Weapon Gameplay

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It seems that the weapon gameplay is inspired by Victor Vran, with weapon categories having the same or similar skillsets between them, but it doesn't "flow" or is as nuanced as it could be.


While they have archetypes that they cleave to, such as Lasguns having skills that have a much higher chance to deal critical damage, or Shotguns that really encourage being closer to your opponents, their skills do not complement or supplement each other as well as they could, being more of having skills that deal with various circumstances independently (Aimed and Full Auto for example).


One way to make weapons and the gameplay attributed to them be more involved and more skill-based would be to play around their base mechanics such as:


Chainsword and Eviscerator - Momentum-based gameplay


Add a "rev" mechanic to the weapon (where the Heat bar would be), where the weapon starts at, let's say 50% damage as an example, and as you use the skills more, the meter goes up and increases the damage or other properties of the weapon, and conversely, the meter goes down when not using it after a few seconds.

In this example, Eviscerate would be your "foundation" skill, which increases the meter the fastest, while other skills, such as Savage Assault may "consume" the meter for more damage on top of what the meter would already give, or give more meter depending on the situation, such as Spinning Blow increasing the meter for every opponent hit.


Lasgun - Adaptibility


While known for its high critical chance, it can be made as a more versatile weapon by changing some of its properties depending on its Heat level. At certain thresholds of Heat, it might deal more damage at the cost of its spread accuracy (maybe to represent the lens deforming or similar). So while controlled single fire and aimed shots will manage Heat well and still be great at precision shots, using Hot Shot or Short Burst continuously will make the weapon wildly inaccurate over time, but deal greater damage.


Plasma and Heat Weapons in general - Risk vs Reward


A simpler variation of the Lasgun, perhaps certain skills simply do more damage or gain bonus properties when the Heat meter is high or close to Overheat, and becomes a game in and of itself in managing ideal levels of Heat.



All Weapons - Skill or Mechanic Modification via Crafting


I can only hope that since Neocore have been reading not only the tabletop and novels, but also the roleplaying games written by Fantasy Flight, that they will include ways to upgrade and/or sidegrade weapons in future crafting updates as seen in the "Modify" tab in Crafting. I sincerely hope that's not just the run-of-the-mill change or add "% Damage" enchantments that are a staple in modern ARPGs, but those are welcome nonetheless!


Examples such as replacing one or maybe more Skills associated with a weapon due to modifications, such as special ammunition types for Bolter or Autoguns such as Kraken or Vengeance Rounds. While sort of manifested in the skills already (Single Shot being Armour Breaking already), making Frag Burst more powerful (and gaining the Weak Vs. Armoured property!) thanks to Metal Storm Rounds would be a welcome addition in specializing weapons even more, or adding supplementary skills to your favorite loadout.


Less dramatic, but welcome modifications would be in changing a weapon's fundamental mechanic, such as increasing a weapon's Heat Capacity in exchange for a longer cooldown, or vice-versa.


Also, awaiting the next big update, and great job on development Neocore!


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Weapon Gameplay
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7 years 162 days ago

I definitely like your chain weapon idea. As it stands now there are 2 kinds of weapons as I see them: Anti-Armor and Anti-unarmored. Anti-Armor weapons can kill unarmored targets, just aren't great at it. Anti-unarmored targets are a little better at killing unarmored targets... and useless on armor. Chain-weapons are all anti-unarmored, so I don't even bother with them. Auto-gun's fall to the same issue.


Having chain-weapons ramp up like that would definitely give them a mechanic to have fun with. I'm unsure what role autogun's might get, but not being enthused to find a wicked Chain-sword or Evicerator makes me sad. Personally, I'd make the Evicerator shred armor. Then in groups you help everyone else, and by yourself you wear the armor down so you CAN kill the damn Dreadnought. Plus it would differentiate it from the one handed chain-weapons.

7 years 172 days ago

I really like the idea of adding some extra dimensions to these weapons, like doing more damage when you are high heat etc. I do wonder if some of these might also fall into the perk tree however, or even the skill tree. Either way the end result might be the same. 


But that being said I do like the idea of adding a skill element to the game... but ..... once the difficulty and new enemy types / maps are tweaked (if they get it right) I would imagine you will want to be focusing on where you are clicking most the time, rather than on your characters resource bar.

Conversely if the control system were more like D3 on console then i'd agree that resource management becomes an integral part of combat. It's all about where the devs want the players attention to be on the player or the enemy.