Gun attachments and other ideas.

[Brettie-C]

Sorry if its been requested already but why not have one or two gun attachments.

Assault Rifle: Red dot sight: increases accuracy in short the medium range shots./Silencer: stops alien tracking where the shot came from./Quicker reloading magazines: less TU needed for reloading and moving stuff about in the backpack screen.
Sniper Rifle: Enhanced Zoom Scope: Exceptional accuracy at long range but stubbed at short and medium range./Silencer: as above./Option of bolt action or semi automatic: bolt action deal more damage but uses more TU, semi auto deal less damage but uses less TU.
Shotgun: Option of pump or semi auto: same as sniper rifle./Butt Stock: increase standing accuracy at short range.

Heavy attachments

Flamer: Hotter-Lower burning fuel: Hotter does more damage but runs out quicker while lower does opposite./Different muzzles for different ranges.
Light Machine Gun: Grip: increases standing accuracy./Light Weight Butt Stock: cost less TU to either fire or move.
Grenade Launcher: Drum magazine: enables automatic firing./Short to Long range sights: what they seem.
Rocket Launcher: Guidence system: Enables to plot path of rocket.

Here are some different ammo types which come with alien research. This may be impossible as aliens would need strengths and weaknesses.

Oxide bullets (Sniper and Assault rifles): Eat away armour over a period of time.
Scatter bullets (shotguns): Razor sharp shrapnel that decimates any organic target without armour.
Scatter shells (grenade and rocket launcher): explodes fragments of metal in an area.

Armour Attachments

Monitor: allows player to see what body parts are wounded.
Electro magnetic Seal: automatically seals armour around vital organs (if vital organs is to precise then just seal the whole armour) when "1" bullet penetrate armour.

[Sarin]

I think gun attachments are scheduled for quite some time, since equip screen actually has provisions for that. Some of those options could work, tho semiauto/manual reload is unrealistic, since there is no difference in power...some of weapons in game have folding stock/foregrip, those might work...however, there should, I think, be tradeoffs in most attachments. Silencers do tend to reduce power of gun significantly, tho I have no idea how you wanna silence anti-materiel rifle. so I'd scrap that idea....

Heavy attachments are, for most part, useless. GL is semiauto with burst mode, so full auto is generally useless...besides throwing all 6 grenades in one spot, that is quite a waste of resources and TP. And Ufopaedia gives a good explanation why Rocket Launcher is unguided-there is no man-made targetting that can fit into rocket capable of getting through the alien jamming.

Oxidizing bullets: unrealistic, unuseful.
Scatter shells: that's what flechette rounds are.

[Brettie-C]

well they were just randoms that poped into my head at the time. im usually better at these things lol. maybe i just need to play the game for a few months or so to get a full feel of what may be possible and what is just pure b*lls**t

[Hertzila]

This has been suggested before and it waits for somebody to do the coding and models, IIRC. Frankly though, I think the attachments should be more around underbarrel weapons, actual modifications and other larger mods. There's no reason to ship ARs with red-dots and tactical grips if they make things better. Or they do ship with red-dots and grips that give general accuracy bonuses and tighter groupings (if necessary, balanced by lowering weapon stats) and then the player can switch grips to underbarrel weapons or red-dots to short range scopes.

Suppressors are useless IMO. The loud metal *clang* the slide does will still give away position.

Grips should come as standard as I explained above.
GL has a revolver type magazine, try fitting any kind of clips into that.
Alien EW is sadly too much for this.

Oxide bullets don't seem to follow any logic.
Scatter shots exist, they're flechettes and they guivckly become obsolete as the aliens start wearing armor.
Similar for scatter shells for GL. RL wouldn't really benefit from them.

I think this will be standard so no reason to give armor this function. When it's implemented.
What's the point? How would it seal itself? Why not have the extra protection all the time?


PS. Welcome to the forums!

[Quester]

Sorry about me being MIA, but the part about the armour sealing itself is actually under current developtment in the US Army under the Landwarriro system, if the History channel is to be belived.  But, personally, I like the idea of the body armour being unsealed, this is off the shelf tech, not still in RnD tech.  Though, I would like to see what would happen if the troopers were given a man-portable vulkan.  Ok, I know, not doable, but, to me oh so sweet a dream. 

*wipes off the drool from his face.*  Anyways, I do like the idea of the missile launch instead of exploding on contact, of deploying a cluster bomb warhead.  Hazardous, yes, feasable, yes.  A simple motion sencor trigger would be immune to the alien EW, JUST, do not set the mines at the door of the alien vessel.
And speaking of mines, what about the use of Claymore mines?  I remember in all the X-Coms there was a claymore type that remained viable almost to end game.  The thought here though, is instead of a radio detonator, we have to due to the advanced alien EW, fall back on the old tried and true clacker.  *clack, clack, BOOM!*   Ball-bearings go bouncing EVERYWHERE shredding anything not in hyper advanced body armour.  And even then its a crap-shoot if you survive if you are point blank.

[Hertzila]

Sorry about me being MIA, but the part about the armour sealing itself is actually under current developtment in the US Army under the Landwarriro system, if the History channel is to be belived.

