Quote:
Originally posted by Sharp+Mar 29 2005, 01:28 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Sharp @ Mar 29 2005, 01:28 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Guest@Mar 29 2005, 04:12 AM
Maybe my table isnt clear, the 110% Aimed is for Heavy Plasma, not Heavy Laser. Also the snap* on HL is only 50%. so your 83 firing sniper is at 41.5with a HL vrs with a HP at 75% means 62.25. Aimed is 69.2 for HL vrs 91.3 for HP. HP has 30 more dmg and as I disscussed before I never run out of ammo on its 35 round clip so reloading isnt an issue.
But if your guy can kill like that anyway... go for it*  k:*
Remember, there is no right answer in this
except mine 
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Erm..... your table must be incorrect as well if you dont have the Heavy Laser on 110% accuracy.
Heavy Laser Stats
120-dmg (highest conventional weapon damage in game)
Snap Shot - 75% accuracy 33% TU Cost
Aimed - 110% accuracy 60% TU Cost
Other: No ammunition required, extra-effective against sectapods, can blow holes in inner walls of UFO's
Heavy Plasma Stats
115-dmg
Auto-Shot - 50% accuracy 35% TU Cost
Snap Shot - 75% accuracy 30% TU Cost
Aimed - 110% accuracy 60% TU Cost
Other: Weak against sectapods, can blow holes in inner walls, clip size of 35
As you can plainly see the Heavy Plasma is very effective for your gruntwork soldiers as it has a high damage combined with the ability of the Auto-Shot so in enclosed areas.
However when sniping that extra 5 damage that the heavy laser does can make a lot of difference. Also as no ammunition is needed you dont have to even put the tiniest amounts of effort into ammo conservation. The laser can efficently and effectivly blow holes in many obstacles for fire teams to go through. As I stated before, I only give lasers to my snipers, hence they only use aimed/snap shots hence the extra 5 damage the laser does is extremly usefull when fighting.
Also you can see that the snap on the laser and plasma are exactly the same only differing in TU's by 3%. I dont know if you use XCOM Util or something which changes weapons stats but the heavy laser is the ultimate
Sniper weapon.
I give the grunts the heavy plasmas and make them go into close combat, however if you can afford to (as in you wont die) then try and fire aimed shots as this increases your soldiers firing accuracy greatly.
Sniping Tactic:
My best sniping tactic is similar to what those darn aliens do all the time, I give my snipers flying suits, they fly ontop of buildings. They stay in the centre of the roof and move to edge to spot n' shoot an alien and then move back into the centre, makes the soldier immune to being MC'ed and no return fire as well.
HWP's:
Heavy Weapons Platforms are extremly usefull in every stage of the game in my opinion. In base defence they effectivly boost it. They cannot get mindcontrolled, get panicked or go beserk. They move extremly fast and the weapons they can carry are suprisinlgy effective. The Plasma/Laser Cannons practically dont have ammunition problems as the Plasma can fire 255 rounds and it automatically gets replenished after each battle. The Cannon is the only useless one, it is only good for the first few missions, I first get the Rocket Launcher, it has a large firepower, lots of ammo, and unlike soldiers wont accidently blow up your troops.
Im not too sure of the accuracy of the HWP's but im sure that it is fairly high, although not as high as experienced soldiers. A Cannon HWP on the first few missions can kill far more then your newbie soldiers.
The HWP is also much better then losing 4 valuable members of your squad (generally the first people in your sky-ranger are the most experienced due to killing more aliens etc... unless of course your next 4 people are the best as the first 4 die)
Only in Base Assaults do tanks truly suck. They clog up hallways and cannot fire around corners and then peek back effectivly. On the otherhand using a tank as cover means that you can chuck grenades over the tank while being safe against return fire, but that is a very expensive tactic. Tanks can also effectivly clear out the same corridors they clog up and let your soldiers mop up the leftovers. [/b][/quote]
I agree that HWP are good to absorb the damage that would otherwise kill your four most experienced soldiers, but you really only need one laser tank for that. I think as long as one doesn't let the tank get kills that ought to go towards soldiers' experience, the strategy works fine.
I think you have a modified version there, because everyone else's version has Heavy laser as being much weaker. 120 damage??? Mine version has it at 85 damage, and it seems like the unofficial strat guide and many other people concur. Maybe you have a version of XCOM that was pre-hacked with XCOM Util to make lasers stronger?