UFO Fanfiction Discussion

[Hankosha]

Thanks Ras for the ceremony, question - If this was in an alternate timeline, would starcraft still be out?

[Rasicar]

Sure why not, I seem to remember it coming out around this time period. I think the only thing we might want to consider changing, time-line wise would be world politics (obviously) other then that, unless the politics would have a side effect on things, everything else would probably continue as it has.

 

-Ras

[The Veteran]

Personally I think it's strill a bit early for sub-plots. Hank, we lready have counter-strike playing a large part in the fic, we're not having satarcraft as well! Yes Shuwei needs a cross, yess squad three needs killing and yes we need further reason to pursue aggressively.

[Rasicar]

Okay, very simple. I am with with the idea of a terror mission. Have it be a small town and have X-Com 'not' be victorious. We said that squad three was going to get their clocks cleaned, so let's go all the way with this and have this massive defeat the reason why X-Com has decided to become aggressors to the menace.

 

The cross thing has been fixed. I was wondering, for future ceremonies, since this is an international organization, do we want to thave a 21 gun salute, or should their be something more specific to X-Com. I thought the salute to the hill was the most appropriate.

 

Anyway, I must be off. Oh, the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is starting in November, so most of my writing time is going to be dedicated to that so I may not be posting here as often as I'd like to. www.nanowrimo.org for all those interested.

 

-Ras

[The Veteran]

lol, ok Ras but remember, writing in the fic is still writing!

I think the whole cross on the hill thing is a good idea (like cannon fodder!)

A terror mission is a good idea to prune squad three and get that bit more agressive but we have to have squad 2 go on a mission first!

[Spaceman42]

Not neccessarily. Assume the three squads are in rotation, like so:

       | ON DUTY | OFF DUTY | TRAINING |
Week 1 | Squad 1 | Squad 2  | Squad 3  |
Week 2 | Squad 3 | Squad 1  | Squad 2  |
Week 3 | Squad 2 | Squad 3  | Squad 1  |

 

This means, then, that squad 3 could go next since Squad 2 is still in the rotation. Yeah, it's boring to have to wait, but that's training...

[The Veteran]

teah but it would work the other way around. Squad 2 would be next then squad 3. Squad 1 fought first because it's full of good soldiers. 2 will fight next because most of the soldiers have adequate field exprience. Squad 3 is full of rookies and therefore is constantly training until both squads 1 and 2 have fought.

[Spaceman42]

Two things: Skills deteriorate over time when not used, especially combat skills.

And: You don't want to tire everyone out all at once.

 

Ever read Rainbow 6? I'm thinking along those lines. Not training as in "here's what you have to learn", but more "practice to keep your skills honed".

[JellyfishGreen]

I concur with Spaceman42 on this one. All squads are in rotation with training before duty week, R&R after. And Squad 3 isn't full of rookies, just full of NPC's.

 

Re-read my briefing speech. Squad 2 could have been on duty after being on site security + training, but perhaps nothing happened that week. I'm sure Green doesn't mind.

 

Would it make sense to put people immediately into R&R-week after a mission, rotating the squads, or keep them on duty for a whole week of missions? If they lose soldiers during the mission, they'd need new recruits before the next mission, or make do without a full complement for the remainder of the week. Mind you we've all been there.

 

JFG

[The Veteran]

yeah but squad three have no skills! They're pretty much all rookies. therefore they will have been training very hard ever since they arrived. It's either that or die! Fair enough they'll die anyway but they don't know that

Besides the training you talk about is non-compulsory. It's the kind of training that's done by the experienced soldiers in their spare time because they know they have to keep in shape. Like Donovan boxing...

[JellyfishGreen]

Sorry, I had my post above open while Warlord was writing his, so his should actually be before mine, fellow readers. Hopefully he'll come back and read the not-rookies-but-npcs bit.

 

In Squad 3 my list says we have

"Brute" from Alitorious

"Nathan" from Hankosha

"Sandy" from Snickers

"Jasper" from Carlos

and 5 filler characters, named after actors.

Possibly we can throw in a sixth to make a squad of 10.

 

If the above authors are reading this, please note here whether we can kill this character off in the upcoming terror mission. (You can always bring in another.) Choices of death method (carrying primed HE to a Cyberdisk, f'r instance) are encouraged.

