The ability to select weapons with cross compatible ammunition would be of great tactical value and add more gameplay depth to the loadout and inventory system.
EG.
Assault having access to:
Assault rifle (AR ammo)
Carbine (AR ammo) (a little less accurate, costs less AP to fire so you can move slightly farther, same damage per bullet)
Battle Rifle (BR ammo) (Less shots per attack, more accurate, costs more AP to fire, more damage per bullet)
Sniper having access to:
Sniper rifle (Sniper ammo)
DMR (AR ammo) (DMR varient of the assault rifle, less shots per attack, more damage per bullet, more AP to fire, more accurate)
Battle Rifle (BR ammo)
Technician having access to:
PDW (PDW ammo)
Carbine (AR ammo)
Buck Gun (BR ammo) (imagine a sawed off elephant gun that uses full sized rifle cartridges) (sounds like a good idea for fighting armored units at close range to me)
Heavy having access to: (I’m not quite sure of what the heavy’s current weapon is as videos list “machine gun” and the roadmap lists “Heavy Cannon”)
Heavy Cannon (Cannon ammo)/Machine Gun (likely boxed BR ammo)
Autorifle (AR ammo, AR Box ammo) (it’s a SAW varient of the Assault Rifle, more shots per attack, more AP per attack, accuracy up for debate) (can feed from boxed ammunition, or standard assault rifle magazines)
Some form of Heavy Autorifle that uses BR ammo, or another twist weapon like the proposed buck gun for the technician.
AR ammo could have the ability to fill an Autorifle AR Box with it, consuming AP to do it. (So if you’ve run out of Boxed ammo and have combat downtime, you can stuff some AR mags into a box to get a full reload instead of multiple partial reloads.
Vice versa is applicable as well if you have an excess of AR Box ammo and a lack of AR magazines.
I don’t mind the different weapons sharing ammo, like pistols and smgs or ar and saws, for example. Plus, you will have different types of ammo.
On the other hand, not having the ammunition you need will force you to use certain weapons, and I don’t know if this will be an intentional thing.
I remember that in the pratezi mod you have manufacture different amo and ammo types almost for every weapon, it was interesting, let’s say. So I prefer if they find a middleground in pp.
But from above it looks like Assault Rifle, Carbine, Battle Rifle, Sniper Rifle, DRM, PDW, Buck Gun should share similar caliber. A little bit too much I think. And I don’t understand why Technician couldn’t have access to Battle Rifle with BR ammo. Or I’m missing something.
I don’t like the idea about having class restrictions to any items if they are not exclusives that only a person with special training can use (Example: Technician Robotic Arms).
As for unified caliber i’m all for it, if lore supports that. For a baseline weapons at least. I don’t mind if we gonna have some experimental weapons with “only for that weapon ammo”. Or having different factions utilising different ammo philosophies (i.e. NJ goes for one ammunition standart for all baseline weapons, while Syn use specially crafted for one weapon type ammo, and Anu goes wild with whatever scrap they can use as ammo…).
I think classifying the weapons as only being available to certain classes is a hangover from the NuCOMs as the devs have said that anyone can use any weapon, just not as efficiently as the dedicated classes.
easier to break it down like this, a la NATO
Pistol cartridge, 9mm
Pistol
SMG
Intermediate cartridge, 5.56mm
Assault Rifle
Carbine
certain DMRs
LMG/SAW
Full Power Cartridge, 7.62mm
Battle Rifles
Other DMRs
M/GPMGs
I think “standardized” ammo caliber could help a lot if we have different kind of ammo (explosive, incendiary, etc.), it could be too much hassle/“logistical nightmare” to have enough of the different types in all the different “calibers”.
I don’t even care if it’s realistic or not, I just don’t think that it would add so much fun to not forget bringing not “just” enough ammo, not “just” enough “special” ammo, but to have enough of all the combinations you can use…
This could work - definitely better break down than proposed in OP.
This could be taken care with saving loadouts. You save sniper loudout to have 2 spare standard ammo, 1 AP ammo and 1 incendiary. And it loads backpack everytime you bring this soldier to battle. And you just order or craft proper amount of ammo in storage/engineering screen just to always have them enough.
Fair point. But some things could be automated. Like if you can create a loadout templates for soldiers. Do we know if default ammo gonna be manually ordered or just be infinite amount?
And calibers mostly goes for conventional weapons. Futuristic weapons like lasers and rail/coilguns doesn’t require a lot of them(cause most difference in damage comes from amount of energy you can charge it).
Another solution to that problem is something like Mass Effect ammo approach:
“to generate ammunition a weapon shaves a projectile the size of a sand grain from a dense block of metal contained within the weapon’s body. The projectile is launched at supersonic velocities by decreasing its mass in a mass effect field. Thousands of these tiny rounds can be produced from a single ammunition block.” (link)
And a different ammo types too:
“Incendiary rounds consist of a thermite paste which clings to, and burns through, nearly any known substance.”
“Cooling lasers collapse ammunition into small Bose-Einstein condensate - a mass of super-cooled subatomic particles - capable of snap-freezing impacted objects.”
“Anti-Armor type of ammunition is derived from tungsten. This extremely dense, heavy metal is about 1.7 times heavier than lead, and far more difficult to deform than steel. It is excellent for use in armor-piercing type ammunition. Because of tungsten’s great properties and strength, it is very useful for piercing deep into synthetic, metallic targets.” (link)
But this approach suggests highly sophisticated tech - microfabricator. That could only be available later in the game.
I’m all for different ammo types, but it depends on the sorts of ammo the devs have planned. All these different ammo types in addition to possible incendiary, toxic, etc. rounds we see in other XCOM games might be pretty complex.
One thing to point out regarding standardized ammo/calibre: compatible ammo is not equal to compatible magazines. PDW and sidearm might both use 9mm bullets but their mags will be most likely different and thus incompatible with each other.
What that means from the game mechanic standpoint, logistically, you still only have to manufacture or buy a same ammo type for both but for a combat mission, ammo loadouts will have to be selected independently for PDW and sidearm, not as a single shared ammo pool.
That is what I am hoping for anyway. JA2 have done it that way BTW, it even had an inventory option to manually load bullets into a gun from an incompatible mag as a separate action.
very true, however certain weapons systems are actually designed around this, such as any rifle chambered in 5.56mm NATO, or 7.62mm NATO. Several of the machine guns chambered in those calibers are designed to accept magazines for the rifles as well.
This was the other half of the STANAG project after all.
A little bit too much I think. And I don’t understand why Technician couldn’t have access to Battle Rifle with BR ammo.