TFTD Fanfic Discussion

[Dumb_Commander]

Just looked gun pictures at XCommand, i noticed that the gas cannon is a little similar to the harpoon rifle. (Jet Harpoon)

 

Maybe the the Gas Cannon was the upgraded harpoon rifle, maybe at first the developers thought that the upgraded harpoon rifle would have a grenade launcher, but then they changed they're minds, and changed into a cannon.

 

So what about it, the gas cannon is the harpoon rifle with the grenade launcher in the fic.

 

The Hydro-Jet Cannon will replace the Gas Cannon, the only difference is that it will be able to shot on surface to.

 

As for Topredo Launcher, it looks like a underwater/surface bazooka, basicly, the are two types of ammunition, underwater and surface, the torpedos/rockets will use two types of warheads, Phosphorous and Heavy Explosive.

 

Why two? Becase the topedo launcher uses two types of heavy explosive and one phosphorous.

[Accounting Troll]

I think the gas cannon works on the same principles as the harpoon gun, but it uses bigger harpoons that are large enough to use high explosive heads. Think of it as a really big crossbow. It is the only heavy weapon available to X-Com at the beginning of the game that can be used when they are fighting on land, so they will need to have at least one.

 

I've added to the story since nobody else has for the last few days. I figured the control centre would not be up to the latest military standard, since it hadd been designed for marine salvage operations. Thus we have a 40 year old sonar brought second hand from the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force, and an explanation as to why the geoscape is so much worse than the one in Enemy Unknown

 

I also introduced a virtual reality booth so that the squad can do some combat training without leaving the base.

[Gimli]

Well, up until yesterday I was unaware that Gill Men were capable of MC, and then it happened on a base defencee mission (Superhuman). I don't know what rank, but obviously not every one of them could do it. This was confirmed by both Accounting Troll and NKF. So should it be ignored or used? I have no opinion about this whatsoever, since this is completely new to me.

[The Veteran]

I think the Gillmen would be best suited to the story we've already given them and as slaves to the alien invasion. Personally I'd say no on MC for Gilly's...

[Accounting Troll]

Perhaps the Gillman squad leaders and commanders have been given implants that allow the channelling of MC attacks launched by an alien operator from a remote location? In Enemy Unknown, Mutons are telepathically directed by the Etherials and will die if the telepathic signals are blocked for more than a short time, so we would not be asking the aliens to do something radically new. Maybe when the scientists figure this out, they will work out that the aliens are using MC technology to keep the Gillmen beaten down.

 

Aquatoids and Tasoths also have the ability to launch MC attacks, although as with Gillmen this ability seems to be limited to the officer classes; I have never seen the Aquatoid and Tasoth grunts launch an MC attack.

 

 

Also, we need to have a final decision regarding the base location. The two choices are the English Channel and off the western coast of Ireland. Ireland gives us easy access to the Atlantic deeps and less inconvenient eyewitnesses spotting military activity, but the English Channel is sheltered from the storms (easier base construction), the busy traffic will make it hard for the aliens to differentiate between X-Com craft and that of civilians, and there are no temperature gradients to provide sonar cover for the aliens if they attack the base.

[uriaheep]

Realistically I think the English Channel is out as it is the busiest streatch of water in the world and I doubt that any kind of static base would ever be allowed.

 

The Irish Sea works better and as more crashed UFO's from the first war would be in the Atlantic it makes sense that SORESO would have based themselves off the coast of Ireland.

 

We also need to know what the accurate range of the Triton and the Barracuda's are in terms of the fic.

[Accounting Troll]

I think I'll have to crank up the game to get some idea of the range of the Barracuda. I know that the Triton can attend a mission on the other side of the world, although it cannot patrol there for more than two hours without running out of fuel.

 

Does anyone else have any thoughts on the base location, or shall we settle for off the Irish coast?

