Messages

1

The X-Com Files / Re: Dossiers wanted!

« on: April 16, 2017, 02:36:19 am »

Are you still accepting more of these? If so, I've got a few without pictures. I'm sadly not too familiar with the lore of the various groups, as I've been away from the boards for quite a while.

Tommy McConnell

Role: Anarchist; Whistleblower

Affiliation: Current ringleader of the McConnell family operations

Details: After the West Virginian family lost multiple members to World War I and strikes against a local coal company, the McConnell name became synonymous with anarchist activities. Declaring themselves "enemies of all hierarchy," the family has spent decades uncovering and leaking secret information on any group they feel is authoritarian. Their extreme cynicism towards forming outside allegiances makes the family hard to track.

Status: Interpol Notified

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Arastoo Namdar

Role: Former Government Agent

Affiliation: None

Details: Namdar was a known agent of the Shah of Iran during the final years of the Pahlavi Dynasty. While his early career seems to have been mostly mundane, classified papers reveal that he was sent to investigate reports of strange humanoids appearing in the Dasht-e Kavir (Great Salt Desert) in 1978, though the results of that investigation have never been found.

Status: Missing

Notes: Namdar's last known location was western China, which he fled to following the Iranian Revolution.

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Luther Caldwell

Role: Conspiracy Theorist

Affiliation: Caldwell Truth Ministries

Details: Once seen as a promising young televangelist, Caldwell has spent the last two years heavily promoting and publishing conspiracy theories about aliens and supernatural creatures. While many regard him as a fringe lunatic or charlatan, his extensive media outreach and dedicated following could make him troublesome down the road.

Status: Under Surveillance

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Dr. Millicent Weber

Role: Geneticist; Transhumanist

Affiliation: Syndicate

Details: A German-American geneticist and former Biology professor at Stanford University, Dr. Weber is known to harbor borderline misanthropic views, likely as a result of her troubled childhood. She was fired from Stanford following student protests and negative media coverage after giving a speech in which she supported extreme genetic engineering techniques, human hybridization experiments, and the creation of a "New Humanity." She now works for the Syndicate.

Status: Under Surveillance

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Molly O'Curry

Role: Spy/Infiltrator

Affiliation: Black Lotus

Details: A young Irish psionic, Molly O'Curry's self-directed attempts to cultivate her powers have resulted in her developing an extreme form of synesthesia, in which all of her senses have been seamlessly blended together and pushed greatly beyond standard human capabilities. The exact extents of such power are incomprehensible, and her ability to collect information remotely makes her highly elusive.

Status: Interpol Notified

2

The X-Com Files / Re: Doggie names!

« on: November 11, 2016, 04:47:11 am »

Snoopy, Scooby, and K9

3

Offtopic / Re: Anyone here play Koei's classic strategy games?

« on: October 03, 2016, 10:25:02 pm »

My Dad has played a ton of Romance of the Three Kingdoms over the years (and I've played a bit as well but not as much as him), and each one has it's own ups and downs. I don't have much experience with RTK 1 - it feels pretty dated (especially the interface) and really slow-paced to me though. RTK 2 (my Dad's personal favorite) is basically a very streamlined, fast-paced version of the first game. While, as a result, it's not the deepest the series has to offer, it has a lot of plain old fun value and enough variety to stay entertaining. Once you get down the basics, it also has a "pick-up-and-play" feel that few turn-based strategy games achieve. RTK 3 goes the opposite route of being much slower with a lot of focus on building up your cities and armies and really managing your empire, which gives the game a much greater sense of scale. As you noted, it's more detailed, and it was also the first one to add troop variety (cavalry and crossbows were introduced) and a robust officer creator system, which always makes for a ton of fun (RTK 2 only let you make 1 new ruler with 1 officer.) RTK 4 tried to strike a balance of sorts between 2 and 3, bringing the game's pace up without sacrificing too much detail in the process. Speaking as objectively as I can, RTK 4 is probably the best one as a complete package; diplomacy is deeper, the general pace of the game keeps things engaging, siege weapons and multi-stage battles add further variety, and the AI is smarter and less passive. RTK 5 never got an English release.

Of the newer RTKs, I've only played 6, 8, and 10. 6 is disappointing with fairly plain city building and arguable the worst combat in the series. RTK 8 is my personal favorite. It has some interesting RPG elements and the ability to play as an officer instead of just a ruler, but it's the amazing combat system that really does it for me. It's big downside is that the RPG sections you do between battles and strategy meetings start to get increasingly monotonous after a while. RTK 10 isn't a bad game, it's just not really my thing. There's more RPG elements and battles have more detail, but the combat system isn't as fun and it felt like the series was starting to drift too far from its roots.

