Azira
Arcane
Last time we established that flamethrowers magically work on Mars, apparently, our researchers came up with a self-oxidizing, self-sustaining flammable solution, and eklektyk used this to great effect. So great in fact, that chzr deviated from her designated plan of evolution, to pick up heavy weapons handling.
On a mission to pick up another beastman artifact, we come upon the most deadly foe so far.
The green matriarch. Just as fast, just as agile as the red one, but the green one keeps fighting until all health is spent. Simply getting her healthbar in the red doesn't take her out of the fight. She also seems possessed with greater accuracy than even our snipers. So the best course of attack is to get close to her, then unload with a couple of gatling cannons. Preferably coupled with a flamethrower or two.
The artifact that eklektyk picked up turns out to be a device for steering the little tornados.
It sounds useful, but I haven't seen the tornados for a while now, and the artifact seems to be unusable by humans anyhow. I regard this as a small piece of fluff, to try and explain why the nature forces attacks the human player only.
Research on the astronomical model concludes while we're away to retrieve this beastman artifact.
An extra moon? They speculate it might be a spaceship?! And earlier research into the fossil fuels we found on Mars, indicate a prior biomass growth... It's true then. It's the Giant Space Walnuts again..
Kaiserin, Diggler and Drakron seem intent on visiting these "moons", they think it might have bearing on what was happening back on Earth.
I'm not in too much of a hurry though. There's now a "moon mission" button I can click, but it seems we're not quite ready to make the trip yet.
To research the proper tech, we need Fuel at level 7.
Alas, we're only at level 6. I guess the moon mission will have to wait a little while.
What better way to pass the time than trying to learn more about the green guys we've been fighting? We've already picked up two artifacts, and they let us learn about the moons, and the fact that the second moon hasn't always been there.
Off we go to another excavation site!
Retrieve the object, and we can even see it from where we exited the UFO? This should be easy.
There's a whole lot of robots in the way though. This map however is tailored to make life easy for us it seems. It comes with a handy bottle-neck, and we can sit back and let the laser sniper rifles and gatling cannons do the talking.
And soon the way is clear.
Not a scratch. Too bad the robots only maps are few in between now. This is easy xp for little risk.
While we wait for research to finish, we grab some territories. It's not this harmless every time.
I really should stop splitting up the team. Concentrated fire rules the battlefield. If you divide your forces, you run the risk of losing part of it. I almost lost Bee and T'Brow a couple of times, but Desmond is a true lifesave with his ranged healing.
The last artifact provides us with the knowledge needed to decipher the martian language.
EM and plasma weapons are within our reach now, but Drakron seems much more excited about the prospects for terraformation..
I must admit however, that the terraformation of Mars is our original mission. I just feel that it's slightly more important trying to stop the creatures that want our destruction first..
Speaking of which. Our newfound knowledge of written martian records leads to unexpected discoveries about Mars' past.
Draw your attention to the middle paragraph, headed "Original Inhabitants of Mars".
Huh. Seems we're the colonial force that's trying to kill of the returning original natives, who had been ousted by an invading force, whom we're currently trying to get to understand, so we can make a cease-fire with them?
The Pinks and Grays are battling the Reds, which were originally deported by the Greens, who are just now awaking from hibernation, and might be willing to ally?
This game is now all about subjugating the indigenous population! And if we cannot confine them to their reserves, we'll just butcher the lot of them.
Our research on the martian language proceeds, and we finally make a breakthrough!
We're now able to understand the "spoken" martian language, so let's see if the Greens are open to peacetalks.
Their reservations aside, we can already broker the peace now, and they're willing to ally right away. This might be because of the modding I did. I remember that you had to rescue one of their troops first, but what the hey. One less faction to fight.
They even trade us some extra fuel!
We can now research the UFO spaceflight, so doing the moon mission thing is now within reach.
Even though we're allied, we still get the "rescue a martian" mission and we set off to do it immediately.
Sounds simple enough. But seeing as we already have the possible three martians in our team, there's no captive to be found anywhere on the map. I completed this map twice, the second time with one of the martians on the team, but that made no difference.
The only way to end the mission when the mission goal is absent is to abort and fail the mission.
Even though the mission is a failure, our alliance with the martians remain intact. I hope this is the last we see of the inconsitensies my modding has introduced into the game.
