IGdood
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Posts posted by IGdood
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I've heard of Football Manager and Cycling Manager ,but this is new...
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Thanks.
Wish it was Sims 3 or 4 for free. Heh.
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Heavy noncombat/simulation elements, you say?
Maybe.
Alright, let's get this shit organized and summarized so I can refer to it without having to go through 5 tabs in-game.
20 people in the colony so far. Thousands more sleeping because not enough food and water to feed them.
The "Military"
Location: Residential Sector
Task: Killing shit in the name of the Mars Colony
Ute Heinermann - Special training in anti-Reticulan combat. All-rounder with noticeable agi.
Harald Zamyatin - Stability (prevents knockdown); high strength and dex.
Diego Ramirez - Heavy equip training (rockets!) ; str and agi.
Samantha - No skills; dex and intuition. Intuition is the new version of Intelligence but with added benefits to dodging, snapshot supporting, manipulation, and charisma.
The Researchers
Location: Lab, but trains at University.
Task: Researching principles and tech.
Willhelm Schrooten - No skills, but starts with 2 points in Science and Technical.
Fernando Ramirez - Earth tech knowledge.
Inge Heinemann - No skills.
Agnieska Yoshimori - No skills, but comes with 4 training points.
Science Skills that can be learned:
Medicine - Medical healing in combat, bonus to medical research.
Earth Tech - Bonus to researching techs of Earth origin.
Reticulan Tech - Bonus to researching techs of Reticulan origin.
Planetology - Bonus to researching planetary techs, speeds up building geosondes.
3 skills for 3 unspecialized scientists. Alright. Agni learns medicine, Inge learns Planetology, Wilhelm learns Reticulan.
Notes: Willhelm may be able to hybridize and back someone up from Technical.
The Technicians
Location: Workshop, but trains at Polytechnics
Task: Manufactures things unlocked by Science.
Jacqueline Wells - No skills, has 5 training points.
Mary Osakwe - No skills, has 4 training points.
Edgar Barker - No skills, has 4 points.
Neil Barker - Civil engineering.
Technical Skills that can be learned:
Surveyor - Bonus to mining station construction, used for dismantling and adjusting land mines in combat.
Civil Engineering - Bonus to construction inside the base. No use in combat.
Suit Handling - Bonus to spacesuit production, enables repairs of spacesuits in combat.
Driving - Bonus to vehicle speed, enables use of homing missiles.
The Field Archaelogists/Explorers/Medics
Location: Scientific Bay. Those assigned to explore Mars will also be placed here.
Task: Exploration...?
Note: The characters assigned here have viewable stats as well as military training. I would surmise that this pool is where I would draw my medics from. If I assign a character from the Researcher or Technician pool here, they still don't have a stat view tab. This is probably because they don't have military training.
Hikaru Yoshimori - High only in Intuition (low everywhere else), has Planetology,
Tadeusz Yoshimori - Average everywhere with utterly Pathetic willpower (his biography notes that he's airheaded). Has medicine. Oh dear. Is this guy going to be my medic?
Gene Lawrence - No skills, 2 points in science. No strength, but is speedy.
Mark Wells - No skills, 2 points in science. Where Gene is more of the speedy, smart one of the Explorers, Mark's stats are more strength based.
Gene learns Medicine too.
The Builders/Miners/Combat Engineers
Location: Technical Bay. Those assigned to planetary outposts outside of the Base will also be placed here.
Task: Mining, manning outposts...field engineer?
Note: Looks like I'll get my drivers and mechanics from here.
Pauline Lasalle - No skills, only good stat is Dex. No STR and average elsewhere.
Benet Haradze - Surveyor, only good stat is STR. No AGI, average elsewhere.
Oliver Svensson - No skills, good STR and INT but crap elsewhere.
Vera Schrooten - No skills, average stats.
Oliver and Vera are assigned suit handling training.
Geosondes/probes need to be established in areas with flags in order to draw your borders. The explorer group takes care of these tasks.
Mines and outposts can then be built in mapped areas. The builder group takes care of these tasks, and they do it faster because they can learn how to drive.
Nothing I can do here.
Future medic-in-training is added to the squad. He gets a laser weapon.
We're worse off than I initially thought. We don't even have starter medkits.
Can't do missions either without fuel...
One of the scientists pressure me to build additional labs because there's too many idle scientists. No resources, so I can't do anything back at Base.
Looking around the storage yields weapon modifications.
One can see a tinier building on the globe now that the Fuel Mine has been built.
Neil reports that out new Fuel income is "Tiny".
Now we can undertake missions. Let's go!
Not being able to run is going to make our exploration of the red planet a little slow.
Ute sounds like an old German woman.
Harald and Diego sound rather generic.
Samantha is a bit enthusiastic.
I want to strangle Tadeusz since he sounds like Rebellious American-Accented Teenager #1. Oh wait, that's what he is.
The drones have lightning guns, but fortunately they do little damage. Harald charges in (well, walks slowly because he's wearing a spacesuit) with the buzzsaw.
*WHIIIRRRRRRR*
Airhead teenager kid here shoots Harald by accident.
Drone spotted below...and it dies.
Fortunately we didn't have to walk for too long to find the remaining drones.
Aimed Burst Fire is still powerful as usual.
I like the new Results screen. Goes to show who did what in detail.
There's a loot screen too. I'm going to assume we don't have the advanced carrying capability that the Laputa has.
The newly explored territory is named "Ute's Butchery." How apt.
It is now safe to send a science team to prepare it for Metal Mining.
New objective: Build a satellite because we lost contact with the Laputa.
Oh hey, there's even an Obituary.
New research topics here, but let's go with Firearms first.
Researched medikits but can't make them. Need more resources....
And before I can end the day, someone/something sabotages the base. Probably damn Reticulans.
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Are we allowed to talk about flashcarts here or is that best left to gbatemp?
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Let's get started with Afterlight.
The story is set during the events of Aftershock and possibly after. When the Reticulans took Earth for their Biomass experiment (which all turned out to be part of a cosmic creature mating ritual/master plan) they not only built 2 Laputa space stations for the humans, but they also moved a select 10000 of them to Mars where they were put in cryogenic stasis.
Those 10000 are tasked with terraforming Mars into a new Earth. Of course, the facilities only have enough food and water for 20-30 characters at the moment so there's your arbitrary headcount limit.
This is the story of the Martians.
We're thrown in the thick of things. We have control of Gene here in her basic spacesuit. No running and no crouching or prone stances.
No weapon either. It looks like characters now follow 2 experience trees: Scientist and Soldier.
Green tiles have been replaced by white tiles. The tutorial wants us to move there and so we shall.
Oh hey, there's a gun from a dead guy.
That thing looks massive and this laser looks puny as hell
But it died.
So aside from teaching some movement controls not much was going on. The settlers were excavating something and accidentally activated an automated defense drone which resulted in an unlucky guy named Jurgen dying.
These graphics actually look really nice.
The center object is my base. The big + signs are assets like mines. Flags are unexplored territory that can be captured. Red circles are combat missions; you may remember them from Aftershock.
Everyone's got a name this time, it seems.
Well, good thing we don't have to have a shootout every time we need to annex new territory.
Our earlygame enemies are robots.
We have to worry about fuel now. Makes sense, as we don't have military bases across the planet (like in Aftermath) and a giant, self-sufficient space station (like in Aftershock)
Oh shit. Things just got DEEP in this game.
