1.) To manufacture plasma clips you need a fusion reactor up and running. You can check missing facilities in the manufacturing screen.
3.) You got plasma unlocked. Nuclear lasers selling point is the 1/3 armorpen and unlimited ammo. While the "battlelaser" is a fine weapon you can also go for plasma only and just melt anything. There isn't alot of weaponry able to beat plasma weaponry in a 1to1 comparision.
Yes I love cougars very much, but I dont think thats a topic fit for openxcom discussion
Interesting note about the plasma pistol clips, I dont have access to it yet because I cant get higher studies (that is what is required for fusion reactor?). That pesky implosion bomb launcher.
I got lucky with a few mansion robberies and the entire mansion surrendered, got the uranium as well as the treasure chests. Each treasure chest gives a topaz among other things. And the first treasure chest didnt get lost because an altar boy gave me the lookup for it instead of researching it directly. I have quite a few gems sitting around and nothing to do with them, im resisting the urge to sell them because I dont know what else is coming up that might need them (I had forgotten the lightsabers required a topaz for example).
Since the lightsabers are so useful I made as many as I could. Ive only really seen use of maybe having 3 with me on missions so im likely to start shipping the remainder to other bases in case they need to attack something, or they get raided. I sabered a Trader Lord (just once) in my most recent enemy hideout attack, checked him and sure enough he was bleeding, so I just ran off and let him collapse.
Miniguns:
The way I modded this was giving them a snap shot that still takes like 35% or 40% TU, while the burst takes over 50%. Since they spray multiple shots per attack (shotgun pellets) its pretty much like firing an auto attack with an assault rifle anyway, except it can be done as a reaction fire too.
So you can still use them in a pinch, but being able to dump a truck of rounds that tear up walls is where they beat an assault rifle. The minigun got its ammo count divided by 5 but now fires x5 per attack and the auto shots is 5 i think.
I also modded all of the machineguns to fire like this too except they're usually x3 with auto shots 3. What makes them even more spiffy is I gave them a nifty multi-shot sound effect kinda like how the chaingun has. Just because its so good I attached it, along with some of the other sounds im using. I used the ubiquitous original fallout minigun sound effect for the minigun.
I keep the MP lascannon because of that 140 damage, which happens to be laser damage not piercing. If need and necessity bring it into use then im already prepared for the TU costs. Also one reason I tend not to like using plasma guns is because all of them have overkill turned on and I like recovering corpses.
(which reminds me I need to get a Mining Laser going to replace the fusion torch I always have on the transport floor)
Sniper Stuff:
I deconstructed my sniper gauss as soon as I could.
Also you have to understand im a purist about TFTD stuff so I modded all of the gauss weapons to work pretty much like they did in TFTD. Ie, they arent railguns they're particle beam weapons. But I did keep the damage as piercing with a 1/2 armor multiplier. They sound like the original TFTD weapons too. I kinda left the sniper gauss doing as much as the musket since it has the firing bonus to damage.
The reason I wanted to go with reactions for sniper weapons is because firing accuracy is like a 1 dimensional progression, and sniper guns are scoped and this means you have great accuracy inherently with the weapon already, its almost foolproof, you could shoot someone a mile away with a scoped energy weapon like this if the battlefield extended that far. Except that it isn't... you have to fight your own over-reactions to avoid overshooting or over-leading the target because its just so easy to do with the sight picture moving around as much as it is. Its a matter of reactions not aiming.
On the other hand using sniper weapons does Not train up reactions, it still trains up firing accuracy. It is a weapon that always tests you, it does not train you. Still, at a distance even if your accuracy sucks with it the actual chance to hit the target isnt going to go down quite as much, so 50% actual probability up close is still going to be like 35% out at the edge of the battlefield.
(I would also contest that in a tactical battle with adrenaline pumping, Firing Accuracy is only partially about precision anyway, its mostly about leading targets and being able to maintain focus and control in a stressful situation - none of these things are actually improved by shooting at the range. IRL police only have about a statistical 4% chance per trigger pull to shoot a fleeing suspect who's running)
