Time for the summary report. Let's start with base overview:
Guy Fieri HQ, located safely in Nepalese mountains from the very beginning, is still the main headquarters of X-Com. It has survived countless Syndicate raids, but no alien attack so far. In case of a base raid we're doomed, because the base layout doesn't include any choke points or any defensive facilities. The only thing keeping the aliens out is the mind shield and a garrison of 'elite' X-Com operatives.
This base's crafts are Guymarshall the Skymarshall and Troll Doll Beta the Raven.
The usual composition of a garrison should be 30 human soldiers, 5 hybrid soldiers and a tank. Guy Fieri HQ had suffered great losses lately, so the numbers don't check out at all.
This base is the house of the best shooter in X-Com - Mr. Pollution with 126 accuracy. Other great ones include Madame Abandonne, Mr. Silly, and Mr. Hatkat.
One of the problem Guy Fieri HQ is struggling with is the insufficient storage space. The scientists are doing their best to process corpses and captives, but I believe the true culprit here is elerium that the base has 400 units of.
Gordon Ramsay HQ has the secondary base of operation ever since the fall of Ainsley Harriott HQ. It was first made to cover the unreachable areas in southern Africa, but now that we can send Skymarshalls across the world, the base became just another general opertion headquarters.
Ramsay HQ houses Saucemarshall the Skymarshall and Lamb Sauce One the Raven.
The garrison in Ramsay HQ is also lacking a few soldiers and a tank. The soldiers here are not as notable as in Guy Fieri HQ, but I care about them nonetheless.
There really isn't much that can be researched without corpses or artifacts, but there are some topics that can be taken care of, namely the heavy troop transport for underwater operations, and Cyberweb HQ.
Paula Deen HQ is lying hidden in Amazon Rainforest and protected by a mind shield. Currently it's waiting for New Kitchen to cook up some ammo for it weapons.
I don't feel like taking screenshots of the agents screen, so I'll just tell you that there are 30 soldiers and two tanks, plus five hybrids that are about to arrive.
Those soldiers have seen only a single mission in which they have blown up a few acres of ranforest to secure a crashed UFO full of gazers.
New Kitchen in Hawaii is the main manufacturing facility where the rest of bases send their alloys. It's composed mostly of workshop and laser cannon arrays. I know using defensive facilities is a gamble, but I'm feeling lucky.
Back to the action, or rather research.
Aquatoids are sectoids that live underwater, as simple as that. I never remember how it really was in vanilla/TFTD, are sectoids actually modified aquatoids or the other way around? The sectoid autopsy suggests that sectoids are of aquatic origin, while aquatoid autopsy in TFTD suggests that aquatoids are modified sectoids.
In the reboot series both versions of sectoids have webbed hands and bioluminescent organs in their chests, which makes it pretty obvious that aquatoids were first. Not like that applies here; I just wanted to point it out.
Have we ever attempted a Team Magma robert tank rebellion mission? We either haven't done it at all or ran away when we realized we were lacking in firepower. Either way, we've got rockets and EMP grenades ready, and it's not actually night.
Looks like we're not gonna compensate low firepower with effective damage type. EMP grenades were more effective and took down two tanks immediately.
We just can't have good soldiers, can we? He took two tank shells, but if he really wanted to impress me, he would have survived.
Brute force over fancy strategy, got it.
Tanks keep killing everyone I grew attached to, and I'm not happy about that.
We got them with our rockets and cannons. I really hope Team Magma rewards us heftily, because we've lost two guys I cared about. If it was all for nothing...
So this is the heavy troop transport, huh? It's larger and faster than the Skymarshall, doubles as a radar craft, can be further upgraded with engine mods and electronics BUT it uses zrbite that we have a very limited supply as fuel. Unless we find a way to reliably and safely acquire large amounts of zrbite, this one is a pass.
We were so close... So close to greatness! He's one of two new rookies we didn't have to sack, so at least he's got this much going.
The sorcerer of Dagon has revealed that Atlantis is real, not just a thought experiment Plato used to get his point across. Maybe it will supply us with zrbite and aqua plastics in the end? I hope so, however unlikely that is.
Auto cannons, as we already know, are shooty guns with damage capacity only slightly lower than the heavy cannon. We'll quickly research the acquisition, then buy a plenty.
Sea monsters. This could be tentaculats, xarquids, hallucinoids, or something completely different.
No way! It's just a single lobsterman, but cracking it open will be a challenge. Unless we don't crack it open and take it home alive...
Mr. Replacement, get your stun rod ready! Our lives are in your hopefuly fast hands.
Well, that wasn't all that hard. Just one swing and it's down, which is not surprising considering stun weapons have always been a sure counter for lobstremen.
Oopsie woopsie, we've lost Lamb Sauce One to something that might have been a slightly bigger fighter. To add insult to injury, when Butterstorm Too took care of the bastard, it blew up instead of leaving a wreck. That were probably ethereals, but you never know.
Fascinated by the results of the Neo Zoku project gone wrong, the scientists of Guy Fieri HQ have decided to continue the Neo Birdvig project using DNA samples contaminated with sectoid genetic material. The rsulting hybrid turned out to be... below average in everything.
FUUUUUUUUUCK!
Maybe it will be safer as an extension of Guy Fieri HQ? In the best case we'll shoot down any troop transport that comes close to the base. In the worst scenario both bases will get instantly and completely annihilated by ethereals.
Alien programming is so organic-like that a sectoid medic could explain it to us. I can't tell if whtever is written here makes sense or it's just a string of sci-fi programmer buzzwords. Not that it makes any difference.
A sectoid guard has told us that when aliens get frustrated, they will send their biggest baddes dudes. Well, ethereals have always been the biggest baddest dudes around, so I'm worried how much further they could push the bigness and badness.
Wait, what? We've just unleashed a score draining UFO upon the world without any warning? I wonder if a Thunderstorm will be enough to tackle this.
Now we're in Germany, shutting down a jarhead factory. We've got some new toys for the job, namely a hovertank chassis for Crab, and autocannons for the soldiers.
Oh yeah, the building we've landed next to is the factory we're looking for.
This time Crab doesn't have any issues getting inside the building, even to the second floor. Obviously jarheads with their disguises on can't hurt Crab with their pistols, and they would have to be really lucky to hurt any of the soldiers.
This was too simple to pay to much attention to. What matters here is what I found out - soldiers develop psi-skill by using it even unsuccessfuly. Neo Zoku got two points by brain-tickling jarheads.
Out of all species the ethereals could use as their elite guards... Those aren't even psionically gifted sectoids, just basic bitch ones!
Okay, let's ignore the overwhelming UFO activity and focus on small missions such as this hybrid farm.
Or this supply ship. Okay, this is a big thing, but it's gazers that we have very limited chances against.
Maybe I should just clench my cheeks and hope for the best? Crab can't get inside, so it won't carry us. Nah, let's bail.
Futbols are so powerful that ethereals had to make a kill switch in case some of them broke out from mind-control. We've already experienced what a muton kill-squad is capable of.
That muton was an engineer and told us about fighters. Fighters are dangerous UFOs capable of downing a Raven with a lot of luck, but a Thunderstorm makes short work of them. 175 points for shooting one down, and a few navigators as a crew.
Now we know what the ionizer is worth. Turns out it's not much. It's a laser machine gun that's ridiculously heavy, slow to use, inaccurate, and not even that strong.
Speaking of... how the hell do we unlock laser guns? Is there any particular species of ayy lmao of a specific rank that we need to capture? A commander maybe? We could try capturing a sectoid commander, but there's a huge chance we'd lose most of the team if not all of them.
Meanwhile let's just have some fun shooting crackheads.
I hate those chain-link fences with a burning passion a man can only feel towards a fence.
We've killed all druggies quickly and relatively painlessly, wrecked their crackhouse and all cars in the parking lot. Neo Zoku has actually scored a successful brain-tickle, but that didn't do much.
TFTD deep ones, here janissaries, are human-alien chimaeras; tasoths may have some human DNA, being bio-engineered supersoldiers; bio-drones are made with human brains, but I wouldn't call them hybrids. I don't really see many hybrid races here, really.
Thanks to that interrogation we can now research the atlantis temple and Dagon himself. I guess Dagon sounds better than THE ULTIMATE ALIEN.
The ginormous Cyberweb mecha is apparently extremely damgerous. I'm glad I haven't experienced its full power, having destroyed both in one shot from across the map.
Finally a ship I can deal with. Too bad it's completely wrecked, down to the last navigation console.
Euphonium Mox is weak af, but he's got what it takes to become a great soldier - a steady hand, plenty of luck, and that smug smirk.
That goddamn smirk.
Am I the only one seeing it? All male hybrid have the same face. Esto es el fin, Jiren!
It was a simple cleaning job. Euphonium Mox frustratingly got no strength but plenty of TUs, stamina and accuracy. Welp, he's now a dedicated pistolero. Fastest hand in this arm of the galaxy.
Enough of chasin UFOs, let's keep doing stuff we're supposed to be doing - killing hoes. Guess we're thot patrol now. In all seriousness, Cult of Apocalypse prison break needs to be contained with lethal force or else we might lose points instead of gaining them. I hate this system, but that's how
mafia X-Com works.
Wait, why are Ms Bug Wind and Civilian Mox wearing tritanium vests again? It's okay on this mission since they compensate with their shields, but if we were dealing with something that can deal damage we would have been in trouble.
How was that for a training mission? I'm gonna take Euphonium Mox to the top now.
Tasoth factory? Woah there cowboy, we're still struggling with aquatoids, of course we're not raiding an underwater facility that produces aquatic supersoldiers with molecular control ability. We definitely should research further into T'leth arc so we can get us some diving suits. Also, what Dagon Statue? One of those from Church of Dagon pyramids?
Lobstermen may not even be aliens as it turns out. Now I kinda feel bad for zapping it with a stun rod and dragging it all the way to Nepal for inhumane experimentation.
Then Syndicate HQ mission showed up and I was pretty stoked about it. BUT. The game crashed as soon as we arrived. Apparently we're missing a sprite? I'll try to redownload the mod and try to fix it.
Oh here we go, that did something! Some research topics that weren't there suddenly showed up.
There was no info on shields before either. Sectoids and our hybrids use purple shields that are apparently bypassed by lasers. That's kinda counterintuitive, but okay.
Black Lotus avatars use gold shields now, but we don't have to worry about that at this point.
Then we re-researched UNIT, that is apparently a reference to Doctor Who. We've got another thing for X-Com Expanded Universe.
Something is fucky here - we've got huge laser cannons but no handheld versions to speak of. Oh god, Crab is out of control and it uses lasers irresponsibly! As a punishment we're not taking it to the next mission. Hah!
Look ma, normal human eyes! Actually the sunglasses are just doing really good job hiding Attenuation Mox's hybrid nature.
Here we are in the Syndicate HQ. Everyone's got the disguise, and hybrids still have their shields. We're packing mainly autocannons, heavy cannons and rocket launchers. Supersoldiers are still an issue, and there's a CEO or a few. We're split into two teams that are just a few tiles away from each other.
Yeah, the supersoldiers are here with their cannons and macro SMGs. Amazing how they can take a direct hit from a rocket launcher and still stand.
First turn and the CEO was killed both in his human and supermutant form.
One hell of a sneaky minotaur insta-killed Ms. Buyer and for some reason skedaddled up the elevator. Mr. Hatkat took advantage of the monster's abysmal under-armor and unloaded his autocannon into its groin.
This is what I like to see. First Route Mox has fried a supersoldier with her alien laser rifle. I hope she doesn't read into my decision of giving her this weapon. No, I wasn't influenced by the widespread stereotype; please don't sue me, Mutant Alliance.
Anyway, Mr. Replacement destroyed a second CEO's disguise with his Macro SMG, then Mr. Pollution killed the supermutant with his Asuka's auto-fire. Mr. Replacement's Asuka shots have 69 base damage thanks to accuracy modifier. Nice.
How is that for a base defense, huh?
I bet they never expected to be hit with a sonic-blasta rifle out of nowhere. Somehow a sonic blast managed to vaporize an agent leaving no trace? I could accept plasma; laser is a bit of a stretch, but it's a common trope, okay; sound waves? Only when a mixtape is pure fire, but we've established we're blasting Bon Jovi, not my mixtape.
The bodies just keep piling up. The autocannon can down a minotaur in a single volley and I think it's beautiful.
Just because we're taking down our evil counterpart and the Cyberweb ion guns are pretty crappy doesn't mean we can't play with those toys a bit. Mr. Gnome zapped a chump with a lightning thrower killing him in a single shot.
I just realized something - the Cyberweb is a company that produced androids just before X-Com Apocalypse happened, then they switched to making vehicle equipment. Interesting how they will go legit after terrorizing the world using energy from another dimension and everyone will forgive them.
Now they've got a mecha too? I want one for myself, dammit!
It's got some cool cannon and... a BlackOps SMG. The SMG seems underwhelming, but we're all unarmored in here except the hybrids whose shields are still easily busted. One of them was actually shot and is now on the floor bleeding. We've hit the mecha with some laser and cannon rounds. Unsurprisingly it's still standing.
Madame Abandonne quickly fixed that by going full auto on it with her autocannon. Then Mr. Replacement casually mowed down a supersoldier.
More mechas. It hit Ms. Leader with a reaction shot, and frustratingly she stood up when Mr. Contract healed her. If we had dart pistols this would be the perfect time to use one. Attenuation Mox hit the mecha with a rocket for what that was worth.
