| (Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) | |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 719 Joined: 29 May 2008     | |
Beat Writer  Posts: 216 Joined: 30 Oct 2008     | Doomsly McSlaughter, professional Heavy Weapons Specialist, reporting for duty, sir! |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 794 Joined: 12 Feb 2008    | These updates are fast becoming one of the favorite things on the intrawebs :D |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1786 Joined: 13 Sep 2008     | This is awesome! |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007    | *** Classified: Above Top Secret *** Excerpt Personal Log, General McSwine, X-Com Day 26: Escalation
It appears that X-Com's activities have been noticed by our adversary. They have chosen to respond by striking directly at civilian targets in heavily populated areas. This is, quite understandably, a nightmare scenario for X-Com. We cannot use excessive force in these areas as it would endanger the civilian population, but our enemy has no such limitation. Nevertheless, our responsibility is to respond and protect what lives we can.
---- X-Com Battle Report, Terror Mission 1 The Skyranger arrives and sets down in a clear area on the western edge of the deployment zone in the suburbs of Tokyo.
AceDiamond deploys the UCV and spots an unfamiliar alien, these new aliens appear to be completely unrelated to the Sectoids we have encountered so far, but their goals and methods of operation appear the same..
Since the background is clear, AceDiamond fires a rocket and takes the alien down.
As the rest of the squad deploys, Bling Cat spots an alien in an alley to the east of the Skyranger, he fires but does not hit the target.
Dekkarax has more luck and the alien goes down.
AceDiamond advances the UCV to the main street through the area, he spots another alien, and Combined and Looney fire on it but score no hits. Gamebrain89 manages to tag it though and scores the kill.
The screams of civilians panicking and dying assault the squad, and Bling Cat gets a glimpse of an alien much larger than we've ever seen before in an alley to the south, but loses sight of it again. On the north side of the street an alien manages to blow itself up with an ill-thrown grenade.
Bling Cat finds the large alien again, but cannot hit it from where he is.
He and CAPSLOCK FURY take cover in a nearby building and fire out until the alien is dead.
AceDiamond spots another of the large aliens in an alley to the north, and kills it with a rocket.
Whilst advancing down the middle of the street, the UCV comes under heavy fire from an alien hidden by smoke to the north.
The alien is sighted, and long range sniper fire from Looney ends it's threat.
The advance down main street continues, another large alien is spotted at the edge of the mission area, and Combined and a scout engage it with sustained fire, finally killing it in a hail of heavy cannon and laser fire.
Meanwhile, the UCV is fired on again from the south, but ineffectually this time. AceDiamond responds with a rocket, felling another alien and another of the large aliens behind it.
All at once, Birras and Deccarax come under fire from an alien rounding the corner of the building they are flanking, but they are not hit, and return fire and kill the shooter, and CAPSLOCK FURY is surprised by one of the large aliens rounding a corner, but is able to retain his compusure and fill it with laser.
Whilst sweeping the buildings to the north of the LZ, Jack Lavish finds himself face to face with an alien at point blank range. Before it can react he riddles it with automatic laser fire.
As they complete their sweep of the warehouse, Bling Cat and CAPSLOCK FURY find yet another of the large aliens, and CAPSLOCK FURY gets another notch on his laser rifle*.
