Do you guys in the forum know the Magnus line? I hope you do.
Anyway, I remember the time I mentioned that I consider the Magnus line "a type of gun for sniping". But then I figured, why not include a type of handgun made specifically for sniping enemies from afar? And that's how the idea popped in.
Anyway, here are the stats of the requested weapon:
= Sniper Gun = (3-star weapon)
Resembles a modified, modern-tech Antigua with a attached scope and a small shoulder-stock. The projectiles are similar to the Antigua's bullets. There is a small light coming out of the scope.
= Weapon stats =
Damage power: 2 - 2.5 bars of damage power
Damage type: Pure Piercing
Slight chance of inflicting Moderate Stun
Firing speed and Projectile speed is the same as Magnus.
Bullets per clip: 2 bullets
= Normal attack =
Fires a fast bullet with a attack range of 10 squares, and slight chance of stun.
= Charged attack =
Fires a armor-piercing bullet, with a range of 12 squares, that pierces through enemies, with damage reduced for each enemy pierced, and moderate chance of stun.
(For example, we have 3 Wolvers lined up in a straight line. As the bullet pierce through the first wolver, it deals the same damage as normal attack. The 2nd wolver it hits deals less damage than the damage done to the 1st wolver. The last wolver it hits deals less damage than the damage done to the 2nd wolver.)
(To make it simple: the more enemies it pierce, the less damage the bullet will deal to further enemies.)
Description: "Favored by assassins, this basic gun is meant to teach those the basics of long-range sniping."
Long range and pierce together is too strong. But 2 bars of damage on a 3* weapon is too weak. It's a weird way to balance it.
For reference, check http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Gun
Increase damage, and stick with one ability. Maybe branch out "Marksman rifle" for range and "Sawed-Off" for penetration.
Argent Peacemaker and Sentenza?
They aren't 1-hit kill guns but the bullets are super fast. Why not just use those?
Anyway, here are the corrected stats for the requested handgun...
= Sniper's Rifle = (3-star weapon)
Damage power: 2.75 - 3.25 bars of damage power
Damage type: Pure Normal
Firing speed and Projectile speed is the same as Magnus.
Bullets per clip: 2 bullets
= Normal attack =
Fires a fast bullet with a attack range of 8 squares.
= Charged attack =
Fires a stronger bullet, with a attack range of 10 squares.
Description: "Favored by assassins, this basic gun is meant to teach those the basics of long-range sniping."
There. Satisfied?
= Marksman Rifle = (4-star weapon)
Upgraded from: Sniper's Rifle
Damage power: 4.75 - 5.25 bars of damage power
Damage type: Pure Normal
Firing speed and Projectile speed is the same as Magnus.
Bullets per clip: 2 bullets
= Normal attack =
Fires a fast bullet with an attack range of 10 squares.
= Charge attack =
Fires a stronger bullet with an attack range of 12 squares.
Description: "Modified to fire bullets in a longer range, this rifle is a ideal choice for sniping assassins."
= Needle Sniper = (4-star weapon)
Upgraded from: Sniper Rifle
Damage power: 4 - 4.5 bars of damage power
Damage type: Pure Piercing
Firing speed and Projectile speed is the same as Magnus.
Bullets per clip: 2 bullets
= Normal attack =
Fires a bullet with an attack range of 8 squares.
= Charge attack =
Fires a stronger bullet with an attack range of 10 squares.
Description: "Modified to fire needles, it can prove to be very deadly against beasts and fiends."
= Toxic Sniper = (4-star weapon)
Upgraded from: Sniper's Rifle
Damage power: 3.75 - 4.25 bars of damage power
Damage type: Pure Piercing
Slight chance of inflicting Moderate Poison
Firing speed and Projectile speed is the same as Magnus.
Bullets per clip: 2 bullets
= Normal attack =
Fires a bullet with an attack range of 8 squares, and a slight chance of poison.
= Charge attack =
Fires a stronger bullet with an attack range of 10 squares, and a slight chance of poison.
Description: "Dosed with toxic poison, it can wither your sniping target in a matter of seconds."
Eight spaces is the range a basic Valiance bullet travels.
