Completed Xenonauts

[Azira]

So. I've got a new update ready. But I suck at parsing your reactions to my posts, as I haven't got an overview of the roster for you at the end of the update.

I'll try to remember next time.

Spoiler

I'm not going to show every interception. Nor every combat. Just shots from when they're interesting.
And then the debrief screens like the one above.

And of course the Xenopedia stuff, like the info on the light drone wreckage.
Funny thing about drones. They can't be stunned and captured. You'll just end up looking really silly if you try..

Xenopedia entry for the medium sized UFO, the corvette. Two Foxtrots can take one down without suffering any damage. That's a total of 4 torpedoes. They do the trick nicely.

So we better build more of them.
Building one from scratch is faster than fixing one up that has taken more than 50% damage. Go figure.

Radar is online Down Under.

But we're low on cash, so new interceptors will have to wait. And might have to wait even more, now that we get better armour online. This is a real step up from the jackal. Double the armour. Our assaults need these.

Not sure I'll bother with the buzzard armour. Will build at least one set once it's researched, just to check it out though.

The thing about more advanced armour types is that they're both expensive in cash, and require rare resources.

Speaking of cash. We get an influx at the turn of the month. Also, I'll probably need to plop down a base in russia soon.

But first, interceptors coming for Down Under. 72 hours delivery time compared to 25 hours build time of the Foxtrot... On the other hand, we can buy as many condors as we like, the 72 hours is individually calculated (parallel) as compared to the seriel construction done by our own engineers.

The new wolf armour equipped.

Also, with the extra cash, I order 3 laser sniper rifles built.

While waiting for Interesting Stuff to happen, we finish researching the Electromajiffics.

The Corsair is now on the plate, and so is better stun/electroshock grenades.

Here's how the new armour looks on the battlefield. You cannot rotate the camera in Xenonauts. But you can in Xenonauts 2.

The officer in this mission had a new type of weapon.

Can't remember what researching it does. But I will prioritise it, as I think it might be important.

These fuckers are why you want better weapons ASAP. That damage number is from my ballistic sniper. It's pathetic.
Fortunately, I got laser pistols and explosives. So we manage to get a win.

Thing that is a bit sad about explosives is less loot, meaning less profit.

See? Even a scout gives better profit than a corvette, if you blow shit in the corvette up.

The "autopsy" report of the Andron. I've looked it up online, and there's an unused and inaccessible entry for the capture of one.
I've included the text for it below, as we'll never see it in-game;
" Well done, Commander. Whoever fired the lucky shot that disrupted its self-termination mechanism has given us an intact specimen rather than the usual fragged to hell mess of circuitry that forms its brain and I've been working around the cock to decrypt its contents.

The brain is an engineering marvel. Like the rest of the body, it's been modelled on organic beings - a large, complex lump of matter. Considerable thought has been given to cooling the excess heat a machine-speed brain generates. The architecture of the brain is so designed to prevent hotspots from forming, superconductive material is used throughout and an unusual liquid coolant is used whose molecules appear to dump around spots of heat and ignore cooler areas, regulating the amount by which any particular area is cooled rather than cooling everything by the same uniform temperature. As with other design decisions of the Andron, there don't seem to be any efficiency gains from modelling the brain like this. A distributed set of processing nodes throughout the body would be easier to cool and make the Andron more resilient against an attack which takes out a processing node.

Digital forensic analysis of its operating system reveals two distinct layers of machine code. The first, more fundamental layer is an autonomous, undirected, self-aware neural network. This generalized layer can learn and reason in a similar way that higher-order mammals can. It was difficult to unearth, as its been partially hidden and mostly brutalizer by a second layer of code which savages the self-learning and self-improvement mechanisms, installs powerful obdience protocols and forces the decision matrix to refer to an approved master instruction set turning a potentially self aware being into a lobotomized slave. This disparity between the two layers both in design and intent is striking. Clearly Androns weren't always this way… but what were the Androns before they were re-purposed as engines of war? Experiments are underway to see if we subvert the control layer. A mass slave revolt on Andron-crewed vessels may be one solution to the invasion.

For all the Andron's robot speed and strength, their slavish instruction set makes them incredibly predictable, right down to the way they hold their their weapons and the precise pattern of movements they make in combat. These "tells" as well as detailed files on weak spots in their armour plating have been packaged up and distributed to your men. You should see a roughly 10 percent improvement in damage caused by exploitation of these weaknesses."

With the radars up and running and cash starting to flow, I build an extra hangar in both of our new bases I'd like to keep at least three interceptors in every base.
Possibly six in the long run.

