X-COM THINK TANK (Out of Character Discussion about X-COM and the Series)

[Dragonivon]

Well you remember in season 2 Odd relied on one unit,well in this season he relied to much on the mech.And he had just one mech and once it was inured things went to hell would any on agree with that.

Slight error in not having 2 MEC pilots that could trade off using the MEC as needed, but overall it's probably better he does cycle through a number of troops to give many a chance at being in the mix. The biggest problem is the first few months are both the most brutal and the most essential. It's easy for things to go very wrong very fast.

 

[Frostlich1228]

Slight error in not having 2 MEC pilots that could trade off using the MEC as needed, but overall it's probably better he does cycle through a number of troops to give many a chance at being in the mix. The biggest problem is the first few months are both the most brutal and the most essential. It's easy for things to go very wrong very fast.

I Can Agree with that

 

[Dahlexpert]

Slight error in not having 2 MEC pilots that could trade off using the MEC as needed, but overall it's probably better he does cycle through a number of troops to give many a chance at being in the mix. The biggest problem is the first few months are both the most brutal and the most essential. It's easy for things to go very wrong very fast.

Fair enough

 

[Suryce]

This may sound self-centered but I think the major factor of the recent doom was Rebecca's death.

In EW, it takes a lot of EXP to get your soldiers to the corporal rank, with which they start to gain their really powerful abilities. So focusing on a single team in the beginning actually makes sense since you need to make strong soldiers in time for the first special missions (DLCs and terrors). But of course, you have to keep this team alive.

If Rebecca had survived (which would have just needed a fiber vest), the other soldiers wouldn't have panicked (or only the rookie) and the Muton could've been dealt with before he can hurt anyone else. Then, with Rebecca as a Lieutenant and the other Sergeant Assault recruited afterward, Chris would've had two powerful Assault in his hands and be able to swap them out when the other is at the medbay. This would've made most of the missions easier, especially the Terror one (a triple-firing Assault may have been able to save the entire mission).

Of course, a number of deaths were also due to tactical mistakes (starting with the badly-chosen equipment for Rebecca though) and not just the lack of resources. Chris is still relatively clueless in how he managed the Assaults and I think this is his biggest weakness.

 

[Dragonivon]

This may sound self-centered but I think the major factor of the recent doom was Rebecca's death.

It is a bit self-centered. You aren't entirely wrong; however, it's impossible to know if you are right either in those hypothetical scenarios so it's ultimately pointless to speculate. Though from an IC perspective, there was no other situation that caused more ripples of terror within the base personnel than Rebecca's death. It's easy enough to understand, from the IC perspective, how performance could be shot completely by this demoralization. Thus it makes sense from a narrative point of view that these disasters happened, creating a prelude to an apocalyptic future. Our conceit is believing that our characters are always going to be the victorious heroes of the story. Obviously, that's not always the case nor should it be. Where would be the fun if the outcome was already determined?

From an OOC perspective, playing Ironman/Impossible is not something many can do perfectly every time. It's meant to be brutal, unfair, and at times downright evil. No matter how good you are, occasionally you are still going to lose. CommanderOdd is a very good tactical player, better than most of us and that includes myself when it comes to playing XCOM. We all can have ideas of how we would do things differently but in the end, he's playing the best game he can.

 

[Frostlich1228]

Omg I figured out why his soldiers are panicking so much!
I can't believe I didn't realize before!

I forgot that Critical Injuries reduce a soldier's Max Will by 10, and considering all the people in and out of the Med Bay this season his soldier's Wills are weaker than the Executioner Skill is useful!

 

[Taxor_the_First]

I forgot that Critical Injuries reduce a soldier's Max Will by 10, and considering all the people in and out of the Med Bay this season his soldier's Wills are weaker than the Executioner Skill is useful!

I see what you did there.

I would love a free pass into the next season but I think a certian youtuber wants to be fair to everyone.

