[PROTOTYPE] Stinger WIP

[Wail]

>>>DOWNLOAD HERE (Sequencer v10)<<<
(Download Link last updated: Dec 17 2015.)


LATEST VIDEO UPDATED April 27 2015

Features of featured Prototype:
Primary Fire: Rapid fire of tarydium-tipped bullets
Alternate Fire : Cyclically loads up to 9 barrels with unrefined tarydium shards. On release will discharge the shards sequentially at low velocity.

Discussion

One of the weapons that to me has never really lived up to the ideals of imaginative and creative weapons in Unreal Tournament is the Minigun. For UT, UT2003, and UT2004, the gun basically had "Fire Fast" and "Fire Faster" as firemodes. The UT3 approach of mixing in "Stinger" flavor with the Minigun was great from a lore perspective but didn't do much to improve the mechanics of the weapon because no one really had any fun or unique ideas for the alternate fire even then.

I've been tossing around a few ideas for improving Stinger functionality for awhile now, and since I noticed one of them has made it into the build this week I figured it'd be a good idea to make a thread to start iterating on ideas for making the Stinger/Minigun more interesting.

---

Idea 1: Stinger Wall Shards

This was an idea that I had been bouncing around in my head for awhile. When I was talking to Steve and Raxxy at the Nov. Epic event, I floated this one and it got a really good reception. So I went ahead and made a prototype the next day. The basic idea here is using the Stinger alt-fire projectiles to build a temporary ledge that can be used for climbing or traversing gaps in terrain. I have not publicly shared this until now since I think this needs a substantial balancing factor. I think the basic idea is that once you step on the shard, it destabilizes and will explode (causing damage) as soon as you jump off.

Idea 2: Stinger Charged Sequential Burst Fire

This second alt-fire idea one isn't anywhere near as dramatic in terms of functionality, but simply adds some twists to the usage of the secondary fire. Inspired by the current Rocket Launcher alt-fire. I felt like the ideas behind the current Rocket Launcher alt-fire, namely a rapid-fire sequential salvo of projectiles, sounded more characteristic of an actual rapid-fire weapon, e.g. Minigun, than the Rocket Launcher. As it turns out from the video, this mode looks and feels quite natural on the Stinger Minigun. Overall balancing factors of numbers of projectiles and properties of the projectiles would need to be worked out, but to me this looks and feels way more satisfying than the current pop-rock dispenser alt-fire.

[riky rice]

I'm on board with that, it would be especially useful for those who don't master trick jumps and cannot reach certain points of the map

[CzajnikGrozy]

Wasn't the Stinger going to be replaced by Minigun since the community wanted regular MG back? Also, you could rename the weapon to "Stinger Minigun" when selecting weapon instead of just "Minigun".

[RPGWiZ4RD]

I quite like this idea for the reason:

Stinger/Minigun hasn't really much of a divided use, let's face it's is THE spam weapon so it's tricky finding any proper altfire either that fits. Now making it into a utility as well hugely will change the way people look at it.

Then again I personally still think the primary fire acts a bit TOO spammy even for a minigun. Not saying it's necessarily overpowered, just a bit annoying in open fields. It certainly annoyed a lot of UT3 players on big open maps since it was really extremely powerful then. I'd gladly have it changed around a bit and let it get a more "minigun" (UT99 or 2k4 style) primary fire but yea.

This thread is about 2ndary fire though and this idea looks pretty interesting. It certainly could add a few tactics for CTF too making new flagrun paths for example by cooperating with the team which I'm a supporter of, I like the more tactics & teamplay possible, the merrier.

[FirebornForm]

This is pretty good Wail! I've been thinking about how the minigun used to have it's own semi-jump ability when you could fire the gun and slow your fall in the original but the steps idea you have here is pretty cool. This could be combined with that other stinger idea of stinger stake tiggered traps.