At this, the aliens pull out, and we are left to count the dead. Report Ends ---- Mission Debriefing, General McSwine
The first strike of alien forces on civilian populations has gone about as well for X-Com as could have been hoped. Some civilian casualties were unavoidable, but the attack was repulsed before they could climb too high. ---- * OOC Note: CAPSLOCK FURY went on a rampage this mission, but every single reaper he downed was actually unconscious not dead, so they've not been counted as kills by the game, and we have an alien containment unit all stunk up by Reapers.) |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1090 Joined: 3 Apr 2008   | Huzzah, my first kill! :D The purple things don't seem as much as a hazard as the sectoids do they? |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 |
Floaters are a little better statistically, (more HP, better armour) and they can fly, but overall they're not really as dangerous as Sectoids, they have no psionics (though those are turned off, so that doesn't matter), and their terror unit, the Reaper, only has melee attacks and is less dangerous than the heavily armoured Cyberdisc. (Reapers are murder if they do attack you, and they are fast, but they can't shoot). The really dangerous aliens show up later. |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 794 Joined: 12 Feb 2008 | WOOOOW, I am a machine!!!! haha. Seriously. I am loving this, so so very much. "and that's why they call me CAPSLOCK FURY!" |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1900 Joined: 22 Jul 2008    | Woah lotta action this round. Presumably captured aliens are worth far more than alien corpses/technology? |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 796 Joined: 6 Dec 2007   | Yay. I actually managed to survive a mission and kill an alien. I was pretty certain I would survive jut about 5 minutes before buying the farm. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 | Live captures can be interrogated for information, unfortunately you can't sell them to zoos or anything. Also unfortunately, all the lives we've got so far are Reapers (you get lots of them, they tend to fall unconscious sooner than dying, and a bug prevents 4 square unconscious aliens from waking up like normal ones), which aren't very interesting as they're just big dumb beasts. What we need is a Navigator at this stage, because they give us the ability to research the Hyperwave Decoder, the best radar, so in future missions I will be trying to zap one with a stun prod. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1900 Joined: 22 Jul 2008 |
Well, no game is perfect I guess... |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 | Yeah, the Faceless Goons are legion, we still need plenty of names. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1860 Joined: 7 Jul 2008     |
I was thinking I could get promoted up to field work but having started to play through this again I realize how important the Heavy Weapons Platforms are. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1090 Joined: 3 Apr 2008 |
Plus you're quite lucky actually, since HWPs are radio-controlled, you can never get killed, even if the HWP is destroyed. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1860 Joined: 7 Jul 2008 |
I know, but I felt like I was cheating somehow by doing that. That said a compromise could be made by assigning my name to one of the guys who stays back at the base as a guard in case the aliens try to cut off resistance at the source. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 |
I was planning to do that eventually, if I take this up to the Cydonia mission, so it would look like you were controlling from the avenger. I have enough goons to stick you in now though. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 | *** Classified: Above Top Secret *** X-Com Monthly Performance Report, January 1999 The first month of X-Com's official paramilitary operations have been a resounding success. Our dedicated team of scientific researchers have brought Earth weapons technology forwards in leaps and bounds, allowing us to field weapons such as the Heavy Laser, a powerful and accurate laser weapon usable for long range sniper fire.
Their current project will be the creation of an aircraft and tank mounted laser cannon, designed to reduce the reliance of X-Com interceptors on disruptable lines of logistic supply.*
On-site manufacture has allowed us to utilise materials captured directly from our alien foes without compromising operational security by shipping to outside manufacturies.
This high level of autonomy means that X-Com can remain a flexible fighting force no matter the steps taken by the alien menace to disrupt our operations. Our combat teams have demonstrated a high level of competence in ground combat, and have maintained a high record of success against the alien invader for minimal casualties. Doctrines have been developed to effectively assault any vessels we have encountered so far, and this combined with our new weaponry in each combat role will mean that future ground combat operations will hopefully continue to proceed smoothly. Our current order of battle is as follows: Scout troops are armed with laser pistols and shock batons, carry extra grenades and high explosive charges, and extra flares. Additionally, we have been collating reports from civil and military authorities to track the movements of our alien adversary.
As can be seen, the areas of highest activity are Europe and South East Asia/Australasia. X-Com General McSwine reccomends starting a further X-Com facility in South East Asia with detection and intercept capability to counter incursions in this area of the world.
