Author Topic: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded - v1.03  (Read 131927 times)

Offline Arthanor

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[Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded - v1.03
« on: July 24, 2014, 08:23:34 pm »
Version 1.03 is there!

This mod was created with the aim of diversifying the game play and equipment used while going through the game. It is intended to be used whole, but it comes in many parts that all should (..!) work by themselves. This allows YOU to pick and chose which mod to use (even only one!) and design the experience YOU want. If you think something is missing, let me know!

Together, the mods combine to create a longer game in which your squads are outfitted with successive tiers of equipment, always improving. This adds more demand from your materials (ever ran out of Alien Alloys? You might!), workshops (producing the latest armour/weapon/craft) and lab (there is a LOT more to research), making the game longer and more strategically challenging.

I have found the extension of the game time to work well, smoothing the progression instead of having a series of underpowered to OP quick transitions (getting laser rifles, power/flight suits, heavy plasma, psi).

This mod is intended to be used along with the Alien Armoury Expanded.

I strongly recommend using the additional races (gazer, waspite/cover, anthropod, mechtoid), Terrain Pack, Mission Pack and YetMoreUFOs as well, since they add a lot of variety in engagements.

Although not integrated in the XCom Armoury Expanded, the following mods are fully compatible and I have enjoyed using them in my campaigns:
- GravArmors
- GuidedMissiles
- MoriartyPlasmaCannon
- Stun Grenade

This mod is build in a modular way, with a selection of rules files that build upon each others while still being mostly independent (ie rarely do you need one mod to make another one work and they will never break each other). All weapons and crafts are balanced together to ensure they are all relevant at some point in the game. The modules are:

Basic Modules:
- XCom Armoury Expanded: Adds shotgun and sniper rifle equivalents for ballistic and laser weapons, along with a reskin of laser weapons to make them all follow the same aesthetic (from the original laser rifle). Credits: Warboy for the shotgun and sniper rifle, Chiko and Aldorn for the laser weapon reskin.

- XCom Armoury Expanded Crafts: The XCom answer to new UFOs, along with a craft weapon re-balance to make air combat more challenging (Credit: Istrebitel). This adds:
+ Obstructor: An Interceptor with Alien Alloy hull, making it lighter (a bit faster) and more resistant to damage.
+ Retaliator: An further improved Interceptor using Alien Alloy and UFO Navigation. Credits: Shadow
+ Thunderstorm: A fast, one weapon “interdictor” to quickly respond to small threats. Credits: Tyran_nick
+ Raven: The first XCom craft designed using UFO Construction, from an industry prototype (which would have become what is in XCom2012, but the aliens showed up in 1999!). It outclasses the Interceptor family, requires Elerium to build but not to fly. Credits: MickTheMage
+ Sentinel: A tough, lumbering behemoth of the sky who can take damage like few others. The counterpart to the Firestorm speed. Credits: Warboy.
+ Skywarden: A Skyranger with Alien Alloy hull, making it tougher and able to sport two side doors for rapid deployment without compromising a safe landing in alien controlled space.
+ Skyguardian: The pinnacle of the Sky-transport family, responsive enough to intercept crafts with its one weapon, able to carry 16 soldiers and deploy them through two side doors and a back ramp.

