Starting ammo: 20
Ammo pickup: 20
Maximum ammo: 50
Primary fire: a single ball of goop that uses one ammo, holding the primary fire button releases
Secondary fire: a larger ball of goop between 1 and 10 ammo depending on how long the secondary fire button is held down
The bio rifle fires projectiles (it takes time for the fire to reach the target, as opposed to hitscan weapons which are instant) with a moderate to low speed and moderate trajectory, meaning that the ball "falls" in an arc or parabola. The secondary fire is heavier and therefore falls quicker, depending on how long the secondary fire button is held down. It takes around 2 seconds for the bio rifle secondary fire to fully charge. A fully charged "glob" uses up 10 ammo, and deals out 210 damage which is enough to kill all but the most juiced (health and armour wise) players.
Due to its slow speed and trajectory, it is quite difficult to aim the bio rifle accurately. Players must aim above their intended target and must also lead their fire significantly due to the slow speed of the bio rifle(unless their target is stationary)
The bio rifle is also the only weapon that sticks to any surface it lands on (for a few seconds) meaning that often players aren't actually killed by a direct hit, but by walking into the goo or by the mild explosion or pop that occurs after the goo has been on a surface for a few seconds. This makes up for the difficulty of aiming the bio rifle, however many players, use the bio rifle rarely, as it requires its own skill set.
The bio rifle is seen as one of the more controversial weapons in the game, due to its ability to stick to surfaces. Many experienced players ignore the bio rifle and use it rarely, myself included, however players who have mastered the bio rifle have an added advantage in battle and all players should learn at least the basics of aiming with the bio rifle for situations when the bio rifle is the only option (ie overpopulated servers with no weapon stay) The one shot kill nature of the secondary fire means that it is the preferred mode of fire for players online.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Assault Rifle
Starting ammo: 100/4
Ammo pack: 50/4
Maximum ammo: 200/8
Primary damage: 7
Secondary damage: 70
Primary fire shoots low damage bullets at a moderately fast rate of fire
Secondary fire is an attached grenade launcher. Grenades can be bounced off walls without exploding, however they explode when they come into contact with other players
The Assault rifle is the weapon that players are holding at the beginning of each battle, and after they come back to life (spawning) after dieing. It is unique in that it is the only weapon with two separate ammo reserves, one for primary fire and one for secondary fire, meaning that the gun can be out of bullets and still have grenades and vice-versa. The yellow bar under the assault rifle in the weapon bar shows the ammo for its primary fire, meaning that the only way to know how many grenades are left is if you are holding the assault rifle. This also means the assault rifle is the only weapon that can be switched to if its ammo bar appears empty.
The Assault rifle is also the only weapon that can be used akimbo style, meaning one in each hand. As assault rifles are rarely found on the map, the only way to get another assault rifle is to pick it up off a dead player, or even your own dead body, as when you die your weapon is dropped onto the floor for a few seconds for anyone to pick up. There are generally plenty of assault rifles on the floor as players are most vulnerable when they spawn as they only have two weak weapons and a fairly low amount of health compared to the maximum (199 health 150 armour)
Despite its unique characteristics and quirks, the assault rifle is one of the weakest weapons in the game, and should only be used if there are no other weapons available. Generally players will fire off all their grenades as they run for their first "real" weapon, as the grenades are the only remotely useful thing about the assault rifle, players know that as soon as they pick up another weapon any remaining ammo in their assault rifle will not be used, so why not chuck a few grenades round the corner, you might get lucky.
Ammo pack: 50/4
Maximum ammo: 200/8
Primary damage: 7
Secondary damage: 70
Primary fire shoots low damage bullets at a moderately fast rate of fire
Secondary fire is an attached grenade launcher. Grenades can be bounced off walls without exploding, however they explode when they come into contact with other players
The Assault rifle is the weapon that players are holding at the beginning of each battle, and after they come back to life (spawning) after dieing. It is unique in that it is the only weapon with two separate ammo reserves, one for primary fire and one for secondary fire, meaning that the gun can be out of bullets and still have grenades and vice-versa. The yellow bar under the assault rifle in the weapon bar shows the ammo for its primary fire, meaning that the only way to know how many grenades are left is if you are holding the assault rifle. This also means the assault rifle is the only weapon that can be switched to if its ammo bar appears empty.
The Assault rifle is also the only weapon that can be used akimbo style, meaning one in each hand. As assault rifles are rarely found on the map, the only way to get another assault rifle is to pick it up off a dead player, or even your own dead body, as when you die your weapon is dropped onto the floor for a few seconds for anyone to pick up. There are generally plenty of assault rifles on the floor as players are most vulnerable when they spawn as they only have two weak weapons and a fairly low amount of health compared to the maximum (199 health 150 armour)
Despite its unique characteristics and quirks, the assault rifle is one of the weakest weapons in the game, and should only be used if there are no other weapons available. Generally players will fire off all their grenades as they run for their first "real" weapon, as the grenades are the only remotely useful thing about the assault rifle, players know that as soon as they pick up another weapon any remaining ammo in their assault rifle will not be used, so why not chuck a few grenades round the corner, you might get lucky.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Shield Gun
Starting ammo: 100
Ammo pickup: no ammo pickup
Maximum ammo: 100
Primary Damage: 40-150
Secondary Damage 0
Primary fire is a melee (rather like a knife or baseball bat, or any hitting sort of weapon) attack, hold the primary fire to build up, and the shield gun will automatically discharge when another player is at point blanck range. It takes 2 seconds for the primary fire to fully charge
Secondary fire is a protective shield which can absorb damage, hold to activate the shield, let go to disactivate
The shield gun is unique in many ways. First of all it is the only weapon that does not have an ammo pack. Instead the shield gun replenishes ammo at a rather quick rate. Second of all, its primary fire is the only damage dealing attack in the game that does not use any ammunition at all, except perhaps for falling on an opponants head from a high altitude...
The ammo for the shield gun is instead used by its secondary fire, the shield, whenever the shield is activated, 15 ammunition is immedietly used, from then on the ammo will deplete at a rather fast rate until the shield runs out. It then cannot be used until it reaches at least 15 through automatic replenishment. It takes around 15 seconds for a shield gun with full ammo to become depleted, unless of course the shield takes damage, which it probably will considering that is what it is for. An empty shield gun takes around 19 seconds to fully replenish itself
The primary fire of the shield gun can be used to "shield jump" which is when a player jumps and then almost instantly releases the shield gun at their feet. The longer the shieldgun is charged, the higher you will go but the more damage you will inflict on yourself (between 20 or 53) The secondary fire is often used to prevent damage or recduce the amount of damage taken from falling, often from a flying vehicle, but sometimes also in multistorey maps. The secondary can also be used to "bio jump" in which the player fires a large glob of goo from the bio rifle on the floor and then activates the shield at their feet as they land on it and it pops, sending them into the air. It takes longer to perform then a shield jump but it prevents you from taking any damage at all.
Ammo pickup: no ammo pickup
Maximum ammo: 100
Primary Damage: 40-150
Secondary Damage 0
Primary fire is a melee (rather like a knife or baseball bat, or any hitting sort of weapon) attack, hold the primary fire to build up, and the shield gun will automatically discharge when another player is at point blanck range. It takes 2 seconds for the primary fire to fully charge
Secondary fire is a protective shield which can absorb damage, hold to activate the shield, let go to disactivate
The shield gun is unique in many ways. First of all it is the only weapon that does not have an ammo pack. Instead the shield gun replenishes ammo at a rather quick rate. Second of all, its primary fire is the only damage dealing attack in the game that does not use any ammunition at all, except perhaps for falling on an opponants head from a high altitude...
The ammo for the shield gun is instead used by its secondary fire, the shield, whenever the shield is activated, 15 ammunition is immedietly used, from then on the ammo will deplete at a rather fast rate until the shield runs out. It then cannot be used until it reaches at least 15 through automatic replenishment. It takes around 15 seconds for a shield gun with full ammo to become depleted, unless of course the shield takes damage, which it probably will considering that is what it is for. An empty shield gun takes around 19 seconds to fully replenish itself
The primary fire of the shield gun can be used to "shield jump" which is when a player jumps and then almost instantly releases the shield gun at their feet. The longer the shieldgun is charged, the higher you will go but the more damage you will inflict on yourself (between 20 or 53) The secondary fire is often used to prevent damage or recduce the amount of damage taken from falling, often from a flying vehicle, but sometimes also in multistorey maps. The secondary can also be used to "bio jump" in which the player fires a large glob of goo from the bio rifle on the floor and then activates the shield at their feet as they land on it and it pops, sending them into the air. It takes longer to perform then a shield jump but it prevents you from taking any damage at all.
Discussion of weapons
Ok we're starting to get into the detail now, for those of you who are new to the game, I now recommend you take a look at the deathmatch tutorial which can be accsessed via the community menu, it covers very basically the general mechanics of the game.
As most of you will already know, under normal circumstances (ie with no mutators or third party game types) players will spawn with two weapons, the Shield Gun and the Assault rifle. The Assault rifle will be, by default the weapon that players begin the game playing, with the shield gun in reserve, however these guns are generally weak, and players stand little chance without other firepower, allthough I will discuss methods to use these weapons to your advantage as much as possible if there are no alternatives. Viewing the "weapon bar" down the bottom of your screen will show you which weapons you currently have in your possesion, with weapons you don't have appearing as a shadow. The amount of ammo you have for each weapon is also graphically displayed as a yellow bar under the weapon, a full bar means that you cannot hold any more ammunition for that weapon.
