[Idea]Depleted Elerium/Elerium Craft Weapons

[BlackLibrary]

haha I spend hours thinking of this Balancing weapons is sort of why I created my mod, although it only has alloy ammo and delayed lasers. Currently everything else is up to the player, by using other mods (laser tech tweak and Plasma needs Elerium). I am considering a system which would leave "anchor points" to be used by modders to "latch on" with their mod, but making a stand-alone and compatible mod is tricky.

Back on topic:

Here is how I see the weaponry progression with current mods:
1- Conventional weapons (with some added stuff like grenade launchers, flamthrowers, shotguns, etc)
2- Alloy ammo (fits in conventional weapons but upgrade damage)
3- Gauss and Laser Weapons
4- Elerium based lasers
5- Plasma and Blaster Launcher (the real endgame weapon, and I think that shouldn't change unless aliens come up with something better).

As I suggested above, I think using DE ammo to "upgrade" Gauss weapons to a tier4 weapon would work well. Since it is based on depleted Elerium, it can't really be better than plasma. It could be another upgrade to tier 1, but new ammo for basic guns is already done, so that's kind of boring.. Of course, upgrading Gauss is kind of niche (but it would work in the FMP, and I am also starting to use Gauss, so would work in the XAE too).

For armor/tanks/crafts, I really don't know.. If DE is better than Alien Alloy, it's increasing the upper power limit and that's much more work if you want to keep things balanced. It could be interesting though, and I know the "Equal Terms" mod is supposed to introduce new alien weaponry in a later version, so you could balance it with that.

You do bring up an interesting notion.  Adding tiers to upgrades.  I'm tired of seeing Plasma at top tier...it needs a terran developed alternative thats related.  Building a physics research tree that allows exploration of an alternative is good.  I'm working on a mod that sort of simulates this.

Few things:
1.  Depleted Elerium is better off being produced instead of found.  A mod that creates 50 units of depleted uranium from 10 units of Elerium and 1 unit of Alien Alloy really fits the bill.
  (The aliens have been working with Elerium for several millenia.  They've learned to consume elerium at the highest efficiency, leaving nothing behind for waste.  We have no problem with waste, and we specialize in turning garbage into deadly weapons to kill humans.  )

2.  Depleted Uranium is used as an weaved metal alloy for component (Chobham) armor on tanks.  Its a game, and I don't want to over analyze something thats completely fictional, but again, as a resource that can be created by man, I can see such a use. 

3.  However, again, the tough part is finding a strategic "tier" level for it.  What technology would it compete against?  We all can't see the value of Elerium toothbrushes, and Alien Alloy bicycles.  Just applying everywhere does not make it useful.

[Arthanor]

A terran alternative could be interesting but.. the aliens are the high tech species in this game, not us. If something were easier to produce and equally as good, why would they carry plasma? If it is superior to plasma, why can we come up with it in less than a year from 1999 ordinary human tech/science, when they presumably had much longer. We're good at making weapons, yes, but the aliens are an alliance of planet conquering species. They must be pretty good too!

The only thing I can see is something that's wasteful. Like a 1 elerium per shot weapon that is outright better than plasma. We're desperate because if we lose here, we don't exist anymore as a species (or just as slaves), so we don't care about the waste, the pollution, etc. The aliens can afford to value efficiency more than we do, since winning is probably less important for them and they want to win a usable planet. If we lose, you bet I want the Earth to be a worthless wasteland for them to conquer.

Then there is the self-consistency problem of a weapon using depleted Elerium being as strong as one using active Elerium. That's a bit weird. The depleted Elerium needs some kind of downside. Unless we compare depleted Elerium to the blaster launcher, which is active Elerium based, instead of plasma. But outfitting every soldier with a (weaker, terran) version of the blaster launcher just destroys game balance.

And that brings us to the last point: balance. It's not about one-upping the aliens, getting the next BFG and then stomping all over them. It's about the game being challenging so it is enjoyable. So if we create a next tier weapon/affordable blaster launcher, there needs to be something for aliens too.

[Arthanor]

All that being said, it looks like depleted Elerium appears in XCom2012, as ammunition for a Mec soldier's railgun. I haven't played that game, but reading the wiki, it is a "laser tier weapon", to be later outdone by a "particle cannon", although it seems quite large and powerful.

It seems to support the use of gauss weapons as laser equivalent, and depleted Elerium ammo as an upgrade projectile.

[XCOMFan419]

If you want it in the game so much then ask Solar if he wants it.

Like I said, this was a mere idea. I have no time to pursuit another mod.

[Arthanor]

Sorry, I did not mean to come across so pushy. 

I just get excited by ideas and then my brain runs along. What I meant to report is that there is indeed a precedent for depleted elerium in the setting, which supports your idea for a new resource to be exploited. There is plenty of space for a variety of application to spice things up and push OpenXCom ever further.

[XCOMFan419]

Okay so I guess I better pick this up instead.

First off: What do I do if I want the Low Grade Elerium to spawn with a UFO Power Source?

[BlackLibrary]

1.  Create the resources and ruleset for the isotope.
2a.  I believe there is a mod that allows "treasure" on specific tiles for specific ships.  Not sure if thats the way to go...I doubt it.  I'm researching that now for myself.
2b.  Instead of it being a resource found, make a research and manufacture that "decays" elerium. 
       Requires Elerium: 1 unit, a Power Source, and produces Decayed Elerium: 50 units.
3.  Create something basic with the decayed Elerium and playtest.

Does it work?  Is it worth it?  Would a player have a compelling reason to go through the process?  etc...

[NeXaXeN]

Personally, I think depleted elerium would be a good by-product from UFO components that are destroyed (i.e. a UFO power source blown up would yield some elerium and depleted elerium).

Conversely, there was a mod that allowed the player to deconstruct alien weapons, ufo components, etc. for elerium--so another way may be to allow a player to deconstruct alien artifacts for an elerium refund with different ratio splits on how much elerium to depleted elerium you get.

EXAMPLE: Allow an alien UFO Power source could be deconstructed with a 50% return of its elerium build cost, and 50% of the elerium cost in depleted elerium.

This (sorta) keeps elerium rare... another (not liked by me) idea to help keep elerium rare with this deconstruction method would be to even reduce captured base/ufo elerium with a split of elerium and depleted elerium.

Whatever the method, I LOVE mods that give me more toys and research topics. I don't know what a depleted elerium weapon would do but that depleted-elerium battery for enhanced laser weapons is one... another idea is a very strong depleted elerium launcher with maybe 5 rounds a clip but strong enough to puncture a ufo. I'd TOTALLY go for that. Another weapon would be a long-range cannon for crafts--you'd have to make ammo for it but you could jazz up its damage to clock ufo battleships. It would be a tough gun the player would want to have but the depleted elerium requirement for the ammo would make it unviable as a mainstay craft weapon.