No worries about being MIA. This is volunteer-run after all. Besides, I think I'm the only one in addition to the core devs that actually visits here every day.
Got a link to that armor or do I need to try Googling it?

[Quester]

Land Warrior - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  Here is one link.  As for the self-sealing, it seems I was wrong.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/4215725

But a system like this would be intresting, but I am not sure if it could work with the amount of EW that the alien warships put off when landed.  I can understand it being fielded with several replacement parts, or sections beremoved from it and up-graded, but overall, it may not work with the setting we have here in UFO:AI.  However, the intergrated NVG, as well as the IR would be intresting, as well as the bio-monitering of soldiers.  And, if sufficent advances were made and the current technology shrunk down, what about a direction shot locator?

That kind of a subsystem would need to be mounted in the backpack on at least three of the troops to actually work, triangulation, but it DOES WORK.  The same princible was used in the Second World War to hunt for hidden radios and flush out partisans when they checked in.  But you had to have at least three systems to get an accurate fix.  It would make things easyer in game I think for sniper hunting if you had this kind of system inplace as opposed to the troops gewttign pasted from a shooter in the window.

[Quester]

Any chance of us seeing anything liek the M-203 assault rifle w/ an underslung single shot grenade launcher?  Found more than one instance where the weapon type would be useful.  Like inside of a UFO.

[paziek]

Suppressors are useless IMO. The loud metal *clang* the slide does will still give away position.

Well, they should reduce muzzle flash, so during night it won't give your position SO well, that enemy could actually shoot at where he saw flash and kill.
My suggestion for silencer would be to implement some kind of sound visual feedback system. Right now I hear some footsteps and gunshots, but I've got no idea where they come from.
I have attached screenshots of my quick mock-up on how this could be changed.
Depending on how well your soldier heard some sound, he will have that much accurate feedback. He can hear many sounds at the same time, maybe that should be reflected. Can he tell difference between alien footsteps and civilian? What if sound originates "somewhere from above/below"?



My suggestions for other attachments:

Assault Rifle:
40mm shotgun / 40mm GL / no attachment (lighter weapon, better to handle, more accurate?)
It should cost a little bit TU to bring up under-barrel sights

Sniper rifle:
ACOG (4x zoom) / 8x scope / 12x scope / night vision scope (according to ufopedia, not all aliens show up on infrared) / infrared scope
less zoom = less TU cost and quicker accuracy drop with distance
specialized scopes should have static-predefined zoom?

[Hertzila]

Well, they should reduce muzzle flash, so during night it won't give your position SO well, that enemy could actually shoot at where he saw flash and kill.
My suggestion for silencer would be to implement some kind of sound visual feedback system. Right now I hear some footsteps and gunshots, but I've got no idea where they come from.
I have attached screenshots of my quick mock-up on how this could be changed.
Depending on how well your soldier heard some sound, he will have that much accurate feedback. He can hear many sounds at the same time, maybe that should be reflected. Can he tell difference between alien footsteps and civilian? What if sound originates "somewhere from above/below"?

If/When the visibility system gets implemented, suppressors may become useful to hide your agents from the aliens. But that would require a lot of extra work, plus reprogramming the AI to work without 'god-vision'.
The sound system is an interesting idea. Maybe have the soldiers that hear the sound show a cone from the (inaccurate) direction from where the sound came from. Bigger area and better detection for louder sounds, of course. Suppressors might actually be useful then too. We'd still need to get rid of 'god-vision' though, otherwise PHALANX agents might as well play vuvuzelas instead of sneaking around for all the good the system would do to them.
Know any programmers? 

My suggestions for other attachments:

Assault Rifle:
40mm shotgun / 40mm GL / no attachment (lighter weapon, better to handle, more accurate?)
It should cost a little bit TU to bring up under-barrel sights

Sniper rifle:
ACOG (4x zoom) / 8x scope / 12x scope / night vision scope (according to ufopedia, not all aliens show up on infrared) / infrared scope
less zoom = less TU cost and quicker accuracy drop with distance
specialized scopes should have static-predefined zoom?

Instead of no attachment, I think a "Better frontal grip" or something like that should be the standard choice for AR attachments to give the feel that PHALANX is actually using the best weaponry we have.

[paziek]

Know any programmers? 

Yeah, I am actually doing some programming myself, tho not exactly with low-level language as C, but I recently found out that my soon-to-be new job requires C++, so C is just on the way; maybe I could contribute then. If I'll get some free time and turn off lazy-mode, then I'll try to come up with some non-god-mode AI using my current skills.
But thats just offtopic!

[jerm]

Actually, there IS something like "self"-sealing combat gear. Near the bottom of the page at this link.

h**p://medgadget.com/archives/military_medicine/page/19

Basically, it a high-tensity band with a screw crank over the major artorial points in each limb, around the upper arms and upper thighs. No, there isn't one for the neck. 

Anyway, when a limb is injured, either the injured or another person cranks the screw to tighten the band and stop the flow of blood to the affected limb. It is effectively a tourniquet. The bands are attached to the combat uniform. There isn't one yet that seals itself since its hard to program something to recognize an injury.