TFTD Fanfic Discussion

[Dumb_Commander]

Maybe a female base commander?

 

Under female charecters a meant female soldiers, not base commanders. As for a base commander, I think it would be good if Genega would the commander.

 

I was thinking, that when Kolcov is in, he would be questioned about his past, like why the large part of his file is clasified.

[Accounting Troll]

Regarding USO recovery, towing a small or medium USO or carrying it back to base is easier in TFTD than it is in Enemy Unknown because the weight of the USO is supported by the water. The Triton would have to sacrifice speed and the possibility of air flight though.

 

Regarding science, the first research goal will be Gauss technology simply because Zager is in charge of the lab and Gauss technology is his baby. The research objective is to create a lab prototype and then come up with a blueprint for the Gauss pistol. We've established that he has arrived at the base, so research will begin as soon as he's finished unpacking Remember that the research timeframe should be reasonably consistent with the game and that there will be times when X-Com sets incorrect research priorities.

 

Regarding the Zager confrontration, it seems to me that this is like the conflict between King Henry II of England and Thomas a Beckett, the archbishop of Canterbury. In a fit of pique, the king cried out "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?". Four knights overheard him and went off to murder the archbishop. When the king found out about the murder, he was griefstricken at the unnecessary death of a man who had once been his best friend.

 

Regarding female characters, I'm going for a female base commander, but I agree that we need some female soldiers. I've put in a reference to half a dozen US special forces operatives being in transit - I originally planned for them to just be replacement filler, but one or two of them could be player controlled female characters if anybody is interested.

[Accounting Troll]

Post done. At nearly 3,000 words, it is rather long, but there were quite a few things I wanted to cover:

 

Able Seaman Reynolds has been messed up by Goldstein's death. Although he is a scientist and need not go on further missions, he basically wants revenge.

 

Ali Hussein has been introduced. He won't spend much time on base and he is basically a plot device so X-Com can sell surplus alien artefacts on the black market and recruit people through irregular channels.

 

X-Com's new commanding officer, Commodore Elizabeth Anson has been introduced. Her command style is a lot more authoritarian than that of the commander of Pine Gap in the UFO:EU fanfic, and she is not going to tolerate the reckless behaviour that seems to be endemic in X-Com in the UFO:EU story. Anybody who wrecks one of her interceptors through a foolhardy stunt is going to be off the project and facing a military court. You guys have had it easy for far too long

 

She also gives Zager's character a massive slap-down. If she doesn't firmly establish that she is in charge, his behavour will render X-Com useless as a fighting force in about one week - X-Com only has room for one commander. She makes it clear that she doesn't like him, that she thinks he only joined up to aquire more alien artefacts, that she regards him as expendible, and that he will executed if he tries to steal anybody's brain.

 

I figured that Zager would have regarded putting up with military officers as an unpleasant necessity when he rejoined X-Com. However, I'm not sure how he will react to her actions. Will he knuckle down for the course of the war, plot to get rid of the Ice Maiden or work on getting round her orders?

 

I'll try to post a character profile tonight.

[uriaheep]

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!

Yeah sorry - cocked up there. I need some sleep before the next post I'll edit that.

[Zager]

I really want that whole brain dissection bit scratched from the story. My character is arrogant and difficult to get along with, yes, he is NOT murderous. He does NOT condone scientific experimentation on non-consenting human beings. You're portraying him as a Dr Mengele and I DON'T like that.

[storm turmoil]

edit: I changed the post completely, I wanted to retain the feeling of strife between David and Zager, but I leave that in your hands now. Accounting Troll needs to make a minor edit to his post (Zager has still made an outburst, just not the same one.)

[Dumb_Commander]

Shellshocked Zager, PRICELESS.

 

On sidenote, I thought out how Cellman would survive to get to the Apoc Fic, in one one of the last missions (Before T'Leth) he gets so injured by a lobsterman, that todays medicine wont be able to heal him, so he is put in a Cryogenic Freeze Chamber, that chamber was developed by a meager company at that time, but later the company would be MarSec

 

MarSec has a employee crisis, so they start looking for some ways to get more employees, one of these options is to find some of their Cryo Chambers that still work, this is when Cellman comes in, he's found in an abandoned building outside Mega Primus, suprisingly the Cryogenic Chamber still works, MarSec gets him out and puts him to work, but due to injuries and missing limbs he will be hospitalised for a little, until MarSec finds suitable robotic parts.

