Let's play The X-COM Files, shall we?

[tkzv]

572.

Turn 16. Looks empty. But when Okoth walks to the other door, something explodes.

573.

Another Sectoid with stun bomb launcher. Fortunately, he missed.

574.

Now sleep!

575.

And die.

648 (reconstructed from saves)

Turn 17. This Sectoid has too many unspent TUs. Okoth can shoot no more than once in auto mode.

649 (reconstructed from saves)

Turn 18. Open the door, shoot, wait for next turn. Rinse and repeat. Meanwhile Skjolsvold continues panicking and berserking.

581.

Turn 20. Where did he go?

582.

Okoth went north, but looks like the Sectoid went east, to the lift. This way he'll see Skjolsvold. Unarmed and immobile.

585, 586.


Turn 21. Yes, the Sectoid is on the bottom floor. No chance to kill him in 1 turn at this range.

[tkzv]

589.

Turn 23. The alien missed and Skjolsvold stopped panicking. Now he can grab the gun or run to the enemy with a club or hide behind the UFO.

Looks like this Sectoid is pretty good at close combat. I sent Okoth and then had to reload.

594.

Turn 25. Skjolsvold can't reach his gun and Okoth reached the door only now. Same old: 3 shots and hide.

595.

Skjolsvold started panicking again.

597.

Turn 27. Where's the alien again? There are several unlit areas, but the agents can't throw flares there from under the ship's "wheel".

603.

Tun 30. Can't come any closer — the alien throws grenades.

606.

Turn 31. Skjolsvold is under alien control.

612.

Turn 38. Skjolsvold recovered and went to the top exit to throw flares from there. Okoth continues shooting from the bottom exit. The alien is approaching.

615.

Skjolsvold got panicked. So much for this plan.

620.

Turn 43. Okoth tried close combat again.

622.

He won.

[tkzv]

623.

Skjolsvold finally got +10 to braery. Okoth got another +5 to melee.

624.

This ship gave more money than any 2 previous ships combined. And I'm not selling mind probes yet.

626.

And thus ends the month of January. Note that there are some new countries, not appearing in the vanilla game.

[Solarius Scorch]

I tried to read this LP... But the format with the pics at the bottom makes it too tiring, sorry.

[tkzv]

I tried to read this LP... But the format with the pics at the bottom makes it too tiring, sorry.

I thought it was obvious. The pics at the bottom repeat the ones in the text. If you saw a pic at the bottom, which wasn't in the text, either I missed it by mistake, or you opened the topic before I finished editing.

I don't like that the pics in the text are not resizable. I don't want to use Imgur, because it randomly croaks on me. The whole process proved a bit too tiresome and less rewarding than translating , but I may give it another shot this week.

[Solarius Scorch]

Well, I haven't seen them in the body of the text. Maybe you're right about me reading too early.

You can resize pics like this:

Code: [Select]

[img width=640]www.imgur.com/foo.jpg[/img]
Imgur or not. (BTW, it works fine for me, and I haven't heard amy other complaints. Though their recent redesign is confusing.)

[tkzv]

Well, I haven't seen them in the body of the text. Maybe you're right about me reading too early.

How about now? Do you see the images in the text on this page now?

P.S. Something was wrong with the first 2 pages, I fixed them.

P.P.S. I still don't know, why there were no images in the text until the middle of the 2nd page, if I checked earlier and there were. Maybe I checked the 3rd page 3 times 

You can resize pics like this:

Code: [Select]

[img width=640]www.imgur.com/foo.jpg[/img]

Thanks! Too bad "width=xxx%" doesn't work.

Imgur or not. (BTW, it works fine for me, and I haven't heard amy other complaints. Though their recent redesign is confusing.)

My subnet got banned in many places, it seems

Here are the screenshots, which I made back in July, but didn't post, because I got distracted with the translation.

628. So, February starts with the 1st promotion:

629. And a lot of new research opportunities:


631. Logistics (with vans) is important, but I want those flare guns ASAP:


633. Next day I got Logistics:

635. ...and flare guns:


Let's see what transport is available so far:
636.

637. Rental cars:

638. Rental vans:

They are much slower and catching UFOs becomes much harder. Perhaps, not getting them in January was for the better?

639. Mudranger APC. Never figured out how to use it with such a short range.

[tkzv]

While I'm at it, let's see what other knowledge Ufopaedia had from the start or acquired silently.

641. The introduction to the idea of cults:

If this mod gets an intro slideshow, perhaps it should include this page?

And the starting staff. Guess, those are the 5 "scientists" you start with.

642. The quartermaster.

Is he suggesting to research nonstandard weapons?

643. The accountant.


644. The medic.


645. Chief investigator. As well as the resident hacker.


646. The hints what I should've done in January.


Wait... Where's the 5th scientist?


656. On the 3rd of February, 2 new missions appeared: Crop Circles in Japan and Dagon safehouse in Madagascar.

I still have only 1 base working, because the other 2 haven't finished building warehouses.

654. On the 4th of February 3 new agents arrived.

But the vans have already left without them.

658. The crew of 3 has reached Japan.

This isn't the usual "arrest the farmer" mission. The good news: there's no time limit. The bad news: this time it's farmers and zombies.

[tkzv]

Crop Circles with zombies.

Turn 1.
660. Just your typical UFO:EU farmland where someone had drawn a smiley. I sent Chan to check behind the house and Bagheri to check the black spots behind the trees. Then Bagheri noticed a zombie through the window.