If he restarts the season, then it wouldn't be fair to those who got accepted and never got a chance to write. After all, they created a character that they put some time and effort into that then got accepted, only for the season to end before they could do anything with them.
If those people get a free pass, then the character is still getting accepted and they haven't been cheated of a spot in the barracks/labs/workshops/whatever their job is. These spots are damn prestigious, highly sought after.
Odd's choice though. If he thinks it would be better to chuck them back into the fray and fight for their spot back, it's up to him.
This is just my suggestion though. I'm not against the "throw them to the wolves/varren/chryssalids" idea (more chance for me to come in, after all) but in the interest of fairness, they haven't gotten a turn yet.
Think of it this way. There's a swing set. People line up, take their turns. Then it's discovered that a screw is loose and the whole thing has to come down because of safety concerns. So, they put up a new one. What about the people who were in line as it was taken down?
... I was going somewhere with that.

 

[Dragonivon]

I forgot that Critical Injuries reduce a soldier's Max Will by 10, and considering all the people in and out of the Med Bay this season his soldier's Wills are weaker than the Executioner Skill is useful!

Considering most people's wills aren't that high to start with that truly could be a problem. But you are right, there's been a lot more panicking a lot more often than one would like.

 

[PrismaCube]

Might I also say that Chris has like 10 medals that he just wont give away, he is keeping it for himself like as if these medals where some kind of precious ring >_>

 

[Grelite]

Thinking about it, it wouldn't surprise me if the way the aliens keep the Chryssalids in check is through having them unable to feed. Making their mouth-parts so they can only use them to infest whatever organics they attack, they get all their energy from their host, then emerge to go on a killing-spree. Likely they also only start the emerging process when they sense nearby prey, as demonstrated by the infested sharks in the Site Recon mission.

They effectively wipe out all organic beings big enough to sustain a Chryssalid embryo, then simply die out because they can't eat. Leaving perhaps a few infested corpses, which post-mortem decay will take care off. Just keep a few infested bodies in cryo-storage, drop 'em on the planet you're conquering and suddenly there's a huge rise and fall of Chryssalid population, along with the population of the planet.

 

[Anuvis11]

That is awesome! And just a word of advice, just because a person dies in the end doesn't mean the story can't go on, that is what is so great about xcom it never is linear.

I needed a strong protagonist to base the main story around, and I bet almost entirely on Hoku. I now know this was a mistake.

 

[Dragonivon]

They effectively wipe out all organic beings big enough to sustain a Chryssalid embryo, then simply die out because they can't eat. Leaving perhaps a few infested corpses, which post-mortem decay will take care off. Just keep a few infested bodies in cryo-storage, drop 'em on the planet you're conquering and suddenly there's a huge rise and fall of Chryssalid population, along with the population of the planet.

Actually, that's pretty brilliant. Humans already use short-lived viruses for things like that in germ warfare; however, the beauty of the Chryssalid scenario is that while you go to many different alien worlds where some viruses may be less effective than on others, being disemboweled is pretty universally effective in removing a population. Though the fact they can work side-by-side with other aliens indicates there's some conditioning to not attack sectoids, mutons, and others. Or perhaps they know what chemicals to wear to make themselves totally uninteresting to the chryssalids. Still, that actually would explain why the aliens would bring the chryssalids in the first place.

More lore for Chryssalid Queen Southway to muck with next.

 

[Wisekill1]

Thinking about it, it wouldn't surprise me if the way the aliens keep the Chryssalids in check is through having them unable to feed. Making their mouth-parts so they can only use them to infest whatever organics they attack, they get all their energy from their host, then emerge to go on a killing-spree. Likely they also only start the emerging process when they sense nearby prey, as demonstrated by the infested sharks in the Site Recon mission.

They effectively wipe out all organic beings big enough to sustain a Chryssalid embryo, then simply die out because they can't eat. Leaving perhaps a few infested corpses, which post-mortem decay will take care off. Just keep a few infested bodies in cryo-storage, drop 'em on the planet you're conquering and suddenly there's a huge rise and fall of Chryssalid population, along with the population of the planet.

That's actually a very good hypothesis, I think we can assume that this is true unless someone from Firaxis says otherwise.

