TFTD Fanfic Discussion

[Accounting Troll]

We HAVE to go with an explanation that nerdy

 

The only thing I came up with to save Gasvin was to have Bubbles back up over the grenade and take the force of the blast, largely wrecking it in the process. There's no other way he could survive being so close to an alien grenade without late game ion armour.

 

Taking the USO is going to be a little hard for the squad. Without any high explosives or Bubbles to call upon, the squad are going to have to storm in there with all guns blazing. And the aliens are waiting...

 

This is a medium scout, so there is a T shaped open room with the controls at the wide end, opposite the entrance. There will generally be a couple of aliens at the contols. There are also two side rooms, and you usually get one or two aliens lurking there ready to ambush your squad. The squad don't yet know what the interior floor plan is going to be.

 

Three of the four men I've assembled to storm the USO are filler characters because some of them are certain to die. When I try this tactic this early in UFO: EU or TFTD, I expect to suffer a couple of fatalities to reaction fire. Reynolds is going to be lucky enough to get through this intact, but not everybody else will.

 

I'd like the sergeant to get killed off, as that way, one of the scientists and engineers in the squad gets the unwanted responsibility of cammanding a squad of men in battle, which wasn't what they signed up for. Incidentally, his rank should be either "leading seaman" or "ensign": this is one more quirk that will be sorted out when a military commander sorts out the chaos of the early days.

[The Veteran]

Very good progress guys, we're getting some great posts through now! I'd really like to write the next post myself but right now I'm not really up to it for reasons undisclosed If by tomorrow afternoon noone's done a new post I'll take care of it. I think it would be good to have Reynolds as a casualty (not a fatality) that way maybe he'll feel he's avenged Goldstein. Not sure about the Sgt dying, obviously its fine if he does but to be honest I'm not sure he's really in a situation right now when he is realistically likely to die... We'll see, if someone beats me to it its up to them! If not it's up to me...

[Accounting Troll]

"Reasons undisclosed" = I'm off down the pub

 

I don't mind my character getting injured as long as he doesn't spend more than a couple of weeks in sickbay.

 

One thing I'd like to see when the survivors get back home is the onset of shellshock. In the game, morale is a factor in a mission, but the slate gets wiped clean when you go back to the geoscape. These guys have seen and heard half their comrades getting butchered by the aliens over the two missions, so of course they are going to be affected by their experiences.

 

"Goodbye To All That" by Robert Graves contains a horrific account of his experiences on the Western Front in World War I if anybody feels like doing a bit of research in their local library. His first sight when he reached the trenches was a soldier who had taken his own life. He goes on to describe soldiers trying to get a 'Blighty Wound' - an injury severe enough to be invalided home but not severe enough to result in being permanantly crippled, soldiers taking insane risks in battle because they didn't care if they lived or died, and appalling mistreatment of German POWs - a common trick was to execute them, steal any valubles on their persons and blame their deaths on enemy artillery bombardment.

[Accounting Troll]

Meet your new recruiting sergeant. It's his job to roam across the world selecting and vetting potential soldiers for X-Com. For the most part, he's going to be in the background, but I think it would be interesting if we get an insight in the recruiting and training process from time to time. Maybe he could unmask a Cultist attempt to infiltrate X-Com...

 

I can't help noticing that most of the soldiers currently in the squad or on the way to Alpha Base are mostly Europeans and somewhat mentally unstable

 

We could do with a batch of generic US Marines type characters, even if they are only there to replace the filler we've been killing off in the last two missions. As slightly overconfident professional soldiers, they would think that the collection of scientists, engineers and crazies they are joining are just amateurs playing at soldiers. Their perception is likely to change once they find out that the aliens are somewhat more dangerous than, eg, militant French nationalist insurgents in Quebec.

[uriaheep]

I'm a bit of a WWII historian and I was hoping to include a lot of stuff conserning soldier reactions to action so that suits me.

 

I also like the idea of the team being under pressure but lets not get too far ahead of ourselves 'cos it will take out some of the excitement.

