Messages

61

Discussion / Re: Machine gun / Autocannon Discussion

« on: July 07, 2008, 10:35:02 pm »

No tweak to the AI is necessary - just have the aliens ignore downed guys until they are certain the area is safe - ie, they never go after a downed guy as long as you have a living team member.

Though this discussion should be in a new thread, really.

62

Feature Requests / Re: Request: Headshot mode for sniper rifles

« on: July 06, 2008, 10:32:45 pm »

Anti-material rifles are intended for destroying vehicles, not people, but they can do so in a pinch.  They're just far too over-powered and heavy for shooting people to be used for this all the time.  In other words, they'd never be issued for this purpose and thus, the in-game sniper rifle can't possibly be one.

Just FYI, the sniper rifle in the game is quite specifically referred to as an AMR rifle using 20mm HMG rounds.

63

Discussion / Re: Changing soldier recrutation system

« on: July 06, 2008, 12:49:32 pm »

Don't think of it as "awarding a magic badge", think of it as selecting a soldier for an advanced skills intensive training program, with a badge indicating his succeful completion of that training.

64

Discussion / Re: Machine gun / Autocannon Discussion

« on: July 06, 2008, 08:15:03 am »

According to what motivates them, they should stop shooting any downed soldier.

If it is safe to do so, they would move up to melee range to begin organ harvesting,

If it isn't safe to do so, then zapping their active opponents should be more of a priority than pumping plasma into a possible corpse.

65

Tactics / Re: Blades

« on: July 05, 2008, 09:24:30 pm »

Perhaps moreso when/if weight considerations prevent the carrying of a pistol.

But if I'm going to give my grenade-launcher trooper a backup weapon, right now its going to be some form of pistol rather than a knife...

66

Tactics / Re: Blades

« on: July 05, 2008, 07:21:03 pm »

I don't understand all this hate against melee weapons. Plasma blades at the very least are extremely useful given that they are instant death on all difficulty settings.

 I believe the old adage is "Don't bring a knife to a gun-fight"

The plasma blade is a pretty special case, being more like a shaped charge explosive than a melee weapon...

67

Feature Requests / Re: Starting formation, why?

« on: July 05, 2008, 07:17:34 pm »

On a related note, the alien starting positions on the "shot-down" maps are also pretty silly.

It generally takes your troops a while to arrive, and the aliens apparently just sit around in their ship until you have landed and had a chance to cover their exit with weapons arcs, and THEN they come out...

68

Feature Requests / Re: Request: Headshot mode for sniper rifles

« on: July 05, 2008, 06:10:21 pm »

Brainless blobs who act intelligent are impossible, because you can't have intelligence without a brain.

And yet, that's exactly what the main enemy in this game is - an intelligence without a conventional brain.

***

The sniper rifle should become obsolete just as much as any of the other human weapons, even if a perfect head-shot from the original would kill an any alien every time.

On the battlefield, if given the choice between a sniper rifle that needs a headshot or a high tech rifle that can still do headshots but also has more chance of punching though the chest armour of an alien that's just run around the corner at you, the high tech choice will naturally take precedence.

A pure sniper version of the Bolter rifle would be a good starting point, and would stop that research being such an instant dead end given that laser research (which allegedly makes bolters obsolete) can be started at exactly the same time.  Built for accuracy it could be nearly as accurate as the laser rifle but with more one-shot stopping power.

69

Feature Requests / Flashbangs not visible?

« on: July 05, 2008, 05:44:31 pm »

3.2 on Windows XP:  When throwing a flashbang there is no graphical representation of the grenades transit, just a short pause followed by a flash of light at the point of presumed impact.

70

Tactics / Re: Blades

« on: July 05, 2008, 11:45:09 am »

The only real reason to use blades (except as a last resort) would be silence, I would think.

Until/unless the alien AI is reprogrammed so that they are as unaware of us as we are of them until LOS is achieved, this is pretty moot.

Even then, of course, the aliens are going to be well aware of one of their number getting knifed so the  silent kill would remain useless - although initially the player would not necessarily know this.

Unless they could be fitted as bayonets to rifles, of course, which might give a nice low TU attack for assault rifle troops doign house-to-house fighting.

***

Another option would, with the advent of monomolecular tech and plasma blades, be the use of melee weapons for forced entry.  If we had locked but destroyable doors to get through. 

***

Unless the aliens start deploying dune-style energy shields, of course.  "The slow blade defeats the shield...".  Or taking the Lensman series POV in which the energy output of hand-portable energy weapons is unable to keep up with the development of personal energy shields, leading to boarding actions taking place with big axes...

Both, however, are pretty blatant "melee is more exciting in fiction than duck-and-cover shooting" devices without much purpose beyond pure entertainment.

71

Discussion / Re: Grenade Launcher

« on: July 05, 2008, 11:37:23 am »

I love the grenade launcher, I get a lot of use out of it.  I usually have 2 in my squad.

Used as backup to a lightly armed scout, it can generally be used to take out threats without exposing the grendier to danger, by lobbing grenades around corners, over walls or through windows and doors etc.

72

Discussion / Re: Dual Wielding Pistols?

« on: July 05, 2008, 11:34:07 am »

Twin pistols being more effective that a rifle, even at close range, is counter to logic.

If that were the case, then instead of the pistol the production shops would be creating weapons that were 2 laser-pistol focusing arrays in the same case, even if the resulting weapon were of similar size to the SMG.  All the power of 2 pistols, without any loss of accuracy.  It could even be lighter than the pistols, as it may only need a single power pack (albeit one that would be drained twice as fast)

73

Discussion / Re: Machine gun / Autocannon Discussion

« on: July 05, 2008, 11:27:13 am »

There was a NATA study, IIRC in the 90s that indicated that, in fact, in the heat of battle, any wound that was sufficient to measurably degrade your performance generally took you straight out of the fight.

***

It would be nice, however, to have soldiers that were taken out of the fight not automatically be dead.  Some sort of negative damage threshold, perhaps, that until they reached they would remain alive but KO'd. 

That would give another use for field medics - not keeping a wounded comrade in battle, but stabilising them to ensure they survive for the next battle.