Let's Play: X-COM - UFO Defense

Mission over, and this time I didn't blow up the Elerium in the core!



Those Mind Probes are worth a mint.

And new recruits!?



Well THAT is some accuracy.









Weapons GET.



We're not going to be researching these right now, but we're going to want to eventually; they're basically the best all-purpose aircraft weapon. What we want to research next...



... is these guys. They're way too good to put off. After this, we'll research us some armour I think, which should stem the lose of life significantly.



With the General Stores in HEY AFRICA! done, I transfer some junk over there. We'll have some soldiers over there soon enough, and I want to make sure they've got some decent equipment to use.



I catch this guy near Newfoundland, but it flies over to Europe...



... where I of course, lose it.



I send an Interceptor over, and while I'm there I find a small ship. I shoot it down.



I find a large ship that's landed, but I'm not sure if it was the one from earlier. I dispatch my Skyranger...



... after loading it with my best gear. Bringing ten soldiers is unnecessary for a large ship (I had forgotten how "small" they actually are), but I guess this is Superhuman. No need to take chances, and what if I get over there and find the VERY LARGE ship?

Not pictured, but tagging along: Falselogic.



I don't know if I'll be able to get to that small ship (the white "x"); after completing a mission, Skyrangers immediately return home (you can't redirect them). But it's still better than letting it fly lose. That green "x" is our target; the red dot is a different large ship! This is why I want a Skyranger and Interceptor in our HEY AFRICA! base asap.





Like rifles before them, there's not much point in bringing more than one clip for each Plasma weapon you have.



This is our first "farm" terrain. They're a pain in the butt (they often spawn with a couple of buildings for aliens to hide in), but they do offer ample amounts of cover. Unless you're in a hurry (and you should generally never be in X-Com missions), take the time to slowly approach the ship, using fences, the Skyranger, and crouching to keep yourself safe.

The aliens find us first, but their shot goes wild.



Floaters again! StriderDL takes care of this one.

One great thing about "farm" maps is that there is never any hills, so the only terrain that will block line of sight is generally buildings, ships, and large hedges. This can sometimes allow you to park a few units at the Skyranger and pick off aliens from across the map, which I do several times in this mission.



PHILLIAM 3 finds out first genuinely floating Floater. Make a note: flying out in the open is a terrible idea in this game; units have as good a chance at shooting something in the air as they are on the ground, but in the air, there is no terrain to shield you.



Destil teaches that Floater a deadly lesson.



About gravity.



Inching forward, we find another Floater on a roof in the bottom left. Floaters are no more likely to appear on roofs than other races, but it feels right when they do.

CaptBlasto feels the right angle to hit this guy from the other end of the map.



Unsure how to use cover? Do it like this.



We spot another as we inch forward. Falselogic gets him.



Aliens love to hide in buildings; if you're lucky they'll pass through doors (you'll hear a distinct noise during the enemy phase), or at least see that they're open.



If you're having trouble (but have plenty of ammo), don't be afraid to shoot out some walls to see if there's anyone inside. There's no penalty for property damage, so level the building if you want.

CaptBlasto gets another kill.



Fast forward a few turns, and now I'm reasonably sure that the only aliens left are inside. PHILLIAM has to wait outside. I like bringing at least two people for each entrance.

Falselogic breaches...



And StriderDL finds the first alien.



Er, first two aliens.



Uh...



First three aliens. StriderDL has to hope that Floater on the right doesn't get brave enough to shoot him in the back.



Alixsar shoots the one on the left in the back.



Next turn, and it seems that the Floater retreated. Lucky for us!



One more annoying thing about farms: it can be easy to get stuck on these small walls (X-Com agents are trained never to jump over obstacles). Plasma weapons can cut some paths for you tho.



COMEDY TIME.





Oops. That's a quarter of a million shot to pieces.

(I would still get the Elerium tho.)



There are three cores in here, and aliens can sometimes hide behind them, so Alixsar will check out this side, and StriderDL will check out the other.



That red thing in the top-right is an elevator that goes to the "third" floor. That floor is essentially two narrow hallways, with a room at each end. It's easy to get ambushed given all the tight corners, so you have to be careful.

UFOs follow the same patterns; this one is a supply ship. This probably means that there's a base nearby, so we'll have to try and find it.



This elevator goes to the second floor. That floor has lots of terrain to hide behind which is annoying, but it's much easier to cover your backs. There was no aliens on the second floor this mission, so I'll only show one screenshot from it.

Then Destil walks toward the elevator and...



BOOM.

A stun bomb! These devices are pretty useful. Destil isn't dead, so we'll get him back once the mission is over. Stunned units will slowly "wake up", but a Medi-kit can speed that along. Getting hit by stun bombs is 1000% more preferable to getting shot by plasma, so I'm okay with this.





False gets the culprit, and his friend who was doing a poor job of watching the culprit's back.



This is the third floor. CaptBlasto steps off the elevator and immediately shoots a Floater in the back. Guy never stood a chance!



Dizzy spots one a bit further up, and plugs that Floater in the back too.



A few medics try and wake Destil up using a Medi-kit, but no luck. That Stun Bomb must have really done a number on Destil; I pumped a pack and a half of stimulants into the guy and he didn't wake up.

Luckily stimulants can't kill a guy.

For reference, "Pain Killer" is used to heal Morale a bit, and "Heal" does what you think it might do, if what you think it might do, is to help soldiers that are bleeding out.



On the enemy's turn, we spot another Floater near that corner.



And learn that the leader of this ship has panicked because of how great a job we've done at murdering people. This is a pretty rare event; all aliens have at least an "80" Bravery stat. We got lucky, but we'll see if we can get even luckier.



Mightyblue takes care of his friend, but we're going to approach the captain cautiously; there's a sharp narrow corner (seen in the top left of the screenshot above) that the Captain normally sits behind. I've lost more than one character to reaction fire. Floater Captains have good Reactions, and because they're cowardly, they'll tend not to move around much, ensuring they've got near full TU to murder you with if you give them the chance.

Better to approach from two angles at once.



Here's a shot of the second floor. These canisters ("Alien Food") are annoying, because they're easy to hide behind. Otherwise the floor is just small rooms.



Son of Sinistar gives up on Destil. If he wants to sleep so badly...



CaptBlasto and Falselogic sneak around the back, and discover that we were luckier than we thought! Panicked units will do one of two things: freeze in place (losing all TUs), or drop their items, and move south-east (50/50 chance of either). That black spot near my cursor is that Captain's weapon. Aliens will never pick up items, so once stunned (or properly panicked), any alien that doesn't have a natural weapon (which are limited to terror units) is completely defenseless.



So Dizzy murders him.



A nice haul!

The "Alien Food" and "Alien Surgery" are useless except to sell. You can research them for some fluff, but they give you no benefit for doing so (except for that feeling of being a completionist).



We'll be back this way with our Skyranger to take a look for any more alien activity!

Well, that's for next time! See you next time!

Yay! I survived my first mission!

But I don't think it matters. After this:
I'm probably on KP duty for the rest of my life...

MEMO

TO: Commander-in-Chief, UN Peacekeeping Division Extraterrestrial Combat Unit [CINCXCOM]

FROM: UNINTCOM-SPC

Commander:

BACKGROUND

On February 25, 1999, Inteceptor 1 had discovered the aliens were making a move into Europe. With our facility in Northern Africa still under construction, Skyranger 1 was dispatched to investigate. Upon arrival, Skyranger 1 discovered a landed ship of considerable size. The decision was made to engage the enemy forces.

While the mission was successful, there was the remains of a destroyed UFO Core inside. Squaddie Torzelbaum, who was assigned to examine the room the cores were housed in, claims that the destroyed UFO Core was "like that when I got there."

ORDERS

Assign Torzelbaum to KP duty for the rest of his career at X-Com.

SIGNED: /s/

UNINTCOM-SPC: Erus, M. (COL)
SPCCMP, HNTVLL, AL

But it was! I think the alien destroyed it so we wouldn't capture it. It was going to destroy the others but I stopped it. yeah... that's the ticket.

Welcome back! I take the time to sell the loot from the last mission. Not pictured: for lack of something better to do, I sell a small stack of Medi-Kits that I've had my Engineers producing. Engineers are an important source of income, particularly late in the game, so always have them making something!



As expected, there was an Alien Base hanging around Europe. Near Arberdeen, Scotland it seems!

There's no magic trick to finding bases, but if you expect there's one in a country (high alien activity will usually signal this), your best bet is to take an aircraft and literally fly around the place. Ships, like radar, have a chance of finding stuff like this. It's usually important to get rid of bases as soon as you can, as if they're left alone too long the host country will tend to withdraw funding, and they also hurt your score each month for each day left undetected.

