The Chrysallid Challenge

[koriand'r]

Just to give the game some spice I was wondering if anyone was willing to take in a challenge given how some people can complete missions with just one person. Well the one person option is still on only I'm proposing a more difficult challenge.

 

The challenge is simple (sort of) have your base invaded by snakemen and chrysallids, kill off the snakemen and mind control the remaining chrysallid and place them in a hanger. Second in ready you must have a 30+ group of rookies you brought for reserves.

 

These poor souls will be sent to the hanger, once gathered, unmind the chrysallid/s and let them zombify the group you sent (each becomming a zombie/chrysallid) the aim is to get as many zombie/chrysallids as you can before you take them on with nothing but a normal rifle/pistol *not laser/plasma* ammo and grenades (normal grenades) are up to you in how much you want. Though Laser pistol can be allowed.

 

You can use a supporting group to psi the chrysallids/zombies to allow the respectable amount of oppeonts your character will fight.

 

Note that in the end only one guy can take these fiends on without save/upload, psi from him or the secondary group let alone HWP.

 

And try to keep the majority of your kills in the selceted hanger where the chrysallids are to be simply because I say so...plus it'll make a nice image shot which you can show if you can do the kill. (a pic also of the debriefing to confirm how many aliens you killed will also be needed)

 

Requirments:

 

 

-This will require psi, paitence and a good lack of humanity to send in recurits to become chrysallids!

 

-Game can be on any diifculty

 

-You can only use one fighting character. Any characters not intended be slaughter are unarmed and sole purpose are to a: control the chrysallids before they are set upon your fighting character by then you do not use them afterwards. And B; Can only help in giving the fighting character only, ammo.

 

-Your character CANNOT have flying suit armour.

 

-30+ people at least must become chrysallids (80 max if you have a death wish)

 

-Admit the amount of times you uploaded, this will reflect your score.

 

-Rifle/pistol (bullets based) and normal grenades, prox grenades, high explosive grenade (no alien grenades) allowed for the fighting character's weapons. However a laser pistol can be allowed

 

-Try to get many kills in the hanger.

 

-A picture of the hanger and of the debriefing is needed.

 

-First person to get near or 80 kills will go down as the ultimate survival champ. However this will be based on:

 

Time it took you to complete it *From start to finish*

Amount of retries

Amount of Saves

How many you killed

The score shown on the debriefing pic after completion.

Your Kill points(explained below).

*optional* Presentation (add humour if you want) in how it was for you etc, anything to convince me why yours was the toughest or even write out as if you were that character *which technically speaking you sort of are since you are controlling him/her*

 

If you used some clever tactic brag about it, it'll give you a bouns in deciding who will be winner. Since I'll be selecting the winner.

 

The overall score will start from the score shown on the debriefing, that will be added by the kill points and deducted by the retries and time it took you to achieve it.

 

The kill points will depend on the type of weapon you used to kill the chry's. The score will be added on the total kills and detucted by the amount of retries and saves you may have used.

 

Hand gun Pistol (bullets) per use: 30 points

Grenades (any form except alien grenades) per use: 18 points

Rifle (bullets) per use: 12 points

Laser Pistol per use: 4 points

 

ie: say you killed four chrys in total, two by handgun and two by laser by pistol will give you 68 points altogether. Compared to four killed by laser pistol which will be 16

 

Though I'm relying on honesty here, I know some folks may cheat on the number of re-tries they say they have, if someone could provide a save game as suggested by Sharp then it'll give you a better chance of being judged as the winner.

 

 

-And a fitting name for the character for this scenario (ie: like nameing the fighting character of any of the resident evil characters might be ironically fitting considering your up against zombie/chrysallids

 

 

 

Anyone daring to go?

 

Overall have fun

 

Post Modified on 2/11/05 8PM

Edited December 2, 2005 by koriand'r

[[Mad]]

Just a short remark/question: If your guy is wearing a flying suit, the chrysallids will not be able to get him, so all of this becomes just a matter of time. Or am I missing sth?

[[NKF]]

You can't get 100 kills - there's a limit to 80 units (with 4 units per tank) per mission.

