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[Mr Space Cat]

The first mission is the most crucial and difficult mission in II.

It's ridiculous how much of a butterfly effect things have in II. Simply having a soldier hurt or not rank up on the first mission can cost you the entire playthrough.

Well, I supposed I should mention Portent. Fuck that mission.

Playing I/I basically requires memorizing Portent's layout :/

Can you not just skip it? Or does that raise panic?

[GreatWyrmGold]

Nice doublepost there, GWG. Missed the Modify button?

If you'll note, the posts were identical.

I'm going by the original X-Com implication that unlike alien alloys, Elerium is impossible to replicate.

Which requires there to be some reason why this is so. Personally, I'd prefer it to be available for a few reasons:
1. It makes the XCOM project's influence on the world that much more obvious, making the player's actions in the previous game that much more clear.
2. If elerium is common, or at least available, it explains why XCOM doesn't have its vast reserves of elerium, plasma weapons, and such any more: They were cleaned out because if they ever needed them again, they could just buy some more from 115 Inc and Ares Arms.
3. You're not likely to be getting elerium from the deep horrors. Hence, you won't be able to get new titan armor or anything.
4. It's kind of pathetic if the XCOM at the beginning of the new game is so incredibly weaker than it was at the end of the old.

Plasma would not be used because by the time the terror missions happen, you would not have it.

Wait, isn't this a sequel to XCOM? Even if no new elerium and such can be made/found, what happened to the plasma weapons used in the first game?

Even farther into the future, it is not going to cost any less to make, so it's not going to be an ubiquitous weapon...

Why wouldn't it cost less? Plasma weaponry used in the first XCOM game would logically be the prototypes and whatnot, with plenty of room to expand and improve. And while it wouldn't be ubiquitous, you'd think they'd save some for the special forces team meant to fight off future alien invasions...

and since you would have been fighting on the seafloor, portable railguns scaled down from the MEC weapons using the Plasma-related technologies make more sense as the "standard" infantry weapon.

Why should we hinder our land operations, then? Especially since they're arguably more important?

Your opening is untouched by this premise, btw. The meteor swarm happens as a cutscene after the initial mission, maybe literally cutting to the scene of the meteor striking the ocean immediately after the result of the Ethereal's interrogation/confession/warning is made known to the player.

Ah. Neat.

[Furtuka]

In the original X-Com timeline, they were able to start getting their own Elerium eventually. But the catch was that it took around 60-70 years to be able to do it efficiently since you have to mine it from outside the solar system.

[umiman]

Didn't they mine it from Mars?

[USEC_OFFICER]

Didn't they mine it from Mars?

No, I believe they just nicked the Elerium stockpiles that the aliens left there.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Note that in EU/EW, Vahlen and Shen believe that they'll be able to mass-produce Elerium within a couple of years now that they have samples of it. That just isn't going to do any good within the timeframe of the game.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Maybe the blachole that appears at the end could be detected by the SUPAH EVUL ALIUMS?

1. Underlining the spoilers helps us notice.
2. Um, doesn't the ship normally explode? Because a black hole anywhere in the solar system would be not-good news. Or else it would just disappear within minutes.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Annoyed by that $20 I spent on a game that apparently overloads my video driver thingy, I decide to try something...interesting.

Who wants to take bets on how long I last on Impossible difficulty? (Also, all of the base Second Wave adjustments were enabled.)

[Mageziya]

Annoyed by that $20 I spent on a game that apparently overloads my video driver thingy, I decide to try something...interesting.

Who wants to take bets on how long I last on Impossible difficulty? (Also, all of the base Second Wave adjustments were enabled.)

You will die the second turn after encountering your first alien pack. Turn of encounter does not count as turn one.

I've been playing II and having trouble with the first mission, and I've beaten CI before. (IC?)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Maybe the blachole that appears at the end could be detected by the SUPAH EVUL ALIUMS?

1. Underlining the spoilers helps us notice.
2. Um, doesn't the ship normally explode? Because a black hole anywhere in the solar system would be not-good news. Or else it would just disappear within minutes.

The ship collapses into a black hole, but is moved far away from Earth that it lacks the matter to continue eating, and as such it instantly evaporates.

