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[10ebbor10]

Enhancement of Extraterrestrials' Enemies' Economics via Establishment of Economical Extraction of Extraterrestrial and Earthling Equipment via Electronics Expansion (EEEEEEEEEEE)
Used Tokens: Alien Weapon Fragment, Alien Remains
XCOM loves its data. We try and collect every bit of alien everything that we can after a battle, so we know exactly what happened and why. To regulate this, we have created a new division of XCOM: E12. E12 is the department dedicated to finding a new home for some badly overpaid enlisted soldiers, and also the department responsible for making use of all the bits we can't really use. Most of them, of course, get warehoused, and that's the end of that---they're useless to us, after all.

However, that doesn't have to be the fate of these little bits and pieces. primary goal of E12 is to produce a network of contacts through which we can reliably, quickly, and profitably sell bits of "alien memorabilia" and the like---shattered fragments of an alien skull, the bullet that killed an alien invader, burned and broken fragments of alien spacecraft, everything we can't readily use. Every mission will produce this sort of junk that isn't useful enough to be researched or utilized, but can certainly be sold to collectors. The EEEEE division is responsible for ensuring that we profit in a timely (rapid) fashion and that such sales do not interfere with our ability to work with alien tech. They are tasked with, as they're founded, building up a network of semi-clandestine contacts through which we can sell things without ruffling official feathers, and establishing some protocols to ensure that everything in a battlefield that may be of value to collectors is removed posthaste and without allowing any government agencies to attempt to claim any of it.

However, we're pretty sure that we can do better in the area of collecting things from a battlefield---lots of things are small and easily missed, after all. Enter TACTICAL.

TACTICAL has done great in realtime battlefield analysis, targeting, and information compilation. By increasing its recognition abilities and programming in some things we've learned from our first engagements and subsequent site cleanup/recovery/salvage operations, we can have it help a lot more than with combat.
Simply put, we program TACTICAL to recognize more than just aliens and hostiles. It'll be able to recognize alien technology and perform further realtime analysis of alien combatants; both of these capabilities of course are based on recovered alien remains and weapon fragments---we know the sorts of biological signs an alien outputs, what their weapons look like and what their weapons emit as far as "detectable stuff" goes, etc.

This new version of TACTICAL is capable of locating bits of alien tech, XCOM tech, and alien bodies on the fly, and logging the locations for later use. If an alien throws a grenade, the soldier sees it highlighted on his HUD. If an alien is holding a plasma pistol, the soldier's HUD informs him. If it's holding something else, well the HUD can tell the soldier about that thing too---if we don't know about a weapon, all we have to do is recover one and program its characteristics into the TACTICAL computer.

The end result is that a soldier's perception of the battlefield is bumped up another notch, we end up with a network of contacts to gain money to equip soldiers with, and our ability to recover battlefield debris, dropped or misplaced XCOM equipment, and broken shards of alien tech is improved dramatically---we are able to recover a lot of stuff and sell it to collectors for lots of money (Equipment Points).

Hard : 2+3-1 (Below Average)

The EEEEEEEEEEE project was hampered by several inherent issues. The first was the name, which greatly complicated requisition and administration efforts, and eventually resulted in some parts being shipped of to Kuala Lumpur. Luckily, our previous contact there was still in place and able to get them shipped back in time. The other issue lies in the project bifurcated scope, focusing on one hand on the improvement of infantry sensing equipment, and on the other hand on developing a system to effectively sell alien artefacts.

The result works, but there are some drawbacks and complications. While the TACTICAL database contains correct information, our soldiers are generally less interested in the approximate monetary value of the ordinance being thrown their way than in it's actual effects. Nonetheless, the primarily customer oriented database favors the former. The commercial meanwhile complains about the integration of TACTICAL into the commercial database. With various nation states having compromised TACTICAL, it gives them information that is to our detriment in the negotiation process, reducing our profits.

EEEEEEEEE (+1 EP this turn, + 2 EP next turn)

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

Tech
EEEEEEEEEEEE(+1 EP this turn, + 2 EP next turn)


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+1 EP

1 meld, 1 ufo power core, 1 ufo hull
1 Elerium, 1 Doctrinal Support
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 Revision phase

TURNTURNTURN

[Happerry]

Shame about the poor roll.

Well, anyone else think it might be a good idea to see if we can revise the Guardian into a proper HWP?

[Chiefwaffles]

Yeah poor roll sucks but we actually have a pretty good opportunity here.
We've been focusing too much on the TACTICAL without actually upgrading it. So we can easily upgrade its computing powers to make full use of what we've already done with an alien nav token. Also has the added side benefit of it being harder for human nations to hack into alien-hybrid computers, thus removing/decreasing the security penalty in EEEEEEEEEEEE.