 

Also, rifle bullets and grenades... um, your average Chryssalid is fairly resilient to low powered AP bullets and low powered HE devices, so you're going to have to stock up on these. A lot of these. Rifle bullets in particular.

 

Don't even bother trying this challenge on superhuman with rifle bullets. They just don't cut it. Consider instead the laser pistol, which should give you a fighting chance. On easier levels, proxy mines are quite good at crippling the chryssalids.

 

As this is a one-sitting challenge, perhaps you may want to take count of how many times you had to re-try the mission (or at least admit that you required many tries), as you're never going to win this on the first go.

 

- NKF

Edited December 2, 2005 by NKF

[koriand'r]

Just a short remark/question: If your guy is wearing a flying suit, the chrysallids will not be able to get him, so all of this becomes just a matter of time. Or am I missing sth?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

*Realises he forgotten somthing* hehe oh yeah, right no flying suits!

 

 

You can't get 100 kills - there's a limit to 80 units (with 4 units per tank) per mission.

 

Also, rifle bullets and grenades... um, your average Chryssalid is fairly resilient to low powered AP bullets and low powered HE devices, so you're going to have to stock up on these. A lot of these. Rifle bullets in particular.

 

Don't even bother trying this challenge on superhuman with rifle bullets. They just don't cut it. Consider instead the laser pistol, which should give you a fighting chance. On easier levels, proxy mines are quite good at crippling the chryssalids.

 

As this is a one-sitting challenge, perhaps you may want to take count of how many times you had to re-try the mission (or at least admit that you required many tries), as you're never going to win this on the first go.

 

- NKF

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hmm I might have been a bit Xtreme. Alright I'll modify the challenge. Though the idea I never tried as I'm still waiting for a snakeman invasion on one of my bases!!! Here's the modifications:

 

No Flying suits

Winner is the one who can do it with highest kills (80) and least re-tries

And laser pistol is allowed along with proxy mines or any hanheld explosive device *Not missile based ie rocket launcher*

Level difficulty can be any as I realise that this could take sometime for this scenario to occur.

 

 

----

 

On a curious note let's say x number of xcom soliders were turned into that same number (or similir) of Chryssalid before being killed. If I sold that number of Chryssalid corpses would that cover the amount I orignally spent on the Xcom recurits for the intended scenario?

Edited December 2, 2005 by koriand'r

[Sharp]

Chyrs corpse sells for 20k, Recruit costs 40k, not the best deal in the world.

 

Also people may cheat on the number of re-tries they say they have, what would be better is if someone could provide a save game (looks at Zombie and NKF) of a chyrs in the hanger with all the (unarmed) soldiers (except for your killer dude).

 

Give the hero dude the weapons and clips required (mabye keep some clips lying around randomly on the floor), also so the game doesnt quit once you MC the chyrs, keep another chyrs around by having another person in a flying suit hovering above a chyrsalid in a set room to have the person killed once the chyrs is released in the hanger.

 

The game should be more resident evil style in the way that you start with a pistol but you can pick up many of the other weapons you see lying around (the handy rocket launcher in the store room )

[koriand'r]

...I swear all the things i have to cover up to avoid a friggin loop hole!!! Ok I'll add that as well.

 

I think that's all covered, gentlemen (and ladies) You may begin!

[Zombie]

Okay, I spent the better part of yesterday setting up a "Chryssalid Challenge" for everyone. Now before I begin, there are a few points to consider.

1. When a Chryssalid attacks a Mind Controlled alien, the result is not a Zombie. The alien simply dies. So converting the Snakemen to Chryssalids is not possible. (At least it is for my limited editing skills. I'm sure that someone like NKF could easily do this).
   
2. There is a maximum number of Chryssalids which can actually spawn in an X-COM base defense mission: 6 (on Superhuman). This fact limits the total number of Chryssalids some more.
   
3. As with aliens, there are a total of 40 slots available for soldiers. Since one soldier must be kept alive for the challenge, this limits the total number of Chryssalids for an X-COM Base Defense mission to exactly 45.
   

