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[GiglameshDespair]

Officer training school, and then start pumping out laser weapons.

[IronyOwl]

Training school!

Also, is smoke medic a good idea? We have so much dakka already and medic aim is so awful that I figured it'd be a better approach than overwatch medic. But now I'm wondering if, what, five smoke grenades a mission is excessive, and stats aside the raw overwatch tree does look pretty nice.

[Sheb]

Smoke grenade are very useful later in the game, when you can't reliably kill in one turn anymore.

Also, wait for the lasers I'd say, we're going to have our plate full.

[Mephansteras]

Two things to keep in mind:

First, the Smoke Grenade Perk works like the Field Medic Perk in the sense that you get an automatic bonus medkit/smoke grenade regardless of whether or not you have one equipped. I usually have my medics keep a medkit on them, since they end up with 3 uses that way, but even if you didn't have one equipped you'd still have one medkit use. Smoke is the same way, so you'd always have one even if you didn't use up a slot for smoke grenades. Although you have a lot more available if you do carry the item as well. So with both perks you can effectively have 4 different items equipped if you want. The ability to throw a smoke and still move/fire/overwatch/whatever is also a pretty awesome aspect.

The Overwatch tree is pretty awesome, though, even more so with mediocre aim, actually. Overwatching has a .7 aim modifier unless you have Opportunist, so your overwatch shot with Opportunist would be better than a character with higher aim's overwatch without it. Plus, Opportunist lets you do crit damage on overwatch, which when combined with Covering Fire gives you a pretty decent chance to take down an enemy attacking us before they even get to fire. Very handy, and gets even better with Sentinel. Covering fire without Opportunist isn't nearly as good, though, since you're usually attacking enemies in cover and end up with a very low chance to hit. So Opportunist stacks a bit better with your current Perk choice.

Like I said before, though, all three perks at this level are awesome for Medics and I'm really quite happy however you go.

[Darkening Kaos]

Officer Training School!

+1.

Then, arm up with lasers asap.

[Tiruin]

The Overwatch tree is pretty awesome, though, even more so with mediocre aim, actually. Overwatching has a .7 aim modifier unless you have Opportunist, so your overwatch shot with Opportunist would be better than a character with higher aim's overwatch without it. Plus, Opportunist lets you do crit damage on overwatch, which when combined with Covering Fire gives you a pretty decent chance to take down an enemy attacking us before they even get to fire. Very handy, and gets even better with Sentinel. Covering fire without Opportunist isn't nearly as good, though, since you're usually attacking enemies in cover and end up with a very low chance to hit. So Opportunist stacks a bit better with your current Perk choice.

There's a new ability under the Overwatch tree that lets:
"If a soldier has only fired their weapon and not moved this turn, they automatically end their turn in overwatch."

So imagine a soldier with Opportunist taking a first-turn shot at a muton berserker.
...Two free hits
(Also Overwatch gets an awesome boost in LW.)

[MaximumZero]

OTS first, then weapons.

[Mephansteras]

I order the construction of an Officer Training School as well as the excavation of the last of the second level.


Australia requests some Sectoid Corpses to study in exchange for a skilled Scientist. We have plenty on hand, so I oblige.


A little while later we get another Medium contact coming in. This one is...different. It seems to be activly scanning!


Flash is launched in the hopes that he can, if not take down the UFO, at least damage it enough to stop whatever mission it is on.

Unfortunately, he is unable to keep up with the craft and suffers a fair amount of damage in the process. He does manage to get some good hits in, though.


Without any service ready aircraft, we're forced to simply monitor the UFO as it continues to fly above Africa.

Our observations of the Alien craft are interrupted, however, with news that the aliens have changed their tactics. They are directly attacking Washington D.C.!



While many of our more experienced troops are still fatigued from their last missions, we do have some on hand to respond to this new threat.


Operation Hidden Heart begins...

[UXLZ]

Yay, I've finally gotten an avatar. Bay12's system is weird.

Fun note about my mental process: The words that pop up are usually on a parallel to what the exact term is.
Meaning: They can be FAR off course that way. XD Despite me envisioning the idea with vivid and full clarity.
...Yeah ._.

Maybe you should just resort to images from the beginning then. xD
Out of curiosity, is English your first language?

Nup!
Technically my third (First = nat'l language; second = local dialect), but seriously--second.
...Due to me not mastering my local dialect >_>

On an interesting side-note, Tiruin, I'm currently the only other player character who's a scout.

Scout buddies!
I've done some tinkering with the training roulette [from memory]--it does work, but on some ranks, it doesn't (ie Sergeant rank = same set per class [that means a nice Hit and Run for Assaults, for example).
Like, the Assault does get Run and Gun, and at the last rank is possible to get Lightning Reflexes.
Same goes for the Scout: they get Lightning Reflexes, then at the last rank may get Hit and Run.

