Hard Core X-COM

[Pete]

I am now Psi-Lord of all I survey, though my psi-squad is relatively few in number. I control no less than 99 soldiers total (one died - go figure?!) five tanks, six bases, 6 Avengers (soon to be 8 in the next few days) and have LOTS of base defenses.

 

Oh, and over $80 million.

 

And the enemies are still occasionally throwing in a few surprises! Occasionally when my tag-team psi-controlling squad tactics don't work (mind control nearest enemy, open door of craft, mind control him, then the next one then the next one) due to stupid enemy unit placement (mine, not the AI's) I have to send in one of my lucky psi-troopers.

 

Thing is, when you think you'r invincible you'll believe a Rookie with 20 reaction points is good enough to tackle a battleship full of Ethereals... oh well

 

Anyhow, with nine psi-lords (no, my guys, not the baddies off Interceptor), I plan to take Cydonia... after I have destroyed each and every alien base on Earth one by one. I'm VERY interested in seeing what the computer makes of me destroying every base. Will it just populate the geoscape with more UFO's to build more bases, or will my earth-based game become strangely quiet?

 

Also, have some humorous pics from today's little foray into UFO:

 

 

I mind-controlled this Ethereal and walked him through this door. He promptly soiled his robes. Needless to say, shortly after this I destroyed the base's control centre with Blaster Bombs

 

and one more...

 

 

What's wrong with the above picture? Check out the date...I dunno eh? Amateurs

[ricardo440]

I do that. I get to a point in the game where I simply can't lose unless I choose to and yet strangely I keep playing.

 

It can be really annoying when I stand up from the computer after playing a game that I had won before I sat down, and realising I just wasted the last 3 hours of my life.

 

He says just about to play his game of RTW that he has horribly won already.

[Danial]

What's wrong with the above picture? Check out the date...I dunno eh? Amateurs

I'd hate to have that as a birthday! You'd be waiting a while for presents

 

 

**Stupid Smarch weather!**

[Bomb Bloke]

Three Etherals with Blaster Launchers... Ouch.

 

Took me a short moment to work out the date thing. That's way out.

[Hobbes]

I do that. I get to a point in the game where I simply can't lose unless I choose to and yet strangely I keep playing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It can become worse than that. I am still not 100% convinced that this is only a game and not a part of a massive cover-up for the upcoming alien invasion. We need to find the clues that were hidden on it people, so keep playing!

[Pete]

If I get reall bored, I'll try and see if the game can go to 2040 and see if Aquatoids start cropping up in missions

[Zombie]

I'm up to June 2008 and still no clues about the impending mass alien invasion.

 

It may be interesting to know that 2000 is the only leap year where February has 29 days. After that point, subsequent leap years have 31 days for February. It kinda messes up the calendar a bit. Not only that, but you have to last 2 extra days to reach the end of a month. A lot can happen in 2 days.

 

- Zombie

[Danial]

That's very odd that they would have missed a detail as simple as the number of days in February

[Zombie]

I suspect that the programmers never anticipated fools like us keeping the game alive longer than necessary. In addition, to program an accurate perpetual calendar would have took valuable memory space. Some important assumptions had to be made, so they probably restricted the calendar to be accurate up till the 2004 leap-year. After that the calendar is chaos.

 

- Zombie

[Danial]

I suspect that the programmers never anticipated fools like us keeping the game alive longer than necessary.

I think this can be said about a lot of peculiar things we've found in the game

[Chryssalid_Victim]

Those picutres are great, they're going straight in my "Ah Sh*t" pics collection from UFO

[Zombie]

I was looking at Pete's picture in his first post today and started to wonder. According to the OSG, you could expect anywhere from 6 to 9 aliens on a Medium Scout mission. But how many of them will spawn inside the craft? To put it another way: how many alien spawn points are in a Medium Scout? 6? Or is it more? BB or Hobbes probably know the answer to this question.

 

- Zombie

[Hobbes]

I was looking at Pete's picture in his first post today and started to wonder. According to the OSG, you could expect anywhere from 6 to 9 aliens on a Medium Scout mission. But how many of them will spawn inside the craft? To put it another way: how many alien spawn points are in a Medium Scout? 6? Or is it more? BB or Hobbes probably know the answer to this question. 

 

- Zombie

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I would tell you to get Map View but your psi powers seem to be well developed. It's 6 spawn points, plus a spawn point outside by the door.

[knight_of_the_ravens]

just wait till u land in an ethereal pit with superhuman...expect to see ur entire ship be blown to the hells with one of ur own grenades....GAME OVER turn #2

(who knows how they see through walls)...

[Azrael Strife]

I'm confused, do you need to be within line of sight in order to MC an Alien? I understand that Aliens have a few rounds in which they can use their psionic powers without the need for a LOS, right?

[Bomb Bloke]

Line of sight is not required for psi/MC.

 

When an alien sees any one of your units, the alien team then get's full information regarding the placement of ALL your units. It then gets to 'remember' this information for a set number of turns.

[NKF]

Hmm. We could look at this from the other way around.

 

The aliens know where you are at all times. The only reason you're not dead from long range attacks from the other side of the map is because they need to physically see you in order to kill you. If they have psi, they will use psi on you whether or not they've seen you. This is confirmed. No line of sight established. Just straight panic/MC attacks.

 

The aliens, depending on many things (your psi level, their psi-level and their intelligence level), may allow you a grace period where they cease their psi attacks.

 

Once this is over, they start to use their psi abilities against your weakest soldiers. The weaker the soldier, the more they use their psi. The more powerful your soldiers overall, the more they'll resort to conventional means.

 

This grace period seems to be a little longer earlier in the game, because I know the sectoids start to become a lot more ferocious with their psionics later in the game compared to when you first met them. But this observation may have come out of coincidence.

 

As I said, I was just trying to think of it in a slightly different way. It might not be the case. But if this really is the case: Be afraid. Be very afraid. Then get giddy with glee after you've evenly distributed the grime on the floor with the still charred cheating alien carcasses.

 

- NKF

[Azrael Strife]

Line of sight is not required for psi/MC.

 

When an alien sees any one of your units, the alien team then get's full information regarding the placement of ALL your units. It then gets to 'remember' this information for a set number of turns.

No? Then I obviously didn't understand how to use the Psi-Amp

[Hobbes]

No? Then I obviously didn't understand how to use the Psi-Amp 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

NKF's description only applies to the psi-capable aliens. Humans are stuck to having to use psi-amps and those only work on enemy units spotted by your soldiers (although it doesn't require for the soldier carrying the psi-amp to see the alien).