Shades of Green

I'd say that the biggest issue I've had with TFTD is Lobstermen and Lobstermen alone: sure, a successful stun-launcher hit takes them out, but all other weapons hardly hurt these bastards (it takes TWO heavy sonic direct hits to die, or atleast 9 gauss-rifle blasts) and they could also pincer you to death. Remove the Lobstermen, and the game will be far more playable. Tentaculants are also VERY annoying by they, atleast, die easily when hit by anything.

My current game had a very dramatic difficulty-bump, much more drastic than the last two times around: I was just at the stage when I've manufactured my first Sun Armor and the Rets started totting Advanced Plasmas and killing half of my team on most occasions. The game then became very tedious with multiple reloads per Ret (made even more annoting with my virtual memory getting filled up after a few attempts, which slows my loading times to a crawl; damn 256MB RAM that I don't have the cash to expand ). I was thinking about creating a difficulty-bump-mitigation mod, but the question is how to do so: weaken the latter-game alien weapons or improve the mid-game Human armor? Or just remove the alien rockets from the game?

I usually start out in the middle of the Mediterranean - it then covers a large number of countries, not the best-paying ones (when you consider each one's contribution) but numerous nonetheless.

I've created an Alpine-mod that makes all submachineguns in UFO: Aftermath one-handed rather than the original two-handed ("1.5 handed" in game terms). This has been tested with version 1.4 (in the tutorial mission) and seems to work very well, except for the inability to set the SMG to single-fire when the other hand is occupied; but you can easily carry an SMG (set on autofire) in one hand and, say, a Medkit in the other. Scripting-wise, it has been inspired by Andrew 'Fulby' Campbell's All Human Equipment Mod. Get it here.

I'm quite new to Interceptor, and I had an easy time in the Beginning difficulty until I met a Phantasm - an annoying, squadron-killing saucer piloted by an Ethereal or by a Psilord. These things simply wipe out my squadron, even though I'm using experienced pilots and the best weapon available so far (Gatling Lasers).

I am still here and I still play Aftermath.

I have a P4-2.8GHz, 256MB RAM, GeForce 5200, and WinXP, will Aftermath run on my machine, even on low specs?

BUMPsie?

The problem is task resolution: How do you resolve an attack? A medical attempt? How do you deal with damage and wounds?

I think many parts of the Aftermath system could be easily adapted to FUDGE (which is free), or that rules you liked in FUDGE could be adapted to the Aftermath system.

The same way worked for me when I stormed the base today. I went straight to the east (assuming that the side you start in is the north) in the beginning, then approached the base and blew up a big hole in the wall. soon after, a group of about six to ten Reticulans decided to come out of this hole in one tight group... To the extreme delight of my Super Striker operator (with a Super Heroic Throwing Skill ). Blew the damn Rets up to the sky in auto-fire, and only suffered from one rocket, which I only partially dodged; the damage was managable. The in-base work was mostly done with an Advanced Alien Laser Rifle, an AUG, a Microslug, and one MP7, with my Sniper, Super-Striker operator and Medic/Psi Crusher tagging along. Not too difficult. Now I'm after the "shift" and the Microslug and the Psi Projector are making my life easy

My next team design: - 1 Medic/Psion; will use a Desert Eagle in the early stages and Psi items later on; I will build his/her Dex+Int to Good, then Int+Will to the max, then Dex to the max and then Perception to the max. - 1 Sniper; will use the best sniper rifle available, and in the very early stages the best AR; I will build his/her Int and Will to Avarage and Perc to Very Good, then Will+Perc to maximum, then Dex to maximum, then Int to maximum. - 1 SMG specialist; will use the best SMG available and perhaps later alien/hybrid handguns; I will build his/her Str+Agi+Dex to Avarage, then Agi+Dex to maximum, then Int+Perc to maximum. - 1 Heavy Weapon Specialist; will use the RPG-7, then the Super Striker, and then Plasma Weapons and possibly deployable stuff; I will build his/her Str+Dex to Good, then Str+Agi to the max, then Int+Perc to the max. - 3 Riflemen; will use the best AR available (up to and including the Steyr AUG) and, later on, one will use a hybrid laser rigle and two will use AUGs (if the laser will really prove itself then I'll have two with lasers and one with AUG); I will build their Str+Agi+Dex to Avarage, then Agi+Will to maximum, then Int+Perc to maximum.

I'd like to make some (or all?) of the SMGs usable in one hand (so that the other will be free for a medkit/grenade/PSI item), in order to make them somewhat more attractive. I know the file that needs to be modded (\tactical\configs\game\listofweapon.txt) as well as the parameter (HAND 1.5), but the fact that the line repeats several times makes it too complicated for my limited scripting knowledge to modify this with ALPine. Help will be welcome.

Can't download this - it doesn't appear in any category of the download page, and all links lead to the main page.

Next week I'll be back... promise! Really this time! No more college between next week and Novermber! YEY!!

The combination of one or more Cryssalises (sp?) with one Deathbellows in the same part of the mission. The Cryssies stun you, then you can't dodge the Swarms... I had that on one mission, and had to reload

Just more month of exams and papers... And that's it! I'll be back! Promise! And yeah, RL SUCKS!

Foiled again! Damn RL! Sorry Atleast the summer vacation is coming in less than a month and then I'll have almost FOUR MONTHS of free time.

I'm sorry I had no time to contribute to this story lsately; this damn college is EATING ME ALIVE. I'll post tomorrow, I promise

Again, one more delay... DAMN RL!