At about this time, bombers start to show up. These mean business.

Luckily, they can be brought low by the humble condor.

I took a screenshot of this, as it both shows a landed UFO, and a medium UFO with fighter escorts. The latter is a terror mission looking to happen, so it's got to go once my interceptors are ready.

100% autoresolve? I'll take that please.

Outside view of the landed corvette. No visual damage to the hull.

I hate androns. So yeah, used explosives again. I really need a laser MG soon.

Third tier medal. Congrats Luka-Boy!

Xenopedia entry for the bomber. It has horrendous turning, so I should probably do fights against them manually, get behind it and just let tear.
Next time.

Welcome about to our two newest volounteers! You look dashing, ladies.

And I end the update with another Foxtrot being built. I want one in both of our secondary bases.
No new groundbreaking research done yet. I'll save that for the next update.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Sweden, Yes!

 

[Damned Registrations]

Not sure I'll bother with the buzzard armour. Will build at least one set once it's researched, just to check it out though.

I recall being disappointed with it. you can't fire in the air, and you also can't land on a lot of things you'd think you could land on, like your aircraft or the roof of a traincar or whatever.

 

[Luka-boy]

Third tier medal. Congrats Luka-Boy!

Yeah but I get wounded most missions and I still haven't received that Crimson Heart. You're just waiting for me to kick the bucket and award it posthumously, aren't you?

 

[Azira]

Nothing much happens in this update.

Or does it?

Spoiler

Next iteration of the completed ground missions medal. Not sure where it tops off. At 30? Guess we'll find out eventually.

The UFOs spawn several at a time. Whatever I shoot down over the US or in Aussie-land will get airstriked. Our chopper is too slow to send all the way there.

Fun fact. The civilians can get absolutely splattered by alien attacks. But they leave behind their weapons, if you're not above using simple ballistic weapons.
Not much use though. You get them for free, and by the same token, they're worth nothing.

An uncomplicated milk run. I try to avoid using explosives to directly damage the opposition, but I'm not above using 'splosives to knock down walls etc.

On this mission, I was excited to see a new type of plasma weapon, thinking that looting this would further my own weapons research!

Then I saw this dude. They're like the original Chryssalids.

A well placed stun missile took it out. Concentrated gunfire slew the Sebillians.

Yeah, that's a new weapon and a new capture to research! Nice..

The thing is. They didn't just have a single Reaper, no..

Luka-boy is in danger. *chuckles*

Damned Registrations to the rescue with his MG. Reapers have a fuck-ton of action points and can run all over the place, often without triggering reaction fire. But they go down fast, even to ballistic fire.

We like to see them dead. Even though, as far as I can tell and recall, there's not a mechanic of them waking from stun during a mission.
If you down an enemy, you can then safely ignore that enemy for the rest of the mission.

The same thing applies to your Xenonauts though. So don't get stunned.

The new research options do excite me though. Better weapons is ALWAYS worth the effort.

This mission told me that I had somehow not managed to capture a live Sebillian until now. Stun gas makes a hell of a difference.

I finish research on the alien plasma sniper.

And throw every available researcher into the next alien plasma weapon research. I hope to unlock plasma weapons of my own.

Before that happens, the Reaper autopsy completes on its own. Just like the Chryssalids of old. Nasty.
At least it's not tentaculats, that were tanky and could float. Damn those buggers to hell...

By now I got a foxtrot and two condors in both of the secondary bases. It'll probably be even better to have two foxtrots and one condor instead, but that's pricey and costly in engineering manpower.

Gimme! Again, this project is of my highest priority. Better pew-pew now rather than later!

Here's an interesting image showing that the interior of the UFOs aren't static. They can have different layouts.

I try to do all the ground missions I can, both to build our soldiers, but also to pad our wallets.

Civilians are another word for Reaper bait. When I killed the zombie it exploded, no new reaper was born from the carcass.

The aliens really went nom-nom on the civvies here..

Caesans seem less of a threat. Even if their psionics are annoying.

Then there's the Androns. They tend to really muck up our troops. It'll be nice once we get better weapons and can put them down faster.
Though, there will then also come better iterations of the same enemies. Soon we'll see differently coloured enemies, and they usually mean tougher troops with better accuracy and reactions.

Which is why we want these babies.

I immediately order the production of pistols and sniper rifles. Even with 30 engineers working around the clock, it'll take 4 days to produce 3 pistols. Sheesh. Lazy bums.