Go for around fifteen for sniping.
But Luguiru, it takes allot of trial and errors just to perfectly balance out the requested weapon, and it's not going to be easy. As Little-Juances said, long attack range and piercing type together to just too strong, and damage output is too low for a 3-star weapon, so I had to balance it out by reducing the attack range, increase damage output and changing the damage type.
Is it a good idea to make the Sniper Rifle the only gun that can only be used as a charge attack, like bombs?
Probably not.
Reasoning behind it is that it would make it an awkward to transition gun. When I take out my guns, I usually need them for fast shots. Blitz/Plague are exceptions to this, but only because of their main uses: For their charge attack.
Having a gun that only works by being charged up sounds nice in concept, but could be very different in actual game play. Say you needed to swap to your AP, and you also have the conceived gun in your load-out. You accidently swap to this gun, and instead of firing off a random shot of something, you fire nothing. Whereas if you accidently swapped to....say Sentenza, you at least shoot something, and can easily correct the mistake by swapping to the other gun from that.
The other thing is that the above proposed lines sound too much like the Autogun lines anyways, just re-purposed for range and accuracy over total power. While they make sense, I think it would suit the game better to have different damage types and different status effects, rather than Pierce / Poison.
Also have to keep in mind, if the concept ends up making this proposed gun charge only, one has to make it worthwhile to charge this gun up to where when it hits, the outcome was beneficial enough to be considered spending the CE on making the gun.
One suggestion I would have for a gun of the sort would be to have it's charge be where the camera goes away from the knight, and rather to where the bullet will travel to. This however is a mechanic that will require a lot of re-coding to do, and would probably be too much work for the devs.
Considering it does happen, what it allows the gun to do is go much farther out in range, allows the user to see farther around them, and assist their allies from a distance, or take out far away enemies on their own. Now there are not too many situations where the range aspect could come in handy, but the camera would be beneficial. This also auto balances the gun a bit, as because the camera moves away from the user, the user him/herself becomes vulnerable while using the gun. Damage would have to scale up though to counter against that a bit.
My thoughts on the gun. If such a thing were to be created, it would be a ton of work on the devs, but should they do it, would offer a unique tactical and situational advantage.
How about instead of the farther the bullet the travels the less damage the farther it travel it will give MORE damage. Giving it less damage from far defeats the purpose of it and it will make people snipe up close which it is not meant to be. But with the far it travels the more damage once those enemies get up close you are dead. And that will be a great disadvantage with this gun. So strikers in lockdown are your enemy BUT it will be very annoying. Just imagine if you die suddenly, and you can't even see the guy because he was off your view of your screen. That's jsut how far he was. Also I think it should require some kind of charge before firing. Again, imagine yourself in lockdown and just suddenly dying by a guy who was a recon and right when he disappeared you got shot. So bottom line here: require charge before firing and the farther the bullet goes the more damage.
Regarding the comments made in this topic... now I'm completely stumped.
I don't know how the stats should go for the requested weapon. The main thing about Sniping weapons is that you can hit enemies in very long distances. But if it has too much attack power or attack range, people can abuse it and therefore make the game allot easier, which also makes it unfair in PvP too.
Can you guys help me out in the stats of the requested weapon including its upgrade paths?
I think it'll be better off without this handgun. Besides, I'm already out of ideas for this requested weapon. So, screw this; to the Graveyard it goes.
And then Iron Slug gets a huge range buff and people complain about the damage even though the advantage of range is one of several factors which counters against damage.
Remember how far the old shard bomb projectiles went? There was a thread on taking one of those and making it the projectile for a gun with the same superior range but the same relatively low damage; long distance, fast bullets, but not particularly high damage. I think it was the last thing here but it seems to have changed. Being myself, I forgot someone had already made a thread for it, so I derped around and made this.
Magnus lines are in need of a buff, but if your request for a sniping weapon is what I think it means (FPS sniper; very high damage by hitting certain points) it would not work with this game. If it simply travels far but does not have absurdly high damage (at long range; it can start with relatively high damage, then lose that damage as it travels until the bullet completely dissipates at the end of the bullet path) it would have a lot of potential use.