The starting and maximum ammo of weapons differ, however no weapon begins with full ammo. There is a general rule that the faster the rate of fire is for a weapon, the less damage each individual round/ammo will cause and the more ammo the weapon will start with and can hold in total, however other factors such as the accuracy of the weapon and its speed or trajectory mean that weapons that seem to be statistically favoured, (eg due to higher possible damage per second) are not unbalanced.
Each weapon also has its own unique ammo pack, meaning that picking up ammo for the minigun will only give you ammo for the mini gun. These ammo packs also give a set amount of ammo depending on the rate of fire and damage of each round. If you pick up an ammo pack for a weapon you do not have, and then pick up the weapon some time later (without dieing of course) you will have a starting ammo equal to the normal starting ammo of the weapon plus the ammo from the ammo packs you have picked up, however if you have ammo for a weapon without the weapon, the yellow ammo bar under the weapon in the weapon bar remains empty, so there is no visual cue on the screen to recognise how much ammo you have for weapons you are not holding. It is important to memorise which ammo packs are for which weapons.
Furthermore, each weapon makes a unique sound when it is picked up, both by you and by other players in the arena. The only exception to this is the bio rifle and the flak cannon, which both make the same sound. These sounds are especially useful in duels, as you can use them to pinpoint the location of the other player at a certain time, which can help you to predict where they will be in a matter of seconds and prime a shock ball ready to explode at a corner should your theory be correct. Weapon ammo packs also make a unique sound.
As most of you will already know, under normal circumstances (ie with no mutators or third party game types) players will spawn with two weapons, the Shield Gun and the Assault rifle. The Assault rifle will be, by default the weapon that players begin the game playing, with the shield gun in reserve, however these guns are generally weak, and players stand little chance without other firepower, allthough I will discuss methods to use these weapons to your advantage as much as possible if there are no alternatives. Viewing the "weapon bar" down the bottom of your screen will show you which weapons you currently have in your possesion, with weapons you don't have appearing as a shadow. The amount of ammo you have for each weapon is also graphically displayed as a yellow bar under the weapon, a full bar means that you cannot hold any more ammunition for that weapon.
The starting and maximum ammo of weapons differ, however no weapon begins with full ammo. There is a general rule that the faster the rate of fire is for a weapon, the less damage each individual round/ammo will cause and the more ammo the weapon will start with and can hold in total, however other factors such as the accuracy of the weapon and its speed or trajectory mean that weapons that seem to be statistically favoured, (eg due to higher possible damage per second) are not unbalanced.
Each weapon also has its own unique ammo pack, meaning that picking up ammo for the minigun will only give you ammo for the mini gun. These ammo packs also give a set amount of ammo depending on the rate of fire and damage of each round. If you pick up an ammo pack for a weapon you do not have, and then pick up the weapon some time later (without dieing of course) you will have a starting ammo equal to the normal starting ammo of the weapon plus the ammo from the ammo packs you have picked up, however if you have ammo for a weapon without the weapon, the yellow ammo bar under the weapon in the weapon bar remains empty, so there is no visual cue on the screen to recognise how much ammo you have for weapons you are not holding. It is important to memorise which ammo packs are for which weapons.
Furthermore, each weapon makes a unique sound when it is picked up, both by you and by other players in the arena. The only exception to this is the bio rifle and the flak cannon, which both make the same sound. These sounds are especially useful in duels, as you can use them to pinpoint the location of the other player at a certain time, which can help you to predict where they will be in a matter of seconds and prime a shock ball ready to explode at a corner should your theory be correct. Weapon ammo packs also make a unique sound.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Weapons Introduction
There are 16 weapons and 2 "tools" that are sometimes classified as weapons, the translocator and the ball launcher. 9 of these weapons are used more often then the others, and I will refer to these as standard weapons from now on.
3 of these weapons are used little in deathmatch and deathmatch varients, but are used more in other larger scale game types such as onslaught. These weapons are the AVRiL, Mine Layer, and Grenade Launcher. 3 weapons NEVER have weapon stay activated, respawn 3 times slower then all other weapons and come with only one ammunition. These weapons are called super weapons.
- Shield Gun
- Assault Rifle
- Bio-rifle
- Shock Rifle
- Link Gun
- Minigun
- Flak Cannon
- Rocket Launcher
- Lightning Gun
3 of these weapons are used little in deathmatch and deathmatch varients, but are used more in other larger scale game types such as onslaught. These weapons are the AVRiL, Mine Layer, and Grenade Launcher. 3 weapons NEVER have weapon stay activated, respawn 3 times slower then all other weapons and come with only one ammunition. These weapons are called super weapons.
- Redeemer
- Ion Painter
- Target Painter
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