Let's Play X-Com: Enemy Within!
Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 12:28 pm
Stream is at http://www.twitch.tv/gammagooey , usually stream at 9pm EST Wednesdays.
Cpl. Billy 'Big Bollocks' Nexus, The Big-Bollocks'd coward
Cpl. Seedy Bee, The Mostly Suicidal Heavy
Rk. Titus, The Crazy Occult one
Rk. Metis, Aigis's Avenger
Cpl. 'Phantom', The Calm from Argentina, Sniper
Sq. SpyreX, The Mechanical Man, MEC Trooper
Rk. Pi, The Has-Not-Been-On-A-Mission-Yet-At-This-Time
??? Robb Stark, The Has-Not-Been-On-A-Mission-Yet-At-This-Time
Welcome... to X-com.
X-Com is a turn-based action-strategy game, wherein aliens have invaded Earth and the X-Com Project has been established in a secret meeting of Nations to pool their efforts and fight back. A squad of 4-6 men are sent out on missions to eliminate aliens, rescue VIPs, defuse bombs, or fight a new enemy, the EXALT, a transhumanist orginization that seeks to use the alien technology to gain power and evolve mankind, with the ultimate goal of world domination. To fight them covert operatives will be sent to infiltrate EXALT cells around the world, culminating in missions to retrieve the operative or hack relays to gain information on EXALT's primary base location.
Aside from the EXALT, the other major additions are a special scripted mission that happens sometime after the Alien Base Assault, and the addition of Meld, a new resource gathered in canisters on the game map that allows for either genetic modification of your soliders or the creation of MECs, Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuits with Miniguns and tactical subsystems that begin with the option between flamethrowers or EXTREME PUNCHING ABILITIES.
This is going to be very similar to Wraith's let's play he did here almost two years ago (http://forum.mafiascum.net/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=24004 - it has a lot of backstory on X-Com as well if you're interested), I'll be playing on Classic Ironman, and all of the rest of the Second Wave options and the multiple choice missions will be chosen by the viewers, as well as any squad promotions recieved at the end of a play session. (assuming we get enough volunteers I'll try to space out the people on missions so the volunteer can choose their own promotions as much as possible)
As evidenced by Wraith's previous playthrough, X-Com has surprisingly lax hiring standards- however, we do ask that you fill out this application to become our
EXAMPLE DUDE
Any factors not mentioned above will be randomly assigned, more or less (including gender, unless specified in application or your forum profile). Everyone starts as Rookies, but once you hit Squaddie you are (more or less randomly) assigned one of four classes: Assault (Up Close and Personal Workhorse), Sniper (Deadly Dead-Eyed Motherfuckers), Heavy (Inaccurate Bricks), and Support (MEDIC). If you get killed, I will not make duplicates.
I'll be posting a the story through screenshots and possibly some highlight reel videos here, and if I can set it up on my computer I'll be livestreaming some or all of the the game as well. The first 'episode' will start at 9pm EST on Wednesday and I'll post the link here once I get the specifics figured out.
Chosen Base:
Chosen Second Wave Options:
Damage Roulette: Weapons have a wider range of damage.
New Economy: Randomized council member funding.
Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, stats increase randomly.
Red Fog: Combat wounds will degrade the soldier’s mission stats.
Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot guarantees a critical hit.
The Greater Good: Psionics can only be learned from interrogating a psionic alien.
Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete. Choosing this option significantly increases the length of research and construction time.
Aiming Angles: Units receive aim bonus the closer to flanking an enemy they are.
Mind Hates Matter: Psionic soldiers can't become gene modded or vice-versa.
-----------------------
I would prefer to Not do either of Marathon or Red Fog, as the game is already going to take a fairly long time without Marathon and Red Fog looks like it only affects our troops and ignores health from armor so even a low damage hit on someone with ridiculously good armor can fuck them over for the rest of the mission. I WOULD like to do at least one or two of Not Created Equally, Hidden Potential and Training Roulette because I find it a lot more fun when the soldiers aren't functionally identical.
You may notice that a few of the options Wraith had for Second Wave aren't listed- although they've added a patch to make the Second Wave options he modded in regularly available, they're now unlocked by beating the game on Classic+Impossible and I've only done a complete playthrough on normal so far.
I'll post a few opening screenshots of the troop options and MECs/Gene Mods later tonight, and thanks to Wraith for allowing me to steal his application and the other information from his thread!
TL/DR- if you want to participate in a
Roster
Rk. O'Neil, The Obligatory nameless death
KIA, Operation Blinding Shroud (Sectoid), Cpl. Reck, The Heavy that knows Gamma from college
Sq. Zhou Wu, The Grenadiering Sniper That Doesn't Take Your Shit
KIA, Operation Purple Daze (Thin Man)Sq. Cybele, The Overly Anxious Robot Support
Sq. Eddard Stark, The Watcher on The Walls, Assault
KIA, Operation Purple Daze (Thin Man)Sq. RC, The Trigger-Happy Texan, Support
Rk. Action Jackson, The Guy Who Really Wants Reck's Rocket Launcher
KIA (Floater)Rk. Cheery Dog, The Guy with Canine Tendencies
Sq. Caled, The Eager Support Soldier
KIA, (Thin Man)Cpl. Billy 'Big Bollocks' Nexus, The Big-Bollocks'd coward
Rk. Dan Morph, Died Holding what he loved
KIA (Thin Man)Rk. Aigis, Whose Robotic Tendencies never came to be
KIA (Thin Man)Rk. Qiao Lixiang, Short-lived Predictor of Ani's demise
KIA (Thin Man)Cpl. Seedy Bee, The Mostly Suicidal Heavy
Sq. Silver Dirttrip, The Hair-based Secret Weapon, Sniper
KIA (Sectoid)Rk. Titus, The Crazy Occult one
Rk. Metis, Aigis's Avenger
Cpl. 'Phantom', The Calm from Argentina, Sniper
Sq. SpyreX, The Mechanical Man, MEC Trooper
Rk. Pi, The Has-Not-Been-On-A-Mission-Yet-At-This-Time
??? Robb Stark, The Has-Not-Been-On-A-Mission-Yet-At-This-Time
Spoiler: old streams
Welcome... to X-com.