 

[PrismaCube]

I was actually thinking about that too, I mean that they do not have a mouth I noticed too, what if they do not need to eat? They just do it cause it used to be habit, after all the aliens were mostly changed to the liking of the Voice (Uber Ethereal) I mean it doesn't really matter, but back in UFO they did have mouths. And only two legs, but meh. I could say that maybe only the females are born with mouths so that they can stay alive and breed, after all I did say that only the males can infect. The Ethreal hive mind did say that Chryssalids are hard to control, I quote

Chryssalids are defined by the Ethereal hive mind as a huge disappointment for lack of controllability.

The fact that the Chryssalids do not attack other aliens is probably cause of the Ethereal hive mind, which I could mention. Ugh so much to think of so little explaining xD I will see to it to not fuck up the chryssalid through my story no worries about that.

EDIT: To be honest I would prefer if we ignore that fact that they do not have mouths. Cause it would mess with my role playing...

I also wanted to mention that they do not have to breath, which is one reason why Caroline doesn't drown underwater, so maybe they do not need to eat either?

 

[Grelite]

My theory would indicate Chryssalids are sexless, simply because there is no need for gender - they reproduce asexually and their offspring would basically be clones, preventing unplanned genetic mutation. They are essentially 'mindless' animals, which makes them hard to control and impossible to mind control. That does make it difficult to explain the game mechanics that they don't attack their fellows. However, the only aliens they ever appear beside in missions (ignoring the one that might show up during Zhang's retrieval) are Floaters (flying, unreachable), Sectopods and Drones (Robots, not food), and Mutons (Could probably pummel a Chryssalid to death). Not a very solid way to explain the last part, I'd say, but in X-COM game mechanics take preference over lore.

This all would contradict the whole RP thing that's going, so accepting this theory should likely be held off for now.

EDIT: Yes, they would have to feed, they would consume large amount of energy judging by their speed and need to develop embryos constantly.

 

[PrismaCube]

Man shit like that makes me not want to write anything anymore, I almost feel like every time I want to do something someone else that does not like my idea has to say a bunch of shit that makes me in the wrong which makes me feel sad and it also messes up my story and makes me just not want to come back here anymore. Not giving you fault Grelite, but that's usually how things go.

Edit: Ofcourse I totally understand what you are trying to tell me here Grelite.

 

[Grelite]

It was certainly not my intention to discourage you or tell you you are wrong, I'm merely sharing something I came up with, which by no means needs to be truth or fact. Addendum: I'd stated before this season even started that the Chryssalid Queen theory seemed unlikely to me.

 

[Hokucho]

I needed a strong protagonist to base the main story around, and I bet almost entirely on Hoku. I now know this was a mistake.

You could always do a main-character swap, like story arcs. Kulklinsky and Lemarque are still alive and originally part of Home Team, see if you can work with them. It would add a good emotional transition as well with Hokuchiyo's passing for them.

 

[MarineAvenger]

I needed a strong protagonist to base the main story around, and I bet almost entirely on Hoku. I now know this was a mistake.

Don't let that discourage you, like Hokucho said there are always different paths you can take, hell i would personally love to see the death of all the members of the last squad as a wrap up for a story arc. If that is not an emotional ending i don't know what is and I bet if you ask someone you could even get a whole new story worked up sorta like your own fresh start. I would love to help write it along with any one else who would want to. Hey, do what you want but I have seen the talent in some of these people and I was glad to write with them even though this was my first colab and I wasn't that much in the spotlight until my character died. It is still fun though.

 

[ACisHere]

Thinking about it, it wouldn't surprise me if the way the aliens keep the Chryssalids in check is through having them unable to feed. Making their mouth-parts so they can only use them to infest whatever organics they attack, they get all their energy from their host, then emerge to go on a killing-spree. Likely they also only start the emerging process when they sense nearby prey, as demonstrated by the infested sharks in the Site Recon mission.

They effectively wipe out all organic beings big enough to sustain a Chryssalid embryo, then simply die out because they can't eat. Leaving perhaps a few infested corpses, which post-mortem decay will take care off. Just keep a few infested bodies in cryo-storage, drop 'em on the planet you're conquering and suddenly there's a huge rise and fall of Chryssalid population, along with the population of the planet.

Pretty solid theory. I like it, personally.