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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Pistols


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I am doing these weapons threads to focus discussion and ideas. This one is only about Pistols, so do not interject ideas about Rifles, Heavy Weapons, or equipment unless it is a pistol.

 

First I will define what seperates a pistol from other weapons and equipment.

 

One-Handed Weapons - Pistols can be held in one hand while the other operates, reloads, or balances the pistol hand.

Push Shoot - You can push a rolling cart or other mobile object while shooting with the other hand.

Pistol Whip - You can hack someone with a pistol to try and knock them out.

 

I then seperate the pistols into light, medium and heavy classes. These do not affect game-play abilities, but make discussion more focussed. Light pistols are usually designed for operatives on recon or infiltration duty. Meidum pistols are the standard sidearm of most troops. Heavy pistols are for specialist soldiers or special functions.

 

Weapons are listed in this format:

 

Weapon Name - Required Resources - Ammo accepted

Weapon description.

 

Light Pistols

 

X-COM Stilleto - Alien Alloy - Stilleto Darts

This is the Terran version of the best stealth weapon ever devised. Stilleto pistols use magnetic induction to noiselessly fire a Stilleto dart at high speeds. The Stilleto Dart is shaped to barely make a whisper of noise, yet have high armour penetration.

Alien Stilleto - Alien Alloy,Elerium-115 - Stilleto Darts

This is the best stealth weapon in the game. It uses Elerium to increase the power of the magnetic induction launcher. It causes about 50% more damage then the Terran Stilleto. Very few aliens use the weapons and only in situations where stealth is a must.

Glock .22 - None - .22 Clip,.22A Clip

The Glock .22 is the first stealth pistol avaliable to X-Com. It is pretty low damage, but will still knock out Sectoids silently with a head shot.

Glock .22A - Alien Alloys - .22 Clip,.22A Clip

The Glock .22A uses Alien Alloys to increase silence and accuracy. Benefits include that it can be produced by arms manufacturers and requires less research then the Terran Stilleto.

 

Light Pistol Ammo

 

Stilleto Darts - Alien Alloy - 6 Darts

These darts are designed to sail efficiently and noiselessly through most fluid mediums. Most importantly they are very efficient at armour piercing. Shots will pentrate so critical hits only really matter.

.22 Clip - None - 8 Bullets

Not much penetration and stopping power describes these clips. They are pretty quiet with a silencer however.

.22A Clip - Alien Alloy - 10 Bullets

These bullets gain a decent amount of penetration ability versus the Terran version. They will penetrate Muton helmets, but do not rely on them in a firefight.

 

Medium Pistols

 

Colt .45 - None - .45 Clips, .45A Clips

The Colt .45 is the standard X-COM issue pistol. Decent penetration but weak compared to most serious alien armour.

Colt .45A - Alien Alloy - .45 Clips, .45A Clips, .45AE Clips

The Colt .45A combines Terran reliability with the benefits of Alien Alloys. It is a decent pistol that sees use with militaries and police forces around the world.

X1 Laser Pistol - None - None

The X1 Laser Pistol is the first laser weaponary avaliable to X-COM. It is outclassed by further developements, but is more powerful then most Terran rifles.

X2 Laser Pistol - Alien Alloys - None

The X2 Laser Pistol utilizes Alien Alloys for faster cooling, higher recycle rate, and greater beam focus. Aliens have knowledge of these weapons, but abandoned them because of the abundance of Elerium.

Light Plasma Pistol - Alien Alloys - Type A Clip

This is the plasma pistol carried by non-soldiers. It is less powerful but still deadly to most human foes.

Plasma Pistol - Alien Alloys - Type A Clip, Type B Clip

This is the standard issue pistol of alien soldiers. It accepts both the standard and military grade clips for versatility in low ammo situations.

 

Medium Pistol Ammo

 

.45 Clip - None - 12 Bullets

Standard .45 shells are decent but not good against aliens.

