Let's Sperg Let's Play XCOM UFO Defense (Completed) - Heavy casualties expected.

[Prehistoric Jazz]

Add me to the meat shield list, I don't want to live forever.

Ave imperator

 

[White Devil]

Sign me up for a term of enlistment.

I'm doing my part!

 

[Twitter Hate Mob]

Put me in the queue for the meatgrinder - I want to see the death notifications for the one turn you have when the guy with a rocket launcher gets panicked on turn 1 and fires it into the skyranger.

 

[Genichiro]

Position me on the front lines, coach.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

How can the Aliens Terrorize Chicago, have you seem the crime stats for that place?

Worst case scenario of "Aliens start murdering people" isn't any different than most weekends except it is Greys with Lasers instead of Ganstas with Sidways Handguns, however it is more likely they land and get caught in a drivebye and all die.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I have not researched Medikits yet so Gynn will have to tough it out until we clear the battlefield.

I'm no expert, but I'm fairly sure first aid kits existed in 1994.

Chaos Theorist, Friend Computer and Niggermancer storm the UFO. Niggermancer gets a kill.

It's times like this you realise how silly internet screen names can be.

I’m an X-COM Files man myself.

What's that about?


I only really know the reboot and the 3D open source remake. What contributes to those stat upgrades?

 

[axfaxf]

I’ll only be playing on difficulty 2 however. I’m not actually that good at this game and it’s been awhile.

Advance slow and hope for the best. Smoke grenades are for pussies.

Well, sign me up for The Suicide Squad.

 

[L50LasPak]

What's that about?

If I've got my lore right, the XCOM Files is made by a famous (I suppose famous by XCOM community standards) modder named Solaris_Scorch who was around in the original XCOM modding scene back when they were still using tools like XCOMUtil and the original UFOExtender. The mod incorporates a lot of his improvements into the game from a design perspective.

From a gameplay and story perspective, the game has XCOM start out as an offshoot of various secret service agencies. Instead of soldiers, you have agents. instead of big guns, you have standard issue current day government sidearms. And instead of a badass jet you have... a rental car. Yes, really. The game starts out with you only being able to send two agents to a site at a time, usually to apprehend a criminal involved in some kind of cult activity or a human being who has gone insane after contact with aliens. Just shooting the suspect gives you negative points, as you're expected to take them alive for later interrogation.

The plot thickens and unravels in much the same manner as classic TV shows like The X-Files (duh) and its side projects The Lone Gunmen and Millenium. There's also a little bit of Twin Peaks in there if you squint. Last I checked, The XCOM Files has seven major story arcs that are complete, two that are still in development and one labeled "top secret" that I presume concerns the main plot and engame. For comparison the original XCOM storyline has precisely one arc: stop the alien invasion. So that should give you an idea of how massive the scale of something like The XCOM FIles is.

I only really know the reboot and the 3D open source remake. What contributes to those stat upgrades?

Someone on the OXCE forum could probably give you the exact numbers, but as far as I know XCOM tries to calculate stat increases based on soldier activity during battle. Things like moving them around or overburdening them will increase stats like stamina and strength, getting shot contributes to health increases, panicking or suffering morale failure will give a bravery buff, and shooting and scoring kills will increase accuracy.

The catch is that certain character stats seem to have a cap to how much they increase. For instance, in my games its usually only a 50/50 chance as to whether or not a soldier with absurdly low bravery will ever grow out of it, or if they'll get capped at better but still sub-optimal bravery. Conversely, I've also had absurdly high stat increases before, including a soldier who miraculously gained 107 skill in shooting that technically gave them 100% base accuracy. Though that is of course quite rare.

 

[ChucklesTheJester]

If I've got my lore right, the XCOM Files is made by a famous (I suppose famous by XCOM community standards) modder named Solaris_Scorch who was around in the original XCOM modding scene back when they were still using tools like XCOMUtil and the original UFOExtender. The mod incorporates a lot of his improvements into the game from a design perspective.

