Soviet Weapon / Alternate Weapon Images released!

[Chris]

Two recurring complaints throughout development have been:

1) For a joint NATO / Soviet organisation, the Xenonauts sure don't have much Soviet equipment. They do have Soviet soldiers, but their weapons are American and their vehicle is British. We used to be able to point to the MiG interceptor, but even that is now researchable rather than starting.

2) There's not enough different ballistic weapons - we only have one type of assault rifle, for example. The M-16 and the AK-47 actually behave quite differently in reality.

While vanilla Xenonauts is not going to add any extra weapons or change the existing ones for design reasons, we've always said we'll make it as easy as possible for people to mod the game to their preferences.

As such, the build now includes art for Soviet equivalents of the starting Xenonaut weapons, as well as a few unused NATO weapons we did while settling on the current selection. There is a total of 16 new images there. It's now just a question of altering text files to change the NATO weapons into Soviet weapons, or to add extra guns like AK-47s into the game. In fact, with the tool Quartermaster is working on it may even be easier than that soon.

I was going to stick these in a mod, but without an installer we can't have it automatically loaded onto everyone's PC (yet). We might include the Soviet Weapon mod as an example mod to go with the final game though.

The guns can be found in the directory /assets/weapons/ballistic. A few of the weapons are shown below:

[Chris]

Incidentally, I created this thread mostly just so we can point people at it when they make one of those two complaints in the future.

[SilverMoonFlare]

Those guns are sexy. But why would we want to fight the aliens with an outdated AK-47? AK-74 was already in use before the invasion begun.

[Chris]

[Jean-Luc]

Incidentally, I created this thread mostly just so we can point people at it when they make one of those two complaints in the future.

Haha, nice.

It will probably be best to mix both sets of art for that true feeling of unity. For example, use the M-16 image for the assault rifle and Russian art for the sniper etc.

[IceVamp]

I think this is really great. I mean, you're producing stuff basically just to help modders. Way to win over the community For me, it's not a very big issue. I've never been a really big fan of the AK-47. It seems a bit lanky, but I like that you can do anything to it and still fire, kinda like the old G3 we used when I was doing my mandatory service. Regarding Ak-74, wikipedia says it was first used in conflict in '79. And USSR would probably have an endless amount of 47's to send to this new organization claiming it will fight the aliens, I can't see them sending their new pride to be honest.

[Jean-Luc]

Well, the two don't look all that different. One could just rename it if they wanted. Technically the game isn't supposed to use real names so it's going to be called the "assault rifle" anyway. It's not that big of a leap of faith to assume it's the "74" variant unless one is an expert on guns and is bothered by details.

My source: http://world.guns.ru/assault/rus/ak-74-e.html

I've never been a really big fan of the AK-47. It seems a bit lanky, but I like that you can do anything to it and still fire, kinda like the old G3 we used when I was doing my mandatory service.

Does black colouring make it look more futuristic for you?

Apparently AKs do come in pure black and not just the famous "wood & black" pattern.



Looks better on a dark background:

[Buzzles]

If we're going to geek out on weaponry, it would be quite easy to say that the Sov's are supplying AKM's, as that would be correct for the time period.

Personally, as proven by the current shift back upwards in calibre sizes due to value of their abilty to knock targets down (5.56 is probably going to be supplanted by the 6.5mm or 6.8mm rounds), I'd rather take a AK47/AKM over the '74 anyway.


It's very nice artwork (just like the rest of the Xenonaut art) anyway Chris.

[IceVamp]

Does black colouring make it look more futuristic for you?

No, lanky as in loose and inaccurate, poor energy absorption. I don't really mind the standard furnishing. It's the most iconic assault rifle in the world.

[BobbyDylan]

. There is a total of 16 new images there.

Oooo..... Can anyone post these pics on here? Depsite being a 20 year dedicated gamer, I'm no modder or programmer, I'm an accountant. I wouldn't know how to see these.