Flamethrowers

It would be really neat to see the engineer class to get a weapon of it's own.
Flamethrowers would be primarily effective against buildings and infantry, but they could also be used to overheat vehicles.
They could also be researched as a short-medium ranged weapon for APCs under the chemistry tree.

Flamethrowers could also be used tactically at tight choke points to slow down enemy movement.

It would also be nice to see miniguns listed under the Electrical Engineering tree.

 

This isn't a bad idea, we just don't have weapon models to spare, or particles, or code support to properly spew said particles. It's a decent amount of effort for something that may or may not jive with the rest of the game.

But my stance is unchanged. I love trying it New things when there isn't a tremendous resource drain.

 

except... people would expect flame throwers to light things on fire... it can't happen except buildings after a VERY long time. Using a flame thrower on a person and you expect them to light on fire... impossible from what the previous devs said.

Now... laser beams... that is something doable.

 

What, you mean like a charge up tank laser cannon?

 

I don't know of any "charge up" support in vehicle weapons.

 

Well then, off you go to "find" it

 

Weapon::Flame:nTouch(target)
{
burn();
}

It's in the code already, in the hammer editor.

 

I know you could light things on fire in hl2 but, the previous devs said it was impossible to light people on fire. I don't claim to understand why this is. Perhaps it was just a lazy way of saying "we don't want that".

As for the charging lazer.... um duh reload cycle. It can be low damage max reload ammo or it can be high dmg, high weight, high reload since it could require changing of lasing material. With the previous option think single target nuke.

 

Things = players. You can burn people as well, or ponies.

 

I think most people see "charging" as some time where you need to hold down the button before it fires.

If it was implemented, I'd expect that every vehicle weapon would be given a "charge time" that equals the time between when the button is pressed and the actual firing occurs. In general, it would be zero for almost all weapons.

I'd expect that such a feature wouldn't be too painful to code. The real problem is art. How do you communicate it to players? Is there a charge sound that plays as the charge time is exhausted? Are there particles that come from the weapon bone during the charge time? I bet THAT is the harder stuff to code and create.

But it'd be purdy kewl if we could...

 

You can just have a particle that gives you like mist around the barrel for a time, and after a set time gives you a beam instead.

Thats just a rough concept as im not sure how can you make it so that the beam extends to the nearest object, rather than just having a fixed lenght

 

Should be simple really. Its just a visible ray trace.