The first Dynasty Warriors game was a Soul Calibur style weapon based fighting game. In Japan, the hack-and-slash games started out as a spinoff of that fighting game, but for the North American releases, they made them all one continuous series.

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Playthroughs / Re: [LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

« on: October 01, 2016, 10:26:45 pm »

I know it's a bit late, but I can join if more cannon fodder is needed. Just use my forum name.

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Offtopic / Anyone here play Koei's classic strategy games?

« on: October 01, 2016, 01:53:15 am »

For example, games like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, P.T.O., Liberty or Death, Bandit Kings of Ancient China, Nobunaga's Ambition, L'emperor, Gemfire, Genghis Khan, etc. Anyone else familiar with them?

Koei produced a lot of quality turn-based strategy games back in the late 80s/early 90s. Sadly, their strategy output has really died out in recent years. I think the occasional Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Nobunaga's Ambition are all that they produce nowadays, and even those have shifted towards real-time strategy.

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Offtopic / Re: Introduce yourself

« on: January 23, 2016, 09:47:43 pm »

Hello Gunner-chan! Enjoy your stay.

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Offtopic / Re: Xcom on excel?

« on: December 06, 2015, 08:08:08 am »

Part of me is greatly impressed, but another part of me just asks "why?"

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More Forks / Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0

« on: December 03, 2015, 09:45:07 pm »

PS: I would ban the english word "should" (and the german word "soll")... they are so confusing

English did originally have "should" and "ought" to clarify the difference. Initially, should was a predicative whereas ought indicated a desirable future outcome. Therefore "The bug should be fixed" meant that the bug, based on previous actions taken, is likely to no longer exist, and "The Bug ought to be fixed" indicates a desired course of action that the bug be fixed in the future. Over time, this distinguishment was lost and ought fell out of favor.

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Offtopic / Re: Introduce yourself

« on: November 10, 2015, 02:26:09 am »

Hey neuralshock! Welcome aboard.

10

XPiratez / Re: Welcome to Piratez sub-forum

« on: October 24, 2015, 08:00:11 pm »

Congratulation on being blue!

Like Yankes said, shouldn't the original Piratez thread be here as well though?

11

Offtopic / Re: What exactly is cheating in XCOM?

« on: September 18, 2015, 10:35:01 pm »

What exactly is meant by cheating in XCOM? We have people using mods, taking advantage of bugs and exploits, save scumming etc

Personally, I think using straight up glitches would count as cheating, as would editing save files. If by exploits you mean things like heavily using the psi-amp because it's overpowered, then I don't think that's "cheating" per say. While no game is without glitches, the burden of balancing a game's basic weapons should fall on the development staff; players shouldn't have to impose limits on themselves to make the game more fair.

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Offtopic / Re: Does anyone know about the 3DO version of TftD?

« on: August 19, 2015, 07:48:36 pm »

I knew 3DO for the Army Men games, and I think I played one of their High Heat baseball games once.

Not knowing about their console isn't too surprising; the thing was a disaster in every sense of the word. 3DO confused third-party developers by constantly making changes and tweaks to their system even as it neared its release date. They also didn't understand the concept of selling consoles at a lost and recuperating money through royalties. It went up against the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1993 with a release day price of $699 (though many retailers apparently sold it lower trying desperately to get rid of them), and it only had one launch title, which came packaged with the system. It cost more than the SNES and Genesis combined, and it ended up selling less than 1/4th of what the famously disappointing Sega Saturn did. The console's only classic was Gex, and that was ported to the PS1 later on.

The Wikipedia article provides a pretty good summary of exactly how badly things went.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DO_Interactive_Multiplayer

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Offtopic / Does anyone know about the 3DO version of TftD?

« on: August 19, 2015, 03:29:21 am »

I see it listed at a few places, but I've never seen any sign of it actually existing and I know absolutely no one who ever owned a 3DO. Was it cancelled?

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Released Mods / Re: [SOUND] Gifty's TFTD soundtrack!

« on: August 18, 2015, 08:45:23 pm »

Hahaha, its super Retro!!!
good job.

Very retro sounding indeed; it would feel at home on an SNES game.

I'll definitely be trying this. After growing up with the legitimately creepy and haunting sound of the PS1 X-com soundtrack, I could never stand the TftD soundtrack. It just feels very campy and B-movie, and it never set the right tone for the game in my opinion.

By the way, if you don't mind me asking Gifty, how do you make these soundtracks?

15

Open Feedback / Re: Any word on openTFTD's progress?

« on: August 17, 2015, 10:17:46 pm »

...so, the lobstermen were supposed to be invisible? Holy cow.

That's bordering on active contempt for their paying audience.

It's also very clear that tasoths weren't intended as mind control units and that they added that in really late.