To finish this update, here's a look at the roster:

As you can see, we have 10 soldiers in our main base. The top 8 are the ones almost always deployed. So the last two are pitiful in comparison.
I'll prioritise a better transport now I got plasma pistols and snipers. So we can start bringing the full 10 bodies on missions.
Also, I think the stats cap at 100. So timeunits are reaching the ceiling now. Strength is a close second. It'll take a while before our slowest troops can catch up. Once I get the next interceptor, I think I'll put our two newest recruits in Buzzard suits and with snipers, so I can put them somewhere high and snipe. That should off-set some of the low stats. I hope.

 

[Andnjord]

Goddamn is my toon physically strong! But my accuracy is lagging behind, is that because you never let me blow shit up?

 

[Azira]

Snipers shoot more often than heavies. It's simple math. I think, once we get really good MG's, that you'll get one of those instead, and I expect you'll get to fire at more shit then.
Don't worry. You do still fire at shit. Mostly to demolish walls and other obstacles. Or to fire stun rockets.

In Xenonauts 2, you can build training rooms that help with gradually increasing all stats. Meaning, recruits will not emain sad, miserable, useless fucks, but will actually be able to more or less measure up with people who have seen combat.
Bar the medals. They can't get those without action.

 

[Andnjord]

What benefit does strength give again? Just carry more stuff, better melee damage or other things?

 

[Azira]

When using heavy weapons, how well you hit stuff is calculated using the lower of either accuracy or strength.

But yes, for everyone else, it's a measure of how much stuff you can carry.

 

[Azira]

I thought I disliked Androns.
Turns out I prefer them to Sebillians. At least Androns don't carry around reapers. Those things give me the jeebies...

Spoiler

Anoter UFO cleared, another mission succesful.

With all the UFOs in the air simultaneously, sometimes I cannot shoot all of them down fast enough. Once such lead to our first terror site!

Sporting upgraded Androns. The enemies are simple enough to distinguish in this game, as mostly it's just colour palette swaps, sometimes with an added helmet or shoulder pads.

Walls are annoying when they shield the enemy better than your own troops. That's where rockets are useful.

We get a special medal for completing a terror site. Even though I stated that I prefer Androns to Sebillians, that doesn't mean that we don't take a beating.
Just remember to bring medkits, and cycle whomever you got in front. Preferrably you put an assault troop carrying a shield in front, so you got a nice bit of ablative armour.

The game says that you'll get extra cash based on each saved civvie. Didn't see it. Seems you're better off shooting down the UFO and getting more loot that way.

You miss out on the UFO based loot, such as the power source, if the aliens initiate a terror site.
Not so if they simply land the UFO.

Yeah. Poor civvie. But better him than us, right?

There's no loot worth cash on the reapers. So here we deploy rockets for great effect! If they manage to survive the blast, cleanup with pistols and rifles is next.

I really don't like reapers. They can run everywhere on the map, and suddenly one might be behind you. That was what led Ulminati to abandon his LP.

I got enough cash now that I choose to fortify our secondary bases. An extra hangar, living quarters, storeroom, and three defensive structures. I hope that's enough.

Almost everyone is happy with the Xenonauts for now. Going better than I expected.

And then! An alien base! This one is the lowest tier. I believe they come in three sizes.
I'm excited. I know that if I take a base out properly (by holding the command center, not blowing up the core), I can get a really useful upgrade to our own HQ.
So in I send the team.

Basically, you want every alien killed and gone. If you hold the command center before you kill everyone, you'll get the map revealed.
I've found that to be more or less a moot point, as the command center is usually furthest away from where you enter, so if you're paranoid/thorough enough, the last aliens you're looking for will be in the command center at any rate.

We advance carefully, leap-frog teams around. And this glowing thingie is the power core. Things are progressing nicely, and we've endured a couple of psionic attacks, so I know we're up against Caesans. That means no reapers, and that makes me happy.

That's one less psionic attack per round. The close quarters here means I switched out the pistols for stun batons. They're more efficient in enclosed spaces.

I thought this might take me to the command center, but nope.
Funny thing happened here. An alien officer lobbed a grenade at us from a different room. Through the walls. Quirky AI shenanigans is what it is. Fortunately, while the explosion hurt, it didn't kill anyone.

And we're ready to flush out the command center.

Nice and "clean". Except that Jaedarsdottir is the only one NOT injured by the end of combat. Also, new medal. More bravery is good, it protects against psionics.

The base upgrade tech isn't immediately available. It'll pop in about a day. It's like we do an autopsy on the alien base first..

For comparison, the damage stats on the plasma pistol. Range, ammo, accuracy, TU costs etc are all the same. It's a pure damage upgrade.

