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Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: April 07, 2013, 10:34:35 am

[Xantalos]

((Eh, everything's easy on Easy. On anything higher than Normal Thin Men are a walking instakill for anything they shoot. Even if you're behind heavy cover 2 blocks away, hunkered down, they'll still hit and kill you. Because fuck you.))

[TCM]

((Eh, everything's easy on Easy. On anything higher than Normal Thin Men are a walking instakill for anything they shoot. Even if you're behind heavy cover 2 blocks away, hunkered down, they'll still hit and kill you. Because fuck you.))

((It's his first time learning all this stuff, give him a break. I don't know how anyone could win the game without save scumming if they went in on Classic with no prior knowledge.))

[Xantalos]

((Oh, I am, just responding to his thin men = inaccurate thing.
That said, you beat classic without any knowledge by being lucky as shit.))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Well, there goes that theory...))

((Which one?))

((The one where Grate is only immortal as long as his death is not caused by himself.

This also pretty much disproves "as long as he's observed" unless Steve counts as an observer, plus some exotic ones a-la "not killed by hostile action". Given that the condition is said to be very specific, I'm beginning to lean towards "can be killed by no man of woman born".))

[BFEL]

((Well, there goes that theory...))

((Which one?))

((The one where Grate is only immortal as long as his death is not caused by himself.

This also pretty much disproves "as long as he's observed" unless Steve counts as an observer, plus some exotic ones a-la "not killed by hostile action". Given that the condition is said to be very specific, I'm beginning to lean towards "can be killed by no man of woman born".))

((So queue up for a "I AM NO MAN" moment from some uwm chick later on?

I'm still going with "until STEPHEN HAWKING dies"

also I wonder if we can get multiple Grates if one of his bodies is revivable? !!SCIENCE!! must be done. Because can you imagine the horror on the UWMs faces when invaded by a all-Grate black ops team? That pops back into existence after every death? The fact he's a child makes it even more traumatizing :3))

[Empiricist]

((Yeah but if you think about it, knives, guns, swords, explosives bullets, lasers and (probably) space magic aren't men born of woman either ))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((But knives, guns, swords, explosive bullets, lasers, and (except the rarest of cases) space magic don't kill people. It's the people (and sometimes automated defense systems) that kill people. That one murderous knife doesn't count. As does Ivan's gauss rifle.

"Until STEPHEN HAWKING dies" seems like a good guess too, though given the nature of quantum mechanics (such as it is, and/or such as we know it) I think it won't end with just "no more immortality". More like Grate will stop being an infinite-state system and pick one of his many instances to stay as, permanently, with the rest retroactively ceasing to exist.

Meaning, he should stop dying already. If only to have more of a chance to end up in a living body once his stint as a videogame character ends.))

[Kriellya]

(( Wow. I sense a developing theme in Grates' existence I'm a little surprised you didn't get a dex roll as well, but eh, as long as PW knows it isn't a permadeath, it looks like he's going to throw Grate into the meat grinder XD ))

*Skylar whistles idly to himself while he works*

Check to see if I can help cut the outer seal. If it would be a reach, don't bother, just go back to studying one of the intact plates so I know what to expect alignment wise

[GreatWyrmGold]

((Well, there goes that theory...))

((Which one?))

((The one where Grate is only immortal as long as his death is not caused by himself.

This also pretty much disproves "as long as he's observed" unless Steve counts as an observer, plus some exotic ones a-la "not killed by hostile action". Given that the condition is said to be very specific, I'm beginning to lean towards "can be killed by no man of woman born".))

((Wait, that big propeller thing was born of woman?))

Meaning, he should stop dying already. If only to have more of a chance to end up in a living body once his stint as a videogame character ends.))

((Oh darn, I forgot, I was intentionally dying!))

(( Wow. I sense a developing theme in Grates' existence I'm a little surprised you didn't get a dex roll as well, but eh, as long as PW knows it isn't a permadeath, it looks like he's going to throw Grate into the meat grinder XD ))

((I wonder how long until Grate's deaths outnumber those of the rest of the HMRC.))


((And, seriously, how do you save? I haven't been able to find such an option.))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Well, there goes that theory...))

