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Let's Play: Xenonauts: Strategic Planetary Defence Simulator (image heavy)

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Posts

  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    edited October 2015
    MegaMek wrote: »
    That lizardman face-tanked an alenium-enhanced rocket? :bigfrown:

    No. That would imply he survived the damage. Note the lack of red damage numbers. The explosive forced missed it entirely.... Somehow.

    I guess it dodged the explosion at ground zero?

    General_Armchair on
    3DS Friend Code:
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  • TeeManTeeMan BrainSpoon Registered User regular
    MegaMek wrote: »
    That lizardman face-tanked an alenium-enhanced rocket? :bigfrown:

    No. That would imply he survived the damage. Note the lack of red damage numbers. The explosive forced missed it entirely.... Somehow.

    I guess it dodged the explosion at ground zero?

    There must be an awful lot more to learn about this particular xeno threat :?

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  • MegaMekMegaMek Girls like girls. Registered User regular
    Maybe he ate the rocket and burped up the explosion :rotate:

    Is time a gift or punishment?
  • CampyCampy Registered User regular
    edited October 2015
    Looks like the explosion actually happened in the house, and the wall protected the lizardman from harm? Weird either way, as there's scorch marks all over.

    Campy on
  • PhaserlightPhaserlight Boca Raton, FLRegistered User regular
    I would like to !signup, Commander

    Any role you need.

    Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online
  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    Literally anything or any role for a soldier? The fighter plane queue is shorter. I might build a secondary scout car if there are remaining funds by the end of the month.

    The soldier queue should start moving more once we reach the red times. I can put you on the list, it just will take awhile before your character can be hired.

    3DS Friend Code:
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  • DuriniaDurinia Evolved from Space Potatoes Registered User regular
    Campy wrote: »
    Looks like the explosion actually happened in the house, and the wall protected the lizardman from harm? Weird either way, as there's scorch marks all over.

    Yeah, I think the rocket actually may have gone through the door and the wall shielded it. Maybe?

    For business reasons, I must preserve the outward sign of sanity.
    --Mark Twain
  • PhaserlightPhaserlight Boca Raton, FLRegistered User regular
    Literally anything or any role for a soldier? The fighter plane queue is shorter. I might build a secondary scout car if there are remaining funds by the end of the month.

    The soldier queue should start moving more once we reach the red times. I can put you on the list, it just will take awhile before your character can be hired.

    Send me up the long, delirious, burning blue :-)

    Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online
  • JoolanderJoolander Registered User regular
    Can I see my flight logs? I'm pretty sure I've shot down some alien scum, but I haven't seen my name in the mission debriefs

  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    edited October 2015
    That's partly because your plane might not have taken flight this month due to
    Joolander wrote: »
    In that case, I'll put my name in for an upgrade to a Foxtrot

    But only after I become an ace and shoot one of those fighters down

    Your condor is backing up the understaffed tenochtitlan base as their local defense against alien fighters...and they haven't sent any there this month.

    We've only seen one fighter this month , and it infringed on Olympus airspace.

    The condor is good in a fight, but it is too slow, it's range is too short, and it's radar coverage is too small to make it good for hunting ufos. Alien ships only get faster, as the game progresses, so condors mostly only have luck engaging ufos that are kind enough to intercept them.

    You're basically standing on the airfield daring the aliens to come at you, and they're all "nah, brah. I don't want to get rekt. "

    I'm sorry man. The budget called for keeping one condor, and the guy stuck in it was going to be the guy with the short straw. Then you went an volunteered for it. If it's any consolation, we're due to resume foxtrot production in a mater of in-game days. One will have your name on it.

    Although your question does raise another issue that I've been try to think how to best address.

    In September a whole lot of nothing happened, so I could mention every point of interest.

    However going forward, Air activity ramps up to the point where if I mentioned every sortie, we'd have pages and pages of "justice for Pluto investigated reports of spooky lights, but found nothing" and we'd be well on our way to page 100 before Christmas 1979. It stops being "We've detected a UFO" to "We've detected a bunch, everywhere. Scramble everyone! Then they can refuel, re-arm, and scramble again. You can sleep when you're drad" really fast.

