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Civilization V

14 (28%)

Jagged Alliance 2 1.13

26 (52%)

Some other idea (please post it in the thread)

2 (4%)

Play Apoc again and try not to embarrass yourself this time!

7 (14%)

Nothing. The LP was bad and you should feel bad.

1 (2%)

Total Members Voted: 50

[Fikes]

... I don’t even know why they made aliens carry teleporters. They don’t even use them. Or do they just fail to live long enough to punch the coordinates in?

They use them, but it seems to be mostly random. When they had them before I did and I didn't want to spoil the surprise, they used them mostly to teleport between the four corners of a tactical map. It was really annoying. Just when we'd catch sight of them they would blink off.

[Fikes]

Spoiler: Chapter 13: Groundhogs day (click to show/hide)

As predicted, Monday begins in the alien dimension and as such, we are greeted by the very best the aliens have to offer.



An embarrassing Fast Attack/Scout combo. Nathan and friends shoot them down without so much as a dented shield.

The unstoppable UFO force out of the way, our intrepid agents move in to bring down building 3 of 10. As always, it starts with a briefing.



Hmm. This building seems to control the atmosphere of the alien dimension through the use of big blocks of tofu.

I never liked tofu anyway, destroying this one will be a double pleasure.

 

Here is our building 3 army. During last week’s raiding I experimented with giving units cloaks. It really seems like it makes the unit much harder to hit, not just see. The cloak would be a very good item if you didn’t have to hold it in your hand to use it. All inventory work in Apoc is click and drag and when the frame rate is low the click and drag system is prone to causing fits of rage. Swapping the cloak in and out for teleporters is a huge pain in the ass.



It is only a few minutes into the mission and the fighting is extremely heavy and involves a lot of explosive attacks. I’ve see 3 dimension launchers at 5 or 6 poppers already. Most of one squad has already had to pull back.

It takes a while, but it finally happens. With dead aliens littering the floor grenades are everywhere. When a lucky popper makes it close enough to go boom.



The chain reaction is stunning, but everyone makes it out.



All too soon we get the message and our fun comes to an end.



I am starting to see a pattern I never noticed in the alien bases. There always seems to be three groups of the target object. Two will be near spawn points and 1 will be in the middle of a huge amount of alien resistance. Once you clear the big pocket of alien resistance you are pretty much free to disable the building, which is exactly what we did.



We score an amazing 1300 points for the mission, but promotions continue to elude us.

Our ground forces return Tuesday and eagerly await the next mission. It doesn’t take long for our biochemists to come through.


Alien building 4 will fall on Wednesday. If we keep the same pace it will be building 5 on Friday and building 6 on Sunday.



The alien dimension is clear, I think Aliens only build UFO’s on Mondays. Either way, here is the briefing for the next building. It looks like something we can shoot the bottom out of and let gravity do the rest, should be fun.

The main area in this building lead to even more of an explosive fight than the last building. The aliens threw several dimension launchers, poppers and even 2 megaspawn at us. In the end I think they managed to do more damage to their own building than us, though we did manage to lose two shields and get one critical wound.



In the end a chain reaction was used to clear the last group of building equipment phallics.



And we receive the all important message.



And return to the alien city screen to watch it fall.

The Agents return to base early Thursday and grab some much needed rest while the biochemists work furiously on the next alien building. Right on schedule they find a weakness.



All of our units gear up and head back into the breach.



The mission briefing tells us what to destroy and our men set off to do god’s work.



We find what appears to be the main pocket of resistance guarding the first set of eggs we have come across. Within seconds of first contact Eucherer loses his shield and is forced to retreat.



Even with teleporters these fights are dangerous. It is almost impossible to keep an eye on everyone’s shield which can go from full to nothing in a handful of seconds.

In all 5 units have to retreat and 3 lose shields but we dodge any injuries. Most squads post up to keep an eye on spawning aliens while a couple units fan out to look for more eggeries.

We come across what is likely to be the last set and open fire.



IT’S A TRAP! They exploded in a huge cloud of stun gas!

This is why you never let units go anywhere without at least 1 primed teleporter.

After a while we return and complete our work from a safer distance.



Another one bites the dust.



(sorry, a little late taking the image)

That mission was probably our highest scoring to date, netting us 1887 points and no promotions.

For the third (and final) time this week our agents return for some restful sleep, a quick shower and a resupply of ammo only to go straight back to the alien dimension. No bay12er has stayed in base overnight this week. Tonight will be the exception.



This is a cool building. Destroying it will actually prevent the aliens from building any more UFOs. The problem is that I want them to build one last Mothership so we can potentially see the very last MegaPrimus side alien. Because of that our Agents stay home and get some rest, allowing the week to end quietly.
 