So for the first challenge, I let the Snakemen attack my base (heavily modified to your advantage) until 6 Chryssalids spawned. Once that was accomplished, I killed off the Snakemen and let the Chryssalids reduce my 39 men to an army of Zombies. Then I killed the Zombies so that they became Chryssalids. Finally, I spaced the Chryssalids evenly across the three Hangars and 1 Access Lift. What this means is that almost 1/3 of the Chryssalids are within 2 rounds of striking distance to the lone soldier hiding in the second General Store module. Sounds hard, doesn't it? That doesn't do it justice, read on.

 

45 Chryssalids - Impossible conditions:

 

Weapons and Equipment

1 Pistol, 15 clips of ammo

1 Rifle, 15 clips of ammo

1 Laser Pistol

15 Grenades

15 Proximity Grenades

1 Stun Rod

5 Psi-Amps (can't use them though)

 

Soldier Stats

Time Units: 65

Energy: 70

Health: 43

Bravery: 60

Reactions: 67

Firing Accuracy: 82

Throwing Accuracy: 87

Strength: 45

Psi Strength: 100

Psi Skill: 0

Front Armor: 12

Left/Right Armor: 8

Rear Armor: 5

Under Armor: 2

(Standard jumpsuit protection)

 

5 Chryssalids in Access Lift, 13 for 2 Hangars and 14 for the last Hangar

 

I actually tried this mission out for size with the normal Pistol first. The results were not too promising. So I switched to a Laser Pistol instead. That was a little better. The main problem is that nearly 1/3 of the Chryssalids will converge on your location within 2 rounds. You have very little time to prime grenades and get into position before an army of Chryssalid doom descends on your location. For this fact I decided to switch from minimum rookie stats to an average (between the min and the max). If anyone can survive this mission for more than 3 rounds (without running away), I'd be impressed.

 

45_Chryssalids_Impossible.zip

 

Since this might be too frustrating to finish, I decided to create a somewhat easier scenario. Still the same number of Chryssalids, but instead of spread throughout 3 Hangars and an Access Lift, I confined them to the 2 farthest Hangers and the Access Lift. This should give you more time to set something up before a slew of Chryssalids surrounds you.

 

45 Chryssalids - Difficult conditions:

 

Weapons and Equipment

1 Pistol, 15 clips of ammo

1 Rifle, 15 clips of ammo

1 Laser Pistol

15 Grenades

15 Proximity Grenades

1 Stun Rod

5 Psi-Amps (can't use them though)

 

Soldier Stats

Time Units: 81

Energy: 101

Health: 61

Bravery: 60

Reactions: 105

Firing Accuracy:125

Throwing Accuracy:125

Strength: 71

Psi Strength: 100

Psi Skill: 0

Front Armor: 110

Left/Right Armor: 90

Rear Armor: 80

Under Armor: 70

(Standard Flying Suit armor without flying ability)

 

5 Chryssalids in Access Lift, 27 for the farthest Hangar and 13 for the closest Hangar

 

As you can see, I increased the soldier stats to maximum possible for most attributes. That helped a bit. So did the fact that the Chryssalids are farther away. Still, these conditions are very, very difficult to deal with. I lasted maybe 5 rounds with this scenario, but this was only for a dry-run to make sure everything worked. Here again, you may only have a snowball's chance in he!! of finishing.

 

45_Chryssalids_Difficult.zip

 

For the chickens afraid of a serious challenge , I constructed an easier scenario. Same number of Chryssalids, but they are initially stationed in the Access Lift and the farthest Hangar.

 

45 Chryssalids - Easy conditions:

 

Weapons and Equipment

1 Pistol, 15 clips of ammo

1 Rifle, 15 clips of ammo

1 Laser Pistol

15 Grenades

15 Proximity Grenades

1 Stun Rod

5 Psi-Amps

 

Soldier Stats

Time Units: 81

Energy: 101

Health: 61

Bravery: 60

Reactions: 105

Firing Accuracy:125

Throwing Accuracy:125

Strength: 71

Psi Strength: 100

Psi Skill: 100

Front Armor: 110

Left/Right Armor: 90

Rear Armor: 80

Under Armor: 70

(Standard Flying Suit armor without flying ability)

 

5 Chryssalids in Access Lift and 40 in the farthest Hangar

 

This mission is made easier by the fact that all the Chryssalids are at least 3-4 turns away, giving your lone-gunman some time to properly prepare for battle. In addition, I have enabled Psi Skill in the soldier which allows him to grab a Psi-Amp from the General Store near the closest Hangar. When you are overwhelmed by Chryssalids, simply MC a couple of them as decoys and set some more traps. You are not required to use Psi, but it is there if you need it. But as before, the highest strength weapon is the Laser Pistol which makes for some serious fighting. I wouldn't be surprised if a few of you raise the white flag in disgust.

