OpenXcom Forum

Modding => Released Mods => Topic started by: Shadow on November 06, 2013, 09:37:18 pm

Title: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Shadow on November 06, 2013, 09:37:18 pm
(https://i.ibb.co/7z1t1sg/alienterranplasma-preview.png)

Quote
TERRAN PLASMA PISTOL

Stat differences vs. alien variant:
  • Damage: 60 Plasma (up from 52)
  • Ammo: 18 (down from 26)
Manufacturing requirements:
  • Weapon: $56,000 + 1x Alien Alloys, 3 workshop space, 600 engineer hours
  • Clip: $2,000 + 1x Elerium-115, 2 workshop space, 60 engineer hours
TERRAN PLASMA RIFLE

Stat differences vs. alien variant:
  • Accuracy: 60% auto, 94% snap, 110% aimed (up from 55% auto, 86% snap, 100% aimed)
  • Damage: 72 Plasma (down from 80)
Manufacturing requirements:
  • Weapon: $88,000 + 2x Alien Alloys, 4 workshop space, 820 engineer hours
  • Clip: $4,500 + 1x Elerium-115, 3 workshop space, 80 engineer hours
TERRAN HEAVY PLASMA

Stat differences vs. alien variant:
  • Speed: 33% auto, 28% snap, 57% aimed (up from 35% auto, 30% snap, 60% aimed)
  • Damage: 105 Plasma (down from 115)
Manufacturing requirements:
  • Weapon: $122,000 + 3x Alien Alloys, 4 workshop space, 1,000 engineer hours
  • Clip: $9,000 + 2x Elerium-115, 3 workshop space, 100 engineer hours
ALIEN PLASMA WEAPONS: Unusable by X-COM operatives, sales price halved (not as useful to human buyers).


Localised for: English (UK), English (US), Español (AL), Español (ES)

During most of the game, X-COM operatives have their own unique equipment and weapons, save for the occasional alien gadget here and there. However, once plasma's researched, that battlescape diversity is lost, and everyone's largely using the same gear.

Not so much with this mod, which sets apart alien and human plasma weapons, creating a different late game experience. The design of the extraterrestrial firearms is not oriented towards human operators, which has led X-COM engineers to come up with their own variants. What's more, the replication process has produced particular differences in performance, compared to the alien counterparts. Not to mention Terran plasma bolts are blue! :D

The necessity to manufacture plasma weapons and ammo alone should present interesting economic challenges when otherwise you'd simply rely on the generous amounts of alien equipment you salvage from missions. Coupled with the statistical changes, it might even be enough to break the Heavy Plasma's hegemony and prod the player to at least consider keeping the highly precise Plasma Rifle in service as a primary weapon.

Kudos to Chiko for the original design of the new plasma technology, which I later modified to some extent.

Mod's attached to this message. Extract it to your OpenXcom's data folder and enable the TerranPlasmaWeapons ruleset in options.cfg. Enjoy!
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: mercy on November 07, 2013, 10:11:05 am
THIS is really cool! I will try it out, once reaching plasma tech in future.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: moriarty on November 07, 2013, 12:14:26 pm
Nice! Once fenyo's pull request ( https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1623.msg15821.html#new  (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1623.msg15821.html#new)) is in, I'd like to use these graphics to merge with my "longer research" mod which features the possibility to retrofit captured alien weapons - fenyo's work should allow us to use two seperate ways of manufacturing human plasma weapons :) you can either build them from scratch or use a captured alien plasma weapon.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Shadow on November 07, 2013, 08:05:04 pm
Nice! Once fenyo's pull request ( https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1623.msg15821.html#new  (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1623.msg15821.html#new)) is in, I'd like to use these graphics to merge with my "longer research" mod which features the possibility to retrofit captured alien weapons - fenyo's work should allow us to use two seperate ways of manufacturing human plasma weapons :) you can either build them from scratch or use a captured alien plasma weapon.