Spoiler: Week in review (click to show/hide)

Alien ground tech level: 4 (Max level)
X-Com ground tech level: 12 (BioToxin C)

Alien air tech level: 0 (Shot down all their UFOs (again)!)
X-Com air tech: 8

Cash on hand: $4,405,942


Home sweet home.(recycled)


Home away from home. (recycled image)


Vacation Home. (Recycled)

Code: [Select]

B12 Kill Board:
Name missions kills Improvement%/Status
Cpt. Timferius: 57 77 48% 4 medals
S.L. Bulldogger: 15 17 23%
Sgt. Geener: 17 21 31%
Col. Nirur Torir: 65 161(!!) 68% Full Decorations
Cpt. GlyphGlyph: 58 133 63% Full Decorations
Sgt. Maxclone2: 55 78 31% 4 medals
Sgt.Shadowgander: 31 50 52%
Sgt. IT-NET: 19 32 Robot
S.L. 612-DWARF: 40 37 Robot
S.L. Sniper Joe: 31 31 Robot
Sgt. DDR-RAM: 23 45 Robot
Sgt. Kicior: 14 25 59%
S.L. Jay Cin: 30 44 44%
Sgt. Haspen: 17 30 37%
S.L. Miranda: 11 10 21%
Sgt. Jacen-BOT: 30 31 Robot
Cpt. Aqizzar: 31 41 Robot
S.L. Sean Mirrsen: 16 25 21%
Sgt. Eucherer: 13 13 34%
S.L. ZombieBob: 14 16 28%
S. Cuckoo: 13 10 21%
Sgt. RAM: 8 23 KIA (Week 3)
Sgt. Maximumzero: 5 26 KIA (Week 3)
S.L. EuchreJack: 7 26 KIA (Week 3)
S.L. Biag: 5 14 KIA (Week 3)
S.L Rabbit Joe: 9 11 KIA (Week 4)
S.L. Bulldog: 3 7 KIA (Week 6)
S. Sheb: 3 14 KIA Week 7
Sgt. Geen: 26 52 KIA Week 7
S.L Jerick: 29 56 KIA Week 7
Sgt. Anja Gelena: 25 58 KIA Week 8
S. Sean Mirrsen: 4 5 KIA Week 8
BunnyBeth: KIA
Euch-R-Jane KIA
BunnyBob: KIA
Jacen: KIA

Week 12 was productive but not exactly entertaining. The damn alien buildings have most of the action on the third floor which crushes my poor computer. Isn’t that insane? I used to play this game on the first computer I owed (a Pentium 133, the processor is hanging on my wall) and it ran sooo much better.

Anyways, the next building is number 6. We could have as few as 3 chapters left in our adventures together. I will stall a little bit next week in the hopes that the aliens come in on a special type of mission but time is short for the aliens.

Promotions continue to elude us. It is the craziest thing. Everyone got at least 1 kill, that means if any position was open someone should have moved up but we didn’t get so much as a squad leader! I hate not having a commander…

Unlrelated to this update, there are two things I’ve been thinking about.

First off, I have been toying with the idea of doing a live stream for the last mission. I have never done one before, but read a bit about how to do it and it doesn’t seem tough at all. The only issue may be my miserable internet (1.5mbps DSL). The catch would be that I would do the Live Stream just like any other update. I would pause the action, type a bunch of junk, and then resume. It may not be the most entertaining thing to watch, but I figured I’d gauge interest.

The second item is what to Let’s Play next.  This has been much more fun than playing Apoc solo. The two ideas that came to mind first are Civilization V and Jagged Alliance 2 1.13. In Civ I could name units after people (generally my catapults make it to the end game) and give people some control over towns. I could also use everyone’s advice on where to build cities and what to research. I’d play on King difficulty, which I win about half the time.

JA2 1.13 would be more like X-Com, but with much more ragging about deaths. If I remember correctly, in 1.13 you can make up to 6 mercs, but once people die they are gone for good. In Apoc things could go bad, but all you had to do was run to an exit. In JA2 things go from bad to worse and mercs get really pissed when other mercs die. I imagine JA2 will be a chain reaction of failure. I have never beat it either, so the last half of the game would be somewhat blind.

Feel free to post thoughts on both musings…
 

[Itnetlolor]

I think it's possible to use DOSBox's CPU cycles (adding more CTRL+F11, I think) to improve speed/quality of play (better machine and all, that should help the 3rd floor problem). That should improve the stream quality. And speaking of which, I think it would be best to nerf the quality of the recording. Not much to glance at on a smaller resolution anyway. As long as we can catch the action.

It also appears that those last missions are starting to deplete my ratio.

[RAM]

Let's try to pressure Fikes into playing through a mission on turn-based!

I am probably more interested in Jagged alliance, but Civilisation would also be a hoot...

[MaximumZero]

I vote JA. I would like 6 clones there, too, if possible.