Not only does the player have to manage the characters in the squad, but also the characters doing the research and manufacturing. Every character can be used for any occupation but all of them have some sort of specialty training that lets them do some things better than others. Hopefully the game wouldn't muddle things too much and put warriors into research positions and vice versa.
Also, base construction is now a feature for the player.
I feel like I'm playing the Sims.
I wonder if food and water management will be important...?
Do I have to fill these facilities soon?
A cleaner, more high tech version of the resource management interface.
First things first. Let's get the basics going. Research easy techs, build up the weapons.
There's not that many Earth guns here.
I'm not sure what to make of the new character design. Looks....cartoony.
EVERYONE has a personal biography. Whoa.
I'm not going to post them all at the moment, only the 4 active duty soldiers in the squad.
Ute Heinemann is one of the only veterans in the colony and a survivor from Aftermath.
I hope she won't be like the "Jaegen" of Afterlight.
Harald seems like a tough guy.
This looks new.
This interface looks familiar.
Seems like helmet and armor are combined into one space suit slot.
However, the slots seem smaller in number compared to previous games...
Like in Aftershock's beginning, the humans here don't really know what happened to the Council on Earth.
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AND THE GRAND FINALE OF UPDATES (for aftershock, at least)
My labs have been idle for awhile, it's good to see them go back to work.
Wait, whut?
Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh they're just normal humans with shit armor and shit weaponry.
While Ron deals with a squad of 4 by himself, the rest of the human mutineers are slaughtered like animals.
Even Neil himself can take on this rebellion
The Wargot ship turns out doesn't have Wargots. It's the Starghost ship that was sending off all its minions here, and its similar to the Wargot ship.
So...
...why can't the good Reticulans just nuke that Starghost ship?
I think this is the last research topic.
>death obelisk
This enemy type is bugged as fuck. Occasionally they suddenly disappear but the game doesn't recognize them as killed. Then you either force a victory through a console command or abort the mission which results in the area getting glassed and lost forever.
Starghosts can't climb and they rely on close combat so shooting from a roof is a good way to kill them all without getting hurt.
But then there's SG Clouds which are immune to everything except energy weapons. Warp Resonators can blow them in 2 shots.
Pillars of Death send out a black pulse when threatened, but since my guys are standing right outside the radius...they can shoot it while laughing. It does take quite a lot of shots for the pillar to die though.
Okay, this is probably one of the weirdest theories I've heard, but after thinking about it for a moment (actually, 7 seconds), this is actually pretty damn cool.
If you didn't catch all that, here's the TL;DR version.
Spaceships are creatures named Myrmecol because fuck it, that's why. Myrmecols psionically influence entire populations of whatever planets that strike their desire and bend them to their whim without the individuals' knowledge (think indoctrination from Mass Effect). These "pets" of the Myrmecol then accompany their master.
A female Myrmecol seeds a planet with Biomass, which then generates a large pulse signal that tells male Myrmecol from far away that she's ready to breed. The male Myrmecol arrive with all their pets and do battle with each other as well as any other 3rd party species caught up in this bizarre pre-mating contest. The last male standing will mate with the female.
In other words, we're here to stop them from fucking each other, and to do that we need to kill the female. No female = male will leave with his starghost pets.
She's on the moon.
Let's not question how we manage to breathe on the surface. Let's just enjoy watching Reticulans die hard.
Defeated the surface guard, moving on to level 2.
They're getting steamrolled so hard it's not even funny. Half the squad is just tagging along while Ron, Eric, and Gagan just shit on the Reticulans.
I'm not sure what these fleshy things are but the objectives say to shoot them until they bleed so that's what we'll do.
That looks slightly disturbing.
Level 3, and suddenly new enemies!
A Myrm Octopus is even faster than a SG Star and while its melee attack is weak, its poison HURTS.
It also doesn't help that thanks to weird map design (or a bug?) the Octopus will sometimes dive through the floor for a short time before suddenly coming back up. Fortunately bullets go through the floor on this map.... for some reason.
Myrm Angels are like Flatsters. They don't do anything besides fire the occasional lightning bolt.
Unlike Aftermath which was exceedingly difficult, the enemies here are just pushovers.
That's the female Myrmecol, by the way.
Fun fact: A single strike and the subsequent venom from a Myrm Octopus was enough to take a good chunk out of the cyborgs' health. Good thing the Confusion Projector from Svala sometimes stalls them for long enough.
There's no boss battle. You just put a character on the green tile and it launches an ending cutscene followed by the game freezing and crashing to the desktop.
If you move your whole squad onto the green tiles, the game freezes and crashes.
So the outro shows a dude in heavy armor putting a bomb near the female myrmecol and hightailing it out of there with a cyborg and a psionic.
That's a teleportation pad.
The guy who narrated the intro returns in the outro, saying that humanity now looks to the stars to explore and hopefully meet with other aliens. With the Reticulan knowledge archives in human hands, faster than light travel can be possible for them. Humanity will meet others with peace, but they will be suitably prepared for those who find the concept of peace "alien" to them. Earth will rebuild and blah blah blah typical good ending.
That concludes Aftershock. The final entry to the series, Afterlight, will be next.
And that's it for the 2nd game in the series, folks!
Overall, this was a pretty good game until the pacing suffered catastrophically in the lategame and the player's forces ended up steamrolling the enemies. Even the Starghosts were pretty easy to kill once you figured out that they were close combat oriented and your squad has good agility and/or snipers.
Compared to Aftermath, it certainly got a lot deeper even with the addition of something as simple as Quick fire vs. Aimed fire and that friendly units can block each other's line of sight and shots. I remember vividly how in Aftermath my shotgunner couldn't "ambush" Reticulans because he took so long aiming his gun that the Reticulan would shoot at the same time he did. In the end, snipers ruled in Aftermath because you could just "blob" through a map thanks to everyone shooting through each other. The developers seemed to give up in Aftermath's lategame balance by giving every Reticulan a rocket launcher and near perfect accuracy.
Aftershock got a bit too easy in the end and I would've liked to use the drones more if I wasn't so afraid that they'll cause story missions to bug out. IN fact, I think that the most dangerous enemies I've faced were the cultists because they had the same combined arms tactic that I had. Their psionic snipers utilized the "debuff within line of sight" mechanic of circlets all too well, and they were more advanced than the player until the end game. Hell, the cyborgs tore my forces up with dual wield AP SMGs and it didn't help that they had superior numbers and tech.
This isn't to say that Aftershock is bad; it's far from it. The module upgrade system on the weapons and armor really helped in immersion and tactical planning. It also allowed the player to tweak a character's effectiveness to their heart's content. Some of the additional items felt poorly implemented (scanners that only activated for a few seconds) but others really added to one's tactical options (mines and their fuses, grenades and grenade launchers...etc) The base management and campaign was also refreshing to handle and was another element to think of.
Storywise, I would say Aftermath could give XCOM a run for its money with the detail in the research subjects and piecing the bits and shreds of information from the previous game as well as the whole Myrmecol mating ritual. I mean, what if the Ethereals of XCOM are doing the same thing? XCOM 2 material? Maybe. And the link between the Ethereals in XCOM to the "true Ethereal" in The Bureau (aka XCOM: Declassified)? Would really like to see an expansion to that maybe a 2nd expansion pack (Enemy Beyond?)