[Dumb_Commander]

I can't help noticing that most of the soldiers currently in the squad or on the way to Alpha Base are mostly Europeans and somewhat mentally unstable

 

We could do with a batch of generic US Marines type characters, even if they are only there to replace the filler we've been killing off in the last two missions. As slightly overconfident professional soldiers, they would think that the collection of scientists, engineers and crazies they are joining are just amateurs playing at soldiers. Their perception is likely to change once they find out that the aliens are somewhat more dangerous than, eg, militant French nationalist insurgents in Quebec.

 

THEN make your own charecters.

[The Veteran]

Quicky cos I'm still not up to posting much at the moment AT, I wasn't going to the pub, I own the pub! I've been working bloody hard lately so I'm not really up to much on here! Been playing pretty hard too mind, beer tastes better when its free

 

Right not much to say about the goings on in here but once again I find myself wanting to chase down some of the characters who are coming into the fic right now... It was the same with UFO this early on!

 

AT, only brief points, be careful of your history as you've written for this guy as involved with XCom in the first war which is fine but remember this links 100% with our UFO coop fic! I would highly recommend you start posting that one too, it can't hurt and then its true! Also be careful about just how the guy reenlisted with XCom as its not all that easy to find out that they're operational again. I would suggest he was head hunted rather than he offered his services.

 

DC your characters make me a very unhappy moderator... Let's not beat around the bush they are all extremely bizarre! One copper who you wanted to meet an aquatoid, one guy who was enlisted because he saw a UFO and now someone the US army turned down but XCom hired? Be realistic. Noone would touch this guy with a barge pole. Three years of psychological treatment? He wouldn't be allowed within miles of a SWAT team let alone XCom!

 

The trick to writing good characters is to just make them believable. Your cop for example, say maybe he was primarily a diver for the police but did his beat just like everyone else. Multitasking makes a mundane job more bearable, maybe he couldn't deal with diving every day. He saw a hybrid, not an alien (sectoids are all dead, aquatoids aren't animated) I would suggest he killed it but only barely. He's not a superhero, not the quickest draw in the world, nothing special, but he managed to take the thing down and go to his boss check this out! Then at some point XCom called around the governments who asked their forces for any suggestions for 'further career advancement' his name was put forward not knowing what it was about but coincidentally it happened to be dealing with the aliens...

 

To me even that is messy, I'd rather have a nice normal character. One of mine is a direct descendant of my UFO fic character, nothing special, joined before the war even started so was able to train on the job for diving etc as there was no urgency or combat liklihood... The other one of mine is a submariner who was employed by SORESO, got transferred to XCom in the swap. Now there's nothing special about either one of these guys, they're normal, level-headed, rounded individuals. They'll develop as the story moves on. That's all I suggest a character needs... A good character to list a few points should not be; headhunted, invulnerable, mentally unstable, rich, famous, and most of all they sould not be a hero! I see any like that I'll delete every reference to them myself. I don't abide heroes in cooperative works so DON'T even think about it!!!

 

And I'll update the quick ref when it needs doing DC, lets be honest, it just doesn't need it right now!

[Accounting Troll]

I might bring my second character into the UFO:EU story once they return to base after their current mission is resolved one way or another. It would be remarkably easy to bring him into the story in the following way:

 

By the late 1990s, the secular Jordanian government regarded Al Qaeda as a massive threat to national security - I think they executed a couple of Al Qaeda operatives in 1999. Al Qaeda picked a fight with America because the US supports the secular Arab regimes that Al Qaeda wants to overthrow.

 

My character could therefore be a soldier in the regular Jordanian army who is handpicked to join a new Jordanian anti-terrorism unit. He outperforms the other recruits during the training, during which time he notices that a CIA-type man and several senior Jordanian government officials appear to be supervising the training. Because of his performance in the training exercises, he is introduced to the CIA type who recruits him into X-Com. Meanwhile, the other candidates become a genuine anti-terrorism taskforce. Maybe I'll pad this out to be my first post

 

The anti-terrorist taskforce ploy would be a great way for X-Com to covertly assess and recruit personnel during the first Alien War. Many national governments would give their full cooperation and fund the programme - they will certainanly have a need for the other candidates.

 

With regard to Ali Hussein joining X-Com in the second war, that's easy as well. Mercenary soldiers take a great deal of interest in the international geopolitical situation - they need to know who's going to want to employ mercenaries next. Also, the location of X-Com's first base is a secret that was probably not terribly well guarded during the SORESO days because nobody cared; it only takes one fisherman or civilian contractor to have a few beers and start talking. They're probably even listed in the telephone directory

[Dumb_Commander]

Okay I'am gonna try to post again. If I'am bad at spellin, the dont overcritisize me, am just 14 years old boy from Estonia.

 

One litle bad side, i dont remeber the USO schematics properly, i only remeber that hte Medium scout entranece and the first room.

 

|-----|

<``>

|```|

|<>|

 

Well this is basicly what i remember. These <> are the doors and ---- and | are the walls, as for these ``` they are the floor.

 

So, can anyone give me somekind of picture of a medium scout, and i dont want the picture from the USOPedia.

Edited May 15, 2006 by Dumb_Commander

[The Veteran]

Check out the files section here. I just uploaded the UFO and TFTD ufopedias I made ages ago. They have all the maps in so that should help you out!

 

Also I just read your fic. Bit that got me was what you said at the end, how its the story for your character in the main fic? That's a fintastic idea. A few mini-fics for some of the main characters would really add depth to the coop one, but they would be completely seperate so it wouldn't really matter what was said. Good idea DC! I may do a few for my UFO characters... My TFTD ones don't have personalities or storylines yet!

[Dumb_Commander]

Check out the files section here. I just uploaded the UFO and TFTD ufopedias I made ages ago. They have all the maps in so that should help you out!

 

Thank you for that!

 

I just read your fic. Bit that got me was what you said at the end, how its the story for your character in the main fic? That's a fintastic idea. A few mini-fics for some of the main characters would really add depth to the coop one, but they would be completely seperate so it wouldn't really matter what was said. Good idea DC! I may do a few for my UFO characters... My TFTD ones don't have personalities or storylines yet!

 

The second part of the Death Hotel fic will be in the folowing days or even today.

[Dumb_Commander]

Oookay, on the data, what Veteran's USOpedia provided, the curent ship is a survey ship, I'am right?

[uriaheep]

I've dropped a second character in. I thought he may be a good idea for 'spin' in dealing with the press, and a good way to get a little humour in there without damaging the plot.

 

See what everyone thinks.

 

I was also wondering - what about metioning when we may post next. I tend to spend a bit of time writing the post and I just realised that I may be spending ages working on a post to find out someone has beaten me to it.

 

I know, I know. I should write quicker!!!

[Accounting Troll]

X-Com are going to need someone to handle the media; the public are going to want to believe that progress is being made against the aliens. He may be asked to lie a bit when X-Com have had a couple of bad missions in a row. Do you plan on using him as a front-line soldier or as an administrator/PR officer?

 

I was also wondering - what about metioning when we may post next. I tend to spend a bit of time writing the post and I just realised that I may be spending ages working on a post to find out someone has beaten me to it.

 

Agreed. I'd hate to spend several hours working on a post and then turn up here and find that somebody else has posted five minutes earlier

[The Veteran]

Last things first... If you're working on a post that's going to take a while, and I mean hours not days! Then simply post in the fic saying *work in progress* with some kind of ETA on when it'll be done and then edit that post when you write the next instalment! Simple as that...

 

And yes DC, its a survey ship... The very small craft that is somehow bigger than the small one?... I assure you though, that is right, its just wierd!

[Dumb_Commander]

Well i posted. Who gonna post next.

[The Veteran]

hah! Like it DC that's a good post, still very short and needs a little tweak here and there spelling wise but that's to be expected! Good job with the grenade, good job with your characters reaction to the grenade too, its nice to see we aren't getting a hero after all. Every one panicks sometimes! I'll try and post the end mission and cleanup at some point. No promises though so don't wait on it happening!

