Woz2

@AlienkillerNot quite, no. In XCOM EU/EW, weapons are determined based upon class, not equipment. Such a system as I described it would not function within the XCOM framework, especially not the grenade launcher as it does not have the same weapon system that would allow for variable ammunition as such. Whilst the aforementioned flamethrower could be done decently, the rest of the idea could not. (Even then, the flamethrower would be an intrinsic equipment item not an optional one.) Like, an expansion upon the BigGun criteria of X1 to make weapons exclusive to armor sets, or equipment (in Xeno this would be secondaries) some weapons can equip but not others. It, again, would have based upon class. I'm unsure where exactly you thought such a system might fit within XCOM's confines.

Whilst I am not currently part of the closed beta, I have watched some gameplay of it enough to have a vague idea. The new secondary system allows for something not present in X1 that I think would add to the tactical options available to a commander. That being conditional secondaries. That is, secondary weapons that could only be equipped provided a certain primary weapon(s) or armor is(/are) equipped. For example, underbarrel weapons attachments such as shotguns or single-shot grenade launchers. Perhaps something more spicy like a flamethrower charge attached to an arm. I think seeing these would make for very interesting gameplay especially if grenade ammo types for said launcher operated like rockets from X1. (Lobbing flashbangs, thermobarics, incendiaries, smokes, etc.) This could be expanded to primaries conditional upon armor to, beyond the previous BigGun system in X1, giving more systemic flexibility for such exclusive systems. (Who doesn't want to see a power armor welding badass carrying an M2 HMG modified into a rifle that only they could carry? I know I do. Or, an AI-integrated rifle requiring specialized armor)

You balance that with damage, giving the costant damage vs. armor piercing argument that exists between hollow point and ap ammo even today. You can have security but risk long firefights, or risk being unable to pierce their armor but shortening fights with those without. Knowing your enemy is half the battle. Problem is, we don't until we get that alien mission reader. If you wanted to give us a hint via the types of UFOs... if you could put in that effort. And it wouldn't be a dead giveaway it'd be a hint. Or what they do. For example, Caesans would do abductions, whereas Sebs don't have the equipment to. Sebs would be treated as foot-soldiers, Caesans as the research, scout, and tactical units. The Sebs would be the Army and the Greys would be the Marines. For those who are familiar with the US Army vs. Marines mechanic. Sebs would use heavier, explosive-based ships. Greys would use lighter, mobile, energy-based ships. Sebs would have more soldiers, but be less skilled. Greys would have more skilled, better equipped soldiers, but have less of them.

True, true. But acid would be close range only, would it not? Our EMP weapons in later game would have decent range... And it'd take a while to find an acid reactive enough to burn through the alloys fast enough to be useful... so mid game acid 'nades and later on acid shotgun-type-things. It'd burn through armor poison couldn't, but poison would deal much more damage. Cyanide kills very quickly, and it's not even the most toxic. Again, with the mixed tech concept. EMP for reliable, mid-range combat. Acid for risky, close-range combat. Different approaches for different commanders.

You COULD have both... I mean have low-miti, high damage poison weapons. And insane mitigation, low/med damage acid. Just give Androns an absurd armor value and have the acid weapons match or almost match it. EDIT: And make Xenomorphs utterly immune to any and all chem weapons. And reapers if you want... but even roaches still fall to poison, and Reapers are basically just parasitic insects.

Andron weakness are explosives and/or strong energy weapons. Caesans and Harridins it's kenetics. Sebs it's energy weapons. Melee it's energy and incendiary. Chem is useless against sebs (mostly), androns, probably reapers, and xenos (don't bother). Energy is almost useless against Caesans and Harridans. Flames are also not very good against Sebs. As a general rule: use the type of weapon that isn't the enemy's signature weapons. As the resistances breakdown should tell you.

Basically, gauss will be all non-burst weapons. And do it great. With maybe a crappy LMG attempt. Mag will do everything except shotgun, cannon, and standard pistol. Beam will do all except shotgun and cannon. Burst will do all. Plasma will do all except SMG, Machine pistol, or autofire in general. There will be a crappy attempt at a sniper rifle and LMG, but it makes up for it by sheer power. The ultimate will have everything at its peak ability. Barely below the aliens individually, but combined is incredibly powerful.