I would make it so anything can make the stinger stakes explode from being shot at (by anyone) not by stepping on them so there's a risk on setting it up and crossing them instead of just an easy way to break the level design. You could weigh your options on using someone else's stinger bridge and wonder if it will backfire in your face as it explodes (from someone else shooting it) or if you wanna take the risk for crossing the stinger bridge. (Tactics)

If balancing is your concern...
I would make it so the stinger stakes eventually become brittle (losing opacity and more quartz like). This lets players know how recent the bridge was made.
When they are brittle the bridge becomes useless to stand on and you will just crash through them instead, but the stinger stakes can still damage you by running head on into them.
At the very end of the lifespan of the stinger stakes they fall off the wall crumbling and can't do anything anymore.

[Unreal Gladiator]

I like this idea. This would have large impact in warfare and CTF, it will be tricky to balance. The expanded strategic options are enticing.

I wonder is BunnyTrack players would like this function.

[the_lc]

Oh so thats where this idea originated. :>

There is one use case that came to my mind playing on FFA with it that i'd like to add...

Stakes sticking in a wall should damage a player when he gets pushed into them. Prepping a wall with stakes and then comboing people into them would be awesome. <3

[Neohuman]

My thoughts so far,

I feel like the stakes should be a bit longer in duration or it should fire a bit faster, I also see ammo as an issue when using this for control. But I know that these are delicate issues, I also realize now that this was changed recently to make it less powerful in the last patch requiring more ammo and shooting slower.

The problem that I see is that blocking a door (like how the shock, rockets, or flak can), requires too much ammo just to fire a bunch of stakes into the ground. It takes a long time as well, though it isn't useless. Still, I want this to work since we need more options for space control. And it's very fun and addictive when it works. I wonder what the right balance is.

[Wail]

My thoughts so far,

I feel like the stakes should be a bit longer in duration or it should fire a bit faster, I also see ammo as an issue when using this for control. But I know that these are delicate issues, I also realize now that this was changed recently to make it less powerful in the last patch requiring more ammo and shooting slower.

The problem that I see is that blocking a door (like how the shock, rockets, or flak can), requires too much ammo just to fire a bunch of stakes into the ground. It takes a long time as well, though it isn't useless. Still, I want this to work since we need more options for space control. And it's very fun and addictive when it works. I wonder what the right balance is.

I don't know Epic's thoughts on this, but I think trying to use this for space control should be too hard. Blocking a door is entirely the wrong use of this feature.

[FirebornForm]

Adding onto my opinion the stakes shouldn't detonate unless shot at.

Stinger stakes as a weapon "jump" take a very long time to set up in comparison to the rest of the guns. But when you jump on them you have basically no time to adjust walking/jumping across your stinger bridge/steps, because of the fact they take longer to set up leaving you at risk to be killed I think they should have no penalty to cross it at you're leisure. With the way it is now, it's too much pressure for too little reward.

[RPGWiZ4RD]

Adding onto my opinion the stakes shouldn't detonate unless shot at.

Stinger stakes as a weapon "jump" take a very long time to set up in comparison to the rest of the guns. But when you jump on them you have basically no time to adjust walking/jumping across your stinger bridge/steps, because of the fact they take longer to set up leaving you at risk to be killed I think they should have no penalty to cross it at you're leisure. With the way it is now, it's too much pressure for too little reward.

Yep, exactly, I don't think they should either explode on intact by yourself/friendlies (only explode upon touch of an enemy player) but they shouldn't hang around for a long time either as a result, I'm thinking 7~10 secs to keep the maps clean and mostly for your own use, this is more interesting with CTF in mind when chasing players and could potentially open up a few more routes on some maps and add some teamplay tactics.

[Spiny]

I love it! Might break maps though :/

[Icicle23]

The projectiles almost look like icicles. You could have them "melt" away after a period of inactivity and shatter into several smaller shards when you jump off of one of them.

[RPGWiZ4RD]

The projectiles almost look like icicles. You could have them "melt" away after a period of inactivity and shatter into several smaller shards when you jump off of one of them.

Dat nick. I like that idea though, assuming these iceshard projectiles are here to stay and minigun isn't coming back. (there are more 2ndary alternative mechanics that can be made with the current design so in that mind I've started to adapt to the idea it stays like UT3)

[Wail]

Bumping this to demo new prototype alt-fire functionality. Updated the original post with video and description: