UFO:AI Technology Ideas

[Dark]

I thought of making a topic where everyone could list their ideas and suggestions for technologies that can be used in UFO:AI.
I know that there are similar topics already but I noticed they are mostly focused on just one or few ideas.
Keeping the concepts in greater numbers, short and in form of lists would make it easier to keep track of them.

My ideas:

• Anti-matter technology - e.g. as new engine for aircrafts or rocket launchers/SAM.
• Sonic weapons
• Eletro-shock weapons (guns)
• Weapons able to shoot through walls
• Gas/Biological grenades/weapons - ammunition would only affect one or few kinds of aliens. Each ammunition is researchable after examining the alien.
• Teleportation - short-distance troop teleportation.
• Time shift weapons - instead of inflicting damage, they would temporarily but significantly decrease enemy max TU (possibly in an area). Can be also a weapon for aircraft to slow down UFOs.
• Time shift generator - soldier using it would create a sphere, inside which all units get bonus TU.

[Hertzila]

• Anti-matter technology - e.g. as new engine for aircrafts or rocket launchers/SAM.
• Eletro-shock weapons (guns)
• Gas/Biological grenades/weapons - ammunition would only affect one or few kinds of aliens. Each ammunition is researchable after examining the alien.
• Time shift weapons - instead of inflicting damage, they would temporarily but significantly decrease enemy max TU (possibly in an area). Can be also a weapon for aircraft to slow down UFOs.

Already in as:

• Anti-matter technology: not yet implemented for humans (note the "yet") but aliens already use antimatter engines
• Eletro-shock weapons: Electro-laser, basically a lightning gun; also the stun baton
• Gas/Biological grenades/weapons: Choke gas grenades, stunning gas
• Time shift weapons: Not actual temporal technology (and I doubt that will be implemented) but TU removing is flashbangs modus operandi.

Welcome to the forums!

[Dark]

Sorry if I mentioned something unnecessarily. Its just hard to not copy any information with so much content on the forum.
Those were just shortly mentioned concepts to fish out the ones worth discussing further.

Welcome to the forums!

Thanks!

[kodosapiens]

What about biological alien weapons? In Defense there were the celatid, silicoid, chryssalid, and in Apocalypse there were something spitting liquid and exploding kamikaze ones (I forget the names. I didn't play Apocalypse, just watching someone playing) I also heard that the aliens need more weapons. What about this: an alien launcher (or grenade) with biological munitions. It may be hundreds of insects that are released from the casing upon impact. The insects form a swarm and move at walking speed (just like a new character) to nearest human and do horrible things on him/her. To destroy them you must use explosives, flamethrower, plasma grenades, or gas.

[Legendman3]

kodo i think thats a little unfair dont you? and besides 2.3 is harder than 2.2.1 already(It takes more than a rpg to kill a Taman with light armor)

[kodosapiens]

That's no matter for me. I cannot play 2.3 anyway. the download size is too large and my computer is slow (don't say about upgrading). Doubt 2.3 will run well (or at all).

About unfair... what is fair on unfair is relative, and what do you say about the blaster bomb? But let's hear from the others.

Now, about new tech ideas, as the topic title said. Why don't the aliens use lasers? If human uses infrared laser, then let's give the alien UV or X-ray lasers, that can dissociate molecules directly and not damage by heating.

[Hertzila]

Now, about new tech ideas, as the topic title said. Why don't the aliens use lasers? If human uses infrared laser, then let's give the alien UV or X-ray lasers, that can dissociate molecules directly and not damage by heating.

While one can only guess why they don't use them immediatly (story-wise), even x-ray lasers would be a downgrade from particle beams.

[kodosapiens]

I see. So we expect a weapon stronger than particle beam then. Or, something with more functionality.

But laser is silent and invisible (meanwhile, human infrared laser has visible beam and sound in the game) while particle beam is visible and loud. With the same energy, laser have more particles (photons) than particle beam. Maybe this can compensate somehow, along with the stealth factor. Maybe in the future there will be a race that is so small, that particle beam cannons are too heavy for them. Or maybe particle beam is expensive and difficult to produce, even by aliens' standard. Or the aliens don't want to risk humans collecting particle beam ammo, so they use it rarely (maybe mainly for base defense or major assault).

Another idea: When the aliens realize that humans use IR laser, they start to coat their armor with thin reflective materials.

[Silversnow]

As far as nostalgia goes, I do have very fond memories of the XCOM Blaster Bomb... No need to repeat the huge blast radius, it was still the ultimate guided missile. Turning around corners was just awesome for players but it was rerely used effectively by the aliens. A great way to instill the fear of grouping soldiers and a fast and dirty way to give exeperience to rookies 

Self-destructing combat robots (Cyberdisk anyone  )

Oh and someone mentionned Chrysalids... I DO hope some kind of egg-laying horror like it gets added, it was especially terrifying on a Terror mission at superhuman level (where it took several explosions to kill even one), but once we had the flying suit they became much less of a problem, unlike the tentaculat from Xcom2, too damned frustrating in it's ambushes   

I did'nt see anyone mentioning some kind of "Phasing" technology, to allow a craft to escape from a single hit, or a soldier to pass through a wall...

[Prinegon]

My sugguestion is a new kind of ammo:

Nitrogen bullets

Requirements: Alien Materials

Description:

The research, to fill bullets up with liquid nitrogen, is about 30 years old. Aim was to research a flechette ammunition releasing a decent amount of liquid nitrogen over heavy armor on impact that would brittle the material and makes it useless for protection.

The only progress we made was in anti tank ammunition. The grenade consists of two different parts. The back of the grenade is just a dewar flask filled with liquid nitrogen, while the front is prepared with a contact explosive strong enough to crack up the mantle of the projectile on impact.