 

At this time I'd keep Jasper alive for dramatic effect, and note Nathan is Hankosha's avatar so he's unlikely to want him killed. Especially after I took out O'Malley

[Snikers]

Remember, Sandy is public property. However, don't just cull these characters. We have to treat the characters like actual, well, characters. So at least keep the deaths reasonable. Nothing like "As the crew exited the craft, a silver football zipped out of the nearest building. There were no survivors."

[Spaceman42]

"There will be... NO SURVIVORS..." - though I somehow doubt anyone'd be able to get one of those Apocalypse jackets or whatever on such short notice.

[The Veteran]

um... two things JFish... no.1 I'm not Warlord... no.2 a Snickers is a nutty chocolate bar

 

And my point is that if they were NPC's they wouldn't do so badly in a terror mission. Plus why would anyone with a brain fill the reserve tactical squad with good soldiers? PLUS! (too many pluses I know but bear with me) we still aren't ready for a terror mission. We should at least wait till nearer the end of the month. One more plus... I've said it before and I'll say it again, why would anyone number squads as 1, 2, 3 when they're going to send them out to fight in the order 1, 3, 2. It's just ridiculous!

 

Personally I think each squad should fly one mission then have the next two off. Otherwise one squad could fly five missions in their week of duty and the next squad could fly none! Plus like JFish said they'd need refilling!

[Alitorious]

I was actually planning for Chuck to die on the first sectoid terror mission. Something along the lines of he goes berserk, firing his heavy cannon everywhere, then finally calming down. (We all know *why* he goes berserk, though Damn sectoid leaders...)

 

Then he finally comes face to face with a sectoid, aims and fires first, but his clip is empty. :o

 

Actually... I don't have the details of his death worked out yet... all I know is that a psi-weakling like him will go *poof*

(Although, I don't want him to kill any teammates. He's psi-weak, but strong-minded. Subject to suggestion but not control. That type of stuff.)

 

Are we sending only one squad to a terror site? Sure, in the game you're limited to one squad per mission, but wouldn't the real-life equivalent send as many troops as they can? Perhaps squad 3 in the ranger, and the other two as soon as possible by other means? (Osprey/C-5?) Squad 3 gets... erhm... slaughtered, then 1+2 arrive to clean the place up?

[Spaceman42]

*shrug* Don't question the military mentality, Vet. Just because they're given numbers for names doesn't mean they'll go out in numerical order. I mean, look at unit numbers and deployment orders in WWII...

 

Actually, "Squad 1", "Squad 2" and "Squad 3" seem kind of bland. Why don't we have the characters come up with more, um, INTERESTING names for their squads? And really, it's about the same likelihood that a mission will come up in any given week. Though yeah, rotating after a squad gets a mission would probably be a good idea.

[Rasicar]

1. I suggest that we give the squads names when they start to prove their worth and wheat gets sifted from the chaff. (Namely those that can't hack it get killed) Until then, just give them numbers.

 

2. Also, I think someone needs to post how others of the base are handling the outcome of the first mission. We know how Donovan is dealing with it, we know how Genega feels about it as well as some others, but what about Warlord, or Tammy? I think it would help flush out the characters more.

 

3. As far as skills go.... this is an elite international paramilitary organization, I think it goes without saying that these people are going to keep their skills honed, even during R&R, so I think we can skip out on some of that writing with the exception of when it includes character interaction / character building, such as the interaction between Donovan and Terrick.

 

4. Also now that we have some sectoid corpses to play around with, we should also start hitting the scientific and technical areas of the base too.

 

Keep in mind that this is all stuff that can be hit on in the future and doesn't need to be done immediately, however I think we should put some heavy consideration into points 2 and 4.

 

-Ras

[The Veteran]

All good stuff, nice work guys

Yes we should have good names but they have to be earned, like Ras said.

Ras, at the end of my post I left Rick and Trigger talking to Tammy and Warlord so whenever someone wants to write about them that's how to do it!

I still don't like the idea of stupid troop numbering... The way it would have been done is in order of skill. Hence Warlord and Rick etc. being the first few troopers in the whole scheme (remember these squads were only formed a couple days ago ficwise. They aren't the same ones as before '99) Therefore all of the good troops are in squad one, or the 1st squad The averagely experienced troops (or more good troops that couldn't fit into squad one) are now squad 2, the 2nd squad... The 3rd squad is full of not necessarily inexperienced but less experienced soldiers than both 1 and 2. That's why so many opf them will die on this mission when if we sent squad one again we'd lose maybe three troopers tops

Spaceman, I think we should stick to gameplay as far as the tactical parts go. Maybe at Cydonia and alien bases we can port in a second squad but for now we don't have the transport. (you try landing an Osprey in the middle of a city!)

[Spaceman42]

Uh, that was Alitorious who suggested landing more troops. And it wouldn't need to *land* - there's always long-rope deployments...

[The Veteran]

whoops, sorry spaceman same point to Alitorius then!

[Alitorious]

I dunno about sticking to game mechanics like that... I'd think that if a friggen city is under attack then they'd want to defend it?

 

Well... at first I thought the osprey was the same size as the ranger, but a brief look (Ranger at 14m wingspan vs. 15.5m (plus 11m rotors) shows it won't work. So, (if we wanted an osprey in there) we could either find a 27 meter wide space to land (top of a parkade?), or as per spaceman's suggestion, long-rope deployment. Of course, need it be an osprey? Does pine gap have access to other troop deployment helicopters, that can work in urban environments?

 

The way I see it, if we send one squad in, and they get slaughtered, then we'll lose a 'ranger. I think we want a *couple* survivors from squad 3, don't we?

Anyway, slaughtering's a given, right? That means there'll only be a handful of survivors. We should ask, which choice do we have? 1) Squad 3 is annihilated and we lose a skyranger; 2) A handful of survivors from squad 3 'tactically retreats' and the city is slaughtered, much to the extreme dismay of the council; 3) A handful of survivors from squad 3 'miraculously' saves the city; or 4) a skilled pilot manages to get an osprey (or similar troop-carrying helicopter- doesn't have to be an osprey) close enough to the city to deploy troops and, with some *minor* NPC casualties () saves the city (and the handful of squad-3 survivors).

 

Options (1) and (3) are no option. X-COM can't afford to lose a skyranger (judgement call here, though), and 3 is just way too superhero-ish. #(2) I don't like because it involves getting the council *really* peeved at us at this stage. I don't like this mostly because it way too closely mimics the apoc fic (with the 'powers-that-be' really nasty at xcom.)

That leaves option (4), with a choice of a)miraculous osprey pilot, b)rope-based deployment or c)non-osprey helicopter. (Personally I favour

[Rasicar]

I vote C, but for right now I see we have our first terror strike be a small town, not necessarily a large city.

 

Will post more thoughts on the matter later.

 

-Ras

[Alitorious]

I should add, that I don't really care how we get there, it's just as long as we both: a) slaughter most of squad 3, and B) make it still seem plausible. Vet, as "teh l33t f4nf1c m0dz0rz" can make the ultimate decision .

 

And I hope no one minded my last post with the research bit. If the assignments should be anything different, please do tell.

 

Edit: I should add, has anybody seen the other research guys? JFG is here, but Zager, Photon, and the rest seem to be disappeared.

Edited October 30, 2003 by Alitorious

[The Veteran]

very nice post Ali. right... fanfic mod guy is here Let's get this sorted...

 

hmm... first things first... The R&D crew should go on what Ali's set up, it's a great outline for the next few months in the fic. As far as that goes though remember this is going to benefit from individual input! A lot of people read this for the klilling, a lot don't. Try and win over some guys for the tech side of stuff Blow stuff up etc.

 

secondly and the thing that bugs me... The groups are numbered 1, 2, 3. They WILL fight in that order. If someone can find a reason that squad 2 i away from the base or there aren't enough men in it to fight when the mission comes along blah blah... fine, squad three goes. As it stands though the next mission (which won't be the terror mission unless squad 3 goes) will be flown by squad 2 ok?

 

thirdly, the terror mission... Small town, nothing over the top. The ranger will land in squad three and they'll do their best dodging around the houses and grocery shops. Remember they'll have the HWP so it'll be a fun mission to write! Do try not to let it die though, it'll only just be finished at this point! Anyway my guess would be, squad three almost dies, the personal characters in the squad survive and bail on the skyranger. Maybe have the end of the mission that all humans are dead but so are the aliens. That way XCom can just lie

 

It's not up to me though! Whoever writes each post gets to decide what happens in it! It's SOOO much more fun that way! Good luck people and enjoy

[Rasicar]

So yeah... I just did a bit of a post. What does everyone think? I was kind of hestiant about it at first, but then it just kind spewed out. Going to add more in on Seamus' front later on tonight or tomorrow.

 

-Ras