Good news everyone! The mecha shot its magnum (yes, really) twice and missed both shots, then a second mecha showed up, but was out of TUs. Attenuation Mox destroyed the newly-arrived one with a single lucky rocket, and the already damaged one went down after getting hit with Mr. Contract's autocannon round.
The most important thing is that most human enemies are going absolutely mental from all that murdering of supersoldiers, mechas and minotaurs.
The last thing keeping the HQ together, the last CEO. Ms. Leader killed him with a CAWS she picked up from the ground.
And the Syndicate is no more. It was a fun trip with those guys, especially at the beginning when I was convinced they were the end of us. Soon their own weapons, the macro SMGs, were turned against them, making them somewhat less threatening. Now we're standing in the smoking ruins of their headquarters, among their dead operatives and abominations, and wrecks of their experimental machines of war. Good game, Syndicate.
We've finally recovered the SS ring which apparently bears the Syndicate's last message.
Unsurprising.
I hope it's floaters this time, because we could actually tackle that mission quite easily. I did a spicy check and apparently it's ethereals. Fuck that noise.
Gee Bill, two secret organizations in one update?
Oh god, this could go beans up so badly. This place is even more packed than the Cyberweb fortress from before! That was to be expected, but still.
Killing hackermen feels good, but the first thing to do should always be neutralizing actual threats, especially heavy disruptors and centurions. The mecha went down after single EMP grenades.
You would think that Earth's brightest, most dangerous cyborg mad scientists would have a better plan B than running at armed supersoldiers, hoping to beat them up with bare hands. You would also think that they would ditch napalm grenades in an environment that requires their enemies to wear fireproof suits.
More roberts, more EMP. I know very little of the mod's resources are original, but I wish the centurions were green like robertspheres and robertturrets.
After the machine fell, technomads strted panicking en masse, signifying that the battle is slowly turning into a hunt.
We've found the battleship and it's got one of those big bitch plasma cannons from Doom Eternal except small. Kinda defeats the purpose if I gotta be honest. I'm not looking forward to getting inside that ship though.
Doesn't look that bad, does it? I doubt any hackerman will have a gun at this point, although roberts may still prove dangerous.
Just waltzing in like we own the place. Subdermal fisting implants have nothing on autocannons used as blunt weapon.
All in the day's work. We've got two blocks of text for our effort:
Our long battle is over - we took control of the great flying vessel. A miracle of technology, born on this distant, alien world. Although a work of criminals, it still inspires: if a bunch of maniacs built something like this, how far can all of humanity go with enough determination?Literally a minute after the last shot died out, Council representatives arrived on scene. 'Congratulations on your mission, Commander. The Earth is grateful. Now please tell your men to leave this vessel - we brought a trained crew to operate it.
Thank you, Commander, for your enormous effort in taking control of Dimension X. Now it is our turn to make sure it remains so. And we will use this ship to protect our main base here.'I'm okay with this. Let me just pick up my ion blaster and heavy disruptors for study, and I'll be happy never to come back here.
We actually had some rookies on this mission, but despite that everyone came back home alive. Even Crab got 4 accuracy for its effort.
Okay, so since I've finished this mission with no losses, I can give advice to people who are yet to play this mod:
-a hovertank is extremely valuable in this mission - it can easily shrug off any energy weapon Cyberweb throws at the player, fly up to become a center of attention, safely draw reaction fire, fire its cannon to devastating effect.
-prioritize your targets. Robertspheres are harmless; most technomads are unable to hurt the soldiers ether because they have crappy damage type or crappy accuracy; robertturrets are dangerous, but not the highest priority; technomads with heavy disruptors can one-shot, so they should be disarmed first, unless...
-...there are centurions nearby. EMP grenades one-shot them or at least knock them down. The grenades can also be used for disabling clusters of other roberts, obviously.
-don't panic when your soldiers get pelted with napalm grenades. Every armor available on this mission is fireproof, meaning that the damage from napalm will be negligible, and there's no chance of anyone catching fire.
-be prepared to shoot a lot. The weapons enemies use are underwhelming, so bring plenty of ammo.
---
Mr. Lump and Pikachu1 next time.
We're about to shut down both the Syndicate and Cyberweb at roughly the same time. That means we'll be done with all human enemies who can be defeated in this version of the mod, and that we'll probably get some cool prizes. I hope so at least, I've never been this far before.
Also, I didn't know which name to use for this update, so I used both.
Author
Topic: I don't want to believe - X-Com Files (Read 90923 times)