X-Com is a turn-based action-strategy game, wherein aliens have invaded Earth and the X-Com Project has been established in a secret meeting of Nations to pool their efforts and fight back. A squad of 4-6 men are sent out on missions to eliminate aliens, rescue VIPs, defuse bombs, or fight a new enemy, the EXALT, a transhumanist orginization that seeks to use the alien technology to gain power and evolve mankind, with the ultimate goal of world domination. To fight them covert operatives will be sent to infiltrate EXALT cells around the world, culminating in missions to retrieve the operative or hack relays to gain information on EXALT's primary base location.
Aside from the EXALT, the other major additions are a special scripted mission that happens sometime after the Alien Base Assault, and the addition of Meld, a new resource gathered in canisters on the game map that allows for either genetic modification of your soliders or the creation of MECs, Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuits with Miniguns and tactical subsystems that begin with the option between flamethrowers or EXTREME PUNCHING ABILITIES.
This is going to be very similar to Wraith's let's play he did here almost two years ago (http://forum.mafiascum.net/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=24004 - it has a lot of backstory on X-Com as well if you're interested), I'll be playing on Classic Ironman, and all of the rest of the Second Wave options and the multiple choice missions will be chosen by the viewers, as well as any squad promotions recieved at the end of a play session. (assuming we get enough volunteers I'll try to space out the people on missions so the volunteer can choose their own promotions as much as possible)
As evidenced by Wraith's previous playthrough, X-Com has surprisingly lax hiring standards- however, we do ask that you fill out this application to become our
cannon fodder
soldiers.EXAMPLE DUDE
Any factors not mentioned above will be randomly assigned, more or less (including gender, unless specified in application or your forum profile). Everyone starts as Rookies, but once you hit Squaddie you are (more or less randomly) assigned one of four classes: Assault (Up Close and Personal Workhorse), Sniper (Deadly Dead-Eyed Motherfuckers), Heavy (Inaccurate Bricks), and Support (MEDIC). If you get killed, I will not make duplicates.
I'll be posting a the story through screenshots and possibly some highlight reel videos here, and if I can set it up on my computer I'll be livestreaming some or all of the the game as well. The first 'episode' will start at 9pm EST on Wednesday and I'll post the link here once I get the specifics figured out.
Chosen Base:
Chosen Second Wave Options:
Second Wave Options Descriptions
Damage Roulette: Weapons have a wider range of damage.
New Economy: Randomized council member funding.
Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats.
Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, stats increase randomly.
Training Roulette: Each soldier's training tree will be mostly randomly generated. Does not apply to MEC Troopers.
After a Soldier receives a Class and their first ability, additional ranks can grant randomized abilities from a pool of the all the Class abilities sets minus any skills that are dependent on a specific weapons (which are still Class locked). So you could have an Assault with Sprinter or a Heavy with Deep Pockets.
After a Soldier receives a Class and their first ability, additional ranks can grant randomized abilities from a pool of the all the Class abilities sets minus any skills that are dependent on a specific weapons (which are still Class locked). So you could have an Assault with Sprinter or a Heavy with Deep Pockets.
Red Fog: Combat wounds will degrade the soldier’s mission stats.
Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot guarantees a critical hit.
The Greater Good: Psionics can only be learned from interrogating a psionic alien.
Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete. Choosing this option significantly increases the length of research and construction time.
Aiming Angles: Units receive aim bonus the closer to flanking an enemy they are.
Mind Hates Matter: Psionic soldiers can't become gene modded or vice-versa.
Save Scum: Loading a saved game will reset the random number seed, so taking an identical action may yield different results.
doesn't do anything on ironman-----------------------
I would prefer to Not do either of Marathon or Red Fog, as the game is already going to take a fairly long time without Marathon and Red Fog looks like it only affects our troops and ignores health from armor so even a low damage hit on someone with ridiculously good armor can fuck them over for the rest of the mission. I WOULD like to do at least one or two of Not Created Equally, Hidden Potential and Training Roulette because I find it a lot more fun when the soldiers aren't functionally identical.
You may notice that a few of the options Wraith had for Second Wave aren't listed- although they've added a patch to make the Second Wave options he modded in regularly available, they're now unlocked by beating the game on Classic+Impossible and I've only done a complete playthrough on normal so far.
I'll post a few opening screenshots of the troop options and MECs/Gene Mods later tonight, and thanks to Wraith for allowing me to steal his application and the other information from his thread!
TL/DR- if you want to participate in a
potentially
probably suicidal mission to save the world, fill in the application and vote on any of the Second Wave options that you want! The first mission starts 9pm EST Wednesday if you want to watch or be in at the start but we'll still be needing PLENTY of new recruits after that.