You can use it for whatever the engineering team could practically make. There are gauss shotguns that are quite effective. The thing that gauss really lacks in is for burst weapons. And there can be burst weapons, but they'll be slow-firing. And generally not very good. And the stat changes? I can explain that with overarching tech entries and Tactical Analysis on weapon types. Plus the unique guns having their own entries and explanations anyway. Alien vindicator could be a perquisite for something farther down the road. OR it could give you vehicle or plane weapons. Or an off-shoot branch. Like the Flame shotgun is to ballistic weapons. Rewards don't have to be instant, and the start of each tech bookmark doesn't have to be final.

The whole thought on it is that each weapon has a glaring weakness. Especially the more advanced we get. For beam, it's the fact that the guns take time to kill their targets, and the lack of mitigation. For pulse it's the low ammo, and the decreased general range usage compared to beam (but is actually pretty okay). For plasma, it's the sheer inaccuracy of the weapons at range. For gauss, it's the weight of the ammo, and how combersome they are. For MAG it's the danger of friendly fire, weight of the guns at start, and limited range (compared to gauss). But they each have some very huge strengths. For beam it's the accuracy and ease of use. For pulse it's the ability to pass right through armor, light weight, and the decent damage to boot. For plasma it's the copious amounts of damage it can do at close quarters, and the sheer destructive power of the med. cannon and long rifle. For gauss it's the ability to do a lot of damage from afar. For MAG it's the ability to pass right through armor, massive suppressive power, and the damage output at close range.

Ballistic becomes gauss which later becomes MAG. However, gauss and mag are imperfect for the roles in which we try to stick the early weapons. As a result, for the fourth tech, you combine the strongest aspects of gauss and the strongest aspects of MAG to make a mixed tech. Beam becomes pulse, and gauss plus alien plasma tech becomes our plasma. I'm not saying make an advanced branch, I'm saying combine them all for a fourth and final tech. It'll make our scrolling bars much stuff simpler. And balanced? The guns are supposed to be self-balancing. With sarcrifices made along the way for certain weapons. But what they sacrifice in some areas, they make up in others. This is why I say combine them at the end, as all of the strengths of the weapons are fleshed out for use to use at its best. For example, beam is incredibly accurate. So it makes great snipers. Gauss is high damage. Make excellent battle rifles. Mag is insane bursts with insane ammo amounts. Great for LMGs. There will be cases where the previous tech is better than the new one for your play style, but it'll get to a point where they simply don't do enough damage. This will force us to adapt. Take risks. Learning curve with the reward of complete tactical freedom at the end with the compiled, final tech. It renovates all the weapons and improves them greatly. Go ahead and read what I said a few times. It's important you understand what I'm saying here. It's actually simpler than your system in a way. And more interesting.

No, no. I was saying you mesh all the previous techs together. Antimatter is a new explosive tech, but otherwise, the antimatter impliments into the pre-existing technologies. Look at the big long list sir

Yeah, I knows. I got the gist of each weapon and tech type. I could start working on it now if this is what we're gonna use.

