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[Chiefwaffles]

Sure, but I don't think the aliens are going for our command infrastructure (this time). My current belief is that the fact that our Cwhatever loop is there just plays into whatever the hell the human people are doing there and keeping from us.
Which is still very much potentially bad. Just a different kind of bad.

[Aseaheru]

 Nor do I, but the fact that its a potental outcome for them to get access to the whole from one site is horrible.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Thunder of the Guns (0):
KEEP THEM OUTTA OUR SYSTEMS (0):
Vengeful Line (0):
Cryptic Prophet (everyone lol : Chiefwaffles, Madman, AseaHeru, MoP, Happerry, Carefulrogue, 0cra, Stabby

Jeez I wonder which option is going to win three of them are tied...

[10ebbor10]

Bogey 1
Vessels Detected : 1 Small Vessel
Location : Canada
Current Situation : Landed
vs
Down and Capture: Bogey 1 (Canada, Landed)
Operators "Permission to Use a Real Gun, Sir" - Engage, keep eye out for suspicious human(/alien) activity. Clear area, prevent alien retreat, hunt down all alien combatants and potential infiltrators.

Our forces encountered the alien forces some distance from the main satellite dish, before they managed to get close. With some time to prepare, our team set up a defensible position on a ridge and waited to lure the enemy into an ambush.

The first sign of the enemy came when one of their weird flying pancakes tried to ambush our drone. A simple shot from the Guardian turret reduced the poor creature to a pulp. Follow up shots tore through the forest cover with ease, allow us to kill several more of the creatures, their attempts to conceal themselves made pointless by the multiple viewpoints offered by the Guardian, drone and tactics visors.

The aliens took very little time to organize themselves. With surprising coordination, the pancake aliens started to make their way towards our position, even under fire. The sectoid followed soon after, offering covering fire with their plasma weaponry. Even so, our advantageous position combined with our turret and significant skill advantage over the sectoid forces would have made this an easy victory, if not for one thing.

Once the eyed pancakes (Ophanim) closed, they began to sing. It was not quite a song as can be understood by human ears, and it could only be heard if one looked into one of the Ophanim's eyes, but every time it happened it would fully entrance one of our soldiers. The automated turret and other team members could make quick work of each Ophanim which exposed itself in this manner, but even the momentary disruption was sufficient to wound several of our soldiers.

In the end, when the aliens withdrew, a combination of the casualties taken and a delaying action by the remaining Ophanim prevented us from stopping the UFO from taking off.

The real weirdness however occured when we entered the facilitiy. All data regarding to the unusual experiment was removed, and the research group responsible turned out not to exist. Only a few interns were present to administer the experiment, but they knew little useful information.

Victory
Gained : 1 alien weapon fragment, 1 alien remains
Gained : 1 Intel token [Can be activated to trigger a special mission, which gives unique loot]

Bogey 2
Vessels Detected : 1 Small Vessel
Location : India
Current Situation : Airborne
vs
Interceptor

The sleek, shimmering craft pierces through the clouds on it's way down to the surface. Macarena grinned, as she had the fighter right where she wanted it. With a push of the trigger, she send two missiles after the alien craft. The alien vessel responded rapidly, twisting and changing it's course, pulling up with unnatural swiftness and back into the clouds, a sudden course reversal that too great for the missiles to follow. Return fire followed, and the clouds turned a sickly green as they were illuminated by the plasma blasts.

Macarena had the enemy right where she wanted them however. At extreme range, and firing through dense clouds, the plasma bursts where not as much of a threat as they would usually be. Instead, the bolts diffused and lost their energy before they reached her plane. It was a short lived advantage however. The swiftness and maneuverability of the alien craft meant that it could close in with alarming speed. She sent 2 more missiles towards the alien craft, before engaging in evasive maneuvers as the plasma projectile started to come in ever closer.

This time, the alien vessel is not as lucky. One of the missiles comes close enough to strike the craft, creating a large tear in the side of the hull. Macararena has no opportunity to capitalize on this weakness however. Her own interceptor is clipped by a plasma blast, scorching the wing, damaging her engine and remaining weaponry.

However, it appears that the UFO has suffered damage as well. It breaks off, and heads back to orbit.

Bogey 3
Vessels Detected : 1 Small Vessel
Location : Brazil
Current Situation : Landed

Unopposed, the aliens quickly storm and secure the mission. Large parts of the collection are damaged in the attack, though surprisingly there are no casualties. Preliminary investigation indicates that the aliens apparently stole from the museum's collection, with missing objects ranging from large dinosaurs fossils to small cultural artefacts. Some missing objects can be explained as destroyed in the aliens ransack, others as having been stolen in the chaos, but not all.

