Grenade launcher : high register fire

[TallTroll]

It would be super handy for the Grenade Launcher to be able to shoot *up* more, on occasion. Aliens on rooftops (esp on Mid East maps, with those huge targets roof areas), and behind fences etc, currently get an easy ride, because you need considerable lateral displacement to make the angles work. Being able to switch to high register fire would just make them slightlier easier to deal with on occasion.

The same might apply to thrown grenades, presumably, and grenades from underbarrel launchers, if they eventually make an appearance, and any other weapon with an arced line of fire. It might also be useful for passing equipment, say tossing a medikit over a fence or onto a rooftop so a wounded trooper could be healed more quickly, rather than waiting for a medic type to run *around* the fence / get up onto the roof etc.

As a sidenote, I'd also like to see the GL get a small boost in range, like 5 squares or so. It wouldn't overpower the weapon, IMO, and would better differentiate the weapon from thrown grenades. Currently, it doesn't really have that much more reach than a thrown grenade, and real life GLs have a range of a couple of hundred metres, clear across pretty much any map.

[geever]

It would be super handy for the Grenade Launcher to be able to shoot *up* more, on occasion. Aliens on rooftops (esp on Mid East maps, with those huge targets roof areas), and behind fences etc, currently get an easy ride, because you need considerable lateral displacement to make the angles work. Being able to switch to high register fire would just make them slightlier easier to deal with on occasion.

Did you try Shift?

-geever

[TallTroll]

>> Did you try Shift?

Yes, but that only takes you so far. What I was thinking was more using the "other" firing solution for a given shot to allow you to use angles over 45. For instance, if a soldier is right up against a wall, it should be possible to fire up onto the roof, or throw a grenade though a second story window (still risky, but possible).

Use of shift and / or fiddling the aim point with levels can take you some of the way, but I certainly find myself wanting the option to shoot higher (way higher than shift allows) on fairly frequent occasions

[Quester]

One thing my grandfather taught me was NEVER throw or fire a grenade into a window, because of the high likelyhood of missing.  I do with for higher angles of fire, but not to the point where I am shooting upwards and praying wind catches it.  But, so far, I have found that bouncing a grenade off a rooftop gives you some good distance, but lousy accuracy, but with plasma grenades, who needs it, just land it in the general vicinty of your target and its cooked.

[Edi]

One thing my grandfather taught me was NEVER throw or fire a grenade into a window, because of the high likelyhood of missing.  I do with for higher angles of fire, but not to the point where I am shooting upwards and praying wind catches it.  But, so far, I have found that bouncing a grenade off a rooftop gives you some good distance, but lousy accuracy, but with plasma grenades, who needs it, just land it in the general vicinty of your target and its cooked.

The rooftop bounce is awesome. And isn't that questionable accuracy sort of how Phalanx works (at the beginning anyway)?

"Alien at 12 o'clock!"
*fires in the general direction*

 

[TallTroll]

>> And isn't that questionable accuracy sort of how Phalanx works

Hah, yes. I rarely take flamers to missions any more (keep 'em for base defense), but if a trooper is just awful at everything, that's what I give him. Makes him a star 

It's not like firing the mortar-style lobs is something you want to do very often, but it would be very, very handy on the occasions when you do

[beng]

You can make your own mod for single player, to make the grenade launcher fire in a high arc, sort of like the grenade lob mode. The grenade launcher projectiles will then fly in a parabolic arc instead of a straight line. You can then use the grenade launcher for indirect fire, like a mortar. Here's how:

Open your game directory and go into the base sub-directory.

Open the 0ufos.pk3 file, you can use 7-zip or pakscape.

Extract out the weapons_human.ufo file and put it in a sub-directory in your base directory called ufos. The path should then be something like C:\Program Files\UFOAI-2.5\base\ufos\weapons_human.ufo

Edit that file with a text editor like notepad.

Find the grenade launcher ammo definitions and comment out the line that says launched = true by putting // in front of it so it becomes: //launched = true

You have to do this for all the fire modes and in both types of grenade ammo (not the flechettes).

Save the file and run the game.