Aircraft's Plasma beam recharge by Elerium 115

[redv]

Plasma beam do obsolete Avalanche missile.
Plasma beam is perfect and infinite weapon, because very powerful and have not ammunition.
All alien's technology based on the use Elerium 115.

The suggestion.
Plasma beam must recharge by Elerium 115.
This does not contradict the logic.
This does not change balance of the Game, but will be small change in gameplay.
Player can not to make a lot of Plasma beam and mount it to all aircrafts, because he is limited by available Elerium 115.
Player must to know: one shot – one precious Elerium 115.

This is could be option in "Xcom1Ruleset.rul".
For example:
- type: STR_PLASMA_BEAM_UC
…
clip: STR_ELERIUM_115

All true for Hovertank plasma.

I tried to change the ruleset. The game drop out with error:
"yaml-cpp: error at line 1508, column 1: illegal tab when looking for indetntation"

[moriarty]

makes sense to me. absolutely.

[anonilsus]

Elerium is already the most sparce resource in the game. I don't which difficulty you attempt to play on but from Veteran and higher that would really break the balance.

[redv]

Elerium is already the most sparce resource in the game. I don't which difficulty you attempt to play on but from Veteran and higher that would really break the balance.

Now I play on "Genius" level. From begin of Game (now 18 april) I took from alien ships near 1000 Elerium-115. Half of them I spent to make Plasma beams, Power Suits, Flying Suits, Psi-amps.
Now I have 500 Elerium-115 and I don't need to make more equipment. Elerium-115 need only as fuel for Avenger.

I don't see the break of balance.

You can to save Elerium-115.
For example, you can mount on aircraft one Plasma beam and one Avalanche launcher.

[luke83]

Wouldnt this be a simply rule to turn within the Ruleset if a player wants to add it? Sure i imagein it will take a line of code or 10 to setup but its not very different to most other weapons...

[moriarty]

so redv, I understand you tried to implement that in the ruleSet, but it returned an error? I'm unfortunately not very good at ruleSet editing, so I can't halp you. perhaps somebody else can?

having this option makes complete sense, as I said, but still it needs to be an option - "vanilla" openxcom should be as close to the original as possible, at least from the game mechanics like what weapon uses what kind of ammo.

also, now that we can disable craft weapons temporarily by clicking them, elerium conservation shouldn't be a problem, because you can choose to switch off the plasma beam and use avalanches instead, and if they run out, you can turn on the beam to finish the UFO off.

[redv]

Moriarty, much simpler.

For example, I did next change (for test):
in section
- type: STR_AVALANCHE
I changed string
clip: STR_AVALANCHE_MISSILES
to
clip: STR_PISTOL
then Avalanche launcher successful reloaded by Pistols)

The Game is very flexible! I am amazed!

Default option for Plasma beam may be
clip: STR_NONE (for example)
Everybody can change his Ruleset as he wish.
I think,
clip: STR_ELERIUM_115
is very useful.

Range of Avalanche missiles is 60 km. Range of Plasma beam 52 km.
You don't need to disable Plasma beam during air combat.

[SupSuper]

Plasma beam do obsolete Avalanche missile.
Plasma beam is perfect and infinite weapon, because very powerful and have not ammunition.
All alien's technology based on the use Elerium 115.

The suggestion.
Plasma beam must recharge by Elerium 115.
This does not contradict the logic.
This does not change balance of the Game, but will be small change in gameplay.
Player can not to make a lot of Plasma beam and mount it to all aircrafts, because he is limited by available Elerium 115.
Player must to know: one shot – one precious Elerium 115.

This is could be option in "Xcom1Ruleset.rul".
For example:
- type: STR_PLASMA_BEAM_UC
…
clip: STR_ELERIUM_115

All true for Hovertank plasma.

I tried to change the ruleset. The game drop out with error:
"yaml-cpp: error at line 1508, column 1: illegal tab when looking for indentation"

The message should be self-explanatory. YAML is very fussy about whitespace, you need to line up the text with spaces, not tabs (which text editors might try to insert for you). Besides that, what you're asking is totally possible with rulesets, although given Plasma Beams have 99 ammo, you will be burning 99 Elerium-115 on a full reload.

[redv]

It work! Thank you.
Tab was source of problem.

This config work well:
  - type: STR_PLASMA_BEAM_UC
    sprite: 5
    sound: 9
    damage: 140
    range: 52
    accuracy: 50
    reloadCautious: 12
    reloadStandard: 12
    reloadAggressive: 12
    ammoMax: 100
    rearmRate: 1
    launcher: STR_PLASMA_BEAM
    clip: STR_ELERIUM_115

From the first game in the original Xcom I wanted change this parameter.

[moriarty]

given the strength of the plasma beam and the physics behind it, I always thought it doesn't make sense for it to have unlimited (a.k.a. 99) ammo. if you use the beam with these parameters, it will gobble 100 units of elerium when first installed on a ship, right? maybe change the ammoMax to 25 or something? it would make more sense in terms of believability and consistency, don't you think?

[redv]

I tested different rules and found a balance:
  - type: STR_PLASMA_BEAM_UC
…
    ammoMax: 50
    rearmRate: 5
    launcher: STR_PLASMA_BEAM
    clip: STR_ELERIUM_115

Need only 10 Elerium-115 and 10 hours for first recharge.
Basic problem of rearmRate 1 – too long recharge. Long recharge is not playable.

For example, reactor of Avenger also loaded 5 at once (default rule):
- type: STR_AVENGER
    sprite: 2
    fuelMax: 60
…
    refuelItem: STR_ELERIUM_115
    refuelRate: 5

[Yankes]

Why dont made new ammo type, that is made from ELERIUM 115?
It can be 10 rounds form 1 elerium.

[redv]

May be. But, I looking for easy way to use Elerium-115 for Plasma beam, some limit this powerful weapon and not contradict in-game UFOpedia.

[wsmithjr]

I know this is an old thread, but I'm late to the party and like this idea.

I'm thinking, that if you need Elerium to fuel the cannon and even to charge it for first use on the aircraft, then you shouldn't have Elerium as a cost to build it.  Just require Alien Alloys and then Elerium to fuel.  Lessens the Elerium impact but still requires careful use and consideration rather than just mounting them on everything because nothing can touch it.  Haven't compared, but you'd also probably want to tweak the Fusion Ball Launcher so you have a viable option to the Plasma Cannon.