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Not sure if there's a section for this sort of thing so I guess I can put it here. Just had a terror mission turn into absolute chaos, and somehow 'won'. The entire battle took place within grenade range of my dropship, I was attacked by a swarm of lizard guys and reapers. With little cover and most of my soldiers in the ship I deployed as much smoke as possible for some concealment. Within a few turns half of my squad was dead along with quite a few enemies, at this point I started using C4 as grenades to destroy enemy groups. I also took down a few more in the smoke with stun batons before losing two more men, with only two left (armed with pistols) I figured I'd grab some nearby alien rifles and go out in a suicide run. Killed the last six enemies and won the battle somehow haha. Anyway that's pretty much it, never saw a battle become so chaotic before, the whole area around the dropship was scorched earth and flames by the end of it. Anyone else have any stories of missions like that, or tips for fighting your way out when you're completely surrounded and outnumbered?

So I just got hit 4 out of 5 times by a Light Drone. She actually survived with one HP. I just...I don't....what? [259900] >>> Begin calc bullet trajectory <<<[259900] Target: level = 0, pos = (37, 31)[259900] Unmodified accuracy calculation:[259900] range penalty (1.000000) = 1 - ( max(0, dist. to target (18.248287) - weapon range (20)) / weapon range (20) )[259900] shoot accuracy (0.600000) = shoot accuracy from props (0.500000) * kneeling boost (1.200000)[259900] shoot accuracy (0.600000) = shoot accuracy (0.600000) - max(0, weapon recoil (0) / 100 - strength (0.500000) )[259900] unmodified accuracy (18.000000) = shoot accuracy (0.600000) * range penalty (1.000000) * weapon accuracy (30.000000)[259900] Generate random value from 1 to 100: rnd = 18[259900] Random value <= unmodified accuracy => no target pos offset[259900] Damage for unit:[259900] damage mul. (1.000000) = ( weapon range (20) / max(weapon range (20), dist. to target (18.248287)) ) * difficult mul. (1.000000) * ai race damage bonus (1.000000)[259900] normal damage (45) = weapon damage (35) * random bonus/penalty (1.300000) * damage mul. (1.000000)[259900] stun damage (0) = weapon stun damage (0) * random bonus/penalty (1.260000) * damage mul. (1.000000)[259900] emp damage (0) = weapon emp damage (0) * random bonus/penalty (0.820000) * damage mul. (1.000000)[259900] Terrain bullet score:[259900] Source unit is crouching => terrain bullet score (1.000000) = 1 - (1 - terrain bullet score (1.000000)) * 1.25[259900] terrain bullet score = 1.000000[259900] modified accuracy (18.000000) = unmodified accuracy (18.000000) * terrain bullet score (1.000000)[259900] Random value (18) <= modified accuracy (18.000000) => no check for terrain intersection[259900] master accuracy (18.000000) = modified accuracy (18.000000) * (1 - chance to hit cover (0.000))[259900] >>> End calc bullet trajectory <<<[259900] >>> Begin calc bullet trajectory <<<[259900] Target: level = 0, pos = (37, 31)[259900] Unmodified accuracy calculation:[259900] range penalty (1.000000) = 1 - ( max(0, dist. to target (18.248287) - weapon range (20)) / weapon range (20) )[259900] shoot accuracy (0.600000) = shoot accuracy from props (0.500000) * kneeling boost (1.200000)[259900] shoot accuracy (0.600000) = shoot accuracy (0.600000) - max(0, weapon recoil (0) / 100 - strength (0.500000) )[259900] unmodified accuracy (18.000000) = shoot accuracy (0.600000) * range penalty (1.000000) * weapon accuracy (30.000000)[259900] Generate random value from 1 to 100: rnd = 47[259900] Random value (47) > unmodified accuracy (18.000000) => offset target pos[259900] New target pos = (38, 31)[259900] Generate new random value from 1 to unmodified accuracy (18): rnd = 10[259900] Tile damage (21.000000) = weapon damage (35) * random bonus/penalty (0.600000) * (weapon range (20) / max(dist. to target (18.110771), weapon range (20) )[259900] Terrain bullet score:[259900] Source unit is crouching => terrain bullet score (1.000000) = 1 - (1 - terrain bullet score (1.000000)) * 1.25[259900] terrain bullet score = 1.000000[259900] modified accuracy (18.000000) = unmodified accuracy (18.000000) * terrain bullet score (1.000000)[259900] Random value (10) <= modified accuracy (18.000000) => no check for terrain intersection[259900] master accuracy (18.000000) = modified accuracy (18.000000) (no unit on target tile or it's a vehicle)[259900] >>> End calc bullet trajectory <<<[259900] >>> Begin calc bullet trajectory <<<[259900] Target: level = 0, pos = (37, 31)[259900] Unmodified accuracy calculation:[259900] range penalty (1.000000) = 1 - ( max(0, dist. to target (18.248287) - weapon range (20)) / weapon range (20) )[259900] shoot