Weapon and equipment wishes for rb6.0

[Aralez]

@Najera: Is the firing delay for the M4 long enough now? I think it's more believable now, ain't it?

[UfoMan]

Aralez:

 

Just a quick note to say 'Thank You' for the rebalances.

[Aralez]

My pleasure

[Lurker]

To Aralez:

 

Yes, I have a pretty good team with a number of them Super-Heroic in multiple categories. The current position where I'm at 27 or 28 bases and Russian Base offered is just where the game is turning hard. So, I have been losing some of my best soldiers especially with the new Rebalance weapons in alien hands. I have sometimes been letting my soldiers go if they get killed by Poppers or killed by single shots from Gamma Guns, because I have too many soldiers thanks to HIREUNIT cheats. I used the HIREUNIT cheat to get the cool selection of soldiers. Anyway, I let them go when they die unless they are sectoid, camo, or Muton. But as you know, I had to go back to where I have everyone in order to get rid of the %d's, so everybody is back, and the game is just turning hard again.

 

Since the game has turned hard, I have found myself thinking and wishing. WISHING, the subject of this thread!

 

I notice that I never carry the BFG9000, not enough rounds or shots in it. I agree with others, a disposable gun needs to have at least ten shots and perferably twelve shots to make it worth carrying, or storing in a backpack. Instead of carrying the BFG9000, I always have a soldier or two carrying the BFG4500. The BFG4500 is better all around. BFG4500 has much more ammunition, and it takes up less space in a backpack, and it's equally as good at knocking out clusters of Reticulans at the start of an Alien Base mission. Though the BFG9000 has that wonderful range to it, I never take it because my HandGun carriers usually start with a BFG4500 for the start of the game clearing nearby aliens, and then switch to a LurkerGun for long range clearouts, and then back to the BFG4500 for inside of alien bases and inside alien UFO's.

 

Now that the game has gone harder, I particularly wish that I had the original Lurkergun back. The current LurkerGun isn't all that great for close face to face work inside a UFO, like it used to be.

 

I was thinking that I would like you to change the LurkerGun - give it an aimed mode. Maybe that doesn't fit in with the original design specifications, but neither did weakening it.

 

Here's what I would like to see regarding the LurkerGun. The current BURST mode would become the LurkerGun's AIMED mode and function just the same as it already does - except I'd put the new AIMED mode back at 60 meter range. The AIMED mode would continue to take up one of the 16 available shots whenever the LurkerGun is fired. That would then free up the BURST mode for something new.

 

LurkerGun's new BURST mode would use up two of it's 16 shots, and send out twice as much power or damage in a single shot. The new BURST mode would have shorter range, 40 meters or 45 meters or so, and would use up the LurkerGun at twice the rate. But with a new enhanced BURST mode, the LurkerGun would also recover that close range drop-them-in-one-shot of the original, if it's BURST mode damage is twice the power at 1600, instead of 800 at AIMED, which is its current burst mode.

 

I think that since it would be using up the gun twice as fast, only eight shots in BURST mode, the close range BURST damage of my proposed change should be around twice as much, though that could be left up to you as more experience and input comes in.

 

Anyway, with a new enhanced Burst mode, then a LurkerGun could be used inside a UFO as kind of a ShotGun, and continued to be used outside as we have already gotten used to seeing it be used, since its current mode of operation would become its AIMED mode.

 

Lately, I have been leaving the LurkerGun outside or in a backpack and carrying the WarpDestroyerII inside UFO's, because you get chewed up with the LurkerGun because its rate of fire is so slow. The aliens can sometimes get off three shots of the Advanced Plasma Launcher to one shot of the LurkerGun.

 

So, if you made the current Lurker Gun stats into an AIMED mode, and gave the gun a new enhanced BURST mode with twice the damage and twice the speed of expiration in BURST mode, then I believe that I'd have my LurkerGun back the way I want it.

 

Crazy ideas or what? That's what happens to me when I get to playing and thinking.

