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It's easy enough to mod the weapon values yourself though. I've currently got the AK alongside the M16, and it has a lower AP cost on burst fire (to represent the fact that the default setting for an AK is full auto) and packs a little bit more of a punch, due to the larger calibre ammo. Accuracy across the board isn't quite up there with the M16 though, so that's still the better choice for dedicated riflemen who sit back in cover and ping across long range shots.

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Good suggestions for the AK. I will probably tweak some other values as well. To be honest the default weapons might need some adjustment (magazine size comes to mind) however I was just concentrating on adding the Soviet ones for now. Of course all of this becomes a moot point as the ticker moves higher and the aliens become tougher- unless you are just an ironman masochist who wants to fight to the last man and the last bullet, whilst eschewing any alien weapon tech research :D

I imagine at some point in the game it will become practically impossible to continue without bettering your weapon technology.

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Well it would be cool to have weapons more in tune to where you build your original base. Say you build in Asia, you'll have the Soviet block weapons making up much of the mix. Europe would have H&K, etc...and the US would have Colt.

There would be a unity mix, but your locality would offer the greatest percentage of support.

If it's not going to be like this at release, I suggest we make a "Localization Mod" that ties it all together. It would be cool seeing flag patches on uniforms, more weapons, vehicles, etc... We can even add to the tile sets. It can be just cosmetic, or it could really change your game play depending on where you build your initial base (say one region offerings has pros and cons to the others).

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Good suggestions for the AK. I will probably tweak some other values as well. To be honest the default weapons might need some adjustment (magazine size comes to mind) however I was just concentrating on adding the Soviet ones for now. Of course all of this becomes a moot point as the ticker moves higher and the aliens become tougher- unless you are just an ironman masochist who wants to fight to the last man and the last bullet, whilst eschewing any alien weapon tech research :D

I imagine at some point in the game it will become practically impossible to continue without bettering your weapon technology.

Ha, I actually used to do that to some extent in the original Xcom; using good, old fashioned human weapons for as long as possible. There's just something more satisfying about downing a Muton with a clip full of man made bullets as opposed to a blob of filthy, alien plasma! :)

Re the Soviet weapons; I'm intending to add a research topic which basically represents making progress with thawing the Cold War tensions which grip the globe, even in the early stages of alien invasion. Researching this diplomatic topic would open up the Soviet Weapons pack, or something along those lines. If I can get it to work I'd personally like to add a few more research topics which play to this same geo-political theme. They'd run alongside the current alien based stuff, so you'd have a choice between where you wanted your focus to be; a unified Earth, battling the invasion together or going straight for the alien tech route, as in the current game. I can see why Chris hasn't really included this side of things in the base game, as it won't appeal to everyone, but I have to say, I love how open the file structure is for modding purposes. I've never modded a game before and Xenonauts is a piece of cake so far, which I think will result in a huge amount of fan made mods when the game is complete.

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Re the Soviet weapons; I'm intending to add a research topic which basically represents making progress with thawing the Cold War tensions which grip the globe, even in the early stages of alien invasion. Researching this diplomatic topic would open up the Soviet Weapons pack, or something along those lines. If I can get it to work I'd personally like to add a few more research topics which play to this same geo-political theme. They'd run alongside the current alien based stuff, so you'd have a choice between where you wanted your focus to be; a unified Earth, battling the invasion together or going straight for the alien tech route, as in the current game. I can see why Chris hasn't really included this side of things in the base game, as it won't appeal to everyone, but I have to say, I love how open the file structure is for modding purposes. I've never modded a game before and Xenonauts is a piece of cake so far, which I think will result in a huge amount of fan made mods when the game is complete.

I would love this. Hope Chris changes so that researching doesn't force manufactoring so that this mod could be a posibility (manufactoring the soviet weapons seems odd when you get the others for free, but I guess you coudl go with that in a clinch)

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Glad you like the idea, Gorlom. Once I've got a bit more time to actually look into what's possible and what's not I'll post something a bit more definite about the idea in the modding forum. If you have any ideas in the meantime, feel free to throw them my way (unless you want to keep them for yourself, obviously! :) )

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Thanks man, glad to see a couple of comments from people who'd be interested in the idea.

