UFO Fanfiction Discussion

[Zager]

I'm not saying their perfect, I'm just saying that we're going to have very few soldiers who can't handle most aspects of combat.

[Snikers]

These are stats compared to the normal soldier. They won't be superheroes; keep in mind what stats the aliens probably have. I doubt they have under "good" in most things either.

[JellyfishGreen]

Hey, since we seem to be at the end of another day, we'll be onto final training day very soon. A morning in the classroom introducing gadgets - map device, hwp. "This is so new we don't have a name for it yet."

 

The afternoon sees squads storming a few mock plywood buildings with paintguns, smoke grenades and electroflares, and analyzing the videos afterwards. Sorry, HE not allowed.

 

And then - a new year's eve 1998 party, and a toast from the Commander on the base's success!

 

Anyone want to stick in a breakfast post first?

 

Re new characters: there's a lot of 'padding' in Squad C and a little in Squad B, so after a few alien encounters*, we can pull characters in from the waiting list.

 

*or training accidents, like Loonie suggested.

 

Gia was in the training cockpit running a simulated flight, at one point - that could be in the hangar, though I don't know how you'd see it from the rec room.

I doubt she'd want to play flight games with her free time, she'd prefer to dress up and flirt a bit. She'll _definitely_ find something special to wear for New Year's Eve.

 

JFG

 

PS: Microwave beam receivers for orbital power satellites would have to be very big, or hold very still. Bad if the satellite beam wanders. So yeah they're just good batteries.

[The Veteran]

Gia was in the rec room at one point but I didn't know that when I posted. I edited it out to make everything fit...

 

She'll _definitely_ find something special to wear for New Year's Eve.

 

I'll just have to make sure Trigger gets to her before Doc and Grizzly are back then huh?!

[Zager]

Fine, the biocells just hold tons and tons of electricity, more than enough for about a thousand shots.

[Alitorious]

Actually, maybe the different classes of laser weapon have different shot limits? There's two ways this can go about.

One, is that the laser pistol has less shots than the laser rifle, which can shoot a lesser total than the heavy laser. This might be because the pistol laser is more inefficient or the powerpack isn't nearly as developed and refined as later versions.

 

Or, the biocells in each class of weapon are similar, and the pistol technically holds more rounds than the rifle and heavy because it uses up less power.

 

But, of course, it doesn't matter since laser weapons won't run out of energy during any normal conflict, so I don't really see the point of that argument.

 

 

And in regards to weaknesses these people are supposed to be realistic. I'm not saying that my characters don't have weaknesses, but weaknesses don't have to be as pronounced or anything. I really doubt that 3/4ths of the average population have some deep-seated trauma or something like that. Sure, the job is extremely stressful, but that can be applied to all the people pretty much equally. After all, they are the best of the elite teams, or should be. They wouldn't be where they are today if they had obvious weaknesses. And, as elite units, they would have been trained in all standard forms of weaponry. (This excludes heavy weaponry.) Part of this training is to train them in using all weaponry availiable, and I'm surprised no one (including me) has thought of having the soldiers being trained with things like autocannons, heavy cannons, High Explosives, stun rods, rocket launchers, and any nonstandard weaponry. They may be too weak to carry the stuff, but they'll know how to use them.

 

Now, what was I talking about again? Basically, if these people are good enough to be allowed into XCOM, then, aside from the odd one, they wouldn't have anything majorly wrong with them. After all, we don't want this to turn into some kind of soap opera/spy show. (This excludes the occasional thread or two in the plotline.) We don't want to let the fanfic get too overly complicated.

[Zager]

Oh, Gaston's a demolitions expert. You need something blown to hell, just point and he'll take care of it. On an average mission, he'll be carrying enough C-4 to put Lady Liberty into orbit, so you don't have to worry about him running out.

[Ki-tat Chung]

so are we talking about how much dammage a laser can delt or how many shots it can shoot?

[JellyfishGreen]

The heavy laser is, in fact, also physically heavy; the laser pistol is light and does less damage. We can say the biocells (and other parts) have to be larger and heavier in order for the weapon to do more damage. Shot number still effectively infinite.

 

Zager: nice interplay with Rick and Gaston. Though, was Gaston's accent slipping a bit? Not that I should talk.

Note, the number of HE packs Gaston carries on the mission should be realistic as per a soldier of his strength in the actual game. No sense having him waddle away from a timed explosive because he's too weighted down to run.