From a gameplay and story perspective, the game has XCOM start out as an offshoot of various secret service agencies. Instead of soldiers, you have agents. instead of big guns, you have standard issue current day government sidearms. And instead of a badass jet you have... a rental car. Yes, really. The game starts out with you only being able to send two agents to a site at a time, usually to apprehend a criminal involved in some kind of cult activity or a human being who has gone insane after contact with aliens. Just shooting the suspect gives you negative points, as you're expected to take them alive for later interrogation.

The plot thickens and unravels in much the same manner as classic TV shows like The X-Files (duh) and its side projects The Lone Gunmen and Millenium. There's also a little bit of Twin Peaks in there if you squint. Last I checked, The XCOM Files has seven major story arcs that are complete, two that are still in development and one labeled "top secret" that I presume concerns the main plot and engame. For comparison the original XCOM storyline has precisely one arc: stop the alien invasion. So that should give you an idea of how massive the scale of something like The XCOM FIles is.


Someone on the OXCE forum could probably give you the exact numbers, but as far as I know XCOM tries to calculate stat increases based on soldier activity during battle. Things like moving them around or overburdening them will increase stats like stamina and strength, getting shot contributes to health increases, panicking or suffering morale failure will give a bravery buff, and shooting and scoring kills will increase accuracy.

The catch is that certain character stats seem to have a cap to how much they increase. For instance, in my games its usually only a 50/50 chance as to whether or not a soldier with absurdly low bravery will ever grow out of it, or if they'll get capped at better but still sub-optimal bravery. Conversely, I've also had absurdly high stat increases before, including a soldier who miraculously gained 107 skill in shooting that technically gave them 100% base accuracy. Though that is of course quite rare.

Don't forget the one time only THE THING mission with unique enemie(s) only seen in that mission.

 

[Polyboros2]

How can the Aliens Terrorize Chicago, have you seem the crime stats for that place?

Worst case scenario of "Aliens start murdering people" isn't any different than most weekends except it is Greys with Lasers instead of Ganstas with Sidways Handguns, however it is more likely they land and get caught in a drivebye and all die.

I'm thinking of that but in one of the RoboCops where a guy tries to rob the donut shop and has a shit ton off cop laser sights on him. Only it's ayy lmaos and the glocks are turned 90⁰.

If I've got my lore right, the XCOM Files is made by a famous (I suppose famous by XCOM community standards) modder named Solaris_Scorch who was around in the original XCOM modding scene back when they were still using tools like XCOMUtil and the original UFOExtender. The mod incorporates a lot of his improvements into the game from a design perspective.

From a gameplay and story perspective, the game has XCOM start out as an offshoot of various secret service agencies. Instead of soldiers, you have agents. instead of big guns, you have standard issue current day government sidearms. And instead of a badass jet you have... a rental car. Yes, really. The game starts out with you only being able to send two agents to a site at a time, usually to apprehend a criminal involved in some kind of cult activity or a human being who has gone insane after contact with aliens. Just shooting the suspect gives you negative points, as you're expected to take them alive for later interrogation.

The plot thickens and unravels in much the same manner as classic TV shows like The X-Files (duh) and its side projects The Lone Gunmen and Millenium. There's also a little bit of Twin Peaks in there if you squint. Last I checked, The XCOM Files has seven major story arcs that are complete, two that are still in development and one labeled "top secret" that I presume concerns the main plot and engame. For comparison the original XCOM storyline has precisely one arc: stop the alien invasion. So that should give you an idea of how massive the scale of something like The XCOM FIles is.


Someone on the OXCE forum could probably give you the exact numbers, but as far as I know XCOM tries to calculate stat increases based on soldier activity during battle. Things like moving them around or overburdening them will increase stats like stamina and strength, getting shot contributes to health increases, panicking or suffering morale failure will give a bravery buff, and shooting and scoring kills will increase accuracy.

The catch is that certain character stats seem to have a cap to how much they increase. For instance, in my games its usually only a 50/50 chance as to whether or not a soldier with absurdly low bravery will ever grow out of it, or if they'll get capped at better but still sub-optimal bravery. Conversely, I've also had absurdly high stat increases before, including a soldier who miraculously gained 107 skill in shooting that technically gave them 100% base accuracy. Though that is of course quite rare.

