Skyblade's Eyes on XCOM Signups [Archive] - Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums

Skyblade

10-02-2012, 05:14 AM

With release day only a week away, I am starting signups for my Eyes on XCOM playthrough of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Any Eyes on FF member who wishes to sign up merely has to post interest in this thread.

First, an overview of the EoXCOM playthrough: XCOM: EU, like it's 1994 predecessor, is a combination strategy and tactics game. Tactical gameplay involves commanding a squad of Soldiers sent on missions to defend the Earth from an alien invasion. These soldiers are fully customizable. Looks, names, nicknames, equipment, etcetera. And, when they die (and some probably will, it's that kind of game), they are dead for good. As such, I am looking for some volunteers to sign up to be troops in a playthrough of the game.

Anyone who shows interest will be given a soldier to customize how they see fit. You can put as much or as little effort into it as you please. Take note, however, that the more interest you show in the playthrough, the more likely your soldier is to be used on a mission.

As the missions progress, I will offer summaries of combat, details of character deaths, promotions, kills, and MVP status for each mission. If interest is high enough, I am considering buying FRAPS to record the playthrough and letting you all see how your characters did.

What follows is a brief list of things I will offer you control over during this playthrough:

Character name
Character nickname
Class
Gender
Customization
Equipment
Perks

Show an interest, and you'll get a Soldier. But you can provide all of the above if you so desire.

A detailed explanation follows:

---Character name: The game allows customization of first and last name, and spaces are allowed if you want to set up middle names (provided they aren't too long).

---Character nickname: Upon promotion to Sergeant, your fellow troopers award your character a nickname. This too can be changed to what you desire. In combat, it's displayed above a character's name, in the Barracks, it's displayed between the first and last name, as in Skyblade "nickname" Darkstar (and, yes, the quotes are included, so you can't just use it as a middle name).

---Character class: Each Recruit is randomly assigned a class, which is not revealed until that Recruit is promoted to the first rank (Squaddie). It seems that the first four units you get are one of each class. Beyond that, though, recruits get assigned classes randomly. Initial classes will be first come, first served. Beyond that, you can take a random class, or wait for a Soldier of the proper class to be recruited.

- Sniper - My personal favorite, devoted to dealing death from long range. It is also the class most likely to use pistols, as the main Sniper Rifle deals less damage as enemies get closer, and cannot be fired after moving (unless you grab a particular perk, which I'll cover later). So the Snipers will likely switch to their sidearm if enemies get too close or they get a really good flanking opportunity. But, in general, they'll be in the rear, nailing things from a distance.

- Support - Don't let the name or Medkit perks fool you, Support is far more than just a medic. One of the most versatile classes, Support has access to smoke grenades (which act as extra cover, and can be buffed with higher ranks), improved medkits, and improved Overwatch and Suppression, which are some of the most tactically versatile abilities in the game. You can play as a medic if you want, but Fire Support is an important job, and these guys seem to be good at it.

- Heavy - The demolitions expert. This guy is the primary area of effect damage dealer. Three main focuses are rockets, grenades, and Suppression. While Support gets a more versatile Suppression, Heavies can get a more powerful version, and can buff it to affect more enemies. They also have the ability to wield rockets, dealing heavy damage and destroying cover, as well as expanding the number of grenades they carry and the range of said grenades.

- Assault - The shock troopers. These guys can wield one of two primary weapons, the standard Assault Rifle, and the Shotgun. They favor a very high risk-reward mechanic. They shine in being up close and personal, but if things go bad, they can die quickly. They get several perks that increase crit and survivability when in close range and facing multiple enemies, as well as abilities that let them rush up close to easily flank and still shoot when they're done.

---Gender: Character gender, similar to class, is randomly assigned. In my experience with the demo, females are rarer than males. But if you want to hold out for playing a particular gender/class combination, you are free to, and I will try to oblige you.

---Customization: You will get to control how your character looks. Describe overall looks (hair color, skin color, etcetera), armor color, whether you wear a helmet, all the good stuff. I'll provide pictures and try to oblige as much as the game will let me. You can also give me exact instructions if you have your own copy and know what the options are.

---Equipment: What equipment is availible will be determined by how my research progresses in the strategy game, and to some extent what I can capture by stunning aliens instead of killing them. But whatever I have availible, you can pick.

---Perks: Each class has a perks tree. When they are first promoted to Squaddie, they get a set perk (Sniper gets Headshot, which increases Critical Hit chance, but has a two turn cooldown. Support gets Smoke Grenade which increases the evasion of units in the smoke cloud by 20%, but can only carry one per mission. Heavy gets a Rocket Launcher which blows stuff up once a mission. And Assault Soldiers get Run and Gun, which lets them dash [take two moves] and still shoot). Every rank after that, with the exception of Major, the second to last rank, gives them a choice of two perks. You can take one or the other, and which you take is up to you. I'll provide a link to the full list of perks for each class later.

Things I will not be offering control of: Country of Origin (randomly assigned from about 30 diffrent countries, not going to wait for a particular combination to show up, odds are about 232 to 1 to get a particular class/gender/country setup, assuming even distribution of genders), Psi Powers (these aren't discovered until late game, and are really rare. If you have Psi proficiency once it's uncovered, yay for you. Otherwise, tough patooties [though if I have a spare Psi soldier not in use, I might let you switch to it]).

And that's mostly it. I'll be taking general advice about the strategy game from the participants as well, so you can guide whether you want better guns or better armor, what global perks I should get from the Officer Training School, etcetera.

If your soldier dies, you can sign up to get a replacement if you so desire. And remember, participation is the key to making this fun. I hope this wasn't too intimidating for those of you who read all of it. Trust me, once the missions start, things will get a lot more fun. This is just the setup phase. One week to first contact!

Slothy

10-02-2012, 02:42 PM

I am totally in. I will fill out the details later.

Character name: Vivi 22 (yes, 22 is my real last name).
Character nickname: Azz Kickr seems delightfully hickish.
Class: Sniper
Gender: M
Customization: As long as I've got Guile hair I'm happy.

Jiro

10-02-2012, 04:36 PM

Character name: Jiro Starr
Character nickname: The Wish
Class: Whatever works for you Skyblade! Sniper or Support, preferably.
Gender: Male
Customization: Make him SUPER GENERIC. Brown hair brown eyes white looking fella. Doesn't matter me too much honestly. Also no helmet. Helmets are for whimps. :D

The other two come into play much later so we'll leave that for then. Whoever gets pegged as the Demolitions Expert has to be nicknamed Supernova. HAS TO BE.

Elite Lord Sigma

10-02-2012, 08:27 PM

I'm in.

Character Name: Connor MacLeod
Character Nickname: Sigma
Class: Support or Heavy, whichever is more convenient.
Gender: Male
Customization: Dark brown hair, brown eyes, full beard. All of my armor and gear should be orange.
Equipment and Perks: Will decide when I know more about them.

Psychotic

10-02-2012, 08:49 PM

Character name: Psy Chotic
Character nickname: Psychotic
Class: Heavy
Gender: Male
Customization: White dude brown hair no helmet, EVERYTHING PURPLE
Equipment and Perks: I leave up to you. It's your team, you know best.

10-02-2012, 09:33 PM

Character name: Ronnie Coleman
Character Nickname: Meaty Thigh
Class: Assault
Gender: Male
Customization: Brown man, black hair, and a nice black and pink ensemble.
Equipment and perks: whatever you think is best, although would prefer shotgun over assault rifle.

Old Manus

10-02-2012, 10:35 PM

There is a distinct lack of Marick in this thread, in both proper noun and verb form.

Iceglow

10-02-2012, 11:19 PM

Name: Balls Mcguyver
Nickname: Iceglow
Class: Assault
Gender: Male
Customization: White guy, brown hair (mohawk if possible) green and black ensemble.
Equipment and Perks: Leave it up to you though I'd prefer an assault rifle over a shotgun (someone's gotta have DK's flank.

Madame Adequate

10-03-2012, 05:05 AM

Character name: Ioseb Jugashvili
Character nickname: Man of Steel
Class: Heavy
Gender: Male
Customization: Guile Hair and all-red clothing

Skyblade

10-04-2012, 11:28 PM

Alrighty, then. The squad so far:

Jiro "The Wish" Starr, Sniper
Connor "Sigma" MacLeod, Support
Psy "Psychotic" Chotic (hey, a new entry in the Names to Rune Away From Really Fast (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast) trope!), Heavy
Ronnie "Meaty Thigh" Coleman, Assault
Balls "Iceglow" Macguyver, Assault
Ioseb "Man of Steel" Jugashvili, Heavy

That gives me a six man team, which is the largest team allowed in any one mission, which I consider a fairly good turn out. We also get at least one of each class this way, so yay to that. And we'll have at least one spare once Vivi makes his choices.

Team pics will be up pretty much as soon as I get the game installed on Tuesday, so you can comment on the customization or how awesome you all think you are then. Thanks for the interest, I can't wait to get this moving.

Iceglow

10-05-2012, 01:26 AM

Guys we missed out on Ninja Turtling our characters in this!

Madame Adequate

10-05-2012, 01:49 AM

Guys we missed out on Ninja Turtling our characters in this!

That's okay, we wouldn't want you to get left out. Again. :greenie:

Iceglow

10-05-2012, 01:51 AM

Jiro

10-05-2012, 03:08 AM

Starr has to have two Rs to be right (http://surnames.behindthename.com/name/starr) :(

Skyblade

10-05-2012, 03:22 AM

Starr has to have two Rs to be right (http://surnames.behindthename.com/name/starr) :(

Interestingly, I had originally typed it as "Starr", then went back and change it because I was sure you had only put one in. :D

Jiro

10-05-2012, 03:42 AM

It just looks slightly less like a bad pun :p

10-05-2012, 04:37 PM

I am greatly looking forward to being the first one to die horribly in a matchstick sized flame of glory. All aboard the Meaty Thigh train!

Slothy

10-05-2012, 04:53 PM

I've updated my info. I look forward to dying so that few may live.

Psychotic

10-05-2012, 06:14 PM

Guys we missed out on Ninja Turtling our characters in this!

That's okay, we wouldn't want you to get left out. Again. :greenie:

Wasn't that because I said no because I was too busy doing solo legendary? I think so.You would rather try and fail miserably at the most boring and tedium inducing video game challenge in history as opposed to having a laugh with your friends in arguably the greatest EoFF video game escapade of all time?

You're a lonely man, Steve.

Goldenboko

10-05-2012, 06:18 PM

If it ain't too late you can sign me up as a character :D

Skyblade

10-05-2012, 11:44 PM

If it ain't too late you can sign me up as a character :D

Not too late at all.

Starting soldier count is 12, which we have't hit yet. Max Soldier count is 99, which we will probably never hit. But we'll definitely use more than a single full team, as characters will die, get wounded, and generally be shifted around from mission to mission.

So even after the game's started, I'll let more people in, this is just to set up the initial team and get things rolling.

Iceglow

10-06-2012, 08:25 AM

Psychotic

10-06-2012, 03:55 PM

It took you months. You couldn't take one night off from your busy schedule of being a loser to spend a few hours with your heroes?

Skyblade

10-07-2012, 09:26 PM

So (since it seems I wasn't actually as excited about this game as I could be), I wound up watching The Avengers again.

And I came to a realization: The Avengers is basically XCOM with superheroes. I'm serious, go watch it. Notice things? SHIELD is dedicated to protecting humanity from extraterrestrial threats, they gather and reverse engineer alien technology for use by their own agents, they recruit elite agents, and they dispatch response teams all over the globe to combat threats. They even report to a shadowy council of people who sit in badly lit rooms and secretly rule the world.

Basically, SHIELD is XCOM. Except that we don't have guys like Thor and Iron Man, we just have, well, you guys. We kit you up as best we can, and we throw you into hell.

What would the world do to protect itself without superheroes? Let's find out. Two days to first contact!

Slothy

10-07-2012, 11:30 PM

In light of that realization, I think I'd like to change my nickname to Agent Coulson. I will die early on to give you all something to avenge.

Jiro

10-08-2012, 06:29 AM

Iceglow

10-08-2012, 06:50 AM

It took you months. You couldn't take one night off from your busy schedule of being a loser to spend a few hours with your heroes?

Try a couple of weeks and I wasn't even on my 360 every night in those 2 weeks.

Skyblade

10-08-2012, 07:53 AM

In light of this revelation you should change my last name from Starr to Stark. :monster: Honestly though, you have a good point. Let's hope we can win our fights without resorting to throwing nukes through a worm hole.

Y'know, now that I think about it, the ending to The Avengers was also pretty similar to the ending of the original X-Com, though for different reasons.

In The Avengers wiping out the command ship apparently eliminates the power and/or life of the alien attack force, ending the invasion.

In the original X-Com, you destroy the Alien Brain, and, again, the invasion ends almost automatically. Not because of a loss of power or the aliens simply all getting killed, but because the Alien Brain is the literal mind of the invasion, the tool the Ethereals crafted to direct their mind-controlled slaves and coordinate/control the entire invasion. Without the Brain, they lose control of the slaves and the invasion falters immediately.

Definitely a weakness in alien invasion plans. Always have a backup.

Skyblade

10-09-2012, 06:48 PM

37477

First team photo. Haven't completed the tutorial yet, so still have quite a ways to go. And I gave Jiro an Iron Man-esque color scheme.

No females on the team, so our first Assault trooper is just a placeholder right now.

I actually got pretty lucky, the character who was set to be Connor MacLeod is Scottish. :)

And our first character death already. Woohoo! Our Rookies panicked due to a Thin Man poison cloud, and our lady friend show Jiro in the head, and since I didn't have a medkit with me, he bled out. Not a full update, and don't worry, Jiro, we'll get you a replacement soon enough. And I don't think I'll be taking her anymore.

Actually, at this rate, I think I'm going to restart and do it again without the tutorial. While it is a nice introduction, it is way too restrictive. So, I apologize to you all, but it will be a little longer before I get things going here.

Elite Lord Sigma

10-09-2012, 11:50 PM

Well, pusbucket. You didn't even have time to get my armor colored offensively orange before the situation went south.

Jiro

10-11-2012, 12:14 AM

Way to get me killed, damn xD

Iceglow

10-11-2012, 01:00 AM

I thought the tutorial mission told you 3 people would be dead by the end of the mission?

Skyblade

10-11-2012, 05:24 AM

Apologies for the delay, I have been experiencing some technical difficulties (Windows chose to implement a stupid update). This will be back up and running with our first mission deployment tomorrow evening.

And, yes, 3 people die in the first mission. And you don't even get to customize them. The mission that got you all killed was the second mission, and it involved bad luck, and introduced me to a new mechanic: Chain Panic Teamkilling. Basically, if a Soldier panics, there's a fairly even chance that he'll shoot either an alien, or a teammate. And Panic shots are always 100% accurate. And can cause Panic. In short, there's a good chance (especially on higher difficulties) that a single soldier who starts to Panic will wipe your entire squad without you being able to do a thing about it.

I have a better handle on things now, and am ready to get things rolling. Don't worry, you'll all be back in action soon enough. Of course, you'll die again, since the game is merciless, but at least the startup will be a bit more fair.

Jiro

10-11-2012, 06:20 AM

I don't mind being the first casualty. I'm sure nobody will hold it against me forever.

10-11-2012, 06:54 AM

That chain panic thing sounds hilarious. I hope we get plenty of that.

Skyblade

10-11-2012, 07:00 AM

That chain panic thing sounds hilarious. I hope we get plenty of that.

If I wasn't doing this run on Iron-Man (to prevent my natural predeliction towards perfectionist save-scumming), it would be. As it is, it's a pretty unfair way to hose a team.

Although, thinking about it, it would make for good stories, so what the hey. I just find myself wondering if we're going to win. Which I didn't think was in question before I started. ;)

Jiro

10-11-2012, 07:29 AM

EoFF has enough members for you to just throw wave after wave of soldiers at the enemy.

Skyblade

10-12-2012, 05:09 AM

37505

Ok, here we have our first actual picture (sorry, that's as close to orange as I could get, unless you want a more subdued, dingy orange). Two missions completed, starting off after the first UFO we've shot down.

The first mission was relatively uneventful. One Rookie got hurt and panicked, no overall effect, and not counting it since none of them were customized (though, for the record, it was the Rookie who became Squaddie MacLeod). I've customized Balls Macguyver, but I'm not sure that's going to be him, as he might not wind up an Assault soldier. But he's going on this mission, so he gets customized. If you're wondering where Ronnie Coleman is, well, read on.

-Mission Summary-
Second mission got off to a rocky start, but was pulled through by our soldier's luck elite skill. The mission began in the corner of an industrial warehousing area. Small packing crates and large shipping crates littered the zone, which, along with the dropoffs for loading trucks, provided the majority of the mission's cover. Our soldiers started on the lowest terrain availible (bad Skyranger driver, higher is better!), just to ensure the aliens had a fair run.

Squaddie Psy Chotic took the lead, moving upward, staying well in cover, and protecting his lesser equipped comrades with his massive LMG. Squaddie MacLeod stepped forward next, pulling up behind a crate, again preparing to cover his companions with his Assault Rifle.

Thusly covered, Ronnie Coleman stepped forward, past the two of them, into a new cover spot, and promptly ran into four Sectoids, two on each side of the map. These Sectoids promptly split up, two going behind the large storage crate to the West, and the other two loitering around the open shack to the Northeast.

Jiro Stark, our beloved Sniper, was left without a clean shot, and moved up to the nearby ledge, and promptly Hunkered Down, ignoring what was going on as he shrunk behind his cover and listened to Jarvis.

The Sectoids continued their flanking, one coming around the crate, promptly flanking Psy and Ronnie. The first plasma bolt he loosed dug into Ronnie's shoulder, taking most of his vitality in combat. Our (at this point) Rookie, however, was not to be deterred by a mere plasma bolt to the shoulder.

As our heroes' retaliation began, Ronnie moved around the corner of his packing crate and unleashed a hail of lead into the head of the Sectoid still loitering near the shed. Mr. Stark, finally realizing that there was a battle going on, raised his Sniper rifle, and drilled a shot through the head of another Sectoid, north of the squad (it had wandered around the other side of the crate that was Ronnie's bane during its turn and gotten into cover), as he took credit for saving the squad and asked what was so hard.

With two more Sectoids that we knew about, however, the squad couldn't relax. Psy shifted to an unflanked position and took out the one who shot Ronnie, while Connor shifted into Overwatch in case the fourth came out of the shed.

Unfortunately, it had already moved out of the shed, climbed the stairs to the north, and came out on top of a loading ramp. Worse still, it had called two more friends. Ronnie promptly decided that his bravery had served him well, but that his friends could handle the rest, and ran to the back of the squad and hid.

Jiro nailed our friend who though that high ground could save him, while Connor screamed about not letting these glory hogs get all the kills, ran forward, and nailed another. Psy, however, merely looked at him impassively and squeezed off another shot bang on target, ending the threat and the mission.

So Mr. Coleman is currently in the room getting treated for massive plasma burns to the shoulder and neck, but by heading to the back, his life was saved, and he will return in the future. And since it wasn't a critical injury (two health left, and not a critical hit, or he'd have died outright or bled out), he won't even have any mental scarring, and will be right back into the fight.

Psy is our MVP this time, killing two aliens, and providing excellent support with Overwatch, even though he didn't use his rockets or grenades because he wanted the science team to be happy and have stuff to recover (don't worry, as we move past enemies they can one-shot, they'll get a lot of use). Jiro also got two kills, a very good thing, as he is very limited until he can get promoted to Corporal.

So, discuss your antics, and the level of detail I gave (do you want more or less, etcetera). Next mission will be up fairly soon, as there's no training our loadout feedback to gather first, but I would like a response on how the mission synopsis was. Thanks for your interest, and good job on the first mission!

PS: I have five females in our initial barracks lineup, more than any previous game I've played. None in either active squad, but if anyone new wants to join in, don't hesitate to pick a girl, I'm likely to have one of each class. If I need to in order to fill in deaths/injuries, I'll play one myself, but it's more fun if you guys do.

Also, not sure I'll be giving you guys as much influence on building/research as I thought. The strategic layer is a bit demanding, so I'll be focusing mostly on improving it. This will slow the rate of progression towards better weapons and armor, though Medkits and S.C.O.P.E.s will be coming soon.

Madame Adequate

10-12-2012, 05:24 AM

That chain panic thing sounds hilarious. I hope we get plenty of that.

Oh we will. We fucking will.

Old Manus

10-12-2012, 10:25 AM

http://home.eyesonff.com/attachments/general-gaming-discussion/37505d1350012849t-skyblades-eyes-xcom-signups-xcomgame-2012-10-11-22-32-03-35.jpg

Teletubbies: The Movie

10-12-2012, 11:13 AM

Ahahah awesome. I'm surprised old Ronnie didn't die horrifically, but being burned up is good enough. Nice work though team. No man left behind, and we completed the mission, so victory all round.

Would it be possible for you to explain whatever skills you end up using are, Skyblade? Like Overwatch for example. Just so we know what they are and what the purpose is.

Slothy

10-12-2012, 12:29 PM

Psychotic

10-12-2012, 03:47 PM

I avenged you dayyyyyn.

Iceglow

10-12-2012, 04:25 PM

I was trying to get the demo to run on my laptop but it's not liking it.

Loony BoB

10-12-2012, 04:40 PM

Character name: Loony BoB
Character nickname: BoB. If that's too short, then Newbie.
Class: Random/Assault (depending on Skyblade's preference)
Gender: Male, please xD
Customization: Brown hair/eyes, caucasian, armour can be blue/grey/green/black, I guess. Any of those.
Equipment: Your choice.
Perks: Whatever helps me survive!

EDIT: I think the term for whatever class I was in the last two EoFF runs was "Pistol Toting B.A.M.F." (although I seemed to use a lot more than pistols) and I survived seven missions in total with 8 kills in the first run. :D ...watch me die immediately. :(

Skyblade

10-12-2012, 05:15 PM

Would it be possible for you to explain whatever skills you end up using are, Skyblade? Like Overwatch for example. Just so we know what they are and what the purpose is.

Good idea, but just to save waiting for Skyblade to answer, overwatch is a skill you can use if you've only moved once (usually) instead of shooting. It let's the soldier take a shot at any enemy that moves within their field of vision. Can't begin to describe how many times it's saved my butt by killing something before they got to cover and shot me.

For more details: Overwatch is extremely powerful, and extremely limited.

An Overwatch shot has reduced Aim (10 to 20%, I think, not sure), making it less likely to hit than a regular shot (especially on Rookies, who can't aim worth a dang anyway). The advantage it gets that makes up for this is that it always shoots at enemies who are moving, and moving enemies aren't in cover. Since even Low Cover negates 20% of your accuracy, this makes Overwatch pretty much a normal shot against a low cover enemy.

The problem with Overwatch is using it multiple times. Every Soldier in Overwatch fires at the first enemy they see. This means that if a group comes into view, the entire squad will shoot at the first guy, leaving the others alone.

I had this happen on a mission. Two Assault Soldiers on either side of a door, one with a Plasma Rifle, the other with an Alloy Cannon (best shotgun in the game), a Support and a Heavy slightly back from them, and two Squad Sight Snipers way in the back of the room. Two Mutons and a Berserker stroll through the door, and all 6 soldiers fire on the first Muton. Either of the Sniper shots would have killed him, and it's a Sniper shot that kills him, and counts as hitting first. This means the others count as "misses" and are essentially wasted shots.

Of course, it's frelling hilarious to watch a Muton stroll into the room and get cremated by 5 plasma bolts and a cloud of shrapnel before he can even blink, and since aliens can't attack if they discover you on their turn until the next turn, there was no harm done (except to the ship around him). But, still, keep in mind that you won't be able to decide who to fire at, or hold an Overwatch shot if it's not needed.

The other ability I used was Hunker Down. This ability doubles your Cover Bonus. Low Cover provides 20% evasion. With Hunker Down, it provides 40%. High Cover provides 40% evasion, so it goes up to 80%. It also makes a soldier immune to critical hits. This is a huge survival tool, and you should not be afraid to use it.

It's "cost" is that it cuts your soldier's Line of Sight to practically nothing (hence my comments on Jiro not noticing there was a battle going on around him), but, in practice, this only has a very minor effect. See, Hunker Down only lasts one turn. If you haven't discovered any aliens, they can't shoot on you their first turn, they have to break up and find cover. So if you haven't seen any enemies when you Hunker Down, well, they won't attack you before you get your sight radius back. On the other hand, if you have seen enemies, you already know where they are. Sure, they can attack you, but you already know where they're coming from, and they can only move so far. So you won't get shot without some idea who is shooting at you and from where.

The important thing about it is that it prevents you from abusing Squad Sight. You can't move a Soldier up as a spotter for your Sniper and Hunker him down without massively cutting down on his visibility, which cuts who your Sniper can see with Squad Sight. Otherwise, Hunkered Down spotters would be pretty much the most effective tactic in the game, as high level Snipers are deadly.

BoB, I don't think there's a "too short" nickname, so BoB should be good. I'll go ahead and make you a survival based Assault Trooper. Awesome little bundles, and absolutely death when they go up against Cryssalids. Close Combat Specialist just shreds the bugs.

Slothy

10-12-2012, 05:42 PM

The important thing about it is that it prevents you from abusing Squad Sight. You can't move a Soldier up as a spotter for your Sniper and Hunker him down without massively cutting down on his visibility, which cuts who your Sniper can see with Squad Sight. Otherwise, Hunkered Down spotters would be pretty much the most effective tactic in the game, as high level Snipers are deadly.

You can just move someone up though, take the shot with the sniper, then have that person hunker down. You don't have to do a soldiers two actions back to back. You can switch to other characters and still go back to them later.

Skyblade

10-12-2012, 08:15 PM

Skyblade

10-13-2012, 06:23 AM

Second Mission Completed

-Mission Summary-

This mission was the recover the remains of the first alien ship our forces shot down. We tracked its location (which I forgot to make a note of, like an idiot).

Our Support Soldier, Connor MacLeod, was taking the left flank of our forces. As we progressed towards the landed craft, Psy Chotic heard noises and our forces began to regroup and cling to cover more readily.

Unfortunately, the crash of the alien vessel had ignited a good deal of the underbrush, and Connor MacLeod's choice of cover was limited. As he moved forward, he encountered four Sectoids, all of whom fell back, but were now aware of our location. He pulled in to the only cover availible, a broken rock behind a tree (which meant he only got the low cover from the rock, rather than the tree's high cover). The Sectoids descended upon the group, but their assault lacked teeth.

The first Sectoid to show its face caught a hail of machinegun fire from Psy Chotic, again showing his mastery of the heavy weapons. Anxious to make up for bringing this assault upon his friends, Connor MacLeod drilled a second Sectoid between the eyes. Jiro's unwieldy Sniper Rifle, however, meant that he could not take out a third Sectoid. As he got into position, the attack renewed.

Both shots hit poor Connor MacLeod, and he began to bleed out in the grass. His Immortal tenacity gave the squad time to revive him, except that he was the one carrying the medpack.

With only a few moments to end the fight before their friend expired, our brave soldiers charged the enemy. Jiro, having set up during the last turn, finally got to shine with a beautiful shot into the precious brain of the evil grey menace that had downed his fellow warrior.

The last Sectoid wasn't sticking around to die, however, and fell back to its ship. Ah, the ship. Finally, our forces had found the prize they went in to the mission seeking. And, lo and behold, while its flight computers were damaged, its power core was fully intact. The things our scientists could dream up with that, if only we could secure it!

However, as Psy Chotic approached the craft, a strange crystal floated off the ground and grew a suit of armor around it, creating a new enemy for our forces to fight. This Outsider who dared to intrude upon our battle would not last long however. Psy Chotic tore into it with a hail of gunfire, ripping apart its fragile shell. Not, however, fast enough. While dealing with this new threat, Squaddie MacLeod finally gave up, and moved to the Highlands in the sky.

Enraged by this, Jiro Stark lined up a shot that sent that last, cowardly Sectoid packing, and secured the UFO for our teams.

Rest In Peace, Squaddie Connor MacLeod.
2 Kills, 2 Missions.
Fell in Operation Demon God.
May the bagpipes ever play on in memorial (and, they do, go view the memorial for a while).

So, our first death, a victim of a single bad choice, and a lot of bad terrain.

All three survivors levelled up. If you're wondering why Balls MacGuyver didn't show up, well, he didn't contribute much. The only shot he had which hit only did 2 damage, not enough to kill the Sectoid. And, when he got his promotion, he became another Sniper, not the Assault we were looking for. With no other Sniper on the list, I basically wrote him out of the mission, and he'll be replaced with another Rookie for the next mission. He's also the only wounded survivor, and is out for 7 days anyway, so he won't get back until Ronnie Coleman returns.

Psy, you levelled up. You are now a Corporal, and can choose between Holo-Targeting and Bullet Swarm.

Holo-Targeting: Any enemy you attack or suppress is marked until the end of the turn. All allies firing on that enemy have an additional 10% chance to hit. This marking succeeds even if your attack misses.

Bullet Swarm: Firing the primary weapon no longer ends your turn. So you can fire and move, or fire and then fire again (as long as you have the ammo), instead of just moving and firing, or firing once and then being done.

Jiro, you levelled as well. Squad Sight or Snap Shot.

Squad Sight: You can fire on any enemy your teammates can see, provided nothing blocks your line of sight.

Snap Shot: You can shoot after moving, however, your shots will be 20% less likely to hit.

So, yay, first real death, could have been avoided if it wasn't the medic, and if I'd reacted better to the fire that blocked the terrain. RIP, Connor MacLeod. Until you are born again into immortality, when your turn comes up again.

Jiro

10-14-2012, 04:14 AM

I think Snap Shot is probably the most useful. Snipers have wicked sight anyway, so if I can't see the enemy then there's not a good chance I'd be able to hit it anyway.

I love that I'm a beast in this game. Totally got your backs, guys.

Sucks that MacLeod went down in battle. He'll be sorely missed :( I look forward to our full squad being able to go into battle though, that'll be wicked.

Also I think your updates are perfect Skyblade, keep them up!

Skyblade

10-16-2012, 07:58 AM

Alrighty, I've been waiting to see if Psy would choose his perks, but it's draggin things too much. I'll either replace him or just go on without levelling him up.

Jiro, just so you know, I happen to think that you avoided one of the best abilities in the game. Squad Sight is awesome. I happen to think that Snap Shot is fairly useless. First, Snipers don't have better sight radius than anyone else, so you aren't going to have nearly the range you would have with Squad Sight. Second, Sniper Rifles already suffer an Aim penalty as you get close to your enemies, so shooting at things in close range or moving to flank them hurts you just as much as it helps you. And, third, you get a minus 20% Aim on your shots. While Snipers do have the highest Aim of any class (largely so that they can hit enemies in cover without having to move), this is a fairly hefty knock off of that.

But, hey, that's what makes this sort of thing fun. You chose something I would never have picked, and now we'll get to see how it operates. Maybe I'll end up loving it. Either way, I'll put you to the best use I can.

Sorry for the delay, I'll try to get the next one within 24 hours, but work schedule is very busy this week, so no guarantees.

Jiro

10-16-2012, 08:17 AM

I've been using Snap Shot exclusively myself, maybe I should give Squad Sight a chance!

Loony BoB

10-16-2012, 09:49 AM

Skyblade

10-16-2012, 07:11 PM

Yeah, Squad Sight is pretty epic.

Skyblade, don't replace Psy, just make decisions for him if he doesn't reply in time. :) I think you should just post the complete trees and let people pick what they want in advance should they be promoted. :D

Also, now that I have played the game and understand the classes, if I do enter the fray, I'd like to be an Assault dude with as high health as possible. I think it suits my general playing style from other games, being a tank that leads the line in a fairly direct manner. =]

I wasn't thinking to replace him completely, just on the next mission or so. I have more interested people than I have spots in my squad, so it wouldn't hurt to train up others, especially since more of you all are going to be hurt and sitting in the infirmary.

Skyblade

10-18-2012, 06:29 AM

I've done a couple, trying to get more Rookies promoted up to classes, as well as cycle through all the wounded guys.

-Operation Blind Fear-

The Council asked us to extract a "friend" of theirs who was holed up in Egypt and under attack. Our powerhouse Heavy, Psi Chotic, sat the mission out. Our forces consisted of Jiro Stark, Ronnie Coleman, Vivi 22, and the newly resurrected Connor MacLeod (he was a Rookie, and became a Support, and MacLeod is the only Support on the roster thus far, soo... You just can't keep an Immortal down).

Our forces moved in, looking to secure the target. We encountered a new foe. It seems the Sectoids are not the only enemy assaulting Earth. The new alien seems to be an infiltrator of some type, as it is clearly intended to bear a resemblance to humans.

The "Thin Man", as Ronnie took to calling him, promptly spit a cloud of toxic gas at Ronnie, poisoning him. While Ronnie was busy puking his guts out, Connor MacLeod fired off a few quick rounds that quickly ended the new threat.

Jiro, meanwhile, scouted out a good sniping nest on the nearby bridge. Unfortunately, he alerted a Sectoid to his presence, and was unable to get a decent shot on the small creature, who had quickly run to cover (seriously, 18% chance. Not a fan of Snap Shot so far). The Sectoid decided to sling some plasma around, and managed to land a hit on our illustrious Sniper. Not willing to let some alien punk get the best of him, Jiro steadied his rifle and drilled it one between its eyes.

Ronnie and Connor, meanwhile, were exploring the edge overlooking the road where our target lay. They located the poor man quickly enough, but also found two more Sectoids. Ronnie was in a horrible position, as his shotgun fire was too inaccurate to reach all the way across the road to the alien's high position. Connor had a bit more luck, and managed to wound one of the creatures, though he didn't kill it. The other managed to get a shot in on Connor during Connor's assault however, catching him in the hip.

Mr. Stark came to the rescue, attacking and killing the other Sectoid, not noticing that the wounded one had a bead on him. Sustaining yet more Plasma fire, Jiro was now resorting to limping around the battlefield (1HP left. Lucky, lucky man, Jiro), and Connor finished off the enemy he had left alive before.

Jiro, being in the worst condition, and in the most need of some solid cover, limped towards our target, and told him to get a move on. Ronnie and Connor set in to prepare to fight their way out.

As our target began moving back up toward the Skyranger, more Thin Men leaped out of the darkness and took up positions. One landed above the ledge near Jiro. Sick of aliens shooting at him, he promptly shot it, and resumed cowering behind the truck.

Another Thin Man dropped directly in front of Ronnie, who finally got to show just what a Shotgun was for. Unleashing a hail of lead directly into the body of the frail alien, blowing it into a poison cloud.

End mission results: Some very nice rewards from the Council. 4 Engineers, which let me immediately get to work on the Satellite Uplink needed for more coverage, even before the Workshop was finished, and some more money, which I promptly put to use making sure I'd have Satellites for it. As well as building one S.C.O.P.E.

Jiro got a promotion up to Sergeant.
Ronnie got promoted to Corporal.
And Connor MacLeod got promoted back to Support.

MVP: Oddly enough, Jiro. Despite nearly getting himself killed, he did kill 3 enemies, more than any other.

Sorry that you didn't do much, Vivi. You did get to take a shot, but only a pistol shot, and it didn't kill an enemy. But I'm glad to have another Sniper on the team.

Our next mission: Port Said, Egypt.

-Mission Synopsis- (I didn't grab the name, sorry)

With the results of our last mission, half of our team was down for repairs. Our beloved Jiro Stark, being gravely wounded, was taken out of action for a full 20 days.

So we had to assemble a "B" Squad. Although, their performance was perfection.

Our troops consisted of the brand new Loony BoB, Vivi 22 (while he didn't do much last mission, he was also the only one to come out unscathed), our veteran Psy Chotic, and a Rookie female soldier (I ran out of guys without realizing it, no time to hire more before the mission. Will do so, hopefully we'll get some more male blood in).

This mission took us back. The loading dock we visited was the same one from our second mission. Apparently the Sectoids had not had enough punishment there. And this time, our team knew the terrain, and their own capabilities.

We opened up with a step up to the boxes and set up in cover. We reorganized while staying back for a while, making sure we were properly covering each other. Two Sectoids popped up near the shack to the east. After three Overwatch shots missed, our lovely female Rookie friend finally managed to down the first alien of the mission. Not wanting to tangle with the sheer mass of firepower facing him, the other promptly scuttled out of sight.

Not wanting to rush a clearly spooked and uncomfortable alien, our soldiers reloaded and started playing some Sabaac, until finally the timid little guy got the nerve to poke his head back out, and promptly got it removed from his shoulders by Loony BoB (who did get the kill, but didn't notice Vivi taking a peek at his cards while he was doing so).

Hearing some more scuttling up north, our soldiers all reloaded and started to move forward. It was our veteran Psy who finally spotted the enemies. Two groups of two Sectoids. Four of the nasty little buggers, all spotted at once.

Psy was not impressed. Before the enemy could even think of attacking, he unloaded with his LMG and eliminated the first target. Not to be outdone, our female friend ran up behind a few barrels and eliminated another one.

With their numbers thus reduced, and no nearby cover, Loony BoB decided to be enterprising. Rushing up the loading ramp, he stopped under cover and waited. The two remaining Sectoids Mind Merged (one Sectoid can use his turn to buff another, giving it increased Crit, Will, and Health for the rest of the turn. If the unit performing the Merge dies, both units die), and the one performing the merge was, unfortunately, well back out of line of sight, while the merged Sectoid rushed forward and took a shot that missed wildly, hitting the side of the loading ramp and doing nothing.

Not one to miss a target of opportunity, however, Vivi 22 took a shot, and hit, but didn't kill the target, thanks to its buffed Health. Psy, however, was more than willing to steal a kill from his friend (especially since he did notice Vivi peeking at BoB's cards earlier), and finished the foe off. The last, lonely Sectoid moved forward behind some crates beside the wall of the loading dock, and faced off against our team. Both our lady friend and Psy took shots on the enemy, but both missed. It was then, however, that Loony BoB decided to play "Peek a Boo", poking his head over the edge and firing a stream of bullets straight down into the utterly unsuspecting Sectoid.

The mission completed, our team finished up their game, which Psy won, and headed back to base.

Mission Results: More engineers (I would have preferred money at this point, but panic suppression takes precedence). No wounded or dead soldiers.

And promotions all around! Psy is now our first Sergeant, and has two promotions waiting.

Vivi 22 is now a Corporal, and with his new promotion, can hopefully end his bad luck of 4 missions with no kills.

Loony BoB is now an Assault Soldier with Run and Gun. I will be equipping him back with a rifle shortly, as I don't want too many shotguns, and he's going survival spec.

And our lady friend is also an Assault Soldier. I'll be speccing her if no one picks her up.

MVP: Loony BoB. His final rush up the ramp to put a bullet in the alien's head from above was such a perfect end to the mission. Though, with 3 soldiers who each got 2 kills, it was really, really close.

Eyes on XCOM Team thus far:

Sergeant Jiro "The Wish" Stark
Sergeant Psy "Psychotic" Chotic
Corporal Ronnie Coleman
Corporal Vivi 22
Squaddie Loony BoB
Squaddie Connor MacLeod

Promotions to be doled out:

Psy: You get to pick Heavy promotions for both Corporal and Sergeant level.
Jiro: You get to pick a Sniper Sergeant level promotion.
DK (Ronnie): You get to pick Assault Corporal level promotions.
Vivi: You get to pick Sniper Corporal level promotions.

MILF, I'm sorry I haven't gotten to you yet, but I haven't had another Heavy come up. As soon as I do, you'll be in, promise.

Perk trees (click to show for your class):

Squaddie (no choice):
- Rocket Launcher: You get the ability to fire a rocket that does 8 damage to all enemies within its range. Can be later replaced by the more powerful Blaster Launcher. Only one use per mission.

Corporal:
- Bullet Swarm: You get to fire as your first action without ending your turn, letting you fire and move, or fire twice without moving.
- Holo Targeting: Your shots and Suppression put a debuff on the target (even if the shot misses) that increases the chance of all other squaddies hitting that target this turn by 10%.

Sergeant:
- Shredder Rocket: You get a second rocket. This one does less damage, but debuffs all enemies it hits to take 33% extra damage for the next 4 turns. Only one Shredder Rocket per mission.
- Suppression: You gain the ability to suppress a target, reducing their accuracy by 30% during their turn, and getting a free shot on them if they move.

Lieutenant
- HEAT Ammo: You do double damage against robotic units, such as Cyberdiscs and Sectopods.
- Rapid Reaction: You can shoot twice while on Overwatch, as long as your first shot hits.

Captain:
- Grenadier: You can now carry 2 Grenades instead of just one.
- Danger Zone: All of your AOE attacks (rockets and grenades) get their radius increased by 2 tiles. Also makes Suppression a 2 tile AOE attack, if you picked it up earlier.

Major (no choice):
- Will to Survive: All damage taken (except fire and poison) is reduced by 2 as long as you are in cover and not flanked.

Colonel:
- Rocketeer: You get a second normal rocket (doesn't apply to Shredder Rockets, you only get a normal rocket).
- Mayhem: Applies extra damage to Suppression and all AOE powers dependent on the strength of your currently equipped weapon. Base weapons add +1, Lasers add +2, and Plasma/Blaster Bombs add +3. This lets Suppression deal damage even if the enemy doesn't move, and since Suppression itself doesn't miss (even if "Missed" shows up, the suppression and Mayhem damage always apply, even if the reaction shot it grants misses later), it is guaranteed damage on the enemy.

Squaddie (no choice):
Run & Gun: You can Dash (move twice as far) and still fire your weapon in the same turn. You cannot Dash and use items though. 2 turn cooldown.

Corporal:
- Tactical Sense: You gain +5 Defense (dodge chance) for every enemy you can see, up to a max of +20.
- Aggression: You gain +10% Crit chance for every enemy you can see, up to a max of +30%.

Sergeant:
- Lightning Reflexes: The first reaction shot (enemy Overwatch shot) made against you each turn automatically misses.
- Close and Personal: You gain +30% Crit chance against adjacent enemies, chance boost goes down the further you get from your target.

Lieutenant:
- Flush: A shot with a high chance to hit that forces enemies to move, flushing them out of cover (and, frequently, back out of line of sight). No cooldown, but does half damage.
- Rapid Fire: Take two shots at a single target. Each shot has a 15% penalty to accuracy. 2 turn cooldown.

Captain:
- Close Combat Specialist: Shoot at anything that moves within 4 tiles of you. You don't have to be in Overwatch (Overwatch will just get you an extra shot), and can shoot once at everything that moves that close to you per turn, as long as your weapon has ammo.
- Bring 'Em On: +1 damage to critical hits for every enemy your squad can see, up to a maximum of +5 critical damage.

Major (no choice):
- Extra Conditioning: You get extra health for wearing armor. The heavier the armor, the more health. +1 health for basic armor, +2 for light armors, +4 for heavy armors.

Colonel:
- Resilience: Passive immunity to critical hits.
- Killer Instinct: On a turn you activate Run & Gun, you also get +50% damage on critical hits.

Squaddie (no choice):
- Headshot: +30% critical chance, increased critical damage depending on Sniper's level (base +2, +3 for Lieutenants and up, and +4 for Colonels).

Corporal:
- Snap Shot: You can move and shoot in the same turn, but you lose 20% accuracy when you do so.
- Squad Sight: You can shoot at anything your team can see, as long as you have unobstructed line of sight (can't shoot through walls).

Sergeant:
- Gunslinger: You do +2 damage with pistols.
- Damn Good Ground: You get +10 Aim and +10 Defense (dodge chance) to all enemies lower than you, in addition to regular height bonuses.

Lieutenant:
- Disabling Shot: Fires a shot which disables the target's weapon, forcing them to take a turn to reload to fix it. This shot cannot critical, has a -10% chance to hit, and has a 2 turn cooldown.
- Battle Scanner: Throw a scanning device that grants visibility of an area for 2 turns. Can allow the use of Squad Sight shots, does not alert enemies. 2 Battle Scanners per mission.

Captain:
- Executioner: +10 Aim to all targets with less than half health.
- Opportunist: Removes the Aim penalty on Overwatch shots, and your Overwatch shots can now be critical hits.

Major (no choice):
- Low Profile: Half cover becomes full cover for you.

Colonel:
- In the Zone: Killing an enemy that either you are flanking, or that is not in cover, does not take a move, allowing you to continue to fire as long as you can keep this up.
- Double tap: Every other turn you can fire twice, as long as you don't move first.

Squaddie (no choice):
- Smoke Grenade: Throw a smoke grenade, granting +20 evasion to all units in the smoke. Only 1 per mission.

Corporal:
- Sprinter: Move 3 extra tiles each move.
- Covering Fire: Overwatch shots will now be taken at enemies who take shots, instead of just enemies who move.

Sergeant:
- Field Medic: You can use Medkits 3 times a mission, instead of just once.
- Smoke and Mirrors: You can carry an extra Smoke Grenade.

Lieutenant:
- Revive: You can bring back a critically wounded soldier with 33% of max health with a medkit, rather than just stabilizing them until the end of the mission (I've tried to avoid this, but I have to say: do not pick this, pick Rifle Suppression, it is waaaay more useful).
- Rifle Suppression: You suppress an enemy, reducing their accuracy by 30% for the rest of the turn, and getting a free shot on them if they move.

Captain:
- Dense Smoke: Smoke Grenades now provide +40 Defense, rather than +20.
- Combat Drugs: Smoke Grenades now add +20 Will and +10 Crit chance, in addition to the original +20 Defense.

Major (no choice):
- Deep Pockets: You can carry two items into battle, instead of just one.

Colonel:
- Savior: Medkits heal for 4 extra health.
- Sentinel: You get 2 Overwatch shots, instead of just one.

Feel free to post your entire spec, if you want. I think I'll try to keep up multiple missions per update, as long as the squad can keep trained, by switching guys out. At least until I can get a 6 man squad. Sorry it took so long!

Elite Lord Sigma

10-18-2012, 07:06 AM

The current color is just fine for me. Anyway, I'm ashamed to admit that due to real life getting in the way as usual, I haven't actually played this game yet.

Anyway, as for my perks, I think I'll go with:
Corporal: Covering Fire (Having additional chances to take out enemies is more useful than being able to move a few extra spaces. I'll leave that to the Assaults.)
Sergeant: Field Medic (Considering how much Jiro is getting beaten up, we're going to need these.)
Lieutenant: Rifle Suppression (You said Revive was useless in comparison, anyway.)
Captain: Dense Smoke (After all, preventative care in time saves lives.)
Major: Deep Pockets (This is my only option.)
Colonel: Saviour (Well, thinking about what BoB said now, I realize that by the time I reach Colonel, chances are I'll have squadmates that can make use of the extra healing. Getting an extra Overwatch shot is good enough.)

If anybody thinks I haven't considered something important, please speak up.

Loony BoB

10-18-2012, 07:53 AM

Corporal: Tactical Sense
Sergeant: Lightning Reflexes
Lieutenant: Rapid Fire
Captain: Close Combat Specialist
Major (no choice): Extra Conditioning
Colonel: Resilience

Sigma: Personally for Support I would take Saviour over Sentinel, given that Support players are usually in a squad almost purely because they can heal other players. Oversights often miss anyway.

Elite Lord Sigma

10-18-2012, 05:25 PM

Sigma: Personally for Support I would take Saviour over Sentinel, given that Support players are usually in a squad almost purely because they can heal other players. Oversights often miss anyway.

OK, then. I changed it accordingly. How much do medikits heal normally, anyway?

Slothy

10-18-2012, 05:35 PM

Corporal: Squad Sight
Sergeant: Damn Good Ground
Lieutenant: Battle Scanner
Captain: Executioner
Major: Low Profile
Colonel: Double tap

I've yet to try giving anyone in the zone, but I'll take two guaranteed shots over maybe getting better than one if I'm lucky on a sniper that isn't trying to be more mobile.

10-18-2012, 05:41 PM

Hahaha all the fun stuff happens to Ronnie. gets burned half to buggery and then gets poisoned. STILL GOING STRONG THOUGH, aw jeah. I look forward to seeing what unfortunate mishap will befall him next. Space leprosy I imagine. Also, for my promotions thingies give me all the same as Lonny BoB except Killer Instinct at Colonel, if Ronnie makes it that far.

Madame Adequate

10-18-2012, 08:50 PM

No rush man, just make sure the A-Team gets melted horribly and I'll happily step in to replace them!

Loony BoB

10-18-2012, 11:25 PM

Iceglow

10-19-2012, 12:59 AM

Since the trooper you set up initially for me became a sniper not an assault as we were looking for if you feel the urge you can change my gender over to female and set me up on the female soldier you've got Sky. If yes then I'll post my tree options for you.

Jiro

10-19-2012, 01:26 AM

Realised that I should've taken Squad Sight to get the most out of the battle scanner but I don't know how useful disabling shot it. I never used it as it has a horrendous chance to hit and I can usually just kill the enemies first anyway.

