Jackal

Introduction[]

Jackal Combat Armour is the first actual armor given to Xenonaut soldiers. It is considered a standard-issue uniform by most commanders since it provides far better protection against light plasma weapons than the Basic Armour. However, it does weigh down the user making it difficult for a Jackal user to use heavy weapons.

In-game description[]

The "Jackal" Combat Armour offers our soldiers extra battlefield protection at the cost of increased weight. It is not the ideal equipment for every situation, but in many cases, the extra survivability could be the difference between life and death.

Laboratory tests on captured alien plasma weapons have confirmed that traditional body armor is essentially worthless against energy projectiles, having been designed to resist ballistic impact rather than heat damage. However, testing a modified combat vest with heat-resistant rather than impact-resistant ceramic plates showed impressive results. The ceramics were able to dissipate enough of the heat to give the wearer a reasonable chance of survival, though they are still likely to suffer injuries in the process.

While it provides an obvious boost to survivability, this armor is heavy and will limit the other equipment (such as ammunition or secondary weapons) a soldier can carry into battle. Armour also degrades rapidly under fire and will not withstand repeated hits, nor provide the wearer guaranteed protection eg. it hardly matters what armor a soldier is wearing if he is shot in the face. Nevertheless, it is still better than nothing and can be constructed in the workshop.

Statistics[]

Jackal armor weighs 10 kg and provides 22 resistance to kinetic/energy/incendiary attacks.

Research & Production[]

Jackal armor becomes available for research after you have researched either Alien Pistols or Alien Rifles.

Jackal armor costs a mere $20,000 and 20 man-days to produce. The starting complement of 10 engineers can, therefore, produce a Jackal armor with two days' work.

Strategy[]

Jackal Armour offers actual protection from Alien plasma fire. Shots that would outright eviscerate an unarmoured human will only inflict a minor burn wound on a soldier wearing this Armour.

Jackal Armour offers a great advantage with a minor, but still noticeable, downside. The Armour allows a Solider to potentially survive multiple hits from alien Plasma fire, the utility of this cannot be overstated. In addition, the Armour is relatively inexpensive, costing only $20,000 apiece, meaning fitting out an entire 8 man squad would cost only $160,000, though it is unlikely the entire squad will need the Armour. However, the Armour's weakness is that it heavily weighs down on the user, meaning that many Soldiers may find themselves having to discard a large portion of their inventory in order to wear the Armour, and with most specialist soldiers (Snipers, Machinegunners) having to forgo the Armour entirely.

Any soldier that is expected to be fighting the Aliens toe to toe should be wearing this Armour when possible. Players would be wise to try and recruit high strength soldiers into their ranks to avoid the downsides of this armor or keep low strength soldiers to using Snipers or other support weaponry that keeps them out of the Aliens line of fire.

Don't get cocky though, a lucky hit with a Plasma weapon can still instantly kill a soldier. Using this Armour alongside good cover and positioning will make your soldiers hard to dislodge.

Sustainable Damage[]

This chart will list how the armor stands up against different alien weapons. The chart first lists the base damage a weapon can do, then it shows how much the weapon ignores armor (So a weapon dealing 40 damage, with 10 mitigation, against armor that has 40 defense, would deal 10 damage), the third column shows how much damage the weapon would deal after the armor has absorbed its maximum. The final column attempts to account for the damage variance that can occur, showing the minimum and maximum amount of damage the weapon can deal.

Alien Weapon	Base Damage	Armour Mitigation	Damage after resistance	Accounting for variance
Alien Pistol	50	0	28 +	2-53
Alien Rifle	60	0	38 +	3-68
Alien Assault Plasma	40x3	10	28 +	0-48
Alien Heavy Rifle	65	30	65 -	32-97
Alien Battle Rifle	80	30	80 -	40-120
Alien Sniper Rifle	40	99	40 -	20-60
Alien Plasma Cannon	110	0	88 +	33-143
Praetor Gun	120	60	120 -	60-180
Light Drone Blaster	15	15	8 +	0-15
MediumDrone Cannon	85	0	63 +	20-105
Heavy Drone Cannon	120	0	98 +	38-138

Jackal armor serves well in reducing incoming damage from low-level weapons, however, the armor is meant to mitigate damage, not stop it, the main difference being a soldier hit with a plasma weapon will have a good chance of surviving it instead of dying in a single hit. Once alien Heavy Plasma Rifles become more prevalent Jackal armor becomes ineffective in stopping any reasonable damage.