.45A Clip - Alien Alloy - 16 Bullets

These improved shells are more plentiful and cause way more damage. Although Plasma and Laser technology are better, this works well for national and police forces.

.45AE Clip - Alien Alloy, Elerium-115 - 10 Bullets

These bullets are designed as a long distance shotgun. During flight the Elerium explodes causing the bullet to fragment, accelerate, and superheat. This kind of flak is powerful both against organic and robotic enemies.

Type A Clip - Elerium-115 - 20 Rounds

Type A rounds are underpowered compared to most other plasma rounds. It is cheap to make and fine for the non-soldier aliens.

Type B Clip - Elerium-115 - 15 Rounds

Type B rounds have a lot of stopping power considering their size. Soldier aliens use these as the primary clips for their Plasma Pistols.

 

Heavy Pistols

 

Desert Eagle .50 - None - .50 Clip, .50A Clip

The Desert Eagle has a ton of stopping power and penetration but is very loud. A shot will kill but alert anyone who is not already dead.

Desert Eagle .50A - Alien Alloys - .50 Clip, .50A Clip,.50E Clip

Imagine the power of the Desert Eagle combined with Alien Alloy technology. Same issues, more bang.

Flare Gun - None - Flare,Napalm

This simple weapon lets you fire flares to illuminate night missions. It must be loaded for each shot.

Small Launcher - Alien Alloys - Flare,Beacon,Glow-Paint,Small-Stun,Small-Smoke,Napalm

This alien weapon is a flexible cannister launcher. It is favored by the non-Muton species because of its size and three cannister capacity.

 

Heavy Pistol Ammo

 

.50 Clip - None - 7 Bullets

Its a bit of a short clip, but each bullet has tremendous power. Make sure you have a good shot.

.50A Clip - Alien Alloy - 12 Bullets

The biggest improvement is clip size, which makes the Desert Eagle a possible standard issue weapon.

.50E Clip - Elerium-115 - 8 Bullets

These bullets use a special core of Elerium-115 to create a neutron emitter once the bullet has penetrated a target. Organic targets will be poisoned very quickly from the inside if penetration is achieved.

Flare - None - Cannister

Flares activate once they hit the ground, creating light for about five meters around them.

Beacon - None - Cannister

Once you have the appropriate targetting systems on ships, you can launch a cannister to paint a target. Then the ship can try to fire near the cannister with the ship weapons.

Glow-Paint - Alien Alloy - Cannister

This is one of the more unusual uses of alien alloy. It is a material that glows for several minutes. The cannister releases at the target point and sprays an area around it with the substance. Aliens hit by it are walking around with bright paint on.

Small Stun - None - Cannister

Stun bombs use a combination of gases that are known to cause unconciousness to many species. They are less powerful then the rifle sized cannisters.

Small Smoke - None - Cannister

Launching this mini-smoke grenades is faster and easier then primeing and throwing grenades. Very useful for creating a path to retreat on.

Napalm - None - Cannister

The kind of ammo that counts when preserving the battlefield does not. Napalm burns at high temperature, light emission, and sound emission. Just do not try to walk across it or near it.

Edited by sir_schwick
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far far far FAR too many pistols for the human. I like the flare gun and the small stunner, though. How about that the flare pistol can put targets on fire :)
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far far far FAR too many pistols for the human. I like the flare gun and the small stunner, though. How about that the flare pistol can put targets on fire :)

 

Most of the Human pistols are Alien Alloy upgraded versions. It also assumes that you can sell Alien Alloy technology and subsequent technology, alloying militaries everywhere to get improved weapons.

 

Following ammendments have been made:

 

Heavy Pistols

 

Flare Gun - None - Flare, Napalm

This simple weapon lets you fire flares to illuminate night missions. It must be loaded for each shot.

Small Launcher - Alien Alloys - Flare,Beacon,Glow-Paint,Small-Stun,Small-Smoke,Napalm

This alien weapon is a flexible cannister launcher. It is favored by the non-Muton species because of its size and three cannister capacity.