[Aralez]

Hm, atm i don't have any Lurkergun's in my game, but remember: I had to weaken it because it was WAY to Ueber ! It was a one-hit-kill-everything-everywhere weapon and the UFOAM reality police stormed my house because of it Regarding BFG9000 and -4500, well the small version is exactly that : A mini-version of the 9000. It has the half damage, half range etc. I think it's VERY strong and the small magazine is needed to keep the game balanced. And regarding the shotgun weapon for UFO missions, well what about the Railsniper ? As i could see in your savegame you already use it, ain't it strong enough ?

 

Something different: Last night i thought about a tough "melee"-armour for the reticulans with a kind of "scissor"-weapon. I wanted a kind of Lobster/chrysalid equipment. I can't make the human victims turn into zombies but what about a VERY strong melee attack ? Or what about a kind of ethereal armour with a very strong psi-weapon? Of course i would use only one of these guys per reticulan mission, a whole crew of them or more than one would maybe be too strong... The head of the reticulan wearing these armours would be unchanged but the body would have a different texture and maybe shield effect...

 

What do you think of that... ?

[Lurker]

Hm, atm i don't have any Lurkergun's in my game, but remember: I had to weaken it because it was WAY to Ueber ! It was a one-hit-kill-everything-everywhere weapon and the UFOAM reality police stormed my house because of it

 

Yes, I understand that you were forced to weaken the LurkerGun.

 

Just make its current weakened state its AIMED mode instead of its single burst mode.

 

If doing two or three missions in a row the SNIPER and the LurkerGun will run out of ammo and be discarded, the BFG9000 would also. But, surprisingly, the BFG4500 will still have ammunition, on average, with its 18 shots, especially if the BFG4500 is taking out two or three Reticulans with each shot, like it usually does.

 

Anyway, on a Base Defense mission for example, if you have a soldier standing all alone in a corner with a LurkerGun against four or five Reticulans, it would be nice to have an UBER burst mode on the LurkerGun so that he could kill a Reticulan in one shot before your soldier goes down in a hail of bullets. That same lone soldier against five Reticulans would be able to take down all five Reticulans with two or three shots of the BFG4500, and possibly survive the incoming fire, due to the power and fast fire rate of the BFG4500.

 

Now that I think about it, what made the original LurkerGun UBER was its extreme 60 range. If you give the present LurkerGun a new enhanced BURST mode, then you would probably want the LurkerGun Burst mode to have the same range as the BFG4500, 29 meters -- so 50 meters aimed and 29 meters BURST for my proposed LukerGun upgrade?

 

And, of course the proposed 1600 damage for the new enhanced LurkerGun BURST mode is still less than the 3300 damage of the BFG4500.

 

Maybe what you could do is give the LurkerGun 18 shots in AIMED mode when its current burst mode becomes its AIMED mode, and then with the new enhanced BURST mode, make each BURST shot count as three or use three units per shot, and thus you would only get six BURST shots out of the LurkerGun before it expires.

 

Or, as suggested, stick with 16 AIMED and 8 BURST. Anyway, I'd like you to look at it or think about it. I'd like the LurkerGun to be UBER again up close in tight situations just in case I happen to be all out of BFG4500.

 

--

 

Regarding the BFG9000, you'll have to weigh all the input you get. Just know that I believe BFG9000 is clearly outclassed in usability by the BFG4500, or even by the WarpDestroyerII, and the reason is because the BFG9000 doesn't have enough shots before it expires.

 

--

 

I have been really enjoying your Mutons and some of your other crew creations, so it would be fun to see a Reticulan General, or a 'Cyber Leader' (from Dr. Who), or something similar to go up against. A Super Psi Etherial enemy would be truly scary and could result in your losing everyone on your team if he psi's your WarpDestoyerII carrier or your BFG4500 carrier. That WarpDestoyerII kills in one shot, and it fires as fast as you can queue up the shots. If that person gets psi'd, your whole team could be dead before the alien loses control of that one man. Interesting possibilities.