 

Veteran, interesting to see that the commodore has her doubts about retaining the former SORESO employees. Their marksmanship and combat skills are going to be rather mediocre in comparison to the professional soldiers (unless they use a photograph of the commodore as the target), so they are going to find it hard to justify being kept on.

 

I'll have a go at writing the meeting between the SORESO aquanoughts and the professional aquanauts tonight

[The Veteran]

The thoughts behind it are kind of a face off between the aquanauts and the agents and Nielsen and Anson. Not literally of course but Nielsen has seen the guys and fought with them. He knows the importance of understanding the enemy and these guys aren't soldiers but they do know what they're fighting so they operate well. The new guys are top soldiers but I expect at least one of them to panic on their first mission. I'd be upset if they didn't! I think the target practice will be fun to write, the mechs n techs which has a nice ring to it I think have already been out and nailed a few of these things. They're comfortable underwater as most have had years in SORESO. Even the professional divers who've just turned up are divers not Aquanauts, picture it if you can, walking/swimming etc. I think the old boys will shine through though. I still think was it Petersen that shot off at the Commodore? Whoever it was I reckon they should save some new SWAT guys life... That'd really put her in her place and maybe be the beginning of her thawing out slightly. That's your call really AT but remember the Commodore is an everyone character. If anything is too far from how you imagine her being then we'll discuss it, mchange it if necessary but being the Commander, she's to a sensible point, a free for all!

 

Also notice that I've left openings for loads of new characters in that last post. We have five American superheroes... Don't worry they won't be heroes for long, you all know my opinions on that I also briefly described Sergei, Leopold and Cellman in there because the info was sat in the profiles thread. Also remember Sato? Zager's character I believe, he's been posted in the character profiles but isn't being used yet. I've added him to the quick reference but he's ex-military so he'll be head hunted later. Probably best to let Zager tell us what he wants doing with him... I added an Australian diver too, a female sabatoer, I may take control of her but everyone else get in here and discuss it all first. We need some names for these people and I specifically didn't use any in that last post just in case people here wanted to create some new ones. So lets do that first...

[Accounting Troll]

We could have a life saving opportunity if one of the professional soldiers has a malfunction with his/her breathing equipment and starts panicking during the underwater target practice mission.

[The Veteran]

I don't think that would really boil the Commodore's water so much. It would be better in a combat situation where the aces fail to respond to a threat or something similar... Target practice is nice and tame so the Commodore would probably link any craziness there to nerves and being underwater for the first time...

[Dumb_Commander]

I was thinking that later in the fic the Commondore will have a relationship with Cellman, but maybe that to much. As for making the commander boiling, I'am not that type of person to figure out what would make the Commondore angry as hell.

[The Veteran]

To be honest DC, we aren't really talking about getting her angry, more just proving her wrong... She thinks that our guys are pretty much useless and that the new guys will win the war for XCom. She's putting everything down to military experience when really it's all down to actual experience and diving hours. Toping for example may have been the world's best sniper on the surface but underwater that all changes. He'll take practice even to get a shot going in the right direction for a while!

 

Point is, it's not about how good these people used to be at what they did, it all boils down to how well they cope and adapt to the challenges that face them now. And I think we want to show the Commodore that the military is to regimented to be open-minded enough to cope with such supernatural occurences as aliens and mind control. Whereas the mechs n techs have been working with the extraterrestrials for years, its only the fighting that's new to them, and that's quicker to learn than any of the psychological stuff they have to put up with!

 

I must agree, I think maybe later on in the fic it would be interesting to see the affectionate side of the Commodore but maybe not with one of our characters. Probably best off to make it a non-scripted public character. That way everyone gets a say and it remains realistic enough...

[Zager]

Just to interject with my own opinion:

 

She's putting everything down to military experience when really it's all down to actual experience and diving hours.

 

Given the nature of this conflict, most of the assigned military personnel are most likely going to be from commando regiments focused on diving.

 

Toping for example may have been the world's best sniper on the surface but underwater that all changes. He'll take practice even to get a shot going in the right direction for a while!

