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Definitely try to get it archived. A lot of LPs are lost in the ether when they aren't archived.
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Feb 26, 2024 22:02
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or, at the very least, make enough noise that some kind soul will save it in the wayback machine of the internet archive. There are a lot of OG LPs that are lost to the sands of time because of video hosts and image hosting sites shutting down, but some of them were rehosted on the internet archive, and some were saved as webpage screenshots in the wayback machine. There are even LPs IN the LP Archive that were delisted because of that, like From Earth's Silent Hill LPs. HOWEVER, some Nostradamus-level people saved screenshots of the Archive updates over the years, and so that LP is still preserved, as long as the internet archive doesn't get shut down
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Feb 27, 2024 17:20
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I enjoyed seeing this mod and completely get why you got burned out on it. There's a lot here. Still I hope the effort does get preserved with archival.
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Feb 27, 2024 18:13
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So I've reached about the same point in my game as the LP has and holy poo poo yeah I'm upgrading from "I don't blame you for getting burnt out" to "I'd be worried about you if you weren't burnt out." because this poo poo is absolutely bonkers. The cults and various other things that went on like monsters and early zombies were a lot but it was manageable (And when it wasn't, it felt like it was about making ruthless decisions on how to use limited resources) but it turned into far too many missions to actually be enjoyable to play, with too many things to keep track of especially in terms of equipment and manufacturing. I called it in March '99 with the rationale that I had set up X-Com for the fight against the invaders by eliminating their cults, developing some seriously advanced technology, and gaining a boatload of intel and some battlefield experience with how aliens fight. And I now solidly agree with the goons who have said the "a few guys in a van" stage of the game is what's best with this mod. Reaching Promotion 3 and finishing all four cults should be the victory condition.
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Feb 28, 2024 10:50
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File 42: The End + Roster and Statistics. *Begin Recording* Commander’s Log: March 15th This feels strange to be saying but… in a few days time, I will no longer be your commander. The council has finally made a decision about X-COM. Due to the size and scale of the alien threat, we are being “reorganized” into a larger, stronger organization. This kind of result seemed impossible a few short years ago when we were just investigators checking in on human cultists and cryptid sightings. But now that we’ve been facing enemies on every possible front, the council has deemed that we need an upgrade in size and scope. Several lesser missions, such as the Reclamation of Aether, Cyberweb, and The Syndicate are being given to the council salvagers, while X-COM is refitted to focus on battle with the aliens with all our might. But as a result of that change, the command staff is receiving an overhaul, complete with promotions. I am being promoted to a higher position, while our greatest agents are being offered a chance to be promoted out of fieldwork. I would like to draw specific attention to Sunny, Dak Thornson, Hound Smith, and Burnt Toast, four out of our six original agents who have survived and are fighting to this day. I commend all of you, and the new agents would be blessed to be led by you. Don’t worry, this is a good thing. We’ve proven to the council that the alien threat needs to be taken seriously. Funding and expertise is being diverted in our direction to make the rest of the fight easier. But at the same time, it does mean that things are changing. I want to thank each and every one of you who participated in the X-COM project, from the scientists and engineers who built and maintained our equipment, to the heroic agents who fought and died on the ground. All of you have done your part to protect the Earth. The fight isn’t over, it’s just begun. But now that we know what we’re up against, we can aim our full focus towards destroying them. This is Commander Griffin, signing off. -Commander Griffin *End Recording* Final Thoughts X-COM Files is a pretty fascinating mod. It starts with you using low-level weaponry against low-level threats, and slowly moves you through the ranks as you get closer and closer to the military-grade black ops unit that X-COM UFO Defense resembles. Your starting vehicle is a car, your starting weapons are Glocks and Colts, and your first piece of armor is a fancy suit. This part of the mod is pretty fantastic, as you battle the four cults along with various wild beasties. Slowly grow your strength and investigate until you can fully destroy them. The decision to have each cult hiding or being supported by another