Limit weapons for certain alien races

[Xangi]

So I'm obviously a bit new to OpenXCom, but I enjoy modding any game I have that supports it. Anyhow, I'd like to know if it'd be possible to restrict certain guns from certain alien races, so that weaker and smaller aliens have to use the smaller guns. It always seemed odd to me that the decaying Ethereals and the tiny Sectoids could hold and fire Heavy Plasma guns just as well as the Mutons and Snakemen.

I've looked through the rulesets a bit but can't find anything too obvious, and how ItemLevels.rul (from a mod, can't remember who made it off the top of my head) works is beyond me, as it just seems to be a bunch of lists of numbers.

[Emre]

What you're trying to do is not called modding, it's called cheating.

[Xangi]

What you're trying to do is not called modding, it's called cheating.

What an unbelievably constructive response. I don't really care if someone considers it cheating, but I would like to know if it CAN be done.

[Aldorn]

What you're trying to do is not called modding, it's called cheating.

[Falko]

i try a more constructive response
there is "alien deployment" in rule set that defines for each ufo what weapons the aliens bring to the fight
you could copy each STR_MEDIUM_SCOUT into STR_MEDIUM_SCOUT_EASY,.. , STR_MEDIUM_SCOUT_HARD to distinguish different weapon assignemnts for intenaly different UFOs
the next step would be to copy alienMissions
from  STR_ALIEN_HARVEST->waves->STR_MEDIUM_SCOUT  to STR_MEDIUM_SCOUT_HARD depending on the propability assigned in raceWeights of the same mission

[moriarty]

so, the simple answer is "no".

the weapon loadouts are defined per UFO mission. so you could define lots of new UFOs to create weak-aliens-with-lightweight-weapons missions and strong-aliens-with-heavy-weapons missions. but if you have a mixed team or there are alien weapons lying around, even a sectoid will pick up a blaster launcher and use it with no penalty.

the idea of restricting certain weapons would make sense, but then again, the aliens are by definition strong enough to carry their equipment. even the puny ones

[Xangi]

Hmm, well, at least I know it can be done. Maybe if I have a mountain of free time or something.

Thanks.

[wsmithjr]

What you're trying to do is not called modding, it's called cheating.

This is no more cheating than trying to recover armor from corpses which is not part of the original game balance.

They are both things that make sense to me.

How can i get back the armor from my dead men?

[Zargul]

What you're trying to do is not called modding, it's called cheating.

Even a Cheat can be a Modification.

Honestly his Idea is a very good and logical one.
In the new X-Com for example, Sectoids are never carrying heavy Plasma-Weapons.
Etherals don't carry a weapon at all but are then protected by Elite-Mutons.

I don't see the reason why this logic cannot fit OpenXcom.

[Solarius Scorch]

Even the heaviest alien weapons are so light that even Sectoids should have no problem using them. A loaded Heavy Plasma only weighs 11 units, which is as much as a loaded Rifle. By the way, even they have Strength 30, so their muscles are actually quite efficient (underestimating them can be a deadly mistake).

Having said that, separate loadouts for various races would be extremely handy for modding, especially projects like Piratez. Peerhaps for the vanilla game too.

[MKSheppard]

How about special weapons for certain alien races?

Psonically powered blaster?  for ethereals?

Heavy Cannon style automatic plasma blaster for mutons?

[Solarius Scorch]

How about special weapons for certain alien races?

Psonically powered blaster?  for ethereals?

Heavy Cannon style automatic plasma blaster for mutons?

Yes please.

[MKSheppard]

Snakemen having a venomous 'bite' special HTH attack that inflicts x amount of fatal wounds automatically?

Etc.

There's more we can do to make each alien race unique other than slightly different stats and graphics.