Thanks to X-Com's performance, and the increasing severity of the mission facing it due to the incident in Tokyo, the decision of the Council of Funding Nations is to increase X-Com's monthly funding. Nations committed to increase funding contributions are as follows:
Report Ends ---- * OOC Note: Laser Cannons are usually rubbish, they've been modded to be equal in range to Avalanche missiles, though their damage is still lower. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1303 Joined: 19 Jun 2008   | So...will a laser auto-cannon be in the works soon, General? |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 | No such thing, sadly. You have a big shiny rocket launcher now. For making boom with. Heavy Weapons will pretty much stick with the rocket launcher until Blaster Launchers starts showing up. You can never have too much boom, especially when the very rude people (Chryssalids) show up later on. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1900 Joined: 22 Jul 2008 |
I'm happy to lend a name to a sniper then, those heavy lasers look tantalizing. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 |
Actually, I've already deployed you as a scout. Look out for your intrepid exploits in a couple of updates time (I'm keeping a few in hand so that I have material if I can't play for a couple of days). |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 796 Joined: 6 Dec 2007 | Dammit. Every time I reach the end of this thread I have a feeling of "Awwww....". I can only repeat myself. Awesome. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 | Made slight formatting changes to entries so far. Next update tonight. |
Time Lord  Posts: 10079 Joined: 13 Feb 2008    | Damn, how did I miss this? Cadet Rootofallevil reporting, wanting to go into the Psi Division. ;) |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 |
I can certainly fit you in. Psi is turned off by XComUtil though, which is also what means that laser weapons need Elerium to build, plasma weapons (other than Plasma Cannon) can't be built at all, and hence you can't farm laser cannons for money. Also fixes a couple of incidental bugs like the one that resets the difficulty to Beginner after the first mission, Psi is too much of game breaker when you can win without ever leaving the skyranger, and broken when the aliens use it because you just learn who has low Psi defence and make them drop all their gear, because the aliens always attack the lowest psi defence unit whether they can see them or not, and with perfect knowledge of their stats... |
Time Lord Posts: 10079 Joined: 13 Feb 2008 | Okley dokely, then set me up with lots of proximities grenades and a sniper rifle ;) |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 | *** Classified: Above Top Secret *** Excerpt Personal Log, General McSwine Day 32: Growth and development. We've always known that one installation wasn't going to be enough to protect the Earth, but the incident in Tokyo hammered that home like nothing else. We could never have intercepted that attack, we didn't even know it was coming until the call came in. So we've started work on a new base in South East Asia
We've sunk the entrance lift, and since this base is being built under my supervision, we're focusing on defensibility first.
The entrance lift makes a natural chokepoint here, and there are only two ways an attacker can disperse from it, anyone coming in has to go through the lift and radar, where we can ambush and kill them. This second base will eventually become the headquarters of our manufacturing division, the increased funding we're seeing is nice, but it's not going to be enough. We're increasing staffing again as well, 10 new engineers and 6 new combat personnel are joining us, and we will soon start combat rotation of personnel where specialisations overlap. ---- X-Com Incident Report, 1st February As if to remind us that they're still around, we caught a bogey over the north atlantic as well.
The intruder led our interceptors a merry chase down half the world, before it was eventually shot down in central africa.
The field team suits up and begins their assault.
Report Ends ---- X-Com Battle Report, UFO Crash Recovery 2 The crash landing has not been kind to this UFO. The power core has obviously exploded, and smoke is pouring from huge rents in the hull.
The skyranger sets down next to the wreck and AceDiamond rolls out.
As has become standard, the UCV is attacked as soon as it hits the bottom of the ramp, hits to the rear armour severely damage the vehicle, but it survives, turns to the southeast and attacks. The rocket misses however.
Higurashi exits after the UCV and fires, this time killing the alien, which it turns out was the only survivor of the crash. Report Ends ---- Mission Debriefing, General McSwine
A poor haul this time, but no casualties, so we break even.
