So. Here we are. At the end of the third game in the After- series. I asked you a question, whether we should let the non-hostile aliens live, or kill them off. The votes were close, very close.
With the last votes counted, extermination wins by 5, to the peaceful 4. It's only a nose-hair, so I'll show you both in this update. But I'll do the kill them all first.
As in Aftershock, there's a bit of a wait here at the end-game, where you just kill stuff and wait for an invisible counter to reach zero.
After doing some defense missions, the spaceship from Earth arrives!
This triggers a cut-scene, where it's clearly established that even though this spaceship means reinforcements, due to the need to "acclimate" the new arrivals, we're really not getting any reinforcements..
Hm. At least they brought the virus with them. It's also strongly hinted at, that if we don't take out the beastman HQ quickly after this virus gets deployed, we lose the game. I tested it out, and it's true. Dilly-dally too long, and you get
this video.
So. Let's take a look at this new mission that's on the globe, shall we?
Oh. We can't start the mission, and the virus hasn't been deployed yet, as we need the terraformation to be closer to the 100% mark first?
Well, that gives us some time to deal with the other aliens first.. :twisted:
Before we do though, we research a new topic, one that could mean peace with the little green dudes.
If we try to broker a peace now, though, the martians refuse to speak with us. It seems the bitchy little fellas will only have peace when they themselves propose it. Bah, let's end them now! After all, they're just another invading, horny Giant Space Walnut riding species after all.
"Destroy all units"... It shall be a pleasure! The map is quite large, but you can trust in the AI to come to you if you find a nice spot to camp.
Didn't have to move, we just turned to face in the same direction. This is literally at the start of this map. Soon, it's over.
No cut-scenes or videos playing or anything. Just gone. We check in the diplomacy panel and take the chance to break our treaty with the reticulans as well.
After doing this, missions pop up in reticulan held territories.
We start cleaning house immediately.
The expedition reticulans are much better armoured than the rebel faction was, so it takes more than a single shot to take them down, they move in groups, and can do decent amounts of damage with their psi weaponry. They go up in flames rather easily, meaning that chzr and eklektyk mows them down easily.
For the last two reticulan missions, we fitted "psi absorbers" to everyones armour, making them undetectable by psi-sense, and giving them 50% damage reduction from psionic attacks. The undetectable thing is the most important factor though, as it means the grays have to rely on visual contact before attacking. And that's just not good enough when faced with flamethrowers. Shotguns would work just as well, but I like the flames. :twisted:
Again, taking their last territory does nothing really. No CGI-movie. No messages on the geospace. But it removes their tab in the diplomacy screen.
There. Only the beastmen remain now.
If we take a look at our people tab, the aliens have moved to a new tab.
No longer anyone under "aliens".
They're now filed under "inactive". Permanently.
Now it's simply a matter of waiting until the terraforming process hits 100%, which it does rather quickly, with the techs we've researched by now. More plants have also started appearing on maps.
This screenshot also showcases my usual firing line. T'Brow and Bee exchange their sniper rifles for laser sniper rifles when matriarchs show up, due to lower laser resistance of those buggers. But otherwise, this setup seems to do very well.
The terraformation process has run its course. We can now initiate the final mission, but before that, we take a look at our new home.
Mars as seen with our base centered in the viewscreen. A largish sea has formed in the northern hemisphere, flooding quite a few provinces, but our resources are good, so we're not lacking anything.
The globe as seen from the northpole. I count 9 provinces flooded. There are some unclaimed provinces also visible here, but that's just the formerly reticulan held ones.
Mars as seen from the southpole. One territory flooded, one unclaimed, former the martian reserve.
On the easternmost part of this view, we can just make out our base, on the westernmost part, we can see the beastman HQ.
The beastman HQ not quite in the center here, but we can see dense growth in that area. Seems we have some sort of forests growing already?
And finally a view of what I'd like to call the middle-eastern part of the map. Nothing remarkable here..
The overview screen. Even though we've eliminated all potential allies and flooded much of the north, our resources are still at impressive levels. And the terraformation process is completed.
Let's take a look at the roster, shall we?
T'Brow. Cranky old bitch, but quite proficient at dealing death at a comfortable range. 201 confirmed kills.
Bee, our other sniper. 166 confirmed kills.
Cassidy. Gatling cannon, warp cannon, annihilator. 169 confirmed kills.
Juggernaut. Same loadout as Cassidy. 240 confirmed kills.