Expansion Modules:
- XAE Research and Manufacture: My take on what research should be like in XCom. No more quick plasma access, or even lasers. Everything takes work. Recommended to use with other Expansion Modules to widen your weapon options, since there is no early laser rifles and heavy plasmas anymore. Credits: NeoWorm for laser and TurkishSwede for plasma research.
- XAE Alloy Ammo: Adds new ammunition for all ballistic weapons, increasing the AP damage capabilities. Credits: moriarty
- XAE Utility: Adds utility weapons (Combat Knife, Taser, Grenade Launcher, Single Shot Rocket Launcher, Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher) to widen the selection available at the beginning of the game. A complement to the XAE Alloy Ammo, to help you survive the early game while going through the longer research tree. Credits: Ryskeliini
- XAE Gauss: Adds Gauss weapons as a complement to Laser weapons. High precision, low rate of fire, to contrast with the rapid-fire lasers.
- XAE Gauss DE Ammo: A new ammunition for Gauss weapons, made of Depleted Elerium.
- XAE Elerium Lasers: Laser weapons using an elerium lens to better focus their beams (see XCom-Interceptor), an improvement on the regular laser, on par with Gauss weapons with DE Ammo.
- XAE Advanced Weapons: Adds a Laser Blaster and Gauss Launcher to XCom's weapons, which take over the AutoCannon and Heavy Cannon roles, respectively, with tiers to follow the Laser and Gauss progression.
- XAE Elerium Missiles: A new missile type for XCom crafts, requires Elerium Bombs from the Alien Armoury Expanded.
- XAE Small Bombs: Two new bombs for the small launcher, available as soon as it is researched. An explosive bomb (damage a little higher than a grenade) and a smoke bomb. Allows the Small Launcher to replace the Grenade Launcher in mid/late-game. Still compatible with Elerium Bombs (but has to be loaded AFTER the Alien Armoury Expanded, otherwise the new bombs won't work).
- XAE Imp MediKit: An Improved MediKit which heals more hp per fatal wounds, leading to healthier operatives on the field and shorter recovery times. Requires Alien Tech research.
- XAE MagArmor: A personal armour variant surrounding the operative with a strong magnetic field to deflect incoming plasma. Also uses the MindLink Interface to boost firing accuracy and reactions.
- XAE Scout Armour: A lighter, faster personal armour variant, perfect for scouting duties.
- XAE Power Suits and Armours: Moves Power and Flying Suits to a mid-tier armour instead of the early access, almost impervious armour it is normally. A new series of Power Armour and Flying Armour is introduced, which takes over the endgame armour role.
- XAE Tanks:
+ An all new tier of tanks with alloy hulls. (Currently.. overpowered? They have the same armor as hovertanks which might be too much.. Let me know!)
+ A complete rework of tanks to be modular: Hull and Weapon are separate. You can now replace the obsolete cannon turret with a shiny new laser cannon, or put a rocket launcher on your hovertanks! (For those who want "regular tanks", an alternate ruleset will be coming soon)
+ Destroyed tank hulls are repairable, to work along the new armours and the changes made by the GravArmors mod (Strongly recommended, to be incorporated eventually) which allow infantry armour to be repaired. Tank weapons are destroyed, however, as the aliens always make sure to take them out.
- Tanks Simple: An alternate Tanks Expansion module which enables "vanilla" build and field behavior for tanks. It is simpler but does not offer the same opportunity as the XAE Tanks mod.
(NOTE: FOR OBVIOUS REASONS, THE TWO TANKS MODULES ARE NOT COMPATIBLE, CHOOSE ONE OR THE OTHER
- Elerium Explosives: Proxy grenades, High explosives, Rocket, AutoCannon and Heavy Cannon explosive ammo using Elerium for more damage. A ressource intensive way to get more damage on those pesky cyberdiscs.
- Attack Dogs: Dioxine's original Attack Dog, now with an improved Armoured Attack Dog variant, with more transport capability. Currently, both "hands" of the dogs are taken, preventing it from using weapons (in Nightly version). Once I figure out how to make it work, this mod will include the "Dog Warning System" (ie a motion scanner for dogs).


====Original First Post====
I just recently joined the community and it is very cool to see so much work going into this old gem of a game!

Although my first reaction upon seeing mods was: "Pff, the original was fine", I am quickly realizing the value of all the tweaks and improvements that are coming from the community. One thing that I still have issues with, however, is the variety and overlap between certain mods.

Many new weapons, many new crafts, all sort of addressing similar issues in different ways. Inspired by the Alien Armoury Expanded, I think a "XCom Armoury Expanded" would be a great addition, to pull together some of the great work that has been done here. Very much like the AAE, this mod will try to keep its content streamlined to things that are in direct continuation of the original. No fancy new weapons class as I think that deserves its own mod. Just a (fair) few new crafts, and some additional variety for wargear.

I first intend to work on the crafts, to create
- XCom_Armory_Expanded_Crafts:
  - Alloy Crafts (both Interceptors and Skyrangers)
  - SkyTransit
  - Retaliator
  - Thunderstorm
  - Raven
  - Sentinel
  - A stat rebalance to keep everything relevant (inspired by the "air combat rebalanced" mod)
  - Updated Tech Tree

The second part will be the XCom_Armory_Expanded itself, to add:
- laser sniper rifle and scatter laser (as counterparts of the new plasma weapons in the AAE)
- regular sniper rifle and shotgun (as above)
- A light stat rebalance
- Updated Tech Tree including making plasma more difficult to use.

