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[Iduno]

Wait does this mean our characters can escape the cycle of life and death?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Whale_(game)

[Telgin]

I was irrationally happy to make a mind controlled sectoid stand in fire until it died.

Psionics in X-COM classic are just completely broken.  I went from getting trashed by ethereals to roflstomping them without even getting shot at by just mind controlling one, mind controlling its buddy that it just spotted, and repeating the process until I ran out of aliens to spot.  Then I either had them shoot each other, drop their guns or sit on their own grenades.

I think the ability to drop their equipment is new to Open X-COM, or at least required an exploit in the original game.  Didn't you have to open a soldier's inventory and scroll through the soldier list to get to mind controlled aliens in the original game?

Either way, I think at the end of this game month, I'll try the Cydonia mission.  I can almost fill an Avenger with troops with 70+ psi strength, which at this point I'm expecting will be insane overkill.

[Iduno]

I think the ability to drop their equipment is new to Open X-COM, or at least required an exploit in the original game.  Didn't you have to open a soldier's inventory and scroll through the soldier list to get to mind controlled aliens in the original game?

That's what I remember.

[Telgin]

I can almost fill an Avenger with troops with 70+ psi strength, which at this point I'm expecting will be insane overkill.

I was correct.  I beat the final mission with the only losses being 2 plasma hovertanks, which were lost to cyberdiscs on the surface of Mars.  I managed to clear out all of the sectoids with a couple of soldiers acting as scouts, then the rest in the Avenger mind controlling them and shooting their buddies or sitting on grenades.  Mind controlling a few cyberdiscs was fun too.

The underground base part of the mission was hilarious.  On the second turn I spotted a chyrssalid, which I mind controlled, and ran it around and into the first door I found.  Ethereal inside.  Mind control and it's mine.  I shoot another ethereal it spotted, then send it up an elevator shaft.  Boom, alien brain.  With the vision into the room, I mind controlled another ethereal and heavy plasmaed the alien brain.  Won the mission on the third turn with no losses.

Psionics are ridiculous.

[Kagus]

Psionics are ridiculous.

Yup, and I'd say they're also one of the weaker parts of the original game specifically because of how ridiculous they are...

Apocalypse turned things around a bit by making psi stuff both more and less ridiculous. You're limited in scope and power of the psi powers you can use, even with specialized hybrid human-sectoid agents equipped with buggy equipment that was technically removed from the game before release, while the aliens get obscene psi defenses and special assholes that can do as much berserking and mind controlling as they want...

...unless you're using android agents, which are completely 100% immune to psionics of all kinds. And brainsuckers.


I believe Xenonauts made the system a little more sensible, but I never really got to the point of widespread psionics on either side of the battle.

[EnigmaticHat]

Xenonauts, well:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It tones down psi.  Enemies seem to have a limited range and the number and power of psi aliens is tightly controlled in the beginning.  They still don’t need LoS.  When ethereals-a-likes come, all bets are off.  I gave up one very lategame caimpaign because even with savescumming I couldn’t beat a terror mission featuring psi.

As for the xenonauts, in this universe humans have no psionic potential.  Which I think is an elegant solution.  In exchange for that you get a fourth tech level better than plasma (which the aliens never get).  Also some frankly ridiculous lategame armors that turn your characters into superhumans.

[Iduno]

I played some more Slay the Spire ascension mode (which is less ridiculous fun than daily runs that aren't the one that puts infinite random cards on the bottom of your deck).

I went from ascension 5 to 7 on the Ironclad, which I haven't played much of since the Defect came out. The monk character (which is still in beta?) got me interested in the primary damage-dealing character (haha, lies! I won with barricade/body slam decks with +strength and reaper both times) again.

Reaper is wild with multiple enemies and strength increases. I was going from full health to half health back to full in several fights. Donu and Square-o put up a decent enough fight, usually taking down 80% of my shields with a single hit (and they both hit twice), but once Donu went down, they had no chance.

It's a fun game, but the relics and cards both vary wildly in usefulness, and combos can get insane if you're lucky enough to pick them up. The "nice" thing about ascensions is you're dead against the first boss/one of the elites if you don't get something useful by then, assuming you also fought any elites to pick up relics.

[Rolan7]

I finally got the... best... ending?  The most difficult one in normal mode, anyway.  I still love that I originally stumbled across a much nicer ending which was apparently semi-secret, and assumed I'd been at the end of the game.

Anyway, the "final boss" sure is a lot easier with charge shots.  I only started using them in practice mode to get my times down, weeks ago, then finally went back and tried them in the actual game.  They punch through seemingly impenetrable defenses, almost like the tutorial tried to teach me.  oops.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Furi
I've got One More Fight to go I guess, but I hear it's a midquel thing.  And a whole lot of Furier I don't plan on ever beating

[Teneb]

I defeated the half-demon Alkothi and even got an achievement for it!

Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind

[Haspen]

Generally, my Federation Cruiser runs aren't that good, and usually I lose by sector 3 or 4.

This time, at Sector 5, I had little hull left and no real weapons beyond the piddly cruiser beam. Stores I encountered also mocked me with lack of weapons or weapons that were crap or needed way too much reactor power.

So I decided to just buy Cloaking system and use it to give cruiser beam time to load.

Turns out this investment plan was the best I had in a while. Cruiser beam + cloak combo carried me even through 3 or 4 shield enemy ships, and by Sector 7 I also had Flak mk1 and Halberd beam.

Flagship, I thought, would be mad hard to beat, and I thought I will die.

Nope! My ship lost 3 hull in first phase, and got barely scratched in 2nd and 3rd phases. The fact that the Flagship has so many rooms probably helped a lot for Cruiser Beam to deal damage through the shields.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

FTL: Faster Than Light

[Iduno]

Gloomhaven, so as few spoilers as I can manage while telling a story. We misread/understood the setup the first 2 times, so we lost. Third time we did well.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

First mission. There were 2 elites in the second room. First turn going into the room, I took out the closest elite in one turn with my Brutes Jump 4 and attack everyone you jumped over, the +2 move from the boots, and a damage= amount of distance you moved. Second turn, I took out the other one (with a double damage modifier card). Then I took my first long rest.

[Mathel]

Managed to clear Durathread factory, catch a Red Dawn Coordinator and a few Red Dawn soldiers, all without losing a single agent.
It turns out, that coordinators are just as flamable as their underlings.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The X-Com Files

[Teneb]

Finished Book of Demons just now, and without dying either!

It's a nice enough game, even if it only gets difficult (and boy, does it spike when that happens) in the last third of it.

[hector13]

Finally got enough of a set to actually be able to use the full set bonus and blast my way through things on Torment 10.

I also believe I have another item that will double that set bonus, and I have other sets such that I can use the partial set bonus to either bolster the full set bonus from the other one, or increase my defense so I don’t get gibbed every time I come across a particularly unpleasant group of enemies.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Diablo III: so late to the party they’ve announced the next game

[Akura]

I would normally be pretty damn angry that my scouts somehow failed to see the giant snake creature that the enemy literally worships as a god as I probably would not have attacked if I knew it was there.

Spoiler: Can't be mad at the results, though (click to show/hide)

Most of the very limited casualties I took were from friendly fire. Their god, Flannchadh the Ram-Headed Serpent, got surrounded and mobbed. Only took single points of damage, not enough to outdamage his regeneration, until whatever protection spell it cast wore off. Didn't last very long after that. All the rest of their forces fled way before that. Some faith in their god, huh.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dominions 4.