That's why I usually mod the game to reduce infantry gear production time but increase the alien material costs. A player who strongly cares about ground missions will be put off about how much of a hassle it is to equip their men in vanilla , but they'll be able to afford the inflated alien material costs of my modded fast-build version.
Do you keep the costs the same for personal armour and whatnot? I feel that would be a good balance too. It's pretty hard (at least in my terribad game) to drop half a million to suddenly outfit an entire squad in wolf armour.
edit: Also, what's everyone's thoughts on spoilers. I feel like posting some of my own games antics, but don't want to ruin anyone's enjoyment of this playthrough. Also I don't want to shit up the thread too much either...
I don't personally mind. Just use spoiler tags and preface with a warning that you're actually using spoiler tags for their intended purpose. Are nested spoilers working? Nesting them could protect people who leap before they think.
As for the modded costs, I left the usd costs intact. A player that is both assailing many downed ufo's and succeeding with little to no casualties should be earning more money than someone airstriking. You just need to be careful not to lose too many people to offset the gains. I'm afraid I don't have the mod anymore. It was incomplete anyway.
Fortunately one of the game's strengths is that it is very open so it is easy to mod production values like that. You don't need to debate and convince the devs about perceived flaws in the economy system. It is much easier to just fix them yourself.
so can we talk about how great it is that Caesans wear TOS-era Starfleet security uniforms
because that's pretty great
Oh it gets better, the Caesans we've met so far are basically alien civilians and mall cops, the actual soldier's uniforms look like next-gen era star trek uniforms :biggrin:
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
So is it just me, or do aliens have an annoying tendency to be able to see and shoot through solid walls? Because I've had more than a dozen instances where I can't see the alien directly on the other side of an object, but they are handily able to blast my soldiers. Or they fire from a helluva ways off and the shot passes right through a wall to kill the soldier adjacent to it on the other side. Pretty sure this is a bug.
Also, I might not be able to handle unmodded shotguns much longer. The "effective" range seems to somewhere in the range of 0-4 squares, and even then, two out of the three shots miss more often than not, which is pretty bullshit for a weapon that requires all the risk of getting that close to the enemy. The whole damn point of the things is that it's easier to reliably hit a target, not harder. Fine, they went with the silly video game trope that shotguns are worthless past ten feet, but at least make them reliably menacing at point-blank range.
On the upside, got up to pulse lasers for the scout car. It's like rockets, except purple and way more awesome. Oh, and you get 12 shots instead of 8, and the blast radius is huuuuuge.
Yeah, Xenonaut shotguns are most definitely video-game shotguns. I wouldn't underestimate them though; I kept bringing the standard ballistic shotgun into battle even when I was well into lasers for the simple reason that its incredibly light-weight. At 3kg loaded its the lightest two-handed weapon in the game, which makes it an excellent backup weapon for snipers, shield users or riflemen who aren't quite strong enough to be heavies yet since shotgun > rifle for clearing the inside of a UFO. It also takes very few TUs to fire making its potential damage output incredibly high despite its inaccuracy. I'm not as big a fan of the laser shotgun... sorry... "carbine" (which behaves exactly the same as a shotgun) as it weighs 5kg to the shotgun's 3kg, which makes more of a difference than you'd expect.
I mostly use my shotguns as if they were melee weapons. Someone else suppresses the baddies with flashbangs or LMG fire, then a high TU shotgunner sprints in and blasts them in the face once or twice. Their damage output is insane, but you've gotta be careful against enemies with heavier armor. That damage drops off fast.
If encountered, capture new examples of alien technology.
@Durinia put the team down just outside a small family farm north of the Himalayas. Since we still don't have our armor, I brought predominately veterans to minimize the risk of someone dying due to a weak link in the squad. @Frozenzen and @Fanda are present as assault troops with their shotguns. @Phoenix-D is is a secondary scout and pointman for breaching the UFO's. @Rhan9 and @Elvenshae provide heavy weapons support with their LMGs. @SLyM is a newcomer to fieldwork as the first sniper that we've deployed to the field.
However the largest change to our lineup is the addition of our scout car. @Heffling and @Erlkönig are the crew of the vehicle. Heffling is the driver, and Erlkonig is the gunner.
To the north and north west are some boulders, stumps, and irrigation equipment that can be used as cover. To the southwest we can see a single lane paved road through a hedgerow.
Normally we'd have people on the ramp peeking out to check for immediate hostiles, but now we have this new armored car that can do that.
Before we disembark, Frozenzen complains about a piercing headache and some dizziness. In the army we have an answer for that. Ibuprofen and water. Maybe he's developing a sinus infection and the long flight from Olympus messed with his head?
Heffling directs the scout car out of the dropship while Erlkonig scans the terrain for hostiles. They don't see anything, so they signal the rest of the team to start spreading out.
Fanda and Elvenshae take up position near the stumps to the northwest.
Slym moves north and braces his sniper rifle on one of the boulders.
