Heavy weapons platform

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heavy weapons platform is a common name to fighting vehicles native to the X-COM games. They are miniature remotely operated tanks fitted with a variety of ordnance, occupying roughly the same ground area as four men would standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a 2x2 square.

[edit] Initial tanks

The vehicles are initially available in two variants:

• Standard Armour piercing Cannon (Requires 30x Armour Piercing Shells)
• High-Explosive Rocket Launcher (Requires 8x HWP Rockets)

Both of them must be supplied with ammunition which can only be bought separately.

With some research, a Laser weapon can be fitted to the basic HWP to provide a cost-efficient fighting vehicle with no ammunition requirements. The Laser HWP can only be manufactured by the player and requires no special materials.

[edit] Alien tanks

After the successful research of Alien Alloys, Propulsion, and Weapon systems, an improved model HWP will become available. These "alien" tanks are faster and tougher than their earthly counterparts along with the ability to hover at any level of the battlefield – but the tradeoffs are a higher cost, and far more importantly a dependence on the rare element Elerium-115, a vital component in their construction.

The alien tanks are available in two variants, both of which must be constructed by the player:

• Plasma Hovertank (Requires no ammunition for use)
• Blaster Hovertank (Requires 8x HWP Fusion Balls to be manufactured)

Note: In Terror from the Deep HWP's are referred to as Submersible Weapons Systems (SWS).