Both MAG and Gauss are coil though, as are the plasma weapons. I see what you want though. This is just my personal ideas. Kinetic Ballistic-->Gauss-->Mag (or we can rename it to the MBS... Magnetic Burst System)-->MAW(Magnetic Acceleration Weapons) Ballistic: Med ammo, balanced rate of fire, low miti, low damage, low weight, med reaction, low cost, med accuracy, med range Ballistic weapons: Sniper, assault rifle, shotgun, SMG (two-handed), pistol, machine pistol, light/heavy infantry cannon, LMG. (Feel free to add any I missed) Gauss: low ammo, low RoF, low miti, high damage, med gun weight + high ammo weight, low reaction, med cost, med accuracy, long range Gauss weapons: Sniper, battle rifle, shotgun, pistol, light infantry cannon, new rocket launcher (?) Mag/MBS: high ammo, high RoF, high miti, low damage, high gun weight + low ammo weight, high reaction, high cost, low range, med accuracy (fairly high accuracy for being burst-only weapons) MBS weapons: Sniper, assault carbine, SMG, machine pistol, LMG MAW: mix of Gauss and Mag/MBS. New Annihilator weapons. Will go into detail. -New gauss-type weapons: Sniper, battle rifle, pistol, shotgun -New gauss stats: med ammo, med RoF, med miti, high damage, med weight, low reaction (exception of pistol), high accuracy, long range -New MBS-type weapons: LMG, assault carbine, SMG, machine pistol -New MBS stats: extreme ammo, high ROF, high miti, low damage, light weight, high reaction, med range, high accuracy -Annihilator stats: low ammo, low RoF, high miti, extreme damage, high weight, low (or no)reaction, low-ish range, med accuracy -Annihilator weapons: Heavy Infantry Cannon, Light Infantry Cannon ALL EXPLOSIVES Energy Beam Laser-->Pulse--->Plasma--->(Insert fancy acronym here, ESS for now) Beam: med ammo, high RoF, low miti, low damage, med weight, high reaction, long range, extreme accuracy, med cost Beam weapons: Sniper, assault carbine, SMG, machine pistol, LMG, pistol Pulse: low ammo, med RoF, high miti, low damage, light weight, high reaction, med range, med accuracy, med cost Pulse weapons: Sniper, assault rifle, ultra-light cannon, pistol, SMG, machine pistol, LMG, light infantry cannon Plasma: low ammo, low RoF, med miti, high damage, high weight, low reaction, low range (bolt degradation), med accuracy, high cost Plasma weapons: battle rifle, shotgun, pistol, medium infantry cannon, long rifle ESS: Again, a mixture of everything. Beam, Pulse, and Plasma weapons -New Beam stats: med ammo, high RoF, med miti, low damage, med weight, high reaction, extreme range, extreme accuracy -New Beam weapons: Sniper, marksman carbine -New Pulse Stats: low ammo, med RoF, high miti, med damage, light weight, high reaction, med range, med accuracy -New Pulse weapons: assault carbine, SMG, LMG, machine pistol -New Plasma stats: low ammo, low RoF, med miti, high damage, med weight, low reaction, low range, med accuracy -New Plasma weapons: battle rifle, pistol, light infantry cannon, shotgun TECH NOTES Ballistic: Cheap. Lotsa freedom. Jack of all trades. Gauss: Slow, cumbersome, but if you can draw them out, they'll fall Mag: Fast, loose, chaotic, friendly fire and suppression is a major threat. BURST-ONLY Gauss II: Not nearly as slow, takes up many aspects of ballistic's balanced stats. Long range, high damage. Burst is typically not used. Medium-to-long range combat Mag II: Significantly more accurate, however still have the threat of friendly fire/suppression. Weight plummets for competitiveness. Close-to-medium range combat. Annihilator: You know that black hole gun? Yeah, pretty much like that thing. Maybe the primary weapons for the mech suit thingy (colossus)? Beam: Fast to fire, slower to kill. To properly kill a target, you have land a solid "burst" to kill it. Incredibly accurate and long range, with ammo caps comparable to ballistic. Pulse: Batteries burn quickly, range and accuracy are very dropped compared to beam, but overall are fairly balanced/medium-high. Plasma: Slow, heavy, inaccurate, but if you can hit then they'll drop. With two explosive weapons, they'll be easily suppressed. Ranges are short. Difficult to use, but dangerous nonetheless. Beam II: High ammo, extremely long range. Snipers go-to. Pulse II: More balanced all around, more damage, more accurate. Designed for mid-range combat. Plasma II: Serious buffs in range and versatility. Much more accurate than it used to be. Best suited for close range combat still. However, the Plasma battle rifle is decent range. WEAPON GUIDE One-handed weapons: Come in two variants -Standard pistol: Close range, semi-automatic (with a few notable exceptions) sidearm. Fairly accurate within its range and incredibly easy to handle. -Machine pistol: Close range, auto-only primary weapon. Designed to be paired with the shield, it's heavy (for a pistol) and somewhat unwieldy. Not very accurate, but destroys targets at point blank. Unfortunately burns through its clip incredibly fast. Assault weapons: Versatile, mid range guns that come in 3 variants -Assault rifle: Basic balanced mid-range weapon. Standard for the class. -Battle rifle: Higher damage, higher range. On the contrary, heavier, cumbersome, and less accurate. -Assault carbine: Lower damage, lower range; however it has higher accuracy, is lighter, and is much easier to use. Marksman weapons: Long-range weapons, come in three variants. -Plasma Exclusive- Long Rifle: The early plasma attempt at a sniper rifle, with range equivalent to a traditional battle rifle and explosive rounds. Cumbersome, heavy, but effective. -Beam Exclusive- Marksman Carbine: A lightweight, easy-to-use, long range, highly accurate sniper alternative. Drops off damage and range and accuracy for weight and ease of use. Designed for scouts or multi-role sharpshooters -Sniper/Precision rifle: The standard high-damage, high-accuracy, long-range weapon. CQC weapons: Come in three variants. -Shotgun: High-damage, ultra-close range, inaccurate spray of fire. -Pulse Exclusive- Ultra-light cannon: The laser attempt at a shotgun, fires one massive burst of armor-piercing damage. Incredibly low ammo, incredibly close range, but decently accurate within that range. -Submachine Gun: Alternative to the shotgun, the SMG has a higher range, and some suppressive power. It is fairly accurate, and fires a burst of pistol-strength rounds. Very lightweight, and ideal for multi-role troopers. Easy-to-use. Heavy Weapons: Come in two variants. -LMG: Standard heavy burst weapon. -Cannons: Come in three variants *Light Infantry cannon (AKA the Infantry Cannon): Grenade-launcher style weapon. Heavy, slow, high damage. *Plasma Exclusive- Medium Infantry Cannon: The early plasma attempt at an LMG, with a low rate of fire. Hard to set up, but once set up it can decimate the enemy with its explosive Long Rifle rounds, albeit highly inaccurate. *Annihilator Exclusive- Heavy Infantry Cannon. Well it's heavy, a cannon, and very explosive.