Phoenix moves to the gap in the hedgerow and takes up a defensive position to look down the road. From within the dropship, @Rhan9 prepares his LMG to engage any target that threatens to come through the gap. @Frozenzen also covers the gap with his shotgun from the northern side of the gap.
With everyone safely in position, Heffling advances the car a little further forward. They've barely started before Erlkonig calls out the location of a grey between two brick structures to the north west.
Slym doesn't have an angle on the target, but Elvenshae does.
Well that takes care of that I guess. However there are still two structures that could be concealing more aliens.
We know what to do about that
O_O
Oooook. They really know how to make a house around these parts. Our rocket supply is too precious to waste them leveling these structures. We could advance forward to level the buildings with high explosive charges, but instead we're going to fall back and try to locate the alien vessel.
While all this has been happening, Phoenix-D, Rhan9, and Frozenzen have been advancing past the road to some fields to the south.
Frozenzen still seems distracted.
Rather than advancing into the open field with shield in hand, everyone holds while the scout car re-positions to the south to take a look forward.
Some irrigation equipment and a tractor are available for use as cover....although I do find it really weird that a boulder is in the middle of this plowed field. We also find one of the locals hiding behind the tractor for safety.
Heffling keeps advancing the scout car forward while everyone else ges into position within the field. In addition to the two farmers hiding near the tractor, we see a corpse to the north and an abandoned shotgun in the field to the south.
While we still don't see any hostiles, the aliens must be near.
However now Fanda is complaining about a headache. That's quite a coincidence. That's two of our six soldiers on the ground feeling acute discomfort while on a mission that has so far gone exactly to plan. Perhaps it is allergies? Are they known to get hay fever? We'll need to get to the bottom of this. We can't afford to have our men be distracted when fighting the aliens.
We finally spot the alien craft just beyond the corpse. There are some bales of hay that can provide some minimal cover. It isn't much, but you take what you can get.
Suddenly the door opens two reveal two aliens that promptly open fire from within the safety of the space craft. We can see a total of four aliens within the craft, but two of them appear dead. The two living are wearing the blue uniforms that our analysts have identified as some sort of guard or light infantry. They are armed with the plasma rifles that have so far been the most potent small arm fielded by the aliens. Fortunately the front armor of the scout car proves more than sufficient to withstand the attack.
If you count the alien that we killed by the barn, that brings us up to 4 of the blue shirted guards. I'd need to review the footage to be sure, but I believe that's more firepower on the ground than what we've seen so far. Thankfully one was already dead and we caught another alone by himself.
We can't have them opening the door and shooting out at us on their terms, and it is too dangerous to advance someone forward to open the door.
That means Erlkönig gets to knock...
(more coming tomorrow evening, so don't wear out your F5 keys checking all day for more updates :P. I've got some more gifs that I want to make for combat in and around the UFO.)
Give me a rifle and point me towards the aliens. High accuracy if you can. I want to be shooting them in the face...not missing them and hitting walls.
Think it got missed ...bottom pager.
My first lp too
I saw a kid get handed a JB poster by who I presume was his parents outside my store today....he tore it in half infront of his horrified parents.....There's hope for our youth yet!
Give me a rifle and point me towards the aliens. High accuracy if you can. I want to be shooting them in the face...not missing them and hitting walls.
Think it got missed ...bottom pager.
My first lp too
I've got you. You're still in the queue for a soldier man. Our barracks are presently at capacity. Some people need to die before I can hire more soldiers.
The game is still in its early stages. We've actually been outnumbering the aliens so far. That will change soon. Then there will be death.
However now Fanda is complaining about a headache. That's quite a coincidence. That's two of our six soldiers on the ground feeling acute discomfort while on a mission that has so far gone exactly to plan. Perhaps it is allergies? Are they known to get hay fever? We'll need to get to the bottom of this. We can't afford to have our men be distracted when fighting the aliens.
I actually do get migraines sometimes, and the best thing for them is to go someplace cool and dark. The interior of a UFO is a good option. I find it's also important to eliminate any source of loud noises nearby. Bludgeoning them with the stock of my shotgun usually does the trick.
Then I'll take a couple of Tylenol Ultra Relief (500mg acetaminophen, 65mg caffeine), lie down on a nice soft corpse, and try to get some sleep.
In hindsight, we probably could have captured one of these aliens by gathering around it in a circle and repeatedly punching and kicking it until it stopped moving. I don't think it would have been able to kill all six of you before succumbing.
We should have stun batons ready by the next ground mission though, so we won't need to resort to punching.
Well I'll just sleep outside the base until a proper position is ready. I'm excited to die a horrible alien plasma death.
Or wait because that's what the army is all about anyways.
I saw a kid get handed a JB poster by who I presume was his parents outside my store today....he tore it in half infront of his horrified parents.....There's hope for our youth yet!
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
The melee option is minor thing that you forget about until you find an alien officer who seems rather unfazed by stun gas and you have a shotgun trooper at point blank range who will definitely die next turn if the officer doesn't go down. And then it's a pretty great thing.
Though stun batons should probably be handed out to those soldiers who are dumb enough to believe it when told "fighting aliens isn't that bad".
