X-COM RP THINK TANK (part2)

[MarineAvenger]

The thing that bugs me is that he was talking with his roleplayers before he did it, and if I remember correctly, agreed not to do it by popular opinion but then changed his mind. And I think TGN suggested it to him...and when a sponsor 'suggests' something...you typically have to do it. It was supposed to 'appeal to the masses', but it DIDN'T. Views tanked by 1000+ on this season per episode. In Season 2 it was 1500 or so, now its 300-500 at best. And it was a kick to the roleplayers for having their characters mean so much less, when the entire idea of video-based XCOM roleplays is to 'enrich' the playthrough by making you care about the soldiers...

The other problem is more of a general video-based issue, and that's simply that half of the roleplayers that sighed up for a post a week aren't doing anything, or close to nothing. I'm pretty sure half of the soldiers only posted once or not at all, which is something the past seasons in GLG suffered from as well.

Obviously, with vanilla you get situations like Ayame, Anna, etc where you almost never see a good majority of the soldiers in active duty (for any reasonable period of time), but Long War is just so damn harsh...and the other brick wall is that reloading feels so cheap, even if you're going to lose the playthrough and torpedo your roleplay if you don't.

I will agree with you on the point some people stop in the first week and some just don't post but I understand because my situation was I was confused as to when to post and it just became so jumbled that I had to step back and wait for the episodes to somewhat sink up with the streams.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

I will agree with you on the point some people stop in the first week and some just don't post but I understand because my situation was I was confused as to when to post and it just became so jumbled that I had to step back and wait for the episodes to somewhat sink up with the streams.

That's understandable...the way posts go up there is sorta weird. (Not that Season Four's "One Journal Per Episode" was a great system either...)

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

The thing that bugs me is that he was talking with his roleplayers before he did it, and if I remember correctly, agreed not to do it by popular opinion but then changed his mind. And I think TGN suggested it to him...and when a sponsor 'suggests' something...you typically have to do it. It was supposed to 'appeal to the masses', but it DIDN'T. Views tanked by 1000+ on this season per episode. In Season 2 it was 1500 or so, now its 300-500 at best. And it was a kick to the roleplayers for having their characters mean so much less, when the entire idea of video-based XCOM roleplays is to 'enrich' the playthrough by making you care about the soldiers...

The other problem is more of a general video-based issue, and that's simply that half of the roleplayers that sighed up for a post a week aren't doing anything, or close to nothing. I'm pretty sure half of the soldiers only posted once or not at all, which is something the past seasons in GLG suffered from as well.

Obviously, with vanilla you get situations like Ayame, Anna, etc where you almost never see a good majority of the soldiers in active duty (for any reasonable period of time), but Long War is just so damn harsh...and the other brick wall is that reloading feels so cheap, even if you're going to lose the playthrough and torpedo your roleplay if you don't.

Yeah, the idea of having a roleplay when your base goes through soldiers like copy paper is probably not the best idea, considering your soldiers are likely to die before any kind of significant relationships can get underway. I don't want to sound pessimistic (I spent most of season three having Ayame say the exact opposite of this, in fact), but what's the point of getting attached to anyone when the Commander might as well say, "Look at the man to your right. Now look at the man to your left. Chances are, both of these men will die. As will you... Whelp, who wants lunch?"

And as far as things like Ayame and Anna getting very little mission time, at least they (and we) were there. If I remember correctly, Ayame only had one or two missions, mainly because she joined near the end, she wasn't a sniper, so Odd didn't give her special treatment (for goodness sake, man, her first mission was a terror mission, and you got her punched in the face by a chryssalid, you could have given her a better chance). But at least we were roleplaying, despite not going out there. I thought the decision to only allow active soldiers to roleplay in season four was a monumentally shortsighted idea, as was that one journal per week crap. What was wrong with how season three worked, seriously? I loved season three, and I loved watching the season three videos. Now I just can't be bothered.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Yeah, the idea of having a roleplay when your base goes through soldiers like copy paper is probably not the best idea, considering you're soldiers are likely to die before any kind of significant relationships can get underway. I don't want to sound pessimistic, but whats the point of getting attached to anyone when the Commander might as well say "Look at the man to your right. Now look at the man on your left. Chances are, both of these men will die. As will you..."

And as far as things like Ayame and Anna get very little mission time. If I remember correctly, Ayame only had one or two missions, mainly because she joined near the end, she wasn't a sniper, so Odd didn't give her special treatment (for goodness sake, man, her first mission was a terror mission, and you got her punched in the face by a chryssalid, give her another chance). But at least we were roleplaying, despite not going out their. I thought the decision to only allow active soldiers to roleplay in season four was a monumentally shortsighted idea, as was that one journal per week crap. What was wrong with how season three worked, seriously? I loved season three, and I loved watching the season three videos. Now I just can't be bothered.