The aim is to combine with the Alien version and provide an expanded game experience that is still very close to the original game. Other mods can then be grafted on, for example more realistic starting weapons, altogether new weapons/armors, new aliens, etc. to create a different experience.

As it is, I have a draft for the craft stat changes, as well as an idea of the new craft tech tree. Stats will be tweaked in order to obtain a progression in both fighters and transporters and to try to maintain relevance of a variety of crafts later in game. As such, it will look like:

Interceptor -> Alloy Interceptor -> Retaliator
Skyranger -> Alloy Skyranger -> Skywarden
With diminishing rent as more alien components replace earth ones, but still keeping some to represent fuel use.

As a supplement to the Retaliator, the Thunderstorm will be a fast and still rather resilient craft aimed at taking out small and deadly UFOs (ex.: the fighter from AAE) but with only one weapon hard point preventing it from taking on larger targets unless in swarms.

The Raven is included as the first human craft using entirely alien components, unlocked after UFO construction. Slower and weaker than the firestorm, it uses a "slow burning Elerium Reactor" which requires elerium and power source at construction but not later.

The Firestorm is improved by making it faster to repair because of the modular structure of saucer crafts and making it more fuel efficient.

The Sentinel changes in role to a heavy support craft, its resilience allowing it to accompany Avengers in taking out the largest UFOs.

The lightning gains the same engine as the raven and faster repairs being a saucer craft. It is aimed at intercepting small UFOs independently and delivering a small, relatively adept crew to recover the UFO. No need to send a fighter and your full skyranger crew to take down escort UFOs, so save on hangar/maintenance/rent/fuel.

The Avenger is unchanged, remaining the king of the skies. And the tech tree is attached. The hybrid crafts are their own branch, that will be relatively quick to research since they are based on well known Earth designs. The craft themselves will also be quick to manufacture, to represent the delivery of ready made earth parts to the workshop, XCom only having to work on the alien components. Conversely, the late-game 100% UFO based crafts will take much longer to research and manufacture.

_________________________________________
                  ======>NEWS<======
_________________________________________
Current: Version 1.03 of the mod is now available! Armoured Attack Dogs!
« Last Edit: November 12, 2014, 06:38:00 pm by Arthanor »

Online Solarius Scorch

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2014, 02:11:04 am »
I'll certainly be watching this thread...

Dibs on adding new stuff to the Final Mod Pack! :D

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2014, 02:44:26 am »
Ha! That monster of a mod isn't big enough yet? :P

You may plunder this one happily once it is done! It's made to be used (and abused?)!

Offline XCOMFan419

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2014, 07:40:07 am »
Sounds very neat. I'll keep a close eye on this and try it out once you have a download up.

But the Raven is sketchy. Canonly, the Raven is the most advanced fighter craft humanity has to offer. I've seen two mods now that change the Raven. While this may be a bunch o' hooey due to UFO and 2012 being in different timelines, it's still a little awkward to see the Raven with an elerium engine.

But hey, that's just my opinion. You do what you wish. I'm sure this will turn out great.

Any plans for HWP or just crafts and weapons?

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2014, 09:02:01 am »
Sounds very neat. I'll keep a close eye on this and try it out once you have a download up.

But the Raven is sketchy. Canonly, the Raven is the most advanced fighter craft humanity has to offer. I've seen two mods now that change the Raven. While this may be a bunch o' hooey due to UFO and 2012 being in different timelines, it's still a little awkward to see the Raven with an elerium engine.

But hey, that's just my opinion. You do what you wish. I'm sure this will turn out great.

Any plans for HWP or just crafts and weapons?
Awesome! Thanks for the info. One of the reason I am so enthusiastic about OpenXCom is that I have no computer capable of running the new game ;) I had no clue about the Raven, it just looks so much better than the interceptor based crafts that it needed its own high tech place (which means using at least some alien components).

Maybe whoever developed the Raven from human tech in XCom-2012 is actually a scientist hired by XCom in this original, who will work on and name this Raven! As it is, the Raven uses UFO Power sources to be built, but does not use Elerium as fuel. The rationale being that it is a slow burning, safe, prototype engine since the Raven is the first human craft based on Alien propulsion.