This is what we were really after. It'll provide a 50% boost to both our labs and workshops. Top priority research, as it'll make all the rest of the research finish faster.

Also, our plasma pistols have been produced, so now our engineers can get to work on the sniper rifles. 4 days a piece. Sheesh. I'm looking forward to that 50% boost, I can tell you that.

Another important piece of research.

IIRC, the Shrike will allow us to field 10 soldiers, so I can take the last two languishing in our HQ along for the ride.

While we're waiting for research to complete and our engineering projects to wrap up, there still remains UFOs to clear.

So the US and Aussie bases can now be crewed. I immediately order a batch of soldiers for each base. I could order 30 for each base, but I seem to recall there's a limit to how many soldiers you can field in defense.
Not sure on the exact number though. I just order 10 soldiers to each base.

Another day, another couple of UFO cleanups.

I notice the our relations in South America are "bad", so I decide to splurge 500k to build a third secondary base.

Our first plasma sniper rifle is done, so I screenshot the stats on the laser vs the plasma versions. Same as for pistols (and every other weapon), you get a pure upgrade. Damage stats increase, everything else remains the same.

Yass.. This is really nice. It also kicks off another set of cosmetic changes in our HQ rooms.

Incidentally, you get the roster overview here, as I'm rounding off this update. Everyone has maxed out their TU's Strength isn't far behind.
Reflexes turn out to be the most challenging to raise.

Finally, our defensive batteries come online in the US and Aussie bases. This feels secure. But I might just be hopelessly naive..

 

[Strange Fellow]

The lack of death is most disappointing. The council of Codexia is considering dropping its funding unless the situation improves.

 

[Andnjord]

Given enough strength, can one toon carry both a MG and a rocket launcher for maximal tacticool flexibility?

 

[Azira]

You can stuff one in your backpack. You cannot dual-wield them.

 

[Andnjord]

I wasn’t even thinking of dual wielding them, but now that you’ve mentioned it I am crushingly disappointed that I can’t.

 

[Luka-boy]

In Xenonauts 2, you can build training rooms that help with gradually increasing all stats. Meaning, recruits will not emain sad, miserable, useless fucks, but will actually be able to more or less measure up with people who have seen combat.
Bar the medals. They can't get those without action.

Well, In Xenonauts 1 you apparently aren´t awarded a certain medal even when getting all the action and surviving enemy grenade blasts.

The labor union will learn about this travesty.

 

[Darth Roxor]

perfect accuracy, bitches

 

[Azira]

Well, In Xenonauts 1 you apparently aren´t awarded a certain medal even when getting all the action and surviving enemy grenade blasts.

The labor union will learn about this travesty.

I think you need to be "wounded" and not "injured" to get that medal.
Being "wounded" will make you unavailable for combat. Being "injured" just means you start the mission with less max health.

I think the cutoff is that you need to take more than 50% of your max health as damage, to qualify for "wounded" status.

 

[Andnjord]

In Xenonauts 2, you can build training rooms that help with gradually increasing all stats. Meaning, recruits will not emain sad, miserable, useless fucks, but will actually be able to more or less measure up with people who have seen combat.
Bar the medals. They can't get those without action.

Well, In Xenonauts 1 you apparently aren´t awarded a certain medal even when getting all the action and surviving enemy grenade blasts.

The labor union will learn about this travesty.

Just need to survive getting shot in the face with 1hp left, easy!

 

[Azira]

In this update, noone gets any new medals. Noone!

We do get a new transport though. That's nice.

Spoiler

Most of the game you're clearing crashed or landed UFOs. Or waiting for the chopper to get to/from a crash site. And the chopper's so sloow...
Not fun.

Which is why this is a big deal. The Shrike has double the speed of the chopper. The extra two soldiers you can bring is just a cherry on top. For me, the speed is the defining factor here.

It only costs the same to build as the Foxtrot. Our stocks of alloys and alenium are plentiful.

Next up, the Aliens terrorize Lima. I wasn't sure we'd be able to get there in time, as the chopper took almost 21 hours to get there.
We lucked out. It didn't despawn, and we arrived in daylight.
Which is good, because Caesans have excellent eyesight, and this mission has us up against advanced Caesans. Not the best of the best, but better than baseline.

We put the first down with gas. Didn't learn anything new from him though.

We're taking a lot of damage here, including bleeding wounds. They're annoying, but I got medikits so we fix people up again.

All those people in red, yet not a single medal. For shame.

This time it seems that I do get a bonus from completing the terror site. Even though our rep here in South America is bad, we're still looking at a substantial increase in funding.