Bogey 4
Vessels Detected : 1 Small Vessel
Location : South Africa
Current Situation : Landed

The aliens were in the midst of kidnapping the villagers when our skyrangerSkyranger dropped into the village. The squad deployed immediatly, and opened fire upon the disrupted alien forces. The aliens here possesed the exact same equipment as in Canada, though the circumstances of battle were different.

In confined environments, theor PDW easily outmatched XCOM's our own equipment, and the Ophanim allowed them to take our several of our soldiers. This tactic was limited in effectiveness however due to our strong squad coordination and TACTICS visor, which prevented the enemy from isolating individual soldiers.

Even with our drone being taken out early in the fight, we managed to retain tactical dominance of the battlefield, allowing us to pin down and eliminate their  forces. In a running battle that ended us with a firefight inside the enemy vessel, we managed to eliminate all enemies.

Gained : 1 Meld, 1 UFO hull, 1 Alien Power core


Black Market

The following items have become available on the black market

Veteran Personnel:
Elerium
Advanced Weaponry
Doctrinal Support

Spoiler: Starting Tech (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 :   1  VP

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

Equipment

Standard Issue Weaponry: The best of the best (within reasonable price range), from armories all over the world.

Breaching Charges : Heavy duty demolition explosives, great for blasting into enemy UFO's if you don't particularly feel like getting them intact. 1 EP

Autonomous Portable Weapon "Guardian" : Autonomous 20mm man-portable deployable turret. Can be operated in assisted or autonomous (fire at anything non-human) modes. Heavy. 1 EP.

"Sky Eye" Recon Drone : An unarmed civilian recon drone with multi-spectrum optics capable of interacting with the Guardian system. Limited by data throughput issues.  0.5 EP.

TACTICS : A high tech visor that provides squad awareness, interfaces with our technology and more. 0.75 EP per squad

Training Program

Rookie Training Program : New recruits drawn primarily from member state militaries, who have completed basic introductory courses to bring them up to speed with the XCOM project, but are basically normal soldiers.  Cost : 1 Unit Points.

Operator :  Soldiers who have completed at least one batch of Killinghouse tests with adequate scores.  Cost : 2 Unit Points.

Master Operator : Soldiers with extensive experience with the XCOM project, and considerable training on the Killinghouse's most difficult courses  Cost : 3 Unit Points.

Close Combat Specialist : Assign a close combat specialist to the chosen squad. This does not increase squad size. Can not be deployed independently Cost : 1 UP

Engineer : An engineer specialized in the use of drone, robots and turrets [Decrease cost of 3 pieces of applicable equipment by 0.25 EP] Cost 1 UP

Mission Profiles
- Interception: A basic mission to destroy incoming UFO's.
- Down and Capture : A basic mission to force UFO's to land and then capture their valuable materials
- Investigation : A basic investigation mission, that tries to find Ethereal symphatizants.   

XCOM Resources

3 VP
6 UP
3 EP

1 meld, 1 ufo power core, 1 ufo hull
1 alien weapon fragment, 1 alien remains
1 Alloy, 1 Nav
1 Intel token [Can be activated to trigger a special mission, which gives unique loot]

Main Base :  Germany  (Europe)
Subsidiary bases
- China (Asia)
- Mexico (North America)

Spoiler: World (click to show/hide)

Africa
---> Egypt
---> South Africa
---> Nigeria

Asia
--->Australia
--->China
--->India
--->Japan

Europe
--->France
--->Germany
--->Russia
--->United Kingdom

North America
--->Canada
--->Mexico
--->United States

South America
--->Argentina
--->Brazil

We have entered the Design phase

TURNTURNTURN

[Screech9791]

So we know the aliens are using energy weapons now, and what seems to be psionics. I'll come up with a potential design once I get back home, currently I have to get dragged on a bunch of errands IRL.

[Aseaheru]

 So, points of contention are:
>we need better weapons for close quarters
>Something to prevent us looking at the enemy. Sealed helmets with camera feeds would do it, and allow for more armor at the same time.
>Air/Space superiority required.


 For Black market gubbins, I suggest experienced troops and Elerium. Troops are always good to have, we dont have Elerium, Weaponry upgrade is nice, but not vitally acquired from the black market, and doctrinal work is something I think we can handle ourselves.

 As for a design, we should really be working on air superiority tech. I think for the moment an airframe is beyond us, so that leaves weaponry. If their plasma weapons work in the same manner as they do in the Xcom games, I think a railgun would be our best bet, and better. Will edit in a design shortly then.

 Actually, have two designs, because soldiers lives matter and I got distracted by material science somehow.

