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Carlos the Jackal

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Looks great! There's only a tiny thing that's wrong, and that's Worm was already on the HWP team. (Sez so on page 3 I think.)

 

Jeez... makes me feel guilty. I feel like I'm an egotistical perfectionist (like Dana! :)).

 

How about this: Keep most of the post the same, but only change how she contacts Worm. She'd probably already know how to contact him because he's already on the team (and was probably the one to construct that code, too.) Just explain it as a mistyped key. (Worm: "I never mistype! That's insulting to me as a professional computer specialist" :) )

 

Other than that, it's fine. You got the characterisations down very well.

 

 

(*me rereads post.* Jeez, I'm a jerk! I write this big thing about a tiny nitpick! So try not to feel bad.:))

 

Edit: Wow, the edited post was so unobtrusive I almost missed it. Good job! I have no complaints (for once!) :)

Edited by Alitorious
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Racey is good, don't worry about it.

 

Something that just occured to me. If we are going to run with a perpetuating A.I. interface with that HWP, would it go without saying that it can A: Designate the difference between foe and civilian, and B: Not fire if it is aware of human presence within the rocket blast radius? My reasoning behind that is Isaac Asimov's 'I, Robot,' which states a robot will not harm, or by omission of action allow to be harmed a human being.

 

Just a thought on the matter. Will post sometime this weekend, a followup on research activities, and soldier bonding.

 

-Ras

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We-ell, I'd say Zeroth Law overrides First Law in this case - Humanity > human, in other words.

 

... I thought Heather was Aircrew? I suppose I can expand her job description, though. "Mechanical Engineer", check. "Giving horny techies and grunts an eyeful", check. :) Dherzhin's going to complain about being short-handed, but there's not that much to do, really, with only 3 craft.

 

Oh, and that reminds me - what happens if a UFO is 'splashed'? Would a boat or something be 'requisitioned'?

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"Chick like Dana." Heh... don't let her hear your character say that :)

 

I was looking at the base layout again, and I thought of something... would it be possible to switch the lab stores and engineering labs on levels 3 & 4 to across the hallway, vertically? I mean right now they're both on the 'top' (north) side of the long hallway. Is it possible to switch it so they're on the 'bottom' (south) side of that hallway? I ask because then we could have a specialized lift for the workshop/engineering labs. (To carry parts directly from the workshop at the top to the engineering labs on the next level down to the storage space the next level down.)

 

Ermm.... that's kinda long winded. To shorten it: can you flip the laboratory and engineering rooms on the 3rd and 4th sublevel to the south side of the hallway? Then plop a lift in the bottom-right part?

 

 

Secondly: with the new alien technology, would security would be stepped up? As in... those keycard hacks like Ki-tat did would mysteriously not work anymore? Specific sign-out logs for each artifact? CCTV monitoring on rooms with alien equipment? Those are just suggestions, anyway. I just suppose command/intel wouldn't want a soldier to waltz into a lab, grab a plasma rifle, then waltz right out and subsequently blow someone up due to it being unknown alien stuff.

 

And one final thing. I doubt any alien equipment would still be in the workshop. It's being analyzed, so it would probably all be distributed to the labs down on the restricted floor.

 

(Those last two were in response to spaceman's post. The alien stuff wouldn't be left in the workshop where the flight crew had access.)

 

Just to ease my guilt concious, the posts are good (gûd gûd.) I'm just a nitpicker. (I nitpick my own posts too... and I'd feel better if other people nitpicked my posts... strangely enough. :) )

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Well, yeah - but Gilbert's on TDY as a HWP techie, as is Heather - as I so brilliantly covered for JFG :) - so he'd probably be able to peek over shoulders and whatnot. I doubt that the implementation of such a rigid security system could have been implemented so quickly; besides, it's expected that anyone smart enough to get into X-COM would be smart enough not to touch what they don't understand.
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HWP: My position continues to be that these are remote-controlled (with perhaps AI assistance, like the Mars Pathfinder). If we want to shoot a human, there's nothing stopping us except our own morality. We're a long way from positronic brains. The government notes your concern, Rasicar.

 

HWP maintenance: Spaceman42, this is of course in the engineering bay near the hangars where Heather usually works. Ammo loading and weapon servicing I reckoned would be just an extension of her aircraft maintenance duties, making her more just general equipment maintenance.

 

Base Layout: Ali, there is an upper-right (NE) lift that is designated as a cargo lift. The doors from that are intended to be big enough for pallets to be moved from storage to engineering and whatnot. The hallway trip should be minimal. That OK? The NW lift is the personell lift with emergency stairway. To make any lift or stairwell door open on a given floor you need the appropriate keycard.

