RedStarRocket91 Posted July 28, 2016 Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 I've been thinking of doing something like this for a while now, and this week marks finally putting it into action! Over the next few weeks, I'll be playing through XCom 2, using a variety of Halo-themed mods and with your Spartans in what I'm hoping will make for a really interesting and exciting series, and help tide over fans of Halo tactics and strategy games until the release of Halo Wars 2 next year. As of right now, there's no fixed schedule for uploads: instead, I'm going to try and upload 3-4 videos per week, dependent mostly upon my work schedule, and the format of each video will hopefully be that we start just prior to going on a mission, and then follow up with whatever happens on the world map up until the next mission is ready after the first finishes. This thread will be updated every time a new video is released, so do feel free to follow it for regular updates, or keep an eye on our Twitter, the shoutbox link bar, and my status updates to see when the next part arrives. I really hope you'll enjoy watching this series as much as I'm sure I'll enjoy playing it, and please do leave feedback, whether here or on the videos themselves. In the meantime, if you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a post below and I'll reply to you as soon as possible, or check below to see if I've already answered it! What mods are you using? Reveal hidden contents As I'm running quite a few mods, I've taken the liberty of combining them all into a collection on Steam, which can be found here. I didn't sign up before the start, can my Spartan still join? Reveal hidden contents Absolutely! While unfortunately the longer you wait to join the greater your Spartan's chance of death become, due to the fact that XCom's enemies continue scaling independent of your characters' ranks, if you do want to sign up I'll be happy to get you into the game, and I'll do my absolute best to keep you alive and fighting until the series ends. You can find the sign-up thread, along with all the necessary details, here. Can I make changes to my Spartan during the series? Reveal hidden contents Yes! If you'd like to make any changes to your Spartan's customisations (e.g. you want to change their stance and attitude, swap or remove their helmet, change armour colour and pattern, etc.) then go ahead and post it in the sign-up thread. Unfortunately because of the way XCom works I'm unable to make changes to your class once it's been chosen, but everything else can be fully altered, so feel free to let me know what you'd prefer. Who will die first? Reveal hidden contents Probably Drizzy. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoshi1176 Posted July 28, 2016 Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 This was really fun to watch, you've got yourself a good thing here Red. I look forward to future episodes. Also, please make sure SikSlik is used as a distraction. Send him straight into the enemy while the rest of us prepare ourselves. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halo6 Follower Posted July 28, 2016 Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 (edited) Wow...Just...Wow. Well done RSR. Very well done. I can't wait for future installments. I haven't had this much fun watching a video since that siege with the pikes and the stairs! Reveal hidden contents First strike for the Company!!!! Woo hoo! Go Keko, go!!! And is that an Aussie accent I sense?? This just keeps getting better and better. Edited July 28, 2016 by Halo6 Follower 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drizzy_Dan Posted July 28, 2016 Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 This was really fun to watch. I love being able to watch our Spartans from overhead with great detail. Those models are really great. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikslik7 Posted July 28, 2016 Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 On 7/28/2016 at 8:58 AM, Yoshi1176 said: This was really fun to watch, you've got yourself a good thing here Red. I look forward to future episodes. Also, please make sure SikSlik is used as a distraction. Send him straight into the enemy while the rest of us prepare ourselves. I'm sorry, but I'm so good that I have to be unlocked... and thanks for volunteering yourself. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guts Posted July 28, 2016 Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 Ok, good to know we have have a meat shield. Thanks Yoshi. I'm looking forward to the next part! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ardent Prayer Posted July 30, 2016 Report Share Posted July 30, 2016 "If someone has to die, well, you know who that'll be." *whispering* Yoshi, Yoshi, Yoshi... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedStarRocket91 Posted August 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2016 This week, I'm bringing you something slightly special: a two-parter! That's right, this mission was so fantastic it had to be split into two segments, and this most certainly is not the result of some incredibly serious bugs which prevented me from being able to progress completely, necessitating lengthy testing of the mods I was using in order to find out what was wrong. In any case, the first episode is focused mostly on actually meeting all of our Spartans, so if you want to get acquainted with our heroes, it's a good place to start. If, however, you'd like to get straight to the action, you might want to jump straight in to part two. I like to think this series is all about asking questions, and so in the spirit of the recordings, I'm going to pose a few for you to ponder while you're watching. In the meantime, I really hope you enjoy the videos, and as ever, please feel free to post any feedback you have, state any changes you'd like to make to your Spartan, or just post a 'drizi pls'. What's up with the delay? Reveal hidden contents Issues with mods, unfortunately. While I had done a test run with all the mods I'd wanted to use ahead of time, something seems to have gone wrong with a few of them in the time since that and the start of recording, so I'm working around it the best I can. What's this about broken mods? Reveal hidden contents A few of them seem to be a bit wonky. Flank Preview Evolved is non-functional for reasons I'm unsure of, the Second Wave Remastered options seem a bit... off, particularly when combining Absolutely Critical and Commander's Choice, and Long War Toolbox outright breaks the game and prevents progression. For now, I'd recommend avoiding it altogether as even when it's not crashing the game it doesn't seem to be running properly, so until it's rectified there's no real reason to turn it on. Does Drizzy die? Reveal hidden contents We can hope. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-38 Boss Posted August 5, 2016 Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 Dope vid, mang. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drizzy_Dan Posted August 5, 2016 Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 Lol character backgrounds being read. Twam's character is so good. Really enjoyed the 2-parter Red. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-38 Boss Posted August 5, 2016 Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 Hilariously enough, I think I've been playing with easily triple the mods you are, Longwar Tool box included, and I've not had a single issue. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-38 Boss Posted August 5, 2016 Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 Also, Red... Seriously... why u no use Overwatch ambushes? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedStarRocket91 Posted August 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 What's this? Two missions in two days? Will we be able to sustain such a staggeringly rapid production speed!? Reveal hidden contents No. Today's mission chronicles the progress of Operation Sacred Heart, a daring raid into the heart of the ADVENT-controlled city of Novgorod to rescue Dr Catherine Halsey Lena Krause from their clutches. Will we succeed? Will Drizzy die? Will Red ever pronounce anything correctly? Join us on today's video and find out! On 8/5/2016 at 5:04 PM, D38Boss said: Also, Red... Seriously... why u no use Overwatch ambushes? This is a really good question! I don't like using them because while I admit they have a lot of potential, I don't like the fact that you sacrifice control. There's a very real chance with an ambush that it's not going to wipe a pod - a shot could miss, or not do enough damage, or target the wrong enemy, or whatever, and then we have to face a turn of enemy fire from targets who might well be able to move to flank us or otherwise land damage on our dudes. But if I just open fire with one guy - I still get that free attack, with a high chance of a crit, and then regardless of where the enemy moves I can still react to it. Yeah, the initial shot percentages might be lower, but even if something goes wrong and a shot misses or doesn't do enough damage, I can still assess the situation, decide 'this is the new best course of action', and then carry it out, whether that means going for a flank attack, grenades, or prioritising one target over the others. Basically, I just like the extra control I get from not spending all my actions at once. Looks a bit less spectacular and doesn't have that same potential to wipe a squad in one go, but I tend to find it's a bit less risky overall. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoshi1176 Posted August 7, 2016 Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 Dumb question here and it probably has already been answered. Sometimes you miss or don't kill one of the aliens, or they move and don't attack. Why do they never attack. I don't want anyone to die of course (except Sikslik and Drizzy) but I don't see how anyone could die if the bad guys don't shoot. #confused #killsikslik2016 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedStarRocket91 Posted August 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 On 8/7/2016 at 7:45 AM, Yoshi1176 said: Dumb question here and it probably has already been answered. Sometimes you miss or don't kill one of the aliens, or they move and don't attack. Why do they never attack. I don't want anyone to die of course (except Sikslik and Drizzy) but I don't see how anyone could die if the bad guys don't shoot. #confused #killsikslik2016 Another good question! This is something I'd forgotten isn't really obvious to those who haven't played the newer XCom games, so I apologise, I should have covered this in the video. Basically, as soon as an enemy pod is activated (they come under fire from one of our soldiers, catch sight of one of our soldiers, drop in as reinforcements, etc.), they immediately get a single free move action - but only a move action. This happens every time a pod is activated, regardless of whether it's during our turn or the enemy turn, and once it does, the enemy can't take any actions until their next turn, where they can take normal actions. The sole exception is if one of them walks into a position where they are flanking one of our soldiers who's trying to stay concealed - then they might just shoot. Therefore, if an enemy pod activates during the enemy turn, all they can do is move to a new position, and we get a whole turn to attack them - plus any overwatch fire we get when they're activated! If a pod activates during our turn, they still get their free move, but then they can immediately start shooting and attacking as normal during their own turn. As a result, I generally prefer to try and activate enemy pods during their own turn, since we then have a full round of actions to fight them with on top of, potentially, some 'free' attacks with overwatch. It might sound a little obvious, but you really do want to kill enemies as soon as possible, since combat in XCom is extremely lethal. Particularly at this stage in the game, if an enemy survives to actually attack our soldiers, they are quite capable of one-hit-killing them, since their standard attacks deal 2-4 damage and our rookies only have 4HP to begin with. Sectoids do even more. Because of this, I do everything I can to wipe out enemies on the turn they appear, since not killing an enemy means a shot at us, and a shot at us means a pretty high chance of someone being killed. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedStarRocket91 Posted August 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 I apologise for yet another lengthy delay to uploading: after reviewing the earlier footage, I wasn't happy with the overall quality, and so I've invested in a new microphone and improved video editing software, which i hope you'll agree makes a big difference as we engage on Operation Iron King! Reveal hidden contents Overall, I think it's fair to say there was a lot of luck involved in this mission, both good and bad, as although I do try to always have a back-up plan for if something goes wrong, too often here I made silly mistakes or poor decisions and ended up having to rely on sheer luck. Toward the end when dealing with the Faceless, I also completely misunderstood how freeze bombs work, so this is a genuine mercy in terms of game mechanics that I wasn't expecting, rather than just an attempt to build drama. As ever, please remember that I can make any changes you want to your characters even after recording has started, aside from their class: yes, this means that once I get a certain facility, I can even change your soldier's abilities! (THIS IS AIMED AT YOU KEKO PLEASE LET ME MAKE YOU AN IRREGULAR) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halo6 Follower Posted August 26, 2016 Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 xD You have my permission to select whichever perk you feel is best. Or does it have to be exclusively from Regular or Irregular?? If not, yeah just go with whatever you feel is the most helpful. Awesome series RSR, please keep them coming! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-38 Boss Posted August 26, 2016 Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 Another great video Red. And I know you're trying to use member spartans predominantly right now, but... Your roster is FRAGILE right now. One misstep, and you're gonna have to work pretty hard to keep the roster from crumbling. Start rotating in some other peeps for at least a single slot while you're still on the opening missions. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drizzy_Dan Posted August 26, 2016 Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 I gotta say, this turn-based style gameplay is actually quite exciting to watch. Risking soldiers and shots add to that fun of not knowing. And good commentary as well. It's a shame these missions can't be shorter, that's my only gripe with this. I had to break it into different viewing sessions to watch it all because I had to do other things. This is great fun though Red, good work. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedStarRocket91 Posted August 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 On 8/26/2016 at 1:34 PM, Drizzy_Dan said: I gotta say, this turn-based style gameplay is actually quite exciting to watch. Risking soldiers and shots add to that fun of not knowing. And good commentary as well. It's a shame these missions can't be shorter, that's my only gripe with this. I had to break it into different viewing sessions to watch it all because I had to do other things. This is great fun though Red, good work. Breaking missions down into 'highlight reels' with only the actual actions rather than my decision-making time, and then recording commentary retrospectively is something I've actually considered doing: we'd end up with videos which are quite a bit shorter, and with a much higher proportion of action. That said, I know people might also be interested in my decision-making processes, so thus far I've mostly just been doing things live so people can listen in to that. I might try it when the time comes to record the next video though - see if I can record the mic audio and game footage separately, and then produce a both a normal video and a reduced-length, highlights-only one, and we can see which type people prefer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedStarRocket91 Posted August 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2016 People have been asking for a few episodes now to see what happens when I make bad decisions and things go wrong: as of today, I'm happy to oblige, with the help of special guest victim star Drizzy Dan! Reveal hidden contents This mission went really, really badly, but I have to admit that the worst of it was out of my hands, as the enemy reinforcements arrived at just about the single most damaging place and time they could have. While I should have been much more aggressive in progressing toward the objective, there isn't really a whole lot else I could have done short of blind rushing the objective and trying to set an overwatch trap, which is always a bit risky. Put simply, we really lucked out here: Drizzy, Blue, and T could all very easily have been killed, and down to just two soldiers, there's no guarantee that i'd have been able to finish the mission at all. Here's hoping the next enemy dropship isn't quite so brilliantly placed! On the bright side: how clutch was Gambol's last shot!? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guts Posted August 29, 2016 Report Share Posted August 29, 2016 That certainly did go very badly wrong! Good job we didn't lose anyone. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drizzy_Dan Posted August 29, 2016 Report Share Posted August 29, 2016 I DIDN'T MEAN TO MISS! Ardent's got a great shot however. Reveal hidden contents OW I GOT SHOT! Definitely my favorite episode so far. Love when there's some doubt whether we don't know if we will or will not make it. Way to maneuver, Red. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halo6 Follower Posted August 29, 2016 Report Share Posted August 29, 2016 (edited) Why doesn't Twam start of as a Colonel? Reveal hidden contents "That is entirely down to luck" - When Drizzy was shot at... I disagree. It was Twam protecting his faithful. This is also shined with that sniper shot!! Great shot, Ardent! Great episode RSR! I agree with Drizzy; This one is my favourite so far! Edited August 29, 2016 by Halo6 Follower 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoshi1176 Posted August 30, 2016 Report Share Posted August 30, 2016 On 8/29/2016 at 11:06 AM, Halo6 Follower said: Why doesn't Twam start of as a Colonel? Reveal hidden contents "That is entirely down to luck" - When Drizzy was shot at... I disagree. It was Twam protecting his faithful. This is also shined with that sniper shot!! Great shot, Ardent! Great episode RSR! I agree with Drizzy; This one is my favourite so far! Because I will 1v1 Twam and win all the bragging rights. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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