Weapon Feedback

[ChJees]

How i feel about the weapons in MY experience is this topic about.

*Phoenix and Bats feels underwhelming to use. I had a better time with dynamite i found on the map.

*Tranquilizer gun is too situational to be useful in the long run.

*Grenade launchers only saving grace over thrown explosives is that you can fire in rapid succession, otherwise it is preferable to use a thrown explosive.

*Minigun is well... Underwhelming. A pistol do the job better.

*Sniper rifle leaves one too vulnerable to be used in the chaos of battle. If it was more like the Serious Sam: The Second Encounter sniper it would see more use. (Variable zoom and rapid fire)

*Double pistols while cool are essentially just a pistol with doubled ammo capacity. Should let the player keep the fire button pressed to automatically fire them.

*Hellsing just feels like a more accurate revolver.

*Flare gun is okay. Could either use a little bigger explosion radius OR a damage over time effect.

*Ankh and "Power" Gloves are okay for the infinite ammo they provide. As a starting weapon the Ankh make Sekhmet a even more powerful class. Could do something to differentiate these weapons from each other, essentially the same weapon reskinned.

*Dynamite, do a bunch of damage, useful.

*Gunpowder bomb, ditto.

*Assault rifle, very useful for its ammo capacity and accuracy.

*AK47, essentially a all-round worse Assault rifle.

*SMG is okay. A good all-rounder.

*Automatic crossbow, is okay i guess. No fanfare really.

*Shotgun crossbow, okay point blank weapon which kill most things.

*Bow, huge ammo capacity and accuracy is its saving grace.

*Kunai, a good versatile all-rounder.

*Lightning\Taser gun, good for mopping up horde type of enemies. Passable pistol otherwise.

*Pistol is okay. Good accuracy and damage.

*Shotgun could use some tweaking. Whatever weapon you find you are bound to replace this one with.

*Lightning thrower, beyond useless with the range it got. Would fix it by making it fire out projectiles which are affected by gravity to allow skilled people arc it.

Wew, quite the exhaustive list. And i have not even tested all weapons too.

[Stabbey]

1. I agree about Pheonix and Bats. It feels like there's a pretty significant delay between when you pull the trigger and when the ability does damage. That's especially troublesome for Bats, which takes so long to go through the animation that it's borderline useless. Add the low ammo cap on top and they are quickly replaced the first chance I get, and never picked up if they drop.

2. The Tranquilizer gun is okay, I find. As part of the Hunter's kit it makes a good one-two punch with the burst rifle.

4. I only really pull out the minigun for crowds of tough enemies. It's definitely a very situational gun, though. It's definitely the kind of thing which is better as a 4th gun than a third. It still has its uses though.

5. I think the Sniper Rifle is okay. I mean it might be better with a dedicated zoom button, but a new button for just one gun is a bit much to expect.

6. Holding the fire button for continuous fire might be nice with those, yeah.

9. Yeah, the infinite ammo really makes those weapons stand out as must-haves when they drop for their utility. There is a suggestion in another thread that the Ankh could become the emergency weapon, although that would mean needing to reassign a new gun to Sekmet.

13. I am also not super-impressed with the "Queen of guns". It chews through ammo really quickly and has pretty poor accuracy. Just a note, not saying it has to be changed.

16. / 17. I agree, the Kunai and Bow's good amount of ammo, decent damage, and high accuracy make these very good weapons.

20. The Redneck's shotgun is pretty bad, yeah. The spread is extremely high, making it very poor to use outside of almost melee range.

[Mil Sharkie]

Phoenix can be used like a shotgun, since the projectiles always travel a short distance straight ahead before fanning out. Any projectiles that miss the intended target will then seek out other targets. Bats are just bad though, specially since the Hellsing pistol is so strong you hardly need anything else.