    The aircombat has also entered the "boring" stage of "cb557 fired two torpedoes at the large scout from max range. The scout could only watch in horror as as it could do nothing whatsoever against the torpedoes. That's the fifth scout we've shot down this week. " Those don't make for interesting videos.


    I'm at least going to get your kill tallies and sortie records on display. But yeah, it's an issue I'm aware of.

    General_Armchair on
    3DS Friend Code:
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  • JoolanderJoolander Registered User regular
    You're basically standing on the airfield daring the aliens to come at you, and they're all "nah, brah. I don't want to get rekt. "

    I can live with this.

    But if that's what the mission reports say, then I MAY have gotten drunk and MAY have, um, ran an unsanctioned "weapons test flight" or two ...

  • Librarian's ghostLibrarian's ghost Librarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSpork Registered User regular
    Am I still on the aircraft wait list?

    (Switch Friend Code) SW-4910-9735-6014(PSN) timspork (Steam) timspork (XBox) Timspork


  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    Well that lucky alien took some steps forward and took some ineffectual potshots at the scout car. But that at least bought time for everyone to disembark and enter firing positions. Now somebody has to kill it.

    F7evb4Y.gif

    YAAAAY! We got him. It just took pretty much everybody to kill that one alien.

    Wait, there are more?


    Oh yeah. Would you look at that? There's the UFO. Immediately to our south on the other side of the road.

    3DS Friend Code:
    Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    Am I still on the aircraft wait list?

    Yes. Some time has passed since the mission I'm working on showing to you. We still have 2 suits of wolf armor left to produce, then we're back to making planes.

    3DS Friend Code:
    Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
  • FandaFanda Hang a shining star upon the highest boughRegistered User regular
    You could always skip straight to planes, leaving Phoenix-D and I looking uniquely fabulous.

    Remember, if everyone's wearing it, it's not chic anymore. We'd cease to be such a glamorous, morale-boosting inspiration to the rest of the men.

  • HyphyKezzyHyphyKezzy The Best On MarsRegistered User regular
    Gonna be starting my first go at this game soon and am picking up some great info to begin with reading this thread.

    !signup

    Mild preference for rockets but that might be redundant with the scout car in action now and I will serve wherever needed General_Armchair.

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  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    I'll add you to the queue once I get home. Rocket troopers are still useful for exploding things inside a ufo (like the a bridge full of aliens in cover ).


    I apologize for leaving you all hanging mid-report like that. I was planning to report a few turns each evening, but then I got busy.


    In the future I'll prepare the images and gifs ahead of time before starting the after action report.


    I hope to resolve some of the soldier queue issues and get everyone soldiers once I can afford to setup a barracks at each base. That's unfortunately still a ways off though. Tenochtitlan is only just now becoming operational and we don't have a base in Asia yet.

    3DS Friend Code:
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  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    HyphyKezzy wrote: »
    Mild preference for rockets but that might be redundant with the scout car in action now and I will serve wherever needed General_Armchair.

    You seem to be suggesting that at some point we'll reach "Enough Rockets" or possibly even "Too Many Rockets", which are words that just don't make sense in that order.

  • HyphyKezzyHyphyKezzy The Best On MarsRegistered User regular
    edited October 2015
    No, no, no. Just thinking more along the lines of now that we have the capabability to manufacture scout cars it might be more efficient for me to focus on learning to man the rockets there for when we have another. I mean if we can bring even more rockets into the fray that way then that's what we should do. But I do feel there is a more personal connection between a man and his fast flying phalluses of boom when they rest gently on his shoulder as they're fired off.

    HyphyKezzy on
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  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    OK. I see. I can't field two scout cars simultaneously. But I can pencil you in as the crew for the next one.

    3DS Friend Code:
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  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    Ok. Sorry for the huge delay. Let's get complete this mission report.


    z9ye1ai89z04.jpg

    Now that we've spotted the UFO, we need to circle around to the front. Heading to the left would take us through a heavily wooded area, and the risk of bumping into an alien and receiving a point blank burst of plasma fire is just too great. The alternative is circling around the small building to the east and then working our way south. Everyone starts working their way in that direction, and the scout car takes point.