The (non-improved) Hybrid Laser Rifle isn't THAT bad, IMHO. It has a very good ROF, great accuracy even in burst mode and decent range. Ofcourse, later-generation Plasma rifles are better... Or just Steyr AUGs.

Unfortunately, I don't think this is doable; Though we might have to ask the opinion of greatewr experts than me on this. And ofcourse, let's hope it works that was in Aftershock...

Sorry for not posting yet - RL is quite tight on me lately. Except something next Monday.

Edit: Read-reading the rules has answered the question I've previously asked in this post. And sorry about not "advancing the plot" much in my post - I had to intruduce Mira to our story. I'll post two recurring "supporting cast" characters tomorrow - Karl Mahnberg (callsign "Hacker"), an electronics/computer/bio-informatics researcher who'll show up in most of my (and if you want, everyone else's) R&D posts; and Svetlana Michailovna Bernski (callsign "Sveta"), a former Russian cop who'll be employed by the CoE as an MP and thus will show up in base defence missions as well as in-base character interactions (I'll control her in the first few posts she'll appear in, to set up her character and personalitythen feel free to use her); Sveta would also volunteer for several Phoenix Company missions. I also intend to use both these "NPCs" in the Alien Interrogation sequence.

<<OOC: Sorry for the delay, too short a weekend, too many things to do - meet with friends, work on my Thief II mod, play UFO:AM>> IC: Heavy windstorm raged through Paris as Mira Geffen drove the battered jeep while listening to the static-ridden radio. The city was depressingly empty: the corpses have been removed, but the legacy of the Fall reflected from every empty window and each closed cafe'; it was not the same Paris to which Mira came months ago as an unsuspecting tourist. Definitely not the same Paris. For time being she was doing patrols for the local militia while trying not to think of her fallen friends. Wine offered valuable assistant to the latter; one of the few good outcomes of the fall has been the aboundance of good wine bottles with nobody to drink them. Nobody but Mira and the rest of the Parisian survivors, who drowned their griefs in expensive liquer. "...following the announcement that several national governments have amalgamated into an international body to be called the Council of Earth, the commander of NATO forces in Europe made the following announcement:", the radio crackled, "Over the last seven months, the alien onslaught has destroyed billions of lives and the world we once knew. It is no exaggeration to say that humanity is now on the verge of total extinction. The spirit of international cooperation that has resulted in the foundation of the Council of Earth is our last hope of survival. To that end, we are creating an elite army unit to be appended to the Combined Air Force. This unit, which will be named Phoenix Company, will spearhead our counterattack against the aliens. If you are interested in joining, please contact your nearest recruitment officer immediately. It will be a dangerous assignment, but by volunteering you will be helping to turn this war around."" At first she ignored this message; she was neither in the mood for politics nor for heroics. But then it hit her: Revange! With her background as a medic and with her knowledge in Biology, she could aid in the fight against the invaders - a war of vengance. Her kind of war - a war to make these outer-space creeps pay for Olga, Ariella and Avram, and for the rest of the several billion men, women and children who died in the first days after the initial attack; It was time to do something about that creeping feeling of depression too. In a few hours she resigned from the militia and found her way to the nearest active military base (which was loading up with almost any kind of lab equipment it could find in the surrounding ruins) and knocked on the door marked "Phoenix Company Recruitment". The middle aged men in a scruffy military uniform who welcomed her into the room motioned her to sit. "So, young lady," he said in English with a heavy French accent, "What brings you to the Phoenix Company?" "What do you think would bring anyone to join an underarmed, outnumbered squad of ragged survivors who fight overwhelming Alien forces? A hefty paycheck? I don't know about the rest but I'm here to make these aliens PAY. Pay for my friends, pay for my family, Hell, pay for this whole god-damned world." "I see. Do you have any military experience?" "Yes sir - 3 years in the Israeli Defence Force as a medic. I've got a B.Sc in Biology, too, if that helps." "Well, considered yourself recruited. Now, the first Phoenix mission is about to leave Berlin in tomorrow morning. There is a supply chopper going there in two hours, so you'd better pack up your stuff and get ready. The night passed slowly as the heavy helicopter crawled across the cloudy European skies; Mira caught a few hours of troubled sleep, and a few more hours of idle chatter with the two technicians and three recruits who shared the cargo compartment with her (and with several large boxes of equipment, too, but those weren't any good for the conversation). They arrived shortly before dawn in a frigid German military airport near Berlin and were hastly assigned to eerily empty barracks to sleep off the rest of the time until the dawn. The barracks' occupants were woken up by two MPs who started explaining the mission as the soldiers got dressed and ate a hasty breakfast: "We've picked up a radio message from a group of survivors holed up in a police station in Liberec in the what was once the Czech Republic; they're surrounded by Transgenants and probably won't last long unless help arrives in time; even if they won't be able to survive until we'll get there, no one could say that we haven't tried to save them." Gearing up in what looked as a stripped-down armory was somewhat disappointing, as everybody, who were expecting to find M16s or G3s for the very least, found old Uzi SMGs, Colt 0.45s, light body armor, grenades and medkits. Even though Mira had some experience with the Uzi in her IDF basic training , she was far more familiar with semi-auto pistols; after all, she carried them regularly in the security work (read: souped-up mall cop work, mostly poking into bags to make sure there are no bombs in there; a very common type of job in RLs israel) she was doing to finance her University tutition fees. So, after strapping a suit of light armor and donning a fitting helmet, Mira attached a holstered Colt 0.45 and two grenades to her belt and packed a heavy medkit into her backpack. "Atleast these medkits are normal," she muttered "if they were as outdated as our guns, my job as a medic would be far less meaningful."