Give it up Focused you've been making these sarcastic jokes for the last 5 pages. Stop exaggerating the truth and start trying to post some constructive criticism aswell as possible solutions.
Anyway. The knife is clearly an NS tradition in many people's eyes, along with the Pistol. That being said, if the knife was kept, could the "Taser" become and alternative to the Pistol? If the abilities of the "Taser" were changed it could become a choice whether you want to carry a Pistol or the "Taser". Perhaps if you hold the "Taser" you don't get a knife. Therefore it creates a lot more choice and therefore makes gameplay more interesting. I respect the fact you are minimalists and that you have a small team. However when you think about it the knife is something that defines the TSA. They are industrial and gritty, yet futuristic. I cannot imagine TSA soldiers going into battle without their trusty knife and sidearm. The knife is raw. It has no ammo, it's just a big pointy stick that you stab with. I think that is something the TSA would use. The pistol is debatable on this matter. Today soldiers of various militaries do not carry sidearms.
gotta agree with RobB there. Even though its not true at all from a legal perspective. Taser didn't like their product in second life because it was generally being lumped in with the same crowd as virtual sex and drugs. But in NS2 it would only be associated with toasting man eating alienz in a completely bad-azz fashion.
Although in my personal opinion the idea rocks, but it needs a different name and a better visual concept. That would both make it fit NS2 better AND skirt all legal issues.
<!--quoteo(post=1719347:date=Jul 25 2009, 06:31 PM:name=RobB)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RobB @ Jul 25 2009, 06:31 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1719347"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Taser has come to be the general therm with which those weapons are referred to, that's something they should be proud of.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No no, companies hate it when their trade names become generic, since even though it means they are successful enough to enter popular usage, they have to actively enforce their trademark status on their products or they could lose intellectual property rights, like how escalator and zipper became the generic word for those items, potentially losing millions for the trademark owner.
<!--quoteo(post=1719347:date=Jul 26 2009, 12:31 AM:name=RobB)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RobB @ Jul 26 2009, 12:31 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1719347"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Taser has come to be the general therm with which those weapons are referred to, that's something they should be proud of.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->If you don't protect your copyright it becomes public domain and anyone can use it. This could mean that I could set up some dodgy production line that makes 'tasers' that explode in people's hands and still put the Taser brand on it, all because they didn't protect their copyright.
And we really don't know why they dropped the suit. Furthermore, just because the Taser brand isn't being associated with drugs and sex, doesn't mean they'd be okay with it in NS2. Most (if not all?) their products are designed to STUN someone, and any deaths are pretty much bad publicity. And yes, Taser is a registered trademark.
Yep i suppose if the devs really try to integrate a taser-looking Taser into NS2... that some loyal pistol + knife user would notify TASER International of the situation of a lethal TASER... and sooner or later some cease and desist letter would arrive. Then it's back to the drawing board to ... ugh ... draw more concept art :P
i would even more accept lightsabers in ns2 than tasers... This community has so many partly so great ideas, please just sit down in your (maybe already new) office in San Fransisco read all this and than take 1 hour and discuss about the community ideas. If attachments to the Pistol (Bajonett?), holding the knife and pistol at the same time (Solid Snake) or one of the other good ideas does match and is possible to do. You have done very good so far Dev Team!! But at least its OUR game because we buy it and play it hopefully for years! Think about this and burry the taser...
After reading the thread I'm for; Bayonetpistol, meaning your standard NS1 pistol (with rebalancing for NS2 if needed) with attached bayonet for melee attacking. Snakestyle combo holding Pistol grip and knife in the same hand (This looks badass, obviously.) Or... Maybe better yet, and I believe COD4 does this, when you secondaryfire the pistol just have a knife swipe past, meaning the marine brings it out to swipe and it only ever is in view when slashing. This is probably the best and easiest choice. And I think it'd be universally accepted by this board because I just see no reason to object to it. You also only need 3-4 different slashing animations and no idle animation and probably a lowresolutionmodel.
To add to this I liked the little boxthingy that can be placed on walls or the floor to repell infestation and kill structures, could add some good gameplay. Shouldn't be too hard to code and try out? I mean, you only need a black box as a model to test it with.
Oh, almost forgot. I've always liked knifing buildings. I think it's a great feature of NS. I also don't really see how the taser is going to help reduce the, as you claim, tediousness of bringing down alien structures - without unbalancing or rebalancing the game (ie. the damage the attack does). If you're going to do that you might aswell do it with the knife.
The taser just feels (and partly looks) ######. I'm sorry.
