| #1 Psyonic_Reaver[166329] |
| bbb72-0-175-177.bendbroadband.com |
I GOT BLONDE HAIR! AND A PONYTAIL! That IS me right?
Great stuff. I was wondering when the next one of these were going to make an appearance. |
| #2 Krael[166330] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
| Yes, that would be you. If you were facing the other way you'd also be able to see your fine pair of boobies. |
| #3 Neoviper[166331] |
| 66-214-88-52.dhcp.malb.ca.charter.com |
aw, my guy didnt get to fight this time. ah well, I suppose there will be numerous opportunities for him to die later on.
quite good, look forward to the next one. |
| #4 nodikus[166332] |
| S01060013109a57d8.lb.shawcable.net |
So long as my character dosn't get blown up in a tragic gas station explosion I'm happy. You might want to consider investing in a HWP or two.
Like the format and am looking forward to more. |
| #5 Psyonic_Reaver[166333] |
| bbb72-0-175-177.bendbroadband.com |
| I have boobies? *Looks down* |
| #6 Krael[166334] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
| I'm going to go through 3-4 battles like this, so most characters will show up twice. |
| #7 VI[Per][166335] |
| 90.184.117.90 |
Yay! I'm slightly usefull! :D
Feeling somewhat exposed out there in the middle of the road though.
Just get me through that mission, and I'll be happy. If I get to shoot at something, even better. Who knows, I might just hit!
I like the idea about updating the report 'live' when you have the time, rather than wait for a whole report to finish.
Keep up the good work! |
| #8 Nodikus[166336] |
| S01060013109a57d8.lb.shawcable.net |
Nice cliffhanger.
That mouseover minimap is really helpful in telling whats going on. |
| #9 TerranMenace[166337] |
| adsl-76-212-196-94.dsl.sndg02.sbcglobal.net |
| Hah, funny, I dont play terran btw I used to play toss and have recently switched to zerg. I got my name from along time ago when I used to be very good at Protoss vs Terran. Good work so far tho. |
| #10 Greth[166338] |
| proxy2.kdg.be |
Funny how I am a sniping bad-ass ... Just like in real life!
I'm sure my dude will become fairly important! RIGHT!?? |
| #11 VI[Per][166339] |
| 90.184.117.90 |
I survived!
And I killed something!
|
| #12 Krael[166340] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
| Sign up! More volunteers please! |
| #13 Vi[Per][166341] |
| main.pihl-as.dk |
Looks like I'll get a well deserved rest this fight.
Are there any chance of a list of current X-com soldiers?
Possibly even with rank, number of missions, and kills.
There could also be a Hall of Fame, where the deceased can be honored!
In any case, keep up the good work! I like the idea with the mouseover pics. Helps alot in keeping track of everything!
|
| #14 Krael[166342] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
| Sure, as soon as this mission is over I'll post up the current roster. That's an interesting idea about the dead soldiers, maybe at the end of the report I'll put up an X-COM Graveyard of sorts, listing the dead's accomplishments. |
| #15 Beater[166343] |
| x1-6-00-11-6b-26-ce-dd.k272.webspeed.dk |
Alright! I have now gone from being a liability to just being useless. Hurray!
Keep em coming Krael |
| #16 Neoviper[166344] |
| 66-214-88-52.dhcp.malb.ca.charter.com |
| Heh, it would be interesting. was kind of fun in nethack reading what you killed and how you died. Just hope I dont end up on that list :) |
| #17 Krael[166345] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
If anybody's interested, here's a screen capture of my desktop taken as I'm working on the report.
http://www.battlereports.com/users/Krael/xcombr3/meworking.jpg
Yes, that is the venerable 10+ year old Paint Shop Pro 3 that I'm using. Don't laugh, it's free. |
| #18 StuporMan[166346] |
| chsrvzix.cardinalhill.org |
Excellent report so far. "Live" reporting is very difficult to do well, but when it is it is very entertaining. Thanks for the good report so far!
A couple of "strategery" notes:
1. Don't bother buying heavy plasma, you will recover tons of the stuff as you do missions.
2. When using heavy plasma, try and remove the clips from your rifles on the last turn of the mission. This clip will refill itself instead of losing the clip altogether (you lose the whole clip if you fire even one shot unless you remove the clip from the weapon). This is also useful to do with alien weapons confiscated on the field.
3. If you are worried about running out of ammo (should only happen over the short term) equip each person with a plasma rifle and a laser pistol.
4. Start carrying grenades. Even the worst soldier can throw a grenade close enough to kill an alien in most circumstances. That and a primed grenade with an instant timer is useful to carry around when facing certain foes *cough*Cryssalid*cough*
|
| #19 Krael[166347] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
I wasn't aware of the heavy plasma clip issue, thanks for the tip StuporMAn.
Most of the soldiers do carry grenades in their belts, I just tend to not use'em very often. I may start utilizing them more for the guys that have terrible accuracy. |
| #20 nodikus[166348] |
| 142.66.58.20 |
Yes, Heavy plasmas are great just make sure that you have some Laser weapons if you get an Etherial Terror mission. You'll see why if you try to use only plasma.
For farm houses you suspect being occupied, I suggest shooting out a second floor wall section and chucking a couple of grenades up there to flush em out. |
| #21 Krael[166349] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
| That's a good idea. From here on in I'll have to go into these kinds of missions with specified grenade chuckers w/ laser pistols. Are Alien Grenades enough of an improvement over regular grenades to spend the time researching them? |
| #22 nodikus[166350] |
| 142.66.58.20 |
| I think so, if there is nothing more immediate you need. At least put a portion of your scientists on the grenades. |
| #23 Psyonic_Reaver[166351] |
| bbb72-0-175-177.bendbroadband.com |
| I'm one of the best men you got! Don't let me die! |
| #24 TerranMenace[166352] |
| 76.251.69.6 |
| Your only saying that cuz u got boobies. :P |
| #25 Psyonic_Reaver[166353] |
| bbb72-0-175-177.bendbroadband.com |
| Hmm. Manboobs. |
| #26 Neoviper[166354] |
| 66-214-88-52.dhcp.malb.ca.charter.com |
| Yay, next section is released and I'm not dead yet! |
| #27 mattzarella[166356] |
| c-68-42-51-228.hsd1.fl.comcast.net |
I would go ahead and rate this, but I guess it's not done! looking forward to more. a few things to mention:
- have you set an end to the live reporting report? I'm not terribly familiar with the game, but it doesn't look like something you can "win" per se, at least not in your immediate time frame. I don't really mind that, but we can't rate it until it's done being updated.
- formatting, formatting, formatting. your HTML skills are not bad, but there are some nitpicky things that I always remind reporters of. one of those problems that always seems to crop up somewhere is image padding. it's not really an issue until you get into the parts where you're describing a specific mission... you have more pictures, they're smaller, and the action picks up so you inevitably have more text. i suggest two things: give yourself a wider body in which to write the report, and pad your images another 5 or so pixels. a wider report body will let you have those tiny pictures right next to each other without overlapping and breaking up the text. you can see what I mean right after your first mission begins.
"He spots another Floater trying to be sneaky
by a house, but Des will have"
that line is broken up by your images, and it looks fairly sloppy. but that's a really nitpicky issue and otherwise your HTML is simple and clean.
I guess once you're done I'll add more to that. |
| #28 Specter1[166357] |
| 142.66.58.59 |
Really interesting report, I'd like to sign up if only as a meatshield.
|
| #29 Psyonic_Reaver[166358] |
| bbb72-0-175-177.bendbroadband.com |
| Hey Kreal. How do you get this game to run on your computer? Ever since I installed Vista (Probably something you ALL will point out) I try to run the game in Windows 98 mode but it still doesn't work. Think it could be a graphic card problem? |
| #30 Krael[166359] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
I also use Vista, and here's how I run it. Go to http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/38, scroll down and get the dos version of the game. Next get the windows version of DOSBox at http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1.
Extract it into whatever folder, say c:xcom, then start up DOSBox and at the prompt type 'mount c c:xcom' press enter and then type 'c:' press enter again and then type 'ufocd'.
That should do it! Also, you may want to bring the CPU Cycles up in DOSBox, you can do that by pressing Ctrl+F12. I usually bring them up to ~10,000 for this game, and if the game ever locks up on you just hit ctrl+F12 again and that should unlock it(usually happens on the research screen).
mattz, thanks for the feedback. I didn't really like the way the images and the text ended up looking either, especially in that first turn of the first mission. I tried to avoid doing that later in the report as much as I could. There's no quick fix for this report, because if I change the body width now it'd fux everything else up, and if I make the pictures smaller des won't like it. I may end up doing something completely different in the next report, image-wise, and maybe I'll experiment with it a bit in this report. As for how long this report is going to go... one or two more missions, depending on the length of them. I have to work Saturday and Sunday, but have Friday and Monday off so I'll probably update a bunch of times over the next 4 days. Probably be done next week sometime.
And Specter1 has been recruited into the ranks of X-COM, as a meatshield. You saw him write it! |
| #31 Krael[166360] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
| hm, looks like backslashes don't show up... let me try again c: |
| #32 Krael[166361] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
| nope |
| #33 Neoviper[166362] |
| 66-214-88-52.dhcp.malb.ca.charter.com |
Yeah, I tried to install this game, but my computer wouldn't run it without locking up. and then it didn't shut down anymore, so had to do a system restore.
also, MVP ftw!! |
| #34 StuporMan[166363] |
| chsrvzix.cardinalhill.org |
Yay! I am in the super secret spook army now! I shoulda mentioned you could have used my name for a soldier in my last comment, I am glad you did anyway.
To give you a bit more info, larges can be one of three types IIRC. One is a terror ship, but more likely you ran into either a supply ship or a harvester. Neither of the latter contains any terror units like reapers. They will contain quite a few aliens though. Owing to the fact you had an intercepter swatted, I am guessing the harvester is the one you shot down.
Also, now that you are seeing large enemies, you are going to want plasma cannons ASAP. There are a few others with specialty purposes, but plasma cannons are the best all around ship weapon. They outrange everything but a very large, and frankly, at this point you don't want to fight a very large.
Well, here's hoping my (hopefully) drunken avatar can survive his first alien encounter or at least take a few with him. |
| #35 Nodikus[166364] |
| S01060013109a57d8.lb.shawcable.net |
| From the shape it looks like a Terror ship. Watch out for cyberdisks in broom closets on the 2nd floor. |
| #36 Psyonic_Reaver[166365] |
| bbb72-0-175-177.bendbroadband.com |
| Or men with boobs. Watch out for them too. |
| #37 Krael[166366] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
I think this report is officially beginning to become "bloated". The folder I keep it in now weighs in at just over 11 megs, which I feel to be a bit large. With the end of March (in the game) shall come the end of the report.
Psy, did you get X-COM working w/ DOSBox? |
| #38 VI[Per][166372] |
| 90.184.117.90 |
You'll still continue the reports, right?
I find myself frequently checking for updates..
Looks like quite a cliffhanger you've left us in there!
I'm quite attached to my life.. please don't get me killed! |
#39  [166373] |
| dblt-67-158-145-114.gtcom.net |
| Well, I haven't had time to read these things yet, but I promise you that I will give it five tens if you make me a character and let me plug psy between the eyes. After he's dead you can feed me to the aliens for all I care. I'm contractually obligated to make psy's life as hellish as possible. ;)~ |
| #40 Psyonic_Reaver[166376] |
| bbb72-0-175-177.bendbroadband.com |
| I hate you. And I haven't tried yet Krael. I'll let you know when I do. |
| #41 Psyonic_Reaver[166377] |
| bbb72-0-175-177.bendbroadband.com |
So I've mounted the c drive but dosbox doesn't recognize ufocd
Also, don't I need to install the game too or no? |
| #42 wakiki[166381] |
| 24-178-187-195.dhcp.leds.al.charter.com |
I'd like to sign up!
A few tips:
1. Always bring a Heavy Weapons Platform Rocket Launcher to your missions. I normally assume that you do this, but you don't mention them...
2. Use the HWP to scout (they have loads of TUs) and to blow apart barns. Don't kill alients with it (those should be killed by your soldiers for experience)
3. Bring along a rocketeer in every mission. He can blow up barns, farmhouses, and aliens.
4. IMO, entering buildings is suicide. Just blow 'em up! It's way too dangerous the other way.
5. I even do this in Terror missions. If I see a Civilian near a building, I won't shoot it, but I will blow up any buildings that are in my way where I don't see Civvies. Sometimes I'll kill a Civvie that's on the other side of a wall, but eh, what the hell. It's generally worth it 'cause you're so much safer.
6. Incendiary weapons rule night missions! Soldiers with high accuracy, bravery, and strength are great with Autocannons. I always bring one or two along each mission - always two for night missions. Ever lit up an orchard with an incendiary blast? They also rip through those wheat fields like no tomorrow, giving you vision of the aliens, and even burning them to death. Incendiary rockets are great too, but generally not necessary. They have an explosion about twice as big as an autocannon though, so these things are just plain fun.