...But that's all from memory anyway ._.

Your English is incredibly good for not being your first language. A lot better than many people for whom it *is* their first language, anyhow... >_>

I don't know *why* we're the only scouts. The class seems incredibly interesting from what I've noticed thus far.
Do you know if we get a cloaking device later on?
(I'm not sure if you've noticed but I'm trying to base my character off of the Ghosts from Starcraft.)

My vote goes towards the best option!
Ninja'd, I guess the best option was OTS.

[GiglameshDespair]

Anyone can get a cloaking device later with the Ghost armour.
Or there's ghost grenades, which do much the same thing.

We won't be seeing either of those for a long, long time, though.

---

And the terror mission, and we don't have lasers. This may hurt....

[Toaster]

Terror mission?  It was nice knowing you folks.

(Though I'm surprised you didn't send me on Portent and the first terror mission in an attempt to get me killed off.)

[RangerCado]

The terror mission won't be that bad guys. I've played through it a few times, not too big an issue with atleast 3 'veterans'. And this one has 4 vets plus the two specialists.

[Mephansteras]

Spoiler: Operation Hidden Heart (click to show/hide)

The aliens seem to be hitting a major train yard. This place is full of civilians! We need to move fast if we're going to save them.


The pack of Floaters moves into view almost immediately


Unfortunately, most of them immediately go on to Overwatch, which seriously limits our ability to move around and engage them


Underhill's sniping ability is unaffected, of course


And Tenrin finished off the badly injured alien as the rest of the team prepares rockets to flush the aliens out from behind the train cars.


A group of strange insectoid aliens moves into the area! They are incredibly quick, and on the squad in a heartbeat!


Unprepared for the speed that the creatures can move, only Kaos manages to get a hit in. The creature is barely phased.


Taking advantage of the squad's focus on the new aliens, the Floaters begin picking off civilians.




With the new threat so close, we can't do anything to help the civilians. Tenrin uses an AP grenade to heavily damage the insectoids.


Which allows Villiams to take one out


Kaos another


And our Rocketeers to team up on yet another



Underhill manages a rather tricky close range shot to put an end to the big one.


We've put down all of the insectoids, but managed to do nothing to stop the Floaters from slaughtering civilians!



To make matters worse, another group of Floaters moves up to assist the first group!


Tenrin tosses her HE grenade into a cluster of them, taking care not to injure any civilians


Allowing Villiams and Underhill to pick off another two of the monsters while the group tries to reposition on the others



Kaos tries to keep the closest one pinned with a hail of bullets


The Floaters begin to reposition on us as well


And continue their senseless slaughter of civilians



The squad retaliates with all the force we have available.
McSheb blasts a group of Floaters with a rocket


Underhill tags another, but isn't able to kill it off


But Tenrin shows them what an Infantry can do when Righteous fury is on her side



And Bruciare turns another Floater into scraps of flesh and metal


Whether insane or simply dedicated to the end, the floaters continue with their mission


Kaos takes down one with a stream of lead


And Underhill wraps up the mission with a well placed shot


While we took no injuries ourselves and killed all of the aliens, the team can't help but feel we let Earth down today


And it seems that many in the United States find our intervention to be cold comfort.



@UXLZ: I wish Tiruin had gotten Scout! The overwatch from those Floaters really limited my options that mission, and Lightning Reflexes would have been invaluable. But she did really well anyway.

Spoiler: Soldiers (click to show/hide)

I was hoping we'd have a few more promotions than that to give out, but at least everyone will be back in fighting condition in a few days.



Tiruin, you can take Steadfast (Immunity to many panic types and +5 Will), Executioner (+10 Aim and Crit against badly damaged enemies), or Covering Fire (Overwatch triggers on alien attacks as well as movement and +3 Aim)

Not long after, we discover that the UFO managed to locate and shoot down one of our satellites. Unfortunate indeed that Flash wasn't able to do more damage to it!


Panic is rising across the globe, with North America particularly worried about the alien attacks. I can only hope that we are able to turn things around soon.


Fortunately, we have some projects finishing up soon that should help a good bit!

[Mephansteras]

As a follow-up to their Terror attack, the Aliens bomb several cities in the United States. It seems they are trying to break their will.


In response we get a request for Alien Fragments from the United States, which we gladly fill. It's not much, but perhaps it will make enough of a difference.


A few days pass and our preliminary research into Beam Weapons is finally complete!



I immediately order Shen to begin building an array of Laser Weapons for the squad


Even selling off some of our extra Drone wrecks to pay for an Autolaser


However, we now need to decide what to research next

We could work on being able to capture aliens for study, research into genetically modifying our own soldiers, perform autopsies on several alien types, work on better armor, look into some additional combat gear, or try to get more advanced beam weapons (sniper rifles and Laser Cannons for our fighters).

[GiglameshDespair]

Advanced beams