Storyfag. A relative late-comer to this party. Our remote scouter, with his lightning balls. 53 confirmed kills, but his importance should not be underestimated.
eklektyk. His primary weapon is the annihilator, he carries a flamethrower as backup. He's also our medic. 186 confirmed kills.
chzr. Death by fire! She also carries a katana, mostly for sentimental reasons however, as the flamethrower is more effective at killing enemies, and can hit more than one at a time. Also carrying a grenade thrower and incendiary grenades, for more fiery death. 359 confirmed kills!
That's our away team. The seven man crew on whom we pin our hopes in the final mission. They could not have made it however, without the rest of the crew.
Kenshiro, specialist in Earth tech and planetology. Level 19 scientist. That's actually quite impressive.
Kz3r0, specialist in alien biology, reticulan tech and martian tech. Level 18 scientist.
Shepard. He got the robot-scrambler named after him, but didn't see any field duty, for which I apologize. I realized early on, that the mixed classes were used much better as either pure scientists or techs, save for one of each for the combat missions (for healing and repairing). Shepard managed to get to level 18 as a scientist though.
Shagwell. Initially part of the away team until I realized that I needed to get a second workshop up and running, The she were diverted to making the guns and bullets that won this war. Weaponsmit specialist. Level 18 technician.
SoupNazi. He was out building mines and rocket bases the whole game. Major surveyor (for speeding up production of just those buildings). Level 19 technician.
Paccette. Don't be fooled by her insipid look. She was out there building rocket bases with SoupNazi, and I'd like to think that those two easily have a hundred beastman kills to their name or more, because of said rocket bases. Level 19 technician.
Drakron, our chief of research. Earth tech and planetology specialist. Level 18 scientist.
SMA and Kuroneko, same specializations as Kenshiro and Drakron. In the last stages of the game, they were in the science buggy, building and upgrading terraforming stations.
Diggler and Kaiserin, weapons and armours.
Happy! Also weapons and armour. Technician level 18.
Yours truly. The only time I spent in the base was the time it took to specialize in building geo-sondes and terraforming stations, and to learn how to drive the tech buggy faster. That's why my scientist level is higher than the rest. Building stations seem to give more xp than researching stuff..
Korenzel. Indispensable when it comes to planning and building new structures in the base. In his off time, he helped with building arms and armour. Level 19 technician.
And our little freak of nature, the identical twins of Blondie.. Both dual-classed, one a tech, the other a scientist. Both kept in the base for most of the time, doing research and building stuff. Scientist level 14, technician level 17.
Alright. Let's get this show over with.
Ah, a two-parter? No biggie, we've brought a lot of ammo and the best armour available.
Even the structures have crumbled from this virus. Powerful stuff..
We take up positions just inside one of the buildings and have Storyfag create a disposable scout.. Good idea, as it spots a line of mines. Well, that's one of the reasons we have the lightning thrower. To set off mines remotely.
And the way is clear!
This map isn't completely devoid of enemies however.
We run into a few matriarchs on the way to the exit grid, but nothing we can't handly easily. Now on to the very final map in this game.
It's a straight up "kill them all" map, and it's already littered with bodies.
Seems the only types of beastmen that this virus didn't kill outright is the matriarchs, and after dealing with such as was left on this map.
10 to be precise, we are returned to the geospace, where a final message pops up.
Since there isn't any more resistance on Mars, we get treated with the
final video sequence for this game. No roll-over-the-screen-credits, no acknowledgements, no "what happened after" fluff. Nothing. We're just booted to the start screen, where I click "quit game". Yes. I uploaded that video. If you're not happy with the resolution, then tough. I used FRAPS for the video capture, at ½ size and the lowest in-game resolution possible, and it still came out at 400Mb.
Welp. That's the end of the series. I hope you've enjoyed it. Now I can say I've finally finished all three games, and there's even these LPs to document it.
Now to see if I can be bothered with LPing something else.
Oh, I almost forgot. What if we don't kill the non-hostile aliens?
Well, first you'll have to wait a while for the Martians to approach you with a peace-offer.
Then wait for the terraformation to hit 100% as before.
But for some reason, the martian troops never move back from the inactive tab.
The reticulans are still in our team, as we never attacked them.
And one look at the diplomacy panel before doing the final mission.
And here's after.
We get the exact same exit video. Still no fluff, no text, no acknowledgements. So it seems it makes no difference, apart from you having to figt a few more battles if you exterminate them all. I'd recommend you at least keep the peace until the respective alien troopers are of no more use to you, but it's all a matter of personal preferences. I'm a care-bear, so I'd rather think that we worked something out, but I bow to the will of the Codex hive-mind, hence me posting the Extreme version first. And now I am done. M: