Hey, everybody else has started a let's play and abandoned it. Lets Play X-Com!

[BRC]

Sign Me up sir! I hope that one day I can get in the hall of X-Com legends along with the likes of Fri, HWP lopez, and whoever kills Copper.

[Jimorian]

Another recruit for the team. Any role available.

The random name generator can actually create my real name, but I've only seen it once. I died.

BTW, a game question. Is there any way to control the order of how the soldiers are placed on the landing craft?

[chiasaur11]

Another recruit for the team. Any role available.

The random name generator can actually create my real name, but I've only seen it once. I died.

BTW, a game question. Is there any way to control the order of how the soldiers are placed on the landing craft?

Not without X-Com Util.

Other than that, the only guarantee is that Lopez goes first. Which is good, since he's the only guy who can take a hit.

[Eldan]

Sign Me up sir! I hope that one day I can get in the hall of X-Com legends along with the likes of Fri, HWP lopez, and whoever kills Copper.

SIR! Will we really accept a bloody red one into our glorious institution?

By the way, I'm the real Eldan. The other one was a spy. Ready to go back to action when all the new recruits are dead.

[BRC]

SIR! Will we really accept a bloody red one into our glorious institution?

By the way, I'm the real Eldan. The other one was a spy. Ready to go back to action when all the new recruits are dead.

My blood is red, which means I'm human. More than you can say.

[chiasaur11]

See?

That's the X-Com paranoia and distrust we need to be a full on alien fighting machine!

Played out the next two days of posts already. They get...

interesting.

Spoiler

Show

Interesting enough that I resort to some of the bad habits I acquired on my first playthrough. The game broke our gentlemen's agreement, well, I can't be guaranteed to hold up my end.

[Copacetic]

Signing up to blast some aliens, sir!

[Kzickas]

Signing up

[The Dark Fiddler]

Name the fort for those we have lost. The Mighty Michael "Fawcett" Mays Memorial Fort.

[Alex Knight]

Sir! Ready to throw grenades at dirty alien scum and filthy human symps, sir!

I humbly request permission to use my preferred entry method of "open door, throw grenade, wait" when dealing with dirty alien scum bases and ships!

[Artanis]

Bah, noob! Everybody knows the proper entry method is, "throw grenade, wait, throw grenade in new door, wait"

[chiasaur11]

Bah, noob! Everybody knows the proper entry method is, "throw grenade, wait, throw grenade in new door, wait"

I thought it was "Send rookies until all enemy TUs are used, then send in troops who can shoot straight" for early game, and either "Blaster Bomb" or "Send in rookie, mind control everything from the safety of the skyranger" for endgame.

[BRC]

I thought it was "Use heavy Plasmas to blast a hole in the wall, send in the rookies to waste enemy TU's, fire a rocket in there, then chuck a few grenades in there in case any of the rookies aliens are still alive"

[Alex Knight]

Bah, noob! Everybody knows the proper entry method is, "throw grenade, wait, throw grenade in new door, wait"

that only works with alien grenades or heavy weapons. Normal frag takes too long to make new doors.

[chiasaur11]

I thought it was "Use heavy Plasmas to blast a hole in the wall, send in the rookies to waste enemy TU's, fire a rocket in there, then chuck a few grenades in there in case any of the rookies aliens are still alive"

Sadly, Plasma doesn't break UFO outer walls.

Darn shame.

[Copper8642]

"Fry's Playground" get's my vote.

Also, (on the assumption there were no other promotions yet, but I'd guess there were and you just didn't say), as the other Sergeant in X-Com so far, permission to lead the rookies at the new fort when you build it, sir? Except then I couldn't watch over your stores, and I know you love my work, sir. Maybe there's a way I could keep track of them from the other fort? Internet and cameras? Tarot cards? Rough guesses?

Or you could keep me around and keep fawning over me like you do. I don't care, I know you wouldn't try to kill me.

*Walks away to write up 7 more reports on the stores, to hand in promptly when finished; all the while dodging bullets for practice. He thinks about saying a quick prayer for the fallen, but nobody told him who died. Shame they wouldn't let him out of the storeroom when there wasn't a fight against the xenos to be had. Information never passed far enough through the grapevine to get in here.*

[pendell]

Er.. hello? I'm a software engineer looking for a career change, and I'm answering your ad for 'life of adventure! Hot technology! Sexy babes! Lasers and aliens! No experience necessary, call 1-800-RED-SHRT and ask how YOU can make the world a better place today'.

