So I’ve decided to start up another discussion thread based around the theme of different weapons we could have in this sandbox scifi MMO.
Please do understand that this game is a scifi game. It isn’t fantasy and it’s why magic and mysticism doesn’t exist in the game. If someone needs me to get a direct quote from @james saying that then I certainly can. The point I am making is please keep the discussion of weapon ideas more or less along the lines of what would exist in a scifi game. Scifi also doesn’t exclude certain modern weapons either but certainly excludes Harry Potter wands. I think Fantasy-themed Boundless stuff can be discussed in another thread and would be more relevant when rental worlds come out and actual mods start getting developed for them.
I have a lot of ideas (I stopped after typing up 40 roughly outlined ideas in a Google Doc) on paper and will post discussion threads up over time as I feel like having a really nice discussion about the topic. Plus I think this is a good way to give the developers an outlet of creative inspiration from our ideas. Even if they don’t copy’n paste the idea, I think something we can get that is similar to one or a hybrid of them is a good thing.
These are all ideas I am copying and pasting from a Google Doc.
So with all of that said, let’s get started with the discussion.
Hunting Rifle
Looks very much like a futuristic Lee-Enfield rifle that shoots single projectiles at a target. It would be mostly for hunting creatures but does have a pretty long range so even the unexpecting Roadrunner will get picked off if it isn’t careful. However, it does create a loud sound that causes nearby creatures to aggro onto you or run away (Roadrunners and other similar creatures when they’re implemented). So even if a Hopper or Roadrunner is being shot, everything else around you can aggro to your location or run away. I think it would make sense if it was something like a 30 block aggro radius from your position.
The main attract properties of the weapon would be it’s long range, such as 40-60 block range. It would have iron sights for additional aiming and that feature isn’t added to the game but it could be. You could also craft various scopes to it that allow it to have better aiming with slight projectile range increase but offer no additional damage buff. Just purely range and accuracy.
Assault Rifle
Basic firearm that replaces unforged Slingbows of Titanium and lower quality. Requires ballistic ammunition to be loaded into the firearm before use and has a semi-automatic rate of fire with 30 block range. Can hold 30 rounds of ballistic ammunition at a time.
The ballistic ammunition is made from any of the existing or future metal, gem, or special resources and is the main source of damage modification. Augments would also exist for this firearm series to improve accuracy, damage, range, and potential critical hits as well. It’s damage per round is on the medium-low side due to high rate of fire.
Forging effects would be applied to the weapon rather than the ammunition. This is because the Centraforge needs massive overhauls to make the forging process less of a chore to do for mass crafting. However, forging effects can be placed on the weapon to make the weapon ignore percentages of armor, explode on impact, chance on hit to pierce through enemies, have extended ammunition magazines in the firearm, or even faster reloading. A lot of options to explore here, although I much rather have these items be crafted items that you equip to the weapon instead.
The type of rifle would be determined based on what resource material is used starting at Titanium and up.
Pistol
Looks like a standard police issued sidearm but with the usual Boundless universe look and appeal to it. Holds 12 ballistic rounds per magazine and shares the same tech and crafting tier as Assault Rifles. Can be used as a backup weapon in emergencies when the Assault Rifle runs out of ammunition or when all of your Slingbows break. It’s cheaper than the Assault Rifle and does more damage per shot than an unforged Titanium Slingbow. Has about a 12-15 block range to it.
It can be forged for full automatic rate of fire and extended ballistic magazines, increased damage, increased range, and elemental damage. Shock damage Boon would be a chain lightning style AOE, Burn would be a DOT with Armor Debuff, Chill would be a Slow, Toxic would be a DOT that spreads to other creatures, Blast would be an explosive radius AOE, and Corrosive would be a DOT with Speed Debuff. Again, I would rather see weapon attachments you can craft and equip to a weapon than an effect you “craft” onto it.
The type of pistol would be determined based on what resource material is used starting at Titanium and up.
Energy Rifle & Pistol
These rifles and pistols would be end game weapons past Slingbows, Bombs, Fists, and Lances (when they are implemented) of Special resources. Basically higher tier than Dark Matter, Blink, Rift, and Oort weapons. They would be crafted from Special resources, such as Dark Matter, Rift, Blink, or even Oort. The ammunition for these weapons would be crafted from Elemental Fusions, gunpowder, and metals.
The rifles would deal pretty decent damage for not being forged and have decent rate of fire too. Magazines would be 60 rounds too. Pistols would be much better as well compared to their lower tech version. Both of these energy weapons would have the same range as the lower tier weapons, just more damage and slightly higher rate of fire. They are expensive to make and the ammunition is expensive to make as well.
Ideally they would be great to take on Titan raids (when they are introduced) and extremely challenging dungeons (whenever they get put into the game if they do).
Turrets
I think having some sort of automated settlement defense system would be nice. Could be powered off Spark and possibly provided with ammunition of sorts. This way items are always being consumed and in demand while shop owners continue to maintain the supply.
