2.3 - is the machine gun useless?

[Ildamos]

^topic.

And has this been improved in 2.4. I personally find it too heavy --- consumes too much TUs to be as cost-effective as the other weapons.

[Sarin]

Actually, both in 2.3 and 2.4 I found MG to be second best initial weapon (after GL). It remains in my arsenal even now, after researching coilgun, all lasers and plasma weaponry. It might seem heavy at first, but good soldier got enough TU to do one step around corner, send a full auto into enemy and step back-31 TU if crouched in previous turn. On standard diff, it is one of few weapons that got power to take down Ortnok on medium armor in one turn.

It is unsuitable for use in buildings and UFOs later, but its good for first round shootouts that often happen at crashed UFOs and some maps..

[Jon_dArc]

^topic.

And has this been improved in 2.4. I personally find it too heavy --- consumes too much TUs to be as cost-effective as the other weapons.

As a caveat, it's been a long time since I played 2.3, so although I don't believe it's changed too much I could be wrong.

That being said, if anything I'd say it's overpowered. It can be a little fiddly to get the unit into position, but it has extreme damage output and when crouched solid accuracy—especially since it fires so many shots, each of which do so much damage, I typically expect a kill on anything short of Medium Alien Armor if the hit probability estimate reaches 30%.

At one time I was concerned about the high minimum TU use causing difficulties in advancing (nothing like coming around a corner to find an enemy that you simply can't attack because the minimum TU cost is too high), but once Plasma Blades become available that problem mostly goes away and quite frankly most of my units aren't packing weapons that can reliably kill an enemy in 13 TU anyway (in general, if the enemy is too close for me to just retreat, they're usually too close for me to safely grenade as well).

~J

[Ildamos]

Thanks guys!

I typically expect a kill on anything short of Medium Alien Armor if the hit probability estimate reaches 30%.

Awesome.

[Eegxeta]

I found it works well as an over-watch weapon. Using the reaction fire to shoot instead of firing on my turn makes the aliens do half the work. I always try to get two people with the MG on my team to ambush the aliens or pin them down so the others can maneuver around.

[kamor]

I find the MG useful in base defending missions. It's more deadly then the assault rifle in close quarters, and has a longer range than the flamethrower.

Otherwise, when it comes to PHALANX base man-portable weaponry, I'd stick to sniper rifles and flamethrowers.