(as in the second game, not the second thread about the first one... although it IS the second thread about the franchise, I think)

It's XCOM with cute robot girls. What more did I ever need in this life?

It irritates me slightly that most of them have names now. I mean, narratively it makes sense, since they're more human-like psychologically and getting used to living their own lives. But from a play standpoint, it makes it hard to figure out who is what gun now that they're not named after them. :)

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

... The rec room has an ASMR machine in it. Just... randomly. You can even set a runtime and tell it to exit the game when time is up, in case you want to go to sleep to, uh... your OTs-14 whispering sweet nothings in your ear.

That's... uh.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

They have a certain target audience in mind I suppose.

Unironically, I imagine gun-cleaning ASMR (as in actual firearms, not the dolls taking baths) would be quite popular with a subset of the GFL2 audience.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

LAST EDITED ON Mar-26-26 AT 02:53 PM (EDT)
 
>They have a certain target audience in mind I suppose.
>
>Unironically, I imagine gun-cleaning ASMR (as in actual firearms, not
>the dolls taking baths) would be quite popular with a subset of the
>GFL2 audience.

Now that you've said that, I've just realized something slightly odd. There's a mode where you can visit the Dolls' rooms in the dormitory area, and they each have a small selection of animations you can pick for things they're doing in their downtime--reading, spacing out, playing video games, whatever. None of those that I've seen so far involve weapon maintenance. You would think in a setting like this, there would be at least a couple who have "sitting at her desk maintaining her weapon" as an animation choice, but I've not run across a single one yet. Of course, I don't have anywhere near every Doll in the game--I've only been playing for a week--but still, that seems a little strange to me.

And yeah, I suspect you're right. I don't entirely "get" the whole ASMR thing, but firearms do make a range of peculiarly satisfying sounds when manipulated. That goes for any mechanism, I suppose, but guns in particular, because of all the springs and ratchets and whatnot involved in most of them.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>And yeah, I suspect you're right. I don't entirely "get" the whole
>ASMR thing,

From what I've read, originally it was supposed to be sounds that would stimulate a nerve response, giving a "tingle" or shiver down the spine kind of thing. Now of course it's basically just roleplay and/or "here's some interesting noises".

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

>>And yeah, I suspect you're right. I don't entirely "get" the whole
>>ASMR thing,
>
>From what I've read, originally it was supposed to be sounds that
>would stimulate a nerve response, giving a "tingle" or shiver down the
>spine kind of thing. Now of course it's basically just roleplay and/or
>"here's some interesting noises".

The first ASMR-marked stream I ever tuned in for was one Nanashi Mumei did, and she spent a fair bit of it ranting in a squeaky whisper about how the ASMR streaming scene had gone to shit since she used to watch it as a young'un and don't cite the deep magic to ME, Internet, I was there when it was written. It was hilarious, but not particularly relaxing or tingly. :)

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I will be shocked if Voymastina doesn't get nerfed at some point. She's so freaking powerful. That rocket bombardment thing she does to start off each combat occasionally just one-shots the entire enemy formation.

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

A bit weirdly, this game has a mechanic in it that limits how much you can play. One of the multitude of different currencies is spent to... play missions?!?

--G.
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This feels like either a vague gesture towards anti-addictive-behaviour measures, or another way to extract money.

>This feels like either a vague gesture towards
>anti-addictive-behaviour measures, or another way to extract money.

I haven't investigated it that closely, but there's no obvious way to pay for the resource that you can't play missions without. There is another thing you can convert into it, but that in turn also seems to appear just in the course of playing.

--G.
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I'm really enjoying this game, but I have to admit that the main campaign's writing suffers from a mild-to-moderate case of my least favorite phenomenon in game design: "Great job, everybody, we absolutely romped that mission. Square yourselves away and let's go lose in the cutscene."

It doesn't have this to anything like the teeth-grinding extent of Midnight Suns, another game I really enjoyed but also found deeply frustrating because of this habit of the writers, but it's definitely a factor.

(It also has a lot of little details that feel like You Had To Be Theres for the first game, but that's not the game's fault as such. I have the Steam version of the first game, I just never got very far in it. The UI doesn't work particularly well if you're not on mobile.)

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

In this game, your headquarters is a gigantic land vehicle called an MCV. I'm not sure exactly what that stands for, although I'm sure it says somewhere in the many in-game flavor documents I mostly haven't read--probably Mobile Command Vehicle or something like, even though that's redundant. Anyway, the point is, it's a huge thing, like a colossal armored truck or a LeTourneau overland train on an even more exaggerated scale. It's so big it has living quarters for as many people as you care to recruit, a rooftop helipad and hangar, maintenance and repair facilities, an armory, a practice range, a pool, you name it. It can do at least 100 kph over pretty much any terrain, survive concentrated anti-vehicle missile attacks, and is just generally very impressive.

Its name...

... is Elmo.

Either something got lost in translation, or the Commander is, I suspect, not an entirely serious person. :)

--G.
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>probably Mobile Command Vehicle or something like, even though
>that's redundant.

"As opposed to what, an immobile combat harness?" - Paul "Fixer" Ebersol on changing the abbreviation from Mobile Armored Cyber-Harness to Mechanized Aerial Combat Harness.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

... admittedly my first thought is

Expeditionary
Light
Mechanized
Operations

(vehicle)

--sofaspud
--

>... admittedly my first thought is
>
>Expeditionary
>Light
>Mechanized
>Operations
>
>(vehicle)

So I looked it up, and evidently it's named after Saint Elmo of Formia, the patron saint of sailors (also namesake of the electromagnetic phenomenon called Saint Elmo's fire). Also, the "C" in "MCV" stands for "Construction", suggesting that its use as a mobile headquarters-slash-battle jitney is a field expedient modification. Which is kinda wild, but then the world of GFL is post-post-apocalyptic, so it kind of makes sense.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Apr-14-26 AT 10:10 PM (EDT)
 
I have to admit, the Command & Conquer player in me can't hear the term MCV and not think I should be able to start with just that and build up to a tactical strike force with infantry, tanks, and maybe a nuclear missile silo.

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

>I have to admit, the Command & Conquer player in me can't hear the
>term MCV and not think I should be able to start with just that and
>build up to a tactical strike force with infantry, tanks, and maybe a
>nuclear missile silo.

The Commander doesn't need nuclear missiles; he has Krolik.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.