Seeking players who use explosives often

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I'm making a "total conversion"/faithful mod for X-Com but I have a strange quirk in which I avoid using explosive devices when playing X-Com. So I'm looking for players who love to blow up terrain in order to win battles. If you like using explosive weapons, I'd like your input.

I am providing a copy of my current developmental version for my full mod, or you can check out my individual mods by searching Reaver in the openxcom forums or mod portal.

You don't have to test these mods to give me useful feedback. I want to know what you guys think are good damage, explosion radius, and cost values for various weapons. I want to know what you think of the explosive techs I have added. Have you used explosives from other mods or tweaked your own values? What worked best for you?

My goal is to make the game offer the player an array of choices which enable them to make decisions based on their needs, such that difficult situations can be challenging rather than crushing, and if you play well you will do well. I want a game that obliterates the new player just like the original X-Com, but which seems almost like child's play to a veteran--though just the same I want harder difficulties to challenge even veterans. I want every technology to seem useful at times so nothing is completely redundant, I want any technology to be well balanced such that it is unique and effective, but not overpowered. So if you're a veteran of using explosives, optimally you should feel that your playstyle is valid but not necessarily the best way to play.

Here is a gallery of images featuring explosives from my mod used on the field: http://imgur.com/gallery/oIyli

[kharille]

Hm, I do use explosves a lot.  Rely on it until I get the avenger and 26 member squads.  Do you have screen shots you can upload?

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Sure.

http://imgur.com/gallery/oIyli

[chaosshade]

I use explosives almost exclusively for my squads.  If I'm not arming them with explosive weapons (Auto Cannon, Heavy Cannon, Grenade Launchers, etc) then they have at least two High Explosives.  I changed the Alien Grenade to have the same explosive power as the Sonic Pulser in TFTD so they're more worthwhile to use (I understand that most people use them regardless of the damage reduction because they're lighter, but I wanted to give the aliens a fighting chance against me, lol)

Because of the mod I curate (which I really need to get around to updating) the aliens have a HUGE selection of explosive and non-explosive weapons at their disposal.

For the most part, when I make explosive-based weapons, I don't bother setting a blast radius.  I give them a set damage and play around with it until I get something that "feels right" to me.  I'm not above editing someone else's mod to tweak it to my liking.  Obviously everyone has their own tastes, but I understand the need for general feedback.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I changed the Alien Grenade to have the same explosive power as the Sonic Pulser in TFTD

I was considering doing this, since the high time unit cost of grenades makes them seem pointless to use. I'm thinking of putting the regular grenade at 70 and the alien grenade at 120. If grenades were 70 power, would you consider using them instead of high explosives due to the weight difference?

I was also considering increasing the power of the high explosive, perhaps high enough to break UFO walls. Would that power make the weapon overpowered in your gameplay? Would its weight need to be increased to compensate? Would the large explosion radius become a hindrance to using them? Would you ever use them to break UFO walls, in particular before you have Blaster Launchers?


Do you think the explosive weapons in my mod are pretty balanced? Do any stand out to you as over- or under-powered? Are there any that you'd probably never get around to using? If so, why? Would it simply be uninteresting, available at the wrong part of the game, not different enough from other choices, too expensive, or too weak?

[chaosshade]

I don't particularly like to punch holes in the UFOs, the alloys are useful to me (because I have a mod that's alloy-hungry.)  Even if you boosted the regular grenade to 70HE, I wouldn't use it because the High Explosive (HE) is so much stronger despite the weight.  I prefer to use explosives to get results, not worry about things tactically.  My standard use for an HE is to clear buildings on terror sites or farms; make a hole in the wall/ceiling then chuck one inside.  9/10 it'll kill whatever's in there (or at least maim it) and I can move on to my search zone.

What's funny is that I don't actually use the Blaster Bomb because, while it's super powerful, it's also glitchy at times and either misfires, misses its mark, or just makes a huge mess on the map (that said, it's funny to watch the aliens kill themselves with them.)

Given my "base" explosive damage is 110, I think your mod is pretty balanced in the grand scheme of things.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I was thinking of making some of the alien explosives be more contained (lower blast radius) in the idea that they use energy confinement beams for plasma weaponry so they should be able to make precision explosives and might find those useful.

Maybe the blaster bomb can be a "precision explosive" with a small radius, like 4.

I set the blaster bomb explosion radius to 4 for a test, this is the result:


You can't see it in the image, but there is an intact power source containing elerium right next to that floater.



The blaster bomb is as deadly as it ever was, the reduced explosion radius doesn't seem to be causing it any problems: