The joke's on you, it'd be quite a weak prize, also how could she call you with new jobs if you got her killed? Lol.
In general, to expect me to change prizes, I need a compelling case. Things like "pretty low on the tech tree" are often misleading
The Ogre shotgun should cost less prize tokens thats all. That would allow someone to get it faster. Either that or put it one tier lower on the trophy list.
Im not joking... a Heavy Shotgun or a Double Barrel shotgun, or even a Combat Shotgun on burst while being inferior on paper statistically can bretty much do the same job as an OGRE. One thing that would buff the Ogre is extending its effective range so that it can carry the same damage as a shotgun out to farther in the battlefield (+4 tiles?). The thing that makes shotguns what they are is their poor range but if a little more dakka for enemies that, at that range, were already manageable with other guns - whats the point. Its a Prize Token sponge is what it is, a money gate, with a consolation prize.
(I will also second the Kustom Handcannon to this, as a 1x2 size pistol causing ~25x5 damage which is also capable of burst, it even blows a combat shotgun out of the water. I can get my dakka on tap rather than all at once. And ghouls are still manageable with it. And its a pistol with a built in Handle too. And it blows the CAWS out of the water as well just because of its Slug ammo, I dont even have a use for the CAWS when ive got the Kustom Handcannon. If I cared about the weight of a metal brick id definitely be having problems with guns like the Ogre. It even makes the Magnum irrelevant since its acid ammo is the only selling point for it, usually lasers will do the job if chem is required)Let Us Not Forget about the humble FLAK CANNON either. Which does have a rather random entry point to the game, but I always seem to get it within fair timing. The Flak Cannon blows the Ogre out of the water.Due to RNG maybe possibly giving me less bounty hunting missions (or just failing to go after them due to juicier targets) I normally have Boom Gun by the time O.G.R.E is had through bounty hunting. I get my Boom Guns from enemy base raids... I forget what other techs are necessary for the Boom Gun but having an enemy base pop up means the Item is technically available to be researched right there at that point.
Research cannot rush bounty hunting, and it takes way too much money to rush it with cash.One time I dumped $3,000,000 into mutant alliance tokens just because I wasnt getting anything mutant alliance related to get the tokens for. And that was only to get the prize (stealthsuit?) which I didnt care about, just so that I could open up the next prize it enabled and see what it was.
LOL Saya could be a Syn that just has her consciousness uploaded when the body dies so she still provides missions and is on the lookout for mutant happenings, she's just in a mainframe until you build her another body. Then Saya cant really be killed, just gives you a nasty point penalty like -100 for getting her body destroyed.
(dunno if there is a capability yet to restrict the player to building only One of an item even if they have the resources to make more - but this definitely needs to be implemented in the engine - likewise also a limited number of times you can attack with an attack mode even if you have the stat resources to do it)Im 'fraid I have to agree with the consensus that
Craft Railgun isnt actually too far up the research ladder. It may not seem like it, but it is, and it clearly takes longer before you get gauss firearms.
Maybe im just efficient at getting to that point but I will already have Naval Cannon by the time the prize would unlock it (maybe thats from previous playthroughs but I could swear that I researched naval cannon, before Prize: Naval Cannon became available in the bounty hunting tree). And just shortly after that I will have Craft Railgun.
Either that or due to manufacturing and the massive resources necessary for a Naval Cannon... I just dont get around to building them until Craft Railgun is popping up on my ufopedia screen. And its not worth it to spend upwards of a week procuring the materials, rearranging floor space, and manufacturing the Naval Gun+Ammo when I can just wait a little longer and build Craft Railguns.
It just happens that with gauss cannons being available
so soon, plus the 50mm cannons being just good enough with a craft that can wield 4 of either of these, the Naval Gun just doesn't have much of an appeal.
The Naval Gun is also a Heavy slot item and there truly aren't that many crafts that have an abundance of Heavy slots... typical configurations ive seen are 1 Heavy plus some Light slots. Heavy weapons for crafts statistically speaking aren't too much better than Light ones when you consider the full array of effectiveness - compared to how much Space it takes to store the spare weapons and ammunition. Big weapons need to do alot more damage than they're statted for in order to be better than light weapons.
(The Kraken has 3... but with that speed who in their right mind would ever build it? Only reason id bother making a Kraken is to slap Heavy Shields and Hull on it to tank for interceptors. This is a custom designed Pirate vehicle... if it had a Shadowtech slot built into it the kraken then becomes balanced)I can throw away gauss rounds all day long considering how storage efficient they are, how many pour in from shipping missions, and how easy they are to manufacture. Its practically the Laser Cannon of X-Piratez.