Project Nail

 Based loosely upon existing research into electromagnetic accelerators by various human groups(I.E., China and the United States) and the fragments of alien weapon and power technology we have encountered, Project Nail aims to have the end result of producing a self-powered railgun that will eventually form the basis for a whole family of weapons, ranging from aircraft guns to, eventually, handheld examples.
 
 The item design, known as the "60 penny gun" or alternatively the "horseshoe" is a roughly 30mm coilgun intended to fire at high rates of, well, fire. The coilgun design was chosen specifically to facilitate this  rate of fire, with worry of wear on a railguns rails and preexisting high-rate of fire coilguns existing.
 
 To be specific, our alien alloy, the alien weapon fragments and the alien powercore are to be used for this research.

Project TACTIC-AL-LY Blind Man is composed of two key parts; the armor system designated as "Blind Man" designed to counter the enemies 'flying flapjacks'; and TACTIC-AL-LY, integrating the TACTIC-AL system into said armor.
 The end goal is a new set of unpowered armor, composed of the woven kevlar/carbon nanotube/neoprene undersuit; plates composed of graphene, carbon aerogel, thermoplastics, carbon nanotubes, and, should our scientests learn enough about the mechanical properties of it, our 'alien alloy' providing most of the actual armor potential of the suit; and finally the "Blind Man Helmet", constructed similarity to the armor plates, styled in a manner reminiscent of Bascinets, with one key departure from existing designs. Namley, with the visor latched shut, there is no way to see out save for the integrated upgraded form of TACTIC-AL(basically just incremental improvements).
 Key components of this "TACTIC-AL-LY" system include biomonitoring systems in the undersuit, cameras located around the helmet and in the arms able to pick up infrared light in addition to visible light, and an expanded interface within the helmet intended to provide a view asthough the user was wearing no helmet at all.

To be clear, this is to use the Alloy.
 

[Chiefwaffles]

Ohohohoho.
So, probably a new weapon. Railgun works but XCOM did make a railgun as a pretty early design in the first AR. I would still happily vote for one but ideally we could have some kind of different idea. Or if we do end up doing a railgun, at least try to make it somehow different than last game's.

Whatever it is, the weapon should (IMO) aim for being Guardian and Interceptor-mountable. In hindsight doing the extreme-overkill 20mm cannon for the Guardian turned out to be really helpful here (in addition to in the combat report). Already having a heavy weapons platform should make it easy to do a weapon for interceptors and the Guardian in one design. Design a weapon for the interceptor, then decrease the barrel-size/whatever and lower range a bit and bam.
This way we can get some nice fire power for the ground in addition to helping our interceptors.


Regardless, this went deliciously well. We just need to make sure that the aliens can't revise(/design) away most of the advantages of the TACTICAL/Guardian. Weaponry is probably important, though I don't think it's super essential.
Also important to note, we found Meld which, per XCOM:EW, is a suspension substance containing billions of cybernetic nanomachines that are very proficient at assembling structures between tissues and/or technology. Perfect for genetic engineering, cybernetics, and probably a lot more but those two examples come to mind first as they're in the game.


Questions for Ebbor:
1.) Are all the items in the black market regular tokens? As in, they'd just help to some degree with relevant designs/revisions when used?
2.) Is there anything we can tell/predict about the potential intel special mission in advance before completely committing to it? (So we can get some vague ideas of how to equip/train operatives for the mission)

[Happerry]

Can I ask for some information on what kinds of things a Doctrinal Support token would let us do?

Also I too shall not support railguns because that's what we did last time.

Beyond that, does anyone else think that it might be a good idea to use the turret as a basis for a SHIV/HWP type design besides me?

[Aseaheru]

 What would you want instead of an electromagnetically propelled projectile? Lasers, with their inability to do stuff well in atmosphere at range? Plasma, with the same drawbacks? Missiles/rockets is a potential idea, but expensive and comparatively bulky.

 We could always go for gassious propellant or some form of air gun, I guess... But those(along with lasers) wont let us use the alien weaponry to get tech advanced fer it.

 A SHIV-esq design is a good idea, for future.

[Screech9791]

Also I too shall not support railguns because that's what we did last time.

Better kinetics will save our ass if the aliens start ending up with armor resistant to heat/energy weapons. For now, they'll be expecting us to still be using kinetics, so they might already be making armor that can adapt to kinetics. If we hesitate to adapt, they won't, so we may be able to get away with making energy weapons now.

TACTIC-AL-LY 'Blind Man'(1): 0cra

[10ebbor10]

Questions for Ebbor:
1.) Are all the items in the black market regular tokens? As in, they'd just help to some degree with relevant designs/revisions when used?
2.) Is there anything we can tell/predict about the potential intel special mission in advance before completely committing to it? (So we can get some vague ideas of how to equip/train operatives for the mission)

1. Yes
2. You activate it before reaching the intercept turn. The description is included in the write-up.

Can I ask for some information on what kinds of things a Doctrinal Support token would let us do?

