[Suggestion] Charge weapons auto-release

[Russel]

This one is kinda short, so I'll cut right to the chase.

Charge weapons in this game seem to pack quite a bit of pressure behind them because of how much power they can have over your opponents. In order to help alleviate this, my thought was to make charge weapons "release" their charge after a set period of time.

I wanted to put this suggestion in a forum thread because I wanted to know what people thought about it before doing anything with it. Bear in mind that this is by no means trying to make the weapon harder to use, but is instead trying to make it so charge weapons cannot be held forever.

[tsukiyomaru0]

I think this would be a bad idea, because some people prefer to walk around with it charged to unleash it whenever they feel like it, specially with weapons like Atomic Fire or Pharaoh Shot

The only way I can see this happening is through a SVAR, which would allow the host to set this rule on or off.

[Messatsu]

Really don't like this idea. Holding onto a charge notifies other players of your location fairly easily, so it already has a built in weakness. (With a few exceptions) In addition, charge weapons have a very long refire rate.  There's no reason to nerf weapons that really don't need it.

[LlamaHombre]

I don't know if an "auto-release" is the best way to handle overcharge, but I'd say that the concept of weakening a weapon if held for extraneous periods of time might be something to look into.
That said, I can only really imagine this applying smoothly for Atomic Fire and Pharaoh Shot by reverting them to say a mid-charge or something if held for ten seconds or so. Homing Sniper could also be applied to this philosophy by making it fire like 3 snipers instead of 5 (which I think is still a buff from the mid-charge?? I think the mid-charge is 2, but correct me if that's not the case).
I feel something similar could be applied to the buster upgrades with charges, but a number of them may lose their identity in the process. (Laser Buster and Arrow Buster in particular, though Duo Fist might also end up suffering).
The grey area for here comes with weapons like Noise Crush, Magma Bazooka, and Wild Coil. All of them have weaknesses built into their projectiles beyond just the standard noise they give off when moving around (cough sans Pharaoh Shot cough), be it through awkward ways of acquiring said charge or by the lack of effective range given to their shots.

In short, I'm in favor of capping the potential of charge weapons over time, but I don't know if an auto-release is the best method of enforcing said handicap.

[tsukiyomaru0]

In short, I'm in favor of capping the potential of charge weapons over time, but I don't know if an auto-release is the best method of enforcing said handicap.

This just sparked me this idea: what if holding at full charge takes 1 unit of ammo away per second?

[Dr. Freeman]

Combined with the ammo of actually firing the weapon, that would burn through your ammo incredibly quick.

[LlamaHombre]

By that extent a 1.5x to 2x multiplier on ammo consumption upon release might be a more reasonable punishment from an ammo standpoint.

[Knux]

Tsuki's idea could work if the ammo doesn't start depleting as soon as the charge is full. The time/ammo can also be adjusted as necessary, as one ammo unit per second sounds excessive, IMO. Making players release their charge early sounds like unnecessary punishment in the case of weapons that require holding down the fire key for it. It would be okay for something like Noise Crush (which doesn't require holding down the fire key) to have the auto release feature however, simply because of how overpowered it is despite the nerf.

[Kapus]

In short, I'm in favor of capping the potential of charge weapons over time, but I don't know if an auto-release is the best method of enforcing said handicap.

This just sparked me this idea: what if holding at full charge takes 1 unit of ammo away per second?

1 unit per second sounds like a bit much for most weapons, but I am intrigued by this concept in general and I think it's worth considering.

[tsukiyomaru0]

Even so, I still think it should be implemented as a SVAR first (default being "OFF" for online, "ON" for campaign), then it should later be made a poll on whether or not this feature should stay.

[Orange juice :l]

This should probably be handled on a weapon-by-weapon basis to fit both thematically and match the severity of "hold charging" overuse.

Busters: Since they don't use ammo they require a recharge after firing an overcharged projectile, causing up to a 1-ish second inability to fire
Super Arm: Holding the rock gets heavy so move speed gradually slows to a lower bound of 70% or so
Atomic Fire: Too much heat buildup or whatever slowly drains your health and burns off your ammo (enough that you need to be seeking out supplies, making you easier to track down in duel where it's popular but not enough to put you in actual danger of dying of it alone)
Pharaoh Shot: Wisps of energy fly out serving as a tell if you're hiding around a corner. Further overcharging will result in it cycling back to medium charge for short periods
Noise Crush: Holding it too long causes all other in-game sound (not bgm, chat sound, etc) to slowly become quiet and be replaced by a ringing noise- ringing doesn't become very loud but all other sounds become silent
Homing Sniper: Targeting systems recalibrate to become less selective or whatever so your vision gradually starts jittering (would make it harder to move around efficiently but because of the shotgun effect it wouldn't be too hard to hit if you do manage to get close)

[Messatsu]

Here's my question.  Why is this even suggested in the first place? Are charge weapons on a whole unbalanced in such a way where this suggestion is necessary? Seems to me that most charge weapons have some sort of drawback (Low RoF, Charge noise, etc) where changes to damage or ammo consumption is a far more practical way to alter the weapons if they are deemed too powerful.

[meGAMEr]

When its gonna release, man? I'm tired of waiting. At least can't you show us a screenshot of game?

[Russel]

Welcome to Cutstuff, bud!
But...this would be the wrong thread to put this on.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=9761 This is where you wanna go if you wanna talk about release.

[Ehibika]

Here's my question.  Why is this even suggested in the first place? Are charge weapons on a whole unbalanced in such a way where this suggestion is necessary? Seems to me that most charge weapons have some sort of drawback (Low RoF, Charge noise, etc) where changes to damage or ammo consumption is a far more practical way to alter the weapons if they are deemed too powerful.

I may be in no position to add whatsoever, but I second this notion, it feels like this would just add a nerf to something that didn't really need a nerf in the first place. I've always felt that most of them gave enough of a warning that a savy player could get around it.

And in the case of noise crush and wild coil, make them less desirable to use as a result.