Heavy Lasers For Snipers

[Mark0]

I just started a super human game. I havn't played Enemy Unknown for years!

 

 

i'm trying to play only with lasers for ground fights and for air units, i'll use plasma.

 

Right now, i'm at the point of laser rifles. I dont know if i should go for Heavy Laser.

 

I know it has a better accuracy than the rifle and it is stronger.

 

But it doesn't have auto-shot and this is a big disadvantage.

 

I thought about trying to use heavy lasers for Snipers only. They have good aim and great power

 

But is it really worth it or LAser Rifle still tops the Heavy Laser?

[Zombie]

The Heavy Laser is actually less accurate than the Laser Rifle:

 

				 Firing Accuracy		Time Units
Weapon		   Auto  Snap  Aim	  Auto  Snap  Aim
Laser Pistol	  28	40	68		25   20	55
Laser Rifle	   46	65   100		34   25	50
Heavy Laser	   --	50	84		--   33	75

However, where the Heavy Laser excels is firepower. The nearly 42% increase in weapon power really makes the Heavy Laser a great weapon for concentrated damage. Snap and aimed accuracy falls right between the Laser Pistol and Laser Rifle so that is another plus.

 

I usually use the Heavy Laser as a close quarters weapon. It's great for storming a UFO. Open door, one shot-one kill, back off, rinse and repeat. Because you are going to be so close to the target, misses are rare and the extra punch of damage knocks the aliens down fast. But it still can fail, so for this reason I usually have a couple men in back of him with Laser Rifles to finish off anything standing. It also doesn't hurt to carry a Laser Pistol along in case your guy doesn't have enough time to get off another shot.

 

Of course, everyones role of the Heavy is going to be different from mine. I really like it for alien bases: especially for performing the ol' smash 'n grab routine. The Heavy Laser is the only terrestrial hand-held weapon capable of destroying a Power Source, and that's great for looting Elerium. Plus, ammo is free and research time is fast. A slight problem is the time to manufacture the Heavy Laser. It takes nearly twice as long as the Laser Rifle. Then again, you probably are not going to be equipping your entire squad with this weapon either, so producing a couple should work fine.

 

- Zombie

[SaintD]

I usually use the Heavy Laser as a close quarters weapon. It's great for storming a UFO. Open door, one shot-one kill, back off, rinse and repeat.

 

- Zombie

 

Sort of a laser shotgun. Interesting idea. I had been using it as a back line sniper weapon. It sounds really good for alien bases where you end up in close quarters fights a lot.

 

-D

[Mark0]

Thank you Zombie for these tips.

 

And i do like the Heavy Laser in alien base/close combat. I will test it. I just discovered the 1st alien base and will go for the hunt

 

Thanks for the chart that gives how much TU is needed and % of accuracy!

[Virulent]

The only reason to research heavy laser is to get the lucrative laser cannon. Honestly I'm not even sure why the gun exists.

 

Why fire a snapshot with the heavy laser and *maybe* kill an alien at close quarters when you can autofire with the rifle and make sure it's dead? It's literally the same amount of TU.

Edited August 22, 2007 by Virulent

[Zombie]

Why fire a snapshot with the heavy laser and *maybe* kill an alien at close quarters when you can autofire with the rifle and make sure it's dead? It's literally the same amount of TU.

True, but with that high of damage potential, the Heavy Laser almost guarantees a kill. It also depends on the alien. Mutons? Well, probably not. I'd favor the Laser Rifle first. But for anything else, the Heavy Laser works like a charm. Even if the first shot doesn't do much damage, you can still take a second snap shot at the alien. If that doesn't work, and you have a Laser Pistol as a side arm, you can use an auto shot and still be left with some TU. I know of no alien which could stand up to 616 pts of maximum damage (308 average) with this setup though. :wink1:

 

- Zombie

[Virulent]

True, but with that high of damage potential, the Heavy Laser almost guarantees a kill. It also depends on the alien. Mutons? Well, probably not. I'd favor the Laser Rifle first. But for anything else, the Heavy Laser works like a charm. Even if the first shot doesn't do much damage, you can still take a second snap shot at the alien. If that doesn't work, and you have a Laser Pistol as a side arm, you can use an auto shot and still be left with some TU. I know of no alien which could stand up to 616 pts of maximum damage (308 average) with this setup though. :wink1:

 

Yeah but wouldn't you lose a bunch of accuracy with a 2H weapon and a 1H weapon equipped simultaneously? Otherwise you'd lose TUs swapping guns.

