Difference between revisions of "User:Hobbes"

Latest revision as of 21:38, 29 January 2018

Why Hobbes?

This question keeps popping up from time to time. And the answer is two-fold: - Hobbes, as in the stuffed tiger in the comic books Calvin and Hobbes. - And as Thomas Hobbes, an English political theory writer of the XVI century (which was the inspiration for the above mentioned tiger).

In real life my name is André, that I am from Portugal and that my age is 43.

Any questions regarding me, myself and I can be made on my talk page :)

Why do I love X-COM?

Scroll back in time to when computers had the fabulous memory of 48K, namely the ZX Spectrum. The would be creators of X-COM released a game named Rebel Star, followed by Laser Squad (the predecessor to the current Laser Squad Nemesis). I like those so much that I even used some of Rebel Star's names for my fan fictions as a nod to them. A big time afterwards I got a PC and bought X-COM:Apocalypse, followed by X-COM:UFO Defense and X-COM: Terror From The Deep. Voila, love at first sight. And this relationship has continued due to Firaxis release of XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Within and XCOM 2, and with OpenXcom, the open source remake of the original game.

Mods

XCOM: Area 51

Area 51 is an expansion I made for the original game, and initially based on the Terrain Pack, which is a collection of map mods mainly designed by myself (which is also available as a stand alone mod). Both mods can be played with OpenXCom.

List of features

New monthly Council missions, can consist of 6 different objectives: Defense, Assault, Destroy, Capture, Recovery or Extraction
New research topic: Bluebook Report, unlocks additional Council missions of Capture/Recovery/Extraction (to gain techs) and also gives tips on future mission locations and new alien species, plus background story
Terror missions can now appear also as Escape variant, where your units need to reach the exit area before a timer expires otherwise they're MIA
Redesigned Geoscape globe, with new textures, regions, cities and country zones
Over 100 new terrains for the nearly all the vanilla missions (except Base Defense) and the new Escape/Council missions. Includes Alien Colony, Alien Hive, Area 51, Biolab, Cold Isle, Complex, Downtown, Pyramid, Slums, Siberia and Storm Mountain terrains
In Escape and certain Council missions, XCom will use the Mudranger APC for deployment/exit instead of the transport craft
Variable UFO waves, alternative UFO interior designs for the vanilla UFOs & 2 additional new UFOs (Lab Ship and Overseer)
Alien crews are enlarged to 12 possible ranks and Mixed crews have been added
22 new aliens and 1 new rank of alien Scientist, 8 enemy humans, 15 allied humans and 73 civilian units
In Terror and Council missions it is possible to encounter allied soldiers and police officers who will attack the aliens, but they carry only conventional weapons
Captures of aliens are much more important to unlock research, specially for Cydonia or Bust (Ethereal Commander), Elerium-115 (any Scientist), UFO Power Source (any Engineer) and UFO Navigation (any Navigator). Some of those ranks can only be found in UFO or alien base missions
New weapons: Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, Grenade Launcher, Multi-Launcher, Snubnose Pistol, Combat Knife, LMG, Machine Pistol, AK-47, RPG, Alloy Shotgun, Alloy Sword, Gauss Pistol, Gauss Rifle, Heavy Gauss, Laser Sniper Rifle, Laser Minigun, Plasma Blaster, Plasma Assault Cannon, Gauss Heavy Cannon and Gauss Autocannon, as well as Alloy (upgraded AP) and more varieties of ammo/grenades/rockets
New armors: Alloy Vest and Combat Armor
New HWPs: Gauss Tank and Alloy versions of all HWPs
New craft: Darkstar (airborne radar), Thunderstorm and Stormrider (interceptors) and Blackbird (transport), also 2 new craft weapons - Stormhawk Missiles and Gauss Cannon
Research and Manufacturing redesigned/enlarged to include new features
Varied UFO interiors

Fan fictions?