[uriaheep]

Do you plan on using him as a front-line soldier or as an administrator/PR officer?

I think he would better serve X-Com from the base but as he is combat trained we could use him occasionally.

 

I was just going to bring in some comments and interviews with him. As I was saying I could shoehorn some humour into it with the character.

 

I think he would best be used as the sort of 'Officer on the spot' to talk to the press.

[Accounting Troll]

I'm glad to see you implemented the logistical problems of recovering a secured USO into your post.

 

When X-Com expands over the next few months, I think it will have to devote a Triton to scavenging the useful materials and alien artefacts from a USO that one of the other squads has secured. The squad assigned to this duty will probably be commanded by a couple of veteran NCOs and consist of new recruits. Getting to examine a captured USO up close in its natural environment would be a valuble experience for new recruits, even ones with combat experience against human enemies, before they are sent into battle against the aliens.

 

Since X-Com are returning home after their first victory, it will probably be a few days before they next pick up an alien craft. This gives us the time to bring in the characters who are currently in transit, as well as some fresh filler to replace the ones we've killed off.

 

I'd like to introduce the commanding officer into the story as I've given some thought about the qualities he/she is likely to possess. The commanding officer is going to be appointed by the UN, which means a lot of political manoevering behind the scenes. The Americans won't want a Chinese Arab or Russian commander, and those countries won't want an American commander. I think they will go for a British candidate as a compromise; the Americans would back a British candidate over anybody else who isn't American, and just about everybody else would say "Well, he isn't from my country but at least he isn't from our hated rival. Besides, the British have a strong maritime tradition and a reputation for fair play." Also X-Com's first base is in European Syndicate territorial waters, which gives them a little more influence in this matter.

 

The appointee is also going to be a career naval officer with a proven record in both a fleet command role and administration; the funding nations want a commander who is known to be a safe pair of hands. This means he is going to be somewhat unimaginative and cautious, insisting on everything being done by the book. The problem is that the aliens have the initiative in this conflict, and they do things by a very different book. The scientists are not going to approve of his command style and military decisions - Zager's character doesn't seem to be the sort to suffer fools gladly, so there's going to be a few big rows ahead. On the other hand, X-Com is pretty chaotic at the moment, and he will gradually impose some sort of order on things.

 

I'll put something together in the next 24 hours.

 

The sergeant seems to be a good NCO, so he should probably stay in that role. Good NCOs rarely make good senior officers as the skills required are totally different. Oh, and he should have his rank changed to a Naval equivalent.

 

These are the TFTD military ranks and their Enemy Unknown equivalents:

 

Seaman - Rookie

Able Seaman - Squaddie

Ensign - Sergeant

Lieutenant - Captain

Commander - Colonel

Captain - Commander

 

Note that in the navy and TFTD, a captain outranks a commander

[uriaheep]

It all sounds good to me.

 

I'm going to try and write a post - should be done by 10.00 pm.

[Dumb_Commander]

Good post Uriaheep.

----

I'am thinking about incorporating Cellman into the Apocalypse fic.

 

Oh, and someone add some female charecters.

[The Veteran]

Yeah I was actually thinking while I read AT's post here, maybe a female base commander? it's certainly something we've never tried in our fics before! British sounds good to me but that's because I am As far as the Sergeant goes, probably best way to get to a naval rank would be to have the commander promote him when they arrive and switch to naval rank at the same time...

 

To be honest I pointed out USO recovery as being a pain in the arse because realistically it is It's a friggin nightmare! But that's mostly down to XCom having never really seen one before and also being caught kind of on the hop... I think maybe we should have the scientists and techies go out to this one and have a look over it then work together on devising a way of slinging the USO under a Triton, like the small UFOs in enemy unknown. This one I'm not sure about, either we station guards until we can fasion some sort of recovery jig but that would take days or even longer... We have the techies bring some hardcore tools in to chop it for transport in pieces, like a giant flatpack. That's how UFOs were recovered in AW1 when they'd been shot to pieces already... Or we could have them salvage an ion engine and blow the bad boy, if we can't have it noone can!

