[WEAPON] Acid Capsule Gun 1.0

[the_third_curry]

This mod adds a new weapon to the X-com arsenal - the Acid Capsule Gun. The Acid Capsule Gun features two types of ammo: a basic acid with the same power as a Celatid spit, and an advanced acid capable of dissolving the outer walls of UFOs. Researching a Celatid corpse is required to access this weapon's research. The weapon has a maximum range of 20 tiles.

To use the mod, simply unzip the folder and place the AcidWeaponry folder in Resources and the ruleset in the Ruleset folder.

A huge thanks to the following forum members:
yrizoud - weapon sprites and maxRange recommendation
ivandogovich - help with ruleset creation and research code
Harald_Gray - help with ruleset

[the_third_curry]

So far, over 60 downloads on the mod site but no comments. Can someone confirm to me that it works on their game? Does anyone have any comments/criticisms?

[Solarius Scorch]

This mod adds a new weapon to the X-com arsenal - the Acid Capsule Gun. The Acid Capsule Gun features two types of ammo: a basic acid with the same power as a Celatid spit, and an advanced acid capable of dissolving the outer walls of UFOs.

Why not vaporize New York?

Honestly, the power of this weapon is absurd (from what I read, I haven't actually tried). The Celatid weapon damage is already porn tier, and you treat it as a "weaker" version? Especially considering that getting a Celatid autopsy is trivial. And how to compare the stronger version with other weapons capable of destroying UFO hulls, the Blaster Launcher (the strongest weapon in the game, and a launcher) and the Fusion Torch (really unhandy)?

Yes, I know most weapon mods are overpowered, defying both the game balance and logic. No, I have no idea why.

[XCOMFan419]

Why not vaporize New York?

Honestly, the power of this weapon is absurd (from what I read, I haven't actually tried). The Celatid weapon damage is already porn tier, and you treat it as a "weaker" version? Especially considering that getting a Celatid autopsy is trivial. And how to compare the stronger version with other weapons capable of destroying UFO hulls, the Blaster Launcher (the strongest weapon in the game, and a launcher) and the Fusion Torch (really unhandy)?

Yes, I know most weapon mods are overpowered, defying both the game balance and logic. No, I have no idea why.

Want some french cries with those whamburgers?

I've tried this mod out, and most of it is pretty weight dependent on the soldier. Not to mention ammo restrictions. The standard capsule is barely useful because your soldier is likely to die before he can fire. The advanced capsule is just a tin can opener with 4 ammo. At times this mod can be okay, but it's dependent on playstyle. Some people want to be close up and personal, others like to sit back, relax, and pick them off as they exit their UFO.

[Dioxine]

Some people like it casual, nice & easy, no point in arguing. 200 damage would be enough to melt UFO's outer wall, but it gives a Muton or a Sectopod an actual chance of surviving a single hit, and we wouldn't want that, would we?

[smexyvami]

useing it and one shot with advanced assed didnt open a ufo or maby its just the lukes ufos have hirer armor idont know

[Solarius Scorch]

First of all, I regret how harsh my words were, I should have phrased it differently. I was annoyed because is a overpowered, unbalanced stuff is a recurring problem in so many mods. However, I essentially stand by what I said: this is an overpowered mod, and not just slightly so.

I've tried this mod out, and most of it is pretty weight dependent on the soldier. Not to mention ammo restrictions. The standard capsule is barely useful because your soldier is likely to die before he can fire. The advanced capsule is just a tin can opener with 4 ammo. At times this mod can be okay, but it's dependent on playstyle. Some people want to be close up and personal, others like to sit back, relax, and pick them off as they exit their UFO.

I never said it makes you invincible, this can only be achieved with invulnerable armour or a "nuke all enemies" button. However, it is way more powerful than anything else we have in the game, except for super-specialized equipment (which this weapon is not, no matter its weight, clip size etc.). So I consider it way overpowered, unless we see much stronger enemies too.

useing it and one shot with advanced assed didnt open a ufo or maby its just the lukes ufos have hirer armor idont know

I don't think he went as far as defining new MCDs... Weapon damage is very random, so I guess you just need to try again.

[the_third_curry]

The reasoning for the absurdly high damage of the advanced acid is so it can breach the hull of a ship. According to UFOpaedia, explosions always do 50% damage to walls, while other weapons do from 25% to 75%, so 400 was the minimal to breach outer hulls with 100% efficiency (unless that formula has been changed at some point.)

While the damage output number makes it seems overpowered to the max on initial viewing, from my personal playing, I found that its effectiveness is fairly situational and that it works best as a sort of specialty weapon. It's extremely useful for breaching and taking down the big terror units and can be used pretty effectively against the more armored aliens like mutons and robin's gazers. However, the acid capsule gun's lack of autoshot and high TU cost (at 50% for snap and 70% for aimed, you will seldom ever get more than 1 shot per turn with it) generally makes the heavy plasma a much more effective means of taking down anything else.

That being said, it seems like people are having a variety of experiences with it. I'll try to think about the weapon's balancing some more.

useing it and one shot with advanced assed didnt open a ufo or maby its just the lukes ufos have hirer armor idont know

I'm not sure why that would be, it should be completely effective at taking out walls. I know that at least one version of Luke's Extended UFOs had extra walls on the outer parts of the ships to prevent you from seeing the shadows of interior objects. Could that have something to do with it?

[Dioxine]

Hmm, that probably depends on the tileset... as original tilesets aren't equal. That being said, a Blaster Bomb with "mere" 200 damage always creates a hole; trials with 160 power plasma weapons have shown about 30-40% chance of burning through outer UFO hull. But like I said, your tilesets might be different than other person's... (standard outer hull armor should be 100 for UFOs, 255 for XCom craft - I think). Oh I get it, 100 efficiency so 100x4...

[new_civilian]

Nice mod, but it has a tiny bug: the ufopaedia entries are avilable right from the start, they need a requirement to keep them from appearing to early. Apart from that no problems! 

[The Martian]

This Acid Capsule Gun is excellent!

Interestingly I noticed that there was a different sprite set in the "Acid Capsule Gun 0.8" thread posted by Yrizoud.

The tanks that I drew don't fit well with the idea of throwable capsules

So I combined them: (Along with adding a Blue variant for fun.)




Unfortunately I could not get this HandOb image to align correctly and ended up swapping it out for a recolour from the Flamethrower's HandOb set.

Old HandOb Set:


New HandOb Set:


From what I've read I believe Dioxine created the Flamethrower HandOb image that I used as a substitute. You can find the Flamethrower in the Final Mod Pack if your interested in barbecuing a few Cyberdiscs with it.


The images found in the V0.8 version of the Acid Capsule Gun's thread appear to have more detail work on the weapons metal frame, so I used those and combined them with the fuel tank based ammo.

Comparison of the images found in the V1-0 release and on the V0-8 thread:

 

The images for both Capsule based ammo and fuel tank versions are included in the .zip attached to this post along with all required FloorObs and HandObs.

I've had a lot of fun with this weapon, thank you for creating it.

The reasoning for the absurdly high damage of the advanced acid is so it can breach the hull of a ship.

Additional note:
Those using OXCE could setup the weapon's Item Damage Type to inflict an increased ToTile value which I believe will only damage terrain. This would achieve the original desired effect of punching a UFO hull without having to up the weapons actual damage output.