Revision: TACTICAL Computing
Nav Token
Well we've sure put a lot of responsibilities on the TACTICAL; we need to polish it and improve its processing capabilities to be fully capable of what we've been trying to get it to do. Based on what we've recovered of the navigation computer within a UFO (nav token), we can implement computing principles inspired by this recovered tech. In addition to improving the capabilities of the TACTICAL without forcing more expensive miniaturization/extremely-high-quality computing parts, the literally alien aspects of the inner workings of TACTICAL should improve security. It's significantly harder to hack something you don't know how it works. (And while mostly just to prevent unnecessary difficulty increases, it's not 100% alien computing so it's not like it makes it easier for aliens to mess around with it either).

TACTICAL will be able to process stimuli and make decisions/show it to visors more quickly. Improved processing capabilities will also unlock proper usage of alien anatomy and technology we already programmed into the database with EEEEEEEEEEEE -- the TACTICAL already knows what a grenade looks like but this improved computing power will allow it to figure out that it is in fact a grenade and everyone should really get away from it right now before the grenade explodes. Same for alien combatants; improved computing capability lets the TACTICAL more quickly process the alien combatant based on known combatants and in the case of new hostiles, known alien biological/technological design cues, in order to present (known or likely-as-determined-by-TACTICAL) weak spots to our soldiers and automated weapons (the Guardian so far).

So in summary, we spend a revision improving the actual power of TACTICAL with the help of alien computing experience via the nav token. Alien-hybrid computing gives us some security to our sponsors/nations (hopefully increasing profits as it was stated to be a harmer of those in EEEEEEEEEEEE), and the improved power lets it analyze tech+alien combatants to give useful pertinent information to soldiers in the field while it's still useful (e.g. that's a gun, that grenade is about to blow this area up, that's a hidden door, records show that this alien dislikes being shot in the head, and based on how aliens' anatomy usually works this new one probably won't like getting shot in the head). The actual tech/anatomy analyzing was already done in E12 design, we're just giving TACTICAL power to make good use of it in the field.

Revision
TACTICAL Computing (1): Chiefwaffles

Activate Intel Token?
(Creates a special mission w/ special loot this Intercept phase)
Yes (0):
No (1): Chiefwaffles

To summarize it even shorter than before: TACTICAL Computing uses alien nav computing to improve the processing power of the TACTICAL. This lets process alien anatomy/tech information quickly enough to actually be useful to soldiers in the field, and use of alien computing bits/hybrid/whatever makes hacking by other humans harder, hopefully giving us more EP as that was stated to be a problem in EEEEEEEEEEEE.

EDIT: Already changed my mind on using the intel token. We just don't have enough UP if the aliens raid 3 places (or more) again, which is very much a possibility. Intel token won't go away though so it doesn't hurt to not use it immediately. Let's just try to use it soon.

[Happerry]

Revision: TACTICAL Computing

Sounds good to me. I'd like to get some more UP before we do the Intel Token, because of the mentioned mission coverage issues, so maybe we can do something that gives us more Unit Points next turn?

Revision
TACTICAL Computing (2): Chiefwaffles, Happerry

Activate Intel Token?
(Creates a special mission w/ special loot this Intercept phase)
Yes (0):
No (2): Chiefwaffles, Happerry

[Screech9791]

Revision
TACTICAL Computing (3): Chiefwaffles, Happerry

Activate Intel Token?
(Creates a special mission w/ special loot this Intercept phase)
Yes (1): 0cra
No (2): Chiefwaffles, Happerry

Also, can we shorten the acronym for Enhancement of Extraterrestrials' Enemies' Economics via Establishment of Economical Extraction of Extraterrestrial and Earthling Equipment via Electronics Expansion to just E12?

[Aseaheru]

Revision
TACTICAL Computing (4): Chiefwaffles, Happerry, 0cra, AseaHeru

Activate Intel Token?
(Creates a special mission w/ special loot this Intercept phase)
Yes (1): 0cra
No (3): Chiefwaffles, Happerry, AseaHeru

Madman will be less than enthused about it.

[Madman198237]

Madman will be less than enthused about it.

I thought I had mentioned shortening it to E12 somewhere. But yeah heck no I'm not typing out twelve Es every time I want to refer to our economics department.

Revision
TACTICAL Computing (5): Chiefwaffles, Happerry, 0cra, AseaHeru, Madman

Activate Intel Token?
(Creates a special mission w/ special loot this Intercept phase)
Yes (1): 0cra
No (4): Chiefwaffles, Happerry, AseaHeru, Madman

[10ebbor10]

Revision: TACTICAL Computing
Nav Token
Well we've sure put a lot of responsibilities on the TACTICAL; we need to polish it and improve its processing capabilities to be fully capable of what we've been trying to get it to do. Based on what we've recovered of the navigation computer within a UFO (nav token), we can implement computing principles inspired by this recovered tech. In addition to improving the capabilities of the TACTICAL without forcing more expensive miniaturization/extremely-high-quality computing parts, the literally alien aspects of the inner workings of TACTICAL should improve security. It's significantly harder to hack something you don't know how it works. (And while mostly just to prevent unnecessary difficulty increases, it's not 100% alien computing so it's not like it makes it easier for aliens to mess around with it either).