I pondered both avenues when I was making this mod, but eventually went for building from scratch. The repurposing path otherwise made the player dependent on alien stocks, which eventually would be only Heavy Plasmas, and rifles and pistols would disappear.

If a way to have multiple manufacturing projects produce the same item is implemented, I'll consider updating my mod to add an option to repurpose existing alien weaponry. I'm not entirely sure I will, however, since it'd diminish the scratch-building path considerably, dilute the economic challenge and possibly restore the Heavy Plasma's dominance.

We'll see!
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: crisisdude on November 08, 2013, 07:41:22 am
Hey, so I've been playing with this for a little while now and I was wondering, Is the snap and auto supposed to take the same TU's with the Terran Plasma Pistol?  I just thought it was a little wierd   :P
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Shadow on November 08, 2013, 07:52:35 am
Hey, so I've been playing with this for a little while now and I was wondering, Is the snap and auto supposed to take the same TU's with the Terran Plasma Pistol?  I just thought it was a little wierd   :P

Those are actually the default TU costs of the Plasma Pistol. The only stats I've changed for that weapon, as I've mentioned on the main post, are the ammo and the damage (power).
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: crisisdude on November 08, 2013, 08:49:52 am
K, sorry I haven't used plasma pistols lol.  Great mod tho, i love it soo much
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Shadow on November 08, 2013, 05:10:06 pm
K, sorry I haven't used plasma pistols lol.  Great mod tho, i love it soo much

Thanks! :D
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Hythlodaeus on November 08, 2013, 07:00:15 pm
Visually speaking, why does the Heavy Plasma has a scope if it has such poor accuracy? Also, I'd spice up its auto-fire accuracy a little. It's might weak now. You seriously nerfed one of the best weapons in the game to a nigh-useless status. Remember that in higher difficulties, the heavy plasma is one of the few guns that can successfully pierce sectopod armor. So either make the Heavy Laser a little more accurate, or keep the Heavy Plasma damage the same with a little better accuracy or maybe no auto-fire mode, like TFTD did with sonic weapons.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Shadow on November 09, 2013, 04:07:53 am
Visually speaking, why does the Heavy Plasma has a scope if it has such poor accuracy? Also, I'd spice up its auto-fire accuracy a little. It's might weak now. You seriously nerfed one of the best weapons in the game to a nigh-useless status. Remember that in higher difficulties, the heavy plasma is one of the few guns that can successfully pierce sectopod armor. So either make the Heavy Laser a little more accurate, or keep the Heavy Plasma damage the same with a little better accuracy or maybe no auto-fire mode, like TFTD did with sonic weapons.

By default, the Heavy Plasma's accuracy is second only to the Plasma Rifle's except in aimed shots, in which it's the clear best. For the Terran variants, I only broadened that accuracy gap a bit by making the Plasma Rifle a tad (+10%) more accurate. The Heavy Plasma is unchanged on the precision front, and remains the second-most accurate weapon in the game. Aimed shots, which are the ones that benefit the most from a scope, still have the best accuracy, only now matched by the Plasma Rifle's.

And while it's 0-20 points weaker, it's faster to use and in optimal conditions provides the opportunity to fire a devastating 9-round burst (3 auto shots) in a single turn. It isn't as overpowered as it sounds, and it's a good option to have in some cases. Not to mention allowing troopers to be a bit more mobile and still be able to get shots off.

Going back to the damage front, I'd assume the inability to destroy inner UFO walls is a larger disadvantage than having to fire more shots to kill a Sectopod, an alien unit particularly resistant to plasma weaponry: by default, the Laser Rifle is virtually just as powerful as a Heavy Plasma against Sectopods (90 vs. 92, respectively, which is 90 vs. 84 with this mod). Heavy Lasers are still the best option against them (120)*.


*While Heavy Lasers are otherwise rather underpowered in the vanilla game, they're not made more so by this mod. And modding them is outside the scope of this project.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Hythlodaeus on November 09, 2013, 12:03:24 pm
Ah, I'm sorry. I thought I was reading accuracy values, when I was actually reading speed ones.

As for the damage values, it's really a darn shame you're unable to blow up UFO walls, as it was really useful on tight UFO rooms/corridors.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Yankes on November 10, 2013, 03:59:38 pm
Shadow what do you think about to produce human plasma weapon you need use alien weapon as base?
Logic behind this would be that we cant recreate alien weapon exactly and we need some parts form original to create human version.
It could be more than one alien gun to create new one.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: moriarty on November 10, 2013, 04:16:01 pm
Shadow what do you think about to produce human plasma weapon you need use alien weapon as base?
Logic behind this would be that we cant recreate alien weapon exactly and we need some parts form original to create human version.
It could be more than one alien gun to create new one.

yankes, I just posted the new version of my "slow technological progression" ruleset, take a look at the ruleset (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1723.0.html)... you could modify it to make the manufactures need two or three alien guns, and you could disallow the research that allows for later from-scratch production.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Hobbit Lord on November 10, 2013, 05:52:09 pm
Nice! Once fenyo's pull request ( https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1623.msg15821.html#new  (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1623.msg15821.html#new)) is in, I'd like to use these graphics to merge with my "longer research" mod which features the possibility to retrofit captured alien weapons - fenyo's work should allow us to use two seperate ways of manufacturing human plasma weapons :) you can either build them from scratch or use a captured alien plasma weapon.
Yeah I would love for the mods to work together. Additional human weapons is the perfect counter balance to Moriarty's changes

Also another possibility to boost humans is the Mass Accelerator Technology/'Railgun' by Tyran_nick

Thanks guys
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Shadow on November 10, 2013, 06:43:15 pm
Shadow what do you think about to produce human plasma weapon you need use alien weapon as base?
Logic behind this would be that we cant recreate alien weapon exactly and we need some parts form original to create human version.
It could be more than one alien gun to create new one.

As I said earlier, that makes sense in theory, but in practice eventually you'll only be able to build Heavy Plasmas, because that's all the aliens field after a certain point. I don't like to take that choice away from the player, and besides it dilutes the economic challenge and clashes with my intent to dethrone the Heavy Plasma as the be-all-and-end-all infantry weapon.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Shoes on November 10, 2013, 07:59:00 pm
As I said earlier, that makes sense in theory, but in practice eventually you'll only be able to build Heavy Plasmas, because that's all the aliens field after a certain point. I don't like to take that choice away from the player, and besides it dilutes the economic challenge and clashes with my intent to dethrone the Heavy Plasma as the be-all-and-end-all infantry weapon.

What about requiring an "alien gun" to make any other gun? Or at least a gun as big as the alien gun. So even if only heavy plasmas are around, you can still take one and gut it for parts to build a regular plasma rifle.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Shadow on November 10, 2013, 09:09:26 pm
What about requiring an "alien gun" to make any other gun? Or at least a gun as big as the alien gun. So even if only heavy plasmas are around, you can still take one and gut it for parts to build a regular plasma rifle.

Not sure. And I don't think manufacturing requirements work like that.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: moriarty on November 10, 2013, 09:28:29 pm
I guess your best bet would be a system where you can dismantle alien weapons to obtain "plasma chambers" or something, and you need those to manufacture your own plasma weapons. and while that's certainly possible (thanks to fenyo's manufacturing system improvement, for which I am so thankful that I have to mention it in every second post :D ), it means a lot of clicking and micro-management.

this is probably how the xcom2012 resource system with its "weapon fragments" was developed :)
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Solarius Scorch on March 26, 2014, 10:37:38 pm
Can I please steal the rifle? I would like to use it as an alien sniper rifle for my ItemLevels mod.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: wsmithjr on March 29, 2014, 02:32:14 am
Any plans to implement a sniper weapon?  Haven't tried the mod yet, but that's the first thing I thought of but maybe it's not really needed depending on weapon balance.  Looking forward to trying it out.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Ascadix on April 03, 2014, 01:34:24 am
µI have seen a snipper plasma on other thread https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1971.0 (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1971.0) but it use the alien theme, not the human plasma weapon one.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 03, 2014, 04:08:09 pm
µI have seen a snipper plasma on other thread https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1971.0 (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1971.0) but it use the alien theme, not the human plasma weapon one.