 

Of course a pure melee Alien General that could stand there and absorb BFG attacks and still keep moving would be an interesting BOSS to go up against, as well. I don't know about other's, but I have been enjoying your creations of critters, Poppers and Spitters, etc.

 

--

 

Anyway, let your mind wander and wonder. As you can see from my save game, I like to take one of everything when I go. So, one soldier will have a RailSniper, but not all soldiers. One has a BFG4500, but not all. One soldier has the GattlingLaser or the Gattling Gun. One has the SNIPER. Now, I do indeed put a LurkerGun on every soldier who is Excellent or Heroic for handguns, but I frequently carry the PsiBurner on a number of those as the main weapon if the soldier is Heroic for Psi, and the LurkerGun is there on the belt in case the soldier runs out of PsiBurners.

 

The PsiBurner in Burst mode eats up CarCrabs, so gotta have a PsiBurner or two.

 

--

 

Anyway, lots of fun. Think about the LurkerGun for me. Since it's no longer considered UBER, if you make its current non-UBER burst mode its aimed mode, then it still will no longer be UBER, to satisfy the police. Then make its empty BURST mode use up ammunition quickly, and make it's new enhanced BURST mode UBER for the Lurker.

 

Maybe a 15 AIMED and 5 BURST to expiration should be the ratio, in order to satisfy the police? Or 18 AIMED and 6 BURST, what I'd probably like to see. Just make the newly proposed Enhanced Burst mode drop them in one shot, and of course make the enhanced BURST mode only work nearby, probably 29 meters or less, like the BFG4500 aimed mode. The new LurkerGun enhanced BURST still wouldn't compare to the BFG4500, but it would at least have a shot at it.

 

Then the LurkerGun police will have their way with the currently established weakened mode that would become the AIMED mode, yet the Lurker would have the choice of emptying the gun quickly in an UBER BURST mode in an attempt to save his life if he gets cornered and the rockets are incoming from the next room.

[Aralez]

Ok, i will take a look at it in the upcoming version (which i decided to do). Maybe i can even add one more enemy type i was thinking of. Will try to do the update tomorrow, so i can upload it then. Cu then.

[Aralez]

Ok this worked out much faster than i thought, so here it is. The download link stays the same.

 

new readme part:

 

-Weakened BFG4500 a tiny bit, Strenghtened the BFG9000 (to make them more different)

 

-Changed Lurkergun to have a 4shot-burst- and one-shot-aimed-fire mode.

 

-Added a new reticulan enemy, he has either a very good meleeweapon or a HEAVYPSI. This guy is EXTREMELY tough. (his weaknesses are his small numbers and his small resistance against fire.)

 

Remember this guy is EXTREMELY vulnerable against fire and toxins, but almost untouchable by laser, plasma and warp weapons, regular weapons do a bit more damage on him than energy weapons. PSI and Stun weapons won't work on him, too. I wanted that guy to be a "countermeasure" against those "berzerk-armour, bfg-wielding" guys (like me). He will show up when psi-weapons are introduced, so you don't have to worry about him in the early game. BUT you will have to worry if you see him later in the game, believe me :devil: I thought of him as a kind of tribute to the Lobster and chryssalid of the old Xcom games. He will make you as frightened as you were back then, muhahar Oh, don't be too frightened, there will not be more than ONE of him in a mission.

[UfoMan]

Maybe it's just me, but the new LurkerGun burst mode seems strange or off. The new aimed mode is basically the way it always was, with 98 or 99 percent accuracy with good soldiers. But with the same soldiers, the new LurkerGun burst mode has accuracy in the 20 to 40 percent range, yet empties the gun four times as fast, while missing everything I shoot at, using the same good soldiers. You can shoot at something nearby in the next room with the LurkerGun in burst mode, and you'll miss almost every time. But, in aimed mode, you'll hit almost every time, as it should be for a late-game gun and 'mature' soldiers.

