Updated 190207 - new download in this post.As previewed in
the latest episode of my WH40k Let's Play, I've been designing a set of OXCE scripts that would turn a HWP unit into a crew-served weapon emplacement. The essence of the idea is that the emplacement unit can't do anything until a soldier interacts with it in melee range, then it inherits the firing accuracy and reactions of the soldier that uses it. With proper time unit costs set, the emplacement could require two soldiers to operate at full capacity for setting it up and reloading.
I'm attaching a standalone version of these scripts for testing. It provides a HWP unit purchasable at the start of UFO that is essentially a better heavy cannon with HE ammo. There is an ufopaedia article that explains the basic use, but here's the more in-depth explanation:
Usage:
- Kneeling melee attack on the turret: "uses" the turret, setting your soldier's TUs to 0, and setting the turret's firing accuracy and reactions to be equal to that of your soldier's stats. If the soldier would've had >50% TUs after the melee attack, the turret gets 100% TUs. If less than, the turret gets 50% TUs. The turret's energy is zeroed to prevent movement. The firing accuracy and reactions stats revert to 1 at the beginning of your next turn.
- Standing melee attack on the turret: "pushes" the turret, granting it a small number of TUs and energy in order to move. The amount is proportional to a soldier's strength. This can't be done again until the turret is under 7 TUs.
- Melee attack with the special item "Turret Wrench": "disassembles" the turret, stunning it and allowing it to be easily picked up and moved. It won't recover from stun automatically. Cannot use/push the turret.
- Ranged attack with the special item "Turret Wrench": "assembles" the turret, reviving it from the stunned state created by disassembly, setting the stun to 0.
If you're bringing the turret on the craft, make sure you bring a stun rod and equip it on a soldier, otherwise the turret will sit on top of your equipment pile and prevent using it! Also, you'll need OXCE later than 19 Jan 2019 for the script to work, and later than 26 Jan 2019 for the firing and reactions to save properly if you save/reload the game.
You can also get some experience from using the weapon emplacement - during each turn, the script keeps track whether or not you hit at least once with the turret. At the end of battle, the script counts how many turns a soldier had a hit with the weapon emplacement and gives firing experience according to that number - +0 or +1 firing for 1 hit, +0 to +2 for 2 hits, and +1 to +3 for 3 hits and up. Reactions training is also planned, but requires some more script hooks in order to function.
If you try the mod out, please let me know what you think!