General > Discussion
Finished game on 2.5 Hard mode. Thoughts and experiences.
H-Hour:
--- Quote from: Telok on October 24, 2013, 03:17:40 am ---The lasers are a moderate improvement in accuracy in exchange for more TUs, weight, and slightly less damage. Significantly less damage against armored aliens. While they compare decently to plasma rifles I felt that the heavier punch, lower TUs for reaction fire, and more shots of the plasma was a better fit for the role that assault skill weapon play in my squads.
--- End quote ---
When you factor in alien armour, the laser rifle in 2.5-dev actually has superior penetration. Not that the game provides you with any useful numbers to assess this, though. :)
Plasma rifle snap shot against alien light armour: 80 damage - 30 armour = 50 damage (with an accuracy spread of 1.2)
Laser rifle wave fire against against alien light armour: 62 damage - 5 armour = 57 damage (with an accuracy spread of 0.8 )
Arguably, the plasma rifle maintains an advantage by having an automatic fire option. But IMHO the accuracy improvement of the laser rifle more than puts it over the top.
(Hopefully we'll expose more information with UI2. In the meantime, the research text for alien light armour tries to stress how lasers can penetrate the armour.)
debalde:
--- Quote from: H-Hour on October 24, 2013, 11:33:15 am ---
Plasma rifle snap shot against alien light armour: 80 damage - 30 armour = 50 damage (with an accuracy spread of 1.2)
Laser rifle wave fire against against alien light armour: 62 damage - 5 armour = 57 damage (with an accuracy spread of 0.8 )
--- End quote ---
Are the armour and weapon tables (http://ufoai.org/wiki/Weapon_tables) still up to the date (for version 2.5)? Most of them were correct in version 2.2 (or, in case of the huge comprehensive weapon table, it was updated 2 years ago) and I've see some minor mistakes (eg. the lovely 3 round burst mode for grenade launcher has disappeared in version 2.5) that makes me worried about how accurate the tables are in special with some of the large refurbishments made in the last times.
Telok:
--- Quote from: H-Hour on October 24, 2013, 11:33:15 am ---Plasma rifle snap shot against alien light armour: 80 damage - 30 armour = 50 damage (with an accuracy spread of 1.2)
Laser rifle wave fire against against alien light armour: 62 damage - 5 armour = 57 damage (with an accuracy spread of 0.8 )
--- End quote ---
Interesting. I see two minor issues here, both possibly related to the in-game feedback thing. First the unarmored aliens take more damage from plasma, and second I can't tell if an alien is wearing light or heavy armor. For a time I did arm some of my garrisons with laser rifles but the lasers underperformed the plasma in close quarters and the armored ortnoks and combat bloodspiders were highly resistant. Still the lasers did rock the shevarr pretty hard but I don't know if they can even wear armor.
I think that the issue for me is that lasers are another siituational weapon. They are better at longer ranges (but I have snipers fot that) and less damage for equal or greater TUs at point blank range. In my play style lasers compete against sniper rifles rather than against plasma rifles, and they lose in that comparison.
Is there a thought of adding a health bar to aliens on the battlescape? Stick a +/- 10% inaccuracy on the bar and it is useful without being spoilery. I would advise against giving it a number display (except perhaps a % of total health number). This would help players in game to better judee the armor/weapon interactions.
TallTroll:
>> In my play style lasers compete against sniper rifles rather than against plasma rifles, and they lose in that comparison.
Yeah, lasers are a bit of an oddity, halfway between the sniper and rifle lines. Laser rifles really reward experienced soldiers, and I've found Assault XP to be easier to grind than Sniper XP, so I generally find that my LR troopers hit more often than my snipers, especially if I remember to crouch them ;D
At the moment, I'm actually using heavy lasers as replacements for machine guns, because I have several very good Assault troopers who can't manage Nanocomposite armour and an MG load. Deadly
MonkeyHead:
Honestly, once you get EP rounds onto the field, there is no need for any other weapon in the assault slot. The assault rifle with them penetrates armour, has high damage, decent accuracy, decent rate of fire in terms of TU's, a full auto mode and a light weight. The HMG with them makes the needler look stupid.
Mind you, I do make heavy use of laser pistols and plasma blasters. The laser pistol is my standard weapon for someone not strong enough to carry a front line weapon, and then they get loaded up with grenades, medkits and ammo for others, thanks to its lightness and improved accuracy compared to other light weapons.
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