ok, this is kinda tricky, and I need some help - or possibly a code addition. I'm not sure.
I'm trying to create a shaped charge explosive that allows xcom operatives to breach UFO walls: something that can destroy walls, but is almost non-usable as a weapon.
I could simply make a "higher explosive", but the 360° blast is really inconvenient. something that would be capable of destroying a UFO wall would level a lot of terrain around the UFO, possibly including the soldier who used it.
I was then thinking about severely reducing the explosion radius, but that would make it an exceptionally powerful grenade - you could use it to kill a sectopod with hardly any collateral damage!
next I thought about making it a single-use melee weapon: your soldier would have to stand in front of the wall and "hit" the wall. unfortunately, melee only works against live targets - you cannot "hit" items or terrain.
I now arrived at a single-shot "weapon" type device. it uses the graphics of the High Explosive, but has "battleType: 1" with "maxRange: 1" and "power: 150", meaning that it can be fired into an adjacent tile with enough power to have a high chance of breaching a UFO outer wall (it can fail, though - my first field test left the wall standing and me wondering what I did wrong).
I set "clipSize: 1" to simulate an explosive device. it performs nicely in that it can be used to breach a UFO at a high TU cost (80%), and disappears after use... unfortunately, it reappears after combat, due to the programmed properties of single-use items.
is there anything else I might try? some other way of implementing it? another item type I can use?