[WEAPON] (Updated v.1.01) Heat-Ray Weapons + new melee weapon

[civilian]

I wanted to make a tiny weapon mod from scratch with sounds, icons and everything made by myself, and here is the result so far.

Heat-Ray Rifle/Pistol Mod v.1.0

Just a tiny mod that adds Heat-Ray Rifles and Pistols to the game, they have to be researched after the Laser Craft Cannon (only one research) and do heat=infra-red=incendiary damage without igniting things.

They use no clips, BUT to compensate for that, they are very heavy (and i mean that), cost a lot of Alloys and Elerium to produce and do roughly comparable damage to the default-game Laser Weapons, making them hopefully balanced. On top of that you need to remember that Chryssalids and Snakeman are rather resistant against heat=infra-red=incendiary weapons (unlike most other aliens). So the average Heat-Ray weapon is a decent weapon against most enemies, but it is not the only weapon you will ever need.

And here some special things about those weapons:
They use FIXED TU-costs, meaning that you can fire more often with experienced troops. Rookies with ~50 TU's  will e.g. usually be able to fire 2 times only, a late-game soldier with 80 TU's can fire 3 times.
The Rifle does NOT have a snap-fire mode, that's intentional. It's supposed to reflect the fact that this weapon is too heavy and cumbersome. And it forces you to provide (reaction-fire) cover for those carrying the Rifle, making both weapons useful.

There are also custom firing sounds.

The terms rifle and pistol are somewhat false for the heat-ray weapons, they are more like a mix of weapons, the "Pistol" being more like an assault rifle/pistol mix, and the "Rifle" being more like a cannon/Rifle mix.

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version 1.01 small balance change and uploaded Power-Glove
version 1.0 now with working hand/floor-objects and small text-tweaks ^o^
version 0.9 original release with place-holder-hand-objects

MAYBE planned: MAYBE a similar-themed melee weapon to complete the pack

Feel free to use this files in any way you want. No need to ask or say anything. Civilian 2014

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Updated to v.1.01 WITH  handobjects and small balance change

now also on the modportal: https://www.openxcom.com/mod/heat-ray-weapons


the 3rd pic is a preview of the melee-weapon (Power-Glove), you can find it here:
https://www.openxcom.com/mod/power-glove

[yrizoud]

I haven't had the time to test it yet, but it looks lovely - I especially like the color scheme, it will make it easy to see in battle who is using these weapons.
You compare it with laser, but I think the role of these weapons is closer to plasma pistol and rifle. It's especially useful in late game, because power armors give immunity to fire damage, so these weapons can safely be used when aliens use mind control.

I can have a try at the hand objs, if you want.

[Solarius Scorch]

Haha, cute hair dryers!

I haven't checked them yet, but based on your description here, they are interesting and have some potential. My initial thoughts:

- Incendiary-based damage is a bit of a niche. Good idea.
- No clips is logical, since we have the lasers.
- How heavy is very heavy? I wonder if they really use up so much energy compared to, say, the Heavy Laser to warrant a significantly greater weight.
- Why do you need Elerium to make these, since you don't need it for the lasers? Again, are they really more power-hungry?
- Fixed TU costs is an interesting feature, but I don't know understand why it's applied here. Considering the fact that heat is transferred gradually, heat rays seem to be the exact opposite: no matter how fast the soldier is, they won't deal much more damage per, say, 10 seconds, because the ray has its own dynamics. I'd rather use fixed TUs for something else, if anything (melee seems particularly suitable).

That't it really. You've got something interesting here, I'll check them out soon.

[civilian]

I haven't had the time to test it yet, but it looks lovely - I especially like the color scheme, it will make it easy to see in battle who is using these weapons.
You compare it with laser, but I think the role of these weapons is closer to plasma pistol and rifle. It's especially useful in late game, because power armors give immunity to fire damage, so these weapons can safely be used when aliens use mind control.

I can have a try at the hand objs, if you want.

Ha, gee, thanks, but I wish you had offered me that help earlier, I spent a whole night figthing with the hand-objects graphics :-D
I ended up by using files I had from other mods and editing them, making them from scratch proved to be too dificult for me. 

