Suggest a better special function for the Spiker.

Currently, the 4-round burst that you get by charging up the Spiker actually does less damage than if you just spammed the trigger without charing.

Be it a different charge-up mechanic, or no charge-up at all, I'd like to hear what Forumside thinks of implementing a charge-up mechanic on a sidearm. What rewards for the charge do you think will make it worth using? Would you rather see a different advantage on the Spiker?

Discuss.

I liked the original suggestion of the charge up allowing you to dump the entire clip at once. That or even half the available rounds would be useful.

Just allow it to charge up to 6 rounds, that you make a fully charged shot do 125 x 6 = 750.

It should be lower on DPS, because it's gonna have really high alpha damage, one even higher than a shotgun.
A charged shot on the head = Instakilled

And you'd have a no bullet drop sniper pistol.

Charge mechanics shouldn't give you high DPS, just high Alpha Damage.
That's the reason people charge the Lancer, cuz one "BOOOM" is better than 6 "pew pew pew pew pew pews"

I would make the charge do this:

Pool the damage of four shots into one, only keep the damage falloff of one shot.
Increase velocity.
Change damage type to "Anti Max" (Ignores a good portion of a maxes resistances.)

Suddenly, it becomes a decent self defense gun with a secondary feature: The ability to ping off a good portion of a maxes health with hit and run tactics.

(Of course, I feel better damage against lightly armored targets when using small arms should be a general trait of the Vanu to make up for their lack of DPS and DPM over the other factions: Sure, their infantry aren't the best anti-infantry, but their infantry do inflict unusual amounts of pain on aircraft, harassers, and maxes.)

Maybe if the charge caused an explosive shot.

Like the roadmap originally said.

And then we whined until they made it a burst pistol instead.

Because we aren't terribly bright.

since the dps output of the primary firemode is already great for the Spiker, i'd suggest that the secondary mode should be non-deadly.

something like a concussion, emp or freeze(movement) effect in order to allow finishing off an enemy easier. this would also be unique since no other firearm offers this effect right now.

then again, an even more powerful deadly charge-up shot would probably move the Spiker close to being overpowered upon release, and nobody wants that

No because the other VS pistols are crap and we don't want more crap.

If it's to be named Spiker, I think an explosive shot would be ok.
I'd prefer it to actually be a sort of impact grenade, with strong enough drop to lob it over cover.

If it is allowed to bear the name Eraser (crap, that sounded shmoozy), the clip dump doesn't sound bad.
Say, double base scatter, reduce damage to 112, and dump 10 rounds at standard firerate.
You need 5 successive hits to the head for a kill, you charge for a second in which you can already kill an opponent, you have vastly limited effective range, I'd say that deserves to be deadly once it actually gets going.
Besides, it would actually deserve that name, then.
Aside Legacy, spiker sounds more like burst damage or a piercing shot. Which, btw, would also be a unique boon for a pistol, either hit multiple targets or reduce damage resistances. ^^

We also want more stuff that isn't just copies of other faction's gear.

I will take bland and usable over Unique and useless. The spiker is different from the others enough for me. If you want a pistol that can't kill crap go use a beamer with a flashlight. While me and many others prefer to use one of the best pistols in the game.

Charge up energy grenade, use old vanu grenade launcher effect, larger aoe then rifle grenade, cannot effect armor.

You must be a really bad player if you can not get kills with the Beamer.

It's not the best gun, but it's definitely not useless.

one of the points with a charge weapon is you can charge around a corner, aka charge before the fight. Thus start with precharged burst then folow up with uncharged spam for the finish. Of course thats assuming you are trying to use your pistol like a primary (so for infiltrators only), generaly I pull my pistol to finish someone off instead of reloading my primary (or to suply some range in contrast to a shotgun), which would favor spam shots. Of course thats why the beamer is normaly better than the magshot, slightly larger mag and slightly higher fire rate are deciding factors when used to finish off the wounded.

Now I havnt used the spiker, so i dont know how long it can hold a charge (which is the primary buff that any vanu charge weapon should get) but even with a ****e hold time you can still charge from safety and then start the fight, though the longer the hold time the more leeway you have.


All that said, I would prefer a utility based charge attack, aoe, cuncusive, flash, AV damage, pain zone, or whatever, because in my eyes you should not be starting a fight with your pistol (secondary) out which is what a damage based charge mechanic would require. using a pistole with inferior combat potential (no the beamer doesnt count, the beamer fulfills the secondary role just as well if not better than the magshot) is fully acceptable to extend your bag of tricks for odd but existant situations you may encounter, as your combat power should be primarily fufiled by your primary weapon (hence being called PRIMARY)

Compared to the others it is a pretty bad weapon. You probably haven't used the other factions pistols.

Yes, it is worse than the other faction's weapons in comparison.
But by no means it is bad enough that you can't get kills with it. The only problem with the Beamer is that it destroys your mouse.

In terms of DPS, it surpasses the Mag-shot, has a pretty decent DPM and is really accurate.

Keeping those three things in mind, no it is far from a useless weapon, and if you're not getting kills with the Beamer, you're a really bad player.

Beamer as a secondary gun does just as fine for me as any other default pistol. (in terms of kills and performance)
Only when it comes to stalker cloaking is when I don't like to use this weapon.

The Briggsinagtor

Following the example of the founder of the VS, the Briggisnator function is activated by charging the spiker, where upon the VS soldier will fanatically discharge the blast into his own temple, killing him instantly. This stunning display of Vanu-like devotion will inspire all nearby VS to get on one knee and start praying toward Mecca the VS Sanctuary, (Maximum 10 soldiers) afterwhich they gain a +1% XP gain buff for 30 minutes, non-stacking, and the benefit is lost if the fanatic using this ability uses it again. (But the new group gets the benefit)

fully charged shot summons a partybus.

That is because you have no song in your soul. Embrace an optional weapon that puts a smile on your face, even if it doesn't always put another X on your killboard.

A kill will put a smile on my face. Not an assist.

Honestly I like it already just as a burst pistol. I'm not sure what I would want to add since I don't want the burst to need to be nerfed.

I would be fine with the charge being not especially useful, but very different, like a single lasher shot, or something that has weak but explosive damage (like the crossbow) so an infil could make the hail-mary to dome a max.