Let's Replay X-COM UFO Defence #06: Shots from the Shadows

[@dr_kav2k]

"I totally forgot Gaston was there" _Nobody blends in with the background to avoid getting in the line of fire like Gaston!_

[@wratched]

No one croaks like Gaston! No one chokes like Gaston! No one gets creamed by weird alien blokes like Gaston!

[@JamesRevan]

No one dies like Gaston! No one fries like Gaston! No one drops dead with hole in the chest like Gaston!

[@NIMRODakaNIMROD]

No one shot like Gaston! No one missed like Gaston! No one got offed in one single hit like Gaston!

[@exorphitus]

Nooooooooo Ooonnneeeeee Hides like Gaston! Fires wide like Gaston! No one misses his shot and then dies like Gaston! Gaston : "As a soldier, yes, I am completely worthless!" My what a guy that Gaston!

[@legion999]

Xan Still funny, even after so many years.

[@idunbeezasmart1]

Kiko keeps 3/4 of his team out of the fight so his men can die one by one, loses half his team against floaters and runs one of his men around with a rocket launcher he's never going to use. After the first mission, I was worried he was getting good at this game. After this mission, I'm relieved to know that Kiko never changes.

[@wratched]

You don't fly to Cydonia; you climb there on a mountain of dead rookies.

[@lokalnyork]

I don't think one should play X-Com soldiers like Imperial Guardsmen from Warhammer 40K. Tho bald guy from new X-Com would make awesome Emperor. With his butter-sweet voice.

[@Hadowsay019]

Dark. Duke Guardsmen is the perfect way to describe this game lol. The new games may as well be Herohammer considering they game as many abilities and buffs as a main character in an RPG would have

[@JindraAG]

you really shouldn't. Imperial Guardsmen are much better soldiers than X-Com grunts. Though X-Com grunts do have the ability to be trained into space marines.

[@dr_kav2k]

As a reminder, this video was recorded in the same batch as the first ones; meaning, Kiko didn't have the opportunity yet to act on watcher advice. Please keep that in mind when commenting.

[@TheKardain]

We know, but lets just say "Auto shot" is so much better than a single non aimed shot.

[@TehCubey]

Oh no, pirate! Who will take care of X-Com's minigolf course now?

[@AutodidacticPhd]

Ghost Pirate, of course.

[@Isenhatesyou]

Oh thank god. After the first mission and the start of the terror I was afraid we were playing a different game. But no, it's still the X-Com we know and love.

[@Kikoskia]

The first terror mission in any run of this game never goes well, all due to you simply not having adequate tools to deal with what you're facing. If you're researching the right things the second terror mission tends to go a lot better, though there's always the things you can't plan for that can occur in any mission.

[@Isenhatesyou]

Well it could have been worse. It would have taken a lot of pew pews to take down a cyberdisk.

[@NeoTiamat]

*~Do Do-Do-Do Do-Do~* A sorry taaaaaaaale~ A gory story~ A fair few heroes died for glory~ Upon the ground they rest their head~ Dead. DEAD. *DEAD*~

[@BernddasBrotB7]

A scream is heard to chill the bones, so lift the earth and lay the stones, a martyr's grave to recompense, but others would have had more... sense. Farewell guild pirate o7

[@emilysong2000]

*McCoy gets shot* McCoy: I'm dead, Jim! *McCoy dies*

[@animex75]

And thus ends the string of McCoy jokes.... o7

[@gimok2k5]

Well, there might be a few more in this videos comment section. But from the next one onwards, we're boned - or unboned, rather.

[@emilysong2000]

What you did there....I see it. =P

[@michaelmccarty9569]

When I was younger I almost never used electro flares. I instead used incendiary auto cannons to light the night. Yes, I even did it during terror missions, irregardless of the consequences. All that mattered was seeing (and roasting) the enemy. Civvie casualties were irrelevant. I guess my younger self was a pyromaniac :)

[@BirdRaiserE]

The early ones are always the hardest. Anyway, get that extra weight off awesome possum and auto shot whenever you can. It's mathematically better than snap shot.

[@Francois424]

I just can't get enough of this. Loving this LP. Also installed OpenXCom for future playthru of my own.