((Which one?))

((The one where Grate is only immortal as long as his death is not caused by himself.

This also pretty much disproves "as long as he's observed" unless Steve counts as an observer, plus some exotic ones a-la "not killed by hostile action". Given that the condition is said to be very specific, I'm beginning to lean towards "can be killed by no man of woman born".))

((Wait, that big propeller thing was born of woman?))

((Kill Grate permanently. Because by that logic, some woman somewhere gave birth to a van-sized rock, a hypervelocity metal slug, a wad of concentrated space magic, and a spinning blade thing.

...The Doktor really ought to ease up on those genetic experiments.))

Meaning, he should stop dying already. If only to have more of a chance to end up in a living body once his stint as a videogame character ends.))

((Oh darn, I forgot, I was intentionally dying!))

((Not intentionally dying perhaps, but you are putting Grate in odd situations. ))

((And, seriously, how do you save? I haven't been able to find such an option.))

((In XCOM? There's an option in the ingame main menu to save manually (during mission as well), and the main game options have an "autosave" setting that's off by default.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

Spoiler: X-Com Stuff (click to show/hide)

We figure out those arc reactors, dissect an alien, and create an arc reactor and everything else we need to capture an alien. Nice, productive period of time. And then...a new mission. Everyone except Castillo could come, but who is coming?

Operation Secret Skull
Veterans Emily King and Anastasaya Smirnova are joined by Maggie Hill of I need to get better at reading flags (although I can't find any information on what country has a blue flag with a white X on it) and Moshe Moshe of somewhere in Africa. Our briefing was "You'll be heading into Japan for the next one," which was incredibly helpful as it warned us that we need to be on guard for tentacle monsters and kaiju (and tentacled kaiju) in addition to the normal sectoids and thin men. Our mission: Stop a bomb from exploding. Pretty simple, I guess. Except for all the alien scum which will doubtlessly be crawling around trying to stop us.
We see "power nodes," which will be charging the "plasma bomb". Moshe and Hill head to the first one, while Smirnova and King head towards the second, figuring the rookies can handle the first. King spots a Sectoid, which promptly hides in a train car and begins Overwatching us. Hill disarms both like a champ before running into the train, getting shot at, and noting another sectoid and a thin man. Moshe runs directly through the train, glad that his armor is glass-proof, followed by King, who has the windows prebroken. I discover that I don't know how to use the Run And Gun skill Smirnova has, and that the thin man and the indoor sectoid both don't like Hill. I have her retreat out of the train due to having only one health thing left; she gets shot by the other sectoid (Overwatch) and manages to kill the first one. Moshe disarms another node before running to the next, right next to the thin man and discovering a couple (I think) more sectoids. Smirnov hurries to his defense, successfully running and gunning and critting. King disarms another node, hurries to the next on her level, and...sees the bomb. Smirnova disarms another node and shotguns a sectoid through a poor potted plant, King disables another power node before advancing towards the bomb. More nodes disabled by Hill, who really doesn't have much else to do since I'm keeping her out of the way in hopes that she does not die. Meanwhile, Moshe misses the last sectoid--again--before Smirnova simply runs up and presses her shotgun against its head. (And, to complete the mental image, you should probably know that I gave Smirnova pink hair before her first mission to make her distinctive. Because evidently shotgunning enemies at extreme close range isn't distinctive enough?) King disables the bomb, whoo.
A couple of Thin Men drop in. One shoots and critically woulds Hill as she moves along the train! Smirnova gets revenge with her last bullet. The other one gets missed with a frag grenade and shoots Moshe; two turns until he bleeds out. Smirnova and King both hit, the former a glancing blow with her pistol, the latter a blast with her shotgun.
One down; Moshe Moshe didn't make it. Smirnova (now with eight kills!) and King are promoted to Corporal. Hill is out of action for ten days. Nice deal for the rookies.

