38 replies to this topic

[Anthraxus]

I notice on the Asset page that under interrogations there is just a list of the alien ranks. My question is, do we need a seperate CTD for each race/rank combination?

What about those ranks that don't normally give you a real report like Navigator or Medic. If I remember right Navigator just gave you the mission types and Medic just gave you btoh the autopsy and living reports at once. Are we going to have seperate CTDs for these or are the going to mimic Xcom 1 functionality?
If this is the case than they can be marked off since most of those reports (missions and race/autopsy) are already being worked on.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Medics gave random autopsy or random live species data. (A sectoid medic could give data on a sectopod for instance.)

As far as I know, you don't need to do a seperate CTD. I'm not sure, though. That's why I stay away from alien interrogations. (sp?)

[j'ordos]

I believe there was some talk about making higher ranking aliens disclose more about their culture than a soldier, so e.g. a medic would give you information about the races' homeworld, reproduction, ...
But I think this will not be so for v1, it'll most likely follow the original XCOM research tree (but I'm not in CTD, so maybe there has been made a different decision?)

[Aosar]

I think that it is considered or done so because then the player will have a reason to interrogate many different aliens. Besides, we here in the CTD dep are making some nice and juicy pieces of background info on the species and having multible interrogations gives us the opportunity to do so.

[Anthraxus]

The reason that I ask is that I am in a Floater frame of mind and if race specific ones need to be written I think I could crank out the floater ones pretty quick.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Do so. We can always delete the rank specific words later.

[Anthraxus]

ok then. What about racially specific information? This is especially pertinent for the soldier and terrorist interrogations.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

That is in by default, isn't it?

[Anthraxus]

Not necessarily if we don't have one for each race. Anyway, 1st draft of Floater Terrorist CTD. Slightly different format, but I can't think of how else to show an interrogation.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[FLOATER] TERRORIST INTERROGATION REPORT

Summary: [Floater] captured during terror site mission, in drugged and bound conditions, attempts communication with [Xcorp] representative. Verification of individual aliens mission, to cause terror and panic in the civilian population of the area, accomplished.

Interrogator: [Spc. Mark Dufraine]

Spc. Dufraine (SD): This is the interrogation of a captured and pacified [floater] terrorist. Communication will be achieved via a simple yes/no code and psionically projected images that the target has proven willing to use in control situations. It has been proven that some people have the capacity to project or receive meaningful images with the alien mind when both sender and receiver are in a controlled environment. This interrogation will simply serve to confirm or deny many hypothesizes that research & development have proposed recently. Question one: Are you capable of receiving me?
[Floater] (A): Yes
SD: Was your primary function to take captives during the mission you were captured on?
A: No {Images depicting horrific scenes of the alien torturing helpless civilians accompany this answer}
SD: (takes a sip of water)That was intense. Your main purpose was to cause as much panic and terror possible at the mission site?
A: Yes {More graphic scenes received}
SD: Where do your people come from?
A: {Confusion, followed by faint scenes of forests and strange creatures.}
SD: Why is your race here?
A: {A blurry picture of an unidentifiable object}
SD: I don’t understand. Who is your leader?
A: {A focused image of another [floater]}
SD: I believe some of these questions are too general to be answered. Let’s try something more specific.
SD: (takes another drink of water) What do you enjoy?
A: Yes{The most gruesome image yet. Spc. Dufraine appears to develop a nosebleed}
SD: Errhhmm. That wasn’t good. Ow! {the nosebleed becomes worse.} I think he’s coming out from the drugs… Look he’s getting loose. Security! Security! {several gunshots} He’s down. Dead. I hope we don’t have to do this again.

Notes: Spc. Dufraine reports that the alien attempted to bombard him with gruesome, graphic images of horrible things the [floater] had done or imagined. The pacification meds appear to have worn off faster than R&D had suggested they would. It is apparent that the wilder, more vicious [floater]s are tasked with the “terror” missions.

Attached Files

•  floater_terrorist.rtf   5.05K   7 downloads

[Aosar]

Bravo! Really set's the mood... Perhaps a bit more text and info?

Edited by Aosar, 29 January 2004 - 03:34 PM.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Yes! Although, there is a problem... What happens if you interrogate a floater before you have the mindprobe/psi amp?

[Anthraxus]

If you notice, I don't specify that any devices are used. the send/receive ability is just a latent skill that some psi potentials may be able to show "in a controlled environment" thusly it doesn't rely on your psionic research tree at all. If you remove that you effectively can't interrogate aliens because you have no common means of communication.

Also I was running out of questions for a terrorist. Since they are so single minded once you know what it is and what it does and it can't really tell you why outside of the fact that it was ordered too by another floater, there isn't that much more to ask. That's why it's so short. The others will be longer. Do we want the Commader to give more information than just the Cydonia or Bust topic? I think if the interrogations are race specific than each racial commander should have additional information or something specific to its race. Does any body remember what researching a Leader does for you? I remember the following information for each rank:

Terrorist - ? Where there actual terrorist ranks? I thought they were just soldiers
Soldier - Just your basic live subject study. No additional information
Navigator - Randomly determined alien mission report.
Medic - Both live study and autopsy, maybe they gave you another race live study?
Technician - Randomly determined alien ship spec report.
Leader-?
Commander - Cydonia or bust

Edited by Anthraxus, 29 January 2004 - 04:52 PM.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

There was only one rank of terrorist. The 'terrorist.' Now, the main race isn't the terrorist (sorry, no floater terrorists. Just Reapers, Chryssalids, Sillacoids, Celatids, Cyberdisks, Sectopods, and Steel penises...)

For the terrorist, you could do what you did above. I can imagine how fun the chryssalid one would be...
"What is your purpose"
<Scenes of hideous creatures ripping their way out of a human are seen...>

[Anthraxus]

Are the floaters the main race? I thought the ammonites were?

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Storywise the ammonites are the 'main race' second only to the overmind(s?)

However, each race has an associated terrorist race. Floaters have reapers, etc.

Thus, when I refer to the main race in a non-story sense, I'm talking about the humanoid, gunwielding alien species, not their terror weapons.

[MagicAndy]

I don't know, once you actually wirte the interview specifics you end up with more questions, butter to just gloss over how you got the information like the original did?

Also can the intervierwer's questions be more direct and official, not like "what do you enjoy?". More like, what is your purpose, what is your point of origin, etc. It makes it sound like an FHM interview.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

"You realize, Mr. Grey that if you don't tell me what I want to know, I'll be forced to use the rectal probes..."

[Whitewashed]

and Steel penises...)

Whaaat? I must have missed those when playing...

[Cpl. Facehugger]

I was wondering when someone would catch on to that.

[Whitewashed]

Steel penises from mars, coming to take away our wifes and children. Bastards!

[Cpl. Facehugger]

. :: Now lets get back on topic.

Hmm, could you do up one on the Etherial, Anthraxus? That would be really intresting.

Edit: Intresting in that we could have the etherial actually communicating inside the interrogator's mind, instead of the other way around.

Edited by Cpl. Facehugger, 29 January 2004 - 08:07 PM.

[Anthraxus]

I can do something like that. I go ahead and do a draft for the etherial commander. So I guess we reallyl dont need terrorist interrogations at all right? it just gives you the living specimen study.

[Breunor]

This page list all the x-net info you get in the original game. While we can be more elaborate in what is told, there won't be additional entries from these for version 1. I don't know for sure, but wasn't the only requirement that you catch a live alien from a particular mission to learn about that mission. I remember the navigator being one for alien navigation and stuff like that, and of course a commander for the final plot entries. But I would make each entry a little generic by avoiding specific mention of which alien you are getting the info from, unless you are 100% certain it always comes from a sectoid navigator for example, or floater officer.

[Robo Dojo 58]

No one seems to have posted it, so here goes.
You need a live alien for "Alien origins".
You need a leader for "the martian solution".
The alien commander gives you "Cydonia or bust".
Soldiers know about the mission types.
Medics know about other aliens (usually the terrorists, or themselves),
Navigators know about the HWD.
Engineers know the stats of the UFO that they fly.

I'd worry about the aliens trying to take our women, with their iridium sheen penises!

[Cpl. Facehugger]

No one seems to have posted it, so here goes.
You need a live alien for "Alien origins".
You need a leader for "the martian solution".
The alien commander gives you "Cydonia or bust".
Soldiers know about the mission types.
Medics know about other aliens (usually the terrorists, or themselves),
Navigators know about the HWD.
Engineers know the stats of the UFO that they fly.

I'd worry about the aliens trying to take our women, with their iridium sheen penises!

Well... Soldiers don't give you anything except their species data and alien origins. It is the navigators that give you mission data (in addition to HWD data.) I'm pretty sure about that. That's why I kill any alien soldier I see.

[Breunor]

I've edited the CT asset list to include the proper names for these entries, as well as putting who originally started work on the texts. We don't need to worry about who gives what if we stay away from specific alien references in the text. I would follow the basic outline of the originals, and work off of that. The more specific you get with who gave the info or how it was obtained, the greater the chance it will be wrong. It's good to know who's responsible for each entry, but I think the programmers will deal with all that.

[kchickenlord]

Will there be a probability that there will be no information gained at all, could be useful, that way you might need more than a single commander.
Perhaps interrogating a soldier could tech your troops how to use, but not how to manufacture, certain weapons.

[Qonfused]

Q: are we able to interrogate non-psi able aliens?
I am currently working on a "alien origins" entry, and the work done on this entry suggest that the entry should include a interrogation based on understanding the language used by non-psi able aliens.

[mikker]

i though about it.

To interrogate aliens, you must have researched psi.

Thats it. Solves a heck of alot of issues.

[tzuchan]

grr... Is everyone forgetting about the mind reader? a nice silvery ball about the size of a football? An object that doesn't require psi to work? capable of reading alien thoughts?

BTW, IIRC, we DO have a tech tree, it's the same as the source of inspiration. I'm pretty sure we can find plenty of descriptions for THAT...

(Why no, of course I NOT sacarstic tonight; I lame it on lack of sleep! )

[Qonfused]

have somone write the tech tree and post it in assets please.

Edited by Qonfused, 26 December 2004 - 07:01 PM.

[Hailfire22]

have somone write the tech tree and post it in assets please.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Which tech tree? If you need the X1 then I think I have it on my computer.

[Qonfused]

i think the x1 tech tree lacks some new introduced entry's. besides, it would be nice to have one with the new names for easy refrence.

[Hailfire22]

i think the x1 tech tree lacks some new introduced entry's. besides, it would be nice to have one with the new names for easy refrence.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ok then. Let me just try to figure out the Xenocide tech tree using only my imagination and the original tech tree.

Edited by Hailfire22, 26 December 2004 - 07:12 PM.