Xenonauts

Welcome to Sitrep #2 from the Xenonauts team: Weapons. But before we tackle the arsenal of starting weapons the Xenonauts will have at their disposal to battle the alien hordes, I’d like to say a huge thankyou to everyone who has visited our site over the last week and either sent us an email or posted on our forums. Feedback from the community is hugely appreciated by the team, as it’s great to know people are interested in what we’re doing after having spent 9 months working under a veil of complete secrecy! Thanks too to anyone who has spread the word about the game, especially the folks at Kotaku and Rock Paper Shotgun!

Okay, enough of that – let’s have a peek at the Xenonaut arms locker. There are seven weapons available to the player at the start of the game, with more to be unlocked through research. The design philosophy for the weapons is that they should all be useful in a particular situation, allowing you to tailor your soldiers to fill specific battlefield roles – there are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ guns, but it's down to the player to use them properly.

Pistol: A lightweight 9mm semi-auto, the pistol is quick to aim and fire but has only a short range and low stopping power. Deadly against lightly armoured foes, it can snap off more shots than any other weapon in a single turn, and can be wielded one-handed with no accuracy penalty. This makes it ideal as a sidearm, or as a primary weapon for a soldier carrying something in his other hand (such as a medikit, grenade or shock baton).

Shotgun: A pump action combat shotgun with a 12-round magazine, the shotgun is an ideal assault weapon. It is quick to fire and can inflict massive damage over short ranges, punching straight through most body armour as if it were mere paper. However, it pays a high price for this power; it is heavy, inaccurate over long range and needs a strong soldier to deal with the recoil.

Rifle: The assault rifle is the standard-issue Xenonaut weapon, providing good accuracy and respectable stopping power over a variety of ranges. Though it has only average armour penetration, it is capable of burst fire and can deal effectively with almost any situation (though without excelling at any of them).

Precision Rifle: the precision rifle is a higher calibre version of the assault rifle, minus burst fire capability. Heavy and cumbersome, it can only fire a few shots per turn but offers excellent armour penetration and superb accuracy at any range. This makes it the weapon of choice for long-range engagements, or situations when precision marksmanship is required.

Machinegun: The first of the two heavy weapons available to the Xenonauts, the machinegun is capable of devastating enemy troops caught away from cover. A superb support weapon, the machinegun is an extremely heavy weapon and suffers a severe accuracy penalty if the user has moved in the turn that they fire it.

Rocket Launcher: The rocket launcher is a heavy weapon that can fire a variety of munitions. AP rockets allow a soldier to deal with enemy vehicles, while HE and Fragmentation rockets are excellent against structures and infantry respectively. Though it suffers the same accuracy penalty for firing on the move as the machinegun, the Rocket Launcher can quickly turn a battle on its head and a strike team would be unwise to leave the base without one.

Flamethrower: The flamethrower is a short range weapon that causes immense damage to anything caught in its blast. Completely ignoring cover and capable of turning any enclosed space into a raging inferno, the flamethrower is the ideal weapon for clearing out fortified enemies. However, reckless use of the weapon is not encouraged – as well as frequently destroying valuable equipment that could otherwise be recovered from the battlefield, the flamethrower often poses just as much a threat to its user as it does to his enemies!

That's the full starting weapon list, and we'll be following up shortly with details in the next few Sitreps with details on the starting armours and equipment. If you've got any questions, our forum is the place to ask them!