If you don't care about losing the country tho, Alien Bases can be a good source of "income". They'll constant be resupplied with ships like the one we took out last mission, so you can keep capturing them over and over again.

On another note, since we took out a Floater supply ship, the base is almost certainly a Floater one too.



We're going to bring a full squad of course (not pictured: namelessentity).



With the first hanger in HEY AFRICA! finished, we purchase a Skyranger for it. The second hanger will get an Interceptor.







Alien Base missions always start out with your crew in one of two elevators that lead into the base below. Normally, your troops will be split between the two, but for some reason they dumped me all into the same elevator.

While I don't mind being all together (better than having one or two soldiers by themselves elsewhere), it will make the base assault a bit slower; I don't want to rush everyone out where an alien grenade can get lucky.



PHILLIAM 3 is first in, and spots a Floater and two Reapers, their terror unit. They're wimps, so I'm not too worried.



Destil takes out the Floater...



...and Rai takes out a Reaper. I can't get the other one without abandoning cover, so I let it live until next turn; as long as it can't see our soldiers it won't likely harm us.



SlimJimm sees another to the north of the elevator, but he doesn't have a good enough angle to take a shot.



This is what I mean about the slow deploy thanks to ALL OF US having to use the same elevator. Sigh.



Next turn, we have PHILLIAM will explore the southern edge of the base.



Dizzy manages to get a bead on that one alien SlimJimm saw, but his shot isn't strong enough to take the Floater down.



Mightyblue eliminates the second Reaper, and start heading towards that door. It leads up to a few rooms that you can sometimes find an Alien or two in (they'll generally try and find you in base missions).

Sigh.



Son of Sinistar chucks a grenade as far as he can, to try and catch any Floaters near the corner, but I don't think it'll get anyone from there.



Especially since the Floaters have backed away from the corner! A shot hits the wall that Dizzy moves next to, but he's unharmed.





Dizzy manages to get one of em, but he doesn't have the TUs to fire at the second one.



Next turn, SlimJimm gets him.



That structure on the upper right is your ultimate goal. It houses the base's commander, who is really important to capture if you can (I can't yet). The commander usually has a Blaster Launcher, so you've got to be careful with him.



Dizzy moves up to cover the door...



... and catches an Alien moving in and out of the room. He doesn't get a shot off tho.



There's windows on each side of this structure that are good to keep under observation. Aliens love to shoot your guys in the back from them.



Destil and Mightyblue go through that door near the Reaper corpses, and up a lift, poised to sweep these rooms next turn.



Torzelbaum takes over door watching duties for Dizzy, and shoots to death a Floater that comes out!



Unfortunately for Torzelbaum, that Floater has backup. She dies



Be careful when aiming! There are no "undos", and your soldiers will happily shoot walls and terrain even if you tell them so by accident.

An example: Mighytblue shoots the heck out of that wall (but not the Floater next to it).



Fourth times's a charm. Note the Power Cores.



Dizzy avenges Torzelbaum, and SlimJimm takes over the spot she vacated.



He gets shot by a THIRD Floater jerk, but completely shrugs it off.



He ducks behind cover, not wanting to get shot a second time. Dizzy will go around and flank the door.



Son of Sinistar meanwhile, finds a Floater near the north end of the base. He eliminates it.



Oh god drat. The Floater comes out the door, hits the corner, turns, and kills SlimJimm. I moved him to cover to try and prevent that!



Namelessentity takes him out. What a jerk!



PHILLIAM 3 continues sweeping around the base, but finds nothing but the local Disco Dance Floor. The only aliens left are in the "control room" that those three aliens that killed Torzelbaum and SlimJimm came out of.



Several of our brave troops cautiously go to assault this room. As mentioned, the leader usually has a Blaster Launcher, so you want to make sure he can't obliterate your troops with it. The general plan is to try and spot him (and any lackies he has) from below, and fire up.

I move Dizzy behind some cover in preparation.



Namelessentity joins him.



Kaisel spots one from below...



... and tries to get a bead on him. Just because you can "see" the enemy, the game for some reason won't draw in the terrain above. You have to go groping in the dark trying to find them sometimes; the enemy sprite will overlap the cursor sometimes, so you can use that to help pinpoint them.





Kaisel gets the job done and retreats.

I do something boneheaded and send namelessentity to do some quick recon. She's killed immediately when she teleports up.



Drat.



And of course, Dizzy (who's been golden this mission) can spot em both from below.