It was built from various parts, but all of them came from here. I just gave it to the aliens, like all standard plasma weapons. (Same with the Plasma Blaster.)
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: xracer on April 05, 2014, 02:07:28 am
Hey i know i am a little late to this discussion.

I had thought to do something similar what i was doing, what i was thinking is to re purpose alien weapons in order to build Terran.
So all weapon will be divided into 3 main components
Power-cell, alien alloy, and (i don't remember the other part :) ), maybe reaction chamber or plasma containment field or something.

In any case when a weapon gets capture from the aliens, X-COM engineers would be able to dismantle and extract these component and later use those components to build Terran version. However you will not recover as much as it was used to build it. This way engineers play a very important role. 
Clearly there would need to be a balance, for example using power cells
extracted power-cell from pistol 1 from rifle 3 and heavy 5.
to build 1 pistol clip you need 3 power-cells, for a rifle clip 5 and a heavy 7 or whatever number works.

just ideas.
Title: Russian translation
Post by: Eduard_Nope on April 16, 2014, 03:47:07 pm
I've added russian translation for this mod. Just replace old ruleset file with that. Everything tested and works fine on my game. Report me if any bugs accured
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Shadow on November 12, 2015, 03:29:36 am
Updated in accordance to the new mod structure.

Posted it at the mod site as well, but the system seems to be buggy at the moment.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Cristao on November 12, 2015, 09:59:14 am
Will 'borrow' your images and sounds when I get to my system. What can I use to recolour the weapons to a grayer blue / green colour?
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Solarius Scorch on November 12, 2015, 01:52:06 pm
Will 'borrow' your images and sounds when I get to my system. What can I use to recolour the weapons to a grayer blue / green colour?

It's best to use Falko's online tools (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,2980.0.html). They are great with palette converting.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: Shadow on November 12, 2015, 03:59:11 pm
Will 'borrow' your images and sounds when I get to my system. What can I use to recolour the weapons to a grayer blue / green colour?

No problem. Just be sure to credit me and Chiko, the original creator of the designs.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: hellrazor on November 19, 2015, 02:36:34 am
No problem. Just be sure to credit me and Chiko, the original creator of the designs.

You could add some pictures towards your Mod on the Modportal, just a suggestion.
If you already added some and are wondering why they do not show up, smething went wrong wghile joshua moved servers.
If you already added pictures towards your mod, you need to reupload them, to make them visible.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: The Reaver of Darkness on December 04, 2015, 12:59:59 pm
As I said earlier, that makes sense in theory, but in practice eventually you'll only be able to build Heavy Plasmas, because that's all the aliens field after a certain point. I don't like to take that choice away from the player, and besides it dilutes the economic challenge and clashes with my intent to dethrone the Heavy Plasma as the be-all-and-end-all infantry weapon.
You can edit the difficulty rule to make the aliens continue using plasma pistols and plasma rifles. They could use those less often as difficulty escalates, but never stop using them entirely.
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: The Reaver of Darkness on December 09, 2015, 01:28:10 am
I'm borrowing this for my mod, but I'll going to tweak the values a bit. Mostly what I want is the basic idea and the artwork! :) Hope you don't mind. I'll give you lots of credit on my mod!
Title: Re: [WEAPON] Terran Plasma Weapons
Post by: UEDCommander on October 22, 2018, 04:22:57 pm
In case anyone, like me, has issues with launching this mod for OXCE, replace your mod's copy TerranPlasmaWeapons.rul file with the attached one.
On default OpenXcom still works with default one.