If I'm not mistaken, it's going to climb to the roof and jump down.

661. Shaman can shoot it through the window — on the next turn.

I hope there's nobody in the house behind him.

Turn 2.
664. The zombie did jump off the roof. Bagheri's and Shaman's auto fire opened a few extra passageways.

Chan will look through the far window then enter the house behind Shaman and search it. From where he stands, Shaman didn't see anybody inside.

Turn 3.
666. There was an unarmed farmer in the house. He did walk to Shaman, but didn't attack. The zombie roared and ran to Shaman, but didn't bite yet.

Will they shoot it down on this turn? Chan is too far to help. I think, zombies can bite through this fence.
Chan closed the door behind him on turn 2, because it was faster than circumnavigating the open door.

667. Shaman did finish the zombie and can now hide from the farmer of shoot him once. Chan will reach taser range with TUs for 2 shots.


670. Success!

Now, Chan will check upstairs, Shaman will check the house in the left corner, Bagheri will check the stables in the bottom corner.

Turn 5.
671. Nobody...


Turn 6.
674. Chan found a zombie Bagheri somehow missed (under the cursor). The zombie sees Bagheri, but Bagheri is out of TUs.

Chan has TUs for a single aimed shot. (But will only destroy the door.)

Turn 8.
675. Bagheri is running away from the zombie, while other agents rush to the rescue.


676. Three guns was safe enough to stop running and fight.

Everybody practiced well. 1 living farmer, 1 living zombie, 1 dead zombie, 3 zombie parasite (sold 2 immediately).

[tkzv]

680, 681, 682, 683. Meanwhile, a Red Dawn ganger confessed.




Just a reminder to check Ufopaedia texts now and then


This is interesting, but I'll finish different researches for now.

685. And the van has reached Madagascar.

[tkzv]

Skjolsvold and Okoth against cultists.

Turn 1.

686. The no longer safe house is in the left corner. I hope, this crowd is all they are going to encounter, nobody stayed in the house.

This looks like a lot, and there may be more in the far corner and behind the hill, but low-ranking cultists tend to have poor aim.

687.

One disciple down.

688, 689, 690, 691, 692, 693. What are they armed with?






SMGs, a double-barrelled shotgun, a kukri knife, a crossbow, a Beretta pistol, a pump-action shotgun. Shotguns and SMGs are good for friendly fire

695. 2 more disciples down,

time to hide behind the van.

[tkzv]

Turn 2.

697. Only 2 enemies are visible from here, and the hill covers them partially. Looks like the house is really empty.


698. Found 2 more.


700. Too far to aim well. The agents managed to kill only 1 more.


After the turn ended, I heard the door. Skjolsvold stayed on this side of the van and Okoth watched the house.

Turn 3.

701. This time Skjolsvold didn't hide, but they missed him.


702. The cultist with kukri wasn't an immediate threat, he just was the only target they didn't miss.


Turn 4.

703. 705. And here's the man from the house. He shouldn't be a problem for Okoth.



707. Other enemies are too far for Skjolsvold. He only managed to wound the crossbowman.


At the end of the turn I hid Skjolsvold behind the van, hoping to lure enemies closer.

[tkzv]

Turn 5.

709. Hiding...


710. It worked, they did come closer.


712. I haven't seen this disciple before.


713. The wounded crossbowman has gone berserk. Too bad he only has 1 shot.


Turn 6.

718. The last one?


719. No prisoners


720. No reaction practice.


721. 2 money briefcases is nice. The rest costs only a few thousand dollars.

[tkzv]

1529, 1530. Here is Mukhtar von Kleine, from Germany, as requested by Leupold_cat at linux.org.ru. I forgot he was hired on February 1st. He arrived to the base too late to go to Madagascar or Japan.



Those two missions were followed by a quiet week.

7th of February, 1997.

723. EXALT infiltrator research is ready.

Main occupations: selling and abusing Psiclone.

724. Extra information: flashlights for $2000 apiece are way too expensive. Even if they double as clubs.


728. Black Lotus follower is ready.

Just Oriental monks that know kung fu. Supposedly, their melee proficiency attracted attention.

729. Extra information: X-COM quartermaster uses grenades to question prisoners.


730. 4 cults unlock Intelligence center.


732. Researching a hunting license picked from a hunter gives hunter combat analysis.

Nothing unusual.

726. Also researched money briefcase. Just to get maximum research percentage.


733. Next topic — intelligence center. It will double the number of scientists on the main base. Or let the other bases research humans and simple trophy weapons. And double UFO detection probability.

[tkzv]

Next Friday, February 14.

735. Intelligence Center is ready.

$750 thousand apiece.

736. New agents have arrived to the new bases.


Saturday, February 15.

738.  Ramshackle weapon box has been researched.

Now I can open them a workshop to get random weapons. Hangars double as workshops, but I still need to hire an engineer.

742. Ditto ammo box for random ammo.


745. And simple explosives crate.


739. New research. Let's get rid of simplest 1-day projects.


Sunday, February 16.

748. A wooden club.

Weak, but concealable stun weapon.

And then the quiet ended:

750. Another Dagon follower, in Paris.

I've finished the research that closes such operations, but in the old versions those would continue until the month ends.

Monday, February 17.

754. Kukri

As far as I know, no melee weapons in this mod can cut inanimate objects, despite this description. Or did anything change? EDIT: yes it did! Like melee weapons in Piratez, Kukri is effectively a firearm with range 1.