Commando Archive
Thread: Heavy Repeating Blaster
It has been brought up before and an idea I like very much...
I just wonder how much of a Programming nightmare it would be...There are so many issues to take into account for a "repeating" weaon...
- Lag...imagine the lag a continuous firing weapon would cause (look at the lag some of our weapons, like the LP and our flame specials already cause)....now compound that lag by several Commandos using that weapon in the same area at the same time...
- The animation...What is the average time span of any of the weapon animations in game...what would the ramifications be of adding a continously firing weapon?
- How would you start and stop the weapon specials(currently we just click to fire a special...would the programmers have a serious chore on their hands to add "stop" fuction to the weapon).
- Would this cause an AI nightmare in that the AI wouldn't know when to produce an attack or take damage.
- Is there anything comparable (animation and effect) currently in game that the dev's can build on or is this something they would have to build from scratch (we've seen how much they love making completely new weapons...they'd rather copy, paste, then alter something already existing).
Again, I hope we do get a repeating something or other...whether it's a blaster, the e-web, a repeating rifle, etc...but it may be something they wouldn't do for us until we get our own month long attention patch...This is why personally I'm hessitant to consider this a Top5 issue...this is something that would take the Devs awhile to program I'm sure...and in that time we could hopefully get several smaller things fixed/improved.
Message Edited by garvin on 04-01-2004 03:45 PM
Very good points Garvin.
Army basic training taught me that when firing an M-60 machine gun you never wanted to hold back the trigger andjust hang on for the ride. Otherwise your barrel canoverheat and critically damage the barrel and possibly the rest of the weapon. So I think it could be implimented that once you click a specialit will strafe back and forth for a few seconds then stop and have to stop itself and "Cool down" for another few seconds before one is able to use itby clicking again. Hopefully this would cut down on any lag and take care of stoping the weapon issue. Make this thing only able to fire by clicking a timed special type button. No "default" attack that just goes and goes.
As for the animation. I think a new animation would have to be made, but possibly basing it off the animation of kneeling and using a pistol or rifle strafe special. I don't think it would take "tons" ot rework but I could be wrong.
One way I thought the programmers might get around making a new type of repeating animation is reduce the speed cap for this one weapon...
Right not I believe the fastest weapon in game (no matter what it lists as) still caps at 1.0 spd...the cap may actually be lower then that, but that's what I thought I read somewhere...
If the Dev's could lower the cap on a repeating weapon for us to something like .5 it would make it appear like the weapon was auto repeating...the draw back of this is that I think one of the reasons a speed cap is ingame is to reduce lag also, for a weapon that hits that fast, the damage each shot does would be severly reduced it what the Dev's would consider "fairness"...
Anyway...good idea again...
Sure would be nice to get something at Master.
Seems like all the Master professions should get a special cert.
garvin wrote:
It has been brought up before and an idea I like very much...
I just wonder how much of a Programming nightmare it would be...There are so many issues to take into account for a "repeating" weaon...
- Lag...imagine the lag a continuous firing weapon would cause (look at the lag some of our weapons, like the LP and our flame specials already cause)....now compound that lag by several Commandos using that weapon in the same area at the same time...
- The animation...What is the average time span of any of the weapon animations in game...what would the ramifications be of adding a continously firing weapon?
- How would you start and stop the weapon specials(currently we just click to fire a special...would the programmers have a serious chore on their hands to add "stop" fuction to the weapon).
- Would this cause an AI nightmare in that the AI wouldn't know when to produce an attack or take damage.
- Is there anything comparable (animation and effect) currently in game that the dev's can build on or is this something they would have to build from scratch (we've seen how much they love making completely new weapons...they'd rather copy, paste, then alter something already existing).
Again, I hope we do get a repeating something or other...whether it's a blaster, the e-web, a repeating rifle, etc...but it may be something they wouldn't do for us until we get our own month long attention patch...This is why personally I'm hessitant to consider this a Top5 issue...this is something that would take the Devs awhile to program I'm sure...and in that time we could hopefully get several smaller things fixed/improved.
Message Edited by garvin on 04-01-2004 03:45 PM
1st solution to step 1 - make it like a turret - it can only be placed at least 100m from the next nearest Heavy repeater position
even in continues fire if they do it like the rifle strafe 2 (with no animation ) it would casue less lag then the Luancher pistol!
2nd make it do a supression affect... force everyone down onto their bellys even if it does no damage ^_^ make this the major effect of the weapon and allow it to do it once every 10 secs
3rd turrets are similar right now . they have an area that they control and do not move. make it so that it fires like a t-21 you can pick a target but it suppresses everything in the arc of fire (the centre of the arc being the target) with an equal chance of a hit (say 20%) but it forces you do wether or not it hits you.
4th allow it to use ham - say it uses 10% or max per sec for each time it is fired (even when buffed!)(this keeps it from being used continuesly ) max fire time 9.something.
You guys do realise that a stationary weapon wouldnt make us very versatile? Perhaps usefull, but only as in a support role. We wont be attacking anything. Its purely defensive.
Think about it. You got:
- HAR/Flame ( 16m effective ness )
- LP - ASSUMING we get a tree or some mods, just a pistol with long rage.
- E-Web. Stationary.
Is anyone realy exited about manning a turret? This game does have a lot of problems with placing things down, how fast do you realy think we can get one down, man it, in the heat of battle? How effective will you be if the e-web would work as intended. Youll probably be the main target and you wont last very long seeing as you cant move and take cover.
also require the user/owner to be holding a control module. The e-web can only be use that way. If at anytime the user/owner switch to anything but the control module, have the weapon stop attacking immediately. Also place a restriction on the range the user can be away from the gun deployment.
Now, here's a crazier idea. Allowing multiple guns per Commando, ala multiple pets per CH. Keep it with the CL lvl cap. This won't be overpowering either.
In any case the user is not allow to fight with their own handheld weapon, so there won't be multiple damage givers. And if necessary to further control balance, make the weapons factional only. It would leave out the neutral Commandos (Neutral Commandos? that's an oxymoron). Heck, have it so, that you have to be factionally declared to use it too. Just like factional pets.
Message Edited by SuperTurbo on 04-02-2004 12:28 PM
Message Edited by SuperTurbo on 04-02-2004 12:29 PM