Flamethrower ideas

[Arthanor]

I tried the flamethrower mod, but haven't been all that impressed by it. This is a brain stormy post and kind of a "call to the community".

It is possible to add new explosion sprites for the nightly. I've already done it in the ExtraExplosions mod. If we use arcing shot with rapid bullet speed and a "long" bullet sprite, it could look like someone is spraying burst of flamey stuff that spreads/splashes upon hitting the floor. Add "fwoosh" firing and exploding sounds and we might get something better than the current flamethrower.

The only thing left to balance would be the damage. Currently, incendiary hits are 10hp, ignoring armor. That makes an accurate autoshot (8 shots) deal 80 damage to any alien in the game regardless of armor (except snakemen, ethereals, silacoids and chryssalids who have some resistance). Feels a bit OP and it does not really work since armor should protect you somewhat. I guess the answer to that is to redefine the armor of certain aliens (sectopods for sure) to be more resistant to incendiary damage.

So all of that sounds pretty doable, I'd say. Except that I have no clue where to get sounds and the only program I use for graphics is paint.. If there's anyone willing to contribute sprites and sounds, I would be happy to put things together in a ruleset and publishing it (with all due credits of course).

[Liquid Snake]

I could probably find some flamethrower sounds somewhere in the internet, of course CC0, if you prefer. It's going to take some time to find some. If I can't find one, I'll probably rip them from a game, but I prefer using a CC0 licensed sound.

[Arthanor]

If you can find 'em, I'll use 'em! Currently the flamthrower uses the default explosion sound which isn't really satisfying. Anything will be better!

[Ridаn]

If you`re going to release that as a separate mod in the future, do not forget to include this babe (also by Dioxine, from Piratez mod).

[Yankes]

In my Extended version you can made flamethrower hit one target per "bullet" and fire damage can do damage like rest of weapons (e.g. can be affected by armor).
This could simplify balancing if you want use my version.

[mrxian]

I think it's fine that armor doesn't work against flame throwers. Especially alien armor, which is mostly hardened skin.

[kharille]

Just thoughts.  But I think getting hit by flamethrowers ought to do some awful damage.  However in my experience they don't do much.  Is it something to do with 'when' damage takes place?  I remember hitting stuff with incendiary rockets and wondering what it does.

[Arthanor]

There is a lot of information on incendiary damage here: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Incendiary

It is different from other damage types in that it is not front loaded. The "power" rating of an incendiary weapon only determines how big of an explosion it will make. Then if things catch fire they will take damage over time.

The other big difference is that incendiary damage ignores armour. So it can be useful against high armour aliens like sectopods, but you have to wait or hit them many times. That's why the current flamethrower can be really powerful: It's an autoshot of 8 shots, which can do ~48 but up to 80 armour ignoring damage.

Overall it might not be broken, but I think a flamethrower mod ought to also raise certain aliens' resistance to fire to compensate (specifically sectopods, maybe cyberdiscs, since they are mechanical and should suffer less than the more organic aliens).

[Solarius Scorch]

Fire: the very best way to deal with Cyberdiscs in early game.

[Arthanor]

Do big units get damaged/catch fire 4 times as well? If so, that's totally ridiculous. A cyberdisc should not be easier to burn than a sectoid!

[Liquid Snake]

I found a free library for Flamethrower sounds, if you are interested.
https://www.boomlibrary.com/boomlibrary/products/flammable-liquid

[kikimoristan]

flamer needs MaxRange option so you need to use it closer to the enemy

[Arthanor]

@Liquid Snake: Thanks! I got some sounds from it and started playing with them. Not perfect but there's potential.

@tollworkout: Yes, it is actually the case for the current flamethrower mod as well.. It is one of the few weapons where it actually makes sense to have a maxRange.

[Liquid Snake]

I made a ball of fire for the flamethrower. Not perfect, but usable. I took the AcidBall.gif from Dioxine's Piratez Mod and modified the colors. Free to use for modders.

I'm wondering if I can take the flame trails from UFO2000 and add onto the Flameball.

[Arthanor]

That's interesting. I'm not sure if that works as a "jet" I would expect from a flamethrower but neither does my graphic look very good.. I thought bullet sprites had to be 35 3x3 images, this is much bigger..

I also ran into another problem: No matter what I do, I can't seem to replace the hitSound for this weapon. It sounds like a grenade going off, which is not really working.

The flamethrower itself though, does work. Managed to kill a muton with 3 autoshots. The damage seems to be a relatively reliable 40.

I've attached the mod as I have it so far. I replaced the explosion sprite (note: works only with the nightlies), both sounds (even though only one works) and the bulletSprite.