🚀 go-pugleaf

I found the Laser weapons, while weaker, are ultimately the best.
The tactic I employ to to arm all my troops with laser rifles and flying
armor.  I completely skip PSI training.  If the Aliens take control of a
troop in heavy armor, the Laser weapon needs like 15 hits to kill your other
soldiers.  The rest of the team can then get about the business of wasting
the Aliens, while the Aliens are wasting time controling your weak minded
troops.

Laser weapons require less time to fire and a slightly more accurate.  This
helps make up the shortfall in fire power.

Also the not having to keep a supply of ammo around is good.  It allows you
to place more equipment on a ship.  Remember there is a maximum of 80 pieces
of equip allowed on board.

rai...@mich.com

Jef Reynders wrote in message <6ub2m4$19a$1...@trex.antw.online.be>...
>I've been wondering about something for quite some time now. Are plasma
>weapons better than laser weapons or not? The plasma rifle, for example, is
>more powerful than the laser rifle. On the other hand the laser rifle
>doesn't need any (expensive) ammo. Any thoughts or experiences you would
>like to share ?
>
>Jef
>
>
>

> I've been wondering about something for quite some time now. Are plasma
> weapons better than laser weapons or not? The plasma rifle, for example, is
> more powerful than the laser rifle. On the other hand the laser rifle
> doesn't need any (expensive) ammo. Any thoughts or experiences you would
> like to share ?
>
> Jef

According to the strategy guide for XCOM written by Dave Ellis, the two
weapons classes have the following characteristics:

NOTE:
N/A = Not Applicable
(A) = Auto shot
(S) = Snap shot
(AM) = Aimed shot

Laser Pistol
Cost: $8,000
Special Materials Required: none
Engineer man-hours to produce: 300
Workspace required: 2
Ammunition type: N/A
Ammunition cost: N/A
Shots: unlimited
Damage: 46
Accuracy: 28% (A), 40% (S), 68% (AM)
Time units per shot: 25% (A), 20% (S), 55% (AM)

Laser Rifle
Cost: $20,000
Special Materials Required: none
Engineer man-hours to produce: 400
Workspace required: 3
Ammunition type: N/A
Ammunition cost: N/A
Shots: unlimited
Damage: 60
Accuracy: 46% (A), 65% (S), 100% (AM)
Time units per shot: 34% (A), 25% (S), 50% (AM)

Heavy Laser
Cost: $32,000
Special Materials Required: none
Engineer man-hours to produce: 700
Workspace required: 4
Ammunition type: N/A
Ammunition cost: N/A
Shots: unlimited
Damage: 80
Accuracy: N/A (A), 50% (S), 84% (AM)
Time units per shot: N/A (A), 33% (S), 75% (AM)

Plasma Pistol
Cost: $56,000
Special Materials Required: 1x Alien Alloy
Engineer man-hours to produce: 600
Workspace required: 3
Ammunition type: Plasma Pistol Clip
Ammunition cost: $2,000 (plus 1x Elerium 115)
Shots: 26 per clip
Damage: 52
Accuracy: 50% (A), 65% (S), 85% (AM)
Time units per shot: 30% (A), 30% (S), 60% (AM)

Plasma Rifle
Cost: $88,000
Special Materials Required: 1x Alien Alloy
Engineer man-hours to produce: 820
Workspace required: 4
Ammunition type: Plasma Rifle Clip
Ammunition cost: $3,000 (plus 1x Elerium 115)
Shots: 28 per clip
Damage: 80
Accuracy: 55% (A), 86% (S), 110% (AM)
Time units per shot: 36% (A), 30% (S), 60% (AM)

Heavy Plasma
Cost: $122,000
Special Materials Required: 1x Alien Alloy
Engineer man-hours to produce: 1000
Workspace required: 4
Ammunition type: Heavy Plasma Clip
Ammunition cost: $6,000 (plus 1x Elerium 115)
Shots: 35 per clip
Damage: 5115
Accuracy: 50% (A), 75% (S), 110% (AM)
Time units per shot: 35% (A), 30% (S), 60% (AM)

Laser Pistols are useful only at the very beginning of a game. This is
because they are researched and produced fairly quickly. The same goes for
the Laser Rifle. Try and get these as fast as you can. Laser weapons have no
enhanced or reduced effectiveness against the aliens except one: The Sectopod
(found with the Ethereals) is more highly affected by lasers than anything
else. Ignore the Heavy Laser as it is not worth the trouble.

I place all of my initial scientists on laser weapon research at the
beginning of a game. Then I research Laser Pistols, then Rifles. Once I have
Laser Pistols, I have my engineers produce about 6 - 8 of them. This is
generally completed within about a month of game time. I generally have my
first squad (14 soldiers) completely equipped with Laser Rifles in about 2
months.

Plasma weapons are by far the best in the game. The Heavy Plasma cannot be
beat by anything that originated on Earth. Although the laser weapons have no
ammo requirement, that does not handicap plasma weapons from the middle of
the game onwards. By summer of 1999, all alien visitors are carrying Heavy
Plasmas as their weapon of choice. You should too. Plasma ammo is CHEAP, just
salvage all you can from your ground missions. By the fall of 1999, this will
be exclusively Heavy Plasmas (except for Blaster Launchers/Bombs and Small
Launchers/Bombs). You automatically return to base with all surviving alien
booty from a mission, so equipping your soldiers with Heavy Plasmas will be
no problem whatsoever. In fact, you will have more Heavy Plasmas than you can
use so you can sell the rest. Just do not sell the clips. If you are running
low on Heavy Plasma Clips, have your Skyranger follow a UFO until it lands so
you can assault an intact ship.

