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modded-xcom2-aar · 10 months

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The Tutorial: Part 1

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Dan's Notes: Due to the more cinematic, cutscene-heavy nature of the opening tutorial mission, the whole of it has been depicted in video form. This will not be the case with most missions. It should also be noted that the tutorial is skippable, as are the DLC missions, but for the sake of storytelling, I have enabled them. In addition, this update will be a fair bit longer than most updates will so I can get all the tutorial stuff out of the way.

Operation Gatecrasher After Action Report

After 20 years of struggling and acting underground, XCOM was finally able to perform Operation Gatecrasher, a combined effort by XCOM and the Reapers to locate and rescue Commander , the original operating commander of XCOM. Due to the high-priority nature of this mission, XCOM was forced to execute the mission through unusual and unconventional means.

Operating in this mission were rookie-level soldiers Jane Kelly, Peter Osei, Ana Ramirez, Reaper soldier Elena "Outrider" Dragunova, and Central Command Officer Bradford. Osei and Ramirez were killed in action while the surviving rookie, Kelly, was promoted to a Squaddie-class Ranger. In accordance to XCOM's agreement, Dragunova fled the scene before the deployment of XCOM's forces, rejoining with the nearest group of Reapers.

Thanks to the distraction created by Bradford and Kelly, as well as the efforts of Dragunova, city center forces were minimal during the rescue operation, limited to a handful of troops and a group of reinforcements.

Tutorial Geoscape, Part 1

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Dan's Notes: During the recording, this cutscene stuttered, causing audio lag and making it a pain to watch. I have taken this footage from a compilation of cutscenes from the vanilla game. Credit to LFP Gaming for creating the original video, XCOM 2 All Cinematics / Cutscenes / Movie. All other cutscenes posted in this update were taken from my personal recording, and any future instances of outscourcing cutscenes will be noted.

Excerpt from Central Officer Bradford's Journal:

While I was acting undercover, I noticed a lot of commotion about it being the 20th anniversary of the "formation of the ADVENT Coalition". That's a load of bull. Just about any world leader that didn't willingly turn on humanity was being manipulated into doing so, usually with psionic mind control. 20 years, huh? You know, they say you get older your perception of time starts to speed up, but I remember every agonizing moment that led up to this point. Years of travelling and scraping by, slowly finding any other wandering survivors, hearing word of resistance groups until ultimately forming my own and branding it with those four letters I held onto to remember what once was. Osei and Ramirez might have just seemed like just another dissident to the ADVENT troops that slaughtered them, but I'll always remember their parts in reassembling XCOM.

One shower and a set of fresh clothes later, the Commander was ready to go to the science labs.

Dan's notes: The Commander is never given a canonical name, gender, speaking lines, or appearance. The Commander is effectively you, the person playing the video game. I think it's fun for players to create some kind of commandersona, so I have decided to create one. The core idea was to make someone comically unassuming for their elevated status within the fiction. One thing to note is that there isn't really any way to make a fat character in this game, and I'm pretty sure it would be a pain for a modder to pull off without serious clipping issues. As such, I decided to make the Commander fat.

Excerpt from Commander Stumpe's Journal:

Gosh, it's all so darn confusing. It felt like I had been on the longest war of my career, but then one day I find myself getting pulled out of a spacesuit and I'm told the whole thing ended 20 years ago. Jeez, I really hope maybe I can turn things around this time.

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At the behest of Chief Science Officer Tygan, Commander ordered the Science team

Excerpt from Commander Stumpe's journal:

Dunno why he called himself a Chief Science Officer when it was really just him and any guy he trusted enough to handle equipment. Odd fellow, that guy. Wonder what happened to Vahlen.

Having survived Operation Gatecrasher, Jane Kelly was promoted from Rookie to Squaddie. Kelly had decided to specialize as a Ranger.

Dan's notes: Although they served as scout units in the vanilla game, their real specialties are their shotguns, which have a higher crit rate than other weapons, and goes up the more up close and personal the Ranger gets. Reapers and Templars outdo them on both stealth and melee terms.

Shortly afterwards, Commander Stumpe was invited by Central Officer Bradford to come to the research labs.

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END OF PART 1

#xcom 2 #xcom 2 wotc #after action reports #screenshot lp

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modded-xcom2-aar · 10 months

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The Tutorial: Part 2

With utmost priority, Commander began to organize Operation Necrotizing Key.

Dan's Notes: Due to a graphical glitch, two of the soldiers, both of whom normally wear modded-in clothes, appeared in clean-generation outfits. I believe there may be some mod conflicts, as some modded assets were determined to be clean-generation outfits anyways. At the time, I was not permitted to customize soldiers, but this will not be the case after the tutorial section is completed.

