Damn it. Since I started in Europe, I'm kinda wishing that I actually did the tutorial now. Still, I'm doing a quick run-through on normal, so I don't really need the free stuff.
I'm having lots of fun playing so far (who needs sleep?) but I think my fears about the laser weapons have come true. They're inferior to plasma weapons in every way possible, including cost. Yes, plasma weapons are cheaper than laser weapons. Let me explain.
A majority of the problem involving laser weapons is that they now cost alien alloys to make. Now in the original game that wouldn't be a problem, since you generally were swimming in alien alloys anyways, and could always make your own. But in Enemy Unknown, you can no longer produce alien alloys, and intercepting UFOs seems much less common. Thus alien alloys are now an important resource to hoard, similar to how elerium was in the original (elerium should still be hoarded, obviously). To make matters worse, the amount of laser weapons you can produce from a single UFO is incredibly small. For instance, a small UFO only produces enough alloys for
two laser rifles or
three laser pistols. Remember that you still have to produce armour for your troops as well and that better armours suck up tons of alien alloys, so you should start stocking up early.
In contrast, plasma weapons are much cheaper, or at least for the basic weapons. Stunning an alien preserves its weapon, so after sacrificing a weapon for research, each alien you stun means another plasma gun in the armoury. Sectoids and Thin Men only have three health, so you should never run out of plasma pistols and light plasma rifles. Of course getting some of the better plasma guns will be trickier, but that's why XCOM has rookies. I'd probably still manufacture the laser machine gun and laser sniper rifle, mostly because you won't encounter the plasma versions of those weapons for a while. Still, you have no excuse for using laser pistols and rifles.
Luckily this game seems easily moddable, so for my next campaign I'll change the amount of alien alloys needed to something more reasonable. Like 0. Or maybe I'll just increase the amount of alien alloys a single UFO gives. A small UFO should have enough alloys in its structure to produce a suit of power armour.
If I use explosives to soften up the xeno's, but finish them with regular weapons, does it still reduce the artifact payout? Assuming I'm not blasting the UFO interior or something.
I'm pretty sure that only when you kill them with explosives you lost the artifact payout.
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Topic: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (New by Firaxis) (Read 961237 times)