You may not know me. That's OK, I've been with Spiral knights since the good old days where CE was only 3K per 100 and Mist was a thing, but I mostly kept to myself. (also, shaddup on the name, it was RNGed). I took a hiatus from Spiral Knights shortly after finishing all of the progression missions that OOO implemented to find other games to play. Since receiving the news about the move to GH, I've been lurking these forums to get a heads up on any progress. When GH updated themselves on their progress, I felt inspired to put up this suggestion.
What is it, you ask? This suggestion basically grants the ability to forego a shield to wield a single, immensely powerful weapon. There will be three classes of Two-Handed Weapons:
- Greatsword: Essentially a bigger sword, these will generally inflict 30% more damage from a neutral hit than a Super-effective hit from its one-handed counterpart. If you thought the Troika was tough to handle, these guys are so heavy you can't even do a combo, or a charge attack! Instead, your M2, Shift-Space and Shift-M2 abilities (originally Shield, Evade and Shield Bash) become even stronger attacks that vary depending on the sword, from flying leap attacks to an executioner's swing that will kill any non-boss mob in a single hit! Beware however, all of your attacks will leave you vulnerable very often.
- Rifle: Rifles are large-caliber weapons that trade defense for utility and damage output. They are usually on-par with the regular guns in terms of damage, but their functionality can very wildly, from tactical rifles with the ability to mark targets for more damage, to deadly snipers with long-ranged scopes, and even death-dealing machine guns that don't... ever... stop... shooting!
- Launcher: Tired of getting bitten by Wolvers while trying to set up a bomb? Why not SHOOT the bombs? Launchers are effectively ranged bombs that allow you to safely drop your payloads on unsuspecting enemies. A Launcher will always have the same effect as its one-handed counterpart - for example, a Shivermist Launcher would do the same thing as a Shivermist Buster.
So there is the general idea of Two handed weapons; you are probably wondering what kinds of weapons would there be? To get an idea of what these weapons would be capable of, here are two different weapon series:
Heavy Greatsword - A huge sword that sacrifices everything to lay the smackdown on foes. You can't use a shield however, so good luck! This 2* Greatsword deals Normal damage and has a Low chance of inflicting Strong Stun.
Abilities:
- Bladestorm: Right-click to spin in a circle, dealing heavy damage and knocking foes away!
- Flying Slash: Shift-Space to Jump towards a target, Stunning your target as well as dealing a world of pain!
- Execute: The bell tolls, and your Shift-Right click ability delivers a brutal attack that only the most fruminous, gooey, monstrous, or twisted souls could even hope to withstand. The opening swing leaves you extremely vulnerable however, so time it right!
Ultra Greatsword - An added power core and rocket booster only served to make this weapon hurt even more, with no ease-of-use improvements. This 3* Greatsword deals Normal damage and has a Low chance of inflicting Strong Stun.
Guillotine - The introduction on an experimental Luminite-Dark Matter alloy led to an edge sharper than anything previously produced by the Spiral order. This 4* Greatsword deals Normal damage and has a Low chance of inflicting Strong Stun. It splits off into two different Greatswords from here on out.
Moonbeam - The end result of adding additional Dark Matter to this tremendous blade, as well as some questionable forging practices. For some reason, those in purgatory quake in fear when within this sword's presence. This 5* Greatsword deals Elemental damage, has a Low chance of inflicting Strong Freezing, and deals Very High bonus damage to Undead.
Sunbeam - The end result of adding additional Luminite to this tremendous blade, as well as some questionable forging practices. Despite being made of primarily Luminite, gremlins fall much easier to this blade than any other. This 5* Greatsword deals Shadow damage, has a Low chance of inflicting Strong Fire, and deals Very High bonus damage to Gremlins.
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Nail Rifle: An introductory rifle for dedicated Gunners. Its large size requires users to ditch their shield, allowing better utility and mobility while being capable of fully automatic fire. This 2* Rifle can fire 12 shots before reload, and deals Normal damage.