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    Things get interesting fast as a lizard man appears from the forest and suppresses Slym with a series of near misses. We're in a bit of a tight spot because most of our guns have advanced forward and can't cover this rear position.


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    Fortunately Phoenix-D is able to throw a knock-out gas grenade at the alien. The throw is perfect and the alien finds itself in the center of a thick cloud of purple smoke.

    For good measure, Fanda hits the alien with a flashbang grenade. This suppresses the beast within the cloud of smoke. Hopefully the combined effects will incapacitate it.

    The rest of the team continues their advance to the south east. Fanda and Phoenix-D will be able to catchup by taking the shortcut between the building and the UFO once the rest of the team has cleared that area.

    3egyq6onmsg4.jpg

    Success! The alien collapses. We just need to complete the mission and we'll have successfully bagged ourselves a live one!


    phredq0raxcs.jpg


    A few rockets cleared away some trees that were obscuring our view of the door. We can setup a better firing position on the door now.

    The scout and megamek move into position to begin bombarding the craft, while Rhan9 and TeeMan cover the entrance with their LMGs.

    pk9fkogqr5vy.jpg

    With no signs of alien activity, I move more people forward so that we can unload a withering barrage of fire directly through the main door.

    yq8c87cht8oq.jpg


    Erlkonig blasts open the ship's entrance with a rocket. We can see at least three aliens ready and waiting for us. The floor plan is slightly different than what we've seen before. They have a barrier that most of them are safely hiding behind. This isn't good. I don't want to trade shots with them when they have solid cover like that.

    But the cover won't be an issue if Megamek can land a good knock-out gas rocket right in the middle of them.

    3DS Friend Code:
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  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    b81i4bv177hw.jpg

    Unfortunately Megamek's aim is off and the rocket hits the ground just outside the UFO. The aliens within the craft are mostly safe. I pull everyone back into concealment for the time being. They can't shoot us if they can't see us, and the smoke cloud at least prevents them from leaving the craft.

    j4qvszc8ru2z.jpg
    Erlkonig also fires one more rocket into the craft, killing two of the visible aliens and demolishing the cover.

    This is unfortunate because I wanted to utilize that cover for myself, but that many plasma rifles pointed at me was something I couldn't allow to remain standing. As you can see, the scoutcar is down to 68 HP. That is the result of some alien reaction fire towards the car. It is an armored vehicle, but it can only shrug off so many rounds. Burst fire from an individual rifle at close range is a threat. From 3? That's potentially lethal.

    3f9dpsxgyn9i.jpg

    In the distance I can hear an alien kill a civilian, so I know there are at least one alien out here in the field with us.

    The sound of doors opening is testament to the fact that there is at least one other alien within the craft.

    We still don't have eyes on the entirety of the bridge, so there may even be more aliens just around the corner.

    The surviving alien used its turn to take several shots at the scout car, reducing it to 53 health.


    g3yu44na8viv.jpg


    Rhan9 emptied his magazine and winged the alien with one bullet while suppressing it with the rest of the volley.


    s3c2vkcvqib6.jpg

    With the alien suppressed, Slym moved forward and dispatched it with a well placed shot.


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    Residual smoke is proving a bit problematic as I try to maneuver everyone into position (I need to register on the dev's forums and suggest some kind of gas mask for the sequel). Fanda and Phoenix-D manage to infiltrate the bridge and give the all-clear that it is clear of additional aliens. We are significantly light on firepower inside though. Just one shot gun trooper and a shield trooper armed with a knock-out gas grenade and a flashbang.

    The rest of the squad is ill-suited to fighting indoors. Unfortunately this is simply the way things our. Our generalist troopers have been the unluckiest and have all perished so far. We'll need a larger dropship before we can start fielding a larger group with a more balanced mix of specialists. We'll have to see what R&D can do that solve that problem in the coming months.