Additionally, we're going to need an expanded NCO corps to keep the larger combat staff in line, so appropriate promotions are made. |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 794 Joined: 12 Feb 2008 | Man, every single post is like a new bit of nectar on which I can sup. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2142 Joined: 23 Jan 2008  | TASTE LASAH FILTHY ALIEN SCUM! COME HERE AND TRY TO PULL SOMETHING WILL YA? (my way of saying I love this) |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1090 Joined: 3 Apr 2008 | So, when can we see R&D cook up some new armour general? I'm pretty sure kevlar is going to be pretty useless against the alien's...um, raygun things. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 |
In good time. However, armour isn't very good in UFO, so it's lower on the priority list than new shooters. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 | *** Classified: Above Top Secret *** Excerpt Personal Log, General McSwine Day 39: Rookies After the crashed vessel at the start of the month, we had a quiet first week in February. That gave us a chance to rotate the squad a little, putting some rookies out into the field for their first taste of real combat. ---- X-Com Incident Report, 8th February The chance came on the 8th, a UFO acquired over the Sahara heading south.
It managed to slip our radar cover at first.
But an interceptor ordered to patrol along it's last known heading picked it back up and engaged it over the ocean.
The inteceptor held station and followed the UFO to land, where it was shot down, and a team dispatched to retrieve it. Report Ends ---- The team soon arrived, but the skyranger held position some way off the crash site until dawn, mindful of the aliens' advantage at night, Eventually, the skyranger set down some way from the UFO.
AceDiamond ran his customary check of the LZ and rolled down the ramp. The now familiar sound of plasma impact on the rear hull greeted him, and he turned to spot the firer. As he did, another alien was spotted as well.
AceDiamond lined up a rocket and blasted the alien to the south.
Doomsly McSlaughter deployed next, on his first combat op, and spotted another alien further north.
First time nerves prevented him from firing however. Bling Cat and CAPSLOCK FURY concentrated fire on the alien to the east, Bling Cat eventually scoring the kill shot.
Excited by their first chance of action, the rookies began to deploy and shoot at the northernmost alien, one shot winged the target, and it turned and fired, dropping one of the rookies as a warning to the others.
Concentrated fire from the rest of the squad eventually brought it down, however.
The UCV advanced to the west, and a rookie advancing with it came under fire from another alien to the south.
Wounded and bleeding to death, but not dead just yet, the brave soldier reported the alien's position to the snipers, and Looney bagged it.
Advancing further to the northwest revealed a fifth alien to the north close to the UFO.
Combined and Doomsly McSlaughter, now over his initial jitters, opened fire with rocket launchers and McSlaughter scored his first career kill.
There were no more aliens at the crash site. Report Ends ---- Mission Debriefing, General McSwine
A successful recovery, but the loss of an X-Com soldier is always a blow. The new recruits have had a taste of what it means to fight the alien invader, and it is hoped that the fate of the Faceless Goon lost today will inspire caution. A further soldier is in sickbay recovering from plasma burns and will not be able to return to action for the rest of the month.
A replacement will be recruited for today's loss. ---- Whilst the skyranger was in the air, the science division called in with the results of the laser cannon project. Unfortunately, the weapon doesn't have the range they'd projected for it, so we will be retaining the Avalanche missile as our primary interceptor weapon for the forseeable future.
Additionally, the team have begun work on a portable motion scanner. This device will be of limited utility to X-Com field personnel, but can be sold on the open market and is of interest to security and law enforcement professionals, so should augment X-Com funding. |
Paperboy  Posts: 42 Joined: 2 Jan 2009   | Oh...my...GOD. This is a TON of fun to read. Put my name up in the pool to get rid of a faceless goon. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3232 Joined: 10 Nov 2007 | Just so you know, everyone who has signed up is in, if you don't see your name yet don't worry, you're in an update in the future. |
| (Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) | |
Reply to Thread
|
|
Not registered? Sign up for a free account! |
aw darn, I didn't kill him. I think I will pick this up, seeing as the entire X-Com pack is only 5 bucks right now. Keep it coming man, this is entertaining.