TACTICAL will be able to process stimuli and make decisions/show it to visors more quickly. Improved processing capabilities will also unlock proper usage of alien anatomy and technology we already programmed into the database with EEEEEEEEEEEE -- the TACTICAL already knows what a grenade looks like but this improved computing power will allow it to figure out that it is in fact a grenade and everyone should really get away from it right now before the grenade explodes. Same for alien combatants; improved computing capability lets the TACTICAL more quickly process the alien combatant based on known combatants and in the case of new hostiles, known alien biological/technological design cues, in order to present (known or likely-as-determined-by-TACTICAL) weak spots to our soldiers and automated weapons (the Guardian so far).

So in summary, we spend a revision improving the actual power of TACTICAL with the help of alien computing experience via the nav token. Alien-hybrid computing gives us some security to our sponsors/nations (hopefully increasing profits as it was stated to be a harmer of those in EEEEEEEEEEEE), and the improved power lets it analyze tech+alien combatants to give useful pertinent information to soldiers in the field while it's still useful (e.g. that's a gun, that grenade is about to blow this area up, that's a hidden door, records show that this alien dislikes being shot in the head, and based on how aliens' anatomy usually works this new one probably won't like getting shot in the head). The actual tech/anatomy analyzing was already done in E12 design, we're just giving TACTICAL power to make good use of it in the field.

Normal : 2 +3 =5

The latest improvement of the TACTICAL system includes yet more functionality. With alien technology retrofitted into the system, we managed to considerably improve performance in various fields. Alien Identification, classification and database summarization are now all offloaded to  dedicated expert systems, allowing the main system to focus on it's primary tasks without delay or interruption.

The combat analysis system is very good at analyzing known threats, and we assume decent with alien threats. Evaluating performance against unknown threats that are beyond human comprehension does come with some serious error margins, so the actual performance remains unknown untill we can test it in the field.

As a side note, our engineers have informed that the TACTICAL system is increasingly deviating from the original plan. Further significant alterations may become more difficult, or rely on a dedicated production pipeline.

TACTICS : A high tech/alien-tech visor that provides squad awareness, threat identification and analysis, interfaces with our technology and more. 0.75 EP per squad

INCOMING ALIENS DETECTED

[/color]

Bogey 5&6
Vessels Detected : 2 Small Vessel
Location : Germany
Current Situation : Landed

We got a priority alert from the Chancellor. Somehow, the aliens managed to slip right through our radar network, and are now terrorizing trying to wipe the city of Bielefeld of the map. Casualties are significant, with alien forces appearing to focus on maximum destruction. Local police forces have engaged with the enemy, but where routed with heavy casualties by some small alien vehicle equipped with rapid fire plasma weaponry.

Our old friends the sectoids and the flying pancakes are present too.


Bogey 7&8
Vessels Detected : 2 Small Vessel
Location : China
Current Situation : Landed

Another radar failure, this time in China. Two small vessels slipped through, attacking a small village with the intent to abduct the population. The attack appears to be winding down, with the final sectoids and flying pancakes herding humans into the UFO. Another of the alien vehicles is present here, though it does not appear to be aiding in capturing operations.

Bogey 9&10
Vessels Detected : 2 Small Vessel
Location : Egypt
Current Situation : Airborne

At least something went right. These 2 small vessels were observed on descent to Egypt. Given their similar size to the two other attacks, we expect similarly sized attack forces.

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

Tech
EEEEEEEEEEEE(+1 EP this turn, + 2 EP next turn)


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+1 EP

1 meld, 1 ufo power core, 1 ufo hull
1 Elerium, 1 Doctrinal Support
1 Alloy,
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 Interception phase

TURNTURNTURN

[Madman198237]

Dangit that's an alien AAA vehicle almost for sure. Not sure what to do about all those attacks, though.

[Aseaheru]

 Egypt is probably lowest on the priority list, publicity wise, while Germany is highest. We dont have the UP to field two effective squads, and we can only get three aircraft, so... Skyranger with good squad to Germany, fighters going after Egypt or China?