 

I guess the *only* time I could justify Heavy Laser is a Sectopod and I don't have any Laser Tanks, but usually by the time Ethereals start launching Terror ships you've got HWD and you *know* to bring a laser tank regardless.

 

Double-autofire with a heavy plasma is potentially 690 damage btw!

[Robo Dojo 58]

Why use a heavy laser when you can use a heavy rocket? If you're going to go for a heavy weapon, don't hold back.

[SaintD]

Why use a heavy laser when you can use a heavy rocket? If you're going to go for a heavy weapon, don't hold back.

 

• Ammo - You'll be firing the laser rifle long after you are out of missiles.
  
• Weight - Heavy laser, laser pistol and several grenades is possible for all but the weakest soldiers.
  
• Flexibility - Snipe across the map or use it like a double barrell shotgun for close quarter battles.
  
• Reaction fire - Ever had a trooper reaction fire at an alien 5 feet away? With a missile launcher? OMGWTFBBQ
  

Don't get me wrong. I love missile launcher. I usually have a few on each mision and I love, love, love them for terror missions. However I bring a couple of heavy lasers too. The lasers are great on UFO missions. I love them for opening supply ship doors.

 

-D

[Zombie]

Why use a heavy laser when you can use a heavy rocket? If you're going to go for a heavy weapon, don't hold back.

May I also add reloads? With single shot weapons, you are constantly reloading them and might be encumbered by carrying the extra ammo. Rockets are high explosive in nature and have the potential to kill friendlies due to area effect. Lasers on the other hand, will not kill everyone in back of you if the shot misses (or even connects).

 

Yeah but wouldn't you lose a bunch of accuracy with a 2H weapon and a 1H weapon equipped simultaneously? Otherwise you'd lose TUs swapping guns.

 

I guess the *only* time I could justify Heavy Laser is a Sectopod and I don't have any Laser Tanks, but usually by the time Ethereals start launching Terror ships you've got HWD and you *know* to bring a laser tank regardless. <_>

 

Double-autofire with a heavy plasma is potentially 690 damage btw!

You will not have to worry about handedness penalties if you only use the Laser Pistol sidearm in emergencies (exhausted all possible shots for the Heavy Laser but still have TU's left). Sure, it's going to cost you 4 TU to grab a Laser Pistol off a belt, but 4 TU is like walking one normal square. It's not much. Besides, the purpose of the sidearm is to be hauled out only in special circumstances, not to be kept in the hand for prolonged periods. :wink1:

 

And of course, the HP can dish out far more damage than the Heavy Laser can muster. But the point is that the Heavy Laser is not alien and doesn't require much research. In early campaigns, they are great to use simply because you will not have enough scientists to get the Heavy Plasma + Clip researched and enough guns/clips to satisfly everyone. Might as well use a gun which requires no ammo to save on ammo for those which do. Later on, the HP takes more of a role as it is the "Great Equalizer". Still, you might as well learn to use weapons without an Auto-Shot. You'll need the experience when you jump to TFTD.

 

- Zombie

[Warface]

Heavy Laser is not alien and doesn't require much research. In early campaigns, they are great to use simply because you will not have enough scientists to get the Heavy Plasma + Clip researched and enough guns/clips to satisfly everyone. Might as well use a gun which requires no ammo to save on ammo for those which do.

 

This is exactly when/why I use the HL. It speeds you along to laser tanks as well, which are universally handy, and gives you that extra cost-free firepower until you have "t3h 1337 UFO w3p5."

 

A heavy auto laser cannon is a great idea, but it isn't really required by the game mechanics. There are 4 types of kinetic (e.g. bullet or slug) small arms, two of which are automatic; three types of laser, two of which are auto, and three plasma, all full auto. I think this was intentionally kept from being a pattern, to prevent monotony for example.

 

By itself the HL would be just fine, it's just that compared to the rifle and HP it comes up a little short and tends to be a novelty. Still, it can be a useful throwback if you have it in storage during a base invasion or remember to take a couple along on Ethereal missions to snipe Sectopods.

 

Later on, the HP takes more of a role as it is the "Great Equalizer".

 

Right, I don't think many here will disagree that once you have dozens of HP clips, the guys who would have used HL will switch over to HP. On superhuman, this happens early but you might still want to rush to that laser tank and thus have access to the HL first anyway.

[[NKF]]

Ah, the laser tank. The good old mass-production HWP that you might continue to produce in large numbers (if you like the tanks, that is) even with the availability of the superior plasma hovertank.

 

There actually is an incomplete heavy automatic laser weapon in the game files. It's 6 points weaker than the laser pistol, requires 22 strength units to carry (or 1, depending on which of the 3 copies you pick) and has terribly inefficient snap and aimed modes. However the auto shot costs 15% to use and has a 50% accuracy multiplier. That makes the laser pistol look like a snail.