Since this is the first thread I've ever heard discussion of XCom modding, is there a Stargate mod? I've always thought it was the perfect formula for making a Stargate game.

 

[Considered HARMful]

Enlist me when you have laser rifles. I love them lazor rifflez, burning hedges an' shiet.

That was actually my tactics when I finally researched laser rifles and didn't have to think about ammo issues - burn every line-of-sight obstacle to the ground so that these pesky snakemen couldn't hide behind the trees.

 

[L50LasPak]

Update 3: Terror

Terror missions are where XCOM's fearsome reputation comes from. Rather that fighting a landed alien UFO, your troops land in a city environment with anywhere between 6 to 15 or so buildings, some of which can be multiple stories tall. Alien units can average anywhere between 8 to 20. Higher difficulty and late game Terror Missions can push that number up to 25 or even 30.

There are six races in the alien empire, only one of which we have met so far, the Sectoids. Each alien race also has a unique larger and stronger unit called a Terror Unit that accompanies them on these missions. Terror units are only seen guarding large UFOs or alien bases. I'm dreading this mission already, as the Sectoid terror unit, the Cyberdisk, is very heavily armored for an early game opponent, very accurate, and my team is still not equipped with laser weapons. We could potentially face up to four of these things. I send a memo to my secretary to start purchasing surplus Purple Hearts in advance.

Its a common perception that Terror Missions most often take place at night, but this is untrue. They spawn randomly like any other mission. You cannot, however, camp them and wait for daylight as the mission will despawn after only a few hours on the Geoscape. There's some bullshit you can do that involves targeting the mission and continually recalling the aircraft which prevents it from despawning, but that's too much work just to jimmy the game into giving you more favorable battle conditions.

Our first Terror Unit, a Reaper. It’s hard to see in the gloom, but it’s a sort of leathery creature with two legs, no arms and some kind of armor on it. My soldiers may not feel the same way, but it’s a relief to see these on the battlefield rather than the dreaded Cyberdisks.

We open fire on the creature to little effect. I have Chuckles the Jester pull a grenade, but when he’s all set to throw the Skyranger gets in the way. I end up trying to jimmy the grenade toss and fling it somewhere completely different. Lacking any better options I aim Dear Leader towards the fence and hope his reactions can take care of it.

We've been surrounded. Not advancing further with Ghost of Null proves to be a mistake, as an alien takes potshots at him and scores a hit, mortally wounding him.

Dear Leader reminds us why he’s in charge by getting reaction fire on the Reaper. It’s not even a direct hit, but the new large rockets he’s packing take it out in one blow. Pinainas is caught in the blast though, and mortally wounded. Dear Leader did nothing wrong, I had the time units to move Pinainas away but left him there. The large rockets had a bigger blast radius than I anticipated.

The alien menace of this battle finally makes itself known. This is a member of the Floater species. They’re fairly weak and generally comparable to human soldiers in most ways, but they have integrated antigravity units that allow them to fly.

Judge Dredd takes the alien out after Ghost of Null fails to deal with it, only to reveal another one behind it. Time units on all of my crew outside the Skyranger are exhausted though, and rather than move up more recruits and invite a grenade throw I decide to risk it and end the turn early.

We get reaction fire on the alien that wounded Ghost of Null from the soldiers still inside the Skyranger. I’m not sure who gets the kill, but we get it. The alien to the south moves up and fires on us to no effect. Also, I capture a screenshot of a civilian moving around. Civilians are treated as a third faction during Terror Missions, friendly to XCOM but of course hostile to the aliens. They wander the map aimlessly as the AI doesn’t really understand that picking a hiding place and sticking to it is the best option. They don’t share vision with XCOM either, meaning their turns are also Hidden Movements.

@ChucklesTheJester is in a great spot to spray the alien with lead, but this triggers reaction fire from the alien. He’s killed. Judge Dredd avenges his fallen comrade. After dealing with that bullshit another Reaper tries to move up on us. Dear Leader could put another rocket into it, but that would probably spatter Friend Computer even with a really clean shot. Pinainas is wounded and bleeding out, but I take an autofire shot on the Reaper anyway because to Hell with it.