[Cuckoo]

Concerning promotions, I noticed something weird my last time around MegaPrimus — I had just the right amount of personnel and agents specifically for a new sergeant and a captain to pop. But no matter how many raids these guys did, they just did not promote. As soon as I hired some units — bam! a handful of promotions the very next mission, including a sergeant and a captain. So yeah, try hiring a handful of agents and sending them on a few raids together with your high rankers. I think you need a few more than the actual mathematical logic stipulates for a given rank.

Update. I just thought of a slick trick: when someone throws a vortex mine at you, you pick it up before it explodes, teleport to that person, drop it on the floor, and teleport away. xD And maybe something similar with rockets: when one flies after you, you teleport to such place, that when it curves to your new location, it would hit the guy who shot it.

[EuchreJack]

Jagged Alliance 2 would probably require some of us to "adopt" official JA2 mercenaries, as there are obviously more than six of us interested in "tagging along".

[Burnt Pies]

Ooh, I'll take Steroid!

Seriously, that guy is ridiculously awesome.


Definitely JA2. JA2 is cool.

[RAM]

I am only familiar with Jagged Alliance by way of rumour and legend... So just assign me a one that fits, or an obvious dead-meat...

[Burnt Pies]

hmmm... Obvious dead-meat... Sounds like Ira to me.

I know I usually got her killed because she had terrible voice acting.

[GlyphGryph]

Oh, I forgot to add last time:

The Mutant Alliance probably new about the Sectoids because, you know, Psychics. Doing their psychic thing. They were probably chatting them up for weeks, and could really have given you a couple pointers if they didn't see you as such dicks.

Also, I'm up for JA. Heard good things about it but I've never played. Fun times! And this time I WILL be the best! (and totally won't die either!)

[612DwarfAvenue]

I vote Trancendence .

Failing that, JA 2.

[Itnetlolor]

Just came across some literature that might interest everyone in this LP.

[Fikes]

Spoiler: Chapter 14: Make a neat gun (for the people who are still alive) (click to show/hide)

Nothing happens Monday. We are hoping the aliens will send one last mothership at us so we can see something new and entertaining. We don’t know if they built one, so a loan retailiator is sent into the breach to poke around. Right on que our Quantum Physicists give us the very last of their research.



I am not sure why, but this kind of cracked me up. “If the aliens get desperate”. I think that time has come and gone.

The only other thing we do Monday is buy a fourth base called “X-Com Dorms”. In case it wasn’t obvious, it will simply be a place to house more fresh recruits in the hopes of getting our last round of promotions.



First thing Tuesday we get good news from the breach. The aliens have built a mother ship. Information noted the Retaliator returns home. Nathan and friends stand ready.

They end up standing for a while. It isn’t until late on Wednesday that the aliens finally show up, and bring with them the toy I’ve been waiting for.

Meet: The Overspawn.



HAHAHAHA! Young fikes panicked hard the first time he saw this guy. It is the only Alien ground weapon and basically just shambles around town knocking stuff over. A couple of things make this guy awesome.

First of all, he moves around randomly, attacking anything he walks up against. See how he spawned inside Transtellar’s spaceport? That isn’t going to make those bastards happy.

Second, he only has melee damage. He is defenseless against airbased weapons.

Third, he has a hilarious habit of knocking things over on himself and dying before the aforementioned airbased weapons are even employed.



There he goes. He has leveled a single square and already caused damage to himself.



And the fun ends just a few short minutes later. I am a little disappointed. He only barely bothered Transtellar and then went straight for a building belonging to one of our allies… oh well.



And with that our Biochemists get their last MegaPrimus side alien to research.

Random: There is a UFO-Pedia entry for researching a live one of these. I am pretty sure it is impossible to get one though.

Overspawn silliness out of the way, our ground forces head to the Alien Dimension to show them what destroying a building actually looks like.


Looks like we will be going all zombie on the aliens this time and eat their brains. Fair enough I suppose…



Early on this mission feels a little different. We run into some resistance without catching sight of our objective.

It turns out that the primary force of aliens is guarding a centralized pyramid thing that is supposed to protect the alien brains. The defending force is cleared and our agents make their way in to disable this ugly pile of bio-mass.



Grenades are arranged around the room in a manner pleasing to to the eye. MaxClone gets to do the honors this time. He primes a grenade for 7 seconds and runs like hell.

A few seconds later…



And yet more seconds…


Damn. The building wasn’t disabled. We locate the second pocket and immediately set about destroying the brains.



It takes some time, but we finally reach our goal.



We get 2300 points and a promotion to squad leader!



And then we get to see the building crumble! Happy day!

Our fleet returns with all the information our biochemists need to track down the next alien building and sure enough, within 24 hours we are ready to head out again.