 

45_Chryssalids_Easy.zip

 

Just a few final comments. I did not allow the use of the alien weapons sitting in the Hangars to prevent cheating. I suppose that if you found my scenarios almost impossible, then I could enable them. Make a mad dash to the closest Hangar, grab a Heavy Plasma or Blaster Launcher, and pray that the Chryssalids don't surround you in the process. I could theoretically make a mission with more Chryssalids too. It would have to be a Terror Site though, since civilians would be the extra Chryssalids. Total possible: 51. Ouch!

 

Good luck everyone, and happy bug-hunting!

 

- Zombie

Edited December 4, 2005 by Zombie

[Sharp]

Wow, great work Zombie , though you could make the challenge even harder by only having one chyrsalid and the rest zombies so you have to waste even more ammo, mabye make that a super-superhuman challenge.

 

Also im guessing that all the weapons and ammo are stored in just the one general stores instead of getting scattered about so you have to move around.

 

Also one question, does armour actually make any difference on chyrsalids? Normally when I get power-armour my troops manage to kill chyrsalids before they even come close.

[[NKF]]

On the other hand, you can easily outrun zombies, and as long as they're left in a zombified state, you can take on the chryssalids inside them as you please, after dealing with that one chryssalid.

 

As for armour - none. Once they hit, you're zombified. The only exception being the flying suit, but only for its flight, not the protection.

 

- NKF

Edited December 4, 2005 by NKF

[koriand'r]

Okay, I spent the better part of yesterday setting up a "Chryssalid Challenge" for everyone. Now before I begin, there are a few points to consider.

1. When a Chryssalid attacks a Mind Controlled alien, the result is not a Zombie. The alien simply dies. So converting the Snakemen to Chryssalids is not possible. (At least it is for my limited editing skills. I'm sure that someone like NKF could easily do this).
    
    
   
2. There is a maximum number of Chryssalids which can actually spawn in an X-COM base defense mission: 6 (on Superhuman). This fact limits the total number of Chryssalids some more.
    
    
   
3. As with aliens, there are a total of 40 slots available for soldiers. Since one soldier must be kept alive for the challenge, this limits the total number of Chryssalids for an X-COM Base Defense mission to exactly 45.
   

So for the first challenge, I let the Snakemen attack my base (heavily modified to your advantage) until 6 Chryssalids spawned. Once that was accomplished, I killed off the Snakemen and let the Chryssalids reduce my 39 men to an army of Zombies. Then I killed the Zombies so that they became Chryssalids. Finally, I spaced the Chryssalids evenly across the three Hangars and 1 Access Lift. What this means is that almost 1/3 of the Chryssalids are within 2 rounds of striking distance to the lone soldier hiding in the second General Store module. Sounds hard, doesn't it? That doesn't do it justice, read on.

 

45 Chryssalids - Impossible conditions:

 

Weapons and Equipment

1 Pistol, 15 clips of ammo

1 Rifle, 15 clips of ammo

1 Laser Pistol

15 Grenades

15 Proximity Grenades

1 Stun Rod

5 Psi-Amps (can't use them though)

 

Soldier Stats

Time Units: 65

Energy: 70

Health: 43

Bravery: 60

Reactions: 67

Firing Accuracy: 82

Throwing Accuracy: 87

Strength: 45

Psi Strength: 100

Psi Skill: 0

Front Armor: 12

Left/Right Armor: 8

Rear Armor: 5

Under Armor: 2

(Standard jumpsuit protection)

 

5 Chryssalids in Access Lift, 13 for 2 Hangars and 14 for the last Hangar

 

I actually tried this mission out for size with the normal Pistol first. The results were not too promising. So I switched to a Laser Pistol instead. That was a little better. The main problem is that nearly 1/3 of the Chryssalids will converge on your location within 2 rounds. You have very little time to prime grenades and get into position before an army of Chryssalid doom descends on your location. For this fact I decided to switch from minimum rookie stats to an average (between the min and the max). If anyone can survive this mission for more than 3 rounds (without running away), I'd be impressed.