Next time, maybe there'll be more horny Giant Space Walnut action? Only time will tell. (I hope not)
On a mission to pick up another beastman artifact, we come upon the most deadly foe so far.
The green matriarch. Just as fast, just as agile as the red one, but the green one keeps fighting until all health is spent. Simply getting her healthbar in the red doesn't take her out of the fight. She also seems possessed with greater accuracy than even our snipers. So the best course of attack is to get close to her, then unload with a couple of gatling cannons. Preferably coupled with a flamethrower or two.
The artifact that eklektyk picked up turns out to be a device for steering the little tornados.
It sounds useful, but I haven't seen the tornados for a while now, and the artifact seems to be unusable by humans anyhow. I regard this as a small piece of fluff, to try and explain why the nature forces attacks the human player only.
Research on the astronomical model concludes while we're away to retrieve this beastman artifact.
An extra moon? They speculate it might be a spaceship?! And earlier research into the fossil fuels we found on Mars, indicate a prior biomass growth... It's true then. It's the Giant Space Walnuts again..
Kaiserin, Diggler and Drakron seem intent on visiting these "moons", they think it might have bearing on what was happening back on Earth.
I'm not in too much of a hurry though. There's now a "moon mission" button I can click, but it seems we're not quite ready to make the trip yet.
To research the proper tech, we need Fuel at level 7.
Alas, we're only at level 6. I guess the moon mission will have to wait a little while.
What better way to pass the time than trying to learn more about the green guys we've been fighting? We've already picked up two artifacts, and they let us learn about the moons, and the fact that the second moon hasn't always been there.
Off we go to another excavation site!
Retrieve the object, and we can even see it from where we exited the UFO? This should be easy.
There's a whole lot of robots in the way though. This map however is tailored to make life easy for us it seems. It comes with a handy bottle-neck, and we can sit back and let the laser sniper rifles and gatling cannons do the talking.
And soon the way is clear.
Not a scratch. Too bad the robots only maps are few in between now. This is easy xp for little risk.
While we wait for research to finish, we grab some territories. It's not this harmless every time.
I really should stop splitting up the team. Concentrated fire rules the battlefield. If you divide your forces, you run the risk of losing part of it. I almost lost Bee and T'Brow a couple of times, but Desmond is a true lifesave with his ranged healing.
The last artifact provides us with the knowledge needed to decipher the martian language.
EM and plasma weapons are within our reach now, but Drakron seems much more excited about the prospects for terraformation..
I must admit however, that the terraformation of Mars is our original mission. I just feel that it's slightly more important trying to stop the creatures that want our destruction first..
Speaking of which. Our newfound knowledge of written martian records leads to unexpected discoveries about Mars' past.
Draw your attention to the middle paragraph, headed "Original Inhabitants of Mars".
Huh. Seems we're the colonial force that's trying to kill of the returning original natives, who had been ousted by an invading force, whom we're currently trying to get to understand, so we can make a cease-fire with them?
The Pinks and Grays are battling the Reds, which were originally deported by the Greens, who are just now awaking from hibernation, and might be willing to ally?
This game is now all about subjugating the indigenous population! And if we cannot confine them to their reserves, we'll just butcher the lot of them.
Our research on the martian language proceeds, and we finally make a breakthrough!
We're now able to understand the "spoken" martian language, so let's see if the Greens are open to peacetalks.
Their reservations aside, we can already broker the peace now, and they're willing to ally right away. This might be because of the modding I did. I remember that you had to rescue one of their troops first, but what the hey. One less faction to fight.
They even trade us some extra fuel!
We can now research the UFO spaceflight, so doing the moon mission thing is now within reach.
Even though we're allied, we still get the "rescue a martian" mission and we set off to do it immediately.
Sounds simple enough. But seeing as we already have the possible three martians in our team, there's no captive to be found anywhere on the map. I completed this map twice, the second time with one of the martians on the team, but that made no difference.
The only way to end the mission when the mission goal is absent is to abort and fail the mission.
Even though the mission is a failure, our alliance with the martians remain intact. I hope this is the last we see of the inconsitensies my modding has introduced into the game.
Next time, maybe there'll be more horny Giant Space Walnut action? Only time will tell. (I hope not)