Talk:Weapons (TFTD)
Is there any reasonable excuse why we can't use good old Heavy Plasma, or any weapon from First Alien War, on land combat? L-Zwei 23:44, 25 July 2006 (PDT)
I have been wondering that myself. Let's see: X-Com operatives are required to prepare for undersea combat, regardless the original destination of their transport. A commander may decide to send a midair Triton undersea, and as soon as the doors are opened, any non water proof equipment inside would be damaged. That's also the reason why soldiers take their diver suits on land. It's not that good of an excuse, but it's something. --Trotsky 01:50, 26 July 2006 (PDT)
If you could use the Plasmas, then why not the craft engines? My bet is the Elerium mines weren't set up at that point, meaning there was nothing to power these devices with.
- Bomb Bloke 02:56, 26 July 2006 (PDT)
- The official story goes thus: sea water aggressively corrodes Elerium (and by extension anything made from alien alloy), and plasma weapons EXPLODE when fired underwater, as some unlucky scientists found out. Microprose released a couple short stories before the launch of TFTD to explain the backstory that closed the gap between the two episodes, and the technological issues were briefly hinted at --KJK::Hyperion 15:14, 17 April 2007 (PDT)
The economy argument seems more plausible. Once the war was finished, there would be no reason not to sell recovered Elerium for use as power source, especially since X-Com was disbanded shortly after.--Trotsky 11:05, 26 July 2006 (PDT)
Plus Elerium was consumed by research on interstellar travel.
As a side note, the Gauss weapons aren't as bad as many say. For example, people also say lasers are bad, although a Laser Rifle can kill a Muton in one hit. Why people doesn't like it? Because there are better weapons (plasma). Same with Gauss: people use Sonic instead because of the higher damage. I personally prefer the Gauss's accuracy and one-shot-one-kill technique. Plus if you get in close range and miss a snapshot, you will be killed by reaction fire. However, a point-blank Gauss auto is too strong to survive and too fast to counter.
On the other hand, Gauss weapons are a bit more... realistic. Small pistols which fire a sonic wave with sniper-level accuracy over the map? Come on... Plus you can distinguish yourself from the aliens by not using mainstay alien equipment :D--amitakartok 15:00, 11 November 2008 (CST)
- Fluff stories released by Microprose indicate that the Funding Nations basically divvied up X-COM 16 ways after the war, including all resources, and wasted most of it(including Elerium, to the point that they sent X-COM down to UFOs that crashed in the ocean to try and find more. This is when they learned that both Elerium is rendered inert by sea water, and Alien Alloys DISSOLVE in it.)
- As for Gauss/Sonic, well, I've had a Tasoth kill a trooper with reaction after soaking up 3 Auto shots from a Pistol. I understand the difference though, and it is a issue of personal choice. Whether you get more shots in a small time frame or less shots but more power. Of course, there is something that offers both power and speed...and it's immensely satisfying sometimes to just run up to the aliens and fight them with power tools! (Idly, a Muton with 125 HP cannot be 1-shotted by a Laser Rifle, since LR damage maxes out at 120.) Arrow Quivershaft 18:33, 11 November 2008 (CST)
- Lobstermen. First time I ever met one, I emptied all of my gauss and harpoons into it and got royally slaughtered. Much fun. Gauss weapons are near useless against them - and perhaps the main reason why you must have sonic or power tool support by the time you meet them.
- By the way, players are split down two camps with regards to the weapons in UFO. There's the ever present Laser Rifle vs. Heavy Plasma debate that always flares up from time to time. Both weapons are jolly good in their own respect (I'm in the arm-laser-rifle-on-Skyranger-but-pick-up-HPs-in-Combat-when-necessary camp) so there's no loss of love for the laser weapons.
- TFTD's gauss weapons lost a lot of favour with their ammo requirements. I don't mind that at all - I adore the gauss pistol and its massive (and cheap) 20 round clip. However their (the Gauss weapons in general) loss in effectiveness against enemies with lots of external armour (large units) and the lobstermen do hurt them quite a bit. Absolutely essential weapons to get at the start of the game though unless you stick to the Gas Cannon - which is awesome but you've got to be careful with the ammo levels.
- I've always been intrigued by the idea of alien alloys melting in salt water. How fast though? I keep getting these funny mental images of soldiers in Power Suits being air dropped into salt water, and then having them trudge up onto a desert island with their suits melting away to expose their jumpsuit underneath. Recently added the image of water squirting out of the cracks. - NKF 22:56, 11 November 2008 (CST)
- It's not quite that fast, but the fluff from Microprose indicates that in the time period of "over a year" in the seawater(so 12-23 months), the navigation consoles of a Large Scout have melted into "silvery goo", as well as eaten away enough of the hull for craft to flood. They found some inert and ruined Elerium in a Plasma Rifle; the power source was gone(ejected before impact, according to the story). So while the scenario you gave isn't exactly accurate, it would happen over time. Enough to seriously degrade a Power Suit over a period of months, if not weeks. If the Power Source leaked, the whole suit would stop functioning in short order as well. And to boot, there isn't any Elerium left to power the things anyways. (Although we must not forget the simply out-of-game reason for all of this: X-COM 2 would be way the hell too easy if you could use Plasma weapons and Flying Suits off the bat). Arrow Quivershaft 23:15, 11 November 2008 (CST)