    In the meantime, the short term solution is to have someone drop their weapon and pickup an alien plasma rifle to use to help clear the UFO. Most of the rifles were destroyed in the rocket blast, but there is at least one that someone can pickup.


    x93d0bgg94o9.jpg

    The door to the reactor room opens and an alien runs out. He sees us, panics, and runs back into the doorway, then runs back out and crouches (I might make a gif of this later). Behind him a second alien armed with a plasma rifle takes up position in the hallway. The door closes and separates the two when our turn comes around.


    vv0arjwri0ph.jpg

    I don't want the rifle alien to charge out and blast someone point blank, so I have Phoenix-D a knockout the pistol alien with a gas grenade. Fanda then suppresses the alien with a few shotgun blasts so that it won't be able to get any reaction shots on anyone.


    tqdb87we7it2.jpg

    The first alien collapses from the gas, but the second opens the door and suppresses Fanda with a burst of missed plasma rifle shots. The door then closes and blocks the alien from view.

    While some of the gas does dissipate, it is difficult for me to get anyone forward to open the door to retaliate...

    Even if the gas wasn't there, it is difficult to safely open that door. There isn't room on either side for a soldier to open the door and then retreat to safety. They're forced to retreat in such a way that exposes their back to alien reaction fire, or the hunker down and risk catching stray bullets from their teammates.

    Phoenix-D is the only one armored up enough to safely perform that task, and he's suppressed at the moment.

    4nbgazogjxmr.jpg

    3DS Friend Code:
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  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    Lizardmen regenerate healthpoints between turns, so we can't afford to take our time and try to whittle it down. I opt to bring as much manpower to bear against the thing to overpower it. It's not an elegant solution, but it worked for the Red Army. The alien can't shoot everyone.


    i2tdykvjsuck.jpg
    !!!
    a burst of plasma fire catches the scoutcar in the side, ripping away 45 of its 53 remaining healthpoints!

    ocuvstzxi041.jpg

    At the same time, the door opens and the alien within the door way hits Slym directly in the chest with plasma fire. Slym collapses!

    Teeman gets some reaction shots on target, but fails to suppress the alien. The alien then retreats into the reactor room.


    vd20sk137xxv.jpg

    With 8 HP remaining, Erlkonig needs to kill the alien with retaliatory rocket fire. The armor cannot sustain another attack.

    22lbf0ne1mwu.jpg

    BOOM. Direct hit. No more alien.


    The alien is dead, but Erlkonig only has one rocket remaining. The scout car is essentially spent for this sortie. If there are any more aliens out there, the scout car is unfit to engage them.


    dentk5awvmtj.jpg

    The smoke is still proving troublesome near that back door (using the gas grenade by the back door was a distinct tactical error...). I hunker most of the troops in better position to prep to storm the reactor room now that some of it has cleared. The alien apparently comes back towards us (having regenerated the health lost the previous turn to Teeman's attack), and shoots Megamek. Megamek remains standing but is bleeding. Fanda repays the alien by blasting it in the face with reaction fire, but the alien remains standing.


    tluixm7dh3d2.jpg

    Phoenix-D opens the door and rolls a flashbang grenade into the short hallway, stunning the alien.


    syflb5mv0omq.jpg

    With the alien suppressed, Fanda is safe to move forward and kill the alien.





    3DS Friend Code:
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  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    3qqfwygelxgg.jpg

    Mission success. We've captured the UFO, its supply of alenium, and captured a live alien.

    Megamek was stabilzed, but sadly Slym was killed in action.


    Using the smoke gas near the back door was a mistake. It slowed down my assault significantly.

    Advancing everyone into the craft was risky, but I think it was the right choice. The lizardmen have incredible regenerative powers. You need to maximize firepower and kill them outright. You can't afford to whittle them down from a distance with reaction fire.

    It pains me to lose another soldier like that, but Slym's sacrifice gave our other troopers a chance to move forward and finish securing the craft.


    I dislike assaulting large scouts. They are IMO one of the most difficult UFOs to safely approach. The larger craft are dangerous due to the sheer number of aliens present, but assaulting a large scout is like trying to dislodge them from a spider hole.

    The main entrance is awkwardly positioned. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but a soldier who desires to open the door needs to walk a step into a short entryway. Upon opening the door, the soldier is near guaranteed to find multiple armed aliens facing him. He can try to retreat but he can't simply step to the side. He must retreat down the entryway and expose his back to reaction fire. If he stays in position, he risks friendly fire from teammates.

    Using explosives to clear the door partially solves the first problem. However the aliens are frequently in cover. Usually just with their consoles, but some variants have the armored barriers. Sometimes you'll have cover of your own outside the craft, but other times you don't.