[@veagervictory4747]

I really love your play throughs of X-com. Thank you

[@NIMRODakaNIMROD]

*SPOILER ALERT* 29:11 And let's sing - once more for old times' sake - let's sing: _No one gets shot in his sorry face like Gaston_

[@MrAxedead]

Just wanted to say that I am really enjoying watching you play this again, keep it up.

[@lokalnyork]

Can't wait for Gaston 2: The Electric Boogaloo!

[@DirtyDandtheCrew]

Barry and Sub Zero are on fire! Wonder who gets promoted first.

[@TheMonkeyninja4]

Well the guild pirate is dead, it is a day. Then again there's probable something in the pirates code that says pirates can't be killed by aliens at night or something so it's all good.

[@JStankXPlays]

I have been playing/watching ultra modded versions of this game, and I fogrot how much fun the base game still is!

[@JStankXPlays]

Kikoskia, I just wanted to point you to a thread on the open xcom forums. SupSuper, the main dev of Open X com is quite fond of your work! openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,6210.0.html

[@gimok2k5]

I expect "Kikoskia" now being a potential random name for Soldiers to be generated with in an upcoming version of openXcom. Or "Damien

[@JStankXPlays]

That is actually very easy to do. There is a text file within open XCOM that allows you to change the default names of soldiers - Openxcom < common < soldier Name - Basically you want to open them as a notepad and if you maintain the overall syntax, you can edit the names that randomly appear in the game.

[@nurkkapelaa]

I'm a bit of dissapointed how little Kikoskia actually uses benefits of laser weapons. Hmm.. snap shot or aimed shot. - always autoshot with laser weapons Goes upstairs. - "no door here, back you go". Obviously only solution is to autofire a new door for you. Boring math: 25% snap shot vs 17% is 75% change not to hit vs 57% change not to hit

[@DragDenDFO]

31:30 Yeah, the last alien is always the worst. All five of them... :)

[@SQron188]

I recommend draining the TUs of the rocket soldier (at the end of each turn) to avoid him blowing up half the squad in an attempted reaction shot. Unlikely to happen, but possible.

[@SQron188]

Although now that I think about it, it could be amusing to watch.

[@DragDenDFO]

That reminds me one moment during assault of the alien base from Kikoskia's previous play (part 51): Kikoskia: "Next turn, we're gonna have another. DO NOT BLASTER BOMB" *ends turn* Cue a blaster bomb and ~12 explosions...

[@Arashmickey]

Nobody panicked or shot their own allies? That's incredible!

[@DeadlyDanDaMan]

USE AUTOSHOT!! Also, don't forget that you can make your own doors by just shooting the walls. Laser weapons are easily capable of doing that.

[@anders630]

Snapshots look good but a missed shot gives the alien a chance to fire back so in that sense an aimed shot can certainly be better. Most ppl playing without reloads praise the smoke grenade and rockets. You may want to check stat details on your characters and make the strong ones use heavy weapon. With that said this game is very unforgiving and I'm not sure I'd do any better (apart from that overloaded guy).

[@dukeofbacon]

Ducked back to the 2nd video and noticed Kiko's using the Open XCOM Nightly Build. It supports Terror from the Deep. For a less buggy but still painful experience.

[@blix17]

Yes yes yes my favourite traveller player plays the original xcom yes whooooooooo!!!!

[@GenuineLolotov]

Kiko, the reason your soldiers were unable to throw the flares into that shopping block was because of the ceiling between the buildings. That's one more reason I would have high explosived that place to kingdom come. That and proxy grenades for the reapers.

[@eirianrobotto]

That was so tragic and epic. I'm starting to really really like this. I wonder how you would do with Rimworld.

[@Irredine]

"Hero of Veidar" Thumbs up we need a recruit named this, please Kiko!

[@Felfury]

Second mission being a terror one at night, only thing that wouldve topped this off is if it was chrysalids as well.

[@ThePhoenixPaladin]

No one is going to be missed like Gaston

[@gigaslave]

It's best to only use Aimed Shot with the Rocket Launcher.

[@animex75]

Indeed, with 80% accuracy that's the best way to go about it. Too bad that Awesome Possum physically can't because he's not strong enough to do that....

[@gigaslave]

What I suspect is that Awesome Possum is over his carry limit because he's also carrying the spare ammo. It's best in such a case to let someone else be his ammo bearer.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Yeah, as specified in an earlier video, someone suggested him having a rocket runner due to the weight.

[@Jawf94]

Guild Pirate: ARRRGGH I WAS TOTALLY WORTHLESS *Dies*

[@Zogtee]

Fare thee well, Guild Pirate! Welcome to the team, Son of Guild Pirate!

[@rakitox]

I miss Gaston. He was always my favourite.

[@emberborn3292]

Hopefully the team will get a bit of a breather to restock, or some easy missions.

[@AutodidacticPhd]

I'm curious about something. There used to be a mod for the original release that dramatically improved the combat in several ways and I'm wondering if OpenXcom included those improvements. Specifically, I'm thinking of one which increased the advantage rifle style weapons had over pistol style in both power and range. With that mod on it actually made more sense to keep the last generation of rifles if all you had were pistols of the latest weapon... ie a combat rifle would still be so much more accurate at long ranges than a laser pistol, that it would often make up for its weight and lack of power in all but the tightest spaces. Basically, the tactic that this would encourage then, is to have a rifle squad move up to secure the exterior of buildings, while your pistol squad would clear the interior. ...of course, they also made the weight of an item affect how far you could throw it, more or less closing off the heavy weapons relay exploit. A fair trade if you ask me.

[@K-o-R]

"I'm sure our troops are eager to get back out there and even up the body count."

[@leeboy26]

Doesn't use grenades... doesn't use autoshot... overloads rocket guy so only has half TU's... good luck X-Com!

[@NIMRODakaNIMROD]

Ahhh, the overencumbering thing made me say: Nah-uh!

[@gimok2k5]

Grenades aren't that important in this game (unlike the Reboot) but Autoshot? Yeah. Especially he was using it almost exclusively in his previous two playthroughs, which went a bit smoother with the whole "kill aliens that you see" thing.

[@AutodidacticPhd]

Eh, depending on whether or not they tweaked the way accuracy is calculate, relying on autoshot might not be such a bright idea. I certainly think he overused it significantly in his previous playthroughs.

[@dr_kav2k]

Gotta remember that he now plays without the difficulty reset bug; this means that the armor values for aliens are essentially doubled. This makes auto-shots quite important.

[@gimok2k5]

At least if the aliens are only a few tiles away. But he recorded up until this video in one batch to begin with so we can only hope he remembers these things until he records for the next time.

[@Rellana1]

I'm amazed that the giant fueling station wasn't detonated in the crossfire,either by the aliens or X-com. Also does the Death of the Guild Pirate means that Ghost of the Guild pirate will be included in the squad now?

[@oz_jones]

No, he will be replaced by Guild Pirate Aye-Aye

[@obliviousmode575]

Hey Kiko I’m enjoying this replay. I have watched all the play throughs from last time. Have you tried Aliens vs Humans on iOS or Android? After watching your original let’s play I played the missions on Aliens vs Humans one of my squaddies was named Kikoskia.

[@DoveAlexa]

Aaaaah, the pain the paaaain! So many dead in the last half.

[@Shaewaros]

It was a shame that the rocket launcher guy was so badly over encumbered that he wouldn't take any shots. I usually try to minimize my casualties in terror missions by leveling all the nearby buildings with rockets and grenades as well as using smoke grenades to conceal my units. Usually the civilians will end up dead anyway, so I see collateral damage as something unavoidable and acceptable while leveling the buildings.

[@Stealthwilde]

One problem with doing that is that civillians killed by X-Com give an even bigger score penalty than if they're killed by the aliens

[@boredwarlock5216]

Nobody gets shot in the face like Gaston!

[@K-o-R]

_Why does a laser beam have a shadow?_

[@-kenik9629]

Why does fire have a shadow? If it's plasma it'll disrupt light, then it'll leave a shadow.

[@TheMjohann]

The real question is how do we see the laser at all.

[@Quimper111]

It's "Star Wars laser". :)

[@Finsternis..]

Does Star Wars ever refer to it as laser? Because the guns and swords are considered to emit plasma.

[@Ixnatifual]

If it says pew pew, it’s a zappy laser gun!

[@PincherPlaysPoorly]

Any chance on you replacing the valiant Gaston with a new rookie by the name of Major Snags? He dies gloriously in most of my games of X-Com :)

[@Kijikun]

We can clone the rookies we have the technology.