The Tranquilizer Gun is a very powerful defensive tool, actually, because it lets you control enemies without killing them. You can shoot a charging enemy, or one spamming projectiles at you, then ignore them for ~8 seconds while you deal with the other enemies around you. Or empty the clip to freeze up to 5 enemies so you can move to a better position without taking unnecessary damage. If you're using the tranq to wombo combo with your heavy guns, you're only getting half of the benefit.

The minigun being as underwhelming as it is is a large part of why I really dislike playing Apis. Losing your extra jumps and being so slow is too harsh a penalty for the bonuses he gets.

I generally agree with you about the Sniper Rifle, however, it's very useful to finish out rooms with once you reduce enemy numbers with more reliable weaponry. Some 'primary' weapons, as I've come to call them, have limited reserve ammo so saving a few shots by using your sniper on the end of rooms can make the difference. Also, it tends to be very powerful for bosses.

The issue, I find, with the Assault Rifle and Assault Pistol is that they disable your ability to see enemy health. They're very reliable weapons, but I find that I end up wasting a shot or two due to not knowing when exactly the enemy's going to die.

The AK is best used in short bursts, it recovers its accuracy much more quickly than any other full-auto weapon does when you stop firing so it's very reliable at mid-range so long as you don't hold down the trigger. Ammo can be an issue, though. I feel like it should have more reserve ammo than two clips.

The Tesla Coil, I actually found it to be extremely powerful, especially in the hands of Seth, who happens to start with it. The first time I cleared the third pyramid I started with the scroll that limits you to one weapon and didn't even care. Seriously, if I pick up a Tesla Coil it's usually the only weapon I use for all situations, unless I'm playing Sekhmet since she doesn't give enough damage for it to reliably kill things before running out of ammo.

The lightning flamethrower, it seems, throws particles out similar to how Team Fortress 2's flamethrower works. It would be much better if it worked like the Reegar Carbine from Mass Effect 3, where it just deals damage in a cone in front of you for as long as the fire button is held. Sure, it's less realistic and you won't get the fancy particles floating about, but I'd take reliability over function, especially when it's a starting weapon for one of the Favors.

[Stabbey]

My opinion of the Minigun has improved somewhat. With the right perks, it's a monster. Of course those perks are good for any gun, but still. Infinite Ammo and pots dropping stuff change the minigun from a "sometimes weapon" to a "LOTS of the time weapon".

I also had occasion to try out the AK some more, and I still think it's mediocre. There are much better "short burst" guns. The aim goes all over the place and it chews through ammo.

The Sniper Rifle seems to lose its power on higher levels of the pyramid when the increased enemy health means you need two shots or more to kill enemies, which is quite bad.

Reached Pyramid 2 and found a new weapon "Gambit". It's a bunch of cards. It's like a Kunai, but worse. Weaker damage and much slower animations in exchange for more ammo. Underwhelming at best. I tried this out for a few rooms, then went back and picked up the Phoenix I left behind. The larger ammo count doesn't compensate for its drawbacks.

[Mil Sharkie]

The thing about Gambit is that it homes in on enemies and explodes in a small radius. It's very handy for when you're too busy dodging to make a precise shot on that flying guy that keeps shooting at you, or when you have a bunch of little guys you've herded into a tight group.

Also, I don't know when it gets unlocked, but eventually you'll get a better sniper rifle called Farsight. It does more damage and highlights enemies while scoped, even through walls.

[SexyPanther]

I like the Phoenix. Similar to the Dynamite, I find it useful in attacking swarms of enemies. The shots aren't fast enough to track and hit the Pharoah though.

[mitc1111]

the rapid fire cross bow is awesome. Mainly because it seems alot easier to aim and hit the targets. Dont know why, but my accuracy is way better with the 2 bows than with anything else.

[Stabbey]

I'm making a decided effort to try more of the apparently underwhelming weapons.

