Using Alien Technology Withou Researching

Hi All,

Just a quick point.

Has anyone else realised how weird it is that one can use Alien Technology by that I mean the alien weapons ingame straight away without having to have researched the alien technology first.

In the original Xcom one had to research the alien technology first before being able to use the alien weapons and one had to research each weapon before being able to use it.

One should at least have to research alien weapons technology before being allowed to use it and I mean each and every weapon!

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Research

The war between Man and Alien is not fought waged purely on the field of combat. It is also fought with science.

Research is a decisive factor in winning the game.

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Research_Trees

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In this game one can just pick the Alien weapons up right from the start without having researched the aliens weapon technology, and just use it straight away, that was something one could not do in the original Xcom.

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Research

Read the in formation under this heading for Xcom

Alien weapons

Alien weapons are more powerful than conventional weapons and are very destructive. They are initially only usable by the aliens, but later can be turned on them once they have been researched.

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Weapons

It's a good job then that researching alien weapons are integral to getting anywhere in the game. Alien weapons impose a 50% accuracy penalty when used, are automatically sold at the end of the mission and you cannot advance in weapons technology, nor carry out certain armour research without researching alien weapons.

- look on which side of the weapon the aliens are shooting you from

- point that side away from you or your squadmates

- figure out which is the trigger

- research done, good luck!

If you like things simple and less complex and shallow then good for you.

If you like things simple and less complex and shallow then good for you.

It really is as simple as LKx says it is...You don't have to understand how a AK-47 or M16 works in order to point it at an enemy and press the trigger.

Having to research it first would just be unrealistic.

Perhaps researching it could reduce the accuracy penalty (you'll be more effective with a weapon you understand the properties of), but using it on a basic level is a different thing.

Er... some people still don`t get that you have to take the safety off! You could point a modern gun at a guy and listen to it go `clickety click!`

In some cases you need to chamber a round...

So perhaps Alien weapons should take a little aforethought too.

If you like things simple and less complex and shallow then good for you.

I thought the soldiers we recruit had at least basic combat training... if i'm wrong and we are recruiting accountants you got a point.

Er... some people still don`t get that you have to take the safety off! You could point a modern gun at a guy and listen to it go `clickety click!`

In some cases you need to chamber a round...

So perhaps Alien weapons should take a little aforethought too.

It's unlikley that an alien who was just shooting at you with aforementioned weapon would have time during it's death throes to turn the safty catch on. Just saying.

Now reloading that weapon, that's a differnant matter completley!

It's unlikley that an alien who was just shooting at you with aforementioned weapon would have time during it's death throes to turn the safty catch on. Just saying.

Now reloading that weapon, that's a differnant matter completley!

That is very true - research required for reloading and extra accuracy would both make sense.

Using the alien guns shouldn't be terribly hard to figure out the basics of "this end toward enemy" and "pull trigger to dispense death." Also, it's very unlikely the alien weapons even have a safety catch.

Researching the alien guns should reduce the firep enalty from 50% or like, 25% or so, because it will disseminate the information gained to all of your soldiers.

Along with that, I think, selling alien guns should be a manually-required choice, not an automatic one, and the player should have the option to send squaddies into battle wielding captured alien guns - a trade of accuracy for plasmatic killing power in the early game, one that leaves you exposed to heavy incoming fire but gives you more options.

Accuracy penalty is due to being anatomically unpractical for humans to wield the weapon and pull the trigger.

PS: I was pretty sure that you weren't able to reload alien weapons. That actually could be tricky.... but i don't think that those weapons were designed for rocket scientists

Accuracy penalty is due to being anatomically unpractical for humans to wield the weapon and pull the trigger.

PS: I was pretty sure that you weren't able to reload alien weapons. That actually could be tricky.... but i don't think that those weapons were designed for rocket scientists

You can...just not by clicking the reload button, but if you go into the inventory and manually drag the ammo into the gun it will work.

It's unlikley that an alien who was just shooting at you with aforementioned weapon would have time during it's death throes to turn the safty catch on. Just saying.

Now reloading that weapon, that's a differnant matter completley!

When it comes to Alien guns it could be that once the gun leaves the Aliens hands it immediately drops into `safety`mode. Perhaps their Tech is advanced enough to have that. Would kinda make sense too.

By way, I`m a leicestershire lad too! Pleased to meet you!

When it comes to Alien guns it could be that once the gun leaves the Aliens hands it immediately drops into `safety`mode. Perhaps their Tech is advanced enough to have that. Would kinda make sense too.

