[WEAPON] Weapons Melee Tech

[kikimoristan]

modsite version here: https://www.openxcom.com/mod/weapons-melee-tech

Hey everyone.

We all know vanilla XCom is pretty pathetic when it comes to GOOD melee weapons. But not for long! Latest experiments with Alien materials have given XCOM the latest and greatest in melee weapons technology: Ripper, Auto-Axe & Heavy Auto-Axe.

This mod has been update to 3 weapons and 1 optional weapon. Also all weapons have unique attack sounds now. Ripper and Grinder share a sound  and both Auto-Axes have share a different sound.

There are two rulesets  now:

Weapons Melee Tech - all 4 weapons. Grinder requires Elerium. Auto-Axe requires Chrysalid autopsy and Grinder tech.  Ripper can be researched at any time. Ufopaedia are a bit different too.

Weapons Melee Tech (No Grinder) - only 3 weapons . Auto-Axe requires Elerium and Chrysalid autopsy. Ripper can be researched at any time.

Use one or the other . DO NOT USE BOTH>




1. Ripper can be researched at any time. Ripper is a self powered mini chainsaw knife.

Damage: 65 MELEE (flat Strength NOT applied)
Melee Accuracy: 150 (Melee Skill applied)
Weight: 5
Selling: 1245
Manufacture: 6000
Size: 1x2
TU: 10


2 (OPTIONAL) Grinder. Can be disabled via Weapons Melee Tech (No Grinder) ruleset. Requires Elerium tech.

Damage: 80 MELEE (flat Strength NOT applied)
Melee Accuracy: 150 (Melee Skill applied)
Weight: 10
Selling: 1500
Manufacture: 7000
Size: 2x3
TU: 10


3. Auto-Axe. Auto-Axe requires Grinder tech and Chryssalid autopsy. If you disabled Grinder then it requires Elerium and Chryssalid autopsy.

Damage: 110 MELEE (flat Strength NOT applied)
Melee Accuracy: 160 (Melee Skill applied)
Weight: 10
Selling: 1800
Manufacture: 12000
Size: 2x3
TU: 15


4. Heavy Auto-Axe is an improved version of Auto-Axe and requires Auto-Axe tech. Heavy Auto-Axe costs 2 elerium and double that of Auto-Axe. It's attack costs 20 TU but does incredible damage.


Damage: 150 MELEE (flat Strength NOT applied)
Melee Accuracy: 160 (Melee Skill applied)
Weight: 15
Selling: 2000
Manufacture: 20000
Size: 2x3
TU: 20



NOTE1 Neither one of Auto-Axes are overpowered. The stats are IDENTICAL with TFTD Thermic Lance and Heavy Thermic Lance. So if TFTD team thought these stats are good then is good.

NOTE2: These weapons are automatic melee weapons meaning unlike swords or knives they deal flat damage and Strength is not a factor! A Combat Knife is more effective than a Ripper on a soldier with 50 Strength as 30 power + 50 = 80 damage. Ripper damage stays at 65 no matter what. However a soldier with 34 Strength or less does more damage with Ripper as  Combat Knife 34 + 30 = 64 vs Ripper 65.


All weapons have custom floorobs and handobs and bigobs optimized for Ufopaedia . Let me know if you have any issues.


Why I made this mod? Because UFO needs good melee weapons badly. At least I think so. And not just 1 melee weapon but a melee weapon tech family that can be upgraded and improved. The idea for the mod came from TFTD vibroblade, thermic lance & heavy thermic lance. But I didn't wanna use borrow TFTD items. I wanted something unique to UFO defense. I came up with this from Fallout 3/2. The stats of Auto-Axe are identical to Thermic Lance while ripper is a weaker than Vibroblade due to  size & portability.

Enjoy

EDIT1: I redone everything to add Ripper. Originally was planned this way but I got lazy and tired so I released it kinda broken without ripper. I just adde the ripper and made everything as I originally planned to do.  Ripper had to be underpowered as comparing to Vibroblade because Ripper is 1x2 size while Vibroblade is 2x3 and heavier.