This also would play into the whole Solar Collectors and Wind Generators as well. Put the Turrets on their own power grid so they can always be powered up but you’ll see need to resupply them with ammunition. They would have an ammunition inventory space that could hold 12 slots of ammunition smart stacks. That’s 10,800 rounds of ammunition.
These turrets would be something even a new player could craft after leveling up a little bit as it would start at Iron tier. They would come with their own durability so creatures could destroy them if you aren’t careful or don’t check up on them from time to time.
I absolutely would love to see NPC style creatures starting up their own towns and even raiding player settlements. It would be awesome if this was a thing on Level 8+ worlds or special hostile worlds. After all, the Boundless universe can potentially be extremely large or can be so it makes sense if there’s life out there waiting to be discovered. I just would love to see an evolving civilization controlled by an AI that would invade other worlds and attack players. Perhaps this could even introduce a reputation system into the game with AI settlement factions and guilds. Who knows!? Sounds pretty freaking fun and awesome to me!
Better Bombs and Grenade Launcher
I know a lot of folks love bombs but I do think they need to be completely overhauled. The bombs themselves are pretty lackluster in design but they are a good starting point for this suggestion. The bombs themselves would actually be renamed and changed into an ammunition source for a new weapon, the Grenade Launcher. The ammunition you use with the Grenade Launcher would vary and even the effects of the grenades themselves would be based on the ammunition.
Titanium Grenades would do the most damage out of all the existing metals in the game. The gem grenades would have varying effects with a small amount of damage. Why? Cause it makes sense that a Blast type grenade would have a larger radius naturally but slightly less damage than the Titanium grenade. Topaz grenades get a shock debuff that makes it easier to crit the enemy. Toxic would place a dot. Chill a slow. Each Gem type of grenade ammunition would give a different effect with less damage. These are just examples of the effects but they should probably be a lot more different than the standard ones we have in game so they are more exciting to use.
Rocket/Missile Launchers
I don’t like the idea of bombs being the only explosive in the game that can destroy blocks and kill creatures. I do think some sort of rocket or missile launcher would be nice. A lot of the same reasoning behind firearms apply to this. The ammunition would be consumed on use and the forging effects would be specific to the item in question. This way forging items and their base materials are constantly in demand more so along with any of the additional materials, such as flint, rocks, metals, etc. so that they have necessary material sinks.
Gunpowder & Ballistic Casings
–> Adding this in to the list of ideas to give everyone more of an illustrated picture of what I am talking about with ammunition. It can even be applied to Slingbows with ammunition crafted from Rock or Stone blocks. A good material sink for them then.
Anyone that has played the game long enough knows full well that mining is the primary way to gain the majority of the resources of the game and that probably won’t ever change. The thing is, if you’re a miner you’re constantly swimming in rocks pretty much all the time. Because of this, there needs to be a use for rocks besides turning them into stones and refined rocks for EXP to power level an alt or someone else’s character.
I think one of the ways that can make this work is taking rocks and throwing them into the Extractor to be able to grind them up and extract Gunpowder from them. The crafting process would follow the same single, bulk, and mass crafting recipes of rocks to stone to refine rock just for Gunpowder.
This Gunpowder would be used with iron, copper, silver, gold, or titanium to create ballistic rounds for ballistic firearms. The ballistic casings would be crafted from existing metal resources or even entirely new ones to maintain more material sinks for those items.
Not only would rocks now have a fundamental material sink for crafting, it would also give them some value outside of being used as a building material. So this means certain colors of rocks would go up in price for their diverse demand while less sought after colors would see some sort of salability from their demand or at least get used from those that hammer mine.
Backpacks and Bag Storage Items
–> Adding this here to explain a solution to all the stuff people are carrying now days along with being able to provide them with carry capacity solutions for ammunition.
Let’s face it, there’s pretty much no reason not to have extended inventory space that you can take with you on a resource run, a hunt, during a building project, etc. Just absolutely no reason. However, we don’t have that. So IMO, the game really could use a functional and wearable backpack that can be opened up for an additional 8 slots for the cheapest one and upwards to 16 for the higher end. Bags you leave in your inventory would start at 6 and end at 12.
In addition to these bags using leather, hard leather, cotton cloth, and sackcloth for its main materials, they would have automatic filter settings on them too. So if I want a bag with nothing but Meta rocks in it, it would automatically take them. Same for ore, coal, gems, etc. This way you don’t have to waste time sorting stuff after gathering up a bunch of stuff. Once they’re full it would start filling up your normal inventory space.
Right now that’s the basic ideas I have roughly thought up for weapon ideas. Of course, there’s probably a lot more that the community in general could brainstorm up. Even with what I have here could be changed to accommodate a smoother rate of progression, add better crafting material sinks (inherently would improve the economy as a by-product), and provide more variety in gameplay for players.
The idea behind these rough draft ideas is to fill the game with more stuff. More stuff benefits everyone in the game. So by posting this I am hoping that everyone is willing to participate in a healthy discussion about some of my weapon ideas or even your own and other things that can compliment them to make them fit better inside Boundless.
