My thanks to the novelists...

[sangrahl]

After finally getting UFO:EU back up and running again (and mildly infuriating the wife with playing the same game that infuriated her back in '94-95... "It's 3am, hon... come to bed." "Can't sleep. The chryssalids will get me..." ::*boom-boom-boom* of AC-HE fire in the background:: "Hah. Take that, crab-boy." "Ugh, G'night, hon." "Night, dear."), I've begun reading up on alternate gamestyles and perusing the available fan-fics in my off-time.

 

Between Skonar, FullAuto (you both seem to bounce off of, and compliment, each other well), and now Hobbes (slowly working through The Unknown Menace) I've been pulled headlong into the world of X-Com and "plausible" role/gameplay.

 

Between Skonar's technical saavy (I honestly can't wait for Project:Gearhead to touch down in the Siege of NYC), FullAuto's meat-n-bones portrayal of internal headgames (I was spoiled by Spoils of War's introspection and solid, yet disheartening, end), and Hobbes' take on global intrigue/cooperation (I love the die-hard adherence to 90% of UFO's canon, though I will admit that it's slow going due to the dubious translation to english and strategycore's utter destruction of many punctuation marks and words-per-post limit that neutered a few longer chapters) not only is the game more tangible, but truly darker and inherently hostile.

 

Self-imposed limitations ("Heavy" Earth Weaponry is Powered/Flying Armor-use ONLY; Flying Armor is restricted to a single Heavy Weapon at a time; Psionic Operatives restricted to one-hand weapons and Personal Armor; Transport for cleanup/retrieval must be in the air and en route ASAP to limit possible civilian exposure.) and edited 'improvements' (More powerful HC-Rounds; faster AC fire; improved explosives at cost of encumbrance; manually increased Strength & Energy for Powered soldiers to wield their artillery), gives the feel of no-holds-barred warfare against the gathering Alien presence. By the time Power Armor-clad troops are leveling farms in Europe or deforesting acres of

[Bomb Bloke]

That was shaping up to be an interesting post. What happened to it?

[sangrahl]

That was shaping up to be an interesting post. What happened to it?

 

Beats me... looks like it got eaten by the board, somehow... Luckily, I originally typed into Notepad... (and remembered to save)

 

...By the time Power Armor-clad troops are leveling farms in Europe or deforesting acres of Oregon, the coverup of the Alien Invasion would be blown, anyways... Too many bughunts through the streets of well known cities. In the end, Alien Tech becomes a stepping stone for troops moving up to the advanced armors and higher-powered Earth Tech. The Aliens may be coming to take Earth for themselves... but we're already here, and we don't care if we blow it all to hell to stop 'em.

 

But it's the writers like you that rekindled the flame and have driven me to long sleepless nights... whether up driving my troops toward victory or an early grave, or up reading your interpretations of the world as seen through the eyes of X-Com commanders and grunts, alike.

 

Not much lost, really... but annoying, none-the-less.

[Skonar]

 

FullAuto is my homie, dawg. Siege of New York is rather the fault of him draggin' me into brainstorming.

 

In any case. This is more or less the 'Hurrah!' moment, because motivating people to fall in love with the game again is, really, the whole point. (That and winning acclaim and kudos.)

 

Now what we really need is for that XComUtil genius to allow the creation of 'scenarios' with pre-loaded maps, modded stats and troops. And for there to be two classes of chryssalid. And maybe little russian 'civillians' who run around and shoot zombies for you.

[FullAuto]

Word.

 

Me and Skonar (Skonar and I, if you prefer) do play off each other quite a bit. Glad to hear you enjoy our stuff, that is what it is there for!

[sangrahl]

Now what we really need is for that XComUtil genius to allow the creation of 'scenarios' with pre-loaded maps, modded stats and troops. And for there to be two classes of chryssalid. And maybe little russian 'civillians' who run around and shoot zombies for you.

I think the closest you could get to that would be a "special rules" session of UFO2K... (I personally haven't given '2K a try, yet... But, I will admit that it's my own lack of PvP prowess that has kept me from embarassing myself.)

 

Personally, I use a combination of XComUtil and both an executable editor (for changing weapon stats and text strings) & save-game editor (troop stat adjustment)... along with ufoeuet, and Mok's voice files. (I've considered trying BB's Custom Uniform mod, as well, but I'm afraid it might cause the game to try and collapse in on itself... I've already had a few oddities pop up in-game.)