Let's Sperg Let's Play XCOM Terror From The Deep (Completed) - This is gonna hurt

[Neo-Holstien]

12. A Harsh Mistress

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We'll take on the Battleship first. I noticed that both Willy and HIram have completed the first round of psionic training, so I immediately have them taken off grunt duty and issued MC Disruptors. The entire command staff is transfered to the rear of the Triton where they can hone their psionic skills with minimal threat to their lives. The newly promoted Johan Schmidt is issued the DPL.

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Well that's a hell of a lot of enemies.

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We may have four troops using psionics but with the possible exception of Dragoon they are all amateurs. Willy and Hiram are still incapable of launching more than two attacks per turn. Thus we still need to rely on explosives to deal with large groups of enemies.

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It seems like almost every time Dragoon makes a psionic attack I'm bound to get a successful mind control. I'm not really sure why this is, Dear Leader and Dragoon should hypothetically have the same psionic training and practice. Perhaps getting a few early successes is all it takes to leap ahead.

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That first assault has their defensive lines in disarray. I don't think they were expecting to be disrupted so violently right out of the gate.

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A Clockwork Soybean is one of our star rookie. Excellent throwing accuracy, excellent marksmanship, and even impressive reaction fire such as what you see here.

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Two mind controls later...

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Rookie RSU 1741 adavances in preparation to breach the USO. Two grenades go off inside, splattering the TEntaculat waiting above the doorway and killing one of the Lobstermen who threw it.

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Shit, have we see Lobstermen panic yet in this game?

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A Tentaculat gets the drop on @RSU 1741 before he can actually set foot inside the USO.

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I have wtfNeedSignUp burst the zombie and then somewhat recklessly fire on the two Tentaculats with a DPL. The blast is so powerful it kills @wtfNeedSignUp along with them. In retrospect I should have just used a regular Sonic Pulser.

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The last Lobsterman is mind controlled after a short firefight.

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Overall, could have gone worse. Our psionics allowed us to spot most of the Tentaculats early and take them down before they became a serious problem.

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The team is ready to rock and roll again in short order.

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Looks like we're right on top of them this time.

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Already three Lobstermen have taken cover in this patch of coral which I have utterly no time for.

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A mix of psionic attacks and some impressive marksmanship from A-Z0-9 and Disc clear out two of them. The third is left wounded and vanishes into the silt. I figure it will bleed out or be mopped up by my advance.

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A Clockwork Soybean and Rack of CDs make short work of a Lobsterman that walks out the main doors, with reaction fire no less.

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We're not the only ones with a DPL launcher though. @A-Z0-9 is obliterated by a direct DPL hit.

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While I'm distracted looking for the DPL Lobsterman to the north, the survivor from the coral patch turns out to still be alive. It opens the door to the Triton and blasts @AssManWaitingInTheSkies before quickly being shot to pieces by the rest of the submarine. Somehow nobody hits anyone else with reaction fire.

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I make an attempt ot get rid of this Lobsterman with a stun launcher to the door by having him bomb an oil pipeline he's standing next to. The explosions not only fail to kill him, but also shroud him in a cloud of islt allowing him to slink off.

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I take a chance and have Disc climb on to a hill so he can get a look at the roof. Sure enough there's a Lobsterman armed with a DPL launcher up there. I have HiramTheGrift seize control of it.

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I proceed to waste all of the Lobsterman's ammo bombing the top deck over the next three turns.

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After disposing of the DPL Lobsterman I get tangled up in a battle between three Lobstermen in various hard to reach locations that I keep mind controlling intermittently.



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The Lobsterman Squad Leader from earlier reappears and stuns one of his mind controlled comrades. Then the next turn stuns himself trying to shoot at another one.

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What these screenshots don't show you is me wasting about five turns waiting for these two dipshits to finally score a hit on each other so I can kill the winner.

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The last enemy is found hiding in a corner on the decimated third floor. Its mind controlled without incident.

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A bunch of the rookies get promoted, while the new golden boy A Clockwork Soybean rises to the rank of Lieutenant.

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After selling off a bunch of shit I finally have the cash to invest in equipping Shark Trip with a Transmission Resolver.

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We continue chipping away at the research for the Ultimate Craft.

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Another round of new recruits arrive as well.

