Re: The X-Com Files - 3.5: Whispers In The Dark

[Dr.Crowley]

Well, I shall admit - that's what UFO landing missions are like in the early game Anyway, it's really nice piece of writing.

[Nord]

Solarius, can you explain a bit about 'caves' mission? Is it worth to lose time on searching single enemy in dark empty labyrinth? Because if it is just spider or something like, then ignoring this type of missions is a good choice from my point of view.

[Solarius Scorch]

Solarius, can you explain a bit about 'caves' mission? Is it worth to lose time on searching single enemy in dark empty labyrinth? Because if it is just spider or something like, then ignoring this type of missions is a good choice from my point of view.

Admittedly it's not really worth it now beyond the obvious treasures, being monster corpses and some semi-humorous junk which doesn't appear anywhere else. It will however be more useful in the future (there is a whole "Underdark" arc planned, with Reptoids and Antmen and weird monsters and all that). It won't happen very soon though - first I want to complete the Syndicate arc and the Cyberweb arc. Besides, that underground arc will be so much work that it's going to take ages.

Note that monster hunts will be turned off with a certain research with the future, while caves won't, so the caves will also be4 an opportunity to fight some monsters again.

[Dr.Crowley]

Admittedly it's not really worth it now beyond the obvious treasures, being monster corpses and some semi-humorous junk which doesn't appear anywhere else.

Well, for me it was a Thursdaya nice field training for my rookies;D

It will however be more useful in the future (there is a whole "Underdark" arc planned, with Reptoids and Antmen and weird monsters and all that). It won't happen very soon though - first I want to complete the Syndicate arc and the Cyberweb arc. Besides, that underground arc will be so much work that it's going to take ages.

Oh my gosh. We have cultists (and yes, a huge hello to H.P.Lovecraft), mutants (quite underdeveloped arc, btw), zombies (with a twist), aliens (well, it's X-Com after all) - and we'll get a Hollow Earth in a some point. I wonder if there are even more horrors awaiting us in the future? Space Nazis?

Note that monster hunts will be turned off with a certain research with the future, while caves won't, so the caves will also be4 an opportunity to fight some monsters again.

Hmmm. This doesn't sound very good for me but I guess we'll better wait until this will be actually introduced.

Well, well. It's time for field report. It's 9th May, 1999 and I just completed M.A.G.M.A. Lab mission (finally!). It got 3 attempts, 3+ hours of real time, 38 turns and almost all ammo I had for this mission. This time I equipped most of my agents with BlackOps Shotguns and AA Scatter Ammo, one had BlackOps CAWS, one - BlackOps Rifle and two medics had BlackOps SubMachineGuns. 46 various zombies - Great Scott! All my agents got nice reaction bonuses after this mission, just because of my favorite tactic - build a defencive perimeter around transport and wait for enemies. As for new research objects - well, new zombies are nice. Overfed fat zombie seems okay - I imagined it more like L4D's Tank but anyway. As for another subject - something like that was mentioned in zombie discussion some time before so I wasn't much wondered. But it still hurts

[Juku121]

Some recolored sprites for Salamandrons.

[Dioxine]

Magma itself provides just the perfect tool to kill Zombies - the Thresher. Haven't meet a zombie which didn't go down to a single shot; works even at larger distances.

[Dr.Crowley]

You mean Heavy Shotgun? I choose not to use it because it's too heavy and has too low ammo capacity.

[ohartenstein23]

You mean Heavy Shotgun? I choose not to use it because it's too heavy and has too low ammo capacity.

That's a shame that you haven't tried it. It really does solve Zombie problems quite handily as Dioxine said.  Since it's practically a guaranteed kill every shot, think of it as a shotgun-like launcher - you bring as much ammo as you can on a strong agent because each shell will solve a problem that would be much more difficult otherwise.  The weight and ammo capacity are necessary to balance the power.

[Dr.Crowley]

I understand this all but I prefer guns what won't run out of ammo in a middle of zombie rush just because you can't carry more than 1-2 mags. Maybe I'll try it later...

BTW, Promotion II and introduction of BlackOps weapons (and M.A.G.M.A. stock later) became a really major event for me - it was the end of HKMP5 era for me. I'll miss these days when my "inquisitors" (who dealt with cultist cases) could rely solely on non-letal arms and "monster hunters" were grim badasses in Armor Vests, armed with HKMP5 and shotguns. Yeah, that was a long and colorful era for my Bureau.

[HelmetHair]

BTW, Promotion II and introduction of BlackOps weapons (and M.A.G.M.A. stock later) became a really major event for me - it was the end of HKMP5 era for me. I'll miss these days when my "inquisitors" (who dealt with cultist cases) could rely solely on non-letal arms and "monster hunters" were grim badasses in Armor Vests, armed with HKMP5 and shotguns. Yeah, that was a long and colorful era for my Bureau.

Ha! No doubt! Missions also take a way longer when you have to shoot the everyloving piss out of monsters to kill them. Like I had a beetle mission with 35+ of the creepy crawlies where I expended literally over 600 rounds of ammo because rookies can't shoot for shit. it. took. for. ever.

Also, the van is like the best thing ever for quick reaction teams. I at one point had 12, 4 man teams patrolling the globe  on constant patrol... living in the vans smelling like blood, body odor, and coffee for years. Those agents earned their pay, and most didn't live to spend it. my units were colorful also... so many crazy missions, so many wounds and close calls, and tons of serious spec ops professional kidnappings.

the dragonfly killed most of that, and the skyraider buried it.
BlackOps weapons changed the balance towards my agents with high accuracy shooting from the "close" assault weapon that made any rifle besides the A3K pretty much useless. Considering that it is currently comparable in damage to the gauss pistol in damage only more accurate at range and cheaper and easier to obtain and was my main battle rifle for all troops until I had RAILGUNS should show how OP it is.