Just make the pistol crappier, keep a knife, but give marines knifing energy so they get tired and need to relax for awhile. If you can hit a skulk with a slow moving dart you can hit it with a fast moving bullet. If we're keeping in the spirit of police brutality, why not just give marines billy clubs so they can beat gorges to death?
P.S. Can we please have a zoom-in upgrade for the lmg? Complete with wavering scope (from breathing and such). That way you wont need a accurate long range pistol, but you might want to give some of your marines the accurate rifle instead of the close range sg and mid range hmg.
Knifing structures wasn't that boring as many have pointed out. For a moment it made you very weak as a marine and exposed. At times it was even scary, intense. On the other hand, running around eating res towers as a skulk, which is crucial for winning an even game, easily became extremely boring. What will be done to alleviate this? (Idea: Make a parasite from one skulk continuously dish out minor damage to the tower (story explanation: The parasite feeds upon the nanite flow and grows, destroying the tower). Make a second parasite from another skulk together with the first parasite from the first skulk continuously dish out even more damage and so on. Only one parasite per player is allowed (story explanation: Parasites from the same skulk breed, origin, doesn't get along). Welding a res tower acts as a parasite cleanse. Hive sight should show how many parasites there are in a res tower. Conclusion: In this way, aliens have a way to destroy far-away, unattended res towers - without the NS1 boredom, giving them the possibility to both "eat res" and play the game and have fun. Since many parasites are required to do meaningful continuous damage, the skulks will have to act as a team.)
Again, after more thinking, I've come to the conclusion that the following is better than the taser: Keep the knife and pistol. Increase knife damage against structures (or perhaps with secondary attack: You thrust and carve with the knife (animations) and make little damage at first, but a lot of damage after a few seconds. Any immobile target gets a lot of damage). Make pistol buyable, nothing you spawn with, and decrease it's überness at long range. Problem solved, bad ass maintained.
<!--quoteo(post=1719379:date=Jul 26 2009, 03:35 AM:name=MarcusAurelius)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MarcusAurelius @ Jul 26 2009, 03:35 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1719379"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If we're keeping in the spirit of police brutality, why not just give marines billy clubs so they can beat gorges to death?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Regardless of everything, I want that. :)
I agree that Pistol + knife is in need of a re-vamp. In the year when humans can TELEPORT, etc, you would think they would have something better to do than knife an onos. I propose looking at the games Dead Space and Gears of War for influences, a la Gears of War's chainsaw attached to a gun, and Dead Spaces energy weapons. The energy weapon could be weak, precise, etc, and a chainsaw attatchment would be perfect for taking out alien structures. In real life, we dont knife a tree, we chainsaw it down. Assuming alien structures would be hard and not just fleshy, it only makes sense for rines, after years of fighting the khraa, to have a chainsaw. And I mean come on, chainsaws are badass.
I will say that if I had a choice for a secondary type weapon to carry around the pistol would be it. (Though the accuracy, especially at the rate you were able to squeeze off rounds was way outside of realism in ns1.) On the knife however, I do like the idea of just being able to jab an industrial streangth stungun into an alien and shocking it to death vs trying to work a knife into a hyper active skulk, or something as large as a fade. Also since it is a tazer/stungun, and they are designed to lock up your muscle groups the melee could temporarily slow on hit, or slow the rate of bite/slash. Might be hard to balance but I think it would add a warm fuzzy realism to it.
I really like the design of the taser, it is very functional. I looked back at the taser design and was thinking what was putting people off. I thought it was the smooth sleekness of it; everyone seems to be wanting more of an aggressive look. I did a quick sketch of what I think it should look more like.
After seeing the thing flayra posted in the twitter feed, this is the taser design that stuck in my head. I'm aware that people will hate this, but I still want to constructively contribute. Before anyone says, yes it has a handle similar to the gun flayra put in the twitter feed. Just develop the handle a bit. I like the functionality of the taser body already.
I like the shorter body, it looks more aggressive. But with a melee functionality, the animation would have to draw an arc of electricity to connect the attacker's model to the target. Otherwise it would appear too small to make a direct connection and there would be an air gap which would look bad.
It's weird to me that you guys mention simplicity and then go and make a weapon that has more functions and is more complicated than both the knife and pistol. And I don't see why you would want to carry a non-lethal (or less lethal I suppose) weapon when you're fighting aliens.
I do like the design and functions though. Anyways, just putting in my 2 cents. I have faith in you NS crew, I swear.