Newcomers: @StraightShooter2, @Neo-Holstien

Clones/Resurrections: @Thomas Highway, @Plant Aqua Mammal @Just_Somebody, @L50LasPak, @Mary the Goldsmith, @Kane Lives, @LullerDerbyRollin, @Forever Sunrise

Spoiler: New Marines

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Shit, the Dreadnought headed for Japan appears on our scope but we lose it before anything can intercept. XCOM has almost certainly lost Japan.

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Or not. It turns out the aliens weren't targeting Japan at all, and have instead infiltrated the minor funding naiton of Federated Korea. For some reason the state of New Mexico is particularly unhpapy with us this month, even though all of the other countries in its zone are increasing our funding.

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Another Alien Colony is added to our pile of shit to do.

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Research on the Pulse Wave defenses complete and I order construction of three of them at Vulcania, the most we can afford without breaking the bank right now.

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Ugh.

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Hopefully with our abundance of psionics this battle will go a bit better than last time.

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In the original XCOM, psioncs feel insanely broken once you train a squad up to full strength with them. Particularly if you don't have the restraint I did and train up 8-10 psionic soldiers. In Terror From The Deep, psionics merely feel like you're finally leveling the playing field against the enemy's bullshit.

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Few things in life as a satisfying as watching these annoying fucks kill each other.

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The next 15 or so screenshots in my folder are alien panic messages, no exaggeration.

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At this point the battle is just a matter of mopping up.

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Out of nowhere, @Rack Of CDs is killed by a Sonic Pulser, no doubt thrown by a Tasoth that dorpped its weapon earlier. I'm forced to send our more troops to resweep the battlefield.

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I left @Penne Dreadful outside the Triton to keep watch, thinknig it was mostly safe, but that turned out to be a bad idea.

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Another alien grenade claims @Disc.

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A bunch more aliens get blown up.

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Just when I think I've gotten the last of the Tasoths, a sharpshooter picks off @A Clockwork Soybean from beyond visual range.

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About five more turns of almost nothing happening follow as I track down the last two random aliens remaining on the map.

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Thank god this is almost over.

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I don't even have the troops I need to keep the lifts protected, but psionics hlep me fill in the gaps in my defenses.

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We're able to pick off most of the enemies but this Tentaculat in one of these corner areas gives us some trouble.

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Its overkill but the only way to be sure. The DPL takes out the alien, but in a stunning turn of bullshit kills @Overcast along with it. The silt from the explosion doesn't even spread anywhere near where Overcast is standing! Also for some reason Ample Apricots who was right next to him isn't harmed at all.

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Super Sad Smile is ordered to form a team with an alien of all things, mind controlled by the rest of the team. In retrospect I should have sent a second marine along, but there just weren't anymore to spare that close by at the moment. I expected the Tasoth to be killed on the way there anyway.

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Super Sad Smile makes it to the control room with his odd bodyguard.

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Now that we've taken care of that, we can get the fuck out of this shithole.

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For some reason this Tasoth completely defies convention when it doesn't panic after the lull in mind controls. Instead it gets reaction fire and amushes @Super Sad Smile before he can make it down the stairs.

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Whatever, I don't care anymore.

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This stupid mission literally cost us every promising new recruit we'd built up over the last three missions. The ocean is a harsh mistress indeed.

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Next time: More of the same I expect. Probably another round of recruits at this rate.

I'm ready

 

[Chocolate Wombat]

It feels like we're slowly gaining ground and pushing them back, one bloody step at a time.

 

[Peasant]

Guess there's no playing fair with this game. Embrace the bullshit or suffer a conga line of pointless deaths.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I don't have a problem with going God is Great and all, but the game could had at least added the three + myself to my kill count.

 

[L50LasPak]

I don't have a problem with going God is Great and all, but the game could had at least added the three + myself to my kill count.

It was Johan Schmidt who launched the DPL bomb that blew you up, and I did intend for you to survive, but I forgot how op the DPL is. Either way, I don't think you're the killer.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

It was Johan Schmidt who launched the DPL bomb that blew you up, and I did intend for you to survive, but I forgot how op the DPL is. Either way, I don't think you're the killer.

God damnit friendly fire again

 

[Catgirls are Love]

It was Johan Schmidt who launched the DPL bomb that blew you up, and I did intend for you to survive, but I forgot how op the DPL is. Either way, I don't think you're the killer.

The DPL may be the equivalent of the Death Star's laser, but even then TFTD handles explosions and their radii not really how you'd expect. There's a moment in GuavaMoment's LP that demonstrates that very well.