Excerpt from Commander Stumpe's Journal:

We were in such a rush to get the mission done that I just told the two closest rookies to slap on whatever the closest pieces of armor they could find lying around and hop in the Skyranger. They seemed a little cheesed off about it, but that's lesson 1 for you: If you wanna wear something besides the basics, you gotta make sure you've got it prepped.

Operation Necrotizing Key After Action Report:

Dan's notes: Not really sure why the game decided the "wilderness of New India" was in the "Greater Anchorage Area", but even without the mod I added that adds more locations, the game is weird about the names of mission locations, often going for a much more general area than wherever it appears on to be on the map.

Central Officer Bradford's Pre-Mission Briefing:

CENTRAL: Communications with resistance forces in the area have gone dark...which can only mean one thing. These people sacrificed everything to give us this shot. We need to recover that converter at all costs.

With the first priority of recruiting the Commander out of the way, the next major mission for reviving XCOM needed to be accomplished: Acquiring an ADVENT power converter needed for base operations.

Prior to undertaking Operation Gatecrasher, regional resistance cells were contacted to find the power converter. Serendipitously, they managed to block the ADVENT convoy meant to deliver the converter to the next location.

Operating in this mission were Squaddie Ranger Jane Kelly, and Rookies Cain Juntley, The Wanderer, and Christopher "Troopz" Taylor.

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Dan's Notes: It was at this point going through my footage that I realized that the Steam overlay was on. Whoops! Disabled it between the first and second session.

Enemy forces included ADVENT troops, Officers, and a Sectoid.

Mission Control's notes on the enemy forces:

CENTRAL: The ADVENT Officers seem more capable than the grunts. We're not sure whether to chalk it up to training or stricter mind control. TYGAN: Although they bear some resemblance to the Sectoids first encountered during the invasion, their genetic structure now includes human DNA. They're stronger than ever with an even greater psionic potential. COMMANDER: Oh jeez, those sectoids are real scary now, eh? I miss the old ones, they were a lot cuter and way less of a threat.

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The combat began with The Wanderer ambushing a Troop and an Officer by throwing a grenade at the pod while they were scouting the area on a rooftop.

Commander Stumpe's Notes:

Good old grenades. Guaranteed damage and great for destroying cover. Oldest trick in the book is to land an explosive grenade at a rooftop. If the explosion doesn't kill 'em, the fall will.

Unfortunately, just before Kelly could stabilize the Converter, The Wanderer was mind-controlled by the sectoid. While the sectoid hijacked The Wanderer's mind, The Wanderer was dragged over to Cain Juntley and fired on him, killing him in a single burst of fire.

Mercifully, once Kelly had stabilized the converter, she was able to kill the sectoid using her sword.

Commander Stumpe's notes:

Those fellas looked so darn frail. I'd say get 'em a sandwich but they probably eat people. I figure a good whack will hurt them way more than a gunshot.

Dan's notes: Sectoids have a weakness to melee attacks and can easily be oneshotted by any melee class.

With the converter stabilized and ripe for the taking, the mission was considered a success.

For surviving the mission, Troopz and The Wanderer were both promoted to Squaddie. Troopz decided to specialize as a Sharpshooter, while The Wanderer took the path of the Stormrider.

Bradford's Notes:

Just like it sounds, our sharpshooters engage enemy targets with pinpoint accuracy from extreme range. They're also trained in pistol marksmanship for the occassional close encounter.

Raze's(???) Notes:

We are the ultimate weapon, and we will not rest until every last alien is dead. The Storm is coming, Commander. Let's ride it together.

Dan's Notes: I don't utilize sharpshooters as much as I do other classes, however I find training a sharpshooter in pistol skills to be extremely fun and versatile. Sniping-focused sharpshooters are also handy, but when the game is designed to be focused on pushing forward, it's something I put less focus on.

As for Stormriders, I have only gotten to try them out while doing a test run I did during signup week, but they're pretty interestingly designed as a non-templar melee-only class. No idea who Raze is.

In addition to our key objective, XCOM managed to recover an expanded magazine. And as according to original XCOM procedures, bodies were collected and placed into cold storage.

Tygan: These items should prove useful in our ongoing efforts against the aliens. When you have a moment, Commander, I've made some interestesting discoveries as they relate to the implant we removed from you earlier.

Dan's Notes: Forgot to check the loot descriptions for the other pick-ups during the recording. Will see if I can find them later.

