How do you get more different guns?

[Tarantel]

I am confused... I managed to loot 1 Sniper Rifle and 1 regular Rifle. Problem is: I don't exactly know why and how I got those and how I am supposed to get more. Does touching death enemies give you a chance on loot? I touched every corpse I was able to reach throughout the game. I doubt the weapons came from them. Maybe they were story progress rewards and I somehow missed that? I am in the middle of chapter 7 now. Does the game still open up more and there is a shop later on or do I just get a sidegrade here and there. I mean... My squad consists of 20 people and all but two still use their standard weapons. The two I got weren't even "better", just "different". So I guess with more weapons I would be able to specialiize my members more. Need weapons guide or something!

I am not talking about the passive upgrade system for weapons, just to be clear. I mean "real" equipable ingame weapons. How do you (reliably) get them?

[Murray]

Although I've not played the game (downloading now) I found this guide online.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/942165-valkyria-chronicles/faqs/56294

It appears that weapons can be obtained in one of three ways:

'“R&D” means you have to develop it at the R&D Facility at Headquarters;
“Award” means that you can get it as an award from Princess Cordelia in the
Audience Hall (accessed through Headquarters); and
“Ace” means that you get the weapon by killing the enemy Ace wielding it.'

[Tarantel]

Thank you, that helped a lot!

[Psycho Pie]

I've looted a machinegun from the empire... gave it to one of my shocktroopers and, well it sucked on so many levels : real bad aim, misses 3/4 shots at nearly point blank distance, do next to no damage to anyone (including scouts) again at close range. shoots way less bullets than the vanilla machinegune.

how on earth did the European empires invade most of the continent with such clunky equipment ?

[Kardwill]

Weird, usually the empire's guns are inaccurate, short ranged, but they pack quite a punch. I prefer the accuracy and range of Galia guns, but they are sometime useful for that close assault where you will be in your enemy's face anyway

[Argenblack]

Imperial weapons from Aces trade accuracy for raw firepower. If you look at the damage ratings, they're usually two tech levels above an equivalent Gallian weapon. In my experience the Gallian weapons are more useful, since when you've got your sight ring down to "consistently headshot" the added Imperial damage values pale since it requitres fewer shots for a critical kill.