 

[Disc]

Techinically all you need to do in order to gain stats is move around, pick things up, throw grenades, and generally get the computer to believe the soldier is actually doing something. Taking shots at the enemy gives the largest stat gains, regardless of whether or not you score a kill.

So in other words, to gain no stat points for the first three missions I was contributing even less than I initially thought.

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Another alien grenade claims @Disc.

and as soon as I start actually contributing, I die.

At least I died as I lived, fucking around with grenades and not really helping.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

God damnit friendly fire again

Time to improve the Burritos in the mess again after all Maxim Seven States

"If the food is good enough, the grunts will stop complaining about the incoming fire."

 

[Gezkill]

I've been a big fan of the Xcom franchise for the past 20 years, but honestly I could never get into Terror of the Deep..

Wonder why?

 

[Neo-Holstien]

I've been a big fan of the Xcom franchise for the past 20 years, but honestly I could never get into Terror of the Deep..

Wonder why?

scared of the Ocean

 

[Gezkill]

scared of the Ocean

Fuck no I love the ocean, my favorite game in 2018 was Subnautica.

 

[L50LasPak]

13.Down Deep

We've only lost one country so far but you may have noticed a problem. These Alien Colonies are essentially unassailable, at least with the numbers we have on the Triton right now.

In mean time we can content ourselves with taking down smaller vessels.

I'm not sure if its part of the game's internal logic or not, but there seem to be long periods in Terror From The Deep where aliens will avoid overt USO activity, leaving your score to decay from the numerous Alien Colonies on the map rather than direct action.

I'm not sure we'll need this weapon given the Lobsterman vulnerability to psionics, but I research it anyway as we're running out of shit to work on. You'll notice it has an absolutely retarded name much like the Sonic Blasta Rifle.

Even worse, I've somehow managed to get us to run out of Zrbite. I finally had the money to start production on Magnetic Ion Armor, but its run out of resources at 27 suits. I split the reserve I sent over to Shark Trip so we have just barely enough to fuel the ultimate craft when we build it. Raiding supply ships as they land is an option but that will be somewhat difficult to do since we don't have any bases within our immediate detection range.

Research completes on the penultimate craft and the second technology required to unlock the final mission.

Its at this point I run out of research pertinent to the plot. A quick wiki check reveals that you cannot research either the ultimate craft or the final alien without first capturing and interrogating a Lobsterman Commander. Great.

Speaking of live alien capture, the ammunition for the stun launcher completes shortly after. I pour research into random alien equipment to give the scientists something to do.

Attempting to follow a supply ship to its destination reveals another Alien Colony just outside our detection range off the coast of northern China.

Well, we need that Commander, don't we?

I've never beaten an Alien Colony mission and frankly I have no intent on trying. I suppose a veteran XCOM player with far more patience than me can beat an Alien Colony with just 14 marines but I certainly can't. Once we get what we've come for we're ditching. Its also a good idea to just leave this colony up anyway so I can farm supply ships from it.

Much like Artifact Sites, Alien Colonies are in two parts; one on the ocean floor and another actually inside the base itself. This place crawls.

You will notice every alien soldier visible in the screenshots is armed with a DPL. That's because all of the enemies in the first stage are armed with fucking DPLs, with the exception of a few Technicians armed with melee weapons. If you approach this mission without psionics, you're fucked.

The virtually unlimited DPL ammo available from mind controlled troops proves invaluable in both thinning the enemy ranks and blowing out entire walls of the confusing alien architecture at this base site.

Am I just seeing things or does that relief statue in the upper righthand corner look like a woman with a huge rack? This game is fond of telling us how much the aliens interbreed with humans, but its an odd choice given they reproduce through cloning or whatever.

What at first appears to be a huge alien advantage turns into a liability as their morale starts to break down.

As aliens run out of ammo or drop their weapons they are eliminated. I'm still not ambitious enough to attempt controlling the Tentaculats which remain the largest threat on the map.

What's particularly remarkable about this situation is that we've managed to put the enemy into such intense disarray just by mind controlling a mere two soldiers.

I have TerribleIdeasTM, Radical Cadre and The Valeyard begin supporting our two hapless alien scouts, ordering them to kill anything not worth the effort of taking over.

Resistance from this point is truly pitiful. Once deprived of their bullshit advantage, the aliens fold like a house of cards.

The seafloor is ours. We didn't even lose anyone.

This is the Alien Colony interior, which is brightly lit unlike the Artifact Sites. Already you can get an idea of how twisted this artitecture is. Just about every room has at least three entrances and there is one Z level above every room to allow for Tentaculats to float around unimpeded.