Sergeant:
- Damn Good Ground: You get +10 Aim and +10 Defense (dodge chance) to all enemies lower than you, in addition to regular height bonuses.

Lieutenant:
- Battle Scanner: Throw a scanning device that grants visibility of an area for 2 turns. Can allow the use of Squad Sight shots, does not alert enemies. 2 Battle Scanners per mission.

Captain:
- Executioner: +10 Aim to all targets with less than half health.

Major (no choice):
- Low Profile: Half cover becomes full cover for you.

Colonel:
- Double tap: Every other turn you can fire twice, as long as you don't move first.

Aulayna

10-19-2012, 06:24 AM

If I'm not too late!

Character name: Charlotte Burkle
Character nickname: Nightsparrow
Class: Sniper
Gender: Female
Customization: Blue eyes, paleish skin, dark blonde/brown hair, all black/grey armor (think Starcraft Ghosts)
Equipment: Sniper Rifle + Whatever you want
Perks: Stuff that makes things die :p

Skyblade

10-19-2012, 07:59 AM

-Operation Severed Crone-
Melbourne, Australia

Simple Abduction Mission in Australia. The AO was dominated by a single large office building. Our forces, consisting of MacLeod, BoB, Coleman, and 22 took up positions among the vehicles and alien pods scattered around the landing site.

Our first encounter was with yet another new alien type. A deformed creature, heavily modified with cybernetics to include an aerial propulsion system. Three of them were visible. Vivi 22 immediately deleted one, while Ronnie ran up and eliminated another. MacLeod also decided this was a fine time for a shot, and blew through the third.

The next encounter was a couple of Sectoids approaching from our rear. Loony BoB Run and Gunned up to one, popping its head like a balloon with his Shotgun (forgot to reequip a rifle). Vivi lined up to eliminate the other, but failed. The second Sectoid took a brief jab at BoB, barely wounding him, but enough to send him to the hospital for a week after the mission. Plasma burns are nasty. Vivi then took out the foe to make up for his earlier missed shot.

Our final group was one of two Floaters who came charging out of the building. One took up cover behind a car, where MacLeod easily eliminated it with a simple flank, while the other hid behind a desk. Ronnie Run and Gunned to this one, hiding directly on the other side of the desk. His shot tore into the Floater, but didn't manage to kill it. However, while it may be able to fly, it couldn't Aim worth a dang, and its shots flew over the head of a soldier cowering behind a small table (with no siding) not a foot away from it. Ronnie then reintroduced the beast to his shotgun, ending the mission.

Boring, boring stuff. Didn't even make it inside the building (except for Ronnie, who was one square inside) before it was over.

MVP: Ronnie. For his face off with the Floater across the desk. Really, this mission was so uneventful, one of the least interesting I've played. Was tempted to say no MVP, but the last exchange was amusing, so Ronnie gets it.

For the next mission... Our first ever TERROR ATTACK!

-Operation Twisted Mountain-
Munich, Germany
2:02 AM

This mission went down the drain right from the beginning. Nothing spawned near us, forcing us to trek halfway across the map to both rescue civilians and engage the enemies.

As a result, we lost 9 Civilians (the worst I've ever performed on a Terror Mission), 5 of which we lost before we could even engage the enemies.

Our troops were Jiro, Psi, Ronnie, MacLeod, and Vivi. Yay, 5 man team finally!

This mission introduced us to the lovely little critter called the Chryssalid. And man, oh man, do I hate these things. They may not be as cheap as the original incarnation, but these things still suck.

Anyway, the synopsis.

Our mission began in Munich in the early hours of the day. A German military installation was under attack, and there were a large number of civilians on site. Our soldiers, dropped well beyond the effective engagement range by our cowardly pilot, had to start sprinting to catch up to the aliens, who were busy slaughtering the civilians we were sent to rescue.

Our first encounter was with a group of Floaters, coming out from behind a tank. The first one got shredded in midair by the combined reaction fire of four soldiers, with no one quite being sure who got the kill, nor really caring.

Jiro and Vivi were engaged in a competition to see who was the better Sniper (literally, they were right next to each other, behind the same piece of cover, taking shots). Jiro's shot missed, and Vivi eliminated his target with a smug look.

Ronnie Coleman, meanwhile, suicidal ne'er do well that he is, rushed forward and unloaded a hail of lead into the third Floater, eliminating it.

Unfortunately, from then on, things went to hell. Our troops then spotted two new foes. Gangly, insectoid creatures. These terrifying new creatures rushed out, covering huge distance in a terribly short time. The first sprinted towards our troops, while the second approached and attacked a nearby civilian hiding behind a tank.

Meanwhile, Psi noticed a civilian we'd left behind drop dead. Fearing we were outflanked, he rushed back to cover our rear.

Vivi wounded the nearer one, and Coleman finished it off. Jiro and MacLeod went to attack the second. Jiro's shot tore into it, but left it alive. With little choice, MacLeod rushed into its face and unleashed a hail of gunfire, dropping the horrible little thing where it stood. Unfortunately, the dead civilian directly beneath him arose, a twisted zombie all that remained of the once pretty young lass the Chryssalid had attacked. With one heavy swoop of its arm, the creature dropped MacLeod. The immortal had died yet again. Jiro, not being phased enough to lose his poise, unleashed a shot into the zombie, yet it still moved. Ronnie sprinted up to take our fallen highlander's place, inflicting greivous damage to the zombie, yet it still came on. Another heavy strike took Ronnie apart. His shoulder dislocated, his leg broken, and his companion dead beneath him, Ronnie raised his shotgun and ended the zombie threat once and for all. But not the mission.

Psi, having determined that the civilian behind us had died of malaria, rather than an alien attack, rushed back, hoping to make it in time to salvage the rest of the mission. Jiro, Vivi, and Ronnie pressed on, hoping to find and eliminate the remaining threat before a zombie army was upon us.

Fortunately, our last group was a few floaters. Jiro eliminated one from a distance, while Vivi took out the second. Ronnie, not wanting to press his luck too much, hid behind our Snipers while awaiting his chance. When the return fire from the last one missed, he rushed forward and blasted it with his shotgun, ending the attack, before collapsing and asking the Snipers to carry him back to the Skyranger.

This mission sucked. I was seriously, seriously upset with how far away everything was from us. I just watched the counter tick as civilian after civilian died and we hadn't even made contact.

As to Psi's dead civilian, poking around has apparently revealed a mechanic on terror missions. If the aliens are all inactive (undiscovered and such), random civilians in the fog of war can be killed during the alien phase. There is a chance (0% on normal and easy, 50% on Classic, and 100% on Impossible) that civilians killed by this mechanic will rise as zombies and eventually become new Chryssalids. This is apparently done to spur you on to rescue them, without waking inactive aliens unfairly.

Unfortunately, since the map scrolls over dying civilians, it left me thinking there were aliens behind me (who should definitely have been safe, they were behind a wall and there was no way past without going through my whole squad, and I didn't want to waste the turns to save them when there were so many dying up ahead). So I wasted Psi in this fight responding to threats that weren't there. That, in turn, left me with little choice than to sacrifice MacLeod to end that Chryssalid, as awake and active it would have been a nightmare, those things are very prone to running off and killing a dozen civilians rather than attacking you.

MVP: Ronnie. Impressive kill rate, and once again willing to soak up fire so the rest of the team doesn't have to. 1 HP remaining. Good job, buddy.

KIA: Connor MacLeod. Again.

Promotions will be gone over next post, I'm tired and have work in eight hours. There will also be a new team picture, featuring the 5 man squad, including the dead MacLeod, but I need to convert the filetype, and, again, too tired for that.

And don't worry, Aulayna. You're not too late. It's nice to finally have a female on the team, especially given how many I have in backstock.

10-19-2012, 01:41 PM

Man the enemy really does not like our support soldier. Poor fucker. Would be good if another one signed up really, just so somebody else could spare MacLeod from being killed every time he steps out.

Mind you, Ronnie's been crippled now as well xD What other kinds of injuries/damage can you recieve? I want to collect the whole set before this is over. What a hero. I do like how we went from one mundane and simple mission to a total abortion. That'll teach us to get complacent!

Psychotic

10-19-2012, 06:17 PM

Sorry for not replying sooner!

Bullet Swarm
Shredder Rocket
Rapid Reaction
Danger Zone
Mayhem

Jiro

10-20-2012, 04:37 PM

Poor MacLeod :( I feel like a failure, but it was probably just my unease; you didn't send me on the Australia mission and clearly that made me nervous about what actually went down in my home nation. Good to have a sniper partner though!

Skyblade

10-21-2012, 05:33 PM

-Operation Spectral Flame-
United States
9:32 PM

This mission was a UFO crash in the United States. It was a larger UFO than any we'd previously encountered, and of an unknown type. With MacLeod dead, and Ronnie and BoB still in the hospital, our forces were thinned as we prepared for this new mission. Jiro, Vivi, Psy, and two of their lady friends from base (including our old Assault) prepared to storm the UFO.

Psy's first steps forward immediately encountered two Floaters, and, for once, his casual retaliation didn't land, nor did Vivi's first shot. Jiro, however, successfully brought it down to Earth. This left us with two soldiers against the second Floater, and two Snipers left out of cover who had to be protected. With a shotgun by her side, our old friend couldn't get close enough to get a reliable hit (yeah, not taking a 2% chance, thanks). However, our new Rookie stepped up to the plate and calmly ended the Floater's miserable existence. So far, so good.

Our soldiers followed the skittering sounds they were hearing around the UFO, constantly chasing their foes, but never catching them. Eventually, our old Assault friend got bored and decided to rush them. However, even her dash didn't catch up. Thinking things were safe for faster advancement, Psy rushed up as well. It was then that Psy spotted the foes they'd been chasing. Three Sectoids that had been running as though the very whips of their masters were behind them. Vivi, who had been leaning behind a tree as he followed in the rear, casually scoped around and popped the first one between the eyes, while our other troops moved forward to get better positions. The aliens Mind Melded, and then attempted to attack our young Rookie, however, she was too far away, and the shots only shredded the tree she was hiding behind. She then moved up and took a low percentage shot at the Sectoid that had initiated the merge. And killed it. Beginner's Luck. :)

With that threat eliminated, our forces turned toward the UFO itself...

Shoot, time for work. Will finish the update when I get back.

Loony BoB

10-21-2012, 05:59 PM

Suspense!

Skyblade

10-22-2012, 04:21 AM

Wasted suspense, unfortunately.

The UFO soon came into sight. It looked much like the former UFO we had shot down, only larger. Its interior was slightly more labyrinthine than the other. Our forces continually heard a slight hum coming from within. As we entered, they spotted a rare prize. What appeared to be an intact version of the alien flight console, similar to the one we had destroyed when we shot down the last UFO. Who knows what we could obtain if we could study that.

But first, we had to clear the remaining foes. As we neared the innermost room, our soldiers positioned carefully near the doors. The door opened, and another orange crystal formed into one of the Outsiders we had seen before. Vivi lined up a shot on the creature, Psy ran into the room, put his gun to its head, and blew it away. The alien forces eliminated, our troops set to work returning home, with goodies in tow.

Psy, Vivi, and our Rookie who killed half of the aliens on the map all levelled up.

The female Rookie is unfortunately our MVP. She had a lot of luck in this mission, but did well. She also became an Assault soldier, so if you did want to grab a female assault, Iceglow, feel free. I'm a bit anxious about hiring more soldiers due to the very tight money/time crunch as I establish sat coverage, unfortunately.

S.C.O.P.E.s, Medkits, and Nanofiber Vests are currently availible for outfitting, to replace the standard grenades.

Base value: S.C.O.P.E.s give +10 Aim, Nanofiber Vests give +1 Health, and Medkits restore 4 Health.

Skyblade

10-22-2012, 05:04 AM

-Operation Empty Priest-
Mumbai, India
9:06 PM

Psi, Vivi, BoB, Jiro, and our new lady Assault friend.

The abduction mission started as usual. Our forces moved into an Indian roadway partially under construction. Or perhaps being reconstructed after an alien attack?

Either way, we had a threat to eliminate. Fanning out, our troops pushed forward. Loony BoB quickly found two Floaters to our left. Loosing a tight burst of assault rifle fire, he badly wounded it, but didn't kill it. Vivi, having been holding his ground behind an excavator, swivelled around and blew through the second Floater with a single shot. Our female friend ran up and finished off BoB's Floater, letting Psy and Jiro prepare for any new threats.

No new threats came, however, so our forces began to advance once again. And, very soon, we spotted two more Floaters. As these tore towards our squad, they were met with a hail of reaction fire from all around. All of which missed, the glare from the construction lights nearly blinding our soldiers, and keeping the squad from eliminating the threat immediately.

Not to be dettered, however, Loony BoB quickly rushed one and tore into its flight engines with his assault rifle, tearing it from the sky and crushing it under the weight of its own broken and burning engines. Vivi went for the more merciful kill, opting to simply put a bullet into its augmented eye.

With the Floaters down, our forces moved forward yet again, this time encountering a couple of Sectoids. The two of them quickly found cover, one inside a bus, the other beside it. Our lady friend loosed a max range shotgun blast, barely likely to hit anything, but the ball of fragmented metal tore straight through the Sectoid before it could possibly know what hit it. Vivi, not one to let a Sectoid harass citizens on public transport, shot the would-be bus driver through the neck.

Sensing we were nearing the end, our forces regrouped a bit. Jiro spotted our next foes, two more Sectoids who were scuttling around an eighteen wheeler. His shot at them missed, however. Vivi finally realized he'd have to use his legs and climbed atop a nearby delivery truck and reloaded. Psy sought to get a good angle while staying in cover, getting on top of the vehicle's flatbed and rushing towards their position. Loony BoB rushed to the left side, hoping to flank them when he next got the chance.

That chance never came however. The two aliens Mind Merged, and loosed a long distance shot at Loony BoB. That missed completely. Vivi, not wanting to waste his high ground, drew a bead on the Merging foe, and tore into his precious brain, shattering the link and killing both foes, ending the mission.

MVP goes to Vivi. Like, hands down. 5 kills out of 8 aliens. He was just chain lightning. He had a shot on every alien group we saw, and every one hit. It was awesome. Good job, Vivi. Pat yourself on the back.

It's worth noting that this female Assault soldier is one of the luckiest I've had, when it comes to long distance shots. Between her lucky low percentage shots as a Rookie, and the 40% and 20% kills she's gotten as a Squaddie, she is quite, quite good with weapons that shouldn't be that accurate.

Jiro got unlucky with placement (he was on the right flank, enemies were all on the left), and Psy had bad luck with his accuracy. Sorry, guys. :(

Loony BoB levelled up (levels take more Exp the higher they go, otherwise Vivi would definitely have gotten one), as did our Assault friend, giving us two Corporal Assault Soldiers who will be joining Ronnie when he gets out of the hospital in two days.

Our reward was a Male Sergeant Support Trooper, so let's all give Connor MacLeod a big "Welcome Back", as well as some best wishes for staying alive this time.

And I am hiring more troops, just one at a time. And my last two were girls. :D

Oh, and new squad pic (decided not to bother with the old one).37611

Our next mission: Operation Final Throne, in France. One of our sattellites spotted a UFO touched down in France. Our troops don't care why, they're just going in to kill stuff and steal all the goodies they can get their hands on.

Madame Adequate

10-22-2012, 06:14 AM

Operation Final Throne, in France.

Jacobin detected.

Iceglow

10-22-2012, 07:39 AM

Might as well go ahead and swap my gender to female considering if I don't my chances of being brought in to a mission are effectively zero.

Skill tree level ups:

Squaddie (no choice):
Run & Gun: You can Dash (move twice as far) and still fire your weapon in the same turn. You cannot Dash and use items though. 2 turn cooldown.

Corporal:
- Aggression: You gain +10% Crit chance for every enemy you can see, up to a max of +30%.

Sergeant:
- Lightning Reflexes: The first reaction shot (enemy Overwatch shot) made against you each turn automatically misses.

Lieutenant:
- Rapid Fire: Take two shots at a single target. Each shot has a 15% penalty to accuracy. 2 turn cooldown.

Captain:
- Close Combat Specialist: Shoot at anything that moves within 4 tiles of you. You don't have to be in Overwatch (Overwatch will just get you an extra shot), and can shoot once at everything that moves that close to you per turn, as long as your weapon has ammo.

Major (no choice):
- Extra Conditioning: You get extra health for wearing armor. The heavier the armor, the more health. +1 health for basic armor, +2 for light armors, +4 for heavy armors.

Colonel:
- Resilience: Passive immunity to critical hits.