 

I think the accuracy of the new LurkerGun burst mode should be higher. In fact, if I understood some of the posts up above, I believe that the original intention was that the whole gun (both modes) should have 'high accuracy.' It's in Aralez's original specifications. So the burst mode should have a 95 percent accuracy or some such, just a tad lower than the aimed mode, cause I think that the game requires that an aimed mode have at least a bit higher accuracy than a burst mode.

 

I hope you don't mind my speaking up. But, I think it was just an oversight that the accuracy on the new LurkerGun burst mode ended up being so low. If I could make a request, I would ask that Aralez take a look at it for the next minor update.

 

Still waiting to encounter that new Reticulan General, or whatever it is being called. Eager anticipation.

 

I thank you, Aralez.

[Aralez]

Alright, corrected that! Get the v.6.6 from the usual link. Thx for the fast feedback

[Kret]

Still waiting to encounter that new Reticulan General, or whatever it is being called. Eager anticipation.

 

Why not make a poll out this to give it a name?

[Angelswing]

Ok, Sounds crazy and completely rediculous .... But think big, big results - Probably to l8 with the post anyway;

 

QUANTUM SINGULARITY GENERATOR and/or TIME SPACE lOOP COMPACTOR ....

 

Could be collapsable alien weaponry for moving/ destroying enemy units even small terrain objects .

 

I know, I know; impossible - Still can dream can't I .

 

How to upset the millions - for an idea of how it would work try the one on unreal tournament (can't remember which mod but one of the later ones ... try and post it l8r; best fun ever .

[Aralez]

@Angelswing: tell me more about that weapon, you made me curious!

 

Btw, i have to admit i have no name for the new enemy, too. I named his armour ETHO (mix of ETHereal and LObster). Btw, i just lost two Cyborgs to a melee one of this guys before i could down him. (with a BFG4500) Ouch!

[Kret]

Well, good thing you didn't go for ETHEreal and Lobsterman and called it ETHEL

Anyway, shouldn't the highlighted letters spell ETHLO? You could also swith it around and call it LOETH and now extend it by adding at the beginning RET, and finally end up with RETLOETH

 

...

 

Ok, think I should put back on my tin-foil helmet before they make me say even weirder things

[Aralez]

roflol, buahahaha, ETHEL !

 

Half a minute later (after some serious laugh-attacks): Yes you are right it should be "ETHLO" from the highlighted letters, but i forgot to release the SHIFT key when typing Lobster.

 

I encountered a psi-reticulan in the new armour and it took four shots from the BFG45000, 6 or 7 superstrikergrenades, and a flamer to bring it down! (The flamer did, as planned, the most damage). Bad luck for the reticulan: he encountered three guys in Berzerk/Power armours which are immune to PSI ! But it still was amzing to see that guy stand there and take all that damage AND still fire at the humans!

[Lurker]

Personally, I like the sound of RETLOETH. Has kind of a Lord of the Rings sound to it, LothLorien, etc. Does the Retloeth have a big ring on his finger and a hand that's begging to be chopped off? From Aralez's encounters, it already sounds like a Retloeth was built to never die and meant to live thousands of years. Does the Retloeth have an older brother named Sauron?

 

All out of tin-foil here.

[Aralez]

Well, they don't have a ring, but they have a fancy looking energy shield effect around them, maybe we could call them Disco-ret's

 

Now, where is that tin-foil ?

[Kret]

If you wanna see "Disco-rets" you should play Startopia (if you haven't already)

 

Ok, who re-directed my supply convoy of tin-foil?

[Aralez]

The "Claw" weapon from the new reticulan appears in the storage screen after a tactical mission ends. It's maybe even usable by humans. That's strange as i gave it the same attributes as the spit weapon (which can be used during a mission but will not appear in the equipment screen in base). It seems the game handles weapons differently when used by Retis or by Transgenants...

 

Ah well, i think you can live with that weapon in your storage room As it seems most of the RBmod users don't use melee weapons at all. NEVER did i hear anything about the saw or the knife, so the CLAW will be no problem.

[HARD_Sarge]

Ah Man, well I like the jackhammer

 

thats sort of a melee weapon ???

