- Joined
- Sep 25, 2019
XCOM: Terror From The Deep is the 1995 followup to the immensely successful XCOM UFO Defense released only two years prior. I say followup because Terror From The Deep is not a conventional sequel. Rather, it is a game that acts almost like an expansion pack to the original XCOM. The game was developed by a different team at Microprose than the first game as the main team was already begining the development of what they considered the true sequel, XCOM: Apocalypse. XCOM was an unexpected success (Gollop and his team were initally developing the game for free because the studio was going bankrupt) so Terror From The Deep was thrown together quickly enough to cash in on the original.
Terror From The Deep features a rather unique underwater setting which you can probably tell from the screenshot above is beautifully rendered. The mechanics are copied over wholesale from the original game though, so you can do nonsensical things like throw grenades underwater and your troops have an inability to swim. Another change would prove less whimsical though; the difficulty. The original XCOM had a bug where, regardless of the difficulty the player selected, the game would default back to the Beginner difficulty after the first UFO mission. The bug went unnoticed for the entire time Terror From The Deep was being developed, so the team was innundated with complaints that XCOM was too easy.
The developers boasted at one point that they made Terror From The Deep's Beginner difficulty harder that the original's Superhuman difficulty, and the alien AI and tactics were adjusted to be as ruthless as possible. New missions were created that had multiple parts like the original game's Cydonia level, the alien roster is filled with new horrors to contend with, and some of the game's fundamental mechanics were tweaked to make survival a complete uncertainty. For example, the most significant change in my opinion was the damage model. In the original game, a hit is calculated to do something between 0% and 100% damage. In Terror From The Deep, damage is calculated to always do 50% to 150% damage. Which means your troops will most often be wounded by even minor blows, and will most often be killed by a hit. At least once it gets into the late game this begins to benefit your troops more than the aliens.
I'll be using OpenXCOM Extended again, but this time its a fresh install with no added mods or anything, just what comes packed into it. I will of course be playing on the easiest difficulty. Even at that level the game will be something of a struggle.
A: Yes, I said that, with the full intention of playing XPiratez after the last LP, but I realized a lot of stuff in XPiratez directly references Terror From The Deep quite a bit. Plus I like this game's aesthetics and basic idea and feel it shouldn't be skipped over just because its difficult for people who suck at the game like I do.
I didn't read the last LP, where do we come in?
A: The life of the average XCOM soldier is short. The life of the average Terror From The Deep marine is extremely short. Anyone who wants to be an XCOM marine, just say so in the thread and I’ll add people to the list of names in the order I see them. The gender, nationality and starting stats of the marine you get named after you will be completely random. Glory awaits those who survive 2-3 missions. Dead people will be resurrected if I run out of names.
People will only get an @ when their name is applied to a marine, and when/if said marine dies, to prevent this thread from spamming people’s notifications. I will also @ you on the rare occasion you get promoted to the game's highest rank; Captain.
I haven't read the last thread/read this thread all the way through, can I still volunteer?
A: Of course. Its pretty freeform, there's no loyalty requirements or anything.
How many names do you think we will need this time?
A: The last LP ended with 105 dead soldiers overall. I expect at least twice that number this time.
What's the victory condition?
A: Research the ultimate craft that can dive to the deepest part of the Earth's oceans. Invade the alien vault and kill the supreme alien, preventing him from awakening and bringing doom to the world. There are fewer nations this time, so do not allow more than six or seven to fall to the alien menace. Do not have negative funding for two consecutive months in a row.
What happens if we lose?
Will you be savescumming again?
A: Probably a lot more than last time. This game doesn't play fair.
How often will you update?
A: Sticking with the once every two weeks model again, but in practice it might be more like once or twice a week if I really get going.
Where can I get it?
OpenXCOM: https://openxcom.org/git-builds/
OpenXCOM EX: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,6586.0.html
You will need a copy of the original UFO Defense though and Terror From The Deep. Go torrent it yourself, the first game is only as old as I am.
Introduction
1. Near the Shore
2. An Underwater Adventure
3. Further Out
4. Homarus
5. Gotta Go Fast
6. Big Catch
7. Synomium Dreams
8. Coral Reef
9. Sea of Evil
10. Low Tide
11. Slow And Steady
12. A Harsh Mistress
13. Down Deep
14. Ain't No Pleasure Cruise
15. The Stars Are Right
16. Ocean Hunters
Post Mortem
1. Near the Shore
2. An Underwater Adventure
3. Further Out
4. Homarus
5. Gotta Go Fast
6. Big Catch
7. Synomium Dreams
8. Coral Reef
9. Sea of Evil
10. Low Tide
11. Slow And Steady
12. A Harsh Mistress
13. Down Deep
14. Ain't No Pleasure Cruise
15. The Stars Are Right
16. Ocean Hunters
Post Mortem
Previous LP Thread for UFO Defense:
General Discussion thread for the series on KF:
https://kiwifarms.net/threads/x-com-xcom-and-their-derivatives.86583/
UFOpaedia Wiki: The definitive resource for all three of the original XCOM games, their remakes, *some* of the various modifications out there, as well as oldschool tools like Xcomutil and UFO Extender. Amusingly, this is your first result if you punch "ufopedia wiki" into a search engine, not the site that catalogs UFO sightings.
XCOM Trilogy UFOpedia at Chaotic Signal: A simple web page that hosts an interactive version of the in-game UFOpedias from all three games. The Terror From The Deep one obviously contains spoilers for this thread.
XCOMUFO.com: Oldschool resource for the original three games that still has some neat stuff.
1d4Chan's Page on XCOM: Dated for sure, but provides a good overview.
1d4chan.org
OpenXcom Forums: Contains all resources and discussion for OpenXcom and its many, many mods.
OpenXcom Mod.io Portal: Alternate and more user-friendly mod portal than the forums. May or may not always be up to date compared to the forums though.
GuavaMoment's LPs: So you can see how the Something Awful goons handled this. This is the archetypical XCOM forum LP in my mind, I'm not aware of many others and the ones I do know about I haven't actually ever finished reading like the Spacebattles one. The games are done out of order though, its kind of confusing.
XCOM Trilogy UFOpedia at Chaotic Signal: A simple web page that hosts an interactive version of the in-game UFOpedias from all three games. The Terror From The Deep one obviously contains spoilers for this thread.
XCOMUFO.com: Oldschool resource for the original three games that still has some neat stuff.
1d4Chan's Page on XCOM: Dated for sure, but provides a good overview.
XCOM - 1d4chan
OpenXcom Forums: Contains all resources and discussion for OpenXcom and its many, many mods.
OpenXcom Mod.io Portal: Alternate and more user-friendly mod portal than the forums. May or may not always be up to date compared to the forums though.
GuavaMoment's LPs: So you can see how the Something Awful goons handled this. This is the archetypical XCOM forum LP in my mind, I'm not aware of many others and the ones I do know about I haven't actually ever finished reading like the Spacebattles one. The games are done out of order though, its kind of confusing.
LP concluded, volunteer in the next thread!
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