was a decent one I think, a second layer or act 2 to the game. But by then the fatigue is setting in. You’ve already defeated 4 cults and there are 4 more? More than that actually. In fact, let’s count the factions. In normal X-COM you have 5 alien races which generally don’t mix on missions. In X-COM Files you have, Church of Dagon, Black Lotus, EXALT, Red Dawn, Monsters, Zombies/Vampires, Space Aliens, Aquatic Aliens, Apocalypse Aliens, Cult of Apocalypse, The Syndicate, Osiron, Reclamation of Aether, Ghosts, Cyberweb, Hybrids, and I might be forgetting a couple. Not to mention some groups consist of several smaller groups (The cult of Apocalypse consists of around 6, there are a few species of Aquatic Aliens, the Space Aliens still have 5 species) So, around the simplest I can make the list of factions it’s still 16+ entries. That is a lot of entries, a lot of enemies, and a lot of missions. I have been playing for over a year (slowed down due to LP stuff) and have only properly defeated 4 of them. I’ve also been playing for 2 in-game years, and a few months. I’m not sure on, but I believe most games of X-COM UFO Defense would end in the second year. Even with the use of Debug mode partway through the playthrough to zap missions I didn’t care for, I became increasingly exhausted with the game as it went on. My fault really for picking a mega-mod for my first LP. If I were to change one thing about this mod, I would make it so that the first 4 cults and their immediate successors were the only ones around. Maybe shuffle it so that the final enemy threat is the Alien Hybrids and they are the ones who have been pulling the strings. Just to cut down on the fatigue that the mod gives me. I do like this mod. Dealing with the various cults and monsters is interesting and has a different flow from UFO Defense that I find fascinating. The addition of the dog agents and the AI Cores that you upgrade into bigger and better robot bodies is amazing. Training agents feels rewarding and having one become a truly demonic presence on the battlefield is awesome. But the mod is just too drat big. At this point, we have unlocked about 24% of the UFOpedia entries, and defeated a mere 4 of the factions in the game. If I was to keep this LP going, it would probably be another 2 or more in game years to finish, and who knows how many years IRL. So uh... I'm done. Sorry guys. I'm a little burned out on strategy at the moment so don't expect me to come back with another strategy LP for a while. Maybe I'll cut my teeth on something simple first. As a little bonus, I’m going to take some time to talk about the various enemy factions and how their arcs shake out. I’ll put it in a separate post. For now though, I have gathered a few statistics for your enjoyment. Final Roster Handy Class Key HVY= Heavy Weapons SNP= Sniper SHT= Shotgun SMG=SMG MED= Medic HAND= Handguns GREN= Grenadier NIN= Ninja Rat Hill: This is the primary base, the one we start with and the one that rapidly runs into space issues time and time again. Dak Thornson: SMG Burnt Toast: MED Sam O’Varr: SHT Koorisch: SNP Gospode: DOG Drake Sherin: SNP Titty Baby: NIN G255: SNP Dr Hugh Manual: MED Detective Gumshoe: HAND Lynneth: GREN/MED Aces High: AI Hydra: AI Grenade Baby George Gieff Gridlocked: NIN The Second Badger Orange Sherbert: HVY Michael Dukakis: HVY AlakaBLAM: PSI Arcovic II: Plaintiff: Whisper Williams: PSI Drakenel II: DOG Crosswire: PSI Thatbastardken: Idhrendur: Dr. Gee: MED Cheese Thief: Weasel Bunker: Initially a base to battle EXALT before we had access to long-range transport, this base eventually became our dedicated underwater mission base, as well as our secondary combat base. Ivan: SNP Reasonable Achmed: HVY bios: SMG Brooklyn "Snugglecakes" Baker: Zore: SNP Kyros Valent: HVY Berryjon: BassMug: Remalle: Petra: Dog Flint: SHT Bertha P. Delacroix: Mojangles: DOG Kangaroo Cave: Research/interception base in Australia. Soldiers moved here are basically in retirement. Hound Smith: PILOT Fox Den: Research/Interception base in Japan. Soldiers moved here are basically in retirement Sunny: PILOT Sadly Never Recruited Aksi Coksi M.c.P Chaos Dragon II Arcturas: HVY Mac D. GEEK LtSmash Memorial Crazy Achmed I’ Cato Sicarius Chaos Dragon IceMole Mac Sir Richard of Bork Randalor Dire Lemming The Lone Badger Max Caliber Boris P Delacroix Tallow Agent Verbal Arthur “Rooster” Glass Wizard Williams Skulder Mully George Gief Randalor II Rocket Baby Pheno Boski Sir Nicholas Booms Arcovic The Doughnut Drakenel Velvet Wedgekree Jane Kane Nick Danger Greenking Statistics Total Number of Missions Complete: Who the gently caress knows Total Number of Enemies killed: 1733 (based off the combined kill counts of all soldiers, living and dead) Total Number of Agents Recruited: 74 Total Number of Agents Lost: 30 Longest Lasting Agent: 3 way tie between Sunny, Hound Smith, Burnt Toast, and Dak Thornson, 4/6 of our original Agents Agent with Most Kills: Tie between Sunny and Dak Thornson with 129 each. Agent with Most Missions: Dak Thornson with 112 Agent with highest Time Units: Gaspode with 110 Agent with highest Stamina: Gaspode with 143 Agent with highest HP: 3 way tie between Burnt Toast, Sam O’varr, and Dak Thornson with 82 