I've been writing a whole series of stories concerning the X-COM universe:

X-COM: The Unknown Menace - Covers the 1st Alien War (based upon UFO Defense). Long novel (692 pages)

X-COM: Eulogy - Set between the 1st and the 2nd Alien War. Short story based upon the return of X-COM to Mars.

X-COM: Abyssal - Covers the 2nd Alien War. Unfinished.

X-COM: Destined Alliance - Pre-Apocalipse story set upon the 2nd return of X-COM to Mars. Will eventually be a part of the 3rd novel, which covers the 5th Alien War, based upon X-COM: Genesis.

All of those can be read at the fanfiction.net site

Bad Things Happen in XCOM

UFOPaedia projects (work in progress)

The Mysteries of X-COM - published, discussion page for unexplained aspects of the whole series

X-COM History Notes - work in progress

Part I - X-COM Organization

Part II - The Alien War

Part VII - The X-COM Files - work in progress (fan fiction)

Murphy's Laws (X-COM) - work in progress

Blitzing (Apocalypse)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+[[Image:Hobbes sectoid commander.png|right|300 px|The Sectoid Commander has landed]]
+[[User:Hobbes/Sandbox_page]]
 ===Why Hobbes?===
 This question keeps popping up from time to time. And the answer is two-fold:
-- Hobbes, as in the stuffed tiger in Calvin and Hobbes.
+- Hobbes, as in the stuffed tiger in the comic books Calvin and Hobbes.
-- And as Thomas Hobbes, an English political theory writer of the XVI century (on which the above mentioned tiger is based btw).
+- And as Thomas Hobbes, an English political theory writer of the XVI century (which was the inspiration for the above mentioned tiger).
-It will also be mentioned somewhere that my real name is André Galvão, that I am from Portugal and that my age is 33. This are all desinformation, of course, meant to distract you from my real identity as a member of Omega Team.
+In real life my name is André, that I am from Portugal and that my age is 43.
 Any questions regarding me, myself and I can be made on my talk page :)
-===What is the Omega Team?===
+===Why do I love X-COM?===
+Scroll back in time to when computers had the fabulous memory of 48K, namely the ZX Spectrum. The would be creators of X-COM released a game named Rebel Star, followed by Laser Squad (the predecessor to the current Laser Squad Nemesis). I like those so much that I even used some of Rebel Star's names for my fan fictions as a nod to them.
+A big time afterwards I got a PC and bought [[Info (Apocalypse)|X-COM:Apocalypse]], followed by [[Info|X-COM:UFO Defense]] and [[Info (TFTD)|X-COM: Terror From The Deep]]. Voila, love at first sight.
+And this relationship has continued due to Firaxis release of [[Enemy Unknown (EU2012)|XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Within]] and [[XCOM 2]], and with [[OpenXcom]], the open source remake of the original game.
+==Mods==
+===XCOM: Area 51===
-Bigger than Above Top Secret. Even more secret than the proven fact that the Earth is flat, not round despite what they might tell you. For more information present yourself at the server of [http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/ UFO2000], a multiplayer remake of UFO Defense. You will know but I will shoot you afterwards.
+[[File:Hobbes_Area_51_01.png|600px|center]]
-===Why X-COM?===
+Area 51 is an [http://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?board=19.0 expansion] I made for the original game, and initially based on the Terrain Pack, which is a collection of map mods mainly designed by myself (which is also available as a stand alone mod). Both mods can be played with OpenXCom.
-Scroll back in time to when computers had the fabulous memory of 48K, namely the ZX Spectrum. The would be creators of X-COM released a game named Rebel Star, followed by Laser Squad (the predecessor to the current Laser Squad Nemesis). I like those so much that I even used some of Rebel Star's names for my fan fictions as a nod to them.
+'''List of features'''
-A big time afterwards I got a PC and bought [[Info (Apocalypse)|X-COM:Apocalypse]], followed by [[Info|X-COM:UFO Defense]] and [[Info (TFTD)|X-COM: Terror From The Deep]]. Voila, love at first sight.
+* New monthly Council missions, can consist of 6 different objectives: Defense, Assault, Destroy, Capture, Recovery or Extraction
+* New research topic: Bluebook Report, unlocks additional Council missions of Capture/Recovery/Extraction (to gain techs) and also gives tips on future mission locations and new alien species, plus background story
