Swe_Racoon

Damn superpowers and their secret development things! Wouldn't surprise me if the nuke was actually a prototype of the American Revolution, only to be shelved when they realized they'd win without it.

Flamethrowers are planned, I'm pretty certain of it. Methinks they actually were in an earlier build, but were removed (for the time being) because they didn't work properly.

You can't be an officer and not play pool, common sense dictates this. As for squads, I usually run between 8-10 (most often 8), and I think it works neat for me. There's always a few rookies to send on ahead, and anything above 10 really leaves me wondering where to put everybody.

Probably about as fast, if not faster than a missile. Pretty sure a plasma bolt has less weight and mass. But it could be missiles with plasma warheads, then you get the best of two worlds. My point was that it was kind of a chore in X-COM having to remove my old AA and then install the newer ones. At least give me an "Upgrade" button, it doesn't have to be instant. EDIT: On the whole sex vs violence thing, since I've never been to the US I wouldn't know how it looks over there. I think it's pretty decent over here, most Swedish movies don't seem to shy away from one more than the other. Not that I've ever been watching much Swedish media until the past year or so.

Somehow it seems it is, I mean it's kinda odd to my mind that games like Soldier of Fortune are allowed in certain countries while games like Fahrenheit Indigo Prophecy had the sex scenes removed. Except the one, that was deemed to important to the story to remove utterly. It just suffered horrendous mutilation instead. The message this sends, IMO, is that violence is all good and neat, but having sex with another person is not. 'tis a daft sentiment in my eyes. Aaaand there ya go! Deep political BS from a daft mammal!

Well, that is a valid point. But I feel this path leads down to a less than child-friendly discussion, so let's stay clear shall we? Or am I just being overtly dirty now?

Bah, if there's a will there's a way! On a more serious note: Oi! I'm still in there, and I'm a sergeant! That's pretty damn awesome, I must admit!

Jean-Luc, you are hereby awarded the Racoon Stamp of Approval! And I wholeheartedly agree with the "spoiler". Seriously, who goes into battle in a kevlar bikini? Last time I checked women and men have about the same disposition of vital organs.

They are indeed. Can't speak for Tales of Valor, but CoH and OF feature four factions between them, all who play very differently yet are rather balanced. My favorite is the Wehrmacht, nothing you can't do with a couple of grenadier squads

Aye, pretty much what it means. There's a character in the Sven Hassel books that says it quite alot, also says something like "vivre le mort". He actually does a song where he just says "C'est la guerre" in the movie Wheels of Terror/The Misfits Brigade. Sathra is back, or am I seeing double? Was afraid he'd gotten lost in the forum swap maelstrom

Not read your books, Lee, but from what I'm reading here I might have to pick one up. Always looking for a good sci-fi book (or cyberpunk. Neuromancer-style). Also, I am truly impressed that you offered to write it for free. Sure it's just a novella, but still. Kinda shows that even successful writers are human, or how to put it. Curse you English for failing me in my time of need! *sigh* At least there's spell checking...

The portraits look damn near awesome! Also, none of that tight-fitting boob-enhancing armour that seems all to common these days. It looks like a good and propper woman in a uniform (Women in uniform, sometimes they feel so cold...). The stuff on base defences is granted the Racoon Stamp of Approval. Was a bit of a chore replacing your defences in X-COM. And honestly, what kind of daft person finds it a good idea to use old missiles when you have plasma launchers? Methinks I'll have to preorder, maybe even shell out the 100$ just to put a Swede in there

Okay, I think I might have choked on my beer when I read that. When you get what is listed there, and if it means what I think it means, who the heck wants pansy plasma?!

Not to mention the P90? Pretty good gun though (5.7 is something extra), but I'm pretty sure it wasn't around duing the cold war

I never understood why the US bans women from combat roles. I mean, so long as a person qualifies to serve as a rifleman (for example), I don't care wheter they're male or female. Granted, the women seem to struggle a bit more than us men from my experience, but if they're up to it why not? Just as long as no one allows women for the sake of having women in there. If a person, man or woman, doesn't meet the requirements then they don't belong there. Back on topic, I like the work so far. Kinda iffy on the uniform, to be honest. I don't know of any armed forces that make female-specific uniforms.