I mean rookies. Because you don't want precious vets poking pissed-off horrors from beyond with a zappy stick. Because there are good reasons why space aliens have perfected technology to kill things from way the hell off somewhere else instead of standing right next to them.
One of those guards was probably still standing by the door, and we probably would need a mop if we wanted to bring the remains back to base.
We do see something new amidst the smoke and fire. An alien with a purple uniform. This is new. The red aliens have been non-combatants armed only with pistols. The blue aliens are armed with rifles. But purple is something new entirely. The original plan was to just fill the bridge full of rockets, but the new plan is to bring the purple one back for study. Preferably alive, but dead will suffice since we are still lacking our non-lethal equipment.
Rhan9 managed to get a clean shot on the visible guard. Presuming that the other guard we saw recently was indeed pulped, then the only known living alien is the purple one. However there still could be more hostiles hiding outside of our line of sight.
With all apparent threats taken care of (baring long range pistol fire from the purple), the rest of the team advances further forward.
We have the advantage as we close in on the purple.
Despite that, something is clearly wrong. Now Rhan9 is unnerved. This mission has been a clean sweep so far. Textbook perfect, and yet fully one half of our men are deeply distressed. These are experienced soldiers, not greenhorns. We aren't even under enemy fire. This must be some kind of psychological attack.
Frozenzen and Phoenix-D advance forward and to the side of the entrance to prepare to storm the craft in a few minutes. On the way over, Frozenzen spots the corpses of three more guards within the craft. Thankfully they must've died on impact. If they would have survived, this would have easily been the largest alien ground force that we've encountered to date. The aliens may not yet be deploying more advanced craft than what we saw in September, but they've certainly upped their game.
Elvenshae took some shots at the purple and manged to wing it.
With a flesh wound and the sight of our forces closing in, the alien flees to the depths of the craft.
Heffling maneuvered the car around the entrance to get a better look inside. Lots of corpses and blood, but it looks like the bridge itself is presently unoccupied.
Frozenzen and Phoenix-D take advantage of this opportunity onto the bridge and into cover. With no time units available to perform reaction shots, they are dependent on the covering fire of Elvenshae, Rhan9, and Slym to engage any aliens that approach from the reactor room.
Offscreen, Fanda is sprinting ever closer to the craft to support the ship assault (Fanda was previously camping the gap in the hedgerows with his shotgun to keep any aliens from sneaking up behind us).
Also, now Elvenshae is reporting a headache...
Fanda isn't quite in position yet (Behind the scout card), but I don't want to waste too much time. Every moment that we wait is a moment where an alien can walk through that door. Then it would be a direct competition between reflexes, and I don't want to give an alien an opportunity to take a few shots at our unarmored men up close with a plasma pistol. IMO better to move our pointman (Phoenix-D) forward and check the hallway on our terms.
Look who it is camping behind the door. Mr. Purple.
Phoenix took a shot with his .45, but it keeps standing...err...crouching.
Phoenix-D is a little too close to the alien for comfort for most of the team to assist with additional fire, but Slym was in the perfect position for sending one round right through that door and into the hallway beyond.
Boom. One less hostile.
Also, without warning, everyone's headache problems suddenly stopped. We'll definitely want to examine the purple shirt's remains when we get back to base.
With the hallway secure, the rest of the team moves forward help clear the reactor room. Our LMG's are too bulky to reliably move and shoot in close quarters with, so Rhan9 experimentally picks up one of the alien plasma rifles. The weapon is awkward, but it should be easier to run and gun with it at the very least. Accuracy is another matter, but there is always shoving the barrel into the alien's chest before pulling the trigger. It is an option we will have to keep in mind if we ever encounter an alien unit that is armored to the point where our weapons are ineffective.
Opening the door to the reactor room reveals an alien non-combatant hiding behind some walls. The layout is slightly different and grants the alien more cover, but that doesn't stop phoenix-D from dazing it with a flashbang so that Frozenzen can safely run forward and put two in the alien's chest.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
We've secured the alien vessel and captured the reactor intact. Gains and promotions all around. Elvenshae was awarded the Order of Gallantry for killing his fifth alien in combat.
The purple alien's corpse was sent back to R&D to study. Hopefully our analysts can give us some answers and discern what role they play amongst the alien forces.
The alenium was added to our slowly growing stockpile of the material. We'll need it in the coming months.
Additionally, this mission recovered the necessary alien alloys that we'll need to manufacture the fifth and six suits of Wolf armor. Now the limiting resource is manpower. The new factory floor at Olympus should be done in a few days, and the new engineers should arrive shortly after that.
I want to eventually build some engineering facilities and Tenochtitlan, but we don't have enough free funds to devote to a new engineering lab, living quarters, storage rooms, and more engineering staff.
The "Non-lethal" weapons project has been completed. The new equipment will be assigned to everyone for the next away mission. The new toys added to our arsenal are:
1: Stun batons. Stick them with the zappy end. You have to enter melee range to use it, and you only have a limited number of charges. However it is quite effective once you're in range.