EDIT2: Updated the mod fixed a few issues added handles on auto-axes and balanced the ripper a bit better . Should be much better now.

EDIT3: Added Grinder & sound effects.

EDIT4: 1.4 is up fixes missing Ripper manufacturing category, fixes missing manufacturing option for Grinder and changes Ripper TU to 12 (from 10) to be more fair.

I won't be adding anymore weapons . This is final. Were supposed to be 3 weapons but I accidentally made 4. Ripper is kinda extra but I wanna keep it due to being small and useful.

[Arthanor]

Where's my chainsword? Oh right, there is a dedicated space marine mod..

I'm not entirely sure XCom needs more melee weapons (unless you play Piratez!) but more offering is good and it looks like you did a great job coming up with stuff.

My only critic would be how the tech is not really uniform. 1 chain weapon and 2 rotary blade weapon. Would it not make more sense if all 3 were the same tech?

[Solarius Scorch]

I really, really like the Ripper (even though it's more of a Piratez! thing, graphics-wise). The Auto-Axes don't really look too good, though.

[Dioxine]

I really, really like the Ripper (even though it's more of a Piratez! thing, graphics-wise). The Auto-Axes don't really look too good, though.

They Will Be Stolen.
(and this is a high praise!)
Awesome models, only the normal Auto-Axe is a bit drab, handle-wise (the Heavy version is better).

[kikimoristan]

They Will Be Stolen.
(and this is a high praise!)
Awesome models, only the normal Auto-Axe is a bit drab, handle-wise (the Heavy version is better).

Stealing is ok! Go right ahead. That's why I made them so people can use them.

I gotta agree that the normal Auto-Axe needs a bit more oomph. Maybe add a side handle on both weapons? I gotta experiment with it.

Ripper is literarily Warboy's combat kife mod heavily edited by me. But the bigob was made from scratch by me then I modified the look of combat knife based on the bigob.

Question is. Is ripper overpowered? A small light portable high damage melee weapon anyone can carry on their belt... Hmm... TO be honest ripper has like 95% melee ACC and only 50 damage while auto-axes have 150+  melee accuracy and 100+ damage so is totally worth the upgrade. But you need to have a dedicated heavy with high melee skill and high TU to walk all the way there and bust some faces.

One thing is for certain! Chryssalids will no longer be a problem for Xcom. (y)

[kikimoristan]

My only critic would be how the tech is not really uniform. 1 chain weapon and 2 rotary blade weapon. Would it not make more sense if all 3 were the same tech?

Yes. I just couldn't think of another weapon that fits the early melee role. Maybe a portable grinder with a serrated blade? Auto axe has 4 blades while this other weapon let's call it Grinder is a disc blade.

[hellrazor]

One thing is for certain! Chryssalids will no longer be a problem for Xcom. (y)

In your dreams. They do reactionfire at you if you dare to attack them from a tile which is next to them. So no meleeing Chryssalids, except you wanna zombify all your melee dudes

[kikimoristan]

In your dreams. They do reactionfire at you if you dare to attack them from a tile which is next to them. So no meleeing Chryssalids, except you wanna zombify all your melee dudes

I was thinking my dudes will reaction fire against incoming Chryssalids Imagine a Heavy Auto-Axe 150 melee damage reaction fire =  insta-death.  At 160  melee acc they rarely miss.

[hellrazor]

I was thinking my dudes will reaction fire against incoming Chryssalids Imagine a Heavy Auto-Axe 150 melee damage reaction fire =  insta-death.  At 150 and over melee acc they rarely miss.

I rather keep my distance and shoot them down.

[kikimoristan]

I think I may add a fourth weapon between Ripper and Auto-Axe called a Grinder which is an Auto-Axe but with 1 disc blade.  All same tech. Ripper is kinda different tech more like Xcom starter weapons.  I m thinking making Ripper black/gray like rifle/pistol/auto-cannon. Any thoughts?

EDIT:

I tried the grinder look and I don't really like it is kinda lame.  I think im gonna keep current tech as is.



OH btw added handles to all auto-axes so they don't look so drab

[Dioxine]

The four-bladed design was much better, yeah. It's the non-blade part that needs some detail (I'd add a radiator grill and maybe some lights, I'm always adding a grill ) Handle isn't a bad idea, but a better-drawn side handle would be much better than this bottom one... this one is not too good.

And no. Attacking Chryssalids in melee is NOT a good idea. Neither is counting on reaction.

As for the OP blades... hmm, make attack dependant on melee skill (like, 100% acc)? Xcom soldiers have lousy melee so even at 10% TU you'll be looking at 30-40% hit chance which should be just fine. With the axes, you could make their accuracy like 200% so even with lousy melee skill, they'll often hit.
Any melee weapon which auto-hits is OP unless the attack is time-consuming (20% TU's at the very least).

[kikimoristan]

The four-bladed design was much better, yeah. It's the non-blade part that needs some detail (I'd add a radiator grill and maybe some lights, I'm always adding a grill ) Handle isn't a bad idea, but a better-drawn side handle would be much better than this bottom one... this one is not too good.

And no. Attacking Chryssalids in melee is NOT a good idea. Neither is counting on reaction.

As for the OP blades... hmm, make attack dependant on melee skill (like, 100% acc)? Xcom soldiers have lousy melee so even at 10% TU you'll be looking at 30-40% hit chance which should be just fine. With the axes, you could make their accuracy like 200% so even with lousy melee skill, they'll often hit.
Any melee weapon which auto-hits is OP unless the attack is time-consuming (20% TU's at the very least).

Hey Dioxine. Thanks for the suggestions. A grill or light would be nice. I'll see what I can do. Still trying to make them look as best as possible.


I have fixed up the stats rebalanced the weapons a bit esp Ripper. See what you think of the new stats.

unlike regular melee weapons automatic melee weapons do not benefit from Strength! Meaning a Combat Knife does more damage than a Ripper on a high Str soldier. What do you think about that?

Also melee acc is 160 on both Auto-Axes and 150 on the Ripper. I could bump it up to 180 or so or lower ripper acc and increase it's damage a bit to 70 and acc 130.

Also BE HONEST what you think about the Grinder weapon??? Should I add a 4th weapon Grinder between Ripper and Auto-Axe?? Thing about it is is just same stuff. A ripper has the advantage of being small and portable and light so is kinda cool and different and still useful later game with 10 TU attack.

BTW if you wanna use the graphics or the weapons as they are for your mod are go right ahead Is free grabs. I made these cause I wanted melee tech for UFO Defense that is UFO-ish and that is NOT stolen stuff from TFTD. Im deff using this in my next playtrough . That's why I made it. I'll see if it works. ALso is a bit different that TFTD as the melee "pistol " is a small weapon so there is some variation with TFTD so can be used together later.


Also I wanna figure out a way to use it to destroy cover making range of 1 and making battle type a rifle with damage type melee.

[kikimoristan]

i was playing around with the mod and im good with ripper maybe a tad bit overpowered but strength doesn't apply so is flat damage always.
but autoaxe misses more than it should im gonna bump melee aim acc to 180 from 160


EDIT: now it hits 9/10 times.  LOL

[SIMON BAILIE]

I like these melee weapons tho I've only tested them in battle mode yet, shud be good for up close and personal with a muton, ethereal or if u're suicidal a sectopod or as a back up attack if u're just too low on tu's for even a snap shot as the way I play I try to always leave my troops with kneeling time so they can drop a pre-primed smoke grenade on the ground for cover. Only a suggestion but some sort of unique sounds wud be a nice touch rather than the plain melee attack animation sound. Any chance of using the sounds of the melee weapons from TFTD?

[kikimoristan]

Only a suggestion but some sort of unique sounds wud be a nice touch rather than the plain melee attack animation sound. Any chance of using the sounds of the melee weapons from TFTD?

OK i got some new sounds I'm gonna add them soon )

BTW pair rippers with pistols on a high TU soldier. Both are 1 handed and won't cause accuracy issues so you can dual wield from loadout.