Bah.



Base Missions will do wonders for your score, which is great because February has been a slow month for alien activity.



CHA-CHING!



We use our new money (and the completion of the Living Quarters) to start building HEY AFRICA!'s first Laboratory, and a second Living Quarters so we can fit both soldiers and scientists in.



We scan another UFO heading north-east to Europe, but it disappears.



Excellent. You can never get a second Skyranger too early (unless it would uh, bankrupt you or something).



And a great review!

We use that money to hire 40 new soldiers, and then dismiss 75% of them for being too suck. We're going to want two equal forces at both SPACE CAMP and HEY AFRICA!

We throw some of the veterns over at the HEY AFRICA! base so we're not concentrating the talent too much.



We also finish researching the first half of the best weapon in the game.



Soon...



Our Large Radar at HEY AFRICA! finishes too, but is great news. We've now doubled our effective Radar coverage!



I catch another large ship in North America, this one flying quite low. Another supply ship?



I load up some of our new rookies, under the the supervision of Captain Tefari; once it lands we'll...



Oh. Guess the aliens aren't too happy as to how Hollywood was portraying them! I'll be skipping updating tomorrow because of CHRISTMAS but should be back boxing day!

So, a cliffhanger for next time then! NEXT TIME: We lose some units. TERROR.

She? But I'm a guy! Or are you talking about in-game Torzelbaum? (Which would explain the ponytail.)

Well darn, and I was so hoping to be awesome.

Regarding Colonel Merus, it has been in my experience that someone who kills a team member coincidentally ends up living long enough to become a highly ranked member. I always found it odd that killing a member of your team didn't hurt your chances for promotion, and sometimes was a good omen for them.

How do promotions work, anyway? I know they are based upon your squad size, but how do they determine which person in the squad gets the promotion?

I'll give a full expose on this mysterious phenomenon next update!

Reporting for duty, I guess?

Sir, I love both explosions and sliding doorways, sir! I believe this makes me perfect for door opening duty, sir! I greet my death at alien reaction shot plasma gladly, sir!

Sorry ya'll!

If philliam gets multiple incarnations, can I also get them? I've heard that Red Hedgehog 2 was decanted very nicely from the clone vat!

Our scientists say that this is potentially possible, but that our current technology won't allow it. Current technology can revive you, but requires an immense ongoing power source to help properly replace your internal organs.

Early testing suggests that Elerium might be a potential power source, and combined with our plans for a full-bodied power suit, might suffice. We've got your DNA, we'll keep you posted about project "Iron Man".

I thought that project was going to be called RoboCOM?

Welcome back! We've got a lot to go through today, so let's get started! When we last left, our alien adversaries were attacking Los Angeles!



The nightmare scenario for a Sectoid terror mission is having a Cyberdisc parked directly outside the Skyranger. Enemy units are at their most dangerous on the first turn, having all of their TUs available to reaction shots.

Lucky for us, it's just a Sectoid.

PHILLIAM 3 draws the fire of this Sectoid, and then turns...



... finds a second Sectoid...







.. and then gets blown to pieces by a Cyberdisc. At least that probably has cut down on its TUs; replacing our tanks is getting kind of expensive tho!







Between Austin, Yimothy, and ajr82, we manage to clear a landing for our units. We leave them (save Austin, who didn't need to leave the craft to shoot that Sectoid) behind cover with the rest of our units waiting to exit the Skyranger, when...











... a Stun Bomb knocks out three of our units. Better that then a grenade!



Austin finds the Stun Bomb Jerk in the corner, but the only ones who could effectively shoot at him this turn are currently sleeping (at least, without firing through two walls).

Nich catches an Sectoid to the west with a blast of plasma.



And "that" alien retreats.



We start pumping some stimulants into our unconscious friends...



... and manage to get ajr82 back on her feet. To use a medi-kit on a fallen unit, you need to stand on their square, forcing them to "get up" on an adjacent square. Of course, units drop all their equipment when they fall (and wake with 0 TUs), but we'll get ajr82 back in action next turn.



We go to flank that stun bomb guy.



Dizzy finds this Sectoid north of the Skyranger by tossing a flare. This is one lucky human! But some unlucky X-Com agents; his presence makes auto-firing dangerous, and while ideally we don't want the human to die, better the aliens kill them than us (us killing them is a harsher penalty).



Nich manages a great shot tho.



Behind us!