I had forgotten that it said only active soldiers too. For goodness's sake...why would you do that? Not to mention that the veterans didn't make it in. (I know you're not supposed to show favoritism, but you can count on your vets to consistently post unless something comes up)

On a related note, I sorta wonder if Odd has given up on doing a Season 5 if the first place, considering that he hasn't revisited GLG but once or twice more than a month ago since the site went back up, and I don't think he said anything about it. Glad we have this to remedy that sort of stuff.

 

[MarineAvenger]

Yeah, the idea of having a roleplay when your base goes through soldiers like copy paper is probably not the best idea, considering your soldiers are likely to die before any kind of significant relationships can get underway. I don't want to sound pessimistic (I spent most of season three having Ayame say the exact opposite of this, in fact), but what's the point of getting attached to anyone when the Commander might as well say, "Look at the man to your right. Now look at the man to your left. Chances are, both of these men will die. As will you... Whelp, who wants lunch?"

And as far as things like Ayame and Anna getting very little mission time, at least they (and we) were there. If I remember correctly, Ayame only had one or two missions, mainly because she joined near the end, she wasn't a sniper, so Odd didn't give her special treatment (for goodness sake, man, her first mission was a terror mission, and you got her punched in the face by a chryssalid, you could have given her a better chance). But at least we were roleplaying, despite not going out there. I thought the decision to only allow active soldiers to roleplay in season four was a monumentally shortsighted idea, as was that one journal per week crap. What was wrong with how season three worked, seriously? I loved season three, and I loved watching the season three videos. Now I just can't be bothered.

Yeah how do you think I felt in season 4, my character James had barely any mission time because he just so happened to be at the bottom of the roster and his second mission was the terror mission that the whole squad got wiped. He left people out in the open and at that point it felt like Odd didn't even care about the soldiers or the series for that mission and a few before and after.

 

[MarineAvenger]

I had forgotten that it said only active soldiers too. For goodness's sake...why would you do that? Not to mention that the veterans didn't make it in. (I know you're not supposed to show favoritism, but you can count on your vets to consistently post unless something comes up)

On a related note, I sorta wonder if Odd has given up on doing a Season 5 if the first place, considering that he hasn't revisited GLG but once or twice more than a month ago since the site went back up, and I don't think he said anything about it. Glad we have this to remedy that sort of stuff.

Not to brag but... YOUR WELCOME! Hahaha in all seriousness this is a community project and this has been a more than wonderful experience and we still havent even scratched the surface of what we are capable of.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

I had forgotten that it said only active soldiers too. For goodness's sake...why would you do that? Not to mention that the veterans didn't make it in. (I know you're not supposed to show favoritism, but you can count on your vets to consistently post unless something comes up)

On a related note, I sorta wonder if Odd has given up on doing a Season 5 if the first place, considering that he hasn't revisited GLG but once or twice more than a month ago since the site went back up, and I don't think he said anything about it. Glad we have this to remedy that sort of stuff.

I'm pretty sure he purposely avoided veterans, partially to draw in a new crowd (and just hope the vets keep watching out of loyalty or something). And I've pretty much given up on season five. I'll still join in if it happens, but I'm not holding my breath.

Yeah how do you think I felt in season 4, my character James had barely any mission time because he just so happened to be at the bottom of the roster and his second mission was the terror mission that the whole squad got wiped. He left people out in the open and at that point it felt like Odd didn't even care about the soldiers or the series for that mission and a few before and after.

I feel your pain. That's what I thought when he just threw Ayame out there, but admittedly, on a more personal level ("Oh, she's just an assault, I have plenty of those, and she's too low rank for me to ever use regularly, I can just throw her into the fight willy-nilly, if she dies, at least she might grab a civilian before she dies." Thank God she had soldiers like Anna and Zhang to save her)

 

[Dahlexpert]

Hot damn what did I miss.

 

[MarineAvenger]

I'm pretty sure he purposely avoided veterans, partially to draw in a new crowd (and just hope the vets keep watching out of loyalty or something). And I've pretty much given up on season five. I'll still join in if it happens, but I'm not holding my breath.


