[WEAPON] Minigun 1.8b

[Solarius Scorch]

This is my very first project for Open X-Com: a simple weapon mod in the vein of Ryskeliini's works.

It adds a minigun, a human weapon that has a shocking 20 bullet autoshot. While this number may seem totally off the scale, the weapon isn't really overpowered, as the bullets are weak and rather inaccurate; plus the entire thing is heavy and cumbersome as hell. Still, it is fun to mow down trees with hail of ammo, so I hope at least some of you will like it. Also contains a big ammo pack.



All sprites were made by me, although the basic picture was heavily modified from some 3D artwork found on the net (author unknown).

Special thanks to Ryskeliini for his amazing work and providing the weapon sound!

This mod is available on mod.io.

EDIT 1: By popular demand, I added a similar, but lighter version, somewhat based on Warboy's ideas. I don't like the bigob yet, so I'll probably upgrade it soon; for now, enjoy what you have.
Also I admit it was put together in a hurry and not tested as much as I'd like. Please tell me if anything's wrong.

EDIT 2: Added a minigun HWP. For now it looks like the Tank/Cannon, but I'll try to do something about this.

EDIT 3: New sprites for the Light Minigun - courtesy of Wicked Wirtz, who allowed me to use his old X-Com mod: https://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/new-weapons-mod/

EDIT 4: Big changes!

• Added Scatter Laser, which is a "laser minigun". Sprite made by Dioxine, based on Chiko's sprite.
• Nerfed accuracy of all Miniguns by 5.
• Added ammo need for Tank/Minigun (200 bullets max).
• Added Tank/Minigun sprites (new turret).

EDIT 5: Fixes, new translations.

EDIT 6: New upload of the mod, since the old one was clashing with another mod on the page. Updated to the new mod system.

EDIT 7: Now the zip is also here, since reportedly the mod portal is being difficult.

EDIT 8: The portal is dead, dead and dead, so I've moved it the new mod portal (this one is actually good). Long live the king! I also fixed the handobs.

[crisisdude]

Is there gonna be a download link?

[Solarius Scorch]

I'm getting "Error 503 Service Unavailable" when adding an attachment, please be patient

EDIT: Done!

[Quixote]

Isn't the auto cannon from the original game in fact a minigun? That's what I always thought at least

[Solarius Scorch]

Isn't the auto cannon from the original game in fact a minigun? That's what I always thought at least

Yes and no. Auto Cannon indeed has multiple barrels, but it fires large, heavy bullets, while the classic video game minigun fires bullets that aren't stronger than a rifle, just a ton of them. This is what I was going for anyway (actually my minigun bullets are even weaker than rifle ammo).

[Quixote]

I don't like the idea of a minigun with wimpy bullets.. maybe you could also balance it in other ways ?

[Solarius Scorch]

I don't like the idea of a minigun with wimpy bullets.. maybe you could also balance it in other ways ?

Well, we could give it only 10 shots instead of 20 and make it stronger, say power 35... But that would mean less fire suppression, and that's what minigun is supposed to do. It's not as much a killing weapon as a suppressor. So I wouldn't like going there, since we already have Auto Cannon.
Also, the real world minigun fires 7.62 mm ammo, which basically is normal machine gun ammo. But it also weighs 50 kg, so a human-sized weapon must be lighter (and is still really heavy).

[Align]

Suppressing what, exactly? 35 (average) damage seems like it would glance off of alien armor an awful lot, and it's not like you can intimidate the AI.

[Solarius Scorch]

Suppressing what, exactly? 35 (average) damage seems like it would glance off of alien armor an awful lot, and it's not like you can intimidate the AI.

I was referring to theoretical real life applications. In X-Com, it just mows down terrain and unfortunate aliens.
And don't worry, it kills them good. I wouldn't release a useless weapon, would I?

[yrizoud]

And the current stats make it a bit too easy to creep up on a tough-skinned enemy and unleash 20 bullets in its back. Won't harm it, but immediate maximum experience for this mission !

[Solarius Scorch]

And the current stats make it a bit too easy to creep up on a tough-skinned enemy and unleash 20 bullets in its back. Won't harm it, but immediate maximum experience for this mission !

If you manage to do something like this, you deserve the damn XP But it's really hard to do, you can't really move if you intend to fire this turn.
Anyway, a Sectoid normally dies after being hit once or twice... But if you really want to kick a Muton in the ass, be my guest

[Quixote]

In real life, miniguns are not for suppression, they are for killing and destroying aircraft and light vehicles and everything that isnt heavily armoured. And they are not carried by soldiers, as I am sure you already know.

So, I could imagine it would be interesting to put your minigun on a HWP, let it be quite destructive, but restrict ammo (to reflect that even though you have a lot of ammo on board, the sheer rate of fire would chew through it in no time)

Just a suggestion..

[Solarius Scorch]

Yes, they're not actually used nowadays by troopers. AFAIK they were supposed to by used by infantry to clear landing areas and root out enemy soldiers from cover, but they could never solve the problem with the power supply, which in the 70's - 80's would have to weigh at least 40 kg. Therefore the idea was only realized in fiction, most notably in Predator.

With today's energy storage technology, used in cellular phones and such, this technological barrier is no longer a problem. However, due to the change of war doctrine, nobody is really interested in hand-held miniguns. Hence my minigun, like other gamey miniguns, is a theoretical weapon based on what could have been.

As for putting a minigun on a HWP, it's not a bad idea at all. I think I'll include it in an upgrade, thanks!
(I think I'll stick to the same clip size though, for technical reasons: a different clip size would require a whole new weapon.)

[Ran]

I think this would be perfect for HWPs, think of it as a M61 Vulcan Gatling Autocannon firing at 6.000 RPM
I'd love to see that, the standard Tank / Cannon isn't very useful IMHO.

[Quixote]

he problem with the power supply, which in the 70's - 80's would have to weigh at least 40 kg.

With today's energy storage technology, used in cellular phones and such, this technological barrier is no longer a problem. However, due to the change of war doctrine, nobody is really interested in hand-held miniguns.

That's actually interesting, i always thought the problem was the weight of the ammo, not the power source.. and also that in real life combat, a regular machinegun has high enough rate of fire But would be interesting to see a real life minigun in action. I guess it would be mounted on a portable tripod.