 

45_Chryssalids_Impossible.zip

 

Good luck everyone, and happy bug-hunting! 

 

- Zombie

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

How exactly do I view the attachment as I downloaded but when trying to extract from zip I get *incomplete zip file*

[Sharp]

Erm, ive unzipped it and got the file, now where do I put it??? Ive tried putting in a save game folder, doesnt work, ive tried putting in a saved battlescape game folder, ive tried to run UFO with the file, it loaded up UFO but didnt run the file.

[Zombie]

Sharp:

 

Hmmm... okay. I saved it as a zipped folder. Inside that folder are the necessary files you need to run the mission. Simply unzip it, open up the folder (called Game_10) and copy the files into one of your game files (Game_1 to Game_10). Simply copying the unzipped folder to a game file will not work as the game is not looking for a subdirectory there. Hope that helps. You could always delete your Game_10 folder and replace it with mine. That would work too.

 

Everyone else: (especially koriand'r)

 

PM me with your preferred email address if you have trouble extracting files and I will send you those saved games directly. That might solve the extraction problem as some nodes in the internet have problems with zipped files. Barring that, get WinRAR and use that for unzipping it. I downloaded my game from this site and unzipped it without any trouble, and when the files are placed in a game directory the mission loads too.

 

- Zombie

Edited December 4, 2005 by Zombie

[Sharp]

Whoops, didnt know you have to erm, unzip the file as well. So if anyone else is having problems, just rename the 45_chyrsalids mission the same but add .zip to it and unzip that to get savegame folder 10.

 

Before it was unzipping and saying that it was just a single file.

[koriand'r]

Being the man/fool that I am I downloaded the impossible file zombie gave me last night and all I can say is er....its impossible really, downright hard!!!!!

 

I lasted three turns and managed to kill two!

Edited December 18, 2005 by koriand'r

[Blitzen]

Being the man/fool that I am I downloaded the impossible file zombie gave me last night and all I can say is er....its impossible really, downright hard!!!!!

 

I lasted three turns and managed to kill two!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

3rd try right now and I lsted untill turn 28 and scratched 26....

 

 

BTW that is the Impossible one

Edited December 21, 2005 by Blitzen

[Sharp]

Being the man/fool that I am I downloaded the impossible file zombie gave me last night and all I can say is er....its impossible really, downright hard!!!!!

 

I lasted three turns and managed to kill two!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

3rd try right now and I lsted untill turn 28 and scratched 26....

 

 

BTW that is the Impossible one

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

What the!! You managed to survive 28 turns??? I got to 3 by hiding in a corner on impossible. It doesnt matter where you move, by the 2nd turn they will already be where you are, I only managed to survive 3 turns by shooting them as they came in the little room you start in. I can remember when it was the 2nd turn a different time, just peeked outside and there were 5 chyrsalids waiting

 

Edit: Show a nice chyrs corpse filled screenie blitzen, I want to see them SUFFER!!!!

Edited December 22, 2005 by Sharp

[Exo2000]

Being the man/fool that I am I downloaded the impossible file zombie gave me last night and all I can say is er....its impossible really, downright hard!!!!!

 

I lasted three turns and managed to kill two!

 

3rd try right now and I lsted untill turn 28 and scratched 26....

 

 

BTW that is the Impossible one

 

 

What the!! You managed to survive 28 turns???

 

Explosives. Lots of them. :wink1: Should be doable if you use Proxies or HE Packs.

 

There are 15 Grenades and 15 Proxies for a reason.

 

My grand total is 1, 3 turns. (On easy too.)

Edited December 26, 2005 by Exo2000

[Sharp]

But explosives need priming (unlike Apoc ) I can get one grenade primed at the start, then I throw (if prox) and then hide, alien steps on grenade and does not blow up :RAGE:.

