Part 24: May Monthly Review

End of May



Polsy


In summery of May, I can easily say the month went well. The only black mark on the month is the abductor UFO I did not shoot down, but that is according to plan with the way I play. Before the month ended I was able to launch four more satellites to expand full coverage over North and South America, earning us two more continent bonuses, as well as a lot more funding from those four countries. As Guava mentioned with this level of satellite coverage I am entering a new level of base management, where advancement is more resource limited rather than cash limited. Usually this take at least another month or two, but this has been my fasted developing game I've ever played thanks to the amazing April start.

To be quickly touched upon are the number of things done off screen from the last mission, to the next mission's video. The Gene lab was built just in time for the previous video, but enhancement options were very limited. With the South America bonus I was able to instantly carve through the backlog of autopsies and thus expand the options available in the gene lab. The lab now has 8 out of the possible 10 enhancements available to us, the two remaining modifications are for the brain, and come from enemies we have not seen yet. Meld is somewhat tight right now though, and I will have to be careful where I spend it. Mimetic skin costs more meld than a first tier MEC suit and augmented soldier, for example. Our MECs are also due for an upgrade to the second level chassis soon, which will also cost a lot of meld.

Along with the autopsies completed, research on the Outsider Shard has been completed. This is the next step in the games plot, and will allow us to progress further into the game. I'm actually in good shape to tackle the next plot challenge. A squad of full laser gun and carapace/skeleton armor is what I would call the par level for the next big event. We will likely be hitting that before the end of June.

For the soldier side of things, I feel well stocked. I believe I have 15 soldiers, including one left over from the first mission of the game I haven't fired or renamed to include in the LP. I have three snipers, Nittien and Gunderson will be the field work guys while Finn will likely be turned into a covert operative specialist. My two assaults are Sprahl and Angel, both having nice stats and shown to work well. Tony White and Kartal run support, and while they haven't been critically relied on for healing, both have shown combat effectiveness on the offensive side of things. For heavies, I had three. James Dean as the leader of the pack with his amazing starting aim score, with Isobel training and Rio Delgado just becoming a squaddie. I say 'had three' because with Rio's assignment to heavy I decided to MEC Isobel. She will eventually take over and replace Tiny. It's sad to say, but she has much nicer stats that will eventually over take Tiny's abilities. So that leaves me with three MEC troopers, Tiny will stick around while Isobel trains, and Isis Tellar runs the support MEC.

So I'm very happy with my stable of soldiers. I have two of everything and I feel comfortable with all of them. Continuing on with discussion of them reminds me that some of them need nicknames. I know you all love to come up with them, but now is the appropriate time for that.
Ricky Gunderson was assigned 'Claymore' by the game. That's good, but I think we can do better.
Isobel Gutierez was assigned 'Hadaly' which I don't even think is a word.

Moving on to the Foundry, we've put in a lot of work there. Aided by Thin Man and Muton autopsies work has started on two of the best projects there, improved medkits and ammo conservation. This boosts medkits to heal 6hp per use, a 50% increase and doubles a soldiers ammunition between reloads (8 for most guns, 6 for heavy weapons. It also effects MEC guns but they're weird to measure). I also threw in a lot of other projects simply because I could. With all the money I had left over I started just about every project I could that looked useful. Improved pistols, enhanced MEC punching, alien grenades, Shiv construction, Shiv suppression, and laser shivs. It's crazy how much left over cash I had. I even built a satellite nexus and four satellites, meaning I will have world wide coverage by the end of June.

Lastly I have medals to award our soldiers. There are three Taco Defenders Dadges (+5 defense when in cover) to award, 1 Bonus Beuenos Aires Air Medal (+8 aim currently), and 2 Council Medals of Honor (+1 Aim and Will per mission with no deaths, max +10) which could also stand to be renamed.

Make sure you click the picture for the video if you want to see all the autopsies, muton interrogation, and more importantly, the plot scene involving the outsider crystal. Then make sure to post and vote for nicknames and medals. (Results will be delayed one video)