2: Knock-out gas grenades. These emit a thick purple smoke that knock people unconscious. It should be noted that the stuff works as well against us as it does against them. Also, we don't have any gas masks for you. IMO this is a distinct oversight, but there isn't really anything that I can do about it.
3: Knock-out gas rockets. Like the grenade, but fired from a rocket launcher. The cloud is larger and can be delivered over greater distances than one can throw a grenade.
The gas grenades are going to become standard issue for everyone. The gas can be used to essentially create temporary barriers to prevent aliens from safely passing through doorways, alleyways, etc. Manipulating the terrain of the battlefield is a powerful tool that we can leverage against the aliens. Destroying barriers with explosives is one aspect that we've been taking advantage of so far. Creating barriers of a sort with clouds of knock-out gas is IMO enough of a potential advantage to warrant everybody carrying at least one.
The alenium explosives project is going very well and should be done in a few days at the most.
Normally this is the point where I'd give you guys a poll about what to research next, but we've nearly exhausted our present research options. So instead I've simply opted to beging research on the alien plasma pistol and will begin research on the alien plasma rifle once the explosives project is complete.
There are some potential new research projects on the horizon. Mostly interrogating live aliens, attempting to use what we learn about alien plasma technology to create a new generation of weapons of our own, and to study any new examples of alien technology that we can capture. We'll hopefully capture a live alien on our next mission. I'm also expecting the aliens to start sending more powerful ships against us any day now.
The analysts have also completed their analysis of the purple-shirt. Guess what? They have freakin space magic. Psionic attacks that can mess with your mind. Fortunately our soldiers have prevailed against such attacks so far. However stressful situations like being under heavy fire or losing commanding officers may make our soldiers more vulnerable. In an extreme scenario, it may become possible for the aliens to make it impossible for someone to discern between friend and foe. A countermeasure to such an attack is for the soldier to disarm himself when he realizes that his will is about to break.
In other news, the construction of @cB557 's foxtrot is complete. Now every pilot whose Condor was retired at the start of the month has a replacement Foxtrot. Production has now begun on the Wolf armor. We still need more foxtrots, but that can wait until we have some armor for our ground troops.
There have been a few minor skirmishes in the air over the past few days. @Kadoken and @Farangu were equipped with sidewinder missiles and used team tactics to defeat an alien fighter craft that entered Olympus airspace.
Also, everyone's Foxtrots are being sent off in every direction to chase down UFO contacts. We catch some, some get away, and some get shot down over oceans because fuel was running low and the aliens showed no hurry to fly over land.
We did shoot down two large scouts over land, but I want at least one suit of armor for the point man before we risk our soldiers in the field again. We saw that the aliens are increasing the number of guards armed with plasma rifles in their forces. We've done well so far, but I can only roll the dice so much before luck fails. Once we get a suit or two of that armor, we're going in to take an alien alive.
We've seen several reports off the coast of Australia, but we can't do anything about that. Ultimately we need a base on that side of the globe, but we barely have enough aircraft to cover our existing two bases and Tenochtitlan's radar isn't even done being built yet.
The radar array at Tenochtitlan and the second engineering workshop at Olympus have been completed. 11 new engineers have been hired to staff the workshop (the workshop's capacity if 15, but 11 brings us to the limit of our living quarters capacity.) The workshop's allotment of engineers will be expanded after some troopers eventually get transferred as to create a second team based out of Tenoctitlan. Until then we'll make due with a partially manned second workshop.
The new radar gives us full coverage of central America, teh bulk of the upper 48, parts of Canada, and a small sliver of south America. We'll eventually want a second radar to give us better coverage of south America, but that is not in the budget.
A new wave of large scouts has attacked. We shot some down over the ocean, one over peru, and one in India. The Indian target has been selected for the next ground mission.
We have two suits of the new wolf armor. At present, they've been issued to @Phoenix-D and @Fanda .
Wolf armor is REALLY HEAVY. Their loadouts have been dramatically reduced to make up for the weight. Our forces as a whole will need to use more muscle butter. Get more strong.
Phoenix-D is only carrying the shield, and 3 grenades that are a mix between flashbangs and knockout-gas. (the riot shield/wolf armor combination is super heavy, but you should be safely able to approach the hostile positions).
Without a riot shield to weigh him down, Fanda is a little better equipped. The large assortment of grenades has been reduced, the high explosive charge is gone for now. In its place is a new gas grenade and a stun baton.
This is the only stun baton we have on the mission right now. I don't like the idea of someone non-armored charging in to point blank range.
We're mostly planning to smoke the aliens out. We've brought Megamek along with an assortment of gas rockets. Hopefully we can gas the bridge of the large scout. Maybe we can gas the power room too.
MISSION 6: OPERATION TYPHOON
Date: October 12, 1979
Location: Indian Village west of Delhi
Target: Crashed Large Scout
Away Team: @TeeMan , @Rhan9 , @MegaMek , @Fanda , @Phoenix-D , @SLyM , Hunter Scout Car (crew: @Heffling and @Erlkönig )
Objectives:
Secure the crash site.
