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Terror Extended


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Welcome to my playthrough of X-COM: Terror From the Deep, a sequel to UFO: Enemy Unknown / X-COM: UFO Defense. Although I was waiting for the OpenXcom version, I just couldn't resist to play a different build - I'm blaming you Mr Nook. In this playthrough I will be using latest TFTDExtender. The playthrough will be as usual on Superhuman. Note that TFTDExtender has a chance to crash the game and some mods even help with that. Since TFTDExtender works on CE version of the game, I've also taken the privilage to add custom audio. Audio was remastered by a person named Kain here on Strategy Core forums. If you are interested, you can find the topic in the modding section of X-COM part of the forum.

 

Here is the list of mods that I will be using and the game is more or less stable.

 

Deep Colonies,

Different Site Races,

All torpedoes at start,

Show Money,

Block Can't Intercept Messages,

Craft Ready State,

De-equip Crafts,

Reorder Soldiers In Crafts,

Improved Gauss Tank,

Improved Detector,

Alien Inventory,

Smaller Stun Blast,

Modified Loadouts for Aquatoid,

Alien Bleeding,

Remove Background Land Sound,

Base Defense Prep,

Show Stats,

Show Grenade State,

Save Equipment,

Dye grenade will have similar initial effect as smoke grenade in EU.

Line Of Fire Check for M.C. and Panic - However I believe that this only affect X-COM only.

 

::

 

 

Our starting location will be I think the most common one in the middle of Atlantic. This place should give fair protection for few important countries - unless Zombie will roll out his map of influence and says "Well you've missed the right spots 5px to the N and 7px to the E ;)

 

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-KuwXcvSCo-w/VP4NjbFKIgI/AAAAAAAASE8/9tL2-CsOax0/s0/001.jpg

 

As for the base management it goes like standard every X-COM start, build that wide sonar array, general stores, living quarters and alien containment. Hire 2 more aquanauts, 10 scientists and 10 technicians. You could hire 20 scientists to fasten your research, but this is the gamble if you get any USOs to hire technicians once the living quarters are built to fast build those gauss weapons. The equipement for our troops will be standard issue dart rifles, few gas cannons and torpedo launcher.

 

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Once set we await the first encounter. On 9th of the January our sonars have picked a signal from a small UFO. Barracuda 1 was launched but the UFO touched down. Looks like our first mission will be in the dark. However the game is kind to us and we arrive at volcanic area. Volcanic area is fairly lit during the night, but either way for precaution chemical flares will be deployed.

 

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We have also landed in a corner so a dye grenade was thrown on the other part of the LZ to cover our advance. After initial scouting it looks like we will be facing gill men. Under the cover of "smoke" the troops try to aim with those unreliable weapons we have. Luck is with us and the alien goes down. Caustically advancing, we find more and more aliens, but the troops manage to overcome some difficult situations. At one point some soldiers witnessed a very destructive power in a few grenades which were thankfully poorly thrown. Slowly we have reached the USO. So far so good it was a clean mission, but unfortunately breaching USOs is a dangerous task and Boris Alkaviades died when falling back to secure position. The team slightly shaken contiuned to kill the remaining aliens.

 

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-DWfyCBpVdbY/VP4Nru_JvbI/AAAAAAAASE8/7ClzRqwZevo/s0/005.jpg

 

It looks like X-COM is back and not taking prisoners. Despite this one death I think the mission went quite well.

 

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First mission is behind, the outcome was pretty good. Troops happily return the base and wait. We wait. On 13th of January a Large USO was spotted Africa. It is the sign that aliens are searching for a place to terrorize. On 15th of January another small USO was detected over Brasil, but when Barracuda was launched it sped up and out run our sub. Meanwhile our base gets bigger and more staff is recruited. Scientists race with time to get the Gauss Rifles. If luck will be on our side we will have them before first terror mission.

 

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Unfortunately when our Technicians were producing our new weaponry, the aliens performed a terror attack on Trindade Island. Fortunately we had enough time to wait for a sunrise and despite having basic weaponry we will have advantage of a daylight.

