Peaceful Protest II

[Civilian]

Ok, after a very frustrating attempt at a pacifistic campaign, I gonna try it again. But this time I will not use any special limitations regarding the usage of the (modified) stun pistol. It is weak enough as it is, so this should be balanced enough.

 

Here a complete overview of the technical setup:

 

-default Xcom Dos 1.4 on superhuman with XcomUtil (9.6) default bugfixes only (difficulty + disjoint bases).

-Random UFO floorplans, random UFO shapes.

-Pistol ammo changed to stun damage (other values are identical to default).

 

here the limitations I'll use:

 

-The game will be pacifistic: no UFO will be shot down (will wait for it to land), no alien killed.

-No soldier will be dismissed, no matter its stats.

-No reloading during tac missions and in the Geoscape.

-No tanks will be used.

 

Well that's it.

I gonna post screenshots of memorable moments and will attach savegamefiles for the curious.

[Civilian]

The campaign begins with selling all unneeded stuff and changing the base layout.

https://i50.tinypic.com/258os4p.jpg

 

After some failed attempts (The Skyranger is too slow) the first landed UFO can be targeted.

https://i48.tinypic.com/14e9cux.jpg

 

...with an acceptable result. No losses, 2 wounded. UFO not recovered, but hey, it was the first mission, remember those guys are fresh recruits.

https://i45.tinypic.com/2lc8t4x.jpg

 

A terror mission pops up, but the alien activity at the LZ is way too high to secure a safe enough mission. Take-Off!

https://i46.tinypic.com/2lbm1.jpg

 

The first month is over soon, medikits, laser pistols and motion scanners are researched, as well as the Sectoid corpse.

Ahem the sectoids corpses...Unluckily the 4 captured Sectoids died because I forgot that the base had no Alien Cell ready when returning from the first mission^ It won't happen again, I promise!

https://i48.tinypic.com/2u8c8jr.jpg

 

As one base seems to be not enough to cover the whole planet a second one is built, along with a radar base in Africa.

https://i49.tinypic.com/3096hlf.jpg

 

Here the savegame https://www.megaupload.com/?d=JFZM6NXJ

[Sunflash]

*cheers the civ on like it's going outta style!*

[Civilian]

Hehe, thanks.

 

I have a plan: I will make three complete attack bases each will get an (XcomUtil) Interceptor that can carry 6 soldiers, that way I will not lose when one base is destroyed, more terrain will be covered AND the tac missions will not be as crowded as they are atm. 16 soldiers are too much...

 

edit: later that day...

 

February is over and the result is not so good:

 

https://i49.tinypic.com/287onyo.jpg

 

There was a Terror mission I aborted and a catastrophic tac mission that did cost me 6 soldiers and one Interceptor.

 

The stun tactics seem to have the side-effect that the aliens use grenades much more often, with terrible results for my troops... Here what I think happens: The stun pistol has only a weak stun effect, sometimes even sectoids wake up in the very next turn. They are in range, in sight and have no weapon (it is in the ground as they were stunned) so they switch to grenades. Those combined with no body armour on the human side and a lot of short-ranged newbie recruits... well, you get the picture?

 

What also is disastrous is the low accuracy of my troops combined with the low accuracy of the pistol, they can't hit the broad side of a planet. I have seen a lot of terrible shooting in Xcom, but those *#

[Sunflash]

...Yewoch. Looks like this is gonna shape up to be one tricky little game. :X

[Zombie]

With low-power stun ammo dishing out only minor stun damage, aliens are going to be waking up frequently as they recover 1 pt per turn. My only suggestion is that once an alien is unconscious, send a runner in with a Stun Rod to make sure the thing stays down.

 

- Zombie

[Civilian]

I gonna try that, Zombie, I hope the aliens are clever enough to NOT throw grenades at close-by soldiers, as they are rather "trigger-happy" with the Stun Launcher.

 

Sorry for not posting anything in the last few days, had to do some extra-hours at work, but after tomorrow it will be better.