Alien weapons?

Hi there, community!

Got the game just yesterday,and as an old Ufo: Enemy unknown fan, I am very pleased with this new er.. incarnation So far I like almost everything about the game, the things I don't..well, modz-R-us. Most modern games are open to user modification/tweaking, .xml is ubiquitous enough.

It is possible that my question(s) was already answered (maybe many times) but the game support/community (boards) is already awesome and I AM reading the boards, but still have some questions.

In the old UFO/XCOM you had to capture an alien weapon, like the plasma pistol/rifle/heavy plasma, grenades etc and bring at least one home. Then you research it and you can tell your engineer team to start producing them if you had the required materilas, like alien alloys, Elerium-115 etc.

In Xenonauts, I did 'bring home' (it is automatic) one plasma pistol and one pl. rifle, my scientists completed the research on the pl. rifle, but I cannot produce it. Now, I am not sure, it seems that you, the player are NOT supposed to make/use alien weapons. Ever. Maybe just when you run out of ammo and pick one up mid-misison with all the malusses etc.

I've watched quite a few Xenonauts videos on YT, some during as we say 'end-game' and I saw some mysterius weapons like lasers and other, but NO plasma weapons. Are they really off-limits to the player? Plasma weapons were really powerful and fun to use in the original UFO/X-com. I don't mind if they are off-limits for game balancing purpose, just would like a few explanations about the matter.

Thanks.

Just keep playing the damn game. You'll get your precious plasma eventually.

Step 1 Capture Alien Tech

Step 2 Study Alien Tech

Step 3 Dismantle Alien tech and try to understand it.

Step 4 Profit

Your scientists will eventually offer you new opportunity for your weapon technologies.

That was a little bit harsh.

But yes, you will eventually be able to build terrestrial plasma weapons. The alien weapons are ergonomically unsuitable for human soldiers. You can still pick up and use alien weapons (you don't even have to research them) but there's a 50% negative accuracy modifier due to the difficulty of wielding the weapons effectivly.

Easy there, sD. What skaianDestiny says is essentially true. You do get plasma weapons eventually. You are correct in thinking that aliens weapons are not retained in between missions. Their intention is as a weapon of last resort - when there's nothing better to hand on the battlefield.

Thanks for your answers.

No offense taken. There are the polite people and the...other ones.

I understand now that the plasma weapons for xenonauts are actually a terran research (based on alien weapons). Not like in the first x-com, where they were the same thing, be it looted from dead aliens or produced by the engineers. Makes more sense this way, even if most of the alien forms encountered so far were mostly Hominids.So, ergonomy shouldn't be really a big issue.

Another thing: my first game-month ended, and suddenly alien corvettes (with escorts) replaced the small scout UFO's. I mean, droves of corvettes. I managed to outmanouver and down a few (with a pair of MIG31's) but the starter Falcons are suddenly useless!!

I choose the medium difficulty (like in most games) for my first playthrough. Maybe I should restart on easy. My guys can't hit a barn and the bad guys are sniping them from across the map.

Had my first base invasion/attack, barely survived. Those lizzards are hard to kill with bullets. Hopefully it gets better later..

Your Foxtrots will be your primary damage dealers against large alien craft. The Condors are there to destroy alien fighters and the smaller scouts. Keep at it, you haven't lost yet. And besides, if you think the lizards are tough, wait until you meet Androns...

You apparentlly have to reasearch a lot of alien plasma weapons before you can build your own versions. I'm not quite there yet either.

You're adding more accuracy to your shots using right-click, right?

Amaznig how often that gets missed.

Amaznig how often that gets missed.

i found that by random luck on my 2nd or 3rd mission i think. My life was radically different after that.

You're adding more accuracy to your shots using right-click, right?

Wow, Chris England in my topic!

Yes Chris, I do add accuracy to my guy's shots. I did play the X-com series and Jagged Alliance series games.Thanks for answering though. And thanks for the game. Tinkering with ModBox in order to play the old X-com series was getting old.

Actually my 'guys' are firing mostly aimed shots. Their misses are not useful very much.On the other hand, my machinegun's misses are useful

After 10 or so first missions, I am still dealing with guys with very low marksmanship skill, like in the 40-ies. Yes they are improving slowly.From time to time I hire new soldiers, but their starting stats are a lottery. If one has high MRK, he usually has 30TU or 35 reflexes etc.

Anyway, need to bite the bullet and endure this cr@ppy 'beginner's firearms-era'.

What really concerns me is the ramp-up of enemy flying circus quality/quantity. How many MIG's am I supposed to keep in a squadron that is capable of consistently bring down alien corvettes? A pair is not enough. With much luck, patience and prayers I am able to shoot down a corvette every now and then but it is still a bit frightening.

Rant over. Anyone that made it so far in my reply, here: a cookie.

Yeah, I had to tell my brother about that too. Maybe there should be a pop up about it ...

If you are finding that a pair of Migs cannot down a corvette, you may not have researched Alenium yet; this unlocks a research topic called Alenium Explosives that boosts the damage on your missiles/torpedoes.

Got a tip from a friend to watch a couple flicks at YT about aerial combat (By Dranek) and now I am confident I will be able to progress in the game if I manage to master the aerial combat. The guy in the video was very good at aerial combat. Now I know I suck at it, badly. Willing to improve. So far, my opinion is that the game on difficulty medium and up offers very little forgiveness.

Probably working as intended. Still, the learning curve is very steep for someone that never played games like X-com/UFO or jagged alliance. If you fail to put your first bases on the right spot, you are done. If you don't research the techtree in a certain manner, you are done. Hmph, the base positions shuld be just fixed ones then, and you build them when you have the money. Of all the base coverage maps I found on the net, 9 of 10 (or more) had the same pattern, like Cuba-Yucatan and Cairo-Jerusalem etc.

Not moaning here, in X-com it was the same thing. There, with the laser cannon exploit you could indulge in alternative base positions. In Xeno, the pattern is set in stone.