 

Upon deplyoment, we didn't find any alien. We didn't land in the corner, so a defensive smoke grenade was thrown so troops can exit the Triton. Soon we have heard gun shots and the screaming of the civilians. This gave us some whereabouts of the aliens. We have discovered that as mostly usual we are fighting against gill man. Slowly advancing we are starting to kill the buggers. The situation was tense and at one point I forgot to move back one of the scouts and Krug Gakanovitch was sniped by the gill man. The first casualty of this mission.

 

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But we still boldly go forward. Some of the troops take sniping positions on the hills, while other spread out to search more aliens.

The next bigger shoot out was when we were searching through this hotel kind of building. First went down Grigoriy Gakanovitch, a surprise snipe shot from outside the building, the Paul Porton, thinking that the alien didn't have time to react. But at least the snipers had their chance to kill the aliens he spotted. It was up to Helga Richter to boldly move forward and keep on advancing.

 

On the other side of the map Greg Roberts got a surprise on the Gill man guarding a house. Unleashing a barrage of shots he only made the alien angry but lucky for him, the alien missed. Because the alien was distracted Lyudmila Partonov could dash in and pierce through the alien skull point blank.

 

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Meanwhile back in the hotel building Helga sort of suppressed two aliens on the first floor as she was waiting for Tatyana Moschievs to dash in from behind. But she had to stop and help to kill the alien that was coming from the middle of the map.

 

Back to the trio in the small house, they had a little shoot out with a gilman and a deep one. Fortunately without casualties. Once they have killed them, they have started to close in to the middle trying to flank the possible aliens. While Greg was climbing a small hill he dodged an incoming shot from the alien that was hiding in the tunnel entrance below the moai statues

 

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When Tatyana has finally reached Helga, the last alien in the building suddenly vanished. Due to a strange bug, he was there somewhere on a stairs but a) I couldn't spot him, b) I couldn't even get on the stairs. Thinking maybe he wasn't there I've sort of put Tatyana in wrong spot, and the deep one got her.

 

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Another casualty was Lyudmila when she was about to sneak up on the gilman back in the tunnel entrance, but the bugger see through the move and blasted her brains out.

 

The last alien was hiding in the hill bunker, protected by stupid greenpeace civilian. Had to shove her through and the alien didn't hesitate to shoot her.

 

The mission didn't go well as planned but at least another victory and some positive points.

 

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Our first terror mission is behind us, and despite few bad decisions it went rather ok. The rest of the month went quiet and the new Gauss Rifles have arrived. The scientists went on focusing to get that new personal aquasuits.

 

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On 1st of February another small USO was detected. Barracuda managed to shot it down in the middle of south Atlantic. With new weapons the team is sent. It was again volcanic terrain, but since it was in a day, there is no real advantage in it. And again we were facing gill man. Ah gill man, why we can't fight always them? The Triton has landed in the south-western corner of the map the team while exiting the sub threw a smoke grenade to secure to other direction.

 

The whole mission went perfectly smooth until the end. We were slowly closing to the UFO killing all the aliens that were spotted. When we reached the UFO it was a little empty when suddenly an alien jumps out from the back of the UFO and kills Helga Richter. Should have known that he would be there. So much for surviving that terror mission.

 

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Anyway another part of Zrbite in our collection.

 

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That invisible alien on the stair bug has been around since UFO, but really makes its presence known in TFTD. On those stairs in particular. The game is a bit wonky when it comes to its management of height and line of sight.

 

- NKF

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Another successful mission behind us. I wonder how many veterans I will be able to save, because right now each soldier that survived any previous missions is dying in the next. For a while sonars did not detect anything for us. In this free time our scientist have managed to research Plastic Aqua Armour, Sonic Pulser, Medi-kits. Next destination will be Gauss Cannon, to get Gauss SWS and check how much improved it is, although I guess that still against lobsters it's damage will be low.

 

On 17th of February a small USO was detected near North Pole, but it got away. On 20th of February another one has appeared south-east of our base. This time we got him. It was small cruiser. For this mission our aquanauts will be equipped in plastic aqua armour. Hope it will helps somehow.