Tutorial Geoscape: Part 2

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Personnel Logs:

The Wanderer and Kelly sat in the bar. While it was a nice place to relax, it also served as a memorial for all those lost in the fight against ADVENT. Osei, Rodriguez, and Juntley's portraits had been taken and placed on it. This wasn't the only memorial. There was another, much larger one that was dedicated to any original XCOM members that had been lost during the original invasion, which was kept off of The Avenger and in the resistance haven the Avenger was currently docked in, and many resistance havens kept their own personal memorials. Death was a constant risk for those who chose to deny the Elders. The Wanderer had gotten their usual headgear back on: A gasmask and a hat that was good for keeping the sun out of their eyes. They had a special tape deck they liked to use instead of speaking. Not because it was practical or tactical, they just found it aesthetically pleasing. If they needed to explain things more thoroughly, they had other means. Signing. Tablets. A whiteboard if absolutely necessary. Tactical signing was more handy when prepping an ambush anyways. Kelly had her head in her hands. Three operatives were dead in one night. It's not that she wasn't used to death, but on some level she was frustrated with herself. Scouting further away from the convoy, there was no way could've gotten to the Sectoid before The Wanderer started firing on Juntley. She downed another shot. The Wanderer tapped on her shoulder. They began signing to her. She was drunk, but she was familiar enough with signing that she could get the gist. Mind control was like a bad dream, they signed. You could see what you were doing and feel what you were doing, but you couldn't control it. With a dream, you could wake up and remind yourself there's no way any of that could've happened. When you were freed of mind control, you just had to live with whatever the controller decided on. "You know," she said aloud, for she was too sluggish to try signing herself, "I checked the reports and the footage and the stuff. If I, If I had tried shooting him, I don't think it would've worked. Would've missed, or it would've hit and that asshole would keep moving Juntley around. It's not your fault, it's not my fault, it's just," She readjusted her position so she could lean her back against the counter. "It's just like, circrumstatial bullshit. And that fuckin' sectoid The Wanderer nodded. They pulled out the tape record and pressed a button. "[Thank you for your time.]" Said the recorder. They offered her their hand. And then they started arm wrestling, because Kelly was drunk and didn't realize it was supposed to be a handshake.

Jane Kelly and The Wanderer developed the start of a friendship together.

Commander Stumpe was summoned to Engineering to speak with Chief Engineer Lily Shen.

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Excerpt from Commander Stumpe's Personal Journal:

Shen's gone? Darn shame...well, I knew it wasn't particularly likely he'd survive 20 years of an alien empire. But his daughter looks like she's got a good head on her shoulders. Love those little robots she's got flying all over the place.

SHEN: I can't promise any miracles, Commander, but I should be able to put some of this stuff together in no time at all. I'd suggest we get started with a medikit, it'll probably come in handy sooner rather than later.

Dan's notes: Medikits are a massive boon in the battlefield. I highly suggest keeping at least two on hand, one for the combat unit and one for the reconnaissance unit. At this point in the game they're very limited, but that won't be the case once we get Specialists in our roster.

Commander Stumpe was quickly thereafter summoned to Research, where Tygan had made completed his research on the implant chip.

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From Commander Stumpe's personal journal:

He's right. I can't really explain it, but it was like I was in some kinda endless war commanding endless missions. Every so often it felt like victory had been achieved only to find myself back at the beginning. Kinda like when there's only reruns on TV. I wonder if TV's still around? That's beside the point, I guess. When it was happening I couldn't really tell I was in a loop. It just sorta happened, ya know? Wonder how much of it was real. I remember we had mech troops and gene splicing and every so often you could get a psi soldier. Not to mention all those battles with EXALT. I wonder if they were just simulations or if I was really commanding alien soldiers with an XCOM paint job. Pretty scary stuff.

With the research efforts completed, the Commander went about ordering the next research project, Modular Weapons.

Commander Stumpe's notes:

The most important thing to prioritize are the guns. It's not good when a soldier gets shot to pieces, but the best defense is a good offense. If the enemy goes down before they get a shot in, that's a soldier that never got shot to begin with.

Shortly thereafter, the commander returned to the bridge, where more developments occurred.

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Excerpt from Commader Stumpe's personal journal:

Ya know, one of the things people say when they're flying is "I can see my house from here!" Course, we didn't fly over Manitoba, and even if we did my house is probably a crater nowadays. But it was pretty exciting! We'll be flying all over the place now, so I'll have to get used to that. And the cramped quarters. Reminds me of the old days with the UN.

END OF PART 2

Dan's notes: Unfortunately, I accidentally set off another mod-based glitch during mission select that softlocked the game, so the first recording session ended here. Expect more updates soon!

#xcom #xcom 2 #xcom 2 wotc #after action reports #screenshot lp

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