7. Some glitches that you should know about though: Aliens and Soldiers that are on fire receive burn damage every turn, but there is a glitch that causes them to receive that same amount of damage every time you fire an incendiary weapon! So in other words, there could be an alient burning in an orchard on one side of the map, and you could sit there firing incendiary rounds into the side of your Skyranger, and the alien will take damage. Be warned though -- so will your burning soldiers!
8. Another similar glitch: solders and aliens standing in smoke take stun damage every turn. Every time you fire an incendiary round, your soldiers will take the amount of stun damage equal to one turn, so they could start dropping unconcious if you aren't careful. This isn't a problem normally, but one time I was goofing off and firing incdendiary weapons with all of my soldiers while standing in my smoke grenade screen and all my soldiers started dropping like flies!
9. This gave me the idea of throwing a smoke grenade into a Sectoid UFO, and then blasting the side of it with incendiaries to stun all of the aliens inside for research. Alas! The glitch only applies to soldiers in this case :(
10. Autocannons are incredibly versatile -- high explosive rounds are just extremely powerful. Often you will miss an alien but hit a structure nearby and kill it. They do require alot of strength for the autocannon + 3 types of ammo though. And all of your soldiers will probably be carrying Medikits around, too. If you have high strength though, it won't be a problem.
11. Those purple blobs that make the "kissshhh" sound are rockets that stun your soldiers. It's bad, cause they often incapacitate three soldiers at a time if they are standing to close. But it's not so bad, cause the stun doesn't kill them. They will wake up eventually, and if not, they will be fine once you win the mission. (If you lose the mission or evacuate without bringing their bodies back though, you're screwed of course.) I prefer to be on the receiving end of these than Alien Grenades, that's for sure!
Boy, these got longer and longer didn't they? I'm typing this in a hurry so apologies for any typos that I made =) |
| #43 wakiki[166382] |
| 24-178-187-195.dhcp.leds.al.charter.com |
Of course, some of those tips just involve playstyle. I like to blow apart the entire map with rockets. :)
Another note about HE: if you hit a Reaper with one, it will receive damage for every square that the explosion hits. So a direct hit will deal 4x the damage, which will almost always drop them in one hit. This frees up all those soldiers who were taking them down seven lasers at a time.
Another random tip: how many live Reapers do you have in your containment? Quite a few, I bet; I saw you had some live aliens captured at the end of those terror missions. These will have to all be researched individually to free that space. Annoying, eh? And to add insult to the injury, you don't get points for live Reapers! Also, in theory, they could get back up again and come kill you. I've never seen this happen though.
Each time you down a Reaper, pay close attention to whether or not it makes its death sound or falls silently. If it doesn't scream, you need to drop a grenade or HE-autocannon round to dispose of it. |
| #44 Dialtone_[166386] |
| 194.219.21.133 |
| Fantastic work and the most originals series in a while. Go ahead and move on to the next part so i can rate this a 9. |
| #45 Eumenides[166389] |
| yale128036077129.student.yale.edu |
| Just got back from vacation and I'm still not dead yet. Keep up the good work xD. |
| #46 Krael[166392] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
| 10 new soldiers need names. maareek and wakiki are in, leaving us with 8 spots open. Sign up! Have a digital version of yourself see the world and fight the alien menace! |
| #47 Katakilla[166393] |
| 142.66.58.25 |
| I'll sign up. Could I be a heavy weapons guy? |
| #48 Krael[166394] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
| Katakilla's been added. I'll put you down for a character with high strength. |
| #49 Razoriel[166395] |
| 124-170-207-203.dyn.iinet.net.au |
Couldn't really see, since the pics I was in were small and unimportant (hooray for being useless!) but I've got a female avatar, right? For some reason I knew that would happen... lol.
But anyway, I quite liked this report, asides from the fact I didn't do anything - hopefully that'll be corrected in the next report :D. Can't really think of how you can improve, except maybe try and have it so that sentences aren't broken up by pics. May be a bit difficult to do, but that's the only improvement I could think of - other than that, good work! |
| #50 Psyonic_Reaver[166396] |
| bbb72-0-175-177.bendbroadband.com |
| Comment #50 is all MINE! Go PsyBoobs! |
| #51 Beater[166397] |
| x1-6-00-11-6b-26-ce-dd.k272.webspeed.dk |
Area 51 comment!