+* Terror missions can now appear also as Escape variant, where your units need to reach the exit area before a timer expires otherwise they're MIA
+* Redesigned Geoscape globe, with new textures, regions, cities and country zones
+* Over 100 new terrains for the nearly all the vanilla missions (except Base Defense) and the new Escape/Council missions. Includes Alien Colony, Alien Hive, Area 51, Biolab, Cold Isle, Complex, Downtown, Pyramid, Slums, Siberia and Storm Mountain terrains
+* In Escape and certain Council missions, XCom will use the Mudranger APC for deployment/exit instead of the transport craft
+* Variable UFO waves, alternative UFO interior designs for the vanilla UFOs & 2 additional new UFOs (Lab Ship and Overseer)
+* Alien crews are enlarged to 12 possible ranks and Mixed crews have been added
+* 22 new aliens and 1 new rank of alien Scientist, 8 enemy humans, 15 allied humans and 73 civilian units
+* In Terror and Council missions it is possible to encounter allied soldiers and police officers who will attack the aliens, but they carry only conventional weapons
+* Captures of aliens are much more important to unlock research, specially for Cydonia or Bust (Ethereal Commander), Elerium-115 (any Scientist), UFO Power Source (any Engineer) and UFO Navigation (any Navigator). Some of those ranks can only be found in UFO or alien base missions
+* New weapons: Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, Grenade Launcher, Multi-Launcher, Snubnose Pistol, Combat Knife, LMG, Machine Pistol, AK-47, RPG, Alloy Shotgun, Alloy Sword, Gauss Pistol, Gauss Rifle, Heavy Gauss, Laser Sniper Rifle, Laser Minigun, Plasma Blaster, Plasma Assault Cannon, Gauss Heavy Cannon and Gauss Autocannon, as well as Alloy (upgraded AP) and more varieties of ammo/grenades/rockets
+* New armors: Alloy Vest and Combat Armor
+* New HWPs: Gauss Tank and Alloy versions of all HWPs
+* New craft: Darkstar (airborne radar), Thunderstorm and Stormrider (interceptors) and Blackbird (transport), also 2 new craft weapons - Stormhawk Missiles and Gauss Cannon
+* Research and Manufacturing redesigned/enlarged to include new features
+* Varied UFO interiors
-===Fan fictions?===
+==Fan fictions?==
 I've been writing a whole series of stories concerning the X-COM universe:
@@ Line 32: / Line 60: @@
 All of those can be read at the fanfiction.net [http://www.fanfiction.net/u/55654/ site]
-===The Council of Funding Nations===
+==Bad Things Happen in XCOM==
+[[File:Bad Things (EU2012).jpg]]
+==UFOPaedia projects (work in progress)==
+[[The Mysteries of X-COM]] - published, discussion page for unexplained aspects of the whole series
-The Council of Funding Nations (henceforth refered to as CFN) is an interesting case of an international organization because of its apparent legal nature and the flexibility it provides X-COM to deal with the alien menace. A brief analysis will be provided regarding its apparent workings:
+X-COM History Notes - work in progress
-====Membership of the CFN====
+[[X-COM: A Military Analysis|Part I - X-COM Organization]]
-The available literature regarding the Council states that it was composed of 'representatives from the worlds most economically powerful countries gathered secretly in Geneva' (UFO Defense introduction), while later it is refered that 'the United Nations Security Council
+[[The Alien War|Part II - The Alien War]]
-holds a clandestine summit in Geneva, Switzerland' (from X-COM Interceptor).
-This discrepancy between sources poses a problem to the nature of the CFN regarding its membership, which can be explained below:
-<table {{StdCenterTable}} width="50%">
+[[The X-COM Files|Part VII - The X-COM Files]] - work in progress (fan fiction)
-<tr {{StdDescTable_Heading}}><th>Country</th><th width="40">UNSC Membership</th><th width="40">CFN Membership</th><th width="40">G8+5 Membership</th><th width="80">National GDP rank (World Bank, 1999)</th><th width="80">Population (2007)</th></tr>
-	<tr><td>United States</td><td>Permanent</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>1st</td><td>3rd</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>United Kingdom</td><td>Permanent</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>4th</td><td>22nd</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Russia</td><td>Permanent</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>16th</td><td></td>9th</tr>
