UFO:Alien Invasion
Technical support => Feature Requests => Topic started by: Zox613 on March 07, 2010, 11:28:27 am
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Ok guys, we've got smoke grenades, flash-bang grenades and alien gas grenades.
But none of its for grenade launchers.
Too bad for support (ex: poor soldiers with electric staffs).
In my mind it will be easy to add (just new colors for new ammo, and smaller radius than hand trowed grenades)
still working my english
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yeah, i agree. the nade launcher could do with a few more rounds like that.
also, nice to meet you, zox, and your English is fine. there a few little mistakes here and there, but its better than some English people on other forums that I know. :3
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While I'm not so sure about launcher-delivered flashbangs and smoke grenades, launcher-delivered stun gas makes an incredible amount of sense. Heck, gas grenade launchers currently exist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_gun). Shouldn't be hard for PHALANX to leverage existing technology to deliver a similar payload.
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IIRC gas grenades were requested but turned down previously. It all ultimately comes down to game balance, and those grenades would be a bit too powerful.
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While I can accept it if the devs are simply dead-set about not adding them, I'm finding it a bit difficult to believe that it'd be that unbalancing. I'd imagine you could balance them by simply toning them down from their hand-delivered cousins, just like Plasma Grenades. Reduce their blast radius and lower the amount of stun damage they deal.
Am I overlooking something? I'd like to understand the reasoning behind the decision.
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It would greatly reduce the risk (and thus the thrill) involved in capturing aliens alive (= a key issue in the game), so I can understand the decision even though it would be nice to have the gas grenade delivered via launcher.
Andy
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The only tangible advantage that the grenade launcher offers over hand thrown grenades is the three-round burst option. Which is pretty powerful, yes, but it'd be offset by having weaker individual grenades, the issue of spread (which could lead to wasted grenades or friendly-fire accidents), and the fact that you have to carry the launcher, which means choosing between a medikit or a secondary weapon.
Further, is stun really that useful? Think about this seriously for a second; you need to take a grand total of 10 aliens alive. The exact species of those aliens doesn't really matter. Unlike X-COM Apocalypse, there is no benefit to taking one of each species alive, and there's no ongoing benefit to live captures after the 10th. Research topics on each alien species are provided just as easily by a corpse as they are by a live alien. Once you've bagged your 10 live captures to open up Live Alien (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Aliens/Live_Alien), The Alien Mind (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Aliens/The_Alien_Mind), and Odd Behavior (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Aliens/Odd_Behaviour) as research topics, stun is just another damage type. It's actually inferior to killing them at that point because they can wake up from it.
And the game lets you use lethal grenades in the launcher already. In three flavors, I might add; Explosive (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Equipment/Ammunition/25mm_HIT_Grenades), Incendiary (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Equipment/Ammunition/25mm_IC_Grenades) and Plasma (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Equipment/Ammunition/25mm_PB_Grenades). I'm not seeing a prolonged balance issue, if there's any at all; you already have hand-thrown stun grenades and electrolasers, so taking live aliens isn't particularly hard (unless you insist on starting as soon as you get stun rods, which is silly IMO). What's wrong with making an easy task easier?
Another thing before I forget; it's another topic to research, too, meaning more time spent on less-than-lethal options. Just like the plasma grenade (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Equipment/Ammunition/25mm_PB_Grenades), you'd need to research the hand thrown variant before you can develop a launcher delivered version. With the addition of Electrolasers in 2.3, you could comfortably skip researching alien gas entirely, both hand thrown and launched; it's much easier to just go stun rod + D-F cartridge = electrolaser (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Equipment/Primary_Weapons/Electrolaser), since you actually need a live alien (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Research/Live_Alien), as well as autopsies of the 3 main (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Aliens/Taman) alien (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Aliens/Ortnok) races (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Shevaar), before you can even start researching anti-alien gas (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Equipment/Misc/Gas_Grenade).
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I was just thinking that player can have an extra choice (just resize aera/effect of gaz/flashbang ammo for grenade launcher to keep game/balance). Not very useful but always fun to have choice ...
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I say keep stun damage and throw in an interrogation option at base. The option would display planned alien missions or ship locations for the next game day or more.
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i have a funny name: sleeping gas launcher ;D