can`t destroy power source with laser rifle

[ThunderFromAbove]

Hi folks,
I just try to milk a snakeman base and this time got lucky to get a base layout with two power sources. Of course I´d like to capture the Elerium (without destroying the whole base...) but I found it impossible to "kill" the power sources with laser rifles. I have one PS encircled with 6 troopers and each of it takes 3 autoshots  (which makes a total of 54 hits during one turn - and I tried this for several turns....!) but don`t get any results! With heavy plasma it needs only one shot and it produced the desired Elerium-crystal. I may be wrong (as I played the vanilla version a looooooong time ago....!) but I thought, that I could destroy a PS in those "old days"" also with a laser rifle. Did I miss something? Thanks!
Kind regards
Thunder

[The Reaver of Darkness]

You may be remembering wrong, or you may be using TFTD damage model. Did you perchance use a heavy laser to destroy it?

The power source has an armor value of 50 in my game data (alien craft walls have an armor value of 100), which as far as I can tell means it actually takes 100 power to destroy it. In the original 0-200% damage range, it should be possible but pretty unlikely. I just ran a test (50-150% damage range) and the laser rifle (60 power) was unable to destroy a power source. However, a 75 power weapon destroyed it on the third attempt.

It is possible that your game data uses a different value for power source armor than you had previously, if you have a different version of the game. My current version is the GOG version, however I have played several others and never felt that the armor value of the power source has changed, though I do feel like I have seen it go down to a laser rifle or heavy cannon AP. Perhaps it just takes a lucky damage roll. If you're on TFTD damage range you could easily have eliminated that possibility.

My advice: get a heavy laser to destroy the power source.

[ThunderFromAbove]

Hi Reaver,

Thanks!  I played the original version (at that time even installed from floppy disks...!  ), I did not change the damage model and I`m pretty sure, that I did not use a Heavy Laser at that time. I never used this (as far as I can remember....). So probably my memory is wrong (it`s really a long time ago....). But the already killed snakeman are "kind" enough to leave some Heavy Plasma lying around (and I had the good insight to research it as soon as possible, so I can use the looted weapon). So there`s no need to take an additional Heavy Laser along in the future. Somehow I never liked this weapon. I don`t know why...!

But there happend something else "strange": Only one of the two power sources leave a Elerium crystal behind after destroying both PS! They even look slightly different: one has a blinking light at the bottom (the left one; that did not leave a crystal) and the other one (to the right) even showed the icon of the crystal on the ground later. See screen shots.

BTW: If you are wondering about the two Snakes in the same room: they were stunned and awoken later; and are used for target practice with airsoft-pistols (0 damage each shot....  ) now. Yes, I know: I`m a mean bastard to frighten those helpless Snakes, but it is very efficient!!! 

[Meridian]

Laser rifle has power 60.
Terrain damage of laser rifle (and other projectile weapons) is 25-75%... i.e. 15-45.
Power source has armor of 50... i.e. cannot be destroyed.
Minimum power needed to have a chance of destroying it is 67.

As for extracting Elerium, on the picture you can see that Elerium was not in the Power Source already before destroying it (that purple ball is the icon for the Elerium).
It was either never there or got destroyed by an explosion (Elerium can be destroyed by an explosion even if Power Source remains intact).

[ThunderFromAbove]

Laser rifle has power 60.
Terrain damage of laser rifle (and other projectile weapons) is 25-75%... i.e. 15-45.
Power source has armor of 50... i.e. cannot be destroyed.
Minimum power needed to have a chance of destroying it is 67.

Thanks! I was not aware, that the damage to terrain is calculated differently. Now it`s clear, that my memory of destroying a PS with a laser rifle was wrong. Sorry! 

As for extracting Elerium, on the picture you can see that Elerium was not in the Power Source already before destroying it (that purple ball is the icon for the Elerium).
It was either never there or got destroyed by an explosion (Elerium can be destroyed by an explosion even if Power Source remains intact).

Then it has to be the first alternative, because prior to destroy it with a shot from Heavy Plasma there was no explosion in this room. And as it is in a base, it can`t be any previous damage from crashing either. So it has to be some "chance"-thing at creation of the battlescape map, whether or not one can extract elerium from a shot at an otherwise intact PS.

[Warboy1982]

it was never there, the same can be observed in the vanilla game. this is why i had to add the field in the ruleset for items rather than just adding them to every power source. that and in TFTD they're kind of all over the place and in non-sensical positions

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Yeah, the original engineering room always contains two power sources, one with an elerium pod. You always get 50 elerium per engineering room in the base.

I know why you never liked the heavy laser: it sucks! It's slow, inaccurate, and has no autofire. Its snap shot is okay but its aimed shot is garbage. And after all that, its power is only 25 points higher than the laser rifle. If there were any enemies with about 70-90 armor, the heavy laser would be slightly better against them than the laser rifle despite it having an autoshot; however there's not, and if there were I wouldn't expect to beat them with lasers. The sectopod can be beaten with a heavy laser, but I really advise using a laser tank, blaster bomb, or another sectopod instead.