accuracy (0.600000) = shoot accuracy from props (0.500000) * kneeling boost (1.200000)[259900] shoot accuracy (0.600000) = shoot accuracy (0.600000) - max(0, weapon recoil (0) / 100 - strength (0.500000) )[259900] unmodified accuracy (18.000000) = shoot accuracy (0.600000) * range penalty (1.000000) * weapon accuracy (30.000000)[259900] Generate random value from 1 to 100: rnd = 18[259900] Random value <= unmodified accuracy => no target pos offset[259900] Damage for unit:[259900] damage mul. (1.000000) = ( weapon range (20) / max(weapon range (20), dist. to target (18.248287)) ) * difficult mul. (1.000000) * ai race damage bonus (1.000000)[259900] normal damage (38) = weapon damage (35) * random bonus/penalty (1.110000) * damage mul. (1.000000)[259900] stun damage (0) = weapon stun damage (0) * random bonus/penalty (1.140000) * damage mul. (1.000000)[259900] emp damage (0) = weapon emp damage (0) * random bonus/penalty (1.210000) * damage mul. (1.000000)[259900] Terrain bullet score:[259900] Source unit is crouching => terrain bullet score (1.000000) = 1 - (1 - terrain bullet score (1.000000)) * 1.25[259900] terrain bullet score = 1.000000[259900] modified accuracy (18.000000) = unmodified accuracy (18.000000) * terrain bullet score (1.000000)[259900] Random value (18) <= modified accuracy (18.000000) => no check for terrain intersection[259900] master accuracy (18.000000) = modified accuracy (18.000000) * (1 - chance to hit cover (0.000))[259900] >>> End calc bullet trajectory <<<[259900] >>> Begin calc bullet trajectory <<<[259900] Target: level = 0, pos = (37, 31)[259900] Unmodified accuracy calculation:[259900] range penalty (1.000000) = 1 - ( max(0, dist. to target (18.248287) - weapon range (20)) / weapon range (20) )[259900] shoot accuracy (0.600000) = shoot accuracy from props (0.500000) * kneeling boost (1.200000)[259900] shoot accuracy (0.600000) = shoot accuracy (0.600000) - max(0, weapon recoil (0) / 100 - strength (0.500000) )[259900] unmodified accuracy (18.000000) = shoot accuracy (0.600000) * range penalty (1.000000) * weapon accuracy (30.000000)[259900] Generate random value from 1 to 100: rnd = 5[259900] Random value <= unmodified accuracy => no target pos offset[259900] Damage for unit:[259900] damage mul. (1.000000) = ( weapon range (20) / max(weapon range (20), dist. to target (18.248287)) ) * difficult mul. (1.000000) * ai race damage bonus (1.000000)[259900] normal damage (49) = weapon damage (35) * random bonus/penalty (1.410000) * damage mul. (1.000000)[259900] stun damage (0) = weapon stun damage (0) * random bonus/penalty (1.040000) * damage mul. (1.000000)[259900] emp damage (0) = weapon emp damage (0) * random bonus/penalty (0.780000) * damage mul. (1.000000)[259900] Terrain bullet score:[259900] Source unit is crouching => terrain bullet score (1.000000) = 1 - (1 - terrain bullet score (1.000000)) * 1.25[259900] terrain bullet score = 1.000000[259900] modified accuracy (18.000000) = unmodified accuracy (18.000000) * terrain bullet score (1.000000)[259900] Random value (5) <= modified accuracy (18.000000) => no check for terrain intersection[259900] master accuracy (18.000000) = modified accuracy (18.000000) * (1 - chance to hit cover (0.000))[259900] >>> End calc bullet trajectory <<<[259900] Cannot precache animation with timelineName "crouchidle_DK" using spectre "units/alien/Lightdrone/Lightdrone/weapon.lightdroneblaster/soldier".[259900] armour damage reduction (35) = max(0, armour resistance (35) - armour mitigation (0))[259900] Damage (0) = max(0, damage (21) - armourValue (35))[259900] Unit HP (65) = max( -20, unit HP (65) - damage (0) )[259900] Stun damage (0) = max(0, stun damage (0) - armourValue (35)[259900] Unit stun HP (65) = max( 0, unit stun HP (65) - damage (0) )[259900] armour damage reduction (30) = max(0, armour resistance (30) - armour mitigation (0))[259900] Damage (15) = max(0, damage (45) - armourValue (30))[259900] Unit HP (50) = max( -20, unit HP (65) - damage (15) )[259900] Stun damage (0) = max(0, stun damage (0) - armourValue (30)[259900] Unit stun HP (65) = max( 0, unit stun HP (65) - damage (0) )[259900] armour damage reduction (22) = max(0, armour resistance (22) - armour mitigation (0))[259900] Damage (16) = max(0, damage (38) - armourValue (22))[259900] Unit HP (34) = max( -20, unit HP (50) - damage (16) )[259900] Stun damage (0) = max(0, stun damage (0) - armourValue (22)[259900] Unit stun HP (65) = max( 0, unit stun HP (65) - damage (0) )[259900] armour damage reduction (16) = max(0, armour resistance (16) - armour mitigation (0))[259900] Damage (33) = max(0, damage (49) - armourValue (16))[259900] Unit HP (1) = max( -20, unit HP (34) - damage (33) )[259900] Stun damage (0) = max(0, stun damage (0) - armourValue (16)[259900] Unit stun HP (65) = max( 0, unit stun HP (65) - damage (0) )

