Aircraft stuff suggestions

[TheCurse]

Since ground combat (and many other things) are so huge and well made, lets give aircraft stuff some love too 
It seems there´s not so much tech and items yet.
So here´s some suggestions on what could be done to change that a little bit.
(In case there´s no engine limitation saying nope)
On purpose not suggesting any mechanics overhaul or additional mechanics, just some "easy" stuff.

Currently there are a hand full of missiles of various range and dmg and a few cannons, mostly differing in dmg.
My idea would be to have light/medium/heavy missiles and same for cannons.
Notably light and medium versions fit into hardpoints of heavy too. (and light into medium...)

Missiles have generally better range and on non-short ranges way better accuracy.
(speaking about short range missiles vs short range cannons, not "distance to target in dogfight")
Longer range missiles tend to have less dmg, or very short ammo supply.

For cannons the light/medium/heavy difference is mostly the range and rate of fire.
Also you'd need a very advanced craft to put a heavy cannon on it...
light/medium cannons have higher rate of fire than missiles and on average less damage. medium/heavy have solid damage, but low hit chance.
Medium cannons are about the range of stingray missiles.

There´s room for guided/unguided missiles, maybe psi guided by pilot, smart cannon ammo, anti grav propelled stuff, etc.

The idea is you have a lot of different options, depending on your current tech.
High tech missiles can be very expensive (in terms of alien resources), but you don't have to rely on them completely, unless you wanna take down battleships.
Cannons could be expensive, but ammo probably takes only alloys. (unless you wanna have elerium boosted explosive ammo...)
Small cannons are as most cannons are now, medium cannons a replacement for stuff like stingrays and heavy cannons... well think of artillery on an aircraft.
Good dmg at pretty long range, but may just miss a lot. But cheaper to maintain than missiles that dmg class.

To make any use of the differences, there need to be adequate UFO attack classes of course.
Like low range/high dmg (Fighter), high range low dmg (large scout?) and anything in between.

With these weapon class differences, it´d be easy to have several distinctive different xcom aircrafts, each for a different role.

Now, except "why the F would we need that", any comments? ^^

[X-Man]

Now, except "why the F would we need that", any comments? ^^

Why the F would we need that? 
Air combat itself is primitive, it has supportive role in the game. All what we need is weapons and crafts be well-balanced. There are a lot of more important issues in the game, which have to be paid a lot of attention and time... I wouldn't be sad if air combat would make more simplified, than it is now or be automated somehow. Quick battle, perhaps
All that IMHO, of course.

[TheCurse]

fair enough.
I just think that almost any aspects of xcf are so comprehensive and very much better compared to vanilla.
But in aircraft matters it doesn't feel that way.
Sure there´s some more crafts and we got pilot mechanics and like 3 utility things for them. But it doesn't really feel different or extended, compared to the original game.
So to keep up with the high level of the rest of the mod, there could be some things done to enhance that aspect of the game too.
So many possibilities of things to do there...

[X-Man]

fair enough.
I just think that almost any aspects of xcf are so comprehensive and very much better compared to vanilla.
But in aircraft matters it doesn't feel that way.
Sure there´s some more crafts and we got pilot mechanics and like 3 utility things for them. But it doesn't really feel different or extended, compared to the original game.
So to keep up with the high level of the rest of the mod, there could be some things done to enhance that aspect of the game too.
So many possibilities of things to do there...

Well, if someone could made a sub-mod (because I think not many people want to f-k with it regularly in the main game) with air battle like it was in Master of Orion, with the same management of weapons, armor and other stuff... Otherwise, all next additions will be just as quantity, but not quality  Really, I cannot even imagine how to improve air combat within all limitations of the game engine.

[TheCurse]

Well, if someone could made a sub-mod (because I think not many people want to f-k with it regularly in the main game) with air battle like it was in Master of Orion, with the same management of weapons, armor and other stuff...

Turn based air combat... That´d probably be insane. In a good way
But way out of scope, no small thing.

Really, I cannot even imagine how to improve air combat within all limitations of the game engine.

Thats why my idea was to make weapons different, and to make the differences matter. With UFOs can't do much, except range and dmg, but those 2 can give a set of different things too...
E.g. you can have a long range craft for weak UFOs, long range for strong UFOs but ammo is gonna cost a ton of elerium, short range for weak, short range for strong but thats gonna be a lot of dmg each fight...

[Solarius Scorch]

I honestly don't think I can do much here. Air combat in X-Com is just so simple.

I'm considering adding a special feature to the "heavy" versions of missiles, such as Heavy Stingray Launcher: decrease the fighter's speed slightly.