 

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The map again is volcanic terrain. It looks like Atlantic is strangely volcanic active. Upon exiting the Trition we spot the Gill man and take him down. As usual smoke grenade to cover our LZ. On next turn soldiers spread out a little and hide behind hills or other terrain, when suddenly out of nowhere gill man shows his face and as he had some kind of sonar he throws a grenade and kills 3 aquanauts.

 

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That miffed me off a bit, but we took care of him. We were also lucky because on next turn Astra Pavlov went nuts and fired that torpedo launcher. Good for us she aimed at empty space. After that unfortunate incident, the troops rallied up and we stormed our way up to the USO. In there we saw a little gill man party.

 

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Karma likes to strike back so we had a little shooting gallery there.

 

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Another successful mission and more soldiers return in body bags. I hope that we will have at least one true veteran someday.

 

On 23rd of February a very small USO was detected near the Brazilian coastline. Being very small means that Barracuda destroyed it. For the rest of the month things went quite. The council was mostly happy.

 

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On 1st of March another small UFO was detected near the Caribbeans. It touched down and Triton was able to catch up. It was another gill man mission. This time map was sort of desert like with lots of sea hills. The mission went surprisingly good. The gill men did not made any effort to make any dangerous situations. The majority of the aliens were packed in one corner of the map and soldiers had a good target practice. The sub was "guarded" by a single alien.

 

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After last disappointing mission (because no deaths and I know you are here for screaming agony of X-COM soldiers), the aliens didn't allow us to wait long for next mission. Another small USO was downed on 2nd of March near the western coast of Africa.

 

The terrain map was my least favorite. So many obstacles, Nooks ;) and crannies. The aliens can be hiding anywhere and throw that grenade perfectly and kill half of the squad. And right from the start it showed that this map hates me. When after opening Tritons door we spot a gill man happily facing the other way, Astra Pavlov fired this huge torpedo at him. He laughingly survived the explosion and fired back pretty accurately. Thanks to the armour Astra will live probably few more days.

 

Exiting further from the sub, more aliens are spotted on every possible corner. The soldiers seemed dedicated to the task managed to kill everyone so the aliens wouldn't have any chance to lay any sneak attack. And even so they managed to do awesome dodging .

 

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Unfortunately when we were closing to the UFO one alien managed to place an accurate shot and even when I expected and tried to reaction fire first at him. Olga Dudeski must have used all of her dodging skills and this time she was brutally murdered. However this was not the last of the tricks from the aliens. When we cleared the UFO, the last alien was hiding behind it, in the smallest corner one would expect to see it earlier. The bugger threw a grenade killing one aquanaut and wounding other.

 

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Fighting off pain, Leon murdered the bastard.

 

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Gods of X-COM are bloodthirsty, don't you forget it.

 

Anyway, we have squeezed past February without Terror Mission, but aliens don't forget. Do they? Actually how big is the terror mission back log? Can they for example strike with 3 terror missions at the same month? Like for example port / island attack, shipping route and artifact site or is it max 2 in month ?

 

Having lots of money we can afford a new base. This one will be guarding Indian Ocean, although I don't know if I shouldn't put it north of Australia?

 

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On 4th of March we spot a large USO - this probably is the late terror ship, but it didn't create any terror mission so I guess it was scouting for potential attack. On March 9th another small USO was spotted in South Atlantic but it got away in the Antarctic region. However on the same day another one was detected near Brasil. This one wasn't that lucky. But since it was night time we waited a little to get some sun light. So on 10th of March our soldiers have landed near the "crash" site.

 

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As per usual it was a volcanic map and we were fighting more gill man. Dear gill man - don't you ever disappear you here me? Despite being a crash site there were lots of aliens to shoot and because of my careful tactics we didn't lose anyone this time and hey we even used some of the alien grenades, because we can. But don't worry X-COM Gods will claim their offerings.

 

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I don't remember having so much trouble getting Zrbite than Elerium-115.

 

 

Out of curiosity does the grenade kills are set for a person who primed the grenade or the one that threw it or no one gets a kill record?

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Ah thanks, keep forgetting it.