The title says it all. Whether it was a time when everyone got shot coming off the transport, or the last soldier was able to kill 10 aliens, let's hear it. Mine was probably a terror mission where the transport was surrounded by sectoids, and the tank was covering the entrance, and I thought it would be useful to crouch everyone behind the tank so they wouldn't get controlled, but somehow, the aliens controlled people in there, and let's just say that the tank was the only survivor.

Post your funny xenonaut moments here so we can all get a good laugh Here's one of mine from a few weeks ago. AI turn: Farmer runs behind one of my 3 remaining solders. Farmer shoots at alien in fog of war. Soldier Hit 1 soldier kia Player turn: Soldiers move behind a tractor far away from insane farmer. Soldier fires multiple shots at alien, which is now in sight, with a pistol. Miss Miss Miss AI turn: Alien moves to tractor adjacent soldiers and fires a plasma pistol burst at farmer. Miss Farmer runs behind 1 of two remain solders and hides in fear for his life. Player turn: Soldier fires Rocket at Alien. Tractor Hit 2 soldiers kia, Insane farmer kia. Alien wins

Share some of your stories regarding heroic soldiers who tragically died trying to hold back the alien tide or of some rookie who blundered so hard that got him/herself killed in silly fashion! A Poem for Chris England O' Chris of England twas a brave lad, Pistol in hand, C4 the other, a life he had. He ran and ran, a message he sent, Fire in the hole he said, and bang he went. (Charged enemy, planted C4, not enough TU to get away, took two Caesans with him) Chris England - KIA - Sept. 1. 1979. - "He went out with a bang"

Anyone whos seen my other-posts will know that I've been having quite my fair share of mad adventures in this game so I figured I'd share a few of my stupidest (and most awesome) moments: Meet Nathan Explosion: One time, for kicks, I gave one of my men nothing but nades. A few flash, A couple smoke and a shit ton of frags. And I sent him running, head first, as a scout into UFO's. He got something like 15 kills to his name. With only nades. total badass. I promptly renamed him to 'Nathan Explosion' when I realised he need a name other than 'scrub 12'. He's still alive (wounded for 20 or so days, actually). I AIN'T GOT TIME TO BLEED: a rough battle had left me with 4 men out of 10. A couple of Heavy Plasma aliens were picking at my remaining guys. Cue Bloke-McGovna (That's actually what I named him) getting shot. He starts bleeding, Panics, and fires a sniper shot past my HMG officer, killing an heavy-plasma alien standing outside. Thanks to him, My HMG wasnt turned into toast and I was able save the rest of the team. Might makes light... and I feel mighty!: My snipers have the uncanny ability to be able to pick off targets far out of their normal sight range. 'Mr. SnipperWiffle', currently my most accurate sniper, can safely 95% a target at almost 3 times his sight range if someone else is spotting for him. Groovy. That just begs the question; how the hell can someone spot for a sniper like that? What, Is the spotter yelling out 'Oh, a Little to the left... up a bit... FIRE!'. And for that matter, why the hell do the xenonauts feel like its a good idea to litter area's with smoke machines prior to missions? Someone open a can of Worms?: For shits and giggles, my current secondary squad is operating in what I call 'worms mode'. Rockets and grenades only! Its turning out pretty good. I have low Xenonaut death count so long as I go slowly but I do tend to get 'accidental' civie kills. Still, The set-up works a hell of a lot better than the MG only squad and way WAY better than the shotgun only squad. Anyone else got any cool stories?

