25mm Gas Grenade

[vedrit]

We dont necessarily have to outright stun the aliens. Tear gas is non lethal, but it doesnt cause unconsciousness. So make the grenade launcher something that will cause the aliens to...I dunno....not do anything for a turn or two, or one turn with greatly lowered accuraccy for a few turns following, as well as lower moral. Something that will tactically aid troops with stun rods, or even to kill the aliens.
I understand that this would also make things easier. But its not like the aliens dont know about things getting in their eyes, right? Undoubtedly they would have something along the lines of gas-masks, if not so bulky and detrimental. A combo of gas-mask a night-vision goggles, perhaps?

[BTAxis]

Have you actually read the articles for the alien breathing device and stun grenade at all?

[vedrit]

Breathing: Not in a while. The gist of what I remember is that it contains chemicals that allows for better breathing in, to the aliens view, alien environments.
Gas: Never got that far in-game.

[homunculus]

grenade launcher can fire bursts of 3, so you could mix it up and the burst could contain not only plasma and gas, but also a flashbang to make sure nothing goes wrong.

and really, as gas is not lethal to civilians and all, you should develop a big gas bomb that covers the whole area and then send your team to pick up whatever there is to pick up, revive the civilians, and mission accomplished.

[vedrit]

and really, as gas is not lethal to civilians and all, you should develop a big gas bomb that covers the whole area and then send your team to pick up whatever there is to pick up, revive the civilians, and mission accomplished.

Logically, really good idea. Gameplay wise, very BAD idea. Why dont we just give you an Easy button thats better than the auto-mission?

[BTAxis]

Plus you could argue that the gas IS lethal when the victim is exposed to it for too long, or that it could potentially be lethal to the elderly and the sickly. Not to mention that falling victim to the gas is extremely painful. Governments would never approve of such a method.

[PhilRoi]

Logically, really good idea. Gameplay wise, very BAD idea. Why dont we just give you an Easy button thats better than the auto-mission?

uhm, take it a step further.   Gas an area that large and you run the risk of killing many civillians with asthma and COPD (another breathing disorder common among elderly.)   Aliens killing humans is bad enough,  but humans killing humans even if trying to kill aliens is really really bad.

the Russians actually tried this awhile back in a famous hostage stand-off in a school.  Gassed the whole school and stormed it...   it didn't turn out well, many fatalities and more then a few were directly related to the gas used. and the government took a huge beating in the court of public opinion because of it.

[Another Guy]

Not that former Russian President Vladímir Vladímirovitch Putin really cared about it.

[BTAxis]

We're going to assume the governments in UFO:AI do care about their citizens.

[Colamann]

Hmm, I see the point about the game being about killing aliens, but it's not as if everyones gonna equip every single trooper with grenade launchers and 25mm gas grenades.  Even so, I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to lower the AoE and stun damage of the 25mm gas grenade compared to the regular thrown gas grenade or the 25mm plasma grenade. 

Oh well, I guess I was thinking about it from the soldiers' point of view: 

"Okay, soldier we need prisoners.  Take a stun rod from the armory before you deploy."
"Uh, you want me to walk up to heavily armed aliens and hope they don't blast me to bits before I poke them with a shock stick? Sir?"
"That's right soldier.  But if that's the way you feel, feel free to take a few of those new gas grenades with you."
"Sir, I believe the research team managed to develop a 25mm version of the plasma grenades.  Couldn't they do the same thing with the gas grenades?"
"That's an interesting suggestion soldier, but that would make things too easy.  Take all the fun out of bagging those green-skins, eh?  Now get a shocker and get me an alien, is that clear?!"
"Sir, yes, sir!"

Actually, it's not terribly hard to stun an alien.  Shoot it a few times with a low powered weapon (any pistol) then throw 1 or 2 gas grenades.  All my troops carry 2-3 grenades, so really don't see how making  non-lethal ammo for the grenade launcher would make it "too easy".

I'm not really bothered about it, i just thought it would the grenade launcher a bit more multi-purpose.

Taht's very much what I thought about it, earlier on That's why I asked if we still need to stun as many aliens as in UFO.

[Darkpriest667]

We're going to assume the governments in UFO:AI do care about their citizens.

LOL just in UFO AI? the fact is governments only care about what keeps them in power.. and aliens invading would definitely threaten that power structure... To hell with the citizens.

[Surrealistik]

GL launched gas grenades just make all kinds of sense. From a game play vantage, I really don't see it making taking aliens alive easier than outright killing them. The GL is a great weapon, but it's clearly far from omnipotent and ideal for every situation. Sometimes you need accuracy, range, linear trajectories and RF, and I sincerely doubt the electrolaser satisfies these criteria as well as lethal weaponry.

[Gunner]

I think there should be equal numbers of human weapons, alien weapons and late game hybrid weapons. about 1/3 of each.

well from a reality POV it makes sense, you have a highly advanced alien race and a low tech human race, so the aliens are likely to have a unified weapons program where each role has 1 weapon that fits the role.

the humans on the other hand are going to be madly rushing around trying to find a way to bypass the tech gap, pursuing every option that comes up.

like tanks in WW2, both sides started with each army having 1 or 2 standard designs each, but as the realities of war kick off both sides started throwing out new designs that counter the advantages of the other side. as all the advantage are with the aliens in the begining they wont he churning out designs to counter the superior human weapons, (ateast not until the sequel) so in reality there would be lots of human weapons and few aliens

[odie]

well from a reality POV it makes sense, you have a highly advanced alien race and a low tech human race, so the aliens are likely to have a unified weapons program where each role has 1 weapon that fits the role.

the humans on the other hand are going to be madly rushing around trying to find a way to bypass the tech gap, pursuing every option that comes up.

like tanks in WW2, both sides started with each army having 1 or 2 standard designs each, but as the realities of war kick off both sides started throwing out new designs that counter the advantages of the other side. as all the advantage are with the aliens in the begining they wont he churning out designs to counter the superior human weapons, (ateast not until the sequel) so in reality there would be lots of human weapons and few aliens

Well, for gameplay's sake, thats probably not going to happen.

Besides, if this really happen, humans really will die ALOT faster, and for gameplay's sake again, u probably wont last > 3 missions before u r totally wiped out. Lol.

So ya, no.

[shevegen]

the Russians actually tried this awhile back in a famous hostage stand-off in a school.  Gassed the whole school and stormed it...   it didn't turn out well, many fatalities and more then a few were directly related to the gas used. and the government took a huge beating in the court of public opinion because of it.

Not sure how this compares to aliens, but anyway - the gas used definitely did not differ between terrorist and hostage.... I also believe they were in FULL knowledge of the effects of the gas, and *still* decided to apply it.

Says a lot about the russian government eh ....


Anyway, I think stunning should actually be more difficult than shooting and killing. A stun rod would be cool cuz you would need to be quite close (or being a harpoon), however I believe
if the aliens have no superpowers then a simple net-weapon could at least immobilize the alien. Something like a glue.

I think those non-direct ways to fight aliens should be expanded... like gas grenades being more effective