Agent with highest Bravery: Bunt Toast with 150, Dak Thornson in second with 110 Agent with highest Reactions: Gaspode with 128, Aces high in second place with 118 Agent with highest Firing Accuracy: Aces High with 123 Ageet with highest Throwing Accuracy: Titty Baby with 78 Agent with highest Melee Accuracy: Gaspode with 153, Titty Baby in second with 97 Agent with highest Strength: 2 way tie between Sam O’varr and Dak Thornson with 67 Agent with highest Sanity: Gaspode with 243, Detective Gumshoe in second with 135 Agent with highest PSI Strength: Crosswire with 98, Grenade Baby in second with 92 Most Successful Dead Agent: Nick Danger with 100+ Missions and Kills, tie for second place between Jane Kane and The Lone Badger with 64 kills each. And finally, I'd like to thank everyone who donated an agent to the cause. You know who you are, and thanks for naming them for me. Naming characters is probably something I'm worst at glwgameplayer fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Feb 29, 2024 |
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Feb 29, 2024 02:44
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Bonus Material: Enemy Faction Overview The enemies we fought will just have little reminders of their arcs and how they shook out, the others will reveal how their plot went to the best of my knowledge from reading the Wiki. Feel free to skip if you don't want to be spoiled or whatever The Church of Dagon One of the first 4 cults we fight. The Church of Dagon is a European cult that lays sacrifices to a deep sea deity implied to be The Dagon, like from the Cthulu Mythos. As we work our way up the ranks and reveal their sinister plots, we discover that their god is actually the Terror from the Deep Aliens, using a massive gold state and Deep One language to communicate with them. By destroying it we severed their connection to their god. Also sometimes they have Jarheads in their manors. Red Dawn Another of the original 4, this is a Russian cult that has grabbed a lot of old Warsaw military equipment and decided to put it to their own cruel ends. With Bio Enhancements and skilled soldiers, they were poised to be a big threat. But their reliance on siphoning resources from existing structures meant that all it took was releasing info on them to get their leaders imprisoned or killed. Also, Red Dawn indirectly leads us to Cyberweb, since their Durathread was made by Cyberweb. And the Hybrids since a Hybrid Envoy is in their HQ Black Lotus Another OG, Black Lotus is a cult primarily focused in Asia which used a lot of esoteric and martial arts equipment like throwing stars and tonfa. Due to their ritualistic training and a hint of psionic power, this worked a hell of a lot better than it had any right to. Their devotion to the “Golden Lady” became their downfall, as we developed a method to track their psionic resonance to locate them, as well as a way to sever their connection. Also, we didn’t get to see this, but apparently, Black Lotus has a chance to uh… “Promote” if you don’t take them out soon enough. They strike a deal with Osion to mix magic and tech. Resulting in Cybernetic Black Lotus Assasins, and War Witches who utilize psychic guns. To my knowledge, no other cult can do this, but Black Lotus has a small chance of doing so once both Black Lotus and Osion are on the board long enough. One last thing, I didn’t do this in the LP since it’s basically pointless but you can examine the Avatar corpse. Apparently, one Avatar’s DNA matches the records of a known member of Black Lotus who is recorded as male. I don’t think it was supposed to be a crack at trans people but it still reads poorly to me. That said, I’m sure plenty of people would bow down to their alien overlords if it led to easy gender reassignment. EXALT The final of the OGs, EXALT is an American cult based around the most powerful force of all. Cash Money. By way of selling a psionic device which is highly addictive. We defeat them by breaking their psiclone and selling our own, much more addictive but technically safe version. Which is called out in universe as “morally ambiguous” but… oh well. Also, it’s implied EXALT was secretly working with/backrolling the Hybrids, since they show up in their Mansions sometimes. The Monster The monsters are a broad group that includes giant mammals, giant arachnids, and other even stranger creatures. Many of them were being produced by The Syndicate as artificial soldiers to be used and sold. Although a few of them are real, normal creatures. They don’t have a traditional “arc” like most enemy types, but at the end of the day once you’ve identified all of them and messed up The Syndicate all that’s left to do is pay the Council Salvagers to clean them up. Osion Osion is technically a secret 5th cult unrelated to the initial 4. They are just criminals who buy and sell illicit high-tech goods. We can’t actually defeat Osion, and it's basically because they are too slippery for us to properly destroy. This is good, because they serve as our resident loot pinatas, with loot crates full of high-end gear hidden on many of their missions, and the average goon carrying around a few thousand bucks. Also as mentioned before they have an