I decided it would be cool to combine a classic squad combat game with a modern squad combat game, so I decided to make an X-COM: UFO Defense mod. I am going to start by just making the X-COM weapons and release them in a pack. Hopefully I can make them balanced enough for use in combat with other mods.

Much like the original game, the standard weapons will sort of suck, but still have their uses. I will try and mimic the damage and accuracy values from the original game, with a few changes in places to accomodate for balance issues (example: laser weapons don't have infinite ammo, just big clips). I am concentrating only on Earth-made weapons for now, and then will probably move on to the alien weapons.

Eventually I will probably learn how to make clones, and then proceed to make all
the soldiers from UFO Defense (No Armour, Personal Armour, Power Suit, Flying Suit), but for now there are some vanilla clones which look fairly similar to X-COM soldiers.

I made the sprites by taking the UFOpaedia pictures for the weapons, shrinking them, and sprucing them up a little.

Here is the list of weapons I have completed so far:

Starting weapons:

Pistol - Finished
Rifle - Finished
Heavy Cannon (HE) - Finished
Autocannon (AP) - Finished
Rocket Launcher (Small) - Finished

Laser Weapons: Need glow

Laser Pistol - Finished
Laser Rifle - Finished
Heavy Laser - Finished

Explosives / Other:

Grenade - Finished
Proximity Grenade - Finished
High Explosive - Needs tweaking
Stun Rod - Finished

Here are some action shots:

Haha this is great - I'm playing the game right now and am close to beating it (for the 5th time...it is a great game)

Looks very good, you did the sprites very well: a lot of re-sizes end up horribly. I'll definitely download this once it's released!

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
I was hoping for this or a UFO:AI mod.

I just got the strangest urge for a Chrysalid in CC...

Great job, but I wonder how the laser beams would look if you added a slight glow to them.

Now, if someone makes X-COM actors - it'll be like an early Christmas.

I'm completely open to someone else making bodies and adding them to the project, it will be a more demanding task (not as simple as just resize + polish) and I haven't spent any time learning now to make them.

If you've got any technical input, please mention it! I don't actually know how to implement glow, but I'm sure I can find out by reading the forums.

In its current state, I have a lot of the sprites done but the polish is not there. I haven't yet ripped the sound files from the game, and the laser weapons have shell casings, half the weapons aren't being held properly, and other nonsensical stuff. I am learning how to get all of this right so I will hopefully have all the weapons finished and polished in a week or so.

edit: I posted pictures of the new weapons, you might notice that I've artificially elongated the 2x3 weapons (heavy weapons) because they looked really cramped and "fat" when imported as-is.

I wonder if it will eventually be possible to implement anything resembling the function of the Blaster Launcher in CC...(it being real time and all)

I had actually thought of that. I think the closest thing I could do, given current constraints, is see if I can make a gun that launches craft. I would then make the 'blaster bomb' craft which can be piloted to its target. I'm betting someone has created a player-guided missile by now...

Once I get around to ripping the sounds of everything, I am only a few tweaks away from a release. The heavy laser (and maybe all the laser weapons, I should probably test more) don't pack the punch they should have. I want the heavy to be able to blow away a dummy in one or two shots, basically, so I'll have to learn the intricacies of the damage system.

The Blaster Launcher is possible: Have the gun shoot an actor armed with a weapon that has negative recoil. When the actor shoots, it goes towards whatever it's pointing at. As long as the actor is on your team, you can control it.

As for making the laser more powerful, here's a tip: Put more particles in the round and set ParticleSpreadRange in the weapon code to 0. It'll look like there's only one projectile, but it will inflict more wounds and by extension more damage.

Thanks for the advice!

I am not planning to release any alien weapons in this particular pack, but your idea for the blaster launcher sounds like it would work even better than what I was thinking of.

One thing I'm now curious about is incendiary rockets / rounds. In a complete version of the pack, I would want to provide all the ammo types present in the original game. I see there are fire particles, but they usually don't stick around very long and don't do damage to actors. I figure with some tweaking, I could fix both of these limitations. Has anyone made a napalm bomb or something else that has an incendiary effect?

edit: In case anyone else isn't already in the know, it seems like bullet Mass, Velocity, and Sharpness greatly influence damage. Increasing Mass will result in a weapon that is more powerful against metal objects, whereas increasing sharpness will increase effectiveness against fleshy objects, as well as increase the penetration of terrain.

Velocity probably also has big influence; as we know from 8th grade science, F = mv, so increased velocity will linearly multiply the force of the bullet. I figure sharpness just influences how easily a bullet can penetrate an object, given that object's resistance to sharpness. Fleshy stuff / dirt isn't so good at this, concrete is decent, and metal is particularly effective.

Following X-COM's rules (lasers are powerful against Sectopods) I am going to make them high-velocity, massy bullets with mediocre sharpness to make them effective against metal targets. I will try and tool the conventional Rifle and Pistol rounds to be sharp but not very massy or fast, so they will do well against unarmored targets but not really well against armor / craft.

I'll probably post the first release over in Mod Releases tonight, after a few last-minute tweaks. There are several things which aren't implemented particularly well (high explosive isn't very powerful, proximity grenade doesn't quite work as it should) but I am happy with the way the main weapons behave. I'm hoping that I can get feedback about the weapon balance and then make another release, hopefully with fully operational explosives this time.

I'm actually deciding not to add the glow to the lasers yet, the sort of glow that I can copy and paste (glow for the bullet, not the trail) looks a little funny and normal old lines are what we see in the game.

Actually its first time introduced in 5th grade in physics class and on 7th grade you get basic teaching and on 8th you get to apply it on objects and calculate pressure. Also great sprites, i've been trying to make some funky heavy plasma rifle but it usually ends up gibbing my enemy but i might as well post the sprite here on forums or send it to you. Also my offsets are kinda wierd now.. he keeps the gun in his hand somehow from some inner part of the weapon. ;D