 

I know it can't really be counted as an official weapon as it was disabled for the final release, but it hinted at what could have been a laser minigun. I fiddled with it enough to get it to work, and it literally blew the other laser weapons away in how effective it was. It didn't have the firepower to punch through tough armour, so it was useless against Sectopods, but it was incredibly effective against everything else.

 

I guess I would've preferred something like this as the ultimate in laser tech, but I'm quite happy with what they came up with in the end. All the laser weapons end up remaining unique enough from each other that they're worth hanging on to for specific tasks. Even plasma tech has unique weapons despite the heavy plasma overshadowing everything else. Most other games have the usual progression where the next iteration of the weapon will always be better than the last.

 

- NKF

Edited August 28, 2007 by NKF

[EtherImp]

True, but with that high of damage potential, the Heavy Laser almost guarantees a kill. It also depends on the alien. Mutons? Well, probably not. I'd favor the Laser Rifle first. But for anything else, the Heavy Laser works like a charm. Even if the first shot doesn't do much damage, you can still take a second snap shot at the alien. If that doesn't work, and you have a Laser Pistol as a side arm, you can use an auto shot and still be left with some TU. I know of no alien which could stand up to 616 pts of maximum damage (308 average) with this setup though. :wink1:

 

Yeah but wouldn't you lose a bunch of accuracy with a 2H weapon and a 1H weapon equipped simultaneously? Otherwise you'd lose TUs swapping guns.

 

I guess the *only* time I could justify Heavy Laser is a Sectopod and I don't have any Laser Tanks, but usually by the time Ethereals start launching Terror ships you've got HWD and you *know* to bring a laser tank regardless.

 

Double-autofire with a heavy plasma is potentially 690 damage btw!

 

 

Heavy Laser is accurate + high damage. Simple as that.. Late game I run with the following weapons:

 

Heavy Laser on 'snipers' (with flying armor, of course)

Heavy Plasma on 'troopers'

Laser Pistol on 'recon/scouts'

Blaster Launchers on 'heavys'

 

Put your Snipers on the wings of your skyranger (or roof of avenger/lightning) facing towards the enemy ship, in a crouched position. Use your recon unit(s) to scout out the enemies.. If none of your troopers have LoS on the enemy your Recon can see, and use the Heavy Laser "Aimed Shot". The combination of Power PLUS Accuracy is what makes it the best sniper rifle (in my opinion).

 

Yes, the heavy plasma is more powerful. And yes, the plasma rifle is more accurate WHEN AIMED. But the Heavy Laser is a happy medium between the two. Snipers should only be using "Aimed shots" (maybe snap if necessary and the LOS is clear). Sometimes you simply do not want to risk hitting a friendly with a stray Auto-Shot.

 

Why fire 3 shots when 1 does the job?

[Zombie]

I just don't see your reasoning. The Heavy Laser has a 84% accurate aimed shot which is a lot less than the 110% accurate aimed shot from the Heavy Plasma. The Heavy Laser does 85 average damage while the Heavy Plasma does 115. Just from this, the Heavy Plasma is the clear winner for sniper shots (if you have a choice between the two).

 

If I only was using lasers, the Laser Rifle would be for snipers and the Heavy Laser for the troopers. I don't care about power all that much if the shot has a higher chance of hitting. This is where the Heavy Laser falls short of the Laser Rifle: aimed accuracy.

 

- Zombie

[EtherImp]

I just don't see your reasoning. The Heavy Laser has a 84% accurate aimed shot which is a lot less than the 110% accurate aimed shot from the Heavy Plasma. The Heavy Laser does 85 average damage while the Heavy Plasma does 115. Just from this, the Heavy Plasma is the clear winner for sniper shots (if you have a choice between the two).

 

If I only was using lasers, the Laser Rifle would be for snipers and the Heavy Laser for the troopers. I don't care about power all that much if the shot has a higher chance of hitting. This is where the Heavy Laser falls short of the Laser Rifle: aimed accuracy.

 

- Zombie

 

 

I guess you're right. The Heavy Plasma has higher accuracy and higher damage. I still choose to use the Heavy Laser for snipers. I think my original logic for doing so had to do with mixing up damage types, and I think I was also working with only lasers at the time. I don't like using the Heavy Laser for "Troopers" because of the TU costs.