interaction with the Black Lotus where they mix tech and magic to create the Golden Academy. In addition to the cyborg assassins and War Witches, Osion deploys Osiron Tech Troopers who are armed with laser weaponry. In addition, if you sell Tritanium Ammo to M.A.G.M.A. Osiron will get their hands on some and open up Triatnium Ammo Trade missions where you can ambush them to steal some. It’s not much of a net positive since the Council gets pissy and docks you points anyway, but getting free Tritanium ammo for certain guns would no doubt be a boon. The Deep Ones This group is found after investigating the Church of Dagon. We didn’t finish this arc, but it’s basically the plot of Terror from the Deep. There’s an underwater city where Dagon is asleep and dreaming, which casts psychic waves over the land and all that jazz. After attacking a city and interrogating an Aquatoid squad leader, we discover that they have an underwater facility producing alien supersoldiers, and after implanting a virus to destroy it, they officially retreat into the depths, never to bother us again. Well, unless you research Deep Sea Operations in which case you can now fight Lobstermen and Aquatoids for the rest of the game at random intervals. Although, on the bright side, you can also form a Sea Guard who take care of lesser sea monster attacks. Cyberweb Located by looking into the source of Red Dawn’s Durathread, Cyberweb are basically a bunch of scientists and engineers sticking their noses where they don’t belong. Crafting prototype electric and plasma weapons, building automated attack vehicles, and other dastardly schemes. We eventually discover that they created a portal relay that leads into the Alien Dimension from X-COM Apocalypse and have to chase them there to destroy the battleship they fitted with a portal creator. We didn’t finish this arc, but the final battle would basically be a slightly more difficult retread of the base assault with more goons and a slightly different map. Also despite the presence of the Apocalypse aliens they don’t have an arc. They just show up randomly and drop acid and chemical gear. One thing of note is that defeating Cyberweb allows you to make your own Cyborgs, which is called Kyberism. The base upgrade is pretty lame actually, tanking your stamina by half in exchange for a slight increase in TUs and 5 armor. But you can then make 4 more upgrades, provided you can get the info about them by interrogating Cyberweb agents. An Eye upgrade for night vision and firing accuracy, subdermal mesh for 5 more armor, Heart to restore your max stamina and stamina regen, and a hormone regulator to increase stun and morale recovery. The Syndicate We were basically at the end of the Syndicate when the game ended. We had two more missions, one to capture one of their executives, and one to assault their HQ. The executive is actually hiding a monstrous supermutant side where they have a bigass eye in the center of their head. The HQ assault is more of the same, and of course, we already know they were behind producing the monsters. Researching the supermutant is the final prerequisite for the Helix Knight transformation. This is the Human Capstone. Combat Pilot training, Martial Arts training, Bio Enhancement, and a Tactical Neural Implant combine to give one final boost of 10-5 points across the board, basically for free. It’s also worth mentioning that this can be used with any soldier who started life as a human, including Spartans, Cyborgs, and Proteans, provided they have all 4 previously mentioned transformations. After they are defeated we get our hands on one final message where the leader of The Syndicate bitches at us for beating them and gives us a new transformation, Spartanism. Spartainism completely destroys the psionic potential of a soldier in exchange for boosting every single stat across the board by 20-40 points. Cult of Apocalypse These guys are composed of a crap ton of different smaller factions which I will not be going into. But know that most of them are either hardcore anarchists or just kind of assholes. Due to how chaotic and splintered they are they don’t have much of a primary goal, but I’ll go ahead and spoil it for you. They want to make humanity stronger, or at least harder for the aliens to destroy. Part of how they’re doing this is trying to fracture humanity, part of it is through demon summoning. I’m not joking by the way, these guys are linked with the UAC from Doom. Their final mission involves defeating a freshly summoned Hell Baron and stealing a black orb that appears to be demonic in nature. From this, we learn the Infernal transformation, which sharply cuts bravery in exchange for a boost in all other stats. Reclamation of Aether These guys are currently unfinished, as are the ghosts. The furthest you can make it is tracking down a lab of theirs and taking it over. Outside of that, there’s no point other than to get some PSI/ghost-slaying weapons. Shogg/Underground Aliens These guys are actually quite interesting. There are the Giant Spiders, Ant Men, and Scorpoids all being led by the Reptoids. The insect and Arachnid folk don’t really like the Reptoids since they’re cruel masters, but can’t oppose them. So we cut a deal