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[Blood_Librarian]

Happerry's Plan: (6) Happerry, Cnidaros, strongpoint Stabby, Madman, Blood_librarian
Khan Boyzitbig's Plan: (1) Khan Boyzitbigb
Operation Zebra: (1) Roseheart

Happerry's Plan: 1 Interceptor each to Bogey 001 and 002, 1 Skyranger with NOTSOFT troops to Bogey 003
Khan's Plan: 1 Interceptor to Bogey 001, 1 Skyranger to Bogey 003
Operation Zebra: 1 Interceptor to Bogey 001, 3 Skyranger with rookies to Bogey 003

[10ebbor10]

Battle Resolution

Mission Type: Intercept
Craft(s): 1 Raven
Destination: Egypt

The small UFO tears through the thin atmosphere above Egypt at hypersonic velocity, descending steadily towards it's destination. It's sleek, dark hull blends with the darkness of space above, it's flickering shields making it shimmer as if it were a gemstone set into the sky. It's a serenely beautiful sight, which is shattered suddenly when UFO's plasma turret opens fire.

A burst of veridiscent plasma bursts through the sky, just barely missing the closing Raven interceptor. In response, the cutting edge XCOM interceptor opens up the throttle, and jumps towards the UFO. The pilot confirms his target, and takes aim.

Still closing quickly, the interceptor launches a missile from beneath each wings. The Avalanche missiles sweep towards the UFO, which enters a tight turn to avoid them. One missile looses course and overshoots, but the other hits dead on. The armor piercing warhead detonates, and a supersonic jet of liquid metal pierces through the UFO's hull. A part of the hull dissappears suddenly, and debris spills out of damaged compartment. Wounded, but far from defeated, the Ufo continues on.

Another missile volley erupts from the wings of the interceptor, sweeping towards their target. A veridiscent plasma burst speeds the other way, hitting the cockpit head on. The superheated plasma washes over the plane, scouring away the paint, melting the fuselage, until the entire thing disintegrates, half melted parts dropping down towards the Earth.

But even from death the interceptor still strikes true. Radar imagery shows the UFO tumbling from the sky, landing somewhere deep in the desert. Without an interception team ready however, we have to wait until other forces can secure that side. Whatever damage we've done to the UFO must have been tiny, because the site is empty when forces arrive, and we have some radar returns of a ship claiming back to space.

Efforts to recover anything from the site are unsuccesfull. Initially, there are claims that some of the debris shed from the UFO was recovered and sold to tourists, but recovery of some of those supposed artefacts revealed them to simply be random scraps.

Result : Mission Intercepted, UFO got away.

Mission 2

Mission Type: Harvest
Craft(s): 1 Small Scout (1VP)
Unit loadout: 1 Sectoid (Plasma Pistols, Meld container) (1UP, 1EP)
  1 Scout Drone (1UP)
Destination: South Africa

Fire engulfs the UFO as it descends towards the Earth from space. It's hull appears to deal effortlessly with the heat, but the UFO does not appear entirely immune. It's sensors are blinded by the heat, letting the Raven sneak in from below. Despite the heat, the design differences between the UFO and any human craft are obvious. Unlike a human craft, the UFO does not appear to have a clearly defined front and back. Instead, it looks as if it were capable of flying backwards or forwards as easily as any other direction.

Not that it gets any chance to show of such tricks. From the perfect firing position, the Raven fires 4 missiles straight into the UFO. One still misses, 2 tear great rends into the hull, but the last must have hit something vital, as the entire UFO goes up in a ball of flame.

Result : UFO Destroyed

Mission Type: Harvest
Craft(s): 1 Small Scout (1VP)
Unit loadout: 1 Sectoid (Plasma Pistols) (1UP)
  1 Scout Drone (1UP)
Destination: Nigeria

Contrary to the two other missions, the UFO in Nigeria has already been on the ground. UAV reconnaissance, though complicated by repeated plasma fire from the landed UFO, eventually identifies all the aliens on the ground. There appear to be the scrawny pink aliens found earlier ("now classified Sectoids") and some kind of tiny, floating silvery orbs. They appear to be trying to capture as many humans as possible, with the silver orbs hunting them down before injecting or electroshocking them, while the sectoids drag them back to the UFO.