However, this technology was not adaptable on bullets. Bullets are too small a dewar flask would be a possibility to storage the liquid nitrogen without vaporization. The ammount of nitrogen is much smaller in a bullet than in a grenade. Both problems require to store the liquid nitrogen in the bullet with high pressure.
This leaded to the problem to research a bullet body strong enough to endure the pressure of the inserted liquid nitrogen, but still being cracked up on impact. To work with an explosive head, like we did on the greandes, was no option, because even under high pressure the ammount of nitrogen stored in one bullet is not very high, so the kinetic energy caused by an explosion would conter the freezing effect of the nitrogen.

The solution to this problem is in the alien Materials, since it is strong enough to widstand a high ammount of pressure even if the material is only some nanometers thick and changing its form depenent on heat. So we were able to produce a bullet that has predetermined  breaking  points consisting on alien materials only some nanometers thick. The material is thin enough the friction energy of an impact is enough to make the bullet change its form and to crack up on impact. The freezing effect of the nitrogen loweres the integrity of the amour and leads to frostbites.

However the production of this ammunition is still very expensive. But this ammunition has some more drawbacks. If fired on unamored enemies the friction energy on the impact may not be enough to cause the bullet to crack up. The damage done may be lesser than the damage of a normal bullet against unamored enemies.
Since the core of the bullet is liquid the flight characteristics of this bullet is slightly different. Aiming is a little bit harder with this bullets and the range is reduced. The magazine is very reactive to heat. So if you carry arround a magazine of nitrogen bullets take care not to be set on fire or be target to explosions, since the heat may be enough to cause the bullets to crack up.

Effect:
The damage of the bullets is reduced. The accuracy and the range is reduced as well. But hitting with a nitrogen shot reduces the amor value of the hitted amor part permanetly.

Greetings
Prinegon. 

[Silversnow]

Nice flavor text and idea, unfortunately a bullet is actually the extreme tip on top of the cartdrige, so the inside volume is awfully tiny. Plus an empty bullet will not weight much, so very little damage.
You'd have much mor luck in throwing a fist-sized ball with a slingshot 

[Prinegon]

As far as I understand, a shot consists of three parts: The hull, the solid core (bullet) and a powder chamber. The hull falls of at the side of the rifle after igniting the powder and speeding the bullet up. But bullet itself has the mass of about at least 1/3 of the whole shot. It could be solid (Full metal), but it doesn't has to be. I don't think this part of the shot has not enough room to store a bit of nitrogen.

[Hertzila]

I'm not an expert but I think the bullet has a far heavier (and larger) than just 1/3 of the weight. I'd guess more like 2/3 or 3/4. The casing doesn't weight much and neither does the propellant AFAIK.

But the nitrogen round isn't a futile attempt because os the dimensions (this is true for smaller rounds but a sniper could handle it). It has much more to do with the temperature. Nitrogen inside would exhange heat since the rest of the round is not cold, so it could theoretically explode suddenly. You could give your agents minifreezers where they would keep the ammo and prevent accidental discharges but I'd question if they would be worth it and how practical it would be.

[Prinegon]

It has much more to do with the temperature. Nitrogen inside would exhange heat since the rest of the round is not cold, so it could theoretically explode suddenly. You could give your agents minifreezers where they would keep the ammo and prevent accidental discharges but I'd question if they would be worth it and how practical it would be.

You are totally right that nitrogen would start to boil because the exteriour temperature of the bullet is much higher than the temperature of the liquid nitrogen. Or this would be the case, if the nitrogen would have the chance to boil (Its boiling temperature would be about -200 degrees celisus). So only with extreme pressure the boiling point of nitrogen could be risen to room temperature (this is, how a pressure cooker works, the cooker is sealed so no exchange of air can be made. The pressure rises inside the cooker, the more water foam is created inside the cooker, so the water has to reach a higher temperature to be able to boil).
Theoretically liquid nitrogen sealed in a closed vessel should not be able to boil, as long as the pressure is high enough. I don`t know how much pressure has to be created to rise the boiling temperature of liquid nitrogen to room temperature (I am not a physician and I didn't even try to calculate the expected bar value, but I am sure, one could do that. But if the bullet is a sealed vessel and the liquid is filled in under enough pressure, the bullet shouldn't even turn cold. At the moment, the bullet is cracked up, the pressure suddenly will fall to normal and the liquid will start to boil instantly (freezing all material by this process, since the boiling temperature is still -200 degrees).

That is the problem I described by producing the bullet, finding a material strong enough to endure the pressure of the liquid nitrogen but still being able to crack up on impact and that is, why alien material is needed. If one doesn't like the idee of friction energy of the impact causing heat and making the alien material change its form (cracking up the bullet), one could add a contact electric circuit to the bullet activating on the bullet tip impacting (since electrical energy also causes alien material to change its form).

[kodosapiens]

If the bullet cracks on impact, then the gas (I think when the pressure drops the liquid nitrogen will boil) will spread to every direction, so the "chilling" efficiency is not good. And the heat of vaporization is 5.56 kJ·mol−1 (wikipedia). Assume one bullet contains 5 ml, with density 0.807 g/mL it's 4 grams, with molar mass 28 it's 1/7 mol. So the nitrogen inside one bullet can absorb ("chill") about 800 Joules of heat. 800 Joule can raise (lower, in this case) the temperature of 10 gram of water of 19 degrees C. So... not much chilling, I think.

I would improvise on this idea by making the bullet release its contents inside the victim (how?). We can make the tip of the bullet monomolecular (it must be curved somehow, maybe like a drill or multiple curves converge on a point). Then the damage is not only from chilling and piercing, but also from the gas expansion. Wow... inverse of plasma.