Having only played the alpha a very short while, I was wondering what funny or aah-ha type moments people have come across....Maybe i was tired the last play through, but I got a real chuckle when a panicky citizen ran past the soldier that "accidently" shot him and into my transport vehicle and the other citizen who rain into the fire (may he rest in peace)...

The following is the (largely) unabridged official mission report on mission Echo-One Tango Zero-One Niner by Lt. Carl Stone, of the Xenonaut base Europa, situated in Cyprus. Mission Outline Mission E-1/T/01 commenced on September 12th. 1979 in response to interceptor squadron Alpha severely damaging and downing a small extraterrestrial vessel designated XTV-04 on a farm on the outskirts of [REDACTED]. The intel suggested that the craft in question was severely damaged, and that XT presence would be minimal, if any. Due to terrain considerations, M.Sgt. [REDACTED]aboard Hunter-01 played no significant part in the engagement. Squadron profile Cpt. [REDACTED], Chopper pilot Lt. [REDACTED], Chopper copilot M.Sgt. [REDACTED], Hunter pilot Lt. Carl Stone, Marksman Sgt. Anja Kalashnikova, Pointman (KIA) Pvt. Mark Spencer, Rifleman (KIA) Pvt. Lisa Smith, Rifleman (KIA) Pvt. Cole Brenner, Pointman (KIA) Pvt. Mark "Barkskin" Washington, Machinegunner (KIA) Pvt. Steve McManus, Rifleman (KIA) Pvt. Elizabeth "Liz" London, Medic (KIA) Enagement details The initial flyover of the site coming in to land confirmed the intial intel, the XTV was indeed heavily damaged, and no apparent sign of XT activity was observed. The local populace, while present, seemed to be in panic, and staying well clear of the downed vehicle. The immediate area was found to contain two intact barns, and little else in the way of cover. The barns are designated on the tactical map (document # [REDACTED]) "North (Sierra-1)" and "South (Sierra-2)". The chopper was set down with S-2 blocking the immediate view of XTV-4. Pvts. Spencer and Smith were immediately dispatch to scout and secure S-1, while the rest of the team proceeded to secure S-2 and close on XTV-4. After reporting seeing movement inside S-2, Pvt. Spencer proceeded to "secure" the target by throwing a single grenade into its interior, evidently mistaking his frag grenade for a smoke grenade. The resulting explosion and subsequent collapse of the building killed not only himself and Pvt. Smith, but also the panicked farmer's daugther (Ms. [REDACTED]) cowering inside. To his credit, the target was undoubtedly at this point secure. -- After Sgt. Kalashnikova and Pvt. MacManus secured S-1 in a somewhat more restrained fashion, I obtained a nest on the second floor of the building, gaining a good view of the XTV and surroundng area, while Sgt. Kalashnikova and Pvt. Brenner advanced towards the XTV covered by Pvts. Washington and McManus. This would be the approximate time at which Pvt. London was shot in the face by a panicked farmer with a shotgun, originating on our left flank. In the heat of the moment, Pvt. Washington responded commendably and, as he would say, sanctified the farmer, not recognizing the friendly fire incident for what it was. Indeed I have rarely seen a holier man. -- While I remained at my vantage point, covering the east entrance to the XTV, the rest of the squad moved to secure the west entrance. With Pvt. MacManus providing cover, from behind a nearby stone waist-high fence, and with Sgt. Kalashnikova and Pvt. Brenner covering the door, Pvt. Washington breached the west entrance of the XTV, going in hot, immediately turning the sole occupant of the west (pres. aft) compartment of the ship into swiss cheese with impeccable efficiency. Unfortunately, it appears as if the aft compartment of this class of ship contains some manner of power source or engine that reacts adversely to gunfire. By some miracle of alien engineering, the compartment successfully contained the resulting blast, sparing Sgt. Kalashnikova and Pvt. Brenner from the fire and shockwave. -- However, this would be the point at which Pvt. McManus panicked and emptied the entire contents of his magazine into their general direction, killing both. It's possible that he reacted to the explotion and attempted to shoot it to death, but it seems more likely that he was trying to shoot the XT that had emerged from behind the aft compartment and that his aim was merely atrocious. Whatever the case, he was quickly shot to death by the XT in question, demonstrating the impressive range and power of the alien rifles. I returned the favor by doing a demonstration of my own high-prescision rifle, and should this report end up in the hands of Dr. [REDACTED]or Dr. [REDACTED], I can happily report that a well aimed shot to the head is indeed fatal to the XTs. -- With no more boots on the ground I was now forced to myself quickly sweep the forward section of the ship, discovering inside it two deceased XTs. From our inspections of XTV-02 and XTV-03, this class of XTV should have a contingent of 4 XTs, matching our headcount for this engagement, and as such I'm confident that we over the course of the engagement successfully destroyed the invading force. Conclusion Having observed fresh reqruits in the field, it is my opinion that the Echo-One Tango project be scrapped immediately, in favor of mandatory on-base training of new reqruits. Additionally, I propose that mission Echo-One Tango Zero-Two Niner be scrapped, if not merely because of the dismal failure suffered here, then also because the reqruit-group scheduled for the mission contains Pvts. Spencer, Smith, McManus and London, all deceased. Signed Lt. Carl Stone

Yes, just as the title says, this is a thread about recollecting the soldiers you had in X-COM or what have you that stuck out to you. It could be any number of them, just let your story go and tell us why. I'll start with saying Shigeru Noguchi. The name is apparently also the name of a famous go player, but he happens to be my first X-COM Commander. His rise to prominence included killing two sectoids in one mission with a single reaction burst, so I had a feeling he was eventually going to be someone special.

I have just read this interesting article on the strategy gaming blog Flash of Steel, and though it doesn't mention X-Com style games it could easily been written about them. The article is worth a read by itself, but is also a good opener for a specific discussion on Xenonauts. For those not interested in reading the whole thing: it talks about random elements in strategy games and how these elements can prevent singleplayer strategy games from becoming boring and rote in the long term and also how they lead to the dynamic generation of "stories" in these games. X-Com and its descendants are very good at using random elements to stay interesting after the player has mastered the core game systems. They are also notorious for being occasionally violently unfair, but interestingly these moments of cruelty are rarely as annoying as they are in other games; the crucial difference in X-Com games, I believe, is that almost all of the random elements can be adapted to by the player in some way. This is what creates the dramatic tension of the missions, and prevents them becoming repetitive; even experienced players can find themselves in an unwinnable situation, created by a combination of random elements. Those dynamic "stories" the article mentions are created when the player find themselves in one of those no-win situations and then uses everything at their disposal to win anyway. I'm interested in other people thoughts on this; do you agree that the randomisation of the player challenge is one of the key ingredients to the X-Com (and by extension, Xenonauts) formula? What are the ways they use random elements that work best and provide interesting but surmountable challenges? In which ways do they work the least well, simply being annoying with no way for the player to fight back? My personal view is this: X-Com was released as "UFO Enemy Unknown" in the UK, and that title was very deliberate - the most important aspect of randomisation in the game isn't the inaccuracy of shooting, or the random maps - it's the aliens themselves. In ground combat, the real trick to winning is unmasking the alien force - once you have found out who they are, how many they are and where they are then victory is almost assured - the real challenge is uncovering that information before your forces are picked off from the shadows. This consequently means once the player has, after a first playthrough, figured out the order the alien races appear in and their relative abilities the challenge is lessened significantly. I wonder if these elements could be randomised on a per-playthrough basis to increase replayability and maintain that fear of the unkown? Perhaps the first time you play the intitial enemies are mostly Sectoid style aliens, and rely on long range weapons - but maybe the next time you play the game adjusts the stats of a different alien race, and gives them nasty close range weapons (and you meet the Sectoids-alikes later in a more powerful form). Maybe sometimes they will have weapons platforms, maybe sometimes hoards of weaker troops. You could introduce a minor chance that an more powerful alien race could make a one off appearance earlier in the game than they normally would - so you shoot down a UFO expecting it to be full of Sectoid-alikes, but instead get a hive of Chrysalids-beasts - do you run away, fight them? Imagine if you fought them and won! Perhaps you could even lock out entire enemy types in each playthrough - imagine playing through the game a second time and meeting an enemy unit, weapon or even entire race that you had never seen before! Anyway, I hope this was interesting and generates some discussion. To be clear, I put this in general discussion because I specifically wanted to avoid it turning into a "We have decided it should be like XYZ in Xenonauts, Chris!"; I'm more interested in just talking about these ideas.