Let’s get to the point: I don’t know what I’m talking about. I prefer to throw ideas around and brainstorm instead of making actual suggestions because I don’t know anything about programming, coding, and have never taken a course in game design. Everything below might in fact be the stupidest gaggle of ideas I’ve ever mentioned, but I merely want to throw it out there in case any of it brings merit. That said, it’s not so much a suggestion as it is an idea I want to bounce around and see the reactions of.

It’s also to the great ire of both forum regulars, players, and at this point even the developers in general to have this game compared to TF2, but hear me out:

I think what was most interesting about TF2’s addition of new weapons and class updates was that instead of directly nerfing or buffing something (although they also did this too: see the ‘Backburner’ after The Pyro update) they added new weapons and items with the intention of reinforcing or changing up play styles .

By this, I mean how we play in general. If anyone who’s had the misfortune to play with me while I’m raging around, it’s that I usually complain about how the cutters are inferior because a toothpick can do its job even better if used properly. While these are two different weapons with different strengths and weaknesses, the issue exists because both are being forced to compete for the same niche – the striker’s typical “fast-hitting close-range weapon”. Due to things like invinciframes though, the best strategy for a striker is to spam the first swing, strafe, swing, strafe, and repeat – something the cutter, which would suggest the players should get in close and saw their enemies to pieces, cannot do as well (I’m oversimplifying, of course).

However, just adding or subtracting damage or speed or any of the current listed stats would just unbalance one weapon or the other – a straight nerf to the toothpick’s range or damage would make it just a weaker cutter, and a straight damage buff for the cutter wouldn’t really help (unless it was ridiculously high, which would then just make it way too OP).

Instead I think we should make a new set of additional bonuses for weapons that ONLY occur in the Lockdown minigame that focuses on how OOO intends a class to be played. As of now the player’s class – recon, guardian, or striker – affect their weapons; with that note, perhaps we can also have that in reverse: weapons affecting the way a class is played.

Cutters for example: even with max damage and ASI you will never compete with a toothpick play style of strafing and hitting. I always had the impression that these weapons would be best used by a berserker or one of the suicide psychos from Borderlands – a player with a high-risk/high-reward playstyle of quickly closing in on their enemies to saw them to pieces. A play style that would involve a lot of running, weaving, and little downtime at the cost of having to hit the enemies a lot, and very quickly. Instead of doing flat buffs or nerfs, we instead could have it alter the way the striker class itself is played while it is equipped:

* Cutters -- See above

Positives:
- Increased striker boost capacity: Because there will be a lot of running and weaving, strikers using a fast, low-damage weapon at point-blank range will need more boost to do more running around.
- Decreased recovery time: less down-time, more running!
- Gradually increasing sword damage with combo: unlike the toothpick, this weapon favors getting close and chewing enemies up – instead of strafing and hitting with only the first swing: damage increases slightly or moderately (I’m throwing only ideas out here – no actual figures) with every 2 swings of the combo.

Negatives:
- Increased incoming bullet damage: This play style rewards being fast and agile – if they can keep away from you, you will pay by taking more bullet damage. Recons and gunner strikers with something like valiance will be able to kill “psycho”-strikers easier.
- Increased incoming Bomb damage: Same as above. If you are just blindly rushing around and get caught in hazes, vortexes, or nitro/thorn barrage blasts, you will suffer more for it.
- Decreased gun damage & attack speed: trying to compensate for the lack of reach with a gun won’t work as well. This is a weapon for berserkers.
- Increased incoming damage from all types while out of boost or after standing still for X amount of seconds (Once again, this is all an outline–I don’t have any working specifics yet): This would be to encourage that while the player should always be moving, being too reckless and running out of boost in the middle of a fight will screw them over big time.

* Heavy Swords -- Large, powerful, and slow. They certainly have the feel, but let’s give them all their own play style (template for the below would be the typical DA/GF – The hammer, I have no idea ATM).

Positives:
- As a guardian: Uninterruptable swings: “A toothpick stop me? Do you know who I am? I’M THE GUARDIAN, B****!”
- Universal: Decreased incoming bullet & bomb damage: While equipped and swinging, less damage is taken from ranged sources.
- When used with heavy armor, status resistances increase.

Negatives:
- Strikers equipped with this weapon gain decreased boost speed. It’s a heavy sword and weighs them down at the upside of allowing them to hit very, very hard.
- Reduced movement speed for recon and strikers: you can still use this weapon, but only the guardians are beefy enough to run around with this thing without it slowing down their pace. I mean, the thing is the size of a Volkswagen, and only guardians are tanky enough to run around without them with getting a hernia.

* Toothpicks -- (BTB/FF template) – The point of these weapons is agility and using the first swings. How many people combo with these things? An idea here is to create a play style that emphasizes increasing damage based on NOT performing the combo- as a foil to the cutters. The cutter is about closing the distance and going to town on enemies with the combo, while the toothpicks are about control, accuracy, and more defensive evasion (evading to escape and return, instead of offensive: evading to get closer). The idea goes on the logic that spamming the first swing is what your typical skolver clone does already – but with some of these changes, the better ones will be able to set themselves apart by using a weapon that reinforces their current preferred play style.