 

Injurie Data

-------------

Right Hand: Torn off = replaced by a robotic arm.

Lungs: Badly Beaten = Re-Inforced

Left Leg: Bone Broken in multiple places = Bone replaced

Right Leg: Torn off = Replaced by robotic leg

Right Eye: Poped = Donor eye

Chest: Skin burnt = Skin Grafts

Vocal Chords: Badly Damaged = Replaced by artificial chords

-------------

Well, hows my Apoc charecter?

[Zager]

edit: I changed the post completely, I wanted to retain the feeling of strife between David and Zager, but I leave that in your hands now. Accounting Troll needs to make a minor edit to his post (Zager has still made an outburst, just not the same one.)

 

Thank you.

[Accounting Troll]

I've removed the brain dissecting references to my post - Zager now gets told to make an effort to get on with Brown instead. She's still pretty hard on him, but it's because she's trying to stamp her authority on everybody and alienating most of them because her people skills are lousy. She forgot that he did offer to give X-Com his Gauss technology, and she also berated the squad for its lack of military experience, even though they had just won X-Com's first victory of the conflict.

 

Zager, I've got one little query about your post - your character stands up at the end of the meeting. Is he entirely wheelchair bound at this stage in his life or is he capable of walking short distances? If it's the former, X-Com is going to have to install wheelchair access so he can actually get into his lab.

 

DC, good thinking about Cellman as any character who appears in both the TFTD and Acopalypse fanfics has to have been excused the T'Leth mission. The cryogenic chamber explanation means that he will not age between TFTD and Acopalypse. As the aliens have cryogenic technology in TFTD, the company is basically just adapting it for human use. One minor point: Marsec doesn't get formed until the 2060s to provide law and order on the Martian colonies. You can get round that quite easily by saying that they brought or merged with the company that developed human cryogenics to make even more money

 

 

EDIT: Does anybody know where we can find some *FREE* maps on the web that show ocean depths and label features on the sea floor? Ocean depth is going to be an important feature in this story - the shallower the water, the greater risk the aliens face of being attacked. X-Com will try to intercept USOs in shallow water to make the recovery mission easier, and the aliens will prefer to build colonies in deep waters near major landmasses to maximise access to potential abductees while minimising the risk of being attacked.

[The Veteran]

Wow! Look at you guys going aty it like the clappers! We're powering through this now and with some really good posts too! Sorry I missed the old engineer-scientist gripe but I'm back now and it looks absolutely spot on to me after whatever's been edited!

 

DC, that sounds spot on for an Apocalypse character, though don't make him too bionic man or you start asking the question 'is he worth bringing out of cryo?' Remember there are gangs all over the place and slums full of folk who'd leap at the chance of employment! But yeah go for it (I know you already have but I've not read the Apoc fic yet I'll post in that discussion when I have!) The apocalypse characters are a bit more wacky when you compare them to the ones in our UFO and TFTD fics, I guess Apoc just seems more sci-fi than these two games so I let people get away with more

 

I love the new Commander, just what XCom needed, an ice witch to thaw out! I do think that over time she'll come to realise why good old Genega was so soft on us back then... It's not easy for these guys to do what they have to do, especially with her bawling at them every time they get to bed after 10pm! Unfortunately DC, Genega was heavily involved in the Inquisitor-Cult of Sirius conflict and unfortunately didn't make it out the other side... He'll be missed.

 

We do need some female characters, as filler as well as newbies. It'll be good to have someone control a few of the new SWAT-lot, they'll be in for a shock when they realise how unprepared they are for what awaits them... We really need to drive home (especially with the old commodore!) that these guys, engineers and scientists though they may be, have survived at least one encounter with these aliens and most of them two. They have what it takes to survive already just by experience... I think the new boss'll get a reall shock when old Reynolds saves a specialist's arse, and I think the fic could use that nicely so when it gets to that point, look for the opportunity AT!