I feel your pain. That's what I thought when he just threw Ayame out there, but admittedly, on a more personal level ("Oh, she's just an assault, I have plenty of those, and she's too low rank for me to ever use regularly, I can just throw her into the fight willy-nilly, if she dies, at least she might grab a civilian before she dies." Thank God she had soldiers like Anna and Zhang to save her)

You know what why don't we just forget what could have been and just go all out with our community XCOM series. We don't need no one to tell us how to dictate how our characters are *Coughs* Scarlet *Cough* and we can just have a blast. Lets give these characters a narrative they deserve.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Related: I don't know if you realize Zombie, but I was looking through the first video of the Beta 14 Odd playthrough, and one of the soldiers was default-named "Megumi Shimizu" like the squad leader for an upcoming mission (in our rp) before she was renamed. Did you use XCOM to generate names, or is that just a freaky coincidence?

 

[Frostlich1228]

Yeah, the idea of having a roleplay when your base goes through soldiers like copy paper is probably not the best idea, considering your soldiers are likely to die before any kind of significant relationships can get underway. I don't want to sound pessimistic (I spent most of season three having Ayame say the exact opposite of this, in fact), but what's the point of getting attached to anyone when the Commander might as well say, "Look at the man to your right. Now look at the man to your left. Chances are, both of these men will die. As will you... Whelp, who wants lunch?"

And as far as things like Ayame and Anna getting very little mission time, at least they (and we) were there. If I remember correctly, Ayame only had one or two missions, mainly because she joined near the end, she wasn't a sniper, so Odd didn't give her special treatment (for goodness sake, man, her first mission was a terror mission, and you got her punched in the face by a chryssalid, you could have given her a better chance). But at least we were roleplaying, despite not going out there. I thought the decision to only allow active soldiers to roleplay in season four was a monumentally shortsighted idea, as was that one journal per week crap. What was wrong with how season three worked, seriously? I loved season three, and I loved watching the season three videos. Now I just can't be bothered.

Anna's first mission was a Alien Battleship, I mean come on, those missions have like a 80% chance of at least one casualty. :/

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Related: I don't know if you realize Zombie, but I was looking through the first video of the Beta 14 Odd playthrough, and one of the soldiers was default-named "Megumi Shimizu" like the squad leader for an upcoming mission (in our rp) before she was renamed. Did you use XCOM to generate names, or is that just a freaky coincidence?

It's a coincidence, but a really weird one. About half of the soldiers I use are names I made up when I felt the squad needed someone of a certain nationality added in. The other half are names of characters from various works of fiction I enjoy, put in there in the hopes that someone will notice and say "hey, I know that guy!" In the interest of having a Japanese character in said mission, I chose the name Megumi Shimizu because she is an important character in one of my favorite Vampire anime, Shiki:

She was an interesting character, in that she was set up to be the series' main character, but then died at the end of the first episode. Of course, considering the nature of the series, that didn't mean she wasn't in the rest of the series.

It's funny to hear that the game would randomly generate this name.

 

[MarineAvenger]

It's a coincidence, but a really weird one. About half of the soldiers I use are names I made up when I felt the squad needed someone of a certain nationality added in. The other half are names of characters from various works of fiction I enjoy, put in there in the hopes that someone will notice and say "hey, I know that guy!" In the interest of having a Japanese character in said mission, I chose the name Megumi Shimizu because she is an important character in one of my favorite Vampire anime, Shiki:

She was an interesting character, in that she was set up to be the series' main character, but then died at the end of the first episode. Of course, considering the nature of the series, that didn't mean she wasn't in the rest of the series.

It's funny to hear that the game would randomly generate this name.

At first I was like "Oh she is cute" then I made the mistake of scrolling down and was met with horror.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

You know, someday, if I feel I have the time, guts, and technical skills, I might stream/upload a Not So Long War playthrough, and perhaps tie it in with something. My playthrough of Beta 13 was mostly successful, and the only times I lost people was to BS or weariness that lead to laziness, or just bad luck. (there was savescumming, but most of it was on the large ships early on because I was testing whether I could actually beat them or not, and some things felt really unfair when I first encountered them). I think I could have beaten it if I hadn't saved anything, but it would have been much harder. (To be fair, though, I think beating those supply ships permanently screwed the aliens, since they were on 3 meld for a long time after, rarely rising above 3-4)

Despite that, if I ever do a playthrough, I'm confident enough in my skills and game knowledge that I think I could win and keep soldiers alive. (Not to mention NSLW sorta fixes the problem of burning out and such, especially if I modify certain values to make sure meld and psi grinding doesn't cause me to drag on near the end.)

TL;DR: Maybe someday I will carry on the legacy of video-attached roleplays, but for now my focus is this.