 

Artifact security: Ali, I would posit that CCTV on the artifact room would be very likely and Photon should know the wherabouts of each sample allocated to the research teams - until we end up with crates of alloy and heavy plasma, anyway.

 

Sunken UFO's (Spaceman42) - Their location is noted for a future TFTD salvage team, we have no means of recovery at this time. (Not that I believe that Elerium/saltwater story...)

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I forgot to add that I'm in favor of a Squad 2 mission before the Squad 3 Terror, as suggested by Veteran, especially as Karl Green would get to see action. Any ideas?

 

Perhaps a night/farm mission, so that we know the night/terror mission will be difficult before we even land?

 

It's possible to summarize the mission results rather than give the blow-by-blow description we gave First Contact, but it would be nice to get character development for Squad 2 as well.

 

squads in rotation = all squads expected to be roughly equal in ability

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Sounds good JFish, landed UFO maybe? We find it on the ground and launch interceptors and skyranger. When the interceptors arriv it takes off and is shot down... Something like that :)

 

HWP... I'm pretty chuffed with the data canister bit I did on that a couple of days ago. I think we could pretty much use that unless anyone has any nitpicks :)

 

I'm with JFish on the base too I'm afraid Ali. It's too late now to go on moving modules!

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.....Or the interceptors escort the skyranger there. It doesn't get shot down but rather an entire UFO is captured intact.

 

Also, this is just somethign to think about, but I'm in favor of a time lapse coming up soon. Preferrably after squad 3 gets beaten like a red-headed step child.

 

-Ras (will post further

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I think it's too early to capture a whole UFO. I think we should maybe have a large scout now for the night farm mission that JFish suggested and then after that we have the terror mission that annihilates squad three. Then maybe have a UFO downed in water or a small scout that outruns the interceptor. Something we don't have to write about. That way we can have the timelapse that Ras is on about. :)
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Hey, if a UFO gets splashed, you'd probably check to see if it's recoverable. If not - or if it's made difficult by whatever - then you'd just mark it for later. I don't think X-COM would just leave them. Send out a speedboat and some divers to check it out.

 

Mmm. Bloated floaters.

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Spaceman, is Gilbert's demise imminent? Or is he going to survive this week's worth of carelessly pointed plasma weapons?

 

For Squad 2 the HWP will be on board. I'm thinking one scratched mission early in the rotation where the UFO got away (good idea, Vet) and then a second one where they do land and get in a firefight.

 

It's not until after the terror mission that Genega decides we start shooting them down. So far we've only fired when fired upon.

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i got a good idea for the timelapse.we could start off the "new" section with the funeral of the last original grunt perhaps? or maybe thats asking a little too much...

 

edit: is it ok if for some reason, the next time i go into battle, before the TL, i find a biocell in my pocket from the "incedent" in the lab. as im fiddling, i see a bunch of greys. i somehow do what i did last time, but flashing it towards the greys direction, and then i kill 'em? too much? yeah, i know.... :dontgetit:

Edited by Ki-tat Chung
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Kitat, I fail to see how waving a battery in the general direction of the sectoids is going to kill them. Even short-circuiting one will only injure yourself. Not to mention the prototype laser it was meant for is motorcycle-sized.

 

Now, if you were lobbing a satchel charge at them, it might be a different story. :bomber:

 

PS. Don't forget Kilam is on the HC for Squad 2, even though he's missing from my character list.

 

Vet, I was thinking I'd flesh it out a bit more than that... :)

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Flesh away JFish! Ki-tat, Kilam has always been in the fic. So are a hundred of other people who don't write in it. Warlord is a major player and he buggered off years ago! Do you not remember the post when you and Kilam were in your room together talking? And the whole canteen scene...
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In order to solve this problem, may I make the following suggestion. As far as the soldiers are concerned, hell we might as well include the scientists as well; the people who buggered off, if they don't come back soon, can their characters be open to all? There are a couple things I've been thinking of, but have't heard hide-nor-hair from any of the people who technically 'own' the character so I don't want to make any moves until I get a go ahead from either them or hear solid word that they really aren't interested in this fan fic project anymore.

 

(Will post futher on this later)

 

I am going to do some experiemental narration in my next post to help wrap up the big day that everyone just had. If anyone (namely the modders) have any issue with it, feel free to edit, I just ask that you keep the changes within the spirit of the narration.

 

-Ras

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