[[NKF]]

It's not an overly bad trooper weapon. In fact, it's an awesome replacement for the Heavy Cannon. See, the Heavy Cannon does 33% snaps at 60% accuracy. The Heavy Laser does 33% snaps at 50% accuracy, but makes up for the loss in accuracy and area-effect attacks with considerably greater single-shot firepower and unlimited ammo. Plus the anti-sectopod capabilities are nice. Not as good as the Tank\Laser, but still reasonable. I guess if you don't like the heavy cannon in the first place, then you might not like the heavy laser.

 

By the way, the plasma rifle (as a sniper weapon) gets its leverage off its snapshots, not its aimed shots. Its the number of attempts you get (x3) at its ridiculously high snapshot accuracy (86% base, 98.9% when kneeled) that makes it special. An aimed shot is worth two snapshots for a 14% accuracy improvement. I suppose you could have one aimed and one snap, but three snaps still have better odds when the accuracy levels are under triple digit percentage values.

 

- NKF

Edited May 13, 2009 by NKF

[EtherImp]

http://www.xcomufo.com/x1ufopaedia/pics/big/shot0026.png

 

http://www.xcomufo.com/x1ufopaedia/pics/big/shot0036.png

 

 

Zombie.. You said Heavy Laser is less powerful and less accurate than the Heavy Plasma.. I knew there was a reason why I was using Heavy Laser as a sniper rifle so I looked in the UFOPedia on this website (Xcomufo.com) and found these.

 

Then, I went and looked in the UFOpedia on my saved game, and I found you are correct and the Heavy Laser is much less accurate and less powerful.

 

What's the deal?!

[EtherImp]

I figured it out.. Whoever did the site was using XcomUtil.. Which reminds me. Is there any EASY way to get XComUtil to run with D3DWindower?

 

The 3DWindower program is the only way I seem to be able to run X-Com, but XcomUtil complicates the process by loading each individual X-Com EXE file (Geoscape/battlescape/etc) seperately.

[Valken]

I figured it out.. Whoever did the site was using XcomUtil.. Which reminds me. Is there any EASY way to get XComUtil to run with D3DWindower?

 

The 3DWindower program is the only way I seem to be able to run X-Com, but XcomUtil complicates the process by loading each individual X-Com EXE file (Geoscape/battlescape/etc) seperately.

 

You can run my modified BAT file with D3DWindower + XcomUtil 0.96 + Xcom CE!

 

Copy it to your xcom folder, run D3DWindower (make sure you setup correctly for "UFO Defense.exe" "geoscape.exe" "tactical.exe" and "xcloader.exe" with the SAME resolution, DirectIput for mouse) and then run my modified bat file.

 

Get it from this post and unzip it to your xcom folder:

 

http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?sh...st&p=179740

[EtherImp]

I figured it out.. Whoever did the site was using XcomUtil.. Which reminds me. Is there any EASY way to get XComUtil to run with D3DWindower?

 

The 3DWindower program is the only way I seem to be able to run X-Com, but XcomUtil complicates the process by loading each individual X-Com EXE file (Geoscape/battlescape/etc) seperately.

 

You can run my modified BAT file with D3DWindower + XcomUtil 0.96 + Xcom CE!

 

Copy it to your xcom folder, run D3DWindower (make sure you setup correctly for "UFO Defense.exe" "geoscape.exe" "tactical.exe" and "xcloader.exe" with the SAME resolution, DirectIput for mouse) and then run my modified bat file.

 

Get it from this post and unzip it to your xcom folder:

 

http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?sh...st&p=179740

 

And how do I remove any and all changes from XComUtil?

[[NKF]]

You can re-run xcusetup and uncheck all the changes that it does. However, Xcusetup does lots of unprompted changes to your game as well, so you can't reset those via xcusetup. You are in luck though as the new developer for XComutil has created an undo utility that removes the unprompted changes that XComutil does to the game. You can grab a copy off Strategycore's file section:

 

http://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/index.php?dlid=411

 

The best way to get the cleanest copy of the game is to just reinstall the game. The only major problem with a plain vanilla game is the difficulty bug.

 

- NKF

[EtherImp]

You can re-run xcusetup and uncheck all the changes that it does. However, Xcusetup does lots of unprompted changes to your game as well, so you can't reset those via xcusetup. You are in luck though as the new developer for XComutil has created an undo utility that removes the unprompted changes that XComutil does to the game. You can grab a copy off Strategycore's file section:

 

http://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/index.php?dlid=411

 

The best way to get the cleanest copy of the game is to just reinstall the game. The only major problem with a plain vanilla game is the difficulty bug.

 

- NKF

 

 

 

Thank you. I have Xcom1fix, so I think the difficulty bug is fixed from that. Right?