Austin finally catches up with that one alien who stunned us all, and shoots him in the back.



Nich also sees (and kills) our second Cyberdisc this mission.



And MCBanjoMike makes it three!

This one doesn't explode; it's pretty rare, but whatever. We've already got a cyberdisc corpse to research, so this guy is just another $20k for us.



Dizzy finds another Sectoid in this alleyway, but the angle is too poor to take a shot.



A wild shot indicates that there's at least one alien to the left.



I think this was pretty inevitable, I guess. The AI controlled humans in this game is dumb as bricks.



With that idiot dead, Tefari can at least get a clear shot on that Sectoid in the alleyway.

With Dizzy spotting, ajr82 is able to shoot through some cover and blast the Sectoid.



Nich finds a fourth Cyberdisc.



Unfortunately for Nich, this one weathers an improbable number of hits from Plasma Fire, and Nich was the only one who had a clean shot. I gambled, Nich lost his life.



With Nich dead, MCBanjoMike gets a clean shot. It sucks it had to end that way for Nich, the guy was tearing it up out there!



A string of fire indicates that a FIFTH Cyberdisc has tagged along. Ye gods. I don't think I've ever seen this many in one mission.



Seriously, four is like, two too many of those things.



The Cyberdisc has an entire building between it and most of my X-Com forces, so risks need to be taken.



Unfortunately, Dizzy gets caught in reaction fire and is killed.



Soren Highwind takes his own risk and gets close enough to shoot it out of the sky, but luckily doesn't get caught up in the resulting explosion.



The last Sectoid is found in that same alleyway, and nearly kills Soren with a reaction shot. But Soren's feeling mightier today.



All that work, but a terrible score. Not much to do about it; sometimes the aliens just murder the heck out of most of the civilians. You just have to roll with it.



CaptBlasto climbs the ranks.



I catch a small UFO flying above Quebec, but it's gone before I can catch it.



Our Blaster Bomb research finishes! This ammo is pretty precious, so we'll probably need to produce our own eventually.

Now that we have most of the big guns, we want some better protection for our units. Researching Alien Alloys is the first step.



Another small alien craft - perhaps the one I detected earlier - appears in Europe.



It lands in Germany; I send a Skyranger from HEY AFRICA! to retrieve it.



"Very Small" UFOs only contain a single alien, so it's pretty easy pickings. Destil gets the lone kill.



Although not really worth much. The tiny craft they come in doesn't even have any salvage value.





Another one appears in Europe again, this time in Budapest. This one is a bit bigger tho.



It's a pretty unexciting capture. Floaters, again. We sustain one casualty when we try and storm the room. There was two of em waiting for someone to burst in, and Brickroad pays for the ultimate price.



Here's the mission tally list:

Nodal: 2 kills.
Mightyblue: 1 kill.
Guildernstern: 3 kills.
Calorie Mate: 2 kills.

Brickroad: dead.

I made a conscious effort to get our rookies some kills; it's always easier to justify taking risks with rookies.



A slew of promotions occur most notably CaptBlasto... becoming an actual Captain.

Promotions are one of the more mysterious aspects of the game, and one that doesn't always make sense. It's also easy to be clueless to its purpose, unless you're paying careful attention to the morale meter of soldiers. But really, "rank" in X-Com isn't that important; it offers no combat utility. It is just kind of nice to see people rise tho.

Promotions are based off of a character's stats; the higher they are, the more missions they've been on, and the higher their kill count, the better. The formula is as follows:

promotion_score = 2*HPs + 2*Energy + 4*Reactions + 4*Bravery + 3*TUs + 6*FireAcc + MeeLeeAcc + ThrowAcc + Strength + 10*Missions_cnt + 10*Kills_cnt + PsiSkill>0?(PsiStrength+2*PsiSkill):0;

X-Com ranks are as follows; I've listed the "requirement" too:

Rookie: starting rank. A unit becomes a Squaddie if they perform particular actions (most commonly, hitting an alien with a weapon).
Squaddie: A unit that has, in most instances, killed at least one alien.
Sergeant: Your most "experienced" Squaddie (see the formula above; rarely, a Rookie, like MCBanjoMike) is promoted to this rank if an opening is available, with one Sergeant for every five soldiers you have.
Captain: Your most experienced Sergeant becomes Captain for every 11 soldiers you have.
Colonel: Your most experienced Captain becomes Colonel for every 23 soldiers you have.
Commander: Your most experienced Colonel becomes Commander if you have 30 soldiers available.

