[MOD IDEA] plasma decay

[moriarty]

okay, this is just a vague idea at the moment, but it's been creeping up on me several times, so perhaps it's worth thinking through, and perhaps somebody would like to chime in.

what if the plasma used for weapons was decaying over time?

I'm not talking about "on the battlefield", since that's mere minutes (...in fact, 0 minutes...) of global time. but perhaps within hours after "charging" the plasma clips? the fluff text explanation would be that the plasma clips are in effect miniature plasma containment cells, and are filled with a ready-to-use high-energy plasma before the battle. the charging of the clip takes a few minutes, so it can't be done on-the-fly. once the plasma is in the containment, it can either be used or it decays within hours.


- plasma clips are effectively non-recoverable. you can pick them up on the battlefield, you can use them in the battle, but you can't bring 'em home. until you learn to manufacture them, you can only use what you scavenge in the current battle.

- elerium becomes more important. especially in late-game situations where you have lots of plasma weapons, you need to think twice about actually using them, and should avoid relying on them entirely.

- the tactical battle might become more interesting, because now it actually makes sense to pick up the weapons of dead aliens (or at least their plasma clips)

- you could still manufacture clips, but if you bring them into a battle, you lose them, whether you used them or not. (this might cause problems for base defense missions... not sure how to resolve that)

- the same principle should, of course, apply to the craft weapon. it should be reduced to something like 10 shots, and use elerium for re-charging. since there's no such thing as a "non-recoverable" switch for craft ammo, we could simply claim that due to the larger containment cell in the craft weapon, the plasma decay rate is greatly reduced (years instead of hours).


comments? criticism? sounds fun or boring?

[Shoes]

Isn't there an option to make weapons destroy on alien death, requiring you to stun enemies to get their weapons, like in XCOM2012? I feel like that mod is better than this idea. Makes senes in the lore, is not frustrating for the player, is reasonable, etc.

My main question for this mod idea is this : what's the point? Is it to add difficulty? Is it to promote grabbing alien weapons and using them off the battlefield? Is it to promote the use of other weapons instead if simply saying "oh I have plasma tech now, everyone gets plasma"?

As a criticism of the idea itself, I would suggest making the guns one-time-use instead of the clips; imagine that they have to be fueled at the base before the mission and the energy can't be conserved between missions. I just really don't like the idea of "filling the clips with plasma" or something, because it's the elerium clip that's powering the gun to create plasma.

[moriarty]

Isn't there an option to make weapons destroy on alien death

yeah, that's an advanced option. I don't think that it "makes sense in the lore" at all, though it is a valid tactical option in a gameplay sense, though, making the game more interesting.

Is it to promote grabbing alien weapons and using them off the battlefield? Is it to promote the use of other weapons instead if simply saying "oh I have plasma tech now, everyone gets plasma"?

these two, mainly. I'm a big fan of nerfing plasma weapons, because I think they are overpowered. and I like the idea of a guerilla-like warfare, starting out with next-to-nothing and looting stuff and using it.

As a criticism of the idea itself, I would suggest making the guns one-time-use instead of the clips; imagine that they have to be fueled at the base before the mission and the energy can't be conserved between missions. I just really don't like the idea of "filling the clips with plasma" or something, because it's the elerium clip that's powering the gun to create plasma.

...? I can understand your point, even though your argument is based on a fictitious science fact that is entirely open for discussion itself. but how exactly is "making the weapon one-time-use" better, within that frame of thinking?


your points are all valid, though. I think my idea is better suited for a FPS or single-player-unit kind of game (or an RPG, for that matter), not so much for a squad-based tactical game.