Or are we allowing C4 also available in a size and damage equivalent to 1 Standard Grenade?

 

Ps. In the Squad listing, I *'d a number of the soldiers I used to 'pad' the ranks. Two extra bonus points for whoever figures out why those names are connected. 1 point deducted for using Google.

[The Veteran]

Look! Lasers do not matter! The biocells hold a massive amount of energy and they regenerate quickly when they are depleted. Therefore lasers have theoretically infinite ammunition. As for the damage, think about it! It's really REALLY simple!

[Alitorious]

Ok. Lasers effectively are infinite. End of discussion.

 

Oh, and what if I use another search engine besides google?

 

 

Plus, not being able to think up another post to contribute to the fanfic (and introducing my 3 new characters.) is making me feel guilty!

 

Edit: Added the word effectively.

[Zager]

Biocells recharging on their own? That's ludicrious, they need an outside source of energy to recharge.

 

Generally, I prefer remote detonation to timed, unless I need to use a timer for a specific objective. And I'm going to be using explosives as they are in the present day and age, rather than the big, heavy packs you get in the game.

[JellyfishGreen]

Remember we're set in the X-com universe, where for some reason you can't get sniper rifles, so I would vote to restrict our heavy explosives to Timed mode and Toolbox size for similar reasons - "It says so in the game." I'm going to allow my soldiers to run and lie prone, however.

 

Anyone want to back me up? Vet? I promise not to talk about lasers anymore?

 

On the other hand, using explosives to take down doors and barnyard walls would be easier to write than riddling it with a rifle burst and having it disintegrate.

[The Veteran]

Much as I hate to say it he has indeed smacked the nail right in the face!

 

If it's in the game then it goes for the fic too. Running and laying prone are common sense so they pass. Use your common sense people, but remember this IS 1999!

[Zager]

Why bother to have demolitions experts then, since in the game you just throw down the bomb next to the target to be destroyed, then run away, which has virtually no resemblance to how demolitions in real life works. Remote detonations is just as much common sense as running and dropping prone. The only reason it wasn't in the game was because it was easier to use the grenade's timer code, than write new code for remote detonation.

[The Veteran]

We still need demo experts. The explosives are of the type in the game. Big clumsy and not very precise... They only operate in time delay detonation but in order to do tactical damage to a structure or UFO or to terrain, they must be positioned expertly. Therefore we need demo experts to do it!

[Zager]

And why would a demolitions expert be using big, clumsy and unprecise explosives, when a few ounces of C4 could do the same thing? I understand the reason why we have to remain similar to the game, but don't you think we're pushing it a bit past reasonable into absurd now?

[The Veteran]

Right this has been discussed and concluded now. This is war, not a commando operation. If we want to get somewhere using explosives we're going to blow the hell out of it. Sorted!

 

So away from lasers and high explosives does anyone have anything to talk about?

[Loonie]

Yes indeed.

 

Get to work writing fics will ya! I'm aching to do so, but can't!

[Alitorious]

I've tried to introduce my characters twice, but I can't seem to find a proper way to do it! It seems I can't do character interactions very well.

[Tammy]

Now TJ, it's not very fair to declare the subject closed in that arbitrary fashion. Zager has made some very good points, and you've barely even listened. Now give it some real thought and pay attention. :hmmm:

[The Veteran]

Wha? We did talk... We're talking now. You're there too! What is there not to be talked about?

[Zager]

You cut our last conversation on the topic short, and said we'd continue it later. I'd rather not discuss it over IM with you, because my wisdom teeth are coming in, it hurts like hell, and I'll be a lot more likely to say something that I'll regret later on. I'm always short tempered when I'm in pain.

[The Veteran]

True, I did have to go quickly. It was either work or a meal... I forget which now... I thought that was that though... Pah, well next time you see me on MSN bring it up and we'll talk about it some more.

Similarly if anyone else wants to chat about the fic, I'm always on my messenger when I am online. Add me, pantlessavenger@hotmial.com and I'll be happy to talk about the fic.

And Ben, don't worry about the pain! Mine only just came through a short while ago and I went through weeks of not being able to chew with my back teeth... Soup aint so bad though

[Zager]

I was having trillian problems just now, it wasn't delivering the messages. Anyway, about the explosives, my primary point is that it doesn't negatively affect the fic, and it gives us more posting options during combat. What's wrong with that?