|
Speedball posted:There are also a hell of a lot of drugs in XCOM but that doesn't mean we'll turn into Breaking Bad with alien slaughter. Mostly because people would just argue between each other about who would be the one who knocks. And right about there ends my general knowledge of the show. 
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2014 21:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 15:47 |
|
|
Speedball posted:Over in the main Games thread someone linked two lines of Watkins expressing concern with Leroy before Leroy got modded. At least you didn't try to generate fluff (or field any RP nonsense) for some more absurd events, like the world getting compressed into a pseudo-singularity at the north pole.  Apparently ravens can't intercept there and just try to orbit for a few hours before returning to the hangar. The UFO never moves, and doesn't leave. It was still there when the April report/autosave, after which point opening the globe causes CTD. (Of course it only happens on Ironman so I can't load an earlier save for the screenshots ) At least there's nobody to get upset about it? "Paranoia at an all-time high as governments fail to respond to an infinite number of aliens desperately trying to abduct nobody." "Chinese officials continue to deny that the universe has crashed. Confused skeptics don't know what to doubt anymore." "Experts claim the abnormal 'weather phenomenon' is a result of firing straight down with the Aiming Angles rule." "Winners don't divide by zero."
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2014 21:44
|
|
|
While I work on the next update, have this XCOM-related bit of black humor: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Double-standard-455249981 (work safe)
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 00:52
|
|
|
Speedball posted:There are same-sex relationships brewing here but I'm kinda trying not to turn this into Torchwood. Badger as an MEC would be amazing.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 00:52
|
|
|
Speedball posted:While I work on the next update, have this XCOM-related bit of black humor: Haha, this is nice, even before I got the EW expansion I rolled my eyes a bit at Dr. Shen's luddite reactions. I always thought the floaters looked like the happiest aliens, living it up zooming around on their jetpacks and having a fun time! But Dr. Vahlen's the really hilarious one. "I don't understand how such an intelligent species could be so callous and show so little empathy..." she IS a human, right?
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 03:15
|
|
|
Bifauxnen posted:Haha, this is nice, even before I got the EW expansion I rolled my eyes a bit at Dr. Shen's luddite reactions. I always thought the floaters looked like the happiest aliens, living it up zooming around on their jetpacks and having a fun time! I think that's got to be a joke given she "interrogates" aliens by pretty much vivisecting them.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 03:19
|
|
|
Bifauxnen posted:Haha, this is nice, even before I got the EW expansion I rolled my eyes a bit at Dr. Shen's luddite reactions. I always thought the floaters looked like the happiest aliens, living it up zooming around on their jetpacks and having a fun time! Well yeah. I mean, sure it sucks having half your body removed, but your body is now a loving jetpack. If you don't have fun flying around with it, what are you living for?
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 03:46
|
|
|
Drakenel posted:Well yeah. I mean, sure it sucks having half your body removed, but your body is now a loving jetpack. If you don't have fun flying around with it, what are you living for? Quite literally nothing at that point.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 03:57
|
|
|
I thought Floaters seemed pretty pissed about it, myself. I guess the key difference is hey, at least soldiers who get MEC'd implicitly volunteered.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 04:36
|
|
|
Feinne posted:I think that's got to be a joke given she "interrogates" aliens by pretty much vivisecting them. Electroshocks, right to ze brain! Vahlen is all the jokes about sadistic XCOM scientists given flesh. And the game strongly implies she did the same thing to the first EXALT operative you captured. Possibly BEFORE the council gives you license to conduct war against humans.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 04:46
|
|
|
chiasaur11 posted:Electroshocks, right to ze brain! It occurs to me that XCOM's legal department must be the unsung heroes of the Alien War, given how many legal hoops there must be to allow every single country in the world to grant access to an international strike force to blow the gently caress out of everything, anywhere, at any time. Hell, imagine the case files from the assault on EXALT HQ alone...