And another thing, ive gone against Bombers, Cruisers, and other big shipping... everything other than a Battleship or Silver Towers using something to tank the damage plus 3 Interceptors armed with 4 Lascannons each. And those things are only supposed to do 36 damage each if I recall. I guess if you have 12 of them going the Armor on those critters just doesn't really add up to much. Then I go back home and plug the lascannons into the wall socket and they're good to go again.
Missiles are a total crapshoot, they're so expensive its like the thing you leave around just in case you have to go after the equivalent of the flying dutchman. My interceptors just get spare thrusters in their missile slot. Most of my missiles get sold. The mutant alliance missile that looks like an avalanche is generally nifty to put on an airspeeder though.
(ooh that would be a cool one time craft/mission to have wouldn't it? The Flying Dutchman of the future. It would literally be a flying ship after all. Or it could even be a USO full of zombies that the player cant shoot down because its underwater - even when its flying over land - so they just have to wait for it to land somewhere, and its flight pattern just keeps it going and going all over the world until like it only lands once every 10 years. LOL)on land absolutely, but for undersea it is a considerable upgrade.
The auto harpoon is practically the "end" of the research tree when it comes to harpoons as far as I can tell. Load it up with the purple stuff and it works wonders on capturing people on land (especially from flying armor) because you can just autoshot until you hit.
I was very happy with the harpoon carbine being added, not only does it look cool, it also provides that emergency 3 shot burst when you gotta make sure you hit them. It sucks dumping a clip with a single attack especially when im not gonna like to carry more than 4 per user, but it can get the job done. All hitmen missions I carry harpoon carbines and tranq the dude.
Autoharpoon also isnt all that useful underwater against, eg, gill men because it might just be me, but I dont even bother making other munitions for it besides the tranqulizers and gill men seem
pretty dang resistant to stun damage. So I just dont keep the damaging stuff around (I dont even keep the standard red/gold harpoons around either). Theres too many items to deal with in the base inventory screen and unlike manufacture they cant be Hidden. Underwater missions are rare, at least the ones that I bother going on, player choice I guess, I just dont want to risk being chewed up by sharks.
Bossar has better damage output at mit to long range.
Here comes that DPS fallacy again. This is not world of warcraft.
In xcom and even in x-piratez better does not necessarily mean better than "good enough", due to infrastructure and other practical arrangements.
This is kinda like how sniper rifles with their complex rules and high TU costs are pretty much useless compared to a Scoped Hunting Rifle. The heavy sniper rifle thing is technically better than most sniper rifles because it can deposit chem and explosive ordinance, but the Custom Sniping Gun pretty much beats it in practical terms for normal shooting (and the explosive rounds for the HSR are pointless when I can just lob a Mortar, or fire a Rocket).
Death Blossoms are easy to manufacture and more importantly easy to carry around, they make a viable sidearm for any hand who has a 2x2 belt space available. The Bossar doesn't come around for quite awhile after the Blossom is already been made and has tons of HVAP ammo laying around.
If I want to carry a heavy weapon capable of dishing out alot of damage then im going to do with something alot nastier than the Bossar before I bother investing in making it at all. Probably a rocket launcher or grenade launcher armed with plasma munitions since id already have that on hand just on general principal. If collateral damage aint a problem the ever growing stockpile of Baby Nukes is also an option.
(the Bossar does piercing damage, if a critter has nasty resistances that dictate a special approach to attacking them, then piercing is not going to be a better answer over laser, plasma, or explosives).
Im sure it can chew up zombies pretty well, the Bossar now that I think of it might even be a good solution to armored zombies. But then again so is the Boom Gun or, as the death animation of an armored zombie indicates, a Force Blade melee hand.
I can also have a few hands just stick Hellerium Grenades in their hands, and pile those grenades on whoever needs to be bozar'd.
Why are these walled behind master crafted parts anyway? Kustom blunderbuss used to be a bit too good but hardly as OP as mammoth shotgun is, super shotgun was hardly OP.
Kustom Blunderbuss is CRAP, and when the mastercrafted parts became a requirement for it that sealed its fate in terms of me never bothering with it. Not when I know a Super Shotgun can be made from the same parts.
(inb4 gold drums? listen im not wasting a whole damn gold brick on it for some overkill that I can get from something else)
The SSG is like a junior version of the Boom Gun and far more useful. Better believe its OP... the parts requirement is the only thing that keeps it in check. 18 loads of nasty armor piercing flechettes... it reminds me of playing Fallout Tactics with the Pancor Jackhammer all over again.
Those pellets do 32 damage buddy, its like shooting someone 10 times with an assault rifle... and the SSG is rather zippy in terms of TU usage. It lacks some of the armor piercing capability of the boom gun but its alot easier to use. And even some critter with 50 armor
is not safe from this weapon if I can just keep popping it until it feels the damage. Marsec Bodyguards are the kinda thing that require a boom gun to go after, but those are dragons and just like d&d you have to use melee fighters on dragons.
