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[ToonyMan]

Oh, my sweet sweet Bernard.  WHY WERE YOU TAKIN' FROM ME??!!

[WorkerDrone]

The thing is, X-COM is not the game for you if your liken to get attached to any of your soldiers.

The game is a sadistic bastard and any one of your characters could drop dead or KILL THE GUY NEXT TO THEM at any moment for no reason at all other than that the Aliens think it was balls funny.

[Cthulhu]

As long as it's a suitably epic death I'm okay with it.  When Christel cleared out an entire large scout on her own with 4 fatal wounds, and then died with her comrades, that was okay.  Marielle got shot around the corner in a harvester ship, then died because my stupid guys couldn't hit the last floater before she bled out.  That's a stupid death.

That mission with Christel had a lot of epic moments.  The most epic moment in my X-Com history happened in there when Sergeant Fujimoto (Later killed by floaters in the same mission where Marielle proved she was awesome) went all the way up to the northeast corner of the map to check for Sectoids.  He stepped around the farmhouse and went into a tiny alley between the wall and the edge of the map.  Bam, two sectoids.  He shot everything he could in his TUs and missed every single shot.  Suddenly, from all the way on the other side of the map, my Heavy Weapons guy fires an HE round from his autocannon.  It sails right through the window into the farmhouse and hits the wall right on the other side of the two sectoids.  Beer was on Isao that night.

[WorkerDrone]

The more you play X-COM, the less you start thinking about it as if you were an NCO, and more of the sort of cold, ruthless, Commander you imagine behind the scene. Its a thankless job but someone sets up the bases, someone prioritizes missions, men, and research, and if a few people have to die to save millions, then the more it seems like that in your head. The story telling experience turns into an accurate account of what you should feel towards little pixels on your screen, and that winning is only losing less, and that losing means failing entirely.

Which is unacceptable to my fathomless ego.

[Aqizzar]

That's my problem with how I play X-COM, I can't name all of my soldiers individually, but I can recognize them when I select them, complete with roles and activities.  I get very protective of them, which in turn means they stay alive for a long time, which means they get superhumanly skilled and make battles too easy.  If any one actually dies, I'll hire some new meat to replace him, but because everyone else outpaces him so easily he never gets any kills or statgains.  So he's just a useless body being dragged around, until eventually he gets killed and replaced with another useless loser.  And the cycle of Red Shirts goes on.

X-COM 3 is even worse.  Not only can you randomly lose guys you've grown attached too (especially since you don't get pissed off at them for having to reequip the squad every time), but you can lose them in the most ignominious, insulting way possible.  Brainsuckers.  Invisible, endless time units, unavoidable except by luck.  And oh God the squishing and screaming.

[Cthulhu]

I weep today, for I've lost my love of the game.  I no longer see my soldiers as courageous men and women whom I love.  I see them as incompetent oafs whom I loathe.  Maybe I got too used to the mid to late game and having guys in power armor and heavy plasma cut through the enemies like butter, but I just cannot stand these soldiers.  They're weak, inaccurate, stupid, and just plan annoying.  They lose half their TUs under the basic kit.  They can't hit a floater three squares away, and their aim gets even worse in a serious situation.  I had my first terror mission in this new game, my squad was pinned down by a Cyberdisk right at the beginning of the fight, and all but three of them were killed because the rocket launcher guy couldn't aim.  He used up every single rocket I had given them trying to hit this thing, and just couldn't do it.  Every shot missed.  I had an opportunity for epic when the two survivors went to hide in a building upstairs and do some guerilla warfare, but even that was ruined when the first guy took a reaction shot to the head as he walked past a window and the second panicked and was shot point blank by a sectoid.

I realized I didn't say what happened to the third survivor.  After watching Gerard Dreyfus use up all four of his rockets without even damaging the terrain, I had survivor #2 drop a grenade next to him as she left.

[WorkerDrone]

I'm still a bit sick, but its mostly passed. I'll be doing another session tomorrow afternoon.

I'll probably do something really cool for that coming back session, so stay tuned.

[Reasonableman]

YAY THAT'S GOOD NEWS! Glad to hear you're feeling better.

I have learned that, apparently, my dad used to set me on his knee while he played X-Com. This may explain the nostalgia. Anywho, I finally got the game working, DOSBoxywise. Thing is, to get it to run at a not-insane pace, I have to crank down the CPU cycles to 5%. The other thing is that, while I have it at 5%, it's still too fast... sometimes. The speed fluctuates and oscillates and generally annoys the pants off of me. Also, I can't get a bleeding game going properly because my interceptors are too slow, and my detection system too unreliable, to make any nation whatsoever remotely satisfied with my performance. Also, my recruits absorb plasma like Bounty paper towels absorb strange blue fluids.

[Cthulhu]

Welcome to the war.

[TheNewerMartianEmperor]

This whole topic is making me consider playing it again as well. Too bad the UFO series never was that good.

Worker, good to hear it and I shall try to defeat my insomnia so's I can be there.

[Itnetlolor]

YAY! It's nice to see WD's back in action.

Looking forward to more craziness.

[Keita]

posting to keep an eye on this

[Aqizzar]

Glad to have you back WD.  Can't wait for more EHT METTAL action.

[Gunner-Chan]

I'm so not missing the comeback session... So long as it happens when I can get on...

Also gonna see If I can run S.T.A.L.K.E.R because it looks awesome. (Off topic I know but screw it. XD)

[Keita]

Going off topic for awesome games should be allowed, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is amazing, no buts, ifs or what nots