 

Heavy Pistol Ammo

 

Napalm - None - Cannister

The kind of ammo that counts when preserving the battlefield does not. Napalm burns at high temperature, light emission, and sound emission. Just do not try to walk across it or near it.

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I then seperate the pistols into light, medium and heavy classes. These do not affect game-play abilities, but make discussion more focussed.

 

My Hypothesis: Highly focused discussion is the enemy of innovation.

 

Weapons are listed in this format:

 

X-COM Stilleto - Alien Alloy - Stilleto Darts

This is the Terran version of the best stealth weapon ever devised. Stilleto pistols use magnetic induction to noiselessly fire a Stilleto dart at high speeds. The Stilleto Dart is shaped to barely make a whisper of noise, yet have high armour penetration.

 

A pistol sized rail gun? Are you sure the dart could reach sufficient velocity to be useful? Of course the dart's speed would have to be subsonic to be silent enough. Hmmm... I don't know.. wouldn't a silenced .22 that fires subsonic projectiles be more effective? The sound of the guy dying would probably make more sound then that.... then again, some aliens may have very good hearing. Wouldn't a laser be silent?

 

Alien Stilleto - Alien Alloy,Elerium-115 - Stilleto Darts

This is the best stealth weapon in the game. It uses Elerium to increase the power of the magnetic induction launcher. It causes about 50% more damage then the Terran Stilleto. Very few aliens use the weapons and only in situations where stealth is a must.

Aliens tend to stray away from piercing/blunt projectiles. So this sounds kind of out of character for them.

 

uses Alien Alloys to increase silence and accuracy. Benefits include that it can be produced by arms manufacturers and requires less research then the Terran Stilleto.

Increase silence and accuracy? How?

I can see them increasing damage and reliability, but silence and accuracy?

 

Stilleto Darts - Alien Alloy - 6 Darts

These darts are designed to sail efficiently and noiselessly through most fluid mediums. Most importantly they are very efficient at armour piercing. Shots will pentrate so critical hits only really matter.

Efficient at armor piercing? Darts? I'd find that more realistic with a silenced .22. Unless the projectiles were going extremely fast. But a pistol-sized railgun that can propel a dart that fast sounds unreasonable without alien power generation (xenium).

 

X1 Laser Pistol - None - None

The X1 Laser Pistol is the first laser weaponary avaliable to X-COM. It is outclassed by further developements, but is more powerful then most Terran rifles.

What's with this "Terran" stuff? Why can't you just say human?

 

X2 Laser Pistol - Alien Alloys - None

The X2 Laser Pistol utilizes Alien Alloys for faster cooling, higher recycle rate, and greater beam focus. Aliens have knowledge of these weapons, but abandoned them because of the abundance of Elerium.

Greater beam focus? How?

Faster cooling? maybe. We don't know enough about Alien Alloys.

 

Light Plasma Pistol - Alien Alloys - Type A Clip

This is the plasma pistol carried by non-soldiers. It is less powerful but still deadly to most human foes.

Since when do non-soldiers carry weapons? And if they do, why are they going to rely on some extremely weak light plasma pistol?

 

.45AE Clip - Alien Alloy, Elerium-115 - 10 Bullets

These bullets are designed as a long distance shotgun. During flight the Elerium explodes causing the bullet to fragment, accelerate, and superheat. This kind of flak is powerful both against organic and robotic enemies.

Since when is xenium an explosive?

 

Desert Eagle .50 - None - .50 Clip, .50A Clip

The Desert Eagle has a ton of stopping power and penetration but is very loud. A shot will kill but alert anyone who is not already dead.

I think a Colt .45 is going to alert people anyway.

 

Flare Gun - None - Flare,Napalm

This simple weapon lets you fire flares to illuminate night missions. It must be loaded for each shot.

Good Idea.

 

Small Launcher - Alien Alloys - Flare,Beacon,Glow-Paint,Small-Stun,Small-Smoke,Napalm

This alien weapon is a flexible cannister launcher. It is favored by the non-Muton species because of its size and three cannister capacity.

What about HE? And Flare and Beacon sound similar. You could combine the uses of the two. Napalm sounds good.

 

Sorry for being nitpicky and overly critical.

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Actually Beacon was designed to hlep targetting if they incorporate aircraft firing weapons at the ground.

 

Actual grenades would be more powerful, but maybe include one for posterities sake.

 

Alien engineers, navigators, and medics will still carry weapons in combat zones, but have little use for the higher quality Plasma Pistol.

 

Lets say the .45AE ammo causes seams in the bullet to overheat and explode, bewcause it does emit particles.

 

The loudness of the .50 is implied more for the firer then the target.

 

All weapons developed by X-COM are human, but Terran refers to technologies unique to humans. Plus it sounds cooler.

 

Lasers and plasma heat the air around them, causing a clapping sound like thunder. About the only use for stilletos for the alien is the same as humans, silent infiltration. They do favour plasma weapons for general combat, but if they want to be a better position before letting themselves be known, they will send sharpshooters with the stilleto.

 

Actually the Stilleto dart is designed using the advanced characteristics of Alien alloys to almost float along the air and have maximum penetration shape. Yes, the guy dying will alert someone unless the shot hits thier nervous system, but they will be clueless as to the source of the fire. Two agents with Stilletos could cause tons of panic or silently prepare the way for stealing a UFO.

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Actually Beacon was designed to hlep targetting if they incorporate aircraft firing weapons at the ground.

Why can't you just use flare for that?

 

Alien engineers, navigators, and medics will still carry weapons in combat zones, but have little use for the higher quality Plasma Pistol.

And why do they have little use for it? It's not like a normal plasma pistol requires more hands to use, and it can't be much heavier.

 

Lets say the .45AE ammo causes seams in the bullet to overheat and explode, bewcause it does emit particles.

How would overheating cause an explosion?

And are you sure about xenium emitting particles? And if it does, since when do such particles create heat?

 

Plus it sounds cooler.

Ok I guess thats good enough for me. :beer:

 

Lasers and plasma heat the air around them, causing a clapping sound like thunder.

How would heat cause a clapping sound? I guess I could understand a sizzle or something from the chemical reactions it causes (burning).

 

About the only use for stilletos for the alien is the same as humans, silent infiltration. They do favour plasma weapons for general combat, but if they want to be a better position before letting themselves be known, they will send sharpshooters with the stilleto.

 

 

Actually the Stilleto dart is designed using the advanced characteristics of Alien alloys to almost float along the air and have maximum penetration shape.

Two agents with Stilletos could cause tons of panic or silently prepare the way for stealing a UFO.

But why is it more effective than a .22SD?

 

Yes, the guy dying will alert someone unless the shot hits thier nervous system, but they will be clueless as to the source of the fire.

I was referring to the .22SD about the noise level. They'll most like be clueless with a .22SD, unless you're closer to someone than your target is.

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There is nothing inherently loud about lightning. The sound comes from air being superheated and expanding rapidly. NOt much air is expanded, but the temperature is very high.

 

The dart is designed to be more efficient then a bullet, live with it. Also, the bullet moves agianst the metal of the gun, perceptible by some aliens. The Stilleto was designed so even the most sensitive alien wouldn't hear it.

 

Elerium 115 emitted particles in the original game. In RL certain types of radiation are conducted by some metals. This means metal near radiation heats up faster. With Xenium it would be accelerated, with the seams made of a material that explodes when bombarded with particles.

 

The aliens don't want to spend money on giving all their troops the best quality side-arms. Non-soldier types also are less accurate and the Plasma Pistol tends to rely on accurate shooting rather than lots of shooting. It does accept the type A ammo, but is best with Type B.

