Proximity for disappearing weapons?

BeigeAlert

So here's an idea: let's make it so shotguns, welders, etc DON'T disappear when I'm standing right on top of them. What a novel idea! Obviously with the exception of it getting bile bombed... I have had countless shotguns just up and DISAPPEAR with me standing within 5 feet of them, running as fast as I can to pick it up. I can even remember a couple of times where I had reached my dropped shotgun/welder combo in time, so I press G... and it picks up the welder! Well that's stupid, so I press G again and... nothing. What happened? Oh the shotgun is gone... wonderful...

So here's the tldr version: weapons shouldn't disappear on their own if a teammate is within say... 3 feet of them. So no more clumsy juggling weapons, and no more picking up the wrong game and having the oh so valuable shotgun just up and die on you. Of course, bile bombing weapons will still work... (and does infestation cause weapons to die as well?)

casan0vax

Infestation has no effect on dropped weapons.

But to your main point, I think it's fine the way it is. It rewards group-play for marines (as there's a better chance of surviving an encounter when you're in a group, thus retaining your weapon), and penalizes rambos who push too far into alien territory and get jumped.

Although, I do agree that having a welder/weapon on top of each other is a pain in the situation when you actually do get back to your gear in time. Weapon/item pick-up should be prioritized: weapon always 1st, welder 2nd, and mines 3rd.

BeigeAlert

casan0vax wrote: »

Infestation has no effect on dropped weapons.

But to your main point, I think it's fine the way it is. It rewards group-play for marines (as there's a better chance of surviving an encounter when you're in a group, thus retaining your weapon), and penalizes rambos who push too far into alien territory and get jumped.

Although, I do agree that having a welder/weapon on top of each other is a pain in the situation when you actually do get back to your gear in time. Weapon/item pick-up should be prioritized: weapon always 1st, welder 2nd, and mines 3rd.

Exactly. You would still be penalized for running off on your own, but this is to stop that silly crap where you're literally standing on it and it disappears on you. Not to mention some strange occurrences where I'm trying to be a good Samaritan and juggle my teammates' weapons, and somehow the ammo disappears when I get my shotgun back. :-/

Ghosthree3

If you're standing on it and it disappears then you weren't fast enough. How far do we push that line? So you didn't make it on time but you're standing right next to it, so we'll let you have it. But wait, you didn't quite make it in time to get that close so I guess we'll let you have it. Repeat. There HAS TO BE A LINE, and that line is the timer before the gun disappears.

casan0vax

BeigeAlert wrote: »

Exactly. You would still be penalized for running off on your own, but this is to stop that silly crap where you're literally standing on it and it disappears on you. Not to mention some strange occurrences where I'm trying to be a good Samaritan and juggle my teammates' weapons, and somehow the ammo disappears when I get my shotgun back. :-/

Oh, right. I'm stupid. Completely misinterpreted your OP

I've been the victim of the disappearing-weapon numerous times. That being said, I wouldn't mind if it was changed, but at the same time, I wouldn't mind if it stayed the same. It's just a part of my playstyle though: I normally don't buy shotguns until W2/A1, as I would be better serving my team by suiciding on harvesters until then. Then when I get a shotgun, I make sure I have at least one person to bait explore the map with. I can see why people who are a lot more aggressive with their pres/pushing would be upset, though.

The Case of the Disappearing Ammo, however, is a major gripe imo. It really is annoying to reset the timer on a dropped shotgun, only to pick yours back up with 2/00 ammo and 3 skulks approaching you.

Ghosthree3

The reason your ammo "disappears" is because one of the guns you were holding wasn't full so you took the ammo that was lying next to the shotgun you picked up when you picked it up, combining the two ammo packs into one, which will then always be in the gun you're holding, the gun on the ground has the rounds left in the chamber but the pack is now gone. It's not a "bug" and I hope it doesn't get changed, sometimes getting that ammo from a weapon (works on rifles too) can save your life.