After seeing the thing flayra posted in the twitter feed, this is the taser design that stuck in my head. I'm aware that people will hate this, but I still want to constructively contribute. Before anyone says, yes it has a handle similar to the gun flayra put in the twitter feed. Just develop the handle a bit. I like the functionality of the taser body already.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The grip is awesome. It's a lot better than the original concept overall.
Just to let you know, I've come up with a creative fix to knifing resource towers problem. It retains the tactical challenges of knifing while hopefully being more fun. It increases value of pistol and reduces need for pew-pew weapons like taser.
I feel obligated to comment on energy weapons and why I don't particularly like them. Have a look at a typical depiction of an energy weapon in a game. Plasma Gun from Doom3. (no, the video has actual sound effects and not obnoxious music).
pew, pew, pew. The only bright sides - it glows nicely in the dark and reload animation is good. But for a product of high technology and latest in personal weapons, it feels quite weak ! All these flashy effects produce little actual damage, especially when you consider it's harder to hit with so often many rounds are wasted (again, typical for energy weapons in games). Enemies hit with it are covered with some light, but you have to stretch your imagination a bit and believe that somehow this light does damage. Why ? There are no blood splatters, no burnt flesh, no holes, cut limbs. Enemies just die - perhaps from epilepsy ? When you hit walls, nothing extraordinary happens. There are no ricochets, not even cosmetic effects or sounds.
Compare this to a typical depiction of a regular firearm. Because they actually exist, their function is well known. They are made to kill people and they feel like it. In games they often have misc effects like ricochets and variable hit sounds/effects depending on what surface they hit. They may have different sounds depending on distance or environment, and I don't mean just reduced volume. In some games, like Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory, they actually use different sounds for far away gunshots, and it sounds right. There's muzzle flash, good reloading animation and more. Falling shells. Because real firearms are a well explored area (don't get me started about all the WW2 games, sick of it), game developers have huge amount of resources to draw from.
Back to energy weapons. When making an energy weapon, game developers rarely put the same amount of thought or effort as if they were implementing a conventional firearm. Somehow they're satisfied with weapons which are very flashy yet don't deal a whole lot of damage, have 1 hit sound, missiles often travel slowly making the weapon ineffective at actually KILLING THINGS. You are lucky if they put in a reload animation. Scopes or ironsights, environment effects etc are often beneath them. No wonder many players reach a conclusion that energy weapons <i>just suck</i> in games. (My opinion is they're good if done right, but they're less likely to be done right than regular weapons). But don't you dare point that out or post constructive criticism. Someone bright will come up and say "it's a fantasy/sf, it doesn't have to be realistic !". Well guess what, apparently it doesn't have to look/sound/feel satisfying as well.
There are few noble exceptions here. I've seen some energy weapons which are actually fun to use. Sun staff in Hexen 2 has sizzling sounds, and leaves charred, smoking bodies. Enemies killed with link gun from Unreal Tournament die in a violent spasm. But such examples are rare, and game developers - eager to tap into lucrative 13-17 teen demographic, often avoid brutal, satisfying effects to obtain Teen rating. Unknown Worlds have stated they want to produce a Teen game, so it's not likely shocked Kharaa will be dying in violent spasms.
Energy weapons exist as prototypes in real life...Just watch the show FutureWeapons =]
They dont do 'magical' damage in games any more than bullets do. Energy weapons cause severe burns/disintegration, like when you hold a magnifying glass over something facing the sun.
All of your points arguing against energy weapons could be said against conventional firearms as well. And remember, when explaining 'science' in the NS universe, the answer is 'Its the nanites'.
I like this dual purpose secondary weapon concept. As long as it doesn't render aliens powerless , it's all good.
As for the RT killing boredom / balance issue , this tazer brings up an alternative solution : increase weaponswitch time while firing it (power down animation) to make the alien response more dangerous. This would nerf the effectiveness of rambos and emphasize cover. The defending skulk would still have to contend with a nasty medium range arc if he wasn't sneaky enough.