The Skyranger appears just as the UFO's are wrapping up operations, moving quickly to avoid plasma fire. Our NOTSOFT squad gets dropped of on the town's edge, and effectively moves to engage the enemy. The following data has been derived from footage streamed from the team's equipment kits, as there were no survivors.

The battle was brutal, but brief. Our NOTSOFT soldiers showed enormous tenacity in the face of adversity, but they were outnumbered, and the enemy had an uncanny knowledge of our movements. Their scout drones popped up from unexpected vents and nooks and crannies, injecting our forces with severe tranquilizer and poison, or electrocuting them into unconsciousness.  Their weaponry fires hot plasma blasts, tearing through the walls of the structures our forces hide in, and inflicting horrific burn wounds. Our forces don't go down easily, killing sectoids and scout drones, but they go down eventually.

With the town left burning behind them, the remaining sectoids take off with their UFO and disappear into space.

Result : Operation FAILURE

Spoiler: Technology (click to show/hide)

Vehicles

Raven (Interceptor) : Way beyond the bleeding edge of technology, the Raven is far beyond any other jet fighter ever build on Earth. With upgraded avionics, adjusted tracking, and advanced pulse detonation engines, the Raven is capable of pursuing even high speed alien craft. If needed, it can use it's avalanche missiles to shoot down any intruders.   Cost :   2  VP

Skyranger (Troop Transport) : World's first supersonic troop transport. The Skyranger is high speed, heavily armored troop transport, capable of deploying and retrieving a single squad of soldiers in various situations. Cost : 1 VP

Equipment

Basic XCOM Rifle : XCOM's standard rifle. Cutting edge, custom designed, yet still affordable. Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0

Basic XCOM Grenade : A simple grenade. Activate, throw, explode. Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0

BASIC XCOM PISTOL : A simple, highpower pistol. It packs a pretty heavy punch, making it an effective if chalkenging sidearm Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0

Training Program

Rookie Training Program : A basic introduction to the entire Xcom project. The absolute minimum that any soldier needs to know to operate successfully at XCOM. Cost : 1 Unit Points.

NOTSOFT training regimen : The harshest of harsh training regimes. Provides forces with a wide variety of skills, as well as injuries and trauma's. Less than effective due to high fail rates and a focus on harshness over training. Cost : 3 Unit Points.

Mission Profiles

Interception : A simple mission profile that focuses on intercepting an alien vessel as soon as it's detected, destroying it before it can do any damage to any innocent people.

Down and Capture : A more complicated mission profile that focuses on downing an alien vessel (or waiting for it to land), and then storming it with ground forces.

XCOM Resources

Island Mountain HQ [An isolated, hidden underground base on a remote island in the Aegean]
Aereal reconnaissance program : A simple program that allows us to requisition drone reconnaissance on suspected UFO sites.

5 VP
3 UP
3 EP

It's now the design phase.

AABBCCDD

[Strongpoint]

BSR Fuel
By combining all achievements of modern chemistry, including secret military projects, X-com develops new jet fuel that allows to increase  range, speed and payload of all of its aircrafts.

I want to focus on our airforce to maintain decent chance of intercepting the enemy. Better fuel should increase interceptions chances and it is useful experience in chemistry which we'll need later.

Also, we learned that capturing intact landed UFOs is hard. We shouldn't try that.

[Happerry]

Honestly what we most need right now are more vehicle points, not better vehicles. We seem to have a pretty even odds verses the UFOs right now, but with how costy Ravens are we just can't send enough out. If we'd had one more vehicle point we could have dropped two Skyrangers on the landed UFO, or followed up one of the ones we shot down with a Skyranger and hopefully had more luck verses a damaged crew. If we had two more vehicle points, we could have done the triple rookie squad wave tactic and still hit the other UFOs with an Interceptor each.

...Also, I don't see any Jet Fuel we come up with competing at all with the stuff we'll get from the aliens, and I'd like to at least get Alien Alloy before we make a new interceptor design.

As such, I'm gonna make my own suggestion.

Enhanced Mass Production Lines
Through leveraging Serial Mass Production and concentration of resources, it will become possible to build dedicated factories able to produce the vehicles that XCOM needs, thus allowing additional aircraft to be deployed across the globe, giving XCOM more flexibility in their ability to respond to alien incursions.