Anyway, I feel like I'm rambling at this point. I'll start Afterlight sometime tomorrow. Stay tuned.
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After fending off so many attacks during the near hundred or so days of researching and building spaceships, finally the ball is rolling again.
Note: I had to restart the whole damn assault stage because apparently bringing drones on the team will cause the game to bug out where your squad members start disappearing and the missions don't show up (more on that later). Now the drones are wasted weight on the spaceship (I could've brought more medikits) but I am confident that my squad is elite enough to not get too banged up.
This is actually NOT a gamebreaking bug. It's only gamebreaking when you put a drone in the squad on the Wargot ship assault mission.
As the cutscene ends we're automatically thrown into a mission where we disembark and shoot Wargots.
Jayashree clears the way since nobody can detect her and she headshots every Wargot with precision.
Meanwhile Gagan just sprints and cleaves heads.
I was expecting a torrent of enemies. Instead all I got were a few scattered guards.
For those of you who want to play this game, be sure to save BEFORE you assault the Wargot ship. Otherwise the yellow dot in this screen does not appear and you can't do any missions. The only thing you could do if the bug shows up is move the spaceship model around like the globe back on the Earth campaign screen. The game also froze twice for me (even without drones!) so save every so often during the mission.
This is essentially one really long multi-part mission. Just fight your way through and blow shit up.
Sometimes you see 3 enemies, sometimes you see none. It's just not challenging. I was expecting something as insane as the Temple Assault. Maybe fending off all those Wargot attacks thinned out their population?
The Starghosts are also here, and they will attack Wargots.
Warp rifles mince the shit out of Starghosts.
Dual SMGS OP
There are some parts where you can't access a particular room filled with enemies. However the objective is to kill everyone so you have to shoot upwards from the bottom floor.
The strand is just a beam of light that you have to destroy by force-targeting the area where the beam is coming out of. It's guarded by....... ONLY 3 BASIC wargots.
And this one was guarded by nobody. Just walk in and shoot the beam and walk out.
Seems like the game's pacing suffered greatly in the mid/lategame. During the time where you're supposed to build a bunch of shit and research a bunch of shit, your guys gain so many levels that they end up wiping the floor of enemies.
When all strands are destroyed, you press a button that equates to "BLOW THIS SHIP UP" and receive a visual message from the cult leader saying that nothing changes and blah blah religious fanatic rhetoric.
Wait, that ship was alive?!
Let's get sneaky.
ANNNND the Reticulans who were chasing the renegades from the first game are finally here, and they're about to crash on Earth.
Wait if you have a fleet, can't you just land all your ships and help me blow all the cultists and starghosts to kingdom come? In fact, why don't you just blow the starghost ship into pieces?
>Another Wargot ship
Let's move the story forward
The Starghosts will permanently destroy a territory forever now.
Man, why do we humans have to do everything?
Let's go, elite squad!
Walking onto a ship as opposed to walking inside brings back Aftermath memories.
This level confused the shit out of me. It's not too clear where the floors merge between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and I actually thought I was doing something wrong until I realized the map was bugged out (only 2 out of 4 teleporter pairs were working). Fortunately, reloading a save (instead of restarting the entire mission) fixed it.
Sven and Eric pretty much steamrolled through the tight corridors and weird alien geometries
Svala's psi powers are so good she detected everyone on the map......except the people who actually mattered.
And by people who matter, I meant the cultists who weren't being killed by the Reticulans and potentially could hurt us.
Fortunately they look even worse off than the usual armored cultist fare and went down quickly to plasma shots and quick bursts of AP bullets.
Hello, Grey. Nice job killing all the other cultists. Say tell me, why did you need us again?
And we're getting lost.
Ah here we are.
>intrepid native.
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UFO Aftershock was one of the most crashworthy games of the day when it was out and unpatched. Even when it got patched, the crashes were so bad and frequent that the developers made fun of themselves in the options screen with a button that does nothing because even they didn't know where some of the bugs came from.
I've had a pretty good no-crash streak with this game thus far, but maybe it's because I'm close to the endgame. The crashes are coming in every 15-20 minutes and sometimes the missions bug out with disappearing enemies that I'm supposed to kill.
At the moment all I'm doing is manufacturing and researching stuff and waiting for the damn spaceship parts to be finished (22 days!?)
That aside, let's continue this.
There's s many tools I want to try out but every one of them takes a day or two to produce and I'm getting attacked every 8 hours. Not fun at all.
>research psi weaponry
>turns out i already have these things from fighting cultists
Advanced implants can be further modifued via the Compose action.
With these scanners....Jayashree looks like that SPT icon from Super Robot Wars J.
A hovering shotgun.
Finally. I can add bling to my armor and sniper rifles.
The Ultrasonic gun looks a lot cooler than the Laser Sniper Rifle. Not as accurate, but the additional stun damage will help.
They call them...Starghosts. And we're only fighting their minions and psionic manifestations. The actual bodies of the Starghost masters are on a ship way out of reach.
This cutscene unlocks autopsies of Starghost beings.
The Space Program factory allows us to build spaceship parts for a transport that will carry troops to the Wargot ship. Unfortunately spaceship parts take forever to build.
I'm pretty much skipping a lot of filler missions where I'm escorting or shooting. Instead I'll post pics of new equipment in testing or just really cool-looking action shots.
The Wargot launcher is much more efficient than the Reticulan one. Same range, faster rate of fire, and similar damage.
Starghosts give out such strong psionic signatures that Svala can spot them from across the map. And not just question marks too, she can tell what they are.
Jayashree kicks even more ass than before since the sniper scope essentially offsets the inherent inaccuracy of the Barrett. Now she's as accurate as Raveena with the Laser Rifle.
That's like...41 days.
If Warp weapons are as powerful as they were in Aftermath, then maybe I can OHKO Starghosts.
Ultrasonic Rifle stuns if it doesn't kill, but Raveena is so good with it that she ends up killing the poor bastards anyways.
Scanners tell you where enemies are (but doesn't identify them) for about 3 seconds. You can set it on repeat by queueing up orders but that takes too much effort and ultimately is a waste of time.
Also, while Fighter and Defender cores can equip more than one weapon only 1 weapon will show up in battle and you can't make them switch. That means no scanner + gun combo, which is stupid. The infrasight addon is passive though so you can use that in addition to a 1-slot gun. If you have light/medium shields (not the heavy shield) you can also use that in conjunction with an active item.
Also, Scout Drone + shotgun = lightning fast bruiser who can OHKO light targets like cultists before they can see it
More autopsies...I like how they said it's a large shuriken. I said the same thing too earlier.
As I don't need some of the low tech buildings anymore Moscow is now renovated into a high tech base.
More upgrades for a guns. Finally, machine guns will be even more accurate!
Svala just got even more useful.
These cyborgs are going to be OP with their extremely high stats.
It's funny how you don't unlock armor upgrades until the lategame. This suddenly makes Light Armor useful again because thye can take 2 upgrades.
Wearing medium armor lets you take a helmet upgrade, whereas heavy armor only allows for 1 armor upgrade (the helmet is a part of the armor). Not to mention, heavy armor requires specialist training.
Ron has been retrained as a dual-wielding ranger. I initially thought that you can dual-wield any combination of weapons as long as they're both 1-handed. Turns out you need 2 identical weapons.
