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[Bouchart]

It's probably just force of habit.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

What I don't get is why they went for Shotgun-Laser Shotgun-Alloy Cannon, when Shotgun-Alloy Cannon-Plasma Shotgun would have been a more sensible progression. A Plasma Shotgun makes way more sense than a Laser Shotgun.

[Sirus]

I guess because laser shotguns are still, like the other laser weapons, clearly made using human technology. Alloy cannons and plasma weapons, on the other hand, co-opt the more advanced alien tech, putting them higher on the tech tree.

[Mephansteras]

My guess is that the original xcom was a parody/deconstruction of the kind of show that would use lasers as a blatant standin for guns because they weren't allowed to show people getting shot with real bullets, and the newcom developers were fully aware of this.

I mean look at the conventional weapons Xcom starts with.  Especially the sniper rifle with the comically oversized scope and big ball on the slide.  They look like plastic toys.  I think this is intentional.  GI Joe was a toy commercial show, same as Power Rangers or Transformers.  EW makes it much less subtle with EXALT which is basically Cobra by another name.

Thus the laser shotgun acts exactly like a normal shotgun.  It is a normal shotgun, but they couldn't show a gun that shoots real bullets on a children's show.  Don't let the cheerful exterior fool you, Jake Solomon is a clever man.

The X-Com soldiers are specifically supposed to look like action figures, so that guess might not be far off.

[umiman]

Yeah, they were most likely intentionally designed to be silly / toy-like.

It's a nice aesthetic.

[Mephansteras]

Yeah, they were most likely intentionally designed to be silly / toy-like.

It's a nice aesthetic.

Back before the game was released there was an interview with the art director where he talked about them looking like action figures. They weren't originally going to look like that, but after someone mentioned how they kind of looked like action figures they decided to run with it and ended up with the aesthetic we have now. And I agree, it works well for the game.

[Descan]

I dunno, man. Alloy cannons? Seems a very human thing to do.

"We got these extremely dense pieces of metal, but we can't really do anything with them... Let's put them in a tube and shoot them at aliens!"

Whereas making a laser-shotgun... be a thing, is a very high-tech thing.

[Mephansteras]

I've discovered a very useful use for Flush: Making Sectopods move so you can set up a better situation for your guys.

Normally I don't bother with it, but with the Skill Tree randomization I've actually had someone take it (because my Heavy does not need Revive, thank you very much). Ended up much more useful than I'd anticipated.

[mastahcheese]

Yeah, that training roulette is pretty fun when you find unexpected uses for skills.
I managed to get a sniper with both suppression and flush, it was really awesome having someone in the background that could either force or limit movement of whoever I wanted.

[Sean Mirrsen]

What I don't get is why they went for Shotgun-Laser Shotgun-Alloy Cannon, when Shotgun-Alloy Cannon-Plasma Shotgun would have been a more sensible progression. A Plasma Shotgun makes way more sense than a Laser Shotgun.

Because the alloy fragments destroyed all weapons they were fired from in testing, and Plasma tech introduced magnetic containment fields strong enough to prevent that. (that's actually mentioned in the Alloy Cannon research text) A plasma shotgun makes less sense than a laser shotgun, because plasma requires a special containment field for each shot - it's ridiculously impractical to mount a dozen plasma barrels into one gun. With a laser, you can use a simple process of refraction - a prism can split the laser beam into several individual beams, each with less power but more chance to hit on the overall. Amp the original beam's power enough, and you get the laser shotgun - all it needs is a fresh refractor for every shot because with the shot's power it can't be cooled well enough to make it reusable. The pump action, then, merely cycles a fresh refraction prism into the chamber.

[Descan]

Nah, plasma shotgun makes sense. Your sacrificing containment for power, so your plasma spreads out more and doesn't have as long a range before dissipating, but if you fire from up close, you deal a lot more damage.

[EnigmaticHat]

Certainly more sense than the laser shotgun.

[Sean Mirrsen]

"Laser shotgun" is a misnomer for the sake of brevity. The weapon is a refracted array multibeam laser cannon, and it makes exactly as much sense as a regular shotgun firing 12-gauge - sacrificing sheer stopping power and long-range damage for increased accuracy via shot dispersion and higher chance of damaging something vital at shorter distances. It works because each individual laser beam remains focused and still deals damage.

A "plasma shotgun" that works by reducing containment simply kills its own power for little measurable gain. Keeping with the shotgun analogy, it ends up shooting Dragon's Breath - plasma will expand and cool after leaving the barrel, potentially causing burns on impact, but the net effect won't be anything like a concentrated plasma bolt's hit, and it will have no penetration capacity. It's like dragging an explosion out into a few seconds of burn - exactly like Dragon's Breath.

[Neonivek]

The Laser shotgun makes more sense when you realize that the tech that makes them is the same tech that gets you laser sniper rifles.

[mastahcheese]

The Laser shotgun makes more sense when you realize that the tech that makes them is the same tech that gets you laser sniper rifles.

^This.

Also, why don't we all just use more flamethrowers?