 

What exactly is he doing in a military regiment fighting an underwater war if he has no experience fighting underwater?

 

Point is, it's not about how good these people used to be at what they did, it all boils down to how well they cope and adapt to the challenges that face them now. And I think we want to show the Commodore that the military is to regimented to be open-minded enough to cope with such supernatural occurences as aliens and mind control.

 

Sounds exactly like the sort of situation they invented commandos for. Just to point out, commandos are highly adaptible and flexible. These are key traits, given the nature of commando operations.

[The Veteran]

All three questions have the same answer. It stops it being deadly boring! Imagine a fanfic full of identical commandos with top notch training and careers that span every war ever fought. It's dull!

 

Look at the UFO fic, they weren't all the best of the best. The UN didn't just go to all the world governments and say give us your five best men. The fic would be over by now. The aliens wouldn't stand a chance against a unit of elite commandos... Think about it like a game, that's all it is. I mean we all hate terror missions and shipping routes. If that was a real situation there would be sjiploads of troops sent in to deal with it.

 

Characters in the fic must have some sort of military or diving experience but you'll notice very few have both. That's the commodore's call, soon she'll know if it was right or wrong.

 

Right now though, there's a mouse sitting watching me, eating a pack of salted nuts... And I'm gonna try and catch the bugger

[storm turmoil]

Something to bear in mind is that the diving we're talking about may well be far below the scope of any military op diving carried out, and the technological differences may make their experience essentially worthless. once the action gets below a couple of hundred meters, all the bets are off regarding military ops- nobody will have done it, because there's no possible reason for a surface military to do so. By that depth, we'll also be getting to the depths where gas breathing won't be an option, and we'll have to start using oxygenated Perfluourocarbon liquid breathing apparatus- and again, there's no possible reason any military operative, with the possible exception of submarine crew (and then only through their emergency training) to have any useable experience.

 

Essentially, below a few dozen feet, the ocean is the next best thing to a totally alien environemt as it's possible to get on Earth. This means that our current crew will actually have the edge over the military hotshots in that they at least have the experience of deepdiving using unusual, possibly custom built gear that's on the bleeding edge of experimentality.

[The Veteran]

You know what they say, the cutting edge is the bleeding edge right

 

But yeah, I agree. I'm glad you had the time and knowledge to put my thoughts into some kind of reasonable context

[Zager]

It stops it being deadly boring! Imagine a fanfic full of identical commandos with top notch training and careers that span every war ever fought. It's dull!

 

As an avid reader of military fiction, I can assure you that this is utterly false. Regardless of what you might think, military training does not surpress personalities and make soldiers into identical clones.

 

The aliens wouldn't stand a chance against a unit of elite commandos...

 

So Earth is being invaded by really, really incompetent aliens? I assume that the aliens have the equivlant of military training themselves.

[The Veteran]

Zager you do know I'm in the military don't you I know exactly what kind of people are getting killed in far off deserts and yes they do have personalities but 90% of them have identical personalities in my experience!

 

To be honest I can't imagine the aliens ahving any kind of training, they're either clones, naturally aggressive, or have cybernetic implants to govern them. I can't imagine aquatoids at the shooting range

[Dumb_Commander]

I must agree, I think maybe later on in the fic it would be interesting to see the affectionate side of the Commodore but maybe not with one of our characters. Probably best off to make it a non-scripted public character. That way everyone gets a say and it remains realistic enough...

 

GRRR... Okay. *Tries not to think about killing somebody*

----

 

The aliens already got their training, Remmember the learning arays or how they are called.

[The Veteran]

Exactly, they just get the info programmed into them, like the Matrix kind of thing... Once you've learnt a skill there is no developing it, you just do it...

[Accounting Troll]

With regard to the possibility of a romantic liason for the Commodore, it is extremely unlikely that she would have a relationship with somebody under her command. She's old enough to know that it would create all sorts of problems and it might not look too good on her official record. She is not going to risk damaging her chances of being promoted to the Admiralty for the sake of a romantic fling.