Or they could self destruct... oh, wait, i think that someone else already did that....

bottom line, they do not.

Why not make alien guns fit only with special researched glove/adapter? Those who have it in backpack can use it to shoot from alien plasmas.

My point is Alien Technology!

In Xcom Ufo Defense one had to research the Alien Weapons Technology before being able to use the Alien weapons Technology!

In Xcom Ufo Defense one had to research the Alien Weapons Technology before being able to use the Alien weapons Technology!

Obviously the developers had good reason to make the game that way!

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/199362-x-com-ufo-defense/faqs/1825

6 Research and Manufacturing

6.1 WHAT SHOULD I START RESEARCHING FIRST?

OSG and I have different priorities on research...

I recommend laser weapons, medikit, laser rifle, and alien alloy

(which allows personal armor) for the starting projects. Pistols

and rifles are pitiful against plasma rifles and alien grenades.

Laser rifle, which does not use ammo, should even up the odds a

bit, and personal armor should save you from a grazing shot

(which would have killed with no armor). Medikit will save you

from the grazing shot that caused fatal wounds.

The rest is up to you, but I recommend researching heavy plasma,

small launcher and stun bombs, then heavy blaster and blaster

bombs. Then research Elerium, UFO power source, so you can build

nice armor and the crafts. Eventually, you will need to research

everything.

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Research

In Xcom Ufo Defense one had to research the Alien Weapons Technology before being able to use the Alien weapons Technology!

Obviously the developers had good reason to make the game that way!

Obviously!

It makes perfect sense to me that a trained soldier would be able to pick up an enemy weapon and use it without any real prior training. There are only so many configurations to build a handheld range weapon that is functionally similar to a rifle (this includes shotgun and machinegun style weapons). Every firearm (firearm includes laser and plasma weapons for this description) contains a few critical, easily identifiable components to make it operate: Ammunition, a barrel, a grip, and a trigger. Most of these can be inferred with a small amount of observation and common sense. In a longarm, the barrel is going to be your longest axis, meaning a smaller breakoff is more than likely a grip; the addition of a button, stud, or small lever is a good indication that your hand is in the right place as well, and that is most likely your trigger. At this point you have identified the primary three things you need, a quick scan that shouldn't take a soldier more than 10 seconds at most.

A quick search of the alien corpse would likely find you a power cell, which would appear to match something that is in/attached to the weapon, giving you your ammunition. While reloading might be tricky (specifically finding how to eject the spent power cell), firing the weapon would be fairly easy. The problem, as described in the game, becomes a matter or ergonomics, if the weapon is built for hands that are distinctly inhuman, then the weapon will be difficult for humans to handle, and there is no telling how an alien sighting system could work (humans have devised tons of different sight configurations), there is no guarantee that these would be similar to human standards. I would think it would make more sense for your engineers to be able to take "requisitioned" alien weapons, gut them, and put them in a more human suited shell (after you have researched the plasma weapons) as a cost efficient way of moving into the next weapons tier. It would save you cost on the raw materials to make it, and it doesn't require a functional alteration to the weapon, merely a cosmetic one.

I initially also found it weird until I read the novella. In it, the soldier fumbled around and eventually made it work after picking it up for the first time.

Well of course obviously that is my point excatly that is why I opened this thread to begin with.

In this game one can just pick the Alien weapons up right from the start without having researched the aliens weapon technology, and just use it straight away, that was something one could not do in Xcom.

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Research

Read the in formation under this heading for Xcom

Alien weapons

Alien weapons are more powerful than conventional weapons and are very destructive. They are initially only usable by the aliens, but later can be turned on them once they have been researched.

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Weapons

What's your point? Just because other games did it differently does not mean this one has to. Go play those instead if you prefer it that way.

I have purchased this game so I am entitled to have opinions about Xenonauts and compare it to the brilliant Xcom games because, without the original Xcom games Xenonauts would not exist.

These Xcom type games will always be compared to the original Xcom games.

Also on the Xenonauts homepage there is a quote from ( Rock, Paper, Shotgun ) that says the following:

"I’ve been waiting a long time for an X-COM remake that actually feels anything like X-COM. It is not in my nature to believe that dreams can come true."

- Alec Meer

http://www.xenonauts.com/

So it is obvious that this game as with other Xcom clones sell themsleves as an Xcom game to a greater or lesser degree and that is why I and others have purchased the game to begin with.

Xenonauts is a dwarf riding on the shoulders of the giants that created the Xcom franchise!