Armed civilians?

"There are some places in the US and Middle East where the "Terror Mission" would be terror for the aliens not the citizens."

Terror missions in Detroit should either end with the Xenonauts automatically winning on the first turn, or having to hunt down all the gangbangers who now have acquired plasma weaponry and are probably after the Xenonauts for their boots.

"Commander, are you aware that there is surplus weight capacity on the Chinook? Please tell your troops that having so many 'speed holes' in the alien bodies doesn't make them lighter, or our research easier."

"...They were like that when we got there!"

"While you're at it, please send the 55-gallon drum of recovered 9mm rounds back to the quartermaster with a sternly worded note to convert all rifles back to .223 or 5.56."

"...That wasn't us!"

"Oh, and Transport says they'll call those missing Hunter wheels combat-lossed, but you're on the hook for a replacement AM/FM/8-track. They also wonder how that happened when the driver says he only stepped out for two minutes to take a leak."

"...I don't know if we should stage a recruiting drive there or just let the aliens have it."

(*grew up an hour south of the D*)

The only way to pacify Detroit is with some kind of robotic policeman.

They tried, it only took half a roll of tape for him to go rogue...

I'd like to see armed thothkinses and female thothkinses as well.

not so much Terror Maps as Horror Maps then

From a practical standpoint conventional weapons will become useless later in the game, but you'll still have civvies taking potshots at everything slowing down gameplay. I like having them on a few tilesets (terror, farm, etc) but having all/many/most civilians armed doesn't seem like a wise gameplay decision to me.

I really dislike the fact that they are even worse shots than my rookies on their first mission. The way they shoot in the general direction of the aliens means they are shooting towards me...but they hit me more often than they hit the aliens.

I did a quickie mod to try it out and to be honest, it's pretty boring when they're all armed. And the terror missions have between 14-20 unarmed civvies, so they'd at least kill one or two aliens by weight of numbers as much as anything.

It'd be amusing to see a map where it's all panicked civilians with rocket launchers.

>_>

<_<

....

EDIT: Okay, yeah, I just did that. It's hilarious. The friendly AI fires around 2 rockets EACH, and they have an infinite supply of them.

Do any of the Xenonauts get out alive?!

Sgt erutan: Hello Sir! We're here to protec...holy *!$* >kaboom!<

Cpl thothkins >running back to the chinook<: I told you not to take the mission in Texas, but did you list....>Kabooom!<

- 1 hour earlier -

Radar Operator Max Caine: Sir, we've detected a UFO has landed in Texas, unfortunately the nearest intercept is an hour away. There are civilians in that area sir.

Beloved Leader Chris: Don't we have ANYTHING nearby?

Radar Operator Max Caine: Sir... we do have a transport plane carrying a resupply of rocket launchers flying over that area in 20 minutes.

Beloved Leader Chris: Radio them to attach parachutes to all of the supply crates and drop them over the UFO landing site. We've got to give those people a fighting chance.

Radar Operator Max Caine: ... all of them sir?

- 35 minutes earlier -

Farmer SSGGeezer sees a supply crate which has split open on impact.

SSGGeezer: Yeeeeehawwww~

- 1 minute earlier -

Cpl thothkins: Sir, what was that flash of light down there. It looked like...

Sgt erutan: Just sunlight glinting off a pitchfork, don't let your imagination run corporal.

I really like this idea, and think it would really add to the feel of the game. However I can understand it would be quite boring if all civies on the map take their turn to shoot, but I think it would make sense that many of those who have guns would make a run for it instead of fighting. Maybe you could simply make the civilians very easy to panic and most of them would panic and run away while some might try to be heroes. The civilians that stay and fight should have a high time unit cost for firing, this will prevent them from taking way to many handgun shots like police currently do sometimes. A high chance of panicking could make them stop their resistance pretty quickly too. I think even the bravest people would freak out pretty quickly if they are using firearms while being fired upon with plasma weapons wielded by aliens.

Also it would be nice if the chances of civs carrying weapons would be based on the occurrence of weapons per country:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country

This would have the fun effect of making US missions slightly easier

Mostly handguns in the cities, with the occasional person who has an assault rifle at home. Of course in farmland the farmers should have shotguns or hunting rifles. AK47s in the Middle East and Africa.

As an extra bonus you could have the occasional gun-nut around who happens to own an RPG and grenades.

Negative

People in cities should have hand guns about 5% of the time, also areas with guns banned should have no guns

farmers and such should have shot guns or hunting riffles

Middle east should have AK47s (one per house hold is standard)

Africa is very armed as well with AK47s

Areas with no weapons may have mobs of civis with bats, crow bars, etc (meaning you may find an alien in the fetal position getting his butt kicked if hes alone)

Civis should also

A run from aliens

B run to xenotroops

C be given 1 direction to run ( Back to the craft, normally) and go

by armed civilians do you mean local forces? or why should the unarmed neutral ai civvies have guns if there are already armed friendly AI?

What does it bring to complicate the unarmed civvies by adding equipment/AI/tons of sprites that hardly gets used? if you alreeady have the armed friendly AI?

by armed civilians do you mean local forces? or why should the unarmed neutral ai civvies have guns if there are already armed friendly AI?

well, the unarmed neutral civilian sprites should have arms in case they need to protect themselves from the armed local force sprites.

What does it bring to complicate the unarmed civvies by adding equipment/AI/tons of sprites that hardly gets used? if you alreeady have the armed friendly AI?

From the posts I've read on this, there's a wish to see armed residents of the nation being attacked. It's Xenonauts that goes one step better, by splitting those residents into civilian and local forces. With farmers, national guard, armed arctic guys I think this is pretty much well covered, without having to add any further detail really.

On the other hand, the next time you want to shoot a civilian because he's ended up in the door space again, he may just be able to shoot back

well, the unarmed neutral civilian sprites should have arms in case they need to protect themselves from the armed local force sprites.

Why do I get the feeling you are talking about limbs rather than guns? o.0

Actually, it was a sly reference to the ongoing gun debate in the US. Honestly, Gorlom as if I would make a facetious comment!

>cough< >splutter< >cough<

must...not...name...post...title..."A farewell to arms".... must... resist...

Oh really? last I heard about that was that the NRA keept their mouth shut tight (blacked out all social media and refused to comment) after the shool shooting in .. colorado? Where was the latest one?

And after that some senator or govenor or whatever politician that was in NRA and fully supports the rights for bears to be armed slightly backed down and said that there could be guncontrol without violating the #### (second?) ammendment.

Ah, the discussions I've been in had all sides being horrified by the events. However, a distinction was to be made between the underlying issues of such actions (social/ economic/ mental health etc) and the arbitrary removal of all such weapons, without looking at any of those issues and going against amendment rights.

Obviously each side has their fair share of complete nut jobs, that the media will trot out based on editorial bias/ car wreck viewing.

We now return you to the harmless posts on horrific Alien plasma weaponry incinerating everyone you love, and subjugating the world