 

I've found links to a few ocean topo maps here but I would advise that its easier to find ocean depth maps for specific parts of the world than for the globe as a whole... 1 2 3 4 5 Earth Explorer best basins These range from being pretty useless to the last few which are still not ideal but much better...

 

I'm going to post now in the old bunk room, I just can't let that pilot conversation go to waste

[Zager]

Zager, I've got one little query about your post - your character stands up at the end of the meeting. Is he entirely wheelchair bound at this stage in his life or is he capable of walking short distances? If it's the former, X-Com is going to have to install wheelchair access so he can actually get into his lab.

 

Mein fuhrer, I can walk!

 

Oops, my bad. I'll edit it. Oh, and if X-COM hasn't already made their base wheelchair accessible, shame on them.

[The Veteran]

To be fair if a Coelecanth can get around, I imagine a wheelchair can too

[uriaheep]

It'll be good to have someone control a few of the new SWAT-lot, they'll be in for a shock when they realise how unprepared they are for what awaits them...

I love the way AT has set up the crew to be slightly ambivolent about the new commander. The humour there works well and it would be nice if we could keep that us-and-them attutude a little when the new crews arrive.

[Accounting Troll]

I think it's going to be a little while before the new professional recruits and the SORESO guys gel as a unit. It just isn't going to happen until the professionals have been on a couple of missions and seen what it takes to survive an encounter with the TFTD aliens and then go out there to fight them again the next day.

 

I know you lot are probably missing poor old Genega already, presumably because of Anson's restrictions on drunken parties, but think about the group dynamics we have here. The science and engineering departments are both headed up by veterans of the last war, and the two men hate each other. The aquanaughts are a mixture of SORESO hangovers, professional soldiers and a few eccentrics. And the support personnel are presumably SORESO employees who have found themselves reluctantly conscripted into the military. Only a hard-as-nails Margaret Thatcher type can mould this rabble into an elite taskforce dedicated to preventing humanity from becoming a footnote in history.

[Dumb_Commander]

I was thinking about one thing. What if a guy like Terrick would infiltrate the base.

[The Veteran]

No Terrick! Not for a long long long long long long long long long time!!!!!

[Dumb_Commander]

I mean, somebody similar to him.

[storm turmoil]

Short answer...there's nothing worth stealing yet. Unless and until there is an actual, positive benefit to infiltration, it's not really likely to be an issue.

 

give it a few months first. Once the tech boys start putting together new toys like Gauss weapons, and they've been seen on a few terror raids, that's when to give it some thought

[Accounting Troll]

I don't think there's going to be much cloak and dagger stuff in the early months apart from routine stuff like X-Com trying to prevent the aliens from learning anything about it, some standard office politics, and maybe a few attempts to smuggle some alcohol on the base and have a party under the commodore's nose. The aliens are mostly gathering resources and data at the moment - it will probably be several months before they are ready to start infiltrating human society.

 

It's nice to see that the engineers are starting to tinker around with Bubble's design and the USO recovery problem. They won't have much else to do until the scientists design Gauss weapons that can be used in the field, and we don't yet have a lab prototype to demonstrate.

[The Veteran]

Let me say it again... NO TERRICK! Noone like Terrick, noone even vaguely similar to Terrick! Not on my watch mister!!! It can't be denied that he added a certain something to the UFO fic but this is the TFTD fic. Just because the games are identical programs with different graphics doesn't mean the fics have to be identical with different names and places! IF and that is the biggest IF you have ever seen in your life!! IF there is a Terrick situation it will be discussed and debated and probably overthrown by my good self but discussed and debated nonetheless... We do NOT need this sort of stuff for a long long time. Concentrate on character development, understanding of the new alien race, organisation of a new XCom, research and development and NOT TERRICK!! Damn I think I feel an ulcer coming on...

[uriaheep]

Steady down old chap, take a glass of something and I'll send for the nurse.

 

I seem to be benefitting from a healthy dose of not knowing - or careing who Terri...... this person is.

 

Can we continue with this story now?

[Dumb_Commander]

Yes, of course!

[Accounting Troll]

I take it alien fifth columnists disguised as nuns are out as well? Logically, X-Com would run a background check on new recruits, so anybody known or suspected to be a criminal or pro-alien isn't going to be recruited.

 

A few other thoughts - these are just speculation on my part on what the X-Com universe is going to look like in the 2040s.

 

 

BUDGET CONSTRAINTS

 

This is going to be even more of a problem for X-Com than last time.

 

Alien activities are causing shipping insurance to go up, sailors to demand danger money and ship owners to become reluctant to risk their ships - even in convoys protected by the military. International trade is going to dwindle, thus throwing the economy into a severe depression with massive unemployment and government debts. No national government has the money to provide X-Com with adequate funding.

 

Selling surplus alien artefacts and manufactured goods is going to be more important than ever for X-Com. However, it cannot hope to sell anything to terrorists or criminals without the UN finding out about it and shutting the project down.

 

 

X-COM ENFORCER

 

I don't think we should entirely brush this out of the story, but likewise there should be no super-strong android butchering thousands of tasoths this time round. I would suggest Enforcer be limited to the occasional reference to historical events in the TFTD story.

 

 

CULT OF SIRIUS

 

It is going to be pretty minor at the start of the war, however the economic depression is going to cause an increase in political and religious extemism, something that works both ways. Although the Cult will have a growth in membership, we will also see cults and private militias opposed to the aliens springing up. The prospect of another war with these guys will act as a deterrance to the Cult of Sirius. The Cult will become a mainstream religion in the aftermath of the environmental consequenses of the destruction of T'Leth, but that's another story.

 

 

ALIEN INTERROGATIONS

 

We don't have a containment facility yet, but sooner or later we will have to face this problem. Asking the aliens for information politely won't work, and truth drugs will be ineffective because of their different body chemistries. X-Com's only options are some sort of psionic gadget invented by Zager or torture - we shouldn't always be able to rely on Zager finding a scientific method to avoid an ethical dilemma. I think the gadget solution is a little lazy. I'd like X-Com to have to wrestle with the ethical dilemma over whether it should torture alien POWs to death for information. Some characters will feel that we should not sink to the same level of barbarism as the aliens, while others will feel that normal human ethics are a moot point when we are fighting to stave off our extinction. Someone with Commodore Anson's background is going to be reluctant to authorise torturing aliens, despite her command style.

 

Incidentally, X-Com will have to face other ethical dilemmas over the course of the war. For instance, being able to resolve the alien transmissions gives them a big advantage, but only if the aliens don't know X-Com can do this. Like the British when they broke the German Enigma codes in WWII, X-Com may have to make sacrifices to maintain this advantage.

 

 

PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS

 

We have reached the point in the story when professional soldiers are enroute to the base to reinforce our squad. The current squad is comprised of people who joined a maritime salvage operation, so they are going to be outperformed by the soldiers in combat. As fighting aliens wasn't in their job description, each of these individuals will continue going on missions if he wants to - the others will end up being support personnel on the base. We need to establish which ones are willing to go on further missions and why.

[uriaheep]

After reading your post AT I was wondering if there is any mileage in forming a new string where we could have a sort of Ethics Commitee or something similar? Where we all input as if we were reps. from X-Com, UN, world leaders etc to hammer out ethical problems.

 

Could be fun and then a quick synopsis could be inserted into the story by whoever.

 

It could also be a place where the characters (as opposed to us) could talk about certain issues without having to slow down or corrupt the main storyline.

 

It's just a thought and it may help with some of the character missunderstanding we have already had.

[Accounting Troll]

A very good idea - I've started up a topic here. I think the first dilemma X-Com will face is going to be the matter of selling surplus weapons to terrorists, but they will soon have to deal with the issue of the treatment of alien prisoners and where to locate the second base.

 

As X-Com is a military organisation, the commanding officer has the power of veto over a suggestion he/she finds reprehensible, but if it is made clear that the alternative is to lose the war...