EDIT: If some how you have no ammo after juggling a shotgun, check the gun you juggled, I guarantee you there's a pack of ammo next to it, go pick it up, somehow you didn't get it automatically when picking the standalone gun off the ground.

EDIT2: Also possible some one else took the pack in the brief second it was on the ground. Not much you can do there.

RedSword

Automatically cycling or decrementing the items timelife on the floor when being near them would be interesting. Cycling a weapon for someone feel like a cheap mechanic IMO (just stay on it VS taking it and dropping = ... ).

aaSpider

Picking up the weapon as opposed to the welder was supposed to be fixed in build 251 (unknownworlds.com/ns2/build-251-is-now-live-on-steam/)

Under improvements in the patch notes it had:
Pickups are now prioritized by item cost

Unfortunately something went wrong, or I missed something, as I never noticed any difference and still have trouble picking up the shotgun instead of the welder. And then the welder over the LMG you just dropped picking up the shotgun. Would be much easier to just run up to the pile, hit the pickup button twice and then keep moving.

Ghosthree3

If I run over a SG and welder together I always pick up the SG now.

Kamamura

I HATE the disappearing weapons, what a sloppy implementation.

If you must do something like this, there should be a visible inticator, like the weapon going through an accelerated rust, decay, nanite disassembly, whatever, but something that would give an indication that it's going to happen.

I cannot count the times I wanted to pick up a shotgun, but it disappeared the very moment and I dropped my rifle instead (how lame is that from design standpoint?) and got eaten after that. LAME! Objects do not disappear magically into thin air.

Those are unfinished parts of the game, like the missing animation when knocked down by stomp.

Ghosthree3

Kamamura wrote: »

Objects do not disappear magically into thin air.

Meanwhile, in the video game world where things have to be balanced...

joederp

Kamamura wrote: »

I HATE the disappearing weapons, what a sloppy implementation.

If you must do something like this, there should be a visible inticator, like the weapon going through an accelerated rust, decay, nanite disassembly, whatever, but something that would give an indication that it's going to happen.

I cannot count the times I wanted to pick up a shotgun, but it disappeared the very moment and I dropped my rifle instead (how lame is that from design standpoint?) and got eaten after that. LAME! Objects do not disappear magically into thin air.

Those are unfinished parts of the game, like the missing animation when knocked down by stomp.

Gotta agree. . no timer indicator and a clumsy pickup mechanic = many times I have hit G and dropped my rifle and get eaten as I turn around trying to figure out wtf happened. Oh the shotgun evaporated the very instant I got here, how awesome. If a marine is within a few feet of that gun it should at least slow the timer down significantly, maybe just extend it by 5 seconds to prevent this lame situation.

Kouji_San

Ghosthree3 wrote: »

Kamamura wrote: »

Objects do not disappear magically into thin air.

Nanites!

FTFY :P

CrushaK

In UT would dropped weapons at least start to get a particle effect and shrink once their liftetime was about to run out, so you could snag them in the last moment.

meatmachine

Ghosthree3 wrote: »

If you're standing on it and it disappears then you weren't fast enough. How far do we push that line? So you didn't make it on time but you're standing right next to it, so we'll let you have it. But wait, you didn't quite make it in time to get that close so I guess we'll let you have it. Repeat. There HAS TO BE A LINE, and that line is the timer before the gun disappears.

Sometimes the line needs to budge a little bit based on the circumstances


>weapon disappears after 20s

> IF [previous owner] is within 5feet THEN extend weapondissappeartime 3s


obviously pseudocode but you get the idea, this rule would sort things right out so thigns dont disappear 2ms before I press G

BeigeAlert

It feels a bit random too. There are sometimes where I've died, respawned, and sprinted the short distance to where my gun is, and it's gone. Other times, I'll die, forget about the gun, go back like a half hour later, and it's still there!!! What's going on with that???