Once you have returned from your first missions with alien booty, start
researching them. You generally will have a Plasma Rifle among the booty.
Hire as many scientists as you can afford and research the rifle and its
clip. Do this again when you first get your hands on a Heavy Plasma. Then
equip your soldiers exclusively with it. You won't be disappointed. Ignore
the Plasma Pistol unless you have no other alternative, or have nothing else
to research. Once you have researches two of the three Plasma weapons, you
get to research Plasma Cannon. Treat this like the Holy Grail, research it at
all costs with everyone you have available. Don't reduce research on Heavy
Plasma/Clip though if you still haven't got it yet. Once you have Plasma
Cannons, Get your engineers building them right away. It takes about 2 days
for 20 engineers to build one cannon. Build enough cannons to equip all of
your intercepters instead of missiles. Plasma Cannon equipped intercepters
can destroy or shoot down every alien UFO except a Battleship.

Hope this helps you. Good luck in hunting sown those dreaded alien
infiltrators. James.

-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/rg_mkgrp.xp   Create Your Own Free Member Forum

jmc...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
<snip>
: Laser Pistols are useful only at the very beginning of a game. This is
: because they are researched and produced fairly quickly. The same goes for
: the Laser Rifle. Try and get these as fast as you can. Laser weapons have no
: enhanced or reduced effectiveness against the aliens except one: The Sectopod
: (found with the Ethereals) is more highly affected by lasers than anything
: else. Ignore the Heavy Laser as it is not worth the trouble.
<snip>

Excellent article on the advantages of Plasma weapons, James.

The mention of Sectopods reminded me of the trouble I've had defeating
them on missions, particularly without any Heavy weapons in my squad.
Laser rifles & Alien grenades required far to many hits to destroy a
Sectopod because of all the armour it carries. The solution was to use
the Heavy Laser on the Sectopod: the Sectopod is vulnerable to lasers,
but only the Heavy Laser does enough damage to consistently penetrate
the armour.

Any more opinions on the Heavy Laser out there?

--
IY.

Hi Jef,
            You've kind of answered your own question.  I agree the plasma
rifle is more powerful, but then you have to carry clips for these weapons
and since they only fire 30 shots,  you'll need to take a few clips if you
like using "auto shot". On the other hand Laser weapons require no ammo so
you could carry more things, ie: lets say two clips per weapon, 8 plasma
rifles vs. 8 laser rifles means 16 less items (2 clips each pressumed).

On the other hand laser rifles are about 30% less powerful,  but remember
you will not be carrying as much ( 16 less items ), so you'll be able to
stock more grenades and other goodies.

It more a matter of personal choice .   Your shot mate?

                       AIMED             SNAP         AUTO      DAM   CLIP

Laser rifle:    100/50              65/25          46/34          60    none

Plasma rifle: 100/60              86/30          55/63          80   (30)




=============================
>From Simon Trowman

Please replace NOSPAM with clara

>>>>> "Jef" == Jef Reynders <jef.re...@unicall.be> writes:

    Jef> I've been wondering about something for quite some time
    Jef> now. Are plasma weapons better than laser weapons or not? The
    Jef> plasma rifle, for example, is more powerful than the laser
    Jef> rifle. On the other hand the laser rifle doesn't need any
    Jef> (expensive) ammo. Any thoughts or experiences you would like
    Jef> to share ?

Well, the heavy plasma is strong enough to make your own doors inside
ufos. That makes it safer for your guys in some ufos, so you don't
have to walk through the single door into a room full of bugs... You
usually get enough clips for the heavy plasma from the aliens to get
by and 35 rounds per clip doesn't run dry that fast (well, it does if
you make a lot of doors inside ufos). The last time I played, I
usually brought two guys with heavy plasmas to a ufo site, the others
had laser rifles.

The plasma rifle and pistol have the ammo problem, especially later
in the game when the aliens all tend to have heavy plasmas, so you
don't get clips any more. I usually use laser rifles or pistols as
backup weapons for guys with rocket launchers or blaster launchers.

-- 
Anssi Saari - a...@cs.tut.fi

If the Plasma weapons are so great, how did I win with just Lasers?!
It was on the easy setting however.

Raille  sold on cheap technology! and refuses the use that alien junk!

Raille (rai...@mich.com) wrote:
: If the Plasma weapons are so great, how did I win with just Lasers?!
: It was on the easy setting however.

I always stuck with lasers, too. No need to worry about ammo. 

It's nice when you want to keep riddling a building with holes until the
aliens have nowhere to hide.

Joe Schulte wrote in message <6uoiin$f...@newsops.execpc.com>...
>Raille (rai...@mich.com) wrote:
>: If the Plasma weapons are so great, how did I win with just Lasers?!
>: It was on the easy setting however.
>
>I always stuck with lasers, too. No need to worry about ammo.
>
>It's nice when you want to keep riddling a building with holes until the
>aliens have nowhere to hide.


I forgot to mention that one!

Its great for the last alien in the second floor that you accidentally blew
out the stairs on!

Raille