I figure these options will put me in a place to deal a fair amount of damage whilst allowing me to act as a relatively good bullet soak.

Skyblade

10-22-2012, 07:43 AM

Works for me, and I'm sorry we didn't get another male assault at all. :( Did you want to change the name?

Slothy

10-22-2012, 02:59 PM

MVP goes to Vivi. Like, hands down. 5 kills out of 8 aliens. He was just chain lightning. He had a shot on every alien group we saw, and every one hit. It was awesome. Good job, Vivi. Pat yourself on the back.

/smug

Jiro

10-22-2012, 03:19 PM

Don't get cocky old man, I'll show you what I'm made of in France!

Iceglow

10-22-2012, 10:13 PM

Works for me, and I'm sorry we didn't get another male assault at all. :( Did you want to change the name?

Balls MacGyver as a chick would be fucking great :D

Loony BoB

10-22-2012, 10:18 PM

Snipers will always be boss in this game. Rather ironically, despite being an Assault player in this thread, it's the class I like least. I'm playing my current Ironman game (the most successful to date) with 1x Support, 2x Sniper, 3x Heavy.

Skyblade

10-24-2012, 04:46 AM

-Operation Final Throne-
France

The first message we get after we touch down is "Lieutenant 22 has earned a promotion", right before the message that the Thin Man's Plasma Rifle exploded into fragments.

Our force deployed forward. Once the majority had gotten into position, I set Vivi in Overwatch. Our last soldier to move was Sergeant MacLeod. And, as he moved into position, what did he see but three Thin Men? As the group broke up and scattered, Vivi nailed one in the head from the same spot he'd started the mission, earning a move up to Captain after this mission was over. A second Thin Man moved out of visibility, and Loony BoB's reaction shot took out the last.

The Thin Man who had escaped was not one of the particularly bright ones. Perhaps he was panicked by the sudden death of his fellows, but his behaviour was suicidal. Upon reentering our field of view, he suddenly cowered against a log. Not realizing that he was on the wrong side of the log to get any protection from it.

Finally getting a chance to take a shot at a foe after so many unlucky missions, Jiro lines up a 94% chance Flanked shot... And misses. Sergeant MacLeod quickly moves up and eliminated the Thin Man, as our force's radio is suddenly flooded with the sound of Vivi's laughter.

Our troops moved closer to the UFO, encountering a group of Sectoids who quickly flee beyond our troops line of sight. Loony BoB once again demonstrates his mastery of the Assault Rifle, firing another perfectly accurate burst into the eyes of the first foe. Vivi lines up a 44% chance on the furthest foe still visible, hiding behind the Full Cover of the upright tree. Once again, his bullet hits home, and another Sectoid is eliminated. And the third skitters back into line of sight just fast enough to run into the reaction fire from Psy's LMG.

A group of Floaters caught us by surprise, flying over the top of the UFO as we got into position to breach us. Due to the unexpected nature of the shot, both Vivi and Psy's reaction fire missed. However, our fanned out formation meant that one of them could not get to adequete cover, and was left being flanked by Loony while his compatriots retreated back far enough over the top of the UFO to break line of sight. Once again, BoB's Assault Rifle sang. Psy, who was in the most vulnerable position to the Floater's attack, quickly found better cover, and discovered a view of one of the other Floaters while he was at it. With 50-50 being "good odds" to the crazy Heavy, he unloaded his LMG into it, and kicked another alien scumbag off our planet, permanently.

Our soldiers, not wanting to charge into the UFO with at least one known threat outside it, shifted positions a little and camped out. When the final Floater rushed over the UFO, MacLeod and Vivi were ready. MacLeod was a bit more ready, however, and his Assault Rifle blew the Floater right out of the sky while Vivi was still expertly lining up his shot. Not wanting to waste such a good shot, Vivi proceeded to fire, his bullet passing through the air where the Floater was moments ago, with his expression telling everyone that that shot would have been a hit if the Floater had still been alive.

Free to approach the UFO, our squad split up. MacLeod moved for a breach from the south, while Psy, Jiro, and BoB approached from the west. MacLeod actually performed the breach, spotting the Outsider in the middle of the ship. The Outsider, unfortunately, seemed to spot the rest of our squad (even though they weren't able to awaken him earlier), or maybe he just got lucky. Either way, he moved to a position which granted him cover from both MacLeod and the rest of our team.

Moving into the UFO, Jiro tried to get a shot off, but missed again, with it glancing off the side of the console. With MacLeod stuck with a choice of shooting where he was, leaving him flanked, or running somewhere safe but giving the foe a chance to escape, Loony BoB decided to save him the trouble and unleashed a final stream of bullets into the foe's delicate crystal matrix, ending the foe and the final threat of the mission.

MVP: Loony BoB.

Promotions: Vivi, Jiro, and BoB.

Casualties: None. Even MacLeod was unscathed.

Sorry, Jiro. I am trying to use your soldier as best I can. But this is why I love Squad Sight so much. I tend to fan out as I uncover terrain, keeping split up to detect enemies easier, and ensure no untimely grenades wipe out the squad. When enemies retreat with their free move upon discovery, the odds of any soldier except the one who discovered them getting in to kill them is slim. I couldn't even get you in range of the second Sectoid. Add to that the fact you're taking an Aim penalty by moving, and a further Aim penalty if I put you in Overwatch (since you are avoiding Opportunist), and your odds of getting good shots is just way too low.

While all Vivi needs to do is stand in place, Overwatch at the end of the turn (although, again, no Opportunist? You guys are silly. :)), and just wait for something to stumble into the field of view. He only needs to move if Terrain obstacles start to get in the way, or if he lags too far behind, because I don't want to leave him vulnerable. Especially on open maps like the Scout Ship missions, Squad Sight is just way too powerful.

Honestly, I think Squad Sight should be the basic Sniper power, instead of Headshot. Make Head Shot pair off against Snap Shot, and remove Snap Shot's Aim penalty, and then you have a viable comparison.

Maybe I'm using Snap Shot wrong, but I'm trying my best. :( You said you always played Snap Shot, so can you offer any advice?

The force so far:
Captain Vivi "Azz Kickr" 22
Captain Jiro "The Wish" Stark
Lieutenant Psy "Psychotic" Chotic
Sergeant Ronnie "Meaty Thigh" Coleman
Sergeant Connor "Sigma" MacLeod
Corporal Balls MacGuyver

We have one Squaddie level Assault female, and five lady Recruits.

World situation is thus:
Our base is in the US (I believe it's the best starting location. Good initial funds, plus reduced cost/maintenance for interceptors, which makes for easy expansion).

United States, Canada, and Mexico are all panic free. US (base location) has a sat.

Argentina is at 3 while Brazil is at 2.

Egypt and Nigeria are at 3, South Africa is at 4! South Africa and Nigeria have sats. Hoping to put one in Egypt shortly to secure the "All In" funding bonus and eliminate our chances of an abduction mission ruining South Africa.

United Kingdom is at 4, Russia is at 3, Germany and France are at 2. Germany and France have sats. Getting the UK set is our next priority goal, and then probably sealing the continent bonus.

China is at 2, Japan is at 3, and India and Australia are both at 1.

This is actually a pretty good setup, despite the numbers. I won't have to drop another sat in North America for a long time, and since I already have its continent bonus, that's a good thing. Asia also can be left relatively alone, with Japan being the only real hotspot. By dropping my next three sats in to seal UK and Africa, I pick up extra bonuses, and ensure that they won't get hit by abductions, and I can then turn my focus to South America, and I should be able to keep the rest of the sattellites relatively free to serve as emergency panic reducers until I can get global coverage. As long as we don't get shafted by a bunch of abduction missions, we should be good to get full coverage without losing a country, at which point panic management just comes down to completing the missions.

Now for the bad news. We have a council report coming in 7 days, our next Sattelite Uplink comes in 13 days, well after that, and our next 3 Sattelites are coming 19 and 20 days after that. This means we'll get no new sats up until the next month, prolonging the vulnerable period (abduction missions don't stop until the month after the sats are launched). We're also down to 2 Credits, after selling some Sectoid corpses to ensure that the money keeps flowing and we could get the sats built as quickly as possible.

The income from the Council meeting should give us enough to get another Power Generator up (I think I can get a Thermo one in), and from there we should have the power for the rest of our Sat Uplinks, and the money to start on them as soon as we have the power.

It's basically luck at this point. As long as we don't get too many abductions, we're golden.

Skyblade

10-24-2012, 06:05 AM

And, immediately, disaster on the world map. Just after the council report, we get shafted by the abductions. One in Egypt, one in the UK, and one in India. Since UK is at 4, I have to grab it or lose it. However, ignoring Egypt means that it jumps to 5. I have to dump a sat there pretty or we lose it, and I do not want to lose Africa. Stupid game.

-Operation Sacred Mother-
Birmingham, United Kingdom
3:52 PM

Loony BoB, wanting to break his perfect record, decides to move to the wrong space right out of the gate. When he takes his second move to get into cover (1 square over, where I meant him to go before the misclick), he uncovers two Floaters and is unable to shoot at them. Vivi takes a shot at one, but the high cover of the gravestones thwarts him. Psy remembers he has a grenade, and blows the gravestones away, reducing the Floaters to 1 HP apiece. MacGuyver ran up and blasted one in the face. Fortunately, the other fled, but then Launched itself behind our troops.

Not wanting it to last, Psy ran around the wall of the graveyard and blasted it point blank, while the rest moved forward, and we eventually regrouped.

Shortly thereafter, we encountered three more Floaters. Two went into Overwatch, while the third Launched itself into a flanking position. With no chance of moving without getting hit, each soldier tried to get shots at the flanking Floater. BoB's shot missed, as did MacLeod's. Psy's shot missed as well, but then MacGuyver was able to eliminate it with a lucky shotgun blast. Vivi then took out another of the two. And Psy, realizing he had a second shot because he hadn't moved, got lucky with a 50% shot and eliminated a third, earning a promotion.

Our next move encountered three Thin Men near the end of our turn, and then two Floaters joined them on the other side of the map, one of which was promptly eliminated by MacLeod's reaction fire. Vivi took a clean shot to eliminate the other. It was an easy shot, but with so many enemies on the map at once, he knew to take the guaranteed kills first.

Finally remember he was an Assault for the first time, Loony Run and Gunned up near the central monument, and nailed a Thin Man in the head. Psy unleashed a shot at the other in view, a 36% chance to hit, planning on using both shots to eliminate it, only to remember that Hit Percentages were for losers, and just wiping it out on the first shot and still having leftover time to enter Overwatch. Unfortunately, three (or maybe four, not sure, it's hard to keep track) Overwatch shots all missed on the final Thin Man, who fired a few rounds at Balls MacGuyver, hitting her and ruining our perfect record. Vivi ended it, and the mission.

This mission was screwy as hell. We got royally shafted with intelligent aliens in good positions, yet got extremely lucky on hit percentages, which kind of balanced out to about average.

MVP is Psy, who made excellent use of Bullet Storm (the first good use I've gotten out of that skill, and prompting me to actually reconsider it over Holo Targeting somewhat).

Promotions are Psy and MacLeod. Woohoo!

Casualties: Balls MacGuyver was wounded and will be out for 10 days.

I had been planning on taking some Rookies on this, but decided against it when I was left with a "Very Hard" as the mission it made the best sense to take. I probably could have pulled through with a Rookie (although that first misclick brings it into question), given the foe lineup, but the messups and good enemy placement make me fairly glad I didn't. I promise, I'm working on a B-Squad, I just don't want to lose while doing so. :(

Fortunately, I got a sattellite up over Egypt, so as long as we don't get any more abductions there this month, we should be good. Finishing the Very Hard mission dropped UK to zero, allowing me to postpone the satellite to there (think I'm going to drop it in Russia instead, worth more money and will eliminate that panic), but I'm currently saving it as Asia has gotten more tense.

Carapace Armor is now availible (well, researched, I don't have the funds to build it quite yet)! Don't forget to mention if you want particular gear. Currently I'm just following my best judgement.

-Operation Glass Dream-
Nigeria
May 14th, 1:47 PM

Our forces landed extremely close to the UFO, far too close for comfort. Usually they cut like a buzz saw through enemy forces to get to the UFO, then eliminate the Outsider. Starting this close, there was no telling where they'd encounter what.

As such, they stayed close together as they moved. Soon, they were set up against the UFO. And then, they spotted a new foe. A hulking beast, covered in green armor. These new enemies ran out of the UFO, with Psy being the only one overcoming his surprise at the new enemies enough to hit one with his reaction fire. Our new Rookie then eliminated the weakened foe.

Loony Run and Gunned to a flanking position near the second Muton, only to get his Assault Rifle mostly deflected by its thick armor (2 damage, AR's minimum). Clearly, he'd have to learn its weak points and focus fire better. Psy took two shots at it, hitting with his second one, weakening the beast enough for Vivi to eliminate it. MacLeod Suppressed the third, which decided not to take a shot during its turn, but to just stand there looking stupid to avoid MacLeod's wrath. It did not, however, stop three Floaters from joining in the fray.

The Muton's armor continued to thwart our forces, allowing it to survive its attacks with one hit point remaining, and to throw a grenade to damage BoB and the Rookie, and eliminate their cover. A Floater then proceeded to fire on our Rookie and miss, while another splattered our lovely Rookie's brains all over the floor. BoB, not liking to see a pretty lady die, panicked, but made the smart decision to run to cover which I couldn't even see through the bloody alien forcefield (had I, I would have moved him there last turn, and probably kept the Muton from using the grenade). Vivi managed to cap the Muton with his shot, and Psy took two shots to eliminate a Floater while MacLeod reloaded. BoB, finally faced with a familiar foe, managed to put his Assault Rifle to it full use and eliminated a Floater immediately, leaving just one more somewhere in the ship. It played Hide and Seek for a bit, coming out, evading an Overwatch shot, and retreating again. MacLeod moved to heal BoB while we waited it out.

Unfortunately, the sounds we heard made it seem as though it was not coming out, but rather circling the UFO. With little choice, our forces split up. Vivi and Psy secured the exit and flank, while MacLeod and BoB started to explore inside. Soon enough, BoB found the alien, and quickly eliminated it while MacLeod was covering a side path. Our forces regrouped, and breached the inner chamber of the UFO, discovering the Outsider, who fled deep into a corner. Psy ran to better cover while MacLeod shot and missed. Vivi moved into a good cover position and unleashed a pistol shot at the foe, wounding but not killing it. Finally, BoB decided to show them how it was done, and Run and Gunned into a flanking position to eliminate the foe. But not the final threat...

As they exited the UFO, our forces encountered two Thin Men. Vivi, behind the door quickly eliminated one, while Psy stepped forward to blast the other, the last foes killed before they could attempt to bring harm to our forces.

MVP: Loony BoB, excellent kill rate, if only he hadn't been shafted on damage numbers against the Muton, he'd have rocked this mission solo. :D

Promotions: Loony BoB is now a Lieutenant

Casualties: Loony BoB got wounded for 7 days by the Alien Grenade. Kim Cook, a Canadian Rookie who was, as yet, completely uncustomized, is KIA.

And our next mission is in Moscow, Russia. Operation Red Line, a bomb disposal mission for the Council. Glad I held that sattellite in reserve. With two wounded troops, our lineup for this mission is Psy, Jiro, Ronnie, Connor, and a Rookie (who will hopefully fair better against Thin Men).

Loony BoB

10-24-2012, 09:46 AM

Hell yeah, MVP'ing it up. But oh man am I getting the impression I'm going to die soon with all these death runs I go on. :D

What's been going on with research etc, out of curiosity?

Skyblade

10-24-2012, 01:27 PM

You shouldn't have to fear that, BoB. I'm actually rather conservative about Run & Gun. I only ever leave an Assault vulnerable if it is a definite elimination of the only remaining enemy. Otherwise, I always Run & Gun into cover, and usually wind up just as safe as a standard move, only with a better flanking chance. Your rifle just really only wanted to do minimum damage to Mutons. :D

I'm currently researching Beam Weapons, so Laser Weaponry will be out in about two days. I've already researched Carapace Armor (choice for you all to make there, Weapons or Armor). I've researched UFO Flight Computers, though I can't take advantage of it in this due to the engineer and time cost, will be faster to just rush two more Uplinks, rather than a Nexus.

My next research will be for UFO Power Sources, and then Firestorms, which I need to get up ASAP because I kind of never bother with other Interceptor upgrades... :shifty:

Loony BoB

10-24-2012, 01:47 PM

When I researched on my current so-far successful Ironman run (got all research done before the base assault), I did it something like this...

