Freeze of some articles in wiki to finish english po-file

[Mattn]

The articles that are ready in wiki (for the *_txt in po / equipment) should become marked as finished - then i'll close the editing for them and can add them to the english language file. Please tell me which ones are ready to go.

[Bandobras]

On my part, all Damage types are ready. For Skills, ask BTAxis, but they look good, too. Three research items are ready (the ones not marked as (description disputed) or (no description)), two armor descriptions are ready (armor balancing seems finished for now). Many weapons are ready, but they need a lot of tidying up and a last balancing sweep is in order, so I would not freeze weapons at the moment (perhaps a week or two from now).

Please tell visitors they can put their proposals on the talk page while the descriptions are frozen. Also encourage translators to offer suggestions and correction for the English versions of the translated texts. Thanks.

[BTAxis]

Skills should be fine. Not all of the weapons though - take the Kerrblade. Nobody really knows what to do with that thing. We've speculated about it being a non-energy based melee weapon for the aliens, but that hasn't been put on the wiki article yet.

[Bandobras]

Warning: many Wiki entries need spell-checking!

When I do a sweep of the [[Equipment]] section in a week or so, I think everything will be OK for translation (except spell-checking), just some entries will be empty or brief. For now there is a lot of trash and obsolete pieces...

Not all of the weapons though - take the Kerrblade. Nobody really knows what to do with that thing. We've speculated about it being a non-energy based melee weapon for the aliens, but that hasn't been put on the wiki article yet.

I didn't like that idea then, but now it struck something in me. Look at the wiki. Do you like it? (And please improve.)

[BTAxis]

I changed it somewhat.

[Bandobras]

Your changes are really cool, I say. And it's great idea to be alien weapon, since now aliens will not be so hard (some will have only the blade at the first missions). And it will be the fist, the cheapest alien technology to research. No prerequisites, only 10 scientist/days. Just find one and it's yours!

research.ufo change in my next patch

[BTAxis]

That sounds good. Obviously at the later game the melee weapons will be all but pushed into disuse because firearms get so strong that it's not worth trying to lob off an alien head anymore - though, if the Shevaar makes it in, the melee weapons could prove vital. The design docs have those beasts as fast melee aliens with thick hides, so it could well be the most effective strategy to stab it to death, rather than try burning it with plasma. The Kerrblade would be ideal for that, given its shape and current description.

[Bandobras]

You'll be surprized how powerful melee is with the current stats (especialy with Plasma Blade, I hope I calculated it right). But it's high-risk, unless you come from behind or do anything else to prevent alien reaction fire. And you have to make sure you'll kill the alien, because there is not enough time to flee...

And yes throwing Kerrblades at melee aliens is a good idea, but you can only carry three (one in each hand, one in the backpack). So here is the tricky part.

[BTAxis]

I know. But since this isn't a sneaking game, and the smoke grenades have been axed, that scenario isn't too likely. It's more realistic to think of melee weapons as useful against melee aliens, who (arguably) have a higher resistance to ranged attacks.

[Bandobras]

[...] melee aliens, who (arguably) have a higher resistance to ranged attacks.

Good idea. But Plasma Blade does plasma damage and plasma ranged weapons are the biggest ranged damage dealers (not taking into account resistances). We have a problem here...

[BTAxis]

Not really - there is no distinction between the damage types. Melee weapons do normal damage, except for the plasma blade which does plasma damage and the stun rod which does stun damage. The only difference is they do a LOT of it - so much that engaging in melee combat will do major damage even to units that have a good protection against the relevant damage type.

[Bandobras]

OK, indeed it may be a good idea to gang on a big melee alien and kill him with melee. (Unless there is melee reaction fire --- is there?)