Post by Luke Danger on May 11, 2016 22:44:21 GMT -5
So, for my latest runthrough of XCOM: Enemy Within (Marathon, to try it out), I also started toying with the customization to see if I couldn't do things. Not uncommon in XCOM to model your troopers after characters, people you know, etc.
So, at some point I got an American Female rookie, so... well, I've been using a light blue color scheme on my guys a la Global Justice, so why not.
One Terror Mission later for this customized soldier (her first and including fun things like Chrysalids), and here was the result: (All images in spoilers due to size)
I'll admit it's not the best approximation of Kim physically, but it was the best I felt I could do; the in-game red just seemed very obviously dyed and Kim's hair is a bit more of an orange. The ponytail I went with since that is an alternate hairstyle of hers, plus there's no real good 'lots of hair' option.
But yeah, first mission (which had fun stuff like Chryssalids show up) and she got a promotion to Sniper. Assault probably would fit Kim better, but if that wasn't an option Sniper works decently since Kim IS a pretty good shot.
Game went on, with XCOM's memetic casualty rating finally catching up with stuff like Seekers suddenly deciding to start using their plasma cannons on one poor Rookie in the grand cemetery or an Assault knocked down to 1 HP by a Crit retaliating by charging a Thin Man for a CQB flank kill... *whistles innocently*
But after some difficulty (since leveling Snipers is always a pain), Kim made the rank of Sergeant, and was issued a nickname.
'Athena' was a surprisingly apt nickname. Goddess of war, but also one of wisdom. Brains and strength in one. Guess I know a callsign if I ever need to give Kim one for any of my fics...
Of course I ended up changing it, and this is Kim once she became an XCOM Colonel and more or less my go-to squad leader (the previous one, another Sniper, I turned into a MEC since a MEC converted from a max tier sniper can actually reliably hit stuff at range). And got herself into a Skeleton Suit, complete with Grappling Hook (it ain't Kim without one am I right?).
And this is her full skill list: Headshot (bonus critical for a shot), Squadsight (Basically, can snipe anything that an ally can see as long as there's an unimpeded line of sight, an essential for a Sniper), Gunslinger (to let her be more mobile since Sniper Rifles can't be used the same turn as a move, as well as being a good stand-in for Kim's melee abilities/accuracy with her grappling hook), Disabling Shot (which is far more useful than I had realized prior, plus Battle Scanners were always dubiously useful for me), Opportunist (no Aim penalty when she's on Overwatch), Low Profile (any cover counts as Full, basically), and finally for her Colonel rank ability I picked In the Zone. I'll show why later...
[[EDIT: Correction, that's actually Carapace Armor. But I did get Kim into one of my first sets of Skeletal /EDIT]]
Now I don't have too many pics before I went for the Alien Base - I wasn't expecting too much plot. But today I got a few hours in, and well, things happened.
But yeah, before today I had fun with it but it hadn't really turned into some sort of plot until I binged today after classes... well, some events below:
Kim leads the team that attacks the Alien Base...
... and is in command of XCOM's base defense. And after commanding a no casualty defense (not even the blue shirts - I mean, security personnel died or even got hit!), well, issueing her the medal from that was a no-brainer, plus the bonus on it was good for her Squad Leader role...
Laying down covering fire at Deluge - In the Zone craping shines here since most aliens drop in out of cover, or in the case of the Mechoids like the one she's sniping aren't even able to use it. Need to use her squadmates to soften some harder targets down, but it's worth it to get the extra snipes in.
After the mission was over, approaching the truck along side the second Sniper MEC I had, Jeanne "Abort" D'Arc (there's a pun there...)
And out falls a dead EXALT schmuck. Well, least this one didn't blow himself up with his own grenade (had that happen during one of the Covert Ops missions that Jeanne was the CO for above)
Also note the Plasma Sniper Rifle. The only primary weapon you can't steal from the aliens, and for good reason when in the hands of the right sniper. Like Kim, in this game...
Meet Annette Durand, who is if you have Portent your nominal Psionic character with her own mini-arc (she's actually how the aliens managed to assault the XCOM base above - they used her as an amplifier... then EXALT nicked her from the aliens).
Oh, and despite using a weapon firing plasma, Kim's warning shots were normal lead. Anything's possible, huh?
'course, Annette's psionics are uncontrolled at this stage, merely limited to an annoying headache when she shouted.
