I see a lot of people on the forums currently complaining about how guns reduce their effectiveness in combat rather than enhancing it or adding something new to the table. With all of this being said I can't help but add a brief suggestion to said table. 1. When you fire a gun, it should take no energy, it will expend clip units. 2. When you reload the gun, it will subtract the amount of energy required to reload the rounds. 3. If you do not have the required energy to reload the gun, it will reload the rounds it can, and leave the remaining clip empty. (reload time will remain the same, therefore it would be smart to switch to melee or find cover for energy.) This system will add several ways to diversify the gameplay: - Planning an attack on an enemy by reloading before combat will give players a way to prepare themselves. - Techs that require energy will no longer punish players who use ranged weapons, because the constant use of energy will not be a problem. - Guns will be able to be given more damage, as their damage can be balanced by reload time. - Players can now alternate between their favorite gun and melee weapon when they reload, adding a "back-off" melee attack or even taking cover to reload. - More strategy and enjoyment for all users. Guns revolutionized warfare; they are powerful and effective, but while you reload, pull out that badass 6 foot laser hammer and go to WORK.... Or just smash their heads in with that if that is your playstyle!
It kinda reminds me of Mass Effect. They went from never-reload guns, you just have to wait for them to cool down, to guns that use thermal clips to fire.
I'm against guns using energy in the first place. I feel they should use ammunition. If guns MUST use energy at all, I'm in favor of this idea. Actually, I like the idea of reloading guns in general. And this idea isn't mutually exclusive with ammunition. Maybe something like this... When reloading: if the appropriate ammo is in the inventory, subtract that first. Else, use energy to "replicate" ammo on the fly.
i just would like to say that adding an ammo system to the game would create a huge inventory problem, not only that but an item problem because most guns in the game already shoot different types of ammo. I do agree with you on, using tech energy really sucks sometimes. I do think a better solution that I think you might be touching on, would be have a different energy bar for the gun separate from the tech energy bar.
There's already a huge inventory problem. This game throws too much stuff at you, and doesn't give adequate means for handling it. Inventory management needs to have some work done on it at a very basic level. With that said, adding a small number basic ammo types (Arrow, Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, Explosive) doesn't really add to the problem in a big way (rather the problem is already big, and needs systemic changes regardless of this suggestion), especially if there are dedicated ammo slots. It also gives us something to do with basic materials, like crafting brass cases out of copper. I'd love to have a 'reloading' station for crafting ammo. If someone can explain why in a game where the obvious resources to craft a stack of perfectly fine arrows am I relying on a system as fickle as energy, I'd gladly support the idea of discrete energy bars as opposed to discrete ammo. It seems to me that when I'm low on weapon energy, the thing to do is to take an arrow out of my pack, and launch it the old fashioned way while waiting for my energy to recharge. A separate energy bar doesn't solve that problem. Maybe if ALL ranged weapons where changed to be a more obvious directed-energy weapons (lasers, microwaves, particle beams...), instead of kinetic energy weapons with large and relatively slow missiles that I should be able to prepare a stock of in advance. Of course this means the bow has to be reconsidered, but I'm okay with that. But this again brings up the same problems: why can't I sacrifice inventory space for backup batteries? That's still an ammo system of some kind (the Deus Ex Invisible War shared ammo system, to be specific).