Miraculously, Pinainas scores a kill! The explosive autocannon ammo pays off here. You can see just how close to death Pinainas is though in the readout below, and as Terror Missions have a lot of enemies it’s unlikely he'll make it out of this one.

Another Floater appears. I try to get Ghost of Null to earn his pay for the week, but he misses every shot. I deliberate over whether or not to go with autofire on the Floater with Pinainas over the safer snapshot. Which I do, but I pushed my luck again. Duncan Hills Coffee and Lemmingwise get a few shots off but XCOM accuracy strikes again.

The Floater fails to hit anything on his turn. Ghost of Null finally scores a kill at point blank range. And oh look, another fucking Reaper. I give Pinainas another chance to open up and he scores his second kill for the battle with two accurate hits on the target. For reference, Pinainas is so badly wounded the game is reading his accuracy at 0% on autofire. The second shot vaporizes the corpse we could have researched, but I suspect we'll have plenty of other specimens once this battle is over.

Everyone off the ship. I need as many boots on the ground as I can get if we’re to end this mission quickly. I fan out and begin a sweep of the city in earnest. Fortunately this cityscape is quite small so there may still be time to save Pinainas and Ghost of Null.

It’s hard to tell because I was slow on the draw but an alien from the north opens up on Ghost of Null and nails him. Ghost proves his name is misleading by dying before our Dear Leader. Friend Computer is the furthest up and demonstrates that he has some of the better accuracy of the team by scoring a kill. Lemmingwise moves up to back him.

Dredd and Duncan Hills Coffee are heading towards an open road. It’s hard to tell through the night vision, but roads are lit by street lamps ensuring both our troops and aliens alike will have better accuracy when shooting at the area around them. I bring up wtfNeedtoSignUp to back them, expending all of his turns rather than saving any for reaction fire to at least get him in the same vicinity.

Lemmingwise bags another kill. He’s quickly proving himself to be one of our most reliable soldiers. Friend Computer does so as well, his accuracy is quite good and it looks like he’ll have a promising future if he doesn’t get shot in the face. Meanwhile, Dredd’s team have stumbled on another Reaper and Duncan Hills Coffee is affected by the dreaded girly throw. At least his character actually is a girl this time.

Friend Computer, probably feeling rather confident about himself right now, takes aim at another alien. He scores a good clean hit, but apparently it wasn’t enough to kill. Reaction fire is triggered and he’s shot in the face. He passes out immediately from plasma burns. It goes without saying that he is mortally wounded.

I move Future Physical Violence up to take shots since Lemmingwise has exhausted his time units. No luck. Rookie Overcast is quite a distance away from the action, but I want to make sure the alien doesn’t wipe out my two vulnerable squad members so I have him take an Aimed Shot. It has a high accuracy rating.

The dumb motherfucker lines up a shot with a smooth 71% accuracy and shoots Future Physical Violence right in the back! It’s a good solid hit too, Future is mortally wounded.

I’m desperate to finish this Reaper off now that I have two badly wounded soldiers and third leaking cerebral spinal fluid from his asshole. I move Dear Leader up but discover I had forgotten to reload his rocket launcher. The Reaper Moves closer to us, perhaps within grenade distance.

@Pinainas superhuman resilience is at an end though, and he dies of his wounds. Dredd and Duncan are both able to lob grenades at the Reaper, but for some reason I failed to screenshot its death screen. Lemmingwise and Future engage another Floater as it closes in on them. @Future Physical Violence can barely shoot straight on account of Overcast’s hit, and the alien wastes him with reaction fire. Lemmingwise picks up the slack.

What would turn out to be the final alien makes its appearance. I’ve since moved Overcast up to fill in for his two fallen comrades, so I give him a chance to redeem himself by having him open up on the alien before Lemmingwise. I figure if he triggers reaction fire and dies its better him than Lemmingwise.

Overcast may have shot a comrade in the back, but he has what it takes to be a killer. The alien dies, and the mission ends. Friend Computer has miraculously survived his dirt nap. He is swiftly promoted to Captain for his efforts.