BSR Fuel (1): Strongpoint
Enhanced Mass Production Lines (1): Happerry

[Strongpoint]

...Also, I don't see any Jet Fuel we come up with competing at all with the stuff we'll get from the aliens, and I'd like to at least get Alien Alloy before we make a new interceptor design.

Future tense is a key here. Besides it is not a dead end tech. Jet packs are the most likely future advancement. Mixing alien fuels and ours may be a route, too

If we'd had one more vehicle point we could have dropped two Skyrangers on the landed UFO, or followed up one of the ones we shot down with a Skyranger and hopefully had more luck verses a damaged crew. If we had two more vehicle points, we could have done the triple rookie squad wave tactic and still hit the other UFOs with an Interceptor each.

Chances are that we won't be that lucky next time and they'll send ufos to Amricas or Australia or Far East.  Look they noticied that we intercepted their missions. I think at least half of their missions. And all in Africa. They'll avoid it and Europe like fire.

How having more Ravens will help us to protect every continent? We need more range and faster interception. It is important.

[RoseHeart]

Q. Why do we know what was inside the UFO we blew up?

Q. Guessing the "You have now entered the Intercept phase." is a leftover, but I may be wrong.

[10ebbor10]

Q. Why do we know what was inside the UFO we blew up?

You know it's in very tiny pieces now.

Q. Guessing the "You have now entered the Intercept phase." is a leftover, but I may be wrong.

You saw nothing.

[Happerry]

How having more Ravens will help us to protect every continent? We need more range and faster interception. It is important.

...The VP we have doesn't change if they send something to Africa, South American, the Arctic, or Japan. If we have a better interceptor, that'd just be another thing we can spend our VP on, and probably a more expensive one if it actually is better, which would end up with us having less coverage in all because we'd not be able to send as much craft out. More VP = More Craft we can send out in the interception phase = the actual way to get better coverage. More range and more speed do nothing to help us with how much we can cover at a time, it just means that the ships we do send out fight better in their duels.

Future tense is a key here. Besides it is not a dead end tech. Jet packs are the most likely future advancement. Mixing alien fuels and ours may be a route, too

All flying armor type stuff and alien fuels in the games are based off Elerium, which isn't a chemical at all, and run off some sort of gravity drive thing, which doesn't involve any form of jet fuel and won't be added by them. The easiest way to get better jet engines, if we want them, will be to get alien alloys and then use superior alien materials to make superior jet engines that can take more abuse and stress then current designs.

[Strongpoint]

If we have a better interceptor, that'd just be another thing we can spend our VP on, and probably a more expensive one if it actually is better

I am not offering to design a better interceptor. I am offering to design a better fuel for both of our existing aircrafts. It is a very different kind of action. I fail to see how it will make our fighters cost more VP

which would end up with us having less coverage in all because we'd not be able to send as much craft out

We can get a single contact next turn somewhere over Australia. And VP won't help us at all. It doesn't matter how many fighters won't get there in time

All flying armor type stuff and alien fuels in the games are based off Elerium, which isn't a chemical at all, and run off some sort of gravity drive thing, which doesn't involve any form of jet fuel and won't be added by them.

We don't have to mimic the game. We can go for hybrid technologies anytime we want. After all Elerium is a limited resource. Also, I am not even sure that X-COM flying suits aren't hybrid tech in the first place.

[Chiefwaffles]

Let's not do "better fuel" please. Mediocre improvements that would be quickly obsoleted unless we specifically try to keep soon-to-be-mediocre tech once we have better stuff available just so we don't waste it. For our revision, we should do the revision to NOTSOFT. For our design, I say we should shore up on ground combat. Because that's extremely important for progression if we want to base any of our stuff off of alien tech. We have to capture their stuff before we can use it.

So let's go over our ground combat disadvantages. I've bolded anything relevant.

The battle was brutal, but brief. Our NOTSOFT soldiers showed enormous tenacity in the face of adversity, but they were outnumbered, and the enemy had an uncanny knowledge of our movements. Their scout drones popped up from unexpected vents and nooks and crannies, injecting our forces with severe tranquilizer and poison, or electrocuting them into unconsciousness.  Their weaponry fires hot plasma blasts, tearing through the walls of the structures our forces hide in, and inflicting horrific burn wounds. Our forces don't go down easily, killing sectoids and scout drones, but they go down eventually.

So, our disadvantages in list form:
1.) Being outnumbered - pretty straightforward.
2.) Uncanny knowledge of our movements - just general battlefield awareness. Perhaps from the scout drones?
3.) Scout drone ambushing - whereas #2 is them having good awareness, this is us having poor awareness.
4.) Plasma - also pretty straightforward; they have plasma which tends to be good at killing people.
5.) Tranquilizers, Poison, and Electrocution - all stuff their drones use to deal with our forces. But unlike plasma, this can be seen as easily counterable. The question is whether it's worth trying to specifically counter this.


It seems to be that the main problems are #1 and #3, and #2 to a lesser extent. #1 is very easily solved by revising NOTSOFT. #3 and #2, however, are more difficult. So I'm going to bring back up a proposal I made a while ago.
The TAV (below) should greatly help our battlefield awareness without being too difficult.



Design: Tactical Awareness Visor
Designed to be able to be equipped by itself or embedded in any helmet, the TAV is an Augmented Reality HUD for our troops. The TAV is a transparent visor that displays images on itself with the illusion of them being physical objects in the real world - "augmented reality".

Using numerous small cameras - such as infrared, visible, and the like - combined with a small integrated computer, the TAV can help our operatives' awareness in the field. The main use is target recognition. Through heat, shape, sound, and more interesting techniques like looking for the pulses of living beings, the TAV can very reliable detect anything it judges as a living or relevant entity. These entities are highlighted based on familiarity - fellow operatives get green (no rookies shooting other rookies), humans get blue, unknowns get yellow, and confirmed threats get red. In addition to very easy recognizing of targets, the varied cameras ensure that it works regardless of visibility - NO MORE NIGHT MISSIONS the aliens can't hide in the dark. The highlighting also works behind walls and other obstructions in case something like the sound sensor picks up movement out of sight. There are also indicators if any movement/beings are detected behind/to the side of the wearer.

It also has other functions deemed relevant like current mission objective, the status of any networked devices (like "ammo in gun"), radio status, and anything else deemed relevant. But the main feature is target recognition and highlighting, which should greatly help in any case; especially against a stealthy and unknown foe.
While not necessary for operation, the TAVs can share data with each other - so if your TAV-equipped squadmate can see something, you can see it (highlighted) too. The TAV also displays the vital signs of allies based on their own vital sensors and the estimated condition of aliens based on their pulse.


TL;DR: An augmented reality HUD that highlights targets+allies in different colors using a large variety of sensors and has some other miscellaneous functions. Open for improvement in the future too.
((References: MS HoloLens - A commercial - and very cheap relative to us - AR device; Automated Target Recognition - just general info on target recognition stuff; Kinect - Not AR, but is also commercial, "reliably" recognizes humans, can sense pulses through the skin, skeletal recognition, and more all while being a fraction of the price of even the HoloLens; and more. The ideas of "target recognition" and "augmented reality HUD" are already fairly present in modern culture and civilian+military tech.))

BSR Fuel (1): Strongpoint
Enhanced Mass Production Lines (1): Happerry
Tactical Awareness Visor (1): Chiefwaffles

[Happerry]

I am not offering to design a better interceptor. I am offering to design a better fuel for both of our existing aircrafts. It is a very different kind of action. I fail to see how it will make our fighters cost more VP

If it's enough of an upgrade to make the craft better, the craft will be more expensive because that's how arms race games work. Better stuff costs more resources. If its not enough of an upgrade to make the already beyond the bleeding edge interceptor better, which it probably won't be because the thing is already the result of all the shiny modern stuff being put together to make the best fighter possible, then it won't make the Raven better and we'll have spent a design action on something that really doesn't help us.

which would end up with us having less coverage in all because we'd not be able to send as much craft out

We can get a single contact next turn somewhere over Australia. And VP won't help us at all. It doesn't matter how many fighters won't get there in time

Er, what? I think you need to reread the rules. There's nothing at all about location that effects the VP. If they send one ship in over Australia, we'll still have 5 VP and will be able to attack it with 5 VPs worth of stuff. This applies if they attack in South America, China, Russia, USA, Canada, the Antarctic, Poland, Britain... The only thing Location has any effect on is who's panic meters are going to start going up. Range and speed has literally nothing to do with how many aircraft we can call up to meet attackers with, unless you count how the faster something is the more expensive its going to be, so the fewer of them we'll be able to call out. Which is basically the reverse of how you're suggesting it effects our ability to respond to attacks.