 

At the moment we have relatively few owned characters and still quite a lot of filler... That means that a second squad isn't really necessary just yet. We could manage it but it isn't necessary... Technically we do need at least one more squad otherwise we can't work shifts and we'll be caught in the lurch every other mission, theoretically at least! I would suggest we get these new characters into the fic and then have Nielsen divide all the troopers into two squads, each with some characters, some filler. When the commander pitches up, Nielson gets his promotion for handling the situation so well up to now. I do NOT realistically foresee him continuing to visit the field. After a promotion his duties will most likely involve organisation and training etc...

 

We need to start some research right away... The way the fic's been written so far, Gauss is already available as a theory so only the manufacture remains which is good as we can't afford to fly many more missions with harpoons. Remember I mentioned having not recovered any sonic grenades, so we can't research them yet. Gives us a little longer to come to a conclusion on how the hell they can throw them!

 

Uria, good job bringing Bubbles back into the fic, even I'd neglected the tank and I introduced it! While they're repairing it though, it's going to change a lot. Like an old brush with a new head and a new handle really It's going to evolve into the Coelecanth tank/cannon from the game and we could do with that happening fairly soon ideally as in the game, the Coelecanth's are given technology.

 

One more thing I want to bring up is the TFTD pdf document that was linked to earlier in this topic. I've read through it and I think everyone else should too... A big part of fan fiction is staying loyal to the game, where would we be without it? So I think we each need to read through the official fiction by Microprose and decide if there's any of it we can stay true to. Just simple things like names, dates and places...

 

That said, I've already dismissed most of the leaflet personally, it's a bit too restrictive and even the dates are funny. The official end of AW1 was 2010? I don't think so! There's no way anyone could take that long to complete the game. All the fiction we've done here has the first war ending in late 2002, nearly four years. Even that's a long time! WW2 wasn't much more!

 

Last point and sorry I'm onto nitpicks now Uria, great post as I've already said! But the alien that Gasvin knocked down was in the room where the grenade went off, he was liquified, it says so in the fic... It's a good link to needing alien containment but not that alien, maybe one of the ones outside? The one Nielsen pegged could have been bleeding internally but still conscious for a large portion of the journey. The one Gavsin pegged was right between the eyes so that one died!

 

Great progress though guys, lets keep it up! I'm sure I forgot something (yeah seriously there's probably more!) but I'll add later if I remember anything.

 

On a sidenote, yes DC put Cellman in the Apocalypse fic! I'll join you posting in that one even if noone else does but I'm sure we could coax some movement out of someone else too!

[Dumb_Commander]

I will add Cellman, but i dont know how, he would to old by that time. (I think)

[Zager]

Storm, you're making some rather large assumptions with my character that I dislike. He may be heavily into pure science and devoted towards his vision of utopia, but he is NOT a murderous sociopath.

[storm turmoil]

Edited. I've now openly pinned that on some of his more worshipful followers (and you know there would be some) that was actually the intent from the start but I got lost in the big picture.

 

I never saw Zager as being immoral or sociopathic over this, just blinkered and not taking a full interest in the activities of those he's working with. In my mental script for this, several posts down the road, I had planned to have tension over it build until it finally came out that what had actually happened was that Zager had said " Get Brown any way you can" (with appropriate psionic undertones) and some of his underlings took him way, way too seriously, leaving Zager with an almighty guilt hangover and a big period of self doubt to get over, as well as potentially a bunch of badly brain-burned minions. In the meantime, Zager, even though he hadn't actually done it himself, would take the responsibility and Blame for it, because he had caused it to happen by not being careful enough. Brown Blamed him simply because he assumed Zager would go that far to get what he wanted, and because Zager hadn't made a point of hiding what he wanted to do about David's brain, even if he hadn't intended to do so right away...

 

Unfortunately, as Happens a lot, I got lost in the details and didn't realise that what I could understand, other people didn't have all the clues to grasp. This is why I don't make use of other peoples characters very often...I lose myself in the details.