What's a weapon you'd like to see added in PS2?

As the title suggests, what would be a weapon design that you would like to see implemented in the game?
I feel like there's a lot of creative ideas out there, but not sure how they'd fit in the game balance.

So let's use this downtime and get those creative juices flowing. I myself feel like there should be much more melee weapon options.

Maybe a weapon with a boomerang-like mechanic or even a channeled laser beam for the VS that gets stronger the longer it's channeled.

I'd also love to see a weapon that fires a single projectile that latches onto a target with a delayed explosion timer and it could also maybe scramble their UI for a few seconds before it explodes.

Would absolutely love a new kind of weapon attachment that pulls or pushes enemies close to you or away from you, some sort of magnetic field generator or I don't know. Would be so much fun pushing people into your mines or C4-s.

Would love to see a new kind of weapon or shield mechanic that reflects bullets back to enemies, would really fix the sniper problem and add more skill to the damage exchanges.

Anyway, put down some nice ideas you have guys!

An actually useful continous laserbeam weapon for VS like the lasher was in beta. but instead of ending after 10m give it 100m range. make it hitscan and put it on the lower DPS scale and give it some hefty recoil/rattle.
oh and make it's beam rainbow colored, otherwise it will be UP

The targeting laser from Tribes 2.

The "heavies" in that game had a mortar weapon (well suited to a max suit in Planetside) that fired huge arcing distances. A "light" class could carry a laser target designator.

The target designator fired a beam out and wherever it hit, a hud marker would appear for friendlies. This would be great as a squad lead tool in planetside.

The cool part was how the two worked together though. For a "heavy" the hud marker appeared differently. A vertical line on the hud went up from the target spot and at the top of this line was a second "target" marker. If a heavy fired at this location, the ballistic arc of the mortar shot would land on the spot being designated.

Planetside badly needs this combo.

Esf noseguns on lightning.

ES rockrt launchers for lightning, but stronger.

An EMP burst cannon that would make A2G farming ESFs just drop out of the sky.

(well I can dream)

Strategic map integrated in the HUD:
A full 3D map where a PL/SL can create and save templates for different strategies. Made so the leader can have different phases.
Tons of premade strats, i.e. "Attack point X" and show more clearly how to get there.
For individuals it would serve as a way to make notes and other stuff.

Being able to customise the HUD more:
Less BS and annoying things.

Faction specific HUD:
Speaks for itself. Make the factions actually have a bloody identity. That means making reticules which doesn't like a complete idiot designed them.
Options to choose other faction's HUD to avoid people whining about VS having an easy mode HUD.

I realise these aren't specifically a weapon design but more on how they could feel. I do, however, believe that this affects all weapons in the end. Even the strategy bit since it is a part of what you see in your helmet.

TL;DR it would be great if we could actually have this game look and feel like a sci-fi game and have the factions actually look different.

A primary designed as using the current underbarrel ballistics (in other words, a grenade launcher that works like the UBGL). Since the Rocklet Rifle already borrows from a Milkor MGL design, how about an XM25 CDTE?

SOmething like AN-94 assault rifle, where the burst fire mode is incredibly accurate and fast, but with a heavy kick to it.

A new Heavy Weapon from NS:


Multi-Purpose Grenade Launcher.

Dual fire mode (flak against aircraft, direct hit against armor), fire rate approx. 800ms with 20-25 rounds in the drum, flat arc trajectory, speed around 100 m/sec. a tad less damage than a rocket but far more than a rocklet.

NS Grenade launcher for the Combat Medic. Would prefer it in the ability slot, but the stats should be tuned up if it's a primary.

-6 round mag, 60 RPM, 3s reload
-Break stalemates with 200 damage 2.5m AoE
-2 direct hit kill on non-flak armor infantry
-Less arc and more velocity than the underbarrel grenade launcher, should be viable out to 50m with moderate skill
-Hurts armor and has a 2m flak detonation, damage output similar to tap-fired Rocklet Rifle
-HE alternate ammo type raises AoE and flak range to 3.5m, reduces direct damage and removes damage vs armor
-AP alternate ammo type removes AoE and flak but raises direct damage (should only OHK Infiltrators)

Exact numbers are up for tuning, of course.

ES revolvers!

And a high damage carbine with an integrated suppressor!

3D map? Torus Amerish

1) Rear gun on a Sunderer should have limited access to faction specific armaments, for TR this might be the Gatekeeper (but not Vulcan)

2) Indirect fire top mounted weapons for MBTs (and MAYBE the rear Sunderer weapons slot and/or Harrasers).

NC - Pheonix-like guided missile, a large, slow, fragile missile it should be powerful enough to be rewarding when you get a hit but not maneuverable/fast enough to guarantee you'll always get the hit. I'm thinking something that a Mag could outpace if it boosted away and most armour could avoid or shoot down if they saw it coming.

Should only reload once the missile has finished travelling either by being shot down, detonated by the user or hits a target. So I'm talking about a top gun that would leave that gun impotent for the duration of the flight time and reload time too. You're talking one shot every 10-15 seconds at any real range.

You'd be trading high finishing power for low short-range firepower.
To help with that you could even balance it where the warhead doesn't activate right away so within a given range (maybe 15-25m) it does only a kinetic type impact damage at vastly under-powered levels.

Against deployed sunderers it'll be great, they either take the time to keep shooting the shots (keeping them occupied) or you keep pounding away at the sundee.

TR - Heavy Mortar, some sort of Mortar mechanic for a TR top gun would be nice, not the same accuracy as what the NC indirect fire weapon can give but traded for a higher rate of fire and an inability to aim too far down making it useless in close ranges. Similar damage profile would be nice.

VS - Drone Laser Platform, a drone that launches vertically then the gunner can target a laser strike from there. The drone would be killable as it rises and dies after the laser is fired, a similar rate of fire to the TR Mortar but weaker hitting than the TR or NC options. Able to fire much closer to the vehicle than the others to account for the reduced damage per shot.

3) ES CQC MAX weapon that is effecive against (light) armour and can OHK infantry.

My thinking was for a dedicated CQC weapons slot, made empire specific by selecting from the options I listed Sword/Frist/Claw etc that would have mildly greater reach than the regular MAX punch, it restricts the MAX to only one gun but makes it VERY powerful when it closes on armour.

I'd actually have no real issue with seeing 2 CQC MAX units having a go at each other, there could be balancing done to ensure they can't OHK each other but it'd be similar to a knife duel between any two Planetmans.

It should be comparable in how much damage it causes to C4, although slightly weaker than C4 would be best. Although that being said letting Flanker armour resist it would probably be a good thing since almost everyone runs Stealth these days, it'd make Flanker more competitive.

Fist [TR], Claw/Sword [NC] or Cutting Torch [VS]

4) ES CQC select-able attachment on weapons, effectively a bayonet analog that can OHK infantry.

Thoughts on any of these?

I like this.
1)
Just Sundy-Specific ES would likely be more safer: prevents the issue akin to Harassers having MBT Top-Guns.

2)
Phoenix-like missile for NC....
I dislike it heavily: As out of the three, NC's is easily handled by high ROF weapons, VS's is at least able to be intercepted, and TR's is a hail of explosive mortars you can't intercept only attempt to dodge.
And leaves NC with the easiest to stop, hardest to actually use.
VS gets a precision weapon that itself while sneaky, is possibly less dangerous unless used cleverly -- which is nice.
TR's mortar has a high ROF allowing it to handle fast moving or multiple targets - and is the only one that can't be intercepted to deal no damage.
So it gives TR the hardest to counter, VS the most accurate, and NC the simplest thing to stop & leaves the vehicle basically unarmed & immobile.


3)
I'd be worried that NC's AI would be eclipsed, let alone if the claw is capable of rapidly killing a Max unit.
Given then the RNG nature of NC's shotguns would be easily mulched by it, or replaced by it.
-- However, if NC's AI was changed, this would be a nice Melee alternative for max units
(without providing an easily more reliable counter to NC's already RNG weapons to TR & VS)

4)
That'd be interesting, but don't we have knives?

By ESF Nosegun on Lightning I'm guessing you mean as a secondary fire mode (similar to ESF selection) have some sort of Anti Infantry gun coaxial mount. For that I'd probably suggest Kobalt or Gorgon/Basilisk analogs.

Yeah, I was thinking give them the weakest of the ES MBT top-guns to avoid too much grief but sill make them distinct enough by faction. Also why I only suggested the rear gun, could you imagine a TR Blockade Sundee with two Vulcans on top of it? Jesus that would be awful.

I agree that the TR is the Hardest to counter but it's also the only one which isn't actually aimed. With the VS and the NC you get to look through a cross-hair and fire/guide your weapon. The TR (using a mechanic similar to charging a Bazooka in Worms) point in the right direction and give it enough welly to go as far as they want, if they judged it right. It's also the only one which cannot physically target an enemy that gets too close (exact minimum range to be determined).

The NC can be countered with high ROF weapons yes, probably the easiest to counter, BUT, it's also joint hardest hitting when it gets through. And The tanks wouldn't need to be immobile to fire, these are top guns, the drivers will be doing their own thing.

The NC can at least alter their line of attack, the VS drone would be launched vertically regardless so if you know the position of the tank you can be ready for the drone. The Missile can be fired Horizontally and weaved around obstacles (to a degree).

For each of these weapons you'd need to put them on the PTS and extensively analyse their performance to be balanced properly, if the NC Missile was given a better turning arc/speed/resistance to incoming fire it would need to lose some of it's hitting power or receive additional negatives like increase loading time.

There would be a risk in that, there would definitely need to be balancing considerations made. I was thinking that these CQC weapons would kill another MAX in 2 or 3 hits. But if they were slow swinging then there could plausibly be time for one to withdraw if it was not CQC equipped. Last time I suggested this someone suggested a Riffled Barrels upgrade for NC Slug shotguns to give them better accuracy at range making them less reliant on close range scatter-guns.

I'd also make their Shield Immune to the CQC hits possibly with a mild stunning effect for CQC hits against it.

Overall I think it would move the Meta away from duel AI or AT weapons on MAXes as they'd want to (inside bases at least) have a CQC arm ready to counter other MAXes they see.

It would be a similar thing to the power knives yes, in that it's a OHK weapon but attacked to the primary weapon only, so using your melee on your sidearm would still use your knife.
I was actually thinking it'd be a way to differentiate NS weapons a little more if the TR, NC and VS each had their own ES "aftermarket" addons.

A long time ago I suggested a slow-firing NS chaingun with explosive rounds. Think NS Lasher. I've always wanted a suppressive fire weapon without having to play VS. TR have Pounders, but you have to be in a MAX, and NC have jack squat.

Or just any weapon that promotes tactical/creative/alternative playstyles, rather than just another AI DPS cannon like the new SMGs or most of the NSX weapons.

yeah, that would be a nightmare - for any side for that matter.

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With High ROF, and arc'ing fire, you really don't need to aim unless the blast radius is micro.
And with the inability to intercept, you just have to adjust the firing arc a bit to land blasts on target.
VS, has to aim a laser, NC has to guide a rocket that can be shot down.
While unable to strike closer targets - this is at least some manner of counter-balance to the arc'ing fire barrage.
For NC, up close, you likely aren't hitting the target due to movement limitations.
For VS, likely not affected, but given the damage difference -- they'd likely prefer to stay distant.

When your missile is the hardest hitting but the easiest to strike down...
You end up with only the crappiest shots or unlucky ones of TR & VS not being nearly immune to the entire weapon.
Since only NC is the only with low ROF weapons outside of Sniper rifles.
That at least means it isn't a sitting duck unlike the original phoenix, but it does mean the Top-Gun is the most dependent on an unaware opponent or lack of proper weaponry facing it.

With the limited controls to ensure it can't weave past every bullet or obstructing object, you basically need only spread the fire, and it dies -- or wait until it is closer, making hitting it simpler.

Unless the enemy is able to see & hit the vertical ascending drone before the laser is fired, not during the entire path that gets closer & closer, making accuracy easier.

When one is unable to intercepted, another can be shot down during the entire flight, and the third can only be stopped before it fires..
Adding additional costs to the only weapon vulnerable to the entire period just is salt on the wound.

So perhaps rather than a missile that needs so much consideration & ease of shooting down, NC gets a different weapon?

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The problem with additional upgrades to buy for NC's shotguns which are all near identical..
Is that it further requires NC to spend more certs than the opponent.
Slug shotguns needed to reduce the RNGesus from hell, make each weapon more expensive.
Adding another set of upgrades onto that, basically makes the weapon even more expensive per arm -- which just gets comic.
Why NC is stuck with every AI weapon being a shotgun for maxes, having the only RNG-dependency of that level for Max units of NC, followed by near requirements to spend more on said weapons per arm... while having the longest reload, smallest magazine, and the range issue.. just is a "Why the hell"
IE NC being stuck with shotguns only is an issue already compounded by additional price tags per arm, on top of being shotguns.

Ironically, given NC usually needs the Shield, that'd give NC an edge in melee severely.
But it's interesting concept.


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Hmm,
Would be basically a visual or would it take a slot?
What would be the advantage over a knife swing?

That'd be nice if handled well.
IE not one side screwed, one side barely amused, and one side given the godly gift.

Bombs for aircraft to drop.
Grenade launchers
A variety of deployable shields for the Medic. The powerful shields go to the utility slot and cost nanites. All of them can be passed through by infantry and vehicles.
Artillery that works like a calldown. You buy the vehicle/utility (depending on the size and power), deploy it close enough to your target, Buy a target designator (like the Ion painter from UT2004, makes the user visible and requires aiming at the ground or stationary targets) from the artillery and you can fire it. This overcomes most problems with cheap shots and render ranges. All other problems can be solved by adding warning signals to the ammo so people know they are incoming.
Co-ax Guns for tanks, fired by space or cntrl
A top-mounted gun for lightnings/MBT's under the drivers control (switched to like an ESF does). Has good damage against aircraft but small magazines. This fixes the problem of tanks being sitting ducks without dedicated G2A just to scare off aircraft, while aircraft without a proper loadout can still always escape.
Resource-costing high-power AV rocketlaunchers and grenade launchers in utility slot.
Resource-costing high-power AA rocketlaunchers and grenade launchers in utility slot.
Deployable distortion field, makes units insoie harder to see the farther away you are.

By bombs you mean air droppable hand grenades don't you?