We don't have to mimic the game. We can go for hybrid technologies anytime we want. After all Elerium is a limited resource. Also, I am not even sure that X-COM flying suits aren't hybrid tech in the first place.

We can go for whatever technology we want, that is true, but going for 'let us combine all the best modern high tech to make better fuel' when the Raven is already described as something made beyond the bleeding of tech with shiny new engines, I'm really quiet doubtful that we'll be able to actually make something better when we don't have any new ingredients to work with that was not also available to the people who designed the Raven.

As for the flying armor, in NuCom the precursor research for both the Hover S.H.I.V and the Archangel Armor is the New Fighter Craft research, which is all about making a new craft that uses all alien tech. That might not be definite but it is highly suggestive.

OldCom flying armor on the other hand... it's literally their normal power armor with some small device strapped to its front. I mean, really, just compare the two images. That's no hybrid technology application, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were made by strapping a Floater's anti-grav device to a power armor.

[Strongpoint]

If it's enough of an upgrade to make the craft better, the craft will be more expensive because that's how arms race games work.

Well... nope. Not every tech increases cost. And even if GM will consider that aircrafts with better fuel cost more VP... see below

There's nothing at all about location that effects the VP. If they send one ship in over Australia, we'll still have 5 VP and will be able to attack it with 5 VPs worth of stuff.

Sure we can use all 5 VPs... or ten if we'll have them. But all of them may fail getting there because it is too far\they are too slow. While fewer but better will be able to get there in time.


Going for upgrading land forces is not something I like. We may not get a ground combat chance. That means wasted (short term) action. Upgrading airforce is never wasted

Mediocre improvements that would be quickly obsoleted unless we specifically try to keep soon-to-be-mediocre tech once we have better stuff available just so we don't waste it.

It will be obsoleted only when and if we switch to all-Elerium powered airfore. I doubt that this will happen considering how limited this resource is. Also, any experience in chemistry is useful. Also, it gives an immediate almost guaranteed impact, because there will be some combat in the air. Same can't be said about land combat so it is far less urgent even if we are  behind there.


Guys, we kicked their asses in the skies... what do you think they'll do? My bet is that they will improve their UFOs. We can't afford ourself to try to win by numbers (we may not even get close enough to them to use the numbers) or go for ground forces (we may get no chance for such kind of battle)

[Chiefwaffles]

What?

Our forces don't go down easily, killing sectoids and scout drones, but they go down eventually.

This is easily "we get a chance." Remember that one NOTSOFT squad takes as much resources as three regular squads.

We're doing fine in the skies. We don't need to improve there. If all we did was improve in the areas we were strong in without ever addressing our weak points - especially when our weak point covers half of the game - then we'd lose the game.


Ground combat is extremely important. It's required to get new tech from the aliens which, as it happens, is critical. We're doing poorly in ground combat. We really need to address ground combat.

[Strongpoint]

This is easily "we get a chance." Remember that one NOTSOFT squad takes as much resources as three regular squads.

Should we shoot down zero UFO ground forces will get a zero chance  to capture anything no matter what toys we give them. We shoot down something, our current troops do have a chance. This is why in early game it is far more important to improve our airforce.

We're doing fine in the skies. We don't need to improve there. If all we did was improve in the areas we were strong in without ever addressing our weak points - especially when our weak point covers half of the game - then we'd lose the game.

I can say that if all we do is addressing our weaknesses we'll lose the game. It is nothing but an opinion. There are different strategies. We don't play the game in a vacuum. We are doing fine now. They react and we aren't doing fine. We are doing badly. We need to maintain that fine or even go further. When we'll be ahead enough to know that they can't catch up in one action, we can switch focus.

[Chiefwaffles]

Nope.

Contrary to the two other missions, the UFO in Nigeria has already been on the ground.

We do not have to shoot down UFOs to capture them.