Another idea for marine RT chomping woes : just make structure smashing take twice as much stamina for skulk , lerk and fade. Onos is here for cleanup and should get rid of them in short order anyway. That means multiple aliens will destroy RTs much faster than a single skulk can , while also giving defending marines an extra edge (aliens all low on stamina and exposed) and favor teamwork - you could relay RT chomping duty to another skulk and move to some ambush position while your stamina regenerates , as some marines can be heard nearby.
schkorpioI can mspaintJoin Date: 2003-05-23Member: 16635Members
<!--quoteo(post=1719401:date=Jul 27 2009, 01:36 AM:name=Freewave)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Freewave @ Jul 27 2009, 01:36 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1719401"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><img src="http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/1169/nstaserquicki.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Yep much better imo - i like the brass knuckle style grip, its more mechanical looking - and DOESNT resemble an electric leg shaver like the other concept haha
I have been thinking over the design of the pistol/knife solution and here are my final thoughts:
I have finally come to accept the electrical nature of the weapon. It seats oddly with me that the sidearm seems to be more technologically advanced than their primary weapon, but I can deal with that. However, I would like to streamline the functionality of the weapon considerably. The current iteration of the weapon is trying too hard to be original in my opinion and suffers for it. Most of my complaints regarding that can be found aegix's wonderful post: <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=107028&st=120&p=1718872&#entry1718872" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...p;#entry1718872</a>.
I would like the functionality of the weapon to be like this: Primary Fire: Shoots transponders as bullets semi-automatically. There is no charging the attack to channel electricity through the transponders. This essentially serves the pistol function and planting transponders is meant to assist the secondary fire. Not having to release the button to fire the weapon makes this a better side arm. Secondary Fire: Fires a very short-range lance of electrical energy from the weapon serving the function of a knife. After the initial burst of energy, holding the secondary fire extends the lance to channel through nearby transponders in a line of sight. There is a brief cool down between each use, but the transponder function can be held indefinitely or at least, for quite a while. What this does is allow both primary and secondary fire do their main functions (pistol and knife) immediately when the button is pressed. The transponder electricity effect (TEE) is activated immediately after the secondary attack is done, this creates a smooth visual transitional as the lance of electricity begins homing to transponders after the initial jab it creates.
Looks good. Bending the handle makes the weapon look more industrial. It seems awkward to jab forward with it like a knife though? Perhaps when Melee Mode is activated the handle bends upwards into the old position.
Comments
Knife + Pistol + Welder + BunnyHop + Heavy + JetPack + Shotgun + LMG + Flashlight + Mines = Taser + Shield lol<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Give it up Focused you've been making these sarcastic jokes for the last 5 pages. Stop exaggerating the truth and start trying to post some constructive criticism aswell as possible solutions.
Anyway. The knife is clearly an NS tradition in many people's eyes, along with the Pistol. That being said, if the knife was kept, could the "Taser" become and alternative to the Pistol? If the abilities of the "Taser" were changed it could become a choice whether you want to carry a Pistol or the "Taser". Perhaps if you hold the "Taser" you don't get a knife. Therefore it creates a lot more choice and therefore makes gameplay more interesting. I respect the fact you are minimalists and that you have a small team. However when you think about it the knife is something that defines the TSA. They are industrial and gritty, yet futuristic. I cannot imagine TSA soldiers going into battle without their trusty knife and sidearm. The knife is raw. It has no ammo, it's just a big pointy stick that you stab with. I think that is something the TSA would use. The pistol is debatable on this matter. Today soldiers of various militaries do not carry sidearms.
<a href="http://gamepolitics.com/2009/07/25/don039t-sue-me-bro-taser-drops-suit-against-second-life" target="_blank">http://gamepolitics.com/2009/07/25/don039t...nst-second-life</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Taser has come to be the general therm with which those weapons are referred to, that's something they should be proud of.
Although in my personal opinion the idea rocks, but it needs a different name and a better visual concept. That would both make it fit NS2 better AND skirt all legal issues.
No no, companies hate it when their trade names become generic, since even though it means they are successful enough to enter popular usage, they have to actively enforce their trademark status on their products or they could lose intellectual property rights, like how escalator and zipper became the generic word for those items, potentially losing millions for the trademark owner.
Furthermore, just because the Taser brand isn't being associated with drugs and sex, doesn't mean they'd be okay with it in NS2. Most (if not all?) their products are designed to STUN someone, and any deaths are pretty much bad publicity. And yes, Taser is a registered trademark.
i would even more accept lightsabers in ns2 than tasers... This community has so many partly so great ideas,
please just sit down in your (maybe already new) office in San Fransisco read all this and than take 1 hour and
discuss about the community ideas. If attachments to the Pistol (Bajonett?), holding the knife and pistol at the same time (Solid Snake) or
one of the other good ideas does match and is possible to do. You have done very good so far Dev Team!! But at least its OUR game
because we buy it and play it hopefully for years! Think about this and burry the taser...
Honestly
Marcel Busch (Germany)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Purty much this.
