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It’s no secret that I am all about Rare, Unique or Named equipment and believe it should be added to the game. But with all the discussion on balancing changes it occurred to me how we might kill two birds with one stone.
I mean just look at balancing a Medium laser or better yet a Medium Pulse laser. Some people think they are worth it, some don’t. Some people think the Medium pulse laser should work like a machinegun where you just hold it down and it generates heat, others think it should just be a singular burst and you’re done.
The correct answer is: YES!
Why not simply have all of them. After a bit of thought on the matter it occurred to me how much better it would be to simply allow you to customize your own weapons.
Of course this would cost Cbills / MC to do, somewhere along the lines of 1-2 million Cbills or 300 MC per weapon to be modified. A modified weapon still sells for the same as a normal weapon.
This would allow you to custom tailor your weapons a bit more according to how you want to play them.
Modifying a weapon changes its name to both clarify that weapon so others know what it does and to give it a identifier for ease of explanations.
Also this wouldn't just be limited to weapons but some equipment as well, like jumpjets. What if you wanted your jumpjets to be a single use thing that you tap Space Bar and it rockets you up and forward in a single high intensity burst, or what if you want some jumpjets that impart forward momentum at the cost of upward momentum, ect ect.
Now these modifications are not made to make a weapon "BETTER" but more to tailor the weapon towards a persons play style.
Here is a few examples I worked up, I could easily work up more but I didn’t want to spend too much time on this as let’s be honest there is a low chance this would be taken seriously by PGI.
So few things to explain.
These modifications are only for the weapons listed, so a Kali Yama AC20 would not work like the Kali Yama AC2.
CHARGE: Charge means that a weapon has energy bar or charge, you can fire the weapon as much as you want until the energy charge is depleted. Then you have to wait till it recharges. Any time you have Charge you can fire. The Charge time is equal to 2 times the duration.
When Charge is used on an autocannon they can fire as much as they want until the charge is depleted however the charge does not automatically recharge, they must exhaust the charge ammo before the weapon is cycled.
SUSTAINTED: Sustained means there is no cooldown, you fire the weapon as much as you want and just hold down the trigger. However in the case of Autocannon’s you’ll see a bar next to the weapon showing you how “Hot” that weapon is getting and if red line you will jam the gun. Then have to wait for the weapon to clear the jam. So letting off the trigger occasionally to allow the weapon to briefly cooldown.
In the case of energy Sustained the longer you hold down the trigger the more heat you will exponentially begin to generate. Allowing the weapon to briefly cooldown will cool the weapon so you don’t generate too much heat.
Here’s the Examples.
Here we have the Flamer and 3 different ways to balance it.
First way is the ZIPPO that works exactly like a Medium Laser, has a damage, has a duration and has a cycle time.
Next is the HOTSHOT, the hot shot works off a charge. You can deal 3 seconds of charge which means it has 6 seconds to completely recharge the Charge bar. So you can hold it down whenever someone is in range, you let off the trigger it begins to recharge. Easy.
Lastly is the Olympian Flamer, the Olympian flamer trades a bit more heat for a bit more range.
Here we have the Famed Martell Medium Laser. The Martell has a Charge of 3 seconds but suffers a from a dimished maximum range. This allows you to hold down the trigger for a full 3 seconds dishing out a beam of pure energy but at the cost of a 6 second recharge.
Next is the Magna Mk1. The Magna Mk1 does the full 5 damage but at increased heat, cycle time and less maximum range but deals it's full damage in just 0.5 seconds.
Lastly the OMICRON medium laser walks a different path dealing almost 1/2 the damage of a regular laser but also having 1/2 the cooldown time.
The Ceres is the machine gun pulse laser that people have been looking for. It deals 3 damage a sec but also generates 3 heat a sec which with sustained use can begin to exponentially generate additional heat. However it does suffer from decreased maximum range.
The Intek Medium Pulse laser is the burst pulse laser dealing slightly more than 1/2 the damage of a regular pulse laser but dealing that damage in just 0.35 secs with 1/2 the cycle time allowing you to Zap Zap Zap.
Lastly the Valiant Medium Pulse laser has slightly more damage and slightly longer cycle time for a Effective Range increased to 270m as well as a Maximum range of 270m making it the shortest ranged medium pulse laser, but also the longest effective range medium pulse laser.
The Whirlwind-L AC2 is the Autocannon machinegun. Hold down the trigger and it sends out a continuous stream of bullets. Every 5 rounds uses 1 shell, just don't hold it down for too long as you could jam the gun. Due to the size of the shells the Whirlwind has decreased maximum range.
The Federated AC2 deals it's damage in a Charge. Holding down the trigger to burn out the chambered ammo, dealing 6 damage every second for up to 2 seconds but once the charge is exhausted you have to wait 4 seconds to reload.
Lastly the KALI Yama Autocannon modification turns your AC into almost a laser Autocannon. The weapon has both a duration and a cycle time working exactly like your average laser but it eats 3 times the ammo per firing.
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Like I said I could make up more of these but I didn't want to invest too much time in it.
Tell me your thoughts I'm interested in seeing if people like this idea as a good way to address a lot of the balancing issues.
Edited by Carrioncrows, 19 July 2013 - 04:33 AM.