You can take a look in the hangar when you're building new aircraft. It'll change the graphics in steps.

Also, overdue since we now got plasma weapons, but it is nice to improve our craft weapons.

Also unlocks the research for a proper tank. It's on the back burner for now though. So much stuff still to research.

The gatling autocannons are now gatling lasers. Can't see the stats, so I don't know how much of an improvement, but based on the handheld weaponry, I'm guessing +50%.

Then again, the base defense batteries seem to have doubled in strength. Or maybe not. I thought I had a screenshot of the base with the basic missile batteries. Turns out I misremembered. But I seem to recall it displayed the defense strength to 30 back then. Oh well.

I COULD build laser MGs. But I'm currently building the new dropship, and I think I'd rather just leapfrog to plasma MGs once they're available.

It's getting there. Bit by bit.

Done. Now to shuffle our troops.

Out with the old.

In with the new! Looks like there's no side entrance/exits here.
I've decided to make the unclaimed mooks into an extra heavy and an extra sniper. Might switch the heavy to sniper when I get back into the game. Probably more bang for the buck that way, figuratively speaking. Want to shoot often. It might even be worth it to give them rifles, just because of lower TU-usage.

Anyhow, we end the update with the roster again. Everyone have hit the 100 limit for TU's. Quite a few have for strength.
Whiskeywolf is doing really well on reflexes and bravery both. That's a surprise, a sniper with that high reflexes. But a welcome surprise.
Usually it's the assault troopers that train reflexes. Maybe I haven't been using them quite right.

 

[Darth Roxor]

the lack of action footage and casualties can mean only one thing

savescumming

also i can't believe that you've been running with the stock machine gun all this time

 

[Azira]

Did it say Ironman anywhere on the front page?

 

[ValeVelKal]

Keep getting wounded, keep surviving. I told you. I am the 1 in a million gal.

Did it say Ironman anywhere on the front page?

You make me very sad.

 

[Luka-boy]

Oh yeah, congrats for getting those sweet gaming rigs for the lab before 1980.

You can call them Alienware computers or something catchy like that.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Did it say Ironman anywhere on the front page?

 

[Azira]

The troop carriers in Xenopedia are a bit funky.

Spoiler

There's a new type of UFO showing up now. Perfect timing considering I just finished our new transport.

The funky thing about the Shrike is that you can disembark from both front and rear. I didn't remember that. Our current troop placemen is a bit off then.

This was just a simple corvette I shot down before I spotted the new UFO.
I didn't save-scum or reload even once during this UFO retrieval mission.

Back at the base, we get our fifth Foxtrot online, so it's ready to be shipped to South America once their hangars come online.

And we start our first mission against the new UFO type.
And what do you know, they even treat us to a new kind of enemy.
These buggers are called Harridans, and they seem to be snipers with a flying/jump suit.
They don't strike me as that threatening compared to reapers, I must say.

Surprise buttsecks! Yes, you can apply a stun baton through a mesh fence.

Sleep tight little fucker.

There's no way to get to the roof unless you have a suit of armour that allows (limited) flight. So we just snipe this one from a distance.

Now this looks like a proper UFO. It's even proper saucer-shaped!

And it has teleporters, that means more than one floor.

Noone in the engine room. That surprised me.

I was lucky and managed not to draw reaction fire when going through the teleporters. So I went back again, and remained on the teleporter pad.
That prevents the teleporter from being used, keeping our soldiers safe for the next round where we have full TU's again.

Cleanup commences.
There's now muddy blue Androns, purple Androns and bright blue Androns.
I think the purple one is an officer. The muddy blue a soldier, the bright blue a warrior. All tougher versions.

So we shoot the closest one in the back, then deploy smoke.

As you can see the officer relocated, but I got 5 snipers now, so he was taken care of, then I sent in our assault troopers to clean up.

No save-scumming. Not even a single reload.

This new UFO type unlocks more new research. Again, better weapons sound like just what the doctor ordered!

Also, now even fighters can get their own fighter escort. These will hunt and shoot down the troop carrier, if it is caught.

The Harridan autopsy is completed. Snipers indeed.

So it's called a landing ship. Our current interceptors are still up to the task. I do want better interceptors soon though. There's just so much research to choose from.

A different layout for the landing ship UFO. Still managed to clear it without save-scumming.

I think this might be the final alien variant of the plasma weaponry. Not sure, but think so.

And hangars are online in SA. No radar yet, so even though I'm relocating a Foxtrot and ordered two condors, they cannot really intercept what they cannot see yet.

Dang. Forgot the roster. Well, this was also just meant to be a short update. Without save-scumming.