UFO: Aftershock web site expands...

[Thorondor]

UFO: Aftershock's official web site has once more expanded to include a 'Weapons' section. So head on over there and learn of the early 'tools of the trade'...

[Stefan100]

Very nice!

[Slaughter]

Cutting down aliens with a Katana? I like it!

[Thorondor]

[the Terminator hoists a huge gun]

John Connor: "It's definitely you."

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(from "Terminator 2: Judgement Day", the motion picture, 1991)

 

::

 

:D

[Accounting Troll]

An interesting development.

 

The bayonet has the distinction of being the most overrated weapon in history, and any firearm can outrange throwing knives and the other edged weapons listed. You would be better off giving a soldier extra ammo for his gun instead of loading him up with throwing kives and throwing stars.

 

However most communities on Earth would lack the industrial facilities to manufacture firearms and spare ammunition. This means that as things wear out or break down, the community would be reduced to whatever weapons the village blacksmith can hammer out.

 

I really hope that bows and arrows are going to be in the game. The medieval Welsh longbow (which was later adapted by the English) had a variety of standard arrowheads, including one specifically designed to penetrate armour.

[FullAuto]

I don't know, a bayonet on the end of a three-foot-long rifle and you've got yourself a short spear. Regarded by the British Empire as one of the greatest close-combat weapons ever devised, considering it also doubles as a knife.

Arrows/crossbow bolts perform well versus body armour. Yes, the modern kind.

[Preda]

An interesting development.

 

The bayonet has the distinction of being the most overrated weapon in history, and any firearm can outrange throwing knives and the other edged weapons listed.  You would be better off giving a soldier extra ammo for his gun instead of loading him up with throwing kives and throwing stars.

 

However most communities on Earth would lack the industrial facilities to manufacture firearms and spare ammunition.  This means that as things wear out or break down, the community would be reduced to whatever weapons the village blacksmith can hammer out.

 

I really hope that bows and arrows are going to be in the game.  The medieval Welsh longbow (which was later adapted by the English) had a variety of standard arrowheads, including one specifically designed to penetrate armour.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Bad idea. This is supposed to be sci-fi, for God's sake.

[Slaughter]

Bad idea. This is supposed to be sci-fi, for God's sake.

True, but chances are good modern equipment is in short supply on earth, as Troll mentions.

[Accounting Troll]

I think that having a combination of futuristic weapons such as plasma rifles alongside ancient weapons such as axes and longbows would add to the post acopalypse feel of the game.

 

The UFO series starts with the destruction of our civilization and everything that we know. The social order and industrial base behind the production of modern assault rifles and guided missiles would cease to exist. The people who are able to get through something like this are going to be the ones who learn to improvise with whatever raw materials are handy.

 

I don't know, a bayonet on the end of a three-foot-long rifle and you've got yourself a short spear.  Regarded by the British Empire as one of the greatest close-combat weapons ever devised, considering it also doubles as a knife.

Agreed. Look how well the bayonet served us at the retreat from Kabul, the Battle of Isandwana and every battle in the Boer Wars

[Stefan100]

However most communities on Earth would lack the industrial facilities to manufacture firearms and spare ammunition. This means that as things wear out or break down, the community would be reduced to whatever weapons the village blacksmith can hammer out.

 

I really hope that bows and arrows are going to be in the game. The medieval Welsh longbow (which was later adapted by the English) had a variety of standard arrowheads, including one specifically designed to penetrate armour.

 

I don't think that the human communitys who only were able to develop axes and bows would have survived in 50 years. THE TRANSGENATS would have defeated them. (You know about natural selection?) Even with firearms transgenats are very very very dangerous.

 

I think that having a combination of futuristic weapons such as plasma rifles alongside ancient weapons such as axes and longbows would add to the post acopalypse feel of the game.

I don't think this is such a good idea. Bows MAYBE, but axes NO. The four edged weapons in AS will be surely be enough. If you miss bows the Shurikens will maybe be enough to replace them?

[FullAuto]

Agreed. Look how well the bayonet served us at the retreat from Kabul, the Battle of Isandwana and every battle in the Boer Wars

 

Yes, and look how well it served us between setbacks (which happen to every army) and look at how many armies TODAY issue their forces with bayonets. Pretty much anyone with any sense has used them. The retreat from Kabul was a disaster, very little would have made a difference there.

The Battle of Isandlwana actually wasn't too bad. Something like 1,700 British versus 20,000 Zulus, and although the Brits lost, about 400 survived. Those odds, even rounding up, are ten to one, and no force could beat that, except...the British did, in a battle that started the same day, at Rorke's Drift, where 150-odd Brits saw off 4,000 Zulus. And bayonets were bloody important there. Bayonet drill made most British soldiers bloody handy at close-combat.

The second Boer War was, technologically anyway, a fairly new kind of war, with many new weapons that we still use today featuring, and we learned some damn important lessons there. Still, the cry of "Fix bayonets" often made Boer forces surrender and if not for a kicking in South Africa, we might have lost WWI. Not to mention the slight techincality of us winning BOTH Boer Wars.

 

Here endeth the lesson.

 

As for getting back on topic, I think hosing down an enemy with a full magazine and then closing in to cut it in half with a katana is cool. Very cool. What sort of big girl's blouse doesn't like hand to hand combat?

[Slaughter]

I don't think that the human communitys who only were able to develop axes and bows would have survived in 50 years. THE TRANSGENATS would have defeated them. (You know about natural selection?) Even with firearms transgenats are very very very dangerous.

I don't think this is such a good idea. Bows MAYBE, but axes NO. The four edged weapons in AS will be surely be enough. If you miss bows the Shurikens will maybe be enough to replace them?

