Clumsy weapon

Melchior · Post by **Melchior** » 2005-01-20 05:02pm

This is an assault rifle I designed for a mod I am working on.
It should look unrealiable, prone to jamming and unwieldy.
Does it?

(it is done in freehand 10, unfortunately export quality in .jpg format isn't exactly where this program shines)

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2005-01-20 05:27pm

Well, the trigger is unnecessarily huge, as well as not giving you a place to put your thumb, there doesn't appear to be a magazine port, the tiny barrel length will result in tremendous recoil, the rear sights are overly complex, and without forward sights won't be too useful anyway, and there is no stock.

And what is that... thing... at the end? The semi-circle.

Melchior · Post by **Melchior** » 2005-01-20 05:30pm

YT300000 wrote: And what is that... thing... at the end? The semi-circle.

That thing contains ammunition, and rotates during firing, with high risks of hurting the operator.
Recharging the thing takes ten minutes and a screwdriver.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2005-01-20 05:37pm

...What the fuck? Why are you designing such a horrible weapon?

Melchior · Post by **Melchior** » 2005-01-20 05:41pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:...What the fuck? Why are you designing such a horrible weapon?

It's for a very depressing mod which should be as cruel and painful to play as possible in order to deliver its message.
To name one of the more important aspects of the gameplay, every character has a remote controlled gps system with electrodes grafted to the brain that can kill him if he does "wrong" things, like running away or not killing the unarmed five-years old child.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-01-20 07:47pm

Clearly subscribing to the school of thought that the interface should hurt the user as much as possible. Nicely done.

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2005-01-20 09:02pm

Melchior wrote:
YT300000 wrote: And what is that... thing... at the end? The semi-circle.
That thing contains ammunition, and rotates during firing, with high risks of hurting the operator.
Recharging the thing takes ten minutes and a screwdriver.

In that case, remove the foregrip, and the barrel shroud. You may also consider a device to shoot ejected gasses back at the user. Oh, and put the sights on the side, and make the ammunition thing spiked, and contain the minmum amount of rounds possible.

Oh, and replace the trigger with a large button, that has a really tough spring and a pull of... oh... 20 lbs?

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2005-01-20 09:12pm

Make it fire elephant gun rounds at full auto. That'll fuck up anyone using it...

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2005-01-20 09:59pm

darthdavid wrote:Make it fire elephant gun rounds at full auto. That'll fuck up anyone using it...

Yes, and make it so that it ONLY fires in 7 round bursts. Too much to be useful or accurate, and wastes ammo.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2005-01-20 10:59pm

YT300000 wrote:
darthdavid wrote:Make it fire elephant gun rounds at full auto. That'll fuck up anyone using it...
Yes, and make it so that it ONLY fires in 7 round bursts. Too much to be useful or accurate, and wastes ammo.

And too few to properly spray in the hopes of randomly hitting a target/provide suppressive fire. I like the way you think.

Melchior · Post by **Melchior** » 2005-01-21 07:46am

YT300000 wrote: Yes, and make it so that it ONLY fires in 7 round bursts. Too much to be useful or accurate, and wastes ammo.

I was already thinking to have it have a lot of recoil, but I will add the "only seven round burst as a firing mode", it helps in the "awfully bad designed" category.
Ah, the thing is not spiked, but it is sharp (obviously this can't be seen from sides)
And I can't add anything to blatantly harmful (like the gas-redirecting device), only really bad design choices.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2005-01-21 10:51am

Don't forget to have it report your remaining amount of ammo in an annoying synthesised voice, not only driving everybody who uses it mad but also giving important info to the enemy.

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2005-01-21 10:59am

Actually, 5-round bursts seem to be just as bad as 7s... But they don't waste as much ammo.

Having the rounds/cylinder smack into the wielder's ribs/face depending on where he fires it from is, of course, a must.

Make it prone to overheating after a few seconds.

Aside from that, having the gun anally rape the firer is the best other option I can think of.

Melchior · Post by **Melchior** » 2005-01-21 11:36am

Pcm979 wrote:Don't forget to have it report your remaining amount of ammo in an annoying synthesised voice, not only driving everybody who uses it mad but also giving important info to the enemy.

The thing that seems an oversized rear sight is actually a projector that tracks the position of the user eye and projects on it information.
Unfortunately it has a tendency to permanently blind the user after a few hours (in-game, the field of view is reduced, when this happens).
In the hears of the player there is already a never-ending stream of soviet-style propaganda.
EDIT: This is a very early concept of a weapon that will be exclusively used by AI-controlled bots. It's a flamethrower designed for killing hordes of inepts with erratic and under-powered rifles. The thing behind should be on the user shoulder, and it help keeping the weapon straight (it is very heavy). Now, since am not very expert in this field, there are any glaring design flaws, besides the exposed fuel tanks (it is for technobabble reasons)?

salm · Post by **salm** » 2005-01-21 01:18pm

cool, the pain station disguised as an ego shooter.

you need to include a dildo pointing at the players ass in this interface of yours. when the player is hit the dildo starts moving back and forth, and back and forth, and back and...

and the lower your energy the hotter the dildo.