The individual iterations would have to be named according to taste and what we gleam from alien tech that allows us to make that iteration. Gauss III can be dropped to give MAG the spotlight for a bit as well (and simplify our scrolling menus) We can also do something similar for energy weapons.

I assume you mean the list of logic progression of weapons? Traditional powder weapons (and their many variations), prototype heavier Gauss (with rail cannons for the vehicles and heavy-slower firing cannons for aircraft. Basically, no burst fires), type II gauss (with higher rate-of-fire, bursts back, less TU cost [very small difference though, but it can matter in combat], much more lightweight.), MAG burst weaponry prototypes (we don't want it to quite phase out gauss II... how you do that is up to you whether it be limiting the weapons available [like machine guns, SMGs {two handed ones}, etc.] or by just making its less accurate. At first it'd be chaotic burst of fire, good for suppression and CQC, giving our interceptors and vehicles new rapid-fire weapons. It'd have copious amounts of ammo, fire very large amounts of needles downrange, high-mitigation, and have pretty crap accuracy.), Gauss III and MAG II (MAG a little before gauss, MAG sees a lot of buffs in accuracy and controllability, making MAG mid-range combat competitive to gauss mid-range. Gauss sees a damage and range buffs to make it up-to-date with the enemies. Again, MAG is more for close quarters; surpessions; and fast, light fire. Gauss is better for long range and heavy, slower weapons.), then (if needed) have an overarching MAWS tech, taking the best aspects of the MAG and Gauss specialty and combining them into a weapon set. With the MAG LMG/SMG/Machine pistol/carbine [or light rifle] and Gauss sniper/heavy pistol/slug gun [it's like a shotgun, but without the buckshot aspect]/Personal cannon/ heavy rifle. Slight tweaks, but this would be the final footnote in kinetic weaponry [until anti-material weapons come around])