-	<tr><td>France</td><td>Permanent</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>5th</td><td></td>19th</tr>
-	<tr><td>China</td><td>Permanent</td><td>Yes</td><td>Plus 5</td><td>6th</td><td>1st</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Germany</td><td>W. European</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>3rd</td><td>14th</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Japan</td><td>Asian</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>2nd</td><td>10th</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>India</td><td>Asian</td><td>Yes</td><td>Plus 5</td><td>12th</td><td>2nd</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Brazil</td><td>Latin American</td><td>Yes</td><td>Plus 5</td><td>15th</td><td>5th</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Italy</td><td>W. European</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>7th</td><td>23rd</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Australia</td><td>W. European</td><td>Yes</td><td>No</td><td>13th</td><td>53rd</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Egypt</td><td>African/Arab</td><td>Yes</td><td>No</td><td>41st</td><td>16th</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>South Africa</td><td>African</td><td>Yes</td><td>Plus 5</td><td>29th</td><td>26th</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Spain</td><td>W. European</td><td>Yes</td><td>No</td><td>8th</td><td>28th</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Nigeria</td><td>Africa</td><td>Yes</td><td>No</td><td>52nd</td><td>8th</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Canada</td><td>W. European</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>9th</td><td>36th</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Mexico</td><td>Latin American</td><td>No</td><td>Plus 5</td><td>10th</td><td>11th</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Poland</td><td>E. European</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>24th</td><td>33rd</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Indonesia</td><td>Asian/Arab</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>25th</td><td>4th</td></tr>	<tr><td>South Korea</td><td>Asian</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>11th</td><td>25th</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Argentina</td><td>Latin American</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>34th</td><td>30th</td></tr>
-	<tr><td>Algeria</td><td>African</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>48th</td><td>35th</td></tr>
-</table>
-*There are only 15 members on the UNSC (5 permanent + 10 elected), which poses a problem since there are 16 nations on the CFN.
+[[Murphy's Laws (X-COM)]] - work in progress
-*The elected members come from geographical blocs: Africa (3 members); Latin America and the Caribbean (2 members); Western Europe and Others (2 members); Eastern Europe (1 member); Asia (2 members). 1 member comes also from an Arab country, either from Africa or Asia. Comparing to the table above, there are major differences: Eastern Europe isn't represented; Western Europe has an excess of 3 members; Latin America is missing 1 member.
-*The G8 is made of the 8 biggest economic powers (US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, Italy and Russia. The Plus 5 are the 5 largest emerging economies (China, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and India). The G8+5 was formed in 2005.
-*One way to try to combine both the economic and UNSC geographic criteria for inclusion on the CFN is to say that the Eastern European bloc was simply dropped (since it's a remainder of the Cold War and its largest member, Poland, was ranked 24th in GDP) and replaced by Spain. Finally Australia was chosen for the CFN (occupying the extra 16th slot) instead of Mexico for geographic reasons (to include Oceania, since it does not have its own bloc). An argument could be made to exclude Spain instead and have both Mexico and Australia.
-*The choice of Nigeria to occupy one of the Africa slots can be explained by the fact that it was the country elected at the time, since Algeria was ranked above it in GDP.
-*Other possibilities to occupy positions at the CFN are Indonesia, South Korea and Argentina.
-====Other curiosities====
+[[Blitzing (Apocalypse)]]
-*Regarding the choice of Geneva, Switzerland, it is interesting to notice that Switzerland only became a full member of the UN on 2002.