As you can clearly see we’re already down 10 troops, if you count the wounded as out of action. Recruits from the third wave I put together last night are already going to see action. Friend Computer has earned that month long hospital stay while the doctors sew a new face on for him. wtfNeedtoSignUp is clearly giving blowjobs to the right official because he’s promoted past Squaddie to Sergeant despite having no kills and only seeing one mission of action.

Promotions work very strangely in XCOM. The game attempts to calculate who should be promoted based on experience relative to the other soldiers, which is why we saw a huge rash of promotions on the first two missions. As the game tries to compensate for things like soldiers dying and there not being enough kills, it sometimes arbitrarily promotes recruits just to try and even out the numbers. Also you can get soldiers who are promoted without even being on the battlefield due to the way the game calculates experience. We saw this last battle with Gynn's promotion to Captain despite still being in a hospital bed. There's an option to turn this off in OpenXcom, but it never bothered me much and I think it makes for a funnier story.

As befitting of his name, I have elected to pack Randall Fragg with as many hand grenades as I can manage without even checking his throwing accuracy or strength to determine if that’s a good idea. He still gets an extra magazine because no XCOM soldier of mine is going to run out of ammunition in a fight, gimmick or not.

Ponchik requested a rocket launcher but there are a multitude of reasons why I’m not going to do that. His character would be overburdened by it almost immediately, and wouldn’t be able to pack much for extra ammunition. Besides, who’s going to ask Dear Leader to give up his rocket launcher? You? I’d like to see you try. Pinainas’s autocannon with the very effective HE rounds is available though, so I compromise with that.

Construction of two key facilities at our base completes in the lull as we wait for the month to end, the Large Radar System and the Alien Containment. I swiftly sell off the Small Radar Array to make room for something better. Technically if you leave the Small Radar up it can give you a bonus to detection chance, but I'd rather save space and cash than maintain it.

At the end of every month we receive this message indicating how well we are doing. On even one level higher than the current difficulty, all of the nations not within our radar range would already be dissatisfied with our efforts and reducing our funding. Some of the nations even within our sphere of influence might grumble. Two captured UFOs, one shot down over the sea and one Terror Mission is honestly not very much to shake a stick at frankly.

Next time, I'm going to come up with a system for compressing samey missions so I can fit 5-10 of them into a single update. I've also elected to add extra soldiers I don't immediately need every time I get 10 volunteers. Your name is in the running for being repeated if I need more soldiers in a hurry and don't have enough volunteers. I'll be going by the order in which people died when it comes to repeats.

 

[Polyboros2]

Enjoying this a lot, can't wait to see how badly I perform.

 

[White Devil]

I too, cannot wait to find out my character is black and dies during his first mission.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Now this is a blast from the past I can get behind! Sign me up if there's still space in the roster! Can't wait to die on the ramp to an unspotted snakeman's plasma shot.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Dear Leader reminds us why he’s in charge by getting reaction fire on the Reaper. It’s not even a direct hit, but the new large rockets he’s packing take it out in one blow.

You can overwatch rockets in this game? Cool, but wouldn't that lead to collateral damage from dumb AI.

Pinainas is caught in the blast though, and mortally wounded.

Like that.

It goes without saying that he is mortally wounded.

As if there's any other kind of wounded.

It’s hard to tell because I was slow on he draw but an alien from the north opens up on Ghost of Null and nails him. Ghost proves his name is misleading by dying before our Dear Leader.

Since he has no spirit, does that mean he's technically a zombie?

 

[Corn Flakes]

Since he has no spirit, does that mean he's technically a zombie?

Let's not be hasty here. He could have gone ginger.

 

[Overcast]

I’m so sorry @Future Physical Violence.

*slowly develops PTSD*

 

[Fougaro]

If it's not too late, sign me up too and remember that I'm always one day away from retirement.

 

[Future Physical Violence]

I’m so sorry @Future Physical Violence.

*slowly develops PTSD*

It's fine, I lived long enough to have "killed by floater" on my tombstone, rather than friendly fire. Not like I could shoot straight even before I got the hole in my chest, anyway.