 

 

 

The last mission will surely bring wrath of the X-COM Gods someday I know it. Day later after last mission, another small USO was detected over South America. It was shot down on the western coast and troops were sent. Again it were gill man and map with lots of obstacles. At first everything went fine, slow progression, killing every alien that came across, until that turn where Tods Conways luck run out and was killed by a gill man. I've sort of knew it that I won't be able to cover him with smoke but at least a small sacrifice to the Gods may save the future mission.

 

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Or at least allowed us to finish mission without any further incidents.

 

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At this rate I will have large quantity of Zrbite to dispose.

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The Gods are demanding sacrifice. On 12th of March a Large USO was detected. So the late Terror Mission has arrived. This time Canary Islands, but it wasn't through the UFO we detected though. And because the Gods are angry it will be night mission.

 

Right from the start after opening doors, a gill man was spotted, but Javier Gonzales killed him fast. . Rest of the troops exited, threw some lights and a smoke. On next turn we had a jump on alien further down south and one behind the Triton. The one behind the Triton had deployed small character shield as it was untouchable for this turn. Unfortunately by my mistake I let the scout of the gill man to the south exposed and he was sniped by other alien who jumped from the hill to the south-west.

 

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On turn 3 Christel enters the hill bunker when as usual she finds an alien on the very end. Without any good TUs she moved backed a little. I thought she was done for but the deep one didn't care to exit and kill her. Bad choice for him. Gunter also on the same turn moved up the hill and spotted 3 more aliens. There were a couple of shoot out turns, where we lost one soldier.

 

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The other half of the team went north up the hill after killing the alien behind the Triton. First went Uta Krause. While being on top of the hill, she spotted a deep one on the other side. Without any trouble she killed it. Next went Stefan Brehme to the North-East. He found a gill man near the other bunker hill. He then moved backed and Charlie Roberts took a pot shot from the hill. Because she didn't see him despite the flare, and the alien did not reaction fire back, Andrew Cook moved a level higher, but the alien now finally decided to shoot back and killed our officer in charge. The same thing happened to Uta. There was an alien further back to the east long past the range of the flare. She also was perfectly sniped. The alien from the bunker hill threw a grenade at Charlie, but it landed too far away to do some serious damage.

 

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We were losing soldiers but for now the ratio was on our side. Stefan climbed the hill and threw a flare and found Uta's killer. He returned the favor without any problems. On next turn he also threw a grenade and killed the alien from the north-eastern bunker hill. For now the team had a little breathing room. The team split into 3 groups. One went to the east to check the bunker hills. Second went south and the third went to the north-west. It was there were Stefan was surprised while entering through the back entrance to the hotel. It was a place where I never would suspect to see an alien.

 

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Seeing that the team of 2 that went north-west needs help, the team that went south changed course to the west. Gunther while approaching the hotel evaded few shots and killed an alien inside the hotel reception room. While the aliens were pre-occupied with Gunther, Charlie managed to sneak behind the hotel and threw a grenade at some poor aliens. At this point there weren't many aliens left and it took a while to finally find the last one. When we finally found the last alien, the Gods were a little pleased with the sacrifice.

 

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https://youtu.be/_ksBgfSmrDg

 

Right so for now the Gods are satisfied. But it will not last long - it never does. Since SV was the only one to volunteer as next sacrifice er as a named soldier, I found the bravest soul out there. Well good luck, let's hope the Gods have mercy on you.

 

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On 16th of March another small USO was detected near our base and was shot down somewhere over South Atlantic. On the next day, Triton was launched and the crew also received the "improved" gauss tank.

 

The mission generally went okish at start, but then once we were nearing the UFO, two fast deaths occurred. One sort of made on purpose. I wanted to see how lucky SV nr 1. will be. It proved not very lucky as the alien pretty sniped him. I normally wouldn't move towards the hole in the open but you know, sacrifices had to be made ;) And the second the alien felt a little ballsy more than usual and exited it hiding hole. But don't worry our cloning machine will be engaged and maybe SV II will be more lucky.

 

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At least we have secured more Zrbite.

 

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