Anyways... have a good one.

[Dr.Crowley]

Like I had a beetle mission with 35+ of the creepy crawlies where I expended literally over 600 rounds of ammo because rookies can't shoot for shit. it. took. for. ever.

Hell yeah, giant beetles and zombies will make any monster hunt last freaking forever. But I can remember the one of my first encounters with beetles somewhere in African Ruins. At this point I even had no vans yet - just a car. Yeah, right, two agents (one with Colt and another with Taser Pistol) against 12-15 beetles. I was really lucky by finding a good position atop of some ladder but even so I ran out of ammo very quick and was forced to melee. Standing knee-deep in the dead or bleeding beetles and hoping to survive another enemy turn... yeah. And then they (beetles, not agents) begun panicking 
Chupacabras were very different colour. My first enconter with them was like "survive the enemy rush" mission from some RTS. Luckily, my agents killed most of chupacabras via reaction shots.
As for another monsters, none gave me so much problem as Swarmids. Thank god, I saw them two or three times only - and I barely killed one of them and retreated. Just becase you can't kill a freaking swarm with shotgun or SMG so easy.
But the worst news were Monster Attacks (ol' good terror missions with monsters actually). Giant beetles/spiders were okay (as long as you can consider monster rampage in the city "okay"), but shamblers gave me some hard time. And nothing was so bad as werebeasts. Fast, agressive and not so stupid like shamblers (who loved to "change their mind" in melee and go away) - nah, werewolfs/werecats are deadly in packs.
After all of this (and WTF-style zombie sightings in the Crop Circles missions) I hoped to never meet zombies in Monster Attack missions. And of course RNG was jerk enough to troll me with this when I met undead folks in some village. Thank god, there was no Infectors (I didn't even know about them at this point), or I would be really screwed.
Heh, and cultists are the story for another day

[Solarius Scorch]

Thanks for sharing these thoughts! Some consideration for 0.6, guys:

1) There will be a bit less encounters with very many creatures; I felt they were too tedious. They will still happen, but less frequently.
2) All marker missions will disappear after their time is up, even if targeted by a vehicle. I felt the vanilla mechanics was too gamey and lenient. These timers are (mostly) pretty long, so even vans are normally able to get there on time, but it will probably even emphasize the need to keep squads in different parts of the globe (either in bases or in vehicles).
3) The Dragonfly will be available later than before. The current slot will be occupied by a standard helicopter with a capacity of 6 and medium range/speed (think better but smaller Airborne Mudranger).
4) A multitude of new real life weapons. A3K will be available later, its current place will be taken by QBU-88. My current personal favourite among the newcomers is the SWD (Russian sniper rifle) and the PKM (Russian machine gun).

But it's only a fraction of the changes; the list is already longer than for any previous update, and I think more important on average. It will be released after the next version of OXC (and after Meridian mergers it with OXCE+), and I also need to make the helicopter graphics. And I'll probably add more junk along the way.

[Dr.Crowley]

2) All marker missions will disappear after their time is up, even if targeted by a vehicle. I felt the vanilla mechanics was too gamey and lenient. These timers are (mostly) pretty long, so even vans are normally able to get there on time, but it will probably even emphasize the need to keep squads in different parts of the globe (either in bases or in vehicles).

Uh, no rest for the wicked, eh?

3) The Dragonfly will be available later than before. The current slot will be occupied by a standard helicopter with a capacity of 6 and medium range/speed (think better but smaller Airborne Mudranger).

Yay, black helicopters! Oh, and I found Mudrangers completely useless.

4) A multitude of new real life weapons. A3K will be available later, its current place will be taken by QBU-88. My current personal favourite among the newcomers is the SWD (Russian sniper rifle) and the PKM (Russian machine gun).

Wait, you mean RPK (ручной пулемёт Калашникова/Kalashnikov's LMG)?

But it's only a fraction of the changes; the list is already longer than for any previous update, and I think more important on average. It will be released after the next version of OXC (and after Meridian mergers it with OXCE+), and I also need to make the helicopter graphics. And I'll probably add more junk along the way.

Remind us, please, how much finished are the "story arcs" at this moment?

[Solarius Scorch]

Yay, black helicopters! Oh, and I found Mudrangers completely useless.

Actually it's white. But a recolour is possible.

Mudranger is highly situational; I heard many times that it was used successfully, I used it a bit too, so I'd say it's interesting if you have a free hangar.

Wait, you mean RPK (ручной пулемёт Калашникова/Kalashnikov's LMG)?

See for yourself:

Remind us, please, how much finished are the "story arcs" at this moment?

Let me see...
Church of Dagon: 100%
Black Lotus: 100%
Red Dawn: 100%
EXALT: 100%
Strange Life Forms: 100%
Syndicate: 90% (hopefully 100% before release)
Hybrids: 40%
Men in Black: 20%
Cyberweb: 20%
Underdark: 10%
[classified]: 5%
[classified]: 0%

other: ?

[Dr.Crowley]

See for yourself:

Oh yes, it's PKM (Пулемёт Калашникова Модернизированный/PK Machine Gun).

Church of Dagon: 100%
Black Lotus: 100%
Red Dawn: 100%
EXALT: 100%
Strange Life Forms: 100%

So Alien Cult and Mutant arcs are completed... Nice.

other: ?

Well, you forgot Zombies.