I see why that Cultist Temple Assault Mission was so fucking hard. Dual-wield lets one heavy soldier slaughter an entire squad of Wargots. One spray = 1 dead Wargot. In close range with snapshot + AP bullets + burst fire you can down 4 Wargots in 8 seconds. No joke.
As spaceship parts are built you add the modules to the frame.
At this point my squad is pretty much established and set in stone so I don't think I'll be experimenting with more psionic builds.
Random picture of a Drone lasering Reticulans. They couldn't hurt it.
This is a strange item. Psionics can't wear armor or any equipment that can be upgraded with addons. This means that characters with high willpower exhibit a strong psionic signature...?
This looks interesting.
I wish XCOM had stuff like this, but that would make the game too easy.
Light shields provide more balanced protection than heavy shields.
The weaponry looks so awesome now that they're decked out with upgrades.
Augmenting augmentations.
Almost done....
I remember this baby from Aftermath. Will make healing much easier.
Medium shields are a balance between Heavy and Light shields in terms of protection between damage types.
Almooooost doooone....
These helmets look cooler than ever.
Warp Resonators are extremely short ranged, but they can probably kill off anything.
Warp Rifles are like any other rifle except they take awhile to aim.
SHIP COMPLETE. TIME TO ASSAULT THE WARGOTS. I could've built more but I think 8 squaddies are enough to handle any situation.
The Wargot ship looks more like an asteroid.
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This is going to be fun to use.
Hopefully subsequent random missions won't be tough like the Temple one. Betty replaces 2 mines with a repair kit.
Random funny set of pics where HEAVY MACHINE GUN SHIV blasts the shit out of an armored Wargot.
Night Vision devices are integrated into helmets.
Wargot grenade launcher ammo is a lot easier to carry than a human RPG ammo. WIll see if they pack the same punch.
Sonic Weaponry.
Does about 0 damage, but can stun. So it's like a non-psionic paralyzer.
I wonder what goodies the devs have up their sleeves this time.
Let's start the attack.
SHIV too fun to play with
But a little drone can't handle everyone.
NOOOOOOO HE KILLED THE SHIV
Night vision example.
Plasma Shotgun example.
Shame there's no bright projectile.
I hope there isn't another tier beyond "Advanced"
This looks much smaller than the Wargot version.
Combined Wargot/Cultist battle? BRING IT.
This is the greatest firing position ever.
And there's the mark.
One too many machinegun bullets pushes him off the ladder and he falls for a big ouchie.
Linette has to go save his ass so we can kidnap him.
They just can't touch us.
Alright job done.
I wonder if I'll ever use these.
>Finish a 10-day research
>Get assigned another load of projects
AND THEN SUDDENLY NEW ENEMY
Sure is a refreshing change of pace from Wargots, although being bullet-resistant really sucks.
SG Stars are like living sawblades.
Not sure what SG Defenders do, they just float around and get shot.
SG Spiders are slow, but accelerate when they get shot. They also deal large amounts of damage in melee. They also take forever to kill. SG Cloud....takes 0 damage from everything execpt for lasers.
KILL IT WITH FIRE
When the Fighter Drone Core doesn't cut it....SEND OUT THE DEFENDER CORE.
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The base and faction management stuff in this game seems pretty cool.
I happened to pick up UFO: Afterlight on sale. Only one I have so far, not sure if I should wait until getting one of the earlier games to start the series or just fire it up.
Regarding the cultist base assault mission, it seems like the game is suggesting you take them on before you actually expand near their territory (mostly because of the Wargots harrassing you, if I've interpreted it correctly, but still). Do you know if it's possible to just conquer all their shit anyway?
I don't know if you want to wait. Aftermath is pretty clunky. Aftershock is pretty modern, reminds me of XCOM
I read that if you conquer all their territory before you do the base assault mission, they automatically gain control of some of the player's territory randomly later on.
I was thinking of giving a scanner to Jayashree, but Wargot equipment is heavy as hell.
Scuttlebugs are just...bugs. Exactly as it says in the name.
David and Betty are ready to tear shit up.
Temple Assault, take 2.
The squad takes positions. Rochan and Ron will cover the minelayers. Jayashree, Neil, and Gagan wait in the back.
Unfortunately instead of emerging from the houses (which I expected) the 2 cyborg guards are already outside. They spot the minelayers and I have no choice but to kill them. The resulting noise draws the main cultist defense force from across the bridge. Fuck, I only laid down 2 mines!
The mines don't seem to do much. Then again it was only 2 damn mines. AP bullets are working wonders though.
But wait there's more!
David, Neil and Betty pull out the heavy artillery and begin plastering cultist paste across the wooden floor.
Cyborgs who do manage to get close get sliced before they can do too much damage with their dual-wielding SMGs.
Incendiary rounds too based. The pathfinding is pretty bad in this game, so the AI ends up stalling in the flames.
Neil seems to be able to keep the damage under control.
And of course these assholes have to ruin the perfect defense.
Jayashree makes a run for it.
Gagan rushes in to stop them...
....and manages to get knocked out after the first 2 slices. However, his sacrifice buys enough time for Jayashree to get into a new firing position.
Ron is now covering the rear while Rochan continues pouring it on the bridge.
I think the Cultist Psionics are all snipers or something, because they suddenly drop David. Well this can't be good.
But miraculously we managed to hold them off, albeit Neil has also been downed.
Jayashree manages to make it to Neil and grab the basic medikit off of him. She doesn't have medical training so she can't use the advanced ones. Imagine if nobody had a basic medikit. The irony would not be lost on me.
Well, she manages to bring the bomb trio back, which was a relief.
As for Gagan...
"I"LL BE BACK."
With the gang slightly worse for wear, they trudge on. I seriously hope there won't be anymore enemies.
Perhaps I spoke too soon. Regardless, Jayashree gets revenge on TWO laser-rifle wielding cultist psionic snipers.
The access codes are in there.
DIE YOU PIECE OF BIOMASS DIE
Those cultists were packing heat, but superior training and tactics won the day. Gagan's going to spend a long time in the hospital.
Found another accelerator that can buff the inaccurate PKM.
Took a lot of waiting for me to finish all these floorplans.
So THAT's what the cultists were using. Devices that automatically fuck with any enemy in your line of sight. A good sniper would've been able to impair her target from halfway across the map.
Almost sounds borderline OP.
Researching access codes just unlocks yet another long research topic. Although... 10 days = final mission topic?
GAGAN IS BACK FROM THE SICKBAY (with no disabilities too!) and is ready to undertake the final level of commando training.
The Psi helmet reminds me of the Rebellion helmet from Star Wars.
TERMINATOR
RPG user who can dodge = \o/
SO... a single psionic can be wearing all these debuffing and buffing devices? Nice.
Example image of infrared:
Not very useful for the outdoors, I must say.
>another floor plan
I swear, how extensive is the research tree?
>3 types of Drones
>10-15 days each
I hope they're worth it.
Dem legs
I'm going to be running out of land pretty soon.
Heavy shield for the drone...?
This is new.
The projects pile on
Drones are a part of the squad, not an item. The core is fitted to a chassis (the latter also taking a very long time to produce)
That's...really a lot of chasses.
And I was wondering when I'd be able to build my own scanners.
Heh, it looks kinda cute.
After finalizing the design, 3 drones popped up.