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 05:46
|
|
|
Feinne posted:I think that's got to be a joke given she "interrogates" aliens by pretty much vivisecting them. I dunno, there really are people with giant blind-spots regarding their work. I bet Dr. Vahlen has a great big poster of Carl Sagan in her office and she personally believes in the ability of science to improve the lives of every sapient being, but then she has her morning coffee and heads down to alien containment and the moral part of her brain takes a back-seat to the part that really loves solving hard problems, even when the solution to those problems is 'electrified catheders'. Dr. Shen is such a debbie downer about technology because he has met Dr. Vahlen.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 06:20
|
|
|
Speedball posted:There are same-sex relationships brewing here but I'm kinda trying not to turn this into Torchwood. IANTO & JACK 4 EVER. Speaking as an Alpha++ CisHet-kin SJW, there's a place for that stuff and based upon your past work I think you're a good enough writer and insightful enough to avoid making anything too cringeworthy.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 06:29
|
|
|
Tomn posted:It occurs to me that XCOM's legal department must be the unsung heroes of the Alien War, given how many legal hoops there must be to allow every single country in the world to grant access to an international strike force to blow the gently caress out of everything, anywhere, at any time. Speaking as someone who has worked (briefly) many, many fields adjacent to actual national security issues, my understanding is that the system can handle it. But yes, I'd imagine the redacted files could crush a person.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 06:33
|
|
|
Speedball posted:There are same-sex relationships brewing here but I'm kinda trying not to turn this into Torchwood. On a more serious note - I haven't found any of the relationship stuff to be overbearing at all, and if I'm being completely honest it must be admitted that after sitting down and reading this LP in one go I found myself surprised by how ready I was to become invested in some of the relationship drama. It's not being presented as overwrought or obnoxiously in-your-face; it's been really quite well-done IMHO, and very believable given the in-character circumstances of the personalities you're presenting. I guess what I'm saying here, Speedball, is that you're doing well. Trust your own writing and your own instinct, and don't worry about it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 09:07
|
|
|
DivineCoffeeBinge posted:On a more serious note - I haven't found any of the relationship stuff to be overbearing at all, and if I'm being completely honest it must be admitted that after sitting down and reading this LP in one go I found myself surprised by how ready I was to become invested in some of the relationship drama. It's not being presented as overwrought or obnoxiously in-your-face; it's been really quite well-done IMHO, and very believable given the in-character circumstances of the personalities you're presenting. Welcome to Speedball LPs. Better than soap operas.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 10:19
|
|
|
SpeckledJim posted:Welcome to Speedball LPs. Better than soap operas. Man, I woulda gotten in on the ground floor ages ago if I'd known the LP existed. As it is I caught a comment about 'my other LP' in his Tropico LP and went looking.  (P.S. Hey since South America loves us does that mean La Presidente is helping to fund X-COM? Meld would explain her appearance-and-history shifting...)
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 11:14
|
|
|
deadly_pudding posted:Maaaaan. This is a fun LP. It's making me really want to pick up X-COM again, haha. I never got super far in the base game, but it looks like Enemy Within adds a lot of good new options to work with. Yup. The MEC Trooper really makes it a lot easier to get rolling in Classic when you don't have any good armor or skilled soldiers.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 12:09
|
|
|
So, as a question- this is a bit off topic, but I believe you said at some point you make a webcomic, Speedball? What webcomic would that be?
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 12:58
|
|
|
habeasdorkus posted:Speaking as an Alpha++ CisHet-kin SJW Uh. I'm trying my best to parse that. It appears to mean that your true Soul and Self is that of an utterly self-obsessed jock, and so you fight to preserve male advantages?
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 14:03
|
|
|
Neopie posted:So, as a question- this is a bit off topic, but I believe you said at some point you make a webcomic, Speedball? What webcomic would that be? The Dragon Doctors. A not-terribly-well-drawn comic about four magical doctors battling evil 2000 years in the future. (Shaman therapist, ex-military combat surgeon with potions and scalpels, shapeshifting wizard/plastic surgeon, diagnostician with light powers). I'd say that one of my talents is making really loving weird situations come off as completely normal due to the writing. The latest big arc is all four of the main characters being attacked by assassins controlled by demons; the leader of the DDs, Mori, got nearly devoured by a meta demon that kills you by eating the story of your life, making it meaningless. (It's a not-at-all veiled metaphor for depression). The comic is occasionally NSFW. Working on XCOM right now...and I've got another XCOM comic page in the works. The streets will run yellow with Sectoid blood!
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 17:18
|
|
|
Ratoslov posted:Dr. Shen is such a debbie downer about technology because he has met Dr. Vahlen. It gets better. In early versions of the game, the two were married. So just think of them as a bickering couple. Or better yet, two exes being forced to work with each other.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 20:21
|
|
|
Bacarruda posted:It gets better. In early versions of the game, the two were married. Can you imagine a couple going "CYBORGS!" "MUTANTS!" all the way up to the altar? I can and it's hilarious.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 20:29
|
|
|
Speedball posted:Can you imagine a couple going "CYBORGS!" "MUTANTS!" all the way up to the altar? I can and it's hilarious. I imagine it more that they pause at "Till death do us part" and start arguing over functional life-extension and immortality techniques.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2014 22:48
|
|
|
Okay, due to a hellaciously long day of work schduled we won't get another update till Friday. Sorry. I did finish the comic art I ha planned, though. EDIT: BW preview of it here: http://imgur.com/IlTaFEf The original version I envisioned would have had Allen in there as well, but unfortunately Allen died. Speedball fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Sep 25, 2014 |
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2014 14:18
|
|
|
quote:I always thought the floaters looked like the happiest aliens, living it up zooming around on their jetpacks and having a fun time! They're not happy. They're in constant pain and in permanent rage at everything if I recall it right. They can't 'enjoy their state' because they're not in a mental state TO enjoy it. 'How did they get the flesh to not reject the metal?' They didn't bother. Bloodly fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Sep 25, 2014 |
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2014 21:22
|
|
|
Yeah, that's the part Shen is shocked about, not just the cyborg stuff.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2014 02:25
|
|
|
Bloodly posted:They're not happy. They're in constant pain and in permanent rage at everything if I recall it right. They can't 'enjoy their state' because they're not in a mental state TO enjoy it. Some of them cringe and squirt blood from their joints when you first discover them. Theirs is not a fun existence.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2014 02:54
|
|
|
Speedball posted:While I work on the next update, have this XCOM-related bit of black humor: I dunno. I always figured that the removed limbs were carefully placed in cryogenic storage. Because that's the sensible and logical thing to do, right? ...right?
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2014 03:25
|
|
|
SwissArmyDruid posted:I dunno. I always figured that the removed limbs were carefully placed in cryogenic storage. Because that's the sensible and logical thing to do, right? Read the flavour text for the base augments. It mentions something about the base augments hopefully being able to be used to give the solider a relatively normal life after the war, someone else can copy down the exact text if they want. I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2014 12:19
|
|
|
Stephen9001 posted:Read the flavour text for the base augments. It mentions something about the base augments hopefully being able to be used to give the solider a relatively normal life after the war, someone else can copy down the exact text if they want. Oy. I missed that in converting my first MEC.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2014 19:30
|
|
|
Part 18: Who You Are On The Inside Of Your Mimetic Skin  Right, according to the survey, we should be focusing on survivability first, then revenge. Works for me. It’ll take a month and a lot more salvaged UFO electronics to get a proper mega-satellite network up and running so we’ll save that for the end of the month. Now: Naomi Bar-Lev, what’s up? I’m a… er… my superiors sent me to this program under false pretenses. They believed at the time that the alien threat was minimal and that sending me here was purely an olive branch to a larger organization they had no stake in. My mission was to integrate, eliminate whatever made-up threat you people were involved in and return. On the off chance that aliens were real it was believed that, at most, we’d destroy them all quickly and I would be able to return to the homeland with samples of their technology, with or without your permission. In short… I’m a spy. *rubs back of her neck nervously and averts her eyes* Oh…Mimi… Ah, good. I’m glad you came clean; I’ve known this for a while. You did?! I can tell your feelings on the matter have shifted. In fact, I haven’t intercepted any communiques back to your old superior ever since your augmentation surgery. Which leads me to believe that you’re someone XCOM can trust. Yeah…the old mission is pointless. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, the only people who can fix my body live here, so betraying XCOM is suicide. And on other matters, everything going on back home seems like a bunch of small-minded bullshit. Little people arguing about things the aliens don’t care about. The terror attack in India made it clear, they could destroy us all if they wished. My old superiors still don’t get that. And… And? And on an emotional level…I’ve learned to care about people here, even the ones from countries I don’t give a poo poo about. Some of them really piss me off, but only in the sense that a family member pisses you off. I still miss Allen, and Allen annoyed me to death. The old me wouldn’t have understood that…but things are different now. … Well, I’m glad to hear all this, Bar-Lev. I had faith that you’d see the light sooner or later, most of us have. I’ve had this conversation with about ten other staff, also all donated from countries that thought this invasion was either not their problem or an opportunity to screw over their neighbors. They all wised up. Except “Hogan…” He completely passed my initial screening and never sent any communiques out of the base. Which means he was a deep-cover spy from the start. Someone out there knows about XCOM and its mission, and knew about it before XCOM even got off the ground. Well, let me worry about that. I’ll let you two discuss things, you’ll need to work it out. … …  Mimi, you should know…I was one of the other ten. …you were?!  Commander, we’ve finished the armor! It can only take one hit from an enemy plasma weapon before becoming useless, but that’s still one more hit than we were able to take before. On standard, baseline-human troops it covers most of their body, with fiber-weave around the limbs and soft joints. On our gene-modded troopers we shifted it a bit. Watkins, come here! Okay! As stated, we need to let our genetically modified troops have some exposed bare skin, so we’ve concentrated the armor around the torso. Now, for the durability test. Captain Watkins, could you enter the test chamber to the left? Uh…okay… What the gently caress!? OWWWW… Please, you were only lightly toasted at best. The pain should have already subsided. Ffffuuck. Good thing I’m not modest…someone throw me a towel! Okay, nothing to do for now but sit back and wait for new developments…  Commander, we’ve completed our designs for a new autonomous weapons system, essentially a robot machine gun rolling around on the battlefield. It wouldn’t be able to do much except fire its weapon at the enemy, but it would be capable of deploying mobile cover to troops, it’d have increased accuracy once I outfitted it with laser weapons, and it’d be completely immune to panic or the enemy’s strange mental powers. Hmm, cool. We’ll build some more once we have some cash to spare. Sorry, funds are tight…though I guess I could sell a little of this “elerium” crap we’re not using to the Council on the Gray Market… poo poo! Abductions! Troops, get ready to move out! We’re heading out to Mexico, we’ve failed them in the past and this ought to make up for it. If there’s seekers about, I hope your bioelectric powers come in handy, Leroy. Eh. If nothing else, I can make a light bulb light up by sticking it in my mouth now. A small food store, huh? The aliens are knocking over the equivalent of Trader Joe’s. I’ll head up first!  Hmm? They are here! YOU are here! Watkinsss! poo poo, I can’t see them, they scattered for the doors in the back! They could come from anywhere, toss me some smoke, Pixie! On it!  I’ll turn invisible and try to scout around near the parking lot. If I’m invisible the aliens won’t react to my presence, I hope… Sure. See if you can circle around ‘em. Cameron Watkins…we know of you now. Augh! Whuh…how? Hogan? You’re so different from how you started out, aren’t you? BLAUGH! And yet you seem to have adapted to this new form quite well. Far better than most would. Wouldn’t a lot of men be disturbed or disgusted by a female body? (I can’t see poo poo…) Look, maybe I’m just mentally gender fluid enough to not give a poo poo. Maybe I have bigger things to worry about, like killing you alien fucks! Or, maybe it’s because your BRAIN has mutated as well. Your brain’s edges had to shift to fit in that differently-sized skull. It’s now sensitive to different hormones. The connective tissue has adjusted. What kind of effect do you think that had on the mind contained within that brain? You’re not Cameron Watkins anymore. He’s dead. S—shut up! (gently caress, I can’t see this guy either!) Surely you’ve noticed by now that your personality has shifted since you were altered, ever so slightly? (ggggah, I’m almost blind!) How much of you is really you? How much of you is other people? How much of you is us? gggrrrRAAAAAAHHHHH!!  How much of you is GRENADE!? FFSSSSAUUUGHH! I’m breaking the wall on the last one! Princess! Got it! Enemy down. Cam! Is Cam alright?! Cam, I’m here! Hold still, this will neutralize the poison and patch you up. gg…ggg…gggg…thanks…hands are still trembling… Thanks, Leroy… Don’t mention it.  