with a Scorpoid Chief to help him become King in exchange for their assistance in taking a Reptoid ship. One political takeover later, and we can buy Shogg weapons as well as the Scorpoids fulfilling our request to capture a ship. After visiting a Reptoid settlement, the battle is essentially over. They recognize us as a power, and although our initial reception is cold, a non-aggression pact is quickly formed and relations with Shogg are opened. Actually a pretty happy ending all things considered. Zombies/Vampires/Mummies I’m sure you see the last thing on that list and get confused. Well, buckle up. Zombies are formed when a zombie parasite enters a human. As these Zombies devour other beings they begin to regrow and reform themselves. First into larger zombies, then into infectors, and eventually into Vampires. Vampires regain their mental faculties and can now command lesser zombies. However, after interrogating a vampire queen we discover an even higher breed, mummies. Mummy abodes consist of several vampires and mummies living together and are insanely difficult missions. Interrogating a Mummy reveals a mummy civil war, and after passing a trial and proving our worth we team up with a group of mummies to take out a rebellion that killed their leader and reestablish peace with them. Can you believe this started with zombies? This also leads to a transformation where we turn an agent not into a zombie, but into a Protean. These guys lose reactions and Psi Skill in exchange for a huge boost in physical stats and immortality. They can be revived over and over from death, and although they lose some stats every time they revive these stats can be regained. Hybrids The Alien Hybrids have been putting their hands in an awful lot of places, including Red Dawn and EXALT. They’re human alien hybrids with mixed human and alien tech including rudimentary laser and plasma weapons. But as it turns out they’re being psionically forced to act they way they are, and after we steal the Hybrid Control Module from their secret base, we can recruit our own Hybrids. As you probably expect hybrids are different from humans, usually weaker physically but with greater psionic potential, and the ability to create the psi shields we saw some advanced enemies using. They can’t use most of the advanced transformations, or any which is based on physical and biological changes but they have two transformations unique to them. Sectoid Legacy combine their human and alien traits to boost their physical capabilities and PSI skill, while Helix Psion serves as their capstone which boosts most stats by 5-10 and lets them use a psychic shield to boost all armor by 15 points. The Space Aliens There’s actually not too much to talk about with them. To my knowledge you do the same endgame as in normal X-COM, just with the aliens shuffled around to make for a more X-COM Files esc experience. Meaning ranks are visible and often have very different stats and weapons from one another, and each next stage in your journey to the end requires you to capture the next highest-rank alien. glwgameplayer fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Mar 1, 2024 |
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Feb 29, 2024 02:52
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Thank you for lp it was a good read. Completely understandable that you burned out.
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Feb 29, 2024 05:37
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Thanks for the LP, it was a nice read while it lasted. My agent went pretty far and stayed alive, that's nice.
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Feb 29, 2024 05:47
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Thanks for the LP, and for letting me be two guys. This whole thing was real neat, but like everyone else I can't fault you for wrapping it up before it gets too far away from the idea of "X-(com)files". SOMEWHERE IN SPACE AND TIME Not here, not in this X-Com, where he had a cool-rear end death, but somewhere else, everything came together for George One-eff Gief, who got to finish his pilot training. And he was transferred to a long-forgotten airbase outside Yellowknife. As the hangar doors rattle open, he stares out into the slow subarctic sunrise at the runway. His runway, now patched and cleared of overgrowth. The bustle and din of his ground crew goes unnoticed, as does the wind keening in the pines, for George is miles away. His mind is already airborne, far in front of his aircraft and plotting the merge. The powerful radar at his former base has picked up traces of a vessel, higher and faster than anything the Russians ever built. It belongs to the beings who have crossed the stars to take our planet from us. Fast as it is, the target is yet slow enough for George to rise to meet it if he launches soon. In a few short minutes, he will climb into the cockpit of a great snow-white interceptor - still the finest thing we ever built, he thinks - and he will fling The Last Arrow into their teeth. And if he doesn't get shot down, maybe George can show the world, and those beyond it, what Canadians could do. But for now, the sky is clear, the wind is cold, and the sun is rising.
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Feb 29, 2024 07:33
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glwgameplayer posted:Black Lotus From what I'm getting, it's more like someone being transformed into a host for the Golden Lady, no matter the gender. Although I wouldn't say it's impossible that it is like you said, mods like these can hide some bad personal beliefs.
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Feb 29, 2024 10:27
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glwgameplayer posted:After they are defeated we get our hands on one final message where the leader of The Syndicate bitches at us for beating them and gives us a new transformation, Spartanism. Spartainism completely destroys the psionic potential of a soldier in exchange for boosting every single stat across the board by 20-40 points. If you're not planning to use a soldier as a psyker is there any downside to this? That's a hell of a boost.
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Feb 29, 2024 11:35
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The Lone Badger posted:If you're not planning to use a soldier as a psyker is there any downside to this? That's a hell of a boost. Psi Strength determines your resistance to Mind Control and Panic effects. Bringing someone with sub-50 PSI Strength into a fight with mind controllers is asking for Big Trouble. Edit: When you later unlock Hyperwave Decoders, and can detect the species piloting a UFO, it becomes easier to customize your loadout or roster to deal with that specific threat. You can safely bring PSI weak soldiers to fights against Floaters and Snakemen, for example. Neurion fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Feb 29, 2024 |
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Feb 29, 2024 14:42
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Koorisch posted:From what I'm getting, it's more like someone being transformed into a host for the Golden Lady, no matter the gender. Yeah like I said I don’t think it was meant like that. But it did make me raise my eyebrows a bit. Like, considering the amount of body modding the Aliens get up to on a daily basis, something as simple as that is probably easy as pie. I just still think it’s a bit of a bad look in this day and age. The Lone Badger posted:If you're not planning to use a soldier as a psyker is there any downside to this? That's a hell of a boost. It’s worth mentioning that the training targets Psi Skill instead of Psi Strength. So while it cripples their potential to attack psionically, I think it keeps their Psi defense the same. Don’t quote me on that, I’ve never even seen a Psionic Alien in X-COM Files other than Sectoids
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Feb 29, 2024 14:53
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glwgameplayer posted:The Space Aliens The alien threat is also significantly expanded, to the point where you have to Take out a lunar base and alien colonies before you can go to Cydonia, with a bunch of required research, etc, and Cydonia is expanded out further. Unfortunately the alien colonies when i played it had this really awful gold filter like dimension X's red filter. glwgameplayer posted:Yeah like I said I don’t think it was meant like that. But it did make me raise my eyebrows a bit. Like, considering the amount of body modding the Aliens get up to on a daily basis, something as simple as that is probably easy as pie. I just still think it’s a bit of a bad look in this day and age. It wouldn't shock me if it was a jab at trans people- there's a lot of cross-pollination with piratez which absolutely does have a willingness to go there.
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Feb 29, 2024 15:49
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If people want more X-COM Files (or just clear example how long this game is) ARavingLoon has a playlist on youtube, where from time to time they'll play a 3-6 hour session and upload it. Started over 2 years ago, it just hit episode 51, and they're roughly in the same place this LP got to. So yeah, it's a looong game.
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Feb 29, 2024 22:02
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For the record, Osiron isn't planned to be a destroyable thing because it has a very specific mechanical niche. Namely, Osiron missions give you crates that can contain pretty much anything. The intent there is that they're a backup way to get your hand on stuff you might have missed from destroyed factions.
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Mar 1, 2024 17:14
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I'm working on getting the LP archived, I'll leave the thread open a while longer in case anyone has anything they want to say or do. In the meantime, I'm working on starting my next LP which will hopefully be much, much shorter and easier. I was considering Xenonauts 2, but it isn't finished yet. UFO Afterlight was skipped in the old X-COM to UFO Afterblank LP series. But it's a long and difficult game with minimal thread interaction since all the soldiers are static. I was thinking of doing Star Renegades but it's a Roguelite so I'd need to figure out how I wanted to do that. In the end, I think I settled on Punch Club. Relatively short, nice, and easy... and a few choices for the goons to make.
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Mar 2, 2024 16:53
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Understandable decision. Thanks for introducing me to this mod, and thanks for the wild ride. Take your time, get some rest, and when next you want to share some shenanigans, we'll be here.
