In Progress Let's Play: The X-COM Files 0.8.7 Alpha!

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

The X-COM Files

“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”
― H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

“Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”
― H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds



Extraterrestrials are real... or so it seems. What do they want is as mysterious as their existence. They hide in shadows, abduct people, behind masks and cloaks, human proxies and puppets. Perhaps they came for peace. Most doubt it. Perhaps vast shadow conspiracies work together against mankind, and no one knows who they are. They can be anyone, they can be anywhere, terror can happen anytime. All nations of the world are vulnerable to possible attack.

Together, they formed X-COM: Global Investigation Bureau to fight uncover this possible threat. X-COM is under-funded, under-appreciated and overwhelmed. Yet, The Bureau marches on - for we are the only ones able to investigate the mystery We shall clothe ourselves in a shroud of darkness to hide from the unknowing world and become the shadows. Through darkness we will bring light and save humanity from the invader.

We are X-COM. We protect humanity while staying in the shadows, and bring truth to light. One day, all falsehoods will fall, and the world shall wake.



What is this: The X-COM Files is a Open X-COM mod. Made by Solarius Scorch, built upon the mechanical improvements of the Open X-COM Extended and the fantastic community mod effort of the Final Mod Pack, not to mention the cumulative efforts of a lot of X-COM modders. The X-COM Files expands the game back, going years before the alien invasion, showing the roots of X-COM and its origins as investigative agents. Before X-COM became the worldwide alien-fighting organization we know, they were but a small and disbelieved investigation group for the United Nations, seeking evidence to prompt action by the World's Leaders. They investigate the weird, the strange and the impossible, seeking answers to the strange phenoms going on in the world:

- Are we alone in the universe?
- Who are they?
- What do they want?
- What are they doing?
- Can we defeat them?

Investigate strange events!
Elucidate mysteries!
Uncover the Veil that hid the real world from you!
Discover mysteries!
Fight some conspiracies!
Purge horrors untold!
Unmask sinister cults!
Interrogate suspects for their info!
Dissect things that are not of this world!
Kill traitors to humanity!
Research alien technology!
Awake the sleeping world!
Strategize your investigation and war against aliens!

Can a few underfunded, badly-armed agents uncover the great mysteries, discover the truth and save the world from a incoming alien invasion by superior alien intelligences?

The Truth is out there...



LP Index:

December 1996:
Intro. The X-COM Files. Right here.
Episode I. Introduction to the X-COM Files.

January 1997:
Episode II. Homicidal Maniac
Episode III. Chupacabra
Episode IV. Unidentified Flying Object
Episode V. The Church of Dagon
Episode VI. The Birds
Episode VII. EXALT and Black Lotus

February 1997:
March 1997:
April 1997:
May 1997:
June 1997:
July 1997:
August 1997:
September 1997:
October 1997:
November 1997:
December 1997:

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

RESERVED BY GOVERNMENT ORDER

 

[Darth Roxor]

Sign me up.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Wait a moment, you did it once in the past, I remember!

But I want in, as Eastern European slav alien baton basher!

 

[MZeta]

MZeta reporting for duty, once again...

 

[lightbane]

Round 2, begins! Watch out for Sectoids, they're stronger than ever! Personally though, I would wait a little because the zombie plot arc is almost finished and will likely feature sexy mummies, but we'll see if you ever get there.

In any case, some advice from my last playthrough: rush for Logistics and remember to "accidentally" knock out some civvies during misisons to recover their stuff for some extra money, the penalty is so little it is worth it.

Also, have you considered lping Piratez instead? That one demands a lp if only to work as a tutorial due the complexity of the mod.

In any case...

Agent Light reporting for duty!

 

[Azira]

Oh, I am so much following this LP!

 

[Zdzisiu]

Homicidal maniac in Minsk? Its probably just a drunk gopnik, not worth the plane tickets.

Go for the strange and exotic alien visitors in Sri Lanka. I bet they are sexy looking space vixens!

 

[Darth Roxor]

Why are they satistified? I did almost nothing.

makes u think

Also, we must save our brotherly nation of Belarus from kapitalist infiltration.

 

[lightbane]

Wait, sexy mummies?

Yeah, think about undead queens of allmighty powers rather than bandaged corpses.

Lol that just sounds so dickish, I will try at least once.
Stealing from civvies to get their money, that just sounds dickish, but hey, X-COM.

I got this after a burst of inspiration from Piratez. It works better with Doctors and Policemen/women, since they always carry valuable stuff. Even better, while they're KO they won't be targeted by enemies.
Amusingly this tactic doesn't work too well in Piratez.

Too big even for me, and it requires a better sense of humor than mine, heh.

Yep, I lost interest in August of the first year due the sheer number opf options, but I'll give it another go some time. A lp of this would require to cover only the first or second year to make it fun.

I'm thinking about running a Car/Van/Mudranger, or a Car/Van/Van set-up for now.

Sadly the Mudranger is useless, only worth IMO to do an "enemy base" mission by setting up a small xcom base of yours close to its spawning location. Otherwise skip it.

I don't remember the extended clip, that's very nice!

This actually makes it a fun stunning tool by shooting enemies once or twice and wait for them to bleed until they pass out, then heal them. Works everytime.
Watch out with aliens and monsters though. Actually, the surrendering mechanics is a must to survive in higher difficulties, you must break the morale of the enemy so that they give up. Monsters don't surrender though, so you'll have to kill these. Lastly, KO'ed enemies count as surrendered even if they wake up later.

Lastly, did you know that you can actually throw the flashlight for greater coverage? IT actually works.

Wait, what? Game begins on the 31th? That seems weirdly pointless.

Somthing about the manual about the events starting at this date.


Finally, I vote for:
a) Should we engage the closer situation of the Homicidal Maniac? YES.

Don't forget to "recover" material from willing (and unwilling) citizens.

 

[Azira]

Check up on the madman.

 

[Darth Roxor]

chase dat UFO, duh

In other questions, our car is still unnamed. Suggestions?

Fiat 126p

 

[Azira]

UFO, 'course.

 

[MZeta]

+1 for UFO
Also, I was going to put an suggestion for a name for the car, but Roxors Fiat 126p is fitting.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Go for the UFO, maybe I will get a chance for more baton probing!

Also, call the car "Black Volga". We are already kidnapping people with it.

 

[lightbane]

Is there diminishing returns in xfiles?

Yes and no. Some items are so easy to research that they're done automatically even with 0 scientists invested. In the case of logistics, having more manpower is so important that rushing this particular tech is a must IMO.

Night-Vision Mode activated. This allows us to see what our character sees in the darkness. X-PirateZ has a similar mode, but here it looks like night-vision glasses, while PirateZ's looks more like orange-tinted Predator vision.

Prop-tip: You can throw your flashlights as I mentioned. You also can change your night-vision color at will, as well as it's particular details in the options menu.

Fucking poorfags. This is what happens when you try to, uh, inspect poor eastern euros in the 90s.

Told you that only doctors, cops, gangs and sometimes soldiers carry up important stuff to "recover".

Speaking of: Watch out with gang wars and "sky resorts" missions. They're pure rape in lower difficulties IIRC, no idea how much butthurt will superhuman generate.

Our agent reads snippets for us, of what he can discern anyway, not being a native:

Fun fact: Madman's diary is a thing you can research and is pretty much similar to what you wrote.

Lastly:

b) Drop everything and rush at that UFO. We may get our first genuine alien bodies and tech early on.

You cannot capture them alive, so bring shotguns and shoot to kill.

 

[BrotherFrank]

By the time i got around to checking out the previous lp,all the images were borked, so booking my place nice and early here.

Whilst im at it: sign me up among the future recruits.

 

[lightbane]

Stopped playing PirateZ when my previous computer had problems, did it change a lot since then?

