XCOM SG Signup and Rule discussion?

[Bobchillingworth]

Signing up to get shot, sirs!

[Sareln]

I hear you need bodies. Reporting for Red-Shirt duty.

[fire&ice]

I hear you need bodies. Reporting for Red-Shirt duty.

Really should be towards getting the first set of armor(which is quite franky crap but crap is better than nothing).

Does the personal armor change color if so. Make red armor for all the people you just hired. And another armor for everyone else.

P.S. if it does not ignore my comments just one trekkies opinion

[uberfish]

Everyone we hired in the first 3 turns got killed anyway, I don't think the colour of the shirt really matters :D

[haphazard1]

Welcome new recruits! Glad we are providing an entertaining spectacle.

XCOM is old enough that almost nothing is customizable. For your soldiers the only thing you can really control is their name. Everything else visible is determined entirely by their equipment selections. The body will show what kind of armor the soldier is wearing (or basic coveralls if none), and the weapon being used will be shown. Aliens do not wear armor, but you can see what weapon they are using if you look carefully.

(Note that the above applies to the graphical appearance of your troops. Behind the scenes every soldier has unique stats in about 10 categories, some of which are static and others which can improve with experience and training. These are what we are referring to when we talk about which soldier is good (or bad) at something, like throwing grenades or sniping.)

Personal Armor looks kind of like chunky grey plate armor -- the in-game description is that it is a sort of full-body suit with plates of alien alloy built in to cover key portions of the wearer's body. Later on we will research our way to Power Suits which are sealed, powered exoskeletons which provide much greater protection. The final armor available is the Flying Suit, which is a tougher power suit with alien hover tech built in -- very nice stuff which opens up a lot of tactical options. Flying Suits are expensive in terms of engineer time and required materials, though.

For its time XCOM's graphics were actually well above average, but as has been mentioned earlier in the thread many people (including me) would love to see an updated game with the same basic engine but better UI, graphics, sound effects, etc. The game is quite fun, but the clunky-by-today's-standards interface and graphics put a lot of people off. And the learning curve can be quite steep -- the game gives you pretty much nothing in the way of guidance for tactics, research paths, what to build in your base, etc.

[dazedroyalty]

I'm working on the save....

[dazedroyalty]

Having endured two missions of bitterness, the entire X-Com program suffered from a nearly broken spirit. If this was what the war was to be like, who could endure it? The troops were so green that camo in the forest wasn't necessary. The scientists were barely were making "poor" progress on discovering how the aliens weapons work. Engineers were diligently building laser rifles but complained constantly that they were under-resourced! Things were not well at EUROCOM:



X-Com director decided that moral improvements were needed. More recruits were found (oh those poor souls). The engineers found their numbers were more than doubled. Even the scientists were expanded by 40%. Dr. KingofPain still complained though,

"We've more lab space! It should all be filled."

The Director tried his hardest to be understanding by Dr. KingofPain knew nothing of the stress of balancing the complexities of an alien fighting force. Not to mention the need for a strong operation reserve.

"Have patience, Doctor. Your work will pay off soon!"

The soldiers, though, were worried still. Captain antisocialmonkey was wounded. What would happen on the next mission. Only time would tell.

Days went by without any signs of alien activity and the director's words turned out to be true.



Soon after, they discovered how to load the weapon (the Director wasn't sure why it took so long to understand the ammunition but who understands these things? Sometimes, he thought, not even the scientists!)

The boys were encouraged. They would be able to fire back with the same weapons that had killed so many brave soldiers already!

Now the days started to drag out. Whereas at first the lack of alien activity was a welcome relief, after two weeks the recruits were starting to get anxious. The director and international board started to worry. What nefarious activities were taking place unaware?

Finally, the red phone in the director's office rang.

"Sir, we have contact."

An interceptor was immediately dispatched. The director even decided that it would be good for the troops to head out so he immediately loaded the skyranger.

Upon first contact, the interceptor got a shot off but the UFO managed to evade. Over the middle of Africa, though, the Interceptor caught up again. This time, the UFO fell to the ground!

There was a cheer of euphoria back at the base. The director's face stayed grim. "Wait for the tactical assault..." was all he said.

The Skyranger landed and they took an initial survey of what was nearby.



Dazedroyalty 2.0, a fresh recruit, threw a smoke grenade out the door. It was the one thing the Captain had told him before take off:

"Don't get shot because you're stupid! I won't tolerate anymore stupid soldiers on my squad!"



The troops quickly saw the alien craft. It was badly damaged:



Serdoa, another new recruit, was sent into the breech. There, in the smoke he saw a floating alien. In the back of his head, Serdoa thought it was best to take cover and wait for back up. But, his better judgment failed and he raised his rifle. This alien was gonna pay for all the death X-Com had experienced.

Three blasts fired... and the alien went down! Dead!



Krill was not pleased. "Sarge, why are we sending out the rookies first? They're gonna die!"

"Shuddup soldier," Amelia barked. "They were in the front of the ship. There's nothing I can do!"

The team continued to pan out. With four dead in the crash and one shot dead, they weren't sure if there were any left alive. Sarge made the team confirm though. All the building had to be explored.

Dazedroyalty 2.0 was sent into the final building:



He heard something upstairs. He couldn't see it but knew there must be another darn floater at the top of the stairs. Like serdoa, his inexperience and impatience showed. He immediately raised the shiney new plasma canon and fired three shots.

"No!" yelled Sarge. "Wait for your backup!"

The warning wasn't needed though. The fates had smiled on the rookie and without even seeing the target, the alien crumpled to the ground.



Amelia got back to base and immediately went to Captain Antisocialmunkey, now fully recovered.

"These rookies are foolhardy! I demand that they be sent back and replaced."

"Sergeant, I admire these brave men. In fact, we need more daring men like this. You must promote Dazedroyalty 2.0 to Sergeant. You and he will need to learn to work together! On your way out, send in the pilot. He and I need to talk about his landing zones..."

It seemed that the tide was coming back in. In the mess, the Director knew it wouldn't stay this way, but for now, he grimly smiled while the soldiers celebrated. They would need their enthusiasm to enjoy the X-Com beer-substitute.

[dazedroyalty]

Someone check the save quick and make sure it worked. I played it on the Mac using the old DOS version.

We have 70 scientists working on Alien Alloys at the moment. A lot of time (in game) passed with nothing happening. Hopefully that doesn't mean we were getting bad luck with our radar. There'll probably be a base in Asia. Or we're gonna lose funding:

[antisocialmunky]

Ugh, I just wrote Mission 5 report twice and accidentally closed the window twice...

Nice job doing the anti-me. Nice to XCOM bounce back - until my next turn Fun fact, once you get the flying suit, you can usually just land on the top of a UFO and start shooting holes in the ceiling with that ridiculous heavy plasma. Thus you avoid all door traps and all sorts of 'fun.'

[Man Behind the Mask]

I'm surprised to see no love for the motion scanner being reported. If I remember right, it even showed alien moves on T0.

I would normally have one near the back of the 'ranger, and then found it vital in door-storms.