I think Phoenix would be in a good spot if the cooldown between shots was reduced to 0.5-1 seconds. It's the kind of weapon which really needs to unload several shots quickly to be more effective than using a different weapon. And obviously, it also shouldn't home in on enemies which are on the other side of walls/floors/ceilings and waste a lot of the shots.

I think the Ankh would be well-suited as the Emergency Weapon every character has. It's ranged, has infinite ammo, and is not super-powerful.

[SexyPanther]

Originally posted by Stabbey:

I think the Ankh would be well-suited as the Emergency Weapon every character has. It's ranged, has infinite ammo, and is not super-powerful.

I agree that currently the Ankh would make the best Emergency Weapon for all characters. However, I don't find it particularly ideal. The reason being is that the Ankh represents life, and is intentionally suited the most for Sehkmet whom specializes in gaining life (both active and passive abilities). I have two alternatives to Stabbery's idea which I'll present here:

1) Create a new weapon for all classes. I propose a "slingshot" made either of a jawbone and a strip of mummy shroud used to launch wadded up balls of mummy shroud, or made of the mummy making the peace sign with his right hand and using a piece of shroud between the fingers to propel a small stone.

2) Use existing non-ammo-using weapons to give each class its own unique Emergency Weapon. Presently, the Ankh and the Power Gloves are the only two I can think of off the top of my head. It is entirely possible there aren't 9 weapons in the game that don't use ammo. Therefore, this is the lessor of the two options as it may involve the most work.

Unrelated bonus idea! Make a text description tool-tip on the pause screen for the weapons you currently have on your run.

[Stabbey]

Just got Horus's Fate. It's a little tricky to use. It might be easier to use if it fired when you released the trigger, not when the globe stops inflating. But would that make it too easy to use and therefore too powerful?

Originally posted by SexyPanther:

I agree that currently the Ankh would make the best Emergency Weapon for all characters. However, I don't find it particularly ideal. The reason being is that the Ankh represents life, and is intentionally suited the most for Sehkmet whom specializes in gaining life (both active and passive abilities).

Ah, but you see, the Redneck is Immortal, no matter what aspect he has equipped. That sounds like the Symbol of Life would be extremely fitting for the Immortal.

[Stabbey]

I've changed my mind about Horus's Fate a bit. It's fine as is. It doesn't take a lot of time to get used to the charge-up so aiming becomes easier.

I found the Staff of Ra. I didn't have a lot of time to use it, because the single-target damage didn't wow me when I had a set of guns and perks which let me use bigger guns without ammo worries, and the Horus's Fate let me pierce several enemies at once.

Reached Pyramid 3 and found the Shield. I haven't played much with it, but it seems just plain bad. It has no attack and occupies a weapon slot. And I did soon after find the "Get an Extra weapon slot" perk too, so I can use it without hampering myself too much. Here's what's wrong with the shield, at least in my limited time with it:
- It has no attack and occupies one of your three (usually) weapon slots.
- You need to switch weapons to get to it.
- It's a throwable weapon, and it has too long an animation before you throw it.
- You toss it forward a little ways and then have to wait for the shield to emerge. If you desperately need a shield, all those extra delays hurt it.
- It's a stationary shield in a game genre where survivability means constantly moving and dodging. I don't see a lot of use in crouching behind a shield.

[Mil Sharkie]

Staff of Ra is very good for dealing with anklebiters, and even though its damage is really low it can be handy against larger enemies as well. This is because it deals constant damage, and enemies in hitstun are completely immobilized, so you can hold the staff active on a couple enemies and freeze them in place while chipping away at their health. Personally I don't care for it, simply because it doesn't do that much damage and there's better weapons for holding enemies in place like the Machine Gun or the Tranq.

