The Gun that was no gun

zetachron

In the game we can fabricate some peaceful gun tool called the "Propulsion Cannon". It allows us to pick objects from afar and either pick them, release them or "shoot" them away. Unfortunately most objects (especially fish) get destroyed in the process. Otherwise this tool could be used for all kinds of useful and even lethal things:

<img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/268338674586453835/3D63849B502E6964ABD744E4551F2F6AC0D16178/"></img><img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/268338674586453623/BC4258CA63F9D68A58683373CC267C9086A0F2F3/"></img>Feeding and distracting predators
<img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/268338674586453469/C20FD4B18C9C2CD45362A93B34602AD4B02BAD5A/"></img><img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/268338674586453243/164CD264D2FFD5EEC5FF6BA35AA7F29FE4A54F47/"></img>Bomb Surprise for predators and leviathans

<img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/268338674586456388/F823B9B10DF5E3840DFF2240B473E8CAF7A86B65/"></img>Who knows? Maybe attach those to leviathans?

The upgraded Repulsion Cannon isn't really that good. But could be used for cooking reapers:
<img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/268338039141018089/74FDBE5BDEB41CF6212C3976EE3486AF5AAB53D0/"></img>Unfortunately they don't seem to get cooked. Too bad. I'd really like to eat a cooked reaper meal.
But if the upgrade would simply be a propulsion cannon with stronger force for pull & push, at least I would only need the upgraded one.


So what do you think. Wouldn't this gun make a perfect gun if it could work as intended and not destroy it's "ammo" when fired?

Also, don't you think that an upgraded repulsion cannon couldn't be reworked to function like a propulsion cannon with simply more force? Aren't you tired of handling both? I bet you already keep only 1 or none at all with you.

Rainstorm

Most of the time i make one or both in any given game, but usually end up leaving them in a base/cyclops/seamoth storage and i dont use them. When i feel like having a little fun i go where spiders/biter are and toy with them a lil weee bit.

I dont find them especially useful since evading predators is rather simple with ultraglide fins. You cant evade a reaper but none of those tools work on it anyway. I can understand why other players could use them more if they have a hard time evading predators but i dont use them much personally. also, since i used almost exclusively UG fins and not charging fins, the battery consumption of those cannons makes me want to use them even less.

Maybe when we finally get the Battery recharger itll be less a pain for me to use them more who knows.

sayerulz

The fact that is chugs down it's battery like crazy when holding onto something makes it kind of useless, since if you try to carry something like a crash to wherever you need it, you will run out of power in like two minutes.

zetachron

So what's the proposal:

Tier leveled Propulsion cannon?

Mark 1: The Propulsion cannon we know, but being able to actually push away targets alive (like seen above)
Mark 2: The Propulsion cannon is now 50% more energy efficient and can pull from greater distance
Mark 3: The Propulsion cannon is 100% more efficient and can pull and store up to 5 elements in a cloud

First we play a bit with the cannon, then it gets more useful and finally mark 3 will be real practical.

Halios

zetachron wrote: »

Wouldn't this gun make a perfect gun if it could work as intended and not destroy it's "ammo" when fired?

Their idea was ammunition we could pick up and carry in our inventory.

https://trello.com/c/hd7YnBRC/3178-propulsion-cannon-ammo

I don't know if they continued with it though. IMO it was a novel idea but definitely a weapon, albeit unconventional. In a game which makes kind of a big deal about not having them.

zetachron

Halios wrote: »

Their idea was ammunition we could pick up and carry in our inventory.

https://trello.com/c/hd7YnBRC/3178-propulsion-cannon-ammo

I don't know if they continued with it though. IMO it was a novel idea but definitely a weapon, albeit unconventional. In a game which makes kind of a big deal about not having them.

As you can see in my pictures the ammo can get pulled, frozen and picked. But the ammo get's destroyed when fired instead being pushed to a distance. So you can't push feed "live ammo" to predators that then deliver their special abilities at the target. You ...

• can't feed peepers to stalkers with the gun
• can't kill predators with yellow gasopod goo
• can't send a crash surprise to predators
• can't send biters or bleeders to other predators alive to see them chase each other
• ...

The usefulness of the cannon is too small, yet it takes too much power. No wonder a lot of players just never use the cannon more than out of curiosity what it does. To be useful it would need to compensate for extreme massive energy and inventory space use. Like ...

• use less energy
• have a better pull range
• be able to pull more elements
• store prey in a beam cloud
• load creatures like ammo

Please listen carefully:
I'm not talking about the physical impact of pushing objects into predators. Then it would just be another gun. I'm talking about pushing objects right before the nose of another creature to "mate" them with a builtin creature-creature behaviour.

Halios

zetachron wrote: »

The usefulness of the cannon is too small, yet it takes too much power. No wonder a lot of players just never use the cannon more than out of curiosity what it does.

I can only speak for myself on this one but I don't use the propulsion cannon because it's too powerful. It's effectively telekinesis. Very cool and effective but I enjoy the little thrill of swimming through the middle of voracious predators and most of the time avoiding being bitten.

Same applies to the repulsion cannon, though personally of the two I think the propulsion is better / more powerful.

zetachron wrote: »

I'm not talking about the physical impact of pushing objects into predators. Then it would just be another gun.

Oh? I saw the gasopod balls and crash fish and "Bomb surprise" and naturally thought you were wanting to use it as an offensive weapon. Which is what I believe the devs were considering at some point.

zetachron wrote: »

I'm talking about pushing objects right before the nose of another creature to "mate" them with a builtin creature-creature behaviour.

I've not tried it recently but I have done that with salvage and stalkers.

Sidchicken

I use the propulsion cannon for defense when heading into the Aurora or up onto the islands. It can grab those obnoxious leaping spiders and either launch them into orbit (removing them from the equation in the process) or fire them into walls (killing them).

zetachron

Halios wrote: »

I can only speak for myself on this one but I don't use the propulsion cannon because it's too powerful. It's effectively telekinesis. Very cool and effective but I enjoy the little thrill of swimming through the middle of voracious predators and most of the time avoiding being bitten.

Same applies to the repulsion cannon, though personally of the two I think the propulsion is better / more powerful.

...

Oh? I saw the gasopod balls and crash fish and "Bomb surprise" and naturally thought you were wanting to use it as an offensive weapon. Which is what I believe the devs were considering at some point.

...

I've not tried it recently but I have done that with salvage and stalkers.

The problem with the cannon is that firing things destroys most of them instead just pushing them some distance away. Salvage and other lifeless stuff (excep the floater I think) gets pushed away and works as intended. When the objects get destroyed, hitting a predator hurts him, but you can't send any creature in front of another creature and see what happens. Yet this would be the ultimate "fun" cannon if it would work like that.