Laser Rifle, Carapace, Heavy Laser, Plasma Rifle, Titan, Plasma Sniper, Heavy Plasma.

With how often Snipers hit for critical damage, I jumped straight to Plasma Sniper rather than doing Laser Sniper at all (I did it much later on when I had nothing else to research). I think it largely depends on what bonuses you get from capturing enemies, though. If you can capture a Sectoid (they never came up for me for some reason) then you're pretty much good to go with all Laser gear.

EDIT: Regarding the choice of weapons or armour, surely we can have both? :D Unless you mean what kind of item we would like, in which case I'll opt for additional armour (so Nanovest or Chitin Plating). :)

Skyblade

10-24-2012, 02:39 PM

Actually, right now it's either-or, due to restricted funding. But later it will be which type do you want.

On my first playthrough, I actually skipped all laser weapons entirely, and jumped straight to plasma from captured Light Plasma Rifles (which are the best weapon for Rookies).

Elite Lord Sigma

10-25-2012, 06:59 AM

Skyblade

10-25-2012, 07:06 AM

Sheesh, I died again? More importantly, getting smacked by a zombie does not make me optimistic about how I'll fare in the game of Humans vs. Zombies I'm participating in at college. Anyway, just give me whatever will maximize my defense.

You've only died twice. I was able to get you right back into gear with a Sergeant Support mission reward, and you've been doing awesome since then. And now you've picked up Suppression, so you're going to be one of the most useful members of the team.

But, yeah, more armor for you, you'll probably be the first person with Carapace.

Jiro

10-25-2012, 07:07 AM

Skyblade

10-25-2012, 07:11 AM

So after experimenting with my own playthroughs, I realise now that my character is practically as nerfed as I could have made him. I can't believe he'd miss a 94% shot... Feel free to give me a grenade and a pistol and just charge in there alongside Loony BoB. If I die, the Stark legacy will live on in another, I'm sure ;)

If you wish to submit an alternate setup, it will be taken into account should you die. :)

Sorry your character didn't wind up great. But, yeah, I really think they messed up with Snap Shot.

Loony BoB

10-25-2012, 09:45 AM

In my first non-Ironman playthrough, I had one sniper with Snapshot, one with Squad Sight. They both got more kills than anyone else. Squad Sight probably got more, but it can be extremely helpful to have a sniper who can adjust before taking a shot, especially if you also give him the Colonel perk that allows for shots to flanked/not-in-cover to not use up an action. If you get ambushed in close range, you can just have him move around, flanking the enemy, and take out every damned one in a single turn. It doesn't happen all that often, admittedly, but as I say - he still got more kills than any Heavy, Assault or Support soldier. Just have him sit slightly behind your frontline soldiers.

HEAVY / ASSAULT
SUPPORT
SNAPSHOTTER
- a stroll in the woods
- tumbleweed
- lost person asking for directions
- sign telling pointing in the direction of the enemy
SQUADSIGHT

:D

Jiro

10-25-2012, 10:01 AM

Iceglow

10-26-2012, 06:18 PM

Personally when it comes to either guns or armour being an assault I think until we've got some really tasty assault rifles I ought to put in for whatever armour can soak up the most punishment.

Skyblade

10-28-2012, 02:15 AM

-Operation Red Line-
Moscow, Russia
11:53 PM

This mission's theme song: Moskau (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQAKRw6mToA) by Dschinghis Khan.

Mission start: Aliens have apparently placed a plasma bomb in a restraunt area of Moscow. Forces dispatched to location approximately 11:53 PM.

XCOM operatives moved into the area, performing some quick reconnaissance which indicated power nodes were located inside the buildings of the district.

Breaching the first building, our forces encountered no resistance until they opened the door to the restraunts food storage facilities, whereupon they encountered two Thin Men. One retreated out of the facility through the rear service door, while the other moved into the restraunt and took cover behind a buffet table.

Captain Stark quickly maneuvered around the edge of the table, and eliminated the Thin Man with a single shot. Our forces regrouped and moved forward. Disastrously, Lieutenant MacLeod made a move in error, revealing another Thin Man ahead, without proper support (I didn't realize it was his second move, my bad). The Thin Man leapt atop the second building in the AO, and loosed a volley of plasma fire at Lieutenant MacLeod, wounding him.

Captain Chotic and Sergeant Coleman, in the meanwhile, proceeded along the right flank of the building. Captain Chotic eliminated the previous runner, and the pair spotted two more Thin Men.

Lieutenant MacLeod took cover behind a delivery vehicle and used one of his medpacks to patch up his wounds. Captain Stark moved in behind him, while our Rookie moved up the building's left flank.

One of the newly spotted Thin Men unleashed a cloud of poison at Captain Chotic and Sergeant Coleman. The other rushed forward, suicidally close, and blasted Captain Chotic with his Light Plasma Rifle. Meanwhile, the Thin Man on top of the building, who had fired at Lieutenant MacLeod, repositioned itself and let loose a volley at our Rookie, Katarina Solovyova, wounding and panicking her. In her panic, she rushed back slightly, but remained in a flanked position.

Left with the option of saving Captain Chotic or Rookie Solovyova, Lieutenant MacLeod chose to use his next medpack to heal Captain Chotic, and only hoped the Rookie could hold out for one more turn. She could not, and the Thin Man eliminated her with its next shot.

Sergeant Coleman deleted the Thin Man who had attacked Captain Chotic, freeing up Captain Stark to approach the second building, where our forces believed the plasma bomb was held. Having finished patching up Captain Chotic, Lieutenant MacLeod turned his attention to the Thin Men on the roof. His first shot eliminated the one that had taken out Rookie Solovyova, and his second wiped out the other hiding on the roof.

Captain Chotic, meanwhile, fired several rounds into the final visible Thin Man, and our forces positioned to breach the building.

Opening the building's side door, Captain Stark spotted the bomb and another Thin Man. While it attempted to evade, he quickly eliminated it with a precise shot. Lieutenant MacLeod joined him inside the building, while Captain Chotic took up a sentry position at the door, and Sergeant Coleman headed up to the roof.

After deactivating the bomb, Jiro exited the buiding on the right flank and reloaded his weapon. Lieutenant MacLeod and Captain Chotic also reloaded, while Sergeant Coleman, who had taken an earlier opportunity to reload, prepared himself for the final wave.

He was not prepared enough, however, as a Thin Man dropped a mere four feet away from him on the roof. His reaction fire flew over its head (attributed to his startled nature, he had assumed he was at the highest terrain within the AO. Source of Thin Man unknown. Did it drop from a ship?). However, he calmed himself and destroyed it with a second shotgun blast.

A second Thin Man dropped on top of the delivery van, and Captain Stark moved around the corner of the building and finished it off, eliminating the alien attempt to restart the bomb, and ending the mission.

If it's confusing to read, good. It was a very confusing mission. The Thin Men had tons of room to jump and move, and I was never clear which one I was following or aiming at, so I decided to try to make that come across in the writing. And what better way to do that than to present it as an official report? After all, those never make sense anyway. And I didn't mention the power node shutdowns, 'cause there are too many, and they're pretty boring.

MVP: Jiro or MacLeod. It's a bit of a toss up. I did screw up with MacLeod and take an extra move I didn't intend to, which probably shafted our Rookie. But, while he had one fewer kill, he did save Psy. Jiro, on the other hand, finally proved useful with Squad Sight, getting three kills and the bomb deactivation. I guess I'll give it to Jiro, since he hasn't gotten much love lately.

Another Rookie dead. And three of our guys in the hospital (Coleman from Poison, MacLeod from getting shot, and Psy from Poison and getting shot).

On the plus side, we did decide to promote Coleman to Lieutenant.

Loony BoB

10-28-2012, 09:25 AM

I both love and hate fighting Thin Men. So easy to kill, but so damned annoying with that bloody poison (and they also seem to be extremely good shots).

Jiro

10-28-2012, 09:40 AM

Glad to be of real use now :D Thin Men do have a habit of just showing up in droves.

Loony BoB

10-28-2012, 09:56 AM

When you have time, you should throw up the stats of missions/kills and a list of deaths into the first post of the thread. =]

Dignified Pauper

10-30-2012, 02:35 AM

Name: Marick Pauper
Nickname: "Actor"
Class: Sniper
Gender: M
Customization: Blonde hair
Armor Color: Blue and White.
Equipment: Best Rifle Available/Scope/Skeleton Armor

Perks:
Squadsight - Find this WAAAAAY more useful so that I can always move him last, if necessary.
Sergeant - With Skeleton Armor, I'm suddenly the deadliest thing ever.
Battle Scanner - If you can see it, you can shoot it.
Opportunist - for those instances I'm in overwatch on a roof and a chrysalid tries to jump up top.
Double Tap - Seriously the best damn skill in the God Damned game.

Having passed my entrance exam and graduating from the academy, I enlisted with the organization formerly known as Blackwell. After many years, I obtained top-secret military clearance, and finally it would pay off. The moment in which I would be pulled to my calling. In research through all the resources I had access to, I came across some disturbing plans for something we had been planning for the past sixty years since THE ROSWELL INCIDENT.

It was known as the XCOM PROJECT - A planned preparation for the invasion of a sentient extra terrestrial race that threatens the very existence of our entire species. Now they're here, and so, I took it to myself to submit my information to the Council for enlistment. Ultimately, it will depend entirely on the Commander in charge, but if I am chosen, I'll be the best damned sniper money can buy. I know The Council has been severely alarmed at the current management, but the new Commander looks to be shaping everything up. Working with Top Secret clearance has really helped to get inside information on the project, and their mission notes are uploaded to the member nations of The Council.

I look forward to being part of this task force, and defending Earth from marauding aliens.

Skyblade

10-30-2012, 04:40 AM

We had quite a long dry streak. We completed Laser Weaponry and UFO Power Source without incident. I've started building our fourth Satellite Uplink, and 2 more satellites. This would complete the square, giving us 12 satellites total.

Remembering that we had some damaged UFO stuffs, I sold it, and bought Carapace armor for all our soldiers, and Laser Rifles for BoB and MacLeod.

Then we finally got a new contact. What I believe is a Supply Ship spotted over Africa. Since this is larger and more dangerous than anything we've seen so far, I'm taking the most experienced team.

We're 7 days out from the next Council meeting, and we have Firestorms in the Research queue. Hopefully, if we can complete this mission, we can get Firestorms and EMPs up and around the world before we start getting Abduction ships and battle ships.

Honestly, it's a wonder our Interceptor survived.

Sorry this bit took so long. Had some family business to take care of, and the strategy section was giving me lots of micro to do, as we didn't hit a contact for a couple weeks.

Tomorrow I might not be availible, so this may be a Halloween mission. Sorry again for the delays.

On the plus side, Laser Weapons and decent armor for everyone! I even gave Loony BoB an Arc Thrower. Will we catch our first alien, or will he die trying?

Oh, yes, and if someone could compile the team data for me, I'd appreciate it. I keep having to cycle through the thread. I need somewhere I can keep it nice and together, with names, customization options, kill scores, etcetera. I'll get to it eventually, but any help would make things a bit easier.

Carapace and Lasers:
37843

Loony BoB

10-30-2012, 08:34 AM

My money is on 'die trying' xD But dammit, I'll give it my best shot. Just be sure they're the last enemy and on low health. =x

EDIT: Missions and kills are located in the soldier profiles - just head to the barracks and click into one soldier, then cycle through them. :)

Jiro

10-30-2012, 10:01 AM

Dude we are sexay

Skyblade

10-31-2012, 02:43 AM

-Operation Flying Fear-
South Africa
25th of May, 2015
5:09 PM

Our mission was not a supply ship. Rather, it appeared to be one of the ships responsible for the alien abduction missions. Our forces were dropped off right outside, and immediately moved in.

It seems our landing zone was right outside the ship's control room, as we immediately encountered two Outsiders. BoB, putting his shiny new rifle to work, promptly burned a hole straight through the first one. Jiro moved forward and around a piece of flaming wreckage, and eliminated the second.

Everything seemed smooth, which of course was a precursor to some horrors.

Moving forward, BoB spotted three Chryssalids. What they were doing outside the main control room is unknown, as they did not strike our research team as likely pilots. Deciding it best not to take them on alone, BoB retreated back into the control room where the rest of his team was on Overwatch, and wait.

One of the Chryssalids teleported behind our squad (I frelling hate this glitch), then rushed up through them an through a nearby doorway. En route, it passed between MacLeod and Coleman and got itself a plasma burn for its effort. After exiting through a side door, it ran back into the room and stood next to BoB. Shortly thereafter, one of its brethren came and sat down next to MacLeod, licking its chops as it anticipated its meal. And the third rushed up and attacked BoB, with neither sniper being able to get a sight through the doors they were at, apparently.

This situation, not being bad enough, was joined by a Floater who came out of nowhere (possibly teleported, I'm not sure), who was picked up by our Snipers, but wasn't hit by their Overwatch shots because they are silly crazy people who didn't spec for Opportunist, and took position right inside the door next to Vivi. And, while our troops were watching the Floater, they caught a glimpse of a trio of Thin Men outside, though they quickly faded from view.

So, with three Chryssalids and a Floater inside, and three Thin Men outside, our team was considering its options. BoB quickly realized that this was no time to be a hero. While he could possibly stun the Floater, the chances were too low, and it would leave the team vulnerable. Ronnie took the first action, unleashing two loads of buckshot into the nearest Chryssalid, the one who had taken a bite out of BoB. Vivi peeked around the corner at the Floater sitting right next to him, and blew him up with a cool, calm flanking shot, earning himself a promotion to Major. BoB turned around and fired a double laser blast into the Chryssalid right next to him (yeah, he had two on him), but his wound threw him off enough that only one hit.

Jiro rushed around the corner, drew a bead, and ended the second Chryssalid, leaving MacLeod with a tough choice. There was a Chryssalid alive right next to the squad, but there was also a wounded BoB, and three Thin Men outside. If he healed BoB, the team would be pretty well covered for health, but would suffer plentiful attacks, and the Thin Men might be able to flank them, as there was little cover and their point of entry would be unknown. However, if he burned the Chryssalid, one shot from an enemy would wipe BoB from the team...

MacLeod took the chance, and burned down the Chryssalid with a laser discharge. The team held their breath... And no riposte came. The Thin Men did not retaliate. MacLeod immediately rushed to BoB's side, healing half his wound, and preventing the poison from seeping further into him. The rest of the team reloaded, hoping that the Thin Men would remain hidden.

Their hope held true. The Thin Men did not emerge again. However, the Floater they had eliminated before was apparently not alone (though we never spotted the rest of his team, even in the wake up animation, yet one of them fired, which they never do if they discover you that turn), as two more rushed in. The first took a precarious position in the rear, near the ramp up from the floor of the control room, where he was easily flanked by several team members. The other closed in on BoB and took a flanking shot on the wounded soldier... Which missed by a mile and destroyed some of the side of the ship in the next room. Now, here was a potential for the Arc Thrower to do its job.

Vivi, having already earned his promotion, and being graceful enough to be neither an Experience Hog, nor a glory hound, contented himself with a 2 damage critical from his pistol into the Floater that had fired at BoB. Jiro, already in a spot for a good flanking shot, put down the Floater by the ramp (seriously, it looked like that in the glam cam. Not a kill, but putting down a raibd dog, or an execution).

BoB, knowing he still had MacLeod and Coleman for backup, unslung his new tool, pointed it at the Floater, and pulled the trigger. SUCCESS! The Floater was stunned, its weapon remained intact. MacLeod took the opportunity to heal BoB a bit more, and Coleman went to Overwatch, on the lookout for the Thin Men.

The first Thin Man poked into view near the door, unfortunately still beyond Coleman's sight. Jiro, however, had a beautiful line on him, and fired a shot that split the alien's glasses, wiping him from our considerations. The team reloaded, and BoB moved forward to the next room. Another Thin Man shot at him as he moved, but his Lightning Reflexes let him dodge, and they ripped apart the wall instead. MacLeod then moved forward and burned down the second Thin Man.

BoB then did some consideration. There was only one Thin Man remaining, and his Arc Thrower had a second charge. Would there be a better target than the final Thin Man?