I name them SHIV
More implant research
All these deection devices!
Random mission with SHIV
The Drone (when selected) quickly gives detailed information on a target's health bar and resistances.
The little guy who could! SMG'd the power armor to death.
Let's refit it with a heavy machine gun
Shotgunner with dodge = cool
Looks like the cultists have reached our borders.
Time to push back.
-
-
But WHY is what I'm asking. Not everyone wants to play games on a teeny tiny phone or tablet or something. Games also take up a lot of space on these things, unlike PCs, from what I hear. People are likely more used to playing PC games.
At least Atari is smart and releasing RCT4 for PC...
I assume the mobile market is much bigger than the PC market. Stuff like angry birds and castle clash (sp?) is very popular even with the more computer-challenged friends of mine
AoE3 was okay to me, but AoE2 is one my favourite games of all time. I don't think AoE:Online was necessarily... bad, though.
And after looking at that, oh dear. I didn't even know about that. I'm tired of getting shit installments in series I used to like. Dungeon Keeper RIP.
It could've used more civilizations. I guess they wanted to go the MMO route but shame that didn't last. I barely finished a few quests. Maybe there's an offline version somewhere....
RIP Dungeon Keeper indeed, that was a good game.
-
Casual mobile games seems to be the area they're looking at.
This looks like a Puzzle and Dragon kind of game. Unlockable avatars that lead a troop of your choice? I dunno.
-
Thanks, Tryhard, but those questions are asking about windows 7. xP
But WHAT MICROSOFT KILLED ENSEMBLE STUDIOS TOO?! The bastards. >_> I loved AoEII. (I just couldn't really figure out AoEIII)
I liked AOE 3 more than AOE 2 but just because I'm nitpicky on the aesthetics. I prefer my Asian factions with units that look Asian. Although I do understand why many fans of AOE 2 dislike AOE 3. The change in gameplay was quite radical.
And then there was AOE:Online and that was....weird.
A few days ago they shut off the servers for AOE: Online, and now the next installment in the series is...this.
-
I want ZT 3 for PC.
One will never forget the first time one knocks down a fence to set a T-Rex loose on the crowd.
-
And one more update before I go back to SRW Z
Down with the Reticulans! Even if they have rocket launchers!
Yeah I bet they'll really hurt once they pull out microslug accelerators.
Useless human militia NPCs are useless
Damn thing is lobbing plasma balls
Just some pics on what I've conquered
Lel, headshot
Note to self: Flatsters will bite you to death in packs
Finally we can build Implant Factory
>Dodging bullets
Nice.
I bet you're getting bored of the endless Wargot missions.
Medium armor looks pretty neat.
Cyborgs have inherently high health, so their implants are stat boosters instead of providing armor.
Jayashree begins scout training.
>Cultists working with Wargots
LET'S DO THIS...soon
Medium helmet is like the same except with a facemask.
What is this
Nowadays we're faring a bit better against the Wargots, but somebody usually ends up losing half health.
Close quarters motherfucker
Raveena's using a laser sniper rifle. It's rather accurate (opposite of Jayashree's Barrett) but is a bit lacking in damage.
Getting ready for the temple mission.
Let's hire some foreign help now that my relations with the other factions are at their apex.
Only a cheap a 4000 and they send over someone with a high level and high stats.
Man, what's the whole point of me grinding and training the squad?
And to top it off, Jerzy here comes with Heavy Armor, something I can't even research.
ALRIGHT, WE FUCKING GOT THIS
The main force is probably across the bridge.
We'll check out the houses on our side to make sure we won't be fighting on two fronts.
Psionic snipers, fuck.
Raveena goes down. Shit.
The cultists charge en masse. The machine guns open up.
WHY WON'T THEY DIE. WHY.
More cultist cyborgs show up.
They somehow tanked all the machine gun shots and proceeded to rape the everloving fuck out of my squad with dual-wielding submachineguns.
When Rochan's health goes down in 4 seconds, you know it's serious business. The Cultist Psionics manage to panic Raveena so she ends up shooting Betty. Betty isn't great with her gun.
There's just no stopping them. Neil's grenade manages to stun most of them, and I take the moment to move everyone back into the landing pod. Jery gets left behind when I abort the mission.
We needed more explosives. If mines existed in this game, I would've turned that bridge into a death trap before luring the cultists over.
Wargot Probe cutscene.
Doesnt really give anything useful.
NEED MORE HP
And as if the game wants to answer my wishes, mines are available.
Uh...blowpipe?
Ron will replace Jerzy as the second gunner.
Since he's a trooper I suppose he can use a grenade launcher too.
PKMG accuracy leaves a lot to be desired though, but I guess a stabilizer can fix things.
GAGAN WILL DODGE BULLETS SOON
THE RETICULANS HAVE ROCKET LAUNCHERS
Let's help the villagers to not die.
Somehow we managed to keep Jerzy's heavy armor.
Wait, what? The mission just started!
Raveena and Linette need to git gud.
Can't even build basic psionic stuff and now we can research the advanced psionic lab?
Flatsters are truly the Stunfisks of the day
A bonus to grenades? Neil might as well take Trooper level 2
It's gonna take a lot of research to get to Drones.
Those cultists won't see this coming.
This will help our cyborgs see better.
So the Wargots are fanatics. This explains why they struck it up so quickly with the cultists.
>Enemies can use mines too
Aw man...
Why can't I hold all these research topics...
The Barrett is already inaccurate for a sniper rifle. A silencer would make it worse, so here's a flash suppressor.
Blowpipe --> Airgun
I suppose they're useful when you don't want a psionic using a paralyzer or poison gun. I think the psionic weapons would have longer range though, and they don't need commando training.
Betty will now be a lot more useful as the technical trapmaster.
I got bored.
Tell me something I didn't already know.
AWW YEAH
Build build build. I wonder how far I am on the tech tree.
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Fresh Wargot corpses, made to order.
But before that, I discovered more of the lore that I didn't notice because I didn't watch one thing: the intro of the game.
Recall that at the end of Aftermath the Council of Earth agreed to the deal to move a portion of the Earth's population to a spaceship called the Laputa.
Here's a bullet point list of things that I learned:
> The inhabitants of the Laputa were not told why they were moved off Earth
> The Laputians actually do not know how to operate the Laputa to its full extent, all they were told was that the Laputa was the new home
>The Laputa under the player's control is the 2nd one. The 1st one was destroyed when pro-Council of Earth crewmen fought against "mutineers" who sought the truth of the matter.
The mutiny occurred sometime when the Biomass (and the renegade Reticulans) began dying off. Not much was elaborated on in the intro. The Council of Earth had apparently disappeared also around this time. I think that's what sparked the mutiny. The mutineers sort of panicked since the Council of Earth stopped sending messages to space and decided to figure out the truth.
After survivors from the 1st Laputa (now destroyed) escaped to a 2nd Laputa via escape pods, they decided to piece together the missing bits between Aftermath and Aftershock. This is what leads to the beginning of Aftershock where the Laputians settle down and "recolonize" Earth.
Anyway, back to the Wargots.
They thought they could get the jump on us Earthlings. They were wrong.
Just kidding, my squad's getting their ass handed over to them in an escort the refugee mission. I accidentlly deleted some screenshots, but the Wargots have a fuckton of area denial weaponry via incendiary grenade launchers. They also have mechs with dual plasma launchers.