It's a bit clunky, but basically, Merus was our best unit after he become a Squaddie (remember his great stats?) and his "competition" (Ringworm, Sven) died. He became a Squaddie in the second mission, and became a Sergeant after our first base defense.

From there, he became Captain (after our second base defense), and that is pretty much history. That more of less cemented him as our "top dog", as past that, the criteria is more or less about availability, rather than actual skill/experience (the chances of getting two Captains at once before one promotes to Colonel is pretty slim, so they'll just promote the guy or girl who made Captain first).

Of course, in most games you'll find that one of your junky starting units ends up surviving, and you end up with a Commander with 10 Bravery or something similar. I've got to say that Merus at least has a legitimate claim to being one of our better soldiers.

(Although his apparently low psi-defense ability - as evidenced by the base defense missions - will be a liability in some missions.)



Another UFO lands near Budapest again, but there's one problem. Night has fallen on Europe, and...



... I have no Electoflares at HEY AFRICA!



I take a solid squad (and Kishi), but I figure this is going to suck. Fighting in the dark is something you really don't want to do WITH flares, nevermind without them...



I basically drive our tank around looking for aliens while my guys huddle in the Skyranger. It's pretty pathetic, but a winning one.

You can hear them opening doors during the enemy movement phase, but look out for opened doors too; they're a sure sign that an alien is nearby.



I decide to smoke this one alien (a Sectoid) out with my new weapon >



Uh...



... well at least nobody was hurt. You have to be careful with Blaster Bomb shots; in the future I'll probably not try and shoot it from the back of the plane.



Regardless, no casualties!

Destil gets two kills, and kaisel and Guildenstern get a kill a piece.



Since kaisel was the "best" squaddie out of all my squaddies, he became our new Sergeant.



*cough*

A pair of new recruits!







And some research! SPED UP.







For comparison, the "naked" X-Com agent has the following armour ratings:

Front Armour: 12
Left/Right Armour: 8
Rear Armour: 5
Under Armour: 2

So it's a pretty significant upgrade, although given how powerful weapons are, you're talking about increasing the chances of surviving a plasma shot from 5% to maybe 20%. Still, worth it until you can make something better.





We start researching the alien's mysterious power source, and begin making some new Armour. They'll take a few days each; I'm going to hire some new Engineers at the end of this month.

A large ship appears north-east of Africa, and disappears south of China. We'll have to check the UFO activity there next month...



Another new recruit! This one is replacing Brickroad.



With our first Laboratory in our new base done, this will let us begun researching at twice the capacity. I'll hire scientists at the start of next month.



Another small UFO appears in Europe. I'm really glad I set up HEY AFRICA!



HEY AFRICA! also gets it's own Interceptor, which is a big relief. I was worried that only having one on hand was going to bite me in the ass, and while it wasn't perfect the aliens were generally quite in February and March.



Interceptor I (from SPACE CAMP) still needs to shoot this one down tho, as Interceptor 3 (HEY AFRICA!) needs to be refueled and armed with Avalanche Missiles.



With all the action in Europe, I decide that our troops at SPACE CAMP need some action. There's still a lot of rookies there!

Our first two Personal Armour suits are done, so I give them to Austin and MCBanjoMike as they'll be the first two off the ship (after the tank).



It's Sectoids again...



... they kill Sarcasmortar.



That was a pretty unlucky death (seriously, the Sectoid had taken two Plasma hits).

Our kill list for this mission:
ajr82: two kills
Son of Sinistar: one kill
Soren Highwind: two kills
Octopus Prime: one kill
Austin: one kill

Killed: Sarcasmorator (0 kills)



Finally, a large UFO appears over Europe. Perhaps a supply ship?



Nope. Another cliffhanger, but... is it the terror mission you've all been waiting for?

(There's a handy way to know!)

See you guys next time! And Happy Holidays!

Yes! I was worried I might not make it.

Bad news I'm afraid: after playing a bunch of alien missions, I had the feeling that I wasn't fighting enough of them. I thought I had used X-Com Util to fix this, but either it reverted to the easiest difficulty (as per the bug) or I didn't use it right.

The next update will just be a quick one about the various alien ships, and the one after was played before I caught that things had once again become too easy. I will see if I can permanently fix it, but if I have to "reset" the difficulty after each mission I'm going to flip.

Woohoo, I made sergeant! Ma and Pa are gonna be so proud.