As such, it is outclassed in almost every way (especially speed) by the Firestorm, the only exception being fuel economy. It sort of keeps the high tech feel of the Raven and its place relative to the Firestorm. It also makes the Raven better than Interceptors, the regular planes of 1999, which the Raven as a 2012 plane would be. It just happened to be developed differently since the UFOs came early ;)

As for plans, currently the XCom Armoury Expanded aims mostly at being a counterpart to the Alien Armoury Expanded. Which means new crafts and a few new weapons, to keep everything in parallel.

The new UFOs can be quite challenging if everything is kept vanilla, so more crafts for XCom is relevant (it also slows down progression a bit through research, restoring the challenge, and gives something for the engineers to build in the early game: new interceptors for your new bases).

There are only a few new weapons I am considering. One is Alien Alloy ammo (if we use it for armor and crafts, it makes sense to use it for weapons too!).  Then conventional and laser versions of the new plasma weapons introduced in the Alien Armoury. If they can have a plasma sniper rifle, there is no reason why XCom can't have a laser sniper rifle (and then steal the plasma one, of course!).

I think further weapons should be kept to different mods. I prefer modular mods so each player can create their own perfect game, rather that the one mod to rule them all. That already exists any ways, in the Final Mod Pack, where maybe some of this work will end up.

Ouf.. I wrote more than I expected.. The main reason I came online was..: I have version 0.5 of the armory ready!! By that I mean I got all the crafts side of the mod done. There is now a few new research projects available, as shown in the first post, and the crafts are tweaked so they don't all overlap as a "next step up from Interceptors". It was roughly tested using a save game I had and going through the research to unlock everything, then build everything. I happened to have plasma beams already and the destruction that can be wrought by just one retaliator, one raven and one sentinel is beautiful!! There might be some tweaking of stats to do though.

I strongly suggest using this mod along with the Alien Armoury Expanded as they are intended to be counterparts. To go along with the more complex craft research tree I also made the "Plasma Needs Elerium Expanded" mod, which puts constraints on plasma research to slow down the squad weapons progression to be more in line with the crafts.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2014, 07:05:46 am by Arthanor »

Offline XCOMFan419

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2014, 04:40:46 pm »
Awesome! Thanks for the info. One of the reason I am so enthusiastic about OpenXCom is that I have no computer capable of running the new game ;) I had no clue about the Raven, it just looks so much better than the interceptor based crafts that it needed its own high tech place (which means using at least some alien components).

Maybe whoever developed the Raven from human tech in XCom-2012 is actually a scientist hired by XCom in this original, who will work on and name this Raven! As it is, the Raven uses UFO Power sources to be built, but does not use Elerium as fuel. The rationale being that it is a slow burning, safe, prototype engine since the Raven is the first human craft based on Alien propulsion.

As such, it is outclassed in almost every way (especially speed) by the Firestorm, the only exception being fuel economy. It sort of keeps the high tech feel of the Raven and its place relative to the Firestorm. It also makes the Raven better than Interceptors, the regular planes of 1999, which the Raven as a 2012 plane would be. It just happened to be developed differently since the UFOs came early ;)

As for plans, currently the XCom Armoury Expanded aims mostly at being a counterpart to the Alien Armoury Expanded. Which means new crafts and a few new weapons, to keep everything in parallel.

The new UFOs can be quite challenging if everything is kept vanilla, so more crafts for XCom is relevant (it also slows down progression a bit through research, restoring the challenge, and gives something for the engineers to build in the early game: new interceptors for your new bases).

There are only a few new weapons I am considering. One is Alien Alloy ammo (if we use it for armor and crafts, it makes sense to use it for weapons too!).  Then conventional and laser versions of the new plasma weapons introduced in the Alien Armoury. If they can have a plasma sniper rifle, there is no reason why XCom can't have a laser sniper rifle (and then steal the plasma one, of course!).

I think further weapons should be kept to different mods. I prefer modular mods so each player can create their own perfect game, rather that the one mod to rule them all. That already exists any ways, in the Final Mod Pack, where maybe some of this work will end up.