 

However while typing this a great thought has occured to me, a thought which means that any of these challenges are easy to complete, as you all know chyrsalids cannot attack if you are in the level above, well duh you all think, but there are no flying suits, however when playing many missions on UFO with buildings I remember the deadly error when there are aliens you need to kill on the second floor, but the damned inaccurate rookies on the floor decide to shoot the stairs.

 

"Ahhh" I imaginarly hear you sigh, the ultimate solution, run to the room with the stairs and shoot out the stairs, simple pimple, then just wait for the chyrsalids to cluster in and drop a grenade every so often. *Victory*

 

And now to try it out.

[Sharp]

Muhahahahahahahaha, ive done it, not completly using my technique stated above but very similar. Its very odd, after killing 45 chrysalids you would think that damned soldier would get a major increase in stats, but noooo just slightly higher.

 

Also Zombie, I hope you dont use avengers only armed with fusion ball launchers to take out UFO's in other games, far too expensive and unreliable.

 

My Technique:

 

Run to the room with stairs directly south of your starting room, and walk on the first level of the stairs (DO NOT CROUCH), chyrsalids cannot get a direct line of fire when you are half a level/a level above them, the same applies for the soldier standing on the stairs, however get the soldier to crouch, then fire, then stand up, if you are crouched your head effectivly is on the same level as the chyrsalid, which leads to zombimifacation.

 

I tried my original idea of shooting down stairs, but apparently the XCOM base stairs are invincible, or the laser pistol just can't scratch them, however trying this led to the winning technique (albeit very sneaky and underhanded).

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v301/H_Sharp/XCOM/shot0003.jpg

 

Then the chyrsalids just start piling in into the room. And there are a heck load of chyrsalids, im just happy they cant touch me otherwise I would have pee'ed me pants off.

 

*note smoke due to a grenade to see if standing on stairs makes you invincible to grenades....it does not*

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v301/H_Sharp/XCOM/shot0006.jpg

 

Also ive found information that will cheer many human souls, Chyrsalids feel fear, after killing over half of them, many started panicking and going beserk (not that it did much), Chyrsalids are also very sneaky as they do try and hide behind doors so you cannot find them (much like a well used tactic when waiting by the doors inside UFO's).

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v301/H_Sharp/XCOM/shot0000.jpg

 

And the final and very interesting victory debriefing, its very odd as seeing 67 aliens killed but only 9 alien corpses recovered (no I didn't blow them up), I suppose its due to the fact that there were only so few original attacking aliens, when some of the chyrsalids died, they just didn't leave corpses. Ah well, still an excellent score nonetheless.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v301/H_Sharp/XCOM/shot0001.jpg

 

And finally Werner Gunkel, the brave soldier who defied the odds and killed 45 chyrsalids all by-himself. His stats don't seem to increase that much compared to killing 45 aliens, and to be fair his accuracy was appaling in the game, he missed point-blank often. Its a shame as well, the poor lad killed 45 aliens and he doesn't even get promoted, probably due to the fact that he was the only soldier left alive in the whole of xcom though.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v301/H_Sharp/XCOM/shot0002.jpg

 

Ah well, thats the end of my tale against the deadly chyrsalids, preserving humanities hope one more time against the deadly alien horde.

 

Happy New Year everybody.

Edited December 30, 2005 by Sharp

[Sharp]

What I do want to try next is see if this works on other aliens, now base defence can be a totally different by just using one rookie to hide on stairs and slaughter aliens with efficient laser weapons.

[j'ordos]

What I do want to try next is see if this works on other aliens, now base defence can be a totally different by just using one rookie to hide on stairs and slaughter aliens with efficient laser weapons.

I think that rules out Sectoids and Ethereals though...

[Sharp]

I think that rules out Sectoids and Ethereals though...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hmmm, how about one psi-resistant soldier, also if you have no soldiers in the base you automatically lose the base regardless of any HWP's, but is it automatically over if your last soldier gets mind-controlled but you still have HWP's???

[[NKF]]

Beginning the mission (moving between the Geoscape and Battlescape) requires a soldier. During the mission, if you lose the soldier but have remaining HWPs, you can indeed continue and possibly win the mission.

 

- NKF