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Mar 2, 2024 19:20
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I feel like maybe what Files needs is a sort of pyramid structure of enemy factions you move through. Start with the four cults, once they're done take on Cyberweb, The Syndicate, and Cult of Apocalypse, then go after the Hybrid Network and, say, the Deep Ones, and then the actual alien invasion shows up. You'd narrow the scope and focus rather than constantly expanding it, in exchange for the enemies you're facing becoming more dangerous and powerful. Sprinkle others in here and there as non-essential side missions that may be worth doing for experience and sidegrades. It'd be even better if there was some way to randomize which factions served as the progression ones in a run, but I think that's outside the scope of what OXCE can do. Anyway I've also been giving Piratez a try and that sure is a wild mod. e; Also I played a bit of a regular campaign and I was utterly bamboozled by the speed which it goes by compared to these megamods lmao, like a couple missions in I was working on plasma gear and UFO navigation and poo poo Ms Adequate fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Mar 3, 2024 |
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Mar 3, 2024 02:49
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Ms Adequate posted:e; Also I played a bit of a regular campaign and I was utterly bamboozled by the speed which it goes by compared to these megamods lmao, like a couple missions in I was working on plasma gear and UFO navigation and poo poo Yeah it's wild. I saw a speedrun of vanilla X-COM (running on OXC) that was like 12 minutes or something on the hardest difficulty level. It was insane that that's possible.
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Mar 4, 2024 15:01
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The first time I won normal X-COM it was like July of year 1.
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Mar 4, 2024 15:14
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Yeah you can really see how much the mod’s scope spiraled out of control. Getting longer and longer. Also, it’s not the same kind of game, but I’ve started my next (hopefully much shorter) LP. Punch Club! Like I said it’s not the same kind of game, not sure if it will appeal to you guys or not but, hey it’s my thread. I can plug if I want. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4055646
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Mar 4, 2024 15:36
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Neurion posted:Yeah it's wild. I saw a speedrun of vanilla X-COM (running on OXC) that was like 12 minutes or something on the hardest difficulty level. It was insane that that's possible. Yeah the funny thing is they're nearly maxed out on the tech tree even in the speedrun. There's a reason TFTD expanded the tech tree a lot.
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Mar 4, 2024 17:59
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Panzeh posted:Yeah the funny thing is they're nearly maxed out on the tech tree even in the speedrun. There's a reason TFTD expanded the tech tree a lot. It’s worth mentioning, I don’t remember if I said anything about this or not but we did make it a distance through the tech tree. About 20% or so. Now, that’s lower than it could be since I wasn’t religiously doing autopsies and if I tries I probably could have more scientists. But still. Just to give you another idea at the scope of the mod.
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Mar 4, 2024 19:34
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glwgameplayer posted:It’s worth mentioning, I don’t remember if I said anything about this or not but we did make it a distance through the tech tree. About 20% or so. Yeah, even with the massive, massive amount of chaff in the tech tree, you still had a long way to go.
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Mar 4, 2024 19:35
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It's just a shame there was just so much pointless clutter to pad the research percentage. I can see it being a point in something like X-Piratez since that is like going from cavewomen into spacefarers (with silly stuff in-between, of course) but here it seems a bit... odd to add everything like that.
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Mar 4, 2024 23:09
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congrats on completing it in a way that you are happy with! X-COM speedruns fascinate me because I cannot fathom how much planning needs to go in to routing, especially for ones like TFTD where you need to capture specific high-end enemies to further the story. I know that was there in UFO Defense as well, but TFTD is so much meaner, especially if you research things in the wrong order and gently caress things up (though I don't believe you can make the game unwinnable that way? You just get locked out of certain toys). So on top of all that, then you play on the hardest difficulties and still manage to win in the same amount of time it takes me to end the first encounter of a new playthrough.
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Mar 4, 2024 23:21
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Koorisch posted:It's just a shame there was just so much pointless clutter to pad the research percentage. In X-piratez, the idea is that the amount of ridiculous chaff is meant to add a bit to the differentiation between playthroughs- you might get the stuff to beeline to power armor right away or the one to get laser weapon magazines, or whatever. The problem is, Dioxine decided that he didn't like beelining so he added techs like 'back to school' which end up basically being a check that you got all the major techs in an 'era' roughly before you can get the techs in the next one. In both my playthroughs andf the ones i've watched, these funnels create these really un-fun situations where you're trying to get a mission that generates the one thing that lets you get the thing to back-tech to get something you missed up to date before you have options again. Also, the pointless techs are supposed to ensure your brainers are giving you score at a steady rate, which is important because score also adds to your finances in a direct way. Aces High posted:congrats on completing it in a way that you are happy with! Yeah, UFOD is a beeline that is very precise and comes down to how the base defense and cydonia goes, TFTD is kind of an endurance run to get the things you need.
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Mar 5, 2024 00:10
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Panzeh posted:In X-piratez, the idea is that the amount of ridiculous chaff is meant to add a bit to the differentiation between playthroughs- you might get the stuff to beeline to power armor right away or the one to get laser weapon magazines, or whatever. The problem is, Dioxine decided that he didn't like beelining so he added techs like 'back to school' which end up basically being a check that you got all the major techs in an 'era' roughly before you can get the techs in the next one. In both my playthroughs andf the ones i've watched, these funnels create these really un-fun situations where you're trying to get a mission that generates the one thing that lets you get the thing to back-tech to get something you missed up to date before you have options again. The hunt for the goddamn stapler at the beginning of every campaign. That stapler is the first big bottleneck.
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Mar 5, 2024 00:15
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Night10194 posted:The hunt for the goddamn stapler at the beginning of every campaign. That stapler is the first big bottleneck. It seems that one has become a lot less annoying though with the Guild storehouses you can meet early on now, I remember finding one in almost every one.
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Mar 5, 2024 00:23
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I will say I do think the way the mods do tech trees are nice. The way you can clean up using interrogations and there’s stuff like the staff files and dossiers to tide you over with points even if the interrogation technically doesn’t give you anything of note. It’s part of why our score was so high month after months. I just wish they were kinder about giving you the important stuff. In this game we interrogated half a dozen alien engineers and only just now got to the good stuff.Night10194 posted:The hunt for the goddamn stapler at the beginning of every campaign. That stapler is the first big bottleneck. Lacking context I can only assume it’s some sort of small item you desperately need to advance but can only be found in certain situations. Files is better about making them guaranteed to spawn, though not always (remember when we were hunting for a higher ranking Dagon enemy and couldn’t find them?)
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Mar 5, 2024 00:49
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Night10194 posted:The hunt for the goddamn stapler at the beginning of every campaign. That stapler is the first big bottleneck. Oh, the stapler is the first obstacle for a lot of people but i bet most people end up having to back-tech Longbow Tarnian Arrows because it leads to Full Plate Armor which leads to a bunch of other stuff that you need to hit the Tech Checks, because almost no one actually thinks to use the medieval armor and weapons since you can use warrior armor and grab shotguns and stuff off of the enemies.
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Mar 5, 2024 01:40
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Panzeh posted:Oh, the stapler is the first obstacle for a lot of people but i bet most people end up having to back-tech Longbow Tarnian Arrows because it leads to Full Plate Armor which leads to a bunch of other stuff that you need to hit the Tech Checks, because almost no one actually thinks to use the medieval armor and weapons since you can use warrior armor and grab shotguns and stuff off of the enemies. I almost always use the chainmail for melee troops early because it's surprisingly chufty and has resistance to laser. But the longbow has and always will be trash and yes, the tech arrows for it are just a tech check and something you never use because a tiring, slow weapon with limited ammo that also rolls 0-100% HP damage after rolling damage to begin with is just awful.
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Mar 5, 2024 01:48
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Is stapler some kind of nickname or does that mod really require to search post apocalyptic earth for a Swingline? I barely know Xpiratez.
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Mar 5, 2024 02:00
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Quicksilver6 posted:Is stapler some kind of nickname or does that mod really require to search post apocalyptic earth for a Swingline? Yes, Guild Stapler is in fact a thing that needs to be researched for low-level crafting which is part of a bunch of tech checks.
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Mar 5, 2024 02:07
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Quicksilver6 posted:Is stapler some kind of nickname or does that mod really require to search post apocalyptic earth for a Swingline? Where the Man goes, after him goes the stapling.
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Mar 5, 2024 02:09
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Panzeh posted:Yes, Guild Stapler is in fact a thing that needs to be researched for low-level crafting which is part of a bunch of tech checks. That's hilarious. X-COM Files also has a stapler, but it's a short-range "weapon" you can use for certain undercover missions.
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Mar 5, 2024 02:21
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IMO the next tech block is the most painful because everything good is behind that one like better fighters, better ways of earning cash and so on.
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Mar 5, 2024 09:31
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Oh hey, I survived! Never amounted to anything, but it's more than I expected. Thanks for the LP!
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Mar 7, 2024 08:27
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Sad to see this go unfinished, but at least it got an official wrap-u[ instead of just fading away.
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Mar 12, 2024 02:51
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