Abilities:
- Zoom: Right-click to shift your camera a short distance, allowing you to hit enemies further away than anybody else!
- Dodge Roll: Not having a shield is actually a good thing! Shift-Space allows to cover more ground than Evade.
- Focus Shot: Ramp up your damage with Shift-Right Click until you fire. Not as devastating as an Execute, but still deals heavy damage!
Bolt Rifle: Standard issue Rifle for experienced Gunners, this all-purpose package comes with an extended clip and modding options to specializing this weapon. This 3* rifle can fire 24 shots before reloading, and deals Normal damage. It can be upgraded three ways, one of which is shown here.
Deadly Chaingun: A rotary firing system enables this Rifle to fire an almost endless stream of bullets. Nobody wants to be on the business end of you now! This 4* Rifle deals Normal Damage, and can fire 48 shots until reloading. Your ability set changes as well:
- Spin Up: Right-click to spin up, allowing you to fire immediately. Normally, you would need to wait for the thing to spin up.
- Deflector Shield: Hey look, you get a shield again! Shift-Space creates a barrier that enemies need to get around to hit you, but you can shoot through!
- Suppress: Shift Right-click to shoot the bullets even faster! Enemies will get Stunned if they try to stand up to you! Lasts for 5 seconds.
The Ponty Mython - DANGER: Only use while singing like a viking at a breakfast bar. This 5* Rifle deals Normal damage, and DOES NOT STOP SHOOTING.
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What do you think?
You put a fair amount of heart into this but I'm gonna give you the same sort of spiel I give people who suggest the same thing at its core. Don't try to take this as me being overly critical, but I've just said this likely over a hundred times at this point so I have a pretty solid opinion on this sorta thing.
Dual wielding in Spiral Knights, outside of a cosmetic change, is not a good weapon direction.
Quick "state and response" thing here:
S: Let's remove the shield to get more combat abilities!
R: Advanced shield tactics are the reason we are able to play so aggressively. There's a reason players gravitate towards shields that aid them in combat abilities more than defense. Shielding goes far beyond simply blocking damage. It does the following:
... On top of blocking damage, status, and having regenerating health.
Lastly, shields are the entire reason the lockdown PvP minigame is unique, and that's all about bringing your own gear into it. We shouldn't lock an entire weapon type out of lockdown. Also, hall of heroes requires you to have a shield, so have fun making a shield when you just want to use your dual wield weapon and can't equip your shield/weapon at the same time so you can't pass the hall of heroes.
S: But we want to do more damage!
R: Enemies currently are optimized to work for current weapons. Our current weapons already have the issue where gear that boosts their damage (class type and glass cannon) absolutely destroys everything. Getting more of this wouldn't be healthy for game balance.
S: I want to look cool by using two hands with my weapons!
R: That's great, but we can do that without doing any of the silly things like removing your shield and mixing random weapons we already have together. We can create new weapons under the same umbrella we've been using. The only real question we need to ask is if what we want to have done can be done with a one-handed weapon, and if so, why don't we just do that instead?
However if we do make new weapons that are two-handed, that's great because they can be properly balanced with old weapons. This does mean we'll need new animations, sounds, art, models, etc. Animations is the longer bit since we need new idle animations, new attacking animations, etc. since we only use one hand for all weapons except charging bombs and reloading certain guns.
So... Yeah. The dual wielding discussion (which is eerily similar to the two-handed weapon discussion) has been here since the dawn of time, and I don't see it ending anytime soon. Just try to keep in mind that knights as they stand are plenty powerful. What niche would these new weapons fill other than another thing for collectors to get then never use, or a player will use in passing then give up because brandish charging is so much more effective?
A good place to start with designing a weapon is using the current scheme - 2-6 attacks, 1 powerful charge attack. See if these weapons could fit into that area without anything special on them, and if they can't be designed in that way then it probably isn't something that'll fit into our current arsenals.