Completed Let's purge the Xeno in Xenonauts (Ultimate doom expansion set for terra)

[Ulminati]

To keep loading time on the pages from being too obnoxious, I'll spoiler tag the individual updates.

What's this then?
The spiritual successor to UFO: Enemy Unknown (X-COM: UFO Defense if you're a fag). It's currently in beta, but close to final. You can get it on steam.

Is it any good?
It's quite good. My main gripe is maps repeating. But the game comes with a map editor, and you can download custom maps to boost variety. I won't be doing that for this LP though.

What are you playing?
Veteran difficulty. Ironman. Codexian recruits. If I run out of volunteers, we'll clone the bodies of the deceased.

Will you show us everything?
Recruits, research, first encounter with new races and UFOs. generally interesting missions. I'll probably skip describing some of the ground missions if nothing exciting happens and just summarize.

Will you abandon this LP like you did with everything except wesnoth, blood bowl and that blobber thing?
Probably. There's a good chance the save will become corrupted when version 1.0 is released in May. If that's the case, or if the game becomes unwinnable due to cash starvation and total party kills, we'll declare the aliens win.

I can haz more?
I stream the game on http://twitch.tv/ulminati
I'll announce in the CDS steam chat when it goes live.

Honored dead
evdk, riflebro
Absalom, riflebro
Hoaxmetal, Shieldmaiden
LundB, the Shotgun Murderswede
Tindrli, Shieldmaiden
Angelo, Heavy Weapons Bro
Undead Phoenix, Shieldmaiden
Ashery, sniper
Mothermachinae, riflebro
Storyfag, Xtreme Firepower Bro
The Brazilian Slaughter, riflebro
DexterMorgan, riflebro
Stabby, riflebro
Azira, sniperfag
Eklektyk, shieldmaiden
ERYFKRAD, riflebro
Tzaero
Tytus
Commissar Draco, shieldmaiden
MicoSelva, riflebro
Aeschylus, riflebro
Imperator, Shieldmaiden
Comte, Riflebro

Roster of Bravery (sorted by chain of command)

Colonel CIS Sis

Commander Scrooge

Major Hellraiser

Captain Nevill

Captain The_Scorpion

Captain Kipeci (Infermery)

Lieutenant CaptainAwesome

Lieutenant SerratedBiz

Lieutenant Zdzisiu

Sergeant SmartCheetah

Corporal Spekkio

Piloting the chapter's holy Dreadnought
Hoaxmetal

Reserves
Kashmir Slippers
Smashing Axe
jcd
lightbane
shittynipples
redscum
asfasdf
Pocketmine
Sunnmøring
Flying Spaghetti Monster
Regvard
evdk Mk II (Clone)
The Brazilian Slauther (clone)
Storyfag (clone)
Eklektyk (clone)
Azira (clone)
ERYFKRAD (clone)
Stabby (clone)
Undead Phoenix (Clone)
Imperator (clone)

Intro, courtesy of LundB

Click me for update

Awwww yissss... Motherfucking Xenonauts!

Not gonna roll insane just yet. The game is still a bit wobbly, and ironman is forced on during insane. SO veteran with ironman off (but not enforced) means I can reload if the game keels over and dies.

Game starts like anyone who's played UFO/TFTD expects, with you picking a base spot. Since this determines radar coverage and interceptor range, it pays to choose a spot where you cover your biggest funding contributors.

Sevastopol in glorious Ukraine Russia covers a chunk of USSR, most of Europe, Northern Africa and some of the middle east.

Starting base layout: 4 hangars (chinook, condor, condor, empty). Research lab. HQ (core structure on all bases). Workshop. Radar. Living Quarters. Storeage.

And just like regular Xcom, this isn't nearly enough. We build an extra lab, workshop and living quarters, so we can have more engineers and scientists active. We also add another radar (increases our signal range for detecting UFOs) and a hospital to speed the recovery of injured soldiers.

We also begin construction of a second base. This will eventually become a listening outpost.

There aren't many topics of research to choose from at the beginning, but research works like you'd expect.

Ditto for construction. MOst equipment we'll research requires Alenium or Alien Alloys. Unlike UFO, we can't fabricate Alloys ourselves. Those have to be retreived from crashed/landed UFOs.

Our starting roster of soldiers. Many brave CDS'ers volunteered for glory.

Unlike UFO/TFTD, you don't hire soldiers blind. You're shown a list of candidates as well as their stats. Need a heavy weapons dude? Sort by strength to find a good candidate. Need a scout? Sort by time units.

Lets meet the Kool Krew. It's worth noting 2 things on the following screens.
1: You can store predefined loadouts (Soldier roles) and autoassign them to your bros
2: You have infinite grenades, ammunition and basic (shit) ballistic weapons. It's assumed you have subordinates who buy 50 rifle clips, 20 flares and 3 flashbangs when you need them. Flares are also autoequipped on all soldiers for night missions. (You brobably have a box of them in the dropship). Better weapons and armor has to be manufactured for cash and alloys/alenium. But upgraded weapons also have infinite clips. the limiting factor in how much you bring along is in the carried weight allotment. Once you start giving people armor, you quickly hit the point where you lose TUs from encumberance.

Kodex Kool Krew

Ashery wanted sniper duty. His lowish strength won't be an issue, since he won't be equipped with heavy armour. 65 accuracy is quite good (40-70 is the normal range for recruits on most stats)

@Angelo is the heavy weapons bro. He's pretty good overall, although his time unit allotment leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately, TUs are the easiest stat to raise.

LundB is our shotgun murderswede™. His is the glorious task to storm UFOs and execute foul xenos at point blank.

Undead Phoenix wanted to be a rocketeer. But since rockets are fairly useless until we get alenium and stun upgrades, she'll start out as a shieldmaiden. Her task will be to scout in front of everyone else with her portable chest high wall. She'll also be tossing flashbangs into UFOs to supress enemies prior to LunfB claiming all the glory. Finally, she's french. Because I know this will upset Phoenix.

CISrrhossis the Bear (Aka CIS Sis) is a riflebro(ette). Like in XCOM, rifles are good jack of all trades weapons. they're reasonably fast to fire, reasonably accurate and can fire in inaccurate bursts to suppress. I've also chosen to equip the riflebros with medikits, since they have the lightest overall gear.

evdk is also a riflebro. Our sole potato, having served in Afghanistan for the WOP Highland Brigade

The rifelbro crew is rounded out by fellow communist Absalom

And finally, Hoaxmetal joins the pretty shieldmaidens. He first saw action in Borneo for the SAS, bringing much glory to Oz.

Or current aircraft are Condors. They are, quite frankly, shit. We'll eventually replace them. But for now they are the only craft that has a cannon hardpoint.

One nice touch in Xenonauts. You can assign where your men start inside the dropship. No more having your rocket launcher dude stuck in front to soak all the reaction fire. Also, dropships have more than one exit. The chinook, which we'll be using for the foreseeable future comes with 2 exits in the sides as well as a rear loading ramp.

Starting tech
A bit of a UFOpedia dump, for those who are interested in [Lore] rolls.

Infodump

Shortly after setting up our starting orders, the first ufo shows up. It's a small scout and easily killable.

I choose to send both condors after it. A squadron can have up to 3 airplanes attached, although the slowest airplane will determine the squadron speed. Only one squadron can engage a UFO group at a time.

Also, UFOs tend to appear in groups in Xenonauts. You'll eventually want to have 8-12 nterceptors to deal with them all.

The first UFO is engaged. Autoresolve is strongly recommended, since the function is ridiculously broken. It's way, way more fuel efficient than you could ever get. Same goes for ammunition usage and ability to avoid damage.

But I chose to fight manually. That presents you with a screen like this. You can set throttle, decide which weapons are free to fire, engage afterburners or tell the aircraft to run away on the panel to the right.

If you click on a plane on the map, you select it. Clicking again sets a waypoint for it to fly towards. Planes will automatically fire at enemies inside their firing arcs.

Of course, I was explaining all of this on steam and neglecting to pause...

With predictable results...

Aircraft can also run out of fuel during air combat. You can still force them to fight, but they won't be able to make it back to base before crashing.

Crashed airplanes are retreived over a number of days and slowly repaired up to full health. SO it's not as disastrous as in XCOM. OTOH, you're without interceptors for several days. So it's pretty dire still.

Some more research is done while we wait for our interceptors to become flightworthy.

More ufopedia

The Foxtrot is way better than the condor. Its sole drawback is the lack of a cannon mount. they shine against unescorted mediums, or in the company of the next aircraft we'll eventually get.

Buuuut we're broke because we already built a bunch of shit.

Eventually the interceptors are fixed and sent ot chase another ufo. I really should've learnt my lesson and picked autoresolve when it's @ 100%.

combat went better this time. I got a decent pincer maneuver set up

Unfortunately, both planes went low on fuel and crashed on their way back. I'll autoresolve from now on.

But still. 19 days in we finally get out first crash site. You have the option of going to clear it out yourself, or you can call in the local government to handle cleanup. Airstrike cleanups give you cash (less than you'd likely get from successfully clearing it yourself), but no alenium, alloys or artefacts.

The Kool Krew is sent to sweep the area. Night missions are always a good way to start out! :D

...and we'll see how that goes in a short bit.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I got same issue with repetition,but when some codexer mention something about map editor (or it was some readme on Steam somwhere?) my game interest jumped to "must buy".
Still wonder what happened with Solidarnosc poster (b&w, with cowboy) from one of the barracks,

Will read everything, maybe even recruit as a heavy weapon guy?

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I must say I'm glad they're taking their own sweet time, so that it doesn't become yet another eminently passable and forgettable X-Com clone.

 

[Ulminati]

New update

Spoiler

Since shields absorb reaction fire (in the front arc, up to a certin % of HP before they're destroyed), it's usually a good idea to scout ahead with your shield dudes.

The landing zone is cleared, and flares are tossed out to help spot incoming xenos.

Just like in UFO/TFTD, you spend the aliens turn listening for telltale shooting sounds and screams.

LOS is updated at the start of every turn as well. this helps you get an idea of where the xenos may be hiding.

During the aliens turn, shots are fired up the road. Phoenix takes point to reveal the xeno.

It's a Ceasarean. They're the equivalent of sectoids and by far the weakest opponets you'll meet in this game.

Ashery tries an aimed shot (and misses) with his sniper rifle.

We gamble thatthe alien already used its TUs to shoot at us during its turn and hasn't got any left for reaction fire. LundB rushes up and executes it at close range for our first confirmed kill.

Meanwhile, Hoax & Co are sweeping the south. No contacts so far

More flares are tossed out in case Xenos are hiding. There's a fairly good chance the remaining are hunkered down inside the UFO. Small scouts only have a crew of 3-5 aliens, and some may have died in the crash.

The UFO is spotted and the Krew moves up to storm it.

Standard procedure for small scouts: Shieldmaidens open door and toss flashbangs into the first room to stun defenders. Then heavy weapons sprays whoever isn't in cover with full auto. Finally, shotgun Murderswede rushes in to execute survivors. There's only a single redshirt alive, so this breach wasn't too dangerous.

Clearing the first UFO opens up for new research topics. Unlike the old UFO, Alien Plasma weapons aren't an upgrade. they're not designed for human use. You can pick them up during combat, but you'll suffer a nasty accuracy penalty when you try to use them. they're sold for money instead. But researching plasma does unlock other tech for you. And eventually, once you've research enough alien tech, you'll be able to develop your own plasma tech.

UFO analysis and Autopsies (but not interrogation of live aliens) are performed automatically after your first successful mission. They only add lore fluff.

Since our condors ran out of fuel in the last updat,e they're currently being recovered from where they crashed... *sigh*

But we desperately need to end the month on a high note. So Da Choppa is sent—unescorted—to a landed UFO. This is a risky maneuver. If the heicopter meets a UFO in flight, it is automatically destroyed and all soldiers on board are killed. Later on in the game, the aliens will send fighters on patrol to try and capture your dropships.

This time, we get a daytime mission.

Aaaand it's fucking lizardmen. Wonderful. These guys have a pretty shitty aim at medium/long range. But they're tough as nails (as you'll soon see) and regenerate a sizable amount of missing health every round. there's also a civilian redneck with a hunting rifle. He's probably going to die.

Ashery decides to take the shot. The alien gets some cover from the wall. And the shot is going to pass pretty close by the farmer. But he's our sniper, so it's deemed an acceptable risk.

Naturally, Ashery shoots the civilian.

To help our advance, Phoenix tosses a flashbang at the reptilian.

Suppression means it will have less AP and accuracy on its turn. It also denies it reaction fire, so we can advance with impunity.

We can't get close enough to shoot around its cover without exposing ourselves however. So LunB tosses a frag grenade to flush it out.

Meanwhile, Angelo and Hoaxmetal encounter another Xeno.

The first grenade is shrugged off by the reptilian. As is the second.

But the third reduces it to chunky salsa. (Incidentially destroying any look it might've carried)

But its demise frees up Kodexinauts to assist in the shootout on the road.

Evdk claims one for der Vaterland

Another Xeno spotted (which I forgot to screenshot the killing of. I think it was Ashery or LundB that claimed it).

There were 3 aliens in the UFO. 2 flashbangs stunned them. Angelo killed one with full auto HMG to the face. LundB executed the second with 2 shotgun blasts at point blank and Absalom killed the last with full auto assault rifle fire.
I totally forgot to screenshot it becaus eI was chatting away at CDS.

Repitilians are ugly as fuck.

They're armed with these puny pistols for now.

Alien UFOs are running amok while the condors are under repair.

And the first month comes to a close. GREAT SUCCESS!

 

[stabby]

Interesting. Am a bit curious as to whether to pick up the game or not, so I will be following with great interest.

Also, stabby can volunteer for glorious death saving the world?

 

[Angelo85]

My defining moment of glory wasn't captured on film for all future generations to admire?
But I guess that's what real heroes do, protect mankind in selfless acts no one ever gets to read about in the papers.

Regarding the map repetitiveness: The maps are randomized to a degree. Maps are broken up into smaller parts like for example "10 x 10 building here, 6x3 street here" etc. and then the actual things get filled in from a list. So there might be 3 different 10 x 10 buildings in the database for the farm level and one gets chosen and inserted into the actual level at random. So even though the basic layout remains the same, the levels do have some change to them from mission to mission to keep it fresh.

 

[Eyeball]

I have a question: what is NEW in this game? I played it for a bit, seemed like an almost carbon copy of XCOM.

 

[Ulminati]

I have a question: what is NEW in this game? I played it for a bit, seemed like an almost carbon copy of XCOM.

Interceptor combat, shotguns, combat shields, flashbangs, more weapon tiers (ballistic, alien, laser, plasma, mag as opposed to ballistic, laser, plasma), different types of base for different types of aliens, civilians on all maps, air combat terror sites against bombers and fighters, more types of interceptor and dropship...

 

[Azira]

Sign me up for whichever job you need filled, sir!

 

[tindrli]

Another Bro reporting for duty

 

[laclongquan]

Can we mod some portraits in? It looks quite interesting but not enough T&A PLUS butter face.

 

[Azira]

Hey, I don't mind being a chubby pasty-face. Seems rather fitting actually.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Reporting to knife-and-shotgun-rape filthy xenos.

 

[LundB]

Hopefully I'll live up to the same standard as the first time you streamed. So many kills in so few missions, truly that murderswede incarnation was a juggernaut.

 

[Ulminati]

New update


After an unimpressive first month, we need to turn things around fast before the funding runs out. Fortunately, the cash influx we just got means we'll be able to afford that shiny new MIG interceptor as well as some other things.

Click me!

One of the first things that happens is that we finish the plasma rifle research.

ufopedia

This in turn leads to alien plasma tech being unlocked as a research topic. Finishing this gives us access to laser weapons research. Aliens are going to get a lot tougher soon, so the extra firepower is necessary.

We also finish our first foxtrot. These work well in an all-foxtrot squadron. If you stick them with a condor, their performance is underwhelming. Unfortunately, we won't have the money to build a second foxtrot just yet.

Our radar coverage (gray circle) is woefully inadequate. A second listening post is prepared in Kwanzania.

More UFOs appear. But our slow as fuck condors are utterly incapable of catching up with them.

Plasma tech research is done, paving the way for laz0r research.

Ufopedia

Most gear upgrades require Alien alloys or Alenium (retreived from crash sites). We have 11 units at the moment. A pistol requires 2 units, carbines (shotguns) and rifles require 4, a sniper rifle requires 6 and a heavy scatter laser requires 8. It's going to be a while before we can upgrade everyones gear.

One of our squadrons finally catches a lucky break. since we've already established autoresolve is way, WAY better at air combat then me, we push the popamole button.

The first laser weapons are distributed before sending a team to the crash site

A second mole is popped. Note how a single condor on autoresolve can somehow take down an ufo without using any fuel or taking any damage.

Da choppa is slow as fuck. Since we won't be able to clear both crash sites with it before one of them decays, we airstrike the other for a small cash infusion.

I'm going to skim over the small scout missions. The small scouts are mostly crewed by noncombatant aliens who can't hit the broad side of a barn.

2 aliens were roaming outside the UFO. Evdk killed one of them. Undead Phoenix shot the other a few times. Then the civilian policeman inside the building fired 2 shots through the window and stole our kill.

Aliens can't reaction fire grenades, just regular shots. And combat shields provide 100% cover for the tile behind them until they run out of hit points. so on small scouts there's no real penalty for stacking up. A single alien was cowering inside the UFO. A flashbang later, Absalom strolled in to claim the kill

The azn radar array finally goes live. this will probably be a source of fustration for now, since I won't have fuel to effectively intercept anything it finds. Once we have money for more aircraft, both asia and kwan will have hangars with interceptors.

A UFO lands while being chased, so we send out a dropship.

but our shitty interceptors run out of fuel before the choppa gets there, and we're forced to let it go when it takes off

Heavy laser research is done. The condors are automatically upgraded with the cannons. A single condor can now take on a small scout and be fairly certain to win. Assuming it ever catches up with the scout. We also finish research into alien alloys and the first tier of combat armour.

ufopedia

Jackal Armour is mercifully free from alien alloy requirements. It adds a lot of encumberance, but it'll allow most recruits to survive a single plasma shot from a pistol or rifle before dying. So it's well worth the investment.

More light scout crash sites. It's not that other UFOs haven't been around yet. We just haven't been able to catch one.

LundB is the first Kodexian to claim 5 Xeno kills.
For some reason, Xenonauts loves promoting your dudes. It's not like in XCOM where you had a max # of officers for every x number of recruits.

Alien Biology is researched. This leads to the discovery of stun weapons. Stun rods are fairly risky to use, so I usually don't get them. But it also allows you to equip your men with stun gas grenades and stun gas rockets for the rocket launcher. It may be worth upgrading one of our agents to a rocket dude to gas Xenos. I haven't decided yet, since rocket dudes require a fair amount of strength.

ufopedia

Combat armour is finished and assigned to everyone.

Just in time too. Because during the next light scout mission, LundB takes a reaction fire shot that nearly kills him and leaves him severely injured. Without combat armour, he would've been our first fatality.

He spends the rest of the mission crying in the helicopter after evdk kisses his boo-boo better.

One of our condors catches up with a medium scout. 85% autoresolve success is a bitch.

And the month of October comes to a close. the aliens are beginning to send in larger UFOs, so November-december should see an in horrible rape.

The Kodex Kool Krew as of November 1st, 1979

 

[Storyfag]

Please add me to the troop roster

 

[Scroo]

Reporting for duty too

 

[Storyfag]

Is there a point to placing the story in the 1980's? The talck about stem cells back then breaks my immershun.
I am also very disappointed at the lack of glorious RAEP. For the game to be ideal, 3 not-sectoids should butcher a platoon of your soldiers. And once you get better tech, tougher alien strains and bigger craft should start appearing, thus maintainig the RAEP ratio.

I do like the explanation that alien ships have to be modified before entering atmosphere, thus you're spared fighting tougher ones first. But that doesn't explain why didn't they nuke mankind from orbit. I hope the game addresses this somehow

 

[eklektyk]

let me in! i want in! pick me!!!11111!!!!

dang i missed first roll [lets hope for some filled bodybags soon]

 

[Ulminati]

I am also very disappointed at the lack of glorious RAEP. For the game to be ideal, 3 not-sectoids should butcher a platoon of your soldiers. And once you get better tech, tougher alien strains and bigger craft should start appearing, thus maintainig the RAEP ratio.

I've played the beta a LOT. I'm also being pretty careful. For maximum raep, you really need to play on insanity. But because of aforementioned tendence for the game to crash, I've scaled it back to veteran. Once we hit december, medium ufos and terror sites should make things a bit more interesting. I might also play a bit more aggressively to create drama.

 

[Storyfag]

Ah, fair enough :D

 

[34scell]

If this is KKK, shouldn't you set female soldier generation to below 5%?

 

[Comte]

Can I join your troop roster as well

 

[Storyfag]

What troop limit does the Chinook have? I think I counted 18 slots?

 

[LundB]

So die all those who challenge the natural order of things.