[GreatWyrmGold]

GWG's III (Impossible Ironman Insanity)!
(Also, it's my third serious game.)
Part 1: Shouldn't Have Been So Optimistic

Operation (Add This Later)
We advance. Two turns in, Vahlen comments on an alien that Private Owusu supposedly noted. Five sect--I mean, unidentified aliens make themselves known, one getting clipped by Private Ruiz before they all retreated. They are right on the edges of the battlefield; without running between the two groups, I won't be able to flank them, which watching a bit of that perfect II run suggests is important. So I maneuver...discovering that the pair of xenos with their health bars visible was three in number, and also activating them. Owusu tried to advance to catch a couple in a grenade blast, but I miscalculated the blast radius. He mortally wounded one and destroyed the moped it was using as cover. The trio, plus the guy Ruiz shot, shoot Owusu; while two miss, the bloody xenos (ie, the ones that got wounded) managed to reduce Owusu's health to -2, critically wounding him. On the bright side, one of them set a car on fire, blowing up another xeno. (Which lead to Dr. Vahlen giving literally the most pointless scolding she ever does.)
On my third turn now, or maybe second. I think I beat Mageziya's prediction.
Ruiz misses a nice, flanked, 70% shot on the 1-HP, uncovered xeno. Private Hall flees before he can follow the example of the Xeno Flambe, and managed to hit with a 60% shot and kill one. Private Hudson chucks a grenade and manages to knock two more xenos down to one health, while destroying cover that the xenos abandon. One of them returns the favor with its little plasma gun, panicking the One Hit-point Wonder.
Ruiz does what I will always consider Socks's schtick, and goddammit how did you miss your run was two inches from its head?!? (And only a 67% chance to hit for some reason.) Well, "Welcome to XCOM," I guess. Thankfully, the xeno takes her example, unlike the one that shoots Hall down to one hit point.
Ruiz shoots the xeno in the head, hitting...for one whole point of damage, also her last shot in the rifle. Hudson Socks the guy hiding in a bus stop stall...thingy...that shot Hall, as the guy finished Ruiz's (now flanked) problem.
Owusu bled out, panicking Hudson. Hey, why doesn't the mortal wound panic and not the death? Isn't that more logical? Anyways, the functional members of the squad maneuver a bit, Hall Overwatching and Ruiz reloading. We also discover a patrol of two more xenos, who maneuver a bit before Hall's turn; during the aliens' activity, they maneuver, avoiding Hudson's reaction shot.
Speaking of reaction shots, one kills Hall. Oops. Ruiz avenges him, though, and Hudson maneuvers behind cover...that an alien flanks, critically wounding him. Just Ruiz and her rifle, now. Well, and her pistol and one grenade, but eh.
She advances, Socksing the last sectoid...and promptly gets killed by the last sectoid.
Status Black. $#^%. Let's try again, neh?

But first, I'll save and post this.


P.S.

Maybe the blachole that appears at the end could be detected by the SUPAH EVUL ALIUMS?

1. Underlining the spoilers helps us notice.
2. Um, doesn't the ship normally explode? Because a black hole anywhere in the solar system would be not-good news. Or else it would just disappear within minutes.

The ship collapses into a black hole, but is moved far away from Earth that it lacks the matter to continue eating, and as such it instantly evaporates.

Then how could it have been detected?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Maybe the blachole that appears at the end could be detected by the SUPAH EVUL ALIUMS?

1. Underlining the spoilers helps us notice.
2. Um, doesn't the ship normally explode? Because a black hole anywhere in the solar system would be not-good news. Or else it would just disappear within minutes.

The ship collapses into a black hole, but is moved far away from Earth that it lacks the matter to continue eating, and as such it instantly evaporates.

Then how could it have been detected?

Never said it could have been.

[Culise]

Then how could it have been detected?

Neutroni-gravitic sensors that detect random chronitonic fluctuations in the quantum thingummie caused by interactions between Hawking radiation and the Riemann matrix transformation of local space-time.  Trivially simple, really. ^_^

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's worth noting that UFOs are caught by scanning for fluctuations in Earth's gravity, apparently produced by Elerium generators.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Maybe the blachole that appears at the end could be detected by the SUPAH EVUL ALIUMS?

1. Underlining the spoilers helps us notice.
2. Um, doesn't the ship normally explode? Because a black hole anywhere in the solar system would be not-good news. Or else it would just disappear within minutes.

The ship collapses into a black hole, but is moved far away from Earth that it lacks the matter to continue eating, and as such it instantly evaporates.

Then how could it have been detected?

Never said it could have been.

The discussion was started with, and my arguments are intended for, the assumption that the Threat would be able to react to that.

Then how could it have been detected?

Neutroni-gravitic sensors that detect random chronitonic fluctuations in the quantum thingummie caused by interactions between Hawking radiation and the Riemann matrix transformation of local space-time.  Trivially simple, really. ^_^

That is stupid.

It's worth noting that UFOs are caught by scanning for fluctuations in Earth's gravity, apparently produced by Elerium generators.

Interesting. And it makes a lot more sense than the aboverefuted theory.