99 round magazines for the rifle
FocusedWolf
Join Date: 2005-01-09 Member: 34258Members
Join Date: 2005-01-09 Member: 34258Members
Their is no hmg in ns2 (i'm not considering the dual-minigun heavies as relevant since this upgrade solely concerns the lightly armored mobile infantry), although i personally like to think of the flamethrower as the hmg but who knows how long that will last. So anyway i was thinking we get 99-round magazines unlockable at some damage levels. It fits because it allows for a sort of light-machine-gun upgrade to the rifle [without the work of having to create a hmg model] where the rifle would be at that point a weapon between the lmg and hmg of ns1.
Perhaps have this at damage level 1 because the marines could use some firepower to establish a second cc (it's not like we start with shotguns or anything... just make it cost a lot or something).
But maybe some will say its too overpowered, so have it at damage level 2 as something to use prior to flamers and also to assist people that buy a underpowered/hard-to-use gl?
But maybe people will still say its too overpowered. Damage level 3? People are just gonna use flamers at this level anyway so maybe here its appropriate to make the rifle useful in the end? But their's just so little time left in the round to enjoy a 99 round rifle when you got flamers... although every little bit helps. :P
EDIT: more stuff:
A possible nerf would be where it's not just 1 upgrade to go straight from 50 rounds to <big number> but rather divide up the upgrade into a series of upgrades which add like 15 or so additional rounds per level.
Another nerf would be to make it cost personal res for a marine to upgrade their weapons instead of having to ask the commander (i know it seems like something similar to upgrading damage and armor, but maybe for balance [based on the TheCaptain's post] it should cost personal res and be self managed).
Perhaps have this at damage level 1 because the marines could use some firepower to establish a second cc (it's not like we start with shotguns or anything... just make it cost a lot or something).
But maybe some will say its too overpowered, so have it at damage level 2 as something to use prior to flamers and also to assist people that buy a underpowered/hard-to-use gl?
But maybe people will still say its too overpowered. Damage level 3? People are just gonna use flamers at this level anyway so maybe here its appropriate to make the rifle useful in the end? But their's just so little time left in the round to enjoy a 99 round rifle when you got flamers... although every little bit helps. :P
EDIT: more stuff:
A possible nerf would be where it's not just 1 upgrade to go straight from 50 rounds to <big number> but rather divide up the upgrade into a series of upgrades which add like 15 or so additional rounds per level.
Another nerf would be to make it cost personal res for a marine to upgrade their weapons instead of having to ask the commander (i know it seems like something similar to upgrading damage and armor, but maybe for balance [based on the TheCaptain's post] it should cost personal res and be self managed).
Comments
Focused: Would this increased magazine capacity be coupled with an increased rate of fire and/or a different firing cone? Increased capacity on its own doesn't seem <b>incredibly</b> useful to me, you'd just save on a few seconds of reload time and have to reload and restock half as much. Other than saving on the reload time, it doesn't really assist in combat.
Remember, the NS1 HMG was powerful because not only was its damage 20 (twice LMG damage), it's clip size was 125 (2.5 times LMG clip size!) meaning its full burst damage with no upgrades was 2500, 5 times that of the LMG, almost enough to kill an non-carapace onos by itself (just shy of the 2600 total health).
Definitely want this in Tier 3. Making basic fighting units useful in the late game stage is awesome. This clip size upgrade might be too powerful in Tier 2 since it affects all marines with assault rifles and those are still the core Marine army just at the start of the midgame (Tier 2) before shotguns and flamethrowers make up >50% of the Marine army. But! In Tier 3, assault rifle marines will be a rare breed and need the boost to keep up whatever other guns exist to replace assault rifles.
Giving basic fighting units upgrades in the late game allows them to stay awesome even compared to the late game fighting units. We don't want people to eventually look at every assault rifle and go "Well, it's not a minigun, therefore it's useless and I feel very weak using it". If they can see that assault rifles keep up with late-game weapons (at least enough to be in the same ballpark), then that huge contrast and inevitable devaluing of initial weapons combined with feelings of impotence won't happen.
Also, why stop at 99? Going all the way to 100 is much more even (Which I'd like, but that's just my subjective opinion, which deserves many pinches of salt). Furthermore, it not only doesn't decrease readability at all, readability is <i>increased</i>. No information is lost because the only smaller font three digit number is still readable because it is the only three digit number, and anything below maximum will be rendered with the regular two digits (This is what we have now).
Summary: Definitely like this, but only as a late-game / Tier 3 upgrade. It also costs absolutely no more modelling, animating, texturing, or mapping for the developers to implement. It does require a new upgrade icon to be made, but those are tiny so that's no huge ordeal. I'd be surprised if implementing this takes more than 100 lines of code.
A possible nerf would be to make each of the extended magazines twice as "large" so players could only carry 1 spare (they're larger, after all). that way, damage before reloading is higher, but you're not giving each marine an undue amount of ammo. (Plus, max ammo is 255 anyway).
I'd also support making the upgraded magazines have 95 rounds over 99 for nostalgic reasons.
I think the "in the works" marine LMG upgrade was a silencer, which was probably chosen over extended mags in a marine upgrade thread a while back. I might prefer the upgraded magazine size, even if it meant only being able to carry one spare.