A lot! No idea which version you stopped, but now there's exclusive research paths that forces you to play multiple times to see everything, new auxiliaries, new and easier to get guns, better explained mechanics, bows got good again, etc. Actually, the latest update has been launched recently and it includes the possibility of hiring console peasants! Aka cheap meatshields/X-Com agents-style units that are available since the very start before you get your own slaves. Also, doggies!

Don't one soon gets a better Mudranger? But yeah otherwise useless.

The airborne one doesn't get barely any improvement in range, requires time and space spent in the workshop and not worth it IMO, except for that Magma mission. You'll know which one I mean if the lp gets far enough. That's only one of the few instances in which you need as much of everything as possible.

Did X-COM Files do anything with the fear mechanics? PirateZ has interesting mechanics they incentive taking charge and going on the offense, because your morale goes down with time and hiding, and up with killing, so you have to choose between the careful approach and going all MAXIMUM FUCK at the enemies and tallying up a bunch of kills early on - break the enemy with shock attacks, if you will.
It also kind of "soft-balances" stun-based gameplay, because PirateZ rewards you a lot for stunning peple for their things, their knowledge and once that's spent, their ransoms. Stunning doesn't raise your morale, so you have to balance your stunning with some killing or your entire team might pannick at the wrong time.

Yes and no. Regular X-Com agents don't randomly lose their nerves unlike pirate gals, but stunning enemies doesn't reduce THEIR morale either. Having civvies and allied units die does reduce your agents' morale, especially the higher the rank of the victim was, so watch out.

Also, in Piratez you're recommended to get Gals of Bravery 80+, as by that point they become immune to the Leroy Jenkins! fear mechanic.

Scripting

More like the manual stated that UFOs were seen by that date and thus XCOM was formed. It also gives you extra time to prepare for the anal rape.

Oh yeah, CQC! I remember it was adopted after my first game, how does that even work?

Easy: Don't use guns except pistols in melee range (aka face-to-face) or chances are that your agent will fail to hit anything. That makes monsters more dangerous but also lets you use it against enemies as well.

Also, one mechanic that it's probably not explained in-game is that now shots done at enemies not in visual range of the particular unit suffer a penalty of -50% that's not seen in the accuracy number. So watch out.

 

[lightbane]

Yeah it's balanced by limiting AUX on the bus to 1. So you still have to play with gals and can't just rely on parrots, dogs, and peasants.

Actually, the 1 AUX was already there since the start IIRC, what this does mean is that you can only have one animal or tank in said transport. Auxilia like Slaves, Peasants, Lok'gars and the like count as regular units, so they're not limited by that. Sadly, Peasants are terrible and even worse than Soldier Slaves since they barely have armors at the moment. I know that was quite obvious but still...

They might work as cheap pilots and base defenders.

Also, The Brazilian Slaughter , one particular useful hint for you since it works for the newest version of X-Files as well: Pressing the "C" key opens a menu with all research done at every of your bases listed on the Geoscape, quite useful.

 

[baud]

Sign me up for anal probing! killing the xeno!

 

[lightbane]

Long War is shit compared to X-Files, not the other way around.

Useful guide though, if only for newbies.
Also, disabling the melee check thing would be very much welcome, it sorta made sense in Piratez, but not here.

The tech tree is harmless, even with spoilers you'll be missing the context.

Worse, sometimes it us mandatory, because if you have not unlocked Promotion 3 by the time the "timer" ends, you lost. Period.

 

[lightbane]

Chupacabras, the masters of high-speed rape!
At least until you meet the spiders.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Note to self: Cars and Passenger Planes are not effective tools to pursue UFOs.

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

This seems like a really cool mod. I look forward to seeing more of your lp. I wish to join in on the fight to keep filthy xenos off of our polluted hellhole!

 

[lightbane]

I always laugh when I see them driving their rental car offroad into the jungle. That's definitely not covered by the deposit.

Or when they stop in the middle of the desert as well.

I wonder what was that girl doing by wearing a bikini in that jungle though.