Help me enjoy X-Com

I took one for the team!

wordsmythe wrote:

I'm pretty sure you're still are out there, with the rest of the alien corpses.

tsk tsk

Quoting a wordy error for posterity.

use the xcomutil cheat to vet psi strength at the hiring stage. the name all hires after Goodjers.

Sure it's "cheating" but at that difficulty I'm sure the Goodjer casualties will rack up.

Also, cloning has been developed, so every time I die a new iterative version will pop in. it'll be interesting to see Prozac 37 kill Quintin 79

Alright guys. Next game, when I get around to starting it, is going to be genius difficulty. This is a huge step up from beginner. And this time there is no possibility of the difficulty bug. On beginner pretty much every alien will die after 1 or two hits. But at Genius level some aliens can take 4 hits or more!

Consequently my hiring criteria will have to be very strict. 30 Bravery or less gets the sack. And anyone who can't muster a psi strength better than 75 will get the sack too. That will greatly lower the pool of candidates we will be able to draw from. That begs the question, what to do with the rejects? The hopeless will simply be fired. But the psi-blunts will still be decent soldiers.

There are two ways I can play this out:

1. Ignore psi strength again and name every soldier after a goodjer at the soonest opportunity. Just like last time.
2. Vet all rookies to weed out the psi-weak. Then send the rejects into combat under the "supervision" of goodjer troops as expendable fodder.

The first choice will play out like last time. Only the chances of us all dying horribly will be greatly increased. The second choice will involve less of us at once, but would let me play a bit less conservatively.

Any preference?

Tamren wrote:

Any preference?

Goodjer redshirts. Standard naming for the studs.

I will volunteer once more to defend against the alien threat. Maybe not a Tanker this time though, didn't get too much action, although it helped me survive.

I think the only thing I accomplished as field doctor was getting a smaller weapon. Next go round throw me in for Sniper duty or a Heavy.

I volunteer because, rather than dying first, all the Black people in Sci-Fi movies now die to show everyone how goddamn serious the situation is, and I can handle that.

I'll volunteer again - every squad needs a sarcastic Brit.

I'll volunteer again. Having survived the assault on Cydonia last time, I'll be dead before I get off the ramp on the first mission this time. Still a medic, it's just in my blood.

Count me in. Again, as a heavy if possible.

Ooh I'm in again, I enjoyed the last ones! Assault please, I wanna kick down doors

I'm in again. Assault or medic again is fine with me.

Always up for a little quick death! I prefer the type of character that stabs Q-Stone in the back, whichever one that is.

Ranger Rick wrote:

Always up for a little quick death! I prefer the type of character that stabs Q-Stone in the back, whichever one that is.

That one is whatever Prozac is.

Oh sh*t, Pred died! Now I know this is goddamn serious.

Throw me in again -- maybe I'll make it all the way this time.

Sign me up please. I'm salty. I'm ready to eat my own guts and ask for seconds.

I'd like to be Rat Boy's assistant, please.

Put me in again, coach! I'll take Assault this time - hopefully I'll make it past the first couple of kicked in doors

MoonDragon wrote:

I'd like to be Rat Boy's assistant, please.

Guess that means I'm volunteering again.

In for the money, out when the heavy plasma bolt gets me in the face.

Sign me up. Sheep make damn good soldiers. You know, I've never played this game, but I did download it, so is that some sort of heresy?

I'd love to get in this run, could I just ask for a dramatic death scene where I die in Prozac's arms, and finally reveal that I am the father of his sister's baby?

If by in my arms you mean with my hands wrapped around your neck

Prozac wrote:

If by in my arms you mean with my hands wrapped around your neck ;)

You know what I mean Prozac.

Reporting for duty, man!

I'll drive the tank again. On genius those things are death traps, but hey.. they're my death traps.

I don't have the time to dive into another game. But I did load up the game and did the first mission to check and see if everything was working. All of the changes are pretty much good to go. The one exception is that the automatic psi-screening doesn't seem to work. I think what is going to happen is that I will eventually be able to see the psi strength of all the soldiers once I get psi labs up and running. But BEFORE running everyone through the psi lab for a month.

Amusingly enough the first mission went off without a hitch. But just to check if the psi stuff really wasn't working I did it over again. Disaster! First three soldiers off the craft? Headshotted. The only enemy alien was standing inside a shed plinking shots out of a window about 20 feet to the side of the ramp. They didn't stand a chance. Welcome to genius difficulty!

As well the screening process is much more vigorous this time around. Soldiers with 30 bravery or less get canned. Out of 18 soldiers all but 6 didn't make the bravery cut. And of them a total of 5 soldiers had a bravery of 10. But even useless soldiers are costly at $40k each. So I can't just fire them all. They will just be considered disposable.

Should I name these mook redshirts? Or just have them led into battle by goodjers?

Tamren wrote:

Should I name these mook redshirts? Or just have them led into battle by goodjers?

I think redshirt is a great name for those cannon fodder.