls working round the clock on making a new Spoonzer. The Skyranger we have now can't lift the old Mk 1's nor the newer Disruptor Mk 3's, so we'll have to settle with something much more miniaturized. I've asked our machinist to actually watch Short Circuit so he can get an idea of what we'll be working with. While in the mean time, I'm working with our Comms engineer to see if we can get the Spoonzer command console up and running over a secure radio channel.

Reason I asked for the "secure" radio channel is due to some dufus calling herself "Betty Boom," she seems to like clogging up the airwaves with her propaganda about "Tropico," wherever the hell that is.

[beeps in background] Excellent! The E should be just about done thawing out now, I'd better go and check on how he's fairing.

[NGTM-1R]

UFO detected in flight near our base. Launch the interceptors!


Raven-1, with Dragon at the controls, is dispatched to intercept. The modern Interceptor is a massively over-engineered craft with four engines and an internal weapons bay because we had problems with external weapons being torn loose by the slipstream. It's capable of extremely high altitudes and speeds. You might remember in HLPX-COM 1 how the aliens were effectively immune to interception in their 5000 knot atmospheric entry and exit phases of flight. This interceptor can catch them.




There is a brief engagement. The Interceptor takes several hits but downs the UFO with a few missiles. Raven-1 will be out of action for four days.



Cheering and clapping in the Mission Control room. (No really, it's kinda awesome, it's like NASA after a launch or something.)


Droid quiets the room down and tasks a recon sat for imagery. The UFO appears to be intact on the ground. Time to launch the Skyranger.


One of our people is back from the infirmary this time. Scourge of Ages returns to us after being injured in his second outing. Talon 1024 and Esarai are both still on the team. In addition, we have newcomer Pred the Penguin.


For this mission it might as well be local time as well as base time, it's so close.


Welcome to your own personal slice of hell. Fortunately the area is sparsely populated. The nearest structure is several klicks away.


Just follow the big skid-marks in. (If you get the reference, I'm proud of you.)


Esarai finds the enemy. “Contact! Sectoids, direct front!”


Pred picks one off with a well-aimed burst from his rifle. Congrats, you're a Squaddie now.


Talon 1024 is going to make use of the Assault-class special ability, Run and Gun, which allows a Dashing move and then to fire or use a firing-based ability at the end.


Unfortunately, the shot was a miss.


It also flushed two more Sectoids and now Talon's ass is hanging out way up front of the line. I want to move Scourge up to cover Talon's flank, but the most suitable cover is just out of his reach. Have to move in closer and provide less coverage than I'd like. (Barely more than Esarai, really.)


One alien goes on overwatch. One fires at Talon, but misses high. Esarai fires back, but no hit.

Pred pushes up to threaten the far flank, being shot at by the alien on overwatch, but the aliens remain clueless when it comes to how to shoot. Stay dumb, comrades!


Esarai and Scourge of Ages both make short moves to cover Talon's flank and obtain better firing position. Scourge spots that the two aliens are closer together than is wise, and preps a frag grenade. (grenade-throwing interface visible)


Two kills to Scourge.


The last alien, inside the ship, fires at Scourge of Ages in retaliation. But he's still dumb. Maybe if Sectoids didn't shoot gangsta-style.


“Think that's the front door, sir.” Pred says. “And the one Dragon added to the ship.”


“No shot!” The range and the good cover the alien has are preventing us from killing it.


Well I guess we do this the hard way. Talon and Esarai lay down covering fire while Scourge moves to the door. Pred provides close cover in case something comes out the doorway. The alien responds by firing at the person not shooting at it, Pred.

But Talon's Run & Gun has recharged.


“What the ****!” “Sir that one just rose up out of the damn deck!” “Scourge, watch your flank, it's coming in behind you!” “Pred!”


“I got him!” And Pred does. Normally a rifle can't even necessarily take one of those down in a single, but Pred critted. It goes down, vanishing completely in the process. (In hindsight, this was actually a bad thing; Scourge would have gone in through the breach in the far side of the hull if I'd had to use him to take down that alien, the Sectoid would not have been able to reposition far enough for a clear no-cover shot, and neither he nor Talon would ultimately have been injured. Derp.)


Talon, unnerved, misses the shotgun shot again. “Weapon's dry!”

Well ****.

Esarai and Scourge provide covering fire. The alien responds by repositioning, and hurting Scourge fairly badly. He ducks back out the door while shooting back. Pred also takes shots, while Esarai provides overwatch in case the alien repositions again. The alien's much too interested in shooting at Talon, who is also hurt this time...which provokes reaction fire from Esarai, which kills the alien.


Mission accomplished. The new guy had a weapon heavier than the Sectoids. If he'd got a shot off, we'd be hauling back a body bag. As it is, Scourge and Talon will be out of action for five days.


Esarai, you might notice, tries to create a different nickname with his promotion to Sergeant. (Which is where you get a nickname.)

Not happening man.

[Scotty]

Your last six or seven pictures are red xs of doom to me.

[NGTM-1R]

Well great, it might be time to invest in a PB upgrade. (Not for me, but oh well.)

[deathfun]

I really ought to get this game
I mean ****

[Scourge of Ages]

Dear log:

Shooting aliens is fun!

Getting shot by aliens, not so much. At least I get to relax a few days while my skin grows back.

[crizza]

Looks great
If I ever get the chance, heavy weapons or a pilot would be great, if I'm stuck in the cannonfodder role...anything with long range would be great^^

[TrashMan]

You should update the roster.

[Kobrar44]

Count me in if you lose enought men. I'm from Poland, but China will do, since this is what is gonna be here in 20 years anyway. Make me a sniper, a calm professional. And make me sexy.

[Pred the Penguin]

Heck yeah! Two kills on my first mission. Also, very largely built penguin if I do say so myself.

[Colonol Dekker]

Sign me up as anything..
ENGLISH!

[Phantom Hoover]

can i join too