Screenshots 1 and 2 reveal that what I thought was a statue is actually two alien computer terminals clipping into each other due to how corners work in this game.

As if that's not enough, all of those blue spots on the floor are grav lifts. The Alien Colony goes down at least two more Z levels, with multiple examples of these grav lifts in about half of every room on both the first and second floor. It is literally impossible to lay down an effective field of fire that covers every possible entry point, unless you cluster a bunch of marines together which invites total party kills from grenades, DPL bombs and stun bombs.

The name of the game is thus letting them come to us, and mind controlling every Lobsterman that gets within visual range. The enemy AI doesn't actually understand the importance off command units at all. In Terror From The Deep in particular, the AI has a tendency to treat its commanding troops as elites causing them to bumrush you with their most valuable units. I intend to use this dynamic to my advantage. It does this regardless of difficulty.

@MoffAlbert is ambushed and killed by a melee enemy, but I don't see a frame of him turning into a zombie. I have a theory now about what they enemy was, which is a missed opportunity to gain some extra research. I have to actually come back ot this fucking place.

Incase you doubted me, literally the second enemy we see is the Commander, who personally sortied out to meet us with a stun launcher. It takes the combined effort of all four of our psionic officers to whittle its morale doubt, but eventually it gives and we seize control of it.

I stun it just incase the game fucks up and won't count it as a capture if its still awake.

And that, as they say, is that. I may return and destroy an Alien Colony once I have the maximum amount of troops to do it with, just to say I completed one of every mission type in the game.

I'm rather surprised to see that there's no penalty for retreating.

Research takes no time at all with our massive science staff. For the record, in the original DOS version you needed a second Commander to research if you hadn't fulfilled both research trees by the
team you first research one. This was at least acknowledged to be a bug.

There are rather few USOs flying around right now which is a bit concerning. It must mean alien activity is occuring somewhere we don't have any detection over.

Might as well keep the team in practice.

At this point we can reliably predict whether or not we can take over an alien. Pocket Dragoon is almost always a guarenteed success, while Dear Leader and Willy score a success about 50% of the time. HiramtheGrift scores a success more often than not, but he still remains with Time Units below 75 so he can only perform two attacks per turn. He's not far from being able to pull three though.

I fail to get a shot of the other victory screen, but there were no casualties and no promotions.

Our score is starting to lag due to the alien inactivity. Once I get the ultimate craft researched and built I probably shouldn't waste any time launching the final mission before our score drops back in to the negative.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Next time: undoubtedly the worst fucking mission type in the entire game.

 

[Catgirls are Love]

Next time: undoubtedly the worst fucking mission type in the entire game.

On a positive note TFTD doesn't really get any more bullshit after that particular mission.

 

[Neo-Holstien]

well 14 men ain't much, but I'm sure some W's will help with the cash (assuming we all don't die horribly).

 

[A-Z0-9]

Jesus. I think I understand how the citizens in Horishima felt after getting hit by nukes.

At least I wasn't murdered by smoke this time.

 

[Mooger Meng]

Shit, I leave the thread for a bit and Nool cores my fucking CPU for telling it like it is.

Oh well, it looks like you guys need a new psionic hate sink anyway. Boot up the Mooger Meng Mk2 chassis when you have the chance, hopefully dinner will be too busy shooting at the robot to kill the rest of the squad.

 

[Mary the Goldsmith]

XCOM has almost certainly lost Japan.

I say we let the aliens keep it, maybe they become pornstars or something over there

Am I just seeing things or does that relief statue in the upper righthand corner look like a woman with a huge rack?

the ocean does that to you, that why so many sailors turn gay.

 

[L50LasPak]

It may interest the thread to know we're doing an ocean-themed movienight tomorrow, with two movies that I've either reference or sort of referenced in this thread playing. I normally don't mention this stuff but this time it kind of lines up.

Edit: Link: https://lolcow.tv/r/autism

 

[Corn Flakes]

It may interest the thread to know we're doing an ocean-themed movienight tomorrow, with two movies that I've either reference or sort of referenced in this thread playing. I normally don't mention this stuff but this time it kind of lines up.

Hey, good stuff! If you need any popcorn, just ask anyone in this thread. This LP is great material.

I'd suggest a betting pool on who dies to what, but let's be honest here, everybody is in that pool and there's 50-50 chance of dying to a random explosion, or getting one-shot by melee.