I wasn't sure if I was going to win here, hence why Betty is upfront drawing fire from the mech. Unfortunately the rest of the Wargots seem to want Jayashree dead, hence her low health.
It took awhile to kill the Power Armor.
Research topics studying our foes begin to appear.
They just can't leave us alone, can they?
Sniping undetected is always a blessing.
I spoke too soon. Launching grenades while undetected is not a good thing.
But, that's what the rest of the squad is for. Finding and killing the culprit.
These scouts have some sort of small gun attached to them. They barely do damage but they're very hard to hit.
SNIPER LEVEL 3 GET
You're going to get bored from all these defense missions.
Tough Wargots are tough. This is probably the time where firepower alone won't win shootouts. Svala is now a dedicated stunner.
All that noise from guns attracts attention. Getting flanked sucks. The squad retreats into the building..
Fortunately for them the Wargots aren't the sharpest minds in the galaxy. In their eagerness to spill human blood they ran through their own flames and right into bullets shot at close range.
It's like they're trying to drive us deeper into the building. Rochan stays in the flames because he can take it. Everyone else runs further in to regroup. Assuming they survive, they're going to spend a long break in the infirmary...
Rochan charges out of the building and fills all the Wargots outside with copious amounts of Pb.
ALL THESE RESEARCH TOPICS
Next defense mission where I test out smoke grenades.
Was hoping that generating a lot of noise would lure Wargots over but they didn't take the bait. Instead they retreated after I deployed smoke.
You cunning AI.
ROCHAN LEADS THE CHARGE.
FALL BACK. TOO MANY FLAMES
But, fortunately flames don't discriminate between friend and foe, and paralyzing the suckers in their own flames works wonders.
That totally looks like the XCOM rifle.
TROOPER TRAINING GET
If we keep expanding to the east, we're going to hit cultist territory soon enough.
Muckstars camping on hills? Are they getting smarter?
Dammit Sven, how do you pull off these things
As if machinegunners can't get anymore overpowered
We can make better armor now.
Might be cool.
BLACK KATANA CYBORG NEO-SAMURAI COMING RIGHT UP
Let's hope the NPCs are useful here.
TOO MANY HOSTILES
RUN THE FUCK AWAY
RUN. AWAY.
I'll just wait for them to find me here. One by one. Oh look, a scout.
This was funny as shit.
What is this, Super Smash Bros smash attack?
Looks like the human militia have to face the brunt of the Wargot force. Time to help them out.
What IS THAT?!
Took a huge chunk off Eric's health.
Once again, Rochan kills everything else.
Neil's back with his BOOMstick.
I need another sniper. The Barrett actually makes Jayashree quite inaccurate (for a sniper anyways). Plus, it's always good to have 2 of each role.
Looks like the Reticulans powered up. Those plasma launchers are back.
They still die pretty easily.
Even this guy. And we all remember how hard they were to kill back in Aftermath
Awww yeah
I swear these bloody Wargots just won't leave us alone!
Today is Gagan's turn to shine.
*SCHWING*
*Scout dies*
*CHOP*
*Wargot goes unconscious*
Note to self: Charging into a barrage of projectiles probably isn't the best idea, even for a Cyborg.
2nd note to self: Neil shouldn't be told to shoot grenades when Gagan is in the fray chopping enemies in close combat
GOTTA REVIVE HIM
TL;DR: Cultists are nutcases and must die
Let's increase squad size.
-
This is what happens when I play SRW.
I end up getting sidetracked for half a month.
TOO LATE, SUCKAS. You can't reach me behind the glass.
RUN JAYASHREE RUN
REFORM, REGROUP, RETURN FIRE
MAKE THEM FUCKING PAY
Rochan begins a barrage of death.
Sven manages to grenade himself by firing the grenade into the light post in front of him. Damn you quick fire, of all the times to screw up it had to be now.
He's also ragdolling, so I can't issue him any orders until he gets himself back together.
Did I also mention that the Wargots are all targeting him? They're also shooting glowing orange balls, so I assume it's plasma or something that can kill quickly.
Sven gets healed after losing a chunk of health, so the Wargots decide that Neil must die.
Ouch.
Neil takes a step back, stops his bleeding, and Sven ends up getting shot up.
Well, while all the bastards targeted Sven and Neil with their arm cannons, the rest of the squad take them down slowly.
Man, can't they shoot Rochan? He's the guy with the most health.
Wargots on the right are put down.
GRENADE THEM ALREADY
HE SHOOTS
HE EXPLODES MONSTERS
The counterattack begins.
Poor guy's running around in circles.
That guy looks very dangerous.
Fortunately the RNG was kind and he gets ragdolled. Of course the squad continues blasting away.
>Doppler Scanner
>Grenade Launcher
They had a grenade launcher?
New research get
Cultists pls
New tracks linking the border bases can be built now that we've got more low-tech resource income. Medical factories will allow us to replenish our medikits.
And we need a new medic because relying on Neil for all our healing duties is risky. Plus, he needs to stay in the infirmary for FOUR days thanks to losing almost all his health last time.
Linette will be chosen.
She can probably make for a great leader too.
The Wargots then decide to blitz THREE of my provinces. Things are going to get ugly around here because now I have to complete 3 missions against a potentially lethal enemy. Hope I have enough squaddies to cycle with.
I think Paris was the 3rd one
Alright, let's kill some Wargots.
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For some reason I still don't feel so inclined to use Psi Weaponry.
I AM HEAVY WEAPONS BORG, AND THESE ARE MY WEAPONS
Let's test this baby out.
Even a charging Morelman isn't able to get close thanks to the huge stopping power from the machine gun. Stopping power is actually showing itself with powerful guns like this one and the Barrett since it actually makes things flinch hard and occasionally ragdoll over the place.
Flanking monsters and turning hallways into a death zone are always fun.
Bye bye laser pistol.
Easiest mission ever. Didn't encounter any enemies. Only ran across the map.
Running low on money...shit.
But hey, research has a price. I'll just have to reset diplomatic relations with the regular humans to 0 and build it back up again with resources that I have a lot of.
>target body parts
Wait, she's not actually targeting heads only?
One of the funnier missions from Glasgow, Scotland.
I was to assist local NPCs in killing off Reticulans, but before I could get into the 2nd floor they finished it for me.
Got a lot of low-tech resources from the Humans. They gave me 5k, which should last me awhile.
AP bullets. YISS
RESEARCH AND MANUFACTURE ALL THE GOODS
I'm going to like this one very much.
Didn't notice Brainmen had a mouth on the abdomen.
>Flatster
>Dangerous
Had to rebuild everything in London because I couldn't replace the Library with a School while the Psionic Lab was still online.
Malaga currently houses some low-tech research and production but eventually will become my Energy Weapon research compound.
How nice, it's a an organized theocracy. I have a huge urge to stamp out the cultists now.
This sounds shady.
Fight fire with fire, I say.
Maybe I should give this to Svala.
So the HK 69 is one-handed? I think Neil is about to get very, very useful.
Meanwhile switched Sven's gun because I like to make my guys varied.
>can only make batteries
Colleges need a knowledge level of 1 to be built, after which they add 4 knowledge to the province for a total of 5. Stuttgart just got a lot more high tech.
Maybe if we keep expanding, we'll eventually find more low-tech mines. -12 is going to kill me one of these days.
