2.5-dev play through

[ShipIt]

Call me a cry baby. I switch to laptop to play the Mission near the Phalanx HQ, Skyranger I ready to drop soldiers. I start the map, Little Forest (in the mid of this map my pc did quit) and

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2012/05/22 21:25:19 ERROR: mdx and model file differ: models/objects/vegi/bush/bush01.md2
throws me back to geoscape. Wtf, are you kidding me?

Finally I got an assembly without that model.



Someone now has to pay for all the trouble I had.

First alien hides near the landing zone. Jon_dArc and ChemBro are too far away to get into action here, so Thierry Zhang puts a 25mm HIT grenade next to the aliens feet. Thierry Zhang can do so safely, because Crystan is covering him from a save position.



There are two more of those creatures, standing next to their destroyed vehicle. ChemBro starts to wonder if the aliens actually have an insurance for all the stuff they break, but nobody else seems to care.

Next turn. Our sniper from save position.



Chance to hit is always 50/50, either you hit or you don´t. He didn´t. Allison Zhang kills the alien with Full Auto. Squad advances.

Next turn starts with a long-distance-shooting-attempt from Crystan. 49% chance to hit. I did not expect a hit, thats why I have no pic. Actually the bullet hit the alien and pushed it out of his shoes. I did not count, but I think it was about twentyfive squares. Good shot, rifleman!

Thierry Zhang was promoted to Lance-Corporal after the mission.
Crystan was promoted to Lance-Corporal after the mission.

UFO sold to Russia for 9117 credits, overall we now have 58634.

Because I have no pic from the most glorious moment of his career, I give one of the man himself :



An alien Harvester UFO is spotted northwest of Phalanx HQ. I will allow them to live. For now.

Research of Contiuous Wave Laser Operation is at 87.5%. Once it is finished, it will open up all the laser weapons for research. I usually do the Aerial Laser Cannon next, because it saves a lot of cash. But we could also do Alien Origins, UFO Theorie, EM-Rifle, Plasma Pistol, Plasma Grenade or Taman Autopsie. Any opinions on that?

[ShipIt]

The aliens are really dumb. Landing a Harvester near to Phalanx HQ is just asking for trouble. Time to kick some alien a**.

[Crystan]

...because Crystan is covering him from a save position.

Next turn starts with a long-distance-shooting-attempt from Crystan. 49% chance to hit. I did not expect a hit, thats why I have no pic. Actually the bullet hit the alien and pushed it out of his shoes. I did not count, but I think it was about twentyfive squares. Good shot, rifleman!

Hell YEAH!

Because I have no pic from the most glorious moment of his career, I give one of the man himself.

,o7

Iam also competent \o/

I usually do the Aerial Laser Cannon next.

I approve. It think its smart to get the Aerial Laser Cannon asap.

[ChemBro]

@PC problems: I have a computer shop nearby, they check, what is really wrong with your computer and last time, it was my mainboard. If you have someone like that near you...

[rodo]

Money?.. won't you be flooding on that on the next two months?
You could go for the EM rifle instead.

[ShipIt]

Money?.. won't you be flooding on that on the next two months?
You could go for the EM rifle instead.

Money : I try to expand fast in order to reach a maximum of radar coverage as fast as I can. One can never have too much money that way. 

After looking at the stats I feel like the EM-Rifle is not worth it. You cannot even step out of cover, take an aimed shot and step back. This means you will not shot that often. Also, i don´t like to exploit the AI by waiting for the aliens to rush at me. But we could do this one, too.

[ChemBro]

After looking at the stats I feel like the EM-Rifle is not worth it.

Well, I dunno, but the em-rifle is my main weapon and it takes a loooong time, until you get a better (assault) weapon. Longer than the sniper rifle alternative coil gun. Not so good with aimed shot, I guess, but you can one-shot almost every alien with the three shot burst, or how it is called. Only thing I don't get is, why it is a "heavy" weapon, if it doesn't use heavy weapon skill.

