Interactive X-Com TFTD Let's Play

[RealDDc]

Hi everyone,

I enjoy following the Let's Plays with commented screenshots, but also love gaming. So why not get one going myself?

The idea is to set up a unmodded X-Com Terror From The Deep game on superhuman difficulty ironman, along with a video of the progress and written commentary on screenshots.

And what is interactive about it?

Well I want to make this a bit different, in most TFTD lets Plays the viewers get to pick soldiers and have them have the own name. Now what about if the viewers could control the units in someone elses game? As mutch as I'd love to do this and have everyone participating controlling the soldiers.... Thats sadly not possible. The communication on a Forum is just not fast enough and it would take ages to complete even one strategic battle.

But... maybe it is possible, just not with full control. This will be a test and I have no idea how the results will be.

I would require at least 8 People to take part in this, most of the times im playing my missions with no more than 8 soldiers the rest usually sits in the ship on hold just in case the mission goes terribly wrong. But the more taking part, the better.

Everyone who takes part then will get a chosen soldier assigned to them, and during strategic battles when I am not sure about the next step of the soldier you give him his order, I'll put the record to hold post the situation here and you give the order. Same in case of a retreat or alike, there could even be a team communication, or a few decide to stay while others retreat. Im still not exactly sure how this will be looking like or turn out, but im absolutely positive that I want to get it started.

But I would require at least 8 quite active participants, so this can steady and frequent move on. I would want at least one interactive part in each strategically combat. Im playing the game with german language but that shouldn't be a problem I guess.

Anyone down on that?

 

[Overboard]

Alright, I'll be your guinea pig.

 

[Azira]

Yeah. Me too. My orders would probably revolve around the trifecta of "CHAAAARGE!" "SHOOT THE XENO!" and "RUN!!".

 

[RealDDc]

Thats great, so far we are a trio for whole world rescue... yes I decided to keep full control over at last one Aquanaut, just incase the battlefield situation gets hairy.

Well played we could get quite far, one or two more wouldn't hurt either.

Is there a way to indefinitely edit the initial post to add more content?

(Noted Azira's protégé gets the stun rod.... )

 

[RealDDc]

Massive congestion... Maybe I should promise fame and glory... or death.

Anyways it is in full Progress, so lets get started.



Chapter 1: How it all began

Spoiler

A while back aliens invaded Earth and got their asses kicked back to Mars.

A little later Cydonia fell and the day was saved.

But...

... not for good.

They are back for another round.

Time to move out....

... and fill the oceans with gallons of alien goo.

Chapter 2: Base Preparations

Spoiler

Base Location.

Improved HQ for a redesign later, incase they dare to invade.

Refittet Barracuda, so they wont escape that easily.

For the tiny ships.

Adjusted equipment for the troopers.

Some Shopping and seeling.

And an overview.

Now to the funner parts

Chapter 3: Select your guy /gal to obsess
- and once we are set, lets go and blow up some

Spoiler

Tim
- a young one
- best scorer in the football team
- then joined the army
- proofed himself to be an extraordinary shooter
- no real battle experience
- now subbed in to save the world

Stuart
- an old Veteran
- well experienced
- countless times wounded
- his grandfather was part of the crew to bring Cydonia to fall

Krug
- a criminal
- firmly bound with life to X-Com
- a crippled left Hand
- perfect dart player with the right Hand

Grigoriy
- siberian knife thrower
- does not speak
- anything else about him is unknown

Amanda
- blonde
- 92 / 63 / 89
- don't get mistaken by her appearance
- breaks walnuts between two fingers

Edward
- bullied during childhood
- later trained martial arts to payback
- several personality disorders
- everyone is scared of him
- he is scared by everything
- we have to take what we get....

Greg
- a good allrounder
- not the youngest but not old either
- very popular within the Team
- amanda secretly adores him

Rudi
- plays all day video games
- now sees his chance to shine in glory and save the world
- controlled by me.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

The idea is to set up a unmodded X-Com Terror From The Deep game on superhuman difficulty ironman

Count me out if unmodded means unpatched.

 

[RealDDc]

Not completely unpatched, latest official released patch. I hope you are in, there is a chance this could be fun.

 

[Azira]

Let me be.... Greg!

 

[Overboard]

Alright, I'll take Edward.

 

[RealDDc]

Chapter 4: Hunting

Spoiler

The objectives are clear, seek and destroy.

1. January 14:31
Global network reports ufo sightings
- northatlantic aswell as nothpacific.
- baracudas are not ready armed yet to set off
- the triton is send enroute on good luck to nothpacific

15:04
more sightings
- antarctica
- japanese ocean

16:20
Situation gets clear
- one ufo must be around the north/southatlantic border
- one heading towards Japan
- Triton has to change route and head towards the southchinese sea

20:18
Heavy armed Baracuda send on patrol in the atlantic spots a tiny Ufo, can't attack.
Need the lightely armed baracuda to not destroy this. But it is not ready yet. Baracuda one keeps following.

20:18
The lightely armed baracude arrives and shortely after shoots the Ufo down.

2. January 2:59
Triton arrives it's destination near japan and spots a flying small ship.
Global network reports a landing near this destination, it may land again in this area.

5:45
The ufo lands and shortly after the triton sets down near by it.

Chapter 5: Face to face
- The fun Begins

Spoiler

Hey Overboard, Edward awaits your order. If you are confident that your guy will hit and kill him, you can go for it, maybe he'll miss...kneel? Snapshot? Aimed shot? Autofire? Prime and throw a grenade? maybe the gilmen reactionfires.... Or maybe you want him to do something completely different? On your call he'll do it. Watching the Video you get a even better view over the situation.

And what you guys think? Should we retreat? There is not really a realistic chance to clean out a small class ship with 3 People, no high explosives or trip mines. On a few corners in the ship there always die one or two, especially without armor. So yea maybe it is best to grab a few things and leave, and maybe a few more people would like to take part.

I hope you enjoy this a little so far and my english is acceptable?


And here is the Video to it.

 

[RealDDc]

The world's just not ready yet for my let's plays.

 

[Desktop Commander]

Whoa, almost missed this. I'm rather busy at work during the week, so I don't know if I would be able to actively participate. Will definitely follow this though (that is, if you still intend to continue the lp). I absolutely loved TFTD as a kid (still do!) and actually prefer it over the first one.

However, I strongly recommend you to check out XcomUtil for TFTD (yes, it's not just for UD anymore), as it fixes many of the bugs and annoyances of vanilla.
Link: http://www.ufopaedia.org/?title=XcomUtil

 

[RealDDc]

...that is, if you still intend to continue the lp...

I'd love to, but on the other hand it is very time consuming, takes a lot effort and then again the congestion is thin. I am not even sure if this is enjoyable to read and watch for others, hard to tell without feedback. Glad you liked it so far and intend to follow, thanks for the feedback.
Since im still completely experimenting with this, the further progression is totally flexible and you could actively take part once new recruits arrive. Every character so far has a backstorry, totally crazy to do that in a game where every false step can decide its fate, but that encourages me to keep them alive. So "your" guy could have a storry that excludes listening to orders, or only accepting orders at rare occasions. Suggestions are totally welcome if you want to actively take part.

That said, I would require a few more to continue.

Oh and TFTD along with MoM and Moo2 are my alltime favorite games.

However, I strongly recommend you to check out XcomUtil for TFTD (yes, it's not just for UD anymore), as it fixes many of the bugs and annoyances of vanilla.
Link: http://www.ufopaedia.org/?title=XcomUtil

Im not a fan of the XcomUtil, for UD it is crucial to fix the difficulty bug. But for TFTD it does not offer mutch good, mostely just messing around with balance which I don't have issues with. And the vanilla bugs around the tech tree can easily be avoided, in hundret of TFTD games I've never ran in the disjoint base bug.

I'd rather fix other bugs, like the NPC's with melee range weapons unable to use them, the zero melee hit accuracy for drones, the unusable range attack for haluzinoids and a few others along those lines. There is a mod from Kyrub that does this, but to my knowledge that mod creates then other issues, or at least it did a little back.

 

[Overboard]

Hey Overboard, Edward awaits your order.

Go full retard auto!

 

[Desktop Commander]

I'd love to, but on the other hand it is very time consuming, takes a lot effort and then again the congestion is thin. I am not even sure if this is enjoyable to read and watch for others, hard to tell without feedback. Glad you liked it so far and intend to follow, thanks for the feedback.
Since im still completely experimenting with this, the further progression is totally flexible and you could actively take part once new recruits arrive. Every character so far has a backstorry, totally crazy to do that in a game where every false step can decide its fate, but that encourages me to keep them alive. So "your" guy could have a storry that excludes listening to orders, or only accepting orders at rare occasions. Suggestions are totally welcome if you want to actively take part.

That said, I would require a few more to continue.

Oh and TFTD along with MoM and Moo2 are my alltime favorite games.

While I do enjoy your idea and format, I am not sure if the codex is the best place for such an ambitious endeavor. Relying on regular input from no less than 8 different posters sounds like a sure recipe of frustration to me, considering that this is not the most well-populated subforum on the codex.

But do feel free to sign me up as a recruit if you want. I will try to participate at least semi-regularly, though I cannot promise anything.

Im not a fan of the XcomUtil, for UD it is crucial to fix the difficulty bug. But for TFTD it does not offer mutch good, mostely just messing around with balance which I don't have issues with. And the vanilla bugs around the tech tree can easily be avoided, in hundret of TFTD games I've never ran in the disjoint base bug.

I'd rather fix other bugs, like the NPC's with melee range weapons unable to use them, the zero melee hit accuracy for drones, the unusable range attack for haluzinoids and a few others along those lines. There is a mod from Kyrub that does this, but to my knowledge that mod creates then other issues, or at least it did a little back.

Fair enough; I guess I've just gotten too used to my tweaked copy of TFTD. I'm not sure either how stable the latest build of TFTDExtender is, which is why I did not even mention it.

 

[RealDDc]

 

[Azira]

That's a succesful mission right there. No deaths, a positive score and some artifacts to research.

Now all that remains is to get some more volounteers.

 

[RealDDc]

While I do enjoy your idea and format, I am not sure if the codex is the best place for such an ambitious endeavor. Relying on regular input from no less than 8 different posters sounds like a sure recipe of frustration to me, considering that this is not the most well-populated subforum on the codex..

I've followed X-Com and TFTD documentations on here, and they usually had quickly enough participants to rename the whole group. So my guess is this format or the way im presenting it is just not accepted well enough. Im not even sure myself, either this is good fun or completely retarded. It is fun to make, but is it fun to watch? I don't know.

 

[RealDDc]

That's a succesful mission right there. No deaths, a positive score and some artifacts to research.

Heh, and all that with just three people.

Now all that remains is to get some more volounteers.

I still have another part that i'll finish tomorrow, together with the second video. But after that this here will be on hold, maybe a few more give call and only then I could continue with it.

 

[Azira]

The most important piece of advice I can offer to a fellow LP maker is, you shouldn't do it if it's not fun.
So please continue in whatever format pleases you the most.

 

[RealDDc]

I wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun to produce it. But sadly there is not mutch of an point to continue with this if it is no fun watch.

Thanks for the advice, made me realize that I should better not continue posting this here. Found this to be an original concept and gave it a shot, but the final product failed to reach the consumer.

 

[Azira]

D-d-d-drama!!

 

[RealDDc]