Weapons are dull and mechanically uninspired.

[Beans McCoy]

I'm simply going to explain my largest bugbear with Core Keeper so far at 50+ hours. Fine if no one else agrees, this is very opinion based, but I'm certain that I can't be alone in this. For the purposes of this, I will be ignoring weapon abilities, though similar criticisms still apply, considering that there are only a few weapon abilities, and they're also boring (and not very useful).

The weapons in Core Keeper are dull, categorically the same, and mechanically uninspired. I think many of the weapons are visually interesting later in the game, like the Galaxite Chakrams are quite pretty, but it still behaves in precisely the same manner as every other thrown weapon.

A sword slashes the same as any other sword, a bow shoots the same as every other bow, staffs shoot the same magic balls, etc etc. There are like six categories of weapons, and everything within those categories pretty much behaves in the exact same manner as every other weapon in that category, regardless of rarity or progression. The bubble gun being the only real outlier in the literal entire arsenal. Not to mention that spears, daggers, axes, and swords, despite technically being different melee weapon types, also basically all function the same. So there's more broadly only 3 or 4 categories of weapon.

Anyway, that's enough griping. Let me get to the actual point here. A comparison between Core Keeper's uninspired arsenal, to games that have memorable and fun arsenals. And to do so, let us examine two games here as examples of how to make more appealing weapons. Terraria (the obvious example), and something more recent and also top-down, Tiny Rogues.

One of the most appealing things about Terraria to me is the variety of equipment in the game, not quantity, but unique variety mechanically and functionally. The first few tiers of weapons are basic, this makes sense, an iron sword is super basic. But then you start getting slowly introduced to weapons that do more special things, like when you come across a magic boomerang that lights up the area around the projectile, or arrows that bounce off of walls. Then it all goes off of the rails in the best way possible mid to late game, and every single weapon is unique in how it functions. No two swords do the same thing, and no sword is just a stick to swing. You have swords that summon stars from the skies, laser cannons, water spewing flowers, Nyan cat cannons, it's a madhouse and it's BRILLIANT! Core Keeper absolutely needs to take some notes from what makes Terraria's arsenal so incredible.

Now, I'm using Tiny Rogues as an example because the weapon designs are a bit more finely focused, but every one is still quite different. One of the things that makes Tiny Rogues so enjoyable is how crunchy all the stats and numbers are, and there's certainly some of that to a smaller degree happening in core keeper. Like building around a particular stat or debuff for example. But beyond numbers, every weapon has differences ranging from slight, to major. Let's look at instrument weapons. So a low tier like the Banjo fires a single projectile, at a moderate rate, with a low amount of target tracking. Then you have something that fires faster for similar damage, but has no tracking. Or another that fires a spread of three projectiles, slowly, with moderate tracking. Or the guitar that fires one projectile but also chain lightning. My point on this example is that even smaller tweaks like that can make a large difference in creating weapons that feel unique. That make you want to use them beyond just being a direct numbers upgrade. Also one small thing about Tiny Rogues, all melee weapons are a projectile that travels forwards a short distance. I think this would also be quite nice to implement in Core Keeper on most melee weapons, just a simple extension of the weapon range by one or two tiles.

Coming back to core keeper, none of what I've given as examples really exists in Core keeper. Even the Ricochet Shuriken, that EXPRESSLY STATES that it bounces off of walls, does no such thing whatsoever. It's still just a single projectile, with no special affects, nothing.

Anyway, whilst I've greatly enjoyed the game, I'm so so so disappointed by the weapons. By the time I got to scarletite I wasn't even looking forward to or excited at the thought of upgrading my gear anymore. It was just number increases to progress. Nothing to look forward to, nothing to explore or learn, gear upgrades and discoveries simply ceased to have any real meaning. The gear in Core Keeper is simply un-fun, and uninspired. Weapons in specific need a complete redesign from about iron to endgame.

Here are some ideas off of the top of my head:
- A shotgun... why does this need suggesting?
- A crossbow that fires a single projectile, that then splits into a multishot after traveling a handful of tiles.
- A magic weapon that fires a slow moving homing projectile.
- A magic flame thrower.
- Chain lightning?
- Bouncing thrown weapons that actually bounce.
- A sword that fires a secondary laser beam.
- A cluster bomb launcher. Maybe that actually arcs to where your cursor is pointing and not just a straight line.
- A chain sword that hits rapidly for low damage with stacking bleed (and solid particle effets)
- Rotating or player radius based weapons
- Infectious poison that can spread
- A weapon that causes AoE explosions of crit hits
- A sword or thrown weapon that has an arc based on mouse cursor location

The possibilities are endless.

Thank you for reading my ♥♥♥♥♥♥ essay.

TLDR: Weapons boring. Make weapons gud and fun.

[Brilpoetsdoekje]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Tom (68inchPianist):

There is a late-game staff that is basically Random ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Go! which baffled me, because it has so many cool different things it *can* fire; it would have been amazing if some of them were built in to earlier game staves...

chaos staff yeah, i thought the same thing many times while using it, would be cool if all those different bolts were also individual staffs