"Harm with impunity. Heal with precision."


A compact spring-based dart gun for the Medic. It utilizes the Crusader's Crossbow's rig, and operates much the same way. The design revolves around the idea that it was originally an actual crossbow, much like the CC, but was stripped of it's crossbow parts and retrofitted with healing equipment. The canister is held between belts running along the bottom of the gun and a mount screwed to the base of the crossbow. Like all the other Medic primaries, the catalyst plugs in the back of the chamber, supplying a fresh dart. It also features a pullback bar, which is used to reload the spring before firing.

This weapon is a pure salvage job. The original design was garbage, and had to be scrapped. I burned through about three designs before I settled on something I liked. Like the other weapons in the set, the theme is wood/homemade weaponry. It's not my best work, but it actually feels pretty nice to fire in game. It takes up much less screen space than most of the Medic weapons, which is quite appealing in my opinion.

Why did it take so long? Mostly due to the puppet-theming, or lack thereof. The original design of this weapon was a blutsauger that had a puppet face. Not very imaginative. As I mulled over how to work puppetry into the gun, I began to realize that no matter what I came up with, it would come across as very forced. Rather than force the puppet theme onto the gun and end up with something extremely obtuse, I cut my losses and scrapped the idea. I think it ultimately turned out better without the forced puppet stuff.

I also wanted to make this weapon a crossbow, with a X-shaped double cross on the front. I wanted this right up until I realized that it obscures most of the screen.

Lastly, the weapon features a pullback bar for cocking the spring in the gun. This currently has no rig or animation, but could have one in the future. I wanted to make this with a custom reload, but decided to wait instead. I'd rather release a weapon that can be used immediately, and then substitute in the animation later.

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[gamebanana.com]