Balancing lvl1 secondary weapons to individuals play style

[DEATH eVADER]

It seems that out of all the secondary weapons that I have accumalated throughout my time playing TF2, the one weapon that I always fall back to is the shotgun. Fairly well balanced for short range combat, but there has been times when I have been very accurate at mid range (but hit with 2-3 pellets). However I am always wondering whether being able to rename it was a step further towards greater customization.

I am aware that players have different play styles, with shotguns, whether its saturation fire, aim and fire, keeping pyros at bay, etc

But other than the name and description tags, should the value to the individual of the lowly lvl1 weapons be extended? Give it a lick of Australium Gold paint, have it fire slugs instead of buckshot (for mid range combat), wider/narrower buckshot spread.

What if you play as a sniper, equip the SMG with hollow point (reducing overall damage but giving bleed damage)
Any thought? Is there something you want to intriduce to weapon customization whether to change the stats or its cosmetics?

 

[Acepilotf14]

so now it's battlefield BC2?

 

[ríomhaire]

How do you keep weapon readability when you have custom ammo? One important design goal is being able to look at an enemy and tell exactly what weapon he has out. How do you tell the difference between a shotgun loaded with buck and a loaded with slugs?

I'm wary about weapon painting for similar reasons. If painted weapons was to come it it would have to be handled very damn carefully so that you can still see what the enemy is using and whether that Heavy is using Natascha or Sasha. If, like you suggest, the shotgun could be painted I would strongly suggest that only grip and pump would be affected.

 

[PorkPi]

Riomhaire's got a good point. While having that level of customization would be cool for the people using it, I would be annoyed if I got killed by a weapon with different stats than I expected. For example I could try to get in close to kill someone with a shotty out but get killed cos they do more damage than I think. I think the solution here is a crapload of new alternative weps that are recognized by everyone and can have distinct models.

Specifically for shotguns, I always thought it would be cool if each class with shotguns had guns with slightly different stats that go with the class. Heavy could have a shotgun with more punch, the pyro with a little more range, etc.

 

[ríomhaire]

Soldier: Belt-fed shotgun with low rate of fire that gives a four second rate of fire and reload speed increase for four seconds on kill.

Pyro: Sawn-off that increases burn damage and duration when you hit ignited enemies.

Heavy: Gives 100 minigun ammo on kill. More accurate over long ranges. Smaller ammo capacity.

Engineer: Has one.

 

[Adabiviak]

As mentioned above, I think Valve has it right: leave these base weapons alone, and "customize" them with new weapon types. The Frontier Justice is an excellent example (and as mentioned above, is physically redesigned so it can be identified on sight). I do like the variety of weapon customization available already... I'm a little concerned that they won't be able to stop.

 

[PorkPi]

I'm a little concerned that they won't be able to stop.

Haha yeah. The fans are gonna be pissed when Valve decides the patches aren't profitable anymore.

 

[ríomhaire]

TF2 patches are definitely profitable right now what with lots of people just buying new weapons when they're released but Adab was saying that he hopes they don't go crazy and keep releasing more and more weapons that completely destroy the gameplay in the end. But FFS they need to finish the damn updates before they release them. I really like most of the weapons that been released (weapons with completely arbitrary or non-existent downsides aside) but the lack of kill icons and level of detail scaling is ridiculous and not the Valve level of polish we've come to expect. Hell, it's worse than I'd expect from a mod team.