[m1895]

• send 2 Ravens to intercept the Ayys Egypt assault force
• send a Skyranger with 2 squads to Germany: try to deploy away from the possible SPAAG
• the squad makeup and equipment loadout:
• 2 operator squads, one with a CQC spec, the other with an Engineer
• 2 TACTICS, 1 Sky Eye, and 2 Guardians

I've decided against sending interceptors to China for several reasons:
1. we have reason to believe the alien vehicle has SPAAG capabilities, so sending interceptors their is more likely to get them shot down
2. best case scenario is we blow up the civvies instead of letting them get captured
3. a random farming village in china probably doesn't have as many tourists/VIPs as Cairo, which is a valid target for an alien terror attack

[Madman198237]

I've decided against sending interceptors to China for several reasons:
1. we have reason to believe the alien vehicle has SPAAG capabilities, so sending interceptors their is more likely to get them shot down
2. best case scenario is we blow up the civvies instead of letting them get captured
3. a random farming village in china probably doesn't have as many tourists/VIPs as Cairo, which is a valid target for an alien terror attack

The SPAAG shouldn't be able to do a darned thing against a high-velocity interceptor using missiles from long range. However, you're not wrong on the rest of that.

[Happerry]

Didn't Ebbor say somewhere he wasn't going to allow stuff like ground based AA/air to ground attack runs after the whole 'UFO Mortar/Skyranger Anti-Ground Railgun/Air to Ground Missiles OF DOOM' issues of the last version of this? So neither ground nor air can make the other battlefield irrelevant? I remember something like that being said in the general arms race discord at least.

More likely it's just an alien HWP with some sort of plasma rapid fire gun, which is enough of a challenge as is even without AA issues. We need to upgrade to lasers sooner then later, probably.

[Chiefwaffles]

Yeah, looks like a HWP. The way it's used and described in battle reports, the fact that it's a small mobile vehicle, etc..
But I think we may actually have the aliens beat already.

Remember how we went for insane overkill for the Guardian? I had actually intended to change it to a .50 caliber (still high and used itself for anti-materiel rifles even) but right now it's 20mm. Sure, aliens have fancy alien alloys but we have comedically over-engineered bullets. And it's fully automatic. On automatic turrets. That share intelligence and targeting data with other turrets, battlefield drones, and all TACTICAL-equipped soldiers.

Unless the aliens have been secretly working on it since the start of the game, we have better battlefield intelligence and targeting. And really really big bullets. Psionics doesn't help against machines (yet, hopefully) either. Fill their HWP with holes before it sees our turrets!

Therefore.

Operation Patient Rain
Production/Logistics

• (1 VP) 1x Skyranger
• (1 VP) 1x Interceptor "Macarena"
• (1 VP) 1x Interceptor "Rational Discourse"
• (2+1=3 UP, 2.25 EP) 1x Operator Squadron "Permission to Use a Real Gun"
  
  • (1 UP) 1x Engineer
  • (.75 EP) 1x TACTICS
  • (2*(1-.25) = .75*2 = 1.5 EP) 2x Guardian
• (2+1=3 UP, 1.75 EP) 1x Operator Squadron "Bag 'em Tag 'em"
  
  • (1 UP) 1x CCQ Specialist
  • (.75 EP) 1x TACTICS
  • (2*.5 = 1 EP) 2x Sky Eye

Interception: Bogeys 9&10 (Egypt, Airborne)
Interceptors "Macarena" and "Rational Discourse" - Engage with prejudice.

Down and Capture: Bogeys 5&6 (Germany, Landed)
Operators "Permission to Use a Real Gun" - Coordinate with police, secure and defend civilian-heavy & police strongpoints with Guardians. Eliminate alien HWP with Guardians.
Operators "Bag 'Em, Tag 'Em" - Advance quickly and carefully, working with Sky Eyes to locate alien forces & civilians and communicate intel to allied forces. Engage when confident, and reinforce "Permission to Use a Real Gun" as needed. Evacuate located civilians to Guardian-defended areas.

TACTICAL Computing should, in addition with its (hopefully very useful) general utility, significantly aid the TACTICS network in detecting and eliminating their HWP before it poses a threat.

Thanks to the Guardians, we have a potential advantage we need to leverage in this kind of mission. We want to protect civilians (and police), and turrets help a lot with that.
Our CCQ squadron provides vital battlefield intelligence. Two sky eyes will really help the TACTICAL network, hopefully letting us quickly locate the alien vehicle so we can eliminate it before it can do anything bad. And this should also help with rescuing civilians/police not behind/at our turrets' front lines.


The idea is that we can do best when we know the battlefield. When we know the battlefield, our turrets can shoot through walls and shoot enemies before they know we're there. Our soldiers know where the aliens are long before they know where we are. We can consolidate forces to counter alien groups while they're still looking for us, we can relocate turrets to dispatch their HWP before their HWP has fired a shot. Also, shooting through walls again. Very cool perk.
So by focusing a squadron on gathering intel, we can best position the other squadron to use their weaponry and TACTICAL to eliminate aliens before they have a chance to try to eliminate us.

[m1895]

Operation Patient Rain (1): m1895