 

Its hard for a pilot or gunner flying at hundreds of miles per hour at medium high altitude(even a couple thousands meters up) to see and much less hit a normal flare on the ground. The beacon is electronic beacon which emits a homing signal for the aircrafts gunner systems.

 

Its hard for a pilot to

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There is nothing inherently loud about lightning.  The sound comes from air being superheated and expanding rapidly.  NOt much air is expanded, but the temperature is very high.

Why does being shocked by static electricity (the kind that's associated with scuffing your feet on carpet+doorknob) produce sound then? Because it's the samething on a smaller scale. And you need superheating for the sound (according to you), but if there was superheating, then the door knob would melt and the hand would burn.

 

The dart is designed to be more efficient then a bullet, live with it.  Also, the bullet moves agianst the metal of the gun, perceptible by some aliens.  The Stilleto was designed so even the most sensitive alien wouldn't hear it.

But have you really ever been able to get into a situation where you could successfully use such a weapon on aliens? I thought you were referring to the possible MIBs and stealth coup'de'tat missions.

 

Elerium 115 emitted particles in the original game.  In RL certain types of radiation are conducted by some metals.  This means metal near radiation heats up faster.  With Xenium it would be accelerated, with the seams made of a material that explodes when bombarded with particles.

What kind of particles? And are you sure they were emmited in the original game?

 

The aliens don't want to spend money on giving all their troops the best quality side-arms.  Non-soldier types also are less accurate and the Plasma Pistol tends to rely on accurate shooting rather than lots of shooting.  It does accept the type A ammo, but is best with Type B.

Money? Even if the aliens do use money, I doubt that in an operation like this money is any concern of theirs.

 

Its hard for a pilot or gunner flying at hundreds of miles per hour at medium high altitude(even a couple thousands meters up) to see and much less hit a normal flare on the ground.  The beacon is electronic beacon which emits a homing signal for the aircrafts gunner systems. 

You're probably right about that. But we have to think of gameplay, not just reality. You could make the flare also include a beacon in it.

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Actually if you listen really really closely static shock does create a very small noise. However, the energy involved is so small nothing overheats. Lightning, on the other hand, is a large amount of energy that heats the air directly around the shaft of the lightning to 50,000 C. I imagine combat quality lasers would also generate a lot of heat as well as plasma weapons.

 

In combat the biggest advantage you can have is the enemy not knowing where you are shooting from. IN real life when bullets are fired there are three ways you can tell the source: 1) You see teh muzzle flash. 2) you hear the bullet being fired. 3) You see where the bullet hits. Stilettos are silent when fired and make now flash. Also, its alien technology so its semi-intelligent. This means when it hits an alien and penetrates it expands within body. Also, if it hits a wall it will try not to make sound. You could get a few sharpshooters to hide in the bushes sniping aliens and they wouldn't know where to run. It would increase panic and lower casualties. Stealth weapons are very good if you can maintain stealth.

 

It may have been anti-gravity particles now that I think of it, but somehow it generated massive amounts of energy.

 

Supplies, resources, logistics. Anyway you look at it the aliens have to maintain huge amounts of logistics. If they have to give 10,000 aliens sidearms and only 4,000 are soldiers, that means your providing top qualtiy in terms of manufacturing and elerium for 6,000 troops that will probably never use them. Also, they wouldn't have a need to use them.

 

I think that would make Flares unbalanced to include beacon ability. Also, if an alien sees a flare land near him, he's not going to stick around to get shot.

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I think that would make Flares unbalanced to include beacon ability. Also, if an alien sees a flare land near him, he's not going to stick around to get shot.

 

I think this part about the beacon/flare (I'm presuming it'd be best they should be rolled into one. I've sort of been attributing these to what the soldiers used in the film Black Hawk Down on that building's roof for choppers to spot), is intriquing. However, I attribute their use in your context as that it would have to trigger some retreat behavior in the alien AI.