Based Jayashree just headshotting everything.
I like it when new maps show up.
And Jayashree does it again, killing off the entire map's enemies (who were all conveniently bunched into a corner)
Maybe David should be a Ranger? His stats are...so balanced that I can't train him in anything.
Construction in Stuttgart just can't get any faster. I WANT MY ADVANCED WEAPONRY NOW
This is like a squad size upgrade, I assume?
I pick range over speed. The game only lets me research one of two upgrades
Oh yeaaaaaah
Researching the past
HNNGH WEAPON CUSTOMIZATION UNLOCKED
Shotguns + underbarrel grenade launcher = shotgunner doesn't have to be useless in long-distance combat
Take away a machine gun's weakness and you have a death-spewing machine. Rochan just got a lot deadlier.
FInally found some low-tech resource mines.
Sven's the new shotgunner/grenadier because he has Trooper training. David doesn't have the stats for Trooper training so he gets an AK-47.
Unfortunately, aimed fire takes way too long for a grenade launcher (probably because it was seriously OP as fuck in Aftermath when they didn't distinguish between fire modes). By the time Sven lobs a grenade the monsters are all dead.
The squad gets more badass with all these new toys.
After playing this game, I'm starting to think XCOM is a bit bland and streamlined.
Random mission against Reticulans.
>Gagan
>getting ragdolled by a laser weapon
>Sven finally gets a grenade off
>Aliens die
>grenade comes down 2-3 seconds later
Maybe he didn't need to aim in such a high arc...?
>change to quick fire mode instead of aimed fire
I guess that was the key all along.
XM8 Assault Rifle? Wasn't that on Future Weapons or something back in the day?
I think XCOM based the starting assault rifle on that design too.
Oh yeah. Alien ship countdown hit 0.
And then shit hit the fan.
DEFEND THE LAPUTA AT ALL COSTS
This reminds me of the XCOM Base Defense from Enemy WIthin.
JUST LOOK AT ALL THOSE HITPOINTS
FUCK YOU RNG. FUCK. YOU.
The entire squad is scattered across the ship and the game decides in its infinite wisdom to spawn Neil with the enemy.
Somehow, Neil manages to avoid being seen in plain sight by the Wargots (whose voice acting and language sound like Jabba the Hutt) and he runs off.
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Big update incoming.
One day, Mother Russia will be free. Today is that day!
Poor Eric gets ragdolled and critical'd by a Muckstar, but fortunately there weren't that many enemies.
Muuust get medic Level 2 for Neil
Considering turning Eric into a gunman. I have a feeling I'll need heavy weaponry soon.
Actually wait, Leader would be a better specialization.
Obviously Svala already has a set path.
Jayashree continues her way of the sniper. David focuses on stealth.
Factories left idle will drain upkeep. I should just make them churn out ammo all day and all night.
Help a certain faction, tread on someone else's toes.... We don't want that now, do we?
We're really expanding into the east.
Need new people. I'll take Sven Thompson.
Oh dear.
Awwwww yiiiis
Now, to the African front.
Look, greenhouses! Jayashree takes up a good sniping position. Unfortunately, the squad overkilled the mark.
Let's try this again.
I hate wildlife.
FULL AUTO
And some random screenshots of missions that either consist of kill everything or capture some random mutant. The Laputian nation expands some more into the British isles, the Baltics, Scandinavia, etc...
Hellz yeah Flechette
Gonna give this guy a katana one day.
More troopers! More troopers!
Almost there...
I'm going to love these
Machineguns require the Gunman training to be used. Fortunately Rochan here has the skill.
Hungary for more land.
I don't have a machinegun so Rochan gets an AK-47.
This poor fellow never knew what hit him.
Return of the 2-level bases.
FULL ON ASSAULT. LEAVE NONE OF THESE POTHEADS STANDING.
Considering making room in Stuttgart for upcoming advanced labs and factories. Gonna move all my low-tech stuff to Moscow.
I just reinforced a stereotype, didn't I?
Almmoooost there.
Technician + Medic for Betty, perhaps?
Sven has some ways to go.
Another random battle in the desert.
Ahhh shit there's too many of them.
Mutants/transgenants are slow, fortunately.
Put some distance and restart the bulletstorm
Another base. Take up positions at the halls and send Sven on a scouting run.
BLAAARRGH
Heh, a Y-shape.
And stay down.
Flatsters are unbelievably tough to kill. Fortunately they're there to distract you. They might send the occasional lightning bolt over but for the most part they just crawl around your squadmates' feet like a doggy.
We have reached the limits of our empire...?
Interesting. So this is what happened after Aftermath that sort of explains why the Biomass is mostly gone and the Reticulans have gone nuts.
New research available: Cultists and Advanced Medikits.
Medic level 3 sounds godly. Reanimate? Holy shit.
More help needed in the Baltics
I hate Psi Paralyzers
Schools are better than libraries. Too bad I can't demolish libraries if there is a lab that requires knowledge to be built. I have to demolish the lab, then the library, wait for the school to be built, and then rebuild the lab.
Oh come on...
Advanced Weaponry? I'm interested.
If grenade launchers are as awesome as they were in Aftermath...I'm in.
Eric is going to be an awesome leader.
Not all bases have more than 3 slots. That means 4/5-slot bases are best for building places that require a very high knowledge level.
More research shenanigans.
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Oh ok, I'm computer retarded. Thanks.
Oh no, it doesn't work on my DSTT. I get errcode=4. :<
You might have to use an emulator then...?
Also, holy shit case 5. Holy shit, how did I not see the foreshadowing?
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By Cases 1-5, does that mean all cases in the game? I understand it's still in beta, but is it the whole story, just conversations relevant to the story or everything but it's still in beta?
Thanks for the news!
They said that they have eliminated all Japanese from the game. It's all in English now.
Not sure what beta means, maybe there may be a few typos somewhere? I haven't come across any.
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Just wanted to make a public service announcement!
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I think they're Reticulans. Researching the Earth Folklore and Reticulan Language reveals info on the Reticulans coming to Earth with their biomass and a reference to the bad ending from Aftermath. Something made the Reticulans into stupid, feral beasts with the ability to use lasers. The Biomass is mostly dead, but humanity has regressed to the point where any history between the first game and the second game has been lost, which is strange. I guess part of the storyline is finding out what the hell happened.
So previously the cultists decided to go on the offensive against us shortly after their discovery.
The base looks brighter, and the squad is squeezed into a tiny room because reasons.
Psi vision reveals nothing.
Although I surmise that Psi Vision doesn't need to be toggled on to see through walls. Svala spots a presence from the entrance.
The Cultists walk into an ambush. Close quarters cancels out the penalty from using Snapshot firing mode.
I couldn't put David by the doorway because of positioning issues. He couldn't trade places with Neil.
These poor suckers didn't last more than a few seconds. They were so surprised by the sudden onslaught they didn't lift their weapons.
They also say funny things to themselves such as "RUN AWAY"
We end up chasing the last cultist outdoors. He turns around and tries to fight back but takes a few more lasers to the face.
I thought that was it, but when they meant base defense they meant the entire base including auxiliary structures that the player has built.
I move the squad to smaller building and find that the cultists have already taken up positions inside.
Just kidding, upon hearing my men's footsteps they rush out and proceed to get slaughtered.
The loot is good this time.
Lovely assault rifles.
