Ever played UT? It has that lightning sniper gun. That needs to charge bevor it shots. So basically you hit mouse1 and the guns charges for like 1,5 seconds and than fires its projectile. This would make it alot harder to instagib people at close range. Sure would need a new model cause the concept would not suit the old one but hey as an idea I think it would work.
I support Vulkanis Idea. Obviously with the new Drop and Hat System Empires will receive, this will suit perfectly into the gameplay. (On a serious note, replace the sniper with a shotgun and be done with it.)
Why not add a crossbow? Crossbows are still used nowadays by special forces, and I think it might fit NF; with BE recieving a bolt gun. This way it is much harder to snipe people as the projectiles take time to travel there, while at the same time you can still take out a few key targets like camping engineers and HMGs.
as long as bio research gives poison bolts and chemistry research gives explosive bolts. physics gives nuclear warhead tipped bolts oh man.
Make sure no scoping is impossible. Zooming in with the Scout rifle currently is a waste of time. Suddenly, close range won't even exist for that weapon.
I had pretty much the same idea, however I would probably also impose a maximum range on it as well, doing pretty awesome damage within its range but being useless outside of it. This would prevent being gibbed at completely ridiculous ranges (which aren't really an issue in UT but are in empires) where you can barely see your enemy, let alone retaliate, reducing frustration and encouraging players using the weapon to move with their team and all that. It would make sense as well, an energy weapon would lose power over distance, and this would be represented by the particle effect simply tapering out at its max range, and for user, perhaps a indicator on the reticule if the target is out of range would be appropriate. Empires really needs more weapons with unique properties though, all of them at the moment are slight variations on the same shoot bullets (or shells or rockets if you factor in tanks) kill stuff theme and its really boring. I suppose you could argue that a lightning gun wouldn't fit into empire's artstyle, however last time I checked nobody really could define what that was aside from mumbling incoherently about BE being really into nanotechnology and NF being really into biological engineering, however, that hardly represents itself in the game (I suppose soldiers being able to withstand direct hits from some tank shells, but thats more of a balancing thing than anything) and when you think about it, there isn't that much of a difference between the two anyway. Even so, they have the ability to build micronuclear warheads (or incredibly small thermobaric weapons if you call it a HIT missile, but thats dumb as its in the nuclear fission branch), plasma cannons, automated turrets with sophisticated target recognition and pinpoint aim, railguns, fast acting, deadly anti-biological agents capable of eating their way through people and tank armour with ease, the ability to become invisible, the ability to construct structures in seconds with a device that fits comfortably in your hand, ect, ect, ect. My point is, a believable directed energy weapon such as that has been suggested wouldn't be out of place, especially considering lightning guns have already been proven to be viable in reality with current technology, look up electrolasers. Essentially a harmless laser ionises the air between the user and the target, and a moment later an electric current is passed along the mildly conductive channel, delivering a lot of energy to the target, with predictable results such as death. If you've got the ability to power a railgun indefinitely with the only restriction being ammunition, you can build a handheld directed energy weapon capable of generating enough power (and really, thats not a lot of power, the main problem in reality currently is getting power out of a battery quickly enough) to kill someone at a distance. While I would be really upset if every weapon in empires became blaster rifles from star wars, I think a couple of fairly experimental seeming, plausible directed energy weapons wouldn't be out of place and add to the atmosphere of the game, especially as the backstory hints at mysterious technologies buried in the ruins of the ancient city who's discovery started the war that resulted in the destruction of Jekotia, and the beginning of the Northern Faction insurrection. (on a side note, the perception of the NF as poorly equipped rebels is a bit silly, I figure they've got an equivalent level of technology to that of BE, but based off different principles. NF however lack the resources and production capacity of the Empire, resulting in equipment that is advanced enough to be able to compete with BE's, but is cobbled together from junk and salvage, as well as using outdated military hardware that has been stored away for decades before the war and ensuing insurrection, hastily upgraded once they were dug out of storage so they could deal with BE tech.) Or you could have a crossbow, but crossbows are soooo overdone, and wouldn't really fit the mechanics of the weapon and would still be easily used at close range.
That's not how it works. It charges after it fires, making it like any other sniper rifle. The only difference is that the lightning points directly to who fired it.