Still, the file is done! 

Oh and the laser comparison was only referring to the weapon's strength, not the role. You are right, they work more like Plasmas

[civilian]

Haha, cute hair dryers!

- How heavy is very heavy? I wonder if they really use up so much energy compared to, say, the Heavy Laser to warrant a significantly greater weight.
- Why do you need Elerium to make these, since you don't need it for the lasers? Again, are they really more power-hungry?
- Fixed TU costs is an interesting feature, but I don't know understand why it's applied here. Considering the fact that heat is transferred gradually, heat rays seem to be the exact opposite: no matter how fast the soldier is, they won't deal much more damage per, say, 10 seconds, because the ray has its own dynamics. I'd rather use fixed TUs for something else, if anything (melee seems particularly suitable).

That't it really. You've got something interesting here, I'll check them out soon.

Yeah, the hairdryer style was inspired by the TFTD Gauss weaponry, BUT the graphics are really made from scratch. Initially I was trying a triangle-shaped weapon but it looked very unrealistic, so i made it more like the G-11 prototype weapon of the 80's, added a grip on the top (for the rifle) like the M-15 has and there you are. The color was  chosen to fit nicely to the Sunfire Armour AND it was meant to be something else from the already existing weapons, without being to shiny.

For the weight /heavyness see the attached inventory screens^ 28 for the pistol and 36 for the rifle. About the Elerium need: I wanted to balance them a bit, I always felt the clip-less lasers are unbalanced (and thus use the laser-clip-mod) and wanted to avoid another limitless weapon.

About the fixed TU's: I was trying to go a new way, make something unique. Trust me, it is really rewarding to see that your best soldier has suddenly a real bonus when using these weapons. It pays off to care for your squad now and not use them as expendale cannon-fodder   

About the Melee weapon...: see readme^

[winterheart]

Offtop: what wrong with fonts in Ufopaedia screens?

[civilian]

I am using the PSX-fonts mod by Amiga.

[winterheart]

Yes, but what is "grid" over entire image?

[SupSuper]

Yes, but what is "grid" over entire image?

He's using a display filter that turns the dithered pixels into a cross-stitch pattern.

[civilian]

^What SupSuper said. The Shader I use is the SABR one. There also exists a better modded SABR2 shader that does not have those gridlines, but sadly it is a real performance hog. https://www.openxcom.com/mod/sabr-xcomified

Oh and just in case you wonder about the Belt inventory: I am using an edited version of the QuickDraw mod, I attached it for anyone who wants it, but beware it slightly lowers all inventory TU costs, too.

[Aldorn]

French Translation (from 1.01)

Code: [Select]

  - type: fr
    strings:
      STR_HEATRAY_RESEARCH: Armement Thermique
      STR_HEATRAYRIFLE: Fusil Thermique
      STR_HEATRAYPISTOL: Pistolet Thermique
      STR_HEATRAYRIFLE_TEXT: Le Fusil Thermique projette un rayon infrarouge à haute intensité qui tire son énergie d'une puissante et imposante batterie à Elerium-115.  Ne nécessite aucun chargeur de munitions.
      STR_HEATRAYPISTOL_TEXT: Le Pistolet Thermique, capable de projeter un puissant rayon infrarouge, tire son énergie d'une batterie à Elerium-115 et s'affranchit de tout chargeur de munitions.


[Avalanche]

I really like the heat ray idea. Incendiary is a damage type which is pretty much unused. Is there any chance you could add a snap shot to the rifle though? It seems kind of odd to just have aimed and auto

[Solarius Scorch]

I really like the heat ray idea. Incendiary is a damage type which is pretty much unused. Is there any chance you could add a snap shot to the rifle though? It seems kind of odd to just have aimed and auto

Not having a snap mode prevents the weapon from reaction-firing, perhaps that's the idea?

[civilian]

Yep, that was the idea, it makes both weapons useful, the smaller one providing cover for the bigger one. But feel free to add a snap-shot to the RUL file, just open it in Notepad++ (freeware) and add them it is very easy, trust me. 

[niculinux]

Nice thnks, but don't get offended but don't like their design, personally    please may you redesing them.