So .. um... I point the end with the hole towards the bad guys, right?

Respectfully,

Brian Pendell (Name in game Brian P.)

PS. Request my character be armed as light infantry (laser, 2 grenades, 1 proximity grenade) and be given a shock rod. If by chance I walk into an alien I wouldn't mind snatching him for the eggheads back home -- BDP.

[chiasaur11]

Er.. hello? I'm a software engineer looking for a career change, and I'm answering your ad for 'life of adventure! Hot technology! Sexy babes! Lasers and aliens! No experience necessary, call 1-800-RED-SHRT and ask how YOU can make the world a better place today'.

So .. um... I point the end with the hole towards the bad guys, right?

Respectfully,

Brian Pendell (Name in game Brian P.)

PS. Request my character be armed as light infantry (laser, 2 grenades, 1 proximity grenade) and be given a shock rod. If by chance I walk into an alien I wouldn't mind snatching him for the eggheads back home -- BDP.

You're volunteering for cattle prod duty?

Well, who are we to deny you the... most glorious of duties?

(Here I thought I'd need to get some other poor unwilling sap once Copper's finally finished off.)

[pendell]

You're volunteering for cattle prod duty?

Absolutely.

A) Until we get alien stun bombs, shock rods are the only reliable way to get prisoners. And if there's a sectoid terror raid, we'll absolutely need to grab a leader so as to get an early start on psionics.

B) Say what you like; there's nothing quite so satisfying as beating the $#$#T%#%# out of a sectoid with the ugly stick.

Hell, I'm a red shirt. We all know I'm going to die charging valiantly into a UFO soaking up plasma for the vets behind me. Might as well have some fun on this express ride to the afterlife!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Pie Guy]

I call lotting the next bodies, don't care which species!

[Thanatos 51-50]

Can I be the head of the Science department?
:P

Truthfully, I know next to nothing about X-Com, but this thread appears entertaining, so monitor it I shall!

[Redpieper]

Cadet Red signing up sir! My momma says aliens took her in their space gizmo years back, did all kinds of stuff to her. I'm here to show 'em there ain't nobody, alien or otherwise, who messes with my momma and gets away with it!

(Just send him in to the front and watch him get massacred )

[Artanis]

Can I be the head of the Science department?
:P

Truthfully, I know next to nothing about X-Com, but this thread appears entertaining, so monitor it I shall!

The premise of X-Com is this:

The Earth is under attack by aliens, and a bunch of governements got together and created X-Com to keep the aliens from taking over the world, namely by finding and destroying their base of operations before you go broke or get wiped out. The problem? You can't find, much less kill, the damn place, and until you do, you have to go toe-to-toe against VASTLY superior soldiers, technology, numbers, resources, mobility, and logistics...and oh yeah, guys who like to mind-control your soldiers into shooting each other.

However, you have two things giving you a fighting chance: the ability to research better technology (including alien tech), and soldiers who get stronger as they gain experience...assuming they live that long.

[Tengu_temp]

However, you have two things giving you a fighting chance: the ability to research better technology (including alien tech), and soldiers who get stronger as they gain experience...assuming they live that long.

And the fact that the aliens are bloody stupid and move around as if they were stoned. But, seeing how the Alien Entertainment tech looks like, they probably are stoned.

[chiasaur11]

Right.


As February rolled in, X-Com decided to give the fallen soldiers a fitting memorial, and a better defense for the US at once. This impulse led to the building of Fort Fri. Although right now it's nothing much, a hanger should be done by the end of the month, allowing us to kill aliens invading the USA. As is the local custom, any prospective interceptor pilots are being trained in cheesy one liners. So far, we have nothing better than "Welcome to EARTH!" but scientists are confident of "Aliens" level quips by the time we're operational.


Another impressive bit of progress: Alien Alloys. We now have metal that can take a hit from plasma and just shrug it off. Although I can't really see the point. Lopez can do that already, and none of the current crop of non Lopez troops seems worth protecting.