    Once again, explosives are a partial answer. They can deal with the entrenched aliens, but you destroy the plasma rifles that you could have turned against the aliens and more importantly you destroy the cover that you could have utilized to more safely advance towards the reactor room.

    Gas weapons are another solution, but they're only partially effective. Sometimes you'll incapacitate the bulk of the aliens, only to get shot in the back by one that was hiding in the corner just out of sight and just out of range of the smoke.

    Once you get soldiers within the UFO, it is very cramped. Often your own men block the routes that other soldiers need to take to position themselves.

    The connecting hallway is its own danger. Like the front door, there isn't room for a soldier to step aside after opening the door. Whoever opens the door must risk reaction fire or friendly fire. The hallway also limits your numerical advantage as you move on to take the reactor room.


    Using explosives within the reactor room is ill advised because it will destroy the precious alenium. Gas is a pretty great solution for clearing this final room. Flashbangs followed by an executing soldier is another option.

    The whole ship is just plain deadly. I'm looking forward to when the aliens phase it out in favor of larger craft. In the meantime, rolling out additional suits of wolf armor will help against the next craft we assail. I just wish we would have had enough suits for everyone this time.

    3DS Friend Code:
    Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
  • SLyMSLyM Registered User regular
    :bigfrown:

    My friend is working on a roguelike game you can play if you want to. (It has free demo)
  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    edited October 2015
    SLyM wrote: »
    :bigfrown:

    My thoughts exactly.


    I would have thrown down a smoke grenade to try and obscure the alien's shot, but lizardmen are immune to smoke grenades.

    I made some mistakes there, but I thought the pillar would give you some cover from the hallway and the semicircle of guns pointed at the door would get the alien with reaction fire.


    I thought about leaving you outside, but there was still at least one alien on the loose out there. I figured inside surrounded by teammates that can take reaction shots would be safer than outside and alone while blind to your flanks.

    I was wrong.

    General_Armchair on
    3DS Friend Code:
    Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    It's the name of the game slym. There are casualties in war.

    a4irovn5uqjp.png
    Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
  • DockenDocken Registered User regular
    SLyM wrote: »
    :bigfrown:

    I will blast a few aliens in the face while I pour one out for you SLym

  • MegaMekMegaMek Girls like girls. Registered User regular
    Doesn't matter how many of my organs you alien bastards vaporize. I'll be back! I always come back!

    Is time a gift or punishment?
  • General_ArmchairGeneral_Armchair Registered User regular
    wejejrjxw3vh.jpg

    We've completed our initial analysis of the live specimen. The scientists spent a good deal of time observing its abilities to regenerate from grievous wounds. By studying the regenerative process, they've made some dramatic advancements to the field of trauma medicine and have upgraded our medical kits. Our new medkits are twice as effective as our original ones.


    ym3q06160cbo.jpg

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    R&D has also completed their analysis of the plasma pistol and plasma rifle. If we would have done this sooner, we might have been able to more quickly field some basic armor. Whoops. We're beyond that now, and the wolf armor is far superior to the jackal armor that would have been the result of following this line of research.

    Of note, our lab tests confirm what we've seen in the field. The plasma rifle is credible a threat to our armored vehicles.

    Available research projects are limited at the moment. Right now we're studying the operation of their plasma weapons to try and develop some new weaponry of our own.

    3DS Friend Code:
    Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
  • RichardRichard Registered User regular
    edited October 2015
    !signup

    Doesn't seem that dangerous. Please hand me a rifle and point me in the direction of the aliens when there is a slot available.

    Richard on
  • CampyCampy Registered User regular
    Richard wrote: »
    !signup

    Doesn't seem that dangerous. Please hand me a rifle and point me in the direction of the aliens when there is a slot available.

    Yes that's right, not dangerous at all...

    Here, hold this shield!

  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    Need to put a bullshit flash disorienter and tazer on the shield like you get in Rainbow6 Siege...

    As if 95% of your body isn't covered in a slab of metal, we'll give you a flashbang and a tazer while you still shoot with your lmg...

    ./end facetiousness

    a4irovn5uqjp.png
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