Thinking not, the forces moved to try to reach it. Unfortunately, it was outside a large bulkhead. Our forces split up, trying to flank it. MacLeod was the first to spot it, and started Suppressing it so BoB could get closer. However, the Thin Man's return shot tore through MacLeod's new Carapace armor (6 damage crit from a Suppressed shot? Cheap luck). Choosing to heal himself rather than Suppress the Thin Man again, our forces got into better position, but did not stop the Thin Man's advance. The Thin Man, free to move around, got close to BoB. But, unable to flank him, chose merely to poison him rather than shoot. Coleman snapped a few shots with his pistol, bringing the creature down to the verge of death, and BoB snapped another shot from the Arc Thrower, bringing home our second live capture.

MVP: BoB. With one kill and two captures, he edges out Jiro's three kills.

Casualties: BoB is taking a 15 day trip to the infirmary, and MacLeod is keeping him company for 5 of those days.

We immediately began interrogating the Thin Man (2 day research time that will halve the remaining 14 days of Firestorm research). Perhaps we are beginning to make some progress in this war.

Our next mission, even before the interrogation is completed, is an abduction mission into Fukuoka, Japan. Really nice luck on this one, it'll gain us 4 engineers and reduce panic in the single highest panic country on the board, Japan. Taking along Jiro, Vivi, Balls MacGuyver, Ronnie, and a new squaddie (wielding MacLeod's dropped Laser Rifle, Medikit, and Carapace armor). Let's see if we can get another soldier into the mix and start a solid Team B.

And apologies to Psy, who is still wounded.

Loony BoB

10-31-2012, 08:27 AM

Will we catch our first alien, or will he die trying?
Almost both! xD

Jiro

11-01-2012, 12:10 PM

Congratulations BoB for being more than just cannon fodder. I'm also glad to be slowly more and more useful. What a tense mission! Let's hope Japan doesn't put any of us in the ground.

Iceglow

11-02-2012, 12:06 AM

How comes I don't get a laser rifle too if I'm going on the mission? ;p

Aulayna

11-02-2012, 09:32 PM

Looking forward to seeing my glorious debut and innevitable death!

As an aside, here's my dapper bunch of alien hunters just waiting to be renamed!

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/920118814743929133/EEF71295DDCD21071FFB67346F1DAE0531039372/

ShunNakamura

11-03-2012, 12:00 PM

Hey you got a female heavy! I have never gotten a female heavy before! And nearly half my barracks ended up as heavy this time round(all male, and heavy is probably my least wanted class. . . unless I am forced to take on a mission with a bunch of low rank units. Rockets complete negate the 'can't hit the broad side of a barn' issue low ranks have for me).

Anyways I'd like to sign up.

Character name - Shun Nakamura
Character nickname - Highlighter
Class - Heavy
Gender - Either one will work
Customization -
   Race - Any
   Voice - Is there even a difference?
   Head - Any
   Skin Color - Any
   Hair/Helmet - 13(that should be the helm with the light on it)
   Hair Color - Any
   Facial Hair(if male) - Any
   Armor Deco -2
   Armor Tint - 7(that should be a yellow)
Equipment - When in doubt scope it!
Perks -
   Fire Rocket
   Holo Targeting
   Suppression
   Heat Ammo
   Danger Zone
   Will to Survive
   Mayhem

I just gotta say I love holo targeting + suppression + Danger Zone. Makes it a lot easier to hit enemies behind cover that you don't want to destroy(either because you want it when you advance or because it is a power source or somesuch). Mayhem will likely just make it all the better. I still prefer the other three normally, but that doesn't make heavies useless.

Dignified Pauper

11-03-2012, 03:59 PM

There is a distinct lack of Marick in this thread, in both proper noun and verb form.

I'll have you know that I am now very much in THIS thread...

Iceglow

11-06-2012, 12:57 AM

There is a distinct lack of Marick in this thread, in both proper noun and verb form.

I'll have you know that I am now very much in THIS thread...

In both forms you bloody Marick'd this thing.

Aulayna

11-06-2012, 09:54 AM

Skyblade

11-06-2012, 11:44 PM

Apologies for the delays. As it happens, I've been doing most of my posting from my phone lately, as my computer got infected by this virus that basically makes it useless. It's called "Mass Effect", and whenever I was booting my computer up, it seemed to dominate the runtime. So, sorry. Anyway, really need to get this moving again, I've only got two weeks to finish, eek!

-Operation First Mother-
Fukuoka, Japan
5:01 AM

This mission was a Council mission disguised as an abduction mission. Despite our team's hopes of picking up a Sectoid to study, we encountered nothing but Thin Men. A lot of Thin Men.

We landed on a Japanese highway. The mission opened with a pair just north of our position. Most of our team was on Overwatch, but it was Jiro who managed to nab the kill (how he managed that with both the Overwatch penalty and Snap Shot penalty is beyond me, good job). MacGuyver's shot lit up the trash can in front of the car the team was using for cover. Fearing the car itself was lit, our team prepared to scatter. Ronnie blasted the second one with his shotgun, but unveiled another pair while he was at it.

Our Rookie burned the next Thin Man down, and Vivi eliminated his partner. When the car didn't catch fire, Jiro and MacGuyver felt a little silly for diving for cover, but, since everyone came through ok, there was nothing to worry about. Moving up, we unveiled a trio of the spindly aliens. One shot at Jiro, who wasn't in cover at the time, but missed, as Jiro has mad evasion skills. The second shot at our Rookie, burning into her armor, but not harming her. MacGuyver Run and Gunned forward, taking a flanking shot to eliminate the one on the team's left flank. Our Rookie moved forward and eliminated one of the ones on the right, while Vivi popped the third. Jiro and Ronnie moved forward to Overwatch, and encountered our last foes of the mission, another threesome of Thin Men.

The first Thin Man waltzed behind a bus stop, which Jiro and Ronnie proceeded to turn into an impressive piece of scrap metal, though they missed the alien itself. It proceeded to fire at our Rookie, hitting, and burning through her armor to hit her. Though not badly wounded, she'd likely be in the hospital for a week. MacGuyver lined up a shot on the now clear foe, and burned it down. Jiro tried to shoot at the next foe, but only wound up hitting the truck it was using for cover. Ronnie, deciding there was no reason someone couldn't snipe with a shotgun, took an extremely long distance 27% chance shot, and hit, eliminating the Thin Man and leaving only one foe, atop the cab of the eighteen wheeler at the end of the road.

The trailer prevented most of my squad from getting a line of sight on it, and Ronnie was the only one who could see it. But Vivi, far back at a fire hydrant near the LZ, wasn't going to let that stop him. One cold shot from his Sniper Rifle put that alien to bed before it even knew it was in danger, and ended the mission.

MVP: Balls MacGuyver. Really awesome use of positioning and flanking. Vivi had the most kills, but sometimes positioning and tactics win out. I mean, if it was always to highest kills, it would basically always be a Sniper, which would get boring for everyone else. So there.

Jiro, you actually could have gotten another kill in this mission (98% chance), but I deliberately gave it to the Rookie so that she could get her promotion without being carried to a second mission. So don't feel too bad about how you valiantly destroyed cover with most of your shots. Although that kill shot, like two of the three from your last mission, wouldn't have taken advantage of Snap Shot, so you should still feel horrible for picking that. :D

Promotions: Pretty much everyone. Our Rookie is now a Heavy (hey, Psy, some competition!), and I'll see if we have someone who wanted a Heavy in just a sec. Glad it's not another Sniper or Assault. Vivi didn't get a promotion, but he had just reached Major, so not surprising. Ronnie is now a Captain. Jiro made Major himself. And Lady Balls MacGuyver is now a Sergeant.

The mission resulted in more engineers, and a decrease in panic in Japan. However, Brazil and Argentina spiked to 4. With the council meeting in 5 days, we figured it was the perfect time to launch our spare satellites over those countries, picking up another continent bonus, and balancing out our panic before the meeting hit.

11-07-2012, 04:43 AM

Awww jeah, close combat specialist, I've been waiting for this. Please give Ronnie a ridiculously powerful shotgun and let me go to town on some fuckres.

Jiro

11-07-2012, 05:18 AM

I make the bullshit shots. Tbh I would've missed that 98% shot for sure ;) I'm glad my nerfed dude is still helping out!

ShunNakamura

11-07-2012, 01:13 PM

Promotions: Pretty much everyone. Our Rookie is now a Heavy (hey, Psy, some competition!), and I'll see if we have someone who wanted a Heavy in just a sec. Glad it's not another Sniper or Assault.

I believe the queue for heavies is MILF (http://home.eyesonff.com/general-gaming-discussion/145438-skyblades-eyes-xcom-signups.html#post3139601) and myself (http://home.eyesonff.com/general-gaming-discussion/145438-skyblades-eyes-xcom-signups-3.html#post3159367). Of course I could have missed something/somebody. MILF having signed up a month earlier!

Skyblade

11-10-2012, 05:10 AM

I'll hold off on the second Heavy until MILF makes a decision about the gender.

-Operation Black Ring-
Guangzhou, China

Our first mission with a team of six.

Ronnie Coleman took point, moving up to the car in front of him, promptly spotting three more Thin Men. Command began to consider that our assessments of alien troops might have been incorrect. The Thin Men may be the standard assault forces of the aliens. In which case, we should have little to no trouble finishing up this invasion.

The Thin Men scattered, one flanking Ronnie, another jumping to the roof. Vivi, not liking anyone else to have the high ground, promptly blew a hole through the head of the one on the roof. Ronnie activated Run and Gun and shifted to the next car over, so he was no longer flanked, and took a long distance shot that eliminated the enemy who had been flanking him. Psy moved forward, and discovered a pair of Mutons before wasting his shots on the truck the Thin Man was using as cover.

As we had not yet captured a Muton, Balls MacGuyver sensed an opportunity. She rushed up to a flanking spot and Overwatched (interesting note, an enemy who is flanked or exposed by a unit who is in Overwatch will almost always do nothing during their turn, great for captures), as a direct shot would be likely to crit and eliminate the capture chance.

Jiro then eliminated the third Thin Man, and Ronnie took another long distance shotgun blast, weakening the Muton down to 1 health, allowing MacGuyver to move in for an easy capture. The second Muton, having lost its taste for battle, retreated out of the building, beyond our line of sight. Time to regroup and reload.

As we moved into the building, which turned out to be a bar, Ronnie immediately sprinted for the beer taps and hid behind the counter. The rest of our forces arrayed themselves half inside, half outside. The Muton who had run away came around the corner of the building, and avoided our Overwatch shots to fire a flanked shot at Jiro. Which missed. Jiro's return Headshot, however, did not miss, and another enemy scratched.

Two more Thin Men unveiled themselves. One of them, in their mad dash to get away from our squad, ran slightly too close to the Close Combat Specialist Ronnie, and earned himself a shotgun blast at close range. And MacLeod decided it was time for him to take a hand, and wiped out the remaining one, which was hiding behind a door.

Balls MacGuyver, exploring the side of the building, discovered three Floaters near the back room stores of spirits. Two of them rushed out, and set into positions which left MacGuyver flanking them. Again, she entered Overwatch. When one tried to move a moment later, she burned it down with one calm laser shot, while the other did nothing. The Floater which decided it didn't want to give up the booze, was eliminated by Psy. And, though she had to reposition as the collapsing building was now blocking her line of sight, Balls MacGuyver was able to burn down the final Floater with another flanking laser shot.

Woohoo! No casualties, no injuries!

MVP: Ronnie. 3 kills, and some really awesome long range work with a close range weapon.

Promotions: None. Our team is getting a bit too high of a level. I suppose now that I've got a pretty solid economy, it's time to start on Rookies. I've already picked up both Squad Sizes and Iron Will (which will let us start working on Psi Troopers), so time to get to work!

Skyblade

11-10-2012, 06:32 AM

-Operation Hot Paramour-
Calgary, Canada

Well, THAT'S certainly an intriguing op name. And I can't report what goes on in this mission...

I mean that, I can't. My internet went through a reboot 90% of the way through, wiping my notes of the mission, leaving me with just the highlights in memory, no real stories. And there were surprisingly few of those. It was a simple, 10 alien abduction mission, with 2 Floaters, 2 Mutons, and 6 Sectoids. And the only real issue of note was that Balls MacGuyver captured one of the Sectoids (which let us finish our Laser Research).

Promotions were our Rookie, another Female Assault, Psy, who went up to Major, and Miss MacGuyver up to Lieutenant.

The good news is, we're about at the breaking point on economy. We have a council meeting in a few days, and most of the sats are up (Asia is the only one left in the cold). We also have our first two Firestorms with EMP cannons, which means that defense is going to get a lot easier really quickly. Soon we'll be able to start on decisions such as what type of gear you get, instead of just whether you get it or not. :)

So, next mission. A small scout downed in Brazil.

-Operation Severed Flame-
Brazil
11:07 AM

It starts off right away with introducing us to a new foe. A small flying saucer object, escorted by an even smaller drone. The drone got shredded immediately by our team's reaction fire (no clue who got the kill), and the new Cyberdisc itself didn't last much longer. With Ronnie (whose Double Shot missed both times), MacLeod, MacGuyver, and Psy all with shots on it, its heavy armor only put up token resistance before our new Rookie was given the coup-de-grace (wanted her to gain a class ASAP). All in all, a wonder of coordination and teamwork.

Our next discovery was the scout ship itself. Unfortunately, its power core was blown by our interceptor (no new Firestorm from this ship :(), however, the Outsider inside was still alive. The Outsider took a shot at MacLeod, and Ronnie retaliated with his pistol, allowing MacGuyver moved in to capture it. Not that we'll be researching it anytime soon, but getting it out of the way and picking up another Light Plasma Rifle wouldn't hurt.

The final foes of the mission were a couple of Mutons. The first didn't take good enough cover, and Vivi's Headshot eliminated it (as well as caused the Muton's Rifle to fly far enough that it seemed to smack Ronnie in the face). Ronnie missed with his Double Shot again, and Balls took the fall for it, getting shot at close range by the beast's plasma. Wanting to redeem himself, Ronnie got right up close, flanked the creature, and Double Shotted it again, finally putting it down and ending the mission.

MVP: MacLeod. Good use of Suppression, even if I didn't mention it, and some nice healing tossed out.

Promotions: Major Coleman, Colonel Vivi, and our female Rookie, who became another Heavy. Man, Supports hate us. Probably due to MacLeod's whole "victory through death" thing early on.

Casualties: MacLeod and MacGuyver (Mac was an unlucky name on this mission), both out for a week.

Not only are we reaching the point of balance for economy, we're also extremely, extremely close to having a fully functional B-Squad, which will let me swap teams and keep everyone playing in a much more balanced function. In the meantime, enjoy the new pic.

37973

Our next mission is a Terror Attack in Perth, Australia. Which, if we do well, is perfect, as I have still to lauch a single satellite in Asia, and getting its terror knocked down for free will make things that much easier as we move into the final month without full coverage.

Loony BoB

11-10-2012, 09:04 AM

It's crazy how different you can play this game. :D I had all my guys with Plasma and Titan before I got Firestorms in my game. xD Glad we're doing so well. :D

Also, oh, wow, my hair. Fitting for a Chocobo. xD

Skyblade

11-10-2012, 03:38 PM

I find the strategic game a lot harder than the tactical, at least if you want to keep every country. So I always go for boosts to the strategic game first.

Also, I've found that if you rush Firestorms and EMPs, they're the only improvement you need to your interceptors. You can go straight for them, and skip Phoenix Cannons, Laser Cannons, and Plasma Cannons. That's a lot of time and money saved that I prefer to spend on other things.

So my research order is pretty much always UFO Flight Computer first (gets me satellite nexus), then UFO Power Source, then Firestorms, then EMP. For primary research. In between I'll grab some short time research options, but most of my time is spent in that order.

Since the EMP is one of the two max damage weapons in the game for interceptors, and its more accurate than the Fusion Lance, I pretty much use it as my only weapon once I start getting the higher level ship classes. It also keeps every piece of gear on the enemy ship intact, which means I can get more research and more bonuses back quicker.

Iceglow

11-13-2012, 08:57 PM

Less Mass Effect more X-Com Skyblade!

This thread has properly been Marricked. I hope he's satisfied now.

Double posting? You know better Steve. ~ Vivi22

ShunNakamura

11-18-2012, 03:10 PM

11-18-2012, 07:46 PM

Get out of the thread and don't come back you utter ponce. :colbert:

Iceglow

11-18-2012, 10:02 PM

Less Mass Effect more X-Com Skyblade!

This thread has properly been Marricked. I hope he's satisfied now.

Double posting? You know better Steve. ~ Vivi22

The original post was like a week old. I maintain the position that my double post was legit and you've just been a man who wears smelly pants on his face all day.

