Leaf Shimmer
KNIGHTZ OF THE ROUND
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Posted - 2013.08.26 23:15:00 -
[1] - Quote
In my previous experience with other fps games, the weapon I spawn with is usually the weapon I fire and reload most of the time but with dust 514 this isn't always the case. I often find myself using my sidearm more than my large weapon and reloading both weapons roughly the same number of times. Why? There are a few reasons. But the result: too many seconds wasted. The potential: a more fluid game. How? To be continued....
on the next paragraph. Read on.
Upon spawning, after throwing a grenade or using an equipment, the weapon on hand defaults to the one in the dropsuit's heaviest weapon slot (L or H, whichever is being used). This can become a nuisance (for me) when using the sidearm as the primary weapon. There are many reasons why one would use a sidearm as a primary weapon. For me, when I use the swarm launcher, I usually run around with the smg, fighting off infantry, and don't switch over to the swarm launcher until I spot a hostile vehicle. I do the same with the plasma cannon, running around with the smg and switching over to the cannon when I feel comfortable enough I can get a one shot you're done it's over you've been plasma splattered hit. And the same for the sniper, using it mostly for those distanced hostiles I would not be able to reach with most large weapons.
Additionally, because weapons in dust are designed to give damage bonuses or penalties based on whether they're damaging an object's shields or armor(see the chart in http://dust514.com/news/blog/2013/07/weapon-ranges-in-uprising-1.2-and-beyond/ ), sidearms can be used as primary weapons for efficiency. A great example of this is starting a hostile with the scrambler pistol (for a 20% damage bonus) or the smg (for the smallest damage penalty of 5%) to deplete the shields and finishing with a mass driver (20% bonus) to deplete the armor.
So yes, I use sidearms as my primary weapons a lot and it would be nice if I could chose which weapon in my dropsuit I want to use as a primary weapon. That way, after every spawn, grenade or equipment, my character could then default to my most used weapon and spare me the weapon switch time. It's a simple convenience that makes the game more fluid and brings me to my next point.
As mentioned above, weapon types have damage bonuses and penalties. I take advantage of these by using weapons with shield damage bonus as primary weapons and then switching over to secondary weapons with armor damage bonus (something most helpful against heavies). The result is two partially (or fully) emptied weapons that I have to reload before I can begin running again to find my next target. Wouldn't automatic reloads be nice? If, after putting your secondary weapon away, it began to reload on it's own. YES. I'm not sure what a good number would be, but as a penalty for choosing to take the automatic reload, the reload can take 1.5 times it's regular speed. For example, let's say a weapon reloads in 4 seconds. Using the automatic reload, it would take 6 seconds for the weapon to reload (1.5 x 4 s) on its own.
A suggestion for how this would look in animation could be by using the present blue arcs that represent the weapon's clip on the bottom right corner of the screen. After a secondary weapon is put away without a full clip, the primary weapon's blue arc's width could shrink to half its size but keep its length leaving a bit of empty space behind that could be filled by the secondary weapon's half-width blue arc as it fades into the empty space. The secondary weapon's arc then shows it's reloading until it's full before fading away and allowing the primary weapon's arc to grow back to it's full width.
Of course, automatic reloads can be included for all weapons regardless of whether they're primary or secondary but I like the above setup better. Overall, I think this would result in a more fluid gameplay keeping the most used weapon on hand most of the time and avoiding having to reload two weapons at a time so often. This would also provide an additional incentive to spec into the reloading skills (faster automatic reload), if it matters. What will others think? |