Melchior · Post by **Melchior** » 2005-01-21 01:23pm

salm wrote:cool, the pain station disguised as an ego shooter.

you need to include a dildo pointing at the players ass in this interface of yours. when the player is hit the dildo starts moving back and forth, and back and forth, and back and...

and the lower your energy the hotter the dildo.

I suspect there is a misunderstandement going on: it is the playing character, not the user, that has things grafted to his brain.

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2005-01-21 01:30pm

The stock looks awfully fragile, the trigger would be nice if it was bent, and a small shield in front of the foregrip would also be nice (considering how far forward it is).

Also, since you say its heavy, a sling might help with load-bearing.

Melchior · Post by **Melchior** » 2005-01-21 01:42pm

YT300000 wrote:The stock looks awfully fragile, the trigger would be nice if it was bent, and a small shield in front of the foregrip would also be nice (considering how far forward it is).

Also, since you say its heavy, a sling might help with load-bearing.

Trigger fixed and foregrip shield added, thanks for the advice.
Unfortunately the sling could be very difficult to implement in a game.

Jawawithagun · Post by **Jawawithagun** » 2005-01-21 04:47pm

Ejecting the brass into the user's face is a must. Maybe with it's own targetting system that aims at the eye not connected to the sight.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2005-01-22 05:02am

Melchior, I'm never playing your game. Although designing awful weapons is fun, if you ever need help.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2005-01-23 04:57am

Fire that mod's 'designer' and hire someone over the age of 14 (and no, don't tell me how old he really is; it'll only make things look worse).

My opinion of such childishly ham-fisted gameplay and art directing can't be described in words; I'd have to put together a photoshop tomorrow to express it. How many levels are planned to take place while it's snowing? Is there a gun that launches puppies? Do the children wear shirts with 'innocence' or 'humanity' written on them? Jeepers...

In the meantime, as for Melchior and the whallop-over-your-head metaphors he's been sentenced to design, there's a difference between looking like 'a cumbersome and burtally rugged firearm' and 'is that a tennis shore with a stapler attached?' One invokes its intended style and is instantly recognisable as being at least physically capable of even being held *like* a gun, the other does neither. Googlesearch images of guns (and maybe a few hands too) and go from there.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2005-01-23 06:42am

Melchior wrote: I suspect there is a misunderstandement going on: it is the playing character, not the user, that has things grafted to his brain.

too bad. haptic interfaces that offer more than a little rumble pack are on the rise.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2005-01-23 08:09am

Utsanomiko wrote:Fire that mod's 'designer' and hire someone over the age of 14 (and no, don't tell me how old he really is; it'll only make things look worse).

The mod sounds like "PARANOIA" the RPG put into reality. It's supposed to
be as horribly inefficient as possible.

Melchior · Post by **Melchior** » 2005-01-23 09:53am

MKSheppard wrote: The mod sounds like "PARANOIA" the RPG put into reality. It's supposed to
be as horribly inefficient as possible.

Exactly.
In fact, Paranoia has been one of the main sources of inspiration.
Another feature of the gameplay is the possibily to be terminated at any given moment, even if there is no evident need to.
Oh, and there is an "insanity" value, hidden from the player, that increased as the character sees more blood, is hurted, sees other allied soldiers terminated for no reason etc.
When the value is high enough, the player loses control of the character, who can:
-Shot himself
-Collapse to the ground (and be terminated)
-Start firing at random things
-And a lot more "exciting" things

salm · Post by **salm** » 2005-01-23 12:36pm

Melchior wrote: Exactly.
In fact, Paranoia has been one of the main sources of inspiration.
Another feature of the gameplay is the possibily to be terminated at any given moment, even if there is no evident need to.
Oh, and there is an "insanity" value, hidden from the player, that increased as the character sees more blood, is hurted, sees other allied soldiers terminated for no reason etc.
When the value is high enough, the player loses control of the character, who can:
-Shot himself
-Collapse to the ground (and be terminated)
-Start firing at random things
-And a lot more "exciting" things

the insanity value is cool. but dying at random moments is purely annoying.

same with the result of the insanity value. not being able to control your character is annoying. i´d make the insanity value trigger something else. like distortion of geometry that makes it harder to maneuver, or something. if you go insane, collapse and can´t do anything until you get shot by some enemy you´d just as well just die right away. waiting sucks.