Capture the vessel's reactor intact.
Capture an alien alive for study and interrogation.
If encountered, capture new examples of alien technology.
@Durinia lands the dropship at the northernmost corner of the engagement zone. Some trees are visible to the southwest. A few walls can be seen to the southeast. No hostiles are visible from within the dropship. Phoenix-D and Fanda are equipped with the new Wolf Armor. Phoenix's kit has been dramatically reduced due to the strain of carrying the weight of both the wolf armor and riot shield.
Heffling barely gets the scout car off the ramp before seeing one of those lizard men. They have a name but I just like to call them lizard men or gorns.
From autopsy performed on the last gorns we encountered, we suspect that they have poor eyesight at range. Our analysts also believe that smoke screen will be ineffective against them. Our men may be at arm's reach, but we're still exposed within the dropship.
The best approach is probably to just blow it up with the scout car's rockets. That's one of the main reason we have these rockets. To smash any immediate opposition that would threaten the crew during the vulnerable stage of exiting the dropship.
Wait....what? HOW!?!?! @Erlkönig , you somehow managed blow up everything EXCEPT the alien! That lizard is literally dead center in the middle of a scorched mess.
Posts
I don't personally mind. Just use spoiler tags and preface with a warning that you're actually using spoiler tags for their intended purpose. Are nested spoilers working? Nesting them could protect people who leap before they think.
As for the modded costs, I left the usd costs intact. A player that is both assailing many downed ufo's and succeeding with little to no casualties should be earning more money than someone airstriking. You just need to be careful not to lose too many people to offset the gains. I'm afraid I don't have the mod anymore. It was incomplete anyway.
Fortunately one of the game's strengths is that it is very open so it is easy to mod production values like that. You don't need to debate and convince the devs about perceived flaws in the economy system. It is much easier to just fix them yourself.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Oh it gets better, the Caesans we've met so far are basically alien civilians and mall cops, the actual soldier's uniforms look like next-gen era star trek uniforms :biggrin:
Also, I might not be able to handle unmodded shotguns much longer. The "effective" range seems to somewhere in the range of 0-4 squares, and even then, two out of the three shots miss more often than not, which is pretty bullshit for a weapon that requires all the risk of getting that close to the enemy. The whole damn point of the things is that it's easier to reliably hit a target, not harder. Fine, they went with the silly video game trope that shotguns are worthless past ten feet, but at least make them reliably menacing at point-blank range.
On the upside, got up to pulse lasers for the scout car. It's like rockets, except purple and way more awesome. Oh, and you get 12 shots instead of 8, and the blast radius is huuuuuge.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
MISSION 5: OPERATION YELLOW JEWEL
Location: Farmland North of the Himalayas
Target: Crashed Large Scout
Away Team: @Elvenshae , @Rhan9 , @Frozenzen , @Fanda , @Phoenix-D , @SLyM , Hunter Scout Car (crew: @Heffling and @Erlkönig )
Objectives:
@Durinia put the team down just outside a small family farm north of the Himalayas. Since we still don't have our armor, I brought predominately veterans to minimize the risk of someone dying due to a weak link in the squad. @Frozenzen and @Fanda are present as assault troops with their shotguns. @Phoenix-D is is a secondary scout and pointman for breaching the UFO's. @Rhan9 and @Elvenshae provide heavy weapons support with their LMGs. @SLyM is a newcomer to fieldwork as the first sniper that we've deployed to the field.
However the largest change to our lineup is the addition of our scout car. @Heffling and @Erlkönig are the crew of the vehicle. Heffling is the driver, and Erlkonig is the gunner.
To the north and north west are some boulders, stumps, and irrigation equipment that can be used as cover. To the southwest we can see a single lane paved road through a hedgerow.
Normally we'd have people on the ramp peeking out to check for immediate hostiles, but now we have this new armored car that can do that.
Before we disembark, Frozenzen complains about a piercing headache and some dizziness. In the army we have an answer for that. Ibuprofen and water. Maybe he's developing a sinus infection and the long flight from Olympus messed with his head?
Heffling directs the scout car out of the dropship while Erlkonig scans the terrain for hostiles. They don't see anything, so they signal the rest of the team to start spreading out.
Fanda and Elvenshae take up position near the stumps to the northwest.
Slym moves north and braces his sniper rifle on one of the boulders.
Phoenix moves to the gap in the hedgerow and takes up a defensive position to look down the road. From within the dropship, @Rhan9 prepares his LMG to engage any target that threatens to come through the gap. @Frozenzen also covers the gap with his shotgun from the northern side of the gap.
With everyone safely in position, Heffling advances the car a little further forward. They've barely started before Erlkonig calls out the location of a grey between two brick structures to the north west.
Slym doesn't have an angle on the target, but Elvenshae does.
Well that takes care of that I guess. However there are still two structures that could be concealing more aliens.
We know what to do about that
O_O
Oooook. They really know how to make a house around these parts. Our rocket supply is too precious to waste them leveling these structures. We could advance forward to level the buildings with high explosive charges, but instead we're going to fall back and try to locate the alien vessel.
While all this has been happening, Phoenix-D, Rhan9, and Frozenzen have been advancing past the road to some fields to the south.
Frozenzen still seems distracted.
Rather than advancing into the open field with shield in hand, everyone holds while the scout car re-positions to the south to take a look forward.
Some irrigation equipment and a tractor are available for use as cover....although I do find it really weird that a boulder is in the middle of this plowed field. We also find one of the locals hiding behind the tractor for safety.
Heffling keeps advancing the scout car forward while everyone else ges into position within the field. In addition to the two farmers hiding near the tractor, we see a corpse to the north and an abandoned shotgun in the field to the south.
While we still don't see any hostiles, the aliens must be near.
However now Fanda is complaining about a headache. That's quite a coincidence. That's two of our six soldiers on the ground feeling acute discomfort while on a mission that has so far gone exactly to plan. Perhaps it is allergies? Are they known to get hay fever? We'll need to get to the bottom of this. We can't afford to have our men be distracted when fighting the aliens.
We finally spot the alien craft just beyond the corpse. There are some bales of hay that can provide some minimal cover. It isn't much, but you take what you can get.
Suddenly the door opens two reveal two aliens that promptly open fire from within the safety of the space craft. We can see a total of four aliens within the craft, but two of them appear dead. The two living are wearing the blue uniforms that our analysts have identified as some sort of guard or light infantry. They are armed with the plasma rifles that have so far been the most potent small arm fielded by the aliens. Fortunately the front armor of the scout car proves more than sufficient to withstand the attack.
If you count the alien that we killed by the barn, that brings us up to 4 of the blue shirted guards. I'd need to review the footage to be sure, but I believe that's more firepower on the ground than what we've seen so far. Thankfully one was already dead and we caught another alone by himself.
We can't have them opening the door and shooting out at us on their terms, and it is too dangerous to advance someone forward to open the door.
That means Erlkönig gets to knock...
(more coming tomorrow evening, so don't wear out your F5 keys checking all day for more updates :P. I've got some more gifs that I want to make for combat in and around the UFO.)
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Explosions
Destiny Profile : http://www.bungie.net/en/Profile/254/7028016
An acceptable answer, so long as the explosions are caused by dakka.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
TORGUE!
Think it got missed ...bottom pager.
My first lp too
I've got you. You're still in the queue for a soldier man. Our barracks are presently at capacity. Some people need to die before I can hire more soldiers.
The game is still in its early stages. We've actually been outnumbering the aliens so far. That will change soon. Then there will be death.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Anybody who plays Mechwarrior Online with me will know that this explains my aiming ability.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
I actually do get migraines sometimes, and the best thing for them is to go someplace cool and dark. The interior of a UFO is a good option. I find it's also important to eliminate any source of loud noises nearby. Bludgeoning them with the stock of my shotgun usually does the trick.
Then I'll take a couple of Tylenol Ultra Relief (500mg acetaminophen, 65mg caffeine), lie down on a nice soft corpse, and try to get some sleep.
It is a good way to get yourself killed.
I suppose you can use it to break a window and sneak into some buildings. Normally I prefer exploding the wall instead.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
We should have stun batons ready by the next ground mission though, so we won't need to resort to punching.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
Or wait because that's what the army is all about anyways.
Though stun batons should probably be handed out to those soldiers who are dumb enough to believe it when told "fighting aliens isn't that bad".
I mean rookies. Because you don't want precious vets poking pissed-off horrors from beyond with a zappy stick. Because there are good reasons why space aliens have perfected technology to kill things from way the hell off somewhere else instead of standing right next to them.
One of those guards was probably still standing by the door, and we probably would need a mop if we wanted to bring the remains back to base.
We do see something new amidst the smoke and fire. An alien with a purple uniform. This is new. The red aliens have been non-combatants armed only with pistols. The blue aliens are armed with rifles. But purple is something new entirely. The original plan was to just fill the bridge full of rockets, but the new plan is to bring the purple one back for study. Preferably alive, but dead will suffice since we are still lacking our non-lethal equipment.
Rhan9 managed to get a clean shot on the visible guard. Presuming that the other guard we saw recently was indeed pulped, then the only known living alien is the purple one. However there still could be more hostiles hiding outside of our line of sight.
With all apparent threats taken care of (baring long range pistol fire from the purple), the rest of the team advances further forward.
We have the advantage as we close in on the purple.
Despite that, something is clearly wrong. Now Rhan9 is unnerved. This mission has been a clean sweep so far. Textbook perfect, and yet fully one half of our men are deeply distressed. These are experienced soldiers, not greenhorns. We aren't even under enemy fire. This must be some kind of psychological attack.
Frozenzen and Phoenix-D advance forward and to the side of the entrance to prepare to storm the craft in a few minutes. On the way over, Frozenzen spots the corpses of three more guards within the craft. Thankfully they must've died on impact. If they would have survived, this would have easily been the largest alien ground force that we've encountered to date. The aliens may not yet be deploying more advanced craft than what we saw in September, but they've certainly upped their game.
