What are your favorite weapons from other games?

[Lemuel]

I really liked Impact Nitron from T:A. Had mulitple uses: speed boost, and used for chasing enemy cappers. Really useful item

Second this notion, anything with that much versatility feels really good to play with.

I'd say as a generalisation, things that encourage an entirely different play-style or give an extra option to the player rather than just stat alterations are more fun, although that's just my opinion.

Examples from TF2 (since that's really all I know) are the market gardener, the base jumper, the dead ringer, and the quick fix for things that change playstyle, and then things like the winger or the atomizer for things that give extra options.

[atavax]

i prefer weapons where there are really difficult shots to make. Landing a good airshot in TF2 with the rocket launcher or grenade launcher is pretty satisfying.

[Fixious]

Impact Nitron

I hated the Impact Nitron, mainly because it caused flag drops. If it must exist I'd be okay with one that required a direct hit, rather than splash damage. Its other uses like chasing and such are fine, and were obviously vital early on (pre nerf).

[Lemuel]

I'll of course defer to you on the matter of tribes, haha. I suppose maybe it wasn't the best of example of it, but weapons with multiple diverse utilities are really great. To go back to TF2 for a second, the stickybomb launcher allows sticky traps, baiting, short term area control, straight up artillery damage, and pinning of opponents in. It gets a lot of schtick but IMO it's a really nicely designed weapon, at least.

[tubes]

SAP20 from T:A

The other tribes vets will call me a big ■■■, but there's nothing I enjoy quite as much as ruining someone's day with a shot across the map, especially in a game with high speed/crazy movement. Of course, in T:A, there were a ton of attempts to balance this out, and most of them ended in failure, and since you can't just impose a health penalty like you could with the classes in T:A, you would have to figure out some kind of other balancing method.

Also, the SAP20 made a dubstep noise when it cycled. wub wub wub.

[DrunkenJedi]

there's nothing I enjoy quite as much as ruining someone's day

We know.

Of course, in T:A, there were a ton of attempts to balance this out, and most of them ended in failure

Incorrect, I don't remember NA rules but EU ruleset banned the weapon. Close enough, amirite?

[PrettzL]

I was playing Zeno Clash again recently and I need to add the Crossbow to my list.

The crossbow fires 2 skulls, one at a time, which explode on impact with enemy or ground and can swung be used for a pretty devastating melee attack.

It's a very unconventional weapon to fire (no real target reticle) and takes a bit of getting used to as it's not really a single crossbow it's a double that has bolt tracks side by side rather than stacked like a traditional double crossbow would be.

Here's an 'ironsight' view.
The green and blue circles indicate where the skulls will land when fired.

So the ammunition launched from each shot goes a bit right and a bit left of what would be your target center. Very cool little thing.

[tubes]

It was banned in NA, but i was referring to the Sentinel as a class.

[JustinPierce]

I was playing Zeno Clash again recently and I need to add the Crossbow to my list.

Do the green/blue circles react dynamically? Like, do they spread out if you look at something farther away? Or do the projectiles always hit that close to each other?

[PrettzL]

I drew the circles on there with paint actually. You have to eyeball the shot.

Here's a video of me using it.

[JustinPierce]

But, if the majority of weapons in Telos are already hitscan then I guess my input regarding a sniper it moot.

I doubt most weapons will be hitscan

The problems you describe with sniping in tribes are the sort of problems I enjoy finding solutions for.

[Fixious]

Unfortunately it isn't exclusive to Tribes, but yes it's certainly something that'll need to be addressed should the issue arise.. I forgot to mention another game I played quite often, Day of Defeat: Source. Some servers simply put limits as to how many Snipers a team could have. My favorite server actually limited it to just 2, despite it regularly being 16v16. It works for the most part, but there are obvious drawbacks, such as a not-so-good sniper taking up a slot when someone obviously better should have it.

[JustinPierce]

Yeah, I don't like that sort of limit. Proper solution would make it so stacking a team full of snipers is naturally disadvantageous -- that way, there's nothing driving that behavior in the first place.

[Xzanth]

I grew to really enjoying using the Skybolt, which was essentially a very weak Rocket/Disclauncher with a high rate of fire. I think it took about 3-4 direct hits to kill a Light.

+1 this, skybolt is probably my favourite ever weapon. The increased projectile speed over rocket/disc was an important factor.

Another two of my favourites that I can think of from the moment were from Tribes: Vengeance, the buckler and the rocket pod. These were quite unique for the amount of control you had after firing the shot, the projectiles would follow your cursor. It wasn't simply a matter of just hovering over your target however, you had to account for the physics of the projectiles themselves. Difficult but a lot of fun.

Rocket pod: fires six relatively slow moving rockets that have a limited range but a lot of damage if you hit them all.

Buckler: boomerang that doubles up as a shield.

[Lemuel]

that way, there's nothing driving that behavior in the first place.

The issue with this is that it relies on a community non-toxic enough to want to win rather than to think "oh, sniper looks fun". Hopefully we'll have that but there's always the possibility that it doesn't happen.

[atavax]

i agree that many people are more likely to be more concerned with having fun then winning. I'm not sure i would call that "toxic" though. I agree with JP, that imposing limits is a poor solution. I think part of the problem is the solo mentality of a sniper. That because a sniper hangs out in the back by himself, he is disconnected from the team and less concerned with the team's success or failure then his own success or failure. Just really need to make it so that teams clearly work best with a diverse group, individuals regardless of the weapon clearly work best working together, and make it as fun as possible to use each weapon, and hope that minimizes the number of times a team is comprised almost entirely of a single weapon.

[Lemuel]

You're right, toxic was decidedly the wrong word. I think the key is not so much to make it only more effective to have a diverse team but also more fun, as that (hopefully) will encourage people of all mindsets.
One thing I've never seen done (maybe because it's a terrible way of doing game balance, I've no idea. Spitballs though) is to impose a soft nerf on people using the same loadout as other people on the team, making it so that people have the option of picking a duplicate class but are penalised for it in terms of fun and effectiveness.
I haven't even submitted this yet but already I can see an issue in the fact that I've said penalised in terms of fun. Thinking out loud I suppose.

[JustinPierce]

I think part of the problem is the solo mentality of a sniper. That because a sniper hangs out in the back by himself, he is disconnected from the team and less concerned with the team's success or failure then his own success or failure

Definitely agree here. My concept will address this directly

[atavax]

i actually take back the comment about making diverse teams work best. I think giving the players the freedom to make their own strategies and compositions is good even if that means some people might find a way to have 3 or 4 people with the same primary weapon a viable strategy.

[Seahonk]

I always liked "mark a section of the map for artillery strike" mechanics even if they're sort of passe now. In RO2 I think you got some sort of warning, so it worked mostly like temporary area denial.

I'm a big fan of Mario Kart 64's bananas I can't decide if they'd be awesome or horrible in AoT, though.

JC2's hookshot is pretty great- it deals a decent amount of damage and grapples the enemy to you like Scorpion's "GET OVER HEEERE" harpoon. Might be hard to balance for Telos, though, it would be pretty annoying to get pulled every-which-way by 5 enemies all game.

In the same vein is HL2's gravity gun. I don't know quite how it could work here, but damn if it's not fun.

The AWP from CS is nice too, I think. Super powerful, super satisfying to shoot, but it has a cooldown that leaves you vulnerable, and you can only shoot with any accuracy while scoped in and holding still (though you can be moving through space, just not by using movement keys.)

I'm also a big fan of huge fuckoff hammers that take a while to wind up but do huge crushing melee damage. Maybe something like this in AoT could lend momentum to the target?