Positives:
- Stacking damage charges on the first swing: by repeatedly hitting an enemy with only the first swing, if done with in a set amount of time between swipes, each swipe will get progressively more powerful. If a certain amount of time passes, or if the swing-spam is broken by going through with the combo, it will go back to its normal allotted damage. This will cap at a certain stage to prevent it from 1-shotting people while being insanely fast
- For the Flamberge and Rigadoon, the increasing stacks of damage on swing one will also increase status chances for fire and stun, respectively. It means that while neither of these two will ever be as strong as the FF & BTB in direct physical damage, they will have better chances of making up for it with their respective statuses.
-Increased boost speed – speed while boosting is increased, to get toothpick strikers in and out of melee range faster

Negatives:
- Stacking damage becomes more difficult with the more you have: the time to increase damage on the next swing will decrease the higher you go, meaning really fast blade work will get more damage faster, yet prevents the teeth-picker from then running off with full stacks and hitting people with ridiculous damage, half-across the map, and to discourage spawn-camping. (If a guy has killed several people with his fast bladework, you will have a better chance of fighting him by waiting a few seconds instead of mindlessly charging while he’s still at full power)
- Eh, once again this is just an outline. I always thought of the toothpicks as good all-around weps that any class can use, but the striker would be the best with, so I don’t have any class penalties ATM. Also, I’m kind of lazy and want to move on from melee weapons.

* Heavy Handguns -- (Mostly referring to the Callahan & Iron Slug, but the pulsar line could be considered this too). Yeah, I’m thinking of the magnuses (magnusi?) here – I always had the impression that they were the sniper rifle equivalent of SK – large, powerful, low magazines, long range, and stationary firing. The ideal play style I imagined would be that of a sniper – get distance, and kill with the least amount of shots possible.

Positives:
- Increased movement speed for a limited time after firing for recons: HIT AND RUN! If that first shot didn’t hit or kill them, they will be coming after you – you only have one bullet left and some angry psycho-strikers bearing down on you: cloak, run, regroup, and try again.
- Increased cloak time while equipped: good snipers set up before making the shot – lining their sights and making sure they actually get bead on the target. This gives sniper recons more time to prepare.
- While as a recon, the death mark is applied instantly on an enemy successfully hit, but only for a short amount of time – this forces the sniper either risk another shot at a higher chance of killing within a small window of time, or to escape. Bad, inaccurate snipers will get maimed if they miss, while good ones will either kill or mortally wound their enemies.
- Status effect chances like stun also increase with this “mini-mark”.
- As a team member, this allows snipers to help by tagging enemies and letting other team mates rush in to finish them off while still being far enough away.

Negatives:
- Slower weapon swap speed: It’s a big, heavy, bulky hand-canon. If you miss with it, it’ll be harder for you to just switch to another, faster gun.
- The “mini-mark” replaces the full Death Mark. This means enemies aren’t warned of a sniper’s presence, but making shots is now more crucial to success.
- Slower movement speed for everybody: Recons are exempt from this when boosted after firing and while cloaked, but for everyone else it’s heavy and cumbersome.

* Alchemers -- I actually have little to improve these things with, but I feel like I need more non-sword stuff, and I really don’t have any examples for bombs. Going back to recons and gunner-strikers, I always thought of them being like the gunzerker from BL2: a player that has 2 alchemers and has mastered fast-switching lays waste to everything in a hail of gunfire.

Positives:
- Faster switch speed while equipped with another alchemer.
- Increased movement speed when unlcloaked or not boosting
- Increased bullet damage with each consecutive hit
- Recons: increased movement speed when un-cloaked
- Recons: Faster cloak/disappearance time
- Recons: faster cloak recovery: These guys are going to get hit more often than the sniper guy in the last example. They don’t depend on the cloak for hiding as much, but they still need it for the more intense fighting.
- Strikers: Increased boost recovery – you guys gotta keep moving!
- As bullet damage increases stack, damage on status-inflicting alchemers also increase. Due to the number of bullets fired I wouldn’t increase the chances of inflicting status, but the statuses themselves would get progressively more damaging with more shots.

Negatives:
- Increased incoming sword damage: it’s going to be hard to catch these guys. The idea is to constantly move and keep distance by driving them off with bullets or boosting away. If they catch you, they will hit harder.
- Decreased recon cloak capacity: I notice that these kinds of recons don’t really use their cloak except to shield cancel and pop in and out – no real long term set up or sneakiness is needed.
- Decreased striker boost capacity: While the play style promoted with this “dual-wielding” play style encourages constant movement and little down time, constantly boosting would mean more downtime despite recovery being faster – punishing dual-alchemer users for more running than fighting, while allowing more disciplined ones to shoot and run in bursts much more efficiently.

This whole thing is incredibly rough cut, and I hope none of these examples see the light of day with their current states as the finalized versions – however, I think the idea of incomparable pros and cons that affect the very way players engage in lockdown would make the game much more complex and deeper, while making the metagame much more interesting. Of course, this would also be a complete clusterfark if not planned accordingly with relationships between weapons in mind.

Give me feedback on the concept!