Elvenshae took some shots at the purple and manged to wing it.
With a flesh wound and the sight of our forces closing in, the alien flees to the depths of the craft.
Heffling maneuvered the car around the entrance to get a better look inside. Lots of corpses and blood, but it looks like the bridge itself is presently unoccupied.
Frozenzen and Phoenix-D take advantage of this opportunity onto the bridge and into cover. With no time units available to perform reaction shots, they are dependent on the covering fire of Elvenshae, Rhan9, and Slym to engage any aliens that approach from the reactor room.
Offscreen, Fanda is sprinting ever closer to the craft to support the ship assault (Fanda was previously camping the gap in the hedgerows with his shotgun to keep any aliens from sneaking up behind us).
Also, now Elvenshae is reporting a headache...
Fanda isn't quite in position yet (Behind the scout card), but I don't want to waste too much time. Every moment that we wait is a moment where an alien can walk through that door. Then it would be a direct competition between reflexes, and I don't want to give an alien an opportunity to take a few shots at our unarmored men up close with a plasma pistol. IMO better to move our pointman (Phoenix-D) forward and check the hallway on our terms.
Look who it is camping behind the door. Mr. Purple.
Phoenix took a shot with his .45, but it keeps standing...err...crouching.
Phoenix-D is a little too close to the alien for comfort for most of the team to assist with additional fire, but Slym was in the perfect position for sending one round right through that door and into the hallway beyond.
Boom. One less hostile.
Also, without warning, everyone's headache problems suddenly stopped. We'll definitely want to examine the purple shirt's remains when we get back to base.
With the hallway secure, the rest of the team moves forward help clear the reactor room. Our LMG's are too bulky to reliably move and shoot in close quarters with, so Rhan9 experimentally picks up one of the alien plasma rifles. The weapon is awkward, but it should be easier to run and gun with it at the very least. Accuracy is another matter, but there is always shoving the barrel into the alien's chest before pulling the trigger. It is an option we will have to keep in mind if we ever encounter an alien unit that is armored to the point where our weapons are ineffective.
Opening the door to the reactor room reveals an alien non-combatant hiding behind some walls. The layout is slightly different and grants the alien more cover, but that doesn't stop phoenix-D from dazing it with a flashbang so that Frozenzen can safely run forward and put two in the alien's chest.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
We've secured the alien vessel and captured the reactor intact. Gains and promotions all around. Elvenshae was awarded the Order of Gallantry for killing his fifth alien in combat.
The purple alien's corpse was sent back to R&D to study. Hopefully our analysts can give us some answers and discern what role they play amongst the alien forces.
The alenium was added to our slowly growing stockpile of the material. We'll need it in the coming months.
Additionally, this mission recovered the necessary alien alloys that we'll need to manufacture the fifth and six suits of Wolf armor. Now the limiting resource is manpower. The new factory floor at Olympus should be done in a few days, and the new engineers should arrive shortly after that.
I want to eventually build some engineering facilities and Tenochtitlan, but we don't have enough free funds to devote to a new engineering lab, living quarters, storage rooms, and more engineering staff.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
The "Non-lethal" weapons project has been completed. The new equipment will be assigned to everyone for the next away mission. The new toys added to our arsenal are:
1: Stun batons. Stick them with the zappy end. You have to enter melee range to use it, and you only have a limited number of charges. However it is quite effective once you're in range.
2: Knock-out gas grenades. These emit a thick purple smoke that knock people unconscious. It should be noted that the stuff works as well against us as it does against them. Also, we don't have any gas masks for you. IMO this is a distinct oversight, but there isn't really anything that I can do about it.
3: Knock-out gas rockets. Like the grenade, but fired from a rocket launcher. The cloud is larger and can be delivered over greater distances than one can throw a grenade.
The gas grenades are going to become standard issue for everyone. The gas can be used to essentially create temporary barriers to prevent aliens from safely passing through doorways, alleyways, etc. Manipulating the terrain of the battlefield is a powerful tool that we can leverage against the aliens. Destroying barriers with explosives is one aspect that we've been taking advantage of so far. Creating barriers of a sort with clouds of knock-out gas is IMO enough of a potential advantage to warrant everybody carrying at least one.
The alenium explosives project is going very well and should be done in a few days at the most.
Normally this is the point where I'd give you guys a poll about what to research next, but we've nearly exhausted our present research options. So instead I've simply opted to beging research on the alien plasma pistol and will begin research on the alien plasma rifle once the explosives project is complete.
There are some potential new research projects on the horizon. Mostly interrogating live aliens, attempting to use what we learn about alien plasma technology to create a new generation of weapons of our own, and to study any new examples of alien technology that we can capture. We'll hopefully capture a live alien on our next mission. I'm also expecting the aliens to start sending more powerful ships against us any day now.