Of course, the base only went a few days without activity, and the latest job was a doozy. The alien menace was attacking Chicago! Even if I prefer New York style, Pizza is a sacred institution. If this was Canada, sure, they could get away with it. But the windy city, site of X-Com's official Michael Jordan based platformer? Not. On. My. Watch.



Upon landing, Lopez scouted out the area. As usual, he spotted a tango almost immediately.


This target, though, was new. It was some kind of hover tentacle faced pile of ugly in a cloak. They were imitating our clothing, the thing which makes us human or unusually unfortunate pets. This insult would not stand.

Instead, it would lie on the ground with a smoking laser hole in its chest. Score another one for the Sarge.


A second one dropped almost as easy as the first. Seems the Windy City was going to be no trouble. Or whatever incredibly minor suburb we were in. I mean, there were no buildings above three stories. Disappointing, as I wanted to know what a HE autoround would do to the Sears tower.


Well, sending Headless Ninja north at least let him test Fri's old autocannon on a suburban home. It turns out, they explode nicely.


Also, there was a floater hiding behind it. That also exploded nicely. But the main point was blowing up the house.


Lopez checked out the eastern housing complex, but it was guarded by a fence. Showing the initiative that put him on the fast track for X-Com success, he blew it open, spotted a floater about 100 yards away obstructed by a whole house's worth of useless detritus, and promptly finished it with one round to the back of the head.


A couple more floaters snuck by the save mart to the west, but my deadeye reflexes let me drop them like flies.


When checking a warehouse for more of these flying pains in the butt, we spotted the civilian population. It seemed that Chicago was again at its rivalry with New York, this time in an apathy contest, as none of the people we met seemed to care about the high energy gunfight in question.


Lopez went south, continuing his search for potential problems, and found another nasty. Some kind of giant two legged monstrosity, it quickly was dubbed "The Reaper". As it turned out they were, in fact, less dangerous than the civilians, this nickname was rather regretted.


As the mission wore on, Atranis and Ninja grew bored with waiting for targets, and decided to just blow the crud out of a random warehouse for no reason.


Needless to say, this shows initiative, but the continuing lack of concern from the locals made me wary. Could they be infected with some kind of deadly apathy virus?

If so, it might be enough to get rid of copper. I immediately sent him to collect one of the corpses. Sadly, there was nothing of interest except a wallet with fifty bucks. Which was promptly declared X-Com property.


Reflexes and dead aim dropped every alien we found fairly steadily, and caused a ton of property damage, but somehow, we avoided killing any of the irritating local crowd. Lopez, however, had some trouble with the last floater, and received another heavy plasma round to the plating. The ____ing thing was ten feet in the air! Atranis, however, said that just made it a sitting duck, and vaped it. Now that's the attitude we want in an X-Com operative.

The mission was a resounding success, with ten aliens of two new species dead, and only one third of the locals dying horribly. X-Com did better still, with exactly zero casualties or injuries. Needless to say, this merited promotions! I promoted myself to Captain, with ninja, Atranis, and Bouregard filling the rather large gap I left on the sargental level.

As we headed back to base, we all felt we deserved a nice week off drinking and releasing blurry Youtube videos of the aliens being idiots. Sadly, this wasn't in the cards.

[Winterwind]

And the fact that the aliens are bloody stupid and move around as if they were stoned. But, seeing how the Alien Entertainment tech looks like, they probably are stoned.

My guess is that controlling millions, maybe billions of alien clones at once gets confusing for the big brain, even with the aid of the Ethereals.

EDIT: Mmmm, nice. This will go a long way in terms of public relations, enforcing the impression in the populace that we are protecting them, rather than being out for world conquest ourselves.

[Artanis]

<Zoidberg> Hooray! I'm helping! </Zoidberg> I eagerly await pictures of my attempts to support the mighty Lopez

[Alex Knight]

Yay! I'm not dead yet!

[Neo]

lol, any chance I could be strapped to the forward hull of Lopez the mighty HWP. In order to protect what is clearly our greatest asset.

PS. Personally I think Lopez should have been seargented.

[Fri]

I know the real reason for building the new fort with my namesake was to make me feel obligated to haunt it rather than annoying the main base. Despite that, I'm still kinda touched. I guess I'll move there on one of these days.

For this time, congratulations! I still think we need to capture one or two of them. No, I'm not saying this because my existance as a ghost is kinda lonely.