 

[MarineAvenger]

You know, someday, if I feel I have the time, guts, and technical skills, I might stream/upload a Not So Long War playthrough, and perhaps tie it in with something. My playthrough of Beta 13 was mostly successful, and the only times I lost people was to BS or weariness that lead to laziness, or just bad luck. (there was savescumming, but most of it was on the large ships early on because I was testing whether I could actually beat them or not, and some things felt really unfair when I first encountered them). I think I could have beaten it if I hadn't saved anything, but it would have been much harder. (To be fair, though, I think beating those supply ships permanently screwed the aliens, since they were on 3 meld for a long time after, rarely rising above 3-4)

Despite that, if I ever do a playthrough, I'm confident enough in my skills and game knowledge that I think I could win and keep soldiers alive. (Not to mention NSLW sorta fixes the problem of burning out and such, especially if I modify certain values to make sure meld and psi grinding doesn't cause me to drag on near the end.)

TL;DR: Maybe someday I will carry on the legacy of video-attached roleplays, but for now my focus is this.

You have a youtube channel?

 

[DarkGemini24601]

You have a youtube channel?

Not really, but I would make one if I did something like that. The one created through my google account doesn't count IMO.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

At first I was like "Oh she is cute" then I made the mistake of scrolling down and was met with horror.

Skip ahead to 19:05. Sends chills down my spine every time. This is also the first point (four episodes in) where the threat is officially revealed to be vampires. Before that, it is vague, and is believed by the characters to be some kind of epidemic that kills its victims in a way that resembles anemia.

Just remember; if you think vampires are in your town, never invite a stranger into you house. They can't get in if you don't invite them.

 

[Dahlexpert]

Skip ahead to 19:05. Sends chills down my spine every time. This is also the first point (four episodes in) where the threat is officially revealed to be vampires. Before that, it is vague, and is believed by the characters to be some kind of epidemic that kills its victims in a way that resembles anemia.

Just remember; if you think vampires are in your town, never invite a stranger into you house. They can't get in if you don't invite them.

You Damn cliffhanging bastards

 

[Adrammalech]

And as far as things like Ayame and Anna getting very little mission time, at least they (and we) were there. If I remember correctly, Ayame only had one or two missions, mainly because she joined near the end, she wasn't a sniper, so Odd didn't give her special treatment (for goodness sake, man, her first mission was a terror mission, and you got her punched in the face by a chryssalid, you could have given her a better chance). But at least we were roleplaying, despite not going out there. I thought the decision to only allow active soldiers to roleplay in season four was a monumentally shortsighted idea, as was that one journal per week crap. What was wrong with how season three worked, seriously? I loved season three, and I loved watching the season three videos. Now I just can't be bothered.

Just to throw my hat into the ring, the active players was a bad idea, but I still think a two post per week limit would've worked if everyone was posting instead of just recruited people. But a bunch of the active people just stopped, and some never showed up (that Skyranger guy who I wrote an outro for) and it was slothful as hell.

And the problems with RPing Long War are basically why I'm not interested in playing it. Normal is the new FUCK and Hard is the new IMPOSSIBLE and Impossible is the new UNINSTALL. The only way you'll see your characters more than once is if you're GOD or if you RELOAD but don't reload because that's for CASUALS so use the option to go back to SNES-ERA SAVE SYSTEMS.

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Anna's first mission was a Alien Battleship, I mean come on, those missions have like a 80% chance of at least one casualty. :/

Was that Zhang's battleship? I remember the first time I played it all went well (except for that one time I piled up on a door and a cyberdisc drifted through. That was not a fun time.), but after that it just became ungodly hard.
However it was also the site where I first witnessed a muton throwing a grenade and managing to hit only itself. Very nice of him, really.

...And the problems with RPing Long War are basically why I'm not interested in playing it. Normal is the new FUCK and Hard is the new IMPOSSIBLE and Impossible is the new UNINSTALL. The only way you'll see your characters more than once is if you're GOD or if you RELOAD but don't reload because that's for CASUALS so use the option to go back to SNES-ERA SAVE SYSTEMS.

Pretty much sums up my experience so far. 3 cyberdiscs, 5 mutons, 3 muton elites, 4 drones and a couple of chryysalids all showing up as soon as I step off the Skyranger? Nope, nope and nope.

And that isn't even counting the outsiders and their retinue. Godammit.

 

[Adrammalech]

Pretty much sums up my experience so far. 3 cyberdiscs, 5 mutons, 3 muton elites, 4 drones and a couple of chryysalids all showing up as soon as I step off the Skyranger? Nope, nope and nope.

And that isn't even counting the outsiders and their retinue. Godammit.

You should probably just surrender and hope they decide to rule alongside you. Just get a hoverboard and watch out for any upstart marines if you take that route.