Oh, my bad. And there is a subject what could debate until the end of time. What is and what isn't RPG elements? But let's not go there, I consider stats and stat increases a part of an RPG, as I do gaining abilites and the like. Doesn't make it an RPG, of course Jean-Luc has the right of it, in my book. They could have gone with 6-8, then I'd have no gripe with it.

Skills and abilities I've got nothing against, but as the good Commissar says I'd like around 8 rather than 4-6. Managing skills and the like for 8 dudes/dudettes doesn't seem to much of chore for me, of course I wouldn't know untill I've played the game. I don't think they've reduced the RPG elements as much as redone them, the way I understood it was that abilites are unlocked as your troops advance in rank. That to me seems somewhat better than in the original where every guy has more numbers than I care to keep track of. Sure number crunching has its charm, but I does make everyone a tad, as Gauddlike said, generic as opposed to having "that guy with the grappling ability" or somesuch. Either way it's going to be a very different game from the original X-COM.

Streamlining isn't all bad, but one should be careful of streamlining too much when you're trying to remain true to something (as in this case X-COM). The removal of ammo for standard weapons isn't something that bothers me overly, it's a hassle equipping your troops in X-COM sometimes, and I don't think I've never been out of ammo (well, once I used my last bullet to kill the last Floater). What I can't get my head around, mainly, is the squad size. Why on Earth did they think 4-6 would be enough? Either this means a lot of failed missions due to losing all your troops, or they're just not as frail anymore. Dunno which one is worst. X-COM is supposed to lethal IMO. If I know that the only way to loose my hard-as-nails-eating-grenades-for-breakfast soldiers is for me to screw up horribly, it takes away a lot of the tension I find in X-COM (where a rather small mistake can kill the best of the best). TL;DR - I'm not overly worried about most of the stuff, except squad size and how lethal the game is, so to speak.

Or maybe their names and callsigns? Be a neat feature methinks, if not exactly necessary. But I do think it'd be cooler to read something like Ivan "Commie" Kalashnikov than just one of the two

You, good sir or lady, are hereby awarded +1 internets and the Racoon Stamp of Approval. I was laughing so hard I almost choked on my drink

XenoMask, as far as I know the infected humans aren't in the game yet, not gotten very far to be honest, progression is slow and I've begun playing Xenonauts and X-COM again so not much happening. But I've never seen it in-game, only on their site. Kaguya: Not sure I understand you (could be me not being the brightest bloke on the block though). You're saying that the issue lies with there not being enough maps in the game? I'm pretty sure Chris said somewhere that'd there be alot more maps in the final release if that's what you mean.

This I'm looking forward to (and no, I'm not twisted or sadistic, I promise with my whole scavenging racoon heart!). Honestly though, the more I read up on this game the more I find myself wanting to play it. October or Xenonauts, here I come (whichever comes first)!

Well, the game ends once you successfully attack an alien base as of now. But new aliens would be nice, kinda tiring killing Tamans all over the place. What happened to those lizard like dudes anyway? Sheevan? I remember them being around during my first playthrough, but never seen one since that. Ortnok are annoying though, with medium armour they're basically a walking tank

Well, here I go, I s'pose. I'm a racoon from Sweden, what else to say? Honestly, the name's Kristian, 21-yeard old cook/chef (never did understand the difference between those) in the making, and as the rest I'm pretty much in love with X-COM despite being a toddler when it came out. Got a nicotine addiction I can't be rid with, I like games, and music and Xenonauts (of course).

XenoMask: I've lost count of the times I've played +scout crash, with three aliens spawning at the exact same places. But, since of 2.4 they did add quite a few new maps (love the Ferry one). My point was that UFO: AI has no random map generation, it just picks one map from a pool of maps. And yes, it did get alot more shiny. I just wonder when they'll move the campaign forward though. Isn't it about time, I mean it's been pretty much the same since I started (two or three versions back methinks). Kaguya: Why is the Xenonauts system not acceptable? Sure there are only three maps around for now, but more are on the way, and probably more submaps with it. I'm pretty fond of the system, and I do think it'll make the maps feel less tedious (hell, I've not gotten tired of the three ones in the KS demo yet). But as the say goes; whatever maintains your vessel's buoyancy