More sectoids up north! Don’t worry, I can take out a few of them. G…go for it. Regen’s kicking in, I don’t feel so bad now…armor took most of it… …I’ll wager the aliens’ words hurt more. Y…yeah…but I’ll talk about it after the mission. Two sectoids down! One left behind the meld to the northwest! I’ll vanish and scout ahead. gently caress! SEEKERS! They don’t see me but they’ll vanish the moment they see us. Leroy, if your skin thing can really help us, now’s the time. On it. Ha ha! YES! It works! They can’t even put one tentacle on me! That doesn’t mean they’re harmless, they have a small plasma weapon installed. Take ‘em down! Never again!  All visible aliens dead, I guess we can collect the meld now before it self-destructs. I can sense two more in this book store. Those are the last ones. Okay…I’m going to fall back and get the far meld container. Aaaah, Dr. Alicia Gomezzzzzz… Hello again. If you were listening in on what your brothers were talking about, I have a counter-argument. Biology has a powerful effect on our mental state, but it isn’t destiny, it’s merely an origin. We are more than what our DNA makes us. You wouldn’t understand that, since you’re all designed identically. You have no culture. *scoffs* And you’re easily distracted. Surprise, rear end in a top hat. Where did you come from? You hurt someone I care very much about. For that, I will shoot you where you least want me to. And where is that? Mexico. It’s over. Cam, you alright? I’m fine…gonna need to take a break in the hospital to get the rest of this crud out of my system, but I’m fine. You sure? I’ve been blown up, shot repeatedly, strangled, burned and mutated, a little poison won’t keep me down forever. I’m not worried about your body. I mean…you may have Allen’s DNA but there’s no way I would have fallen for Allen. You know that, right? I know. He didn’t say anything I wasn’t already thinking. I won’t lie, it scares the poo poo out of me thinking I might not really be the same Cameron Watkins anymore…but I’ve found a way to make peace with it. As long as whoever I turn into is someone the old Cam would have liked, it’s fine. Excellent work, everyone. Cam, for keeping your head and killing many aliens despite all the poo poo being thrown your way, you’ve earned another pay upgrade. So have you, Dr. Gomez and Hilda. How the hell did they know about Watkins and the switch? Only one way: they got Hogan before he was able to return to his spymaster. Hmm…I’m still trying to figure out who he was really working for… That armor saved my life, no doubt about it. Gonna need to learn how to let the armor take the hits for me. Now, which movie should I watch? Hmm… how about… “The Thing…”To be continued! quote:
Speedball fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Jun 17, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2014 22:48
|
|
|
quote:Commander’s Poll: Muscle Fiber Density. Because I have auto-immune arthritis, and miss going for long walks. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2014 23:07
|
|
|
Jump good.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2014 23:18
|
|
|
Secondary Heart. If the heart goes down, so does just about everything else. With a backup heart, we'd be able to ideally survive a heart attack long enough to get to a hospital to work something out. I don't know enough about heart disease to say how much a sudden second heart would help, but I can't imagine it would make things worse.
Krysmphoenix fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Sep 27, 2014 |
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2014 23:37
|
|
|
Krysmphoenix posted:Secondary Heart. If the heart goes down, so does just about everything else. With a backup heart, we'd be able to ideally survive a heart attack long enough to get to this hospital to work something out. I don't know enough about heart disease to say how much a sudden second heart would help, but I can't imagine it would make things worse. Yeah, this sounds about right. Either that, or regenerative bone marrow for greater healing after injury.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2014 23:42
|
|
|
Krysmphoenix posted:Secondary Heart. If the heart goes down, so does just about everything else. With a backup heart, we'd be able to ideally survive a heart attack long enough to get to this hospital to work something out. I don't know enough about heart disease to say how much a sudden second heart would help, but I can't imagine it would make things worse. More importantly, you could pull off the world's best Doctor cosplay.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2014 23:42
|
|
|
Regeneration. Surgery without scars. Clumsiness without consequence. Extreme sports with less risk.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2014 23:52
|
|
|
pun pundit posted:Regeneration. Surgery without scars. Clumsiness without consequence. Extreme sports with less risk. The rebirth of the freak show.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2014 23:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 15:47 |
|
|
Mimetic skin. To remain unseen is the best way to see what is not meant to be seen.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2014 23:59
|
|