Ouf.. I wrote more than I expected.. The main reason I came online was..: I have version 0.5 of the armory ready!! By that I mean I got all the crafts side of the mod done. There is now a few new research projects available, as shown in the first post, and the crafts are tweaked so they don't all overlap as a "next step up from Interceptors". It was roughly tested using a save game I had and going through the research to unlock everything, then build everything. I happened to have plasma beams already and the destruction that can be wrought by just one retaliator, one raven and one sentinel is beautiful!! There might be some tweaking of stats to do though.

I strongly suggest using this mod along with the Alien Armoury Expanded as they are intended to be counterparts. To go along with the more complex craft research tree I also made the "Plasma Needs Elerium Expanded" mod, which puts constraints on plasma research to slow down the squad weapons progression to be more in line with the crafts.

Very nice explanation. I know you have good intentions.

And the reason why I asked if you were making a HWP part is because I was planning on making a HWP mod pack and I don't want it to conflict with anything :P

But this looks very good. I will try it out in a new save just to see how it works. I'll play around with it for a few hours and tell you how I feel.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2014, 05:43:30 pm »
Awesome, thank you! I am looking forward to the feedback.

HWP have always seemed like such a waste to me, except maybe at the beginning for a rocket one and base defense where they don't really cost you anything. Otherwise, I'd much rather take 4 rookies that I hope to train into super-soldiers. Even if only one makes it, it was worth not having the HWP. So that means: LOTS of space for new stuff!!

My view of mods is that we should try to keep them compatible but separate. As much as the "Final Mod Pack" looks awesome, it is too much for me to take in at once. I'd rather go through and enable the 60 mods individually (or the 59 I want and leave off the 1 I don't), knowing that the modders talked to each others to make compatible mods.

If you want to "latch on" the XCom Armoury Expanded, I would be very happy to collaborate. Regarding HWP, there are already opportunities with the new code in this mode. One could make HWPs with alien alloy hulls after researching Allow Airframes and maybe more accurate and even sturdier HWPs once Hybrid crafts is researched.

Another thing that could be really cool is a "learning HWP", which would address their main issue as far as I am concerned: They don't improve so it becomes much more efficient to bring 4 trained soldiers than one HWP. Having mind controlled HWPs that can actually progress would be awesome. It could be unlocked through a combination of Alien Entertainment (as a high tech interface) + Sectopod autopsy (the aliens' equivalent platform) + Psi Lab (the facility from where it would be controlled). Give it some cool weapons (AoE Plasma cannon? High RoF Laser?), potential to hover and now we're talking!

Offline XCOMFan419

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2014, 05:55:47 pm »
Awesome, thank you! I am looking forward to the feedback.

No problem. Starting test-playthrough now.

HWP have always seemed like such a waste to me, except maybe at the beginning for a rocket one and base defense where they don't really cost you anything. Otherwise, I'd much rather take 4 rookies that I hope to train into super-soldiers. Even if only one makes it, it was worth not having the HWP. So that means: LOTS of space for new stuff!!
While I beg to differ, you do have a few good points. At first I was skeptical about HWP, but now I've come to love them.

A lot.

There are a handful of mods that are HWP that take up one space and are essentially super soldiers. (IIRC there is a grand total of 2)

If you want to "latch on" the XCom Armoury Expanded, I would be very happy to collaborate. Regarding HWP, there are already opportunities with the new code in this mode. One could make HWPs with alien alloy hulls after researching Allow Airframes and maybe more accurate and even sturdier HWPs once Hybrid crafts is researched.

Perfect. I wanted to make a line of Alloy Tanks that acted as a buffer for normal HWP and the Hover HWP.

Another thing that could be really cool is a "learning HWP", which would address their main issue as far as I am concerned: They don't improve so it becomes much more efficient to bring 4 trained soldiers than one HWP. Having mind controlled HWPs that can actually progress would be awesome. It could be unlocked through a combination of Alien Entertainment (as a high tech interface) + Sectopod autopsy (the aliens' equivalent platform) + Psi Lab (the facility from where it would be controlled). Give it some cool weapons (AoE Plasma cannon? High RoF Laser?), potential to hover and now we're talking!
There are some good ideas here, but most are probably out of my league. I'm not even sure if you can have a AoE Plasma Cannon. But I am working on a High RoF Laser Tank that acts as an advanced counterpart to the Minigun tank from SolariusScorch's Minigun mod. There is a mod out there that allows you to make XCOM Sectopods, and one where you can produce XCOM Cyberdisks. Both of which I am considering, and probably will, add into this pack of mine.