Also I too shall not support railguns because that's what we did last time.

Beyond that, does anyone else think that it might be a good idea to use the turret as a basis for a SHIV/HWP type design besides me?

Doctrine development. Mission types and unit specializations.

[Happerry]

What would you want instead of an electromagnetically propelled projectile? Lasers, with their inability to do stuff well in atmosphere at range? Plasma, with the same drawbacks? Missiles/rockets is a potential idea, but expensive and comparatively bulky.

I mean you say that lasers don't work well, but both generations of the actual games specifically disagree with that idea because Lasers are the 'better then projectile' tier 2 for both games, and then the Plasma weapons you just also said are bad are the top tier weapons. Which the aliens are already using, too. And if like last game they start with only dinky pistols, well, given the ones they were using at south africa 'easily outmatched XCOM's our own equipment' to quote the battle report, i'd really suggest you re-evaluate how good plasma guns are to the actual game we're in instead of how they work in the real world.

Because this is X-Com Verse, not RL Verse. To quote the core thread... "You can design pretty a lot of things, provided they're thematically consistent with the XCOM universe. Magic is right out, for example. Psionics, on the other hand, are a respected scientific field of inquiry."

So, yes. I do want to do lasers.

[Aseaheru]

 By both games, do you mean both X:COM and XCOM? Because XCOM 2 doesent even have lasers. Yuu also appear to be confusing "projectile weaponry" with "gunpowder weaponry", as plasma is still a projectile weapon, just not a kenetic kill one.

 Also, yes, I recognize that this isint RL. This also isint just the game physics, since we dont have magic floating target numbers of "you will always hit after three misses", "you only have one transport", "you can only send one aircraft after a UFO" or other similar bullshit.

[Happerry]

By both games, do you mean both X:COM and XCOM? Because XCOM 2 doesent even have lasers. Yuu also appear to be confusing "projectile weaponry" with "gunpowder weaponry", as plasma is still a projectile weapon, just not a kenetic kill one.

I mean both X-COM: UFO Defense, IE, OldCOM, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, IE, NewCOM. That's why I said both generations, not both games. And ok my terminology was a bit lazy on the projectile weapon bit, even if that does sound better then bullet weapons, but my point still stands.

Also, yes, I recognize that this isint RL. This also isint just the game physics, since we dont have magic floating target numbers of "you will always hit after three misses", "you only have one transport", "you can only send one aircraft after a UFO" or other similar bullshit.

Yes? I don't see how any of those examples are relevant. Because this isn't an issue of 'game crunch says X', this is an issue of 'In the XCOM Universe, Lasers are a Viable Weapon'. Therefor, whatever people might say about how lasers work in the real world, in this one they're a viable weapon. And Railguns are what X-Com made last time, so this time I want to do lasers.

Rereading your post it kinda sounds like you think I'm saying Railguns will be Bad because they weren't in XCOM, which if that is the impression I passed on I apologies for because magnetic weapons (outright called Gauss weapons in Terror from the Deep) have also been in both generations as a Tier 2 weapon type, so yes they're an option. I just don't want to do the exact same options we did last game again in this game.

[Aseaheru]

 Allright, so you arent also looking at XCOM 2 then, where lasers dont exist.
 Out of curiosity, where have I said that Lasers arent viable weapons? That they are crap at range in atmosphere, yes. That you cant use them as weapons at all, no. My main objection to lasers are effective range(making them less useful for aircraft, which should probally be our first focus for getting upgunned, and shown to be something to consider by the effect of enemy plasma weaponry with atmospheric effects(i.e. subpar)) and the fact that by their nature they are a one-trick pony, unless you have fun and make electrolasers.
 Since it got muddled, let me be frank. I dont think you are of the view that electromagnetically propelled projectiles(be they slugs, plasma, or horseshit) are useless. I do think you are overvaluing lasers compared to the potential utility of electromagnetically propelled projectiles, and total possible power of the relative systems. I am also under the impression, perhaps incorrectly, that you place overmuch faith in what works based on the games, hence my comments pointing out that by current examples, the games are mostly simply background to this. I am also of the view that your "we did X last time so lets not now" is daft, since this is the third XCOM arms race. Granted, the first one was Forenia meets X:COM, but still.

Anyways, votes.

DESIGNS
Project Nail(Coilgun) | () :
TACTIC-AL-LY 'Blind Man'(Armor) | (2): 0cra, AseaHeru


BLACK MARKET VOTING(CHOOSE TWO OPTIONS)
Veteran Personnel | (1) : AseaHeru
Elerium | (1) : AseaHeru
Advanced Weaponry | () :
Doctrinal Support | () :