I had a run a while back where I found the Shield and it was a massive lifesaver. Say you're in one of those rooms with a rectangular set of corridors and bunch of guys that charge you. Plop down a shield behind you, and now they can only come from one direction so you won't get flanked. Also, the shield makes a distinct sound when it goes away so you know your back is vulnerable again. Or, if your weapons have very long reload times like the Automatic Crossbow or the Rocket Launcher, back into a corner, toss down a shield, and now you have plenty of time to freely reload without having to dodge at the same time. You can also do this if you're not sure how the room's enemies are going to come at you, to give yourself time to safely assess the room you're in. Or, if you enter a large room with a bunch of projectile enemies, you can throw a couple shields down to funnel the enemies' fire and take them out one at a time without having to dodge as much. It's also useful for bosses, since you can sit behind the shield then peek out to take potshots when the boss leaves itself vulnerable. You need to have two strong weapons so you don't run into ammo issues after picking it up, but I'm quite fond of its versatility.

[Stabbey]

On another run the Staff of Ra was good at replacing my "pistol" equivalent. It's okay, it just wasn't a good fit for the earlier run.

The shield is better if you aim at your feet and shoot, it deploys much faster. It's still so situational that it's hard to justify going down to 2 weapon slots for it though.

Shrapnel Grenade, Sticky Grenade Launcher, Farsight Sniper Rifle, all good.

***

The Vertical Shotgun is much closer to being a good shotgun than the Redneck Shotgun. It has a very powerful sound and it actually seems to be okay at dealing damage. But it shares the Redneck Shotgun's unreliability. Sometimes I can nail an enemy at close range with a solid hit. Other times the shots just go all over and miss.

I am guessing that the intention is to have the Redneck Shotgun be good at spreading shots out horizontally (like Ziggurat's Undead Staff) and the Vertical Shotgun is supposed to be better at focusing all the shots onto a single large target.

Unfortunately, the low damage-per-pellet makes the horizontal spread weak and ineffective with the slow-firing, small-magazine redneck shotgun. And the spread is quite unreliable anyway. The Vertical Shotgun is better by default because at least you can hit the target with more pellets most of the time. But it's the "most" of the time which is the issue. If I've got my crosshairs center-mass on a target only a few meters away, I shouldn't miss with half my pellets that often.

[Stabbey]

I haven't played much with Seth, the God of Storms. After playing with him, I quickly figured out why.

While his Tesla Coil pistol is good, his other two weapons are less so. The Laser Sword thing is okay as the "power" weapon, but I personally dislike the feel. The swing and the travel time of the arc make the weapon feel slow to use, and make it more difficult to aim. I don't know if it works as a melee weapon at 0 ammo, but I doubt it. It should.

The Electric Flamethrower is just terrible. Even under optimal conditions, circle-strafing a group of small, weak horde enemies, it takes too long to damage and kill them. It takes too long to kill even moderate enemies like the archers, and lizard raygunners, it's just totally bad overall. It does way too little damage to be effective on anything.

Also a reminder that Bats are still totally terrible and Phoenix needs a much shorter cooldown time (0.5-1 second at most).

[Stabbey]

Two new weapons found. The Poison Cloud is an okay-meh weapon. I like that you CANNOT poison yourself with it, but damage over time tends to be less good than damage immediately. I guess because enemies flinch and stop when hit it's okay, and the damage seems to be fairly good at least.

The SFG 9000 is hilarious and pretty cool. I am stuck with the "Cursed Favour" (only one gun allowed), but I also have the Bulletback Perk and the Infinite Ammo perk, so odds are that SOMETHING killed by the room-clearing blast will drop a full ammo pack. Bulletback seems to be bugged to give you ammo above the weapon's max capacity so you can shoot it more than twice if you avoid ammo packs, although why would you need to shoot more than twice with that gun? EDIT: Just for reference, this gun is not super-useful without the Infinite Ammo perk, because small ammo packs do NOT reload it, only large ammo packs.


The Wooloo staff is interesting-ish, but a questionable use of a weapon slot. Still, though, the low ammo capacity ironically makes it ideal for spamming, as you hit two enemies with it, depleting your charges, then kill something else and get more charges from a dropped ammo pack. I guess it's decent.