The manmade laser weaponry from Aftermath show up.
Aww, can't use sniper rifles without sniper training.
A better shotgun with burst fire.
That will probably chew up anything.
Hellz yeah, better medkits.
Shit, something is coming to us in 14 days.
The other techs that reveal the storyline would be very interesting.
Researching grenade techs would allow the factories to automatically replace grenades after usage.
The cultists are expanding, and so must we.
To Russia!
Mowing down Potheads like it's nothing. Burst fire on assault rifles is based.
I like how a captured Reticulan can be told to shoot its former comrades.
Before building the more advanced labs, a base needs to have a certain "Knowledge Level". Building libraries increases the knowledge level of the base.
Maybe a school is more effective than a library...?
Shiiiieeettt, damn cultists are expanding close to my territory.
But first, let's remove some wild Reticulans from Iberia.
Little buggers have made the derelict UFO their home. Gotta go in and clear it out. I am reminded of the nightmare that is microslug accelerator with no cover.
Or rockets.
But Gagan gives 0 fucks and blows the inhabitants away with his trusty desert eagle
Stuttgart is like my low-tech research base. The labs there do not require a knowledge level.
>Shuriken
>Katana
Someone was a weeaboo.
Time to bring pain to the cultists.
Holy shit, what happened to you?
See, this is why we can't have nice cults.
We begin the mission by blasting the shit out of a Cultist Cyborg.
David clears out rooms.
I'm not sure what an Atoll is but I think I should give it some space.
It survived a frag grenade whereas the cultists did not.
The atoll spawns tiny bugs that move extremely quickly (they fly, you see) but die rather quickly.
Burst fire shotgun kills the Atoll.
Clear one set of buildings, move to the next...
Note the Biomass.
Things take a turn for the worse when I let Gagan and David get overwhelmed indoors.
Wanted to get Gagan to lure the cultists away from David, who is hiding in the room.
Only one guy followed Gagan out. The rest...ran into the room where David was and ate shotgun pellets.
Gagan executes a psionic.
Check out that loot!
Whhhhyyyy
A medical lab lets us do many things with autopsies and medkits.
Checking out the new gear...
That's a big gun.
Fotuntely Jayashree finally completed her Sniper training, level 1.
And here are some tentative paths for the other squaddies.
Build build build
Oh shit, these guys are expanding quickly.
We'll take the fight to them.
With a squad of 5.
Barrett Sniper Rifle you scary.
I mean, the aim time is very long, but with a spotter Jayashree can seriously wreck shit from afar.
So many research projects.
This game is definitely more complex than XCOM.
IGdood presents a Let's Play: The UFO Trilogy - FINISHED IT ALL
in General Gaming
Posted
And we continue.
Oliver Svensson is added to the squad. We need a technician after all.
Defend the water supply. Gotta have our 8 glasses a day.
These graphics look really impressive. Did I say that before? Sorry if I did, I tend to repeat myself.
Harald proves to be a great distraction, though compared to Gagan from Aftershock he doesn't seem as...great? For starters he can't run thanks to wearing a spacesuit and melee attacks don't hit as quickly in this game (every 2.5 secs vs. every 1 sec in Aftershock).
We can collect a finite amount of bodies, nice.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to scout out and "claim" the territory leading to the aqueduct?
Those conversations are actually more or less hints and tips on what the player should do next.
Already on it, bosses. The Explorer team is on their rover setting up Geosondes to claim the white territory. Unfortunately the entire team only has one rover so you can't send 4 characters to 4 different places.
The Field Engineer team operates on the same principle: one rover driven out to sites of raw materials.
Next main mission: Return to the excavation site where poor Jurgen was killed. Bring lots of troops
Building and scouting commands can be queued up.
And of course the Reticulans would show up as early game fo----oh I misheard that, they're allies.
But they're the renegade Reticulans and they haven't gone insane unlike the ones who stayed on Earth.
The Reticulans propose an alliance and offer to send some of their soldiers over. They're also busy fighting the drones.
Hooray, we can manufacture healing items. Medikits use first aid kits as ammunition, so I guess that's another complication.
Those are pretty generous terms for a fledgling colony like ours. Gladly accepted.
Been awhile since we've had aliens on the team.
Their nicknames are...yeah.
Tabbie is a standard combat Reticulan, a laser rifle-toting bastard. Unfortunately his superiors didn't think to send some of that glowy armor with him.
Oghie can be a crappy scientist or soldier. He really needs babying but since I'm lazy I'll send him to do research where he can slowly build up his science stats.
Welcome aboard, grey. And remember: We will be watching.
Constructing new buildings like these unlock more training options. In previous games you could train as whatever as long as your characters had the necessary stats.
Construction doesn't progress unless someone is assigned as a Civil Engineer. Neil here is the only one qualified so there he goes.
Workshop production is hampered though.
You might notice that there are more little buildings on the globe now. Kudos to the Field Engineer team. We also have access to some chemicals.
Alright, let's send the squad over to the excavation site.
Posting some research notes. After going through them in 3 games it gets a bit repetitive but sometimes it's different.
Let's see if we'll be able to contact the Laputa in the early game.
Can't build robotic equipment yet (need a Drone Assembly) but will do as soon as possible.
Ancient Earth ammunition is limited so we have to build our own Martian bullet-spewing guns.
Weaponsmith training will make our production go fastah!
We're here, and now it's time to avenge Jurgen.
Light resistance so far, an advancing firing line clears the elevated area.
And that gives us a good firing position.
Can't reach that guy so we have to go down to the platform....
You're a big guy.
It has twin lightning bolts and inflicted quite some damage to Harald.
I thought enemies would "bleed out" and die after they get knocked over. I remember Wargot Sentries dying after they're knocked "Unconscious" in Aftershock. It doesn't work that way anymore apparently. Call it a stroke of luck, but I sent only Ute back to finish off the mech and when she did, the game spawns a fuckton of unknown enemies from the big orange pillar in the screenie. Fortunately Ute made it out unscathed from these "Beastmen."
Well, looks like something activated the portal to another world and now we have to deal with a new foe.
There's a new mission where the objective is to clear out the Beastmen.
Meanwhile distributing level up points. Good dexterity for everyone is priority.
By the way, our aqueduct is under attack again.
Just a few annoying drones. They were easy to eliminate.
Now we expand north.
I split the squad into 2 groups so they can sweep both levels. Friendly fire occurs much easier in this game. Another reason a melee character is even more disadvantaged here compared to in Aftershock.
The Shooting Range has been unlocked. Good thing these new buildings only take up a tiny bit of space, about 4 tiles...?
Everyone in the squad undergoes Toughness training. Tabbie the Reticulan doesn't have that option so he undergoes Psionic Training.
I seriously wonder though. Does human anatomy training imply there will be human enemies in this game, or is it an option where the Reticulans end up becoming enemies later on and this makes Tabbie more efficient at fighting my squaddies?
Oliver had disappeared to learn how to repair suits; that's why he wasn't in the previous mission.
Who better than a war hero from Aftermath to become the squad's leader?
Harald will be a tank. Mostly because he's worried about his fellow squaddies' tendency to shoot the guy with the buzzsaw instead of the combat drone he's sawing apart.
Diego will be a gunslinger.
Survival methods is the equivalent to researching Alien Biology or something from past games.
Drones available this early?
I hope the scanning devices will actually be useful here.