 

As you said, if they saw something all of a sudden and their instincts predicted danger, they wouldn't stick around. Of course, the alien(s) in question I'd reckon would have to spot the beacon or be in close proximity to it to move. After all, they can't run from it in fear if they can't see it. For instance, if it was standing in an interior corridor of a ship, and the beacon was planted outside of it. Although one could speculate that if they can't see it visually, perhaps their sensitive hearing (those that have that) detect something odd in that beacon's operational (albeit faint) electronic wavelengths.

Edited by Snakeman
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Actually the Beacon alone would be harder to detect for what it was, unless you saw it thrown. The Flare is something that is dangerous even if it doesn't paitn you for the plane above. A flare would light your path right then and make you an easy target for ground troops.

 

Of course, they would have to know that something is off before they run. That would be an interesting point if Sectoids and Mutons had radio sensitivity and knew the sound of a Beacon call. Maybe it could increase panic as well.

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I wonder if this beacon were substituted for a proximity grenade by a UFO's door, aliens would act opposite to what we know. For instance, the soldiers tended to flock to the UFO door if there was another unit a few squares away but right in front of that door in the first game. Now for camping a UFO that had 2 or more doors, I'm curious to know if beacons shouldn't act in a way that might herd aliens out the door you wanted them to go that didn't have one outside it :)
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  • 1 month later...

Rather than have a silent weapon lose its "silentness", and with regard to fire and hiding here, I think I'd prefer that this tactics usefulness be attributed too to whether your still going to be firing from the same location or if your firing then moving to a different spot to fire from.

 

Even these weapons have a bit of a muzzle flash to them, so I'd think it would be just as risky for them as other weapons that don't have that do. (in terms of your soldier's locaton is triangulated)

 

In any case, even if you ruled out the muzzle flash argument for silent weapons, you still have that tried and true fact that aliens don't even need to see you to know where you are thanks to their psionics (well, technically there *are* line of sight issues - just saying aliens don't have to necessarily rely on that always).

Edited by Snakeman
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I imagine it would be cost prohibitive to invest in portable mind shield equipment when eventually your own psionically skilled people should have that inate ability after training.

 

On the other hand, since those men need the amp if they ever want to pull off attacks, maybe having the amp in a less psionically skilled soldier's inventory could act as a partial dampening field (artificially raises their psi strength stats if they have it, bolstering their resistance to mind probes/attacks).

 

If they ever drop it or lose the amp, they're psi strength reverts back to their default rating. Since psi strength can't be trained, I think its a semi-reasonable trade off to keeping some types of soldiers on the payroll.

 

In concert with my thoughts in the other thread about repair kits, I envision that there can be plenty of opportunity during a battle that the amp could get damaged and not only negate/hamper your attack potential, but the minimal psi strength protection of your more poorly psionically trained men.

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I figure "hey, it already takes up 3 vertical spaces in the backpack, or one hand slot". I'm sure the old one has some weight to it already though I don't know off hand what it is to know if adding more weight helps the balance argument.

 

Besides, if the boost to psi strength is negligible, might not even have to address weight. Although, Xenocide's version of the psi amp I reckon could mirror the old, or go in another direction by making it bigger (i.e. like the small launcher the way it takes up 4 spaces in the backpack).

 

One of the interesting things in managing inventories is spreading out who brings what, and what you can have a few afford to do without if you want some to have room for other things. Like med kits, repair kits, amps, motion scanners etc.

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Might as well since the aliens can sense us through psionics.

 

When the OICW go defunct? Did they cut funding or what?

 

Saying land-warrior is information systems would be like saying a compass is a direction pointer. Even without the OICW, weapons could be modified to allow for the coordinated fire and shoot-around-corners ability. Also you could easily integrate X113 components and Psionic Amplifiers into it.

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I didn't read the new posts but I just heard the beacon trouble

Beacon (post V.1)

Fire a small beacon that sets a signal and launches a troop carrior within 30 turns

 

(ONCE PER BATTLE)

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