Life goes on. Two new laboratories go online. Carapace armor is developed, but we have only five out of the required ten engineers to make it. ("Couldn't we just have the engineers work twice as hard?" I ask. This nets me a dirty look. "I meant long," I say as an attempt to patch up, but I've already lost...) We begin analyzing weapon fragments, but those aliens begin abducting people before we can finish. There are three locations--Bloemfontein, Mumbai, and Ottowa. South Africa, India, and Canada are offering a sergeant (Heavy-class), four scientists, and a boost to funding, respectively...I suggest that we should construct another Skyranger soon so we can respond to more than one issue at once, getting dirty looks, before going to Mumbai due to higher panic levels in Asia (IIRC, given that we didn't rescue them there last time).

Operation Final Mist (Oh how I wish there wouldn't be any more mist).
Huang and Papa are joined by rookies Gaston Mercier of France and Hiroki Endo of Japan. Aside from Papa, they're all bald or nearly so. Funny how that worked out.
Mercier spots a couple sectoids around a green, prone-human-shaped thing who promptly run for cover. We are apparently on a rooftop, which makes total sense, especially given the bulk of the Skyranger. How does it even fly? That seems like it would require a huge waste of energy. Mercier climbs on top of a shipping container for a better spot and locates two more sectoids! If he survives the mission and I figure out how to unlock the nickname option, I'm nicknaming him Eagle-Eye, an especially good name since he killed a sectoid through said shipping container. Endo shoots but does not kill one of the first sectoids, which has the weird psychic glow. Huang finishes the second pair off, before Papa kills another. The second of the first pair shows up and shoots...someone successfully. (There are a bunch of people on that one wall. Good thing they don't have grenades.) The rookies split the last kill, and Huang takes position atop a shipping container. Papa quickly ascends up the building and hears something...odd. Papa investigates, everyone follows, Papa gets shot, and shoots back, hitting but not killing. Mercier follows suit, while Endo drops a story for a better shot and dispatches it. (The third bird gets the sectoid, I guess.) Huang joins the X-Com Parkour Team, while Papa shoots the last sectoid off the building, which brings his kill count (formerly one behind Smirnova) up to 9.
Papa got the nickname "Mr. Clean," which makes no sense, and was promoted to sergeant, which does. Mercier became an Assault, Endo a Heavy. Papa is out for eight days, Endo for five (attributed in part to botched parkour).

And I still don't know how to save...

((Well, there goes that theory...))

((Which one?))

((The one where Grate is only immortal as long as his death is not caused by himself.

This also pretty much disproves "as long as he's observed" unless Steve counts as an observer, plus some exotic ones a-la "not killed by hostile action". Given that the condition is said to be very specific, I'm beginning to lean towards "can be killed by no man of woman born".))

((Wait, that big propeller thing was born of woman?))

((Kill Grate permanently. Because by that logic, some woman somewhere gave birth to a van-sized rock, a hypervelocity metal slug, a wad of concentrated space magic, and a spinning blade thing.

...The Doktor really ought to ease up on those genetic experiments.))

((Precisely. Not one of those things was born of woman, so obviously it's not MacBeth's thing.))

Meaning, he should stop dying already. If only to have more of a chance to end up in a living body once his stint as a videogame character ends.))

((Oh darn, I forgot, I was intentionally dying!))

((Not intentionally dying perhaps, but you are putting Grate in odd situations. ))

((Let's see...Death 1: Rock, no way to avoid. Death 2: Teamkill. Death 3: Manipulator battery, which you might have an argument for, but seriously the Doctor is terrible at telling people not to do stuff. Death 4: Terrible roll.))

((And, seriously, how do you save? I haven't been able to find such an option.))

((In XCOM? There's an option in the ingame main menu to save manually (during mission as well), and the main game options have an "autosave" setting that's off by default.))

((What main menu?))

[Toaster]

((The Doctor probably wanted to see what would happen.))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((What main menu?))

((Er, the one you see when pressing Escape? Are you playing an XBox version or something? How do you exit the game?))

[GreatWyrmGold]

((What main menu?))

((Er, the one you see when pressing Escape? Are you playing an XBox version or something? How do you exit the game?))

((Alt-Tab.))

[piecewise]

((What main menu?))

((Er, the one you see when pressing Escape? Are you playing an XBox version or something? How do you exit the game?))

((Alt-Tab.))

Hit esc. Click save.