The alien queen is going to be fun. Getting it alive nets you a pretty good weapon. We are going to give it our best shot, not so much because we need the weapon, but for completeness sake of the LP. At this point the queen and the weapon are the only things we haven’t seen.

Nathan and friends backup our mission to the Alien Dimension and decide to shoot down the very last UFO.



Since we destroyed the alien’s ability to makes UFOs the loss of this mothership eliminates them from the air war for the game.



Here is our briefing and our first look at the queen. I am starting to get really confused about how we are observing anything in the alien dimension…. But no matter. Let’s bring her in alive and add insult to injury!

Our scouts come across some different colored flooring which generally means there is an objective nearby. The first time we are driven back. The second time we just teleport…



Directly into to a sizeable alien force.

The fight is characterized by several large explosions and chain reactions; some agents are forced to retreat. At the end of the long room we see the “terrifying” queen.



With the majority of the aliens cleared, we surround the queen and open up with stun grapples. She turns out to be tougher than I remember, taking Nirior down to half health in two shots.

Then in a completely unexpected turn, the queen takes Eucherer from full health and full shield to death in a single blow...



Before finally losing consciousness. She turned out to be MUCH tougher than I remembered.



The building falls and Miranda grabs the rank of Sergeant.



And everyone heads home…

The fleet arrives Sunday.  The Bio-Transport carrying the Alien queen is directed to Cold Storage and research is nearly complete by the time the week comes to an end.

Spoiler: Week in review (click to show/hide)

Alien ground tech level: 4 (Max level)
X-Com ground tech level: 12 (BioToxin C)

Alien air tech level: 0 (Shot down all their UFOs, blew up their UFO builder)
X-Com air tech: over 9000

Cash on hand: $3,473,792


Home sweet home.(recycled)


Home away from home. (recycled image)


Vacation Home. (Recycled)

Code: [Select]

B12 Kill Board:
Name missions kills Improvement%/Status
Cpt. Timferius: 59 79 50% 4 medals
S.L. Bulldogger: 17 21 26%
Sgt. Geener: 19 23 34%
Col. Nirur Torir: 67 169(!!) 69% Full Decorations
Cpt. GlyphGlyph: 60 138 64% Full Decorations
Sgt. Maxclone2: 57 83 32% Full Decorations
Sgt.Shadowgander: 33 59 57% 4 medals
Sgt. IT-NET: 21 37 Robot
S.L. 612-DWARF: 42 37 Robot
S.L. Sniper Joe: 33 32 Robot
Sgt. DDR-RAM: 25 48 Robot
Sgt. Kicior: 16 28 65%
S.L. Jay Cin: 32 45 45%
Sgt. Haspen: 19 34 39%
Sgt. Miranda: 13 12 24%
Sgt. Jacen-BOT: 32 33 Robot
Cpt. Aqizzar: 33 42 Robot
S.L. Sean Mirrsen: 18 26 34%
S.L. ZombieBob: 16 22 35%
S. Cuckoo: 15 14 28%
Sgt. RAM: 8 23 KIA Week 3
Sgt. Maximumzero: 5 26 KIA Week 3
S.L. EuchreJack: 7 26 KIA Week 3
S.L. Biag: 5 14 KIA Week 3
S.L Rabbit Joe: 9 11 KIA Week 4
S.L. Bulldog: 3 7 KIA Week 6
S. Sheb: 3 14 KIA Week 7
Sgt. Geen: 26 52 KIA Week 7
S.L Jerick: 29 56 KIA Week 7
Sgt. Anja Gelena: 25 58 KIA Week 8
S. Sean Mirrsen: 4 5 KIA Week 8
Sgt. Eucherer: 13 13 KIA Week 14
BunnyBeth: KIA
Euch-R-Jane KIA
BunnyBob: KIA
Jacen: KIA

It had been 6 weeks since the last B12 death. I was really shocked when Eucherer went down.

Overall it was a decent week other than that. I was glad to finally see the overspawn. The very first time I shot down a Mothership it was on an overspawn drop mission. I really wish I had let it go.

We are officially down to 3 missions. In theory we could be done with these next week, but I will likely finish the last one the in week 16.

I am still open to the idea of live streaming the last mission, but honestly at this point I am very nearly Apoc’ed out. I feel like the LP is getting a little stale (the end of the game is a grind) so I don’t want to drag it on too much longer for everyone’s sake.

If a few people say “A live stream would be really cool” I will do it and set a day. If not, we will power through this and get to the next LP.

Speaking of which, I am going to update the OP and main page with a poll about what I should play next. It turns out you can have up to 6 custom merc’s in JA 2 1.13, that should lead to some good community involvement type stuff. It will be a little cheaterly but we can deal with it.

[MaximumZero]

Maxclone2 thanks the overmind for the honors of blowing stuff up. That's the best kind of honors!