 

If we write in a romance for her, the man is going to have to be somebody that her military superiors would not regard as a security risk. Cellman is probably out as he is from America, an economic and political rival to the European Syndicate. Of the characters we have introduced so far, Christophe Ferreau is the only realistic possibility. He has a professional attitude that the commodore admires, he spends a lot of time off-base, and his career means that her superior officers would not regard him as a potential security risk.

[The Veteran]

I think we need to be careful of the seriousness we write the fic with in a lot of ways now... I've been watching posts in here and I've started to see an increasing amount of them that dull down the story a bit by adding realistic technicalities and what not.

 

That's fine in moderation as in this case where AC has just pointed out the Commodore would not risk her career for a fling with one of the troopers for example. We don't need to be 110% on anything though.

 

In this instance Ferreau IS the most likely looking candidate but almost definitely wouldn't make the best reading. He's arguably too suitable for the role. There's no risk of anything particularly interesting happening and therefore no real interest in the relationship from a readers point of view. This is after all a sci-fi epic not a romance novel!

 

The reason I suggested a romance may later be a good idea is to maybe help the commodore's people skills, chill her out a bit, maybe even thaw her out slightly! I think it would make more interesting reading if it was someone more risky than Ferreau though, someone who is an acceptable choice but who maybe certain superiors don't approve of. That way she's still set for promotion and what not but if the guy ever steps even slightly out of line (which Ferreau wouldn't) we have a whole situation that can be written into the fic which otherwise wouldn't exist...

 

A bit of feedback on this would be good, especially from you AT as you kind of are the Commodore's inner conscience

[Accounting Troll]

If we rule out Ferreau, then there is nobody suitable at the moment. Even X-Com's drummer boy during the Cydonia mission is old enough to be her father, so the veterans are all out, and a relationship with one of the mercenaries we are going to bring in would finish her career, assuming the Admiralty ever finds out.

 

How about if we bring in a professional soldier who resigned in disgust when the European Syndicate 'liberated' some region like Turkish Cyprus? Think of this as being like a British or American soldier who refuses to serve in Iraq because he thinks that our invasion and occupation are unjustified. A consciensous objector would have no problems with killing hostile aliens (he might volunteer for such a dangerous assignment to erase the stigma of cowardice like in The Three White Feathers). Anson's superiors would not be too happy if they found out she was having a relationship with a "dammed conshie", so she would have to keep news of their relationship from leaving the base. I still feel that such a relationship would be out of character, although we would get to have her worring about whether her beloved will survive his latest mission. When he dies, she will have a new perspective on the issue of torturing alien POWs

 

Incidentally, in this modern era, there is no reason why she should prefer MALE company I'm still disgusted at the way the film Troy wimped out of the fact that Achillies and Patrolocus were lovers.

 

I'm afraid that I won't have much time to contribute to the story for the next week or two, so if somebody else could write up the encounter between the 'mechs and techs' and professional soldiers, I would be rather grateful.

[The Veteran]

mechs n techs, It's taking root already I see We should get some patches stuck on their diving suits, Petersen could work his magic again

 

But yeah that sounds like a more interesting way to take it AT. Although the old pink love would get us a lot more readers if not any more writers

 

Where are you disappearing to for the next feew weeks then? Anywhere good? Keep an eye on our progress if you can, even if maybe you can't post. And don't forget to write

[Zager]

Zager you do know I'm in the military don't you

 

Nope.

 

I know exactly what kind of people are getting killed in far off deserts and yes they do have personalities but 90% of them have identical personalities in my experience!

 

I find that difficult to believe.

 

Exactly, they just get the info programmed into them, like the Matrix kind of thing... Once you've learnt a skill there is no developing it, you just do it...

 

Exactly. It's like training, only better and faster.

 

Look, I've read a lot of military and sci-fi military stories, and played a lot of military and sci-fi military games. That's the direction I'm approaching the fiction from.