After reading the thread I'm for;
Bayonetpistol, meaning your standard NS1 pistol (with rebalancing for NS2 if needed) with attached bayonet for melee attacking.
Snakestyle combo holding Pistol grip and knife in the same hand (This looks badass, obviously.)
Or... Maybe better yet, and I believe COD4 does this, when you secondaryfire the pistol just have a knife swipe past, meaning the marine brings it out to swipe and it only ever is in view when slashing. This is probably the best and easiest choice. And I think it'd be universally accepted by this board because I just see no reason to object to it. You also only need 3-4 different slashing animations and no idle animation and probably a lowresolutionmodel.
To add to this I liked the little boxthingy that can be placed on walls or the floor to repell infestation and kill structures, could add some good gameplay. Shouldn't be too hard to code and try out? I mean, you only need a black box as a model to test it with.
Oh, almost forgot. I've always liked knifing buildings. I think it's a great feature of NS. I also don't really see how the taser is going to help reduce the, as you claim, tediousness of bringing down alien structures - without unbalancing or rebalancing the game (ie. the damage the attack does). If you're going to do that you might aswell do it with the knife.
The taser just feels (and partly looks) ######. I'm sorry.
That's all. Good night.
nice weapons
P.S. Can we please have a zoom-in upgrade for the lmg? Complete with wavering scope (from breathing and such). That way you wont need a accurate long range pistol, but you might want to give some of your marines the accurate rifle instead of the close range sg and mid range hmg.
Again, after more thinking, I've come to the conclusion that the following is better than the taser: Keep the knife and pistol. Increase knife damage against structures (or perhaps with secondary attack: You thrust and carve with the knife (animations) and make little damage at first, but a lot of damage after a few seconds. Any immobile target gets a lot of damage). Make pistol buyable, nothing you spawn with, and decrease it's überness at long range. Problem solved, bad ass maintained.
<!--quoteo(post=1719379:date=Jul 26 2009, 03:35 AM:name=MarcusAurelius)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MarcusAurelius @ Jul 26 2009, 03:35 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1719379"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If we're keeping in the spirit of police brutality, why not just give marines billy clubs so they can beat gorges to death?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Regardless of everything, I want that. :)
<img src="http://photos-h-0.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs125.snc1/5371_1130427593951_1625082982_338383_8110299_a.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Nope. <b><u><a href="http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f84/delamaize/topsecretax1.jpg" target="_blank">This</a></u></b> is badass.
hahaha!!! awesome
On the knife however, I do like the idea of just being able to jab an industrial streangth stungun into an alien and shocking it to death vs trying to work a knife into a hyper active skulk, or something as large as a fade.
Also since it is a tazer/stungun, and they are designed to lock up your muscle groups the melee could temporarily slow on hit, or slow the rate of bite/slash. Might be hard to balance but I think it would add a warm fuzzy realism to it.
<img src="http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/1169/nstaserquicki.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
After seeing the thing flayra posted in the twitter feed, this is the taser design that stuck in my head. I'm aware that people will hate this, but I still want to constructively contribute. Before anyone says, yes it has a handle similar to the gun flayra put in the twitter feed. Just develop the handle a bit. I like the functionality of the taser body already.
I do like the design and functions though. Anyways, just putting in my 2 cents. I have faith in you NS crew, I swear.
After seeing the thing flayra posted in the twitter feed, this is the taser design that stuck in my head. I'm aware that people will hate this, but I still want to constructively contribute. Before anyone says, yes it has a handle similar to the gun flayra put in the twitter feed. Just develop the handle a bit. I like the functionality of the taser body already.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The grip is awesome. It's a lot better than the original concept overall.
Still don't like the general concept though.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=107055" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=107055</a>
---------------
I feel obligated to comment on energy weapons and why I don't particularly like them. Have a look at a typical depiction of an energy weapon in a game. Plasma Gun from Doom3. (no, the video has actual sound effects and not obnoxious music).
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcdDI5vsc8k" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcdDI5vsc8k</a>
pew, pew, pew. The only bright sides - it glows nicely in the dark and reload animation is good. But for a product of high technology and latest in personal weapons, it feels quite weak ! All these flashy effects produce little actual damage, especially when you consider it's harder to hit with so often many rounds are wasted (again, typical for energy weapons in games). Enemies hit with it are covered with some light, but you have to stretch your imagination a bit and believe that somehow this light does damage. Why ? There are no blood splatters, no burnt flesh, no holes, cut limbs. Enemies just die - perhaps from epilepsy ? When you hit walls, nothing extraordinary happens. There are no ricochets, not even cosmetic effects or sounds.