[ShipIt]

Well, I dunno, but the em-rifle is my main weapon and it takes a loooong time, until you get a better (assault) weapon. Longer than the sniper rifle alternative coil gun. Not so good with aimed shot, I guess, but you can one-shot almost every alien with the three shot burst, or how it is called. Only thing I don't get is, why it is a "heavy" weapon, if it doesn't use heavy weapon skill.

In 2.5-dev the EM-Rifle is an advanced Sniper Rifle. Very accurate, powerfull, but high TU cost and low ammo.

We needed to change it (thats a point I agree with H-Hour now), because it was kind of overpowered. You could research it very fast and early in the game, and after you had it there was no more need to use something else. Just ike the Laser Rifle was in XCOM.

[ShipIt]

Alpha Squad was ordered to secure the landed UFO for further research. Night mission, a small industrial area.



I expected an epic fight, but instead it was just a slaughter.



The bug like alien machines were killed by grenades from Julia Kuzmin and Thierry Zhang without mercy in this corner.

This Taman was somewhat smarter than his mechanic teammates. Not smart enough.  He comes under fire from Jon_dArc, who shoots twice and hits both times.



But it was not enough to kill the alien and Femke Sivertsen has to finish the job. The assault Rifle seems to be a real painmaker here and Femke Sivertsen does as well as Wonderwoman, clearly outperforming all the wannabe heros in the squad. The Riot Shotgun again seems quite inadequate.



This finished the missions. There were only four aliens in the UFO, which is now transfered to our UFO-Yard.

Killed all aliens, saved all civvies, recovered an undamaged UFO, no injuries, no losses. This should give a real boost in the relationship to nations, especially Russia.

[ShipIt]

I sold some of the plasma pistols to collect some money and built an hospital in America North. We are down to ~1500 credits after this.

Rodo and Jon_dArc switched from Riot Shotgun to Submachine Gun. "Full Auto" looks looks like a good thing to have in a weapon.

[H-Hour]

He comes under fire from Jon_dArc, who shoots twice and hits both times.

He hit twice and didn't kill the alien? This must have been the flechette shells, not saboted slugs, right? It looks a bit too distant for flechette shells, so likely only a couple of the 8 flechettes hit on each shot. A saboted slug hit ought to be enough to kill a Taman in most circumstances. If this was not the case, then I have done something wrong here.

If it was flechette shells, poor Jon_dArc. He hates them and now he's stuck with them!

[ShipIt]

In this case it was my fault. He had the Flachette Shells loaded at this point. I will have to pay more attention to this in the future. The Riot Shotgun will get another chance, using Saboted Slugs, in the future. We can´t switch back right now, as Alpha Squad is already back in action.

[rodo]

Flechette are supposedly better against armored targets IIRC, so If I go full auto against an ortonok with armor 3 squares away it should be a kill or almost a kill right?

[Jon_dArc]

After looking at the stats I feel like the EM-Rifle is not worth it. You cannot even step out of cover, take an aimed shot and step back.

That's the magic of throughwall. You sacrifice damage, but you often don't need to step out of cover—just shoot right through it!

I feel like the coilgun makes it obsolete, but as long as you have a unit with at least 31 TUs wielding it (so you can crouch and fire, or take a crouched orthostep and fire) I'd call it worthwhile.

Flechette are supposedly better against armored targets IIRC, so If I go full auto against an ortonok with armor 3 squares away it should be a kill or almost a kill right?

Hah. No, real flechettes are good against armor, but these are game flechettes—you should read them as "buckshot" (or maybe "birdshot" ). An Ortnok with any armor will take 1-5 damage per pellet, heavily weighted towards 1, meaning you need to shoot it an absolute minimum of 4 times with all pellets hitting (and most likely substantially more—up to 24 times, and remember that that's still with perfect accuracy).

~J

[rodo]

So what are they for then?, I presume they are useful in some kind of situation if not they'd not be there.