Allow players to temporarily "lock" additional weapon slots
Mon, 03/28/2011 - 15:32
So my friend and I came to the same conclusion independently and I thought it was worth sharing here. Simply put, additional weapon slots aren't worth it, but there is a way to fix it.
Now, I don't mean to say that the slots aren't worth the energy cost, I mean that currently they aren't worth using at all even if they were free. I purchased one additional slot. My friend actually purchased both for a total of four slots. However, this past weekend we only carried two weapons each despite having the extra slots available.
Why? Simple.
Your first two weapons are pretty indispensable. Your primary weapon is, of course, your primary. It's your go to weapon in any situation where it's appropriate. But there will always be at least one monster type that your primary just isn't good for whether it's because of damage type, debuff applications, or speed. Being able to quickly switch to a secondary weapon that is more suitable is essential when you suddenly find yourself surrounded.
This makes your #2 weapon priceless. However, it also makes your #3 weapon worthless.
Your #3 weapon is something you only carry for special circumstances. Perhaps it's something you don't often encounter, maybe even a single boss fight. This is even more true for your fourth slot. Having to cycle through these weapons when you need to quickly go from your secondary to your primary is very annoying and can even get you killed.
Ideally there would be a way to bind weapons to individual keys, but of course 1-5 are already taken by the quickslots, so this may not be practical.
An easy solution (I think) would be to let players temporarily lock out weapon slots. This could be done on a drop down menu in the arsenal screen. When a slot is locked the weapon in that slot would not come up when you hit spacebar.
Example:
Player has weapon #3 equipped.
Player locks slot 3.
Weapon 3 is still equipped.
Player hits spacebar, weapon 1 is now equipped.
Player hits spacebar, weapon 2 is now equipped.
Player hits spacebar, weapon 1 is now equipped.
This would force players to still commit to a set of equipment the way they do now (no equipping different things on the fly) but by letting them lock out weapons on the fly, they could have things equipped that wouldn't get in the way until they are needed.
Thoughts?
Mon, 03/28/2011 - 15:59
#2
I just feel that being able
I just feel that being able to always pull out the right weapon at the right time is more beneficial than having additional weapons for niche situations or leveling up weapons you aren't using.
Pulling out the wrong weapon is too big a liability in my experience, but admittedly I was using spacebar and not the mousewheel, and this is coming from someone who didn't make it past depth 25 on the preview.
Can you think of a downside to being able to lock out a weaponslot you aren't planning on using on a given level other than the man-hours used up on the change?
Mon, 03/28/2011 - 16:22
#3
There are a lot of games out
There are a lot of games out there with fast-paced gameplay that use a "swap to last weapon used" key in conjunctions to keys bindings to each slots to allow players to micro manage their gear optimally. While I personally haven't gotten to the point where specialized weapons were a sine qua non to progression, I can see where you're coming from and I'd love that function to be implemented.
That said, "the man-hours used up on the change" might be oversimplifying the obstacles in the way of implementing new functions into a release candidate so while I'm all for the change, the devs might be busy with other things, like improving the server lag.
Mon, 03/28/2011 - 16:36
#4
http://wiki.spiralknights.com
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Damage
There are four damage types. If I had 4 weapon slots I would carry a weapon of each type.
Mon, 03/28/2011 - 16:55
#5
You can switch weapons while
You can switch weapons while shielding, that is an option if you need to switch without compromising yourself
Mon, 03/28/2011 - 17:27
#6
Until I can stop time while
Until I can stop time while changing weapons, shielding still doesn't solve the problem. Shield slows your movement and for that brief period you still aren't attacking with the proper weapon.
If I'm trying to pull out my khorovod to knock a zombie away from my stunned/shocked friend and I mistakenly stop on my graviton bomb, my friend may die due to the delay.
Meanwhile, if I know I won't be using the bomb on this level and I could simply lock it away for the time being, this wouldn't happen.
Mon, 03/28/2011 - 19:01
#7
Umm
I usually have 4 weapon slots and I find that it is needed (especially before when you could not even change weapons or gear in the terminals):
1. You can be in a mix maps (if people dont dump, and learn to mix minerals) = it can lead to having Beast monsters, Fiends, Undead, Construct, etc.
2. Like Magnus said you wish to train more weapons at a time
Before the elemental update I would use the following set of weapons:
Divine Avenger - Fiends and just to spec
Wild Hunting Blade - For Beasts and had Unique Variant for Construct Damage
Winimillon - For undead
Silversix - For Undead
^I needed this since it made doing runs a breeze. Now a days I can agree that if you have a Graun Faust and Divine Avenger its pretty easy, but I would say you still need a bomb and gun to make it so much easier (Or even a sword its up to your playing style).
Tue, 03/29/2011 - 10:17
#8
I don't have a mouse wheel
I don't have a mouse wheel (trackpad, argh!), but as I don't use WASD (mouse points, and I bound V to move in that direction), I bound W to previous weapon and E to next weapon, and it's pretty much mouse wheel functionality. It cycles around, so before a fight, I make sure that I know the relative positions of a weapon to the others, i.e., Kamarin is two steps away from Iceburst Brandish, and only one away from Crystal Bomb. I also make sure to arrange the weapon slots in a similar manner each time (paying special attention to bombs, since those can mess with your rhythm if you forget).
Like anything else, this system is fallible, but so is weapons lock. One day you're going to lock your bomb and then find out that you're stuck in a in a room full of evil vampire butterfly-things and need mob control piercing damage, and that's probably a worse situation.
The spacebar I unbound early because with the way I use the keyboard, it was too easy to hit, which is rather more disastrous even with just two weapons....
Your reasoning behind how additional weapon slots are worthless is rather short sighted.
1. Weapons 1 and 2 are max level, but you want to work on a new weapon without sacrificing power. Suddenly, you're leveling it because you have a weapon slot.
2. Where you're going, you NEED a larger variety of weapons than just two. Bam! You have more than two suddenly. (see: firestorm citadel)
2.5. Like to have weapons exclusively strong against specific things, and be weak against nothing? Then you're gonna need more than just two weapon slots to carry an Avenger, a Faust, a Callahan and a Silversix.
If you're not using the mouse wheel to change weapons, too, then that would also grant the illusion that weapon slots are useless.