Now there's a reason why In the Zone is awesome. This is the start of a demonstration. Four pods ended up being aggroed in this fight - the Chrysalid pod that Jeanne softened up with a grenade and Kim proceeded to ITZ to death, a pod of Mutons with a Berserker (who went down to 1 HP in the first turn, but ran out of Kim's LoS. Not that I wanted her to take it out - I want prisoners to give to ze German doctor lady to perform war crimes on!), a Cyberdisc +2 drones set, and then after moving Annette (who became an Assault) up to hit the first Disc, a second one showed up with two more drones. Kim ITZ'd the drones as well as the first disc after it was softened up (too much HP for her to one-shot even with a crit)
End result as Kim lines up the shot on the second Cyberdisc - it survived with like, two HP, so another XCOM operative finished it off (think it was one of the Assaults I was leveling at the time, or my Israeli Support who had been in my initial lineup)
But yeah, today I started realizing a story was coming together. On a lark, I put Kim in with my first three Psionic tests, along with Shaojie "Chilong" Zhang (ex-Triad who, timeline wise, joined before Kim became an XCOM operative but she was there fore the subsequent Confounding Light and Gangplank missions that he enabled), and an extra Support who was in my B-lineup. So, guess who the first Psionic was?
Yeah, Zhang. I actually wasn't surprised - he was a Psionic in my last game (it's chance based), plus well, Kim's not really about powers right? No gene mods (decided not to use them for this game - it's humans and MECs, no need to add alien DNA into our own!)
...
Then it turned out, well...
Well, yeah. Kim was actually a Psionic as well, Zhang just was the guy who got used for the cinematic. But still... a psionic is required for the endgame of XCOM, so I'm thinking... yeah, at this point I'm going to be doing much more focus on the journey going on. I wanna see how this ends. Whether Kim makes it to the end...
... or dies to the Grade A Bullcrap that is Sectopods and their free Overwatch + two per turn firing main gun that deals about 7->12 HP of damage every shot, Defense bonus making it hard to even hit them, and ALSO halving all damage automatically unless their armor gets hit with a Shredder Rocket...
And by this point I got Kim the last of the tech, short of the end game Psi Armor... which I'll probably use.
Armor: Ghost Armor (Cloaking + Defense + NBC protection and decent HP)
Weapon: Plasma Sniper Rifle
Sidearm: Plasma Pistol (she got one of the first ones I could use, never had her unequip it since)
Item 1: S.C.O.P.E. (Extra Aim is always helpful, though admittedly at this point most of her shots are 100% to-hit... just wait 'till Sectopods come out...)
Item 2: Varies, but as a Sniper, well... Kim doesn't need it too much. Almost certainly going to end up filled with a Mind Shield once I've killed a couple Ethereals...
Medals wise, she's got Urban Combat Badge (+5 Defense in Cover), International Service (+2 Aim and Will per XCOM continent bonus, which has now become +10 as I got all five - North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia+Australia), Council Medal of Honor (+1 Aim and Will for every mission without a casualty, which has been maxed out at +10 by this point), and Star of Terra (Entire squad gets +5 Will and +5 Defense, except robots who only get +5, but I don't use SHIVs so...). Only medal I haven't issued her is the Defender's Medal, mostly because if Kim's taking fire it's not going to help her (I set it to +2 HP per heal; it's honestly one better awarded to my MECs since they tend to draw fire, though I'm not sure who to issue the last one too..)
So far, Kim's had quite the XCOM career. Besides the stuff mentioned above, she's seen quite a few casualties, been wounded a couple times, provided cover fire during the first encounter with Mutons in Confounding Light as XCOM desperately got a train online to lure away an alien Battleship (then was part of the team that boarded it later), fought an all-Chryssalid Terror Mission in Australia, and had to keep the squad active against the 'lids and the zombified civilians from their venom (and uh, unique reproductive method), then later stopped the same from happening in Canada with good old Site Recon (though that mission was much more my MECs when it came down to it, even if ITZ helped in a few spots), has led missions against EXALT (and seen one of their agents blow himself up with a grenade... I THINK that guy was aiming for one of my MECs, but somehow it bounced back and blew him up. Spend a good few minutes laughing at the idiocy, especially since that cleared the map for the moment. And another time when one guy dropped right next to her, then I brought up the whole squad since he was the last guy, already wounded by Kim's pistol shot, he leaps off a building... and Kim tosses an Alien Grenade down after him next turn. KABOOM!)
Next up at this point? Leveling up the Psionics...
Like the good old Mindfray on that poor Thin Man who's about to have the worst headache of his life (and the last one...), while rescuing Annette's friends while she's getting her psi abilities unlocked. (That ended up being fairly fun despite not having a lot of enemies - ran it full on assault mode, no subtly just speedblitzing and plasma/lasers).
So yeah. What do you guys think, keep going with pics for this and see how Kim's adventure as an XCOM Operative ends, or should I just keep it to myself in the future? It's on Normal difficulty and no Ironman so it's not like I'm doing some hardcore challenge, though at this point I'm definitely going to make it a personal rule not to save scum with regards to Kim's fate, just to see how it ends.
So, at some point I got an American Female rookie, so... well, I've been using a light blue color scheme on my guys a la Global Justice, so why not.
One Terror Mission later for this customized soldier (her first and including fun things like Chrysalids), and here was the result: (All images in spoilers due to size)
I'll admit it's not the best approximation of Kim physically, but it was the best I felt I could do; the in-game red just seemed very obviously dyed and Kim's hair is a bit more of an orange. The ponytail I went with since that is an alternate hairstyle of hers, plus there's no real good 'lots of hair' option.
But yeah, first mission (which had fun stuff like Chryssalids show up) and she got a promotion to Sniper. Assault probably would fit Kim better, but if that wasn't an option Sniper works decently since Kim IS a pretty good shot.
Game went on, with XCOM's memetic casualty rating finally catching up with stuff like Seekers suddenly deciding to start using their plasma cannons on one poor Rookie in the grand cemetery or an Assault knocked down to 1 HP by a Crit retaliating by charging a Thin Man for a CQB flank kill... *whistles innocently*
But after some difficulty (since leveling Snipers is always a pain), Kim made the rank of Sergeant, and was issued a nickname.
'Athena' was a surprisingly apt nickname. Goddess of war, but also one of wisdom. Brains and strength in one. Guess I know a callsign if I ever need to give Kim one for any of my fics...
Of course I ended up changing it, and this is Kim once she became an XCOM Colonel and more or less my go-to squad leader (the previous one, another Sniper, I turned into a MEC since a MEC converted from a max tier sniper can actually reliably hit stuff at range). And got herself into a Skeleton Suit, complete with Grappling Hook (it ain't Kim without one am I right?).
And this is her full skill list: Headshot (bonus critical for a shot), Squadsight (Basically, can snipe anything that an ally can see as long as there's an unimpeded line of sight, an essential for a Sniper), Gunslinger (to let her be more mobile since Sniper Rifles can't be used the same turn as a move, as well as being a good stand-in for Kim's melee abilities/accuracy with her grappling hook), Disabling Shot (which is far more useful than I had realized prior, plus Battle Scanners were always dubiously useful for me), Opportunist (no Aim penalty when she's on Overwatch), Low Profile (any cover counts as Full, basically), and finally for her Colonel rank ability I picked In the Zone. I'll show why later...
[[EDIT: Correction, that's actually Carapace Armor. But I did get Kim into one of my first sets of Skeletal /EDIT]]
Now I don't have too many pics before I went for the Alien Base - I wasn't expecting too much plot. But today I got a few hours in, and well, things happened.
But yeah, before today I had fun with it but it hadn't really turned into some sort of plot until I binged today after classes... well, some events below:
Kim leads the team that attacks the Alien Base...
... and is in command of XCOM's base defense. And after commanding a no casualty defense (not even the blue shirts - I mean, security personnel died or even got hit!), well, issueing her the medal from that was a no-brainer, plus the bonus on it was good for her Squad Leader role...
Laying down covering fire at Deluge - In the Zone craping shines here since most aliens drop in out of cover, or in the case of the Mechoids like the one she's sniping aren't even able to use it. Need to use her squadmates to soften some harder targets down, but it's worth it to get the extra snipes in.
After the mission was over, approaching the truck along side the second Sniper MEC I had, Jeanne "Abort" D'Arc (there's a pun there...)
And out falls a dead EXALT schmuck. Well, least this one didn't blow himself up with his own grenade (had that happen during one of the Covert Ops missions that Jeanne was the CO for above)
Also note the Plasma Sniper Rifle. The only primary weapon you can't steal from the aliens, and for good reason when in the hands of the right sniper. Like Kim, in this game...
Meet Annette Durand, who is if you have Portent your nominal Psionic character with her own mini-arc (she's actually how the aliens managed to assault the XCOM base above - they used her as an amplifier... then EXALT nicked her from the aliens).
Oh, and despite using a weapon firing plasma, Kim's warning shots were normal lead. Anything's possible, huh?
'course, Annette's psionics are uncontrolled at this stage, merely limited to an annoying headache when she shouted.