Well, I guarantee you that if a Transgenant rounded a corner, and was met by a Katana swing, he would be a head short. When fighting anywhere but out in the open melee weapons can be very handy - even today.

[Accounting Troll]

I suspect that a volley of longbow fire would cause most transgenats to beat a hasty retreat, especially since most human communities that would have sprung up between Aftermath and Aftershock would have been located on easily defensible ground such as an offshore island or a penninsula.

 

In medieval times, some armies attached ceramic pots containing greek fire to arrows. Although the added weight greatly reduced the range, it would have had the effect of a grenade launcher or an alien plasma launcher. Especially if the enemy was forced to attack on a very narrow front.

 

Ah yes, the Zulu War. Won by the use of machine guns. Rorkes Drift was largely a propoganda victory, but it showed that the Zulus would take heavy losses if they launched a human wave assault on well prepared positions. If it had come down to bayonets verses assegais then the Zulus would have won easily by sheer weight of numbers.

 

One of the new technologies introduced in the Second Boer War was the concentration camp. The British won the war by systematically rounding up all the Boers and putting them in concentration camps, where many died in squalid conditions. Not the proudest moment in the history of the British Empire.

 

As for WWI, we won by blockading Germany and starving it to death while holding off its armies in the attritional battles of the Western Front. Bayonets did not inflict many casualties compared with machine guns and tanks.

[Stefan100]

I suspect that a volley of longbow fire would cause most transgenats to beat a hasty retreat, especially since most human communities that would have sprung up between Aftermath and Aftershock would have been located on easily defensible ground such as an offshore island or a penninsula.

 

In medieval times, some armies attached ceramic pots containing greek fire to arrows. Although the added weight greatly reduced the range, it would have had the effect of a grenade launcher or an alien plasma launcher. Especially if the enemy was forced to attack on a very narrow front.

Maybe, but the most transgenats is maybe a little too nasty for those plasm-bows. But everything is possible, and to know for sure we will "just" have to wait. Tomorrow it is only two weeks until release!

[Slaughter]

As pointed out by Thorondor at the official boards, you can now find new weapons at the official site.

[Azrael Strife]

I'm surprised that laser weapons are not among the basic human weapons, I mean, so many years after Aftermath I would have thought that laser and/or plasma would be standard.

[Slaughter]

I think it is on the Laputas, but not on earth. They don't have the hightech factories to produce it I believe. Not sure though.

[Thorondor]

"I think it is on the Laputas, but not on earth. They don't have the hightech factories to produce it I believe."

 

Since our very first task will be to cleanse the Reticulan Laputa of any remaining alien opposition, our first energy weapons will likely be acquired there (as the surviving humans escaped in a hurry). I expect we should be able to use them, even if we can't start producing any of our own before we reclaim some territory on Earth for a base (as inferred by Slaughter).

 

::

 

This screenshot from a Slovak version of the game shows a soldier with a Reticulan Laser pistol during early game that consubstantiates the employment of laser weapons almost from the get go, Azrael.

[Nutguy]

20 round magazines for the UZI and the MP5? Argh!!! And I hate reloads!!

[Slaughter]

@Thorondor: I am pretty sure I played with a laser pistol in the tutorial missions taking over the Laputa. Don't know if I could produce it afterwards however.

 

@Nutguy: Yeah, 30 would have been better (or is it 40, the largest MP5 one?).

[Nutguy]

I was curious enough to search it out and I visited H&K's official site only to find out that the entire MP5 family has a 15/30 Cartrigde magazine (meaning either 15 or 30 rounds -your choice- I believe). So, I want my 30 round magazines back please!!! Somebody tell ALTAR they made a factual error!

[Slaughter]

Ah, right! I should know, as I was equipped with an MP5 when I were in the army

[Accounting Troll]

In Aftermath, the MP5 has a 30 round capacity, so it looks as if Altair have downgraded the relative stregnth of sub machine guns for Aftershock

 

Also, they haven't listed the MP7 or FN P90

[Tycow]

In Aftermath, the MP5 has a 30 round capacity, so it looks as if Altair have downgraded the relative stregnth of sub machine guns for Aftershock

 

Also, they haven't listed the MP7 or FN P90

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Noooooooo, I need my P90!

[lgonggr]

On the bayonet :

The history of the bayonet is quite interesting (and bloody). The English really invented them for use against the Scots. The Scots had the annoying tendency to charge en masse down a hill at the musket-armed neat lines of the British instead of shooting it out with muskets. The British always had the time to fire one volley, which never deterred the Scots. Before they could reload the cumbersome muskets the Scots would be upon them wielding lots of sharp implements. The 6 foot claymore sword was especially usefull in chopping several closely packed Brits at a time.

 

So a clever guy (can't recall here, google it up) invented the screw-locked bayonet. You had to take out the bayonet and literally screw it on top of the musket et voila, an instant spear. The idea was that after the first volley the Scots would face a forest of these 'spears' to charge in. Unfortunately for the British army that was sent to try it out, the Scots had so much practice with their charge-attack that they reached the lines while the troops were still busy screwing the bayonet on resulting in the usual massacre of the British. Shortly thereafter the 'modern' click-it-on-bayonet was invented and this was the effective end of Scottish resistance as it worked perfectly. It was a vital (almost decisive) advantage against all enemies in warfare untill the repeating rifle was invented and later its even more destructive friend the machine gun.

 

The bayonet is one of the deadliest inventions ever and it is still used in killing lots of people on a daily basis. I for one would feel a lot more secure in a battle if I had one

 

Cheers,

Lodewijk