Grenade launcher is already overpowered IMO.
I think a cool idea would be some kind of netting device, where you have to sacrifice one of your characters to hold down the netted alien, but it would be a weapon you could still use from medium/short distances. When i say sacrifice, I don't mean they die, just that they must stay out of combat and focus on securing the creature for the rest of combat. If you decide to move the soldier or use any TU's at all, the alien will go free with weapon equipped and (most likely) blow you to pieces. It would be a one hit "stun" type effect though to balance out the negatives.
Actually, modern-day (year 2009) weapons for throwing a net / spraying a sticky substance, already do not require anyone to hold tat victim down. So in 2084, if we are designing this, pls do not un-progress and go backwards in tech wrt the tech.
Okie, with that aside, i thnk it might be a good idea, to have a netting device. Then again, i dun thnk we wan to do tat, since we already have something called stun rods and stun lasers, and many other ideas along the stun grenades and stuff.....
So maybe we might just want to give a pass (as in no go) on this one?
Thanks for suggesting though.
PS: This is also UFOAI, may i remind us, inspired by Xcom; And not UFOAI, a remake of XCom. Lol. So we might want to be more 'original'?