I will send you a small "Checklist" of things that I want to add in via PM.

Offline XCOMFan419

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2014, 07:45:06 pm »
Only problem encountered so far: Retaliator uses the Raven's Ufopaedia picture.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2014, 08:26:29 pm »
Ah! Damn.. I tested each as they got implemented but did not notice that the retaliator took over the raven picture.. I guess it makes sense since it originally also took over the in-base graphics.

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2014, 08:31:21 pm »
Ah! Damn.. I tested each as they got implemented but did not notice that the retaliator took over the raven picture.. I guess it makes sense since it originally also took over the in-base graphics.
No other troubles found. It seems pretty solid so far. Having fun with the new skyrangers.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2014, 08:44:39 pm »
The new skyrangers are pretty cool. The reduction in rent with the new crafts is a godsend if you want to have radar and interception coverage worldwide before getting firestorms. And 16 troops within one carrier is pretty nifty. I wish there were more exits though, but apparently that was a really bad idea.

The picture references for the Retaliator and Raven were indeed the same (much like.. all other file references. One of these mods must be based on the other!). I changed both to new, unique names, so hopefully it works now. I made a new archive, even though there are only minor changes in the .rul file.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2014, 07:06:13 am by Arthanor »

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2014, 09:11:49 pm »
Very impressive re your crafts.

Also impressive, re restriction of easy plasma guns research.

Extra weapons? More?? There is alot of weapons curently in Xcom and Final Mod pack which is getting a bit excessive i think.

So i am curious to see how you plan to incorporate the weapons without making it useless to the point it'll get ignored/not used, given the vast number of weapons available.

Meanwhile, i will download and give it a go and let you know what i think.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #13 on: July 25, 2014, 09:30:30 pm »
Thanks! But really, none of these crafts are my work. The only thing I am doing is getting them all together into a coherent whole that fits neatly into an expanded research tree, trying to keep everything relevant.

I have to give the following credits for the crafts:
Alloy Interceptor and Skyranger: The Old One
(Note: Those need to be renamed as the strings overflow their space in the game. Suggestions are welcome)
Retaliator: Shadow
Thunderstorm: Tyran_nick
Raven: MickTheMage
Sentinel: Warboy1982
Skywarden (as a renamed SkyTransit): civilian

Other inspiration/things that will be added in the future:
Craft/Craft weapons balance: Istrebitel
Allow Ammunition: moriarty
Plasma needs Elerium: TurkishSwede

As I mentioned in a previous post, there will only be few weapons to be included in the XCom Armoury Expanded and most of those already exist. Those are the conventional and laser equivalent of the plasma caster and sniper rifle along with alloy ammunition for the basic conventional weapons.

The new plasma weapons in the Alien Armoury Expanded need their conventional and laser counterparts, otherwise it looks stupid. If aliens can come up with a shotgun and sniper rifle, so can we! Especially as those are already common Earth weapons.

Alloy ammo is just because it makes too much sense to use it for basic weapons as well as crafts and armor for a first step upgrade from Earth tech.

I am very much interested by the recently posted laser research mod by NeoWorm and a version of it will likely make it into the recommended mods along with the plasma one. This is intended to free up some time in the early game during which alloy ammo can be used.

With the complete mod and recommended ones, one would probably first research alloys, unlock low rent alloy crafts, personal armor and alloy ammo. Then pursue hybrid crafts and lasers together, as the next step up in tech, then UFO based crafts and plasma as end game tech.

The mod is meant to add just a few things to go along the Alien Armoury expanded (and slow down XCom's progression since the alien also retain lower grade weapons longer with the Armoury). The experience should stay streamlined (not a million new things, just a few simple ones) and close to the original.

Hopefully, other mods will then come and graft themselves on top of this one, to delve into whichever area their author wishes to develop. One such example being XCOMFan419's MWP mod. MWPs are fine (if a bit underpowered) in the original and there is enough variety that nothing feels outright overlooked/missing. There is still lots of space to expand on though, which is what he will do.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2014, 09:32:12 pm by Arthanor »

Offline Aldorn

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Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded
« Reply #14 on: July 26, 2014, 11:36:26 am »
Regarding laser weapons, eventually have a look at this