Skyblade

11-20-2012, 08:59 AM

I say we trade one of our snipers for
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/319/2/e/x_com__sniper_rainbow_dash_by_mrfloppemz-d5l320x.png (http://mrfloppemz.deviantart.com/art/X-COM-Sniper-Rainbow-Dash-337745409)

Who says aye?

I approve.

Sorry, guys, a lot has gone on. There are a ton of things grabbing my attention that have really messed with my free time, and games are not (unfortunately) chief among those. A nasty burn to my left hand took me out of gaming entirely for about a week. My workplace lost a worker due to a payment dispute right before our holiday rush starts, leaving us shorthanded and having to scramble, really disrupting shifts. I got hit by a bout of depression (brought on by too much thinking when I couldn't do anything thanks to my burnt hand). And now I have holiday worries just to top everything off.

Still, I'm back to gaming, and I'll try to actually set up a schedule for these to make sure they get done ('cause with Persona 4 the Golden coming out today, it ain't gonna happen otherwise). Thanks for bearing with me, and I'll get things moving again shortly.

And anyone who mods the game to make a Rainbow Dash sniper will be awarded priority in the resurrection/team queue. Just sayin'.

Skyblade

11-22-2012, 04:24 AM

-Operation Patient Giant-
Perth, Australia
8:47 PM

The Skyranger touched down on a highway in Perth. Reports had come in of an alien terror attack. Abandoned cars littered the road, and there was no sight of the civilians our team was supposed to rescue. With a long way to go and little time to get there, our team started to hussle forward.

Loony BoB run and gunned forward, spotting three Chryssalids. Two closed in on a civilian, the third rushed him. Not caring about the threat to himself, he Rapid Fired the farthest one, burning it down, while Vivi Double Tapped the other threat to a civlian, leaving only one behind. Shun missed, so Ronnie Rapid Fired it to death, and Psy pulled up the rear as we pressed on, eager to rescue more civilians.

We then spotted five more Chryssalids. 2 immediately jumped towards civilians (killing one), while the rest charged our squad. Vivi took down another, while Ronnie and Bob coordinated to drop a second. Shun and Psy eliminated the third attacker, while Jiro tried to wear down one of the more distant foes.

Our next turn had a zombie and two Chryssalids bearing down on us. Jiro finished off a Chryssalid, while Coleman's Close Combat reactions and BoB's Overwatch tore apart the zombie. Psy tore into the last Chryssalid, and Vivi was able to use his final shot to eliminate it.

Our team was still healthy, using two upturned cars for cover near the end of the engagement zone, when two more Chryssalids came into view. Though healthy, we had no ammo left. The Chryssalids each killed another civilian as our team reloaded, and soon we were facing two Chryssalids and two zombies.

Vivi, having fallen behind from his Squad Sighting, nevertheless managed to get a line of sight on a zombie and a Chryssalid. A Headshot eliminated the zombie, and he use Double Tap to wound the Chryssalid, which Jiro finished.

Bob and Ronnie eliminated the second Chryssalid, but the second zombie took a massive swing, and gravely wounded Bob, before Psy and Shun finished it off.[/quote]

Results: 6 Dead, 12 Saved

Casualites: Bob is majorly hurt, and going to be out for a while.

MVP: Vivi, for making excellent use of Squad Sight and Double Tap to keep things dead.

Promotions: Shun is a Corporal, and BoB is now a Captain. Woohoo.

This mission took us to the next Council report. We now have satellite coverage everywhere except Australia and China (and Asia has no panic at all). This should eliminate abduction attacks (thank goodness), because I believe you need at least three free countries to get them, but we'll see.

We also learned Skeleton Suits, so anyone who wants a little more movement and a grappling hook instead of the slight extra health, speak up!

Jiro

11-22-2012, 06:19 AM

Good to see Perth is saved! Happy Noodle Boy will be happy to know his home isn't completely destroyed. BoB is such a boss, just taking big hits all the time.

Also Skyblade dude you've got some kickass sat coverage going.

Slothy

11-22-2012, 01:01 PM

We also learned Skeleton Suits, so anyone who wants a little more movement and a grappling hook instead of the slight extra health, speak up!

I haven't used them in my game, but I'd imagine the ability to get to the high ground more easily would be quite useful for a Sniper. If you think it beneficial then slap a suit on me. Just don't get me shot.

Loony BoB

11-22-2012, 01:04 PM

Aulayna

11-22-2012, 02:20 PM

I'd be willing to take the first female role available now. Running that treadmill in the barracks all day is getting boring!

(now watch me get killed on the first assignment :cool:)

Skyblade

11-24-2012, 04:51 AM

I trust we'll be making good use of all those Chryssalid Corpses. Don't sell 'em off... Chitin Plating is a must-have!

Guess I'll have to have a little R&R while I wait for the injuiries to heal up. :( Man, I'm on a roll, I don't want to wait!

Honestly, I've never used Chitin Plating. In fact, I think every single item in the game is inferior to the S.C.O.P.E., due to just how critical Aim is.

Next mission will be up tomorrow after work. Two of my coworkers are on vacation, and another quit last week, so we're severely understaffed in my department right around Black Friday, which means I'm at work a lot, and tired. But it is coming. As soon as I can find Shun's promotion list (I really need to gather everyone's choices together in a single place).

ShunNakamura

11-24-2012, 03:18 PM

http://home.eyesonff.com/general-gaming-discussion/145438-skyblades-eyes-xcom-signups-3.html#post3159367

Right there it is!

I actually use Chitin Plating a fair bit. Mostly on forward Supports and shotgun Assaults. Everything else is a scope. Shotgun Assaults often hit 100% close up and 90-100 with rapid fire so while a scope could be useful(f'ing missed one of my rapid fire shots at 96% that I really could have used hitting). Supports that are up front can easily flank due to their sprinting + skeleton/ghost and they have fairly high base aim as is. So a medkit and a chitin plating incase something munches on them. That said I don't go with it every-time. Basically when in doubt scope it. If you are on a terror mission with a lot of melee units running about a chitin can be rather handy for your front line(shotgun assaults usually, though it is tough to give up a scope for it). I mean a zombie does something like 15 damage with a melee hit(or so I have read). That is more powerful than a heavy plasma hit!

Grenades for early game(alien nades mid game) can also be handy. They effectively have 100% accuracy and destroy cover. Combined this can have a much larger accuracy than a scoped weapon. Problem is you can only carry one. Which makes the scope more useful overall.

Skyblade

11-25-2012, 02:30 AM

-Operation Falling Dirge-
Japan
5:18 PM

Our satellite in Japan detected a landed Abductor class UFO. Our team decided to move out and capture as much of it as possible. It was time to pick up some more materials for Firestorm interceptors.

With our newly researched Plasma Rifles and Light Plasma Rifles, our forces decided it was time to organize a second team.

Our team for this mission consisted of Stark, Nakamura, MacGuyver, MacLeod, and two Rookies.

The first lesson of this mission is that it was a bad day to be a Rookie. The second mission is that Alien Grenades suck.

Our approach to the UFO was short and uneventful. We were able to approach along the main cargo bay, using the pods as cover, and setup in doorways. We then promptly spotted five Mutons and a Berserker. Our veterans laid down and excellent fire spread. MacGuyver led on the Berserker, Nakamura followed it up, and Stark shot it in the back of the head to finish it off. And MacLeod eliminated a Muton with his shiny new Plasma Rifle.

Our Rookies, unfortunately, did not do so well. Our first, who was carrying our Arc Thrower for the mission (capturing rifles is cheaper than making them), missed his shot, and his buddy, who was carrying both a Light Plasma Rifle and a S.C.O.P.E. missed his as well (that's +20 Aim, hit something you twit!). From there, things went bad, fast. Our Rookies, spread around a cargo bay door, caught an Alien Grenade, taking them down to half health immediately. Then, without enough on our minds, a group of three Floaters appeared on our right flank. Despite being in a flanked position, Jiro elected not to move, but simply to eliminate the threat. Nakamura, thinking this was a grand idea, fired at the second (and last) flanking Floater, only to miss. However, the shot did not go to waste, as MacLeod used the newly acquired Holo-Targeting to finish the creature off before it could hurt the team. MacGuyver torched the third Floater.

Unfortunately, this ended our veterans soldiers, and our Rookies were still being useless. The Muton that Mr. Arc Thrower had missed then decided to eliminate him, deciding that death was a superior fate to capture. This panicked the second Rookie, who Hunkered Down (a decision that saved his life a moment later, when the second Muton fired at him and missed). Balls dealt the first Muton the deathblow, and MacLeod finished off another, leaving just one somewhere in the back of the cargo bay hall.

However, we had no time to celebrate before another visitor crashed the party. A Cyberdisc and its two escort drones came around from our original entry point, immediately putting us on the defensive with low ammo. Our team scrambled for cover, with our panicked Rookie getting offed along the way. MacGuyver eliminated the first drone, while Nakamura, who was the sole remaining soldier with ammo, got off a solid reaction shot on the Cyberdisc. Unfortunately, while our team made it to cover, the cover didn't last long, as the Cyberdisc lobbed an alien grenade directly into our team, wounding MacGuyver, Nakamura, and Stark. Stark, however, decided to once again say "to hell with positioning", instead spotting that the newly unveiled Cyberdisc (the first we've actually seen open) was way too excellent a target, and unleashed a Headshot into its innards that fried what bits were left from Nakamura's Overwatch. MacGuyver finished off the second Drone, while MacLeod healed everyone up.

With the main threats seemingly eliminated, our team turned towards the control room, anxious to eliminate the Outsiders and ride back home with the goodies. After the approach, MacLeod tore inside and eliminate the first Outsider, while Nakamura followed closely behind to destroy the second. Our team then rode back, triumphant, but hurting, from the mission.

Casualties: Two Rookies KIA. MacGuyver, Stark, and Nakamura wounded.

MVP: MacLeod. Excellent healing, without it we would have lost Nakamura to the Alien Grenade. Also good positioning and decent kills.

Promotions: MacGuyver, MacLeod, and Nakamura.

Rewards: 4 Flight Computers and 2 Power Sources. That's 2 more Firestorms, yeah! Oh, and a Berserker Autopsy. I thought we'd already captured one, or I would have tried to capture it, which would have changed the entire mission. Oh well.

Oh, and we have Plasma Sniper Rifles done being researched in 3 days. The other advantage of my research rush is that if you can get things set up, you have the economy and resources to get everything else very, very quickly.

Correction, we now have Plasma Sniper Rifles. And Combat Stims, which are probably the most useless item in the game.

Alloy Cannon or Heavy Plasma next? It's kind of important because I only have the Weapon Fragments for one of them, currently.

Loony BoB

11-25-2012, 02:59 PM

Whichever one you expect to use more, I suppose. I personally go with Heavy Plasma as I rarely if ever use shotguns. Heavy Plasma with that Double Damage vs. Machines perk means you can really do significant damage to some otherwise tricky foes.

ShunNakamura

11-25-2012, 03:17 PM

I usually go with alloy cannons. They seem to be a lot more accurate than the scatter laser and really helps net those ohkos that assaults so like! Particularly with Close Combat giving free reactions.

HOWEVER, it strongly depends on the number of classes I am fielding. If I only have one Shotgun Assault but 3 or 4 heavies I am switching between I find the Heavy Plasma to be the better choice.

So basically ask yourself this. Are we using more shotgun assaults or more Heavies? I seem to think we have more heavies and thus the plasma would be more useful. But maybe I am over looking a couple assaults?

11-25-2012, 03:28 PM

I demand equal rights for shotgun assaults or Ronnie will go on strike :colbert: discriminatory behaviour will not be tolerated

Psychotic

11-25-2012, 04:30 PM

Plasma that shit up, yo.

Skyblade

11-25-2012, 08:03 PM

Right now we have more Assaults, Ronnie, BoB, Balls, and a backup. Our Heavies are just Psy and Shun.

But BoB has been using Assault Rifles most of the time, so he's already equipped with plasma.

Heavies have the lowest accuracy of all the classes in the game, and tend to be used more as support soldiers, and since their support effects (rockets, holo-targeting, suppression) work regardless of the weapon damage, its probably better to pick up the alloy cannons first. Suppression and Mayhem is the biggest benefit to picking up Heavy Plasma, and we don't have someone who can use that combo yet.

Jiro

11-26-2012, 03:35 AM

Good to see I am reckless as fuck. That's the only way to be now! Sad to see the two Rooks go down, but we'll avenge them!

Loony BoB

11-26-2012, 09:34 AM

Heavies have the lowest accuracy of all the classes in the game, and tend to be used more as support soldiers, and since their support effects (rockets, holo-targeting, suppression) work regardless of the weapon damage, its probably better to pick up the alloy cannons first. Suppression and Mayhem is the biggest benefit to picking up Heavy Plasma, and we don't have someone who can use that combo yet.
I love how differently we play! My 'best team' consisted of three heavies, a support and two snipers. My heavies could destroy anything, though. Sod accuracy, two shots per turn makes up for that, and rockets are my best friend (sniper outside UFO + rocket to the side of the UFO = All problems solved).

Skyblade

12-10-2012, 04:57 AM

I probably should have just let this stay dead, but I can't, it's preying on my mind too much to let it go without some closure.

I have to explain why I've given up on this, and apologize to you guys for quitting.

The answer, in short, is extremely simple: I no longer find the game fun. As to why I no longer find the game fun, that's a bit more complicated.

Although it took a lot of thought and consideration, I do think I've figured out what about this game has given me so much problems.

Have you ever seen this graph before?
http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/feature/4032/pacing_01_star_wars.gif

It's a graph of the excitement and action of Star Wars. It follows the ups and downs of the action as it builds to the climax.

It's also, in my mind, one of the ideal curves for a difficult game. And it is a curve that this game completely eschews. The difficulty curve for XCOM is pretty much a straight line, building up and up and up. There is never a down curve, never a time to catch your breath.

One might think that the strategic layer would be a rest point, but it isn't, for a couple of reasons. First, because it is, if anything, even more demanding than the tactical game in terms of how much freedom and break time you get. Second, because it offers little to no time spent in it.

The game is persistent in its difficulties and endeavors. No matter what you do, how you play, the game keeps pushing, and pushing. You can't catch your breath in the strategic layer, because in a minute or so, another tacitcal mission pops up. No matter what.

You can't skip a mission, or you're screwed. You can't skip a terror mission, or you're really screwed. Even inside a mission. You can't mess around, even for a turn, or the game turns around and chews you up and spits you out. It is so relentlessly unforgiving that, even though in terms of pure difficulty it's not "hard" all the time, the end is always so close that you can't slip up.

You can't relax with XCOM. You can't take a break or a breather, you can't mess around. You start out three or four steps behind, and that continues into the rest of the game. Even at the endgame, you're always just a move or two away from failure. If you mess up, a soldier dies. And a soldier is 1/6th of your team, and took hours upon hours to train. If you lose two soldiers, you might lose an entire squad. Lose a mission, and it could cost you a country.

The game just doesn't let you play it, it demands your skill and attention constantly.

I really want to play and enjoy this game. There's a part of me that comes home and goes "I want to start it up and mess around for a bit". "Look at how well we're doing, with the sat coverage, and the tech and training, this'll be fun". But then the rest of me says "Yeah, until we get a battleship or terror mission which is going to keep me keyed up and demanding my attention for the next three hours", and I wind up closing it back down again.

It's too forceful, too high pressure, for too long. It burnt out its fun, and it's not going to get it back for a long time. I play games to enjoy them, to have fun, and, especially at this time of year with all the crazy stuff happening, to relax. And XCOM does not let you do that.

I'm really sorry, guys. I know you were all enjoying this. The competition, the interaction, the progress, it was great to watch you all getting into it. But I stopped enjoying it. As much as I loved writing the summaries (although I wish there were more attacks availible to the aliens, it got a bit repetitive), I came to loathe the missions, especially the long ones. And I know, from experience, that they just get longer the farther you get. We're only a third of the way through the mission. We have the Base Assault, Battleships, and Psi Training left to go. It's just too overwhelming, too much pressure. And it's not fun for me.

So, as I said, it's basically over. I'm not going to come back to this game for probably another four or five months. And I didn't want to let you guys down, but I need to admit, to you guys and myself, that I couldn't keep this going. I needed to explain why, so that I'm not afraid of posting for fear of someone asking me where this is or when the next update is. I just can't bring myself to play it again. It's too intense.

If anyone knows how to transfer save files (or if they can be transferred), I'll happily let one of you take over. Otherwise, well, the Commander has given up. The aliens can have the Earth until March or April.