 

can that new Ret be killed with normal weapons ? I don't get BFG's (yet at least), plus the idea of him in a spaceship or alien base, don't sound to much like fun either

 

HARD_Sarge

[CBCAS]

see the claw is it a shotgun type or am i wrong! Ive herd of the jackhammer depending on wht ways going its ethier a shotgun or a umatic press type thing. Either way there both cool wht would be cool 2 me would be a kanta sword or a calmor a an idea the thud cannon simlar 2 the gatling cannon three cannons in one still workin on there it can be carryed or mounted! al get bck 2 us l8r on tht.

[Aralez]

@Hard Sarge, you don't need the BFG's to kill that enemy. Any Flame/fire weapon will be VERY effective against it. Incendiary grenades, flamethrowers, molotov cocktails, The second sawnoff shotgun ammo etc. etc. etc.

 

The claw wasn't meant to be used by humans, but somehow the game "betrayed" me It is a very strong but extremely short range weapon for the reticulans with the new armour. They are not really useful for human combat but maybe you can keep them as "throphies" ?

 

I almost can imagine some guys saying:

"He look i already have 4 claws, how about you wimp? " "ah, oh, i don't have any of them yet " lol

 

Yesterday i had a tough UFO mission, one of my Mutons got controlled by the retis and used its BFG4500 in burst mode on two of his comerades nearby. Their Berzerk armour and Power armour didn't save them. After that a "Disco-reti" appeared and one more muton went down (only unconsious, phew!) It took a whole magazine from a BFG4500 to take it down! (I should have used the Superstriker with the incendiary ammo, but in the panic i forgot to switch the weapon ) Fortunately i could re-control my Muton with the help of Mr. Slooz and finished of his enemy "controllers". (was a funny fight, the muton switched his side multiple times before finally being able to shoot). Since then i don't hand out BFG'S to mutons when fighting against retis :devil:

[Aralez]

v.6.61

 

Ok, i still couldn't bear the thought of that CLAW hanging in your storage room so i removed it and gave the "discoreti" a knife instead (He's still deadly enough as he somehow stabs quicker than the humans). WARNING: IF you have a savegame with the claw already in your store and try to load with this version of the mod it will crash!!! Load a game without a claw in your loadout and do not load a tactical game with a claw in it, either!

 

 

@cbcas, now i understand your first question in your post! No, what you mean is the CAW, what i talked about was the CLAW a scissorlike weapon in the reti loadout (which i removed now)

 

OK, everybody: the link is the same as usual, sorry for the trouble.

[Lurker]

The Rebalance 6.61 made it so that I couldn't pull up Geoscape saves of Rebalance 6.6 without getting stuck in some sort of infinite loop. Kind of messy. So, I went back to the point where I created Rebalance 6.5, and have had no problems since. Though I did do a long Windows XP chkdsk.exe to make sure that none of my files had gotten corrupted during the transition backwards.

 

It's back to the same spot and the same base capture mission that I have done about four or five times now. I've been eternally stuck between base 28 and base 29 for the last couple of weeks, it seems. This time around, it was Cudgels and Spitters instead of DeathBellows, and this time around the Cudgels didn't have any of the rebalance weapons. I think it takes a few missions for the Rebalance weapons in alien hands to kick in.

 

But not to worry, Aralez has given us all what we have asked for among the list of what's possible with UFO:AM 1.3. I have no complaints. Everything in 6.61 is as I've been wanting it to be. In other words, I'm out of ideas.

 

I have yet to encounter the Ethon or RetLoeth -- probably am not going to do so for awhile if I keep getting the same batch of missions over and over again. But, someday. That biomass has been frozen in place for a long time as well.

 

Anyway, I thank Aralez for listening to us and for adapting the mods to our interests and our input. Good stuff all around! Thank you, Aralez.

[Aralez]

My pleasure, really! I will upload a savegame (late in the game, mutons, sectoid, reticulans, hybrids etc) this weekend, so you can take a peek on that later missions and enemies.