Compare this to a typical depiction of a regular firearm. Because they actually exist, their function is well known. They are made to kill people and they feel like it. In games they often have misc effects like ricochets and variable hit sounds/effects depending on what surface they hit. They may have different sounds depending on distance or environment, and I don't mean just reduced volume. In some games, like Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory, they actually use different sounds for far away gunshots, and it sounds right. There's muzzle flash, good reloading animation and more. Falling shells. Because real firearms are a well explored area (don't get me started about all the WW2 games, sick of it), game developers have huge amount of resources to draw from.
Back to energy weapons. When making an energy weapon, game developers rarely put the same amount of thought or effort as if they were implementing a conventional firearm. Somehow they're satisfied with weapons which are very flashy yet don't deal a whole lot of damage, have 1 hit sound, missiles often travel slowly making the weapon ineffective at actually KILLING THINGS. You are lucky if they put in a reload animation. Scopes or ironsights, environment effects etc are often beneath them. No wonder many players reach a conclusion that energy weapons <i>just suck</i> in games. (My opinion is they're good if done right, but they're less likely to be done right than regular weapons). But don't you dare point that out or post constructive criticism. Someone bright will come up and say "it's a fantasy/sf, it doesn't have to be realistic !". Well guess what, apparently it doesn't have to look/sound/feel satisfying as well.
There are few noble exceptions here. I've seen some energy weapons which are actually fun to use. Sun staff in Hexen 2 has sizzling sounds, and leaves charred, smoking bodies. Enemies killed with link gun from Unreal Tournament die in a violent spasm. But such examples are rare, and game developers - eager to tap into lucrative 13-17 teen demographic, often avoid brutal, satisfying effects to obtain Teen rating. Unknown Worlds have stated they want to produce a Teen game, so it's not likely shocked Kharaa will be dying in violent spasms.
They dont do 'magical' damage in games any more than bullets do. Energy weapons cause severe burns/disintegration, like when you hold a magnifying glass over something facing the sun.
All of your points arguing against energy weapons could be said against conventional firearms as well. And remember, when explaining 'science' in the NS universe, the answer is 'Its the nanites'.
As for the RT killing boredom / balance issue , this tazer brings up an alternative solution : increase weaponswitch time while firing it (power down animation) to make the alien response more dangerous. This would nerf the effectiveness of rambos and emphasize cover. The defending skulk would still have to contend with a nasty medium range arc if he wasn't sneaky enough.
Another idea for marine RT chomping woes : just make structure smashing take twice as much stamina for skulk , lerk and fade. Onos is here for cleanup and should get rid of them in short order anyway. That means multiple aliens will destroy RTs much faster than a single skulk can , while also giving defending marines an extra edge (aliens all low on stamina and exposed) and favor teamwork - you could relay RT chomping duty to another skulk and move to some ambush position while your stamina regenerates , as some marines can be heard nearby.
Yep much better imo - i like the brass knuckle style grip, its more mechanical looking - and DOESNT resemble an electric leg shaver like the other concept haha
I have finally come to accept the electrical nature of the weapon. It seats oddly with me that the sidearm seems to be more technologically advanced than their primary weapon, but I can deal with that. However, I would like to streamline the functionality of the weapon considerably. The current iteration of the weapon is trying too hard to be original in my opinion and suffers for it. Most of my complaints regarding that can be found aegix's wonderful post: <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=107028&st=120&p=1718872&#entry1718872" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...p;#entry1718872</a>.
I would like the functionality of the weapon to be like this:
Primary Fire: Shoots transponders as bullets semi-automatically. There is no charging the attack to channel electricity through the transponders. This essentially serves the pistol function and planting transponders is meant to assist the secondary fire. Not having to release the button to fire the weapon makes this a better side arm.
Secondary Fire: Fires a very short-range lance of electrical energy from the weapon serving the function of a knife. After the initial burst of energy, holding the secondary fire extends the lance to channel through nearby transponders in a line of sight. There is a brief cool down between each use, but the transponder function can be held indefinitely or at least, for quite a while. What this does is allow both primary and secondary fire do their main functions (pistol and knife) immediately when the button is pressed. The transponder electricity effect (TEE) is activated immediately after the secondary attack is done, this creates a smooth visual transitional as the lance of electricity begins homing to transponders after the initial jab it creates.
Looks good. Bending the handle makes the weapon look more industrial. It seems awkward to jab forward with it like a knife though? Perhaps when Melee Mode is activated the handle bends upwards into the old position.