Now there's a reason why In the Zone is awesome. This is the start of a demonstration. Four pods ended up being aggroed in this fight - the Chrysalid pod that Jeanne softened up with a grenade and Kim proceeded to ITZ to death, a pod of Mutons with a Berserker (who went down to 1 HP in the first turn, but ran out of Kim's LoS. Not that I wanted her to take it out - I want prisoners to give to ze German doctor lady to perform war crimes on!), a Cyberdisc +2 drones set, and then after moving Annette (who became an Assault) up to hit the first Disc, a second one showed up with two more drones. Kim ITZ'd the drones as well as the first disc after it was softened up (too much HP for her to one-shot even with a crit)
End result as Kim lines up the shot on the second Cyberdisc - it survived with like, two HP, so another XCOM operative finished it off (think it was one of the Assaults I was leveling at the time, or my Israeli Support who had been in my initial lineup)
But yeah, today I started realizing a story was coming together. On a lark, I put Kim in with my first three Psionic tests, along with Shaojie "Chilong" Zhang (ex-Triad who, timeline wise, joined before Kim became an XCOM operative but she was there fore the subsequent Confounding Light and Gangplank missions that he enabled), and an extra Support who was in my B-lineup. So, guess who the first Psionic was?
Yeah, Zhang. I actually wasn't surprised - he was a Psionic in my last game (it's chance based), plus well, Kim's not really about powers right? No gene mods (decided not to use them for this game - it's humans and MECs, no need to add alien DNA into our own!)
...
Then it turned out, well...
Well, yeah. Kim was actually a Psionic as well, Zhang just was the guy who got used for the cinematic. But still... a psionic is required for the endgame of XCOM, so I'm thinking... yeah, at this point I'm going to be doing much more focus on the journey going on. I wanna see how this ends. Whether Kim makes it to the end...
... or dies to the Grade A Bullcrap that is Sectopods and their free Overwatch + two per turn firing main gun that deals about 7->12 HP of damage every shot, Defense bonus making it hard to even hit them, and ALSO halving all damage automatically unless their armor gets hit with a Shredder Rocket...
And by this point I got Kim the last of the tech, short of the end game Psi Armor... which I'll probably use.
Armor: Ghost Armor (Cloaking + Defense + NBC protection and decent HP)
Weapon: Plasma Sniper Rifle
Sidearm: Plasma Pistol (she got one of the first ones I could use, never had her unequip it since)
Item 1: S.C.O.P.E. (Extra Aim is always helpful, though admittedly at this point most of her shots are 100% to-hit... just wait 'till Sectopods come out...)
Item 2: Varies, but as a Sniper, well... Kim doesn't need it too much. Almost certainly going to end up filled with a Mind Shield once I've killed a couple Ethereals...
Medals wise, she's got Urban Combat Badge (+5 Defense in Cover), International Service (+2 Aim and Will per XCOM continent bonus, which has now become +10 as I got all five - North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia+Australia), Council Medal of Honor (+1 Aim and Will for every mission without a casualty, which has been maxed out at +10 by this point), and Star of Terra (Entire squad gets +5 Will and +5 Defense, except robots who only get +5, but I don't use SHIVs so...). Only medal I haven't issued her is the Defender's Medal, mostly because if Kim's taking fire it's not going to help her (I set it to +2 HP per heal; it's honestly one better awarded to my MECs since they tend to draw fire, though I'm not sure who to issue the last one too..)
So far, Kim's had quite the XCOM career. Besides the stuff mentioned above, she's seen quite a few casualties, been wounded a couple times, provided cover fire during the first encounter with Mutons in Confounding Light as XCOM desperately got a train online to lure away an alien Battleship (then was part of the team that boarded it later), fought an all-Chryssalid Terror Mission in Australia, and had to keep the squad active against the 'lids and the zombified civilians from their venom (and uh, unique reproductive method), then later stopped the same from happening in Canada with good old Site Recon (though that mission was much more my MECs when it came down to it, even if ITZ helped in a few spots), has led missions against EXALT (and seen one of their agents blow himself up with a grenade... I THINK that guy was aiming for one of my MECs, but somehow it bounced back and blew him up. Spend a good few minutes laughing at the idiocy, especially since that cleared the map for the moment. And another time when one guy dropped right next to her, then I brought up the whole squad since he was the last guy, already wounded by Kim's pistol shot, he leaps off a building... and Kim tosses an Alien Grenade down after him next turn. KABOOM!)
Next up at this point? Leveling up the Psionics...
Like the good old Mindfray on that poor Thin Man who's about to have the worst headache of his life (and the last one...), while rescuing Annette's friends while she's getting her psi abilities unlocked. (That ended up being fairly fun despite not having a lot of enemies - ran it full on assault mode, no subtly just speedblitzing and plasma/lasers).
So yeah. What do you guys think, keep going with pics for this and see how Kim's adventure as an XCOM Operative ends, or should I just keep it to myself in the future? It's on Normal difficulty and no Ironman so it's not like I'm doing some hardcore challenge, though at this point I'm definitely going to make it a personal rule not to save scum with regards to Kim's fate, just to see how it ends.