Initial thoughts for the potential benefits/outcomes of pursuing these research subjects are (all dependent on what's possible of course)

- access to weapon variants from arms deals (eg; the Soviet Weapons pack when a deal is struck with them)

- Increased funding from various regions

- Cheaper recruitment costs

- Increased response times to alien threats, and maybe even a second chance at a terror site (delaying the current nuke strike via diplomatic means)

- Radar stations in regions, outside of your bases.

- Higher number of friendly AI in regions with good relations

Obviously, they're all centered around how the different nations respond to you as an organisation, rather than how their relationships with each other change. If I can think of anyways to simulate nations putting aside their differences then I'd like to include that aspect too, but I think it may be that I just have to allude to that in the xenopedia outcomes of the research projects.

It will probably be that the Cold War nations put aside their differences to back the Xenonauts as a common ally, rather than them working directly together. But I think that will still achieve what I'd like to aim for.

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I really like the increased AI soldiers idea, and the Reduced Funding costs for recruitment. Hell, I like them all, with the lone exception of extra "free" radar coverage. I'm not sure on this one. seeing UFO's flying about in area's I can't cover might just lead to stress... Ignorence is bliss, so to say.

But the rest sounds epic, and would add a subtone to the struggle. Making it a international effort, rather than the Xenonaughts acting in a vacume.....

Nice thought, Jim.

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Thanks!

Regarding the radar stations...how about :confused: ; once you've researched the 'Shared Satellite Network' topic, or whatever it could be called, you can build a/tap into a nations existing radar outpost in the same way that you build a full base, but at a fraction of the cost. You have a limited number of these that you can set up and each could allow a 50% chance of automatically intercepting the alien events that occur in a small area surrounding it.

The benefit of this would be a reduction to the negative impact these events have on your standing with the nation where they occur. Also, assuming later in the game, that the level of alien activity in a region relates to their being an alien base nearby, these radar stations could increase your chances of locating the base sooner than you would do otherwise.

That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure with a bit more thought the idea could be made to work.

Anyway, sorry...I've completely derailed this thread! I'll start a topic in the modding forum. :o

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  • 2 weeks later...

Always good to have Russki weapons, even despite the strange affection you Westerners hold for AK-47.

Too bad the variety is severely limited. Yes, I agree that gameplay-wise just a few weapons may be sufficient, filling several "roles" such as precision fire, suppression, area effect weapons, stun weapons, PDW, etc. However, for an example of how various weapons make gameplay even more fun, take a look at a wonderful game "7.62 High Calibre" (list of guns used there is mind-boggling: http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/7.62_High_Calibre). Every weapon has pros and cons there - furthermore, having the stock folded or unfolded affects gun performance in several ways, not to mention suppressors, sights, double mags, etc.

I'm not suggesting implementing it in Xenonauts - that would supplant the game's atmosphere, but that gives an idea how one can substantially enhance gameplay. It also gives food for thought, e.g. as the game progresses, newer weapons may become available, such as ballistic weapons but with use of advanced tech thanks to research of alien materials. Such future weapons may have benefits compared to direct energy weapons, but the choice should be hard for the player, otherwise it'd be no fun (e.g. advanced ballistic gun heavier, but more shots as direct energy weapons's batteries would be depleted relatively fast, ammo easier to manufacture, cheaper to purchase, but less accurate); then again, further development of direct energy weapons may make even such guns outdated.

One could get very creative, I do envy gamedevs...

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If you are a lottery winner who decides to make a game with no publisher breathing down his neck and spend his loose change on it I imagine it is quite nice.

Otherwise I think I will give the process a miss thanks and just yell at Chris for not putting all of my ideas into his game.

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s300pmu1, Ufo:Afterlight and Aftershock did that. One of the first mods that was released after Aftershock was released was a complete weapon rebalance mod (and I mean complete. Holy geez did ShadoWarrior change stuff up). It turned out that modded basic human weaponry was far more effective than many of the later researched weapons (energy weapons especially could rot in development hell). The way that it works in Xenonauts, you have a clear path of progression. You know beyond a doubt that tier 2 weapons will do more damage than tier one weapons, tier 3 will be in many respects better than tiers 1 or 2, and tier 4 will eat the other tiers for lunch. The key questions will be can you afford to make the damn things and are the side benefits of lower tier weapons better in the long term than higher ones? (For example, with human weponry you can have flamethrowers and rocket launchers. But lasers all have a burst fire mode, which quite a few human weapons don't).

Edited by Max_Caine
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