More differences between the weapons

[HenryBlatbugIII]

As the game currently stands, there are very few differences between the weapon tiers. (Ballistic, Laser, Plasma, and MAG) Modifying the different weapon technologies to have more differences between them would improve the game in multiple ways:

1.) It would allow people more customization options for their soldiers. Perhaps lasers have the best accuracy and no shotgun equivalent, so they're best suited to long-range engagements, while plasma has the best damage but the worst accuracy and therefore doesn't do well as a sniper rifle.

2.) It could fix the complaint that I've seen around here that the research tree feels too much like a research line. Each weapon technology could have a different feel to its research tree, and have a separate research item for each weapon. (pistol, rifle, etc.) That would flesh out the research tree and allow any technology to work in the endgame, but require you to spend as much time researching, say, lasers as you spend in the current build researching lasers+plasma+MAG. See this picture for a sample tech tree: maybe lasers are purely human tech, plasma is just imitating the alien weapons, and MAG tech comes from adapting non-weapon alien tech to a new purpose.

3.) It would provide more replayability, as you might want to see how different the game feels when you specialize in a different weapon type. This is related to point 2, as any change that expands the research tree to the point where you can't easily research all of it in one playthrough will have this effect.

[noname19]

1) I agree, I really don't like the feel "T1 rifle, T2 rifle, T3 rifle, T4 rifle". It's been the same in Firaxis's game and I wasn't exactly in favor of that even then. Same for aircraft weapons. Missile with explosives, missile with better explosives, even better explosives, "alien nuke". Same weapon with bit higher damage and icon. Keep in mind though that it would need lower-tier weapons to be comparable to higher tiers. I don't care if I can hit nine times of ten with laser rifle compared to clumsy plasma rifle, if most of the shots just "glance off" or do minor damage. Lasers, for example, could be awesome for auto fire, no recoil and all. That can partially offset their lower damage in single-fire mode. On the other hand, last tier should really have some advantages and there should be a reason to use them.

2) Partialy that's already done, as infantry weapons are separate from vehicle/fighter ones. Again, less stereotype = more fun.

Truth to tell, I don't expect such changes, that is quite a lot of redisigning to do. Not likely in beta stage. Modders though can do it later.