Good report. And I say that because of the report and not because I'M A FUCKING BADASS, just so you know. |
| #52 Razoriel[166398] |
| 124-170-98-1.dyn.iinet.net.au |
| Yeah, taking 3 plasma blasts or so to the chest and not flinching wouldn't affect your opinion at all :D. |
| #53 Greth[166399] |
| 150.20-244-81.adsl-dyn.isp.belgacom.be |
I vote a Greth sniper mission spin-off!
Great report btw ... I need to get my hands on this game... |
| #54 Psyonic_Reaver[166400] |
| bbb72-0-175-177.bendbroadband.com |
| Krael explains how to obtain it above! Read the posts! |
| #55 Beater[166401] |
| x1-6-00-11-6b-26-ce-dd.k272.webspeed.dk |
| The head stones are priceless. I almost wish for somebody to be killed in a hilarious fascion, just to see the head stone. |
| #56 Dialtone_[166402] |
| 87.203.206.87 |
10. Huge effort and great work. I was torn between 10 and 9, but it really doesn't matter and makes little difference. Clearly one of the best reports in a long time, good work.
Now, XCom apocalypse please! |
| #57 Krael[166403] |
| 192.28.2.44 |
| Holy cow, a 10. I'll do my best to keep improving these. I'm still pondering the next report, but my tentative plan for it is to keep the "live" format, but instead of going turn-by-turn I'll do one mission per update. I don't know when the next report will be started, but it could be a while as my free time is limited atm. |
| #58 Razoriel[166404] |
| 124-170-157-75.dyn.iinet.net.au |
You definitely deserve the 10 :D. I support your decision to do a live mission by mission update, though, rather than turn by turn, since when you think about it, a turn isn't all that much. Looking forward to the next report!
P.S. Perhaps you could do an Apocalypse report after this, or at the same time, even, if you get the time. |
| #59 mattzarella[166412] |
| c-68-42-51-228.hsd1.fl.comcast.net |
This was an awfully entertaining read. For whatever reason, even though I've never actually played the game, it was very easy to follow. You wrote at a good pace and kept it lively throughout, even if the turns were boring and without any real action.
So, other than the things I nitpicked (verb?) about in my earlier comment, not a lot changed since you updated and finished the report. Some other stuff I've thought of since then:
- I don't know how much the live reporting style really lends to this report or the game in general. I guess I just don't check back frequently enough for the suspense of not knowing how the mission will end to set in. I don't think I care either way and I just felt like writing something here to fill space.
- good choice on not letting me die. Although I assure you, in real life I am VERY accurate. So say the ladies. And men. And my toilet.
- just a question about the game... is there an increase in difficulty as you go along, or a set difficulty before you start, or are the alien encounters pretty much random? Are the faster UFOs generally harder missions, since you can't catch them until you have more advanced UFO-nets? (I like to pretend that instead of shooting them down, you have big nets that stop them.)
Anyway, for next time, fix those minor things that I mentioned earlier. I really enjoyed it.
9 |
| #60 Krael[166424] |
| 97-90-224-237.dhcp.eucl.wi.charter.com |
The alien encounters generally get more difficult as time goes on. Sectoids are the easiest, then floaters, then snakemen, then Mutons (which I've never actually encountered). I believe that the faster UFOs are generally more difficult, if only because the bigger they are, the faster they are, and more difficult to get through when you finally bring them down.
I should note that we've been pretty lucky so far. 4 losses in 3 months seems pretty low to me, but I really wouldn't expect this to hold up for much longer. |
| #61 BeRzErKeR[166525] |
| adsl-68-251-144-153.dsl.bltnin.ameritech.net |
Yay! I survived!
I even did something useful. . . marginally. . . once.
Well, we can't all be superstars. |
| #62 Dialtone_[166530] |
| 194.219.21.133 |
I always knew I'm a survivor! I think this being (roughly) two billion pages long is stopping people from rating since they'd have to read it first. I was always an xcom-apocalypse fan, the improvements between the old games and apocalypse where huge and made for a much more fun experience.
And matt, they're actually rocket propelled massive butterfly catchers. The very best in anti-ufo tech. I only just now noticed the mouseover on the bases to show the structure, nice touch. |
| #63 EldritchEvil[166605] |
| 74-129-3-13.dhcp.insightbb.com |
*wizened old man claps Krael on the shoulder*
you did good kid... you did good |
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