The analysts have also completed their analysis of the purple-shirt. Guess what? They have freakin space magic. Psionic attacks that can mess with your mind. Fortunately our soldiers have prevailed against such attacks so far. However stressful situations like being under heavy fire or losing commanding officers may make our soldiers more vulnerable. In an extreme scenario, it may become possible for the aliens to make it impossible for someone to discern between friend and foe. A countermeasure to such an attack is for the soldier to disarm himself when he realizes that his will is about to break.
In other news, the construction of @cB557 's foxtrot is complete. Now every pilot whose Condor was retired at the start of the month has a replacement Foxtrot. Production has now begun on the Wolf armor. We still need more foxtrots, but that can wait until we have some armor for our ground troops.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
The alenium explosive project is now complete.
Our booms are a little more BOOMY now.
There have been a few minor skirmishes in the air over the past few days. @Kadoken and @Farangu were equipped with sidewinder missiles and used team tactics to defeat an alien fighter craft that entered Olympus airspace.
Also, everyone's Foxtrots are being sent off in every direction to chase down UFO contacts. We catch some, some get away, and some get shot down over oceans because fuel was running low and the aliens showed no hurry to fly over land.
We did shoot down two large scouts over land, but I want at least one suit of armor for the point man before we risk our soldiers in the field again. We saw that the aliens are increasing the number of guards armed with plasma rifles in their forces. We've done well so far, but I can only roll the dice so much before luck fails. Once we get a suit or two of that armor, we're going in to take an alien alive.
We've seen several reports off the coast of Australia, but we can't do anything about that. Ultimately we need a base on that side of the globe, but we barely have enough aircraft to cover our existing two bases and Tenochtitlan's radar isn't even done being built yet.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
October 11, 1979.
The radar array at Tenochtitlan and the second engineering workshop at Olympus have been completed. 11 new engineers have been hired to staff the workshop (the workshop's capacity if 15, but 11 brings us to the limit of our living quarters capacity.) The workshop's allotment of engineers will be expanded after some troopers eventually get transferred as to create a second team based out of Tenoctitlan. Until then we'll make due with a partially manned second workshop.
The new radar gives us full coverage of central America, teh bulk of the upper 48, parts of Canada, and a small sliver of south America. We'll eventually want a second radar to give us better coverage of south America, but that is not in the budget.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
@Megamek , @TeeMan , @SLyM , @Fanda, @Phoenix-D , @Rhan9 , and the scout car crewed by @Heffling and @Erlkönig have been deployed to the site.
We have two suits of the new wolf armor. At present, they've been issued to @Phoenix-D and @Fanda .
Wolf armor is REALLY HEAVY. Their loadouts have been dramatically reduced to make up for the weight. Our forces as a whole will need to use more muscle butter. Get more strong.
Phoenix-D is only carrying the shield, and 3 grenades that are a mix between flashbangs and knockout-gas. (the riot shield/wolf armor combination is super heavy, but you should be safely able to approach the hostile positions).
Without a riot shield to weigh him down, Fanda is a little better equipped. The large assortment of grenades has been reduced, the high explosive charge is gone for now. In its place is a new gas grenade and a stun baton.
This is the only stun baton we have on the mission right now. I don't like the idea of someone non-armored charging in to point blank range.
We're mostly planning to smoke the aliens out. We've brought Megamek along with an assortment of gas rockets. Hopefully we can gas the bridge of the large scout. Maybe we can gas the power room too.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Niiiiiice
I hope those alien bastards choke on it!
Make that bridge look like a bad day at Verdun.
Are you expecting to cheese the stat growth by doing training laps around the downed wreckages once the exterior is clear?
No.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Date: October 12, 1979
Location: Indian Village west of Delhi
Target: Crashed Large Scout
Away Team: @TeeMan , @Rhan9 , @MegaMek , @Fanda , @Phoenix-D , @SLyM , Hunter Scout Car (crew: @Heffling and @Erlkönig )
Objectives:
@Durinia lands the dropship at the northernmost corner of the engagement zone. Some trees are visible to the southwest. A few walls can be seen to the southeast. No hostiles are visible from within the dropship. Phoenix-D and Fanda are equipped with the new Wolf Armor. Phoenix's kit has been dramatically reduced due to the strain of carrying the weight of both the wolf armor and riot shield.
Heffling barely gets the scout car off the ramp before seeing one of those lizard men. They have a name but I just like to call them lizard men or gorns.
From autopsy performed on the last gorns we encountered, we suspect that they have poor eyesight at range. Our analysts also believe that smoke screen will be ineffective against them. Our men may be at arm's reach, but we're still exposed within the dropship.
The best approach is probably to just blow it up with the scout car's rockets. That's one of the main reason we have these rockets. To smash any immediate opposition that would threaten the crew during the vulnerable stage of exiting the dropship.
Wait....what? HOW!?!?! @Erlkönig , you somehow managed blow up everything EXCEPT the alien! That lizard is literally dead center in the middle of a scorched mess.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
EDIT - tried linking to the youtube clip of it...but it looks like the person who uploaded the video doesn't want people to link to it.