For all we talk about new heroes (actually I guess not that much), there’s less talk about the different directions Blizzard could take the main left/right-click weapons. So what would you want to see?
Ideas:
Pistol where rounds which hit walls turn into tripwire mines which fire off again if someone crosses their laser
Some rapid firing gun where the bullets bounce off surfaces
Full auto rifle where, if the bullet hits a wall, it teleports back to where it was originally fired from, reorients itself at wherever the players reticle is pointing, and fires again
Chargeable railgun which fires through walls and barriers
Fire rounds whose contrails/tracer trails damage whoever walks through it for a split second
Lightning gun which jumps from one enemy to the next to extend range
Chargeable shotgun which can serve as a second jump/user pushback at full charge
Pistol where it locks onto enemy if they stay within a fairly large reticle, and after a few seconds fires an auto targeting projectile
Fly-by-wire rocket where, if the button is released, it explodes in midair
Explode-on-impact DoT/HoT grenades
Gun where primary fire shoots a hitscan beam, secondary a slow floating bomb, and shooting the bomb causes an even bigger explosion (>_>)
Chargeable beam rifle which bounces off walls; longer charge means up to 3 bounces and user teleports to the location of any kills
Pistol where the shots have mild homing and cause explosions if enough hit a target in a short span of time (<_<)
Sticky grenades with detonate on the right click
DMR with good old ADS to get rid of reticle expansion
Sniper whose every 2 shots form a tripwire between them; the closer the shots, the more powerful the eventual explosion
I realize most of these cross the complexity threshold for Overwatch, but still, I figure they could be fun. I’d love to see more interesting weapons that mix things up beyond “slower firing=more powerful and more accurate”, “shotgun/damage in arc”, “beam”, or “general explosive”. What do you think, and what sort would you want to see?
Although - I don’t think drones would work, frankly. Blizzard is terrible at making AIs for Overwatch, so while it might be vaguely ok at lower ranks, it would be completely pointless at higher ranks. At least, however I can imagine them, but maybe you’re more imaginative than I.
Also, would that be the main left/right click weapon? That’s what I’m aiming for here; laying out a hero’s bread and butter.
Considering how important cover is in OW and the fps genre, I don’t ever see this working. If it did, we’d be reliving the day of Counterstrike rifles shooting through walls and the whole debate about distinguishing between hearing footsteps and illegal wallhacks as players shoot and kill from the safety of the spawn room.
I feel like Junkrat’s ult already serves as this weapon, although one with a more unique flavor and stronger counterplay.
The rest of the ideas are pretty interesting.
As for myself, I would suggest a 2-stage weapon. One that uses a hitscan laser sight to lock onto a target/location and then the secondary fire to launch a missile that then follows it. If you shoot several missles at once, they all home in on the target location. You can imagine launching a couple such missiles into then use the primary fire to track a Pharah in the air, forcing her to defend and shoot down missiles coming from 3 different directions. It’d be a difficult weapon to use, but provides a fun mechanic to get around barriers and give players the homing weapon they’ve always wanted.
Those are some sick ideas; however, I am just sort of basic and want a weapon that pierces barriers, such as the old Symmetra orbs, only slightly more usable. In other words, the chargeable railgun sounds amazing. In my opinion, we are missing a burst hit-scan. So maybe that could be the winner if they do not want to add a fourth sniper.
That’s true. Maybe if it showed an indicator on the wall/barrier as it was traveling through it before it actually, you know, got through it, ala the Auger from the resistance games.
Or maybe just a cutting “stream” type beam which behaves more like a lava hose than a beam and takes a few seconds to pass through a barrier, like was suggested a bit down. I do think ranged shield piercing weapons is a good idea overall though, if they take some time to spin up.
Oh, I didn’t a TV-missile type thing; I meant one where you held down the button and the rocket chased wherever you’re aiming. Although maybe that is also too similar.
I feel like a lockon missile thing would be…I don’t know. Without a specific disengage mechanism, that seems like the sort of thing that places too much stock in a missiles auto target ability, since it comes from a hitscan laser. Maybe if it could only lock onto locations? That feels less like a primary weapon and more like an ability though. I do think more interesting things could be done with lock-on though, like how UT’s launchers had a soft tilt but it took a few seconds.
Oh my god it’s so obvious why didn’t I think of that. A 3-round burst weapon would fit perfectly.
That might be neat, if they had, say, a bit of an arc and, as you said, a small explosion radius. Like a gyrojet pistol type thing…maybe have the projectile speed up the longer it spent in the air.
It might sound basic but id love a machine gun with precision sights availible. Personally I love rapid fire weapons but I hate playing soldier/bastion because of their spread.
The drones are just one way of implementing the general idea, which is left click to focus all your healing on one target, but you have to aim, or right click to spread out the healing without having to aim.
I think we had the same idea. The difference is when you say “wire-guided”, it specifically means a missile with a wire trailing from it. A person can then control and fly the missile from a camera mounted on it for more than a mile, farther than they would be able to see with the naked eye. The more sophisticated model of this is the drone or UAV, which is completely wireless and controlled from hundreds of miles away.
My idea was for a “laser-guided” missile, which requires someone with a laser sight to track a target and guide a missile after its launched (either from yourself or a third party). There is no camera as the infantryman carrying the laser sight has to actively infiltrate and get close to the target to guide the missile in. This was a stopgap technology to let the military launch ballistic missiles at precision targets where it was impossible to spend thousands of miles of cable for a wire-guided missile. That seems closer to what your original idea than describing it as a “wire-guided” missile, and confused me. We basically had the same idea, except I want you to launch up to 3 missiles at once (in any direction) and all 3 fly towards where you’re pointing your reticle.
My main concern with this was how it could penetrate an ignore walls. I don’t have a problem with a weapon that ignores map geometry or barriers. My main concern is with the range such a weapon might have. You can imagine the problems if a hero could shoot from across the spawn room onto the point, ignoring all the map walls and barriers to headshot someone without any chance of couonterplay. Even more so if the player using that hero has wall hacks or some other 3rd party aim-assist tool to guarantee headshots and track all players at all times.
As for shield piercing, I don’t see the point on why you want to rely on 1 dps to shoot through a shield when you can simply have a dps able to quickly destroy a shield and force the enemy back or to allow your team a better firing position. The only way you would use this weapon is if it was on a sniper, which runs into the aforementioned balance and hacking problems if it can also shoot through walls and instantly kill players (like snipers are wont to do).