[@Hawkster52]

Is there a reason you're using rocket launchers over Auto Cannons with explosive ammunition Kiko? With the AC you get fourteen shots per clip and automatic firing versus the rocket launcher's one per rocket. Only reason I can see is aiming accuracy but you don't need to be too accurate if everything's blown up.

[@lewisroach8723]

...There's another alien...

[@SheezyBites]

When you spend three turns sending someone onto the upper floors and then turn around rather than shoot through the wall... it hurts me so much. I know it didn't matter in the long run because everything was on the ground, but still a pointless waste of time.

[@metalbyakkoLP]

"I should had propably shot first," Well that just sounds like an invitation for a obvious "Han shot first"-joke. I won' say no to that: Well it worked for Han Solo to shoot first XD to be fair, Han's target was much closer than most of the aliens in this mission. Sure, you did loose about half of your team, but those looses were more due to bad luck than bad strategy. I'm sure when you finally get some proper armor, it will become much better :)

[@matthewellis6516]

Yeah keep it up

[@Ciekawostkioporanku]

Can you get a soldier named "CowardMarco" in the team? :D

[@oz_jones]

Kiko names his soldiers from his previous LPs, so no viewer suggestions. Unless it's a name from a game he has LP'd

[@sicor94]

Nobody steals kills like gaston!

[@bratsmovies17]

I don't know if I like the fast alien species progression. I thought we would just have sectoids for the first few months not 4 different species within the first month

[@TrueGawa]

Nobody gets shot in the face like Gaston :(

[@ManiacArtist83]

Will you be playing x-com chimera squad?

[@Kikoskia]

I have no plans to at this time.

[@shadowqueen1701]

Dame it Jim I'm a doctor not a door stop.

[@Ixnatifual]

Medi kits paying off already.

[@animex75]

Indeed. Thanks to that, Guild Pirate lived long enough to get killed while moving past a window.

[@ItsmeInternetStranger]

Spoilers: Is the death of Guild Pirate cannon to The Guild of Dungeoneering lore?

[@obliviousmode575]

If Mikiko was named Han. Han would have shot 1st!

[@marsgreekgod]

So when I play this kind of game, I use overwatch A LOT. I thought that was the normal thing. is he being silly? was I playing wrong?

[@Kikoskia]

It's certainly useful, but in night missions you have only a third of the sight range of the aliens which really works against you.

[@BirdRaiserE]

marsgreekgod There's not a wrong way. Old XCOM accommodates far more playstyles than new xcom.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Overwatch may not be an active button or command, but it's a thing. I found the biggest issue with older XCom and overwatch though is it relies on a soldier's Reaction skills. And being classic XCom, 90% of your rookies will be absolutely sectoid-excrement with that skill. Sometimes it's nice to hoard enough for a close-range snapshot, but there's no guarentee unless you groom your applicants you'll have one that will reliably take that shot.

[@K-o-R]

The only problem with (heavy quotes) "overwatch" is that, because there isn't a "step out from behind cover" mechanic, to be able to shoot you also have to be in a position to get shot.

[@enkayeff]

I apologise, it's either my purist or my pedantic side speaking here, but when it comes to this series of games I feel it's best to keep the terms 'Overwatch' and 'Reaction/Opportunity Fire' distinct from each other. They are indeed similar in effect but are also quite different to accommodate their respective turn based systems. Overwatch is an active action that, once activated, will trigger when a unit from the moving side comes into view. Simple but works equally well for everyone. Also for some reason it requires everyone involved (at least human) to loudly shout that they are going into Overwatch. Probably the odd 'Aye-firmative commander!' here and there. Reaction/Opportunity fire on the other hand is a passive action that triggers when the moving unit fails an initiative check against any waiting unit that can see it. Initiative = Reactions * Remaining TUs / Max TUs. Any waiting units with a higher initiative will get to react if they can. (Side note: OpenXcom introduces melee reactions) Reaction/Opportunity fire also gets the 'mutual surprise' rule that allows a brief suspension of the initiative check if both sides spot each other at exactly the same time, allowing the moving side to perform one action even if it has the lower initiative. Also being an oldey-time game with minimal sound assets, we have to supply our own sound effects of soldiers yelling about taking reaction shots. Aye, aye.

[@SilencerGDA]

He is dead Jim.